revealing. they've got to go. >> very thoughtful about a difficult situation. that does it for us today. i'm matt miller in for dylan ratigan. "hardball" with chris matthews starts right now. the battle for joe six pack. let's play "hardball." good evening. i'm chris matthews in new york tonight. leading off tonight, the empire strikes back. up until now the political campaigning has been dominated by republicans and their serial denunciations of president obama. today the obama team hit back. joe biden was in campaign mode at a uaw rally where he rallied. on the auto bailout, biden said the president was right and he

lampooned his opponents. game on. plus mitt's got the math, but rick has the passion. what is newt up to? we'll ask the man many republicans had had hoped would save them from themselves. mitch daniels, the indiana governor. also what was once accepted by both parties has become another party fight. the violence against women's act. and the democrats papt this as another example of hostility towards women. republicans say the democrats are playing politics. if there's one thing people know about mitt romney is he once took a vacation with his dog strapped to the roof of his car. what is it about romney that makes this story stick? and let me finish with a thought about glenn beck. we begin with president obama and joe biden in campaign mode. michael steele was the chair of the republican national committee and howard fineman is the editorial director of "the huffington post." both are msnbc political

analysts. let's take a look at joe biden. he's on fire today. the president and vice president was fired up. he took on the republican candidates naming names and leveling a tax on all their candidates. here's some of his speech from today. let's watch. >> mitt romney, rick santorum, and newt gingrich, these guys have a fundamentally different economic philosophy than we do. simply stated, we're about promoting the private sector. they are about protecting the privileged sector. we are for a fair shot and a fair shake. they are about no rules, no risks, and no accountability. i want to tell you what's real. economic theories. they are bankrupt. if you give any one of these guys the keys to the white house, they will bankrupt the middle class again. >> well, let me start with

howard. it's my sense they are beefing up the second half of their ticket. biden is on the ticket clearly. he made it clear today. they want him to play the role of destroyer of mitt romney. >> you're right. that's the crescent. it goes through pennsylvania, through ohio, illinois, michigan, and so on. battleground states where blue collar workers are the key. culturally conservative. it's fascinating to watch the white house try to occupy the middle ground on private enterprise. mitt romney is claiming he's the guy who is going to turn around the private sector because he was in the private sector, but the white house is not going to sit back and take that argument at face value. they are going to say, no, new york city we actually care about the private sector because we went in and saved the auto industry. it's game on in terms of who can protect private enterprise for the working class.

>> who is more like a blue collar worker? joe biden or mitt romney? who is more like one of the regular guys you might meet? >> there's no doubt that joe biden is a regular guy in thatceps. he's a commuter. he took the train to washington to work every day just like a lot of commuters out there. >> he has a lunch bucket i hear. >> absolutely. we get that. but i find it fascinating. i totally get all that, but i find it fascinating that as the president launches this who rang that he talked about legislative success, and that's health care. where's the conversation on health care? >> by the way, when the president speaks -- >> they get to talk about what they want to talk about but we have to talk about what you want to talk about. >> let me ask you, michael. it's a -- >> oh please.

the left wants to cut it every which way in their favor. the president is out there campaigning. the vice president is campaigning. that's great. that's what it's all about. but he's starting now because he's getting killed because of the gas prices. the polls are eating at his heels. he's trying to get in front of that as much as he possibly can. he's not talking about those kinds of solutions. his energy plan, what energy plan? a little here and will a little there. there's no consistent roll out of what he's going to do next. and he's not talking about the one thing he should be talking about. the success of his health care. >> you want to talk about health care we'll have a whole night on that when you're not here. romney was asked about his recent gaffes having asked about his recent wealth. let's watch the possible still front runner of the republican party, mitt romney. >> people asking about football, you talk about how you know the

