"I don't have a problem with different, diverse groups that are involved in political discourse, and having a convention to talk about what the answers are to their problems that face America," Palin said. "We better be concentrating on what is really important and not going tit-for-tat as people are positioning themselves for 2012 and figuring out what groups is going to support whom. We better be very serious about finding solutions to the problems."
Her statement clarified earlier remarks made last week about the [CPAC] conference allowing GOProud to co-sponsor the conference, which received a sharp rebuke from some social conservatives who demanded that she expand on her vague comments.
Other cons do have a problem such as Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council who said, "conservatives and homosexuals cannot coexist" in a political coalition. Translation: GOProud or Go Home!
Moody further writes up muddled reactions from the Heritage Foundation, the $75 million think tank that pulled out of a CPAC with not so much as a wham, bam, thank you ma'am:
[A Heritage spokesman said]: "It would be safe to say that GOProud's involvement was one of several groups whose involvement helped encourage us to take another look at whether this was going to be the best use of our time."
Other Heritage employees have echoed similar concerns. In an e-mail to a donor who said he would not renew his Heritage membership over the group's choice not to participate in CPAC, Bethany Murphy, a membership assistant at Heritage, emphasized the other events that Heritage planned to sponsor in 2011, calling CPAC just "one event" among dozens. (To put it in perspective, Heritage has more than 700,000 members who can donate as little as $25 to obtain membership.)
"The participation of the homosexual conservative group GOProud was not the determining factor in our absence," Murphy wrote. "We at Heritage had begun reviewing our participation in CPAC long before GOProud's increased role as a conference organizer was announced. The reason for our review was that it is no longer clear to us what form CPAC as an event is taking this year, or the next, or what core philosophies it is representing. So we decided to take a break and focus on other priorities."
Mike Gonzalez, Heritage's vice president of communication, told numerous newspapers, however, that the organization was staying away because of philosophical differences.
"We want to promote economic freedom, a strong national defense and social conservativism. We think these policies are indivisible," Gonzalez told the Los Angeles Times. "It's not a boutique. You can't pick one and not the other."
