Romney who on a Conference Call with donors attributed his loss to gifts bestowed by president obama. What the president president s campaign did was focus on certain members of his base toolgs, give them extraordinary financial gifts from the government, and then work very aggressively to turn them out to vote. Despite the fact that they supported his positions throughout the entire campaign, a frightened herd of republicans trampled over each other in a stampede away from romneys remarks. Intent on selling a friendlier more compassionate gop, they included bobby jindal who was best known for totally blowing the republican response to the 2009 state of the union. Good evening and happy mardi gras. Im bobby jindal, governor of la louisiana. Jindal has been the lead voice in the romney dissing, selfcritical ameliorated gop. I absolutely reject that notion that description. I think thats absolutely wrong. This is completely not helpful. This is not where the republican needs to go. We need to stop being the dumb party. We need to offer smart, conservative, intelligent ideas and policies. Thats how we win elections. We dont win elections insulting voters. A word to the wise or the wiseish, throwing mitt romney off the deep end is the easy part. Fixing the deeper problems may take some actual work. Karen finney, now, grant eed mi romneys comments were objectively speaking pretty stupid. Yeah. Very telling its this week that bobby jindal is saying we need to stop being the dumb party. As if there wasnt a lions share of support for mitt romney up until this point. There wasnt dumb party stuff going on before. This is not a cosmetic problem. This is isnt like lets put a fresh coat of paint and put a new message on it and were good to go. You have the main gop saying the herd of black people came in and voted and dont know where theyre from, the state of maine. Ryan saying we didnt expect the urban turnout which we know what that really means. So there is a deeper problem and romney is not the only one espousing some of that kind of language. I think what theyre realizing is theyve got to at least start to talk not like the dumb party which is why we heard the word revenue finally coming out of their mouths in the negotiation. I would like to play a clip from the daily show last night where in jon stewarts talks about gifts and what they mean. What did obama give us . Bag of weed. That was nice. Oh. Food stamp cozy. Contraception variety pack. Very thoughtful on there. Codan. Pinata filled with green cards. So josh, what stewart is doing there is a comedic takedown, perhaps, of the notion of the makers versus the takers. But in some ways that has been a very dominant narrative inside conservative circles and letting that go is going to take a lot of work. I think so. Romneys biggest gift has been the gift he keeps giving to us and journalists. In a backhanded sort of way gave a gift to his party because it allowed bobby jindal and Susana Martinez marco rubio chris christie. Basically everybody, who wants to move forward to a new iteration of the Republican Party to have that break, move forward, to show what theyre against and as you said the challenge now is to show what theyre for. Maybe its a little more tax revenue if its packaged the right way. Maybe its immigration reform. Thats going to be tougher than smacking mitt romney down for dumb comments. I dont know, ben. As much as there are 2016 benchers, to say susanna martinez, marco rubio, you know, bobby jindal out there saying this is wrong, we cant bes the dumb party, karl rove saying double down, conservatives need not give up conservative principles. Rush limbaugh questioning Bobby Jindals stance. There is significant, i think, schism within the Republican Party and the question remains who is going to win . I mean, i think, you know, its parties are good at reinventing them sls. Good at telling voters what they want to hear. This is their basic job. The pivot on immigration with sean hannity thinking things over the day after the election and deciding, youre going to be shocked how thorough, how fast that is. The antiimmigration voices in the Republican Party have always been loud and overestimated in their numbers. Theres always been a pro immigration wing of that party like business. I think thats going to be a place you see a hard, fast pivot. Couple of things historically. The 2005 conversation that we had about immigration reform, destroyed any hope that the Republican Party had getting back the latino vote in 2008 because its not just that the language and the tone was so disrespectful. People remember that, right. So the republicans enter into this conversation with a trust deficit because people suspect like youre saying the right thing, but if give the chance, thats not what you really believe. The person who gets it done now will be barack obama, a democratic president , not mitt romney. Thats the problem. A person of color. Lets be honest. Only deepens the racial divides when you have that kind of language. Marco rubio will be standing next to him when they sign that bill. Youre right. This is something republicans could have had a lead hand in crafting and now theyre going to look like theyre playing catchup. To karens point, jay, when we talk about the trust deficit and how much americans think oh, the republicans have changed, everythings different now, this is Haley Barbour, i have to play this sound, this is Haley Barbour at the Republican Governors Association conference in las vegas on wednesday. Lets take a listen. Weve got to give our political organizational activity, you know, a very serious proct togethology ex. We