Blog: Al Franken

Late last week, Drinking Liberally reached its 100th chapter with York, Pennsylvania - and then moments later its 101st with Jackson, Mississippi - just in time for Drinking Liberally city leaders from Huntsville to Louisville to Brooklyn to gather in New York City for our first annual national conference. We built stronger bonds over late night pitchers at Rudy's and early morning discussions with local elected officials.

It was also a weekend full of special guests, just a few of the many great people in the national and local political establishments who have seen the value of social gatherings bringing progressives together. National bloggers and political organizers Matt Stoller, Chris Bowers of MyDD, Duncan Black of Atrios, and Peter Daou of the Daou Report joined us for a panel on the Emerging Liberal Infrastructure, then stuck around for a little take-out dinner.

That evening, we held a hurricane relief concert featuring the band Second Movement, Laughing Liberally comedians Katie Halper and Negin Farsad, and the great liberal laughmaster, Al Franken, who started off by discussing the importance of social capital and Robert Putnam, and ended by listing the warning signs of alcoholism. Number one was drinking alone - but "you don't drink alone, you drink together, so that's all right." Number three: "you're the President." And a little later in the evening, New York State Senator Eric Schneiderman and soon-to-be-Borough President Scott Stringer came in together, both looking sharp in their dark suits like they'd just come from a night of dancing.

Rounding out the gang of elected friends, City Councilmember Gale Brewer and State Assemblyman Dick Gottfried joined us bright and early the next morning for a stimulating roundtable discussion. All in all, it was a packed weekend, a fitting capstone to a packed year and another one to come.