Conservatives Looking For Champion To Re-Energize Flagging Right For '08

WASHINGTON — As many of the nation's top conservative leaders and activists gather here Thursday for their annual meeting, they will have something in common with the judges on the TV hit "American Idol."

They'll be hunting for someone for a really big role, in this case the one filled by Ronald Reagan, who once united their now fraying coalition of social conservatives, business interests, foreign policy hawks and big-government foes.

Nearly all of the Republican presidential hopefuls are scheduled to appear at the three-day Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) whose attendees represent much of the Republican base. But the candidates will be auditioning amid strong doubts that any could come close to the "Gipper."

"Every one of the front runners has a different flaw" from the standpoint of key conservative groups, said Republican pollster Tony Fabrizio, who will be tabulating a straw poll of presidential preferences for the conference.

A potentially crucial moment will be Friday, when former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani is set to make his noon appearance before the conservatives as a candidate who is unabashedly pro-choice on abortion, pro-gun control and a supporter of gay rights.

"It has its risks," Fabrizio said. "If he goes and he is booed, then that will be reported."

But with expectations so low for Giuliani's support among conservatives, there is also an up side.

"If there's any warmth from the audience, it will be perceived as him being well received," Fabrizio said of Giuliani, who now ranks as the top Republican in early national polls for the 2008 presidential race.

Mitt Romney, the former Republican Massachusetts governor, who is scheduled to speak Friday afternoon, faces a different challenge: conservatives' suspicions about his decisions to abandon previously liberal positions on abortion and gay rights.

"He's going to say, essentially, 'I'm one of you,' " predicted Pat Toomey, president of Club for Growth, a free market group that is participating in the CPAC gathering. He said Romney needs to convince skeptics that "he's made a genuine conversion."

The other top-tier Republican candidate, Sen. John McCain of Arizona, will not be coming to the conference, whose participants have sharply criticized him for opposing tax cuts and for leading the passage of campaign finance laws, seen by some as restricting free speech.

"John McCain is apparently under the mistaken impression that he need not appear before conservative organizations," said William Lauderback of the American Conservative Union, a chief sponsor for CPAC. "That is a terrible mistake."

McCain's spokesman, Danny Diaz, said the senator would be in Utah for private and campaign finance meetings during the Washington gathering.

"I think they (conservatives) realize he has fought for fiscal discipline, a strong national defense and the sanctity of the family," Diaz said, adding that McCain is looking "forward to future opportunities" to meet with conservative groups.

Looking over the Republican field, Lauderback conceded that many activists are nostalgic for the Reagan era and dissatisfied with the 2008 choices, including some of the long-shot candidates who will be speaking to the conference.

Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, for example, has been rapped for lacking fiscal discipline. Even staunch Christian conservative Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas has angered some conservatives by joining Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., on legislation that would allow illegal immigrants to eventually seek citizenship.

Toomey said he has restrained expectations for the emergence this week of a strong leader. "It's not clear that we have a candidate who has Reagan's ability to unite this coalition," he said.

The one person that he and others agreed has the power to energize the gathering of the right wing is former House speaker Newt Gingrich, the Georgia Republican and so far non-candidate for president who is scheduled to speak Saturday.

"He's the guy everybody looks to for ideas and passion," Fabrizio, the pollster, said.