republicans lose every election. nixon's version of it was, do we plus, you know -- if we're really conservatives in a berkian tradition who don't want one party replacing the other through, and bringing about radical change, their institutions, lived for a long time, maybe you live with them a while longer. you reform them, but don't suddenly steer the car from one side of the road to the opposite side without creating something of a mess, and ripon picked up on that and tried to outline there might about third way in terms of domestic policy and at any number of proposals, inevitably that fourth element becomes very pragmatic and very involved, and you get people like president reagan saying, let's stop painting in pastels and start painting in bold, clear colors. and people like shaftly saying, a choice is n, not an echo. it was hard and remain as stumbling block for moderates to get excited about sort of pragmatic centrist positions. that's a quick outline of some of the things. >> great. steve, so i'm going to a

especially on the republican side a independent that leans republican are more likely to vote republican. >> labeled in a more conservative position. >> just because you're independent doesn't mean your moderate in the middle and there's a slice often percent. people argue about the number of who might be perfectly persuadeable and don't lean one way or the other. >> moderator is why are more people wanting to say what's a private matter. what party affiliation you are you can look it up and seemsej needs to write an update of why americans hate politics i think a lot of them do. people that have political opinions that are strongly politicized say why would i want to be affiliated both or either party. that's something that has i think lots of consequences. i'll stop there. >> on that optimistle note we'll end and thank our panels. [applause] tomorrow on washington your. radio talk show host armstrong williams discusses themes and issues of the 2012 campaigns. georgetown's university on education in the workforce looked for current job market for college graduates and conservative activ

folks, that's a republican telling republicans to reframe gay rights. to make equality under the law sound like a conservative principle, which it is. he may be one of the first to do it, but he won't be the last. but jane lynch, you ask, where is the job opportunity in all of this? after all, we republicans are all about jobs, jobs, jobs. well, here it is. someone is going to have to teach republicans to talk about gay rights, without seeming like they've caved to the democrats. some strategists are going to have to make it their specialty to teach republicans how do be pro gay while still sounding angry. that's a very tall order, but the good news is, you can charge more money. republicans are trying to figure out how to lose gracefully. the best new thing in the world today. >> jane lynch, you're the best new thing in the world today. >> oh, thank you so much. when you said, folks, do you do that. >> you do, i was mocking you. >> yeah, i felt it in a very painful way. thank you for doing the best new thing in the world. >> thanks for having me. >> it

if you're a republican at this point, 90% or 95% you vote for republican candidate. so there is much less mixing and matching that we see among the electorate and that has encouraged a think the widening of the gap between the two parties and particularly within congress, the wings being more dominant in the middle. >> so i'm going to follow up then open up to the rest of the panel. we have a recent book, all of us on the panel know tom mann with the title worst anything, but the headline of the book has been guessers polarization in both parties, but really it's much more significant in the republican party and the problem is that the republican party. do you agree with that? determinist asymmetric polarization. as one party more polarized are much more homogenous or d.c. more for balance between the two quick >> at this point the republican party is more confrontational, more resistant to anything the president has tried to do. now you could make an argument the that same thing happened the night teen 93 when president clinton was the lack good and instead of doing

that made they had to pair a democrat and republican. we got an appeals court judge through without even a filibuster, more than the 60 votes required. and we're seeing some agreement on things like fda bill to expedite drug approval. here and there you find something. it's a delicate place, the senate. you're trying to find a way in which the two parties can work together now with an underlying strategy by mitch mcconnell to, as he said, not have our fingerprints on anything significant because then president obama might get credit for it. but also where you've got a lot of other members who want to solve problems. they have veered off very dangerously in the bad territory with the filibuster. it may be the next time the house is going to be a bigger problem, the senate may provide a few glimmers of hope. >> washington, d.c. on the democrats' line. john. >> caller: hi, how are you doing today? i want to start off by saying i make about $30,000 a year. and i really don't have any problem paying more in taxes, but i do want to say that th

