back in the fall of 2010 that's when christie single-handedly pulled the plug on a huge transportation project, the construction of a badly needed rail tunnel to connect new jersey and new york city. he did it, he said, because costs were exploding out of control and the state was going to be on the hook for 70% of overruns. supporters of the tunnel including the obama administration plead with him to reconsider. but christie stood firm. the economy was weak, money was short, it was his job to make hard choices like this. here's the press release his office put out when he canceled the tunnel. christie administration enforces budget discipline, protects new jersey taxpayer dollars. this was a crucial moment for christie, the politician. a dramatic and defiant stand against big government spending at height of the tea party era. the exact move that turned him a first-term governor into a

rising national star in republican politics. now let's add context pittsburgh first the report from the government accountability office 18 months late that completely destroyed christie's stated rational. turned out the costs weren't exploding and new jersey wasn't on the hook for 70% of overruns. the number was 14%. and then there's what's happening in new jersey right now. frank lautenberg died monday. you know that. he did important things in the senate, 21-year-old drinking age, fierce advocacy of gun control. but that tunnel, that tunnel under the hudson river was supposed to be frank lautenberg's most enduring legacy. he was its number one champion. it was his passion. it was his baby. chris christie said it was too expensive and canceled it. you though this back story, it becomes impossible, impossible, to take face value the explanation that chris christie offered tuesday for how lautenberg's senate seat will be filled. christie gets to appoint a new senator, no one disputes this.

but when it comes to voters having their said, christie went with the option that is, by far, the most expensive. he chose to schedule a brand-new completely separate standalone election for lautenberg's seat, primary's in august, general election in october. he did this though there's a statewide election for governor in november. he could have added that race to the ballot, no extra cost. now, now two elections this fall, one for the senate, one three weeks later for governor. the price tag for this, about $24 million. half of the primary, half for the general. $24 million taxpayer dollars. what did chris christie say when asked to justify hitting new jerseyans with the bill for the unnecessary election? >> i don't know what the cost is and i quite frankly don't care. i don't think you can put a price tag on what it's worth to have an elected person in the united states senate. >> christie's being hypocritical here. we might as well understand why he's doing it what advantage he sees in holding two separate

elections this fall. the answer's more complicated than you might think. it has to do with christie and his own ambition but party politics, state party politics. understand this november's election represents a historic, as in once every 30 years, opportunity for the new jersey republican party. a deeply blue state. republicans rarely win there. in 2009, he won by 3 1/2 points. . that margin 3 1/2 points the second biggest victory for a republican statewide candidate since 1972. chris christie's popularity's astronomical now, running 30 point as head of his democratic opponent. the key part, he's not the only republican on the november's ballot. the entire state legislature is also up in november. 80 seats in the assembly, 40 in the senate. >> new jersey republicans have not been in the position in decade. their candidate at top of the ticket is on course to win in a landslide, it could sweep down ballot republicans into office,

the kind of landslide that could take that balance of power in each legislative chamber now and make them prettier for the gop. the landslide that could make christie a more powerful governor the second term that could help him pass an agenda he would run off to iowa, south carolina, brag to republicans about. the last thing that christie and republicans in new jersey want is to add a senate race to that november ballot. as a senate race where the democratic candidate will be corey booker, the popular corey booker, announcing his candidacy later this morning and whose name would be above christie's name on the ballot. it would save so many of the down ballot democratic candidates from christie's coattails. so that's the calculation that christie's makinging that the grief he takes for wasting money on a needless election will hurt him and his party less than the damage they'll suffer and corey booker's name is on the november ballot. may be a smart callation, it may not. but it's not a calculation

christie enjoys making. he was being cute and it showed. all right. i want to bring in my guests, a staff reporter at american prospect magazine, editor and publisher of the legendary new jersey newsletter politifacts, robert costa, washington editor of national review magazine, former director of new jersey project there and now a visiting associate. if i'm stullabling over my words i'm excited to see everybody. i'm excited to nick and ingrid. welcome to all of you. i'll start with you, ingrid. election night 2002, i remember doing news 12 in new jersey, perfect to answer this, we talk about chris christie's calculation there, you know, he will take grief now but he thinks whatever grief he's taking now is better for him and his party than what would happen

if there's a senate rate on the ballot in november. do you agree with that? that is a correct calculation? >> i think you've got it right, steve. but i also say that that's pretty much what chris christie is. he looks very quickly at what is strategically in effect important for him and he makes the decision and he sticks with it. sometimes it's a little awkward, as in this case. but i think that it's what politicians who have power and can make decisions like that, particularly if you show it's a good thing as well for the citizens from his point of view. >> speaking of that, nick, what has the reaction been in new jersey? you know, editorial boards have been against this. >> not really. >> is it affecting christie's image. >> the editorial boards have been mixed. some saying it's going to cost $24 million but maybe this was the best idea. the problem he had some terrible choices here. if you pick 2014, let's

understand, two statutes and they contradict each other. when you clear out underbrush one says november '13, the other says november '14 the other say call a special election, same language. if he would have chosen '14 he would have gone to court and lost. >> republicans have not fared well with new jersey supreme court in elections. we found this. >> the national republicans won in 2014. mitch mcconnell was chewing on a washcloth when christie decided not to go with 2014. he wasn't going to go with 2013 because politicians don't shoot themselves in the foot. >> yeah. >> he's left with nothing else but this choice. >> robert, nick mentions mitch mcconnell, they looked at this and said 2014 in a lot of their minds was an option, there was an opinion leaked from the office of legislative services in trenton that said, yeah, our

opinion is christie can appoint through 2014. if you're a national republican you're saying we can get a republican senator from a blue state well into next year. did this guy screw us over here. >> two ways for republicans to win the seat you have to have someone on the ballot with christie in november or on the ballot in 2014. to have a random october prime merck instead of having august prime merck it's difficult. many top republicans in new jersey, tom cane jr., saying no thanks to the race. >> what can we say about this senate race? we'll talk more about corey booker later. from the pub standpoint the only candidate who steps forward is steve loni began, the conservative who ran against christie in 2009 in the republican primary and a few years before that. he's a bit out there in new jersey. are we saying republicans have sacrificed their chance at seat now? >> definitdefinitely. i spoke with his chief

strategist last night, they're on pace to get 1,000 signatures by monday. seems like they're the only campaign scrambling to get 1,000 signatures. if he's the nominee, he's going to be be up against corey booker or frank palone. >> i tell you how bad the republican party's backed off on this. think about it, every member of congress gets a hall pass to run in this. they don't have to give up their seats. that never happens in the u.s. senate seat. everybody in the republican delegation, all of them, just the names have been mentioned. they backed off instantly. so everybody's pretty much assuming it's a democratic seat. >> that's what made the national reaction interesting to me, because i heard plenty of democrats criticizing chris christie and democrats in "now" criticizing chris christie. i heard heaarry reid saying he

thought it was the right decision. republicans have no chance, i'm getting a senator here soon. >> right. booshg's li booker's likely to be the nominee. keeping him off the ballot does protect republican interests in the state ballots. part of christie's calculation, if he can within a huge landslide, if he runs in 2016, he can say, listen, i'm the only person in this field who not only has won two terms as governor, but won two terms as governor, my second term with a huge amount of support, i'm the crossover success here look at 2013. >> i want to pick up that point in a minute on christie. an interesting back and forth between christie and jon stewart. i want to add context after eric had a rough day. there was this and this. she got a parking ticket... ♪ and she forgot to pay her credit card bill on time. good thing she's got the citi simplicity card.

