Yesterday marked the beginning of the Southern Republican Leadership Conference (SLRC) 2010, which bills itself as “the most prominent Republican event outside of the Republican National Convention.” During her speech today, former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin slammed environmentalism and said she feels vindicated in her global warming denialist views because of the “Climategate” smear campaign that she referred to as “Gore-gate“:

PALIN: We should create a competitive climate for investment in renewables and alternatives, none of this snake oil science stuff that is based on this global warming, Gore-gate stuff that came down where there was revelation that the scientists, some of these scientists were playing political games. I sued the Feds over this, I sued the Feds over this as Governor for some bogus listing on the ESA, just about got run out of town by the environmentalists. But now we feel a little bit vindicated because we’re realizing through Gore-gate that there was some snake oil science involved over the data collection there … We invented the Internet, unless that was just another Gore-gate thing too.

Watch it:

The “revelation” of leaked e-mails at the University of East Anglia that Palin is referring to certainly do not debunk global warming. An investigation by the British government’s House of Commons’ Science and Technology Committee found “no evidence to support charges that the University of East Anglia’s Climatic Research Unit or its director, Phil Jones, had tampered with data or perverted the peer review process to exaggerate the threat of global warming.” “What is it about Mr. Gore that drives right-wingers insane?” Paul Krugman has asked. “For the truth Mr. Gore has been telling about how human activities are changing the climate isn’t just inconvenient. For conservatives, it’s deeply threatening.”

The AP is reporting that Dawn Johnsen is withdrawing her nomination to be the next Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC). Early in his administration, President Obama received praise from the legal and progressive community for nominating Johnsen. Salon’s Glenn Greenwald called the pick “Obama’s best yet, perhaps by far.” As evidence, Greenwald highlighted an article in Slate that Johnsen authored in 2008, in which she excoriated John Yoo’s infamous torture memo. Johnsen also sharply criticized the Democratic Congress for legalizing Bush’s surveillance program. Jay Bybee, Bush’s OLC head who went on to authorize illegal torture — won easy confirmation in 2001 through a simple voice vote. However, despite being recommended by the Senate Judiciary Committee by a party-line vote, the Senate stalled Johnsen’s nomination for over a year. Senate Republicans, joined by Ben Nelson (D-NE) and other conservative Democrats, threatened a filibuster. President Obama could have appointed Johnsen during a recent slate of recess appointments, but declined to do so.

Today in his speech at the Southern Republican Leadership Conference, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) complained that characterizations of the GOP as the “Party of No” are hurtful:

Speaker Pelosi likes to call the Republicans the ‘Party of No.’ Some of us, we don’t like the way that sounds. It hurts our feelings. … Speaker Newt Gingrich said yesterday the Republicans need to be the ‘Party of Yes,’ and he is right.

Yet in the very next breath, Jindal exclaimed that the GOP isn’t just the “party of No,” but instead “the party of Hell No when it comes to this health care!” The irony appeared to be lost on the crowd. Watch it:

Jindal, who was widely mocked for delivering an “amateurish” response to President Obama’s address before Congress in 2009, had his share of awkward moments today. For example, at one point, Jindal told the audience, “we do have ideas; some of those ideas are even good ideas.” Is Jindal tacitly acknowledging that the GOP also has many bad ideas?

Jindal isn’t the only conservative who is offering confused talking points. Speaking at a rally with Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) earlier this week, Sarah Palin offered similar discombobulated thoughts. Palin called the “Party of No” label a “mistaken concept” right before saying there is nothing “wrong with being the Party of No” in the face of Obama’s agenda.

Last November, Rep. Joseph Cao (R-LA) — who represents a heavily Democratic district — was the only Republican to vote for health care reform, saying at the time that it was “best for my constituents.” Cao switched his vote when the House took up the issue again in March and strongly condemned the bill as “at a par with slavery,” but it seems some conservatives are still holding his original vote against him. At the Southern Republican Leadership Conference, currently taking place in New Orleans, the Washington Post’s Dave Weigel reports than an “angry” Republican — who had supported Cao in the past — confronted the congressman about his health care vote. The woman was upset that Cao had raised money in “white suburbs” while supporting “liberal, spread-the-wealth, welfare, black” policies:

“He had fundraisers, he had meetings, all in the suburbs — the white suburbs,” said [Kim] Hasney [a photographer from Jefferson Parish], who attended one of those events. “He had nothing in the district. We got him elected. Then, he goes and says ‘but I have to represent my district,’ which is all liberal, giveaway, spread-the-wealth, welfare, black. We thought he would try to change the demographics of that district by supporting things that were not giveaway things. You know, supporting things that would get them out of the ghetto.” [...]

“I thought that was what he was going to do,” she said. “As a conservative Republican, bring a work ethic, bring a non-welfare ethic.”

Referencing a memo House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) released in 2008 praising Cao as “the future,” Matthew Yglesias writes, “We’re a long way from the days of ‘The Future is Cao.’”