Conservative Political Action Conference

Former First Ladies Barbara and Laura Bush worked to end illiteracy. Nancy Reagan famously took on teenage drug use. Lady Bird Johnson planted flowers. But none of them have been seared for something as seemingly benign as calling for kids to eat more vegetables, as Michelle Obama has. Just about everyone will agree that the nation's children are getting fatter and that obesity is a serious health problem. But the first lady's push for healthier meals and more exercise, which marked its first anniversary this month, has provoked a backlash from the right, who complain that the only thing here that's supersized is Big Brother.

Mitt Romney won a presidential preference straw poll of party activists at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference, giving him a morale boost after a trio of losses earlier in the week that suggested the Republican base was still cool to the tentative front-runner. Romney was the choice of 38% of the 3,408 CPAC attendees who voted in the poll, and Rick Santorum finished second with 31%. Newt Gingrich won 15% and Ron Paul had 12%. Romney, Santorum and Gingrich addressed the conference on Friday.

Talk show host Glenn Beck poked and prodded the Republican hierarchy Saturday night in a raucous address to fellow conservatives, comparing the party to an alcoholic who hasn't hit bottom and to golfer Tiger Woods before his public repentance. Calling himself a recovering alcoholic in that context, Beck said he believes in the concept of redemption but that he doesn't think the GOP has taken the first step toward achieving it. "I have not yet heard people in the Republican Party admit they have a problem," Beck told a packed ballroom in Washington.

The number of votes cast in a straw poll of conservative activists was only a couple thousand fewer than the total at Maine caucuses. But for Mitt Romney, the verdict of attendees of the Conservative Political Action Conference may have been a more significant victory Saturday. It was the best showing for any Republican presidential hopeful since George W. Bush won 42% of the vote at CPAC's 2000 confab. But it wasn't Romney's first victory there; he won the straw polls from 2007 to 2009.

Tim Pawlenty and John Thune, two Midwesterners and possible 2012 presidential contenders, cast themselves as fiscal warriors before a receptive political action conference crowd Friday. Pawlenty, the former two-term governor of Minnesota, is likely to jump in the race, perhaps soon. Thune, a senator from South Dakota who is relatively unknown nationally but viewed as a rising star in conservative circles, is less so. Speaking to a record gathering at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, both decried what they termed a runaway expansion of government under President Barack Obama.

Amid the furor over an Obama administration rule on contraceptives, three GOP presidential candidates hammered away at social issues Friday as they sought to appeal to a major gathering of conservative activists. Mitt Romney, reeling from a triple loss to Rick Santorum in voter contests this week, made his most explicit appeal yet to the Republican right. Romney described himself as a "severely conservative Republican governor" in a half-hour speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference that used the words "conservative" or "conservatism" 29 times.

Conservative activists began a three-day gathering in the nation's capital Thursday with a clear mission — defeating President Obama — if not a clear sense of how to get there. Thousands have descended on a Washington hotel for the annual Conservative Political Action Conference at a time when the race for the Republican presidential nomination has taken yet another unexpected turn. Mitt Romney seemed to have secured his position as the front-runner with convincing victories in Florida and Nevada.

Some prominent right-wing groups say they will not attend a major Republican gathering in Washington next month, objecting to the presence of gay groups and other organizations whose aims they say are incompatible with conservatism. An estimated 10,000 people are expected to attend the Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC, to hear aspiring presidential candidates and vote in one of the first straw polls of the 2012 cycle. Among the missing will be the Family Research Council, a conservative Christian group and once a sponsor of CPAC; the Heritage Foundation; and the American Family Assn.

A dozen potential GOP presidential candidates will address the nation's largest annual conservative gathering this week, opening a window into the likely influence of the "tea party" in choosing President Obama's 2012 opponent. Every four years, the Conservative Political Action Conference assumes outsize importance as potential candidates try to impress a largely youthful audience of movement activists and score high in a straw poll that ironically has proved a poor predictor of nominees.

Mitt Romney won a presidential preference straw poll of party activists at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference, giving him a morale boost after a trio of losses earlier in the week that suggested the Republican base was still cool to the tentative front-runner. Romney was the choice of 38% of the 3,408 CPAC attendees who voted in the poll, and Rick Santorum finished second with 31%. Newt Gingrich won 15% and Ron Paul had 12%. Romney, Santorum and Gingrich addressed the conference on Friday.

