let me finish tonight with this. a sixth of our country is now of hispanic background.

1 in 6 and growing, imagine the enhanced dignity they must feel today after what happened late yesterday in rome. the election of pope francis is something so new it may take a while to get our heads around it. it won't take that long for people who come from latin american backgrounds. all the people here in our country from central america and the caribbean, they must be thrilled. and the cardinal from buenos aires was a surprise last night. he wasn't even mentioned of the possible popes of the newspapers. my sense is he'll be very offbeat from what we're used to in politics in this country. usually you hear someone from the suburbs say i'm a liberal on social issues but conservative on economic issues. well pope francis is the opposite from you. he's conservative on issues like marriage and equality, but progressive on poverty and justice. some old style democrats who are pro life but solid on health care for the poor, protection of the minimum wage, sort of like bob casey. so get ready for a pope who will be perfectly on the old

progressive issues dear to dorothy day and tip o'neill and more conservative when it comes to matters of sex. that's "hardball" for now, thanks for being with us, "the ed show" with ed schultz starts now. welcome to "the ed show" from new york. america met scott prody last night. and what a reaction. i'll tell you what members of the romney camp are saying about comments now. let's get to work. >> i don't know how i describe myself, but i -- i was behind this whole thing. >> the world is reacting to our first interview with the bartender who changed political history. tonight, the footage you haven't seen including the heroic act that convinced scott prody he needed to release the tape. >> looking back on it, it's one of the proudest moments of my life. they're refighting the vietnam war over at cpac. >> vietnam was winnable, but people in washington decided we would not win it. howard fineman has a wrap-up

of the conservative conclave. plus more republican obstruction of appointees has democrats fuming. i'll ask former senator tom daschle if harry reid needs to revisit the filibuster reform. and yesterday it was the president. now democratic leadership looks like they may cave on social security. i'll ask the big congressional panel where they stand. good to have you with us, folks, thanks for watching. people around the country are still buzzing about the man behind the 47% video who revealed his identity on this show last night. now, today the world is getting to know the real scott prody. he described himself on this program as a regular guy. he's got bills to pay, he struggles in the middle class like anybody else. he has a dream to go to law school and he's -- really, here's another thing about him that i think you should know. he's a bartender. this is interesting. bartenders are in the service

and hospitality industry, they are also some of the best armchair psychologists you can find. some of the best people readers on the earth. they can tell if somebody's in a good mood, one of the nicest people you've ever met. you know huh it is, they interact with everyone. people confide in bartenders. they tell bartenders things that they might not tell anybody else. people come into the bar, you know, that they come in happy, they come in sad, they come in after a real tough day. oftentimes they come in to celebrate. what i'm saying is that the bartender sees it all. the bartender knows people. in a way, you know, it's kind of perfect that the guy who secretly recorded mitt romney was in this industry and a bartender. you know, a working guy, a wage earner. you know, bills to pay. a guy who knows people.

you know, it took him about 30 seconds to sum up the phony in the room. he saw a guy who was ordering the wait staff around when he walked through the door. but he also understood the seriousness of what was being said. he knew that the impact what it was going to have and was not going to be careless about his responsibility. >> you were convinced that you had something the media never had. >> right. maybe the media had it. i -- i -- when listening to this speech. i thought if he had said something silly or stupid or off the cuff or, you know, if something didn't actually come out right and he just had said something embarrassing, i would never have just released it. but when i listened to him talk, that wasn't off the cuff, i believed he meant what he said. he spoke with the most conviction i'd ever heard him speak with. i felt that, you know what, this wasn't just a mistake, it wasn't a gotcha moment. this is what he believes.

>> scott prouty knew the words were romney's real beliefs. romney's people also knew it. peter alexander told matt lauer the romney campaign knew how harmful the candidate's words were. >> the release of that tape last summer stunned the staff. the governor, i was told even apologized to them for the mess he had caused. and even now i still remember what another frustrated adviser told me at the time. he said when you're running for president, you've got to know that the camera is always on. >> well, he forgot that. scott prouty wanted to make sure that the american people understood the true meaning of what was being said by a man running for president. the country needed to know what this candidate thought of workers. his analysis came from experience because he has dealt

