Like many of her pals in the media, Ms. Adams had first frequented the CNN Grill during its original iteration at the Democratic National Convention in Denver. There, the cable news network had sequestered a centrally located sports bar, plastered the walls with flat-screen televisions tuned to CNN, concocted some thematic drinks (the caucus cooler!) and threw open the doors.

Word spread fast. The food, the booze, everything was free. Soon, the CNN Grill was crawling with a tipsy mix of journalists, politicians, celebrities and CNN talent. What a watering hole, Ms. Adams thought. She chronicled Charles Barkley sipping on a Grey Goose and cranberry cocktail, praising Barack Obama and ogling Charlize Theron.

At the Republican National Convention, the next week, the CNN Grill reappeared, taking over a hockey bar in St. Paul. Ms. Adams reported that the Grill would cost CNN an estimated $1.5 million that week and declared it “civilization” for New Yorkers in exile.

On the night of the election, the CNN Grill sprung up again, this time on the 10th floor of the Time Warner Center, in the company cafeteria. True to form, there were copious amounts of burgers and bloggers and beer. In her column the next day, Ms. Adams gave a nod to the relentlessness of the grill-master, CNN U.S.’s president, Jonathan Klein. “If two Boy Scouts run for sanitation chief in Salt Lake City,” wrote Ms. Adams, “Klein will throw up a CNN Grill in the Mormon Tabernacle.”

What a savvy expenditure, Ms. Adams thought afterward. Look at all the good PR! “The conversation is wonderful,” Ms. Adams told The Observer recently. “The food is semi-crappy. But who cares?”

After all, the excess of the party—hundreds of lanyard-draped somebody-nobodies and nobody-somebodies feasting from dusk to dawn by the pale light of Lou Dobbs’ wattage—seemed to exude perfectly the excess of the news organization hosting it. “They never saw a pundit they didn’t like,” said Ms. Adams.

“CNN always goes over the top for big election nights,” she added. “They go as over the top as they possibly can.”

Not that you necessarily needed to have sucked down a milkshake at the CNN Grill to have experienced the sensation of America’s original cable news network laying it on thick. All you had to do was tune in to the network’s wildly successful and, at times, overly rich election coverage. For much of the 2008 election, going-as-over-the-top-as-you-possibly-can might as well have served as the organization’s mission statement.

Along the way, CNN sponsored seven debates (by contrast, CBS, the Tiffany network, threw exactly none). In the run-up to the election, it piled up a roster of all-star political pundits, in a free-agent signing frenzy that would make George Steinbrenner blush. Throughout the campaign, it unleashed an array of new audio-visual technology, some of it culled from the world of military defense contractors.

CNN introduced the first Jefferson Han-designed, multi-touch screen. When Fox News and ABC News added “magic walls” to their coverage, CNN snapped up a second unit. Mobile control room? Check. YouTube collaboration? Yes, sir. SkyCam? Did it in Denver. Audience reaction meters? Indeed.

The fireworks display hit a crescendo on election night when Wolf Blitzer interviewed a hologram of musician will.i.am (who somewhere along the campaign trail seemed to become a part of the CNN brand), touching off a frenzy of Star Wars references, journalism school hand-wringing and nerdy explanations about why the 3-D digitally composite images shot from 35 HD cameras simultaneously was not (NOT!) actually a hologram.

“When you have the wind at your back in the form of a very profitable streak, then you’ve got the wherewithal to try things, to embrace innovation, to not cringe,” Mr. Klein told The Observer on Monday morning.

If it had taken place, say, 20 years ago, the spectacle of CNN’s 2008 shopping spree might have blended into the cacophonous jangle of a city awash in media companies awash in cash. But these days, everywhere you turn, the once reliable bon vivant institutions of New York journalism look tired, anxious and ready for bed. ABC News recently relegated its executives to “B-level” hotels. This year, for the first time since the dawn of the printed word, Condé Nast is forgoing its holiday party at the Four Seasons. Cash bars are in.

All of which makes CNN’s current swagger, from its battery of technology to its cornucopia of talking heads, seem that much more freakish—the aberrance of opulence in the leanest of times. Over the past year, CNN has racked up double-digit profit growth for the fifth straight year. Time Warner does not officially break out the numbers for CNN. But according to data from industry analysts SNL Kagan, in 2008, CNN brought in more than $1.1 billion in total revenue.

To be sure, 2008 has been a boom year for all the major cable news networks. While profits at their parent companies have faltered, Fox News, MSNBC and CNBC have all reportedly piled up big gains. And across the media landscape, there are other big players who are expanding, from Bloomberg News to Reuters to the BBC. But, for the most part, they are doing so relatively quietly.

And whereas, say, MSNBC is tied to the sinking fortunes of a broadcast news division, CNN is free to reinvest its bounty back into its news coverage and into … well … whatever else seems appealing. Recent splurges have included building a new international hub in Abu Dhabi; planning a wire service that could eventually compete with the Associated Press; and kicking off a weekend comedy-news show hosted by comedian D. L. Hughley. [Update, November 19, 11:33 a.m.: CNN's wire service is still in development.]

At times, it seems like CNN’s guiding philosophy is, why the hell not?

When asked about expenditures, CNN Worldwide’s president, Jim Walton, has been known to downplay the company’s appetites, saying that whenever CNN adds, it also subtracts. Likewise, Mr. Klein assured The Observer that judiciousness is the prevailing approach.

“When you know that you have the resources, it liberates the creative side,” said Mr. Klein. “We’ve been smart about deploying the vast resources that we have at our disposal. But knowing that we have the profits to plow back into the coverage gives us an immense advantage. We can afford more people on our air and off our air. So, goddamn it, we’re going to have more people.”

Along the way, the investment has paid off. This year, among the cable news networks, CNN won election night by a wide margin, pulling in an average of more than 12 million viewers during prime time; its Web site also saw a huge spike on election day, attracting some 30 million unique users. Among the broadcast networks, only ABC managed to beat CNN in prime time, from 8 to 11 p.m.—and if you expand the viewing horizon to 12:30 a.m., CNN topped them all.

Mr. Klein, who spent much of his career working in broadcast TV news before joining CNN in 2004, said that cable news is playing a completely different game than the broadcast networks. “What they’re playing is golf,” said Mr. Klein. “That is, they’re trying to get there in as few strokes as possible. Spend as little as possible, but still look like you’re still covering the news.

“Here, the challenge is the opposite,” he added. “Show the audience that you are swarming over every story with as many resources as possible. Run up the score.”

With a financial crisis undermining the American economy, advertising in free fall and the election over, will CNN continue to try and run up the score at the same feverish pace? “We’re not going to trim our sails,” said Mr. Klein. “We’re going to be cautious just as everyone else in America is. But we intend to continue innovating. The best path through turbulent economic times is growth.”

Around 11:30 on Monday morning, Mr. Klein excused himself. He said he was running late and had to catch a train to Washington, where he was planning to spend the evening congratulating the members of CNN’s political team.

“We’re having a party,” he said.

fgillette@observer.com