citizen united definitely had a become a big deal, because for lot to do with it. some reason republicans never get in trouble for stuff like this. howard, great to have you with even when democrats do. us. thank you. i appreciate it so much. likely to never become a big deal but you should know is going on in american politics today. that's this. this is where mitt romney is howard fineman of the holding a super big-dollar fund "huffington post" that's "the ed show." raise tonight in texas. we want to thank the great dane pub here in wisconsin. you can't go unless you give the "the rachel maddow show" starts now. republican party $50,000, or you >> thank you, i know it's been a long and exhausting night. bundle together, $200,000 in donations. we're looking forward to having if you're the kind of person you back home. that can put your hand on that give everybody my best while kind of money for republican you're there. purposes you're the kind of >> i'll do that, thank you. person who can dine tonight at >> thanks to you at home for staying was. this mansion in texas with mitt for the next hour as our romney, under two paintings by election night coverage continues live, when the adolph hitler. wisconsin election night started hitler's paintings, european quite a few hours ago now, we all thought it was going to be a city scenes, apparently, and long fighted this and we were prepared for it. also an original signed copy of a book, signed by hitler i had chocolate for dinner. himself. turnout in wisconsin was neat! reported to be huge all day and they are among the items on that was expected to benefit the democrats. display from the personal so even if the polling heading collection of texas conservative billionaire har harlan crowe at into today's voting put the his mansion where mr. romney

republican governor scott walker hosts his richest donors. ahead and consistently ahead, well, maybe there's big turnout means that democrats were it was in the "dallas morning news." evening it up. evening it up on election day nobody is saying that harlan with these big turnout numbers. crow or mitt romney is celebrating hitler. when we saw the exit polls today, the answers to the all they're doing is eating surveys of voters after they dinner and raising money under were done voting in wisconsin the watchful eye of the hitler today, we saw those and it, paintings, alongside the other again, seemed like it was going to be a long night and those exit polls showing an incredibly paintings in his collection from lots of other famous people. close race. they showed that union imagine what the rite would do households in particular, were out in force. union households voting in a if that were the president obama making that decision instead of higher proportion of the a republican? imagine! )93g electorate may have been voting in 2010. and they're voting just as heavily as they did in that previous election for democrat tom barrett over scott walker. exit polls also showed that women were voting in favor of tom barrett by a significant margin. two indicators that made it seem like we would be in for a really long night and we had always planned to be on live tonight at midnight eastern but, frankly, the way we were talking about this nerng e thing in terms of planning our coverage we were not sure we would be able to

tell at this late lour, right now, after midnight on the east coast, who had won this governor's race in wisconsin. that's how close this race was looking. possible all-nighter. maybe even ""the today show"" tomorrow morning couldn't help you out with the results. or maybe the recall of governor scott walker would be decided in a matter of 49 minutes. 49 minutes. 49 minutes after the polls closed in wisconsin. nbc news declared scott walker the projected winner. on track to beat tom barrett, the democratic play of partly cloudy, once all the votes were counted. it didn't even take an hour. and then 24 minutes after that, nbc news projecting that the republican lieutenant governor, the first lieutenant governor to face recall anywhere in america, rebecca kleefisch, would also win her recall election over her democratic challenger. so a huge win for the republicans in the state of wisconsin and a real disappointment for the democrats who felt they had a chance of taking back the governor's

offers before the end of the governor's first term. they thought that even though their candidate, tom barrett, never led once in the polls after he became the nominee. meanwhile, the balance of power in the wisconsin state senate is still being decided tonight. in addition to the governor and lieutenant governor, democrats put four republican state senate seats up for recall today. the highest profile of the races, the biggest challenge for democrats in the effort is an effort in the most conservative district in the state. to recall the incumbent republican state senate president, scott fitzgerald, the effort to replace him with the political newcomer on the democratic side, with 82% in, lori compas. scott gets ger wrald has a lead. and in district 21, van win guard is facing former state senator, john lehman, the man he beat in order to win the seat in 2010.

