our way too witty caption contest focuses on governor christie and president obama on the shore. here's mine. i like to do a little dialogue. governor christie, hey, where are they? obama, i told you, i am not giving back those votes. i told i'm not giving back those votes. >> i thought it was good. our producer doesn't think so and in an intense debate who is witnessier. >> chris i need the keys back to camp david. you can't have them until 2016. the republican party is destroying itself. hold me and carl banks. >> carl banks? >> no, governor, i don't have any salt water taffy. aren't you on a diet? >> carl banks two super bowl titles and he is watching and even tweeting. time for "morning joe."

this is the right decision. for some a single two-year house term is enough service. for others, ten terms or two decades in the house is still not enough service. our constitution allows for the length of service in congress to be determined by the congress people themselves or by the voters in the district. however, the law limits anyone from serving as president of the united states for more than eight years. and in my opinion, well, eight years is also long enough for an individual to serve as a representative for a specific congressional district. be assured my decision was not in any way influenced by any concerns about my being re-elected to congress. i've always, in the past, defeated candidates who were capable, qualified, and well-funded and i have every confidence that if i ran, i would again defeat the individual who i defeated last year, who recently announced he is once again running.

>> so she will run again, right? >> no. good morning it's wednesday, may 29th. another bleak, cold, rainy, overcast foggy sort of end of matrix three kind of day. happy may 29th. a big story here, michele bachm bachmann. a lot of people were talking it will be tough for her and some investigations going on. you know what? you can take certain paths and you see a lot of people ramp up and you see them be successful and the burnout factor. you can set your hair on fire so many times as a magician until the crowd gets used to it and it

can hurt your hair. allen west is another example. a lot of excitement and one term. we can go down the list. people too far left or too far -- it's in these days of 24/7 news and everybody is looking for a sound bite that is over the top or looking for something to put on a blog, it's a great strategy and you can raise a lot of people. but there is no long play in that. there is no long play in and one of the reasons ted cruz is doing now might work for him right now but long play in american politics. >> we will talk about this coming up. mothers are the top burners in 4 in 10 u.s. households and making more than their counterparts and it's causing a lot of problems too. >> really? >> no. >> mike, do you have a problem with it? >> i have no problem with that! >> i would love to have a salary and go to fenway. >> i'm sure you all would.

it doesn't really apply to you all year but we will explain. it's called a tease, joe. >> i wish it did apply. >> no, it doesn't apply to you. huh-uh. >> okay. what is going on, mika? >> would you like to introduce our other guests? >> we have steve rattner over there. >> rattner! >> maybe steve could take us all on, right? >> that's not a bad idea. >> i can claim you on my tax return. >> we have mike barnicle and tv's only willie geist. >> in washington, column nust for "the washington post" and msnbc policy analyst, ezra klein. >> ezra would probably like you to claim him too. >> i would too. >> if the cash comes with it, we are with that. >> unfortunately, women aren't paid as much as men. >> 40% of them off.

it would have been michele bachmann that she dismissed claims that of qis into her presidential campaign. jim graves few short by fewer than 5,000 votes last year. bachmann said she considered not running for the seat again after a presidential bid because she didn't want to risk republicans losing her seat. joining us from politico lawyers, mike allen. this store broke yesterday. what do you make of this? >> to takeaways from this. one, when they say it's not about the money, it's about the money! and when she says this is not about the competition that she faced or these investigations, you know that was a big factor. and here is the give-away. just on thursday, less than a weeking, she start airing advertisements for her re-election and she bought two weeks of ads in the twin cities

area, 14 months, 16 months ahead of an election so you know this was an expected decision. we had known that the federal election commission, that the office of congressional ethics were looking into how she handled some money for her presidential campaign. it was reported that the fbi was joining the investigation so this is serious. second takeaway, this is much a marketing decision as a political decision. as you guys know, she is an amazing fund-raiser. very popular tea party conservative speaker and now she is able to go out and preserve her value doing that and not go out as a loser. >> yeah. she actually has a great opportunity to reinvent hernss a herself and learn from the mistakes sarah palin made. she can give speeches and get some other jobs out there and

probably do pretty well. >> moving on now. mike, thank you. we will see you in a minute. a collection of new data shows the u.s. economy is having a recovery rate that is much faster than anyone would have predicted. following the long holiday weekend, stocks closed yesterday in positive territory with the dow closing at a new record high. and since march 9th, 2009, market low that day, stock wealth has surged to 12.8 trillion dollars. consumer confidence is moving in a positive direction. it's now at its highest level in more than five years. the housing market was rebounded up nearly 11% in march from a year ago. housing prices rose faster the past year than they have in the past seven years. and there is even good news for detroit. may is set up to be the best month for u.s. automakers in 11 years. >> fantastic. ford is just kicking it, man. ford is doing great. >> and gm is doing even better.

>> thank you, steve rattner, doing even better. you seen the stock? >> i have testla stock is doing extraordinarily well. >> it shot over a hundred yesterday. this stock is just exploding. steve rattner will tell us why it's pet.com of 2013. let's look at the front pages of the newspapers. "the wall street journal" says home sales power optimistic. "the washington post" talks about how the economy is showing endurance. "the new york times" also talking about how home prices are putting americans in a buying mood. willie, what do you have over there? >> the financial times u.s. steps up pace of recovery and talking about home prices. the low rates from the fed, consumer confidence index and all of those things put together. we were talking before you said there is no asterisk here at this point. this is good news. >> yeah, this is good news. it's almost like the economy

turned on a dime in a way because it wasn't long ago that a lot of us were worried about the slow down. we had a couple of bad unemployment numbers and bad personal income numbers and suddenly you have indicators that you were just reading off that have given live buoyancy and how the american economy is doing and that has, in turn, fueled the stock market. >> ezra, break down the numbers. >> they are good. we talked about this how much resiliency we are seeing. you saw us took out the payroll tax cut the beginnings of the year and gone into sequestration and got that last month and this month and seeing a hit to the economy from that and should be and not seeing a lot of changes in the numbers and not seeing it in retail and the places you would and to be hurting and that implies the private engine of the economy has taken over here.

the consumer sentiment and recovery housing market and demand for low interest rates a lot of these policies we have been trying to do a long time are beginning to catch and some of the things are holding us back a year or two ago are pulling together and propel us toward. we could be doing better. you don't want to suggest the economy we are in is a good one but the recovery is really it seems to me to be taking hold. >> you know what is interesting? the back to basics aspect of this. if you feel confident that the value of your home is recovering and that you can sell your home, if needed, you'll have confidence you'll go out and buy a pair of sneakers on the weekend and go to the mall and spend money you weren't spending a year ago. >> there is what we call the wealth effect in the economy when people feel wealthier whether because their house prices have gone up or 401(k)s or iras have gone up a even though it's money they will

spend later. i gre with ezra saying the economy seemingly to catch hold. i think you have to give enormous credit to the federal reserve reserve. i know it's controversial but what we are doing in terms of putting money into the economy is extraordinarily helpful. >> an update on the irs scandal. nbc news has learned several top officials at the agency requested information on conservative groups expanding the scope beyond the irs cincinnati office and includes one letter with a signature of the agency suspended director lois lerner. the attorney representing more than two dozen conservative groups that applied to the irs for tax exempt status believes the agency was engaged in a coordinated and deliberate attempt to silence the group saying, quote, we have dealt with 15 agents, including tax law specialists from four different offices, including the treasury department in washington, d.c., so the idea

that this is a couple of rogue agents in cincinnati is not correct. and jay, who is the chief counsel for the american center for law and justice, joins us now. jay, does this go higher up as well as broaden out? >> we know it went high as far as level of review because i've got letters signed by lois lerner, in fact, 15 letters from her. as you mentioned, mika, we have four offices we have been dealing with over the last year and a half and another myth that is out there and jay carney keeps saying this and you almost feel horrible to him because i am sure he is getting his information from somebody but saying the letters stopped and the approach stopped in may of last year. we received a letter just may 6th of this year with more intrusive questions from one of our clients. not a tea party group but caught up in this net of conservative organizations and they were asking him for the copes of the

curriculums they utilized and the students that they met with. south continues. the harassment and it is harassment when it's going on three years it's harassment. i worked for the office of chief council for the internal revenue service out of law school that was a long time ago. i knew when they said it was a rogue incident that was incorrect. cincinnati is the largest two exempt tax offices in the united states and two rogue agents could have initiated we know from the now administrative leave leader of the tax exempt group lois mern lerner. i'm not going to say it went into the white house. we know the white house counsel and chief of staff wereware of the inspector general's report coming out and there was an investigation. i think they were too clumsy in the reporting and i think it made matters worse for them. this is a deep problem. a serious problem.

the jooi was a planted question and i think it's just gotten from bad to worse. we are -- i have an inch-thick complaint filed in the u.s. district court today on behalf of 25 groups and probably amended next week to add another dozen or so. >> so a couple of things. you've used the words harassment and you're not suggesting this goes higher than lois lerner but give me in one line what you are suggesting. >> i'm suggesting that the white house knew there was a problem with the agency's approach because the deputies treasury secretary was aware of it. the white house counsel was aware of it and chief of staff was aware of the problem so it goes higher than lois lerner. i don't think she is the only person involved in this. the problem this has been going on for almost three years. and nobody, by the way, has been denied. not one application that we have been involved with has been

denied. there would be periods of six or eight months where you would have no communication from the irs. they wouldn't even respond to a question. you had institutional incapacity going on inside the irs and i think made the problem even worse. this was serious targeting and they acknowledged that. the fbi is doing an investigation on it. we have the fbi investigating the case and federal lawsuits being filed against the irs and we have got four offices not just cincinnati we have been involved with four services with multiple agents including letters, as i said, from lois lerner and we know the white house counsel was aware of the situation they were trying to if i figure out how best to get ahead of the situation when the inspector general's report was coming out. it was an aaudit. i don't think we know the tip of this iceberg that is out there right now and i'm afraid -- republicans and democrats are

rightly outraged about the way this is going and the way it's been handled. the president said he was outraged but right now the only person -- we had an acting commissioner leaving in a month and left a month early so to speak and lois lerner placed on administrative leave and there has to be more direct action taken here and, of course -- this morning when we file. >> thank you, jay. appreciate you being here. they are going to file something in the courts. the question is there are a thousand questions here. how high up does this go? lois lerner, they mishandled it so badly from the beginning. lois lerner came out and made it sound like a couple of rogue agents. the white house was bungled a part of this. we found out some of them knew. they should reveal that up front so, obviously, a lot of questions. >> what did we just learn from that that we didn't know before? >> can i jump in on this?

