Back to Benghazi? Or: “Too many American wars?

Image by Kevin Lamarque / Reuters

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — The irreconcilable tension between new and old schools of Republican foreign policy thought was on display merely in the selection of panels on the first day of the Conservative Political Action Conference on Thursday.

A panel about "Iran and the Islamist Threat" featuring Sen. Lindsey Graham came on the heels of one called "Too Many American Wars?" in which speakers argued that America had become overextended after nearly a century of nonstop warfare. A speech by Rand Paul, arguing against abuse of the drone program and in favor of cutting foreign aid to countries like Egypt, followed a panel about lingering questions over the Benghazi attack.

As clear as the differences between the two schools was the fact that the more libertarian-leaning vein is ascendant, at least among the conservatives gathered here. The Benghazi panel emptied the room and the Iran panel barely filled half of a smaller conference room, while Rand Paul's message brought a packed ballroom to its feet, many holding "Stand With Rand" signs.

The "Too Many American Wars?" panel included Reps. Steve King, Tom Cotton and Louie Gohmert, all staunch conservatives with varying degrees of hawkish views on national security. Gohmert argued that the U.S. should have gone to war with Iran in 1979 and that we only lost the Vietnam war because "people in Washington decided we would not win it," among other things. But the very existence of a panel with that name indicated the changing attitudes among conservatives towards what were once alternative views, and other speakers advocated libertarian foreign policy that, they argued, would result in less domestic spending as well. The argument was tailored to make a smaller defense budget seem more attractive to conservatives.

"Continuous warfare is what we've had since World War II," said Ivan Eland, a libertarian defense analyst. "That's an aberration in U.S. history. The government has ballooned both in security areas but also, domestic spending always increases during war."

"There is a connection between the warfare and the welfare state," Eland said. He argued that China and Brazil are "not policing the world, but they're competing with us economically."

Boston University professor Angelo Codevilla made the case against nation-building, saying "if you do engage in war you had better have an idea of how you are going to end it."

"In Afghanistan, we spoiled it all by occupying the country and trying to tell them how to live, and we made thousands and thousands of enemies," Codevilla said.

Later, after a speech by likely 2016 rival Marco Rubio, Rand Paul took the stage in jeans to a Metallica song. After an extended riff about drone strikes — the topic that filled his 13-hour filibuster of John Brennan's nomination as CIA chief last week — Paul criticized President Obama for finding "an extra $250 million to send to Egypt. You know, the country where mobs attacked our embassy, burned our flag, and chanted death to America."

"You know, the country whose President recently stood by his spiritual leader, who called for death to Israel and all who support her," Paul said. "I say, not a penny more to countries that burn our flag."

Paul stopped short of calling for cutting aid to Israel itself, something he's advocated in the past.

This new tone was missing in other foreign policy events during the day. The Benghazi panel repeated the same themes about the attack in Libya that have been circling in the conservative media since it happened. And panelists were clear: defense cuts can't be acceptable in a conservative foreign policy.

"We must not make defense the first victim of cuts," said Breitbart News editor Joel Pollak. "Our constitution calls for limited government, but it also calls for a government that can defend the nation. Benghazi reminds us we cannot defend liberty if we cannot take the fight to our enemies."

But Benghazi panel proved especially unpopular, with people trickling out of the large ballroom throughout.

The panel on Iran, hosted by hawkish Foundation for the Defense of Democracies president Cliff May and featuring Graham, hit familiar notes about getting tough on Iran's nuclear program and standing firm with Israel.

"Our friends in Israel wil never know a good night's sleep again" if Iran develops a nuclear weapon, Graham said.

The ayatollahs "are trying to spread the Shia religion and intimidate their neighbors," Graham said. "The amount of enriched uranium is going up, not down. We talk, they enrich."

"My goal is to pass a resolution sooner rather than later that defines what having Israel's back means," Graham said, saying that it would mean providing military support in the event that Israel takes action against Iran.

Other speakers also advocated against defense cuts and in favor of pre-emptively taking action against Iran.

"We're trying to get to fiscal responsibility and I'm afraid we're doing it on the backs of our military," said Rep. Buck McKeon, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee.

