the party. they're very fired up about him. but you know what else he brings into the party is written on paper, ending medicare as we know it, medicare, food stamps. does romney really want to sign onto that? >> i don't see who the good choice is. dana milbank with the last word. you can have the last word on our blog and follow my tweets. "the ed show" is up next. good evening americans. welcome to "the ed show" tonight from new york. republicans don't want to take credit for a war they started. have we seen this movie before? oh, yes, this is the ed show. they are trying to manufacture, for example, this phony republican war on women. >> the four-star generals and the war on women claim there's no war at all. >> talk about a manufactured issue. there is no issue.

tv. >> terri o'neill and congresswoman tammy baldwin is here. >> the right wing smear machine is touting out an old favorite. >> they try to scare white voters away from barack obama. there is a major racial divide in how whites and blacks view the trayvon martin killing. and there is major news in the investigation of george zimmerman. and karl rove is warming up the death star. >> the record needs to be set straight about what this administration's policies are. the american crossroads attack machine is officially fired up, and it's going to get ugly. good to have you with us tonight, folks. thanks for watching. i guess the key word here is "manufacture." it is the denial that is so amazing. the republican leader in the senate continues to toe the line for the gop. senator mitch mcconnell said

there is no war on women and believes his female colleagues in the senate would agree. >> talk about a manufactured issue. there is no issue. senator kay bailey hutchison of new hampshire and susan collins would be the first to say we don't see any evidence of this. >> really. mcconnell should check with members of his own caucus before he makes that kind of a statement because senator olympia snowe has called it a retro debate. senate kay bailey hutchison expressed concern for planned parenthood, who her party wants to defund. lisa krakowski from alaska -- >> it makes no sense to attack women. if you don't view this as an attack on women and you need to go home and talk to your wives. you need to talk to your daughters. ask them.

>> so can we come to the conclusion that the leader in the republican party doesn't want to sit there and listen to his own caucus? is that what we're going to do? are we going to sit there and believe these three republican women are certainly totally off base and have no clue? well, let me tell you, senate rt olympia snowe has called the battle a retrofit. fortunately for mitch mcconnell the republicans party true leader threw him a lifeline and echoed his talking points. >> they're trying to manufacture, for example, this phony republican war on women. >> the republicans attack on women is extending beyond health care as dnc chair debbie wasserman schultz points out the gop is taking aim at women's economic security. >> the policies that have come out of the republican party saying that we should have to have a debate again over contraception and whether we should have access to it and whether it should be affordable.

saying like governor scott walker in wisconsin, he tried to quietly repeal the equal pay act. women aren't going to stand for that. >> in 2009, wisconsin ranked 36th in the nation in terms of jernt pair -- gender parity. then came the equal pay enforcement act. the law makes it easier for victims of wage discrimination to take their case to court. a year later, wisconsin climbed 2 -- to 24th in gender parity. but wait, thursday scott walker repealed that law. but there's no war on women. not everyone thinks walker's agenda is a bad idea. glen growthman who pushed for equal pay repeal explained the right wing logic to the daily beast. you could argue that money is more important for men. i think a guy in their first job maybe because they expect to be is

a breadwinner someday. maybe a little more money to attribute everybody to a so-called bias to the workplace is not true. can you not believe how these folks think and why growthman openly advocating to turn back the clock in wisconsin, one prominent walker supporter has kept quiet. who? mitt romney. he's called him a hero and man of courage. he supports walker's anti-union agenda and even though he backs the ryan budget, mitt romney believes if his campaign can win on the economy, he can win women voters. >> women are really struggling in this economy. and i believe that the way we're going to get women voters in our side of the column is by talking about how we're going to get this economy going again. >> but now that a fellow republican has gone after women's paychecks, now that a fellow republican has made it more difficult for women to be compensated fairly, mitt romney isn't so willing to go before the american people and advocate

