faucet to prove that. fiscal conservatism, republican day one of marriage equality before the united states supreme court and we have two last word exclusivity. academy award winning writer of "milk" and the nephew of harvey milk both join me tonight. >> the fight over gay marriage comes to the capitol. >> today's historic hearing on same sex marriage. >> prop 8 is having its day in court. >> california's same sex marriage ban. >> is there a constitutional right to same sex marriage. >> we believe proposition 8 is constitutional. >> that states can't deny. >> no one offered a defense. >> then there were two high profile lawyers. >> i like it better when this guy is on my side. >> david boies on the left, ted

olson on the right. >> we are confident where the american people are going with this. allies in the fight for same sex marriage. >> no one argued a defense. >> not going to reargue the case on the sidewalk. >> it is just wrong, it is not consistent. >> this is about human rights, civil rights. >> opposition to this is aging out. >> this is not going backwards. >> i want all americans to be happy, i do. >> it is in the hands of the supreme court. >> it is in the hands of the court. >> demonstrations began early in the morning. >> proposition 8 is discriminatory law. >> there are no second class citizens. >> it hurts the children we're raising for no good reason. >> there are no second class marriages. >> we know how this is going to end. >> it is not just a legal brief, this is about people. >> this is going to end with our full acceptance. >> opposition to this is aging out. >> even the conservatives, even they know it.

after the supreme court hearing on california's ban on marriage equality, the first surprising news we heard came from the two lawyers fighting for marriage equality. >> there was no attempt to defend the ban on gay and lesbian marriage. all that was said in there was that this important constitutional right ought to be decided at the state level. >> no one really offered a defense for the awful discrimination that takes place when gay and lesbian citizens are not denied the right given to everyone else to have the family relationship recognized and respected equally. >> charles cooper, the lawyer defending california's proposition 8 before the court got this question from justice sonia sotomayor. >> outside of the marriage context can you think of any

other rational basis, reason for a state using sexual orientation as a factor in denying homosexuals benefits or imposing burdens on them? >> your honor, i cannot. >> mr. cooper found himself trying to defend the preposterous idea that marriage is just for making babies. >> i mean, there are lots of people who get married who can't have children. >> if you're over the age of 55, you don't help us serve the government's interest in regulating procreation through marriage, so why is that different? >> your honor, even with respect to couples over the age of 55, it is very rare that both couples, both parties to the couple are infertile and the

traditional -- >> no really, because if a couple -- i can just assure you, if both the woman and the man are over the age of 55, there are not a lot of children coming out of that marriage. >> and then mr. cooper found himself desperately trying to lash himself to the wreckage of marital fidelity in america. >> your honor, again, the marital norm which imposes upon that couple the obligation of fidelity. >> i'm sorry, where is that? >> there was a lawyer in front of the united states supreme court trying to base his argument on what he calls the marital norm of sexual exclusivity, and sadly, newt gingrich wasn't there to cheer him on. the point was laughable, if the court had time to laugh, but they ignored that nonsense to focus on the relevant issues. joining me for an exclusive

interview, two of the founders of the group backing the challenge to proposition 8, dust in lance black, the academy award winning screen writer of "milk" and chad griffin, president of the human rights campaign. also joining us, julian epstein, chief democratic counsel to the house judiciary committee. lance black, as a dramatist sitting in that roomful of drama, what were you struck by? >> being in the courtroom, it is story telling at its most epic. i think what i learned most in the process, four year process, is that the courts are such a wonderful place for gay and lesbian people to tell our stories, because unlike ballot initiatives, the opposition actually have to come to court and testify under oath, and if caught lying, they're called out for those lies. it is a great place for gay and lesbian people to tell our truth. that's how we made all of this progress quickly, telling our personal stories so people get

