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romney. the real winner is big money. super pac spending has eclipsed the total spent during the entirety of the 2008 election. the store as super pacs play an ever increasing role in the republican party and becomes clear that problem president obama will need the help of his super pac or the one associated with him. what happens after that? romney's nail-biting victory in ohio seems to be a victory bought by super pac and great amounts of it. he was outspend by romney, 12-1, even though more reliable numbers put it at 5-1. and in total super pacs

supporting republican candidates, they have spent $66 million all surpassing the amount spent in the 2010 elections as well as the total spent by the nrc in the 2008. but some states are avoiding being bought off. voters in 53 vermont towns passed anti-citizens united resolutions supporting the constitution. so the corporations do not have the first amendment rights as people and therefore cannot donate unlimited funds to super pacs. although the resolution was unbinding it was a first step to similar resolutions: i asked about that, and joining me now, former deputy white house press secretary bill burton.

>> thanks for having me on. >> my pleasure. let me ask a question that i've already ask. if the super pac gets an anti-super pac re-electioned will he really want to eliminate super pacs and will he be able to eliminate them. >> yes. it's not that he has a self interest in making sure that this broken system keeps on going. secondly. democrats have demonstrateed that it's a great bill that if passed and signed into law by the president would have a big impact on how this is all--how these all operate. third, the big difference in this election is that on the republican side they look at the system, and they say yeah, that's how a campaigns ought to operate. but on the flip side there are leaders fighting against this, and the president of the united states is for reform where individuals can't have the outside impact that you've seen

them have in this race. >> there is nobody to their knowledge who might want to succeed in president in the year year 2016 who goes to him and says, wait a minute, you found the universal solvent and the unbeatable weapon, don't destroy it. i need it in 2016. >> well, for starters, i don't--i don't have a crystal ball. i don't know who is going to run and win in 2016. secondly, i think the president's commitment to reform has been made pretty clear. he has pushed for campaign finance reform and he'll continue to push for campaign finance reform. if we get a democratic senate and with the president we'll have campaign finance reform. >> do you look at this with anxiety by an unpractical level by some of the president supporters with some understanding and is there a way for the president himself to make this ease year for them by campaigning on the anti-super

pac measures or anything that would bar another president's line crystal clear. >> i don't anybody doubts that bernie sanders and russ feingold have strong feelings about that. we're democrats and we're used to disagreeing with each other from time to time. whether or not we have to play by the rules or set up a different set of standard for democrats. but at the end of the day you know, we don't have a choice about what the rules are right now. the supreme court made it's decision. mitt romney made it crystal clear how important super pacs are to him. conventional wisdom is all wrong. people think that santorum and guinn's campaigns would not have survived out super pac. the truth is mitt romney would not still be in this race out a super pac. if votes have gone another way in michigan and ohio, rick santorum would be the presumptive nominee right now. and santorum should have had the sense to put more money into

ohio and get the 12,000 votes he needed to win that state. but instead because of the campaign he has been running he hasn't been able to beat mitt romney. at the end of the day we know what campaign reform would look like under romney. he likes the system as it is. it helped him to get on on the path of nominee. president obama is going to keep fighting for reform and he'll get it. >> this is the devil's advocate question. and if the republicans are going to use the super pacs the way they have so far in the primary into the general election, is there no other way for the president to get re-elected than to have a super pac supporting him? >> if you look at 2010 republicans outspend democrats 2 to 1. they outspent us, and it was six lost seats in the senate and our

country almost went bankrupt. planned parent was defunded. we know the results of what happens when you don't put a team on the field to engage here. we thought, look, we can stand on the sidelines. we can let this all happen like it has happened before, and not play by the same set of rules, but we chose to fight back. to stand up and say karl rove you don't get a separate set of rules to play by because we'll make sure that the president is defended. >> bill burton, always a pleasure, bill. thank you for your time tonight. >> thanks, keith. good to talk to you. >> as the president pushes new forms of energy-like algae based fuel, newt gringrich tries to mock him over it. unfortunately, mr. gingrich cannot answer this question. think about this over the next few minutes. what is crude oil in the ground made of? the answer is not dinosaurs.