for women's economic security. he's not willing to take a stand. mitt romney remains silent. get your cell phones out. i want to know what you think. tonight's question -- can republicans make the war on women go away by pretending it doesn't exist? text "a" for yes, text "b" for no to 622639 or go to msnbc.ed show.com. we'll bring you the results later on in this show. i'm joined by tammy baldwin of wigs wis. congresswoman, good to have you with us tonight. appreciate your time. equality. that's really what we're talking about, equality for women in society. we're talking about jobs. we're talking about health care. in the state of wisconsin they have repealed a law that would make it -- would force the state to make sure that women get paid properly in the workplace. how can the republican party recover from this? >> well, it's shocking. all these things that we thought

were very well settled, equal pay for equal work, settled decades ago, access to birth control, settled decades ago, we see these issues being relitigated today. and it is shocking to me. women make important decisions all the time about their own health care, about their family's health care, about education, about their family budget. people have to start trusting women, and i have to say these comments you've been sharing with your viewers tonight from republican leaders show how just out of touch they are with wisconsin women for sure. >> what impression does it leave on you when you have mitch mcconnell saying exactly opposite what three women in his caucus are saying? >> well, it just shows me how out of touch he is. in wisconsin, women are absolutely aghast.

they can't believe in the state of wisconsin that we have seen a measure to bring justice for women who don't get equal pay for equal work repealed by our state legislature and signed into law by the governor. and they look at the debates that are occurring in congress and the state legislature, for example, over access to birth control, and they say, really? we can't believe that this is being debated again. this is settled as far as we're concerned. and when are you going to start focusing on jobs and economic growth and fairness and justice again? speak of manufactured issues, the focus ought to be on getting our economic growing again. >> that seems to be the bullet point right now, that every issue that's brought up about women and equality in our society and laws that are being proposed or being struck down, it's all manufactured. what's your response to that?

>> well, you know, i have seen in this particular congress over and over again partisan manufactured games-playing and manufactured crises. if you look back over the last year, we see us going to the verge of shutting down the federal government over whether to extend a middle class payroll tax cut? we see us getting very, very close to not making our debt obligations, making good on our debt obligations, over an effort to gut essential programs in the federal government. i mean, time after time we see a manufactured crisis, one that could be completely averted. and as i said, when i talk to wisconsin families over and over again they say, birth control? really? are you seriously debating that in this day and age? they want us to get back to business. they want us to understand what they're going through right now,

you know, in this tax season as people are preparing for filing their returns, they want to see tax fairness, which is why i introduced the buffet rule. when we're talking about getting people back to work, they want us demanding a level playing field. that's what they want us focusing on, increasing the middle class. and they see this as preposterous, especially when it focuses so much on women. trust women. women have made responsible and important choices for as long as we know. trust women. >> thank you, congresswoman. tammy baldwin with us tonight on "the ed show." now, let's turn to terry o' neil, president for the national organization of women. mitch mcconnell says he doesn't know what members of his had own caucus are saying. >> i guess we should be grateful he knew the names of the women. he isn't listening to what they are saying. clearly senator snowe, senator

hutchison -- senator murkowski who had to apologize for voting for the amendment. snatsor murkowski caught huge blow back in alaska from independent and republican women when she went home for the weekend after casting that vote. mitch mcconnell is not listening. >> can mitt romney afford to avoid this issue and let the sound chamber and people in the senate say it's all manufactured and it's no big deal? >> no. and being in denial is not going to make the war on women go away. but the republicans can make the war on women go away, and here's how they can do it. it first of all, they can all take a birth control pledge and say, i promise to do everything i can to enact policies that will make birth control available universally to women throughout the world. the country. every woman should have it. take the birth control pledge.

