CPAC No-Show
Feb/19/10 12:15 PM
I was indeed a Conservative Political Action Committee (CPAC) no-show today.
Sort of a bummer, given the relatively favorable environment for conservatives looking ahead to the 2010 midterm elections. I’m sure there was even more energy than usual at the annual conference, which was held in an even bigger hotel this year to hold another thousand attendees.
I’ve had a great time at the show each year down here at Georgetown. You get to see great conservative speakers and travel around to different political action booths, all while rubbing shoulders with politicans and other active conservatives. Additionally, they make it really cheap for students to attend ($25 for a weekend pass, compared to hundreds for an adult).
Throughout the day today I checked in on the speeches and anecdotes from the event through Politico. As usual, Mitt Romney’s speech seemed to be well-said and well-received. And I loved current House Minority Leader Jim Boehner’s plans to make Congress more transparent in the case that he becomes House Majority Leader later this year, which would be awesome.
But, I can’t help but shake my head when I see some of these GOP dinosaurs- including Boehner himself- speak about the brewing conservative revolution. Maybe I’m a cynic (actually, there’s no maybe about it) but these are the same exact fools who sat silent while President Bush spent like crazy, while politicians put offensive earmarks in every piece of legislation, and while the Democrats swooped into power in 2006 and 2008.
I don’t think we can see a real change in bringing conservative ideas to the Republican Party, which has yet to prove its loyal conservatism, or to the government until these career politicans step aside and let new blood like Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown enter the ranks. We need officials like Congresswoman Michele Bachmann of Minnesota and former Governor Mitt Romney, who aren’t afraid to speak their minds and won’t sit quietly while the government runs counter to their values- no matter what the MSNBC and CNN pundits say about them. We need new, young leaders who don’t hold their seats for life like Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, Dan Inouye of Hawaii and everyone’s favorite liberal crook, Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts.
When some of today’s career politicans who spoke at CPAC take a step back and let the dozens of exciting conservative up-and-comers take the stage, a true revolution will have indeed begun.
Sort of a bummer, given the relatively favorable environment for conservatives looking ahead to the 2010 midterm elections. I’m sure there was even more energy than usual at the annual conference, which was held in an even bigger hotel this year to hold another thousand attendees.
I’ve had a great time at the show each year down here at Georgetown. You get to see great conservative speakers and travel around to different political action booths, all while rubbing shoulders with politicans and other active conservatives. Additionally, they make it really cheap for students to attend ($25 for a weekend pass, compared to hundreds for an adult).
Throughout the day today I checked in on the speeches and anecdotes from the event through Politico. As usual, Mitt Romney’s speech seemed to be well-said and well-received. And I loved current House Minority Leader Jim Boehner’s plans to make Congress more transparent in the case that he becomes House Majority Leader later this year, which would be awesome.
But, I can’t help but shake my head when I see some of these GOP dinosaurs- including Boehner himself- speak about the brewing conservative revolution. Maybe I’m a cynic (actually, there’s no maybe about it) but these are the same exact fools who sat silent while President Bush spent like crazy, while politicians put offensive earmarks in every piece of legislation, and while the Democrats swooped into power in 2006 and 2008.
I don’t think we can see a real change in bringing conservative ideas to the Republican Party, which has yet to prove its loyal conservatism, or to the government until these career politicans step aside and let new blood like Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown enter the ranks. We need officials like Congresswoman Michele Bachmann of Minnesota and former Governor Mitt Romney, who aren’t afraid to speak their minds and won’t sit quietly while the government runs counter to their values- no matter what the MSNBC and CNN pundits say about them. We need new, young leaders who don’t hold their seats for life like Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, Dan Inouye of Hawaii and everyone’s favorite liberal crook, Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts.When some of today’s career politicans who spoke at CPAC take a step back and let the dozens of exciting conservative up-and-comers take the stage, a true revolution will have indeed begun.
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