owners. you talk about ann's two cadillacs and saying he's so rich he can't relate to the rest of us. why do you keep doing that? >> megan, guess what. i made a lot of money. i've been very successful. i'm not going to apologize for that. >> you're struggling with the folks who e make less than $100,000. >> no. you don't win a million more votes than anyone in the race by appealing to high-income americans. >> was that megan or me, howard? it doesn't look like me, but it sounded like me. she was the litigator. she was really sticking it to him on those points. we saw the numbers coming out of alabama and mississippi. g gets killed below $50,000, below $100,000. >> i thought megan kelly did a good job, but i was more interested in romney's answers. they were terrible. you don't say, hey, i made a lot

of money. it's not really the way to do it i don't think. what he needs to say is, look, i understand the private sector. i want everybody to have a chance. we're in a battle to save the private economy of america from overregulation, from too much government, whatever you want. find ways to illustrate it. find ways to make it exciting. the battle to save private enterprise. make it exciting. the romney campaign has completely failed at what it should be strongest at, which is thinking of ways to sell mitt romney as a true defender of working people because he wants to save the private economy. instead mitt romney just waves his hand and say, hey, i made a lot of money. it doesn't work. >> let's look at what joe biden said about romney. let's hear a little more than him. michael wants to hear it from toledo. here's the vice president. >> i can't wait. >> governor romney was more direct. let detroit go bankrupt.

he said that. he said that what we proposed "is even worse than bankruptcy." he said it would make gm the living dead. the president didn't flinch. this is a man with steel in his spine. he knew that resurrecting the industry wasn't going to be popular. he wasn't going to give up on a million jobs and the iconic industry america invented. he made the tough call and the verdict is in. president obama was right and they were dead wrong. >> so bin laden is dead and gm is alive. how do you handle those facts on the ground? >> you handle the facts with the facts. that was the easy call to make. the tougher call was letting the market do what markets are supposed to do and pick the winners and losers instead of

the government coming in and taking 30% of a private company, kicking the bondholders out, and having them lose their hard-earned investments -- it's not the pitch. but it's the facts. you want to deal with the facts. just like health care. you want to have a special program when i'm not here. >> i know. >> and the other point -- >> did you see batman when the other guy kept coming in and interrupting? let's just stay on the subject. there was big news today. the vice president gave a big speech in toledo i want to cover these facts. >> but what did he say? he said the same stuff. what is the plan? we don't know what the plan is? it's great to hoo rang, but what are you going to do to move this economy forward? how do you get the government out of owning 27% of gm right now? what's the plan forward? there's no talking about that. >> here's the president. perhaps we'll get to your topic.

accusing republican opponents of being stuck in the past on the issue of new sources of energy like wind and solar power. let's listen to him. >> lately, we have heard a lot of professional politicians, a lot of the folks who are running for a certain office, who shall go unnamed, they've been talking down new sources of energy. if some of these folks were around when clolumbus set sail, they must have been founding members of the flat earth socie society. they would not have believed that the world was round. they probably would have agreed with one of the pioneers of the radio who said, television won't

last. it's a flash in the pane. >> santorum is running a tough race in illinois. he's up against the restore our future money, the super pac which is loyal to mitt romney. the latest number, that super pac spending $3.3 million just in illinois. this is astounding money. he dropped over $2 million in alabama and mississippi. there he is doing it again. his pac is doing it. in all fairness, it's in link with him of getting him elected. totally negative. we have one republican party selling the hard right with rick santorum. doing the best he can against money coming at him when the money is totally negative. there isn't really a romney argument out there. it's just santorum and this carpet bombing that never stops. >> i think if you look at the romney campaign from the beginning, it's always been

about that. to some extent, he and his people don't have faith in romney's own ability to make a case. to make a positive case. as i say, there's a message in there. it's about how mitt romney can save the economy because he knows private enterprise, but they have done a terrible job in figuring out ways to make romney identify with it. it hasn't worked. so instead they follow the natural instinct to go negative early and often and at all times. that's what they are doing. that's what they have done from the beginning. that's what they will do if romney in the candidate in the fall. it will be a nine to one negative campaign. very little positive. all attack on the the president. that's why the president and his people felt they had to start getting out there now. they set mid-march as the time to campaign. they are starting to campaign even though there's no nominee yet. >> michael steele, the last word. >> i think howard is right about that part of it. it's certainly part of the game

