hunt. for chris christie, it's like swatting flies. >> thank you. the weiners and the clintons. let's play "hardball." good evening. i'm chris matthews in washington. let me start with this. this thing in new york is getting a lot bigger than some sleazy e-mails. there are larger stakes in this matter than the political future of a desperate former congressman. it comes down to one word, reputation. now, there are cynics out there who will sneer that politicians and politics itself cannot go any lower in public esteem. for those i can't really help you. if you've lost hope, you're pretty much on your own. but this anthony weiner

business, a matter only he argues is still a private matter involving him and his laptop is giving new york democrats the kind of branding that can make them the butt of jokes, worse yet, deep and heartfelt disgust for years to come. if he stays in the race to the ends and wins a significant number of votes, he will count himself a winner. every vote he gets, every other candidate he beats will be a statement to the country about new york and about the democratic party. a statement that will be used against both again and again and again. the people who know the best are the former president bill clinton and possibly future president hillary clinton. if they won't say it out loud how this is bothering them, hurting their reputations, their friends are. howard fineman is the editorial director for the "huffington post" media group and terry o'neill is president of the national organization for women. so we have a heavyweight here. thank you, howard.

i don't like to do this, but we've got approval on this. it has been a believe it or not a reliable website. the website the dirty it's called which last week posted sexually explicit messages allegedly between anthony weiner and a 22-year-old woman he met online has posted new texts and new photos and the website is promising to publish more tomorrow. so this drip, drip, drip continues. it shows how big of a challenge he will have if he decides to stay in the race. his past misdeeds will continue while they continue to haunt him. meanwhile, we're seeing signs the clinton world, the world of hillary and bill clinton are distancing themselves from the whiners. over the weekend, dee dee myers, former press secretary to president clinton blasted anthony weiner as unqualified and declared his campaign over and said the clintons would be happy to see the weiner story go away. let's watch her. >> look, isn't a story that anybody, particularly the clintons is happy to see splashed all over the news relentlessly.

i think they, as much as anyone, would like to see this go away. so you know, if they could choose, they would certainly weiner get out of the race and have huma get on with their life. it's genuinely painful for the clintons because they're close. it's not a comparable situation to what hillary clinton went through. >> the new york post quoted a top state democrat who said the clintons are upset by the comparisons between drawn between them and the weiners. quote, the clintons are, and i have to say this word, blanked off that weiner's campaign is saying that huma is just like hillary. how dare they compare huma with hillary. hillary is the first lady. hillary was a senator. she was a secretary of state. hillary didn't know huma would do this whole stand by your man routine. that's one of the reasons the clintons are distancing themselves from all this nonsense. well, let's go right now to howard fineman. thank you for joining us, and thank you, terry for joining us on behalf of now, a great organization. howard, it looks to me like the clintons, the one thing we know about anthony weiner is he married well.

he married huma abedin, a close confidante, sits with her on the plane all the time. somebody she would trust to make all kinds of judgments for her. here she is playing this role of enabler. keeping this guy in the race. politically, not about the marriage. politically keeping him in the race. >> the clintons are in a sense a kind of royal family in the democratic party. he married into that royal family. and he seems to be abusing his privileges. and now he's put her in a terrible position. and the clintons in a bad position. i can assure you that dee dee myers didn't come out there on face the nation with guns blazing the way she did basically speaking on behalf of the clintons had she nod hat good reason to do so as a former press secretary to the president, as a friend. clintons stick together. the people in clinton world generally stay in clinton world. >> you know that from reporting? >> oh, of course.

i know lots of people who are upset at the notion that huma and anthony are using clinton world, using their contacts for fundraising to try to get donors for his campaign. one thing i can assure you is dee dee myers' announcement on "face the nation" yesterday is a signal to whoever within the clinton world was willing to or thinking of contributing to anthony weiner that it not only is it acceptable not to do so, but probably it's a very good idea not to do so, because there is no desire in clinton world to see these stories mix together any longer than they have to be. >> one of the hoots of this whole thing that weiner's contention that this is all a private matter happening in his home. he said this is happening in my home. he's on his laptop which reaches the universe and he's used that laptop to reach young supporters who like his politics and established the still transitional relationship. even bill maher took a shot at me after he spent his whole show talking about weiner, said i talked about it.

