er going to solve the problem if you don't look at all of the pieces? >>tv and radio talk show host stephanie miller rounds out current's morning news block. >>you're welcome current tv audience for the visual candy.

>>sharp tongue, quick whit and above all, politically direct. >>you just think there is no low they won't go to. oh, no. if al gore's watching today... [ ♪ theme ♪ ] [ ♪ theme ♪ ] >> announcer: this is the "bill press show." >> bill: 26 minutes after the hour. judd legum from think progress stepping in studio with us in the next half hour. and we're finishing up here with dahlia lithwick from slate

magazine. dahlia what does -- what can we if anything, learn from montana and arizona about healthcare? >> not much. i think a lot of people think that the fact that john roberts voted with kennedy and the liberals means that he and kennedy are in play. and that that they may be picked out. >> bill: meaning they could validate the entire -- >> they could uphold it. >> bill: including the individual mandate. >> i think there is an equal number of people who say they did this as cover so they can now strike down the mandate. i think that's a wash. i think the fact they didn't accept the montana case tells me they don't care about the polls. they don't care about the fact that americans hate citizens united with a loading unparalleled -- with a loathing unparalleled. that can cut both ways because as we know -- >> bill: they may not care about the polls that say that most americans have some

questions about affordable care act. >> most americans hate the mandate and love the other provisions. so again it cuts both ways. >> bill: huh. and so it will come thursday, right? >> it will come thursday. >> bill: what does your gut tell you? >> you know, right now heavy on the strike down the mandate uphold everything else. how they do that, there's tricks to do that. but my gut kind of tells me exactly what it told me in march which is i don't know. >> bill: it really comes down to anthony kennedy. and maybe anthony kennedy and john roberts right? >> i think john roberts will write the opinion and go wherever kennedy takes him. >> bill: oh, boy. what an exciting time for the court watchers and for the government and for our democracy. and a supreme court that's gotten more and more power. dahlia lithwick, thank you so much for coming in. >> thank you. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show."

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(vo) and there's only one place you'll find us: >> announcer: radio meets television, the "bill press show." now on current tv. >> bill: all right. 33 minutes after the hour on a busy busy tuesday morning. tuesday, june 26. hello, everybody. welcome back to the "full court press" coming to you live from our nation's capital today and brought to you today by the international brotherhood of teamsters. the good men and women of the teamsters union under president jim hoffa giving us a fair day's work for a fair day's pay. you bet. you can find out more about their good work by visiting the web site at teamster.org. it's tuesday. here he is.

for his regular tuesday visit tuesdays with judd, executive editor of think progress. the research arm of the center for american progress. hello, judd. good morning. good to see you. >> good morning, bill. >> bill: we always advise you to make it one of your favorites. check it two or three times a day. thinkprogress.org. you keep updating stuff. >> four times a day. go crazy! >> bill: yeah. you can't just check it in the morning and think you've got the day covered. doesn't work. we've been talking judd, as everybody has been talking today about the supreme court yesterday putting off healthcare for a few days by coming out with big decisions on montana big decisions on arizona. and on the arizona, i was interested in mitt romney's response to arizona which was what? >> not much. i mean we talked about this last week about how he's really trying to be the generic

republican. he doesn't want to define himself by any issue. and so this decision came out was a big decision obviously dominating the news and he released his campaign, released a statement. it really went on all day but his campaign initially released a statement that said this is about obama's failure to lead, set etra but it didn't give any indication of do you support the decision, are you opposed to the decision, what do you think about the arizona law? none of the specifics were covered. >> bill: no. i mean -- the exchange i read with his campaign between reporters and his campaign spokesman was ludicrous in the sense they said well, the governor believes that states supports the decision because states have the right to have their own immigration policy basically. i'm not sure that's what the court said when they struck down three provisions of the law and said we'll let this one stand

but we're going to be watching to see how well you do it. so then the follow-up question was so he supports the arizona law. the governor thinks that states have the rights to -- but you think the arizona law is the right way to go. the governor thinks -- keep getting the same answer. he won't say whether he would -- on the dream act right, would he repeal it or support it. he won't say whether he would keep president obama's provisions about not deporting young people. now he won't say whether he supports the arizona law or not. what is his position on immigration? and will we ever know? >> i think you have to vote for him to find out. i think is the -- is what's going on here. what was interesting yesterday was it became such a kind of a cry from the media who i think is starting to kind of catch on to this and get sick of it that he did have to go back and

address it in the evening at a fund-raiser where he didn't -- he didn't really say what he thought of the arizona law but he did say that he wished the supreme court had given more leeway to arizona. so i think -- so i think what that's saying if you kind of read between the lines is that he didn't agree with the decision to the extent it struck down the law. if that makes sense because back in the debates when we had the series of endless republican primary debates he did say that if he was president, he would have dropped the entire case against arizona. so it seems like that would have to be the case that he wouldn't support any striking down of the law considering he would have let it go and that would have been that. >> bill: we talked last week, you at think progress and your colleagues had put out a paper

seven positions -- seven issues on which mitt romney would not take a position on. now we have eight i guess. >> we had to update it. we had to update it. and roll it back out. but yeah, this is -- this is definitely part of a long pattern. >> bill: this is his pattern now, right of criticizing obama for not showing leadership on x issue, even on the signature issue of jobs, saying that the economy tanked, fault president obama, has not come back fast enough fault president obama. but even on that, he doesn't say what he would do that would be any different other than go back to the bush policies. >> yeah. certainly, you know, he's got a tax plan and he's got a plan to or at least he says he's going to cut government spending which would actually take you the opposite way on jobs. but does he have a real good jobs plan that's different from

