CPAC Day Two, Part Three: You Can’t Always Get What You Want
|
|
| Also listed in: Campus Progress Blog | Undercover at CPAC 2006 |
Don't feel like reading the entire recap? Check out my CPAC 2006 Day Two Quick Facts:
I'm sad to say that I heard no Reagan quotes today, so I invoked my constitutional option and got rid of it.
Official Swagventory Day Two:
11 Buttons
10 Misc. pieces of info
9 Bumper Stickers
8 Kisses (Of the Hershey's variety, so to my girlfriend: if you're reading this, don't worry)
3 Balloons
3 Books
3 Mouse pads
2 Key chains
2 Magazines
1 Audio CD
1 Calendar
1 Flyer
1 Giant binder o' info
1 Pennant
1 Pink "How big is your government?" ruler
1 Tote bag
Oddest Piece of Swag: The "I Like Rice" button the Condi in '08 people were pushing. I might wear it (not because I support Condi in any way, shape, or form) but because I actually do like rice--Spanish, white, wild--rice of any kind. It's delicious.
Best Speaking Event: It's relative. For sheer entertainment value, the Drug War debate is the clear winner. Ann Coulter was also extremely entertaining, but in a depressing, eye-rolling kind of way.
Conservative Craziness Meter:
|--------------------|--|
0 10 11
11. I predicted a 30% chance of severe craziness yesterday, and wasn't disappointed. The crazies at the drug war debate, the abortion date, and Kooky Ann Coulter pushed this right up to 11.
Today was much more entertaining than yesterday, but my schedule was much more strained. There were several interesting speaking events today so I didn't have much time to walk around and mooch off of the booths set up in the exhibit room, but it was all good because I got to hear and bring to you all a lot more substantive stuff to read about. It's not all ostrich suits and ACLU devils, folks.
After the drug war debate, there was a panel on abortion, which I fully expected to be more incendiary than the out of control debate on drugs. But, being a conservative convention, everyone generally agreed. There were no panelists there to argue pro-choice, but rather three different panelists supporting abortion in different ways.
The first two panelists (Jan LaRue and Sen. John Barrasso) talked mostly about medical topics relating to abortion, while the third's (Ramesh Ponnuru) speech was basically yet another indictment of the "mainstream media" (read: Liberal media). Though I support pro-choice, the arguments made by the panelists were calm and rational.
The only moment that made me furrow my brow was during the Q and A session when one attendant asked about cases of rape and how the panel thought abortion policy should be defined when rape occurred. Mrs. LaRue responded "My belief is you don't solve an act of violence with another act of violence." Which I guess makes sense, unless you're talking about a war, right conservatives?
Later, after Ann Coulter, Sen. Majority Leader Bill Frist spoke to close out the conference for the day. I want to touch on some important things he talked about: First, he talked about Roberts and Alito, which wasn't surprising. The odd thing is that he then up-talked how important the Republican contribution was to a conservative judiciary. I thought Republicans were selecting Alito based on his credentials?
Frist also commented that "Democrats oppose judicial nominees who don't have a liberal activist agenda." Which is so untrue it's laughable--in fact, Democrats oppose judicial nominees who are not ubër-conservative--which is exactly what they should do.
Frist went on to flaunt and advertise the fact that he would be bringing a Marriage protection amendment to the senate on June 5th, telling conservative attendees to "mark their calendars." Anyone who opposes such an amendment, take note: things will soon be heating up.
I wrote up a separate piece on the Coulter event, because it was too much for a passing sentence or two. Be sure to check it out, as well as Conventionette's post on today's events. Also, I'm batting around the idea of transcribing the Coulter speech and putting it up, because it was in all honesty pretty bad--it all depends on the quality of the tape and the popular support for it. Lastly, I just want to say that I hope you're all enjoying reading these posts as much as I am being here and writing them.
More to come…
I'm sad to say that I heard no Reagan quotes today, so I invoked my constitutional option and got rid of it.
