so let me finish with this. i really like this new poll, the quinnipiac just did. it shows how exciting politics in this country can be. check this number. hillary clinton, 45%. chris christie, 37%. study that number. eight points isn't much to separate a woman who everybody knows around her and i think is unbeatable in many ways, from a new jersey governor who still hasn't gotten re-elected yet. but the real number there is that undecided number. 18%. that means 55% out there in this country are either for christie or not committed yet. since everyone in the country has a pretty good fix on who the recent secretary of state is, that can only mean this could be one heck of a race. why do i think that's important? i want there to be a two-party system in this country. a huge number of people could reasonably choose between the two candidates and both parties are capable of putting forward a presidential candidate who believes the government is important. that it's important for both parties to work together. it's important to have that going on. nobody wants a lobsided super

bowl and i don't want a boring campaign not one i fully believe could be the most exciting in decade. that's "hardball." "the ed show" starts right now. good evening, americas. welcome to "the ed show." the obama economy. what is it? it's on a roll, and the republicans hate it. this is "the ed show." >> it's a very simple equation. tax increases destroy jobs. >> taxes went up and jobs went up. tonight, congresswoman jan schakowsky on the surging obama recovery despite no help from republicans. and the failure of conservative economics with david k. johnston and peter mauricy. the sequester cuts arizona's border patrol and now governor jan brewer is crying for help. the head of the border patrol union joins me tonight. first republicans voted against the violence against women act. now they're trying to fool the public into thinking they supported the law.

the big panel weighs in. plus -- former congressman bob may of ohio is going after his fellow republican, speaker john boehner. and he's the activist who dressed up like a pimp to exsuppose acorn corruption. >> when i said i'll turn tricks, i was expecting them to like, whoa! they just heard it and it was business as usual. >> now james o'keefe is paying $100,000 to a victim of his stunt. today, ex-acorn employee juan carlos vera joins me for an exclusive. thanks for watching. i remember when president obama got elected and they did the stimulus package and the republicans just couldn't wait to say, oh, this is obama's economy. you know, we show you this chart every month. the united states economy has experienced three straight years, that would be 36 months, of private sector job growth.

more than 6 million jobs have been added after the worst crisis since the great depression. the trend did not reverse this month. why is that significant? in this -- and this is what has me fired up tonight because we couldn't erase a right wing bulletpoint. unemployment has been tick down. 7.7%. a four-year low, by the way. the country added 236,000 private sector jobs. experts were expecting about 150,000 jobs. but here is the problem. 10,000 public sector jobs were lost. so we look at this chart. we just can't forget what it looks like when you add in the private sector job losses. republicans talk about cutting government spending all the time and shrinking the size of government. well, the price of this has been 740,000 jobs. this is how many government jobs have been lost since president obama took office. one government job for every

five private sector jobs has been created. and let's be honest about what government jobs are. they are teachers, they are firefighters, police officers, first responders, public safety workers. republicans, you know, they are okay with losing these kinds of jobs. they would rather protect the wealthy. now remember what republicans told us when taxes went back to the old clinton rates at the beginning of the year for folks who have got an income over $400,000. they use the same old tired line that they always used. >> if you raise taxes on the so-called rich, you are really raising taxes on the job creators. >> yeah, you can't raise taxes on the job creators. oh, yes you can. republicans followed the lead of george w. bush and said this fiscal cliff tax increases would just crush the economy. >> raising those rates on january 1st would, according to the independent firm

ernst & young, destroy 700,000 american jobs. >> what firm was that? john boehner was worried about losing 700,000 jobs because of tax increases? well, sports fans, it just didn't happen. instead, republicans slash and burn policies have cut 740,000 jobs. now i don't know about you, but i'm starting to notice the real problem here. republican policies help lose jobs. the president's policies help add jobs. and the truth is hard for republicans and conservatives to take at this point. >> anything positive happening in the economy, if there are any positive numbers, they're fake. >> fake for three years, rushbo. come on. it's important to point out the latest numbers don't cover the spending cuts from sequestration, which i'll get to a commentary on that in a moment. we know these cuts will have an impact on the economy. a white house spokesman talked about the impact of the

