>> we do worse every day. >> there it is. ank yo david. great sho >> that ds it. for tamronhall, i'mavid shuster. up next, "hardballstarts right now. >>it's the congress versus the ciagain. let's play "rdball." good evening. m lawrence o'donne sitting in for chris matthews i new york leg off tonight, the a and congress are at it again. house democrats are now charging the cia with misleadingmembers ofoness for eght years about a classified program beginning in 2001. now,s this confirmation of spker nancypelosi's much-ridiculed charge a cole months ago that the c isled her out waterboarding or is this somethinglse enty? we have th chairman ofhe house intelgence committee joining us in a moment to tell us what he thinks the cia is

really up to also, we ve late-breaking newsere at the political sex andal desk. late today we learned that the lawyer for john ensi, senator from nevada, ss at the senator's parents gave nearly $100,000 to ensign's mistrs and herfamily. pocal fallout for this and the republicans could be disastrous andthe "hardball" strategists are goingto debate exactly how e reblicans should be ndle this one. >>pls, who is the real sonia sotomayor? is she the racal lefty tha her critics want to portray or is she e ser, reful, moderate admiredy her supporters? we'll talk to soone who has just finished a study of her judicial ecord. also, president obama probably can't get back fr overseas fast enough. the gallup pl shows his latest numbers are still strong but they're slipng. we'll look a that in "the politics fix." nally, what does it mean to pull a palin?

the te is now official in the w line urbanctionary. we'll fi you in on whatit ans in th"hdball sidesh." but we begin, the charge by democratthat the cia has misl congress begins in 2001. congressman silver ter reyes of texas is the democrat chairman of the select inlligence commtee in the house of reprentatives, an texas republican congressman mack thornberry is also a member of thcommittee. mr. chairman, dcribe how w came to know in the lst 24 hours that there's an accusation going from youo the cia that you have been lied toabt a secret program for the last ght years. >> i ote a letr to ranking member peter hoekstra asking that we set ade the issuhat have been swirling arnd with the cntroversy of

who knew what when and thatwe focus onetting t authorizatiobill to the floor voted out so that we can go to the senate w we're to will be marki up next week. in the letter i mentioned that we have learned overthe course of the last few weeks, we have gotten more information on ortcomings i'll describe the that way that the ciaas not fully informedurmittee that alet in one instance w feel they have lied to e committee. >> your lettereems, as yo said, it uses the word lied. it's strger than just a phrasing like shtcomings. let's ta a look at it that u wrote to your republica colleagu the committee. you said like you, i was greatly concerned wi the notification the committee reived on june

24th, twi2009 from director panetta. this apparently is theadmission by panet that they ha a program you were notold about. you say this alongwith oth recent notification has brought light significant information on the inadequacy of reporting to the committee. these notifications have led m to conclude that this committee has be misled, has not been provided full and cple notifications, and in at least one ca was affirmatively lied to. now, mr. chairman, you make reference to oth instances beyond what leon panetta discussed with you rectly. in thaare you ying to specifically referto the ntroversy involving nancy pesi and whether or not she walied to about werboarding? >> i am not becse i was not there and have no idea what information s proved to the speake these are separat stances that the coittee has be awareof. >> coressman thornberry, what do you makef this? were you shocked by what leon

panea had to te the committee? >> what i make of i is this is more aboutolitic cover for the speaker than it is anything else. we get briefings regularly on issues and since i have en on the committee, there have always been issues about notifications, about when we're notied, how soon we' notified, how ful the notifation s, but what's unual in this case is that it was more thawo weeks ago when this brieng occurred and yet it w only two days ago just as the cia budgill is coming to e floor that all of this gets de public. >> congressman thorerry -- >> it looks like it'ore political. >> in your time on the committee has the cia director ever waed in there, sat down with you and told you have been misled about a program, a secret program f eight yea? is this the fit time tt's happed to you? >> i don't rber that

