Step right up, boys and girls, and see the clown show Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), which is going on right now in Washington, DC.
And what a show it is! For example, yesterday Richard Viguerie called on conservatives to stop giving money to GOP fundraising committees. Why? “because they spend our money in primaries to defeat conservatives.” He also wants conservatives to withhold support from “all of the top tier 2008 Presidential wannabees” and stop supporting Republican elected officials, except for the rare few who are real conservatives.
The objective is to return America to real conservative governance. “It may take 6-10 years for conservatives to be able to govern America,” he said. “We have to build a whole new conservative movement, independent of the two major parties.”
But, of course, conservatives have to win over others if their dream is to be fulfilled.
And all the Americans in the “sensible center†who know deep-down that conservatives really are “right:†We’re right on illegal immigration, right on taxes, right on health care, right on the economy, right on terrorism – and right for America.
Are we having fun yet?
See, the problem is that the Far Right is feeling left out. Julie Mason reports for the Houston Chronicle:
Leading American conservatives are fed up with President Bush and the Republican establishment, and they don’t give a toss for the party’s 2008 presidential front-runners, either.
At this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference, the annual, three-day gathering of the far right and its leaders, the mood is feisty and disgusted — but not just at Hillary Clinton, this time.ight is feeling left out. …
… For a party that grew and achieved in large part by force of its unity, this rift between conservatives and the Republican power structure is profound. It could be either the ruin of the GOP or the re-making of it.
“We don’t want to be the Republican Party, we want to be the conservative movement,” said Phyllis Schlafly, legendary doyenne of the right. “We cannot afford to be ‘Bush Republicans.’ ”
With her trademark shiny gold eagle pin perched on her shoulder, Schlafly criticized Bush over the Harriet Miers Supreme Court nomination — the right questioned her conservative qualifications — and his handling of immigration issues.
“We cannot afford to let Mexico turn us into a two-language nation,” she said, as her audience roared approval and banged on tables in support.
Apparently John McCain wrote the CPAC crowd off as well; he chose not to attend.
Rosa Brooks of the Los Angeles Times checks out the sideshow:
Remember Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, the right-wing goon squad whose defamatory insinuations helped sink John Kerry’s presidential campaign? They’re back! This afternoon, key Swift boaters George “Bud” Day, Mary Jane McManus and Carlton Sherwood are holding a little reunion, in the guise of a panel discussion at the American Conservative Union’s annual Conservative Political Action Conference. The panel topic? “The Left’s Repeated Campaign Against the American Soldier.”
Wait; it gets better.
Of course, the Swifties’ presence on the agenda is hardly the only evidence that the lunatics have taken over the asylum at CPAC. Other giveaways include some unintentionally humorous agenda items: Oliver North — he of the Iran-Contra scandal — will be presenting the “Defender of the Constitution Award,” for instance, while right-wing attack blogger Michelle Malkin, whose work has been repeatedly criticized for its cavalier attitude toward facts, gets the “Accuracy in Media Award.”
You can’t make this shit up.
Update: The circus continues — Bill Scher of Liberal Oasis is blogging CPAC and brings us this little gem:
At an afternoon panel on taxes, Scott Hodge of the Tax Foundation, lamented that despite six years of tax cuts mainly for the wealthiest, we haven’t completely destroyed our progressive tax system.
After a slide presentation described how the wealthy contribute more in taxes and the poor receive more in benefits, Hodge declared, “the rich are getting screwed.”
Now there’s the message that will bring back conservatism.
They didn’t object to being George Bush Republics when his favorable ratings were in the 60s. Now, with the approval ratings checking out territory in the 20s, now they figure out that the Smirk isn’t really a true conservative. Better late than never, I guess. But I wish these people would stop breeding and voting?
Gotta love it. The rich are getting screwed. The Left campaigns against the American soldier. Kevin Costner said it best: “We’re through the looking glass here, people.” Let the delusional idiots stay there, devouring one another, in Wonderland. We’ll clean up the mess they made on this side of the mirror.
Gotta love it is right. It’s a simple case of you can’t get there from here.
A big thumbs up for Michelle..I had to suppress my envy as one who has struggled a lifetime to overcome reality when it appears to come so effortlessly to others. But I know Michelle worked hard to attain the honor. I’ll be gracious enough to acknowledge her achievement.
First, I have to say that the lower clown image looks like boy george..
Being a conservative must be a very hard thing right now.It seems to me that conservatism(is that a word?) is going thru a identity crisis.That nutjob phillis did make one valid point, in that she can see gw bush is NOT a conservative and that conservatives made a huge mistake in trusting him.Then she jumps right back into mixed nut land.
I would love to see the GOP split into nutty little fringe group pieces.Gw has worked very hard to make that happen these past 6 years(geez..7 years now I guess).True conservatives and nutty ones alike are waking up and realizing they got screwed by george, just like the rest of us.Their goal may have been to divide the nation but in the process they have divided themselves.
All that said, the content of the above piece makes the reality based mind wobble.No wonder so many righties are pill poppin fools like rush…it would take a whole lotta drugs before anything they say makes sense.
