that is "the ed show," you can listen to me on sirius channel 127 monday through friday, 12:00 to 3:00. we do play the davy crockett every now and then. "the rachel maddow show" starts right now. thanks for staying with us for the next hour. it's super tuesday eve. very exciting. my stocking is hung by the chimney with care. it is a very exciting night, the night before super tuesday. we're getting news about where to expect the various presidential campaigns to be tomorrow night. where a candidate is physically located on a big election night can tell you all you need to know where the campaign thinks they stand in the race.

on the night of the florida primary while mitt romney and newt gingrich were both watching the returns come in from the state of florida, where was ron paul? he was already campaigning out in nevada. because nevada is a caucus state, ron paul has a caucus state strategy. it was florida's him being in nevada made sense. in colorado, minnesota and missouri, where was mitt romney? he was in colorado, that was awkward because him being in colorado meant he expected to win in colorado and he did not win in colorado. then the matter of him not being able to fill the room he was in in colorado. on the night of michigan and arizona while mitt romney and rick santorum were both in michigan awaiting those results, where was newt gingrich? he was in georgia. newt gingrich knowing that he would frankly tank in michigan an arizona and knowing he needs to win his home state of georgia in order to make a credible case for staying in the race.

where you are on an election night speaks volumes about your campaign strategy and expectations. tomorrow night on super tuesday, rick santorum will watch the returns come in the super tuesday returns, he will be watching those returns come in from a place called steubenville, ohio. it's out on the eastern edge of ohio, out by rick santorum's home state of pennsylvania. mr. santorum being in steubenville is an interesting choice. it's interesting because even if rick santorum wins the state of ohio tomorrow, rick santorum likely cannot win any of steubenville's ohio delegates. because it's one of three ohio districts where the santorum campaign failed to submit the necessary paperwork to be eligible to win any delegates if mr. santorum does well there. oops. in addition to those three districts, there are six other districts in ohio where the santorum campaign has only submitted partial paperwork.

that all means of the 63 delegates up for grab tomorrow night in ohio, more than a quarter of of them are are unwinnable for rick santorum even if he does great in the state. mr. santorum has the same problem in tennessee, he has an empty slate of delegates. he had this problem in new hampshire. looking ahead, mr. santorum will have the same problem in illinois, where his campaign has failed to submit the required amount of delegates in four of the congressional districts. frankly, rick santorum's campaign is lucky he is even on the ballot at all in the state of indiana. they had to contest the findings of the largest county in indiana because that county had initially said he had not turned in enough signatures to get on the ballot there. the rick santorum campaign is a mess. the rick santorum campaign is like a formula one race and everybody is in a formula one car, rick santorum is in a pinewood derby car. whatever you think about him as a candidate his campaign cannot

seem to put its pants on one leg at a time. they can't do the basic stuff of running for president. the stuff that has nothing to do with whether or not you were popular, whether or not you have a lot of money, just means you're together enough to do the logistical paperwork, they have not been able to do that. frankly that makes it more amazing mitt romney is having a hard time beating this guy. but in the republican nominating process, rick santorum being a mess of a campaign has sort of been the least messy of all their messes. in a normal year with a normal political party running these things the big deal state tomorrow would be virginia. all eyes would be on virginia. but the republicans and this is just the republicans, it's them as a party, them making their own rules and decisions, republicans only in the state of virginia managed to organize a presidential primary this year in which only two candidates qualified to be on the ballot. in virginia tomorrow, there are 46 delegates at stake but who

cares, nobody is contesting it because they can only go to mitt romney or ron paul thanks to the republican party screwing up the ballot process so badly there. out of the 13 states that voted so far, seven of the states had huge screw-ups in the way they ran their races. that is before we have the luge screw up in virginia to expect tomorrow. watching the republicans trying to pick the nominee is like a drunk trying to get their key in the door. in iowa, it was mitt romney, no -- i don't know who won, it was a tie, no, i mean it was rick santorum, mitt romney, santorum, okay let's say santorum. it was two weeks ago. i wasn't drunk. in florida, mitt romney won but the state republican party said they wanted their delegates to be winner take all. turns out they are not allowed to be winner take all for their delegates. newt gingrich is contesting florida's delegate, trying to

