now, many have written about william f. buckley, jr., that a resistible man, but no one until david frisk has given us an in depth portrait of the other bill, william rusher, who among his other contributions played a pivotal role in the life of the national draft goldwater committee, and that was critical. because if there had been no draft goldwater committee, there would have been no presidential candidate barry goldwater in 1964. and if there had been no candidate goldwater in 1964, there would have been no president-elect ronald reagan in 1980. it was goldwater you see who approved reagan's famous television address which made reagan a political star overnight. and led to his running for governor of california and eventually president of these united states. david recounts how bill rusher shored up the goldwater committee when money ran short and spirits sagged. skillfully guided young americans for freedom in its early chaotic days and forced some order and discipline on the spare to ran "national review," expanded the conser

many have written about william f. buckley junior that irresistible renaissance man, but no one had told david frisk has given us an in-depth portrait of the other bill of williama rusher romanticized her contributions played a pivotal role in the lash of the national draft goldwater committee and that was critical because if there had been no goldwater, they would no presidential candidate barry goldwater in 1964 and a third had no candidate goldwater in 1964, there would have been no president elect ronald reagan in 1980. it is goldwater who approved reagan's famous time for choosing television address, which made reagan a political star overnight and led to his running for governor of california and eventually president of these united states. david recounts how bill dick short of the goldwater committee when money ran short conspiracists act. skillfully guided young americans for freedom in his early chaotic days and for some order and also plan on this dresser-rand national review, expanded the conservative movement throu

. >> if we win william f. buckley the viable candidate is who's the most conservative but has the best chance of also winning. that's essentially what rove is saying here. this in-fighting has gone on in the republican party for a really long time. they've done i forever. >> cenk: another thing interesting about our political landscape, about rove, in his article complaining why he's not conservative enough: >> cenk: hes wrong on all those counts because he was too liberal. when they were running the country, we were losing our minds on how radical they were. now the right wing considers them too soft, too liberal. >> that's what's amazing. that's what's happened since teddy roosevelt ran against president taft. there was another senator in that same race. they've been going at this since 1912. they see one side of the party as always being too liberal. that costs them stills and sometimes that's the secret. >> cenk: i often said ronald reagan couldn't win in this day and age. i don't believe he could win in a democra

we want to institute what william f. buckley calls his rule to elect the most conservative candidates in primaries capable of winning in generals. when it comes to supporting tea party candidates american crossroads and crossroads gps are bigger supporters than anyone. we spent $30 million helping conservative candidates like richard murdoch, todd akin before he said the crazy stuff in these things. this is not a war against the tea party. this is a matter of trying to get candidates who can speak on disciplined messages, raise money -- >> you didn't support them during the primary. you did not. jim demint did. >> we have not been involved in primaries until this point. >> keep it that way. that's my point. mike, i don't want karl rove, as much as i respect him, why should they be involved in primaries? why should they push the old establishment tired old republicans? i want new blood, new messages. i want more ted cruzs. they would never support ted. >> you're right. the problem is this is a discussion about whether a small gro

>> our goal is to basically trying to institutionalize the william f. buckleyen he said that the goal should be to try to nominate the most conservative candidate who can win, and that's going to be different in each individual state, but we saw looking back at this last cycle was some significant candidate quality problems. some of the mainstream candidates were like that. we had some really segment self-destructive candidates who ended up impacting ordinaries on the ballot too, like todd akin in missouri and richard murdock in indiana. our goal is to see if we can try to find those candidates who are going to be discipline and can raise the money and be competitive in a general election. >> is iowa one of your top priorities snou in. >> i think almost any race where we see an opportunity either to compete for an open seat or go after an incumbent in a red state, and there are a number of those this election cycle, we want to make sure we find the most effective and competitive conservative candidate we possibly can. >> is congressman king too controversial? i

william f. buckley versus rush limbaugh. in other words, the past versus the near past. does either side have the elixir? we will discuss just ahead. [ woman ] ring. ring. progresso. i just served my mother-in-law your chicken noodle soup but she loved it so much... i told her it was homemade. everyone tells a little white lie now and then. but now she wants my recipe [ clears his throat ] [ softly ] she's right behind me isn't she? [ male announcer ] progresso. you gotta taste this soup. ♪ they hatin' ♪ patrolling they tryin' to catch me ridin' dirty ♪ ♪ tryin' to catch me ridin' dirty ♪ ♪ tryin' to -- [ woman ] hi there. why do we always have to take your mom's car? [ male announcer ] the security of an iihs top safety pick, the 2013 volkswagen tiguan. that's the power of german engineering. right now lease a 2013 tiguan for $219 a month. ♪ big time taste should fit in a little time cup. new single serve cafe collections from maxwell house now available for use in the keurig k-cup brewer. always good to the last drop. >> he it on so for the then boem for -- >> many of