>> that the harassment continued that it didn't stop and ezra klein and low ris lerner hasn't been able to get her time line straight from day one. >> i thought it was a weird presentation. i think people are conflating two things here, right? the thing that the irs did wrong that is very dangerous that they did was this filter be mechanism and cutting through applications and working for tea party for 912 and different code words associated with that particular movement. that is a kind of aaa biassing mechanism and politicization of the role. the other thing what we are talking about here is asking questions of these groups. what the law just said was that you had groups and we knew this from the ig report who were getting questions from higher up irs officials but, of course, there were. there was never any doubt that these groups in cincinnati were balancing the applications up after they got filtered. the question that you would have to be asking there is there evidence that the filtering

mechanism came from the higher up's some and so far all of the evidence we have from the ig report is they killed the filtering mechanism. we don't want to say it is harassment to ask questions of clearly political groups that are looking for 501(c)(4) status. that was the irs's job but the filtering we are supposed to be worried about here. >> do you have any information who came up with these filters? we understood they started, lois lerner expressed some concerns and they continued and as jay just said, they continued well past when lois lerner said they stopped. any ideas about who came up with this metrics that focused on conservative groups? >> i don't know much more than we had in the i.g. report. the determinations unit determines whether or not the applications are getting to

higher scrutiny and they get a bunch of media reports at 501(c)(4)s that are anonymous and not supposed to be primarily political or acting in a primarily way and they put in place these filters. they say it wasn't political and getting a ton of tea party applicants in '09 and '10 and make sense and they do in effect and not in intent put together a important filtering mechanism and killed by lerner. i think this is amazing and strange. then they go aj back and create a new set of filtering mechanism that is, again, politicized and it's bounced up the chain again and that step gets killed ask the higher up's in the irs say you can't create any more mechanisms or filters without explicit approval from management. right now from what we know it it appears to be the filtering coming out of this group of determinations unit and i'm not saying we know why. the big question whether or not it goes higher. as of now, every time we have heard of it going higher, the

higher up's have killed it so i'm not hearing the expansion of that question in those comments. >> the irs, it has gone up. they are killed it. the information, though, has gone up to the chief of staff and the chief counsel and there's just a real inconsistency here. as far as their messaging, it goes back to the messaging and just like the justice department issues and we will talking about that and eric holder and a lot of things going. >> tomorrow on "morning joe," we are going to have tom hanks with us on set. still ahead on "morning joe," james carville and ben smith and alex wagner and new york times anne lowry. but, first, bill with the forecast. >> a murky start in the northeast and rain and fog out there to bother you on your morning commutes. let's get into it. first off the rain soaking eastern massachusetts right now through boston along the mass

pike and more rain from albany to syracuse and buffalo. clearing out from philly and south wards the heat is today. almost up to 90 today in philly and should be near 90 and above that in d.c. thunderstorms even some strong thunderstorms from new york north wards up to the capital district to hartford we may see an isolated tornado today in the northeast. that's pretty rare. now as far as the central plains go a classic set up for a nasty day. unfortunately the same areas that were hit by the tornadoes about a week and a half ago including oklahoma city area, the moore, oklahoma, norman. a chance of strong tornadoes between 4:00 and 10:00. i'm pinpointing oklahoma city there 6:00 p.m. this evening and expecting a major flood going through historic proportions

along the mississippi in the upcoming weekend. you're watching "morning joe," brewed by starbucks. we're here with sonya talking about the walmart low price guarantee. charcoal. if someone else advertises a lower price, walmart will match it at the register. i didn't know that. i'm full of good ideas! okay. not so much muscle! wow! that's the walmart low price guarantee! bring your last grocery receipt and see for yourself.

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♪ stop it. you know what? >> what? >> i don't want to hear another one. it's getting boring. time to take a look at the morning papers. >> let's see what they are doing. willie wants to see what is goined going with ton with the tabloids. >> hide your kids. weiner trolls for interns.g on >> hide your kids. weiner trolls for interns. it's the daily news. men love weiner, parks and sex.

what got? >> we have our parade of papers. the baltimore sun. a freight train crashed into a truck in rosedale outside of baltimore yesterday and cause an explosion felt for miles. chemicals on the train ignited causing a fire and smoke plumes seen for hours and authorities are investigating the cause of the crash but the fire is under control. >> the "los angeles times." a small explosion in disney land yesterday in anaheim, california. the blast was caused by dry ace placed inside a bottle that was in a trash can. no one injure and authorities are still investigating the cause. "the san francisco chronicle" facebook has agreed to add gender based hate speech. they were pressure to do so after women action and the media sent an open letter to the country prompting changes to the policies. prelves the focus on disrespectful content revolved

around race and sexual orientation. >> from reuters. researchers taking a closer look at older studies exploring the effects of pesticides saying they contribute to the onset of parkinson's disease. nearly 500,000 americans are living with parkinson's. >> "the new york times." following the doping scandal that stripped lance armstrong of his seven tour de france titles, nike will stop promoting live strong products at the end of the year. nike helped the company raise 100 million dollars mainly with the sale of those popular yellow bracelets. >> "the washington post" a new study from the pew research center show that 40% of american

households are earning more than than their husband pen it's driven by higher education rate and also women in the workplace. >> obviously more women are graduating than ever before than men and with better grades but that is besides the point. it's because a lot of men are being phased out of the work force and women are filling in the spots at less pay so they may be making more than their counterparts at home but they are not at work. so there's still a lot of problems here. >> willie and i just don't think that is right. >> i know. >> mike is offended as well. rattner has made billions off this trend so he will not get in on it. >> look at rattner. >> willie, the daily news today, anthony weiner, right here, daily news leading among men in a poll that is out. so that why it says men like weiner and weiner on the rise. >> sometimes the headline drives

the news. make the headline first and find a poll that supports your headlines. >> from our friends at "the daily news." >> lebron james and the miami heat find themselves in unfamiliar territory and tied in their series. the pacers storm back. good highlights coming up. maria mariano rivera doing something he has never done in his career. ne mets and yankees out at that stadium by the airport. hey, look!k! a a shooting s st! mamake a wish!h! i wish w we could lie e here forevever. i wish thihis test dririve was , so we e could headad back to thehe dealershihip. [ [ male annououncer ] it's p practicallyly yours. testst dri! bubut we stillll need your s signature.. vovolkswagen s sign then d drie is back.k.

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time for sports. game four of the eastern conference finals. heat and pacers. pacers came in down a game and if they lose at home down 3-1 they are in deep trouble. fourth quarter. george hill going for the layup and lebron with the rejection as marv would say. wow. look at him get up for that. late in the third lance stephenson from the corner as time expires and pacers up seven points. pacers up two with 1:30 left and roy hibbert was the difference. 23 points and 12 rebounds. pacers win game four and coming back in the second half 99-92.

series now even at two as they go back to miami. to hockey nothing like the drama of a game seven. kings and sharks. kings the defending stanley cup champs. look at the save by jonathan quick. wide open net. wild glove hand save preserved the victory. kings close out the series with 2-1 win and play tonight's game seven winner. another game seven tonight blackhawks and red wings. baseball a great moment before the game. jeff bauman a victim of the boston bombing and carlos aren do arrendond. great moment at fenway. more interleague baseball. subway series mets and yanks at

citifield. historic day for mariano rivera not in a ga goo way. he blew a ninth inning lead and gave up two runs in the night including this walkoff single. rivera's first blown save of the season but more importantly the first time in rivera's 19-year career he has entered the game in a save situation and failed to get an out. no outs! yankees and mets play game three of their series tonight at 7:05. >> mets best young pitcher in baseball, matt harvey. >> eight strong innings and only giving up one run to the yanks. tomorrow morning, tom hanks joins us on the set. he is starring in broadway play "lucky guy." vo: traveling you definitely end up meeting a lot more people but

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♪ 38 past the hour. a beautiful shot the white house. weeks of public scrutiny is appearing to be taking its toll on eric holder. according to daily beast eric holder feel remorse after he became wear of the "the washington post" story of d.o.j. working no james rosen personal e-mails. a source close to holder tells "morning joe" that changes are coming with regards to leak investigations. we have also learned that the justice department will be holding meetings with journalists and news organizations over the next few weeks to go over their concerns. the house judiciary committee is looking into holder's congressional testimony on may 15th. last week, the justice

department admitted holder personally signed off on the decision to search rosen's phone and e-mail records. in today's "usa today," liberal professor jonathan turley calls for holder's resignation saying the obama administration should be fatal for any attorney general. circling the media wagons. when first amendment advocates say rosen was falsely characterized as a coconspirator, they didn't know the law. the person or persons who told the associated press about the cia operation that infiltrated al qaeda in the araban peninsula

were not whistle-blowers. they harmed national security and broke the law. another point of view on this. >> i know he was involved in the valerie plame affair and refused to give up his source in the administration a while when fitzpatrick deposed him. i didn't hear this kind of talk during the bush administration. i find it refreshing that certainly journalists are suddenly concerned about national security and that trump is actually going out angle figuring out what the truth is. let's go back to eric holder, if that is okay. mike, fascinating eric holder or somebody close to eric holder leaking he is starting to feel refor remor remorseful. what is that about? >> i think he would feel remorse given the weight of law that has seemed to have fallen on reporters.

