cain last night and he's not the only one. but as herman cain says, what's there to be angry about? >> lawrence o'donnell could try and challenge me. >> you've said that if you're unemployed and if you're poor -- >> blame yourself. blame yourself. >> would you like to retract that now? >> do you stay up at night to come up with the wording in these questions? what was i doing during the civil rights movement? >> little interest in the civil rights movement. >> controversy was right at herman cain's doorstep and he did nothing. >> i didn't go downtown and try to participate in sit ins. >> why not? i mean, he was here in atlanta. >> we decided to avoid trouble by moving to the back of the bus. >> the very idea that he said, you know, we were okay with moving to the back of the bus -- >> who is lawrence o'donnell to tell you how to be a black man? >> you get this bull's-eye on your back.

they brainwashed a lot of black americans into just voting democrat. >> call someone like me or anyone one else brainwashed, that's insulting. >> what's there to be angry about? >> demonstrations are planned in cities coast to coast. >> we're bailing out the big guys. >> they're fed up. >> the american people do not think the system is fair. >> why not picket the white house? >> protesters are giving voice to a more broad base of frustration. >> we're far left -- >> i'm not running to go to disneyland. today's mandatory stop on the republican presidential campaign was the values voters summit in washington, d.c. rick perry got things started just by getting introduced by

robert jeffress, senior pastor at dallas' first baptist church. >> do we want a candidate who is a conservative out of convenience or one who is a conservative out of deep conviction? do we want a candidate who is a good, moral person or do we want a candidate who is a born again follower of the lord jesus christ? rick perry is a proven leader. he is a true conservative. and he is a genuine follower of jesus christ. >> what jeffress means by genuine follower of jesus christ is, of course, not a mormon. a veiled reference to mitt romney's religion. rick perry didn't have to say much about that introduction, so he didn't. >> pastor, i want to say thank you for the rousing introduction. he knocked it out of the park as we like to say.

and a fellow who on any given sunday is working with 10,000 texans in his church. so i just, again, want to say thank you. >> later in an explicit attack on mitt romney, reverend jeffress hit mormonism out of the park. >> rick perry, he's a christian. he's an evangelical christian, a follower of jesus christ. mitt romney is a good moral person, but he's not a christian. mormonism is not christianity. it's considered a cult by the mainstream of christianity. >> the newest republican front-runner herman cain had this to say at the values voters summit. >> this nation has made it through the civil war, this nation has made it through the struggle we had with slavery. jim crow laws. civil rights. a reporter asked me just

yesterday, well, aren't you angry about how america has treated you? i said, sir, you don't get it. i have achieved all of my american dreams and then some because of the great nation, the united states of america. >> herman cain's interview here yesterday followed him around on the campaign trail today. >> mr. cain, who is lawrence o'donnell to tell you how to be a black man? >> it's an absurd thing to try and do, isn't it? i mean, for lawrence o'donnell to try and challenge me what was i doing during the civil rights movement, that's about as

ridiculous as me asking him, what were you doing when you were in end kindergarten? the two don't elt relate to one another. his attempt to do that failed in my opinion. >> this is the part of the interview the questioner was referring to. i'll leave it to you to decide if i was telling herman cain how to be a black man. in your book, you write, the book you're selling down there at barnes & noble today, you write "the civil rights movement was a few years in front of me. i was too young to participate when they first started the freedom rides and the sit ins. so on a day-to-day basis, it didn't have an impact. i just kept going to school, doing what i was supposed to do and stayed out of trouble. i didn't go downtown and try to participate in sit ins. counter to our real feelings, we decided to avoid trouble by moving to the back of the bus when the driver told us to. dad always said, stay out of

trouble, and we did." where do you think black people would be sitting on the bus today if rosa parks had followed your father's advice? >> my father was not given rosa parks' advice. here, again again, lawrence, yo distorting the intent of what i said. i was a high school student. the college students were doing the sit ins. the college students were doing the freedom rides. if i had been a college student, i probably would have been participating. >> mr. cain, in fact, you were in college from 1963 to 1967, at the height of the civil rights movement. exactly when the most important demonstrations and protests were going on. you could easily as a student at morehouse between 1963 and 1967 actively participated in the kinds of protests that got african-americans the rights they enjoy today. you watched from that