take the pledge not to cut social security or increase the retirement age or be stingier with the cost of living adjustment on social security, which is still being murmured about inside the beltway in washington. take that mraej pledge that you're going to protect social security. we know that women rely on it. take the pledge to roundly condemn scott walker for going after female public employees' collective bargaining rights. he exempted the state troopers, police and firefighters from his anti-collective bargaining law so that that law would only affect the nurses, the teachers, the social workers, and the home health care workers. >> terry o'neill, great to have you with us. the bottle rages on. remember to answer tonight's question at the bottom of the screen. share your thoughts. thursday, i'm going to have an exclusive interview with vice

president joe biden in exeter, new hampshire. he's giving a speech on tax fairness. one of my favorite subjects. coming up, race will be a factor in this year's election and anyone who denies it is ignoring the facts. conservatives are bringing up reverend jeremiah wright. dr. james peterson joins me on that. mitt romney, karl rove and the koch brothers are just getting started in the effort to bring down president obama. i'll talk about the citizens united coming up. stay with us.

we have an update on the story we told you about last week. the bill and melinda gates foundation has announced it will end its support for a.l.e.c. the right-wing group. the gates foundation has given nearly $400,000 to a.l.e.c. over

the last couple of years but no more. the gates foundation joins a long list of big name donors leaving a.l.e.c. including kraft, pepsi and intuit. coming up, righties are using jeremiah wright again to bash the president? i'll ask dr. james peterson if it will work. breaking news in the trayvon martin case. george zimmerman is asking people to donate money to his legal defense fund. the martin family attorney is here to respond to that. share your thoughts on twitter. ! [ mom ] what? shut the front door. right? woop-woop! franklin delano! [ male announcer ] hey! there's oreo creme under that fudge! oreo fudge cremes. indescribably good. has been because of the teachers and the education that i had. they're just part of who i am. she convinced me that there was no limit to what we could learn. i don't think i'd be here today had i not had a wonderful science teacher. a teacher can make a huge difference in a child's life.

he would never give up on any of us. thank you dr. newfield. you had a big impact on me. and who ordered the yummy cereal? yummy. [ woman ] lower cholesterol. [ man 2 ] yummy. i got that wrong didn't i? [ male announcer ] want great taste and whole grain oats that can help lower cholesterol? honey nut cheerios. welcome back. jeremiah wright is back. the birthers are back. the race, no doubt, is going to be a fact oor in this year's election. here is what missouri congressman lisa hertse l l said

when asked about president obama's birth certificate. >> i have my doubts about all that. i don't know. i haven't seen it. i'm just the same place as you are on that. you read this and read that. i don't understand why he didn't show that right away. if someone asked for my birth certificate, i say here it is. i don't know. they say it's real. >> the congresswoman later tried to soften her comments saying she was confirming this issue has been raised by many of her constituents. congressman cliff sterns of florida has also raised doubts about the president's birth certificate. the flack over his birth certificate has always been a way for conservatives to portray president obama as the other, so to speak. reverend jeremiah wright had some controversial things during sermons he delivered this weekend. the right wing is jumping all over it. wright hasn't been president obama's reverend for four years. when dan rather said race would be a factor in this year's election, some conservative

web sites blamed the media for stirring up the conversation. here is what dan rather said. >> let's not forget that race will be factor in this presidential campaign. yes, the country can feel good about we elected a person of color, which i did not expect do see in my lifetime, but race will be a factor in this. >> according to a new poll race relations are still a problem. 89% of blacks and 72% of whites say the country is either very divided by race or somewhat divided by race. only 40% of whites believe president obama has been helpful in bridging the racial divide. let's turn to dr. james peterson, professor at lehigh university. those polls show some pretty interesting numbers. great to have you with us tonight. i appreciate your time. >> thanks for having me. >> those polls show race as still a problem and the president gets mixed reviews. what do you make of it? >> i think the polls are accurate, and i don't think we need the polls to understand the ways in which race has been

