your own caucus. politics is a learning profession arthur schlesinger once said. what have they candidates learned that gives them the cheek to ask the americans to make them our president? there was once a time when people believed they had to prove themselves before running for president. that's jt hardball" for now. thanks for being with us. "the ed show" with ed schultz starts right now. good evening, americans, and welcome to "the ed show" from new york. tonight, there is a new plan by the 99% movement to occupy congress. we'll tell you all about it. and breaking news out of washington. republicans say that they have a new plan to fix income inequality in america. they want to make the rich richer. and they wonder why the 99% movement is just getting stronger? this is "the ed show." let's get to work. >> we deserve leaders who can tackle this problem to give america a debt-free nation and

prosperous economy. >> the brand new republican plan to fix income equality helps the rich and does nothing to help the poor. and lawmakers are demeaning the 99% movement. >> i don't see why the media or anyone took them seriously. >> tonight, sei, president mary kay henry gives us her first interview since she was arrested protesting in new york. and daily kos blogger jesse legreca is here. the marches continue tomorrow in madison. 30,000 or more are expected as a walker recall rally. we're going live to the badger state. and newt gingrich has refused to appear on my show, but he's still teeing off on msnbc. >> i understand there are places like msnbc that are essentially the obama re-election team. >> tonight, i'm swinging back. good to have you with us torrent, folks. thanks for joining us. in huge of support and strength by the 99% movement, republican

answered the cry of americans fed up with income inequality. the gop solution, more tax cuts for the rich. that's right. house budget committee chairman paul ryan revealed a 17-page report called a deeper look at inequality. ryan was responding to an independent study by the congressional budget office will supports the central message of the 99%ers. the cbo report showed income of the top 1% grew by 275% between the years 1979 and 2007. now, you'll see on that graph the much flatter lines on the bottom of the chart show income growth for everyone else. so it's ryan to the rescue. coming up with classics like this one. the quote, "the share of the federal tax burden borne by the top 1% increased dramatically." ryan's solution, his so-called tax reform, "the nation is long overdue for the kind of pro-growth tax reform that broadens the base while lowering

tax rates." give me a break. ryan wants to return to reaganesque, reagan era tax rates for the wealthy at 28% or even better. make no mistake, about the meaning of broadening the base. ryan is talking about basically the 47% of americans whose income is currently too low to pay federal taxes the way the system is right now. ryan and the republicans, you know what they want? they want those folks to pay more. republicans aren't just nervous about the message of the 99% movement. they're nervous about its continued strength. as demonstrated by yesterday's nationwide protests. republican congressman peter king trashed the movement again last night. >> to me, any group that wants to be taken seriously should not be conducting itself that way. to me, there was absolutely nothing about them that would resonate with the american people, there was no real message coming from them, and to me they were people living in their own filth.

i don't see why the media or anyone took them seriously. to me, there was nothing there that was resonant with middle america, if you will. >> well, obviously king wasn't playing close attention to yesterday's protest. he was regurgitating his own talking point. here's what he said earlier in the week. >> first of all, you try to listen to them and they make almost no sense. these are people who are living in dirt, these are people who were involved with drugs, there was violence, there was rape. you're talking about a small number of people. >> oh, absolutely, they're all scumbags, aren't they, peter? we heard a similar talking point from republican presidential candidate newt gingrich last night. >> and the question is, how many innocent people will be hurt, how much innocent property will be destroyed, how much damage will they do to the society at large? >> there's riots all over the place, you wouldn't believe it. even has beens like sarah palin are getting in on the act, denigrating the 99% movement and connecting the movement to president obama. >> this is really getting out of

control, this occupy wall street. these shenanigans. and yet barack obama has not taken the time to reign the folks in. >> a coalition of labor and progressive groups is planning, here it is, occupy congress. unions like the service employees international union and the communication workers of america will bus thousands of protesters to congress to congregate on the capitol december 5th through december 9th. so do you think the movement's growing? or is it dead like bill o'reilly said in recent days? which is a good thing in his opinion. no. this is the tip of the iceberg, my friends. get your cell phones out. i want to know what you think. tonight's question. do republicans mock the 99% movement at their own peril? text "a" for yes, "b" for no to 622639. our blog is waiting for a comment at ed.msnbc.com. we'll have the results later on in the show.

