Axelrod: Congressional Republicans in 'Thralls of This Reign of Terror from the Far Right'

President Obama’s chief campaign strategist said on CNN Sunday that many Republicans in Congress are “in the thralls of this reign of terror from the Far Right” that keep them from cooperating on Obama’s legislative aims.

David Axelrod said on “State of the Union” that Obama had kept his promise to push comprehensive immigration reform in his first term, but it was blocked by the GOP.

“The nature of Washington is not monolithic opposition to everything the chief executive wants to do as a political strategy. And that is what happened here. It was disappointing,” Axelrod said. “I believe when the president wins re-election in the fall, there will be a new opportunity to get this done.”

He added that “to say because you have an implacable group of Republicans in the Congress, who simply aren’t going to let that move, that the president hasn’t kept his promise, is a little bit disingenuous.”

“I think a lot of Republicans in Congress want to cooperate and know better, but they’re in the thralls of this reign of terror from the Far Right that has dragged the party to the Right,” Axelrod said. “In your own polling and other polling, you see the Republican Party has really moved out of the mainstream.”

He noted that a CNN poll shows Obama winning by 41 points over Mitt Romney among moderates.

“And there’s a reason for that, because Governor Romney and the party has gone way out to the right,” Axelrod said. “I think that these folks are going to recognize when they lose this election that that was the wrong path to take, and now is the time for a season of cooperation.”