tea party wars. let's play "hardball. " . good evening. i'm chris matthews in washington. let me start with strange business on the right. one thing you can say is it was tightly organized. there were no huge wars separating the north from the south, the center right from the hard right. before we end this week the chasm is deep, dark, and alarming.

look at karl rove. look at newt gingrich blasting away at rover. consider the mayhem now afoot. the center right wants to bring did palestinian to father. they're tired of losing elections they thought they were going to win. they want to run for any office they want. now you've got the gop big shots running the little people around. and the little people in the party are fragranting the big shots. it's quite a show, and that's why we're starting tonight. joy reid is the manager of grio, and michael jones for mother earth. let's take a look at this. we'll see what's wrong as the gop continues. former gop speech writer michael gerson wrote, the republican nominee, mitt romney, lost by 5 million votes to a beatable incumbent presiding over an anemic economy. the explanation is not purely technical or personality oriented at the national level. the republicans have a winning message for the nation that no longer exists.

you've got to start with this, joe. it's a well crafted nation. they have a winning message for the nation. by the way, they didn't know a new election existed. sometime around 9:00 at night when we saw virginia looking close, whoa, what's going on, it looks like a new country's voting here. they're still playing to the old country. >> yeah, absolutely. it's like they didn't get the message in 2008. oi i think they thought the mek in 2008 was a fluke. >> didn't you actually worry that it was? >> actually no. i thought barack obama was going to win. if you look at the trajectory, it's been growing for two years. and they've always used the far right to do it. they get them all excited over cultural issues. >> it used to be it was a fair game.

>> there's not enough of them. >> for every african-american vote, for example, or latino vote more aptly put, you were going to lose a more conservative vote from the southwest. that hasn't been happening. the white has been up a bit and the african-american votes zoomed. >> yeah. part of the problem is, number one, they lost the cities, including the urban city. they're losing urban white voters, and they're losing young voters and part of the problem is them. the messaging they use to gin up their base turns off obviously younger people, turns off women, turns off minorities. this time they really got minorities excited about voting. there was already loyalty to barack obama among african americans, but when you did that, that made that vote solidified, determined to come out as if it was 2008. >> this is the problem they have. the leadership, the michael gersons of the world, god bless them, as joe biden would say,

are alienated from the people who support the party, the people who support the party. >> the angry guy out in arizona. >> the town hall meetings. i mean there's a reason why a lot more centrists or less yahoo republicans did not run for president last time. there was all the crazies and mitt romney, and if you saw the people turning out as we keep playing those clips from the republican debates, the audience was one that they don't care what michael gerson says. about republicans need new poverty programs or new ways to structure the government to make it work better. >> the environmental. >> they don't care. a lot of this for them is cultural. they want to go back to whatever the good old days were. they don't like the influx and the rising i fluns. >> you give advice to a guy like john mccain. yeah, you have to be a little more popular with your state if he's aware of it.

here he was. this is what happens when the republican party follows the advice of the thoughtful people like michael gerson. he's a former maverick taking on the current maverick. hecht let's go. let's watch. >> why didn't the army go down there and stop them? because the only thing that stops them, i'm afraid to say and it's too damn bad is a gun. that's all that will stop them. >> i remember when you were in bed with kennedy. >> in bed with kennedy? thank you. >> most of the people that come across the border are illiterate, they don't speak english, and they're a dependent class. we have a large group of dependent people that you want to make citizens that are going to be on -- they're going to bebe on medicare, they're going to be on welfare, they're going to be on food stamps, and you know it. >> again -- >> what's going to happen is -- >> again, sir, you're not telling these people the truth. >> you said build the dang fence. where's the dang fence? >> in case you missed it, i

showed you -- >> that's not a fence. >> that's not a fence? we've put up a banana with $6 million worth of appropriations we have. sir, you're entitled to your opinion. you're not entitled to your facts. >> you may not be as conservative as i, but i think there's a middle-of-the-road decision joy, which every other country does. you can't come in the country without permission. that's the way countries are. it's the world we live in. they don't seem to want to approach it that way. >> i love the clip that you played, chris. there's a couple of things. first of all, if you listen to that crowd in the audience, that's savage nation, limbaugh, beck. this is 30-something years of these guys being entertained by the complex on the right. >> do you think they're educated to those opinions? >> i think it plays into already a feeling of victimhood that the country is being stolen out from under them. >> that's rush. that's rush. >> that's being stoked by rush and by guys on talk radio saying these people are taking your country, whether it's black people, brown people.