Justme — The clown in the photograph was named Pilar Morin (I believe this is a girl clown), and the photo was taken ca. 1895.
Man, you made my day, laughed ’till I cried.
It was only a matter of time, you can’t put country club republicans in the same boat with trailer park republicans (with a sprinkling of end-o’-time hyper religious nut-balls) and not expect a mutiny .
The clown images set the piece off perfectly!
Indeed, you can’t make this shit up……
I’m reminded of the phrase “Insane Clown Posse”.
If the Estate Tax gets eliminated, the beneficiaries, 1% of the population, will be $30 billion richer. In the same year, if it happens, education will receive $10 billion in fed funds. Assuming the rich send their offspring to private schools, the population ‘benefitting’ from that fed ‘give-away’ are the rest of us. Who’s getting screwed?
I know. The rich are pissed because there are those poor who don’t pay any taxes and they get to send their kids to school, have paved roads in front of their houses and call the fire department when their kid falls down a well – all at the expense of the rich.
Right Felicity.
In Florida, our college fund and scholarship program is in trouble.
All while there is talk of eliminating property taxes, substituting an increase of sales tax. Something be very wrong…..
Oh Maha, that should be the “Not-So-Swift” Boat Veterans.
OMG….ann coulter has hit a new low during her “speech” to CPAC… where she called Edwards …well I won’t repeat the word…I find words like the f word (no I don’t mean the one cheney likes) and the c word to be going to far because they are used to degrade another human,I will (do) swear like a sailor but I don’t use such language to describe another person. You can read the comments yourself at raw story…she is one sick puppy( no offense to puppies)
One has to wonder what the folks like phillis and cheney think of comments like anns if I had a gay son or daughter I would not like it at all…How can they love their own kids and then clap when someone uses such language?
P.S Maha,, the clown grapics are both outstanding.
Norquist, Wills, – the lot should be on evening news every night so the public can see who and what are running the country.
Oh my gosh!
“We have to build a whole new conservative movement, independent of the two major parties.â€
Please, please, please let it happen. Then let the Democrats return to their ‘support of the little guy’ historical background. Maybe we’ll actually get our new FDR. That would be terrific.
I do actually agree with them on three issues however.
1. ILLEGAL immigration is illegal (what part of illegal do people not understand?). Why can’t we have the modern equivalent of Ellis Island all along the border and just process them in and weed out the undesirables? Undesirables being felons and those deadly communicable diseases that need to be treated. We could have them treated, get them well, then let them in.
2. Anti-NAU (North American Union)
3. Official language – English
sorry, “those with deadly…”
Vice president Cheney in his speech before the Conservative Political Action Congress said: “In these circumstances it’s worth reminding ourselves that, like it or not, the enemy we face in the war on terror has made Iraq the primary front in that war. To use a popular phrase, this is an inconvenient truth.†My recollection is that one of the reasons we were in Iraq was so that we could fight them over there and not over here. So rather than the enemy making Iraq the primary war front, that was Cheney’s (and Bush’s) goal from that start. That is the inconvenient truth.
Speaking of you can’t make this shit up, Max Blumenthal has an article up on Raw Story yesterday about Tony Snow’s speech at the CPAC where he states “We didn’t create the war in Iraq, We didn’t create the war on terrorâ€. History is been rewritten as we speak. Speaking of scary check out “Regime Change Is the Reason, Disarmament the Excuseâ€, an interview with Scott Ritter for his take on the increasing likelihood of war with Iran and the terrible consequences that would result.
http://www.antiwar.com/orig/horton.php?articleid=10595
Republicans moan and Republicans bitch
“Our rich are too poor, and our poor are too rich.”
Same as it ever was …
Witnessed some of yesterday’s freak show via C-SPAN yesterday: behind the ritual conservative recitations and the holy unctions, i heard some real desperation and delusion. CPAC is drawing off from the Republican party and wandering back into the desert for another 40 years, following the lead of Norquist and Coultier– too bad, so sad.
Watch out, folks. Yes, they’re crazy. Yes, they’re doomed. But no, they aren’t stopped, not yet.
They’re crazy alright,
If I had more time, I’d rearrange the words to Rick Jame’s “Super Freak” as an ode to Ann Coulter.She’s such a super freak, she’s super freaky!(but she ain’t right!)
First, let me say that there are two Republican Parties and there always have been. One Republican Party is a very small, extremely wealthy, immoral group of people who run it.
Then there is the Republican Party that some of my realtives and friends belonged to: Well-meaning people who believed that the Republican Party represented conservative values, because they were told so by the leaders of the Republican Party, the wealthy ones.
The primary belief of the First Republican Party is that the United States should be a shared, rotating dictatorship among the wealth, with “favors” dispersed to those wimps who will serve them.
During the Dubya Administration, they tried to codify that Dictatorship of the Wealthy. When everything didn’t go their way, they accuse their opponents of being TRAITORS.
Therefore, we cmust deduct that the First Republican Party has become the American Nazi Party.
Help spread this information.
Thank you.