A CPAC 69

By Cernig

John Cole hit the nail on the head yesterday on the conservative movement's suck-up to John McCain.

Months of calling him Juan McCain and worse were swept aside, “shamnesty” is but a memory, and all it took was one chorus of the “democrats are worse” and our brave patriots came to their senses. And now, magically, the right-wing blabosphere and John McCain are united and go together like Cheetos and Mountain Dew. Before long, our independent bloggers and right-wing bloviators will be back to doing what they do best- regurgitating the party line.

But it isn't as if McCain didn't fellate the movement in return. Have a read again at his speech to CPAC and wonder how many of Romney's staff worked on it behind the scenes. For a start, the line "liberty is a right conferred by our Creator, not by governments" is right out of Romney's big speech on why conservatives should elect a Mormon. Then there's the obligatory genuflection to Saint Raygun and the shopping-list of conservative buttons pressed in this snippet:

small government; fiscal discipline; low taxes; a strong defense, judges who enforce, and not make, our laws; the social values that are the true source of our strength; and, generally, the steadfast defense of our rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, which I have defended my entire career as God-given to the born and unborn.

He promised to nominate judges like Roberts and Alito, threatens war with Iran and jumps on the "Democrat defeatists" bandwagon. He implicitly walks back any calls for immigration amnesty he has ever made.

Of waterboarding and Gitmo, one of his signature issues, nary a word. Look, over there, I'm pro-life!

Yup, there was a whole lot of sixty-nining going on at CPAC yesterday - and today Bush continued the theme.