with a lot of people. he can see people coming from a mile away. he's a bartender. that's his job. the outpouring of support for scott prouty captures the importance of what he did. people understand the courage it took to come forward. this is not the first time scott prouty put his neck on the line. here's another part of my interview with him. it sums up scott prouty, i think, pretty well. >> there was a story about you that you stopped on the side of the road of an accident and jumped in the everglades and saved a woman and her child. is that true? >> it was a single mom, the baby seat was in the car but there was no child in the car. but, yeah, it was a few years back, five years back and i was honored for saving a lady's life that her car crashed in the water and i'd gone down and swam up and down and was able to cut her out eventually and, you know, brought her out and -- david had said, you know, the reason that it was even involved in this, i was on the phone with david early on when we were discussing -- >> david cornyn. >> discussing the release and

he'd said, you know, this is incredibly -- either incredibly brave of you to do or incredibly stupid. you know, and it was that second i said, well, the last incredibly brave or incredibly stupid thing i did looking back on it is one of the proudest moments of my life. so, you know, i think we're going to roll the dice here and we're going to go down that path one more time because it worked. i'm glad i did it then, and i think -- and i slept at night because i didn't watch this woman drown in her car. i was able to live with myself because i jumped in and was, you know, there was other people on the bank and other people trying to help, but i was able to go and pull her out and dive back down and look for the baby. but i came out of it okay. she survived, but i -- i'm glad it's one of the most proudest moments of my life. and it was -- it was something that said, you know what, if you can jump in, jump in. and i had a chance to jump in with this again and said you know what, i'm going to jump in one more time. >> well, the american people are thankful that scott prouty decided to jump in one more time. as a broadcaster, i'm honored to have been able to tell the story along with him.

it was an honor to be a part of it and i appreciate it very much. you know when you do big interviews in this business, there's a stroke of luck that goes along with it. not everybody gets what they want. most people feel if they get close to a story, they deserve the interview. i don't know if i deserve the interview or not, but i do know this, that scott prouty and i do align ourselves when it comes to workers rights and workers issues in the middle class and maybe he just felt a little bit more comfortable here. and i'm proud of our team for that. get your cell phones out. i want to know what you think. it warms my heart to see what has unfolded in social media since the interview aired last night. is scott prouty a hero? text "a" for yes, "b" for no. you can go to our blog at ed.msnbc.com. we'll bring the results later on in the show.

i'm joined by leo gerard. good to have you with us tonight. >> good to be with you, ed, and congratulations on the interview. >> well, thank you. what has been your role in scott prouty's story? >> well, i -- i don't want to speak necessarily about my role. i talk about our union's role. through our relationship with charlie kernagen and the institute for global human rights, we got to meet scott during the inauguration festivities in washington and got to sit down with him and talk about his views about life and his respect for charlie and what charlie does every day going around world trying to help people who are working in terrible conditions. and scott managed to see charlie's work on that very same factory that romney was talking about. and you and i did a show on that, i think, at some point in time where that factory was purchased by romney's bermuda corporation. and when charlie put that out, he and scott connected. and through our relationship

with charlie, we got to meet scott. and i'm happy to say that scott is now going to come and work for the united steel workers. and we're going to do everything we can to help him to make sure he gets the kind of support he needs to take himself through this very, very emotional time for him and this very important time frame for him. he's just, i think, a rare human being that did the right thing for the right reason and didn't want to be the center of attention but wanted america to see the difference between the make believe romney and the real romney when he was behind closed doors with his ultra rich friends. >> what kind of work is he going to do for the steel workers? >> i think we're going to talk to him and do the kind of work he's excited about doing. he's very close with charlie and we do all kinds of work in different parts of the world. we send people into countries where workers are getting oppressed and we try to help, for example, we've helped build unions in liberia, now working

with in nigeria. we were in bangladesh with charlie when the fires occurred. and all the women got killed. charlie and scott have been talking about those things through the relationship and the friendship they've built since they met along the way. and scott is a very talented and smart and strategic young person. and if we can help him meet his dream of going to law school, earning some money to go to law school, we're going to try to do that for him. he's a hero in this election. and god bless him because i can't imagine what we'd be doing now had mitt romney been able to fool the american public. >> well, how much weight do you put on his actions in the outcome of the election? do you really think that it was the game changer?

