Conservative Columnist Trashes CPAC… At CPAC

[WestVirginiaRebel]

Daily Caller

Conservative columnist Mona Charen attacked CPAC for inviting French nationalist Marion Marechal-Le Pen to speak while addressing the conference Saturday.

“I think the only reason she was here is because she’s named Le Pen,” Charen said during a CPAC panel on the #MeToo movement. “And the Le Pen name is a disgrace. Her grandfather is a racist and a Nazi. She claims that she stands for him. And the fact that CPAC invited her is a disgrace.” (RELATED: Le Pen At CPAC: ‘All I Want Is The Survival Of My Nation’)

That comment drew loud boos from the audience and jeers wondering why she was even at the conservative event. Several conservative commentators expressed outraged at Le Pen’s invite, claiming the young French politician is a “national socialist” and a false conservative. (RELATED: Marion Le Pen Makes Sense For CPAC)

Charen’s criticism of CPAC was not the only statement that drew ire from the crowd. She also attacked President Trump over his own allegations of sexual misconduct.

 

“I’m actually gonna twist this around a bit and say that I’m disappointed in people on our side,” she argued. “For being hypocrites about sexual harassers and abusers of women who are in our party. Who are sitting in the White House. Who brag about their extramarital affairs. Who brag about mistreating women. And because he happens to have an R after his name, we look the other way, we don’t complain.”

________

Who crashed the CPAC party?

[Valin]

1 hour ago, WestVirginiaRebel said:

Daily Caller

 

________

Who crashed the CPAC party?

 

Marion Le Pen

[Draggingtree]

 

[Valin]

CPAC should not have invited Marion Marechal-Le Pen

Paul Mirengoff

February 25, 2018

John’s CPAC wrap-up post included a discussion of Mona Charen’s contribution to a panel on feminism. I didn’t see the panel (or attend CPAC). However, according to Yuval Levin’s account, Charen criticized CPAC for inviting Marion Marechal Le Pen to speak at the convention. She stated:

[T]here was quite an interesting person who was on this stage the other day. Her name is Marion Le Pen. Why was she here? She’s a young, no longer in office politician from France.

I think the only reason she was here is that she’s named Le Pen. And the Le Pen name is a disgrace. Her grandfather was a racist and a Nazi. She claims that she stands for him. The fact that CPAC invited her was a disgrace.

I’m not sure Le Pen’s name was the only reason CPAC invited her. She’s a physically attractive, talented, fiery speaker and an ardent nationalist. She earned the admiration of Steve Bannon, who featured prominently at last year’s CPAC (how quickly they forget).

But I agree with Mona’s conclusion. Inviting Marion Le Pen was a disgrace.

Le Pen does, indeed, stand with Jean-Marie Le Pen. She told the Washington Post’s James McAuley that she is his political heir.

 

(Snip)

[Valin]

On Being Booed and Buoyed

Mar. 2 2018

Mona reports the behind the scenes details of her appearance at CPAC last weekend and the fallout since. The conservative movement is up for grabs — no telling how this story will turn out.

[Valin]

Related.............

 

Hillary campaign staffer: You won’t believe what CPAC taught me about conservatives

Ed Morrissey

March 2, 2018

That’s probably literally true among Annafi Wahed’s friends and colleagues, but might also come as a surprise among some on the Right, too. The former staffer for Hillary Clinton’s campaign decided to take a flier on the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) this year to get to see what conservatives are really like. Her friends warned her “not to get killed,” and wanted to have her check in regularly with them to make sure she was safe.

So what did Wahed find? Diversity — and a sense that she’d applied some prejudices of her own unfairly:

"To be sure, I’m a tiny, talkative South Asian woman who spent four months on Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign staff. I wasn’t exactly in my element surrounded by people in “Make America Great Again” hats chanting “Lock her up! Lock her up!“ But there was more to CPAC than that. In four days, I spoke with more than 100 conservatives, most of whom greeted me with open arms and thanked me for being there and having an open mind. They happily engaged me in meaningful political conversation and invited me for drinks and after-parties.

Where some saw a circus, I saw a big tent. I spoke with Jennifer C. Williams, chairman of the Trenton, N.J., Republican Committee and a transgender activist. Twenty feet away, I spoke with a religious leader who opposes same-sex marriage. While a panelist touted capital punishment, several attendees crowded the Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty booth. Hours after President Trump recast Oscar Brown Jr. ’s song “The Snake” as an ugly anti-immigrant parable, several influential Republicans were asking me, a naturalized citizen, how they can support my startup.

In retrospect, I’m embarrassed at how nervous I was when I arrived. I found myself singing along to “God Bless the USA” with a hilariously rowdy group of college Republicans, having nuanced discussions about gun control and education policy with people from all walks of life, nodding my head in agreement with parts of Ben Shapiro’s speech, and coming away with a greater determination to burst ideological media bubbles."

(Snip)

 

Another point to consider is where the perceived conflict actually is. While there was plenty of Hillary-bashing going on at CPAC, the divisions within the Right are usually played out more passionately than the divisions between Republicans and Democrats. The latter are a given; it’s the former that molds the direction of the conservative movement and (hopefully) influences the GOP. That’s usually the fight in the hallways. In fact, the most notable aspect of the last two CPACs was the relative lack of debate and dispute, which can likely get chalked up to the fact that Republicans control all of the elective levers of federal government. That incentivizes unity — and it may have incentivized dissenters on the Right to avoid CPAC too, although it was the largest edition yet.

(Snip)

 

[Valin]

Mona Charen gains a strange new respect

Paul Mirengoff

March 13, 2018

I have always admired Mona Charen. I continue to admire her even though I don’t agree with her Never Trump position.

I admire Mona for speaking out at CPAC against the invitation it issued to Marion Marechal-Le Pen. I admire her for warning a CPAC audience not to look the other way at sexual harassment when conservatives commit it.

Now that Mona is a Never Trumper who has spoken out at CPAC, the liberal media admires her too. It has a strange new respect for her.

Mona is the subject of an admiring piece in the Washington Post’s Style section, and in a CSPAN interview she mentioned recent appearances on MSNBC. In response to a question from the host, she added that she hasn’t appeared on Fox News in a while.

That Fox News isn’t interested in Mona’s point of view tells us plenty about that outlet. Kookie leftists are welcome on Tucker Carlson’s show, but there’s no room on the network for a thoughtful, conservative Never-Trumper.

I wonder, though. Did Joe Scarborough or others at MSNBC ever invite Mona to express her point of view during the Obama years? If not, this tells us plenty about that outlet, and the use it now wishes to make of Mona Charen.

 

(Snip)