favorite swear word like this [ bleep ] [ bleep ] [ bleep ] then they did it again repeating a nswear ord. cookie dough, warren harding, frog legs. rns out people, evethis guy [ bleep [ bleep ] [ bleep ] were able to keep their hand submerged in the ice water longer when rsing. you can't argue with [ bleep ] science. oh! >> whatas thedifference in the -- u know? >> i guess y get little bit more arenalin going with the swearing and maybe iteats you up a littlebit. >> maybe you're embarrassed to hear you say bluehings and that makes you blh and heat up. no. there is no embarrassmenat all. ybe it's cold right here. >>ery nice. thank you for takingne for the team. >> sure. >> owe you wrist bands.

>> myhands. >> i have a cocktail mome for you that is a little bit of a mea cua. we got ask for would be on the john ensign story today. we have to do a mea culpa for st week. we tked about the details that his parents paid off his mistress' falyo the tun of 6,000. on the day we did that story, can we put it up here? we use thisgraphic, johnny cash. believe it or not, after that show aired, we got a call from hnny cash's manager. the actual johy cash's manager. not at all thrilled to be associatedith this scandal. i hav to say, as a huge johnny cash fan,omebody who respects him and who went to protest the rnc having that thing at the

johnny cash auction at sotheby' in 2004, the "defend johny cash" prtest, what is there, happy. i'm very sorry. will just go back callg him the future former senator of nevada. thanks for watching. "coudown with keith olbermann" arts right now. which of these storiesill you be talking aboutomorrow? the ill vealed, still secret, still dubious bonus secret bush prram to get al qaeda? e one in which cia dirtor panetta pulled thera this spring then told congress dick cheney orderedhe cia to not tell congress for eight yes. was th because the plan was tomuch or too little? special prosecutor. the rds are whispers of the attorney genal, mr. holder. an actual criminal invtigation in tor? the sotoyor hearings. invitati to an anti-climax. as senator gram says to her, unss you have a complete meltdownou're going to get confirmed. and the rah con woman chronicles. shs going to start her own conservative pty with

democrats. plusevi johnston is now talking about her, quote, stre levels. all at aore now on ountdown." good evening from new york the same bush-cheney administration which failed to heed warnings fr its own officials and om al qaeda itself, that failed to prevent the worst attackn u.s. soil, thatailed to get the rpetrators of that attack is also we learned todathe same administration wchailed to come up with a single viable plan for the c to capture or kill membe of al qaeda, spite running an eight-year ng mon so secret the vice president ordered the a to not tell congress abt it. "the wall street journal" today reporting that disssion of pls to kill al qaeda leaders tapered off thin six months after 9/11. according to former intelligence officials sang bush and cheney didn'tupport a proposal to

send teams of cia and special forces after al qaedthe way israel gothe terrorists who attacked the municolympics. on march3th, 2002, six months, two days after 9/11, mr. bush himsf said publicly of bin laden, quote, i truly am not that conrned about him. tonight's fifth ory, mr. cheneyow reduced to defending their toughness by sending his daughter out to defend the spinning that "wall reet journal" story as will dissect presently, to suggest i somehoreveals democratic weakness on national security. cheney forced to py fense now with the weeke's revelation that it was he who ordered the cia not comply with the laws requiring full intebriefings for congressional leads, followed quickly by today's "wall seet journal" story tt what mr. cheney concealed from congress were the failed attempts to me up with cia plans for tting al eda, a story that raises a ho of questions. concerng the congressional leaders had alrey en briefed abt the president's 2001 rective ordering the capture and killing of al qaeda members. on june 23rd of this yeacia officials concerned about sleading congress still told

the new director leopanetta about the qaeda effort, what deilabout it no one has yet sa. panetta then told congress, essentiallconfirming to the dismay of the righwing speaker pesi'svious claim the cia had not told her in 20 about e waterboarding it was conducting at that time. let me turn fit to the author the dark side, the inside story of how the war oterror turned into a war on american ideals" and of crse staff writer at "t new yorker" magane. thanksor being with us. >> great to be with you. >> congress and the public have known for years that presint bu authorized the cia to kill members of al qaeda, probably one would ve agument with th. therwould have been no reason to withholthat from congress if that was the end of it. ceainly no reason f that to stun members of congress a they reportly were stunned en the direor bed them last nt at is it that we're missing in this narrative? >> well, there are some deils here, obviously, we don't yet have. they seem to be ming together. there is a story in the brith press th soulike "the new rkimes" is working on a