obama? not really. >> bill: the question to me is how long he can continue to not show his hand. and how long will the media let him get away with not taking a stand on like these seven issues saying we're going to close some tax loopholes but not saying which loopholes. we're going to close some federal agencies but never identifying the federal agencies. >> he's doing pretty well with it so far. it's been -- >> bill: why take a stand. >> yeah. even on this order that obama put out and you know, we're now up to 10, 11 days on stopping the deportations for dream eligible youth he hasn't come up with a stand on it. he's probably been asked you know 10 or 11 times by different reporters about it. certainly his campaign has been asked. and it doesn't seem to be

creating too much of an issue for him. i mean there's some rumblings of he hasn't taken a stand but i think the calculation is this better or worse than what would happen if we came out and said we were definitely against it. and i think they are -- they're coming to the conclusion that we're better off just sticking to our guns with no answer. for right now it looks like they're right. >> bill: yeah. so with that though, what he's left with is you may not know where i stand but i'm not barack obama. and that question is whether that's enough to get you across. >> i think that's what they really want. they want this to be a pure referendum against barack obama and to the extent that they can just become not barack obama

rather than mitt romney with a very detailed set of positions on immigration, on fair pay on this whole host of issues, i think they viewed that race of obama versus not obama rather than obama versus a fairly well-defined mitt romney as the better race for them. >> bill: judd legum in studio with us from thinkprogress.org. peter, i want to play the byte from last night. president obama was up in boston yesterday and several fund-raisers and he had fun with a line -- at the end of last week, the obama campaign put out an ad which went after mitt romney because as "the washington post" reported, when he was at bain capital, they were the pioneers in outsourcing jobs. and the romney campaign came back and said no, no, no, we

didn't outsource. we did something else here. president obama had fun with that last night when asked about it. >> obama: yesterday's advisors when asked about this, they tried to clear this up. by telling us there's actually a difference between outsourcing and offshoring. [ laughter ] that's what they said. you cannot make this stuff up. >> bill: you can't make it up. they said no no, no, we didn't outsource jobs. we offshored jobs. what's the difference? >> actually, this is really starting the -- with the pattern. you have this very detailed story in "the washington post," goes through three or four different companies with real detailed look at their securities filings and what kind of activity they were involved in. >> bill: they have the facts. >> the response is kind of like a nonsequitur. it is basically saying when you said outsourcing, you really should have said offshoring and therefore the whole story is

somehow discredited. but it's not really a response to were you involved in this business or not and if so, you know, what does it say about you and your positions now and there's really sort of this -- kind of response was a joke. >> bill: do they really think we're idiots? the fact that they could say no, no you used the wrong word. it is true. we sent these jobs to taiwan but we didn't outsource them. we just offshored them. we're supposed to feel better about that. it is so dumb almost, right? it defies comprehension but at the same time i guess for his supporters, his republicans say oh yeah, that's right. of course. of course. all we did was offshore. >> i think it's interesting because they really thought -- i

think that they had put bain somewhat behind them as a campaign issue especially when you had some of the democrats who were coming to his defense to a certain extent, cory booker and it sort of seemed like this isn't really working out but i think what we've seen is this isn't an issue that's going away. the more it comes out the more meat that's on the bone, it becomes a more potent, political, especially with the latest story on outsourcing and offshoring. >> bill: i gotta tell you, i hope it doesn't go away. i think president obama has to keep on this like teddy kennedy did. we're visiting with judd leg emhere on the "full court press." got a seat at the table for you. give us a call at 1-866-55-press. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show." >>sharp tongue, quick whit and above all, politically direct. >>you just think there is no low they won't go to.

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you've heard bill's views, now let's hear yours. politically direct means no b.s. just telling you what's going on in politics today. >>at the only on-line forum with a direct line to bill press. >>it's something i've been waiting for a long time. >>join the debate now.

>> announcer: this is the "full court press." the "bill press show." live on your radio and on current tv. >> bill: all right. >> bill: the fun continues in the next hour here on the "full court press." mudcat saunders, democratic strategist legendary democratic strategist coming in studio with us. he will be the "friend of bill" for the next hour and we'll be joined by frank rich who has a great article in the latest "new york" magazine about negative campaigning and why it works. and why president obama should continue to talk about bain capital. right now we have been talking supreme court activity yesterday. two decisions, one in montana one in arizona. we're visiting with judd legum for our tuesdays with judd segment here on the "full court press." judd legum from think progress

of course. judd, you've also written about -- it is an interesting phenomenon on gas prices just to get away from the court for a second. some other issues out there. who would have thunk right? they were talking about $5, $6 a gallon by july 4th. >> it was just a couple of months ago that mitt romney was out there saying barack obama is responsible for what happens on gas prices. it is his policies that are creating the gas prices and we need to hold him responsible for it. >> bill: which was not true by the way. >> and so now we've seen really since that time, the last three months, gas prices have gone down by a substantial degree. they're down around $3, $3.40 now. they're really -- projected because of increased production in the middle east, because of some weakness in europe, projected to be potentially

