kind of talk? >> when kanye west called george bush a racist, i thought it was outrageous. i think it's stupid and outrageous to do this with obama. we need to get i don't know the racism charge and start thinking more about personal responsibility and how we can better ourselves and look at each other as individuals and not through race. i think sam is absolutely right. for the president to address this would be a waste of his time and a distraction. >> you were with me on the set after the press conference. and you called it. you thought the press conference was not the right call to make for the president. and now these numbers have come out after that press conference. what's his next move? >> he's got to keep focused. if they want to keep their agenda through, keep focused. don't make news you don't want to make. and if you want to make real news, make real news, not

campaign speeches. >> he's going to traditionally red states, so to speak, and it shows obama has strength and appeal. he needs a game-changer. he needs the topic of conversation not to be about health care's imminent death. we need to talk about something positive. something that will get the narrative for the white house. there are just not many cards to play right now. >> i disagree. i think he needs to keep the leaders in washington and if he wants progress he's got to make news-cutting deals. >> i am all for the august workers. good to have you with us tonight. earlier i asked for your opinion on this. do you think the right wing verbal attacks on obama are free speech or hate speech. 9500 of you responded. our biggest number ever. 10% say free speech. 90% say hate speech.

we'll be in portland this friday night, portland, oregon, down hall meeting. for more information go to our website. appreciate you joining us tonight. coming up next, "hardball with chris matthews" starts right here on the place for politics, msnbc. bend it like beck? let's play "hardball." good evening. i'm chris matthews in washington. leading off tonight, suspicious minds. did you hear? obama pals around with terrorists? obama's not an american. he was born in africa and lied about it. did you hear? this one's the best just in from glenn beck. obama's a racist. he hates white people. like his mother and his grandparents who helped raise him and all the people who voted for him? got you. the worst part is that people are getting paid to say this stuff.

to dump on our election, saying the when he will thing was illegitimate, the guy is from a another country. to dump on the president saying he holds a deep seated hatred for white people. that's also from glenn beck. that's what we're starting with tonight. back to the real stuff of politics what, most americans think. we've got the latest from the new nbc news "wall street journal" poll out tonight. the headline, the president's health care plan is losing ground and so are the democrats, at least from where they were in inaugural season. chuck todd and political analyst charlie cook will go through the numbers with you. also, just because the democrats are hurting doesn't mean all is well with the other party. here's what one senator of ohio said about some of his fellow republicans. we've got too many jim demints and tom coburns. it's the southerners. people hear them and say these people, they're southerners. the party is being taken over by southerners. is the party of lincoln getting weighted down by the refugees from the democratic party down in dixie?

finally in more ways than one, we've now got republicans opposing health care reform by telling people that the government is coming to your house to ask you how you want to die. is that more mularkey? that's in the "politics fix." plus what, general colin powell has to say about mr. afternoon delight himself, rush limbaugh in the "hardball" sideshow. first, fox news host glen beck said this early tuesday about president obama. >> this president i think has exposed himself as a guy over and over and over again who has a deep seated hatred for white people or the white culture. i don't know what it is. >> fox was so concerned by that that it issued a statement separating itself from it. here's a statement from bill schein, the senior vice president of programming for fox news. "during fox & friends this morning, glen beck expressed a personal opinion which

represented his own views, not those of the fox news network." that's interesting they put that out. former congressman kweisi mfume and joan walsh. thank you for join us tonight. glen beck also called president obama, let me get this quote, can we move that quote up there right now? move up the quote. let's listen to it. >> i'm not saying that he doesn't like white people. i'm saying he has a problem. he has a, this guy is, i believe, a racist. look at the things that he has been surrounded by. >> what do you make of that, congressman? >> well, i can't even believe it, first of all. glen beck owes the president an apology, the american people an apology. this is an insult to our democracy and our way of life. it's throwing out race and trying to find a way to divide people. at the same time, he's wise enough to know maybe he can move his numbers up. i don't know if he wants to overtake one of his colleagues at fox in terms of ratings.