Official Swagventory Day Two:
11 Buttons
10 Misc. pieces of info
9 Bumper Stickers
8 Kisses (Of the Hershey's variety, so to my girlfriend: if you're reading this, don't worry)
3 Balloons
3 Books
3 Mouse pads
2 Key chains
2 Magazines
1 Audio CD
1 Calendar
1 Flyer
1 Giant binder o' info
1 Pennant
1 Pink "How big is your government?" ruler
1 Tote bag
Oddest Piece of Swag: The "I Like Rice" button the Condi in '08 people were pushing. I might wear it (not because I support Condi in any way, shape, or form) but because I actually do like rice--Spanish, white, wild--rice of any kind. It's delicious.
Best Speaking Event: It's relative. For sheer entertainment value, the Drug War debate is the clear winner. Ann Coulter was also extremely entertaining, but in a depressing, eye-rolling kind of way.
Conservative Craziness Meter:
|--------------------|--|
0 10 11
11. I predicted a 30% chance of severe craziness yesterday, and wasn't disappointed. The crazies at the drug war debate, the abortion date, and Kooky Ann Coulter pushed this right up to 11.
Today was much more entertaining than yesterday, but my schedule was much more strained. There were several interesting speaking events today so I didn't have much time to walk around and mooch off of the booths set up in the exhibit room, but it was all good because I got to hear and bring to you all a lot more substantive stuff to read about. It's not all ostrich suits and ACLU devils, folks.
After the drug war debate, there was a panel on abortion, which I fully expected to be more incendiary than the out of control debate on drugs. But, being a conservative convention, everyone generally agreed. There were no panelists there to argue pro-choice, but rather three different panelists supporting abortion in different ways.
The first two panelists (Jan LaRue and Sen. John Barrasso) talked mostly about medical topics relating to abortion, while the third's (Ramesh Ponnuru) speech was basically yet another indictment of the "mainstream media" (read: Liberal media). Though I support pro-choice, the arguments made by the panelists were calm and rational.
The only moment that made me furrow my brow was during the Q and A session when one attendant asked about cases of rape and how the panel thought abortion policy should be defined when rape occurred. Mrs. LaRue responded "My belief is you don't solve an act of violence with another act of violence." Which I guess makes sense, unless you're talking about a war, right conservatives?
Later, after Ann Coulter, Sen. Majority Leader Bill Frist spoke to close out the conference for the day. I want to touch on some important things he talked about: First, he talked about Roberts and Alito, which wasn't surprising. The odd thing is that he then up-talked how important the Republican contribution was to a conservative judiciary. I thought Republicans were selecting Alito based on his credentials?
Frist also commented that "Democrats oppose judicial nominees who don't have a liberal activist agenda." Which is so untrue it's laughable--in fact, Democrats oppose judicial nominees who are not ubër-conservative--which is exactly what they should do.
Frist went on to flaunt and advertise the fact that he would be bringing a Marriage protection amendment to the senate on June 5th, telling conservative attendees to "mark their calendars." Anyone who opposes such an amendment, take note: things will soon be heating up.
I wrote up a separate piece on the Coulter event, because it was too much for a passing sentence or two. Be sure to check it out, as well as Conventionette's post on today's events. Also, I'm batting around the idea of transcribing the Coulter speech and putting it up, because it was in all honesty pretty bad--it all depends on the quality of the tape and the popular support for it. Lastly, I just want to say that I hope you're all enjoying reading these posts as much as I am being here and writing them.
More to come…
!
Comments are closed for this post.
Anyway, those of us out in the ether do appreciate you and your colleague's reporting.
Keep up the good work!
I was at CPAC last year covering it for our little magazine. I was wondering if you could help me out. Do they have a Conservative Idol contest this year? B/c I won the immigration category last year and am still owed $500. Oh, those sleazy conservatives...
As far as I know, there's no such contest this year. But I'll keep my ear to the ground today and let you know if I find anything out.
-Conventioneer