hide captionRepublican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky speaks at the Conservative Political Action Committee annual conference in National Harbor, Md., on Friday.

Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky speaks at the Conservative Political Action Committee annual conference in National Harbor, Md., on Friday.

If any two issues illustrate how difficult it could be for the part of the Republican Party represented by the social and national security conservatives to bridge their differences with libertarians, same-sex marriage and National Security Agency intelligence are good candidates

Discussions at the 2014 Conservative Political Action Conference got testy Friday, when libertarians defended positions out of synch with the more traditional stances that have defined the Republican Party for decades.

At a panel on privacy, for instance, centering on Edward Snowden's revelations about the NSA's data gathering, former Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore dramatically held aloft a New York Post front page with photos of Snowden and Russian president Vladimir Putin under the headline "Comrades."

"Edward Snowden is a traitor and a coward," Gilmore said. "The fact is, Edward Snowden betrayed his trust."

Gilmore, who once served as a military intel officer, said Snowden seriously damaged U.S. intelligence efforts. He also accused political leaders who've used Snowden's disclosures to suggest that there's widespread surveillance of average citizens by the federal government of "demagoguery."

Responding to Gilmore, Bruce Fein, a libertarian lawyer who's been involved in a lawsuit against the federal government, said that he ignores the more rampant lawlessness which is "government violating the rule of law."

"All these examples of government lawlessness, total silence on Gov. Gilmore's side," Fein said. "And when the government becomes a lawbreaker, it invites every man and woman to become a law unto themselves."

If there was common ground, it wasn't much on display during this session. That debate also displayed the tricky territory Republicans are going to have to navigate if they are to find a compromise on this issue.

Excerpt from:

CPAC's Conservative-Libertarian Split Could Be Hard To Bridge