With the Conservative Political Action Committee gathering winding down this weekend, you might think that calling John Edwards a 'faggot' would be the signature event of the conference. But while that clip will probably result mostly in more undeserved attention for the right's favorite harridan, there's another message from this week's events that is interesting for what it has to say about how these people view themselves. And where better to go for that view than the Fox News of papers, the Washington Times. After noting the ability of Giuliani to obscure his feelings over all the things that conservatives have been decrying for the last decade (unlike Santa's pal, this Rudolph spreads fog), Rev. Moon's paper notes the one thing that really brought the crowd down.
In interviews afterward, some attendees said Mr. Giuliani lost momentum when he heaped lavish praise on Abraham Lincoln.
That's right. Conservatives can put up with differences on abortion, gay rights, and whether or not its okay for your mistress to live at the White House. What they can't stand is talking about Abraham Lincoln. What's bugging them?
While many conservatives regard the Civil War president as the spiritual founder of the Republican Party, others deeply resent him as a man who ruthlessly suspended constitutional rights and freedoms in order to militarily challenge the South's belief in its right to secede.
A note to the constitutional scholars on the right. If it's personal rights you're worried about, the constitution specifically allows suspension of habeus corpus in cases of rebellion or invasion. But of course, that can't be what's bothering conservatives, or they wouldn't be so eager to support Bush's usurpation of those rights without justification. It's the last part of the quote that's at the heart of the matter: conservatives are still not over the Civil War. Excuse me, the War of Northern Aggression.
When the one thing you can say at a conservative gathering that causes you to lose support is praise for Abraham Lincoln, you know the conservatives aren't just busy working themselves out of the political mainstream, they're breaking all ties with the Republicans. And they're not shy about telling them so.
"Rudy thought he was addressing a Republican audience," said Mike Long, chairman of the New York State Conservative Party. "Mitt understood this is an audience of people who are conservatives first."
So maybe Mitt can be the candidate of the Conservative Party once someone else locks up that position with the Republicans.