and the nice thing if you want to call it that is generally once the white shark comes up and feels you, sharks don't have hands or fingers. they can't come over to you and push on you and feel what you are. the only thing that they will have that they can use are their mouths and teeth. what the shark did is came up and he felt the kayak with his teeth. unfortunately, that type of contact, you know, leaves some scars behind sometimes. >> chris, thanks for joining us tonight. that's "the ed show." i'm ed schulze. the rach l mel maddow show star right now. >> feeling it with one's teeth. >> the dorsal fin starts the heart attack on the big guy right here. >> i know what you mean. i can't even look at a person with a mohawk, i get the same feeling. it's good you to have back. thanks a lot. >> and thanks to you at home. for staying with us for the next hour. the side effect of the fourth of july falling on a wednesday this year, you know it was wednesday of last week, side fect is that

nobody really knew when fourth of july weekend was. was it the weekend before the fourth, after the fourth? i for one celebrated both. but it wasn't really clear which was the right weekend to celebrate. one thing that is clear though now is that the fourth of july weekend whenever it was is over. we are back. today in washington, it was like the first day of school. summer's over. everybody is back and doing what they want to be doing for the next few months. the republican-controlled house back in session today. they of course, now are hard at work on their jobs, jobs -- just kidding. house republicans are naturally working on abortion this week just like they always do. another abortion ban they are pursuing for washington, d.c. gets marked up tomorrow. because you know, jobs, jobs, jobs. house republicans are also planning to symbolically fake repeal health reform again. they have already symbolically fake repealed once but there's nothing more important for the

jobs, jobs agenda than fake repealing health reform one more time. that will probably happen on wednesday. it will, of course, have, no practical effect whatsoever. but it will feel great for the republicans when they do it. they think it's good for them in terms of messaging. in terms of the presidential contest, the obama campaign right now is seriously ramping up their criticism of mitt romney as the guy who would be the only president in u.s. history with a swiss bank account. mr. romney's father who was also a rich guy when he ran for president in the '60s, he released 1 years of his tax years when he was running. his son only released one year under duress back in january. what he released showed a swiss bank account and holdings in the cayman islands which is a notorious tax shelter as well as mysterious companies holding who knows how many romney bucks incorporated in bermuda for some reason. the shadiness or at least mysteriousness of what he does with all of his giant piles of money and how it is that he

figures out a way to pay so little in taxes, that was the subject of a big investigative piece in "vanity fair" last week. another big piece by the associated press later last week and now is the subject of many attack ads. many democratic talking points on the sunday shows this weekend and this new video from the obama campaign. trying to force the romney folks to at least try to come up with an answer to some of these questions about why he's offshored his money. so far, the romney campaign response to this line of criticism is that it is "disgusting." which is a very powerful adjective when deployed in a political context but just saying the word disgusting does not actually answer any of the questions. it is probably not a coincidence that the mitt romney swiss bank account cayman island creepy zil air attack is being full-court pressed by the democrats at the same time that the democratic president is rolling out his own policy proposal that we should not renew the bush tax cuts for

the richest sliver of people in this country. the president has long said that this is the policy that he supports. but today was the day that they chose to formally roll out this as a proposal. >> i'm calling on congress to extend the tax cuts for the 98% of americans who make less than $250,000 for another year. i believe it's time to let the tax cuts for the wealthiest americans, folks like myself, to expire. in many ways, the fate of the tax cut for the wealthiest americans will be decided by the outcome of the next election. my opponent will fight to keep them in place. i will fight to end them. >> just as the house republican vote this week to repeal health reform is going to have no practical effect other than messaging for the republicans, honestly, president obama formally proposing today that