and had this not been exposed maybe romney would've won? or would he have won? >> i'm not smart enough to figure that out, but i do know this. when i was on the campaign trail talking to ordinary workers spending our time with our members or people that weren't our members talking to workers in various settings. they resented what they saw mitt romney say. mitt romney basically called 47% of america free loaders, those are people that are living, veterans that have come out, people who are disabled, workers who don't earn enough to pay taxes even. and so there was a lot of anger that got generated. and i think it also generated a lot of motivation. i know that our people got more mobilized as a result of that video. and i'm sure that others did. and i think that what scott did, and i think his strategy was flawless. i think what he did with no

prompting by anybody but him thinking it through, he wanted those that couldn't afford the $50,000 dinner to be able to see the real mitt romney. and the others that got scott upset is that mitt romney was talking about himself being a job creator and then he saw what mitt romney was doing in china buying these factories at bain capital. and he saw that as a complete sort of contradiction of what mitt romney was trying to portray. i think in the sense that mitt romney helped the obama machinery show what romney really was about, i think it was if not a game changer darn near a game changer and i think america owes scott a big debt of thanks. >> well, he is a hero in my opinion and a lot of americans on social media are saying the same thing. it took a lot of guts to do what he did. it certainly is going to change fund raising, there's no such thing as behind closed doors anymore or whoever's going to be the next person to get caught isn't going to be thought of as very intelligent. but --

>> well i -- >> the treatment of workers is what really tripped his trigger to release this whole thing and the oppression of the workers is what it was really one of the things that captured his attention. and i want to ask you, mr. gerard, do you think the republican party will change its attitude to the 47%. senator cruz the other day said -- at least i interpreted his comments as not really. >> look, i think the current batch of republicans and those that are behind him in the extreme republicans that are the voice of the 1%, i don't think they're going to change. i think they're just sorry their guy got caught. >> sure. >> and they keep -- if you watch what they're doing, we have a contest going on in america right now between the president who wants to get out of the current mess we're in through growth and the republicans and

those in the congress that are republicans wanting to get the country into austerity. anif you look at what's happening in europe, look at what's happened at great britain that accepted austerity. they're in a triple-dip recession. so i think that they're not going to change. and the one thing that about scott to tell everybody. he wanted everybody to see the real mitt romney. and when romney was almost arrogant enough to say that hep went into that factory and saw the barbed wire in the fences and -- >> sure. and that was to keep people out, right. >> to keep people in. to keep people out. well, look, i'm not the smartest guy in the world, but i've driven by prisons and when it's turned inside, it's not so that you can keep people out, it's so you can keep people in. >> thank you, mr. gerard, i appreciate it so much. thanks for being on the ed show tonight. remember to answer tonight's questionnaire at the bottom of the screen. share your thoughts on twitter @edshow and on facebook. and do that for the weekend show coming up too. conservatives are out in full force at their annual convention. we'll tell you who shot first. stay tuned.

democrats are about to make the biggest mistake of their lives. "the ed show" congressional committee will tell us what the president said today. and i'll tell you about the future of the new ed show. you won't want to miss it. listen to my radio show sirius xm radio show monday through friday noon to 3:00 p.m. share your thoughts on facebook and twitter. ♪ [ female announcer ] almost nothing can dampen a baby's mood, 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. ♪ pampers. peaceful nights. playful days.

republican elected officials who vote for tax increases are rat heads in a coke bottle. >> comedy hour. there's going to be a lot more of that nonsense in the coming days.

the gop's best and brighters are gathering outside of washington, d.c. for the largest republican gathering of the year cpac. this year's conference theme is america's future the next generation of conservatives new challenges timeless principles. i think i'll puke now. here's what the next generation of conservatives looks like at cpac. a good chunk of their speakers are old and bad, very bad at winning elections. meanwhile, you can tell republicans are still pretty sore about mitt romney's loss. this year's conference offers panels like csi washington, d.c., november 2012 autopsy. and here's another one, should we shoot all the consultants now, question mark? you mean they actually would shoot people at this thing? one consultant said they wouldn't be shooting who they

would not be shooting is dick morris. that's good because we like to have him around for comedy. after his horribly wrong predictions in the election, morris was invited to speak at cpac, is that an improvement? he addressed a mostly empty side of the room telling republicans they need to change on issues like immigration and abortion. yeah, that'll happen. former congressman alan west thinks otherwise. here's what he said about change today. >> there's no shortage of people telling us what conservatism cannot accomplish. what we can't do, how we cannot connect, how we must change our values to fit the times. well, ladies and gentlemen, i want to tell you that truly is a bunch of malarky. >> yeah, pay no attention to the people, it's us. texas congressman gomert got things cooking today. the tea party rock star shared an odd thought on the vietnam war.

