From two fellow bloggers here at CPAC.

Kevin from Lakeshore Laments has this one.

And this one from Steve from NoRunnyEggs.com:

Thanks, guys!

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

Senator Brown is speaking now and about to introduce Mitt Romney.  I’ll have a short video clip in a moment….

VIDEO of Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA):

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

Dick Cheney is here and will introduce Liz in a few moments…

UPDATE: FOX News was wrong.  Liz wasn’t introduced by her Dad.   Maybe afterwards???

UPDATE: Yep, Dick Cheney made it…. but after Liz spoke.  It was a great moment.  He got a standing ovation and all of the bloggers poured out of the room to see the stage.  My camera crapped out, but hoping to find some pics soon.

Photo from John (PatriotPartner) of Dick Cheney from CPAC floor:

My Twitter entry:  “Nation’s most vocal supporter of gay marriage & removing Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell speaks at #CPAC10 – DICK CHENEY! HA.”

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

. . . since leaving Blogspot.

Link to CPAC at Townhall.com.  The theme of CPAC10 is “Saving Freedom”  Also the name of Jim DeMint’s book.  Hmmm.

Reminder, yours truly will be a panelist on the Blogger Free For All Panel at 4pm.

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

Marco is coming on in a few minutes and is now being introduced by the esteemed conservative US Senator Jim DeMint from South Carolina (also known as PatriotMom’s Senator).

Stay tuned….

Rubio: “The blizzard may be the best thing to happen to the American economy in 12 months!”

Rubio is now articulating the fundamentals of America — First Principles.  “The only country where it doesn’t matter who your parents were.  Which country would you trade places with?”

“Those with a worldview that were elected in 2008 are now using the economic downturn, not to fix America, but to change America.  This growth in our government is being funded by foreign money.”

“The good news is that it didn’t take Americans a long time to figure this out.  Leaders at the highest levels are trying to redefine the American government and economic system.  But Americans have figured it out.”

“This is the single greatest political pushback in American history.  2010 is a referendum on the very identity of our nation.”

AWESOME: “The US Senate already has one Arlen Specter in it.”  [referring to Charlie Crist]

Rubio is now articulating coherent pro-growth, pro-free enterprise policies that most Americans would believe in.

Rubio: “These [Islamic] terrorists aren’t trying to kill us because we offended them.  They are trying to impose their view of the world on us and America is standing in the way.”

Rubio: “What makes America great is that there are dreams that are impossible everywhere else, but are possible here.  Why is that?  Most other countries chose government to run their lives.  The problem is that when govt controls the economy, those who can influence the govt always win — and everyone else stays the same.  In other nations, the employee can never become the employer.”

“Americans chose individual liberty instead of excessive government.”

“Everything I’ve accomplished, I owe to my parents, my God and to the United States of America.”  Marcoooooo!

“Let us ensure that history’s record of this time is clear.  Like those Americans who came before us, we rose to face the challenges of our time.  Let us make the right choices so that the American miracle can live on.”

Good morning from Bloggers Row (or Lounge?) from Washington, DC at the CPAC Conference.  We are moments away from Marco Rubio’s speech.

One downside, my digitial camera is acting up…. so photos may be delayed and via the iPhone.

UPDATE: Hey, the camera is working now….

I’m liveblogging & live-Tweeting Marco’s speech.  So stay tuned…

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

For as long as I’ve been blogging, longer even, for as long as I’ve been open about being a gay Republican, I’ve had left-wingers lecture me on how the GOP is controlled by religious zealots eager to do away with our freedom and create what some might call a “Christianist” state.  When I tell such folk that I’ve been involved not just in the GOP as an openly gay man, but have also participated in various conservative organizations, they seem little interested in my experiences, as if they just didn’t happen or are aberrations.

More often than not, these self-assured individuals so convinced about the real nature of the Republican Party and American conservatism have never met more than a handful of Republicans nor even attended a meeting of a Republican committee or auxiliary.  Such individuals are thus not qualified to talk about the GOP, much less address whether or not there is a place for gay people in the party.