i'm joined tonight by mary kay henry, international president of the service employees international union. great to have you with us. >> good to be here. >> you bet. this is big news. we're going into a new phase. tell us about going to washington. what's the plan? >> well, you know that last night was an expansion, ed, and today we are pushing signs out in every corner of the country that says we are the 99%, good jobs now, make wall street pay. so people are putting it in their houses, their churches, their workplaces, and then tomorrow we're doing community canvassing in neighborhoods and we're building to bringing people to washington all across this country people are saying we have the capacity as a nation to get 15 million people back to work in good jobs in january. people in congress just need to make the tough decisions. the republicans need to decide to stop protecting the 1%. and get us back to work. >> mary kay, how big is this

effort going to be in washington? i mean, 30,000, 40,000, 50,000, and it's from the 5th until the 9th. is this going to be for a week? >> yes. i don't know how many people yet, ed, but yesterday 256 people took arrests at 300 different community actions that occurred. so it is beyond being able to count, because people have had enough. and they are going to come, i believe, in droves, and we want to symbolically say there are too many unemployed in this country. there's too much injustice. people have lost their homes. we need to take action now. we cannot wait until november of 2012. >> why did you think it was important to get arrested last night? >> because i thought it was really important to join with faith leaders, community leaders, other members of our union who have never been arrested before and say that we think it's time to disobey the law and to draw a light on we've tried everything else, and we

want to make it crystal clear, enough is enough. there's a state of emergency for working people. and we're going to do whatever it takes to draw attention and get action from our government, from the wealthiest in our nation and from corporate ceos. >> not that this movement has been co-opted by any particular party, but do you think that the republicans are nervous about what's going on? >> absolutely. i do. that is the party that is scapegoating immigrants, that's attacking public workers, and is protecting the richest americans in our country. and many of whom i believe want to contribute to our prosperity. we are a great nation. we are an american family. people want to care for each other. we want to love each other. people are hurting and there's no reason we can't respond to the suffering and crisis in this country by creating 15 million jobs tomorrow. >> what if you go to washington with this, for lack of a better term, a march, or sit-in, or whatever it's going to be, i mean, i'm all about it. i think it's great.

what if you're ignored by congress? what if they do nothing? what if they pay no attention to you? >> well, we are not going to rest until we get back to work and restore justice in this country. so we're going to go to congressional hearings, we'll go to "k" street lobbyists and deal with the chamber of congress and stay in the streets and keep expanding our movement reaching out to all across this country. i think yesterday marked a feeling by a lot of communities who said, maybe i have to just suffer and now we have hope that we can make change. >> and one more question, your response to bill o'reilly and the fox, pretty much everybody over at fork, but o'reilly especially saying this movement is dead. >> crazy. he's ridiculous. bill o'reilly is totally out of touch with the american people who are ready to stand up and speak out and get what we deserve. >> mary kay henry, president of the service international employees union. great to have you with us tonight. i appreciate it. >> good to be with you.

now let's turn to jesse lagreca, he's an occupy protester. i've wanted to meet you for a long time. you've been on point for a long time. how bilg was yesterday? >> we had people in all 50 states stands up and say enough is enough. look at the solutions the republican party offered. it's the same nonsense they've been putting on us for 30 years. tax cuts for the rich. we give the rich all the money they want, then they'll finally feel secure and create jobs. they're busting unions making it hard for us to put food on our family's table. 40,000 people in america die every single year because of lack of health care. preventable diseases. it makes me laugh that the guys who literally fought to give corporations the right to freedom of speech want to deny americans the right to protest in a public place. you know, i think sarah palin needs a full time day job. she apparently has nothing else

