A liberal documentary producer who became an unexpected victor of the first ever Conservative Idol competition recently got an equally unexpected surprise: The folks he was trying to scam were in fact scamming him, as well as the four other winners. Jeremy Levine, an independent filmmaker and a junior at Ithaca College, attended the Conservative Political Action Conference last February as an undercover reporter for the alternative student publication, Buzzsaw Haircut. While reporting on the conference, Levine entered a competition to become one of five “Conservative Idols”—a spin on the pop culture hit that happened to have a $500 prize.

Levine, who recently finished work on a documentary about vigilantes along the U.S.-Mexico border, entered the immigration category. Having spent months along the border filming the virulently anti-immigration militiamen, Levine could easily spout their hateful rhetoric. Stealing the words of the gun-touting extremists, Levine hoped to claim Conservative Idolatry. “All I had to do was think of something vaguely racist and paranoid, dress it up in some patriotic jargon and hope the conservatives would vote for me,” says Levine....read on