hurt, then that's anototr r dawe actually won. > thprpresent kissesththe ring. les play "hardball." od evening. i'm laenenceel sitting in f fo chchss mmatths.s. leleadg g oftonight, the poe,e, the prpresenent d americicss catholics. when president obama had a meing with popeben gtgt it ememedhe pope could view president obamama more favavora than m mostt c cththols in the ununed states. llll day's meengng with the hope help imimovove the

prprident's standndin wth some coerertive catholicsnd condemn his portioion o abortio? wewe'ldebate that one in a a moment. and here at the polilitill sex scandal deseskearned the shockingee yeststery that reblblic nevada senenoror johnn enson'ss parents shoveleded$96,0 in hush monene t to his mmisese. c coue, enson's wyer admits h havan act of generositity. you can be the judge wh we lk to the danan jo rosthen n who der viewewed t mimistss's husband. us, petty in h his own viview a fascinatiting documentary abo edwinnkennedy.. we'll talk to onene of t the prprucucer about theeeply peonal and inmama look o tete knedy fromom cldldho to lion of the senate. >> also totoghght,evi johnstn says he has a pretty good idea whyy sahah palin decided to qu, and itasas not to go to do with

fifighti f f asask >> d sometimes a a p pture i woworta a thsands smirkrk like th one, for instancece. but when you seeeehe actual deo of the intans, y you may chge your mind abouthhat you ththk is going onhere. we'll show it to you the the slideshow.w. but first, ththe presisint memeetththe osost. mr. hudson is the didireoror of nward christianan soldiers." andd al, it looked likike a very friendly mtiti atheheatatic today. u didn't get any feeling the sort thahatououot fromome the protottotorst notre dadam for example, w wenen the presid was invited t to speak the. hohow di yread t? >> yeah, i t thit was a good day fofor prididt obama. i think k w was good day for pope ben districic benedict.t. i think it reaffirmed thth stats

ququthat obama anan benedict hae thinings in common thh benedic dididn have i common n wi president ush. at theheamame me, the pope took the occacasi to eseshehessue ofof abortion a a bbiohics and e left president obama with a document called "the e diitity ththe man persrson" to olilinee ysician of thehuhuh on those issues, , but it was a cordial evevt and it lkeked good for obama. i i thk it was a good day for m.m. >> e.j.,ou and veal have hadad personaluudices with the pope, nothihisope but prrevio popes. tell us what that is like. you walk into vaticican cyynd yowoworkour way up t the chamber w whe y are going t meme the pope. you know, covereded thehe tican for "the new york k tis"s" back in the 1980s. acactuly, i wrote a a lot thene aboutt cdidil rainger, now pope bedidict, but i i ended u p writing g a tt on thejourneys. ththerwas one private audience th i arrangeded with rososththal

there's anan extraoaordarar feeg asou are walking acrososss st. petetes s square, ioold ""e times" iad a lot common with them because wewe workedor the twooininitutions that clclmed ininflibility. i i woullili to say thh it didn't lit. he t tkk iererioly forboth. >> i'm sure, e.j.j. u weren't surprised to seeee tsstreatment. this is a nmama treatment of f the pope by amerirican presiden. was there anytythingnn ithat you noticed thawawa new or differeneninin ts iitance? >> well, i t tnknkhat is ststring is that t the really is a disjunctionn bwewe the attitude t t vatican andththe popope tarar esesidt obamam and thettttite of our conservative ththol friendsho are d dngng theeemonstrating and complainining abtt nrere dame. obviously,y, theopopand esesidt obama disagree o abortion, but t ee vatican l lk

atat president o obaa as veal susuested as a potentiall allie a a lot of ises. thee themimidd east in largrgely eeame waway. they a are bthth inrerestit islam.m. the pope gave t president twowo documents todaday. one was o on he chchur's positin on the lifife ises. ththe her was h his verery,ery progogreivivnd clilil on the economy. you read that, u wllllee the popopes s to obama's left economic queuestio at was the quinn a yang of thee polititicall and philoloso thinking. e crch is to the right o o the issues of conservativism.. >> the church isith obama o o the issue oflife,hehe d dthth pepenay.y. president presesenent sh was on thee ereme.

