have a great night never happen again. and mitch mcconnell agrees with him. >> the 16-day government shutdown. >> federal workers going back to their jobs. >> finally came to an end. >> let's be clear. there are no winners here. >> back from the brink. at what cost? >> $24 billion. >> $24 billion hit to the economy. >> how business is done in this town has to change. >> will washington learn from the crisis to face the next battle? >> a wake-up call. >> this fight. this debate will continue. >> although maybe not. >> that's not a surprise. >> to see the house engage in a profile in courage. that was a remarkable victory. >> house republicans got nothing in the deal. >> what they did end up getting were lower poll numbers. >> putting it mildly. >> republican favorability ratings went to an all time low. >> some senator from arizona, he

was saying today. >> there is a fool's errand. >> the shut down has been a fool's errand. >> it was a fool's errand. >> this is really a fight for the soul of the republican party. >> that doesn't mean we can't make progress. >> the president outlined three areas of focus. passing a budget, immigration reform, farm bill. there as it lot of noise out there. >> the government is back open after a 16-day shut down. >> at least for 90 days. >> what was the big takeaway. >> how business is done in this town has to change! ♪ republicans picked an unnecessary legislative fight with president obama and they lost. completely. today president obama explained that the economy suffered a big loss too. >> there are no winners here. these last few weeks have inflicted completely unnecessary damage on our economy.

we don't know yet the full scope of the damage, but every analyst out there believes it's slowed our growth. and for what? there was no economic rationale for all of this. over the past four years our economy has been growing. our businesses have been creating jobs and our deficits have been cut in half. we hear some members pushed for the shut down say they were doing it to save the american economy. but nothing has done more to undermine our economy these past three years than the kind of tactics that create these manufactured crises. some of the same folks who pushed for the shut down and threatened default claim their actions were needed to get america back on the right track. to make sure we're strong. but probably nothing has done

more damage to america's credibility in the world, our standing with other countries, than the spectacle that we have seen these past several weeks. it's encouraged our enemies. it's emboldened our competitors. and it's depressed our friend who look to us for steady leadership. >> the president also spoke of lessons learned from the government shutdown. >> one of the things that i hope all of us have learned these past few weeks is that it turns out smart, effective government is important. it matters. i think the am scan people during the shut down had a chance to get it -- get some idea of all of the things, large and small, that government does that make a difference in people's lives. and we hear all the time about how government is the problem. well it turns out we rely on in a whole lot of ways. let's work together to make

government work better. instead of treating it like an an enemy. we're purposely making it work worse. that's not what the founders of this nation envisioned when they gave us the gift of self government. you don't like a particular policy -- or a particular president -- then argue for your position. go out there and win an election. push to change it. but don't break it. don't break what our predecessors spent two centuries building. >> to learn from their hopeless battle with president obama and the democrats that ended in the republicans total surrender. today, mitch mcconnell said that the next time around "a government shut down is off the table. we're not going to do it."

senator mcconnell said that in a frank interview with robert costa for the national review online. senator mcconnell said, one of my favorite sayings, an old kentucky saying, there's no education in the second kick of a mule. when robert costa asked mcconnell, when did you know this standoff was finally ending? mcconnell replied -- i can tell you when i knew that we'd end up here. july. joining me now, robert costa, washington editor for national review and a host of msnbc's "up." the republican leader in the senate saying it was quite obvious to him three months ago there was only one way this thing was going to end. >> that's exactly right, lawrence. senator mcconnell told me today he knew in the summer the strategy would never work. it took a long time for many conservative republicans to come around to that idea. to accept that divided government would not yield major concessions from the administration. >> let's listen to one of the people that mitch mcconnell

could not convince that this battle was a bad idea. ted cruz, mark levine's radio show. >> you know it should have been the senate republicans that rhode like the calvary to support the courageous stand house republicans were taking. instead they became the air force bombing our own troops, bombing house republicans, bombing conservatives. and you can't win when one half of congress turns its cannons on the other half. >> steve, he loves military imagery being one of the many members of congress never would dream of being in the military himself. he is saying the senate republicans were bombing our own troops. his language is getting more inflammatory. >> the game that ted cruz plays. this is why, for everything you heard from mitch mcconnell, you heard from republicans, like mitch mcconnell, in the last 24 to 48 hours. we are not going to go down the