everybody get a tax cut except for rich people, that is not necessarily going to become policy just because he says he favors it. he has long favored it, but it is great messaging for the democrats. this is a really popular policy idea this is a policy idea that is even popular among republicans when you poll on it, but this question puts elected republicans in washington in a really awful spot because republicans are against what president obama proposed today. they're not against it because they don't want people to have tax cuts. they're against it because they want rich people to have tax cuts. and if the rich people don't get tax cuts they say then nobody should. everybody's taxes are going to go up unless the rich people get a tax cut. that's their position. that's harder to sustain in political debate. and the democrats know that. the whole idea is to make it look like republicans will bend over backwards to do anything for the richest people in the country even if it hurts everybody else. the whole idea of the democrats doing this is to make the republicans look ridiculous when it comes to the way that they

treat the very rich. and the romney campaign right now is doing everything it can to live up to that caricature of republicans. at least i think they are. what happened to the romney campaign this weekend was so bad, in exactly the way they do not need things to be bad for them right now, it was so bad i almost cannot believe that it was self-inflicted. in fact, i think i may believe that this was orchestrated in some way by the other side. maybe. i don't know, do i think that the left is this clever? do you remember billionaires for bush? billionaires for bush were my favorite anti-george w. bush satirical idea all through the bush years. they were the sa tire troupe that would show up to bush campaign events or fund-raisers or sometimes march through the streets professing to be billionaires in favor of president bush and his policy. for more war, for more wars. they would dress up in tuxedos and top hats and evening gowns

and carry signs that said things like taxes are not for everyone. thank you for paying our fair shea. widen the income gap. for more barpz privatize everything. look at that in the back. corporations are people, too. this was preromney saying that. billionaires for bush was sort of genius. they did survive into the obama era when they became the anti-health reform group billionaires for wealth care. they dressed up in top hats and tails and occasionally as health care industry ceos to oppose health reform with signs like if we ain't broke, don't fix it. and let them eat advil. fight socialism, end medicare now. usually these guys announce their presence. they will put out a press release. billionaires for thing something. but it maybe is possible that this weekend they were in the hamptons protesting against mitt romney without announcing their presence. maybe?

i don't know. but how else do you explain this. look at this. a woman in a blue chiffon dress poked her head out of a black range rover here on sunday afternoon and yelled to an aide to mitt romney, is there a vip entrance? we are vip. "the new york times" describing mr. romney's motorcade passing a gleaming line of bentleys, porsches and mercedes bens waiting to meet guests who paid $25,000 to hear him speak. where was this fund-raiser romney was appearing at? at the home of ronald perlman, chairman of reb lon, described as the largest estate in east hampton, it has 40 rooms, nine fireplaces and takes up a mile along the pond. this guy's house is so big, it has its own logo you apparently have to wear on your clothing if you work there. emp romney aides emblazoned with

the logo of the perlman's property the creeks checked off names under tight security. doesn't your house have a logo. a few of attendees were nice enough to speak to the media assembled there. a few cars back, ted conklin, the owner of the american hotel in sag harbor, long a favorite of the well off in the hamptons could barely contain his displeasure are obama. he is a socialist. his idea is find a problem that doesn't exist and get government to intervene he said from inside a gold colored mercedes as his wife nodded in agreement. miss simmons paused to highlight what she said was her husband's generous spirit. tell them who is on your yacht this weekend. tell him. over mr. conklin's auctions, she disclosed a major executive from miramax was on the 75-foot yacht because she said there were no rooms left at the hotel. see, it's like the jesus birth story with a twist.

he's in swad ling clothes. i think these are protesters. i think those people talking from the gold mercedes, they have to be protesters. why else would you go out of your way to make sure that you told the reporter about who was staying on your 57-foot yacht while you were there to complain about the socialist and this invented problem this country supposedly has? the l. a. times in their reporting on this described the line of range rovers, bmws, porsche roadsters. one new york city donor who would not give her name said romney needed to do a better job connecting. she said i don't think the common person is getting it from the passenger seat of a range rover stamped with east hampton beach permits. nobody understands why obama is hurting them. we've got the message, she saddled but my college kid, the baby-sitters, the nails ladies,

