>> get off the roads and stay home. >> god-awful winter. >> i wish it ended yesterday. >> turns out he's not telling the truth. >> we have to re-evaluatre-eval. >> that is a dynamic and drugmaker shift. >> a god-awful winter i wish would end yesterday. >> say lin palin reflecting on her own time in office. >> it's hard to be the ceo of an organization and not know what the closest people to you are up to. >> those two have a long history of not getting along and sniping at each other. >> you blow it if you ever try to hide anything. >> sarah palin talks about blowing it. didn't she quit? >> things are miserable out there. i don't know if chris christie knows how this is going to end. >> a god-awful winter i wish would end yesterday. >> it is tricky out there driving.

>> the snow is piling up in the northeast as the aura of scandal accumulates around chris christie. the bergen record reports today that more subpoenas are expected in the bridgegate probe adding to more than three dozen, 36, issued already. and as the documents trickle in, there is plenty of time for increased scrutiny of christie's past, his rise in politics, and just how he became the deeply embattled figure that he is today. the turning point may have come in 1997 when christie lost his seat on the board of the chosen freeholders in the exclusive excerpt of morris county. that defeat came soon after christie had challenged a fellow republican for a state assembly seat and lost that seat too. his assembly running mate recalled, it was a couple of gut punches, but he saw a path forward for his friend. he suggested to christie that the federal route might give him another bite at the apple. but what was an attorney who

specialized in medical malpractice lawsuits and a two-time loser in state and local elections supposed to do? hungry for a larger role on the public stage, christie was advised by a law firm colleague named bill palatucci to help raise money for a guy named george w. bush. christie did so with gusto, helping to raise more than $350,000, which was enough to become a bush pioneer. when it came time for then president bush to appoint a u.s. attorney general for new jersey, that same law firm colleague helped out. according to reporting in the new republic, he pitched christie to karl rove. it was a competitive field and christie had zero experience in criminal law. indeed, he had never so much as filed a motion in federal court. he got the nod. that is part of the new piece "chris christie's entire career

reeks: it's not just the bridge." author alec mcginnis details cristy's rise to power and what specifically he has done with that power. "even postbridgegate, the prevailing interpretation of christie fundamentally misses the mark. he's been singularly successful in constructing his own mythology as a reformer, a crusader, a bipartisan problem solver, that people have never seen him clearly. all along, even as it looked like christie was attacking the machine, he was really just mastering it." joining me now is the host of "up," steven kornacki, and from baltimore the senior editor at the new republic, alec mcgillis, who takes a look at christie's career in a formidably awesome new piece in the new issue. al alec, a pleasure to have you on the show today. what a piece of investigative journalism. an insane amount of research went into this. steven kornacki, who has as you know has a very long institutional memory with all things new jersey, he and i were

talking about this before the segment began. it really does put together all these disparate stories we've heard about chris christie into one broad narrative and you know this better than all of us, it is a searing indictment of chris christie as a public official. let's start first with his qualifications to be u.s. -- to be the new jersey attorney general. they were scant to say the least, were they not? >> they were very scant. they became even more scant in perspective and context after 9/11. you have to remember, he was nominated by bush the day before 9/11. he got the official nomination. 9/11 happens and now we're suddenly facing a u.s. attorney nominee for one of the biggest districts in the country right across from ground zero, the district where one of the planes took off in, a nominee who was basically, you know, a lawyer and a small firm. he did a lot of medical malpractice work, securities work, some lobbying in trenton, but he was basically your run-of-the-mill small firm lawyer who barely stepped foot

in federal court and he's now suddenly nominated to be the u.s. attorney for this incredibly crucial district. >>, you know, steve, if christie's qualifications were thin, he has -- he used his power as attorney general very shrewdly. and i'll read an excerpt from alex's piece where he says "by taking down some of the state's bosses while leaving others off-limits, christie had effectively turned this solely apolitical role of prosecutor into that of king maker. it was a brilliant strategy. new jersey offered such a target-rich environment that christie was able to get credit for taking down a slew of crooked officials and build aligns with some of the most powerful bozs in the state at the time." >> something that's very misunderstood about chris christie, certainly before all the scandals of the last few weeks and months. he was understood as a bipartisan figure and it used to drive me crazy because i said if you long at what is at the root of those bipartisan alliances it's basically christie sort of co-opting the democratic machine or vice versa.