need to look everywhere is my point. Sevensecond pause and what he comes up with is a proctology exam. Probably a good place to look. You know, i think its kind of ironic that romney should be the instrument for the party, the Republican Party suddenly shifting leftward in a sense because romney came in six years ago as a moderate almost a liberal republican, a moderate, steadily moved to the right and this republican primary process is so brutal and inevitably skews the whole conversation to the right and i still dont quite understand how theyre going to get past that and get past the fact that the huge part of the coalition are people who are exclusionary and who are social conservatives. Look at their voting base, its still like southern white male. Can we pause for a second to appreciate just the Haley Barbour from mississippi is like the reformist edge of the Republican Party. Calling for a partywide he wants the political operation, the tactics different. Good luck running into him at the dca, wiping the mustard off his hands wow. Thats really painting a picture of him. You know, right after 2008, when People Like Us were having this exact conversation, the Republican Party has to change, haley the one that said, no, actually, we lost a close election wait for the mid terms and well come back. We dont have to change too much. Our Field Program was terrible. Our data was terrible. But theres a real argument we should do cosmetic stuff but i dont think hes talking about a leftward lurch. But in 2005 when howard dean implemented the 50 state strategy, rove saying this week we need a 50 state strategy, part of what theyre missing it wasnt just about more people on the ground, better data, better systems, all of that we put in place. But, you know, deans thing was you have to show up and ask people for their vote. It is a sign of respect. The republicans dont even show up for that extra 47 . But even independent of that, there is a reality, Michael Steele talking about the number of, you know, latin latinos that turn 18 every week. There is an understanding Michael Steele may not be at the heart of the Republican Party in terms of are where theyre moving they have a serious problem if they are going to get past 2016. The failure to be per served of the champion of the middle class, im not sure the Republican Party will ever be seen as champions of the middle class. A lot of talking to be done about the elephant stampede. After the break, however, as tensions escalate in the middle east, concerns are growing that the violence could spill over into other parts of the region. How real is the risk of fullblown war . We will ask former assistance secretary of state jamie rubin next on now. [ heart beating, monitor beeping ] woman what do you mean, Homeowners Insurance doesnt cover floods . [ heart rate increases ] man a few inches of water caused all this . [ heart rate increases ] woman 2 but i dont even live near the water. What you dont know about Flood Insurance may shock you including the fact that a preferred risk policy starts as low as 129 a year. For an agent, call the number that appears on your screen. No government would tolerate a situation where it nearly a fifth of its people live under a constant barrage of rockets and missile fire. And israel will not tolerate this situation. I hope that hamas and the other terror organizations in gaza got the message. If not, israel is prepared to take whatever action is necessary to defend our people. That was israeli Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu in a press conference yesterday as bombings continued between israel and hamas in gaza. Today the conflict is rapidly escalating. A hamas rocket struck north of jerusalem this morning and rockets landed in southern tel aviv for the first time in 20 years. Israel is now amassing troops along the border with gaza and put 30,000 Army Reservist troops on alert. Egyptian Prime Minister herb m candill visited and had this to say on behalf of the Egyptian Government and president we have come to stand with the palestinians. Palestine is the heart of the arab and muslim world and the body is not healthy while the heart is sick. Israel agreed to a brief ceasefire as the egyptian Prime Minister visited gaza that collapsed after they accused hamas of resuming attacks. At least 21 palestinians and three Israeli Citizens have been killed in the bombings. Joining the panel is jamie rubin, former assistant secretary of state and spokesman for the state department during the clinton administration. Thanks for joining us. Good to be with you. Help us get a little context here. How close are we to a fullblown war . Well, i do think its very like likely and possible in the coming days we will have what you call a ground war. Its possible the israelis will feel it necessary to enter into gaza with the intended housetohouse type fighting of a ground incursion and that will be a war. It will be a limited war and a limited location. But i think we are very close to that. I think to a lot of people who have been watching israel, it comes as a surprise, the assumption would be if israel had any military conflict it would be with iran and look where we are now. I guess i want to get your read on how this all started . During the break i said how much do you think this has to do with the fact that netanyahu is facing an election, maybe in january, and i want to read this New York Times oped which asks what do you make of that . I think thats a fair point. Its a fair point. The Editorial Board of the New York Times points out the world would be less likely to condemn israel. We dont have peace