everybody who's got the right to vote, they don't understand what's going on. i just think if you're lower income, well, one you're not as educated. two, they don't understand how it works. they don't understand how the systems work. they don't understand the impact. stupid voters. the nails ladies. college kid. you know, these billionaires for romney protesters must be billionaires for romney protesters. they covered all the news outlets too and gave the damning we are vip quote to the l. a. times. the l. a. times got the nails ladies quote. to the associated press, a former sheaf of shearson lehman brothers saying of mitt romney "i think he's a plain talking guy." the shearson lehman investment brothers guy made the comment as he chewed a cigar in his black range rover outside a romney fund-raiser expected to generate $3 million. cigar chomping? this has to be satire. look at the photos from this

thing. look. look at the caption on. a southampton police officer directs a rolls rosie arnts the protests are around the estate of david koch. actual rolls royce. an actually porsche. an actual i think second in line is that a bentley? maybe it's another rolls-royce. it's definitely behind an actual bmw. all of the coverage was from just outside these three hamptons fund-raisers because there was no press allowed inside. two cnn reporters did report overhearing what mitt romney told his cartoonishly affluent and callus hamptons audience. he said "by the way, he said the, you guys are doing fine. if you're here, by and large, you're doing just fine." see, people paying $25,000 to go to this event by and large mitt romney thinks they're all doing okay. presumably some of them are really struggling. by and large, the people at the

$25,000 a plate fund raiser are doing okay. mr. romney continued to reported applause. he said "we all care about the poor. but what we want to do is not just help. we want to help people from becoming poor. so you there in the red ferrari under a mitt romney presidency, you never become poor. i can guarantee you that. you mr. gold mercedes, have a cigar. you're not going to become poor either and you miss vip, read my lips. got you covered. my friends, becoming poor is never going to be a problem for you as long as i am in office. so that's how mitt romney and his presidential campaign appears in the press today. and today is the day that president obama dared republicans to die on the political hill of tax cuts for millionaires. and it's the day they're pushing the criticism of mitt romfully that he has offshored his millions inner the grand caymans

and swiss bank accounts. the side of the argument is the lady in the range rover screaming we are vip outside the 40-room house in the hamptons. want to know what mitt romney is doing tonight, the day after those three fund-raisers with the fur rarery and all the billionaires? he's doing another zillionaires fund raiser in aspen. but don't worry, is he turning around this whole story line, he has just announced he is going to be in london soon to kick off his big overseas trip conveniently will for the kick off of the olympics just in time to see his wife's million dollar dressage horse compete in the olympic games. there are only two possibilities at this point. either this is brilliant satire and the romney campaign is being punched and i tip my hat to the billionaires for romney who have pulled this off and combinationed these reporters you were actually rich people saying things that obnoxious about mitt romney and what he sands or or there is somebody

inside the romney campaign trying to make him look as much as possible like this yourston how well and lovy. could be. [ male announcer ] if you had a dollar for every dollar car insurance companies say they'll save you by switching, you'd have like, a ton of dollars. but how are they saving you those dollars? a lot of companies might answer "um" or, "no comment." then there's esurance. born online, raised by technology, and majors in efficiency. so whatever they save, you save. hassle, time, paperwork, hair-tearing-out, and yes, especially dollars. esurance. insurance for the modern world. click or call.

nbc chief foreign correspondent richard engel is here tonight after having just been somewhere he really truly was not supposed to be. naturally, that's how he rolls. he's here next. [ birds chirping ] [ engine revving ] ♪ hey, hey, hey ♪ [ tires screech ] [ male announcer ] with fuel economy that's best in class and better acceleration than camry and accord, you'll wish you had the road to yourself. [ tires screech ] it's our most innovative altima ever. nissan. innovation that excites. ♪ ♪ why do you whisper, green grass? ♪