plan. two quick things. the president is going out there campaigning now because he's getting politically hurt on the numbers on gas prices. romney is damned if he does and damned if he doesn't. he has to go out there and be direct and when he is, people are saying, why are you so direct? he has to be comfortable with himself and do his thing and work his way through the nomination process. the other two guys aren't going away. we're batting down for it. >> we like a good fight here at "hardball." we're hope iing for a fight in illinois. i'm hoping santorum can hold his own. i want a fight on tuesday night. it looks to me like it's coming. michael steele, thank you. howard fineman, thank you. coming up, indiana governor mitch daniels. he joins us next. you're watching "hardball," only on msnbc.. wanna know the difference between a trader and an elite trader?

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we have new poll numbers now. let's go to the "hardball" score board. president obama is leading all republican rivals. now he's over 4% over romney. against santorum the president's lead is 10%. he leads ron paul by the same numbers. and his widest lead is against gingrich. 53% to 35%. as if it matters. it pretty much destroys his case that the republican party would ever turn to him. we'll be right back. but don't j. listen to these happy progressive customers. i plugged in snapshot, and 30 days later, i was saving big on car insurance. i was worried it would be hard to install. but it's really easy. the better i drive, the more i save. i wish our company had something this cool. yeah. you're not... filming this, are you? aw! camera shy. snapshot from progressive. plug into the savings you deserve

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welcome back to "hardball." we have a great guest. the republican field has come down to basically two men. mitt romney and rick santorum, neither of who is lighting a fire with republican voters. many have been pining for someone else. they want a winner who believes among the candidates who had

jumped in the race or wish they had is mitch daniels. he's author of "keeping the republic." he's also the governor of indiana. he was a staff guy before he became a principal. i was impressed. others were not. when you gave the republican response, you were the one that put cards on the table. in neither party except for you, you were out there talking about means testing. in other words, making the kind of rational decisions we have to make as part of any grand bargain. did you take heat for sticking your neck out in that regard? >> don't think so, chris. i got an awful lot of nice feedback for that. i told the leaders of our party when they asked me to make the speech that i wasn't much into red meat. try to be more constructive than that. and number two, they knew what i thought about these things and

left to my own devices i would be specific. they said, go ahead. and i did. as far as i know, they were pleased. those i heard from were. >> i'm not a republican, but the one thing that's united republicans is an absolute belief in cutting government spending. there's a real commonality. a real belief that government spends too much money. and the long-term debt is a real threat to our country. yet the two candidates standing at the top of the fight are santorum, who focuses on the culture issues, he really does, and mitt who is not credible because he's a former moderate governor of massachusetts, who really was a moderate republican. he wasn't a hard liner. you on the other hand are the real thing. isn't it odd that the party is not picking the one thing they all agree on in a candidate? >> i hope we ultimately will.

i do think for the moment it's a little disappointing that folks don't have more confidence in the american people to level with them about the dangers we're facing and about the practical steps we really have to take if we want to fight our way through this thing and not have a bad ending. i think they are being too timid. the president has left the field wide open. he gives us 70-some minute state of the union speech and never mentioned the debt. >> your candidates all of them said they wouldn't even accept a ten to one deal. you know no democrat can go to the table and say i'm going to the table, but i'm not going to get $1 for the $10 i'm cutting. you have to come to the table with a reasonable compromise. some kind of debt reduction, which includes some kind of revenues and a lot of spending

cuts. but you need both ingredients and your party said no deal on t taxes. >> i would be happy to raise my hand to say tell me more about that 10 to 1 business. i wish at least one of our candidates had taken that route. but you can't let the president off the hook. he's proposing budgets that make it far worse. he commissioned and then totally ignored the bowl-simpson commission. now, he's basically the candidate of national bankruptcy. so the door is wide open on our side. i agree with you that our candidates have yet to really fully take up the duty. >> since we're getting political now, i'll make the argument from the other side. the president said bowl-simpson, it did call for an equal taxation of capital gains and

