ablulute teterryiyi. ckckta moment. >> y yea >> today's j jul8t8th 20shgs, , >> yes. which meaeans att 12:34lnln 36 seconds theenum logical freaeak show was one, o, three, four, ve, six, seven, eighgh ne! yes. > "ununtdn" starar right now. breaking n newatat ts hour ininhehe tn battles between congreressndnd cia. anan pcicthcia and the truth. msmsc c lened tonight that cia director panetta testified in the l las month that topop ancncy ficials haha c conaled significant acacons from all members o of coress and misled congress and misled congress s dangngwba to 20000 thus have ththeysksk him by letter to correct hihipapastlaim mamaden the wake of speaker pelosi's charges that t thagagen never brieied d heabout tortures of ddaiaine, that iss is not cia, q quo, , licy or practice mislead congress. and breakingng iththe st few mimitetes,he cia's dramatic instance that panettttsasaido

su t thi last month and will make no such correctioion. > > whh of these stories wilil yoyobe talking about tomororro shshe itits alaska. and now ththpopollquit on her. three in tenen aririns saw their inions of sarah palin n anange after her resignatatn.n. democrats nonoviviewg her less fafavoblblby a margin of four to one. more tellingly, , dedepeents now viewing her less favorablyly ba mamarg o otwo to one. still cocoususedbout the why? >> you know why theyeye e coconfeded i guess ththeyanannotake somemeining day at face value. >> but a as r r spches backcheckeked,hohod anyone take heher face value. she clclai s s was vindicated in l the ethics investigagaonons, e e s not. and if she thought s sheasasone asasate-night comedy foddeder,he was not.t. >> the category totoghght,op ten meagag on sarah palin's answerinmach i asked george w. bushwhy didn't anyone ll me resigning waan option?

ki carl is deposed, ll, as in he giv a deposition, not they took his throne away. eight hours of gllg by federal investigators about the political purge that claimed ni u.s. attorneys. d "worsts," ather local hero. an arizonatate senator and an ror-filledrational for uranm mining of biblical proportions. >> the earth's been here6,000 years. i will shut up. it's been here 6,000 years long before anyonhad environmental laws and somehowt hasn't been done away th. >> this shut uof which you speak, when does tat go int effect? all of that and more w on "countdown." >> shut up! good evening fronew york. breaking news night. our fifth story on the counown. cia director ln panetta has told lawmakers that agency officials did indeed misad

congress and did so sinc2001. what would be e start, roughly,f the bush administration. the cia confirmi to msnbc and nbc newshat director panetta ldawmakers that congress w not adequately informed out unecified post-9/11 activity, classified activity. this cia will not say the briefingasbout. other officials say was n about waterboarding, nor about inteogation practices. two days aft panetta's testimony, sever democratic members of t house intelligence committee having then senhe director lter in the we of his own testimony reading in part, quote, u recall, no dbt, th on may 15th, 2009, yostated the following a letter to cia employees -- let me clear, it is notur policy or practice to slead congress. thats against our laws and values. in light of your testimo, the letter continu, ask that you publiclyorrect your statement of may 15, 2009. in another stateme tonight, director petta is refusing to

amend what he id in may, nor even confirm what the congressmen and won said he said in ne. again, reading in part, direor pattstands by his may 15 statement. it is not the policy opracti of the cia to mislead congress. this agency and is director belie is vital to keep the congress fully and crently informed. director panta's aions back that up. earlr this year, house speaker pelosi, of coue, having acsed the cia of misleading r in briefings about the agency's usef waterboarding. somethinshe said she never hearabout in any kind of briefi, secret or otherwise, an allegation for which she has been roundly attacked by republican foreign affairs corresndt, andrea mitchl, who has been woing this story for msnbc and nbc news. anks for your time tonight, andrea. you bet. there's a lot -- >> do we know >> you know, keith, there's a lot ofisagreement over what happened and who said what t whom. what we donow is that the cia and leon panetta a n acknowledging in any fashion that he testified that there was

