the "crossfire" tonight, hilary rosen, and republican strategist kevin madden. kevin? hasn't the -- >> you agree, right? >> endorse. >> thank you for your agreement here. >> hasn't the tea party -- >> i do. >> -- pushed republicans away from the mainstream? alienated them from the center of this country? the majority of american people? >> no, look. i mean, what the tea party has done inside the party i think is a great thing on things like accountability and responsibility on issues like spending, deficits and taxes, right? i think what it's done electorally is, you know, and i would say there's a legitimate criticism or legitimate analysis that said, like, about a couple months ago that there was big splits and faction within the party. right now i think everybody is starting to come together and form a grander coalition that's actually helping the republican party. >> all of those positions are moving to the right. what's happening with immigration? >> look in the north carolina race, i mean, we had three conservative candidates down there and the best campaign won.

on the right, kevin madden. in the "crossfire," no alathy, communications director for democratic national committee. are both parties so focused on hillary clinton they are missing opportunities in 2014? tonight on "crossfire." >>> welcome to "crossfire." i'm kevin madden on the right. >> i'm van jones on the left. in the "crossfire" tonight the top message guys from both parties. for republicans, the message is clear. get hillary clinton. that's it. now this is may 2014. not fall 2016. why are the republican leaders throwing every attack they can think of at hillary clinton? could it be they lack confidence in their own crop of candidates? after all, chris christie is in a ditch. rand paul's isolationism is in direct conflict with marco rubio's saber rattling. meanwhile, the tea party crowd can't stand jeb bush. it is a total mess over there. here's the truth. hillary clinton unites democrats. every major republican leader divides gop. so what does that leave the republic cans with? politics of personal destru

so at the end of the day when you overreach that is a real problem. >> so kevin madden, end this offe and elevate this conversation. attack hillary clinton in a much more dignified way. >> well, look, the scrutiny that hillary clinton eventually gets on her health that is not something that is going to have to be driven in a parse way, they have done it for years, i think there is, you're right, bill, republicans, we have so much we can focus on with hillary clinton to criticize her on, on the substance that this is not necessarily going to be the focal point in any 2016 campaign. >> well, given her productivity we should all get injuries. >> we should all have the injuries. >> yeah, we'll see about the productivity part. >> kevin madden, great piece of political writing on the bush family and the new brother who may be running again. another bush v. clinton, yeah. >> and the casum family fears that he has been taken. another incredible story. way to get your fiber. try phillips fiber good gummies. they're delicious, and an excellent source of fiber to help support regularity. wife:

>> we are joined again by marc lamont hill and kevin madden. what do you make of this? the fbi is, you know, ruling out people who smoked pot in the last three years. so many businesses drug test people when they come in for pot. should these companies -- should the fbi be concerned about marijuana use anymore? marc, you start. >> i think -- i see a reasonable argument for the fbi being concerned because it is still illegal most places. and if you're hiring an fbi agent who has admitted to casually breaking the law when they think the law isn't that big of a deal, it could raise an ethical or moral issue. but in general, i don't care. the weed train has left the station a long time ago. and if you're in corporate america and you're worried that your tech guy is smoking weed, you have an issue because i can just about guarantee your tech guy is smoking weed just like every place else. let it go. >> to kevin, where do you stand on this issue? >> you've seen my computer lately, obviously. you know how well this works. >> you know what? i do not su

on the right, kevin madden. in the "crossfire," no alathy, communications direc

kevin madden, cnn political commentator and republican strategist. friend. >> good to see you, chris. >> she wasn't in the hospital 30 days. she was in the hospital three days. there are no special tbi glasses. i mean, i hate that i'm -- this is working. it's working, because i'm talking to you about it. but hopefully we use the opportunity to condemn when someone has gone too far. can you defend what he said? >> well, look, i think it was a rather awkward and as you pointed out, an erroneous statement he made. but i don't think it was -- an intentional one designed to in any way bring hillary clinton's health into the conversation in a negative way. i think it was a very awkward attempt at making a pretty obvious point, which is that noncandidates, which hillary clinton technically is, they don't get a level of scrutiny that official candidates in a 2016 race might get. and that when you do enter into a race, that level of scrutiny requires that you have to answer some tough questions that you haven't answered in the past about your health, about yo

i'm joined now by cnn political contributor maria cadona and republican strategist kevin madden.ou a little about the fix here. you heard secretary hagel saying we need to figure out what's going on and then fix it. there's not a lot of time to figure this out, right, this needs to be done soon. >> i think that's one of the things frustrating, the idea there's going to be an investigate upon another investigation. i think people want -- they want action. they want to see a level of accountability and responsibility from the white house, and they want to see the problem fixed versus another investigation or, you know, looking into it more. >>cy think that's absolutely right. i also think that people -- what they don't want and our veterans don't deserve are knee-jerk political reactions. we do need to get to the bottom of it. i'm glad the president and general shinseki have said this is going to be their highest priority. they need to be done to make sure that we find the people accountable, hold them accountable and make sure whatever happens ensures this never happens again. we

joining us now to discuss is kevin madden and paul begala, cnn political commentator, senior advisersrities usa action. good morning. >> good morning. >> paul, president has some would say an up hill battle today to lay out what u.s. foreign policy is to apiece critics and to move on. what is the president's foreign policy? >> well, first and most importantly it's going to be i think the first paragraph of the history of the presidency which is he has ended two wars. he inherited two wars. he has wound down america's involvement in iraq. he's going to announce today how he will wind down the involvement in afghanistan and i think every american, we are very war weary country, my goodness. americans will be happy to see that. the hard part will be this, kate. he is going to, according to published reports, he's going to call for a residual force of ,800 troops at a cost of $20 billion a year. we only sent $6.4 billion on head start for our own at risk preschoolers in america. it's going to be a tough sell after 12 1/2 years of war to say cia, yeah it's over, but i want another $20 bill