with 22% of precincts reporting in that senate district. wanggaarb is beading but just 22% in. incumbent republican senator terry moulton, against cristian desk dexter. leading by 16 points. at 58% and his democratic challenger, 42%. and the final republican seat up for recall, no incumbent republican. the incumbent republican senator quit rather than go through the recall. it's now this republican state representative, jerry petrowski and he has a comfortable in the president 1458 election in 2008 in the great state of us wisconsin, barack obama beat john mccain by 14 points in wisconsin on his way 20-point plus lead but the to winning the presidency. marquee race for governor is it was not close in the badger state.

it was a democratic blowout. garnering national attention. that was 2008. at his election headquarters, then, just two years later, in governor scott walker tonight, 2010 in wisconsin and in what very, very happy, obviously, was a bright red year across the with tonight's results and country, in wisconsin, voter looking ahead to the day after the election. turnout fell by 20 points, compared with the presidential >> tonight, we tell wisconsin we race. tell our country, and we tell and voter turnout people all across the globe that disproportionately fell in democratic districts. voters real will you do wanted republicans turned out again in leaders who stand up and make 2010, but democrats really did mouth. the tough decisions. almost a million fewer people voted in wisconsin in the 2010 race as compared to 2008. and as a result, republicans just ran the board. republicans in wisconsin, they but now it's time to forward. won the state assembly. they won the state senate and republican scott walker won the governorship as well. a few minutes ago i talked to republicans had a complete lock mayor tom barrett. on state government after that brought red 2010 low turnout no, no, i talked to the mayor election. now, scott walker said during the campaign if he were elected governor he planned to a hard because gain with public workers and said i'm committed to work in wisconsin in terms of trying with you to help the city of milwaukee and the state of to achieve savings and balance

wisconsin. the state's budget and, at tomorrow the election is over least, cut spending. and it's time to move wisconsin forward. once he got into office, it turned out to be a whole different thing. public workers in the state >> for his part, in milwaukee, pretty quickly agreed to every financial demand that scott at his headquarters on the walker made of them. democratic side, mayor tom barrett of milwaukee, conceded all the salary cuts, and layoffs the race tonight. he said he hoped that the energy and furlows and changes to from the recall effort will pension and health insurance continue to carry forward. contributions, all the things >> i just got off the phone with that scott walker asked of them that had a monetary value, 2458d governor walker and congratulated him on his victory have an effect on the state's tonight. budget, public workers said "yes" to and agreed to the concessions but governor walker decided he wouldn't take "yes" we agreed that it is important for an answer. he had a different idea. governor walker and the for us to work together. newly-elected republicans in we are a state that's been wisconsin with complete control deeply divided. and it is up to all of us, our of the state government, decided they were after something much bigger and demanded that public side, and their side, to listen, workers don't just give up the to listen to each other and to financial concessions they agreed to give up. they demanded they give up their strie to do what's right for rights. everyone in the state, to those their union rights. public worker had already made of you who fought, who obtained every concession and agreed to give up everything he asked for. signatures. the only thing they hadn't who stood out in the cold, who

agreed to was to commit did what you thought was right, proverbial suicide as an organization. never, ever stop doing what you and the republicans answer to that was, actually, yeah, we think is right. need you dead. it does not matter what you it is my sincere hope that all offer in material terms, the of us here that all of us here only thing that matters to us is will remain engaged and for that you no longer exist. those of who have been involved this was not what republicans ran on but this is what they did for the first time or the 20th time i hope you got the same when they got into office. they never warned anybody this energy from this as i did. was going to be their approach but once they got there, that was it. >> this is dan boois, political they blindsided everybody. and the result was chaos. columnist for the "sentinel." it was just statewide chaos. weekly protests started at the let me ask you about the state capitol in madison. similarity in the two candidate's speeches. they started with crowds of about 30,000 very cold people. both governor walker and his defeated challenger, tom that quickly turned into 70,000 barrett, saying we need to work together. people, just a few days later. we need to listen and actually that 70,000 people then turned put this sort of divisiveness into 100,000 people the week after that. reflected in this election these protests against the behind us. republicans kept going on for you expect a gesture towards weeks and then for months in that from both sides. wisconsin. do you think there's any hope of the democrats in the state that kind of change in tone? senate fled the state amid do you think there's any threats that the republicans

