Posted on 02/02/2003 8:52:58 PM PST by tgslTakoma
The DC Chapter arrived at CPAC on Thursday, prepared to share a small corner of the National Retail Sales Tax booth, that was donated to Taxman by the Club For Growth. The Weekly Standard booth across from Taxman's was empty, so after lunch Taxman contacted someone at The Weekly Standard. They indicated that they were not going to be using the booth, so Taxman asked them if another group could use it in their place. He was told that it was OK with them, and Taxman handled all the paperwork. Thus, the DC Chapter had a full-size booth that we now needed to fill!
So all Thursday afternoon and late into the night, DC Chapter members worked on a photo collage of DC Chapter's activities, and used up all our color ink cartridges printing up brochures at our homes, with pictures and the DC Chapter's activism highlights.
We want to thank Taxman for his assistance in arranging to have a booth donated to the Chapter. We also want to thank The Weekly Standard for generously allowing us to use their booth space.
The DC Chapter booth turned out great, considering the short time we had to pull it together. We hung our Patriots Rally banner and our Losing Share - Try The Truth banner on the back wall, along with 8 x 10 photos that L_von_Mises had printed up for us, and "Fry Mumia" t-shirts that Doctor Raoul and Abner printed. We had a foamboard covered with Rally photos of speakers and attendees, and photos of our many and varied FReeps on the table. We also had a basket full of buttons and DC Chapter/Free Republic pens. On the table we had brochures, magnetic business cards, regular business cards, Vast Right Wing Conspiracy member cards, and Vast Left Wing Conspiracy cards, RodgerD's flag guides, SAS brochures and CCRM's media bias bookmarks.
We are pleased also with the large number of signups we got from local folks interested in our future activites and events.
We were talking with a couple of interested young college Republicans at our table when Terry McAuliffe and his entourage of at least 8 others barreled up to the table, displacing the two guys we had been talking with.
McAuliffe extended his hand to Angelwood and introduced himself, although Angelwood already knew who he was. ;-) He was wearing his shifty used-car salesesman grin, very pleased with himself at this foray into the enemy camp; that is, until Angelwood spoke to him.
Angelwood called out his name as she shook his hand, slowing him down enough to mention Global Crossing. Then he moved over to where I was and again reached out his hand and introduced himself. I said, "I know you. You're Terry McAuliffe. Do you still have that Cadillac Escalade gas-guzzling SUV?"
He was very quick and forceful with his response, telling everyone within earshot, "I sure do, and I put $20,000 worth of emissions equipment on it!"
Then Angelwood asked him, "Was it your own money?" McAuliffe answered affirmatively, which was seconded by his bodyguard.
So then I said, "Oh, did you take it out of that $18 million of Global Crossing money?"
McAulliffe said, "It wasn't that much," implying that I exaggerated his take in the swindle. His band of groupies and "security" men all laughed at McAuliffe's response... and then McAuliffe beat a very hasty retreat out of the exhibit room.
Your photographer (me) was busy FReeping the crook, so I have no photo to accompany this story. You'll just have to imagine the look on this guy's face when two ladies confronted him with his past.
We had fun doing it. It's too bad it happened so fast that we forgot our McAuliffe chant...
"GLOBAL CROSSSING... 18 MILLION... ASK MCAULIFFE HOW!"
Other members have some interesting stories of their own to tell you, and I invite them to do that on this thread.
I will be posting photo links shortly.
Also, thanks for setting up the 'puter threads. It was our link to the outside world when the news became serious.
I just go a call from the ACU (Peter Roach??) who asked me if I enjoyed the conference and what suggestion I had to improve it. I told him that TV monitors in the co-sponsor room (is that what that room is called?) would be appreciated - both for breaking news and also to tune into whomever is speaking in the main ballroom. A couple of years ago, they had monitors and you could see the debates, speakers, etc., but for some reason they were removed. He said he would pass my request along.
Glad you got home safely, but how come 24 hours???
Good to see all the D.C. folks again. Hope to see a quorum of you guys on the 15th in NY.
Many of those college students came by the booth and I got to talk to them. I was able to turn a lot of them on to FR and insisted that they go down and see the main booth where they had lots of pictures of freeps and much of Registered's terrific artwork. Also it would give them a chance to talk about getting active in their area.
Another plus was spending some time getting to know many of the freepers there. There were too many for me to list and I don't want to leave any out so to all of you - It was great meeting and talking to you.
That night we went home and all did what we could to spruce up the booth for the next day and print up some informational pieces. tgslTakoma, Angelwood, and Kristinn did a terrific job putting material together including a collage of many pictures from various events.
The next day the booth looked great - like it had been planned for months!
We had plenty of volunteers to work the booth so I was able to take in more of the conference. There were some great panels. I am sure that they will all be on C-Span soon. I worked the booth for a while that afternoon and having that collage and some of the signs was very helpful - as they say a picture is worth a thousand words. Many people took pens and buttons which was great because they all had the URL for Free Republic on them. I bet some of them are reading this right now. To those people I say Welcome!!!
Saturday I got there early and people slowly trickled in. I got to see the annual Sam Donaldson - Bob Novak show. I went back and forth throughout the day between the panels and the booth.
Some of the notable panels throughout the conference were one with Bob Barr on civil liberties, one with David Horowitz on Hollywood, one with Daniel Pipes on Islam (he was the most moderate on the panel), and one on the war on terror with Ollie North. Each panel had three or more speakers and all were good but their names escape me at the moment.
I don't know what was more fun - talking to the people who came by the booth or listening to the speakers. I have to admit that it was a long three days but worth every minute of it.
Great seeing all of you again!
Guns_are_OK and ned13: I don't know how we missed you, but I'm sorry we did! Hope to see you again soon.
nutmeg & zelig
The speakers at CPAC were outstanding, as were the many thought-provoking questions asked by members of the audience (many of whom were FReepers). We came away from the conference with a wealth of knowledge and "all fired up" in our commitment to conservative causes. We also came home with a big stack of author-signed books! It was particularly nice to meet and spend a few minutes speaking with Michele Malkin, Katherine Harris, J.C. Watts, Michael Barone and Mark Levin.
And, of course, the best thing about CPAC was the ability to spend three whole days with new and long-time FReeper FRiends! I only wish we could’ve been two places at once – we were so busy listening to the various speakers in the ballroom, we really didn’t have a lot of time to spend in the exhibit room. When we did have time, though, we were sure to hang out by the Free Republic Network booth and by the DC Chapter booth. The FReepers running both booths did a fabulous job! SeekingTheTruth and his wife had their fantastic 0Cents shop set up, and Taxman was working hard at his booth as well. I am sorry to say that we didn’t realize the Second Amendment Sisters were FReepers… We won’t make that mistake next time!
We would highly recommend CPAC to each and every FReeper! I would imagine the 2004 CPAC will be even more exciting with the upcoming Presidential election. We are already looking forward to it.
nutmeg & zelig
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