get half florida delegates since he won half the state. nobody knows what the outcome will be. in nevada we didn't know the results for two days days after the caucuses. remember in nevada the republicans had caucuses for the whole state and then he had a whole extra caucus later on after all the other ones were done. extra caucus at the sheldon adelson school. in missouri part of the reason nobody can say how many states have voted or how many delegates have been allocated is because missouri held a wholly election had no meaning at all. the primary on february 7th was required by state law which republicans in missouri couldn't figure out how to change. they held the state law required primary had a missouri result they will pretend it didn't happen and hold a caucus and say that will count. i'm sure that will go smoothly, right? in maine, the state republican chairman declared a final result before whole swaths of the state had voted. he said they wouldn't count at all.

then okay, maybe they will count but won't change the results. in michigan everybody thought the suspense would be whether mitt romney could win in the home state. turns out the suspense is whether the republican party can figure out who wins the state's delegates. the rules that michigan republican party announced before the voting essentially said those michigan results like they had there last tuesday would give 15 delegates each to mitt romney and rick santorum but after the results came in, the state republican party said no, no, no, you misunderstood, actually we think we'll give more delegates to mitt romney than rick santorum. we know we put out those other rules but shut up. that is why three lonely we love rick santorum protesters turned out in lansing, michigan to protest the delegate allocation at the republican party state headquarters.d investigate the whole michigan delegate mess. in washington state, which voted this past weekend, officials

there locked people out in the cold. officials tried to say they should have been locked out because they turned up late. they since apologized to the voters locked out in the cold. officials admitting they weren't prepared for them to show up. in any case they are going to count the washington result, the locked out people as being a result for mitt romney. and mitt romney did win the washington caucuses by some distance. but if you care about who got second place, second place was really close between ron paul and rick santorum. so 1500 people turning out for the republican caucuses, and getting locked out in the cold for no reason might absolutely have made a difference in washington. buteh, sometimes you get your vote counted, sometimes you get locked out.

tomorrow should be super tuesday, which should be super interesting, because of each state contest this year. i don't know if it has anything to do with the fact the states have been screwed up and so many results have been in question and a lot of these places nobody really knows who won or whether it meant anything they did win. but the biggest republican organizational problem with their nominating process may not be what happened state-by-state, to let people vote or count the votes or decide what they mean. the big picture organizational problem may not be the individual failure in all these successive states, it may be the big problem that the republicans designed their primary contest this year so it goes on forever. is why it called super tuesday? it got the name super in part

because it's a lot of states voting. super. but also because super tuesday is supposed to be so many states, so many delegates, that it is one day that can decide the race. it's the day when somebody can clinch the nomination. that is the way it usually works. happens tomorrow night, still nobody clinches the nomination. as long as somebody has a billionaire writing them checks, the race goes on, even after tomorrow, no matter what happens. seriously. even the republicans said they were inspired by the obama versus clinton long primary in which got democrats excite and enthussed about their party and voting in november, the republican contest this year is not having an obama versus clinton kind of effect on the republican e t check this out, new wall street journal poll that came out today the number of adults who say the republican nominating process has given them a less favorable impression of the republican

party, four in ten. the number of adults who say the gop nominating process has given them more favorable opinion of the republican party, is just above one in ten. that is not good for the republican party. the longer this thing goes on, the more people hate republicans. now, this next part from the poll i'm going to read this verbatim if i don't read it directly will think i'm talking smack. whether asked to describe the gop nominating battle in a word or phrase, nearly 70% of respondents including six in te independents and half of republicans answered with a negative comment. some examples from republicans, these are just republicans, here are the words republicans are using to describe the republican contest. ready? unenthusiastic, discouraged, lesser of two evils, painful, disappointed, poor choices, concerned, underwheel manied,

uninspiring, and depressed. so say the republicans. right now gallop says the favorability rating for the nominee, likely, mitt romney is 39%. at this point in the race in 2008, john mccain was at 56%. at this point in the race in 2000, george w. bush at 58%. poor little bob dole in 1996 was at 49%, and that was worrying everyone. mitt romney's 10 points below that. if you like republicans screw stuff up, this long drawn out process of trying to pick a nominee has been fun to much wave. has this been more than a comedy of errors for the republicans? is there a way they could turn the primary process and mess it has been this year to their advantage? for the general election? joining us steve kornacki with salon.com, nice to see you. >> sure, you too. >> is there any way for the republicans to turn what i think