perspective at morehouse when you were not participating in those processes. you watched black college students from around the country and white college students from around the country come to the south and be murdered. fighting for the rights of african-americans. do you regret sitting on those sidelines at that time? >> let me ask you a question. did you expect every black student and every black college in america to be out there in the middle of every fight? the answer is no. >> joining me now, experts on the civil rights movement. the host of "politics nation," reverend al sharpton. msnbc contributor and tulane university professor of political science, melissa harris-perry. and goldie taylor from the grio.com which is part of nbc news. i want to thank you all very much for joining me tonight. i just want to begin to get some of the reaction to this interview. i want you to listen to what rush limbaugh's reaction was.

>> o'donnell is not black. he is the plantation master. the libs run a plantation. and the blacks in the democrat party are the people that work for them. and in order to serve in the democrat party as a black, you have to tow the line. it's just a reworking on the old traditional arrangement. >> i just want to tell you all, i got a lot of positive reaction to this interview from white and black friends of mine. i got a lot of negative reaction to this interview from the same. twitter was filled up with both kinds of reactions. and so i'm -- i just want to open the floor to your reactions to what you saw in that interview. i just want to assure you at the outset i wasn't trying to instruct anyone on how to handle themselves at that time in the south or any parents. i think if i had been a parent in that situation at that time, i probably would have given the

exact advice herman cain's father gave his children. i was trying to highlight, there was a moral thing in front of you, history came to your doorstep. do you have regrets about how you handled it? reverend al, go ahead. what was your reaction to what you heard in that interview? >> first of all, i think it was very telling that mr. cain said that had he been a college student he probably would have been involved. when you brought up that when he was a college student in morehouse, the school dr. king, by the way, graduated from, he was not involved. so i think that it is blatant contradiction to say, i would have been involved and then when you clearly say, you were old enough, then he goes somewhere else. secondly, i don't see where you instructing h ining him on how black or anything else. i think you were dealing with the facts of what he had written in his book and what he had, in

fact, done and said. what i think what is more troubling to me, it is mr. cain that has decided to call blacks brainwashed. so he brought up the issue before your interview of race and choices. and i might add, martin luther king's family was republican until the civil rights movement. so i don't even think this is a protestant matter. when he calls demonstrators in the occupy wall street movement, many of who are operating in the tradition of these same tradition of public demonstrations the civil rights movement did then and now, when he calls that un-american, i think that's a legitimate question to ask him because how can you call people un-american for assembling and protesting now and not then consider those same tactics un-american then? lastly, i think mr. cain has a real problem with the fact that because someone can ask the

question that he wrote about that they're instructing him -- then limbaugh talks about people that are plantation -- the connotations of all of that is extremely offensive to me, particularly when he asks like there's something wrong with people, black and white, being angry about how americans treated some people in this country. so i don't see where anything was out of order other than the inconsistencies and distortions of mr. cain's answers and positions. >> melissa harris-perry, i don't want to oversimplify the menu of choice that existed for black families in the south at that time. when you read isabelle wilkerson's book about the wavrmwavrm of other sons, do we move out of here to save our lives, go north, go west, as so many people did? what i was looking for was just how does it feel now? you know, you -- mr. cain, you

lived through this period, you made your choices. i don't have any argument with the choices. what does it feel like now when you look back on it? melissa, go ahead. i want everyone -- i want to let this conversation breathe. i want you to tell me what you took from what you saw. >> i would start by underlining everything reverend sharpton just said about the complicity of herman cain in a particular kind of racial discourse. that said, and with no support for herman cain's 9-9-9 plan on anything else on the cain menu, i was squirming with discomfort watching this interview, lawrence, between you and mr. cain. and my discomfort came from a couple of sources. one, just exactly as you said, the menu of choices, i think we have to be so careful. when we are not facing that imminent violence, ourselves, we have to be extremely careful about even the implication that those who did not participate

