Gary Kreep, the President of the Ramona-based United States Justice Foundation, has been a long-time California participant at the national Conservative Political Action Conferences in Washington, D.C.   I had a chance to ask Gary about his observations on this year’s conference.  Gary told me he was impressed with the high-level of turnout from college and high school age conservatives, especially those involved with some of the campaigns, such as Tancredo, Romney and Brownback.  (I also saw plenty of youthful enthusiam for Rudy Guiliani during his speech!)  But Gary said what he also appreciated were the dinner speeches last night by two leading Bush Administration conservatives: Vice-President Dick Cheney and former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations (and now American Conservative Union Board member!) John Bolton.

Gary said there was a good reason that Cheney received several standing ovations at his dinner speech last night: he told CPAC that the economy is growing, that 7.5 million new jobs have been created because of the tax cuts, that the Administration supports making the tax cuts permanent, and that it is essential to "stay the course" in Iraq and Afganistan.  On the same program, Bolton railed against America’s enemies in the U.N. who would use international organizations to restrain world freedom, not expand it.  Gary said he felt Bolton got the rawest of deals from the U.S. Senate, which refused to confirm his appointment as U.N. Ambassador, through a filibuster, even though a majority of Senators supported him.  

Tonight CPAC will host its annual "Reagan Awards" dinner where a conservative activist will be recognized with an award and substantial monetary grant for their conservative efforts.  And tomorrow will be a full-day of activity pointing toward Newt Gingrich’s evening closer.  The conference is crawling with press and has the feel of a national political party convention, the perfect place for a political junkie!

This entry was posted on Friday, March 2nd, 2007 at 12:00 am and is filed under Blog Posts.