Last year the Conservative Political Action Committee (CPAC) made waves around liberal circles when its headliner Ann Coulter said, "We should execute John Walker Lindh as an example to liberals that they can be killed". This chilling sentiment was applauded by a number of senior administration officials, including Dick Cheney. None of them even tried to pretend they were considering distancing themselves from the organization. This year the full range of hatred associated with CPAC was out in full force. But it had a different (and more fun) target: George W. Bush.
This year's
CPAC conference was full of rabid conservatives ripping George W. Bush for his completely irresponsible deficit spending plans, freer immigration policy, and other lapses in his conservative credentials.
This year's CPAC, an annual conference that's ground zero of the vast right-wing conspiracy, pulsated with the usual antipathy toward liberals, gays, secular judges, environmentalists and Europeans. Yet many attendees also bristled with a more uneasy anger, one directed at their erstwhile allies in the White House. Conservative activists, especially older ones, felt betrayed and disappointed by Bush's immigration policy, his expansion of the federal government and his promiscuous spending, so much so that some suggested the grass-roots right might stay home on Election Day. There were plenty of passionate Bush fans in attendance, most of them college students, but movement leaders and veterans spoke of them with outright contempt. One right-wing pollster called them "Bushlickers."
This year's CPAC, in fact, was more encouraging for liberals than conservatives. Bush's right-wing base is demanding more concessions than he's made so far, but those concessions are likely to erode whatever moderate support the president has. At one of the most fervently Republican gatherings in the country, it wasn't hard to find people who were planning to vote for third-party candidates from the Constitution or Libertarian parties, and a few even confided in whispers that they might vote for Joe Lieberman or John Edwards if given a chance. The mood was like that of liberals in 2000 who saw Al Gore as nothing more than a lesser evil and yearned to send a futile message through Ralph Nader. While the grass-roots left is more motivated and disciplined than it's ever been, the grass-roots right has turned sullen and uncompromising.
Well gee whiz! If Karl Rove is really depending on a massive base turnout, he really must be pissing himself about this. I love it!
(Obligatory Dean plug: this just underscores the importance of nominating a candidate who can pick up balanced budget conservatives without alienating them on issues like gun rights, like a certain Vermont doctor).