were necessarily cowards. now, mr. cain may be a coward, i don't know, but it was always simply a minority of african-americans who were engaged at any point in the civil rights movement. because it was a life and death question. and i can't be certain what choices i would have made had i faced that. but then i think for me the second issue, and this is maybe the thing that made me the most uncomfortable, is i can't remember anyone ever asking a white politician who is of the same age where they were during the sit ins. as you pointed out in your interview, there were white students who came down to be part of freedom summer. there were white allies at every point. yet we don't consider it a litmus test for white politicians to have had enough moral courage, ethical vision and american value to have participated actively in the civil rights movement. and i think that for me what was

distressing was just the idea that, you know, the later set of questions about, you know, were you in the part of the draft, did you serve in the vietnam war? we've asked that of white candidates, of black candidates, of anyone who could have served during wartime. we asked whether or not they did and what that says about their patriotism. i'm worried when we don't ask white politicians about their patriotism related to how they have or have not stood up for racial equality. >> yeah. you know, we'll get to the vietnam thing later. i found out from a lot of my younger viewers they were confused about why i was asking about the vietnam thing. i wasn't gung-ho about you should go to war. there was a decision every male had to make at that time in this country and i was interesting in exploring his. goldie taylor, i want to go to you and i want to say on what melissa just said, you know, my oldest brother was old enough and in college at the time we're talking about here and he could have participated in the freedom rides. going down from boston. and he didn't. i've asked him, you know, do you regret having done that? he answers it comfortably enough

saying, no, i don't regret it, i didn't know enough at the time to think about -- he can talk about it comfortably. he also went on as a lawyer in boston to handle very important civil rights litigation. so he was probably inspired by that period of time. but it seems to me that people who live through these historical periods can look back on where they were in them and discuss what decisions they made. i think we can go into those conversations without necessarily presuming there's a right or wrong answer. goldie, what was your reaction to what you heard? >> well, i think that's about right. i do underline what reverend sharpton said earlier in the broadcast. herman cain was living right here in atlanta, georgia. he'd been turned away from the university of georgia on an application there and wound up at morehouse college which was not his first choice. that point made. the other point is herman cain raised this issue in his own book and so we know that everything you do, say and

write, everything you don't do, don't say and don't write is really going to be open game in your adult life if you're running for president of the united states. this is scrutiny that he has got to welcome. i don't, you know, bedrudge you for asking the question. i think i was very uncomfortable in how he chose to answer it. if he said his road was different, that his goal was different, that his way in fighting civil rights was in showing how to be a more accomplished human being, then maybe, you know, i would have been a bit more with his responses. he was righteously indignant last night. i think to live here in atlanta, to be in the cradle of the civil rights movement, at morehouse college in the middle of the atlanta center, no less, when students were actively organizing, actively organizing sit ins, huddling at the restaurants, school systems were beginning to integrate. change was happening all around him. if he made the choice, and the choice was his not to get involved, he should be able to rightly explain that choice and explain why he took a different

trajectory. you know, that's my real problem with herman cain. is that, you know, he stays on his message but when he's asked a tough question, he seems to falter. and i think that's going to be a real question for a man who wants to be president of the united states, the toughest job in the entire world, on this entire planet, leader of the free world. i think he ought to be able to answer, you know, honest questions in books about -- books and writings he has done. >> reverend al, on what goldie just said, i'd like you to also help us take our younger viewers back to 1963, 1964, 1965, herman cain's college years and what was going on in this country. september 16th, 1963, of course, those of us who are old enough to remember will always remember that that's when the four african-american girls were killed in the bombing of the 16th street baptist church in birmingham. we lost addie mae collins, cynthia wesley, carol robertson,

denise mcnare. 1964, the middle of his college er that's when the student nonviolent coordinate committee was getting geared up and doing so in atlanta. reverend al, fill in some of the wall paper of the time that surrounds the period that we're talking about here. >> first of all, you not only had the birmingham four that were bombed and killed. you had the march on washington, you had the killing of geffors. you had all of that. let me say this. i think i agree with both goldie and melissa. he had the right not to be involved. what he does not have the right to is rewrite history by saying that blacks were brainwashed by becoming democrats. because when blacks became democrats my parents were republicans. as i said, dr. king's family was. i'm nine or ten years younger than mr. cain, and i joined the movement later on in the '60s

