and when the -- when pat robertson ran and brought in the evangelicals into the republican party, the national committeemen from michigan, this was an earlier day, famously said going to a robertson affair was like the bar scene in "star wars," that these were all weird people. many of the people socialized into the party and are now party leaders. when goldwater came along, similar things were said about his people. these shopkeepers and people that, you know, are being allowed into the parties, southerners. i was asked when i was in the white house in 1972, we ran a campaign in the nixon administration called operation switch. which was designed to get democratic officeholders to switch parties, primarily in the south. and i remember a republican congressman coming to me and screaming at the top of his lungs that this was a terrible, terrible ideas. we don't want those people in our party because one, they're tacky, and secondly, he said -- he finally -- he said, if they come in, they're going to be running against us in primaries. eight years later he got beat in the primary by a f

cause for the religious right after jerry falwell's moral majority imploded pat robertson's christian coalition. took on the task of registering voters getting them to the polls. and also introducing something called the contract with america. you know pushing that agenda which was a very right wing agenda and they've been pushing the republican party further to the right these guys you know under the guise of different organizations for what thirty forty years so reid has he went from the christian coalition to having his own consulting business he became a big deal on the george w. bush campaign then he got mixed up with jack aber mom made a. nice pile of money. representing some gambling interests and. head of christian coalition. and so use reputation was solid and he kind of disappeared for a while but now he's back with the new organization and what's what's the story first of all are the koch brothers behind them and who's funding the oh and this is where i actually wish i could know that i'm sure you wish you could know that but there are five a one c four they do not have to

reminds me of what happened in 1988 when a preacher from virginia, pat robertson, basically decided tor a political operation. not a religious operation but a political efficient political operation and that institutionalization of the tea party and in a place like texas today has created a turnout that says basically you have to be farther right than the other guy in order to be nominated. these two people who were running against each other, ted cruz, and the so-called institutional sort of establishment candidate, lieutenant governor, aren't -- don't differ virtually all on any main issue. this is about the tea party demand that you have a visceral sort of fighting stance when you show up in washington. i was with ted cruz last week here in texas traveling. ted cruz told a group much to their approval that i'm willing to compromise so long as the other side comes around to my way of thinking. >> wow. when you look at that, victoria, you feel that even the politics of it doesn't make sense. poll shows majority of americans think the republican congress is extreme. 52% of americans sa

doesn't that sound a little uncomfortably close to jerry folwell, pat robertson, what they said, parte blame on 9/11, gays and lesbians? >> that's for others to decide. i'm not here to defend dan. i'll tell you this, i'll defend his right and anyone who disagrees with him to have an opinion. i think we're at a place in our society where we have to step back and go, hey, it's 2012, brooke, and i don't think it's about what dan says, and i don't think it's about what dan believes. >> you don't think this is about what he said? >> hold on, i think it's about how we act, with people that maybe we disagree with. so i'm not here to diagram out his comments with, what did we mean. i'm not getting inside his head. but i will tell you, i think we've got to step back and say, let's put the pitchforks down. this goes for people on the right as well. let's pick up some coffee cups. and i'm okay with messy conversations. these-type issues are messy. but i think messy conversations, brooke, lead to productive conversations, which then lead to solutions. so i've got to tell you, to me, it's like, he

ron paul vision with pat robertson vision. family values, chrtian conservatism andll that stuff d othros ed osinndthlv ppittoot d aolics ditee cryso bys the further you move from the left the closer you get to bad hoobndis iso ysesdnion fci iam polal lis erveseep wig argument. and the other argument is 24 chaptersth ics, wit alng serious argument of front. >> cliches are lazy arguments that are sort of masquerads idgi >>t. ge ol te -he tks about euphemism and lazy metaphors which is the same thing. he says they come like prefricad and e up dog r kior u uyntodea at cius i a sus and real concept, something nice and good that everyone should agree with andame into the movie ten nube tnd usu soe thin fou altis d eocancgo back over a century. >> you say this idea, students would come up to you doing a lecturand ey wld i sa wyout w feough s wherouantoay >> i speak on a lot of college campuses and one reason i wrote "lite fascism"s i was f up beca asc so vw titur wore t wno a of moxie goldbergs. so o thing i noticed is kids arno jt -