sequester is having right now on jobs within the white house. >> there will be employees of components who work here at the white house that will be facing pay cuts, that will be facing furloughs, and again, this is the result of a policy the democrats and republicans agree is really bad. >> so republicans may still succeed in slowing down our economic progress, thanks to the obsession that they have with cutting government. but despite what rush limbaugh says, the economy is not made up. like it or not, this is the obama economy because republicans have completely abandoned any idea or any effort of helping out in any way, shape or form. how many jobs bills have been on the table that they have ignored? they've not helped create a single job. get your cell phones out. tonight's question -- will republicans ever admit the obama economy is working? text a for yes, text b for no to 67622. you can always go to

ed.msnbc.com. we'll bring you the results later on in the show. first to congresswoman jan schakowsky of illinois. good to have you with us here. you know, has a single piece of jobs legislation been brought forward in the house for a vote? >> absolutely to the contrary. most economists believe this sequester and now carried through in the continuing resolution will cost 750,000 jobs. so here we are on a great day. of course, john boehner won't admit it. he wants to remind people that barack obama promised lower unemployment, you know, sour grapes all the time. and then continuing -- it's just going with a policy that could cost 750,000 more jobs to be lost. >> and you expect these numbers to turn around because of the sequester, correct? >> yes. oh, look, i had a meet with the

faa today. they already got furlough notices. we're hearing about small airports that are going to possibly have to shut down or at least slow down considerably. this is real. and i got an e-mail today from a woman, her name is mary. a constituent that says her unemployment benefit was just cut $200. >> and the backdrop of this is that we can raise taxes on what they call the job creators. there's still more that can be gotten out there because of the income inequality in this country and the wealthiest americans who have really seen their incomes go up during this recession. and so is there more money out there that can be brought to the treasury from the wealthiest americans and still keep the job growth going? >> we were just doing a calculation in my office about $1.5 trillion and what we call tax expenditures. these are tax cut, tax loopholes. but it's spending just the same as if it were in the budget

itself. giving these tax loopholes to oil companies, to companies that ship jobs overseas, legislattin people pay 15% on their dividend. if we were to do something about these tax expenditures, we could save $1.5 trillion from the deficit. we could cut it, yes. >> congresswoman jan schakowsky, appreciate your time tonight. now let's turn to david k. johnson, pulitzer prize-winning journalist and peter maurici from the university of maryland. gentlemen, good to have you with us. peter, you first. can we admit tax increases did not kill jobs at this point? >> no, i don't think so. i have a burden of having a degree in economics. i'll tell you this. if you -- i understand it doesn't count for much here. >> yes, it does. it does, but, i mean come on now. we've added jobs when we have

raised taxes on the wealthiest americans. >> simply added less jobs is like jobs -- if you raise taxes, you take money out of people's pockets that they could spend. if you cut spending, you reduce spending. so either way, whether you reduce spending or you raise taxes you'll have a negative impact on the economy. i find it very amusing, though, that some of these estimates, the cbo says that sequester will result this year in about $42 billion in less spending. essentially, that's about -- the multiplier effects and all the roll-in is about a half a percentage point to gdp. each percentage point of gdp is worth about 150,000 jobs. so we're talking about losing 75,000 jobs, not 750,000 jobs. >> okay. >> i would also point out there would be a much bigger number if you apply the same analysis over on the tax increases. >> david, i'll ask you the same question. can we raise taxes on the wealthiest americans and still

create jobs? >> sure we can. among other things, when you raise taxes on the wealthiest americans if they are business owners it provides them with a greater subsidy from the government. they go out and buy a piece of equipment. and notice what's happened here, we raise taxes on american families with the end of the payroll tax cut. most families had 20 bucks a week less in their paycheck in january and february when these numbers are from and yet we added 236,000 jobs. we added 100,000 jobs more than the growth and the increase of people in the labor force. we could be doing even better -- >> david, i want to ask you about that labor force. some job seekers have left the labor force entirely. in january, 130,000 workers left the labor force. that's a drop of 0.1%. is that a bad sign? >> well, it's bad in the sense that we should be doing better. we could be growing the economy faster. but look at the things that are going to happen because of the

sequester. this interference with air traffic and other measures is going to make business less efficient. we're not spending money on infrastructure. it makes it less efficient to move goods around the country. those all have negative effects on the economy. and so, yes, we can raise taxes on a variety of people. we can reduce tax expenditures and have a growing economy and a better growing economy. >> people, what about these job trends. support the president's agenda, don't they? >> i don't know that they do. if we compare this cycle with the reagan cycle, both presidents had unemployment peak above 10%. mr. obama, 10%. mr. reagan, 10.8%. at this point in his recovery, mr. obama has had the economy growing for three years at about an average rate of 2.1%, 2.2%. mr. reagan had the economy growing at 5.2% at the same point in his recovery. and he was adding about, you know, 300,000, 400,000, 500,000

