response. you can buy it. the hawks go to war. let's play "hardball." good evening. i'm chris matthews up in new york. let me start tonight with this roaring battle between chick dick cheney and rand paul. the stakes couldn't be fatter. was it right to fight the iraq war? was it good for the united states and mankind to ignite a war in the middle east that cost the lives of 186,000 people, that rid aran of its number one rival, that basically turned iraq into an iranian client? was this good for us our our friend israel? dick cheney believes the whole war was exactly the right way to go.

rand paul thinks and says just the opposite. and it's getting personal. liz cheney has just accused senator paul of getting his point of view, in fact, his talking points, she said, from our own msnbc's rachel maddow. if you think the whole war was undermined by a misconceived apology agenda, then you, sir, must be a progressive. that's hardly true, of course. ask the countries. ask republicans if they think sending our people into iraq accomplished anything good for this country. just ask them. there's only one part of this country the answer is yes. it's in that that pocket of right-wing hawkish ideology that will not let the facts of history get in the way of its obsession of home, blood and getting in the way of anyone who dares to thumb its noise at dick cheney who prefers to fight its wars from the sunday morning talk show.

the arrival of a top republican, senator rand paul willing to say the country's number one hawk has no claws. david mill bank, joan walsh is an msnbc political analyst and editor at larnl for salon. rand paul's strategic bombing of dick cheney in 2009 just before paul announced his plans for the united states senate is worth another look today, as we assess the shortage of voices today defending cheney, or denouncing rand paul. let's watch. >> there's a great youtube of dick cheney in 1995 defending push number 1. he goes on for about five minutes. i think by the american enterprise institute. and he says it would be a disaster, it would be a civil war. there would be no exit strategy. dick cheney said it would be a bad idea and that's why the first bush didn't go into baghdad. then dick cheney works for halliburton, makes hundreds of thousands of dollars then he's

back in government and then says it would be a good idea to go into iraq. >> published reaction from liz cheney, the daughter of dick cheney who said it's not surprising since senator paul often seems to get his foreign policy talking pointing from rachel maddow. and john bolden, former u.n. ambassador e-mailed rubin, quote, senator paul should repudiate his remarks and apologize to vice president cheney. joan walsh, i have to tell you, i love this. i love the fact that the republican party is finally coming to some kwiend of reckoning over the dpi sast rouse course that took us into iraq. in its own midst, it's fighting about it. >> well, and they are going to bludgeon rand paul. i don't know who wins. i'm slightly surprised that he hasn't tried to walk back these comments at all. it's very hard to know who to root for here.

there's no evidence. you were very clear about this last night. he did not provide ed of this halliburton connection, but he's absolutely right that dick cheney is the man in charge who is fighting for his wealthy friends and who fought this war under vastly false pretext. so he's going at him and it seems like everybody is standing around waiting to see who does what next. linking him to raw which he will maddow, that would be high praise if somebody said it about me, but it's dirty for liz cheney. it's a classic cheney dig that rand paul better get used to. i9 will be sbes interesting to see how he fighting back. >> they're accusing him of speaking with excellent english, at least. >> yeah. >> i'm looking for a deep intermural struggle on the american right, not in the center, or on the left, the progressive left, i'm looking for a real fight here. i think rand paul is on to something.

i think he thinks he's pay dirt here to say that war was a disaster and he's willing to take that to the republican heartland and the caucuses and new hampshire. i don't think you want to be on the side of that was a good national campaign that killed 186,000 people including thousands of our service people. how do you win that argument from the hawkish side? >> rand paul's timing couldn't be better, perhaps by accident, but it really couldn't be better. the isolationist interventionist strains have been duelling in the republican party going back to robert taft and before that. but this may with the isolationist moment. rand paul is in politics because his father is ron paul. but really, ron paul was created by dick cheney. it was the cheney and bush administration's wars in afghanistan and iraq that created this new isolationist tendency in america. there's now a majority of both, according to a december pugh research poll, republicans and

americans overall who think americans should mine their own business. >> do you think that reflects republican generally mainstream republican opinion as well? >> well, it reflects mainstream republican opinion, the neo-cons are in retreat, but if you look in the senate, for example, rand paul is in a small minority. if you look at the republican candidates for 2016, rand paul is the only guy out there. that's why he has the whole field to himself while the others carve themselves up. >> when i read your piece about that, your thoughts about that today, i was thinking about, and it's a very different situation. remember jimmy carter ran in '76 as the only moderate democrat against four or five liberals. the shape of the field defines the victor. if you're the only one in your corner and everyone else is carving up the cake in another direction, you can skip by everybody. joan, i want to talk to you afbt this -- the cheneys right now. i think the cheney family,

