Here are the Newtbots, evangelizing on behalf of the former Speaker’s talk at the end of the conference.
I like the color choice: red.
Archive for the 'Misc. CPAC' Category
One of the first things you’ll run into is the Condi ‘08 booth.
I’m not sure it’s fair to say, however, that she’s THE black Republican. There are others.
And now for some photoblogging.
Here’s a little tour of the convention floor, the entrance to which is pictured above.
Welcome Instapundit readers…
Will be blogging some more momentarily. Right now, I have to do a little thing I like to call "reporting." (Imagine George W. saying it… "reportin’.")
It’s for my forthcoming book: "The Elephant in the Room: Libertarians, the Christian Right and the Looming Battle for the Soul of the Republican Party."
It’s about the future of the Republican Party (will it continue to abandon its commitment to limited government, and what will it mean if it does) and is due out in September from Wiley publishing.
Sign up for a notice when the book hits stores by mailing me here.
Rep. J.D. Hayworth (R-Ariz.) said the model for America’s border fence should be fence/wall between Israel and the Palestinian territories.
He also called illegal immigration a form of terrorism.
My thoughts: The anti-immigration folks want to peg their agenda to the War on Terror, but it’s worth remembering — as always — that a lot of people had agendas pre-9/11, and a lot of them think 9/11 is a great new way to package their cause. It doesn’t mean that any of their original motives have changed. And those listening to them should keep that in mind.
The real immigration action started off with Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.).
Above is a picture of the scattered standing ovation he received when he took the podium (I’d say about 5 percent stood, the rest applauded happily, but not wildly).
The content of the speech was nothing too surprising:
* End birthright citizenship
* Build a wall
“Open borders are wrong," Tancredo said. “No matter how good they are for the restaurant industry.”
Yes, God forbid the restaurant industry, the construction industry, fruit growers or any other industry do well.
So, here’s the rub with all the people who think that immigration is going to be the defining issue within the Republican Party for years to come. They’re wrong — and not just because their policies are based on economic ignorance and not-so-subtle racism.
Why? Because the modern Republican Party doesn’t work without a decent segment of the Hispanic vote. The party George W. Bush has built will lose if it morphs (back) into the old Republican Party that wants to keep brown people out.
The numbers don’t work. (And, well, the economy would fall apart if any of the anti-immigration folks got their way … but that’s another set of numbers.)
“It is the president who is out of step with his party, not Tom Tancredo," says Tancredo. That may be true with a certain segment of the GOP base. But presidents win in the center to the extent they restrain the ugliest impulses of their bases. Bush may be out of step with some conservative activists, but he’s in step with the American people.
As for things Tancredo said that I agreed with…
He did have some nice stuff to say about how George W. Bush has corrupted the Republican Party.
“We are not the party of bigger government," he said. And he said the GOP should admit its mistakes by repealing the Medicare prescription-drug bill and No Child Left Behind.
He’s right about all that, of course. But that’s the problem with expanding government. Once it’s done, it’s done. Neither of those programs can ever be repealed now (though NCLB could be reformed into somewhat decent shape, if you brought back the voucher provisions that were stripped out immediately when Congress took it up in 2001).
Oddest moment: "God bless Denmark," Tancredo declared, as an aside. There was some enthusiastic spontaneous applause … though not as much as for ending birthright citizenship.
Next up was former Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore.
He talked a little bit about immigration, but also focused a bit on the drift in the Republican Party.
“Some Republicans believe in tax and spend as well, he said. He took particular aim at Virginia Republicans, who, despite controlling both houses of the state legislature, haven’t cut taxes enough (according to Gilmore, I don’t know a whole hell of a lot about internal [domestic?] Virginia politics).
Oddest moment: a spontaneous burst of applause when Gilmore blamed the Katrina mess on local authorities.
Today’s GOP: In charge of everything, but still happy when it can find someone else to blame.
So, George Will kicked things off this morning — first speech of CPAC 2006.
Went over his view of Iraq as a huge mistake. Neocons, he says, never ask: "But then what?"
