approve of god's godliness. they are good at it. that combination of being able to add weird, funny questions and doing it in a scientific way, led to the polling of the favorability rating of congress. they asked people to rate congress alongside 26 other things, congress versus cockroaches, congress won. head lice, it won big. and stds, turning out to do better. good job, congress, and congress is almost as popular as brussel sprouts, which i love. they tested congress against root canals, against being stuck in traffic. and carnies, who are more popular. and also the canadian rock band, nickelback.

what does it tell you about congress? best new thing in the world today, the 2012 presidential

obstruction of justice, pled guilty to some of them to avoid prison time and emerged as what else? a very clever radio talk show host in boston. tommy and i grew up in the same week off. >> not just the debt ceiling, have leverage. >> we have to use whatever leverage we have. >> what happens to the leverage? >> actually, misunderstanding the situation. >> a different set of nuts. >> i'll go back to my original question. >> i know what your question is. >> how far are you willing to take this strategy. >> would you rule out a government shutdown? >> i helped close the government twice. i think that is a dead loser. >> hopefully we don't get to that point. >> a place for politics. >> well, i got 98% of what i wanted. i'm pretty happy.

>> the republican party losing streak continued today as a new poll shows that republicans also lost in the public perception of the fiscal cliff negotiations. "the was post" shows that 30% approve the way house speaker john boehner handled fiscal cliff negotiations, 56% don't approve, 53% approve the way president obama handled negotiations. 40% disapprove. today, chris christie continued his campaign against house republicans. >> we look forward to what we hope will be quick congressional action on a full, clean, sandy-aid bill now. now, next week, one thing i hope that everybody in america now clearly understands, new jersey, both republicans and democrats will never stand silent when our citizens are being shortchanged.

>> and let's not forget what governor chris christie said last week. >> there is only one group to blame for the continued suffering of these innocent victims. the house majority, and their speaker, john boehner. >> and today, "the daily beast" published the interview, she is mad as hell, about the myriad ways the republican brand has been tarnished, the sorry state, the ongoing alienation of latino voters, the epic failure of the fiscal cliff negotiations. and most recently, the house's arguing over the disaster relief aid. i'm angry, fumes mosbacher, i'm angry about the mistakes, i'm not writing any checks and i'm not asking anyone else to write any checks until i hear something that makes sense to me.

since the election there have been a lot of gatherings and meetings among those who are active in raising money. the question is are we united in drying that up from the people i have talked to? the answer is yes. krystal ball, when you have lost the socialites, i believe the republicans have nothing left to lose. >> well, it -- >> what else is there? this is rock bottom? >> it looks pretty bleak. >> a hack, fundraiser. >> she had strong words there, well, i was looking back at the analysis "the washington post" did last summer regarding the republican party, and the sort of old republicans which i assume she is, fiscally conservative, typically northeastern, typically well off still make up about 22% of the party. so a decent chunk of the party.

and what georgette there shows, they make up a certain amount of the funding base which is why they have had a lock on the republican party. and the innovation for the growth of the tea party is their ability to have larger scale donor movements, smaller dollar to add up to a larger amount. and for a while, the georgettes of the world in 2010 were willing to ride the wave, because sure we were electing crazy people but they were in other districts. now they see how the chickens come home to roost and are ruining the national brand of the republican party. >> steve, georgette was prepared to put up with anything, as long as you could keep her tax rates down on any form of income that she has. and now they can't quite completely guarantee it for her. so what is she in this for, because she ain't with them -- >> it is an interesting cut-off date, january 13th, as ohs

forred to any other years. i view the republican party as not the only divide between the rockefellers, and the conservatives. i think the moderate wing is basically known existent now, it is the conservatives who have pragmatic instincts, and i think they actually account for the majority of the republicans in the house. but they have subordinated those instincts, the growth, they can grab up all the dollars, steer it into the houses in the country. they are defined by the whack jobs, they basically define conservatism as sort of an insurgents, basically means conservatism now is basically defined as i oppose obama and any and all compromise. the power is there because they're intimidating.