income. how many republicans are going to go along with that in the the end? >> i don't know, but there was a lot in there that no democrat is prepared to say they are for. it would have been an interesting starting point. i thought incredibly disappointing that the president who turned his back on them. >> my daughter worked on that report. i'm with you. in all seriousness, i do think it was a chance to have a lot of cover. some good people were for that on both sides. let me ask you about newt gingrich in this race. is it good for the party to have a three-way when it should come down to a two-way at some point? >> it's not for me to say. these guys have poured incredible amount into this. they all believe in what they are doing and what they are advocating. it's not for me or frankly anybody else to tell them to get

out. >> do you think if somebody doesn't get a majority of delegates before the convention, there should be a real debate at the convention? or should there be a brokered convention? if nobody has the majority, should there be a brokered convention where you look at outside possibilities? >> what you would have there -- >> on the second ballot there would be. >> you have willful people who sought delegates. it would be a wide-open convention. we have not seen one, chris. i don't know if it would come out well or poorly for the party. i don't think it's very likely for all the reasons about what you're more expert than i am. >> can romney beat obama? >> yes. >> can santorum do it? >> i think anybody do it. >> can santorum? >> it depends on the campaign they run.

entirely on that. a lot of republicans are wrestless right now. given this economy, which is very weak no matter what they say, you have record low percentage people of working today. it's the weakest recovery we have ever seen from a recession like this. add on gas prices, add on the mounting debt, add on obama care, which fewer and fewer people like. i always say it would be really hard to lose an election to president obama. but we have just the team that could do it. >> did you see the poll numbers i gave you? obama is ahead substantially. >> i don't think these things mean much of anything right now. it depends entirely -- it's not so much a question of the who we nominate as the what. what is it that we offer america? do we have the confidence in the american people to say, listen, we are facing a truly-serious problem. it's not a philosophical problem. it's all arithmetic.

here they are. >> let me give you two statistics you don't need help with. more than men, women count in these elections. the republican party is getting bad pr on that lately. somewhat because of rush limbaugh and somewhat because of the blunt amendment going after the contraception issue. they say why are the men telling us what to do? 10% for the first time ever this coming november will be hispanic background. mitt romney has gotten so far right on that issue. are you guys blowing a lot of numbers you shouldn't be with women and hispanics? >> yeah, potentially. let me take the first one. i pish my teammates would stop taking the bait. they didn't bring up this whole contraception, morning after issue. the president did what i think

was a radical trespass of freedom. his department sprung this on us. the argument was incidental. it should have been where does the government get off telling people what they will provide? the fact that something is a right doesn't mean that my neighbor should have to pay for it for me. i have a right to own a gun, but i don't expect somebody else to buy me one or be made to by the government. and i think honestly, my teammates were trying to talk about the big issues. >> women don't take it that way. you look at the polls. what women take it as your party is telling them whether they should get financial help to pay for birth control, which obviously, men and women are both concerned with. but women say this is an invasive thing to be told by men in politics. you can't have this covered where other things are covered in health care. you know the issue. >> chris, i'm not disagreeing with you. just as i think some of my

friends here are pretty clumsy when it comes to connecting with average people. something that's not hard to do if you like folks and work at it. some of us do. they are also clumsy about issues like this. the invasion here was the invasion of peoples' rights by the federal government. the right answer would have been, what's next? the health club memberships? >> we have to go. the only thing i can tell you is rick santorum said at the beginning of this campaign last fall he wanted to bring up contraception as a major issue. he thought it was an evil in our society and wanted to talk about it seriously. it wasn't just the left. but you have a point in terms of the bill. thank you very much. i really respect what you're trying to do. up next, newt gingrich doesn't have much rational for staying in the race? that's coming up in the sideshow. you're watching "hardball," only on msnbc. [ male announcer ] capri sun has 25% less sugar