that's how you pronounce their name if you listen to them. the cheney family is out to save their reputation. they have one or two republican conventions they can pretend to be the stars at. i think the man we're looking at wants to walk into that convention, probably going to be in vegas, but he wants to walk into that convention and get a big ovation, standing o as the great godfather of the republican party. and the fact that rand paul has dared to call him out and say oh, no, you're the guy we ought to be hiding in the closet somewhere is really bugging him and his family. >> oh, yeah. they're not going to let this rest. they're going to keep going at him. and we'll see what he comes back with. i agree with you that fundamentally, within the republican party, within the base, within rank and file real republican, like a lot of my relatives, that war is hugely unpopular. dick cheney is hugely unpopular, but rand paul, he's got this field to himself. you've got -- you had some

governors who trapsed off and kissed the rings -- >> what jokes they were. >> kissed off the rings of shell donn adelman. >> the kissing booth should be on everybody democratic ad. >> and he exists and his people, the republican jewish coalition exists to wipe out rand paul. so the fact that you had scott walker with no foreign policy history, john kasich, jeb bush isless surprising, and chris christie traps over there shows rand paul really might have this entire terrain to himself, which will be a very interesting thing to watch. >> it seems people who don't have much going on in their heads in foreign policy have to go to the far extremes to full they're somehow intellectual. the hollywood people sometimes do this too. anyway, dick cheney spoke at american university in washington in late marnl. was interviewed for the tv's station situation where he was again unequivocal that the cia's torture program, or as he called it the enhanced interrogation program was a huge success.

here's dick cheney defending torture. >> i was a strong advocate and helped put together the enhanced interrogation program. some people call it torture. it wasn't torture. we were very careful in all respects to abide by the law. we got legal opinions out of the justice department with respect to what we could do and what we couldn't do. this notion that somehow there was torture involved, that's not true. it's a name that, a term that the critics have used in order to try to discredit the program. but the fact is those two programs as much as anything kept us safe for 7 1/2 years. and the fact that we defeated all follow-on teams on a major attack against the united states speaks for itself. it worked. >> did you listen to the logic there? it forced people to tell the truth they wouldn't otherwise tell because we did things to them to make them tell the truth. none of it is true. it didn't work.

it didn't achieve any truths, but cheney has a certain look in his face, a certain grinding of the teeth. you see in his face, it was all legal, we were able to do that. the washington reported on what the senate intelligence committee reports, about the current and u.s. officials with knowledge of the report had to say about it. quote, the cia misled the government and the public about the torture program. two, it concealed the tales about the severity of the methods used. three, it overstated the significance of plots and the prisoners involved. and fourth, this is important, took credit for critical pieces of intelligence the detainees had given up before they were tortured. joan? i guess the ends would justify the means if you were a certain kind of person, but there were no ends here. there was no gratification except for in the face of cheney who seems to enjoy this whole conversation. >> it was torture, it was illegal, and it didn't work. that's three for three.

you know? he's wrong about everything. this report will eventually come out and he will -- well, he would be shamed if he were a normal person and capable of feeling shame. but this is going to be yet another black eye for his legacy. but he and his daughter are going to keep on swinging at the opponents. and, you know, they're not win, chris. i think public opinion is turning against them. but he's going to leave this earth insisting he did the right thing. >> it seems the most important message he wants to get across is to dare to speak against torture, to dare to speak against the iraq war is heretical by republicans. the way you destroy them, accuse them of being someone on the other side, in this case rachel maddow. cheney and their family can't stand people who disagree with them. last thought from you. >> yeah, it is very personal. i love the way he justifies the torture program saying the justice department approved of it. his justice department where he appointed his own lawyers to.

so look, this has always been the cheney mo to say i am wrong, never admit you're wrong, never admit failure, it's a sign of weakness. what's happening, though, is people are turning against him. yeah, he's still got his daughter, john boldin. it's like family friends and relatives at this point. but you even see the republicans on the senate intelligence committee turning against the bush/cheney way of thinking and saying let's declassify that report, let's get it out. and that's more of this movement of neo-cons going to ground and the rand paul moving ascending. >> superman's mom and marlon brando, as krypton is about to blow up, they send the little kid off in the spacecraft to save him. riding in that spacecraft is liz cheney. coming up, no group may be more important to democrats than women, which goes a long way towards explaining why president obama was out front today talking about equal pay for equal work.

plus, how will the republicans go after hillary clinton? 2016 will be all about sex. impugning hillary's integrity by linking her behavior to monica lewinsky. a look into bridgegate with new subpoenas. this is "hardball" a place of politics. 

