the ditto head party. let's play "hardball." good evening. i am chris matthews. in washington, leading off tonight, party boss. the battle over contraception is one of those rare issues where both parties believe they hold the winning had. and rush limbaugh made the issue birth control itself, and not a moral or religious freedom, no, it's a strange attitude of his

toward women and sex and whatever. and president obama called sandra fluk, the georgetown law student, and she took the call in my office as she was prepared to be interviewed today by andrea mitchell. she joins us at the end of the show. and then what is behind this forbidding sense that the republicans are blowing this election? we have new poll numbers out tonight on the "hardball" scoreboard from ohio, wisconsin, and washington state, which happens to hold its caucuses tomorrow. and finally, let me finish with the ditto head behavior by the grand old party. we begin with the woman who has been the heart of the attacks, and we have an msnbc political

analysts. i think there's a lot of human interest in this, sandra. do you mind me calling you sandra? >> that's okay. >> thank you for coming on. it's an honor for me, and you took a call from president obama. >> i appreciate you allowing me to use your office. president obama called to express concern and make sure i am okay because of the leveled attacks at me, and he wanted to thank me for helping to amplify the voices of the women who this is important to them. >> there are different perspectives, perhaps, but not on this one. >> not on this one, i don't think. >> rush limbaugh learned live on the air that president obama

called you. let's listen to what e had to say right after that. >> so the president called her and asked her if she's all right. she said she was, i hope? do we know what she said? she told that to andrea mitchell? you know, i offered to pay for aspirins. i thought that i had been quite compassionate here. you know, also, one thing that is obvious is that when the left wants to pretend they have no sense of humor, they are excellent at it. >> sense of humor. slut? and he mocked the president for showing compassion towards you. >> apparently sandra fluke told obama when he asked her if she was okay, she said that obama

told her that she should tell her parents they should be proud. okay. i'm going to button my lip on that one. the president sells sandra fluke, a 30-year-old sandra fluke, parents should be proud. okay. >> so joan you and i are pretty articulate on matters of politics, and i think something strange in the water with rush limbaugh joining in this fight from his high level, i must say it's a high level, basically attacking an individual for being part of the debate and then going after them and making comments like i never heard somebody make about another human being in the context of public debate. >> right. you know, you said that we are

articulate. i am articulate, and i am speechless listening to that, actually. i only read the words, but hearing his voice is ridiculous. of course the president called sandra, and he's a father. i know you are 30 years old and grown up and i respect you, but there's a certain reaction you have if you are a parent of a daughter, and mine is 22, too, chris, and who could say something like that and how do you get away with that? he crossed a line. i do my best not to listen to him, anymore, chris, and he's doing a lot to rile us up. but sandra got under his skin. he sounds slightly frightened to me. he sounds bewildered in a special way. i think something different is going to here, and i think we reached a tipping point in the country where people are talking back to this kind of garbage. >> let's talk about -- you know,

i have a daughter in her 20s, and obviously we had the conversations because we live in the real world, and i am happy about birth control as an institution, and i think it's a right and it's a life reality. for him to attack you on this because you think that should be part of health insurance, are you stunned or what? health insurance, we're talking an insurance issue here. >> and it was pretty surprising. i appreciate your use of the world reality, because we are talking about federal government policy, and that has to be focused on reality, and not ideology. it's something we need to have to prevent terrible consequences and unintended pregnancies, and that's reality. >> you don't have to make the case i make, and it reduces the number of abortions in this country, and it's the reason we don't have as many or more. and i want to go to joan on this. joan, the republican party is not an evil party or made up of

evil people, and sometimes it's dead wrong, dead wrong, but it has not spoken against this man, rush limbaugh. it has not spoken. the only words is we got the peep from santorum about his words being absurd and an entertainer. normally, day-to-day, he is there spiritual and ideological leader. and boehner, the so-called leader of the republicans in the congress saying something like, what, i don't even get it? inappropriate language. he used the world slut instead of prostitute or hooker? what is the appropriate language he thought he should use. what do you think of the republican party here? absolutely ditto heads. >> i can't believe it. you are right, inappropriate is a word that you use for a prank, for a whoowhoopie cushion.