piece, too, that suggests th these were kind of msad hit squads that re going to be authoriz possibly to operate in some of our allied countries without informinthe governmes in those countries, there are some potentially controversial aspects to this that haven'tompletely surfaced yet. part othe reason i think it's worth thking about why congressss wldld bupset about this is if you go backck io o th hiororof the cia, the whole e ideaeaf f inlligence oversight, it came out in t t 1 197 after planans r r asssination attempts surfaced involving t theiaia. so the idea a atat cney might have specifically y trd d toeep cocongss from knowing about whwt cod be seen as assassinanaonon tempts is certainly y gog g to push a lot of bubutts s upn the hill. > inonow ymour hersh's hint of t s sry in minnesota in thehe spriring w a aut stuff run out t theentagon specifically notot ti to the cia but it seeee

remamaabablee might be talking abt t in period of months two o secret asssssisinaon squads somehohow ucuchi on the vice prprident of the united ststat. is that too much of f a coincidence? cocoulwe be talking about thth same squad or just twowospspec of the samame opatatn? >>ell, i mean, the partitilalars from what we know so o fa anyway about t ts s paicular hit squad wawas atat iwas never up anand nnnnin th d d, though, it sounds lilike begin toto tinin scific killers, whmight be able to rove ththe world d loining r al qaeda meerers. i i an, we know of course e wee got t a onone ogram that killed somerorothe sky but there's something different ababt em working secretly in, y y k kno allied countnteses, d in terms of cheney whwhate'e'veeen over ththlalastew months, really, is th e eve time another documentnt comes out ababout e e sh administration's's proamamyou n n secheney's fingerprints s it. so, basically, takake lolookt

th---- tre was a fascinating report that t cameututast friday th w wasut together by ininsptotor nerals in the intelligigcece cmunity. >> right. >> i is s fu of details about both cheney ananhihis rmer lawyerer dav a aington. ththeyerere e people who seemed to be behind the warrarantle wiretapping progogram. somehow, weieilyly, was up to them t tdedeci which other lawyerers t t toe cued in about ththis iththadministration, so you had this very ststngnge situatatiowhwherthere was this intense secrecy y anmamanyf the suect area experts were kekept out of knowing a abo t the programsms > je,e, mbe i'm being a lileleimple in asking this b but if you put e eryrythg together, isist possible that the rereas cheney would h have shsh for the secrecy here was not b becsese t mumuchas done too illegally y trtrto get al qaeda but ththat ultimately the hisisto o of is prprraram uld show how little s done to get al qaeda?? > wl, i mean, i think one o the revelalaonons at came out in that, certainly in t t i insctor

nenel's report, was -- whihich is very important, i t think- - was s th t thearrantless surveillance p proamam, ich twisted ouour cotitition into knots, turns out to o haveeeee ineffective. according to governmnment pepes who are e npnparsan, it did not helplp ianany rious way in our ti-terror efforts. so, i mean, , i inink is possiblele thaththmore we know about some of these prprraramshe more we're goioi t to nd out theyey werununcessary. >> spepeining unnecessary, last popot here. "t"theashington post" reportrt today that the cia hadad h f fro congress it was called a technicacally orieient i intligence collection effort unrelated t to teororm spspts and that was "the w wal ststetet jrnal" version of this. should we be s sptptic of these onymous sources suddenen appearing with detaiailshahat em so widelelatat viance from what think we know? >> w well, t tnk that there's probably a r reajujumpall going on pololiticlylyo try to paint

whwhat w w whheld from congress asnimportant. you know, the cicia ansoso of e republicans on the h hilarare tryingngo o sa this wasn't an important prograra but if it tuturns t t have actuallyly beeananlite sort of asssin's squad that could d work without -- in various s counieie wiwiouout lling the host untries, i think it's gogoing be hard to say it was s nonor. >> yeah, and c ctatain they n'n'say it was minor. janene merer o"the new yorker" magazine and authohor ofththdark si" " thks for your time tonight. >>lalato be with you. >>speaking of the jump b bl l litically, as prpromed, the right winger of the ceney fafalyly ting to push baack merous reports mr. cheneney orderedthe cia to defy intell ws maating congressional briefings. one unnamed bush o officl l telling andrdreaititchl the admimiststraon did not tell congressss autut t cia efforts beuse, quote, congress dididn't asask. mr. cheney, hihimsel d dking cocommt all weekend allowingngis dadahter the political appppoiee at stata t to ght for him in an interview with t theononseative "washington titimes"lalaing

