we're back with our guests. jeanne, you're a political expert. what do you make of this jim bunning? his statement today, over the past year some of the leaders of the republican party in the senate have done everything in their power to drive my fund raising. the simple fact is i have not raised the funds necessary to run an effective campaign for the u.s. senate.

for this reason i will not be a candidate for re-election in 2010. i've never seen a candidate come out directly against the party leadership and blame them for his failure to be re-elected. your thoughts? >> his statement is dead on. he's right they tried to push him out. he's right they didn't raise the money. we haven't seen these sharp elbows played in the gentlemen's club that is the senate in a long, long time. mcconnell did not want him to run, didn't think he could win. that calculation might have been right but they definitely pushed bunning out. >> i'm with bunning on this one. michael, i'll never forget his heroics for the phillies. what a great pitcher. hall of famer. what happened here? >> well, mcconnell spent $20 million in the '08 cycle and senator bunning only has $595,000 on hand. whether they shut him down or he shut down himself it's not the age. some people are saying he's 77 years old and he's too old. it's the money. he just doesn't have the scratch.

he should have raised it himself. >> i'm talking about this. he seems perfectly fine to me whatever age he is. thank you, michael and jeanne. join us at 5:00 and 7:00 eastern for more "hardball." "countdown" with keith olbermann starts right now. which of these stories will you be talking about tomorrow? former governor sarah palin says good-bye to public office. >> i will be able to fight even harder for you. >> by fight for you she of course means continue her personal battle with the media. >> so how about in honor of the american soldier you quit making things up? >> is she forgetting that check keith wrote to the alaska special olympics for every time she lied about the bridge to nowhere? the gates arrest controversy. as the 911 call that sparked the arrest is released. >> i noticed two suitcases. i'm not sure if these are two individuals who actually work

there, i mean, who live there. >> a republican congressman wants the house to officially request that president obama apologize. but tonight i'll explain why the president was right to call the arrest stupid and all you need for proof of that is sergeant crowley's police report. it just happens to be a written confession of false arrest. the birther conspiracy theorists box in the gop yet again. new tape evidence that some republicans on capitol hill are still banging their heads against the hard facts of barack obama's birth in hawaii. >> asking the republicans if they believe barack obama is born in the united states. do you think there is a question here? >> i think there are questions. we'll wait and see. just when you thought dick cheney couldn't shock you anymore, we learned that he pushed george w. bush to illegally order u.s. troops to enter a u.s. city to arrest half a dozen terror suspects. forget the constitution. dick's justification?

what else? johnny yu told me i could. finally tonight the rise and fall of an alaskan maverick. >> every day was just a blast. >> a look back at one of the more bizarre political careers in american history. all that and more now on "countdown." >> only dead fish go with the flow. good evening from new york. i'm lawrence o'donnell. keith olbermann has the night off. this time last year there was speculation that senator john mccain might be on the verge of announcing that he had selected a popular republican governor as his running mate. no, not that republican governor. the governor in question was actually tim pawlenty of minnesota. instead, in our fifth story on the "countdown" senator mccain was actually weeks away from even starting to vet the woman who would join his ticket at the last minute, the once obscure

sarah palin, no longer the governor of alaska. mark her down as officially unofficial news. palin handed over the governorship sunday with more than a year left in her term but she did not leave without some measure of fanfare. saying good-bye to alaskans at a series of picnics across the state. in fact, she said a lot more than just good-bye but not much that actually made sense. >> together we do stand with gratitude for our troops who protect all of our cherished freedoms including our freedom of speech, which par for the course, i'm going to exercise. >> former governor palin has developed an odd love/hate relationship with the media. love that network cameras would even be there to see palin resign as they would not have been for any other small state governor leaving office for no good reason. hate, that with national attention has come national scrutiny. >> some straight talk for some,

just some in the media, because another right protected for all of us is freed ochl the press and you have such important jobs, reporting facts and informing the electorate and exerting power to influence. you represent what could and should be a respected, honest profession that could and should be a cornerstone of our democracy. democracy depends on you. and that is why our troops are willing to die for you. so how about in honor of the american soldier you quit making things up? >> do as she says but presumably not as she does. the list of fibs told by sarah palin has only grown almost exponentially in the ten months since we first learned she was for alaska's bridge to nowhere before she was against it. something else the former

