with a whole lot of red meat being tossed out in this republican primary. leading the parade of accusation, rick santorum as you heard who is taking quite aliking as depicting the president in fashion. >> radical ls in the white house. extremist. they have radical ideas. radical agendas. the radical. radical secular ideals of the left. extremists. >> that's the language santorum likes to use on the campaign trail as of late to cast the president's values as outside the mainstream. if it reminds you of some of the rhetoric in 2008, they may be exactly as santorum wants it. >> went to reverend wright's church for 20 years. you can question what kind of theology reverend wright has. it's a christian church. he says he goes a christian

church now. >> the reverend franklin graham was challenged on his view of the president's faith on "morning joe." >> you do not believe he's a muslim? >> no. categorically. >> i can't say categorically because islam has gotten a free pass. >> why shouldn't they get a free pass here. it's a legitimate faith after all. graham said the president has not done enough to protect christian minorities overseas. as for why he can't categorically say the president is not a muslim, graham said he takes the president at his word that he's a christian. by the way, same goes for mitt romney. >> what about mitt romney? >> i like him. >> is he a christian? >> he's a mormon. most christians do not recognize mormonism as part of the christian faith. >> he's not a christian be.

>> most mormchristians do not r it. >> he used it as a contrast between himself and the obama administration. >> i can assure you as someone who is understood very personally the significance of religious tolerance and religious freedom and the right to one's on conscience, i will make sure that we never again attack religious liberty in the united states of america if i'm president. >> now, with the religious rhetoric heating up, leave it tot stephen colbert to call up a speech. he said satan is at war with america because america is so good. >> if you were satan who would you attack in this day and age? there's no one else to go after other than the united states. >> that's right, folks. the only ones satan is taking is us. god's favorite country. all the bad stuff happening in the other parts of the world,

starvation, genocide slavery, that's not satan, so it must be god working in mysterious ways. >> enough fire and brimstone for you. apparently mitt romney felt the say way giving michiganers his fave it tune. ♪ for purple mountains majesty across the plains ♪ >> i love america. >> there was no melody that time of around, his go to anthem. let's bring in our panel from washington. david corn, washington bureau chief for "mother jones" magazine and jonathan capehart. we give you a lot of red meat to comment on this afternoon. jonathan, let's start with you, our new bearded friend.

>> hello. >> santorum tossed out reverend wright. we were thinking all right. >> right, no pun intended. we're talking about reverend wright when i'm sure and i lot of people expected reverend wright would be one of the characters on stage during the general election. this is bringing up reverend wright and all of the red meat that you're talk about that we have been listening to this entire campaign season but definitely this weekend is all about ginning up interest in the base because that's what strick santorum and mitt romney will need if they quantity to get the nomination to go afterpresident obama in the general election. the only problem i see is that can these guys go so far to the right that they can't do the traditional republican strategy. i think he pivots toward the

center. they will still be far right. >> david, santorum has the apron on right now. he is tossing out a lot of red meat. he's brought up issues including environmentalism, birth control, prenatal testing and we have president obama just talking about that issue of reverend wright. when you look back two months, are we looking at a different santorum today? >> this is rick santorum. this is rick unleashed, unplugged. he's been a very consistent politician for the last couple of years. he is a social conservative warrior. the interesting thing, richard, if we had him on the show right now, you'd have to ask him give what he said about satan ataking the united states that stephen colbert put into play, he's talking about obama having a radical theology and trying to destroy the united states.

he's put out if fundraisers this is a reduction of our lifetime. it's barack obama part of a satanic plot against america. it sounds like a silly question to put to somebody but given what he said it's quite series. you have to wonder how it will play with suburban single mom voters in cincinnati come the fall. >> he's saying it so seriously. as david is saying, this is who rick santorum is. is he forgetting he's talking to be the entire country when he's at the rally making these statements on air? >> i think you can see when rick santorum is listening to his staff and when he's riffing and really being himself. when he tries to talk about fiscal responsibility or that kind of thing. when he was in the senate he voted for every george w. bush program. he voted for no child left

behind. she's seen as a big government conservative to people who care about the fiscal issues. when rick santorum is truly being rick santorum, this is what he truly believes in his gut. he thinks that the country should be govened by a set of religious values and he forgets that the people in the room applauding believes that too, but he forget he's talking to an entire country that likes women to have jobs and birth control and have a life outside of marriage. >> too far right at this point? >> i think there are three republican parties. there's the sort of elite, sort of money wing of the party that has mitt romney. there's the is what i call the archie bunker wing. then there's the evangelical wing of the party that george w. bush used to turn four million extra of them out in 2000 to win. i think that's the wing of the party that rick santorum lives in and speaks for. >> and trying to lock them up in his latest statements.

