Conservative Leaders To Sign Statement On Feb. 17

They're calling it "The Mount Vernon Statement": a group of leaders of conservative groups will gather in Washington, DC on the eve of the yearly national Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), and sign a pact--a "definitive statement," as it's being billed, defining the principles of the conservative movement.

"A Who's Who of the conservative movement's leaders will unveil and sign the Mount Vernon Statement: a document defining the movement's principles, beliefs and values in light of the challenges facing the country and the need for Constitutional Conservatism since the Obama administration came to power," CRC Public Relations says in a press release announcing the solemn document.

Some key conservative luminaries will be in attendance at the Collingwood Library and Museum in Alexandria, VA (an original part of George Washington's Mount Vernon properties): Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform, Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council, David Keene of the American Conservative Union, former Reagan policy adviser Kenneth T. Cribb, Kenneth Blackwell of Coalition for a Conservative Majority, and Federalist Society co-founder David McIntosh.

This new statement (compared in the press release to the Sharon Statement, adopted in a conference at the home of William F. Buckley in 1960) comes at a hot time for conservative contracts: Tea Party activists, along with Dick Armey's FreedomWorks, hope to unveil a Contract from America on April 15--a crowd-sourced statement of principles to be adopted by Tea Party activists, and the broader conservative grassroots, with bullet points voted by the public online.