Rand Paul touts his brand of conservatism as more cautious in war

DES MOINES - Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul laid the groundwork for a possible 2016 Republican presidential bid Friday by offering a message he believes will appeal to the party's conservative base while attracting young and independent-minded Iowans fed up with a federal government overreaching into their lives.

'I would be someone who is conservative with a little bit of libertarian-ish flavor,” said Paul, 52, a member of the U.S. Senate since 2011 and son of former GOP presidential candidate and U.S. Rep. Ron Paul of Texas. He said he would decide his own presidential intentions sometime in March or April.

Paul held an 'audit the fed” rally at a winery that drew more than 200 supporters who cheered his call for bringing more transparency to the Federal Reserve Bank and its lending practices, easing harsh drug penalties, defeating Loretta Lynch as President Barack Obama's U.S. attorney general nominee and taking a go-slow approach to international military intervention.

The Kentucky senator said he has not been afraid to challenge the administration by suing the president over National Security Agency spying, and he plans to lead the charge in building public pressure to allow the Government Accountability Office to do an independent audit of federal banking and lending practices.

Paul expressed concern that Obama has tilted the separation of governmental powers by using executive orders to write law, and he pledged to restore balance among the branches and not overstep foreign policy boundaries by making U.S. military commitments without congressional approval.

'You're going to get a choice on who the nominee is for the Republican Party. You're going to have nine, 10, 15, 20 who are eager to go and want troops on the ground. They want 100,000 troops on the ground right now,” Paul told the Iowa crowd. 'If there's one true thing I can tell you that I think they cannot object to that the facts clearly demonstrate - every time we have toppled a secular dictator, we've gotten chaos, and we've gotten a rise in radical Islam, and we've been less safe.

'Whether I'm in the Senate or I do run for the nomination, I can tell there will be one loud voice in our party saying think of the unintended consequences,” he said.