without t y y faual basis whatsoever that demomocrs s obct to gettiti a al eda rather than in fact that thehey jejecto being keke i in e dark about plans to g getl l qaa or, more accucurate, , e bush-cheney failure to make a a anan tget al qaeda. >>here's this big piece inin "the wall street journrnal" isis morning that says s atat iwas a nunumb of different conceptstsr waways wcocod capture or kill al qaeda leaders s in t d ds after 9/11.. now, i am rerelyly sprised that the demomocrs s dede that's what they want to f fightveve ifif ty want to go to the american people and sasay th they d dagagre with the notion weughto be capturing and killing al qaeda leadersyou know, thk it's just going to prove to t t a amecan people one more time why they c can t tru ththe momoats with our national security. >> let's's tn n msnbc's politicalnanaly j jonhaha alterr and also sior editor at eweweek" magazine. gogoodvening, jon. why are democrats trtryi t tstop republblics s fr getting al qaqaed >> cheney figugureththbest defense e a a gd offense so he'll try to t turththisn the democrats. bubulook.

what's hapapped d re is either this was not an importrtt t program in which c casweweailed at something thahayoyou d i and evybody else assumed we e rere doing. when all this bad ststf f wa happening to t theononitution, i dot t kn about you but i assumed atat lstst wre killing the bad guys in the darkrk o night. ththe rkrkide was good for mething, offing al qaeae.. e eitr they didn't do that, in which case we allll sululd morerecacarenow about terrorism, or if it was a bigig, poportt program and theyey dn'n't form coress about it, they broke e the law.w. sesee,ver since the 1970s, t t cia hahabebeenequired to report ateaeasthat they call the gangng of eight. members of the leaeadehihip d thchairman and ranking membebers ofhe intelligence commititeses ininacach amber. they must repoportn n eir operations. th o oveight was implemented after ththe ststia abuses in the 1970s which are quitite mimir to wh we're talking about, the e so-calleled oeoex program in vietnam targeted viet t co

adaderfor assassination. whwh that came out it gaveve t a a black eye and the law w wa changed requiring themem tininrm congress. so i if c ces out that they broke the law under ordedersroro dick cheney, that dodoeseaeato some questions about w wheererhe vice president w w i invved in law breakiki.. does that mean we'll s s h him frfrogarared out of the cheyenne aiairpt? i doububt b b we could see some nd of inquiry as to whwhheher e vice president brokeke t law. >> jt t ing him to the white house so we can frogogararchim out of thehe wteteouse to please joe wilsonon. number two on n isis lt here, does that t stl l suly the neneceararastonishment we've ard described from thehe mbebers of the house finally bririef on thihis by mrmr p petta when id, oh, byby theway, i just shsh down this program youou didn't know anythihi a abo? does there not feeeelilikehere's another r relylyhaquille o'neal sid shoe waiting to dropopn n this? >>eses and you can see littttleororof hints that it vavaeded isome of the stories.

now, i don't want to m me e it seem like i knkn s somhing that i don'n't,ececse we're flying blind here. but there e s s anndication thatat, rhrhs, a large number of prisoners were k kleled afghan allies under the superervionon, pepeapaps,f the cia, or did they ve them a green light t fo execututnsns? you know, , riringhe time we werereigightg the taliban? t t clr. and i don't want to suggesest knkn t thathat happened but that's the sort t ofhihing >> that's ththe veveof things. >> yes, , atat wmight be talking ouou >> and whahawowoulthe fallout frfromhahabe? i mean, would ththat- - es the asastoshment that the democrcric members who wrote, thehe gupup o six that wrote that t leereris that astonishment sosomeatat bk fifi t to ke sure their fingererinintsren't on this, om the winter 221-1-20, that

this i is ininto be entirely t publicans and mr. bush's problems? >> you certainly c can u und titima the ability of lilicians of both parties s to cover their fannnns s wh they need to.o. but i get the sense frfrom panetta's actitis s anremember panetta ththou h hserved under billll cntnt and now under back obama he used to bebe republican. is a relatively conseservivive guy. i dodon'ththinhe's carrying water here.. he was upset at the dedegr t t which congress was left inin t dadarkbobo an important program, obviously, there's a a lomomore to leaea a abo this. dodon'think the obama administrationon wtsts b heariningsutut iope we have themem. >> lastly,y, iththe any way to sort of reverse engigine w wt di cheney might have been responsible for basesed t thi sudden switch by his daughghteto this claim of, you k kw,w, is just going to o a a fht over national s secitity d the democrats will lose thatat o.. do t tt tell us anything of f what he might be guiuiy y ofn this? >> no, but i thihi a as ne popoind out, you know, his fingerprints are on alall t ts. >> that would be newew, ulul't it?