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back to "hardball." now for the sideshow. first up, southern strategy. newt gingrich lost two primaries in his backyard and ignoring calls from his own party to get out of the race. he's the reaction from the folks at "the daily show" last night. >> rick santorum won alabama and mississippi and mitt romney won hawaii and american so sa moe away. why won't gingrich quit? because if you think about it, he's actually kind of winning. >> between santorum and myself, we'll get over two-thirds of the delegates. >> but you don't get to add

santorum's stuff to yours to sound impressive. between me and lebron james last night, we scored 3 36 points. that's not your total. >> well didn't gingrich have the same people that called for the dropout? if they split the vote, this is romney's game. up next, there's a big fight off on capitol hill coming. it's on renewing the violence against women act. democrats are painting republicans resist tense to the bill of another example of hostility towards women. that's ahead. you're watching "hardball," only on msnbc. wake up! that's good morning, veggie style. hmmm. for half the calories plus veggie nutrition. could've had a v8. last season was the gulf's best tourism season in years.

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good afternoon. i'm tyler mathisen with your cnbc market wrap. the dow up 58. the s&p higher by 8 points. today's employment news helped put investors in a buying mood. applications for weekly jobless claims down 14,000 to a fresh four-year low. however, producer prices posted their biggest gain in five months. apple hit the $600 a share mark before pulling back ahead of friday's new ipad debut. that's it from cnbc, first in business worldwide. now back to "hardball." more than one in three women in the united states have experienced rape, physical

violence, or stalking but an intimate. partner this their lifetime. and every year close to 17,000 people lose their lives to domestic violence. so once again, this is not just a family matter. this is a matter of life and death. >> welcome back. that was minnesota senator amy cloeb sure pushing the case to reauthorize the violence again women act. it's a bipartisan bill, but many republicans are upset that the new version of the bill includes proversions they have problems with. they question the motives of democrats. two senators who support the legislation is joining us tonight. we begin with maria cantwell. what's the fight over here on this? why is this bill zooming through, especially in this political environment? >> that's what women want to know. they want to know how something

that's been so bipartisan in the past that's usually passed with great bipartisan support may not meet its deadline for being reauthorized. after the debate on planned parenthood and the blunt amendment, women are saying, what's going on? >> one of your colleagues on the other side, jeff sessions, he's against the new version of the bill. he said "i favor the violence against women's act and have supported it over the years. but there are matters on the bill that invite opposition. you think they might have put things in there we couldn't support that they could accuse you of not being supportive of fighting fie vooi lens against women? he's accusing you of putting stuff in the bill that's purposely put in there as a poison pill. i totally misstated that. he's accusing the democrats of writing a bill republicans can't sign on to. >> no, listen. there are provisions in here

that are part of this legislation from previous reauthorizations. these issues about making sure who are in the country get protected so they can be part of the prosecution's case against domestic violence. that's not something new. that's been in the legislation since 2004. so the real issue is if we want to get it done, and if people have opposition, they can express their opposition. but let's make sure we get it done so law enforcement has a tool. over a million women a year. let's make sure law enforcement has the tools they need. >> has there been fraud in the case of this? the immigration aspect of the bill? >> i have looked at the statistics and they have denied cases of giving people visas and certainly i think there are protections in place. and let's not forget, some of these cases, and the case of my state of washington, these were

women who were brought into the country for male-order bride organizations and find out that the person that brought them into the country for some grand idea of marriage turned out to be, in one case, the woman was killed. so these are protections for prosecution to give these women, who are victims, the ability to testify in court and make sure they are there as opposed to just letting the violence continue. >> so it does involve human trafficking, this part of the bill? >> you're bringing up another point. there's another bill caught in the same debate on human trafficking. we want to see that bill moved too. >> thank you. we'll have another senator on. thank you, senator. susan collins is a republican from maine, of course, and a cosponsor of the bill. thank you, senator, for coming on. what do you make of the fight between the two parties?