With a prejudiced view of the GOP just like that of those individuals, Andrew Sullivan demonstrated his competence to serve on the Cato Institute panel addressing that very topic.  According to my friend Rick Sincere who attended the panel, the Obama-enamored blogger lambastedd the GOP:

Sullivan went on to criticize the Republican party for accelerating its “campaign of fear” against gay people and said the GOP “is no longer a political party; it is a religious party [whose members] owe absolute obedience to the President.” The Republican Party’s “soul has been corrupted,” Sullivan said solemnly.

Maybe he needs to say this to secure his place on the left, but this description has little resemblance to the party with which I’m familiar and in which I’ve participated (not to mention countless other openly gay men and lesbians).  Someone should have asked him where he derived his information.  Had he walked precincts with Republican volunteers, participated in GOP committee meetings, spoken to gatherings of Republican clubs?  Or had he read about it on left-wing blogs?

Andrew Sullivan was talking about a Republican Party which exists entirely in his imagination.

And while Andrew talked the conservative talk, opposing hate crimes laws, calling himself a Thatcherite, he refused to address his support for Obama’s program.   (more…)

UPDATE at 10:39pm: I’m about to go on Stage Right – BlogTalkRadio – StageRight

The GOProud Happy Hour just wrapped up and John (PatriotPartner) and I were thrilled to meet a number of GayPatriot readers!!

Thanks to Jimmy and Chris for putting on a great bash!

At 10pm I’ll be on the StageRight show on BlogTalkRadio. Please tune in!

Tomorrow — lots of live blogging from CPAC 2010!

I have now had a chance to read the Mount Vernon Statement through two times, having reviewed several passages even more than that.  On the whole, am pleased with its direction.  For such a short, succinct document, I do think it could have been better written.

Some of the lines sound downright clunky, more like a blogger hacking out a piece in the middle of the night to provide fresh content for his readers than writers crafting a document to define a moment in American conservatism.  Expressions like “the priceless principle of ordered liberty” sound more appropriate for a MasterCard commercial than in a statement defining “constitutional conservatism” for the current generation.

That said, I’m pleased that the document focuses on unifying conservative principles and largely eschews divisive social issues, paying them lip service with references to morality, religious liberty, faith and virtue.  Gay people are capable of living moral and virtuous lives while practicing our faith freely and respecting the right of others to do so a well.  We can thus embrace the document as have a number of social conservative.

I particularly like that it strives to unite “all conservatives through the natural fusion provided by American principles”:

It reminds economic conservatives that morality is essential to limited government, social conservatives that unlimited government is a threat to moral self-government, and national security conservatives that energetic but responsible government is the key to America’s safety and leadership role in the world.

The document then delineates five core principles of “constitutional conservatism,” among them: honoring “the central place of individual liberty in American politics and life.”  I do like that emphasis on liberty–and free enterprise.

I expect I’ll sign it.  It does seem a step in the right direction, but could use some language drawn from the Gipper’s first inaugural:

In short, the statement could use a little more Reagan, his ideas as well as his rhetoric.

Sometimes, it seems the primary difference between conservatives and liberals in contemporary American politics is that whereas we wish to engage on the battlefield of ideas, they wish to play the politics of personal destruction.  Just look at how liberals deal with Sarah Palin, calling her a whack job, questioning her intelligence (while ignoring her accomplishments) and speculating that she may not be mother to her youngest child.  It’s rare when we hear someone acknowledge her accomplishments, while criticizing her on the issues.

And take a gander at some of the comments (thankfully not all) to this blog where our critics attack Bruce and me personally (or our defenders) without addressing the points that we raised in the post to which they attach their comments.

Or look at how Democrats and their allies in the media respond to the Tea Party movement.  They smear us with a sexual slur and question the sincerity of our motives.

Now, it looks like some who practice the politics of personal destruction are ratcheting this up a notch:

A meeting of former Clintonistas and senior Democrat political operatives to coordinate a push-back to the burgeoning tea party movement. Consider it a Democrat party relief effort. . . .

Big Government has learned that Clintonistas are plotting a “push/pull” strategy. They plan to identify 7-8 national figures active in the tea party movement and engage in deep opposition research on them. If possible, they will identify one or two they can perhaps ‘turn’, either with money or threats, to create a mole in the movement. The others will be subjected to a full-on smear campaign. (Has MSNBC already been notified?)

Big Government has also learned that James Carville will head up the effort.

Why, if Mr. Carville is so convinced that we’ve just entered into a 40-year period of Democratic ascendancy, would he need to stoop to destroying leaders of the Tea Party movement instead of showing how out-of-tune their ideas are with the current mood of the country?

