Events

Former campaign embeds Scott Conroy and Shushannah Walshe's book on Sarah Palin is out this week, and friends and colleagues feted the CBS reporter and former Fox reporter at last night's DC book signing and party.

Conroy and Walshe signed books and read an excerpt to a crowd at Borders downtown. They also took about 30 minutes of questions from the audience, which will air on C-SPAN's Book TV this weekend.

Earlier yesterday, Conroy visited his old stomping ground at Georgetown University. He had planned to do a book signing, but the campus book store was not selling his book (yet)-- a funny story he shared over drinks last night's book party at Agraria.

Steve Chaggaris, Rob Hendin, Jane Chick, Michelle Levi and Fernando Suarez were there from CBS. Sasha Issenberg, Mike Memoli, Jonathan Martin, Mike Madden, Erin McPike and Peter Hamby were also around to celebrate at Agraria in Georgetown. Attorney Ben Ginsburg, who was national counsel to the Bush-Cheney and Romney campaigns, also attended.

"Sarah From Alaska: The Sudden Rise and Brutal Education of a New Conservative Superstar" is published by Peter Osnos' PublicAffairs. And Chaggy, McPike and Hamby all got shout-outs in the book's acknowledgments after the jump.

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Last night, Washington media foodies joined Jayne Sandman and Barbara Martin on the rooftop of the new W Hotel to sample the W's new "Winter Warm Up" cocktail menu that includes warm and wonderful treats like hot peanut buttered rum, mulled pear cider, and hot "not" chocolate - a killer combo of spiced rum, vanilla and milk topped with chocolate marshmallows.

The crowd ranged from cocktail connoisseurs like Metrocurean's Amanda McClements, Nycci Nellis and WaPo's David Hagedorn to bourgeois binge-drinkers like me.

Caught warming up with some of the W's new cocktail creations were WBJ's Missy Frederick, The Hill's Kate Oczypok, Cap File's Sarah Schaffer, DC Mag's George Stone, Michael Ponticelli and Aram Taghavi of Bisnow, Politico's Kiki Ryan and Amie Parnes, Rebecca Cooper of Dcist.com and Alex Nicholson for BrightestYoungThings.com.

As an added bonus, our own Chris Ariens from TVNewser was in town from New York.

"By the People" may be a documentary on the presidential campaign of Barack Obama, but the real break-out star of last night's HBO premiere is Ronnie Cho.

DC media types like Chris Matthews, Candy Crowley and Richard Wolffe, and Team Obama- David Axelrod, Robert Gibbs, David Plouffe- all make frequent appearances, but Cho, the former campaign staffer turned admin staffer, was filmed working early morning hours in his boxer shorts. Now that is dedication. He tells FBDC, "I did it for him, I did it for America."

The film is by Amy Rice and Alicia Sams and produced in part by actors Edward Norton and Tate Donovan, who were both at last night's DC screening.

"We always hoped to get the opportunity to show it," Norton said in comments after the film aired. "I look around the room and think this is our government now," he said to laughter.

It was standing room only at the Park at Fourteenth-- the White House's Tommy Vietor, Jon Favreau and Obama's Iowa political director Mike Blake were there, as well as NYT's Jeff Zeleny and Chicago Sun-Times Lynn Sweet, who were all featured in the HBO documentary.

"Shower scene is coming up," Vietor joked, maybe one too many times. "That line is getting old" was friends' response.

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You've already heard Rahm Emanuel and David Axelrod were in the audience last night at the Verizon Center...

But did you know there was some DC journo representation on stage with the E Street Band??

Bruce Springsteen welcomed drummer Max Weinberg's daughter Ali Weinberg to the stage on the accordion.

Weinberg works in the DC bureau of NBC News, in the political unit with director and White House correspondent Chuck Todd.

Most Washingtonians and journos use Twitter to stay connected or for a little self-promotion. Deepak Chopra is also an avid Twitter-er, but much different than most of the tweets FBDC follows.

The author and mind-body medicine guru tweets his daily intentions and his hundreds of thousands of followers benefit from messages like this morning's "to transform the world transform yourself."

At a dinner at Teatro Goldoni last night, hosted by Janet Donovan and Christine Warnke, FBDC asked Chopra if there's anyone in DC he's following on Twitter-- for now, just President Obama.

Chopra, accompanied by his wife Rita, signed copies of his book "Reinventing the Body, Resurrecting the Soul: How To Create a New You."

Guests included: Sally Quinn and Ben Bradlee, WaPo's Jonathan Capehart, Washington Life's Vicki Bagley, Democratic strategist Karen Finney, Kevin Chaffee, The Georgetowner's Beth Solomon, Pamela's Punch's Pamela Sorensen, Politico's Kiki Ryan, TWT's Stephanie Green and Liz Glover, US News and World Report's Washington Whispers' Jessica Rettig, the Examiner's Nikki Schwab and the National Endowment of the Arts' Jamie Bennett.

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We're hearing from proud journo parents Sally Quinn and Ben Bradlee that Quinn Bradlee and fiancee Pary Willamson have set a date for their nuptials... October 10, 2010.

Bradlee and Williamson were engaged this May.

Join us for one... or six, we won't judge.

mediabistro.com is throwing a happy hour tomorrow from 6-8pm at the Reserve with a limited open bar and hors d'oeuvres, thanks in part to the well-connected K Street Kate Michael.

You can RSVP here.

Here's an invite I never expected to receive from The Washington Times - it's for a briefing on climate change policy. TWT is hosting the event this week at the Willard Hotel. President Vaclav Klaus of the Czech Republic, Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) and Rep. Doc Hastings (R-Wa.) are all expected to be in attendance for the forum moderated by TWT's Jeff Birnbaum.

Suspicious Package- Tim Burger, Tom Toles, Josh Meyer, Bryan Greene and Christina Sevilla- rocked Halloween Saturday, headlining a party at the Hard Rock Cafe. Check out the pics...

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DC journo band Suspicious Package- Tim Burger, Tom Toles, Josh Meyer, Bryan Greene and Christina Sevilla- will headline the annual Halloween Graveyard Jam at the Hard Rock Cafe this Saturday, October 31st.

They promise it will be "more intense than trick-or-treating, more frightening than any haunted houses and especially more fun than any party around." More dets, including ticket info, here.

And check out Suspicious Package in "Spin" magazine.