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i wanted to show you probably saw this, this was jon stewart this week, his take on christie calling the second election of the fall in new jersey. >> in 2009, governor chris tis commented specifically on what he was do when asked, and this is true, if frank lautenberg died. >> i don't think any responsible governor would call for a special election that would cost $10 million. >> that looked like he caught him in a bit of hypocrisy. this united states his how the responded. >> jon stewart took one small art of, i saw it, it was hysterical but has no relationship to the truth in the context of what we were discussing at time. >> i want to establish that he -- no relationship to the truth. let's establish what the context was of this in 2009. in 2009, chris christie had just been elected governor.

what happened in 2009, ted kennedy died in massachusetts and the massachusetts legislature, democrats played around wit the law on succession and had interim senator put in place while the special election took place because they wanted to a democrat in the senate because of health care was coming through. in new jersey said, wow we have republican coming in and 80-year-old senator, frank lautenberg, let's pass a law that says if loawtoutenberg goee governor has to appoint somebody from the same party. that appointment would stick through the next general election, there would not be an immediate special election. that's the context of what chris christie was asked in 2009. here is his full answer of what he said in 2009. >> governor corzine did not complain nor did members of the legislature complain when governor corzine used the same exact in place today to appoint his replacement. you know this whole fallacy of,

it's going to save money, well, jon corzine replaced himself and didn't feel the need to call for a speciallation. and i don't think any responsible governor at this point would call for a special election that would cost $10 million in light of everything i said before. this is garbage. it's garbage. it's political lying. is what it is. >> lying? >> lying, yes. >> how is it lying? >> how is it lying? you think that's john mckeon's instent? he woke up and decided, i'm worried a governor might call a special election for a senate race and that might cost $10 million, so let me put a stop to that potential taxpayer waste immediately. >> john mckeon was the assembly man proposing the rule. the intent was to keep the seat democratic, it was not to save money for the taxpayers but christie's saying, look, this is a political thing on their part and in terms of cost you don't

have to worry about it, i would never do that and he did it. in his defense, it's not wasting $10 million it's wasting $11.9 million. i wonder, i look at this, i look at there's a jon stewart test i guess we apply to politics when somebody with -- falls out of favor with jon stewart you wonder, is that poll significance sort of pristine national image? i wonder about christie's image. ? did it take a hit. >> i'm sure it took a bit of a hit. the fact is he's going to win big in november and that will wash away any of this -- any of this unpleasant innocence for him. i think people way overestimate the effects of changes like this and a politician's popularity. what matters is election results, how the state's doing, how the economy's doing. christie for a little bit may not be happy where -- approval of him is gone and gets into the

broader national sense. november, the -- one of the most popular politicians in the country about that's not a bad place to be. >> we, you know, jamelle we mentioned, you have a chart, there's no republican governor in the country governor of the state that voted more for obama than new jersey did. the margin for obama last year was 17 points. that's the most for any republican governor, there it is right there. robert, i wondered that, whenever christie's in the news, talk about what he's doing in new jersey to cater to a blue state electorate, how much slack are national republicans willing to cut him because he's a blue state governor? >> they're losing confidence a little bit. frustration in washington with chris christie, how he handled hurricane sandy, images coming out of that. they understand heed that to work with the president but the way he did it irks republicans and conservative activists. if he wins big in a blue state, they look at nuances everything

he does if he goes to iowa and new hampshire it's going to an impact. >> something else is going on here. if he wins big, he's head of the republican governors association next year, travel around the country raising money for every stripe of republican, from the far right to the middle right to wherever else they land. he's going to become a hero because he's -- because he commands a bully pulpit like few politicians we know. raise lots of money for the very people who are mad at him how, and we'll see. >> the example of like mitt romney, sort of a very different governor, a different politician in massachusetts. when he recognized at the end of his first term i don't want to run for re-election because i have to say things to win in massachusetts that are not going to help me nationally so i'm going to stop the charade now. will we see that happen with christie? is new jersey going to look at him differently a year or two how to because he starts doing the things nick is talking about?

in i think new jerseyans expect him to do that. it's so predictable that he has an eye on more than an eye -- >> in utah this week. >> even the republican running, one republican that we know is running for the senate seats a conservative. he can point to supporting a person like that for his party. as far as new jersey being a blue state, if you really look very closely, it's a different electorate that goes to the polls for the governor's race. new jersey's done a pretty good job of electing republican governors. so there's a little bit of hype, i don't want to say accurate representation, about the state. >> it's an issue, too we've talked about it on the show, that difference between who shows up when there's a presidential election going on. >> the electorate, yeah. >> it's more stark, the offyear

electorate. >> joe perilos lost the race by 19 points in a presidential year. got as many votes as christie got when he was elected. >> christie wins a gubernatorial race and it's a landslide in presidential year. i want to talk about corey booker. we're seating the senate race to corey booker. you will lose 3 sets of keys 4 cell phones 7 socks and 6 weeks of sleep but one thing you don't want to lose is any more teeth. if you wear a partial, you are almost twice as likely to lose your supporting teeth. new poligrip and polident for partials 'seal and protect' helps minimize stress, which may damage supporting teeth, by stabilizing your partial. and 'clean and protect' kills odor-causing bacteria. care for your partial. help protect your natural teeth.

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bumper sticker "my congressman is a rocket scientist." he was a five-time jeopardy! champion as well. i think he beat watson. >> not a rocket scientist. >> unloading all of my rush holt trivia. frank palloone from the store. 25-year veteran, looks like he's runle sheila oliver speaker of the state assembly and shares a base with corey booker, in the newark area, she might be in the race, too. other democrats looking at this. i say, that's interesting. i'll enjoy wanting it, i'm a new jersey politics yun junkie but y booker's nay different league and should have no problem winning this. what do you think? >> i think that he is well known, so around the state if you had to name one person, showed them the list, they would point to corey booker. i don't know who's going to come out in this election. but if you look a little deeper,

newark is not corey booker's place. he's not -- it doesn't seem to be in control in administrative matters, budget, police, so on but he's had political problems in newark. how do new jerseyans look at that? probably not a lot of people are aware of that. and corey booker, in a way, is a kind of chris christie person in wanting to go out and talk to people and be well known. booker has been all over the state doing graduation speeches and so on. how does that count? in this rather strange election, on august 13th? >> we talk about nationally chris christie and republicans, chris christie have a problem with national republicans because of his chumminess with president obama. in new jersey, corey booker and chris christie have been equally chummy. is that a problem potentially in a democratic primary? or is christie so popular it doesn't matter? >> the turnout here is going to

be so small, dominated by the political leaders of the state. and what booker has going for him is that he has the kingpin in essex county, county executive and democratic leader, that's going to help him. but he's not popular with a lot of the democratic leaders of the state. he's not a beloved figure at all. the public knows him and likes him -- >> explain that. why is that? i tried to explain to people, nationally, people look at new jersey democratic politics and say corey booker, you know, great poll numbers, but why is it that the democratic establishment in new jersey doesn't have that relationship? >> i'm not agreeing with this but perceived as being a show horse than a work horse. he hasn't tackled the problems of newark and he would point 0-to-all of the things he's done there but that's a perception that's there that he has to deal with. >> for booker, the biggest tet of his political career. if he's in a general election 2014 he coasts to election.