(H/t Instapundit.)

I’m on the plane at Charlotte. Next stop Reagan National! Then the GOProud Happy Hour at 6pm.

Woot!!

In 2009, the San Francisco Chronicle reported that global warming caused more foggy days in the city by the bay. This year, the Telgraph says it means fewer such days.

What an amazing phenomenon!

On Monday, when buying my groceries, the clerk at Trader Joe’s asked me what was keeping me so busy on the holiday, I told him I was working on my dissertation.  When he learned I was studying Mythology, he asked about my favorite myth.  I hesitated, as it is not always easy to pick a favorite.  I settled on Athene’s role in Odysseus’s homecoming, reuniting that wily traveler with his son yearning for paternal guidance.  But, I could just as well have said Beowulf, any number of the stories from Tolkien or perhaps the story of Ganesh from the Hindu tradition.

Had he asked me that question twenty-four hours later, I would have replied quickly, the Eumenides, how Athene works to effect the acquittal of Orestes (for murdering his mother to preserve his father’s honor) and so transforms the Erinyes, the Furies, into the the eponymous beings, the Happy (or Gracious) Ones.  Not long after buying my groceries, I realized that before completing the current chapter of my dissertation, I must first re-read Aeschylus’s play.  And as I did, it easily solidified its place as my favorite Greek drama–and quite possibly my favorite play ever written.

I did not realize until I re-read the play how central its theme was to the current chapter–and maybe even my dissertation.  For we see Athene not only at her moderating best, but also at her most cunning, showing deference to the Furies, eager for Orestes’ blood, so that they might allow her to preside over the trial where she could acquit a man who, like her, honored his impetuous father.

Our critics could learn from the owl-eyed goddess who, unlike her wise brother Apollo, showed respect to the Furies, trying to understand their motivation.  Yes, they were her adversaries, but by not gloating in her victory over their venomous vow of vengeance, she was able to transform them into more benign beings.

Toward the end their leader told her, “Your magic is working . .  I can feel the hate,/the fury slip away.”

Would it that we could find an Athena who could effect a similar magic on some of our critics.

The Cato Institute has long been my favorite Washington D.C.-based think tank.  I don’t always agree with them on foreign policy, but do appreciate their commitment to freedom and their promotion of policies which seek to reduce the influence of the government in our lives.  When possible, I support their efforts, having given more to them than to any other policy organization in our nation’s capital.  And I appreciate the respect they show their donors.

Thus, I was disappointed to read that an event they are sponsoring, Is There a Place for Gay People in Conservatism and Conservative Politics?, does not include a single gay American conservative. Given that the lead panelist, Nick Herbert, who, we know from his very title, (MP [Member of Parliament], Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Conservative Party, United Kingdom) has experience working with a right-of-center party across the pond, you’ve got to wonder why they didn’t include someone who has had similar experience over here.

Instead, they’ve got someone who has spent the last six years (well, it will be six years a week from today) badmouthing the GOP.  Yes, that would be Andrew Sullivan.  Given that they’re holding this policy forum on the eve of CPAC that GOProud (which bills itself as representing “gay conservatives and their allies“) is sponsoring and where my co-blogger is speaking, they could easily find someone working within the conservative movement, someone who would have a less jaundiced view of American conservatives in general and the GOP in particular.

Now, this one panel won’t dampen my overall enthusiasm for Cato and their work, but it does call into question their judgment.  It’s as if they were caught in a time warp and were looking at an early 1990s roster of out gay conservatives.  That list has grown considerably since then.  And despite his claims, Andrew Sullivan’s name is no longer on it.

With the President and congressional Democrats intending to use the upcoming White House health care summit to push a reconciled version of the bills which passed the House and Senate last November and December respectively, Republicans are crying foul, skeptical of the Administration’s sincerity.

Before going forward with this plan, Democrats should take a gander at a poll showing that an overwhelming majority of Americans think that Congress would do well to junk the current plans, believing they should start over:

In a brutal assessment of the Democratically authored healthcare reform bills pending in Congress and the party’s approach to healthcare, more than half of the respondents to a new Zogby International-University of Texas Health Science Center poll said that lawmakers should start from scratch.