when i was a teenager still. i don't begrudge him for not making my choice but begrudge him for acting like we're brainwashed because we went with a party that stood up for the rights of '64 and voting rights of '65. there's a reason the blacks did not stay with the republican party. i think when he stepped in to calling people brainwashed and totally discarded the fact that it was based on public policy, that people made their political choices and, in fact, changed their choices from the party of lincoln. i think it became fair game to question him on his personal decisions. he didn't say that. then he comes not only in an incendiary way, i think, in answering your questioning. i think that he really stepped over the bounds today when he says that america made it possible for him to be prosperous, rather than those that changed america made it

possible for him to be prosperous. so if i were to give him the benefit of the doubt last night, he certainly closed the door today because he basically discounted who the civil rights movement did. herman cain could not have -- it was not required that he be involved in the movement, but for him to act like the movement, not the normal status quo america was responsible for his success is a distortion and factually inaccurate and offensive to me. >> melissa, i could see you wanted to get back in there. we're out of time for this segment and what we're going to do is we're just going to push over into the next segle. we'll see what we salvage of the rest of the show. please stay with me. we're going to go to a break. reverend al sharpton. melissa harris-perry. goldie taylor. stay with me. we're coming back to this subject. feels like we're just getting started. coming up, we will do a rewrite of grover norquist.

we've done it before. we're going to do it again. this time i'm going to let a republican do it for me. and eric cantor goes after the occupy wall street on day 21 as the protesters move in on washington, d.c. i think we're going to get to that coming up. [ male announcer ] in 1894, a small town pharmacist set out to create a different kind of cold remedy using powerful medicine and natural ingredients from around the world. he called it vicks vaporub. today, the vicks journey continues. introducing new vicks nature fusion cold & flu syrup.

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coming up, we're going to have more of my conversation with reverend al sharpton, melissa harris-perry and goldie taylor on herman cain's interview here last night and his history with or without the civil rights movement. we're also going to go to occupy wall street. it goes to washington. eric cantor is referring to them now as a mob. robert reich will guide us through that. [ artis brown ] america is facing some tough challenges right now. two of the most important are energy security and economic growth. north america actually has one of the largest oil reserves in the world. a large part of that is oil sands. this resource has the ability to create hundreds of thousands of jobs.

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we're back with the reverend al sharpton, host of msnbc "politics nation," melissa harris-perry, and goldie taylor, grio.com, part of nbc news. melissa, i'm going to read you one of the tweets from today actually, from mark who says, lawrence, i would love to stomp you into the ground and goes on and on and on with violence. he was then backed up by someone else who said, i know where he lives and i'm not afraid of going to jail for doing it. rush limbaugh wasn't the only one angry about this. melissa, i'm going to just get out of the way here with the few minutes we have left. melissa, i know i wanted to react to what reverend al said. >> part of me wants to say i'm

glad it's you getting the tweets. last week it was me. obviously that kind of violence talk is what we don't need. i was trying to be a good guest. as i was listening to reverend sharpton i kept wanting to jump in with a kind of -- i felt like i was in church and wanted to say amen. some of what reverend sharpton was pointing to there are really the critical issues for african-american voters in a very broad and long historical sense. and that is this idea that they are not agentic, that they can't make their own choices, that african-americans because we tend to vote in large blocs, sort of better than 80% of the race's vote going to first the republican party in the years following the civil war, and then to the democratic party after a transition first with fdr then with the 1964 civil rights and 1965 voting rights act. o it looks like, oh, they're just a herd and all go one way. obviously you hear a lot on the left these days calling african-american voters

obamabots or obama drones for continuing to support the president of the united states. and i just really want to put my finger on this and say that that is precisely the kind of infant lizing of adult persons who are citizens of these united states. that is so troubling. and it was troubling to hear herman cain do it. it is trouble when it happens from white allies on the left. african-americans make choices like other citizens based on a wide variety of policy issues. it just turns out that consistently in this country, one party or the other tends to do significantly better in terms of economic and political questions relative to african-american communities. and so the notion that it's brainwashing rather than choice i think is incredibly upsetting for african-americans to hear. whether it comes from the left or the right. >> goldie, go ahead. >> i think i have to agree with that. i think, you know, if you look at african-americans and look