road. i am skeptical. i have my doubts. the game ted cruz plays. takes obama care and takes the shut down. we have to force the shutdown. over obama care. what's coming from the other side. what plays into cruz's hand. from the rest of the republicans who don't want to do that. they're not disputing the policy. they're not saying, well, no. we should try to acknowledge, obama care, should be working with obama care. they're arguing on tactics. that's what ted cruz wants. he wants an argument within the republican party, tactics where he is able to set himself up, test of purity, voice of purity. if you are a real conservative, like me, who really wants to take it to the administration, and fight obama care, this is the way to do it. hey, look the other guys who won't go with me. not because i'm selling out the ideology of conservatism. i still see that dynamic prevailing right now. >> but, a mitch mcconnell in robert's interview sound as adamant about this as president obama did. he started saying he will not

compromise on the debt ceiling. repeatedly, robert. he says, says it again for. one, you asked him, how does the party get beyond the mess. the first thing he says, well, for one we are not going to do this again in connection with the debt ceiling and with the government shutdown. one of my favorite moments. many favorite moments, robert, your question to him, about senator cruz. you said what is your take on senator ted cruz who led what, what, mcconnell had already called in the article a quixotic venture. the shortest answer in the interview. mcconnell says, i didn't have any observations to make on that. >> classic mcconnell. >> yeah. >> we really see from that, lawrence, how -- even mitch mcconnell who has been a conservative leader in congress who can't question that he is a conservative record, he recognizes the reality moving forward, is that to have any kind of legislative maneuvering ability. to be able to cut any kind of

deal on entitlements, taxes, reform. he need to have it. he is exhausted by the process. he called it a quixotic effort. that catches where mcconnell stands on issues on the right. >> he called it -- he said they squandered time over what he said to you was this quixotic venture that had no chance of success. he kept drilling that in. very interesting exchange in here, robert. you have with him about what everybody in washington and observing the situation has been thinking which is he is in a re-election campaign, tough situation. i will read the whole exchange. you asked him, you said -- a lot of reporters think your decisions are driven by political considerations in your home state, especially your primary versus matt bevin and potential general election versus democrat allison lundergran-grimes. great question. fascinated the way he began his answer. oh, that's the mother jones thesis. and i love that it is national review reporter asking him, the mother jones thesis.

he then says, i have nothing to say about my primary opponent. his first and only thing he says about the primary opponent. i will go back to what he said about, allison grimes. but, robert, what about that is? he not worried about the primary. >> senator mcconnell is con ty -- confident. sees bevin as a tea party challenger and has support. not becoming a national tea party figure. not gaining momentum. donations from small dollar donors outside of kentucky. mcconnell is really focusing now from based on our interview and conversations on the, the general election on allison grimes. she is running against him as someone an obstructionist in washington. so his point was quite cutting and frank in the interview. he said i cut this deal. i may it happen in terms of governing. you can't make the argument. he thinks allison grimes need a new quote rationale for her candidacy. >> it's been a bad 24 hours for

her. she is accusing him of being part of the problem. last 24 hours he was part of the solution. >> interesting. mcconnell has the dual challenge. not a lot of republicans have. republicans have to worry about tea party or primary. that's one of the issues that mitch mcconnell is facing. in a red state. never been a real safe bet for re-election. 30 years in the u.s. senate. i think within, republicans, more republicans in washington, a consensus coming out of this. and let's not go down the road of government shut down of the default. i don't know if that trickled down to the republican base. what i am asking going forward. does the republican base believe that if only their representatives in washington would fight harder and get rid of obama care tomorrow. if that prevails among the republican base, interesting to see what a guy like mcconnell is saying, two, three months from

now. >> robert, in the latest poll, senator mcconnell is a couple of points behind allison grimes. >> i think he realizes steve is right. he has a tough general election ahead. as much as he has been talking about the primary. grimes the chief competitor this year. next year. i think mcconnell. he looks at the house as a dysfunctional body. a lot of support. friendship for speaker boehner. when it comes to making things happen politically, he is the person who has it. he talks about how the minority in the senate is really driving the conversation forward for republican leadership. that is an important point. as the house falls away and fade in terms of crafting legislation. it is mcconnell again and again, stepping into the center being the guy who cuts the deal. >> great questions in there about his relationship with harry reid. everyone should read the full interview. i have tweeted it out to my universe. >> we appreciate that. >> did all i could. robert, steve, thank you both for joining me tonight.

