children they're supposed to be protecting. that's "hardball" for now. thanks for being with us. "the ed show" with ed schultz starts right now. good evening, americans. welcome to "the ed show" tonight from new york. all those republicans, they're at it again. they're about to kill a bill to prevent a tax increase on 160 million americans. john boehner has lost control of the house and millions of americans are about to be left out in the cold. this is "the ed show." let's get to work. >> i've seen congress kick the can down the road. kick the can down the road. it's time to stop the nonsense. >> the republican party is in chaos. and your taxes might go up because of it. >> trying to negotiate with speaker boehner is like trying to nail jell-o to the wall. >> tonight, latest on the republican mess with dnc vice chair r.t. rye balk and msnbc's richard wolffe. would you send the capitol police down to arrest him?

>> if you had to. >> newt, the totalitarian, has a plan to arrest judges who rule the wrong way. historian douglas brinkley calls it a dictaor mentality. he's here tonight. the wealthy are doing just fine. the people hurt are the people in the middle class. >> middle class mitt is a fraud. no reporting out today proves it. my commentary ahead. and it is opposite day for the republicans' biggest mouthpiece. >> the uninformed voter is a democrat target audience. >> rush is going in the "zone." good to have you with us tonight, folks. thanks for watching. at this hour, you can count on them again. house republicans are blotting to sabotage the economy one more time. late tonight, john boehner and the republican house, they planned to kill a two-month extension of the middle class tax cut and extension of unemployment benefits. now, this comes, keep in mind, after 39 senate republicans voted for the extension on saturday morning.

oh, what the weekend brings us. this extension was exactly what senate republicans pushed for on friday night. republicans were downright giddy to get this keystone pipeline jammed into a bill to help middle class americans. here is senate minority leader mitch mcconnell high fiving wyoming senator john ba ras sew on friday night. let's go have a cool one. we got her done, didn't we? they're going to pass this one in the house. really? john boehner knew exactly what was in this bill and he was readily to send the whole house of representatives home. then this group called the t-t-t-tea party, are they still around? they don't even have a candidate. they know how to get the dog by the tail. boehner had a conference call. we got to get together on saturday morning and figure this thing out. he had a conference call in his caucus on saturday and reportedly said, hey, look, this is a good deal. the senate package is good. we got to take it. tea party members blasted boehner.

for going along with the deal and demanded a new vote. they want a new vote. we're not going to take this. the tea party was not happy with the two-month extension and they demanded an entire year. well, boehner, he went running with his tail between his legs over to "meet the press" to change his tune. today boehner claimed the two-month extension would create this thing called uncertainty. >> we oppose the senate bill because a two-month extension instead of a full-year extension causes uncertainty for job creators. i used to run a small business. i met a payroll. i hired workers. a two-month extension creates uncertainty and will cause problems for people who are trying to create jobs in the private sector. it's time for congress to do work, no more kicking the can down the road. >> boehner uses the same old garbage over and over again. let's see, there was uncertainty on the health care. there was uncertainty over the stimulus. uncertainty over the bush tax cuts.

i mean, it just never ends with this guy. it's the same old jargon. president obama, the democrats, have given the republicans basically everything they have asked for. just to protect the middle class and the unemployed. chuck schumer nailed it this morning. >> we tried for 3.1% for a year for both employers and employees. our republican colleagues said, that's too much. we brought it down to 2%. they then said the millionaires tax, take it out, we don't want to tax millionaires. we did. they then said that the only way they would vote for a one-year extension is by putting so many poison pills in there that they knew we couldn't vote for it because they couldn't get the votes in the house. so we said go to two months. then on friday speaker boehner said, i can get this passed, all you have to do is put the keystone pipeline in. guess what, we swallowed hard and we did. trying to negotiate with speaker boehner is like trying to nail jell-o to the wall.