jonathan, mitt romney is the one that you have to ask. as he gets paninted into the corner, what do you think here? what does mitt need to do now in. >> oh, my god. poor mitt romney who is supposed to be the candidate going back as far as 2008 and maybe a couple of weeks ago. he's done everything possible to appeal to the conservative base of the republican party and time and time again, that base is saying to him, we're not buying what you're selling because we don't believe you believe in what you're selling. that's why i think rick santorum, as david said, this is rick santorum unplugged, unleashed. when you listen to what he says, you know he believes what he says. mitt romney's problem is every time he says something such as i love cars, i like trees. >> trees.

>> you really wonder does he really believe what he's saying. does he really truly believe this? that's his problem. >> david, when we look at who is being painted as the other, before it was president obama in some cases, mitt romney, when you look at the two right now, who does this hurt the most at the moment given the way the arguments have been framed when you look at the issues of religi religi religion? >> i think mitt romney is in a lot of difficulty because of the things jonathan said. what is barack obama talki inin about? he's talking about jobs, committ economy, american visions, state of the union address. he's talking about class. he's talking about things that appeal to independent voters and that also have the potential to rev up the base that's been disappointed with him in some instances the over the past couple of years. mitt romney is being dragged

further and further and further to planet santorum. he just -- >> not the moon? >> he has to stop an avalanche on the right. he's doing it with rick santorum. he has to talk their language. as jonathan said, it's moving him so far to the right, he's leaving a really strong impression with anybody who is paying attention. he's just lucky right now that a lot of independent voters have yet to tune in. anyone that is paying attention is getting disappointed in mitt romney. >> we have months to go. we have until november. quickly, how much worse might this get? >> if you go on like this another two or three months, it could go to the convention shs mitt romney could be damaged and almost unable to do what you're talking about. >> jonathan. >> i agree with david. if you mean how bad this can get in general in terms of rhetoric.

this is the act. we have much worse to come. >> i think what you have is these candidates all fighting over about 25 to 30% of country that are angry and dislike barack obama. they are seeding the entire rest of the playing field to the obama campaign. if santorum continues to talk like this, i think he will collapse under his own weight and romney still has the best chance of getting the nomination. how weak will he be when two-thirds of the party are very cool toward him. that's going to be a problem. >> does this endanger the narrative for the gop nominee as they go to the general? >> because mitt romney has staked his entire campaign on the economy. if the economy is not as bad as they say it is, what is his other reason for running. >> rick santorum has a real cause. he's got a crusade. romney doesn't have that.

>> not much to talk about on this tuesday afternoon. thank you so much. >> thank you. stay with us. much more ahead. >> the president has said you ought to buy smaller cars. now, let me start with the simple premise that most oklahomans understand. you cannot put a gun rack in a volt. ♪ [ male announcer ] this is lois. the day starts with arthritis pain... a load of new listings... and two pills. after a morning of walk-ups, it's back to more pain, back to more pills. the evening showings bring more pain and more pills. sealing the deal... when, hang on... her doctor recommended aleve. it can relieve pain all day with fewer pills than tylenol. this is lois... who chose two aleve and fewer pills for a day free of pain. [ female announcer ] try aleve d for strong all day sinus and headache relief.

