Sessions: 'Lazy, Undisciplined' Candidates Hurting Republican Party

Rep. Pete Sessions is blaming "lazy, undisciplined" candidates – including one-time presidential hopeful Mitt Romney – as the cause of the GOP's recent election defeats.

"Mitt Romney appeared like a kid who showed up for his science project and the teacher said, 'Explain it,' and Mitt couldn't do it," the Texas Republican said earlier this week, according to D Magazine. "His 'dad,' Paul Ryan, explained it to him, but Mitt didn’t get it . . . That’s why we lost the last election."

Not only did Romney lose big, but Republicans gave up seats in the House and Senate.

Sessions, who chairs the House Rules Committee and also presided over last year's House campaigns as head of the National Republican Congressional Committee, said there also were plenty of other GOP candidates who didn't measure up.

"We are winning when we have good candidates," Sessions said at a congressional briefing hosted by the National Center for Policy Analysis in Dallas. "We lose when we have bad candidates."

Some Republicans, he added, "didn't know what they were talking about and shot their mouth off."

He pointed to the Missouri Senate race, in which GOP Rep. Todd Akin made his much-reported comment about "legitimate rape." Sessions said incumbent Democrat Claire McCaskill should have been beaten by Akin.