had their eyelids surgically removed. >>> also, what caused former indiana senate candidate richard mourdockt first the likely winner in that race to end up losing to joe donnelly? you might well point to this moment from a mourdock/donnelly debate. >> i struggled with it myself for a long time but realized life is a gift from god. even when life begins in the horrible situation of rape it is something god intended to happen. >> mourdock's popularity plummeted after that. now he's trying to pay down campaign debt. guess who's getting blamed for his election loss in the fund raising e-mail? quote, republicans all over the country were forced to accept defeat rather than celebrate victory. in our case we found ourselves caught in the liberal media cross hairs. never has indiana seen a more obvious example of media bias by reporters more interested in defeating conservatives than reporter the news. rnc chair reince priebus had him in mind when he said this reflecting on some of the 2012 candidates. >> i think we were pretty clear on some of the dumb things that were said over the last cycle. >>

richard mourdock in indiana, christine o'donnell in delaware, ken buck out in colorado.ob, i'm going to back to this again. when the chief ramrod of the right wing senate candidates leaves the post, who would replace him? how is this good news for the right? >> look, i'm not saying whether it's good news or bad news, i'm telling you what i think his calculation is. his calculation is he can be more of a free agent. i think he will get very involved in primaries, he will push hard right issues. i wish him well because the candidates he succeeded in nominating have quite often lost winnable seats. the notion, for example, that ted cruz -- the republicans were going to win that seat and it was going to be a conservative republican, but there are at least five senate seats and probably control of the senate that have been lost because of these tea party nominees, and he's driven that process. but you watch him drive it from outside. think of grover norquist and the influence he has. i don't like grover norquist. i don't like jim demint, but that's what i think he's thinking.

and richard mourdock in indiana who said pregnancy is resulting from rape are a gift from god. and finally, was barack obama's biggest stroke of luck, that video of mitt romney talking to those rich people down in florida about those lowly 47%. katty, what was the big lucky break? >> a lot of them they had control over. or some control over. the obama campaign. or it was the fault of the candidates. but it was "the new york times" that chose the headline let detroit go bankrupt. so that really was a lucky break for the obama campaign because it played so well in the campaign in ohio. it really ginned up so many -- so much antipathy in that state. chris: i like the one -- the joke of the campaign was you knew you were in trouble when you said the rape candidate. people would say which one? >> this is hard. there are so many choices. chris: go ahead, sam. >> i think it was the primary season. i think it was the debates. people watched all these candidates, most of them try to get to the right of genghes khan and most of them did. the one that stood out for me when people were wat

richard mourdock, the gop senate candidate in indiana talked about rape and pregnancy during a debate. >> god intended the pregnancy >> i think even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape that it is sometng that god intended to happen. >> and freshman house republican joe walsh of illinois insisted there is no such thing as an abortion to protect a woman's life or health due to "advances in science and technology." and missouri rep. todd akin's infamous remark about women's bodies shutting down to prevent pregnancy in cases of so-called "legitimate rape." stunned lots of women voters. as a result many vots told pollsters women's rights were a concern. in the end the women's vote went solidly for president obama as opposed to gop challenger mitt romney. and none of the three men who made strange statements about women's bodies won their races. on capitol hill the election brought the total number of women in the senate to 20, 16 democrats and four republicans, and 78 women in the house, 58 democrats, 20 republicans. as budget negotiations continued to loom, women were aske

leaders, the people here i cover, major, major heartburn, you see them there,ed to akin and richard mourdockbecame the problems the republicans were having in recapturing the senate. ed to akin, the republican senate candidate from missouri and richard mourdock from minnesota, made offensive remarks about women and rape and todd akin introduce the the concept of so-called legitimate rape, that if there was a legitimate rape, women somehow would not get pregnant and richard mourdock, the person, of course, who introduced the concept that rape could be a gift from god. that's what he said, and i'm sure he really didn't mean that. got them both into a lot of trouble. rightfully so. i suppose maybe the only nice thing they did also was perhaps, from my perspective, was help keep the senate in democratic hands. >> that's right. they definitely did, both of them and the lesson for all candidates, republican or democrat, don't talk about things like that. they will only get you in trouble, no matter what you say. speaking about getting in trouble, and this is obviously a serious one. ana your naugh

when the koch brothers funded candidate study can and richard mourdock overreached on abortion in mississippi and indiana those republican sealed their political demise with female voters while damaging the brand of their party nationwide as well similarly when the koch brothers funded republicans in michigan rammed through anti-union right to work for less money legislation as the president called it they damaged their brand with working people now it's up to president obama to make sure he. he doesn't follow these cokehead republicans into the political wilderness by sticking retirement age people with a raw deal during these so-called fiscal cliff negotiations in an interview with a.b.c. news president bush that's airing tonight president obama hinted that he may support raising the eligibility age for medicare from sixty five to sixty seven years old as though he was reading straight from speaker john boehner his talking points when asked about raising the retirement age the president said what is true is we need to strengthen social security we need to strengthen medicare for future gene

