recall efforts? 83% of you said yes, 17% of you id no. next question should be about ohio, don't you think? that's the ed show. you can listen to my radio shows, monday through we now know most of the members of the new congressional super committee, and there's nothing democratic about it. i don't mean democratic as in party, i mean democratic as in democracy. >> people of the united states of america, your congress is bought. >> this super committee is so distressing. >> republicans are complaining about the democrats on the super committee because they are democrats. >> republicans object to harry reid's big. >> max baucus, john kerry, patty murray. >> signed a pledge against any tax hikes.

>> really is going to have to be who can fight ideologically. >> 82% of americans now disapprove of the way congress is doing its job. >> it's also very disturbing, the lack of diversity. >> this super committee is so distressing. >> melissa harris-perry can't stand talking about the super committee, so she'll review a movie for us instead. >> all right, i'm going to do it. but i need to make sure she understand this ain't no game. >> republicans are trying to explain how losing two senate seats in wisconsin is actually a win for them. >> what we saw happen in wisconsin. >> two seats picking up last night was decent. >> this is sort of a test for progressives. >> this is devastating for unions. >> ed schultz joins me. >> i can't do this story tonight without having fun with these people. >> and iowa gets crazier as the candidates get ready for the straw poll. >> i've got more than one gear. >> also preparing for tomorrow night's big race.

>> fun and entertainment, we're always going to have a petting zoo for the kids. >> who let the dogs out? who, who? good evening from new york, we now know the nine members of the 12-person joint select committee on deficit reduction, who have until thanksgiving to agree on at least $1.25 trillion in government savings. today, house speaker john boehner appointed congressman jeb hensarling, he will be joined by dave camp, who chairs the ways and means committee for the republicans in the house, which has jurisdiction over

taxes and the entitlement program, social security and medicare. also fred upton, which has partial jurisdiction over medicaid. none of the throe are members of the house tea party caucus. senate minority leader mitch mcconnell also made his three appointments today, retiring senate wit jon kyl who serves on the senate finance committee will be a member, rob portman, who served as budget director under president george w. bush, and tea party favorite patrick toomey, a member of the senate budget committee who once served as president for the club of growth, a conservative anti-tax group. all of the senate and house republicans appointed to the supercommittee have signed grover norquist's pledge to never raise taxes in any way, including by closing tax loopholes, but two of the

republican senators, kyl and toomey, violated the norquist pledge when they voted in favor of senator tom coburn's bill to repeal the ethanol tax credit. last night, senator majority leader harry reid appointed the three democratic members of the senate who will serve on the supercommittee, senator patty murray will serve as the democratic co-chair, she will be joined by senator john kerry, who serves on the finance committee, and senator max baucus, who is the chairman of the senate finance committee. the house of representatives is a democratic institution designed to represent people. the united states senate is not. it is designed to represent land. the state of montana has less than half the population of brooklyn, but the state of

montana gets two senators and the state of new york gets two senators, even though new york has 20 times more people than montana. in a democratically designed senate, if montana gets two senators, then new york gets 40 and texas and california would get even more. as undemocratic as the united states senate is by design, the new supercommittee is the most undemocratic assembly of legislative power we've ever seen. here is the map of the supercommittee as we know it. this shows the states in congressional districts that they represent. when nancy pelosi adds her three choices, three more congressional districts will be included. the committee will represent 15.2% of the american people. the committee could have

represented more people than that simply by choosing one senator from california, both of whom are democrats, so one of them would be a democrat, and one senator from texas. both of those senators are republicans, so that would be a democrat and republican. one senator from california, one senator from texas represent the two, most-populous states, together they represent 20% of our population. if you then threw in a new york senator, which would be a democrat, and a florida republican senator, and then throw in a democrat from illinois and a republican from pennsylvania, which they do have in the mix already, you would get to 41%. and then the house members, all of whom represent roughly the same number of people, so it doesn't really matter where they are from, could bring you up to a maximum, a maximum of 42.4% of the people represented by a committee designed like this.