my review is the reporters are going to be fine, the press is going to be fine. it's the sources and the intimidation of potential sources of whistle-blowers that this has a chilling effect on. that's the real cause for concern. >> willie, especially on national security issues here. again, i read politico, i think it was dylan biers was somewhat skeptical of the remorsefulness after the news came out. >> the remorse probably should have some earlier before it got to this point. the justice department has turned probably fleetingly the media against the white house, against the obama administration which is a hard thing to do. i'm sure it will pass and the media will return -- >> they may be picking flowers in their garden right now to take a bouquet over to the white house. >> it's possible. but this is -- i agree with mike and we talked about this yesterday. what i would worry about is a source inside the government who sees something that is bad for the country or unethical or

worse and is afraid to talk to a reporter about it to reveal that information for fear he is being watched in some way. they need to stop this and make it clear it won't happen in the future. >> but would you like to defend the heavy foot of big government here? >> not necessarily. i'd like to draw a fine line, if i could, between when whistle-blowers -- >> not exposing anything. >> or how about the yemen operation which started the whole thing with the a.p.? i think everybody including the a.p. agreed that was national security sensitive information. i do think government has a responsibility to try to stop reeks of information that is damaging to -- >> sure, but you focus, do you not, on the government officials who are leaking the information to the journalists and not put

subpoenas out suggesting that a reporter is guilty of espionage? >> i don't gre with that. >> does not mean you agree with it? >> it does mean i agree with it. for the record as has now been learned they did inform fox news after they went after rosen's records. >> fox news says they have no information on that. the news corp. says they have no information on that. however, a source tells me that the justice department does have information that it was delivered to news corp. >> registered mail, e-mail, i think each a third way. >> and i suspect that is going to be, mika, becoming public soon enough, because news corp. saying they had no information and sources inside the justice department tell us that they do. >> i still think the piece is worth reading. it starts addressing what might be another side to the story. >> by the way, if you're in the white house, leaks have been

raged every chief executive, every president nonstop. >> not the first time we have heard national security we cannot talk about this. >> that part of it is understood. what is not understood is the targeting of the journalist. need to have a softer touch. >> let's get update with your charts on the stock market boom. big changes. >> there have been some big changes. as we said earlier the dow jones hit a record high and s&p hit a record high. what you see is if you go back over the history of the last four years and change and look at a chart what has shown what has happened in the stock market since obama's administration and i'm not pointing that is the starting point of it but it happens to be where it began you'll see the stock market doubled since obama's naurgs inauguration. >> can i go quickly?

ezra klein, let's see your smiling face. steve rattner talks about how barack obama has been so good for wall street. >> i think this can go -- the stock market is great and i'm happy it's gone up. obama came in at the bottom of the recession and had a tough time after that. but i think that stock market will be drive main street well and i am not arguing what steve is saying here. it's incredibly important the stock market is getting better but stock market wealth is more disconnected from main street wealth from other times in this nation's history so i won't look at that. that can make a small sliver of people very rich without necessarily helping median wages in the way we would like it to. >> i'm glad you asked. >> i am. he is exactly right. there is this disconnect between wall street and main street. >> absolutely. we have talked about it endlessly on this show and the rising stock market fuels more

of a disconnect between wall street and main street. all i was asked to do is come on here and explain what has gone on so maybe i'll do that, okay? >> go for it. >> my point is the u.s. outperformed the rest of the world in our stock market performance. this next chart will set ezra off into another explanation is just for curiosity. it happens the stock market performance under obama is higher than under any president going back past herbert hoover. 18% per year growth in the stock market and second highest in the stock market is bill clinton. a historical anecdote, not trying to make a partisan comment. >> right. >> the last question is so is the stock market overbought, is it too high? too valued and time to go in? 100 a share testla, could be cheap. could you buy facebook at 24. >> the way we look at the smarkt

is based on price to earnings ratio how it trades in relation to the earnings of the company and goes back to the dotcom boom. you can see during the twine crash it got town to ten times earnings. right now sitting at 16.2 which is below its long-term historic average so you can't sit here today saying it's not 199, we are about to crash and you can't say it's 2008, we should all go pile in. the stock market is sort of in a middle position. >> i know you understand because you're a smart guy how annoying it is to be sitting at home here without having had a pay raise in seven years and looking at these stock market. >> i totally get it. this is the disconnect between main street and wall street. >> it's the most graphic illustration really of how

income disparity continues, continues to explode. the rich keep getting richer, the poor keep getting poorer. though, we did have good news on the economy overall. >> there is real good news. and this is a general thing. we are seeing classes held more broadly by the rich come back quicker. and even housing is concentrated among richer folks. after the great depression you have a huge rise before inqae inequality it and the years after a great moderation in the economy. after this great recession we have actually seen a rise in equality at least to this point because you've seen stocks come back and housing come back but the people who lost their houses and lost their jobs haven't come back yet and it's not clear if they are going to have any of that catch-up growth that eventually they need to have if we are going to begin to close this gap. >> ezra klein, thank you. still ahead, president obama

and chris christie take a stroll along the boardwalk. a few aides and a couple of hundred members of the press with them. we will show you how it went next on "news you can't use." and ahead is alex wagner. the national journals ron fournier. more "morning joe" when we come back. we went out and asked people a simple question: how old is the oldest person you've known? we gave people a sticker and had them show us. we learned a lot of us have known someone who's lived well into their 90s. and that's a great thing. but even though we're living longer, one thing that hasn't changed much is the official retirement age. ♪ the question is how do you make sure you have the money you need to enjoy all of these years. ♪

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i want to thank everybody who is here. the incredible warmth of the reception. a sign of the warmth is the lipstick on my collar. i have to say i think i know the culprit. where is jessica sanchez. it wasn't jessica, but her aunt. auntie, right there, look at this! look at this! i just want everybody to witness. so i do not want to be in trouble with michelle. that's why i'm calling you out. right in front of everybody. >> he is smart to get that out in the open. you go up to residents without that. the president last night. during the day yesterday, president obama was down in jersey at the shore with governor chris christie. you remember they got together after hurricane sandy a couple

of days later. today now, yesterday, president obama there checking on the progress with chris christie and they stroll the boardwalk at point pleasant. a great spot down at the jersey shore. >> i love point pleasant. >> they stopped to play touchdown fever we have all played it. >> you kicked my butt in this. >> about five or six feet in front of you. all you have to do is throw a dart through the tire. president obama struggled a little bit. maybe a wet ball. more running weather. you don't want to air it out. >> what is wrong with him? >> five throws, five misses. chris christie stepped up and did this. >> mr. governor, you want to give it a shot, sir? >> go low. >> here you go. oh! one and done! >> that's is because he is running for office! >> one and done. >> not left-handed. >> chicago bears teddy bear for

the president of the united states, a consolation play. >> he switched from right-handed to left-handed at some point in his life. >> chris christie was a little league catcher and harmen was the pitcher. >> willie, do we want to? >> no. >> you step into it? whether you're throwing a football. step into it. right? right here. >> no, i really don't want to. >> boom, right there. >> or if you're pitching the ball. what do you do? >> first pitch, you step and throw. >> just get it back and find your target and you throw through the ball just like that. just like that. boom! >> this is no reflection on the man's governing but merely critiquing his throwing style. >> should we get dave duncan, the former st. louis cardinals pitching coach? >> president obama, he is an athletic guy and i hate to go back to the easter egg roll

because no reason for that. he is shooting some jumpers with the youngsters out there. by my count, 2 for 22! >> those two shots that he made, they were nice. >> he just struggled from the floor a little bit. >> but he has fun. >> we have seen him play much better than that. >> he is working hard. >> oh, this is awful! >> t.j.! >> this is disrespect. >> t.j., knock it out. this is during the 2008 presidential campaign. >> whee! >> look at that! that sound makes me cringe! >> put up the bumpers. >> that is not nice. >> he is working hard. here we had t.j. and everybody making fun of him. he is working hard. come on, t.j. much bigger fish to fry. the dow is up a hundred points. coming up, we will discuss whether or not the recovery is here to stay. up next, alex wagner, ron

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this is what membership is. this is what membership does. >> be assured my decision was not in any way influenced by any concerns about my being re-elected to congress. i've always, in the past, defeated candidates who were capable, qualified, and well-funded and i have every confidence that if i ran, i would again defeat the individual who i defeated last

year, who recently announced he is once again running. and rest assured, this decision was not impacted in any way by the recent inquiries into the activities of my former presidential campaign or my former presidential staff. >> if you have to say it, then, you know, sort of like asking for an apology when you apologize to me it doesn't mean anything if i've asked for it, you know he? >> is that a shot at me like three seconds into the segment? >> no, no. i would never do that. i'm just saying. >> good morning, ron! how are you? i'm going to look right past mika and go right here. >> do you know, though? do you know what i mean? by that? >> my wife said the same thing to me. >> exactly. if you said i would have beat the other guy, then you weren't going to. >> well, listen. >> right? >> we were in minnesota. >> alex? >> i think the lady -- too much.

