Fineman: ‘McConnell always had a tough race’

winter snow warnings. you have your own slippery travel to deal with. crippling blizzard headed for new england. the time to be off the roads is pretty much from friday afternoon through probably until at least saturday afternoon so the clean up continues. new york city around six to eight inches after a rain friday. that snow will come in friday night. you are watching " morning joe " brewed by starbucks. that was a $10,000 online ad by karl roves from american cross roads . to protect mitch mcconnell 's seat, ashley judd hasn't made any decisions, but her publicists thanked them for the attention. the chief white house correspondent and daily director and here on set, editorial director media group , howard fineman .

>>> and former kentucky reporter.

>> then you would know. entitled karl rove is done. reads in part this. now comes the likes of senators such as ted cruz of texas and rand paul of ken tuck tow challenge him. smart, angry and aspect establishment conservatives who loathe the country club types and want to remake the parties in the isolationist in the antisocial welfare and anti-tax image, conservatives have the right to ask the roves of the world to ask what the gopers have done to limit the reach of government and enhance the libertarian view of the world. the answer to the rand pauls of the world is nothing.

>> that was a long paragraph.

>> and you take a guy like ted cruise, he went it a community college in texas or was it harvard? this rove ad suggests quite a few things. mitch mcconnell is concerned about ashley judd .

>> he is concerned in general. he is a power here in washington and who i covered back when he was county judge in louisville. he has never been wildly popular in the state. he always had a tough race even when he hasn't had significant opponents and he's on a fault line . kentucky is a red state in presidential elections, mitch is not that popular. what he is afraid of is not ashley judd , but a tea party -style attack along the lines of that.

>> he has reason to be concerned. obviously back in 2008 or 2010 , rand paul was running in the primaries and mcconnell and the entire kentucky establishment with rand aggressively -- rand paul 's machine beat him and wasn't even close.

>> it's a very complicated legacy. without mitch mcconnell there would be no thrivingly party in the state of kentucky . one thing he has done is be architect. that made 2010 the rejection of his guy so striking. mitch mcconnell 's fingerprints used to be on every race in the state beyond his own. he was always trying to orchestrate and build the party. she squeezed a little bit. not just worried about tea party , but also about not just ashley judd . in many ways this was about raising money and bringing attention. he was worried about this member of congress that held to the lexington congressional seat and ran statewide and failed in a bid for governor. he would be a centrist democrat and could be a real problem for mitch mcconnell . democrats overperform in mid-term years.

>> the first thing he did was to hire rand paul 's campaign manager.

>> if you can't beat em, join em.

>> he hired rand paul 's goy.

>> that's a good move.

>> smart move.

>> that's fascinating. whether we are talking about kentucky or whatever state, an issue is going to be gun control and immigration and a lot of these issues.

>> check out this poll that shows overwhelming support for universal background check when it comes to buying guns. 92% of people surveyed of in favor of screenings for all buyers. just 7% opposed. 56% was for an assault weapon bans. almost the same for high capacity magazines. 56% to 40%.

>> it changed with assault weapon bans and bans on high capacity magazines, but if you guys can put back up the first full universal background checks and i have to ask my republican brothers and sisters this morning, are you really going to be captive to the wayne la pierre survivalist wing of the nra and be in the 7% of extremists that are going to be against keeping guns out of the hands of felons? chuck todd , how does wayne la pierre convince republicans they should go over the cliff and be in the 7% instead of the 92%?

>> he had a hard time convincing himself since he was for this in 1999 . the idea of universal background checks and saying this legislation will work. it's a tough -- i don't know how he tried to make this argument. we don't know if it will really work. then you are saying it's not a big deal if it happens? his argument, he has to come up with a better argument if he is going to expect what you are asking. if some of these republican members are going to follow him over this. this is the only thing that has a chance of passing. you go to the other two numbers, that 52% and 40%. in a place like kentucky , it's over 50%. plenty of red state democrats that are not going to sign on.

>> he wants ben chandler to run and ask him what he's going to say.

>> i'm not recruiting anybody.

>> anyway, ben chandler is not going to get near him. to answer your question on universal background checks , i think the key word is universal . if you listen to the chatter among gun advocates, they are now referring to universal as a code word for making sure that your name has to go to registry if you sell your shotgun to your neighbor. he has all kinds of paranoid fears.

>> this is scary. why do people get driver's licenses, joe? i will be on i list.

>> those are the argue ams that wayne la pierre is going to make to scare people away from this. president obama is not going to mention either assault weapons ban or the other thing that has 50% approval in the state of the union address . he will retreat back to the universal background checks .

>> when you look at the numbers and brian, you listened to wayne la pierre 's argument, it seems to me he is blatantly pandering to the financial side of this.

>> you wonder about the demographics of the polling, but to your point, when you want to relaunch the republican party , isn't this one issue where you can get credibility to the middle ground if you went on board with this? you get enough support it seems that if you can't get this one right in the republican party , you will struggle with all the others.

>> that is with the political parties not being able to move quickly as they should. as they found out in immigration they lost the white house because they dragged their feet on immigration. they lost the white house and reelected barack obama . if mitt romney had the same percentage as george w. bush , he would be president right now. it took eight years to figure out. will it take them eight years to figure out that by being pro active and saying you know what we are going to do in the response, we republicans support the ending of gun trafficking. we support several background checks to keep dangerous weapons out of the hands and felons and keep dangerous web ones out of the hands of the mentally ill . the other stuff would follow.

>> you are right as a matter of politics. marco rubio will give a response to the state of the union . do you think he will say that? io. if chris christie runs for president? maybe. in iowa and new hampshire it might sell. that's what it's going to take to change things. a champion. you know how politics works. somebody willing to step out and do that. that's what ronald reagan to create the union you were part of. it needs sbhb guts.

>> that is willing to bend history, but that person is not out there. you want to know how sick the republican party is. i don't mean mentally sick, but as a governing force how unhealthy they are, they are being led around by the nose by wayne la pierre and the survivalist wing of the nra and they are embracing the 7% instead of the 92% of americans who believe after newtown that we should do everything we can do to keep guns out of the hands of convicted felons.

>> especially the washington republicans. the only hope they have will be the government. jindal, chris christie , guys like that.

>> chuck todd ?

>> how did miami do recruiting?

>> it wasn't bad. we cut the scholarships by five in anticipation of the ncaa nonsense that they can't get right. breaking laws to try to catch miami breaking laws. it wasn't a bad clash. we lost one recruiting war to some team in the state of alabama . i never heard of them. tuscaloosa or something like that. how about ole miss ? he pulled no punches, i think. a lost sec guys are chattering about ole miss .

>> where i went to law school , they beat florida.

>> there you go. they just moved to florida.

>> i'm joining a basketball school now.

>> good to know. thank you.

>> we will see you at the top of the hour on "the daily rundown," howard fineman , thank you as well.

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