Here are a few items from the Conservative Political Action Conference, being held this weekend at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, D.C……
Total paid registrations as of noon today: 6,800, and still coming. The total for last year, which was the highest ever, was 6,400.
Total credentialed media in attendance: 500.
Number of co-sponsoring organizations: 90.
The Conservative Movement is the biggest it has ever been.
Last Fall CPAC and the hosting American Conservative Union prepared a questionnaire for all the Republican Presidential candidates and asked for responses by late last year so the information could be distributed at this CPAC. John McCain, and all the other candidates responded in detail, with just one exception. By a letter dated December 7, 2007, California’s Bill Simon, identified as "policy director" for the Rudy Giuliani campaign, on the campaign’s stationary, informed CPAC/ACU that the Giuliani campaign would not be responding to the questionnaire, and had a policy against responding to all questionnaires because of the shear volume of work.