>>> hi, everybody, good morning. im thomas roberts. topping our agenda, the post post-shutdown gop civil war. wins cant seem to get on the same page after their shutdown shellacking. on capitol hill both the house and the senate are in recess today. behind the scenes republicans are triaging any political wounds and plotting the next step forward. here are the dates that matter for you. january the 15th, the day the current deal to fund the government expires and senate minority leader mitch mcconnell saying republicans will not go down the same shutdown road again. heres what he said in an interview. one of my favorite sayings is an old kentucky saying. theres no education in the second kick of a mule. the first kick of the mule was in 1995. the second one was the last 16 days. a government shutdown is off the table. were not going to do it. but texas senator ted cruz, who spearheaded the shutdown strategy is singing a completely different tune. >> i would do anything, and i will continue to do anything i can, to stop the train wreck that is obama care. and i think our focus should not be on d.c. politics, it should be on the people who are getting hurt. >> does somebody at some point tell him to stop? >> the other tea party members will go back and be told youre doing a great job. >> ted cruz is not about how to move the republican party down the field, ted cruz is doing a fabulous job of moving ted cruz down the field. >> so hes not alone. former senator jim demint, still a conservative powerhouse of his own penning this op-ed in the wall street journal entitled we wont back down. president obama who sent an appaology letter to federal employees today has his to do list. were talking about a budget deal, movement on the farm bill and finally that long promised immigration reform deal. >> passing a budget, immigration reform, farm bill. those are three specific things that would make a huge difference in our economy right now. >> all right. so there we have it. the agenda laid out. joining me now, democratic congresswoman, joe ezoe lofgren of california. senator ted cruz says he would not rule out the threat of shutting down the government once again in the future. do you think more moderate republican colleagues of yours in the house would ever let that happen again? >> well, i certainly hope not. the remaining moderates did not want this shutdown, but i didnt observe that they were able to stop it. so i really think its up to the republican leadership in the house not to go down such a reckless and disastrous course again. >> we heard the president there come out yesterday saying he wants congress to move on immigration reform and it looks like that really does rest on the house and youre on what used to be the house gang of eight to come up with a bill. three republicans have since dropped out so youre a group of five. where does the gang stand right now, especially with the president mentioning yesterday by name the bipartisan senate bill that exists. is the onus now on you? >> well, weve drafted a bill but as you know the republicans basically left the group for reasons that i understand, so i think heres where we are. im the senior democrat on the immigration subcommittee. we have a bill that we havent introduced, although we could find other republicans to do it. the senate bill has been introduced in the house and its really up to the republican leadership to decide how to move forward. they could take up the senate bill. wed be happy if they took up the bill we drafted. they could do something else. but they, as weve seen in this shutdown, it is the republicans in the house that control the agenda. were not able under the rules to put a bill on the floor for a vote, although if we did, it would pass and we would have immigration reform. >> congresswoman, many republicans say after whats happened with the shutdown theres really no way that they want to take up immigration. heres what republican raul labrador, formerly in your gang of eight, had to say about it. take a look. >> i think what he has done over the last two and a half weeks, hes trying to destroy the republican party. and i think that anything that we do right now with this president will be with that same goal in mind, which is to destroy the republican party and not to get good policy. >> okay. so the republican partys own implosion and the fact that there is a civil war that exists is the presidents fault in all of this? is this a deflection by republicans, trying to blame the president for the fact that he does want to move on immigration reform and its not some type of red herring that the president wants to see the republican party implode? he talked about it yesterday, the fact that washington is supposed to exist on disagreement, not on dysfunction. >> well, you know, the republicans held the economy hostage to get their way and lost. and i would hope that we wouldnt hold reform of the immigration system hostage because theyre mad that they lost. we can work together on this. i know that. there are a lot of bruised feelings on the republican side of the aisle. maybe they need this weekend to