Invigorated conservaties meet at Conservative Political Action Conference

WASHINGTON — For 30 minutes Thursday, Mitt Romney, a likely Republican candidate for president in 2012, offered a systematic indictment of what he described as the failed presidency of Barack Obama.

Republican leaders took the stage at a conservative conference in Washington, D.C., to pay tribute to the tea-party movement and pledge to defeat Republicans who did not adhere to conservative views. Speaker after speaker drew hoots as they mocked Obama for his use of a teleprompter, seemingly oblivious to the teleprompter that rose from the floor before them.

The setting was the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), and it produced a sometimes incongruous meshing of mainstream Republicans — presidential candidates, leaders of Congress, political thinkers — with the often rowdy crowd of activists who have typically lent a slight air of the carnival to this longtime political gathering.

But the emergence of the tea-party movement provided two striking changes at this session of CPAC, as the gathering is known. One year after being stunned by the election of Obama and the aggressive agenda he brought to Washington and reading reports of their demise, conservatives are clearly invigorated, and see in Obama's struggles a road back to power.

At the same time, conservatives and Republican leaders face a challenge as they try to harness the tea-party movement's energy and sudden influx of new faces and views. Speakers showed no hesitation in denouncing Republicans, often with the same intensity they brought in denouncing Democrats; tea-party leaders made clear that Republicans could no longer count on the automatic backing of conservatives.

"I'm afraid we're causing a little trouble for the establishment," said Sen. Jim DeMint, a South Carolina conservative who has created a committee that is financing conservative challenges to some Republican incumbents.

"When Republican senators don't do the things they say they believe in, voters should have a choice of a new Republican, a real Republican."

The session offered more evidence of the emerging energy in the conservative movement. "Hey guys, the conservative movement is alive and well; you can see it here," said Romney, the former Massachusetts governor and 2004 presidential candidate, as he surveyed the huge ballroom with most of its seats filled.

Former Vice President Dick Cheney drew a lengthy standing ovation after his daughter Liz introduced him as a surprise guest. But the crowd applauded just as loudly when Marco Rubio — a tea-party hero, who is challenging Charlie Crist, Florida's governor, for the Republican Senate nomination — offered a 30-minute indictment of Obama's policies that summed up tea-party views on taxes, federalism, Obama's health-care overhaul and the handling of terrorists.

"They have used a severe economic recession as an excuse to implement the statist policies they have longed for all this time," Rubio said. "They are using this downturn as cover not to fix America, but to try to change America."

Similarly, Sen. Scott Brown, the Republican who pulled off an upset victory in Massachusetts, was greeted as nothing short of a conquering hero.

Evidence of the influence of the tea party appeared at a panel featuring lessons from tea-party activists, and another on the 10th amendment and protecting state sovereignty, central causes of tea-party groups.

But the movement may complicate things for the Republicans, as DeMint noted.

At one point, DeMint declared: "The Constitution, when it was signed, it did not even allow a federal income tax."

"Right!" shouted a man in the audience.

"And that sounds like a good way to limit the size of the federal government," DeMint said.