GOP declares war on Karl Rove

>>> feeling sorry for karl rove yet? he is having a lot of trouble getting republicans to listen to him these days. maybe he shouldn't have wasted 100 million of their dollars on the last election.

>> we

>> will the republican change the substance of their position?

>> we need to do better.

>> what's going on inside the republican party ?

>> they've gotten spanked a couple of times.

>> better conservative ial republican side , you have karl rove .

>> karl rove has a new super pac to get rid of candidate like steve king .

>> some people believe to get rid of todd akin .

>> the female body has ways to shut that down.

>> the republican party ought to split.

>> better conservative candidates and win.

>> but they are not walking the walk.

>> washington has to deal with its spending problem.

>> the looming budget war.

>> i've had enough of it. time to act.

>> we've seen the republicans playing game.

>> i love nancy pelosi .

>> playing games with the budget.

>> they recognize that the sequester is a bad idea.

>> i don't like the sequester.

>> something so terrible.

>> i am prepared to do a big deal .

>> you need to have a balanced approach.

>> that ends this governance by crisis.

>> to solve it, you need to have a balanced approach.

>> game of drones.

>> john brennan 's confirmation hearing.

>> whether he should be the next cia director .

>> he's determined, he's strong.

>> john brennan is going to face questions.

>> a lot of questions.

>> about the legal justification for using drone strikes.

>> drones set to take center stage .

>> to kill american citizens.

>> these targets are ethical and justified.

>> these are not the drones you're looking for.

>> republicans are at war with karl rove . bush's brain, as rove used to be known, when rove was thought to still have a brain, is on a mission to crush backcrap crazy republicans so the party will actually nominate more reasonable candidates who have a chance of winning general elections against democrats. today, a republican who writes big checks to karl rove told politico that the republican party , quote, has had too many candidates who are nut cases. i don't think anybody anywhere with any sense is going to want to elect a candidate who says if your daughter gets raped, it's god's will. give me a break, will you? the problem for karl rove is that he and his rich republican friends may be out numbered by crazy republicans . after rove announced his new super pac aimed at crushing republicans in favor of new republicans , the civil war has begun. the president of freedom works declared the empire is striking back. and long-time right-wing lunatic brett wrote, it's a fight between republicans who not only want to run as conservatives but govern as conservatives. rove's super pac 's spoke man jonathan ccollegio said this. bozell is a hater and he also, like, has a long sordid history. he has an ax to grind.

>> many came to mr. bozell defense saying, mr. bozell is what we call in our movement a legacy. he has devoted his life to the cause of american conservative as did his father, brent bozell , ii, for barry gold water . you may have heard from his other uncle jim buckly, a former u.s. senator or brent's mother, patricia buckley bozell of the both important writers in our conservative movement . let it start here. the president of rove's new super pac told "the new york times" this week that they are particularly concerned about the senate race in iowa because this guy might get the republican nomination.

>> if there is a sexual predator out there who has impregnated a young girl , that sexual predator could pick that girl up off the playground at the middle school and haul her across the state line and force her to get an abortion to er rad indicate evidence of the crime and drop her off at the swing set and that's not again the law in the united states of america.

>> that's the dangerously, of course, iowa conservative steve king . according to a new poll, steve king has a big lead for the republican nomination among republican primary voters who obviously have no problem with craze zeef but as -- and this is exactly what karl rove fears. that same steve king in that same poll is running 11 points behind the leading democratic candidate, bruce braley . steve king sent an e-mail to supporters today that thrilled democrats. nobody can bully me out of running for the u.s. senate , not even karl rove and his hefty war chest . joy reid, these guys are making it fun.

>> i know.

>> they are just make making it fun.

>> it's brilliant. there are always more sane people in the we call them the no nothings. they are encapsulated in the tea party and the only reason that karl rove was considered a genius, he managed to convince the crazy people in the conservative party that a methodist named george w. bush -- now, i grew up methodist. they are the most mild mannered christian. they just nod affirmatively, that he was an evangelical right wing thrower like they are. he put one over on them and now they've figured it out. they've had a tacht of power and they want to run things.

>> howard , what does the brent bozell side of the party think about actually winning elections? is that -- is that come into their calculations anywhere?

>> i think somehow they think history will bend in their direction, if they just sit or stand firmly enough. that's what they are. that's what they do. and they are relatively more numerous and powerful now in the republican party than they've been in some time because in other respects the republican party is at low ebb. as the party reseeds, ycedes, that's the problem that karl rove has. a generation ago what joy talked about, when he put the george bush ma machinery together in texas, karl was able to crush them in texas. it's a generation later now, these people have access to the internet and other avenues to get their voices out that they didn't have before, which is why i wrote in "the huffington post " that he's done. not that karl isn't going to keep raising money. but he can't be the architect when there's no building right now.

