but the green is folks who want even more. so if when you read the headlines and you think that everybody's against it, it wouldn't be wrong, because that is what the headline said. but the headlines, themselves, are wrong. the real results are more like this. that does it for us. time for "the last word with lawrence o'donnell." have a great night. the tea party is at a cross roads in the house of representatives because today their not so fearless leader decided to surrender. >> tea party champion, conservative congresswoman, michele bachmann. >> tea party darling michele bachmann. >> won't run for re-election next year. >> what? >> michele bachmann is out. >> she will not seek a fifth term in office. >> catastrophic blow to the tea party.

>> is the tea party sputtering? >> and to comedy living individuals everywhere. >> damn, what am i going to write about now. >> bachmann's career included plenty of national highlights. >> the tea party is a dynamic force for good. are they pro-america or anti-america? >> it literally kills women and children. >> president of the united states is threatened by my candidacy. >> bachmann is facing a tough challenge. >> facing an fbi and sec probe. >> rest assured, this decision was not impacted in any way by the recent inquiries. >> i am not quitting because of investigation, i am not quitting because i couldn't win. we can read the exact opposite. >> be assured. >> rest assured. >> i certainly feel reassured. >> michele bachmann is quitting the congress. >> the saddest moment in recent congressional history. >> she will not seek a fifth term in office. because for her, eight years is

long enough. >> oh, my goodness! yes! >> the tea party suffered a major loss in the house of representatives today when the official leader of the tea party caucus made this announcement. >> i have decided next year i will not seek a fifth congressional term to represent the wonderful people of the sixth district of minnesota. >> the announcement came while michele bachmann and her staff are under investigation by the office of congressional ethics and fbi for alleged illegal campaign spending, and as des moines register reports today, a trial date is set for a lawsuit alleging that during her presidential campaign, michele bachmann's staff stole and misused an e-mail distribution list from an iowa home school group. michele bachmann went out of her way in her tape.

saying it has nothing to do with her decision to quit congress. >> 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. >> no! why would it be, of course not. a recent poll of her district showed michele bachmann trailing her democratic opponent, jim graves, with graves at 47%, bachmann at 45%. a truly deadly polling result for an incumbent. graves came close to winning that seat in the last election, but in her announcement, michele bachmann said that, too, had absolutely nothing to do with her decision. >> my decision was not in any way influenced by any concerns about my being reelected to congress, and i have every confidence that if i ran, i would again defeat the individual who i defeated last year.

>> yeah, of course you would. michele bachmann will join the list of tea party members who are no longer members of congress, that includes joe walsh, allen west, and todd akin who lost their elections, jim demint who quit the senate, and we should not forget the list of tea party members that never became members of congress or senate because they lost their general elections to democrats, sharon engineer he will, christine o'donnell, richard murdock. michele bachmann was the first candidate to drop out of the republican presidential primaries after she lost the iowa caucus. let's take a look at why getting reelected in her congressional district was becoming increasingly difficult, including in the last election which she won by one point. >> the lord says be sub miss i have, wives, you are to be sub miss i have. we moved to virginia beach, virginia. >> we know the founders that

wrote those documents worked tirelessly until slavery was no more. >> i find it interesting it was back in the 1970s that the swine flu broke out then under another democrat president, jimmy carter, and i am not blaming it on president obama, i think it is an interesting coincidence. >> it is a brand new billion dollar high-speed train that is going to go from disneyland out to las vegas. harry reid was also the senator from nevada, was behind this measure. makes us wonder, is he more interested in making sure kids start to gamble at younger ages? the president of the united states is taking a trip to india expected to cost the taxpayers $200 million a day. >> you will be the man. here in new hampshire, what you have done is nothing short of remarkable and the shot that was heard around the world i don't

know where they're going to go to get this money, we are running out of rich people in this country. i want to thank the tea party express for inviting me to speak this evening. >> we have a full panel to deal with this news, including ana marie cox. we have to begin with steve schmidt. you cannot wipe that gloating smile off his face. he represents that diminishing section of the republican party, the group that wants to win elections. this is a big win for republicans that want to win elections. >> look, you saw in the statements which could have played for the entirety of the show through the night, all day tomorrow, and into tomorrow night. the house of representatives is the people's house. there's no small number of nuts out there.