[ all ] shh! ♪ why tell the trees what ain't so? ♪ [ male announcer ] dow solutions use vibration reduction technology to help reduce track noise so trains move quieter through urban areas all over the world. together, the elements of science and the human element can solve anything. [ all ] shh! [ male announcer ] solutionism. the new optimism. nbc's chief foreign correspondent richard engel is here in america, here in new york. he has just returned from syria, which is not something that very many people in the world can say right now. we are lucky to have richard here because he's almost never here. for the last decade he has

reported from iraq and afghanistan and gaza, and lebanon. at one point i e-mailed him to ask if he wanted to get together. he e-mailed back he was on his way to timbuktu because that's his life. last year watching the unfolding of the arab spring, richard's reporting from egypt and from libya was indispensable. he was in tahrir square the night the hosni mew bark rec len lynn extinguished power. in the capital city of triply, he captured this moment which made me everybody think the syrian's rebels chances of winning against gadhafi were slightly less than zero. >> after an hour and a half, we reached the rebels frontline. there are no trenls or sand bags, just men poorly armed who want to fight. the frontline is about five miles outside the town. smoke can be seen rising from

the distance. gadhafi still has thanks and artillery in the town. the rebels watch with binoculars but can't advance. outgunned, the rebels say they're killed whenever they approach gadhafi's forces. we have light weapons. he has thanks, complained one man. another rebel showed me he isn't actually armed at all. >> it's a toy gun. this is amazing. he just handed me his gun. i didn't realize till he. you the it in my hands, it's a toy. >> at that point, and that was march of last year, things did not look good for the rebels in libya. they were outmanned and outgunned, outdone. then things turned around. the air raids paid off militarily. gadhafi fled and went into hiding. seven months after richard showsed us the rebel with the plastic gun, gadhafi was captured and killed. the arab spring is now trying to roll through syria. it has been bloody. exactly death tolls are impossible to know because the regime is not publicly keeping

count of how many of its own civilians it's killed. best guesstimates put the number of dead in syria at about 17,000 people. over 16 months of fighting. even after kofi annan brokered a cease-fire agreement, the snipers and the shelling did not stop. people are still dying every day including at least 30 people killed today in homs. for 16 months, it has seemed like nothing in syria would change. but something seems to be happening now. there are increased reports of defections from syria's military. more than a dozen generals, a deputy minister, a syrian air force pilot flying his jet to jordan. the military turning against the regime defecting. "the new york times" reporting of the 80,000 young men expected to show up for mandatory military service this year, experts say virtually none have respondeded. amid those reports and at a time when it is getting really hard to get reporting out of syria

itself, richard went to northwest syria last week and says he was surprised bid what he found there. >> rebels in syria now travel openly on the main highways in uniforms carrying weapons. it was not like this just a month ago. now the rebels have safe havens mostly in the rural countryside. >> the army does not dare come out. if they do, our snipers would get them >> he this rebel leader takes us to mororra, one of dozens of villages in northwest syria where residents are now celebrating after government troops were driven out. things are changing rapidly in syria where the opposition is taking village after village. and every time they do, they throw a party just like this one. for the first time in this country, there is a sense that the rebels have momentum. >> the sense that the rebels have the momentum. that is not the way the press about syria has been in this country up until now. but richard is just back from

there. senior foreign correspondent richard engel joins us now live in studio. thanks for being here. >> how are you? >> i'm good. did you have to do a james bond crazy thing in order to get into syria. you have to go in illegally. we went in through turkey and joined up with some rebels. but the turks are giving a little bit of passive support. if they had seen us, yes, they would have arrested us. they would have sent us back inside. but i think the turks did probably see us and because there were a lot of people crossing the border illegally these days and are just looking the other way and allowing rebels and a few journalists to go in. and to give you an idea, this wasn't the first time i had been into syria, and i didn't know exactly what to expect, and now this conflict zone. so i brought almost nothing. i brought a pair of, so, one extra shirt. i wanted to keep myself very light. i thought i would be hiding under kitchen tables. i went in with the rebels at

night, we crossed to the other side. rebel flags, guys walking around in rebel uniforms on motorcycles. and i spent the next week driving around with the rebel groups from head quarter to head quarter doing interviews openly on the street, surrounded by people. we stopped for lunch on the way in between -- in between vils. and hardly saw any syrian troops at all. >> how much of the country is assad in control of then? >> i don't think very much. i think he controls the cities. and he controls the places where his troops are. but not necessarily much in between them. we went into towns where there were rebels in control of the town, but there were still syrian forces and the syrian forces were isolated to a small section of the town. don't patrol, don't leave it. i walked by a syrian checkpoint 3r50e

