The realities of bipartisanship in 2013

>>> ask this question, this is a complaint you hear across political spectrum against the president on a given issue. something they will say in congress p the president left this to nancy pelosi to do the recovery act the president didn't lead on x, y, z. sometimes it is accurate but sometime as tactical choice quite wise given what the political science literature says about the president polarizing himself into and it the poll we showed on immigration. shouldn't he stay away from this and let them work the deal out in the senate if he wants this passed?

>> there are two tracks. congress has to be working on this which they are. senate is working on their primary work, congress is working on the different pieces of legislation that they would like to see. the president has to be at -- a part of this. i was telling you, president bush was a huge part of it trying to make this pass and it still didn't pass. president obama --

>> you had the president, at that time bush, trying to convince his party --

>> his own party.

>> to enroll this thing. i don't think the president, current president, needs to do a lot of convincing of most democrats.

>> he has to work in a bipartisan way. senator rubio hasn't been invited to the white house yet to talk about immigration reform is a problem. he needs to start working -- he needs to start doing it now. also --

>> isn't bipartisanship a dream of the 'minutes at this point? we have not seen very much of that in this congress at all. no matter what the president says, they are going to oppose him.

>> you have a senate right now who bipartisan framework, it is -- already out there. if the president could start getting behind it and actually start doing internal things. we had weekly meet wings coalition groups, bipartisanship, to bring people together. that's not happening now.

>> did you keep saying this is the thing we did the last time we had a colossal failure in trying to get the bill passed. why should that persuade me that's the thing to do again?

>> he has to at least do that if we are going to get to the other side. he has to be part of that.

>> i mean, i think it is false to -- act like immigration reform hinges on -- it is really congress and senate and really the republican party . i mean --

>> republican house we should be clear here. biggest obstacle immigration reform has is the republican house. and there's no more -- figure more toxic to the republican house caucus than president obama . right? i mean, that's not -- they don't want -- do they want to be in a primary with an ad of then shaking hands with president obama ? so-and-so signed on to president obama 's immigration reform plan. that's absolutely kryptonite.

>> they have to put their stuff forward. president has to lead sxoers be part of it.

>> i mean, like she -- he's putting forth -- pretty bipartisan frame except zp and some people of the left critiquing that -- reform is putting too much restrictions on how people can come into this country. but president obama is trying to be a -- as middle of the road as possible.

>> i think the -- issue here is that the great story of the -- particularly the post 2011 , you know, presidency of barack obama is how to deal with the republican opposition. that's the big story . even actually sort of after scott brown 's special election in 2010 . right? and the beginning of this term looks like it was going to be different. right? the debt ceiling deal in which john boehner brought a vote to the floor even though didn't -- the majority of republicans. he brought another vote to the floor on the sandy supplemental. again, didn't have a majority of republicans and brought to it floor anyway. you start to think maybe this is really going to be different. this will be a different approach from republicans and then we got this week in which you had, it seemed, back to the same old approach. culminating with the hagel filibuster on -- was it friday, thursday, provide, you had this -- fairly unprecedented filibuster of the dod nominee, 58 votes, but under the preverse rules of the united states senate , 58 votes is not good enough. all my hope is dashed.

>> indeed.

>> thank you. see you tomorrow.

>> let's take the fiscal curve. that was not solved by the president. that was solved when the president backed away and joe biden started making calls and went to the senate and said i'm joe biden and i'm your buddy. biden seems to be a really good proxy for the president on these touchy issues and there's month reason that he can't take this while the president is out front on other issues. right? the president can't be out front on the five or six issues that are presented --

>> also, we are talking about the difference the way the president approached immigration and gun control . in some ways it is similar. let's vote. like i can't make you do something but like look, let's get you on record and it is already clear immigration, we will come up with a vote ask see wait goes. let's make sure we get gun control for a vote and you all vote how you want but the american -- believes american public is with his side.

>> that's alsoes so sad. she asking for nothing.

>> is this with lindsey graham , who, by the way, looks like they let a 14-year-old into the senate. a man child. that's -- he is a youthful guy. is this really still about benghazi ? that's what's amazing about how trying to hold up the hagel thing. i was on plane flying into florida and i was sitting next to someone who was -- let's just say -- a detractor of the president's and he said to me this benghazi thing is going to be bigger than watergate. this was before the election.

>> is this at the beginning of the flight on the other hand of the plight?

>> sadly in the middle. i realized i had would more hours of this. i was like -- i feel like there are certain -- segment of the republican population that are obsessed by this benghazi thing and that's what i -- i feel like lindsey graham is doing to hold up the hagel thing. then want to leverage this into keeping the conversation about benghazi going which mystify meese.

>> seems to me like the hagel obstruction is really kind of pretty raw bad faith . in the sense that a lot of what they want or holding up has nothing to do with anything that chuck hagel has done in his record, right? it is not about chuck hagel even though they have issues. as i said before in the program and said all this week, i don't know how good the head of dod, chuck hagel , would be.

>> i can tell you my husband and in the marine corps and watched the hearings. it was abysmal. you can say it is the --

>> no, the hearings --

>> horrible. you expect senators to just jump onboard because the president nominated somebody. he was awful.

>> why -- if he was awful then why not just give him a vote? if he was awful, give him a vote. if americans support the second amendment and don't like gun control , put it up for a vote. that's basic logic. if you are right, put it up for a vote. if you are about where the american people are on guns then put it up for vote.

>> this whole thing about gosh, it has been overplayed. no, it hasn't been overplayed. we still don't have a solution. we still haven't gotten to the bottom of it. we don't know why we didn't have security in place. we don't know where --

>> the world is a terrible and unpredictable place.

>> the president should be held accountable for that.

>> bad things happen to -- one american, two americans -- we are saying he needs to be held accountable.

>> what does that mean?

>> we need to find out what happened. why do we know what -- why don't we know what happened yet? it is riddick usiculous.

>> i feel like i know what happen.

>> we still don't know why four americans are dead because of this. you know what? a lot of the american people don't feel that way.

>> you are right about that. there are people who think that it is -- i would argue, a bigger deal -- not a bigger deal but --

>> wow. four americans died. and you are saying a bigger deal . it is a big deal .

>> well, mine, 9/11 happened on george w. bush 's watch.

>> four americans die in a horrific, horrific, horrific what happen. we lost 5,000 people in iraq.

>> no. that's also awful. i want to -- what i'm saying is you can't diminish people are concerned about benghazi is all of a sudden a ridiculous thing.

>> i don't think there was a massive coverup. i'm not trying to bog everything down.

>> that's -- benz to me -- what we are litigating here is the degree to which what is the undertaking by the republican opposition is good faith. i think a lot of people, luke, you read it as bad faith . in the context of hagel it is hard to see it as anything but bad