ONLY A COUPLE OF FLORIDIANS (THAT I RECOGNIZE) AND SEVERAL SPORTS STARS

The Chicago Tribune political blog The Swamp printed the list of 134 guests who received invitations to last evening's five course white tie state dinner in honour of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and HRH Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh hosted by President Bush and First Lady Laura Bush at the White House.

Looking over the list the only Floridians I could recognize were, no surprise, the chief executive's brother and former Florida Governor Jeb Bush and wife Columba.

While there were a variety of well-to-dos from business and politics on the invite list, I noticed that it was rather heavy with stars from the area of sports. On the list:

Mr. Calvin Borel, Jockey, 133rd Kentucky Derby Winner (That's what you earn when you ride your horse from 19th to win the first leg of the Triple Crown).

Mr. Timothy Hasselbeck, Professional Football Player (Got his invite as the hubby of Elisabeth Hasselbeck of "The View")

Mr. Peyton Manning, Quarterback, Indianapolis Colts

Mr. James W. Nantz, III, Sportscaster, CBS

Mr. Arnold D. Palmer, Professional Golfer

Mr. Gene A. Washington, Director of Football Operations, National Football League (Nice when you get your invite as the guest of Secretary of State Dr. Condoleezza Rice...but the Commish wasn't on the list?)

Ms. Robin Roberts, ABC (Yeah, I know she now hosts "Good Morning America", but she used to work for co-owned ESPN doing sports)

One reader who replied had this humourous comment: "W did his gaffe. Laura talked him out of serving BBQ."