pat robertson down there in virginia. yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.s his approach. >> whatever you need me to say. that got him through the primary. he's like a dressage horse that gets through the routine. >> i don't think dressage is going to sell anyway. i speak bad english talking about high priced sports. >>> when we return, let me finish with the real impact of the tragedy in colorado. you're watching "hardball," the place for politics. [ humming ] [ male announcer ] kraft macaroni & cheese. you know you love it. look at those toys. insurance must be expensive. nah. [ dennis' voice ] i bet he's got an allstate agent. they can save you up to 30% more by bundling your policies. well his dog's stupid. [ dennis' voice ] poodles are one of the world's smartest breeds. are you in good hands? to drive a car filled with as much advanced technology as the world around it. with the available lexus enform app suite, you can use opentable to make restaurant reservations... search with bing... and listen to pandora. presenting the 2013 lexus gs, rx and the a

endorsed by people like senator david vitter of louisiana, rick perry, even then, governor of texas, pat robertson, they knew that he was a catholic with gay friends. he was also pro-choice. but they said it is a culture war, he hates liberals and he can win. and they put money on the line for him, people put their name on the line. he never made it to the starting gate. all the way to 2011 when the experts at national journal -- november 2009, the experts at the national journal on the political pull were asked for all the democratic candidates who did better than expected and who's surprised you by doing worse than expected. worse than expected was senator obama. better than expected was senator clinton. two days later, she lost and she blew it at the iowa jefferson and jackson center. you have to understand, there is a lot more contingency. as i started to work on the campaigns, one of the first things that i realized, and it sounds awfully simple, but it is not. there really are only three campaigns for president. there is the challenger from the party out of power trying to capture the white

person of the year, rudolph giuliani endorsed by people like rick perry, then governor of texas, pat robertson. they knew he was a catholic that was pro-choice, but they also said he is a culture who hate liberals and he can win and they put money on the line for an. he never made it. he just fizzled so badly. and out the way through 2011 with the experts at the national turnover, the expert of the national journal and political poll were asked for all the democratic candidate. who did better than did any surprise to be doing worse than it? worse than it was senator obama. better than expected with senator clinton. two days later she lost. she blew it at the i/o chip or send jackson event. we have to understand there's a lot more contingency. as i started to work on the campaign, one of the first things i realized as this sounds awfully simple, but it's not. there really are only three campaigns. there is the challenger on the party out of power to capture the white house. and then there's either an incumbent trying to hold and defend the white house after four years for a successor trying to

george bush lost the iowa caucuses, finished i think behind pat robertson, if memory serve, and people in the bush campaign that year decided they had to do something to make george bush appear more manly. so they went to new hampshire, and he started driving heavy machinery. you know, big tractors, and big trucks and tooting the horn driving around, and got his picture taken doing all that. i remember -- i remember doing a story there that said, you know, hide the fork lif, mama. george bush is a-comin'. the other part of it is, it worked. he won. >> he did win. gayle king is with me. >> hello, bob schieffer. many would say the word wimp and president don't go together in the same sentence and yesterday the governor was making news talking tough on iran in his speech yesterday. what do you think his strategy is there? >> well, i think he was in israel because he wanted to demonstrate his foreign policy credentials. he has known benjamin netanyahu for a long, long time. he wanted to show that -- that he's as popular in israel as it were as barack obama did, but, you know, starting off

it reminded me of pat robertson plaming the tornados or the hurricanes or whatever on gays, that disneyng like that. >> yeah. >> addsurd. >> it's something that i think, yeah, you usually see a lot of times after anything bad happens. you rule out the talking points if they attribute to anything good or bad happening. i think there has been some blowback on gomert some of the evangelical leaders because at certain times, ig people get sick of it. >> i might point out they also added we don't have to feel too sorry for those who lost their lives who were christians because they are in a better place but that non-christians will all burn in hell. >> right. >> so i was repeating it that old chestnut. there is a little flap going on. no, a big flap going on that the romney campaign is trying to make out of comments that president obama made last thursday, in defrocked, saying that those who have been successful in this country had a lot of help along the way. i want to play the president's comments in their entirety, the whole clip, and then talk about what it really means. here he is last