yoyou ow there's a disagreement between the pope a a conservavaveveatholics on abortion, but ththe'e's another agagreemt t at people tendoo ignore, which is alslso life issue. well, thahat' animimpoant isissu of c crsrse, the church sn't cocomptely ooutlad d e death penanay,y, ayou well kn,,t is ill ptentially possiblblbubu not p prtitica in a vivilid cicietith the kind o of penal sysysteme e ve. >> butut jt to clarify t point for ourauaudice, th previously pope f freenentl iueue personal pls to governorush to not end an individual's lifefe. those e eaeas were ignored by gornor bush. nobody a asotre dame thohohtht ththat w reputable when president bush showed d upthere. >> what's unny is when i went toto the notre dame s seeeech prpresidt t sh gave at ttt rtrticar commencncemen was veryry interestinin beuse th ststudt boboave presidentnt bush pepeat stdidi ovovatns. en you looked t taculty

ofof notre dae,e, a thirdrdf th refused t to budge at l.l. t it is brezing whate.j. was sasayi about t thcon transbsbweweenonservative catholics roroteing at notre dadameand the s senf cordiality en the president andnd t h hol fafaer. both suauatis arentntiry apapprriate. therershshou be cordiality dd good dlomatic relatitions between thee h ho father and th prpresidttf the united statates d d itsntntely apppproiaiate that somomamameran catholics wewereupset that ee woldld's leading cathololic u uversity w nonong a p prededent who is arabab a pro-choice/pro-abortrtion president againsnst e e ve mandates in aocument written by the united ststat bihops. i i dot think those protests we inappropriate at all. >> nnow you know, i i havee kept using the phrarase conserervave catholics hehere bauau one of ththe iningshat botrsrse is somebody bornrn into a can l lo schi a a livesinin the c catlic

commununy y thr whole lilife th rd caolol gets thrhrownnround to incnclu a anydy btized in the e roma c cholic church. there are dical catholics andnd conservative catholics and thhey have different opinionons. let's take a lo,,et's coconser current polling, f for examame,e, ang c catlics in the ited states on president obamam right now obama iss polling amog ththols at 5 the%, 54%4% i'm soy,y,hese are e exitt p pl from t t election. obama, 54ccain, 4 what tat ans is as fafar as i i can see, ththols noo longerr function as anan interesting g p olling beususe they havav beved and behave identiticallyly to the whole.e. the whole voted 53%.%. the caolics were slightly m mor at 54%.

whwhathis is, e.j., we are tatalkg about a g grpphahat represents thehe titire population. the way i like tput itit is ere's no caolic vote a that it is importrtt.t. by whihich mean thatreally among c choholi it is very hard for ananyyepublican to getless ththan how% o of ee vote, 40% o the vote. it is hard foror the democrcrat geget at isless than 4040oo 45% of thehe te. it has moved aroundnd consididey from electionno eleioio but your underlying p poi i think right, catatlilics likemericans ara a ve diverse group. therarara lot o titino tholics, there are a lot of -- 10% ofatholics are riricaamerican. eyey dtend tomirror the elect rarat a whole, butf ianan go ck to one poin ththmy collguguveal made, i i tnknk thatatouou rlly haveoo say ttt ereric catholic conservatives acted in a w way that i i d't

think ththe va cat wawas entire hahappy with. they arere tre t tdo that and cn protesest ashehent, but the vatican was worrieddhhat they sent a parartinn signgn,, they dot t nt the churchch to be partisan. think conservrvativ catholics want to a aueuethat a artion is the ononee and o onl issue a t want to playy down n somef f es otr r questions, includining economics. ani i thk when you s s what thope did totod, he was saying, yeyehose lilife issues tter, but so dothth other issues. i jus wrote a ,000-word incyclical on. not that abortion i is importan ororunimportata,, but howoo you weh these issuesndnd include the rich social teachings thaha allofof us atat are catholic hae been taught. >> that's going to beehehe last word onont dd. wawanto ththank you thth. deal h hson and e.j.j.ononne ming up, ee s satator admitted

