lied millions of us on small business saturday to make shopping small, huge. this is what membership is. this is what membership does. happy friday. it is map time. this is the u.s./canadian border, here in the northeast. you can see, green is land and blue is water. you have the u.s. mainland. you've got canadian mainland. and then a few really dramatic bodies of water. obviously the giant hulking atlantic ocean off to the east on the right side of your screen. but then those really big bodies of water inland. the great lakes. what if you could get from the ocean into those inland lakes on a boat? that would be a miracle, right? if you think about it, if that was true, you could ship stuff across the sea but instead of having to drop stuff off at some

east coast port you could drop it like all the way into ohio. if you could just get to those great lakes from the sea. for centuries that was a pipe dream. for the u.s. and canada in terms of what that would mean for international commerce. but then in 195 4 our two countries came up with a big thinking solution. and that is called the st. lawrence seaway. together canada and the u.s. built a series of canals and dams and locks that turned the saint lawrence river in canada into essentially an on-ramp to the great lakes. it's essentially a giant highway that connects the atlantic ocean to the great lakes so you can traverse it by boat. the saint lawrence seaway revolutionized commerce in the northeast and the midwest. you can sail from newfoundland to toledo. right? and that marvel came about in part because of the determination of the man who was president at the time it all opened up, dwight eisenhower.

canada really wanted to do this thing but in our country congress was hemming and hawing about approving a deal to work with canada to build the seaway. finally in the 1950s it was ike who got it done. st. lawrence sea way opened in the eisenhower presidency in 1959. the st. lawrence seaway created tens of thousands of jobs and achieved the incredible feat of connecting the great lakes to the atlantic ocean. dwight eisenhower, i think, does not really get his due in terms of being one of the most consequential americans in the entire 20th century. you may not like the consequences, but he had consequences. before he was president, you might remember that he kind of won world war ii. at least the part of it in europe. he was the supreme commander of the allied forces in europe. then when ike was president he, as i mentioned, connected the atlantic ocean to the great lakes. ike also managed to add two whole new states to our union. the great states of alaska and hawaii. both of those states became state under dwight eisenhower.

but along with those literally world-changing, global-changing accomplishments, there was one other achievement of the eisenhower presidency that ike himself saw as just as important as those other things we just described. nbc news sat down with dwight eisenhower after his presidency. it was in color. it was an amazing thing. here is how the former president answered an open question that was put to him about what he thought were his major accomplishments. watch this. >> you did get a number of things done that had been on the agenda of both parties for a long time. st. lawrence seaway. and the admittance of alaska and hawaii to the union. and another one that i guess i more than anyone else thought of it, was the interstate highway program. all of these things took a lot

of persuasion before you could get them on the books. >> alaska, hawaii, connected the atlantic ocean to the great lakes. and also the interstate highway program. the interstate highway program, we think of it as kind of a gimme. but it really did take a lot of persuasion at the time. eisenhower essentially conjured up the idea of the interstate highway system and then he knew he had to sell the idea to the american public because it was a huge undertaking. but listen to this. this was president eisenhower speaking in cadillac square in michigan in 1954. listen to him making the case. >> this is the greatest construction program in the entire history of the nation. we are pushing ahead with the great road program. a road program that will take this nation out of its antiquated shackles of secondary roads all over this country and give us places -- give us the types of highways that we need for this great mass of motor vehicles. >> we look back on that national

project and think, of course we needed the interstate highways. we needed it for commerce if nothing else, right? but dwight eisenhower had to go out and make that case. and it took him a long time. it was a hard case to make but finally in 1956 he was able to sign into law the federal aid highway act and that led to the creation of the interstates. interstates that changed the face of america forever. it was sort of a grand vision that eisenhower had in mind when he signed that bill. in order to create the grand vision to interlinked interstate highways it meant building big new roads that didn't exist at all. but it also, in a large way, meant connecting and building up existing smaller roads. building them out and making them interconnected. and that interconnecting of existing roads and bridges and stuff, that is how this bridge right here which was built in 1955, that's how this bridge ended up becoming part of eisenhower's grand plan. this bridge became part of the new interstate 5 which is marked in red there along the left side

