Cheney and Liz showed up, providing the usual tortured logic. Then Glenn Beck tortured history: “progressivism,” he said in his CPAC keynote, “is eating the Constitution.” He made no mention of unitary executive doctrine.
In a room sponsored by John Birchers and filled with a high concentration of Ayn Randists, Beck called the progressive movement “designed to eat the Constitution.”
Teddy Roosevelt, who tripled the size of the US Navy in a successful bid for global economic empire, came in for special Beckian scorn once again as a “weird progressive.” The bizarre revisionism came within a veiled stab at John McCain.
Sweating from his chalkboard hustle, Beck opined 2010 would be “a very good year. But it is not enough just to not suck as much as the other side.”
A straw poll elected Ron Paul. The crowd booed. There was shouting over a gay group’s presence.
“I have not heard people in the Republican Party admit yet that they have a problem,” Beck said at his crescendo before a rapt audience. “I haven’t seen the Come-To-Jesus moment from Republicans yet.”
Last year’s CPAC conference will be remembered for Rush Limbaugh rallying the right-wing media industry to create the teabag terror. CPAC 2010 has revealed the divides within the very inner bastion of right-wing politics: the teabagger fail is happening.
Fronting the televangelistic Tea Party Inc., Sarah Palin came in third in the straw poll at seven percent, far behind Mitt Romney. There were no less than a dozen choices. Make no mistake: the tea parties are never going away, and they’ve got the Republican Party by the balls, but they can’t agree on a leader. Teh Crazy™ in the room is just too diverse for a movement that despises diversity.
Limbaugh will be remembered for wanting Obama to fail. Beck will be remembered for this line:
All we’ve heard, the Fox News host complained, is “we need a big tent. We need a big tent. Can we get a bigger tent? How can we get a big tent? What is this the circus? America is not a clown show. America is not a circus.”
Glenn Beck is a clown. His show is a circus. The circus was merely transplanted from the studio to a convention stage.
Meanwhile, all of politics is local:
