CPAC

Daily Kos Contrasts Old-School GOP With New ‘Bats**t Crazy’ Version
By Tom Johnson | July 26, 2014 | 7:45 AM EDT

Liberals like to opine that righty Republicans of the fairly recent past, such as Barry Goldwater, William F. Buckley Jr., or even Ronald Reagan, were nowhere near as wild-eyed as the Tea Party crowd. In a Tuesday Daily Kos post by the mononymous Hunter, it was Bob Dole (granted, no one’s idea of a movement conservative) who represented the party’s rational “old guard” against the “clearly batshit insane” congressional GOPers.

Hunter’s peg was the possibility of a second Senate vote on the U.N. Convention on the Rights of Persons With Disabilities. Dole visited the Senate chamber earlier this week to rally support for the treaty, which fell short of ratification in 2012 because most Republicans voted against it.

Column: Stormtroopers, a Wookiee, and CPAC
By Cal Thomas | March 12, 2014 | 3:21 PM EDT

OXON HILL, Md. -- The first "people" I recognized on arriving at last week's Conservative Political Action Committee gathering just outside Washington were two "stormtroopers" and a Wookiee from the 1977 film "Star Wars."

Some of the speeches also expressed sentiments from the past, though not as cleverly as those in costume: Obama is a bad president, even a bad man. America looks weak before the world. Government is too big and taxes too high. "The Force" seemed to have left the building, or perhaps it never arrived.

Jimmy Fallon Mocks Sarah Palin For Invoking Dr. Seuss During CPAC Speech
By Jeffrey Meyer | March 12, 2014 | 8:56 AM EDT

Jimmy Fallon is now the newly minted host of NBC’s “The Tonight Show”, replacing long-time host Jay Leno as the network’s newest late night comedian. Unfortunately for Fallon, the NBC host took an unnecessary swipe at former Governor Sarah Palin (R-AK) this week.

During his monologue on Monday March 10, Fallon mocked Palin’s Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) speech, specifically her comparison of Dr. Seuss’ “Green Eggs and Ham” to ObamaCare. During her speech, Palin used Seuss’ poetic language to comment that “I do not like this Uncle Sam, I do not like his health care scam.” [See video below.]

Mike Barnicle Calls Palin a 'Moron'
By Mark Finkelstein | March 10, 2014 | 8:11 AM EDT

Here was the Morning Joe panel bemoaning Ted Cruz's supposed incivility at CPAC in allegedly insulting war hero Bob Dole, when up pops Mike Barnicle to ask "what does it say about CPAC, where the most popular speaker they had, the one who received the most rousing reception is a moron, Sarah Palin?"

A bit later, Mika Brzezinski piled on, calling Palin a "multi-million dollar moron."  When Joe Scarborough challenged her, saying "you don't think that, right?", Mika didn't retract her slur, saying only that Palin is "savvy in selling a message that makes a lot of money." View the video after the jump.
 

Bozell Statement: ACU's Invite to American Atheists Is More Proof CPAC Is Destroying Conservative Movement
By Brent Bozell | February 25, 2014 | 2:35 PM EST

Editor's Note: What follows is a statement released this afternoon by Media Research Center founder and president Brent Bozell, regarding revelations that the American Conservative Union (ACU) invited militant atheist group American Atheists to host a booth in the exhibit hall of the 2014 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC)

The invitation extended by the ACU, Al Cardenas and CPAC to American Atheists to have a booth is more than an attack on conservative principles. It is an attack on God Himself. American Atheists is an organization devoted to the hatred of God. How on earth could CPAC, or the ACU and its board of directors, and Al Cardenas condone such an atrocity? [statement continues after page break]

Daily Kos Week in Review: Into the Wild at CPAC
By Tom Johnson | March 16, 2013 | 6:28 AM EDT

This year, Daily Kos seems to be paying more attention than usual to CPAC, to the extent that the site has sent one of its principal writers, Hunter, to cover the event. His posts so far have combined politics, sociology, and a bit of anthropology, as if he were saying to himself, "Who are these strange creatures called 'conservatives'? To find out, I observed them in their natural habitat."
 
As usual, each headline is preceded by the blogger's name or pseudonym.

WashPost Prints Jen Rubin's Critique of CPAC Rather Than Blog Critical of Obama, Media Over Sequester Hype
By Ken Shepherd | March 4, 2013 | 12:41 PM EST

What's the point of the Washington Post retaining a conservative blogger when the paper's editors will opt to highlight her posts critiquing other conservatives rather than printing ones critical of the president and his lapdog lackeys in the press? Once again the Washington Post's op-ed page editors chose to excerpt a Jennifer Rubin blog post critical of conservatives rather than one tough on Barack Obama and the liberal media.

In her 8-paragraph March 4 item headlined "Talking truth to CPAC" -- condensed from a 14-paragraph blog post by the same title published online on March 3--  Rubin criticized the conservative gathering as "creatures of the 1980s, when our problems, our country and the world were different." "Younger conservatives have to take the movement into their own hands, refurbish it, revitalize it, cast off what is not relevant and persuade others to join the movement," if American political conservatism is to survive, Rubin concluded. Yet an hour earlier on Sunday, Rubin had published to the Post website a 15-paragraph item headlined, "Will anyone police this White House?" wherein the conservative blogger argued that (emphasis mine):

ABC's John Hendren Derides: CPAC Attendees Represent the Right and 'the Far Right'
By Scott Whitlock | February 22, 2010 | 4:29 PM EST

Good Morning America's John Hendren on Saturday fretted that attendees to the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) came "from the right" and "the far right." He allowed that conservative are "on fire" with optimism about the future, but opined that the movement is "fractious."

John Avlon, author of Winguts: How the Lunatic Fringe Is Hijacking America, was featured in a sound bite to deride intolerant conservatives: "Reagan's ideal of the big tent, which invited people in, is now seen as code language for liberal."

On February 19, Avlon appeared on CNN attacked the "saving freedom" agenda of CPAC as "a little extreme" and "a little far out."