>> sure. >> thank you. >> coming up -- joy reid joins me with analysis about what the president says are the lessons of the government shutdown. >> and the government shutdown cost the united states $24 billion. and that's just the beginning, ezra klein and mark patterson join us with the details. >> end of an era, a character who has been on more television series than any other character, left the air last night. the actor who has the record for the longest time playing a character. richard bowser will join me. detective munch gets tonight's last word. the rewrite tonight, what ted cruz has in common with a father who has ten children on medicaid. they both hate government. jackie: there are plenty of things i prefer to do on my own.

but when it comes to investing, i just think it's better to work with someone. someone you feel you can really partner with. unfortunately, i've found that some brokerage firms don't always encourage that kind of relationship. that's why i stopped working at the old brokerage, and started working for charles schwab. avo: what kind of financial consultant are you looking for? talk to us today.

republican senator brook of massachusetts. first elected to the senate in 1966. carol mosley-braun first african-american woman in 1988, followed by barack obama in 2004. three other african-americans were appointed to the senate by state governors, burress, scott, and cowen. first african-americans who serve in the u.s. senate was rhoads in 1870 followed by bruce in 1875. both elected by the mississippi state legislature during reconstruction before the 17th

amendment. of course was ratified in 1913. senators were chosen by state legislatures, not by direct popular vote. up next -- the lessons of the shut down. according to president obama. [ banker ] sydney needed some financial guidance so she could take her dream to the next level. so we talked about her options. her valuable assets were staying. and selling her car wouldn't fly. we helped sydney manage her debt and prioritize her goals, so she could really turn up the volume on her dreams today... and tomorrow. so let's see what we can do about that... remodel. motorcycle. [ female announcer ] some questions take more than a bank. they take a banker. make a my financial priorities appointment today. because when people talk, great things happen. nice car. sure is.

make a deal with me, kid, and you can have the car and everything that goes along with it. ♪ ♪ so, what do you say? thanks... but i think i got this. ♪ [ male announcer ] the all-new cla. set your soul free. >> understand how business is done in this town has to change. now that the government is reopened and the threat to the economy is removed. all of us need to stop focusing on the lobbyists, bloggers and talking heads on radio and the professional activists who profit from conflict and focus

on what the majority of americans sent us here to do. >> i'm glad he didn't say the talking heads on tv. joining me, washington bureau chief for "mother jones" and analyst, and msnbc's joy reid. joy you, have done enough hosting here at msnbc to know what it is like when the teleprompter is rolling by quickly. i don't know if this happened to you. little mistakes are in the prompter, you go, wait, that's not -- i just said in a previous segment, carol mosley braun was elected in 1988, as the word 8, wait a minute. i was there. the prompter keeps going. you have to keep reading. of course elected in 1992. the first african-american woman senator. but to get back on track here, that's so much for the corrections. joy, the president was really forceful today and what struck me about his tone in the speech is -- it was identical to the

way he was speaking right after his re-election when he first started to say "i will not bargain in any way on the debt ceiling." >> yeah, absolutely. i think that the big narrative on the right was that they just didn't believe that barack obama. when he said that after the election. yeah, whatever. they were still thinking about the narrative of 2011 when he actually in the end did cut a deal to avoid going over the debt limit. this was a president who was really saying, straight forwardly, no, no, seriously. i am not going to do it. never believed him. he never blinked. we had total surrender. >> let's listen to what nancy pelosi had to say, and her analysis. >> cynicism was about the fact the government was closed for 16 days, the full credit and faith of america was in doubt, why, the anti-government idea logs in the republican congress, the tail wagging the dog, just a few, 30-some, it was 62% of their caucus voted to keep government shut down. full 62% of their caucus voted