in a short august primary, crowded field, this is his test. >> this is the test. >> corey booker, i want to put a clip up, you might remember. a little over a year ago, went on "meet the press" and got in hot water. i want to play the clip. >> this kind of stuff is nauseating to me on both sides. it's nauseating to the american public. enough is enough. stop attacking private equity and jeremiah wright. what it does, it undermines to me what this country should be focused on. >> so, that was corey booker talking about the obama campaign making an issue of bain capital and mitt romney and took grief from democrats nationally. he was quiet nationally after that, too. what do national democrats think of when they look at corey booker now? >> i think there's a split. among your more establishment types, moderate democrats, corey booker is like them. he is what you expect from a democrat from new jersey. there's nothing -- i am not sure there's anything to raise

alarms. among liberal democrats, among the left, corey booker's a new jersey democrat, close connections to wall street. that clip is case in point. he's very simple threat to wall street. after on the left, there's a lot of people are tired with obama's close ties to wall street, with geithner, with the people in his administration who they feel kept the president from taking more aggressive approach to the banks, to financial reform. while democrats are vying to see a democrat win the seat and fine with booker, i'm not sure there's enthusiasm for him on the left because i think a lot of folks see him as another wall street democrat and they're tired of wall street democrats. >> if corey booker does go on to be a senator, he will be the only currently elected african-american in the u.s. senate, first ever from new jersey. corey booker somebody people talk about as having a national

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jamelle reminded me if cory booker wins the senate rice, the first time in history two black senators serving concur rently. mo cowan from massachusetts is there but gone at the end of the month. massachusetts ma having a special election. cory booker i started covering him ten years ago when i got to new jersey. i knew this was somebody marked for a national future. talking about him as a national prospect. jamelle, it strike me that if he goes to the senate this year in 2013, i look at the sort of african-american turnout, we talked about the issue of the democratic coalition showing up only in presidential years, and looked last year at we've had studies since the election, looked at african-american turnout, how it was energized in 2012, bigger share of the elect electorate than people expecting.

there's a question, how important is it for democrats in 2016 to have a nonwhite presence on the ticket? the pipeline of the democratic party, when it comes to the nonwhite pipeline. if cory booker gets to the senate in 2013, vp in 2016, is that something that's on the horizon? >> i'm not sure if it's on the horizon. if you're trying to keep black turnout high, i'm sort of on the side of people who think that black turnout will stay high indefinitely. when you look at the trend for black turnout going back 15 years, it's on a steady rise. i guess the rice from 2004, 2008, 2012 are like similar, from 2000 to 2004 as well. it's not like 2008 there was a sharp increase, it was a gradual incline to suggest that black voters voted in turnout a lot. i'm not sure it's critical for democrats to i have cory booker or deval patrick on the tick net

20 2016 but i don't think it will hurt. >> booker is a fund-raising machine. and the party leaders doend like to raise money for congressional and senate races because they don't get anything. the joke how many jobs does a senator have. they like guys who can either sell fun or raise money. and that's a reason they may decide that corey's the guy. >> a report saying cory booker is having a fund-raiser, mark zuckerberg, the facebook founder, soon. >> he already has mark zuckerberg has part of his credentials. look at turnout. when a senate race is at the top of the tick net new jersey, it's not great. so 40%, 42%. a booker establishing himself would, i think, help democratic turnout. >> and i want to get back to the question of the pipeline for sort of african-american, for nonwhite politicians in a democratic party, a situation

where there are three, four dozen african-americans in the house. and often they represent districts that are protected by the voting rights act, majority/minority districts and there's is an informal ceiling imposed by state democratic parties they view condition whose come from the districts not as electable statewide, there's a stigma attached to nap when you look at cory booker's story, jamelle, i'm curious what you make of it. comes from a majority black city, newark but the most popular democrat in new jersey, national rock star. what do you take from the booker story as a lesson nationally? mr. i think the booker story is ace confirmation, if you are black politician with national ambitions your first order of business to -- this will sound terrible -- get far out of your majority/minority area as quickly as possible. >> right. >> i think if you looked at barack obama, it's a very good thing in his political career that he lost the first house

race in the south side of chicago because it forced him to look out of the ar for a political base. as a result he found a diverse political base, a wealthier base and a chance to go statewide. likewise, booker, you know, immediately after winning, booker began doing like a long media tour. and while that rankles for people in new jersey who are like, why can't you do your job. booker's always had national ambitions i don't know what else he could have done. he had to establish himself as a new jersey politician and not a black new jersey politician about and that's unfortunately. i think it's not good that ambitious black politicians can't be black politicians and also you know have their national ambitions. obama has self-consciously defined himself as an american politician, not like a black one. but that's -- i mean that's the lesson that if you are -- unless you are a republican, a black

republican from a small state, like tim scott, you're already in the political median, then you're only other choice is to distance yourself from people's associations with like black politics which is a shame but it's a shame we have. >> i remember interviewing booker-elected mayor -- >> he won council. >> on the council. he ran against sharp james, it was after he lost that race. i interviewed him he was joking about it i said it seems to me when i talk to people, more people outside of newark like you than inside newark. he said, yes, i lost newark and i won new jersey. that was his reaction to the first race. >> remember, he's not a native newarker. he grew up in a white suburb. >> right. he could have run anywhere. >> but he chose newark. >> booker's strength shows why chris christie made the decision he made because cory booker's a rising politician, chris christie did not want cory booker on the ballot with him.

chris christie's looking for a 1985-type win. in '85 tom kaine wins resounding. christie's thinking i can establish a legacy. i'm popular in the polls. booker not only is a distraction, he's a threat and that's the strategy and politics behind what christie did with the maneuver. >> i want to thank nick acocella, robert costa, ingrid reid at rutgers. the most amazing twist of fate i have ever seen in politics involve frank lautenberg. i want to tell you about it after this. [ male announcer ] erica had a rough day. there was this and this. she got a parking ticket... ♪ and she forgot to pay her credit card bill on time. good thing she's got the citi simplicity card. it doesn't charge late fees or a penalty rate. ever. as in never ever.

