Captain's Quarters -

I'm at CPAC's final event of the night to watch Dick Cheney address the CPAC conference.

7:45 PM ET - Thanking the people who introduced him. He also acknowledged the people he met on his last trip, mentioning Bagram specifically, and encouraging all of us to remember and honor them. The conference's chair has a daughter who just finished a tour in Iraq.

7:47 - "I'm probably the last non-candidate you'll see this weekend." Good laugh. Too bad John McCain didn't say it.

7:51 - Reviewing the economy in the context of what has happened in the last six years. GDP has risen over 16%, an amount equal or greater than the entire economy of Canada. This shows the fallacy of economics as a zero-sum game. This has come from the tax breaks that allowed the economy to thrive.

7:53 - Revenues have risen by $520 billion in the last two years, the greatest two-year period in history.

7:55 - Earmark control is a key indicator for fiscal seriousness in Congress. So also is the permanent adoption of the Bush tax cuts. "No nation has taxed their way to prosperity." Cheney implies to the CPAC conference that Bush will veto any tax increases. Of course, they don't have to increase the taxes -- merely avoid prolonging the Bush tax cuts.

7:58 - Energy policy next. Cheney says that we need to diversify our energy production, including opening up domestic sources of oil, such as ANWR.

8:00 - Judges and security are the two keys for the next two years, Cheney says. We have defeated all terrorist attempts to strike the United States, but that doesn't mean it won't happen again if we don't remain vigilant.

8:02 - We'll be on the offensive against the Taliban this spring, Cheney promises. They want to beat the Taliban to the punch, and for good reason. He also notes that the Senate voted to confirm David Petraeus, and then tried to cut off the troops he said he needed to conduct an offensive in Iraq. Cheney says that every message we send has multiple audiences, and we cannot allow our enemies to believe they can outlast us.

8:06 - "If you support a war on terror, then it only makes sense to support sending troops where the terrorists are." He also had a good line about how the strategic disaster that will accompany a retreat from Iraq is an "inconvenient truth".

8:07 - Wrapping up the speech by thanking the activists of CPAC in making a better nation and a better world.

8:09 - Michael Steele followed Dick Cheney to the podium, and he cracked off the best line of the evenng: "In the words of Joe Biden, isn't he articulate?"

CONCLUSION: Michael Steele again impresses in a short appearance at the dais. He did forget to introduce the clergyman who was to offer grace, but otherwise he was completely charming. The GOP really should have made him their national chairman; they missed an opportunity there.