>> he doesn't want to waste a second. congressman steve israel, thank you for spilling all the beans of what happened at the ultra secret dinner tonight. thank you very much, congressman. charged. let's play "hardball." let me start tonight with this. for all the talk of too much government surveillance, with so much chatter about big brother looking over us, one horrible case that nobody, nobody seems to have known about. this afternoon, ariel castro was charged with four counts of kidnapping and three counts of rape in the case of three young women held in a neighborhood in cleveland without anyone knowing that this hell was being

perpetrated on three and eventually four of our fellow citizens. what does this say about the relationship between the community there and local police or does it say there is no relationship? if you see something, say something. in this case, what the people saw is brought into question but there's no evidence, at least according to the police, of them ever saying anything about it. the house republican's effort to tar president obama and hillary clinton. with us is clint van zandt and craig melvin and late today we got new details of the horrific details of the women held in cleveland. >> we've had confirmation that they were bound and there were chains and ropes in the home. >> chains and ropes. chief police described it more. >> the statements from the suspect and the victims, there was no evidence to indicate that any of them were ever outside in the yard in chains without clothing or any other manner.

in fact, the evidence we've obtained thus far indicates that in the last decade they've only been allowed outside of the home on two occasions and that was only briefly. >> the police report reveals that the victims told police with rapes, multiple pregnancies, miscarriages and beatings which led to, apparently, some miscarriages. neighbors say there were warning signs of trouble at the castro home. jeff rossen spoke with two neighbors. >> reporter: this man says in 2011 a neighbor saw a woman holding a child in the house and banged on the window for help. >> i called the cops and they pounded 20 times, 5, 8 minutes, no answer.

shined the light and saw the windows were boarded up and got in the squad car and left. >> reporter: that was it? >> that was it. >> reporter: last july, another disturbing sight there. >> my granddaughter told me about a naked lady crawling on her hands and knees. >> reporter: on tuesday, police were adamant that they've never been called to the house for those reasons. >> savannah guthrie asked the police chief a moment ago about the calls. let's listen to this interview. >> we have no record of those calls coming in. >> you have no record of it. does that mean that the calls did not come and for whatever reason they were never recorded? >> no, we would have a recording of those calls. >> craig melvin is joining us. we've been talking for a couple of hours. we've got four counts of

kidnapping here, all felonies, all very serious felonies and of course now we have three rape charges. just to begin with, i assume. and then surrounding this is the mystery of how three young women could be captive, kidnapped, if you will, in a neighborhood that is not really rural. it's quite urban where people live pretty closely to each other. >> reporter: you know, chris, your last point is one that we've been trying to follow up on in the past few hours and i spoke to a councilman who explained the geography of the house could be one of the reasons perhaps that some of this behavior went unnoticed or unreported or underreported even for so long. the back of the house, the back of the house butts up against a commercial property. so there is a chance that, you know, because there really isn't a backyard neighbor that perhaps there wasn't a great deal for folks to see there.

we were also very curious about the other two castro brothers. pedro castro who was not charged today. they apparently did not spend a great deal of time going in and out of the house behind me. that's according to someone we spoke with an hour ago. so police are convinced that these other two castro brothers had little to -- had no idea, absolutely no idea what was going on inside the home but we continue to find out, chris, more disturbing details about precisely how, according to the police report, 52-year-old ariel castro was able to do this. amanda told police during the initial interview, amanda berry said ariel castro would sometimes take the 6-year-old out with him and also said that he instructed the 6-year-old to not use -- the 6-year-old did not know michelle or gina's real

names because he did not want that 6-year-old to say their names out in public and raise some sort of red flag. we're also hearing that he had essentially the same m.o. with all three of the young girls, he lured them into his car. his son, which he does not have, said he worked at a burger king and also used his daughter with gina dejesus. he said, gina, you recognize me, hop in the car, let me give you a ride. this is how he was able to lure them into the house behind me. real quickly, i want to show you, this first house, earlier when we spoke there was activity at the house. the activity has been ongoing. you don't see the fbi evidence recovery team right now but they are continuing to go in and out of the house. they walk around to the backyard and right now you can actually see, i think if -- coming up on the right side, we continue to see evidence analysts taking

