actually, he's on his way to los angeles for an appearance on the "tonight show." thank you so much tore watching this afternoon. a reminder you can find our segments including today's edition of top lines at our website. for now, chris matthews and "hardball" is next. >> reince priebus declares can war again. let's play "hardball." good evening. i'm chris matthews in washington. let me start with this. reince priebus is on the warpath again. the rnc chairman who has made bones trying to suppress african-americans now is planning to suppress free media. having waged war on the 15th amendment, he's now batting down the match of hatchs on a free press. his plan is to take control of the republican nominating

process deciding who will be the moderators of the debates. which debates will be authorized and which networks will be allowed to sponsor them. he reince priebus will decide who gets to moderate the debates, where they will be permitted and which networks will be given the privilege of sponsoring them. this big push for personal control is consistent with his oversight of a major republican plan to make it harder for minorities, the elderly and young voters to cast ballots. having loaded people down with more document requirements, voter photo i.d. cards and the rest and few opportunities to vote, he now is lowering the boom on thenous networks. if nbc dares to run a planned mini series on hillary, he has decreed it will have no role in republican debates. same for cnp. if it does a documentary on hillary, it's dead as far as he's concerned. it will be pushed out in the cold while republicans stick to fox and other platforms that will meet their terms. well, if reince priebus has his way, the only voter who's

actually vote will be republicans and the only networks on which they'll appear will be the ones answering to him reince priebus. michael steele was chairman of the republican national party before reince priebus and joan walsh will never be chair of the republican national committee but only works for salon. i don't think so. here's priebus on fox last night. his chosen platform describing how republican debates in the 2016 presidential election will be governed by his rules. let's listen. >> for the first time in the history of our party, the republican national committee has rule making authority now and we can tie the debate calendar. we can tie who the moderators are going to be to the nomination for president. in our rule book, we couldn't do that before. and so now we can say here's going to be the debate calendar. here is who the moderators will be. here are the debate partners. and to the candidates, you can participate in these debates. but if you participate in

debates other than the ones that are on the calendar, there's going to be penalties. part of our problem before is that when you have, you know, 12, 20 people running for president, if 11 people raise their hand to any two-hour debate offered, then guess what, you've got a debate every two weeks. that's an unhealthy thing for our party. >> michael steele, this guy has a napoleon nick notion of his power. this notion he can keep people from voting he doesn't wanting. it's not racism let's make it more difficult giving them id cards. i get all that. but now he's saying not only do i want to get rid of that pesky 15th amendment, i'm going to go after the first amendment. is he just -- is this a power grab? i'm going to pick the moderators. now that's rich. he's going to say it's not going to be brian or diane or george, it's going to be his person? >> i don't know who the

moderator is going to be left to pick from. let's start with basic facts here. number one, by the time we get into the presidential cycle, reince priebus may not be chairman of the rnc. >> you wish. >> i'm just saying, let's keep it real. the second thing is though, this is part of the rnc's. >> didn't he just get re-elected. >> a two-year job. this is the response to what happened in 2012 where you had all these candidates in back-to-back debates. i personally didn't have a problem with that although i understood the idea. >> they embarrassed themselves by being on television so he's going to shut the number of times. >> limit the amount of exposure. >> suppress the candidates the way you suppress the african-american voter. >> i don't get what the penalty is going to be. if i'm a presidential candidate and nbc is offering a debate and i want to participate, i'm going to participate in it. i don't know how you penalize that candidate particularly if he winds up being the nominee of the party, what are you going to do. >> what are you going to do if somebody like chris christie

says i've got no problem with nbc, i'm showing you. .what's priebus going to do. >> not much. >> let's get the politics of had this. this is just a political shot across the bow for the networks, number one. >> that's where i disagree. i'm not defending northbound. i'm not their representative here. no network once threatened by a political party can remove a documentary or move a documentary would ever do it. >> i said the political shot is not so much for the networks as for the base and to draw lines out there and to be relevant in the conversation. >> i see it he knows the networks will not buckle because of pride. institutional integrity no matter whether they're right or wrong. they can't let him decide what's right and wrong. he's saying basically i'm going to include the heard. fox will have 20 debates and ten i'll have a few on some other networks who play by our rules. let us pick the moderators and the format. in other words, it's an inside

