The Young Dick Nixon of the gop house is now saying he wants change. Trouble is what hes said before and where he talked today. The super hawk of the party gave his manifesto at the citys nonprofit war room, the American Enterprise institute. What he came out for, some new dedegree that colleges have to conduct employment surveys to say what jobs there are for history majors, english majors, you name it. I guess he wants to cut down on these people taking liberal subjects in college that allow you to think and express yourself. He sounds like he wants the federal government to have become a helicopter mom hovering over all of us. And they say democrats are intervening in peoples live. What will republicans do next to try to deflect from their history of starting unnecessary wars, chasing minorities and others from the polling places. Being hawkish and undemocratic are not exactly great recruiting posters. Lets face it. Helping me to explain the latest republican face lift are john feehery and dee dee myers. Well start with this. We know karl rove plans on finding more electable republican candidates as he finds them. What we heard was a kinder, gentler eric cantor than the one we have seen and heard before. Remember the obstructionist majority leader, remember his name was cantor, who fought the president on the debt ceiling. He called the Obama Administration the imperial presidency. He stepped out today to show there are no rough edges in this Republican Party. Lets listen to cantor today. Well advance proposals aimed at producing results in areas like education, health care, innovation, and job growth. Our solutions will be based on the conservative principles of selfreliance, faith in the individual, trust in family, and accountability in government. Our goal is to ensure that every american has a fair shot to earn success and achieve their dreams. What a coverup. Your party ought to be ashamed of itself. You spent months in every state legislative capital trying to keep black people and poor people from voting or young people. Now youre out pretending that you care about opportunity in america. Its an absurdity eric cantor the speech by eric cantor was a very good speech. If it wasnt given by him maybe. Eric cantor is a good guy. Hes got a family. He cares about this country. Hes a patriot. He cares about making government work better, and this is a reform speech. I thought it was a very good because it wasnt just practical. I think for republicans they cant be the party of bob dole caring only about the deficit. They have to care about practical the reason youre so upset is you know it was a good speech. He went over to the aei, the number one war center, this is totally neocon. Your thoughts. This is hopeless. I thought hed admit the truth here today. It was a bit jarring to hear some of that coming from eric cantor who has been a warrior. Hasnt he been the guy standing behind boehners back waiting to trip him over because hes been too moderate . No question. Hes been standing off center stage waiting for his opportunity to become speaker. I thought that there was a lot of practicality in the speech but i didnt think there were really big ideas. I think it was like sundries and notions in a drugstore. Little items, like telling colleges they got to tell people what employment prospects there are for english majors. Whats that about . Cantor lets take a look. He took a approach that the University Education should be more like a vocational school, a tech school, a school you can learn a trade and make a living. Like i dont know. He suggested kids be told by colleges what majors earn the most money so families make better choices. Lets listen. Talk about this is like state planning here. College provided Prospective Students with reliable information on the employment rate and potential earnings by major. Whether parents had access to clear and understandable breakdowns between Academic Studies and amenities. What would those costs be . Armed with this knowledge, families and students can make better decisions about where to go to school and how to budget their tuition dollars. Students would actually have a better chance of graduating within four years and getting a job. I want to give you an open shot. This is the Republican Party, not the mommy party. They dont believe in being helicopter moms and telling people how to live, the nanny society, whatever you guys are calling it. Here is a Government Official talking about the need for colleges apparently hes going to pass a law to do this, to make sure if you apply if you dare to major in philosophy, you get a warning right up front. No jobs in that department. Dont go theology, nothing happening with that crowd. Whats the government doing messing around with this kind of stuff . Your thoughts . Im not the best because im a history major. I couldnt figure out what the heck to do with that. I majored basically in philosophy. I think that for a lot of parents who are worried about the high cost of education, especially college education, if they want to know, and they should know, what are they getting out of that deal and what are the best majors. I think a little guidance is not a bad thing. Since when is liberal arts, the heart im a proliberal arts guy. Have anything to do when has it ever been the case. Right now people are worried about jobs. Sure. And if what parents are in other words, dont study history. John, youre not a luddite. Im not. I know what it is. Dont take history. Dont take english. Dont take philosophy, languages, take computer sciences. Is that the republican message . Its not the republican message. I do think theres truth in advertising. Maybe thats a good idea. I do agree a wellrounded education is good for everybody. Back to your game of depends who says this. If a democrat said this, we want the government of the United States