Vice President Joe Biden said on Sunday that he knew a dozen Republican senators and up to 36 Republican House members who would be willing to work with President Barack Obama after he is reelected.
Appearing on MSNBC's "Hardball" after a campaign rally in Ohio, Biden echoed the president's theory that Republicans' "fever" of opposition would "break" if they won a second term.
"I think you're going to see, 'Well, Obama is reelected. The idea that we can't let that happen is done.' Now it is going to be, 'OK man, we just got to get something done.'"
Biden was close to naming Republicans who would be willing to reach across the aisle, but he stopped himself. "I'm not going to tell you who. I've already been talking [to people]," he said.
He did, however, put a number on it.
"There still are some solid Republican conservatives who understand what principled compromise means and are not wrapped up in ideological purity," he said. "I think there are a dozen Republican senators, and I think I can name you two and a half, three dozen Republican House members who once this election is over, they kind of get a get out of jail free card."
"Because up to now it has been, if you don't stick with this hard-right edge thing, we are going to primary you," he said. "The fever breaks."
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