he spent the show talking about it. fair enough. happy to see you, bill. but the thing is the women are involved, as a leader of the biggest organization for women's rights and equality and dignity, what's the story about? >> it's about a man who needs to drop out of the race, period. in the privacy of his own home? please, he's taking pictures of himself and his anatomy all erect if i can say that on television. >> you just did. >> all right. and tweeting it out and putting it out there in cyberspace where it is clearly not private. his behavior is really reprehensible. i think part of the reprehensible nature of his behavior is to then hold himself out as a potential leader of men and women. >> what do you think of bill maher's comment? bill can be pretty liberal on matters like this to say the least. he thought it was a political leader who has a fan club out there for political reasons to then recruit them into his sleaze ball game there. >> it sounds a lot like what the

mayor of san diego did. in other words, you get people in there will and then there's a modus operandi. you like my politics? let's talk about this. i want to draw you in here. psychologists have talked about it. it's a personality disorder. it's this and the other. >> from the point of view of the clintons, this is sort of the sleazy breaking bad version. >> right. >> and the clinton world doesn't want america and the world reminded in a cheap echo version of what happened in their time. >> 15 years ago. which also brings up to date an old problem. >> it's an old problem but emphasis old and it is. >> anthony's fair enough keeps saying this is up to the people of new york. the latest polling is always fascinating. new york is so diverse and so wild sometimes, you never what is going to come out of a poll. here it is. christine quinn has regained her lead. she is at 27, leading the poll right now pretty substantially. de blasio is at 21, thompson at

20, weiner at 16. we're always watching these things with fascination. he hasn't -- he's lost a big lead but he holds to the core 16. one in six new yorkers still say weiner when they're asked. >> if you put all the polls together the last several days, there's been a precipitous drop in his poll numbers, no question about it. what the floor is, i don't know. but the combination of the clintons world making it clear that they will don't want him around, that's going to damage his fund raising. it's going to damage his ability to get good campaign workers. he lost his campaign manager the other day. he's going to die on the vine here. i don't know what the bottom number is. he's probably not seen the bottom number yet. he can stay in the race. there's no reason for him not to. he's already humiliated himself beyond repair. the only way is forward for him. it's not going to be a forward to the top of the ticket. >> what about the fact he spent $45,000 of campaign money given

by campaign contributors to help his political career for a phony investigation of somebody hacking into his computer when in fact he knew that was a lie to begin with? he threw away $45,000 to make himself look better. >> of his funders' hard earned money. er. >> right. >> that's number one. number two, i don't understand why any democratic funders would be supporting him if his name was amy instead of anthony. there is not a single democratic. >> what you do you think, they support him because he's male? >> i think if he were female, he would be toast a long time ago. >> i have to tell you. we're always learning. i can't imagine a woman sending out naked pictures of herself on the twitter. >> no, you can't. but if it did happen, nobody would -- >> crazy. >> there would be nobody funding her. >> they would be considered crazy. >> crazy and totally -- and absolutely she would be a pariah. which he's not yet but he needs to be. >> the problem with his having hired the private investigator, it shows he wanted to fight dirty. to the extent he had any

smidgeon left of a story that was sympathetic that he was a sympathetic character overcome by his own emotions at one point, now he looks like a cold, calculating guy who is willing to hire a private investigator to go after his enemies over this story. >> this week he told a newspaper "you're stuck with me." he insisted he's going nowhere. let's watch. >> i don't take my cues on policy from the sunday talk shows listening to pundits. i never have. i don't take my cues from the headline writers in the newspapers. i never have. those are the very same people that didn't want me to run, that the didn't want new yorkers to have this choice. i'm going to keep talking about the things important to this city. i don't really care if a lot of pundits or politicians are offended by that. i'm going to keep doing those things, and i think new yorkers deserve that choice. i'm going to let new yorkers decide. >> am i the only one who thinks he's enjoying this, like nixon enjoyed his resignation? look at that smile breaking out on his face. the guy thinks it's all a funny joke, a dirty funny joke. he's loving it.