job. >> well, yeah. he's playing the refs and saying nbc and cnn won't be fair and that they're in the tank for hillary clinton. she's had her own problems with the media over the years as you know. >> thank you for that. >> listen to what he said to sean hannity. i mean, it would be unhealthy. it was unhealthy to have all that exposure for our candidates. yeah, it was because you had a bunch of crack pos running for president and they did wound themselves every time they got out there. there were enough debates for perry to forget which agencies he was going to abolish in the federal government. i can see from his perspective, you want to go to the friendly confines of knox news and having loving moderators like sean hannity and tell your story. the problem is that that did not work in 2012. in fact, living in the friendly confines of fox news made those republicans think they were going to win that they could beat barack obama. that he wasn't a popular president. >> let's go back to reality with this. as your point is made, there's a

long tradition ofnous anchors moderating debates. i moderated the republican debate last election 2008. despite that history, priebus defended his threat to shut out nbc and cnn saying he wants to be in business with participating outlets. let's listen. >> yes. >> i think it's just about time that our party stands up and protects the party and our candidates from networks that are not in the business of promoting our party. they're not in the business of promoting our candidates. they're not in the business of doing anything but promoting the democratic party. and i'm not going to sit around and watch this happen anymore. >> that's kind of a dull comment to say he only wants to do business with those in the business of promoting their candidates. admit it, i admit we're not in that business. >> right. this is the question i have based on what the chairman just said. so where do you go? >> fox. >> so fox is going to have every debate? that's not credible number one. >> comedy central.

he might be open to that. >> i think you're painting it with a broad brush here. this is more the political play to the base. we're sa. >> what would you have done? i know i work for an nbc company and i can't get involved in this debate very much. i want to ask you the question. you're all outside of here. you're guests on the show although you're both analysts i suppose. what do you do when you are reince priebus and you see they're going to do a documentary on hillary. a documentary can be tough. documentaries can be tough. what would you have done if you'd seen this happens? what's the smart move? >>? >> to be honest the smart move is to get out in front what he's doing. >> to threaten you're going to control your debates. >> look, chris, it is the late summer of 2013. noise into an echo that has no

one on the other end to hear it. >> makes him look as if he's weak if he can't deliver. he has to deliver now. >> joan, i don't think he should have threatened something he doesn't intend to do. >> there's no loss in playing to the base. this is red meat for the base saying the mainstream media is the lame stream liberal media pleases everybody. when he doesn't get his way from cnn or nbc, that will problem they're biased against him. he's within this echo chamber where all this stuff works. problem is when you take it out of the echo chamber and have to talk to real voters and real people who may like hillary clinton may find this fascinating and don't hate nbc or cnn, you're making arle inei to people you're not used to talking toing >> let's assume the documentary has tabloid type stuff. they go through the whole relationship between hillary and

bill. they doe gennifer flowers, ought public records stuff. just public records stuff. then they do the whole thing how she was angry and should have been about his unfaithfulness and how she was on the wrong side of the iraq war in the election, how le she lost to an african-american guy that nobody had a prayer. how does all that necessarily help her be elected president? >> from a certain standpoint it doesn't. that's the problem with coming out before the video, the documentary, the film is even produced. or the script written. we don't know. >> wants the sequel -- joanie, after hearing that whole story, that whole clinton story, who wants the sequel? you might just say it's enough. >> it could work that way. >> the point again of making the noise before you actually know what the noise should be made about. this is more the politics of it. >> the mart thing would be to

ask for a preview copy. >> this is an even harder one. i go to another network, cnn. the commission apparently commissioned a documentary, a documentary can be on anybody and there's no reason to believe it's going to be favorable. why would they attack cnn? i'm sure fox has probably thought of doing one. how does that suggest unfairness or a heavy thumb on the scale? >> it doesn't. if you're really an honest person, it doesn't. if you're playing to your base, if you're playing to the paranoid segment of gop voter who's believe that the media are against them, chris, then it always works. it always works to bash cnp. it always works to bash nbc and works to bash "the new york times." that's what he's doing. he has no idea what they're going to do. there's plenty of fodder for this to be negative. i would be nervous if i were her a little bit. who knows how it could go. this is a play for the base. >> by the way, those who talk