to -- to -- to default on the full faith and credit of the united states of america. >> but, david, across the way in the senate, a majority of republican senators voted to reopen the government and raise the debt ceiling? >> i think the president gave a good speech today. let me quibble with something. he went back to one of his preferred positions which is the above washington dysfunction position. you know, he stepped back, you know from the negotiations when he couldn't do anything with john boehner. he didn't have good negotiating partner. he let mitch mcconnell and reid do a deal. and which he was unhappy to endorse. when he came out today and described what was wrong, what was broken in washington, it wasn't what he had said a week earlier when he were heading towards default. which was it was the -- close to what nancy pelosi said, a small band of ideological extremists in the republican party in the house. he went back to the system is broken, there are extremes on

both sides. used extreme with a plural, on both sides that have gotten in the way of compromise here in washington. and we have to break through all of the noise from the lobbyists and the talking heads, apparently on both sides. and so this is, the comfortable position for him. he ran this way in 2008. tried to do it again, in 2012. he doesn't want to point fingers the way nancy pelosi did. and i can understand he wants to be president of everybody. but we have to keep reminding people, people have short attention spans, what brought us to this point. it is not equal on each side. the extremes are not equal here. >> joy, that -- that element struck me as the president in complete triumph, just complete wipeout of the republicans on this, just not wanting to just, spike the, the football on them. >> i agree with you, lawrence. look, everybody understands. john boehner said total

surrender. that's what they did. they got nothing. they literally held up the government for 17 days, they got absolutely nothing. and the president knows that he completely vanquished them. however, they're now about to go into a, a negotiation over the budget. and i mean, maybe it is because, i just got finished the book last week. looking at it in the sense. >> that's "tipping the gipper" by chris matthews. do not cite the book without the word chris matthews. >> all right. just for a minute. listen he has got to go negotiate with the people shortly. sort of spiking the football, would feel great to his base. but we already know he beat the republicans. everybody knows that. he has now got to deal with them and their leadership. it probably wouldn't help to spike the football with their name written on it. >> let's remember too, let's remember too. going to -- these negotiations we have had several times in the past few years. none of the basic fundamental dynamics have changed. they have lost, yes they have.

house republicans look at the list of quotations, mother jones, others have cited on the network this evening. from, from the house republicans, that they're aiming and egging themselves on for another fight. and so, again, the president's not going into a -- you know into a new situation. it is the same old you know what with the same folks. why anyone thinks we can now get an agreement, with paul ryan who will be running for the tea party presidential nomination, the republican party, in 2016. is kind of beyond me. and the president has to -- not set up expectations, he has to keep educating folks what he is up against. up against even in these negotiations. >> joy reid, and david coyne, thank you both for joining me tonight. >> thank you. >> thanks. >> coming of in the rewrite -- what drives ted cruz. who are the voters who support ted cruz? you will meet one of them tonight in the rewrite. a man whose family could not

survive without government assistance. later, richard belzer is here, played the longest running character in television history. 21 seasons as detective munch. all of that ended last night in the final scene of "law & order svu." in the nation, sometimes bad things happen. add brand new belongings from nationwide insurance and we'll replace stolen or destroyed items with brand-new versions. we put members first.

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in the spotlight the economic impact of government shut down. still too early to determine all of the damage the last 16 days

caused to the united states economy. yesterday standard & poors gave us a preview and estimates the shut down cost the economy $24 billion. that's $1.5 billion a day. a new report by macro economic advisers takes a broader look at the cost of the brinksmanship. it find all the budget battles since 2010, all of the battles have cost the economy nearly 3% of gdp which adds up to $700 billion and more than 2 million jobs. bureau of labor statistics announced to day the september jobs report which should have been released on october 4th won't be out until next tuesday october 22nd because of the government shutdown. "the new york times" reports, the unemployment data are being watched especially closely now because the federal reserve said any decision on whether to ease back on stimulus efforts depends

on continuing improvement in the labor market and without information from the labor department's bureau of labor statistics no one knows if that is happening. joining me now, "washington post's" ezra klein, msnbc analyst. ezra klein when you run by the numbers quickly, hard for you to land, the cost of shutdown, repeated shutdown, cost of brinksmanship is just astonishing. >> these are huge numbers. we should say this is impressionistic. people are taking their best guess. taking in the data. macro economic advisers number is the interesting one. there you are looking at spending we cut out in the last couple years. a very common thing to look at in addition to looking at, at, a certain policy and index. the thing none of the numbers actually do take into account. this is really important. right? these numbers are about the harm we have caused the economy

