Last year, Marco Rubio was tasked with kicking off the CPAC conference as one of the opening speakers where he received a rapturous welcome.
This year, Rubio - like so many others - is skipping CPAC, though he insists that it is not because of the inclusion of GOProud:
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) is the latest Republican to decline an invite to next month's Conservative Political Action Conference, the annual gathering that typically attracts the nation's most prominent conservative names.
A spokesman for Rubio said the conference isn't on the senator's schedule, telling the St. Petersburg Times that Rubio will be focused on his work in the Senate during CPAC week and will then "return to Florida for a working weekend."
According to the paper, Rubio's spokesman denied the senator's decision had anything to do with the controversy over the presence of the gay conservative group GOProud.
You know, CPAC might really want to consider updating their banner to feature leaders who are actually attending the conference this year instead of people like Rubio and Jim DeMint who are boycotting:
