Right-Wing Activists Make Case

The divisions roiling American conservatives were on display Thursday at an annual gathering of activists, with the movement's emerging leaders directly challenging the Republican establishment. The crowd assembled for the Conservative Political Action Conference greeted grass-roots darlings with cheers and standing ovations, including U.S. Senate candidate Marco Rubio of Florida and conservative Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina. The crowd roared Thursday morning when Mr. DeMint, opposing his own party leaders' decisions to recruit centrist candidates, said he would prefer an ideologically pure 30-member caucus than 60 Republicans "who don't believe in anything." And the crowd gave standing ovations to Mr. Rubio, who has climbed in the polls by attacking his primary rival, Republican Gov. Charlie Crist, for his support of President Barack Obama's stimulus. "We are witnessing the single greatest pushback in American history," Mr. Rubio said. "Never has the political class or the mainstream media been more out of touch with the American people than they are today."...read more