Angry Democrats and a wedding reception, all under one roof

The year isn't half over yet, but it's going to be hard to top Danielle DeBuchananne and Matt Rogers as best sports of 2008.

The couple long ago had booked Washington's Marriott Wardman Park Hotel for their wedding reception last Saturday. Only recently did they learn of another event scheduled that afternoon at the same venue -- the Democratic rules committee meeting to deal with the thorny Florida and Michigan primaries.

The latter gathering, of course, proved a marathon and raucous affair that attracted a bevy of protesters and sparked periodic shouting matches. Inevitably, reception guests and fired-up partisans crossed paths. But, as detailed in a detectable report in today's Washington Post Style section, the newly married couple and those celebrating their union rolled with the (figurative) punches.

"We could let it ruin the wedding, or we could embrace it," Rogers told the Post. "We embraced it."

Their forbearance did not go unrewarded. Awaiting them in their room at the hotel was a gift and a gracious note, courtesy of the Democratic National Committee and its chairman, Howard Dean.

-- Don Frederick