richard mourdock, gone. todd akin, gone. and it's not just the election losses. the cracks are springing up all over the tea party kettle. this week, we learned that dick armey, the head of the major tea party group, freedom works, is out. one by one, gop lawmakers have distanced themselves from the tea party's once sacred anti-tax pledge. 44 and counting. and the american people are rejecting the entire movement. the group's disapproval rating has jumped 24 point since 2010. so the tea party's monster looks like its on its last leg. all i can say is, good rid dance. joining me now is former governor of pennsylvania, ed rendell, and now an msnbc political analyst. and joan walsh, an msnbc political analyst. thank you both for your time tonight. >> thanks, rev. >> my pleasure. >> joan, let me start with you. senator demint is out. how huge is that? >> i think it's huge, are reverend al. i really do. he said health care would be the president's waterloo while the president is getting ready to be inaugurated for a second time and jim demint is packing up his senate

good replacement for dick army, and last but not least another guy who deserves consideration richard mourdock said pregnancy from rape is quote something that god intended." coming up, to discuss the problem with the tea party is andy croll. welcome back inside "the war room"," andy. >> what isgood to be back. >> what is behind the departure when he was the face and voice of it. >> dick army was the father figure of freedom works. he is keeping his cards close to the vest about the exact reasons for his de departure. he does not like the direction that freedom works is taking going forward. >> jennifer: really? >> yeah, he does not believe that freedom works is doing what it need to be doing to benefit and growing the conservative movement. he doesn't like where the leadership has taken the group and he has agreed to lucratively part ways with the organization that he really put on the map and he really made famous. >> jennifer: $8 million contract how can he be walking away from that? i'm interested in the disagreement. it's not a personality conflict but a disagreement. do you imagine that

todd akin and richard mourdock of indiana. >> life is a gift from god.at horrible situation of rape that it is something that god intended to happen. >> republican dreams to take control of the senate in 2012 had dwindled throughout the year but akin and mourdock shut that door in a couple of sentences. >> two words from mitt romney during a primary reverberated through to november. the issue was his plan to prevent employers from hiring undocumented workers e. >> people who have come here illegally won't be able to find work and those people would leave the country. >> the concept of self-deportation by undocumented workers was not by itself responsible for romney's dismal showing among hispanics but it surely greased the skids. >> also in the cat fwoir of moments where romney wanted a mulligan there was this. >> 47% of the people who will vote for the president no matter what. 47% who are with him, who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims. >> romney called his remarks completely wrong. they also caused the deepest self-infli

. >> from the "say what" category of entries come todd akin and richard mourdock. >> life is a gift from god, and even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape, it is something that god intended to happen. >> republican dreams to take control of the senate in 2012 had dwindled throughout the year, but akin and mourdock shut the door in those sentences. two words from romney reverberated all the way to november. his issue was the plan to prevent employers from hiring undocumented workers. >> people who come here illegally won't be able to find work and will self-deport. >> the concept of self deportation was not by itself responsibility for romney's dismal showing by his panics, but it greased the skids. also a moment where romney wished to have a mulligan, there was this -- >> there are 47% of the people who will vote for the president no matter what. there are 47% of people who are with him, who are depend upon the government, who think they're victims. >> romney calmed his remarks wrong. they also caused the deepest self-inflicted wound of the election. on the flipside -- >>

the todd akin/richard mourdock wing damaged the republicans. now as the party decides whether to moderate or modernize, it has to repair its image, particularly among key groups. demographics are destiny. romney won a higher percentage of the white vote than any canddant since ronald reagan. by 14 points among white women, by 5 points among self-described independents. he won all these groups by more than george w. bush did in 2004, but he lost the election by a wider margin than john kerry. why? because the composition of the electorate changed. as the obama campaign predicted more than a year ago, the white portion of the electorate dropped from 74% in 2008 to 72% in 2012. the president carried nearly 8 in 10 non-white voters including an astounding 71% of latinos and 73% of asian voters and a of course, a whopping 93% of black voters. it remains a real question whether the democratic nominee in 2016 will be able to hold the obama coalition together, which also includes young voters, but the republican party is right to be re-examining its re

republicans in primaries and then his candidate lost in the general election, including obviously richard mourdock, christine o'donnell, ken buck in colorado. what do you think is going to be the influence now for jim demint going into the heritage foundation? >> i think he's been a singular failure when you look at the candidates that he's endorsed. they have all lost. >> well, that is not entirely true. he says marco rubio was the first one that supported me. >> he doesn't have a good win-loss percentage. beyond that, i think it's just another sign of the disarray of the republican party and the tea party movement. i think they don't know what they stand for or what to do. barack obama says his higher popularity, republicans are completely not unified. they don't know which way to go forward. i think they have soul searching to figure out what they want to stand for and in reality what they need to do is be more balanced and more inclusive and change their views on some things if they are going to be successful. >> do you think it's possible that he saw the writing on the wall, chip? the l.a. ti