things either from inside of the home or from the backyard. at one point we saw -- >> i see them now. >> we saw a generator inside. >> are they digging out there? craig, are they digging in that yard? is there any digging that we have seen. >> reporter: an investigator told me an excavation at the primary house was done for the day. they found no human remains. within the past 35, 40 minutes, we have a crew back there. they are using shovels to do some sort of digging but at this point we have not heard what, if anything, they found. we should note there was a k-9 unit here as well, one of the cadaver dogs was also on the scene. chris, you talked about the relationship between this community and the police department. suffice to say, they are quite concerned about that

relationship or lack thereof in this community, so much so that they are holding a public meeting tomorrow night at 7:00 where they have invited just about every elected official in cleveland, the attorney general is expected to be here, leaders of clergy, community organizers, all of them are going to be inside the church behind me for a public meeting. >> can't hurt. sounds like a start at least. thank you so much, craig. let me go back to client van zandt. there was material that he couldn't describe, it was too graphic. but as we go into the evening, people will be describing it. the question looms here, what was this guy getting out of holding people for these years. he was using them for sexual purposes but to keep them for ten years, not to kill them, to co-habit with them, to feed them, take care of their medical needs, to the extent he did, to somehow keep their morale up, bringing them hamburgers from wherever, a fast food store. he wasn't treating them at every moment meanly.

he was modulating the situation to keep them under control. >> chris, one of the things that we understand is that the oldest victim, michelle knight, that she had been, according to some media reports, she had been beaten and battered, her face had been beat, she lost hearing in one year, punched and beaten. there were some reports that he impregnated her at least five times and made her lose all five births, that didn't take place. she lost those children. that if you just imagine the other two victims in this case f. they say the older one who could have been a role model or at least an older woman, if they see her beaten and battered with regularity, they think, my god, i am not going to do anything negative because he will do those same things to me. he may not have been the

smartest guy on the block, he knew how to manipulate and play mind games and how to torture these women into believing -- chris, they had to do a cost benefit analysis. each woman had to say to herself s. it worth trying to escape based upon what he says he will do to me and what i've seen him do to the other two women or is it better to at least live and not go through that level he have punishment and do what i'm told? every captive has to go through that cost benefit analysis. they did. and obviously until early this week they all made the decision f. they had the opportunity to run, they chose not to until amanda finally said, no more, i'm out of here. >> that must have been a heavy level of fear to bounce off the chance to get away and it must have been horrific fear they felt, based on the evidence and

what they saw before them of what this guy was capable of doing and had done. thank you so much, clint. let's go to karen desoto. she's at 30 rock. karen, thanks for joining us tonight. i say tonight, as i always say, i'm not a lawyer but this case seems to have a lot of evidence and very little room to wriggle away from any sons built. >> yes, of course. but obviously there is going to be a public defender assigned. unlike the jaycee dugard case, there is a less chance for an insane defense. he was active if the community, apparently he had some relationships with the community. i don't think there will be at least in that regard an insanity plea here. there's no wriggle room, whether you can negotiate 50 years or two years, he's going to prison for the rest of his life. >> we are all using intuition at this point.