>> today, there was a testy exchange between luis gomert and eric holder. the subject, the fast and furious scandal that led republicans two years ago to holding holder in contempt of congress. 1 let's watch. >> sir, i read you what your department promised and it's inadequate. i realize that contempt is not a big deal to our attorney general, but it is important that we have proper oversight. >> you don't want to go there, buddy. you don't want to go there, okay? >> i don't want to go there? >> no. >> about the contempt? >> you should not assume that is not a big deal to me. i think that it was inappropriate. i think it was unjust, but never think that that was not a big deal to me. don't ever think that. >> moments later, gomert hit back. >> we've been trying to get to the bottom of fast and furious where people died, where at least a couple hundred mexicans died, and we can't get the information to get to the bottom of that, so i don't need lectures from you about contempt. >> and i don't need lectures from you either. >> wow. well, remember gomert is the guy who said the obama administration has been infiltrated by members of the muslim brotherhood. smart guy. we'll be right back after this. of blood flow.

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>> americans need good wages to make sure they can fill those jobs and making sure the economy rewards hard work for every single american. and part of that is fighting for fair pay for women. because when women succeed, america succeeds. >> welcome back to "hardball." democrats continued the offensive against republicans. it was a loud and clear rallying cry to the heart of the democratic base, women. the president spoke as part of the equal payday which focused on the very real gender gap, the pay gap in america today. according to the u.s. census, women make 77 cents for every dollar men make, a fact which president obama put into context

today. >> equal payday means that a woman has to work about this far into 2014 to earn what a man earned in 2013. a woman has to work about three more months in order to get what a man got, because she's paid less. that's not fair. that's like adding an extra six miles to a marathon. that's not right. >> president obama also signed two executive orders. one prohibits federal contractor from retaliating against employees who discuss their compensation. and the other is for federal contractors to reveal more about what they pay. without lily ledbetter there wouldn't be a fair pay act. that became law in 2009.

her employer paid her significantliless than her male colleagues over the course of nearly 20 years. she joins us right now along with msnbc political analyst michael steele who chaired the rnc. thank you so much for joining us. i guess i wanted to -- i don't know how partisan you are, or if you're even partisan, but this has become an issue that the democrats are rallying about, they're getting together on, and maybe that's because women, certainly this part of our american history, are voting democrat predominantly. how do you see this in party terms, come into this election? >> well, coming into this election, the people have, it's us against them, like republican against democrats and vice versa. one thing looking back, too, chris, the lily ledbetter fair pay act was sponsored and co-sponsored by both parties. when you're speaking about women and their pay, you're taking

about the american families. this should be everybody's concern. >> but is it? >> no. no, it is not. that's why we women are still so far behind. >> michael, let's try to figure this thing out in a sober way. why when you see these numbers like 77 cents on the dollar, the president really brought it on today with the women around him, of course, and he's using this obviously to try to get women into the voting booths this fall, that's fair game. my question to you is why do the republicans make this fight? do they see some challenge here that they can't meet? why don't they try to me too the democrats on fair pay? >> i think in some measure they do. has ms. ledbetter mentioned, the original bill -- >> she said the opposite. she said your party is allowing this to become a partisan issue. >> no, no, she said ourjally it was a bipartisan bill and was passed accordingly. i understand that, but you're absolutely right.

i think there's an opportunity here for republicans to have a little bit of me too, first off by stating we obviously are for equal pay for equal work for everyone, including women, especially women since they make up such a significant portion of the work force, but there is a certain level of political opportunism on both sides that comes into play. and the fact is -- >> what's the opportunity for republicans to fight this? why are you guys fighting this? >> i think there's an opportunity to put in context exactly what goes on in the workplace. there's a lot behind that 70% number that the president and others on the left like to tout. i mean, women have a lot of different choices they have to make. some unfortunate, some fortunate choices that they make with respect to their engagement in in the workplace. that part of the discussion is never really -- >> respond to that, ms. ledbetter. respond to what you just heard there. >> thank you. ne no, those are very rare. most of us, like, for example,

in my case, i worked for 20 years doing the exact same job those men did. i had less absenteeism. i had as much production, i was as good or better than most. and i still made 40% less. and that is just base pay. and this is an epidemic in this country. and those conditions that michael was speaking about, those rp rare exceptions. that's when younger women have their families or they take leave for certain reason. but so do men. and so often times now, the workers, the women are told, we're paying the men more because they have a family. and that female has a family as well. 4 and so many women across this nation are single, mothers, head of households, supporting a family, trying to work two jobs often trying to pay their bills and they still cannot do it because they're underpaid.