what we desperately need right now is, frankly, a ronald reagan or a barry goldwater, william f. buckleysomebody who will stand up to the irrational section of that party and say, look, i'm a big conservative, but we have got to be big kids. we have to operate in the real world. >> i think we need john wayne for this one. i'd say john wayne and the panama canal. i think you need somebody to say we got to get a lot bigger in our thinking. great having you on john nichols and michael scherer of time. >>> this party is not big enough for two of us. that's basically what cpac said. they said chris christie, the one republican who actually looked good last year who doesn't turn off voters in the rest of the country, as i have said before, keep it up guys you're doing a great job. >>> also tonight on "hardball," the pope and change. the catholic church needs to fix its problems. the sell brat priesthood, is it working? the role of women? are they really getting a big enough role? and the issue of birth control. and, of course, the priest sandals. as we've seen no one has a solution to the sequ

in the 1960s and the 1970s, william f. buckleyater and ronald reagan called out members of their own party when they went to fringe arguments and made claims that are not legitimate matt. the problem with ted cruz is not ted cruz. it is the leaders of the part mitch mcconnell and john boehner and others. >> do you think they'll do that? >> i can't see what they'll gain from it. you have seen a few attempts. mccain called him out. lindsey graham called him out. >> mitch mcconnell has his own problems to worry about without calling out ted cruz, wouldn't you think, michelle? >> but the problem is the leaders of the party, even very conservative leaders are so incredibly cowed by their base. for a long time you had a party that very adroitly whipped up the frustrations and paranoia and suspicions of their base. they're no longer controlling the base. the base controls them. and so there is not much leverage they have over it. >> they have just enough control to screw things up so legislatively nothing gets done. that's about where th

>> i think that when yo you-- william f. buckley the great conservative philosopher had the best advice for republicans here, he said i always support the most conservative candidate who is electable. and that was his rule of support. and the republicans have been nominating people who have been unelectable. i can think of five senate seats, dell aware, indiana, nevada, colorado and missouri, where they nominated condition datas who are unhe electable and democrats who are really difficult races either to be elected or re-elected, one in all cases and democrats retain control of the senate. 26% of the electorate is asian, hispanic or african-american. republicans won 13% of that con sfit-- constituency in 2012. they have lost the voters between the age of 18 and 30 by 22 pest on the average in the last three elections. they don't have a constituency. they've got to figure out how to get elected, how to nominate people who are going to win. they're to the going to nominate people in new england to win in alabama. >> that is why it do

you're using the word conservative a libertarian or a virtually interchangeable fashion almost william f. buckley famously said that a conservative is a man who stands with astride the arc of history with the sea and i'll show you stop. burke talked about how the essence of conservatism and that word was used back then george washington call himself a liberal edmund burke called himself a conservative but the essence of conservatism was slow incremental change over time generational change whereas the essence of liberalism was the willingness to embrace new ideas novel things in a way that you may not know the consequences right and it sounds to me like what you're describing libertarians want to do is a radical departure from the historic way that the united states has been run is at least economically right and therefore it's really liberal that conservative well libertarianism by technical definition would be classical liberalism people who consider themselves conservatives today really believe in a liberal economic philosophy what you call a liberal today is more wait what did you would be a

. >> how would you like to go on a cruise -- >> with william f. buckley? a, surely you would celebrate the all you can eat buffet. >> there's no joe scarborough cruise? >> there will not be. >> we could do a new kind of cruise where people actually exercise. okay. it's president's day, obviously. you can see we're stretching. really, really stretching here. joining us onset, co-anchor of cnbc's "squawk box," andrew ross sorkin. how are you? >> i missed you guys. usually i have to watch you from a monitor on the side because we're on at the same time. now they're running infomercials. >> you get president's day off? >> the markets are closed. >> do you get arbor day off? i want this schedule. we love having you here. >> the normal people are home today. >> even the mark people are home today, which are not normal people. >> nothing normal about them. also, let's go to washington. we have bob woodward. the author of the book "the price of politics." i was fascinated by your discussion yesterday. we're talking about sequester. it's going to happen most likely.

it's very tempting to read this in a william f. buckley fake british accent. i'll try not to. "reading books chronically understimulates the senses. unlike the long standing tradition of game playing which engages the child in a vivid three dimensional world filled with moving images and musical sound scapes navigated and controlled with complex muscular movements, books are simply a baron string of words on the page. only a small portion of the brain devoted to processing written language is activated during reading while games engage the full range of the sensory and motors ". i like reading this aloud in a bookstore. people who don't get the context will be hearing this, they should get another author. books are also tragically isolating. games have for many years engage the young and complex social relationships for their peers build and exploring worlds together. books force the child to sequester him or herself in a quiet space, shut off from interaction with other children. these new lie blares -- libraries that have arisen to facilitate reading activities are a frighte