>> senator bernie sanders and now newt gringrich doesn't seem to know what gasoline is made of. and since 2007 through his investment firm the owner of the tops company since i consult on his baseball issues, he's kind of my boss. happy bird michael--happy birthday, michael isner. >> happy tortoise day. the minor leader is walking around with not one but two heads. very bizarre for the senator from kentucky. two heads are better than one. and it's the houston livestock

rodeo. something has to be known as mutton busting, and it seems to be a game for the sheep, only they call it kid smashing where they run into their friends with a kid on their back. finally we end with a number. say what you will. i think this is elton john's strangest outfit yet. weirder than the donald duck outfit ♪ howling to piano music] >> that's a dog playing the piano. both the original howells and howls and music were written by himself. how long does he go welcome time marchs on. [howling to piano music] >> limbaugh's ratest attack and

what i want to do to raising the bar about verbal public abuse towards women and men. is on the new news network. >>it is an independent progressive voice and i love that. >>jennifer granholm joins current tv. a former two term governor.

>> know matter what time you're watching, "countdown" is live with the primary replay at 8:00 pacific and the longest news running on cable unless you consider fox news. newt gringrich taking his campaign on high cost of

gasoline. he fabricate his own version of what president obama said. >> i thought today in one of the most shallow and self-serving comments by a president that i've heard in a long time he was candidate in his press conference. he said, you know, i'm really worried about higher gas prices because it will make it harder for me to get re-elected. i did not make this up. >> actually, you did. must have been during gingrich's nap. here's what president obama said when he asked the loaded question by fox news' ed henry. >> your critics will say on capitol hill that you want gas prices to go higher because you said before that will wean the american people off of fossil fews on to renewable fuel. >> just as president, you think a president running for re-election wants the gas prices to go up higher? is there anybody here who thinks

that makes sense? >> and he would use his speech to drill away to satiate the country's energy needs. >> the president said we have to be practical, drilling won't solve it. then he offered his practical solution. anybody hear remember what it was? algae. algae. >> that's just in mr. science. the oil in that ground under all them rocks and stuff. that's made up of decomposed animal and plant material compressed for many years. it's mostly plankton and algae. today at a truck plant in north carolina, the president announced a plan of tax incentives and credits and accused gingrich being full of gas. >> the next time you hear some politician trotting out some three-point plan for $2 gas you let them know we know better.

tell them we're tired of hearing phoney election-year promises that never come about. >> let's bring in senator bernie saunders. and of course the member of the caucus. good to talk to you as always. >> good to be with you, keith. mr. gingrich is only in the forefront of the republicans blaming the president for the price of gas. i want to start by playing a montage from 2008 when gas spiked during an election, it's highest price in the last six years. this is dawn from an unusual source for me, but i'll play it and see if you agree with me. >> the facts are as you suggested no president has the power to increase or to lower gas prices. those are market forces. >> yesterday, oil hit a record high and politicians cannot do a thing about it. >> it will really tough for this president. i have to be honest because he does not have what's going to happen with the market and the economy and oil prices and supply and demand with gasoline.

>> the next time you hear a politician say he or she will bring down oil prices, understand it's complete bs. that's what the candidates should be seeing. we need a strong leader who is honest smart courageous. >> senator, bill o'reilly is right. [chuckling] >> well, i guess that's true. for george w bush. >> yeah, yeah. >> go ahead. >> it does sort of underscore a point that whether or not you can blame a president for the price of gas depends on which party you're speaking from and about. >> right, well, this is what i do think. i think, keith we should understand that one of the reasons that oil prices are spike right now have a lot to do with speculation. and what we know is that about 80% of the oil future's market is controlled not by people who

actually use oil airlines and truckers and, etc. but wall street speculators. one way that the president could play a role, it's not going to solve all of the problems, is to decommand ma the commodity commission trading commission to act decisively and do what they were supposed to do a year ago that is to end oil speculation. and if we do that oil prices would drop to some degree. >> you addressed that at the house committee hearing that you attended today. how is it done on the good will of the president. how do you make that happen. >> here is the story. part of the financial reform bill language was put in that legislation telling the appropriate agency, which is the commodity trading commission that they have to end excessive speculation in commodities. they were supposed to have done