any misleading of ngress. they say tt is not true. u.s. officials s that panetta believes strongly th congress should be informed, thathe were sommatterthat were not adequately briefed, that were inappropately not briefed to congress. and that he chand that when he tover. but he is not attruting any motivation to what was de in the past. he's not saying thatwas an attempt mislead or conceal, sily that they were not inform and that he has made sure that in theuture, they will be formed. >> so there a -- >> yan see the distinction. >> is there a disconct between -- you've got representatives holt and hastings and thomps. is a disconnect,r did they hear something that they wanted to put on the record? whwould there be such divergence owhat exactly he sa to them? >> ah, you get tthe bottom of it. the fact is that these s members are ve close alies of

speaker pesi and you know the backgrnd, that there has been this running feud betweeth speaker and e head of cia, not a teibly healthy situation, we might add. the housis about to debate and vote tomorrow, barring any unforeseen circumstaes on an intelligce bill. that intelgence bill has a democraticersion of that intelligence bill s amendments which would requir better brngs, more extensive briefings anwould give the memberof congress, the speaker anthe other leaders, the ability to say who should be briefed on these secrets, not just the top four or the t eight members ofhe committees. it would take away from administration a the president the por to dermine who gets briefed. today,hehite house issued a veto threat, saying if they vo on that veion ofhe house intelligce bill, the president will not sig. so you can s arowing feud tween house democrats loyal to pesi, and this is not a document of the intelligence committee of its ldership or

of allf its members. it isimply six democrats very closely aligned with thepeaker against leonanetta. panetta isot acknowledging that there was anyying that went on in the pt. he's just ying that nothing likehat will happen in the future. >> andrea, the speaker stated she had been misled by the cia and repuicans said that that was disparaging our country' agents and that this never done. panetta's comments seem to bk up tt end of the political maelstrom here. what we're dealing witin between the charactezations by these six reesentaves in that letter and what the cia have said on mr. panta's behalf in reonse, is it nuance anshading, or is this yes or no? in other words, d either versions of tis confirmhat pelosi said, or is it dendent on wheth the representative is right or the cistatement is right? >> i thinky're in direct colict. though panetta says or indicates through people that he has no way of knowing what happened, he just ows that it's true. they were not informedf

ceain things. the big distinction herehough is that officials say it not over waterboarding. they are backing the fact that pelosi and others re extensively brfed on waterboardg and that there is, in fact, there areords to that eec they're saying that this issue is separate from watboarding and separaterom interrogations i can't tell you tight what it is. it's covert. i haven't yet uncovered at. >> last question then, what happens next pertaining this? is this sole about that vote and the threat of the veto, is there essentially more he? are there hearings? is tre more open testimony? this going to carry on its own accord, or does thisaway relative -- is this jt some political sturing in front of a vote? >> it's a t of posturing, but it will eventually determine influence, wheerr not more pele wilbe briefed. will congress get wh the house leadership is dending right now? which is more brfings, not st four or eight top leaders. and we suld point out that

only certain members were briefed, there we other documes suchs the document before the iraq war, whichas t up there, any number of the senate, any member of the na could ha read it, for instance, and only a very few, only s members of the senate read that iraq intelligenc briefing. so congreshas, according to ny critics, fallen down on its side of the bargain, but is ve clear in the past the cia was not ry forthcoming when cleay it should have been more forthcoming here. the difference is here is, did they lie, did they misad? the ci panetta are not acknowledginthat. saying it did nohappen. >> andrea mitchell in our washington bureau, who h added so much to this story in the last half hour. grt workgreat thanks. >> tnk you. >>or more on the implications of this, let's turn to former cia officeand former precutor, jack rice, giving us some of his time once agn tonit. thk you for doing so, jack.

cod this be a missing link or maybe better, is it a linchpin turng point, whichever cliche is mt appropriate, towards some sort of manner of actua substantiati investigation into bh administration policy here and what the congress w and was not told by e cia post-9/11, wheer it's about torte, whether it's about warraness wiretapping or anything else relating to th agency? >> potential, what it's really abt now about credibility. ere's really two parts to this, as we listen to anea's report here. the t part is not providing all of the infortion that the cia d. that'sne part. but if they actual rposely lie here, the next pce of this investation, i'm thinking about this as a former prosecutor ow, i want to knw, was i one brief or june screw up? was it the cia w screwed up? or was it the white house who told tia who told therier to screw up. that's the real question. so congress has an obligatioto hear all of this intelligence. if there not getting it, they should be upset.