but this is who the republican party, this is what the republican party has evolved to. they don't have the character to stand up and speak the truth to the american people. and they complain about bipartisanship not being there? get the facts straight. this president is an american citizen, this president loves this country. and there is one party in this country that won't stand up and admit that. how sad is that? how could anybody vote for these people? get your cell phones out. i want to know what you think. tonight's question, will republican leadership ever condemn birther talk in this party? text "a" for yes, text "b" for no to 622639. you can always go our blog at ed.msnbc.com and leave a message there and i'll bring you the results later on in the show. joined tonight on this program by keith ellison of minnesota, co-chair of the congressional progressive caucus. congressman, good to have you with us. you know -- >> always a pleasure, ed. >> you bet. you know, it's pretty frequent, in fact, it's almost weekly that some jughead of the republican party comes out a

of republican. that was as close as he was willing to say a more moderate conservative as opposed to a hard-core conservative. as we know, in the latter stages of the bush presidency, a lot of the base rebelled against what he was doing and the spending he was undertaking. there was a revolt under way already within the republican base which was accelerated with the election of barack obama. it has created this gulf. one other point and then i will stop. this is not unrelated to the general homogenization of both parties. we think of moderate republicans and conservative democrats in an era when the parties were blended. you had some of the shambles. we do not have that anymore in part because voters have sorted themselves out. if you're a republican, you vote for a republican candidate. there is much less mixing in axing among the electorate. that has encouraged the widening between the parties, particularly within congress, the wings are more dominant than the metal. >> i open it up to the rest of

because of 9/11, that was a pro republican midterm. but the control, give republicans a few extra seats in the house made it easier for bush to govern

will women republicans in the house be able to recruit women voters to the republican party in november? >> not one house republican woman has signed on to a pending, modest equal pay bill. so much for republicans getting out -- >> i think it will help that women republicans come out and speak on have of what the party believes in given the false war on image that is now in the narrative for republicans. but the economic message needs to be consistent that's what will bring women to the republican side. >> it can certainly try to do this, right? but i think it's an uphill battle and they have their comrades in arms, the republican males in the house to blame for that. >> it's 'bow time that we have a committee put together to be voice for so many american women out there that want smaller government. i think it will be beneficial. >> they make playing in the media that they're putting out that they're no different from the men. my first question is, why bother having a women's caucus, why not have a gender neutral caucus. >> when i hear senator barbara boxer for former speaker nancy pel

breaking this week there's paul ryan insisting his budget is not austerity there's donald trump begging republicans to bring up reverend wright and now dick cheney is hosting fundraisers for mitt romney so to break down all of these stories it's time for the monday politics panel joining me tonight are nicole williams democratic strategist invent all in a line of with the daily caller thank you both for coming right let's get started so we just saw wave elections in europe and people voters just showed enormous disgust for austerity which i think is prompting republicans who are pushing their own austerity in the united states through this kind of political jujitsu as we saw all with paul ryan here's what he said on meet the press yesterday. the whole premise of our budget is to preempt austerity by getting our borrowing under control having tax reform for economic growth and preventing medicare and medicaid from going bankrupt that austerity the president his budget the fact the senate hasn't done a budget in three years put us on a path for european like austerity that's what we're trying to prev

republicans said no to all of it. the gop is protecting .2% of the american people at the expense of the rest of the country of what the president was talking about today. republicans have also attacked the very people who need the economic security. president obama reminded the union crowd today about the attack on the middle class. >> if you ask them what's their big economic plan in addition to tax cuts for rich folks, it's dismantling your unions. after all you've done to build and protect the middle class. they make the argument you're responsible for the problems. >> the republican strategy has been economic obstruction and middle class destruction. president obama is right to call them out on it. i find it interesting he goes to the union and speaks like this in such a frank manner because there's a lot of union people who just don't vote democrat. in fact, there's a pretty healthy percentage of them. all this talk about how the unions are in the back pockets of the democrats, if they vote their own economic in

republican politics. do you see the republican side dividing on this at all or continue these strides? >> i think the american public is going to speak. i don't care if it's at the courthouse to the white house level. i think the american public shares the values of freedom and privacy. and i think they've seen the assault on women this past year and they have said, enough. that voice is going to be heard at the ballot box, i think, in november. whether it's the importance of having a pro-choice president in barack obama. whether it's the importance of having leaders in the house in the senate that have stopped some of this insanity that came out of the house or whether it's having a governor like we do in montana who vetoed this. absolutely obnoxious legislation. that's the importance of connecting the personal to the political that we have to vote our values. i have great faith in this next generation of millennials that they will connect the personal to the political. >> nancy keenan, president of pro-

