Palm regulars get nervous, but Tommy Jacomo says he’s staying

Regulars at The Palm are terrified that manager Tommy Jacomo — the host of downtown’s most powerful power lunch — is on the way out, but a Palm executive says not to fear: He’s actually been promoted.

After 30 years at the helm, Jacomo has “become part of the community,” said Robert Shoffner, the longtime restaurant critic for Washingtonian magazine. “Without Tommy Jacomo, the Palm is just another steakhouse.”

But one regular, who boasts tens of thousands of points accumulated under the restaurant’s frequent-diner program, laments that “Tommy has been introducing a new guy.”

That would be Ted Swigert, whose business card reads “general manager” — the same title everyone thought was Jacomo’s for life.

“Without Tommy, I’m not as inclined to go there,” said Chuck Conconi of Qorvis Communications, a legendary gossip writer for the Washington Post and Washingtonian. Shoffner added that if The Palm were to diminish Jacomo’s role, “It would be corporate suicide. You’d have a mass revolt.”

Indeed, a group of regulars has already discussed appearing outside The Palm with signs saying, “No Tommy — No Palm” and marching to the rival Prime Rib en masse.

But Bruce Bozzi Jr., executive vice president of the Palm Restaurant Group, said D.C.’s favorite maitre d’ isn’t going anywhere. He said they created for Jacomo “a tenured position like we’ve never had before” that will allow him “to do everything he wants to do, but not deal with all the minutiae.”

Jacomo himself told us yesterday that Swigert is simply handling “all the nuts and bolts, and I’m doing the fun stuff out front.”

“I’m the face of The Palm, and I will be for quite some time,” he said. He added that his brother, Ray, is retiring from the Miami Palm, and some have confused the two situations.

Nevertheless, some loyal customers, who asked to remain nameless given their friendship with Jacomo, believe things have taken a turn for the worse since the new blood arrived.

It’s “an epidemic of unhappiness,” declared one several-times-per-week diner, who said he and other Palm stalwarts are not being recognized by management and not being seated at their usual tables.

“When the parking guys know you better than the GM, you’ve got a problem,” he said.

But Bozzi said he’s confident that, through Jacomo, it won’t be long before the new management knows where everyone belongs.

Meet the Madisons

For a “nonprofit social organization,” the Madison Club sure has to suffer a lot of stereotypes. The all-female, private social club gets pegged by some as an exclusive sorority for Washington’s pretty, preppy and pampered set.

But with details of their latest batch of members leaking out, could it be that the club, which caps membership at 100, is undergoing a slight changing of the guard as it enters its fourth year?

Don’t call them dumb blondes: They’re proud to boast that the new class of Madisonians includes their very first doctor, Dr. Pari Gohdsi, an OB/GYN and resident at George Washington University. And they’re adding another lawyer, Emily Abbott, bringing their total to two. In addition, a majority of their new members work in the White House and on Capitol Hill. These political gals include Chelsea Maughan, Karas Pattison, Sarah Little, Kathryn Bohannan and Jessica Taylor. Monica Owens, daughter of former Colorado Governor Bill Owens, has also joined the club. And, as for hair color, members of the club estimate that the new batch is an equal mix of blondes and brunettes (but, sorry, no redheads).

Don’t call them homogenous: The Madison Club has accepted its first African-American member.

Don’t call them exclusive: The Club is inviting all Washingtonians to come “Meet the Madisons” Thursday evening at — where else? — Smith Point. A $5 donation to My Sister’s Place will be requested at the door.

Madison spokeswoman Kristin Cecchettini says that “we received far more applications than in years past, and the accomplishments of each applicant were very impressive.”

Heritage screens never-before-seen Reagan

President Reagan would have turned 96 today. Leave it to the Heritage Foundation to get him a birthday cake.

The conservative think tank unveiled the cake Monday after screening an interview the Gipper gave to National Review’s William Rusher in 1986 as part of PBS’s documentary “The Conservatives.”

Excerpts aired as part of the final cut, but until yesterday, the full tape had never been screened. Some of Reagan’s comments were startlingly relevant, even 21 years later.

“I had come from a Democrat family,” he said, drawing snickers from the Heritage crowd as they recalled President Bush’s recent reference to the “Democrat party.”

And Reagan might have even been able to relate to the Dixie Chicks.

He referred to a “career penalty” caused by his political views, recalling that “no one ever said, ‘We’re not going to see your pictures.’ But as soon as I switched [to conservatism], you have no idea how much mail I got.”

Obama’s fully in!

Just ask his supporters at DraftObama.org, who have been drumming up support for a presidential run by the Illinois senator since late November. DraftObama.org’s Kris Schultz tells Yeas & Nays that “the last official day for our group to exist is Saturday.”

Why Saturday? That’s when Obama has planned a speech in Springfield, Ill., on the future of his candidacy, and clearly Schultz and his crew are confident Obama will go all the way. They’re so confident that Schultz himself is flying to Springfield for their “Mission Accomplished” pre-announcement party.

Don’t these guys remember what happened the last time “Mission Accomplished” was declared?

Foul language from Fowler

At this weekend’s winter meeting of the Democratic National Committee, University of Maryland professor and former Examiner columnist Tom Schaller came upon a mountain of slurs and curses. Call it “Mount Fowler.”

When Schaller, who recently penned “Whistling Past Dixie: How Democrats Can Win Without the South,” approached former DNC chair Don Fowler, the South Carolinian was grumbling on about “some book out there” that argues against the Democrats taking the South in 2008.

Schaller pointed out to Fowler that it was, in fact, his book that was being discussed, and that’s when Mount Fowler erupted.

“Looming over me with his long finger pointing at my chest,” Schaller wrote in a blog post for the American Prospect magazine, “he [cursed at me] several times. … I could hardly get a word in edgewise.”

Schaller is much shorter than Fowler, and Schaller admitted to Yeas & Nays that Fowler was “a little bit physically menacing.”

The whole affair lasted almost five minutes, and Schaller said he “eventually just walked away.”

So much for Southern hospitality. …