Huckabee rips CPAC

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee blasted the Conservative Political Action Conference Saturday as outdated, nearly corrupt and unrepresentative of the conservative movement.

Huckabee, a 2008 Republican presidential contender and potential 2012 candidate who had spoken at the conference for years, said the reason he blew it off this year was that the meeting has become dominated by libertarian activists.


“CPAC has becoming increasingly more libertarian and less Republican over the last years, one of the reasons I didn’t go this year,” Huckabee said in an interview with Fox News, where he is a paid analyst and has his own show.

He was responding to a question about whether he was upset by his single-digit showing in the conference’s straw poll, which was won by libertarian-leaning Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas).

But it wasn’t the only criticism the Arkansan leveled at CPAC.

Huckabee said the rise of the tea party movement had “taken all of the oxygen out of the room,” rendering the venerable conference far less relevant than it had been in previous years.

“Where CPAC was historically the event, the tea parties are having their own events all over the country and a lot more truly grassroots people are getting involved because of the tea parties,” said the former governor.

And, goaded by Fox Host Geraldo Rivera, Huckabee went even further.

“Because of the way that it solicits sponsors, it’s almost becomes a pay-for-play,” he said. “It’s kind of like, who will pay money to be able to be a sponsor and get time in the program. That’s one of the things that has hurt its credibility in the last couple of years.”

Dating to his failed 2008 run, Huckabee has had tense relations with the Washington-based conservative leaders who run the conference. The conservative establishment types questioned his fiscal bona fides and the former governor was annoyed so few of them took his campaign seriously – even after he won the Iowa caucuses.

He has also never fared well in conference’s straw poll – until Paul, Mitt Romney had won it for three consecutive years – and wasn’t likely to do much better this year.

Still, his daughter and adviser, Sarah Huckabee, made no mention of her father’s concerns about the conservative confab when asked by POLITICO about his absence. The younger Huckabee Friday said only that the former governor was committed to campaign for a House candidate in South Carolina and then be in New York City for his TV show during the conference.

But that may not make his comments about CPAC – made on the network favored by conservatives on the same night they broadcast live their own Glenn Beck's keynote speech to the conference – sting any less.

Huckabee’s assault comes on the heels of a conference, the 37th annual, that reflected both the enduring appeal of CPAC and its unmistakable challenges.

About 10,000 energized conservatives showed up at the Wardman Park Marriott in Washington and were rewarded with red meat-filled speeches from a parade of high-profile GOP politicians and celebrities. The event won considerable national media coverage and two cable stations even staged correspondents full-time throughout its three days.

But for all the enthusiasm in the hotel’s corridors, much of the rhetoric on stage felt oddly dated. For every Marco Rubio – the young Florida Senate candidate who is seen as by many conservatives as their future – there was the NRA’s Wayne LaPierre, rambling about Clinton-era gun control battles and showing decade-old video clips of himself jousting with TV hosts on the big screens in the ballroom.

Worse, at least in the eyes of CPAC organizers, hearty supporters of Paul showed up in part to ensure the quirky Texas septuagenarian won the straw poll.

What was seen in the past as an indicator of who conservative activists preferred in the next presidential race became ratified as all but worthless as boos rained down in the ballroom when it was disclosed that Paul had won the contest.

The conference was also hurt by its notable absences. Not only did Huckabee skip an appearance, but former Alaska governor, 2008 GOP vice presidential nominee and sure-fire attention-getter Sarah Palin also didn’t make the trip.

Thought not as directly as Huckabee, Palin also took shots at the conference. In explaining last year why the Alaskan wasn’t attending, Palin aides raised two issues: a lobbying controversy involving David Keene, whose American Conservative Union puts on the event and the presence of the extremist John Birch Society.

Unmentioned, but also possibly a reason she stayed away, was that CPAC organizers complained when Palin appeared to agree to attending the conference in 2009 only to then not show up.