going to lose. the republicans themselves don't like him, why would they expect independents or anyone else to like him. they're trying to sell something nobody really wants. >> keith boykin and alicia menendez get "the last word." thanks for joining me tonight. >> thanks, lawrence. up next, hardball with chris matthews. the army of the night, let's play "hardball." good evening. i'm chris matthews in washington. let me start with this tonight. i have this feeling about this presidential election between barack obama and mitt romney. it's not just about them, it's about the armies behind them. the people who share in their victory also in their defeat. look at the army of the night riding behind the presumptive republican nominee. it's an army of war hawks, of

neo-cons for lack of a better word. they bring war with them in every election. an agenda of a country they want us to fight. people voted for w, they got iraq. why? because the army poised behind the uninformed ill-read w knew what he didn't. when 9/11 struck, they struck. this time it's iran. but don't think they're going to end it there. these old cold warrers haven't been happy since the berlin wall fell. they want another big one with russia, with china. listen to romney's words. he didn't write them himself. he'll say what it takes to get the right wing behind him. but the right wing will follow him right to the white house. they will grab the levers of military power like rumsfeld and cheney before them. and they will use them. you can bet on that. joan walsh writes for salon. an msnbc political analyst. joan, you're laughing because you know i'm telling the absolute truth. there is an army of john boltons out there and all these people. they have nothing else to do but get jobs in a new republican

administration every ten years or so, or 12 years in which they can push for their latest war agenda. they are absolutely consistent. here's the question. who wins if obama loses? let's start with the neo-conservative mitt romney and his foreign policy team, including noted neo-con john bolton. willing to fight on every front. he was romney speaking yesterday in unapologetic terms. that's a phrase they love. >> i am an unapologetic believer in the greatness of america. i am not ashamed of american power, and i am guided by one overwhelming conviction and passion. this century must be an american century. >> he's talking a bunch of former warriors. he's talking about making it an american century through military power. you know, i heard somebody going r go hoo-ah in the background

there. what is going on here? is this a scene from "gone with the wind" with the southern rebels? are these people nuts? is he nuts for believing in that cause? your thoughts. >> the big winner in this is going to be dick cheney. >> he's back. >> all right. he's back. he's absolutely back. you know, poor george bush, we don't see much of him. he endorsed romney and then the elevator closed in front of his face. he's gone. >> i think he's honestly embarrassed by how he was used. >> i hope so. cheney is not. he was the user. and cheney is, you know, holding fund raisers for mitt romney. mitt called him a person of judgment and wisdom. so you're going to see dick cheney playing a role. john bolton is going to have a huge role. he gets floated as national security adviser or even secretary of state which i think is preposterous. but what i do i know about this crowd. you havet yot who was condy's

adviser. and that whole phrase, the american century, goes back to the project for a new american century. which was the blueprint for the bush foreign policy and for the war with iraq. so we've got those same people again. it's something like 70% of his named foreign policy advisers come from the bush/cheney regime. >> the interesting thing, one of the smartest lights in that whole crowd intellectually is bill chrysti chris kristol, and been holding back. maybe there's a bit of a fear if you show too much face in this they'll actually see you coming. >> yeah. i mean, the problem is that most of america is exhausting by war. and that's why it rarely comes up. it didn't come up much in the midterms. it won't come up much in this presidential cycle because we are just exhausted by it. and part of that exhaustion is a wanting to turn away. part of it is that the people who fight the wars for america are not necessarily -- that's the different 1%. >> you're being kind. there's not much overlay in those two groups. >> exactly.

this is the 1% we like to ignore, we like to pretend we can go about our business and eat our fast food and live our lives out and not pay attention to the devastating effect it is having on our soldiers and on america. and we turn a kbliblind eye to . i think when people start to beat the drums of war as the republicans are doing in this cycle, that starts to scare some people. >> okay. charles and joan, that's one big group that's poised behind the candidate romney ready to win. let's look at another one that's even less pleasing to behold. grover norquist and his 1% crowd. they love romney's plan to keep the bush tax cuts in place for the very wealthy and bring down individual rates at the top in addition to lowering the corporate attacks. one of their babies here. who could forget the image on the screen of the republican candidates raising against a ten to one deal. these people are totally in the pocket of the guy whose -- they put their own signature on it because he demanded it like a

