the guy that pulled that off is

a republican from a very republican district named bill kramer.++ and of course, naturally, that made him a rising star. by this past september, he was the republican majority leader in wisconsin. wiaspolitics.com reported that his opponent stood up and argued that kramer had a behavior of inappropriate -- and had been to

numerous events with him. he said he was unsuited to the leadership job. at a meeting in chicago that had taken place the previous month, with his sexual innuendos showed that he should not be in leadership. but he still won the majority job in september. but it didn't take long. this is the bgr group. founded by haley barber. they hosted a top-dollar fund-raiser at their swank

offices in downtown washington, d.c. downtown d.c. is a long way from madison, wisconsin. 850 miles with a shortcut through akron. but this is an annual junket for republicans. they all fly out, and d.c. lobbyists and others with money turn up and pay $5,000 a person, and that boosts these wisconsin republicans' prospects back at home. and there, bill kramer is accused of sexually harassing two women, both verbally and physically. it's alleged that he hugged and touched a staffer's breasts.

and allegedly made vulgar remarks at the event and also on the flight back to wisconsin. so, that was the night that people said they saw him grabbing the staffer's breasts. and then the next day, he was harassing lobbyists. that was wednesday and thursday. by friday, wisconsin media was buzzing. calling bill kramer at home. by the time papers were out, wisconsin leaders issuing statements calling his behavior reprehensible. then voted to strip him of his leader job.

the aide that he allegedly groped, did file a claim. the clerk of a assembly is reportedly still looking into the claim. but nothing has happened with that so far. but here's where they took a dark turn. the claims were reported on march 1st. and on march 4th, he was stripped of his duties. and the next day, a wisconsin come came forward to the police. republicans hosted something called pints and politics in a bar in wisconsin. at that event, an incident

reportedly occurred with bill kramer and another republican legislative staffer. apparently a traumatic incident. she didn't report it because she didn't want any embarrassment. but she had a lawyer write up a letter to bill kramer. that he had been contacted with the sexual and -- wants you to understand that she has been severely impacted as a result of your actions, and it's likely it was influenced by the use of alcohol. and recommends treatment, and if

you persist, she will reconsider her decision not to go to the authorities. that was 2011. and just a few weeks ago, indeed, new allegations have cropped up from this same guy, bill kramer. and this woman has made good on her promise. she told him she was not going to authorities then. but said she would not hesitate to go to the police if she heard anything again. so, she has gone to the police. first reported that she filed a report, a very detailed statement about what happened that night in 2011. statements from more than one

witness, and to her being very distraught when it happened. that convinced the district attorney to file this criminal complaint, charging his with two counts of sexual assault. the complaint is harrowing. she tried to get away from his grip. he shoved her hard into her car. her head snapped back. he leaned his body into hers and pressed his weight against her. it goes into a lot of very terrible detail about the assault. and the criminal complaint and felony charges.

both were made public once he was arrested. where police took this mug shot of the former majority leader. and here's the thing about this story. the police report, the physical document, when they released it publicly, they had tried to redact personal details from the report. they took a marker and crossed out names with black pen. but you could see through their redactions. you could see the words, you can read right through the black marks. police blacked out the names, but they can still be easily read. and that's true. so, now, no one is publishing the names of the victim.

but other names in the report are basically the people she cited in her report. people interviewed before going to the district attorney. and when you read through the magic marker, to read through the supposedly redacted names, that this person told about the terrible physical assault, it turns out that one of the people she told at the time of the alleged assault, they've known about it for years was united states senator ron johnson of wisconsin. the woman who filed the complaint against kramer told his chief of staff, and the chief of staff told ron johnson

himself. and in 2011, this alleged victim didn't want to pursue this for the good of the republican party. so, she sent this letter warning him off and documenting the incident. but in the interim, bill kramer, the alleged perpetrator, he's risen steadily through the ranks of wisconsin republicans. and all that time, neither senator johnson or his chief of staff said nothing to anyone. they didn't contact robin vos or jeff fitzgerald, who served as

