who is arab. and they're luke warm on mormons. not a good score but overall still favorable for them on thatttttttttttttttttttttttttttt have an awesome weekend. we'll see you monday, okay? [ ♪ theme music ♪ ] >> eliot: good evening, i'm eliot spitzer, and this "viewpoint." mitt romney jokes like a borne-again birther. while tax records appear to show his family trusts used exotic strategies to avoid paying some taxes. with romney's energy strategy now public, you'll be shocked to learn that top members of his energy team are a whose whoa of oil, coal, gas industry insiders starting with romney the comedian. just days before he's nominated as the g.o.p. candidate for president, romney cracked this joke for a cheering michigan crowd. >> romney: no one has ever asked

to see my birth certificate. they know that this is the place where we were born and raised. >> eliot: now for anyone who has followed politics for the four years that seems like an obvious reference to the utterly discredited notion that president obama was not born in the u.s. but romney's adviser kevin madden insists that, i quote, he was only referencing that michigan where he was campaigning today is the state where himself was born and raised. right. if you bleach that, i have a bridge for sale. governor romney's decision to directly enlist himself in the bitter movement should give pause to any voter across america. itthe gawker website has published hundreds of pages of financial statements from romney's old firm bain capital including information on investments in more than 20 funds where romney

holds a stake. according to "the new york times" the funds appear to have converted more than a billion dollars in accumulated capital gains which is taxed at a lower rate. and used an aggressive approach viewed by some tax exerts as possibly illegal that saved investors more than $220 million in income and medicare taxes. romney insists that he paid all the taxes required by law. he also told parade magazine he does not want to release more tax returns in part because he wants to keep donations to the mormon church private. in romney's words our church doesn't publish how much people are given, one of the down side of releasing one financial' information is that this is now all public. he wrote, the lessons i learned over my 15 years at bain capital would help me as president to fix our economy create jobs and

get things done in washington. meanwhile the republican convention in tampa may be getting things done early with plans to nominate romney monday instead of waiting for wednesday, the night before his major speech. convention organizers are said to want to keep any demonstration by ron paul supporters off of primetime. and there is still fears that hurricane isaac do wallop tampa perhaps a bigger addition corruption than even ron paul could manage. with we have craig crawford, politics blogger of crazy crawford.com, and author of the politics of life, imogen lloyd webber welcome to you both. >> we found interesting things. donald trump had tweeted another one of his crazy birther comments. at about the same time romney said this, i'm not saying they

were in concert or anything, but that was kind of strange. the other is how this staff afterwards kept saying, o it's okay. he was just joking. it was off the cuff. in the script. what gets me sometimes about the media, eliot is they buy this. they say it doesn't count. it wasn't in the script. well, it counts more if you ask me. that's when we find out what they're really thinking. in this case romney may have just been joking. let me tell you how you know it's a joke. a joke if he says it once. if he says it twice, it's a strategy. >> eliot: that's right. sometimes it is a hoff the cuff and you see what somebody has what is rattling around in their brain. >> once again mitt romney is a muppet he did it in london and

insulted the brits. but he did it again. quite frankly you would expect republican nominee for president not to do this sort of thing. it's wrong. >> well, you know, how about obama responding by saying, hey nobody has asked me for my magic underwear. >> eliot: how about president obama saying when people ask me for my tax returns i show them to people. let's come back to the tax issue. should we stilling talking about this or is romney right guys, let's talk about serious stuff. >> the taxes are fundamentally rigged. and if you're rich like mitt romney you can go offshore and have accountants help you avoid tax. but at the end of the day if you're going to deal with shared

shared what happens to tax loopholes that romney has been enjoying. is he going to close those or system is rig good imogen, you're so right, share something for everybody else. when it comes to charity, when it comes to burdens, everybody else they need to deal with that. craig, give me your view. the tax thing it seems to me has resonated because it fits so perfectly with the image that mitt romney has created for himself as the wealthy guy who does play every angle. doesn't have real sympathy for anybody beneath this sort of income level. >> the risk he's taking in not releasing them earlier is that these will come out. i don't know if he fully understood that the investigative media intrepid bloggers, financial experts would pour over everything. and now new documents are coming out. this is the sort of thing that i

