are happy. vo: earn points for the things you're already buying. call 1-800-now-open to find out how the gold card can serve your business. for his big speech at the biannual confab in washington, d.c., former massachusetts governor and current presidential candidate mitt romney was introduced by this guy, this guy is the chairman of the american conservative union. american conservative union is the organization that runs cpac, this whole three-day event. shortly after mr. romney was done with his speech, former house speaker newt gingrich took the stage. he was introduced by his wife calista. mitt romney introduced by the guy hosting the event, newt gingrich introduced by his wife. rick santorum? he was introduced by his billionaire. and rick santorum's billionaire opened with a joke.

>> there is a little bar couple doors down and a conservative, a liberal and a moderate walked into the bar. the bartender says hi, mitt. [ laughing ] >> can i pay you to laugh? if i keep laughing? how about now? i could pay you all. would mitt romney really walk in a bar? your introduction at an event like this is a form of politician framing, like picking a running mate or where you choose to announce the candidacy or what metaphor you use in your stump speech, all important parts of political framing. usually in presidential politics your political framing is about compensating for some perceived weakness you have as a candidate. bolstering something about your

candidacy that maybe is a little bit wobbly. john mccain seen as being the guy who has been around for a long time, old man of the party, picks for his running mate a young, previously totally unknown republican governor. barack obama perceived to have the baggage of a divided democratic party after his long fought, bloody primary battle for hillary clinton. hillary clinton is the one who essentially introduces him as the democratic nominee. hillary clinton is the one who moves formally at the convention that barack obama be nominated by the democratic party for president. the idea between all of these things is essentially you complete me. by bringing you into my framing, i am a more complete, better political picture than i am without you. so when rick santorum has his billionaire introduce him at cpac, maybe it's not as weird as it seems. what is the beef with the santorum candidacy? the idea is he doesn't have the capacity, doesn't have the support to run a national campaign and go the distance. so having his billionaire there, is rick santorum showing cpac,

showing the conservative world he's got financial support. that is no small thing for the republican field given what was announced about newt gingrich's billionaire. which we'll get to later on in the show. for mitt romney having the conservative conference of the year introducing you signals this type of red meat conservative base conference can be a home field for mitt romney. it's an attempt for mitt romney to reinforce his conservative bona fides. newt gingrich having his wife introduced him that says -- well, says he's married to that person now. which is maybe particularly important given his grandstanding on catholic doctrine on sexual morality for the past couple weeks, given the rest of his history. of all of these the romney one is the most important, because of how hard mr. romney is trying to shore up his standing with conservatives. john mccain never successfully did that in 2008. if you think about it.

he still ended up getting the nomination. it is not that you can't get the nomination without seeming like a red, red, red conservative fire breather, right? that does seem to be the weakness in mr. romney's campaign right now and what he's working hardest to fix. mr. romney lost a number of contests to not only newt gingrich but rick santorum. the santorum thing is not a fluke. we put a national poll that rick santorum is leading. gallup, rick santorum is climbing fast as newt gingrich fades away. mr. santorum in second place in gallup's national polling ahead of mr. gingrich. rick santorum is rising and the exit polling over the last month showing that it's the most conservative members of the republican base who are turning against mitt romney, and so now, having lost south carolina to newt gingrich, and a trio of states, sort of, to rick santorum this past week, now you

have mitt romney trying to really hard to connect with the conservative base. not only getting introduced by the head of the american conservative union. but listen to how he spoke to the crowd today once he did get the mike. >> this must be our greatest hour as conservatives. this is our moment. this is why we're conservatives. we conservatives aren't just proud to cling to our c constitution. we conservatives believe in free people. conservatives constants have shaped my life. as governor of massachusetts i had the unique experience of defending conservative principles in the most liberal state in the nation. i was a severely conservative republican governor. >> mitt romney, not just conservative but severely conservative. that's how he talks about his time as massachusetts governor. he was severely conservative in massachusetts. really, all you had to do back then was ask him.

>> i think people recognize that i'm not a partisan republican i'm someone moderate and my views are progressive. no, no, no, i mean my views are severely conservative. >> i believe that abortion should be safe and legal in this country. i have since the time my mom took that position when she ran in 1970. look, i was an independent during the time of reagan-bush, i'm not trying to return to reagan-bush. people recognize i'm not a partisan republican i'm moderate and my views are progressive. >> the central task of mitt romney's campaign for the presidency is not just about him erasing his past as a not particularly conservative or partisan republican. not about dealing with old clips like that. it's also about mitt romney trying to be all over the conservative issues of right now, the conservative issues of the moment. >> how about a quick question about the state legislature, they have bantered about the proposition that welfare recipients should be drug tested. how do you feel about that?