where are the cameras? they're on him. the microphones are under his chin. everybody wants to hear from anthony. this is a bizarre national festival of weirdness. >> yet, howard said his campaign manager as resigned. again, not just funders. i don't understand any operatives who would work on his campaign. seriously. >> his top aide just quit. >> the what alternative does he have? i don't think he's smiling. i think he's walking forward because there's no other way for him to go. >> i agree. >> he's humiliated beyond repair at this point. he may, as well play the hand out till the end. >> he's like bashir assad. >> well, i'm not going to say that. >> well, he is, because bashar al assad ain't got no place to go. here's what i think his strategy is. coming in a strong third, a strong fourth, get a decent chunk of the vote. have a big hotel room, a ballroom, rent it out. hundreds of people will be there. he'll be crying, she'll be crying. he'll be saluting the people

that stuck with him and the democratic party will look ridiculous. anyway, thank you. thank you, howard. and new york to some extent although it's very big. anything, howard fineman, and terry o'neill from the national organization for women. not of women, for women. >> that's right. >> coming up, a man who knows a thing or two about trying to res sect a political career in new york city of a sex scandal of a different kind, eliot spitzer. republicans have made it clear they can't get more people to vote for them, they're going to make sure fewer people have a chance to vote for democrats. aren't they something? a meeting at the white house today was designed to stop republicans from doing just that. and the latest shot in the republicans' civil war between the ascendant tea party types and the shrinking moderate wing. this weekend, rand paul met mimicked chris christie as paul put it, for saying as pull put it, gimme, gimme, gimme all my hurricane sandy money now. he's playing with fire. let me finish tonight with the meeting taking place between israeli and palestinian officials right here in the american capital. it's really happening. final status of negotiations. who could have believed? this is "hardball." the place for politics.

well, guess who's coming to dinner or lunch? hillary clinton had lunch with president obama today at the white house. the lunch was closed to the press, but aides say the president invited his former secretary of state and the lunch was a friendly chance to "catch up." there they are together outside. a beautiful day today. hillary clinton is having breakfast tomorrow with vice president joe biden who may well be her chief rival should she decide to run for the democratic nomination in 2016. we'll be right back.

over the course of my public life, i have insisted i believe correctly, that people, regardless of their position or power, take responsibility for their conduct. i can and will ask no less of myself. i go forward with the belief as others have said, that as human

beings our greatest glory consists not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall. >> rising. well, welcome back to "hardball," and perhaps for part of the rising. that was former new york governor eliot spitzer resigning from office in 2008 just 48 hours after it was revealed he had been using a high priced prostitution service as governor and as attorney general. he quickly exited the public stage in 14 hours, keeping a relatively low profile for a few years, then going on to television. now spitzer, once considered to be a potential for president of the united states is seeking to return to life as the new york city comptroller, a much less prestigious position, perhaps not less visible. responsible for auditing the city's finances and evaluating performances of city agencies. here's a clip from his campaign ad. look, i failed. big-time. i hurt a lot of people. when you dig yourself a hole, you can either lie it in for the

rest of your life or do something positive. that's why i'm running. make sure your money goes where it's supposed to go and does what it is supposed to do. make sure the wall street companies play by the rules. if you hear any negative noise out there, and you will, keep in mind where it's coming from. maybe being hated by the wall street firms isn't such a terrible thing. everyone, no matter who you are, deserves a fair shot. i'm asking voters to give the same to me. >> the man once known as the sheriff of wall street for his tough prosecutions of white collar crime and corporate abuses looked into the camera, you just saw it there, asking voters to give him a fair shot. eliot spitzer joins us right now. thank you very much. do you like to be called governor still or elliott? >> i always use my first name even when i was in office. the honorary was not the important thing. >> i'm judgmental and judged well your decision to split after just 48 hours. you didn't waste our time. you didn't endure the agony nor waste our time with the fuss. i gave you advice backstage one time. i said go low key like mike

milken after his embarrassment and do good work and then run for an office somewhat lower and express your contrition. you took half my advice. here are you running for comptroller of new york. does that suggest a certain level of humility, of acceptance of the fact that you did something that would bring you down a bit and therefore, you're running for the appropriate level of public applause here? you're not going for the big job? >> look, i said, and a few people raised eyebrows when i said it that if i ever got back in, and i do credit you for that wisdom, and others had suggested this as well, that you don't go back at the very top. i don't want to suggest this is humility. i just think it's appropriate. i erred. i acknowledged. have i taken five years. some of it was low-key, you're right. i hosted some tv shows. perhaps it was low-key given the ratings i had. it's very important to the public. you're right. i'm not trying to become the mayor of the public again. i'm trying to get a position i think shows a desire to serve in a position that i hope i have the skills for. >> you have a critical oversight whoever the next mayor is over a