happing this time. we do get information about progra regularly, and part of our job iso ask more qutions and see should we haveeen notified about is? who knew about it? did this rise to a certain level? sohere's definitely questions that needo be asked a answered in thiscase, but that's vy different fr going out and sing the cia lied so the speaker must be right. that just is part of this polical bolstering of a speaker th got in trouble. >> so are you sang th your democratic colleague and chairman that we have on e ow rig now is misleading our audience aut what leon panetta revealed to this committee? you were there, the chairman was ther are you telling tt whatyou just hea your chairman say i not true? >> i hear what director panta said. heroht a matter to o attention that had not been brought to our attenti before. i don't know that it necessarily should have, and i certainly n't know that the committee was intentiolly lied to about

that matter. there e more questions to be asked, but i think those -- our homework needs to beone before we adopt a ready, shoot, aim sort of mentality. >> well, congreman thornberry, before i go back to the chrman, let me just read to you something i know youe read befo, which is the statute, the nationalecurity act, which specifies exactly what the cia must reveal tocongress. it says and has said inaw sie 1947, the cia shall ensure thathe congressional intelligence comttees are ke lly and currently informed of the intelligence activities of the united states, including any significant anticipated intelligence activity. so what it is saying is the cia mustnform you when they anticipate doing something. they musthennform you whe they are currently doing something, andhat leon panetta came in there andsaid,nd you

have just agreed that he said, that they were conducting a secret program that you were not told about for eight years. how ca you ok at that as anything but aviolation of the law we just read? >> number one, yo only read a portioof the law. there are a num of exceptions that are listed later. numb two, director panetta came and brought toour attention a matter that thought needed to be brought to our attention, and all of us appreciate that. that is very differentrom mping to a conclusion tha sa they violated th law or that they intentionally lied to congress. d theproblem here is that you row out that allegation, and nobody can back it up, and nobody can contradict it because it's alllaified information. that's partof the reason, as well athe timing, that this looks like it's more political than it is anythingelse. >> mr. chairman, tell your republican colleagueere what

it is, least conceptually, wh it is he should have been listeng to thaton panetta said that hasrovoked this reacon from your se of the committee. >> well, first of all, congressman thornbers a good ie of minend i am disappointed that he's trying to put apin on information that clearly all ofsn t committee heard, icludinthe ranking member who reacte much the way that all of us reacted to that informatn. like conessman ornberry, i can't saenough about what a stand-up guy dector panetta is becaushe brought this information to the committee probably less than 24 hours after he found outbout that, but th record is clear. we're in the process of evaluatinghat our next steps are into be. i am disappointed that can't seem to get beyond the potics, get the authorization bill o

the floo get it vot out, and get it conferenced with the senate that we can support the hard-working men and women of the -- both the central intelligence ancy an the othe 15gencies that are protecting our natiol security. >>gressman thornberry, if you andother republicans o were in that meeting are now saying that what will we're ally dealing with here is ju some democratic inspired political sp, are you sayin th the cia director, democrat leon panetta the cia director, came up to the use intellence committeeo feed th political spin? that heid not come upo give them serious and important information that they need to know, that t cia was legally obgad to deliver to tem? >> of course not. and let me pot out, director patta has reaffirmeds recently as within the past two

days that th cia does not lie and does not he a picy of lying. >> well, let me clari. he reaffird what the policy is. that like saying this what the speed limit is s t inteta intersta. is doesn't mean everybody servess every minute. >> when asked specifically about this issue -- a here is the point. yes, there are questions that need to be asked and answered. my problem is jumping to conclusions d making those conclusions publicus when t bill is coming to the floor in an efft to prevent other qutions from beingsked about the speake and that' what's troubli about this. >> let's goo thespeaker. let's listen to what speaker pelosi said about the cia back in may when sheas in her own back and forthut w told who what when. let's listen. >> i'm telling you that they talked about interrogations that they had donend said we want to use enhance techniques and we have legal opinions that say