"All of our statements about being tough have to be matched with our actions," Graham said.

Most of the crowd nodded along and occasionally clapped. But the tough talk didn't rub everyone the right way. At the end of the panel, Adam Kahn, the president of the college Republicans and the University of Nevada-Reno, got up to ask a question.

"I am a Muslim-American, I am a Persian," Kahn said. "You can't say that 'Muslim' is synonymous with 'terrorist.'"

"We're not terrorists," Kahn said. "We're good people."

Bread has been broken. But what about gridlock?

Image by Pablo Martinez Monsivais / AP

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The week-long presidential "charm offensive" is over. Did it work? On Capitol Hill and in the White House there are plenty of kind words being said about President Barack Obama's meetings with members of Congress on their home turf — but there's little early evidence that his outreach has loosened the gridlock that has turned the public off.

On both sides of Pennsylvania Ave., participants in the meetings told BuzzFeed they're just going to have to wait and see if face time with Obama has made any Republicans more amenable to supporting his legislative agenda.

"We're kind of in this dating phase right now," said Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN), who was one of the Republicans who joined Obama for dinner last week. He was also present when Obama visited the Senate GOP caucus Thursday. So far the conversations haven't resulted in a breakthrough on the fiscal matters gumming up the Capitol works, Corker suggested.

"I just want to know what the next steps are toward a real solution," he said.

At the White House, no one is declaring any victories yet. But senior administration officials are optimistic, noting that there are at least some Republicans now willing to talk about revenue as part of future fiscal deals. The officials say that Obama is also building a rapport that will help with other issues down the road, like immigration and gun control, where there are splits in the GOP. Those issues haven't taken center stage at the Congressional meetings, though.

"I don't remember those coming up, to be honest with you," said Rep. John Fleming (R-LA). He added, "I think what brought him to us was sequestration."

One strategist familiar with the immigration fight on Capitol Hill said that so far Obama's outreach has had "no impact" on the Hill debate.

Official statements from the White House still describe the bipartisan renaissance as something that will come later.

"The purpose here is to see – is to encourage bipartisan cooperation, to encourage a common-sense approach to the challenges that face us on budget issues as well as the other priorities that he believes we have as a nation. And those conversations will continue," Press Secretary Jay Carney told reporters at Thursday's briefing when asked if Obama's presence at the Hill lunches will be a "regular thing."

There may not be that much time to waste. Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Ks.) said if the president is going to build bridges, he better do it before the Hill's gaze shifts to the 2014 midterms.

"All of the big-picture items, the message was, there's a window of opportunity, your leadership matters, but if it's going to be effective it's probably this year, in this time frame, if we're going to make a difference," he said.

“My number one issue is: How do we support them and rally behind the gay community to make sure it's safe for them, just, to live?” he said of international dangers. Uncertain on DOMA.

Image by Frederick M. Brown / Getty Images

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — The mega-donor Foster Friess is best known as the moneyman behind Rick Santorum's socially conservative presidential campaign, the self-described born-again Christian takes a far more moderate position than his candidate on gay issues — because, he said, of a personal connection, his gay brother-in-law.

"When you talk about the party, that's the problem because there isn't any unified message," Friess said of the Republican Party's position on gay issues Thursday in an interview at the Conservative Political Action Conference Thursday. "You've got people who are gay-bashers, who forget that these are human beings that need love just like all of us need love. We have to be sensitive to that."

As with many conservatives who profess a level of support for gay rights, Friess first focused on the international scene for his attention.

"I've said before, the number one thing that we have to work on is protecting the gay community from sharia law. Now, in the United States, it's probably not a big issue right now, but my brother-in-law is gay and his partner and I would like them to be able to travel any place in the world without them risking harm," Friess said. "In Iran, they basically hang them or behead them. So, my number one issue is: How do we support them and rally behind the gay community to make sure it's safe for them, just, to live?"

Looking inside the United States, he said, "I think culture precedes politics, and I think the attempts to try and legislate people's behavior ... isn't going to be productive until the culture decides what they want to achieve.

He did single out one domestic issue — a consequence of the Defense of Marriage Act's prohibition on federal recognition of same-sex couples' marriages: "I think it's unfair that people can't give assets to whoever they want. When I die, my assets can go to my wife. And a gay person — you ought to have a system where maybe you can just say, 'You can give your assets to anybody you want.'"

