Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) called for a new Republican Party in his speech at CPAC Thursday, a rebuke to the previous speaker, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who said the GOP did not need new ideas.
"The GOP of old has grown stale and moss covered. I don't think we need to name any names, do we?"
"The new GOP will need to embrace liberty in both the economic and the personal sphere. if we're going to have a Republican Party that can win, liberty needs to be the backbone of the GOP."
Minutes before, Rubio said, "We don't need a new idea. There is an idea: The idea is called America, and it still works."
Paul is the rock star of the moment coming off his 13-hour filibuster of CIA director nominee John Brennan in protest of President Barack Obama's civil liberties policies. "Stand With Rand" posters are everywhere at the convention, and conservative pols are being asked by interviewers whether they "stand with Rand."
In his speech, Paul introduced a slew of issues that Republicans don't normally talk about, or at least Republicans with 2016 ambitions.
"The president at one time respected civil liberties, but then he signed a law on indefinite detention."
"Ask the Facebook generation whether we should put a kid in jail for the nonviolent crime of drug use and you'll hear a resounding 'no'," he said to huge applause.
"Ask the Facebook generation if they want to bail out too-big-to-fail banks with their tax dollars and you'll hear a 'hell, no,'" he said.
Paul hit predictable conservative erogenous zones on balancing the budget, the sequester and waste, fraud and abuse in the federal government.
Still, he unleashed excitement as the party looks for a figure in the aftermath of the 2012 defeat.
"Now I was told I only get 10 measly minutes. But just in case I brought 13 hours of information," he said, with binders on tables next to him.
"Don't drone me, bro!" shouted a member of the crowd.
Below, a liveblog of the latest updates from CPAC: