DNC Chair calls Romney "extreme"

Last Updated at 8:00 P.M. ET

The chair of the Democratic National Committee, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, attacked GOP presidential contender Mitt Romney for being "out-of-step" and "extreme" on Sunday's "Face the Nation."

Ahead of Tuesday's Florida primary, she said "Romney is out-of-step with the priorities of Floridians."

As for all the Republican presidential candidates, "Each of them are trying to out right-wing each other," Wasserman Schultz told "Face the Nation" host Bob Schieffer.

Also on "Face the Nation," Schieffer conducted a separate interview with her counterpart in the Republican Party, Republican National Committee chair Reince Priebus, who pushed back against Wasserman Schultz and said this election is going to be a "referendum" against President Obama.

Priebus compared Mr. Obama to the captain of the wrecked cruise ship off the Italian coast.

"Our own president who is fleeing the American people and not doing his job and running around the country campaigning," Priebus said. He is like "Captain Schettino, the captain that fled the ship in Italy.".

Priebus said President Obama has a tough reelection challenge regardless of who the Republican nominee is. "He loses every day of the week and twice on Sunday," Priebus said.

During the interview with Schieffer, Wasserman Schultz, also a congresswoman representing Florida, focused most of her attention on Romney. She said the former Massachusetts governor is a "dramatic contrast" to what President Obama offers the country.

"Mitt Romney benefits from the tax loopholes that exist today and he wants them to continue," Wasserman Schultz said. "That's the dramatic contrast" to President Obama, she said.

He is part of an "extreme Republican field" that would do nothing to "help homeowners remain in their homes," Wasserman Schultz said, referring to the high rate of foreclosures in Florida.

Knowing that a large number of retirees in Florida receive Medicare, Wasserman Schultz pointed to Romney's tenure on the board of directors of Damon Corp., which received "the largest Medicare fraud fine in history."

A spokesperson for the former Massachusetts governor hit back against Wasserman Schultz. "This is the type of criticism we have come to expect from President Obama and his liberal friends like Debbie Wasserman Schultz," Ryan Williams with the Romney campaign wrote in a statement. "It is sad when any American loses their job. Under President Obama, 25 million Americans are out of work, under-employed or have stopped looking for work."

Priebus had his own harsh words for the president. "Did he live up to the standards that Barack Obama set for himself on employment, jobs, the debt, the deficit? The answer to all of those questions is no, it has been a miserable failure and that is going to be what this election is about," Priebus said.

When asked about discussions within Republican ranks of Florida Senator Marco Rubio being picked to join the eventual GOP ticket as a vice presidential nominee, Wasserman Schultz avoiding criticizing the popular senator. Instead, she saved her critiques for the Republican presidential candidates.

"He's not going to salvage the extreme positions" of the Republican Party, she said.

Schieffer pressed Republican Party chair Priebus on the lingering impacts a bitter Republican primary will have on the eventual nominee. Priebus said tough primaries create "battle-tested" candidates.

"I think primaries work," Priebus told Schieffer. "I think they make candidates stronger and I think if you look at American history, you will see that usually winners come out of very tough primaries and they make these candidates stronger, tougher and battle-tested and I think it is great that everyone is talking about the republicans right now."