they are okay. we are n using waterboding. that's the only mention, that they were not using it, and we now know tha earlier they were. so, yes, im sayinghathey are misleading, that the cia was misleading the congress. >> mr.chairman, the speake n takes her place among a long list of members of congres and the senate over decadeso have accused theia of isleading th in different situations. is what you're revealing this week in any sense sportive of whatspeaker pelosi said in that press confence? >> well, first, let me make two points the fi one is this is not about speakerelosi cause none of us were the and don't know what kind of iormation she got. this is about taking the bill to the floor. thiss -- my thinking w let's set ase tse political

issues. let's get the bill debated. let's get it votedon, and let's t ready to conference with the senate. it is not, at leastfrom my perspective, anying to do with thespeaker. >> and congressmanthornberry, i st wanting to back over to this point one more because u em to be minimizing the idea ofhat leon panetta brout to you. in your eerience on the intelligence committee,no cia rector has ever previously walkedn therand revealed to you that they were conducting a secret program for eight years that they weresupposed to inform you about and had not informed you about ashe law requires. u have never h that experience with a cia director's briefing befor in yr career on this committee, is that right? >> n there's a lot in your question tha i don't agree with. it is regularly the case that we getbriefings about things we did not know about, and we have

continued to he sues back anforth with the adnistraon about what we should have known abou and should he been notified about, and i think thosessues certainly need to be pured in this case. what is different here is some people e jumpingo con klu collusions at politically opportune me rather than geing down in the w and finding out whether we should ve been notified and exactly when what happened where. >> so on the final word on th one today, congressman ornberry, youpparently agree with your chairman that whathe cia did in this case as described by leon panetta should be investigated b your committee. >> of course we shuld, and we should do that bere we start sending out letters the press d making a lot of public stements about it. >> all rit. ank you, chairman reyes and congressman mac thornberry. coming up a lawyer for john

ensi says his parents gave arly $10,000 tohis mistress and her parents. n senator ensign survive this scandal? we'll get into it withour strategists. faucet filter. - ( plinks ) brita-- betterater. less waste yohaveuestions. who can giveouhe financial advice y nee where will you f find the stability and resosourcs to keep you u aheaof this rapidly evololvingld? ese are tough questions. that'whwe brought together two of e most powewerful namam in the industry. introducing morgan statanley ith barney. here to rethinkk weth management.

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ome backo "hardball." publican senator john ensign of nevada who admitted to an extramarital affair a couple of weeks ago, today admitshat his parents gave nearly $100,000 to his mistress and her family. how can republicanseep these emrrassing epsodes, these mounting republican se scandals, from hurting the party anymore thanit already has? and howshould the deats react? for that we bring i the

strategist democrat steve mcmahon and republican todd hais. now, steve, i' going to sta th you today becaus i thin i ow your answer. you can get out othe way quickly and let todd fen for himself. >> forhe rest of the segment. >> whathould theemocrats do in aituation like ts, and my guess is you'rgoing to say ey should sit back and watch. ahead, please. >>yes, it w the great lee at water whonce said when your opponents are self-destructi, the best thingo do is get out of the way. i think that would bthe best advice for democrat get out of the way a eoy the spectacle because at's really what it is here, a spectacle. it's too bad for these people's family, but it's great televisi an probably great rangs. >> a rigsteve, get out of the way and enjoy the spectac. let todd sweat here. we've got now this letter from nator ensign's attorney tha haven're yet that's jt being put in frontf us. senator ensign's attorney put out a statement today that reads in part, april 2008 senator

john ensign's parents each made gifts to doug hampton, cindy hampton an two of their children in the rm of a check totay $96,000. each gift waimited to $12,000. thpayments were made as gts, accepted as gifts, and complied th taxules governinggifts. after the senator told his rents about the affair, his parent decided to make the gifts out ofoncernfor the welleing of long-time family friends during a diffilt tim the gis are consistent with pattern of generosity b t ensign family to the hamptons and hers. oh, boy. todd, where do you ys go from here? d let me just point out for the audice, $12,000 is t irs limion nontaxablegifts. if he gave $13,000, there wou

