On the other side: House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., who recently rallied for a recasting of the party's image and endorsed immigration principles of the Dream Act; former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who last summer turned a corner on "hyper-partisan" politicians and called the GOP "shortsighted;" and Gov. Bobby Jindal, R-La., who at a Republican retreat in January said, "We've got to stop being the stupid party," and called on his fellow conservatives to start talking "like adults."

Former Gov. Haley Barbour, R-Miss., who rushed to condone Jindal's sentiment, told Politico recently there's too much at stake for a badly splintered Republican Party.

"We all need to be singing from same hymnal," he said. "When the other side has the megaphone of the White House, it makes it all the more important that your side sticks together on message and has more message discipline. We have to have moderate Republicans, conservative Republicans, neo-con Republicans, Tea Party people all saying, 'Here are the thing we agree on and that we should emphasize.'"