Although his solution isn't the same sought by Edith Windsor in her challenge to DOMA that is before the Supreme Court, Friess raised the issue as one of fairness. He also connected it to other issues, which he characterized as more significant harms to marriage than would allowing same-sex couples to marry.

"I think it ties into the other problem: We have to be concerned about heterosexual marriage," Friess said. "We have now 60-70 percent of Hispanics and blacks born out of wedlock. And, with Caucasians, it's 30 percent. So, the whole idea of — 'How do we encourage fatherhood? If they father a child, what's their responsibility to that child?' — I think that is probably a much bigger issue than any of the other issue that we might deal with in terms of the sexual realm or the whole idea of relationships."

Friess hedged on whether those views mean DOMA should be struck down when the Supreme Court considers its constitutionality this spring.

"I'm not a lawyer. I don't know what's going on. I just know that the people that I meet who are gay, including my brother-in-law and his partner, and my wife is very active in the art community, and we meet a lot of people that are gay, I think, number one, it's our responsibility to love them. That's the bottom line," he said.

"I don't get so involved in the technical aspects of the marriage issue," Friess said. "It's just perplexing for all of us. Just, the bottom line is: How do we reduce the divisiveness?"

Echoing others at CPAC who seem intent on moving the party away from an anti-gay position yet who likewise aren't prepared to fully embrace marriage equality as a right, he pointed to religious liberty concerns.

"I think there's a certain amount of this gay issue that is a religious liberty issue. I was talking with a very, very prominent gay person whose name I won't mention. He said, 'Look, I lost my partner a year ago, and I still wear the ring of commitment that cherishes our relationship we had, but churches ought to have the right to believe what they believe,'" Friess relayed. "If we really want to cherish religious freedom, people who want to believe that same-sex marriage should take place, they have a right to believe that, and people who want to believe it's inappropriate, we should not demonize those people — if we really believe in religious liberty."

“Log Cabin Republicans welcomes Senator Portman's support, and encourages his GOP colleagues in the Senate to join him on the right side of history,” the group's head says. Portman is the first Republican senator to announce support for marriage equality while serving in Congress.

Ohio Senator Rob Portman speaks with reporters in December 2012.

Image by Drew Angerer / Getty Images

WASHINGTON — "I'm announcing today a change of heart," Ohio Sen. Rob Portman said Thursday in announcing his support for the right of same-sex couples to marry — a change he said came about after his son came out to him.

The change is an abrupt reversal for the Buckeye State's junior senator, who supported both the Defense of Marriage Act and the Federal Marriage Amendment at earlier points in his career.

Log Cabin Republicans celebrated the news early Friday morning, with LCR executive director Gregory T. Angelo telling BuzzFeed, "If there was any doubt that the conservative logjam on the issue of civil marriage for committed gay and lesbian couples has broken, Senator Portman's support for the freedom to marry has erased it."

No Republican senators currently serving in the Senate had supported marriage equality prior to Portman's announcement. Two House Republicans, Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Richard Hanna, signed on to a brief before the Supreme Court urging the court to find a constitutional right to marriage equality.

In a video released by CNN, Portman described the process that led to Thursday's announcement.

"During my career in the House and also the last couple of years here in the Senate, I've taken a position against gay marriage, rooted in part in my faith and my faith tradition," he said. "I had a very personal experience, which is that my son came to Jane, my wife, and I and said he was gay and that it was not a choice, and that's just part of who he is and he'd been that way for as long as he could remember."

After Will, who is now 21, came to him, Portman said he went through "a process of changing my position on the issue," concluding, "I now believe that [gay] people ought to have the right to get married."

The Columbus Dispatch reported that Portman had "informed Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney about Will when Portman was being interviewed last year as a potential vice-presidential nominee."

Freedom to Marry's national campaign director, Marc Solomon, noted the process detailed by the senator in his comments, saying, "We greatly appreciate Senator Portman's sharing his journey on the freedom to marry with his constituents and with the American people. It's a beautifully human experience for a father to listen with an open heart to his son, to reflect on his own beliefs, and conclude that he wants for his son the same opportunity for happiness that comes with being able to marry that he and his wife have had."