and we've got to get these corporations and employers to treat people fairly and equitably. john f. kennedy signed this 50 years ago. >> so the ledbetter law is allowing a women of opportunity in the workplace who feel they are discriminated against or not being paid equality to bring their claim against their employer. so the basic law is still in place that under the equal pay act of 1963, no employer is allowed to discriminate based on sex and so forth. so let's look at how we -- >> but they do. >> they do, agree with you, and i think this is an republicans as well as democrat, let's loo look at how we get those women -- you find a roy to enforce it. >> what is the current issue in terms of equality at the work

place? what's the issue now, facing the two parties. michael's party and your party. what's the issue? >> equal pay and equal treatment. and that's exactly all the women expect to be treated equitably and fairly and they need to get that pay. even though we've had that law, i didn't get the equal pay. and i didn't know. i didn't know, i didn't have a way to know. with that executive order that the president signed today, that would have allowed me to find out exactly how i was paid. and i wouldn't have stood to being paid 40%less than my male counterparts, because i was working for my family. it meant a great deal. we did without a lot, simply because i didn't get what i had legally earned under the law. and that was one of my statement s at the white house today, that they said they got by paying me less than i deserved long enough so make it legal. it taught me nine years fighting

to get as far as i did to get that no from the supreme court. and then i never got a dime. i never will get a dime. but what this also does, not only to the american families, working day in and day out, it also affects my retirement and my social security as well. it goes on for the rest of a woman's life. >> boy, you made your point. lily ledbetter. the idea of starting behind the 8 ball and never getting out front. thank you so much for making it clear. you had a hard fight to make tonight. >> it's not a fight. i appreciate mrs. ledbetter staid. said. >> do you think we have fair pay right now, michael? >> no, we don't. i don't think anyone would disagree with that. the question is how do you bring employers into the 21st century so they can appreciate the struggle of a ms. ledbetter, understanding that women who enter the marketplace are continuing to mare choices with

respect to their own professional development and their families. and all those are factors. >> thank you so much. up next, joe biden with a line he probably wish he said differently? that's in uh. -- that's new. [ male announcer ] new gain flings! are like music to your nose. ♪ your love keeps lifting me ♪ ♪ ♪ higher and higher [ male announcer ] more gain scent than ever plus oxi boost cleaning power and febreze.

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>> welcome to "the side show." the committee voted last thursday to ask the white house to declassify it. earlier reporting on its findings have revived the bush era debate over what the cia and bush administration ominously referred to as enhanced interrogation. he was jon stewart's take on that last night and what it says

about our country's values. >> the senate intelligence committee voted to declassify a comprehensive report on our country's use of, i guess what the cia would call super aggressive terrorist suspect spa treatments during the bush administration. >> the report exposes brutalities. it stands in stark contrast to our values as a nation. it chronicles a stain on our history and must never be allowed to happen again. this is not what americans do. >> america has a history of doing a tremendous amount of study that we don't do. we are a moral people in hindsight. >> next up, vice president biden joined his wife at a convention for the american association of community colleges in washington yesterday.

and you could say the vice president opened up about why he appreciates the work of community college professors. specifically his wife, who is an english professor in northern virginia. take a listen. >> i'm proud to stand alongside someone who knows the value of a community college education, and not just because he's married to a community college teacher. >> jill is probably right. i think i had the same attitude if i did not sleep with a cutie college professor every night. same one, the same one. >> wow, jo e. finally there's something you don't see every day. two former presidents chatting away during the ncaa basketball championship last night between kentucky and uconn. and as you can see, president bill clinton sat beside his successor, george w. bush in the vip box which happened to be owned by jerry jones. it's unclear which team the former presidents were rooting for. you could say, of course, they

made a bipartisan appearance together in the stadium's jumbotron. there they are. up next, the republican attack machine, frank ridge says they're going to try to use sex to go after hillary. frank rich is going to join us next on "hardball." these days, everything your business does

