I have to credit this joke to Jen Rubin — in the lower level of the Omni Shoreham, where most of the Conservative Political Action Conference’s events take place, there is little or no cellular service and it’s tough to get a good wireless signal. It’s hard to get a message out, which is a near-perfect metaphor for the GOP these days.

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“The daily newspaper is going to die,” Sen. Tom Coburn says during his speech. It’s not meant as an applause line, but it gets a round of applause, anyway.

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Wayne LaPierre, executive vice president of the NRA, notes that Attorney General Eric Holder is citing violence along the U.S.-Mexican border in an argument for further gun-control efforts.

“The lie is, if we would just surrender more of our Second Amendment, Mexican drug cartels wouldn’t be able to get the guns they use to terrorize that country. The idea that criminals of any nationality obey gun bans. They’re criminals! . . . The proud people of Mexico need their gun rights back. They need their own meaningful Second Amendment to protect their homes, their lives, and their families.”

(I’m fascinated by the Obama administration’s mentality that the fact that violent Mexican drug cartels are raising hell just over the border doesn’t justify additional border security or a fence, but it does justify making it harder for American citizens to own a gun.)

Another LaPierre line: “I don’t care if it makes their butts pucker from here to the Potomac, the Founding Fathers understood that the guys with the guns make the rules.”