about the tight relationship between msnbc and barack obama, for example, count the number of times he's been on this network. zero. michael steele, thank you. >> he agrees with us and we agree with him sometimes. i actually have my views and he tends to coincide with them. thank you, michael steele. i was right on the iraq war and so was he. your side was dead wrong. joan walsh, you were right, too. you were for the iraq war, weren't you? >> you're covered. some writer insist president obama is losing the war with al qaeda. as it turns out, they could not be more wrong. also, the sale of the "washington post" to the jeff bezos came as a stunner. are we about to see billionaires of all kinds to promote their right wing views? and if you thought the last congress was unproductive, the current one is even worse.

republicans are running the place and are down right proud of it. finally it turns out old bir birthers keep coming back with more. we come up with a new one every day. this is "hardball." the place for birthers. we'll be right back. you'll find reviews on home repair to healthcare, written by people just like you. find out why more than two million members count on angie's list. angie's list -- reviews you can trust. the house caught fire and we were out on the streets. [ whispering ] shhh. it's only a dream. and we have home insurance. but if we made a claim, our rate would go up... [ whispering ] shhh. you did it right. you have allstate claim rate guard so your rates won't go up just because of a claim. [ whispering ] are we still in a dream? no, you're in an allstate commercial. so get allstate home insurance with claim rate guard... [ whispering ] goodnight. there are so many people in our bedroom. [ dennis ] talk to an allstate agent... [ doorbell rings ] ...and let the good life in.

♪ now you can give yourself a kick in the rear! v8 v-fusion plus energy. natural energy from green tea plus fruits and veggies. need a little kick? ooh! could've had a v8. in the juice aisle. well, former president bill clinton finally broke his silence on anthony weiner, the former president told cnn he and former secretary of state hillary clinton are maintaining a healthy distance from the new york mayor's race. this is great clinton. we are 100 miles from that race, he says. and everyone understands that we are not going to be involved as long as our personal friends and people we feel obligations to are involved. beautifully stated. mr. clinton said even though weiner's wife huma abdin is a former confidante of the first lady, they're not involved in the campaign at all. he said there are too many people running for mayor who have been my supporters who

supported her for senate, her for president. we'll be right back.

welcome back to "hardball." we're learning more about that terror alert that caused massive embassy closures in the middle east and northern africa. the focus is yemen where the united states evacuated 100 government personnel and urging all-americans to leave the country immediately. well, the intelligence that sparked all this was a communicationing from slaup's replacement p a man al zawahiri to the head of the al qaeda arm in yemen. the terrorist leaders discussed plotting an attack to coincide with a in muslim holy day this week. nbc news is reporting one reason the u.s. reacted so aggressively is because they said they wanted an attack that would "change the balance of power in the region." some on the right are using it to hit the president as weak on national security. big surprise there. take a look what bill kristol

and former senator jim demint said this weekend on fox. >> four years ago is, president obama gave a much heralded speech, his outreach to the muslim world. now four years later we're closing em beas. a year ago he said al qaeda is on the run. now we seem to be on the run. i'm not criticizing the decision to close the embassies. that's probably the right thing to do for the sake of trying to save american lives and others but it's a terrible thing that -- just a year ago, boasting al qaeda is on the run and osama bin laden is dead. now an unprecedented closure of 22 embassies. >> i'm not questioning what he's doing. i think what bill is saying is true is our attempt to placate parts of the world reset to whether it's russia or somewhere else are clearly not working. the perception of weakness in this administration is encouraging this kind of behavior. >> of course, those were extreme hawks. someone needs to tell jim demint al qaeda doesn't care what you're relationship is with

