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We've wondered how long it would be before John Ziegler -- Sarah Palin's favorite braying jackass and America's least favorite bachelor -- would turn his loudmouth schtick on members of his own side who fail to live up to his worshipful worshipfulness of Sarah Palin.

Sure, he's good for a Glenn Beck episode or two, but sooner or later he was going to be dealing with conservatives who have a somewhat less-than-adulatory view of Palin.

So he attended this past weekend's Western Conservative Political Action Conference in Los Angeles with the express purpose of trying to interview David Keene, president of the American Conservative Union, which oversees the National CPAC gathering every year. Ziegler was actually a sponsor at this year's Western CPAC, where he set up a booth to hawk his "how the media screwed Sarah" video that no one either believes or wants to waste the time watching.

When he sat down with Keene, though, he went into his usual attack-mode schtick (the only person I've ever seen him interview who he didn't treat like this was Palin), and finally pushed Keene over the edge when he basically asked him why he was corrupt. Keene got up and tried to walk away, but Ziegler pursued him through the hallways, still haranguing. At one point, Keene tells him he'd like to hit him, but won't.

Finally, Keene told Ziegler exactly what everyone who's ever watched him is forced to conclude:

Keene: You're a scumbag.

Ziegler: I'm a scumbag?

[Chases Keene through another doorway]

Ziegler: Why won't you answer the question?

Keene: Because you're an a--hole. Got that? An a--hole.

Ziegler: I'm an a--hole?

Keene: Yes, you are. Now, go.

Ah, comedy gold. Especially when he tries to explain himself:

"I often get accused of being one of those who only craves personal attention and has less than pure motives."

"This entire episode has greatly furthered my already strongly held belief that the vast majority of the conservative 'movement' is 'led' by fakes, flakes, freaks, frauds, phonies and sell outs who are far more interested in protecting their own little thiefdoms than promoting the cause."

Hahahahaha.

[Via Digby.]

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From The Daily Show March 3, 2009. Stewart takes on the GOP's fearless leader Rush Limbaugh by reminding us all of just what a great compassionate conservative he is and he hits Michael Steele for his spinelessness for not standing up to him. He even manages to get a shot in at good old Bill-O for his culture wars to boot before he's finished. Well done Jon!

If anyone thought the late night comedians were going to run out of material when Bush left office they were sadly mistaken. The drama queens on the right are proving to be an endless supply of punch lines. It's too bad they're willing to take our country into the abyss while providing it.

From Air America's Break Room Live:

The Conservative Political Action Committee finished up last week, with some great hope for the future of the republican party. Sam Seder looks at why.

Everyone is either amazed and surprised or quietly appalled by young Jonathan Krohn, the then-13-year-old (he turned 14 on Sunday) who wowed the folks at the CPAC convention this weekend with his precocious-wingnut routine. He is indeed a startlingly poised young man.

But honestly, it seemed perfectly natural to me. After all, conservative thought (as it were) has always reflected the way a 13-year-old would view the world: like a highly dualistic, light-and-darkness morality fable, filled with heroic patriots and defenders of freedom contending against the slithering forces of puling liberal evil. Just ask Jonah Goldberg.

I'd say the young man has a nice career at NRO just waiting for him. Though you never can tell for sure what happens when a kid like this eventually gets a little taste of real life, either. Sometimes very interesting things happen.

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From The Daily Show March 2, 2009. Jon Stewart rips up the crazies at CPAC as only he can. Stewart thinks the crowd at CPAC juuust maybe doesn't like him so much for being part of that evil biased press that doesn't want to give them any fair coverage. Sadly with the state of our media these days and what passes for "news", I'd say he's laying fair claim to being considered part of that group. Especially considering that Daily Show viewers are actually more informed than those that watch Fox. As he demonstrates in this segment, the most "fair" coverage anyone can give to them is to just expose the public to their actual words.

I think the more exposure we give to CPAC and the right wing extremism they cheer there, which is completely out of touch with the rest of the country the better and thank you so much Rush Limbaugh for helping to make that happen. Knowing my horror watching you speak was being shared by millions of other viewers just made my day last weekend. In the past it was just a few dorks like myself that actually subjected themselves to this convention and tried to share the crazier moments with some of the public.

Now that the GOP's new de facto leader Rush Limbaugh has decided to bring the limelight onto this conference, everyone can get a full dose of the crazy which is normally reserved for those of us that watch C-SPAN. Isn't that special?