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$33 million just doesn't buy you what it used to. mitt romney and his super pac spending about seven times more than what rick santorum and his super pac did in january.

all it did was move the former senator about ten points ahead of romney in the national poll. santorum's campaign raised more than in january than he did in all of 2011. joining us right now brad woodhouse for the dnc. thank you. >> thank you. >> he's spent a lot. doesn't have a lot to show for it, so far. eventually, he's going to have to go back to his big money backers. they ponied up a lot of money. he's got to say look what i've done. this morning he can't make that pitch. >> he can't. he's had a very tough time. even the primaries that he's won or the caucuses that he's won, he's seen his vote share go down from 2008. richard, he's failing to connect with the american people. you see that in the polls that show his approval rating is upside down. he's upside down with independent voters. conservative voters don't seem

to trust him. if you say anything to get elected, it's hard for most people to trust you, even people in your own party. >> we know why the president reversed himself on super pac money. it was a disasterous january. in the month of january, we're talking about a number that's only about $59,000. this has the gop super pacs, they raised at least $2 million if you look at paul or gingrich and all the other candidates that raised so much. as okay super pacs going forward, how much is it that that super pac needs now that the green light is there? >> well, we think the president's campaign, the dnc, we think we're going to have the type of fund raising we need to get the job done. we couldn't disarm on the other side. you see the interest by oil companies and casino and hedge

fund managers that want to receive the type -- >> how much do you need? what number are you looking at? >> i don't have a number. no numbers occurred to me. we like to see the game on the outside, so to speak, the game between the super pacs more level than it is. >> toe to toe even? well, i don't anticipate that we'll get there. we are putting some restrictions on what the people for the president may attend some of these events. they won't go to events where federal lobbyists are. we're restricting a bit what we do on the super pac side. the other side is not. i don't believe that we think we'll be evening. >> okay. while you're here, theology santorum's press.

listen to this. >> it's a type of theological secularism when it refers to the global. he's referring to the radical islamic policies that the president has. >> she claimed that to andrea mitchell. she was thinking take a look at this and meant to talk about the president's radical environmental policies, but this image is what came out of her mouth according to what she said. those two thing, how do they even come together? how do these ideas get crossed? >> i wouldn't stumble over those two words if i was speaking. i don't know how that happened. i'd say this, rick santorum and mitt romney both made a decision, maybe when they last saw the unemployment rate and seeing it continuing to climb that they can't compete with this president on the economy and a lot of other issues so now they're going to these extreme

issues of religious liberty or a questioning the president's theology. that's across the line. there's no place for that in this debate. we should be talking about jobs. we should be talk about tax policies. we can talk about environmental policy. >> brad, you believe that those comments were intentional then? >> well, what his spokesperson said, it seems a little farfetched what she is saying now, but i'm not going to, she knows in her heart what she meant or didn't mean. i'm not going to question that. some of the this questioning of the president's commitment, his faith, this question of religious liberty, it's all over the line. it's not what the american people want discussed. i think that's why you sigh the president's prospects improving. >> brad woodhouse, dnc communications director. thank you for stopping by. stay with us. >> defeating barack obama

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[ laura ] hot, right out of the shell. i love lobster. i'm laura mclennan from spruce head, maine, and i sea food differently. my message to congress is, don't stop here. this may be an election year, but the american people have no patience for gridlock. >> that's president obama touting the middle class tax relief passed by congress last week. behind him, a few people that responded to the president's call to action to speak out on what an extra $40 in their paycheck would mean to them. kristen welker is live at the white house. what's the timing look like? when will the president sign this bill? what's the view right now in terms of the white house in terms of what the biggest win is? >> reporter: the white house is saying the president will sign the bill as soon as it gets to the white house.

we expect it to get here by tend of the week. in terms of what the biggest victory is from the white house perspective, they would say this didn't come down to an 11th hour fight. the republicans didn't demand it be offset with budget cuts. you saw president obama try to build on that momentum today urging congress don't stop here. sgregsly, republicans had a bit of a reaction wanting to know why president obama didn't bring up some bills that are pending that have passed the house that would help small business owners. a bit of a back and forth and an indication we might not see a lot more bipartisan as we head into this election year. >> kristen, the white house responding to reverend franklin graham on the show about the

president's christian faith. is this case of oh, no, here we go again? >> reporter: jay carney wouldn't get into it. he said he spoke to the president today. he didn't bring up any of these issues that had been raised on cable news and he pointed reporters to the president's own comments that he delivered when he talked about the fact that his faith does inform a lot of his policy making. i think some democrats are wondering why these issues are resurfacing. why you have a republican candidate, rick santorum, reverend graham questioning the president's faith. this is something that was discussed quite a lot during the 2008 election. a lot of democrats privately wondering why the issue is being raised in this case. richard. >> kristen welker at the white house. thank you. stay with us. the days top lines are coming up for you. >> what about mitt romney? >> i like him. >> is he a christian? >> he's a mormon. >> he said he's party of the

