Kristol: GOP Should Worry Less About Looks; Act On Conservative Principles

BILL KRISTOL, WEEKLY STANDARD: If I hear another politician talking about rebranding the party or changing the image, why don't they just advance policies? Republicans control the House of Representatives, right? They very much dislike Obamacare. Fine, pass a bill repealing Obamacare or delaying it and then pass a replacement. It's not going to pass the Senate, President Obama's not going to sign it, but it will show how Republican policies help.

Republicans dislike the financial regulations in Dodd-Frank, pass different regulations that help community banks. If you can't pass the whole thing, pass bite-sized pieces of legislation that would help the country. I mean, I really think they should talk less about rebranding themselves and actually pass some legislation, either big legislation or medium-sized bites that which embody conservative principals.
JOHN ROBERTS, FOX NEWS: Why have they been losing so badly on messaging, Bill?

KRISTOL: They haven't been losing that badly on messaging. They lost the presidential election by 3 points, they held the House of Representatives, the Democrats got 1 million more votes for the complete House out of 110 million cast, or something like that. And if they simply govern effectively, if they do their best in the House and they oppose President Obama, they'll do fine. They should worry less about how they look and they should just act according to conservative principles.

CHARLES LANE, WASHINGTON POST: They also, although Bill left it out, they lost a lot of Senate races. And one reason they lost --

KRISTOL: And who were most of the people who lost? Establishment candidates. And now the establishment is going to come in -- right, Tea Party candidates lost and about 7 establishment candidates lost.

LANE: Todd Aiken branded the whole party. Eric Cantor, who has studied these issues, I think, carefully, at least I hope he got his money's worth, is doing some important things in his speech. He's saying --

KRISTOL: The Washington Post and the Republican establishment are coming to the rescue of those idiots out in the country.
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Video at link. He was good!