down into the psychographic, african-americans are by in large socially conservative. we happen to agree with republicans on a number of conservative issues. you know, we're in church once, twice, some of us three times every week. so we're a faith-driven community. so to say that we won't consider conservative ideals is really just a misnomer. i think what we won't consider is a party that we see at least in my lifetime, and i was born in 1968, in my lifetime, hasn't been particularly in line with the kinds of values that would advance the african-american community rather socially, economically or otherwise. or open more opportunities for, you know, us as a community. i think that that is where the difference lies. it isn't necessarily in the brainwashing. we're doing the math. we're with those candidates and with those parties who we feel like invest in us in a short and long term. herman cain hasn't been a candidate who has shown empathy for that despite how he's come to growth in this nation and neither have the other

candidates on that side of the table. it's difficult for us as african-americans to even consider it in a serious way. i think that's the substantial part of this is if they want to earn african-american votes, they have to come into the african-american committee and not -- community and not talk but listen and understand what the issues really are and come up with substantial, significant solutions to help us solve them. that's how you win votes back by listening. but all they to these days it seems to be talking. >> reverend al, go ahead, reverend. >> lawrence, let me just say this, and let me be very candid about this. i think on two points. one, people are still marching. i'm still marching. a lot of us are still marching and it's still dangerous. i've been stabbed in my lifetime leading a march. people are being pepper sprayed down at the -- at wall street now, at occupation wall street. so it is still some risk. to act like these people are un-american or mobs, and herman

cain to call them un-american, call blacks brainwashed, question the president's birth certificate and then you can't ask him about where he was in his college days on an issue he raised? give me a break. i mean, he can say whatever he wants, but then if somebody just raises a question to him about the basis of him making those statements, then all of a sudden he runs and says you're telling me how to be black? no, maybe we're asking for consistency here. if you thought it was all right to march, but you didn't march, then why is it wrong to march now? if you thought one way, then why do you question not somebody's race but question where a man was born when he's the president of the united states? so if herman cain wants to throw rocks, he should at least be open to someone asking him questions. >> melissa -- >> i think that's exactly right, reverend al. >> go ahead, goldie. >> i think that's exactly right. i think if you're going to have a party who, you know, throws

inflammatory things like saying the president was educated in a madrassa or born in kenya or -- and so i think those issues -- or herman cain, himself, saying president obama isn't a real black man, as if he's stand in line handing out the cards. i think when you use that kind of imagery, and you can't celebrate the kind of african-american man president obama has turned out to be, but you turn around and celebrate the kind of african-american man that herman cain has turned out to be, i think there's a bit of irony in that. that you can celebrate one but not the other because they don't happen to agree with you ideologically. that's problematic for the gop. >> we're just about out of time for this. we're not going to get to the discussion of vietnam service in which i wanted to try to explain my frame of that. but melissa harris-perry, please give us the last word on this. we're running out of time. >> maybe i shouldn't have the last word. i'd say, you know, i absolutely agree with what both goldie and reverend sharpton are saying. i will repeat, it madeby squirm.

had those questions been asked in the exactly forthright way by reverend sharpton, not because he's black but because he has a personal history obviously with the american civil rights movement that is kind of unquestionable, i don't think it would have made me feel as uncomfortable. i want to acknowledge that as much as i completely disagree with herman cain's positions, i was made uncomfortable by that particular interracial interaction and i think that that matters, too, and we should be willing to pause and think about how the continuing realities of american race and american racism mean when we're having frank discussions across racial lines, it can still be a very, very difficult set of conversations to have. >> i agree with that. i know she had the last word, but let me just say this quickly. i agree with what she said. lawrence, do me a favor. if a white candidate said blacks were brainwashed, ask them where they were at during the civil rights movement if they were old

enough. >> please do. >> i'll do that. i want to specify that melissa harris-perry is not the only friend of mine who had exactly that uncomfortable reaction to what they were watching. >> she's my teacher. i'll have to read what she writes about me. >> reverend al sharpton, melissa harris-perry, goldie taylor, i can't thank you enough for coming in tonight and having this discussion. thank you very much. >> thank you. >> thank you. the occupy wall street protests continue to spread nationwide. and politicians in washington are taking notice. robert reich, former labor secretary to bill clinton joins me later. and stay tuned for a special rewrite by a republican congressman who is fed up with the way grover norquist controls washington. for fastidious libran emily skinner, each day was fueled by thorough preparation for events to come. well somewhere along the way, emily went right on living. but you see, with the help of her raymond james financial advisor, she had planned for every eventuality. ...which meant she continued to have the means to live on...

