then was that republican party that this republican party should be honored for that when in fact richard nixon came out and said you know we're going to reach out to the and the democrats were the party of slavery historically and it's and they were the the segregation now segregation forever party right up until the one nine hundred fifty s. and one nine hundred sixty s. . but the and in fact what eisenhower leads good efforts i think and tried to to desegregate the republican party but it was nixon who came out with the southern strategy it was ronald reagan who gave his first speech in philadelphia mississippi where he's talking about states' rights the city where three civil rights workers were murdered when the modern republican party ever since nixon has been the party that has been catering to the racist of the democratic party has been. running away from them what did the how did this guy not missed that get get that message well and you know it's actually funny the people that myself mr terry another audience members are with my organization who were in the audience talk

both political parties are in pretty rough shape. while the republicans have 10%, we have 30%. 2014 is important for the democratic party. we have to look at the electorate and make sure that our message and future messages will galvanize and motivate those to turn out voters as well. >> how long is the democratic party the party of barack obama? when does that shift so it goes back to the clinton era, if hillary chooses to run? when does that shift take place? >> as a president goes through a second term, interest in the president starts to go to the congressional wing of the party. what obama is trying to achieve for his legacy does not necessarily line up with what congressional democrats are interested in, in making a clear distinction between who they are and republicans. i want to reinforce democrats are not in as bad as a shape as republicans. the democrats really are not attached to obama like republicans were to reagan. when obama ran, he ran against the establishment of a party. he did not have a "democrat" on his bumper sticker. his identity wa

republicans. [laughter] i see the democratic party, we have enormous challenges as well. i do not like the fact that my native south has a lot of republican governors. i like to make sure that the party is competitive in the south as all as in the northeast and the western part of the country. for that to happen, we have to make sure that we can articulate that vision the people in the south want us to have in terms of our role about government, but also the kind of country we want to be. right now i feel a lot better about the democratic party than i did four or five years ago, because it is a stronger party. >> the notion we have to spend money organizing or we did not do well because of technology, that is missing what is going on. the fact is for a generation republicans dominated politics on three issues -- foreign policy, taxes, and social issues. among social issues, they won the battle and lost the war. there is no single social issue in your favor going forward. on taxes, you stand for giving breaks to the rich. and on foreign policy, they did not support the bush

it is a youthful movement for the leadership in the republican party. you saw a lot of that at this place. did you sense that the party is turning a page, that the conservative movement is turning a page? paul buddy who can win in the republican election? guest: i am not sure they are ready to turn a page. it is almost as if they are looking at a book and prepared to turn the page but not sure about doing it yet. at the hotel in maryland. it seems the conservatives are eager to win again but not sure how did do it. rand paul is challenging the status quo. he stopped by the national review's offices to talk about his push for less interventionist foreign policy. the really excites libertarian flank of the republican party. that distention of that kind of perspective some -- the discussion of that kind of perception of foreign policy -- on domestic issues you still see the republican party focused on fiscal issues and the budget. paul ryan gave a well-received speech but it wasn't cheered in the way it was before. there is a concern that perhaps the party

but does he have a partner in the republican party? is there anyone in the party who is willing to negotiate with this president on anything? >> i think you can tell that he thinks he needs to go to the people that's why he's going on the road, talking directly to the people. he's thinking if he can build up a certain amount of public support, public pressure on congress, they might act. on the other hand, he does seem to think that there's some republicans he can work with. he's going to dinner again with some republican senators on i think april 10th. the day the budget comes out. they'll have dinner and i guess that is going to solve a lot of problems -- >> or not. >> it depends. >> sam, i've been one of the real skeptics on the whole idea of dinner as a way of negotiating with the republican party if you eat with them, share a nice grilled salmon, suddenly they'll want to work with him. there's a great book, the draper book that came out in 2009. that talked about the 2009 inauguration this is the night when president obama had high

