>> production assistant was provided by allbritton communications and politico. captioned by the national captioning institute --www.ncicap.org-- have from the republicans is to obstruct and delay. >> this week, dodging the nuclear option. >> i want to thank senators from both parties, including senator mccoonnell, and mccain. >> this is another sad attempt by the administration. >> detroit, bankrupt. >> the attorney general steps into the trayvon martin case. >> it is time to question laws that expand the concept of self- defense and sow dangerous

conflict in our neighborhoods. >> i am going to be candidate for the senate from wyoming in 2014. >> last week, it looked like harry reid was about to go nuclear. that is, he would lead the charge to lower the vote total for approval of the president's nominees from 60 to 51. mitch mcconnell said if he did, harry reid will be remembered as the worst senate majority leader ever. senator john mccain, a man harry reid once said he could not stand, led the effort to find a compromise with the result that after two years of republican opposition, richard cordray has been officially confirmed to

head the consumer financial protection bureau. >> richard cordray was finally confirmed by the united states senate to keep serving as america's consumer watchdog and the director of the consumer financial protection group. [applause] >> in exchange, democrats said they would withdraw two nominees for the national labor relations board. the senate on to confirm gina mccarthy as the head of the epa and thomas perez as secretary of labor. the senate historian said he could not find another example of a nominee being confirmed on a straight party-line vote. with the august recess in sight, there was peace in the land. we're all friends, right? >> it was a case where they and theball to eyeball

republicans point. got whatby said they they wanted, the democrats, we basically rolled over. republicansd preserved the right to surrender in the future. it looks like it was harry reid 1, mitch mcconnell 0. >> how i think he is right. harry reid won. i am disappointed. i was hoping there would not be a deal and harry reid would go nuclear. i wanted him to go thermonuclear. he did this only four presidential appointees. i was hoping he would buy about a filibuster all together because republicans are likely going to have control of the senate soon. it iside argues hypocritical depending on who is in the majority and minority. there's not one person on the

field who is principal about this. if you are going to drop the big one, do it. i am disappointed. i wish i had seen the leveling of the playing field. >> are you disappointed? >> i am not. the reason we got this outcome is because john mccain did the same thing as 10 years ago. he recognized the senate was about to take a serious step that could disrupt the place. andink he put party behind put comity ahead. he brought them to some resolution. he is still going to oppose nominations and nominees. but you do not have to resort to a filibuster over each nominee. they reached the right outcome. i am not a fan of the filibuster. i think the outcome may have reached was probably the best one, thanks to john mccain.

>> the filibuster traditionally has been used extremely rarely to oppose nominees considered awful, usually in some bipartisan way, maybe not a majority of the minority party. to prevent tool government -- governing. i am not talking about judicial filibusters. but from governing. we do not like the fact of your policies on the ap -- on the epa, so we will prevent you having a head of the epa. i think this was a reasonable outcome. now we're going through a time when there is not a lot of legislation on the floor, which is what prevented going to the mattresses before by harry reid. withw has the opportunity judicial nominees to say, you want to oppose this nominee, you

want to install? we're going to have cops. they will win the battle but have to be willing to spend the physical time to make that demonstration. >> mark? >> one consequence is the personal relationship between mitch mcconnell and harry reid is over. >> did it ever exist? >> it did. it was an accommodation. there was an old advice column about can this marriage be saved were they talk about the problems between the spouses. this one cannot be. you do not want to have certain people of the same party. harry reid and mitch mcconnell are that way. it is a very personal and acrimonious situation. mccain.with him on john there were others, chuck mccain 30lked to john

times over the weekend which forced john mccain to come to a deal. [laughter] >> i will do anything. stop calling. [laughter] atthey should try that fourth, mo. the guys will talk every time. democratsits, the happened to be on the right side. on the issue of the president's appointments, he should get whom he once unless they are some .ind of limited -- lunatic on legislation, it is different from judicial. each party always argues against a filibuster when is in the majority. but they always end up in the minority. they ought to be a little bit circumspect. forhe filibuster was killing civil rights legislation in the 1950's and 1960's. that is what it is used.

>> republicans keep trying to kill obamacare. the president has started to sell it again. >> i recognize there are still a lot of folks in this town return for the law to fail. >> he had given business's one year's grace before providing coverage for employees. the house speaker says individuals deserve no less. extending two bills fairness to all americans. the president said he would veto the bills. most democrats voted against them. i have to tell you i was disappointed. >> new york state insurance regulators say the approved rates for next year on average are 50% lower than those available this year. they say this because of the online purchasing exchanges created by the law. house republicans are not giving up. they went after it twice this

week. >> i think it is the 20th time they have tried to knock down obamacare. the administration adopted the name obamacare. they embrace it. announced there have been rebates under the law that have helped a lot of consumers. companies have to spend at least 80% of the insurance on consumers and not more than 20% on themselves. we're going to continue to have this argument over the rollout of obamacare. the president is going to have the benefits of it to people. right now, the public is still not in support of the bill. the majority of americans have doubts about it.