below $3 as we head into the summer. so interesting we've heard much, much less. you could watch cable news all day. listen to every republican out there who has their talking points on barack obama. you'll never hear about gas prices. you won't hear about him you know choking off supplies and spiking up gas prices because the gas prices aren't spiking anymore. >> bill: you'll never hear mitt romney say i criticize president obama when gas prices were going up so therefore i'm going to praise him now that they're going down. >> the reality is much of this is out of control of a president on the upside and the downside. you know it has to do with what's the production from saudi arabia, it is a world market. so i think as we see europe weaken that, drives prices down. what hasn't happened has really been any cutoff in supply domestically. in fact, obama's approved more permits, there's more production

today in the united states than there has ever been. so it really hasn't -- it is really not the case that there's some sort of crackdown on domestic production that's spiking up prices. >> bill: you and i have talked a lot about the voter i.d. laws passed by some 20 plus states around the country. eric holder is on their case now. particularly in florida. we talked about that. and what are these voter i.d.s, what is the real goal of these voter i.d. laws? they claim republicans claim it is because there's so much voter fraud out there for which there's zero evidence to back up the statement. yesterday, as you reported on think progress, the leader of the republican leader of the house in pennsylvania sort of let the cat out of the bag. his name is mike torzay and you put up this clip on think progress. which we will borrow from you and play for our viewers and listeners. >> voter i.d. which is going to

allow governor romney to win the state of pennsylvania, done. >> bill: voter i.d. which is going to allow governor romney to win the state of pennsylvania. >> really stunning because it is essentially admitting what was the biggest fear, what people might think is a paranoid fear. here it is saying it that really what this is about and to actually deliver the state of pennsylvania to mitt romney would involve a massive suppression of democratic votes and apparently at the very top of the elected republican leadership in pennsylvania, they believe that these voter i.d. laws will have the effect to suppress so many democratic votes that it will make the state competitive for mitt romney. so i don't know if he's right or not. but really that's -- that's why we spend so much time on the issue because really this issue

could swamp all of the other issues in the election. i mean if you had voter i.d. swigging pennsylvania to mitt romney the whole map changes and it becomes very difficult i think to figure out how you -- how mitt romney doesn't become president if you start throwing in the state like pennsylvania. >> bill: i just hope this gets a lot more attention. good for you for pointing this out. this really shows again what is at the heart of every one of these 20 plus voter i.d. laws. it has nothing to do with cleaning up the system. nothing to do with preventing fraud. it is all about how to find a political advantage for mitt romney and especially in states, right, where you might expect it because of the demographic to go democratic. they say no, we're going to rig the results right. we're going to change, we're going to deny people the right to vote in order to make it better shot. >> there's so much energy in

these voter i.d. efforts you know that they've scoured everything possible to find actual evidence of voter fraud and no one is ever -- has ever come up with any evidence of any systemic voter fraud. maybe one or two instances from the millions of votes of the whole country of somebody who haven't have voted voting but nothing that would suggest it is appropriate to do the actions that end up suppressing a lot of people who are fully eligible to vote. >> bill: that's gotta be it. judd legum we never have enough time. come back next tuesday. >> i'll be here. >> bill: we'll make it a date. i'll be back to tell you what the president is up to today. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show."

if you missed joy behar one week only... >>hey, time flies when you're having fun. >>don't worry because she'll be back. >>where are the lefties besides on current tv? >>joy behar is getting her own show coming to current tv this fall. [ ♪ theme ♪ ]

>> announcer: this is the "bill press show." >> bill: president obama still on the road today. leaving boston this morning and going down to atlanta georgia where he will attend two fund-raisers in atlanta georgia, early this afternoon. and then on to miami with two fund-raisers tonight. one at a private residence and second at the fillmore miami beach at the jacki gleason theatre at 8:30 tonight and then heading back to washington d.c. arriving at andrews about midnight which means the president will get back to the white house sometime a little before 12:30 tomorrow morning. mud cap saunders, "friend of bill" in the next hour. of him in fund-raising.

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[ ♪ theme ♪ ] >> bill: hey, good morning everybody. it is tuesday morning june 26. so good to see you today. thank you for joining us here on the "full court press." politically direct on current tv. you bet with all of the news of the morning. busy day at the supreme court yesterday. and in arizona the supreme court made it very, very clear they said the state of arizona, it is okay for you to discriminate as long as you stay away from those rich, fat, white people in arizona, as long as you only pick on the mexicans. then it is okay to discriminate. we'll talk about that and a

whole lot more here in our final hour together this morning. mudcat saunders, democratic strategist is our guest. frank rich from the "new yorker" magazine is here as well. first, let's find out what's really going on in the world today. she's got all of the latest news today's current news update from jacki schechner out in los angeles. hi, good morning jacki. >> good morning, bill. good morning everybody. it is primary day for 21 congressman wrangle in new york. he's facing four challengers in his newly redrawn harlem district which has more latino americans than african-americans and this could benefit his top challenger who is state senator espyiot. espyiot is going after rangel on having spent too much time in washington, d.c. and also for having been censured for ethics violations in 2010. rangel has done well for his constituents over his 21 terms and turnout if he can get his supporters to turn out for him could be key and he could win. >> we're getting conflicts reporting this morning on whether or not we'll see a

