you can track, rate, organize from start to finish all from one clean interface. to learn more about today's show, just click on our website. it's openforum.com\yourbusiness. you're find all of today's business and more information to help your business grow. and you can follow us on twitter. it's @msnbcyourbiz. and next week, it all started with two mothers who helped their daughters decorate their lockers. >> on the first day of school the phones started ringing with other parents saying where did you get that stuff? great, now you've done it. now my daughter wants it. >> today they've got national distribution, factories in china, and millions in sales. next week find out how they did

it step by step. until them, i'm j.j. ramberg. and, remember, we make your business our business. we've all had those moments. when you lost the thing you can't believe you lost. when what you just bought, just broke. or when you have a little trouble a long way from home... as an american express cardmember you can expect some help. but what you might not expect, is you can get all this with a prepaid card. spends like cash. feels like membership. after the last mid term elections in 2010, the one where the republicans did so well,

after those mid terms, the first major special election that got a lot of national attention ended up being being this one, right? the scott brown senate race in massachusetts. long-time democratic senator ted kennedy had died during his term in office. so they held a special election to fill ted kennedy's seat in january 2011. after the november '10 mid terms. republicans were over the moon with how well they did in midterms. then they were over the moon and over the moon again when this previously unknown republican state legislature scott brown won that u.s. senate seat and found himself going to washington. now scott brown did not stay there long. he ended up serving only a partial term in ted kennedy's seat. when he had to defend that seat in this last election in november, he lost the seat as an incumbent by eight points. scott brown and herman cain were both announced this week as the latest contributors on the fox news channel. so that is what scott brown will be doing now with herman cain be doing now with herman cain instead of legislating.

while elizabeth warren has that seat now in washington. elizabeth warren made her debut this week at the banking committee that wall street was so eager to keep her from joining. her first round of questioning, she was questioning some bank regulators, demanding to know why no wall street banks ever end up on trial when they break the law. that round of questioning has already become as much as a viral sensation as might be possible for a round of banking committee questioning. spontaneously, i should note in the moment when she was asking those questions of the bank regulators about why banks never end up on trial when they break the law, she earned a round of applause in the committee room from people who were there watching. but even though this was elizabeth warren's first committee hearing, and she has only been there since last month, senator warren is now the senior senator from massachusetts. because the other senate seat from massachusetts also opened up in the middle of a term when long-time senator john kerry was sworn in as our nation's new secretary of state.

so the junior senator from massachusetts holding the john kerry seat now is this guy, mo cowan, senator mo cowan. he was appointed by the massachusetts governor deval patrick to just be a place holder for seat. to fill the seat, and essentially not make any waves until the next special election for massachusetts senate can be held in june that senate race in june in massachusetts is going to get a lot of national attention, no matter what happens. in terms of who the contenders are, though, it's turning out to be kind of hard to predict. it's pretty straight forward on the democratic side. it's a conservative democratic congressman named stephen lynch and a more liberal congressman named ed markey. they'll be fighting it out. the progressive is leading mr. lynch, the conservative by about seven points among likely democratic voters. so ed markey is the favorite there on the republican side, though, nobody knows. the race is wide open. the only headlines on the republican side of this race so far have been from the long list of republicans who people have heard of who are not running. everybody from scott brown himself to mitt romney's son to mitt romney's wife to a former

republican governor named bill weld. none of the republicans who have state-wide name recognition are running. and the ones who are running, well, so far if you look at the polling, it's never heard of him versus never heard of him versus never heard of him. actually, the last never heard of them hymn, he is not running either. the polling in this race tells you very little about who is going to win on the republican side. nobody has ever heard of anybody and there is new people jumping in all the time and nobody has heard of them ever. at this point it may not really matter who the republicans pick. but in part because of that, what has become the headline in this race so far is not necessarily the polling on the people, but the polling that is being done on this race on the issues. look at this. in massachusetts, look at this. they're polling on the favorability of who the guys are that are running, right? they're polling on the place holder guy who is holding the seat. they're polling interestingly still on scott brown, who

