we'll know more on january 4th. but the fact of the matter is i want to do everything i can the next few days to help him get elected the president of the united states. >> that is the state senator who tonight a dramatic development him showing up to announce he is now endorsing ron paul, the latest ppp poll showing paul in first place in iowa with mitt romney on his heels. "the last word with lawrence o'donnell" starts now.ç finally, the santorum surge is on. yo, so big it up. my mind newt gingrich. >> here i am in the chocolate factory. >> boy, is this guy ticked. >> lucy and the chocolate factory. >> it's more like lucille ball at the chocolate factory. >> i'd love him to say that to my face. >> boy, is he angry. >> he's trying to get all the negative in at once.

>> rediscovered some of that offensive firepower. >> gingrich has dropped substantially. >> he may have peaked too early. >> that's why newt's pouting and mitt romney strutting. >> neck and neck race now between ron paul and mitt romney. >> could mitt romney seal this thing up? we've spent all of 2011 saying he's the weakest front-runner ever. is he the sleeper candidate here. >> i can't set expectations. >> sims you have to take these polls a little bit with a grain of salt. >> a bunch of clowns inside of a car at the moment. >> i feel very good that we're going to surprise a lot of people how we finish. >> look at risk santorum. >> he is the one person that people have talked about. >> he's tripled his support. >> our campaign is the one that's got the momentum right now. >> take a look at santorum on the surface, he's a pretty good guy. his followers are the evangelical voters. >> i am the one with the proven track record. >> i predict mitt romney will be the republican nominee.

>> if you don't run romney will be the nominee and we'll lose. ç >> the gingrich surge in iowa is now officially the gingrich collapse. according to the latest time/cnn poll he's dropped 19 points in iowa from his high of 33 the last time that poll was conducted. those 19 gingrich points have gone mostly to one of the darkest of the dark horses, rick santorum. who has picked up 11 points in this poll and surged to third place. behind mitt romney who picked up only five of the gingrich points to go from 20 to 25 in the poll and ron paul whose moved up five points in the poll to 22. ron paul's team thinks the poll understates his support in iowa. in an e-mail to politico, his

campaign chairman wrote, it is too small a sample to be very accurate. our internals which reflect a size needed for accuracy show what this race is, a two-man contest between dr. paul and mitt romney." today in iowa, mitt romney enjoyed overflow crowds at small venues designed by his campaign staff to create the image of overflow crowds in clinton, iowa. 200 miles away in algona, iowa, newt gingrich was speaking at a chocolate factory where he responded to romney's comparing newt's failure to get on the virginia ballot to the incompetence performed by lucille ball in her old sit-com scene at a chocolate factory.ç >> now that i have the courage to come to the chocolate factory, i hope governor romney will have the courage to debate me one-on-one and defend his negative ads. i don't expect him to do it, but

i hope if he comes by, he'll at least buy some chocolates. >> newt gingrich offered this reassuring commander in chief-like explanation for his failure to qualify for the virginia presidential ballot. >> i had somebody who turned in false signatures. we turned in 11,100. we needed 10,000. 1500 of them by one guy who frankly committed fraud. >> well, all right then. hope you have better luck choosing a treasury secretary. today, rick santorum made a reenergized pitch to the anyone but romney republican voters. >> mitt romney's never proven to win in an election where he had to get democrats and independents as a conservative. when he ran in massachusetts, he didn't run as a conservative. i've run as a conservative in a blue state of pennsylvania and won two elections. yes, i lost one in an election year where everybody lost but in the election years that were contested that are going to be more like 2012 than 2006, those

are the elections i won in pennsylvania and we can win them again. >> the official position of this pranl that the ridiculous presidential primary season has been nothing but helpful to the re-election prospects of president obama has now been confirmed by charles krauthammer, fox news resident wise man. >> imagine if you had had a race with mitch daniels, with a ron -- with a paul ryan, christie, ç jindal and others, senator bethune. we would have had a completely different complexion. and i think with some of the sort of embarrassing candidates like cain and others along the way, it has made the president, who is by -- by who he is presidential look better. >> joining me now from iowa, aol "huffington post" editorial director and political analyst howard fineman. also from iowa, national fairs