governor is supposedly against, government largess. >> alaska, there is much in store further down the road but to reach it we must value and live the optimistic pioneering spirit that made this state proud and free and we can resist enslavement to big, central government that crushes hope and opportunity. be wary of accepting government largess. >> you'd never guess listening to the former governor that for every dollar alaska residents send to the federal government in taxes the state of alaska gets back and spends $1.84. in short, alaskans cannot survive without federal money, which was kind of the point of becoming a state in the first place. still, sarah palin pretends they don't need the money that keeps the state alive. >> i resisted the stimulus package and we have championed earmark reform, slashing earmark requests by 85% to break the

cycle of dependency on a stifling, unsustainable federal agenda. >> former governor palin would not say yesterday whether she has any plans to develop a federal agenda of her own. her husband todd would say only that she's not going to disappear. as for quitting on her constituents, well, remember, she did that for them, including the heckler who doubted her. >> it is because i love alaska this much, sir, that i feel it is my duty to avoid the unproductive, typical, politics as usual, lame duck session in one's last year in office. how does that benefit you? with this decision now i will be able to fight even harder for you, for what is right, and for truth. >> and for truth. lots to talk about tonight with our own political analyst

jonathan alter also senior editor at "newsweek" magazine. good evening, jonathan. >> how you doing, lawrence? >> let's talk about the quality of the speech. doesn't it seem sarah palin had much better writers at the republican convention? >> yeah. >> and has she given a good speech since then? >> you know, her speech at the republican convention was written by a guy named matthew skully who had been a bush speechwriter in the white house. you remember that some of those speeches president bush gave especially around the time of 9/11 were really eloquent, good speeches. and he wrote her a barn burner for that convention. you're right. she hasn't even come close to matching it since but i'm not sure for the faithful who were at that convention if it matters too much. she is now an icon within the republican party and we can laugh at her and point out all of her fibs and all of her absurdities but she has a hard-core constituency within that party that suggests that

her career is not entirely over. >> were there key elements in this speech that appealed to those elements in the republican party? >> oh, yeah. i mean, the whole thing was kind of patterned on what you would use as a playbook to try to position yourself for a presidential run, rejecting the stimulus, you know, every republican in the house voted against the stimulus and there were only what, three in the senate who voted in favor of it so standing there and saying she's against barack obama's recovery plan, good politics within a republican party, attacking the national media, good politics within the republican party. so there was some reason behind a lot of what she said, even if it, you know, rubs us the wrong way. >> how does yesterday's speech compare to nixon's "you won't have nixon to kick around anymore?" they both have bitter tones but she delivers her bitterness with a smile. >> she does, and it's also

important and useful to remember that it was only six years after nixon gave that speech in 1962 when he lost for governor of california that he was elected president. now, i'm not suggesting that i think the odds are good that sarah palin is going to be the next president but it's really important not to count people out in american politics. people love a comeback. she is very, very good at what nixon called the mobilization of resentments. >> jonathan, speaking of predictions and political futures i want you to leave us tonight with a prediction. what are the chances alaska governor sean parnell will be picked as the republican running mate in 2012? >> i would say those chances are zero. much better odds that sarah palin will, since she's not going to go the fancy speech, substantive speech route back that she'll get a reality tv show of her own and cook moose

stew on the air. that's speculation but you heard it here first. >> jonathan alter of msnbc "newsweek" thank you for your time tonight. >> thanks. >> for more on sarah palin let's bring in radio host shannon moore from kbyr in alaska, also a contributor to huffington post.com. good evening, shannon. >> good evening. >> we know that sarah palin has resigned but we get the feeling she's not going away. what does it feel like in alaska? >> well, i was watching closely yesterday to see if she was maybe quitting and pulling a mavericky move and would decide to stay. it was so up in the air what was really going to happen. none of the reasons have really stuck. in fact, they've been basically every reason she's given has been overturned by the media here so, you know, she's not going away. we have a lot of political shrapnel caused by the

mccain-palin campaign that started last fall and just continued through this past seven months. >> is alaska suffering from palin fatigue? >> i don't know if it's palin fatigue which i've had probably since before you knew her name but maybe more of a political, post traumatic stress disorder. this is a really small state and, you know, the conditions here can get really rough. she went over those in great eloquence yesterday. you can't afford to have the sort of bitter divide when someone's broke down beside the road at ten below. you don't look at their bumper stickers. you just stop and help them. and the division and the bitterness and the nastiness here, all of her allies were thrown under the bus. everyone that helped pass her legislation, were all really just thrown under the bus last year by the mccain campaign. so, you know, there is a lot to recover from. >> now, she's very angry at nus the national media for as she puts it making things up. but isn't that something she was