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>> crews searching the indian ocean for missing malaysia airline 370 have so far been unable to pick up any new pings from the plane's black boxes. two ships are listening for those sounds in two separate areas. they were lost heard over the weekend. president obama will travel to texas tomorrow to attend a memorial service for last week's

shooting in ft. hood. the rampage left four people dead including the gunman. an john kerry testified earlier before the senate foreign relations committee about the crisis in ukraine. he said russia would face even tougher sanctions if it continues to try and destabilize that country. back to "hardball." welcome back to "hardball." we got recent glimpses into what could happen if hillary clinton runs for president. >> he took advantage of a girl that was 20 years old and an intern in his office. there is no excuse for that. and that is predatory behavior. >> a sexual predator basically. repettive, you know, there's dozens, or at least half a dozen public women who have come forward. some of them did sue in the job place. >> i think anybody who wants to take money for bill clinton or has a fundraiser has a lot of explaining to do. i think they should give the money back. >> well, conservatives quickly

jumped onboard, showing what's in store. remember all the clinton scandals? that's not what america needs again. and here he was with andrea mitchell in february. >> is that a legitimate issue? rehashing the '90s. >> i think everything is on the table. i don't see how someone just gets a pass on anything. i mean, especially in today's politics. i think we're going to have a truckload of opposition research on hillary clinton, and some things may be old and some things might be new. hillary clinton provides a lot of opportunity for us. >> meanwhile, the conservative magazine national review wrote in an editorial, the clintons are our national grotesques. new york magazine's frank rich said it's a terrible thing on the republican part. it parentally hasn't occurred to the outraged moral and will

strike many as ludicrous. rich argues the attack is going to backfire. the fer seved idea that it's going to be run on sex scandal is preposterous. mitt romney's binder full of women not withstanding in 2012. frank, we can't wait to have you on. we know you're not an adviser to the republican national committee. when you say they're going the wrong direction and going after bill and somehow hoping to get hillary the candidate somehow in the attack, what are they trying to say ultimately. that she enabled his behavior. what is their gold star they're

trying to get to this. how do they actually win for their thinking going after bill for getting his wife loyal to them. what's their point? >> i think the point is utter desperation. they talk a good game about how benghazi is the scandal they'll nail hillary clinton on, or foreign policy in general. the american public really doesn't care about foreign policy, particularly since the afghanistan and iraq wars and it didn't work to hurt obama. i think they're so bad at speaking about sex, about sexuality that they just, you know, sex scandal, they just rev up and they'll start talking about -- yes, they'll tar hillary clinton somehow for whatever bill did or didn't do. but they'll also, you know it, contraception, rape, all the stuff will just become part of the mix because there's just so bad at talking about women. >> what is that? what is that middle age guy's

inability to talk about women in a modern way? i mean, maybe this would have worked 30 years ago. which rape candidate are you talking about, it gets so absurd. they took about binders full of women. not resumes of women, but binders full of women. it's inarticulate at best. it's an ingrained cultural thing. it's mainly true of older men. >> are they nervous? >> not so much a new generation -- >> do you think they're nervous, frank? they talk about sexuality as something weird they don't know about or they -- what gets their tongue? >> they're nervous, they're threatened. you see it across the board, the michael hayden conversation, talk about dianne feinstein. you see it with chris christie's so-called exoneration report talking about the emotional state of a female aide causing bridgegate. it's preposterous. after they lost women, even john

boehner said there's consciousness raising groups. >> i think it's like you hear on the web, you hear these stupid jokes passed around on the right. they never reacts they send them. let's talk about bill clinton. here's my theory about bill clinton. i don't care if you're a puritan minister looking back, he did have the monica lewinsky relationship. it's on the record, we all know about it. it's probably worked its way down to about seventh or eighth paragraph on his obit now. it's just not that high up anymore. he hasn't had anything to do in this category of wrongdoing, if you will, you want to be moralistic. he hasn't done anything wrong in 16 years. this guy's post presidency has

not been an embarrassment in any way. who knows what people's private lives are about. but it hasn't been in any way public or embarrassing. why do they think they can go back and beat bill who everybody likes because you can't beat uphillry through bill unless you beat up bill. people like the guy. >> the old joke, it's in their nature. they literally can't stop themselves. you know, for instance, michael barone who was a conservative pundit ran a column a couple of weeks ago talking about how bill clinton like a decade ago had been on a plane where someone else who used the plane at another time had been involved in some sex scandal. they just can't stop it. it's like a puritan streak. it goes back to the puritans, i think. >> here's what i think. i think people look at people over a long period of time and they know everything the republicans are going to throw at them. and they've already discounted it. they put it into their -- and they look at the kind of presidents we've had, w and obama.