speaker at the time. jeff fitzgerald said, no, i was not informed of the incident. robin vos, saying the same thing. after reporters read through the weak magic marker redactions, ron johnson released a statement saying that he and his chiefs of staff were following the wishes of the woman to take no further action. so, now, the man still serving in the wisconsin legislature, with charges pending against him, including those being investigated by the legislature itself, rose through the ranks. even though one of the people

who did know was a united states senator and his chief of staff. bill kramer's court date is monday. but meanwhile, the decision not to kick him out of the assembly, to the brave victim, to the police report being poorly redacted. to the u.s. senator's name being at the edge of the story. from the start of story to the present of the story, it has never felt like it was under control. but it is now officially out of

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the three stages of fighting about politics were on display tonight. stage one, snark, but it goes from there and rapidly. stay tuned. 

it was the question that launched 1,000 halloween costumes that year. >> governor romney, pay equity for women. >> great question. one i learned a great deal about serving as governor for my state.

all the applicants for my cabinet seemed to be men. i said, well, can't we find some woman that are also qualified? we took a concerted effort to find women that were qualified. they brought us binders full of women. >> faster than you could say, is that name still available on the internet, a sea of pictures. even lady people can do fantastic things with cardboard boxes, making themselves into binders. he got thousands of binders full of women, and america did, too.

but did governor romney answer the question? >> pay equity for women? >> what should the government do as a matter of policy? binders full of women just wasn't an answer to the question. during the campaign, we asked for his position on the paycheck fairness act, which was then up for a vote. and his campaign told us that he supports equal pay. does he support the bill, though? the campaign responded, he

supports equal pay. so, we responded with multiple choice questions. does he support this? check one. well, at the time, you might remember the romney campaign having a press conference talking about how great a president mitt romney would be for women. and he was asked on that call about getting the act signed, the lily led better act. that was the first high-profile piece of legislation about women's rights. so, it would be the first thing

the romney campaign would be asked about. yet, they were completely flummoxed. >> does governor romney support the led better act? >> we'll get back to you on that. >> we'll get back to you on that. the romney campaign struggled mightily with both pregnant pauses and with addressing that issue. losing to women by 18 points, and losing the presidential campaign. president obama got elected, and the democrats did pretty well besides. but the paycheck fairness act has not passed congress net.

but lily was back with president obama trying to somehow, some way make it the law. >> for african-american women, latinas, even less. in 2014, it's an embarrassment. it's wrong. >> 77 cents on the dollar for the average working woman. today is equal payday, where the average woman will earn against her male colleagues just to make the same as them last year. republicans spend the day arguing that equal pay day is a myth. releasing a statement that the difference in pay is because of

their jobs. women prefer jobs that pay less. and that was the polite way of saying it. at fox news, they scrapped the finer terms. >> so, tomorrow, a couple of executive actions to make sure that women get paid the same as men. >> now they think you're anti-woman if you question equal pay. >> they're virtually getting paid the same. >> that's true. >> at fox news channel, it's the truth. so, from republicans, the persistent claim that women just happen to like making less for mysterious woman reasons.

and from the fox news channel, they're not just paid less, it's liberals making it up in order to give you bad dreams and bother you. professor hartman, thank you for being with us. i want to ask you a basic but specific question. do american women make less than men while doing the same work? >> it's tricky, doing the same work. there are many companies where they would get the same pay. but many companies where they don't. and the 20 largest occupations for women, ones that sound the

same. customer service representative, making 94% of what men make in customer service work. not necessarily in the same companies, but many examples of women claiming discrimination within the same company. women at sterling jewelers across the country claimed that men were coming in and being paid a couple of dollars more than the women. the men were brand new, making more per hour. >> how does the gap change across the income spectrum? at the top of the pay scale and