that a year ago january. they haven't done it yet. so the law is that they haven't acted. i believe, and i've got 25 signatures from senators on a letter telling the chairman to start obeying the law to start ending excessive speculation on the oil futures market. i think it would be a great idea. the president gave the chairman a ring and told to get moving on that. >> i want to hearken back on my segment with bill burton. do you trust the president to use the super pacs to get re-elected and then do his best to kill super pacs? >> you know, i think the president, as mr. burton indicated, is in a tough position. if you were standing there understanding that you got billionaires and large corporations who are prepared to spend hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars in ugly tv ads and radio ads, what do you do?

i hope very much that the president will come out and say what many of us want him to say. is that we need a constitutional amendment, i offered one others have offered one to overturn citizens united which is the worst supreme court decision we've seen in this country in a very long, long time, opening the floodgates to cooperate money, to billionaire money, and it having an absolute disastrous impact on the political process. what i'm very proud to tell you in my state of vermont just yesterday 60 separate towns voted to urge the congress to overturn citizens united. i hope the rest of the country joins us, and we can do that. >> the independent senator from sermon, bernievermont. thank you. >> mitt romney is or was, rush

limbaugh's boss. coming up.

>> limbaugh goes after another woman another innocent bystander. and i'll explain what powers has to do with michelle >> rush limbaugh finds another woman to pick on, advertisers condition their exodus, and just follow the money. in our number two stories, rush limbaugh's public mea culpa not only the words he used in describing sandra fluke, it has not stopped his radio show from hemorrhaging ad dollars. 45 companies have withdrawn their support today. and mitt romney describes the remarks as not the language he would have used. andin 2008, bain company the firm

that romney ran in the late 90s, records show 14 of the company's distributors have contributed to romney campaigns. romney left that firm but still rakes in millions from his shares of bain investments and pays 15% tax. and >> i can't think of a single redblooded american male who wouldn't surrender to any woman in a war. here, take me prisoner. i'm all yours. this whole motion on war on women is so con contrived. >> not just sexist but stupid. keep digging that hole. he went on to describe to tracie macmillan's book. >> what is it with all of these young single white women over educated, doesn't mean

intelligent. >> and the chairman of the armed services committee said he would like to see the rush limbaugh dropped from radio and tv programming offered to american service members around the globe saying, i would hope people running it would see how offensive this and drop it on their own initiative. good to see you. let's talk about his next victim ms. macmillan. you know her very well. >> i was struck by this. she was my intern in 1998. just the most out outstanding courageous woman. she put herself through nyu. she had no other sources of support. she would work for me in a free internship all day long a few days a week, then she would tutor the children of a millionaire who used to be a high-level official in the lindsay administration, would tutor those kids every night to

make her money to keep herself you know, eating at all in the american way. and you know, i have known her over the years. i saw her a couple of months ago because her book just came out. and she is just the most remarkable person. and to see these kinds of attacks on her, everybody who has ever known tracie macmillan has known what an un unbelievably courageous woman she is. >> and now about romney and limbaugh. we know there would have been a straight line between them through bain capital in 1998. but how extreme is that now. >> look, this merger is the biggest merger bain has done, and bain has an enormous investment in it. this is really his network. this is--the people who were giving to romney that were

involved, there are directors of this company, these are people who started giving to him in 1994. this is a group of people--this is a social and economic network that is surrounding clear channel that is deeply involved in clear channel, these are his friends and allies going back to the very beginning of his political career. and they have an investment. he indirectly because of his continuing relationship with bain, but they have the most direct investment, and this is one of their largest if not their largest investment. >> so is it then a surprise that romney said anything critical? because it would seem he would be in a huge position to hurt himself by sayinging is seriously critical. >> who knows what he meant by this isn't the language i would have used? i wouldn't have called measure a whore? whore. [laughter] >> does the connection matter to republican voters.

