20070304 CPAC, Blumenthal, Malkin, Coulter and politics as a contact sport

CPAC, Blumenthal, Malkin, Coulter and politics as a contact sport

March 4th, 2007

I had wanted to go to the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington DC last weekend.

Time is not my friend and in hindsight I haven’t a clue as to how I could’ve done it. Nevertheless, grazing through the blogs I came across a video of the event that Max Blumenthal had put together. I found it on the Maryland Federation of College Democrats web site.

If you’d like to know more about Max Blumenthal go here for a brief bio and list of his pieces in “The Nation.” I cannot refer you to his blog because it has lots of “unpleasant words…”

It appears that he is a one-person cottage industry in the pursuit of painting Republicans in a profoundly unbearable - undesirable light – And I guess there’s the rub.

And he seems to have had some success in doing that.

Michelle Malkin was less than pleased to see Mr. Blumenthal at CPAC. She wrote:

“Interlude: Two punks from The Nation with a camera stopped by my book signing to ambush me about In Defense of Internment. Have they bothered to read the book? No. I look forward to their butchering of my comments and the predictable unhinged reaction.”

Mr. Blumenthal wrote:

“I met concentration camp enthusiast Michelle Malkin at her book signing at CPAC today. I merely asked her to autograph this photo and she launched into a prolonged hysterical rant at the lens of our video camera. From the looks of what she wrote on her blog, Malkin is not looking forward to seeing video of the encounter…”

Later Mr. Blumenthal added in a post titled, “CPAC: The Unauthorized Documentary:”

The video is finally ready! I’m having trouble embedding it on WordPress so just click here to view it.

A preview:

Michelle Malkin goes unhinged and launches a hysterical tirade into the lens of our camera. I ask Ann “John Edwards is a (My redact)” Coulter why she isn’t the same person on Sunday morning as on Sunday night. Tom Tancredo fanatics lose their cool when asked about connection between race and immigration, then try to conceal their neo-Confederate paraphenalia(sic). a curiously pale black Republican explains why black Republicans can’t get elected. Bob Barr, Grover Norquist and “Flipper,” the anti-Romney dolphin, discuss the conservative movement. I receive a special gift from David Horowitz…and much, much more!

Then later yet, Mr. Blumenthal writes, “Language police chief Michelle Malkin calls me an “(my redact).” Wait, who’s unhinged again?”

Looks like Ms. Malkin and Mr. Blumenthal won’t be exchanging Christmas cards anytime soon.

Of course with Ann Coulter’s reprehensible remark at the Conservative Political Action Conference, perhaps it really isn’t that hard to paint Republicans in an unpleasant light.

Speaking of Ms. Coulter’s unfortunate remarks, Michelle Malkin has weighed in. I’ll put her remarks in a footnote so that some of my friends who do not care to go to her site can read them absent any philosophical trauma.[1]

I’m just not sure what to make of the video. I sorta-kinda viewed it with an eye for “how not to conduct oneself” with someone with whom I have political disagreements. I believe that when working with someone who disagrees with me – that’s the time to turn on the charm, be profoundly polite and make sure that we can all go out and have a soda afterwards.

And I guess that is what is lacking in politics these days.

To be certain, Mr. Blumenthal is a “brave” person. I would be profoundly uncomfortable at a Cindy Sheehan rally or if I were to attend the YearlyKos Convention[2] with the specific agenda and purpose of gathering only information that paints Democrats in an unpleasant light.

Perhaps I wouldn’t be uncomfortable? Then again hopefully the professionalism simply would take over and I’d report upon the event straight down the middle. Whatever.

Of “left-wing conferences,” Michelle Malkin wrote:

CPAC's Friday night banquet honored many of these troops, along with modern civil rights leader Ward Connerly (who gave THE best, most eloquent, rousing, passionate, stalwart, and courageous speech of the entire conference), and other conservative leaders. After the dinner, journalist/happy warrior Joel Mowbray quipped to me:

"At left-wing conferences, you leave hating America. At right-wing conferences, you leave loving America."

Well, if you’d like another point of view – and I always do - - Mr. Blumenthal’s video came be found here. It certainly has some cringe worthy moments. I’d love to find a video with another point of view from Mr. Blumenthal’s.

####

[1] Enter Ann Coulter.

Her "(My redact)" joke was not just a distraction from all the good that was highlighted and represented at the conference. It was the equivalent of a rhetorical fragging--an intentionally-tossed verbal grenade that exploded in her own fellow ideological soldiers' tent.

There are countless conservatives who bring their children to CPAC. It's a family-friendly event. I brought mine last year and the year before. I met several parents with their kids there this year. We expect CPAC to be a place where conservative role models speak with clarity, passion, and integrity. There are enough spewers of mindless filth, vulgarity, and hatred on TV, at the movies, and in the public schools. We don't expect our children to be exposed to that garbage at the nation's preeminent conservative gathering.

I was in the back of the ballroom and did not see any children in the audience during Coulter's speech. But what if there had been?

Would you want your children hearing the word "faggot" spoken in such a casual and senseless manner? Would you like your first-grader or three-year-old running around the halls of CPAC singing "(my redact)?" Not me. Not anymore than I'd like my toddler singing "(my redack)" or "(My redack)"--favored epithets hurled at conservative minorities by leftist haters groping around in their empty intellectual quivers. There were hundreds of young conservative college students in the ballroom. Would you be proud of your college-age daughter spewing such epithets in her campus debates with leftists?

With a single word, Coulter sullied the hard work of hundreds of CPAC participants and exhibitors and tarred the collective reputation of thousands of CPAC attendees. At a reception for college students held by the Young America's Foundation, I lambasted the substitution of stupid slurs for persuasion-- be it "(My redact)" from a conservative or " (My redact)" from a liberal--and urged the young people there to conduct themselves at all times with dignity in their ideological battles on and off campus.

I made something else explicitly clear: Not all of us treat the communication of conservative ideals and ideas as 24/7 performance art. You can and should use humor to convey your message. You can enlighten and entertain--without becoming a tired old schtick. You can joke without becoming the joke.

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YearlyKos may develop and conduct classes, workshops, lectures, and seminars to educate the public about progressive values. It will present these programs at its own events and at progressive conferences, such as the annual convention held by bloggerpower.org.

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