has been a long, drawn out primary mess to their advantage? is there a way this works for them? >> i guess the good news that comes out of this at least looking like right now the republican nominee is not going to be named rick santorum, newt gingrich, ron paul or rick perry. they will get the most electable or least unelectable option, so that helps. the other thing to look at bill clinton went through a meat grinder of a process on the democratic side in 1992, the year he got elected president. his comment when his poll numbers were low, about as low as mitt romney's are now, no one can run for national office in this country and gain votes going through a presidential primary process. again, his process was particularly damaging, you look at more recent ones, wasn't as bad as clinton as it was for romney but the clinton example looms large as we look ahead to the fall, there are were a lot of reasons he turned it around but the biggest was the economy. it was bad early in '92 and got worse as the year progressed,

that gave him an opportunity to hit the reset button and people gave him a fresh look, his numbers jumped that summer and fall. >> i went through all the nbc wall street journal favorability numbers, over the past year we've seen mitt romney's favorability -- with mitt romney's favorability numb berks the people who don't have an opinion has dropped by 15%. the number of people with an unfavorable opinion of him has gone up by about 15%. is that inevitable? that is case that bill clinton was making inevitable as people get to know you a good proportion of them will get to know you because they don't like you? >> that is part of it but part of problem for romney the basic unspoken proposition of the romney candidacy for republicans at the outset of the process was hey, the economy is in terrible shape, people want to blame obama, we just need to put somebody up to is harmless

enough who can be a blank slate and people will vote for him because he is competent. the pitch is not he has a great personality or a great plan he will be good enough for them. the problem is two things have happened, the economy in the last five, six months has started to show signs of live. that has hurt the republicans. the republican brand itself, because of the tea party, because of republicans how they handled congressional majority, because of the actions of republican governors in major states around the country, the social stuff, the label right now is in as bad shape as it has been since the clinton impeachment in the late 1990's. this is a pro fundally unpopular party, if you have the blank empty vehicle, that gets attached to him more than it would a guy like clinton who had personality, clinton did not have to deal with the brand poisoning romney has to deal with. >> is that also inevitable we're seeing the generic idea of the republican party get less and less attractive to the country

as the primary goes on. is there a way that makes you like the party, didn't that happen with democrats in '08? >> that is the thing, i think the process is exposed what the republican party has become and who makes up the republican party and forced romney to move so far to the right and given him no room to come back to the middle. i don't know at the will be able to do that the way a normal nominee would in the fall campaign because again this base is really holding the feet to the fire, in a way we haven't seen before. >> i will say that a, i think that is true, and b, the specific issue how he fumbled the rush limbaugh birth control apology stuff is the subject of our next segment, steve cor knack difficult, thanks a lot. lilly ledbetter is here for the interview, stay with us. improve the health of your skin with aveeno daily moisturizing lotion. the natural oatmeal formula improves skin's health in one day, with significant improvement in 2 weeks. i found a moisturizer for life.

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what you don't know about flood insurance may shock you -- including the fact that a preferred risk policy starts as low as $129 a year. for an agent, call the number that appears on your screen. a krich. >> >> in this new interview, virginia governor bob plk donnell complains about the reasons why, asked about the overrule your doctor state-mandated ultrasound bill that governor mcdonnell says he will sign and which will forever change the initials vp next to his name from vice president to vaginal probe, he complains in this interview frankly is getting too much attention. he blames the press saying if

you read the papers, you have no idea what is going on. he also says the idea he focused on divisive social issues is patently inaccurate. the protest scenes are from the state capital in virginia this weekend where a crowd estimated at 850 people turned out to protest governor ultrasound and this new bill he still says he will sign. and yes, those are police in swat-team style riot gear on the scene as the protesters are arrested. anybody could understand why governor mcdonnell would no longer want to be associated with the forced ultrasound cause that he has so long supported. now that it's getting attention and turns out it's really, really unpopular, especially in his home state. if you want to put something like this behind you, you have to do more than tell people to stop caring about it. governor, this is your agenda, people care, virginians seem to be mad about it. this is your legacy even if you don't want it to be your legacy.