which of thesese ve e pridential asasssination squads will l yobe talking about tomorrowow? joththanlter, of "newsweek" and msnbc, thanks for comimingn. a special prosececut f f rture and it's serioususnonoug the attotorn g geral has reportedly asked f for l lt of ten n nonenees of course e erere ll be limits. e quasi-lawyers who fabricicat the documents s auororizg the tortrte e noto be prosecuted. anananybody who followed t tho documents not t b be osecuted. anybody who didn't follow w the documents and d ntnt orboard but wawas titi in good faith, not to be prorosetete at what poinint eses scial prososututorecome a meaningless and name? anwhwho uld this one still prosecute? the only peoeoplseseemgly still on the table are those w were tortured.

when the tm special precutor becomes an oxy moronibrand name by jumbo shrimp or virgin bnd condoms, jonathan turley on the tepid murmings fm the obama administtion about the torture investigation. th the sotomayor hearings. if the rublicans have anything damaging in disguiset is

certainlto quote churchill, very effectively disguised. as sarah palinits atorming her own pay her ex-future soin-law with an overlooked bombshell. he hints she quit as govnor because she couldn't handle the pressure of doing the job. you're watching "countdown" on msnbc.

attorney generalric holder is serioly considering the apintment of a special prosecutor tlook at whether bush era detaineeser illegally torted. in our fourth story on "the countdow the headline comes with such huge caveats the opportunity might be squandere the decision could be soon about the same time the justice department completes an ethics report about bush administration

officials who draftethe now discreditemos which auorized waterboarding and so-called enhanced terrogation. ich bris us to the caveats. any investigation into torre abuses woulde narrowly focused,imited to a small number of the mostgregious cases in which cia officers or contractors went far beyd what was auorized. thisccording to our own pete williams. anyone who followed the bush era legal guidance would not be investigated n would those who strayefrom the technical limits of interrion but acted in good faith. the oo, sorry, i broke you in half defense. the attorney general's sewhat tormd process described in "newsweek" athere were startling indications that se interrogators had gone far yond what had been authorized in the legal opinions issuedy the bush justice darent, which were themselves coroversial. he, th is holder, told one timate that what he saw, quote, turned stomach. according to "neweek" holder also asked his staffor a list of ten candites, four prosecutor five from whin the juice department and five from let's call on the profsoof

constitutional law at george washington unirsity jonathan turley. good eveng. >> hi, keith. >> t caveats in a moment but is something likely to hpen in e way of special prosecutor now? >> the question of course is what will happen? what he's described more of a bonsai plant than a prosecutor that you can twist and resain to grow the wayou want. it's n special prosecutor. for some libertarians i think they'd rather have nothi at all rather thawhat he is suggesting. the biggest prlem is that holder and president obama appear to be rewti the law we created in nurmberg. convicted people like herbert clem, who was convicted with esother judges. this was the third of the 12 trials of nuremberg. he was a justice officl in t nazi regime. he was concted for his legal opinions that allowed for wa crimes. we tried him. we created that rule.

principl four of the nuremberg w specifill says folling superior orders is n a defense. so the obama adminisation are reiting nuremrg with all es preconditions, and they're rewriting it in a very ioble and in my view immal image. >> so ishe obama administration shiftg? this an answer to those who say,o, youave to do more because as you point outhe law would seemimpell it? or is there so indication, perhaps, that mr. holder is striking out on his own anthat there might in this be the germ of hopeful sign that this could be broadeneds time goes by rather than narrowed or bng nothing at all? >> like a lot of civ libertarians i must admit i' grown more cynal wittime, th this administration. th have tried so mightily to avoid any prosecution or even investigation ofar cris that ere is a lot of cynicism out there. i'm just not convinced i think th attorney general holder is finding it vy hard.

he's becoming almost aragic, comical figure like sergeant schuz saying, i see nothing, i see nothing, when every ek bringsut compelling evidence of a war cri. on top of th we had soldiers in hm's way. think if the obama administrati is preparing for at may come. whatpens when one of our soldiers is terboarded and al qaeda says, well, it's interrogation. what happens if an iranian tribunal orders terboarding of an american and says this is no greater than the interrogation allowed by the uted states. that is what the ls of moral clarity brings to a country li the united states. neverind in north korea where we have two urnalists in jail, two american jrnalists for comi into the country illegally. th's a pctical example right now ere something, i mean i'm not expecting theyould waterboa them after havi convicted them, but they certainly ve no moral clarit based on what we've done in response to waterbrding.

