Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla. (Pic via Facebook)

According to the press release via The Miami Herald,

“In a short period of time, Marco Rubio has proven himself a courageous force in the U.S. Senate and a rising star of the national conservative movement,” said ACU Chairman Al Cardenas. “The American Conservative Union is proud to announce Senator Rubio’s return to CPAC, and proud to host the nation’s premier venue to highlight conservative leaders, principles and policies in 2012.”

Every year, the ACU brings thousands of grassroots conservatives and conservative leaders together in Washington, DC for three days of blockbuster speeches, policy discussions and networking opportunities – all celebrating the shared principles of smaller government, a strong national defense and traditional values. Based on this year’s theme, “We STILL Hold These Truths”, CPAC 2012 will feature grassroots training and strategizing to strengthen the conservative movement and ensure conservatives have the resources and tools necessary to defeat the Obama agenda in 2012.

Rubio is among the most conservative members of the U.S. Senate. He opposes almost all forms of government spending, recently voting against the president’s American Jobs Act because it had too much spending. Rubio cosponsored a bill that would eliminate one out of every 10 federal jobs.

Rubio is also opposed to abortion. He introduced a complicated anti-abortion bill this year that would make it hard for a young woman to have an abortion outside of her state of residence. It would also require that all states uphold other states’ parental notification laws for minors seeking abortions.

Rubio has liked to pit himself against what he calls “extreme liberals” in the past, which has made him a favorite among conservative circles.

He spoke at the 2010 CPAC. Here is the video:

The event, held in Daytona Beach Nov. 4-6, will feature G. Edward Griffin, billed as the “author of The Creature from Jekyll Island.” Griffin is an anti-Federal Reserve, anti-United Nations and anti-communist conspiracy theorist who describes himself as a “life member” of the John Birch Society.

The John Birch Society is an infamous radical anti-communist group. Griffin defended his membership in the group in a 2007 post featured on the website of an organization called Freedom Force International. According to the site, Freedom Force is “a network of men and women from all parts of the world who are concerned over loss of personal liberty and expansion of government power.”

“I can understand how mention of my association with The John Birch Society may cause some people to raise an eyebrow,” Griffin wrote, adding:

The general impression among many is that the Society is an extremist organization made up of kooks, McCarthyites, and racists. So let me jump to the bottom line.

I am a life member of The John Birch Society and, for several years in the 1960s, served on the Society’s staff as a Major Coordinator and official spokesman. From over forty years of personal contact with its members and leadership, I can say with authority that the Society is an excellent educational organization promoting limited government and opposing collectivism in all of its forms. There is nothing about it that is contrary to the highest standards of morality and ethical conduct.

Griffin wrote that “the John Birch Society is composed of some of the finest men and women you will ever hope to meet.”

“The charges of extremism, racism, anti-Semitism, and all the rest are pure hogwash,” he wrote. “But there is an important lesson in this story. The treatment given to the Birch Society is exactly the kind of treatment we can expect for ourselves when we become strong enough to challenge the collectivist stranglehold over the power centers of society.”

In 2010, the decision by organizers of the annual Conservative Political Action Conference to allow the John Birch Society to co-sponsor the event generated headlines. The New York Times reported in 2009 on the Society’s attempt to rebrand itself:

[For some], the John Birch Society is urgently relevant to the matters of today, in its support of secure borders and limited government, its distrust of the Federal Reserve and the United Nations, and its belief in a conspiracy to merge Mexico, Canada and the United States.

This so-called North American Union, it asserts, is part of a larger plot by an amorphous, amoral group of powerful elite — including but not limited to the Council on Foreign Relations, the Trilateral Commission and the Rockefellers — to take over planet Earth. Call it the New World Order.

Some of these theories may sound like cable television chatter, or the synopsis of a Dan Brown bestseller. But Birch leaders say this plot is real, with roots going back more than 200 years to a secret, insidious brotherhood called the Illuminati, and with most American presidents among its many dupes and abettors.

On the agenda for later in the convention are Franz Kebreau and “Sherriff Mack.” Mack believes the government push to require people to wear seat belts is not because the government “wants us to be safe.” ”We have seat belt laws simply because people with money wanted us to have seat belt laws,” he writes, adding that he is “proud” to say he never issued a seat belt citation as a sheriff.

In June, Bondi told The Florida Independent she could not confirm whether she was attending the tea party convention. Bondi’s office did not respond to new requests about whether she plans to attend.