to know us, that they know they know us. it was the ultimate and beautiful liberating story telling. >> chad griffin for those of us not in the courtroom with that honor today, it was quite striking to see your lawyers come out and tell us that there really was no defense offered that they heard on the notion of forbidding them from marrying. >> there never has been. from the day we followed that case nearly four years ago, we set out to prove those three things. marriage is a fundamental constitutional right that the court found on 14 occasions, that there's grave harm done to our plaintiffs and those like them and their families in the state of california, and third, and perhaps most important and something that's counsel for our opposition had a hard time with today, there's absolutely no

harm done by allowing same sex couples the right to marry. it doesn't hurt anyone down the street, doesn't hurt a neighbor or another straight couple, and that's exactly what we heard once again in court today, and they continued to struggle, countering those three points. >> julian epstein, what do you think was the legal linchpin today? >> it is a fascinating and complicated case, lawrence. there are as many as seven different outcomes here. if the court wants to arrive on the merits, could find equal protection guarantee for same-sex marriage in 50 states, the only equal protection reading. could find equal protection guaranteed for same-sex marriage in eight states that have civil unions, could find there is a constitutional protection just in california, consistent with what the two lower courts held, or it could find in fact no constitutional guarantee to same-sex marriage. the problem is that there aren't five votes for any of those

positions, so i think what it looks like right now is that the court is moving to dismiss the case. even if it dismisses the case, could find that there's no standing, could find the case was improve dentally granted, a complex way of saying the court shouldn't have taken the case in the first place, or it could find it doesn't want to arrive at the decision for other reason on its merits. i think the likelihood is kennedy will kind of kick the can down the road, punt on this, join with four liberals, and throw the case out, find it was not properly granted. in the end of the day, a victory for california, proposition 8 will be vacated. still leaves the elephant in the middle of the room as to whether or not there's equal protection guarantee for same-sex marriage, and that will be part of the case tomorrow in the doma arguments. >> well, yeah, lance, that is front and center in tomorrow's argument it seems like.

>> well, i'm telling you, i do not think this fight is done for any of us until we have full federal equality. if you look back 30 plus years to harvey milk, who was taken from us, he started talking about before his assassination taking this fight federal. and that means that, you know, in my case, i have a big brother that came out to me when we were shooting "milk." i love my big brother. when he came out to me, he didn't sound hopeful like i did. i came out in california, he came out in virginia. didn't have laws protecting him, didn't see a future where he had freedom and future family protected, and that's a tragedy. he passed away never nothing what it feels like to be a full american. that's why we are taking this federal. that's why none of us are going to be happy and satisfied until we have all 50 states. and i think hearing those arguments in front of the nation today and understanding that all americans deserve full equality,

full recognition and protection of their relationships, this is moving the narrative forward at a great pace. americans understand it has to be a federal issue now. >> that's right, lawrence. justice hand, learned hand had a saying that law in the justice system is the dead hand of the past. what he meant by that was the laws and judicial system were of the earlier generation. that's the point the court is faced at. it was pointed out, i think it will be the law of the land more of what happens at the ballot box than inside the supreme court. the question the court has to reckon with is is there a valid -- at some point they have to deal with the equal protection challenge. kennedy is trying to i think avoid it now. when they deal with that, regardless of what level of review, as we discussed on the show before, there are three levels of review for equal protection analysis, you have to make an argument, opponents of same-sex marriage, that there's a rational reason denying same-sex marriages.

the most interesting thing in today's court was when the proponent, when cooper tried to make the case as to why there is a government interest in banning same-sex marriages, he couldn't articulate one. that's the astonishing thing now, the arguments made on behalf of the opponents of same-sex marriage are really in many wise quite laughable today, a dramatic change from 2008. >> let me ask you. with your legal team in there today, what do you think they saw as the things that give them the most encouragement and the clearest signals about how to argue their case tomorrow? >> you know, look, i am not a pundit or legal scholar, i will leave that to julian to articulate what the justices, what one could read or perhaps not read, but i know from our perspective, having ted olson and david boies, republican and democrat, representing the four