>> my own view is it's a great idea. people who are receiving welfare benefits, government benefits we should make sure they are not using those benefits to pay for drugs and i think it's an excellent idea. >> mitt romney is for drug testing welfare recipients. he said that earlier this week during a local interview in georgia. that sort of got overlooked when he said it but steve benin who's writing for maddow blog right now picked that up as of last night. i think it's important. i'm glad steve found it and it's important. drug testing people is something that republicans have been proposing all over the country this year. sort of like all the anti-union stuff, like they are all working from the same script. republicans have been talking about forcibly drug testing poor people in virginia, and in pennsylvania, and in colorado, and in indiana, and in tennessee, hawaii, in west virginia and in georgia on and on and on. this is a conservative thing now. they want a government small enough it has the power to demand citizens turn over their bodily fluids. they want mass examination of bodily fluids even from people

who are not suspected of drug use. republicans in florida were able to pass forced drug testing through their legislature last year, get it signed into law by republican governor rick scott. in this one place where it has been tried it turned out to be a bit of a disaster. when governor rick scott defended his plan for forced drug testing of the poor in florida last year, he did so on the grounds poor people just do so much more -- so many more drugs than rich people do. >> studies show people on welfare are higher users of drugs than people not on welfare. but the bottom line is this -- >> sir, to that point, that would stop people in their tracks. i don't have whatever study you're referring to you're saying people out there who need assistance, lost jobs and are on welfare have a higher tendency to use drugs? >> absolutely. >> absolutely. did i say there was a study? absolutely. here is the problem, the initial results from florida governor's

own big plan to seize the bodily fluids of poor people in his state showed that there was a 2% positive rate. 2% of poor people in florida testing positive for drugs. that compares to the overall state average for floridaens of 8% of people using drugs. it has been a big intrusive government pointless expensive humiliation of poor people and humiliation of the governor, nightmare where this policy has been tried in florida. this is somehow a big government conservative issue now. so mitt romney, naturally picks it up and runs with it. drug testing poor people? i'm all for that, i think that is great. did i had mention i'm severely conservative? because this is the mitt romney campaign and this is 2012, in doing this, mr. romney managed to screw this one up as well. because according to mr. romney it's not just people who receive welfare benefits who should be drug tested, not just people getting welfare benefits, listen to what he says. >> it's a great idea, people who are receiving welfare benefits, government benefits, we should

make sure they are not using the benefits to pay for drugs. >> people receiving welfare benefits, government benefits, anybody receiving government benefits according to mitt romney will be forcibly drug tested. even if you're not suspected of using drugs. anybody getting money from the government. mr. romney, you want to drug test people who get farm subsidies? >> people who are receiving welfare benefits, government benefits, we should make sure they are not using the benefits to pay for drugs. >> government benefits. you want to drug test bankers who got bailed out by money? how about all the executives of oil companies, oil companies still get $4 billion a year in tax subsidies. should they be drug tested? government officials get paid. all of congress, how about the supreme court justices, do you want to tell them personally, brought a cup with me. should all those people be drug tested since they get money from the government or is it just poor people you're talking about?

how about every senior citizen in the country who receives social security benefits. >> government benefits, we should make sure they are not using the benefits to pay for drugs. >> a universal mandatory drug testing program for people who get social security. call grandma. we reached out to the romney campaign to find out which specific groups of people who receive government benefits he would like to forcibly drug test nationwide. we have, so far, not heard back from the campaign. mr. romney is trying really hard to make conservatives like him, make them forget he used to call himself a moderate and progressive but he's having a hard time making that case without putting the ball in his own net. joining us is dave weigel political reporter for slate.com. and an msnbc political contributor. >> i'm severely happy to be here. >> severe. >> severely painfully happy. >> mr. romney said the word conservative, i think 26 times today. in that one speech, is he covering any of the distance toward silencing his critics? >> not really.

