republican sources who are sympathetic to mr. bush and not sympathetic to mr. cheney. in response to the story today, mr. cheney released a scathing statement. quote, scooter libby was an innocent man who was the victim of a severe mischarnlg of justice. he was not the source of the leak of valerie plame's name. he serve the president, the vice president, and the nation with distinction for many years. he deserved a presidential pardon. he deserved a presidential pardon. he deserved it and didn't get it. usually in politics, you have to do a little reading between the lines. what does it mean by that? what's the context here? in this case, no interpretation needed. libby deserved a pardon, bush wouldn't give it to him. bush is wrong. love dick cheney. whether or not president bush or a bush loyalist returns fire and turns this exchange of fire into a full-blown political war remains to be seen, but it is

now quite clear that dick cheney's role in our politics now, the mission of the most prominent republican in the country is to defend, for lack of a better construct, the cheney legacy. the legacy he's defended against democrats, republicans, and the other president in the cheney administration. take the issue of guantanamo, for example. this is president bush's take on guantanamo in june of 2006. >> i'd like to close guantanamo. no question guantanamo sends a signal to some of our friends, provides an excuse, for example, to say the united states is not upholding the values that it encourages other countries to adhere to. >> i'd like to close guantanamo. vice president cheney was in favor of keeping it open. june, 2005. should guantanamo bay's

detention center be shut down and the detainees moved elsewhere? mr. cheney, no. because -- mr. cheney, because it's a vital facility. after president bush announced that he wanted to close guantanamo, mr. cheney had this to say, this is july, 2007. >> general powell said he'd close guantanamo yesterday. would you? >> no. no. i think you need to have some place to hold those individuals who have been captured during the global war on terror. >> what's important here is that dick cheney lost the guantanamo argument as it was happening. but even now, after leaving office, he's continuing to make his case. >> i think they need to keep guantanamo open. i think it's a mistake to close it. i think if you didn't have it, you would have to invent it. >> that is not only dick cheney campaigning against president obama, that's dick cheney campaigning against george w. bush. the same thing goes for the issue of torture. despite mr. cheney's insistence that enhanced interrogation

techniques kept us safe for eight years, the program was called off halfway through the bush administration. according to a "new york times" examination of the program, the consensus of top administration officials about the cia interrogation program, which they had approved without debate or dissent in 2002 began to fall apart the next year. cia officials began to curb its practices much earlier than most americans know. no one was waterboarded after march of 2003 and coercive interrogation methods were shelved all together in 2005. the program ceased to exist in 2005. cheney lost the battle to keep it going years ago. and, yet, after leaving office, he's railing against the decision not just of the obama administration, but of his own administration. >> i think to the extent that those policies were responsible for saving lives that the administration is now trying to

cancel those policies or end them, that means in the future, we're not going to have the same safeguards that we've had for the last eight years. >> now dick cheney's insistence that his former chief of staff, scooter libby, should have received a presidential pardon, another battle he lost in office but continuing to fight it. even escalating the fight over this after leaving office. it's no secret there's a fight under way broadly speaking for the soul of the republican party. what will the post-bush, post-mccain republican party look like? the most prominent republican in the country is not moving back to texas or wyoming or anywhere else. he is staying in washington. he's waging that fight aggressively. both against democrats and now overtly against the president, the republican president he served under for eight years. i wonder if any republican will fight back against him? joining us now is pulitzer prize-winning "washington post" reporter barton gelman the author of the book, "angler -- the cheney vice presidency."

thanks for joining us. >> my pleasure. >> the official line from the bush and cheney camps is that these two men are still friends. they're still close. this statement today from mr. cheney and frankly what i saw was a vociferously anti-cheney-pro bush piece in "time" magazine for bush loyalists, makes me think they're essentially at war with each other. can you tell which is true? >> probably neither. i don't think they were friends. bush was interesting about this in 2007 on tv. they were close colleagues and cheney was important to bush. but they didn't socialize at all. and i'm told they still do talk from time to time but there's no doubt their relationship was damaged. the difference here between gitmo and interrogation policy and all the other things and scooter libby is that this is clearly very personal for cheney. and he just accused the president of throwing an innocent man under the bus, a man who had served the president honorably and well and there's

