Rove’s ‘stupid’ GOP problem

>>> karl rove has decided that the time has come to cull the party of those candidates who brought only shame and embarrassment upon the republican brand.

>> our object is to avoid having stupid candidates who can't win general elections , who are undisciplined, can't raise money , aren't putting together the support necessary to win a general election campaign. the more we examine the quality of these candidates from top to bottom, the more likely we end up with fewer christine o'donnells and more rand pauls.

>> that was mr. rove yesterday. but less than three years ago, mr. rove was actually singing the praises of that self-same candidate as she tried to assure voters that she was not a witch.

>> i endorsed her the other night. i said i'm for the republican in each and every case. i mean, i was one of the first to do it. look, i'm also helping her.

>> confused? so are we. joining us now is congressman john yarmuth , a democrat from kentucky .

>> hello, martin.

>> just so i have this right, karl rove , who raised $300 million of other people's money only to see the majority of his candidates go down to defeat was for the fridge party candidates before he was against them. is that right?

>> that's what it sounds like. i'm thrilled what he's doing here in kentucky . of course, his group has already run ads being critical of ashley judd 's possible candidacy against mitch mcconnell , and here is karl rove basically criticizing the tea party or essentially slamming the tea party while mitch mcconnell is doing everything he can to cozy up to the tea party . i think republicans around kentucky will be very confused.

>> just to be broadening this out slightly, how does mr. rove suddenly pivot from resentment politics that he's been selling to white voters for the last 30 years, they're coming to get your jobs to come and get our jobs. how does he pull that one off?

>> yn if he can pull it off, but it's pretty obvious why. he's looking at the people who are paying the bills and the ones who are putting up the money don't want to pay to run campaigns for extreme radical fringe candidates. so he's going where the money is, which is, i guess, probably predictable.

>> i guess it is. in a "new york times" profile last week, it was suggested republicans would be thrilled to run against ashley judd , an actress, who is described by her own grandmother as a hollywood liberal. mr. rove's super pac as you have just mentioned have released a ad attacking her. let's have a listen.

>> her own grandmother says she's a hollywood liberal, but isn't that what we need? ashley judd , an obama following radical hollywood liberal who is right at home here in tennessee. i mean kentucky .

>> mr. yarmuth, does that not indicate mr. mcconnell is perhaps a little bit worried about this young woman ?

>> oh, i think mitch mcconnell is totally freaked out about an ashley judd candidacy. the one thing that he has been able to do over the years is spend lots of money demonizing his opponents and having a huge financial advantage. he won't have as big a financial advantage, but the real difference is ashley judd will be on television virtually every day for the length of the campaign if she runs. mitch mcconnell won't be and people will see and hear from the real ashley judd and then they won't have to worry about relying on the information in mitch mcconnell and karl rove 's paid ads. reality trumps political advertising all the time and ashley judd is a terrific candidate. i was with her with a group of people. she is a total natural in terms of retail politics. he endears herself to virtually everyone she meets.

>> do you --

>> she's going to be a formidable person.

>> do you respect her commitment to service in this way, her political antenna.

>> absolutely. ashley has been an activist over the years. she has a public policy masters from harvard. this has been most of her life over the last ten years anyway is working on public policy issues. human trafficking is another area she's been very, very active in. she is passionate about the issues. she's very knowledgeable about the issues, and the people who have been around kentucky know that she would representative for this commonwealth.

>> congressman john yarmuth from kentucky supporting ashley judd . sir, thank you so much.

>> thanks, martin.