$12,000. on the $1,000 above the so$1200 was a ve cefully picked number. they're called gifts by the lawyer. ere are ways of looking at the worlin which those cou be caed bribes. am i being too cynical about that? >> well, yeah, i thk we're going to learn a lot more in the coming maybe even hours, certainly days a weeks. i think therere two issues here. the first is the handling of all of this, and senat ensign and the peopleround him broke obably the two most important cardinal rules of dealing wi cris communications. the first one is get all of the bad stuff ou the in one ns cycle. they should have included ts formn when h first made this disclosure. obviously,eople were aware of it. th should have saidll of this up front, hrie news cycle is much beer than a drip, drip of several really bad

cycl cyes. and the second rulth broke is wn you violate rule number one and you have more bad information to dump t, do it on a day when the world attention is sowher else. they should have slipped this out when everyone was tryng to gure out where the hell mark sanford was, whethe he was in the aalac mountains, a ried the story. ey didn't do any of that. nowhat they've got is a story of their own, headlinesf their own, and the short answer to your question is,yes, this is, of course, a cntinued problem for the republic party, and the thing that's so frustrati about this for met least is that it's comg just at the time when wes republicans were really starting to make some action with some of ourue contrasts with the obama administrationwhether it's their wteful spending,assive increase of government, vernment takeover of the hethare system. were making real progress challenging the administtion on all of these policies and w this is going tothrow erhing, at least for a day or two, everytng off track.

>> now, todd -- goahead, ste. you wanto jump in here? >> there's actually a ru that ddorgot tomention. that's don't breakhe law. don't break e law. >> we don't know about that. >> it'a rule that mos -- >> well, we do knowabout that, to, bee this -- t $25,000 of severance moneyhich wasn't severan money, by the way. severance money is what you ge anmployee when y lay them off. not money you ve your mistress to stay quie and the gift money, the irs has a specific definion of what a gift is, d it say that you expect thg in rern and you goto consideration in exchange. and what these ople clearly expected in return was silence. they wanted to quell a political scandal an it wasn't a ft, it was a payoff. it was a ibe, and it was illegal, and that's the one ing that they didthat's the most serious thi in my opinion. >> sve, i like th you're sitting back and relaxing and letting the publicans sink on this by themselv and not-- >> ty're sinking on their wn. >> i like you' not doing any homerk like looking at the tax de to fan the fmes of what's

going on here. taking a closek at the tax code an i did. >> i just remember it fr tax class in law school. that's all. >> so we've got a cumulate effect here, todd. we've got sanford, you know, and we've got ensign, and it seem likeanford may have survived in south to send a preie clear signal that the partyoesn't stand for th kind of behavior. now, justo be clear he, thare horable egregious sex

scandals on both sides of the aie -- >> not this week andot last week. >> right, t this week, but, you know, the sign scandal mirrors almost perfecy what gavin newom did. he's now the front-runner to be the democrati nominee for governor of california, d an affair with e wife of one of his staffers it's the exact same thin >> did his parents pay 00,000 to keep r quiet? >> i think mor newsom could prably afford to pay the himsf. no one party has a monopoly on this kind of behavior. you know, i'm n going to ke any excuses for it, and, ys, frkl it doesopen the republican pty up to charg of hypocrisy. i'm not going to deny that. as a republican and asomeone runs caais for a living, it's very frustrating for me. >> look, democrats a steve and when they feel like it are goi to be calling this hush money. i don't see how you c call it anythingelse. there's just no cnceivable finition of what this money is

other than hus money. how does senator ensign contin? how does he, forexample, try to raise money to keep himselfin office when we alrea know this is whate's doing with his senate paoll. he's ing itor hushoney in rtain situations. he has to ask the parents to help h out with the mistress. ensign gets to go forwdrom here. tell me how he can do it. how do you recommend for h to go assuming we now ow everything, icis a very big assumption in the eign case. but les just assumeor now, todd, this is it, nothinglse is comingout. how does enign get from here to hi next election? >>well, he got to lay low for a while. i would focuson day-to-day constituent work of being a ited states senator, get out of the spotlight. pray andope to god there are no moreevelations because that would be rlly crippling.