of your screen. interstate 5 stretches from the canadian border in the north to the mexican border in the south. this particular bridge about 60 miles north of seattle is what's called a steel truss bridge. in the 1950s when we were building up our interstate highway system steel truss bridges were a basically ubiquitous design. practical and unglam otherous, stur ki and dependable, cost competitive and highly versatile. they were everywhere. and one of the distinguishing features of bridges built like this is the specific way in which they distribute their weight. the principle upon which all trusses rely is the triangle is the strongest and most rigid geometric figure. when you look at steel truss bridges like this one north of seattle, you can see that it is, see all of the triangles, made of these different triangles. interconnected triangle forms a helps steel truss bridges carry a really heavy load. it's kind of neat, right? i always thought these were sort of cool looking.

also some bridges like this have a an important problem. the name for that particular type of problem will bother you and stick with you. these bridges are known to be what is called fracture critical. fracture critical bridges don't have redundant supporting elements. in this case redundancy is a good thing. not having redundant supporting elements means if part of it fails, it all goes. if one support system fails for any reason the entire bridge is in danger of collapsing. fracture critical. this is not how we build bridges anymore. but that is how these bridges were built. there is lack of redundancy in their design. they were like jenga towers. one expert explained about fracture critical bridges today, quote, it doesn't imply anything bad about the bridge, it just means if a certain component fails it could lead to the complete collapse of the bridge. oh, is that all? nothing bad. the reason that expert was being interviewed by the seattle press today about fracture critical bridges is because of this.

last night around 7:00 p.m. local time a major section of that 1955 era steel truss bridge just north of seattle collapsed into the skagit river. two cars going across the bridge at the time made a terrifying 25-foot plunge into the river below. amazingly nobody was killed. the three occupant of the two cars, pulled out of the water alive with minor injuries. they are expected to be fine. what officials in washington believe caused that collapse last night is this. we had to put an arrow there because otherwise you wouldn't know what we were talking about. this is -- that little dent. this is the top of a tractor trailer truck. that little dent you can see there, that dent is believed to be the result of that truck hitting into one of the steel beams on the bridge. and then jenga style, right? this is security camera video released within the last few hours. you can see the truck on the left-hand side of your screen approach the bridge, then apparently it clips one of those

steel trusses and then you just see the entire span of the bridge fall into the water in an instant. this is a fracture critical bridge. one thing goes, the whole thing goes. and it was an oversized truck legally traversing the bridge. officials say the truck had a permit for its oversized load. but regardless of the permit, the oversized load hit the bridge in just the wrong way and it caused the whole section of the bridge to just collapse into the water, bang. there are no real bad guys here at least that we can tell, yet. there does not appear to be a villain that caused the bridge collapse. but this is a problem that really needs to be fixed. this isn't the only bridge like this. are there people in our american politics who are willing to be good guys, in political problems like this, even when there aren't bad guys to vanquish in order to get the great headline? in washington state alone there are anotherly 400 bridges that are considered to be structurally deficient. more than a third of the bridges in the state are past their design life of 50 years. on interstate 5 in washington

state alone, there are three bridges that are not the one that collapsed that are considered to be structurally deficient. the one that did collapse is not rated structurally deficient. it, instead, is rated as functionally obsolete because of that whole fracture critical problem where if you hit one part of it wrong the whole thing falls into the water. yes, that does seem to be a problem. we inherited a great legacy of american infrastructure and the people who had the foresight to build it, and who put in the political work to get it done, they are historical figures who we still admire for that and who we owe a lot to for having done it. but we haven't exactly been keeping up on what they gave us. we've been using it and hoping it lasts forever. president obama through all five years of presidency has been calling for making investment in our infrastructure. most recently making that call in miami. the president went to miami in march to call for what he said was a deficit neutral $21 billion infrastructure bank that

would involve a public/private partnership. fixing our roads and our bridges is something that always gets applause whenever he brings it up. the president's state of the union address this year, he called out by name our nation's structurally deficient bridges. he said we should have a fix-it first program to do all of the maintenance that needs to be done to fix these things up. and as you hear, he got a big round of applause for saying that. and yay, everybody applauded. and then nothing happened. lots of applause for five years now. every year. and virtually no investment. does a bridge built half a century ago, falling into the water just north of seattle, change any of that political calculation? joining us now is congressman rick larson of washington. he represents the district where the skagit bridge collapsed. he's also on the house transportation and infrastructure committee. thank you for being with us. appreciate your time. >> thanks, rachel. i'm glad to be here to talk about something that frankly a

