Conservatives have to plan it. It seems like Republican Leaders are subtly trying to distance themselves from social issues. The tea party has been a strong and present oppositional force. They seem to focus primarily on fiscal matters. What is your vision for the role that social issues play . Is it taking a backseat since decades past . It is nothing new. There has always been that tension. Lets go back to 2012. You look at the primaries, about 50 of Republican Voters were social conservatives. You look at the general elections, about 25 . It is too large a constituency to ignore. I was encouraged this week. Reince preibus spoke and then came to a prolife conversation. I think he understands the significance of social conservatives. I do not know that you ever get to a point where there is not that tension within the party. It is there. The tea party is where focus on the fiscal issues. There is a lot of overlap. The Republican Party cannot afford to walk away from either of those constituencies. I know you have criticized bill cassidy considering a role for the senate seat. What about your plans . Might you run . In politics, a day is a lifetime and a lifetime is a day. I spent almost a decade in elected office. I served with david in the louisiana legislature. He is a solid conservative with a solid record. I think he will do well in the race for governor. Im Close Friends with bobby jindal who was secretary of health and hospitals when i was in office in louisiana. He still has a Bright Future in our nation. And david i think is going to follow the reform measures. I think david has a good path ahead of him. For me, i am focused on the issues that a large portion of conservative minded voters are focused on. This is a long ways away. You have criticisms of mr. Cassidy. Can you talk about that . I ran against mary in 2002 in the primary. I was a part of the first race when she won. She is actually a friend. I talked to her fairly regularly. We served together in the legislature. Politically we have different ideologies. They are very good people. I enjoy them. I enjoy the friendship i have with them. That said, my politics are different than marys. In louisiana, it is a prolife state. It is a natural marriage state. Mary is the only statewide democrat left in our state. She is a liberal. To beat a liberal, you had to have a conservative. If we look at the last couple of elections, in the runoff, youve not had conservatives. You have had moderate. Can it turn people out. In last election, she was able to turn out her base in a way that moderate cannot. What about bill cassidys record are you most concerned about . Hes not necessarily going to be conservative as other republican conservatives in congress. Why are you concerned . Louisiana is my home. I commute back and forth. I mix with folks regularly in the political arena. He has not been catching peoples enthusiastic support. His record is mixed. I think we will have a scorecard coming out on this current congress. I think he actually scores pretty well on our scorecard this go around. A lot of people do. It is a matter of what he leads with, what he talks about on the campaign trail. He does not talk about the life issue or natural marriage which is overwhelming supported in the state of louisiana. Those are issues that people are increasingly concerned about when you juxtapose that to the policies of this administration. They want someone especially in the senate it is to represent the state. They want someone that is going to mix it up with the administration. They know that is not what louisiana wants. I do not think they necessarily see that in bill cassidy. On the issue of marriage, some polls show an increasing acceptance of gay marriage. States slowly adding to the role of those who legalize gay marriage, Supreme Court decisions, etc. I know your organization is not in support of legalizing gay marriage. Do you feel like youre fighting an uphill battle . I know some states are still opposed. Overall in the United States, especially amongst young people who will eventually become voters and eventually run legislatures and become the ruling group, they are accepting of it. How does your group it into that . How do you think about that moving forward . What we have seen in states that defined marriage as between a man and woman. It is either been opposed by the courts or the legislature, not the people. We have seen low hanging fruit for those who want to redefine marriage. Just this last week, out of indiana and committee advanced a marriage amendment that now goes to the house floor in the indiana legislature. One of the last easier states i think for those that support natural marriage. That puts us at about 30 states that have definitions of marriage in their state constitution. To the young people. You have to look at not a snapshot. As people get older, when you look at one segment of the 1829, the viewpoints you hold, do you have the same views you had on everything you had at that age . Not really. Things change. I tell you a change for me. When i was 29 and i had my first child. My first daughter was born. A change for me. You start thinking about things differently. You buy your first house. He start picking different about tax structure in savings. You start thinking about the cultural capital. You the about what environment youre bringing them into. We are starting to start seeing the consequences eared it is no longer a theoretical consequences. It is no longer a theoretical idea. You see photographers being called into court, being forced out of business, fined. A photographer may be on the Supreme Court because of the religious convictions. Where were at today is not going to be where they are, the trends or trajectory, may not necessarily be that of tomorrow. When people begin to see the consequences of this, some will step back and say this is not what we signed up for. Hindsight is 20 20. You look back at some of your socially conservative organizations that you look at the trends, some of it is generational and sometimes people change their minds. Do you think maybe we should have done Something Different to persuade people . Im not going to concede this point. Ask theds on how you question. A lot of questions are leading in terms of the phrasing. Most people are not a criminal. When do you believe the marriage a union of a marriage and a woman, theres almost a 10 point shift. When you see the question of do you believe marriage is a man and a woman, there is roughly 52 to 65 of the american public. That is not that much. Theres one thing i probably wouldve advocated for more aggressively was back