bipartisan impulse in that might deploy state troopers to direction after what the state's just been through? drag the democratic senators >> no. from their homes and forcibly i think, you know, there will be bring them to the state capitol a limit bit of this for the next couple of weeks or maybe the to force a quorum so the next month. republicans could do what they then we'll roll into the wanted to do. presidential elections. democrats fled beyond the reach of the state patrol. and i think after that, governor they fled the state. they fled across state lines, walker will use the power and out of wisconsin and into illinois. influence he has from this and they stayed there for weeks. election, and he'll try to make and even with no quorum, because the democrats were gone, without wisconsin, as he has already, a the quorum, with no apparent legal way to get it done, the laboratory for conservative ideas. republicans in wisconsin in >> is there any sense that, i march of last year, just decided to get it done anyway. guess -- is there any sense that governor walker will admit that? i see that, too. i was talking earlier tonight with other pundits who were sort of saying, maybe this is a chance for governor walktory go >> at this time i move to adopt and sort of may talk back to the center or anything. the -- i think he now runs for >> excuse me, mr. chairman, mr. chairman, i have a question president, essentially and goes as hard as he can? >> yeah. i don't think that he's -- i about the open meetings rule being violated. don't think leel look immediately for some sort of national office. we were not given two hours

notice. >> this is a violation of law. he doesn't have the credentials this is not just a rule, it is for foreign policy experience or the law. anything like that. there must be -- mr. chairman, i think his plan is going to be to do what he wants to do. this is a violation of the opened meetings law. that is to implement a conservative agenda for the it requires at least two hours state. and through the collective notice. >> what have you done? bargaining changes, he's helped to undercut the funding source for democratic politicians in >> excuse me -- the state. if you look at where tom barrett raised most of his money, even though he was not the choice of >> that was how they did it. labor unions that's where he got his money. by hook or by crook and in an atmosphere of utter chaos and there was a report in the "wall street journal" saying numg ber lawlessness in wisconsin, they of people who belong to the main public employee union in did it. wisconsin is down by more than the republicans pulled it off. 50%. they got rid of union rights in the state pretty much in which these groups are not going to have the money to put up a solid they were born in this country. candidate against him the next and republicans all across the time he runs. country looked at what they were doing in wisconsin and all of a knowing these things, i don't sudden they new they had hey new see why he wouldn't go ahead and push forward with his agenda. brass ring to reach for. >> that's been my analysis about what's being going on in this this is the chart that gives fight from the beginning. this is about structurally life meaning, at least, this is the chart that gives life changing wisconsin and i think meaning for people who have been the republican party would like engaged in this fight. to change as much of the country

in this mold as they can so certainly, for republicans who democrats can't compete. have been engaged in the fight they know what this chart means. republicans can counts on a lot this is charts of the biggest of business-community money. outside spending groups in the last elections. the democrats have been only able to put up union money to the top ten outside spenders in compete with that if that goes the last elections, in the 2010 away because unions go away, elections. that's it. game over. of the top ten, 6 of 10 are is there any sort of, i guess, plan even within wisconsin, for giving to the republican side. the democratic side to recover, look at that. number one, two, three, four, now that they're already seeing public sector unions have their they're all giving to the republicans side. they're corporate groups in legs cut out from under them? corporate-funded groups. >> i think there was so much hope put into this race. 6 of 10 top 10 and all 4 of top 4. the public unions put their the majority of the money going money on the wrong candidate to to the republican side, corporate money. begin with in the primary. the only three groups in the top and after they lost there, they ten giving to the other side, kept a very low profile. the democrats, are well, these but they continued to put money three. in with tom barrett. what do these three have in common? with the party, it's going 20e6 -- there's going to have to be some major overhaul and changes see? for them to figure out how they're going to be a viable this is the key to everything for the republicans. this is the thing i can't party within the state. believe hadn't become the and i don't think that scott national narrative about this fight in wisconsin. walker thinks about these things in terms of where the it's not a personality thing. republicans and we're going to