public official. if a public official used their office equipment to engage in the kind of pastime that anthony weiner has been involved in the last couple of years, would you fire them? >> i think the answer is yes. we have had a number of instances over the years where inevitably, of course, municipal employees, state employees have used computers and the like for improper purposes. there is an appropriate sanction for that. there should be. this is -- having said that, that isn't the most important role of the new york city comptroller. >> sure. >> but you're making a point that has played out in the papers most often recently over the years. >> that would include the mayor, of course. like any other official. i wanted to take ten minutes to get to that. you got to it so fast, i don't have a plan anymore. you have answered the question. let me ask you, a lot of people are concerned. let's talk about bloomberg, the mayor, and a very popular mayor in many regards. consider most city mayors after a couple terms, three terms he's still doing pretty well. he had this to say about you. just condemning any one industry

is not a smart thing to do. if there's something wrong on wall street, it's not the comptroller's job to investigate that. the comptroller's job is to make sure all the contracts are given out fairly and they're given out fairly to the contractors who are honest. that's where we need the next comp troller to focus on. he's saying focus on the city hall. don't be going off as the crusader against wall street. your response, sir. >> my response is, look, there are many different facets of this job. i've articulated them. one is policy audits. critically important to make sure if we spend billions in a program, we're getting the policy return we should. that has been an underutilized aspect of it. a piece of it is overseeing is the city budget which is somehow nuts and bolts and is understood that way. a third piece is overseeing the pensions and what comes with that is some oversight over the ownership capacity through shareholder proxies to mold corporate governance. we have had violations in corporate governance and on wall street to a great extent, chris, a failure to exercise the obligations of ownership. you can't regulate or prosecute

your way to good judgment in the corporate boardroom. it's owner who have the responsibility to stand up. that's what warren buffett does and what shareholders are supposed to do. pension owners, and i wrote about this in the book i just wrote that came out. i do want to plug the book, but i won't. it is the obligation of owners to oversee and participate. to a certain extent the violations we've seen in the corporate boardroom are because shareholders have been too passive. so we want to encourage shareholders. >> you can earn your way back right now with the advice you gave them right now. a very wealthy friend of mine told me, a double billionaire, he said the money's already taken out of the stock market before the average guy or woman puts a buck in. you put money into your 401(k), you invest in the equity in the stock market, the reason you don't get rich in the stock market because all the wealth has been taken out by the people that know what is going on inside. little or illegal, a gray market, insider trading. they know it all. they grabbed all the loot. is that basically true? is the new york stock exchange

on the level sir? is it on the level for the average person to invest. >> no, it is not. and i think we're seeing that in the numerous insider trading cases that the u.s. attorney for the southern district is making, and we are seeing it because the fees that are improperly taken out by the mutual funds. this was an enormous area that i investigated when i was attorney general. >> yeah. >> fees that would disproportionate to the return the investors got. jack vogel, one of the superstars, an honorable, very good guy. i don't want to plug one mutual bank. fees should be very, very low because in the long run, you won't outperform the market. and when the mutual funds charge you excessive fees pretending they will, you're giving away all the upside and over the long-term, you the investor are the loser. >> so the market is not on the level? >> that is correct. it doesn't mean you still can't do well over a 20 or time horizon. but are there advantages that exist where certain individuals who have access to information trade ahead of you? absolutely. the high-speed trading, absolutely. >> so one of the double

billionaires floating around there is mike bloomberg, the mayor of new york, who believes that's what you're going to focus on. you're not going to sit around city hall sniffing who misused computers. >> no, what i'm going to do is do the comptroller's job which has many different pass sets of it. one piece is overseeing the pension funds and making sure the pensions are used properly as owners of the many companies you possess. mike and i worked together very well when i was attorney general. when i was governor, he was the mayor. >> he is warning about you. >> where we disagreed was about wall street. i would say this. i would think if the historical record is the one that i've been watching, what i was saying from 2000 to 2008 about structural problems, not just individual cases, but structural problems, i was talking about subprime debt, about analysts who were lying to the public and insurance industry that was rigged. and i was saying to people, look, these are structural issues that can lead to a cataclysm if we're not careful. i think we suffered through it.