Stewart does a great job of highlighting some of CPAC's "finer" moments. They're the gift that keeps on giving.

The above chart, taken from the straw poll of attendees at last weekend's zany Conservative Political Action Conference, really tells us pretty much everything we need to know about the kind of people who attend these things.

And for some perspective on how completely out of synch with the rest of the American public they are, remember this:

And just how narrow a slice of the right-wing pie are we talking about? Well, 52 percent of the voters were students.

Of course, most of the news surrounding the straw poll was that Mitt Romney again won their presidential endorsement:

Not that this necessarily means a lot; Mittens won last year's straw poll too. And Bobby Jindal, whose GOP star appeal seems to be fading, was a distant second.

But more noteworthy, perhaps, are the two candidates who came in tied for third at 13 percent: Ron Paul and Sarah Palin. Paul's showing suggests his pseudo-libertarian followers are not going to fade away into the woodwork; while Palin's weak showing suggests her 15 minutes of right-wing fame are just about up.

However, both candidates represent the right-wing populist bloc of the GOP -- and their combined support would have been 26%, or the largest single bloc at the convention.

These are the folks who have been the most vocal about calling Obama's economics "socialism," as they were at CPAC:

This gloomy hour for the right is probably most akin to 1965: Routed at the polls, the bedrock conservatives see their worst dreams of big government becoming a legislative reality. One word that has surfaced repeatedly here in speeches and interviews has been "socialism."

"Lenin and Stalin would love this stuff," Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee told a packed ballroom on Thursday.

"We now have moved a major step in the direction of socialism," Rep. Ron Paul (Tex.) said Friday, adding: "We are close to a fascist system where the government has control of our lives and our economy."

Which inspired the following observation over at Fox Forum:

From the likely nationalization of Citigroup to centering power in the White House by politicizing the Census to using American taxes to promote abortion around the world, Obama’s policies are more like Mussolini than Lenin.

Sure, just like we liberals had trouble discerning whether George Bush's policies were more like Ted Bundy's or Hannibal Lecter's.

But which kind of totalitarian state is it that Obama is bringing about? A fascist state, a communist state, or a socialist state? Because ne'er the three shall meet ... unless one wanders into the fetid swamps of Jonah Goldberg.

Which I think is where indeed we're heading, judging by their favorite media figures:

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Following CNN's hour and fifteen minute or so long commercial free info-mercial they gave Rush Limbaugh, who do they bring in for commentary after they've subjected their viewers to a full dose of right wing radio talking points? CNN's Bill Schneider and Mark Preston, and Ron Christie, who of course defends Rush Limbaugh's speech at CPAC. So CNN's idea of balance is three of their talking heads and one far right wing former Cheney aide Ron Christie who never met a racial slur from anyone on the right he didn't want to defend.

They did actually show a few of the comments on Twitter at the end of the segment which I hear are almost all negative in response to Limbaugh's speech. Maybe bothering to give the viewers some stats as to just how many negative comments they got would have offered some sort of balance but they chose not to do that. They decided instead to give a voice to someone who is on the extreme right to defend Limbaugh and the only balance being a couple of their milk toast reporters.

So CNN, what's up? You worried about trying to pick up some of Fox News' market share or what? I know Saturdays are slow news days but when are you going to give the same air time to someone on the left with no commercials? How about you give an hour commercial free to the keynote speaker at Daily KOS's Netroots Nation this year?

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David has more at the main site as I'm sure everyone already knows, but here's one portion of Limbaugh's hour and fifteen minute long free commercial that CNN and Fox gave him where he's talking about the "war on poverty" or a.k.a. the lazy Negroes are ruining the country by being on welfare. My husband was wondering if they were going to give the Democrats some equal time for a rebuttal. I honestly think subjecting people who don't normally listen to his gas bag to him is probably the best thing CNN could have done for the Democrats without meaning to.

With unemployment numbers rising as they are this is the brain dead state of the Republican party right now. Their great leader decrying helping poor people.

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If there was any question that Rush Limbaugh has become the de facto head of the Republican Party, his much-anticipated speech toe the Conservative Political Action Conference today (which he semi-mockingly called his "First Address to the Nation") should have laid them to rest. There was a positive frenzy around him.

But this was not a riveting speech, because in the end it was just an hour and fifteen minutes of Limbaugh's patented gasbaggery. It was meandering and unfocused, and ultimately came down to his usual message: Liberals bad. Really really bad.

