Bloomberg: Washington is 'Cowering in the Back of the Room'

"When you go to Washington these days, you can feel a sense of fear in the air, the fear to do anything or say anything that might affect the polls or give the other side the advantage or offend a special interest group,'' Bloomberg said at the opening of told a gathering of politicians, media and movie industry types gathered for dinner at the residence of Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. "The federal government isn't out front -- it's cowering in the back of the room.''

His speech launched "Ceasefire! Bridging the Political Divide,'' a conference sponsored by the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California. The dinner, served under a tent in the mayor's backyard, drew attendees including actress Anjelica Huston, liberal blogger/pundit Arianna Huffington (of The Huffington Post, of course), former California Gov. Gray Davis and Maria Shriver, the wife of the man who replaced Davis after he lost a recall election, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Villaraigosa, introducing Bloomberg as a mayor "who knows it's not about ideology, it's about ideas,'' thanked him for "tutoring me along the way" as he attempted to follow Bloomberg's example and gain control of Los Angeles schools. (Unlike Bloomberg, he failed to do so.)

Bloomberg, who came in for plenty of praise during the evening, is enjoying a wave of positive reviews: Not only does he appear with Schwarzenegger on the cover of the current issue of Time magazine -- in a photo illustration that manages to make the two men seem to be the same height -- but the New York mayor is the subject of a flattering story in the current issue of Business Week, "The CEO Mayor,'' and his eponymous media company was called "a prodigious success" in April by Fortune -- which duly noted that Bloomberg, should he run for president, probably has closer to $13 billion to play with rather than the $5.5. billion estimated by Forbes in its annual ranking of the nation's wealthiest.

The conference continues today. Schwarzenegger is scheduled to deliver the event's keynote address, after being introduced by his one-time rival Davis.