but we didn't come close to that democratic maximum, which would still be a minority, and so, the most momentous budgetary decisions of our time will be made by a committee that represents only 15% of the people. most of the congress already feels left out of this process, and now 85% of the american people have every right to feel completely left out of this process. joining me now, "the huffington post" editorial director and msnbc analyst, howard fineman, also scholar at the american enterprise institute, thank you for joining me tonight. you've seen this before, but this problem of getting a group together that is divided equally between house and senate invariably is going to lead to a

small minority of the country actually being represented by the elected officials chosen by this committee. is there any way this committee can claim to be representative of the country that's going to have to live with the decisions it makes? >> at this point, lawrence, what they are representative of is their leadership. these are the people the leaders wanted to basically sing their tune, and what's even, to me, as striking as the geographical lack of representation, is if you look at republican views and public opinion around the country on things like taxes on the rich, you have a group of republicans who aren't representative of their own party. that pledge is not one that a healthy majority of republicans agree with, so this is a problem, and it's a problem, of course, with the gang of six, which was a self-selected group that's even somewhat less representative in terms of geography, but whether this

group can come together with something with this very powerful bring it out majority vote, then an up or down vote in each house that americans will see as legitimate is a challenge that goes beyond geography. >> howard, the committee has amazing power when you think about it, because they have power in success, they have power if they actually do come to an agreement, because their work product would be fast-tracked legislatively, basically you couldn't filibuster it in the senate. but if they fail, if they can't come to any agreement at all, they have, in effect, legislated an automatic trigger that imposes defense cuts and other cuts, and so there's going to be a result of this committee going to work. given the composition that we've seen so far, and there's only three more house members that nancy pelosi will chose, what can we say now of the prospects of them reaching the committee?

>> couple of things, first, i was talking about who those three democrats were going to be, and he told me look, nancy pelosi's got a problem because the house democrats, unlike other parts, other three parts of this puzzle here, have to deal with a congressional black caucus, have to deal with a hispanic caucus, that's all white males, white males and one woman and that's going to be a factor there that goes not just to geography, but to demographics, which are important. the second thing, how much power they have, i don't think there's any question there's been nothing like this, norm who knows better about congressional history can tell me, but there's unlikely anything that's been like this, at least in modern history. and it's an ironic result, forced in essence by the tea party, which is supposed to be about grassroots power, democratic power with a small

"d," the end result of what the tea party engineered by way of confrontation in the name of democracy and grassroots power was to create something opposite of grassroots and as close to monarchy in the hot congress as we've seen. >> norm, when i look at the actual workings of the committee, i hope you are as unsurprised as i am that the chairman of the finance committee is on there and the chairman of the ways and means is on there, they have jurisdiction over virtually everything that's being discussed other than the defense department budget cuts, and they also bring their staffs with them, who are the only professional staffs in the congress who are actually capable of working on legislation involving all of these matters, so although patty murray has the title of chairman, it's real de facto going to be chairman of ways and means, chairman of finance,

those are the people sitting there with the real answers to what's possible, aren't they? >> there's a lot of truths to that, lawrence, it will be interesting to see if max baucus who was a mid-wife to the bush tax cuts in 2001, who's regretted it to some degree, really picks up that particular caudal to do something about it. if you're going to get a deal here it's going to be tax reform and return for revenues, you're going to have to pull something off the shelf fairly quickly. but i would mention rob portman, if there's any deal, it's not going to be 12-0, 11-1, it's more likely to be 7-5, may be six democrats and one republican, could be 5-2, but rob portman is the key to a ranging deal.