50 yards away and i got the same impression. the syrians didn't want to see us there because they didn't want to deal with the situation. there are defectors is leaving these outposts every single day. sometimes they are asking for the rebels to attack the outpost to give them an opportunity to escape so that their senior officers don't shoot them for defecting. >> the government side is calling the rebels and saying please attacking this outpost so that i can flee in response so i can get away from military service and join you. >> this is what some defector who's had fled were telling us. >> that is incredible. >> they're buying by the way the weapons from the defectors and from their own military. so the rebels are buying weapons if they have cash from the syrian army themselves. >> no two countries are exactly alike, but one of the things we have all watched as the various ars arab spring upricings have happened, we've been watching for the tipping point. if the military is an important institution, not just for monopoly of force but it's an important institution, when they

start going to the anti-government side, then you pretty much know that the government's going to fall. >> we saw defections every day, people showing up every day to join the ranks of the rebels. bashar al assad i think it's fair to say does not control the people anymore. he's not president of syria anymore. he's president of the army. the army that's still loyal. and that's not sustainable for very long. >> that's shrinking. >> he's pulled back to the cities. and it's easiest to hold certain parts of cities and he's been very brutal in holding them. there's now fighting in damascus because the fighting is getting closer to him. once you lose the people and all the countryside and the vils, it's a matter of time but it could be a long time. his wraeps still more impressive and the rebels don't have a lot of weapons. so it could be one of these situations where it's slow, slow, very quick but we're in a different phase of the moon than we were. >> it is good to seep new this time zone. this incredible reporting.

you'll be doing more on nightly and more on rock center. we've got an exclusive about cheating or at least what looks like cheating. the republican party doing something sketchy to try to avoid a big embarrassment for mr. romney. the wronged party is here tonight for the interview. this should be very interesting. [ female announcer ] with swiffer wetjet,

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when you lose an election, you're supposed to do this.

>> for me, a few hours ago, this campaign came to an end. for all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on. the cause endures. the hope still lives. and the dream shall never die. >> senator ted kennedy giving up his dream of running for president in 1980 after holding on until the last possible moment. in that speech, using his defeat to begin to create a new legacy. it is a classic example of making lemonade out of political lemons. and one state right now though where the republican party has been given a whole bunch of lemons, they're not only making lemonade, they are refusing to acknowledge that they lost. and nobody is quite sure how to handle that. it is a very weird situation pretty much under the radar thus far but i think it is about to blossom into a really big deal. we've got details ahead. [ groans ] [ marge ] psst.

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this year, the democrats are holding their convention charlotte, north carolina. which is a drag for lots of democrats since democrats tend to support union rights and

there is not a single union hotel in all of charlotte. who thought that one up? republicans this year are holding their convention in tampa, florida, which is drag for lots of republicans because tampa is the strip club capital of america, and republicans and strip -- actually, i don't know, maybe that's a plus for them. tampa i should note is the also the death metal capital of america. they gave the world bans like morbid angel and obituary. that's got to be a plus for some republicans going to the convention. but probably not all of them. the last time around in 2008, it ended up being really important where the republicans chose to put their convention. the republicans in 2008 put their convention in st. paul, minnesota. remember? and that ended up being really important because st. paul is one of two twin cities. st. paul and minneapolis are two cities that butt right up against each other separated only by the mississippi river. and that was really handy in

