Why Massachusetts GOP can’t stop talking about the Romneys

>>> romney for president didn't work out so well. so how about romney for senate? no, not mitt romney , but his oldest son, tagg. scott brown 's decision not to run for the seat vacated by newly installed secretary of state john kerry has republicans in massachusetts in something of a quandary and with only a few months to decide on a suitable candidate. as for tagg, romney , you may remember his reaction to the president after the second debate.

>> jump out of your seat and you want to rush down the debate stage and take a swing at him and you know you can't do that because there's a lot of secret service between i and him and that's the nature of the process.

>> steve kornacki and professor bob shrum, a democrat ink strategist and a columnist for the daily beast . steve , on friday you wrote the republican panic stems from the fact they believed scott brown was their best hope. the boston herald reports tagg is considering a run, ann romney is a popular figure. has it really come down to this for the republicans in massachusetts ?

>> well, i mean, it really has. to put it in context, when scott brown won in the 2010 special election , previous to that for three of the four previous senate elections before 2010 , the republican party basically took off in massachusetts . that's how -- 13% of the electorate is republican in the state. they basically gave john kerry two free passes and ted kennedy is free pass, too. in 2010 scott brown came out of nowhere and wins the seat. you're looking ahead to the special election and you say you have something here that's rare in massachusetts , a republican with statewide name recognition with broad personal popularity. fe takes his name out of the mix, romney is a name in massachusetts but it's not a popular name personally or politically.

>> bob, given his father's exposure as a plutocratic venture capitalist who stashed millions of dollars overseas, can you really imagine a tagg romney who, by the way, runs the investment firm solomir capital, being exposed to a similar level of scrutiny?

>> i think he'd get a lot of scrutiny if he runs. the in accordannational review says he's thinking of it. i think in the end he will think better of it. he would be lucky to get his father's proverbial 47% of the vote. his father lost by 23 points to barack obama . lost by almost 20 points to ted kennedy , ended up being a very unpopular governor of the state and only got to be governor by going out and pretending to be the moderate that he was not. i don't think tagg romney could pull that off. he'd actually be better off moving to utah, waiting five years, and running for orrin hatch 's seat if he wants to be in the u.s. senate .

>> okay. former white house senior adviser david plouffe tweeted this about a possible tagg romney run for senate. quote, hidden genius behind romney campaign and wannabe pugilist looking at senate. obama voters for him? hard to see. that's true, but his father did win.

>> a different version of his father won. that was the story of the 2012 election, right? the mitt romney of 2002 and really the first i'd say year and a half of his governorship was a popular guy in massachusetts . he was engaged in the job. he was responsive to the concerns of sort of the general election audience in massachusetts . and he decided in 2004 when he threw a lot of money and personal time into an effort to really make inroads for the republican party in the state legislature , it backfired, he said the heck with it, i'm going national. his popularity in massachusetts tanked after that.

>> bob, if tagg romney does decide to run, he may face a primary chal lek from the vaunted fox news medical a team dr. keith ablow . here is a quick look at some of the great doctor's greatest hits. here they are.

>> i did not evaluate joe biden . you have to put dementia on the differential diagnosis. three people can love each other so polygamy has to be close behind. how can you have same-sex marriage and not believe that three people can fall in love? the president has hijacked those tragedies in order to advance his desire for gun control.

>> professor shrum, how would a senator keith ablow expedition bobby jindal 's campaign less stupid.

>> he's a total nonstarter in massachusetts . the fact of the mat ser the guy ought to be on the fox news medical "f" team and he ought to do to himself before he decides to run for the senate some of what he does to other people and that is examine his own head. the fact is there's -- steve is right about this. panic is exactly the right word. there's panic in massachusetts . what happened in 2010 in my view was a one off do to a rare set of circumstances. scott brown was actually smart not to get involved in this race and i don't think the republicans have anybody, including tagg romney or lord knows keith ablow to get elected.

>> what about the dark horse, the dressage horse owned by the romneys?

>> there's a state legislator who got his start in the romney administration named dan winslow . there's been a lot of speculation this would be the guy. i think the expectation going into a race for a guy like dan winslow would be not that he wins it, but this is an opportunity to get some name recognition and position himself for maybe 2014 when there's going to be a host of statewide offices on the ballot. republicans can win when it's not federal office in massachusetts , they can win those races sometimes in massachusetts . so a guy like winslow would see an opportunity to run for the senate, make a respectable showing, get a name and run for in 2014 .

>> i suspect you think that that seat is going to remain in democratic hands.

>> oh, i think now it's pretty clear the seat is going to remain in democratic hands. there's going to be a primary. i think steve lynch , who is a conservative pro-life congressman will lose the democratic primary decisively to ed markey . democrats are not going to be complacent about this. democrats assume martha coakley would win that seat. the 2010 was a lesson. i don't think the circumstances are the same but i'll tell what you comes out of it. you will have a democratic party very united, very concentrated, very intent on winning that seat, and i think they will.

>> professor bob shrum and steve