>> and some are actually fundraising over their -- you know, their undermining of their open speaker, and raising money off that. so it is not just going against the democrats, it is going against their own party moving as far to the right as they possibly can, because that is where politically it makes sense for them to be. >> and your boy, chris christie, you are the senior new jersey political analyst, as our senior new jersey political analyst explains how long chris christie keeps this up? this attack on the republicans. >> let's see, november -- >> can he just get his hurricane sandy money and then stop

talking about them? >> yeah, and i think that krystal has made this point, too, i think it is right. a big part of chris christie's thinking, he has to win re-election in the blue state and with obama voters. but this is a new jersey guy, in a certain level he cares more about his state than just the day to day politics. and the 2016 politics, so a certain amount of it is to apply pressure on the republicans. i do think it will die down after that. but at the same time the pressure to continue being chris christie who defines himself a little bit against washington republicans will continue through at least a little bit of this year. and it will be interesting to watch, if he does have designs on 2016, how can he sort of navigate back to being a hero to conservatives, after spending a year doing this. i am not sure he can. >> krystal if he has designs on

the vice president nomination, he could get that because he doesn't have to get over any republican hurdles. but it does seem as if he is raising hurdles for himself in what would be a presidential primary. >> i think so because there are republicans out there who blame the combination of sandy and chris christie for obama's victory. which is not true. romney's momentum already stopped, he never led in the polls. the president was going to win, regardless of what happened. and so there was animas there already, steve didn't have to go as far as he went in the comment, the benefit of new jersey, of going against washington republicans. he didn't have to specifically call them out in such an aggressive way. it didn't feel that calculated to me. now, you're right. if he really wants to be vice president, then this wouldn't have such an impact, but i think it would be hard between this leaving a bad taste in people's mouths, and the policy-making. it will be hard to come in the republican primary. we saw how hard it was last

year. >> one thing we saw was the power of the republican debates. there was newt gingrich, who in a question could swing the whole thing in his favor. >> and a question about open marriage, nonetheless. >> right, and so chris christie, you would have to bet on, out of all the potential field we know about right now is the guy who is more likely to come out with that punch, that swing, in a debate that really does excite an audience. >> and i've always said that is the key to chris christie in the off-the-cuff, he is better than reading from text. i never thought with the republican base that he has a problem with immigration. because if it comes up in a debate, if he is running for national office and it comes up, he has a way of reframing it and resetting it. people say i like him, i want to be with him, he has given me something to work with. now i will rationalize why it works, he has that personality

that makes a lot of republicans want to be with him and rationalize back wards to get with him. into his camp. that is a skill that i don't see any other national republican right now -- >> most importantly, there is a candidate that most republicans can back. krystal ball, and steve kornacki, thank you for joining us. >> thank you. and coming up. start thinking about what you will be doing at midnight on valentine's day. that means we'll actually hit the debt ceiling there. meaning anybody with any kind of romantic life will notice. and later, meeting with joe biden at the white house, and in the rewrite tonight, why has no one mentioned me to take john kerry's senate seat when he gets confirmed as secretary of state. do i have to do everything myself around here. krystal, do i? >> no, i have been talking about

you from day one. >> all right, well, that is going to be in the rewrite. this was the hole my waist was on. but since i've been on alli, am i on this one? nope. am i on this one? no, no, no, no, no. i am on this one. [ male announcer ] for every 2 pounds you lose through diet and exercise alli can help you lose one more by blocking some of the fat you eat.

