Majority of Americans believe GOP has gone too far

>>> tonight's vote on the gop 's ridiculous plan b just goes to show how far they've fallen out of the mainstream and the american people know it. in 2010 , right before the midterm elections, 36% of americans said the republican party was too extreme. now, after two years of republican misrule in the house, 53% say the gop is too extreme. for the first time, a majority of americans say the republican party has gone too far to the right. well, the gop doesn't get it. they're learning all the wrong lessons from the election, starting with newt gingrich , who claims they lost just because mitt romney was a bad candidate. gingrich says quote i think either rick perry or i would have probably done better. my impression is that from the obama team standpoint, the two candidates they found the hardest to cope with we are perry and me. oh, yeah, newt. i'm sure the two of you had all the folks in the obama headquarters quaking in their boots. how in the world could they have handled you guys?

>> this is such a cool state. i mean, come on. live free or die ? and it's like live free or die , victor of death. bring it.

>> by the end of my second term, we will have the first permanent base on the moon and it will be american.

>> i mean, my luck. today has been awesome, girl.

>> i got bit by a penguin.

>> you went to a zoo?

>> i went to the st. louis zoo and i've been bit by a penguin.

>> i got bit by a penguin. truly words to send tremors of fear down the spine of every democrat in america. but the sad truth is it's politicians like that who says they're trying to lead the gop back to the mainstream but, instead, they're leading the party right off a cliff. joining me now is joe madison and democratic strategist margie o''mara. thank you both for joining me. joe , a majority of americans say the gop is too extreme. what will it take for republicans to change their ways?

>> no, it takes changing their leadership. you have the speaker of the house who will probably go down in history as the worst speaker of the house , i think, in modern political history . there's a situation here in terms of his title. but the tail is wagging the dog. you also have a party that doesn't have courage because grover norquest has them signed to a pledge, other than the constitution, that now he has thrown them under the bus. all of this time, do not raise taxes on anybody. and grover norquest just said okay, i'll take plan b as long as it screws poor people . here you have a president who is transformational. this is what we can say about president obama . you have a leader of the republican party , at least in the house, who, at best, is no more than transactional. and he's not good at that.

>> well, he's not even transacting well with the members of his own caucus. but let me go to you with this, margie . when you go to the right wing and the lessons they have seemed to have not learned from the election. george wilbur wrote a column. let me go there. we spent a lot of time talking about voter suppression on this show. he wrote in this column, a small voting requirement such as registration, acts to filter potential voters with the weakest motivations. he goes onto say as indifferent our reluctant voters are dragged to the polls, the caliber of the electorate must decline. we have this kind of view among those that are supposed to be the more enlightened conservatives.

>> it isn't just any one columnist or any one candidate or losing candidate. it's really the entire par i. it's not leadership. it's really troubling in the poll that even a fifth of republicans say that their own party has become too extreme. it's certainly not a plan you're seeing in plan b where they want to make cuts to food stamps and raise taxes on 25 million american families. we ha we're not saying we should be arming teachers. that's our solution. and so i don't really see a lot of evidence that republican leadership or republican rank of follow or figures are using this election as an opportunity to learn something about where they are or where voters are.

>> well, joe , in support of margie , which she doesn't see, let's look at a couple of highlights of what the gop has done since the election. they walked away from the fiscal cliff deal. they passed antiunion laws in michigan, proposed new schemes to rig electoral college , planned new anti-choice bills in states like michigan, arkansas and texas. i mean, it's almost like the election never happened. absolutely. it's like they almost forgot who won. look, this is one they had during the primary. one of the most tenacious, one of the most ridiculous -- you just played a lot of clips. you left out some of the really good ones. they had all of those debates. people got to see and decide, look, all of these guys are extreme. every last one of them. and then they claim oh, we didn't have the best kand dot, who, by the way, tried to go to the cent er and folks figured that ut. they underestimated the fact that, reverend sharpton, they're playing to a small minority. they keep playing to this loud, small minority where most of america has moved on, including their children. the younger generation. that's where they're failing.

>> well, marge, when you listen to joe say that, those statistics bear him out. appalled nbc wall street journal poll says the favorability among republicans now is 30%. that's a 10-year low. and while we'll dealing with critical issues, we're about to go over the fiscal cliff if we're not careful. we're on the verge of that anyway. fox news, they decide the war on christmas is the big story and interviews santa claus . watch this. san santa, i understand you don't like to say happy holidays .

>> i can't find any reference that santa has said anything other than merry christmas .

>> what do you make of the political correctness of our culture?

>> you have got the biggest belt buckle i've ever seen.

>> i'd like to say that the el vs got the idea from elvis.

>> so they're in denial. they're arguing about side issues. i mean, it is amazing.

>> yeah, look. ultimately, they want to see their elected officials in washington get to work and not really engage in the side shows. republicans are likely to pay a larger political price if we go over the fiscal cliff. poll after poll after poll shows a majority of americans were playing rather than the president. everyone the republicans would like to see the wealthy play a little bit more.

>> well, thanks for your time tonight.

>> happy christmas , holiday, holy day , whatever else. just live life. be happy we're alive and healthy. and god bless the folks.

>> when the gop can't find a scandal, that i'm drum one up. but why are they attacking hillary clinton ? is it really all about 2016 ?

>> plus, honoring a hero who rose above discrimination to make this world a better place .