jobs a month. it's different times, different circumstances. we are doing better. i acknowledge that. but i think we could do a lot better if we attacked some of the structural problems. i don't think there's that much taxes that politically can be harvested by closing the deductions. >> david you see it differently? >> yes, i do. first of all, the economic problems that mr. reagan faced 30 years ago are a blip compared to the disaster that we are still dealing with brought on by all the corruption. the unprosecuted corruption on wall street. and secondly, we have to remember that in this economy, because of that disaster, we are laying off so many workers. over 700,000 public workers. ronald reagan expanded government employment tremendously on his watch and that's one of the reasons that, at this point in his two terms, he was doing much better. he had so many additional government jobs added. >> now mr. krugman who has been on this network and on this show, says that we need a bigger

stimulus package. peter, would you disagree with that? >> yeah, i would. i think we've gotten the bang we're going to get out of stimulus. i would like to do some things in the financial sector that might warm your hearts. the good progressive that you are. i agree with them. some democratic economists that maybe dodd/frank is a little overboard in my mind. it poses too many burdens on small banks. and what's really needed, instead is to stream line dodd/frank but to bust up the big banks so they don't exert this monopoly power and create the difficulties and problems they have. a lot of stuff has gone unprosecuted and a lot of these guys still have their jobs. blankenfein still at goldman sachs. jamie dimon still at jpmorgan and so forth. i'd like to separate investment from commercial banking. we have five or six banks that have 60% of the deposits. i'd slice them in half. >> glass/steagall, you'd go back to it? >> absolutely. i'm not against regulation, but

i want to get it right. >> david cay, we might convert him before the show is over. >> i might convert you. >> i am with peter. we need to go back to glass/steagall. that was a much better policy. >> appreciate it. remember to answer tonight's question at the bottom of the screen. share your thoughts on twitter and facebook. radical republicans are already whining about cuts in government spending. i'll show you why and what's happening on the border. don't want to make money. i love making money. i try to be smart with my investments. i also try to keep my costs down. what's your plan? ishares. low cost and tax efficient. find out why nine out of ten large professional investors choose ishares for their etfs. ishares by blackrock. call 1-800-ishares for a prospectus which includes investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses.

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republicans who voted against protecting women are now trying to take credit for the bill. a very special big panel weighs in tonight. and the fake pimp who was out to get acorn gets slapped with a $100,000 bill. the former acorn worker who is making james o'keefe pay joins me tonight in an "ed show"

exclusive. you can listen to my radio show on sirius xm channel 127, monday through friday, noon to 3:00. we are right back. to taste grea. she was a picky eater. well now i'm her dietitian and last year, she wasn't eating so well. so i recommended boost complete nutritional drink to help her get the nutrition she was missing. and now she drinks it every day. well, it tastes great! [ male announcer ] boost has 26 essential vitamins and minerals, including calcium and vitamin d to support strong bones, and 10 grams of protein to help maintain muscle. and our great taste is guaranteed or your money back. learn more at boost.com [ dietitian ] now, nothing keeps mom from doing what she loves... being my mom. ♪ ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] the next wave of italians has come to america,

and the fiat 500 with beats audio is rockin' the block. the italian designed fiat 500. thanks for staying with us tonight. well, it's been a week since the cuts went into effect and federal spending cuts just got real for republicans in border states. and tonight, they are rethinking their party's position. was this the right thing to do? a senior official with the department of homeland security confirms all 60,000 customs and border protection employees are getting furlough notices. here are the furlough facts.

all 60,000 border and custom control employees might have to take 14 unpaid days off. overtime is getting capped and wages could drop 35%. they got to be excited about this. but what about security? the furloughs go beyond paychecks for the workers and could threaten security. smugglers know the agency's weakness and exploit changes in manpower. of course, arizona governor jan brewer is a longtime advocate of the corporate tax cuts and shrinking government programs. always has been. but all of a sudden, she's kind of changing her tune. brewer lashed out this week when federal spending cuts forced homeland security to release 300 low risk detainees. >> they are releasing what we believe to be criminal illegal alien. >> brewer's spokesman calls the news about the furloughs outrageous and, quote, any cut