decided not to brown. they're polling on the democratic party and the republican party writ large. but the one other thing they're polling on, they're also polling on the nra. yes. that is the one other thing worth polling favorables and unfavorables in a major election in america right now. because this is not just one of the first elections that is going to take place after this last presidential race. this is the election that is going to be taking place after sandy hook, after what happened in newtown. so you better poll on the nra. and in massachusetts throws, the unfavorable rating for the nra is 13 points higher than the favorable rating. the nra is deeply underwater. in other words, at least in this race, at least in this state right now, the nra is poison. you do not want to be associated with the nra, right? in american politics, it is worth asking in how many other election series that going to be the case as well. this massachusetts senate race is not going to be the first election that we have after the presidential. this is one that is happening even sooner.

it's in illinois in the second district there. jesse jackson jr. quit his seat there, holding a special election to replace him. the primary happens a week from tuesday. this is a heavily, heavily, heavily democratic district. so it is pretty well accepted that whoever wins the democratic party is going to win this seat in congress. that's why we had 17 democrats announce that they were going to run for this seat when it first became open. in a field that crowded and in a race that is this short, name recognition and perceived status is everything. right? whoever seems like the obvious choice, whoever seems like the obvious choice, whoever is running in that primary, who themselves is a former member of congress and left congress in good standing with all the name recognition and the status that brings with it, that person is not necessarily a shoo-in, but

that person who left in good standing, that person is probably the front-runner. but in this case, in this election, there is a problem with that would-be front-runner there is a problem with her record. there is a problem with this tape still being accessible on youtube today. >> i'm in my first term in congress, but i spent 12 years as a state senator working very hard on the rights and on behalf of gun owners. you know, as a sponsor in illinois of concealed carry legislation and as a three-time nra a plus member, i know how difficult it has been, but i also know that securing our second amendment rights in illinois has been a very long road. i believe that the constitution -- remember, the

constitution should apply fairly and equally to everyone. and especially our law-abiding citizens, because laws always hurt the law-abiding citizens. the criminals are the ones that get the guns. we know that the criminals are always going to get a it done, and we know we don't want the criminals to feel secure and empowered. and right now they're the only ones that are secure. they're the only ones that feel empowered. that is wrong. we must make sure that our law-abiding citizens feel secure and empowered. and that's you. our fight has just begun. thank you for your passion. thank you for giving me that passion to help you. and please know wherever i am,

wherever i am, i am going to be your voice, your advocate for your second amendment rights. thank you. >> that was congresswoman debbie halvorson, a democrat, promising a crowd at a gun rights rally she will be their voice wherever she goes. that same debbie halvorson is trying to win the first congressional election taking place in america after the sandy hook shooting. maybe once upon a time that kind of position on guns, maybe once upon a time having an a-plus rating from the national rifle association would be a great asset for getting elected to congress. i'm sure at some point it might have been, but it is not anymore. a couple of weeks ago, we showed the ad that the superpac run by mayor mike bloomberg had started running in that illinois

district. highlighting debbie halvorson's a rating from the nra and highlighting it is not a good way. despite protests from debbie halvorson, the pac is running a second ad essential hi making the same argument, but essentially just adding an exclamation point. >> gun violence, it's ought of control. debbie halvorson will make it worse. halvorson oppose as ban on deadly assault weapons. he is co-sponsored a bill to allow some criminals to carry guns across state lines. no wonder halvorson received an a-plus rating from the nra. debbie halvorson's record more guns in the hands of criminals. independence u.s. pac responsible for the content of this advertisement. >> interesting. once these ads started running against debbie halvorson, the perceived front-runner for the seat because she is a former member of congress with all the name recognition, once these ads started running against her in illinois, a state senator, who also has a lot of name recognition, also a known quantity in the district, a candidate named toi hutchinson, she tried to take advantage of the damage being done to debbie halvorson by these ads because of her association with the nra, she tried to take advantage of