don't know if he anticipated but he should have. and had he released them long ago. let's put this into context why we need to know what is in knows documents, we can't trust what romney says is in the documents. go back to 1994 when he demanded that ted kennedy's returns. kennedy said no. then he ran for governor and he said wait a minute, kennedy is right, we should not have to release tax returns. and i did file which is an issue in that governor's race. then fast forward he did not file as a massachusetts resident but as an utah resident. eliott you've done more with your law degree than i have with mine but proving that an impeach a witness, lying before. >> eliot: let's put birtherrism and taxes aside.

the convention is next week, and the moment that mitt romney is waiting for. if you could say to him here is one thing you've got to do. one issue you must address, give us your best shot. >> first of all he has making any gaffes. the republican party over the past week especially have been very gaffe-prone. they want a very smooth convention. as far as romney goes, i want to hear specifics. i want to know that he believes in closing tax loopholes and so forth. we will see it will be very interesting. apparently he has got producers producing video montage of his family. it will make him about being approachable and accessible. we'll see if it works. >> eliot: one thing that mitt romney can do to refocus away from todd akin, away from bitterrism and tax returns. unless he changes the conversation, he does not win.

how does he do it? >> talk about his faith. i hear they're going to do some of that. i know they've wanted to stay away from mormonism as much as possible, but this is a big part of his life. this is one reason why some people one dimensional, one thing that most important in his life, his faith, and his business career, he needs to be able to come forward and talk about the things that are most important in his life. he talks about his family. these are things people connect with. this is why obama has stayed higher in favoritism pop. >> eliot: we've got to like him before we listen to substantive proposal. right now we don't like him. we don't think much of his proposal. he's losing women, blacks latinos. next week is the big reset

button. craig crawford, and analyst imogen lloyd webber. thank you very much. >> it creates 3 million jobs. it's great for our national security not to have to depend on opec or venezuela for our oil. >> it's also great for the big five oil companies. romney's energy plans would give the oil giants a $2.3 billion tax cut on top of loopholes that they would enjoy and take authority for drilling and mining on federal lands away from the federal government and give it to the states. not surprisingly another potential fossil fuel give away. and harold hamm and jack gerard, president of of the american petroleum institute jim talent

and david williams. i'm joins by joe williams. thank you for joining me. >> thank you. he said let's put oil and gas in charge. >> that's it. he raised $10 million from big oil and then he puts out an energy plan that mention oil 154 times. and never mentions global warming even once. >> eliot: he is affirmatively acting in ways that would make it worse. am i right? there is virtual lie nothing in there to shift this away from fossil successfully and renewables. >> no, this is more drilling, more coal, and roll back regulations. he wants to roll back mercury and regulations

against cancer-causing agents coming from power plants and clean energy. he wants to roll back wind tax credit. everything that could produce pollution and make people healthier he's against. if it's pro pollution and makes oil companies richer that's what he is for. >> eliot: but you have to give him credit for consistency. it is the thinking and logic from two century ago they're going back to the 1700s and there is a certain consistency in this. >> it is a new consistency. he's the etch-a-sketch guy. when governor of massachusetts he railed against plants that killed people. he was a completely different guy then. but now he has buddied up with the oil guys who give him lots of money. and he gets extremists like paul ryan who wants to gut all clean

energy r & d. and he's now deeply in the pocket of the traditional the 19th century industry. >> eliot: you're right. as governor of massachusetts he was on the side of bringing litigation and pushing back against the coal power plant in the midwest that was causing a lot of politician that pollution that would come down here and up the east coast. now he has flip flopped, but as you say the etch-a-sketch candidate, to look for consistency is a foolish endeavor. they love to rail against picking and choosing winners and losers solindra being exhibit a. but this is a huge bet by the federal government for traditional oil and gas to the tune of billions and billions of dollars. am i missing something here? >> no, absolutely. we know the dangers of air pollution and everyone can see

