WASHINGTON — Last February at the 33rd annual convention of the Conservative Political Action Conference, President Bush's top political advisor, Karl Rove, made note of his boss's reelection three months previously by proclaiming: "Conservatism is the dominant political creed in America."
A year later, that tenor of triumph has faded.
The 2006 convention, which opened Thursday and continues through the weekend, finds the conservative movement in some disarray.
There is considerable disappointment that Bush has not tamed the federal deficit. His immigration plan has divided hard-line conservatives, who oppose his guest-worker proposal, from more moderate business interests which rely on immigrant labor. Even the administration's policies in the war on terrorism have created controversy.
In one of the conference's first sessions, conservative former Rep. Bob Barr (R-Ga.) argued that the National Security Agency's warrantless eavesdropping on the international communications of people in the United States violated the 4th Amendment's prohibition of unreasonable search and seizure.
He closed his comments with this thought: What if a new administration, less favored by conservatives, exercised the same power?
"That gauntlet will be taken up by somebody we really don't like, and it will be used against us," Barr said.
That was too much for Ralph Sorcinelli, 52, a painting and wallpapering contractor from West Springfield, Mass. He let out a loud boo from the back of the hotel ballroom -- and then another.
His shouted disagreement cut through the polite applause for the low-key debate between Barr and Viet D. Dinh, a Georgetown University law professor and former Justice Department official who defended the administration's policy.
Sorcinelli said: "It was outrageous that he would invoke the Constitution of the United States to say that the president is off course." He added: "I can't believe I'm in a conservative hall" hearing Bush's direction questioned in his "defense of the United States of America."
While the president struggles to regain his political footing after the downturns of 2005 -- sliding approval ratings, reversals in Iraq, rising oil prices and the indictment of Vice President Dick Cheney's nowresigned chief of staff in connection with the disclosure of a CIA agent's identity, among others -- he has been pummeled in recent days: Some conservatives, Barr at the top of the list, have challenged the eavesdropping as crossing a boundary that protects Americans' privacy.