it by stepping up and establish herself instead as the should-be front-runner for this seat. the problem with that is that she has the same problem debbie halvorson has if that she also has an "a" rating from the nra. which at this point in a congressional election in this congressional election is a starlet letter. so now enter one well regarded former state representative in the race, who is very, very, very proud and increasingly very vocal now about her rating from the nra and her rating from the nra is an "f." with support from "the chicago tribune," with support from liberal websites like daily kos and support from liberal s around the country who are learning about this particular difference between candidates in this race, the bloomberg group and its enormous checkbook has decided to go all-in. they have picked the candidate who is proud of how much the nra does not like her. >> in the race for congress, the big issue fighting gun violence. debbie halvorson and toi hutchinson both earned an "a" from the nra.

they can't be trusted. the clear choice, robin kelly, endorsed by "the chicago tribune." kelly will join president obama to take on the nra for effective background checks and to ban deadly assault weapons. robin kelly for congress, a champion in the fight against gun violence. independence usa pac is responsible for the content of this advertising. >> a champion in the fight against gun violence. these ads from the bloomberg superpac are ubiquitous now in chicago, on broadcast tv, on cable tv. if you live in chicago, raise your hands. you are seeing these ads constantly. and there is no competing ad to save the "i got an 'a' from the nra candidates" against whom she is competing. having an "a" rating from the nra is not an asset anymore. it is a liability. and, yeah, this is not every race. and this is not every part of the country. but this is the first race in america after sandy hook.

today as president obama awarded the presidential citizens medal posthumously to the courageous principal and teachers at sandy hook, wiping away a tear today as he awarded them those medals, it was announced today that the new york city teachers pension fund will divest all its money from gun manufacturers. the new york city teachers fund is pulling all of its investments, every cent from five companies that make firearms. that follows after california state teachers pension fund also took its money out of gun companies. and after the mayor of chicago said he is considering whether to get money from his city's pension funds out of the gun companies as well. it also follow cerberus, deciding to sell the giant gun company that they owned. a move cerberus made after a call from its client, a california public employees pension fund questioned their involvement in the firearms business. when investment firms and big pension funds start taking their money out of the industry of making guns, the politics here

are taking a step up. this is not any more about the optics of grieving parents and frustrated law enforcement and what everybody believes is going to be the futility of trying to change anything. this is about taking the argument that something must be done right to the door of the company that profit from their being lots of guns sold in this country, and all the associated accessories. right to the front door of the companies that have blocked new laws aimed at regulating guns and curbing gun. whenever and where they can, they're taking the fight to the industry. and if you are this guy, that is very bad news indeed, right? wayne lapierre of the national rifle association. you ever wonder why everything he says seems increasingly inflammatory? it's not that he is dumb. it's not that he doesn't know what is going to upset you when you listen to a speech or a sound bite from him.

the national rifle association exists to bug you. the national rifle association exists to make you think of him, to make you pay attention to him and to the nra instead of to the industry that pays the nra to be their heat shield. nobody knows the names of the ceos of the manufacturing companies in this country that make guns. nobody knows who runs the various gun companies and the accessories companies who makes those extended magazines anyway. nobody knows who those guys are. but everybody knows who wayne lapierre is. he wants you to hate him. that's his job. and i think that wayne lapierre and the nra are not even in this to win elections, which is why they stay in business despite a winning record of 1%. wayne lapierre exist to make you think of anything other than the makers of guns when you feel outraged by gun violence. that's their job, to deflect the anger so the flames never reach the people who are really monetarily invested in there being no gun reform in this country that is how the game has been played. but we're now seeing signs that is not how this game going to be played anymore.

the nra is a scarlet letter in some elections now. they are becoming less of a distraction from the real politics of the gun industry and what it might take to change things in this country. they keep saying that this is one area of policy where things can't change. but this is changing. you ready? we wanna be our brother's keeper. what's number two we wanna do? bring it up to 90 decatherms. how bout ya, joe? let's go ahead and bring it online. attention on site, attention on site. now starting unit nine. some of the world's cleanest gas turbines are now powering some of america's biggest cities. siemens. answers.

