Wonkette Crashes Roundtable on Cross Party Dating, Leaves Alone
Put a bunch of romantically challenged libertarians in a room and who wouldn't want to see the dud fireworks fly? That's why we hotfooted it last night to the America's Future Foundation roundtable discussion, "Cross Party Dating: The Pick-Ups, Perils, and Pitfalls." Since the panelists managed to keep it in their pants long enough to actually share anecdotes, horror stories and personal hook-up philosophies, a-summarizing we will go:
Julian Sanchez: Moderator, assistant editor ofReasonmagazine, and so proud of it that he lists it twice in the event leaflet. Writes about technology, privacy and sexual politics, and -- judging by the snazzy green sportsjacket he had on -- does these things very well indeed. We heard he made a cringe-inducing reference to Alan Greenspan in "leather chaps" early in the evening, though we arrived too late for it. Uncorked free marketeers say the darnedest things.
More after the jump.
RELATED: Cross Party Dating [AFF Website]
The Most Important Affliation in DC: The Pants Party [Wonkette]
John Hlinko: Creator of ActForLove.org, an online dating service for activists and the politically-minded desperate. Corporate motto: "Take action, get action." He's an ardent MoveOn.org type of lefty, but he apparently put his rage to good use since his moderate Democrat wife is preggers -- way to go, John! Loathes Long Island with a passion because ofGoodFellasand what we suspect are repressed childhood traumas unrelated to Italian-American mobsters who vote Republican. Thinks right and left agree on a surprising number of things, like fucking.
Raul Damas: Son of Cuban exiles. Has an excellent sense of humor, which he probably needs working for Karl Rove. Staunch advocate of cross-party dating as his wife is a Communist but very hot. (She's also sweet enough not to have plowed their car into a tree "for the movement" when she chauffered hubby and Boy Genius home one night.) Listens to alternative music and engages in many other counterintuitive blue-state activities. When people express shock upon hearing these and then discovering where he collects his paycheck, he answers: "That's why we win." Go get 'em, tiger.
Amanda Carpenter: Assistant Editor of Human Events, '05 graduate of Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana. "Anti" because in school she dated a patouchli-reeking emo poet hippie - representative of all liberals - whom she neither respected nor loved. This actually fulfilled a distributive requirement at Ball State University.
Jesse Benton: PR guy at the American Meat Institute. (Settle down, please.) It's a trade union organization, not a lobby group and Jesse is a champion of the common working man. Once dated a vegan who wouldn't go near him after he'd eaten a turkey sandwich because she didn't want to "kiss the smell of death." Obviously opposes donkey-elephant mating. Is unapologetically conservative and was seated next to the Ball State alumna, though no love connection (to our knowledge) was made. Also finagles cigarettes for tired, drunk blog correspondents like a champ.
While no consensus may have been reached, most of the group repaired to a bipartisan local bar afterwards. In the dark, all ideologies look the same, anyway.