editor for new york magazine and msnbc political analyst, john heilemann. thank you both for joining me tonight. >> good evening, lawrence. >> howard, you 2003ed on this issue of the santorum surge. you tweeted in des moines romney circle says it's okay if santorum surges a little. they'd rather have him as the cultural right foe than newt or rick. why? >> yes. well, i suppose maybe they should be careful what they wish for. >> yeah. >> but their reasoning was was this. their reasoning was this, that south carolina's the place where mitt romney's almost certainly going to lose. that's the third leg of the triad of aisha, new hampshire and south carolina. and they would be more worried about a rick perry i think primarily, but a southern or semi southerner, somebody with the ability to the raise a lot of money still, finishing strong

little in this race rather than rick santorum who they see as somebody who really can't raiseç a lot of money, who remains rather obscure. if he finishes third, so what. he won't be able to raise the millions of dollars he would need right away because he doesn't have the connections, he doesn't have the ground game. he didn't even bother to try to submit signatures to get on the ballot in virginia, for example. they cite that as an example of the fact that they don't think he can go national. at least that's what they were saying to me. >> john, you wrote on new york magazine romney has had his share of unearned good fortune and though the lack of affection for him in his party's base might yet come back to bite him, at the moment, he appears to be on the verge of proving an eternal verity of politics, better to be lucky than loved. how has mitt romney been lucky? >> well, lawrence, you just pointed out what the show's

official position is relative to this republican race and charles krauthammer as you said confirmed that. look, mitt romney has in his view and in the view of his advisers run against a clown show. and they have looked -- he has had the most unimpressive and at times borderline ludicrous set of rivals that you can possibly imagine. he's had the luck of being the guy who has been the only one able to raise a significant amount of money. that's not all luck. that's partly skill but he's not faced anyone else who's a remote competitor on that front. he right now in iowa even as he is now in first place in iowa according to the polling and interm polling that the campaign has, he has all of his fellow ç rivals attacking ron paul rather than attacking him. he has not faced a significant negative campaign from any of his rivals over the course of the last year during which he has been the defacto front-runner all along. i can't think of a better

definition of good luck than all of that. >> all right. i think you just won that point. howard, on the santorum surge, what is -- what kind of surge is something that the romney camps can survive? his current position of third place, if he were to finish second, if santorum were to surge to second in iowa, what does santorum have to do in iowa to change the outcome here? >> he probably has to win. and who knows. it's not impossible. this has been the most amazing campaign i've ever covered in the sense that there have been six different front-runners. i've never seen a campaign like that. it may be the sort of gong show nature of the crowd but it started out six months ago with mitt romney as the narrow front-runner. then all of the purists from the libertarian wing and the cultural right wing and the hawk wing, with the exception of ron

paul all took their turns in the spotlight. and none of them it seems necessarily has the clout to beat romney. i think ron paul's got a shot at it. i wouldn't dismiss it. i think it's possible that his numbers are being underrepresented in some of these polls. and if santorum can consolidate all of the cultural conservatives, he's got a shot at winning the thing.ç michele bachmann seems to be collapsing. her party, her state co-chair just announced a few hours ago that he was switching fromachmann to ron paul. it's good news for paul and also santorum. rick perry had a moment of resurgence the last week or so but it doesn't seemed to have gained a lot of traction. it's possible if perry collapses and bachmann collapses that santorum will be the winner of the non-mitt romney, non-ron

paul vote, and that is enough to win the thing. >> john, what do you think santorum has to achieve in iowa to put the future of this race in serious doubt? >> well, i think howard's right. certainly if -- i think those scenarios are all long shot scenarios that howard laid out. i don't think they're totally implausible. i think bachmann's campaign is going to collapse pretty quick now given where she is. we've been wondering what was going to happen with the cultural conservative christian right vote for a long time, whether it would coalesce. santorum now seems to be the most likely person around whom it will coalesce. you can just imagine him either winning the caucuses or coming in second. if rick santorum, if he comes in first, that's an interesting outcome. especially if it means that mitt romney finishes third.2áç