>> house republicans are complete frauds. i want you to look at this. on january 6th of 2009, michele bachmann and lewis gohmert of texas, they introduced a two-month extension on a complete holiday tax. take a look. >> it is the height of arrogance that in this body we say no, no, no, gohmert's got this bill, hr143 that lets the people that earned it have a two month tax holiday. we can't do that, we can't let that come to the floor for a vote. >> oh, but that was a long time ago. you see, republicans wanted a zero tax rate for two months. today they say a 2% cut causes too much uncertainty. who are these people? they don't know who they are. but here's the bottom line. let me ask you this. have you ever gone out -- it happens in advertising quite a bit, i might add -- you go out and you do a deal with somebody over lunch. in this case, boehner likes to play golf. he likes the whiskey, likes the cigars, likes -- yeah, i got a

deal, i got a deal, yeah. it gets back to the office. wait a minute, everything's changed. something else happened. has to call back. say, you know, i can't do the deal. happens in business, doesn't it? it really disappoints the heck out of you. you want to know why washington has a low approval rating? is because this washington minutia is now not about you, the taxpayer, the americans. it's about these personalities. you see, the tea partyers can't come up with a good candidate, but they know boehner. they know he caves. i tell you what, they are riding him like a rented mule. he's going to do anything they want him to do and they're going to beat the tar out of him. they don't care what the outcome is as long as they get what they want for their money. and their money is to defeat president obama and the democrats at all costs. they're not interested in helping the economy. they're not interested in helping middle class families when it comes to tax breaks. and when i say personalities, the tea party, they know that

boehner can't stare them down the way nancy pelosi stares down her caucus at times and has in the past. that's why she was able to accomplish so much legislatively. but the tea partyers, they know boehner. they know he caves. they know they can take him on the golf course and do a deal and go back and change it. in fact, they can get him to do the national shows and say something totally different from what he said 48 hours earlier. this is their guy. this is right what they want. by the way, there's not going to be any revenue. i've told you that for weeks. there is no way that the republicans are going to give up any revenue whatsoever. so what are they going to cut? who knows. this voting won't pass tonight and now there's some friction between the senate republicans and the house republicans. we'll see where it all ends up. stick to your guns, democrats. it's your best, best move right now. and keep in mind, unemployment's going down. retail sales are going up. this is the nightmare that the

republicans just don't want to wake up to. get your cell phones out. i want to know what you think. tonight's question. will john boehner ever have the guts to stand up to the tea party? text "a" for yes, text "b" for no to 622639. you can always go to our blog at ed.msnbc.com. results coming up later in the program. joining me now, r.t. rye balk, mayor of minneapolis, minnesota, and vice chair of the democratic national committee. r.t., good to have you with us tonight. >> good to be here. >> you bet. i find it interesting the tea party can't come up with a credible candidate but can raise mell on the house and stop everything. where does this all end in your opinion? >> they sent poor boehner out to dress this thing up. he talks about kicking the can down the road. the can that's getting kicked belongs to the american middle class. the can that should get kicked this november belongs to the pea party republicans who hold the entire country hostage. they have had months, months, to be able to demonstrate to america they actually do stand up for tax cuts for the middle

class and have done everything humanly possible to find any way to stand in the way of a tax cut for the american middle class. so this january everybody's taxes are going to go up $1,000 a piece. talk to me about who believes in tax cuts. it sure isn't the republican party right now. >> i'm going down the road of personalities here. don't the tea party members know that boehner is gutless? and they can just move them any way they want to move him? what do you think of that? >> boehner is being moved like a chess piece by the tea partyers. this is going to continue until moderate realistic republicans stand up. now, where is mitt romney on this, okay? mitt romney said that the $1,000 tax cut that the president was proposing here was a quote/unquote band-aid. maybe it's a band-aid to mitt romney, but it's a big deal to the american people. why doesn't he at this critical point show leadership and stand up? if he's not going to do it now, how in the world can he do it in