his parentsts gave his m mireres $96,00000. he says itit i all kay, it t is alall lel. ss criticics sat amountsts to hush m money is enson's jobob in jejeardy? 'll taalk to t the dean john ropson. yoare watching "hardball." we've made a great p product even better. now everery drop of shell gasolines... ontain a nitn-riched aninsystem... that seeks and destysys engine gunk.. left byy lower-quality gasoso. it protectsts engin from performamance-robbg gunk. try new nitrogen-enriche shell gasolines.

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last year i had and affair. violated the vows ofy marria. it is absolutel the wot thing i have ever dopen my life. >> welcome bac to "hardball." nevada senatorjohn ensign admitted to having an affair last monthbut that was not t end of it. yestday we leard ensign's parents pa $100,000 to his mistress and her fami. what's next? john rostn is here and chri covers politics for "the

shington post." hn wan, today youad an interview with the husband of the woman senator opensign had anffair wi, right >> yes. on the progr doug hampton alleged jn sign paidhis wife morehan $25,000 that triggerethe crew to file the etcs complaint against him to ask r a criminal investigatn. they put out th statement to try to take away any legal questions. he got plenty o political and ybe in his mindral questions, b they tried to take t legal questions away. >> who was asked for t criminal investigatn? >> the ethicsomplaint was filed agains him withat the timics comssion and the fec complaint, i bieve. theyearn of the hamptons allegations of more than $a,000 triggering criminavlenc

they are goingo ve for a criminal investigation. >> think we have a clip of your interview toda that is cued up and ready tgo here with doug. what is his name? >> doug hampton. >> doug hampton. let's listenor that. >> he told me, basically at t sametime, he said, i'm love withour wife. yo can't work for me anymore. we we employees not fired but orchestrated out. you have a powerfulan that chged our employment life forever. >> why is he going public with this persona faly tragedy like that and getting on tv with you and taing about it this way? >> i guess onlye really knows that. i thinpart of the otivation, certainly, he wants make up he doewant money. he wants more money than he got from mike and sharon ensi. apparently, the money had an expiration dae. the believ john endown ensign

ruined his life. he has asked for millions and been buffed. he wants to put push pressure on si or to g financial payment for what he's goi through. he is desperate financial stras from at we know. i don't know ofny more motivation than that and, frankly, reven. >> there's mre from your extraordinary terview where he discusses why his theoryas to why john ensign was the first to come out publicly about this t control of the story.et let's listen to what he told you about that. >> how did find out about thisdo you think,go out d do this proactively? >> i generally solicited fox's help because i really believe they are very re >> how did he find out to get out in front of i >> one of the crespondents that i a part of fox news is

rick ntorum. aa close friend of opensign's'. >> cocorctct. i begged him and tdd him to tell me befefor obobvisly, in my. i could b bewrong, bi would say this is whahat supposedly hahaened. >> h he ididox nene had the sty. john enengngnwawas pped off fox ne had the story b b a fox ememoyoyeeof rrts rick santorum, aormer sesenarr from nnsylvania. ththenohn ensign eses to tell the world hee h anaffair. chris, thihiisis gng to the etetcscs cmittee in the senate,, isn't it? there's no wayay t to head off invevestatatn, is there? >> i don't think so. let fst of all comomme my friend becauau b befe h he sat down with ththisonon iintviview broken into two parar,his story had haharnlyly largelyly away. we heard the t talkk of mama u being ininlvlvedut to be nest, as popoer, i was nonot ale to