Of the more than 2,500 people surveyed from Jan. 29 to Feb. 1, 57 percent agreed with a statement that Congress should start over — which is exactly what Republicans are demanding and what President Barack Obama insists he will not do.

I guess he just hasn’t gotten the message from polls showing increasing opposition to his plan and elections putting Republicans in office, even in normally Democratic jurisdictions.

It seems that, unlike Bill Clinton, this Democratic chief executive is bound and determined to pursue his liberal agenda, no matter what the cost.

From Gabriel Malor at Ace of Spades:

In March, 2002, Bishop walked into an International House of Pancakes in Peabody with her family, asked for a booster seat for one of her children, and learned the last seat had gone to another mother.

Bishop, according to a police report, strode over to the other woman, demanded the seat and launched into a profanity-laced rant.

When the woman would not give the seat up, Bishop punched her in the head, all the while yelling “I AM DR. AMY BISHOP.”

[Original story link at Boston.com]

I’m guessing — just a hunch — that the lovely Professor Bishop also thought that December 12, 2000 was the end of the world.

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

I’m leaving for DC tomorrow with Flip Video, iPhone, laptop & camera in hand.  The blogger meet-ups sound like they will be worth the trip alone.

If you own an iPhone and are interested in CPAC — There’s An App For That!

Just a reminder (for those attending, or tapping into CPAC coverage on the Web), I’m a panelist on the “Bank of Kev Blogger Free-For-All” on Thursday at 4:00PM in room 8212 of the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel (the official CPAC hotel).  Fellow bloggers Tania Gail, Doug Welch, Joy McCann, Andrew Ian Dodge and Larry O’Connor are also on the panel.

In a related update, I’ll be a stop-by guest on Larry’s BlogTalkRadio show, “Stage Right” tomorrow night (Wednesday) after 10:00PM.  So tune in on the net if you are able.  I’m sure it will be a snarky-good time.

Also, the GOProud Happy Hour is tomorrow night from 6pm to 8pm at the bar in the Dupont Hotel.  And the GOProud booth at CPAC is #609.

*whew*

Since I’ve taken time off the “real job” to attend CPAC — I should be blogging up a storm from Wednesday night on.  Again, the highlight of my trip looks to be soon-to-be-Senator Marco Rubio speaking Thursday morning.   Oh yeah, and that panel I’m on!

– Bruce (GayPatriot)

Former Vice President Dick Cheney is scheduled to headline the Claremont Institute’s 30th Anniversary Dinner next month here in Los Angeles.  We at GayPatriot expect to be organizing a table, but we fear, given what we’ve read about the hatred of right-wingers harbor for homosexuals that this conservative think tank might cancel his appearance.

You see, now that in addition to opposing the Federal Marriage Amendment (back in 2004), welcoming his lesbian daughter’s same-sex partner into his family (and at public events), he now favors repeal of the ban on gays serving openly in the military.  Surely, conservatives, if left-wing stereotypes be accurate, will throw him under the bus.

They will no longer sing his praises when he criticizes the Administration on the Sunday morning talk shows.  They will no longer consider him a hero.  All past praise of this good man will be pushed down the memory hole.

They’ve been waiting for this moment for six years, these right-wing haters.

But, we, at GayPatriot, will continue to stand by this principled conservative, even if our ideological confrères on the right abandon him for his “homosexualist” agenda.

I have praised John Aravosis before for leading the boycott of the Democratic National Committee in order to spur the White House to act on gay issues.  Now, he’s doing something else I support, asking people to “contact the Human Rights Campaign on behalf of the repeal of ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell‘”:

Publicly demand that President Obama take the lead in getting DADT repealed this year.

1) That means the President needs to state publicly that he wants Congress to repeal DADT this year; and

2) The President needs to take the lead in working with Congress to make sure the repeal happens.

If you’re a member or donor to HRC, tell them, and ask to speak to Members Services:

HRC Front Desk: (202) 628-4160
TTY: (202) 216-1572
Toll-Free: (800) 777-4723

HRC Web site comment page.

Given HRC’s resources, this appears to be a smart move, having the well-funded Washington group deploy on behalf of DADT repeal.  That said, I wonder at the competence of their officials.  The folks at Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (SLDN) have shown a much better understanding of the way Washington works.

That said, if HRC could direct their efforts toward DADT repeal, it could make a difference.