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still to come on this program, eric cantor has been rattled by the occupy wall street protests. proving that they are quickly becoming a force to be reckoned with. robert reich former labor secretary joins me. and a brave republican congressman takes to the house floor to denounce grover norquist's iron grip on his party. that's in the rewrite. [ male announcer ] this...is jet's pizza --

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occupy wall street goes to washington. today protesters started a three-day weekend occupation at freedom plaza near the white house. the protests that started 21

days ago organized through twitter without a leader, and unaffiliated with any political or advocacy group, now have the attention of washington politicians. dozens of democrats have voiced their support for the protesters. the congressional progressive caucus issued this statement. "we share the anger and frustration of so many americans who have seen the enormous toll that an unchecked wall street has taken on the overwhelming majority of americans while benefiting the superwealthy. we stand with the american people as they demand corporate accountability and we support their use of peaceful means to improve america." house republican leader eric cantor not surprisingly had a different reaction. speaking at the values voters summit today in washington. >> i for one am increasingly concerned about the growing mobs occupying wall street and the other cities across the country.

and believe it or not, some in this town have actually condoned the pitting of americans against americans. >> cantor, of course, pits americans against americans for a living and raised no objections to any of the protest demonstrations by people calling themselves tea partyers including the demonstrations he participated in. this morning, the september jobs report was released showing the economy added 103,000 jobs last month and now with more complete information and data, it also revised the net job creation number from august from the pathetic zero revised up inward to 57,000. the national unemployment rate remains 9.1%, a problem the president says republicans offered no real solution for. >> their big economic plan to

put people back to work right now is to roll back financial protections. eliminate the epa. here's a good question. here's a little homework assignment for folks. go ask the republicans what their jobs plan is, if they're opposed to the american jobs act, and have it scored, have it assessed by the same independent economist that assessed our jobs plan. i'll be interested in the answer. i think everybody here -- i see some smirks in the audience. because you know that it's not going to be real robust. >> joining me now is robert reich, former labor secretary in the clinton administration. he's now a professor of public policy at the university of california at berkeley and the author of "after shock." thanks for joining me. that was a funny cbo joke the republicans told about scoring the republicans' bill. i'm not sure most americans would quite get it.

what he's really saying is they haven't proposed anything and if you tried to bring it to cbo, cbo wouldn't be able to say the republicans would be create any jobs. >> exactly. the republicans' idea about creating jobs is basely is think government and somehow by shrinking government you get more jobs though most americans understand shrinking government means fewer teachers, firefighters, fewer social workers, fewer police officers, fewer government contractors, fewer people who are working for all the government contractors. so it's hard to imagine how by any scoring or any logic it is possible to understand how a shrinking government is going to create jobs. >> the president's news conference yesterday seemed to at a certain level up the anxiety level for him. i mean, he seemed to be saying, look, this economy could go very badly if we don't do something very quickly. this is a very tricky spot for the president to be in because, of course, he doesn't want to

say anything that shakes confidence in any way but at the same time he somehow has to inspire urgency. how should he do that? >> well, i think doing it exactly the way he's done it and that is by being very clear with the american people about the magnitude of the problem but also optimistic if we take steps we can overcome this problem. i mean, 103,000 new jobs for september may sound pretty good, but you need 125,000 just to keep up with the growth of the population. so we are still in the hole. we may be making a little progress but hole is getting deeper. even as we are climbing out. the president needs a jobs plan. america needs a jobs plan. it's not going to go very far. most of the analysis of this jobs plan says it's going to create maybe 2 million jobs. remember, we have 25 million americans who are in search of full-time employment, but at least it's a step in the right direction and republicans continue to say, as they have for years now, no.