to talk about. it's not startling to me. these guys are paid to say what they say. they take large campaign donations. i'm not surprised they do the bank's dirty work. >> what do you think of peter king in his depiction of the 99%ers out protesting? he said pretty degrading and vile stuff. your response. >> he's done degrading stuff. the man lied us into the war in iraq and has yet to be held accountable for that. that created deficits which are used to destroy every program the republican party voted against for the last 80 years. >> what do you make of the unions saying they're going to organize, they're going to go occupy washington. you in on that? >> my father was a union carpenter. i absolutely stand with unions. >> so there really is no one group that's really taken over this group. because there's a lot of conversation early on about what are the 99%ers, they don't have a real focus. i want you to respond to that. >> to me i think our message is so obvious that you really have to be willfully ignorant to ignore it.

the majority of working class people are hurting right now, are out of touch bribed politicians selling this agenda that only benefits the wealthiest 1%. how can we cut their taxes, deregulate in their fafvor? you need something mr. working class guy? i'm sorry, you're going to have to face cuts. the republicans operate on one playbook, whatever bank of america, bp, david koch or whoever else is financing their campaigns wants them to talk about. >> i said this on the air the other night, parallel that with the democratic national convention in 2008. i don't know whether that's what you intended. i don't know. we're talking about the wealthy paying more, fair taxation, universal health care, supporting public education. how do you see all this? >> well, i mean, when i wrote that last night, i was really expressing my own opinions. at the same time, i'm happy so many people share those values because to me that's the values that we're talking about. protecting our families, rebuilding our communities, investing in america.

at the same time, it's frustrating that i find i'm kind of more democratic than some democrats are. if we're going to go to congress and pressure congress, we should not just ignore the democrats there. ben nelson, senator ben nelson, senator max balk cuucus, a bunc worthless blue dogs who don't represent anybody else but the special interests. we should occupy their offices, too, because they're not helping right now. >> o'reilly says it's dead, he says it's a good thing. your response. >> so is dr. george tiller unfortunately. bill o'reilly hurt enough people with his words. it shows how out of touch he is to think this populist uprising across america, well, if the republicans can't own it, i guess they have to destroy it. that's their modus operendi. >> i've been to columbus, toledo and newton, iowa, in the middle of the country, all within the last 60 days all of the places i've been. i asked people in every single city, does this movement, what they're doing on wall street, do you relate to them?

emphatically, the people say, yes. what's that mean, what's that mean to you? it. >> it means occupy wall street represents a cross section of america from all walks of life. students seeking higher education, people who are professional paying off their student loans, right down the line. >> do you think you had anything to do with the senate bill 5 going down in ohio? >> certainly. i would say so. we act investigated so many people for the first time who never engaged in politics or anything of that manner. it's very viral. >> what do you say to the people who say you're a bunch of anarchists out there? >> i suggest they stop watching propaganda distributed by rupert murdo murdoch's international crimes syndicate. >> well, that's a pretty good answer. right to it. and, of course, the recall of governor walker, which we're going to talk more about in just a few moments, you think this movement is going to also have an effect on his recall? >> it absolutely should. you know, i got to visit madison, myself, a week or two ago. i have friends out there. in my opinion, i think we should

be putting pressure on all of the politicians who benefit only the wealthiest 1% to the detriment of everybody else in america. so governor scott walker, governor rick snyder -- i'm sorry, rick scott. right down the line. not just republicans either. some democrats needs to be put on the unemployment line as well. >> you can throw snyder's name in there as well for michigan. he's pretty radical as well. >> they're repealing the 20th century. i keep telling people i'm not against capitalism. i'm against crime. for these guys to talk about we're the party of personal sponl responsibility. they're very hypocritical and doing a disservice to their countrymen. >> jesse, thanks for joining us tonight, let's do it again. >> absolutely. answer the question at the bottom of the screen and share your thoughts @edshow. coming up, the scott walker recall efforts are going strong in wisconsin with big events this weekend. state senator lina taylor gives us the latest. this week's gop front-runner newt gingrich calls this network

the obama re-election team. i missed that staff meeting. if i had known it was there, i would have attended. and the senate is having secret santa this year. but one party doesn't seem to like christmas too much. mike papantonio and lizz winstead join me tonight. stay with us. emily's just starting out... and on a budget. like a ramen noodle- every-night budget. she thought allstate car insurance was out of her reach. until she heard about the value plan. shop less. get more. make one call to an allstate agent.