they were well represented by her, but sometimes a nut is just a nut. you look at her record and irresponsible pronouncements on issues like vaccines, the serious issues, the ethical issues, the investigations, and this litany of bizarre, off the wall ignorant statements. my view is she was a blight on the republican party, an embarrassment to the party. we have one more extreme person who is now going to be out of the equation. i think that's healthy for the republican party. >> as the republican calling plays in the field, did you have the sense there was a ruboff effect from michele bachmann specifically that was hurting republicans outside of just her congressional district? >> i don't think that you can attribute the party's problems to just michele bachmann, but she's part of the mosaic that was on a presidential primary stage that on any given night resembled a reality show,

something that you would see on one of the cable channels, not someone you expect to see on news channels doing a presidential debate. >> krystal ball, they kept harry reid as majority leader in the senate, probably wouldn't have won re-election if he didn't get a bachmann type running against him in nevada, democrats probably would have lost control of the senate, they have a lot -- >> that's right. she looks like she was possibly, probably going down to defeat in november, which is obviously not why she's backing out of the race, obviously. >> i have to say, an announcement for leaving, never seen a longer list of why i am not leaving. >> why i am not leaving. >> this isn't why i am leaving and this isn't why i am leaving. >> reminds you when you see a restaurant that says good food here, you keep driving.

i think the thing with michele bachmann that's more egregious than her wildly irresponsible relationship with reality is the fact that she had absolutely no interest in governing. she was not in congress to govern. she was there to be a celebrity, she was there to be incendiary, to throw bombs, but literally in her time in congress, the only bill she sponsored that ended up coming to pass was her recognizing minnesota 150th birthday. i think that's the other piece of this that's a real win, for americans who are interested in actual governance, her leaving is a step in the right direction. >> ana marie cox, have to go to you for the mood in minnesota. are tea party tears running in the streets of minnesota tonight? >> you know, there aren't a lot of tea partiers in minnesota. one of the reasons, obviously her last race she was in trouble. she came close to losing. a lot of people were crossing party lines. that district is usually

reliably republican, so she was in real trouble. i am a transplant here, but i have come to love minnesota. one of the things i love is common sense and lack of irony. i have to say people i talked to, not a random sampling, have no sense of oh, we are going to miss her because we like to make fun of her, they're glad she's leaving, straight up glad she's leaving. >> her popularity has been going down the way al frankens is rising. the way he rose, to show minnesotans i am going to work hard at the job of governing, not out there trying to be funny, get attention, but the way bachmann, if you tried to choose the exact opposite performance for being in office, the bachmann show. >> al franken may have been a comic in his former life, but he is a deadly serious u.s. senator.

i disagree with him on all manner of issues, but he takes his job seriously. this was a carnival act from beginning to end and she's an extreme voice. and you look at the issues she has held forth on, you have that mix of ignorant extremism, the ethical challenges. this is a good riddance moment if you're a republican out there today. the fact of the matter is we have given up five u.s. senate seats over the last two elections, republican senator in missouri, nevada, delaware, in colorado, and we don't because of these extreme candidates. and nobody with a better representative arch type of them than michele bachmann. >> krystal ball, here is another reason, this is not a reason, this is a reason that isn't a reason, why she is not running, that is that she used to work at the irs. that's one bio fact that has

nothing to do with why she is not going to run again. >> of course, it has nothing to do with it. i think that speaks to some of the more hypocritical elements of her platform as well, taking subsidies while rallying against the government. there's that element to her as well. there's nothing below the sort of surface act. she is a flamethrower, a bomb thrower, she wants attention. she used that for awhile effectively to raise money but that has a shelf life. and seeing that shelf life play out to me is very encouraging. >> were her constituents catching up with inconsistencies like the family taking subsidies while she railed against obama programs socially. >> she brought back some subsidies. i looked at her record of attendance in congress, she was

third to last in terms of attendance. one of the congress people below her was gabby giffords. she wasn't doing a lot for them. and i want to add that yes, this was a carnival, also just all about her. she raised all that money, she barely gave any of it to other republican candidates. it wasn't a three ring circus, it was a one ring circus with michelle in the middle. again, i think people were tired of her. i think they will be happy to elect a moderate republican next cycle. >> so it is a bad move for the democrats in that district. they had a fair shot at it. >> it is better in that particular district for michele bachmann to stay there, we probably would have beaten her. i have to say bigger picture, a good thing. >> ana marie cox, krystal ball, and the very pleased steve schmidt, triumphant steve schmidt. thank you all for joining me tonight.

