Republicans not taking bi-partisan hint

>> people, the red cross and first responders. i'd also like to give a thank you to my lovely wife who has put up with her husband who has smelledfleece for the last three weeks. i'm going to die in this fleece.

>> it is a good fleece.

>> stop saying things i've already said.

>> governor chris christie and his famous fleece on "saturday night live" and it's true, the governor has been fighting for weeks to bring back new jersey, back from hurricane sandy that devastated a huge part of the state and the voters are noticing christie's favorability rating is now at 67%. up 15 points since the storm. you don't see that much in american politics . in a state dominated by democrats, a state the president won by 17 points. the message is clear, voters want action, not blind partisanship. here's what they are saying. do your job, find common ground, do it together. you would think other republicans would be getting the hint. but there's the problem. take a look at the republican so-called leaders who is in charge? who is in charge here? not marco rubio , not the rejected vp candidate paul ryan . bobby jindal is making noise lately but it's not hitch. mitch mcconnell is not it. his speaker john boehner is certainly not this charge. that leads to chris christie and rush limbaugh . the take charge governor who's getting from democrats versus the hard right radio show talk show host . how does this gop movie end? joining me now is melina, contributor to "the grio" and margie omaro. the gop has a real rush problem. how do you see this ending?

>> i don't mow. in 2009 james carville did a poll and found that rush limbaugh -- many people find that rush limbaugh is the leader of the republican party and that has not changed over the course of four years. rush doesn't need to run for any office. he's beholden to no one except for advertisers and viewers. so republican officials need to stand up to limbaugh first before they can really go out and get more votes in the broader sector of the electorate.

>> but margie , is it risky for a republican to stand up to limbaugh when he's popular in the vote unless the chris stooer example of standing up on the president and doing his job becomes a new model for our republicans to say, you know, maybe this is not as risky as i thought?

>> i don't think it's risky. you're trying to reach more voters. you have to love the voter in order to be able to talk to the voter and if you are, as an elected official, beholden to rush limbaugh , who really puts -- pitting one group of voters against another, that's his m.o. and when he's talking about chris christie , we're talking about banishing people in the party for simply the optics of being bipartisan on an issue that could not be more bipartisan or nonpartisan. if the republican party wants to banish people for seeming too bipartisan in emergencies, that's really not a good way to attract more people across party lines which is what you need to win elections.

>> now, zelina, eric at media matters says the gop doesn't have a mitt romney problem, it has a conservative media problem. the split over romney's gift remark highlights the larger divide within the conservative movement between two distinct camps, activists and politicians who want to get republicans elected versus right-wing media players who want to grow their audience.

>> right. voters are one thing but your audience is an entirely different thing. it's conservatives watching fox news and listening to rush limbaugh and conservative radio and the bottom line is, the gifts comment, i don't even like to think of it as gifts. i like to think of it as rights. voters went to the polls and voted so that they could have their rights, health care , affordable reproductive health care, my right to choose, things of that nature. so it's important that to note that conservative media is pushing the line about gifts and that's why mitt romney echoed that because it's an echo chamber but voters went to the polls and exercised their right to vote in order to protect fundamental constitutional rights guaranteed to them.

>> isn't it true, marge, that everyone votes on their interests and there is really cold language there calling it gifts like giveaways, like handouts? those are not gifts. that is why you vote in any democratic process . you vote for the people that you feel stand for what you believe and stand for the interests that you want to see served whether you personally need them or not.

>> right. it certainly -- one person's gift is another person's policies. one person's gift is somebody who actually cares about me as opposed to saying i don't care about them and and who people will actually fight for them and supports them and likes them and when you have this really divisive language, when you have this prioritizing bipartisanship, hyperpartisanship and bickering and fighting and nastiness and negativity, voters really reject it and that's why congress have record low approval and why barack obama got re-elected and that's why you're seeing all of this in fighting in the republican party . chris christie is actually seeing a lot of the benefits in the polls for his behavior in the last few weeks before the election. they really favored his handling of the hurricane crisis.

>> and it's not even based on what you get personally. i don't live in new jersey but i respect what chris christie did. i'm not a woman but i was outraged on the war of women and it's not a interest but if you saw how the republican pundits went after christy, let me show you some of it.

>> we cannot be coward by them. when they say things that are insensitive, we need to go after them and say this is not right. we need real leadership within the party to say, you are alienating voters that we want to attract. knock it off.

>> we've got to get kind of a party view of america that is not rush limbaugh 's dream journal .

>> should not be defined around who agrees with whatever outrageousness comes out of the mouths of the talk radio show hosts.

>> the conservatives have been lied to by the conservative entir takenment.

>> that's actually the tape that i was going to next of some of the moderates going after rush limbaugh and i mean saying that they were fleeced, some of the pundits are beginning to take on limbaugh but none of the gchlop leadership.

>> when they have to run in a primary, they are going to need rush limbaugh and other media conservatives and they need to get their audience. if they have a problem because they have to cater to that extreme element in order to oh get the nomination for whatever office they are running for.

>> zelin aa and margie , thank you. have a great thanksgiving.

>> thank you.

>>> the secret to term success. how president obama can turn his political victory in a historic legacy. and a very happy thanksgiving surprise for the end of the show . you'll definitely want to see this one. stay with us. lets