plaintiffs and families seated before the justices, we couldn't have had a better team in there articulating why proposition 8 is unconstitutional, why it should be erased from our books forever. and i know that those who are working so hard to make the case for doma, and make the case it is unconstitutional, edie windsor, the plaintiff in that case was treated when her wife passed away and she received a $360,000 estate tax bill because they were a same sex couple, that's outrageous. that's outrageous. we look forward to seeing those arguments tomorrow. i will be in the courtroom tomorrow, look forward to that case made as well. >> lance, will you be in the courtroom tomorrow? >> i won't be there tomorrow. i will be paying attention. the wonderful thing is the entire country is paying attention. we have come to a time where the entire country, they're saying

why are we treating anyone as a second class citizen, you know, why do we have second class marriages in some states and no relationship recognition in other states. that time has to stop. that's unamerican. i am so proud of this country right now for recognizing that, paying attention, and saying to their leaders hey, it is time to treat people fairly. >> i think tomorrow will be a better day for proponents of same-sex marriage. in the case of proposition 8, you have a case where justice kennedy doesn't want to apply equal protection to all 50 states. doma is a case where the government is denying benefits to those who are legally married in nine states that have same-sex marriage right now. what he is doing, and i think you will see doma invalidated, you will see kennedy join with four liberals to cross the rubicon on this equal protection case. that's the most important thing we see for same-sex marriage advocates.

>> thank you for being our witnesses to history today. julian epstein, thank you for joining us also. >> thank you, lawrence. coming up, in a "last word" exclusive, nephew of gay rights leader harvey milk joins me in his first national interview. gabby giffords' husband mark kelly bought a gun, now the gun store owner won't let him have it because he doesn't like mark kelly's politics. in the "rewrite," the lies of senator ted cruz have people comparing him to the disgraced senator, joe mccarthy. a comparison he doesn't mind a bit. [ kitt ] you know what's impressive? a talking car. 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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16 years ago when defense of marriage act became law, only one house member voted against it. every republican senator voted for it, and the rest of the republicans in the house voted for it, while congressman steve gunderson of wisconsin stood alone.

>> frankly, i want to ask you why shouldn't my partner of 13 years be entitled to the same health insurance and survivor's benefits that individuals around here, my colleagues with second and third wives, are able to give to them? >> republican congress said that in a house chamber where the speaker of the house was newt gingrich, who was then in his second marriage, and was not so secretly having an affair with the woman who would go on to be his third wife, callista, who worked as a staffer for congressman steve gunderson. up next, a last word exclusive, harvey milk's nephew, stuart milk, will join us. [ male announcer ] how do you measure happiness?

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this is the marriage bureau, taken over by the gay activist alliance. your mother and dad want to get married, are they gay? sorry, we can't help you, no, no, i can't, i'm sorry. but you come down and talk in person, i will be glad to talk to you, give you free wedding cake. we may have a gay celebration at the chapel. we have to think about it. probably, oh, yes, we'll be here quite awhile. >> we'll be here for quite awhile. the 20 and 30 something activists that took over new york city's marriage bureau in june of 1971 to fight for marriage equality would be in their 60s and 70s now. those that remained in new york

state saw that battle won 40 years later in june, 2011, when governor andrew cuomo signed marriage equality into law. martin luther king junior famously said the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice. some people like those activists stand bravely at the head of that arch, while others like the prop 8 defenders outside the supreme court today cling to the injustices of the past. >> i'm a republican. let me say to my part, if you bail out on this issue, i will leave the party and i will take as many people with me as i possibly can! you are all standing up against a powerful movement. you know that. it's got hollywood on its side. it's got the culture on its side.