the white house? >> to seems to me a friction starting now between the republicans in the senate and the house. republican scott brown, senator of massachusetts blasted house republicans today. he said "the house republicans plan to scuttle the deal to help middle class families is irresponsible and wrong." why do you think house republicans are sabotaging the economy? what do they have to gain at this point when the country wants to add jobs? >> because they're betting on a very cynical idea, that somehow if this doesn't work, people will again say, quote/unquote, washington doesn't work. washington isn't broken. the republican party is broken. it's fractured and being held hostage by a few extremists. some have guts, like you just said, will stand up and say that. the fact of the matter is they're banking on the fact people will say, oh, it's just quote/unquote, washington again. if all of us buy into that, that's the problem. the reality is you have a president who stood up with a recovery act, who laid out all sorts of things that the republicans had been for before. now they've all voted against

him. we know exactly where they stand. they would rather put politics ahead of the economy. >> r.t. ryback, always a pleasure. thanks so much. now let's turn to msnbc political analyst, richard wolffe. richard, good to have you on with us tonight. another vulnerable senate republican went after house republicans today. nevada republican dean hellor said "there is no reason to hold up the short-term extension while a more comprehensive deal is being worked out. what is playing out in washington, d.c., this week is about political leverage, not about what's good for the american people." this is the divide that many of the democrats have been waiting for. what do you think? >> right. well, what's also holding it up is a full blown leadership crisis among the republican house leaders here. what we're seeing tonight, the breaking news is that what started out as a routine meeting where john boehner was going to reconvene with his members has dragged on for almost two hours. nbc's luke russert is saying that's because people are -- everyone's getting their say there tonight.

there's a lot of venting going on about boehner's leadership, about the way forward. but make no mistake here, what they're looking at now is a situation where the speaker isn't sure whether he can hold his caucus together. remember, if he loses enough republicans and they vote with the democrats on this, the senate version will pass through. you can actually govern in the house with a majority of the house. boehner's problem is he's trying to take along a majority of just the republicans and that means he's in the throe of the tea party republicans. >> do you think the tactic is going to hurt republicans in 2012? >> sure. everyone understands a two-month extension is bad politics. the tea party managed inside the republican caucus to undermine the very premise of what binds most republicans together which is that they're for every tax cut that passes on the face of the earth. so they've given up their major pitch to the american people. they're always for tax cuts.

handed it to the president. as well as the big goal which is, who represents the middle class here? so, you know, it's not good politics. they recognize it as such but just cannot help themselves. this is bad internally. among republicans. it's certainly bad externally from anyone watching from the outside. >> i don't think it would hurt president obama to veto the house bill at all. i don't think. i think that he can continue to whip boehner with his own people and probably hold out for better deal. i could be wrong on that, but the think that would be a good play. >> scott brown is looking at the same polls and understands the same kind of politics. the reason these republican senators are speaking out against boehner and the tea party right now is because they know the house republican position right now is a losing proposition. so, you know, they have done -- the tea party republicans have done what this president has struggled to do for three years which is to create bipartisanship. they're bipartisan against the tea party. >> great to have you with us tonight, richard. msnbc political analyst, richard wolffe, here on "the ed show." thank you so much.

remember to answer tonight's question there at the bottom of the screen and share your thoughts on twitter @edshow. we want to know what you think. coming up, with the republican candidates jockeying for positions in the poll, wondering if jeb bush might throw his hat in the race. newt gingrich continues his war on the judicial branch. now he says activist judges should be arrested. presidential historian douglas brinkley will join me. stay with us.

coming up on "the ed show," two weeks until the iowa caucuses and republicans aren't even close to picking the winner. joan walsh with that discussion, as they are in disarray. that's next. rush limbaugh lands in "psycho talk" for saying that democratic voters are uninformed? the death of north korean leader kim jong-il leaves questions about the future of the country's nuclear program. i'll talk with nuclear weapons expert joe sarinsioni. tweet us your thoughts using #edshow.