rolled out over the course of this last year. let's take a look at some of the big public cases. let's look at the republican presidential case, you get the n n-word, the food stamp presidency, the disrespect of juan williams, you get let's tell bla people or black people to earn their money instead of getting assistance from the government. race is already being injected here. i take issue with the fact that race in and of itself has to be a negative conversation. we need toe have progressive and positive conversations around the issue of race. yes, we have a long way to go so saying it's a factor, you know, it's so obvious to me i don't see why people would look to make a big issue about it. obviously, it's factor. >> we're hearing about jeremiah wright again. i just can't believe that. does anyone care about this? i mean, i'm bringing it up because the right wing is bringing it up. and the reason we have to talk about how rotten and how filthy they are and how low they'll go

and they'll make any comparison they possibly can. >> sometimes we use the euphemism of red meat that politicians throw out to the base to get them really riled up. because jeremiah wright was so elect tri-fiving in the election season, they will try to go back. fox will especially try to go back to him as much as possible to try to recapture that energy. they are trying to raise their base up. get folks interested an negative politics. those statements by jeremiah wright were taken completely out of context. those folks on the right say we live in a free country and say what you want to say in the pulpit or whatever. they should be standing behind jeremiah wright. he served his country. the context of that sermon made a lot of sense in if america is going to be a certain way, god will render judgment on it. there's nothing more christian than that, right? >> the birther nonsense keeps coming up again and again. but republican party has shown very little leadership on this

issue. you know, when it comes up, well, he says he was born in america. you know, that's what it says on the birth certificate, but we're really not sure. >> absence of republican leadership on this issue, they take the same tone when they are trying to endorse or not endorse mitt romney. it's very lukewarm. it vacillates between what they really think and what they're trying to say politically. the bottom line is, we can't allow the right the ways to dictate the way the discourse around race moves forward. we've got to be more constructive. in a year of davis and martin, we can't let the folks on the right distract us with these crazy ideas about even to mention race or try some of these serious issues means we're race-baiting. we're trying to make progress. >> are we making progress? we look at the laws being passed in this country. we see the polling numbers that are out there.

we see the hatesters out there on the president questioning his citizenship, you know, his faith. >> yes. >> it's just -- >> it's disheartening sometimes, ed. it's disheartening, and i feel you on that. but, yes, we are making progress. barack obama is the president. but when we make those kind of huge leaps in history, there's going to be some backlash. we have been dealing with a lot of that backlash in presidential politics and in the political sphere. and sadly we're dealing with some issues in the public sphere, around police brutality, not abolishing the death penalty because we don't understand how bias and prejudice it's been historically. there's a lot of work to do. your show is about that work. you know i'm about that work. we can't allow the right to just sort of cast a negative cloak over discussions about race because we can't move forward and move beyond some of the historical things we've been dealing with. >> great to have you with us tonight. coming up -- a new development in the trayvon martin case fuels speculation about a possible arrest.

george zimmerman is showing he won't go down without a fight. his new web site highlights an act of vandalism against a university's black cultural center. a martin family attorney joins me next. . >>. >> and respect i think has left the building. a sitting republican senator tells his twitter followers that president obama is stupid. you mean the last guy wasn't? stay tuned. [ male announcer ] fighting pepperoni heartburn and pepperoni breath? fight both fast with new tums freshers! concentrated relief that goes to work in seconds

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the special prosecutor investigating the trayvon martin case in florida has pulled the plug on a planned grand jury hearing. this means prosecutor angela corey is taking full responsibility for deciding whether or not to charge george zimmerman, the man who shot trayvon martin. the grand jury has been scheduled to convene tomorrow by the former attorney in charge of the case, norman wolfinger. he recused himself last month and spoke about outrage over the conflict. corey's decision to skip the grand jury hearing indicating zimmerman will not be charged with first-degree murder since florida law requires a grand jury in those cases. he could still be charged with a serious felony like manslaughter. trayvon martin's family is encouraged by the development. their attorney benjamin crump released this following statement -- we are not surprised by this announcement, and, in fact, we