making sure that colleges list the economic productivity of various majors. Youre an intellectual. You know how to handle this. What major would you have majored in press secretary of the United States . This idea how you can predict your future based on your major is, i think, crazy, by the way. And, you know, i was a Political Science major which i didnt declare until spring quarter of my senior year and barely got out of there. I think thats a bad idea. On a lot of fronts. Should the government be involved in this . No, the government the people who most like this are the parents. Please major in something you can get a job, and having that kind of data would be very helpful for parents. I dont think necessarily you want the government saying this, and i dont think thats what cantor was saying. Why was cantor talking the Republican Party has huge problems with minorities, young people, on issues like choice and things like that. Theyre getting killed. Why is this a remake of the Republican Party . Bill clinton did very well they focused on issues that people cared about, and what people care about are college education, the cost of college if the gop is going to rebrand itself, it has to deal with the monster that eric cantor helped create. U. S. Congressman paul broun is expected to run for the Georgia Senate seat held by retiring i used to think this guy was right wing saxby chambliss. Broun said this, i think the only constitution that barack obama upholds is the soviet constitution, not this one. He has no concept of this one, though he claimed to be a constitutional lawyer. Steve king who suggested president obamas parents may have announced his birth by telegram from africa. Hes the leading pick for an iowa senate seat. Can your party stop its candidates being taken up by nuts . I think for Washington People to say to grassroots activists we have to tell you how youre going to make your pick is a big mistake. How do you stop these groups from winning . You know what you need to do . You need to educate the voter and get back to the get them with the right majors. Hit them with the right and marco rubio is a great example of somebody who was an alternative candidate. You throw the baby out with the bath water. I dont think you can mandate for that from the top down whether its the Democratic Party or Republican Party. How do you avoid we know somebody said in your party a few bad apples spoil the bunch, and i do think thats true. I think people took advantage i did of the fact you had mourdock and akin running. The joke was you have to say which rape candidate. Because you guys had so many nuts out there. Didnt odonnell hurt you . Didnt that woman out i forget her name sharron angle. Sharron angle. Dont these names hurt you . Theyre frustrated by the candidates they put up and lost, but they like the candidates they ran and won, marco rubio, pat toomey. This is a process, a messy process. For washington to dictate to the grassroots how theyre going to vote is very, very dangerous. Its not the grassroots thats a problem in my view. Theres a certain acceptable fringe in the Republican Party that has ideas, and thats why the rape comments were so devastating because it wasnt that he said something that was just illconsidered and just came out of the top of his mouth. It was that it unearthed a strain of thought thats tolerated within the party thats not tolerable to most americans. Thats the problem and the problem with that is then we lose the seat. Thats the problem. You lose the seat but what you have to have its a its a vetting process and a training process but you also need more internal discipline. You cant let people sort of sneak in under the edge of the tent and pretend they let me ask you, its your party. I think the Republican Party, moderate Republican Party, is a minority party. I agree you have a problem. If youre just people who are fiscally conservative, a bit less for government than the democrats, and you dont have any wild people on abortion rights or wild people, old segregationist ideas, take away the fringies, your party is about 40 . I see the problem. To get to 50 you have to bring in the nut cases. How do you win elections without doing that . Actually i actually think to get to 50 you need to bring in the moderates. You go the other way. Then you have to dump the right. What you need is candidates who can go beyond. I think thats what i like about paul ryan and eric cantor and marco rubio do you think the survivalists in tents in idaho the guys who think black helicopters are coming would vote for a moderate republican a centrist republican like rubio . Hes a tea party candidate. Would they go that far . Some would and some wouldnt. The fact of the matter is you need to find candidates that can win the most votes. And thats a very difficult process. You have to get the question for a lot of republicans whats the answer . I think you need to build a coalition and find a coalition that can get a majority vote. I think you lose the right when you go to the center. It depends who the candidates are. Thats why you guys are hugging those people. You like the crazy. I dont like crazies. I like winners. You had them for a while, but romney wasnt authentic. That was a big problem. It is a problem. Thank you, we agree. Romney wasnt authentic. Thank you, dee dee. John feehery and dee dee myers. How far can we go when we go after the bad guys . Theres a lot of debate over the Justice Department memo that concludes the u. S. Can kill american citizens tied to al qaeda even if theyre not involved in an active plot at the time to attack the United States. I understand the civil libertys concern, but ask yourself this. If an american had put on a nazi uniform in world war ii, wouldnt we have gone after him . Block the vote. Democrats have had enough of republican efforts to make it harder for them to vote. They are about to push legislation to make it easier to vote and to register, and theyre expecting help from the white house on this big one. Flooding the zone. Immigration, guns. Those two issues, the budget, president obama is trying to overwhelm republicans on multiple fronts right now to prevent them from organizing effective opposition to any one of these issues, and guess what . It just might work. Flooding the zone. Here is just one more reason eric cantor has a long way to go to rebrand the gop. A tea partier just referred to some americans as ready for this one . Ethnically challenged. Good luck with that rebranding, eric. And this is hardball, the place for politics. This is 100,000. We asked total strangers to watch it for us. