NATIONAL HARBOR, MD. — How do conservatives scorn Hillary Clinton at CPAC? Let us count the ways.
A cast of probable Republican presidential contenders stung each other at the Conservative Political Action Conference, but they saved the real venom for the expected Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton.
The GOP hopefuls had varying degrees of popularity at the country’s premier gathering of right-leaning grassroots activists.
But no matter who was laying it on, criticism of the former Secretary of State was a surefire crowd-pleaser — and a certain way to remind Republicans that eventually they’ll have to unite, because there’s life beyond primary season.
“The GOP candidates are having a field day with the presumptive Democrat nominee a year out from the primaries. They will attempt in these early months, as we’ve seen here at CPAC, to define Hillary as out of touch with the needs of average Americans and carrying the policy and political baggage of the Obama Administration,” said Thomas Basile, a Sirius XM Patriot Radio host and former executive director of the New York State GOP.
“They will make the case that if you haven’t driven a car in 20 years, can’t answer questions about your Senate accomplishments and were the voice of the failed Obama foreign policy, you shouldn’t be the next President of the United States.”
Hillary hate extended past the politicians’ words delivered from the patriotically decorated main stage.
Leaflets featured unflattering photos of the former First Lady paired with questions about her age. There were copies aplenty of “Hillary: The Movie,” the scathing Clinton documentary by Citizens United.
“She really has the ability to bring a lot of people together,” Brooklyn Conservative Party Chairman Gerard Kassar told the Daily News of Clinton.
“In this particular case, just not for her.”
Here’s a rundown of the five top Clinton gripes heard at CPAC:
SHE’S ENTITLED AND SPOILED
Clinton hasn’t yet said if she’ll even run for President a second time, but the vibe at CPAC mirrored that of many GOP-flavored gatherings: If she does, she’ll expect anyone else who might want a crack at the job to get the hell out of her way.
Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus scored points with the fireworks-hungry young crowd by dissing Clinton as a woman looking not for an election, but a coronation — and that wasn’t her only demand, he said.
“Hillary would never speak here. You’ve seen her speaking contracts — and her Hollywood-style backstage demands,” Priebus said from the CPAC podium Friday.
“Well, you know, I checked backstage. There was insufficient crudité. The water temperature was off by a few degrees. And I don’t think the lemon wedges were cut quite at the right angle. Did I mention that Hillary Clinton has lost touch with America?”
SHE FAILED AT THE STATE DEPARTMENT AND CAN’T RUN ON HER RECORD
Candidate after candidate unloaded on Clinton for her performance as the nation’s top diplomat — particularly in light of the death of American officials in the Benghazi terror attack.
Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, a libertarian favorite, on Friday delivered one of the most cutting evaluations of her performance, saying her “abdication of responsibility, her refusal to provide an adequate defense for Benghazi, her dereliction of duty, should forever preclude her from higher office.
“It’s time for Hillary Clinton to permanently retire,” he said to great cheers.
As Clinton retools her public image ahead of a possible run, conservatives jumped on her efforts to redefine herself as heartily as Democrats previously condemned 2012 Republican nominee Mitt Romney’s efforts to distance himself from the moderate stances he espoused as Massachusetts governor.
Even on the kind of wedge social issues that are supposed to define the sides so sharply, “Hillary isn’t doing her liberal base any favors when her policy position on marriage is the same as every one of her potential Republican opponents” — that is, leaving the decision to individual states, Gregory Angelo, national leader of the Log Cabin Republicans, told the News.
“It will be interesting to see if she flip-flops on that point or sticks to the GOP position in the months ahead,” Angelo said.
SHE’D BRING BILL CLINTON BACK TO THE WHITE HOUSE
The former president was nearly as much of a demon here as he is usually an icon at Democratic gatherings.
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz popped off one of the most cutting — and memorable — one-liners of the entire convention when playing the CPAC word association game with Fox News host Sean Hannity.
“Youth outreach,” replied Cruz in a nod to the ex-president’s dalliance with Monica Lewinsky, racking up hoots and cringes from the crowd.
Former Ambassador John Bolton invited the audience to feel his pain by noting he was a Yale Law School contemporary of the former First Couple — sarcastically explaining this means he has “been burdened with them 20 years longer [THAN]the rest of the country.”
Even Jeb Bush, the so-called establishment frontrunner who got a chilly reception from CPAC attendees who find him too moderate on divisive issues such as immigration, picked up some applause and laughs when Hannity said “Bill Clinton” and he responded, “Bubba.”
![Former Ambassador John Bolton invited the audience to feel his pain by noting he was a Yale Law School contemporary of the former First Couple -- sarcastically explaining this means he has 'been burdened with them 20 years longer [THAN]the rest of the country.'](/wp-content/uploads/migration/2015/03/01/BDCL6WJFYNERKOHKU565PTUM64.jpg "Former Ambassador John Bolton invited the audience to feel his pain by noting he was a Yale Law School contemporary of the former First Couple -- sarcastically explaining this means he has 'been burdened with them 20 years longer [THAN]the rest of the country.'")
SHE HAS QUESTIONS TO ANSWER ABOUT THE CLINTON FOUNDATION
The recent controversy over the financial operations of the Clinton Foundation, which the potential presidential candidate joined after leaving the State Department, made for a particularly juicy cut of red meat for the CPAC throngs.
“Please explain why we should accept that the millions and millions of dollars that have flowed into the Clinton Global Initiative from foreign governments does not represent a conflict of interest,” potential GOP candidate and former Hewlett-Packard boss Carly Fiorina demanded in a shot at Clinton.
Former House Speaker (and fabled Clinton foe) Newt Gingrich, in his CPAC star turn, skewered a lack of transparency in the operations of the Foundation, which has accepted grand sums from countries whose interests are at odds with those of the U.S.
Riffing on Clinton’s much-mocked 2014 contention that she and her husband were “not only dead broke, but in debt” when they left the White House,” Gingrich also witheringly remarked, “The Clintons have a remarkable capacity to surround themselves with a middle-class world in order to overcome the absence of money from which they have suffered… So all of it ought to be public.”
BOTTOM LINE, SHE’S OLD NEWS
The idea of another Clinton in the Oval Office struck disgust in the hearts of the type of CPAC attendees who walked out on Bush in the convention hall to signal a disdain for dynastic politics — and for what many speakers painted as little more than a third Obama term.
It was the sort of convention where one young woman was overheard passionately telling a companion she considered 2008 GOP nominee John McCain “an angry old man,” and where a Tea Party activist dressed up as Patrick Henry said even the guy from “Duck Dynasty” who spoke Friday would be a better bet than a Clinton reprise.
“Yesterday,” scoffed Florida Sen. Marco Rubio of Clinton. (He pronounced Bill Clinton “really yesterday” for good measure.)
Cruz, too, sought to anchor the Democrat to American frustration with government, sending the CPAC audience into a fit of wild cheering by saying, “Hillary Clinton embodies the corruption of Washington.”
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, while also defending his own weak performance in very early surveys of the 2016 primary field, made sure to drop a reminder that Clinton has underwhelmed at the presidential polls before.
“I kind of remember in February, 2007, it was going to be Rudy Giuliani against Hillary Clinton,” he told radio host Laura Ingraham in an onstage question-and-answer session.
For Clinton, of course, all of these right-flank attacks are pretty yesterday themselves.
A Clinton representative declined comment.
