last night, his strategy is to attack mit with reporters while attacking the president on stage. >> this president doesn't know how the economy works. a foreign policy based on pretty please? >> it's president obama we have to talk about. he unveiled himself as a president that is not the right person to lead this country. >> indeed mitt kept his focus on the president and allowed newt to bring his own zany to the debate. take for example his idea that judges should be brought before congress to explain decisions that congress doesn't like. host megan kelly put to gingrich words that former republican attorneys general have used to describe that idea. >> the two attorneys general are basic like law schools that empowered lawyers to say they

can dictate to the rest of us. >> you may have hinted at condissension in his voice. >> i really question this idea that the congress could subpoena judges and bring them before us. that's a real front to the separation of powers. >> yes that thing called the constitution. americans tend to like it and republican voters really, really like it. if you are wondering how the adult reszs came to lead the republican field, you are not alone. >> listen to your friends. this is an intervention. everything is here and tom, why don't you start us off. >> i'm not inclined to be a

supporter of newt gingrich. >> here cares about newt gingrich. >> i don't know how he could be a -- he can't stay focused. >> that's who you are going to nominate for president. >> let's bring in our panel from washington and msnbc analyst and dnc director karen finney and dana mill bank, columnist for "the washington post." good afternoon to both of you. i would like to begin with testy exchanges between newt gingrich and michele bachmann during the debate. listen to this. >> to influence senior republicans to keep the scam going in washington, d.c. that's absolutely wrong.

>> do you think it's interesting that gingrich never refers to michele bachmann by name. it's either she or congresswoman. do you think this is a pat ronizing view of women. >> if you notice from the opening segment that you shared with the back and forth with megan kelly, he is condescending towards women and clearly his history shows he doesn't have a lot of respect for women and he is condescending in general. everything said was correct. it's been reported time and time again. this is an area where he is very vulnerable and when you poke at newt gingrich and he doesn't like it. that was him in a most tame level flaring back up. on the campaign trial when he is tire and got caught off guard. that's a lot worse than that.

>> newt again took punches to his ample midriff on lobbying and i don't understand how he manages to talk his way out of this. how do you think he defended himself against these charges? >> you know, martin, he's a historian. whether it's freddie mac or misinterpreting the constitution. he held his own and gave as good as he got. there is a sense overall that sort of the newt moment is beginning to fade because a lot of people are catching up with him as illustrated by those clips that you played. they are beginning to have a little bit of buyer's remorse in iowa because ron paul of all people is beginning to be seen as a serious contender. what's not attractive about newt is the sense that he is the smartest guy in the room or believes he is the smartest guy in the room and wants everyone

to know it all the time. he let a little bit of that out. he is smarter than a lot of people on that stage. he needs to tone it down. >> avenue after a week of attacks on gingrich, mitt romney decided that the only person he was going to attack was the president. given gingrich's recent rise in the polls, does that make romney seem cowardly that frankly he will allow his surrogates to attack, but won't front up on the stage. >> i think it was a very smart strategy on the part of the romney campaign and here's why. so much of it when you work for a candidate is to know your candidate and strengths and weaknesses and know their opponents. when he is on stage trying to deliver the lines and doesn't do well. there is a very high chance for him to sound bhiny. newt gingrich had a good come back.

this is the opportunity to look presidential and sound presidential. that was the right strategy for him. romney has the endorsement of nicky haley, a tea party favorite. he has a big game of catch up to play. how does that help him? >> he has already got a chunk of the establishment support. that helps as you go forward. if he comes close in iowa and she way out in front and that will change the results in south carolina. if you look at the establishment support he has and the money he's got, that's why he has a

lot of people. >> they almost had to deny their own identity. newt is claiming he's not a washington insider and mitt claiming he's not really moneyed and really empathetic to the broader populous of the country. they have been almost forced to somehow rescind their own identity to appeal to voters. >> newt has done a reversal and romney has the luxury to change his personality every day. he can do this five more times. he did a better job than when he explained that. >> going back to you, what do you think? >> about mitt romney's ability to recap? >> almost to deny your own personality identity. newt is shameless and will do