but, you kno if you rewind a y, a lot of people wereaying looks ke ensign got through is bse hadt heard anything new. so now there's this huge new bombshell which they shoulhave taken caref a few weeks ag whenhis first ce . i tnk ifhere's nothing new, th is nevada, voters are faly libertarian, y know. it's home of las vegas, what happens in vegas stays in vegas. they're very understanding, nevada voers, but ey have got to ctain thi >> eve, quick one w answer, good idea for the demoats to bring this into the senate ethics committee to che out what ensign w up to with his sete payroll? good idea for t democrats to do that, yes or no? >> i'm not sure they'reoing to have a choice because someone is going to fe a complai and it's going to d up there. >> all right, stau sve mcmahon anto harris. up nex wondering what it means to pull a palin? it's one of the newest entries in the online urban diconary and we'll tell what yoit ans next in the "seshow." you're watching "hardball" on on msnbc.

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> welcome back to "hardball." we have breaking news from chicago. appointed illinois senator roland burris who to president ama's seat in the united states senate, has announced that he has decided not to seek election to that seat next year in 2010. thchicago sun times is reporting buis willannounce his decision tomorw. we'll ve more l in the hour. time now for the "sideshow. first up, presintial gifts at the g-8 sit are not as diplomatic as you might expect. consider brazil's gift to esident obama. lastonth the american soccer team was on the v ver of a major upsese up 2-0 at lftime ainst the brazilians. t the u.s. endedwith a touou 3-3-2 loss. so fast foforwdd too this morni, bro zil's presidenent gave bar oboba a big brazaziaian scece jersey sieded by thehentire

teamam. according g tohehe ppredent's spokesman obama leftft ee meetig vowing gooddaturedly that thehe amicican would n lose a 2-0 lead again. nee up, how this f foa quick k turnarouound urn dictionary, whi is hipper than wwster's, has already got entryy referencing governor sarah palinin'strange annonouncentntast week thatt she's resigning.g. they're using t phrase "pulling a palin." here are the ffinions. e, quitting whenen theoioi ge tough.. two,o, abandoning the reononbility erusted to you byour neighbors for book advances and t t make money on thlecture ciui mber three, birr move that will damn ammtitionfor higher ofce. there'e'sasarapalin making her mark in political and lingisiss tata history.. up next, confnfirtiti heheargs for p psiside obama's prpre court nominee sonia sotomayor begin monday,, and a new report has aot to say abtt e kind of judgege sotomayor hasseeeen and p probl ll be.

we'll talk to the rert's author and what means foror her confirirmati n nt. yorereching "hardball" only on msnbc. kind of consnsider mylf a robinhood of the directing world. buick enclave the fines luxury crosveever. i need some zen n time th this model ththank you.

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call or click today. we are mirlele whip and wprogress. i'i' hamptonon pearsonon wih your cnbc market wrap. ocks edging highehe today wiwi investors momovi o o of health care and retail intotoanking and commodities. the dow jones industrialslsdded 44 points. ths&p added 3 3 and the nasdaq sup 5 poinin.. futures spiked thihisororni on a much betterrthan expecteded job rerert. initiaial aiaims plunging byby 52,000 last week, butenenusiasm was s teereredy the numberr of cocontuiui claimims. record high 6.8 mimilln. thth b bgest dragn the dow coming from pharmaceuticals.s. america downwn 5.8% on c ccern ababoua a w s stu of its

ololterol drug inin p puon ho.. izizerown 2%2% afterrososina patent tte. >> dd wararnn buffett chimemn t the stimulul debatete tayay saying unemplplmement could rea 1111% dd a secondnd stimulus package may bebe needed. > that's it f from ccc, first in business worldwdwe.e. now back to "hardbdbal welcome b bkk to "hardball." confirmamaonon hrings for siaia sotomayor kickck off monday in e senate judiciaiary commitite,e, reblblans are maaki s som noises about unting r risistae even iff ththeyavave nochchan o stopping her from joinini the susueme court. here is senatee republican leadr tchmcconnell oday. >> all of us are impressed by her markable life story.