mob boss. he said you have to sign on to my deal in taxes. the second army. there they are. the wealthiest who are going to control romney. >> the 1%. it was supposed to be the year of the 99% and let's hope it is, but if mitt romney wins, we're back to the year, the decade, the century of the 1%. and he's not hiding that. a lot of this rhetoric about success and barack obama doesn't understand success is really him saying the rich know what needs to be done for the country and the rest of you people need to just sit down, shut up, and let us do it. and that's what you'll see under a romney presidency. and grover norquist is just part of it. you've got romney really, really aggressively cutting the top tax rates and raising the rates on the lowest 20%. i know we're not talking about losers here, but that is part of what happened. >> we're going to talk about that in the next segment tonight. >> it's obscene. >> let's take a look at this we have the army poised -- the

neo-cons wanting to go to war in the street corners of their mind, by the way. you've also got the rich people want to make sure they get a better deal than bush gave them. let's talk about the religious right. romney wants to overturn roe v. wade. he wants to ban abortions nationwide. no abortions. you got to go to the dominican republic or canada. he also supports saying marriage is between a man and woman. he's slamming the door on any evolutionary thinking of understanding and tolerance of different people and their decisions they make. what do you make of this, charles? >> see, this is the other part of the problem when it comes to conservatism. even if you buy the line of fiscal conservatism, they use it like a trojan horse to sneak in the agenda. which touches people's lives in a lot of ways in a more intimate way than the fiscal policies could ever do. and what they're doing is

basically saying give us the presidency based on a sagging economy. along with that we will give you four or eight years if he were to be re-elected of a very draconian social agenda. that is not -- i mean, i think that actually scares a lot of people. that's why he's having such a hard time with women voters. i think people are really worried about that. even women who prioritize the economy, may be conservative, really can't go along with this line of reasoning. >> that's what our polling is showing. they're hoping to use romney's campaign to appeal women voters. here's an ad playing in swing states going after romney. >> i'm barack obama and i approved this message. >> every woman who believes decisions about our bodies and our health care should be our own is troubled mitt romney supports overturning roe vs. wade. romney backed a law that outlaws all abortion even in cases of rape and incest. that's not all. >> i'll cut off funding to planned parenthood. >> for women, planned parenthood means life-saving cancer

screenings and family planning services. but for mitt romney -- >> planned parenthood, going to get rid of that. >> well, joan, this is not a hard election for people to vote in. maybe i understand now why something like 93% or 95% of the country has made up its mind. you want to go to war, outlaw abortion, outlaw same sex, give all the money to the rich. >> get rid of planned parenthood which one out of five women in her life time will go there. vote republican. vote for mitt romney. and in 2010, 2011, what did the house do? they said they were going to do something about jobs and one of their first attempts was to defund planned parenthood. the social agenda is also driving things. and i think it's a scary one. i think voters get it's a scary agenda. >> if you like war, if you like chancing wars, if you like looking for the next one to fight like the neocons on the right wing love to do. if you want to give money to the

rich. if you want to outlaw anything for social justice or freedom in this country, here's the last nail in the coffin for the right. polluters will win if obama loses. romney said in his 2010 book he believed humans contributed to climate change. but he's been moving to the right on this baby as well. here he was just last october. >> my view is that we don't know what's causing climate change on this planet and the idea of spending trillions and trillions of dollars to reduce co2 emissions is not the right course for us. >> what a pander bear, charles. a pander bear. he is saying that for one reason. because the richest people in this country who don't like epa regulation or any regulation love this kind of agnosticism. we don't know. and let's make sure we never know, until the entire north part of this planet we live on melts. >> right. and that's really where you have to draw the line. you have to say we have to start somewhere. if we haven't already passed a

tripping point where things cannot go back, if we haven't already tipped over a mark, we have to draw a line somewhere. we know that extreme weather phenomenon are happening on the planet. this is not up for debate. we know that things are slowly getting hotter. that is feeding that extreme weather. whether that be droughts or down pours or flooding in places where there hasn't been flooding, or the flooding is more severe than it's been in decades if not ever on record. we know this is a very real thing. and we have to say are we custodians of the planet and are we going to take a lead? the republicans love to say america must lead. this is one area where they've refused to lead. >> not on this. >> and this is the area where we do the most -- we can do the most to help save the planet is on this issue.

