thursday. we'll talk to them about their new book. you can always follow what's going on behind the scenes on twitter. tweet me @wolfblitzer. tweet the show@sitroom. "crossfire", that starts right now. tonight on "crossfire", who is the face of the republican future? tea party purity or new jersey practicing ma temple? >> the whole country is watching, everybody. >> governor chris christie isn't shy about working with democrats or getting in your face. >> excuse me. no, excuse me. >> on the left stephanie cutter, on the right larry elder, in the "crossfire", too la tourette, a republican moderate and rick tyler, a conservative strategist. is chris christie writing the playbook? >> you're running for president on our backs. >> tonight on "crossfire."

welcome to "crossfire", i'm larry elder on the right. >> i'm stephanie cutter on the left. a big reelection win tomorrow will certainly make chris christie a top republican candidate for 2016, but here's the problem. for both democrats and republicans, it's just that he has a mitt romney feel for hem. he's sure san christie's praises yesterday on "meet the press." >> if you look at chris christie and say that's a very impressive guy with a great track record, with a demonstrated ability to work across the aisle, with support of labor and blue collar voters in new jersey, there's a long list of very capable people, but chris christie stands out as one of the very stronge likes in the republican party. >> here's an even bigger problem. even though christie has an air of aauthenticity, you don't run

in a vacuum. if he runs in 2016, democrats will hit him for being against women, but republicans will hit him for giving money to planned parenthood. democrats will say his state was 45th in job creation. this sounds awfully familiar, larry. it's like take us back four years ago, we're at the exact same play. >> those of us who are republican under the republican wing have a problem with republicans like chris christie. good guy, i would certainly prefer him over any democrat that could be tossed up, but has he accepted the architecture of welfare state? or will he by like ted cruz, wanting to attack the welfare state and xwoir individuals in the states? that's our concern. >> it's a full rep table.

steve la tourette, also rick tyler, who isn't a christie fan. suns you are our guest host tonight, larry, why don't you ask the question. >> steve, one of my problems with chris christie was during during he asked for funding, i get it, but couldn't he have threat said something like, when i run in 2016, i'm going to make sure i don't federalize disaster relief and this boondoggle known as fema was a bad idea? but you've got to do what i've got to do for my state. >> no. he didn't exactly what he was supposed to do as the governor of new jersey. his people were hurting, the program, fema was in place, whether you like it or don't like it. he went to the guy that had the money to help his folks out that were under water. i don't have any difficulty. i love chris christie. that's where the republican party needs to find itself as we

move forward. >> isn't the problem, though, between a republican party that wants to stand on principles versus a republican party that wants to govern? $30 billion in damages to new jersey after hurricane sandy, something like $65 billion in damages to the country. rick, isn't this the dynamic in the republican party right now? one side wants to govern, the other side wants to stand on issues? >> i think it's a bit of both. one of the problemsivity with chris christie is his recent speech with the rnc where he says all i care about is winning. we've seen that before. okay, if we win, we get what? i would say, he did what he had to do with the storm. i do think, though, there was a bit of december probably a little too cozy with the president, knowing it was the

final daze of mitt romney, with what mark halperin wrote in his book. that might have been a thumb in the eye. i'm not sure. that might have been a style he needs to address. >> he absolutely has that style. >> in 1900, in all three levels of government, government took less than 10% of the american people's money. now we're talking 35% and add a dollar value to mandate, we're talking almost 50%, where is the outrage on the part of the republican party? >> the outrage is there, but if we look at where the republican party is trying to go, the governing part of the party. folks that are trying to do comprehensive tax reform that you need to do, they're talking about taking tax rates to 25%. that's a republican principle. what stands in its way are people who won't even talk about revenue, because god forbid, if

you take out all the xefrgss and deductions and let people play 25%, somebody will pay more, because they've been riding the back of the taxpayer with a loop-day-old hole. >> you mean taxes? >> no, i mean revenue. >> you mean taxes. >> of course, where does the revenue come from? >> republicans use terms like taxes and -- >> there are a lot of people at the top who aren't paying taxes, and i think that's what you're talking about. >> that means that some people taking advantage of loopholes have to start paying taxes. >> we should be talking about how to reduce government. >> we need to grow the economy. there's no way to solve it by cutting, cutting, cutting. >> not even realistic. >> but cutting taxes -- they

