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Yesterday during a discussion with Thomas Roberts and Jimmy LaSalvia of GOProud about why CPAC excludes gays and other groups from their conference the topic of New Jersey Governor Chris Christie came up, and his own lack of invitation to speak. Steve Schmidt, John McCain's campaign manager, had nothing good to say about CPAC, the Conservative Political Action Conference, the distilled fringiest of the right wing fringe:

ROBERTS: “Why does the CPAC organization want to risk alienating burgeoning stars like a Chris Christie, not invite him?”

SCHMIDT: “Look, this CPAC convention is increasingly the Star Wars bar scene of the conservative movement. All that’s missing from that convention is a couple of Wookies.”

Schmidt would later go on to call Mitt Romney's appearance last year, where he declared he was "deeply conservative as a Governor", simply "kowtowing" to the extreme right.

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Mitt Romney decided to double down on his opposition to gay marriage during his commencement address at Liberty University this Saturday. After having the unfortunate circumstance of watching the entire twenty minute speech which aired on C-SPAN, if you thought some of his speeches on the campaign trail were bad, this one was worse. The response from the crowd for the better part of the speech was tepid at best except for the portion where he spoke out against gay marriage, which did get him a healthy round of applause.

Romney's presence at the University was not welcomed by all. After the announcement that Romney would be giving the commencement address, students were protesting the school's decision to have him there: Liberty's choice of Romney leads to angry student response.

And this Saturday, there was this: Gay Republicans Slam Romney For Speaking At Liberty:

The gay consevative group GOProud is not happy Mitt Romney chose to speak at Liberty University Saturday.

A statement from GOProud co-founder Jimmy LaSalvia was sent to reporters as Romney delivered his address:

Today, Governor Mitt Romney spoke at Liberty University. Liberty was founded by the late Jerry Falwell, who in 2007 said, “AIDS is the wrath of a just God against homosexuals. To oppose it would be like an Israelite jumping in the Red Sea to save one of Pharaoh’s charioteers … AIDS is not just God’s punishment for homosexuals; it is God’s punishment for the society that tolerates homosexuals.”

The speech at Liberty comes just days after top Romney adviser Ed Gillespie said that Governor Romney would campaign on the issue of marriage. In response, JimmyLaSalvia, Executive Director and Co-Founder of GOProud – a national organization of gay and straight Americans seeking to promote freedom by supporting free markets, limited government, and a respect for individual rights, issued the following statement:

“The father of the modern conservative movement, former US Senator Barry Goldwater, once said of Jerry Falwell that he needed a kick in the ass. With his speech at Falwell’s Liberty University, it is clear that Governor Romney’s message to Goldwater conservatives is: drop dead.

You can read the rest of their response in the post at TPM. He was also met with this from MoveOn today: Romney’s Liberty University Speech Protested From The Air:

The student loan debate was (literally) in the air as Mitt Romney prepared to make his commencement address at Liberty University here. As the graduation ceremony at this evangelical Christian university began, a single-engined plane flew circles around the commencement towing a banner reading “GOP = HIGHER SCHOOL DEBT.”

The fight to extend the interest rate on Stafford loans is one of the few where President Obama and Romney are on the same page. Both favor extending low interest rates on Stafford student loans. The extension is currently tied up in Congress, where Republicans and Democrats are split on how to pay for the rate extension.

Transcript of Romney's remarks in the clip above below the fold via:

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As David informed us earlier this week, CPAC is losing significant chunks of the gay-bashing right over their invitation for GOProud to attend their convention this year. Cenk Uygur attempted to get their chairman, Christopher Barron to explain why he's a Republican in the first place given the way the party benefits from attacking the LGBT community.

UYGUR: All right. President Obama has said many times if you want to go forward, you put it in "D." If you want to go backwards, you put it in "R." Get it?

All right. Now, the president and the Democrats made history last week. They repealed "Don`t Ask, Don`t Tell," and that is a huge step forward for gay rights.

But, as always, the "Grand Old Party" is stuck in the stone age. Two major conservative groups, Concerned Women for America and the Family Research Council, are boycotting the conservative political action conference this year. They`re out -- they`re sitting it out because GOProud, a national organization of gay conservatives, was invited to the event.

For more on this, let`s turn to the chairman of the board of GOProud, Christopher Barron.

All right, Chris. First, let me get it out of the way. Why on God`s green earth are you even a Republican?

CHRISTOPHER BARRON, CHAIRMAN, GOPROUD: Why am I a Republican? Well, first off, I`m not just a Republican, I`m a conservative Republican.

And I`m a conservative because while I was born gay, I wasn`t born to believe that government has all of the answers. In fact, I`ve seen throughout my life that, in fact, government is often the problem, because I believe in free markets, because I believe in a strong military defense, because I believe in the power of the individual. That`s why I`m a conservative Republican.

UYGUR: Right. I understand that. And are gay people -- do they have opinions that range from liberal to conservative on economic matters and other matters? Of course.

BARRON: Absolutely.

UYGUR: Right. I get that.

But what I don`t get is how you can, with a good conscience, vote for a party that does not like you? They don`t like who you are. They don`t like your identity.

BARRON: First off, I completely and totally reject that. We`re, for the second year in a row, participating in CPAC, the largest --

UYGUR: Congratulations. Two years in a row. How about all the other years?

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