the way i heard one very astute person describe it, i wish i could remember the name right now, if you look at santorum and romney, imagine them if they weren't running for president, would romney be talking like this if he wasn't running for president? the sense is no. would santorum talk the way santorum talks if he wasn't running for president? he was once a has been and he was talking like this. romney will never convince conservative voters he believes in his bones what they believe. he will convince them that he has a biography they approve of, a businessman that hates the government and he can win. the first part of that i think he's doing well on. the second part, at this moment especially in a place like cpac, this is a horrible week for him. after loses caucuses he didn't really try to win, he goes to a conference where he never really wins. he doesn't look like a winner in situations like that.

it's tough to convince them that he can take the election. >> is that translating to support for him at cpac any way because he does still have the electability argument at least? i was making an argument half in jest rick santorum showing off his billionaire was a way of implicitly making the case he has the support to go the distance and run a national campaign. does mitt romney still own the electability serious candidate real estate all to himself? >> definitely not with this crowd. i actually spent yesterday with a candidate in indiana running against richard luger, if there is a second wave of the tea party movement, he would win, he was convinced santorum was the most electable republican, the reason being as ronald reagan said at cpac 36 years ago, 37 years ago, i'm sorry, conservatives win when they draw bright contrasts in bold pastels -- sorry, bold contrasts in bright pastels, bright colors.

they don't win if they muttle the difference. that is not how george w. bush won, not how george h.w. won and some other things. conservatives are convinced that is how they win. when i say conservatives, i'm talking about a population at cpac, population that vote in the republican republican primaries, population that will vote in arizona, the next winner take all primary i think people are worried about romney losing. >> but dave, after sharon engel, after christine o'donnell, after joe miller, after all the experience of all those republican sort of average republicans being primaried by bold color tea party super conservatives republicans and those republicans then losing in the general election, i mean, is there any sense among these folks there might be lessoned learned from that? >> they feel like those were anomalies, sharon engel will tell you the election might not have been above board. miller will tell you he would have won if it wasn't a write-in

campaign that took the race away from him. the way history has been written since 2009 is before that, when they nominate the most conservative candidate who makes a clear argument, they win. this is not -- i think romney will do well in michigan, he has states on super tuesday he can make the argument he's most electable, let's not get carried away by this week. the romney campaign didn't campaign in missouri. because it didn't count at all for delegates at all. i'm sorry. minnesota started to write off. that was a bit pathetic. colorado was the one disappointment. they don't think that the wheels have come off this week, they are a little bit bemused by the media saying this. the pattern of the race thus far has been mitt romney falling behind in more conservative candidate, that candidate imploding, mitt romney coming back to lead and win some things. they are confident that can happen. but they are never going to win over these conservatives because they don't believe romney is more electable. al cardenas introducing romney, he was robust in his praise for

romney on stage, later was saying i can imagine a brokered convention. if we get past super tuesday and there's not a clear cwinner, we might have a broken convention. we might have a jeb bush nomination. for somebody in his position to say that, again, i use the phrase carried away before, this week, basically we invented this reality where the primaries that didn't aside delegates, the convention true believer activists will talk to the media, this is convinced a lot of people that romney doesn't have what it takes to win the nomination and they might go for a dark horse from nowhere with maybe a different billionaire, maybe a not a sweater vest but a sweater tunic or something. i don't know. different group of billionaires getting behind somebody else. >> i know when ron paul does unexpectedly well in maine tomorrow, i'm going to jump right to president paul. dave weigel, msnbc contributor, writer for slate,

thanks for your time, tell all my cpac peeps i said hi. >> i severely will, thank you. newt gingrich and his billionaire need to talk. why is ron paul so psyched about maine tomorrow? a member of his campaign staff has agreed to come on the show to explain, which is very exciting. that never happens here. we have a cocktail moment in which i pay off the mortifying super bowl bet. that is all ahead. yesterday during a panel discussion about something or other, organizers played tape of my appearance sunday on "meet the press" when i talked about the big contraception fight going on right now. at the panel a man from fox news on the panel at cpac, cal thomas made a wise crack about me. >> i'm glad you played rachel maddow clip because i think she is the best argument in favor of her parents using contraception. i would be all for that. all the rest of the crowd at msnbc, too, for that matter. >> last night i responded to mr.

thomas' remark by saying i'm sorry he wished i wasn't born but i'm glad that he was born because i need fox news guys to prove my point, blah, blah, blah. just to button this thing, it was nice of greta van sustern to leap to my defense after the remarks were first reported. totally unnecessary on her part but very nice given she works there. second, there was an on line response to this whole thing that was kind to me, this heartening hash tag, one part silly and 99 parts moving. totally unnecessary but nice. so thank you. finally, most importantly, mr. thomas from fox news, called me personally this morning and said he was sorry. he didn't mean it and wished he had not said it. he told me it was work publicly he called so i'm sharing that publicly. i completely believe the apology, i accept it, people say things they regret, i sometimes say thing i regret as far as i'm concerned saying you're sorry is good enough for me.