i have to say, chris, you were on this a week after the inauguration. rush limbaugh said he hoped the president failed. and i remember, i think it was phil peeped up and said maybe that's not the nicest thing to say and he had to apologize to rush and go on his show and kiss his butt. these guys have been afraid to stand up to him for the longest time, and now their remarks -- they're speaking, but they are not saying what needs to be said. this is abusive, and it has no place in the public sphere. i hope they say more. i think they will have to. >> sandra, you have heard anything about an apology. >> nobody said anything to me directly. i understand mr. boehner made some comments distancing

himself. one thing i want to jump in with, it was not one person that made these comments on the airwaves, and there were multiple commentators -- >> do you know their names? >> glenn beck, for one. and they were not the only two. i hope that we can take a stand and decide that this is the point when this is going to be unacceptable discourse in all sectors of our society. >> thank you, my colleague, for sharing our views, and thank you for -- >> thank you for having me. >> if you can get through this, can you get through tough law cases. move on to greatness. you are showing greatness already. coming up, why do republicans think limiting birth control is a political winner? what are they thinking? you are watching hardball on a friday night on msnbc. want to . ♪ [ woman ] when i grow up, i want to take him on his first flight.

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rush limbaugh's outrageous, and i think his comments overshadowed what otherwise would have been the headline yesterday. the senate voted to reject the denial of coverage for contra septions. those are the issues that democrats think are big winners for them. so is the gop, the republican party hurting itself with women and independents with the fight. susan page is the bureau chief for "usa today."

and susan, first, you know, when i start with women on this always, because although birth control is generally because of heterosexual sex and involves both partners, and the idea that only women care about birth control is insane, but they do care about it because they are the only ones that can get pregnant, obviously. who supports the requirement that private sector. >> democrats, 83%. independents, 62%. republicans even 42%. susan, this is not a winner. saw statistically.

and one argument they were trying to make, rush limb bar hijacked that argument -- >> he is not speak for the church. >> it's hard to imagine republicans thinking, and even rick santorum, who is very comfortable speaking about the social issues, wanted to dismiss it and move on to other things. >> he's getting into the jobs issue again where he belongs. >> where he ought to be, where he has been trying to be. >> i think he -- john, he is the only one that said anything, and he is using the lingo of he's an entertainer and not taking it seriously, and let's talk about the politics of this thing. these cultural issues will they drive up the republican base next november? will they help them if romney is the nominee, and he probably will be at this point, and he is the nominee and they need to

grab the center and this brings in the base, is there any logic to why they keep talking this stuff up? >> i think there's logic, but it's flawed logic. i have been convinced for the past two or three years that the republican base was going to turn out in november of 2012. they have been motivated by hatred of of president obama, and i think that even though we have seen some poor turnout numbers in some of the republican primaries in caucus states, i think in the end, the republican base will turn out strictly on the grounds that they want to get barack obama out of office. and susan makes the correct point, which is that republicans did think at the beginning they could win this argument on religious freedom grounds and they thought they could extend the argument to make it looks like government was trying to tell what you to do, and a big government issue. >> and here is an interview the other day, and mitt romney was

asked about the amendment that says if you have a moral objection, you don't have to provide birth control. and he says let's stay out of this one. >> rubio is being debated, i believe, later this week that deals with banning or allowing employers to ban providing female contraception. you have taken a position on that? he said he is for that. you have taken -- >> i am not for the bill. look, the idea of presidential candidates get into questions about contraception, within a relationship between a man and woman and husband and wife, i am not going there. >> that's so romney. that's who he really is, i think. the guy that says you are crazy to get involved in bedroom issues on contraception. a short time later after doing the interview, romney said the following, he misunderstood what he was asked. let's listen to his correction a