that impacts public safety should be a last resort. then there's maricopa county sheriff joe arpaio who is also questioning this party's spending cuts. he told a reporter, you shouldn't take away resources when you still have a problem. it doesn't make sense. where were all these folks before? it's hard to feel sorry for the radical anti-immigration crack pots whining about federal spending cuts if the republicans had their way, they would drown government in a bathtub, right? maybe this will wake them up to just how dangerous their radical ideas really are. border security, well, with the republicans it used to be kind of a big deal. joining me tonight is killeen kelly, national president of the national treasury employees union. thank you for your time tonight. how serious are these furloughs? what does it mean to security? >> these are very serious, ed. we are already seeing the beginning of the cuts from the

sequester with the decrease in overtime. that has already resulted in the beginning of seeing a longer passenger lines when they are clearing international flights. we've already seen news reports of that. and of cargo containers having to wait for four and five days in the ports of new york and new jersey to be cleared to come into the country. so the furlough notices, as you mentioned, will require 14 unpaid furlough days. and they have not even started yet. so the slowdown of the commercial traffic coming into the country, as well as all of our seaports, airports and land border crossings, that's will all only get worse as the summer season, which of course is a big travel season, increases. >> so will security be compromised? are we less safe because of these furloughs? >> well, we will have fewer employees providing that security, and the department and customs and border protection will have to decide where to put the staffing they have

available. border security will remain a priority, i believe, for the agency as well as for the employees. but that's why the impact is going to be seen much more so on trade and travel. and that is the other part of the agency's mission is to facilitate legal trade and travel into the country. >> who can take a 20% pay cut and go do something else because the government doesn't have the money to pay them. will the union lose employees because of this and people make career changes and then you have to go through training people all over again. >> well, i think the federal government will lose employees. obviously, all of this impacts morale and makes employees wonder why all of this is being done to them. they did nothing to cause this. they want to come to work every day and protect our country. that's what they want to do. >> is governor brewer having to eat her words, so to speak? >> well, i think anyone who thinks that sequestration was the answer, and that these cuts would not be felt by the country, they were just wrong. and they are starting to see

that. but like i said, they really have not seen the full brunt of their decisions yet. they will see that within 30 days or so. >> so the situation we can deduct that it will get worse as time goes on. and then the other thing that i wanted to ask you is about how people would exploit the man hours. is that a real thing? >> the decrease in man hours? >> people that want to get in and they would notice exactly the shift in manpower and also notice the vulnerabilities. >> for anyone looking to do anything illegal, of course they're going to see it as an opportunity. what the front line customs and border protection employees need is the staffing and the time to search for illegal weapons for illegal drugs, for contraband coming into our country. they need the time to do their jobs and the staffing. they've been understaffed for the last couple of years. this sequester is just making things worse. >> okay. colleen kelley, great to have you with us. i appreciate your time. so the world is definitely

changing with this sequester. republican welfare for oil companies is so big, you can see it from space. no kidding. i'll show you that next, okay? and over 130 house republicans, what did they do? they voted no on the violence against women act. now some of them are trying to take credit for doing what? yeah, they say they supported it all along. big panel on that coming up. [ female announcer ] nature valley protein bars, with simple, real ingredients, like roasted peanuts, creamy peanut butter, and a rich dark-chocolate flavor, plus 10 grams of protein,

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welcome back to "the ed

show." it's the oil boom. it's why north dakota has a $3.8 billion surplus and has a 3.2% unemployment rate. that is the lowest in the united states. it does a lot of good but then it also does some very curious things to people when it comes to taxing. despite that surplus, the state legislature voted against giving just $500,000 to a program that would provide 6,000 needy kindergarten to third graders with free milk during snack time. yes, there's poverty out there on the prairie. but the north dakota senate did approve a lower oil extraction tax from 6.5% to 4.5%. the bill now heads to the house. republicans have two-thirds control in both the north dakota house and senate, so, obviously, it's going to pass. even though democrats argue the bill will actually end up

costing the state more than $595 million in the first five years. i want to show you a shot from satellite. this is from nasa. and you can see, well, where the energy is being used in america, new york. here's chicago. here's minneapolis. and this in the middle of nowhere, is williston, north dakota. that's the -- really what the oil boom looks like. that's oil rigs and oil flares. north dakota now accounts for 11% of the nation's oil production. north dakota is also the number two state when it comes to crude oil producing in this country. and republicans argue that this cut is just necessary for the state to stay competitive with other oil-producing states. are you kidding me? this is a classic example of how needy kids will go without, but the oil companies just can't get