coming up, why no one at the party protest against the irs is demanding they enforce that 501(c)4 law. and mayor michael bloomberg and gun safety group got ricin tainted letters that attacked him. and rudy giuliani decided to stand in judgment of anthony weiner. we will examine that in the "rewrite." m on expert on softba. and tea parties. i'll have more awkward conversations than i'm equipped for, because i'm raising two girls on my own. i'll worry about the economy more than a few times before they're grown. but it's for them, so i've found a way. who matters most to you says the most about you. at massmutual we're owned by our policyowners, and they matter most to us. ready to plan for your future? we'll help you get there.

vo: ta friend under water is end usomething completely different. . you don't get that very often. it seemed like it was more than happy to have us in his home. so beautiful. avo: more travel. more options. more personal. whatever you're looking for expedia has more ways to help you find yours.

rudy giuliani is a serial polygamist. he has been married three times. but he now wants to stand in moral judgment of anthony weiner who has been married exactly once. rudy giuliani, who appointed the only new york city police commissioner who went to jail wants to present himself in the matter of anthony weiner as an excellent judge of character. rudy giuliani and anthony weiner

are in a "rewrite" tonight, a "rewrite" that's full of sex and crime, but neither one of them was actually specifically involved in. that's in tonight's "rewrite." both tylenol and bayer back & body are proven to be effective pain relievers tylenol works by blocking pain signals to your brain bayer back & body's dual action formula includes aspirin, which blocks pain at the site. try the power of bayer back & body. it's not a candy bar. 130 calories 7 grams of protein the new fiber one caramel nut protein bar.

one of the things we have to be careful of is that we don't give them that opportunity or excuse by overreaching, going too far, going where there's not evidence. we need to stay focused on the evidence, the facts. >> that was republican congressman steve chabot caution to tea partiers. he spoke at a southwest

cincinnati town hall on the irs a short time ago, but the other speakers didn't exactly heed that warning, including fellow republican tea partier brad winstruck. >> these agencies like irs are following barack obama's lead. we have seen him target people, target groups. >> you didn't get the impression you might be the next one targeted by the irs. we have this thing called national health care, obama care, you may have heard of it. it is coming down the pike and being controlled by the irs. are you going to be denied care because of some of your political beliefs, for your religious beliefs? five years or ten years when my knees are so bad i need them replaced, am i going to get a letter from the irs saying where have you been in the past with that knee, where do you intend to go in the future with that knee? do you ever intend to use that knee to kneel in a church?

>> what barack obama and the irs are doing to us with this plan is exactly the kind of tyranny our founding fathers were fighting against, actually i think it is worse. >> if you think there are amendments to the constitution we need to look at to correct this corrosive abuse of power. >> only one way to fix that. abolish the irs. only way to fix it. >> joining me, nia malika-henderson. that final line about abolish the irs is something that republicans have been, some republicans anyway, have been dreaming about for a long time and it seems to me that's where they really want to drive all this rhetoric. >> yeah, that's right. in fairness, a lot of americans hate the irs tax season, may want to see it wiped off the face of the earth, but this is a

perfect storm for the tea party. in 2010 they had obama care and successfully ran against this president, obama care, now they have obama care plus the irs. the irs is going to come and deny you health care because of your beliefs. this is what they're going to run on. saw these early ads out of mitch mcconnell, tea party town halls we have seen, we know how they're going to run. the question is what does the president do in the meantime to sort of straighten this out, straighten out the irs, what sort of messaging will they have. in looking at some of their talking points so far in campaign appearances at donation events, they don't really talk about it. they talk essentially about supporting their agenda, also say listen, we need a congress that will do what we want them to do. they talk about needing six more votes to get gun control passed, so they're going to have a tough