are hopeful that a decision will be reached very soon to arrest george zimmerman and give trayvon martin's family the simple justice they have been simple justice they have been simple justice they have simple justice they have seeking all along. meanwhile, zimmerman is reaching out to his supporters online. that's right, the shooter. he's set up a website to solicit donations for his legal expenses and bills. progress reports tonight, zimmerman's site features a picture of a black cultural center at ohio state university that was vandalized with the phrase "long live george zimmerman." i'm joined by the attorney representing george zimmer. thank you for joining us first of all. >> thank you. >> can you respond to that website and what george zimmerman is doing? >> we've always believed that mr. zimmerman is entitled to a full defense. you may not know this, but i'm also president of the

national bar association. i'm for everyone having their day in court and a proper defense. i think this family all along has only wanted civility in this case. they continue to want a fair, public trial. that's what's important that we have in this particular case. at the end of the day, i think . so he must stand his day in court. if he believes he has a defense, he should put on that defense. >> but he is playing on the emotion of hate on his web site to get money to defend himself. >> well, you know, we've always said there's no place for hatred in america. this particular family, the martin family, believes that there's no place for that. we should all be together. there should be civility. these situations should be handled in a court of law. that's what we believe to this day. >> so he wants people to pay for his living expenses, help his legal situation financially and he puts that up on his web site.

i think it speaks volumes about how desperate they are and trying to gin up emotion to get people on his side. it's very sad. the other thing is the cancellation of the grand jury. what does that mean? >> well, it means that angela corey has taken control herself. you never know who is on the grand jury. with the case now in her hands, she gets to do a direct filing. she gets to examine the evidence that her investigators have collected. then she gets to make a decision. we have all the confidence in the world that she is going to do the right thing and file the charges against mr. zimmerman. >> okay. so you think she's going to make an arrest in the near future? >> well, we sincerely hope and believe she's going to do that. we believe that all the evidence that she could ever need leads directly to him being arrested and convicted. >> did you think there was going to be a grand jury?

were you surprised by this? >> i wasn't surprised. as a matter of fact, you probably saw some of the interviews that the legal team has done in the p.a. we knew there was real possibility that she would go ahead and do a direct file. in fact, fu listen to her interviews, she sort of was hinting at that all along, that there was a real possibility she may do that. it was not news to me at all. >> how soon do you think an arrest will take place? >> it's hard to put a finite number of days. >> this week? >> we're hopeful it will be this week. >> and student protests force the sanford police department to close for a few hours today. how important are these continued protests to keep the case moving forward and visible? >> they're very important. it keeps the consciousness of everyone on getting justice for trayvon. and, as long as there's a reminder there, everyone knows that we need to move in that direction. so i think it's the collective

energy that we have experienced here that is helping this thing keep its momentum and getting it to the proper day in court. >> darryl parks, appreciate your time tonight. thank you for joining us here on "the ed show". the record needs to be set straight about what these administrati administration's policies are. >> bush's brain is joining up with team romney to destroy the president. howard fineman on today's big news from american crossroads. a united states senator tries to degrade the president on twitter with an insult and gets busted. we'll show you the tweet. republicans in congress take the war on workers to a whole new level. you won't believe who is behind this web site. [ male announcer ] this is genco services --

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that's good morning, veggie style. hmmm. for half the calories plus veggie nutrition. could've had a v8. what ? customers didn't like it. so why do banks do it ? hello ? hello ?! if your bank doesn't let you talk to a real person 24/7, you need an ally. hello ? ally bank. no nonsense. just people sense. the biggest republican super pac is shelling out big bucks to

help mitt romney win the white house. with an anticipated bank account of more than $200 million officials at american crossroads said they would probably begin their campaign this month. crossroads is co-founded by karl rove who gave a sneak preview of the coming assault on president obama. >> american crossroads is about to launch its first major anti-obama blitz this month in terms of an advertising campaign. what's that going to look like? >> well, it will be revealed later this week but president obama took his campaign and about $1.4 million worth of ads in battleground states to go after governor romney on the issue of energy prices. and the record needs to be set straight about what this administration's policies are with regard to energy. >> if you want an idea of the kind of ads crossroads will run against president obama, look no further than the gas pump. >> now he's taking credit? for which part? the $5 gas or the millions of