the bottom? >> well, there's more room for differentiation at the top. but there's no limit at the top end. if you're both in low wage jobs, there may be a smaller gap there. it's not exactly what you think. but in low wage jobs, we've studied that, and women require certifications and high school graduation. but men don't require those things, and actually pay more. so, there seems to be an inequality between occupations, within the same occupation. >> from your research, taking that nuanced and fact-based of a

view of how it works out in real life, can you tell if there are policies that the government can pursue to change things? within occupation groups and income levels, is there something the government can do? >> no question. the research that scientists have done, title 7 has made a difference. the federal contract compliance we have already, makes reports and affirmative action plans. all the research shows that it has made a difference. and two of the policies from the president would make a difference. pay transparency. lily led better found out toward

the end of her career at goodyear that she was making tens of thousands of dollars less than her male coworker. so, if you have that information and you can share it without penalties -- >> can i just ask you, in terms of your professional work in there, you have dealt with it in an academic realm, but you can also -- i have seen the debate on the political right shift from being against the idea of women shouldn't be working to there's no right answer, to now

talking about equal to as if it's a liberal plot. and if you believe this, you probably believe that the earth is warming, too. i just have to ask your reaction to that. >> well, you know, i don't take it too seriously. i took at the actual data coming from the federal agencies. it shows a wage gap. and it's confirmed. there may be a portion that can be explained with factors, but there's others that can't be explained. most of the women, and the vast majority of the women, and many of the men will say equal pay. the campaign from conservative

economists and politicians to try to make it go away, pretend it's not real. it hasn't convinced the american people. i saw some data from pew, looking at men and women, 7% differential. 75% of the women in that age group said they'd like to see the government do more. >> i honor and respect your resilience in these matters. to not take it seriously, makes me want to poke myself in the eye. thanks for being here.

>> fun to be here again. >> all right, if you are an elected official, and you find yourself not poking yourself in the eye, but punching someone in the face, and doing it over and over again, clearly the political process has problems. a road map of political rage, coming up.

three miles is not all that far, if you're running a race or heading to a friend's house. three miles across town. but three miles down is incredibly far down. and to understand one news story, it's important to try to grasp what it means to be three miles deep. we're going to try, because it's worth it if it works. we're going to try. stay with us.+++zú!9

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three stages of political conflict that fall short of an actual war. step one, calling each other idiots without saying the word. an argument at a house committee meeting. arguing that eric holder and his department failed to prevent the boston bombing. >> you don't have access to the fbi files. you don't know what they did, their interaction with the russians. you can not know what i know. >> thank you very much, mr. chairman. i didn't assert that.

i can't have someone challenge my character. when you attack somebody's integrity and say they made statements that were not true, of course, that raises a point of personal privilege. but the attorney general -- aspersions on my asparagus. >> what was that he said again? >> aspersions on my asparagus. >> said congressman louie gohmert.

>> i think what we promised to do was provide you and your staff -- >> i read what you promised, but it's not -- it's important to have proper oversight. >> you don't want to go there. >> i don't want to go there are, about the contempt? >> you should not assume that it's not a big deal to me. i think it was inappropriate, and unjust, but it was a big deal to me. >> and recalling last year's confrontation with the same guy, he decided to close this one with a flourish. >> the time of the gentleman has expired.

>> good luck with your asparagus. well, the word idiot was never said, but it was implied. stage two of political conflict short of war, it becomes aggressive-aggressive. today, john kerry appeared at a senate foreign relations committee where he and john mccain put on a master class of stage two political conflict. >> my hero teddy roosevelt, he said to speak softly and carry a big stick. you're carrying a small twig. >> let me begin with your premature judgment about the

failure of everything. i -- i -- i don't know. i guess it's easy to lob the judgments around. israel palestine, they don't declare it dead. they want to continue to negotiate. >> we'll see. it has stopped. recognize reality. >> okay. we'll see where the reality is as we go down the road here. there are serious problems, it's a tough issue. but your friend teddy roosevelt said that the credit belongs to people that tried to get something done. i abide by that.