it reffirms not on to americans but to people around the world thhaturur is a country in w whi oone w wlilingss to dream anand to wrk hard remain ththe ly requirements for success. ananyeyet 's p pcisely the tutuh about amereraa tt makes it so important thth our judges apply the law w ee same way to one individual or grgrous to everer other. this is why we've raised thehe questitis s weave, and this is why we will l coininueo raise th as the confirmatioionn hearinings for juudgee sotomayo oceed. >> m monnell and othther repupuicicanhave questions about whether sotomayoyor what they call an aivivis judge. thebrbrnan center for justice at ny law schooll released a port today on judgege totomar's record. 're joined d w w byhe author ofhaha report,t, attttneney mona eunene. monica, the brennann center is named after justice brennan from the suprememe crt, and you have dodo an analysis based

exexususivy on her judicial appointments. you did not includen this analysis thingngs keke her puic speeches or remarkss m off the cu in qutiti and a ansrr sisituioio, but just her jujudialal opopinns. >> exaxalyly. we were not jujustlooking at th opinioionshehe authoredd but ata cacasenn which she was part of the panel or en banc m mking th cicions. >> e evengng othe apeals court they will have opions wrwritnn by threejujudg o o lgeger groups of judgess dependingng o on whee case is. some of them arere a autrere by sosoa a somayor, some of thehe are thingsgshher she'sjujust sasayi i agreeith judge catsman whwho ototthis opinion, right? y. and a lotofof tm it's hard t to llllho wrote the opinion because ththee opinion is uigne. >> and how does it line upup does her n nam s shoup only on the side where democratatic apapintees to that court a are agagrengng wh themselves or iss she evever finding herself inn

agreement with republilin n appointees to thatat court. >> what we found,d, andd w look at almost 1,200 cases, we looked at evevery constitutional decisn of t second circuit over the past ten years that she habeen sittg on the court, and what we found was striking unanimity d striking bipartan consensus. seeudge stomayor basically writing- joining unanous decisions. her decisions are unanimous 94% of the time. >> l's go back over that for a second. on a court that is composed of both docrat and rublican appointees to that court -- >> yes. >> all confirmed by the united states senate, her onions are unanimous what pernt of the time? >> n just her pinion her decisions ingeneral. when judge sotomors on a panel, we are seeing a 98% unanimity rate now, the second circuit i should point ou -- >> s if you pick one of these cases and you're saying sotomayor was reay flakey on

this decision, you're saying that aboutvery other dge wh join that decision. >> xaly. now, i should point o tha the second circuit has a repution for being a court that really privileges consensus. they are a cou that's about evenly split between democratic appointees and republican appointees, and yo see an overall 93% unanimity rate for the circt as opposed to a 4% tefor judge sotomay. i think i may have misspon earlier. she's in the majority 98% of th time she's unanimous 94% of the time. >> let's take a look at the basi conclusion of your report. here is what it says. the conclusion is unmistakable based on the data in constitution cases, judge sotomayor's record places her uarely in the mainstream of e second circuit. what do you mean there by cotitutional ases? >> well, we weren't, unfortunately, able toook at

every decision the snd ciuihas made over the past ten years. th would have been tens of thousands of cas as opposed to the 1,200 at we were able to reviewn advance of t hearing. but we thought tha we would focus on cases in which a constitutional issue w raised, whether thate a rst amendmenclaim a civil rights claim, criminal cases in which a due process, you know violation is ged, that sortf thing. >> and just sohe audience understand in the federal cot system there can be plenty of trivi cse that is can make it up to that level. i an a postal wrker accused oftealing stamps on some procedural motion can end up i onef these cas, and that's not the kind 6 thiof tng that you're goi to look at to evaluate someone's fitness for the united states sueme court. that's w you're zeroing in on e so-called constitutional case. people can race constitutional claims in less important cases as well as more