let's learn the lesson. the market in the capital markets are hugely important us to. if they're not monitored properly, if there are flaws them, we will go through once again what we suffered through in 2008. we don't want that. >> let me get you a tough question. i'm being asked by my executive producer to ask the question i probably should have asked, but i go on my own direction because i'm fascinated with you. you know so much more about new york markets and equities and things. if you had to vote for mayor right now, who would you vote. >> i would vote. it's a great question. >> it is a great question. show you're different than most politicians. >> no, no, look. >> who are you going to vote for whatever? thompson? you're not going to vote -- you're not going to vote for anthony weiner. you just say 245 now? you don't think he would be fair of new york. >> fair point that is direct. >> he should not be mayor of new york? >> that is correct. >> okay. thank you, eliot spitzer, you made some news here. a couple of points of news. thanks for coming on. good luck in the race.

>> thank you. we know who is playing hillary clinton on the miniseries. diane lane. that's a win-win. who should play bill clinton? this is "hardball," the place for politics. [ man ] look how beautiful it is.

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call today to request your free decision guide and find the aarp medicare supplement plan to go the distance with you. go long. back to "hardball." onto the sideshow. anthony weiner's campaign may be on the ropes, but carlos danger is all in. in fact, his alter ego has taken on a life of its own. here's jimmy fallon's impression of the now famous fictional character, actually candidate, on friday. >> if elected, i will turn new york city around. and give it exactly what it needs. i'm not afraid to do the dirty work. i'm not afraid to fight corruption. after all, danger is my middle name. it's also my last name. carlos danger danger. ♪

>> he is great. i guess all it takes is an accent and mustache. both have become comedic prerequisites for this role. just take a look at this remake of anthony weiner's campaign ad released by the daily beast over the weekend. >> this was my neighborhood growing up. a middle class muchacho playing stick ball late into the night. if we were lucky, a mets game on the weekend. my mom was a school teacher for 31 years in public schools just like this. my dad went to law school on the gi bill and hung a shingle outside our house. theirs is the classic new york story. work hard, make it into the middle class, you make life a little more dangerous for your kids. that's how the city was built. >> we love the city. and no one will be harder than carlos. ly sext you every single day. thank you for watching.

>> diane lane, by the way on the brighter side has been cast to play hillary clinton in a biographical miniseries set to air on nbc during the run-up to the 2016 election. i said before that a double win, a double win for both of them. the beautiful diane lane playing hillary clinton. a great career boost for her. the series will span the former first lady's career from 1998 through her time as secretary of state. and while the part of bill clinton has yet to be cast, "the washington post" reliable source blog put forth suggestions for the role. we thought we would have fun and consider the possibilities. there they are. start with jeff bridges. he would be my candidate. the big lebowski character would probably pull this off since bill clinton is a lot like the dude. but at age 63, might be too old, might be to play the former president when he was much younger, although i think he can do it. billy bob thornton. not my favorite. he has experience playing politics in my favorite movie "love actually," where he played bad guy and a carville-inspired character in "primary colors." you remember that? next up, woody harrelson. don't let his bald head mar this

choice. he's proven to be a very versatile actor and a washington favorite having played steve schmidt in "game change." finally, josh brolin who played former president bush in "w" would go probably have an awkward onscreen chemistry because he just split with diane lane. on second thought, that might be the trick. what do you think? go to tv.msnbc.com and click on "hardball" to vote on this important election. next up, john mccain is standing up for a new interest group, strippers, yes. the hill reported last week the senator faced pushback from strip club owners over legislation that would replace the $1 bill with a coin. the reason, coins make lousy tips. but the maverick senator was quick to device a solution. not wanting to shortchange the after hours entertainers, saying, quote, i hope we could obtain larger dominations, fives, tense and hundreds i guess in coins. wow, how big with that coin be?

up next, president obama hosts a voting rights summit. this is important business, to push back against outlandish republican efforts to suppress the black vote in this country. you're watching "hardball," the place for politics.