The Dispatch reported the carefully orchestrated announcement involved inviting reporters from several Ohio newspapers, in addition to the CNN interview, and comes less than two weeks before the Supreme Court is slated to hear two cases involving same-sex couples' marriage rights — including one involving DOMA.

The timing also means the news broke in the middle of the Conservative Political Action Conference — at which the exclusion of a gay conservative group, GOProud, has been a topic of much discussion — and hours before Romney is scheduled to address the conservative activists. Portman was regularly with Romney in the months leading up to the 2012 election, particularly in his task of playing the role of President Obama during Romney's debate prep.

Liz Mair, a Republican consultant who served as the Republican National Committee's online media director during the 2008 campaign, is on the advisory board of GOProud and was a panelist at a CPAC session Thursday aimed at encouraging the party to become more inclusive on gay issues.

"Like a lot of Americans who support same-sex marriage, potentially the majority of us who do, Portman's stance has been influenced by a personal relationship with someone who is very near and dear to him and who has caused him to think about this issue in terms that are far from abstract," Mair told BuzzFeed early Friday morning. "Hopefully, people will listen closely to what he has to say on this over the coming days and weeks because he will add a valuable perspective to this discussion."

LCR's Angelo added, "We also applaud and respect the Senator's decision as a person of faith who recognizes that there is a Christian case as well as a conservative case for marriage equality. Log Cabin Republicans welcomes Senator Portman's support, and encourages his GOP colleagues in the Senate to join him on the right side of history."

Ohio's other senator, Democrat Sherrod Brown, has been a longtime supporter of marriage equality.

The Donald is fawned over by partisan bloggers and headline-hungry reporters at CPAC. The actual attendees were not as excited.

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — Donald Trump appeared at the Conservative Political Action Conference to a half-full ballroom that politely clapped and laughed along at his speech. But the ur-birther and Celebrity Apprentice host, whose invitation to speak at CPAC is viewed by some as a strange move in a year when a rising Republican star like Chris Christie ("a very good friend of mine," Trump said) didn't make the cut, got a much warmer reception in a post-speech press conference that his aides had made clear was "INVITE-ONLY."

Trump filled a small room off the main ballroom at the Gaylord National Hotel with mostly partisan press, including Breitbart News, the Washington Free Beacon, and a couple of Tea Party outlets. He took questions for about 30 minutes, holding forth on topics as diverse as Ashley Judd's potential candidacy for Senate, whether he approves of President Obama playing golf, and even the Anthony Weiner scandal and birth certificates, two stale conservative controversies that made the event feel like something from another political era.

Asked what he thinks of the president's golf hobby, Trump said, "I understand golf."

"I'm a fan of the president playing golf," Trump said. "I've made some of my biggest deals on the golf course."

Trump slammed Karl Rove for a Crossroads ad that he thought only helped Ashley Judd in Kentucky.

"I've never seen her look more beautiful," Trump said of the ad, describing Judd as a "hot candidate" in more ways than one.

Trump weighed in on the news that Sen. Rob Portman now supports gay marriage because his son is gay, saying cryptically, "His son just had something happen that Rob found out about. And I respect his position."

He spun his performance in the ballroom as a grand success, saying, "That was a friendly crowd. They liked almost everything I said." (Trump's speech on the ballroom stage included a call to take all the oil out of Iraq.)

The press conference received a warm reaction from the assembled reporters hanging on Trump's every word, most of whom were in fact conservative bloggers — the blurring of lines between activist bloggers and traditional reporters being one of the features of CPAC. They guffawed loudly when Trump referred to Weiner as a "sick pervert," and one reporter prefaced his question to Trump with, "You have a rare ability to break through the biased liberal media and spread your message to the masses." Trump even got a friendly question about whether presidential candidates should be required by law to produce their birth certificates.

After dozens of questions, Trump said he needed to leave soon.

"I have to get going to — I don't know where I'm going," he said. "One of my many jobs."

Friends of the failed candidate say he has come to an annual gathering of conservatives not in pursuit of celebrity, but to make amends. “It's up to us to make sure that we learn from our mistakes — and my mistakes,” he told the crowd Friday.