follow the money. defeat the democrats this way. i think he sincerely believes he's doing the right thing and this is the brass ring. whole enchilada. the ball of wax, the big kahuna. the right thing will probably the end all be all. be, major tax cuts. this is everything for them. that will probably be the next thing. they know it. i listened to -- i went back and only thing democrats have been able to come up with to compete listened to his debate from with the big outside money on 2010, with tom barrett and he the corporate side all going to the republicans, the only meager mentioned repeatedly that he competition the democrats can wanted to cut taxes in the state. offer the republicans at the all, in terms of big money in that's one thing he hadn't done. campaigns, is from the unions. and "right to work" that at the the republicans are winning, but last debate he declined to stay the only competition the democrats are giving them are whether he would veto that if it from unions. reached his desk. if republicans can kill downyons, then, well, if there might be some smaller republicans can use policy to things that he offers that are kill unions there will no longer conciliatory. be two sides competing when it but he's won the game. comes to big money in politics. there's no reason for him to it will all be republican money. have to offer any olive branches no matter who the candidates to the democratic party, long are, no matter what office or what the election year. term. >> any expecting conciliation to a certain degree, no matter from this point forward has where in the country you're talking about, republicans will missed what happened thus far. be running unopposed, forever. dan bice, political columnist. after this scott walker union

your paper took an editorial stripping law was rammed through position in favor of scott in wisconsin in the midst of all the state chaos, indeed, in walker and in that context, your wisconsin the unions started to columns about the subjects, whither away. specifically on the technical, it was phat. strip union rights and this is makeup of the wisconsin what happens. electorate, even within that context, have been more the changes in some of the biggest unions in wisconsin. right? important than almosting in else i read in terms of understanding this law has only be there for a the other side of the fight. year and look what it's done dan, thanks very much. already. strip union rights and you make >> thank you very much. unions go away. that's what this law is designed >> besides all the results, from to do. the big night in wisconsin, make them go away as there's a ton of other stuff to organizations. report including a weird tobacco and that does directly hurt the people in those jobs. affair with california which it but more importantly, perhaps, turns out doesn't smoke? maybe the bigger picture here, and the u.s. claim of a really is that it makes sure that the big deal, killing of a reported organizations that help enemy of the state. democrats go away, it makes sure please, stay tuned. that democrats can't ever compete again in elections. ean, homeowners insurance the right, of course, is doesn't cover floods? ecstatic about this possibility. [ heart rate increases ] a documented $30 million flowed man: a few inches of water caused all this? to scott walker for his recall campaign. [ heart rate increases ] woman #2: but i don't even live near the water. johnny nickels reporting, nationwide, right wing money what you don't know about flood insurance may shock you --

including the fact that a preferred risk policy flowing into wisconsin to support scott walker. starts as low as $129 a year. this is the brass ring. for an agent, call the number this is not just to win now but that appears on your screen. forever. grab it. you have got to succeed at this! free-credit-score-dot-com'sur boargonna direct you ♪ts ♪ and this is how that ended up looking inside wisconsin. ♪ to check your credit score before it gets too late ♪ this is what the money ended up looking like in this recall ♪ and you end up strapped for cash ♪ election that ended tonight. ♪ patching your board with duct tape ♪ this is to scale. ♪ so hit free-credit-score-dot-com ♪ on the left, the big circle? ♪ find out what credit's about ♪ that's the overall amount of ♪ or else you could be headed for a credit wipeout ♪ money that went to the scott walker side. the red part is the portion of that money that's from out of state. so as you can see a vast majority of the moun is from out of state. the smaller orange portion offer applies with enrollment in freecreditscore.com™. there, that's what he got from actually inside wisconsin. scott walker is a nationwide cause celeb on the right for obvious reasons. but the most important thing here is that maybe less about the inside the state, outside the state split, than it is about the relative size of the two circles. on the right, that tiny limit circle, that's the democrats.