time in the tea party states, particularly tea party counties and certainly southern states as well. >> julian, the one solution that will never be proposed at one of those meetings to the whole 501(c)4 controversy is to simply enforce the law word for word, something that republicans always used to say they really cared about, you know, we remember when they went out to begin the house session by reading the constitution as if they were devoted to every word of that. of course, if they did enforce 501(c)4 law as written, it says you have to be exclusively engaged in social welfare, every group involved in the controversy would have been rejected for that status. so they're never going to take up the chance of enforce that law, are they? >> i think that's where this controversy goes, and i think you have been making this point from day one. there's a lawsuit being brought

as you know now, and i think at the end of the day there's going to be two questions that are going to be asked. one is what are the questions to the tea party members inappropriate. the likely answer is they were not inappropriate. i think in any court of law and committee investigating will have to come to that conclusion because the questions that were asked were well established in law. the second question was singling out of the tea party and other members for greater screening. and in the lawsuit and elsewhere we might come to the conclusion at the end of the day that the screening was inappropriate, but then the question is going to be what is the remedy. and the remedy at the end of the day is all these groups on the left or right should have had tougher screening under the standard, a question whether any of the groups qualify, and at the end of the day people have to answer your question, including the court, what is the proper standard. and the proper standard, you make a good case, lawrence.

the person that makes this argument more so than anyone is anthony scalia, constructionist argument, we should go by exactly what the statute says. if you read that exclusivity provision, none of them can be involved in any political activity, must all be involved exclusively in social welfare activity, if you read that statute, if you are a strict constructionist, you should come to the conclusion that none of these groups should have had 501(c)4 status. most of them seem to be involved in political activity. there may be argument at the end of the day should have been greater scrutiny on the left, i would agree with that. maybe greater scrutiny of all groups. at the end of the day, if you were only exclusively involved in social welfare activity you qualify, otherwise you don't. most of these groups probably

didn't qualify. >> also the fact that none of the tea party groups got rejected for this status, on the left there were groups that didn't get the 501(c)4 status. i want to listen to something someone else said about why john boehner actually doesn't want to have a special counsel investigating this. >> i did have the opportunity to talk again with speaker john boehner. i think a lot of people have different opinions of speaker boehner. he's a decent poker player, and he's really playing his cards good here. so the groups that are screaming for a special prosecutor, we don't want to do that because that special prosecutor is appointed by eric holder. >> nia, i guess that's it for the special prosecutor. >> there you have it. what you see in that clip though is they have thoughts about john boehner, not all of them great. democrats have to figure out how they're going to -- what is their narrative going to be.

julian, you made an excellent point and you did, too, lawrence, in stating it was liberal groups that were rejected, no tea party groups got rejected. those details i think will be lost in the fog of campaigning that is already going on, but i think democrats have to figure out what their narrative is going to be. >> julian, sorry, we have to go. we will be back on it. julian epstein, nia malika-henderson. sorry, we ran out of time. coming up, ricin tainted letters were sent to new york city mayor michael bloomberg and his gun safety group. and rudy giuliani, that paragon of virtue wants to stand in judgment of anthony weiner, a big mistake for someone living in the glass house that rudy giuliani lives in. that will be in the "rewrite." when it came to our plants, we were so confused.

how much is too much water? too little? until we got miracle-gro moisture control. it does what basic soils don't by absorbing more water, so it's there when plants need it. with the right soil, everyone grows with miracle-gro. whoa! hey, we got a weather alert for this location... golf-ball sized hail and damaging winds are on the way... kids... eh, don't worry. it's tornado-proof. anyway, i'd put the car in the garage and secure these things. they could become flying debris. kids! watch this. [ beep ] [ children screaming ] [ car alarm chirps ] awesome. [ male announcer ] mobile weather alerts

from your home insurance? that's allstate home insurance. great protection plus helpful tools to make life better. talk to an allstate agent... [ doorbell rings ] and let the good life in. where over seventy-five percent of store management started as [ doorbell rings ] i'm the next american success story. working for a company hourly associates. there's opportunity here. i can use walmart's education benefits to get a degree, maybe work in it, or be an engineer, helping walmart conserve energy. even today, when our store does well, i earn quarterly bonuses. when people look at me, i hope they see someone working their way up. vo: opportunity, that's the real walmart.