probably worse things you could say about a person, but not so many. >> why is it so personal for cheney? >> three reasons. one is scooter libby is a close friend of his. and he was a vital advisor to cheney. the next one is that after eight years of working together, dick cheney asked the president for one thing -- if there's any one thing you can do for me as we walk out the door here, i want you to pardon scooter libby. bush said no. and the third reason is -- this is a little tougher one -- scooter libby fell on his sword for cheney. cheney knows that. cheney knew it at the time, and cheney could have stopped it. >> now, i want to talk to you about that. because we all covered and lived through and tried to understand what was going on in the valerie plame case. at the end of that case, the prosecutor said -- that's the case from which scooter libby was convicted. the prosecutor said at the end of that case, there's a cloud over the vice president. we know that libby was convicted

of obstructing the investigation of a crime. bush administration officials are now telling reporters that they think that libby obstructed that investigation because cheney is the one who committed the crime. libby was protecting cheney, that's why cheney took up the fall for him. does that all seem evident to you, that it was cheney who was the one who should have been indicted in that case? >> well, let's parse this carefully. scooter libby was convicted of lying and obstructing an investigation as to whether there was a crime. even if libby or cheney could be proved to have outed valerie plame, that probably would still not constitute sufficient evidence that they had violated this identity protection act because of a bunch of obscure legal conditions that have to be met. what libby was protecting was the fact that dick cheney was the one that found out that valerie plame was joe wilson's

wife and worked for the cia. that dick cheney was the one whose own handwriting introduced as an exhibit in the trial was the one who introduced the political line of attack which was that joe wilson had been set to check out the iraq nuclear claims in nijer as a jungt arranged by his wife. that dick cheney authorized scooter to talk to reporters. scooter libby was asked several times -- did dick cheney tell you to talk about valerie plame? and he said, i don't recall. he said that several times. so it's -- there's no doubt that scooter was protecting his boss -- and his boss' boss. >> evidence at the trial showed that cheney told libby she's cia -- his wife is cia and you can talk to reporters about that? >> no, the evidence showed that he told libby -- he was the one who told libby even though libby was working hard to find out himself that valerie plame --

not only working for the cia, cheney found out personally from george tenet that she worked for the director of operations, which proved more likely that she had covert status, but couldn't prove it. and told libby he could talk to reporters ability joe wilson and the national intelligence estimate. it's not clear whether he told scooter libby to talk about valerie plame. >> as we try to assess the political impact of this. in your view, what you know about cheney and what you reported about this, is there anyone in the republican party that he would see as influential right now. if anyone came to him and said what you're doing, we understand your personal gig with scooter, we understand your interest in promoting your own legacy, you going after bush like this? you dividing the republican party like this? this is bad for the party, you need to stop. would he listen to anyone. >> he cares about party. it's his team. the one reason is because of the reasons i described, the personal reasons, and he

believed that the policies they put in place are the only thing that can protect the country. he stands four square behind guantanamo and harsh interrogation and all of the things you talked about before. and a fundamental element of that for him is that you protect the people who carried out your policies. and he, at one point, again in his own handwriting in trial in the exhibit in which he talked about how scooter libby was asked to put his head on the chopping block for the president and you don't let it get chopped off. >> for the vice president in this case. i think a lot of democrats would be delighted if the post-bush/post-mccain era is a new cheney era. he's fighting for that. we'll see. "angler -- the cheney vice presidency," helpful to have you here. thanks for coming in. >> thank you. >> president obama's remarks about the arrest of harvard professor henry louis gates are being used to turn the country's