A spokesman for Scott tells the Independent that the governor’s schedule has not been finalized for November, and so cannot confirm whether Scott will attend.

“Andrew Breitbart has undeniably proven the importance online activism and investigative journalism plays in influencing narratives in the media,” said Americans for Prosperity’s Slade O’Brien in a press release. “Andrew’s exposé of Congressman Weiner’s shameful actions and the resulting special elections in New York’s 9th Congressional District demonstrates the power of new media and the momentum it continues to gain.”

Americans for Prosperity is a tea party-affiliated group that was founded by David Koch, one of two billionaire brothers who have given more than $100 million to “right-wing causes,” according to The New Yorker.

Breitbart recently made headlines with controversial comments made during a tea party meeting in Boston, in which he reflected on the possibility of a coming “civil war” between conservatives and liberals. “[Liberals] can only win a rhetorical and a propaganda war,” he said. “They cannot win. We outnumber them in this country, and we have the guns.” Breitbart said “a part of” him wants liberals to initiate an armed conflict.

Moncrief, a former ACORN employee, is well-known for testifying against the community organizer group in court.

The two will be joined by TV host and commentator Stephen Kruiser, Florida blogger Jordan Raynor, The Franklin Center’s Erik Telford and Kelly Carson, Townhall.com’s Guy Benson and Alice Linahan of Voices Empower.

The event will also feature a Florida U.S. Senate Primary Straw Poll, in which individuals included on the ballot will be invited to provide brief remarks from CPAC FL’s main stage. According to a press release, invited participants include Adam Hasner, George LeMieux, Mike McCalister and Craig Miller. #

The Conference is being sponsored by Florida Family Action, The Heritage Foundation and FreedomWorks, among others. A national conference took place in February and a CPAC Alaskan Cruise is currently being held. #

View a “trailer” for the event below: #

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We first covered the Save America Convention and the 501(c)(4) behind the event, the Save America Foundation, back in January, but since our first story, the event has picked up a handful of new sponsors, among them the Constitution Party, One Nation Under God U.S.A., The John Birch Society and Personhood Florida. #

One Nation Under God U.S.A. instructs its supporters to “PRAY!” before they vote, declaring that “America’s Liberties and Freedoms will be restored, strengthened, and preserved; or will be eroded, neglected, and abolished; in direct proportion to our willingness to heed and obey God’s word, and our desire to accept Jesus Christ as the Sovereign King of America!” #

The John Birch Society, founded in 1958, was an ardent foe of civil-rights legislation, but has found renewed acceptance in conservative circles as of late. The group was one of the sponsors of the 2010 Conservative Political Action Conference, the country’s largest and most influential gathering of movement conservatism. #

Personhood Florida, meanwhile, is the organization behind a push to place a constitutional amendment on Florida’s 2012 ballot that would grant fetuses the rights of people — outlawing abortion and some forms of birth control. The group’s leader, Pastor Bryan Longworth, has said many “fetal personhood” opponents ”have participated in an abortion” and “have to come to grips with the fact that they participated in taking their own child’s life.” Those statements outraged even Longworth’s fellow anti-abortion activists. #

“Dr. Paul is weighing all of his political options and will make a decision in the next few months. Both options are on the table,” Paul’s political director Jesse Benton said in an email late Thursday night.

First elected to the U.S. House in a 1976 special election, Paul was defeated by Democrat Bob Gammage in the general a few months later but bested Gammage in a rematch in 1978. After U.S. Sen. John Tower announced his retirement, Paul made a try for the U.S. Senate, losing in the 1984 GOP Primary to Phil Gramm. Paul’s congressional seat was taken over by future U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay.

Paul made his first run for president in 1988 as the Libertarian Party candidate, and eventually returned to Congress with a victory in the 1996 general election. He ran for President in 2008 but did not prevail in the GOP primary.

As the Texas Independent reported Thursday, word of a ‘money bomb’ fundraiser set for Washington’s Birthday has swept through the Paul-oriented online community. Paul has said that the level of donations to his Liberty PAC in the near-term will help determine what course he will take in 2012.

While the organizers of the Facebook page for Monday’s money bomb do not have an official connection with Paul or his campaign — at least, they don’t have official titles, nor do they appear as paid staff in campaign finance reports for Paul or his PAC — a money bomb banner and link to a donation form recently appeared on the Liberty PAC website.

Benton would not comment on the money bomb or the relationship (or lack thereof) between online supporters and Paul’s PAC.

