Rick Santorum gets hearty welcome at conference of country’s conservatives

By Bobby Caina Calvan, Globe Staff

WASHINGTON -- Rick Santorum, riding high after his victories this week in three states, won cheers today at the Conservative Political Action Conference, where he railed against President Obama and made his case that Republicans need not abandon their conservative values to win in November.

It was an obvious dig at Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, whose front-runner status is being challenged after Santorum’s sweep on Tuesday of Colorado, Minnesota and Missouri.

He urged conservatives to rally behind his campaign and to believe that one of their own can prevail not only in winning the nomination but also in beating Obama in the fall.

Republicans have the best chance of winning back the White House, he said, with a conservative at the top of its ticket.

“Conservatism did not fail our country,” he said. “Conservatives failed conservatism. And we, in fact lost our heart … We listened to the voice that said we had to abandon our principles and values to win. We hear the same voices today.

“As conservatives and tea party folks, we are not just a wing of the Republican Party – we are the Republican Party,” Santorum said to applause.

Santorum asserted that he would be the best candidate to speak about what he called referred to as the failed policies of the Obama administration, particularly on health care and issues of religious freedom. Without naming Romney by name, he the Massachusetts plan for universal health coverage makes Romney an ineffective messenger to challenge Obama on healthcare.

Romney would be ``someone who would simply give that issue away, give that issue away of government control of your health,’’ he said.

He also criticized Gingrich and Romney, again without naming names, for supporting the 2008 bank bailouts, which he called the precurser to the Dodd-Frank Wall Street regulatory overhaul. Romney and Gingrich get their chance to speak at CPAC -- an annual conference -- later today.

Santorum piled on to the criticism mounting on the Obama administration by conservatives and the Catholic Church over policies that would force insurers, even those provided by religious groups, to provide contraceptives.

“It’s not about contraception,” Santorum said.

It’s about religious freedom, he said. “It’s about government control of your lives, and it has to stop.”

As Santorum was speaking, senior White House officials were trying to tamp down the controversy.

The president was scheduled to deliver a statement today, shortly after noon, about the issue.