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of beach vacations. here's what newt gingrich said two days before the florida primary. >> i think there's a highly likely we'll win florida. >> he lost florida by 14 points. a precitizen united time, a big loss like that plus the no money thing might have meant the end of a candidate thing. he may have gotten clobbered in a state he had said was a must-win for him but newt gingrich still had the one thing you really need this year, a billionaire in his corner. in a two-week period, sharon

adelson and his wife donated to his super pac. he was able to go on and lose in nevada by 29 points and lose in colorado by 27 points and minnesota by 34 points. his billionaire, sheldon adelson has subsidized weeks of big losses so far. now we're learning the multi-million dollar windfall days from sheldon adelson might be over for the super pac. bloomburg news reporting according to an anonymous south the adelsons don't plan to deliver another big check to float the gingrich campaign. they are adjusting telling bloomberg they are shifting focus to grass roots fundraising between amounts of $2500 and seven figures. back to the old seven figure grass roots fundraising game. the old grass roots million dollar donation plan. that is amazing.

not nearly as amazing as the media freakout this week over a rule the obama administration finalized three weeks ago. mandating health insurance coverage without a co-pay for contraception, a rule that is a lot like the laws in effect in 28 states. in fact, the obama administration's rule was less stringent than the existing rules in these state where everybody has to cover birth control, no exceptions, not even for churches. the obama rule let churches out of the requirement, nonetheless republicans have been very very angry about the idea, they want hospitals and universities affiliated with the catholic church to be exempt with the rule as well. today, president obama announced a compromise of sorts, everybody except women who work for churches that is, everybody still gets access to birth control through their health insurance but universities and hospitals associated with the catholic church who don't want to provide insurance that covers birth control, they don't have to pay for it. in those cases they can make the insurance company pay for it.

which is probably a good deal for the insurance companies since using contraception saves on health care costs. in announcing the new modified rule the president made it clear he thinks this should be the end of the party like it's 1965 birth control battle. >> i understand some folks in washington may want to treat this as another political wedge issue but it shouldn't be. i certainly never saw it that way. this is an issue where people of good will on both sides of the debate have been sorting through very complicated questions to find a solution that works for everyone. with today's announcement we've done that. >> all done fighting about birth control, right? wrong. conservatives spent all day at cpac raging about it anyway, even after the change. after the president modified the rules so the thing everybody was supposedly upset about making catholic affiliated institutions pay for birth control, three of the four remaining republican candidates for president treated

the cpac crowd to a screed on the issue of birth control. one of those guys will run against president obama in the fall on an anti-birth control platform. i have a new op-ed on that subject as of "the washington post." we posted a link to that on the blog. uhh! [ alyson ] just keep walking... ♪ oh, come on! ♪ ugh, again! [ sniffs ] that's what i'm talkin' about. [ female announcer ] up to 100% flake-free, flirty hair.

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state number nine, the 9th state to go through a decisionmaking process toward picking a nominee for president. after iowa and new hampshire, south carolina, florida, nevada, missouri, minnesota and colorado, let's count missouri for the sake of argument, though we might have to change this one, they vote and it counts. rick santorum has won four states, mitt romney has won three, newt gingrich won one state. before this cycle, there were a zillion people running for nomination. now we are down to four, but one of them has won in at least one state. the only one of these guys who hasn't won is ron paul. he seems the happiest in his "i just lost another primary or caucus" speech. ron paul seems both happy and like he has something up his sleeve. >> we have to remember the straw vote is one thing but then there's one other thing called

delegate. yeah! i honestly congratulate him, he ran a good campaign i said i would see him soon in the caucus states. when the dust settles, i think there is a very good chance we're going to have the maximum number of delegates coming out of minnesota. we will be going to the caucus states and we will be promoting the whole idea of getting more delegates because that's the name of the game. and we will pursue it. there is other good news, too, and it's an ongoing caucus, over on the east coast, i think it's the state called maine. >> even though ron paul has not won anything yet, he seems very happy and excited about his prospects, at least in the states that hold caucuses instead of primaries. here's the thing, though, we've had four states with caucuses and ron paul hasn't won any of them. so the caucus state thing may be his strategy but doesn't seem to be working. or is it? after the colorado and minnesota