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the two big american political sights of the summer are the supreme court nomination of judge sonia sotomayor. and this generation's version of the ongoing battle royale whether we need an actual health

care system in this nation and whether we need to muddle along with the bad model of the health care system that the insurance companies made out of popsicle sticks and spit, and forms in triplicate sometime in the truman administration. in both of these sights, the democrats are in dominant position because of the sheer number in congress and their popular new president. republicans have decided to fight both of these big political fights using the same tactic for each of them. see if you can pinpoint the tactic here, starting with the sonia sotomayor confirmation hearings. >> a wise latina woman -- >> the wise latina woman -- >> would be a wise latina comment. >> your wise latina comment -- >> anybody with him -- >> decision making based on her biases and prejudices. >> biases and personal preferences. >> miguel estrada. >> decision making on her biases and prejudices. >> oh, nationally televised

point made. see, they don't have a problem with sonia sotomayor's race, but they want everybody to know that she has a problem with theirs. now health care is starting to look like the second verse of that same song. for starters, news of an amazing admission from congressman roy blount of missouri. he's the man that's supposed to be the top republican on health care in congress. he's the head of the house gop health care solutions group. they call it that, the solutions group. despite that, congressman blount admitted today that neither he nor anyone else in the solutions group nor anyone else in the whole republican party plans to offer a solution for health care. he said, quote, our bill is never going to get to the floor. so, why confuse the focus? why start diverting attention from this really bad piece of work they've got to whatever we're offering right now. in other words, in a fight over what to do about health care policy, the republican proposal

will not involve policy. what do they want to talk about instead? >> we saw white firefighters under assault by agents of barack obama and sonia sotomayor. now white policemen are under assault from the east room of the white house and the president of the united states, the president's reaction to this was not presidential. >> we got the acorn reaction last night. we got the militant black reaction. >> that, of course, was de facto republican party leader rush limbaugh talk show host taking issue with the final question of the president's press conference on health care last night. the controversial arrest of the nation's leading black intellectual professor henry louis gates. the national republican

committee blasted out a press release on president obama's comments on that today saying, quote, president obama made a bold accusation at massachusetts's law enforcement officers from the bully pulpit yesterday saying they acted stupidly admitting they didn't know all of the facts. is it presidential to cap harsh judgment of a law enforcement official without all of the facts? same goes for the national republican senatorial committee which wasted no time producing an ad today that asks whether it's appropriate for the president to criticize the men and women in law enforcement and offering up a petition you can sign if you don't think so. here's a hint. if you sign the petition, i think they'll follow up with you. how do i know that's true? you can donate money while you're filling out the petition if you want to save them some time. this is chapter one of the art of republican politics and since richard nixon. when surrounded by a more popular opponent whose ideas you can't necessarily counter or don't feel confident countering,

steer as far clear from the ideas and policy and instead stoke racial indignation when you can. it has worked before and here we are again. joining us is melissa harris lacelaw, political science professor at princeton. she wrote about the henry lewis arrest this week. great for you to join us. >> let me ask for your assessment of the president's comments last night on the gates' arrest. >> i think my greatest assessment here is as soon as i heard it, my heart sank only because i knew that would be the news cycle rather than the conversation on health care which has been, of course, a whole hour before. so here we have a press conference on health care. it becomes a conversation about the arrest of professor gates. now, i actually think it's worth talking about the arrest. it's worth talking about what it means for racial politics in the united states and how we've

reacted to it. but i think i was most distressed simply that when the question was asked, almost regardless of the answer, i think that would become the new conversation sort of in place of the more relevant and i think, you know, seriously important issues of health care. >> the two campaign committees of the republican party have started fundraising on this. they've put out an ad on this and we didn't know they could move that fast. is the lesson here that racial division pace, that racial animus is at least big political bucks. the speed with which this was seized on and the reason your heart sank when you were watching this, expecting what that reaction would be, it doesn't just essentially prove the theorum that race pays? >> well, we'll see. so what gop is up to. a couple of times you asked me on this show, what are they doing with all the kind of

racial politicking? don't they recognize that there are these huge demographic shifts happening in the country? how do they know this was a large multiracial coalition that elected our last president? but i think the answer is as i thought about it more and more, is that we're looking at a midterm election. in 2010, what the republicans are hoping to do is to make enough sort of room in the house maybe even possibly retake the house. now, this could potentially happen on the basis of the kind of race-baiting strategy. we don't know if it can, but it's certainly possible. because in the last midterm election, there were so many sort of conservative democrats that replaced republicans, basely on a referendum on the war in iraq. that if the gop can make this a referendum on race, ethnicity, immigration issues in the u.s., they could potentially make inroads to the districts they want to retake. get the house, get it just in time for the 2010 census so they can redraw districts for their own benefit.

