The three-day Conservative Political Action Conference — which bills itself as the “Largest Annual Gathering of Conservative Students, Activists and Policymakers!” — started today in Washington. It’s quite a lineup, and should be pretty entertaining, especially this year, given the GOP’s woes. You can watch the live stream here, and we’ve dispatched Matt Cooper with camera in hand to bring us the latest goings-on.

Late Update: Just to give you the flavor, this afternoon at 2:30 ET, TPM fave Hans von Spakovsky will be on a panel titled: “Al Franken and ACORN: How Liberals are Destroying the American Election System.”

As Atrios would say, just make it stop.

Gail Collins nails it …

Louisiana has gotten $130 billion in post-Katrina aid. How is it that the stars of the Republican austerity movement come from the states that suck up the most federal money? Taxpayers in New York send way more to Washington than they get back so more can go to places like Alaska and Louisiana. Which is fine, as long as we don’t have to hear their governors bragging about how the folks who elected them want to keep their tax money to themselves. Of course they do! That’s because they’re living off ours.

More than 52 million TV viewers watched President Obama’s address to Congress — compared to 39.8 million viewers for President George W. Bush’s first congressional address in 2001. That and the day’s other political news in the TPMDC Morning Roundup.