note is how well she was received here in what is sort of the citadel of the grassroots of the republican party. and that sends a strong message to chairman priebus and others trying to heal the wounds of the party that they've got a lot of work to do. when she ridicules background checks for guns, she's taking on an issue 92% of americans support and she got a big hand for it in that room. that tells you the gulf that exists for the republican party. the problem they have to solve, how do you nominate a candidate who can be elected in this country? if that's the position they're going to take, then they're going to have a hard time doing that. >> this scald republican autopsy or coroner's report includes a great deal from focus groups who found the party as, i'm quoting here, "scary, narrow minded, out of touch and a party of stuffy old men." david, you're the expert. where do you begin? >> expert on being an old man? >> no, no, i didn't say that. >> i plead guilty of that. >> in analyzing the wellbeing of political parties and actually winning elections. you are something of an expert, sir. >

cpac is not the republican party and the republican party is not cpac. so i appreciate all the work they do out there. but that's one part of the party. i's a great part of the party. but, you know, we're not synonymous. >> and as the first word of the report says, the gop is a tale of two parties. we'll see how that goes. sean spicer, thank you very much. >> thank you. >> let's bring back lynn as well as jackie. first you, lynn, what's your thought in the way sean spicer described what this meant and where the party needs to go going forward. and really trying to distance themselves from what was said during cpac? >> i think what the important take-away for me what chairman priebus is trying to do is take the old out of the grand old party. and just make it more forward looking and cpac doesn't peek for all republicans. no more than the progressive organizations on the democratic side speak for all democrats. you know, the rnc has to be that big tent. everything sean spicer said, i don't think you're stuffy, sean, yes -- >> i think he heard you. >> yes,

but at the base we've still got the same republican party out there. going to be the challenge. how do you tell the people out in arkansas, tennessee, oklahoma, that suddenly were a party in favor of gay marriage. >> isn't that the problem, the elites within the party and political people who have to win elections that evolution on this issue opens them up potentially to votes from younger americans, but the base of the party isn't evolving on this issue, are they? >> that's right. so the elites recognize they need to change and when the republicans issue the report describing where the party needed to go, gay marriage was prominently mentioned. that and immigration were the two issues where they took a position that we need to change that position. but the other thing is that the elites never cared very much about gay marriage or social issues. although the republican elites are all about the money. the base is where the intensity on the social issues are. >> so the supreme court, which is a political entity, lee, we can pretend that the court is abov

love the republican party. this is the thing the republican party is supposedly working on the hardest. and this is how it is going so far. joining us now is pulitzer prize winning columnist for "the washington post," gene robinson. gene, very good to see you. thank you for being here. >> great to be here, rachel. i mean, where do we begin? may i just say, dios mio. i mean, where, where are we? >> i have to say my favorite part of all of this, i mean don young is amazing. his first explanation is he didn't know it was bad. which says, okay, you didn't know. but presumably that means you've been using this in other context and nobody you have ever spoken to raised an eyebrow or told you that's a bad thing? then he came around and apologized. you did see republican leadership, other republicans jump on don young and say he had to apologize today. is that a sign of progress? >> well, i suppose. it's a sign of progress but it doesn't get them very far because don young set them so far back. so really they are just

go back to the republican party the way it was under lincoln. en you've got this other guy who comes out and says we want to be booker t. washington republicans. you know, one hand, but as separate as five fingers. why can't we go back to segregation? a woman stood up and said, wait a minute, we shouldn't be talking about slavery in referencing that. she's the one who got booed. both people came out of the tea party session saying the woman arguing with the segregationist guy was the problem. people didn't see the black guy saying let's go back to frederick douglass or the white guy saying go back to segregation. they weren't the problem to most of the attendees at that event. that is what it wrong with the republican party. >> well said. >> the harm this does, chris, is not just with african-american voters. it's with those independent voters in the philadelphia suburbs. >> correct. >> they listen to this stuff and say these guys are nuts. >> they said i signed on to the party of lincoln and these guys signed off from the party of lincoln. >> ex

