WASHINGTON — U.S. Rep. Allen West, R-Plantation, who’ll deliver the keynote speech later today at the Conservative Political Action Conference, just got through doing interviews with Geraldo Rivera and various bloggers and radio stations, then ran into singer Pat Boone. Boone received a lifetime achievement award at the conference. The crooner is wearing a “Kill The Death Tax” button and a lapel pin showing the flags of the U.S. and Israel.

Conservatives have been lavishing praise on Republican Senate hopeful Marco Rubio’s speech last week to the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington.

Admiration of Rubio’s speech also comes from the left in this piece by The New Republic‘s John Judis, who called Rubio’s speech “a masterpiece of political positioning” that “hovered above partisanship.”

Judis says Rubio’s blend of biography and political vision was reminiscent of Barack Obama and Bill Clinton. And he said Rubio avoided what he considered the rhetorical excesses of other CPAC spekers.

“Rubio also didn’t brand his political opponents socialists. He didn’t describe the White House as followers, as one daffy speaker put it, of Marx, Engels, Che Guevara, Hugo Chavez, and Saul Alinsky.”

The unnamed “daffy” speaker was South Florida Republican congressional hopeful Allen West.

Of Rubio, Judis concludes: “The 39-year-old Cuban-American who has the looks of a matinee idol and speaks with wit and vigor is a force to be reckoned with.”

Emerging national conservative celebrity Marco Rubio has opened up an 18-point lead over Gov. Charlie Crist in their Republican U.S. Senate primary race, according to the latest Rasmussen Reports poll.

Former Florida House speaker Rubio has a 54-to-36 percent lead over Crist in a poll of 442 likely Republican voters taken last Thursday — the day Rubio made a much-publicized speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington.

In the poll, which has a 5 percent margin of error, Rubio is viewed favorably by 67 percent of Republican voters and Crist is viewed favorably by 54 percent. Crist’s approval rating as governor is 48 percent, with 49 percent disapproving. In January, Crist had a 62 percent favorability rating among Republicans and his approval-disapproval score as governor was 56-43.

Rubio had a 12-point lead in a late-January Rasmussen poll. Rubio and Crist were tied in December.

WASHINGTON — Republican congressional hopeful Allen West, hoping to gain national momentum for his challenge of Democratic U.S. Rep. Ron Klein, was well-received during his 15-minute speech at Saturday’s Conservative Political Action Conference.

Read about it here.

WASHINGTON — Actor Stephen Baldwin, a.k.a. the conservative Baldwin brother, just dropped by a fund-raiser/meet-and-greet for South Florida Republican congressional hopeful Allen West at the Conservative Political Action Conference here.

West’s improved money-raising has drawn the notice of the national GOP as he tries to unseat Democratic U.S. Rep. Ron Klein. West should raise his profile even more on Saturday afternoon, when he has a featured speaking slot shortly before conservative multi-media star Glenn Beck speaks.

This morning, West got several standing ovations when he was part of a panel discussion called “Jihad: The Political Third Rail,” in which he said America needs to confront the ideology behind Islamic terrorism.

“There’s no such thing as a war on terror….A nation goes to war against an ideology, and that’s what we’ve been talking about today.

“We’ve been talking about the fact that here is something that is a totalitarian, theocratic, political ideology and it is called Islam. This is not about Muslims. It is just the same as in Nazi Germany. Not every German was a Nazi. It’s just the same as when I was in Iraq in 2003. Not every Iraqi was a member of the Baath Party,” said West, a retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel.

WASHINGTON — Marco Rubio is here to speak to the annual Conservative Political Action Conference this morning.

And he’s hoping to return to Washington in January as a Republican U.S. Senator.

But Rubio, who has pulled ahead of GOP primary rival Charlie Crist in the polls, will pledge in his speech to thousands of conservative activists that he’ll come to Washington to combat big government and “not be co-opted by it.”

A few advance excerpts of Rubio’s speech after the jump…..

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WASHINGTON — Gov. Charlie Crist’s U.S. Senate campaign is mocking GOP rival Marco Rubio’s claims of conservative outsider status on the eve of Rubio’s address to the influential Conservative Political Action Conference here.

Rubio is slated to speak at 10 a.m. Thursday at the annual Who’s Who national gathering of conservatives. He’s also expected to attend a few fund-raising events while he’s in town, including one with GOP stars Mary Matalin and Liz Cheney and former U.S. Reps. J.C. Watts and Vin Weber.

CPAC Director Lisa DePasquale said Rubio was invited to speak because of interest from CPAC sponsors.

What about Crist?

“Charlie Crist’s name did not come up” when speakers were being considered for the conservative confab, DePasquale said.

Republican U.S. House candidate Allen West has been added to the lineup of speakers for the three-day Conservative Political Action Conference this month.

West, a retired U.S. Army colonel making his second attempt at unseating U.S. Rep. Ron Klein, D-Boca Raton, will speak on the third day.

He’ll follow a panel discussion on “Saving Freedom from the Hoax of Global Warming” and precede the panel discussion on “Saving Freedom in 2010: A Conservative Comeback.”

Other Floridians at the conference include Republican U.S. Senate candidate Marco Rubio as a speaker; former Florida Republican Party Chairman Al Cardenas, who will moderate a panel on “Saving Freedom from Tyranny: Real Life Experiences”; and Palm Beach resident Ann Coulter, who is speaking once at the student’s reception and again to conference attendees.

Who knew so many CPAC members were Miami Heat fans?

Gov. Charlie Crist was greeted with a round of boos at last night’s Heat game after he was announced during a halftime ceremony to retire Alonzo Mourning’s jersey.

This from Post writer Tom D’Angelo’s account of the evening:

Florida Gov. Charlie Crist spoke after being greeted by more jeers than cheers.

A couple of basketball fans also noted the less-than-warm welcome on their Twitter pages:

Lots of boos for Charlie Crist during halftime at the Magic/Heat game. (jasonwbragg)

And the @MHEAT crowd showers FL Governor Charlie Crist with boos. (3QCMagic)

It’s a time-honored tradition for sports fans to boo any politician who dares to wade into their arena (Philadelphia Eagles fans once booed Santa Claus).

But the wildly popular Crist, pictured above at the Daytona 500 race this year, has – up until now – largely avoided these embarrassments in Florida’s sports parks.