Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Heritage Foundation Retreat Lacking "Big Shots"

Here is what Roll Call is reporting today in an article titled "Heritage Retreat Lacks Boldface Names," referring to the Heritage Foundation's annual Conservative Members Retreat:
Some of the House’s most prominent conservatives will huddle in Baltimore this week for The Heritage Foundation retreat, but two of the most notable names in the conservative movement are skipping the occasion.
Heritage President and CEO Jim DeMint, who recently resigned from the Senate to take the job, and House Budget Chairman Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin, the GOP’s recent vice presidential nominee, will not attend the three-day confab.
Retreat organizers wanted to host an address by DeMint, the former South Carolina senator, but decided not to out of an abundance of caution. Criminal law forbids former senators from influencing members for two years after leaving Congress.
“We’re handling him with kid gloves because we don’t want to put him in any situations where it’s technically legal, but it looks bad,” said Michael Franc, vice president for government studies at Heritage. “He has the ethical limits in terms of dealing with members that might be deemed as traversing the boundaries of ethics laws.”
The three-day retreat, which starts on Wednesday night, will lack the star power that appearances by DeMint or Ryan would have brought. Moreover, the schedule lacks big-name conservative speakers altogether.
Organizers reached out to several governors aligned with the conservative movement, but they all declined the invitation, according to a GOP congressional aide. Govs. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana and Mary Fallin of Oklahoma, both former members of the Republican Study Committee when they were House members, had scheduling conflicts. Former Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels could not make it either.
Speaker John A. Boehner of Ohio, Majority Leader Eric Cantor of Virginia, Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy of California and Deputy Whip Peter Roskam of Illinois will not attend the retreat.
Around this time last year, Roll Call had an article about the 2012 retreat titled "Heritage Retreat Hosts Wide Range of GOP."  That Heritage retreat took place in Philadelphia.  The 2011 retreat took place in Los Angeles, California.