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Barack Obama joined a cadre of conservative commentators for a meal of lamb chops at the Chevy Chase, MD home of George F. Will. Also in attendance were David Brooks, Charles Krauthammer, Peggy Noonan and William Kristol.

I’m sure that some other industrious little blogger out there came up with the above headline to describe Barack Obama’s dinner last night with conservative pundits, but surprisingly none of the big boys did. Here’s what they were talking about:

Chicago Sun-Times Washington Columnist Lynn Sweet offered an early blow-by-blow stakeout of the event, having done everything but wiretap George Will’s house: 

“The PEOTUS departed Hay-Adams at 6:17 p.m. and at arrived at 6:34 p.m. at No. 9 
Grafton St., Chevy Chase (right off the circle). Thanks to the good work of Hans 
Nichols (of Bloomberg and “Daily Show” fame), Montgomery County property tax 
records showed this is the home of conservative columnist George Will (valued at 
$1.9 million, according to the 2008 levy).

We’re still awaiting confirmation that this is indeed Will’s house from the 
transition, but your pool is satisfied with the documentation.

Your pool has been told it’s a dinner party.

And, thanks to an enterprising photographer, a shot through a window showed 
op-ed stalwarts William Kristol and David Brooks are also part of this unlikely 
gathering of tight, right suits.”

Dinner guest Larry Ludlow offered a partial account of his meeting with the President-Elect:

Courtesy of Salon.com

HuffPo commented on speculation that Rush “bombastic-even-for-a-conservative-radio-host” Limbaugh was secretly in attendance. 

Alas, a source close to the transition confirms, Limbaugh was definitely not in attendance during the dinner affair — likely disappointing some in the conservative blogosphere, knowing full well the fury that would have caused among progressives.”

Jonathan Martin of Politico says the meeting was conducted strictly off-the-record:

“The right-leaning attendees were largely mum over what was discussed over the lamb chops at Will’s table, pledging fealty to off-the-record ground rules and hoping that the Democrat may again extend an olive branch if he knows his company can keep confidence. They were Obama’s ground rules, but Will swore his guests to secrecy. 

“You can’t have these kinds of meetings if everybody reports on them,” said one attendee, who suggested that President Bush may have received more sympathy had he held similar session with liberal writers.”

The New Republic’s Jonathan Chait–with not a little smugness–suggested that liberals aren’t worried about the meeting because they know Obama is immune to influence from the right:

“They know that Obama understands far more about policy than any of his right-wing dinner companions, is used to being exposed to opposing ideas, and won’t come out of that dinner telling his staff, “Hey, did you know we cut half the capital gains tax and raise more revenue?”

A separate issue is why Obama didn’t pick some conservatives with a bit more intellectual integrity than, say, Kristol and Krauthammer. The problem, of course, is conservatives like that tend not to rise to positions of high influence.”