democratic convention kickoff this year in charlotte. according to bloomberg, party planners are dealing with a $27 million deficit in fundraising and are thinking about canceling the labor day event at the charlotte motor speedway. but at the same time a local charlotte paper says the democrats haven't canceled. they're just switching venues. democratic sources have denied reports they're having trouble raising money but democrats have already shortened the convention by a day supposedly to make room for celebrating carolinas virginia and the south. as bill and judd discussed earlier, in a speech over the weekend, pennsylvania state house majority leader mike said voter i.d. is going to help mitt romney win pennsylvania in november. recent changes require voters to show identification to cast a ballot and this can disproportionately affect voters students and minorities. a spokesperson said that the remarks were meant to underscore the importance of wiping out voter fraud but couldn't say if

there had been problems with voter fraud in pennsylvania in the past. we're back with more at the top of the hour. having fun. >>don't worry because she'll be back. >>where are the lefties besides on current tv? >>joy behar is getting her own show coming to current tv this fall. desk top, lab top, ipad. iphone. >> pleasant your hearts. >> the big one. >> stephanie: all i know, the little flower is there and it means go to meeting. i love go to meeting.

tonight john fugelsang is filling on viewpoint with eliot spitzer. >>that was mitt romney showing once again his fearless fear of taking a stand that helps make him all things to no people.

[ ♪ theme ♪ ] >> announcer: broadcasting across the nation on your radio >> announcer: broadcasting across the nation on your radio and on current tv, this is the "bill press show." >> bill: all right. the supreme court big decision yesterday. in montana they said no, you cannot ban corporation contributions in montana. the federal government's corrupt, federal politics is corrupt, we want state politics to be just as corrupt. that's what it sounds like. had emlow everybody. so good to see you today. big tuesday june 16th. this is the "full court press." we're booming out to you live across this great land of ours on your local progressive talk radio station and on current tv.

good to have you with us. remember you are part of the conversation. very, very much so here. give us a call on any of the issues you care about at 1-866-55-press. that's our toll free number. it is a big hour here over the final hour together on tuesday morning. and a man whom i have enjoyed for a long time, admired for a long time and turned to for some real gut check on what's happening in politics today the legendary democratic strategist mudcat saunders right here in studio with us this morning. >> good to see you bill. >> bill: nice to see you. i'm surprised this is not hunting season so you don't -- >> turkey season was just over but i've been doing a good bit of fly-fishing up until about three weeks ago. >> bill: nice you worked us into your hunting schedule. i remember one time we tried to call you and you were out in the duck blind somewhere. a deer blind.

had a good season? >> always have a good season. whether i get anything or not. i like the mountains. that's why i live there. >> bill: you're like a real hillbilly, aren't you? we talk about hillbillies. >> that's what they say. [ laughter ] i'm an irish hillbilly. it is pretty easy to describe. jim webb described as the best and born fighting when he said fight, sing, drink pray. that's what we're about. that's our culture. and -- >> bill: fight sing, drink pray. >> kind of like our show. not necessarily in that order however. [ laughter ] >> bill: peter you usually leave the last one off. we've got lots to talk about. mudcat, you're back in politics to take on eric kantor. there is a righteous cause. i want to hear about the race

and your candidate. we'll be joined by frank rich from the "new yorker" magazine. great friend and very powerful piece in this month's "new york" magazine about negative campaigning and why it works. why it's important. we'll get right into that and with mudcat and the politics of the day but first -- dan's got the big stories. >> on this tuesday other headlines making news, don't say the president never gave you anything. that's what president obama said when he treated several people to ice cream at a dairy barn on the university of new hampshire's campus yesterday in a surprise stop, he ate a hot fudge sundae himself bought his press secretary a banana split and picked up the tab for several customers assuring them it was legal for him to buy them ice cream during an election season. >> bill: i like that man. goes into an ice cream store and says anybody here, what do you want? i'm paying. >> like willy wonka. >> gives you free candy. >> bill: did he go to the bar

and buy a round after that? >> in sports if you're watching wimbledon tennis are you tired of the loud grunts on the court. they may be illegal in the future according to "usa today." the world's top tennis ruling bodies have agreed to fund the development of machines or grunt owe meters to objectively measure on-court noise by players and then penalize them if they scream too loud while hitting the ball. the new plan will take time to implement and it will not affect the current generation of players because officials thought it would be unfair to make them change their already ingrained motor skills. >> bill: why do you need a machine to test the grunt? can't the judge just sort of hear it? >> a machine is more objective than the human ear i suppose i think. >> bill: i don't know. i do think it is funny when you watch the tennis players. >> ugh! >> that's how we do the show. >> finally, 4th of july is next week. normally it is a time when gas prices shoot up but not this

year. the department of energy reports fuel prices dropped another 10 cents in just the last week and nationwide average is $3.44 a gallon. in some parts of the east coast especially in the carolinas, it is now under $3 a gallon. oil closed at just $79.21 a barrel yesterday. expected to drop again next week. >> bill: yeah. who would have thought we would see gas prices so low? this time of year. they were talking about $5, $6, $7. mudcat you've been around politics a long time. before we get into any of the particular races, how do you read the scene today? you hear a lot of talk about politics is dirtier today than it has ever been. there's more corporate money than there's ever been. what is the shape of american politics today? healthy? is it -- >> it is out of control. there's no question. that's why i got involved in this campaign that i'm involved in now. we've got a government now