>> right. the snake eating its tail. >> but it was clear from the beginning when chris christie became u.s. attorney that this was going to be -- you know, he was going to pursue political corruption cases partly to make a name for himself so he could run for office and governor one day. i remember it was november 2002 and the u.s. senate race had just finished in new jersey, lautenberg had beaten forrester. i was writing a piece on the next big election in new jersey, 2005, gubernatorial race. i got a phone call from bill palatucciless than a year after chris christie has been named u.s. attorney. bill palatucci wanted to make sure i knew as i prepared this piece there were republicans who were talking about chris christie and his potential gubernatorial future. it goes that far, all the way back to the beginning. his first major takedown, how it gets in this piece, it's an important to understand, was a guy who was a rising republican star in new jersey politics who had been running for the senate in 2002. the fbi raided his office during

that primary and that fall chris christie as u.s. attorney sent agents out to arrest him, ticked off the "star-ledger." they have this picture of agents arresting jim trettinger. the power of that was that every reporter in the state over the next few years was going to hear from democrats that chris christie was using his office to go after democrats. every reporter said the first thing they would say is trepinger, he took down the republican, a rising star. it inoculated him against that charge. >> alec, you talk about the masterful way by which christie inoculated himself from other scandals, and i'm going to paraphrase this all incorrectly so you can set the record straight. but basically there were other high-profile investigations that christie basically brushed aside by saying, oh, you know, the legwork here, the paper trail is -- the research here has been completely ineffective. it's flawed. and then would blame, you know,

the folks who investigated as being corrupt. therefore sort of hermetically sealing him off from any questionable sort of -- from any claims that he had done something questionable. please, tell us all about what i just said. >> well, the key one that you're alluding to is with george norcross. george norcross is really the crucial figure in this piece other than chris christie. he's the incredibly powerful democratic powerbroker in south jersey. he's increasingly -- his power reaches across the whole state. and chris christie back in 2003 had a very interesting dinner with norcross at an italian restaurant in new brunswick. that raised some eyebrows because people wondered why is he going out to dinner with this big powerbroker who at that time was already under investigation by the state attorney general's office and also by the s.e.c. a couple years later the case

that the attorney generals had been working on, the state case, was referred to chris christie's office. it was really a better fit for chris christie's u.s. attorney's office to look at. it was a very interesting case that involved some pretty damning wiretaps of george norcross holding forth in private about his power. and chris christie decided not to pursue that case in 2006, which, you know, you could argue that that was the right call to make, there maybe wasn't enough tlefd, but what was fascinating is that he put out a six-page letter explaining why he wasn't going to bring this case and basically blaming the state attorney generals for having bungled the case and going so far as to actually suggest they had somehow protected norcross, that they had bungled it so badly it seemed as if they were shielding george norcross, which is brilliant, because it inoculated him against any suggestion he was doing just that kind of shielding himself by not bringing the case. it was machiavellian, really. >> there was a lot of discussion about christie, favoritism,

retribution, put in context, this is the natural behave of the christie administration and his career up to this point. i want to talk about todd christie, who also comes up in the piece. in 2005 the s.e.c. issued civil charges against 20 wall street floor traders alleging they had ill illegally traded for their firms account ahead of customers. todd crist wri was one of many. five of the 20 arrest wrd spared public hue mill yas and the threat of criminal conviction. todd christie was one of them, coincidence or not? >> right. todd christie was spared and the man who spared todd christie, chris christie as the u.s. attorney, was able to give him a contract. another interesting part of alex's piece. the largess that christie was able to spread around, sort of like a politician would as u.s. attorney when he had these deferred prosecution agreement

where is he was able to spread money around and use it like a politician would, like he's done as governor. i just quickly add one thing on norcross. the amazing thing about not prosecuting george norcross in 2006, you can see the roots of everything planted right then. in 2009 always rumors in new jersey that norcross' machine kind of went to sleep on jon corzine, the democrat, the northward democratic machine went to sleep, union city went to sleep, these democratic machines went to sleep oncor sine. at the height of that 2009 campaign, there was basically a coup in the state senate when they took out this sort of anti-christie democrat and replaced him with a george norcross guy. when chris christie came to power he was aided by this alliance with norcross, aided by this alliance with joe d., not that these names mean anything to people, but all these seeds were planted in the campaign. then when chris christie became governor he had democrats in south jersey, a democratic boss in south jersey, he'd get votes

