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As we discussed last week, the annual Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC, is the year's biggest event for Republicans and the right in general. The speakers' list for the multi-day event reads like a who's who for conservatives, and the more ambitious the GOP candidate, the more he or she desperately wants to win CPAC attendees' approval.
With this in mind, it's interesting to see who gets invitations to the gathering and who gets snubbed. Last week, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) was told he would not be welcome at CPAC 2013. Today we learned that that Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell (R), suddenly and inexplicably the target of far-right ire, was also deemed unworthy of the CPAC stage.
An unnamed CPAC insider said invitations will not go to those with a "limited future" in Republican politics. It's what makes news like this all the more startling.
Chris Christie may not be solid enough a conservative for CPAC organizers, but Donald Trump apparently is.
The real estate mogul will be a speaker, announced the American Conservative Union today.
I suppose this means the strange television personality has an unlimited future in Republican politics?
Trump, incidentally, defended retired basketball player Dennis Rodman yesterday, despite his bizarre cozying up to North Korea's regime, telling Fox News that Rodman is "probably better than what we have" when it comes to international diplomacy.
But in the larger context, we're not just looking at a misguided conservative movement; we're also looking at a shrinking one. In 2013, after another rough electoral cycle for the Republican Party, CPAC envisions a landscape in which popular Republican governors are to be kept at arm's length if they fail any part of a lengthy and undefined litmus test, while clownish conspiracy theorists like Trump are embraced, despite several years in which the man has positioned himself as a national laughingstock.
I suspect many on the left who'd like to make CPAC look ridiculous in the eyes of the American mainstream are delighted to see organizers giving liberals a hand.
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I was just about to call MSNBC and ask someone to look in on Steve.
When do the "Flush Rush" people start a "Dump Trump" sponsor boycott effort?
(sorry about that NBC/Universal, but you're the people giving an hour of network prime time to a birther, not me.)
Trump was defending Rodman for his hair, and I got his back on rebounds. That fella rebounded the Pistons to the Title.
Enough with the twilight zone reruns already. This is getting too bizzare
I assume that of course Trump didn't buy his way in?
"I'm talking (CPAC) Tina, and you better be nice to me!"
Where to begin - with the fact that CPAC is courting the crazy & deranged. Or that they've courted the tea-baggers into the fold and now must"go right young man". At one time the GOP had ideas that were useful to the nation. Today's rethugniCons are purely about self interest as Gordon Gekko said "greed is good" and greed pays just ask that failed half term governor from Alaska. She's dumb as doorknob on economics, international affairs, she doesn't even have CIVICS 101 - and yet she's made money with "the politics of division & faux culture wars".
I'm not a Christie fan, but even he can't be stupid enough to lament the lack of an invitation. As for gov. Ultrasound, he can't even pander that low.
If she wasn't "cutsy" and didn't flirt, would like her as much? Sarah Palin is probably at your intellectual level, but capable? I think not! Your misogyny is obvious peaking this week!
Is that how you decide who'd make a good vice presidential candidate? That they can fill up a "high school football stadium"? Lady GaGa and Justin Beiber have her beat then!!
I'm not a fan of his, but Christie, if snubbed by his party of anti-American buffoons, ought to run as an independent, and win as an independent, and show said buffoons that compromise and bipartisanship are not dirty words, but are at the foundation of our liberty.
Perhaps Christie could be the man to lead reasonable (aka sane) conservatives out of the fanatical fringes and back toward center.
As Groucho Marx once said "I would never be a part of a club that would have me as a member". Trump, Palin et al should heed those wise words. Then again, maybe CPAC stands for Crazy People And Clowns...
CPAC = Crooked Political Anal Conservatives!
Clown Party Action Committee.
Donald Trump is invited to speak, but not Chris Christie ?....
I guess the Republican CPAC has officially become an Insane Asylum !...
To let an (Orange ) looking lunatic like Donald Trump get on stage, demonstrates just how low this CPAC convention has really sunk !..
Oy Vey !...
all you need to start an asylum
is an empty room and the right kind of people
The GOP has demolishedit's platform down to a single plank: hating Obama. If ya don't despise the man, ya ain't conservative enough.
@NeedMoreCoffee
Agreed !.. In order to be asked to speak at CPAC..
You must be willing to spew vile hatred towards the first dully elected African American president !.. That is your invitation to speak !...
Anything else is NOT welcomed !...
Chris Christie !... Come join the Dark Side !.. ( That being the democratic party)..
We will welcome you with open arms !...
And then we'll put you on a Weight Watchers diet !...