Image by Jim Young / Reuters

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — When Mitt Romney took o the stage at this annual gathering of conservative activists Friday afternoon, it wasn't be to audition for a Fox News gig, to set himself up for another campaign, or to launch a prestigious think tank in his name.

He doesn't want to be a conservative superstar. He just wants to make amends.

"It's fashionable in some circles to be pessimistic about America, about conservative solutions, about the Republican Party. I utterly reject pessimism," Romney told the packed ballroom.

He added, "It's up to us to make sure that we learn from our mistakes — and my mistakes."

Friends and former advisers of the failed Republican presidential candidate told BuzzFeed that Romney came to CPAC as a good-faith effort to renew some measure of goodwill between himself and the conservative movement — many of whom blame him for their party's current stagnant state.

"I don't think the governor is concerned about creating a faction in the party; some sort of Romney bloc," said Robert O'Brien, a longtime friend and adviser who stays in touch with the ex-candidate. "He really doesn't have a personal political agenda, and he's not trying to raise his profile."

While many CPAC speakers — Sarah Palin, Herman Cain — come to the conference in pursuit of political celebrity, Romney's friends say he has no such ambitions.

"I think he's going to speak out on issues that are important to him because he cares about this country, as opposed to trying to advance some type of platform in the party," O'Brien said, adding, "Frankly, I think he enjoys business more than politics."

One source said Romney hadn't even considered speaking at CPAC until organizers approached him personally. He accepted, sources said, to thank the conservative conference-goers who were present at every turn of his five-year bid for the presidency, and in hopes of warming the frigid relationship he has with the party's base.

"I've also had the honor of your support from the very beginning," he told the crowd Friday. "You gave my campaign an early boost. You worked on the front lines—promoting my campaign, turning out voters. Thank you."

Before the speech, one former Romney aide told BuzzFeed, "After the campaign, he was very concerned about what we can do to improve the party ... and he wants people to know that. I don't think he'll be out front pounding the table."

Romney's re-emergence at CPAC comes after months spent almost entirely out of public view. People close to him say he consumes large volumes of news every day on his iPad and on Fox News. He stews as he reads the coverage of the various budget showdowns in Congress, frustrated that the president has pursued what he sees as an aggressively liberal agenda that won't solve the country's economic problems.

He gets occasional briefs from his former running mate, Rep. Paul Ryan, and he frequently logs on to his campaign Twitter account — no longer run by aides — to follow the daily political conversation.

While in this political exile, Romney has scrolled past more than a few headlines about the various prominent Republicans who have thrown him under the bus since the election. But friends say he has done his best to shrug them off.

"Mitt always takes the high road on those things, even in private conversations," O'Brien said. "I've never heard him say a negative thing about another Republican. That even goes back to Jon Huntsman in the primaries ... Mitt is a pretty charitable guy, and I believe he's chalked up statements made about him or the campaign to people being very disappointed that we lost in November."

And indeed, Romney went out of his way in the speech to praise some of the very Republicans who have distanced themselves from him since the election.

"We particularly need to hear from the Governors of the blue and purple states, like Bob McDonnell, Scott Walker, John Kasich, Susanna Martinez, Chris Christie, and Brian Sandoval because their states are among those we must win to take the Senate and the White House," he said.

Even as some of Romney's friends predict Republican politicians will approach him for fundraising help during next year's midterms, they say he knows there's little appetite in the party right now to hear a lecture from him on where they should go from here.

"As someone who just lost the last election, I'm probably not the best person to chart the course for the next election," he acknowledged in his address, drawing some laughter from the audience.

But he hopes to be remembered by conservatives as someone whose candidacy was borne out of a genuine concern for his party and country — even if he couldn't pull off a win.

"I know that Mitt's incredibly disappointed that he lost ... in part because of all these people who worked so hard to get him elected," said one friend of Romney's. "I don't know if anyone ever gets over losing a race for the presidency."

This article has been updated to include quotes from Romney's remarks.

Josh Duggar reportedly will be appointed to a senior executive position at FRC. “No decision has been made,” Duffy says.

