Video: GOP changes course, paints selves as victims

>>> i decided to not comment between the election and the inauguration because i wanted to see what kind of presidents we were looking at here, what kind of path and trajectory he was putting his administration on, and all of the statements and all the comments lead me to believe that he's thinking more of a political conquest than political compromise.

>> welcome back to "hardball." this weekend congressman paul ryan , you just saw him there, kept up the republican claim of victimhood. that president obama is more interested in defeating them than he is in getting something done for the country. last week house speaker john boehner started that dumb beat saying president obama was out to annihilate the republican party and ryan amplified it when he spoke at a future of conservatism summit this saturday.

>> the president will bait us. he will portray us as cruel and unyielding. we can't get rattled. we won't play the villain in his morality plays. we have to stay united. we have to show that if given the chance, we can govern. that we have better ideas.

>> president obama has said he hoped this re-election would break that republican fever of total opposition but in an interview with the new republic interview, brand new magazine, he said obviously that hant happened yet. joining me is columnist cynthia tucker and "the washington post 's" eugene robinson . i want to start with gene up here. it seems to me they have this new sort of gee, whiz, we're getting beat up, but they were the party that for four years shut the door on a new president. he won the election --

>> and said, you know, our number one goal is to make him a one-term president and they said, no, no, no. they said no to measures they had proposed in the past, but as long as he proposed them, they said no. to turn around and then say, oh, he's hitting us, he's beating us up, it's kind of silly, and i don't know -- are they just trying to rally the troops --

>> wasn't this the macho party a couple weeks ago in they're now becoming the --

>> used to be. now they're victims.

>> cynthia , what is the psychology to tell people who have been predatory towards the president that they're somehow now being bullied? what is in the psycho ward that tells them they will unite if we're all victims getting beat up? mitch mcconnell --

>> chris, psychiatry has a term for this. it's called projection. projection is what the patient does when he is believing that other people are doing to him what he has done to other people, and that is exactly what republicans are doing. and it's not just john boehner and paul ryan . this is the narrative that's taken hold throughout all facets of the republican party . it's repeated ad nauseam on fox news. and you even hear it from some moderate conservative thinkers who ought to know better. obama is out to kill the wounded. now that republicans are down. he's not going to make any proposals that republicans might actually sign onto. instead, he's going to make them look bad on things like immigration. but it's interesting --

>> but that's not working, cynthia .

>> -- supposed to be the party of personal responsibility.

>> that narrative, gene, isn't working because quite clearly there's a bipartisan plan on immigration as we see today. anytime boehner, the speaker of the house , who i don't dislike, would come out for a background check on guns, just push one measure, if he could get that through the house, he'd be a leader on the newtown, connecticut, horror. he could be the leader. it would force harry reid to do the same. he doesn't have to be a victim.

>> i think dr. tucker's diagnosis was absolutely right. and i think, you know, this is the party's way of trying to deal with its own internal contradictions and issues. the republican party has issues, and the number one issue which they don't want to deal with is that most of the american people don't support their positions on the issues that are important. they don't agree with them on immigration. they don't agree with them on abortion. they don't agree with them on --

>> is this the ole avis commercial, cynthia , we try harder . we're not as big as hertz. we're the little guy that's overcome the other party. maybe they recognize they just did a count and realize there aren't as many republicans as democrats. could that be it? here is the president on that subject in an interview with the new republic. it's a great new look at the mag zeb. the president was asked about establishing working relationships with republicans and he said, quote, one of the biggest factors in forging bipartisan legislation is going to be how the media shapes debates. if a republican member of congress is not punished on fox news or by rush limbaugh for working with a democrat on a bill of common interest, then you'll see more of them doing it. boy, the president is really putting up fox and rush there. he's saying these are the no men that scare these guys into doing nothing.

>> well, it's kind of -- i don't know if you saw the harry potter movie but lord voldemort , you couldn't say the name, now he can say the name. he's just laying it out there.

>> do you think rush still has the veto on a republican member? he can chase them into the bushes?

>> he said he's going to try to block immigration reform . only he can save us from immigration reform . so we'll see --

>> cynthia , i do believe that rush has more power than any individual member of congress. meaning if he attacks all of them i don't think he would beat them but if he says to somebody in georgia, your country, that guy has got to go, he's a bum, he's a sellout, those guys are petrified of rush doing that to them.

>> and we're already seeing yet another republican who has been limbaughed and tea partied right out of the senate. saxby chambliss has decided he will not -- he will resign rather than face a challenge from a tea partier. and let me be very clear here. saxby chambliss , senator from georgia, is very conservative, but what was his sin? he actually worked with the gang of six to try to come up with a grand bargain to reduce the deficit. he wanted to actually compromise with democrats, and for the rush limbaugh wing of the republican party , that is a big no no. so they have been gunning for saxby for about two years now, and he said never mind.

>> i am so shocked at party politics some days. look, corker in tennessee ran a rotten -- i thought a racist campaign against gerald ford . and running the way saxby chambliss ran against mx clinton, a war hero , i guy who had been maimed in the war, was horrible and yet i give them forgiveness in both have ended up being people who tried to work as legitimate congress people and senators --

>> trite to get something done.

>> they did try to get something done and i give them credit for the way they ended if not the way they started. in fact, corker is still in the business but i wish saxby chambliss well in his decision. coming up -- thank you, sign thea and eugene robbins.

>>> up next, fox news and sarah palin call it quits. with a lot of republicans saying the gop has to stop being the stupid party, this can't hurt, getting rid of her, but we'll see. this is "hardball," the place for politics. did i say

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