Of course, there was the usual bizarre inversion of reality:

President Obama has the ability -- he has the ability to inspire excellence in people's pursuits. He has the ability to do all this. And yet he pursues a path, seeks a path that punishes achievement. That punishes earners. That punishes -- and he speaks negatively of the country.

Ronald Reagan used to speak of the shining city on a hill. Barack Obama portrays America as a soup kitchen in some dark night in a corner of America that's very obscure. He constantly is telling people that bad times are ahead, worse times are ahead. And it's troubling because this is the United States of America.

... President Obama is so busy trying to create anger, and an atmosphere of crisis. He is so busy fueling the emotions of class envy that he has forgotten: It's not his money he is spending.

And inevitably, the eliminationism posing as a joke:

It is not their task, it is not their right to remake this nation to accommodate their psychology. I sometimes wonder if liberalism is not just a psychosis or a psychology, not an ideology. It's so much about feelings, and the predominant feeling liberalism is about is feeling good about themselves. And they do that by telling themselves they have all this compassion.

The coup de grace comes near the end of the speech, when he compares the nation's economic crisis to the Super Bowl; of course he wants his team to win! Because to guys like Rush, it's all just a game anyway.

I do hope a lot of people watched this. Because Limbaugh's appeal is very, very narrow indeed. Mostly nasty, ill-tempered paranoids.

And what I hear in Limbaugh's voice is a lot of fear. What they really fear is the possibility that Obama will succeed.

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Keith talks to Eugene Robinson about CPAC and the hateful over the top rhetoric coming from the GOP these days.

There's something about the annual Conservative Political Action Committee's annual convention that just draws out the ugly eliminationists. Every year it's someone -- usually Ann Coulter -- wishing aloud that someone would just blow away or lock up liberals and minorities en masse. This year it's John Bolton:

He [Obama] said during the campaign that Iran was a tiny threat. Tiny depending on how many nuclear weapons they ultimately are able to deliver on target. Tiny compared to the Soviet Union, but is the loss of one American city — pick one at random: Chicago — is that a tiny threat?

As Think Progress notes:

The audience erupted in cheers and laughter at the idea of Obama’s home city being obliterated.

It's nice to see they've expanded their targets. When right-wingers wish aloud for terrorists to obliterate an American city, it's usually San Francisco.

That sound you hear is the heart of wingnuts breaking all across the land.

USNews:

The opening-day headliner for the annual CPAC conservative convention February 26-28, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, has pulled out, citing state business in Juneau. "We're obviously disappointed," said a CPAC official. A spokesman for the three-day confab, organized by the American Conservative Union Foundation and others, said that Palin, the popular former vice presidential nominee, had indicated she would be able to attend but cited "duties of governing" in bowing out. Instead, she will send in a taped message. The decision was clearly a blow to many of those planning to be there, who expected to see Palin address the group on the opening day and Obama foe Rush Limbaugh wrap up the convention.

I wonder if it was a matter of "duties of governing" or if she realized sitting in a room with the likes of Michelle Malkin and Rush Limbaugh was bad for her health political aspirations. Wait, we're talking about the GOP here. Nevermind. Rich Lowry must be heartbroken.

John McCain was booed passionately by the hard line conservatives attending the CPAC convention today as he brought up his position and support for Bush's immigration plan which is a sore spot for many there.  It seemed like his supporters filled the room for the speech and they quickly came to his aid by cheering loudly. Many conservatives don't seem to be on-board the Straight Talk express.

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Think Progress writes:

McCAIN: Surely, I have held other positions that have not met with widespread agreement from conservatives. I won’t pretend otherwise, nor would you permit me to forget it. On — on the issue of illegal immigration, a position which –

CROWD: Boo! Boo! 

This morning, Politico reported that CPAC organizers had instructed conference attendees not to boo McCain. Last year, McCain was the only major Republican presidential candidate to skip CPAC.

Ingraham introduced Mitt Romney at CPAC today and wasted little time smacking McCain upside the head:

Ingraham: Of all the people introducing the three remaining candidates for President---I get to introduce the conservative. Mitt Romney is the conservative’s conservative. (cheers)

Oh, snap!

Update: Even FOX is reporting that Laura slammed McCain. It'll be interesting to see what type of reaction John gets later today from this crowd.