Palin, Rove expose ongoing GOP family feud

>>> they're the republicans liberals love to hate. sarah palin and karl rove mixed it up. rove returned fire after palin took shots at him and his group american cross roads which hope to weed out of the candidates in the 2016 primaries.

>> the last thing we need is washington, d.c. vegt our candidates. the architects can head on back to -- they can head on back to the great lone star state and put their name on some ballot.

>> well, first of all, i live in texas . i don't live in washington. and second of all, i'd say if i did run for office and win, i'd serve out my term. i wouldn't leave office in midterm.

>> ahh. the theater. let's bring in republican strategic rich galen, former director speaker for newt gingrich we also have former governor ed rendell . when sarah palin was making her remarks, apparently atlugd karl rove . do most americans agree with sarah palin that karl rove is part of the problem, not the solution.

>> that's the kind of snarky sarcasm that i think the country sees coming out of the republican party . it's not helpful. it's not forward-looking. there's no need for sarah palin to do that. she's a skill political person. she can make positive points instead of attacking karl rove . let me say this, on a bigger scale, the notion that somehow cpac is the republican of the republican party is just rough. it's just that they happen to have their convention here. they're easy to cover, so they get covered a lot. but cpac isn't the center of the republican party .

>> but, rich, you know, those who are watching, those who are persuadable might be watching cpac . and not be able to make the distinction you're just making when they put it all together and understand what the gop is.

>> well, i have a higher regard for your viewers apparently than you do. you know, we have become very sophisticated consumers of news in america. political news. especially in america. so i'm not so sure that that's correct.

>> okay. some of the smoke and fire issues there. governor, sarah palin delivered a bunch of zingers that was just one of them at cpac . here's another.

>> more background checks, it should have started with yours, mr. president. oh, bloomberg's not around, our big gulp is safe. we're cool. i can spot the liberal media folk here to write their annual conservatives in crisis story. mr. president, we admit it, you won. accept it. now, step away from the teleprompter and do your job.

>> a lot of cheers there. what is sarah palin 's cpac appeal here, governor, say about the struggle that the gop has to try to jell for 2014 and later 2016 ?

>> well, first of all, i think rich is right, cpac does not represent the republican party . i'm not even sure it represents the conservative wing of the republican party . if you look at who has won that straw poll for the last four or five years, none of them are serious candidates for the republican party . that's number one. but the real thing is, the independent voter , the democrat, conservative up for grabs, moderate republican , they look at that and they kay seau my party is whacked. my party is full of fruits and nuts. my party is full of people who can't focus on anything positive. who just have to be negative, tear down, battle, fight, never offer concrete proposals for getting the country back on track. and it means the brand. it's just like i think mitt romney was badly hurt by the primary fiasco where you had one bizarre candidate after another, taking the lead in republican favorability polls. i think it hurts the brand. it makes them look less serious. it makes them look less responsible and it makes them look a little whacked out.

>> yeah, rich, how does cpac help the republican party here in the end then, based on some of the opportunities that the governor is laying out?

>> well governor rendell is one of the poster children for what i think is right about politics. he was one of the best governors in american history . i think, another one was tom ridge . and the two things that they have in common is one, they were both governors of pennsylvania. and, two, they both had the fortitude to not feel that they needed to buy in to a central liturgy of either the democratic party or the republican party . they did what they thought was right for themselves, moreover, for the people of their state. they need people like governor rendell and ridge who have the guts to say, you know what, i don't care about what they say about me at cpac or morph on.org. this is the right thing to do.

>> go ahead.

>> interestingly, i agree. but seriously --

>> the implements, right?

>> yeah. seriously, i think that's a very good point. i think that's crucial for the republican party to understand. i think republicans had people like that. they were called dick luger and mike castle . and they had terrific people who didn't buy into a orthodoxy. the good thing about being a governor, rich mentioned tom ridge and myself. you really don't have the luxury of a strict orangthodoxy. there's no democratic way to have good roads. or good state police force. you're almost forced to break away from orthodoxy. but the people who do that are going to be the most successful. had mitt romney campaigned in the general election as the way he governed massachusetts i think he would have won the election. he just got too trapped into the orthodoxy. and that's the pitfall. are they going to be trapped into the cpac of the party, and if they do that, they're not going to win another election.

>> one of the things that people have to do, if you want to be the majority party , you have to understand that the edges will get further and further apart. but more than that, you have to also realize that you have to agree that you're not going to agree with everything that's at the other edge. but you're more likely to agree with that guy than someone whose on the edge of an opposite party. but you can't demand that people hold almost a religious view of what you think is right. and if you don't think 100% of that, then you are my enemy.

>> great discussion. thank you so much. i'm sorry i have to leave it there, guys. governor rendell , rich galen, thanks