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coming up on "the ed show," tomorrow, well, they're back in the streets in wisconsin. we'll preview a huge rally that is aimed at getting rid of the governor. 30 years after her death, natalie wood, that case has been re-opened by law enforcement. why now? michele bachmann says she's been gaffe-free on campaign trail? we'll show you how she's really stuck her foot in her mouth. this is "the ed show" on msnbc.

thousands of fed up americans will be in the streets of madison, wisconsin, tomorrow. they're keeping the pressure on governor scott walker for his assault on workers' rights. the campaign to recall walker kicked off earlier this week. more than 50,000 signatures were reported within the first 48 hours. 540,000-plus valid signatures are needed to force a recall election. tomorrow, the grassroots coalition, united wisconsin, along with labor groups and state democrats, will hold a rally for signatures outside the state capitol. organizers expect the crowd to rival the size of madison's protest from earlier in the year. since those days last winter, we've seen the rise of the 99% movement and the fall of john kasich's union busting law in ohio.

scott walker is already playing defense with television ads, no to a recall. wisconsinites are motivated and not just in big cities. towns like spooner, wisconsin, in a republican leaning washburn county are seeing enthusiastic petition drives. make no mistake, wisconsin started this middle class movement in 2011. what you're seeing on the streets across the country is what's been going on all year in scott walker's backyard. i love it. joining me tonight, wisconsin state senator lena taylor. senator, good to have you with us tonight. it's -- we're almost back to the good old days here with the rallies. how many people are going to be showing up tomorrow? >> you know, it's going to be a lot of people that will be at the rally, but to be very candid with you, there will be more people out knocking on doors and out with petitions getting signatures. because the rally is a good thing, but collecting those signatures so we can recall or governor is more important. >> we heard about the first 48

hours. is the recall campaign keeping pace to get the signatures? you got 60 days. i think you get over 9,000 signatures a day. how's the pace going? >> oh my goodness. we're already four, five days ahead. i have to tell you, in the first day that we were able to collect signatures, literally i spent about 30 minutes, less than an hour, i got 200 signatures. i've had at least, you know, 20 circulators who have come and, you know, said, i want to get a petition so i can do it. many others have downloaded, at least 20,000 have downloaded so they can circulate. we have 50,000, as you stated, signatures in the first 2 days, 48 hours. i'm just here to tell you that we're going to get the numbers that we need. this isn't just in milwaukee. this is all over the state. >> i want your response to this. governor walker was on fox news complaining about the money going into the recall campaign. here it is. >> how much is it going to cost the taxpayers, you have an estimate how much it will cost

them for this recall effort? >> well, they're saying in some cases up to $10 million just in taxpayers' money. not to mention the tens of millions like they spent in the recalls earlier this year against state senators that you're going to see in all sorts of negative ads. >> how can walker complain about funding when he can get unlimited political donations to save his hide? what do you make of that? >> especially since one of his republican donors started his process a little early for him. $10 million is ridiculous statement. when you consider the fact that the governor also said it was going to be millions of dollars to clean the capital from when the protest happened before. that turned out to be a line. i'm here to tell you his statement, it's going to be $10 million for taxpayer expenses, not true. he believed in recalls when he got elected as milwaukee county executive. why is it he doesn't agree with them now? >> how is the recall campaign, senator, being primarily funded in your state? >> you know, this is really a

grassroots movement. united wisconsin is really a bunch of individuals who've come together and to work on thees t effort, but don't get me wrong, there are retired individuals, there are yin union individuals stay at home moms and unemployed individuals and students. there are people from all walks of life. farmers. you name it, that are a part of this process. this is really going to be annest where the average joe and the average jill are going to help to fund this. we're making calls through the democratic party and other methods to get individuals to donat donate. people are. >> i want to look at the big picture here. of the 14 senators that left the state, none of them got recalled. there were nine recalls -- >> that's correct. >> okay. so all of the senators that shut it down, shut the process down, when the radical movement was on to go after workers' rights, you're still in office, all 14 of you. there were nine recall --