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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. ♪ world is regret. you made a mistake. you hate living with consequences. you'd do anything, anything to undo it. yet there's nothing you can do,

you're stuck. it's sad. it's helpless, awful. regret is what frank lautenberg was living with as he approached his 80th birthday. when he made the decision, it made sense, he was well into his 70s, in washington for 18 years and it looked like he would have a serious republican challenger. he announced he was hanging it up. then the instant he finished that press conference, it started to sink in. he confided to a friend, i think i just made a big mistake. lautenberg flirted with canceling retirement and running in 2000 but he couldn't. his party moved on. unhappy retirement began. every day he missed the senate, he missed the spotlight, the game and there was nothing he could do about it. it was over. that is what retirement was like for frank lautenberg. then more than a year into that retirement funny things started to happen. >> the senate ethics committee

admonished senator robert torricelli from taking gifts from a businessman he helped. last night he apologized for lapses of judgment. >> so that create a big problem for democrats. it was the summer of 2002, election year, control of the senate was theirs but only by one vote. here a democrat in a blue state, robert torricelli of new jersey, in the middle of an ethical firestorm, in danger of losing hi seat. the torch tried to hang on, convince voters as much as they didn't like him their lives would be worse with a republican in office. the end of september, the dagger. >> tonight, prosecutors unsealed documents torricelli had been trying to keep secret which found substantial corroborating evidence to back up allegations torricelli took illegal cash and gifts. >> now, democrats panicked. in washington, a torricelli was about to cost them their senate majority. in new jersey they panicked.

if he stayed at top of the ticket head wipe out the party. pressure was applied. carrots dangled and the torch agreed to play ball and get out of the race. >> there are those who concluded those mistakes bring justice to this moment because there's a price to be paid. when did we become such an unforgiving people? >> so now, only five weeks before the 2002 election democrats needed a new candidate. torricelli went on the "today" show the morning after his announcement and named three people he thought should replace him on the ballot. frank lautenberg was not one. this was no accident. torricelli didn't like lautenberg, and lautenberg didn't like torricelli. and that was probably putting it mildly. lautenberg thought that torch was too slick, to me first, too eager to cut corners. they had a legendary confrontation in washington, with senators listening, torricelli threatened to not

sure how to put this, ex-size a portion of lautenberg's reproductive anatomy. the last thing in the world torricelli wanted when he dropped out was lautenberg to replace him. lautenberg wasn't his party's first, second, or third choice or its fourth choice. but everyone kept saying no. a weird situation. switching candidates a month before the election like that. the public might get angry, there were legal questions, too. a risk that no one with anything to lose wanted to take. which is how it came to than on the night of october 1, 2002, frank lautenberg walked into the governor's official residence in princeton and formally asked by party leaders to take torricelli's place. imagine that moment for lautenberg. he was 78 years old, he'd been bored, miserable, forced to watch from the sidelines as his biggest enemy in politics occupied the spotlight. now in an aunt imaginable twist of fate he had a chance to undo

the biggest mistake of his life, to achieve in one fell swoop both revenge and redemption. the election wasn't close. a lost people in new jersey, turned out, never knew that lautenberg left the senate. the race was called early. >> tonight we stand here with a mandate to go ahead to washington, stand up there for all of the people in new jersey and people of this country and do the right thing. i just want to let you in on a secret. it's past my bedtime. i had -- i had a glass of warm milk. and i'm feeling very spry. let them -- let them pull that one again, huh? >> frank lautenberg died a happy man this past month. he died a united states senator. frank lautenberg was also the last of the world war ii

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we've been discussing senator frank lautenberg of new jersey died monday at age of 89, the last remaining member of the senate to have served in world war ii. there are just two world war ii veterans left in the house, congressman john dingell of michigan who away the longest serving member of congress in history, and republican ralph hall of texas. lautenberg's death marks a significant decline in the number of military veterans serving in congress overall. in 1977, 81% of the senate served in the military. now that number, despite a decade of war has fallen to just 16. the house of representatives experienced a similar decline. the last great senate. former ambassador in the office of the u.s. trade representative during the clinton

representation. colonel jack jacobs. it's an amazing drop when you look at it over the last again raths, generation and a half from the late '70s, 8 in 10 members of the senate had served in the military. today, it's 16, we say now. if you look at candidates running next year, it's down to 12, maybe less than that. i guess the basic question is, military policy is such a huge part, defense policy a huge part of what senators are engaged in, what difference does it make when the senators do not have a military background? >> well, the first thing to remember is that just because you're in the military doesn't mean that you know anything about the military. we make a big deal up, for example, of the secretary of defense current secretary of defense having been an elisted man in vietnam, doesn't count much if you don't anything.

the second thing is that in you look at it from a different perspective, that is, that servicer in defense of the country is something that is an honor and a privilege and ought to be mandatory you get a completely different view of what service in the military actually means. i happen to be extremely fond of universal service, not selective service, well, you're going, you don't have to go, you are definitely going, i don't like that idea. i'm fond of universal service. everybody lucky enough to live in the free country owes something to free service. everybody who has served the country, i think, is very bad news because it opens up a wide gulf in a wide variety of ways first between the military steakmensteak me establishment, manned by brave men and women, serving 320

million of us by themselves on the one hand, and second, it opens up a gulf between institutions generally and the people. you can see it in the polls. i mean, the congress has a lower approval rating than bin laden and part of it is because there's a huge disconnect between the people who are served and the people who are being served and the people who are serving. >> that's sort of a bruder issue, too. a decade of war, how insulated from the cost of war, the sort of human cost of war, so many americans are and so many people in power are. first, how many people in congress haven't had the experience of going off to war and being that they don't think of it in those terms. but other issues, too, how separated we've become from the military. the rest of the country. >> right, right. there's -- i think it's helpful to have people in congress who have served in the military in some capacity because it makes it less of an obstruction.

i remember from 2003, 2002, when we talk about going to war, fighting war, we'll bring freedom, we'll do this, but war's an ugly thing. having served doesn't guarantee that you're keeping that in the front of your mind when making policy decisions. but it's -- more likely to be keeping them in the front of your mind if you have experience with the military while serving in congress. also something to be said about some service helps build i guess the civil institutions, that have important politics and policy making that people begin to see lots of different kind of people as americans, not just like people from their particular communities as americans. >> i'm going to add something to that. i apologize. franklin, i think, i'm probably misquoting but it doesn't matter, it's out of context, but it was he who said we either

hang together or hang separately. he brought up a significant point. large majority of the american people not only don't have any skin in the game, more significantly, because it is attitudele and it's an abstraction. don't feel that they have any skin in the game. i think that's very, very dangerous. >> we look at this decline, we can point to a couple of things. look at in congress, for instance, 1970s, when the numbers were 75%, 80% a lot was the world war ii generation. during world war ii 12% of the overall u.s. population had served in military at some point. it's something like 1% of the population i think has served in the last 12 years. >> i think there's another implication for that, which is military isn't the only place where we're just seeing increasing polarization. you go to school with people who look like you, who are the same income of you, et cetera, et cetera, military is drawing from people from the same types of neighborhoods, the same geographic regions, et cetera. increasingly policymakers and people running for office, et

cetera, haven't interacted with that many people din than they are. i think the military used to be this great place where people would kind of come into contact with people really din than them and sort of, you know, both of you are saying, see the broad range of people who are american citizens. now nowhere short of the dmv where you get to see that. >> i want to pick that point up. there's an interesting proposal put out by a former military man. say wow? with olay, here's how. new regenerist eye and lash duo. the cream smooths the look of lids... softens the look of lines. the serum instantly thickens the look of lashes. see wow! eyes in just one week with olay. see wow! eyes in just one week i asked my husband to pay our bill, and he forgot. you have the it card and it's your first time missing a payment, so there's no late fee. really? yep! is your husband off the hook? no. he went out for milk last week and came back with a puppy. hold it. hold it. hold it. hold it. at discover, we treat you like you'd treat you. get the it card with late payment forgiveness.

