Africanamerican to be elected to that chamber ever. He has a busy and active agenda before he arrives. Whats going to happen before he gets there . We will be looking inside his file of facts. If its saturday here on up, that means its time for up against the clock. Get ready to test your knowledge against news and pop culture. Thats later. But, first the government had been closed 16 days. A default was a mere hours away wednesday night when the senate planned to avert and fund the government. President obama quickly signed it. He expressed his hope the Opposition Party had learned an important lesson. One of the things i said throughout this process is we got to get out of the habit of governing by crisis and my hope and expectation is everybody has learned that there is in reason why we cant work on the issues at hand, why we cant disagree between the parties while still being agreeable and make sure that were not inflicting harm on the American People when we do have disagreements. That hope, though, already being ut to the test because the deal that got us out of this mess is a temporary deal. It comes with two brandnew dead leans. One is january, and the other is february 7th. Thats when the debt ceiling clock will start ticking again. So there is a reason reactions to the deal sealed wednesday were a lot more sen cal than celebratory t. Role ingredients of the governing by crisis we lived through, obama is warning at are still very much in place. More than that, the man who more than anyone was responsible for this last episode of governing by crisis is already dropping hints that he be fined with another. I would do anything and i will continue to do anything i can to stop the train wreck that is obama care and, in particular the tests that matters, john, is are we doing anything for all the feel are getting hurt from a baum care. Really, if we want to ask if we will go through this three months from now. If we will flirt from rigid demands from the tea party right what were asking is if ted cruz eroded the powers of the universe or is walking away unscathed or stronger. So first lets remember where cruzs power comes from in the first place, how he can encyst they verge on a toxic venture and how republicans felt they needed to listen to him t. Cruz game is tactical and tribal. His goal is to become the undisputed leader of republican america. Hes not trying to sell the right on a few set of issues for a different set of conservatism. His gain is to take issues where there is consensus within the republican world and to stakeout the most extreme tack techal place possible. He will establish that as the test of loyalty to the conservative tribe. Thats where the shutdown came from. Every republican says it will kill jobs. It will wreck the economy, it will ruin freedom. Well, what cuz did, though, to create a purity test for that consensus, republicans, he said, if you hate obama care as much as you said you do, why dont you joan me in shutting down the government to save america from it. In this era of tea party and they punish the squishes as ted cruz calls them, this era of republicans in congress were terrified of flunking the loyalty test. So they went along at least until the very last minute. For doing all of that, they got nothing subsubstantively. Heres what else republicans got the worst poll numbers for their party sense gallup and nbc news started asking the question in the first placements thats why in the wake of all this some are turning their guns on ted cruz. We have to anticipate ted cruz will try to do this again. Ted cruz and 30 or 40 people in the house. We have to go after him by name. I have been doing it all along. I wish i had more company on it. The game that ted cruz is playing is not appealing to all voters, just voerts in the republican universe. Most members of congress have a lot to fear from those in the republican universe to primary voters than general election voters. So even if their partys image is taking a big hit with all voters doesnt necessarily make it safe for them to defy cruz and cruzzism, especially when the voices that voters invoke in the universe listening to are voices like this. Can you imagine in this last fight if we would have had five or ten ted cruzs . Can you imagine the different dynamic . If we had five or ten ted cruzs, wed win a lot of debates. If we had 45 ted cruzs in the senate, wed come close to winning every vote. So thats the question that hovers over american politics. There are a lot of leaders who clearly dont want to go through this again. Will they stand up against ted cruz . Can they and the up to ted cruz . Joining me, are my panel. So brian, ill start with you, because you work at salon, i used to work at salon. Thats Home Court Advantage there. Sorry about that guys. So, it seems to me when you are looking at the role of ted cruz in all of this and the role of ted cruz Going Forward. When you look at Mitch Mcconnell, the comments he made this week, or john boehner. They dont want to listen to him. In mcconnells case, she a little more willing to speak out than before. When i listen to little baugh and mark levin, a conservative talk show last. Theyre still with ted cruz as much as ever. How much room do mcconnell and boehner have right now to stand up to cruz Going Forward . Procedurally, tactically, the only way ted cruz can do is to cower and allow him. One thing mcconnell is doing is saying we will not do it. Last time around he was saying there are a lot of views of how to proceed with the government. We will work those out amongst ourselves, thats where cruz was able to light a fire in the conservative movement in the