that's being controlled by money. and it is time to stop it. if you look -- about every hundred years or so, it gets in this shape. if you look at the 19th century, there was andrew jackson who came on with his brand of economic fairness and with democracy-base and government-based on two founding principles, social justice for all people and economic fairness for all people. and it has just gotten to the point since the dawn of time, you know, how do i say it, the big sob has killed the little sob's butt. if you don't put checks on that, it is going to happen. that's the way it's always been during the course of history. if you go to the 20th century teddy roosevelt. put the skids on it. it is time we put the skids on it now. it is not difficult. money has taken over the system. >> bill: even more so, right

with this court and citizens united. >> it is ridiculous. what is going on in america right now is treasonnist. i will go that far to say it. you've got the eric kantors of the world. he was a minute of the virginia house of delegates. he was a backseater. i mean he was on like the shade tree committee. and what does he do? tom bliley steps down. his hand-picked successor. he buys his way to the top. eric kantor didn't get there because of ca miss -- charisma. eric kantor when he comes into a roomful of people, you feel like everybody just left. but he bought his way to the top. and i mean it is happening all the time. >> bill: and he is still corporate-owned today? >> i would say. i mean without question.

>> bill: so you got back into politics to take on eric kantor. he's the number two most powerful republican, right? or some might say the most powerful in the house of representatives. >> there is no question he's the most powerful because he's got the most money. >> bill: that's what i was going to ask you. but with that power comes that money or the money maybe comes power comes from the money. but is it -- aren't they going to spend everything they can to defend him and protect him? >> well, they can. but you know, the district he's in -- i'll tell you how i got in bill. i got a call, i was happy being at home. i had made my mind up that i was not going to do anymore campaigns unless jim webb re-entered the political arena at some time. >> bill: just so people know the background. in virginia, you ran the operation for mark warner. >> political strategist, yes. >> bill: we talked then during

that campaign. and you also ran -- did a lot of the strategist for jim webb's run. >> yes, i did. >> bill: so with that background, then you decided just to move on. >> it was the edwards campaign in 2008 that got me and you know honestly, that one didn't end exactly like i wanted to. but people don't understand how tough a campaign is if you do it right. for 15 months, i was going 20 hours a day. i'll be very honest here, i was doing 18 to 24 red bulls a day and eating lunn es at night to go to sleep. coming off that type of thing. it is an awful business. and i get home and get up underneath the bed get in the fetal position and suck my thumb for six months and so you just be a hillbilly. just get back to home and do your thing.

and then i got to worrying last year, all of the stuff i had done in politics, i got to thinking, i said you know, i'm probably going to go to hell. i need to go do something else. i've been with -- i went to haiti last year and got hooked up with a guy named father rick. he has three hospitals two orphanages, the only pediatric hospital surgical unit in the country. and 31 schools. he's got a vocational training school, just opened up last year, a couple of cybercafes in port-au-prince. but i've been down there and i was doing fine then i get a call from a guy named fergie reed and he was one of the old civil rights people in virginia. he was a friend of oliver hill who was of course, one of the attorneys with brown versus the board of education. tells me he wants to talk to me. wants me to come to richmond and meet a gentleman named wayne pal, a retired military colonel was in intelligence, graduate of

the war college and like me, whereas a jacks sonian and believed in social justice for all people including gays and women and economic fairness for all people which everybody knows doesn't exist in the country today. and you know, i went down there as a courtesy to him because he did the open schools legislation in virginia. and felt like i needed to go talk to him. because of the great respect. well i get down there and meet wayne powell and a great horse. just a great horse. honest. has worked for the little guys during his legal career. and you know, not surprisingly, he was raised in john marshall district of churchill district, about st. johns church when patrick henry said give me liberty or give me death. right across the tracks from eric kantor.

but anyway, i told wayne i said look, you know, i need a poll. i need signs. if this thing is not runnable, i'm not ready to come up here and sacrifice, you know, i'm 63 years old. i don't want to give up time now. we did a poll and we got the best -- i got to pick the pollster. we got the best in america at southern campaigning that, is harrison hickman. and the results came back and it was incredible. everybody says that you know, eric kantor has a red district. it is red. but it is more red, white and blue. and his approval rating is 37%. >> bill: whoa. >> in the district. his re-elect is 41%. to replace him is 43%. the reason is because everybody in the district knows -- he doesn't show up. he's never done a town hall meeting ever.

when he does, you've got to sign some pledge of allegiance to eric kantor. >> bill: just to get in. >> just to get in. it is absolutely ridiculous. and you know, he's turned his back on the district. i mean taking money from everybody. just last week, he got $5 million, the young guns pack did from sheldon adelson. it is a simple message to the people of the 7th district. what does the 7th district of virginia have in common with las vegas? is it the casinos? is it the brothels? you know. what is it? and what does this guy want? and it is just -- a whole litany and you know, with all of the -- the abortion debate that went on in richmond last year, of course, that was a huge story that ended up in the formation you know of the women's strike force. and all of these --

