CPAC Begins Today in Washington, D.C.

Today in Washington, D.C. - Feb 9, 2011:
The big news in Washington, D.C. is the opening of CPAC 2012 (Conservative Political Action Committee) today. Already today, Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli received the CPAC / NRA 2012 Defended of the Constitution Award.

Yesterday the House passed (238-175) H.R. 3521 to amend the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974 to provide for a legislative line-item veto to expedite consideration of rescission, and for other purposes.
This morning, the House passed (417-2) H.R. S 2038 — The House version of the Congressional insider trading bill. They also voted 405 - 15 on a motion to instruct conferees who will meet with senator conference member to resolve differences in the two versions of the bill.

The Senate is still considering S. 1813, the highway bill. Sen. Roy Blunt (R-MO) tried to attach a bill to roll back the Obamacare mandate that attacks religious liberty. However, Sen. Majority Leader Harry Read (D-NV) blocked it.

Sen. GOP Leader Mitch McConnell responded to "Dirty Harry" Reid's refusal of Blunts amendment:

"Our country is unique in the world because it was established on the basis of an idea: that we are all endowed by our creator with certain unalienable rights — in other words, rights that are conferred not by a king or a president or a Congress, but by the Creator himself. The state protects these rights, but it doesn’t grant them.

And what the state doesn’t grant, the state can’t take away. That’s what this week’s debate on a particularly odious outcome from the President’s health care law has been about: Our founders believed so strongly that the government should neither establish a religion, nor prevent its free exercise that they listed it as the very first item in the Bill of Rights.

"And Republicans are trying today to reaffirm that basic right. But Democrats won’t allow it. They won’t allow those of us who were sworn to uphold the U.S. Constitution to even offer an amendment that says we believe in our First Amendment right to religious freedom. I never thought I’d see the day. I’ve spent a lot of time in my life defending the First Amendment. But I never thought I’d see the day when the elected representatives of the people of this country would be blocked by a majority party in Congress to even express their support for it."

Numerous "conservative" members of Congress have made their way over to CPAC. Videos and comments by various attendees will be posted separately.

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