>> all 14 senators. >> okay. >> all 14 senators that participated in the filibuster are still senators and we gained two seats, if you recall. >> well, there were nine recall elections and the democrats won five of them. then, of course, what happened in ohio. what's happening here, lena? what's happening here? is this real change taking place? >> this is people that are fed up. and i think ohio is a perfect example. i feel like when we left and did the walking filibuster, we passed the baton to ohio and senators like senator nina turner in ohio and others who have worked diligently. those individuals came and had a million more signatures than they needed. then they delivered when it came time at election. at election time. we're in that mode right now. getting the signatures. i believe that we'll get more than 500,000. i'm hoping for 750,000 or more signatures. and then we're going to deliver at the election time. and i think this is really about

people saying, we deserve to be able to have access to the american dream. >> and is the occupy wall street movement connected to this recall? are these the same folks? >> well, you know, i think that there is definitely similarities. because scott walker has shown, and his cronies and his rubber stamp elelegislators, they choo corporations over the people, whether it's education cuts, you know, health care cuts, and i believe that the people who are participating in the 99%ers, so to say, those individuals are also saying they're fed up and the people should be chosen over corporations. it's completely unfair the gap is as big as it is. >> i tweeted tonight that walker is wisconsin's wall street. >> yes, he is. >> senator taylor, good to have you with us to. >> we're going to make sure -- it's good to be with you, ed. we're going to make sure he gets to do what his name says he is. he says he's a walker.

we're going to send him walking. michele bachmann says she's the only gaffe-free candidate in the race. we'll remind her of her tremendous psycho talking in the past, next. 30 years after her death, homicide detectives are taking another look at the natalie wood case. clint van zandt explains the investigation. stay with us. ♪

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and in "psycho talk" tonight, michele bachmann is in

complete denial about her pathetic poll numbers. she's still trying to convince america that she should be the next leader of the free world. >> as people are looking at the candidate that is the most conservative and the most consistent candidate, i've been that candidate. i haven't had a gaffe or something that i've done that has caused me to fall in the polls. >> oh, first of all, something has caused michele bachmann to plummet in the polls. in july, she was in second place nationally in an nbc news/"wall street journal" poll at 16%. this month she's down to 4%, and that would be in sixth place. it's been a steeper drop for bachmann in her home state of iowa. she won the straw poll at 29% of the vote, now she's at 5% in iowa. good enough for sixth place there as well. also bachmann can pretend she's been gaffe-free but she's not fooling anyone. let's go to the videotape. >> i want to thank the tea party express and tea party hd for inviting me to speak this

evening. what i love about new hampshire, you're the state where the shot was heard around the world at lexington and concord. planned parenthood is a billion dollar a year entity. they want to become the lens crafter of big abortion. just like john wayne was from waterloo, iowa. that's the kind of spirit that i have, too. the woman that came up crying to me tonight after the debate, her daughter suffered mental retardation as a result of that vaccine. now with the president, he put us in libya. he is now putting us in africa. >> there's more, but we got other stories we have to do tonight. we have to move along. for michele bachmann to say she hasn't had a gaffe is laughable "psycho talk." newt gingrich denies he was a lobbyist for freddie mac, he was just a strategic adviser. gingrich has explaining to do about $840,000 he got from the chamber of commerce. joan walsh is next on that issue.