>> do you see a strategic arc trying to exploit racial animus towards that end? do you think it's the same tactic which is my hypothesis? is this the same tactic we saw at work in the judge sotomayor hearings? >> this is opportunistic. i don't think, though who knows? i don't think that the gop actually sent the cambridge police to the professor's home to arrest him, to order to provoke barack obama to say it's stupid and create a possibility. not even i believe that. it would be a militant black thing to say. and instead, it's a moment of opportunity and one that's going to reappear over and over again. and after all, we're in this unusual space of having the african-american as our president in a country that's enormous racial inequality, bubbling racial anxiety.

each time it happens, it becomes an opportunity to try to peg barack obama as someone he's not. i know militant black people. they are not henry louis gates or barack obama. >> melissa harris-lacewell, plil science professor at princeton. always great to have you on the show. thank you. >> absolutely. coming up, an exciting installment of the transcript theater. this time new news about the secretive religious group in d.c. that runs c street. stay tuned for that. plus, the gob smacking corruptions sting in new jersey that netted three mayors, two legislators and a whole handful of rabies. bies. s.

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still ahead, when is the arrest of three mayors and two state legislators in the same state on the same day not surprising? when more than 130 of their state cohorts have pled guilty or have been convicted of corruption already this decade. that's new jersey. and that's coming up next. and does ms. packman deserve a shot at the olympics? duh. kent jones is on it in a moment. >> but first, time for a few holy mackerel stories. first up, an exclusive clip of a new interview of the top republican of the united states senate by our own john hardwood. >> how do you feel, senator ensign has handled the controversy that he's been facing? do you want him to serve out his

term and do you support his re-election? >> what senator ensign is doing is handling that issue himself. it's a personal issue to him and his constituents and i'm going to let him speak to that. >> are you uncomfortable with the idea that the senator's parents paying that money to the family that he'd been involved with? >> as i said, this is an issue personal to senator ensign and his family. he's going to handle the issue himself and be the spokesman for himself. >> when you're a republican in the senate who has just announced you're running for re-election and the best that the top republican in the senate can say about you is that you should be the spokesman for yourself? that's not good. no one knows exactly how bright the political future is for the conservative family values nevada senator who admitted to having his parents pay his mistress nearly $100,000. no one knows if the republican party will ever explain why that senator put his mistress' teenage son on the republican

party's payroll while that senator was sleeping with the boy's mother and then fired the boy when the affair was over. no one knows how that senator's constituents will feel in the long run about their senate demanding that other politicians resign because of their affairs. but him refusing so far to resign because of his. no one knows exactly how things are going to work out for republican senator john ensign of nevada. but, his staffers seem like they're starting to get a hunch. yesterday the "las vegas sun" reported that senator john ensign's top staffer, lopez, is resigning. he worked directly with another ensign staffer, doug hampton, who was fired after ensign started sleeping with hampton's wife. and now today, the seminar's office announced his communications director is also leaving. if it wouldn't accidentally imply that i thought presumed innocent john ensign staffers were racked, this is the part

where i would make reference to the sinking ship. one of the sources of the intrigue in the ongoing sex and money scandal is the role in the scandal of the secretive religious organization called the family, which operates a house called c street in washington where senator ensign lives with a number of other members of congress, and where they all pay well below market rent. other members of congress and former members of congress who live at c street say they knew about ensign's affair months before it became public and the husband of senator ensign's mistress say the members of congress who live at c street like tom coburn were involved in suggesting that ensign arrange a large cash payout to the mistress. senator coburn vociferously denies that. now members of congress associated with c street are getting cagy about talking about the group after a christian magazine called "the world"

described north carolina democratic member of congress heath shuler as a resident of c street. the hometown paper, "the asheville citizen times" called schuler's office to confirm. schuller's office would not confirm or deny it saying, "quote, sorry about this one, but because of privacy issues, we're not giving out any information about the congressman's living arrangements." a congressman gets to be private about whether he lives in a religious group home that swears the members to secrecy about the activities. how long do you think the congressman gets to be private about that? not to be outdone, another conservative democrat, bart stuback of michigan who's been listed as a c street resident in the press so artfully dodged questions about the family and c street on a recent conference call with reporters that he has earned himself a new addition of the "rachael maddow's show's" transcripts theater. these are by bart stupak on a conference call today recorded

