For your reading pleasure, here are some highlights from the Conservative Political Action Conference...

Salon's Michelle Goldberg says that California congressman Chris Cox, during an introduction to Cheney's keynote speech, claimed that the US found weapons of mass destruction in Iraq:

The crowd at CPAC's Thursday night banquet, held at D.C.'s Ronald Reagan Building, was full of right-wing stars. Among those seated at the long presidential table at the head of the room were Henry Hyde, chairman of the House International Relations Committee, Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback, Minnesota Sen. Norm Coleman, Dore Gold, foreign policy advisor to former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and NRA president Kayne Robinson. Vice President Dick Cheney, a regular CPAC speaker, gave the keynote address. California Rep. Chris Cox had the honor of introducing him, and he took the opportunity to mock the Democrats whose hatred of America led them to get Iraq so horribly wrong.

"America's Operation Iraqi Freedom is still producing shock and awe, this time among the blame-America-first crowd," he crowed. Then he said, "We continue to discover biological and chemical weapons and facilities to make them inside Iraq." Apparently, most of the hundreds of people in attendance already knew about these remarkable, hitherto-unreported discoveries, because no one gasped at this startling revelation.

Obviously the truth of Cox's claim is being covered up by the liberal media. Damn, those good for nothing reds at the New York Times!

Fat Karl made his first public appearance since receiving his new job title. He said, get this, that Bush had moved conservatism beyond reactionary by co-opting traditionally liberal values. Here's the Times:

Karl Rove, the political adviser to President Bush who recently became chief of staff for policy, said on Thursday that Mr. Bush had helped transform conservatism from "reactionary" to "forward looking," in part by incorporating what had been liberal ideas on foreign policy.

"The president made a powerful case in the inaugural speech and before for spreading human liberty and preserving human dignity," Mr. Rove said at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference here.

"This was once the preserve of liberalism, but a fellow named Ronald Reagan changed all that," he continued, saying President Reagan had contended that the "power of liberty" would enable Americans to "transcend" Soviet Communism instead of contain it.

The pro-legalization/decriminalization Drug Policy Alliance managed to get a seat in a panel. I guess they're trying to appeal to Libertartian Party types:

The Alliance’s participation in the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), the largest and oldest gathering of conservative activists and leadership, marks an historic cornerstone in our efforts to galvanize debate within the conservative movement on the failed "war on drugs." On a panel at the conference this Saturday, the Alliance’s executive director, Ethan Nadelmann, will be speaking out against the U.S. government’s expensive, ineffective and harmful prohibitionist policies.

Man, I'd like to have been a fly on the wall for that one...

And Santorum urged those in attendance who didn't consider themselves to be socially conservative to get behind persecuting gays because otherwise the government will end up spending a lot of money to help out poor children. Okay, I'm paraphrasing there, but I think that's the gist of his comments ... here's UPI's account:

No issue is more important to the country than the stability of the American family, Santorum told an audience of conservatives at the Conservative Political Action Conference.

"If you believe in conservative governance then you fundamentally have to be for marriage as the union of one man and one woman," Santorum said.

Santorum said critics of the proposed amendment would do well to look at their communities.

"You will find mothers struggling economically, socially culturally," Santorum said. "When people stop getting married, then fathers stop participating in the lives of their children. ... If mom and dad aren't there to raise a child, then some else has to bridge the gap and that someone else is the government."

Not sure how allowing gay people to get married would lead to a world in which "people stop getting married" -- Wouldn't it lead to more people getting married? But what do I know, there are no rumors of Karl Rove getting behind me in 2008...