it's like play-dough trying to figure it out. one charge doesn't seem to fit with human behavior. he's got three of them in captivity. you have to assume -- >> exactly. >> of course, normally in rape cases and at least in the rape cases that i've had, every act of penetration is a separate count. you can have 10 years for each count. >> sure. >> ten years for every penetration. also, depending on -- there was mention that there were five pregnancies. depending on how old the fetuses were, those could be separate charges, endangering the welfare of a child, that's more than one count. obviously what you want to do is make sure they go to jail for the rest of their lives. and then, of course, you have the other two brothers, where we

don't have enough information yet but if there were charges against four people, the next thing you have to be thinking, were there others? were these the only ones? were there other girls that disappeared? more charges that can be -- >> we know now they are looking for something. thank you. thank you very much, karen desoto. as always, clint van zandt and craig melvin reporting from cleveland. coming up, the benghazi hearings. they think they've got the magic bullet to hit the president and maybe future president. they are focused on this. we'll see whether they have anything or if it's just pure politics. we'll have the story from capitol hill.

i've got some new numbers from the nbc marist poll. the governor's race in virginia is neck-and-neck.

mcauliffe two points above cuccinelli. again the pattern, the right wing, the republicans are more likely to vote. the results are much closer than last week's poll numbers. in new jersey, the governor's race is actually no race at all. chris christie is beating buono by almost 30 points. we'll be right back.

well, on capitol hill today there was emotional testimony today about that night in september when their colleagues were killed in benghazi but the hearing came under criticism about being critical. it was the latest republican effort to tarnish the president's image and that of secretary clinton. let's listen to darrell issa. >> we want to make certain that

our government learns the proper lessons from this tragedy so it never happened again and so that the right people are held accountable. the administration, however, has not been cooperative and unfortunately our minority has mostly sat silent as we've made these requests. i still hold out hope that one day you will stand with me as this administration doesn't cooperate. when they ignore our inquiries and when that day comes together, we will be far more effective. >> well, the attacks in administration have been all over the board. the president failed to save some of the victims and then mislead the public about the very nature of the attack in benghazi. that doesn't stop the right wing from making more of them. here was mike huckabee with a startling prediction. >> "i believe that before it's all over this president will not fill out his full term.

i know that puts me on a limb. but this is not minor." >> well, there's plenty more of where that came from, from lindsey graham of south carolina. he posted on his facebook page, "i think the dam is about to break and you're going to find a system failure before, during, and after. the bond that has been broken between those who serve us in harm's way and the government they are huge. if you link watergate and iran contratogether and multiply it times maybe ten or so, you're going to get in and the benghazi candle is back. i think it's pretty clear here, this is not about necessarily finding the truth, by any means. it's the politics of this thing. elijah cummings which held today's hearing, and ginger. thank you for joining us. having sat through it all today, and i've always thought that

issa is on a manhunt for the president. was it all just spin and effort to doing something here that is bad? >> i would say 99.99% of what i've heard i've heard before. i basically think that the republicans are trying to keep this issue going and not dealing with reform, which is what we want. and i think it's been -- i think it was, in a way, kind of sad because, you know, they talked about -- they made a big deal days leading up to the hearing that the administration had denied, military aid to folks in benghazi and, you know, nothing

could have been further from the truth. they said it was for political reasons and that's simply was not true and over and over they said there was a coverup leading up to this hearing and there was no proof of a coverup and i could go on and on. and so as i said today, i welcome the whistle blowers. as a matter of fact, i think the whistle blowers keep the government straight. i think what has happened is that the republicans have taken some of the things that the whistle blowers had said and by the way, chris, many of those things are opinions. and then they blow them up to use for political reasons. >> well, darrell issa just a minute ago i think made a ludicrous statement saying this would never happen again if -- well, things happen. we have wars, casualties,

enemies. obviously they are going to be casualties. there are people out there that don't like us. one, we could have sent special personnel there but they would have gotten there late. we could have taken planes there from italy but there was no fueling or tanker nearby. any potential that we would have saved lives? >> that's exactly right. on the other hand, they are going to be casualties. the fact is that what we ought to be doing is making sure that everything in our power to minimize those circumstances. what i'm saying to you, chris, this is, i think, something that the republicans want to keep going, keep in mind, they delayed the votes almost an hour and a half today, two hours. just so they could get through this hearing. so they considered this pretty important. but again, i just want us to concentrate on making a