>> tt's right. wh we are doing is not just frittering away our mo standing b pting our own people agreat and grave risk. that's what nurembergave u it was not jt a moral superiory over those who mmitted these crimes. it also gave us a clarity in how we would insist our own ldiers and citizense treated. we've simply lost that. >> the republican setor mr. alexander said iholder does even this he also needs tok under the subject rendition under president clton wh mr. holder was the deputy torney general, there saying if you'reoing to investigate, investigate yourself. i assume your swer to that is, you know, bring it o >> yeah, well i think d be morehan happy to have them investigate all such occasions ani don't believe -- or policies -- ani don't believe the repuicans are serious t this. but republicans have to make a important decision. they cannot go in ancreate a gacy for their party as the party th fought to protect the right to torture. i mean, whatever political aspiratis they may have, they must at least retain something of a moral definition of themes.

i mean, they're the party of abraham lincoln and e where they have ne. i just don'telieve most republicans really want . but what also i ink attorney generaholder has to do is accept, appoint special prosecutor and tell him to go find crimes whe the evidence les. and that's the moral crity at we're lacking in terms of thesrecent stories. >> yeah, archibald cox cld come in most useful at this int. jonathan tley of george waington university, as always, john, thanks forou clarity on this. thanks for your time, too. >> thanks, keith. >> all right. good night. you knowhat was the best part of having that g-8 summ intaly last week? clearly, it was the moon light. wait a minute. wait for it. there -- jus-- a little late. okay. hold on. all right. soheraphics hid what you're seng but you get the point. and the southern california pastor who says it's fine spend 2% of all your prayers on

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best, bests in aoment, and swearing helps you with stand pain something i could really use tonighright about now. rst, fittingly, given th start of t baseball all star celeations 121 years ago yesterday was born harry kraus the greate baseball pitcher who ever lived. briefly, century ago krause, a rookie, won all ten of his first ten starts for t philadelphia atetics.

6 of the 10 re shutouts. 4 of the 6 shutouts were 1-0 shutouts. 100 ars ago today his record stood at 10-0 and sishut. thenomhing happened. probab a torn rotator cuff. his career before beinse to in the mir leagues with a sore arm three seasons later. let's play "odd ll." we begin in italy where st we the world's leaders met for the g-8 summit. italian television networkg-1 covereit from all angles. the news team wawas erere r the stagag p pho ops as well as ototts. is one not far from thth meetining. yocacasee the reporter in ththe foreground.. group of protestors waway hihind her. ththenhree guys wandering into the midddd g grod and -- [ speakiki i in her language ] > pasas a closeup.

did i mention the u.n.n.ececury general ban kioon was atatndndinthe summit? presesrs caught the directoror sleeping. this is why we don't do o oushsh on the grorounleleve >inin genville, south carolina a sququirl l haa yogurt cucuststucon its head. part of yoplait's new w r r onhe bottom lininofof yurt or perhaps a owowhey can do an hour on n on cnn headline news.s. an nbc camera shootingng atoto at the univeveitity ppened to shoot t th l ltle fellow in didistssssnd thankfully the wyff crew did t t r rig thing. they kept the tape rololli b b tried toto rcucue m. follow t t b bouing squirrel so c c bring you the footagege tonight in "oddbalal t thethey put the e cararaown and pulled thcup off little rocky's'seaead. w. the great sosotoyoyor showdown. this is all the republicican have? and sarah palin's levivi jnsnson problem. now he's implying she e qu a a vevern because the job was t t stressful fofor r.r. ese stories ahead.

first the bebe p perns in the world. "d"datine pittsburgh" number ree best typo, that morse e co message from the airirple e op thgrgranbuilding in pipisburgh, 80 years of momors code in lilitt r r lights teing pilots what city they'y're eing. it been spelling out pitetsbkbkrr even with the bibirrrre tive accent thahat'nonot w you spell pittsbururgh authorities sasay eyey'rfixing itit "d"datine new york" number t t best admission. you u thghghbill moyers, mr. wealalpotter says michael moore'e's vivingn health care refoformicic was dead on, particularly the pososite e picture of heaeah h ca in canada and d enananand adds the amameran health care industrtris trying to derail t theicicre becaususe w wasrue. quote e s shodn't fear gogovememe involvement in our health system. the is an appropriate role f for vernment and it's been provenen in the countries t tt t we in the movie.e. who is wenenllll pter? some obabamapepealist? no..