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the greatest governor of all time, i mean the greatest, i don't mean just state, i mean colonial governors, the greatest governor in the history of governors. massachusetts governor duval patrick will get to appoint a united states senator for the second time. no massachusetts governor has ever gotten to do that twice. it is an awesome responsible. and i'll give the governor a little help with it tonight and suggest somebody who probably is not on his short list right now, or any list. except my list. and that is in the rewrite.

we will not negotiate with congress over the fulfillment of congress's responsibility to raise the debt ceiling. we can and should negotiate over how we continue to reduce our deficits in a responsible and balanced way. but we should not play chicken with the full faith and credit of the united states. >> the treasury department estimates that if the debt ceiling is not raised, the united states may just hit that ceiling by midnight on valentine's day, five weeks from today. but congressional republicans might, they just might be ready to blink. here is republican senator ron johnson of wisconsin on fox news this afternoon.

>> what about the debt ceiling deadline -- would you go through that, risk shutting the government down? >> we don't have to do that, we should not be playing this -- >> i know that, but what would you do? >> again, that is a hypothetical situation. >> senator mitch mcconnell evaded question after question about raising the debt ceiling on monday. >> it is a hostage worth ransoming, is that the strategy you would ransom that again here, to force the kind of spending cuts that you think are necessary? >> it is a shame we have to use whatever leverage we have in congress to get the president to deal with the biggest problem confronting our future, and that is our excessive spending. >> but you're conceding that that may be the strategy this time? >> well, what the strategy ought

to be is we ought to be doing something about the problem. >> you heard the president, he said he will not negotiate over increasing the debt ceiling. you're saying despite whatever the business community thinks, you may have to push it to the brink once again? >> well, what we're saying here is the problem, the biggest problem confronting the country is our excessive spending. >> and even house speaker john boehner conceded in a recent interview with "the wall street journal," that the debt is one point of leverage but not the ultimate leverage. joining me now, ryan grim, it sounds to me, ryan like the republicans are listening to the president who has very simply been saying i will not negotiate with you over this. and they realize he means it. >> they do realize it -- that he means it. and they're also listening to the business class, which is saying look, enough of this. look what happened last time we went through this. and newt gingrich, you know, the

rare voice of reason in the wilderness here said it eloquently, look, you're going the embarrass yourself, the entire fight is going to come to washington, everybody is going to lay the blame at the republicans for threatening to blow up the economy, and then you will waive. so mcconnell and those folks, it is a reality, it is maniacal, to say yes we lost the election, but we still have the leverage we can blow up the global economy and so that is how we get our agenda accomplished. this is a democracy, you take it to the voters, the first part is you have to propose spending cuts, and that is actually the major hiccup here. >> ryan, i think the way you just described, the newt gingrich vision of how it works, had he foresaw that he

absolutely will not negotiate over it. the republicans lost the perception, the first time they went through this thing, the public perception, and they would again. and i want to go to jay carney, something else he said about the economic effects of this. >> throughout the recovery, the weakest month of job creation was in august of 2011. and the primary reason for that, was because the house republicans insisted in july and june -- the insistence by them with the prospect of flirting with default. the consumer confidence plummeted. the dow plummeted. the investment dried up and the american people paid the price. >> ryan, the white house certainly knows its case to

make, but it seems to me the republicans are in this sense lucky that they don't actually need the debt ceiling as some of them have been saying. they have the sequester looming, and they could use that as the negotiating spot. >> that is their way out. but i think the question that people are not asking here, particularly in the white house is how do they get out of this. how do republicans get out of this? okay, let's say they decide they were going to cave. do they cave, though, with a 30-day extension, which extends the uncertainty of another 30 days. do they really think they're going to kick it two trillion, another trillion, so you can get a year or so out of this? so i don't know exactly where this is headed. but we only have five weeks to find out. but you're right, they can say okay, we're going to fight over the sequester and fight over shutting down the government. because ironically now, that looks like a moderate tactic in this fight, because you're just closing down the federal government, the parks, the

