MUTH’S TRUTHS

Wow.

I’ve been telling y’all for years that CPAC was a must-attend annual event for conservative activists, and that has never been more true than this year. On the dais today, among numerous other speakers, were Vice President Dick Cheney, Mitt Romney, John McCain and Ron Paul.

And that’s just Day One of this three-day event. And what a day it was.

First, the Romney bombshell. He’s out. Here’s the relevant portion of his CPAC speech and announcement…

“If I fight on in my campaign, all the way to the convention, I would forestall the launch of a national campaign and make it more likely that Senator Clinton or Obama would win. And in this time of war, I simply cannot let my campaign, be a part of aiding a surrender to terror.

“This is not an easy decision for me. I hate to lose. My family, my friends and our supporters…  many of you right here in this room… have given a great deal to get me where I have a shot at becoming President. If this were only about me, I would go on.  But I entered this race because I love America, and because I love America, I feel I must now stand aside, for our party and for our country.”

Powerful words. And heart-breaking for Romney supporters who had no idea when they showed up this morning that their guy was stepping aside. But give the man credit; he went out with class. He put his concern for the future of the country before his own personal ambitions. You gotta respect that.

It’ll be interesting to see if Mike Huckabee, in his scheduled CPAC speech on Saturday, likewise puts the national interest before his own personal interest.

Romney’s announcement only added importance to the scheduled appearance by John McCain a couple hours later. This was already being billed as a critical speech for McCain. As John Fund of Political Diary wrote this morning:

“John McCain will make one of the most important speeches of his career today when he addresses the Conservative Political Action Conference, the annual Washington, D.C. gathering of some 6,000 conservative activists.”

So how did McCain do?

He hit a homerun.

That’s what I told the cameraman from Hannity & Colmes who interviewed me immediately after the speech. Tune in tonight and see I make it on the show or end up on the cutting room floor.

Anyway, this is not to say McCain won over everybody. He clearly did not. There are some conservatives who simply will never vote for the guy no matter what. Period. But let me share with you what happened in the overflow room, where I was, during the speech.

If you watch any of the footage on the news shows tonight, you’ll hear McCain getting raucous applause throughout. That’s because his supporters filled up the ballroom and took every seat in the house well before the speech. Great advance work. This forced the rest of us to watch the speech on a big screen TV in a separate room across the hall. Here’s a synopsis of what I witnessed.

In the beginning of the speech, Sen. McCain stated that he was a conservative. Now, on TV you’ll hear applause and yells of approval from the ballroom. But in the auxiliary room where I was…boos. Loud ones. A little applause, but clearly this was not a room filled with friendly McCain supporters. And these folks didn’t feel the need to hide their opposition out of politeness since the speaker was in a different room.

Then Sen. McCain mentioned Mitt Romney and spoke well of him. Big cheer in the room at the mention of his name.

Then Sen. McCain mentioned Mike Huckabee’s name. A little bit of applause. Nowhere near as vocal as that for Romney though.

And then the atmosphere in the room started to warm up.

McCain talked about being pro-life and his record on that issue. Loud applause.

Then he tackled perhaps his toughest issue with conservatives, illegal immigration. At that, the boo-birds came back out. But McCain explained that he was now committed to securing the border first and THEN worrying about other aspects of the issue. That brought back the applause.

McCain then said he’d appoint judges in the mold of Supreme Court Justices Roberts and Alito. Big applause.

He then slammed the Democrat Senate for blocking surveillance legislation to allow the government to weed out our enemies. The libertarians in the room sat on their hands, but a far greater number of people put their hands together. Loudly.

He then got a thunderous applause for this line: “I will not sign a bill with ANY earmarks in it.” That hit the spot with an awful lot of conservatives who are still ticked off with President Bush (who’s finally addressing CPAC after missing the last seven years in a row tomorrow morning at 7 am; I think I’ll miss that one) and Republicans in Congress for larding up the budget with pork year after year after year.

McCain then went on to state that he would not sign any tax hikes, adding, “I will start by making the Bush tax cuts (which he voted against, just for the historical record) permanent. Big cheers.

Side note: Sen. McCain has signed the Taxpayer Protection Pledge sponsored by our friend Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform as a senator. And he signed it as a presidential candidate in 2000. But then he and Grover crossed swords.

Many in the conservative movement see McCain’s failure to now sign the pledge as an example of his temper and how he holds a grudge. There’s simply no reason, considering his clear rhetoric about not raising taxes and his signing the pledge in years past, not to sign it again this year. Unless it’s purely out of personal animosity toward Grover.

Signing the Pledge again, especially now that he’s the nominee, would not only be the right thing to do, but would go a long way toward showing skeptical movement conservative leaders that he truly wants to work with them and wants their support and isn’t going to hold a grudge if elected and we disagree in the future.

Back to the speech.

The senator then slammed both Hillary and Barack for their efforts to set an arbitrary timetable for withdrawing from Iraq. I mean, he hit ‘em hard. Big applause…except from the Ron Paul fans in the audience.

By the time he wrapped up his remarks, the man from Arizona had clearly won over an awful lot of skeptical conservatives in the room. Standing “O.”

Personally, I’m not there yet. But I’m willing to listen more and keep an open mind. Frankly, his veep decision will weigh heavily on my decision. If it’s Huckabee, I’m outta here. But if it’s someone like Gov. Mark Sanford or Gov. Haley Barbour, or former Maryland Lt. Governor Michael Steel…well, we’ll see.

That being said, Sen. McCain did exactly what he needed to do with his speech at this conservative confab today. He walked into the lion’s den, faced down the opposition, acknowledged that there were many in the room who were angry with him, stated that he would seek their counsel as president even if he ended up disagreeing with us…and then asked for our support. And if he keeps talking the way he did today, if he truly reaches out to movement conservatives instead of stiff-arming them or poking them in the eye, he’ll probably get it.

As for Ron Paul’s anti-war speech, it was delivered to a packed room, as well (no need for an overflow room, though). And his people did the same thing McCain’s people did…they showed up early and made sure their candidate got thunderous applause. Most of those folks will never be won over to John McCain’s team on the war issue; however, if Sen. McCain continues to talk about liberty and freedom and the Constitution, he may pick up a few. Perhaps even enough to win in November.

Now, about McCain-Feingold…

OK, that’s it for now. Tonight’s big banquet where the Defender of the Constitution Award will be presented begins in about an hour. But I’m gonna miss it. Instead I’ll be having dinner with a pair of true defenders of the Constitution - retired Army Lt. Col. Allen West and retired Navy SEAL Marcus Luttrell (author of “Lone Survivor”), who I met in person for the first time earlier today.

Those of you who have been reading News & Views for the past several months will know EXACTLY why I’m skipping the CPAC banquet tonight. What an honor to be dining privately with these two genuine American heroes. I’m outta here…

Posted on February 7th, 2008 by Chuck Muth
Filed under: National