Paul: Ironic that conservatives are rallying behind 'sort of' liberal Santorum

Ron Paul dismissed Rick Santorum's trio of victories Tuesday night and said he found conservatives coalescing around the former Pennsylvania senator as an alternative to Mitt Romney ironic during an interview Thursday on CNN.

"I think it's a lack of enthusiasm for any of the other three. It's been around for a bit, but there's a bit of irony, though, for Santorum to be the one that's criticizing Mitt Romney as sort of being liberal. When we do the analysis and look at his voting record, he's not a moderate. He has voted for a lot of big government things," Paul said.

Earlier Thursday, Paul criticized each of his Republican rivals while decrying President Obama's newly announced regulation that would require employers — including religious organizations — to purchase healthcare that provides coverage for contraception.

He doubled down on the criticism of Obama while speaking with CNN.

"I don't like the mandates at all, and I think Obama has dug a hole for himself here, because he's trampling on religious conviction, but the political and economic and constitutional approach of government being involved in doing things like this is really where it starts," Paul said.

The Texas congressman also predicted conservatives would eventually rally around his campaign — despite being the only remaining GOP candidate to have not won a state.

"Maybe they're tired of the bickering among themselves when they realize their positions are essentially the same. And of course, we're not on the top. We see ourselves growing in enthusiasm and our numbers keep growing, so hopefully the message will resonate and more will join us," Paul said.

Paul also defended skipping the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, D.C., where his rival candidates and major conservative political figures are in attendance.

"We have a lot of young people involved in our campaign," Paul said. "We asked a lot of them, and they're doing a lot of hard work, they do the phone calling and the door knocking, and all these things. People don't come there automatically, and our supporters, we've asked them to do other jobs, so we had decided that a couple months ago not to come to CPAC."

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