The Other McCain

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

CPAC Scenes

NATIONAL HARBOR, Maryland There is nothing else on the planet like CPAC. As I’ve sometimes said, it’s basically Mardi Gras for right-wingers. You see all the earnest young College Republican types, with the boys in nice suits and the girls dolled up in dresses and heels, and you know they’re having the time of their […]

CPAC: New Heights of Awesomeness

NATIONAL HARBOR, Maryland Watching Vice President J.D. Vance being interviewed on the CPAC stage by Mercedes Mercedes Schlapp yesterday morning, I couldn’t help but be impressed and encouraged. Vance is very, very good as a communicator, in a way that Donald Trump never has been. Certainly, many voters have been drawn into the GOP column […]

CPAC: Too Early to Think About 2026?

NATIONAL HARBOR, Maryland So I get on the hotel elevator with a couple, and the guy’s wearing a red shirt emblazoned, “RON ELLER FOR CONGRESS.” Curiosity being a journalistic habit, I ask the guy, “Who’s Ron Eller?” “I’m Ron Eller,” he says, and then proceeds to tell me that he ran for Congress last year […]

CPAC: Today Is Vice President Day

NATIONAL HARBOR, Maryland Still don’t have my media credentials. The appointed time to pick those up was 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. Wednesday, so I showed up at the designated location about 4 o’clock and WHOA! A gigantic long line that wasn’t moving at all. So I figured there must be some kind of glitch […]

Pam Bondi Confirmed as A.G., and Why Did Democrats Vote Against Her?

Only one Democratic senator — John Fetterman of Pennsylvania — voted to confirm Donald Trump’s choice for Attorney General. Can anyone explain why so many Democrats voted against Pam Bondi, about whom there was no real controversy and whose tenure as Florida’s attorney general was entirely successful? There was no scandal in Bondi’s background, no […]

CPAC 2023: Trump Is Still the Big Dog

Before former President Donald Trump spoke to a capacity ballroom tonight at CPAC, they announced the results of their 2024 presidential straw poll, and it wasn’t close: Trump 62%, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis 20%, and everybody else in single digits. Of course, we’re still many months away from the first televised debates among primary contenders, […]

CPAC 2023: ‘Media Logistics’ & a Strange Memo From the National Affairs Desk

NATIONAL HARBOR, Maryland Because I was busy doing other things, I didn’t notice this email that went out yesterday from CPAC Communications: MEDIA LOGISTICS FOR CPAC IN DC 2023 Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center . . . Saturday, March 4, 2023 2:00 AM – 5:00 AM: A security sweep will be conducted at this […]

CPAC 2023: Why Not This Guy?

NATIONAL HARBOR, Maryland Vivek Ramaswamy is the longest of long shots among 2024 Republican presidential candidates, but anyone who knows me, knows I love an underdog. The official results of the 2010 midterms hadn’t been counted before I jumped aboard the “Cain Train,” backing Herman Cain’s 2012 campaign, which nobody gave a chance until, a […]

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