CPAC Speakers: No Palin

The Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) is the conference for conservatives, held each year in DC, and lots of Republican 2012 hopefuls will be there--but not Sarah Palin.

CPAC lists on its website as confirmed speakers Mitt Romney, Tim Pawlenty, Newt Gingrich, Bobby Jindal, and Rick Santorum.

Palin is turning down an invitation to speak there, Politico's Andy Barr reports. Palin's camp says the problem is that American Conservatives Union head David Keene will be there; Keene reportedly asked FedEx for millions of dollars to get ACU's support in a legislative fight with UPS.

Money could also be an issue: Palin charges $100,000 for speaking appearances, and CPAC, as a policy, doesn't pay its speakers. If that were part of the issue, it wouldn't be the first time Palin's speaking fees prevented her from addressing an influential conservative crowd: Iowa conservatives balked at her $100,000 request to speak at an Iowa Family Policy Center event in November, and the appearance never ended up happening.