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in the race for congress, the big issue fighting gun violence. bebe hall ver son and tonch io hutchinson both earned an "a" from the nra. the clear choice, robin kelly, endorsed by "the chicago tribune." integrity, works hard. kelly will join president obama to take on the nra for effective background checks and to ban deadly assault weapons. robin kelly for congress, a champion in the fight against gun violence. independence usa pac is response form content of this advertising. >> that ad from michael bloomberg's superpac we're told these days is inescapable in illinois where having earned an "a" rating from the nra is more of a scarlet letter than an endorsement to be proud of. the pac is running that ad against two democrats with a ratings from the nra and in support of a democrat who got an

"f" from the nra. this illinois special election, the first congressional contest since what happened at sandy hook elementary last month happens just a week from tuesday. joining us now is chris hayes, the host of "up with chris hayes," weekend mornings at 8:00. great to see you as always. >> always great to see you. >> did you ever think you would live to see the day when an "a" rating from the nra would be an albatross? >> the weird thing is i saw that day when it i was 13 years old or 14-year-old, the million mom march, the assault weapons ban, when this kind of thing was good politics for democrats and the democratic party leaned into it. and then there was this longs period of exile. there was a backlash. there was a story that was told i think implausible about how al gore lost his somalia home state of tennessee because of support for the assault weapons ban in 2000. and basically, democrats completely gave up on the issue, and they allowed this mythology to take hold that the way that your median gun owner in rural oklahoma feels about guns is the way that the median voter feels about guns.

and the way that voters everywhere around the country feel about guns. and what bill clinton and the democratic party discovered when the issue was working in their favor in the 1990s is there is lots of constituents in the country who don't feel that way about guns. certain things on the ground have changed. the democratic party have changed be. in some ways, they're recovering lost knowledge from a previous generation of democrats that actually did know this back in the mid 1990s. >> do you think they're also recognizing that it's not just the median gun owner in oklahoma, doesn't represent the country as a whole, but also the -- the statements of the national rifle association. >> absolutely. >> do not even represent the beliefs of the standard national rifle association member. i mean there is also -- >> yep.

>> this dysmorphia between who speaks on the issue and who has strong feelings about the iraq. >> i am now forever going to conjure the image of wayne lapierre when i hear the word dysmorphia. that actually has gotten worse. one of the perverse consequences of republican conservative victory guns is that the nra increasingly has had to justify its existence. they have a very big fancy headquarters outside of washington. you see it when you drive into the city. they raise a lot of money. and there is no battles to fight. there literally have been no battles for them to fight. so they have had to pick increase leg extreme battles, stand your ground laws, telling doctors that they cannot talk to gunowners about the storage of their guns in their how many times when they have little children, which is the legislative fight they picked in florida, right? they have had to get more extreme in order to justify their existence in an era in which no one is fighting them on a national political level, and

that has produced this very perverse set of values, beliefs, and stated principles that is the modern nra. >> and that shows the distance between what their membership believes is reasonable gun law and what they have to advocate. right. but the thing -- there is two things going on here. one is that democrats are feeling their oats in terms of making this an issue and holding people accountable for having taken the other side on gun rights. but the other thing that is happening now is divestment. >> yep. >> and i have always believed that the nra functions as a heat shield for the manufacturers. the whole idea was that the gun manufacturers are like we never want to end up in congress the way the tobacco ceos did. you are going to have to be a magnet for media attention and all of the anger over this. so that everybody always wants to hear from you and they never get curious about us does divestment change all that? >> i think it does. it's because the pension funds are the big money. we saw it with calpers. we're seeing it with bill de blasio. cerberus got very worried. it does change it. i think it changes in precisely the way you're illustrating is that it puts the emphasis and