through bad policy, uncertainty, showdowns, brinksmanship. none deal with the things we haven't done to make the economy better. none deal with things we could accomplish, improve the economy, jobs situation. while we were instead shutting down the government. fighting over premature deficit reduction. that is the other side of this. right. while washington is doing, washington is doing damage, the other thing it is not doing is sort of the affirmative good that we could use. right? infrastructure investments we didn't do. all that could help the economy. >> standard & poors predicts today if people are afraid the government policy of brinksmanship will resurface again and with it the risk of another shut down or worse they will remain afraid to open up their check books. that points to another humbug holiday season. mark patterson, ted cruz out there not ruling out another shut down. but you have, i think much more importantly, mitch mcconnell definitively ruling out another shut down. >> yeah, lawrence.

you know what? that's great. i am glad he said that because it send a good message. but you know what would send a much more powerful message if congress goes ahead and enacts a law to do away with debt limit brinksmanship forever. that is not hard to do. in fact, a version of it that is actually inserted into the law they passed last night. all it would need, all that would need how to be done is make it permanent. named after senator mcconnell. his provision. i think doing something like that would reassure the world in a way that no statements, no interviews and national review could do. tremendous message to the world that we are going to pay our debts. and we are still the stable country that lead the world in economic policy. >> mark, you of course have read every word of the bill they passed last night. can you amplify what the provision is you are talking about? >> the way it works, lawrence.

this was used to raise the debt limit. senator mcconnell, inverts the process, what it does is allows the president to raise the debt limit. and, and congress has a chance to disapprove that increase if they want to. but of course it would take a law to do that. would have to pass through both houses with the president's signature. very unlikely that such a law would pass. so, it, maintains congress' congressional authority over borrowing. gives them the ability to object. but it does not allow the threat of default to be a recurrent, ever-present overhang over our economy. >> ezra klein, ted cruz mentioned you in the mark levine interview. as a point of personal privilege. i will give you a chance to respond. let's listen to what she'd. >> big business has been given a one-year delay contrary to the law, yet president obama shut down the federal government to deny that same delay to hard working american families.

i mean there is so much widespread agreement that this thing is a train wreck. you have wolf blitzer on cnn saying the president should delay this for a year. ezra klein coming out in "the washington post" saying the president should delay it for a year. >> ezra, go ahead. >> i didn't know about that. not only i didn't know that about the end view. i didn't know i wrote that in "the washington post." that sound like an odd opinion for me to hold. the rollout of obama care, i have tried to be, continue to be tough on the administration. they rolled this out in a very, very bad way. the website is not working. not working yet. it its getting better. load times are getting much, much better. many more reports of people getting through. in the states people are getting through. but the idea you should delay it for year, i don't think we are anywhere near that point yet. at any rate, you don't want to delay the whole for a year. you have hundreds of thousand of people who got insurance. one you have all states running their own exchanges and all states that are using medicaid.

600,000 people in california. in oregon. you would be taking insurance away from all the people if you delay the hold off for a year. i think we should fix the law. the obama administration should do what they said they would do make the law actually work. but i don't think we should be delaying for a year. >> ezra klein, mark patterson. thank you for joining us. >> thank you. >> thank you, lawrence. >> coming up if you can watch richard belzer's last scene after a 21-year run as detective munch without coming close to shedding a tear. you are a much tougher view er than i am. richard belzer will join me. we will try -- we will try not to cry. life with crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis

