I would prefer the teacher to focus on teaching and have a security officer worry about keeping the kids safe.

Republicans also have to start to look at talent recruitment. Eight years ago Barack Obama was a no-name state senator. So I think we need to look outside the Beltway and start to look at a younger, more diverse pool of people and tap them to run for office instead of continuously tapping the same type of self-funder individual that Republicans seem to go after every time.

I think the liberals are going to try to blame - and they already are - this entire mess on the right and on President [George W.] Bush. I think Republicans dropped the ball on actually articulating why we got into this economic mess, but it's not too late.

Can I give a little advice to the old man on Capitol Hill? Stop saying teabagger. Ask your younger staffers what it means.

I also think the party needs to work on a couple different fronts. There are so many fault lines within the party: conservative vs. moderate, the more fiscally minded Republicans vs. the more socially minded Republicans, the Old Guard - the sort of Newt Gingrich-Karl Rove Republican - vs. the New Guard - the Michael Steele-Sarah Palin sort of emerging sect of the party. And the party has to decide what direction it's going to go in.

I would prefer the teacher to focus on teaching and have a security officer worry about keeping the kids safe.

Play small ball. Get back to basics. I would say that you need to be a conservative, but you need to maintain your independent streak.