that and make up the fact that he's an outsider in a sense. >> how does mitt do it? >> and newt as well has created this whole environment and steps back and says i'm relentlessly positive. he may feel and he is hoping for naivety from the voters. he has a couple more weeks and pulls off this and succeeds in the voters of iowa. >> newt's poll numbers in iowa are starting to decline a little. do you think his comments about gay marriage and don't ask don't tell prior to the debate, were they an appeal to christian voters and believe people choose their sexual orientation. >> i think he was trying to appeal to staunch conservatives and as i wrote he talks about people of color and certain bad

habits and the cutture of poverty, he knows what he is doing. he uses code phrases and not even so much code to very much try to activate those biases and cent that signal that said i'm one of you. the one thing i say about both he and romney, they will both continue to have the same trouble in that people don't trust them. which one do you not trust the least? with gingrich he's changing himself around and contorting himself and romney is contorting himself and if you are a voter, who is the conservative and who can beat obama. you are not faced with many good choices. >> a couple of gymnasts. thanks so much for joining us. coming up next, a christmas wish for congress. do something, anything! ba humbug. [ woman ] my boyfriend and i were going on vacation,

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we can officially announce that christmas has come early. the house passed the spending bill that funds the government through september of next year. as it common practice, it was struck dangerously close to tonight's midnight deadline. more gridlock with regard to extending the payroll tax holiday. charlie rangle, a democrat from new york. >> merry christmas to you, martin. >> same to you. 160 million americans are still waiting to hear if their taxes are about to go up by at least $1,000. here's what speaker boehner had to say earlier today.

>> we were waiting on the united states senate. the rumors floating around with a two-month extension. if that bill comes over to us, we will make changes and i will guarantee that the keystone pipeline will go in there when it comes back to the senate. >> mitch connell said he won't support a bill without the keystone language. you yourself said repeatedly that adding the keystone pipeline provision to a bill to extend the tax cut makes no sense. we know mr. boehner and mcconnell want to prevenlt president obama from winning a second term, but are they prepared to subject 160 million americans to higher taxes in order to realize their goal? >> they were prepared not to extend unemployment compensation

unless the president relented to their protection of the rich. they were prepared not to give him permission to hold our country to the international community in fiscal turmoil. how far they are willing to go, i don't know. i do know one thing. it makes no economic sense, no political sense for the republican party to insist that a pipeline gets into a bill that the president said he will veto if they do the right thing. i can tell you this, martin. this is note just because of the pipeline. this is what we call putting a poison pill into a good package. they did not want to extend unemployment compensation. this is this causes people not to go for work. they did not want to extend the tax holiday. they said this would not work

out because of the social security program. even when we talk about the tax break for the middle class and the working class, they insist that we do it for the billionaires. more and more americans are seeing it's not the country and it's not the fiscal significance and not helping americans out who need it most and through no fault of their own, it's really the ideology and they are not going home until they do these things politically no matter what they think. >> earlier this week, we discussed that bill with jack kingston who likes the idea of drug testing people before they can claim unemployment benefits. i want to play that interview and let's chat about it. listen to this. >> i don't think it's harsh or draconian to ask people who are unemployed to stay eligible to

work in case there is a job and. >> here we have a game, congressman. the pipeline and then there is this ludicrous idea to drug test people who are unemployed. incidentally the research shows in florida that only 2% of people who claim unemployment benefits were using drugs and 8% in the overall population. why are republicans doing this? is this about demonizing the poor? >> it's because they have an ideology that everything starts with the richest people in the world and trickles down. one of their own was taking about kids that are in school in order for them to receive their benefits should clean the toilets. the pipeline has nothing to do with taxes and unemployment

compensation. the whole idea that they would have people blood tested, they failed to realize that they are not talking about minorities and democrats and just poor people. they are talking about americans, white and black and middle class, democrats and republicans who lost their job through no fault of their own and they still have the dignity of wanting to be respected until they were able to gain employment. >> you were just referring to newt gingrich, the current front-runner where he said that he would recommend that children be trained as janitors because according to him, the poor have no practices or habits of work. according to him, the poor are probably uncivilized. what is your sense of this man? you know gingrich well and have been in congress for a long time. how do you describe this man? >> he does what he has to do and