russia. for more on how washington reacted, i'm joined by senior correspondent michael crowley with me and "the washington post" opinion writer jonathan capehart. i guess what's interesting here, skrungt you start, it's the quick almost rabble-rousing political hysteria. instead of joining in which was the initial impulse of people like peter cink and lindsey graham was to join forces and say we've got a unique threat coming out of yemen. orders passed from pakistan. and deal with the issue at hand. instead they reverted immediately to their political battle stations, said here's your cannes to shoot at the president from behind. >> what's interesting here, chris, and especially in the clips you just showed with jim demint, where one minute republicans are claiming that president obama is just a continuation of president george w. bush in the foreign policy realm where the president, this president is just continuing the hawkish policies of the bush

administration. and then the next minute, they're claiming that the president is weak in foreign policy showing weakness to our enemies and yet, completely forgetting about all the drone strikes that the president is doing, and the other thing about what jim demint is doing which i find rather callus is would he rather the president of the united states not close the embassies and make our -- and make american personnel targets for a terrorist attack? i wonder what they would be saying if the president followed through on the advice that they're giving him. >> you mean another benghazi. >> yeah, exactly. >> benghazi, benghazi. right on cue, rick santorum not a foreign policy expert accused the president of being timid. i love the personifications, timid. they turn on to some school yard kind of event. late watch. >> i think it's really a consequence of the policies of this administration. i mean, if you look at benghazi and what happened there. we had an attack on our embassy.

we've seen really nothing other than cover-ups. we haven't seen anything from this administration really go after the people responsible or the network behind it. and i'm sure if you're looking at it from a terrorist perspective is, you say here's an administration that's pulling back, that's timid. and an opportunity to go after additional embassies. >> these are the same people, michael, who took this into iraq. we've got to be to be unafraid to use our strength. they're all chicken hawks, g.i. joe pretend types and they all want us to go to the next where war. timid means we're not fighting with someone right now. >> the idea of timidity in this administration is strange to me. his complaints seem to be. >> the stand your ground? is is that what it is? stand your ground. >> he seems to be talking about they're afraid to use the word terrorism, islam yirks, islamofascism. people, woulded up about that kind of rhetoric. the fact is, this president has

overseen drone strikes that have killed thousands of people and if anything, i think the complaint you could make, the better complaint would be that we are overreliant on drones. we've had problems, the reason we still have a problem with al qaeda in yemen according to some people, there's a backlash on the number of drone strikes we've carried out. the president has been using too much violence. the idea that al qaeda cares what your rhetoric is doesn't make any sense. >> do you think somebody in pakistan gives a rat's butt how our relations are doing with moscow? that's an absurd charge. >> it's a nonsket request i can tore. very strange. the reality is that this president has stepped up this drone campaign around the world, again, i think what will people care about in pakistan is smerk blowing people up from the sky. they're not showing their faces. they see this cowardly and it alienates the population. there's a real debate about the blowback of drone strikes. our rhetoric has nothing to do with it. >> jonathan, elections are imprecise. you choose one party or the

other, one general approach or the other. the general approach of the bush administration george w was a freedom agenda. certainly the idea of the road through jerusalem is through baghdad. all this neo-con theorizing if we go into iraq, sometimes the frontline in the middle east will loosen up and somehow lead to a peace treaty. that means war generally. it means war. twice into iraq, once in afghanistan. obama came in saying i'm sort of a '60s guy. i don't really think big war is the answer to all big problems. i think a more surgical approach, let's get the bad guys and narrow it to that. let's not go against peoples and nations if we can avoid it. that's what the public wanted in '08, what they wanted again in '12. i know it's not perfect. that's where i disagree with your colleague gene robinson when he was saying something is wrong with drones. but if the tarlt is going to war

with another country, i'll go with drones. >> exactly. some republicans want the president, any president frankly but this president in particular to just go headlonging into any conflict that happens around the world and it seems all the conflicts happening have been in the middle east when the arab spring rose up in egypt, send troops to egypt. when it happened in libya, send troops to libya. >> send troops to syria. >> that was the other one. one minute they're complaining we don't have enough money we're going broke and can't do all these things the president wants to do. the moment there's an international conflict, they want is the united states to go there. if anything, this president obama's foreign policy is cautious. and it's a little too cautious for a whole lot of people, including us on the "washington post" editorial page, but i think it befits a president who sees what's happening in the world, doesn't exactly know because we've never been down this road before.