>> just trying to get of off the blame thing and into shakespear. >> we were in minnesota a week and a half ago and a lot of people talking about how she was in trouble then you've got the investigation going on. and difficult for her to continue. >> you i think a number of things you're seeing happen with members of congress especially on the right these days? is that fair? a small group? >> you could say the same of the left but you take somebody like michele bachmann who says a lot of inflammatory things and she knows how to grab headlines. first of all, she grabs headlines and she also knows

they raises a lot of money. i think one cycle she raised $14 million. i'm like are you kidding me? we ask why do we people say such crazy things on both extremes? >> cha-chink. >> it pays dividends in the long run. but here is the problem. you always have a short shelf life whether you're michele bachmann or allen west or people on the left have gone too far left. dennis kucinich. ich got to say this is why in, ron, you've been there long enough and i think you've been pretty tough on the president lately so maybe some people out there that would snap when i say this name and will actually stop and realize we actually are hold and we have around washington a long time and seen a lot of these flowers go up in may and burn out by june.

ted cruz. this is a strategy that gets a lot of attention. >> a lot of money. >> get a lot of money. you talk at lincoln day dingers two or three years and then the scar tissue accumulates. there is no long play. this retirement last night, i think, showed us that. >> fender on the play if it is to be a legislator or get something done it's a bad play but if you're out to sell books and get on the lecture circuit, tht way to go. this is a culture of celebrity imbranding. >> sarah palin, making millions and millions of dollar. the freakier the comment, the more extreme the comment it is as if her bank account would rise. >> look at the enterprise newt gingrich built. after he left the house he built himself a liberty around his business. >> i think newt actually thinks he could be president one day

opposed to bachmann. she didn't necessarily want to legislate as ron said. she has made all kinds of conflicting statement in her tenure in the house of representatives and the notion she is sort of in this republican service, i think is outweighed on a bus tour somewhere, i don't know. >> if you watch that video that michele bachmann put out out there nowhere says why she is leaving. she doesn't even say i want to spend more time with my family. she had ads up last week looking ahead to a race that was coming 17, 18 months down the road and how seriously she was taking this challenger. you wonder what happened between last week and yesterday when she decided it wasn't worth to run again. >> if i was in michele bachma bachmann's position, i know a tough race is coming up and i know it's going to be hard to handle the investigation and the race. but i can go outside before i

lose and, you know, write books, get a tv show, maybe go on fox, do whatever, give speeches and it seems to make a lot of sense for her personally. one other thing i have to say about michele bachmann i have never said about sarah palin. when michele bachmann, a former tax lawyer and we saw this growth during the campaign, michele bachmann would come on this show. she is a very intelligent woman. we saw this time and time again where off camera and even when she came on camera she would say some things about her work on the intel committee and you go, wait a second. she does a lot of what she does because i think she believes it but also because she knows it helped her raise $14 million. there is more there than, say, what sarah palin was able to bring to the table in her public service. >> i agree with that completely. there is a price to pay for this

political selfishness. any time a governor eye on the prize or lawmaker that wtheir eye on the prize they pay with their constituents. she was paying a price more than two years ago. her district romney won by 15 percentage points and she barely round it. >> a couple of thousand votes. >> her constituents saying we have had enough of you and you're not focused enough on us. >> by the way, she is in minnesota. it ain't like she is in northwest florida. >> right. >> you know? >> that is a pretty conservative district. >> it's minnesota conservative, my friend. minnesota conservative is different. >> romney won it about 15 points and best thing to happen for the republicans is her getting way because she could be beat. >> another republican leader potentially in political trouble

that is senate minority leader may have a tight re-election on his hands. a new poll shows him in a tie with secretary of state allison lundergan grimes. same poll had him up by four points last month. it is considered left wing poll, grimes has not indicated whether she is jumping into the race but met with top party brass recently. ashley judd was long believed to be a potential candidate to unseat mcconnell but she opted not to run. >> pppp no polling outfit has been nor -- than them. i hear a lot of old time polsters thumb their nose at it. ppp has been the most accurate poll. i don't know who he is. i guess he is a democrat and maybe he is a left wing in hir personal politics. all i know is the guy cracked the code -- >> they are going to be cutting

that tape for the next ppp. >> this is fascinating. here we were worried, we republicans, were worried about ashley judd, not really. we wanted her to jump in. now you got this lady. >> allison grimes. >> who is she is? not even running and tied with mitch mcconnell. >> that is why mitchell mcconnell went after early on ashley judd. if he is in a tough fight now he has to pivot to the right and have a strong conservative message. this is a guy whether you like him or not is frequently a deal maker on capitol hill and what are the implications for the next two years? >> what are we looking at? >> what is this? who is this? >> alex, what are we looking at? >> that is crimes with a -- >> that is kentucky derby hat. >> look at that hat!

it's derby day! >> kit middleton-ish. >> why would we choose derby day? >> i like it. you wonder, willie geist. >> fetchizing a good word. you don't hear it enough. >> you don't see you in those hats enough. >> if i'm mitchell mcconnell, right? and i got ashley judd. >> right. >> comparing the top industry in my state to rate, i just back off. i say -- >> i'd let that story tell ists. >> >> i'm glad ashley judd is interested in politics and god bless the state of kentucky. >> i would donate to her campaign. >> i'm dead serious. i think a case mitch was overly aggressive. >> learn from claire mccaskill. >> pay her $2 million like claire mccaskill!

>> that was unbelievable. >> brilliance. >> you did have ashley judd's grr grandmother doing the work for her. miss judd comes from a democratic family in the state of kentucky and people know the name a little bit. >> i like her hat. mitch mcconnell this illustrates how difficult it's going to be for mitchell mcconnell to breeze to election like most majority leaders breeze to election. kentucky? for clinton a couple times it's a quirky state like arkansas. it's not deep red and mcconnell is sort of not -- >> he has been there a long time and i think alex hit it on the head. we sawed this happen with reed when the majority leader, democratic million leader had a tough race and it drives you to

the extremes. we are not getting anything done in washington as it is and i think even less likely if the minority leader is facing a tough race. >> okay. i'm going to move on. >> now to new york city where anthony weiner is ticking up in his bid to become the next mayor and still trailing city council leader christine guinn. >> stop it. >> go to "the daily news." >> hide your kids! >> talking about the kentucky derby. i worry the new york tabloids need to pace themselves a little bit. they are going to reason out of headlines. it's very early. >> what do we have here? >> start with the "new york post" asking people to hide their kids because he is looking for interns. anthony weiner is. >> that is not nice. >> i'm not going show this one but apparently men favor anthony weiner. >> surprise. >> in a poll. >> big surprise here.

"the daily news." >> they need to be like claire mccaskill and side cash to anthony weiner to stay in so they can run the tabloid headlines and sell some papers. >> a majority of new york papers say he deserves a second chance but 39% says he does not have the character to be mayor. he took part in his first debate yesterday. they say he seemed to be more confident than other candidates and rolling up his sleeves and working the room while other candidates just sat there but he has yet to face his biggest competition and that would be christine quinn. >> i guess she -- >> christine quinn, listen. i could say a lot about anthony weiner. the fact that he worked a room with confidence doesn't actually surprise me. i do not think new yorkers and, you know, i'm paraphrasing some new york polls here, want their mayor to be a laughing stock and i think we are not done laughing or cringing at anthony weiner

yet. he still has a lot of ground to make up. >> it's really, in some ways, it makes sense what you're saying, because i can't even have a conversation on this set without you all losing it. having said that, there are people in office and people held the highest worse who have done far worse and the only thing that frustrates me about this and seems hypocritical about everybody who talks about this. it seems a little -- do you really want me to like list the powerful men who have literally done ridiculous things and immoral things and they have gotten a pass. >> i agree with you. >> and crimes, if i may quite frankly. >> weiner was not liked by many people he worked with on the hill. he doesn't have a great legislative record to lean back on and his lying in the days of following these revelations and his name calling didn't win him any favors. the inevitable mea culpa, he did

not play a lot of great ground. >> just make it easier. why don't he do what matthew winer did and call himself thain winer? >> what would the headlines read? >> exactly. >> too late. the horse is out of the barn, if you forgive the suppression. >> that's a terrible suppression. >> it is. but mika is right. on the spectrum of things big name politicians have done. >> 100%. >> this ranks pretty low. the problem a photograph we will e see over and over and maybe more as anthony weiner has confessed saying we may possess not have seen the end it but he is also smart and tough and running a scrappy campaign and him's a couple of his friends beating bushes and see if they can get the voters come out. we will see if that is how the voters respond. >> i think he's in the runoff. i disagree with rattner saying

he will get 14 votes. i think he will be in the runoff. >> we will see what happens. update this morning on the irs scandal. nbc news has learned several top officials at the agency requested information on conservative groups expanding the scope beyond the cincinnati irs office and concludes one letter with the signature of the agency suspended director lois lerner. the attorney representing more than two dozen conservative groups that plied to the irs for tax exempt status believes the agency was -- saying, quote, we have dealt with 15 agents including tax law specialists from four different offices including the treasury department in washington, d.c. so the idea that this is a couple of rogue agents in cincinnati is not correct. >> ron, we had jay on last hour. >> i saw that. >> he is an -- interesting interview. he said he was not suggesting that this went all the way up to the president but he certainly

sounded skeptical even as he was saying that. what do we know about what the white house knew and when the white house -- well, the white house did know it. the white house did know it. the president's chief of staff knew it. the president's top legal counsel knew it. >> what we don't know is what, if any, involvement there was in really-time when this was going on months ago. did the white house know about it? did the campaign know about it? did the white house direct it or did the campaign direct? we shouldn't be assuming they had any involvement but should be assuming that they did. it is a scary and there was some knowledge inside the white house or the campaign somebody was blind copied down to e-mail or somebody sent off a note saying take a look at this group. the problem the white house has right now is their story has changed so often. now they have dug in on the fact that we had nothing to do with it and we didn't know about it up until may. if it comes out down the road that somebody did even if it's

