FrumForum Toasts New ACU Chair Al Cardenas

Written by Fred Messner on Friday May 27, 2011

FrumForum held a dinner Thursday, May 26 to honor Al Cardenas, the new chairman of the American Conservative Union (ACU)

FrumForum held a dinner last night to honor Al Cardenas, the new chairman of the American Conservative Union (ACU). Cardenas assumed the chairmanship during the 2011 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), which is run by the ACU.

The dinner was held at the home of FF Editor David Frum and his wife, Danielle. "I got to know Al Cardenas through his important work defending freedom of expression in Venezuela. He has been a great guide and teacher, and it is an honor to celebrate his elevation as chairman of the American Conservative Union," Frum said.

As Chairman, Mr. Cardenas said he aims to tap into the groundswell of political activism that has emerged in the past two years. “These folks are all new to the game. They have an incredible instinct and visceral understanding of what troubles them about their country and where we want to go.”

Cardenas said he hopes to take inside-the-beltway Republican scholarship and share it with the grassroots of the party. “We've got all this terrific content, all these terrific publications," he said. "So do we reach hundreds of thousands of people, or millions of people? We're trying to figure out how do we do all of the great things that we do, but share it with a broader audience.”

Among the attendees were radio and television personality Laura Ingraham; Daily Caller editor Tucker Carlson; columnists Mona Charen and Meghan Cox Gurdon; Hugo Gurdon, editor of The Hill; Stephen Smith, executive editor of the Washington Examiner and his author wife, Sally Bedell Smith; former Reagan speechwriter Peggy Noonan; Juleanna Glover, founding principal of the Ashcroft Group; Jamie Kirchick, writer-at-large for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty; Eli Lake, national security correspondent for the Washington Times; Maggie Gallagher, chairman of the board of the National Organization for Marriage; Mary Ellen Bork, a director of the Institute for Religion and Democracy; author Christina Hoff Sommers; Husain Haqqani, Ambassador of Pakistan to the United States; Matt Brooks, executive director of the Republican Jewish Coalition; Toby Harnden, correspondent for the Daily Telegraph; and Walter Olson, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute's Center for Constitutional Studies.