>> ahead of the teamsters union. >> three unions this week wrote to the administration saying they are failing because of regulatory interpretations. i am beginning to wonder whether this can work. not because the bill is not good, but because any huge enterprise like this does have an ugly rollout. medicare had an ugly rollout. the drug benefit in the bush administration had an ugly rollout and then worked well. it is not going to work as it was conceived perfectly. you need to make legislative changes. you need to make -- tweak it. if you cannot do it because if you brought it to the floor, it would be a disaster in the house, you cannot do that. and younot get tweaked have people are actively trying to undermine it.

some governors are artfully trying to undermine it. new york state is actively trying to make it work. that is why it works. parts of the opposite happened in the house. the house attempted to tweak it as the president asked. -- the opposite happened in the house. the president ordered the democrats to oppose it. i find it amazing the problems the implosiont, of the bill, is blamed on the republicans who have been bystanders. the reason the bill is collapsing and the unions are writing about this saying it would cause the collapse of the middle class is because of the insane provisions in the bill. one example is what the unions are upset about it. it is making employers fire workers or reduced hours to 29 so the workers are counted as part find an awful time.

if you are under 50 full-time employees, if you are exempt from the mandate. any smart employer is trying to become a forty-niner tried to make sure nobody works full time, more than 49 employees. that is what the unions are upset about. that is the problem with the bill. >> i have to change the subject. it is kind of related. it is a sad story of victory. the city has declared bankruptcy. $18 billion in debt. the population from 2 million is down to around 700,000. more than half of the street lights are out. half of the parks are closed. the homicide rate is the highest in 40 years. most of the liability is for pensions and health care. it is a tough story. other states have the same problem with the unfunded pension liability. illinois and new jersey for example. >> it is a combination of three aspects.

corruption in the government, which has been endemic for decades, a fact they had cozy arrangements with the unions, which are now impossible to honor, and the last is it was a great city with a great industry that rule the world in the 1950's and 1960's. everybody enjoyed the prosperity. when the rest of the world caught up after the second world war and it declined, there was no adjustment. people were saying it is in human if you cut this or that. it was not affordable. it was running a $100 million deficit a year in the last six years. that is a recipe for a president. that is what they have gone over. -- that is a recipe for the press of this. that is what they have gone over. detroit had the 12th street riots with the hotel incident. that led to a number of things

including flight. not just white flight. middle-class flight from the city. the tax base dropped. they did not make the adjustments that should come with that. they still provided the same and went intoces the pension arrangements when they did not have the capacity to handle it. this day has been coming for decades. they have reached this point. the question is what they can do now. bankruptcy maybe the answer. is the bankruptcy expert and a big player in the chrysler thing. i do not know where this goes. >> i do not know. he sounds competent. he tried to get a voluntary agreement. he could not get in. ase of the pensions could be little as 10%, for a generally old person, it could be a horrifying. he plan isy.ho

receiving. the cuts will be in the future. the tragedy is the map for recovery is not clear at this point. i am astounded to hear charles talked about corrupt unions. i think that is one word. >> corruption and unions. >> corrupt politicians. >> democratic politicians. [laughter] >> i did not say that, but i am glad you did. a democrat since 1963. >> we can continue this later. the attorney general ways in on the trayvon martin case. >> stopped by a police officer by running to catch a movie at night in georgetown, in washington, d.c. i was at the time of the last incident, a federal prosecutor. >> eric holder and naacp event in orlando.

he says it is time to take a hard look at stand your ground laws. earlier, he hit at a possible civil rights case against george zimmerman. that is a tough mountain to climb. >> i do not think he hinted at that. he hinted they will look at it. they have done this and other explosive cases where they did not think they could make a case, and then did not make a case. >> that is a political statement? >> you cannot not look at it. this has a huge impact on many different communities. it would be irresponsible not to look at it. i think it is to part of a case to make unless they find something different from what was a pair of the trial. >> i think that is right. what he did was finessed the issue. there is a lot of heat on the issue. seet of people want to federal prosecution. he understands it would be a disaster because it would not stand a chance. there was no element of race

shown in the case. he was very smart to focus the andor -- anger disappointment at the result of looking at the law, stand your ground, which i think is irrelevant in this case. but it allows a deflection of that energy on to an issue of legislation. i think you can make arguments on either side of stand your ground. it is a good idea. i think it was healthy politically for the country he said let's look legislation and has been a guy that acquitted. >> i do find it ironic everyone is saying to respect the jury's decision. the jury has spoken. i recall at the end of the o.j. simpson trial when he was acquitted, there were a number of people who rejected the idea and said he was guilty. we do not care what the jury