>> let me ask you. when you're driving around and you're listening to rush and you hear him talk about feminazis and minorities stomping on the white man's grave, what do you think? do you think they're crazy? they're manipulators? what do you think? >> i think they use these people because that's how they make money. they were way out in the hinterlands listening to this. they've got somebody to blame. then you've got rush and beck and savage, they're taking over your schools. they've been telling us for 30 years. i get e-mails saying all you people, all you people are on welfare. then you play this piece of it, chris, real quick, where a guy threw back in john mccain's face, build the dang fence. he did it too. now it's coming back to bite him. >> you're a sweetheart, but why do you read these e-mails? >> i can't resist. >> you're such a nice people and you actually think you owe these people who attack you racially?

you don't respond to them, do you? >> no, i don't respond to them. but sometimes you've got to know what they're thinking. they authentically think they're making an argument to me by saying all minorities are on welfare, they've been fed this for some 30 years. this is an excuse for their lives. >> it goes back to nixon's southern strategy that our friend pat buchanan tried to put in place. you know for eight years, 12 years now, these are karl rove's people. >> yeah, but the thing is -- let me defend pat. he's not here. the difference between pat and limbaugh, he's not selling it. he believes everything he says, whether you like it or not. he may not like it at all. >> i don't care whether glenn beck or rush limbaugh believe what they say or not. >> i do. i do. >> it's an interesting academic discussion. the outcome is the same. and you get these people riled up, and now karl rove wants to try to put this angry genie back into the bottle and you say no. >> you don't try to focus on the

integrity? i know you do. newt gingrich went after the architect himself. gingrich wrote this this week. he says i am unalterably opposed to a bunch of billionaires financing a boss to pick candidates in 50 states. this is the opposition of the republican tradition of freedom. that is the system of tammany hall and the chicago machine. it should be repugnant to every conservative and every republican. he's a walking etch a sketch. >> it's absolutely absurd. but without irony, he changes position on this stuff. that's why he's newt gingrich, i guess. >> great having you on, joy.

you, too, michael. congratulations on the hubris monday night. coming up, look who's becoming the face for administration. joe biden. he wants to teach jill how to use a gun. it's almost that funny. it's serious business to fight guns. guns -- for gun safety, you have to be for guns. he's laying the groundwork for 2016. he's the regular guy with a shotgun. also the triumph of obama care. republican governors, catch this, are quietly sbieg the obama care plan to increase medicaid coverage. many have opposed the plan in the past, especially florida's rick scott. he's on board tonight and tonight the man who replaced rick scott and who might replace him, char lis crist is coming on "hard ball." what are you doing sunday night? the oscars. who better to tee up? james lipton. he's coming here. finally it's a right-winger

i'm team. commerce louie gohmert right wing has found out. right here in the old u.s. of a. this guy's got it all figured. a unitary theory for all problems. and this is "hardball," the place for politics. fortunately we've got ink. it gives us 5x the rewards on our internet, phone charges and cable, plus at office supply stores. rewards we put right back into our business. this is the only thing we've ever wanted to do and ink helps us do it. make your mark with ink from chase. because every flake is double-toasted... splashed with sweet honey... and covered in rich double-roasted peanuts. mmm. [ hero ] yummy. [ male announcer ] kellogg's crunchy nut. it's super delicious!

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if you want to protect yourself, get a double-barreled shotgun, have the shells of a 12-gauge shotgun, and i promise you, as i told my wife -- we live in an area that's wooded and somewhat secluded. i said, jill, if there's ever a problem, walk out on the

balcony, put your shells in your shotgun and fire two shotgun blasts. you don't need an ar-15. it's harder to aim. it's harder to use. and, in fact, you don't need 30 rounds to protect yourself. buy a shotgun, buy a shotgun. >> welcome back to "hardball." buy a shotgun. buy a shotgun. that was joe biden's speech this week in a town hall meeting. that came after a question asking if an assault weapons ban would prevent people from defending themselves. he was making a motion for stronger gun laws. >> if the shooter in tucson had a ten-round magazine instead of a 30-round magazine, little granddaughter of a friend of mine from wilmington, delaware, who used to manage the philadelphia phillies, she'd be alive today because when he was changing his magazine, a woman

leaned over in the crowd and knocked his arm, and that's how they subdued him. that makes a difference. it wouldn't have saved everybody. it wouldn't have saved everybody, but the last two people shot would be alive. >> let's go to steve mcmahon to try to find out what he's saying here. let's try to disentangle the strange role he's playing. he's talking about get yourself a shotgun. he said it twice. i'm going to teach my wife to use it. get out on our balcony in our leafy neighborhood. let off a couple of shots. this is what he's saying. let it off around the guy who's getting in your house. that's pretty weird for -- this isn't liberal talk. this isn't a big city "we're against guns" talk at all. >> no, it's not. >> what is it? >> it's regular joe talking to joe six-pack about commonsense gun control laws and he's doing it because it's the middle, if you will.