for them. he had democrats in essex county, new jersey, who worked for the boss he had to deal with. unbelievable. >> alec, one of things you point out in the piece which is important before i let you go, the governor in new jersey wields a humongous amount of power, more so than probably any other elected office in the state. explain to us why that is. >> well, it's pretty basic. he's the only statewide elected official in the state. you have no elections for attorney general, for treasurer, the kind of thing most states are elected by voters in new jersey they're apointed by the governor. you also have this other key feature in new jersey, this incredibly numerous disparate spread of local towns and counties so you just have this very kind of broken-up atomized ammunition. picture, landscape in new jersey which in a way only ep hanss the governor's power further. they're all very independent on him for money and that's new

jersey. >> that is new jersey. i highly recommend that everybody who has followed this christie story in any detail, check out your piece, alec. steven kornacki and the new republic's alec mcgillis, thanks for your time. >> thank you. >> sure. >> after the break, betrayal and brinkmanship, the latest behind the scenes cliff hanging debt ceiling drama with john stanton and e.j. dion. first, a massive storm dumps more than a foot of snow in parts of the east coast. we'll gate live report on the whiteout. at any minute you could be a victim of fraud.

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a crippling nor'easter is wreaking havoc right now as it moves up the eastern seaboard. the storm has already dumped more than a foot of snow in parts of the northeast, making for treacherous driving conditions. the storm has killed at least 18 people from texas to virginia. more than half a million customers are without power and 6,000 flights have been canceled today alone. this monster storm isn't over yet. it is packing more snow, ice, and freezing rain through tomorrow morning. joining me now from phoenixville, pennsylvania, is the weather channel's kate parker. what is it like by you? and how much worse is it going to get? >> reporter: well, fortunately, we're in a little bit of a lull right now in pennsylvania. we're just outside of philadelphia where we've had a record-breaking snow day. we've had 10 inches of snow and that means this is the fourth time this year we've seen more than 6 inches of snow in philadelphia and that is the first time that we've ever seen that happen in a single season since records began back in 1884. so a remarkable day.

i'm standing in front of this tree because this tree came down on power lines in this neighborhood last week. it left families without power for up to five days. some even more than that in other parts of pennsylvania. and to add insult to injury, we've had another 10 inches or more snow dumped on the area. i've totals near 16 inches in our area. elsewhere along the east coast, totals up 20isms, approaching the two-foot mark when it comes to the snowfall. this storm certainly has packed a major punch. we are expecting another round of snow here tonight in the philadelphia area adding to those snow totals. this has continued up into new england where we're already seeing some major snow totals in massachusetts. this is definitely one for the record books in philadelphia and in some other places. we'll see other numbers come in i believe that are going to set some records there as well. back the you, alex. >> thanks, kate. kate parker. stay warm. coming up, the new york city mayor's office reports that city

schools have just -- have had just 11 snow days since the year 1978, and today is not one of them. while the decision isn't without detractors, it's also providing an essential service to children across new york city. we will explain that just ahead. first, new reports that the white house is debating whether to kill an american citizen overseas. the aclu weighs in on drones and due process. if i can impart one lesson to a

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♪ i finally found the right snack ♪ [ female announcer ] fiber one. did you run into traffic? no, just had to stop by the house to grab a few things. you stopped by the house? uh-huh. yea. alright, whenever you get your stuff, run upstairs, get cleaned up for dinner. you leave the house in good shape? yea. yea, of course. ♪ [ sportscaster talking on tv ] last-second field go-- yea, sure ya did. [ male announcer ] introducing at&t digital life. personalized home security and automation. get professionally monitored security for just $29.99 a month. with limited availability in select markets. ♪ i do not believe it would be constitutional for the government to target and kill any u.s. citizen with a drone or with a shotgun without due process. but when a u.s. citizen goes abroad to wage war against america and is actively plotting

to kill u.s. citizens, and when neither the united states nor our partners are in a position to capture him before he carries out a plot, his citizenship should no more serve as a shield than a sniper shooting down on an innocent crowd should be protected from a s.w.a.t. team. >> that was president obama almost nine months ago laying out his legal framework for killing american citizens who have been deemed national security threats. this week the white house faces the same decision. this time, though, the public is being let in on it for the most part. national news outlets are reporting this week that the administration is currently weighing whether to authorize a drone strike against an american citizen living in pakistan, an american who officials believe is actively plotting terrorist attacks against u.s. citizens. according to the ap, which first reported the story, two officials describe the men as an al qaeda facilitator who'd been directly responsible for deadly attacks against u.s. citizens