cool down. but i know that we can work together. i know that there are republicans that want to have reform. the president is showing leadership, the democrats are ready to work through the issues. some of them are difficult, but i know we can succeed if well just put our minds together and say we can do this. i can we can do this. >> cooler heads always prevail. zoe lofgren, thanks for your time. >> thank you. >>> immigration also the topic of todays big question. does immigration reform have any hope on the hill? weigh in on twitter and facebook. the conversation is always going there. i want to bring in karen finney, host of the msnbc show disrupt with karen finny. karen, good morning. >> good morning. >> we get the cook political report saying the shutdown and the debt crisis has made 14 house seats shift toward the democrats. do you think the democrats now have a viable shot at taking back the house over the shutdown? >> i do. >> we heard from the congresswoman there. they control the agenda. >> i do, but heres the thing, having -- thomas, as you know, i was at the dnc during the 05-06 cycle. the key is not just the level of dissatisfaction with republicans. thats important. but to get people to really make that change, youve got to make an argument about why what your vision is better than what theyre offering. so what i think the democrats have is a brilliant opportunity to say that theyre dysfunctional. that republicans cannot lead. they put ideology ahead of whats good for the country. i think if they combine this idea of, you know, a strong message as well as some of those numbers where things seem to be breaking in favor of democrats, even on some senate seats, then i think they have a real shot. >> lets look at this, though, because this got headlines. the headline of the houston chronicle pulling its endorsement of ted cruz. its thought that he and other tea partiers forced the shutdown partly because they were not in danger of losing their seats. so the houston chronicle takes back the endorsement. no take-backs, the damage is done on that one. but could this change? when we think about this and the timing. as you point out when wuyou were with the dnc, is there too much time between now and 2014 and the fact that were so short-sighted about things, that there are going to be bigger distractions and everybody will forget what we went through? >> when we talked about a culture of corruption, that messaging took six months. so even though, yes, on the one hand we have a long way to go, heaven knows like all kinds of things can happen, certainly, to get us on a different message and this could be a memory of the past. again, i think what the democrats have the opportunity to do, is to keep trying to push forward and keep using the opportunities. i think there will be plenty, given what weve been hearing from the republicans, to illustrate theyre putting ideology ahead of the country. if they hit that drum beat over and over and over again, thats part of how you build a message. you were just talking about immigration reform. theres data that suggests that thats actually a good thing for some of these republican house members. it would be good for their races. and yet theyre, as you showed, blaming the president? what? >> it seems a little odd, but, you know, perception trying to be reality in all of this, trying anyway. senator minority leader mitch mcconnell said another government shutdown is off the table. he criticized ted cruz saying it wasnt a smart play, it had no chance of success. do you think, though, that these two can play nice together in the months ahead, especially given the fact that, you know, senator ted cruz has raised his national profile? >> right. >> and in washington, d.c., people have to respect that he can create a ripple effect? >> i think it will be very hard to see those two men come together for a couple of reasons. not just because ted cruz has now kind of established himself with a sort of base within the party of the tea partiers both within some of the house numbers, but some of the sarah palin tea party caucus outside politics, but also remember hes very adept at raising money. i think his quarter results or hes raised over a million dollars. so hes able to raise money. hes got heritage clearly on his side. so he has money and hes got people behind him that i think is going to make him a force that he certainly can cause trouble going forward. >> karen finney. always great to have you on, thank you. you can watch karen finney every saturday and sunday, 4:00 p.m. eastern right here on msnbc. you like k. fin, dont you? >> from you, thomas, i love it. >> karen, i love you. >>> so a glitch here, a glitch there, a glitch everywhere. reports of more trouble with the health care exchange website. coming up ill speak to ezra klein who has called the rollout a disaster. >>> also ahead, a massive manhunt for two convicted killers who managed to walk right out of prison. how forged papers helped give them their freedom and slip justice. stick with
Posted on: Sat, 19 Oct 2013 02:19:05 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015