few hours later. >> i did not understand his question. i thought he was talking about a state law that prevented people from getting contra septions, i thought it where employers were prevented from providing cont contraceptio contraceptions. >> he thought it was a state issue. that was like a top spinning around so fast, and it went from you are the expert on this, and is that romney the first one, and the second one is the political person or what? these are two different people. >> the first mitt romney is the real mitt romney, i think, and the second mitt romney is the one trying to get himself out of trouble. the romney campaign understands, and they can read the polls as clearly as we can. obama won by 13 points on the women vote. that's a big gender gap. now he is up 10 points with the

issues on the economy. they are looking down the barrel of a huge problem if female voters get more alienated from the republican party. mitt romney does not want to be in that place. it will doom his campaign. he is trying to push this issue away from him, and because he sees the politics, but the party tries to keep pulling him back in. >> the entertainment in this industry of politics and commentary is to catch people like romney just then. when you catch a guy, from what he is, to what he is supposed to be politically. >> and it tells you why a lot of conservatives don't trust him and have trouble warming to him, and it tells you why he would be the most formidable of the republicans against obama, because they all believe he's the first romney, the guy that doesn't think it's a role for government to get in the

conception debate. romney has done well with women. in the michigan -- >> compared to santorum. >> his margin of victory -- >> and his sparring partner with rick santorum -- >> well, you make a good point there. >> women and obama, we have a new ap poll out, obama's job approval among women is 53. but he beats romney degree to 41. that's pretty good, susan. >> you can't win a national election with that kind of gap with women. you need to fix that. >> and let's take a look here at this. just take a look at this. they are calling the republicans and saying launching a war on women. >> they are pushing extreme legislation that threatens

health care for women. it's time to end the culture wars and get to work for the middle class. >> so we know where that is headed, right, susan? the democrats are going to dance on this one for a while. >> yes. with all the senators having voted on it it's an issue that can work in a lot of senate races. >> thank you, john, and i am one of your biggest fans. good luck next week when your movie comes out. what a week to be able to be the man behind a great american movie. woody harrelson? >> ed harris. >> and what a cast. any way, moore doesn't just play sarah palin, there she is! isn't that palin? she becomes her and she explains how she did it. that's next on the side show. you are watching "hardball" only on msnbc.

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back to "hardball." now for a hot sideshow. first up, crowd control. president obama traveled to new york city yesterday for a quartet of fundraising events. while the president's dress room was packed with supporters, it wasn't all smooth sailing. let's watch how the president reacted when interrupted while talking about his foreign policy achievements. >> we ended torture. we promoted human rights. we made it clear that america is a pacific power. we are leading by our moral example. that's what changes. none of this change -- nobody has announced a war, young lady. but we appreciate your sentiment.

you're jumping the gun a little bit there. >> well, let's hope so. he was responding to a woman yelling out "no war with iran." the question is how does that square with the president's own statement in this new article that he's not going to bluff when it comes to keeping nuclear weapons out of iran's hands. next up, becoming palin. we're a week away from the premier of "game change." an inside look at the presidential race of 2008. how did julianne moore tackle playing sarah palin. here she is on "the tonight show." >> i read her book. i went on yao youtube, and i watched all of her appearances, we found all of her media appearance. put it on my ipod. wiped everything off except for

"ice, ice baby." my 14-year-old son was really embarrassed by that. nothing worse. i put it on in the car. i would listen to it when i was running. i had it on constantly. >> talk about bringing a job home with you. that's how you do it. it over and over again. i think she's going to nail that part. this is delicious okay... is this where we're at now? we just eat whatever tastes good? like these sweet honey clusters... actually there's a half a day's worth of fiber in every ... why stop at cereal? bring on the pork chops and the hot fudge. fantastic. are you done sweetie? yea [ male announcer ] fiber one.

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