4r09 of folks don't talk about. >> i'm wondering if you think that this bridge in your district falling into the stagastakagit river, obviously everybody is grateful nobody was killed in this incident, do you feel this is occasion for a new round of national talking about this issue? >> i certainly hope it is. you mentioned the legacy that eisenhower left us, and i think morally we're not living up to that legacy. but i also think from an economic perspective, we're getting the short end of the stick by not investing in our roads and bridges and our highways. i hope that, you know, if there's only one good thing that can come out of this is that it does jump-start the conversation about the kind of investment we need to make in roads and brinks and highways and our transit systems that creates jobs and invests in the future. there is nothing wrong with doing it. >> what's your -- what do you say to the side of the argument that says, listen we have invested as much as we can in this. it would be nice to do more. but right now, basically we don't have very much money in the short term. maybe we can plan this for the

long-term but we have to hold out and hope the stuff stays together well enough in order to patch us through at times when we've got maybe an ability to patch into a rainy day fund or something. >> yeah. i think right now we are in the long-term period. and we are approaching the end of the long-term period. when it comes to infrastructure. and heading off beyond that into nowhere. it is time to begin reinvesting in infrastructure. the president has proposed a fix-it first fund of about $50 billion. that is good as far as it goes. we clearly, this bridge we clearly do need to fix some part of our infrastructure. we also know we can make a long-term investment in roads, bridges, highways that creates jobs today for folks who have to do the work. we know to be competitive with other countries. they're doing these things. they're investing in roads, bridges, highways, rail, and we're not doing it. that is going to put us competitively behind other countries if we don't do this investment now. >> i'm told congressman larsen

that members of your staff have been at that bridge scene since last night. i know you spoke with the transportation secretary. how do you think the response has been so far to this collapse in your district? do you feel like you're getting what you need? >> the response locally has been great. i was born and raised in my district. i spent many, many of my years going up and down i-5, across that bridge. the communities there hang together, stay together. i want to give a shout out to secretary ray lahood. i know he's leaving his job soon but he was on the job today. i spoke with him this morning. he assured me that dollars are available to help through emergency relief fund. they have released $1 million. the estimate is $15 million fix. so we still have a little bit to go but they released early dollars to get started on the design for construction of a replacement and repair. >> congressman rick larsen of washington state. i'm sorry this happened in your district. again i'm glad that the injuries

weren't worse and that nobody was killed. it's very lucky. good luck with the recovery in your district, sir. thanks for being with us. >> i appreciate being on tonight. thanks so much. >> all right. newt gingrich. before newt gingrich was known primarily as a salesman of many fine newt gingrich books, dvds and certificates of entrepreneurship, all $19.95, newt gingrich was famous before that for one really bold, really, really bad political move that he made almost 20 years ago now. how the united states government gingrich'd itself and made newt's mistake itself today. that's next. >> the most talked about phase of the act is the interstate highway system, a 41,000 mile network of our most important roads. most of these roads will be four, six, even eight-lane expressways, constructed for thru traffic. they will take the over-the-road driver from city to city, coast to coast, at highway speeds.

