crystal mccrary thank you for your time tonight. and thank you for this important film. >> thank you so much for being there. and if you can't watch it, put your dvr on. thanks for watching. i'm al sharpton. have a great weekend. "hardball" starts right now. >> patriot games. let's play "hardball." good evening. i'm steve kornacki filling in for chris matthews in new york. let me start with those patriot games that rudy giuliani is now playing. tough talk started as a shot at the president's love on country and things have only spiraled from there. it began as an attack on what republicans see as a weakness for president obama, the soft talk about the root causes of terrorism, the cool and calm way he tends to talk about terrorism

prompted giuliani to say this. i do not believe na the president loves america. he doesn't love you. he and he doesn't love me. he wasn't brought up the way you were brought up and i was brought up through love of this country. the point giuliani was trying to make has now been consumed by talk about giuliani himself. america's mayor has responded by launching an all-out media blitz in the face of criticism he's upped the rhetoric even higher. this was giuliani on a tear last night on fox news. >> mr. mayor, do you want to apologize for your comment? >> not at all. i want to repeat it. the reality is from all that i can see of this president, all that i've heard of him, he apologizing for america, he criticizes america. i think that is a perfectly reasonable opinion that the president and his comments if we look at all his rhetoric has not displayed the kind of love of america, the kind of love of america and exceptionallyism that other american presidents have displayed. i'm right about this.

i have no doubt about it. i do not withdraw my words. we haven't mentioned some of the communists and leftists who educated him as a young man. but all we need is reverend wright, 17 years in that church and that man condemned america over and over again and he remained a member of that church? >> the president wasn't there for those sermons. >> the other parishioners didn't tell him about it? >> in other interviews he's offered head-scratching reasons for these kinds of comments. we'll get to those in a minute. meanwhile, the fallout continues to grow. now includes giuliani's former administration staff member mike paul who said this. i believe his comments were disrespectful to president obama, his family and america. mike paul joins us now, along with eugene robinson the pulitzer prize winning columnist from "the washington post" and msnbc analyst. a former aide to rudy giuliani.

we have your words criticizing this. you know this guy. you worked up close with him. do you recognize this man? have you seen this rudy giuliani before? >> i haven't seen this rudy giuliani before. and the reason why i haven't seen this rudy giuliani before is we were working on city issues and we weren't working on national issues and global issues. i have to say, i've got to keep it a hundred here like larry willmore says on comedy central, but this is no joking matter. you saw the mayor with a nervous laugh while he was on fox news. and i actually think that this is an abomination what he's saying. i want to separate myself as far as possible from him when i hear him say things like this. >> there's a separation between city stuff and national stuff, but this is clearly something he feels strongly about. he's had opportunity after opportunity to take this back. >> that's right. >> but he keeps going further. i get the sense he's thought about this a lot, he's thought about questions like this a lot. and you never got any inkling

that giuliani felt anything like this? >> here's what i see. i see a man who is very interested in being relevant in the political process nationally. we're gearing up for a presidential campaign. and he wants to make himself relevant. these are my opinions as to what he's doing. as he's scratching and trying to hold on to some relevancy, i think he put his foot in his mouth. he's going to continue to realize especially in a city like new york and a state like new york which continues to be his base where three-fourths of the people that live in new york city, people like gene and i fully know are three-quarters people of color. this is his base. this is a place he governed for more than one term. the president of the united states as he so wisely and articulately said during his state of the union, has won twice. respect the man, respect the presidency of the united states the seat that you, yourself, mr. mayor, were running for. i don't think that you want to also have comments that many ko back to bite.

and his family is also feeling this. you know as a mayor that your family and yourself were attacked personally, there's no reason for personal attacks. keep it from a policy perspective and from a political perspective but do not attack the man personally. he obviously loves his country enough to have not only run once but twice and won both times. be respectful. >> giuliani is adamant that his attack on president obama does not reflect any racial prejudice. he told "the new york times," some people thought it was racist. i thought that was a joke since he was brought up by a white mother, white grandfather, went to white schools, most of this he learned from white people. gene robinson mike saying he thinks this is giuliani catering to a national republican conservative base. what do you make of that? >> well first of all, i think somebody should tap him on the shoulder and say, stop digging. as he tries to explain this and justify it he digs himself a deeper hole and sounds more

ridiculous. frankly, that's the way he sounds to most of the country. i think if he's playing to anybody, if there's anybody you can play to with this it's the far right fringe of the republican party, the fringe that is just irreconcilably opposed to president obama and everything he stands for, everything he ever was or ever will be who just can't stand the idea theat he's president. those weren't the people jewel yeahen -- giuliani sought to represent when he ran for president. in terms of a base he's forsaken what used to be his base, what he's going for now, i don't see where that gets him except further and further out into the fringe into irrelevancy. >> he defended his comments yesterday. >> president obama didn't live through september 11th. i did.