smithsonian, the different bureaucracies around washington. so you know, that certainly could be where we're headed. but we're in uncharted territory here. >> ryan, my guess is the republicans will try to move this thing as far off the door step in the future as possible, using primarily all democratic votes in the senate, and then mostly democratic votes in the house. >> i think that would probably be john boehner's favorite way of doing, i think you're right. instead of doing 30 days with a decent number of republicans, you say look, he does this same thing, says i hate this. and we'll have two days where we think the republicans will spike it. and eventually enough republicans come and join democrats and kick this thing up. and maybe get a mechanism in place where they don't have to do this again. they could maybe implement mitch mcconnell's thing again, where the president can reject it with a two third's vote, and then they can stop worrying about it. and wall street, and the global economy, and everybody for that matter would breathe easier.

>> ryan grim, thank you for joining us. thank you. and coming up, gabrielle giffords on his side. and chris christie attacked republicans again for slacking off on help for the victims of hurricane sandy. and big surprise, a mississippi congressman who begged, begged for katrina money had the nerve to vote against sandy money, which got him little bit of attention from john stewart. that is coming up. [ male announcer ] this is joe woods' first day of work. and his new boss told him two things -- cook what you love, and save your money. joe doesn't know it yet, but he'll work his way up from busser to waiter to chef before opening a restaurant

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two years ago, somebody tried to kill gabrielle giffords and 18 other people in a parking lot in tucson. coming up, how survivors are pushing congress to take action now to stop these mass shootings in america. and later in the rewrite, who should be the appointed senator from massachusetts when john kerry goes to the state department? and why, why has no one mentioned me for that job? when he wakes up dry in pampers. unlike other diapers, pampers has 3 absorbent layers, for up to 12 hours of protection overnight, and more beautiful mornings.

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20 heartbroken families, i know how much it hurts. my 9-year-old daughter was murdered in the tucson shooting. i have one question for the political leaders, when will you find courage to stand up to the gun lobby? whose child has to die next? for every mother, we can't wait, we have to demand a plan. go to plan.org and demand a plan. >> that television ad aired for the first time today in tucson, arizona, at 10:10 a.m. to mark to the minute the second anniversary of the gun massacre that left six people dead, 12 wounded, including former congresswoman gabrielle giffords.

gabrielle giffords, along with her husband, mark kelly, launched the americans for responsible solutions political action committee today to counter the weapons. they wrote in response to a series of horrific shootings that have happened in our communities, victimized tens of thousands of americans and left one of its own bleeding in a tucson parking lot, congress has done something extraordinary, nothing at all. >> how do we get to the point where 85% of the children in the world that are killed with guns are killed in the united states? that is a sobering statistic. >> so that is what changed for you? >> yes. >> you told me before, when i said are you angry? you said no, it is life. do you still feel that way? >> no.

>> do you get angry? >> yes, yes. >> vice president joe biden will be sending his recommendations for gun safety reform to the president within the next three weeks. the vice president will meet with victim's groups and gun safety organizations tomorrow at the white house. then on thursday, he will meet with gun advocates, including a representative from the nra. joining me now is msnbc's enjoy reid and patricia maze who helped to stop the tucson shooter, by wrestling a wave of bullets before he could reload. patricia, i want to start with you tonight. one thing that the nra talks about tonight, you can't stop all of these killings. we know that we can't stop all of them. for me, the question is how easy do we want to make it for them? and one of those questions is, how big are the magazines that we want the mass shooters to have access to? and as you know from your own personal experience the only reason that shooting stopped was because he had to reload.