difference with regard to security for our personnel. that's what this is all about and should be about. >> what did you make of -- i didn't hear this before. what did you make of the fact that at 2:00 a.m. benghazi time, secretary of state hillary clinton was called and this respected foreign service officer spoke to her. have you ever heard that ever about, that she was involved in the operations that night? >> no, i had not heard with regard to in specific her talking to him. keep in mind, chris, that the republicans on either issues have kept a lot from us. keep in mind, mr. thompson, one of their witnesses today, we had never gotten a syllable from him. we didn't know what he was going to talk about and he was deliberately held from us. that's no way to run a hearing. you worked in the congress. this should be a bipartisan effort. this is a serious matter. >> the focus for many on the right seems to be shifting from the president to the person they

see as the biggest danger that they see in 2016, the next presidential election. look at "the drudge report," a leading indicator of where the right wing is headed. there's hillary clinton up there in the focus. mrs. clinton was the focus of jim jordan today, the allegation that clinton's chief of staff was angry when a state department lawyer was excluded from a classified meeting involving a congressman from the committee. let's watch the exchange today, mr. cummings. let's watch it. >> what did she have to say to you? >> she demanded a report on the individual. >> was she upset by the fact that this -- >> she was upset. >> first time it's ever happened, was not allowed to be in that classified briefing. was she upset about that fact? >> she was very upset. >> this goes right next to the person next to hillary clinton, is that correct? >> that's correct. >> here's a guy with 22 years of outstanding service to our country and now they are

obstructing it because he won't help them cover this up, he's an honorable man telling the truth and now getting this kind of treatment from the very people who praised him before. >> and thanks for narrating it. the spokesman for clinton called it completely and utterly false. let me go to tommy -- no, it's not tommy. it's ginger gibson. tell me about this case and what you heard today. >> today we heard one of the most detailed outlines of what happened that night from mr. hicks who was there in libya and at first it looked like they were going to leave secretary clinton alone but we heard representative jordan, we heard congressman issa really sort of drill down and try to get hicks to repeat several lines criticizing the secretary of state, former secretary of state, saying that she was the reason that stevens was even in

benghazi to begin with, a new line we haven't heard them use very often. >> what was the argument for that? he went there on his own volition. >> they said that she personally asked him to prepare benghazi as a site that would be an acceptable, permanent consulate location and they were preparing for her to visit and she was the reason that he went there, not of his own volition. >> congressman cummings, have you heard that before in is that verified by anybody else? >> i have not heard that before. that is one thing that i had not heard up until today and, again, when you think about it, chris, i don't know what they were trying to get at with that except to maybe say that secretary clinton should have been more responsible because she asked him to go. don't know what they were trying to show. i know one thing, it's clear that they are trying to play politics, big time.

>> you know, let me try something -- you have experience working with these people on the other side. i don't think the two parties are symmetric, by the way. does it seem likely that what they are trying to nail the president on and the former secretary of state is not on making the wrong call. people make the wrong call all the time. things look clearer all the time. you can always say, i could have done that. there's a better alternative when you look back on it. they seem to be implying here, indict, in fact, with moral dereliction over the lives of the people serving they. they want them to look evil. that's what this guy chuckling over there, jordan, was trying to do. isn't that what they were up to? >> that's the only thing i can conclude. we was really in search of the facts. we would not have had a hearing that was so one-sided and it seemed like everything was

attack, attack, attack. and what we tried to do on the democratic side was simply to get all of the facts. there had been a number of things that we had not been exposed to, the republicans held back from us and so we wanted to get to the facts so that we could have a complete story so we could base any reform on a complete story. and they wouldn't have that. >> do you have a working relationship with darrell issa, the chair, in getting information from the government? he said you weren't helping him. >> the fact is, we have worked very closely with chairman issa whenever it's been appropriate. most of the time in the past what he's done is come to us and say, look, while there's supposed to be consultation, he'll say, i'm about to issue a subpoena. >> i know how it works. >> we stand for what is right and trying to work this thing out, be very practical and come up with solutions that will again protect our people.