michael bloomberg and the media. it is really important that they hear from every nra member, every gun owner. michael bloomberg or some other official dropped out on national television to shame us. stand up to this guy that says ridiculous things like the nra wants firearms with nukes on them. let me ask president obama, michael bloomberg, they don't know what they're talking about. you just heard mayor bloomberg,

this is a country by the people, of the people, for the people. >> they made michael bloomberg their number one enemy for gun control advocacy. now the mayor and the organization he founded, mayors against illegal guns, are the apparent target of an attack with deadly poison ricin. letters addressed to mayor bloomberg and the gun control group containing ricin were delivered to offices in new york and washington. sources tell msnbc investigative reporter that the letter accused the mayor of trying to take our guns away. michael bloomberg said this a short time ago. >> mayor, is this because of your outspokenness about guns and your thoughts about that? >> well, there was a letter that threatened us. the letter was obviously referred to our anti-gun efforts, but there's 12,000 people that are killed this year with guns, 19,000 are going to

commit suicide with guns, we're not going to walk away from those efforts. i know i speak for close to a thousand mayors, this is something we need to get under control and eliminate. >> do you feel threatened? >> no, i don't feel threatened. >> jonathan dean joins me now. you cover stories in new york that involve any traces of terrorism in any way. what's the latest we know about this? >> what makes this case concerning is that the lab tests came back, not only field tests but lab tests for the new york letter came back positive for ricin. unclear of the potency, they say two workers had minor effects over the weekend. it was at an off site location where it is screened, and no personnel were at risk at any time.

>> do they, by the way, have protective gear in that kind of facility in anticipation of exactly this? >> that's exactly right. it is explained to us, mailroom operator found something suspicious about the letter, put it in a contained box, reached in with gloves that were there, opened it, discovered a whitish, orangish substance, ordered police and they responded. this was friday. and again, lab tests coming back officially today for that letter. the second case involves the mayor, one of the leaders of the mayor's group in washington and it was sent to his private office. he works at a consulting firm, received that there, walked outside with his mail, sat on a park bench, opened the letter, that whitish, orangish substance came out. that was monday. washington police arrived, fbi are awaiting final test results. preliminary tests showed that positive. >> was he harmed in any way? >> he was not having symptoms, he is not talking publicly, but his office and mayor's office

are confirming he did receive this letter and that he did not suffer any illnesses or ailments as a result. >> what do we know about the content of the letter. was it all about guns? >> we know the letter was mailed on, both letters were mailed may 20th from shreveport, louisiana, and in the letter we don't have direct quotes, but it is explained to us, says no one is going to take our gun rights away. this is including threats against mayor bloomberg. that's the content of this. it does not appear to be linked to previous letters sent to the white house and congress a few weeks back. again, it is concerning that people are sending these types of letters. we have not seen confirmed instances since the anthrax attack in 2001. this now appears to be -- we have seen lots of hoaxes, white powder jobs across the city over the years, this now appears to be another confirmed case, not seen since 2001. >> jonathan, thanks for the latest on that.

>> thank you. coming up, ezra klein is here and going to reveal something that republicans really don't want you to know, something they're hoping their scandal fog will prevent america from seeing, but ezra is not letting them get away with that, coming up. ♪ [ female announcer ] every baby can have the freedom to move their way, in pampers cruisers. they adapt at the waist, legs and bottom, with up to 12 hours of protection for our driest, best fitting diaper pampers. since aflac is helping with his expenses while he can't work, he can focus on his recovery. he doesn't have to worry so much about his mortgage, groceries, or even gas bills. kick! kick... feel it! feel it! feel it! nice work!

♪ you got it! you got it! yes! aflac's gonna help take care of his expenses. and us...we're gonna get him back in fighting shape. ♪ [ male announcer ] see what's happening behind the scenes at ducktherapy.com. the day building a play set begins with a surprise twinge of back pain... and a choice. take up to 4 advil in a day or 2 aleve for all day relief.