he's not one of those key figures on the committees, maybe the guy who could pull portman into a larger deal, and you can't be super optimistic here. >> howard, politics have broke out already, patty murray is getting criticized because her job is to defeat republican senators running for reelection, what's the practicality of having her on the committee, given she's next in line to be budget chairman and what about the politics? >> well, the practicality of it is, as norm said, for the most part these are team players, harry reid trusts her, but i think key people to look at are going to be portman who, you know, started off on the moderate side of the republican party at one time, he was a budget director, he's a guy people like that seems to be of

the deal-making kind, reasonable guy on his side, and john kerry, the democratic standard of 2004, who's been aching for a role, you know, that suits his history and that he believes his talents, and i think he will see this as a historic opportunity to try to get something done. that's interesting that they picked him. these people, for the most part, they could have -- the two sides so far could have gone more to the extremes than they did. they did go for -- for the most part, they went for leaders, people that know how to work within the system who are not there to sort of plant the flag or merely make the point, and that at least raises the possibility of some kind of deal. i agree with norm those are the two key people to watch. >> norm, one interesting thing about chairman baucus, although he did vote in favor of the bush tax cuts, he also, in 1993, voted for the biggest tax

increase in history, something he doesn't advertise in montana very much, but he was crucial. he's the one who held the gasoline tax down to under a nickel, 4.3 cents. he has credibility going both ways on taxes, talking to republicans and talking to democrats on taxes, so he may be the key man in terms of figuring out exactly what a tax package might look like. >> that's absolutely right, lawrence, you've been around him a lot. there's times in the past where he drove his own party leaders up a wall, particularly tom daschle, but i don't think he went beyond the committee, also, your key point, they know that with a very limited time frame, either they are going to do something relatively modest, fail to do something, and given what's happening in the markets,

the pressure must be enormous, or do something big, and the something big has to include a big tax package, and you can't just start slapping it together. one other point i'd make, lawrence, rob portman knows the world, that may be an incentive and a cross roads for him, how much of a party loyalist, how much do you break that mold to try and save the world? >> he brings a lot of practical experience, which is what you mean. howard fineman, thank you both for joining me tonight. >> my pleasure. >> thank you, lawrence. coming up, steven colbert's superpac. that's in the rewrite. and a big win for democrats in wisconsin as they take two senate seats away from republicans.

what does it mean for the prospects of recalling the republican governor and what does it tell us about next year's presidential election? ed schultz, just back from wisconsin, joins me next. ♪ it's true. you never forget your first subaru. ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] with the most advanced engine in its class,

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here's who's not represented on the congressional supercommittee. if you don't live in one of those colored states, you are one of the 85% of the american people who is not, not represented by the congressional supercommittee. coming up, what the recall elections in wisconsin mean for 2012, and a controversial film about white women and their black maids in the south opens today. if you follow melissa harris-perry's tweets, if you followed the ones from the theater today, you have a pretty good idea of what she's going to tell us about this movie. [ artis brown ]

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after successfully unseating two republican state senators, wisconsin democrats are now setting their sights of forcing a recall of republican governor scott walker. last night, jessica king and jennifer shilling beat their republican incumbent opponents in what was seen as a referendum on walker's agenda which included taking away collective bargaining rights from employees. democrats fell one short of what they needed to become the senate majority in wisconsin. republicans remain in control of the wisconsin senate now, 17-16.

two democrats still face recall elections of their own next news in order to trigger a recall election of governor walker in 2012, democrats will need to gather 543,208 signatures starting in november. walker carefully avoided a partisan victory lap over last night's republican wins, issuing this statement. "in the days ahead, i look forward to working with legislators of all parties to grow jobs for wisconsin and move our state forward." joining me now, just back from wisconsin, our man in madison, host of "the ed show," ed schultz, ed, it was exciting having you out there last night covering this. this is, to my eye, an amazing win for democrats. they just ripped two republican senate seats away from the republicans in the middle of their term. these guys are supposed to be comfortably governing as

republicans, and now they are out. and we talked about the history of recalls last night. this is the rarest form of democratic exercise in this country, and we saw the democrats take two. >> you can see victories on both sides, depending how you want to look at it, lawrence, i agree with you, to go into six districts and win two of them on republican territory is awfully big, also considering the money thrown out there. but moving forward with the possible recall of the governor, where was this kind of statement back when the wisconsin 14 was on the road back in january? where was this attitude from governor scott walker about wanting to get together with mark miller and let's work together on jobs? he's had a shift in attitude because he knows he's on thin ice in wisconsin fishing in the springtime. i'm telling you right now, 11% of people in the state voted last night. three million voters, second highest turnout in the nation in