after public pressure from president obama, mitt romney, the republican candidate and the republicans in the house of representatives changed their mind. they dropped their previous position. they said they would agree to act to keep student loan rates where they are. as of today, apparently the deal is off. they filibustered the deal to keep student loan rates from going up. if this does not get fixed, everybody's student loans across the country will double their interest rate this summer. you can thank massachusetts senator scott brown for that. a vulnerable incumbent like scott brown sided with the republican filibuster on this issue. just incredible. also, incredible, the long awaited endorsement of mitt romney for president by the last contender left standing. rick santorum's endorsement was sent out last night in the middle of the night in an e maim. no press conference. no announcement. as endorsements go, this was a full octave below low key. it's like the lowest note. it was almost imperceptible to the human ear. >>> also, mitt romney caused a national case of whiplash on th

the republican vase over. nothing is happening here in congress in congress so they do not want to give mitt romney any running room to redefine himself and make a move to the center after he porfrayed himself as severely conservative during the campaign so the president wants this to be about a choice between him and mitt romney, and not about him and the economy, and right now, i think the republicans are playing into his strategy. alive and you know, i would add nothing ever happens here in washington. i don't think there's anything-- >> a few things happened last year. >> schieffer: michael gerson, where do you think this race is right now? you worked for george bush. what do you think mitt romney's biggest problem is going to be? >> well, i think mitt romney is going to try every single day to focus on the last three years of stewardship of the u.s. economy and it's going to be hard because the president has a bully pulpit. he has some advantages. in the polling people actually trust romney more on the ma

larger republican. is probably well reflected by the policies and presidencies of eisenhower nixon you know before nixon went crazy. the republican of my dad my dad was eisenhower republican and war and was very active in the party and in fact i went door to door for barry goldwater nine hundred sixty four i was thirteen years whole three years later i was getting arrested these lansing. you know anti-war riots but. that party you know a. famous letter dwight eisenhower's famous letter is brother edgar nine hundred fifty four you know there's the small number of oil millionaires who think that they can do away with social security and labor protections their numbers mall and they're stupid you know that party is it seems gone. have you have richard lugar in indiana he's going to get wiped out this that but that party one of the things that i say i see with great voting is that you know that party is there is just the leadership of the party has become much more radical than the rank and file and they ar

a republican. and furthermore, boehner is well aware that currently knows the freshman that are than anybody else. mccarthy recruited a lot of these freshman. has used his office as the unofficial slop house for the -- the newcomers to hang out in. speaker boehner takes the temperature of mccarthy frequently. >> little rock, arkansas on online. caller: good morning. i would like to add another aspect to this conversation. the aspect of grover norquist. also, eric cantor, newt gingrich, -- [inaudible question] to me, what it looks like, speaker boehner -- it looks like they are a bunch of angry white people. they have everything locked up. this was from day one. [inaudible question] they have done nothing for the american people the block, obstruct, and grover norquist -- [inaudible] >> robert draper? >> for one thing, you are alluding to the meetings that i write in the prologue of the book that took place on the night of barack obama's inauguration. it was a meeting of about 50 or so white males,

after public pressure from president obama, mitt romney, the republican candidate and the republicans in the house of representatives changed their mind. they dropped their previous position. they said they would agree to act to keep student loan rates where they are. as of today, apparently the deal is off. they filibustered the deal to keep student loan rates from going up. if this does not get fixed, everybody's student loans across the country will double their interest rate this summer. you can thank massachusetts senator scott brown for that. a vulnerable incumbent like scott brown sided with the republican filibuster on this issue. just incredible. also, incredible, the long awaited endorsement of mitt romney for president by the last te contender left standing. rick santorum's endorsement was sent out last night in the middle of the night in an e maim. no press conference. no announcement. as endorsements go, this was a full octave below low key. it's like the lowest note. it was almost imperceptible to the human ear. >>> also, mitt romney caused a national case of whiplash on