that's what democrats were able to put up to compete where the nationwide right-wing cause celeb that is scott walker and his plan to reshape wisconsin and, hopefully, national politics forever. the vast majority of the money that went to democrats as you can see, confirm wisconsin. but it's the size of the circles that made the difference in the end. they have outspent, roughly, 8-1. with the republicans having that spending advantage and with the democratic side having sustained the damage that they already sustained and are continuing to sustain and will continue to us scott walker side running ads starting at christmas time and thanks to the recall calendar, the democrats not even getting a named candidate until last month, so scott walker having the state's airwaves to himself for months while the state, we now learned, was making up its mind in this. the recall of scott walker side, had been trying to roll this

recall boulder and we know they didn't make it. one year after republican governor scott walker began his journey to eliminate union rights in wisconsin, one year after scott walker turned to the to your kids' wet skin. state of wisconsin into the neutrogena® wet skin kids. epicenter of american political ordinary sunblock drips and whitens. neutrogena® wet skin cuts through water. conflicts, he has managed to survivor his recall election. forms a broad spectrum barrier scott walker has become the for full strength sun protection. first governor in american wet skin. neutrogena®. history to face a recall election and to win it. and the question now is -- what does this mean for the rest of the country? what does this mean to republican politicians all across the country who has seen what scott walker has done in wisconsin and seen him survive it? not just survive it but see his status elevated within the republic party? what do you think he stands for in the republic party now. he's not only a cause celeb in republican politics but he's shown the rest of the party, at least one way to do it, right? destroy union rights in your state using public policy. get there by hook or crook and

you can there by, destroy the unions. if you destroy the unions you can make republicans untouchable in every election at that point forward with no perceived way to reverse it. suddenly, no structural apparatus on the democratic side that can compete. we're a few minutes past election day on the east coast. about quarter past midnight here the rum party has a new brass and legs day meant wisconsin voting on a slate of recalls but ring to reach for. it also meant new jersey and montana and new mexico and south dakota and iowa and california th this election tonight may where polls closed over an hour ago. have just been one recall in california, voters considered election for one governose whether to add a dollar to the cost of a pack of cigarettes. a new cigarette tax that would raise much for cancer research. california already has the second lowest smoking rate in the nation. and the last time california raised taxes on smokes was by a voter referendum 14 years ago. so you'd think that california might be disposed toward this is idea. but this year, a $50 million campaign by big tobacco has been doing some big-dollar magic on the electorate.

supports for the cigarette tax dropped 14 points over the last couple of months. once the tobacco company advertising onslaught really geared up. at this hour in terms of results on that race in california, california proposition 29, a yes vote, to add the $1 tax to a pack of cigarettes and with so% of precincts reporting, just a four-point margin between the yes and no votes. 52% voting yes. 48% voting no. again, only a fraction of those votes are in yet and people will be watching california proposition 29, the cigarette tax very, very closely. in montana, you might remember the democratic state attorney general we had on the day to talk to him about his fight against citizen united. steve bullock. he had been favored to win the democratic primary for montana governor. republicans has to pick who to run against him. polls closed a couple of hours ago and in terms of what we know on the democratic primary said side, the projegted winner is

steve bullock been projected to have a big win. former congressman ric hill had been the favorite. right now with 89% of precincts reporting, the republican primary in montana for the governor's race with ric hill leading with 35% of the vote. in new jersey, democratic congressman versus democratic congressman, redriking in new jersey meant that only one of these incumbent congressmen, big pass skal or steve rothman could survive. both democrats and both incumbents. the districts in question is a safe democratic district. whether or not it was a factor we'll never know but the race was kind of a proxy is rematch of the obama versus clinton primary in 2008. bill clinton supported big pascrell and as a thank you, president obama in a more low-key way supported the other

guy, steve rothman. steve rothman smorted president obama in that '08 primary. in new jersey, mr. pascrell ran away with it and steve rothman will lose his seat in congress. but the overall wlakiest and illegal thing going on in electoral politics going on this week is not in wisconsin or any of these other states. it's really been what's happening in california. if wisconsin was not also going on in the same day this would have been the story everybody was fix stated on. >> dianne feinstein's race, as you know she's the senior democratic senator from california and been in the as a matter of fact a long 250i78 and she's the incumbent and running for re-election. all sounds normal, right? look at the ballot that she was running on. these are the names scrolling up here that was on the ballot. for senate. california changed its rule so in a race like this there's no democratic primary and a republican primary and then the