>> thank you so much, elijah cummings and ginger gibson. up next, benghazi is not the only thing that republicans are blaming the democrats for. the cleveland abductions, they are saying that. it's unbelievable. and so he is. this is "hardball," the place for politics. weigh you down?

as soon as you feel it, try miralax. it works differently than other laxatives. it draws water into your colon to unblock your system naturally. don't wait to feel great. miralax. ha! back to "hardball," now the side show. count on rush limbaugh that finds a connection between the kidnapping with the women in cleveland and, you guess it, president obama. the kidnappers might have been trying to use the women for welfare benefits, just like rush-bo saw on an episode of hawaii five-o. >> the premise last night was kidnapped girls.

held until they were 18 and then let go or killed. well, always killed. by a couple doing it for the welfare benefits. i don't know what happened in cleveland. i couldn't help but make the connection. i mean, if everybody else is going to use what happens on tv for reality, why can't i? three brothers not related to the three women have been arrested in cleveland which voted for obama. not that that's got to do with anything. >> what are you talking about? here's a question for rush on that theory. by the way, how did the cleveland kidnappers prove that the women were part of the family? come on, you must have thought about that. up next, turning lemons into lemonades. how democrats can use mark sanford's victory to remind women they shouldn't vote republican.

the silver lining there. the place for politics.

i think we know enough to say with some certainty that new hampshire tonight has made bill clinton the comeback kid. >> welcome back to "hardball," that was his famous comeback kid speech. his political future could have been knocked out right there and didn't. and it wasn't. 21 years later, former governor mark sanford has pulled off his own political comeback despite a world famous affair and worldwide affair, despite being left for dead by his political party leaders and despite being outspent five to one during this campaign and despite trailing the polls by nine points just two weeks ago, he won last night and it wasn't even close.

sanford clobbered opponent elizabeth colbert-busch. here is sanford weighing in on the victory speech. >> some guy came up to me and said, you look a lot like lazaras. and i say that because if it was just about limited government, this campaign would have been easily won a long time ago. >> his victory came at a heavily concerted district. what are the lessons learned here? dee dee myers and eugene robinson. we noticed this polling here on "hardball" without any moral judgment and the guy seemed to be picking up speed and whatever happened with that embarrassing speech where she nailed him, you wasted our money, you went down to argentina and that seemed to be a direct hit and then something happened. what was it?

what brought this guy back from the dead? >> well, i think voters moved in from the past to the future and all elections are about the future and they asked the question, which one of these people is more consistent with my values and world view and that answer was always sanford. mark sanford was from south carolina -- both are from south caroline but they are from a very conservative south carolina and jim clyburn and it's always a hugely up hill slug even against a damaged candidate. >> i said to voters, i think about it, if you don't vote your beliefs in the voting booth, don't expect somebody else to do it. if you're a conservative, you vote conservative. if you're a liberal, you vote liberal. dee dee is right. >> she's right. it's a very conservative district.

a few liberals have been redistricted out to jim clyburn's district. there's an interesting question for democrats, i think, going forward. as they look towards the south, north carolina is changing. it's a purple state. georgia is going to become one already soon if it isn't already. so while this district was probably not winnable for democrats, maybe they would have done better. maybe could have learned some lessons about -- >> let's play hardball right here. why didn't they have a stronger candidate to come out, not a person that's a one-time -- a noviciate, a nun for politics. this was an important seat. >> because it's a difficult seat to win. 18 republicans in the primary and whoever won that primary was going to be very hard to beat.