christian faith. >> most christians would not recognize mormonism as part of the christian faith. >> he's not a christian? >> i'm saying most christians do not recognize mormonism. ♪ can you enjoy vegetables with sauce and still reach your weight loss goals? you can with green giant frozen vegetables. over twenty delicious varieties have sixty calories or less per serving and are now weight watchers-endorsed. try green giant frozen vegetables with sauce. what do you get when you combine the home depot with this weekend? the cure for cabin fever. because with get-it-done savings on everything we need...

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i'm not paying hidden fees or high commissions. i'm making the most of my money. and seven-dollar trades are just the start. i'm with scottrade. i'm with scottrade. i'm with scottrade. and i'm loving every minute of it. [ rodger riney ] at scottrade, we give you commission-free etfs, no-fee iras and more. come see why more investors are saying... i'm with scottrade. what's good for the goose is good for the michigander the here are the day's top lines. >> a sound heard around the world. >> the establishment republicans are scare to death. if romney loses michigan. >> mitt romney is not enough of a goon. rick santorum, we think he might be enough of a goon. >> i thank god for the tea party. >> you cannot put a gun rack in

a volt. >> barack obama and his light show. >> senator santorum, he says he's no longer. >> romney is bringing out the big guns, specifically, the biggest tannest, most leathery gun of them all. >> no christmas gift better than rick santorum. >> mainstream media krcriticize me. >> barack obama is incapable of defending the united states. >> united states has conducted an operation that killed osama. >> there's a good reason establish m worries about my winning. >> talk about freedom of religion. >> the catholic church offers health plans that cover viagra. >> what about mitt romney? >> i like him. >> is he a christian? >> he's a mormon. most christians would not recognize mormonism as part of

the christian faith. >> he went to reverend wright's church 20 years. >> we're all catholic now. really? you know who is not all catholic now, all catholics now. 98% of catholic women say they have used birth control. really? don't tell me what to do. >> let's get right to our panel. julian, we'll start with you. the washington post referred to the snl entitled why we're all catholics now. he challenges the contraception mandate deal. he says this is a broad struggle. i've met many catholic friends including high ranking church leaders at the vatican. i told them this struggle is similar to the fight against

anti-semitism. when they suffer because of the debate of this issue? >> i think not. i think the white house made a mistake in the way they handled this. the reality is that the catholic church is exempt from the rule. catholic affiliated organizations like hospitals, schools, libraries, other institutions like that now with the compromise from the president have to get their contraception insurance from the private insurance company, not from the catholic affiliated institution. the only category left unresolved is what we call self-employers like the catholic broadest who self-insure themselves. the criticism is that he's been inflexible. here he takes some valid criticisms about the rum and show he's willing to meet the critics at the mid way point, which is what i think he's done. the fact that the republicans want to keep talking about this means, and social issues and culture wars is a reflection of the fact that do not have an

economic message. >> krystal, those on the right will say this infringes on their religious rights and that's been the argument being made. for you as a woman and a mother, what's your view on this? >> this is not about religious rights. nobody is forcing anybody to take birth control if it's against their religion. it's about your employer having say over your health care which in particular, your sex life. most average americans aring loog at this and not saying this is about religious freedom. they are saying about this about birth control. if the republicans want do make this a focal point i'm more than happy than have them to do that. this is not a winning issue for the republicans. >> you've been involved in a couple of events over the weekend. one is the issue of a certain procedure that's being debated. you've not been quiet your honor twitter account about what the requirement would be before aborting a fetus. talk about that. >> virginia is my home state and