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hello from new york. i'm steve kornacki with jamelle bouie of the american prospect magazine, ira shapiro, military analyst colonel jack jacobs and abby rapoport. frank lautenberg, the declining presence of military veterans in

congress and politics and i think more broadly sort of how, and abby was making the point at the end of the last segment, how the military's becoming a separate institution that doesn't draw a broad cross section of people the way it did in the past. we done have a draft. we don't have world war ii, 12% of the population was serving. mike mullen, in testimony a few years ago, talked about this. i think in early 2011. i want to play this clip. i thought it was very interesting the way he expressed this. let's play it. >> america doesn't know its military and the united states military doesn't know america. we cannot afford to be out of touch with them and to the degree we are out of touch, i think it's a very dangerous course and that it will generate an outcome someday, we'll wake up one morning, it will be an

event that will cause us to examine this and in that we will find out that, yes, we are less than 1% and, yes, we're living in fewer and fewer places and we don't know the american people and the american people don't know us. >> that's interesting to me how he phrased that. he's not saying this is a problem of the american people doesn't know the military, this is a problem the military doesn't know the american people. when you look at congress, the senate, the sort of lack of hill tear people serving when that moment he's describing comes how do you think congress thinks of the military now? >> i think i agree with colonel jacobs in the sense a lot has changed, you don't have to be a military person to appreciate the military or have the knowledge of the military. if you look at congress, you've got carl levin, who didn't serve, working as an armed services chairman with john mccain, who did. used to have sam nunn who didn't

with john warner who did. but they steeped themselves in the armed services issues and military, they became respected experts. what i think we owe to our military men and women, above all else, is good political decision making by the president and by the legislature. that's what i worry. not only dysfunction that we have now, but the general decline of our ability to make good decisions. if you looked at the gulf war and the debate leading into 1991 gulf war, i think it was a far more informed and thoughtful debate than the one that preceded the iraq war. and so that has consequences. >> when you have a very small number of people in the military and the large majority of the american population and particularly legislators and other leaders don't have any military experience, you get what we have today, and that is

this, we use the military as the default instrument of power. what we -- we're louzy at using state craft, flat terrible at it. we're lousy at using the economic instrument of power and we absolutely positively do not integrate all three instruments of power. instead what we do is rely on these guys. we use the military instrument of power as default instrument and that's partially a function of the fact that leaders and legislators, businessmen, everybody around the country, very few people have military experience. >> an interesting poll, testing public confidence in various institutions. the military continually tests infinitely better -- >> we know what we're doing. >> look at that. 67% for the military. religious institutions, 21%. federal government, 17, news media, 16. i'm surprised news media's that

high. there's an instinctive reverence for the military and it's feeding what jack is saying. >> military guys know exactly what -- they train all the tile to do whatever it is they do. you want people killed and stuff blown up, i'm the guy to call on. you want nations built and economic instruments brought to bear on foreign powers, we're not the guys. we don't do that very well. we do do the stuff we do well. everybody knows it. they say, you, get out there, load up and get out there. >> if more people served, you talked about the idea of mandatory service, universal service, if more people served in general if they had the experience, if families had experience of loved ones serving, if that was a broader experience, do you think there would be less reflects of reverence for the military if people understood it better and wound defer to it like that? i sort of think the popularity of the reverence for the military is less a function of you know unfamiliarity with it.

i guess the last ten year of institutional scandals, you know the news media's had its share, politicians certainly have had their share, relidge out institutions have had their share. the there's iraq and afghanistan. it's not the military's fault. >> it's the political system's fault. >> the military isolated from i think the fallout from various institutional scandals or institutional concerns. while the military had its own they're esoteric. theage person on the street isn't able told you if there's problems in the military establishment. they sea youe young men and wom serving their country. it's difficult to say i don't approve of that, of course you do. >> i mean the question really is, as jack was getting to, is what's the mission that we're asking our military men and women to perform? everyone felt really wonderful

about the gulf war and the performance in the gulf war. and everyone pointed out what a remarkable change in the military in this post-vietnam period. we had this volunteer army, it was superb at what it did. if you asked them to get involved in what proves to be a continue-year war and a war that has more than a little component of nation building, then it becomes harder. so no one's questioning the ability of our military people and what they've done for the country. we have to question what kind of wars we're going to be involved in and whether it does become a default instrument as the colonel has discussed. >> yeah. i totally agree. i think it becomes harder to be skeptical when people ask military to do things they are not trained to do that aren't their area of expertise, like nation building. it's harder if you haven't served for politicians to say, wait, is the military going to be good at this? this isn't their thing.

and i think that's where the rub comes in. it's not that the military can't do the job it's set out to do well and not that people can't be skeptical, it's that those don't match, i think, certainly haven't matched over the last ten years to the extent -- >> let me add one thing very, very quickly along these lines that and that is this. we drew a line after vietnam and said we weren't go doing it anymore but did it anyway. why is it during vietnam riots in the streets, an unpopular war for a decade, now an unpopular war that went on for a decade and no riots in the street? the draft. if we had a draft in the last decade, trust me there would be riots in the street. we have brave men and women out there defending us, but it's at least partially a financial of

the fact that people love the troops because they don't have to be the troops. and i believe very strongly, had we had a draft, an arbitrary draft of the type we're talking about that ex-ifed i-iisted in- >> karl eikenberry proposing, he called for a limited form of conscription, a limited draft that would be designed in the way that would cut into privileged areas, so the big gripe i think in vietnam, there was this elite shielded, found ways to shield itself from the draft. he's saying let's design something, it's not universal but bring back the idea of the citizen soldier and it would change the way these decisions are made. we wouldn't be casual by war. >> good luck making it arbitrary and selective and still make it fair. >> i mean that's the problem. i mean we have -- we have gone