deputy political director or somebody down the chain it's going to be ugly. >> i guess the bigs problgest p is how clumsily the irs handled it, as well lois lerner. did she not think the sun would come up the next day the day she had that press conference? >> i actually think the most damaging thing for the white house, joe, is this idea about government running efficiently. the fundamental argument behind sort of the democratic platform which is that government can do good and it's not just this bloated mess. this is coming at the same time months away from the aca, obama care rollout. you have americans really concerned about government, government overreach, whether government operates without bias efficiently, et cetera. all of these big issues are being churned up at a time precisely when the white house needs to have faith in the government and articulation of that and

addressing of that from the white house. >> the biggest fight i always had was people would say, come on. they will have the background checks. not going to be temporary. they will start this national registry. joe manchin saying you go to jail 15 years, it's a felony. but what the irs did was most likely illegal well. whether you're talking about background checks offer the implementation of the president's health care plan, it undercuts their governing philosophy. >> it certainly confirms suspicions of people who believe that government is bad for the people, that it has bad intentions and wants to intrude on your life. you could argue against it with the gun bill because of the protection that was in there. we are not taking away the guns but this you'll hear about it down the road and in 2014. it is in front of our eyes the evidence of the government

targeting with groups it disagrees with. >> i think the white house needs to take a look at the healthy implementations outside the irs whether a special commission or panel. restore the public's trust this is going to be done right. >> i agree with that, even -- a good deal of it is pr. it's important. alex wagner, thauchenk you so m >> thank you, guys! >> ron fournier, stay with us. fixing up chicago ahead on "morning joe." while one activist group is breaking into homes and moving people in. technically it's illegal but now some banks are supporting it and that is a piece by "the new york times" ben austin. he joins us yet. the dow hits another record high but is it a real recovery? we will talk to the financial times julian tate and david favor next on "morning joe."

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another day, another record for the dow. ♪ >> call it super tuesday as the dow hit yet another all-time high. we now have 20 straight tuesday gains. >> in the end all of these markets that we think are bubblishus, the real test will be if the fed loses control even with their current holdings of treasuries, that will that do to the economy? >> the u.s. had several promising economic milestones yesterday including the dow's 25th record high this year. but is the recovery real? here with us now is assistant editor and columnist for the financial times julian tate and david favors of cnbc. david, take us through the headlines. is it real when you look at

these indicators including housing news that has come out? >> housing seems to be real. >> we never talk about it. at least in the mainstream and never talk about it as a fundamental indicator. >> it has broad ramifications for the economy. >> right. >> when you think about things up as pickup truck sales, for example, for contractors. >> contractors. >> the growth of that business. it can be father-in-law broad reaching and many times to '05 and '06 and look at the bubble what might have been more employment than there should have been in the sense we had so many homes built that didn't need to be. housing has impok to a large extent as a result of affordability because mortgage rates are so low. there are people already talking about a bubble. i think we have a little ways to go before we have to worry about that. >> julian, is it real when we talk about the dow when looking at these numbers and record high? >> housing, yes, we have had a lot of purging of the excess in the american system. particularly as far as households are concerned the last few years but had a lot of

help from the fed in super low rates and it's interesting to see whether this housing increase continues once rates start to go up again. as far as dow is concerned irks interesting. >> good news is it does reflect some increase in america. and, more importantly, a lot of companies right now are reporting very healthy earnings. yes, it's weird in that sense. there is one figure that everyone should keep in mind and that is seven trillion dollars and that is the amount of money the central banks in europe and u.s. and japan have bumped pumped into the global system the last yefew years. that more than half the size of the u.s. economy and with that amount of liquid it has to go somewhere and i think the recent run up in the share prices. >> the dow hits 25 record high this year. 25th one.

biggest jump in housing prices in seven years. consumer confidence hit its highest level in five years and american car sales jumped 8.5% from last year. people in america must be doing so well, right? >> that is actually what i want to ask you. we were talking about this before the break. >> what is the deal? >> the gap between folks on wall street who are having a great time and folks out in the real world who are struggling. have you seen anything like this and do you have any idea where it's headed? a lot of increase in the asset and real estate and share prices is benefiting the rich because the other people who own the assets already. traditionally when they predict what is happening to the economy they have one spending in one end of the system and spending out there the other. western sure the rich can power a recovery on their own. the question of whether these rising asset prices made the middle class happier.

>> the rich are doing even better than they have and to that gap that we monitor fairly closely but perhaps don't talk about it enough is widening. the real success for the economy is the ability to create jobs. we haven't been able to do that at a rate that would put people to work who want to work fully. that is the key. yes, a lot of positives but certainly some continued concerns. >> interesting sublayer into this. new study out this morning finds a record number of women are becoming the family's primary source of income. according to a pew research study wives are outnumbering their husbands in salaries. you would think, julian, this is fantastic news for women. >> a good example is why economics is not just about money and numbers. it's about culture and social factor too. >> what else is happening? >> wunel of the interesting details at work women are still

erpg less than men so many households where women provide the main source of income they less well off than other households. >> or less well off than they were. >> right. the society hasn't caught up with the implications of what it means to have a woman who is the main bread winner. what happens to child care and all of those subtle issues of masculine identity and things like that? >> deeper into the study what you addressed there. you look at issues with stress, problems at home and problems raising the children pause all of those other questions while women are in the workplace haven't really been fully or properly answered. >> mika, i'm sure you know from your own friends and your own life and my own friends and my own life a lot of tensions and challenges thrown up by this new pattern. >> exactly. >> something else too which is that many of the traditionally male jobs in, say, manufacturing, heavy industry, construction, those are sections

of the economy suffering the last few years. health care have been creating jobs why a lot of women are employed and that plays into the shift in the kind of pattern that is actually reflecting. >> a couple of numbers on how this has hit the middle class. 80% of women report that they are not spending enough time with their kids because they have to work so hard and 90% of men are saying the same thing. of the long-term employed people 40% of the people out of work for at least 18 months are saying -- i'm sorry. 40% of the people who have been out of work for 18 months are saying they have lost contact with their close friends. so you have this -- it's a huge social upheaval that is happening. we talk about stock market going great but how about the middle class market? it's going down. >> david, final word. >> that is, i think, one of the key questions can we create enough jobs to sustain the middle class. the point is a good one to make. asset prices are rising but a small group of people who are

benefiting from that. will there be a broader participation? that really starts and ends with job growth and until we see that, i think, we can't say that things are better. >> exactly. >> let's hope we do. >> david favor, thank you very much. see you on cnbc at 9:00 a.m. eastern time. ron fournier, thank you as well. julian, stay with us. coming up, we will talk to former gossip girl star pam bathly about his film greeting from tim buckley and on tomorrow's show actor tom hanks will be on the set when "morning joe" continues. we will be right back. ♪ hey, look!k! a a shooting s st!

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an ally for real possibilities. aarp. find tools and support at aarp.org/possibilities. ♪ joining us now from nashville, tennessee. ben austin who wrote the story in the "financial times." mike barnicle and brian shactman and julian tate is still at the table as well. >> this is a fascinating story. so tell us what happens here. is it true you have people actually moving into these houses without -- without approval of the banks and

without the approval of the city but moving in and occupying these homes that have been abandon? >> yeah, that is exactly what is happening. one of the leaders of the group j.r. fleming likes to say moving homeless people into peopleless homes it's a moral imperative because there are so many vacant homes so you might as well put them to use. >> why are the banks okay with us? >> the banks aren't exactly okay with it. there's just so many abandoned homes in these neighborhoods the banks can't keep track of them. the homes have lost so much value. they are not moving. there's no real chance that they are going to sell so the banks are a little indifferent and rented as t recently the banks realized donating properties in these neighborhoods rather than holding on to them and probably let them be lootized a better model. >> there is also the possibility having people in the homes,

living in the homes, taking care of the homes, not having the homes looted and not having the windows knocked out. >> right. >> might actually not only be good for that home but for the value of the homes next to it. >> there are a lot of issues that would challenge this. safety issues and how exactly they coordinate this when they are clearly not following the law. give us the details behind sort of the coordination here and you how guerrilla activists comes in play. >> going back to a group in miami that did it and in the '90s and a group of homeless activists that did it in the '80s and early '90s. this group in particular is interesting because they really canvass the neighborhoods beforehand and they are assured that the community is in support of this. to me this is one of the most

fascinating things about the story. you see a kind of giving up on sort of a calculus idea of what housing is, that in a neighborhood swamped with foreclosures there think a squatter is a better alternative than nothing. >> yes. >> squatter doesn't seem like a free-loader or doesn't seem like a criminal. a squatter vetted by a group that has gained their trust is actually a real benefit to the community. >> mike barnicle? ben, one of the most extraordinary things about chicago and the crisis that you're talking about here is the visual setup. if you leave from the loop, from the miracle mile and go to a white sox game down on the south side, you travel past visually, you see endless numbers of row houses abandoned in the middle of such prosperity.

it's not like detroit which is a vast mine field of unemployment and homes abandoned, but it's so striking. so the question is can the city in concert with the banks develop a program for abandoned homes or somehow resold to city employees, nurses, doctors, anyone liverg in the city and anyone on a city payroll be able to buy one of these homes below market value and get this place going again? >> you're exactly right. the chicago and sort of midwestern is not like the others that the center is really thriving. rahm emanuel has been bringing corporation headquarters back into the city and there are neighborhoods that are filled up with new tech jobs. and you go out to some of the outlying neighborhoods and they are really suffering. just listening to your last guest talk about the greet

housing news is not the story in these neighborhoods. and so what can be done? it's tough. you know, there were government programs that went into fix up homes and because there were so many other foreclosed empty properties around them, those properties couldn't sell. they found they could only get title on 10% of them because the trusts were so confounding like who had the title. even the government couldn't get the homes. so there's a little bit of throwing good money after bad but it's certainly not hopeless and it is something that just, you know, this group which is sort of going property by property but also really has the neighborhood investinged it. >> julian? >> i have a question about the banks. they are between a rock and a hard place.

they don't want to overturn the rule of law but a chance for them to be seem to be doing some go for the community as a whole. do you think the bank ceos are willing to get behind this? if you were in their shoes would you recommend it in terms of trying to improve their reputation? i know citibank is involved in this. the anti-infection campaign is a corporation and citibank is considering donating maybe even up to a hundred properties. >> great. >> so this is something that these are properties that are probably not going to be able to sell that are on their books and they will get a tax write-off and like you said, some good publicity. as you guys said, they probably shouldn't have been so eager to push out the tennants in the first place like under you're a banker and you're a hammer and they look like a nail, so

someone doesn't pay their manager, so you evict them but it turned out that that was pretty disastrous. other banks like deutsche bank, another house that i follow, they have started eviction proceedings on one of these homes that the group has taken over and it's unclear what is going to happen. there is a petition going around. you can see it at the group's website in the anti-eviction campaign website. >> we will see what happens, ben. thank you so much. >> thank you, ben. >> we greatly appreciate it. ben's cover story is in the sunday's "the new york times." it's about guerrilla activism. this is fascinating. you wonder where the people get the authority to pick a home and say i'm going into that home! >> a great cause. >> but it's fascinating. >> julian, thank you as well. >> julian, thank you so much.

