day 14 of the government shutdown and three days until the nation reaches its borrowing limit. so far a deal has approved elusive. for now all eyes on the dynamic duo of senators harry reid and mitch mcconnell. on sunday reid proposed a long-term deal. the proposal came after diagrams rejected a republican plan drafted by senator susan collins which wooch locked in deep on sequester cuts in exchange for opening the government through march. reid's offer met with chilly response from same senate republicans who claim to want a deal. >> here is what i'm worried about, a deal coming out of the senate a majority of republicans can't vote for in the house. that really does compromise speaker boehner's leadership.

after all this mess is over, do we really want to compromise john boehner as leader of the house? >> i don't know. yes. maybe. senator graham raises a fair point. where is the raucous house caucus in the deal making? most data points to disarray. after reviewing his options over chinese takeouts and cigarettes, how angry the stock markets get on voting on a bill in the lower chamber. speaking of which global financial leaders warned this weekend of massive disruption the world over should america fail. somewhere between gaenghas khan. we will see what it takes to leave reality and step into

today. senator fellows from brookings institute ed. and birthday boy robert costa. former clinton white house secretary and managing director of the global park group deedee myers, who is also the author of "why women should rule the world" a book everyone should own. former white house secretary the inimitable robert gibbs. breaking news. the president and vice president are headed to the hill. the republicans and specifically mitch mcconnell have been ringing the bell saying where is joe biden in all this. can we have our biden back. biden was critical to the last deal. do you think he'll play a critical role in the upcoming issues? >> i think he'll play a bit of a role. i think you saw the market clearly has built into the reaction the fact we're having discussions. the market has gone back up a bunch since that. look, the elements of a deal are

largely there, assuming there's the wherewithal to push them through. i think there's probably a fairly good chance we can get something through the senate in the next not too long. the question will still become whether or not this can actually get through the house of representatives. >> right. >> it still -- again, i think you can see the path, the question is will members of the house republican caucus take yes for an answer, lock in sequestration cuts for a pretty decent amount of time. and quite frankly the single bigges party hemorrhaging for their image in recent memory. >> dee dee, the phrase "just take yes" for an answer has been bandied about on both sides of the aisle here. i want to talk about before we get to the house of pain, the lower chamber, i want to talk about a deal in the senate. some part of me -- not really some part, some part of me that

read things on the internet, is this whole back and forth over sequestration levels and whether they go through january or march, is that all really maybe perhaps just a run-up to a fig leaf necessary to get republicans to buy in, which is to say democrats at some point need to theoretically concede something. is this fighting about sequestration and sequestration levels inevitably going to be the ne they take in the chamber. >> there are many democrats in the senate who will just not go along with allowing increases to take effect, any move that moves from january and allows to take place is unacceptable to democrats in the chamber and senator reid knows that. there may be some give. this is a real fight. robert raises a good point, not only a fight in the senate, it's unclear whether this can pass the house. it doesn't need to pass with 217 votes, it needs to pass with majority of the majority.

there's no way speaker boehner is bringing to the floor any bill that doesn't have a majority of republicans. you look at people like paul ryan not in the crazy caucus saying there's nothing in this acceptable to us right now. >> lets talk about the crazy caucus. robert, you've been doing great reporting. you're always doing great reporting. in particular in the last several days, have things changed for john boehner? after "the wall street journal" poll came out there's a sense republicans are cowed, more willing to accept compromise, they knew they weren't going to get the affordable care act repealed. to robert and dee dee's point, is something from the senate going to pass john boehner's point. >> when you look at what happened saturday morning they met at their meeting point in the basement, they still had a fight on mentality. you still have the speaker rallying the troops. one thing he did do floated a six-week extension of the debt lima small package. that's where the house is

leading. they are unsure what the senate is going to do. they don't have a coherent strategy on anything big pt they may just try tonight or tomorrow, once they have a conference meeting tomorrow morning to flow some kind of six-week extension. >> six-week extension. i work in cable news, on some level, great, do a two-week extension. as an american, someone interested in democracy and sustainability of democracy, a six-week, does that get us to a measurable place. it's worse because it's the holidays. >> it ruins thanksgiving and christmas. you should honor his birthday, he's the theodore white. he's too young to remember. i think that what you're seeing here, look at the negotiations in the senate. democrats can't take the original collins idea because they had already agreed to very low numbers on the sequester.