it has the corporate elites and weak kneed politicians get squishy when they see these folks. what do we have to stand up against that? all we've got is a couple thousand years of western civilization, the teachings of every major faith, common sense, and the god of abraham. that's who we've got. >> but they do not have bill o'reilly. >> when you ask, for example, i had an interview with tony perkins of family research council, what is it about calling marriage, calling a gay union marriage that offends you, how does it hurt traditional, heterosexual marriage, i didn't hear anything articulated that was particularly persuasive. >> i agree with you 100%. i agree with you 100%. the compelling argument is on the side of homosexuals. that's where the compelling

argument is. we're americans, we just want to be treated like everybody else. that's a compelling argument. and to deny that, you have to have a strong argument on the other side. and the other side hasn't done anything but thump the bible. i live in new york, i am fine with it. i want all americans to be happy, i do. >> in 1977, harvey milk was the first openly gay person elected to public office in the state of california when he won a seat on the san francisco board of supervisors. he was in office less than a year, helping to pass a landmark gay rights ordinance before he was assassinated, while at work in his office, in city hall. joining me for his first national television interview, harvey milk's nephew, stuart milk, president of the harvey milk foundation that supports lbgt freedom movements on five continents. thank you very much for joining me tonight, stuart. >> it is a pleasure to be here,

lawrence, on such a historic night. >> these are the nights when we think of harvey milk, we think of the people that were in this battle decades ago and we wish he was around so we could ask him how he feels. he would be 83 i think now. and he would be watching bill o'reilly agree with him on something like this. what does it feel like for you this historic week in the supreme court. >> well, it is an amazing journey we've been on. and i really do see my uncle as actually being with us in many ways. a lot of people ask me if i'm saddened that my uncle didn't get to see a day like today, a day when so many people would be authentic and be asking for the celebration of their marriages and celebration of who they are and their authenticity. i answer my uncle did see that, which is why he was able to give his life, why he knew the

bullets were coming and he was willing to take them, and it is really important to understand that just as we heard the opponents to equality talking about not having an argument, there's not a good argument against authenticity. people coming out, people letting people know who they are and who we are is not the lies and myths and innuendos spread against lbgt people, but we're their neighbors, cousins, children. that breaks through everything. and marriage equality sets the bar much, much higher. we have been arguing and talking and fighting for nondiscrimination, and in some ways, that's the language of tolerance. now we've got young people and people like chad griffith and saying why aren't we going for the whole enchilada, for marriage. marriage sets the bar in a positive light, it is celebration, it is not

tolerance, it is celebration, saying we're your neighbors, your friends, your family, celebrate us. and this setting the new bar at marriage has really leapfrogged the lbgt rights movement, like we have never seen. it is a historic time for all of us. >> anti-defamation league has a new video imagine a world without hate in which they imagine we didn't lose some of our heroes at such young ages. >> their headline for your uncle was harvey milk expands lbgt equality globally, which is exactly the fight you have been in, that you've chosen. as we know, lance black's brilliant movie about harvey milk brought him to an entirely new generation who may not have had such an awareness. what is it like for you now post movie when you talk about harvey? >> oh, it's been a great

educational instrument because we find people all across the world, in particular in cultures and societies where we have tremendous diminishment of not just lbgt people, of women, other racial minorities, and they saw this man build collaborations, proudly talk about who he was, stand up for and say you must come out and say you must talk about who you are and you must let people know, don't hide, take off that mask. that has really resonated, in particular, like i said, in countries where they're facing tremendous oppression. he's become a beacon of light and hope, and we have been able to build on that message throughout the world. >> stuart, we have a picture of you and harvey i would like to get on the screen if we can. there you are, you and your uncle. not sure what year. i'm sure you've seen that before, stuart milk, thank you for joining us tonight.

>> thank you. coming up, the latest south carolina poll is very good news for the colbert family. stephen colbert's sister is now officially the frontrunner in her congressional campaign. vo: bold helps you re-imagine building castles, oceans, and lagoons in the place we call home. bold is where everyone comes to play. starting our day off with a good dance

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art is usually ahead of the curve. artists frequently get there first, and then society follows. yes, there is art in sitcoms as there was in this episode of "the golden girls" written a full 22 years ago by mark cherry, jamie wooten, susan harris. >> oh, look, i can accept the fact that he's gay but why does he have to slip a ring on this guy's finger so the whole world will know? >> why did you marry george. >> we loved each other. we wanted to make a lifetime commitment. wanted everybody to know. >> that's what doug and clayton want, too. everyone wants someone to grow old with, and shouldn't everyone have that chance?