40 years without a draft. we have built an excellent all-volunteer army. the difficulty of creating a draft which goes against the grain for a lot of people, and the difficulty of creating one without a lot of exceptions, is the problem we ran into with vietnam. it was a very short period when you had the draft and all kinds of exemptions for people in college and then you decided you couldn't sustain that, so basically we abolished the draft. i think that we need not only to support and admire the soldiers and the military that we have, but i think we have to have political decision making that's better in terms of what we're getting people into. >> i mean, what are possible solutions here? we talk about the draft, okay, politically we're not bringing back the draft. so what can be done sort of a practical stand point to reconnect the experience of

being in the military of people not -- >> i've got one for you. i'll try to be as quick as possible. college started in january. it doesn't start in september. when you're 18 or graduated from high school, you go to basic training. now part of the problem of thinking about how we are supposed to do this is a logistical one. what the heck we're going to do with a covert of 18-year-olds for two years? if you assume that the whole idea of military service is to -- so we all have some common experience -- we don't even have voting in common. a greater percentage of people in iraq votes than votes in the united states. we get killed if you vote. you come into the military establishment, go through basic training. after eight weeks we give you as a receive near of your national service a pair of boots and a uniform and say, thank you very much, i never between see you again. take these as our contribution to you so you can remember your eight weeks of military service. and trust me, after that time,

in the last couple of weeks of basic training, we would have to convene boards to determine whom among the people who want to stay in the military and go on active duty after that, we want to keep. we wouldn't have to spend billions of dollars advertising enlisting in the military establishment because there would be lots of people who want to stay. at the end when people get to be my age and maybe your age, too, say think about, what do you remember back when you were young? the thing i most remember is my eight weeks in basic training. >> that's interesting because in talking to people around from the world war ii generation or the coup korea generation, if you don't know each other that well it doesn't take them long to start sharing their experiences and their stories from the service and it's something that i find many of them if not all of them, in these settings they can all relate to it. they all went through it. >> you might have hated it, but it was -- came at a seminole point in your life and it was a

seminole event and something that you shared with absolutely everybody else in the country. >> i don't see why it's necessarily the military. because the military's a tool, you want to have something that actually fit what we need the military for. i'm not sure that we need in the 21st century a military comprised of hundreds and hundreds or million of young people. even if a fraction of those coming in, there might be more capability than we need. >> my objective is not to get the capable to defend the republic against the chinese -- >> a shared speern ed experienc have to be martial. >> you're talking to somebody who likes the experience. second, from a practical standpoint, how do you choose? i mean i think i would prefer to empty bowls in the hospital and i don't want to shoot guns. you're liable -- you wind up

having this bifurcated and experience. >> there is as i think a shared experience from my again rashgs it's called student loan debt. thanked to jamelle bouie, ira shapiro, analyst colonel jack jacobs will premiere on "dit ru disrupt" a number we can put on republican obstruction, i'll tell you next. [ male announcer ] this is kevin. to prove to you that aleve is the better choice for him, he's agreed to give it up. that's today? [ male announcer ] we'll be with him all day as he goes back to taking tylenol. i was okay, but after lunch my knee started to hurt again. and now i've got to take more pills. ♪ yup. another pill stop.

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maybe you saw on tuesday when president obama held a rose

garden press conference to announce he's nominating three people on the d.c. circuit court of appeals. this isn't customary. why is the president breaking with tradition? let's let him and his democratic allies explain. >> a small number on the other side have got an way with obstruction -- >> unprecedented eed obstructi >> this is about political obstruction. >> so there it is, obstruction, republican obstruction. the gop has stalled, filibustered and delayed and derailed a ridiculous number, unprecedented number, of obama's nominees. picking three nominees at once is obama's way of playing for attention, daring republicans to keep on obstructing him in the full light of day. except, well, when you listen to republicans, they won't exactly see the point. >> we're not going to let the majority leader manufacture

obstruction, obstruction crisis, where none exists. >> the fact of matter is there is no obstruction. >> in the majority leader suggested there was delay and obstruction. that word comes out automatically when sometimes some people wake up in the morning on that side of the aisle. >> so that leaves us with another he said/she said story. i don't know who to believe. actually, this is why god invented math. thanks to a post this week at greg sergeant's line, the index of obstruction and delay a form late created by a scientist at am hurst, it puts a numerical value on obstruction. compiling data for each two-year senate, looked at nomination for the federal court of appeals. let's see how to works. first take the number of nominations that haven't been

confirmed, so for example, just to show how it works, say that number is ten. and you add in the number of nominations that have been confirmed, but that took at least 180 days to do so. let's say also that that up in's ten. that gives us a total of 20. so now what do we do? divide 20 by the total number of nominations that a president has made. say that's 40. we would have 20 divided by 40 for obstruction score of .500. the basic rule, the bigger the number is the closer to 1.00 the more obstruction there is going on. let's take a look at obstruction of the federal appeals court picks over the years. right behind me is the overall trend of the last three plus decades. look closer, you can see what's going on. for a long time, in the late '70s through the '80s, into '90s there was a simple pattern. first two years of any presidential term obstruction would be low. here, for example, 1981, 1982,

first two years of reagan's presidency. the score is zero. you can look at '85, '86, second term, .069. george bush sr.'s first two years .0625. in the second two years of the president's terms, obstruction rose. from 0.1429 in reagan's first term up to .762 and .500 for bush sr. there is a lonlgic to this. the opposition party was more willing to put the team in place. after that the opposition party would be thinking to the next election and get picky. why let all of the other nominees go through if your party might win the white house? then came the clinton year. first term was normal, light obstruction first two years, heavier in the next two. then clinton wins re-election in 1996 and the obstruction intensifies to a new level. .6932 in the first half of his second term.

this is key. you had before this an established norm for opposition party behavior. republicans in clinton's term changed it. when bush 43 came in, democrats accepted that new norm. they're scores were high throughout the last decade. we get to obama, look, the norm changes again. high level of obstruction first two years followed by a near total blockade the next two. look at that score. .9524. that's close to 1.00 as we've ever been for the congress that ended after last year's election. it is the highest score record and its more jarring when you consider republicans have been the minority party in the senate since obama became president. that is the backdrop, unprecedented republican obstruction for the three nominations that obama made this week. for a couple of other bold step his also took. we'll talk about them next. ♪ ♪

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holdsing obama and his enemies" michael steele, co-author of "recovering politicians 12-step program to crisis" and senior editor of the new republic magazine. so, set that up last segment, talking about the appeals court specifically, the d.c. court of appeals, president this week made three simultaneous nominations, talk last week this would happen. he went through and did it this week. and michael, i'll start with you. we have republican voice here. do you think republicans are going to continue to fight these or let some of the nominations through or all nominations through? >> no, they'll slow down the process as much as they can. this is all about the politics of it right now. the president, you know, showcasing this week was political. i mean, but it was important. he had to do it. upuntil now the president has not been behind his nominees, not pushed from inside the

beltway to get even the senate democrats to be vocal about these appointments and to really bring that kind of political pressure. so we'll see. the republicans right now are going, well, you know, we look at not producing a lot of nominees to begin with. he's behind where predecessors have been in nominations. so they're taking a very, you know, we'll take it as it comes approach. >> let me play -- we actually -- mitch mcconnell responded to it this week. this is what he had to say. >> i think the issue if there is one, with regard to the d.c. circuit is the question of, whether this circuit court, which is apparently less busy than all but one circuit courts in the nation needs to have a full complement of judges. as senator grassley has statistics and a good one to ask about the appropriateness of confirming these three judges. >> that's kind of amazing to me, jonathan.