could this be beginning of the end for social conservatives sitting inside the republican party tent?it could be and what's so tough for them to deal with. i think everybody here knows, for 20 years, when republicans dominated politics, from 1968 to 1988, they don't realize that's when it ended. it was social issues that got them there. i've had two names for you. barry goldwater, who early on supported the rights of gays to serve in the military. why? because he had a gay person in his family. at that point the republicans could have picked up his message, they didn't. another name a little more obscure, i bet rick knows it, though, marvin lievman. he was a huge organizer for the republican party. tied in with national review. and he wrote a memoir in the early '90s called coming out conservative. saying he was gay. one reason he been attracted to that earlier libertarian conservatism, goldwater's conservatism was because it seemed less conformist than the democratic party what happened to him? good-bye, marvin, we don't love you any more. it started a long time ago. >> let's throw i

is not necessarily the platform of the republican party, then i think it helps the republican party ifferent views. >> chris: karl, i want to pick up on that and i want to ask you, specifically, because you have a dog in this fight as we mentioned earlier, you are one of the founders of american crossroads and are also starting this group, that was discussed in the last segment, conservative victory project. and, the idea is to help republicans in their primaries, and back people who could actually get elected in general elections. sarah palin, went after you at cpac yesterday. let's take a look: >>... these experts who keep losing elections and are rehired, raking in millions, if they feel that strongly about who gets to run in the party, buck up or stay in the truck, buck up and run. >> chris: are you bucking up? i'm not sure i got that. stay in the truck or running, she says, the last thing the party needs is people from the washington establishment, didn't mention any names but i think you were who she was talking about, vetting republican candidates. >> well, first of all, i liv

that we need in this -- we need a real republican party. the moment it is white, male, pale, stale. and even jeb bush is backtracking on his policies because they still have the same billionaires running this party, ed, and they've got the same base. you can rearrange the deck chairs on the titanic but until they take a really soul-searching hard look, this party is in deep trouble. >> they're convinced, the family is, the romneys never got a chance to show the real mitt. >> give me a break. i mean, it is the most sort of tired trope in american political history to do the blame the media. give me a break. the campaign kept him in lockdown. so he didn't really grapple with his mormonism and his faith, nor did he really move to try and explain his business success. they can't have it both ways. ann romney, with all respect for the wife of a defeated politician is saying they got sort of run over by the media. the only media that ran them over, ed, was fox, because they lived in a bubble of delusional thinking that they were going to win and

[applause] >> our movement and the republican party are not the same, but for many of us, the republican is the vehicle we have chosen to accomplish our political and policy goals. therefore, the way that party operates and the way it looks at the world is important to us because without it, we do not have a viable vehicle at this point in our history. so the chairmanship of the republican national committee is important. the candidates that the party selects are important, and the way we work with them is important. i want to talk today both about that party and our movement. in some ways, we face the same kind of problems. i have been around for a while. it is interesting because parties and movements are themselves interesting. the republican party has been left for dead many times over the course of the last few decades and always seems to come back. what is most interesting to me is the way that party establishments and indeed the establishments of movements react when new people come in. 1964, the first presidential campaign that i was really active in, barry goldwater and a whole

and now the republican party is basically on the losing side of that.t's not just how you talk, it's about the basic attitudes of the obama coalition. the attitudes about government, the social safety net are not in line with where the republican party is and the republican party is going to have to embrace some kind of vision that is in line with these voters but they risk alienuating the base they have. >> that distinction between policy and politics, thinking they can change the policy, they can change the politics without the policies that underlie these realities, to me is demonstrated today by rand paul, the savvy new very high pro file republican senator who is obviously running for president and wants to capture the energy con y t line with where the republican party is and the republican party is going to have to embrace some kind of vision that is in line with these voters but they risk alienuating the base they have. >> that distinction between policy and politics, thinking they can change the policy, they can change the politics without the

