Liberty Counsel's CPAC Boycott Fail

Remember how Matt Barber, Focus On The Family, and the Liberty Counsel stomped their feet and said they would boycott CPAC if those dirty GOProud queers were allowed to attend? So much for THAT.

CPAC ignored the threat, essentially calling the evangelicals' bluff. This gave the social conservatives a choice. They could pull out of CPAC, which holds an informal poll of Republican presidential contenders. The straw poll is widely seen as an indicator of how possible candidates are playing with the conservative base. Or, they could show up and hang out with people they think are an "affront to God." As it turned out, politics trumped God. On Thursday at Washington's Marriott Wardman hotel, representatives for both Liberty Counsel and GOProud were hosting booths in the same exhibit hall. The folks staffing the Liberty Counsel booth insisted their presence didn't mean they'd compromised their values. One young woman at the booth explained that Liberty Counsel's parent organization (Falwell's Liberty University School of Law) had yanked its financial support as a CPAC co-sponsor, as this would have forced the organization to join hands with a group that contravenes its mission. Apparently, paying the organizers in order to host an exhibit space alongside GOProud at the event didn't pose the same problem.