Last year, former Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman came out. These stands have exposed fundamental fault lines within the conservative coalition between libertarians and social conservatives, between a new generation and the old.
That's where CPAC comes in. This year, among the 50 co-sponsors of the event is a gay conservative group known as GOProud. Members believe in conservative principles from fiscal discipline to national security -- but they are openly gay, and this is apparently unacceptable in the eyes of some of their chosen political tribe.
When CPAC Chairman David Keene announced that GOProud would be among the co-sponsors of the convention this year, there was an outcry among social conservatives. And then began the resistance.
The far-right Family Research Council pulled out, soon joined by Concerned Women for America, the American Principles Project, American Values, the Capital Research Center, Center for Military Readiness, Liberty Counsel and Maggie Gallagher's National Organization for Marriage. Most surprising was the boycott by the influential Heritage Foundation, a think tank that traces its roots to the Reagan administration and professes belief in the principles of small government and individual freedom -- unless, apparently, it extends to the participation of gays and lesbians in conservative conferences.
The American Conservative Union -- the organizers of CPAC -- has "gone libertarian, that's their focus," Mat Staver, president of Liberty Counsel, told the far-right website WorldNetDaily. "Libertarianism is right on the economy, often wrong on national defense, and doesn't care about social conservatism. Libertarians only respect one leg of the Reagan revolution, and you can't stand for long on one leg."