enough and the republicans will lay out the red carpet for them. it's another classic example of how even on the prairie, yes, they will take from the poor and they will make sure the rich get whatever they want. this is your day. this is the day of the advocates, the day of the survivors. this is your victory. >> republicans in congress are taking credit for the violence against women act. after they voted against it. the big panel tears apart their deception plot. a republican former congressman steps out with the truth on speaker john boehner's dirty dealings. an activist james o'keefe settles a lawsuit with one of the victims of his stunts. >> i want to come in and talk to you personally. it involves some girls coming over -- overseas. >> ex-acorn employee juan carlos

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we are back. 138 house republicans voted against the violence against women act last month. some of those no votes are now hoping the public forgets where they stand. congressman steve king of iowa proudly proclaims on his website, king votes in support of violence against women act. king says he understands the importance of reauthorizing this law. but king didn't vote for the bill that the president of the united states signed into law. no it was steve king who voted for the house gop's version of the bill, a watered down alternative which left protections out of the key groups of people that the republican bill never made it out of the house. just kind of a minor detail. then congresswoman vicki hartzler. she, of course, another no vote. she boasts on her website that

she voted to protect women from acts of violence. but just like steve king, hartzler voted for the republican bill that went nowhere. nvd n and not the bill that passed the senate and signed by president obama. she told mcclatchy newspapers there wasn't any intention to deceive here. hartzler and king aren't alone. as the blog points out, several house republicans did the same thing. these ones voted against it and are taking credit for it and hope you the public don't see anything wrong with this. let's turn to michelle goldberg. also republican strategist susan del pecrio and karen finney. susan, got to ask you first, i mean, what's going on here? is this a communication problem here? you know, why would the republicans pull a stunt like

this. >> i don't know why a handful of republicans would decide to do this. frankly, you should be proud of every vote you take in congress and you should stand up for it. and what they are doing is downright cowardly. if you voted against it, say why you voted against it. there's nothing wrong with that. but taking that vote was -- taking that vote and manipulating the day the president signed it was just wrong, plain and simple. >> but here's the thing. this, i believe, why john boehner allowed the vote to proceed as it did. remember, we were all scratching our heads thinking, wow, has john boehner turned a new leaf that he's not going to use the hastert rule? he let the republicans vote on their version first. then they voted on the senate version so that everyone could say, technically, they voted for violence against women. >> and they also did it to avoid primaries on their right. that's why they voted no but they did, as karen said, have a vote that said yes. >> how disappointing to say that in order to avoid a primary on your right you have to have a

fake vote because you can't just come out and say that i believe in this country no woman should be abused, assaulted, raped. i believe we should protect every woman in this country. that's what you have to go through now in the republican party to not get primaried? >> let's make it clear. this was a handful of republicans. and, like i said, it is fundamentally wrong. it's the problem with the republican primaries -- i'm sorry, the republican candidates right now and elected officials. they are afraid of their right. they should be doing what's right. >> why don't these republicans want to stick to their convictions? >> it may be only a handful of republicans who are now kind of pretending they voted for vawa when they really voted against it. but it's the majority of their -- of house republicans who actually voted against the violence against women act. and in certain ways, that's the bigger problem and that's what's more indicative of the problem with the republican party is that you have a party that's stuck between what the general public wants. violence -- protecting women

from domestic violence is not a controversial proposition in this country. whatever the far right would like to think. >> and yet the majority of republicans passed it in the senate. >> yeah, so -- it passed by 68 votes in the senate. and yet the majority of house republicans thought that this was -- i don't know, too liberal. they -- they are enthralled to a base that opposes even very kind of common sense protections for women, for gays and lesbians, for imgrants. that was a big sticking point. >> that was. the republican bill definitely did that. karen, why would they not do that for native americans? >> well, if you believe heritage and freedom works, it's because, really, ed, the senate version of the bill took away rights from men and heaven knows we cannot in any way shape or form infringe on the freedom of men in this country. i mean, literally, one of the posts freedom works wrote was now if you just irritate a woman she can call the police on you.

