POWERED PAIR TO GO DOWN THE AISLE : MATCH MADE IN D.C.

Byline: Martin Crutsinger Associated Press 

Let the market melt. Andrea and Alan are getting married.

The wedding Sunday of NBC's Andrea Mitchell and the Federal Reserve's Alan Greenspan is a merger made in Washington: Big-time TV personality weds second-most powerful man in the country. One moves ratings; one moves markets.

They met when she covered a blue-ribbon commission created to rescue Social Security. He ran the commission.

Between questions, interest perked. Two years later, he asked her out. Cautious and deliberate is a Greenspan hallmark.

After a 12-year courtship, he popped the question on Christmas Day. He's given her a huge diamond ring.

The afternoon ceremony will be an hour's drive outside Washington, at the pricey Inn at Little Washington. The guest list - 75 close friends - includes Washington's movers and shakers. ABC's Barbara Walters, an old Greenspan flame; and Sen. John Warner, Walters' current escort, are expected.

A chartered bus, featuring champagne service, will leave Washington's Jockey Club (Nancy Reagan's favorite restaurant) to ferry guests through Virginia's hunt country, glorious in the spring.

Friends are taking bets whether Greenspan - ``a manufacturer of verbal murk,'' says old pal Leonard Garment - will be able to say anything as direct as ``I do.''

At one of the prenuptial parties, guests were given phony $100 bills with the couple's picture.

By all accounts, they are very happy. She jokes that ``rational exuberance'' finally drove him to propose - a reference to one of his much-publicized stock market quotes. It will be the second marriage for both.

They share interests in music and tennis. But their personalities would seem to be far different.

With his balding pate, thick glasses and perpetual slouch, Greenspan, 71, comes across as a shy, quiet academic - happiest during the time he spends every morning soaking in a hot bath while poring over economic statistics, a practice to ease his bad back.

Perhaps because his every utterance is examined for hidden meaning, Greenspan is a man of few words. On the Washington social circuit, he blends into the background, letting the gregarious Mitchell take the lead.

Friends can never remember him losing his temper, but volcanic outbursts by Mitchell in pursuit of the news have become legend.

``She is one of the most tenacious reporters I have ever met,'' says CNN's Charles Bierbauer. ``She has always been tough.''

Out of the public eye, friends describe a gentler Mitchell and a more talkative, even funny, Greenspan, each protective of the other.

Last October, Mitchell celebrated turning 50 by running her first marathon. Greenspan was there handing her Gatorade and towels.

There will be no honeymoon; both have to get back to work.

Mitchell must keep an eye on the new secretary of state. Greenspan must decide whether to drive Wall Street crazier with another increase in interest rates.

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Photo

Photo: Alan Greenspan, 71, and Andrea Mitchell, 50, seen here attending the Gridiron dinner in 1995, will marry, or merger, on Sunday.

Associated Press