Eric Cantor tries to revive the GOP

>>> good evening, americans , and welcome to "the ed show" from new york. eric cantor has a new tube of lipstick, but it's the same old pig. this is "the ed show." let's get to work.

>> our solutions will be based on the conservative principles of self-reliance, faith in the individual, trust in family, and accountability in government.

>> the new and improved republican party takes another crack at repackaging bad ideas for america . tonight, i'll take eric cantor 's speech apart, word by word.

>>> house republicans reveal their plan to reform immigration. it's not a path to citizenship. it's a path to permanent underclass.

>> mr. issa is recognized for five minutes.

>> i'll have all the latest on today's big hearing.

>>> plus, an explosive new document obtained by nbc news reveals the united states government 's justification for killing american citizens without due process. tonight, greenwald, lawrence korb , and joan walsh on the obama administration's constitutional drone crisis.

>>> and just when you thought republicans were done planning to steal elections, you will not believe the stunt they are about to pull in pennsylvania. good to have you with us tonight, folks. thanks for watching. another day, another relaunch of the republican party . but this time i think the republican house leaders showed exactly who the republicans really have are.

>> house majority leader eric cantor will be outlining a new agenda for his party , focusing on issues like education and health care and spend less time talking about the deficit.

>> really? oh, yes. eric cantor to the rescue. he is ready to save the republican image and put a stop to the electoral college losses, right? of course, this is not the first time eric cantor has tried to save the party . you see, it actually is the fourth attempt that he has had. in 2009 , cantor held a pizza party , remember that? with jeb bush and mitt romney by launching the national council for a new america that didn't work. a year later, cantor was back at it. he was one of the young guns ready to take the republican party by storm.

>> there is a better way, and a new team is ready to bring america back. eric cantor , kevin mccarthy , paul ryan joined by common-sense conservative candidates from across the country. together, they are ready to make history. together they are the young guns .

>> the good old days. in 2011 , cantor launched the you cut program. he wanted to get the public to vote on weekly cuts to federal government . another year, another failure. so today cantor launched the "making life work " campaign. he is trying desperately to avoid the republican brand.

>> the average american is not thinking about and trying to wonder about where the republican party is. they're thinking about how to make their life work , which is exactly what we're talking about here today.

>> so cantor offered americans a warmed over speech filled with a few policy ideas. well, the highlights cantor advocated were, let's see, mitt romney 's tax reform plan. mitt romney 's education reform plan, and unworkable cuts as usual to medicare and medicaid. not surprisingly, cantor was not willing to get specific about any legislation to make these ideas a reality.

>> we do intend to follow up with some policy proposals in legislation working with our committees to move forward on many, many of these issues.

>> it's always the follow-up, isn't it? but there was one thing cantor said today that really caught my attention. here it is.

>> our solutions will be based on the conservative principles of self-reliance, faith in the individual, trust in family, and accountability in government.

>> there is a lot there, isn't there? cantor sound like he is fresh off another frank luntz seminar. i couldn't believe my ears when i heard those word come out of cantor's mouth. so let me make sure i got this whole thing correct. "our solutions will be based on the conservative principles of self-reliance, faith in the individual, trust in the family, and accountability in government." hmm, i could diagram this on the big board . my mother was a high school english teacher . but let's break down this sentence piece by piece , okay? based on the conservative principles of self-reliance. well, eric cantor , he must be so self-reliant that he really doesn't need corporate donations to get re-elected. he will certainly line up to help overturn the citizens united . he must be so self reliant that he doesn't need to rely on unlimited dark money to his campaign. yes, the republican party doesn't need to rely on heavily gerrymandered districts to give them a stranglehold on congressional seats. the self-reliant republicans , they don't need to suppress democratic votes with last-minute changes to voting rules. nah. they don't need to target minority voters when they are trying to win elections. they can just win on these big ideas that cantor was talking about today. this is what eric cantor means when he says "self reliant." and then the next part of his quote really got me, " faith in the individual." i wonder what that means? i guess the republican party suddenly has faith in women that they're going to be able to make their own health care decisions. now they have faith in workers as well in the workplace to go ahead and organize to help raise the living standard of wage earners across the country. we certainly don't want the take away their voices in the workplace. in reality, republicans don't seem to have any faith in america . if they had faith in america , they wouldn't try to take way workers' rights or mandate women's health care measures. let's skip to the last part of cantor's quote, which is "accountability in government." this is the dandy. remember this, accountable party . just tried to strike down the guiding principle of one person, one vote. would an accountable party let the corporate tax rate plummet like this over decades while income inequality takes us right back to the vulture chart, which is at an all-time high, income inequality ? in fact, the only time the republican party has shown an interest in self-reliance and faith in the individual was basically last month when house republicans voted against a bill for relief money for the victims of hurricane sandy. the gop had faith in these individuals, you see, that they could just survive on their own. eric cantor is now launching a listening tour, how about that, to hear concerns of regular americans . this is a total farce. i would really like to see somebody stand up at one of these listening tour gigs and ask eric cantor why house republicans did not vote for disaster relief for the folks in the northeastern portion of the united states . the bottom line is this is just a clever way for eric cantor to package the lack of vision in the republican party . they can't rely on their principles. they have to rely on empty slogans and bogus speeches, and this is the fourth try. eric, maybe you can hit for the cycle . and i don't even like baseball. get your cell phones out. i want to know what you think. well, i do like baseball. what do republicans need to fix? text "a" for their policies. text b for their image. and we've got a new number to text, 67622. and you can always go to our blog at ed.msnbc.com. we'll bring you the results later on in the show. i'm joined tonight by eugene robinson , msnbc political analyst and associate editor and pulitzer prize winning columnist for the " washington post ," and bob shrum , professor of public policy at nyu and contributor to the daily beast . gentlemen, you're the two perfect guests for this subject. we've got to -- we don't have to unpack the republican party . we have to pack 'em into a box and see if they can sell this stuff again. eugene, is there any chance, or should i say is there really any change that there is going to be a change in substance of what the gop is trying to repackage to the american people ? it sounds like a lot of the same stuff.