it help the republican party. the party needs to be more inclusive of people of different views. >> i want to ask you specifically because you kind of have a dog in the fight. awe mentioned earlier you are one of the founders of american crossroads and starting the group conservative victory project. and the idea is to help republicans and n. their primaries back people that can actually get elected in general elections. sarah palin went after you you at cpac yesterday. let's take a look. >> these experts who keep losing elections you keep getting rehired, raking in millions. if they feel that strongly about who gets to run in this party then they should buck up or stay in the truck. buck up and run. >> chris: so you bucking up? i'm not quite sure i got that. becoming up, staying in the truck or running. papalin says basically the last thing the party needs is people from the washington establishment didn't mention your name but i think you were here she was talking about vetting republican candidates? >> first of

but i think he is a comer and folks in the republican party i talk to really like him. they think he's the person who can really intellectualize a tea party in the way that ron paul couldn't. he was a little meandering on the stump. they like what they see in terms of rand paul. and they also see in marco rubio somebody who might not be ready for the national stage in terms of the intellectual gravitas to go against somebody like hillary clinton. >> rand paul is so interesting. i went down to bowling green, kentucky and spent a few days with him when he was running in 2008. you talk to him on some issues back then, particularly on issues of foreign affairs. there he was at the time saying america has to look at itself to try to understand the genesis of the attacks of 9/11. of course he wasn't excusing them, but he was suggesting there was a role in america's foreign policy. he wants america to pull back. he pointed to a split within the republican party on national security before almost anybody else did. he really actually outlined some of the divisions. when you look

the republican party loved it.the republican party in the last decade was the idea put forward by ross and ryan of sam's club republicans based on tim pawlenty's formation. a funny thing happened on the way to sam's club. tim pawlenty, man of the people and man of the middle class interests, not the business interests is now head of the financial services round table. tim pawlenty went from touting sam's club republicanism to heading up one of the biggest lobbying groups on wall street. oh, t-paw! but he was not the party's only hope. in 2010 the republicans scored an astonishing win during a special election in, of all places, massachusetts. they took back ted kennedy's senate seat. a republican took ted kennedy's seat. that republican was scott brown and he did it driving around the state in his beat up green pickup truck. >> my name is scott brown. i'm running for the united states senate. this is my truck. i put a lot of miles on it during this campaign. >> i love this old truck. it's brought me closer to the p

the republican party is struggling with branding issues, an identity crisis and a dem dwrask shift going against the party platform. in the midst of all of this here comes another bush. >> i have a voice i want to share my beliefs about how the conservative movement and the republican party can regain its footing because we've lost our way. >> jeb bush declared his voice to be an important one in the future of the republican party. just when you washed away the taste of eight years under george w. bush the former governor from florida raised eyebrows when he had this exchange with matt lauer. >> you will not definitively rule out a run for president in the year 2016. >> i won't but i'm not going to declare today either matt. >> he is not ready to declare but jeb bush is definitely putting himself out there in the republican party. it is a smart move because jeb bush is the guy in the republican party who wants to have it both ways. he says his father and ronald reagan would be out of place in today's conservative republican party but then he shows up as one of the featured speakers at cp

the national republican committee today issued a scathing self critique of the republican party recents groups describe republicans as narrowminded, out of touch. $1.2 billion last year in the last presidential election alone and the future of the g.o.p. understanding you can't get it done just with money. as a result, the republican national committee has decided to pour resources into its ground game targeting youth and women and hispanics and other minorities while focusing on making the party's message more inclusive and open to different views. i don't know what they paid for the study, but that is kind of vague, don't you think? he had this to say to me last year. >> we can have all the voter contact in the world, but if it is not over a long period of time, it is not going to work so what we saw was mitt romney ran a pretty good six months operation, but six months operations don't work very well against for your operations. lou: nobody had ever been in that situation before running against an incumbent. i like the fact republican party is looking critically and being pretty tou