>> i'm not going to debate the merits of whether we should or should not have gone to vietnam. but what i will tell you is vietnam was winnable but people in washington decided we would not win it. >> when was the last time you had an in-depth conversation about vietnam? this was at the cpac convention? what they're talking about? gohmert also said we should've gone to war with iran in 1979. >> now, i still believe today that we have americans dying for their country because we did not send a message in 1979. you don't attack american soil and that's what an embassy is. we should stand up. there's a time for war. >> and that comedy ticket is only $29.95. well, $25 if you get it early, i guess. senator marco rubio also spoke today, he defended his stance on gay marriage. >> i respect people that disagree with me on certain things. but they have to respect me too. just because i believe that

states should have the right to define marriage in a traditional way does not make me a bigot. >> with two more days of cpac to go, there will be plenty of other memorable moments, i'm sure. let's turn to howard fineman prelim analyst and editorial director of "the huffington post" media group. nice to have you with us tonight. >> hi, ed. >> issues to rest. that's what my little note here is. can the republican party put some of these issues to rest like gay marriage and immigration? will they make any forward progress at cpac? your thoughts? >> well, i don't think they want to put them to rest. i think in a way the -- the mentality of cpac is also reflected in congress in the mentality of representative paul ryan's budget. he's putting forth the same

thing that lost in the election, the cpac people are basically saying for the most part, for the most part, actually rand paul was one of the more interesting and disruptive characters there intellectually. >> disruptive? >> well, disruptive in the sense that he was willing to take up -- ask some fundamental questions about things, about privacy, about banks being too big to fail. he doesn't fit directly into the traditional mode. but most of the speakers, including marco rubio were saying, hey, there's nothing wrong with our message. our message is just fine. on the social issues, on every issue. as a matter of fact, rubio didn't even mention immigration, which i think is fascinating since that was his original calling card. at cpac, he strictly hit every traditional red button and did it in a traditional way and got a lot of applause for it. that's sort of the mentality of cpac. i've covered cpac for many, many years back in the day, it was a pretty serious in kind wonkish exercise intellectual debate.

it really isn't that for the most part. it's all political positioning and their political position is we ain't changing. >> well, these politicians want to come away with the biggest headline and the biggest buzz. isn't that part of their mission, as well? >> sure, yeah. it is. and it remains a sort of emotional testing ground for sound bites and for personalities. >> yeah. >> rubio got a lot of good applause lines. rand paul got a lot of good applause lines. rick perry got applause lines for saying -- go ahead, go ahead. >> it's always good to throw the loser under the bus. rick perry knocked mitt romney pretty good today. here's the clip. >> the popular media narrative -- it's that this country has shifted away from conservative ideals as evidenced by the last two presidential elections. that might be true if republicans had actually nominated conservative candidates in 2008 in 2012. >> was that the biggest response that anybody got? >> that was a good line -- that was a good line and goes to the point i'm making. which is this is about purity.

this is about their traditional stance on things. rick perry's probably not the best expert on who's salable on elections on a national level. if a conservative by his lights didn't win the nomination this last time, it's partly rick perry's fault. because he tried to put out a conservative message there that didn't work. so that's the situation they're in right now. >> all right. what do you expect for mitt romney's speech tomorrow? what does he have to offer cpac? >> well, he's -- i think he's going to have to say -- >> announce? >> if he wants any applause, he's going to have to say i screwed up. i didn't carry the conservative message purely enough or strongly enough, in my heart i'm a conservative but i got

waylaid, sand trapped by the bartender in florida. you know, et cetera, et cetera. that's what he's going to have to do. i don't expect him to suddenly come in there and pound the table in defense of the moderate republicanism that he used to represent. >> yeah. >> i don't see that. >> howard, great to have you with us tonight. thanks so much. >> thank you, ed. the big three on the chopping block with the democrats. and i'll ask the ed show congressional committee. what are you going to do to stop it?

still to come, the congressional panel on the future of the big three. president obama wants the senate to fix the filibuster. former senate majority leader tom daschle is here to respond. and i can't wait to tell you what i have planned for the new weekend show. stay with us.