caucuses this week, dave weigel our previous guest this hour, released this press release. we may well win in minnesota and do far better in colorado than yesterday's polls indicate. this was after the minnesota results. this is what we all think the results were from minnesota and colorado. but according to the ron paul campaign, after those states closed, they think they might win in minnesota. in colorado and in nevada, "we will have good numbers among the actual delegates awarded far exceeding our straw poll numbers" campaign says "in minnesota where we finished a solid second it's true ron paul beat mitt romney, romney came in third in minnesota, the campaign says in minnesota where we have finished a solid second, we have a strong majority of the state convention delegates. the ron paul campaign is well organized to win the bulk of delegates there.

the ron paul campaign is saying even though they came in second, they could win. again, we may well win in minnesota and do far better in colorado than yesterday's polls indicate. i want to explain what i think is going on here. i sort of need a prop. i don't have a prop. let's say these are the people at the caucus, the people at the caucus love rick santorum, we love rick santorum. a great majority of us here at the caucus, we love rick santorum. after the caucus meets, and they vote on who they support, the people running the caucus, the local republican officials say okay, people, you've expressed your views, you love rick santorum, you can leave now if you want but we'll stick around and do party business. you can stay or go it's up to you. everybody goes yay, we voted for rick santorum, we love him, we're going to go home and launder our sweater vests or whatever. so after these people leave, what happens in the party business part of the meeting, the delegates get chosen to go to the state convention.

the convention is where they are going to assign delegates to go to the national convention where the nominee of the republican party is chosen. but once the so-called santorum voters leave from the caucus, the ron paul supporters stay for the party business where the delegates are chosen. vying to be chosen as the delegates. you supposedly need 1,144 delegates to get the majority and the republican party's nomination. in theory, the people who are chosen to be delegates to the convention are supposed to go to the convention and say all the people at my caucus love rick santorum, therefore, i'm a rick santorum delegate, whatever their personal view is. in theory, we think of that delegate as reflecting the expressed view of the people at the caucus. what if the delegate who goes to the convention says, i don't care what all those crazy people thought i'm a delegate for ron paul. that is the ron paul strategy as best i can make it out. outstay the other supporters at the caucuses in the hopes of becoming a delegate. regardless of what the caucus decided.

that is why they're saying we may very well win in minnesota. even though rick santorum won minnesota. they are breaking the connection between who people expressed a preference for at the caucus and how that will is expressed in the bigger republican party process of picking the nominee. in other words, it doesn't matter who you voted for, your vote counts for ron paul. this is what the ron paul campaign says they are doing. it's not a secret. look in the press release. they're giving examples. in one precinct, the straw poll vote was 23 santorum, 13 for paul, 5 for romney, 2 for gingrich. 13 delegate slots from that precinct in larimer county and ron paul got all 13. not a secret. they are explaining that they are doing this. is this legal? apparently this is legal at least it seems to be under republican party rules. the delegates are supposed to reflect the view of the caucus or the precinct they came from but nobody says they have to,

and that weakness is why ron paul, i think, looks very excited every night when he apparently is losing these states but he doesn't think he is. here to explain further is doug wead, senior advisor to the ron paul campaign, we're grateful he has chosen to come and talk with us. mr. wead, thank you for being here. >> you're welcome and i'm glad you were born, too, so i wouldn't have to sit here and talk to myself. >> that would be very, very borg. thank you for saying so. in explaining this process i'm absolutely sure i got something wrong, because it is a complicated process. is there anything about the logistics i messed up? >> you did a great job and you restored my faith in journalism, i watch television and i see them saying romney has this many delegates and santorum this many, and as you know, not a single delegate has been awarded from iowa or minnesota or missouri or colorado or nevada, and as you point out, we're tracking this at the precinct level, we think we have the majority of them, we think we've

won in iowa, we won in minnesota, we won in colorado, and missouri is yet to be seen. and we think we probably won in nevada, because we're counting the precinct votes. the only thing that i might add is there's nothing wrong or deceptive about this. anybody can stay. woody allen says 80% of success is showing up. our people show up. and they have a right to do that, and they are committed, and so they are running as delegates at the precinct level to the county convention where they will again run as delegates from the county convention to the state convention. >> are they being open at the precinct level, are they being open about the fact they will support ron paul no matter what happened at the caucus or is this sort of a sneak attack strategy? >> oh, no, they're open. anybody can stay, and anybody can vote, in fact, the party is resisting this as often as they can. there have been occasions where

