Mr. and Mrs. Insider paid a visit to the Carolands Chateau on Friday, at the invitation of Burlingame attorney Joe Cotchett, to attend a campaign party he threw for former state Sen. Jackie Speier, who is running for the congressional seat occupied by Rep. Tom Lantos until he died in February.

Roughly 100 to 150 people circulated around the second-floor of the mansion — which is a succession of rooms off a central atrium — sipping white wine and cocktails (no red wine allowed, for fear of stains) and munching on hors d’oeuvres.

Among those the Insider spotted at the party: San Mateo County Supervisors Mark Church and Adrienne Tissier; San Mateo police Chief Susan Manheimer; former county sheriff, and current member of the Sequoia Healthcare District Board of Directors, Don Horsley; and Robert Foucrault, the county coroner.

Speier herself, wearing a red dress with a black sash, posed for photographs with supporters in the chateau’s ridiculous wood-paneled library. Sometime after 7 p.m., guests were ushered into the ballroom for the evening’s presentation.

Cotchett spoke first, thanking the chateau’s owners, Ann and Charles Johnson (who bought the estate in 1998 and spent millions refurbishing it). He said the Johnsons were “equal opportunity employers,” since they hosted a Republican fundraiser with President Bush in late January in the exact same room.

Cotchett then introduced the emcee for the night, former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown, who interrupted a tour hawking his memoir, “Basic Brown: My Life and Our Times,” to be there for Speier, a friend and colleague from their years together in the state legislature.

Brown said he owed many votes on “family values” issues to Speier, who would cast his votes for him when he was absent from the state Assembly. The Insider isn’t sure whether he was being serious, or if the practice he described is legal, but there you have it.

Brown also joked about being mortified that he was selling his books at Wal-Mart, which has become a major book retailer that helps authors get on best-seller lists, and encouraged anyone in the audience not to attend a book signing held at one of the stores.

Standing as he was within one of the Peninsula’s symbolic seats of wealth and power, Brown may have forgotten that tens of millions of Democratic voters nationwide shop at Wal-Mart because it’s what they can afford. That Willie Brown is a real champion of the working class, isn’t he?

Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Palo Alto, also took a turn at the microphone before Brown turned the stage over to the evening’s main attraction, celebrated actress and singer Carol Channing.

As a member of Generation X, the Insider is not overly familiar with Channing’s oeuvre, but the stories and impressions from early in her career were pretty funny; and the fact that she’s still performing at the age of 87 is impressive.

One thought that came to mind following the party was that Stanford professor Lawrence Lessig proved how smart a guy he is by deciding not to enter the race against Speier, despite the pleas of online supporters.

Because the roster of Jackie-ites Friday in Hillsborough was further evidence that whoever steps in front of the Speier juggernaut this spring will be squashed like a bug.

[Updated Thursday at 4 p.m. See below]

The Hillsborough Police Department was keeping mum on President George W. Bush’s visit today, but we’re hearing the dinner he’s attending this afternoon will take place at the Carolands Chateau.

“The only thing we are saying right now is he is visiting Hillsborough and we’re referring questions to the Secret Service,” Hillsborough police Executive Assistant LeAnn Thornton said this morning.

The San Francisco office of the Secret Service was swift to inform us that they don’t talk about the president’s schedule (which is understandable). But we’ve learned that, by the looks of it, something big is afoot up at the Carolands.

Bush is to participate in a Republican National Committee dinner that is closed to the press. His visit will be brief. Air Force One is scheduled to touch down at SFO at 4:30 p.m. and depart at 7:05 p.m.

UPDATE: The GOP soiree was indeed held at the Carolands. Republican insider and Hillsborough resident Katherine Boyd declared Thursday that the dinner, which raised a reported $1.5 million for the RNC, was “absolutely wonderful.”

Boyd said Bush spoke briefly and then took questions. She said she’s “never seen him better” and he looked “very relaxed.”

Despite all the turmoil that’s gripped his unpopular administration over the last several years, Bush’s life would appear to remain pretty comfortable.

The scene around the chateau Wednesday afternoon was quiet. No protestors and not too many gawkers. Just a bunch of cops posted at pretty much every intersection near the estate and a bit of snarled traffic surrounding the president’s arrival and departure.