like virginia governor bob mcdonnell, radio host rush limbaugh is having trouble getting away from outrage. it's bringing some of it down on presidential candidate mitt romney. that story is next.

i was late to work today. it was because i had a really nice lunch. i had a nice lunch with this guy, that is me and conservative columnist cal thomas who i met in person for the first time. we had a nice lunch.

i feel okay talking about this publicly because mr. thomas wrote a column about the fact we were going to do this so everybody who cares about us having lunch knows about it already. the reason we met today because mr. thomas made a comment about me at cpac, insulting comment and felt bad once he said it, he called me the following morning and apologized to me, his apology was contrite and kind, he went a step further and wrote about it publicly, apologizing again in print in an unqualified totally sincere way. said "i had embarrassed myself and was a bad example to those who read my column and expect better from me." an apology like that is easy to accept. if you believe people screw up and apologizing is the right way to deal with it, it's simple. when you're confronted with a sincere uncomplicated strategy, the easiest thing in the world to accept that. a good apology, erases the mistake. you don't forget it happened but you do forgive it.

it's not hard, you move, on learn from the experience. you sometimes get a nice lunch with a big tall conservative guy who turns out to be nice and funny. a sincere apology i have always felt is like magic, it does make bad things go away. that said, an insincere apology or bad apology does not work the same kind of magic. which is why conservative radio host rush limbaugh is still in the news today. still losing major advertisers, at least nine at last count, today for the first time, losing radio stations that carried his program. the huffington post reporting on two radio stations, announcing plans to drop mr. limbaugh's program. and he's now facing the possibility that he could be dropped from armed forces radio, which is an important place to be if you are in political talk radio. this is fallout attacking a georgetown university law student as a slut and prostitute and ought to put her sex tapes on line. someone who advocate forward

insurance coverage for contraception because she was a morally despicable person and a shame to her family. mr. limbaugh made those attacks over three days during his show last week. over the weekend he issued a statement had the word apologize in it but was trying to make a joke and people were wrong to care about what he said in the first place and it wasn't meant as a personal attack, and he said his overall argument was true. mr. limbaugh went back on the radio and said the only reason attacked the lawsuit is because he was possessed by the left, that the values of the american left wing made him say these awful things. and furthermore, the only thing he apologized for were two specific words, slut and prostitute, words that he used against the law student, he presumably meant all the rest of it. when you apologize like that, there is no magic. nothing gets better.

and so the pressure is continuing on his remaining advertisers, now that the first two stations dropped his program, expect further pressure on other stations around the country, particularly where he is not very well rated. to drop his program as well. beyond his profit margin, it seems the biggest political impact of his failed attempt at a sort of apology may be on the republican presidential race. here was how mitt romney answered when he was asked on friday about mr. limbaugh's comments. remember this was before he apologized, sort of, about what he said. >> it's not the language i would have used. >> it's not the language he would have used? like he wouldn't have said slut or prostitute, but other than that you were cool with it? he's giving the same caliber of apology for rush limbaugh that rush limbaugh did. remember, what rush limbaugh said, among other things that this young woman was a slut and prostitute who couldn't afford contraception because she had too much sex, because in rush

limbaugh's mind the more sex you have, the more birth control pills you must take or something. the only problem mitt romney has with all that is that he wouldn't have used that specific language but the rest of it is okay? this started off as a rush limbaugh problem. still is a rush limbaugh problem, not getting better for him but now also a mitt romney for president problem. >> rush limbaugh, who is obviously a prominent radio personality, does he have some power within the republican party? >> sure, absolutely he has influence because he has a strong conservative base. i know that, but those statements were unacceptable, in every way and should be condemned by everyone no matter what their political leanings are. >> it's the responsibility of the conservatives to police the right. >> the problem is the leaders, mitt romney and other candidates don't have the courage to say what they say in quiet, which

