if they make a crazy break for the republican party platform which nobody notices anyway, rick santorum is telling republicans he stands ready to counterbalance them. he will fight them on mitt romney's behalf. mitt romney has consolidated the support of his primary rivals. even once they have picked their nominee, even once mitt romney has consolidated the support, the republican party trying to figure out who it is and who is in charge and who gets a say remains the greatest show on earth, at least the greatest show on politics. in terms of the right, rick santorum is turning out to be more than a weapon for mitt romney to use against paul. he used him to tag team the faith and freedom conference. mr. romney appeared by video link, approvingly quoting rick santorum in his remarks. then rick santorum appeared right after him, approvingly quoting mitt romney right to him. herman cain was also at the event speaking. even rick santorum's billionaire, foster friess was there, wearing a very nice shirt. remember him? >> this contraception thing. it's so inexpensive. back in my days, they us

that's what the alaska republican chairman told the alaska republican party, and it worked. month, alaska republicans largely stayed away from their convention so the ron paul revolution never got the corm they needed and in this presidential election year, the neuron paul dominated alaska republican party can't take over early. they couldn't hold this convention they had planned on holding. the ron paul crowd went away mad in alaska, some saying they had spent hundreds of dollars traveling to the event. beyond clark county, nevada, and iowa, and alaska, ron paul won a majority of the delegates for the whole state in the state of nevada and in the state of iowa, and in the state of maine, and in the state of minnesota, and maybe in louisiana. we don't have a final result yet for louisiana. so even as mitt romney seeks to consolidate the republican party faithful and steam toward the november election, the ron paul movement has been seizing the republican party apparatus at the state level. as of today, ron paul supporters are not only not falling in line on mitt romney, they

does the republican party matter in the states? ink it's an open question and a really interesting one. we think what happens in the states matters because of the presidential primary system. once even party has a nominee until they park in the parking lot of ross's restaurants and ordering magic mountains like the old iowans from way back. while the republican party has chosen the nominee and the press corps forgot about the states, something interesting is happening in the states. we've talked before how after mitt romney locked up the nomination, and ron paul continues winning the majority of delegates in a bunch of states last weekend. ron paul won most of the delegates in iowa to go with wins in nevada, maine, and minnesota and maybe louisiana. republicans in idaho and oregon are holding their conventions in week, and the ron paul folks say they're trying for a couple more wins in those states. you see a lot of ron paul delegates at that republican convention this summer that's supposed an all-in thing for mitt romney. now more

multimillionaire lobbyist grover norquist tax pledge that bush's comments signal a change coming in the republican party one that could mean the end of the tea party and you've heard me say night after night that if america is going to get back on the right track it's going to take serious tax reform and reasonable taxes on people like mitt romney who pays less on his millions than cop a cops pay on their normal salaries well believe it or not there's one tax that i just can't stand i'll tell you why and it's believed. in the best of the rest of the news of the bush tax cuts set to expire on december thirty first republicans and democrats are drawing up their game plans first there is senator jeff merkley who is telling his fellow democrats in congress not to budge letting the bush tax cuts expire at the end of the year for the wealthiest two percent of americans in an interview with t.p.m. senator merkley said i've encouraged my team to realize that we have lotsa leverage on this this is not a situation where you go to the table and you're desperate to get a deal but senator merkley understands is the

but with everything between ron paul and the rest of the republican party it is a little awkward. this weekend, ron paul won iowa. it's official. there will be 25 delegates and super delegates sent to the national republican convention from the great state of iowa this year and even though you heard mitt romney won on election night and that actually no rick snowstorm won in iowa really ron paul won. of the 25 delegates, 21 of them are ron paul delegates. leaving the ron paul campaign to put out this press release. ron paul wins iowa and it's true. he did. bottom t line. also hosting a ron paul revolution rally in tampa at the site of the republican convention this summer the day before it opens. which is a rather in your face move for a guy who is not getting the nomination. >> we should not be disruptive, but we should also not be pushed around. >> ron paul's message to supporters this weekend, announcing their plans for the counter convention in tampa this weekend. this weekend, frankly, with him winning a majority of delegates and winning maine, minnesota, iowa and nevada, you

is the republican party to extreme? one thing i learned was the institute's mission statement, 10 simple words. with the slogan he did not simply mean we value the competition among various institutions. of course, we do. he championed as his successor is spirited debates within the family. they have differed on the wisdom of organ donations. scholars have publicly sparred over the merits of the carbon tax. there were disagreements about the a rock or. in the fall they will publish a book on competing views of china's rise. scholars have differed about the merits of -- the debates have always been vigorous and always simple. our debate on but the republican party is too extreme is keeping with that history. i would like to acknowledge the work of those who have made this a success. it is available to you on the web site. his columns are must resign capitol hill. steve hayward is the fellow at aei and a regular blocker. we are fortunate to have him as our moderator tonight. he writes about this twice a week for roll call

