Right-Wing Disunity? Clashes at This Year's Conservative Political Action Conference

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Right-Wing Disunity? Clashes at This Year's Conservative Political Action Conference

If there was any unifying theme to this year's conference, it was conflict between different factions on the Right.
February 13, 2011 |

WASHINGTON, D.C -- If there was any unifying theme to this year's Conservative Political Action Conference, it was the disunity of the Right. Just ask Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld, who were treated to a little shock and awe, booed and heckled mercilessly when the former presented the latter -- in all seriousness -- with the Defender of Liberty Award.

The shout-down came mostly from supporters of Ron Paul, the Texas congressman whose perennial presidential campaign draws enthusiastic support from the young libertarians so heavily represented at CPAC, thanks to conference organizers' outreach to college students. Paul opposes the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

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Even if you missed her opening gambit, it was hard to miss Bachmann if you stayed at CPAC for any length of time. Many of the people who sought to shake her hand at her reception waited on a line the length of a corridor in order to do so. The next day, she appeared on a panel sponsored by Citizens United, the movie-producing group for which the infamous Supreme Court case, which opened the spigot of corporate cash into election campaigns, is named. Throughout the day, she popped up here and there, shaking hands in the lobby, taking her turn before the cameras of Pajamas Media. Nonetheless, she mustered only 4 percent of the vote in CPAC's straw poll.

The Koch Brothers Solidify Their Grip

Bachmann is a regular speaker at events sponsored by Americans for Prosperity, the astroturf group funded by oil magnate David Koch, who, with his brother, Charles, runs Koch Industries, one of the nation's biggest polluters. As AlterNet has chronicled for several years, the Kochs are putting their billions behind politicians who will advance their anti-regulatory agenda, and arraying those dollars against those who would stand in their way. In addition to their funding of Americans for Proserity, the Kochs fund legions of organizations and individuals that deny the scientific evidence for climate change.

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