winner of each of those primaries runs in the general election in. the new way california is doing this, is that everybody runs all at once. everybody, all in the same primary, doesn't matter what party or if you're the incumbent or anything else. doesn't matter how many people from each party, everybody runs at once and the top two finishers, whoever they are, run against each other in the general election. presumably, dianne feinstein came in with a good shot at being one of the top two finishers here. who will she run against? there's 23 other people on the ballot. one of them has to be on the ballot with her in a general election? it could be a general election between the democratic ", senator feinstein versus one of the peace and freedom party people or it could be dianne feinstein, the democrat versus some other democrat in the general election. the thing is, none of the other 23 people on if ballot have made a statewide splash. one of them has to end up on the

ballot and none of them have any name recognition at all. the closest anything any of them have to name recognition is, oh, my god, orly taitz. she's famous for being the -- spent is whole obama presidency leading the charge on the birth certain cal charge. because of that sideshow reputation she happens to be the only person on the ballot in california, other than dianne feinstein with any name recognition at all. and with this new "everyone at once" primary that they're trying out in california, that means, as "the san francisco chronicle" said -- polls taken by robo call show feinstein with a wide lead. trailed by a strange assortment of single-digit rivals in some cases let by orly taitz. it could happen. the way california set it up,

the republican senate candidate in the most popular state in the country really could be the dentist birther queen! you the breathe. at this hour in this crazy race we're showing senator feinstein clearly coming in first. senator feinstein, as expected in first, fleld by run elizabeth emken. orly taitz hanging in there maybing a go of it running 6 of 23 right now. i tell you this about california republicans flirting with making their senate nominee the dentist birther queen. i tell you this, a, because it's true and i want to assure my friends in wisconsin that as your intentionity reached it's apex today as crazy as your wisconsin politics have come and look to be going forward, i mean it when i tell you, you are not the craziest. you might not even be the craziest thing in american politics at this moment.

back with our special coverage on this recall election night. nbc projecting scott walker as the winner in wisconsin over his democratic challenger, tom barrett. scott walker is the third u.s. governor to face recall in american history and the only one to have survived it. joining us now, john harwood. and "new york times" political writer, thanks for being here, appreciate your time.

>> hey, rachel. >> the polling ahead of the election showed scott walker ahead. tom barrett never led in any polls leading into this. especially in the exit polling today, it looked like it was going to be very, very close. in the end, it was not very close. do we know yet what happened? >> i've been trying to figure it out myself. we were expecting a long night. maybe not even a call tonight. not until the morning. and you know, you kept watching the returning come in and the pile got bigger and bigger and walker was up double digits and now, the latest numbers seen show about ten points maybe a little bit less, which is larger than his margin in 2010. so i'm quite surprised and don't know exactly what was often the measurement. whether there was a participation problem with people supporting walker not responding to the exit pollsters. that's always a possibility but i haven't heard it explained yet. >> in terms of the other unexplained thing connected to

the exit polls here, the other sort of thing we're still trying to figure out, whether it's a measuring thing or whether it's a confounding result, are these very positive numbers for president obama turning up in the exit polls. even as the state decides to keep scott walk her this electricity rat. the preference for obama over romney was an 11-point split. the president getting much better numbers than romney on the economy. what could explain a pro-obama,/pro-walker split decision like that? >> i think some voters don't like the idea of recalls on principal and it's possible, by polarizing, by party and ideology, for some voters to feel favorably disposed to scott walker on issues different from ones that they would judge president obama on, remember, they're both incumbents overseeing same economy. some of the economic discussion

tilted towards walker talking about how things are going better in wisconsin. that might have benefitted president obama. but, again, i think we did not know and if the exits showed a closer race than was actually measured by the vote counting, that might suggest that president obama's edge may not have actually been 11 points among those that showed up. >> it will be interested to see thousands parsed. and the exit polls are shared among multiple news organizations so it will be interesting to cease them get parsed over the next couple of days to figure out what's measurement and what's wacky. john harwood, thanks for staying up late and joining us. i really appreciate it. >> you bet. >> lots of other important nonwisconsin-related stories going on, including the story about the adolph hitler paintings in texas. hitler paintings, texas, and a connection to the presidential race. that story is next. stay with us.

an unexpectedly quick result tonight from the recall election in wisconsin. exit polls all day had suggested that the margin was going to be tight. that it was going to be a long night waiting for a result from wisconsin because it was going to be so close. but ultimately nbc news made their projection in this race early.