>> thetring difference between the charaerization of th, of whateon panetta said he saiand what six people listening to him said he said, it certainlyits in the history of t cia very nicely, but does iat all help us -- does that history at all hp understand or at least figur t where we should place ou bets on who's lling the truth, the cia or these sixongressman who are, as drea mentioned, aled with speaker pelosi, who kind of wentff the end of a pier there without the support from leon panetta since y. >> if we look at what's happened sie 2001, it appears that politics has driven the cia to do a lot of things. they have said a lot of things, theiconcluons have been quesoned in 15 or 20 different directions. and what they have sd over and over has driven memberof congress andven the current white house to question those very same things. if we think of it from tha pepective and the fact that they're not actually proding all ofhenformation that

at their dispol, tt i think th're capable of ing, i think it does drive more queions into the ring. now, what is it that theknow and when did they know it. i hate to comeack to the old cliche, what d they know and did they know it? ose are issues that we'r going to have to figure t and we're going have to figure out very, very soon. >>t is not the policy or practice of the cia to mislead congress. panetta said that on may5th. his statement w on july 8th says the same thin the exact same thing. the same wording. they're not changing theording at all. obviouy, words and direction that those words send ople in are tal in something like this. thnuances, everything. is there anything in therehat says, if it's not the policy a it's not- it is neither the policy, nor the prce, does thateait didn't happen? >> no, it doesn't, does it? that's the oious link. so wcan say, so normally, don't lie to you, but we lied you this time. is that our conclusion, is tha what we stand by? wow, that make us feel so ch

bett if we're a member of congress, or fraly, just an average american citizen. jk, if it is true and andrea's just said tt thiss what appears to be thease, that these instances of misleading congrs and/or not fully briefing them, dependi on whether you believe panetta's versions and terminogy or believe congre's terminology, was not waterboarding, no interrogatn, what is the poibilities -- what more is there out there that we n't know about? >> see, at, again, is the biggest question, keit again, even if this isn't about terrorism or waterboarding, 's the credibility ctor. about at it is that the intelligen community, what the cia s doing on behalf of the american people. and if they're not wilng to provide accurate intelligence, then what going on? iss really the broader question. if we can't believe what was going on outside of e terrorism realm outside of the torturrealm, how can we possibly belie what was going on inside the torture realm? th's the question we need to find out. now.

>> right now it stds as, we didn't lie to u, but we didn't te you the truth either. jack re, forrly of the cia, who's,s he said there, former prosecution role coming into play here too. great anks for your time, jack. >> aays a easure. and th there is governor sah palin and the fact that her resignion has inspired re than just reaction in the media and by the comedians. she has now sunk like a ste in the polls. ofourse, the comedy is not going aw as nearly as fast as her polarity is, evidently. for david letterman, this will be night three of his teleon. one of tonight's tts, we understand, e wading boots the govern wore during her glut of interviews yesterday. oven. iss effective as the leading wrinkle prescriptionrand at reducing the look of wrines. that'secause olay has teamed with a highly spiali group of dermatologists and created a wrine protocol that gives youhe results of the leading wrinkle prescription bra, without a prescription olay professional pro-x.

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about attorneysgate fromarl rove. and another star is bornn "worst persons." the state legislature who announces the earth has rvived its whole history without enviroental protection laws, so why does it need them n. its whole history, all 6,000 years. you' w wing "countdown" on msnbc.

> senator john mccain hang sected governor palin as his running mate in what we then suspected and have sin learned was a despate last-ditch effort to appeal to indepet votersnd centrist democrats last year. our fourth story in the "countdown," republican nominee thedo not appear to be worki for the

soon to be former governor of alka now. whatever srah palin ththe would leaving office more than halfway through her term as governor oalaska, it seems that they feel exactly the same way n, only more so. seven in ten of the voters surveyed by gall for "usa today" saying theiopinion of the governor has not changed. independt voters saying, though, they would be less kely to vote for her. 51% to 44 but n 55% of them hoping that governor palin leaves the national stage aether. 77% of docts saying that they are not at all likely to vote for governor palin 2012, alst matching the number of publicans saying they would be likely to vote for her f president. gop candidates not clamori to have the sooto be former goveor join them on the campaign trail. a spokesperson for chris christ christie, the repuican running to tryo unseat governor czine saying that ey have no plans to bring governor palin. what appears to be her main activity ts wednesday, posting to h twitter page. itter rhymes with critter.