doing in alaska for a long time and you guys knew about it long before we did? >> yeah. i mean, she's classic. that's part of palin. she's not interested in the truth to tell a lie. she's just going to say whatever as long as it benefits her. there have been so many things. she's come out just recently with her whole "the washington post" piece on cap and trade. well, all of her advisors were saying that was going to actually help her gas line. so if she's doing this for alaska, it's really hard to see that. and if she just wants to leave and go make a lot of money and not be pestered by the silliness of government just say it but don't get on the alaska cross and say she's doing it for us. she simply isn't. >> are any of those irritating investigations going to be following sarah palin wherever she goes now? >> well, i don't know if people realize this but for two years, up to two years starting from yesterday people can continue to

file ethics complaints. the most recent one, the daniel report that came out last week very damaging. basically said she wasn't allowed to keep using her name and stature as the governor to raise money for slush funds. she said she wasn't and then it's come out she was actually signing thank you cards to people who had donated. you know, she was offered the chance to give the money back. she didn't want to do that and the report was leaked. i think that one particularly is going to be problematic for her. >> well, we'll follow it. shannyn moore, radio host, thanks very much for your time tonight. >> thanks, lawrence. ahead on "countdown" we'll open up our sarah palin time capsule and take a priceless look back at the best year ever in politics. set your tivos. also, a house republican wants to actually introduce a resolution to force president obama to apologize to the police sergeant who arrested henry lewis gates but up next i'll explain why that arrest was in fact stupid. and the actions of the officer amount to nothing short of false

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coming up the gates arrest. as a congressman tries to get the president to walk back his remark that the arrest was stupid i'll explain why when you examine the police report you can only reach the conclusion that the arrest was indeed stupid. and later dick cheney wanting to use u.s. troops on u.s. soil to arrest terror suspects. details ahead on "countdown." i go down to the pool for a swim... get out and dance... even play a little hide-n-seek. i'm breathing better... with spiriva. announcer: spiriva is the only once-daily inhaled maintenance treatment for both forms of copd... which includes chronic bronchitis and emphysema. i take it every day. it keeps my airways open... to help me breathe better all day long. and it's not a steroid. announcer: spiriva does not replace fast-acting inhalers for sudden symptoms. stop taking spiriva and call your doctor if your breathing suddenly worsens,

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the controversy over the arrest of professor henry lewis gates lingers, in part because it begs for an opinion from each

and every one of us. full disclosure. i was arrested for disorderly conduct by boston police a long time ago. as in the gates case the charges had to be dropped immediately because had done nothing to provoke the arrest. i then sued the police in federal court for false arrest and civil rights violations. i won, including attorneys fees. so in our fourth story on the "countdown", as a republican congressman goes to the ridiculous extreme and formally calls on president obama to formally apologize, as the two principals prepare to meet with the president, and as the 911 call just released proves that all kinds of last week's assumptions were just that, assumptions, let's consider president obama's original remarks. though not the most clever politics in the country where police unions demand loyalty from politicians the president's words were exactly right. the beer summit of professor gates and sergeant james crowley is likely to occur within the

next several days. according to the white house press secretary robert gibbs. a footnote. professor gates doesn't actually drink beer. but that probably will not hamper these three men, the president included, from moving forward. not something we could easily ascribe to those republicans who want to juice this for maximum political profit. like congressman thaddaeus mccotter, the michigan republican who evidently doesn't have enough to do what with his home state suffering a 15% unemployment rate. the congressman has introduced a resolution calling on president obama to formally apologize to cambridge police sergeant james crowley. meantime, the cambridge police department has released the 911 call that led to the arrest of professor gates. in this excerpt, the caller suggests that the people going into the house might actually live there. >> and they kind of had barged in and they broke the screen door and they finally got in, and when i had looked i went further closer to the house a

little bit after the gentlemen were already in the house. i noticed two suitcases so i'm not sure if these twor individua -- these are two men who live there or work there. >> the caller is asked if the men are white, black, or hispanic. she says one might be hispanic but she says she is not sure. she do's not identify either suspect as african-american. police have released the dispatch between police and sergeant crowley. in this excerpt sergeant crowley suggests the gentleman is being uncooperative but seconds later the sergeant is able to report that gentleman's identity. the gentleman says he resides he here, a little uncooperative, but keep the cars coming. >> copy. >> have an i.d. of henry louis gates. >> sergeant crowley's defenders suggested last week that the dispatch tapes would show how out of control professor gates was. big surprise. they were not telling the truth.