bill clinton has looked very good. and so has hillary clinton has part of that wous. i think that's the strength they have, that people are seasoned now. they don't look for perfection. certainly not -- by the way, i should point out, how many marriages last as long as this one has? every family there's divorce, it seems. >> it's true. and, in fact, many of the public adversaries of clinton during his term, starting with newt gingrich had horrible marital situations and hypocrisy was all over the place. i think you're right. i think people associate bill clinton with prosperity. they associate hillary clinton with a professional run as secretary of state, even if some, including me, may disagree with her about some issues. and the republicans don't really have, at least now, a strong candidate to put up against her, should she run. and so it's desperation to find some kind of -- >> what about that nuance of foreign policy are probably in

sync, by the way. thank you so much for a broad defense of the clinton which i don't think is going to be necessary in a couple of years. up next, bridgegate, more subpoenas could be on the way. this is "hardball." [ male announcer ] at oral-b, we take pride because we believe in building something... something to better someone. to better you. to better america. ♪ oral-b. made in the usa.

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between some people who want republicans in congress and people who want democrats in charge. according to an ap poll, this is among people who are strongly interested in politics, in other words, those most likely to vote in a midterm election. be right back.

>> we're back. it's poblg more subpoenas could be under way in the bridgegate scandal. at issue as the lawyers did that exonerated him from having any advanced knowledge of the lane closures. a state legislative committee met today to discus whether the subpoena transcripts of interviews conduct the by christie's lawyer. it doesn't sound like the committee is willing to drop this investigation. bridget kelly and bill stepian aren't compelled we're back.

it's possible more subpoenas could be on the way with bridge gate. chris christie -- a state legislative committee met today to discuss the transcripts. but one of the -- then it might be time to "walk away." well, jonathan and amanda are with us. i smell sweet heart. let's take about this issue. jonathan, we looked at the reports, let's start with the bridget kelly private life. i'm getting a sense of wisniewski, trying to figure out why a report that was supposedly let's take about this issue. jonathan, we looked at the reports, let's start with the bridget kelly private life. i'm getting a sense of wisniewski, trying to figure out why a report that was supposedly trying to get into who's guilty, they came up with stinky-poo information. they want to see the legal transcripts of the people, who ventured information about bridget kelly's private affairs.

>> well, they could be looking for where the information came from. but also the things that most likely didn't make it into the report. the transcripts may have all sorts of useful information to the committee. randy mastro, and gibson dunn decided not to put that into the report. what's important is, anything could be useful to the state. >> and my key question, what did the governor say? he was not under oath, but he was vulnerable to a charge of not telling the truth.

anything that might be coming out because of the testimony coming from wildstein, bridget kelly? against the guy we're looking at, the guy at the heart of this thing? >> well, they want bridget kelly to come forward. and the committee did meet today, and decided not to issue subpoenas today. they're going to give dunn until the end of the week. >> and who's paying for the transcripts? does the state own them? >> well, they said, if they don't get it by the end of the week, they're going to subpoena the governor's office or the law firm. >> well, it seems to me, you

have to pay for these transcripts. the state of new jersey, maybe they didn't pay for them. maybe they took the report from randy mastro. >> if they're being paid, were hired by the christie administration, they're being paid for by the state of new jersey, then the public can say, shouldn't the transcripts belong to us? >> and if they ask for them, they should get them. and going back to steve sweeney. is he in bed with the governor? he seems to want to have this thing over with.

>> he did backtrack on that. he said, no, he thinks the committee should go on until they get all the facts. and then submit recommendations. so, he may have gotten some criticism for that. >> so, he's playing it straight. >> right. nobody in the legislature wants to give it up. >> let's hope he keeps on the aggressive front. thank you, jonathan and amanda. we'll be right back after this. you tell them how much you want to pay, and they help you find a policy that fits your budget. i told you to wear something comfortable! this is a polyester blend! whoa!

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let me finish tonight. i went to my alma mater to look at where we're headed. my message was tough, but realistic. i think we're in for a divisive time ahead. the democrats could take control

of the senate. and hillary clinton could run in 2016. the republicans, do they know they made a huge mistake taking us into iraq? or do they salute dick cheney? that's a mistake in a year where the democrats would be united against a strong can date for president.

it's where a learned philosophy and arguments. that's "hardball" for now. thanks for watching. "all in with chris hayes" starts now. good evening from new york. i am ari melber in for chris hayes. today is equal pay day. pay parity is the subject of the very first bill president obama signed. and now today, two actions. >> i've got two daughters, and i expect them to be treated just like anybody's sons. and i think about my single mom, trying to raise two kids and