expectations throughout this entire year, but just now because of his apparent strength, because of his team's confidence and because of theseç polls that show him in first, expectations are now starting to rise that mitt romney's going to win the iowa caucuses. if he were to fall to third behind either santorum and paul or paul and santorum, that would become a problem at this point especially if it was a distant third. that would hurt him going into new hampshire and might throw the door open to a more unexpected outcome than what i think most people are looking at right now which is romney wins iowa, new hampshire and pretty much puts the nomination away. >> howard, someone always gets left behind in iowa this they just can't make it up and continue to campaign. who will we not be talking about this time next week? >> probably michele bachmann for sure. and don't forget, she's another person who didn't even bother to submit signatures to try to get on the ballot in virginia.

i think her for sure. i think they'll be some lingering discussion of jon huntsman. he didn't really play here. he's not playing here. and he's got to make a big showing in new hampshire. but i think people will come out of here will look ahead to new hampshire and see that his numbers aren't anywhere in new hampshire. so he'll be commented upon mostly i'm guessing now from the vantage point of what was the point. and rick perry i think also stands to lose big-time. if he doesn't finish strong here, i think he's pretty much out of the ball game. i don't see how he can recover because he's made a real, real strong effort here in the last few weeks. and it doesn't really seem to be playing out. >> john, can rick perry, he has a lot of money. if he comes in in single digitsç in iowa and you know way back there fifth or sixth, can he go on to new hampshire with his money at least? >> well, i don't think he'll go on to new hampshire, lawrence.

i think if anything, he'll go straight to south carolina. he's polling even worse in new hampshire. he's down around the 1 or 2% in new hampshire. if he's going to go on and i think it will be hard for him to justify going on if he's in fifth or sixth place here. i mean right now, the poll, the cnn/time poll has him in fifth. it will be hard to make a credible case for him to go on to south carolina even if he has the money. if he finishes fourth or third somehow, i could see him deciding south carolina is where he puts in every last dime that he has. his superpacs decide to put in every last dime they have and try to make a stand as the southern regional candidate in south carolina whereas howard said earlier, romney is like notoriously weak. that might work. a fifth place for rick perry in iowa given the amount he's spending here and the fact that this should have been hospitable territory for him given the cultural conservative vote here, a fifth place finish would be pretty devastating to perry. >> thank you both very much for joining us tonight.

>> thanks, lawrence. coming up, the actions of police. at the occupy wall street protests that led new york city's police commissioner to reissue the department's order against interfeing with reporters doing their job. that's in tonight's rewrite. and next, is the santorum surge real or will it turn into the santorum collapse just like every other surge we've seen in the republican presidential campaign?ç

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>> i finished dead last way behind the pack, i'm going to pack up and go home. i don't think that's going to happen. i think we're going to be very much in the mix and i feel very good that we're going to surprise a lot of people on how we finish.

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nest 2010 when i was deployed to iraq, i had to lie about who i was because i'm a gay soldier. i didn't want to lose my job. my question is, under one of your presidencies, do you intend to circumvent the progress that's been made for gay and lesbian soldiers in the military. >> yeah, i would say any type of sexual activity has absolutely no place in the military. >> ignoring boos directed at a gay soldier serving in iraq was rick santorum's only notable moment in the republican presidential campaign. until now.

the santorum surge is now upon us. the santorum surge in the polls follows the trump surge in the polls. the back man surge, the perry surge, the herman cain surge and gingrich surge. is the santorum surge the final one? is rick santorum where the anybody but mitt romney is going to end up or will the santorum surge turn into a collapse? joining me now is former ç pennsylvania governor ed rendell an nbc news political analyst. governor rendell, tell me what's crazy about rick santorum from a republican perspective because that's what happened to every other one of these people was surging in the republican polls, republicans discovered something they really didn't like about them. is there something they don't yet note about rick santorum? >> santorum is benefiting from the fact that he's surging so

late that he isn't going to have a chance to be vetted by the media or by negative commercials to the iowa voters. we've got the new year's eve weekend coming up. there isn't going to be any time. so he's going to really go to the polls unsullied. there are things out there that yes, would disturb even republican evangelical voters but certainly the broader based republican voter. but there's not going to be time. rick santorum is a great campaigner. everyone forgets he beat an incumbent democratic congressman in suburban pittsburgh. he beat harris wofford, a popular incumbent to get the senate seat and when he points out he lost in the 2006, it was obviously a terrible republican year. i was on the top of the ballot. he was running against bob casey, which is a madgeal name in pennsylvania. he's a very good campaigner. they're not going to have time to negatively vet him. i think this surge is real. i'd say something cautionary about the polls.