2008 because while the official republican convention was going on in st. paul, republicans that year also held a shadow convention at the same time in the other twin in minneapolis. and it was like a real convention, red, white, and blue ticker tape, a capacity crowd of adoring fans for the politics they were all there to see. even the obligatory rock song from tom petty who took legal action to try to stop them from using his music. the republican shadow convention in 2008 held across the river from the real deal was of course, a ron paul extravaganza. the ron paul shadow convention ended up being so big they had to move it into a bigger venue. >> i understand there's another meeting in a nearby town going on. let us be respectful. we have also noticed that those

in the establishment aren't very anxious to welcome us in. >> what am i doing this for? what's the purpose of all this? and in many ways, it is to send a message. >> the ron paul shadow convention across the river from the rnc in 2008 was a huge hull ba loo. a huge crowd. everybody paid $17.76 to get in. he made a ton of noise. ron paul said they were there to send a message. ultimately, what was the message? it was a lot of sound and fury signifying mostly nothing because they had nothing to do. ultimately the real republican deal was across town with john mccain and sarah palin. and none of those ron paul fans in minneapolis had anything to get done there, no matter how excited they were. this year, the ron paul campaign has not planned a shadow convention. they are doing a preconvention rally ahead of the real republican convention in tampa, but that's it. and maybe there is a reason that

the ron paul campaign has not planned a parallel we don't care you're holding a convention nearby blowout. maybe it's because this year at the republican convention, at the real republican convention, ron paul supporters might actually have something to do. quite a lot of the ron paul folks going to this preconvention rally in tampa the day before the convention, quite a lot of them are going to be in tampa anyway because they are dels to the republican national convention. and depending on what happens this upcoming had weekend, this coming saturday those delegates at the real convention who are ron paul supporters could really, really change i what is supposed to happen at the mitt romney convention. if ron paul gets the most dels as the nebraska's state republican convention this weekend, that would make nebraska the fifth state in which ron paul has accomplished that goal, getting the fleur reality of delegates. the republican party rules say that means ron paul would get to put his name forward at the convention. you know, in terms of whether or

not he should be the nominee for president from the republican party. that would mean, among other things that, paul would be guaranteed a speaking slot of 15 minutes before the first round of balloting at the convention. that means republicans don't just get to coronate mitt romney as the uncontested nominee. that means there are dueling nominations and there are a whole bunch of ron paul supporting official delegate who are going to that convention. how do you think the prospect of that happening is going over with the republican party big wigs and the mitt romney folks? if you guessed they are approaching freak out status to try to stop this inconvenient democracy in their midst, you would be right. we've got an exclusive on that next from mitt romney's home court of massachusetts, and it is a very, very weird story. that's next. you sprayed them. thought they were dead. huh? [ male announcer ] should've used roundup. it kills weeds to the root, so they don't come back. roundup. no root. no weed. no problem.

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my name is evan kenny. i'm from wakefield. i'm a new comer to the republican party at 18 years old. you know, it's going to be tough to follow after mr. baker's speech. had i been of voting age, i certainly would have support you, mr. baker. >> evan kenny as was a high school senior and i if you comer to the republican party when he spoke at his regional republican party caucus back if april.

he was trying to get a spot as an alternate del to the republican national convention in tampa in august. the man he had to follow in terms of giving a speech, the mr. baker he was saying he would have voted for had he been old enough to vote is charles baker, the republican party's most recent nominee for governor in massachusetts. mr. baker ran against democrat deval patrick in 2010 and he lost. incidentally mr. baker also lost that day in april where you just saw tape. at that caucus. charlie baker lost his bid to be an alternate delegate to the republican convention august and the person he lost to was that high school kid. who could not vote for him in 2010 on account of him only being 16 years old at the time. when massachusetts republicans got 0 together in april to pick delegates to the national convention, i think the idea was to quickly and painlessly elect a bunch of republican big wigs to go to tampa in august to vote for home state mitt romney as the party's nominee for president but that is not at all

what happened. for starters there was evan kenny this high school kid who beat the party's last nominee for governor for one of the alternate spots on the delegation. young mr. kenny and a handful supporters of ron paul beat out carrie healy who was mitt romney's lieutenant governor and the republican nominee for governor in many massachusetts in 2006 and lost to deval patrick the first time. the current republican leader in the massachusetts house of representatives lost that day, too. also long time sheriff of essex county in massachusetts lost, as well. this is mitt romney's home state. all these big name republican elected officials couldn't even win plays on state delegation to go nominate him. he was the republican governor of massachusetts and the next two people who tried to be the republican governors of massachusetts after him, sorry, you didn't make the cut. there's a high school senior who's got more support than you. the whole ordeal was very