2008. well, a fraction of these people voted last night, and the metropolitan areas, milwaukee and madison, which make up two million people collectively, they weren't involved in this process, so i think governor walker sees what's happening here. he sees there's a change in attitude, it was an overreach on the part of the republicans and losing these seats are big. they are coming out saying maybe we ought to work together on jobs, which, i think, is really the right approach to take at this point. i think they'll get the 500,000-plus signatures, i think he's in trouble early next year. >> they did very well to get the signatures they got on the recall elections they had, right? they got more than they needed in a lot of cases. >> they did, and they wanted to get alberta darling, that did not happen, they got well over the amount of signatures they needs, but the harsh reality for the democrats is getting signatures is one thing, getting people out to vote is something else.

what i saw on the ground in wisconsin is they are going to have a little more coordinated effort. they had all these people, all this enthusiasm, but it wasn't channelled. it was more like winging it when it comes on to where do we need the help? two democratic senators said to me we didn't get the vote out where we needed to get it out. all this enthusiasm is great, but the democrats are not going to be able to fight this amount of money. >> the thing about politics is every play has been run before, except in recalls, so if they are saying hey, we didn't do exactly -- we didn't execute exactly how we wanted to last night, no kidding, because you've never done this before. i think they did an amazing job when there's no template for how to do it. no template for fighting this amount of money, $8 million that comes through these groups for a state senate race. this is how alberta darling won last night.

they basically spent $8 million to get 5,000 votes to put her over the top. you take that money out or a fraction of it out, i think you have possibly a different outcome, but a lot of the door-to-door work that was done by progressives in the state, they kept hearing back i'm not going to get too involved in this one, but when you want to recall governor walker, that's when i'll get involved. >> we have to go, but the implications for next year, the lessons learned. >> that's coming up real soon in my opinion. president obama and the white house did not engage in the collective bargaining fight in wisconsin, does that mean they are not getting involved in ohio? i think they'd be making a real mistake. this might be wisconsin, but it's a universal issue and i think the white house needs to step up and get the president involved. he's the biggest player in the democratic party and middle class families, this is what they need, a fighter in the ring right now. >> more from ed schultz tonight,

host of "the ed show" live tonight at 10:00 p.m. thank you for joining me tonight. coming up, republican presidential candidates are preparing for the ames straw poll, which, if history repeats itself, will probably have absolutely no impact or meaning in the 2012 race. and steven colbert makes his first big ad buy in iowa with his superpac cash, he's picked the candidate he's backing and that candidate may not be too pleased. that's in the rewrite. [ male announcer ] summer is here. and so too is the summer event. now get an incredible offer on the powerful c300 sport sedan. but hurry before this opportunity...disappears. the mercedes-benz summer event ends august 31st. but hurry before this opportunity...disappears. have i got a surprise for you! yeah, it's new [ barks beneful healthy fiesta. gotta love the protein for muscles-- whoo-hoo! and omega-rich nutrition for that shiny coat. ever think healthy could taste so good?

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still to come in this hour, steven colbert's superpac is openly supporting a candidate for president, and colbert can prove his superpac is following the law and not coordinating with the candidate's campaign. that's in the rewrite. but first, the iowa straw poll proves its meaninglessness once again. roger simon joins me next. [ male announcer ] members of the american postal workers union handle more than 165 billion letters and packages a year. that's about 34 million pounds of mail every day.