today i am announcing that the justice department will ask a federal court in texas to subject the state of texas to a preclearance regime similar to the one required by section 5 of the voting rights act. this is the department's first action to protect voting rights following the shelby county decision. but it will not be our last. >> wow. welcome back to "hardball." that was attorney general eric holder, of course, late last week announcing the first steps of an administration effort, obama effort to combat voter suppression. we know what that is, keeping

minorities from voting. his comments came just weeks after the supreme court ruled to gut key provisions of the voting rights act of 1965. what you heard there the fight begins in texas where republicans are looking to implement some of the most stringent voter i.d. laws in the country. but this is a conflict hardly contained to the lone star state. voter suppression battles are brewing all across the country. i talk about them every night. take a look at this map. i'll do it again. at least 82 restrictive voting bills have been introduced in 31 states. this is not just a southern problem, all by republicans under the leadership of rnc chair reince priebus. he is leading this campaign to keep black people from voting according to the brennan center for justice and the advancement project. one of those states, north carolina which voted last thursday to approve harsh voter i.d. laws and restrictions on early voting, the new rules are

expected to be signed into law by the governor today as protesters march from the capitol voice their frustration with the state's republican-controlled legislature. today at the white house, president obama convened a voting rights summit, a meeting with attorney general holder, labor secretary perez, and civil rights leaders from across the country. their focus, safeguarding every eligible american's right to vote. there's al sharpton in the back. joining me is marc morial, and leadership conference president wade henderson. mark, thank you for joining us. we were right in the middle of the zimmerman trial at the essence convention and you got shortchanged. you start out tonight. what can you tell us the president said to your groups tonight, the civil rights groups that lead this country about what he is going to do to protect the right to vote? >> the president and attorney general were strong, forceful, they were resolute they are going to use their responsibility and their power to enforce the remaining provisions of the voting rights act. the voting rights act was wounded. it wasn't killed. there's still many tools in the toolbox of the justice department to protect democracy

and voting. the president also has designated the attorney general as his point person and as his point person, the attorney general has already shifted resources. the attorney general has taken action against texas. and i believe that they are energized by the support they're receiving all across the country. you know, chris, there was a poll recently, and it indicated that over 50% of the american people across the board disagreed with the decision of the supreme court. so we have, i think, popular will on our side. but also, what's at stake is the future of democracy. if you look at that map, this effort to suppress the vote to make it more difficult for people to vote is inconsistent with everything this nation stands for. >> you know, i don't want to enlarge this beyond what it seems to be, but you're involved in fighting for minorities. >> that's right. >> you're a leader. it does look like it's almost like south africa to this extent. you have a white, what's the word, feeble minority. it's losing its majority status. and it says the republican party, we can only get so many white votes. so we've got to reduce the votes of others. it does look that way. maybe you're not partisan, but

only republicans have pushed this in these 31 states. no democratic legislature. look at the pattern here. talk about profiling. i'm sorry, republicans do this stuff. >> you stated a point in fact i can't challenge that. i think though the president did something today that was important. he lifted up the importance of the right to vote for all americans. and obviously, we are concerned about the impact of the shelby county decision on african-americans and latinos, but this is a president who talked about the right of every american to vote and underscored the role of the federal government in helping to protect that right under the 15th amendment of the constitution.

we thought it was a powerful statement. and a really important indication to the country that this administration was committed to enforcing the right to vote for all. now, what attorney general holder did last week was to send a powerful signal, not just to texas, but to the nation that other aspects of the voting rights act not damaged by the shelby county decision will be used to help enforce the law. last week, he used section 3 of the act which helped bring in states that might otherwise not have been covered under a preclearance provision, but he also has section two of the act which is nationwide in its coverage and allows us to go after discriminatory actors after the act. >> here's the republican argument. in some cases republicans resort to what you might call made up voter fraud scandal to help justify tighter restrictions. the washington post fact checker over the weekend debunked the zombie voters in south carolina. in 2012, south carolina's republican attorney general said we found out there were over 900 people who died and then subsequently voted. well, these allegations according to the post emerged as state officials tried to impose new photo voter id laws during the election. it turns out none of it was true. the post dug up a law enforcement report that so-called dead people voters were the result of clerical errors or mistaken identities,