welcome back to "the ed show." we're going to go now live to capitol hill. john boehner is speaking right after the republican caucus meeting. here it is. >> would take care of those doctors who treat medicare patients. the reduction in their payments. solve that problem for the next two years. and extend unemployment benefits with reforms for a year. exactly what the president asked us to do. our members do not want to just punt and do a two-month

short-term fix where we have to come back and do this again. we're here, we're willing to work. we will appoint conferees and we hope the senate will appoint conferees. because we're willing to get the work done now and do it the right way. lastly, it's become clear that what the senate did pass is going to cause job creators all kinds of problems. as we saw a report that came out today by those who actually run payroll systems, that there is great confusion about the way the senate bill's put together. i think it's time to just do the right thing for the american people. let's solve this problem now. we'll have plenty of time to deal with other issues next year. >> good evening. the message coming out of our conference tonight is our members want to make sure that we're here to continue to work until congress passes a year-long extension of the payroll tax holiday. and we outright reject the attempt by the senate to kick the can down for 60 days. it's an unworkable solution

demonstrated by the report out today by people that are in the business that say it will cause increased expense and confusion and actually hurt not only small businesses but their workers. so we are going to ask our rules committee to go to meeting tonight. i expect to report out a rule for tomorrow. and tomorrow we will come in and not only move to passes that rule. we will also then take up a motion to reject the senate amendment and to go to conference so that we can actually work the differences out, so we can resolve the situation and the people of this country get what they deserve is some certainty as far as tax policy and health care policy going forward. >> well, there you have it. the speaker of the house john boehner and also the republican majority leader eric cantor saying tonight they're going to

go to conference, that they are not going to go along with the two-month deal. they want the year extension of the payroll tax cut. it's very clear that the tea party is swinging a big stick behind closed doors with speaker john boehner. for more on this, let's go to joan walsh, editor at large of salon.com. what do you make of this development live here on "the ed show" tonight? >> well, it's obvious john boehner is being held hostage by his tea party members and they're more important to him than the american people, ed. and, i mean, clearly everybody wanted an extension of the deal. everybody wanted an extension of the tax breaks. everybody would like certainty, but there was no agreement on how to pay for it. and so they did kick it down the road for a couple of months. i mean, i think these costs to the job creators and these costs in terms of payroll tax changes would only kick in if they did not find a way to extend them past that two-month period, which everybody is optimistic that they would be able to do. so, you know, he's trying to hold himself up as the person who would like to do the extension for the whole year,

while basically lying about what has held up the agreement to do that. the president obviously wants that, too. so do the democrats. >> i think the democrats at this point can go ahead and do a year deal. i mean, it's going to help middle class families. and we have added in our economy 1.5 million jobs since this payroll tax holiday went into effect. i mean, i thinks the democrats could say, okay, we'll go a year. obviously the election is going to be in november. they could come back and do a better job on the economy. i do see upside if they can get a good deal with the republicans on this. >> that's the it. exactly. that's the if. of course we'd all be thrilled if they came up and were suddenly reasonable. i think that the, you know, the stumbling block will be what they propose to pay for it and they haven't really come out and said that yet. if they're willing to punt on how it gets paid for or, you know, take the advice we've been giving them and say that the deficit is not as big a deal in

the midst of this kind of ongoing recession. we can worry about that later. i don't see them being sudden converts to that point of view, so i assume that there will be some, you know, not so wonderful cuts proposed. >> this, i think, is going to make the democrats come up with more cuts and that's exactly what the republicans want. because republicans are not going to give up any revenue. they've made that very clear. >> ever. right. >> and the democrats pretty much have given up trying to get any revenue out of them on this deal. so the question now for the democrats, you correct me if i'm wrong on this take. i think they have to go behind closed doors and say, well, how deep of cuts do we want to go here? what programs can we go to? isn't that where the democrats are right now? >> or say no and put the blame on them. i mean, you know, frankly what they always do is go back and look for more cuts, which hurt the economy, which cost us jobs. so, you know, they're really in a very untenable position if that's what the house

republicans are going to do. and simply say, you've got to find cuts to pay for this for a year. >> here's the one thing. as chuck schumer said this morning, you know, you can't negotiate with boehner. i mean, he's all over the map. he goes back behind closed doors, he gets whipped pretty hard by the tea partyers and the tea partyers want to defeat president obama. the only way they're going to walk out of the room if they know absolutely they got the teal and the american people know they drove that deal home. >> right. >> it might be a good strategy for the democrats to walk from it. i don't think so. i think a couple months into paying a little bit more out of your paycheck, it's going to hit a lot of americans. now let's turn to the conversation of jeb bush. there's no question about it that there are some republicans out there who are floating the trial balloon about jeb bush, maybe trying to entice him to get into this thing because they're not happy with all of the above. what do you make of it? do you think that jeb bush would actually jump into this thing?