focus back on the gun manufacturers themselves. and the dirty secret of the gun market right now is there are two lines that go in opposite directions. the percentage of households that own guns is going down, and the number of guns in the country is going up. a smaller group of people are buying more and more guns, which means the manufacturers themselves have the same incentives as wayne lapierre, which is to indicator to the most extreme gun obsessive acquirers, because that is where their market, and those interest people whose views are the most outside the mainstream. and that makes them politically toxic if they step forward. >> and that makes them not a great thing to have hanging around your neck if you are running in a general election. >> that's exactly right. because it's increasingly kind of a hobby, hobbyist fetishistic audience. it's not your casual person who may own one shotgun. that's not where the growth in the industry is. the growth in the industry are people who own 12 guns. >> right. and the latest stuff from the nra, the latest stuff from wayne

lapierre it's not paranoid to stock guns. there is going to be hurricanes. >> looting every in the era of climate disaster. that's my favorite. as climate disaster hits everybody is going to be marauding through the streets. >> if you have guns, you definitely need more. >> 20 morse. >> chris hayes, i'm going to be talking about you behind your back a little later on in the show. >> i hear, i hear. awesome. >> i want to keep the suspense. thank you. >> i can't wait. we'll be right back. sodium soup says it may help lower cholesterol, how does it work? you just have to eat it as part of your heart healthy diet. step 1. eat the soup. all those veggies and beans, that's what may help lower your cholesterol and -- well that's easy [ male announcer ] progresso. you gotta taste this soup. more "likes." more tweets. so, beginning today, my son brock and his whole team will be our new senior social media strategists. any questions? since we make radiator valves wouldn't it be better if we just let fedex help us to expand to new markets? hmm gotta admit that's better than a few "likes." i don't have the door code. who's that? he won a contest online to be ceo for the day. how am i supposed to run a business here without an office?! [ male announcer ] fast, reliable deliveries worldwide. fedex.

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correction, i screwed up and i'm sorry. earlier in the show i said the special election that scott brown won to become senator in massachusetts occurred in 2011 after the 2010 mid terms.

duh, wrong, i'm sorry. scott brown was elected in january 2010, not january 2011, which was right at the end of the health reform fight thing, but before the midterms that year that was just me totally screwing up for absolutely no reason with no excuse. i'm very sorry. and scott brown, if i upset you personally with this mistake, he will happily buy you a beer to make up for it, provided you promise to drink it here on set while you let me interview you. [ female announcer ] switch to swiffer wetjet,

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cpac is the conservative political action conference. the beltway likes to call every gathering of politicos a prom. but cpac is no prom. i'm pretty sure they don't even allow dating at cpac. it's idealogically incorrect. it's more like comic-con or a tricky convention for conservatives. it is super nerdy, but they are super into it. and that makes it awesome. it's three days of conservative movies and prayer breakfasts and meet and greets and parties and swag. the thrill, of course, that it is where establishment conservatives mingle with, you know, the college sophomore ayn rand book club presidents and the bloggers and the john birch society, which still exists. there it is at cpac still preaching the dangers of fluoride. a few years ago i dropped by their booth and talked tooth decay with them. tooth decay and mind control and communism. i have not been back to cpac

since then because that year i think i was a little scarred. i was scarred with disappointment by a very, very disappointing encounter that i had at cpac with liz cheney. >> hi. i'm rachel maddow from msnbc. >> hey, rachel. how are you? >> i think that was it. i don't know what she said. she smiled at me. >> what i said was i would love to interview you some time if you would ever want to do it. and she said oh, hi, rachel. i asked if she would call and she never called. i would still love to interview you. i know you will never call. but still. every year when the cpac roster gets announced, it is an exciting and telling window into what is going on in conservative circles and to who is in fashion, who sought of fashion, what conservatives are thinking about. this year at cpac on friday night of cpac this year, they're going to be screening, for example, a movie about the white house being overrun by north