>> you want to see dick cheney and donald rumsfeld and scooter libbey, he'll join that night. they'll do their high fives and embraces and toasting victory. think about the stakes. we'll talk about them from now until the election. thank you for joining me, as always. >> nice to be here. coming up, the fight for fairness. democrats pushing to end taxes for the very rich. republicans looking to keep them there. what's going to win here and what's going to matter to you? also global warming environmentalists are targeting global warming deniers. we've been talking about them on the right. the flat earth five they call them. can they turn this into a campaign issue? and check out this quote. michele bachmann is a fool and the fact she's on the intelligence committee is mind boggling. and that's from the guy who ran the republican campaign nationally in 2008. the latest on her mccarthiesque charges about disloyal muslims in the government. and let me finish tonight with christian bale who did the right thing in the wake of a tragedy. this is "hardball," the place

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new poll numbers from some key states and races. let's check the "hardball" score board. we start in pennsylvania where a new ppp poll gives president obama a six-point lead over romney. 49-43. too close for comfort, i say. in michigan, a state where the polls have been close lately, the president has a new 14-point lead over romney in a new ppp poll. 53-39. keep in mind ppp is an automated poll that tends to favor democrats. turning to the massachusetts senate race. a new poll gives warren a two-point lead over scott brown. that's not enough. we'll be right back. l get you. for you, life's about her. but your erectile dysfunction - that could be a question of blood flow. cialis tadalafil for daily use helps you be ready anytime the moment's right. you can be more confident in your ability to be ready. and the same cialis is the only daily ed tablet approved to treat ed and symptoms of bph, like needing to go frequently or urgently.

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i believe that this country succeeds when everyone gets a fair shot. when everyone does their fair share. when everyone plays by the same rules. >> welcome back to "hardball." that speech in december in

kansas was president obama's unofficial kickoff to his re-election campaign. and the theme was clear. fairness. today the president got support for that message big time. senate democrats voted for the plan to extend the bush tax cuts only for families making less than $250,000 a year. in other words, for 98% of americans p.m. moments ago i spoke with a happy democrat, charles schumer of new york. is this position of the party which is official, is this a winner? >> oh, it's a big winner. for 30 years, chris, republicans have won the tax debate with n conflating middle class tax cuts with tax cults on the wealthy. those days are now over. we have made a clean break. we've said middle class people deserve a tax break. but it would be better to put the money for wealthy people instead of in a tax break into

deficit reduction. that's a big winner for us, and the reason mitch mcconnell let us have a vote was because he was afraid that if we only voted on our bill, that they would lose. it's the first time that republicans around the defensive on taxes, i think that's going to continue. this is a water shed day that we'll see reflected over the next several years. >> well, 98% is an awful lot of voters. it sounds like a winner. you also hear a lot of anger for people with money like the koch brothers. they're out spending millions of dollars in these superpacs to destroy obama. is that going to be a problem for the democrats? the wealthy with their revenge on this thing. >> well, the wealthy are -- the koch brothers are doing it whether they pay 30% in taxes, 40% in taxes or 20% in taxes. i don't know them particularly, but these wealthy people who are giving their view is they shouldn't pay any taxes. let's have a value added tax, they would say on middle class people, or something like that. it just -- it shouldn't be a factor and it isn't. on the other hand, when average

middle class people see that democrats are looking out for them and are actually for tax breaks for them while republicans are saying no, we have other priorities that are much higher, tax breaks for the wealthy or whatever, we win. and that's how it felt on the floor today. mitch mcconnell didn't think we'd be able to win this vote. we did. we beat their proposal and got a majority vote for our proposapr. that hasn't happened in awhile on a tax issue. >> you just raised a big issue here. if the republican wealthy people don't want to tax the rich, they want to tax somebody else because they want to deal with the deficit their way. do you think they would relieve the tax pressure on the are itch? >> i think the backers of mitt romney want. that's what they advocated line the 9-9-9 of herman cain. it got very big support from these people.

almost delirious support from some of these people. even though it was very regressive. these people don't understand one thing, chris. the number one problem we face in america is that middle class incomes for the first time since world war ii are declining even though incomes for the very wealthy are back going up again 37 that is a serious problem that thoughtful people of means, wealthy people, understand and know we have to deal with. but there are some people who just are thinking of themselves and they think, if everyone could be like them, the world would be a great place. >> our new nbc poll that came out backs up what you're saying. it says people care more about fairness than they do about the economic freedom argument. the republicans are pushing. also your party, the democrats are better for the mird el class. will these be the issues? >> yes. >> support for the middle class, and fairness be the winning ticket for november when the country votes? >> you know, the key to the november election, everyone knows the economy is slowly all