>> i don't. i mean, if jeb bush is going to do it, he's going to wait until 2016. right now, it's still too soon. there's still bush fatigue. there's such a hangover from the awful, awful eight years. he has some of his own problems. you know, when he went to work for lehman brothers, the now bankrupt part of lehman brothers, part of bringing down our economy. he went there, got rich. he was involved in trying to get florida involved in some pension deals. and, you know, all that stuff is going to come up and it's -- in another four or five years, maybe it wouldn't sting as much and maybe he could do good works and erase that part of his resume. right now with a brother who's still one of the most unpopular people in the world and his lehman brothers stint and some other issues in florida, you know, i don't see it. i don't see him being that stupid, frankly. >> "the new york times" columnist david brooks believes a bush candidacy is still a remote possibility. also byron york of "the washington examiner" columnist,

he wonders if the bush op-ped that was recently in "the wall street journal" is a trial balloon. so we shall see. joan walsh, we do know one thing, mitt is not satisfying the conservatives. and it looks like newt gingrich is exploding and nobody believes that ron paul can run the table. so we'll see. >> and we were right. you know, last week we were talking to ourselves, gee, we know he's going to fall, but when is he going to fall? he's falling, ed. we were right. >> that's right. thanks, joan. appreciate your time tonight. >> thank you. coming up, rush limbaugh is back in "psycho talk" tonight. this time he's saying democrats are the ones who are uninform? i'll bring out my favorite study about fox news viewers. you won't want to miss it. stay with us. let me tell you about a very important phone call i made.

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and in "psycho talk" tonight, rush limbaugh shares his expertise on being ignorant and uninformed. >> isn't it due to ignorant and uninformed voters that we got obama? aren't the democrats trying to dumb down everybody in our schools? for what purpose? brainwashing them. but somebody who genuinely cares about the country would -- and he's informed -- would not vote for obama. the uninformed voter is a democrat target audience. >> all right. let me straighten this out. first of all, democrats aren't the ones brainwashing students.

it's a fact. it was texas republicans who fought to make social studies textbooks more conservative last year. also, misinformation is the cornerstone of the republican election strategy. democrats, they didn't come up with death panels. last month, a fairly dickinson university poll showed, "some media outlets, especially fox news, lead people to be even less informed than those who say they don't watch any news at all." of course, it's no secret why. >> pepper spray, that just burns your eyes, right? >> right. it's like a derivative of actual pepper. it's a food product essentially. >> the death panels are back. >> critics are saying the administration is pressuring certain disabled veterans to, quote, hurry up and die. >> global warming, where are you? we want you back. >> if we don't reduce our carbon emissions, aliens might come and kill us. >> so fox news viewers are the most uninformed and most fox

news viewers are republicans. last year a poll showed 78% of them support republican candidates. so for rush limbaugh to say democrats are dumbing everybody down is uninformed "psycho talk." newt gingrich wants to overhaul the judicial system. wait until you hear what he's proposing. historian douglas brinkley joins me on that. and we'll look at whether any of the republican presidential candidates are ready for their 3:00 a.m. phone call. stay with us. [ male announcer ] a simple gesture can spark romance anytime. and when it does, men with erectile dysfunction can be more confident in their ability to be ready with cialis for daily use. cialis for daily use is a clinically proven low-dose tablet you take every day so you can be ready anytime the moment's right, even if it's not every day. [ man ] tell your doctor about

