After reading Andrea Rodgers article this morning I questioned who the other two woman were who were being considered for the Bravo’s Real Housewives of DC. A quick google and I came up with a article written by Michael Crowley titled, “WELCOME TO MCLEAN, HOME OF AMERICA’S RULING CLASS”.
Here’s a excerpt of that article…
“Surry Hill. So reads a plaque at the end of the long, winding private road that leads to the crown jewel of McLean, Virginia: the 18,000-square-foot mansion that Republican lobbyist Ed Rogers and his wife Edwina call home. To get there from Washington, you drive across the Potomac River and along a parkway that, in the summer, is canopied by lush green trees. Shortly before the guarded entrance to the CIA, you turn off McLean’s main road and then down a private lane, passing through brick gate posts adorned with black lanterns and into a grand cul-de-sac. A massive brick Colonial with majestic, white Georgian columns looms above a perfectly manicured lawn. Tall trees surround the house; no other buildings are in view. But the best way to appreciate the grandeur of the estate–originally zoned for nine separate homes and featuring streams, ponds, and a pair of waterfalls–is from above. The Rogerses once hired a helicopter to take aerial photos of the property, which they converted into postcards–a project requiring a paranoid, post-September 11 CIA’s grudging approval.
On a recent summer afternoon, Edwina, a petite Alabaman with a demure Southern charm, opened the door to her house. Edwina doesn’t know the total number of rooms in Surry Hill, but an elevator services the house’s three floors. Upstairs, Edwina’s bathroom (one of eight) features a small fireplace by the tub. But she is proudest of her home’s dazzling–and eclectic–art collection. “We do a lot of lobbying for foreign governments. I just can’t imagine any country we haven’t gotten a piece from,” she explains. Sashaying from room to room like a docent, she points out the eight-foot steel-plated pantry door from Rajasthan, the light fixtures from Venice, and the four Taiwanese stone statues, each weighing 300 pounds, embedded in her dining room wall. (The floor had to be reinforced with steel to support them.) Her most delicate pieces are housed in their own “art gallery”–a white-walled room where ancient figurines, pottery, and pieces of jewelry lay on cream-colored stands under Plexiglas. “We hired the company that does the Smithsonian’s display cases,” Edwina explains. One tiny statue, from Peru, is labeled:
Monkey effigy
Moche variant
200-700
Within Republican circles, Surry Hill is an iconic place–a Shangri-la for those who toil on Capitol Hill and along K Street. (“Have you seen Surry Hill?” Republicans are apt to say. “You’ve got to go.”) It’s also a testament to the rewards awaiting ambitious conservatives in modern Washington, where unprecedented wealth is being made from the business of politics. Just ask the Rogerses, who have ridden a boom in Washington lobbying during the last decade. Edwina, a former Republican Hill staffer and Bush White House aide, worked at the Washington Group, chaired by former GOP Representative Susan Molinari, whose clients have included Boeing and the government of Bangladesh. Ed, a former aide in the Reagan and first Bush White Houses and a regular on shows like msnbc’s “Hardball,” co-founded the powerhouse lobbying firm of Barbour Griffith & Rogers in 1991. Last year, the firm–whose clients include Eli Lilly, Verizon, Lorillard Tobacco Company, and the governments of India and Qatar–reported revenue of $19 million. Built from these lobbying riches in 2002, Surry Hill is the psychic center of McLean. And McLean, in turn, has become the psychic center of the Washington Republican establishment.”
The article goes on to wax poetic about the opulence of some of DC’s elite. Further articles found online at the Luxist state that Edwina is in the habit of wrapping her gifts in sheets of real US currency. (Get yours here ). Crazy ehh? She certainly sounds like she’d be entertaining to watch. After the description of her McMansion I’m dying to get a view of the property. Guess we will all just have to wait to see if she takes Bravo’s bait.
P.S. – Did you see her shoe closet behind her? I think I might be giving her a run for her money (since my shoe closet is like a DSW these days)…but I see a few I wouldn’t mind snagging. Edwina…are you a size 9???
