Paul's tract record bucks GOP establishment

(CNN) -

Rand Paul isn't your run-of-the-mill Republican teasing 2016 ambitions.

It's early in the game, but Paul's crusade against government overreach and his willingness to buck the establishment GOP are turning heads. And his recent popularity has some arguing the Kentucky Republican might have some staying power.

"State of the Union" political panelists Newt Gingrich, Neera Tanden and Susan Page agree Paul is one of the most interesting among the potential 2016 presidential candidates.

"Here's a guy who's got Neera Tanden and Newt Gingrich in agreement that he's interesting and provocative -- and so I definitely think Rand Paul gets the 'most interesting Republican on the scene' prize for the past year," said Page, Washington bureau chief for USA Today.

Page said Paul is "clearly a factor" going into the 2016 elections.

"And if anyone thought he was just Ron Paul Two -- that's clearly not the case," she said, referring to his father, who ran for the GOP nomination in 2008 and also ran for president in 1988 as a libertarian candidate. "He's carving out his own identity, it's distinctive. Sometimes he takes on Republicans, sometimes he takes on Democrats," she said.

The libertarian-leaning senator is fresh off a speech at the historically liberal-leaning University of California at Berkeley, where he talked about the National Security Agency's surveillance program and the Republican Party's need for change.

"I think Rand Paul is actually raising profound questions that go right at the heart of the American establishment," said Gingrich, a co-host on CNN's "Crossfire" and former GOP House speaker. "Rand Paul is touching on a nerve here, which every conservative ought to take seriously."

Host Candy Crowley said Paul's interesting because he's "unpredictable on some issues."

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Paul's tract record bucks GOP establishment