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every year in d.c., the kick off to the event surrounding memorial day happens at the d.c. war memorial to local victims of the first world war. that memorial is not the huge

new national world war ii memorial that you see here or the world famous very moving vietnam veterans war memorial wall. it is the much more subtle structure that you see here. but the world war i memorial in d.c. is lovely and it's in a leafy spot on the national mall and a ceremony there every year kicks off the week that culminates in memorial day. this year, people that organized and did that kick off event for the nation. people who took on that responsibility for our country were these ladies. just them alone. instead of a formal ceremony with a bugler playing "taps," instead of dignitaries assembled to hear speeches and a formal program, instead of a crowd waiting there to hear the speeches or, you know, public prayer or something. no, this year, these three women, along with a military.com reporter who was one of the few people there to cover the event, they just held their own brief moment of silence after putting wreaths at the memorial.

just them. this year the commemoration became a freelance gig for those patriotic americans working on their own. because the national park service, which usually pays about $1,000 to cover the cost of those proceed ogs, this year the national park service could not do it. this year, the sequester, nearly universally agreed upon to be stupid self-inflicted problem we made for ourselves in washington made it so the park service had to cut back and could not pay for that program this year. also today because of the same self-inflicted washington policy that nobody thinks is a good idea but that we're doing anyway, also today the epa stopped working on some of their criminal investigations and the epa did no site inspections anywhere in the country. . white house office of management and budget did not do anything managing the budget. because of the stupid budget problem that no one wanted, but we have to have anyway, and put them to work to fix stupid budget problems could not work today to fix the stupid budget

problem because of the stupid budget problem. if you needed help on a tax related problem today was also not your day. today all 400 taxpayer assistant centers across the country were closed. if you needed to call the hot line for help about something it was closed. if you needed to contact the irs taxpayer advocate service it was closed. if you are waiting on your tax return, today zero tax returns were processed. today was a furlough day for the irs and other major federal agencies, leaving 115,000 federal employees out of work for the day. the biggest government shutdown since the '90s. the irs of course is embroiled in its big washington scandal right now. the irs executive who took the fifth so dramatically at that congressional hearing earlier this week she did not get fired but she did get put on administrative leave and somebody else has replaced her in her irs job. more congressional hearings on the irs are expected at the beginning of june but the agency

in the meantime is responding to a matterhorn mountain size of demands from congress. committee staff members are now doing interviews with irs staff members, both in washington, and in at least the cincinnati field office. of course none of that work happened today because the irs had a furlough day today. regardless of who's going to get blamed for the fact that this irs scandal happened, the way that they're going to fix it and make sure it never happens again is likely to be something having to do with increased training, right? increased training particularly for the kinds of low-level irs employees who we know carried out this policy that has upset everybody in washington so much. especially hit area in the irs budget by the sequester is the irs training budget. so we're doing less of that now than ever. times like this in the news are sometimes overwhelming. it's almost like the new problems we are creating can barely keep up with the old ones we are not fixing. ne, bjorn earns unlimited rewards for his small business. take these bags to room 12 please.

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canada is stupendous for a lot of reasons. canadians have a courageous history in war time. canada declared war on hitler germany just days after france did and britain did. way before the rest of the world caught up. also canada has putin. and canada has universal health care in case you eat too much putin. they have commander chris hatfield who made us fall in love with space travel again and who can sing a pretty decent

david bowie cover. canada has neil young and the bare naked ladies. canada has hockey which is truly and totally awesome even if my eyesight isn't good enough to see the puck on tv. the legacy includes the toronto maep leafs who chose to make leaf plural with a simple "s" because canada is awesome and they wanted to do it and they do what they want. also my mom is from canada. canada is perfect in every way. but the best thing in canada this week has nothing to do with the aforementioned usesome things. because it turns out that when canada decides it's going to have a truly salacious jaw-dropping political scandal they can also do that better than anyone. the story already the craziest story in politics this week, just got way crazier today. that is coming up right at the end of the show today. we are saving the best for last. please, stay tuned. my mother made the best toffee in the world.

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virginia's attorney general defending sodomy laws, trying to save the virginia law against gay people having sex. he also used the power of his office to hound a virginia professor, who is a leading scientist on climate change. he has been moving heaven and earth in virginia to close down the state's abortion clinics. one of his first acts of attorney general was to overtly advise state universities that they should not feel constrained by anti-discrimination laws. he wrote to them to assure them, just in case they wanted to, it would be okay if they wanted to fire a professor just for being gay. he wanted to let them know it would be all right. oh, and he also tried to get the nice lady on virginia's official commonwealth seal to put some freaking clothes on. can't we cover this lady up? for his next act, ken cuccinelli wants to be governor. he is running for governor in the election that is this year in virginia. because he is who he is, because his base of support is so far out there on the edge, mr. cuccinelli apparently decided this year he could not secure the republican nomination

