CPAC

Every year a large group of conservatives gather in Washington DC at a convention called CPAC. I used to attend these meetings in college and they are great fun. The conference usually draws the top Republican leaders in the country to give speeches and hold receptions. I have several great memories of CPAC but two stand out in particular.

My friends and I were on our way up to the hotel suite for Congressman Dornan's reception and we ended up sharing the elevator with Frank Gifford. At this time, Gifford was still on Monday night Football and still married to Kathy Lee. The only problem was he was with another woman which made us all a little uncomfortable. My friend CJ tried to make chit chat with him by talking about the Chargers but you could tell he wasn't interested in us.

My other memory involves CJ as well as he and I were running late for the keynote breakfast. I think Alan Keyes was the speaker. When we got there the whole room was full except for two seats near the front. So he and I head up there and sit down. Well up comes Tim Russert and Ted Koppel and apparently we had taken their seats. It was a little embarrassing to retreat to the back of the room in front of the entire crowd but to their credit both Tim and Ted were very nice about it.

Anyways this year's CPAC just finished and it was interesting to watch as most of the leading candidates for President attended. The conservatives are without a clear choice in the contest and this meeting was a good place for lower tier candidate to make up ground. What I noticed however, was that none of them took advantage of the opportunity. Instead the event was dominated by the big three including Romney, Giuliani and McCain. Romney did what he had to do as he won the straw poll. But he spent a lot of time and money on staff and volunteers to win that poll and he only barely beat out Giuliani. And for the record, the CPAC poll is not the best barometer of success as last year's winner was Sen. George "beaten incumbent" Allen.

Giuliani did okay as he stayed away from the topics that conservative oppose him on. He instead focused on the war and on school choice. That was smart but at some point, conservatives are going to want to know why he disagrees with them on abortion and gay marriage. Does he have contempt for people who are pro life and anti gay marriage or will he respect that opinion? We are still waiting to find out. But he finished second in the poll and got out of the conference without having to pander to the right and I think that's a good weekend for him.

McCain was the other story even though he didn't even show up to the event. The more I get to know McCain the more I don't like him. He turned down an invitation to speak but then went behind the back of the conference to try and schedule a private reception to woo conference participants. Basically he didn't want to be seen in public with conservatives but still wants their support. That is stupid politics for a Republican. Conservatives already feel disrespected by him and this just added fuel to the fire. Even though McCain has a huge institutional advantage, the end is very near for McCain.

But real loser over the weekend was Ann Coulter. She called Sen. Edwards a faggot and tried to pass it off as being a joke. I used to read her column and her books but frankly she doesn't really add anything to the political debate other than name calling and ridicule. I think she just uses the free publicity to advance her cause of selling more books and could care less what she does to the reputation of conservatives. CPAC should not invite her back next year and conservatives should boycott her books until she gets the hint that her actions are more trouble than what she's worth.