Sarah Palin

April 7, 2010 may just be the day the universe collapses upon itself when the orbits of two massive right-wing stars finally converge:

U.S. Representative Michele Bachmann (MN-06) announced today that former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin will come to Minnesota to assist Bachmann's re-election campaign on April 7, 2010.

"There is absolutely no one more in tune with the hearts and minds of everyday Americans than Governor Palin, and I'm excited to welcome her back to our beautiful state this spring," Bachmann said.

Both Governor Palin and Congresswoman Bachmann are well-known and respected conservative leaders whose bold and unwavering stances in defending the U.S. Constitution and commonsense approaches to issues like health care, taxes and government bailouts have attracted millions to their message.

"It didn't take the American people long to see through the extreme liberal agenda of President Obama and his Democratic allies in Congress," Bachmann said. "We saw American's frustration start in the form of tea party protests in states from coast to coast. It continued with the health care town halls throughout last summer. But we saw it come into full focus yesterday in conservative Scott Brown's victory in Massachusetts, taking back a Senate seat that was held by Democratic Senator Ted Kennedy for decades. The American people have spoken, and the momentum is clearly at the backs of conservatives heading into the 2010 elections."

Once again, Sarah Palin will be skipping CPAC, traditionally the biggest conservative political gathering of the year, apparently because she's a maverick who doesn't want to be associated with those who place "special interests over core beliefs": 

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Pain is turning down an invitation to speak at one high-profile conservative gathering while accepting another.

Palin is declining an invitation to address the Conservative Political Action Conference next month because, a source said, she does not want to be affiliated with the longtime organizer of the traditional movement confab.

At issue is the role of David Keene, head of the American Conservative Union which organizes CPAC. In September, POLITICO reported that Keene asked FedEx for between $2 million and $3 million to get the group's support in a bitter legislative battle with rival UPS.

A source close to the Palin camp says that request led to a decision to stay away from the upcoming CPAC conference, calling it a forum that will place "special interests over core beliefs" and "pocketbook over policy."

"That's not what CPAC should be about and people are tiring," the source said. "Palin is taking a stance against this just as she did in Alaska."

When asked about the move, Palin spokeswoman Meg Stapleton said: "We support those who advance our core beliefs and lead by principle."

Interestingly, Palin seems to be the only one taking this sort of "principled" stand dozens of conservative groups have signed on as co-sponsors of the event, including Focus on the Family, Concerned Women for America, the National Organization for Marriage, and the Eagle Forum.

Even more interesting is this fact:

While Palin was turning down CPAC, she accepted an invitation to the Southern Republican Leadership Conference in New Orleans this April.

"I'm looking forward to addressing conservative activists from across the south at the 2010 Southern Republican Leadership Conference," Palin said in a statement announcing her attendance. "This is a great opportunity to listen and speak to those who are helping to set the direction of our party."

Well, take a guess who else is co-sponsoring CPAC.  That's right, the Southern Republican Leadership Conference.

So Palin doesn't want to associate with CPAC because its organizers don't "advance our core beliefs and lead by principle" ... but will speak at a conference hosted by a group that is co-sponsoring CPAC?  

That makes a lot of sense. 

And apparently she believes the folks putting on the National Tea Party Convention do share her core beliefs and lead by principle, which is why she is eager to share the stage with people like Joseph Farah and Rick Scarborough.

We already knew that Sarah Palin and Rep. Michele Bachmann were going to be joining right-wing activists like Roy Moore and Rick Scarborough at the First National Tea Party Convention next month.

But now organizers have added another new and exciting guest - Joseph Farah:

The First National Tea Party Convention hosted by Tea Party Nation is happy to announce updates to the convention itinerary.

World Net Daily's Joseph Farah and Fox News Contributor Angela McGlowan will be attending the convention and both will be speaking at the Friday evening dinner.

If the fact that Palin, the 2008 Republican vice presidential candidate, will be sharing the stage with Farah, a full-fledged conspiracy theorist/Birther, doesn't perfectly sum up the current state of the conservative movement, I don't know what does.

I'm guessing that we've probably seen that last of Mike Huckabee's "Mr. Nice Guy" routine regarding Sarah Palin: 

Sarah Palin says former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee made a “horrible decision” nine years ago in granting clemency to a man suspected of killing four police officers two weeks ago in Washington state.

...

“It’s absolutely tragic and just unfathomable what has happened there, and I do feel bad for Huckabee,” Palin said. “But it was a horrible decision that he made.”

As governor of Alaska, she said she had never been in the position of having to grant a prisoner clemency, adding that “most Alaskans know me well enough to know that I don’t have a whole lot of mercy for the bad guys.”

“I’m on the good guys’s side,” she said. “I’m all about redemption and recovery and reform and all that. But I will always error on the side of punishing even stricter, even harder on the bad guys.”

Ever since Palin burst on the scene, Huckabee has been exceedingly diplomatic and careful never to say anything that might come across as critical of her, even though it was pretty obvious that he's been irked by the fact that overnight she became the darling of the conservative movement despite having accomplished next to nothing and having no real public record on key conservative issues, at least in comparison to him.

Presumably, Huckabee won't be quite so diplomatic regarding Palin down the line after this ... though whether he'll really be willing to run the risk alienating Palin's supporters remains to be seen.