for governor in his state in the usual way. virginia republicans usually pick their nominees by holding a primary where everybody across the state gets to vote. but what ken cuccinelli needed in order to get the republican nomination was actually for just a few people to vote. the right few people. the very, very, very far right few people. and so ken cuccinelli used his wiles and political muscle to change the rules. he got the republican party to agree that this year they would pick the nominee for governor not by a statewide vote in a primary but instead at a convention. because conventions are where the ideological hard-cores go for a pleasant weekend of tricorn hats and pledges to keep the federal government off your lawn. ken cuccinelli got that convention that he wanted. last weekend at the convention, he got the nomination for governor in virginia. because the middle is where you win a general election in a purple state like virginia, ken cuccinelli has sort of recently tried to stop himself from

talking so much about non-heterointercourse and the other things he has built his career on. he's tried to sound a little more jobsish and economyish and less of the old ken cuccinelli culture warrior the state has come to know so well. but fly in the ointment, which probably isn't legal in virginia anymore either. ken cuccinelli is not the only statewide candidate who virginia republicans picked at their convention last weekend. they also picked the rest of the slate that ken cuccinelli is going to run with. >> democratic party created an unholy alliance between certain so-called civil right leaders and planned parenthood which is killed unborn black babies by the tens of millions. planned parenthood has been far more lethal to black lives than the kkk ever was. >> meet bishop e.w. jackson. virginia republicans official nominee for lieutenant governor and therefore the running mate of ken cuccinelli. it is as though virginia

republicans thought ken cuccinelli would find sprinting to the political middle too easy so they attached bishop jackson to him to make it about 550 tons harder. >> the military has been decimated by this lesbian, gay, bisexual transgender policy that has now been implemented. their minds are perverted. they are -- they're frankly, very sick people, psychologically and mentally and emotionally and they see everything through the lens of homosexuality. when they talk about love, they are not talking about love. they are talking about homosexual sex. homosexuality is a horrible sin. it poisons culture, destroys families, destroys societies. brings the judgment of god unlike very few things that is we can think of. >> that's just how bishop jackson feels about the gay, the man virginia republicans picked

for the state's second highest statewide office says that you should e-mail him if you want to know the names of the two devout muslims who president obama hired for homeland security. and he says obama and his comrades are totalitarianists whose unholy alliance will destroy this country if we let them. and president obama is the first homosexual president, based on his affinities. and he says, in this this one, the president has proclaimed june as lesbian, gay, transgender proud month. that just makes me feel icky all over. yuck. yuck. virginia republicans welcome to the top of the ticket as picked by virginia republicans. your guy for governor is very out there, but trying not to be. your guy for lieutenant governor is very out there and does not care. your guy for attorney general, that would be mark obenshame. ava state senator who was noted for once fleeing the senate chamber, running away, to block

the confirmation of a judge who is gay because he is a judge who is gay. is also known for a 2009 bill that would have required women in virginia to report a miscarriage to the police within 24 hours. so they can investigate it? yes, virginia republicans you nominated that guy to be the top law enforcement official in the state. and he is supposed to be the one from the establishment. virginia's republican ticket is quite a spectacle. former republican party chairman michael steel says of them, quote, the republicans i'm talking to are saying, what the hell are they doing down in virginia? is this 101 ways to lose an election? still, though, virginia's new republican nominees have been out touring the state doing their best. ken cuccinelli was not republican governor bob mcdonnell's first choice of successor but now that he's stuck with him as the nominee, governor mcdonnell has been stumping with him just the same, fund-raising and campaigning for ken cuccinelli. meanwhile, cuccinelli has been doing this for governor

bob mcdonnell. back in november he quietly ordered a special investigator to probe whether governor mcdonnell broke virginia law about reporting gifts. the headline gift in question was a chicken dinner. a $15,000 chicken dinner served at the wedding of the governor's daughter. that was paid for by a campaign donor who makes a tobacco-based supplement of some kind and is himself under federal investigation. mr. cuccinelli it turns out also received gifts from that same donor and then did not report them and then, years later, finally did report them. fbi agents are also looking into the governor's gifts for any sign of a quid pro quo between the governor and his company. also, the governor's former chef is facing embezzlement charges. and as part of his defense he's demanding to know in open court what the governor's grown children were doing carting off flats of eggs, and gatorade and protein powder from the governor's mansion kitchen.