none of the yelling or tumultuous behavior described in crowley's report can be heard on the tape. as i recently noted in "time" there is no crime described in crowley's official version of the way gates behaved. crowley says explicitly that he arrested gates for yelling, nothing else, not a single threatening movement, just yelling on the steps of his own home. yelling is not a crime. yelling does not meet the definition of disorderly conduct in massachusetts. everyone who is defending crowley's decision to arrest gates needs to read his report. the only violation of law in there is false arrest. let's bring in john wrigley author of the blog that minority thing and a contributor to npr and the huffington post. good evening, john. >> lawrence, how are you? >> john, everyone brings their personal perspective to this. i'm sure you have experience and personal perspective you brought to it as soon as the news came

out. what was your reaction? >> you know, my reaction was here we go again. i mean, this is the kind of thing that you see far too often in the black community. just recently for example ryan motes an nfl running back was stopped when trying to get his wife to see her dying mother and a police officer detained him in the parking lot of the hospital despite the fact staff were coming out saying his mother-in-law is dying. let him go. the officer took his time in writing him up. i think there are a lot of people who are surprised by this or think we have a black president. why is this thing happening? was not surprised or shocked but was disappointed but the kind of thing you expect to see unfortunately. >> the president has talked about this being a teachable moment. what do you think the teachable moment is here? >> you know what? i'm not exactly sure. i understand what he's trying to say, that all of us should not prejudge and things like that but what is the teachable moment here? that if you are a black man in your house you should not commit a crime? he wasn't doing anything.

people can say he may have reacted badly but he didn't over react. he didn't hit the cop. he didn't threaten the cop. he didn't do anything bad to the officer. the officer on the other hand made the choice as you say in your article to essentially say, i'll show you who's boss. and take a step beyond the law because no law was broken. >> now, i actually think the teachable moment here is that we're all human. even good cops, and crowley may very well be a good cop, we're all capable of the stupid moment. we're all capable of the bad decision. and i didn't hear anything in what the president first said to indicate that he thought crowell oir any of the police officers on the scene were stupid. he thought that what happened was stupid. that seems to be a distinction that is completely lost on the president's opponents. >> i think absolutely. i mean, he said they acted stupidly. you make a good point. there is no reason to believe this cop is stupid in and of himself because he does his job every day. but the reality is that people can make mistakes and they can learn from them. by the way, an example of that

if you talk about teachable moments, the president who then came back and said, look. i calibrated my words incorrectly. i've invited both of these individuals to sit and talk and maybe we can all learn something. there are other people who not only don't want to apologize or take a step back. they want to introduce legislation because apparently we've solved all the other problems in america that the president should apologize despite the fact he has apologized. >> what do you think or do you hope to come from the beer summit at the white house? >> you know, i know it's not going to solve any big issue problems. my hope would be that all of us the next time we're in a situation where we don't really understand all that's going on and we're seeing people through our own myopic viewpoints sometimes that we'll take a step back. lawrence, as you point out in your article we can all make these kinds of mistakes but the reality is what do we do the next time when we find ourselves in one of these situations? >> you see some linkage in this event to some of the other developments in our news world, from sonia sotomayor to other

issues, don't you? >> yeah, i wrote about this on huffington post. for me, one of the issues here is that sort of proven mentality. one of the deals that's made with people of color and women is if you work hard, if you don't complain, if you do the things you're supposed to do you get a slice of the american pie. but over the last few months we've seen the best and brightest of us. as you mentioned, sonia sotomayor. the president obama with the birther movement and in this case henry louis gates. the idea it doesn't matter what you've done, it doesn't matter about your accomplishments or that you'll have spent more time on the bench than anyone else who sits on the supreme court. prove it. prove you can think like the white male perspective. prove that you really are an american. prove that this house belongs to you despite the fact the caller says that you have suitcases. you may live there. never having said to the police officer that they were black gentlemen or anything like that. that proven mentality i think is getting tiring for a lot of us who try to live by that but it's never enough. >> john ridley author of the

blog that minority thing and connor co contributor to the npr and huffington post. some amazing tape from capitol hill you have to see to believe. up next, in "oddball" yet another tribute to the memory of michael jackson from his number one fans, the inmates of a filipino prison. are the same, c: when a tornado tore through holly, colorado, air life denver took to the air... their night-vision goggles keeping them safe on a perilous flight... and powering those precision goggles--- is the only battery air life trusts: duracell. trusted everywhere. look for new duracell ultra advanced now with even more power to protect. you're ready for the mid-morning rush thanks to a good breakfast.