by the "detroit news." i will not discuss what goes on there because i'm no there. are there other activities going on there? yes. but what goes on and things like that, i don't know. i have my room there. i have a room there and i participated in a tuesday night dinner once in a while there. there's no regiment. there's no group stuff i have to do. you guys are grasping at straws that's not there. i rent a room there. i almost have to chuckle at your questions. number one, i don't belong to any such group. i rent a room at a house on c street. i do not belong to any such group. i don't know what you're talking about. i have no affiliation. i rent a room at c street. i don't own the building, i don't know how the landlord has it listed. i pay rent for a room. i sleep there. i spent probably 6:00 in the morning to 10:00, 11:00 at night working at my job. i rent a room.

>> nothing to see here, folks, move along. i just rent a room from the extremist religious organization that swears me to secrecy about its act yits, but does give me advance notice of other politicians' extramarital affairs before they become public. he rents a room. diplomacy is not diplomatic. the current back-and-forth between secretary of state hillary clinton and the isolated, weird, stalinist dictatorship that is north korea. earlier this week the secretary of state said that north korea's missile launches were a desperate demand for attention. >> and maybe it's the mother in me or the experience i had with small children, unruly teenagers and people who are demanding attention, don't give it to them. they don't deserve it. they are acting out. >> north korea apparently did not appreciate being compared to an unruly teenager that was

acting out. in the last 24 hours, a foreign ministry spokesman from north korea has called secretary clinton vulgar, unintelligent, a funny lady, and has compared her both to a schoolgirl and to a pensioner going shopping. i repeat, pensioner. personally i'm surprised that a country that can't feed it own people would recognize a person lucky enough to live off of a pension. of all the things made for women... maybe one of the most important... we're shopping for car insurance, and our friends said we should start here. good friends -- we compare our progressive direct rates, apples to apples, against other top companies, to help you get the best price.

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a simpler way to ship. call or go online now to get started. three mayors, one deputy mayor, two state legislators. all from the great state of new jersey. all arrested this morning along with 38 other people as part of a massive federal corruption and money laundering probe that swept up a handful of rabbis and a man from brooklyn accused of conspiring to sell a human kidney. for $160,000, he would sell you a kidney. he promised to entice people to give up their kidneys for $10,000. a nice margin. the arrested nung public officials are all charged with taking bribes and illegal money. the details are straight out of

"the sopranos" including $967,000 in cash stuffed into an apple jacks box and passed on to one of the perps. "the new york times" says the fbi's anticipating confiscating so much actual cash in this sting they're considering borrowing money counting machines from a federal credit union in order to process it all. according to the complaints filed today, state assemblyman daniel van pelt allegedly took $10,000. l. harvey smith took $15,000. jersey city deputy mayor took $20,000. secaucus mayor dennis elwell allegedly took $10,000. ridgefield mayor anthony suarez allegedly agreed to take $10,000 and hoboken mayor peter cammarano took $20,000 including a $10,000 bribe he took last thursday. that would have been his 16th

day in office. for american politics generally, this is incredible. for new jersey politics -- eh. one of mayor's predecessors was convicted five years ago of taking hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes from a city account ant and a city business owner. he got more than two years in prison. another new jersey assemblyman was indicted for the third time this year alone. this time he's accused of knowingly accepting illegal campaign contributions. and in totally unrelated news, tomorrow, former new jersey state senator wayne bryant will be facing up to ten years in the pokey at his sentencing of bribery and pension fraud charges. big stings like today, these aren't new in the garden state either. it was two years ago that the fbi arrested 11 public officials in towns across new jersey and charged them for taking bribes as well. among those in that sting, two state law makers, two mayors and

