politics we have our "hardball" strategist here tonight, democrat steve mcmahon and republican john feeheryhn, let's talk about your party and the way it wants to position itself on the whole issue of what happened in newtown. i don't mean necessarily gun laws particularly but the issues of background checks, the issues of mental health records. is there a role for the republican party in gun safety? strategically speaking? >> obviously, you see that with tom coburn. he certainly believes that there is. and i do think that tom coburn is -- this could be a nixon goes to china moment for tom coburn and the nra and gun safety. >> where is john feehery? where were you? do you want something done on gun safety or not? >> i would like something done on gun safety. i would like something done -- i would like a more aggressive effort to get guns away from violent criminals. i'd like to get guns out -- make sure they don't get in the hands of crazy people. that's where i am. and i think that we do need to have a more aggressive background check, and i have been pretty public on that. >> how about th

and you're being loyal, john feehery.he debate continues, gentlemen, even after we're off the air, and you can take part. visit our blog at hardballblog.msnbc.com. or find us on facebook at facebook.com/hardball. thank you. >>> democrats want to defeat, of face it with puffs facial tissues. puffs has air-fluffed pillows for 40% more cushiony thickness. face every day with puffs softness. this reduced sodium soup says it may help lower cholesterol, how does it work? you just have to eat it as part of your heart healthy diet. step 1. eat the soup. all those veggies and beans, that's what may help lower your cholesterol and -- well that's easy [ male announcer ] progresso. you gotta taste this soup. >>> democrats want to defeat, of course, mitch mcconnell of kentucky, the guy who from day one vowed to make president obama, as we all know notoriously, a one-term president. well, some national democrats think their best chance to beat mcconnell may be with actress ashley judd. judd, a kentucky native, has not decided whether t

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let's bring back jackie kucinich as well as chris and john feehery. could be a very emotional ceremony. wayne lapierres has accused the president in the past and in his recent statements of playing politics with newtown and perhaps events like this. but when you think about it it, doesn't the president need to use and understand all of the events that are around? he was voted in by a majority to be the president of the united states and therefore he he should be leveraging that which is given to him to achieve the goals that the electorate wanted him to achieve. hasn't he already tried the high road with congress already? >> from my perspective it's not whether you're playing the high road or low road. the fact is you had teachers and students slaughtered at a school. there are a lot of ideas in terms of how to best do that. we have a serious gun violence problem in this country. so for the president of the united states to go out there and highlight this fact and then for mr. lapierre and other republicans to say that he's playing politics, i'm, is h

john feehery is a republican strategist, and wayne slater is the co-author of "bush's brain."et's go to this, i want to go to an expert, wayne, about this guy, karl rove. i don't know much about karl rove, believe it or not. but it seems for me for him to wait three days and then have a big bee in his bonnet about the word politburo as if bob woodward meant to call him a commie. victimhood used to be a democrat specialty. what's he doing this for? gee, whiz, he's calling me a communist. he only thought of it three days later. no problem at the time. go ahead. your thoughts. >> that's the surprise. he really is usually much faster than this in his response. he's quick to call himself a victim. he finds himself a victim of his own making. the making here is that he created or was part of the creation of a coalition bringing on social conservatives and pro-tea party types who have now turned on him because they feel used after the bush years, and now the millionaire/billionaires who gave him all this 300 and, what, 28 million dollars feel used. so he's basically fallen into a tra

john feehery and dee dee myers. >>> how far can we go when we go after the bad guys?here's a lot of debate over the justice department memo that concludes the u.s. can kill american citizens tied to al qaeda even if they're not involved in an active plot at the time to attack the united states. i understand the civil liberty's concern, but ask yourself this. if an american had put on a nazi uniform in world war ii, wouldn't we have gone after him? >>> block the vote. democrats have had enough of republican efforts to make it harder for them to vote. they are about to push legislation to make it easier to vote and to register, and they're expecting help from the white house on this big one. >>> flooding the zone. immigration, guns. those two issues, the budget, president obama is trying to overwhelm republicans on multiple fronts right now to >>> there might not be a republican filibuster against chuck hagel after all, president obama's nominee for defense secretary. but today republicans tried out a new line. senator lindsey graham of south carolina called hagel cluel

helping me to explain the latest republican face lift are john feehery and dee dee myers.e'll start with this. we know karl rove plans on finding more electable republican candidates as he finds them. what we heard was a kinder, gentler eric cantor than the one we have seen and heard before. remember the obstructionist majority leader, remember his name was cantor, who fought the president on the debt ceiling. he called the obama administration the imperial presidency. he stepped out today to show there are no rough edges in this republican party. let's listen to cantor today. >> we'll advance proposals aimed at producing results in areas like education, health care, innovation, and job growth. our solutions will be based on the conservative principles of self-reliance, faith in the individual, trust in family, and accountability in government. our goal is to ensure that every american has a fair shot to earn success and achieve their dreams. >> what a cover-up. your party ought to be ashamed of itself. you spent months in every state legislative capital trying to keep bla

perry bacon jr., solinda lake and john feehery. john, i'll start with you.his is, i assume, you like hearing the words you are hearing from whether it's eric cantor, paul ryan or what we used there with bobby jindal. the question is, how does the republican party turn words into actions of trying to become persuaders? >> i think they have to channel their inner jack kemp. they have to think about, how do we get off the fiscal discipline message, which is really a bob dole message and get into an economic growth message. how do we lift all boats? jack kennedy and jack kemp. that's important for republicans. they can't just talk about how to cut spending. talk about why their policies are going to help people get back to work and get more flexibility in their lives and how it's an impediment to their daily lives. voters understand that but our party is characterized by the fiscal stuff and the social stuff. and there ain't -- they are not able to get beyond that conversation. >> it goes -- solinda, before we started you said, boy, this looks like the democrats