that tells you everything you need to know. >> he had 15 opponents. >> he had -- >> because winning the primary is akin to winning the general election if you're republican and if you're a democrat, you get to be the sacrificial lamb. >> you start taking a lot of money from outside, you're not from south carolina. you're from new york. >> it reinforces the message that sanford was sending out, that this is not him against elizabeth colbert-busch, it's him against nancy pelosi. and he got it and she was not able to distinguish herself. >> gene, you and i have been through this the same amount of years. why are republicans always better at this, ted kennedy really running or tip o'neil. this ability to villainize a person.

pete stark, you get the real liberals but they are not as interesting as nancy pelosi because she's san francisco, she's attractive. people know what she looks like. she looks well-off. something bugs people in the deep south about her. >> well, no question. she's always been a fundraising bonanza. >> seven or eight times in that one debate. >> right. that's a question of values. since nancy pelosi san francisco values versus mark sanford local values. vote your values. >> why do democrats always have to be liberalized by their number. >> look what happened to scott brown in massachusetts. you know, he lined up with, you know, on the supreme court with scalia and that was very damaging to him. i think it depends on your audience. >> scott brown at least tried to distinguish himself from the far

right of the republican party because he knew he was running in massachusetts could. colbert-busch have done more to distinguish herself from the democrats in the house and is that necessary? is that something that democrats ought to get more comfortable -- >> al franken runs locally, doesn't do the national media, doesn't have to run, not that it's not a right wing state. he's won because he runs in the state for the state of the state. >> democrat been married for 40 years wins every time. number one, he's a very good mayor but number two he's established his own identity. >> we need more tommys out there. why michael bloomberg makes conservatives nervous. this is "hardball," the place for politics.

remember on monday we told you about the heritage foundation study that immigration reform will cost $6.3 trillion over the next 50 years. today we learn about the study's author. the harvard doctoral dissertation, the average iq of immigrants is lower than that of whites. no one knows whether hispanics will ever reach parity with whites, but the prediction that new hispanic immigrants will have low-iq children and grandchildren is difficult to argue against. we'll be right back.

we're back. democrats now they had to face republican opposition next year, but they'll also defend themselves against gun safety advocates, including mike bloomberg and his group. senate majority leader harry reid's aides met to warn them, targeting democrats on gun control could backfire on the party. several sources told politico, mayors against illegal guns are

going up now in alaska, in arkansas, and in north dakota. three states with democratic senators who broke with the white house on last month's background checks vote. in the battle for control of the senate, my question tonight, who's more likely to forgive gun votes five years from now, the nra or gun safety people? blanch and howard fineman, of course, msnbc political analyst. senator, it seems to me we have a challenge here. we have a failure to communicate, as a movie once said. my question is if you're mr. pryor, mark pryor, from your state, the razorback state, are you more afraid of mike bloomberg or the nra or is that too loaded a question? >> obviously, beware of both, but mark is a smart, intelligent person, he's a thoughtful legislator. >> he told mike bloomberg to bug

out. >> yeah. the point here is, if we want to do something about guns, we have to find consensus and a starting place. and we know where people are, so let's find that place and start working from it. it's counterproductive -- >> i thought that's what they were doing with the compromise between pat toomey of pennsylvania and joe manchin of west virginia, let's widen the background checks so at least there's not a big loophole for gun shows. that didn't seem to be aggressive, but the nra says it crosses the line. that's compromising our second amendment rights. you guys are going to lose, and they did. >> well, i just think what they have to do is find that place and bring in people like mark pryor. yeah, there's a middle, there's got to be.