first, we tried to did a bit of math with this as well. it's not the least busy of all circuits and the cases that the d.c. circuit deals with tend to be more complex than cases that are dealt with elsewhere. republicans are saying we like the balance of the court now without three obama nominees confirmed. we're looking for a way not to confirm them. >> this symbolizes the different skill sets between republicans and democrats in a noncampaign situation. why republicans though they don't have support of the country now, make so much headway. so, when grassley made his announcement, he said that the president was trying to pack the court, a court packing scheme, bringing up memories of everybody who studied in school, roosevelt's 1937 attempt to pack the supreme court by expanding the number of justices from nine, which was slam dunked in the 1930s.

the hut spa of that, because he wants to fill vacancies, packing the court, what this is is a shameless court shrinking scheme but nobody says that. >> it's let's change it by cutting number of people on the court. >> right, cutting the number of people on the d.c. circuit in a just breathtaking effort to political effort to try to prevent democrat -- a more liberal justice -- judges from being on the court. >> explain for one second, take a step back, we talk about the d.c. court all the time, why is the d.c. court so important and so contested by both parties? >> first there are several, i should know the exact number, several members of the u.s. supreme court who started on the d.c. court including john roberts and his vacancy from 2005 is one of those that still hasn't been filled. it is the court just below the

supreme court. and the reason why, though the other circuits are technically equal, the reason why it's seen as just below the supreme court in importance is all of the big issues that involve the government, most of them, come up through the d.c. circuit and so their rulings are extraordinarily important when it comes to how this country is governed. this is a power grab by the republicans, the president was very upfront, very strong in explaining that it was political. but they didn't frame the argument as sharply as they still need to. they need to come at it. you can't hold one press availability in the rose garden to come at it over and over again. this court shrinking scheme by these obstructionists, highly political republicans must end and rally public support. it's harder to do when it involves judges because most people don't pay a lot of attention to this kind of thing,

unfortunately. >> this was the -- got portrayed this week ace more aggressive approach than the president's previously taken on judges and nominations in general. do you see it making a difference? >> i think the problem is a win/win for the republicans, right? every week that they go on, there's more cases that are going to be decided by the eight that are on the court right now and so, you know, even if they overplay their hand and i think the big question is, you know, will the democrats actually call the bluff and change the filibuster rules, but even if that happens, they'll still have effectively won more weeks than they would otherwise. a lot of the republicans think they're going to get the senate back in 2014 and then they can do it by 2016, they'll be getting their people in. >> i think we are headed for the nuclear option. i don't know for sure but that's what my gut is telling me now. at a certain point, even harry reid, who doesn't want to do

this, really isn't going to see any option but -- so we might get what we should have had a long time ago. >> harry reid made one of his -- he kind of teased it again this week, this has been happening for a while. we'll talk about that after this. in that time there've been some good days. and some difficult ones. but, through it all we've persevered, supporting some of the biggest ideas in modern history. so why should our history matter to you? because for more than two centuries, we've been helping ideas move from ambition to achievement. ♪ and the next great idea could be yours. ♪

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let nominations go through? as you look to the summer, do you think the nuclear option we talked about, passing a change to the filibuster rule, getting rid of the filibuster of a simple vote of the senate, do you see that as a viable thing that could happen? >> it could. democrats will find themselves in the minority and maybe they might regret doing that if they went ahead with the nuclear option. >> but michael, from a republican standpoint, you know, the dance that's been going on between reid and mcconnell is interesting to watch. reid will dangle this possibility and mcconnell, we've seen he's backed off here and there, do you think it has the effect? a little bit. i think at the end of the day, to your point, they don't want -- the democrats don't want to play the nuclear option because they're looking to 2016, a 2014, 2016 beyond, seeing the possibility of losing the senate. last thing they want is payback. so that's just a lot of noise

right now. at the end of the day, i think it really matters about the president pushing this thing and driving this discussion to the point, very much like you said before, that's more public, it's more open but the -- reid is stuck. he has nowhere to go. mcconnell's going you play your hand, i'll play mine, and therefore they keep banging the drum on nominations and there aren't any movements in the direction of getting it done. >> and what i wonder, talking about the d.c. circuit here, you talk about how it's a feeder for the supreme court traditionally, we haven't had in obama's second term but we might a supreme court nomination. if there's a vacancy on the supreme court. look at all of the delay tactics, obstruction, republicans as you get farther into the term will be thinking to the next election saying do we need -- what happens if there's a vacancy on the supreme court in the next year or two? how much of what's going now is a warm-up for that? >> i think it's a dress

rehearsal and the president's change his tone they might craft something that applies to judicial nominationser doesn't break the filibusters altogether. he udoesn't want to nomination somebody for the supreme court and the president can't get it done with three, 3 1/2 years to go in his term, so he's going to have to do something in order to get very possibly a replacement for justice ginsburg or one of eithers, should they decide to step down. in terms of the actuarial odds there's a good chance that will happen. i doubt that justice ginsburg, who had a bout with cancer, she's doing better now, i doubt she's going to want to wait and see what happens in the 2016 election. so she's more likely to step down at some point.

and if he hasn't broken this obstruction by then, he won't be able to get a replacement through. so in one of the things that i tried to do in my book is give the history of the obstruction. where does this all come from? where does grover norquist come from? how did we get to this place? it's a contextual story i try to tell because we haven't had this level of partisan gridlock in washington in modern memory. so, yes, there's always been a lot of this going back 200 years but we're in a different place. some of it has to do with reaction to barack obama for a variety of different reasons that create what i call, you know, and others have called, obama dearrangement syndrome where they really can't be caught cooperating with him in any fashion, even on judges, even on judges they like, where they have trouble with their

constituents. and that really started in 2010 with senator bennett of utah, who was very, very conservative, one of the most conservative members of the entire u.s. senate, but he made the mistake of working with the democrat, ron wyden, on health care policy and he got dumped at a state party convention in utah. he basically -- his political career was ended. when he went back to serve the rest of his term for several months he was a walking advertisement for never, never cooperate, never work with democrats, or you will see your career ended. so they only work with democrats on small things. now maybe on immigration, because they got the message from the 71% of latinos that obama got which to my mind this again is something i really focused on in the book because it was getting 71% of latinos that has made immigration possible. otherwise, it wouldn't be. everything else, obstruction,

obstruction, obstruction, even infrastructure, things that the republican party was founded on, no grounds for compromise. >> the -- we talk about obstruction nominations, not everything that the president does, not everybody he wants to appoint is subject to nomination and confirmation. we had this week susan rice, soon to be national security adviser. [ indistinct conversations ]