>> bill: that was the vaginal probe legislation. >> the vaginal probe and all of that. the district has gone to 68% pro-choice is where the district is. >> bill: so you've got a real shot against kantor. >> if we raise -- we've got -- if we raise -- our budget right now, if we can get $1.7 million we've got a chance to beat him. and i mean a good chance. if we raise $2.5 million he's history. and i know there's people out there listening and watching who say you know, no way jose. the guy is too powerful. but i gotta say this. mark warner got 60% of the vote in that district in 2008. >> bill: whoa, whoa. >> our strategy is very, very, very simple. and i mean we've let eric kantor know what our strategy is. in fact, i got attacked the other day because "the daily caller" called me, one of the right web sites and asked me

about eric cantor. i've been in the hills for four years and some of that comes back, a lot of it. but i call him a bought and paid for bastard. and that's what he is. and i don't back up on that at all. so they immediately i couldn't believe they answered -- they know what their numbers are in that district because they wouldn't have answered as quickly as they did. in any race where you've got a candidate that is not a threat, that does not have high name recognition, bill, you know, do you talk about the guy? >> bill: ignore him. >> ignore him is what do you. they come back and say we're running this vulgar and vile campaign and had on their campaign e-mail, they had warnings strong language ahead. call him a bought and paid for bastard. >> bill: we're going to have

to take a quick break here. mudcat saunders in studio with us. by the way the web site, we're going to get the word out about this very important race in virginia's 7th district to knock off eric kantor, replace him with wayne powell. it is cankantor.com. we'll be right back. glad to take your calls too at 1-866-55-press. "full court press" on tuesday june 26th. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show." >>you're welcome current tv audience for the visual candy. >>sharp tongue, quick whit and above all, politically direct. >>you just think there is no low they won't go to. oh, no. if al gore's watching today... if you have copd like i do you know how hard it can be to breathe and what that feels like. i.q. will go way up.

how are you ever going to solve the problem if you don't look at all of the pieces? >>tv and radio talk show host stephanie miller rounds out current's morning news block. >>you're welcome current tv audience for the visual candy. >>sharp tongue, quick whit and above all, politically direct.

hd (vo) john fugelsang is filling in option, he caved on the bush tax cuts, the guy has caved so many times there are miners trapped inside of him. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show." live on your radio and current tv. >> bill: joe cirincione is our guest from the ploughshares fund

on the "full court press." joe, never have enough time. only a couple of minutes left. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show" live on your radio and current tv. >> bill: how about it. you know, corey booker and ed rendell and some others say president obama's making a big mistake to talk about bain capital. frank rich in this month's "new york" magazine says oh no, he's not making a big mistake. i keep telling the story of bain capital. we'll talk to frank rich. he will join me and mudcat saunders in the next segment of the show. mudcat here. he's now jumped back into politics. to do the united states a great service by retiring eric kantor from the number two guy if not the number one guy most powerful republican in the united states house of representatives. i gotta ask you before we take a break, we have another minute left here. what does this say about virginia? barack obama won virginia in 2008. is virginia in play? for democrats?

>> absolutely it's in play. you know, if barack obama will do things like continuing to attack bain capital and i agree totally with frank rich on this and there's things -- you know that, i think that barack obama can do out into the small town third tier market, virginia to really accentuate that point. i mean everybody in my part of virginia you know, the 9783 part of virginia, they're not happy with the trade treaties. it is a big deal. here we give most -- most favored nations status to china. >> bill: gotta interrupt you there. we've got a shot at virginia. i think the place to start is in virginia's seventh district. frank rich joins us, continue the conversation when we come right back. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show."

he's certifiably insane! and just signs a deal for $100 million and people listen to that crap! i just can't believe it.

♪ >> announcer: on your radio and on current tv, this is the "bill press show." >> bill: it is 33 minutes after the hour here. it is tuesday june 26th. how about it. the "full court press" booming out to you live all the way across this great land of ours from our radio factory and tv factory and book factory right here on capitol hill. in washington, d.c. a lot of talk about the bain capital these days and some democrats, i'm sorry let me interrupt myself to point out we have in studio with us the legendary democratic campaign strategist mudcat saunders from the hills of virginia.

mudcat, good to see you again. thank you for coming in. >> thank you for having me, bill. >> bill: on a mission to see if we can't find some other means of employment for eric kantor and get him out of the u.s. house of representatives. i was starting to say a lot of talk these days about bain capital but there are some democrats who are telling president obama it is unfair for you to pick on mitt romney over his experience at bain capital. frank rich is not one of those critics. he in the "new york" magazine this month writes why negative advertisements such as the obama campaign running against mitt romney on bain capital are powerful essential and sometimes even artistic. we know frank rich from "new york" magazine and also the executive producer of the hbo series veep. frank, good morning. >> good morning, how are you bill? >> bill: great. good to you have with us.

frank, i have to say first of all, say hello to mudcat saunders. >> nice to meet you. >> bill: the obama campaign, hardly the first ones to put out ads talking about mitt romney's tenure at bain capital. his experience there right? >> what made me want to bright this piece for new york was everyone -- people on the obama side of things sort of poo-pooing the idea that he would run a bain ad as cory booker and ed rendell. the truth is first of all as we know quite recently, newt gingrich ran the mother of all bain ads during the primaries. almost a half hour long. full of inaccuracies and made the obama bain ad look like a walk in the park. but the truth is -- the team with bob sha raum in 1994 working for ted kennedy made

bain ads that were essentially the prototype of the obama ad in that senate race against romney and romney lost by 17 points. so the ads might have helped. i think is to the obama campaign's credit, assuming they want to win, that they seem to have essentially ignored the cory bookers throughout and gone on with more negative advertising about bain and romney's massachusetts record among other topics. >> bill: what i don't understand is if mitt romney puts bain capital out there and his experience at bain as the reason why he's qualified to be president, right this proves that i know about jobs, he says because i was at bain capital. then why isn't it fair to tell the world what bain capital was really all about? >> absolutely no argument to be made that it isn't fair. essentially the early attack ads by obama bain and massachusetts are the two main parts of the