you never know from one episode to the other which way gingrich is going. it's not gingrich that bothers me at all. it's the people who come out to listen to all of them. whether or not they want to applaud when someone has a hypothetical of someone dying without insurance and they say let them die, whether or not we are talking about how you treat our men and women in the military and if they happen to be gay. we find with the general public how upset some of medicines can be with same-sex marriages. everything we are talking about, especially during this time of the year screams out for our spiritual leaders to say something. we are talking about the poor. we are talking about the sick. we are talking about the disabled. we are talking about those who cannot get a decent education. somewhere in this debate, it's

not just economic justice. it's moral justice. i'm telling you the rabbis and the priests and the e mans and the synagogues and the churches and temples have been so silent while people are trying to steal away what makes america work. that is the middle class and hope to make life better for your family and kids. there is a silence here and i hope during christmas we still just don't think about getting gifts for each other. we go to the churches and we asked the priest and the other clergy men, what are you doing to help these poor people? they are being squeezed politically because of the republicans's hatred for president obama. >> carly rangle as ever, thank you very much for joining us. >> merry christmas. >> and to you sir. >> coming up next, mr. president not so fast. [ male announcer ] cranberry juice? wake up!

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[ female announcer ] if you can't afford your medication, astra zeneca may be able to help. >> troubled negotiations over the payroll tax holiday, the president will kiss goodbye to his family as they fly to hawaii later today. the president made another appeal for compromise in washington. joining us now is mike viquiera at the white house. mike, i guess you won't be going on vacation either. >> mele kalikimaka to you too. >> the period it is he didn't want a bill to extend the payroll tax holiday. >> that's right. >> for will be in there come

hell or high water. what gives? >> one of the more interesting phenomena is conventional wisdom and legislation and getting things passed is turned on its head. a win was a win. health care changed and it was not a political win for the president. it used to be when both sides said they wanted something, it was a matter of time before it happened and rve had to go through the calisthenics and rhetorical jumping jacks to make their points and at the end they gotting to and there was a deal. both sides wanted to extend and there was some agreement on how it would be paid for. the republicans sense of political vulnerability on the part of president obama on this keystone issue, remember with the administration that punted to begin with until after the election, the house republicans along with the senate counterparts have called them on it and they feel as though they have the advantage. the president said he would veto

the bill as it stands and they passed the house earlier in the week. that's the only bill that is standing. they will be back next week to deal with it. >> the pipeline when assessed by the most authoritative figures in academiaing issing it creates 5,000 jobs. is this an accurate claim are sf thousands of jobs are being affected. that's not the case. >> we know that labor in the form of the afl-cio wants it built. labor in the form of other major labor unions are staunch backers of the president. the republicans know that as well. they are pressing what they believe is a political advantage because it is the environmental wing of the democratic party. a core constituency who is dead set against this and republicans have a sort of a divide and conquer strategy.

>> what's going to happen? does the pipeline stay in or go out. >> i think they will finesse it. >> half in and half out? >> it will stay in in one form or another andy wool know about next thursday. >> oh, boy. mike viquiera at the white house. thanks very much. top lines, the week that was herman cain. how we missed you. >> merry christmas. and a happy holiday season from our family to yours. everyone have their new blackberry from at&t? it's 4g, so you can do more faster. so, kathryn, post more youtube videos of your baby acting adorable. baby. on it. matt, ignore me and keep updating your fantasy team. huh? jeff, play a game. turbo-boosting now, sir. dennis, check in everywhere you go on foursquare. that's mayor dennis... of the water cooler. you're the best. liz, rock out to pandora.

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like these debates. >> foreign policy based on pretty please. >> ask osama bin laden. >> the danger is really us over the acting and we need a strong national defense. >> what are kind of cabinet position might you like? >> the department of defense. >> what? >> what's wrong? >> speaker gingrich took $1.6 million. >> the easiest answer is that's just note true. sometimes people ought to have facts before they make wild allegations. >> he's a liar. >> we will all remember where we were when we found out donald trump would not host his republican debate. >> i am close to tears. >> zany is not what we need in a had the. >> i'm preparing to be zany. >> you can really hold on or do you think he is going to burst his spleen very soon and spit out the most enormous amount of bile over romney? >> he would like to give back all the money he earned from