Duggar (center) with Family Research Council president Tony Perkins in January.

Via: facebook.com

NATIONAL HARBOR, MD. — The oldest son of the Duggar family could be joining the conservative Family Research Council in a senior executive position, according to three sources familiar with the organization.

The hiring of Josh Duggar, 25, the oldest of Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar's 19 children, will be announced in about a month.

Duggar will be in charge of FRC Action, the organization's lobbying arm, sources told BuzzFeed. "FRC Action (formerly American Renewal), the non-profit and tax-exempt legislative action arm of Family Research Council, was founded in 1992 to educate the general public and cultural leaders about traditional American values and to promote the philosophy of the Founding Fathers concerning the nature of ordered liberty," according to FRC Action's website.

The Duggars parlayed their reality TV show fame into political activism in the past year, appearing on the stump for Rick Santorum throughout the Republican primary process. Josh Duggar recently announced on Today that he and his wife are expecting their third child.

UPDATE: FRC's Vice President for Communications, JP Duffy, said that a final decision had not been made on Duggar's hiring. " We greatly appreciate Josh and the Duggar family's devotion to the pro-family movement and their counter-cultural courage," Duffy said. "This is why we have talked to Josh about the position. We have talked to him as well as other candidates but no decision has been made." (3/15/2013)

Ryan says he hasn't read Portman's op-ed yet.

Image by Gary Cameron / Reuters

WASHINGTON — Rep. Paul Ryan refused to react Friday to an op-ed penned by Sen. Rob Portman, in which Portman reversed his position on gay marriage and announced his son is gay.

"I haven't even read it," Ryan said, pulling from his blazer a printed copy of Portman's op-ed, which he had requested from his staff.

Ryan and Portman logged considerable miles together last year on the presidential campaign trail, where Portman served as a key surrogate for Mitt Romney's campaign after being considered as a potential running mate.

In an interview with CNN, Portman said he told Romney about his son during the campaign.

As the news trickled through the Capitol on Friday, some of the most conservative members of Congress tried to stay mum about Portman's announcement.

"I'll have a statement out later today," Rep. Tim Huelskamp, a staunch opponent of gay marriage, said curtly as he walked away.

Rep. Steve King hadn't heard the news yet, and he was visibly surprised.

"Wow," he said. "Really."

"I know Rob, of course, and I think a lot of he and his wife. ...I'm one who is a great respecter of him," King said. "And I can tell you, if he came to a conviction like that, then it is a conviction."

"I know that there are often families that have these questions arise within them, and it often changes their perspective," King added, but he affirmed that his anti-gay marriage stance remains unchanged.

The White House press secretary was talking to Fox host Jenna Lee about the White House Easter egg roll and the sequester.

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Surprisingly, CPAC did not play Patsy Cline as LaPierre exited the stage.

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Warning: This segment might make you dizzy.

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The president implied the mandatory federal spending cuts taking place would cause the audience to not have chairs.

Source: youtube.com

CPAC crowd unmoved by the big moment, video shows. No gotcha here.

WASHINGTON — Democrats hoped to catch attendees at the Conservative Political Action Conference cheering the on-screen death of Ashley Judd at a screening of Olympus Has Fallen Friday evening.

But conference organizers told conservatives, a person at the screening said, to leave their politics at the door, and the gotcha devised by supporters of the actress, who is reportedly on the verge of launching a race for the Kentucky Senate seat, fizzled.

Judd, a likely candidate for Senate against Mitch McConnell (R-KY), plays the First Lady in the film. It portrays a North Korean terrorist attack on Washington that results in the president being taken hostage.

Judd supporters hoped her on-screen death would make for some viral video when played before the audience at annual conservative gathering, and promised BuzzFeed a recording of the event, however it came out.

The video that resulted shows a jerky and out-of-focus scene from Olympus Has Fallen and records audio of the small CPAC audience sounding unmoved.

Tough words from Gingrich at CPAC.

Image by Jeff Roberson, File / AP

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — Newt Gingrich had harsh words for his party's establishment leaders at CPAC Saturday.