what's the republican opposition about? >> well, first of all, i can't believe that this issue is being used as a political football. it's extremely important that we extend this law and look at how this bill began, chris. originally, it was introduced by a democratic senator, a liberal senator from vermont, and a conservative republican from idaho. so how did this bill, which had such widespread, broad support end up being a political football? it's really totally unacceptable. >> who is playing politics? democrats or republicans? >> i have to say i truly think the democrats are. and i say that as a supporter of the bill. as someone who represents a state where more than 50% of the murders every year are due to

domestic violence. but this bill started out in a bipartisan way and it doesn't make sense for republicans to be opposing the violence against women act and they are not. the bill has some controversial provisions in it. we should have a free and fair and open debate on the senate floor and get the law extended. >> i want you to respond to something on chuck schumer's motives. he believes he's found a political weapon in the unlikeliest of the place. the violence against women act. republicans have objections, but instead of making changes, schumer wants to fast track the bill to the floor and let the gop block it. then allow democrats to arepublicans of waging a war against women. your reaction? >> well, unfortunately, while i can't speak for senator schumer's motives, that certainly seems to be what's happening.

i think that's a real shame. because this bill matters. it matters not only to women, but to children and to men who are being battered. if you read scott brown's book, for example, you know there are people growing up in terribly abusive households. so it is important that e we extend these programs that are so helpful to so many. >> okay. thank you so much. up next, you probably know mitt romney once strapped his dog to the roof of his car for a family vacation. what does it say about mitt this story won't go away? this is going to be in his o by the. but it happened. and this is "hardball," only on msnbc. four walls and a roof is a structure. what's inside is a home. home protector plus from liberty mutual insurance, where the cost to both repair your house

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i'll be honest with you. i sit there and say what was he thinking putting the dog on the top of the roof? >> welcome back to "hardball." that's a santorum strategist doubling down on his earlier comments that mitt romney's judgment is questionable because he took a 1-hour car trip with the family dog tied to the top of the roof. the politics of the story made the front page of "the washington post" and gingrich hit romney on the dog issue in an ad that was released before the south carolina primary. here goes. >> i have a yellow lab named winston. i would no sooner put him in a kennel on the roof of my car.

what were you thinking? >> this was an airtight kennel. mounted on the top of our car. he climbed up there regularly. enjoyed himself. he was in a kennel at home. we loved the dog. we had five kids inside the car. my guess is he liked it better in the kennel than he would have liked it inside. >> you have to wonder about who wants to be in an airtight anything and how do you know a dog is comfortable? the website dogs against romney sell bumper stickers that say "i ride inside." here's the number that may cost romney politically. 43 million households own dogs in america. that's 34% of the u.s. households in the country. dana milbank is a "washington

post" columnist and jill zekman joins us. what do you call the thing when you can outlive outlive it. statute of limitation. this one's almost 30 years old, this guy. he must be thinking, i can't even remember putting the dog up in that crate on the roof, and when he got diarrhea and he had to hose down the roof, and it was one of his kids, tag, who put the story out in the first place. dana, this story has legs. >> yes, four legs. and i think this is going to hound mr. romney, so to speak, for -- >> are we barking up the the wrong tree here, or what? >> and we're just giving him rough treatment this evening. but i am one of those households that has a dog. in fact, my goldendoodle is in the control room right now and is a dog against romney. >> is he or she offended by this treatment, have you checked? >> deeply offended by it. but what you have to understand is, you know, a lot of people in america treat their dogs as if they're there children.

there are even seat belts in cars now for dogs. you can get the special equipment for them. so it's a -- i mean, a lot of people laugh about it, but it's not only that large number who have dogs now, a large number have had dogs before. and they're going to look at this and say, that's just weird. that's something alien that i can't understand. it so goes beyond the whole canine world to say, this guy is a little bit different from a normal person. >> well, follow-up on this, jill. i want you to follow this. back in december, a "wall street journal" reporter asked romney to give him his side of the seamus story. i want you to listen to his reaction. let's listen. >> love my dog. >> that's it? >> that's all i've got for you. please, i've had a lot of dogs and love them and care for them very deeply. >> i don't even know about that, have had a lot of dogs. it's not numerical, it's about loving one of them. you know, jill, people talk to their dogs all the time. there is a relationship. what's this guy going to suffer for this, as this gets around

