"What about the electoral college... to make them proportional... If it were done nationally, Mitt Romney would have been taking the oath of office...

Barbour:

"States have the right to do that... "

Mitchell:

"Doesn't this make it look as though the Republicans are trying to game the system? Isn't it a bad tactic for the Republican party to take... ?"

Barbour:

"I don't know how you can ask that question when you in the immediate previous breath told me that the Republicans aren't even gonna let it out of committee... Maybe there's somebody in Virginia who happens to be a Republican, but when some Democrat offers some stupid legislation that the Democrats won't let out of committee, usually the Democratic party doesn't have to answer for what can't get out of committee."

Mitchell:

"... Other states are proceeding: Republican legislatures in Michigan, in Pennsylvania, in Ohio are proceeding with it. I'm just asking, is this the right move for the party nationally?"

Barbour:

"Well as I said, I would not be for it. I don't think there's any sort of national movement, and you've sort of convinced me that in Virginia, there may not even be any state movement, it may be an isolated legislator.... But I think it is wrong to judge it that there is some big Republican conspiracy to try to change this."

"The Supreme Court has already ruled in the Heller case that there can be exceptions, that the DC gun law was unconstitutional but other assault weapon bans might not be unconstitutional, so the Constitution does not preclude other restrictions on guns and background checks and other measures that are being considered and that have widespread support. Do you think that Republicans should take a closer look at some of these other options in the aftermath of Newtown?"

Barbour then started babbling about "mentally ill, deranged people," or as I call it, Haley Barbour.