the freedom and people rising up in these countries that you're showing on the map here. this is what you want from a president. someone who sees things happening that takes very considered steps and the other thing we have to keep in mind, it might not look like the united states is doing a whole lot. overtly in this region. in this region of the world but you got to know that the united states is doing a whole lot of things covertly behind the scenes out of the public view to gain intelligence but to also help friends and destabilize enemies. >> i agree. by the way, gentlemen, can you imagine what the right wring challenge would be the attack on the president had 9/11 occurred on president obama's watch? >> yeah. >> of course -- >> the democrats gave george w a free ride. they said it happened, nobody knew it was going to happen. we're not going to butcher you politically over this. it was the first time it was ever done.

the secretary said no one imagined them using planes all they did. if that happened under obama, it would be impeachment time. >> this is the industry of the memo u.s. to attack within the united states. >> i remember the way that the secretary of state had to read it with no affect that time at the hearing they said it doesn't have any punch. >> it was a stand out moment. osama bin laden determined to attack the united states. my eyes popped out of my head when that happened. >> this is the president who escalated the war in afghanistan. it doesn't make sense to say he is afraid of conflict. he has blown these guys up with drones. he doubled down in afghanistan. the critique is from the left. >> talk to some of the guys close in. he is pretty darn tough. this guy is not some jimmy carter on this stuff. thank you, michael crowley. not that there's anything wrong with jimmy carter but he wasn't exactly a fighter.

we always agree, jonathan, that's very dangerous. up next, it's august and congress is out of session. it's like calvin coolidge, he died, how did you tell. anyway, the birthers are back and this is "hardball." the place for politics. ♪ [ male announcer ] some question physics. some question gravity. and some... even have the audacity to question improbability. with best-in-class towing and best-in-class torque

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or difficulty breathing or swallowing, stop taking cialis and get medical help right away. ask your doctor about cialis for daily use and a 30-tablet free trial. back to "hardball" and time for the sideshow. they're at it again, florida representative ted yoho is the latest republican to stir the birther pot. here's some of what he had to say at a town hall event a few days ago. >> one of the great cons in the history of politics. >> a guy says, steve stockman's got a bill that's going to look into the birth certificate again. would you be willing to cosponsor. i called steve i said when i got back, do you want to get on it? i said yeah.

>> yeah. but as the daily show pointed out about ted cruz last night, two can play that game. >> you were born in canada. could you -- are you even eligible to be president of the united states? >> my mother was born in wilmington, delaware. she's a u.s. citizen so i'm a citizen by birth. >> that shouldn't be a problem then because as we know republicans are nothing if not understanding on that particular issue. as long as your mother was born in the united states, you could be born anywhere on earth and be completely accepted as a viable presidential candidate. >> finally, they get it right. natural born means you don't have to be naturalized. you're born an american. all those birther charges were wrong about the constitution just as they were totally wrong about where obama was actually born. well, "the washington post" may be a washington institution but its influence extends well beyond the capital. since 193, when donald graham's

grandfather bought the post at auction for $825,000 is, it's been the standard bearer of exemplary political coverage, a testament to the management of the graham family. before that in the early days, "the washington post" had something of a mixed record which included the dubious distinction of printing one of the most infamous newspaper typos in american history. it was a 1915 article about woodrow wilson's love life. yes, he had one. the paper reported that wilson had been entering his bride to be. edith galt. it meant to say entertaining his bride to be. now we went further and dug up the original. here's how they printed at the time. "this is "the washington post," the president gave himself up for the time being to entering his fiancee. needless to say it was a source of amusement in washington. next up, this one definitely belongs in the sideshow.

things got ugly when tone weiner encountered a heckler on the stump in new york. take au look how it unfolded. >> you're very passionate. >> i'm more passionate than you on twitter. i'm a social medial expert. get someone 0 handle your, you are disgusting >> you've had your say. >> little kids. >> little kids here. >> little kids? you have no right to talk about anything. you have no right to talk about little kids. >> okay. >> talking about little kids? social media? you want to see some twitter action. >> take it easy. lighten up. you put your show on and you beat it. beat it. >> beat it. that's the way to get a vote. that campaign isn't making anyone look good at this point. up next, why did amazon's jeff bezos buy "the washington post"? are billionaires going to buy up

