Obama and Palin to Appear at Dinner Honoring Confederate General Robert E. Lee?

Update 3: Some great quotes from Alfalfa Club Dinner history:

Sen. David Boren: "(Club) President (Alan) Simpson failed miserably ... to resolve the most pressing issue facing our club. He failed to assuage the powerful forces demanding that we admit women. But tonight I'm here to announce a Bush-type compromise. We will admit women ... posthumously."

Pete Domenici: "My fellow Alfalfans, I have a secret weapon in our upcoming campaign. I'm blessed with the talent of ... whipping the electorate to a frenzy. Just like the singer Tom Jones, women often throw their panties at me when I speak. It happened again just yesterday. I just don't know what got into Senator (Barbara) Mikulski."

Also, I reported earlier that the club began admitting women in 1994. They began admitting black men in 1979. Maybe this is all a sign of how far we've come, I don't know, but it disturbs me that there seems to be an attempt to hide things about the club. In news accounts from prior years, the fact about Lee is offered as a throwaway. Why omit it this year?

Update 2: 3:30pm - Spoke to the White house press office again, they currently have no comment, other than to confirm that the President will be attending the dinner. Also, it turns out that, until 1994, the Alfalfa Club Dinner was, like hair dye for graying beards, Just for Men. That year, Hillary Clinton attended with President Bill Clinton, and the club inducted 3 female members, including Liddy Dole and Sandra Day O'Connor. I also found an old invitaion to the 1961 dinner.

Update: 12:16 pm - I got about 3/4 done with this story before I found out about the Robert E. Lee thing. It bugged me that nobody seemed to know about it. at first, I thought it was some joker screwing with Wikipedia, but I found the reference in that old WaPo article, too. So, I called the White House press office. The spokesman I talked to said it was the first he'd heard of it. I asked if the President was aware that the Alfalfa Dinner was in honor of Robert E. Lee's birthday, and if he had a comment about it. I am awaiting their response.

I guess the Arugula Banquet was already booked? (Sorry.) From Politico:

In what could be a preview of the 2012 presidential race, Sarah Palin and Barack Obama will share a stage together this Saturday night in Washington, D.C., Politico has learned.

The Alaska governor and former GOP vice presidential nominee, making her first trip to the nation's capital since the election, will join the President at the Alfalfa Dinner, a venerable gathering of the city's political elite.

Palin and Obama will both address the black tie crowd at the Capital Hilton, aides to each say.

The event is closed to the press, so we have to hope that one of the old shrivs in the audience knows how to work a cellphone camera.

Palin told reporters yesterday, that she's attending the dinner because of Obama, saying, "How often will I have an opportunity to have dinner with the president?"

True, but is it worth the risk that Obama will run ads against her in 2012, questioning who she pals around with?

Politico describes the dinner as a roast-like affair, something Obama has shown a flair for in the past. Palin, for her part, was excellent in her Saturday Night Live debut.

The Politico article omits a pretty interesting detail. From WaPo:

The Alfalfa Club was founded in 1913 by four Southern gentlemen, apparently for no purpose other than holding an annual dinner on the last Saturday of January (in historical reverence of the Jan. 19 birthday of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee.)

What the...isn't this taking "reach across the aisle" to a ridiculous level? Maybe there's some sarcastic element that I'm missing here. Really? Barack Obama and Sarah Palin are going to speak at a dinner honoring General Lee's birthday? And it's not the one from The Dukes of Hazzard?

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