it was less than an hour after polls closed that nbc news projected that republican governor scott walker would be holding on to his governorship. interestingly though, out of the same exit polls been they also showed a vast majority of wisconsin voters saying that they made up their minds how they were going to vote months ago. if that is true, that means that the state was making up its mind how it was going to vote tonight months ago while democrats were still messing with their own primary in the race when democrats didn't even have a candidate. so, scott walker had the state's airwaves to himself. he was airing tens of millions dollars worth of ads to recall him and that's before the democrats even got into the race. where tonight results came from and what they mean nationally and, also, the really big news from the white house today that got overshadowed by all the politics. that's coming up. stay with us. ♪ surf's up everybody get your boards and your wetsuits ♪

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so on a day like this in politics the one giant story tends to suck all the air out of the room and monopolize all the coverage but that doesn't mean no other news is going on. today, news in wisconsin was amading. the prospect of orly tachlt aitz

the birther -- dentist and displaying paintings of adolph hitler. this was overall a news day that would not quit. on national security terms, after about a day worth of very tentative speculation, that it might have happened but there was no confirmation, a finally today the white house did confirm the death of one of the last people in al qaeda who was a big enough deal to have a major press profile in the west. the american officials are confirm this is death came as a result of this week's american drone strike in pakistan. here's "the new york times" profiling him as al qaeda's rising leader in 2008. here's foreign policy magazine profiling him as the next bin laden in 1999.

and the guy number go, zawari and after he moved up to number two to be the top guy, who would place up zawari? this g. the guy the white house says today, that the united states has just killed. >> i can tell you that our intelligence community has intelligence that leads them to believee qaeda's number two leader, is dead. i can't get into details of how his death was brought about. but i can tell you that he served as al qaeda's general manager, responsible for overseeing groups day-to-day operations in the tribal areas of pakistan. and he managed outreach to al qaeda's regional affiliates.

there is no now clear successor to take on the breadth of his responsibilities.ishat this is not the first time this guy has been reported dead. but if, in fact, if intelligence the bourn out and they killed the second in command, the operational chief 069 whole organization, then it is not overstating the case to call this announcement today a major, majoral qaeda. this is a big deal. and 52 u.s. senators recorded "yes" votes concerning the "paycheck fairness act" extending protections for women who are paid less than men for performing the same work. 52 senators voted yes. that means it's the majority in a normal world but in the united states senate the minority republicans have, instead, filibustered everything. so even though this democrats had the majority, the republicans blocked it with a filibuster.

president obama released a statement on it calling today's vote, quote, incredibly disappointing. that in this make-or-break moment for the middle class senate republicans put partizan politics ahead of american women and families despite the progress made over the years, women to continue to earn substantially less than men for performing the same work. that's been interesting to see republicans this year try to not have the fight be about whether or not -- not have the fight be about how we can remedy the pay did sparity. the republicans have just started denying that there's any pay disparity what is over. the president saying women earn substantially less than men for performing the same work calling the factual question that republicans have now moved into denying. also, in pretty strong language. calling this a "make-or-break moment" and "partizan politics" the president taking a clear advocacy stance.

and mitt romney is refusing to take a stand either way on the bill. and every republican in the senate voted against it today. every republican in the senate voted against it, including scott brown of massachusetts. scott brown veeted against paycheck fairness for women which should go over great in massachusetts this fall. mean while, we're stilling to hear on the important voter suppression situation in the state of florida. as we reported exclusively here on the show, on thursday night, the justice department wrote to the state of florida that night and demanded they stop purging voters off the state's voter roles. the justice department said to florida, they had not asked for federal clearance under the voting rights act to go ahead with the purge and the state might be violating the national voter registration act by purging voters off the list too close to a federal election. that letter gave florida until tomorrow to respond. the justice department wants

them to stop the purge, but so far, republican officials from florida, including the state's governor, ric scott, have not made any public noises to the effect that they'll stop the purge in response to the justice department's demand but depend f depending on what the state does in the next 24 hours, this issue about florida's voting purge and this confrontation with the federal justice department over it, this will become a big deal. set your google news alert on that. lastly, what is never likely to