overseas and continues to plan attacks. officials said the suspected terrorist is well guarded and in a fairly remote location, so any attempt to capture him would be, quote, too risky and even more politically explosive than a u.s. missile strike. the justice department is reportedly working to build the case against the man right now, a process that may be more complicated than the last time the u.s. killed an american citizen abroad. under a new u.s. drone policy announced last year, terrorist suspects overseas can only be killed by the military and not the cia. the problem here is that pakistan, where the suspected terrorist is allegedly based, refuses military action on its soil. so if the u.s. government is to go ahead with this extrajudicial killing the target would have to be excam newtoned by the -- executed by the cia. as with all things related to national security and terror, the gray areas are abundant. this week the u.s. officials

told told the ap the president could make an exception and authorize the cia to strike on a one-time basis. the president could authorize the pentagon to go ahead with the strike despite pakistan's okays as a sovereign country. for the record under this administration the united states has killed four american citizens abroad without due process. join meganow is a director for the aclu national security project. always great to see you. tease are complicated questions and complicated times. start first with the fact we even know about this. do you think this is a bid on the part of the administration to gauge public sentiment ahead of a targeted drone strike? >> alex, thanks for having me again. it is hard to know what's going on in the heads of the administration officials who have been providing these kinds of disclosures.

the first they identified the person as an american but not the country he was located. this is a stark and disturbing reminder how little we know about the administration's legal interpret talladegas of its authority to kill people, citizen, and noncitizens alike. and this is also part of a disturbing pattern in which the actual evidence that justifies the use of lethal force against people is kept secret but government officials, the only thing we know from the government are disclosures by anonymous government officials that often end up being self-serving and selective. >> hina, what do you make of this bid towards a more transparent drone policy and shifting the attacks from the cia to the department of defense? do you think that is meaningful in any way? i ask that in full awareness of the fact that may not hold for this strike if it does take place. >> sure. so there have been promises of

transparency from senior government officials including president obama in his speech in may of last year. and those promises have not been borne out. we still don't know, alex, basic information about the number and identity of people killed except for u.s. citizens. and that citizenship-based discrepancy is not one that makes us look good in the eyes of the world and justifiably it shouldn't. it doesn't matter what your citizenship is. we should know who we're killing and on what basis. now there had been some trial balloons floated about transferring authority for killings from the cia to the department of defense. that would certainly be a good thing because the cia, which should be a foreign intelligence agency, has now turned into a paramilitary killing organization. but since then it appears that there are delays and perhaps this won't even happen. and in fact there was a secret an exto last year's national

defense authorization act that would seek to prohibit the transfer of killing authority from the cia to the department of defense. that is profoundly disturbing, should disturb us all. >> you know, hina, i will say, you know, when the president makes his case, we played the sound very specifically, because he makes a broader argument that, you know, we can't shield these -- citizenship cannot be a shield for people trying to take down american lives or to end american lives and commit acts of terrorism. and it is a persuasive argument. public sentiment would seem to reflect an agreement with the president. i think according to a gallup poll taken last year, 65% of americans support drone attacks op terrorists abroad, 41% support attacks on citizens who are, quote, unquote, suspected terrorists. the issue here i think to your point, the administration was supposed to be taking -- committing -- ordering these

targeted drone strikes based on the notion of imminent threat, which in and of itself is so open to interpretation that it's really subject to any administration to define the term imminent threat. do you think we are on a course -- do you think the administration has set us on any course at all to be more aware of what is happening overseas in terms of our counterterrorism policy and also to redefine as a public the notion of what is imminent threat? >> sure. and first of all, alex, let me say that we agree with president obama that citizenship is not a valid distinction in that we think that the same rules apply to citizens and noncitizens alike. the only difference is that there's no question that american citizens have a right to judicial review that unfortunately the courts have narrowed for noncitizens. now that said, i think you're hitting again on one of the most important points, and you've discussed this before in the program and it's worth emphasizing, there are very exceptional circumstances under

which lethal force can be used in the context of an actual armed conflict, for example, if someone's participating in hostilities, and outside of war if someone poses a true imminent threat. but the administration's definition of imminence is so broad that it does violence to life, to language, and law itself. and that i think is the most disturbing aspect of where we are headed. >> the aclu's hina shamsi, thank you as always for your time. >> thank you. after the break, critics are blasting new york city mayor bill de blasio today for keeping new york city schools open during a tough and brutal winter storm. but for many of the students who can't always get a hot meal at home, there is actually very good reason for keeping schools open. dad, why are you getting that? is there a prize in there?