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tiny tow truck -- works every time. shop less. get more. make one call to an allstate agent. i understand that there are places like msnbc that are essentially the obama re-election team, but, you know, but that's fine. this is a free society. you can also say, frankly, that fox tends to be nicer than it is to obama. >> former fox news employee newt gingrich thinks msnbc is the obama re-election team, which is news to me. president obama has never appeared on msnbc since he took the oath of office, but he's done two interviews with fox. meanwhile, we've invited just about all the republican candidates to come on this show multiple times including you, newt. come on, let's do a debate. herman cain has been on with me. yeah. so has rick santorum. newt, you haven't said yes yet.

and if you want to talk about a network's functioning as an election team, check this out. >> there's a new front-runner and he is here. former speaker of the house newt gingrich joins us. good evening, mr. speaker. >> with me now, republican presidential candidate, former massachusetts governor, mitt romney. >> joining us now from columbia, south carolina, governor perry. >> here to comment on presidential -- michele bachmann. >> he's the fifth person we've had on our program today. >> joining me now, the former pennsylvania senator, fox news contribute eric santorum. >> we're joined by the texas congressman and 2012 presidential candidate ron paul. >> governor huntsman with me now. good to see you again. >> thank you, neil. live free or die. >> thanks for doing this. >> good to be with you again. >> we got lucky because congresswoman michele bachmann decided to standby. >> joining us from washington with reaction, newt gingrich.

>> they interview a lot of righti righties, don't they? fox news is the trains ground for republican presidential candidates especially for newt gingrich who was on roger ailes' payroll. newt's surge at the poll puts him at or near the top of the pack. he's only two points behind mitt romney in new hampshire within the margin of error. let's turn to joan walsh, editor at large, salon.com. let's talk about newt. the "wall street journal" is reporting gingrich was paid $840,000 from 2001 to 2007. he was paid $1.6 million by freddie mac. he denied he was a lobbyist, again, last night on fox. here it is. >> i was approached to offer strategic advice. i do no lobbying of any kind. i never have. very important point i want to it make. i've never done lobbying of any kind. >> did they come to your office, did you go to them? >> i think less than maybe once a month they would drop by, we'd spend an hour. it would always start with me

listening. i'd always say, what are you trying to solve, what are your concerns, what are you trying to get done? i've done this with many, many clients. >> joan walsh, can he get past this and keep surging in the polls? >> i really don't think so, ed. it will be interesting to see the next set of polls. this is something, whether you disagree or agree are the tea party, they are hostile to pay to play arrangements. they're hostile to the chamber of commerce, for instance, because it partly supported the stimulus bill. so this is exactly what both the tea party and occupy wall street actually do have in common. a real fear that money has corrupted politics and that politicians are doing the bidding of corporations and not americans. that's been so clear to newt. you know, my favorite answer, a think progress reporter asked him whether he was lobbying or not. he said, he didn't consider it lobbying because he was doing it for the benefit of the public at large. so, you know, that's newt. it's like he said that he

cheated on his wives because he loved the country too much and he was working too hard. everything he does he does for us, ed. you know, i think we have to look at it that way. founded by founded. problem for gop presidential candidate newt gingrich collected at least $37 million over the past eight years from major health care companies and industry groups, offering special access to the former house speaker and other perks. the group claims that they're not lobbyists, but the bigger the problem for newt is that the group supports individual mandates. is that going to get him in trouble? >> yes, it is. people do know he at one time did support the individual mandate and he flip-flopped. "the new york times" had a smaller story but an interesting story about the same center for health transformation and newt actually wrote an op-ped for the "washington post" where he extolled the benefits of one of

his clients that did a lot of end of life planning. and he advocating this sort of thing as a way to bring down costs and help people make decisions before they get really sick. well, then, of course, when sarah palin came out and called the same thing in the obama legislation death panels, he started calling it euthanasia. he's flipped and flopped based on who's paying him and based on what he thinks the mood of the republican electorate is. this is going to catch up with him. he had a fun week talking about the newt surge. we're probably going to be talking about somebody else within a week or two. i don't know who it's going to be. newt is not going to sit well with the tea party. >> he's a master of doing us versus them. no question about that. i think his accusation that msnbc is the obama re-election team i find laughable, but it is pretty much a classic newt diversion. when he's under the spot light, he likes to attack the media. that's pretty much his m.o. joan walsh, great to have you with us tonight. thanks so much.

