WASHINGTON — …. Saturday night, Palin was whisked into the governors-and-cabinet-members-only section of one of the nation’s capital’s most exclusive parties: the Alfalfa Club dinner. … If a roasting by the most powerful people in America is a sign you’ve made it, then Palin had clearly arrived. Or, at the very least, had been acknowledged as one of the most interesting women in American politics. The outgoing president of the Alfalfa Club, Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, teased Palin in a way allowable only for a fellow veteran of the vice presidential campaign trail. “I was seriously being considered to be McCain’s pick for vice president,” said Lieberman, Al Gore’s 2000 running mate and a former Democrat who campaigned for Sen. John McCain this year. “But then John called me,” Lieberman said. “As he always does, he got right to the point. He said, ‘Joe, I can’t do it. I need more than just a pretty face.’ “ “I was so close. As close as Alaska is to Russia. You could almost say that from my doorstep I could see the Vice President’s mansion,” he said.