again? >> well, this is not going away, chris. i mean, it's not the kind of thing you go out and have a press conference about, to try to answer all the dog questions, to make it go away. i mean, it's just going to be there. and it reminds me a lot of when john kerry went wind surfing at nantucket during the 2004 campaign. it wasn't something that you could make it go away, really, it just dogged him for the rest of the campaign. and it fed into an idea about him. >> well, it's dogging him, it's got legs. watch this, here's the seamus story being covered by david letterman. it's turned into a recurring bit. let's listen. >> we have a brand-new segment tonight, ladies and gentlemen, it's entitled, what's mitt romney's dog tied to today? >> the st. louis arch! [ dog barking ] >> well, he's not going to shake this story.

dana, you're the expert at at satire, you're the new guy on the block. is this going to be like the story that got roosevelt elected for the fourth time. like nixon's dog, checkers, that got him through the scandal. is this going to be lbj holding up his poodle by the ears -- his beagle, rather. >> that's the problem, it's sort of the reverse checkers now. and of course, you've got this extremely well-treated dog in the white house right now, who travels on air force one. in fact, when the dog soiled the carpet of air force one, the entire carpeting of the aircraft had to be replaced. so you see, there's some disparity in treatment here. >> as opposed to the dog being replaced. >> well, here's the white house doing it. let's listen. a recurring bit here. campaign strategist david axelrod actually tweeted this picture of president obama and his dog, bo, riding together inside a car with the message, "how loving owners transport their dogs." so they're playing the angle from the other side. and the obama campaign is

recruiting, quote, pet lovers for obama, with advertisements like this. so this is going to go on and this is real. jill giving it a lot of thought. dana, food for thought. when we return, let me finish with the dishonesty or whatever you want to call it of glenn beck. you're watching "hardball," only on msnbc. l over my old 401(k) into a fidelity ira. man: okay, no problem. it's easy to get started; i can help you with the paperwork. um...this green line just appeared on my floor. yeah, that's fidelity helping you reach your financial goals. could you hold on a second? it's your money. roll over your old 401(k) into a fidelity ira and take control of your personal economy. this is going to be helpful. call or come in today. fidelity investments. turn here. who have used androgel 1%, there's big news. presenting androgel 1.62%. both are used to treat men with low testosterone.

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let me finish tonight with this. glenn beck is a nincompoop.

i talked the other night about the catholic as well as the mormon religion being viewed as cults in the south. i talked about the fact that many who hold this view are voting for mitt romney because they view president obama as a muslim. beck, either out of stupidity, hardness of hearing, or malice said that i was calling my religion and the mormon religion a cult. i make beck's dishonesty a matter of record, because sometimes people hear something from even someone like beck and take it as having an element of truth. well, everyone who watches me says i've never said a word critical of the lds religion or my own. i've taken on members of the religion and will continue to do so. beck is out there saying something absurd, that i don't believe in my own religion. he's saying something i resent more than i've ever said. i owe my start in politics to a couple of people of the mormon faith. when i first got back, i went knocking on door on capitol hill. i wanted to get started as my career in a speechwriter. the young guy who hired me was

wayne owens. wayne had been a top campaign worker for bobby kennedy in his campaign for president. he later become senator ted kennedy's top floor assistant when kennedy was a member of the senate leadership. later, senator moss got me a job on the united states senate budget committee, when it was first created, he made a call that got me on the job when it mattered the most. why would glenn beck go on the radio and rye to say something about me that is so patently untrue? good question. i hope he corrects it. if he listens to my words at least one more time, he should discern that i was not knocking his religion, i was knocking the bigotry against both his religion and mine. i assume the people watching knew that, because they know me. i go by the voting patterns which i see right there in the polls and the sad fact is, there are a lot of voters out there, especially in the south, with views about the candidates' religions, which is just as i described it. and that's "hardball" for now. thanks for being with us.