...as SWWBO and I made our way to Berkeley-on-the-Kaw, Lawrence, Kansas. Home of Kansas University (the only reliably Blue county in Kansas of late, though that's changing - as in "the only" not it's blueness) and the Dole Institute of Politics, our destination for the evening's festivities.

We were there as invited guests for a pre-event dinner since we're what passes for "prominent Kansas bloggers" that Dave Perlmutter, the event organizer knew via our email conversations.

SWWBO has a great post detailing the luminaries we had dinner with. It was a very nice dinner, dessert to die for, and the company was excellent.

David Perlmutter was our host and the event organizer - seen here doing introductions and standing behind Pat Hynes of Ankle Biting Pundits.

The whole event was civil - proving that Lefty and Righty polibloggers *can* coexist - even if perhaps only briefly and with lots of cameras present... such a McJoan of Daily Kos and Erick of RedState seen here.

And the left side of the 'sphere found time to do a little bill-paying, as well, as Jerome Armstrong of MyDD did some selling and signing...

So who's missing? Scott Johnson of Powerline. We don't have one.good.pic of Scott. For which we apologize.

It was, all in all, a genteel event, which I sloppily liveblogged below. Better - the video of the entire event is online at the Dole Center - just click this link if you don't want to wait for CSPAN to air it.

People expecting to see bloggers, red in tooth and claw will be disappointed. Not only did David manage it better than that - you can't help but expect that in the back of the minds of the panel were the little Amanda Marcotte Lights - the panelists, many of them, make a living as political consultants - and public, recorded, on-stage brawling is not a way to keep your resume clean... and that sort of thing is one of the topics much discussed - how the Internet and associated technologies has made it impossible to maintain a persona for every occasion - you've got to be yourself - and keep in mind just who do you really want to be, especially as a public figure.

SWWBO and I had a great time, the staff that Bill Lacy directs are wonderful people, and Lawrence Bush, harried Event Manager did an *excellent* job.

We hope we behaved well enough to be invited back. That was great fun. Especially when some big bloggers came up to me and said "I love Castle Argghhh!" without me pimping for the ego-boost!

For the history geek - the guided mini-tour we got of the Dole Archives, looking at all the mundania of Bob Dole's political life was just too kewl for words.