Sarah Palin, the former governor of Alaska, is still mum on her 2012 intentions, but her support of a gay conservative group's inclusion at the national Conservative Political Action Conference has led many to wonder whether she has tacked to the center on gay rights.
ABC News reports that several conservative groups that headed to this week's CPAC are uncomfortable with the inclusion of one other "right-leaning" group, GOProud, which advocates on behalf of "gays and their allies" for federal policy promoting "a traditional conservative agenda that emphasizes limited government, individual liberty, free markets and a confident foreign policy." Some groups are so uncomfortable -- including the Heritage Foundation and the Families Resource Council -- that they have decided to boycott the convention.
Palin has for the fourth year in a row declined an invitation to CPAC. She told the Christian Broadcasting Network that it was a "scheduling conflict" that prevented her appearance, not GOProud's presence at the convention. And she went one step further, telling CBN that conference attendees should not so quickly dismiss the opportunity to provide a full spectrum of conservatism. News website POLITICO reports Palin alluded to the controversy that GOProud's inclusion at the conference had caused for conservatives.
"Should the GOP, should conservatives not reach out to others, not participate in events and forums that ... maybe we don't personally agree with? And I say no ... I look at participation in an event like CPAC or any other event in that same vein as the more information that people have the better," Palin told CBN.
Palin has mostly left her support or opposition to gay rights "open to interpretation." Last month, Palin re-tweeted a gay conservative's post that was critical of the GOP's ardent opposition to the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," calling it "hypocrisy."
And now, some groups are asking Palin to clarify where she stands on an issue that she has been less than decisive about.
During a vice presidential debate in 2008, Palin made no doubt of her position on one gay rights issue: same-sex marriage. When asked whether then-Gov. Palin would support expanding Alaska's same-sex benefits law to the rest of the nation, Palin had this to say: "Well, not if (same-sex benefits) goes closer and closer toward redefining the traditional definition of marriage between one man and one woman ... I don't support defining marriage as anything but between one man and one woman, and I think through nuances we can go round and round about what that actually means."
She had company there. Both President Obama and Vice President Biden said much the same thing. Palin and Biden didn't agree on much in their debate, but they did seem to agree that, in Biden's words, gay marriage was "a decision to be left to faiths."
Before that, Palin as governor of Alaska vetoed a bill that would have blocked the state from granting benefits to same-sex partners of public employees. She did so because her attorney general advised her that the bill was unconstitutional. "Signing this bill would be in direct violation of my oath of office," she said at the time.
It all doesn't seem to amount to much. But Palin's "libertarian" statements on gay rights, as described by one conservative, has led to a call for clarification from the American Principles Project, another conservative group that boycotted CPAC.
APP "wants to know exactly where Palin stands on the inclusion of GOProud as one of CPAC's sponsors and ... on her stance on gay marriage," according to The Hill.
The GOProud controversy has not stopped many other Republicans rumored to be considering a 2012 run from announcing that they will be attending CPAC. In fact, only two "non-candidates" -- Palin and South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint -- have declined invitations. Those who intend to be there, according to The Hill, are Newt Gingrich, Mitt Romney, John Thune, Haley Barbour, Mitch Daniels, Tim Pawlenty, Rick Santorum and Michele Bachman, a tea party favorite who recently won a Congressional seat representing Minnesota.
Contact Eric Christopher Adams at eric(at)alaskadispatch.com