The American Spectator

Rand Paul made a pitch for a more libertarian Republican Party this afternoon in his 10-minute speech on the main stage at the Conservative Political Action Conference.

“The GOP of old has grown stale and moss-covered,” the Kentucky senator said. “I don’t think we need to name any names, do we?”

Paul argued that members of “the Facebook generation,” are looking for leaders who “won’t feed them a line of crap.”

“Our party is encumbered by an inconsistent approach to freedom,” Paul said. “The new GOP will need to embrace liberty in both the economic and the personal sphere.”

That said, the majority of Paul’s points — and the audience’s reactions — fell comfortably within the Republican big tent. His call for eliminating the federal Department of Education, for instance, elicited wild cheers. His call to stop jailing non-violent drug offenders, resulted in more measured applause.