too slowly making progress. i think people understand that and live with it. and i don't think they blame president obama. they want to know how you get us out of this problem. and the way to get us out of this problem the way the democrats prescribe it is different than the way the republicans prescribe it. we believe on focusing on the middle class. they believe on focusing on the most well to do. that's a winner for us, but it's the right policy for america, most importantly of all. >> okay. chuck schumer of new york for fairness. thanks for joining us. >> hey. it's a good day in a long -- first good day on taxes in a long time for us. >> thank you, senator schumer. he made news there. he thinks they're pushing an army which supports big national sales tax as a way that the rich can avoid paying their share in terms of high rates. they get away with not having to pay high rates by getting the middle class to pay a big national sales tax.

it seems to be the only way out if you're not going to have a fair system on the income tax side. analyst howard fineman is here to dictate what the truth is here. let's talk about a couple things. first of all, we've got an interesting development tonight. brian williams on nightly news interviewed mitt romney. let's look at what the candidate said about releasing his tax returns or didn't say. let's listen to this debate. >> you also know what happens in the real world, governor. people hear he's not going to release the rest of his returns and they wonder why. is there a year there he paid no taxes? they wonder about expensive horses and houses and what have you. so i'll ask another way. what is it that is preventing you from releasing the rest of your returns? >> well, one, i released all the information about my financial holdings that's required by law. and then in addition beyond the law, i've released or will finally release when the last year is complete, two years of full returns. >> well, that's not really an answer. apparently he doesn't have information either.

he never really says what the problem is to answer brian's question. >> no, he didn't. >> would he be likely to? >> no, he's not likely to answer that. and he had that frozen semigrin look that i invoked from mitt romney myself upon occasion. >> what does that mean? you stupid reporter? >> i can't believe i'm sitting here through this. it's a part of this process that i don't really like and don't think is really warranted. but somebody told me i had to do it, so here i am. he didn't answer the question. and nor did he deny -- take the opportunity to deny, by the way, that there had been a year when he hadn't paid any taxes. and some people think that 2009 is possibly such a year. some of his staff have said no, that's not the case. but he had an opportunity there to say that's not the case. he didn't fall into that trap which probably from his point of view is smart. >> you know what i believe, it's better than it looks. >> yes >> it doesn't look good right now. let me ask you about the math

issue. if you put the math on paper and republicans are concerned about deficits. they don't like them more than anybody else does, how do you avoid cutting defense spending, really can't do much with entitlements, deal with the looming deficit that a president would incur. they have to go to some other form of revenue. and you do hear this. now you hear it from chuck schumer. would they dare raise a national sales tax tax? >> it's always interesting to listen to what schumer says about political strategy and the games manship of ideas and how they intersect with politics. he was pulling democrats in the direction of asking okay, republicans, if you don't want to raise taxes on anybody, if you want to keep defense spending where it is by the process of elimination, you get to a sales tax. and some of your candidates in the primaries supported that idea. herman cain was leading at one point. >> to big cheers. because it means the rich won't have to pay their share.

>> so it's a legitimate question to ask mitt romney. and a legitimate accusation to make that hey, by process of elimination you've got to be for that. that's what schumer suggests. >> here we are where people have low confidence and are afraid to spend. let's raise a tax on everything they buy. that will encourage them to spend money. >> presumably -- >> terrible idea. >> presumably if asked, mitt romney would say i would never count that which then gets you back to the question of how you're going to do something about the deficit. it's a legitimate question to ask. >> the obama campaign is fighting back against republican charges that the president said successful business people didn't really build their own businesses. here's a new obama ad to go at that again. let's watch. >> those ads taking my words about small business out of context, they're flat out wrong. of course americans build their own businesses. >> you know, we go to romney's statement from ten years ago where he says olympic athletes owe their coaches, parents, communities for supporting them.

you know, i don't know. it seems to me if obama came out and said entrepreneurials don't account for anything, you owe our talents to the masses, or some communistic statement like that. he didn't say that. >> he didn't say that. and it's a characteristic of this campaign here. remember when mitt romney said i like to fire people. that wasn't fully in context either. not that two wrongs make a right here. i think what the romney campaign has done in editing the president's remarks are beyond the pail. i carefully studied the speech and context. the romney campaign does take his remarks out of context. >> he's talking about roads and bridges. >> yes. and he's talking about the whole context of the idea that rugged individualism and community go together in this country. which is a true comment.