“Sorry, we don’t discuss our fundraising strategy. Nothing personal, just our policy,” he said.

However, Benton did comment on Fox News’ mix-up of footage from Paul’s 2010 and 2011 Conservative Political Action Conference straw poll wins, and subsequent on-air correction and apology.

“FOX has apologized and we’ll have to take them at their word that it was an oversight,” Benton said.

According to a Facebook page created for the event, the donations from the ‘money bomb’ — an online fundraiser scheduled for a specific time period, usually a day — are to go to Paul’s Liberty PAC, his leadership political action committee. According to the Facebook page, the show of support is intended to “Convince Ron Paul to Run” — presumably for President, though it doesn’t specify a particular office.

The listed organizers of the event are not officially connected to Paul or his PAC. A spokesperson for Paul did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Last week, Paul sent a letter to supporters saying his 2012 decision would depend partly on fundraising for his Liberty PAC, as the Texas Independent previously reported. Paul has two visits to Iowa planned for March, including a three-city tour March 7.

In other Paul-related news, Fox News has apologized for airing 2010 footage from CPAC (when the audience largely booed as Paul was announced as the winner of the straw poll) instead of 2011 footage (when the audience largely cheered) in its CPAC coverage this week. (Read a Texas Independent story on the topic.)

Mediate relayed a statement Wednesday afternoon from Fox News’ Senior Vice President of News Michael Clemente, who said, “We made a mistake with some of the video we aired, and plan on issuing a correction on America’s Newsroom tomorrow morning explaining exactly what happened.”

Fox News did not respond to a request for comment from the Texas Independent Wednesday.

Today, Fox News’ Bill Hemmer, who interviewed Paul in the original segment, delivered the promised correction on the air, as Mediate reported. Hemmer said:

“It was clearly a mistake. We used the wrong videotape. There are similarities in the shot between last year’s event and this year.

…

Ron Paul won both years. However, there were audible boos in 2010 while you heard a lot more cheering this year. It’s an honest mistake. We apologize for the error and we look forward to having Representative Paul back on our show very soon.”

Prior to an interview with Rep. Paul, Fox News aired a video purporting to be the announcement that, for the second year in a row, Paul had won the annual CPAC poll regarding potential Republican nominees for president. The video, in fact, came from last year’s conference, when the announcement that Paul had won was greeted with loud boos from supporters of potential nominee Mitt Romney.

The footage, uploaded by YouTube user SaveOurSovereignty3, a libertarian and ardent Ron Paul supporter, features faintly silly computerized voiceover and a healthy selection of less than moderate comments on its accompanying page. Yet it does demonstrate clearly that Fox used inaccurate footage that was unflattering to Rep. Paul. In the actual video from this year’s CPAC, which appears later in the YouTube clip, the announcement of Paul’s name is greeted largely with applause and cheers. Here’s the video:

Though the edited footage seems to indicate an internal push against Ron Paul at Fox News, a more official network response to the results of the CPAC poll comes in the form of an editorial from commentator Kevin McCullough, who writes that libertarians like Ron Paul are “libertines” and subscribe to “the worst form of political affiliation in the nation.” McCullough instead promotes Mike Huckabee, his fellow Fox News host, who did not attend this year’s CPAC.

Wisconsin Rep. Sean Duffy introduced Pawlenty. “He is a great Midwesterner with a friendly disposition. It is my pleasure to introduce the best governor Minnesota has ever had.”

Pawlenty walked in to the strain of Kid Rock’s “Born Free.” He told Duffy, who is a former star of the MTV show the Real World and a lumberjack sportsman, “Bring that budget axe and swing it hard, baby!”

Pawlenty said, “I’m not one who questions the president’s birth certificate, but don’t you wonder what planet he’s from?”

“He’s been really good at duping the mainstream media,” he added. “The policies of the left encroach every day on the freedom that makes our country great. We will never stop fighting for our freedom.”

He talked about the nation’s founders and how they created America “under God.”

“We as a nation need to turn towards God, not away from God,” he said.

He also spoke about fixing the nation’s budget deficit. “We need more common sense and less Obama nonsense,” he said. “There may be some Democrats in the room so I’ll say it really slow so they can understand: We can’t spend more than we take in.”

He also touted his accomplishment in Minnesota. “I come from the state of McCarthy, Mondale, Humphrey, Wellstone, and now United States Senator Al Franken,” Pawlenty said, generating boos from the audience. “But we cut government in Minnesota, and if we can do it there we can do it anywhere!”

