"Three dollars for a danish and a cup of coffee?

Apparently there's no such thing as a free breakfast, but everything else seems to be running smoothly with Charlottesville area Democrats' monthly breakfasts that are designed to get party workers out of the polls and into the rolls.

Picking up on an idea that has been a mainstay of Democratic machines in Virginia Beach and elsewhere, about 40 Charlottesville and Albemarle County Democrats met Saturday at the Howard Johnson Motor Lodge to hear a speaker tell Republican jokes and build their party in a informal atmosphere.

"This is a chance for people who might be interested in the Democratic Party to find out what we're about," said Charlottesville Democratic chairman Jennifer J. Brown, who has been helping to coordinate the three-month old program.

"A lot of people don't want to walk in off the streets and volunteer for a campaign, and with this, they can join us and hear a good speaker," she said.

Saturday's speaker was H. Lane Kneedler, who as chief deputy attorney general is the No. 2 person in the state Attorney General's office. Kneedler, an associate dean at the University of Virginia law school, told the crowd that the hot topic of President Reagan's judicial nominations actually is a warned-over subject.

Researchers have found "Reagan's nominations are not so much of a revolution as a continuation of a pattern begun by Presidents Nixon and Ford and interrupted only by Jimmy Carter," he said.

Federal judges appointed in Reagan's administration have received lower American Bar Association ranking in qualifications than Carter-term judges, Kneedler said.

Kneedler noted that Reagan appointed no members of a minority race to the federal appellate bench in his first years in office, and the president's judges have been essentially as conservative as Nixon's or Ford's.

Nonetheless, he said the Reagan appointees might have a greater impact than many other judges because the administration has tended to favor appointing relatively young conservatives for the lifetime jobs, such as Kneedler's former UVa colleague Antonin Scalia for a U.S. Supreme Court vacancy.

Kneedler noted that many commentators have predicted that Scalia might be a powerful force for conservatism on the bench, but he also said he might become the high bench's new consensus maker.

"I'd bet my bottom dollar that he's going to be effective whichever way he goes. He's a real consensus builder whereas (Chief Justice-designate) William Rehnquist has not shown many indications of doing that. "

Ms. Brown said Kneedler was valuable in getting discussion going among prominent area Democrats Saturday, such as Sen. Thomas J. Michie Jr. and Delegate Mitchell Van Yahres, and presenting an attraction for people uncertain whether to attend the breakfasts.

"We want to get a different speaker each month and at the same time just let people mix freely," she said. Area Democrats should note that they can attend for free if they decide to bypass the danish, she noted.

Thomas Vandever, a former city Democratic chairman, said the breakfasts are adding a bit of camaraderie for party workers who have gone through six campaigns in about 2 1/2 years. "We've been getting different people each time, which is good," he said. "We don't want it to be like a committee meeting, so I'm not sure we want 75 or 100 people for this."

Vandever noted the moderate-sized crowd allows the audience to be relatively free-wheeling and even disorderly, which is no surprise for Democrats.

For instance, George H. Gilliam, a well-connected Charlottesville lawyer whose Tuckahoe Farm residence has become regional headquarters for Democratic fund-raisers, announced another gathering on Sept. 11 for state Sen. Robert C. Scott, a Newport News Democrat who is challenging GOP congressman Herbert Bateman of the Tidewater 1st District.

Gilliam ticked off a list of sponsors for the event that seemed to go on forever.

"The orange juice, George. Is that a sponsor?" one called out. "Is there anybody here who is not a sponsor?" he responded." (Steven Johnson, The Daily Progress, August ?? 1986)