basically the ryan cuts but only for six weeks. collins wants to extend those way out. democrats can't accept that. but they do want a long-term extension of the debt limit. in negotiations when you have two moving parts like that, you can sometimes find a way to make each part work. i think that's where it's going to go in the senate. i agree with you that by getting us back to the original issue, it's supposed to be a budget fight, not a fight over obama care, democrats have a way of saying we gave the republicans a little bit without compromising themselves in a fundamental way. they can open up a long-term negotiation. as for the house, i think you are going to see a lot of republicans on the phone with john boehner saying please, please, please take us out of our misery. republicans are going to have to admit they lost this crazy fight because they should never have picked it. >> take yes for an answer, democrats are going to have to

admit they won. the fight was about defunding obama care. we won that. the fight was about delaying obama care. won that. declare victory and lets move . >> how much does democrats claiming victory does the president say even during a press conference a few weeks ago, robert, he said i tell john every time you see him, you should have taken the deal i was going to give in 2011. ouch, that is not going to help anybody here. you have erick erickson saying mitch mcconnell is the single obstacle we have this week taking our country back from the debt spiral instigated by obama and his merry band of community organizers. let mitch mcconnell know if he cuts a deal that doesn't defund or delay obama care, he will not be coming back to the senate. >> cue the darth vader. we've just had an introduction into the meeting that's taken place on the death star. you're both right. we can't spine the football. democrats have to just say, look, we have seen the edge, and

we've looked over the precipice, lets pull back. that's really the utility of a longer term debt extension is to give these guys a little bit of space and a little bit of time. nobody in washington and nobody that's watched washington thinks somehow we're going to have an epiphany over the course of the next six weeks that unwinds this big knot that has been in governance and particularly in budgeting. move the debt ceiling much further down the road. lets get away from economic calamity, messing consumer confidence in the holidays. lets get back to a semblance of regular order, conferrees on the house and senate side to come in and talk about the budget. that's basically the out lines of what will happen. what needs to happen again -- look, there's still push pull on this. there's still liberal democrats in the senate that say, wait a minute, those guys overreached and we want to get our pound of flesh from it. house republicans are still going to be sitting there saying

wait, wait, wait a minute. we've climbed way up this tree. to get down we need something. >> i saw captain phillips this weekend, robert. at one point there's one somali pirate that knows the u.s. navy is effectively laying a trap for him. he's totally crazy but actually right. some part of me thinks these tea party republicans they here about a bicameral, bipartisan budget committee and they have to think no way, not this time. we're here. we're in the mix. we are going to get what we want. for that reason i don't understand how john boehner passes something and stays speaker if he does, in fact, avert a default. >> i think one of the key factors for boehner to survive this entire process, over the weekend he was relying on budget chairman paul ryan to try to talk to conservatives and make that argument. independent i'm with you on defunding and delaying obama care but right now we have to be focused on tax reform and

entitlement reform he laid out agenda in the "wall street journal" last week. he's trying to push his conference toward the deal on clean cr and debt limit and try to get to budget conferrees. not an easy case to make for conservatives in a battle for months on obama care. they are not really yet to lay down arms. >> there's a small problem here. conservatives have to accept there is a democratic president of the united states and a democratic majority in the senate. robert spoke on spiking the football, after yesterday i love all football and baseball metaph metaphors. >> we knew you'd work it in here somehow. >> i think it is important if not to spike the football, to make very clear there was an outcome here and one strategy lost. we cannot go back to doing things this way. the ryan budget is still way to the right of anything that democrats can possibly accept. so what we have to do is do it