>> especially for real estate developers. you have to get infrastructure. >> even the guy in the romney ad got all kinds of help from the government. but it's true that this ad has put the obama campaign on the defensive. you don't make an ad like the one that the president made there if you don't feel wounded. david axelrod has said no, it's not a big deal. for them to put this up shows however over the line that ad was, it did have an effect. >> if it goes against obama, it will be because people think he's further left than he appears. >> and the romney campaign is pushing as hard as they can. >> howard, we've got to go. you're the best. howard fineman. a new ad hits romney where it hurts. the sideshow is next. this is "hardball," the place for politics.

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back to "hardball." now for the sideshow. first up, hit them where they're strong. a pro-obama super pac is out with a new ad giving mitt romney a gold medal. it's not one he'd want to have. take a look. >> welcome to the olympics. there's mitt romney who ran the salt lake city games waving to china, home to a billion people. thousands owe their jobs to mitt romney's companies. india, which also gained jobs thanks to romney and outsourcing pioneer. and burma where romney had the uniforms made for the 2002 games. we know the swiss have a special place in mitt romney's wallet, or heart. he kept millions in swiss banks. bermuda, home to a secretive corporation set up by romney. cayman islands, where romney keeps millions to avoid u.s. taxes. he sure knows how to go for the gold. for himself. >> don't you love that old time sports announcer's voice?

the ad is set to run in some swing states. finally, mike tar xi has said the new state voter i.d. law will help mitt romney win the state. he's not the only official saying it would bring victory. wisconsin senator said in an interview said the new voter i.d. law passed in his state would play for romney. if his state court upholds it in time for the november election, that is. >> if it were upheld and in place in time for the november election, do you think -- the polls have shown a pretty razor thin margin. do you think it might ultimately help romney's campaign in the state? >> yes. i think we believe that in so far as there are inappropriate things going on, people who vote inappropriately are more likely

to vote democrat. >> if these protections are in place of voter i.d., that might help him in a close race? >> right. i think if people cheat, we believe the people who cheat would be more likely to vote against us. >> well, did you catch that little innuendo. people who commit voter fraud are more likely to be democrats. so it's actually something like this -- minority groups and older voters are not likely to have required forms to cast a ballot these days. those same groups are people who tend to vote democrat. is that what he means by someone who votes inappropriately? what language. up next, environmentalists are going after global warming deniers in the house of representatives. they're calling them the flat earth five. you're watching "hardball," the place for politics.

hello, everyone, i'm lynn berry, and here's what's happening. authorities have recovered a package sent by accused theater package james holmes to the university of colorado's medical campus in aurora, it contained writings about killing people. court papers show kerry kennedy had ambien in her system after her recent traffic accident in westchester. and kim jong-un is married. now we'll send you back to

"hardball." welcome back to "hardball." you don't need to be a weather man to tell how hot it's been getting outside, but if you feel the long hot days of summer and those unseasonably warm falls, winters, and springs are more frequent than ever, you're not wrong. last year was the warmest ever recorded. and the 13 hottest days on record all occurred weren't last decade and a half. take a look at what happened in greenland over just a couple of days earlier this month. nasa used satellites to study ice melt in the country and 40% thawed on july 8th. that's about average for a greenland summer 37 just four days later, 97% of the country's ice sheet was melting. the largest area in more than three decades of satellite study. we've got a lot of facts here. it is exactly what people against global warming would happen. and many republicans in congress

deny climate change science. now an environmental advocacy group is aiming to take down five members of congress who deny the link between human actions and global warming this november. the senior vice president of league of conservation voters and david corn is an analyst. maybe this is your showdown, is it? >> we hope it is. >> knock out these five people. i remember the old dirty dozen days. they would nail a dozen people and say we're getting rid of you bums. >> we still do that. what we're doing now is not only are we getting the worst environmental records, things have got son bad it's time to go after these five people who don't believe in basic climate science. it's not they're just voting wrong. these people think it's a hoax or a myth. and it's impossible for us to actually solve these big problems as long as we have people in washington that don't even believe it's happening. >> david, most of them seem to do the game romney's playing. play agnostic.