in 2004 when the republicans controlled the senate. There was the push for a marriage amendment. There were some that wanted an amendment that included both the definition of marriage and the prohibition that may have been marriage like. I advocated for a one sentence marriage in the United States union between a marriage and a woman. In hindsight, had that been the language that we would have passed it back then. That is the one point i would have gone back and change. Looking for work, would you be talking to leaders but making that a priority . I just think at this point in time you will see that. What you may see is more of a constitutional kind of doma which allows the states we saw introduced in the house. We saw the defense of marriage provision that allows the state as the Supreme Court did. The decision this summer has been misconstrued. It only shut down one of the two portions of doma. One being what the federal governments definition of marriage. There could be a move to provide that type of protection for the states from a constitutional perspective. Do we get there . That depends on the outcome. Before we leave this issue, it was over this issue that your office had a very frightening incident with a shooter coming in intending to do harm. The person has been sentenced to 25 years. Is there a big ramp up over social issues over the next election cycle . Is anything either site can do to encourage to discourage violence . What makes our system work is we can have a discussion about why we think something works. We make our best arguments. And we have to live with the consequences. That does not mean they are stagnant or they never change. It is an ongoing process. If we lose the ability to have debates and a representative form of government that we have, we will have destroyed our country. That is the biggest concern i have, whether it is through the fear of intimidation of someone coming in your building. Or it is silencing the debate through intimidation or cutting people out of the process. I do not think anyone would disagree. Can leaders of organizations do anything more proactively than they are to discourage it . We have repeatedly said that we do not believe in violence and speak out when it does occur. I do not frankly see a lot of that type of rhetoric coming from conservative organizations. I do not see it from the mainstream liberal organizations either. I do see it from some activists like the southern poverty law center. I would not say that on either side there is a move toward violence. I do think it gives rise to it when there are those that are wanting to shut off one side of the debate. When you bottle up things that people are very passionate about, it will come out somewhere. The best thing we can do is have an open, free, fair debates. I had a question about elections. Youll be supporting candidates with strong records on social issues like abortion and gay marriage. The sense i am getting from the Republican Party is that as we talked about earlier, theyre hoping for more of an emphasis on things other than social issues. Does it put you at odds with the mainstream Republican Party . How are conversations between you and the mainstream . We are concerned with more than just the issue of abortion and natural marriage. We are concerned about tax structure. As a father of five children and one who encourages married couples to have kids, it is going to cost a lot. We are concerned about education. There is a whole range of issues that we are concerned about. At the top of the list is religious freedom. We do want to see candidates. You said something that is very important. It is not what candidates say about the issues, it is their record. Past performance is a pretty good indicator of future performance. We do look at that. Are we at great odds with the republican establishment . Some. Again, it goes to that tension. The establishment may control a lot of the dollars, but the social, cultural conservatives really are the numbers. The ones who turn out and make a difference. Do you see a little bit of the divide when it comes this very issue within the Republican Party . Would they like to have more emphasis on social issues and those who want to keep . It is a natural tension. This is my primary issue. Social issues, foreign, domestic. We all need one another to be successful in this process. If you saw off one of the legs, you will be teetering a bit. How important is a personal life of a candidate . Those are sometimes hard to put on a scorecard. I do not buy into this idea that you have a personal life and a public life. It is a false dichotomy. You are who you are. When the pressures come, more of what you are is going to come forward. In some cases, that has some politicians exposed. At the point of exposure, they have said i messed up. I take responsibility. They have stepped forward and taken responsibility. Some of your business. Nonenonstarter is that is of your business. That is my personal life. At that point i say you are wrong. Does this affect your opinion of david . I know him personally. Back when the things came forward that he was involved in, he used a phrase that had not been used before in the city in a long time. He said i sinned. I think people were breaking out the dictionary to see what that meant. He was taking ownership. I know his wife wendy. I believe he is dealt with those issues. I believe he is on the right track. I do think he will always have that cloud over him. People will be watching him closely. They have the right to do it. When you do Something Like that, you open yourself up to greater scrutiny and criticism. These issues have been dealt with. He is now on the right track. Just like everybody else, this is something that will constantly be there. The Affordable Care act a couple of questions starting with the Supreme Court review. There was the case of funding abortion coverage. What is at stake . It is huge. It is absolutely huge. This is a fundamental issue of religious freedom. If you go back to samuel huntington, the former deceased professor, in his book he talked about the protestant work ethic and how that really made america distinct from others. What was intertwined is at work was an extension of ones worship. It was part of their religious conviction that they did work for the glory of god. That is at stake here. You cannot bring your faith into the workplace if you are an employer. Some are saying it is about contraception. That is not my issue. What is at stake is a fundamental right of religious freedom. The president talks about the freedom of worship. That is a truncated view of religious