president obama didn't almost you know have a can fall on him, myself and my police commissioner and my fire commissioner did and i lost ten of my very close friends. excuse me it's a little bit emotional for me. but it's also real. these people are dangerous. when they start chopping the heads of christians off. when they start bombing jews. we're moving in a direction that's exceedingly dangerous. >> let's talk about the politics here for a second gene because this all started at an event where scott walker republican presidential candidate was in attendance he's since been asked about this. you were there. he showed no interest of badinge ing -- wading into it. others have been asked. he's walking towards the fringes, at the same time he's put himself smack in the middle of the presidential race. >> they're running for president. what's the first thing they run into is iowa where you have to be far right to have a chance to win. so understandably they're

approaching this in a sort of gingerly fashion. but ultimately they're going to be asked about it and have to comment on it. let me say one thing about what giuliani said in that clip. 9/11 was a national tragedy. it wasn't just a personal tragedy for him. president obama did live through 9/11. i lived through 9/11. the many hours later as i'm driving home from "the washington post" i go across the bridge and see the plume of smoke over the pentagon where people who i know had lost relatives and lost relatives on the planes. so he cites it as a personal tragedy as if somehow he owns 9/11. he did a good job as mayor, leave it at that. let's commend him for that but it's everyone's tragedy. >> someone who knows him and sees him up close. we know 9/11 it has everything

to do with his leadership on that day. but to hear his comments here that seems like it might have changed him in terms of how he presents himself to people. >> he's been told by many an aide and many who are close to him that he needs to be more humble with his approach when talking about it. he had the fire union, for example, make an ad a very powerful ad the new york fdny fire department's union who came out against him because he has positioned himself as america's mayor and that he made a lot of money and rebuilt his reputation off of the backs of others. i actually think he's lost the throne of being able to be successfully called america's mayor any more quite frankly. not only because of his recent comments but the way he positioned himself after 9/11. the best approach the best way to describe yourself after 9/11 is to say there were men and women who put their lives on the line in the city i governed but

they did the work. they are the ones who sacrificed themselves. and a large percentage of the money he's made and a large percent of the reputation he gained needs to go back to the men and women. >> in terms of a legacy here at the moment is he marginalizing himself, but you're right, he'll always be connected. this dark day in american history, september 11th 2001 rudy giuliani and what he said and did that day, it will always be an integral part of that story. at the same time this is where we are 13 years later. what kind of legacy do you think he's working toward here. >> writing new chapters and they're not favorable, frankly. yes, we'll always remember him on that day. we'll remember him as brave and stalwart and in command and awe the things he was on that day. i have those recollections. it was the day of my life i was proud of rudy giuliani i was

proud of george bush right after 9/11. but the mayor, i think it's absolutely right that he's forfeiting his status as america's mayor and these new chapters in the legacy he's writing are really -- it's just really a shame. >> well we'll see. the early days of this republican presidential race we'll see when the candidates come to new york for money and see if giuliani is still a part of that. i appreciate you both joining us. coming up inside the battle plan to retake mosul from isis which may involve u.s. ground forces. also you may be ready for hilly, but they're not ready for a coronation. debate brewing over the dangers of breezing through the democratic nomination without a real fight glncht. the oscars are in sunday. the red carpet will be the

