A thirst for politics

“OBAMA doesn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell,” said Stanley West, among the crowd of left-leaning Angelenos recently assembled over pints of Guinness to debate presidential politics and generally broadside Republicans. The occasion was Drinking Liberally, a loosely knit group offering progressives a casual forum to talk politics while sharing a pitcher.

Relaxing with a beer and a loosened tie at Molly Malone’s, West, an African American himself, said he likes Sen. Barack Obama, one of the Democrats’ leading primary candidates. “It’s just that America won’t elect a black man,” he said to the news junkies across the table at the comfortable neighborhood enclave.

“And why isn’t the media talking about that?” interjected an attorney who declined to give her name. She was about to go to trial in an Enron Corp. case.

Talk of corporate corruption, as well as education, women’s rights and the war in Iraq, is likewise de rigueur for fans of Drinking Liberally, which has 188 chapters in 43 states. The concept was launched in New York in 2003 by Justin Krebs and Matthew O’Neill, social and political organizers who urge responsible alcohol use even while striving to encourage a decidedly blue-state brand of democratic discourse, “one pint at a time.”

After all, its website says: “Drinking and driving is reckless and irresponsible, like a neocon war or corporatist tax cut.”

Vincent Jones, 30, co-hosts Drinking Liberally’s Hollywood chapter at Molly Malone’s, a neon- and shamrock-appointed pub operated by the same Irish family for more than 30 years. Jones, who by day is director of a nonprofit that helps people with HIV, wryly likens the gatherings to gateway drugs. “We’re trying to facilitate greater participation in progressive causes,” he said.

Cerissa Cafasso has no quarrel with Jones’ analogy. The 24-year-old political consultant said she joined the board of the Los Angeles County Young Democrats after meeting the organization’s outreach director at Malone’s.

“Everyone’s so friendly,” said Cafasso, fresh from the gym in shorts and a ponytail. “People here are open and ready to talk politics.”

Matt Renaud, enjoying a Hefeweizen, said he hadn’t passed through the gateway to heavier political involvement. But he said he’s been reading more hard news online and he did join a baseball team, thanks to someone he met at Malone’s. And he also had met a “really cool girl” at the bar, but somehow he didn’t properly program her number into his cellphone. She was nowhere to be seen on this night, but “I was hoping,” Renaud acknowledged.

weekend@latimes.com

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Drinking Liberally

www.drinkingliberally.org

* Molly Malone’s, 575 S. Fairfax Ave., L.A. 7 to 9 p.m. the second Wednesday of every month. (323) 935-1577.

* Madeleine’s Wine Bistro, 1030 E. Green St., Pasadena. 7:30 to 10 p.m. every Tuesday. (626) 440-7087.

* The White Harte Pub, 22456 Ventura Blvd., Woodland Hills. 7 p.m. first and third Thursday of every month. (818) 224-3822.

* The Red Garter, 2536 Lincoln Blvd., Venice. 7 to 9 p.m. the fourth Wednesday of every month. (310) 306-8300.

* The Edison, 108 W. 2nd St., L.A. 6 to 8 p.m. third Wednesday of every month. (213) 613-0000.