can the republican party do that and succeed? ke on these big fights to get to the soul of the party? >> yeah. fundamentally the only way jeb bush can succeed in this kind of milieu is that he doesn't disassociate himself with his brother, but fundamentally he is seen in the end as the only guy who can beat the democrats down the road. if a christie or others emerge as more likely or as likely to win, then you're exactly right, i agree with that. >> who would you like to have if you had to raise money somewhere in the united states? which republican would you like to have at your dinner podium? you start, peter. you want to raise $1 million one night. who's the best bet to bring in and get the people excited about that person being there that night? republican. >> the only person who's developed an independent brand in which democrats and independents, even some democrats look at him as separate from the republican party, is chris christie. because he's the guy who has the reputation as his own man. nobody else, yet. maybe interes

been the party of the ended slavery the republican party been the party of push through the thirteenth fourteenth fifteenth amendments the party of lincoln and cetera et cetera and so therefore after american should you know get in tight with the republican party or words to that effect and somehow he missed that thing where nixon did the whole so the strategy thing or ronald reagan's first speech after he was nominee to be president of states was done in philadelphia mississippi you know with three civil rights workers are murdered in and it was a speech exclusive pretty much exclusively dedicated to quote states' rights everybody and so you know what ronald reagan was talking about here's the real problem that i found with the c pac panel. mr. the prisoner was telling a roomful of interested persons i can't say what these people's racial attitudes were i'm not going to ascribe racism to an entire. faction of political philosophy but i will say this these people came for answers and this man was ill equipped being them to deal with any questions or any accusations that they may encoun

but the core principles of the republican party are free people and free markets. and anything that the republicans are out there advancing should fall into one of those two categories. >> margaret, do you side with gale on this? >> yeah, i actually think gale's right. of course, i was shaking my head when charles spoke as well. i adore charles, but charles is not sort of looking out, i think, for the best interests of the republican party. i don't think that's his job. that's not what he's paid to do. that's not what he likes to do. what charles i think doesn't get quite right is that there is really actually earth-shattering stuff from conservatives in here. charles, we never have seen before the republican party establishment call for comprehensive immigration reform. i mean, that is a very different -- >> what are you talking about? that's not true. that's not true. >> not in this republican party post-george w. bush. so what you've seen is you've seen a huge swing in the party. it's gone from tea party republicans, sort of an insular, more isolationist party, c

i went to a panel after that about next generation of the republican party and they talked about rando rubio, and talked about room in the party to disagree. if you poll people here, you are going to get an opinion different from maybe the actual republican national convention. this is the next generation. i want to add i don't think it is necessarily sad this is what it took portman to change his mind. i am a supporter of marriage equality, i'll take what i can get. glad he is on my side. >> a lot of people agree. quickly, ari, marco rubio may sacrifice basic civil rights, but at least he can quote jay z, does that make up for -- >> why are you asking me? >> trying to tee it up for you, brother. >> i think rubio tried hard to be cool and that's a problem because you never want to try too hard to be cool. >> don't i know about that. ana marie cox, ari melber, thanks. >>> after the 47% comments, scott prouty does his last interview. hear him discuss obama care, mitt romney, and what happens to people with pre-existing conditions. color, and design. showing up where we least expect it a

they are not the republican party, they are part of the republican party. >>chris: how do you respond? you may have energized the party but you narrowed it? >> if you look at cpac or the rockstars of the g.o.p., the next generation, the people that we are excited about, they are tea party freshmen, rand paul, ron johnson from a purple or blue state, pat toomey from pennsylvania, and of course marco rubio. we brought diversity and energy and ideas. we are color blind about this stuff. if you want to come to the senate or the congress and offer a plan to balance the budget, we will support you. put your ideas on the tail. that is what lacking in the debate. >> i have to say, sadly, what they have brought us is harry reid as the majority leader continuing in the senate. if you look at the nevada race, or you look at indiana and murdoch and the witch in delaware, i forget her name, we can have functional control of the united states senate today but for the litmus test that exists. >>chris: there were a lot of republican candidates, that were established that we