polls as you know, are tough to gauge turnout even in real elections. in caucuses, it's almost impossible to gauge turnout. so i believe there's a good chance rick santorum will run ahead of what he's polling ç because the evangelicals will turn out with a lot more passion than the romney voters. i think the surge is real and i think it could happen. >> it seems to me that he has been very consistent throughout his career in the way that the evangelical voters want a republican to be consistent. and then also with the tea party world. i mean this is a guy who was never in favor of an individual mandate in health care or any of those things that gingrich and romney dabbled with. he doesn't have any of those issues that i can find where he reached across party lines and got interested in some liberal notion for any brief period, does he? >> right, he's been very consistent. the only place he loses republican voters is he loses republican moderate voters in the philadelphia suburbs and the cleveland suburbs and places

like that because of what he did on terri schiavo because of the way he describes gay sex. because as some of the sort of extreme positions that he's taken. but he's been very consistent. he's a smart guy. you said that he only had one memorable moment in the debates. i thought his answer on pakistan was a very good answer and a very mature answer and showed a little bit of a fact that he's been around for a while and he knows the issues. so i think he can be a real candidate in iowa. i think echo an less whatever real right conservative vote there is in new hampshire. he doesn't have the capacity to raise money. i don't think anybody can stay with mitt romney when it comes to raising money. i think even if mitt romney were to come in third, he's still going to be the eventualal nominee. there's no question in my mind about that.ç but rick santorum may well be a real factor. he's a very likable guy in many ways when he stays away from the bizarre things. >> yeah, but the bizarre things, the things that we look at as

bizarre are all in this ultraconservative kind of weird anti-sex, anti-gay zone that seems to play well with the evangelical voter. >> no question. even his performance on terri schiavo which i thought was a low moment in his career trying to capitalize on that and having the federal government try to intrude in the choice that a family was making, even that i think had the support of the vast majority of people who believe in the sanctity of life. so no, i think your point is well taken. there's nothing in his background that will disturb what is now his growing base of voters. >> and if he ever made it, if this candidacy did catch fire and overwhelmed the romney money and we've seen money not do the trick for rick perry. so we don't know the how far money can go for mitt romney but if he ever did get to the nomination, how would president obama go after rick santorum in a general election. dtqi áuq( with the mainstream o

american life who by his views, not by his temperament. bytis temperament, he's a nice guy but by his views he would be incredibly divisive at a time when this country needs to be together more than ever. i think president obama would win every swing state in the country in the country in a general election against santorum. president obama is a lucky man. your analysis at the beginning of the show is right on. this only benefited him. he wants by the way, he doesn'tç want a knockout victory from mitt romney early after two or three states. he wants this to go on and on, whether it's gingrich or whoever it is, he would like to see the fight carried on. >> former pennsylvania governor ed rendell, thank you very much for joining us tonight. >> thanks, lawrence. coming up, pennsylvania senator arlen specter was a democrat. then he became a republican. then he became a democrat again late in his career, but last night, the former senator was a comedian. and later, newt gingrich thinks you've seen the most