it hasn't been proven yet. >> we've seen a real shift i think four years ago -- >> from him. >> from him, but in general. with al gore's movie and back when obama was elected, it seemed like there was a consensus. had newt gingrich on the couch with nancy pelosi. mainstream of the republican party, they didn't want to do anything, but they kind of believed it. >> what changed? >> george bush stopped arguing the point even. what changed was the tea partization of the republican party. their base moved so far to the right. one of the items they had was anti-science or anti-evolution or anti-climate change. and mitt romney who as a governor talked about, you know, regional -- >> you do this for a living. i want an honest answer here. what's with this planet of the apes attitude towards science it's not just toward the environment. they don't openly say they're pigs. it's like in the movie. they don't like science.

what's that about. >> here's the biggest thing that changed. just the unprecedented money by oil companies. >> explain that to the viewers and me. why do oil companies oppose anything about climate change. >> obviously part of the problem is our dependence on fossil fuels. if we're going to get serious about global warming, we've got to transition off of fossil feels. >> koch brothers. >> they are pouring $200 million into mitt romney's campaign and getting his elected. no doubt he flipped his position. >> don't they worry about the planet they and their children live on? this is the only planet we have right now. >> not as much as their third quarter profit earnings or how much they'll make at the end of the year. i think the campaign we're going to run is going against these five deniers in saying unless they start to feel some pain and get defeated. >> how do they put together this piggishness about the climate with their religious commitments, whether it's jewish or catholic or whatever.

there's a love of this planet. it comes from every religious belief. you don't destroy. we are the stewards of this planet. you don't destroy it. >> there is a group of evangelicals that support climate action just following your train of thought there. but you can look at a taxation policy and talk about what jesus said about helping the poor. you don't see that always happening in the republican party. >> you're widening the attack. >> i am widening the attack, but i don't see any reason why they should care more about the climate opposed to social justice. >> because of the political party theodore roosevelt who stood for it against all awful people. the legal conservation of voters named ann marie buerkle. she's the first of the flat earth five. she is to be number one. here's what earned her the distinction from a 2010 debate against then-congressman her opponent. again this time. let's watch. >> is there global warming? >> i think that dan, unfortunately, a lot of the global warming myth has been exposed.

this cap and trade bill is a tax on energy, that's all it is. it's a tax on energy and it's based on some global warming. whether or not there is real global warming has not been determined. >> they used to say of ronald reagan, he only studied an issue long enough to agree with the right wing position. he didn't want to study another hour because he might find another point. people like that, they're not dumb. why do they make the decision to reach that they don't understand something because that's what? convenient politically? >> here's what we're going to prove with this issue and campaign is that we're going to show whose side people are on. when you take a position like that, you're not in the interest of solving problems that americans care about. washington poll came out, 77% of americans want congress to do something about this. when you take a position as a denier, you're basically saying i'm with the oil companies. >> i'm going to go wider on this one.

this scientific denial, one of the reasons why many of the religious have succeeded is because they reconcile their belief with science. they don't fight science. what you're getting today from the right wingers is science itself is wrong. evolution. think about evolution. something we studied in high school biology, you can't believe that. why are they getting so wide in their denials of life? what are they going so far? >> i think because it's inconvenient. >> evolution is inconvenient to think about? >> i think to their religion. i also think global warming thing is inconvenient. i also think it's reaction. i think it's partly reaction to barack obama and the democrats, and they've made it a cultural issue. it's like the liberal northeastern elites believe in climate change, and they're using that to put their values on you. they're trying to make this is populist issue. those scientists, those policy people in washington, those academics. >> it is planet of the apes. >> and that's exactly how it is. >> we should be proud of our science. we should be proud of the fact that this country wins all the nobel prizes for science.

>> not all, but we win a lot. >> i'm an american. we win a lot of them. don't come up against us when it comes to thinking. everybody in the world wants our applied science. thank you. good luck. keep an eye on these people. republicans continue to pile on michele bachmann for her outrageous charge against ms. limbs except some of the crazier people out there defending her. wait until you hear the list of people defending her attacks on the top aide. i think it may have jumped the is shark here. this is "hardball," the place for politics.

we're still months away from the 2012 election but a new ppp poll gives us a look at which candidate voters in iowa like in the 2016 caucuses. and the runaway winner is no surprise to anybody watching this show. hillary rodham clinton. with 60%, she tops vice president joe biden by a three to one margin. cuomo and warren trail far behind. it's a contest between rick santorum and -- they're going further right. the last two winners of the iowa caucus. chris christie and rand paul next. look at that list. we know a place where tossing and turning