one is i think the republican party's ability to as a legislative party atrophy during the decades when they were out of power and during that period republicans succeeded in electing presidents starting with eisenhower and the nixon era, and even before that i think you could see the two parties had a slightly different character, somewhat related to their etiology and somewhat to their experience. republicans became a more executive minded party and the democrats became more legislative minded party, they're better at running congress, no question and republicans have yet to prove they're good as governing as a majority. this is sort of looking back a moment that had there been a way to organize or incite the tea party it would have happened earlier so in 2006 when tom d i delay says spending has been cut to the bone, the game was up, there's nothing left of conservative republicanism in running congress. they've become a favor factory and steakment party maybe not even any better than the democratic party from a conservative point of view. so the big challenge for republicans if they

water boils down to the present united states if you were to be elected you be the leader of the republican party and republicans on the right because the left of mitt romney are both rejecting him overwhelmingly but we don't want you at all and that's the present doesn't really relate to that if you're one of the areas now which is exactly what you're seeing here doing here is exactly what it is i absolutely think that mitt romney can do a better job with the economy than obama because he's going to have our little now that he is he would be the leader of our country. party. i think he will be the leader of our country period and when he's not out of leave i don't think obama will be back and i don't think obama will get back in at all and i do think that jeb bush is positioning himself it may not be for two thousand and sixteen but he is positioning himself we cannot have another four years of obama our country will be in absolute terms. isn't it once romney gets the nomination in tampa doesn't he then become the official head of the republican party he is the republican leader yes absolutely s

little parties managed to get a majority almost a two thirds majority but not quite and so the republican party chairman state decided we were going to pass some rules that allow a quorum or allow the parties business to be conducted with only one third so will the run although it's been quite like that they went ahead and put one of their people out if he won the race who rules committee and when the mission began the chairman didn't call on him when he called on the rules term and he he called on the former rules here and who is aligned with the more established probably party and they were preparing to go ahead or hammer out the rules through so the rules chairman who had been elected by ron paul supporters stood up and objected he was physically removed by private security or actually local police officers that republican party hired. he was rude on the republican party chairman supporters and so her listeners were broken according to ron paul's campaign know if that's necessarily the case that's what they said in their press fruits. and then when the delegates really objected to that they

tonight, we'll learn more about the republican party of the state.nks for hosting us. >> thank you so much. welcome to the state of maine and to the people's house. >> thank you. we're going to be live for the next hour and a half learning more about james g. blaine's america. and about the republican party that he was so influential in bringing to the state. we're going to be moving into the reception room here at the governor's mansion. two guests are waiting for me and they'll be my guests throughout the program. while we're getting set up in there, we'll show you a clip from a roundtable discussion that c-span hosted. we spoke about james g. blaine. >> 1884 against cleveland. >> before that he had run for the republican nomination. and ironically, in 1876, it was blaine who prevented us lessees s. grant -- or 1880 that prevented prevent ed everybody lysses grant from coming back. he was secretary of state under three presidents. >> what else did he do? >> he was in congress, speaker of the house. very effective iron willed speaker. >> he changed

and by the late 1850s was immersed in the emerging republican party.y stopped speaking in maine. charismatic. mag anytism. >> my understanding is he had a terrific memory for people's names. he could really make you feel that he knew who you were. what your particular concerns were and so on. they recognized the mand he met as a wounded soldier in a military hospital 20 years before. that was the memory he had. >> what a gift for a politician to be able to memorize names and recall them. not just in that. but also in his mastery of political tactics. >> mastery of political tactics. master of controlling his party and leading his party. there is a sense when he was in congress, which were critical years for the nation, he did have a way of trying to smooth over the differences between the sections, and as congress was coming back together, to include the south. can you verify having read these things, too? >> he was constantly complaining of ill health all throughout his life. ultimately died in 1983. in the last month of his life he was truly ill. >>

from two people powerful in the republican party, they seemed very distant. true or just a feature of the biography? >> no, i think are you correct. you are mentioning thomas bracket reed, born in portland in 1839. so just a little younger than blaine. went to boden college and spent 9d his entire public life as a congressman. he rose to be speaker, like blaine was also speaker from 1869 to '75. reed served in the 1890s. i think corruption was never a question in relation to reed. reed was a very -- totally honest, forthright individual, person of great integrity, and i think in addition to that, reed is as scribed as a towering figure in the history of the development of the congress, considered by many to be one of the three or four most influential speakers of the house in the history of the house. primarily because of reed's rules, reform of the house. the recognition that the majority rule had to be counted and had to be taken into account. >> next caller is jim, watching us in san francisco. hi, jim. >> caller: hi. i think you're right on the major issu