said. he is guilty. did a large, african-american groups -- two large african-american groups. he had to take note of what happened. the justice department has been involved in this case four years since it first happened. there is a bigger problem. manslaughterwas and they did not say it. >> mark? >> without the stand your ground behavior woulds have been provocative and unacceptable. he sought this out. whatever you say about trayvon martin. would jury instructions have been different. >> trayvon martin went down to walkingtles and is

along with the sky following him. he starts to run. the garofalos some further. >> the police told him to stay in the car. -- the guy follows him further. the police told him to stay in the car. he chose not to do that. the confrontation would not have been as defensive will -- a sensible and legal absent that law. >> a change of subject. take a look at this. >> to see this person on the front cover being treated like a celebrity and hero, it is disgusting. >> that is the chief of police in one of the towns in massachusetts talking about this picture of the surviving suspect in the boston marathon bombing. cvs and walgreens will not sell the magazine. "rolling stone" says the cover story falls within the tradition of journalism and their commitment to serious coverage of the most important political and cultural issues of the day.

they also say the fact that he is young makes it all the more important to examine the complexities of the issue. do you agree? >> that is rubbish. the cop is right. this is disgusting and decadent. pi --s glorifying that is a glorified picture looks like jim morrison. he is a heartthrob. we already know about young women who started writing the young man sort of starstruck. it is not new. it has happened. historically people have become attached to murderers and killers. that is young people who do not know anything. if you are running a magazine, they know exactly what they're doing. it is a disgusting exploitation of the story. why not show one person who won

picture of one of the victims instead? -- why not show one of the pictures of the victims instead? >> that will not show people the consequences of his actions. i do not care to look at his face. i do not have to. i know what he did and so does everybody in boston and around the world. >> i agree. the one thing i think it is fascinating about this story is this kid was much beloved. either he was a great con artist ,r he got turned by his brother we really do not know. "rolling stone" has not shed a lot of light on that. it is sort of a suck uppy piece. >> looking at the commercial aspect of this, i think the newsstand sales nationally amount to about 75,000 per issue, which is less than 1/5 of

its circulation. the boycott if anything draws attention to the target audience and is of commercial value to them. no.iterary value, historical value, none. >> nobody has a problem with it? >> i do. >> nobody thinks it ought to be suppressed. obviousnk it is exploitation of a terrorist, alleging. make the call on the picture. i do not think it is glorifying the sky. i think it is in the eye of the beholder. i understand how sensitive this would be to a lot of people. i would not have used it. >> they did not put a picture of whitey bulger on the cover and

tell us anything about his poor upbringing. >> because he is not as cute. >> but he is a killer just like the sky. >> i do agree. this is an idealized, romanticized image. make no mistake about it. >> it is an attempt to make it that way. it is a killer. his face does not make me feel differently. a high point or low point of decadence in journalism. liz cheney steps up to the plate. >> today i am watching my candidacy for the senate. >> i am only surprised she said if i ran, she would not. >> he is being challenged by liz cheney. she says it is time for a new generation of leaders to step up. he is 69.

she is 46. what do you make of this one? >> youthful ambition and taking on an incumbent senator. >> who has been a family friend for years. by hersheyssured would not run, but she says that is not the case. -- he says he was assured by hershey would not run, but she says that is not the case. >> why would she challenged this guy? he has been there three terms. he is a family friend. lionsf of the old started out as young bucks challenging an old lion. youybody said, why are getting in? it is not your turn. it is the old story in politics. >> that is a fair point.

let me make another one. she has never lived in wyoming. she did not even go to school in wyoming. her connection is her parents. >> like robert kennedy in new york state. but she has not been the attorney general. she may win, but there's a long history of people trying to do this with famous names coming to the state. they have lost. >> hillary clinton in new york state. >> we will see. political a local scientists said, it has not worked in the past. it might now. these are different times. >> this is a generational thing. i am closer to him than her. i like her. i do not like her politics at all. but she is tough. i think she would be welcomed the presence in the senate.

>> she would bring a sense of collegiality. [laughter] was to no longer belong to get along. when john kennedy sought the nomination in 1960, there was a vacancy. the last time i checked, there is not a vacancy. >> she is the first upstart to every challenge? >> i just wanted the analogy. >> the last word is "no vacancy. " there will be a vacancy your next week. see you next week.

from washington, the mclaughlin group. the american original for over three decades, the sharpest minds, best sources, hardest talk. issue one, stand your ground. >> it's time to question laws that senselessly expand the concept of self-defense and so dangerous conflict in our neighborhoods. these laws try to fix something that was never broken by allowing and perhaps encouraging violent situations to escalate in public. such laws undermind public safety. >> attorney general eric holder this week addressed the naacp. the 104-year-old national association for the advancement of colored people. general