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michele bachmann's a fool in the fact that she's on the intelligence committee. you know, it's mind boggling. but newt gingrich should actually know better. he actually has a sense of history of the country. you know, what he's doing here, it's just despicable. shame on him. >> welcome back to "hardball." steve schmidt add him to the list of people denouncing bachmann for her assertion that islamic militant moles may have infiltrated the state department. and took down gingrich for defending bachmann too. it was headlined, the devine miss m loaded with sarcasm. thank you. your column today was unusually focused on your

characterization. not a lot of reporting in it, but a very strong characterization of this person in our political lives. who is she? michele bachmann, politically in 2012? >> in 2012, who is she? she represents the far right of the republican party as best i can tell. i mean, what interested me in what i wanted to write about is she styles herself as a deeply religious person. when he try to explain and we do in terms of her religiousness. what i find offensive and troubling about that is i don't know a lot of religions or a lot of religious people who would support the way she acts when she issues this smear against a woman -- a government servant who's done nothing to deserve it. when she caused the scare she did during the campaign about the hpv vaccine. i don't understand how these are the actions of a person who's being moral and compassionate and enlightened in any way. >> it must be a different religious view than you or i have. earlier this week, rush limbaugh

and newt gingrich defended bachmann. now, add former u.n. ambassador for george bush, john bolton. here he is on the radio show. imagine that show with these two guys on it. let's listen. >> what i think these members of congress have done is simply raised the question to a variety of inspectors general in key agencies. are your departments following their own security clearance guidelines? what is wrong with raising the question? why is even asking whether we're living up to our standards a legitimate area of congressional oversight. why has that generated this criticism 1234 i'm mystified by it. >> you know what? i'm not going to call them dumb and dumber because these are not stupid people, but let me ask you this. frank, what he's doing there is not asking for information. he's asking to target a person because of her islamic background. and to say basically we have a

presumption here she may be an agent of the islamic brotherhood. someone who works with hillary clinton, one of the shrewdest political people around. and to make the assumption that hillary is being manipulated. you can't manipulate hillary clinton. >> this isn't a general question raised about security clearances and whether they're done rigorously enough. i reread the letter a moment ago. it goes on and on about the nefariousness of muslim brotherhood. it mentions huma abedin by name, and the fact that she's got relatives according to michele bachmann with associations to the muslim brotherhood. it's a dark letter that goes beyond raising security concerns. it raises serious questions and paints an aide of hillary clinton's as if she's a plant of a foreign whatever. >> yeah. you know, all my relatives are republicans, i think. most of them. they haven't had much influence on me. would you think, frank? this idea she might have a distant relative that may have been involved in a political movement.

in this country -- >> i'm glad you said that. we all have a lot of nutty relatives with nutty beliefs. we're all people of our own intelligence that come to our own conclusions. i don't think any one of us would want to be judged. we also don't know the full truth about this family. i mean, this letter was filled with a lot of accusations that didn't have any substantiation that i could see. >> frank gaffney is not someone you want to go to get the truth. i don't know what motivates these people. your comment had a lot of heart today. i think you have a lot of heart, frank bruni. i reilly thought it was very effective what you had to say today. thanks for coming on. >> thank you. when we return, let me finish with christian bale. here he is at the hospital bed in aurora, colorado. this is "hardball," the place for politics. [ male announcer ] it seems like every company has a facebook page these days. but where's the relationship status? well, esurance is now in a relationship...with allstate.

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let me finish tonight with this. for every tragedy, someone or a lot of people, do something, sometimes out of nowhere, that lifts your heart. say what you will, i am so impressed that christian bale, the star of the batman movies, visited aurora colorado the other day. he didn't come in with an entourage or fussing about him. he arrived with his wife, showing he cared for the feelings and hurt of aurora. not only them, but the people of this country, who honestly without a thought to politics have opened their hearts to this

terrible event and the pain that lasts. he said words cannot express the horror i feel. i cannot begin to truly understand the pain and grief of the victims and their loved ones. that's the word he put out, but my heart goes out to them. then he did the thing that always matters most for a wedding, a funeral, he showed up. as another movie figure said, that separates the people who care from those who have other priorities. he showed up. it may not be all that logical to an alien from another planet, but the importance of a movie star coming through at a time like this, but we on earth know the difference. the home run hitter who shows up at the hospital for the young fan, the friend who shows up for your mom's funeral. the movie "the dark knight rises" will always be associated with the horror in colorado. we will also remember that the lead player in the movie showed up to show his real feelings for the victims in the dark of night, and also in the bright of lite, the honor he pays to the people who go to the t