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if you build it, he will come. if you build it, he will come. >> in tonight's spotlight, the iowa straw poll. kevin costner's "field of dreams" was shot in iowa, where the republicans take the most memorable line very seriously, if you build it, he will come. republicans have built the ames straw poll, which takes place this saturday, and no matter how many times it has demonstrated

its irrelevance of even predicting the winner of the iowa caucuses, never mind the nomination or presidency, they all keep coming to the ames straw poll. they being republican candidates for president and about 700 members of the news media, who are expected to show up in ames on saturday. roger simon writes in politico "the ames straw poll is a delightful fraud, amiable hoax, that most people in iowa don't care about but the national media eat up because the event seems so charmingly iowan. to its credit, there is no man behind the curtain. its fraudulence is open and above bored. it's bribery on a grand scale." joining me now, roger simon, chief political columnist for politico.com. thanks for joining me tonight, roger. roger, how dare you.

don't you understand msnbc will be covering special coverage on saturday of this thing that you're saying is a fraud? >> i think msnbc should cover it. it's an amiable and enjoyable fraud, and it is part of american political life, but let's be honest about it. the campaigns buy up thousands of tickets at $30 a piece, hand them out for free, get people to get on buses and go to air-conditioned tents and eat free food and drink cold drinks for free and watch free entertainment. they vote, if they want to, but they don't even have to listen to the candidates speak. that is not exactly a voice of the people-type event, yet as you pointed out in your clip, it has been built and the media buy into it. we pretend there's a real game going on.

iowans don't pretend that. i crunched the numbers before i came. if 14,000 people show up at ames, that's a reasonable figure, that's 2.3% of the registered republican vote. 97% of registered republicans stay away. it's a nine-person ballot. it allows write-ins, so it's unlikely the winner will actually get more than 50% of the vote, so the winner is going to come away with somewhere around 1% or less, and the media is going to go crazy and say this shows something about how the results will turn out next february. well, you know, it almost never does. >> and so the fraud part is that there's, in effect, a $30 poll tax to vote and most people, almost none of them, pay the poll tax, the poll tax is paid for them by candidates, and so in effect the votes are for

sale. this thing. it startedn 1979. there have been five of these republican straw polls. in 1979, george h.w. bush won, ronald reagan went on to get the nomination and the presidency. 1987 produced the ridiculous result of pat robertson winning this thing. 1995 had bob dole tie with phil graham, phil graham disappeared from the campaign, dole did end up with the nomination, which is a rare outcome for this thing. 1999, you had george w. bush, finally someone who won it who went on to get the nomination and presidency. and last time around, mitt romney won this thing and then won just about nothing else after it, so it is not something that is very predictive of what is going to happen next, and even in a case like george w.

bush, no one needed this little straw poll to indicate how strong the candidacy of george w. bush was when he was running. >> exactly, the media say in their own defense, that look, not many people vote, but it's a sign of organizational ability to get people to this event. well, you know, it's on a bright and sunny day. it can rain, but it's usually been sunny in the past, i've been to four of these things, you get them on air-conditioned buses to an air-conditioned tent to a very nice air-conditioned coliseum. the hilton coliseum at iowa state university where they play basketball, basketball is the state religion of iowa, it's a very nice place. that is not a sign of caucus night, which is scheduled for february 6, next year, the dead of winter, at night where people sometimes have to drive two or

three hours. stand usually in an elk's lodge or library basement and they don't get to see any candidates, there are no media superstars to see. that takes real organization, and you know what, only about 20% of republicans even bother to go to the caucuses four years ago. >> roger, we can't tell chuck todd we did this segment tonight, because he's going to be ruining his saturday anchoring much of our coverage. no one is ever going to see this again. we'll take it out of the rerun of the show. politico's roger simon, thank you very much for joining me tonight. >> thank you, my pleasure. coming up, steven colbert's superpac cash is going to one candidate in iowa. he just has to rewrite the guy's name to do it. steven colbert makes tonight's rewrite. and melissa harris-perry reviews the new film "the help." she tweeted from the theater