i ran for congress in 2010. this hits close to home for me. what they are saying is not only do women have to undergo an ultrasound, they have to undergo a transvaginal ultrasound, mandatory state probing. it meets the virginia definition of rape. the bigger picture is this is one piece of a whole range of anti-woman extreme legislation that's been pushed through the legislature and legislatures across the country. it took that sort of transvaginal state rape to really get national attention. we have to push back against a lot that's going on there. >> this is no matter what's teenage? >> it's for women 12 weeks and less. it's the majority of week seeking an abortion. >> it's extremely small. they will need a picture. >> this is about informed --

it's really -- facts show that women are no less likely to go through if they have an ultrasound. it's really just about shaming women. making this as awful a procedure as possible and it has nothing to do with life and information as it's been sold. >> there's a couple of other issues on this, richard. as krystal says this has is invasive where it would have to be transvaginal. that's probably unconstitutional because it sets up a burdensome requirement for some exercising a constitutional right. it's unethical. women or no one should have to undergo a medically unnecessary procedure. if you listen to medical experts rather than politicians, they will say this is no way a medically necessary procedure for a woman that wants to make a determination as to whether to keep or terminate a pregnancy.

the third thing is, this is about politics. this is about bob mcdonald who wants to be a v.p. candidate. the kind of republicans trying to reset this conversation on social, conservative issues on the culture wars, it would be the equivalent of democrats putting code pink in charge of our primary election. it may make sense to people that wand to pandser to the far right but it's bringing the republican so far down the chances of them winning are going down every single day with this ridiculous chatter and these time machines back into the 1980s and 1970s. >> when it comes to the issue of them shifting gears onto this culture war, can they take the white house on it? >> this is a bad issue for republicans all the way around. they are trying to grasp at straws to energize their base. this is terrible issue for bob mcdonald. he has managed to walk this line of being very popular in virginia which is a purple state

and placating this far right extremes of his base. if this bill goes to his desk to be signed and this bill, there's person hood, there's elimination of funding for abortions for poor women who have babies that are basically unviable, there's a whole range of anti-woman legislation that's way too far to the right and will be very controversial and put him in a very bad situation if it goes to his desk. >> they are talking about these issues. they are not talking about jobs, the number one issues on all the voters minds. the principle point is the republicans can only sell austeri austerity. that's the sum message. it's a message that's not going to work in the general election. it's unbelievable to me to see how republicans can begin to flit away what was a very good position for themselves six months ago. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> stay with us. we have much more ahead.

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>> it's not just santorum who is on the warpath. congressional republicans are promising more action versus the president's compromise on contraception. d.c.'s delegate of the house of representatives eleanor holmes norton is joining us. . >> good afternoon. >> you made a lot of noise when you walked out of darrell issa's panel last week. now we're talking about abortion and terms like forced transvaginal ultrasounds as we were just doing with krystal ball. where did this come from? >> it's the women we requested and we only wanted one witness was not allowed to be on a panel about an issue that involved women at its core. why are all these issues coming up now. why do we have a bill for that matter in the congress that

would say that women who live only in the district of columbia, nowhere else, you couldn't have an abortion after 20 weeks, in violation of roe versus wade. why are these matters coming up now? some of it may be fortutous. the president had settled that issue to the satisfaction of most americans. why exploit the religious side and not let the woman side come in and assume that religion always trumps every other issue, which is contrary to what the supreme court said. why put a bill in the house and the senate that would cut the time you could have an abortion for one district only to 20 weeks. i can only conclude that the republicans see that the economy is improving and decided to look for not only wedge issues but

new wedge issues to get the attention of the public. it may get the attention of the tea party public, but i doubt it will get the attention of the mainstream. >> it puts women in the cross hairs here. they are the ones we're talking about as you well know. it just doesn't seem like this may bode well for the gop as they move forward to the election. they could potentially lose a lot of the female vote. >> you would think that would occur to somebody on the tea party side. i think that they are not thinking about women, frankly. i think they are thinking about how to appeal to the furthest right side of their own primary. when somebody gets on the right, somebody tries to jump to the right of him. in november, i don't see how the american people who have long approved of contraception and settled the question of abortion. i see no reason why women should

scurry back to the republican column. >> eleanor holmes washingtonort. thank you for your time. we have details in market wrap. >> stocks are little changed at this hour in the wake of this big debt deal that will forstall the possibility of a greek default. dow jones up about 12.5 points. standard poors 500 flat all day long. pinches in on 3,000 but today down by seven points. one thing that's not down, not so at all is oil. now traded at $106 a barrel. that has higher gas prices come spring. we'll be right back.