the normal way. you have democrats here, one group, liberals and moderates. republicans here, mixed group, really right winger and not so right right wingers and you have to have a negotiation. it's going to come out somewhere where some of the priorities progressives emerge in that budget. >> the question on that, i think we agree but at the same time we have to point out that, again, for progressives to get something they are going to have to give up something. the biggest question we have in this time we create, the space we create, if we're going to get a bargain. i'm not going to use the term grand bargain. i think it should be banned from political lexicon. >> paul ryan won't even use it. >> to get a bargain, each side is going to have to give up something. i do not think, quite honestly, either side -- in politics you mentioned 2011, hasn't exactly gotten better since 2011. i don't think our politics right

now can have either side, quite frankly, getting in order to get something. we should just hope we push calamity off, get a budget that's sort of where we think it is in law. if we're going to remove sequestration caps, each side is going to have to give, each side is going to have to get. quite frankly, i don't think either side is hugely well positioned to both give and get. i think both sides of each party are going to find it hard to give even regardless of what they get. >> so you're effectively saying this has to be a delay strategy. >> this is a largely status quo compromise. it's going to kick the can, depending what metaphor you want, kick the can down the road a little bit and see if we have enough people that can compromise. i think the notion that one party overreached here, therefore somebody should get something out of it is just going to add more knots into this and not necessarily untie it. >> i will say and you wrote

about this today e.j., the fact democrats of talking about sequestration and austerity is a good thing. for progressives and the left of the democratic party in general. it is a reminder the goalposts have been moved to the right on the questions of spending and the budget. >> right. and all progressives are asking, lets move this back to a more reasonable place. the sequester is really stupid. it's a series of really stupid cuts and it's very bad for the economy right now. we still need oom ph. we have unemployment out there. >> a lot think sequester is stupid, you need to cut spending but that's a dumb way to do it. it doesn't invest, move the ball forward in any meaningful way. >> not getting and not giving being a possibility is sort of death starrish in terms of where we are. >> i don't disagree with both of

you. i think dee raises a great point. the way, quite frankly, the pentagon, spending cuts dealt with the pentagon, nobody in their right mind would think that's the best way to do this. at the same time i look at the landscape and think to myself, in order to get some relief from all of this, democrat and republican, you've got to have people that sit at the table and are willing to put in a little on each side noed to lessen the overall sequestration burden. my question is just this whole exercise is not made sitting at that table any easier. in fact, it's probably elevated, the choruses on both sides, the hard base chorus on each side which ultimately will make it harder to find that solution in the center from both sides. >> a constructive role here and come in and try to ease that path by bringing democrats along to that place. >> absolutely. i think that's probably the role he has to play. >> perhaps that's what he'll be

doing this afternoon. is it any wonder john boehner is retiring to speaker's corner with chinese and cigarettes, i'd go there, too. >> not necessarily that order. >> we have to take a quick break but when we come back in the an ales of fiscal brinksmanship how common to weapononize the debt ceiling. we will separate hodge taking from business as usual next on "now." la's known definitely for its traffic, congestion, for the smog. but there are a lot of people that do ride the bus. and now that the buses are running on natural gas, they don't throw out as much pollution into the air.

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side does to the extortion. what it really is is an argument and a deal and at the end you trade some horses and do your best. >> nothing like this ever happened before.