today a lot about what she thought about it. for some it might not be a big surprise, but stay with us for melissa harris-perry. that's coming up. [ male announcer ] this...is the network -- a living, breathing intelligence that's helping people rethink how they live. ♪ in here, video games are not confined to screens. ♪ excuse me, hi. my grandfather lived in this village. [ woman speaking italian ] [ male announcer ] in here, everyone speaks the same language. ♪ in here, cars call mechanics before you do. ♪ [ radio chatter, siren wails ] pass me to the patient, please. [ male announcer ] in here, doctors see you before you get to the hospital. no, we didn't pass it. yeah, pull up the map. [ male announcer ] in here, friends leave you messages written in the air. that's it right there. ♪

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coming up in tonight's rewrite, steven colbert's superpac reveals how it's spending all that dirty campaign money it's raising. that's coming up. shes moisturiz? challenge that thinking with olay. ♪ there's more than a jar of olay moisturizers in every bottle of olay bodywash to leave your skin feeling soft and smooth. with olay.

there will be others who say steven colbert, what will you do

with that unrestricted superpac money? to which i say i don't know, give it to me and let's find out. >> in tonight's rewrite, steven colbert rewrites rick perry. he actually just rewrites rick perry's name and in the process answers the question, steven colbert, what will you do with all that unrestricted superpac money that's he's been collecting, and he's been collecting it from contributors he calls his heros. >> but remember, it's not just your ideas i want, i also want your cash. so much that i put the names of the brave americans who donate on my crawl of heros down here. of course, colbert's superpac is all about building bridges, that is why i was truly gratified recently to receive a contribution from arab american viewer suq madiq.

[ cheers and applause ] >> he can be so juvenile. the first thing that colbert's superpac has done is create an ad for rick perry. the ad is aimed at participants in this weekend's straw poll in ames, iowa, urging them to write in the name rick perry, who is not officially participating in the iowa straw poll. the colbert superpac issued a press release today issuing the content and intent of their ad supporting rick perry. "the ad entitled "episode 4, a new hope," urges iowans to write in the name of texas governor rick perry. thanks to last year's supreme court ruling, superpacs can

receive and spend unlimited amounts of money as long as they do not coordinate with a particular candidate, because that would be wrong. also illegal. currently, there are seven different superpacs vying to become the primary recipient of that sweet, unlimited, perry cash. i called dibs on rick perry a long time ago, said steven colbert, president and assistant equipment manager. i realize he has the tough talk, the cowboy boots and history of shooting coyotes during morning jogs, so if anybody is going to be taking unlimited donations and then not be coordinating with his campaign, it's going to be not us. so to prove we're truly uncoordinated, we're asking those to write in perry with an "a" as in america, iowa, or president. you can feel confident he's not asking us to do that." the new ad begins airing today across the greater des moines

metro plex, colbert's superpac is a committee dedicated to empowering citizens to embrace freedom, liberty, and freeberty. the superpac is officially known as americans for a better tomorrow, but if you give them enough money, you can call them whatever you want. america, i give you steven colbert's very first use of the dirty, filthy campaign money he's been collecting in his effort to subvert the american democratic process. >> a storm is gathering over iowa, a money storm. out of state groups like grow pac and jobs for iowa pac are flooding the iowa air waves, telling you to vote rick perry at the ames straw poll. they think they can buy your vote with their unlimited

superpac money. but americans for a better tomorrow tomorrow ask what about our unlimited superpac money? we want you to vote for rick perry too, but not their rick perry. our rick perry. on august 13, write in rick parry. that's parry with an "a" for that's parry with an "a" for america, with an "a" for iowa. a lot of times, things are right underneath our feet, and all we need to do is change the way we're thinking about them. a couple decades ago, we didn't even realize just how much natural gas was trapped in rocks thousands of feet below us. technology has made it possible to safely unlock this cleanly burning natural gas. this deposits can provide us with fuel for a hundred years,

providing energy security and economic growth all across this country. it just takes somebody having the idea, and that's where the discovery comes from.