the republican party began in the years heading occupy the civil war as a merger. you had the wiig party. the abolitionists. ready to make practical political decisions like running popular generals to win presidencies. the abolitionists were the true bebelievers. in the 1860s they all got together behind abraham lincoln. the party is still split in two. they're willing to bend a little to get better. abolitionists on the right are forged together in principle. they don't want people to come into this country living here illegally. certainly not as full citizens. they'd just as soon they were headed back to the countries they came from. as for gay marriage they'd as soon there weren't gays, period. my bet is that the political marriage of these two groups, the karl rove crowd who love winning elections and the abolitionist wing who'd rathder fight thand switch are in for a prolonged separation. progressives, enjoy it while it lasts. 2014 will be tough but once these two gangs, the palin and rove crowds have to meet again in 2016 it's not going to be pretty. it sure

but that's why i am worried about the republican party not sort of getting right about what happened there. because it's possible we are going to have a republican president sometime soon again, and i want to know that the republican party has been through an acknowledgement about what went wrong there, and some sort of process to make sure it doesn't happen again. do you feel like there is at least honesty that it was a mistake, that there's some effort to make sure it doesn't happen again? >> i wish i could say yes. i wish i could answer in the affirmative. i will tell you that one of the basic reasons i cast a vote for president obama this time around, even though i'm a republican, a second time around, although i'd lost some faith in him because he didn't close guantanamo and other things i wish he'd done, the main reason is because i kept thinking that mitt romney would be another george bush, that despite the fact there's always an inconsistency, of late there's development a schism in the foreign policy and mitt romney would indeed lead us down the road to another catastrophic,

it's the republican party.eir own people. >> and to own it is to do something about it. in fact, if you look at what senator jeff sessions argued, victoria, that obama care is destroying our health care system and took issue with the notion that our health care system isn't the greatest in the world. take a listen to this. >> and for people to say our health care isn't the best in the word, why do people come here from all over the world? that is one of the most horrible things i've ever heard around here. so we've got people that die sooner than some other countries. well, we have a lot of things. we have obesity. we have more smoking. we have less people taking care of themselves sometimes. that doesn't mean our health care isn't good. >> 40 million people uninsured? you know, so what we die -- i mean, you can't obviously say with a straight face, so what we die earlier than some people. we have obesity. i mean, what is he talking about? anything rather than to give health care for everyone and to open it up

and now the republican party is basically on the losing side of that.not just how you talk, it's about the basic attitudes of the obama coalition. the attitudes about government, the social safety net are not in line with where the republican party is and the republican party is going to have to embrace some kind of vision that is in line with these voters but they risk alienating the base they have. >> that distinction between policy and politics, thinking they can change the policy, they can change the politics without the policies that underlie these realities, to me is demonstrated today by rand paul, the savvy new, very high profile republican senator who is obviously running for president and wants to capture the energy getting up there and saying totally untrue, to be sure -- on social issues. on marriage and on abortion, the two things he referenced without data. >> basically, the republican strategy when they talked about the vote in the past has been oh, well, they're naturally conservative. >> don't they go to church a lot? >> it's a cultural

i think one of the things the republican party has to figure out is not just their messenger, they arelook seriously at their overall party brand and i think that part of the process of these candidates coming along or potential candidates starting to come along is starting to reshape that brand which sorely needs. >> let me ask you about next generations because certainly hillary clinton could not be called part of the next generation. yet, she's the one everyone feels that the democratic race is pretty much frozen until she makes a decision, exception joe biden. want to show you a poll. and ask you something about it. this is quinnipiac, february to march 4th. in every case hillary clinton bests chris christie, the governor of new jersey, marco rubio, paul ryan, the former vice presidential candidate. what interests us is these clinton numbers. arguably hillary clinton is as popular a woman in the country as you can get when you ask how do you feel about her because she's been out of politics, secretary of state, and she can't break 50% in this poll, what does that tell you? >> i thi