geget s s kuddos to john, but this c comicices john sisi's political career drastically. an affair i i one thng, as we have l leaeded my tiisn popolics, and i believe if i was just thehe afir, john ensign was certrtaiyy suivive. i thininitit i more owow i hahaveototte out of the predictiting of signation business. you never know how thingsgs pla ouout politics, but this i is aded toward, if nonotlegal, a lel ococeeng. it is headaded to a deeper dig n a look i in t finances. that'sprprobmatic for senanato ensign. > i seemsslilike nevadaisis derstanding of thisis kind off thing thanan wasashitoton,.c. i. if it were upp t t the voters nevada, whatwould theyikik ensign to do next? are you s sining are an undersrstainintype in neneva? >> hhn, you c canee runnnnin

ee what happens in gastays vegas commemerclsls a expect us to not take tmm seserisly. >> listen, i undersrstahat feinin it is interesting,bebecae i i have heard p popople say neneva are g goi to forgiv j joh endownsign. erere'evidence people arere mad wi dougampton scene ey what he'sdoing is rse t tha what johnnensigign,which,, i think, iss lahahae. buthere ispopollg evidence that pveves that john ensign is plunungi i i polarity. i thinink people, as c cisis sa would forgiveveanan affair, bu theyey dot forgiviv popocry, payouts fromom tfamily,ndnd now we don't know where this is going g thth the senana e eths committee or if we knownything about t th legality ofhehe payments. >> one tngng toatch i to watctchh what eeigign' colleagus dodo. there's a comment o out thhe e today b basalal saayi he didn't

knowow i j jo ensign was going o survive. th i inot helpful to j jo ensisignoo have one his colleaguguesososng their handnds up andsay, he might keke i and might no watchhhat hiscocoeagues . far, no one is callingg r hihis resignation. ififhey feel li thisiss s a bol ththatasas to be lanced to tkk ababouthe committee andeaealt care, they wilill do it. poticians areururvors and always have thahatextinlgt i the back of their nd. >hahankou very mmuc up xt, what was r reay going on i in president obama's mind when thisis p picre w was akaken the e ototogph got a lot o of snickers, butthe video tells another story. stick around for thehelide ssho u areaatcng "hardball" onnly on msnbc. many sfaceat seem smooth anng... .e tually susceptible to ieversible damage.

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nothat's progressive. call or clictoto welcome back to "hardball." time f the slide show.

president obama i italy this week. we saw a misstep when the president trippedhis way through the dooay in italy. this particular photo snapped last night is getting a lot of look tonight here a orseas. the drud report featured it all last night and today, b it goes to show that sometimes a photogph can be misleading. now, let's wat e video of this exact moment. d you can be the referee on this one. the woman moves, he takes e hand- what was he really lookg at? let's see that again. he moves, he -- wherere his eyes? i -- i -- i don'tknow. i think -- but now watch e more time. watch car koee sarky. we are goingto circle sarkozy. yeah, okay.

it ok like no foul for prident obama, but saozy, he is playing by the french rules. next up, frankenes to waington. al franken was underestimated by everyone, especially the republic part from the day he announced heas running for the senate. everyonexcept me. as sn as he announced, i predicted he w going to win. ised a lot of the arithmetic in that prezix, but for 30 years i have knownim to be smart guy at works hard and knows w to do this homework. that's how heot into hvard and that how i knew he was going to get into the senate. now everneis wondering which al franken is goingo show up for the nfirmaon hearing of. do you know tt guy that's paul simon. the al frankn you ar going to see on onday, that, by the way,

is a sh o al franken paying paul simon. thy you see on monday will be theerious al franken, maybe evenhe boring al franken. chris matthew returnedon mond at 5:00 and 7:00 e easter fofor "hardball." up next,t,our business. lf a ronhood of the direing world. buick ave the finest lcrossover ever. i need some zen time with thisismodel thank you. according toto a sdy presented by better homes and garardens denity color recapture.. it c crects e look ofof wrinks and discoloration. 5000 voters. one illiant winner.

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