Texas Republican Senator Ron Paul shook up the Southern Republican Leadership Conference in New Orleans this past Saturday with his controversial speech.
"The conservatives and the liberals, they both like to spend," said Paul. "Conservatives spend money on different things. They like embassies, and they like occupation. They like the empire. They like to be in 135 countries and 700 bases."
The speech criticizing even conservatives was met with a mixture of applause and boos. Much of Paul's platform is based around his discontent for America's foreign policies.
Paul criticized conservatives in his speech calling them hypocritical for supporting a return to constitutional values while still supporting foreign conflicts.
"Don't you think it's rather conservative to say, Oh it's good to follow the Constitution. Oh, except for war. Let the President go to war anytime they want," said Paul. "We can do better with peace than with war."
Paul also discussed one of the country's more prominent topics of political discussion, economics. "The reason why the American people have awoken ... is because the country is broke and the people in Washington won't admit it," Paul said.
Paul is a possible presidential candidate for the 2012 presidential elections. At the Conservative Political Action Conference in February Paul came out with the most support for the 2012 presidential bid in a straw poll gaining 31 percent of the vote.
"It's been 60 years since we went to war in Korea," said Paul. "Why do we have to have troops there?"
Speeches like this dividing conservatives could make for an interesting lead up to the 2012 presidential election.
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