important ses, bt the ason we wanted toocus on constitutional cases is constitutional cases are the cases in which our federal judges have the most powe they canctually strike down e action or, you ow, a statut passed by a gislature or an action of anoer vernmental official an say that that action was unconstitutional. yore not allowed to do it again. >> let me go to one thing, al franken hajust joid the judiciary committe the first tie're going to see him as a senator wi be when he's participating in these hearings starting monday. he is not a lawyer. he's one of now three ople on thejudiciary people who never went to lw school. howo you feel as law school graduate, a lawyer, a judicia expert doing this nd of work, how do you feelboutrusting the evaluation of supreme court nonees to people who don't have professional legal traini? >> you know, one thing i think outhat is tht, you know, the w applies to everyone, to lawyers and nonlawyersike,

antoo oftenjudges get caught up in this conce of law, and theye not thiing about the way in which a law plays out in the re world. they're not tnking that there are peopleho ha to live by this. there e people whose decisions in terms of certainty,in terms of whether their actn is going to be consideredllegal or not, need to know how to behave,and i think that it's valuable to have voicesof people o the committee who are not just people who are legally trained. >> all right. we'rgoing to leave it ther for today. thyou monica you up next, senator roland burris of iinois who ok barack obama's seat in the united stat senate says he will no seeklection to that seat nex year. whatoes that mean for the democrats? that's next in "the poti fix." this is "hardball" onlnlon msnbc. apebee's 2 for $20.

it's refreshed, and ready for summer. choose one appppizer antwo entrees for just0 0 cks. 2 for $20.0. it's real food at e right price, and it's only atpplebee's. it's a whole new neighborhood. but did you know youou also ge hotel price assunce? it's a o o-two pch of savings -- po pow! lower hotel bobooking fe mean you get lower total price. plus, ififnother orbitz customer then books the same holl for less, we send yoyou a eck for ththe ffffence, automatically. coming up, ck to ourlead story, the accusation by house democrats that the cia has led congress beginning in 2001. is this validation of nancy

pelo's charge rlier this year that got so much political heat or is it just politil sturing by the democrats? ardball" returns with he politics fixnext. ( ( ower whirring )

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deaf, hard-of-hearing andd people with speech disisabilite access wwwww.sprintray.com. we're back, a it's time forthe politics fix." th pulitzer prize winner eugene robins of the "washington postand "newswee "newsweek's"michael isikoff. eugene, roland burrisas made the decion he's not goingo try to hang ontohat seat that d blojevich gave m when mae no one else would take it. seems to have recently survivedhe illinois

legislature's investigati of sorts in whether there wa any kind of buyingnd payg fo that and any kind of promises about fund-rsing. howo you read this athis poi point, eugene? it's a 71-year-olduy who certainly looked like en he arrived there was going to have so fun and filling out this cade of his life there loed like somethinge wanted to do. but today he's given up. >> ah, rola, we hardly knew you. thiss not -- you know, this was never goingo wor out very well for rand burris given the way he arrived in the senate, and suspect some frnds -- i ho so friends had the vious foresight to te him that. you know, when you' appointed by rodlagojevichhe nobody else will take the job, you kn, you're not going to have a very smooth ride, and apparently he was -- i he had thought about tryingo go for a term in

his own right, h wasn't able to ise any money. you know, this a huge mess for mess for the docratic party basically. this should have beea fairly easy tnsaction. obama gets lected, democratic governor names a democratic replacement o can hold the seat when it comes up i 2010. that's a fairly elementary tng to do in politics. ye they managed to bule this one quitebadly. >>michael, blagojevich's pointment in burris in the first place was a real defiance of patrick fitzgerald, the prosutor's whose work you know well, s prosecuting blagevich on his conduct in office. d seeing roland burrisind of op out at this point do you sense a possibilityhere of another shoe dropping in ts from the fzgerald side of this story? he, you know, burris mayave suived his question and answer