they say the ideological center of the republican party must change to regain national health. there could be returned to the kind of accommodation that the principal use of moderate republicans is to shoot the wounded after the battle is over. i suspect that idea of good government would be president david gergin. is the republican party extreme? i certainly hope so. the republican party began its life as an extremist party dedicated to the purpose of a bolling -- abolishing barbarism. the supreme court declared the republican party's platform to be unconstitutional. there is little reason or purpose for the republican party unless it acts with a new determination to call it the size of all to the and thus ratcheting expansion of centralized government power and reckless spending. gains prominent positions in " the post," but all glory is fleeting. [laughter] disagree with a finger first minute and a half. [laughter] let me next say that i don't know which is meant more disorienting, appearing naked pictures of arthur brooks or david gergan as president. they are on the same pa

if the republican party becomes the party of balancing the budget, skilled immigration reform i would subscribe to that as being fair. >> hi, how are you? i want to introduce myself. my name is ricky gill. i'm running for congress here. >> belva: gill is hoping his farming roots will play well in this agricultural district. on the day we visited he was working the crowd at the lodi zen fest. >> i would like you to check into a water system. water around here is very important. >> we're beginning to tap their poe litd call potential. asian americans are not just voting but running for political office. that's a higher level of political participation. i think we're finally seeing that happen, not just getting elected but sustaining it over time. to me, that's excitexciting. >> he seems impressive. he's not old enough to be a congressman yet. my question is is there something else that's changed in the political landscape, ie, money? >> ricky gill is a rising star in the republican party young as he is because he represents a new dynamic when you talk about demographics. indian american

any way, here's jeb bush drawing the line between his father and reagan as well in the republican party and that party of today. he made it as a breakfast today. here he is, read this to you. reagan would have based on his record of finding oi come documentation, finding some degree of common ground as would my dad. they would have a hard time if you define the republican party as having an orthodoxy. and you know, i see that. it's very strange, michael, because you had to contend with those new forces, but you have to wonder about what do the people come to washington elected as members of the house, i'm not knocking everybody. they get elected as much anything else. their attitude seems to be, i'm going to wait out the liberals. they're not going anywhere. going to be a lot of liberals. >> and we don't want them to go away because we don't want everybody to have group think, we don't want everybody to be of the same mind. there is value in the synergy and tension that comes from debating these idea, which is what i'm hoping that presidential campaign, turns into ultimately instead of

midwest they they set up an outhouse montana outside it was in the hilton parking lot but montana republican party was meeting to selected delegates to the republican convention so they set up an outhouse and on it was a sign that obama's presidential library but not only that then they had drawings of bullet holes and inside the makeshift outhouse they had derogatory racial comments about a shell obama we have seen images that where the entire family the obama family as decent a family as there possibly could be. i have been characters have been shown as images of monkeys chimpanzees the entire family of the girls you know and i asked this of of the chairman of the congressional black caucus who was by the way the first african-american to be aleck that mayor of kansas city missouri he represents a district of only seventeen percent african-american he says i never saw this type of thing oh you every now and then you see the fringe but this is an attempt to dean legitimize this president of the united states and and as he also said he two things one he's not surprised he hadn't heard about it bec

let me go to the past of what the republican party was like. richard nixon, an essentially conservative president he permitted the state to hire teachers, cops, and firefighters. would that notion be supported today? >> it's very hard to think that that could be a tenable view in the republican party. there are governs in southern states, i mean, george w. the president, and jeb, they had to deal with hispanic communities, huge cuban community obviously in florida. so this gets real. it gets outside of the campaign rhetoric when you have constituencies to deal with. this is a demographics where the most hispanic country and diverse country and republicans know a lot of those states out west, they need to do well, not necessarily carry the majority but do well with hispanic to be competitive. >> eliot: do you want to jump in? >> going back to the gay marriage issue. the thing about mitt romney is that--i think he does personally oppose gay marriage. but at the end of the day every day we're talking about the social issues, be it immigration or s

california, because the taxes are going up dramatically, and politically, john, you have the death of republican party. and i think as -- because 90% of all republican votes are white folks. and they're only 60% of the country now, and as they fall to say 50%, you got to get almost all of them to win the election some the change is dramatic. >> when i use the word delayed, i'm referring to white females today who are postponing, delaying, what would have been an early childbirthing period, because they want to accomplish something in their jobs or whatever. >> right. >> so this is really a -- a question that may not have a basis in fact what we say on the screen. >> i don't think the white birthrate will catch up with the hispanic birthrate. but this is a -- a tilting of america that we've seen coming for a good long while. and i agree with pat on one thing, it's the death of the republican party. if they don't change some of their policies and the tone of their rhetoric towards the new america. i don't think it's a negative thing, and i don't think it has the fire as a political issue that it once ha