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on this day in 1940 a hunting trip gone awry starring an accident prone hunter and his clever foil. the world is introduced to bugs bunny. warner brothers debuting its signature rabbit in the feature "wild hare" and would later provide inspiration for real life thee at riske with dick cheney in the role of elmer fudd. on that note let's play "oddball." we begin at sloppy joe's bar in key west, florida where beer soaked beards can only mean one thing. an ernest hemingway look alike contest. in fact it's the ernest hemingway look alike contest held annually at one of the writer's old haunts. the competition is stiff and so are the drinks but with 139 participants vying for the title there can only be one winner. david douglas of texas. crediting his fisherman's

sweater for his victory mr. douglas says his literary ambitions are limited to check writing. to the philippines, time to check up on the prison population there as "oddball's" celebrity tribute monday continues. these convicts obviously have way, way too much time on their hands since they've choreographed yet another homage to michael jackson. with multiple cameras and costumes complete with gloves it lacks some of the original whimsy their first hit "thriller" garnered but in a very literal interpretation here now are a bunch of outlaws performing "dangerous." ♪ does being forced to line dance to michael jackson qualify as cruel and unusual punishment? the prisoners aren't sure what song they will perform next but a reasonable guess would be "smooth criminal."

coming up we've seen the last of that turkey obviously. but have we seen the last of sarah palin as an elected official? in 332 days she goes from governor of alaska to vice presidential nominee to resigning her office as the head of her state. we'll look back at a year even hollywood, even i couldn't have imagined. yet another shocking headline from deep inside the mind of dick cheney. he wanted to send u.s. troops into an american city to arrest u.s. citizens. how many ways is that wrong? jonathan turley joins me, next. y in the south. i'll never forget. it used one tank of petrol and i had to refill it twice with oil. a new car today has 95% lower emissions than in 1970. exxonmobil is working to improve cars, liners of tires, plastics which are lighter and advanced hydrogen technologies that could increase fuel efficiency by up to 80%.

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lose weight. live better. call or click today. playwrite robert bolt said in "a man for all seasons" the land is planted thick with laws. if you cut them down to get to the devil, who could stand the wind that would then blow? for our third story in the "countdown" former vice president dick cheney either utterly ignorant of or eager to

override our laws and constitution actually wanted to use the military to arrest americans in america. in late 2001, vice president cheney wanted to send troops into the buffalo, new york suburb of lackawanna to arrest a group of six yemeni american men for allegedly belonging to an al qaeda sleeper cell. so cheney asked then deputy assistant attorney general john yu to create the legal justification to do this. if the president decided to do what cheney wanted, he'd have to somehow get around not only the pesky bill of rights but also the posse comitatus act of 1878 that limited the government's power to use the military for law enforcement. no problem. john yu, who created the legal justification for torture when the bush administration asked him to, crafted a memo saying not only does the president have the right to deploy the military

inside the u.s. but also we further believe that the use of such military force generally is consistent with constitutional standards and here's a nice flourish, that it need not follow the exact procedures that govern law enforcement operations. the president ended up using the fbi to arrest the men but the incident marked the beginning of mr. cheney's numerous attempts to trample the constitution and illegally expand the power of the presidency. let's bring in a professor of constitutional law at george washington university, jonathan turley. thanks for joining us tonight. >> hi, lawrence. >> why would cheney want to go this route instead of just doing it the old fashioned way, using the fbi to bust these guys, which is exactly what they ended up doing? >> well, it's rather transparently an act of opportunism. many people of the

administration including john yoo were known long before 9/11 to hold very extreme views of executive power and they saw 9/11 as an opportunity. there was no reason to use the military to go after these rather low grade, alleged terrorists. in fact, that's what they proved to be. they had no difficulty in the fbi arresting them. but putting aside cheney, what's really surprising is that, you know, we hope as academics, as law professors, that people who are raised within our freedoms, our liberties, our traditions, particularly those who are trained in the law, will be naturally inclined to oppose these ideas. but this is sort of like a dormant virus that lives within our democracy that there are people who seem to long for authority, control, even domination. they're the people that tend to cheer at all the wrong times at movies like "v" and, you know, the ones that seem to relish in the idea of executive control.

