my name is jamal simmons. s with all of my good friends, peter and dan and phil and siprion. >> thanks for being here. >> jamal: thank you for having me. it has been fun. we have one call that just came in from ralph from port st. lucy down in florida. mel is on the line. >> caller: i got a quick one. the president looks little sad. he should play a little bit of his illinois politics, and reverse. he really needs to go to the steps of the congress when them jokers come to work. they have not passed a jobs bill, a infrastructure bill they have not did nada nothing. and the president needs to tell the american people a lot of them don't know nothing about politics, but they ought to know these guys worked 160, 165 days a week. he needs to tell the american people these guys don't care. they are trying to bury them. he needs to wake up and tell the american people what they have did, and that is nothing. y'all have a most beautiful day. >> jamal: all right, mel, thank you for calling in. >> rack him. what a call.

joining me now, ryan grim and jamal simmons. do tea party republicans really think they are winning the argument here or are they just avoiding reality as long as possible? >> well, a lot of tea party republicans don't think that the other side has an even remotely legitimate argument to bring to the table. so they think they are practically winning it by default. you know, a lot of them almost wonder what it is that these democrats are even doing, saying that in the house of representatives, for instance, when the nation has elected republicans to run the house for the last two years yet here are these democrats who are still here and still trying to have input on some of these bills. you know, as far as they are concerned, obama care is the least popular thing ever been foiste the foisted on the american people. when they see votes like this, yeah, it reinforces that world view that they are already holding. >> jamal, democratic strategist paul begala writes today in "the daily beast" that since the rnc released its autopsy or

let's bring in democratic strategist jamal simmons and former senior adviser to george bush, robert trainernator cruz right? have republicans started to turn things around? >> no, i don't think they have. the problem with senator cruz is he's like me, when my shirts are getting a little too tight, i think they must be shrinking them in the dry cleaner. it's not the dry cleaner. it's not the shirt. it's me. i'm eating too much. republicans have to change their behavior in the same way. they've got to get back into shape. what they're doing is looking for all kinds of outside reasons why they're not being able to sell. the reality is republican policy is republican politics. they've got to decide, are they going to cater to the small narrow base inside republican congressional districts or the big broad base who voted for -- 5 million americans voted for the president of the united states. we increased the number of senators in the united states. gerrymandering kept the republicans in charge, but they've got to decide what they want to be. a nationally based party or a congressionally based p

i'm jamal simmons this is the "bill press show," have a good day. >> guess what, don't hate me guess what don't hate me. ♪ >> announcer: this is the "bill press show." [ ♪ theme ♪ ] >> stephanie: hello tv world. happy monday morning. eric boehlert from media matters coming up. john fuglesang, sexy liberal and melissa fitzgerald, actress jacki, the third member of our truffle. hot brie. she, jim, is sleeping at my house. >> oh, really? >> do tell. >> stephanie: i know you picture naked pillow fights and all. guess what we did. we watched the replay of "meet the press" and talked [ bleep ] about david gregory. that's what we did. >> you're a little too scandalous today. that's what political geeks do. that was our naughty slumber party. >> she had just flown in from d.c. if i'm not mistaken. >> she's moving to my hood! >> i've lost her to you. you have greater negotiating skills than i do. she moved out of my neighborhood and into yours. >> stephanie: you lost the turf war. >> seriously. >> stephanie: we'll talk about "meet the press." it is just a chiron. are both sides equally to bla