period witthlinois legislature, but you know the way patrick fitzgald just stays at these things. >> eah, well, look, it's hard to know. thers bn no hin from fitzgerald's office in any of the filings that poin to burris. but it is worth mentning that investigation, the one that le to blagojevich's indictment and upcomi trial is ongoing. just yesterday, blagojevh's former chief of staff, john harris, pled guilty and became cooperating witness with the feds. there are still shso drop in th overall stigation. and etr or not they were going to point toriminal chges against burris,here's no question th were bris to y to run for reelection, the ole blagojevich investigation and upcoming trial and l its many tentacles were going to continue to be in e illinois

press d would continue to dog himoughout any campaign he tried to run. i thk he was a doomed candidacy from the get go. the only surprise is th it's taken him th long toealize that and make the announcement that he's not going to run. >> mike, you studi fitzgerald ely in the scooter libby case and you got a feel for the way t guy work. we're ver goingo know this. but don't you have to think today patrick fzgerald is glad to know that the guy rod blagojevich apped is not going to be a senator as of two years from now? >> i'm not sure h thinks muc about things like at. i think knowing fitzgerald, he's pretty focussed guy. he's probably singularly focued r now on making sure his -- the blagojevich gets convictedin the upcomi trial. slipping a f more witnesses. the are a lot of, you know,

shoes to drop in that investigatn. things that ha yet to come out. i would remind you tt, you know, one key witness against blagojevich as the coconspirato named to resco, close sociate of barack ama's. we have yet to learn exactly what he has told the feds. there'going to be lot of continued interest in at investigation. >> a we're going to stay on it we'll be back withugene robion and michael isikoff. you're watching "hardball" only on msnbc. welme to the now network.k. pulation 49 million.

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>>we're backith the washington pt eugene robinson and michael isikoff. michael, the cia versus congress broke out again asn argument about who's telli who the truth. there's a longradition here. democrats and republicans in t use and the senate accusin the cia at different times of lyg to them. barry goldwater, one the hero republicans of all timeccused the ciaf lying to him about the miningf the harbors in nicaraa. what do you ma of this latest round of this? >> well, there' a couple of intesting developments. first of al the letter that was sent by the house democrats was pretty startlingin its language. it saithat the cia had conceale significant actions from congress and led members going back from 2001 unl las

month. now, there's undouedly a politicacontext to this. speaker pelosi was und fire fr the republicanwhen she said theia had misledher a couple mohs ago, republicans sai they were shked that the speaker would be tarnishing the presentations of hard-working professionals at the agen, and so, i think the democrats saw thconcession byon panetta when he came forrd with this as the smoking gun proving that pelosias in the clear. whether it reallyadds up to that's hard to say at this point. although we did rport this afternoon, my colleag and i on newsweek.com that panetta has ordered an internal inqry into why ts information about this specified covert program was t provid tocongress earlier. that's an plicit concession at this is information that the congress should've kno about.

>> eugene binson, the democrats are insting that they're not doing this, not talkg about this to y to help nancy pelosi, butarly they are. is itoing to work? is it going to help her with her controversy on the c? >> i think it may helper somewhat. if you just -- if i were left here where it is now, she would be able to point and say,ou kn, see i told you, ts is the sort of thingthey do. but as you mentioned, you know, th is nothe first time that the hill or thatpeople on the hill have pointed the ciand saidou lied to us, you didn't tells something you should have told us. what i'm curious abo and i think everybody is, okay, at was it? given what we kw about things thatere done during the bush-cheney years, especially under th interests of the cia, it would be -- >> eugene, we're going to have to leave it the for to michael isikoff is going to have find outat