three pleasantville city councilmen. that's pleasant. all told, since 2001, more than 130 new jersey public officials have pled guilty or been convicted of corruption. not in the history of the state. not since it wasn't -- since colonial times. since 2001. in the words of acting u.s. attorney in the state ralph mara jr. today, corruption among new jersey politicians is, quote, a way of life. joining us now is bob ingle, bureau chief for "gannett" trenton, new jersey. he's co-author of the book "the soprano state." thanks for joining us. >> love the show. thanks for having me. >> great to have you here. i have to imagine that since you wrote "the soprano state" not only did today's news not shock you but the magnitude of it didn't shock you. >> the thing that's shocking is they needed more than one bus. ordinarily when they take these guys down it may be a third of that and they can get it all in

one bus. but today they had to have three buses. but you know, you wonder how long this has been going on. we're asked this all the time. and we're doing, "soprano state, the movie." it's going to be a documentary. going back to research -- to see where the corruption started in new jersey and they found an instance where george washington who had to come across to jersey to fight the british with that rag tag army that he had that was ill equipped, the people of new jersey wanted to charge revolutionary army a toll. so -- so george washington wrote a scathing letter to then governor of new jersey. said what the hell, we're trying to win a revolution here. he wrote back, forget about it. >> it seems more corrupt than your average state. there is a way to defend it. you could say new jersey corrupt officials just get caught more? can you make that case? >> i don't think you can. i think it is the most corrupt

in the state. people ask us who live there, i'm not a native new jerseyian. but they ask, why would you want to live in a place like that? where else could you have that much entertainment? i think it's more corrupt. there are many reasons for that. one thing, we have too much government. we arrive in the soprano state. we tried to figure out a way of comparing how much government we have to the rest of the country. and, so, we -- we came up with census figures that said around -- the average number of government workers in the country is something like six per square mile. in new jersey, it's 81. >> hmm. >> and in new jersey, there's a sense of entitlement. people think they get elected to office and that gives them the right to steal as much as they can. >> but i go it to say, though. if you're talking about alaska versus new jersey, like i would want more elected officials per square mile of new jersey. there's a lot more people in it than the square mile of alaska or nevada or any of those things. what seems remarkable is that you look at these guys, 44 people arrested today, a number

of them public officials. they were getting away with this for a long time. you can take $10,000 on your 17th day in office. is there a law enforcement problem in new jersey which means that these guys get away with it? at the state level it takes the feds to come in and clean it up? >> it's what it is. the new jersey attorney's office is dedicated to the proposition that anyone of a high profile gets caught and is accused, that gets swept under the carpet. they go for the low-hanging fruit, the people that you have never heard of. but the high profile people seem to somehow get by with it. we have a thing called the schools construction corp. which was supposed to build new school schools in, primarily in poor areas. they went through 8.6 billion dollars, with a b, and record time and had very little to show for it. no one has been held accountable. they even brought in contaminated dirt to build a school on. then they built the school.

then they had to tear it down because they found out it was contaminated dirt. more work. and shouldn't somebody be held accountable for that? i think so. it hasn't happened. it's a part of the culture they have in new jersey. everyone goes along with the system. there are people who aren't in government. i heard a guy call in to a talk radio show this morning that i don't think it's a good idea at all. the host said, why not? he said, my family and friends are going to lose money because of this. >> so it's one way to make money. bob ingele, bureau chief of the "gannett" in trenton, new jersey office. soon to be a documentary, your book. thanks for your time tonight. >> my pleasure. >> oh coming up on "countdown," bobby jindal spent months slamming the stimulus bill, you might recall. guess who's handing out giant stimulus checks all over the state with his name on them. as they say in mardi gras, throw me something, mister! stay with us. we'll be right back.

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for the first time sips he has been president, barack obama has done one of the most solemn, most important things an american president can do. he's awarded a medal of honor, the nation's highest military award. this week president obama made the decision to confer one on sergeant first class jared c. monty who was killed in action in afghanistan. he was 30 years old, a native of massachusetts. this is his father paul monty speaking with his hometown paper this past memorial day and about his son and how his son lost his life. >> the father of a a soldier who was killed in afghanistan. my son jared was 30 years old. jared was with the 10th mountain division at the time he was killed. he was in the mountains of afghanistan. his small unit of 16 men was attacked by about 70 taliban and in the ensuing battle, three of his soldiers were downed and from his position of safety, jared decided he had to try to save his friends, his comrades. he was driven back by heavy