he was until last yeyearheheead of pubublirerelaons for signa the e $18 biion health care and health insurance corpoporation. and dateline eland. number oneesexcuse. dr. charstevens of the pshology school there usg intricate neuro exririmes with volunteers andnd iceater finds one group caenen pain nearly 50% longer thahan anhehegroup. the longnger ltiti? the e whwere encouraged as they thrust their armsms inta a tub of freezezinwawateto square t t lo and keep swearing. ose who were told not t towewear but instead d pepeat a word wit whh h ey would describe a table lasted an area o ojujust5 seconds. the swearers lasted twtwmiminus. thononcaveat the more sweariring the less effectiveves s a psychological l meanofofain managegeme. the is no data on those whwho scribed the table by s sararin at it. evev t theanking republican "kg of pain ♪ "k"kg of pain ♪

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awarfrom the outset he is marshalling his forces for a lost cause our third sty his opening statement. senator jeff ssions referring to president obama's nominee to the supre court as justice sotomayor. daonof a week of confirmation hearings for judge sonia sotomayor. the star witne silent for all bueight minutes, the gallery not so much about four protestors interrued for -- arreed for interrupting among them the jane row of roe v. wade. the attackn sotomayor beginning with presint obama's statement th he wants a justicwith empathy. >> call it empathy. call iprejudice. call it sympathy but whatever it is it's not law. in truth it's more akin to politi and politics has no ace in the courtroom. >> wondewhat the members of the judiciary committecalled it in 1986 when two republicans d against the nomination o the same jeff sessions to be federal district judgeecause of allegatns that as a federal prosecutor he soht to suppress the ack vote. today the now nar's first as nking member on this

committe others in the gop falsel claimingthat the supreme cou overturned moref sotomayor's desions than it has any other judge. >> i agree that her dicial record is anmptant component of our evaluation. i look forward to hearing wh for instance, the supreme urt has reversed ovacated 80% of heopinions. >> a tip for sat kyl who is apparently new to the country. the supreme court reverses an overming majority of the cases it accepts. when the court agrees with a decision it will far more often than not turn away case and let the rulingf the lower court stand. democrat russ fegold laying bare the republican talking point meanwhile of judicial activism. >> i suggest to everyone watching today that ey be a little wary of a phrase that they're hearg ats hearing -- judicial activi. that term really seems to ve lostll usefulness, particully since so many rulings of the conservative jority on the supreme court can fairly be described as actists in their disregard for precedenand their willingness

to ignore or overre the intent of congress. at this point, perhaps, we should a accept that the best definition oa judicial activist is a judge who decides a case in a way you n't like. >> credit lindsey graham o south carolina with today'rare reican moment of honesty. >> i don't want it to be lost that this is mostly about liberal and conservati politics more than athing else. w, unless you have a complete meltdown, you're going to ge confirme >>heit was finally her turn to speak judge sotomor, knocking down ggestions that she would allow her biases t guide her from theench. in the past month, many senato he asked me about my judicial philosophy. simple fideli to the law. the taskf a judge is not to make law. s to apply the law. >> the judgelso seeming to

makendirect reference to the wise latina controversy day. >> my personal and prossional experiences lpe to listen and understand with the law ways commanding the result in every case. >> te now to turn to our own lawrence o'donnell contrutor to the huffington po, former chief of staff of the senate finance committee wh it was chaired byhe late senator moynih. go evening, sir. >> good to be re, keith. >> the republicansave sliming this jud for the last siweeks, 24 hours a day, seven days a week possibly taking off memorial day should we surprised that was the prevailing stregy in the opening statemts even today? well you could look at it that way, but the elected republicanhaven't done that much of the sliming. it's lately from the rush limbau zone.