negotiations. Thats a simple fact. Theres lots of blame to go around. The Prime Ministers office certainly bears some of it. The palestinians bear a huge chunk. The United States hasnt been able to play the traditional role of brokering peace agreements between the two sides. And the conduct of the regional leaders, again, is not such that frankly the palestinian issue hasnt been on the front burner for many, many months as the war in syria has taken attention away, as the revolution in egypt, et cetera. This is a backtoto the future situation where the issue thats been there all along, that hasnt received a lot of attention, but rockets have been going from gaza into israel many weeks and months now and a certain point was reached it was deemed intolerable. Lets talk about the balance of power here, because egypt has, obviously, always been a player to some degree, much better relations with efwipts and have been able to expert pressure. We were discussing this earlier. We do not have that as much anymore given the fact that the new Muslim Brotherhood is basically in cahoots with hamas, the egyptian Prime Minister says egypt is standing by the people of gaza in their pain. That radically changes the u. S. Calculus in the region or how much we can actually do. Yeah. I dont think it changes our objectives but i think it changes what we can accomplish. The United States doesnt talk to hamas. So in the past, the way weve been able to promote potential ceasefires or agreements between the israelis and hamas is through the good offices of the egyptian president mubarak and his top Intelligence Officer mr. Soul manny whos now passed from the scene. This traditional methods prior to the arab spring with the socalled dictators and auto crates, we knew how to operate. We knew what levers to pull, who would have the most influence on which players. But as you correctly point out, the Muslim Brotherhood and hamas come from the same ideological tradition, hamas is an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, so the egyptian president is not even close to an interlocker between israel and the palestinians. Arguably hes barely between hamas and the palestinians on the west bank led by mr. Abbas. The players and devices weve used in the past are difficult to use. What sort of political pressure, though, is morsi feeling . They have an agreement with israel. It is a relatively new government, a new construct. Hes being tested essentially. Hit basically from both sides. What are those dynamics like . Those domestic politics for the egyptians . What is new now is the Political Leadership of egypt has a direct and personal involvement with one party, not the palestinian authority, not israel, but the Hamas Movement in gaza. So there is a natural affinity as stated by the Prime Minister and they are essentially on hamas side ideologically. On the other hand, the president of egypt has made clear he doesnt want to throw over the israel egypt peace agreement. How far can he go in supporting hamas without getting rid of that agreement or undermining it in a fundamental way . I expect him to go quite far. Do you think the election affected the timing of this. Did hamas step up its attacks to test the Obama Administration . Did netanyahu act waiting for romney to be elected and not seeing that. Its hard to know. I cant get quite in their heads. In that part of the world theyre aware of the american political calendar, as everyone is, and there is a sort of freezing of Decision Making in this period leading up to an american election. Lets face it, a president romney would have been a very different approach. And probably preferred by netanyahu. Its seen that way. Paezble to that hamas is testing had waited to test until now. The truth is that the arab spring has many, many positive qualities for us in the west. The possibility that the people in that part of the world will be connected with their leadership. The elimination of the democracy deficit, all of those things. But one of the downsides to the arab spring is that we knew how to do business with many of these deck taters and autocrates, we knew how to conduct antiiranian Foreign Policy to stop their Nuclear Development and the middle east Peace Process had been run under these dictatorships and authoritarian governments for some time. This is the new world and were just going to have to see what leverage we have, if any, in this kind of a not only is it a new world but one that continues to be rapidly changing where the conflicts are reaching boiling points. What do you think the relationship between net anyahu and obama is at this point . Expressed his appreciation once again for obamas unequivocal, clearsighted support for israels right to defend itself. Netanyahu is a very sharp character i can say from the experience i had when president clinton was not particularly a supporter of Prime Minister netanyahu there were times when that difference of political opinion came out, but when the chips are down a diplomatic way of putting it, jay. But when the trips were down, each side knows its operating for their country and not their party. Look, its going to have some discomfort. There will be some cracks made on the side and in the back rooms as these negotiations and discussions are going on. But right now, america is pursuing american Foreign Policy and israel pursuing its and these two individuals will try to hold their tongues. It certainly is a situation that is fluid and we will continue to monitor. Always great to have you. Thank you so much to jamie rubin. As the cia launches its own probe into its Intelligence Officer, eric holder explains why the