CPAC Live Blog Thursday 3/14/13
U.S. News and World Report will be bringing you the latest from the Conservation Political Action Conference, where several U.S. Senators and House members are expected to speak.
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The annual Conservative Political Action Conference, which attracts thousands of grass-roots conservatives to Washington, D.C., gets under way Thursday and political eyes are watching the event to be a harbinger of what's to come for the still bruised Republican Party.
However, the tension that's plagued the Republican Party following the 2012 electoral defeats is spilling over to CPAC this year and some conservatives wonder what role the conference still plays.
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Lee calls Obama's State of the Union address one big "informercial" promoting big government programs. -
Lee now discussing a spoiled chocolate pudding story to illustrate a point. You can see why he's not on the same political plane as Sens. Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz and Rand Paul.
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Anti-tax crusader Grover Norquist is now addressing the audience - DC pundits have speculated his influence has waned since Republicans signed on to a Democratic-backed tax increase as a way to avoid going over the fiscal cliff.
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"Republican elected officials who vote for tax increases are rat heads in a Coke bottle," Norquist says, discussing the kind of brand damage that can be inflicted.
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Rep. Louis Gohmert, R-Texas, says the Tea Party is far from dead "unless all these people at CPAC are zombies."
- Lauren Fox -
A panel on a federal balanced budget amendment is being moderated by anti-tax crusader Grover Norquist. Also on the panel: Derek Khanna, the former Republican Study Committee staffer who was fired for publishing a paper on copyright reform not approved by his bosses. Khanna has also been leading the popular campaign to make unlocking cell phones legal. -
Leading into prime time here at CPAC - up next, Sens. Marco Rubio and Rand Paul.
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Young British boy band One Direction plays as Rubio takes the stage and makes a water joke.
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Rubio's speech - as is often the case - is focused on the middle class and American exceptionalism.
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The convention hall has filled up for the top speakers of Rubio and Paul.
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Big cheers for Rubio as he highlights his pro-life stance.
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Ben Franklin is at CPAC, courtesy of the Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity.
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Rubio mentions "breakdown of the American family" and it's impact on the country. He's really highlighting his culturally conservative bona fides here at CPAC.
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Now Rubio talking threat of China taking over as the top country in the world. "We don't need a new idea; the idea is called America and it still works," Rubio says. "They may claim to hate us, but they sure would like to be us."
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And Metallica plays as Sen. Rand Paul takes the CPAC stage and makes filibuster joke.
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Supporter screams, "Don't drone me, bro!" at Paul in reference to his standing up to executive power on drone use.
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Former Rep. Allen West Tells U.S. News to 'Stay Tuned' on God's Plan for Another Run
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Paul dings Obama for cutting White House tours while sending funds to Egypt.
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"A rattlesnake will bite the you-know-what out of a squirrel not wagging it's tail," Paul says, going through a list of federally-funded research studies he claims are wasteful spending.
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Paul touts his budget that balances in five years - eliminates Dept. of Education, cuts corporate tax rates in half and creates flat income tax.
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"If we are going to have Republican Party than can win, then liberty must be the backbone of the GOP," Paul says.
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Crowd chants "Stand with Rand" as Paul exits the stage.
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The Young Americans for Liberty group, which formed at the tail end of Ron Paul's last presidential campaign, has a table in the exhibition hall where supporters can throw darts for points at Mitt Romney (50), Michele Bachmann (25) and Rand Paul (100).
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Howard “Cowboy” Wooldridge, a former Michigan cop, attracted cheers and scorns at CPAC Thursday for insisting that all drugs should be legal starting with Marijuana. “I am continuing the process of having conservatives think more like libertarians when it comes to drug policy. Who is control of your body, yourself or the government?” Wooldridge says. Woodridge attracted attention this year when he rode his horse from Georgia to Oregon to spread the word on his goal to give states more power to legalize drugs. “All drugs are dangerous from marijuana to Asprin to alcohol to tobacco to heroin,” the former cop says. “But is prohibition helping any part of the equation?”
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Take a look through our CPAC 2013 photo gallery.
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Leading birther Orly Taitz has filed another lawsuit against President Barack Obama, this time alleging the social security number he used on his tax forms is a fake. Here at CPAC she is giving out paperwork on the lawsuit to members of Congress such as Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas.
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Gov. Rick Perry, R-Texas, joined a number of Republicans Thursday blasting the White House’s decision to cancel tours.
Perry criticized the White House for manufacturing sequestration and then hyping it as dangerous.
“We are getting a lot of hysteria right now for a president more concerned about reelection than preserving Medicare,” Perry said.
“If the president is worried about overtime pay for janitors, what about the stagnant wages of millions of American workers?” -
At a panel entitled "Should we Shoot All the Consultants Now?," several panelists are frothing at the mouth over consultants who misled the GOP into thinking Mitt Romney was a lock to win the 2012 presidential election.
But Jeff Roe, founder of the consultancy Axiom Strategies, tells the audience he wouldn't fire his trainer if he didn't lose weight, and campaigns shouldn't fire all consultants either.
"There are hacks...who've never won a race," he said. "That's called a free market." -
Perry says media is wrong when it says America has shifted away from conservatives given the 2008 and 2012 election results - maybe, he says, but Republicans didn't nominate conservative candidates. (It's a real punch at Mitt Romney, who is scheduled to address CPAC Friday afternoon.)
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Former Alabama congressman Artur Davis, who famously switched from the Democratic to the Republican party, is speaking on a panel about inclusion in the conservative party.
Davis said the GOP needed to work on "how to get people who on first blush don't think like us." -
That's it for today's coverage. Come back tomorrow when will do it all over again!