but do not worry, virginia, governor mcdonnell says, as a headline that should be framed says in "the washington post," mcdonnell says he's still age to govern. if you like the way he's governing please vote for ken cuccinelli and for the guy with the gay planned parenthood kkk thing and for the other guy who wants you to report your last heavy period to the sheriff within 24 hours. just in case. heading into the november election, virginia republicans may look like a slow motion disaster. but virginia republicans hand picked all these guys. right? maybe they don't see these guys as a problem. joining us now is mark seagraves longtime host of virginia's ask the governor program on wtop radio. he's now a reporter for the nbc affiliate in washington, d.c. thank you very much for being with us. i appreciate your time. >> thanks for having me back. >> how are mainstream virginia republicans reacting to this ticket that got picked at their convention? papers make it seem like they are panicking. but what is your take on it?

>> well, we'll see. right now the polls have terry mcauliffe with slight lead over ken cuccinelli in the governor's race but it's within the margin of error. as you said, in the state, in the convention, you had just a few thousand die-hard republican activists who put cuccinelli and this slate together. thus avoiding a statewide election. so we really don't know how the full electorate of the state would have voted on cuccinelli, had he faced bill bowling in an open election, who is the current lieutenant governor and who was going to run, who was bob mcdonnell's pick to replace him. but in the past, i mean, we can look at 2008 when this happened before. this is when congressman tom davis wanted to run for senate and he was facing former governor jim gilmore in what would have been a primary. the conservative party went for a convention in that instance because they didn't want tom davis. they put jim gilmore in. tom davis famously said his

party gave him the middle finger in that and gilmore went on to lose to warner, i think it was 65% to 35%. so that's what happened the last time we were in this situation in virginia. >> in terms of the choice of the lieutenant governor candidate, the guy who he calls president obama gay. says president obama is a muslim. said he is a totalitarian. he is vehemently anti-gay often using florid long when he talks about abortion issues and gay rights issues. ask that the kind of candidate that is conceivably viable in a statewide election in virginia for any office? and if it isn't, is that going to hurt cuccinelli? >> you've got two good questions there. the answer to the first one is, yeah, he's a viable candidate. we'll see who the democrats put up. they have their primary in june and there are two candidates running there who don't have the statewide name recognition.

say what you want about good publicity, bad publicity. the fact is a lot of people across the state are hearing about bishop jackson and hearing his name and seeing him out in public and whatnot and getting this head start on the democrats. now there are people who think, that he is so far to the right that he will make ken cuccinelli look a little bit more moderate. cuccinelli said he is not going to spend this campaign defending his fellow slate members, the other candidates' records. but the other day in fairfax, we asked him about this on sunday, and you know, he didn't back away from socially conservative statements, cuccinelli, that he has made in the past. that's what democrats are going to try to do. they're going to try to remind people of the things that cuccinelli has said in the past that are very similar to what bishop jackson is saying right now. >> when i have talked to people on the democratic side about the democratic approach toward this election in virginia they seem very clear that they want to run against ken cuccinelli, the

crusading, anti-abortion, super anti-abortion, super anti-gay culture warrior guy, the guy who wanted to cover up the statue on the virginia state seal and all the rest of it as this real throwback social conservative guy. seems like the slate would help them make the case more than anything else that happened. do you think virginia democrats are right to see this as an opportunity? or do you think they're sort of resting on their laurels here? >> oh, no it's absolutely an opportunity. as you said in your lead up to this, you look back at president obama and now senator tim kaine who both won the last election in virginia. you know this is the same virginia that elected president obama the first time and then elected bob mcdonnell governor. virginia, they go the way that they want to go. northern virginia will play a big role in this. northern virginia, the further north you go in virginia, the more liberal and the more moderate it gets. this is going to be a huge