>> that is right, there is absolutely no reason for the general population to have that kind of fire capacity. or that type of gun, the assault weapons. there is no reason for that. now our shooter had a glock. so that doesn't fall into that category, i don't believe. but the high capacity magazines, if he had only had ten bullets in that first magazine, there probably would not be as many people injured or dead. >> yeah, patricia, i have said i blame the shooter for the first ten but i blame the laws for what happened after that. enjoy reid, the momentum is building in the public discussion about this. and i want to play, i think something that is kind of extraordinary. general mccrystal this morning talking about this. >> i spent a career carrying typically, the m-16, and later,

an m-4 carbine, which fires a 223 caliber round, at about 3,000 feet per second. when it hits a human body the effects are devastating. it is designed to do that. i personally don't think there is any need for that kind of weapon, really, on the streets and particularly around the schools in america. i think serious action is necessary. sometimes we talk about very limited actions on the edges, and i just don't think that is enough. i think we'll find out. >> the former general knows the weapons were designed for his use, not street use. >> yeah, and i think that is very important. we heard a lot of people saying that it is important for gun owners to get involved in the debate. but i think it is even more important for people like stanley mccrystal to get involved. on the way over i talked to my

brother, who was involved in the army, the upgrade was the bushmaster ar-15 because it is lighter weight and gives you the capacity to essentially lay down what you consider cover fire. the idea that you can fire so many bullets that the enemy, right, cannot get the opportunity to advance. these are weapons of war. they're military weapons. and we've heard people who have military service say this. these are the kind of weapons our troops need to survive a war zone. there is really no credible explanation i have ever heard as to why ordinary people need them. these guns were designed to kill people. that is what they're for. >> patricia, have you had any conversations with gun enthusiastic people who have told you this is why i need a high-capacity magazine for my ammunition? >> the only thing they have told me, and i have had conversations, is that i deserve to have them. i can have them. it is legal, i want them. i can afford them. >> do they tell you of any

suffering they endured during the years when they were legal? >> not one word, i did challenge a couple of people who said they could have taken down our shooter. and i challenge them with saying i'll buy you a reality or a fantasy adventure at one of the villages where the good guys pop out and the bad guys pop out. and if you can take every one of the bad guys down and not hit any of the good guys, i'll pay for your adventure. if you don't perform perfectly, then you have to give me three times what i paid for my cause. and i have not had anyone take me up on that offer yet. >> and joy, well-trained police officers cannot get those tests exactly right. and they are given to police officers to humble them on the use of their firearms. to be more careful with them. >> yeah, absolutely, there was an armed guard at columbine, when somebody is firing 100

rounds at you, when do you have the opportunity to take them out? at what point with the 100-round volleys, at what point did the guy stop shooting? >> thank you both for joining us. >> thank you. coming up, the jersey boys, chris christie and john stewart are teaming up to attack house republicans. in the rewrite, massachusetts will get another appointed senator when john kerry becomes secretary of state. wouldn't it be nice, wouldn't it make a lot of sense if that appointed senator who held office temporarily until an election is held, actually has washington experience like barney frank, or maybe even better, some senate legislative experience like maybe, i don't know, you know?

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have i mentioned how great i think duval patrick is? i think he is maybe the greatest governor of all times. just the greatest. and he has a really big decision to make, who to appoint, to temporarily replace john kerry. while they get ready for a special election to replace john kerry. and i want to help the governor with that decision. next in the rewrite. ink retailer in america. now get $6 back in staples rewards for every ink cartridge you recycle when you spend $50 on hp ink. staples. that was easy. woman: what do you mean, homeowners insurance doesn't cover floods? [ heart rate increases ] man: a few inches of water caused all this?

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[ charlie ] try zinc free super poligrip. the very clever and from time to time corrupt democrats in the massachusetts legislature saw a united states senate seat slipping away from them in 2004, so they rewrote the law to hold on to it. mitt romney was governor, and john kerry was on his way to resigning his senate seat, which meant a republican governor would get to appoint a new senator. so to get them from appointing a new senator, the democrats in the massachusetts legislature rewrote the law, so that for the first time in history the governor could no longer appoint somebody to a suddenly open senate seat. there would have to be a special election. but then, john kerry didn't resign his senate seat, because 60 thousand people, or maybe we just should call them 60,000