some highlights, quote, day, try this -- act inccordance to your conscien. risk by pung larger vision opposition to popular, powerful pressure. unknown. why attribute to unknown when you can cite from someone o pears to be either the former republican senat or his father, the washingtonedskins footballoach ogreat fame. ote, a couple of thoughts for the day on butiful, bright, ak morn. you ha to sacrifice to win. that's my philosophy in six words. gege allen. ampersand. from an inexplicable ampersand let's tu to the always-illuminating howard fineman, senior correondent for "newsweek" magazine. >> don't forget the ampeand. >> guess it's the twitte equivalent oso, as a compteentence. the governor's quiing, did this just solidify whater it was dividual voters of any of the political stripes re already thinking and feeling

about her? >> well, keith, studiethat gallup poll very carefully i don't think it so much the fact that she quit athe fact that sheas so much in the news. i mean, only sah palin could break through the chael jackson storani think when people got anoth chance to look aher, it was like quick-drying cemt. the decrats solidified four to one against her. they view her the un-person -- you know, an unqualified, unintelligent, unintellible, and squirrely at best. and fo a l of republican conservatives, she is st sarah of wasilla. you know, s is the person being bued at the stake by the evil national media. th gets her a long way with the base of the republic part >> you can never -- you kn, you can never put the nail in, as the old sicjoke goes and you can never light the re yourself if you're standing in e middle of the pyre. but was this -- is this kind of a distillation righnow of the same proem that she brought with her to th ticket last year as much as she

may have excited the people who were probably already gointo vote for her se of it, the relt in the other direction was just aintense and thus, you lose independents d centrists and pele who do just naturallshy away from polarization. >> well, what with really happened the is that john mcca undercut his own gument. it was aut sarah palin, but in talking out the campaign, keith, it was ally more about john mccain. john mccain's caincard to independents and centrists was, i'm the guy with more experience and beer judent. and of course, after the sorof lost wnd in st. paul with sarah palin, the next twmonths were the long hanger, the long political hangover. and john mccain's judgnt was undermined by sarapalin's qualifications and prereess to be a heartbeat away from the presidcy. and in that sense, she destroyed the tiet she was picked to save. >> with the number that was in

that polabout gop support for her,or the presidency in 2012, are we seeing, you kno in swimming and diving, scores are based on degree diffilty. this particular gets you a faorf six and this dive gets you factor of 12 or whatever the numbers ar did somebody tell e republics thatach vote gets cound on a degree of difficulty basis, if you really, really, ally like your candidate, it counts twice >> well, the thing is, in lking to republicans here in washingtonnd around the uny, keith, political nsultants, people like craig shirley and diana banniste who i ve known for a long time, ve eerienced people here, they say, look, rah palin just can'win the presidency. i meanyes, she is popular within a ctain gup. and to pursue your analogyut ving difficulty, i mean, she took -- is taking a nice swan dive, an easy swan dive to the pool of repuican coervatives, but she just can't make the sale beyo i now, she's gng to try, apparently she's going to go around the count, she'going

to write h bks and give speeches and see what she's got to give out the. but, geez,he numbers that you in the gallup poll and everything that republicans i talk to say, nobody thks she n, even on this wild stretch ofhe imanation, she can win the nomination, athe could win the presidcy. that's what they think. that's not what i think. >> so her calling was eeting is that the final concon here? is that a full-time job? >> i don't know. well, it's difficult to do in hip waders, evidently. >> if you use yo hips, it is. if you use yr fingers, they're stilfr, aren't they? howard fineman of "newsweek" a msnbc, i'll spare you the no commt. howard says no cment on that. >>kay. thank you, howard. >> thank you, keith. i'll take obvis, almost unbelievable international politil analogies for a ousand, alex. th right. ahmadinejad attacked ba small flying inst. and tonight this woman leaves from the ob security of a hearinon uranium ming from the unit states senate on