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as president, newt gingrich promises to overhaul the judicial branch. first order of business would be arrest any judge who gives a decision gingrich disagrees with. over the past several days, the former speaker has ramped up his criticism of the federal judiciary. gingrich explained on "face the nation" that judges who make

controversial rulings should be forced to explain their decision before congress. gingrich cited a specific example with a federal judge and argued that any judge who refuses to comply should be rounded up by federal law enforcement. >> let me just ask you this. talk about enforing it. one of the things you say is if you don't like what a court has done, that congress should subpoena the judge and bring him before congress and hold a congressional hearing. some people say that's unconstitutional. i'll let that go for a minute. i want to ask you from a practical standpoint, how would you enforce that? would you send the capitol police down to arrest him? >> if you had to. or you'd instruct the justice department to send the u.s. marshal. let's take the case of judge beary, i think he should explain a position that radical. how could he say he's going to jail the superintendent over the word ben do diction? before you move to impeach him,

you'd like to know why he said it. clearly since the congress has the power to impeach -- >> what if he said, no thank you, i'm not coming? >> well, that is what happens in impeachment cases. in an impeachment case, the house studies whether or not -- the house brings them in, the house subpoenas them. as a general rule, they show up. you're raising the core question. are judges above the rest of the constitution? or are judges one of the three co-equal branches? >> joining me now, professor at reich university, presidential historian and author, douglas brinkley. this is the most radical thing i think we've heard on the campaign trail so far this season. gingrich used the dred scott decision and abraham lincoln's response as a good analogy. as a good example. what do you make of that? >> well, it was the 14th amendment, not abraham lincoln, that rid of us dred scott.

newt gingrich has just done an awful job of explaining his history. he's basically declaring war on the judicial system. i mean, he's using a kind of al capone gangster language that i'm going to do roundups of judging if i don't like what they say. he's now -- i mean, his entire political career, which has been quite long, i think this has to be the sorriest moment for newt gingrich because, you know, what you've got here is democrats, republicans, all federal judges in the united states are just aghast that he has so little love of american democracy that he would want to see, be able to be president and basically say, i'll disregard the constitution. it's mind-boggling. >> shouldn't republicans distance themselves from this kind of rhetoric and this kind of theory? i mean, if they are strict constitutionalists, it would seem to me that the republicans would say, newt, you're definitely not our guy on this one. >> well, i think you see them doing that.

this is great news, i believe, for mitt romney in the long haul. republican nomination, he'd become a pariah for all conservative judges in the united states. go to any law school, whether it's stanford or duke, harvard, today, people are just laughing at how dangerous what gingrich is suggesting is. that means any president could come in and just say, i don't need to listen to the constitution. if i don't like part of the constitution, forget it and i'll disregard the supreme court. imagine if al gore in the 2000 election just said, well, i'm not going to listen to what the supreme court says. so we would be in for a year or two of just utter chaos in this country. the lack of respect that gingrich shows to federal judges who are some of our most learned americans and great people, both conservative and liberals, moderates, but our judges as a class of people do an excellent job. to see him scapegoat them in this way to somehow stimulate

the evangelical vote in iowa, i've never bet a born again christian. i consider myself a christian who wants to see capital police and u.s. marshals, subpoena then march judges into congress, when congress, itself, is broken right now. it makes no sense. >> i don't mean to get off track in this interview with you, professor, but i get a lot of e-mail on this and communication from my radio show on this. the defense authorization bill. there's some stuff in there about rounding up people and holding them without due process. then you have newt gingrich come along and suggest this with judges. i mean, this is really threatening the very stability of our system of government in this country and it's so off the wall. should the democrats respond to this at all, in your opinion? >> i think every judge in the united states should write a protest letter to the newspapers in iowa against newt gingrich for uttering this.

i think it was one thing during the debate when he said it because it was a moment. we all know what he's trying to do, who he's trying to score votes with, trying to promote god and the pledge of allegiance or be against gay marriage, et cetera. i think there has to be a consequence for somebody that's running for office that's willing to just put this kind of historical confusion out there. again, there's no way now, for example, even if gingrich does well and mitt romney gets the nomination, he could be considered a vp candidate, because in the general election this attack on the judicial system will just be just slammed from the right, from conservatives. nobody can join what he's saying except a very small fringe group of people. and it's a desperate act to try to get tea party people and, you know, some last-minute voters, i think, in the iowa caucus, to come on his side.