korean terrorists. so there is that there is also a panel on united nations versus the united states. and they're doing another thing on threats, harassment, intimidation, slander, and bullying from the obama administration. you know how they bully. there are lots of things this year about loving fracking. that comes up three or four times in the program. the anti-union rights stuff is titled "free at last." that's classy. it's what you would expect from a cpac, except for a couple of things which i present with genuine interest, and no snark, even though i have been snarky the whole time. first of all, i amgen win impressed that they have invited chris hayes, host of "up with chris hayes" here on msnbc invited to speak on a panel with ralph reed. fascinating. nobody would talk to me to save my life other than the john birch guys talking to me about fluoride and mind control.

but they have invited chris hayes this year which is very interesting and cool. i don't know if he is going to go, but i think it's cool that they asked him. also, there is this happening on day one of cpac. it is a panel, one of the first official events on the first day of cpac events. look what it is called. too many american wars? should we fight anywhere, and can we afford it? this is cpac. this is the conservative comic con. i mean, even asking a question about whether we might be fighting too many wars, i don't know what their answer will be to this question, but given where american conservatives have been in recent years on this issue, the fact that they are asking it as a question is itself news and really interesting. and we're going to have more on that in just a second, along with our last preview of the new msnbc documentary that i'm going to be hosting here on this very subject on monday night for its premier. that's coming up. [ male announcer ] i've seen incredible things.

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to be honest with you, neil, it goes back to there is a lot of ill will towards senator hagel because when he was a republican, he attacked president bush mercilessly. at one point said he was the worst president since president hoover, said that the surge was the worst blunder since the vietnam war, which is nonsense, and was very anti his own party and people. people don't forget that.

you can disagree, but if you're disagreeable, then people don't forget that. >> that was republican senator john mccain on fox news yesterday explaining why exactly he is participating in filibustering chuck hagel's nomination to be secretary of defense. he says chuck hagel is too darn disagreeable. so says john mccain. quote, in a heated dispute over immigration law overhaul, mccain screamed f you at john cornyn who had been raising concerns about the legislation. this is chicken -- stuff, mccain snapped at cornyn. are you calling me stupid chuck grassley once inquired over the fate of the vietnam mi as? no, replied senator mccain. i'm calling you an -- jerk. at a gop meeting last fall, mccain erupted out of the blue at the respected budget chairman pete domenici, quote, only an -- would put together a budget like this.

he stood up and gave a dignified restrained speech over all his years in the senate through all the heated debates no one had ever called him that. another man might have taken a moment to check his temper, but mccain went on, i wouldn't call you that unless you really were that. >> you can disagree, but if you're disagreeable, then people don't forget that. >> ah, the arbiter of disagreeable. it is rich to hear that as the supposed criticism of chuck hagel coming from john mccain. but honestly, it's not just john mccain's personal hypocrisy here. this is a washington-wide thing. it has never been a problem in washington to be a disagreeable person. it's actually the kind of thing that is worn as a badge of honor. >> did you really tell senator leahy bleep yourself? >> i did. >> any qualms or second thoughts or embarrassment? >> no, i thought he merited it at the time. >> being disagreeable does not

disqualify anybody from a high-ranking job in washington. it never has. what is really going on here is not that john mccain does not like chuck hague's tone. what is really going on here is iraq. >> he attacked president bush mercilessly, at one point said he was the worst president since herbert hoover, said that the surge was the worst blunder since the vietnam war, which is nonsense. >> john mccain's hangup with chuck hagel is about iraq. it's about chuck hagel at the height of the iraq war going before the united states senate and the american people and saying this -- >> i don't know how many united states senators believe we have a coherent tragedy in iraq. i don't think we've ever had a coherent strategy. there is no strategy. this is a ping-pong game with american lives. these young men and women that we put in anbar province, in iraq, in baghdad are not beans. they're real lives. and we better be damn sure we

