Got Yer CPAC Roundup Right Here
The Wash Times summarizes this year's Conservative Political Action Conference, widely touted as the most important annual gathering of right-wing Republicanoids (and the stray libertarian or two):
Michael S. Steele and Newt Gingrich were the biggest stars according to activists who attended the three-day Conservative Political Action Conference.
Former New York Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani pulled off CPAC's biggest coup, former Virginia Gov. James S. Gilmore III was the biggest surprise, and Ann Coulter was the biggest loser.
Mr. Steele, the former Maryland lieutenant governor—rejected last fall by the Bush White House for chairmanship of the Republican National Committee (RNC)—was mobbed by hundreds of attendees wanting their picture taken with him on the dais after he served as master of ceremonies at the Thursday banquet featuring Vice President Dick Cheney and former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, John R. Bolton.
Reason's Dave Weigel took some photos here, here, and here. And he links to gotcha video, some of it quite fun, from The Nation's Max Blumenthal, here.
On Saturday morning, I moderated a panel titled The Failure of Fusionism?, which discussed whether libs and cons can still be friends and featured the American Conservative Union Foundation's Donald Devine, Intercollegiate Studies Institute's Daniel McCarthy, and the NY Sun's Ryan Sager.
A brief writeup of that by the Libertarian Party's Joe Magyer is here. And broader thoughts about CPAC and libs and cons (and a pic of the Fusionism panel in action) by the LP's Steve Gordon are here.