this is an issue that has to be dealt with. >> i thought you were the middle. you got beaten down there. not knocking you because you're a courageous political figure to run for office down there, but you're a reasonably conservative democrat, you're not nancy pelosi, nor should you be. >> i got hit by both sides, it's tough to survive in that. that's what people want to realize, if you want to get results, and i think the american people want results, you have to have people in the middle, that means finding the middle. >> you know it as well as i do, guns are local issues to people in a lot of these states. right, the work laws are local issues. so, you take the values of chicago or new york or l.a. and haul them into arkansas or north dakota or anywhere else like that, you got problems politically. do you, or not? >> two things. first of all, i think if the democrats wanted to make the world safer for somebody like mark pryor, they needed to take a bigger institutional commitment to it than i think harry reid did. i think there was a lot of caution on the part of national democrats that made it easier, shall we say, or more likely that a senator like mark pryor would look to his own interests as opposed to the party as a whole. he's got to do that. but the other thing that's going on is that the kind of politics that senator lincoln practiced, the personal politics of a place like arkansas where people know each other, where you go from county to county, where you know people on a personal basis, where you know people enough that they will open up to you long enough to let you explain your side of the case, that politics has disappeared in much

of the country and it's no accident that somebody with a lot of money out of the metropolis of new york is spreading around using new media and social media and the web and targeted facebook and twitter advertising to go after people in this way. it's the sort of fragmentation of american politics. >> use the chance of the democrats holding the senate? >> yes, i think quite possibly so, because the whole idea of a party being a big tent in which people agree on 85% and violently degree on the other 15% is gone. >> al gore's father got beaten by national issues, he's a good local guy. william fulbright was voting local and got blown away.

my concern is what happened to al gore, younger al gore in 2000. he was okay. he was center left and somewhat left. then he was pushed further left and he had to move over and grab the nader vote and nader got enough to beat him in florida. by moving over to the left, he gave it all to george w. that's what happens with the democratic party pushes itself to the left. it loses the critical 5% or 10% in the middle. >> republicans are doing it -- >> they are doing it on their own. >> like howard says, in '94 i voted for the assault weapons ban but i could go out there and talk to people face-to-face. >> you did that in '94. >> in '94, yeah. you can't do that anymore, because now they are inundated every 30 seconds by messages from all different media outlets, so we have to, whether it's on shows like this or through the political system, we've got to start making sure we're looking for the center and the compromise and the consensus

and starting from that. >> you're now facing regional politics. i don't like that guy, he's telling us how big our cokes can be, that kind of stuff, right? they are playing that card, too, right? >> they might be. >> they will. >> just like nancy pelosi is coming in here to change your life. >> mark pryor's a big boy. he knew what he was getting into it and he's prepared for it. >> who's got a longer memory, the nra or the good guys? thank you. when we return, let me finish with the republican search for dirt, lots of dirt. that's what they are looking for. they don't have any yet, but they are still looking in benghazi, in the desert of libya to use against the president and maybe a future president. you're watching "hardball," the place for politics. aaah! aaaaah! theres a guy on the window! do something, dad! aaaah! aaaah! what is happening? they're rate suckers. their bad driving makes car insurance

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let me finish tonight with this. the republican party once believed in certain principles, balanced budgets, law and order, strong defense. today it believes in the main chance, its eyes out there prowling the horizon for the opportunity of instant success, the spot they can exploit the hell out of something and somehow end up on top, benghazi, benghazi. it's what will transform a party of weak presidential candidacies and frozen in place politics and congressional obstruction for as long as the eye can see, they like a national candidate who can truly woo the center and meet the harsh dictates of its own political base, nor can it find the policy that will grab the country's imagination. what they have in their sights

now, what they savor with mouth-watering anticipation is, let's call it what it is, what they are drooling to devour, is dirt. they are hoping if they can keep making charges, keep digging, keep promising more, one fine day they'll find something in the desert sands of libya to justify their existence. and that's "hardball" for now. thanks for being with us. "all in with chris hayes" starts right now. good evening from new york. i'm chris hayes. thank you for joining us. cautionary tales abound tonight. a republican congressman tries to manufacture the next watergate, but instead gets upstaged by the next lifetime original movie. in michigan, the real price of austerity as a school district runs out of money, fires all the teachers, and shuts the doors on all the students. that happened. you have to hear this story.