that just shows how disconnected they are from the reality, right? they did not want to protect native american women. why? because what we were talking about is nonnative men who go on the reservations and abuse women because they know they can get away with it. we're talking about women who are here illegally for a variety of reasons, who are abused, who are afraid to come forward because they believe, you know, they'll get deported if they admit that they are being abused or raped or, you know, worse. and again, these are the most vulnerable people in our society. but i am glad it passed. that's the most important thing. >> i don't understand why any of them would not vote for what was on the table from the democratic side. i mean, it's -- >> agreed. >> it's somewhat of a select society to exclude people, isn't it, susan? >> i'm with the 87 members of the republican caucus that voted for it. it should have been passed. it was a good piece of legislation. it's an important piece of

legislation, and it was a renewed piece that added a segment of the pop ulg thulatio is vulnerable. >> we got job numbers out today. are these numbers going to turn around because of the budget cuts that kicked in a week from tonight, actually? from a week ago tonight? can they continue to keep these job numbers going. michelle, your thoughts on this. >> i mean, from -- people who know a lot more about this than me say that these cuts are going to not turn the recovery around. but certainly slow it down. obviously, the republican party, which is desperate for any piece of bad news about the economy and there still are plenty of bad pieces of news about the economy are going to seize on that and blame obama for any slowdown that comes about as a result of their own intransigen intransigence. >> it is obama's economy right now. three years of this. >> as you said in your first

segment, let's give the guy some credit. we're having job creation, and the danger here is that the sequester, as most economists believe, will slow down that job growth at a time when we should be doing exactly the opposite, which is obviously more growth. and just kind of to tie this back to how well you support women or not. a lot of the budget cuts, particularly in paul ryan's first budget. we'll see a new budget from him. who took the brunt? and a lot of these programs we've been talking about, it's women and children who tend to take the hit. so if you really support women, it's not just about voting for some version of violence against women but looking at the economic policies that you support and how those policies actually impact working women in this country and women across the board in this country. >> susan, i remember back in 2009 when the republicans couldn't wait to say that this was obama's economy. can we say that now? >> absolutely. he is accountable. he's held responsible. these were great numbers that came out today. but that's not to say that things won't, you know, that things will be steady.

as michelle mentioned, there could be sequester problems with the sequester. but i think what is riding the stock market, why it had such a good week, and i think what will keep the economy going is that there's hope for a grand bargain. if we could see that, that could keep us in the right direction. >> i hope there's no grand bargain because it will be the big three that will be on the table and that's not what the election was about. but i do agree with you that it is something to watch. michelle goldberg, karen finney, good to have you. john boehner is more interested in partying than politics in washington. and james o'keefe gets stung by his acorn sting. i'll talk exclusively to the man who made him pay up. stay with us. ly she's been comin with less gray than usual. what's she up to? the new root touch-up by nice'n easy has the most shade choices, designed to match even salon color in just 10 minutes. with the new root touch-up, all they see is you.

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so we just can't wait that long. so we asked all of you for your suggestions on facebook. meg baldwin ulmes says rumsfeld's number one rule is to do unto others first. jolene suggests, do whatever we want to whomever we want because we are the best and the rest of the world is evil. and joyce graves writes, go to war without proper equipment and tough stuff if you're killed or maimed. go to facebook tonight and right now and you can share your suggestions. don't forget that you can like "the ed show" when you there are. we're coming right back with the boehner story you won't want to miss. but i'll tell you what impresses me. a talking train. this ge locomotive can tell you exactly where it is, what it's carrying, while using less fuel. delivering whatever the world needs, when it needs it. ♪ after all, what's the point of talking if you don't have something important to say?

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what do you do when you get out of jail? i guess you could write a book. a former republican congressman and convicted felon is trying to disgrace the speaker of the house, john boehner. bob nay out of ohio spent a decade as a congressman from that state and he's known

boehner for 25 years. in 2006 they pleaded guilty to charges from the jack abram lobbying scandal. he accepted gifts in exchange for votes and served 17 months in prison. now he's going after his old buddy john boehner in a new book. nay accuses boehner of allegedly having an extramarital affair, heavy drinking, taking thousands of dollars in gifts from lobbyists and just being lazy. i spoke today on my radio show today. he thinks boehner's past has a lot to do with the gridlock in washington. >> as we talk about sequestering and fiscal cliffs, the advocacy money and the lobby money is flowing all thoefr place to make decisions. and at the helm is a person, the speaker of the house, that was involved in all of these things with abramoff. and i think people have a right to know what the third in line to the presidency is about. >> he also told me that boehner is concerned about one thing,

himself. >> at no point in time have i ever heard in 25 years john boehner say, bob, that's just not good for people or, that is good for people. this is his personality. it is about his survival as speaker. so if he has to obstruct, he will obstruct. if he has to cater to all the special interests, he will cater. >> now clearly boehner isn't real happy with his former colleague. i don't know if they are friends anymore. he addressed the accusations on thursday in a presser. >> this is a disgraced congressman who went to jail. he's made a lot of baseless and false accusations in order to try to sell a book. it's sad. >> what's wrong with no comment? why even address it if it's all wrong. nay responded to boehner on my radio show earlier today. >> as far as sad, i think john probably cried when he heard some of the things i said because he knows they are true. there will be people that are republicans. there will be people that, you know, are not deemed liars.