he's worried that romney and paul are ahead of him and this is the way to get the perry vote or the bachmann vote, he thinks. but it's a sad moment for a person with the former speaker of the house to talk like this. >> seems to me like he's winging it. i think you've put it all in a bottle for us tonight. no question about it. presidential historian douglas brinkley. thanks for joining us. i appreciate your take on it. thank you. mitt romney told chris wallace the middle class is hurting, but he didn't talk about his role in hurting the middle class while making boat loads of money off their pain. he did it. we'll document it.

up next, mitt romney likes to say he's unemployed, but according to new reports, he's still earning millions thanks to bain capital. where i come from, if you're making money, you're not unemployed. later, what the death of north korea's dear leader means for our national security. don't forget to share your thoughts on twitter with

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well, this weekend we saw the return of an imaginary presidential candidate. middle class mitt romney. >> the people that have been hurt in the obama economy are not the wealthy. the wealthy are doing just fine. the people that have been hurt are people in the middle class. >> this isn't the first time we've seen middle class mitt at work. the defender of american workers has been making his way around the country for the past several months. >> i don't worry about the top 1%. i don't stay up nights worrying about, gee, we need to help them. i'm not worried about that. they're doing just fine by themselves. i worry about the 99%. it's not those on the high end or the very low end. it's for the great middle class, the 80% to 90% of us in this country. frankly, i should tell my story. i'm also unemployed. >> did he say he's in the middle class?

what country club does he hang out at? it's unusual for a guy worth upwards of $200 million to call himself part of the great american middle class especially when he still rakes in big bucks for putting people out of work. here's the story. "new york times" reported he's paid a share of bain's profits giving him millions every year although he's unemployed. many of bain's investment results, they're in bankruptcy. bankrupted companies and loss of jobs. but middle class mitt, well, he doesn't see it that way. >> in my experience in the private sector, in the investments that i made, in the businesses i helped to build, our intent in every case was to either help people realize their dreams by starting a business or taking a business that was failing or underperforming and making it more successful. >> ah, the keyword there is content. in reality, bain turns a profit on its investments at any cost. ask the employees of kb toys or

how about clear channel communications or sensata technologies about the success they had under bain. thousands were laid off from the companies after being acquired by bain. middle class mitt wants these workers to know he feels their pain. >> i understand the impact of what happens globally in trade, and businesses lose and go out of business. in some cases lose jobs. it breaks your heart when that happens. it also loses investment. >> just breaks your heart. you know, the guys in this photo look really worried and really heartbroken about losing money on their investments. in fact a company like kb toys cost bain $18 million and got a 370% return on investment before abandoning the company to debt and bankruptcy. mitt romney, warrior for the working class has a lower tax rate than the rest of the middle class in this country. his multimillion dollar

retirement income is only taxed at 15% rate. a rate he will protect as president. but middle class mitt wants -- you know, he wants you to see him eating subway sandwiches. i mean, he's just regular dude. and posing with the flight crew of southwest airlines. just, you know, with the regular folk. flies coach. yeah right. he doesn't want you to think about his $12 million beach house in san diego which he recently quadrupled in size. needed a little more room. this is the mitt romney, the guy who thinks corporations are people. >> we have to make sure the promises we make in social security, medicaid and medicare are promises we can keep. and there are various ways of doing that. one is we could raise taxes on people. that's not the right -- >> corporations! >> corporations are people, my friend. we can raise taxes on -- of course, they are. everything corporations earn ultimately goes to people.

>> you want to know why he's behind in iowa? and how much do you want to bet that mitt romney doesn't spend any time thinking about middle class problems? >> rick, i'll tell you what. 10,000 bucks? $10,000 bet? >> i'm not in the betting business. >> one thing is certain. betting on mitt romney to win the white house is a gamble none of us can afford. mitt romney, he isn't part of the middle class. mitt romney is the guy who looks like the guy who fired you. it was another 3:00 a.m. phone call for the obama administration when north korea's dictator died of a heart attack. but are any of the republican candidates ready to pick up the phone? stay us with. [ drew ] what's tht in eye couture?