[ male announcer ] that's handy. ♪ [ male announcer ] we all have something neatly tucked away in the back of our mind. a secret hope. that thing we've always wanted to do. it's not about having dreams, it's about reaching them. ♪ an ally for real possibilities. aarp. find tools and direction at aarp.org/possibilities. ♪ [ male announcer ] how do you engineer a true automotive breakthrough? ♪ you give it bold styling, unsurpassed luxury and nearly 1,000 improvements. the redesigned 2013 glk. see your authorized mercedes-benz dealer for exceptional offers

through mercedes-benz financial services. what do you think this headline is about, hide your kids? scary stuff, right? it is the new york post, so not so scary. it is next in the "rewrite." are you still sleeping? just wanted to check and make sure that we were on schedule. the first technology of its kind... mom and dad, i have great news. is now providing answers families need. siemens. answers. ♪ right. but the most important feature of all is... the capital one purchase eraser. i can redeem the double miles i earned with my venture card

to erase recent travel purchases. and with a few clicks, this mission never happened. uh, what's this button do? [ electricity zaps ] ♪ you requested backup? yes. yes i did. what's in your wallet? it's the most powerful thing on the planet. love holds us in the beginning. comforts us as we grow old. love is the reason you care. for all the things in your life... that make life worth living. ♪ ♪ sweet love of mine [ agent smith ] i've found software that intrigues me. it appears it's an agent of good.

♪ [ agent smith ] ge software connects patients to nurses to the right machines while dramatically reducing waiting time. [ telephone ringing ] now a waiting room is just a room. [ static warbles ] this is what the new york post does on a slow news day. hide your kids. sounds like there's a dangerous serial predator roaming the streets of new york, right? well it is actually a story about the smallest possible development in the new york city mayor's race, a development that no newspaper in history has ever reported on before. one of the ten candidates for mayor is trying to find interns to work on the campaign. campaigns needing volunteers and working for volunteers has never before in political campaign coverage been considered news until the candidate seeking interns was the man new york post calls the sexting king,

anthony weiner right down there. and that was enough for the new york post to rewrite a nothing story into a front page story. and in another weiner item in the new york post today, former mayor and self proclaimed hero of 9/11 rudy giuliani said this about anthony weiner. i wasn't stunned when he got in trouble. i know him for years and always knew something was wrong with him. you see, guilliani was a cop, not a cop exactly, a u.s. attorney, federal prosecutor, worked with cops, fbi agents mostly. he wants you to think he has that cop mythical power to look at someone and know something is wrong with him. guilliani didn't have that power when he first looked deeply into the eyes of bernie carrick who

entered guilliani's world as chauffeur. it was love at first sight. he judged the chauffeur to be greater than his resume which included being a high school dropout. guilliani using his great skill as judge of character had other candidates that were the corrections commissioner, he took that job which meant taking advantage of an officer with whom he had an affair for several years, which ones discovered provoked some lawsuits from other employees of the corrections department, complaining kerik gave his mistress advantages in the workplace much to their disadvantage. guilliani proved himself to be the worst judge of character in the long history of new york city mayors that have appointed police commissioners when he appointed his soul mate, bernie kerik to that job. new york city police

commissioner is the most important police job in america, running by far the biggest police department in the country, and to the shock of anyone who knows anything about police work, rudy giuliani gave that job to the supremely unqualified bernie kerik. >> my choice ultimately was bernie kerik. bernie has been an exceptional commissioner of the department of corrections. he understands the job of being a police officer. most importantly, he understands the job of being a leader and brings a quality of leadership that i believe can give us the opportunity to build on a record that is a very difficult one to match. >> fine judge of character, rudy giuliani. then bernie kerik became the first new york police commissioner to go to jail. before they caught up with him, he was on the way up from new york city police commissioner.

it was when the fbi did a background check to meet george w. bush's secretary of homeland security that the lies of bernie kerik started to surface. he was on his way to george w. bush's cabinet when a bunch of things emerged almost at once. we discovered he was a tax evader. we discovered he used a mob connected company to do hundreds of thousands of dollars of free work on an apartment, a company that had been banned doing business with the city of new york. we discovered a public landlord had donated an apartment close to ground zero for the use of the exhausted firefighters, police officers and other city workers who were toiling nearby, and he decided to use that apartment not for rest but exercise with two women he was

having continued affairs. one was the editor and publisher of his book, the book whose royalties he lied to the irs about. the editor told this story about when she tried to break up with him in fall of 2002 on the day of the new york marathon. he started crying. i love you, you can't leave me. he was crying in front of everyone, he convinced me to cancel my plans for the evening. then he says he is sick to his stomach that he couldn't take the stress and had to go home and sleep. gets in his car, calls me again two minutes later all weepy, he hangs up the phone, it doesn't disconnect, i can hear him tell the guys on the detail how he fooled me and how he was taking his wife out to dinner. he must have been good at

fooling people because he fooled that great judge of character, rudy giuliani, the guy that says he always knew something was wrong with anthony weiner, but never knew there was anything wrong with bernie kerik. here is something else the great judge of character didn't know about his bosom buddy, bernie kerik. the editor he had the affair with, said while police commissioner he spent his days running around the city having sex with women, not just me and jeannette pinero. he had deals with hotels around the city. he and i would go in separate doors. he never paid for anything. there's one of his lovers telling you that when he was rudy giuliani's police commissioner, he spent his days running around the city having sex with women. now rudy giuliani wants to stand in judgment of anthony weiner's tweets.

