CPAC – Richard Viguerie
Veteran conservative strategist Richard Viguerie stopped by after his CPAC speech and talked to
the assembled bloggers. He has made no secret of his disgust with the current crop of Republican presidential candidates and is urging conservatives to withhold their support from all of the Big Three.
The Politico‘s Jonathan Martin asked him several questions, mostly trying to get at which of the Big Three Viguerie would support if forced to choose but he wasn’t biting. He feels that none of those guys will appeal to conservatives, which means they’ll ultimately loose come November 2008 because the Democratic “third front” (he named civil rights groups, labor, the gay lobby, and others) will be out in force for their nominee.
When Martin asked him about potential late entries, he got a smile when he mentioned Newt Gingrich. Viguerie thinks Gingrich has the ability to join the race in the fall and knock everyone’s socks off. I asked about Gingrich’s “rather substantial personal baggage” and got a laugh. He noted that all the candidates except the Mormon have been married multiple times and that “the law is that somebody has to win it.”