salon.com. coming up, new information in the death of actress natalie wood. was it murder? that's next. tle emotional hetlretl?tl aren't you getting a little industrial? okay, there's enough energy right here in america. yeah, over 100 years worth. okay, so you mean you just ignore the environment. actually, it's cleaner. and, it provides jobs. and it helps our economy. okay, i'm listening. [announcer] at conoco phillips we're helping power america's economy with cleaner affordable natural gas... more jobs, less emissions, a good answer for everyone. so, by reducing the impact of production... and protecting our land and water... i might get a job once we graduate.

developments are not slowing down in the penn state child sexual abuse case. today, the son of fired penn state football coach joe paterno said his father has a treatable form of lung cancer. an hour earlier in the day, the ncaa announced it will investigate the school for its handling of the scandal. also today, "the new york times" reported the second mile charity, the charity that was set up by accused child molester jerry sandusky, will shut down. some members of congress called for that. coming up, the case of the drowning death of natalie wood is being re-opened by law enforcement after nearly 30 years. we will show you why when former fbi profiler clint van zandt joins me next.

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was it murder?

30 years after actress natalie wood drowned off the coast of california, the los angeles sheriffs department announces it is re-opening the investigation into her death. >> recently, we have received information which we felt was substantial enough to make us take another look at this case. >> wood had been boating with her husband actor robert wagner and the co-star of her last film, christopher walken. with rumors of a possible love triangle swirling, wagner and walken reportedly got into an alcohol-fueled argument that night. nbc's george lewis explains what happened next. >> the coroner theorized to escape the argument the actress might have tried to board a rubber dinghy. critics say that didn't add up because of a phobia natalie wood had. >> i've always been terrified, still am, of water, dark water, sea water. >> after a seven-hour search, wood's body was found floating a

mile from the yacht, "the splendour." at the time, the coroner said wood had been drinking and may have lost her balance. the captain of the boat, dennis davern, was on the "today" show this morning. >> was the fight between natalie wood and her husband, robert wagner, what ultimately led to her death? >> yes. >> was he responsible for her death? >> yes, i would say so, yes. >> msnbc analyst and former fbi profiler, clint van zandt, with us tonight. clint, thanks for your time. what's it take to re-open a case? is there criteria that has to be met? >> yeah, it has to be new information, ed. it's got to be something the authorities never heard before. in this case, perhaps, we've got this ship captain of dubious background who has written a book and has come forward and said, you know what, i lied. i mean, this is someone who's

saying, i perjured myself 30 years ago on this case. and now as he just told the "today" show, he's suggesting that miss wood's husband is responsible for this. his story seems to have changed about every decade and this is the latest version that we're hearing, ed. >> well, with his story changing on numerous occasions, there must be other information other than this man's admission, and recanting his story. what do you make of it? >> yeah, and there's going to have to be. the sheriffs investigators have indicated that other people that it sounds like multiple people have come forward. the question is, you know, law enforcement is good at cold cases. they still crack them every day, but here we have three decades later, ed, that number one, we have to deal with a man who is an admitted perjurer, and someone else, is this someone else trying to cleanse their soul at this late date? ed, you and i know when somebody

dies, homicide, suicide, accident, natural causes. well, 43, she didn't die of natural causes. the coroner ruled it an accident, but, you know, just as you said on your piece leading in here, this was a woman who was scared to death of water, that she would of her own volition in the middle of the night wearing a bathrobe be up, number one, wandering around deck, number two, trying to get into a little dinghy and roll her way ashore because of a fight she had with her husband. i think law enforcement at this time maybe should have taken a little more time to look at this and make absolutely sure it was an accident and maybe not something that looked like an accident. >> how do you recreate the case so many years past? >> well, one of the things they can do, now, this boat is now supposedly in hawaii. you can either get that boat back or get a boat of the same size and dimension, put that in the same location and try to act

