Fraters Libertas

Thrown To The Lions At The Forum

Last night's Patriot Forum, with Hugh Hewitt was well worth the price of admission and the braving of subzero temps. Atomizer joined me and my wife at the event, which was held at the swanky Saint Paul Hotel.

There was a short cocktail hour, followed by dinner, and then the main event; Hugh's speech on the upcoming election. We were able to chat with Hugh before dinner and also had the great pleasure of reacquainting ourselves with the charming and vivacious Tordas, whom we had met last summer on The Patriot Cruise. She's a Norwegian spitfire full of vim and vinegar as well as a fair measure of Atomizer's gin. To regular listeners of Hugh's show she's probably best known for the stern command: "Jay Larson, get to verk!"

In typical Hugh fashion, he asked my wife the same question about Bartolo Colon that so flummoxed me a few months ago on the air. And I have to admit she answered it much better than I was able to. Of course that bar had been set pretty low.

Here's a shot of my wife, Hugh, Tordas, and Atomizer (caught in a rare moment holding a drink). I would have taken more pictures but the lighting in the room wasn't great, and I was more interested in pressing the flesh, then pressing the flash. (Groan)

We were fortunate enough to meet up with John (Hindrocket) and Scott (The Big Trunk) from Power Line fame. And yes Saint Paul, they did make eye contact with us.

Later we ran into DC from Brainstorming , another local blogger who weathered the elements to hear pearls of wisdom from the host with the most. Unfortunately, Ed from Captain's Quarters was not able to make the event. His evening's tale of woe has already been well documented.

But Ed needn't feel too bad. It's not as if he really missed anything. I mean it wasn't as if, just before he began his speech, Hugh graciously invited us and the Powerline crew to stand and be acknowledged by the two hundred or so people on hand with an ovation that Bobby Kennedy would have been proud to receive.

Sorry to twist the knife like that Ed, but it was an unexpected and generous gesture by Hugh, which once again demonstrated his commitment to building people up. Of course he followed this up by declaring open season on me and Atomizer, with his encouraging the crowd to "chase them down and beat them with sticks". Thankfully, the elegant surroundings were completely barren of sticks and the crowd, having just finished dinner, felt no desire to carry out a Fraters hunt at the time.

The speech itself was excellent and quite well received. Hugh's contention is that Republicans have the opportunity to affect a major and lasting political re-alignment (the likes of the 1932 election of FDR) if they are willing to play "big ball", and make the security of the United States the central issue of the campaign. If they play "small ball", Bush may still win, but the opportunity for a seismic shift will be missed.

In fact he's even writing a book on the subject called 'When You Win Big They...Wait. We weren't supposed to blog about that were we? Strike that last remark from your records please.

There was a brief question and answer session at the end of Hugh's speech. I was tempted to turn the tables on the veteran talk radio interrogator, and ask Hugh about his reaction to the discovery of the real reason that Chief Wahoo has that goofy smile on his face, but decided that in the interests of decorum it was probably not the most appropriate venue for that particular query.

Due to the bitterly cold conditions, the Hockey Commissar Hugh action figure was not able to attend the event. But he did enjoy the autographed (yes, that is Hugh's scrawl) t-shirt that we picked up at the affair.

Let's hope that Hugh and Duane manage to survive this afternoon's foolhardy snowmobile escapade on Lake Minnetonka, and are able to broadcast tonight's show from the Xcel Energy Center as planned. If not, at least we had last night. Thanks for the memories.