they dismissed the meeting and relocate in another place to try to keep our people from participating. there are verbal memos that come in minnesota there was a verbal memo, they don't dare put it in print in which they told all the establishment republicans don't vote for any delegate under the age of 40. because they knew it would be a ron paul supporter. so we're winning fair and square. and i should point out all these rules were changed for mitt romney. they were changed so that the establishment republicans could give mitt romney a chance to win this nomination, in spite of evangelical resistance in the south. so it's all been set up for romney, we're the poor guys, we don't have goldman sachs money, but we're coming in, playing by their rules and, yes, we have a smile on our face. because right now, the big story missed until you just broke it tonight, is probably we have more delegates than anybody in this race right now when all of this is finalized.

>> sorry to interrupt there. when you say the republican party changed the rules in a way to gain the system for mitt romney, what rules do you think they changed to mitt romney's benefit? >> of course florida was moved up because it was a state that would help him, nevada and arizona were moved up because they were states with large lds population. it was proportional in the south, so that if romney pulls 20%, 30% in the south, but because of his faith a lot of evangelicals go to gingrich or santorum or another candidate, he still would get something, he wouldn't be shut out. in a winner take all, if he's shutout in the south he can't get the nomination because remember, the south is loaded for the -- in the gop because it often votes in the presidential elections for gop. it's not just population in the south. it's based on how their past voting patterns have been. there's a lot of delegates in the south. so in that sense it was gained and even the primary the system,

the caucus systems were gained for him because it was felt he had the money and with the money he could have the organization. we don't have the money, but we've got the organization. >> i'm assuming that your overall goal is to make ron paul the republican party's nominee for president, i realize that's what you are in this for. but for the sake of argument, say that you do not achieve that but you have amassed a very large number of delegates heading into the republican convention. what would then be the purpose of amassing all of those delegates? what would you use that power and leverage for? >> as you know, anybody who is an observer of modern political history knows a brokered convention is extremely remote. there are delegates that will move to another candidate if they get a box of godiva chocolates on their pillow at the hotel in tampa that night. ron pal delegates are not going to go, even if they are offered secretary of state. so if we can get do a convention with a sizeable number of delegates and if gingrich stays alive and santorum stays alive,

we could have a brokered convention. it would be a huge show, even though there is a remote possibility. and of course there are many things we want. we'd like to see the federal reserve audited, for example. romney is the only candidate left in the republican party who hasn't taken that step. and with good reason, his money is coming from goldman sachs. >> doug wead, we have the hardest time in the world trying to get anybody from any of the campaigns to talk to us so i am "a" very grateful you were here but "b" i hope you'll come back. i think this is a huge story. you helped us explain it and we'd love to have you back on the show if you'd come back. >> thank you for breaking the story. up till now, finding delegates for mitt romney, he says he's got them but it's like weapons of mass destruction in iraq, everybody thinks they're there but nobody can name one of these delegates that he's won. except the winner take all in florida and the two primaries. in the caucus state you can't find them because they aren't there yet.

>> doug wead, thank you again, sir, appreciate your time. thank you. >> what happens when an emergency manager takes over your town? static it turns out. an amazing story. that's next. i'm gonna...use these. ♪ give me just a little more time ♪ [ female announcer ] unlike mops, swiffer can maneuver into tight spaces without the hassle and its wet mopping cloths can clean better in half the time, so you don't miss a thing. mom? ahhhh! ahhhh! no it's mommy! [ female announcer ] swiffer. better clean in half the time. or your money back. golly, that is deep snow! yeah, can you get me out of it?

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good thuz this week for michiganers. through suffering through great depression, you are in the money. michigan has a budget surplus of almost half a billion dollars.

okay, so michigan republicans got into the black in part by raising taxes on the working poor and taxing pensions and so on, but, hey, they say the crisis is over. the future is bright again. tell that to the town of benton harbor, michigan was the first city to feel the saving embrace of risch began governor rick schneider's landmark policy. souped up emergency manager law, allows the state to take over a town, overrule all authority and appoint a manager. the state-appointed overseer can do pretty much anything he or she wants in the town, including firing local elected officials, including even abolishing the town without the town's consent.