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we're back with news of the battle that is coming in iraq. as many as 20,000 iraqi military and kurdish forces could be involved in the fight to retake the key city of mosul which ice captured last june. senior u.s. official told nbc news that they'll be backed by u.s. air strikes and possibly american ground troops expected to begin as early as april. questions do remain. the is the iraqi military ready? and why is the u.s. letting the plans leak at all? what happened to the element of surprise? jim mick la shefbski is the chief pentagon correspondent. start with the strategy here. they're putting this out there. you've got the second largest city in iraq. you've got the kurds to the north, what is the plan here that they have to take that city? >> you're not the only one asking the questions as to why

they would release this publicly. late today republican senators lindsey graham and john mccain -- mccain being the chairman of the senate armed services committee -- sent a letter to president obama complaining about this saying that it revealed detailed plans of a potential operation that could jeopardize the lives of u.s., iraqi and coalition forces and they asked the president saying those responsible have jeopardized our national security interests and must be held accountable. now, officials here will tell you that by releasing it in advance, they're trying to put the isis fighters in a defensive crouch for some period of time and give some of those 1.5 million civilians in that town time to leave before any operation begins steve. >> so is the idea there that instead of having isis maybe spread a little bit, isis is being contained in the city trying to fortify it for the next six weeks? >> that's one of the reasons they give but i can tell you

there are serious doubts that this plan would work in the short-term anyway because it would be carried out by 20 to 25,000 iraqi military forces with about 3,000 kurds. nobody yet has any confidence that the iraqi military would carry out the job. after all, when isis first swept into iraq nine months ago the iraqi force just threw down their weapons and fled. so there's not a whole lot of confidence that the iraqis can carry it out without some serious support from either the kurds and, of course the u.s. military. and there could be a possibility that u.s. ground -- the soldiers that would call in air strikes could be on the ground but not involved in direct combat or that special operations forces could be called on any rescue mission or to go into mosul and take out iraqi leadership. those plans would require the

approval of president obama. >> thank you, jim miklaszewski at the pentagon. for more on this i'm joined by the author of "unthinkable: iran the bottom and american strategy." david ignatius just returned from the region. let me start with you. jim miklaszewski just set it up nicely. this is the same iraqi army that basically fled last year when confronted by isis. is there any reason to believe the iraqi army is in better position to go in and take back the second largest city in iraq? >> the army from what we hear has better officers has had additional training is better motivated, there's no question that the change from the maliki government to the abatty government has led to better oversight of the army. that said it strikes me that this plan for a quick attack on

mosul ignores precisely the questions that jim miklaszewski raises in his report. first, the idea that this iraqi army force would be joined by the kurdish peshmerga, it goes contrary to everything i heard in my travels from the kurds. they feel that entering this largely sunni arab city of mosul outside of kurdistan would create political problems for them and for the iraqi government. that's just for starters. the strange thing is they're in a position now to squeeze mosul. they've cut off much of the road access to the city. isis can't resupply. they're being ground down. it's a strange time to rush this operation before according to the people i talked to it's really ready. >> if this is the timetable, if

we're looking at six weeks from now there's this aggressive attempt to retake the city, it does raise the question if this iraqi army is not up to the job, if it quickly proves that it hasn't improved enough from last year what happens from an american standpoint? are we talking about ground troops? to make sure that this operation we've now telegraphed doesn't fail? >> let me make a few points. you've got a bunch of different stuff in there worth responding to. let's remember what they've already said is they're not going to be using the newly trained iraqi armed forces. what they're going to be doing is relying on existing iraqi formations that have done a much better job. part of the iraqi army collapsed back in june. another part of the army was battling isis in anbar, fighting very hard retaining its cohesion and really stalemate isis in anbar. and those forces that they're talking about using up in mosul,

so the better forces. second point, i don't thing anybody is talking about american ground forces in iraq. i think it's very clear president obama said over and over and over again he's the guy who was elected to get us out of middle eastern wars not to get us into new ones. he inserted this language which i find bizarre about no major offensive operations. i think again is a way of making it clear that he doesn't want to do this but i think the last point that's worth thinking about is the politics of all of this. first, there's the attack that david was already alluding to. mosul is a sunni city. most of the iraqi military is shia and most of the fighting that's been done is done by shia militias. but you have a prime minister in baghdad. i was in baghdad last month. you have a prime minister in haid ar ra batty, but he'll be judged by whether he can take mosul by the spring.