factor. and the democrats, you know, they believe this is a good strategy. you know the republicans, and particularly cuccinelli, he wants to talk about taxes. he's going to want to talk about the economy. and he's going to talk about the fact that he has devoted his career to public service for the past ten years or more. whereas terry mcauliffe, you know, has been seen as a businessman, and a national fundraiser for president clinton, but when he lost his last bid for statewide race here, he lost in the primary, people in virginia hadn't seen much of him since then. he went back into private sector and now he is back on the scene. he worked behind the scenes during transportation negotiation in the budget in the general assembly. but the republicans won't want to define the election about economics. democrats will want to define it about social issues. >> sound like both of these guys want to define the election as being about the other guy. which is always a good sign for covering it at least. >> gives us plenty to do, absolutely. >> mark seagraves reporter in washington, d.c.

mark, thank you so much for being with us. nice to see you again. >> thanks, rachel. >> all right. what would you pay to see tape that allegedly reportedly maybe shows the mayor of a huge and important north american city smoking crack? on tape. no seriously, what would you pay? you should think about it because you have the opportunity to actually pay some of that in order to see that tape. that story is coming up. [ musick ] i knew there were a lot of tech jobs

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if you're president, what are you looking for in a supreme court justice? as president you get to pick people for the court. obviously you want them to be qualified, to be a good judge. you want them to share some of your basic values, and how you think a judge should approach the law. you want them to be fairly young. i mean, as president, after all, you only get to serve for a term, or two, if you're lucky. but your supreme court picks are there for life. so when you pick somebody you want to make sure they have plenty of life left. you also want to make sure they can be confirmed. presidents choose supreme court nominees but it's the senate who confirms them. though it is rare for the senate to outright reject a pick for the supreme court, it happened. it happened to robert bork in 1987, and the threat that it was going to happen to harriet miers in 2005 made president george w. bush withdraw her name from consideration. so you're looking at a qualified for the job, judicial philosophy

that you agree with, age, you may also consider the diversity of the court, or some other factors like that. but always on your mind has to be can they be confirmed? and you can guess at that but it is kind of a mystery, right? you can never know if they can be confirmed unless and until you try to confirm them. as this president looks at the skofrt, he looks at the justices and their ages, you know justice age 80, justice age 77, 76, 74, the president has to be looking at the court and thinking, man, if only i could grab someone who was qualified who could do the job, whose judicial philosophy i agree with, who is young. if only i could take somebody like that and test-fire them in the senate. if only there was some way to know if advance that if i pick this kid for the supreme court the senate could confirm. only if there was a way to test that. there is a way to test that. say hello to this guy. that is a name that will get

easier to pronounce when it ends up in the news a lot more. he is a deputy solicitor general confirmed by the senate unanimously for a judgeship. got confirmed for d.c. circuit court. one level below supreme court is the appeals court system, biff ki dive veries the court into 11 reegions and also the d.c. circuit court. and d.c. circuit court is a big deal. four of the justices on the supreme court come from the d.c. circuit court. it is kind of like the feeder court for supreme court justices. out of 11 seats on that d.c. court, there are four vacant seats now. president obama nominated sri to one of those seats and the senate confirmed him unanimously. that means he can be confirmed by the senate. he can be. he just proved it. and that's really good to know, in case there's any other judgeship that that guy might

not to be confirmed for any time soon. hint hint. the big news here, we may have gone through essentially the first round of president obama's next nomination for the supreme court. if he picks him, he would be the first justice of south asian heritage, he is an indian american, only 46 years old. apparently does not have an enemy in the world, and the united states senate voted for him for a judgeship 97-0. which bodes well for them voting for him again if nominated for the highest court in the land. watch this space. with the spark miles card from capital one, bjorn earns unlimited rewards for his small business. take these bags to room 12 please. [ garth ] bjorn's small business earns double miles on every purchase every day. produce delivery. [ bjorn ] just put it on my spark card. [ garth ] why settle for less? ahh, oh! [ garth ] great businesses deserve unlimited rewards. here's your wake up call. [ male announcer ] get the spark business card