that's what we have here. it's a combination of not just ambition but people who seem to desire a level of control. we came remarkably close to an act that fits every definition of tyranny. the act of an executive power setting a side the constitution saying in its memo that the 4th amendment wouldn't control and literally sending active troops into a u.s. city. and that came within one vote. that one vote was george bush, who is not exactly people's choice as a defender of civil liberties. >> if cheney had won this argument in the white house and they had done this, sent troops into lackawanna to make an arrest, what would the legal ramifications have been? >> you know, lawrence, very well, that these people are rather adept at gaming the system. they know if they went into lackawanna the courts probably wouldn't stop them or shut them down immediately. what you saw in this period was

across the board. this was the same period where they were ramping up the torture issue and enemy combatant. it was a full court press on the constitution. they were trying to create an atmosphere of fear in which the american people would give them power. congress in fact did give them a lot of power. short term they probably would have gotten away with it. a court would have been reluctant to enjoin them. in the long term i think a court would have found this was unlawful. this argument by john yoo is laughable. it's the same type of argument made in other areas by the president simply declaring someone an enemy combatant, simply declaring his motivation against national security he transcends our laws. that can't be true in a nation committed to the rule of law. >> jonathan, let's go back to what you said about president bush, the one man standing in the way of this. doesn't it seem the hero of this particular episode of dick cheney's assault on the rule of law was no one other than george w. bush? >> i mean, really, for civil

libertarians this is like darth vader saying take my helmet off, son. i'm with you. whether he, you know, there is some question of why george bush did this, whether he views this as politically too unpredictable or whether he did it truly out of constitutional concerns or traditional concerns or whether he simply didn't want to override the fbi. what's clear from his history is that george bush had very little understanding of the limitations of the constitution. what understanding he did have he had a very antagonist tiic relationship to it. i think maybe george bush the politician realized that all this stuff was ramping up so fast that he was risking a serious back lash. i mean, consider the fact that in his office at that time he already knew about these other unlawful programs. and now you have dick cheney coming in and saying, why don't we start sending soldiers into cities rolling down the streets? i think that perhaps george bush

realized that could be a bridge too far. >> jonathan turley of george washington university, thanks for joining us. >> thanks, lawrence. coming up, gop dementia on capitol hill. a surprising look at just how much credence republican congressmen are giving the rumors that president obama isn't a u.s. citizen. also, first came the big rollout, then came the interviews with the media. we'll take a look back at a year like no other in the political life of sarah palin. ultra women's.

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or nursing women. tell your doctor about all the medicines you take and if you are pregnant or may become pregnant. blood tests are needed before and during treatment to check for liver problems. contact your doctor if you develop unexplained muscle pain or weakness, as this can be a sign of a rare but serious side effect. this risk may be increased when trilipix is used with a statin. if you cannot afford your medication, call 1-866-4-trilipix for more information. trilipix. there's more to cholesterol. get the picture. republican congressmen support the birther conspiracy. gop congressmen ambushed on capitol hill forced on camera to declare sides in whether president obama's birth certificate from hawaii actually means he is an american citizen or not. and sarah palin's rollercoaster year. plucked from obscurity, mocked on "s & l" and now back to being a not so private citizen. a look back at the palin year that was, ahead on "countdown."

our number two story tonight is age old, really. boy meets girl. but their love is forbidden. so boy and girl marry and flee to kenya to have a baby. boy and girl plant fraudulent birth announcements in hawaiian newspapers and forge fake birth certificate so that boy and girl's son can grow up to be president and turn america socialist by saving its enormous

banks. now in the latest chapter of our story, story itself threatens entire u.s. political party as story's fans try to suck party's leaders into story's fictional world. leaving senator james inhofe telling politico, quote, they have a point and congressman pete hoekstra urging focus on bigger issues but adding, quote, not that this isn't important. how important? mike stark of fire dog leg and the huffington post surveyed republicans to see just how far and powerfully this little story has spread. >> if barack obama was a natural born citizen of the united states and constitutionally permitted to serve as president? >> the courts have said so. >> thanks very much. what do you believe personally? >> we're all going to find out. >> it's certainly being looked at. >> i'd like to see the documents.

