You’ve probably heard about the Conservative Political Action Conference, which is in full swing through Saturday in Washington, D.C. You may have heard that Mitt Romney will be making a speech there — his first public speech since losing the election. You also may have heard that folks are anxiously waiting to hear what Rand Paul has to say about the future of the conservative movement and that even birther Orly Taitz dropped by. But you may have more questions, so we rounded up some CPAC FAQs and answer them for you here.
1. Who’ll be there? CPAC is a conference geared to the ultra conservative, which explains why Sarah Palin and Donald Trump have just as much speaking power as Mitt Romney and Marco Rubio, who, by the way, used his 15-minute speech on Thursday to simply rehash ultra conservative values. The conference declined to invite more moderate party leaders, like New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, seemingly for being a rational human being when he thanked President Obama for Sandy relief, or former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, seemingly for throwing his support to gay marriage last month. GOProud, the Republican gay advocacy group, was also not invited, for being, we assume, a gay advocacy group.
2. What are some of the panels conservatives are sitting in on? A favorite is “How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Plastic Water Bottles, Fracking, Genetically Modified Food and Big Gulps.” It’s focus is to remind conservatives to shake off any conscience they might have concerning preserving one’s health or the environment.
And, of course, it wouldn’t be a convention without a guaranteed-to-be-offensive tea party panel. That one’s called “Trump the Race Card: Are You Sick and Tired of Being Called a Racist and You Know You’re Not One?”
3. What will the attendees wear? Our very own Brett Erlich told “The War Room” all about it on Wednesday’s show.
4. Will anyone be dressed up as dead politicians? You betcha.
5. It’s a convention! What’s the swag? Bobbleheads, pillows and water bottles — they have it all.
6. But what will the attendees do for fun? To relax, CPAC attendees can participate in various movie screenings. Perhaps they’ll catch the sounds-like-a-made-for-TV-movie film: “Ronald Reagan, Rendezvous with Destiny.” Book lovers can attend any number of readings, including one of Grover Norquist’s books, “Leave Us Alone: Getting the Government’s Hands Off Our Money, Our Guns, Our Lives” — reproductive organs are another story, I’m sure …
7. Won’t the GOP have to deal with, you know, the future of the party? Well, it certainly seems like that should be a talking point. It’s no secret that the GOP had a tough time courting anyone of color in the 2012 election. But so far, it hasn’t been easy to discuss topics like immigration, even at CPAC.
To give us the inside scoop on what the GOP should do to work out its minority problem, tune in tonight as American Prospect writer Jamelle Bouie gives us some ideas on what Republicans can do to alter their white-guy image.
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