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happy friday. update for you on the craziest politics story we've covered in a long time, story of the mayor of canada's largest city smoking crack, maybe. the toronto star and gawker.com

have published reports describing a cell phone video that stars robert ford, the mayor of toronto, and what looks to be a crack pipe. gawker's editor says he was contacted by a tipster in toronto who described the video, wanted them to buy it, having been told there is a video of the mayor of toronto smoking crack, gawker sent its editor up to toronto to see for himself. there were a bunch of false starts, difficulties trying to meet the guy with the video, didn't work out for awhile. then finally the gawker editor says the video was shown to him on a touch-screen phone. he says, quote. here is what the video shows. rob ford, the mayor of toronto, is the only person visible in the frame. prior to the trip, i spent a lot of time looking at photographs of rob ford. the man in the video is rob ford, it is well lit, clear, ford is seated in a room in a house. in one hand is a clear glass pipe with a big globe and two glass cylinders sticking out of it. other hand, a lighter. the slurred voice is ranting about canadian politics in what sounds like an attempt to goad ford. mayor rob ford then allegedly

uses an anti-gay slur to describe either a former canadian prime minister or his son, who in either case is one of his political rivals. then ford pipe in one hand, lighter in the other is laughing and mildly protesting at the sackry lidge he seems to keep trying to light the pipe but keeps stopping to laugh. he is red-faced and steadty, heaving with each breath. finally finds this moment and lights up. he inhales. end scene. gawker decided not to buy the 90 second video because the guy selling it wanted too much money. i have not seen the video, we cannot confirm gawker's reporting, but their description does comport basically with two reporters at the toronto star who also say that they saw the video. >> the video which appears to be real shows mayor rob ford in a room, his shirt open, lulling back in his chair and appears to be smoking a crack pipe. >> the man in the video we

believe is mayor rob ford appears stumbling, seems incoherent, rambles. >> mayor ford ends this segment on camera, lasts only 90 seconds by being started when he hears a telephone ring. he looks directly into the camera and says, that thing better not be recording. >> yeah, maybe it was recording. this story broke eight days ago. today, the mayor made his first public comments on the matter at a hastily called press conference. he seems flustered, out of sorts. he read this from a prepared statement, and then he took no questions. >> i do not use crack cocaine nor am i an addict of crack cocaine. as for a video, i cannot comment on a video that i have never seen or does not exist. >> or does not exist. the mayor today denying he smoked crack, denying there's video of him smoking crack. meanwhile, the crackstarter campaign is under way online. you can participate if you'd

like to. having reportedly seen the mayor smoking crack video in toronto, gawker.com didn't object to the concept of paying for the tape. that is something some publishing organizations don't do. gawker seems to have no problem with that in concept. gawker's only objection to buying the tape is that it was too expensive. so now they've set up a fund-raising drive. a crowd funding effort called crackstarter, instead of kick-starter to raise $200,000 for the video. as of tonight, they're pretty close. the deadline they set is monday. only have 30 something grand to go. the problem is that gawker freely admits the crack smoking connected tipsters who are offering to sell them the video didn't seem to be the most reliable guys on the planet. and now apparently they have lost touch with them. the guys who reportedly have the video. who knows how it ends. maybe gawker gets the video and we get to judge for ourselves, maybe they raise the money, can't get the video. maybe somebody else gets the video. maybe the mayor takes a question first time in a week. who knows. until the video surfaces, and

you know it will, it is the maybe crack smoking mayor of toronto versus gawker, versus toronto star, versus crowd funding power of people eager to see the supposed crack smoking mayor video and eventually something's going to have to give. "weekends with alex witt" starts now. open for business. the first test of the jersey shore since hurricane sandy. but the memorial weekend weather may not cooperate. in fact there is snow in the forecast. moment of impact. new video from that bridge collapse, and it shows when a fully loaded semi truck hit a support beam. closing gitmo. a realistic assessment today of whether the u.s. could shut down the prison for alleged terrorists. where would they go? and life or death? after an agonizingly long trial, another twist in the case that may make it drag on for a few more weeks. but should it? a legal panel weighs in. good morning to all of you. welcome towe