people voting under different names. back to morial. nobody denies there are some case whereas somebody may have cheated. but the idea it would have affected the results of an election has never been established or any numbers of people established as crooked. yet it's used all the time as a target for republicans to say we've got to have more rigorous rules. >> this is pinocchio. made-up stories, false arguments, specious suggestions. there are things that are absolutely not true. and we're going to see more of it and more of it and more of it as some people try to hold on to power through these sort of shenanigans and unfair tactics. we're going to be transparent and we're going to throw a light on all of these bogus false

arguments. but what we're also going to do i think, chris, is build a coalition. this is about protecting the rights to vote of all people. today's meeting included african-american leaders, latino leaders, leaders from the american civil liberties union as well as the asian and american indian communities. it was a broad meeting to discuss the right to vote. i believe that americans have always stood up, time and time again, whether it was to get women the right to vote, whether it's the right to give 18-year-olds a right to vote, whether it's to strike down the poll tax, to ensure the right to vote for african-americans, americans have always sided on expansion of democracy, not a restriction on democracy. >> chris, he is absolutely right. i mean the truth is most americans when confronted by the facts will support voting rights protections for all. and i think that this, what the president has done has said look, we're going to try to enact new changes in the law. we'll look to both democrats and republican who have treated voting issues as unique among the constitution. >> i just hope we all -- i'm not talking ethically. because i'm guilty of it too. vote in all elections. we all get involved in the

exciting elections like president. you've got to vote in the state legislature or you're going to lose all these fights. well all have to do it. >> you've got vote for school board, mayors. city. those elections affect the things that -- >> reapportionment and gerrymandering. thank you, gentlemen. you know the game and the contest and the stakes. thank you marc morial and wade henderson. up next, the latest battle in the republican civil war between the tea party types and moderates. rand paul is firing back at chris christie and peter king for saying, these are his words, gimme, gimme, gimme all my hurricane sandy money now. there's a way to start a fight in jersey and staten island, i'll tell you. this is "hardball," the place for politics. you know, from our 4,000 television commercials. yep, there i am with flo. hoo-hoo! watch it! [chuckles] anyhoo, 3 million people switched to me last year, saving an average of $475. [sigh] it feels good to help people save... with great discounts like safe driver, multicar, and multipolicy. so call me today. you'll be glad you did.

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and a 30-tablet free trial. we're back coming back with the latest fight in the republican party. if you're a democrat, you're going to love this fight. it's a big one. left versus right, hawk versus dove. "hardball" returns after this.

i love this fight. isolation versus interventionism. dove versus hawk. the battle lines used to be drawn among the two parties with republicans fighting the battle for intervention and war, democrats lining up against it.

but the rise of rand paul and his isolationist faction of the gop has turned the gop against itself. late last week, new jersey governor chris christie attacked paul, calling his strain of libertarianism dangerous for the nation's security. over the weekend, paul responded. >> the people who want to criticize me and call names, they're precisely the same people who are unwilling to cut the spending and they're give me, give me, give me all my sandy money now. those are the people who are bankrupting the government and not letting enough money be left over for national defense, so i think it's precisely those people that are making us weak in defense. i didn't start this one, and i don't plan on starting things by criticizing other republicans, but if they wan to make me the target, you know, they will get it back in spades. >> one makes me think of a high school student council election, give me, give me, give me. republican king of new york issued a stark warning to the party on cnn's "state of the union."

here he is. >> when you have rand paul actually comparing snowden to martin luther king or henry david thoreau, this is madness. this is the anti-war left wing democrats of the 1960s that nominated george mcgovern and destroyed their party for almost 20 years. i don't want that happening to our party. >> love this fight. joining me now are two msnbc political analysts. neither strong republicans from what i can tell. david corn with "mother jones" and jonathan alter who comes with an old-line democratic party. "the center holds" is his great book. beautifully written book by john alter, "obama and his enemies." let me start with you, john. it is a fair fight. they're actually fighting about important things, about the philosophy of their party. should it be a big interventionist international party when all the way from ike who was reasonable about it all the way to w. who wasn't

reasonable about it. this is what rand paul said three years ago. he's on the record here. i don't think there was a reason to go into iraq. talk about fighting words. i don't think there was a reason to go into iraq. i mean, shove that in the face of peter king, and you got a fight started. >> absolutely. this is for those people who, like me, like history, this is back to the future. the republican party was torn apart on these issues around the time of world war ii and afterward. >> i know. >> and, you know, rob taft and other important figures in the republican party were isolationists and then when senator vandenberg of michigan converted internationalism, eventually all of the party followed through anti-communism days and through the war on terror, but now that coalition which was very powerful in presidential elections, in stigmatizing democrats as soft on defense is breaking apart, and these fissures are developing in the party that are going to be very hard for them to paper over. >> david, how are they going to go to the people in 2016? they will go to the people. no matter whether it's hillary or not, it's going to be difficult.

