The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

CPAC: Still Not Worried

Posted on | February 28, 2020 | 2 Comments

 

ALEXANDRIA, Virginia

“Lady MAGA” is “America’s Conservative Drag Superstar! Activist” and just happens to be staying in our hotel for CPAC. My brother Kirby got, uh, her photo (click to enlarge) and my only comment is that America has Lady MAGA while Canada has Jonathan “Jessica” Yaniv.

Don’t hate us for our freedom, bro.

When you turn on the TV news, everybody’s panicking about coronavirus, but everybody here at CPAC seems calm and cheerful. The stock market has dropped something like 4,500 points the past two weeks, and there’s a lot of politically motivated finger-pointing underway, and so what? My hunch is that fear of a pandemic is completely out of proportion to the actual danger, and that within six weeks, the scare will be over. Part of what has driven the hysteria is that it’s late winter, when everybody’s cooped up inside and you’ve got a lot of people sniffling, sneezing and coughing from ordinary colds. Once warm weather arrives and people can get outdoors again, everybody will be like, “What virus?”

So just keep calm and wait for April. Meanwhile . . .

 

Does former Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker look worried? No, of course not. Kirby got that candid photo during Thursday night’s “Israel Heartland” reception, where Walker spoke along with Rep. Mark Meadows and Rep. Andy Biggs.

 

Does Grover Norquist look worried? Don’t be silly. He was hosting a reception yesterday at the Public House. One of the most influential activists in Washington, Norquist is president of Americans for Tax Reform, whose most famous quote is: “My goal is to cut government in half in twenty-five years, to get it down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub.” A worthy ambition.

Norquist has mentored many young conservatives, including my friend Will Upton, who used to work for ATR. In August 2011, when I was covering the Iowa Straw Poll, I met up with Will at a Des Moines bar one afternoon and told him I was getting ready to go cover a Mitt Romney event. Will decided to ride along and when we arrived at the event, there was a registration table out front. Neither of us had expected this. Would they be checking credentials? Would they let us in? Will just strolls up to the table and says, “Grover sent us.” We sailed through with no hassles.

Well, so much for campaign-trail nostalgia. Now I’ve got to jump in the shower and head back over to CPAC. I’m tentatively scheduled for two interviews on Radio Row this afternoon. Later . . .




 

Category: CPAC

Comments

2 Responses to “CPAC: Still Not Worried”

  1. Quote of the Day | 357 Magnum
    February 28th, 2020 @ 10:37 pm

    […] The Other McCain and CPAC: Still Not Worried. And the rest of that post is worth your time as […]

  2. Friday hawt chicks & links – The virus free edition. – Adam Piggott
    February 29th, 2020 @ 3:16 am

    […] In non-virus news this year’s CPAC which I gather is a Republican convention is currently underway somewhere on the mainland USA. It looks like a classy show that is doing its best to hold up all of those foundational conservative principles. Why, they even have their very own MAGA drag queen. […]