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i am running for state representative, position a in district 11. and i am -- i have been happily married for 16 years to my wife kelly. we have ten children. we were former foster children. eight of our ten kids are adopted. >> that was greg collett last year running for state representative in ohio, running as a republican, i'm sorry,

idaho, i'm just told in my ear. he was actually hoping to win in idaho, that's why he was running as a republican because in idaho the word democrat is synonym for socialist. he was defeated in the republican primary. he ran of course in favor of lower taxes and reduced spending. and "securing our individual god given rights." perhaps his campaign would have gone better if he had cut government spending during his campaign which he alone among candidates was empowered to do even though he had no role in government. if he said i am so intensely serious about cutting government children. i will take my ten children off medicaid. he would have cut government spending by $27,000 that year in idaho. that's how much ten kids cost to cover in idaho's medicaid program. that's right. the cut government spending guy has all ten of his kids on

medicaid for years. medicate is funded by federal government money and state government, the state government that greg collett was running to be a part of when he said he wanted to cut government spending. he is not just against government spending, uh-uh. he is just about everything government does. he has written a partial list what he is against, marriage licenses, i am against property taxes i am against federal ownership of landing i am against national parks, i am against driver's licenses, license plates. public funding of transportation, building permits. public libraries, public schools, usda inspections. he has also written, i am against the 17th amendment. that of course is the amendment that allows vote tires choose united states senators instead of state legislatures, choosing senators. so he is against the direct election of united states senators which means he is against democracy.

and of course, of course, he is one of those people who you see at every tea party rally who says, as he recently wrote, i am against government mandated health insurance exchanges. well, i mean, if you are against driver's license and license plates of course you are against government mandated health exchanges. makes perfect sense. he writes i am against medicaid. greg collett is a god-fearing, mormon father of ten who believes the government should not provide health insurance or health care of any kind to anyone and all ten of his kids are on medicaid. the greg colletts of this country are the people for whom the government was just shut down for 16 days. the greg colletts of texas who voted for ted cruz, the greg colletts of kentucky voted for rand paul. government shutdown was designed

to appeal to the crowd who is so completely against government-mandated health care exchanges, they believe the entire government should be shut down to prevent those insurance exchanges from even existing. republicans were threatened with an army of incoherent greg colletts in their state if they would support a rise in the debt ceiling, the supporters, the greg collett types out there would rise up, find a tea party challenger to put in a primary against any republican congressman or senator who didn't support shutting down the government. that was the threat. and every day that the greg colletts, cheered the government shutdown, the real greg collett had ten kids on medicaid, a program that could not be shut down because it was run by the states and funded automatically by the federal government. he is clearly something beyond a mere republican. greg collett is a libertarian.

in his public statement of beliefs, he is a much, much more extreme libertarian than rand paul, a much stronger libertarian than rand paul, but not in his life choices. rand paul has never had any kids on medicaid. in greg collett's rambling essay, defending his extreme libertarianism while asking the government to pay for his children's health care, he wrote -- individuals are to take responsibility for their own situations. if they cannot meet their obligations they should turn to their families for support. if families are not able to help, they should go to churches or other charitable organizations for assistance. government should not be involved. period. greg didn't explain why the mormon church his church has chosen not to help him meet his family obligations. his obligations to his children. and why no other charitable organizations have helped him meet what he calls his obligations to his children.

greg collett says because he pays or perhaps in the past has paid some taxes "i do not lose any sleep over anything i do to redirect funds towards me." but given that greg's children qualify for medicaid because his income is low enough, it is extremely unlikely that greg actually pays even one penny in federal income taxes. the primary funding source of medicaid. and if greg does pay any federal income taxes, which as i said is mathematically very unlikely, there is virtually no chance that he has paid nearly as much in taxes as he collects from the government in medicaid. now i for one am very, very glad that in the serpent's nest of irrationality that is greg's brain he has made the correct choice for his kids and enrolled them all in a government health

care system that is helping to keep them all healthy, i am glad he know it making his children suffer for his political idea. i would call them political beliefs, but he clearly doesn't believe them. he just says these things. so his being against everything government does isn't really a belief, it's just a pose. as it is with ted cruz as it is with michele bachmann whose family has lived on government agriculture subsidies while she rails against government spending. the anti-government crowd is against government only in theory. in real life, they are eager to take from the government whatever is good for them. libertarian, anti-government ranter, greg collett's explanation in writing, for why his ten kids have been on medicaid for years is "it is the only practical choice."

the greg colletts of this country have no capacity to understand any one else's problems. that's what makes them dysfunctional as citizens and voters. greg collett believes that medicaid is the only practical choice for his ten children. and he cannot comprehend that it is the only practical choice for everyone else whose income is low enough to qualify for it. and yes, medicaid is socialism. pure and simple socialism. and it is good socialism. and like all good socialism, it is the only practical choice. huh...fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. yep, everybody knows that. well, did you know the ancient pyramids were actually a mistake?