>> sophia, i think i see what you're getting at. >> i don't think you do. blanch, would you marry me? >> thank you, sophia. i need to go talk to them. >> fine. but i'll need an answer. i'm not going to wait for you forever! to say, "hello."

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a lawful sale to any qualified individual because we may disagree with the individual's political or personal views on a particular subject is wrong and is not a business practice that my company or our employees would ever engage in. ever meaning well, not today anyway. somewhere during the city's mandatory 20 day waiting period for used weapons, the gun store owner changed his mind. here is what he posted to facebook yesterday. while i support and respect mark kelly's second amendment rights, his recent statements to the media made it clear that his intent in purchasing the sig-sauer m400 5.56mm rifle from us was for reasons other than for his personal use. in light of this fact, i determined that it was in my company's best interest to

terminate this transaction. joining me now, krystal ball and ari melber. we have one merchant of the tools of murder who is unwilling to sell them to at least one american. >> standing up for gun control, yeah. i like that when the politics of the issue went to a place he didn't like, not only was he ready to discard the second amendment but also the first and any others convenient to get the gun nuts on the blog back on his side. one of the things that has been interesting in this debate, when you talk about the specifics of the issue, when you talk about what we are advocating for, universal background checks, the public is very much in support.

but they want to keep it in the broad terms of second amendment and freedom rather than digging into the specifics. that's the turf the battle is being fought on. >> ari, polls continue to show there is strong support for background checks, for the legislation that the senate democrats are trying to push through there, but of course, we got the threat today, official threat today in writing by rand paul, ted cruz that they will object to the motion to proceed, which of course we knew anyway you were going to need 60 votes to get to the motion to proceed, it is unclear whether they're going to do one of their grandstand filibuster performances on this, but they're going to definitely try to stand in the way. >> i think we're watching rand paul and ted cruz learn the rules of the senate as they go along, begin their senate terms. they hit on this idea of having dramatic filibusters. this is one where all they're doing is drawing attention to the fact that republicans have a standing threat on these motions. harry reid said with regard to the assault weapons ban, he said that amendment using optimistic numbers has less than 40 votes,

that's not 60. assault weapons ban being something a lot of us care about, reid took it as a given there would be a 60 vote requirement. i think this is a louder version of that. >> krystal, when we see incidents like this where a gun store owner is saying i'm not going to sell it to gabby giffords' husband because i do not like what he thinks, we are seeing the madness that is out there on the other side of this issue, and here is a guy, by the way, didn't sound crazy a few days ago. >> right. >> and now is completely gone around the bend. >> they're bullies on that side. if you aren't 100% with them, they go to the slippery slope argument, next thing you know, we have tyranny and the government will take all of the guns away. this is the way the nra has won on this issue and thinks they will continue to win, rather

than talking about the specific choices that we could make, the limited legislation that we're talking about, they speak in these broad terms about freedom and demonize anyone that isn't 100% where they want them to be. >> thank you both for joining me tonight. >> thanks, lawrence. come up, senator ted cruz is in the "rewrite" because he seems to have absolutely no problem when you compare him to a disgraced former senator who was censured by the senate and drank himself to death. okay with ted cruz if you say he might be like joe mccarthy. and the coal better bump is working for stephen colbert's sister. i'm telling you right now, the girl back at home would absolutely not have taken a zip line in the jungle. (screams) i'm really glad that girl stayed at home.

