Afternoon tea at sea, anyone?
Just as a dozen Alaska lawmakers were heading to Norway this weekend for a "policy tour" of another subarctic oil province -- albeit a much wealthier one with diversified government income -- a contingent of national conservatives was cruising Alaska's way to talk politics.
The Conservative Political Action Committee's second annual cruise includes about 57 attendees heading north. The cruise is cosponsored by a tea party coalition and the American Conservative Union and was seen as a way to allow "activists and leaders to discuss issues of the day while at the same time seeing the great state of Alaska," the union's director, Al Cardenas, told the Washington Times.
The cruise has attracted some big names, including former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Americans for Tax Reform President Grover Norquist, conservative social issues crusader Ralph Reed, who oversees the Faith & Freedom Coalition, and even the president of the National Rifle Association.
The conservatives set sail for Alaska on Saturday from Seattle and were slated to snake up through the Inside Passage, with ports of call including Juneau, Skagway, Glacier Bay and Ketchikan, according to a Facebook page registered to the Capital Research Center.
Washington Times writer Emily Miller will be blogging from the cruise. You can follow her updates on the Times' Water Cooler blog.