the drought and heatwave that carbon pollution causes. it's craze crazy when you look around and see the harm that is being done to our crop land by global warming. he even wants to go further. he wants to undo what teddy did. he wants to take federal land and give them over to states so states can open them up to drilling. it's really 19th century. >> eliot: the notion that you would let states--and we know many of the states that have oil, gas and coal have been pushing back against any environmental restrictions for years. you look at west virginia where they've done everything possible to increase the production of coal fighting against the clean air act. you give them the power to open these lands up, there will be no environmental protection anywhere in the nation. this is perhaps the most threatening of his policies, and it's shocking it has not gotten

more attention. >> these are national parks and federal lands. you and i own them and enjoy them and they're there for hunting, fishing, and recreation. the biggest chunk of them came because teddy roosevelt, a republican thought conservation was more important than mining and special interests. he specifically said, need to keep special interests out of politics because these guys want to exploit these gems, these national treasures of america. >> of course the metaphor that they used to capture all of this is the keystone pipeline. they want to believe if we could only build keystone, we would get jobs, energy and security. everything good in the world. what is your take on keystone. >> it shows their hypocrisy. of course nebraska did not even want keystone. if they want to give states rights to drill but they won't let states veto--and jobs, i'm not saying that it won't create

any jobs but it's a pipeline. once you build it, it sits there and oil flows. it's not like it's going to be a very big job createor. >> eliot: actually in fact, it sounds like the stimulus that the president has been looking for. you get construction jobs. it's a short-term stimulus, and that's the hypocrisy inherent with what mitt romney and the entire republican platform stands tournament. joe romm thank you for joining us this evening. >> thanks for having me. >> eliot: how did republicans become so crazy and how did democrats turn so useless. that's coming up.

[ male announcer ] the inventors of twix had a falling out, so the production of twix was divided between two separate factories. left twix factory cascades caramel and chocolate onto cookie, while right twix factory flows caramel and chocolate onto cookie. today they share nothing but a wrapper and a driveway. try both and pick a side. [ ♪ theme music ♪ ] >> eliot: as you probably heard there was a shootout here in new york by the empire state building. authorities say a clothing designer who had been laid off

shot his former manager and was subsequently gunned down by police. the alleged shooter and his former boss died and nine others were injured in the melee. but that's not our number of the day. nor is it 19, which is the number of people shot in multiple incidents in chicago just last night. 19 also happens to be how many days since a man shot up a sikh temple in oak creek wisconsin. and killing six people. and the number is not 35, the days since a former grad student killed 12 people and wounded 58 in a movie theater in aroer a colorado. no our number is of the day. zero. that's how many meaningful statements we've heard from our presidential candidates about gun control. we can't do anything if neither side will even talk about it.

come on, guys, wake up. (vo) this is joy. >>who the heck does mitt romney think he is? (vo) this is joy on current tv. >>if mitt romney treats his magic underwear the same way as his tax returns, then he's been going commando for the past 10 years. >>since when do you get to say stuff like that on tv? >> listen, if you'd read your email once in a while, you'd know i have a new show. (vo) always outspoken. >> you think because this is an election year you can just say anything? >> hello! say anything, that's the name of the show. view how is the party of lincoln become the party of plutocracy laced with a heavy dose of theocracy. it seems that the republican party is a little more than a slew of pro business policies designed to entrenching the wealthy laced with the culture of wars designed to appeal to the masses. the argument is now being made

from within, mike lofgren worked for 28 years as a senior republican staffer and budget analyst and he has written a powerful dissection of the republican party titled "the party is over: how the republicans went crazy democrats became useless, and the middle class got shafted." honestly, you poured your heart and soul in this book. where did this come from? >> well, first it's good to here. second. i was a traditional republican. i grew up with the party of eisenhower. even the party of reagan. reagan was a compromiser. he raised taxes when the deficit threatened to get out of control. he bleeded with congress to give him a clean debt ceiling bill, not load it up with gimmicks like the abortion language on the debt ceiling extension last year. but that's all gone by the board.