His conclusion about Iraq: “We have to win in Iraq, and I think we will.”
But…
“It will not be pretty getting there, and what we leave behind will not be pretty.”
Radley Balko, over at Tech Central Station, says his experience at CPAC was a little different than mine.
Read his column and ponder, as I did: Is the entire difference in our perspectives explained by what expectations we went in with?
If Bryan Preston over at JunkYardBlog wants to accuse me of “mischaracterizing” what I saw at CPAC, he might want to make an actual claim as opposed to just asserting it.
He says he was standing right next to me “during one of the pivotal moments” I described (I think that moment being when Tamar Jacoby was booed for defending Bush’s guest-worker program). I know I was in the Bloggers’ Corner watching on closed circuit TV. If Preston saw or heard something different — well, that would just be fascinating.
But since Preston doesn’t even claim that anything happened any differently than I reported, I think he might just want to stick to the facts.
Disagree away. But stick with the facts.
And here’s one about CPAC, where I just spent Thursday through Saturday. Suffice it to say, I was less than impressed with much of what went on:
Welcome to the furthest right reaches of the right: the Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC for short. Here, evolution is a wild hypothesis, “Log Cabin Republican” is a slur and young women know they have to wear short skirts to get ahead.
…
Needless to say, triumphalism permeated the proceedings. The Republicans, having just held the presidency and consolidated power in Congress, are perhaps entitled to some gloating. But out-and-out arrogance was the order of the conference, as well, and that is what threatens to undo Republican gains in the long term.
Arrogance toward Democrats isn’t the problem — though that was everywhere, from Ann Coulter’s conservative stand-up routine (kind of a Republican version of “You might be a redneck if…” delivered to wildly cheering fans) to the popular t-shirt slogan, “What blue states? I only see red?”
No, the arrogance that will prove problematic, ultimately, was that directed at the libertarian-leaning conservatives by the social conservatives. The message in that regard was clear: We Christians can do this alone, y’all who ain’t down with J.C. best be running along.
Anecdotes and analysis after the jump.
Back home from CPAC. I’ll probably post a gallery of photos from CPAC later this week, when I have the time.
Also, I should have a column coming out in TCS shortly on my impressions of the event generally.
I’ll take this chance to say thank you to Tech Central Station, which hosted CPAC’s Bloggers’ Corner and which sponsored me in particular down to D.C. to cover the little conservative monkeys in their little conservative monkey suits.
Winter breakdown…
…believe you would betray our readers like that, Stephen. This is Miscellaneous fucking Objections. The in-flight blog of Marine One.
My apologies to M.O.’s readers. Stephen will never be heard from again. At least until the movie comes out.
…going anywhere with you.
…drive me to the airport? I’m scared what will happen if I’m alone. You don’t have to talk to me if you don’t want to.
…but you still have to leave.
…Ryan. I’m not a criminal, Ryan.
…the fuck is Chuck?
…a criminal, Chuck!
…leave everything right where it is, Stephen, and back away from the laptop.
…go back and erase all of my posts?
…you have to leave.
I’m increasingly beginning to think I may have been duped by my sources.
…I don’t respond to “are you mad at me?”
…mad at me?
Stephen, there are major inconsistencies throughout your story, which I find very troubling. First of all, Trent Lott and Alan Keyes didn’t speak at CPAC this year — thus, it’s extremely unlikely anyone ditched their speeches.
Furthermore, Adam Penenberg from Forbes Digital informs me there’s no such company as Jukt Micronics.
Wizbang has another clue in the Ann Coulter-Matt Drudge mystery that I was covering yesterday.
Do I hear wedding bells?
Just listened to a debate on gay marriage. Well, not so much a debate as two people on opposite sides giving three-minute speeches.
A lot of the kids are gone now. Mostly the adult activists here now. They REALLY don’t like gays.
Patrick Guerriero of the Log Cabin Republicans didn’t get a lot of applause. But a smattering of us clapped hard.
I’m getting so, so, so fucking tired of hearing the phrase “homosexual lobby.” There is a side of the conservative movement that I hate profoundly.
Recent Comments