I had the honor of attending the Presidential Banquet last evening at the 2008 Conservative Political Action Conference. Speakers included Bob Novak and Rep. Marsha Blackburn, as well as former ABC White House correspondent Sam Donaldson (who good naturedly needled Novak in a speech introducing and praising his career in journalism).
Blackburn spoke eloquently about having the "best district" in America and how faith, family, and a can-do volunteer spirit characterize her constituency. "Not once," Blackburn emphasized, did anyone she spoke to on Wednesday in the aftermath of devastating tornados, "ask where's FEMA?"
Blackburn, NewsBusters fans may recall was the target last September of an inaccurate and unfair ambush at the hands of MSNBC's David Shuster. For an archive of NewsBusters posts on that, check here.
See also Mark Finkelstein's Sept. 26 post complete with MSNBC's David Shuster apology for ambushing Blackburn:
DAVID SHUSTER: On Monday evening while guest-hosting the 6 p.m. evening hour, I conducted an interview with Tennessee Republican Marsha Blackburn. The congresswoman spoke at length about a newspaper ad that criticized General Petraeus. In what I believed was an effort to examine Representative Blackburn's priorities, I then asked her to name the last soldier from her congressional district killed in Iraq.
She responded "the name of the last soldier killed in Iraq from my district, I do not know." After that response, I identified who I believed to be that fallen soldier, a Tennessean killed in Iraq last month. But according to Pentagon documents, that young man came from a town inside a neighboring congressional district, not from Representative Blackburn's, and for that, I apologize for that mistake.
—Ken Shepherd is Managing Editor of NewsBusters
Editor at Large
Comments Policy
I would say that Rep.
February 8, 2008 - 13:33 ET by ConservativeRexI would say that Rep. Blackburn is an honorable woman. I am of a mind that Shuster should not have ambushed Rep Blackburn in the first place. MSNBC has a proven history of "ready, fire, aim".
Honestly, I do not see how or why any Republican would show up for anything on MSNBC. Republicans are doing them a favor by even appearing on their programs. I would make a wager that when a Republican does show up on MSNBC it is the only time their programs are in double digits in percentages of viewers.
What was the buzz on McCain
February 8, 2008 - 14:34 ET by Lame CherryAs you were there Mr. Shepherd, any chance you doing a feature blog on CPAC in telling us here what behind the scenes comment were on John McCain?
and the biggest question of did anyone at CPAC go up to McCain and inform him that Lynn Cheney would get Conservatives and a number of nattering feminists to vote the GOP ticket?
Romney is a non starter as he brings nothing and Huckabee turns off as many secularist Conservatives as he turns on the pulpit pounders.
CPAC would be a dream come true to attend.
*HIC IACET ARTORIVS REX QVONDAM REXQVE FVTVRVS
One of the people at
February 8, 2008 - 14:47 ET by Clear thinkerOne of the people at RightWingNews who was at cpac yesterday is reporting that McCain brought in a couple of busloads of his supporters for his speech and that was the reason for all the cheering. To top it off, they were instructed to push their way to the front and keep the boo birds in the back where they would not be picked up by the stage microphone.
The Conservative movement is about to be reborn.