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longest running character in tv history joins me next. i am going to have to fight off the tears. la's known definitely for its traffic, congestion, for the smog.

but there are a lot of people that do ride the bus. and now that the buses are running on natural gas, they don't throw out as much pollution into the air. so i feel good. i feel like i'm doing my part to help out the environment.

>> i have to admit i did underestimate you at first. but over time i realized that detective munch was not only a brilliant detective, but a very, very soulful man. >> oh. >> i will miss you very much, john munch. >> i love you. >> that was the retirement party we thought we would never see. detective john munch played on two different television series over 21 seasons made guest appearances on several other series.

richard belzer introduced detective munch in 1993. detective munch the longest running character in the history of primetime television. all that came to an end last night when "law & order svu fans" fans watched detective munch's final season. >> you had one hell of a run, detective munch. >> did i? i don't know where it all went. >> thank you. >> i'm pulling them now. i'm looking at them now. detective munch. [ phone rings ]

>> homicide. i mean svu. hold on. i'll get you a detective. >> joining me now, my buddy, richard belzer, richard, i cannot imagine what it was like that day on the set, to have your final wrap, final scene. >> much more emotional. at the risk of being immodest, the thousand of fan mail i get from twitter and whatever, those other services are, has been so moving and so usually people will write. you are a jerk, or something, you know but there is hundreds and hundreds of people just saying they're going to cry they're going to drink they're going, don't know what they're

going to do. it's like i didn't realize until last night the depth of the affection for the character. i knew i was -- you know well-liked, but this was, i'm speechless for a change. >> yeah, well. i realized that. i knew it was coming. this was a huge television history moment. and, it is amazing first of all that the character ever transferred from homicide to law & order, amazing feat. i want to show why this character did transfer. i want to look back, when detective munch, man of few word in law & order, much more talkative in homicide. let's take a look at that. >> yes. >> hey, can you switch that channel off. >> all i got on is sitcoms and news magazines. >> now, yes, but soon, very soon, there is going to be like 500 channels besides sports channel, weather channel, the ballet channel, dog food channel, the all dreidel network, don't be any books, newspapers, no telephones, only communicate with e mail, qvc,

interactive, all you need to see and hear, you will see and hear without ever having to rise from your bed. i am talking high definition. i am talking virtual reality. i am talking living in the fast lane. electronic information super highway. you belter get ready, because it's coming. >> so great to watch the great ned beatty in there. you predicted the world, the homicide writers, the amazing creative gang there. >> i did that speech before i had a laptop. >> yeah. >> that's how prophetic tom fontana was. he let me add the all dreidel network to the list. >> you wrote that? >> that word. that line. >> yes, perfect. and one of the great honors you had over the years was the, the muppets doing their version of richard belzer's detective munch. i think we can roll some of that.

>> you got that. okay. >> we can roll it while we keep talking. stick it up there. >> i used to date. look at munch. with the, the tooth pick. i tell you i could have died that day when i saw that. because i used to, years ago i was dating a girl and her mother said, you wear sneakers. you'll never be on "sesame street." like thieves wear sneakers in the 70s. so, like, you know, 30 years later i'm on sesame street. >> you, detective munch guested on ten other series i think. >> yes, yes. the main character. >> the wardrobe is still around, right, in case there is a call for a guest shot some where or? this could be something, right? give us some hope, richard. give us some hope. >> my schedule is wide open, lawrence. so, if, any show wants to have me on i'm there. >> richard, really, a beautiful performance all the way through from start to finish. and -- that final scene, was

just incredible. >> thank you, lawrence. i really appreciate you having me on tonight. >> thank you very much for joining us. >> i want to thank all my great fans too. >> thanks, richard. >> okay, lawrence. >> up next, "hardball" with chris mattews. the endless bummer. let's play "hardball." good evening. i'm chris matthews. let me start with this. -- are ready to do it all again. and again and again. cruz is blaming his fellow senate republicans. far bigger is the relentless onslaught of anger against the president, the affordable care act, and all things obama. for that the course is now set. a huge fight over the budget heading into the week before