how do they have a platform which you know is going to be hawkish? it is written in gold there. and have a party nominee, perhaps rand paul, who's a total libertarian who's against all this. >> it may not be as hawkish as it what been in the past. the real question is, we know where the neocons are, where the john mccains of the world are. lindsey graham. >> the ruling coalition? >> that has been the ruling coalition. they've been trying to put down the mad dogs of isolationism like rand paul. >> and ron paul before him. >> remember rudy giuliani's takedown during the debates. the question here is whether rand paul, cruz or anybody else can take this to the grassroots of the party and find some faction. >> where is the grassroots? >> i think they're kind of split. >> aren't they under war fatigue right now? >> this is where chris christie made a big mistake. he attacked rand paul's isolation for being libertarian. libertarian is a good word to the tea partyers. they apply it to government spending and taxing.

so instead of using isolationism which is a bad word to a lot of people, he used a good word. >> let's go back to john on that. what's your take on that? is that the bad way to go? i think christie overreached by saying you've got to be hawkish. i don't think any party -- very few americans are hawkish right now that i can see. >> look what is going on in the nsa debate. you know, you a lib/lib thing with liberals on the left and libertarians on the right getting together, and they will rein in the nsa. that's almost a done deal. >> the majority of the polls we've been showing on this program, "hardball," people see snowden, whatever you think of him personally, as a whistleblower, not as a traitor. >> right. this is a signal, a canary in the mine shaft for the way the politics of this country are changing quite rapidly. maybe not as rapidly as on gay marriage. but clearly, privacy is trumping national security right now in our debate. it's going to be very, very difficult for the republicans to navigate this. and mitch mcconnell has a particular problem, chris. because remember, his campaign

is being run by rand paul's political advisers. >> i can't wait. >> he has had to kowtow to rand paul. >> stay ready. we're going to keep doing shows on this. this is an exciting thing. used to be the democratic party was the cauldron for these debates. good luck with the book "the center holds." jonathan alter's great new book. we'll be right back after this. because all these whole grains aren't healthy unless you actually eat them ♪ multigrain cheerios. also available in delicious peanut butter. healthy never tasted so sweet.

"let me finish" tonight with this. this evening here in washington, israeli and palestinian

officials are sitting down at the table. it's the beginning of real negotiations over the future of the mideast, negotiations aimed at the creation of an arab state alongside the jewish state. these are not talks about talks, but the real thing, as outstanding as that sounds. i give credit to israeli prime minister netanyahu for taking the step needed to make this happen and palestinian president mahmoud abbas to limiting his demands to what the israeli government was willing to accept. both sides have made a choice for talks, real negotiations with all the risks they entail. i often ask myself what i would support if i were a typical israeli. would i risk a deal on land to get a peace deal? would i make concessions if it meant formal recognition of my country by the many arab countries in the region? we'll have to see if the deal gets that close. we'll have to see how far president obama will go, how far the israeli and arab positions will converge. will they get as far as they did when yasser arafat pulled the plug in the last days of the clinton administration? we'll have to see. but tonight as the two sides meet here in the american capital, i salute those at the table, those who led them to the

table, bibi netanyahu and mahmoud abbas, and secretary of state john kerry who worked hard to get this far. and of course to the president behind the big push, barack obama. blessed are the peacemakers. and that's "hardball" for now. thanks for being with us. "all in with chris hayes" starts right now. good evening from new york. i'm chris hayes. tonight on "all in" workers are walking out at major fast food chains in multiple states. there is a real movement to increase wages across the country, and those workers are here tonight. also, it turns out the new pope says gay priests are fine with him. and progressive catholics the world over are swooning. plus, pull up a seat and get your popcorn, rand paul versus chris christie has turned into a full-on battle royale, complete