Republican Party. This time he is not going to allow it. That means conservatives have to work with the government. They have to get rid of this idea to limit the deadlines on the democrats. It seems it depends, though, its coming from these outside voices. Well the pressure applied on republicans from little baugh, from cruz, from the Senate Conservative funds, all these outside groups that have been so active in defining conservatives. Brean and i spend our days talking to people in washington who leak ted cruz, republicans and democrats alike. Thats not going to matter. Hes going to iowa next friday. They like him. The New York Times has a story of going back to texas, people glad, seaing the same thing rush little baugh said, saying we need 45 people leak him. Thats the point of grand standing. Its not about the building you are in. Its about the beggar message. Now, he was an unknown freshman, now everyone in america knows who he is. They might hate him. That isnt bad in politics when you are able to capitalize on that spark. Im not saying hes going to when the Republican Caucus in 2016 or anything. That definitely is to take it beyond that building. He will not be successful in that building. To that point. This was in politico on friday, talking about a meeting of republican senators this week t. President gets up every day and reads the newspaper and thanks god that ted cruz is in the United States senate. Republicans told cruz at a closed door meeting they had this week. It gets to this poll, josh, that came out that shows ted cruz is standing with republicans who identify with the Tea Party Republicans, republicans who dont identify with the tea party totally different story. It was in tea party america, ted cruz is a king right now. Its a festering disaster for the Republican Party. There is this idea that the only threat is from the right and that in the house the way the map is drawn so insulates them they dont need to worry about appealing to the center. Thats why they have allowed ted cruz to drag them into this fight. The math isnt as protective as they think. If the republicans lose the National House votes by four or five or six points, there is a mar jen they lose the house. We saw peter king talking about how the party stands up to ted cruz. He was one of two moderate republicans who broke the procedural vote on september 30th, which might have shot the shutdown thing in its tracks, if he had more moderate republicans with him. But there are a substantial number of moderates in the house from pennsylvania and new york who i think do have more to fear in a general election from the center than the right t. Question is will those people stop ted cruz the next time around. In the same way the cruz allies have dragged the caucus around from the right from holding their votes from things leadership want to do. If people were to withhold their votes from things like threatening to shut down the governmentfuls obama care is defunded, they would be able to stop the cruz thing from being implemented. I think next time around they ought to think its worth picking that fight. Like peter king, not from new york, from a district plus aably he can use t. Question comes back to sort of leak when that fear of the primary dalg that josh is talking about, when that goes away or the perception of that fear goes away, then republicans would feel more preto stand up to ted cruz. My question, though, has anything changed that would make them feel less. Maybe a little bit. I think one of the things this crisis has done is give people the belief that moderate politics gets things done. You can actually work to solve problems with moderate politics. However, i dont think that any of these centrists, these moderate republicans do have any of the support outside of that core group of people to beably make if deference. You know, and you were talking earlier about the poll with the poll amongst americans with respect to congress. The reality is that even if people dont leak congress right now, Everybody Loves their congressmen and, you know, so i dont think theres any real mote vaegs for individual members of congress and maybe to some extent the senate as well to do anything differently. Because theyre winning elections that way. Well, i think there is another thing that could, if Mitch Mcconnell successfully turns down the dial on little baugh and everyone else for republicans and press ahead with the government, work with democrats, dont do a shutdown. Dont do this down to the wire thing, i think you could see the little baughs the conservative funds, these groups turning away from legislative strategizeing and primary fightling. You started to hear from chamber of commerce, business affiliated groups, they want to defend Tea Party Challengers if they will keep the tea party opened and stop this debt limit, if they can actually turn those conservatives to fight on the pliemary train, it might ironically be better for them they sheet down the government again. So that First District in alabama, dont worry about it . To that point, thats where the rubber meets the road. If the Business Community can speak up and force some of these changes. But the question in all that is leak if the Business Community can come of money, can come into sort of support the income are under siege, thats one thing. There is that issue of the grass roots energy, anyway. We have a democrat ec member of Congress Whose party may be benefiting from ted cruzs laydown. We will talk to him right after this. For teaching us that you cant create the future. By clinging to the past. And with that youre history. Instead of looking behind. Delta is looking beyond. 