the only way to force it into retreat is not going to be sufficient anymore to do is william f. buckley said and stand of the rails of history shouting stocks, those real the history there's a train on them and the train is coming and it is going to hit us. the only way to fight that train is to have a train moving precisely the same speed or faster in the opposite direction. will there be a crash? sure battista will derail them. that is the whole point. thanks so much. [applause] >> i will try not to flash my pearly whites. we will be glad to take questions. wafer andrew at the microphone. will be important for the recording of the event here. first question. just a moment. >> that was a great talk. one of my pet peeves regarding this whole topic of bullying and how you say the left -- the morning joke on msn b.c. where we have a conservative supposedly who is undermining everything, making it sound like we are morally deficient people and and what the make of that. get >> do this for a honestly. [talking over each other] >> we should be calling him out on that. if you wants to start a

martha: that is what is known as the william f. buckleyt for the conservative who has the best chance of winning and who is the most conservative. where do you think this goes from here, tucker, this conversation? does it get republicans to a better place where they do win more electio elections? because that's clearly what they want. >> there is still a lot to shake out here. no one says it out loud or rarely. an awful lot of conservatives, the republican primary election threat believes they were sold down the river, not in all ways, they are upset about the prescription drug benefit, the lack of fiscal restraint, there is this battle going on mostly behind the scenes between the people basically in charge of the partly and the people who are actually coming out to vote. and i think this will not be settled until there is a broad consensus among republicans on what they stand for. what does it mean to be a republican? what do you believe when you're a republican? martha: it seems like that message, we heard it from tkpo*fz bon mcdonald,

william f. buckleyi'd rather be governed by the first 2,000 names in the boston phone book than the harvard faculty. it's not necessarily an endorsement of geraldo but non-politician -- >> you still have to be somebody who knows something about the law and somebody who -- >> he's a smart guy. that's not his problem. >> what? >> what are you saying about geraldo. >> this is not a guy who has been in politics. this is somebody who wants the fame and attention and the adoration to come to him. >> he wrote a book called "exposing myself" a lot of which has to do with all the women he's been with. >> that's the jump on the gun, get it out of the way before you get into politics. >> no one can bring it up when do you the debate. >> preemptive strike. >> i don't know. i don't know. i have to say, terrifyingly i kind of agree with will on this. i don't know this is just a ploy. i disagree with the harvard elites part. i think you're totally wrong on that. >> you want to be governed by eli elites. >> i'm thinkin

william f. buckley went on the front page of "national review" and called out the burkiers.not writing that about reagan in 1994 -- >> when reagan was there. >> no, but -- >> you know what's amazing, we're already doing this about george w. bush. >> i know. >> well, george w. bush was -- >> but do we not accept then, that is the generation of the republican party which we should be concerned about? >> yes. but i also think it's important to not fall into the temptation of then kind of putting reagan on a pedestal. >> so, i'm a little devil's advocate here. talk about me and my evolution, such as it was. it was more -- >> you're the founder of the cranky party. >> society evolved around me. which is when george w. bush came in and i wrote a book, i had many wonderful people telling me i was really a republican who didn't want to admit it. i would openly admit for a year and a half, i considered it. i tried to to be open minded in everything. it made sense to the gestures towards conservatism. frankly, i think welfare reform was a wonderful thing. however, what's happening ove

william f. buckley jr. in 1970 said let's have preferential hiring.conservative movement, the neoconservatives who objected to affirmative action, called it affirmative discrimination. but the author of that argument, nathan glazer, then recanted. why did he recant? because just as you say, businesses were willing to do it. this is not about business. this is about as howard dean said the hard-core ideology of a conservative movement which continues to drive that party. >> okay, sam, we're going to leave it there. thank you for heating up the set here. >> any time. >> we appreciate it. >> joe, appreciate it. >> thanks. >> we've got some msnbc's viewers. maybe just a couple of them. i don't know. maybe not. maybe zero. >> i want to shower after that. >> he's right. he's right. >> the difference is i think -- >> i feel like i've been called a racist. >> howard dean says he's right. all right. >> coming up, republicans and democrats in congress are still far apart in negotiations to avoid the automatic spending cuts set to kick in at the end of the month

we have -- i mean, it is -- you know, william f. buckley believed that it was all about ideas. and that speech last night told me nothing. that i have not heard 1,000 times since 1994. >> well, joe, i'll bring it even further up to date. if you take out the immigration part of the speech, it was basically the romney platform from 2012. and this kind of cuts to a pretty core issue for republicans. is it just that they have to change their image and branding and their messaging, or do they have to change their positions on a bunch of substance issues? i think it's not so much that the speech was written by committee. it's that marco rubio was talking to two different audiences. he's trying both to talk to the country and speak to that broader coalition that republicans need to tap into. but he's also giving a speech for insiders here. he's trying to convey to the republican gang of 500 or whatever that he's the guy for 2016. and if you're trying to talk to the conservatives who are going to select the republican nominee next time and also simultaneously talk to the broader part o