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it is very cold in new york city today, but mayor bill de blasio has found himself in the hot seat. this time it wasn't over his handling of the city's cleanup efforts. it was his decision to keep new york city public schools open. "the new york post" headline reads, "parents enraged as schools stay open during dangerous blizzard." the head of the teachers union wrote, "having students, parent, and staff traveling in these conditions was unwarranted." and new york city assembly woman said expecting children to travel through heavy snow, sleet, and ice at the same time the city is urging residents to stay off the road is nonsensical. so why would the new mayor court such vitriol? there are a couple reasons. >> there are huge numbers of parents for whom the consistency of the school schedule is absolutely necessary. they are going to work.

they have no choice if they can't get their kid to school, they don't have another option. there are a huge number of option for whom their kid getting to school also means their child will have a good meal. and in some cases two meals. and so the fact is it's a very big deal to a lot of parents. >> for many children in new york city, something as basic as a hot meal in the winter is not guaranteed. nearly half a million children in new york city, roughly 1 in 4 kids, live in homes that struggle to put food on the table. 3 in 4 public school students come from families poor enough to qualify for free or reduced-price school meals. in the epic "new york times" series last year, profiling an 11-year-old named dasani, one of the 22,000 homeless children living in new york city, andrea elliott wrote, "for children like this, school is not just a place to cultivate a hungry mind. it is a refuge. the right school can provide routine, nourish, and guiding

hand of responsible adults." while schools remained open today, the new york school chancellor made clear parents should use their judgment about whether or not their own children should stay home. but for the fens of thousands of parents who can't afford daycare and put enough food on the table, at least they had an option. coming up, it is not every day that someone utters mitch mcconnell and courageous in the same sentence, but it's not every day that the senate republican leader has to take one for the team like he did with the debt ceiling, voting yea when he wanted to vote nay while secretly hoping for nay. got that? [announcer] word is getting out. purina dog chow light & healthy is a deliciously tender and crunchy kibble blend. with 20% fewer calories than purina dog chow. isn't it time you discovered the lighter side of dog chow. purina dog chow light & healthy.

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yes. we will take a trip to dysfunction junction with john stanton and e.j. dion next. but first josh lipton has the cnbc market wrap. josh? hey, alex. here's how stocks stand going into tomorrow. u.s. stocks climbing today, after better-than-expected earnings from companies including goodyear tire help deflect weaker than expected economic data. the dow after initial lly falli more than 80 points rose 60, the s&p rose 10 and the nasdaq 39. that's it from cnbc. first in business worldwide. [ male announcer ] you may have heard there's a new rinse

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it was the debt deal that almost wasn't. after speaker john boehner, a man broken by ceasely and absurd demands of the raucous caucus

after he bucked his own party and joined democrats to pass a clean debt limit extension, yesterday it fell to the traditionally somewhat more reasonable senate to send the bill to the president's desk. but no sooner had the house passed the bill than texas senator ted cruz, the high priest of self-promotion, threatened to filibuster it. that completely self-serving decision then forced republican senators to join democrats to ensure passage of what should be the routine task of extending the nation's borrowing authority. even a political mastermind like ted cruz could not have predicted the chaos that would ensue. a nearly hour-long scramble on the senate floor during which senate majority leader mitch mcconnell tried to find some, any republican willing to make sure that the united states of america did not default on its credit, but as the minutes ticked by, crickets from the leaders of the grand ole party. susan collins, lisa murkowski, the senators who always post bail for the unreformed members

