Could civil liberties become a conservative issue?

>>> i just talked about the sulaiman abu ghaith as a test case. and but there's another massive -- senate intelligence committee massive 1,000-page investigation they did into the torture regul torture regime, right? the national review is go to come saying he should be sent to guantanamo. my question to you, do you think we're going to see genuine opening-up, at this moment in the cpac, in the conservative issues?

>> i think so, especially while in the white house , it's easy for republicans to call for transparency. and hopefully, we can change them into being conservative. also demanding transparency from a republican president, too.

>> right. and do you think -- rand paul sort of declared victory after this whole thing at a fund-raising letter and said --

>> no he shouldn't have declared victory. i think that was his mistake. he should have said we need more transparency.

>> i agree.

>> and you've been working on capitol hill for years.

>> for decades.

>> you're in a position to judge whether or not this is something new or not?

>> well, i think this san important measure of progress. and i think the fact that why we came down to support rand paul on the senate floor is very, very important. and we've seen these kinds of dynamics around the patriot act . and people said, well, you still have the patriot act . but we stop the patriot 2 from passing. we stopped total awareness from coming under the bush administration . so the bipartisan coalitions are extremely important. but i think now that the war is winding down, the next question will be, what will be the authority for these drone strikes. and i think that's really where we need conservatives to speak up about limited government .

>> right.

>> and we can't be at war with everyone all the time.

>> yep. and we need democrats, too. i mean, the other thing, i should just acknowledge the obvious, right. which is hypocrisy runs in both directions. democrats who are incredibly upset about a variety of things in the bush administration and the obama administration.

>> yeah, that's true. and the obama administration has been indefensible on its transparency and accountability. if it wants to make an argument for the powers currently asserted it should make it an appropriate way.

>> in a public way.

>> in a public way that lays out clearly its arguments that enables the congress and the american public to then examine, critique, to debate. to kiron's point to understand how are we actually maintaining our constitutional checks and balances.

>> right.

>> i think what we want is smart government that is constitutional.

>> you know what i think is interesting. i do think there's a degree to which the legalism of barack obama and the people around him, rather than viewing things as exceptions to the law. they expand the law to fit the exceptions. and that has produced a really perverse consequence. everything has been in the four squares of the law. they want to make sure they're within the boundaries of the law. if you expand the law, now you've got this massive --

>> it's the word imminent.

>> exactly.

>> that white paper was a breach of law.

>> kiron skinner from the university