they think rush limbaugh is a buffoon. >> the republican leaders are are afraid of rush limbaugh. they want to bomb iran but afraid of rush limbaugh. >> if i were mitt romney i would stand up and say we need to change the political discourse in this country. >> joining us now is connie schultz, thanks for joining us. >> wonderful to be here. >> am i being too harsh on mr. romney, along with those conservative and independent pundits, these weren't his comments, they were rush limbaugh's comments, did mr. rom have to be more forceful than saying rush limbaugh used words he wouldn't have used? >> let me rescue you from this worry you're being too harsh. i am -- when -- i watched mrs. fluke's testimony live. our oldest daughter is exactly her age, just almost exactly she is in law school. we have three other young women, two daughters and a

daughter-in-law, mother of our only grandchild all of reproductive age. he does not understand what he unleashed, he went after my girls. he went after the girls of mothers all across this country regardless of their politics. and that is what he has completely under estimated. as have the candidates, what is the down side to saying you don't ask women, young women to post video, he asked for video, rachel, of this young woman. he called her a slut because she wanted to be responsible about birth control. they have no idea yet it seems to me, what has been unleashed but they are about to find out. there is no going back on this one. and that was not an apology, i do not understand why -- you talked about cal thomas, what a class act thing to do. we're very happy you were born, and i was so upset when i heard he said that, he apologize and as you said sincerely. rush limbaugh has not apologized

as far as i'm concerned, he has so, so misunderstood how parents, mothers and fathers feel about this, not to mention all the young women who are so smart, who are so brave, who are are not going to take this. >> connie, you're getting at something i think has been hard to articulate in all this, this isn't your standard political or i have ad hominum insult. he used slut and prostitute, used terms against a young woman speaking about sexual health, you described unleashing something, landed in a different way than a typical insult would or slander would. why do you think that resonates among women in that way specifically? >> i can tell you why it resonates for women of my generation, we remember hearing these sort of things when we were first fighting for this right. i remember hearing this in the 70s. we were hearing this if we dared not to wear bras to the classroom in college.

what we never guessed after all these years, after all this progress, that we would be back to this and that he would be going, and i can't emphasis this strongly enough, rush limbaugh you went after my girls when you said that. you went after my beloved daughters, when you said that and you have crossed a line that you cannot recross. and what i'm concerned about now, rachel, is that especially the young women that we're seeing stepping up. i would say to them directly to you young women, this is your fight now. what i would say to my generation of women, we need to support them but we need to get out of the way for them to own this. because it's your fight now. it's my daughters fight and your generation, rachel, i'm older than you, i'm 54 years old, i got a lot of energy but i don't have the same stake in this that these young women do and i am so impressed with how vocal they have become, how outspoken and how they will not stand down and i can't tell you how that has inspired this 54-year-old mother in ohio.

>> you are in ohio, i should mention here as an issue, as a matter of full disclosure also it's relevant your husband is a senator from ohio, ohio's politics heading in super tuesday, ohio state based politics have been very much hit by the republican tide of sharply anti-abortion legislation, ohio has had a raft of different anti-abortion measures, including a lot of them similar to the ones that have got people protesting across the state. do you think that has changed the way that women will be voting, do you think it's changed the way people are thinking about electoral politics? >> i do. i will tell you one of the reasons, i have been at a number of planned parenthood ral list or speeches in the last months in ohio i have been attending these for years, always pro-choice, you mention mid husband, i looked up his record on choice and gay rights before i would go out with him. he had to be where i needed him to be. the difference in ohio now is the rooms are packed with young women. the rallies are packed with

young women. i want to a rally in cleveland, hundreds of young women in pink tee shirts, that what is changed. if that is going on in the state of ohio you are talking about a major shift that young women are starting to understand and embrace this as their cause, and i'll tell you they have a lot of energy and as i said earlier i'm inspired by what they are doing here and i'm quite heartened by it. >> connie schultz, always a real pleasure to have you here, thank you for joining us. >> thank you. >> i remember terms of what connie is talking about how this is surfacing, being in new hampshire before the new hampshire primary this year, seeing hillsides covered with campaign signs for all the different candidates and in every intersection as soon as you got near manchester, were signs for people saying they stand with planned parenthood. right there among all the candidates. what she is talking about is real. the interview is lilly ledbetter, which is awesome. i'm so looking forward to that, stay tuned.