what these guys knew, all the republicans on the cmittee have met h. me won the committee for her last confirmation hearing. they always knew whaamerica was going hear today when sonia sotomayor opened her mouth for the first time. so what struck me s how careful theyere about it. even john l saying at a cen point he thought -- he said i hope everamerican is proud a hispanic woman has been nominated to sit on the supreme court. that was not somhing you were aring in republican chorusses befo. but e reason to look at it om the other side, the reason they went easy on her and the reason they all stress sitive things about heas a pers is that they knew when they fished speaking america wagoing to hear her for the first time a what they were going to hear was the voicof a wise and educated, y indeed, latina woman, with a very slight flavoring fromhe bronx, a foalized diction that comes from elish being her condguage and a very warm, maternal aspecand that kind of aracter is not someone you can go up against easily politically. whenhe finished her statement today our own chris matthewsn the live coveraghad to say he

was feeling one of those thrills of his by which he means it's one those thrilling moments to be an american, watching someone like that se to this point. and those republicans know tha chris wasn't the only one feeling the thrill. >> tnk you for explaining that. the sessions role here is kind of ironic, that he's the ranng republic on this judiciary committee. should we believe thatis past experience with it doesn't mak him ki of bizarrely slanted on the subject of judges and race and all the rest of that? plus, should we belie at he did not read the whole wise latina speech? you can read that out loud in about ten minus and if he didn read it and didn't get the context in which she's basically sayi in the whole ing, know, you can't rely on just your own expernce, just your own backound. it's the revse meaning of what the snippet says. are we supposed to believe sessions doesn't knothat? >> i c, personally believe

sessions doesn't knothat, keith, having rked in the senateysf. anif you go back to his confmation hearing, which he couldn't make s way through as a candidate for the bench, himself, i've never seen weer candidate actually make it all t wayto a confirmation hearing. we may havhad weaker candidates who never even got at far through the clearance process. and he is in over his he. it is one ofho only america stories that jeff sessions could go from being rejected by that committee to bng the chairman of it and he can thank the wonderful unitedtas senate seniority system. you don't take an ex to become chairman you just sit there long enough and it happens. >> sounds ke he's an eoe hire to me. i don't know. last poi. is there anything ofubstance? are there any medowns? are there any crets wonderfully disgsed? is there anything worth whil the rest of these hearings besidethe fact of the coirmation? no. lindy gr has got it absolutely right. there's no suspense leftere. she's gog to be able to handle all the issues they' going to want to raise very easil the pathy questions.

lindsey graham looks to me like a republican vote for her alg wi orrin hatch who voted for and enabled her confirmati last time around when he w chairman of thatommittee the last time she wenthrough. >> if it's somebody from the bronx versus anybody elsalways vote on the rson from the onx. lawrence'donnell of the huffington post and msnbc. >> that's the way i ay it. >> thank you, sir. >> thank you. >> she's really going rogue. all democrats who would like sarah palin's endorsemensay it wi me now, suicidal. boss limbaugh compares judge sotomayor to senator geoe allen. wait. you're comparing somebody who isn't racist to somebody youay isn't racist. when rachel joins you athe top of t houhe intel program out which dick cheney orred the cia not to tell ngress. yeye, so? it stinks in here! have you smelled is chair? or these curtainin? yove gotta wash this whe room! e you kidding? wa it?!

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allen. the website free republican compares obama to, quo, ghetto street c. it's the alleged pastor praying for the president's ath. then the unied party, the palilin popular people's front? "countdown" " continueon msc. your doctor about aspin.n. you ne t to be your own advococate. be s se to talk to yoururtor before you begin an aspirin regimen. you tatake care of your kids, now it's time to t take re of yourself.

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worlrld. e boss limbaugh fading intnto the background l laty y th beggininfofor tention with back wackier stuff than usual teteing his audience during the sotomayorearing todayaysoso rs feingold a c coue e rds that soa a somayor said taken out of context, you mean l lik macaca? gege allen saying macacaca we heard about that t fowewes and montnths sotomayor's comments arere mh h worse than m maca a anthey're eqeque. quick refreseshesesenar george lelen lled a dark skinned blogger videotaping onone h his speeches t t r racl epithet macaca. to tieallen on the racial slur level, the j jud wouldaveadad to call somebody like e mbmbau whitey or hehey,imimbah, yeah you, you ofafay u.u. the runner-up jim thomomps t t owner ofof t r rig wing website free repububliwiwithoderated comments meaning a g gwnwnup should read anandedele the crazier ononesutut h folks waited three days bebefo

momong a comment and a disturbing large n nbeber his posters.s. afaftepresident obama's dauguger appeared in a t-shshirwiwi a peace e si o on at the g-8 the free republic had anotheher otot t theirst lady captioned to entertain her r dahthterichelle obama loves s toakakmonkey soundsds some of ththe ststs scribe the dividually and coectively as, quick, tycal street whorerebunch ghetto thugs. street trash. wonder when she'll get fstst abortion. they make me sick. the whole family.. mammy, pappy, ththe free lding may-in-law, the misguided ililli and especially littlele 'cuz. people simultaneneouy y re ththreening anybody who evenen mentioned sarah palilin' children. thmomostrominent response was s not an apopogygy b rather the claim the comments w we e plted. this was in n rnrn geted by