all the alleged former examples, there was a budget deal that included a debt ceiling raise. the debt ceiling was not a hostage. there was never before a case where one party pushed the u.s. government to the edge of default demanding concessions. to make this sound like business as usual, it's not. >> the battle continued on a point democrats and republicans want to call their own. just how unprecedented is it for congress to take the country's debt ceiling hostage as republicans are now doing. raising the debt limit has always required congressional approval and therefore the threat of not raising it has always existed. but only in the last few years has any party truly been willing to play with fire. according to congressional research service congress voted to raise the debt ceiling 53 times since 1978. in 27 the debt ceiling increase was part of a larger fiscal bill. that doesn't mean those deals

were the result of hostage negotiations. indeed, in 1987 a democrat congress confronted president reagan over the debt ceiling as conservative columnist writes in the "new york times," democrats were operating from a position of political strength, making policy demands that attracted bipartisan support. steve kornacki notes democrats supported it by 125-111 margins while republicans supported it by 105-65 spread. in other words, the debt ceiling was used symbolically but there was not a suggestion of actual default. all that began to change in 1995. can you guess who was leading the charge? republican house speaker newt gingrich. he declared he wouldn't raise the debt ceiling without a ballot budget amendment saying i don't care if we have no consecutive offices and no bonds for 60 days. not this time.

wrote at the time, such confrontational tech neegs have been used in the past. it was highly unusual for a high government leader to suggest, as mr. gingrich did, that default on government pails was not beyond the pale. marked the point the weaponization of the debt ceiling began but never deployed it. when the government shut down and sent approval into free fall weeks, weeks ahead of the default deadline, gingrich pledged to raise the debt limit. what has changed since then. for the first time in history, 80 members of the are ready to take beyond the brink. the debt ceiling is a shockingly powerful self-destruct button built into our very system of government but only useful for the most idea logically hardened or borderline sociopathic but turns out to be the perfect tool for the contemporary gop. deals have been cut in

conjunction with raising the debt ceiling, never before has the threat of default been used with reckless sincerity. as writes in u.s. news and report, another sign how washington transformed, go along get along culture to one of endless confrontation. no wonder president obama is so anxious to quash this new style of debt confrontation. if you regularly wrestle on the end of a cliff, you're eventually bound to tumble off. we report president obama and motorcade going to a destination tbd. we'll bring you more details as we get them. p [ mixer whirring ] [ dad ] hold it steady!

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from bitter defeat and self-reflection to brazen denial and dangerous delusion.

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our commitment has never been stronger. alarming drop of support for the republican party, more rabbal rousing for the party's orpheus-like descent. it's now almost universally accepted by democrats. the only debate within the party, writes "washington post's" chris cillizza, is whether it is a short-term dip or long-term collapse. to the latter, argued in the new republic we could be witnessing a death throes of the republican party. previously managed to keep the party together. >> right now in the republican party, the base of the party is

in the south, overwhelmingly white and very, very conservative. all they do is live in a small bubble, media bubble and talk to each other. >> if you look at republicans across many of the states, governors or state legislatures, republicans are doing good work but nationally they have taken a hit on reputation. >> that is the argument, gop may be losing bad inside the beltway but somehow, someday the governors will save them. if congressional rs keep this up they will have to pull a sister, grandma solja to stay in the game. they want to part of washington politics. >> when we see the craziness down in washington, d.c. today, people say they want to be in public life to run the government and their solution to doing that is not speak to each

other and shut the government down, that's a failure. >> stop outsourcing our brand to washington, d.c. if you want to see conservative ideas applied it's not happening in washington, d.c. it's happening in state capitals. >> saying you don't want part of the craziness is not the same as condemning the craziness. as writes, current round of infighting is almost completely over tactics, not goals. those goals, repealing reproductive freedoms, marriage rights, all while dismantling social safety net dismantle the party and its base. remember rnc autopsy after the election, that compassionate conservative playbook used by the last republican president have been thrown out the window and no one seems particularly eager to retrieve them. robert, we were talking at the break about 2016, the question remains, can a moderate republican governor get the nomination of his party, this party we're witnessing in

washington, d.c. >> i think right now senator cruz is driving the discussion in washington but the party is diverse. making a point the party is bigger than what's happening in the tea party ring. i think chris christie would be a formidable contender so could governor jindal. when you look at iowa, south carolina primary, someone like ted cruz like rick santorum did last cycle could capture imagination of the right. >> you have obstacle courses one fit for ted cruz, rand paul, michele bachmann, herman king, another is national election more fit for chris christie. dee dee, when you hear things today, erick erickson, take down mitch mcconnell because he won't compromise and repeal the health care law, i find it unimaginable you get someone on board with the right base with chris christie. >> the democratic primary