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because you can fly any airline anytime. two words. double miles! this guy can act. wanna play dodge rock? oh, you guys! and with double miles you can actually use, you never miss the fun. beard growing contest and go! ♪ i win! what's in your wallet? so when susan rice was last in the news, it was because republicans were making it it clear they were going obstruct nomination to secretary of state. back into the news, the president's going to name her as national security adviser, that's not subject to senate confirmation, so republicans have nothing-to-say about that in terms of getting the job. when you look at where susan rice is philosophically, her reputation is more sort of interventionism friendly, more align in some ways with the republicans who were so opposed

to her being secretary of state. in a back wars way, someone like mccain is in a position who agrees more with the interventionist forces on the republican side. >> i think her interventionism has been overstated a little bit. she's a lot more like obama than people realize. she is -- you know she's guys by certain fundamental principles, democracy, human rights, et cetera. but all of that is constrained by pragmatic things on the ground. you know, can you go in, what would an intervention, for example in syria look like? would it achieve anything? i think she's been schooled a little bit what happened in libya. that was an easy intervention. they stopped a massacre but what's happening on the ground there now is, you know, also a bit of a lesson that she's had to learn. so i -- she's both an interventionist and not an interventionist, much in the same way obama's hard to pin down on foreign policy, she is. but she helped craft -- she was

like a fundamental architect of his foreign policy views when he was in the senate, she was advising him on foreign policy even back then. >> i wonder how she's going -- now in this position, you look at the republicans basically trying to scapegoat her for benghazi. i wonder how day to day, being in this position, having to deal with republicans here and there how they will -- how those -- how will john mccann and lindsey graham deal with her in the position. >> they have to. she's the president's national security adviser. she's the person who will go back into the president's ear on things important to the mccains of the world. they'll deal with her the way they've dealt with every national security adviser. to your setup point, there is more, i think, agreement with the john mccain's idea of interventionist type of approach that lines up with what she may be advising or has advised the

president, they're not going to buck her too much or rag her down. the base may want to hear bells klanging about susan rice, she's in the west wing, right next to the president on foreign policy, she's not down in foggy bottom about all of the changing of the bell doesn't mean anything because nothing they can say or do to stop her. >> i'm not sure agree. graham and others have used ben zaz gi as cover. he's up for re-election. and he needs to keep banging that drum on benghazi for his base so he doesn't have trouble in the republican primary in south carolina and you know you've seen him do it in some pretty loud ways. >> absolutely. >> personal ways as it related to susan rice. >> in quiet ways. i heard when she was going through the nonnomination-nomination bizarre act the white house was having her go through, apparently

people close to susan rice would talk to mccain, calm him down, he'd say okay, i'll stop getting in the way and lindsey graham would come in, get him riled up. >> i heard that also. it's political on graham's part. >> what do we know now that we didn't last week? ♪ c'est aujourd'hui ♪ ♪ et toujours ♪ me amour ♪ how about me? [ male announcer ] here's to a life less routine. ♪ and it's un, deux, trois, quatre ♪ ♪ give me some more of that [ male announcer ] the more connected, athletic, seductive lexus rx. ♪ je t'adore, je t'adore, je t'adore ♪ ♪ ♪ s'il vous plait [ male announcer ] this is the pursuit of perfection.

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♪ if we don't double the number of kids graduating from high school in the next 8 years, our country won't be able to compete globally. what uncle sam needs now are more good teachers. are you up for it? you can help kids graduate. the more you know. so what do we know now that we didn't know last week? well, we now know that the college student who asked about his job prospects in the 2012 townal debate is having trouble landing a summer job. jeremy epstein asked the first question in the debate last fall. >> mr. governor romney, as a 20-year-old college student all i hear from professors and neighbors is when i graduate i will have little chance to get employment. what can you say to reassure me and more importantly my parents that i will be able to sufficiently support myself after i graduate? >> he said while he hasn't found a summer job, he will host a

show on his college radio station. we now know that heather mcgill, the wife of alabama state senator chad mcgill really, really does not want women making advances towards her husband. since her husband was elected she says women have repeatedly sent him racy pictures on facebook. on monday she took to her husband's facebook page to let her know she had enough. attention facebook, this is heather mcgill, senator mcgill's wife. i have been silent long enough. no more. multiple times since being in office he has e-mails from women who may not be real inviting him to explore and sending pictures of themselves. you know who you are. next time everyone will know who you are for i will publicly share your name before we unfriend you. the senator has praised his wife's actions but says because of so much miranda rule decline in the country remay have to ditch facebook all together.

the two men who appeared on the cover of the new york post next to the photo bad men have filed a defamation suit against the paper. the suit was filed by two students. the suit claims the post asserted they were persons suspected by law enforcement of having committed these crimes. when they published the real stories, the paper's editor stood by it. at the time, he wrote, quote, the image was e-mailed to law enforcement agencies yesterday afternoon seeking information about the men as our story reported. we did not identify them as suspects. allen has not commented on the lawsuit. and finally we know after the search for the real boston bombing suspects ended, massachusetts governor duvall patrick relaxed with a drink. he said the night dzhokhar

tsarnaev was captured, this is what we will know. in the next two weeks andrew cuo cuomo's last chance on public financing for the year. the new york legislature made this a priority. >> so i'm going to go and do self promotional, my book was published this week. father's day book. i did learn a couple of things in the reaction to my book. the first is if you talk about roger ale's paranoia, he comes back and e hits you with a two by four and hits you again and again in a personal way. he went after me for reporting the truth in my book. and the other thing i learned is i have a lot in the book about

the way the cave in chicago during the campaign worked. these analytics geniuses who revolutionized politics very young and got the president reelected essentially. what's happening now is fascinating. businesses are descending on them and offering them huge amounts of money to use the lessons of the campaign to help their businesses. usually it's the other way around, like the tactics of mad son avenue and then going to politics. now you have the move of technology from politics into business, which is fascinating. >> all right, michael. >> well, this one is going to surprise a lot of people. about a week and a half ago donald trump made very interesting noises at an event in michigan. it was a sellout crowd. almost 3,000 people. he started to lay down an economic plan. lit be interesting to see how he

stair steps into this the conversation about china and other things sochl keep an eye on donald. >> i was going to say that vladimir putin got divorced. i think it's great news for the ladies. then i was flipping through this and i saw '80s night stalker serial slayer is dead, having turned bright green right before he died. that takes the cake. >> story week, thanks to the new york post. new york post starring in the segment of the show today. thanks to jonathan alter, author of the new book, the center holds obama and his enemies and julia iohe of republican magazine. join us tomorrow morning, sunday at 8:00 when i'll have my other boss at my other gig, salon editor joan walsh. coming up next is melissa harris-perry on today's second-term swagger. the president put it all on the line this week and called outside his political opponents

not once, not twice, but three times as the president essentially says bring it on. melissa harris-perry is coming up next. we'll see you right here tomorrow at 8:00. thanks for getting up. woman: everyone in the nicu -- all the nurses wanted to watch him when he was there 118 days.

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