Feb 14, 2020 4 min read

WASHINGTON – When conservative ringmaster Matt Schlapp officially didn’t invite Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, to his annual ultra-right confab – the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) – eye-rolling was suddenly trending.

If little else is transparent in this tiny village where word gets around, Schlapp’s motivations surely are. Rather than simply not inviting Romney, which one does by not inviting him, Schlapp tweeted a photo of the senator looking like a corpse-eating zombie along with the CPAC logo and the words: “Not invited: Mitt Romney.”

Ostensibly, Schlapp was concerned that Romney might be subjected to physical violence at the conference because of his solitary Republican vote to convict Trump on one of two charges, abuse of power, in the impeachment trial. This concern could have remained buried in Schlapp’s furrowed brow but for his apparent determination to say it aloud in the context of a mean-spirited non-invitation.

It’s not for nothing that Schlapp has seen his lobbying and public relations firm, Cove Strategies, win massive earnings in the Trump era. He boasted to The New York Times that lobbying revenues increased from $600,000 in 2015 to more than $1 million in 2017, and that “strategic communications” revenues were even higher. In the swampiest of swamps, “strategic communications” obviously pays.

What’s clear, of course, is that Schlapp was never going to invite Romney to CPAC. Not only has Schlapp been a Donald Trump man since Day One, as he told me back in 2017, but he also sensed at the onset that Trump would win. This is because Schlapp knows the conservative base perhaps better than anyone, as he should.

As for CPAC, Schlapp typically invites only political stars who might make headlines. Sometimes he might include lesser-known politicians eager for the exposure and, who knows, maybe Schlapp’s services.

Proactively snubbing Romney was a win-win for Schlapp that showcased his messaging skills and, inadvertently, revealed his character. When a man is down, by all means kick the daylights out of him. In so doing, Schlapp ingratiated himself to his base, received bounteous media attention, and maybe even earned a little grace for his wife Mercedes “Mercy” Schlapp.

Mercy was White House director of strategic communications until last July when she joined Trump’s reelection campaign. Meanwhile, the past overlap of Schlapp’s CPAC sponsors and his clients – including Comcast, Altria, and the Motion Picture Association of America – has not gone unnoticed by a contingent of critics who refer to the conference as “The Matt and Mercy Show.”

Schlapp knows as well as anyone that Romney is an honorable man and is surely believable when he says his Senate vote was a matter of principle and not, as some have suggested, revenge. (After publicly courting Romney for secretary of state, Trump chose someone else, seemingly to humiliate his at-the-time former critic.) Even if Romney might derive a tiny bit of satisfaction from the fact that his faith-driven principles didn’t allow him to acquit Trump, what does he really get out of being an outlier – other than the respect of liberals who would admire Hannibal Lecter if he feasted on Republicans?

Poor Romney – right as rain, yet nobody can spare an umbrella. As a presidential candidate, people said he was too squeaky clean. Or, he didn’t pass the beer test. When he said during his 2012 presidential campaign that Russia was our greatest geopolitical foe, people scoffed.

Who’s scoffing now?

An argument could be made that Schlapp really was concerned about violence, but what kind of show is he directing? At the 2018 CPAC, conservative columnist Mona Charen had to be escorted out of the conference by security when she was booed for scolding Republicans for not condemning Trump’s alleged sexual misconduct. But more likely, such alleged fears were an excuse rather than a reason to justify his tweet.

By essentially encouraging the mob, Schlapp made his bed on the wrong side of conservative principles and, ultimately, of history. Luckily for him, the Romney we both know would probably accept an apology.

Kathleen Parker is a columnist for The Washington Post. Her email address is kathleenparker@washpost.com.