i think that's a questionable assumption. i put them to the test why they believe that but it's a very widespread perception. that's the most important thing is the prime minister's own belief this his political fortunes hang on whether or not he can retake the city in the spring. >> how likely is this that this is the timetable that everybody sticks to six weeks from now this offensive begins. how likely is that? >> my own guess is that it won't happen in six weeks because it really is rushing things. talking today to officials, senior officials in the administration and to a senior iraqi official what i was hearing was that some delay is likely i think ken is right. prime minister abadi needs a win

in general with isis on a roll from libya to iraq in recent months, there's a desire the take this big prize back. but my guess is cooler heads will prevail. if it's not possible and i don't think it will be to use significant numbers of kurdish forces, as ken suggest, even if you use the more experienced iraqi security forces iraqi army forces why rush it when you risk what would be a really embarrassing and damaging setback? >> but quickly to follow up on what david was just saying there, if as he says cooler heads prevail and this is not brought about in the next six weeks, now that it's out there, now that it's been telegraphed, does it look like a win for isis or we're not ready for this we can't beat them right now? >> if they do make the decision to delay the operation and as dave and i both are suggesting

there are real strong rationales for doing that but if they do they'll mount small operations. i hope that they were lying to all of us when they announced this campaign against mosul, against this level of specificity. it does run contrary to all judgments about military operational security. and i think there are lots of different ways to spin it. i think that you've been seeing iraqi forces making gains here and there on the ground some of them quite important as david pointed out, just last month they cut the crossing from syria into mosul. that was extremely important. there are ways to mount local offensives, smaller offensives into other parts of the isis controlled territory and nevertheless create this sense that prime minister abadi needs that president obama, too, that the military campaign is making progress it's building up steam without necessarily taking on what could ultimately be a big problem in mosul if the

situation isn't right for that offensive. >> thank you ken pollack, david ignatius. next the winter of our discontent. much of the country finds itself in a historic deep freeze. they just smashed a record in washington. it will get worse. your mom's got your back. your friends have your back. your dog's definitely got your back. but who's got your back when you need legal help? we do. we're legalzoom, and over the last 10 years, we've helped millions of people protect their families and run their businesses. we have the right people on-hand to answer your questions backed by a trusted network of attorneys. so visit us today for legal help you can count on. legalzoom. legal help is here. i'm not sick. i'm not sick. i'm not sick. she's perfectly healthy. cigna covers preventive care. that's having your back.

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♪ let it go ♪ let it go ♪ ♪ i'll one with the wind and sky ♪ ♪ let it go ♪ ♪ let it go ♪ ♪ you'll never see me cry ♪ >> welcome back to "hardball." that was queen elsa from "frozen." with record cold temperatures around today it feels like a real-life eternal winter. police in kentucky are blaming this cold snap on that famed disney character posting a fake warrant for her arrest. all points bulletin.

har land city police department has issued an arrest warrant for queen elsa of arendelle. suspect was last seen wearing a long blue dress. she's known to burst into song. as you can see by the weather, she is very dangerous. do not attempt to apprehend her alone. the siberian express is punishing regions in the united states today. check out this massive ice formation at niagara falls. though the flow of water hasn't completely stopped. the ice there is not expected to melt entirely until -- get this -- until may. near buffalo a fountain in lechworth state park has frozen solid. it's towering 50 feet into the air like a giant ice skrupt tur. take a look at this photograph. the imprint from a grille of a jeep grand cherokee left in the

ice after that car pulled ow eded out of a parking lot. keith, how cold it is out there? >> it's brutal steve. that picture, i put it up on twitter yesterday. in the photo shop world people didn't believe it until i showed them a couple different angles for the ice grille. take a look at this boston 4 degrees but feels like 17 below in buffalo, this cold air got all the way down into the southeast earlier this morning. contrast what's going on in the eastern united states to a place we usually consider quite cold alaska. most of alaska maybe fairbans the exception, is warmer than what we've seen across the east. this is a persistent pattern we've been. a trough in the east and a ridge in the west. each one of these dots represents where we'll see a record low temperature. windsor locks coming in at 5

below. carolinas, richmond 10 norfolk coming in around 11. we'll see these temperatures in the single digits one more morning, but overall, i don't see any pattern change here. we look into the midrange forecast 7 to 10 days out. somebody's warm it's the west coast. take a look at what happens next week. we get these lobes of cold air from canada. all the way tuesday, wednesday, some computer models spinning up another nor'easter with snow on wednesday. come back around to next friday and this map looks pretty much the same. the rock the dividing line to the east of that we're seeing the cold air and to the west is where we're seeing the warmer stuff. we don't see any change to the pat pattern here. in the short-term, that cold air is setting up ice. nashville, memphis, little rock. we're getting snow down here at the weather channel headquarters in atlanta.