i think it's important to do it. and you want to dump it on me? sure, i may fail. but it's worth doing. it's worth the effort. >> going head-to-head, accusing each other of being out of touch with reality. and stage three is when we regress from words that may never hurt me back to sticks and stones. giving up on arguing and start throwing punches. that happened today in the parliament of ukraine. a full-on fight broke out after accusations of dividing the nation, of adopting extreme tactics. accusing the nationalists of -- responding by basically starting

a bench-clearing brawl that nobody could break up for a long time. after months of protests, international attention has shifted to the other side of ukraine. the russians massed tens of thousands of troops on other parts of the border of ukraine. fostering fears that russia will try to take over other parts of the country. well, over the weekend, buildings were seized. asking russia to send in troops over the border of ukraine. the ukranian government says it

was provocateurs sent by russia to try to break up the country. and a group has taken 60 hostages demanding that the city be turned over to russia. and secretary kerry saying that in his words it's clear that russian special forces and agents have been behind the chaos of the last 24 hours. but this is not just a fight between the united states and russia. it's waging with russia in part on behalf of ukraine. the fight in the parliament. russia's strategy is to take over ukraine.

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>> welcome back to "hardball." >> good morning. >> well president obama did his best to make us all sign up for obamacare. >> wow, it wasn't easy. >> it's tough to sign up for things. i have tried for years to join the naacp. >> why would you do that? >> i just love college basketball. >> we all do. >> well, the u-conn huskies are the 2014 naacp national champs. chart imitates life. what if you could shrink your pores just by washing your face? [ female announcer ] neutrogena® pore refining cleanser.

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chart imitates life. over the weekend ships looking for the missing malaysian flight 370 picked up fake pinging sounds in the indian ocean. the hope the sound originated from the black boxes inside the lost plane. the pings are a source of hope maybe the plane could be found so we could learn what happened to it. but pinpointing where the pings are coming from is really, really hard. that its because the location where they're searching for the black boxes is almost unimageablely deep. to understand the story. it helps to try, realistically imagine what is almost unimaginable about the search. "the washington post" deserved credit to demonstrate how hard it may be to find the black boxes. they produced a chart, the depth of the problem. try to show tight you to convey the large quantitative thing to show just how deep this search site is. so here, on this wall, you can

see the boeing 777, about 200 feet over the water. and you see the australian search vessel that heard the pings. the ocean shield on the surface of the indian ocean. let's, let's start trying to understand the depth here. under the water, you see the silhouettes of the washington monument and empire state building, this is all to scale. passing the tallest building in the world. also at the deepest point at which a giant squid is known to swim. the deepest point a sperm whale can dive, where a human can see light, at 660 feet, the pinger locator, how the australian crew picked up the pings, a mile under sea now. 6,000 feet below. at 8,000 feet below the sea level, 2,200 football fields

from the surface. at 10,000 feet, under the water, 10,000 feet below sea level approaching maximum known depth of the deepest diving mammal on earth. now two miles below sea level. at 12,500 feet, passing the depth at which the wreck of the titanic was found in the atlantic ocean. just below that, at 13,000 feet where searchers found the black box from air france flight 447 two years after it crashed into the pacific. and here, just about 15,000 feet below sea level, maximum known depth of the ocean floor in this area. around the depth that the pinging signals were picked up almost 3 miles below the sea. the visual that we just showed you by scrolling through it looks like this if you print it out from top to bottom. from sea level at the top to 15,000 feet below. hopefully, scrolling through the entire graphic gives an idea of how far below the ocean the

black boxes might be, gives you some scale of how hard this search might be. chart imitates life and some times intimidates it. good wednesday morning everybody. right now on "first look" a matter of days. seven more minutes of signals detected last night as optimism rose that flight 370 will be found. overwhelming emotion. the judge abruptly adjourned because of oscar pistorius's raw emotion on the witness stand. he returns this morning. >> foreign crisis. political conditions escalate as secretary of state and john mccann butt heads. >> plus guilty of murder with a five inch heel. >> bill clinton calls edward snowden an imperfect messenger. >> and uconn wins