victoria defrancesco soto, an msnbc contributor, and professor at the university of texas, and ovicka senior fellow at the manhattan institute and an opinion editor at "forbes." thanks for you all being here. victor, i want to start with you. as we were thinking about this issue of empathy in politics, there really was sort of an outcry when sonia sotomayor was first put up for the court. when she talked about the wise latina position. so talk to me about the role that empathy plays in actual policy making. how does it lead us to good and/or potentially bad policy. >> first of all, it is like we just talked about. walking in somebody else's shoes. it allows you to think beyond your box of, what are the policy options in front of me. i think, though, most interesting, the policy gap itself allows for a wedge to come in. because what we're seeing is a republican party falling short on that empathy gap. so what we're instead going to see is the democratic party filling that gap, and in the 2014 and the 2016 election, we're going to see democrats use wedge politics to their benefit. we u

senator john barrasso and with us is victoria defrancesco soto. did i get it right? of elections in 2016, elections are about the future. >> are you surprised more people in your party have not sort of said that? >> well, people can say what they want to say. i think he stood and answered questions for two hours and he was forthright about it and by the time 2016 comes around -- >> do you think he is a contender for 2016 as much as he was before bridgegate? >> no. i think a dozen republicans who i think would all be good contenders for 2016. >> very, very -- what is the word? adept. >> adept. >> adept answer. >> senator, you're presuming we know everything we are going know about his involvement in this? >> he answered questions to two hours. he answered a lot of questions and there may be additional e-mails and information coming out. >> let me cut through it this way. aren't there some clear, like, areas right there where there are still big questions? >> you know, in wyoming, we don't see traffic jams like this, so it's unique but we will see what -- >> he is adep