no longer are there statesmen like howard baker or a bob dole who might have their own strong individual views but they knew at the end of the day they have to governor a very powerful and important country. >> eliot: well, it seals to me that you're say in your book and your articles that there is zealotry your words an apocalyptic cult that there is no room for compromise. and they vote the culture wars and embed into deeper and deeper and deeper in control. where did the statesmen go and how did this disappear in republican party politics. >> i think there was a faustian bargain, a relationship between members of the religious right

and republican parties who recruited them as adjunct to the party. now they're saying to their dismay how the tail is wagging the dog. there is a two-word explanation for that--todd akin. they want him out of the race, and they can't. >> eliot: you're right. the faustian bargain has come back to haunt them. and the koch brothers and others similar to them who money, corporation and manipulating public opinion and getting bills through that help them, merge with the cultural theocracy and those two have come together to squeeze out the middle of the republican party. do you believe they will be in a position to control congress for much longer? right now they seem to be doing just that. >> i don't have a crystal ball. it's really up to the american people to see the party for what it is. we will see it on display next

week with a party platform on many items that's todd akin right down the line. as for the theocrats they're probably very--i can't read their minds, but they're very cynical about these things. they know that most voters are not going to simply pull the lever and we're going to further the rich. they use these culture wars as bait. >> eliot: you have a phrase, i want to quote something that you state. it's so well state: you said the plutocrats would pulls back to the golden age, the theocrats back to the witch hunts. you're saying that's not the country that we believe in. you're a centrist republican

but we have a common core values which neither of us want to be the gilded age or the salem witch trials. yet the republican leadership seems to be taking us there. i'm amazing they're getting away with it. where is the push back from the democrat party. >> i'm beginning to wonder myself. i consider myself a fiscal conservative who believes in deficit reduction. i've come sadly to the conclusion that the party doesn't. i believe that tax cuts wealthy contributers will always trump deficit reduction and we saw that during the push administration, the national debt doubled. romney's plan would add to the deficit. he said he would make that revenue-neutral by closing loopholes, but come on, that's politically impossible. >> eliot: i think we all agree with that critique exactly. i don't want to give the

impression that you only criticize the republican party. you critique the democrat party. i think it's fair to give a chance to say where you see the flaws in the democratic party. where do you think that party has gone wrong? >> well, probably towards the end of the 1980s after having lost three straight presidential elections, they had all the democratic leadership types to retool the party and make it more corporate friendly. bill clinton may have done good things during presidency but he also resided over the' peel of glass-steagall and signed bills to deregulate derivatives and we know what a disaster that was for wall street. >> eliot: i hate to break it to you, but you sound like a good liberal democrat. i don't know if i'm going to say something that will ruin your weekend. i agree with something that you said. i think you should join us on the democratic party. >> i think my days of being an

ideologue for any party are over. i think americans of good will have got to get together and find a sensible plan for this country. >> eliot: you know right. you've said it exactly right. party affiliation means nothing. it's irrelevant. let's agree on sensible principles and we can move forward. mike lofgren, author of "the party is over." thank you for c double miles you can "actually" use.

but with those single mile travel cards... [ bridesmaid ] blacked out... but i'm a bridesmaid. oh! "x" marks the spot she'll never sit. but i bought a dress! a toast... ...to the capital one venture card. fly any airline, any flight, anytime. double miles you can actually use. what a coincidence? what's in your wallet? [ all screaming ] watch the elbows ladies.

>> eliot: still to come, more from my interview yesterday from richard biden gets intimate, and john oliver gives his dream state of the union. when it doesn't fit anywhere else, we put it in the viewfinder. >> if president obama had the balls we wanted him to have, he would burst into congress with a

soft drink in his hand before throwing it against the back wall and say. [ bleep ] >> the entire republican party has condemned him for, i don't know what more we can do for him. perhaps we can mismember him. >> hurricane directly for the republicans is more proof that. [laughter] --that god is woman. >> romney: they reached the understanding we have of how our economy works. >> now i know things look bad throughout. there is a lot of countries watching us that think we're finished. i don't know, maybe they're right. maybe we're done. maybe we just give up. give that number one spot to china. >> yep that's the bride. and that's the groom, jet packing down the aisle to their wedding at newport beach. >> folks, i can tell you and