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new pro vok proproktive threats coming out of iran. be white house responding to the tensions say there's still time and space for to work. u.n. inspectors are not going to visit the country oos nuclear sites today. stephanie gosk joins us live. the government is threatening to cut off oil to european countries if they don't secure a long-term contract with tehran at the moment. what could we make of these defiant messages out of iran so far wb sglr well, richard, we don't know for sure what the government is thinking, but we can make reasonable assumptions. part of this is for domestic consumption. iran has faced new sanctions, threats of attack from israel. thls the government stand iing and saying we'll attack first. also that the sanctions will place a ban on exports already. this comes after the european union said they would ban imports from iran starting july

1st. that's four months away. it's not going to hurt them that badly if the exports are stopped right now. so a lot of this really for the domestic consumption. sgl we heard it before when it comes to the rhetoric. this passed about internally. we have the israeli newspaper reporting that israel officials are upset at the moment over u.s. media reports not completely in agreement. we have talked about this before. how might iran play this wb sglr the concern from officials spoke to this paper is that if iran sees light, the u.s. position, they will perceive that as some wiggle room. it will undermine the threat of attack. that could be the u.s. government's goal in sending out these messages. perhaps a signal to iran there is room for diplomatic

maneuvering. this is a point of contention right now with israeli officials. it's something that national security advisors heard while they were here. there's been a wave of u.s. officials coming into the country hearing these concerns. the u.s. message back to israel. show patience. give time for sanctions to work. sgl we're hearing the national intelligence director will be there. sglr they really are certainly shuttling people from washington to have these high-level meetings and keep the communication lines open as contentions continue to rise. even though comments out of iran today may have been for domestic consumption, there is an element also of iran stepping up and saying we might strike first. be careful how much you threaten

us. if it looks like you're going to attack us, we'll step up and attack you first. there's going to be concern that iran will act first and maybe that dampens some of the comments coming out of israel. sgl stephanie gosk, thank you so much. we'll be right back. i look at her, and i just want to give her everything. yeah, you -- you know, everything can cost upwards of...[ whistles ] i did not want to think about that.

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it's time now to clear the air. where is the limit? as we add up the figures pouring into super pacs this election cycle, the answer to that question is, of course, limitless. one person could give up to $100 million to one candidate this election. staggering. newt gingrich's sugar daddy sheldon adelson is the first who could give possibly the nine-figure range. he owns just one vote, but

there's no telling the influence $100 million could sway. but not every super pac is cut from the same cloth. there are some groups that believe the big money from the likes of mr. adelson restore our future. and winning our future marginal liez our future. take 1911 united, for instance. it's a super pac found by members of black fraternities that just celebrated their centennials. they want to gather 10,000 volunte volunteers. the group's treasurer told one publication "it's about time black folks had their own attack ads. we have born the brunt of most ads whenever someone is running for office." then there are latino super

pacs. the latino vote is key in battlegrounds like florida, nevada, and colorado. as he puts it, the group believes it's not about electing la t latino candidates, it's about electing candidates that understand latinos. then there's american values an asian-american super pac. it appeared before their eyes during the super bowl. >> your economy is weak. ours get very good. we take your jobs. >> the group has responded delivering this across the bow. >> is this really who we want to send to the senate? pete hoc stra, shame on you. >> these groups cannot compete with the likes of papals cofo d cofounder, the coke brothers, or foster freeze's favorites. but the intent, the proposition, and the drive presents a step to an alternative.

an all tternative to the path elections are taking favoring the power of a few over the power of many. if they can't compete financially, perhaps they can compete as organizers. an old-fashioned word at best. but one with real value. or as i said, mr. adelson just have that one vote. and the $10 million he's spent on newt, it hasn't bought that much. thank thanks for watching. myrtle bea martin bashir will be back tomorrow afternoon. dylan ratigan is here to take us forward. good afternoon to you. i'm dylan ratigan. we are set to kick off as you know by now the college edition of our 30 million jobs tour tomorrow. live from the university of kentucky in lexington, kentucky. we'll hit the airport after the show