>> robert samuelson in his economics column in the "washington post" made an interesting point about the mood. he says we're in a rotten mood. he says the consumer now is in the opposite condition of irrational exuberance that was once talked about that pushed up the housing market and all that and we're now in a kind of irrational negative take on where we really are with this economy. what is the rational take on where we are with this economy? >> well, it is rational for consumers to hold back for now, lawrence. consumers, remember, one out of four people who have mortgage are underwater, owing more on their home than their homes are worth. housing prices and homes as a major asset for most people, housing prices are down 35% from what they were in 2006. and people are worried about losing their jobs if they haven't lost them already. plus the median wage and family income continue to decline, adjusted for inflation. it's completely rational under

these circumstances for people to hold back, save, try to scrimp, to remove and reduce discretionary spending. there's nothing irrational about this. from the standpoint of the economy as a whole, obviously we suffer because businesses are not going to create new jobs or expand regardless of how low interest rates are unless consumers are going to buy. >> former labor secretary robert reich. thank you very much for joining me tonight. >> thanks, lawrence. on the house floor, republican congressman frank wolf courageously took on the most powerful conservative in washington, grover norquist. that's next in the "rewrite." later, the late night comedians already miss chris christie. the best of late night is coming up. [ female announcer ] starbucks via® is planted the same... ♪ ...harvested the same... ♪ ...and roasted the same as our other premium coffees. ♪ it only makes sense it would taste the same. so, try it for yourself.

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i'm handing over tonight's "rewrite" to republican congressman frank wolf who bravely took on the most powerful man in republican politics, grover norquist, the

anti-tax lobbyist, who has gotten almost all republican congressmen to sign a pledge never to raise tax revenue in any form including through closing some of the most egregious tax loopholes. we can only hope that the bravery congressman wolf showed on the house floor inspires at least some of his republican friends who know in their hearts that they should not have taken an oath to a powerful lobbyist before they took their oath of office. >> my conscious compelled me to come to the floor today to voice concerns i have with the influence. grover norquist, the president of americans for tax reform, has on the political process in washington. i raise these concerns today in the context of dealing with the future of our country. america is in trouble. unemployment is over 9%. housing values continue to decli decline. retirement accounts are

threatened. the american people are worried, yet washington is tragically shackled in ideological gridlock. some are dead set against any change to entitlement programs, while others insist that any discussion of tax policy is off the table. we are at a point today that the tsunami of debt in america demands that every piece of the budget be scrutinized and that means more than just cutting waste, fraud and abuse and discretionary programs. everything must be on the table and i believe how the pledge is interpreted and enforced by mr. norquist is a road block to realistically reforming our tax code. had we really reached a point where one person's demand for ideological purity is paralyzing congress to the point that even a discussion of tax reform is viewed as breaking a no-tax pledge? [ drew ] give me volume. not clumps or gaps. the answer... it's all in the wrap.

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chris christie breaks the late night comedy writers' hearts by keeping his promise. sarah palin surprises no one. and rick perry has a problem that you just can't paint over. here's the week in comedy. >> the "washington post" reports that the rick perry family hunting camp once had a racially charged name. you see, the hunting camp was evidently called -- okay, um, how do i put this? okay. okay.

>> governor chris christie making a stunning announcement. >> what i've always felt was the right decision remains the right decision today. now is not my time. the answer was never anything but no. >> oh my god, chris christie, 2012! christie, 20 -- wait, what? no, oh? well, having said he wasn't going to run in private, having said it on the television, having said is to print reporters, having tagged it on what can only be described as a condemned trenton building, having demonstrated his position while attending a devil's game. who paints for preseason games? it's over. >> you remember we recently spent a little time analyzing over the last few months sarah palin had been traveling the country in a constitution-wrapped bus, frequenting early primary states and talking about her plan to save america which suggested two very distinct possibilities. you're either running for the president of the united states

or you are a crazy person. well, last night sarah palin went on fox news, bravely sporting a lapel pin that could have easily carried her away in its talents, to provide the answer. >> no, i'm not running. >> so i'm ready to call it with 100% of sarah palin's reporting tonight, the winner is crazy person. >> if it's friday, the late night comedians get "the last word." see all of last night's interview with herman cain on our blog, thelastword.msnbc.com. where you can always see all of the segments on all of our shows. follow my tweets @lawrence. the rachel maddow show is up next. >> good evening, lawrence. happy friday. when bill clinton was running for re-election in 1996, his campaign theme that year was building a bridge to the 21st century. that campaign theme worked, bill clinton of course was