fire. that didn't stop him. he wasn't the kind of kid that could be stopped. he tried a second time and again was driven back by heavy fire. on the third time, he tried again and at that point he was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade and he was killed at that point. he was a wonderful kid. he had two bronze stars, purple heart, five army commendation medals, and yet he was a humble kid. he never even brought those medals home to show mom and dad. we found out about most of them after because he didn't want any accolades. >> the nation's highest accolade will soon be added to those already awarded to sergeant

first class jared monti. it is awarded to a service member distinguished by him or herself at gallantry or rapidity while engaged in an action with an enemy against the united states. only five medals of honor have been awarded thus far. no medal of honor has been awarded to vietnam to a soldier who survived the fight to which he was honored. taking its rightful place

in a long line of amazing performance machines. this is the new e-coupe. this is mercedes-benz.

we turn now to our sofa sports correspondent kent jones. that sounds dirty. is that how you mean it? >> not at all.

>> thank god. >> i'm going to pose a fairly bold question here. should video games be included in the olympics? "wired" magazine posed this question to olympic skiers and snowboardes. the superbuff athletes said it took exceptional hand-eye coordination and strategy, but put gaming in the olympics? sorry, dude, you're still doing it on your sofa in your sweat pants with your thumbs. you can't just imitate the sport. the whole idea of sports is doing it. are the jocks trying to keep the nerds in their lockers? that depends on what your definition of sports is. for instance, is this a sport? what about this? and okay, big, tough jock, what about tron?

are you telling me tron is not a sport. really? and a video game is a sport, which ones? the games i used to play? if "frogger" is allowed in the olympics, why not "twister" or even twitter? texts don't send themselves. what about this? or this? or this? or even this? maybe they have a point. no tanning in the olympics. no. >> nor flair bar tricks. i came home from elementary school and my mom was playing atari. that was like melt part of the brain. she was really good at kaboom. >> all right. >> cocktail moment for you, kent. we've been covering the john

ensign sex and money scandal for weeks now. >> oh, yeah. >> the sex scandal after saying other politicians should resign if they have affairs, then his parents giving his mistress $100,000. >> right. >> we used a graphic a little while ago that called him johnny cash for this. you'll recall we got a call from johnny cash's manager saying please do not associate johnny cash with this type. we then switched to a new graphic. we used john dough, cash dough. now john doe is mad. john doe from the band x, of whom i am a huge fan. weird thing is i was actually on my ipod listening to john doe's last solo record when i got the e-mail from the manager at rock records saying, not johnny cash, not john dough either. we need a new one. >> i'll think about this. >> thanks, kent. thank you for watching tonight. we'll see you again tomorrow night.

"hardball" with chris matthews is up next. good night. > police story. let's play "hardball." good evening. i'm chris matthews in washington. leading off tonight, taking sides. president obama asks for last night's news conference to talk about health care. but the biggest news may end up being what he said about the arrest of an african-american scholar, henry louis gates. he said the cambridge, massachusetts, police acted, quote, stupidly in arresting gates. the case and the president's answer touched a very sensitive issue in american politics and in history. it's called racial profiling. police treating minorities as suspects because they're minorities. we'll be joined by among others lynn sweet of "the chicago sun times" who raised that provacative question at last night's news conference.

also cheney versus bush. this week's "time" magazine just out today has a fascinating cover story on how vice president cheney tried and failed to get president bush to pardon cheney's former chief of staff, scooter libby. the story says cheney, who some white house staff thought might be engaging in a cover-up, came close to crossing the line with mr. bush. we'll dig into the details in a moment. plus, more on those republicans, the so-called birthers who insist in the face of all the evidence that barack obama isn't an american. one of the most prominent of them g. gordon liddy of watergate and radio talk show fame joins us later to explain what's behind this fringe unit and why he's a part of it. sticking with birthers for a moment, jon stewart had the best take on why this movement is insanity, and we'll have it in the "sideshow." back to last night, why did the president call a primetime news conference about health care if he had nothing new to say on the matter? we'll ask chuck todd whether last night was a lost opporty