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On today's "Washington Unplugged," former House Speaker Newt Gingrich sat down with CBS News' Bob Schieffer to discuss the future of the Republican Party and President Obama's budget.

Gingrich believes that the Republican Party deserved the trouncing it has received in the two most recent elections. He saw the electoral results not as a repudiation of conservative ideology, but as a failure on the part of his party to deliver for the American people.

"It got off track, it failed to perform, and it got fired," Gingrich said of his party. "That’s the great genius of America, if you don’t do your job, the customer gets to choose somebody else."

Gingrich argued that President Obama's budget pushed the country in a left-wing direction and was the "boldest effort" to remake America since Lyndon Johnson's "Great Society." But the former speaker was emboldened. He believes that Mr. Obama's ambitious agenda provides ample opportunities for Republicans to define themselves as the loyal opposition and return their party to its core principals.

You can watch the whole show, with the Gingrich interview, an interview with author and former Army Captain Craig Mullaney and a roundtable with CBS News Political Director Steve Chaggaris and Washington Post White House reporter Michael Fletcher, below.

In this week’s installment of CBSNews.com’s Web-exclusive show “Washington Unplugged,” Chief Washington Correspondent Bob Schieffer and his guests weigh in on the issues which are dogging the District.

First, Schieffer sits down with Newt Gingrich, former Speaker of the House and Republican Party icon, to discuss the future of the GOP and The Conservative Political Action Conference.

Then, Former Army Captain Craig Mullaney will stop by to talk about his critically acclaimed memoir “The Unforgiving Minute,” in which he examines the difference between what soldiers are taught in the classroom and the lessons they learn in war.

In the roundtable segment, Schieffer will talk to CBS News Political Director Steve Chaggaris and Washington Post White House reporter Michael Fletcher about President Obama’s speech to Congress and their projections for the national budget.

Finally, in a Washington Unplugged Special, Congressman Ron Paul speaks out about Obama’s decision to raise troop levels in Afghanistan, calling the plan “a disaster.” Paul says economic recovery could take “a decade” and discusses the prospects of a 2012 presidential campaign.

To catch all this week’s action, be sure to log onto CBSNews.com/washingtonunplugged Friday around 2 p.m.