but you can imagine both parties moving further apart. those type of republicanswith no easy place to go. he leaves them with no place to go. i do not think a third party is going to emerge from our system and culture won't tolerate that. but we are going to have to find some way to get back to culture of problem-solving for the rest of the country might end up looking like california squared. >> i would like to thank steve and norm for a terrific debate. [applause] [applause] >> they showed their great intellect and stability. i would like to note that this and debates are available at aei.org. i would like to note that moore's book will be available for purchase after we adjourn. here is the book, "it's even worse than it looks." please look at these two gentlemen. the title of this book is "it's even worse than it looks." look at them. they are even better than they look. thank you very much. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> up next on c-span 2, senate finance committee chairman max bachus talks about overhauling the nation's tax code. the

reagan was not nearly conservative enough for today's republican party. so why do republicans keep pretending he's their hero? >>> and in the "rewrite" tonight, another episode of who's the real american? the contestants, barack obama and mitt romney, and the category, sport. >>> and in the next segment, the category will be food. you will watch mitt romney trying to figure out what a doughnut is. that's coming up. do you read in bed? do you read out loud or in your head? do you need a lamp to see? and does it leave your bedmate be? don't you wish there was a light that wouldn't keep them up all night? if so, you'll be happy to know, our newest nook now comes with glow. introducing nook simple touch with glowlight, the only e-reader made for bedtime reading. find your nook at your neighborhood barnes & noble. ♪ power surge, let it blow your mind. [ male announcer ] for fruits, veggies and natural green tea energy... new v8 v-fusion plus energy. could've had a v8. >>> kids need to start admiring society's real heroes. job creators. that's why i'm calling fo

there aren't that many latino voters in the republican party base. there's really not a constituency for the average republican member of congress to appeal to in saying i'm for comprehensive immigration reform. the only case they can make is guys, this is in the long term, 10, 20, 30 years interest of or party. >> even marco rubio on "meet the press" said as much. a lot of hispanics in this country are liberal democrats. they're not going to change parties just because of immigration reform. john, are you surprised we haven't gotten a statement from the white house yet? >> no. the white house never surprises me. to steve's point, i think the question is what happens in november because it's true that, i mean, the republican party, if the republican party loses this election and there's a widespread sense that part of the reason they lost the election was because of its problems with hispanic voters, there will be a faction of the party that will make an argument it's imperative for the party if it wants to be a national governing party to fix this pr

romney has an unusually small amount of latitude for a republican nominee to break with his party. ul ryan budget is a good example. it is political poison for the republicans, but mitt romney has no choice but to say that he embraces and he supports and as president he would sign the paul ryan budget or something like it. that's music to democrats' ears. democrats aren't making him do that. mitt romney has to do that because if he does not send the signal to the republican base that you are getting an authentic conservative president who will sign authentic conservative legislation, they'll go sleep on him. >> it has been character assassination across the board. the reality is if you look at the right direction, wrong track in this country, it's 58-33, of the 33 who think we're going in the right direction, president obama's doing great. we won't win that vote. of the balance, mitt romney is leading 3-1 with those thinking the country is going in the wrong direction. people are listening for alternatives. and the mitt romney challenge is starting to articulate what an administrati

austerity and instead promote growth and job creation but if the united states mitt romney the republican party are doubling down on austerity when romney's top economic advisers glenn hubbard just published an op ed in a german business magazine slamming president obama's economic policies and pushing for austerity here in the united states as hubbard writes the advice of the u.s. government regarding solutions to the crisis is misleading mitt romney obama's republican opponent understands this very well advise is a gradual fiscal consolidation for the u.s. structural reform to stimulate growth. fiscal consolidation is economic speak for spending cuts which means more austerity so why is it that today's republican party has blinders on when it comes to what's happening in europe and here in the united states they're pushing for the same sort of austerity that's rypien entire cotton apart just across the atlantic joining me now is mark weisbrot economist and co-director of the center for economic and policy research and max fraud wall economist instructor at the new school university and senior

that would look something like the wallace candidacy in '68 and it split the republican party and at that point i predict that tom and norm would look back with fuzzy sentimentality on the imprudent lead irship much mitch mcconnell and john boehner. >> norm, could you comment on the tea party, whether you see them extreme and part b, not asked here, could you comment on the occupy wall street movement and whether you regard that as extreme. >> sure. you know, i think these, let me say the tea party movement is a populist movement just as the occupy movement is, it rose during a time as it usually does of economic turmoil, populism is deep in our dna. it was an attack on leadership and establishment leadership, but i think we often use tea party as a kind of shorthand that simplifies things a little bit too much, and it gets to one of steve's points, the headaches for john boehner especially, less mitch mcconnell who i think has been very cold-blooded in his strategy in a way that boehner hasn't, but it was in the house far more than the freshman tea party members, the members of the r