"There's representative roller-girl," Utah Sen. Scott McCoy says about his House colleague, who hands him a stack of scribbled cards - ribald and raunchy, it turns out.
Gripping beers in T-shirts and jeans, McCoy and his cohorts unleash the entries from something called the "six-word contest," a political anti-paean to Bush.
"This guy makes me miss Reagan," the first reads. "Wait a minute, didn't you lose?" Then, the first in a long night of crass crowd-pleasers: "Can't hear? Dick [Cheney] in your ear."
Welcome to Drinking Liberally, where a warehouse party of 100 people in Salt Lake City's People's Freeway neighborhood pulses to celebrate the fifth birthday of parent organization "Living Liberally."
Amid the improv comedy and random acts of political rebellion, stereo speakers shout "F--- Bush and Cheney."
Salt Lake City's chapter - growing each year that Bush holds office - ensures the highly literate but loose-knit members of Drinking Liberally now have a "bar" in all 50 states. Sweeping the electoral map with progressives and part-time political pundits was based - not coincidentally - on Democratic Chairman Howard Dean's once-rebuffed-but-increasingly-relevant 50-state strategy.
Back onstage, a rapper named "Sickness" disses Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh "and other right-wing nuts." Then, after a saucy rap dubbed "Sexy Time," McCoy plays critic.
"I loved it," he smirks. "And I think Chris Buttars and Margaret Dayton would really love it."
But none of those button-down types was near the building on this sportive summer evening. Rather, middle-age couples sipped microbrew and bloody marys nicknamed "Bloody George." Or, if more adventurous, they sampled the pink, rum-loaded pitcher labeled "Hurricane Katrina."
Wade by the "Obama '08" shirts and "Bob Springmeyer for Governor" stickers, you will see as many people in their 40s, 50s and 60s as 20-something class warriors.
Back by the keg, a table displays cork coasters that feature the Drinking Liberal (DL) logo - the Angel Moroni tipping an elongated pint of beer in place of the horn.
"I like to be able to see a little bit of the liberal side of Utah," says Sarah Mensching, who moved inside the Zion Curtain from Chicago and now teaches in Kearns. "My political points of view align with the same thing. It's fun."
Each Friday, the Salt Lake City group gathers to eat - and drink - politics on the patio of Piper Down, an Irish pub near 1500 South on State Street. Entertainment has included former Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson and a school-voucher debate between Overstock.com's Patrick Byrne and liberal lawyer Patrick Shea.
Other speakers have ranged from Tim Chambless, a political-science professor at the University of Utah, to Rebecca Walsh, columnist at The Salt Lake Tribune.
"We're not Democrats," organizer Heather Culligan insists. "We just bring people together in a comfortable environment to talk politics."
That sales pitch sounds neutral but make no mistake: Bike-pedaling progressives - along with Democratic power brokers - outnumber country-club Republicans in this crowd. At the warehouse party, McCoy and Johnson were joined by capital Rep. David Litvack, City Councilman Luke Garrott, attorney general wannabe Jean Hill and Josie Valdez, a Democrat gunning for lieutenant governor. At the previous patio gathering, Democratic long shot Springmeyer was advised on how to oust Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr.
The Beehive State's Drinking Liberally started with eight people after the start of Bush's second term and soon blossomed to 200 members. There now are 560 in the no-fee club, organized by Culligan, Jeremiah Roth (who read about it in Mother Jones magazine) and Laura Arellano, a Sandy business owner.
"It's casual," says Matt Lyon, president of Young Democrats of Utah. "You come with a beer and participate."
Lyon, who works in the mayor's office, is largely credited with the relentless door-to-door strategy that helped Mayor Ralph Becker erase a double-digit deficit early in last summer's campaign.
Becker has yet to be booked as a guest but seems a likely candidate.
Some in the DL crowd wear black lettermanlike jackets bearing a large eagle on the lapel. In block letters on the back, the jackets advertise "Gayle's Teen Eaglets," a jab at Gayle Ruzicka, the crusading conservative motoring Utah's Eagle Forum.
In August, the soiree moves to the Marmalade for an annual beer-soaked barbecue before a jaunt to "Saturday's Voyeur," a satire lampooning Mormons, Republicans and Utah's sacred cows.
Lee Camp, a New York City comic who was flown in for the recent DL anniversary, says he was only "somewhat" surprised by Salt Lake City's vibrant scene.
"It does make sense," he says as organizers greet members with red keg cups. "It fits the formula of red states . . . people need to find people they can fit in with even more."
If John McCain is elected, the club may need a bigger patio.
djensen@sltrib.com
About the group
Salt Lake City's Drinking Liberally is one of more than 230 chapters across the nation. The movement started in a New York bar in May 2003 and sprouted in Utah's capital in August 2005. Today, the Beehive State boasts 500-plus members. The Salt Lake City group huddles Fridays at the pub Piper Down, 1492 S. State Street, to eat - and drink - politics, with a decidedly blue flavor.
Source: www.drinkingliberallyslc.org
About the logo
Although the Salt Lake City chapter settled on a logo spoofing the LDS Church's Angel Moroni, the group insists it's not anti-Mormon.
"In deciding on something that illustrated the uniqueness of Salt Lake," says the group's Web site, "it was either the angel on top of the temple or the SLC skyline with the prominent and, um, phallic Church Office Building."
Even so, Utah's Drinking Liberally crowd maintains it doesn't bash Latter-day Saints.
"We've got some Mormons in our group," the Web site says, "although they don't drink. Necessarily."
Source: www.drinkingliberallyslc.org