>> well, ed, let me start by being as charitable as i can possibly be. the old proverb a journey of a thousand miles begins with one step. this is one very small step. it was a speech that had a lot of nice words. but you're absolutely right in that it said nothing about the policies that the republican party espouses and continues to espouse that are ejected by large majorities of the american people . you know, people get what the party stands for, and they don't like it. so it's a step, a little step, but it has to be followed up by the kind of action that i'm not sure eric cantor can bring about. i'm not sure the sort of establishment wing of the party has that sort of juice anymore.

>> he just didn't come across as a heavyweight today. and i don't know who that person is in the republican party . bob, how do you change a party ? who is responsible for that? how do you change it?

>> well, look, these folks made a deal with the devil , not just in 2010 in terms of exploiting the tea party , but in 2004 where they used abortion and marriage equality to turn out the religious right. now the tea party and the religious right are less and less powerful in america and more and more powerful in the republican party . you know, when i listen to cantor, i thought this guy must have majored in cosmetology while he was in college, because all he is offering right now is a cosmetic change in the republican party . you can't stop being the stupid party if you keep standing for dumb things. how does he explain the house of representatives which is blocking the violence against women act ? changing that wouldn't be just a baby step that would be a step that would tell us that maybe the republican party is beginning to get it.

>> well, he did appear to come out in support of the dream act today. here it is.

>> it is time to provide an opportunity for legal residents and citizenship for those who are brought to this country as children and who know no other home.

>> and of course, for the record, kantor has actually voted against the dream act when it came to the floor. eugene, is this just political pandering at its best?

>> well, it sounds like it. clearly there are people -- i wouldn't necessarily have counted eric cantor as one of them. but there are some prominent republicans who are arguing for some version of the dream act there is a faction that wants to move in that direction. you ask how do you change a party . remember, there was a time when the democratic party was seen as being out of the american mainstream, and a group of centrist and moderate democrats formed the dlc and in many ways did succeed in bringing the party back to more of where the american people were. and had tremendous success because of that. that sort of organizational systematic effort inside the republican party to move it away from the far, far right, i'm not going to believe that -- in this rhetoric.

>> i think they could work on their sincerity. and they could show up in prime time on msnbc on any of the shows and try to win over the folks that don't believe them. that would probably be a good start. one person who liked cantor's speech was karl rove . he promoted it on twitter as it was all unfolding. bob, is rove trying to become the architect of the party again? and of course he is going at it on the right wingers as well.

>> well, he doesn't have much choice, you know. he set up this new effort in american crossroads to try to influence gop primaries. and i'm not in the business of defending karl rove . but if i could take anson's book and say this is a kind of step that makes sense if you want to elect republicans . but the problem is with the dominance of the tea party types, the religious right, and a lot of these state, you're going to see more republican nominees who are going to lose winnable races. rove wants to change that, although he is the one who contributed to creating it at almost every level over a long period of years.

>> eugene robinson , bob shrum , great to have you on the program tonight. thank you so much for joining us.

>>> remember to answer tonight's question there at the bottom of the screen. share your thoughts on twitter at edshow and on facebook. we always want do know what you think, and appreciate that.

>>> massachusetts republicans , let me tell you, folks, they are so desperate to win john kerry 's senate seat, they might even give glenn beck 's tv psychiatrist a shot. that's next. stay