i would need your help.

i want to interview you about what it's like to work as a maid. i'd like to do a book of interviews about working for white families to let you show what it's like to work for -- elizabeth? i was thinking we wouldn't have to tell her. the other maids would have to keep it a secret too. >> other maids? >> well, i was hoping to get four or five. to show what it's really like in jackson. >> that's a scene from the new movie "the help," which is from the book of the same title by katherine stockett, it's a depiction of the life of african-american maids in the south of 1963. >> sit down mother before she breaks a hip. >> hold on, miss hilly looks like the winning horse at the kentucky derby.

all those flowers and bows. forgive me, lord, but i'm going to have to kill that woman, abilene. but i carry a paper to my own house. that girl don't know. >> oprah winfrey tweeted today "hey, tweets, if you liked the book "the help," you'll delight in the movie, opens today, can't wait to hear what you think." because the book generated controversy, we asked tulane university professor melissa harris-perry to join the opening day crowds at the theater and answer oprah's question, what do you think. if you followed melissa's tweets today, this is what you saw as she tweeted from the theater. "i'm one hour into "the help" movie, i'm not sure i can make it through to the end.

i read the book, i knew, but the images." then, hard to tell whether it's the representation of black women or white women that's most horrible. and then "thank god magical black women were available to teach white women raise their families and to write books." and then "and thank god plucky white girls could give black women the courage to resist exploitation." then "and man was it full of giggling good times in the kitchen." then "oh, i loves me some fried chicken. this line was just uttered in "the help," seriously." "i just timed it, miss skeeter's date got the same amount of screen time as medgar evan's assassination."

"the first real moment, violent arrest of black woman." and finally, "the help movie reduces exploitation to a cat fight that can be won with cunning spunk." melissa also sent us an e-mail saying i think msnbc is going to have to give me worker's comp for putting me through this. joining me now is melissa harris-perry, msnbc contributor and author of a new book released this week, "sister citizen shames and stereotypes," she's also "the last word's" film critic. at the bottom of one of your e-mails today before you saw the movie, you said -- you said you were incoherently angry. now, i have actually been

incoherently angry on television more than once. you never have. i would give anything to see you incoherently angry on television tonight. it will take off. it will go viral. >> undoubtedly, but i went home, took some deep breaths after this, in part because i think it's really easy to frame an african-american woman feminist talking about a feel-good, happy race movie with a critical eye as kind of a killjoy. it's the easiest thing in the world to do, and i want to be careful, if you like the part of the movie that is about the young woman, skeeter, my anxiety is a notion this is about the lives of black women, no, it's not. it's about skeeter, the white woman who is the main character. the fact is the african-american woman domestic workers become props in the movie for her, just as they are props in the movie as real life, but the notion this is somehow tapping into the

experience of actual black women domestic workers, you know, if the debt ceiling is kind of your sweet spot, the thing that you knew, this one, how black women's labor exploitation continues to impact our policy and our politics and cultural lives today, that's mine, so it's just -- i know there are a lot of bad movies and troubling books, but this one got to me. >> melissa, there's always this issue in emphasis of movies like this where evan's assassination gets this much space compared to these other things, and how do you weigh the artistic judgment, which is not scientific, does not use historical calculation, but sensibility. how do you weigh that when you're watching a movie like this? >> the problem is that it is so a-historical as to be inaccurate.

i get the problem people want to feel good so we reduce racism that if you bake a problematic pie, somehow you can get the one white woman back, but look, the issues that faced african-american women were not real housewives of jackson, mississippi, mean girls behavior, it was rape, it was lynching. this completes the work that happened and started in 1923 when the americans, the daughters of the american confederacy, along with senator john williams from mississippi found money in the federal budget to erect a granite statue in the shadow of the lincoln memorial. this was the same senate that refused to pass the dire answered lynching bill, in other words, a senate that allowed black men to be lynched without federal oversight, to allow them to be lynched with no consequence in the south, at the same time had