welcome back to "the ed show." today president obama finished his meeting with republicans and democratic caucuses of both houses of congress. now, according to several gop sources, the president wanted to convince republicans that he was serious about cutting entitlements. congress said it was a really

great first step. he did express a willingness to give on entitlements. the word give bothering me. here's what the president said today. >> i think we've had good conversations. but ultimately, it's a matter of the house and the senate, both caucuses getting together and everybody being willing to compromise. >> house leader nancy pelosi said chained cpi and medicare means testing were possibilities. >> if there can be a demonstration, the cpi does not hurt the poor or the very old. then it's something to put on the table. other things that might sustain social security for a longer period of time recognizing the demographic shift that is taking

place. >> what's going on here? the washington post reports leader pelosi and senate majority leader harry reid are prepared to rally, rank and file around a grand bargain. then there is house speaker john boehner trying to place the entire burden on democrats. >> listen, i'm glad president obama reached out yesterday and visited with the house republican conference. and i think we had an honest discussion. but this is going to take more dinner dates and phone calls. it's going to take the president and senate democrats rolling up their sleeves and making tough choices about how we solve our nation's problems. >> all right. let's turn to our congressional panel tonight. congressman keith ellison of minnesota, congressman tim ryan of ohio. i'll take the liberty to say three of my best friends in the congress. no doubt. >> that's right. >> gentlemen, good to have you with us tonight. congressman ellison, you first, what's going on here?

>> well, we have 107 people in the house caucus, democrats who say that we are going to stand firm on social security, medicare and medicaid benefici beneficiaries. the bottom line is, you know, they're -- anyone who wants to make any changes there is going to have to talk to the rank and file democrats. and a lot of us are very clear on where we stand when it comes to seniors, people with disabilities and people who are living on survivor benefits. these are folks with very limited income and they have already given. >> do you have enough to stop what i'm hearing on some of these sound bites tonight and the coverage from today? what do you think? is this a softening from the white house or what? >> well, the white house has pretty much been here for a long, long time. we pushed them back earlier on when they wanted to change the medicare age to 67, which is probably one of the worst policy

ideas i've ever heard. and i was insurance commissioner for eight years in california. i know that would really terminate medicare even as much as the voucher could because it really sets up a situation. you're going to have sicker and sick people in that particular area. there are things that we can do and what we really need to do is to focus on growing the economy. the deficit is there. we can deal with it. but growing the economy is the first priority. >> yeah. >> congressman ryan, president obama campaigned on protecting the middle class. so why all of a sudden is chained cpi up there for grabs. even nancy pelosi is starting to embrace it here. are we seeing the democrats shift towards the republican position on protecting the big three? >> well, i'm not sure nancy pelosi is there just yet. i thought she was very careful on what she said, protecting the poor, protecting those seniors. so everything's fungible. and i'll go over battles for the poorest of the poor, our children and senior citizens with nancy pelosi any day of the week. and i'm confident in the house

with the leadership of people like keith and john that we will be able to hold a line on some of this from the democratic side. but it does get worrisome every now and again when you hear these comments. i know you've got to be conciliatory and be ready for a grand bargain, but we're not going to sell our soul in the process. >> in an op-ed, speaker boehner wrote during our debt discussions in 2011, he wrote that president obama supported such reforms such as raising medicare eligibility age something you talked about, john, in achieving savings in medicaid. he has since taken these reforms off the table. and boehner said this today. >> and the president's idea of compromise is just do it my way. and that's just not going to work. >> well, i hope that's the case because they're not going to give up any revenues, congressman ellison. >> absolutely. i mean, here we win an election where governor romney's signature position is repealing obama care. and yet, in the ryan budget, that's the main thing they say they're going to repeal. i mean, they seem impervious to

the facts. and i think it's very clear that their opening bid is no revenue, we're going to repeal obama care. i mean, i think it is the leadership of the republican caucus that needs to take a look in the mirror and roll up their sleeves. >> and congressman garamendi, i have not seen or heard of any defined loopholes that the republicans are willing to close in the tax code. they love to throw out we've got to fix the tax code, but when you ask them about that, they start to talk about lowering corporate tax rates. >> well, we've talked from years about ending the loophole that the oil companies has. the richest industry in the world does not need our tax subsidies. there's still a lot of subsidies going for american corporations when they offshore jobs. >> but the republicans haven't identified any of them yet, have they? >> well, they're not willing to talk about it other than loose