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♪ >> the movie, greetings from tim buckley. father son biopic about the singers. daniel, gun, thanks so much for being with us. i didn't even know jeff buckley had a dad, but this is the amazing story. why don't you tell the amazing story. >> i think the most significant parallel, these two guys, jeff and tim, were similar icons of their respective generations. both pretty singularly talented and then they were father and son and never knew each other. it's an intense kind of --

>> tim buckley, the father, died of a heroin overdose and jeff buckley, great singer, musician died. >> they both had like these tragical tragically abbreviated lives. >> i haven't seen the movie yet, but what i hear about it, when jeff buckley is singing for a group of people who love his father more than he ever could, but this is sort of how he gets to know his dad. through the people who loved his music. >> which is it shall -- it's the six days leading up to jeff buckley's first week in new york. it's a small snapshot. >> i was going to say -- >> they were fighting before. fistfights. it's like the evil of 1972 or the oakland a's in the early

'70s. >> end it with the thing about -- he had to not only sing -- by singing the words his father wrote about him. and it's, it was exquisite to have him go through that ritual, that took place in this church where we film ed the actual fil. >> jeff buckley sipging his dad's words and him. >> and talking about her didn't know he had a father, we had forgotten that too, in some way. we all remember bob dylan. people have let tim buckley go in some way and for whatever reason, bringing his music back is a great thing for everyone. >> what was the degree of difficulty in directing a narrative about a relationship that barely existed and just

said, oh, what was the degree of difficulty in performing it off of the director's cues. sxwl great. the degree was great. >> no, it was something we had to do two things. one, we had to tell a story about two people that never met, which we do with transitions and showing is similarities as they both make the surn to new york in different decades. but also, we had to do it with, we had to do it in i'm losing my train of thought. >> how do they compare? >> well, there are very different. jeff was like a sort of i think a skap pel. like a deep incision. he had one album, origin songs that he wrote are few and far

between. where as tim wby the time he wa 28 had written and recorded eight or nine albums. the songs were long and sprawling. it was not, they were not similar artists, really, but you know, there was this shared quality that is incredibly rare. you can't say unique because these two men both possessed it. >> they had these voices. we did every threat in the movie. he sang every note in the film. live. if you don't know exactly what that means, we didn't do overdubbing, predubbing, every note, every slight thing that was honest, but slightly off, was in the film. just exquisitely difficult to

do. >> we're overwhelmed by the way it worked out. thank you so much for being with us. ben, greatly appreciate it. daniel. greetings from tim buckley is now on out demand, i-tunes and select athletheatres. great story. up next, michele bachmann's surprise announcement. she's not running for re-election. she makes the announcement in a youtube video posted overnight. we'll tell you why she's leaving. also, more on the irs scandal. the latest developments, straight ahead. ♪ ♪

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this is the right decision. for some, a singing two-year house term is enough service. for others, ten terms or two decades in the house is still not enough service. our constitution allows nrt decision of length in congress to be determined by the congress people themselves or by the voters in the district. however, the law limits anyone from serving as president of the united states for more than eight years and in my opinion, well, eight years is also long enough for an individual to serve as a representative for a specific congressional district. be assured, my decision was not in any way influenced by any concerns about my being elected to congress. i've always in the past defeated candidates who were capable,

qualified and well funded and i have every confidence again that if i ran, i would defeat the individual that i defeated last year. >> good morning. it's 8:00 on the east coast. 5:00 a.m. on the west coast as you take a live look at new york city. let's wake up now. very gently. it's time. >> stay in bed. >> in washington, ezra klein. would have been michele bachmann's fifth term. in the youtube video, she dismisseded claims that the decision was because of federal inquiries into her presidential campaign. jim grapes fell short by fewer than 5,000 votes last year. bachmann said he also considered not running again because she didn't want to risk republicans losing her seat. so joining us now from politico headquarters, the chief white house correspondent, mike allen. this story broke yesterday.

what do you make of this? >> two take aways from this. one, when they say it's not about the money, it's about the money. and when she says this is not about the competition that she faced or these investigations, you know that was a big factor. here's the give away. just on thursday, less than a week ago, she started airing advertisements for her re-election. she bought two weeks of ads in the twin cities area. 14 months, 16 months ahead of an election, so you know this was an unexpected decision. we have known that the federal election commission, that the office of congressional ethics were looking into how she handled some money for her campaign. this is serious. second take away, this is a marketing decision as a political decision. as you know, she's an amazing fund-raiser. very popular tea party conservative speaker.

now, she's able to go out and preserve her value doing that and not go out as a loser. >> she has a great opportunity to reinvent herself and learn from the mistakes that sarah palin made. and sarah palin made an awful lot of mistakes and michele bachmann could go out, give speaks, you know, some other jobs out there and probably do pretty well. >> we'll be watching that. moving on now, a collection of new data shows the u.s. economy is having a recovery rate that is much faster than anyone would have predicted. following the long holiday weekend, stocks closed yesterday in positive territory with the dow closing at a any record high and since march 9th, 2009, market low that day, stock wealth has surged to $12.8 trillion. consumer confidence is moving in a positive direction, at its highest level in more than five years.

the housing market is up nearly 11% in march. housing prices rose faster over the past year than they have in the past seven years and there's even good news for detroit. may has set up to be the best mans month for u.s. auto mark market. >> ford is doing great. >> gm's doing better. >> tesla. have you seen tesla's stock? >> okay, tesla stock is doing fabulously. >> extraordinarily well. it shot over 100 yesterday. this stock is just exploded. steve rattner will tell us why. let's look at the front pages of the newspapers, mika. "the washington post" talks about how the economy is showing endurance and "the new york

times" talking about how home prices are putting americans in a buying mode. >> financial times, u.s. steps up recovery, talking about home prices, low rates from the fed. consumer confidence index, all those things put together. we're talking before you said there's not asterisk here at this point. this is good news. >> yeah. it's almost like the economy turned on a dime in a way because it wasn't long enough a lot of us were worried about the slowdown. now, suddenly, you've got this con fluns of indicators. that in turn has fueled the stock market. >> ezra klein, break the numbers down for us. >> they're good. one thing that i think is notable here is is how much resiliency we're seeing. if you were looking at this from washington, you saw us do a lot

of dumb things in the last couple of months. we took out the payroll tax cut. we went into sequestration. but we're not actually seeing a lot of change in the numbers. we're not seeing it in retail. in the places where you would expect those policies to be hurtinging. and that implies that the actual sort of private engine of the economy has taken over here. the consumer sentiment and recovering housing market, demand for autos and low interest rates, that a lot of these policying are beginning to catch and some things holding us back are being able to pull together such that they propel us now. we could be doing better. the recovery is really seems to be taking hold. >> you know what's interesting is the back to basics aspect of this. if you feel confidence that the value of your home is recover

aring and that you can sell your home ooze needed, you have confidence you'll go out and buy a pair of sneakers. you'll spend money you weren't spending a year ago. >> there is what we call the wealth effect in the economy, when people feel wealthier, weather it's because their house values have gone up or because 401(k)s and iras have gone up, they do spend. i agree with what ezra's saying about the economy finally seeming to catch hold. i think you have to give enormous credit to the federal reserve. what they've been doing in terms of putting money into the economy has been really extraordinary. >> now, an update on the irs scandal. nbc news has learned several top officials at the agency requested information on conservative groups expanding the scope beyond the irs' cincinnati office. that includes at least one rert with a signature of lois lerner.

more than 200 conservative groups that applied for tax exempt status believes -- quote, we've dealt with 15 agents including tax law specialists from four different offices including the treasury department in washington, d.c. so the idea that this is a couple of rogue agents in cincinnati is not correct. and jay, who is the chief counsel for the american center for law and justice joins us now. jay, does this guy high as well as broaden out? >> i've got letters signed by lois lerner, 15, and as you m mentioned, there are at least four offices we've been dealing

with over the last year and a half. another myth that's out there, jay carney keeps saying this and i almost feel horrible for him, but saying that letters stop ped and approach stopped. we received a letter, just may 6th of this year with more intrusive questions that is not a tea party group, but they've been caught up in this net of conservative organizations and they were asking him for copies of the curriculum and students they met with. the harassment continues. it is harassment. going on three years. i work ed for the office of chif council for the internal revenue service out of law school. i knew when they said they were rogue agents that was incorrect on two fronts. one, cincinnati's the largest tax exempt. we know that of course from the now administrative leader of the tax exempt group, but i suspect it goes higher than lois lerner.