gave it to the government. all that money none of that moan goes toward learning or innovation. it's essentially off the table for job creation. >> that's the reason we have 10% gdp, imposed taxes on rich people. >> the proposal that the president has put out there has closed loopholes for people who aren't paying enough taxes or sending it overseas so we could invest in the economy, whether it's infrastructure or education, or training the next generation of workers. that actually does create jobs. why is it a 2% gdp? >> why are republicans standing in the way for the job-creating proposals? >> because they don't work. it's like ceding a lead airplane. >> then you're standing on the other side of chamber of commerce -- >> i'm happy to do that.

>> rick, you've worked on campaigns, a lot of campaigns, and we're talking about basically two republican parties here what is your view of people like marco rubio, ted cruz, rand paul. >> there's bob,jindal, tim scott, it seems to me the republican party has all the riches on our side and we're not here talking about joe biden running for president, because that would be boring. we're talking about these great personalities, a plethora of riches -- it will be entertaining. >> people forget that. >> who is the purist we're talking about here that can abolish the welfare state. >> one of those guy that is believes good principles also equals good politics. ted chris in the short run hurt the party, but in the long run, he led people know he stands for something.

obama care is an assault on this country. most doctors don't like it, it will make our health care worse, and obama made a bunch of promises that turned out not to be true. >> no, no, that was a horrible decision, a dumb strategy. that really is the difference between the two wings of the party that we're going to figure out before the 2014 election. whether you like it or not, the american people have returned divided government to washington. the republicans control the house of representatives, the democrats the senate and the president of course is a democrat. so governs means you have to find the doable. sadly, the names that have been mentioned here tonight think you have to be pure lie caesar's wife or ivory soap, whatever the case may be, and you can't deviate. god forbid you find common ground and work something out. to think you're going to filibuster for 21 hours on the house floor, shut down the government, bring us to the risk of default and all of a sudden in the face of that president obama down at the other end of

pennsylvania avenue will go, you're right, obama care stimps, see, that's ridiculous? >> ten democrats later on turned around and said the individual mandate should be delayed. ivities that's a whole different story. >> i believe currently that's a liability but could be an asset. when people find out they're paying a car payment oar we can't send our chied to collection. i think that they will remember this is obama care and republicans try to stop it. >> but see, that's exactly the point. if the republicans hadn't been horsing around with the government shutdown, the roll-out of obama care was horrible. obama care, the only thing less popular is the house republicans and senator cruz. we're going to go to break. next, the other side of the presidential race.

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welcome back. for republicans looking forward, isn't it a problem that they have a huge disadvantage? tie buddy teaches at ucla, wrote a book called "left turn" which

tried to quantify -- his argument, democrats have an 8 to 10 point advantage out of the gate. in addition, republicans face holied about, media and academia. that's a much businesser prob m problem. which we'll all agree is a think tank. 71% of the press was negative for romney. 72% of the press was necessarily fif for obama. as someone who handled the press, i can tell you it wasn't all a cakewalk, but that being said, do you two agree with that? do you agree this was a problem with how the press korchs this? or a problem with message? for fully standing for

something? >> i don't delve into the coverage toss whog getting better or less. does that give them an advantage? maybe. my view is -- >> i don't mean to interrupt, but to add, the op buds person for "the washington post" and "new york times" both admitted in the coverage of the '08 election, they were biased. both papers admitted it. >> well, i'm not much on ombudsman, i don't like newspapers or editorial writers, but the problem that the party has, and our fight now is to which path are we going to stake? are we going to adapt the path that says we're not conservative enough, as is going on in virginia, or do we need to reach out to a broader audience? do we need to attract women, his spanning, african-americans?