process are long. they are long by design and culture and tradition. over that period of time, people wear out. people who burn hot tend to wear out. you have rick santorum winning iowa caucus in 2012, not winning, not close. newt gingrich won but couldn't win the nomination. way too long and too early to say. i do think democrats get way too giddy when they see what's going on. there's a majority of americans that think government is too big, we spend too much, it's large and in too many people's lives, they are not convinced obama care is going to work. there's a huge slot for republicans to occupy. if they don't get smart about that and not overread and interpret what we're seeing, it's a good place to be but not a slam-dunk. >> to the giddiness there's debate whether it's short-term for the republican party or long-term for the republican

party. john in the new republic, republicans could repudiate radical base but the question is what would be the republican base. how would republicans win elections. are there enough rational republicans to make up for radical ones? >> the answer quite simply is no. would anybody have suspected mitt romney would get fewer votes in ohio than john mccain did? lets be clear, iowa was held today, ted cruz is the winner of the contest. maybe rand paul gives him a run for his money. that's on one side of the party. chris christie could be the lomb knee unless he takes your moniker and brands himself as a moderate, then he's a dead man walking. look, anybody -- it's interesting. you've got to go through a primary process. once you're the nominee, regardless of where you're from, you've got to put together the

foot soldiers on the other side of the party into one cohesive unit. it might take republicans a little like it did the democratic party. we lost 1980, 1984, 1988. dee dee will remember this. in 1992, we had somewhat of an ideological primary. somebody more towards the center versus some on the left. it was a semipainful process. the republican party lost last two elections, 2008, 2012, both times not believing they could somehow lose to barack obama. and the question is will someone emerge off-and this will take time -- the longer term problem for the party, had this is not going to get solved until late summer 016, can somebody both win the nomination and put all those pieces back together. >> i think just to go back to '92, you also had a populist bill clinton center against budget balancing paul tsonga,

that was part of the mix. democrats can learn stuff and republicans can learn stuff. they are going to have two big learning moments. one is the shutdown where their numbers have really gone south because the country doesn't like this extremism. then in november you're going to have an election over the river in virginia, which is the classic swing state. everyone wants to cover virginia. republicans figure we can beat terry mcauliffe, former dnc chair. it looks like ken cuccinelli, the republican, not only will he get wiped out but he can affect republicans all the way down the ticket. i think if that happens, there's going to be a real come to the center moment on the republican side to say we can't go on like this. >> that virginia race a lot of republicans are looking at because it is a very important part of their 2016 strategy, is it not?

>> we're consumed by what's happening on capitol hill. e.j. is right, big stories about where the republican party is going next year. lets say ken cuccinelli loses in west virginia but chris christie wins you have pro-life conservative governor republican winning in a blue state. that's going to be one of the lone success stories of the republican party. chris christie when you talk to allies and advisers they feel pretty poised for 2016. he tactically made a mistake with how he managed the storm and embraced president obama. >> indeed he does not have romney care on his back. a short break. when we come back, while you were watching republican melodrama white house launched despite reports about problematic rollout there hasn't been much talk about the future of the affordable care act. the latest prognosis next on "now." [ male announcer ] a new test with pluggable febreze.

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for my back pain, i want my aleve. according to a new report from the "new york times" botched rollout of the health care law was more than just a series of glitches. the report documents numerous deadlines missed by agencies in charge of implementation and contractors who did work. according to the "time" the biggest contractor cgi federal awarded its $94 million contract in december 2011. the government was so slow issuing specifications the firm did not start writing software code until this spring. as late as last september they were changing features of the website healthcare.gov. robert, even tackling this subject, problems relating to the aca rollout is difficult for a lot of people on the left. they feel like oh, god we're going to give fodder to those on the right. it should be discussed.