"I ran for Congress the second time in 1976. I lost twice and finally won in 1978. And let me tell you: it is sobering to be to be standing here as a senior member of this party telling you from 1976 to 2013 we have the dominant wing of this party which as done nothing and is as mired in the past and as mired in stupidity as it was [then]," Gingrich said.

Gingrich, who was often mocked on the presidential campaign trail in 2012 for promising to build a moon base if elected, tore into the GOP for failing to embrace innovation and use their control of House committees to highlight technological change.

Gingrich also praised the RNC's push for innovation led by chair Reince Priebus. And though he dismissed the GOP's "establishment" and "consulting class," there were some political consultant types he said were worthy of attention.

"People who have been here, people like Pat Caddell, Dave Bossie, Greg Shirley, the work that Alex Castellanos is doing on the concept of the new republic," Gingrich said. "All of these are beginning to raise the right kind of questions."

Caddell is a former Democratic pollster and a fixture on Fox News. He wasn't the only Democrat to get praise from Gingrich on the podium.

"The best single book on moving out of bureaucracy and into a Toquevillian society where you the citizen are empowered to solve your own problems… the best single book is by Gavin Newsom, the former mayor of San Francisco and Lt. Gov. of California," Gingrich said. "It's called Citizenville, and every single conservative in this conservative in this country should read it because it is ia practical textbook on all the opportunities in the information age to get rid of government and replace it with citizen activism exactly in the Toquevillian model."

Conservatives jump to their feet when he jokes about a run in 2016.

Image by Lloyd Fox/Baltimore Sun/MCT

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — Dr. Ben Carson became a certified conservative star on Saturday morning.

The neurosurgeon, who first captured national conservative attention last month when he criticized President Barack Obama's healthcare agenda during the National Prayer Breakfast, propelled a packed ballroom to their feet when he joked about running for president.

"I take it back!" he exclaimed, as the concept of a Carson administration was met with sustained applause.

In a Q&A following his address, Carson announced that he is retiring from medicine later this year. On the dias, Carson was asked repeatedly if he would run for office. After saying he wants to focus on education, Carson added, "but who knows what will happen?"

Fox News broadcast Carson's speech live, an honor it didn't bestow on Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN), who spoke before him, or Newt Gingrich. On Twitter, conservatives could barely contain their excitement at Carson's speech.

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Report finds the U.S. has violated Pakistan's sovereignty with drone strikes.

Image by Kirsty Wigglesworth, File / AP

The Obama administration is remaining mum on a new U.N. report that accuses the United States of violating Parkistan's sovereignty with its use of drones.

"The position of the government of Pakistan is quite clear. It does not consent to the use of drones by the United States on its territory and it considers this to be a violation of Pakistan's sovereignty and territorial integrity," said Ben Emmerson, British U.N. special rapporteur on counter-terrorism, after a three-day visit to Pakistan's capital.

The White House has yet to take a position on the report, saying they are "aware of Mr. Emmerson's report," but did not have a "specific comment" on the matter according to deputy press secretary Josh Earnest, who was speaking to reporters in a press gaggle on Air Force One.

Asked specifically if it was the United States' position that they are not violating Pakistan's sovereignty, Earnest demurred.

"I want to withhold judgment on the actual report in terms of the claims that they're making," Ernest said.

The full exchange from the gaggle regarding drones is below:

Q: Can I ask you about -- the U.N. has a report out about drones in Pakistan, saying both that we are -- the U.S. is violating the sovereignty of the Pakistani government, and that the civilian casualty rate is far too high. Do you have a reaction to that?

MR. EARNEST: I can tell you that our administration is aware of Mr. Emmerson's report. But at this point, I don't have a specific comment on either intelligence operations or any military operations.

As you know, this administration is in regular and close contact with Pakistan. We have a solid working relationship with them on a range of issues, including a close cooperative security relationship. And we're in touch with them on a regular basis on those issues, particularly the ones that relate to security.

At this point, we're going to withhold judgment on the actual report. But we're in touch with Mr. Emmerson, and if there are requests for information that are made of the administration, then we'll carefully consider those requests.

Q: But it's the U.S. position that we are not violating the sovereignty of Pakistan, is that right?