i've known eight presidents, three of them intimately. >> people canoodling in union bay j they did canoodle in union bay. >> now a chance to look at your forecast. and before that maybe we can canoodle before you get into it. it's about time. >> we're not going to be canoodling. all right. >> i thought canoodle meant chat. >> or thought maybe--maybe we make them take it from us! take it from us with their tiny hands. this is our house. this is our house let's show the rest of the world usa, usa, usa. >> eliot: it could be the republican convention next week. i continue my talk with (vo) every news network will

cover the convention. but only current coverage will put you at the collision of tv and social media. we'll provide unsurpassed insight into the most buzz worthy tweets, posts and pontifications, from the entire social stratosphere including you. join in, tweet us, and you could be a part of our on-air and online coverage. brought to you by spiriva handihaler. if you have copd like i do you know how hard it can be to breathe and what that feels like. copd includes chronic bronchitis and emphysema. spiriva helps control my copd symptoms by keeping my airways open a full 24 hours. plus, it reduces copd flare-ups. spiriva is the only once-daily inhaled copd maintenance treatment that does both. and it's steroid-free. spiriva does not replace fast-acting inhalers for sudden symptoms. tell your doctor if you have kidney problems glaucoma, trouble urinating, or an enlarged prostate. these may worsen with spiriva. discuss all medicines you take, even eye drops. stop taking spiriva and seek immediate medical help

if your breathing suddenly worsens your throat or tongue swells you get hives, vision changes or eye pain, or problems passing urine. other side effects include dry mouth and constipation. nothing can reverse copd. spiriva helps me breathe better. does breathing with copd weigh you down? ask your doctor if spiriva can help.

so, you guys grew up together. yes, since third grade... what are you lookin' at? not looking at i anything... we're not good enough for you. must be supermodels? what do you model gloves? brad, eat a snickers. why? 'cause you get a little angry when you're hungry. better? [ male announcer ] you're not you when you're hungry™. better. [ male announcer ] snickers satisfies. >> eliot: yesterday i got a chance to sit down with one of the more fascinating legal minds of all time, judge richard posner. we touched on corporate governance to the constitution. we even discussed our hyper partisan political climate climate. >> eliot: the supreme court's respect in of the general public has dropped recently. it's a cause of concern for folks like me. i won't speak for others. i assume you care about the

respect for the law and the jurist system. what do you think we could do. >> it's not the supreme court but disillusionsment with government in general. the supreme court is part of government. they hate congress the regulatory system, so on. it's one of those governance governance--important government agencies. i don't think the supreme court has done things recently like the--it is true the majority of people feel volatile--the majority of don't like the healthcare law. so since the supreme court upheld most of it, that might have tilted some people against the court. i wouldn't put much significance

on it. 44% believe the supreme court is doing a good job. what is it for congress, 12%? >> eliot: low they shall hold, threshold, let's talk politics. there seems to be a move away from centrist thinking towards rigorous fringe thinking in politics and this vital center that carried our politics is dissipating. to what do you attribute that, and how do we get around and over that problem. >> i think it's due primarily to the crash of 2008 and the ensuing decline and economic confidence because in the 30s we saw a lot of radical movements, you know, communists had a lot of support, and there were the extreme right wingers

and louieand huey long with his populous views. i think economic uncertainty will increase the demand. another factor, which is operating, which is not limited to the economic situation at all, is that the growth of the electronic media have--has fostered extremism of all sorts. the problem is that people who used to have really extreme views on anything they didn't realize--they didn't think these views were widely shared. they evidence they were widely shared. so they were embarrassed about putting them forward. now every group has electronic community to support it. we occasionally get cases

involving the nazis, klu klux klan white supremacist, really strange fringe stuff. it's very small, but if this are thousands of people who want to, you know, worship hitler, they find each other on the internet. they become a community. they reinforce each other. that's at the macro-level. at the larger level the people, the extremists, radio hosts so on they reach an audience, people who may have felt they had no spokesman, they had no legitimacy. now they have a spokesman. that, i think that's built into the technology. i don't see that going away even when the economy recovers.