it is super tuesday eve, and although there is no fight on the democratic side this year like there is on the republican

side this year, turns out there is plenty of fight on the democratic side this year. >> changes health care reform after a vicinity of trying. change is the fight we want to stop handing 60 billion dollars in taxpayer subsidies to banks, to process student loans, and give that money directly to students and families who need it change is the fact for the first time in history you don't have to hide who you love to serve the country you love. we got rid of don't ask don't tell. change is another promise i made in 2008 for the first time in nine years, there are no americans fighting in iraq, we put that war to an end. >> president obama speaking at a fund-raiser in new york city a few days ago. other items he reminded the crowd he has checked off his to-do list, saving the auto industry, raising fuel efficiency standard, moving osama bin laden from the alive category into the dead as a

doornail category. but the very first accomplishment the resident has been touting on the campaign trial is the very first piece of legislation that he signed as president. >> changes the first bill i signed into law. pretty simple law, says women deserve an equal days pay for an equal days's work because we want -- because i want my daughters to have the same opportunities as someone's sons. >> that was called the lilly ledbetter fair pay act. he signed it on january 29th, 2009, the first law he signed as president. that is ms. ledbetter walking with the president on that day. let's say you find our you're being paid less than male coworker and your lesser pay is because you're a woman. under the civil rights act, you have 180 days, six months from the discriminatory act to file a complaint. what is a discriminatory act well, every paycheck you get.

in 2007 the supreme court says it doesn't start ticking with the last paycheck you got but the first discriminatory paycheck, even if you had no idea you were being discriminated against. how would you know since most of us don't have any idea what our coworkers make. that made it impossible to sue for being paid less because of your sex. the anti-discrimination law was on the books,but that ruling made the law unenforceable. ruth bader ginsburg, she took the rare step of reading her dissent from the bench. the woman whose case was the subject of that ruling, after that ruling she got to work. she is lilly ledbetter, worked at goodyear for 20 years before she discovered she was being paid 40% less than men who were doing exactly the same work. when she lost that case at the

supreme court, she kept working. she took her case to congress and in congress, she won. and being able to put his signature to that win is one of the things that president has been bragging on ever since he did it. and getting big applause every time he does so. joining us tonight for the interview, is lilly ledbetter, a new book out how this all happened, called "grace and grit, my fight for equal pay and fairness at goodyear and beyond" thank you for being here. >> thank you. thank you. >> did explain that right? >> wonderful job, you sized the situation up, exactly right. and the president takes a lot of credit for signing that bill and it was so historical, because it put women and their families back out front. it gives them the right when they find out that they are being mistreated in their pay, then they can file the charge the same as i had done. >> so it reinstates what the supreme court undid in that rule

against you. >> exactly. >> you were being paid thousands of dollars less every year than your male colleagues doing the exact same job. can you -- you write about this beautifully in the book, can you explain how you found out 19 years into it you were being paid less? >> someone left me an anonymous note, tipping me off that me and my counterparts, the four of us had the same job, we had been paid drastically different. mine was 40% less than their's, just the base pay, and that meant my overtime pay was not correct, not what i was entitled to legally under the law. and that also affected my retirement. my contributory retirement, 401-k and today my social security as well. that is why i'm so passionate about the book and telling the story, and what i do today

because this is detrimental to our american families and is putting this country drastically behind. >> by the time you figured out and again because of an anonymous tip, did you ever find out who gave you the tip? >> no, i did not, some good samaritan though, had i not gotten that tip i would have retired and gone on in my retirement never knowing how i had been mistreated. >> over the course of your career at goodyear, do you know how much money that added up to in terms of the disparity between you and the male coworkers? >> no, a drastic a lot of money. estimated over $250,000 but it's much greater than that. >> i don't mean to be presumptuous by reading to you from your own book i want dodd ask you about this when i read it. you right after you talk about getting that anonymous tip, you write about going in the rest room, i stood frozen raising my eyes to the ceiling, you have been stung by what you learned.