generalized, terms. you need to get down to the nitty-gritty. they don't do that. but there's many out there that the taxpayers are giving away to very wealthy corporations and individuals not necessarily toward the growing of the economy. there are things that can be done to rein in those loopholes and we need to do it. whether that gives us the money we need to lower the corporate tax rate as we've closed those loopholes, that's a discussion that needs to be taking place. >> tim, what do you think? >> well, we had a budget mark-up last night. we were in until about 11:30 in the evening marking up the paul ryan budget. there was an amendment that said we need to protect the mortgage tax deduction for middle class people. and every republican voted against that democratic amendment. so that shows you where the priorities are. they're not even willing to sit down and say, hey, we're going to protect this mortgage tax deduction that so many middle class families take advantage of.

and i think that's a sign of what's to come. well, the next big indicator of where this is headed is what, gentlemen? you first, congressman ellison? >> well, i think the next big indicator. i'd like you to take a look at our back to work budget. we're putting forward an affirmative vision that says jobs, good jobs needs to be the measuring stick by which -- >> and have the republicans addressed that at all? >> no, they're not talking jobs, just talking about austerity. >> where do we go, john? >> the republicans for austerity, the democrats for growing the economy by making the traditional investments that grow an economy. education, research, infrastructure, manufacturing, make it in america. that's our mantra and do it in a balanced way with reasonable tax and revenue increases that come from ending unnecessary loopholes. >> congressman ryan, do you think the public is still very strong with the president on this? >> i would like to think so. i mean, i think as long as we stand our ground. but leadership is about empowering those grass roots

people that were just going door-to-door. and i think we've got to stand firm. even if we have to play the long game, ed, we may have a tough year or two, but there will be midterm elections. and i think we've got to stand for what is right. the top 1% has seen 93% of the income growth in the last few years. we've got to stand up for middle class people in the small businesses. we can't keep having this system where we have economic growth, but it goes primarily to the top. we're not mad at people for getting rich. god bless them. what we're saying is we've got to grow the pie and let everybody participate. so standing our ground is going to throw gasoline on all of that energy and that fire that we had over the past year during the election. >> i keep hearing from senator sanders that chained cpi hurts veterans, any of you want to comment on that? >> he's right. it certainly hurts people in the lower end. remember, the median income for seniors on social security is

less than $20,000. >> yeah. >> that's the median, not the average. >> well, not just the chained cpi, these millions of vets we have coming back. it's the hundreds of thousands that have some injuries. it's the tens of thousands that have post traumatic stress. we've got to address this problem. go to the republicans right now and you say, hey, we need a little bit of dough to help make this happen so we can honor the service of these veterans. >> yeah, they're not there. >> nowhere to be found. >> and that's a major issue. we've got to pay for some of these things, that's the responsible thing to do, but these vets in this scenario need the help. >> congressman keith ellison, tim ryan, john garamendi. my long time friend senator tom daschle joins us. what should the senate do about the filibuster rule?

people could decide for themselves whether they agreed with him or not. but i felt like it was my duty to make sure that as many people heard it as possible. >> a humble scott prouty tells the "ed show" last night why he released the secretly recorded videotape of mitt romney

slamming 47% of americans at a closed door fundraiser. social media lit up immediately and we -- when we aired the exclusive interview last night and this is what they've had to say on facebook. jodi wrote, thank god for this man. he single handedly saved us from disaster. ruth says the man changed history. thanks, mr. prouty, you are a hero. and tinah says, thank you, scott, you are so brave and i appreciate the risk you took. god bless you. go to our facebook page right now and join the conversation and like "the ed show." thanks for staying with us tonight.

thanks for staying with us tonight. we needed serious filibuster reform long before the 113th congress was sworn in. now republican obstruction is even worse. and the confirmation process has come to a screeching halt. today, president obama asked senate democrats, say, will you

do something about this thing? this thing called the filibuster i didn't like either. there are 18 nominees pending and republicans have blocked five of them so far. senator jerry miran of kansas justified the obstruction saying i think in every instance i know of, they've either been controversial nominees like senator hagel or there's been senators who wanted more information before another secretary was confirmed. hagel controversial? give me a break. the republicans once said they'd only filibuster reform nominees under extraordinary circumstances. right wing senators are threatening to filibuster the unnamed nominee for labor secretary. the head of the alcohol, tobacco and firearms and the director of the consumer financial protection bureau. senator elizabeth warren says that filibuster would hurt the agency.

