Santorum Amps Up CPAC: 'We Will No Longer Apologize for the Principles That Made This Country Great'

CPAC: Santorum rips Romney, rouses conservatives

By Stephanie Condon, CBS News

WASHINGTON - Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum created a stir at a high-profile conservative conference on Friday by aggressively charging that his GOP rivals aren't conservative enough to excite voters - in the primary or general election.

"We always talk about appealing to moderates," Santorum said at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). "Why would an undecided voter vote for the candidate that the party's not excited about? We need conservatives to rally for a conservative, to pull with that excitement moderate voters, and to defeat Barack Obama in the fall."

Fresh off his three victories in the nominating contests in Missouri, Colorado and Minnesota, Santorum took the stage at CPAC to a prolonged standing ovation. The annual conference, hosted by the American Conservative Union, draws in thousands of conservative activists. ACU Chairman Al Cardenas described it Friday morning as the "ultimate" conservative focus group.

Santorum fully embraced his conservative ideology before the CPAC crowd, telling them, "Conservatives and Tea Party folk - we are not just wings of the Republican party, we are the Republican party."