bankrupting something and laying off employees. i bet i $10, not $10,000. >> who will get your endorsement? >> i like mitt romney. >> hoar he has been consistent since he changed his mind. >> he offered her $10,000. >> merry christmas. >> what's rick perry's achilles heel? >> he has an achilles head. >> i am ready for the next level. i hope i am the tim tebow of the iowa caucuses. >> let's get right to our fabulous friday panel. in washington, analyst and georgetown university professor and from minneapolis, anna marie cox from the guardian. if i can begin with you, what was your reaction to rick perry casting himself as tim tebow, the prayerful quarterback for the broncos? >> boy, i have seen tim tebow

and governor, you are no tim tebow. the reality is you haven't come back in the fourth quarter yet. we don't know if you are tim tebow. he does an amazing job and flubs it for the first three quarters. the parallel is good there. you are good. he performs under his talent. we don't know if your talent is that high, but you are under performing. we don't know if you can win six out of seven games in the fourth quarter. i think it's a bit far-fetched, but i'm not mad at him for riding the tebow train into glory, but it will stop short for the governor. >> we must give credit for at least remembering his lines, but his poll numbers have collapse and he is down to 6% in the latest news poll that has gingrich wait way out in front with 40%. if herman cain was undone by his private life, rick perry was undone by his public performance. >> it's true.

it's refreshing really for a politician to be flat out bad in public. >> he has nothing to hide. it's intelligence. maybe republicans are the anti-intellectual party or stra teejerratic on his party. we are seeing the real rick perry and it's not a very bright one. it's funny because as the primaries have continued, i have grown to like him more in his flubbing. that doesn't mean i released it. >> does it mean you are just being sympathetic? >> probably so. >> professor dyson -- isn't part of the problem here professor dyson that the leading candidates spend much of their time trying to disown their true identity? newt spends the whole time trying to tell us he is not a

washington insider even though he spent 30 years and made millions of dollars. >> you are right. not only that, but he continues to indulge the luxuries of his supposed anti-incumbent status to prove his legitimacy and you have been an insider for so long, but it takes the luxury of an insider to play like you are an outsider because they are trying to get in and they are honest about it. i want to come to the beltway to make a difference and strengthen the economy and tell the truth about american politics and i want to bring the dignity back. those who are privileged missed the boat. i think newt gingrich will be exposed soon and it's the contradiction here. all of these are like i don't want anything to do with it. the those who hate government are the ones who seek it most to destroy it from within. >> another individual, i wonder

who has grown in your est make is michele bachmann. she seemed the most keen on throwing punches, particularly at gingrich and did you detect outrage that miss bachman felt that gingrich was condescending towards her. >> it has come up whether or not gingrich is more condescending to michele bachmann or women than he is to men. it's hard to say because he is so condescending in general. it's really difficult. i do think he had special condensation and not on a glass against her last night. she brought it to him and that's something that he has the luxury of doing as an underdog. she and rick santorum were able to throw hard, hard punches and hitting him where he has a lot of soft spots. his whole body, really. he had soft spots ideologically as well. one is the insider problem.

>> i wonder what you felt about the incredible enthusiasm for attack on iran because they happen to have this down drone. were you shocked by that. >> pretty shocked. >> in the week when troops are coming out of iraq and after almost nine years of conflict e 32,000 injured and when you listen to the debate, were you as shocked as i was for the enthusiasm to go into iran. >> absolutely. that's the deaths on our side and not the people who have died in the hundreds of thousands. this hunger for war, this testosterone-driven test for masculinity is what the downfall of the republican gathering is here. this gaggle of people who are just le civuous for engagement because they rather do it on the

battlefield than come to america and deal with the problems we need to war against here. inequality and social injustice and poor schools for poor people. newt gingrich would rather put them to work than deal with the ceiling being removed from the vision so they would have upward mobility. that's where the war needs to take place. >> the one man who was not lusting is ron paul. if i can ask you first, do you think ron paul stands a chance in ira and can pull this off as i surprise victory? >> i have been writing about this for a couple of weeks and he is the one man on stage who has nothing to apologize for in his past. he has no ideas he changed his mind and no issues he needs to say now he learn and he was wrong before. i think iowans like that.