you know what happened the last time we saw snow in atlanta. >> wow this is the first time in my life in the middle of february where i thought i'd rather be in anchorage. bad news you have there. thank you to keith carson with the weather channel. that looked like snow in atlanta. i'd still probably rather be there than new york city. why hillary clinton's supporters want to see a competitor primary in 2016. i've been called a control freak... i like to think of myself as more of a control... enthusiast. mmm, a perfect 177-degrees. and that's why this road warrior rents from national. i can bypass the counter and go straight to my car. and i don't have to talk to any humans, unless i want to. and i don't. and national lets me choose any car in the aisle. control. it's so, what's the word?... sexy. go national. go like a pro. good job! still running in the morning? yeah. getting your vegetables every day? when i can. [ bop ] [ male

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i'm milissa rehberger. a fire is burning at dubai's torch tower, one o the talest residential skyscrapers in the world at 79 stories. there's been a full evacuation and no injuries reported yet. the disputed west coast port is still unresolved as the deadline looms. labor secretary has told both sides if a deal is not reached

talks must continue in washington next week. uk counterterrorism officials are searching for three teenaged girls who may have run away and traveled to syria. back to "hardball." welcome back to "hardball." despite vent negative headlines for hillary clinton, democratic national committee members who gathered in washington this week say they simply don't care. they're still ready for hillary. there was some divide over whether she should face a competitive democratic primary. even democrats supporting her said it would be good for the party if hillary faced a test. this according to politico. bob mulholland said i want an all-out battle all the way to june. core del ya burks said i wish we would have some other candidates running. i think it would give the nation the opportunity to have a

debate. by jim burn, pennsylvania's democratic chairman, he said hillary does not need a primary. stanley grossman said we need absolute unity. for more on the debate over whether a debate is what's needed. let's bring in the roundtable. and dana milbank is an opinion writer with "the washington post." to me this says all you need to know about the state of the democratic party for 2016. they interviewed four people two said they want a democratic primary, two said they don't. they're all backing hillary. you can't have a primary unless there are people saying here's the other candidate we want. >> in a sense, it's almost as if it's an incumbent president running again. that's really the feel that it has right now. i'm certainly of the view that it would be good for the democrats and good for hillary clinton if she had some competition. that doesn't mean a bloodbath like it was in 2008 but it

could be just somebody to keep her on her toes somebody to keep her in the news so she's not forgotten while the republicans are out there. and someone to keep her in the game because she'll have oto be formidable when she gets to the fall. >> do we thing the clintons on some level -- she probably believed that she's the democratic nominee, nobody else to touch her. then she's in this race with barack obama and she can't win. so i imagine she's haunted by that to some degree. this is clearly not a situation where you have somebody like obama breathing down her neck. do you thing the clintons do actually look at this and shed a least needs a sparring partner for next year. >> i don't think they look at it that she needs a sparring partner. they're looking at it that there's no need for her to make an announcement now. competition is always a good thing. the clintons would probably understand that. she doesn't need it.

i can't imagine who could possibly catch up to her in the polls at this point in time. from that standpoint there's no reason for her to formally announce and get into the race. on the other hand, what could come out of a good competition on the democratic side are new ideas and also you know as we saw during hillary clinton's book tour she was not absolutely prepared for primetime and she could use the practice to get ready for whoever she inevitably is going to be going up against in the republican party should she actually take the ball and run with it. >> i'm trying to ask myself the same question. i can't come up with who would be the strong -- maybe not strong enough to beat her but a real credible challenge in 2016. i strug wellgle with the names. there was a huge chunk of the democratic base that would never forgive her for iraq. is there anything you can point to, hey, this is the issue that could animate something in. >> the biggest source of