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. Ill be right back. They didnt take a dime. How much in fees does your bank take to watch your money . If your bank takes more money than a stranger, you need an ally. Ally bank. Your money needs an ally. There might not be a republican filibuster against chuck hagel after all, president obamas nominee for defense secretary. But today republicans tried out a new line. Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina called hagel clueless about your policy toward iran. He added, i hope the Obama Administration will reconsider his nomination. Reconsider. Well, lindsey likely wont be getting that wish either. Well be right back. Theyre not going to reconsider. This guy is in. My mother made the best toffee in the world. Its delicious. So now weve turned her toffee into a business. My goal was to take an idea and make it happen. Im janet long and i formed my Toffee Company through legalzoom. I never really thought i would make money doing what i love. [ robert ] we created legalzoom to help people start their business and launch their dreams. Go to legalzoom. Com today and make your business dream a reality. At legalzoom. Com we put the law on your side. And make your business dream a reality. To find you a great deal, even if its not with us. [ ding ] oh, thats helpful well, our company does that, too. Actually, we invented that. Its like a sauna in here. Helping you save, even if its not with us now, thats progressive call or click today. No mas pantalones i need you. I feel so alone. But youre not alone. I knew youd come. Like i could stay away. You know i cant do this without you. Youll never have to. Youre always there for me. Shh ill get you a rental car. I could also use an umbrella. Fall in love with progressives claims service. Welcome back to hardball. The legal and moral debate about the use of drones has burst into the public in a big way after nbcs Michael Isikoff reported on a Justice Department memo that gives the u. S. Legal justification for targeting american citizens abroad. According to that memo, an american can be killed without judicial review if its determined he or she is a Senior Operations official in al qaeda. That was the case in 2011 when a drone strike killed Anwar Al Awlaki. Eric holder defended the memo and the process behind it. One of the things i want to make sure everybody understands is that our primary concern is to keep the American People safe, but to do so in a way thats consistent with our laws and consistent with our values. We say that we only take these kinds of actions when theres an imminent threat, when capture is not feasible, and when we were confident that were doing so in a way thats consistent with federal and international law. Well, Civil Liberties advocates have reacted to that strongly saying the process is clouded in secrecy and the legal justifications are murky at best. For example, theres the question of how its determined who should be on the governments hit list. According to the memo, quote, its up to an informed highlevel official of the u. S. Government who, quote, has determined that the targeted individual poses an imminent threat of violent attack against the United States, close quote. Nbc investigative correspondent Michael Isikoff broke the story, and robin wright is a tremendous scholar at the Woodrow Wilson center here in washington and also the u. S. Institute of peace, and i respect her tremendously as a reporter as i do this correspondent, Michael Isikoff. So you broke the story. You found this memo. What did it tell you or tell us . A lot of our people are progressives, theyre concerned about this. Its one of those areas where theres a real tradeoff you have to do. Catch the bad guys, respect american values. This has been one of the most secretive policies of the Obama Administration, the use of drones, and controversial. Its been expansive. The drone strikes have dramatically increased under president obama. A drone is an unmanned vehicle that goes into a place, drops a bomb, and comes back. And missiles attached that can be used to kill the target. Now, where it gets most controversial is when you talk about american citizens, and they have acknowledged that they are using drones in select cases against american citizens, and they have outlined publicly, attorney general holder last year gave a speech outlining publicly what the legal standards were for use of drones against american citizens or lethal operations against american citizens. The significance of the memo is if you read the memo closely, it provides considerable more detail than was in holders speech when he outlined what the Legal Framework was, and as you can see in some of the language you quoted, the standards are a bit more expansive and a bit more theres a bit more leeway for policymakers than was let on in their public statements, and in particular that standard of imminent threat of a violent attack. Let me go to when you read the memo, its a bit i know. Its always tough to get intel right. Intel can be wrong, as we learned in iraq. Let me ask you about the princi