>> what do you think of ron paul's chances in iowa. >> he can upset the apple cart. he tells the truth whether you like it or not and is consistent. that gains integrity with the voters that will show up in a strong way. >> thanks so much. a happy friday to both of you. >> thank you. >> coming up, a special christmas visit from my colleague, lawrence o'donnell, stay with us. ♪ [ male announcer ] it's easy to see what subaru owners care about. ♪ that's why we created the share the love event. get a great deal on a new subaru and 250 dollars goes to your choice of five charities. ♪ with your help, we can reach 20 million dollars by the end of this, our fourth year. [ female announcer ] get 0 percent apr financing on select models for thirty-six months and we'll donate two-hundred and fifty dollars to your choice of five charities. now through january 3rd.

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>> in the stores surrounding our building here in new york, shoppers are buying everything from ipads to earrings and ties to toys. of course the holiday season is the season of giving, but it's also a moment when we can pause and consider the more fundamental needs of others around the world who may be less fortunate than ourselves. the host and star of the last word has been doing just that

with an organization called kind. he joins us now. >> can we go back to host and star? i like the star part of that. that's nice. >> did i get that right? you dictated the copy. what exactly is kind? >> kind is kids in need of desks. it's a special fund that i established with unicef. they administer it and make sure it is delivered properly. they're able to build in malawi and africa and there by providing jobs in africa for the building and delivered to schools. >> we were seeing pictures of the classes and children that you helped. >> i have been there a few times and we started a year ago with absolutely nothing. a year ago this week. over the course of the christmas season we ended up raising close to $2 million as the year wore on. we got up to about $2,400,000. i announced that the second

stage of our campaign and we picked up $105,000 in the first night after talking about it again last night. just overnight, just to this hour since 11:00 last night, $132,182. i am crediting you with any income they get from this moment until next monday night that, is all. >> what happened to the self-obsessed psychotic anchor person? this doesn't sound like the thing that would normally come. >> this is the thing that gives meaning to the job. when you realize that you have one of these platforms. you can actually get more help with something. i was doing it alone. i didn't think about it in relation to the show and took action on it before i had a shot.

once i realized it was in place, i can tell the show to my audience and i didn't want to tell them until i could show them a way of participating themselves. if this makes sense, come in and do it. it's a very inviting project. i had to have them this set up. >> i can't allow you to come on our show without discussing a little bit of politics. let's go from the sublime to the ridiculous to the 2012 debate. i wondered if you had thoughts on newt gingrich who not only has an answer for obesity, space exploration and the history of the congo, but he issing issing that homosexuality is a choice that can be made or reflected. i would like you to listen to the comments. >> people have a significant

choice within a genetic pattern. people choose many things in life. there is a bias in favor of non-celiba non-celibacy. >> newt gingrich the geneticist and expert on human orientation. >> i would like him to announce when he made that decision about straight. what day was that? how long did he think about the gay option in front of him? when did he make that choice? that's the great thing about the people who say it's a choice. just tell me when you made the choice. obviously you weren't born straight. that couldn't happen. when was it? which birthday? your ninth or sixth or 16th? what made you do that? newt is the great gift to the democratic party. if newt and the democratic party can somehow get that republican nomination for newt gingrich, they can take back the house and they can increase their lead in

the senate and obviously win the white house. they can't let the primary voters know. >> who will be the nominee. >> i am the political wise man who picked tim pawlenty to be the republican. >> seriously, if they are rational. if the primary voter is rational. that's where they end up. they are not rational and they bounced from trump to bachman to herman cain. they wanted herman cain to be president of the united states. those people now apparently are undecided between mitt romney and newt gingrich. whichever way they go will be okay. they have dragged this out long enough so the candidates are all damaging each other and the republican nominee is going to be a very damaged candidate by the time he gets that nomination. >> it's a great pleasure and privilege. you can always catch lawrence at 10:00 p.m. eastern on msnbc. stay with us.

