America
Bush rolls out the red carpet for Queen
(AP)
Updated: 2007-05-07 23:13
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 Britain's Queen Elizabeth II is greeted by U.S. President George W. Bush during state arrival ceremonies on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington May 7, 2007. [Reuters]  |
Bush and his wife, Laura, were waiting on the driveway on a near-perfect spring day as the queen and her husband, Prince Philip, arrived by limousine. The two couples briefly shook hands before moving on to the formal welcome.
A brilliantly blue sky framed the colorful ceremony where red, white and blue bunting was draped over the fencelines on the South Lawn. The United States Air Force Band led a grand military procession onto the lawn.
The ceremony included a parade by the Old Guard Fife and Drum Corps dressed in black tricorn hats, white wigs, waistcoats, colonial coveralls, and red regimental coats. Their uniforms are patterned after those worn by the musicians of Gen. George Washington's Continental Army.
It was a day of high pomp and pageantry from a president known for his informality. It also was an uplifting event for a White House at a time when Bush's approval rate has dropped near all-time lows and he battles a Democratic Congress over funding for an unpopular Iraq war.
In honor of the queen, Bush agreed to host the first white-tie dinner of his presidency, with entertainment by violin virtuoso Itzhak Perlman.
"We did sort of have to convince him a little bit" to opt for the white-tie dinner, Mrs. Bush said of her and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's efforts to talk Bush into hosting the most formal dinner the White House can offer.
The White House said 7,000 guests were invited to the arrival ceremony. They included American and British delegations, British Embassy staff, state dinner guests, members of Congress, Cabinet members, White House staff and their guests, State Department staff, and students.
On Monday night, 134 guests will return in white tie and tails for the state dinner among 13 damask-clothed tables set with gold-trimmed ivory china and gilded silver candelabras.
"We're very excited to host Her Majesty," Mrs. Bush said Monday morning on ABC's "Good Morning America."
"We had the opportunity to be here the last time she was here for a state dinner (hosted by the first President Bush in 1991) ... and we're so thrilled to have the chance to host her and to show her the strong affection the American people have for the British," she said.
It will be the Bushes' fifth state dinner in six years, but the first in white tie. The White House said the president was happy to return hospitality to the queen, who hosted the Bushes at a white-tie state banquet in November 2003 during an official visit to Britain.
The visit to Washington comes at the tail end of a six-day trip, the Queen's fifth to the United States in 50 years but her first since 1991, when Bush's father was president. The royal couple arrived Sunday night at Andrews Air Force Base before spending the night at Blair House, the president's guest house.
In between the White House events Monday, the royal couple plan to attend a garden party at the British ambassador's residence.
On Tuesday, the queen will join Laura Bush in a tour of Children's National Medical Center. She also plans to plant a tree at the British ambassador's residence and visit NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and the National World War II Memorial. On Tuesday night she's to have dinner with the Bushes at the British embassy before returning to London.
The royal couple kept a low profile Sunday, with no official events after attending the Kentucky Derby Saturday. They began their six-day trip to the United States in Virginia. The queen addressed the state's General Assembly and visited Jamestown, which is observing the 400th anniversary of the founding of the first permanent English settlement in the Americas.
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