Nelson and McCain wo'nt let Christie and McDonnell attend CPAC until they tell them what happened in Benghazi.
I'm really loving that line!
(; - D
Wow, even Governer Ladyparts gets panned, huh? No fringy fringe club for Governer Ladyparts? How extreme do you have to be?!
The “Talibanisation” of American society
It is rather sad from a commentary perspective to watch American politics and society gradually turning inside out at a very disturbing rate in the media. Obviously extremism has always been part of America society at many levels but reasons has always prevailed in the civil and public at large. Due to the advancing ways of communicating at mass, people with relative limited character or credibility to be called journalist are paid obscene money to abuse and insult the intelligence of the public with vile and misleading or twisted information without any consequences to their job or career prospect.
Since Rupert Murdoch started expanding his empire in American over 15 years ago apparently the rise of extremist has grown immensely due to the vile and misleading information constantly perpetuated by Murdoch news corp. Murdoch have developed a weird and very divisive business strategy in the news media to make money. His news corp. is neither conservative nor republican but a charlatan looking for a quick buck. He tried doing similar thing in Britain by using his Sun news paper to stoke racial tension in the society as well as create political tension between both parties.
If Murdoch and his family had remain in UK today it is possible that they will be in jail or facing prosecution now as many others that worked within his organisation are facing, i.e. Rebecca Brook. Rupert Murdoch and his sons personally approved paying individual off from chasing criminal prosecution against them (Leveson report).They even corrupt the British distinguish police force all to make money.
Murdoch news media business module is to divide, destroy and make money regardless of what it may do to individuals or the society at large. If you are in doubt, you can perform this simple experiment for yourself, watch fox news and take any major trending news at that moment and compare their facts with the rest of all other news across the board. If at the end of your experiment you think fox news are factually accurate and the rest are either wrong or don’t know what they reporting then you are one of those who believe Fox news when they were saying that Mitt Romney would be the president and president Obama was born in Kenya by a white woman in her late teens/early twenties from Kansas.
Perhaps his mother was not his real mother either. Or might actually be an illegal immigrant. If you are that person, I would suggest you get drunk or high and when you wake up, I hope you would realise that you have been fooled, insulted and treated like a retard and imbecile with limited intelligent by Rupert Murdoch news corp. because they have considered you to be incapable to handle the truth hence lying to you while making money from your stupid state of mind or thinking references is just okay by them. The rest of us will not blame fox news for your foolishness because you choose to believe whatever you want to believe.
It is apparently becoming obvious to the rest of the world that the very value America have being trying to preach to the world is the very thing some so called right wing politician are trying to destroy both in the state and federal level and perhaps in the supreme court as well. The similarities between the Taliban militant and political views are becoming amazing alike as the right wing ideology. Please I am not saying the GOP is promising their daughters at the age of 9yrs old to a man old to be her grandfather. I am not suggesting that such thing does happen in the good USA (Utah) because if that was the case, in all civilised society it would be considered to be rape of minor and those adult involved in such activities would be charge with running a paedophilia ring nor am I suggesting that there is a religious group (Taliban) doing anything of such. By the way, the GOP runs all political aspect of Utah to an extent.
It will not be far fetch to look at the similarities between the right wing religious group of America and their political interest and goals compare to that of Taliban’s. With greater thought and concern to my wary restless mind it is highly suggestible to start calling into question and pointing this sacred puritan ideology commonality out. By comparing this issues by issues base it will be very difficult not draw similar conclusion.
Issue: 1 Women
The Taliban views are very clear, women have no place in the public circle and they are object to be owned and control and subject to any kind of abuse deemed fit to subdue them to the husband will. They also believe a woman cannot accuse her husband of rape or any man at all because she must have provoked it. The religious right wing in America believes that some rape are not legitimate or in some cases a woman cannot be trusted that she was actually rape as such to prove it she must carry the baby to birth as prove she was raped. Most of the GOP believe women are not sophisticated enough to determined what happens to their body without the BIG GOVERNMENT the republican decry telling them what must happen to their body.
Issue: 2 Voting
The Taliban does not believe in democracy of any form nor think the public they are trying to impose their will on should have a say in how they should be govern because that right must be reserved to the few mullahs or religious leaders. How about the right wing in America, does Michigan ring a bell where the governor decided to basically fire all the elected officials in some part of the state. Voter ID law designed specifically for certain group of people (minority, elderly, the poor and student) only by GOP right wing dominated stated. Why? Is it because the GOP knows that their ideas are so bad that the only way they can win is to cheat or create chaos. Only in America people actually lose their right to vote despite they have paid their debt to the society. It is astonishing. Even in some so called third world countries prisoner do vote because they value that right far more than rigid ideology without basis simply to gain political advantage. Voting right law should be the law of the whole country rather some few county and state in the south.
