Alfalfa Club
Motto	Bis dat, qui cito dat.[1] (He gives twice who gives promptly.)
Formation	1913
Type	Club
Purpose/focus	Hosts annual Alfalfa Dinner on the last Saturday of January
Location	Washington, D.C.
Region served	United States
Membership	~200 politicians and corporate executives

The Alfalfa Club is an Washington, D.C. social organization that exists only to hold an annual banquet on the last Saturday of January.^[2] The club's membership, which numbers about 200, is composed primarily of American politicians and influential members of the United States business community, and has included several Presidents of the United States. The group's name is a reference to the plant's supposed willingness to do anything for a drink.^[2]

The president is usually asked to deliver remarks at the dinner. President George W. Bush spoke at the Alfalfa Dinner each year of his presidency;^[3] the Alfalfa Club was one of only three clubs that his father, George H. W. Bush, was a member of as president.^[4]

[edit] Annual presidential nomination

One of the evening's activities includes the playful nomination of a presidential candidate by the Club's leadership. The candidate is then required to make a speech. Several such candidates went on to hold the actual presidency after being nominated, including Richard Nixon in 1965 (elected in 1968), Ronald Reagan in 1974 (elected in 1980), and George W. Bush in 1998 (elected in 2000).^[1] In 1969, they nominated Harold Stassen.^[5] In 2004, the Club nominated the former president of the Motion Picture Association of America, Jack Valenti. Its 2000 nomination was Australian-born James Wolfensohn, constitutionally ineligible for election to the U.S. presidency.^[1] In 2001, the presidential nomination went to John McCain.

[edit] History

The club was founded in 1913 and its function was to celebrate the birthday of Confederate Civil War General Robert E. Lee; it didn't admit blacks until the 1970s, and women until 1994.^[2] In 2009, President Barack Obama spoke at the club's annual dinner, saying "this dinner began almost one hundred years ago as a way to celebrate the birthday of General Robert E. Lee. If he were here with us tonight, the General would be 202 years old. And very confused."^[6]

In addition to its January dinner in Washington, the club used to have an annual summer picnic.^[7]

In 1986, William H. Rehnquist's membership in the club became the subject of discussion in a Senate Judiciary hearing after Rehnquist was nominated to be Chief Justice. He described the club as one that "met once a year to listen to patriotic music and 'hear some funny political speeches'" and said "he did not think his membership in such a once-a-year group violated the canons of judicial ethics."^[8]

In 1994, the club admitted its first women members—Sandra Day O'Connor, Elizabeth Dole, Katharine Graham (whose father had also been a member^[9])—in response to a 1993 boycott by President Bill Clinton.^[10] Clinton's boycott had been the first by a U.S. president since Jimmy Carter.^[10]

[edit] References