>> eliot: do you think those who sit in the corporate boardroom who were at the intellectual or corporate vanguards who brought us to the precipce. >> eliot: i don't blame these people because i think of human society as darwinian in which people have to do whatever they can get away with because--and in business particularly, if you were a conservative banker your stock would not do as well. you wouldn't be able to pay high interest rates. your short term capital would evaporate. you would be dead. in business you must do whatever you can get away with. but for the rest of it, also, what do people do if you're

wealthy and you have children, are you going to deny them the advantages that you can provide them all entirely legal? some people will. there are these stiff necked highly ethical people. which is great. but i think they are very rare. >> eliot: my great thanks to judge posner for allowing me so much of his time. you can see more of his interview with judge

>> eliot: what might conservative politicians learn from richard posner? that's coming up on my view. also coming up at the top of the hour in "the war room" with jennifer granholm, mitt romney's birther comments set off a firestorm. jennifer will look at the political implications ahead of next week's republican convention. she's got a great lineup tonight including dapennebaker director of the war room w

(vo) this is joy. >>who the heck does mitt romney think he is? (vo) this is joy on current tv. >>if mitt romney treats his magic underwear the same way as his tax returns, then he's been going commando for the past 10 years. >>since when do you get to say stuff like that on tv? >> listen, if you'd read your email once in a while, you'd know i have a new show. (vo) always outspoken. >> you think because this is an election year you can just say anything? >> hello! say anything, that's the name of the show. >> eliot: judge richard posner is an iconic thinker and injurist. prolific in his work product and impact. he's one was those responsible for the intellectual foundation who looks at government's role in the market. what is remarkable about his thinking after seeing the consequences of an of withdrawal of market

intervention he has taken a different approach. his recalled view is aligned with the world-view of market deregular lace had devastating consequences and contributed to the financial cataclysm of 2008. smart reregulation of financial services is critical. two, government intervention in areas is correct. theoretically and often practically. a carbon tax to reduce or consumption of carbon fuels and reduce greenhouse gas emission would be a smart move. perhaps more surprising judge posner supports mike bloombergs effort to reduce sugary drinks consumption. and the issue of obesity and it's society impact merits on consumer choice the judge argues. there is scant evidence to that racing tax rates to era levels is needed. the supply side argument that

reduced tax rates will increase revenuerevenue simply isn't fact-based. fact four, a mere gloss over result orient the way of thinking and is not lafayetteible for modern era. number five, shareholders have not respond with sufficient energy and it's hard to imagine that shareholders will. wouldn't it be wonderful that politics who promote the world-view of deregulatory theocracy and rhetoric would listen to one of their own intellectual leaders. now what needs to be said is that judge posner is free to evolve on these issues because he does not profit from the current financial climate. he simply makes thoughtful conclusions by looking at evidence. my to republicans at large.

look at the facts. you cannot rely on romney or grover norquist. we know where they lie. we can all think for

if you have an opinion, you better back it up. >>eliot spitzer takes on politics. >>science and republicans do not mix. >>now it's your turn at the only online forum with a direct line to eliot spitzer. >>join the debate now.

>> eliot: are there any sports heroes left? the unfortunate result of doping and steroids era might be that one day's his or her is the next day's disappointment. lance armstrong gave up his fight against the us anti-doping agency sacrificing his seven tour de france titles. won between 1999 and 2000. as well as the bronze medal he won in the 2000 olympic games.

he also has been life from competing in any sport that follows the world anti-doping code. after fighting the doping charges for more than a decade which was dropped in february armstrong was legend that he used performance-enhancing drugs since 199. as armstrong told gavin newsome earlier this year. the constant allegations were taking a toll. >> anybody would be sick and tired of it, not just the personal stress, the toll it takes on yourself, your friends on your community on your family, your business, on your foundation. on all of these things, it can wear a man out. so i'm worn out. >> eliot: while stale maintaining his innocence armstrong echoed these comments yesterday saying, quote, there comes a point in every man's life when he has to say enough is enough. for me that time is now of course a great deal of speculation on why that time is now.