Issue: 3 Governing principle
The Taliban just like the right wing GOP does not really have any coherent governing principle because they both have deep misogynistic self inflating ego hiding under the shallow religious association. Most GOP at a drop of a heart will strongly profess their passionate defence of pure capitalism and deep religiousness just like the Taliban but rarely practice what the religion actually preach or talk about. Pure capitalist society has never existed in history before not even in American. Pure capitalist society is chaotic society because that is society without any functional government and that is what the Taliban is very good at (Afghanistan classic example before the evasion). Even president Ronald Regan the true conservative capitalist according to most GOP of today, only talk the talk never could walk the walk. If Regan was alive today trying to do what he did then he would be called socialist communist who wants to destroy America. He raises taxes 11 times and publicly campaign for the rich to pay their fair share of taxes, he passed amnesty, he blew massive hole in the budget that Bush senior had to raise taxes. During the minor economic stress he had, he spends heavily on public employee and works than any president to date. It fair to say that Regan is far more a socialist and wealth redistributors’ than Obama as the record shows so far.
The very concept of conservatism is to preserved fundamental right deemed fit by society for everyone not only for the rich and powerful or well connected. Voting right should be a conservative thing to defend just as well as the right of woman to determine what happens to her body and how she wants to manage her child bearing process without any religious group or politician intervening. If it’s fundamental right to bear arms surely it must be far more fundamental for two people who love each other to be able to get married without the BIG GOVERNMENT intervening regardless who they love. It’s a conservative thing to believe in the science of global warning because the GOD they claim they believe did not make this world for man to destroy but rather to preserved and be a good steward. It’s a conservative and Godly thing to do to welcome migrant not to label them as sub human by calling them illegal ALIENS.
The Talibanisation of America society is perpetuated by charlatans who are only interested in divisive media business and marketing module that does not served any other purpose apart from either enriching them or keeping them political position. At the end of the day the Taliban’s are only interested one thing and one thing only just like the GOP, power and not for the right reason. Americans should wake up before it’s too late that they are losing the very value and strength that makes the world admires them. America is like big castle and looking from afar you could hear all sort of noise emanating and the closer you get to it the more you realise some the children of the owner in the castle are acting like prodigal vagabonds fighting one another and looting their own property but throwing it out in the street for passerby to conserved for them while they tear each other eyes out just to proof a point no matter how ideological twisted and very unpractical it may be.
MD-444582
thank you for your comment, you just remind some people commenting on this blog how useful it can be to sometimes be serious in their comments.
i was not born here but growing up in my country , we used to the USA sending observers during the elections , but today with the Right denying their own people from voting how can the same USA go in my country and talk about elections, we have gays and lesbians getting kill and no one can't speak out, why ? because the same things happened to gays and lesbians here.
these rights wings are not helping to improve to USA image around the world,
CPAC - is that an acronym for Crazy Politicians At Conference?
Governor Christie - yea, I can see why he wasn't invited, but Governor Ultrasound? You'd have thought they'd loved him.....
Never interrupt your enemy when ...
Someone will pay to hear Donald Trump? I click past his ugly mug anytime it appears on TV.
and other red blow hards.
Splitters!
Conservatism came to America with the Puritans and their hard core Christian religious beliefs, that did not work out so well for the native population, the Spaniards brought their hard core Christian beliefs to South America, that also didn't work out so well for the native population there either, the English also tried with the Crusades to take Christianity to the Muslims in the middle east, that didn't work out so well for anybody.
Does anyone else see a pattern here?
@ Trollop ....Gov. Ultrasound aka Bob McDonnell is in the dog house with Conservatives because he just signed a Transportation Bill in Virginia that raised some revenue through targeted taxes.
I saw John Boehner on Meet The Press this sunday and I could swear he looked Orange !...
I will make several notes of interests about this article:
CPAC = republican political organization
"Republican" now means something much closer to libertarian or theocrat than conservative. I know most here don't listen to "talk radio" but many of the hosts are really upset with the party.
If CPAC doesn't think main-line conservatives like Christy have a future in the party, then we may, over the next decade, see the rise of a "conservative party" to rival the republican party. All it would take is for one guy with the charisma or "star power" to get it kick started and give people a party to go to.