american families struggling because of it? tell the president his oppressive energy policies aren't working for us. >> of course we know domestic oil production is at an eight-year high. the oil and gas extraction industry has one of the best rates in the country. but in the age of citizens united, crossroads can be as dishonest as they want to be. let's bring in howard fineman and sam stein. gentlemen, good to have you with us tonight. >> thanks, ed. >> howard, what does crossroads' super pac do for mitt romney's chances. we look at the polls, heck, it's april. we've got a long time to go and a bunch of money is going to be spent. how different is the landscape going to be or could it be? >> well, i think american crossroads is going to go after the president's policies but go after them in a personal way. you saw that they said in that ad that his policies are not

working for us. it's going to be us against them, the "them" being barack obama and his administration. i think they will try to put a personal tone on it. because if you look at the polling, ed, one of the places where the president remains strong among independent voters if they like him. they trust him as a person even if they disagree with him on policy. as opposed to mitt romney, he has an unfavorable rating balance with the american public. my sense is what rove is going to do with his independent group is to try to personalize it and go after the president in as nasty a way he can while keeping it on the issue. >> co-founder of crossroads joined the romney campaign as a senior adviser. is that all we need to know about how connected the romney campaign is to the crossroads outfit? >> let me say what a

distinguished panel to be on. >> who signs the checks in this group any way? >> neither one of us. >> arianna huffington does. >> you're right to point out there's this network with a lot of connectiveness here. it's not just -- romney's own super pac have executives who worked with him at bain, they know each other. they cannot legally coordinate, but they know what each other want in terms of messaging and strategy. one other important note on that karl rove clip you played, he was a little disingenuous there. his ad wasn't in response to president obama's ad. i think that's important to note. the amount of money that's going to come into this race through these super pacs is going to be overwhelming. it's going to be very tough to keep track of who originated the attack and how much money has been spent on it. >> there's another conservative talker in the mix.

mike huckabee hit the radio airwaves and picked up on the gas prices script. >> gasoline is twice what it was since president obama took office and so many people have given up looking for work that it may just not matter. >> well, i don't know if he's reading from a script there or if he's actually doing a radio show. howard, is huckabee going to be another important figure for the republican attack machine? >> well, the way to look at this is, if karl rove is really the quarterback here and he's got his football team spread all over the field, he's calling the signals in public. first of all, by announcing they will have a $200 million campaign. they're basically sending out the bat signal into the sky for all the billionaires to come give money to american crossroads to double-down that romney's campaign needs to raise money. rove is very close to the key people in the romney campaign such as stewart stephens,

the message guru of the romney campaign. karl rove is the past master. he's the architect. he's probably the closest thing there is to, as i said, the quarterback of what will be the opposition to the president. and i think they're all going to key off of what karl rove says in public as a quote, independent guy. because he is speak more freely than anybody else, including the campaign itself. >> sam, this is the segment that aired after karl rove appeared on fox news today. here it is. >> gas prices are sky-high. folks across the country know that, but they actually could be worse. where some americans are paying $7 a gallon for regular. >> oh, and it's all the president's fault. you've got crossroads campaign. they've got their own network. you've got right-wing radio, a new one out there reading a script. and you've got fox news working him over big-time. seriously, will the obama camp be able to take all of this on, this whole orchestration and effort? it's something that we haven't

seen before. >> i think that's probably one of the top three most important questions of this election. in ign said, listen, funnel all your money through us. we want to coordinate a message and we can do it ourselves. the question is can you survive on a campaign like that in a post-citizens united world? to this point the obama campaign has had do it because their super pac has raised next to nothing. how long liberal and progressive donors will sit on sideline is a key question to this election. you can already see that the campaign is saying, listen, it's not as much of a shoo-in as you all think it is. you see david axelrod saying complacency is terrible. you see them sending out e-mails saying, the polls show us actually losing. they're getting very, very nervous about this. >> can the obama team's super pacs spend less and still win? >> well, i think barack obama, because of 2008 and because of

