Inauguration security? First, let's all get drunk

Washington is a wonderous place. There's been much alarm raised about the prospect of Barack Obama's inauguration drawing as many as 4 million visitors, to a city whose population is less than 700,000 (for comparsion, 300,000 showed up for each of the George W. Bush fetes). The few tickets for seats are long gone. Accomodations are so scarce there's talk of people camping on the National Mall. Local transportation officials have warned that anyone needing to get within two miles of the Capitol on Jan. 20 should plan to walk; subways and buses will be jammed. And, of course, all of this raises security concerns.

So how does the D.C. City Council respond? They want to make sure everyone has plenty to drink. With that in mind, on Tuesday the city council voted 9 to 4 to let any establishment with a liquor license serve until 5 a.m. from Jan. 17 until Jan. 21. The act was done in the spirit of public service -- you don't want to have all those visitors going hungry or thirsty or getting bored. Except, as Councilman Phil Mendelson, one of the four who voted "no," pointed out, at 4 a.m., the only people out partying are getting drunk. "There are going to be consequences . . . from a public safety and public order point of view."

When the idea was introduced, it really was intended to make sure restaurants could handle the crowds -- and it specifically excluded nightclubs, at Mayor Adrian Fenty's request. Pushing it: the city's restaurant association. But by the time the proposal was passed, the nightclub exclusion was gone.

No word from the city's police department or any other police agency on what they think. And the council didn't ask.

Readers who want to contemplate the potential should recall Andrew Jackson's 1829 inauguration, when the White House and grounds were overrun with 20,000 drunken revelers. Jackson fled to a hotel while White House aides set vats filled with whiskey on the lawn to lure partygoers out of the Executive Mansion.

Maybe that's the idea.