record that -- that romney has. not much more to it except that. and you know, little stint at the olympics which is hotly debated. the rest of his time in sort of obscurity. so yes i think what possessed people to liberals, particularly or democrats to argue the other case has nothing to do with logic. it has to do with a kind of, in my view, beltway lip service paid to bipartisanship. bipartisanship is going to solve everything and if only we could just get along and everyone would sing cumbaya so people like booker were attacking the negativity, how dare you have this negativity, it is destroying politics. it is destroying american politics. should have been destroyed long ago because it has been negative since the beginning of the republic. >> bill: amen to that. isn't there something else going on with booker? i mean isn't he sort of a

creation of wall street? >> well, i don't know if he's a creation of wall street but he, like many democrats including president obama have received plenty of money from people in equity capital and wall street and all the rest of it. and they're all too friendly. bill clinton everyone is too friendly in my view, with these powers that be. and obama also in my view was way too beholding to these people in the first half of his term because of the no real enforcement of what wall street -- in terms of what wall street was up to preceding the crash. gone after people like bernie madoff but not against people in higher places. >> bill: all of the others are still there making more money than they did before. >> banks are bigger than they were before. so everyone's in this boat. at least obama for the purpose of the campaign has broken away from it. that seemed to have ruffled

other members of the democratic club that's funded by wall street. >> bill: here's what's unfair, frank. what's unfair is, i guess people like -- we just learned this yesterday that people like you and me are accusing mitt romney -- and president obama accusing mitt romney of outsourcing jobs when we know he wasn't -- they say he wasn't outsourcing jobs, he was offshoring jobs. >> offshoring jobs, it sounds like a vacation, doesn't it? >> bill: it does. >> like a tourist destination. >> bill: i'm going to offshore my family to the bahamas. >> offshoring to the bahamas for the winter. look, there's no one that has to do fancier footwork than the romney campaign because whether it be this subject immigration women's health services, they're constantly threading the needle and parsing things because their

positions are unpopular with the majority of the american people in a lot of these areas. so they'll constantly find new language and euphemisms. i don't know if they're fooling anyone. >> bill: right. mudcat? >> there's this -- it's not so subliminal message here. people in my part of the world i mean you take the 2.8 million jobs lost to china you know, since most faved nation status. i'm 100% with you keep talking about bain capital because when we hear it, you know, the middle class hears it. the first thing that they think is here's a guy and you know, he can talk about -- the whole point of it is that they've been taking advantage of their misfortune and i mean all bain capital does is they take advantage or did was take advantage of somebody else's

misfortune. and that's what's happened to working people all over the country. what about that point? >> it is a very good point. i think it is up to the democrats if they want to, to articulate it. "the new york times" had a piece after "the washington post" outsourcing piece, they had a piece pointing out that sort of reinforces what you're saying that even the companies -- remind people, even the companies that went bankrupt under bain's watch with a loss of jobs, let alone outsourcing jobs bain made money. and so that couldn't illustrate it in a more dramatic fashion, i don't think, that you know, tails or heads others lose. they always win. and that's unfair. >> bill: while they were shutting them down and workers losing their jobs and the

pensions and benefits and everything else, bain was still making money and still collecting their fees every month, right? >> absolutely. and by the way this is -- in some ways, a metaphor for a larger problem of the economy that teed off the crash of 2008 because what we have now is a financial class that can make money on -- makes its money often on transactional stuff. not on producing anything or doing anything. and so if you're -- another version of this, not involving romney or bain but another version of this is you just churn out worthless paper to resell people's mortgages and you -- you make money on it even as people are losing their houses and investors and some of the paper -- are going under. >> bill: frank rich is our guest from the "new york" magazine. executive producer of veep. you can follow him and read all of his great stuff if you don't get the magazine and you should

subscribe. you can get it online at nymag.com. mudcat saunders, democratic strategist here in studio with me. frank, i want to ask you this and mudcat, i would like you to chime in too. the thing that gets me and i've been around politics a long time. almost every campaign, you hear those pius and they're usually democrats who say oh, no, we can't have any of the negative campaigning or whatever. the reality is whatever you call a negative campaigning but campaign ads that point out the fact about your opponent. that point out the facts about his or her record. they also work, right? you point that out. >> they do. they can work. look, if they're not done well, they don't work. and one of the things i learned in reiner's piece was that dukakis actually had more negative ads than bush in '88. goldwater in '64 spent 40% more money on television advertising

than johnson did but didn't help them. on the other hand, we do remember how effective the willie horton ad was in the case of the bush campaign of '88 and we remember the daisy ad, mushroom cloud ad that was used against goldwater. particularly now with the 24/7 electronic bin you have to be clever and you have to aim high and for something big and perhaps even met for cal about the candidate rather than the daily tit for tat. >> i think you know, that now that you know, this is getting humorous, what's going on in this country right now. it goes back to the bain capital. your story on bain capital. and the unwillingness of some people to want to fight these guys. i live in the south. >> right. >> we don't have any many democrats, as many as we used to. what's left, we'll fight you -- we'll fight you. they will fight. [ laughter ] this idea of not fighting these