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bebegan b bbershop quartets and end up giving the secoco grgreate s siloquy "network," portraying the corpopotete devi wh a admisishe peter fincnc's's characacte that yo have mettled with the prralal forces of tutureand i won't have it! let's play "oddbalall. we beginououoors in tehran, whe yeststerdamamaoud ahmadinejad ga his first address sinin that country's a alleglylyigged election l lt t moh. e president told iraninis s th the vote was, ququot c cle and free and that a wiwingedisisor flew cleananndnd fe into his shot [ speaking foreign lananguag]] swg g d a miss. ahahmanejad kept reading. the lalae e inct or small bat kekeptuzzing him, perhaps attracteted t tse flowers on his papas.s.

ofofourse, incontrast, our president was a l litee more successful in enforcrcinththe no-fly zone.e. yoremember the outtake f fm m the recent john harwooood bcbc interview whwh h he lled a fly dedeadn n e oval office. ththers always the chance thth ahmadinejad will s simy y aim it nevever ppppen. >> to the "oddball" popocece blotter and a word o of rnrninto the sweat ho from welcome back cotter,r, the cast of "taxaxi"r r ev tv sitcom star from the '70s, usea dedesiated driver. ndnday we learnene j joy d dewi st known from janet inn "three's company," pickeked f f dui. come and knock o on r r r door, shshe' b be iting for you, ficer. yesterdaday f fnd out that this man, eddie mecca, cacainine bibiragoosa of "lavernend iriry" fame was charged wiwith dui. miss dewitt was releleas o on bail. ther way, stars of the '7070s, unless your ararreining fer ppppeno be fonzarelli, ou do the cririmeyoyoll do the

ti.. hey! >> nanay to fenway park, ere before sunday's reresosox game, ceremonialal fststitch thwn out by maark wahlberg. anand y hi to your pitching g coach for me, all righght? wallberg yanand d onall the way toto t b bkstop. he g got c ceronial second pitch and did slightly better. sten, i will tell you what i told bobbia buoy, pick at t th stitch on the e ba a as ng as you can, aim at the e caheher' head and say hi to your pipitcng coach, okay?y? a dadayanan thoughtht would never happen. sasahi to the prosecutor.. karl rove submittingngo o eit hours of queuestnini from congngreioionainvestigators abt the u.s. attorney scandadal and there are evevenorore questions totoomome. an extreme satire, a t thi consecutive ninit t ahd of the revenge of davididetettean, the focus,s, wt t e's wearing in the interviews. these stories aheaead. >bubut first-time "coununtdn" best s "bebestererso in the wowod.d." dateline destinened orora, best alalia j johquincy adams. a n arrested for obstructingng traffic identififiedimimse as. and ouour stst whes to the sixth president, who h has b birday coming u uththisaturday when

hehe'lbe 242 years old. dateline mexico, n numr r tw best surprised thieveses. at least two men brorokentnto cell phone stotorehehe, cleaned off sesevel l elves of the memercndise, not even once ticing that even for cell l phones, those werere ptiticurly lightwtwghght. they were the hohoowow rlicas used foror t d dplays. the actual cell phonon a arever there near the c cas and dadatenene cil county, maryryla, , nuer one's best bad driver. jothan schultz of delaware pulled over for drdrundrdrivg without pants. ld the officer he had d lo them. though none wewe f fou in the car. and yes, they pullededimim or near rising g su m myland, in a 50-mile-an-hour zone whihile driving 69.

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governor of alabama, d sielman may have summed it up. karl rove is one of thoswh can lie under oath a take a e detector and pass it. our third story in the cotdown, rove testified under oath about the 2006 sh administration political purge of nine u.s. attorneys, warnin your tru mileage may varied. grilled for no lesthan eight hours by house judiciary committee lawyers about his ro in tse firings. after the deposition, rove's attorney issued this statement the agreement setting up the intervie contemplated that they would remain entirely confidentialntil a the intervws were complete out of reect for that term of the agreement, mr. rove is n commenting. respectful. it took him nearly two years to get him to comme to the investigors. rove was first subpoenaed byhe committee in 200 but the bush whithouse exerted ecutive privilege for rove. and then white house counsel harriet miers. after that only did rovealon the record