freedom. There is a lot at stake in this hobby lobby case that will have repercussions for generations to come. Are there other specific aspects of the Affordable Care law you think are worthy of a Court Challenge . The first one lost. I think the whole thing is worthy of a challenge. I understand that. The taxpayer funding of abortion aspect is inconsistent with other policies passed by congress. I think the mandates on employers. They have been made legally right does not make them morally right. People will continue to be upset that the government is forcing them to buy a product. Congress has just reconvene for the second session. What should be some of the priorities for republicans moving forward . We have not seen a lot out of this congress. That is probably not bad. A gridlock has its advantage. I may be biased because of my time in State Government. I think the State Government and legislatures are in a row laboratories of democracy and policy. Creative ideas come forth from the states. I really see a lot of what happens in the city as more of defensive of keeping the federal government from meddling too much in the business of the state. I am not optimistic that under the current imbalance that we are going to get anything out. I think we can contain spending, not grow our debt at the rate we have been growing it at, obviously we have been very concerned about the religious freedom aspect. I am not optimistic that with harry reid in the senate and republicans controlling the house that we will get an agreement. I think it is more a defensive posture. Lets talk 2016 politics. You mentioned governor bobby jindhal. If he decides to run for president , would you support him . Question. Is not there. Thats not a fair question. The challenge of having been near a decade and having made some really great friends. Rick santorum is a good friend of mine. Mike huckabee is a good friend of mine. I am far at a point from saying who i would support. Of any of those i mentioned, and i would throw Michele Bachmann in there to make a bid to any of those would certainly be welcome by me. Is anyone that has been mentioned that there is absolutely you would not support . Not who you mentioned. What about Chris Christie . It is a repeat of 2012. I did everything i legally could to help mitt romney. We did more in our pac and our c4 than he did in 2004 for george bush reelection. We knew what was at stake. In the end, we cannot convince social conservatives to vote for him and the numbers that he needed. The reason is they were not convinced that he was who he said he was because of his past record. They were not comfortable with him. The same thing with john mccain. You got to have someone they believe in. Same thing with Chris Christie . I believe so. Thank you. We are back after a conversation with tony perkins. This morning on cspan, bill kristol made the observation that in the old days the parties used to be bigger on both sides. Theyre much more ideologically driven. You are both very interested on the supremacy of ideas in the Republican Party, whether the fiscal conservatives or social conservatives are going to have the louder voice. What did you take away from the conversation . It sounds of like social conservatives are still trying to find their voice within the Republican Party. It was notable that he like michelle bachmann, mike huckabee. It is looking less likely that these are the top tier of republicans. There are not that Many RepublicanNational Figures that fill that void. You could tell with the debate over gay marriage that they have the upper hand on that issue. You can see the challenges facing the social conservative movement. Thats true within the party right now. Theres one set of the party that believes they can win by subduing the conservative issues. Social conservatives believe the opposite. If you heard him talk about mitt romney and john mccain, he believes they could not win over social conservatives. It is two schools of thought. They are not backing down on this. They will not support a candidate like Chris Christie during the republican primary at least because they do not believe they will bring out the base. That is part of the reason we know that romney and mccain were not able to win. The last time social conservatives ideology was really pushed in the Republican Party back in 2004, remember Terri Schiavo . They intervened. Those kinds of things did not help the party. They lost very badly in the following elections. Democrats are able to take control of the house. There is a strong memory of that still. That is one of the reasons social conservative issues have been quite dormant in the house. We heard evidence of that just by talking to him about that issue. I do not think they will this year. I think it will be a struggle. The interesting thing about his view of congress, he is happy with a donothing congress. Congress has single digit ratings. Is his view shared among conservatives that it is Better Congress is an active . Absolutely. A lot of republican theory is that federal government should do less and should not be intervening in peoples lives. They should not be passing as many bills as theyre passing, whereas democrats believe the opposite. Democrats are in the majority. Theyre in session more. They believe it is the role of government to help people. Republicans believe conservative republicans lets stay out of peoples lives. When he said gridlock is not a bad thing, i think you would hear the speaker of the house say the same thing. They do not believe the idea of congress to keep passing laws in their view getting in the way a peoples lives. They believe the state have the state should have more control. Social conservatives will not get anything passed through a democratcontrolled senate. It is a challenging times it you might as well hope nothing on the socially liberal side of the equation happens. We did not talk too much about fiscal issues. He referenced they were important. The next one facing the congress is the debt ceiling. It looks like the date has been advanced. What is ahead with congress on the fiscal issues . The majority leader of the Senate Last Week said it may was the actual time the debt ceiling was going to become a real threat. The treasury secretary said it was february 7. He just reiterated that in a letter sent yesterday. February 7 is the day they want to have this nailed down. You probably will have congress arguing about it through february. I am not sure they will come up with a deal right away. Republicans want something out of it. They want something that leads to a more fiscally responsible government