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i'm jackie deangel lis with your cnbc market wrap. stocks dropping on word the federal reserve may reduce 80s economic stimulus as early as september. the dow lost 93 points, the s&p sank nine, an the nasdaq falling 27. a surge in u.s. exports shrank the trade deficit by 22% in june to $34.28 billion. and washington post stock is up after it was announced that amazon founder jeff bezos is buying the pape. chevy is looking to charge up sales of its 2014 volt cutting its price starting at just under $35,000. that's it from cnbc, first in business worldwide. now back to "hardball."

welcome back to "hardball." a foreboding front page of the "washington post" today graham's to sell "the washington post." there it is. hit our driveway this morning. graham family owned the post for generations and fought to the hill to defend sits independence through the watergate investigation when reporters bob woodward and carl bernstein took down nixon's administration. the grams had the guts to stand up for their paper and defend that special brand of investigative journalism which can make you a lot of enemies. but now "the washington post" has a new owner, silicon valley billionaire and amazon.com founder jeff bezos. over the last several years, billionaires have been gobbling up newspapers from the "wall

street journal" to the boston globe. in some cases like murdoch's purchase of the journal those have pushed a right wing agenda. the conservative koch are on the produce to buy up newspapers, as well. the question is a pressing one. will the new money have the same guts and drive as the old money or will the papers they buy become political mouthpieces in some cases to the far right. eugene robinson is an ms nbc milan lis. and brad stone is a columnist with "business week" and the author of the upcoming book? the everything story jeff bay zo zoes and the age of amazon." right to you, brad. will day zoes maintain the independent of the newspaper and be like is the old money soelds soles bergers and grams and say i'm willing to bleed economically so this paper will live? >> absolutely. i don't see him as having an overt political agenda. i think his idealism will be a

business idealism about disrupting the newspaper's old revenue models, building new ones. does he have an agenda? i think it's no accident that he's buying "the washington post" at a time when amazon increasingly has regulatory and legislative issues. but i don't see him wielding that influence in an overt way. >> what about his libertarianism? is he possibly in the mood to have "the washington post" endorse rand paul for president? his first shot way newspaper to endorse a libertarian candidate? >> i'm going to go out on a live and he said he won't be meddle diagnose with the decisions of the editorial post. >> who will the post speak for if not him? >> you know, he said he wants 0 keep the current management in place. >> does management decide who to endorse for president? i thought the owners do? >> we'll have to see.

>> it's a tough one. >> bezos has sort of been apolitical. only recently has he become sort of involved in the sales tax debate. he gave some money for a proposition supporting gay marriage in the state of washington. but these are, you know, kind of individual instances and he really hasn't gotten involved. >> you know, i read the post" every morning and try to figure out the editorial policy. fred is a bit of a hawk. fair enough. he's clear and honest about it. he's hawkish. you come in there, you have some influence. it has a domestic policy moderation to liberalism. it is not the liberal icon people thought it was, if it ever was. that's what i think. >> i'm on the op-ed page. we let 100 flowers bloom on the page. i'm a columnist, no the a member of the editorial board which means to hash out the editorials that speak in the voice of the newspaper which by the way is the voice of the editorial page

editor and the publisher. remember catherine way mouth of the graham family is the publisher. i presume the arrangement will continue if it's an important endorsement or something like that, fred and catherine will have to be on the same page. i don't know if jeff bezos would want to be involved. >> if it's his only newspaper, why wouldn't he want to have an influence who you endorse? >> maybe that's not the point of his getting a newspaper. maybe the point is just as brad said. maybe it's to disrupt newspapering the way he disrupted retail, the way he disrupted book selling >> you think he has a business model, a way to make the paper make money? >> i don't know the man. my guess is he's got the germ of an idea. he's got a spend time at the post and figure out how things work. >> is there a known way to make money, newspapers?

