In the shadow of the Capitol and in the middle of the 2008 legislative session, some of Utah's preeminent conservatives say many Republican lawmakers aren't living up to their proclaimed principles.

"There's a huge disconnect between conservative principles and conservative politics," said Enid Greene Mickelsen, a former U.S. congresswoman and former Utah Republican Party chairwoman. Then she got specific: "Greg Curtis is not conservative," she said of Utah's Speaker of the House.

Mickelsen and others, including Utah Eagle Forum President Gayle Ruzicka and former state legislator LaVar Christensen, participated in a conservative roundtable on Tuesday at the Sutherland Institute in Salt Lake City. It was anchored by Ed Feulner, president of The Heritage Foundation, a powerful national conservative group.

Take two issues off the table, marriage and abortion, and the state appears as liberal as most others, said Lyall Swim of the Sutherland Institute, a conservative think tank. The problem with Utah lawmakers is that they take a liberal approach to politics: trying to fix things through legislation.

"We're to blame as a voting public because we continue to reward based on promises," he said.

Kyle Bateman of Action Target added that he thinks people don't run for office to be conservative, they run because they want power. So they'll tell conservatives what they want to hear to get that power.

The soccer stadium deal in Sandy, Curtis's stomping ground, was a favorite target. Local governments didn't want to subsidize the project, but then the state's "conservative" government stepped in and handed over $35 million.

"They weren't breaking even and the taxpayers helped them get over the hump," said Sutherland president Paul Mero, who added that conservative leaders were wearing team jerseys at the news conference and were proud of it.

"Quality of life has become the new conservatism," he rued. That shouldn't be the case, said the group. There were plenty of references to God, guns and Hillary Clinton, but most of the two hours of the meeting were spent extolling the virtues of personal responsibility and lambasting the suffocating web of too much government.

Christensen likens his liberal counterparts to wanting to stop a free fall by passing a law against bouncing off the pavement.

"We can't just simply legislate these outcomes that we all strive for," said Christensen, a former Utah representative who ran unsuccessfully against U.S. Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah.

When it comes to legislation, Ruzicka has a singular view.

"As long as they do it my way, I don't care," quipped the head of the Eagle Forum and a woman considered one of the most powerful people in the state.

Being Super Tuesday, Ruzicka was asked about which presidential candidate most closely follows conservative principles. She's going with Mitt Romney, though he has held liberal positions in the past.

"He's said 'I was wrong,' " Ruzicka said. "I believe in repentance."