i'm not going to say it goes right into the white house. we know the white house counsel and chief of staff were aware of the inspector general's report coming out and there was an in fact an investigation. i think they were too clumsy in the approach i took and that made matters worse for him. this is a deep problem. a serious problem. the apology was a planted question and i think it's just gone from bad to worse. i've got a complaint that's been filed in u.s. district court today. probably be amended next week to add another dozen or so. >> thank you so much, jay. >> thank you very much. >> so they're actually going to file something in the courts. of course, the question is, there are 1,000 questions here. how high up does this guy. they mishandled it so bad ly frm

the beginning. obviously, lerner made it sound like a coup of rogue agents. the white house has bundled sort of the pr of this. they should have revealed that up front, so there are a lot of questions, but what did -- >> did we just learn from that is this. >> that actually the harassment continued, that it didn't stop. ezra klein, lois lerner hasn't been able to get her timeline straight from day one. >> yeah, i don't think she's done any favors here. i thought that was a bit of a weird presentation. i think people are conflating two things here. that's a kind of a biassi insin

mechanism. the other thing is asking questions of these group. what he's saying is that you had groups and we knew this from the ig report who were getting questions from higher up irs official, but of course there were. there was never any doubt these groups in cincinnati were bouncing the applications up after they got filtered. the question, is there evidence that the filtering mechanism came from the higher ups? and so far, all the evidence, the higher ups killed the mechanism. an issue with the filtering, but we don't want to say it's harassment of political groups. that was actually the irs' job. t the filtering that we were supposed to be worried about here. >> hey, ezra, are you working on any reporting, do you have the information about who actually came up with these filters? lois lerner expressed concerns,

they continued. well past when lois lerner said they'd stop. any ideas about who came up with this met riblg that obviously focused on conservative groups? >> i don't know much more than what we had in the ig report. you have this guy called the determinations unit. it determined whether or not the applications are getting scrutiny. a bunch of media reports of 501c4s. they begin to put into place these filters. they say it wasn't political. they say they were getting a ton of tea party applicants, but they do put in place a very political filtering mechanism. this killed by lois lerner. this is the part of the story i think is amazing and strange. then they go back and redo it.

print a new set that is again politicized and then gets bounced up the chain again and the higher ups say you guys can't create any more filters without approval from management. so right now from what we know, it appears to be the filtering coming out of this group, the determinations unit and i'm not saying we know why. the big question would be whether or not it goes higher. every time we've heard it going higher, the higher ups have killed it. i'm not hearing the expansion of those comments. >> they've killed it, the information has gone up to the chief of staff. >> still ahead, he's looking to shake up the health care industry. jonathan bush, ceo of athena health, is here. along can "new york times" economic policy reporter and up next, james carville and ben

smith join the conversation, but first, here's bill karins. >> unfortunately, today's going to be another dangerous days with tornados on the ground, possibly even a few. we had a couple yesterday, but thankfully, they were in rural areas. they didn't do much in the way of injuries or damage. no fatalities reported. one big one in northern kansas. had some tornados yesterday outside flint, michigan. here's today. warm, muggy air coming from the gulf. storm kicking through the rockies. it's all going to collide from kansas down through oklahoma and texas. notice areas of yellow, a chance of strong storms, isolated tornados. i think the storms are going to form sometime around 3:00, 4:00 local time and continue to about 10:00. the timing through oklahoma city, most likely sometime

around 5:00 or 6:00 p.m. wichita, maybe an hour or two after that. 6:00 to 7:00 p.m. so we're going to have live tornados on the ground from the helicopter pilots. most likely towards the dinner hour. hopefully not, hope things will go well. right now, there's nothing on the radar. we're just setting the stage. the other big story, the rain has been torrential from northern missouri through iowa and northern illinois and now, the mississippi river is expected to go to major flood stage in weekend. possibility of a top ten all time flood event somewhere north of st. louis. we've got more rain on the way, too and forgot to mention today on the east coast, warmest day of the year. washington, d.c. today, 91. we're going to crank that humidity up. nice shot of st. louis. you don't have to worry about severe storms today. you have to worry thursday night and friday. you're watching "morning joe," brewed by starbucks. i am an american success story.

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i want to thank everybody who's here. the incredible warmth, the reception. a sign of the warmth is the lipstick on my collar. i have to say, inn i know the culprit. where is jessica sanchez.

it wasn't jessica. it was her aunt. where is she? auntie, right there, look at this. look at this. i just want everybody to witness. so, i do not want to be in trouble with michelle. that's why i'm calling you out. right in front of everybody. >> joining us now from new orleans, democratic political strategist, james carville and here in new york, editor in chief of buzz feed, ben smith. >> it hurts me today's youth are so cynical. ben is in all these under 40 lists. >> oh, really? >> you're cynical about our attorney general feeling bad. you said come on, he feels, what was the word? >> remorse. >> remorse. can't somebody feel remorse for an investigation going wrong? >> he could have not signed the

documents authorizing the investigation. i was surprised yesterday to read at length about how hard third-degree been for him and how he picked up "the washington post" and felt terrible about these investigations that he had led. you did not read stories like that about john ashcroft and gonzalez. >> james carville, that is an understanding. i think the exact word, he feels a creeping sense of personal remorse. i think that's possible, don't you? >> i kind of do. one of the unfortunate about things, one of the things eric holder's remembered for, just knowinging him in the past, i think he's uncomfortable with that being part of his legacy. this is something that's going to stand out. >> so, james how does something like this happen? it's not like somebody wakes up in the evening and goes, i am -- will take them down. how does this happen?

you know, it usually happens in second scandals where people get a little too comfortable and these sort of stories, scandals, just sort of creep in. >> the justice department, i think the cia was really, really upset about this leak and they were getting a lot of pressure and have a lot of power. sometimes, when people are in that position where you have pressure and power, the pressure gets to you and you exercise the power and whether or not you have to authority to do that is probably another question. whether or not that was the correct judgment, i think even the attorney general is doubting that judgment, but understand when you have that breach, people were really, really mad. that was a real, real issue with national security there. >> and there is some sort of remorse or definitely doubt over what happened because sources close to the attorney general tell us they're going to make a lot of changes. >> no doubt about it. >> well, you know, filled with

remorse, eric holder, at some point, i'm wondering why he wasn't filled with curiosity. why aren't we doing this again? in the ap story, they go to the associated press asking to hold the story for national security concerns and the ap righteously okay, fine, we'll hold it. i think james is really on to something. the level of tension about these leaks sometimes pushes people forward to do things that they really are kind of reluctant to do and i think that might be the case here. >> the other point, this really worked. i mean like all of it we're talking about, is sources are going to be, they'd be crazy not to be. they were always taking risks and now, those are clearing.

>> yeah. really, it's up to the judicial branch to exercise some restraint. the prosecutors, they go pretty far out there. we've seen it here in new orleans recently and i've seen it around the country and sometimes, it's up to the judges to put a check on that. >> absolutely. >> well, yeah. nancy pelosi, we don't know what's in obama care. that's right, we need to pass obama care so we can figure out what's in it and apparently, a year and a half, two years later, they figured it out and with all these stories exploding, nancy pelosi has a new approach. >> the house democrats for the third year heading home to their

districts, in varying degrees and so, the house leadership is once again trying to prep them to sell it. among other things, talked to women about how no longer being a woman is no longer a preexisting condition. they're also promising the premiums are going to go down for a jrt of people, which is up in the air. >> not sure they still know. just because of they have a lot of pages on it. not sure anyone knows until it kicks in. >> that's why it's a roll out. >> and it will genuinely have different effects on different groups of people. >> james, what a mess here. what is the messaging problem with the president's health care plan? why is it the democrats have to keep running away from? the numbers out of california, pretty impressive.

that's more than a small sample. the other thing to remember, it's not going to affect most people. it's not going to affect you. a lot of people are not going to be affected by it, but when you have this much change that's taking place, you're going to have some sorts and things are going to work better than other things. do a good job. >> mike, did they give you insurance? >> i have my cadillac plan for my wife's. >> cadillac plan -- >> we're not talking about your cadillac. >> what about this aspect of obama care, whatever you want to call it. >> what the president calls it. >> fine. >> two-thirds of it hasn't even been implemented and won't be for at least another year. i think this whole fur yor, a year, year and a half from now, the only time this is going to be an issue is when some person, man, woman or child, can't get a

doctor in this country and that is not going to happen. >> and that's going to lead all of the national newscast. >> breaking news overnight. michele bachmann has decided she is not going to run. >> sad day. >> i think that actually brings up a bigger point and that is these days, whether you're on the far left, especially on the far right because there's democrats in the white house, you can make a lot of political hay, raise a lot of money, get a lot of national attention. you can go to iowa straw poll 2012. if you make some pretty inflammatory comments, but that's day trading. you look at michele bachmann out. alan west out. this really is the short play. >> it makes me so sad and you so happy, joe. god closes one door for michele

bachmann and opens three to louie gomer. everybody in a political party feels some sense of why can't these people just shut up? we have many in the democratic party that i'm not going to name, but i think there are a lot of republicans that are going to be relieved if some of these french people decide to pursue a speaking career. >> i think michele bachmann is probably going to make a lot of money. i think sarah palin made tons of money. >> still is. >> it changed her in the campaign. you know, she's a tax lawyer. i think she's probably going to navigate this move nor successfully than sarah palin. >> she's not going to have any problems with the irs. she was the face of this tea party wave, which now for instance, you figure, who's the

leader of the movement against immigration reform. it's hard to know. there's no longer a face, the leader of the right on capitol hill. >> she really was, james, the face of the tea party as it really exploded in 2010. she dwaif the response to the president's state of the union, which you know, people joke about. she won the straw poll in iowa in 2012 that drove tim pawlenty from the race. she was a significant figure in republican politics. >> she was and she had a way of saying things. i don't know if she was going to leave the whole political scene just because she's not -- any number of thipgs that he can do. >> he was a lot of fun. i'll never forget when he merged from the bus and gave us all balloons.