michigan governor emergency management law eliminates democracy at the local level, whatever you vote for, whoever you vote for, overruled by the governor's say-so. if your town has problem, the law says the reason for those problems is because you have had a vote. you have had a say in what happens in your town, so your vote must be taken away for your own good. the essential michigan website eclectablog calculates using the law, he has taken local democracy of half of michigan's african american residents. he can't say that was the intent but that has been the effect in the making of his emergency manager law. a majority of michigan's black population put under emergency overseer rule with no local voting rights. in april, the emergency manager assigned to run benton harbor stripped the elected mayor and city commission of all but three official duties. they can call a meeting to order, approve the minutes of a meeting and they can adjourn a meeting and that's it. you can see how well that went over in benton harbor, having

the votes overruled by a single state appointed manager. yet, even though benton harbor's locally elected officials had no power, a hallowed out husk of their former democracy remain. in november, benton harbor held elections. they chose a new mayor, for instance. when it came time for the mayor to take the step of picking a mayor pro tem, a deputy mayor, the new mayor was not allowed to do that. the emergency manager had to carry out the mundane step for him, because only the emergency manager has power to do anything in that town anymore. now benton harbor has a powerless, elected mayor and powerless mayor pro tem both serving at the pleasure of the state-appointed, unelected emergency manager who has unilateral authority over everything in the town. one man, one town, complete control. benton harbor is a very broke and very broken town. one thing they have got is a publicly owned radio station.

it broadcasts out of the city hall. wbhc, bh, benton harbor, is a low-powered f.m. station. it's a low powered fm station, programming local news, talk and music, reaches three miles from benton harbor city hall. that's it. the license is held by the city of benton harbor, has been a for nearly a decade. an excellent feature, "though he has been stripped of official authority, commissioner dennis noles hosts a road yo broadcast from a studio in the basement of city hall on which he addresses issues of concern for local residents, like how to deal with a new state law that limits life time welfare benefits to four years. you may want to get in growing your own food because it will get to that point." or you might tune in and find reverend jesse jackson sharing the mike with commissioner mark muss mohammed who has also been stripped of his power as a local official. benton harbor's radio station has been the voice of benton harbor, not much of course but it's still coming to you live and local and real.

now here is another picture of benton harbor's radio station. on ebay. benton harbor's emergency guy closed the town's radio station and he's auctioning its stuff on ebay. f.m. low power license, broadcast transmitter, broadcasting equipment, bidding starts at $5,000. no takers so far, not a single bid. this is the second time he posted it on ebay. first auction timed out with no takers, three mikes, transmitter, mixing board, et cetera, cords included. the old listing that expired didn't include the license but now he's throwing that in for the same low price, everything must go. presumably somebody could buy all of this and cart it down the road somewhere and start broadcasting again. we don't know what the emergency manager intends to do if nobody bids on his enhanced posting on ebay. can the town still keep the station? do you still want them not to have that radio station? even if you can't get any money for it, even if michigan is in

budget surplus now? benton harbor low power f.m. license expires in october. renewing the license is not on the list of duties that the emergency manager says anybody can perform except him. if he wants to do it. his call and his alone. nobody else's vote counts anymore. now shutting down the radio station, no way to let anybody know what is being taken away from them next. [ rosa ] i'm rosa and i quit smoking with chantix.

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oh! [ baby crying ] ♪ what started as a whisper ♪ every day, millions of people choose to do the right thing. ♪ slowly turned to a scream ♪ there's an insurance company that does that, too. liberty mutual insurance. responsibility. what's your policy? ♪ amen, omen i love my job! happy friday. it's time for a cocktail moment both of honor and shame. shame and honor. obviously i lost a bet. this is an eli manning jersey.

he's the quarterback of a football team called the new york giants. they beat my team, the new england patriots in the super bowl. i thereby lost a bet. it seems like a cruel twist of fate that we lost the game so i have to wear this on tv right now but my secret boyfriend, aaron hernandez, did score a touchdown so i have to buy everybody on set a beer. i have to lose the bet in both directions. but, hey, that's how it goes. it's fine! that is the last time you'll ever see me in a new york giants jersey. i hereby ban that clip from ever airing again. but as eager as i was to pay off one bet earlier this week, i am more eager to pay off the second one. thanks to patriots tight end aaron hernandez, my aforementioned secret boyfriend who did score a touchdown in the third quarter of the super bowl i owe everyone a beer which should be getting here any second. oh, yes, here it comes. the rachel maddow show fake clydesdales have arrived and