republican caucus. they have announced the formation of something called a womens policy committee. that's a committee for women in congress that are interested in policies that affect womens issues. do not be fooled. of course it's not that. it's a committee for house of representatives who are female and who are republican. house republicans have also shown a light on the fact that of their 242 house republican members only two dozen of them are women. just as republicans seem bewildered that putting sarah palin on the ticket in 2008 did not help them do better with women voters, they still seem baffled by the fact that their problem with women voters isn't necessarily a image problem. it's not about whether they look female enough. it's a policy problem. they may have unveiled something called a women's policy committee but it has nothing to do with policy. they are keeping the same policy. they are keeping the policies that earn the war on women title. they just want to show you some of them are fem

the republicans did this to john kerry in 2004. they tried to take his greatest biographical asset away from him, having volunteered for combat in vietnam. having been wounded in vietnam. having been awarded medals for valor, medals for his heroism in combat. they lied about him and some people, we don't know how many, but some people believed the lies about john kerry. and the morning after the 2004 election, when the final, very narrow margin of victory was calculated in the state of ohio, john kerry had to concede that presidential election and in effect concede to a lie. joel aarons is a former campaign operative. he and his anti-obama video have been praised by karl rove on twitter. we know what the republicans have learned about swiftboating. you can get away with a lie to some of the people, some of the time, and that just might be enough people to win you a presidential election, if they live in ohio. and now, the swiftboating of barack obama has begun and we're about to discover what the democrats have learn since john ker

along republican party? interest rates on student loans are set to double this summer unless congress takes action. republicans were set to let that happen last month, to let student loan rates double. after public pressure from president obama, mitt romney, the republican candidate and the republicans in the house of representatives changed their mind. they dropped their previous position. they said they would agree to act to keep student loan rates where they are. as of today, apparently the deal is off. they filibustered the deal to keep student loan rates from going up. if this does not get fixed, everybody's student loans across the country will double their interest rate this summer. you can thank massachusetts senator scott brown for that. a vulnerable incumbent like scott brown sided with the republican filibuster on this issue. just incredible. also, incredible, the long awaited endorsement of mitt romney for president by the last contender left standing. rick santorum's endorsement was sent out las

the republican party thinks this make republicans look good and president obama look bad. watch. >> senator obama. >> i think it's an enormous problem. >> what will you do to cut it or stop spending or to raise revenues? >> i think it's an enormous problem. this has been the most fiscally irresponsible administration in my memory. we have gone from trillion dollar surpluses to trillion dollar deficits. not all of those costs are not the fault of administration. 9/11 occurred and the decline in the economy. what is also true is it was aided and abetted by a set of fiscal policies that i think were on the wrong course. we can take a look at example of yesterday's vote. >> that's where it cuts off. that's where this republican video ends. there's nothing else happens. surely we do live in two political different universes if that's a republican attack ad. barack obama saying that george w. bush left large deficits and had bad fiscal policies. right and your point is? this is a republican attack ad. do republicans think that didn't happen or they like that george bush did thos

your views of main street republicans. >> i'm a proud moderate republican, but moderate is considered a dirty word. they treat me like i'm a freak, and i'm a mutant from the original design. i'm not an extreme conservative, especially with my support for gay marriage. there isn't a lot of room for moderate republicans. my father is a famous senator, and i'm blessed to have the ability to talk about more moderate issues. if you're a moderate, you're at remember. >> you support gay marriage, you're pro-life, but because on a couple things you have a different view, you're considered a freak by them? >> i work for this network for a reason. i'm treated by a lot of people, if you're not an extreme right-wing conservative in today's republican party you're given no respect. >> maria teresa, how do you respond when you hear that? it's almost like you're dealing with people that are as intolerant of fellow republicans that disagree with them, as they may be of you and i in another party. >> right, i think what megan is describing is what the republican party fears. they will cannibalize thei

