angle, helped sharron angle to win the primary and defeated her. the race. he doesn't like campaigning. he has no taste for it. doesn't like being out on the stump, but puts very good people around him and then he can get back to what he loves to do, which is to make deals, which is to have a goal, legislatively, and get to it. let's not forget, he keeps talking about obama care and republicans criticize that. barack obama did not get obama care passed, harry reid did, by making the kind of deals he's famous for in washington, d.c. >> john, tom davis has a question for you. >> the fact that they're going after the republican lieutenant governor this time around, they can't beat sandoval, who would be a strong opponent to reid next time, tells you he's thinking two steps ahead, you think, to 2016? >> that's exactly what's going on. i don't think brian sandoval is committed to run for the u.s. senate, but he's a popular governor. he doesn't have much of a race next year. he's going to win. so he's actually handpicked a lieutenant governor's candidate

we have seen people like sharron angle and christine o'donnell and richard mourdock and todd akin and other complete and total crackpots who have gotten the republican nomination for the senate. you've got even lower, dumber people who are capable of winning the congressional -- the nomination for congress in any congressional district. but why are exmembers of congress, why are ex-administration officials, why are people who have no races to run for, why are they afraid? i don't know. i want to know. please, tell me. >> economist bruce part let's, former republican treasury official, thank you so much for your time tonight. really appreciate it. joining me now is political analyst michelle bernard from the bernard center for women policy and public policy, and james pethokoukis, with the american enterprise institute. and michelle, i'll begin with you. you've had a trajectory not unlike bruce bartlett's. you were a republican, you were in the conservative movement. you've migrated out of it. as someone watching what unfolded over the last couple of weeks, what conclusions do you draw

i mean kadima is not as strong as it was perceived to be when it-- without including sharron who was likud as likud could be i think the reason katima coulds ladding i'm so impressed by the fact that you know all the nitty-gritty of israeli inner politics. katima was never centrist party it was just a fraction of the likud. it was the same faces, similar faces, just was a new arrangement. musical arrangement, conducted by sharon who was the lover of classical music so it wasn't something new. i came into the arena with, we had 19 parliament members. all of them are new. all of them, all 19. we didn't have one -- >> new to politics. >> new to politics and government. we didn't have a single professional politician. we still don't have a single professional politic politics-- politician in our party because we felt if you want to talk new, make sure this is really new. so we had people with a lot of experience, educational, so on, so forth, mayors, people who did, you know, who put boots on the ground in several fields of expertise but no one was, you know, moving from another party or

that's why harry reid was there to fight ted cruz because sharron angle was such a lousy candidate. but i think blevin has some skill. >> we'll see. all right. >> he also has some money to put intiet race. he says he thinks it will take $4 million to $8 million in the primary. he won't say how much he will put in himself. but he has the money, he has the potential to partially sell funds if he would like to. john, thank you. >> you guys should stop talking because this is bad. >> but why would we need a spreadsheet? >> reports and crunching numbers and all that stuff? >> if i need help with that, i go to you or alex. >> okay. >>> coming up, what panera bread is telling us about the state of the american consumer. >>> plus, eli lilly posting results a couple minutes ago. earnings beat the street by 7 cents. rev 23450us were roughly in line. the drug giant cfo will join us first on cnbc at 7:00 eastern. mine was earned orbiting the moon in 1971. afghanistan in 2009. on the u.s.s. saratoga in 1982. [ male announcer ] once it's earned, usaa auto insurance is often handed down from gener

sharron angle in nevada and christine o'donnell and delaware , a woman who ran an ad that said i'm not witch. it's not formally the way you try to win a campaign. [laughter] desperate times lead to desperate possibilities. you could argue that the republicans would have a 50/50 split in the senate today were it not for some of the tea party candidates in 2010 and 2012 who they help support. the tea party has been a double-edged sword for the republican party. it obviously has come back in force in this government shutdown period and i don't think we know what the consequences of the impact of that are going to be. there's no question that the party has taken a huge hit as a result of the shutdown. the image of the republican party and a number of polls is that the lowest point it has ever been in the history of those polls. you have to say to yourself is the same moment in which the country turns away from the republicans or is there a way for republicans to refashion their image in the 2014 and 2016 campaigns to rise again or to rise further depending on your perspective. i don't thin