of the right, they were reportedly miffed that they had long been asked to take tough votes when the gop leaders voted no. knowing what he had to do, mitch mcconnell began his march to the galos to cast his vote in support of something that every single member of congress secretly supports. right before he did to, mcconnell reportedly told his colleagues, we're not doing this again. in the end, it was mcconnell and texas senator john cornyn, both men facing tea party challengers this fall, who were forced to take the plunge. ten more republican senators including senator mccain, murkowski, and collins would ultimately join them. here is how republican senator bob corker who voted with mcconnell and cornyn, here's how senator corker described the madness in the upper chamber. >> there was no game plan. i asked before we went out to vote, okay, we blocked cloture, we put the country in economic turmo turmoil, we create tremendous disstress for the next several

weeks, what is the end game? and there was no end game. >> ground control to the republican party -- is there anybody who knows how to fly this plane? joining me now is the washington bureau chief for buzz feed john stanton and "washington post" columnist and senior fellow of government studies at the brookings institute the wonderful e.j. dion. e.j., i want to start with you first. there's an interesting analysis in "the new york times" today talking act the vote no hope yes caucus. and notes this kind of unprecedented and outrageous time, this moment that's happening in the republican party and says the following. "the implications for governing are obvious. if many lawmakers are unwilling or refuse to vote for legislation that they understand to be necessary and even beneficial out of fear of rhett by ri bugs from an empower and outspoken wing of that are party, reach eight greemt on major policy like immigration becomes difficult if not

impossible." i tended to agree with that, although i feel like your column today, which we'll talk about in a second, is a little more bullish about our prospects for the governing body that is congress. >> i try to be bullish, but i thought that "the new york times" piece was excellent. there are always times when politicians will have a position on one or two issues where they vote no but they really hope yes. republicans in the house are in a position where most of the time they have to have that position and that doesn't work. you've got about a quarter of the house caucus, 60 or so, who really would rather disrupt governing than govern. but then you've got a whole lot of others who don't really feel that way but are petrified of having a tea party primary, of having these big groups attack them. so they have to pretend that they feel that way. and so on the debt ceiling everybody knew that had to go through. but in the end only 28

republicans were willing to vote for it. that "new york times" piece says that's the smallest number in the majority that ever passed a major piece of legislation with the minority party. and people that mess around with the debt ceiling before, but back in the olden days everybody knew it had to pass and they always figured out how to do it in advance. since 2010 when the republicans took over, they were using it to hold the nation's credit hostage to demand, and that ended this week, and that is a very good thing. >> john, you know, as e.j. points out, it was the lowest percentage for a majority on passage since the house began publishing electronic data on votes in 1991. you also reported on a strange and weird and disturbing thing that has been happening in the house, which is that house republicans have received anonymous e-mail threats to their personal e-mail addresses about a possible yes vote on the

debt ceiling. this whole vote has been cloaked in so much threatening behavior and malice, it's fairly shocking. how scared did you sense members were about this vote in advance of it? and how real was this e-mail threat? >> i don't know that the e-mail threat ultimately played much of a role. frankly a lot of their votes. it read very much like the odd e-mail you get from the uncle that is into conspiracy theory, frankly. their biggest concern was it seemed to be coming from either somebody inside the housist itself or someone in the house was helping some outside person to do this. i think that points to the broader problem that has been going on with this conference, which is that, you know, everything is sort of broken down at this point. there's no longer sort of a decorum, respect for the internal rules and, you know, these kind of votes now become a thing where they say as long as i don't have to vote for it i'm good. you can do whatever you want. i just don't want to be seen voting for it. i can't be associated with it.

that is the overriding reality and sort of the drive now. it's very much sort of a survival drive for most of the republican conference i think. >> why did you -- john, i want to ask you since you're on the hill, why did murkowski and collins -- why did these senators hang back and make cornyn and mcconnell do this knowing the backlash that they would get, the fact that it could upset -- or it could just throw into question potential republican takeback of the senate? why would they do that? >> well, you know, it's interesting to watch this actually because normally you're right, they do sort of all step out and vote for something and in this case some of them held back. john mccain went back in the cloak room apparently and was trying hard to get some of thiz colleagues to come out. i think there is this growing frustration within the moderate part of the republican party or, you know, at least the not sort of let's constantly have warfare with democrats part of the party. they feel like they are being put into this bad position

nonstop. it's a bit like wapd with democrats and people like olympia snowe and susan collins at the beginning of the obama administration when theft like harry reid was taking advantage of them and their willingness to work with democrats and they sort of backed away and were unwilling to do anything, then we went into obamacare and they became much more adversarial. we're starting to see that dynamic with their own leadership. it points to the fact things are not going well within the republican conference. >> if we talk about mounting frustration, enl, robert costa in a great piece of reporting says that when boehner announced what he was going to do to his own people, which was to say this this fairly procedural thing that's become so fraught, when he announced he was going to go for a clean debt limit passage, costa writes on his way to his seat, boehner shook his head then turned to the nearly mute crowd and wondered aloud why he wasn't getting applause, then said, i'm getting this monkey off your back and you're not even going to clap?