embarrassing for the romney campaign. they had chosen a nice slate of romney supporting delegates who they thought would get rubber stamp approval and they would support him at the convention. these caucuses turned out not to be a rubber stamp an probable kind of deal. after the caucuses in april, the boston globe record less than half the delegates that the romney campaign had chosen actually won their spots on the delegation. the people won instead were in large part ron paul supporters enthusiastic high school kid and all. that is when things got messy. the party declared out of the blue in a way they never had before and in a way never mentioned in their rules that all the officially selected delegates from massachusetts this year would have to sign this affidavit. they would have to swarl under the pain and penalty of perjury that they would vote for mitt romney at the republican convention in august. some of the ron paul fans among the delegates balked at the affidavit.

it's reasonable. what if something happens between now and the convention, romney gets his name pulled for some reason. massachusetts would have these guys legally bound to vote for him no matter what? that doesn't even make sense. the dels proposed an alternate pledge that was less specific and changed it so it would pledge them to follow the party rules, not to follow mitt romney as a named person. apparently the alternate affidavit was not good enough. the state party threw these guys out, even the ones who did turn in the affidavit were told they were out. they didn't sign it quickly enough. evan kenny and 16 other officially elected delegates were disqualified by the state republican party even though they won fair and square. they were disqualified as dels for failing to deliver the i pledge myself to mitt romney affidavit or for delivering it too late. so their own rules, their own duly conducted election be darned, the republican party came up with a whole new rule after the fact to keep the ron paul supporting rebel out.

and when they kicked out evan kenny, the high school kid, wouldn't you know it, they decided they wanted to give his spot instead to, the guy who ran for governor. who evan kenny beat pair and square. joining us now for the interview is evan kenny. he's a ron paul supporter. it's great to meet you. >> it's an honor to be here. >> you wrote an excellent e-mail when we first covered this little scandal. i'm grateful to you for reaching out. how did it feel when you won, when you beat out some of these really bold-faced named republican in your state at that caucus? >> let me say first of all that charlie baker the speech that you just showed when i said that i'm an 18-year-old newcomer to the party the first hands to clap belonged to baker. charlie baker and luke noble were very excited to see this enthusiasm in the party. they did try to send charlie baker to the convention but he said no, absolutely not, i lost.

>> even though they're trying to give him your spot, he's saying this is not fair. >> he's saying no. >> what was your reaction to being given that legal affidavit saying that you would vote for mitt romney under the pain of perjury? >> my reaction was okay, i didn't know the rules. i didn't know the affidavit had never been done before. i was like i pledge to do that at the caucus. that's all that's required in the rules. i was ready to send it in till someone pointed it out to me, my mom. she said you can't swear under pain and penalty to swear not to do something in the future. i said you're right. maybe i should it be careful. we decided to accepted in an affidavit that says we're going to follow massachusetts general law and the gop rules which means we'll vote for romney on the first ballot. >> that was not enough. >> even if i got it in on time. >> what was their explanation once did you turn in the affidavit that you turned? for why you couldn't go? >> two weeks later at the state

committee meeting june 12th, had i signed that original affidavit. that's the third pledge. i gave it directly to the chairman of the committee who kicked me out and he sent me a letter signed with his name in ink three days later that said that romney for president ink had just cause and irrefutable evidence that i would not vote for mitt romney on the first ballot. i had a legally notarized pledge. i pledged three times to vote for mitt romney. i will be happy to represent the voters of massachusetts and vote for romney on the first ballot at the convention. >> why do you think they're doing? i mean, they're giving these legalistic explanations. what is your sense why they are doing this? you told the globe you feltd that you had been rudely waninged to the realities of politics. does that mean you think they are doing this for a reason other than what they are saying? >> maybe. i don't know i will say that this is the republican leadership in the massachusetts