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no word yet on who will play her in the movie. the "rewrite" is next. with the bing it on challenge to show google users what they've been missing on bing. let's bing it on. [fight bell: ding, ding] how many here are google users? what if i was to tell you that you would actually like bing way more than google when it came to the results? prove it. let's look up some taco places. i like the left side. yeah? okay, do we need to find out what the waves are like down at the beach? what side do you like better? i like the results on the right. i'm gonna go with the one on the left. oh! bing won! people prefer bing over google for the web's top searches. don't believe it? go to bingiton.com and see what you're missing. [ male announcer ] from the way the bristles move to the way they clean, once you try an oral-b deep sweep power brush, you'll never go back to a regular manual brush. its three cleaning zones with dynamic power bristles reach between teeth with more brush movements to remove up to 100% more plaque

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slight, doubtful, irrelevant evidence. that's named after the 1950s senator joe mccarthy who mailed wild accusations about communists running our government back when communists were not running our government. senator ted cruz has recently been compared to joe mccarthy. the new yorker ran this piece by jane mayor, is senator ted cruz our new mccarthy. the new yorker is way too classy to do the cheap trick of sticking a picture of mccarthy next to a picture of cruz, when asking the question, is senator ted cruz our new joe mccarthy, but any fair minded judge would have to admit there is a bit of a resemblance there. the mccarthy comparison has come up because ted cruz tried to slander chuck hagel during his confirmation hearing and because ted cruz really is the last person left in america and

possibly the world who is still worried about communists. and like joe mccarthy, he is so worried about communists that he lies about communists and is especially fond of lying about who is a communist. in 2010, a fundraiser with charles and david koch, and reported by jane mayor who was there, ted cruz actually said when he was at harvard law school a few years after barack obama, there were 12 professors there that, quote, believed in the communists overthrowing the united states government. like joe mccarthy, ted cruz knew he was lying when he said that. he knew there wasn't a single professor at the harvard law school who was a communist who believed in overthrowing the united states government, but he also knew that he could safely lie about the people who tried to educate him in the law. two people who would never find

themselves anywhere near the grounds of the harvard law school, and so lie he did. despite being publicly challenged on this lie on this program and elsewhere, ted cruz, not surprisingly, has not revealed the names of his imagined 12 communist professors, and he has not revealed the name of even one of them because -- and he never will -- because, of course, they did not and do not exist. we've seen a lot of mud slinging in the senate since joe mccarthy's time. we have seen a lot of character assassination in the senate, but we have never seen anything quite so perfectly and childishly mccarthy-esque as ted cruz. one of his own state newspapers decided to ask him about joe mccarthy. todd gillman of the dallas morning news interviewed him recently. asked him, quote, is mccarthy

someone you admire? now, there's only one conceivable answer to that question, and no more than one word should ever be necessary to answer that question, and that word is, of course, no. is mccarthy someone you admire is not a trick question. it couldn't be simpler, and the answer couldn't be simpler. but for ted cruz, it is a question that he refused to answer. what would joe mccarthy do with a witness like ted cruz if joe mccarthy asked him is so and so someone you admire. and ted cruz's answer was i am not going to engage in the back and forth and the attacks. that actually was, word for word, ted cruz's answer to is mccarthy someone you admire. i'm not going to engage in the back and forth and the attacks. ted cruz could not bring himself

to say no, i do not admire senator joe mccarthy. here is what the world knows about senator joe mccarthy. he was a lying alcoholic who was censured by the senate in 1954 and drank himself to death three years later at the age of 48. that's the guy. ted cruz, maybe add meyers or maybe doesn't. the senate censure resolution against joe mccarthy actually used the word condemned instead of censure. censure didn't feel like a strong enough word to them. that's how bad a senator joe mccarthy was. the vote to condemn joe mccarthy was a bipartisan vote, 67-22. half of mccarthy's republican

colleagues voted to condemn him. and ted cruz is not willing to say whether joe mccarthy is someone he admires, and he won't say that, because ted cruz want to live in a world where he can use joe mccarthy's tactics and get away with it, joe mccarthy's lying provoked the most famous challenge to a senator in a senate hearing in the history of the senate, and luckily for us it occurred at the dawn of the television age in a hearing in which mccarthy was asked a question and like ted cruz, he could not answer it. it is the question that effectively ended joe mccarthy's career. have you no sense of decency? >> have you no sense of decency, sir? at long last, have you left no sense of decency?