discontent with hillary right now is just her connections to wall street. she has been known as a centrist democrat with close ties to high finance. so that is the kind of thing that can form the base of a challenge to her primary candidacy, but the problem is the one person in the democratic party who best represents that discontent has already said she's not going to run. >> elizabeth warren. >> elizabeth warren has been adamant about the fact that she's not going to run. i don't know who else can capture that energy. my thought is vice president biden decided to run, i think he would be best positioned to provide some sort of challenge to clinton, but that's about it. >> a big risk for bide opinion, too, from a legacy standpoint. a sitting vice president and you run and get trounced like that. that's a risk. the chairman of the democratic party in new hampshire, home of the crucial first primary in the

nation, was on "hardball" earlier this month. even he played coy. >> should there be as a matter of principle, debates heading toward the democratic primary a year from now? as a matter of principle, debates? >> well there has to be more than one candidate to have a debate. >> are you supporting the idea of debates? i'm going to say this till you answer me. as party chair do you want to see debates in the new hampshire primary if there are multiple candidate? >> if they're legitimate candidates. >> are you so afraid of hillary clinton and her peeps that you won't just say, damn it we need to have debates. this is the democratic party, we believe in debates. say it please? >> we don't know if the secretary has decided to run or not, so it's a little premature. >> i think we know the answer whether she's decided to run or

not. bernie sanders, he actually looks like he might run. i remind people he has to become a democrat first, slight technicality there. bernie sanders/hillary clinton debate. is there a risk for hillary there in he's a feisty guy. >> he's a feisty guy. i think the major risk is that there are progressives and people who are truly on the very far left of the democratic party that are going to have questions about hillary clinton's candidacy and the legitimacy of how, quote, unquote, liberal she is. questions will arise about the fact that the clinton foundation has now gone against its previous policy of not accepting money from foreign governments and they're doing that now. you'll see people on the left. whether it's bernie sanders or not, i actually believe that mrs. clinton's candidacy in whatever form it takes is always going to be haunted by the ghost of elizabeth warren.

we live in a populist country right now. people love her. elizabeth warren may say she's not running but so will hillary clinton. time will tell. i think elizabeth warren could be taked about running. that would be the danger for hillary clinton. there are many progressives looking for new ideas. >> do you see the possibility? >> not just the statements she's made it's her staff. she's not doing anything to prepare for it. but there's this huge energy there and the progressives are not necessarily enthusiastic about hillary. that's why having some sort of a competition pulling her more in a populist direction is good for her in the end. maybe it is a bernie sander a sacrificial lamb put up there and allows himself to be co-opted by hillary clinton. >> i'll let you tell bernie he's the sacrificial lamb and see you

deal with that reaction. roundtable is staying with us. with the oscars two days away the democratic congressman from north hollywood wants to meet with the academy's president about the lack of diversity in this year's ceremonies. has all this talk been justified? and fewer choices in retirement. know that proper allocation could help increase returns so you can enjoy that second home sooner. know the right financial planning can help you save for college and retirement. know where you stand with pnc total insight. a new investing and banking experience with personalized guidance and online tools. visit a branch, call or go online today. ♪ there's confidence. then there's trusting your vehicle maintenance to ford service confidence. our expertise, technology, and high quality parts mean your peace of mind.

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we are back. this year's oscar discussion has been dominated by lack of diversity among the nominees. the whiteness of the nominees is most pronounced in the high profile categories best actor, actress, in a supporting role california congressman who represents north hollywood and the san fernando valley where the movie industry is king he's angry about that lack of diversity. he wrote a letter to the president of the academy of motion picture arts and sciences, she's an

african-american. he writes i write to express my shock at the lack of diversity in this year's industry." back with the harbaugh roundtable right now, it is striking, those major categories we just looked at there when you just put the pictures up and take a look it becomes clear, wow, that's basically an all-white roster you've got there. where do you think this comes from? >> i think this is partially a pipeline problem. if you look at the films that were -- if you look at the top ranked films in 2014 not just ones given the best picture nomination, but the ones that were kind of in the running before you even knew the nominations, there just weren't that many films that had sizable casts with people of color that had leading actors and leading actresses who were people of color. so even before you get to the whole process of choosing which is the best picture, or which of these movies might be the best picture of the year you just don't have very many non-white

actors in that pool of films. then after you get from there, i think you have to look at just the composition of the academy electorate, the kind of people who are choosing these nominations. i'll say for my part that there are some choices that i find just kind of baffling. not for reasons of diversity even but for reasons of craft. there are directors and actors who clearly deserve some sort of nod and didn't get one. and i think it has a lot to do with who exactly is making the nomination. which is a group of mostly older white people. >> yeah that's interesting. i think we have the statistics here. the academy voters are 94% white, 77% male. when you just look at this every year it seems -- i can go through my picks from the last 20 30 years. how did they ever nominate this actor, how did they ever not nominate this actor. this is like judging a figure skating contest in the olympics.