mo racecetsts commentsts by veterans of the sisite a a a c totoctctio to flooood the e-mai acacunts of aisist omainstream medidieople, people le e n imus andnd mbcbc. ththe s s ening news with dan rather. d paula zahn and bill hemmmmer and tucker cararls a andobert novavaofof c. let me k knoififan rather still aners his cbs e-mails. clowns. ouour nner, pastor wiley drara the leader of the e bua a rk southehernapapti church in california. hehe h c conrmed he does in fact ayay f the death of presidenen ama. but he says that s sucpepetions to god shoululd lyly me up about 2% o of urur dly prayer diet. says that the correct verersi t thiis to pray that the lolo itityour opponent or bringng h plagues. just s sckck tscripture and then aim it in the proper d dirtition kind of f keke vdoo. pastor d dra s ss he does indeed pray for obama's'seaeathut also prs s has prayed for the deaths of prprididen clinton and gegeor w wbush and pastor rick warren. so s sorof i'm working this dedef the street bub i gueuess

i i n'n't for this praying for other people's deaths s mylflf b if you do o isis wld seem to ofoffeanannexpected opportunity for bipartisanship.. combined, supporters o of president obama a ansusuppters ofof psisint bush and supporters of pastor wawaenen sely combined out t mbmberupporters of this papast drake. i memeanerertaly they can summon up more of these cumululate e smes, plagues, and death prayers s anan hcan. seemems b be simple question of math. so at prayer time rememeerer t name p pasr r ley drake. toy'y'but possibly soon no longng t to eligible for a peat victory, worst pepeonon i the rl (announcer) ththis is ne generations of the world's most revered luxury sedan. this ia a hiory of over 5050,000 crash-tested cars...

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ddddddddddddddd now toet started. thanks! > the almost ex-governorf aska goes very much rogue. this time virtually threatening to start her own conseative party pledgingo stump for indepeents and even nservative democrats.

but in our number one story the question now is will anybody want her t sarah palin telling th "washington time she plans to jump iedtely into the nation political arena, quote, will go around the country on behalf of candidates who believe in the rig things regardless of their party label o affiliation, me. people are so tired ofhe partisan stuff, even my n son is not a republican. at would be track who is a registered nonpartisan along wi his father, todd, whose previous affiliation was with alaska's secesonist party. thiss the new york times reporton earer attempts by the gop to save palin from herself. a nior official from the republican governors associati outlining adce with firm counsefor palin to follow. make a lonterm sedule and stick tot. build a coherent home stat agenda that creates jo and ensures re-ection. another senior official asking the vernor to please return her phone call meanile more of a department of almost in-laws. levi johnston stl talking. his baby's grandmother wanteto do a reality shohe says and ought it would be nice to ta the money and run. johnst maintains palin is an inedible lady and he'd do about anythingor her except

vote for her. >> i just don't think she can handle the stress lel as governor. i don't think shcan handle it as president or vice presint. >>nd word from the other pin marriage of convenience, senor mccain remarkie was surprisebunot shocked by news of palin quitting. >> you have faced personal torte, personal attacks, political tacks, investigations. you have never rigned from anhing. is it coistentith your qualities of leadership to resign an electepo like there? >> sur if you -- thquesti is how can you see most effectively? >> whaabout not serving at al joining us now the white house reporteror "the washington post." good evening. can have a giggle at the age of some democrat somewre calling govern palin for an endorsemen but obviously she was chosen by john mccaifor this express purpose of rounding up say hiary clinton supporters. is it possible even after what

happened to that theory in reality last year maybe shis still thinking that this year, that she isome sort of multi-party transcendent figure? >> let me be brief no. you know, don't think so, keith. i think what shes trying to do, remember, her appeal is a reform appeal, an independent appeal. she s elected in 2006 as governorrunning against the guy named ank mircowsky who was the alaska eablishment. she was elected asomeoneho fought the establishme. i think she wato get back to osroots. it's w you're seeing her make statements like she would campaign for an independent or consertive democrat. the uth is they wouldn't ask and she wouldn't aept. >> you've be reporting that palin's litical action committee raised ove00,000 ints first six months. but did she just hininalking about going around the country