steve mcmahon's a democratic strategist and wayne slater is senior writer at the dallas morning news and coauthor of the book about karl rove, "bush's brain." karl rove reportedly said this about hillary clinton's health scare, "30 days in the hospital and when she reappears, she's wearing glasses that are only for people who have traumatic brain injury? we need to know what's up with that." well, rove tried to clarify those comments yesterday on fox. let's watch him in action. >> i didn't say she had brain damage. she had a serious health episode. we don't know what the doctor said about, you know, what does she have to be concerned about. we don't know -- she's hidden a lot. >> she's hidden a lot of this. today bill clinton was asked about rove's attack. here's how the former president responded. >> first of all, i got to give him credit, you know, that embodies that old saying that consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds. first he said she faked her concussion, and now they say she's auditioning for a part on "the walking dead." she works out every week. she is strong. she's

>>> wayne slater, senior political writers from texas.rty on the rise in texas and texas republicans seemingly steering further and further right actually, do you think the latino vote can help democrats win in november? >> well, absolutely it can help. for the reasons you just set out. i mean the democrats are hoping that dan patrick, the challenger of the incumbent, the establishment republican wins, he likely will win today, be the nominee. he becomes a fat target for democrats who are able to say, listen to the tone. exactly what you just showed. where the nominee of the republican party, if dan patrick is the nominee, is talking about immigrants as invaders, that this is an invasion. so it is likely to help. but don't make any mistake, nobody should mistake the size of this mountain. it is a big one. no republican has been elected to any state -- no democrat has been elected to any statewide office since 1994. so it is a big, big hill to climb. >> one of the most interesting potential outcomes is could this be a split ticket? that's

joining me now are david brock, founder of media matter, and wayne slater, senior political writer for the dallas morning news. he also is the author of three books on karl rove president "bush's brain" "rove exposed" and "the architect." thank you both for being here. >> thank you. >> great to be with you. >> what is karl rove really doing here? >> well, first of all, this is textbook karl rove in that these kind of sleazy personal attacks, he goes back to smearing ann richards to suggesting john mccain was mentally unstable, outing valerie plame's status as a cia agent. this was a premeditated effort on rove's part to put a target on hillary's back in the prelude to these benghazi show trials that are about to happen. i think that was part of it. and i think he was trying to goad the press into this old republican playbook of trying to goad the press into making a legitimate issue out of a nonissue, really. and so i think he's made a big mistake, though. it's completely backfired and i think that going forward, people who are asking gratuitous questions about what is a nonissue are g

joining me, wayne slater, senior political writer at the dallas morning news and robert costa of "theashington post." thank you both. this guy's politics, you look at guns on campuses, absolute banning of abortion rights across the board in every case, incest, rape, whatever, getting elected senators, it is done by southern conservative legislatures, they can control those spots. what can you make of this guy becoming a senator down there? wayne? >> absolutely, ted cruz is a senator, believes some of those things. what we have here is a tea party success for two reasons in texas. this is a conservative state, it was a conservative state when lyndon johnson and john connelly were important in texas. we had two parties, conservative democratic party and more liberal democratic party. more importantly in texas, guys like this lieutenant governor candidate who is likely to win today and others up and down the ballot who represent, have the support of tea party, reflect an attitude by republican voters in a runoff who aren't worried about losing in the fall. texas is not indiana, it is not

wayne slater and zachary roth, msnbc.com reporter and someone who just returned from the lone star stateall of this. wayne, there's no place the bush name looms larger than texas where you are. how much do people down there want him to run? >> they want him to run. the republicans absolutely want him to run. the bush name is very popular in this state although george w. bush has taken his lumps from tea party types and there are many tea party conservative types in texas. bush is a family, much beloved and people would like to see him run. the idea of an dynasty doesn't bother many republicans, especially the business minded folks who see the far right of the party dividing, splintering between rick perry and ted cruz and rand paul and everybody else. so lots of interest in jeb bush. >> zach, on a more national level, what do you think makes him more appealing than chris christie? >> i think it's the fact they think he's the guy who can get elected. these guys, that's their m.o., they want the republican most likely to defeat hillary or whoever the nominee is. before they thought it was