gale americans? my very conservative friends will say, well, the reason mid romney lost is because he was a switch. so 3 million evangelicals who sat at home and voted for mccain didn't come out for him. i think that's the nutiest argument i've heard. you can -- you can't win a national election just based upon 57-year-old angry white guys that live below the mason/dixon line. >> hold on. look, mitt romney lost -- he ran as a conservative, remember a severe conservative? he was a moderate running as a conservative. why? he couldn't win running -- >> in the primary or general? >> in the general. look, he lost five states by 19 votes per precinct. that's a pretty close race,

okay? if he was able to run against obama care, i think mitt romney would be president. >> i don't disagree with you about the purity problem, but i don't think he was too liberal or conservativconservative. i think the biggest problem is he wasn't being authentic. he tried to move back to the center, and certainly things like his own words prevented him from doing that, but in 2016. i'm asking this question as a strat jill for your party. which of the republicans that we've been talking about here, maybe there are others on your list that are best suited to be here. is it a chris christie? >> first of all, this may not be the answer you want. i don't think hillary clinton will run. i think madam secretary, what difference does it make clinton will not run because the benghazi thing. why should he run and lose when

she could retire with some dignity as the former secretary of state, go off and make great speeches. i don't think she'll run, but to entertain your question, if she did run, i think there's a number of candidates. i think jindal and rubio could beat her, certainly rand paul. >> he comes from a blue state. he has mod rated on some positions on like the second amendment. not nearly to the extent that mitt romney has. the problem is, is he going to be juliany reduction. chris christi has a unique advantage in that he has an expectation, i think, that people in iowa and other places, south carolina, won't like him. if he turns, if people come out of those meetings saying i expected not to like him because he's brash and bold, but i've

seen him and i like him, then he has a chance. >> i guess what i'm asking about, and congressman, you alluded to this, that republicans left 2012 and started 2013 with a reboot. they were trying to reboot themselves to reach out to women and african-americans and hispanics. and a much more effective way, to have a more inclusive message and actually stand for something. how do you think that reboot's going? >> not so good. if you look at the document that the rnc came out with, sort of the postmortem of what went wrong in 2012, almost as soon as it was written it was abandoned by the part of the party that continues to believe that we have to hew further to the right. the thing about christi -- >> it's a much bigger problem than what i said. >> let me finish. >> i'm shaking my head. i'm not talking. >> rather than the issue being good lord, how can so many

americans not pay a dime in federal income tax, it was that dastardly romney, how cold he is. is it not true that 47% of americans do not pay a dime in taxes and is that an issue for the republican party, the answer is hell yeah. >> there are a lot of things that are true that don't make good sound bites. as a republican, we could blame the media all day long. i think the media has a bias toward democrats. we have to explain things rather than just saying really simple bumper stickers. >> i think we're at a disadvantage -- >> you know what, you can complain about the rules of the game or can you go out and win the game. republicans can win the game if they act like republicans. that doesn't mean acting like the tea party. that means acting like republicans who care about

individual liberty -- >> sounds like the tea party to me. >> it's not the tea party. >> let's throw-in new york, delaware. we have exactly two u.s. senators. one's a conservative. in the house, out of all those seats we have 12 house seats. the northeast pursued their strategy. they said let's go out and let socially moderate candidates who are fiscally conservative. it turns out they don't exist. if you go to the atr, which is arguably a conservative group, and ntu, you'll find that the most pro-life people are the most fiscally conservative. there's no question about this. fu want to know people who would cut tax debts, are they pro life or pro choice? >> we'll continue this after the break. >> i'm in delaware. i'm not a witch. >> for the three of you to

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we're back with steve latourette and rick tyler. let's figure out if there's anything you all can cease-fire on. >> i agree with rick. he said if hillary runs she'll have a problem that begins with b, not just benghazi but bill clinton. >> theis is not a cease-fire. this is -- >> they'll take the fight to her. >> i wholeheartedly disagree with it. but most of the american people disagree with it too. but is there anything you two can cease-fire on? >> i think we need a strong candidate that appears to the party and outside the party to socially conservative women. >> i think we all agree that

we'll beat democrats. >> i disagree. >> go to facebook or twitter to weigh in on our fire back question. right now 35% of you say yes. 65% say no. the debate continues online at cnn.com/crossfire. we also want to condwrat late newt gingrich, his new book came out today. >> join us tomorrow for another edition of crossfire. erin burnett starts now. what is the white house worried about now when it comes to obama care? we have a shocking memo. then for the first time, a whistle br-blower shows his fac. and michelle knight describes in detail how she was held captive by an ohio man for