it is not a basketball game where you keep score. it is judges sort of giving their opinion. is that really where the issue lies here it is in the composition of who's casting those ballots. >> i don't know. it's not just a matter of who's casting the ballots. obviously that's important but they really regardless of the racial makeup they are a representative of the culture and how the country at large feels. if you look at how the country has been doing over the last year or so in terms of race we have a lot of problems in every part of the united states society and culture. one of the things that you have to ask yourself or at least i ask and i think that the rest -- that the non-voting academy members should be asking themselves is how do you have a movie like "selma," for example, where the director has done something extraordinary. it is one of the first times i can remember in american history where you watch a movie about the civil rights period from the perspective of a woman and you not only see a betrayal of

martin luther king as a man but you actually see the civil rights movement from the perspective of women and how the actors in there were not nominated. it is a movie that stays with you forever. it is not nominated in the best actor category. all i can ask myself is if there is some sort of race fatigue because last year was such a big year for ""12 years a slave."" are there people in the academy who sit back and say we've got race fatigue, we did race last year so we're done with race and we don't have to -- we don't have to pay attention to the people of color who deserve awards in 2014. >> well 2014. we'll see with all the debate this has generated this year if that produces changes for 2015. that would be the story after the oscars. again, they're on sunday night. thank you, again. appreciate you all joining us. you with watching "hardball." place for politics. or is it just me? every minute between you and

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finally, let me finish tonight with this. if you've been following the early phase of the 2016 presidential campaign, it's what they like to call "the invisible primary." you've probably heard all the buzz about jeb bush about his shock and awe fund-raising strategy working feverishly behind the scenes tapping his family's massive network of republican friends and allies raking in some serious money. the idea of all this of course to create an early demonstration of massive and overpowering

strength, one that will scare off rivals and make clear to everyone that jeb bush is on his way to being the republican candidate for 2016. i see a problem with there strategy though. problem is his last name. maybe not for the reason you're thinking of. instead, it has to do with the republican party with the base of the republican party, the tea party and how they think of george w. bush's presidency. the key to that when george w. bush was elected in 2000 the gop base was with limb. he was their candidate. they were with him even though he talked like a moderate. he talked about compassionate conservatism. remember all of that? well the right was fine with that in 2000 because they wanted to win. bill clinton had beaten them in the government shutdown. he had beaten them in the 1996 election. he had beaten them in impeachment. every attack republicans hurled at clinton only seemed to make him more popular. so republicans wanted their own clinton. they wanted someone warm someone who wouldn't scare off voters, and that is why they turned to george w. bush. but what did they get.

what did the gop base get for eight years of president george w. bush. if you ask them now, they'd say at the didn't get much. they'd say they got more government. they got new agencies. new programs. more spending. that's what compassionate conservatism meant after all. then they got an economic meltdown, the gop wipeout in 2008. and of course they got barack obama. that's what they got for going with the moderatefor making winning their priority back then. that's how to understand the tea party. yes, it is the republican base revolting against barack obama. but it is not just that. it is also the republican base revolting against the idea of doing what it did with george w. bush ever again, of. >> going with the moderate just to win. the republican party is a very different place today because of george w. bush. now here is his brother, borrowing his old playbook trying to talk like a moderate but he may find that this republican party that emerged from george w. bush's presidency

is not interested in going down that road all over again. that's "hardball." for now. chris matthews returns to the anchor desk on monday. thanks for being with us. "all in" with chris hayes starts right now. tonight on "all in" -- >> you know president obama didn't live through september 11. i did. >> rudy giuliani's nuclear melt dourn continues. >> i feel sorry for rudy giuliani. >> tonight, why giuliani's injective is just a sign of things to come. >> do you think you hurt the republican brand. >> i do not think i did. death panels and predictions of doom and gloom haven't come true. uncle sam says eat less meat. the new government food guide lins. from the "selma" snub to the sniper hype we'll preview all the oscar drama. >> she's been murdered and you