then you say after a few minutes i knew i had to get it together or i would be late. that is when i felt the shame, the haunting humiliation deep in my bones, as the numbers kept looping through my mind i couldn't shake the realization of how stupid i had been to try so hard and to think it would pay off. i wanted so badly to win approval. why shame and humiliation, why did you feel those things? >> because the amount of pay and our job is basically how we identify ourselves. and that was sort of accomplishment in my life i had worked so hard to stand along beside the men and to be able to do everything they did, and never tried, never to make a mistake, and to do work harder and smarter than my male counterparts and i had been given a top performance award in 196. chosen as one of the four

managers to start up a division, they hand picked those four managers. that was quite an honor for me. and to then find out that i'm being paid so much less than the other men, i couldn't believe it. >> the way you describe that in terms of it sort of sucking it out of you is an emotional thing. i wonder whether we talk on the show and all of us in this business talk all the time what government can and can't do, you obviously went through that humiliating experience having been done wrong and you had to fight for a very long time in order to get redress from the government. i wonder if you left this by feeling like feeling like it's hard to get things done through institutions in the united states or if this restored your faith in what government can do when people work at it? >> it restored my faith, because one person can make a difference but not without the help of a lot of other people that are committed to the same cause.

because i had such an outpouring across this nation, one headline read "she struck a nerve" and i did. it really did. it struck a nerve with the men. the men understand this, because it takes two people in most households today to hold on to the middle class status. and the president, he understood this. and a lot of people in congress, they understand it. and this bill was sponsored and co-sponsored by republicans and democrats, it didn't belong to either party. it is a fundamental american right that people are compensated fairly. >> because you fought for it we all benefit. >> i think it will help in the future and now we're trying to make a lot more changes, and i'm still out there fighting and trying to educate young people, because when you start out behind, a young person can never catch up because raises are based on percentage of what you're earning.

i encourage young people in colleges to be sure they start out with a pay that they are deservingly and rightfully entitled to. >> lilly ledbetter, "grace and grit" i will say that i learned a lot about your case, the political process and learned way more than anybody has a right to know about possum trot, alabama. thank you your activism. >> thank you for having me, rachel. thank you. >> nice to meet you, ma'am. >> we will be right back. [ jennifer garner ] there's a lot of beautiful makeup out there.

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that old beach boys song "barbara ann." >> one of the reasons it's actually worth it, it's not just indulgent and fun to follow political campaigns so closely in elections season. it's because candidates for office are not just asking you to vote for them based on their ideas and how bad the other guy is. canned dates are also modeling what they might be like in office if they are elected. so the no-drama obama candidacy foreshadowed what has mostly been a no-drama obama white house. the from-the-gut bomb iran campaign was that russia and georgia were in an arm tiff, he'd try to get us in on

something like that, he tried to get us involved in a war with russia. even today john mccain is calling for yet another war in the middle east. today john mccain said we should bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb syria. so covering seemingly stupid stuff on the john mccain campaign trail in 2008 like him singing "bomb iran," that ended up being useful information since we now know there's been no recent war suggested to him that he did not want to jump right into. running for office can tell us important things about what a person might be like in office. but there's one national office in which republicans around just running, they're in power. in the house where republican john boehner is speaker and eric cantor and majority leader. how are republicans doing at running the one branch of elected government they are in charge of? well, as speaker john boehner has had some trouble, everything from forgetting to swear some of his people in on day one to not achieving any of the republicans' stated legislative goals. on this show these troubles have

been cataloged as the john boehner is bad at his job hypothesis.mething new. apparently it's not just boehner being bad at his job in this hypothesis. politico.com reporting that the longtime spokesman for number two house republican, eric cantor, not only quit on friday but he quit after almost getting into a fistfight with another cantor staffer. it was apparently about a piece of legislation cantor's office was due to roll out last week. they thought they had a bunch of supporters lined up to say nice things about it, but that fell through. and then the two staffers had what politico described as an aggressive confrontation that, quote, almost turned into a physical altercation. cantor's high-profile spokesman then quit and now it's all over politico. so this week on capitol hill we'll get that bill from the republicans that caused the near fistfights. the transportation bill has been delayed for weeks because he can't get his own side to vote for his own bill. politico describes it only the

recent closed-door clash. in other words, republicans running the house of representatives has been kind of a disaster. a disaster that no amount of will power can keep us from gawking at. we'll be right back.

tomorrow night it gets really fun around here. it's always fun on tuesdays but tomorrow is extra fun because it is super tuesday. i'll be anchoring from this studio, but i'll be facing a different direction, along with chris matthews and all the primetime anchors.