>> what do you personally believe? do you think there is a question here? >> i think there are questions. we'll have to wait and see. >> you do believe there are questions. thanks very much. we're asking republicans if they believe barack obama was born in the united states. it doesn't matter to you? you swore an oath to uphold the constitution. you can tell me what you think. do you think he was? >> he said he was. >> we're in america. i think we are free. we apeople to stand on the sidewalk and this gentleman gets to show his -- >> can we pan over? >> he gets to stand for what he believes in and the way that he decides to because we're americans. there we go. he was born in mombasa, kenya. >> that wasn't planned. you know that. >> my point is -- >> what do the republicans -- >> not the republicans. >> let me ask you. do you believe barack obama was born in the united states? he constitutionally permitted to

serve as president of the united states? you're focused on health care. you can't give a yes or no? >> do you have some evidence that he is or isn't? >> chris matthews held up his birth certificate on "hardball" the other night. >> well, obviously the constitution speaks for itself and those requirements need to be met. >> so you won't say whether or not you believe he was born in the united states? >> i'll say we have requirements for that and that's up to others to determine. >> there was a process that was gone through and i think the process -- >> you refuse to say what you believe. >> i just told you what i believe. >> actually i think barack obama was born in hawaii. >> chris? chris. >> maybe not -- hawaii is a state of the state the united states and therefore he is a constitutionally, natural born citizen. >> to be quite honest the

information came to us to put that in question. there was a lot of very fascinating information that put that in question. my office did some in-depth research and we found birth records in the newspapers in hawaii that couldn't have been forged. >> exactly. >> you can't go back and rewrite those. so that is my perspective. >> a quick epilogue, congressman mccotter hustled from the camera saying he had to focus on health care was focusing today on introducing a resolution demanding president obama apologize for calling the very stupid arrest of henry louis gates stupid. coming up the birth of sarah palin's national political career came when senator john mccain hand picked the former alaskan governor to be his running mate. hard to believe that was less than a year ago. the amaziing rise and fall of sarah palin. next on "countdown." with memberships and fees. but not walmart. they have hundreds of generic prescriptions for just $4 for up to a 30-day supply

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it was the best of times. it was the worst of times. one of the most bizarre career trajectorys in american politics. now an intermission. our number one story, sarah palin's curtain call. yesterday the end of act one for the ex-governor of alaska. after a year's worth of fancy convention clothes and musings on dead fish ms. palin now heading toward that higher calling. while she remains coy on what might come next, time now to look back at what was the year of palin. >> now with other sports besides iditarod right? >> right. there is good college basketball today. i'll somehow the highlights next. >> she is exactly who i need. she is exactly who this country

needs. >> senator, i'm honored to be chosen. >> who the heck is she? the mayor of wasilla, alaska? a governor who was for the bridge to nowhere before she was against it? >> i voted thanks but no thanks on the bridge to nowhere. >> every time governor palin repeats her standard lies i will donate $100 to charity. >> thanks but no thanks. >> thanks but no thanks. >> a check to the alaska special olympics is in the amount of $3700. >> and the next vice president of the united states, sarah palin! >> i love those hockey moms, you know, they say the difference between a hockey mom and a pitbull? lip stick. >> people who like this sort of thing will find this the sort of thing they like. >> we made the right choice for

the next vice president of the united states. >> i went to an antipalin rally and a hockey game broke out. the sarah palin interview. >> and iraq, everywhere such as. >> i'm sorry. wrong tape. >> do you agree with the bush doctrine? >> in what respect, charlie? >> the bush -- what do you interpret it to be? >> his world view? >> all political gaffs by necessity now in historical context b.p. or a.p. before palin or after palin. >> even play stump the candidate if you want to. >> what other supreme court decisions do you disagree with? >> well, let's see. there is of course in the great history of america there have been -- there's never going to be absolute consensus by every american. >> governor, are you a feminist? >> i'm not going to label myself anything, brian.

>> do you consider yourself a femini feminist? >> i do. our next door neighbors are a foreign country. if they come to the air space of the united states where do they go? alaska. it's right over the border. >> what newspapers and magazines did you regularly read before you were tapped for this? >> i've read most of them, again, with a great appreciation for the press, for the media. >> but what, specifically? i'm curious. >> all of them. >> i'll just ask you one more time not to belabor the point. specific examples in the 26 years of pushing for more regulation. >> i'll try to find you some and i'll bring them to you. >> and now it belongs to the ages. palin v. biden. that was not a supreme court verdict. >> i may not answer the questions the way you want to hear. ck