MR. EARNEST: Again, I want to withhold judgment on the actual report in terms of the claims that they're making. I just want to leave it -- reiterating for you that we do have an open, ongoing dialogue with Pakistan on a whole range of issues, and including a close, cooperative security relationship.

At CPAC, Ronald Reagan, Jesse Helms and a few others make the list.

Former U.S. presidential candidate Mitt Romney stands onstage for remarks to the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in National Harbor, Maryland, March 15, 2013.

Image by Jonathan Ernst / Reuters

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — Behind every speaker on the CPAC main stage is a massive backdrop celebrating the 40th anniversary of the conservative confab. Sprinkled along the banner are images of the historical icons of the conservative movement, giving it a monumental feel.

Here's who made the cut for CPAC's Mt. Rushmore, from left to right:

William F. Buckley, Jr.

Phyllis Schlafly

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The former vice presidential candidate had a Big Gulp in the palm of one hand and the crowd in the palm of the other.

Image by J. Scott Applewhite, File / AP

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — They like her, they still really like her. Sarah Palin had the CPAC crowd on its feet Saturday afternoon with a speech full of folksisms, one-liners about President Barack Obama, attacks on Karl Rove, and a couple wildly popular sips from a Big Gulp stashed in the podium before she came on stage.

"Bloomberg's not around," Palin joked as the crowd went wild, "our Big Gulps are safe."

For members of a conservative movement shuffling from lecture to lecture about what they're doing wrong at this year's CPAC, Palin's speech to the faithful was clearly refreshing. She laid the blame for the Republican Party's problems at the feet of men like Karl Rove, who she referred to as "the Architects."

"They talk about 'rebranding the GOP' instead of restoring the trust of the American people," she said. "We can't just ignore, though, that we just lost a big election. Yeah. Came in second. Out of two."

"Second position on a dog sled team is where the view never changes and the view ain't pretty," she said.

Palin was introduced by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), a white-hot member of the conservative movement these days. He's scheduled to give the keynote CPAC address Saturday afternoon. Bringing Palin to the stage, he said he wouldn't be in the the Senate unless Palin had backed his insurgent campaign.

Once Palin appeared, it didn't take long for her to bring the crowd to its feet by digging into her old playbook of winks and hints about a dark history for the president.

"More background checks? Dandy idea Mr. President," Palin said. "Should've started with yours."

Representative from Iowa says a pathway to citizenship is Republican suicide.

Image by Pete Marovich / Getty Images

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — Rep. Steve King has no time for the talk of Republican evolution on immigration.

The long-time opponent of comprehensive reform told a panel sponsored by Breitbart.com at CPAC Saturday that Republicans getting behind a pathway to citizenship — a component of reform supported by Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) and others — would essentially mean the GOP signed its own death warrant.

"Even Republicans seem to think that these undocumented Democrats could be made [GOP] voters," King said, "and what happens is that two out every three that would be legalized [and] become Democrats. And it's not 12 million. It's more like 20 million."

"But it isn't just the equation of 2/3 of over 20 million that will vote for the guy who opposes our conservative candidate whoever that might be, but it's also those who will leave us if we fail them," King said, adding, "We have to go back and tie together and restore the pillars of American exceptionalism and the rule of law is is essential."

Mukasey: “If an American medium is controlled by a political force from abroad, that's a proper subject for inquiry.”

Image by Alex Wong / Getty Images

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — Former Bush Attorney general Michael Mukasey Saturday called on Congress to launch an investigation into the take over of Current TV by Al Jazeera.

"If an American medium is controlled by a political force from abroad, that's a proper subject for inquiry," Mukasey said during a panel sponsored by Breitbart.com at the annual CPAC conference.

Although Al Jazeera is broadcast on a number of cable systems already, taking over Current will greatly expand the network's reach within the United States.

Mukasey and other conservatives have expressed strong concerns about the network, which for much of the Bush administration the White House was openly hostile towards and Republicans repeatedly accused Al Jazeera of having ties to Islamic radicals.

Mukasey also made mention of Al Jazeera's interest in taking over the old New York Times building in New York as it's U.S. headquarters.

"I'd offer you as a followup a delicious irony that is the fact that I read that Al Jazeera is looking for space in the old New York Times building. Makes them feel right at home," Mukasey quipped during the panel.