The Tribune reports that some bar owners are leery of a state law that would require their customers to have their driver's licenses electronically scanned — even if it would lead to the elimination of Utah's despised private club law. The card scans, of course, would allow law enforcement to gather information on everyone who enters a bar.

Club owner Bob Brown told the Trib's Robert Gehrke:

The private club law in Utah is a nuisance. You start invading people's privacy and now you've got real problems.

As Utah wrestles with bringing it's liquor laws "into the 21st Century" — in the words of the Guv — it's worth noting that alcohol as a political lubricant is gaining a new respectability under President Barack Obama, who invited congressional leaders to a cocktail party after passing his stimulus bill.

The cocktail invitation could be a polite gesture—they hosted him Tuesday on the Hill, and he wants to return the favor; or it could be a stratagem—after being with them so much, Obama realizes that everyone could use a good drink. Or it could be a philosophical statement: Sobering times do not necessarily require everyone to be sober.

As a Deseret News colleague pointed out, this probably is not a strategy a lobbyist would want to emulate in Utah.

It's worth noting that the Founding Fathers, who are near deities in some parts of conservative Utah, liked to knock 'em back. The tailgater for the constitutional convention included 54 bottles of Madeira, 60 bottles of claret, 8 bottles of whiskey, 22 bottles of port, 8 bottles of hard cider, 12 beers and seven bowls of spiked punch large enough that "ducks could swim in them."

I'm sure Jefferson, a wine enthusiast, and Franklin, who would have deeply appreciated NFL cheerleaders, could have thrown a hell of a Super Sunday party.