recorded votes went the wrong way in 2004. and then the democrats were stuck with this law when ted kennedy got sick, very sick. when senator kennedy slipped into his final days in the senate, the massachusetts legislature rewrote the law again, because now they had a democratic governor. they thought it would look wicked bad if they just switched back to the way it was so they kept the special election. but they allowed the governor to appoint a temporary successor to senator kennedy's seat to fill the time it would take to have a special election. they actually figured that the governor would appoint someone who would then run for election and have the advantage of being

an incumbent. but in fact that gave us the brief and honorable service of paul kirk, a former chairman of the national democratic party and a friend of kennedy. who was supposed to pass a key vote in the senate for health care, but the vote slipped into 2010, and then this guy won the special election. and senate democrats had to rip out a portion of the health care bill and pass it using the reconciliation procedure in an unprecedented way. it was so unprecedented that they never considered using that until kennedy won the seat. it was the kind of move tommy fennerin must have loved if he understood it. he was the clever speaker of the massachusetts house who first rewrote the law designed to keep massachusetts seats in the united states senate for democrats only. tommy has since faced federal charges of perjury and obstruction of justice, pled guilty to some of them to avoid prison time and emerged as what

else? a very clever radio talk show host in boston. tommy and i grew up in the same neighborhood but i didn't know him very well. tommy was way too cool to talk to me very much. years ahead of me, not just in age but cleverness, so clever that he was the only guy in my neighborhood convicted of a white collar crime, which the guys i grew up with don't actually call a crime. a jury of my peers would let him walk out of a courtroom a free and very clever man. so now, john kerry is on the edge of resigning his senate seat for real this time. and massachusetts has a democratic governor, but the democrats in the massachusetts legislature don't have tommy fennerin when they need him to rewrite the law one more time, to allow duval patrick to simply appoint john kerry's successor and be done with it. the governor has to appoint a place-holder. that is actually how ted kennedy got his seat, no, ted was not appointed to the senate when his brother john kennedy resigned to

become president of the united states. because teddy was too young to be appointed then. so the kennedys got the governor to appoint john kennedy's harvard roommate to serve out the last two years of the kennedy term. the appointed senator, ben smith, promised not to run for the seat so teddy would have a shot at an open senate seat in 1962, as soon as he turned 30. and so once again, the hot political action in boston surrounds the question who will the governor appoint to the senate? there is no suspense about who will win the special election. not since i said this. >> i am hereby declaring ed markey the winner to be in the senate race. >> and of course, the very next day, the next day as if on cue, as if they were watching this

program and taking notes, john kerry, vicki kennedy, and the head of the democratic senate campaign committee all came out in support of ed markey for john kerry's senate seat. an unprecedented closing of the ranks around ed markey before any democrat could announce his or her intention of running in the primary against ed markey. and you heard it here first, which is to say you're hearing it right now. scott brown probably wouldn't even run against ed markey. scott brown would be much happier running for governor when duval patrick leaves office next year, a race scott brown would have a much better chance of winning, and a job he would love. i mean, love, compared to the senate which according to my sources he doesn't really like.

so it is settled. ed markey will be the next elected senator from massachusetts. but who, who is the governor going to appoint in the meantime? the pointed senator will have crucial work to do on the next debt ceiling crisis, on the next round of budget negotiations with republicans. all of that action will be focused in the senate finance committee, which has jurisdiction not over just the debt ceiling but over medicaid, medicare social security which republicans want to put into play. ideally the appointed senator would take john kerry's seat on the senate finance committee, and ideally the appointed senator would know exactly how that committee works and how the senate works on day one. because ideally the appointed senator would be a former member of the senate finance committee who has real experience negotiating and legislating huge budget bills. but there are none of those living in massachusetts now or from massachusetts. but there is, there is one former chief of staff of the senate finance committee who is

