I have to say I am a little confused to see Richard Viguerie’s name on The Mount Vernon Statement:
After all, it was just the other day that he told The Washington Times that the document was a joke:
Not all prominent conservatives are on board.
“This is embarrassing,” activist and longtime direct-mail advertiser Richard Viguerie told The Washington Times. “If the people in the leadership of the conservative movement are going to put out pablum like this, the tea party people are going to make them seem irrelevant. And the tea party people are going to march to the forefront.”
In a dig at current and former Republican congressional leaders whom many blame for betraying conservative principles of limited government and reduced spending, Mr. Viguerie added, “This is almost as if the movements leaders were taken over by Tom DeLay and John Boehner.”
But now he’s signed on and is proclaiming it the key to unifying the conservative movement:
Among those in attendance will be Richard Viguerie, the chairman of Conservative HQ.com, who believes the conservative movement “got seriously off track during the big government days of George Bush, Karl Rove and Tom DeLay.” This document, Viguerie says, is designed to unite conservatives.
“This is an attempt to draft a document that conservatives — whether they’re Tea Party conservatives or social or economic or foreign policy conservatives — can get behind and begin the process of reclaiming the Republican Party for small-government conservatives,” Viguerie explains.
So which is it: the Mount Vernon Statement is embarrassing pablum that shows the conservative movement has been taken over by people like Tom DeLay, or it is a bold statement of principle that will unite the conservative movement by signaling its break from people like Tom DeLay?