>> a point of personal preference. i would like to finish. >> i think it hurts you, too, sir. >> if there's a god in heaven, it will do neither you nor your cause. i will not discuss it further. i will not ask mr. colt or any more witnesses, you, mr. chairman, may if you will, call the next witness. [ applause ] [ mom ] 3 days into school break and they're already bored. hmm, we need a new game. ♪ that'll save the day. ♪ so will bounty select-a-size. it's the smaller powerful sheet. the only one with trap + lock technology. look! one select-a-size sheet of bounty is 50% more absorbent than a full size sheet of the leading ordinary brand.

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your sister. >> she's running for congress. >> she's running for congress? >> she's going to be the democratic nominee in the first district of south carolina. i hope what i do for a living

doesn't sully her good character. she's an incredible person. raised three kids by herself on a salary of like $14,000 a year. >> really? >> yeah, went to college, made something of herself. now she's going to be the democratic nominee from south carolina. isn't that incredible? >> very good. >> tonight we have proof that what stephen colbert does for a living is not sullying his sister's bid. among likely voters, elizabeth colbert busch is 47%. this district voted for mitt romney by 8 points. here is her campaign message. >> elizabeth knows jobs, worked her way up to director of sales in a shipping company. >> it is exports, working with business, creating thousands of jobs.

>> elizabeth colbert busch, mother, grandmother, charleston business woman for 25 years. >> i approved this message because i am running for congress to create jobs in south carolina. that's what i know. >> 45% of likely voters have a favorable opinion of elizabeth colbert busch. 31% unfavorable. 34% have favorable opinion of mark sanford. 58% have an unfavorable opinion of him. former governor sanford's truly horrible favorable and unfavorable ratings will surely be a caution for any other south carolina politician who might ever be tempted to tell the truth about marital troubles. >> i have been unfaithful to my wife. i developed a relationship with -- started as a dear, dear friend from argentina.

>> joining me now, msnbc's joy reed. joy, turns out that elizabeth colbert busch has a small lead over mark sanford, but mark sanford doesn't have the republican nomination yet, he has to win that in a runoff against what's his name, curtis bostick. he has a good lead over him. >> he has name recognition for better or worse, but bostick has an interesting record. rick santorum is campaigning with him, trying to run to the right of sanford, say the tea party approved alternative is bostick. i think it is likely sanford will get it. >> and you can hit the family values note against the former governor. >> absolutely. it is interesting the way that

the two of them are running, right? elizabeth is doing a classic democratic message, jobs, jobs, jobs. mark sanford is running against washington and spending, trying to craft a message that crowds out family values. there's a major wild card in this race, and that's jenny sanford. she was the highest approval ratings of anyone you name in all of the polls, in the public policy poll. she's being courted by the elizabeth colbert busch campaign. if she endorsed her, that would be a game changing move in this race. what mark sanford is desperately trying to avoid is any mention of family values, marriage, or -- >> elizabeth colbert busch seems is silently rooting for mark sanford to win the nomination. she polls in a tie at 43-43 with the other guy.

>> this is a district that's conservative. you showed polling numbers for barack obama, john mccain versus mitt romney, so it is a conservative district. bostick fits more with the district, but tough to overcome the name recognition that mark sanford has. bostick would run better against elizabeth colbert busch, but the reresponsible date rate was huge for women. what she has going for her she says in the ad, she's a mom, raised her children, she's a business woman, doing jobs, jobs, jobs, and running on girl power. i think she actually has a shot. >> she's running in a district that is 55% female, 45% male. that sounds like it is the right mix for that. >> it is the right mix for her and it is a big, big problem for mark sanford. again, appalachian trail. >> you get the last word. you are filling in at noon all week? >> yes, indeed.