Who’s leading the Republican Party?

>>> news right now. the senate majority leader harry reid has announced right now he will in fact bring a bill to the senate floor to reduce gun violence , and it will include background checks , also school safety and gun trafficking provisions. senator reid says he'll aallow votes on amendments including the ban and limits on high-capacity magazines, but he says any big his brings to the floor must include those background checks .

>>> now to the battle to 2016 already under way. on the republican side being fought between two relative newcomers. florida as marco rubio and kentucky's rand paul . "new york times" reported just today, for better or words they have come to represent this moment's forth in the republican road. mr. rubio, who decided the republican establishment in 2010 with his brash primary challenge to goismor charlie crist 's senate run looks like the establishment's man for now. mr. paul , as he try toss expand his appeal beyond the libertarian base of his father, ron paul , has become the face of radically smaller government. both rubio and paul came to washington with solid tea party credentials, but represent very different wings. one of them might just end up being the republican gnome sneak. chip saltzmann ran mike huckabee 's campaign, and willie brown , of course, the -- chip, you're the republican. i think it comes down to juice, that sense of life, of protoplasm, of excitement, of -- it has many different means, but charisma, excitement. do these two guys represent the exciting candidates in your party?

>> well, they do today. we always talk about does a candidate have the it factor. they certainly both have it right now. chris, as you well know, the path to the white house is long and widy. there's a lot of next presidents to the understand bodies on the road. it's a long time between now and then.

>> let's not be sheepish. do you sense right now they have the juice? ivities absolutely. they both have great national names, they have organizations. they're going different paths. senator rubio is more the establishment route, and senator paul seems to be like he's going to take the antiestablishment creds all the way to the bank and will double down any chance he gets.

>> youth, late 30s, early 40s, is that a big thing in the party. are you unlikely to bring in an older character? an incentive for you guys to go young perhaps against hillary clinton , joe biden , someone like that?

>> i think it certainly helps. we can learn from what beat us last time. barack obama was the youthful candidate four years ago. he rode that pretty well. you 2k3we9 a lot of excitement, more people involved, you grow that tent. i think senator rubo and rand paul both do that right now.

>> let me go do willingie brown in california. let me ask you about this, the prospects, what do you see? who would you least like to go up against if you were secretary clinton or joe biden ?

>> i think they would prefer not to have to face charlie crist or anybody like him? in this case obviously the governor of new jersey .

>> crist christie?

>> yeah, i like charlie crist better, because that was a better contrast, but chris christie is the one guy these two people would not like to face, simply because he can go into the democratic world and have some credibility as he's proven almost daily in new jersey.

>> can he keep up? i want to get back to the two younger guy that is seem hot. can a guy like christie keep up this attitude of it's none of your business, that sort of street talk that's made him popular? ed koch did it for like 12 years before he ran out of that steam. can you keep up that way in politics, to just by dismissive and mouthy? does it work?

>> i don't think he would want it to be described as dismissive, or out of sync. i think what he would like to be is a common fan, the football fan, the guy who yells at the referee. everybody identifies with that guy, or at least a majority of people do. that's what this guy has been doing. now, on the other hand, the two guys you were talking about at the outset and the two guys at the "new york times" talked about in my opinion, they do represent who the republican party really is. they also represent the republican party that i guarantee you both ms. clinton and mr. biden would like to see in 2016 , because for sure they can defeat that republican party .

>> okay. let me ask you that, chip, you're the insider republican. what would scare -- what would attract -- i see real attraction for they guise marco rubio has a style i like. the other guy is so far to the right, he brings back the goldwater urge, that we may not win, but we'll have a hell of a time.

>> we're going 20 go down fights as long as they believe it's right. they're two different types of people even though they started off from the same side. they fought and clawed every step of the way. that gives them a lot of street cred with grass-roots republicans everywhere. i think the one who keeps that fight alive, that doesn't go washington, so to speak, will have a chance.

>> can jeb run with the war in iraq so unpopular now? can he run with his brother still around? politically?

>> i think jeb bush has carved out his own segment, especially with education, but there's always the bush name. that's good and bad, but they've been a bush in the white house forever, there's a lot of people that don't remember a republican president bus george bush . thank you, chip. you can't bring your brother to the convention with you, you have problems. thank you, mr. mayor for coming on again.

>>> up next, the president is in the middle east . he seems to be winning over many skeptical israelis especially the young who are not skeptical. that could be good things for the president. this is big positive trip for him. this is "hardball," the pla is for politics. i'm the