from massachusetts. and who, like ben affleck, now lives in los angeles. >> have you ever thought about running for public office yourself? >> i do have a great fondness and i admire the political process in the country. it is a big deal to come down and be on your show that i watched so much. but i won't get into speculation about my political future. >> come on, if ben affleck can be taken that seriously for the massachusetts senate seat, why can't i? okay, ben affleck is a lot better actor, screen writer, director and producer than i am, but i know like so much more than he does about governing. well, domestic governing, anyway. look, you know, i mean he knows a lot more than i do about a lot of foreign policy stuff. the middle east, africa, but

that stuff is not going to be involved in the debt ceiling negotiations. i cannot believe it has come to this. that i have to float my own name to get in this mix for this senate appointment. you know how embarrassing this is. i know barney frank, he had no problem floating his name for the seat. he told the governor he would like to be appointed. i guess that is what i have to do if i am serious, the greatest governor of all time, duval patrick, i'm going to have to call him like maybe tomorrow. so i am going to do what i always do when i am faced with a difficult situation. i'm going to avoid it. at least for tonight. i will sleep on it. but i think i owe the people of massachusetts and the governor and the lucky senators who may get to be my colleagues, at least temporarily. i think i owe them all a

decision on this. so tomorrow night on this program, i will announce either my intention to beg the governor for the appointment, or my choice of who the governor should appoint to hold the senate seat until ed markey can be sworn in. i'm going to need your help with this decision. let me know on twitter or facebook whether i should be appointed senator, whether i should ask the governor to appoint me senator. or, if say barney frank should be the appointed senator or someone else should be the appointed senator. you know, maybe i could work something out with barney frank. if i become a temporary senator maybe he can become a temporary host of a 10:00 p.m. program on msnbc. ever.

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we're thankful to the people of the united states because i know they will honor the tradition of providing relief. you see, we have stood, we have stood with the citizens of florida and alabama, mississippi and louisiana, iowa and vermont, california and missouri in their times of need. now, i trust they will stand with us. >> of the $60 billion hurricane sandy rebuilding package that passed in the senate at the end of the last congress, house speaker john boehner has only brought to the floor one bill to provide the flood relief. there will be no more votes for hurricane sandy until january 15th.

last night, john stewart, railed against the hypocrital republicans. >> many are still dealing with the facts of hurricane katrina. >> you vetoed money to reimburse, here is a thought, your constituency in new york, seven months later, it is two months later, instead of a baseline temperature of 60 degrees, it is freezing, and instead of -- you guys still couldn't bring yourself to vote for because of a stupid principle that you yourself only occasionally live by. if you can't vote for this, i'm not saying you're responsible for all the problems of the country, but you sure are making them a lot harder to fix. >> there is nothing like john stewart when he is actually mad about something, that is kind of great.

>> yeah, he is coming in there, and nailing it, which you can't be half way pregnant, there is no such thing as half way crooks. and you can't be half way conservative when you're conservative when you comes to everybody else, and big into liberal spending when it comes to you and your own people, you look like a hypocrite. >> and john stewart addressed the notion, what about private charity and the private sector jumping in there, before asking for government help? let's listen to john stewart. >> there has to be a balance between the two, government must ask for the common good. >> guess what, private groups they kept up their half of the deal. they raised like $400 million, remember this, jon bovi, half of the surviving beatles, you know what they called kanye at this concert? intermission.

>> $400 million is a lot of money, except when you need 60 billion, it is less than 1% when you need 60 billion. >> exactly, everybody loved that concert, there was more senior citizens on stage getting more crazy than you usually see. that doesn't do what government does. the scale as you put it, katrina was $6 billion in 2005, another 60 billion just the following year as you point out here in the lead-in, we got nine billion so far. it is not even the scale that even private charities will come near addressing. it is more than misleading. it is a lie for anybody in the republican party to claim we're going to do it through churches. >> we can't emphasize it enough, new jersey and new york are asking for their money back. these states send in way more money to the federal government for all purposes than they ever get back in federal spending.