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desks msnbc.com or call 1-800-for kids. unicef will send an e card to whoever you choose indicating you've donated a desk in their name. sam and joan spooner donated two decks in my name thanking me for using the power of this show for the greater good. thanks, sam and joan. most people have been donating desks in the names of their children, of their parents, sometimes in honor of their late parents or other loved ones. stewart posted this on our facebook page. i watched your segment with melissa harris perry last week and was so inspired ten desks were donated in honor of those who have taught me so much over the course of my years. the sight of those children so eager to learn, they would sit in the dirt brought the spirit of the season back to one who had all but given up on the commercialization of a holy season.ç

coming up, newt gingrich says the video he's done with nancy pelosi is the most embarrassing thing he's ever done, and that is not true. we'll show you an even crazier video moment in newt's life. and in the rewrite tonight, what the nypd needs to do to police the lawbreakers in its ranks. it's time to fire the out of control cops who have attacked occupy wall street protesters and the reporters covering those protests. on my journey across ,

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we don't always see eye to eye. do we, newt. >> no, but we do agree our country must take action to address climate change. >> newt gingrich calls that climate change ad with former house speaker nancy pelosi "the single -- the dumbest single thing i've done in recent years." oh, yeah?

>> do you think that people should get more welfare the longer they is on welfare? >> no. we don't think that you earn seniority on welfare. >> but surely the longer you is on welfare, it shows that you has got commitment. you wouldn't like it if you was in a job and didn't get a pay raise. >> before pelosi, there was ali g created and performed by sacha baron cohen. that interview was from hbo's ali g show in 2003. newt never figured out that the whole thing was a joke even when ali g imagined a woman president of the united states. >> there problem if there is a woman president there's going to spend all their time on facials, shopping and getting new shoes. >> i think if you said that to most of the women who would be president, you would be surprised how tough they are. >> sasha baron cohen wasn't finished with republicans after the gingrich interview.

in the movie "bruno," he managed to get ron paul up to his hotel room.ç >> has anyone ever told you you look like enrique i think lace yas. >> huh-uh. >> of course not. you're much cuter. >> whoops. >> get out of here. >> what? >> all right. this has ended. that guy's queerer than the blazes he took his clothes off. let's get going. >> what happened. >> he's queer and crazy. he put a hit on me and took his clothes off. >> oh, joining me now is msnbc political analyst richard wolffe. richard -- >> yes, lawrence. >> yeah. ali g and bruno i think have shown us another side of both newt gingrich and ron paul. >> you can say that. >> it's interesting on the ron paul piece because eric dundero,

he was a long-time aide of ron paul. he posted this piece recently where he talked about ron paul's crazy foreign policy ideas and different things. and he did say, and these are his words that ron paul is personally uncomfortable around homosexuals. >> yes. >> which i think we just saw a little video evidence of.áçhkci >> you could say that. you know, i've seen these videos eight times now. they're still hilariously funny. let's just be clear, all due respect to sacha baron cohen for his genius here. what's more stupid, the fact that ron paul gets suckered into this kind of interview or that he's offended not by the guy taking off his pants by but the fact that he is, quote unquote, ean, you know, there is -- ote, there's a -- there's something that you cannot hide when people are in shock or they're drunk or angry. and that was his response the idea of the homosexuality being

so offensive supposed to an interviewer dropping his pants, you know, there's a reality problem and there's also a prejudice problem. but both of them shine through show so wonderfully well with the humor. >> and eric dundero's post about his time with ron paul, he said they ended up at a certain point in san francisco and they had some gay supporters there and they ended up in the home of one of these gay supporters and ron paul would not use is the bathroom in that home because two gay men lived in that home. so i think, you know, the ron paul discomfort is rather high in this territory. >> it is sad, pathetic. look, we're going to see if the predictions are true, we're going to see a number of young people showing up to vote for him in iowa. and maybe they think he's a kind of wacky great uncle type of figure, and they think he's a real libertarian. but what kind of social libertarian is it when you are so against abortion and

homosexuality, and, and, a real libertarian won't have those problems. i wonder if the younger voters in iowa really understand how far they are as a group from what ron paul thinks. >> what i love about the gingrich version with ali g is those were the years where he was doing the pelosi videos. he was pandering in every direction he could where he thought he could either make a buck or appeal to a new possiblç constituency and i love that someone spun him on the idea that you should talk to this british guy because he's really big in england and it will help you with i don't know what. >> ask the young people. >> get lecture fees in england or something and newt never figures it out. i love that part. >> well, to be fair to newt gingrich and that's a strange way to start a sentence but to be fair to him, he does try and argue the right position, but the brilliance of the humor, it's not just newt gingrich but a whole truckload of politicians are so desperate to be on tv they will never once rip off the