>> should be. >> the politics that led to some of these slowdowns are very important pieces to why this has been messed up. as the "time" said politics made it worse to avoid am, a for those opposed to the project administration put off several rules until after elections. the republican controlled house blocked funds. more than 30 states refused to set up their own exchanges requiring the federal government to vastly expand its project in unexpected ways. it's almost impossible for the white house to say, look, a lot of republican governors wanted to make this harder and it became harder. >> can you imagine if we weren't obsessed with the shutdown what would be going on on health care. in fact, republicans probably would be a lot closer to their goal had they not done that. lets say this is excruciatingly embarrassing for the white house and for the department of health and human services. this was bungled badly. this was not a server problem, too many people came to the

website. this is a website architecture problem. i think it's excruciatingly embarrassing. it's not fatal. there are still many weeks and days to go before the enrollment period closes at the end of march. i give credit to al hunt in his column today. i thought he had an interesting statistic. the massachusetts health care rollout, people came on average landfall 18 times to the marketplace website before they signed up for insurance. this is not itunes. i hear a great album, i'm going to buy it, boom, i buy it. it's a one-time easy transaction. this is health care. it's very involved. people are going to take their time with it. boy, if they don't get glitches figured out fast, people aren't going to come back for visits 15 through 18. i will say this. i hope they are working day and night to get this done. when they get it fixed i hope they fire people in charge of making sure this thing was supposed to work. we knew there were going to be glitches.

these were glitches that go, quite frankly, way beyond the pale of what's expected. >> to the point robert is making about the number of times people are going back to this. it's not a song, not an mp 3. it's health insurance, an incredibly meaningful and important thing for americans. when you look back to great rollouts of programs, social safety net they tend to be complicated, not excusing glitches, meltdowns, whatever you call them. "washington post" in 1966, selling the elderly on medicare is not easy. when the national health insurance for elderly persons through social security became law last year, in '66, opponents rejoiced the bitter struggle was won. the biggest problem enrolling senior citizens into the program lay ahead. around the nation e.j., millions of eligible elderly people had failed to sign up. this is medicare in the 1960s. >> i think two things are true at the same time. i agree with robert, people who

want the affordable care act to work have to own the fact the rollout was bad. it didn't work the way it was supposed to and they are determined to fix it. it's always incumbent on progressives to say we believe in government and therefore we're willing to be really tough on ourselves until it works. now, there are examples out there of how this was supposed to work. no one has been more passionate about this, the governor in kentucky. i admire his passion to get health care to people in kentucky. that site seemed to work pretty well. if you didn't have to have the government do 30 states, this might have gone better. that's no excuse. it shouldn't be used as an excuse. there ar models out there that show this could be made to work. there clearly are a lot of people who need health insurance that obama care offers. >> dee dee, before we go, to that point has the white house missed an opportunity here to

own the problems there are, to face facts and say we are going to fire someone, we are going to fix this. this is a problem. by not acknowledging it, are they giving in to the talking points circulated. >> they could have leaned more into it, throw the good news, bad news, you have the government shutdown. they are sort of focused on more immediate problems. >> defaults. >> by default. e.j. is right. everybody knows. everybody who has tried to go on knows this does not work the way it was intended to work. it has to be fixed. people have to take responsibility for it and move forward and not lose sight of the fact that the broader program still has great opportunity to work and provide health -- affordable health coverage for millions of americans. we have to keep the focus on that broader objective. >> to that point -- >> this is about a website, a health care system that will provide affordable coverage for

millions of americans. >> that point cannot be lost. take a short break, breaking news from the hill. harry reid says he hopes to have a deal with mitch mcconnell before all the leaders meet with president obama today. there is some progress on the senate side. we'll bring you more details as we get them. coming up, over the past four months, we have read and learned plenty from edward snowden but we haven't heard much from the exiled leaker until now. snowden speaks just ahead. want to give your family more vitamins, omega 3s,