that is behind closed doors, but in context of john boehner expressing publicly his outrage at heritage action and outside groups that have really scuttled action in his house, do you think he's finally reached the tipping point, e.j.? >> well, my favorite moment in congress in a long time was that news conference where john boehner walked out singing zip-a-dee-doo-dah, zip ti ay ex-my, oh, my, what a wonderful day. it showed the nice dark humor side of john boehner. he is clearly sick of this. you know, he went on i guess it was jay leno where he basically just let all his frustration out at his people. and it's that frustration which gives me a little bit of hope on immigration reform. you know, one of the things i wrote about today is i think it would be a good idea to start a discharge petition because boehner has made clear to lots of people he actually would like to pass immigration reform.

and maybe he could welcome -- he would welcome a little bit of pressure on the other side to make it possible to pass this. but i think he's a very frustrated guy. he's almost john boehner unplugged right now and maybe they could do a recording of him on -- with zip-a-dee-doo-dah. >> the unplugged versions of the songs are always better anyway. we have to leave it there. john stanton and e.j. dion, thank you both. >> thank you. coming up, georgia representative paul brown, senate candidate this year, announces that he votes according to his, quote, jud judeo-christian biblical principle, not, you know, what's in the u.s. constitution. legs up! legs up?

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this week georgia tea party congressman paul brown, one of eight republicans, vying to succeed saxby chambliss in the u.s. senate this fall, said that he makes his decisions about what legislation to support based on whether or not it adheres to judeo-christian biblical principles. i stand firm on the four questions that i ask about all legislation, which are -- the first, is it constitutional according to the original tent? second, does it fit the judeo-christian biblical principles that our nation is founded upon? third, do we need it? fourth, can we afford it? if all four yes, i vote yes, otherwise, i vote no. >> and he volts no a lot. so much so that he is ranked number one on the club for growth's latest scorecard of conservative house members. and that is really something. paul brown beat out luminaries like texas birth eer gomert,

michele bachmann and tim huelskamp, who cheered the house's $40 billion in cuts to food stamps saying, quote, you can no longer sit on your couch and expect the government to feed you. it takes work to be that far on the right. in fact, to get that far to the fringe of the conservative movement. brown apparently had to ignore the first amendment of the u.s. constitution, which states that congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion. including judeo-christian biblical principles. then again, facts do not seem to be paul brown's strong suit. >> all that stuff i was talking about, evolution and embryology and big bang theory, all that is lies. this is really a young earth. i don't believe et's but about 9,000 years old. >> 9,000 years old. not 4.5 billion. the earth is 9,000 years old.

that comment is from a former physician and proud member of the house science, space, and technology committee. the same committee, by the way, that todd aiken served on. but brown is no stranger to colorful statements. a proud birther, he once likened the nation's health care law to, quote, the great war of yankee aggression. otherwise known as a civil war. all eight gop candidates competing in georgia's may 20th primary oppose the affordable care act. they all oppose reproductive choice and they all either voted against ending the government shutdown or they said they would have had they been in congress. so this is going to be a nail bilter of a primary. and to get ahead, paul brown is willing to go there. his latest stunt, raffling off an assault rifle to one of his lucky supporters. it is precisely moves like this as well as beliefs that fall way, way outside of the

mainstream that could open the door for democrat michele nun. so keep it up, georgia gop, because we've seen this play before, and it may have had todd aiken or christine o'donnell or sharon eng until the lead role, but the end is always the same. the person with the incendiary, misguided, questionable statement, that person loses. that's all for you. see you back here tomorrow at 4:00 p.m. "the ed show" is up next. good evening, americans. welcome to "the ed show" live from new york. let's get to work. ♪ >> tired of asking the question where are the jobs? >> passing the growth package is our most pressing economic priority. >> how about this stimulus bill? >> the most sweeping economic recovery package in our history. >> our administration has been watching our economy carefully. >> the american recovery and reinvestment