>> joy, these dynamics have existed in both parties but in the republican party it's can completely out of control. the democratic party has a left wing that is dissatisfied with many of the things that are acceptable in the side of center and main territory of the democratic party but the democratic party seems to hold itself together under these kinds of tensions, much better than the republicans do.

>> yeah, they do. and i think part of the reason is that the democratic left , you know, they sort of cut their teeth on anti-war activism. once the war subsided, the difference is between moderate democrats and liberal democrats are a lot more subtell. a lot of very wealthy democrats are socially liberal . in the republican party , there are serious differences between the money wing of the party , which karl rove represents, and the far right, but the money people have been content to use the far right and they really have put one over on them for a long time. they only want their energy at election time. they want nothing to do with having abortion banned and all these other things. they've just been using them and now the gig is up.

>> i think that's a fantastic is summary of it and karl rove is the embodiment of it to the grassroot tea party typeses. that's why i think he's done. he himself has become a symbol. he can't be the architect anymore. and they need a new leader. they need what ronald reagan did a generation ago and they don't have it right now. they don't have it right now.

>> i want to go back to the democrats on this because it seems to me that it could be, that because they have a wider range of interests and issues, environment, the drones question, guantanamo, banking reform, there are people who object to obama policy in every one of those categories but who completely agree with obama policy on abortion rights , on a very long list of other issues and it seems that they concentrate on what they agree on.

>> right.

>> when it comes time for election strategy.

>> and i think things that are fundamental to the ideology of the left, they are much more frightened of allowing the right to take over.

>> yeah.

>> and to undermine those core principles and on things like drones, they have fight a principle fight with obama but they won't blow up the party over it. they want power. they very much want to blow up the ideas of a sort of garden variety business republicans . they want to blow the whole thing up and remake the country in their image and because of 2010 they think they can and they don't want to let karl rove get in their way. they are not going to allow them to stop them.

>> even if they are sort of intrigued on the hill, because they are going to cave on these various budget things going on, i'm talking about the tea party types, they are going to take it out at the grassroots and take it out in the next election cycles if they can because they are stymied in the house. boehner and the others will crush them up there, i think. but there's always the rest of the country.

>> joy, there seems to be one state where karl rove doesn't have to crush a crazy republican seeking a senate nomination, that is massachusetts whereas predicted on this program scott brown is not running for senate and the problem is, they can't get any republican to run for senate. that's their problem in massachusetts .

>> exactly. why would you? the last sort of republican senator from massachusetts was mitt romney . it's an ill fit. that state is very, very blue. rove could not convince someone who is not only viable but fool the party the way, let's face it, scott brown fooled them that he was one of them. the independents in massachusetts who are the bulk are going to vote democrat.

>> he was governor.

>> governor. i'm sorry.

>> why not run for senate?

>> he tried that once, howard . he tried that once.

>> try it again.

>> it was not an easy fit. that's the problem in that state, howard , is that when the republican runs for senate, you get to attach mitch mcconnell to him and all. crazy republicans . when you run for governor in massachusetts , you don't have to worry about mitch mcconnell and alignment with those guys.

>> it's ironic because attaching mitch mcconnell which seems like an insin rather thing to do has the just the opposite. they are the ones who view mitch mcconnell as the establishment. which is pretty amazing.

>> howard , before we go, as our senior kentucky panelist --

>> thank you. i'll treasure that.

>> i said ashley judd is going to crush mitch mcconnell last night. all she has to do is announce. i want to call the race right now. i'm calling it for ashley judd .

>> i'm not going to -- as the senior kentucky analyst, i have to maintain an open mind here. and i find that when you make predictions, people assume that you want a specific result. you're predicting.

>> she's three points behind him in a poll. it's devastating.

>> it is amazing.

>> it is amazing. she's probably the first candidate or potential candidate who i've seen out of a washington party wearing a guard dean yeah in her ear and be within three points. mitch mcconnell has never been that popular in kentucky . in the state of kentucky , partly because he's from louisville, is not that popular.

>> joy reid and howard fineman , thank you both for joining me tonight.

>> thank you.

>>> coming up, paul krug man joins me he to talk about whatever he wants.

>>> and in the rewrite tonight, the england that oscar wild would not recognize. england has gone from throwing oscar wild in jail for a crime of homosexuality to this week's vote house of kmons overwhelmingly