>> i don't think it matters to the republican voters. i think it will matter to the general electorate. what seems to matter in the long haul what matters this is a moment of abject cowardice. $700,000 coming into his campaign from directors? lawyers who did this, all the lawyers who did this deal are from his law firm that oversees his blind trust and all five gave to him. they were all involved in doing this merger. this is a social and economic family that is involved with clear channel, it's a gigantic deal. whether or not that explains the language that came out of his mouth about this, who can say what the motive it. but the abject cowardice of this is clear to everybody who is watching. maybe that doesn't matter to

someone in in the suburbs of cleveland who votes in a republican primary, but i think certainly it's going to wound him in the long haul. >> especially perhaps to democrats between now and then. wayne barrett, thank you for coming in. >> thank you. >> the limbaugh embarrassment some other guy said some bad things, too. the some other guy responds next.

the newest voice in cable news is on the new news network. >>jennifer granholm joins current tv. this former two term governor is

[ male announcer ] this is lawn ranger -- eden prairie, minnesota. in here, the landscaping business grows with snow. to keep big winter jobs on track at&t provided a mobile solution that lets everyone from field workers to accounting, initiate, bill and track work in real time. you can't live under a dome in minnesota that's why there's guys like me. [ male announcer ] it's a network of possibilities -- helping you do what you do... even better. ♪ ♪ >> lastly, a promising note regarding the limbaugh fluke controversial. some has been directed at me. the false equivalentcy was from the house liberals on fox news.

as limbaugh himself now claims he was thinking like a democrat, the argument reverberating around the right wing echo chamber is it standard defense for anybody? somebody else on the other side once did fill in the blank two and did it worse. when our guy did it was less heinous. i've read modern day conservatives claim they should not be criticized because the klu klux klan was founded by a democrat. if we're going to treat that kind of distant history as relevant we should note not one of the founding fathers was a member of the republican party or did any republicans fight in the revolutionary war. because the republican party was not founded until 1854. but i digress. in the desperate spin on limbaugh behalf i've been accused of using similar language against michelle malki

malkin. and cudd. they were part of the dialogue. they were not private citizens with a brief tip into the toe of cultural pool only to find themselves dragged into the deepened day after day with attacks by rush limbaugh. in this case. miss cupp she was randing about planned parent hold. i tweeted, on so many levels she's a perfect demonstration of the necessity of the work plan parent planned hasn't hood does. kristin powers transformed that in saying keith olbermann has said cupp should have been aborted by her parents. which is a bald face lie. i didn't say she needed

abortion. only counseling. 97% of what planned parenthood does is healthcare and the like, and ms. cupp's could have used somebody's help in determining how they could improve their chances of raising a well adjusted child or whether they should have had children at all. was it a nice thing to say? no. was it sexist? hardly. and because that have i had no idea that cupp was a woman and the suggestion that her parents should not have been parents or that they did a housey job raising a child is not gender specific. but because i called michelle malkin a mashed up bag of meat. i called michelle bachmann a mashed up bag of meat--i didn't call either of them a mashed up

bag of meat. malkin replying that she was responsible for elementary kids singing a song in new jersey. as if this were fact, called indoctrination. in hours they were receiving death threats. i called malkin knee jerk hatred in which case malkin is usual mashed up meat with lipstick. and it's not my line. one mistake i make, i assume that viewers know the same cultural references that i know. the reference to a big mashed up bag of something is from the brilliant hbo seriesest" bound and down." here is the exact scene.

>> you'll never believe who is sitting in front of me. [bleep] yeah that's him. he looks like a big bag mashed up-- >> the big bag of mashed you have or his. in the next scene he socks the guy who called him that. by the time i said if it weren't for hatred, michelle malkin would be just a big bag of mashed up meat i had used it six times. we would use highlights of a football player and i would say he looks like a big mashed up bag of tom brady. you could argue that he looked like a big mashed up bag of something is uncouth but it does not imply violence. and if you say it about 12 guys and one woman it is not not

mysognistic. i think limbaugh's remarks were so low that it took 45 sponsor bailouts before limbaugh realized he was near it or crossed it by 45 miles. i want to raise that standard. i think from now on we need to be extra vigilant. so in either case where my remarks were mis i apologize to both of them both. i'm going to try to raise my standard about not using gratuitously abusive remarks about women and men. i'm going to suspend the worst person segment again. i challenge all political and cultural commentators to raise their standards, too.