suburban newspapers can deal with offset. i don't know how they do it. can you make money in a big city newspaper with traffic kemps when you have to get the paper out physically way ahead of time? how do you make money with a paper these days. >> i think he's betting that you can't. the first thing that you do is slay the old business. you let the traditional sources of revenue, the subscriber base, you know, the ad revenue, print ad revenue gracefully sunset and build a new business online. that's the opportunity he'll go after. he's -- he's got -- this is 250 million for him is a drop in the bucket. he brings us long-term operating philosophy, willing to sustain a lot of losses sometimes to the consternation of shareholders. we'll see him bring the operating philosophy to the washington "washington post." >> you said the wrong word for me online. i'm worried here. that's not a newspaper. >> 20 years from now, do you think we're going to be dealing with physical newspapers delivered on your doorstep?

i'm not sure we are. right now, that's what, 70%, maybe 80% of the "washington post" revenue most print newspapers' revenue. so what i think he does is not to slay or get rid of that legacy business. it generates a lot of money and he's not an havers to cash. but the advantage of having somebody like bezos owning the paper is number one, it's going to be private. we're not going to have wall street analysts about next quarter's figures. number two, he's got pockets deep enough for us to do the experimentation and the innovation that we need to do on the online side so that when the economics move there, we'll be there first. >> i'm worried about the koch brothers coming for the chicago tribune and "new york times." thank you. congress is on a five-week vacation. couldn't you tell? anybody miss them? did they do anything when they were here? no, will they do anything when

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a programming note. bementioned this earlier. tonight on the tonight show, lay leno joins lawrence o'donnell to review his interview with president obama. he's going to be on and the president is going to be on jay. more "hardball" after this. i'm tony siragusa and i'm training guys who leak a little,

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ask your doctor about the only underarm low t treatment, axiron. any way you cut it and whoever's fault it is, you have presided over what is perhaps the least productive and certainly one of the least popular congresses in history. how do you feel about that? >> well, bob, we should not be judged on how many new laws we create. we ought to be judged on how many laws that we repeal. >> we're back. that was a rehearsed line from john boehner bragging not about what he's done but the things he's tried to undo. 40 times they tried to undo obama care. no real accomplishments under boehner's leadership. he's on the way to becoming the least productive in terms of bills passed that's ever existed. he leads a conference of republicans averse to

legislating in the first place. why would we expect any progress henceforth? according to chris cillizza here's what we learned as congress heads off on vacation. boehner has become goal of reac bargain on the budget and a debt is a pipe dream. republicans continue to slow down progress that yields any tangible result. gun control is not happening. senators are retiring at a historic pace, and tea party firebrand rand paul has become the republican party's most powerful spokesman and nonnegotiator. chris cillizza joins us right now along with pennsylvania governor ed rendell. chris, great column. >> thank you. >> because it was so conclusive. this congress has done nothing. no appropriations passed, no budget resolution passed, no continuing resolution ready to go october 1st. the government is fast approaching when they get back from labor day, they're going to go to a shutdown. three weeks of talking about doing nothing, then doing nothing. then the prospect as we get closer to the holidays of an actual default on the federal

debt with our perhaps our credit rating dropping. all this before christmas and the holidays. what a horrendous performance. and the tea party types led by -- and i do believe he is on his way to getting the nomination next time -- rand paul, is enjoying it all. because getting nothing done proves nothing can get done. and doing nothing is what his philosophy. he wins twice. >> well, you know, chris, i've done a lot of writing and using vital statistics on congress, great resource on productivity and how you sort of measure it. this congress, this house has passed 22 bills in its first eight months, roughly that have gone to the president for signing. the previous low ever before was 28 bills. you've seen 81 bills, 100 bills in the past -- in past congresses. the argument that -- and i want to get it out there, because lots of republicans, and you heard john boehner talk about it, lots of republicans say you're missing the point. the point here is that democrats control the white house. democrats control the senate.