the firings began to takshape in 2005, witthen white house council myers, alberto gonzalez, and ky samson talking about replacing all 93 u.sattorns. when they figureout that that mighhave been too obvious, the trio allegedly settled un firing eight of the osecutors in 2006. but was rove that actually came up with the ide first myers ansampson, finally gonzal has resigned. rove has n been touched, possibly, that is until now. he's expecteto appear before the committee for a seco time before thend of the month. let's turn to the washington editor of "theation" magazine, chs hayes. good evening. >> good evening, keith. >> so which is this? is this the start ofomething big, or a postscript? >> i hope it the fmer, but i fear it'the latter. committeemen -- the chrman john conyers has shown an admirable fility to truth and accountability and ihink he's beenursuing this sort of quietly but zealsly in a way

that i hope bears someruit. but the fact othe matter is, we're going to actually open up the books and opeup the chatters in the stight years of what happened in this country, particularly arnd secrecy, arounthe sort of malfeasance, the department of justice, what happened to e national securitstate, inlligen, all that needs to be -- there has to be a broad political constituen f that. anthat's not what i see right now. particularly not in waington and certainly not among democratic leadership. >> and that goeso the point of what we began this news ho with, with the baking news about e cia report. and ere's a back and forth here about what leon panet said in a private briefingbo whicno one will tell us what it's about. and the six members of ts committee say theyere told that, yes, why, we at thcia, we misled yoand panetta says, no, i didn't say misd, i said, we just simply didn't brief u suffiently. anin exaly that nuance decide which side o be

believed and i presume there a parallel although we don't have any evidence of it yet, i uld assume there are parallels to that in t rove se and what he is going to testy and what people will ieret him ing, whether it is nefarious or potentily innocent. >> that'right. i think that's a reay od point. there's a certain amountf sort of political hdening around people's opinions of tse matts and they're disposed to feel one way or another. it's interesting, know, you rais petta and rove fit into this as well, being depposed today. i've bn doing research on the church committee bk in t 1970s. it really becomes evident that there was a realsome differenseors of the elite, of the establishment, of the beltway, politically, ere was a push for some real dragging ings out into the sunlight and having an actual process of reckoning withow we' going to manage this tension bween sortf secrecy and democracy. d as ahole, as a sort of major conceptual entprise, that's not bng undertaken. and john conyers deserves all

the credit in the world, but h is kind of a lone rrior this enterprise. and unless there's a broader consensus politically, i don't think we're going to get a wle lot out of this. >>nd if you studied the history of the cia, yon see that at asfrank church's efforts brought the country ten years, maybe 15 years rth of lative honesty out of organiza that had never been asked to provide any of that. back to roveere. cast o mories back there, the real motivation, the down the road payoff for e publicans, if the whole plan would have worked, if rove's plan wouldave worked was what? >> well, the most distaupic vision of itould have bn one in which the department wou have bn completely compromise in which the mechanism of the admistration of the osecutorial function of the american government wod be brought holewithin the purview the president of the ited states and his staff and the wod decide on a whim who to prosecute and when. and that would be utterly, utterly un-amerin and corrive to our entire system of justice.

at a more sort of banal level, wh's really interesting about these individu cases, and da iglesias, one of the men fired speaks to this,hese were in some ways ayoffs to local republican cronies. >> yep. >> so this was part of the influence, part othe payback to big wigs around the countryhat ka rove was managinfrom the white hous >> and alberto glez is going to have a w job, he's going to teach at texas tech university this begs the remier that texas tech is thple where bob ight went to coach basketball aer he shamed himself out of real jobs too >> it's really tooerfect, isn't it? berto gonzalez deserves to be cast o of polite society. and the same is ue of you and bybee anher people that participated in th and i hope that happens >>hat's john, you're not referring to me personally >> yeah. >> iay deserve to be cast t, but -- >> there are some fe tt way. >> you're t going to get the choice on doing th, hayes. chris yes of "the nation," always a pleasure.

said it to john and i said it to sarah, not cross david tterman. the revecontinues. tonight, about the waders. d when rachel joins you at the top of the hour, frank rh on the gop's disactions, the ones that nger and linger, including today's latest developments in the senator ensign soap opera. pl the laten that cia back and forth with the hse. and in "worsts,"enator inhofe calls the newest member of theenate a, quote, clown and then defd it's by saying, kind of looked like a own when i was talking to him. hey, senator inhofe, are y sure you want us to dgon whether notenators look likelowns? ororhahave night in with applebee'ss carside to go. the two for twenty menenu, only at apapplebee.