the people who could go either wi on this who respect the first amendment -- sorry, second amendment who are hunters and may own guns themselves. it's the obama administration and joe biden saying we get the importance of second amendment, we understand the value of owning a gun, we understand what it can do for people who want to protect their families. but there are limits to what you need to protect your family, and a shotgun is enough. and i mean i think this notion that -- you know, if you fire two shots at somebody coming at you with a shotgun and you hit them in the chest, they're not going to come at you anymore. you don't need an assault weapon to hit him, and you don't need an assault weapon to protect your family or hunt. >> yeah, but doesn't that sound odd? if you look at the democratic platform, it's all about gun safety and gun control and he's saying go buy a gun. don't give me the political correct answer here, which you're giving me. what are they up to? is this to move beyond the cities, beyond the suburbs even, to try to make sure that the

democrats have somebody to talk to the raw guy -- rural guy? >> chris, i think it's that. i think it's moving beyond the cities and the suburbs and into more rural america. but that's where the votes are to make the difference on something like a magazine clip limit because everybody in the big cities already supports whatever gun control democrats bring forward, and it's in rural america and in the suburbs where they've resisted. so joe biden's out there basically saying buy a gun, own a gun, protect your family, respect the second amendment. but you don't need a clip. you don't need an assault weapon. >> okay. >> so it's a smart play. >> okay. let's be totally political about this. suppose we don't get gun control. where does that leave biden, the president. say this year's going to be a good year to get it. if we don't even get the magazine limit because it doesn't clear the senate and therefore it doesn't have dom up to the house, it doesn't happen,

politically where does that leave the president, and, secondly, where does that leave the vice president going toward 2016? >> well, i think the president is in a good position because he tried, and i think the vice president's in a good position because he's making the case. you have to wonder when it comes to 2016 and what the field looks like. let's assume hillary clinton doesn't run. you have two governors running. andrew cuomo and martin o'malley, both very aggressive. i think biden is trying to check them on gun control but demonstrate to democratic primary votes for 2016. and we know he's going to run because he's already indicated he wants to run. he's somebody who can go into pennsylvania, go into ohio, some of these communities, go where some of these democrats, they have a tough time winning the election. he can speak to people, get their trust and democrats can win in 2016. >> by the way, where are you at? you don't have to answer --

anyway, up next -- you don't have to tell me. >> it's warm. >> it looks like it. we've heard a lot of crazy things over the year from louie gohmert. he takes craziness to a whole new level. it's funny it's so crazy. and this is "hardball," the place for politics. nutrition, e, and can help you keep a healthy weight. campbell's. it's amazing what soup can do.

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back to "hardball." now the side show. earlier this week we found out why some republicans thought were asking whether chuck hagel had ties to a secretive group called friends of hamas. what started as a sarcastic joke by a guy. it turned into a serious feature on a right wing website and then caught on from there.

here's steve colbert. >> friends of hamas is even worse than it sound us because this organization is so sinister that it doesn't even exist. the fact that these organizations don't exist only makes it more suspicious that chuck hagel has been tied to them. what else is he hiding that hasn't happened? is he a member of the al qaeda kids club? what about the muslim brotherhood or the muslim sisterhood of the traveling pants? what are his ties to the dead poets society. and why are they dead? do they know too much about benghazi? president obama, you must withdraw hagel's nomination or you'll lose the support of every moderate republican, another group that doesn't exist. >> now, after all that brouhaha, it looks like hagel now has enough votes in the senate to get confirmed next week. next we west coast texan republican louis gohmert.

he's sounding the conspiracy alarm bell. take a guess. is it about the government coming to take your guns away oar another warning that shari'a law is taking over? >> it's for our protection and the founders' quotes make that very, very clear and including against a government that would run amok, you know. we've got some people that think shari'a law ought to be the law of the land, forget the constitution. but the guns are there. that second amendment is there to make sure all the rest of the amendment shall follow. >> let's parse that. who have you ever heard of on any medium or any person think's shari'a law ought to be the law of the land? who's he talking about? nobody. secondly, is it really true that the second amendment, the right to bear arms ensures our religion? i don't think so. i think it's the people. a montana gun law is proposing a new sheriffs first bill which would allow county

sheriffs to pick and choose which federal laws they want to enforce in their state. if a federal agent arrests someone without stopping in at the sheriff's office first, that agent would then be arrested and charged with kidnapping the person they arrested. as gary morbid told "mother jones" might say that we have probable cause to say we have this person in our county who's making firearms without a license. and the sheriff might say, well, gosh, under the montana firearms freedom act, he might say you don't have permission for this bust. it was cleared by a vote by the state's republican-led house judiciary committee just this week. finally, who do you really think has got the short end of the stick when it comes to the looming spending cuts that are said to hit on march 1st? consider the guy who's enforcing 800 thousand defense department layoffs as a result.

that would be pentagon comptroller robert hale taking it in stride. he said when i walk down the hall, they still wave, but with fewer fingers. and that's "hardball" for now. coming up next, "your business" with j.j. ramberg. alec, for this mission i upgraded your smart phone.

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