gave his personal seal of approval to crazies like christine o'donnell and sharron angle and richard mourdockin. in the end, is this a net-net win for republicans who have some amount of their sanity, a shred of it left? >> not necessarily. when they did the count of his 35 major legislative proposals, none were enacted into law. as you were reporting, alex, it was really the king maker status and the relationship with the tea party that he leveraged more so than doing anything specific on the hill. having said that, what i think is particularly interesting is this reflects sort of the weird moment that we're in political life in the country. participation is very high. democracy is very low. and so while people are turning out to vote, and we have all this incredible enthusiasm out there. we just had this big long election. we have a congress that everyone knows is broken. we have money that really, you know, floods the system. and we have a senate in particular that has record-breaking filibuster and obstruction rates under this administration as compared to every other in history. so when

todd akin and richard mourdock lost because the republican party didn't teach them to keep their opinionsit of a trollop. gawker describes her as lady of the streets freak in the sheets. she started to share a story about her own forays into the world of the insanely popular novel "50 shades of gray." she said i can remember a time in college when things got -- and then whoopi goldberg jumped in. barbara said i would just pretend to be asleep i was not chained up. oh! now i need to know what she was talking about. >> it was very quiet. what are you doing? what is happening? >> please stop it no don't. >> no don't. don't stop. [ laughter ] >> stephanie: what is it like to hear that voice in bed. oh, that's vary vary good. beyonce has signed a $50 million pepsi deal. in other words i get $0.50 to tell you how much i love sodastream. >> i think you got a free sodastream. >> stephanie: i did. and i'm happy to do it. it is a much better product. and more environmentally friendly. so take that beyonce. >> if you liked it why don't you put a ring on it. >> stephanie: i once cried to that song. y

missouri senate for todd akin and richard mourdock from indiana. >> if it's a horrible situation in termsnded to happen. >> reporter: akin and mourdock pretty much shut that door in a couple of sentences. two words from mitt romney reverb greated all the way through november. >> people who have come here illegally won't be able to find work and over time those people would tend to leave the country or self-deport. >> reporter: self-deportation by undocumented workers was not by itself responsible for romney's dismal showing by his sfpanics t it certainly greased the skids. and then there is this. >> there are 47% who are with him, who are dependent upon him whork believe that they are victims. >> reporter: romney called his remarks completely wrong. they also caused the deepest self-inflicted wound of the election. on the flip side, romney's vp day may have been the best of his campaign. the selection of paul ryan he can cited conservatives in a way romney himself had not. how many moments are there in an hour and a half. the president lost all of them in the first debate. the pictures te

he could never get them elected but christine o'donnell and you know, richard mourdock and all of theout -- sharon engel in nevada. couldn't get them elected. was able to get tim scott appointed. it is ironic. here you've got -- he will be the only african-american senator. but basically another allen west right? the first black republican since 1901 in the united states senate and yet he's a tea partier. >> the other thing i think about somebody like scott is you know, he's not going to sort of sit back and learn the ropes and learn the issues and -- >> bill: he will try to be a show-off. >> absolutely. you've got a guy who i think is going to be on fox news every five minutes you know. okay, great, fine. >> bill: last year during the negotiations over the debt ceiling, he suggested they should impeach president obama. because he wouldn't go along with what the house republicans wanted. >> level of intelligence. >> bill: this is the voice we got in the united states senate. and you -- there in madrid, telling people about this american election. we learned a lot from this, didn't we?

and they want to run him out on the rail and it was just a month ago richard mourdock makes comments,utage he shouldn't even be allowed to run. just the difference of both sides is amazing to me these people that -- >> bill: well, yeah. sometimes it is just hard to explain. the inconsistency outraged about one thing and not outraged about another. when it comes to -- it is not surprising for the nra. this is their position. they've gone from an organization at one time which really did a great job representing hunters and saying you know, we've got our rights. we want to be able to continue to enjoy that sport. to right now where they will oppose any and every measure no matter how reasonable toward saving lives with just the most reasonable forms of trigger locks. >> background checks. >> bill: background checks at gun shows, for example. >> yeah. >> bill: good point. and here is paul calling from brighton michigan. hey, paul. >> caller: how you doing bill? >> bill: thank you. >> caller: i've been a fan of yours for decades. >> bill: thank you. >> caller: i want to get your opinion o

including kr christine i'm not a witch o'donnell, todd legitimate rape akin and richard god intends for you to get raped mourdockdemint couldn't help himself on the way out giving speaker boehner one poke in the eye on the rush limbaugh show yesterday. >> i think it's safe to say boehner is not forcing either of you guys out, right? >> that's pretty true. might work a little bit the other way, rush. >> zing. is demint more of a threat to his party now he's outside the senate? as lbj famously said of jay edgar hoover probably better to have him inside the tent out, than outside the tent in. joining us is former chairman of the rnc, in a red sweater, msnbc contributor, the notorious michael steele. that is a fetching color for you, chairman. >> thank you. ho, ho, hey. >> chairman steele tell us what this departure means for the rnc? everybody is reading this differently. some saying tea he's going to become a thorn in the side of gop when at heritage, other people are saying get rid of him, let the gop become a party of dealmaking and legislating inside congress. >> i think there's truth to both of those. what's g