CPAC (Conservative Political Action Conference) no longer includes several significant Conservative candidates, broadcasters, and institutions.  Notably absent this weekend were Sarah Palin, Mark Levin, Rush Limbaugh, Heritage Foundation, Family Research Council, and Concerned Women of America.  CPAC continues to drift apart from the Burkean Conservatism of religious principle and societal order inseparably linked to economic freedom.

CPAC's Friday headline speaker, touting the virtue of a balanced budget, was Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels, as introduced by George Will who has promoted Daniels as a possible presidential candidate.

Mitch Daniels is George Will's Great Male Hope to save his Republican Party from Sarah Palin.  A year ago, George Will said Sarah Palin "is not going to be president and will not be the Republican nominee unless the party wants to lose at least 44 states."  And George has obsessively repeated, rephrased, and recycled that unfounded animus ever since.  It is an animus George shares with Liberal Democrats who constantly caution Republicans not to nominate a Conservative because a Conservative cannot beat us in November.

In his address to CPAC, Mitch Daniels warned the crowd: "We face an enemy, lethal to liberty ... I refer, of course, to the debts our nation has amassed for itself over decades of indulgence.  It is the new Red Menace, this time consisting of ink."

Sadly, that "Red (Ink) Menace ... lethal to liberty" was not the top priority of Mitch Daniels when he built a substantial amount of that debt as U.S. Director of the Office of Management and Budget (2001-03).  During Mitch's 29-month tenure, our annual surplus of $236 billion turned into a $400 billion deficit.

Mitch Daniels now tells us the "Red (Ink) Menace" is a lethal enemy, but in February 2003, Budget Director Mitch Daniels told Time magazine's James Carney that "a balanced budget ... is not the top or the only priority."  That James Carney is now President Obama's Press Secretary.

Mitch Daniels continued to CPAC: "Every conflict has its draft dodgers.  There are those who will not enlist with us ... regardless of the cost in dollars, opportunity, or liberty."  So, is Mitch a reformed "draft dodger," or just another RINO hypocrite?

Michael J. Fahy is an Attorney at Law in Chicago