>> i see nothing here but a filibuster threat against director cordury as an attempt to weaken the consumer agency. >> the filibuster is crippling major agencies and threatening the nation's judicial system. there are 85 vacancies on the nation's appellate courts right now and the president has nominated 30 judges who are waiting for the republicans to get their act together. the filibuster is designed to empower the minority but republicans have turned it into really a devastating political weapon to stop everything. democrats forced 18 filibuster votes on nominees during the entire eight years of the bush administration. the republicans have forced 30 filibuster votes on president obama's nominations and apparently they say they're just

getting started. not to mention the national labor relations board. we could go on and on. let's turn now to former senator tom daschle who is the former majority leader for the democrats and author of the book "the u.s. senate." tom, great to see you, good to have you with us tonight. >> great to be with you, ed. >> you bet. well, in your book, the u.s. senate, what do you say about filibusters now? >> well, it's been abused, you're absolutely right. the numbers speak for themselves. we have more than twice as many cloture votes in the last congress, ed, as we did in the 50-year period between 1917 and 1967. that was a time during the civil rights era and vietnam and all of the other things we faced. twice as many in two years as we

did in 50. that's all you need to know about the abuse of filibusters today. >> yeah. you're a close friend, worked with him for years, harry reid, what should he do? what can he do? >> well, harry's done all, i think he thinks he is capable of doing right now under the circumstances. he doesn't want to violate the rules of the senate in ways that would speed the process for dealing with rule change. but i actually think there are a couple of things that we could do. one, i think you ought to hold the floor when you're filibustering. just the other day when rand paul did that, i think that went back to the traditions of the senate and we ought to force every senate who is going to require a filibuster to hold the floor. we broke that filibuster in part because senator paul could only hold the floor for about 13 hours and that's really what history is all about. the second thing is i don't think we ought to have a dual track. set bills aside and take up other legislation. if we're going to filibuster, you stay on the bill and you keep the people filibustering until they can't take it anymore. >> are the democrats and harry

reid especially and you were in this position, as well, worried about any senate rule changes? because the shift of power could change and it could really possibly poison the cooperation within the senate and the minority would be completely diminished. and i know the answer to that but i want to hear what you have to say about it. but also, your thoughts on just how far this has gone. doesn't that change the dichotomy of it at all? >> well, it does. there is a concern. what goes around, comes around and everybody knows at some point the majority is going to be in the minority again. and people want to make sure we have the rights that are the minority in the senate. you also have the character of the senate and that's what senator reid's thinking about maintaining the kind of character that we've had historically. what we've seen is an abuse of the character of the senate in the last few years in particular. but clearly we've got to look at ways which especially to deal with nominations. it's one thing to deal with legislation that will ultimately be permanent in law. it's another thing to deal with nominations where the people who get nominated are only going to

have that job for a couple of years, three, four years. and to filibuster them for a fourth or a third or half that time is just not acceptable. >> what do you say about republicans threatening to block funding for obama care? >> well, i think that they're really making a huge mistake. ultimately, obama care has been already we know. it's been a far greater success than most republicans are willing to acknowledge. virtually the entire health sector right now recognizes the importance of moving forward, expanding medicaid, making sure we get the exchanges up and running, making sure the protections that are there for the -- for all the american people are actually implemented. all of that is real progress. and i think the american people overwhelmingly support it. so to defund it or to oppose it at this point, they don't get it. >> citizens united. give me 15 seconds of what you think of that and what it's doing to america. >> i think one of the single biggest disasters electorally and politically we've seen in 200 years. no connection between speech and money. and yet the court continues to insist there is. what it's doing is destroying the american political process. it's corrosive, wrong and i think it sends all the wrong messages about how to be successful in politics. i'm very, very concerned about its implications for the future. >> senator tom daschle.

great to have you with us tonight. thanks so much. >> you bet. >> you bet. tonight in the survey i asked you, is scott prouty a hero? 99% of you think he is. 1% of you, not so sure. coming up. the new "ed show" 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. saturday and sunday. i'll tell you what's coming up on "the ed show." [ male announcer ] from the way the bristles move to the way they clean,

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