that doesn't mean he or anybody else should be excluded from the republican party. o be is tolerant of each other. yeah, look, you know, i'm a big tent republican and i can tell you donald trump makes me take a deep breath and it tests my notion and my belief in a big tent republican party. but that's what being a big tent party is about. there's got to be room for people who are pro-traditional marriage and pro-gay marriage and room for people who are pro-immigration reform and not. there's got to be -- >> there's got to be zero tolerance -- >> there's got to be a zero tolerance for hatemongering and homophobia and that's the challenge for your party. you can't stop candidates from saying ugly, stupid things. what's intolerable is when you see congressional republican leadership tolerate it. look the other way when rush limbaugh engages in his behavior or try to excuse that kind of conduct. there has to be standards and that's critical to building the big tent picture you are talking about. >> i agree with you, robert. i think that when something stupid is said repu

you had to have money to be a delegate in the republican party. it doesn't bother democrats or democratic women. and also, when it comes to something like social media, the republicans that i saw, they are more influenced by the opinion of the men in the party. the word feminist is a no-no, but democrats don't have that kind of problem. if they're caught with a drink in their hand, they say, so? you show it, there is a lot more guts when it comes to taking a chance in the democratic party. i went to republican convention in fort worth, and they had votes on era and the equal rights amendment for young people. and abortion. they both failed. i thought, what am i doing here? i can see these vast differences. for years, republicans did not speak ill about other republicans. democrats don't have a problem with that either. out a republican primary, and i would say maybe republican women won't have this problem anymore. have things changed? >> i am doing a project the compares legislatures over 50 years, how changes have happened over time. one thing i

if you join the republican party since the last 50 years a lot of people who join the republican party didn't get rich and become republican, they were already evangelical, already culturally conservative. they went over and joined the republican party because the republican party is willing to say we'll bring religion -- organized prayer back to public school. we'll outlaw abortion. we won't go along with this new trend towards gay rights. we're with you in the church. how do you tell those people the reason you joined the republican party they don't want to push too hard anymore, in fact, they want to sort of closet it? >> you can't really tell them that so they are not exactly saying that. you've got a spectacle where reince priebus is saying, yes, we want gay people to vote for us but we won't change your policies. we won't give them equal rights. we've seen him backtrack now on gay marriage and, you know, we want african-americans to vote for us but we're going to suppress their votes in lots of states. so it's totally contradictory. they recognize they have a branding problem and

but the administration here has some strange bedfellows and it is in the republican party. bsolutely right that it makes no sense to be going after small knives. that's a waste time. it just gum up checkpoints. what the tsa should be doing is going after, at the same time burk really focusing on the explosive issue. so he is going on face, pistole on capitol hill will face some tough questioning with you he will get a few sympathetic voices. that graph that you saw there was an example of what would be allowed. again, the blade cannot be longer than 2.3 inches. would be allowed under this policy as well as some sports equipment like a hockey stick. >> any idea whether john pistole was anticipating this kind of blowback? were they expecting this kind of response? >> i can't speak for the tsa but i think they were not expecting this big of a response from all quarters, and you know, it reminds me of the response that they got the very negative reaction they got when they came out with the scanners that many people thought revealed too much. and they thought that they were gett

bottom line is to make sure we're able to cut two cents out of every dollar. >> let me ask you, republican party chairman is doing an autopsy about what happened. what went wrong in 2012. polling shows that basically the public mostly blames republicans for government failings. what does -- just talk about your side of congress. what do you think you all can do to change the image of the republican party? >> not just talk to the mind, but also talk to the heart. many times we spend so much time on policy. but we don't explain how the policy affects and makes the heart even grow bigger. i think that's a place that we have to look inside. that's a place we have to show that our policy affects all americans and it's not just about a republican party, it's about growing an american country that's stronger, putting us back to work, having a better education system. an america for all. >> you don't think it's policy. you think it's presentation. >> you can always -- the party is a big tent party. i mean, i look to an example, what rand paul did on the floor this week was fantastic. >> it got criticize