guys it just blows my mind away. but like in the case of this guy eric cantor, this is humorous stuff. the negative ads that go dada dada -- all of that, you can't do them. but it is getting humorous. the way that corporate socialism is taking over this country the way that wall street and you know these magazine ads have bought our government, it's gotten to the point frank it's humorous. >> it's black humor. >> bill: exactly. >> no, look, you know, yesterday, supreme court refused to revisit citizens united which just helped us along. no i think -- i think candidly that if you have a country where special interests and the very wealthy including wealthy individuals as well as wealthy corporations had this much

power, you've got a real problem going forward that transcends even any political race. it is a long-term threat i think to the whole american idea. >> it is like we're saying down in the seventh district, any longer it's gotten to the point we can't be looking at redder blood. i'm not bipartisan. i'll be clear there. when it gets to the part where it is red, white and blue, what about our country? >> i agree. that seems to have been lost and right now also because of the country is essentially still understandably bummed out by what has gone on in the past three years in the economy or four years. people aren't really even looking at the big picture because they've gotta figure out how to get to next week. >> bill: you guys are great and you're great together. frank rich, thank you so much and good to talk to you again. >> great talking to you. take care. >> bill: and mudcat saunders and i will continue here on the

"full court press." >> announcer: this is the "bill press show." all of the pieces? >>tv and radio talk show host stephanie miller rounds out current's morning news block. >>you're welcome current tv audience for the visual candy. >>sharp tongue, quick whit and above all, politically direct. >>you just think there is no low they won't go to. oh, no. if al gore's watching today... i.q. will go way up. how are you ever going to solve the problem if you don't look at all of the pieces? >>tv and radio talk show host stephanie miller rounds out current's morning news block. [ male announcer ] it's back again

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♪ >> announcer: this is the "bill press show." live on your radio and current tv. >> bill: hey it's 10 minutes before the top of the hour here on tuesday june 26th. and in studio with us, mudcat saunders, democratic strategist who's particular mission right now is to get rid of eric kantor. i can't think of anything more important for the republic. that's just for the democratic party. not just for the people of virginia and not just for the people of the seventh district of virginia but for the health

of this nation. eric kantor, not a positive -- not making a positive contribution in any way as far as i'm concerned. the web site is can kantor.com. wayne powell is the democratic candidate running against eric kantor. can you bring wayne powell in? >> absolutely. he would love to come in. tell his story. >> bill: tell his story as you have done today. i want to ask you overall this is 2012, a lot at stake here. and you've got you know, barack obama -- you and i have talked in the past about some of the problems that challenges barack obama has in identifying with working class americans particularly people out in the hill country. how about mitt romney? as a republican candidate? is he a guy that can identify in any way with working class families -- families? >> no.

we get back to rich's thing. the bain capital thing. he's made a living taking advantage of other people's misfortune. and that there -- people are hurting out in the country. you know, we've got pride and it is like -- you know, you can take a guy down in louisa county virginia, who's lost his job and he doesn't think he's poor. he thinks his wife might be working at walmart. he might be sick. don't have money to go to the doctor and all kinds of things. could be his kids left. but if you ask him if he's living in poverty he'll say hell, no. if you ask him if he's been screwed, he'll say yes. and mitt romney has led this. i mean his corporate socialist ties are mammoth and i say to

the president and you know, david and jim and the other david up there in chicago keep hitting him on it. keep hitting him on it. >> bill: yeah. because that is a message that will carry through. mudcat saunders, i can't tell you how glad i am to see you. how thankful i am and grateful to you for coming into the studio with us for this last hour. >> go to cankantor.com. if you have a lot of change, give us a lot. if you've got a little, give us a little. we can get this guy, i promise you. >> bill: i'm counting on you. mudcat saunders, cankantor.com. with that, i'll be back with today's parting shot here on the "full court press." >> announcer: this is the "bill press show." the star-spangled banner. replace it with god bless beautiful.

either one. michele bachmann, she's gone a

we have a big, big hour and the i.q. will go way up. >>tv and radio talk show host stephanie miller rounds out current's morning news block. [ ♪ theme ♪ ]

>> >> announcer: the parting shot with bill press. this is the "bill press show." >> bill: on this tuesday, june >> announcer: the parting shot with bill press. this is the "bill press show." >> bill: hey, and on this tuesday, june 26, my parting shot for today. most of the media attention yesterday was focused on the supreme court ruling on arizona. but i was just as interested in what they said about montana. remember all of that talk about states' rights. well conservatives used to believe in them. in fact, the court made that point in ruling on arizona that states have the right to do what they needed to do to protect their citizens against illegal immigration. well republicans and conservatives used to believe in states' rights and they might still do so in arizona. but not in montana!

back in 1912 by voter initiative the good people of montana put a lid on corporate campaign contributions. and last year, the montana supreme court despite the supreme court's -- the u.s. supreme court's citizens united ruling, the montana supreme court said that 1912 law prohibiting corporation contributions in montana was still important. yesterday, the supreme court narrowly 5-4 disagreed. they threw out montana's 100-year-old law insisting that states had no right to disagree with citizens united. they had to allow corporations to contribute in political campaigns. in other words they threw states' rights just out the window because they don't believe in them. two members of congress, joe courtney and adam schiff joining us with all of the rest of you right here again on the "full court press."