-By Warner Todd Huston
The American Conservative Union (ACU) is the entity that runs the biggest annual conservative event, the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). Next year CPAC will be headed by a new face, Al Cardenas. Now former Chairman David Keene turns over the reigns to Cardenas after the 2011 CPAC event.
Cardenas has a compelling story, indeed. He was born in Havana, Cuba in 1948 and came to America in 1960 when his parents fled Castro’s communist takeover. Cardenas has been heavily involved in the Florida State GOP and he worked for Ronald Reagan’s campaigns in Florida starting in 1975.
I had an opportunity to interview Mr. Cardenas about his new role with the ACU and this naturally led to questions of the current controversies going on at CPAC. I focused on the Ron Paul fans that caused so much ruckus this year and Cardenas seemed to put the Paulites on notice that they may not be invited again.
At about 5 minutes into our interview I asked Cardenas about the disruptions that occurred specifically during the appearances of Vice President Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld. Cardenas replied that, “those who decide to consciously breach [civility] maybe shouldn’t be part of CPAC and we’ll keep that in mind for the future.”
It sure seems as if Cardenas just put the Paulites on notice that they may not be invited next year.
New ACU Chief Al Cardenas Puts Ron Paul on Notice”
I have a few photos of some of the notables I encountered at CPAC still sitting around, so this post is as good as any to get them posted, I suppose.
Ron Paul may have won the CPAC straw poll but he’s lost Young Americans for Freedom, a conservative, college Republican-style organization to which he used to belong. Just as the results of the straw poll were revealed YAF announced they were kicking Paul out of the organization.
