St Patrick's Day in the White House: a love-in between President Clinton and the Irish peacemakers or the party from hell where Gerry Adams and David Trimble eye each other warily and don't mention Monica Lewinsky?
Even the Americans are fascinated. As one columnist writes: "Practically every major Irish bigwig will be rolling into town in the next week, bringing along all the grudges and bad blood from the other side of the pond."
The White House is intent on a great party but it badly wants a pay-off from the Irish guests to bolster Clinton's image as the US President who helped bring peace to a divided Ireland.
How can he do this? "Don't expect a dramatic breakthrough," cautions an official. "It's not like the marines are going to come out of the bushes, round up the politicians and put them in a room with the President and they solve everything over glasses of whiskey."
But the President hopes "to light a fire" under the visiting politicians. The negotiations so far seem "very lackadaisical" to the White House.
"The President will be projecting his enthusiasm and desire to have something come out of it soon." He wants his visitors "to go home sharing some of our sense of optimism that we are on the verge of something great", says the official.
With the May deadline nearing, the White House is using sporting metaphors. "We're into the bell lap." It will have to be "a sprint" to get the negotiations finished by Easter to allow time for the May referendums, North and South. The White House on St Patrick's Day will be "a tailor-made opportunity to give it a kick-off".
It is obvious why the President sees this St Patrick's Day as critical for the peace process in Northern Ireland, 3,000 miles away. He even hopes he can make a triumphal visit there in May when an agreement has been sewn up and the island is getting ready to give it its blessing.
The President, responding to questions from reporters as he met Prime Minister Chuan of Thailand, said he would do his best to meet all the "major players in the Irish peace process" when they are in Washington next week. Whether he would go to Belfast in mid-May, when he would be in Britain for the G-8 economic summit, "would depend upon what the posture of things is then with the peace process and after consultation with Prime Minister Blair and Prime Minister Ahern, whether I could make any kind of constructive contribution".
The main players in the peace process will be under one roof at the St Patrick's Day celebrations. The Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, the Northern Ireland Secretary, Mo Mowlam, John Hume, David Trimble, Gerry Adams, loyalist leaders Gary McMichael and David Ervine, the Alliance leader, Lord Alderdice, and senior Irish and British officials.
Clinton hopes to meet them all. The Taoiseach will have a private session with the President. David Trimble and others may get a Presidential "drop-by" as they meet senior White House officials like National Security Adviser, Sandy Berger, and his deputy, Jim Steinberg.
The smaller party leaders may have to be content with a quick chat on the receiving line at the evening reception. "When you feel the hot breath of Bill Clinton over your shoulder, it's a pretty powerful incentive to get on with it," says an official.
There has never been a President so engaged in solving the Troubles and there probably never will be again. From the time he was elected in 1992, Clinton has had to give the problem his attention in a way no other US president did.
Clinton promised Irish-American supporters he would send a peace envoy if he got elected. He did more. He appointed George Mitchell as his economic adviser for Northern Ireland and later chairman of the talks. Clinton, who first banned Gerry Adams from visiting the US while the IRA was still bombing, later gave him a visa in the face of strong objections from his own officials and the then British government.
With the first IRA ceasefire, an ambitious White House economic conference was called to encourage US investment in the North. Clinton's triumphal visit in 1995 set the seal on the US involvement. Northern Ireland could be notched up as yet another foreign policy success with Bosnia and the Middle East peace talks.
The end of the IRA ceasefire in February 1996, coming so soon after the Clinton visit, was a shock to the White House and senior Irish-American politicians like Senators Kennedy, Dodd and Moynihan. They had backed Gerry Adams in his new peacemaking role, taking their cue from John Hume, a trusted adviser for two decades, on whom and what to support in the confused cauldron of Northern politics and violence.
Yet another shock for the White House came several months later as the ugly face of loyalist violence was seen at Drumcree and its aftermath in July 1996. The peace process in which Clinton had invested so much seemed in ruins.
His chief advisers on Northern Ireland, Anthony Lake and Nancy Soderberg, had kept the door open to Gerry Adams after the ceasefire ended. The argument that British foot-dragging and unionist intransigence had contributed to the breakdown was seen to have some merit but the White House statements continued to denounce IRA violence and appeal for a new ceasefire.
Irish-Americans rallied around Clinton for his re-election campaign in November 1996. "The best President Ireland ever had in the White House" was their slogan. Fund-raising scandals and Clinton's pro-abortion stance, denounced by the Catholic Church, had little effect on his Irish vote. This Irish-American lobby has privileged access to the White House and has urged US pressure on David Trimble to engage with Sinn Fein in the peace process.
US officials say they hear Mr Trimble is now "moving like Gen Patton across Germany".
In the new Clinton administration, Lake and Soderberg left for new careers and were replaced by Berger and Steinberg, neither of whom had the same in-depth knowledge of Northern Ireland. But they soon learned Clinton was still deeply involved. The transfer of Larry Butler from the number two post in the Dublin embassy under Jean Kennedy Smith to the White House national security team has helped fill the gap left by Lake and Soderberg.
The Irish Embassy here at times marvels at Clinton's engagement in the peace process in the midst of international crises. He is so up to date on the Northern Ireland scene that US officials tell Irish diplomats how lucky they are the President is "his own desk officer" on Ireland.
With the election in Britain of his friend and admirer, Tony Blair, Clinton has a reason to be even more engaged in the search for a long-term solution in Ireland. John Major was seen as seriously handicapped by his dependence on unionist votes at Westminster; Blair is seen to have a much freer hand.
Clinton and Blair frequently discuss Northern Ireland at international summits and by phone. The President admires Blair for his dedication to the peace process and has praised him for setting up the new Bloody Sunday inquiry.
There will be plenty of glad-handing for the visiting politicians at the White House but not arm-twisting.
And what about Monica Lewinsky?
The St Patrick's Day celebrations come as the President faces a critical stage in this embarrassing investigation which is a huge distraction for him and his staff. Irish-Americans have been urged by Father Sean McManus of the Irish National Caucus here to stand by the President to whom they "owe an enormous debt of gratitude".
In a recent statement Father McManus asked: "Does the Irish-American community turn our back on such a friend because accusations are being hurled at him? And if we did, what sort of spineless friends would we be? What would that say about our character, our loyalty, our faithfulness?"
No one is going to be let spoil Tuesday night's party at the White House but the guests will be expected to go back to the talks at Stormont and make Ireland a better place and Bill Clinton a happier man.