DeMint Becomes Latest to Boycott CPAC

POLITICS -- January 21, 2011 at 5:19 PM EDT

DeMint Becomes Latest to Boycott CPAC

Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., announced Friday he was skipping this year's Conservative Political Action Conference, siding with critics who feel the annual gathering of conservative activists has become too friendly with pro-gay and libertarian groups.

"With leading conservative organizations not participating this year, Senator DeMint will not be attending. He hopes to attend a unified CPAC next year," DeMint spokesman Wesley Denton wrote in an e-mail to Ben Smith of Politico.

The move comes after several high-profile conservative groups, including the Media Research Center, the Family Research Council and the Heritage Foundation decided not to participate in this year's event.

The squabble among conservatives stems from the 38-year-old institution's inclusion of the gay conservative group, GOProud. The organization backed the recent effort to repeal "don't ask, don't tell," the policy barring gays from serving openly in the military

A number of prospective Republican presidential candidates are scheduled to attend the February conference. The list includes Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty and South Dakota Sen. John Thune.

Beginning October 24, 2012, PBS NewsHour will allow open commenting for all registered users. We hope that the elimination of our moderation process will enable a more organic discussion amongst you, our audience. However, if a commenter violates our terms of use or abuses the commenting forum, their comment will be removed. We reserve the right to remove posts that do not follow these basic guidelines: comments must be relevant to the topic of the post; may not include profanity, personal attacks or hate speech; may not promote a business or raise money; may not be spam. Anything you post should be your own work. The PBS NewsHour reserves the right to read on the air and/or publish on its website or in any medium now known or unknown the comments or emails that we receive. By submitting comments, you agree to the PBS Terms of Use and Privacy Policy, which include more details.