He continued, “I drew a line in the sand and said, ‘Absolutely not.’” He bragged about having set the record for the most vetoes of bills in one year in Minnesota and touted the government shutdown as a major accomplishment.

“We had the first government shutdown in my state in the history of my state,” he said.

He outlined three federal policies he’d like to see. “We should not raise the debt ceiling, we should pass a constitutional amendment to finally balance the budget, and — here’s one I know you will agree with — we should repeal ‘ObamaCare.’”

Pawlenty also called for a more aggressive foreign policy. “Bullies respect strength, they don’t respect weakness,” he said. “So when the U.S. projects its national security interests around the world, we need to do it with strength.”

He called Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood “bullies.”

“Mr. President, when it comes to bullies, might makes right,” he said. “Strength makes them submit. We need to get tough with our enemies.”

Pawlenty added, “Mr. President, stop apologizing for our country.”

The last few minutes of Pawlenty’s speech were cribbed almost directly from his book trailer and send the crowd into chants of “T-Paw.”

Here’s the trailer:

Both Paul and Perry lauded the tea party and 2010 election results, saying the conservative moment cut across party lines.

“We don’t need to just change political parties, we need to change the philosophies of what this country is all about,” Paul said.

“Pink slips were handed out to legislators in both political parties,” Perry said.

He added, “It was awesome!”

At the Conservative Political Action Conference Friday, Paul was the first speaker to talk about the revolution in Egypt and the resignation of Pres. Hosni Mubarak. Calling Mubarak a “dictator,” Paul said the U.S. invested $70 billion in his regime, the majority of which Mubarak’s family siphoned off for themselves.

When asked what course of action the U.S. should take in Egypt, Paul said his answer is, “I would say we need to do a lot less, a lot sooner, not only in Egypt but around the world.”

He predicted the political uprising will spread to neighboring countries, until it hits Saudi Arabia, then the U.S. will see “real problems.”

Comparing U.S. foreign policy to military spending that led to the downfall of the Soviet Union, Paul said, “We just don’t flat out have the money, and we shouldn’t be doing it.”

Touching on the topic of the Federal Reserve, over which Paul’s congressional sub-committee has oversight, he said, “Our job is to figure out what the Federal Reserve has done, audit them and find out who their buddies are they’re taking care of.”

Paul lays out his case against the central banking system in his latest book, “End the Fed.”

That’s not to be confused with Perry’s book against U.S. government intrusions, called, “Fed up!”

Like Paul, Perry did not reveal his 2012 political aspirations in his CPAC speech, nor did either refer to the other when speaking. The two Texans are each the subject of speculation for a possible White House bid in 2012, though Paul is keeping his options open and Perry says he’s not running.

Perry said, “I stand before you today as a governor and as a lifelong conservative who is deeply, deeply concerned with the fed government and its willful neglect of its responsibility.”

He re-affirmed his commitment to states’ sovereignty over rights not delegated to the federal government. “As a governor, I like to focus on the 10th amendment. It’s a very sensible dividing line between our rights and their responsibilities,” Perry said.

Perry, who refused to meet with newspaper editorial boards during his 2010 re-election bid, alluded in his speech to “big government advocates and their friends in the mainstream media.”

On the one hand, according to Perry, the federal government has overstepped its bounds with things like “Obamacare,” while on the other it is not performing its key duties, such as border security.

“In the rush to become all things to all people, the federal government has lost sight of its core responsibilities. As a result we’re stuck in this frustrating paradox where Washington actually neglects things it’s clearly supposed to be doing, while interfering in other areas where they are neither welcome nor authorized,” Perry said.

Perry called on Congress to create a balanced budget amendment to the U.S. Constitution — one of his designated emergency items for the Texas Legislature. He also alluded to replacing federal health care spending with block grants to states, a topic also on state policymakers’ minds.

Perry took time to brag on Texas and its pro-business economic policies.

“People oughta be pointing to Texas and saying, ‘That is what this country oughta be aspiring to be about.’ Then get the hell out of the way and let the private sector do what the private sector does best,” he said.

Texas “is not some problem-free Nirvana that’s been created out there,” Perry said. “–Close.”

Perry didn’t mention the state’s estimated $27 billion budget shortfall in order to maintain services over the next two years.

Perry, who is chair of the Republican Governors Association, appealed to CPAC attendees to elect conservative Republican governors.

“Governors will lead the charge for reformation in this country,” he said.