>> one of my three favorites in the whole campaign. >> i don't want to act who the other two were. james, you said it's the economy stupid famously back in 1992. the economy, the u news today, good. really good. you look at housing. it's looking strong. the stock market is just crazy. >> the average american doesn't feel it, it's making a huge difference in housing. great point i thought was made when interest rates go up, are people still going to be able to afford it. the key is, can the economy stand on its own two feet. >> and james, here we are in 2013. the controversy, irs, whether

it's ap and yet if the economy keeps going up, we could have a replay of 1998. and yet the republicans -- and every caveat, every campaign. the fires in the coup tri at an all time low. look at the favorablety of the republican party, it's at an all time low. if you look at the congressional gener generic and it doesn't mean a lot, but it means something. democrats up six, seven, eight points in a will the of these polls. it is late may a year before the lech, but if i'm republican congressional, i'm starting to get concerned. >> all right, james carville, thank you. what's up on the buzz feed

today? >> alan west has returned to washington. gone, but not gone. >> gone but not forgotten. >> much as he hates washington, he can't seem to leave it. >> fantastic. next time james comes on, we got marcus bachmann, number three most interesting person in politics. i can't wait to hear what number two and one is. >> tomorrow, tom hanks will be here to discuss his role and coming up here in the studio, can the economic recovery save our broken health care industry? annie lowry and ceo of athena health joins us. woel be right back. i want to make things more secure. [ whirring ] [ dog barks ] i want to treat more dogs. ♪ our business needs more cases. [ male announcer ] where do you want to take your business? i need help selling art. [ male announcer ] from broadband to web hosting

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is the official retirement age. ♪ the question is how do you make sure you have the money you need to enjoy all of these years. ♪ to enjoy all of these years. what that's great. it won't take long, will it? nah. okay. this, won't take long will it? no, not at all. how many of these can we do on our budget? more than you think. didn't take very long, did it? summer is here, so are the savings. that's nice. post it. already did. more saving. more doing. that's the power of the home depot. get 1 cubic foot bags of miracle-gro garden soil,

4 for just $10. get 1 cubic foot bags of miracle-gro garden soil, kids are like sponges. they soak up everything. especially when it comes to what you say and do. so lead by example and respect others. you won't let prejudice into your home. the more you know. welcome back. look at that pretty shot of washington, d.c. very nice. capitol hill. with us now, the ceo of athena health. also with us, economic policy reporter for the "new york times," annie lowry. she wrote about the recent economic phenomenon and writes this. one of the economic mysteries has been the bigger than

expected slowdown in health spending. a trend that promises to help close the wide federal deficit over the long-term. but only if it persists. while economists have cheered the flattening, families have assumed more and more of the health care burden, even if households benefit in the long-term, they might suffer in the long-term as their out of pocket health costs rise at a painful economic time to begin with. it is a painful economic time for most people even though the indicators show an upturn in so many ways. for the very rich. >> yeah. >> obama care obviously and the middle of the big debate, it still continues day in and day out. what's the future look like? >> well, when you put that many sort of centrally administered little hooks and twists into anything of that scale, you're going to have a huge number of unintended consequences.

some will be good and some bad. >> which democrats very concerned right now, that kathleen sebelius may not be able to respond quickly. she has to respond quickly. >> yeah. the basic problem right is you have an access problem that was driving the democrats. i got to get everybody something. this is 40 million people. too late. the market didn't work. we're stepping in and we're going to push everybody on to something. the other side of the argument is now you're going to forbid it from becoming affordable. you've boxed it in so you can't do a lot of things. so health plans aren't allowed offer to discount packaging. you can't have a no frills hmo. it's illegal not to have unlimited stage four cancer care in your package even though you cost it 25% more than not. that is the constriction that's going to make it harder for

market forces to get in there and make it more affordable, but if the gravitational pull remains strong, if people remain feeling this is too much money and people somehow remotely are paying for it or can keep in mind they're paying for it, the entrepreneurial energy can still pull there. there are still things you can do to make it cheaper. >> and annie, you obviously wrote an article talking about health care costs going down independent of the president's health care plan. i mean, people can obviously take credit for that, but for some reason a couple of years ago, it started to tick down about 2%. does that continue even after the recovery? >> yeah, so there's a lot of evidence this happened independent of the health care law and of the really, really deep recession. so, the recession slowed the growth of health care cost, it's obviously a lot of people lost

their insurance. they were very, very strapped economically, so they didn't want to spend a lot on procedures that were kind of on the line. but on top of that, you had slow growth because of changes in the medicare and medicaid programs and it looks like there are some things hospitals are administrating themselves to slow costs down. >> i think she was right in that article, that we don't know, but there is this split. that the biggest phenomenon that happened during the slowdown is people who were insured, but at work when people are getting cut, didn't want to take time off to go get that hip or knee done because they wanted to be out on the floor. i'm killing it here, boss, when we're deciding how to meet our numbers. >> how much do you think we could save if more doctors, hospitals, had online records? if you get sick in california,

how much could we save? why haven't we done it. >> first of all, god bless you for saying online records as oppose opposed to electronic. due to this gaffe which gave doctors money for buying an ehr, they're buying offline records that don't talk to anyone else, so there's a huge problem, which is all the money going into offline records. but the amount of duplication, probably every blood test gets done twice. no adverse consequence to doing it again. the margins for hospitals, diagnostics like mammograms are enormous. they could break even on that stuff and no consequence for not doing it. you can't find it, no reason not to do it gep. every time a patient moves from one area of care, you have enormous leakage. >> it's unbelievable. you really answer a market out there. >> brian shactman. >> in terms of the health care

legislature being implemented, do you see this incredible acceleration in spending and what will be the impact on the individual, not just the country or institutions. >> so, we're going to see a really, really big increase in spending because so many more people are going to be covered either through the medicaid program or exchanges and economists are kind of expecting that. the kind of question is if it's going to buy spending per capita. whether this underlyinging rate of growth is going to keep increasing because in the long run, that's what people are really worried about is that health care's going to take up a bigger and bigger portion of the economy. it's really going to stress the federal budget. come 2014, there's going to be a lot more spent on health care in this country, but a lot of that is going to go to covering people. i think you've seen in the government program, so especially in medicare, this real slowdown in cost growth.

the question is can you keep that going? can you expand it to other folks and as these rule changes come in, so, for instance, there's a rule in the health care law that's going to limit deductibles, which those have been really important in holding costs down. how is this going to play out? as you guys have covered, the laws really complicated and there's a lot of provision, so there's a lot of uncertainty. >> thank you very much. great to have you back on. jonathan, thank you. >> he's great. we need him back. >> i'm available that day. >> yes! >> thank you very much. >> that's it. got to come back now. >> coming up next. will you soon be wearing apple products? well, i'm we aring one now. tim cook is the focus of business before the bell. the only thing we'd ever grown together

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all right. it's time. and it's time to stop. it's time to stop because he's very sweet, but even more so, his daughter is so cute. >> we love him. she's like -- >> he's vomiting. right now. okay, can we go back. >> he brought her to me like a human shield. >> so, we made some things up. actually, jeffrey made some things up. >> well, mine were real. >> no soft on brian, so we're about to talk about all we love. >> i meant what i said. >> does that. >> you know, i'm so prepared to compliment you both all the time. i saw your tweet, joe and mika, congrats op the great numbers for "morning joe." spectacular achievement. mika's book is terrific. joe is on the "vanity fair's"

best dressed list somehow. somehow. in those kohl's cardigan sweaters that you have. here's the reality. we got to talk about apple. apple's always sexy. >> what? >> wearable computing is something they implied they are interested in. apple never says what they're going to do, of course, but tim cook said it's an area of interest maybe to watch. the point is, tim cook, apple's been more under fire for their tax practices and they want to start removinging the focus to the product, right, so apple's tim cook saying listen, we've got some things and some game changers as he calls them, that they're working on. about 300 bucks. and by the way speaking of stocks, yesterday, guys, i know you love cocktail party trivia, yesterday was the 20th straight tuesday in a row where the market gained. >> that's amazing.

i'm going to go back to my office, get in my room and try to figure out what cocktail party would be so inanely boring that anybody would care about that trivia. >> anyone in connecticut. just pick one. >> this guy. fantastic. making fun of my state now. >> florida. >> my state is florida. my state is everywhere. >> say nothing at all. >> welcome to scarborough, country, my man. no passport required. ♪ 'cause you make me feel so right ♪

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if you need a refresher on term limits, just ask michele bachmann. >> i learned the video she made announcing the fact she wasn't going to run again, if you watch it, you expect her fully so say add at the end of it that anything with an on switch has to be put away before we depart. >> i'm surprised by the hatred. i liked the speech. i thought she did okay. >> i learned that the two headlines of the day that appear to be good news are not. >> what's na? >> the economic numbers. yes. i'm sorry. and then the fact that women are making more than their husbands.

it's also got so many bad things laced to it because they're not making such as their male counterparts. stupid. it's not good news. it's not calling good news when it's not good news. >> feel your pain. >> yeah. >> you know who's? in today for chuck? be still, my heart. >> the fix. chris cillizza. the fix man. >> i need a fix because i'm going down. we'll see you sometime. i don't know. bachmann's summer surprise. the tea party favorite decides she's had enough of congress, but her announcement comes as a potentially tough fight for re-election loomed in 2014 and an investigation into her campaign finances grows. meantime, 2013 can hardly be described as an off year election, but the republican rock star rolling on the share. a b