the only thing we can do here is we disagree philosophically and fundamentally with the ideas that they're pushing. the only thing we can do is to say we're not doing these things, and thereby we are preserving sort of the smaller government principles that the voters selected us for. >> here is saying that voting 40 times to repeal or defund obama care is their idea, the republicans' idea of an economic jobs program. how can you defend -- i want to go to the governor on this. how can you say doing nothing, voting against everything, trying to repeal everything in a sort of feckless way, how can you say that's a jobs program or even a republican economic program? >> well, you can't, chris. and you make the point. the point is the economy, the recovery is slow. we still have significant joblessness. and they're taking pride in doing nothing. i believe if they continue this, and if they shut down the government and screw up the debt limit, i believe they're going to lose control of the congress.

and the reason is take suburban philadelphia. you and i talk about that a lot. we've got four republican congressmen. they're all pretty good guys, charlie dent, patrick meehan. if i'm running the campaign against them next time, i'm going to say hey, pat meehan is a good guy. bury we're never going to get anything done in congress as long as pat meehan is in congress because he is going to vote for john boehner and we have this congress that is destructive. the only way to change things is to get rid of pat meehan and charlie dent and fitzpatrick and those moderate republicans that are left. and there are enough of them that if they lose them in the suburbs all over this country, they're going to lose control of the congress. so i think they're going down a path that is idiotic for them. >> you know, that sounds like harry truman '48 going after the do nothing congress. he blew those guys out of the saddle because all they wanted to do is hold hearing like

darrell issa all day and investigate for communists. when you go up there and cover them, not just in numbers in history, but the way they are today, do they really believe that they can sell this, or is this just to avoid having primary challenges? >> well, i think it's a little of both. chris, i don't think there is any question the governor knows this, you know this well. they look around, all politicians look around. and when they see their colleagues lose. when they see a dick lugar lose, when they see a bob bennett in utah lose, it has a real and lasting impact on them. i think the danger here is that -- i guess i disagree a little bit with the governor in that. the line-drawing process has created it so you have so few competitive seats that i don't know that there are enough seats to flip. what i think is dangerous is the mentality that they're adopting, for example, on immigration, which is immigration is a huge issue for the national republican party. but in congressional districts that are controlled by republicans, there is a relatively small number of districts that are heavily

hispanic. they can hold the house if they don't pass a comprehensive immigration bill. the bigger problem is are they cutting off their nose to spite their face in 2016. can marco rubio, jeb bush, rand paul, scott walker, can any of those guys win with the republican party that if polling is to be believed, to bear the lion's share of blame. >> i think the governor may be right. i'm not sure they're going to like a do knock nobody. anyway, thank you, chris sill liss za and thank you governor ed rendell for coming on. it's always great. we'll be right back after this. which provider is the best in town. you'll find reviews on everything from home repair to healthcare. now that we're expecting, i like the fact i can go onto angie's list and look for pediatricians. the service providers that i've found on angie's list actually have blown me away. find out why more than two million members count on angie's list. angie's list -- reviews you can trust.

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let me finish tonight with this. you know, we never value something as much as when it is taken away from us. like so many of you, i'm a newspaper reader. i love the papers. when i'm in another country, i love getting the usa today or both. i love reading:00 america from europe. and every day you see me here at this desk. i've spent a good part of the morning loving the "new york times" and the "washington post" and politico, the political trade paper. and sometimes "the wall street journal" as well. i love the feel of the broad sheet, the excitement of a tab, the turning of the pages, the checking of the sports section, and the scores. the celebrity news, just enough that is, and the opinions on the op-ed page. i want to know what people like me and also not like me are thinking. newspapers are great for one great reason. they throw it at you. you don't go looking for a piece on pakistan, but there it is, staring at you when you go to

what you are looking for. newspapers not only tell you what is new and what you know about, but also what is new on what you should know about. they alert you, tickle you, taunt you, until you have caught up and know what the story is. the sale of "the washington post" is a tricky matter for the single region that it is an original source of knowing what you and i should know about. and that's "hardball" for now. thanks for being with us. "politicsnation" with al sharpton starts right now. >> thanks, chris, and thanks to you for tuning in. tonight's lead, hey, republicans, let's get ready to crumble! the gop is going to cave when it comes to health care. it's not a matter of if, just when. need an example? today president obama visited arizona. and just look who went to the airport to greet him, republican governor jan brewer. look, she is all smiles.