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a new university of delaware poll finds christine, i'm not a witch, o'donnell trailing by chris coons 23 points in a potential rematch next year. it has not deterred o'donnell from finding a silver lining. as she told delaware online, as

an incumbent from the party occupying the white house, coons should be much higher. it shows vulnerability. regarding my number, it is a great number for me when you consider i've been completely off the radar taking care of my terminally ill father. robert, to say nothing of christine o'donnell's father and his situation, 23 points, the resurgence of christine, i have to say it -- i'm not a witch -- o'donnell is that good for the republican party and who could possibly be egging this woman on. >> on primary night when she won against mike castle. delaware is increasingly becoming a blue state. regardless if you're christine o'donnell on the right or moderate republican a difficult race against senator coons. >> i can't believe we're still saying christine "i'm not a witch" o'donnell, did she not represent hubris of tea party and far right. >> yes. republicans might hold the

senate if they hadn't nominated her. i was with mike the day before he lost this primary. it's amazing how clear his vision was of what happened to his people in the republican party in places like northern delaware as in the suburban counties around philadelphia. people used to vote for republicans like mike cassell weren't republicans anymore. they were there to protect him against christine o'donnell. that's one of the biggest problems republicans have, they need more people like that to vote in their primaries to save them from nominating candidates that can't win generals. >> there's a question whether the resurgence, rise, if you will, tea party is a failure of modern republican leadership. leaders haven't been standing up and guiding their parties, you need to stand back, where the party is going, a bigger broader consequence of this rabble rousing fractious minority. >> no question part was rooted in the failure of the establishment of the bush

administration. there's no question that helped give rise to tea party. part is broader changing economic security more broadly. the country is changing in ways that will find profoundly unsettling. they don't see anyone in the republican party who is providing answers, reasonable answers for them, at least a channel for their anger. the tea party has become potent. it's not going away. those changes, problems that gave it life are still there. >> their rise has coincided with a citizens united world where national parties, bob strauss democrat and republican parties are nonexistent. they don't have anyone in the parties that can crack the whip and do that. this whole thing on capitol hill is exhibit a through z. >> power more broadly, not just in congress. >> whether you're one rich guy that wants to spend $5 million in the senate race or you set up

a website and get a bunch of people to give $10 and create basically your own republican or democratic party, we're witnessing the rise of individual politics. really the minimization of strong party politics across the board. >> even robert the way the party won things pt part of the thing miraculous john boehner moved the goalpost to republican territory but never sells victory to his own caucus. he's reluctant to show how far they have gotten. i don't understand that. >> john boehner is dealing with expectations on the right to achieve certain goals in divided government that are pretty unrealistic. it's hard for him to make that argument because he's in the trenches with them trying to achieve conservative policy. he's always trying to almost gently pour cold water on their dreams. >> is he, though? he keeps promising stake dinners

and can't deliver. >> taken down from defund to delay, now minor provisions. >> deficit. >> it's never articulated outwardly. boehner is right with his right there publicly. but he is trying to slowly move down the expectations. >> two quick things. one is a lot of republicans aren't afraid of losing the primary, they just don't want the hassle of a primary. these moderates don't speak out, so-called moderates want to keep things going. another thing, you can blame a lot of problems in the republican party on dee dee's old boss bill clinton, when you look at the movement of republicans out of their party, it happened in the '90s under bill clinton. >> it's all a democrat's fault. it is not. thank you to e.j., robert, dee dee and the other robert, not saying which one is which. that is all for "now." see you tomorrow.

"andrea mitchell reports" is coming up next. >> business travel forecast. i'm meteorologist bill karins. now that it's columbus day we're watching a big storm move into the northern plains. unfortunately looks like severe storms could come with it. watch out central kansas later this afternoon. no problems with business travel on the east coast, a mix of sun and clouds. we will see additional thunderstorms in texas. have a great monday. the american dream is of a better future,

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