the excellence of their internal organization, they're obviously going to be competitive and they're also going to raise a lot of money. the $200 million sounds like a lot from karl rove. that's just the beginning on the republican side. but the obama campaign itself will just be the beginning on the democratic side. i think union support, separate contributions will be very important. and i think the president is going to need some of thoses millionaires and even billionaires to pony up on the democratic and progressive side if they're going to match it. this campaign, i predict when it's all over, could get close to $4 billion. you heard the $3 billion number. i think it will be closer to 4. i think every big corporation in america, every interest group in america, every sector of the economy in america is going to be in with their own super pac. we've just begun what as sam rightly described it's going to be hard for everyone to keep track of let alone strategize in the middle of all of it.

the fire will be coming from all direction simultaneously. >> great to have you with us. republican senator chuck grassley calls president obama stupid. we'll show you why grassley is no genius himself. stay tuned. ♪ spread a little love today ♪ ♪ spread a little love my way ♪ ♪ spread a little something to remember ♪ [ female announcer ] fresh milk and real cream makes philadelphia and the moment a little richer.

senator chuck grassley tweets his comments about supreme court. into the big finish, darrell issa new oversight web site looks like its pro-worker but it's very anti-union. i'll ask cwa president larry cohen how they're going to respond to all of this. don't forget to tweet us. we're right back. actually, it's cruze e-co, not ec-o. just like e-ither. or ei-ther. or e-conomical. [ chuckling ] or ec-onomical. pa-tato, po-tato, huh? actually, it's to-mato, ta-mato. oh, that's right. [ laughs ] [ car door shuts ] [ male announcer ] visit your local chevy dealer today. now very well qualified lessees can get a 2012 chevy cruze ls

for around $159 per month. e.p.a. estimated 36 miles per gallon highway. how math and science kind of makes the world work. in high school, i had a physics teacher by the name of mr. davies. he made physics more than theoretical, he made it real for me. we built a guitar, we did things with electronics and mother boards. that's where the interest in engineering came from. so now, as an engineer, i have a career that speaks to that passion. thank you, mr. davies.

ultimately i'm confident that the supreme court will not take what would be an unprecedented extraordinary step of overturning a law that was passed by a strong majority of a

democratically elected congress. >> last week president obama gave his take on judicial activism. this weekend senator chuck grassley scolded the president on twitter in a very confusing message. let me help translate it for you. constituents asked why i am not outraged at president obama's attack on supreme court independent. because american people are not as stupid as this ex-professor of constitutional law. grassley is the top republican on the senate judiciary committee. it was only a year ago when grassley was preaching the virtues of restraint from the senate floor. >> those who can't get their policies enacted through the legislative process as our constitution requires often turn to the courts, but i flatly reject that notion.

the constitution vests legislative power in the congress, not the courts. judges are simply into the on twitter. maybe he should stick to wardrobe advice like this tweet about mitt romney. "everybody asking how romney relates to average person. me thinks no problem, but if so, i have answer. just leave starch out of shirt. must be farm talk from iowa or maybe he should stick to promoting his interviews with greta van sunshine? no, that would be van susteren. but whatever. maybe the senator had a couple of cool once and was just playing with his twitter. actually i think somebody should pull the plug on grandpa's twitter, don't you think? that would be the smart thing to do. in the big finish, anti-union congressman darrell issa is trying to dupe american workers with pictures of roosevelt and bobby kennedy.

larry kcohen, president of the communication workers of america is here to set him straight. ♪ [ male announcer ] aggressive styling. a more fuel-efficient turbocharged engine. and a completely redesigned interior.