joining me now, dave ziron and host of edge of sports radio. dave, what do you make of all this? how do you balance it out? what is the sort of feeling we should have about lance armstrong now? >> well lance armstrong had taken this case to the edge. let's look at what was beyond that edge. it was an arbitration hearing in an arbitration system where out of 58 cyclists who have have been in front of the united states anti-doping agency, usada arbitrateors, 56 of 58 have been found guilty. they see it's stacked against him to a large degree. lance armstrong got word that they had ten former cyclist who is were ready to get up there stand and say we saw lance armstrong dope. we saw him use epl, a hormone that increases the oxygenation of the blood which allows people

like lance armstrong and others to do those super human treks up the pyrenes. he's also someone who has a $500 million foundation live strong bracelet, and he took it to a point where he could then step away without being found guilty in a court of law even if he is guilty in the court of public opinion. >> eliot: i feel like every other individual who has looked marveled and worshiped a guy like lance armstrong. he comes back from stage four cancer. wins the tour. he's getting cancer treatment for the under served. tell me if i'm wrong, 41 of the 70 people who finished in the top ten of the years he won has been found to have used some sort of steroids or enhancement performance drug. everyone was ubiquitous on the tour.

is he someone who is tarnished now? i feel the confusion that >> you feel the confusion not just you but all of the united states is of two minds when it comes to the world of sports and when it comes to performance-enhancing drugs. on the one side we want sports to be a refuge. we want sports to be a place that's innocent, where we can take our kids so they can develop heroes of their own the way we had heroes. i bet if i asked you who your sports heroes were growing up, it would take you less than one second to answer. it would come to your mind so quickly. that's half of it. we want our sports to be clean. the other half, we want sports to be an escape. we want to know how the sausages are made. even if i could waive the magic wand and eliminate all performance-enhancing drugs athletes would do horrific things to their bodies for the purposes of making it, to exceed the competition that surrounds them and the competition is incredibly intense at the high levels of sports. that's the problem in sports,

but specifically, that's the problem in cycling. i think there is no sport substances that even comes close to the world of cycling. that has to do with the very athleticism that cycling demands. this is a sport that will required a massive reformation at the very roots that the races take, or it will have to accept the fact that people will need to expand the oxygenation of their blood or they will die in the pyranese and is is that preferable to doping. >> eliot: the thing about lance armstrong is that he also is a survivor. i think what we respect about him is not just the athleticism but this guy came back from stage 4 cancer. as you wrote in your column, that's the element of his character that we find so compelling. it goes way beyond the sport. we want to continue to like him. he's doing good stuff. i think we have this latent feeling if you pulled back the

curtain on any sport at any time, you would find something. so is there an element almost of unfairness in tarnishing this guy even though i'm presuming like most people he probably did it? >> i it is because it's been seven years since he road a bike competitively. what is the point in furthering this now? it not only damages the support but it damages the foundation and it damages the man. that's the factor. it's not the central fact but it is contingent. cycling is a niche sport. very few people followed it avidly. but do you know what is not niche in the united states? cancer. it's hard to find a family who has not been touched by it. my father-in-law is a survivor. he tugged on that live strong bracelet every morning when he would go in to chemo. at and for people like my father-in-law you could say that

lance armstrong kidnapped the lindbergh baby and it wouldn't matter. lance armstrong got him through one biggest things of his life. >> eliot: he stands bigger than the tour de france. bigger than the sport of cycling. he's a fighter and people like him for that and ale have an unique place in our culture. from host of edge of sports dave ziron. thank you for your article where you talked about lance armstrong. >> my privilege. >> eliot: stay tune for "the war room." the unique coverage of the convention starting monday, i'll be here with al gore, governor jennifer granholm cenk uygur and john fugelsang. it will be like nothing else you've seen before. that's next week starting at 7:00 p.m. on monday right here on current tv. "the war room" coming up next.