microphone and say this is preposterous. i say that from the august position of being a cable news pundit. this is not a historian talking but a plain human being saying why on earth would you put up with that crap except that you're desperate to be on tv and someone told him somewhere that's what young people do or sound like. maybe that's the people who live notice cities he never talks to because he's stuck at tiffany's all day. >> there is i think there is something in the ali g video that republicans are fearing about gingrich, which is that he does open himself up to too many possible ways of thinking about things and talking about things and that's why he ends up here and there coming out with this liberal idea of being in favor of individual mandates and health care and that sort of thing. >> well, you know, individual mandate was a republican policy. so he could be forgiven for

doing that. what's perplexing is that the ali g character tries to convince him that a woman president would be too in love ç with saddam hussein to go to war. and he tries to argue him out of it. really? at some point, you know, just the other day he apologized. newt gingrich in real life apologized to iowa voters saying that walt whitman had kept him in the studio too long. maybe he needs to get away from the cameras and talk to real people a bit more and maybe ali g was a sign he couldn't distinguish reality from tv. >> you'll be able to find the complete alii g interview on our website. richard wolffe, thank you very much for joining us tonight. >> anytime, lawrence. coming up, what the nypd needs to do to prove that it respects the constitutional rights of new yorkers. that's in the rewrite. and what is arlen specter doing in his retirement years? the former senator is doing standup comedy.

that's coming up.

new york city's police commissioner has reminded his officers that they have to respect the constitution. but he's going to have to do more than that to build respect in new york for the nypd. that's next in the rewrite. what is this shorty? uh, tissues sir, i'm sick. you don't cough, you don't show defeat. give me your war face! raaah! [ male announcer ] halls. a pep talk in every drop. then i found new pronutrients omega-3. it's from centrum. it's a smaller minigel. with two of the best omegas to support my heart, brain and eyes. new pronutrients from centrum.

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the new york city police commissioner ray kelly doesn't rewrite the department's policyç concerning the treatment of reporters but he does feel the need to reissue it to a department that has been caught on tape violating it relentlessly during the occupy wall street movement. thanks to the reporting of joe pompeo at capital new york.com, we now know that police commissioner ray kelly decided it was necessary to reissue the nypd's noninterference order. kelly ordered it read to all 34,500 new york city police officers. it says, members of the service who unreasonably interfere with media access to incidents or who intentionally prevent or obstruct the photographing or videotaping of news in public places will be subject to disciplinary action. members of the service will not interfere with the videotaping or photographing of incidents in public places. intentional interference constitutes censorship.

the media will be given access as close to the activity as possible with a clear line of sight. and within hearing range of the incident. ray kelly reissued the order only after being deluged with protests from new york media outlets specifying violations of this policy that reporters have suffered. there are three kinds of cops in new york. and in every big city police department concerning this kind of rule. the first and largest group are the cops who know the rule about not interfering with the press, understand the constitutional basis for it, and whether they like it or not, libby it. even in stressful circumstancesç that accounts for maybe 90% or more of the 34,500 new york city police officers. the second group is much smaller. they know the rule and understand the constitutional

basis for it. and they don't care about the constitution or the rule. and they violate it at will. and the third group is the smallest of all. they are the cops who don't know the rule exists, wouldn't understand the constitutional basis if it was explained to them, and have no idea they're violating a rule and the constitution when they violate that rule. there is only one way for the nypd to seriously deal with the outlaw cops who willfully or ignorantly violate this rule. they must be fired. not disciplined. not lose some vacation days. they must be fired, firing them is the only way to demonstrate that the nypd respects the constitution of the united states of america. the nypd could fire every one of the thugs with badges who have