Amid the furor over an Obama administration rule on contraceptives, three GOP presidential candidates hammered away at social issues Friday as they sought to appeal to a major gathering of conservative activists. Mitt Romney, reeling from a triple loss to Rick Santorum in voter contests this week, made his most explicit appeal yet to the Republican right. Romney described himself as a "severely conservative Republican governor" in a half-hour speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference that used the words "conservative" or "conservatism" 29 times.

Conservative activists began a three-day gathering in the nation's capital Thursday with a clear mission -- defeating President Obama -- if not a clear sense of how to get there. Thousands have descended on a Washington hotel for the annual Conservative Political Action Conference at a time when the race for the Republican presidential nomination has taken yet another unexpected turn. Mitt Romney seemed to have secured his position as the front-runner with convincing victories in Florida and Nevada.

Conservative activists began a three-day gathering in the nation's capital Thursday with a clear mission — defeating President Obama — if not a clear sense of how to get there. Thousands have descended on a Washington hotel for the annual Conservative Political Action Conference at a time when the race for the Republican presidential nomination has taken yet another unexpected turn. Mitt Romney seemed to have secured his position as the front-runner with convincing victories in Florida and Nevada.

The composer of the Survivor hit "Eye of the Tiger" has sued Newt Gingrich to stop the Republican presidential candidate from using the "Rocky III" anthem at campaign events. The lawsuit was filed Monday in federal court in Chicago by Rude Music  Inc., the Palatine-based music publishing company owned by Frank Sullivan, who composed the song and copyrighted it in 1982. The lawsuit states that as early as 2009, Gingrich has entered rallies and public events to the pulsing guitar riffs of the song, which was the background track to Rocky Balboa's training montages in the film and became a No. 1 hit. The suit lists appearances by Gingrich at the Conservative Political Action Conference in 2009, 2010 and 2011 and numerous stops in Iowa among events at which the candidate has used the song without Sullivan's permission, as well as Internet videos featuring Gingrich that have been posted by American Conservative Union.

Ron Paul has captured another straw poll, at the Republican Leadership Conference, and while that gives him some bragging rights, the victory is just a minor step, though it explains the political muscle of a small but fiercely dedicated group in any political process. Paul, a Republican congressman from Texas and a favorite of libertarians, captured 612 votes Saturday at the GOP conference that attracted 2,000 delegates to New Orleans. Former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, who did not attend the conservative shindig, finished a surprisingly strong second with 382 votes.

Ron Paul, the patriarch of the libertarian stream in GOP politics, will announce on Tuesday that he is forming a presidential exploratory committee, taking a step to join the Republican nomination sweepstakes. Paul, who will be 76 in August, has served about 20 years in the House representing districts in Texas, most recently the 14th, which includes Galveston. He is a doctor by training, having served as a flight surgeon in the Air Force and in private practice as a gynecologist.

Re "Candidates woo conservatives," March 3 I can't understand why liberals get so enraged at conservative pundit Ann Coulter's comments, such as the epithet she used at the Conservative Political Action Conference sessions last weekend. I welcome her misguided rhetoric and was especially pleased with the rousing response from those gathered there. She remains the physical embodiment of everything that is wrong with this administration and its divisive policies. I say, give her a 24-hour cable channel and let her rip. She's a Democrat's best friend.

Re "Bush urges GOP to back nominee," Feb. 9 President Bush obviously has Sen. John McCain in mind in trying to persuade conservatives to rally behind the Republican nominee, but the 43rd president is in denial if he thinks that he's going to soften the fulminations of Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Ann Coulter and company. It's obvious that the animus of the right-wing punditocracy toward the Arizona senator, who enjoys an 82.3% lifetime rating from the American Conservative Union, has less to do with his occasional departure from strict conservative orthodoxy than its desire to maintain a stranglehold on Republican Party dogma.

Ron Paul, the patriarch of the libertarian stream in GOP politics, announced on Tuesday that he is forming a presidential exploratory committee, taking a step to join the Republican nomination sweepstakes. Paul, who will be 76 in August, has served about 20 years in the House representing districts in Texas, most recently the 14th, which includes Galveston. He is a medical doctor by training, having served as a flight surgeon in the Air Force and in private practice as a gynecologist.

Herman Cain won a presidential straw poll at a "tea-party" event in Phoenix over the weekend which brings up an obvious follow-up question: Who in blazes is Herman Cain? Other than one of the few Republicans to actually have declared outright his interest in his party's presidential nomination, Cain, 65, is the former chief executive officer of Godfather's Pizza, and he worked as a conservative radio host in Atlanta for years. The "Hermanator" has become a tea-party favorite through his advocacy of, among other things, the so-called Fair Tax, which would eliminate the federal tax code in favor of a national consumption tax on retail sales.