80 thousand of us investing billions. In everything from the best experiences below. To the finest comforts above. Were not simply saluting history. Were making it. As the journalist Theodore White put it, for those keeping track the american political rituals are this dinner and the republican sacrificing 2014 to ted cruzs ego. [ laughter ]. That was Stephen Colbert on thursday making light of the electoral blow the republicans could suffer after ted cruz crusade to defund obama care. Joining us from memphis, we have democratic congressman steve cohen. Id start with that the polling is clear at least for now the long haul polling will change, maybe we will have forgotten this from now. Right now the polling seems clear the damage that has been done for the Republican Party. When you look ahead to the immediate future, these next two months on the calendar, do you think things will play out differently in the next round of negotiation, when it comes to funding the government and the debt ceiling, do you think the government will have a different posture this time . Youd think they would, if their child puts their finger on a burner, theyre not lickly to go to that burner again, im not sure if some of these people dont leak the heat. They revelled in it. They got a lot of energy out of it. I read where representative flemming and i read where senator cruz and some others want to do it again. I think that the more seasoned people, miguel rogers, doc hastings and Jimmy Rodgers will assert themselves more and theyve seen the damage done to the brand and the possibility they could lose congress to the democrats, which would be a wonderful thing, of course. I obviously do not have an opportunity to go within the conference, the republican, we call it a caucus, they call it a conference. But i know a lot of the members there, theyre rabid, sophomore, literally, second term of corporation never worked in politics before, they think they are somehow like its all talked in military terms. They think theyre some kind of gorillas there to strike a blow for freedom. I think they may try to pull this off again, which john boehner is going to have to do is decide that hes not going to be speaker in 2015 and work with the same crew that gave us the opening up of government. Nancy pelosis Democratic Caucus and give or take 80 Reasonable Republicans and pass some bills to avoid another cr problem and avoid the debt crisis, protect the country from these people, really, you got to think, we take an oath to support the country against all foreign and domestic. These are the domestic men e enemies. You sound very pessimistic i can safely say about the near term profits for anything to be difficult. You raise the possibility of the republicans losing the house. That would take a loss of 17 seats, a gain of 17 seats for your party. The history is not very good, though, when you go back to the civil war, you find the best gain for the White House Party in the Midterm Election is then. So you got to double that in 2014. Realistically, what does this translate into for your party next 84 . Well, they havent been very optimistic in the past, even though nancy pelosi and talked about us when back the house. I read the coke report that 15 seats were democrat ec leaning now. Now we need 17 and 15, you know, for the when them all a clean sweep. Its going to be difficult. But i think that these Tea Party Republicans are so extreme they could force a lot of moderate republicans to support democrats even in those districts. I think there is a chance. There is a chance. These people are dangerous to the future of our country economically and socially. Theyre not with the idea of people being united. On the social issues, they divide us. Its a scary group. Theyre very limited in near cuss and they dont really they dont believe in multiculturalism and the diversity that has made america great. A lot of what i think we have seen is race. They have not accepted president obama and will not and president obama came in and brought a lot more africanamericans with him to government and he brought women and gays and jews and other minorities and this is a threat to those people. All right. Congressman. Lets go to josh. You mentioned doc hastings, they have been around a long time. Do you get the sense they are embarrassed for their party, they are alarmed Going Forward . Are they going to do Something Different next time or throwing their hands up and saying there is not much we can do in january . Im not sure, when i went to my car the other day, i saw doc and jimmy and hal all talking. It looked like three guys thinking, what has gone wrong . The sam youll morris telegraph back in 1844. And i think they are embarrassed and they know theyre in danger and the country is endangered. These are honorable men. Theyve got sense. Theyre seasoned lenls lagislat. In the tea party. They are default diners diners deniers. Dead cruz held a late night session, it undercut the man supposed to be their leader. Well talk about him next. [ male announcer ] a doctor running late for a medical convention loses his computer, exposing thousands of patient records to identity theft. 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We know he survived. There are two ways how he emerges from this one he strung things out as long as he could for weeks and weeks until literally the 11th hour. He paid constant lip service, he was not able to broke ter bill and stave off the default, instead, he swallowed hard and put the bill on the there are, where his own party voted against it. This is not the first time he had to do this year t. Question is every tim