this whole thing out. try to see if the stories that the various people have told -- now, again, ed, this should have been done at the time, and hopefully it was. now, they may want to recreate this, and ed, they're going to have to look at all the eviden e evidence, all the interviews. i heard one person suggest today, it may go to exhuming the body of the victim perhaps looking for dna that at that time we wouldn't have known even existed, that maybe just maybe today may exist. now, that's going to take a lot before we go and dig somebody up and, you know, violate that grave after 30 years. but robert wagner, the husband, number one, says he wants to cooperate, i think he says he wants to know what's going on, but i think he, like a lot of people, question whether this individual coming forward now, this former captain who has this book that came out not too long ago about the death, maybe he has something to gain. remember, ed, it wasn't earlier

this year that somebody wrote a book about d.b. cooper, the hijacker who bailed out over the pacific northwest years ago. they suggested that they knew who that person was and, of course, that's because a brand new book had just come out. >> yeah. clint van zandt, thanks for your time tonight. appreciate it. >> thank you. is pizza a vegetable? ask a house republican and the answer is yes. mike papantonio and lizz winstead will weigh in and fill us in on the week's political happenings. ♪ ♪ ooh, ooh-ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh-ooh, ooh ♪

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finally tonight, the jobs bill dead on arrival, the supercommittee stalled, after all the partisan gridlock, it's good to know that this week something got done in the united states senator. senator ben nelson shared the big news with the "washington post." "we choose secret santas." it's the senate's first ever gift exchange. by the way, there's a $10 limit. gifts will be swapped over eggnog next month. it's a bipartisan effort by the numbers, pretty lopsided,

though. 58 participating, 37 are democrats, 21 republicans. is the war on christmas over? last night, bill o'reilly took a victory lap. >> let me put forth if we wr weren't here -- >> santa would be gone forever if it weren't for bill o'reilly. >> no other media people fought the war. most of the media attacked me, your humble correspondent. >> and me. we both have been attacked. >> this brought you together. >> somewhat. >> let's turn to mike papantonio, host of "ring of fire" radio show and lizz winstead, co-creator of "the daily show." mike, who's the better defender of christmas, bill o'reilly or gretchen carlson? >> this is a time of year where their eyes roll back, they froth at the mouth, their head spins around. they keep their viewers glued to the tv with this image that

liberals and aclu is going to destroy christmas, hunt santa down that we hate christmas. this is the height of their year when the paranoia runs as deep as possible and work into the frenzy we're used to seeing this time of year every year. we can set our clocks by it. >> liz strz, is the war on chris finally over? >> do the people live in a cave? christmas starts the day after labor day. there's already christmas playing. they won't even let gays fight in the war on christmas. this is how much they're misguided with the cwar on christmas. >> senator al franken says the purpose of the secret santa is to encourage collegiality. is this going to work? >> the idea of buying gifts. my gift idea, you asked for david vitter, would be designer diapers so the next time he visits his d.c. madames he can at least be dressed better. you know the story about him showing up in diapers. let's get him designer diapers. marco rubio comes to my mind,

ed. this is a guy somebody ought to pay for his subscription to ancestry.com so when he makes up fantasy stories about where he comes from and how he has cuban anti-castro roots, he can maybe go to the ancestry.com and get real names and real people. i got to say one more thing. ben nelson, i'd get him testosterone shots for about a year and get him a backbone that works. great ideas for christmas. >> mike, i want to add that i think the diapers should say merry xxx-mas on it. but i actually searched a little bit on the internet to find a lovely under $10 gift. i think i found the perfect one on amazon.com. i found a door mat that was $20 marked to $7.98. i think you have the graphic. yes, there it is. it's a welcome mat. there's i think that would go from harry reid to mitc mcconnell.

>> other important news of the week, the congress did this week, republicans declared pizza a vegetable. is this the death for nutrition or a victory for pizza? mike, what do you think? this is the same republican group who wasted two weeks trying to reaffirm "in god we trust" as the national model. 50 million people are living in poverty, 14 million people totally unemployed. and wall street raping us blind every day. what they want to do is pay back their corporate friends. they want to give our children this chemical concoction they call a pizza vegetable that's covered with zinc oxide, phosphates, magnesium phosphate, enough to gag a cow. they want to stuff our children with this chemical trash while they stuff their pockets with corporate cash. that's the sad part of this story. >> it's also, like, it's a vegetable? it's not even a pizza.