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"ed show" survey tonight, i asked, will john boehner ever have the guts to stand up to the tea party? 2% of you said yes. 98% of you said no.

how would the trigger happy republican presidential candidates react to north korea's missile tests after the death of kim jong-il? joe cirincione of the plow share fund is next.

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cameras this weekend after the death of their leader, brutal dictator kim jong ill. the country is now in the hands of kim jong-il's 20-something-year-old son. military's military reportedly conducted a short-range missile test. all of which meant the obama administration was in for a, one of those i guess you could say 3:00 a.m. phone calls. >> it's 3:00 a.m. and your children are safe and asleep. but there's a phone in the white house and it's ringing. something's happening in the world. your vote will decide who answers that call. calls. either president obama or one of the jokers on the republican side. most of them slam president obama for ending the war in iraq. and several sound like they are ready to bomb iran. rick perry says herman cain would make a good secretary of

defense. plus perry's press release following the death of kim jong-il referred to the dictator as kim jong ii. which it turns out is a common mistake among texas governors running for president. george w. bush once called the north korean dictator kim jong-tu. meanwhile, newt gingrich would have started a lazer war with north korea back in 2009. >> if you were president, what would you do about this north korea problem? >> i would use whatever methods are necessary for the missile never to be launched. >> are you saying military? >> if necessary. if i can't find a way to bribe somebody to blow it up, i'd find a way to have either a small team go in or a way to deliver either a laser or other device. >> joining me, joe cirincione. president of ploughshare funds. joe, nice to see you tonight. >> pleasure to be with you, ed. >> how dangerous would it be to have a president like newt gingrich, based on that comment?

>> what you don't want to do is provoke any rash action on the korean peninsula. this is the most heavily militarized area on earth. north korea has about a million men under arms. it's not just a small nuclear weapons that you're worried about. it's all the artillery and rockets they have within range of seoul. experts believe within the first few hours of a war, 100,000 south koreans would die. this is what you don't want to do, be rattling their cage. be patient. be calm. be, in fact, like the obama administration is. they're handling this very maturely, very soberly. wracking up more, i think, impressive national security credentials here. >> how much do we really know about his 20-something-year-old son? >> just about nothing. we don't even know how old he really is. we call him 20-something. we don't know that for sure. he's been groomed for power only for the last two years.

compared to the 20 years that kim jong-il had preparing for his takeover from his father, kim il-sung. what we do know is a transition has been put in place. a power sharing arrangement has been worked out. we're not looking for a lot of instability in north korea right now. all signs are that this is going to be a steady as she goes transition. it will take a few months to shake out. >> during several recent gop debates there was a lot, i guess you could say, fear mongering is what i call it about iran getting nuclear weapons. here it is. >> iran will take a nuclear weapon. they will use it to wipe our ally, israel, off the face of the map and they've stated they will use it against the united states of america. >> and we should be planning a missile -- a strike against their facilities and say, if you do not open up those facilities and not close them down, we will close them down for you. >> if, in the end, despite all of those things, the dictatorship persists, you have to take whatever steps are

necessary to break its capacity to have a nuclear weapon. >> if we re-elect barack obama, iran will have a nuclear weapon. >> have at it joe. what do you think? >> north korea got a nuclear weapon during the presidency of george w. bush. iran's program made more progress during the bush administration than it had made in the 16 years previous. the policies that you hear these candidates advocating have been proven to be failures. their policies have actually led to both north korea and iran accelerating their nuclear programs, not stopping them. the only way to get -- go ahead. >> rick santorum made me feel like we were going to get hit in ten minutes. >> yeah. you have to calm down here. you know, i understand it's a political season. i understand this is red meat for the base. what you're doing actually harms our national security. you don't get people to give up these weapons by continually threatening them. it's okay to back them into a corner and the u.s. has done a very good job in both these cases. eventually you have to open a door and give them a way out. >> joe, good to see you.