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covergirl! covergirl! i asked can republicans make the war on women go away by pretending it doesn't exist? 3% of you said yes. 97% of you said no. coming up, darrell issa disguises his latest union busting tactic as a pro-worker website shows up. larry cohen of the communication workers of america responds to issa's attack and tactics on the right wing. don't forget to listen to my radio show, sirius xm channel 127 monday through friday noon @edshow and like "the ed show" on facebook. just stir it in. now it only takes a moment to make the moment. ♪ spread a little joy and see ♪ need a little happiness to be ♪ ♪ living the life ♪ need a little happiness to be ♪ i heard they found energy here. it's good. we need the jobs.

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i could get used to this. [ male announcer ] yes, you could business pro. yes, you could. go national. go like a pro. in the big finish tonight, congressman darrell issa is taking union busting to a new level and a new tactic. the richest member of congress is using your tax dollars to fund a program to eliminate the voice of workers in politics. issa set up a new website run by the house oversight committee. he is selling it as a way to listen directly to the rank and file union workers. the project is called protecting our workers. and at first glance, it looks like, hey, we have a pro-worker website out there. the home page features a picture of bobby kennedy. that's pretty union. another page shows fdr. that's really union. the purpose of the website is to attack unions and demonize their participation in politics.

issa encourages workers to blow the whistle on union political spending. darrell issa wants you to think the website is all about freedom. really it's all about issa's desire to eliminate the voice of working men and women in the workplace and from the political arena. joining me tonight is larry cohen, president of the communication workers of america. larry, i'm sure you're aware of this. your thoughts. this is tactic we've never seen before. they're going right to the workers trying to let them tell their story about how poor life is in the union family. >> first of all, they're not going to the workers i see and hear from every day. workers that are fed up with the policies of this congress. workers that are fed up with the destruction of bargaining rights in the public and private sectors across this country. also, as you pointed out he takes franklin roosevelt, the first president who said if i was a worker, what i would do is join a union.

he takes bobby kennedy who was assassinated, supporting the progress i movement of 1968 and even abraham lincoln is there who is ironically a republican, who specifically talked about the rights of workers to organize and form unions. why should the facts matter, ed? more importantly, this is the beginning of the 99% spring training. the baseball spring frtraining over and this spring training is progressives across the country, 100,000 of us, started today training each other on the economic issues of our time and our own narrative about how we talk about the economic issues of our time. this is 100,000 working people and how we will take collective action together. >> as far as darrell issa is concerned and what the republicans, the union busters out there are doing, is they're trying to present the picture that union management is shaking down workers in the workplace to create this political fund that could go out and spend it any way they want.

i need you to respond to that. >> yeah, well first of all, we totally oppose citizens united and that supreme court decision. we need to get the money out of politics. we need to restore the democracy to where every vote counts, not every billionaire counts. that's the root of the problem. that problem can be fixed. we support the constitutional amendments that would do that. and, again, that democracy is critical to why we're seeing the 99% spring training now. so we oppose any use of that kind of money in politics, no matter who it might be, but in our union and all that i know of, that's a separate fund. people give it if they want to give it. they don't if they don't. >> they're not forced to give? >> they're not forced to give. more importantly, let's get all the money out of politics and restore the democracy that we all believe in, including his money, as you said, the richest member in congress. >> why is it that the republican party, collectively, is so

anti-worker and anti-union? i mean, you heard some of the things that mitt romney has said on the campaign trail. santorum. gingrich. i mean, they can't stand what you stand for. how is that playing with workers? >> i think it's playing badly. this kind of economic polarization. it's their class war. and i think that we're going to send them a message this spring that this goes both ways. also, as you said, if you went back to the presidency of gerald ford, gerald ford actually extended the national labor relations act. health care and other workers who weren't included in it. all through american history starting with abraham lincoln until that point, many republicans if not a majority supported workers' rights even though they were economically conservative in other ways. if workers don't have bargaining and organizing rights in an economy like ours, what rights do they have and how do you restore demand in the american economy? >> larry cohen, gat