gop. they don't represent richard or charlie baker. she's people reached out and said bring the youth movement to the republican party. these are only a few corrupt power brokers in the leadership who want to keep the party to themselves. they're don't care it's only 11%. they just want to keep the power. >> forever in terms of the ron paul movement, and he's had a lot of different aspects to his career some of which i find repellent, some incredibly exciting. in 2008, in particular, 2007 until now, he really has spoken to young people in a way that other republican politicses have not. >> he's 76 years old. >> saying listen, all of these young people are interested in the message. they treat me like a rock star because what i am talking about. if the republican party wants to capitalize on my young voters, why don't you look into my message. why don't you think the

republican party will do that? i feel tlan expublicly hostile to the paul supporters. >> the real republican party is me. the real republican party is charlie baker, these people copping out to represent the republican oath not to represent george bush and rush limbaugh but the republican oath which holds principles of sound money policy, free enterprise and even equal rights in the republican oath. >> i've heard of those. >> that's why i'm happy to say i'm a republican. i'm not the republican that george bush represents. i'm the republican that the republican oath represents. >> you are having to fight tooth and nail to be recognized by main line republicans in terms of what you just said. they ought to be really happy to have you. thanks a lot. good luck to you. evan kenney elected as alternate del for the republican party. see republicans, it's safe to

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♪ and we're here to drop a rhyme about free-credit-score ♪ ♪ i'm singing free-credit-score-dot-com ♪ ♪ dot-com narrator: offer applies with enrollment in freecreditscore.com. republicans won everything in wisconsin in 2010, they won the governship with scott walker, the legislature, they won this republican majority in the wisconsin state senate. and they used their political wins in 2010 to strip union rights in wisconsin. democrats responded by trying to recall the governor with -- which did not work but the democrats did recall the state senate. it took them two rounds. in the first round they recalled two republican senate senator who's had voted to strip union rights. that left them one vote shy of a majority. then there was a republican resignation in narnlg gave democrats an even split in the senate. they were sharing power 50/50. last month the democrats won it. democrats recalled another

republican state senator which gives the democrats an outright majority of the senate. so wisconsin republicans still have the governorship, still the state assembly but they have lost the senate. and for a party that spent more than a year fumbling away their unilateral control of the state, state republicans sounded kind of okay with losing the senate. the old republican boss of the senate said "whatever they want to do that's within their purview as the majority. another republican newly in the minority of the senate now said "it's not a big hit. we're going to have the majority back in november." it is true, come november and the general election, half of the seats in the senate are going to be up for grabs in districts that the republicans drew to their own liking back when they had total control of the state so it is going to be tough. it's also true that the wisconsin legislature is not scheduled to meet again until january, which is after those november elections so yeah, sure, let the democrats have the senate for summer vaekz. they can throw beach balls

around, play ping-pong. we don't care. you want to see which wisconsin republican did not get that memo? it's this guy, the guy who lost. state senator van advantagegaard lost the see the to a democrat. he is not letting this go. first he called for a recount which he got at some expense for local taxpayers. last week that showed him still losing by just over 800 votes. rather than concede, he said the recount had raised questions about suspicious activity at the polls. and as all of this is going on, republicans in wisconsin who have lost control of the state senate are not giving up control of the state senate. wandgaard said he might sue. it would make him the new widened of the funnel for money

pouring into state coffers. is that he won't let it go, the money? is it because it's embarrassing for senator o the senator himself to have lost and if so, why drag it out for longer and getting more attention? why keep flailing instead of making a dignified resignation and going on vacation somewhere without internet? is it because democrats pite lose their majority to look at how republicans drew these new districts in wisconsin which they have been trying hard to keep secret? then what, blame the former senator for their predicament. it is a mystery. the thing to watch is that the deadline for this senator to make up his mind is tomorrow. if he chooses to sue, then his race stays undecided officially for now. we do not know why republicans in wisconsin have not yet conceded control of the senate. it is