Among the Believers (Or Delusions in High Places)

Interesting Report from Salon about the Conservative Political Action Conference (Ronald Reagon Building, Feb 19, 2005, Washington DC)

A popular poster image of President Bush as Uncle Sam that was for sale at the Conservative Political Action Conference

Michelle Goldberg writes: "It's a good thing I went to the Conservative Political Action Conference this year. Otherwise I never would have known that, despite the findings of the authoritative David Kay report and every reputable media outlet on earth, the United States actually discovered weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, vindicating all of George W. Bush's pre-war predictions..."

This "revelation" - that US actually discovered WMDs!!! - was made by U.S. Republican Congressman Christopher Cox of California, while welcoming the US Vice President, Dick Cheney, who was one of the speakers at the Conference. "America's Operation Iraqi Freedom is still producing shock and awe, this time among the blame-America-first crowd," he said, "We continue to discover biological and chemical weapons and facilities to make them inside Iraq."

!!!!??.... Really???

Apparently, Christpher Cox is a pretty high-profile congressman.His official site informs us that he is: "the first Chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, with primary jurisdiction over nation’s third largest cabinet agency, the Department of Homeland Security. In addition, the committee has responsibility for government-wide homeland security policy and the most significant responsibility for homeland security policy of any House or Senate committee.... In the 109th Congress, he will develop the first standing committee legislation to help the Department navigate the most significant reorganization of national security authority since 1947."

In this above congreggation of believers, he was joined by similar high-profile speakers, including:

US Vice President, Dick Cheney

Senior Advisor & Chief Political Strategist to President, and Deputy Chief of Staff, Karl Rove

Republican National Committee Chair, Ken Mehlman
Chairman of the House International Relations Committee, Henry Hyde

Foreign Policy Advisor to former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Dore Gold

former Chairman of the Republican Party Iowa, and the President, National Rifle Association, Kayne Robinson
...and Sen. Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich, Ann Coulter, Oliver North and Michelle Malkin, among others...

The report continues: "Apparently, most of the hundreds of people in attendance already knew about these remarkable, hitherto-unreported discoveries, because no one gasped at this startling revelation.... And why would they? Like comrades celebrating the success of Mao's Great Leap Forward, attendees at CPAC... invest their leaders with the power to defy mere reality through force of insistent rhetoric. The triumphant recent election is all the proof they need that everything George W. Bush says is true...."