The Brooklyn GOP’s “Holiday Party” is held with minimal rejoicing among the small crowd of almost a hundred of the usual suspects, along with some of the "second string" candidates for mayor

Craig Eaton’s County Organization had its diffidently entitled “Holiday Party” for the winter solstice at a summery sounding  place called “Aqua Blu.”  It’s not accidental that the party took place in that backwater area of Brooklyn, the far end of B’hurst above Kings Highway, because that’s where one of the pitched battles between regular and independent Republicans is expected to be played out in the summer and fall of 2013 

Let’s say this is what a couple of my Baker Street Irregulars had to tell me about the Thursday night event [ yes, a few of you might have thought I was there briefly, but I can neither confirm nor deny that your observations were accurate].

State GOP Chair Ed Cox and a few of the other NYC County Chairs did the obligatory hail and wassail along with Eaton’s few throne folk, as the wee folk and the grown folk wandered to and fro, with ways known to their own folk that the throne folk don't know.  Anyway, Ed Cox was a bit of a hoot trying to do his version of what the simple folk do. Here’s what the State Chairman thought would pass for good cheer, “Even tough the Republican Party lost New York State in the presidential race by a bigger percentage than [fill in almost any item of comparison].... we did hold on to the House of Representatives and control in the New York State Senate. I hope that he didn’t really think that would be a big applause line, because it flopped.

Four of the “current” mayoral candidates did appear: Republicans, John Catsimaditis, Tom Allon and  George McDonald; and Democrat-turned-independent Adolfo Carrion. Those who made brief remarks, to which anybody bothered to listen, have already been forgotten —  not so as to Eaton’s introductory remark that Adolfo Carrion served in the Obama Administration. [Good one, Craig, what part of Republican don’t you get?]

Interestingly, the Lhota/MTA move probably has made the other candidates’ attendance at the Brooklyn GOP winter event anti-climactic, since even Craig Eaton is reported to have said that he might change his support away from Carrion to another candidate if a more appropriate GOP candidate emerges.  Btw, one of  Joe Lhota’s front men, has already given a  heads-up to at least one Brooklyn GOP  “consultant,” seeking info on availability and the likelihood that the rank-and-file would or would not follow their “leadership.”

Also at the “Holiday Party” was a small caucus of Orthodox Jewish and Russian Republicans and guests from the central corridor in Brooklyn that actually did vote overwhelmingly for the Republican Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney. That group included soon-to-be-former State Senator David Storobin, assembly candidate Joseph Hayon and well-known GOP pundit and Orthodox Jewish activist Jacob Kornbluh, who actually arranged for the Kosher food that was served at Aqua Blu. Interestingly, Kornbluh brought along Borough Park Democratic operative Moshe Freidman, who is a key adviser to the  key man behind anything GOP in and around Borough Park, Nachman Caller. One expects that if  Kornbluh and Friedman didn’t talk turkey with Eaton at his Saturnalian Feast, they soon will be “telling” Eaton what he needs to do to get the Orthodox “Romney Vote” into line behind Eaton, his leadership candidates and his initiatives. A clueless Eaton probably thinks that all that is involved in that regard  is a patching up of the rift among the old “Brooklyn GOP Radio” team of Gallo, Berardelli and Kornbluh – dream on Craig like your visions of sugar plums.

Notably absent from the event were Democrats Dov Hikind and Simcha Felder, who had been favored by various factions of the GOP-Conservative Party establishment in 2012. However, their absence could have been expected, since Eaton failed to deliver the Republican line to Hikind after agreeing to deliver it, and Eaton supported David Storobin over Simcha Felder for the 17th SD seat that Felder won handily.

A very interesting pair of unusual suspects turned up at Eaton’s GOP  “Holiday Party,” the young GOP-Conservative  power couple, Peter Cipriano and Karen Fischer, who felt free to waltz in because they remain significant, even key players in the area going forward. Even though there might have been some bad blood there with the GOP Chairman, Peter and Karen have maintained some friendships in high places; and those kinds of friends are making Peter and Karen look like they’ll be the gifts that keep on giving to Craig Eaton. After all, Aqua Blu is in the dynamic duo’s bailiwick and they may have dropped by for a toddy and to serve notice of that fact for all to see. Some of the other guests seemed to be happily surprised that they were there. You see even though it was a GOP County Organization event, there were plenty of independent-thinking  Republicans in attendance.