The Brooklyn Young Republican Club has Grand Old Party at Downtown Brooklyn Watering Hole for its annual Christmas-Chanukah Party

GOP luminaries Joe Lhota, John Burnett and State Senator Martin Golden lent their flash and dazzle to the BYRC holiday gathering at the Ceol Irish Pub

Earlier today, Glenn Nocera hit an inside the park home run hosting a very festive crowd of young and near-young Republicans at the normal meeting place of the Brooklyn Young Republican Club on Smith Street in Downtown Brooklyn  The right mix of seasonal and political messaging was delivered by Nocera, Joe Lhota and Marty Golden at the opening of festivities. A while later, the Brooklyn BOE Commissioner Simon Shamoun and Frankie Russo of the Brooklyn Tea Party each came in and did their seasonal greetings and exchange of well-wishes. Later still in the waning afternoon, the spirit of fellowship and good cheer overflowed recent intra-party boundaries when a pretty large contingent of the traditionally rival “Official” Brooklyn YRs came by to join in the festivities of their senior or “Original” youngish GOP brethren.

At various times there were knots of Young Republicans of various stripes looking like a joint gathering of the Star Belly and Plain Belly Sneetches at play; with the likes of Jonathan Judge, Russell Gallo, Diane Sepulveda, Gene Berardelli and Glenn Nocera all posing for snapshots by a hand-full of amateur paparazzi. There were even blogsters like myself and Gatemouth on hand to observe the Sadie Hawkins-like celebration of the solstice, where at least for a few moments the roundup of  Republican weird sisters and libertarian odd couples didn’t seem so very odd at all.

On the political front, most in attendance acknowledged the comradeship and apparent unity seemed to work far better than much of this year’s open hostility. However, a post-party rump debate between several late hangers-on showed that a lot of the 2013 Brooklyn GOP history is still too fresh in everybody’s memory or consciousness to be easily forgotten, but the competing sides in the friendly chin-wag seemed gratified  that the mutual grievances could be aired without serious rancor or animus among the participants.