a 27% hispanic support for republican party is going to make sure that the republicans lose the election. >> romney says self-deportation is a good way to solve immigration. he's speaking with a conservative hispanic business group tomorrow and the group once slammed right wing extremists on immigration, so how does he navigate through that crowd? >> romney's got to be very, very careful. he caused himself a world of hurt with the hispanic community when he tacked as far to the right as he did in iowa to try to out flank rick perry. in the process of destroying rick perry in iowa, rick perry brought to iowa his rather more broad minded view being from texas. that dug a big hole for mitt romney that he's tried to get out of and he's got a lot of work to do. it can't just be marco rubio doing it. it can't be reciting the history of george w. bush and the republican party in texas. it's got to be mitt romney. this is one he's going to have to sell by himself. you can't do it with surrogates. he's shown the inability to do that kind of thing with any group. >> he sure has. great to have with

that was the republican solution. find a republican now in the senate who will even vote for disclosure. they have abdicated their moral responsibility. >> i like to disclosure, i think it ought to be out there. but look what obama has done by listing the donors to the romney campaign and how these people have been a cell that an attack on the website. to is away to do -- a way do intimidation, and that is why i'm skeptical about disclosure. >> mitt romney is always going to be seen as a person of wealth and privilege. he is going to have to figure out a way to get a connection to the average person. for barack obama, he has got to be able to show people that he has the backbone of steel and plan that is going to work for america. in >> april, peter hart asked voters which candidate they found most easygoing and likable and cared most about average people and was most consistent and honest and straightforward. anybody want to guess who came out on easygoing and likable? >> barack obama? >> ask us a hard one. >> cares

republican caucus. they have announced the formation of something called a womens policy committee. that's a committee for women in congress that are interested in policies that affect women's issues. do not be fooled. of course it's not that. it's a committee for house of representatives who are female and who are republican. house republicans have also shown a light on the fact that of their 242 house republican members only two dozen of them are women. just as republicans seem bewildered that putting sarah palin on the ticket in 2008 did not help them do better with women voters, they still seem baffled by the fact that their problem with women voters isn't necessarily a image problem. it's not about whether they look female enough. it's a policy problem. they may have unveiled something called a women's policy committee but it has nothing to do with policy. they are keeping the same policy. they are keeping the policies that earn the war on women title. they just want to show you some of them are fe

bush/baker republican party. i served in the first administration, i was dan quayle's chief of staff, and argued with president bush he shouldn't be as tough. end of the day bush did the right thing in the gulf which helped israel. wasn't for the purpose of israel. the first gulf war, helped rise yal's security a lot. some people were opposed to that war and they weren't republicans. i would argue objectively having bush in the white house was actually a better thing than having michael dukakis s in the white house. and nixon didn't get a lot of jewish votes. an awful lot of jews were happy that nixon was president and not mcgovern. the current republican party to barney's distress is not the bush/baker, moderate, republican party, and close to oil interests. the current republican party is pro israel party. barney's problem with it is too pro israel. they don't give the benefit of the doubt. they don't complain when they build an apartment building in north jerusalem that it is a cross the green line that exists

it's today's republican party. the american family association has 2 million members and are on 200 radio stations. this is what party is. >> it's become that. >> let me go back to ron on this, you're thinking about this, growing up in a republican family, one thing i liked about your family, although their conservative, your parents didn't have any problem with gay people. this whole thing has gotten to be changing into a witch hunt. >> right, and this isn't entirely new. since the civil rights era, the republican party has been a haven for biggots. not saying all republicans are, but it exploited their fear and anger. it would be communist, african-americans, mexicans, and women, people who stand up. there's always a "they" that will undo family values and drag down the america of their dreams. the most reliable are gay people. gay people will always and are still to this day, people who under certain circumstances can be demonized and they are demonized on the right. >> allen west has not gotten the message yet.

so well and the republicans are saying they want to got the food stamp program what would republicans do about the child i think today when you when you look at this you got to look at how countries are measuring their poverty rates there was a there was a great study in two thousand and five that looked at what sort of amenities and appliances that under our poverty rate level what sort of amenities that people have ninety nine percent of households under poverty have refrigerator ninety eight percent had had stove sixty seven percent had cellphones as back in two thousand and five ten so i think children in the united states last year who were who went to bed hungry now but we don't know but we don't know that you are saying that where poverty levels we don't know exactly what's happening colo podiums up here a t. the federal government actually issues these numbers but and by the way this was the u.n. they were kick comparing apples to apples they were using the same criteria for every country. again i mean we look at this we look at this program yes what are republicans going to d