know what we're doing, all of us before we put 22,000 more americans into that grinder. we better be as sure as you can be. and i want every one of you every one of us, 100% of us to look in that camera, and you tell your people back home what you think. don't hide anymore, none of us. >> that's what this is about. it's about iraq. we should have known that this was john mccain's hangup on this when his questions to chuck hagel during his confirmation hearings this month could not get past the iraq war, which is over. but john mccain's obsession with it did have the silver lining of giving chuck hagel a chance to elaborate on his position on it. >> you continued on and on for months afterwards talking about what a disaster the surge would be, even to the point where it was clear the surge was succeeding. do you stand by that -- those comments, senator hagel? >> well, senator, i stand by them because i made them. >> were you right?

were you correct in your assessment? >> well, i would defer to the judgment of history to sort that out. >> the committee can deserves your judgment as to whether you were right or wrong about the surge. >> i'll explain why i made those comments. >> i want to know if you're right or wrong. that's a direct question. i expect a direct answer. >> well, if you would like me to explain why. >> i actually would like an answer, yes, or no. >> well, i'm not going give you a yes or no. i think it's far more complicated than that. and as i already said, i'll defer that judgment to history. as to the comment i made about the most dangerous foreign policy decision since vietnam was about not just the surge, but the overall war of choice going into iraq. >> ah. not just about the surge, it was about the overall war of choice going into iraq. right. so is john mccain trying to relitigate that? the overall war of choice going into iraq?

is he trying to relitigate that the decision to go into iraq was a disaster? yes, actually, yes. that is what this is all about, an effort to rehabilitate the iraq war in the american mind, to make it seem like it was success, or at least that it wasn't a bad idea, or at least that it wasn't the biggest foreign policy disaster since vietnam, or at least that it wasn't a scandal that ought to scar everybody associated with it in american politics for the rest of their careers. and because being wrong about the iraq war was not just an individual scandal, but a big scandal, this ends up being a big project, this revisionist history, until we come clean about this. until we get honest about it. until we can draw a line under it and say you know what? that was a bad idea. until we are able to do that cleanly, this kind of stuff really is going to drag around behind everybody who wants to be in public office in the future who was in public office then, or who was in a position to comment on it when it was all happening. >> do you believe that the people of iraq, or at least a

large number of them will treat us as liberators? >> absolutely, absolutely. >> believe that we can win an overwhelming victory in a very short period of time. >> governor romney, was the war in iraq a good idea worth the cost and blood and treasure we spent? >> it was the right decision to go into iraq. i supported it at the time. i support it now. >> based on what we knew at the time, we were very much under the impression as a nation, as our president was under the impression that they had weapons of mass destruction, that saddam hussein was intent on potentially using those weapons. and so he took action based upon what he knew. >> no, it wasn't based on what he knew. and the iraq war was not a good idea. we went to iraq to get weapons of mass destruction that were not there. weapons that we knew were not there. there was no credible evidence of weapons of mass destruction in the first place.

there was no credible evidence of a nuclear program. there were no ties to 9/11. there were no ties to al qaeda. none of the things that we were told were true were true. the government perpetrated a massive deception campaign on us. but as long as those who were wrong about the iraq war, as long as those who did it can count on us not being blunt about that, as long as we as a country avoid coming to terms with what happened then, not only do you mr. it was the right decision get to run for president, but you get to pick this guy to be your top foreign policy aide while you're rung. his top foreign policy aide was dan seymour. how do you fail up into that job? not only do you get to make that guy your national security expert, but the two foreign policy speeches at the republican national convention in 2012 get delivered by senator "we will be greeted at liberators" and by secretary of "the smoking gun might come in the mushroom cloud." those are your two foreign policy experts? those are your two foreign policy speeches? ten years out there was a major effort under way right now to

