GOP contenders woo conservatives at forum

WASHINGTON -- Republican presidential candidates vied for the title of most-authentic conservative Friday as they courted a mass gathering of ideologues and activists.

One story line anticipated as the annual meeting of the Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC, gathered was former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney's ongoing, incomplete effort to convince that wing of his party that he is one of them.

Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, the candidate with the hot hand in recent GOP caucus contests, did his best to frustrate the Romney effort with a searing attack on him.

Yet the Daniel-in-the-lion's-den expectations were belied by the warm reception Mr. Romney received from CPAC's packed ballroom at Washington's Wardman Park Marriott.

Another presidential rival, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich of Georgia, was applauded as he tried to rally the crowd to join him in an assault on establishments of all varieties -- entrenched interests in the White House, on Wall Street, and even in the Republican Party.

For his part, Mr. Romney -- veering from the economic focus normally at the center of his campaign -- portrayed his life as an embodiment of conservative values.

His partisans, well represented in the ballroom, met his message with repeated bursts of applause that matched or exceeded the reception Mr. Santorum had received from the same crowd hours earlier.

Mr. Romney didn't mention any of his opponents by name, but he took several opportunities to suggest they had become part of the Capitol establishment they once had pledged to confront.

"I happen to be the only candidate in this race, Republican or Democratic, who has never worked a day in Washington," he said.

In a shot at both Mr. Santorum and Mr. Gingrich, Mr. Romney questioned the post-congressional choices of politicians who claim that "they hated Washington so much they just couldn't leave."

Mr. Romney vowed instead, "I will change Washington, D.C., and then I will leave Washington and go back home to my community that I love."

But most of his speech was a defense of his record and an assertion that, despite criticism of his evolving stands on social issues, his life had been a practical example of the principles that conservative activists advocate.

Mr. Romney described growing up the son of George Romney, an auto industry executive and Michigan's onetime Republican governor, as well as his own venture-capital investment career and 42-year marriage.

"These conservative constants have shaped my life," he said.

"I spent 25 years balancing budgets, eliminating waste, and, by the way, keeping as far away from government as humanly possible," he said, referring to the business career that Mr. Gingrich and others have scorned.

His record as Massachusetts governor and his signing then of a mandatory state health-care law is the root of much conservative unease with him, but he never mentioned that law, which Mr. Santorum attacked before the same group.

Instead, Mr. Romney asserted that his Massachusetts record cast him as a guardian of the right.

"I was fighting against long odds in a deep blue state, but I was a severely conservative Republican governor," he said, citing his opposition to gay marriage and support for Catholic agencies' refusal to let gay couples adopt orphans.

That portrait bore no resemblance to the Mr. Romney depicted by Mr. Santorum.

Fresh from Tuesday's upsets in Missouri, Minnesota, and Colorado voting, he never mentioned Mr. Romney by name, but his target was clear.

"Who has supported the stepchild of Obamacare?" he demanded, referring to the Massachusetts law.

Mr. Santorum restated his central campaign theme: his impassioned contention that the Affordable Health Care Act ("Obamacare" to Mr. Santorum and other Republicans) represents not just bad policy but also a threat to liberty.

"When government gives you rights, government can take away those rights," he warned. "Obamacare will crush economic freedom. As a result, government will own you."

Mr. Gingrich, undeterred by his string of election losses since his landslide win in South Carolina's Jan. 21 primary shook up the race, touted his campaign as "a mortal threat" to establishments of all stripes.

Responding to mostly familiar lines from his stump speech, the crowd cheered as Mr. Gingrich promised "to abolish the death [estate] tax," do away with the Environmental Protection Agency, and -- borrowing a plank from the platform of another GOP rival, libertarian Texas Rep. Ron Paul -- audit the Federal Reserve.

The Block News Alliance consists of The Blade and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. James O'Toole is politics editor at the Post-Gazette.

Contact James O'Toole at: jotoole@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1562.