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on t submission fro a local polilitician. how on earth wouldhat matter whenoue talking about mining uranium from the e eth? chef's meal with pommmmes fritete perhaps nht at the theate wiwi extra special seats aitiol hotel nighthtour trat youur worlddn perfect harmononriceless ok for world on ur mastercard to get rewards d offers that matte you.

and the number one m mesgege on sarah palin's answeringng machine, hey, itit'sccccai who woululhahavehought you would rereti before i did. the revengnge d did letterman contininueanancontinuing. atat'sext. first, time fofor ououdown's" nunumb t twotory. toninit't's orst persons" in the rld, lebron's to putinin aththe website freeeem m wos, which put upup aososeviscerating several grps of workers, people thatat works s a aigr citigroup, or

gm o or e e partment of ucucatn, or, quotot t theou work at a company at uses lobbyists to s serer federal e ermarks your way or i you are that lobbyisis y you e the antithesis of thth nation's founding g wi t t source of the smilileyacac fascism which creeps f furerer into our liviv.. hehe's the punch line, freedomworks.com, paininngng lobbyists and peoplele aaiaig d a as e source as smiley-fafad ascism. ththe aiairm of freeded works.com is dick ararme the fofoerer hse majority ader and nowlobbyist. lobbyist for aig a andm.m. e e nner-up, senator jameses inhohofef f okhoma told the newspaper "the t tul w wor," quque, i'll tell you what t a t of people are thinking, , anthth is it looks like thinin a are going to be ovoverndnde're ining get the clown from minnesota. i i dot t ow the guy, but for a living h hisis alown. y younonowho was criritizezed r calling thenen nanator-elect a frfrann n clown. his latest defense, hehe sd d wh he saw fraraenen, ey embraced, anquque, believe me, he knewew,

he kind of looked d keke alown when i w wasalalng to him. we're e gog g judge it on lolook senator inhofe? alright, mr. nhofe, are you sure you d d't't nt to raisese that bar a little t? kind of looking like e a owow left? but our winner, statate nanato sylvia allll o of izona. another r lol l litico up from thranks to instant natioiol l stardom tonight. we join senator allelen t the tirement and rural devevopopme committee heararininintoossible ururiuium ning in arizona. >> i can't say enough h w w it time that we getet bonond d ararfocusing on the technonolo have and move forward intnto ththfufutu so that our grandchildren n cahaha the same listste we have and this earth's been here 6,00000 arars ani i kn i'm going on and on and i'll shut up -- - it b bn here 6,00000 yrsrslong before anybody had enviroroenentalaws, and sosomew w itasn't been done ay with. we need to get the uraum here in arizonao this state can get the money from it anthe

revenue fromt and it can be done sely and you'll never even know the mine was there when they're done. i am for this. >> i love this woman. even the infamous sh you usr, the 17th century irish clic calculated if literally correct, t bible ples thetart of the earth on octobe 23rd,004 b., but this is better than that. if you wanto believe the earth is 6,000 earth, despite the evidence of civilizatis 8,000 year ag in mess poe takenia, hae fun. don't make youelf look like the upidest person on the planet during a hearing abou digging up urani the way we knothworth is biions of years old because of the speed we can measure the radioactive decay of unium. of uranium! carbon dating. don't tellenator allen about that, though. yoknow what you're goingo get then. carbon dating? ld you what would happen i

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anyone can harp on one issue or one person day afr day. . but to do so and makit fresh each timand make it bull's-eye every night for days andeeks on end, thats genius. if you're sarah palin,hais , hell. well, the don quije of the klonke figures out her higr calling, david letterman figured out is is better than the 50i7z 0.

indianapoli500. well tonight, must have been the shoes. a briepreview of this evening's joke theme. rst, the second of what is three consecutive nigh. quipping after t nonsensical ch about his parent's refrigerator magnet palin we out on h porch and waved good-bye to russia. d before giving a sly nod to last month's manufactured brouhaha over a joke he told abouone of the govern's daughters, letterman suggesting the almost-ex-vernay want a futu athe next octomom. to which paul schaefer cracked, watch it, they're demonstrating ouide. all the dozen of them. and then the top ten list, managingo mock george w. bush, john mccain and himself, a stl maintain palin as punchline. >> the category tonight, t ten messages on sah palin's answering machine. i can't tell you how we did it, but weot ahold of her swering machine and herere the top ten ssages. friday, she announced shwould be stepping down as governor of alaska and would not see re-election. here we have now the topen messageseft er machine after that controversial announcement. number ten. hi, it'seorge w. bush.