that will be, i believe, coming out to verify what i've said. >> wow. that will be a story. only time will tell if these accusations prove to be true. but we should note boehner's handed out checks from the tobacco industry on the house floor. tonight in our survey, i asked you, will republicans ever admit the obama economy is working? 2% of you say yes. 98% of you say no. coming up -- fox news favorite pimp has to give $100,000 to a former member of acorn. he joins me next. [ buzzer ]

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welcome back to "the ed show." this has to be a lesson to everyone. you play with a camera, you could end up writing a check if you don't know what the heck you are doing. a hero of james o'keefe was on the losing end of a lawsuit. now he's finally paid. james o'keefe. he made a big splash a few years ago by posing as a pimp and allegedly insisting the help of various acorn employees to smuggle underage girls across the border. o'keefe used a hidden camera. >> it involved some girls coming overseas. >> from el salvador? >> my girlfriend here is a prostitute. she's in a unique line of business. she's in prostitution. and we're bringing in some underage girls in from -- can i pull up a chair?

>> yeah go ahead. >> can you -- this is confidential, right? >> yeah. >> after o'keefe left the acorn office, the employee in the video, juan carlos vera, called his cousin, a police officer. meanwhile, o'keefe released a heavily edited video suggesting mr. vera was trying to help him. fox news, of course, jumped all over the story. >> now the man on this tape even offers to help smuggle underage illegal immigrants into the u.s. for the purposes of prostitution. let's take a look. >> logistically, is it better if it's tijuana? is it better if it's somewhere inland? where is the best place? >> well, vera was fired from acorn and o'keefe's videos were a big selling point when congress defunded the organization acorn. here's republican congressman trent franks connecting acorn to president obama. >> president obama, his entire career was essentially launched by acorn. he ran a voter registration

project for them. and he was one of their lawyers in key cases. and now he's in the untenable position of signing a bill to defund the organization that launched his career and helped getting him elected to president. >> well, mr. vera sued mr. o'keefe. o'keefe paying $100,000 to vera. o'keefe regrets any pain suffered by mr. vera or his family. i am joined by carlos -- juan carlos vera and his attorney eugene iredale. thanks for your time tonight. >> thank you. >> carlos, what's was it like having your reputation trashed by a network? >> hi. my reputation, i feel, is in the garbage when this action. >> are you glad this is over with? >> yeah, i feel okay. >> you feel okay about the settlement? >> yes. >> is this a victory for you? >> yes, i think so.

only i feel sad because acorn not exist anymore and acorn, they have a very good programs. that's why. >> eugene, explain the wrongdoing alleged in the lawsuit. >> well, in california, as in many states in the country, it's illegal to tape record someone without their permission. we have a section of our penal code that makes it a crime to tape record someone without their permission. mr. o'keefe, we feel, knew very well that the law in california prohibited recording without consent. he had been involved earlier in the sting of planned parenthood with a woman named lila rose, and this very section of the penal code came up. the law also gives a private person who is aggrieved a right to file a civil lawsuit which juan carlos did. and, of course, o'keefe had no

defense. he illegally recorded, repeatedly in california, not only in san diego but in san bernardino and in los angeles. by the way, in pennsylvania, there was a lawsuit against him which he settled. this time secretly some years ago based on the same kind of law in pennsylvania and there was a case filed against him in maryland for the same thing. >> it's pretty habit forming it seems like for him. what about the dishonesty here. the editing of the tape that put your client in a horrific position, tarnished his reputation and then, of course, the capitulation. and this is what mr. o'keefe is saying in a statement. he says the settlement admits no liability and there is no benefit from extending this ridiculous lawsuit. what do you make of that. >> well, i'll tell you. if he wants to get out of the settlement and wants to fight us in court, we're ready. any time. we can go