attacked reporters this year and not miss them for a minute. the quality of policing in new york would, in fact, instantly improve. the actual real crime rate would drop instantly because these police criminals would no longer be assaulting and battering the people of new york and new york reporters. all police departments want to be respected. all police officers want to be respected.ç most deserve respect. but as long as the nypd continues to harbor subversive attackers of the constitution of the united states of america, as long as the nypd continues to harbor the violent haters of the founding document of the system of government that pays their salaries, as long as the largest law enforcement agency in the

country continues to protect the laut breakers who wear its uniform, the nypd cannot expect respect. good cops deserve respect. you good cops know who the bad cops are. the bad cops are hurting you. you have the power to get rid of them. do it. for the honor of the badge you wear. do it for the good of your department. and yes, do it for the constitution of the united states of america.lje[y/iñiñi

>> the next guy, see if i can pronounce his name correctly. uh, arlen specter. arlen specter. [ applause ]

>> that was comedian luke cunningham introducing former pennsylvania senator arlen specter last night at open mic night at the helium comedy club in philadelphia. specter was run of just five republican senators to vote against both charges in the impeachment trial of bill clinton and so that's where his comedy routine began. >> bill clinton's a friend of mine.ç because i was a friend of his. i voted not to impeach him. and that's a hell of i thing to do considering the evidence. i called clinton up on his 65th birthday and i said, bill, congratulations on being 65. how do you feel? he said, arlen, i feel like a teenager. the problem is, i can't find one. he said, arlen, you might not

understand this but hillary is really mad at me. because i complained toler about the cost of viagra. do you know, arlen, that i agra costs $10 a pill? i said, bill how in the hell would i know how much viagra costs? well, hillary was mad at me because she said, bill you can afford $40 a year. herman cain has had really quite a checkered career. 99 and 9. more women came out of the woodwork than there was wood. and what people don't know the is cain had a long-standing problem since he was an adolescent. no matter how hard his teachers tried, they couldn't persuade herman cain harass was one word. >> joining me now the man who

got arlen specter up on stage last night at the comedy club, comedian luke cunningham. have xóu heard the one about the senator who walked into a comedy club? how did this happen? did you get him drunk? what's going on there? >> he showed up on his own volition. he said he wanted to go up and perform. and we didn't have any other former senators ready to go up that night so we let him close, let him headline. >> how long did he work the room? >> he put in 15 minutes, which is -- that's an epic set for an open mic. usually you get like five and you're pushing it. but he did 15 and he did great. >> i do know he has one minor bit of experience before this. there was some funniest person in washington contest some few years ago that he participated in. and he actually did the viagra joke about bob dole, the one that he did about clinton, he did it about bob dole at that time.

but so his material was i thought surprisingly blue for a senator. >> yeah, i mean, i was surprised. i didn't know he did it about dole previously. so i guess he's settling scores on the two guys that finished in front of him in '96 when he ran. but yeah, he was -- he took on all comers. he went against the republicans and the democrats. so, yeah k >> he really did kill? i mean, we heard pretty good audience reaction there. >> that is -- it's completely genuine. the guy had the set of the night. and you know, i mean you could tell he's had extensive experience in public speaking. he held the crowd's attention and he genuinely killed.ç anybody else would have been happy to have that set. >> but luke, is it because a comedy club has very -- a very low bar for senators? >> yeah, there's also a very low bar for 80-year-old men in yellow blazers. so i mean, the combination of the two killed.

>> yeah, i mean, i would think the audience is sitting there thinking like oh, boy, is this going to be painful and embarrassing and they're kind of a little bit nervous and waiting for him to say anything that works. >> i mean, i'm sure there are plenty of people who didn't know who he was and just thought he was somebody's pappy to get up to do a set that night and were pleasantly surprised when i he was killing with these jokes. >> so you just introduced him by name, by arlen specter. you didn't say former senator from pennsylvania, republican senator. you didn't say any of that? >> no, i mean, we had made some jokes earlier that night saying we had some amateurs, some semi professional comedians, and one junior prosecutor with with the warren commission. but we didn't introduce him by anything else. >> i like that. philadelphia. >> he didn't ask for any special treatment. >> great. philadelphia comedian luke cunningham, thank you very much for getting him up on stage and thanks for joining us tonight. >> thank you very much.