make the war in iraq seem like it was a reasonable idea at the time. to make it seem like we were all in it together in making this unfortunate mistake when we made the decision to go in. actually, ten years ago today, you want to know what was happening around the world? in 600 cities around the world, including dozens of cities here in the united states there were mass street protests against it. not everybody was wrong about this. we didn't all blunder into this together because we all believed what that lousy intelligence turned up. it didn't go that way. there was a deliberate campaign to deceive the public, and it succeeded well enough to start a war based on threats and stories and evidence that were not true. and if the revisionism that we are experiencing right now ten years later is able to succeed

here is a preview clip. >> he is a wise and inspiring commander. >> a declassified memo reveals that donald rumsfeld met with general tommy franks to review plans for the decapitation of the iraqi government. they discuss ideas of how to start a war. one suggestion? create a dispute over wmd inspections. >> this is a regime that agreed to inspections then kicked out the inspectors. >> 9/11 made it possible for the first time for the american people to break a tradition of not launching offensive wars. >> the pressure to find evidence falls heavily on all 15 u.s. intelligence agencies. >> the extremely strong policy win that was blowing at the time

and that everyone in government corridors felt, made it absolutely clear what was preferred and not preferred. >> a portion of what will air on monday night at 9:00 p.m. a documentary based on "hubris," this is a story that could not be more timely. monday, 9:00, right here. we'll be right back. introducing olay fresh effects' unstoppable skincare! when every day is a new adventure there's a new skin care line-up that can keep up. start fresh and finish sparkling 24/7 with new olay fresh effects. ♪ catch them if you can at olayfresheffects.com ♪ shimmy, shimmy chocolate.

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to serve the military, veterans, and their families is without equal. begin your legacy. get an auto-insurance quote. usaa. we know what it means to serve. the meteor to flew over and crashed into russia. more importantly, have you seen the meteor. the video is amazing, and so much of it caught on russian surveillance and russian dashboard cameras which are apparently a ton. russians love that. the thing weighed 20,000 pounds and was going at least 33,000 miles an hour. when the meteor hit and it's its

associated shock wave hit, the ground shook, glass shattered, more than 1,000 people injured and more than 3,000 buildings were damaged. some what came to earth left a hole in a frozen lake 25 feet across. not a space rock crashing to earth this dramatically in more than 00 years in 1908 we did not have nearly the number of dashboard cameras we have now to watch it over and over and over and over again from a million different supercompelling angles, and, yet, less than 24 hours after the meteor won the prize for the most accidentally well documented astronomical event ever there, are already meteor truthers in russia. vladimir is a russian politician, and generally acknowledged a cookook. he has distinguished himself by saying this was not a meteor

that hit russia. russian state-run media says nothing if ever falls out there if it falls, it's people out there. people are the instigators of wars and the provocateurs. those aren't meteors falling, it's the americans testing new weapons. man the battle stations. oh, russia. take your conspiracy loving elected officials, here in america we don't have those things. we don't have meteor strikes. as for conspiracy loving officials, we are well stocked there. and this story, chuck hagel, the nominee to run the defense department, received money from a group that he did not want to expose to the senate as a source of income. one of them is a group purportedly called friends of hamas. that sounds terrible. that sounds not just terrible,

that sounds illegal. also it sounds kind of made up, right? not only is there no known proof that chuck hagel had any connection to such a scary sounding group, there is literally no proof that friends of hamas exists anywhere. so crazy, right? some walk job conservative website says something with no proof that happens to be super inflammatory and unlikely and totally you want supported by known facts. someone wrong on the internet, big whoop, right? but they have their meteor deniers in russia. in america, we have republican senator rand paul as a senator gets to take part in the decision about whether or not chuck hagel gets to be defense secretary and here is rand paul's take on this on talk radio a few days ago. >> let me bring up one piece of information that ben shapiro at bright bart put out today which is one