rudy giuliani, who had three wives to anthony weiner's one. rudy giuliani who himself was caught having at least one affair while mayor wants to judge on moralistic grounds anthony weiner, who unlike rudy giuliani and bernie kerik was never caught having an affair with anyone. he was caught tweeting. anthony weiner wasn't caught stealing like bernie kerik who rudy giuliani judged to be an honorable man. in 2006 in state supreme court in the bronx, bernie pled guilty to criminal charges involving the rebuilding of that apartment done by a mob connected company. in 2010, bernie kerik pled guilty in federal court to eight felony charges, including tax fraud. when the federal judge sentenced him to four years in prison, the judge said i think the damage caused by mr. kerik is in some ways immeasurable. one thing he has done well in life is be a federal prisoner,

so well he got out early because of good behavior. no, rudy giuliani, the great judge of character wasn't there to welcome his buddy bernie home. ...so you say men are superior drivers? yeah? then how'd i get this... [ voice of dennis ] ...safe driving bonus check? every six months without an accident, allstate sends a check. silence. are you in good hands?

available out there. i knew devry university would give me the skills that i needed to make one of those tech jobs mine. we teach cutting-edge engineering technology, computer information systems, networking and communications management -- the things that our students need to know in the world today. our country needs more college grads to help fill all the open technology jobs. to help meet that need, here at devry university, we're offering $4 million dollars in tech scholarships for qualified new students. learn more at devry.edu. are proven to be effective pain relievers. tylenol works by blocking pain signals to your brain. bayer advanced aspirin blocks pain at the site. try the power of bayer advanced aspirin. the fog of scandal talk in washington is blocking much of america from seeing the most important thing that washington

is not talking about but ezra klein is going to talk about it next. ♪ [ female announcer ] every baby can have the freedom to move their way, in pampers cruisers. they adapt at the waist, legs and bottom, with up to 12 hours of protection for our driest, best fitting diaper pampers. [ 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 to mobile apps, small business solutions from at&t have the security you need to get you there. call us. we can show you how at&t solutions can help you do what you do... even better. ♪ vo: ta friend under water is end usomething completely different. can help you do what you do... even better. i met a turtle friend today so, you don't get that very often. it seemed like it was more than happy to have us in his home. so beautiful. avo: more travel. more options. more personal. whatever you're looking for expedia has more ways to help you find yours. what makes a sleep number store different?

what makes a sleep number you walk into a conventional mattress store, it's really not about you. they say, "well, if you wanted a firm bed you can lie on one of those. if you want a soft bed you can lie on one of those." we provide the exact individualization that your body needs. the sleep number memorial day sale. not just ordinary beds on sale, but the bed that can change your life on sale. the sleep number bed. this is your body there. you can see a little more pressure in the hips. take it up one notch. you get that moment where you go, "oh yeah" ... oh, yeah! ... and it's perfect. they had no idea that when they came to a sleep number store, we were going to diagnose their problems and help them sleep better. and right now save on the closeout of our classic special edition bed set. just $1299-a savings of $600-and discover the only memory foam bed with dual air adjustability. once you experience it, there's no going back. wow. don't invest in a mattress until you find your sleep number setting. final days, sale ends sunday. only at the sleep number store. sleep number.

comfort individualized what is not coming through loud and clear in all of the attention being directed to benghazi aftermath and the irs fake scandal, and the justice department, is that the economy is improving. new standard and poors data finds housing prices at the highest levels in seven years, according to a new conference board report, consumer confidence is at its highest level in five years. another piece of good news came about two weeks ago in the middle of what was arguably one of the administration's worst weeks of the year.