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♪ while the country is getting in the holiday spirit, washington continues to play the role of a disgruntled mall santa that refuses to bring joy to those who need it most this time of year. indeed, there's anger across capitol hill, vicious campaign ads among gop candidates. it seems there's more coal than cheer being spread around. for more on washington and a look ahead at 2012. i'm joined by now governor martin o'malley of maryland. good afternoon, sir. i hope you recognized that music that we just played. >> i vaguely recall it. your producers used to live in baltimore back in the day. >> our senior producer selected that piece of music. he lived there for a while. you yourself are not on capitol hill at the moment, but you're in close proximity there in maryland. what do you make of all the gridlock we're seeing on capitol hill these days?

the sheer greediness that's taking place among a congress that has such an abysmal approval rating? >> well, while it's true that washington is very close to maryland, it's on our border, i feel 100 miles away, quite frankly, martin, doing the work that the people of maryland elected me to do. i think every democratic governor is focused on the things that we can do to create jobs, to expand opportunity, and to make the tough choices now that move our country forward. this republican congress breaks down more than the old car that i owned in high school. it seems like every two months, they're threatening shutdown. and it's really a shame. because over the -- the country has so much resilience and the country really deserves better than the gridlocked sort of business as usual that we've been seeing all year from the republican congress. not one job bill have they taken out. >> you've been quite vocal in your support of the president, and his bringing the war in iraq

to a close and bringing the troops home. just yesterday you wrote an open letter to him thanking him for his actions. and yet there are republicans who refuse to give president obama any credit whatsoever with regard to his foreign policy. >> well, that's because they're -- that's because they're obsessed with the next election, instead of focused on what's best for the country. i'm very, very grateful that president obama did no t tt the political thing, but did the right thing. stood up to critics and ended this war in iraq. not many presidents are able to do things as important as ending a war and bringing our troops home. so the people of our country, i think, are in the long run pretty smart. and they evaluate a president on whether he does what's right, not on whether he does what's politically expedient. and i'm very, very grateful to the president and i think all of us, from the confined place in our heart can be grateful that this war in iraq is over and our brave men and women are coming home. >> governor and musician, martin

o'malley, thanks so much for joining us. >> thank you, martin. >> and we'll be right back. ♪ [ male announcer ] an lg smart tv, lg optimus cell phone and...an apology card. this is ridiculous. yeah, and it's got apps. nice. it's got vudu, twitter, facebook. no honey, not facebook. ♪ honey, you think my sweater's horrendous? cats don't skate. i think it kicks butt. [ male announcer ] get low prices on the gifts they love, like lg tvs with the latest technology. and get free shipping to your store or home. save money. live better. walmart.

it's time now to clear the air. and there's sadness but also celebration for the life of the journalist christopher hitchins who died yesterday. mr. hitchins was born on the south coast of england, just as the second world war came to an end, but it was in moving here to america in the 1990s that he established himself, first on the pages of "vanity fair," then as a correspondent, an essayist, and an author of 17 books on a wide range of subjects. he held strong views, but views that he was prepared to change if persuaded to do so. so in the 1960s, he became a

correspondent for the socialist worker's party magazine and opposed the vietnam war. but by 2004, he supported the iraq war and back george w. bush bly his book "god not great" published four years ago that made him a household name and a star among the so-called new atheists. it was his contention that religious belief spread delusion and poison around the world. he repeatedly debated the issue with theologians and scholars, and he was unwavering in his belief in not believing. but after reading his autobiography "hitch 22," i often wondered if h for religion had anything to do who had an affair with a clergyman, ended up taking her own life, and he took his own too. 18 months ago, mr. hitchens was diagnosed with cancer, and in typical fashion, he wrote honestly and painfully about the fight.

"i sometimes wish i were suffering in a good cause or risking my life for the good of others," he wrote, "instead of just being a gravely endangered patient." mr. hitchens was as coruscating about himself as he was about others. he called bill clinton a cynical, self-seeking, ambitious thug. he said henry kissinger was a war criminal and referred to mother teresa as a fraudulent fanatic. but what everyone thought of his views, mr. hitchens was probably one of the most entertaining writers who ever lived. and those of us in the journalistic community will continue to feel his loss for many years to come. christopher hitchens, who died yesterday, was 62. thanks so much for watching. dylan ratigan's here. dylan, it's always yours. >> thank you so much. he will be missed, martin. well said. show starts right now.