why didn anyone tell me resigning was an option? number nine, it's john mccai why did i call? nuer e, mark sanford here. ever been to argentina? number seven. i'm calling from geicoo see if yowant to renew your dogsled insurance. numberix, it's letterman, we still cool? >> yeah. >> number five, mccain again stilno idea why i called. number four. hi, it's the dry cleaner, havg trouble getting caribou bld out of your prada jacket. numb three. hiit's sarah, whoops, dial my own number. number two, schwzenegger here, if you want a job, californi could e a new governor. and the number one message on sarah palin's answering machine. y, it's mccain, who would have thought you would tire before i did?

well, there yogo. >> we are surprised that the barragdoes continue tonight with most of the palin jokes about wh she was wearing duri that orgy of interviews yesterday, one about having nauty thoughts about her fishing wading boots. cutting out the middleman, david letterman reportedly immediatelapologizes in advance. joing us now, christian finnegan, who joins whenever uff this happens. odvening. >> gd evening to you. >> let start with whatever he did at the recording of tonight's sholate this afternooabout the waders. there ses be an implication to her here. you giveim material, any material, even what you're wearing, he will be able to n with this. >> well, y have to understand, after st month's kerfuffle, david letterman basicallhas an ownership stake in sarah palin comedy llc. used to belongo tina fey, now it david letterman. that'sery powerful. that's liksomebody handing you excalibur. johnny carson had n quayle, now lettermahas palin. i jimmy fallon put dibs on aho representative, walt minick, which seems like a bit of a reach. >> it's creative, at least.

letterman, ocourse, pounded john mccn for week upon week upon week after the senatoblew him off in octer of last year. and each night it waneand fresh. it was not outlaish. he didn't stray far from the origal base line of the first joke about suspendinthe campaign and n showing up. do we have any estime w long this could go on, cause there's no finish line to this the way there was with the election last year >> no, i think we n all put on some sweatpants and get comforble. because what's great about sarah pan is that e's ady done half the work for him. shs conditioned us to laugh at her. i mean, sayi the word sarah palin to a late-night ta show audience is like me saying the word cheese inront of my wife'shihuahua. mean's just, the ea pk up, it's like, what, what, sarah palin, oh, this is going to be go. >> is it remarkable to u, as it feels to me, th she has remained silent about this? no facebook missives, no tets. ishat g to last?

or is she going to have to come ba at her again? >> in her defense, she spent a few days tryg to pick out the rfect fishing waders that would lookood on "nbc nightly news." now that that completely organic d not at all staged set of inteiews is over with, she can take her criti head on. she's just install a l cross that s'soing to jump ont the slightest provocation and they he a stack of indignant press relees that are essentially justad libbed. okay, david letterman, oended, paul trunry, esko. >> waders. i don't mean to rrect you, but, by the way, that cross went up, that was built by thsame people that built thwasilla sports complex at'sn up for a while. i've got to get to the tweeting ing. she tweeted philosophical musings. act accordance do your conscious, then ampersand. that was one of them fm today. is this it ishis the higher calling? is this why she -- h she gone full-time into tweing? has she figured out how to me

a ofit off of this? i asked if she stole at o a snapple cap. you can't blame that on th twitter format. i counted and she had a lid 25 characters left to py with, unss sas doing us a favor and leaving room for whei had a hash taghat said, things stupid people say when they're trying to sound deep. >> it may have come off e series of stbucks cups and th was what was left off. read it on a starbucks cup down in liberal, new york. comedian christian fnegan. thanks for helping us analyze th the comedynd contributing to it. >> i do wh i can. >> that's countdown since the 2,260th day since thprevious president declared mission complished in iraq. i'm keith oermann. good nightnd good luck. anyone c hark the annals of the but the ld stor is all democratic. the news breaking tonit