>> finally and i smile for this, i think you all noticed in the cdo, i hope you did, cdo report yesterday, so-called baseline reestimate, improvement in cdo report shows the president's policies of cutting the deficit by more than $2.5 trillion in a balanced way are contributing the most rapid deficit reduction since world war ii. the most rapid deficit reduction since world war ii. >> so how did republican deficit hawks react to the news? >> my question isn't about who's going to resign, my question is who's going to jail over this scandal. >> joining me now, msnbc's ezra klein. ezra, today, jay carney was trying to get reporters to focus on the baseline reestimate. the president of the united

states made his first statement about what was going on at the irs, and he was going to get rid of the guy running it, put in an acting head and all of that. seems to have flipped national attention that there are good things happening out there. >> i am shocked to learn the reestimate. >> wait a minute, ezra, it is a shocking baseline reestimate as you and i know. it is wicked exciting. >> i can't believe you're underselling it. $600 billion. they cut $600 billion off the deficit estimates, but let me take a revisionist, in particular, housing news, auto news, when you begin to see housing and auto turn around, that's when you begin to see recovery, that drives jobs. when i hear amid 7.5% unemployment we are seeing the quickest deficit reduction since world war ii, that to me is bad news.

that to me is evidence we are doing much too rapid austerity. i was looking at the first four months of job creation this year versus last year. you would expect 2013 to be better than 2012. we have done mortgage leveraging, gotten further out of debt, more calming in europe. we had slightly, ever so slightly slower job growth, near 200,000, but it was 225 in 2012. not seeing a huge effect on the sequestration, but we could be doing a little better. could be seeing a faster recovery, and we should be. >> i completely agree. the problem we are going to confront is because we had this drastic deficit reduction and disaster hasn't hit the economy, washington will think you can cut the deficit and it will hurt. what we will never know is where

will our economic health signs be today if we hadn't done that, how much healthier would we be, how much lower would unemployment be. >> this is the key issue in washington, can't get anyone to consider that, can't get people to say what would unemployment be without the stimulus. can't get people to say what would the year 2011 be without that crisis. we are doing things in a dumb way. say you're the biggest deficit hawk on earth. say all you care about is the deficit. you shouldn't be happy either. it is coming down, it should make you happy, but it is not coming down as quick as it would come down if we passed the president's budget, the ryan budget, the democratic budget. it is coming down in the wrong way. you look at the reestimation, i imagine every time i say it, ratings spike up. you look at that, what they think happens in the next decade, see deficits fall rapidly next two to three years, then they begin to rise slowly the rest of the period.

under all the other budgets and compromises that have been put forward in washington, instead of having a rapid move to austerity when the economy is weak and rising deficit when the economy should be getting stronger, which is exactly what you don't want, you would have slower move to austerity, more support for the economy the next couple years and lower deficit at the end of the next ten years which is what you want to see. even if you're a true deficit hawk, we could be doing a lot better than we are now on the deficit caps. we are just doing it in exactly the opposite way we should be. >> and there's nothing better for the deficit than a growing economy where you have as a result growing tax revenues, less reliance on support programs like unemployment insurance and that sort of thing, and there's just with all this scandal, there's no attention in congress any way towards what we might want to do to further the economy. >> i think this is a key point.

the one exception, we will see if it continues on, is immigration reform. it is not a quick move on the economy, not affecting growth in 2014, 2015, 2016, getting sensible immigration in place, being able to have people come to the country, people want to come to the country, these things help with growth. that would be a big deal. beyond that in terms of infrastructure and things to create jobs in the short term and in terms of things like research and development and education and basic science, which we are cutting sequestration, we are doing it wrong. >> i am sure you completely redirected washington's attention to economic indicators and what they should be paying attention to. ezra klein, thank you for joining us tonight. >> thank you. fall of a viking.

let's play "hardball." good evening. i'm chris matthews in washington. let me start tonight with this. michele bachmann is quitting the congress. what is it with these people? is it congress? is it the right wing? what gives? sarah palin was the vice presidential nominee of the republican party in 2008. remember? game change? she was the game change. then she quit. left the governor's office halfway through her term. her only term. then jim demint, the guy ruling the whole right wing of the republican senate, wing to the right of mitch mcconnell, that's half the party. he quit to go run a think tank. it's not a bad think tank. it'so