this sort of thing is terrible. if fox says that's not their position, the question becomes what is their position regarding the president. >> let me go to joan because the congressman raised the issue that maybe this is for commercial purposes. that's my hunch. >> mine too. >> i also have a deeper hunch. i don't know glenn personally or what his goals are. i think a lot of this is aimed at telling people who are racist on the other side, you're not so bad. he's as bad as are you. he's a racist too. >> he's a racist, too. it's not too because they're not racist. i wrote about this today, chris. i see it with both glenn beck and with rush limbaugh. there's a clear case of projection here where these guys with really suspect racial feelings and perceptions are projecting their own hate and their own divisiveness on to a president who, as you said, had a white mother, was raised by white grandparents, and there's absolutely no evidence at all that he anything but loves white people. obama got to where he was in my opinion largely because he makes white people feel like he knows we're all trying really hard and we really like it when black

people make us feel that way. i believe that this man -- i hear laughter. i appreciate it. i believe that this man is a bridge builder. i can criticize him on this or that, but the idea that he's racist is so sick, and i just want to finally say about fox, issuing a statement criticizing or separating yourself from his statement, separate yourself from him, fox news. find another host. you're profiting from his hate and then trying to have it both ways and saying we don't believe that. that's crap. >> well, you know, we've had mr. mfume, you're the expert. you're an african-american and the former head of the naacp and you represent the district of baltimore. let me just ask you, it seems after 400 years in this country, african-americans living here longer than our grandparents lived here, where does this fit in? this comment by him? >> it doesn't fit in. hate radio, hate speech, hate groups, hate crimes really don't fit into the america that we know today. for this to take place and for there to be silence in the ranks

of many on this comment is rather interesting. black people, white people, latinos, asians, people work every day to struggle to make a living for their family and have a nice mabd to live in, to try to enjoy life. this sort of thing says all that's out the window because this person is a racist and i don't like you and you should not like him. when we start going down that slippery slope it, ends dialogue. i would hope that persons who don't like this, which i know are most americans, will also pull back from the sponsors who continue to sponsor the shows that allow mr. beck and others to make money and get good salaries. don't buy the products, don't buy the services and pull back and send a very real mess and that there's no room in this america for that kind of talk. >> you know, joan, you and i have been on television together an awful lot together over the years. i just wonder if you believe what you said a minute ago. do you believe you know this guy beck enough to make that

accusation that he is really charged by racism himself or that rush limbaugh is? >> you know -- >> do you really believe you think you know their motives enough to say that? >> i really do, i'm sorry, chris, because i think that words have consequences and i think if you -- i judge people not only by their words but what they do. and if you look at people who have a pattern who have built a career out of dividing people and who built a career out of often not just obama but finding ways to degrade and diminish african-americans and african-american leaders, i don't care what's in their hearts, to be honest with you, they can tell themselves their not racists. they can tell me they have black friends. i don't care. it's racist to consistently make your living on the backs of black people. you brought up 400 years and let's consider this an intellectual show where we can talk history. i truly believe this assault on obama is linked to what you referred to earlier with his health care numbers dropping. i will tell you why. in the 230-year history of this country, the reason we have

never developed a social democratic base, the way they have in europe, we're the only western country without some kind of universal health care. there's a reason. it is because corporate interests have divided the american people by race and ethnicity. the irish from the black, the germans from the german-jews. it goes back to the 1700s. it's been very smart. it's been very effective. and people have voted against their self-interests to keep some other group down and therefore, we don't have the basic things that other countries take for granted in terms of a social infrastructure. that's what they're doing again. they want to defeat health care and defeat his whole agenda by dividing us on racial lines. i don't think it's going to work. i really don't. but that's what's happening. >> do you believe this grand theory, congressman, that joan just put out there that there's some grand sort of almost marxist analysis. >> i'm not a marxist. >> an economic analysis of human behavior, yeah, it is an economic analysis of human behavior.

>> yes, it is. >> i think we have tribalist tend dis. i don't think the corporate world created those is tribalist tendencies. >> i think they hetake advantag of them. >> i'm not a conspiracy theorist but i don't think humpty-dumpty just fell. i think he was pushed. there are people deliberate pushing buttons to try to hold back the progress that people are making in this country as one nation. and when you push those buttons as mr. beck did and so many others, it causes the progress to slow down. as i said before, this is anti-american and most of all insulting to the democracy people work day in and day out to preserve. >> let's listen to a couple bites again if we can run them now so people know what he said. we're not getting beyond glenn beck and his thinking here, if you will. here he is. >> you can't sit in a pew with jeremiah wright for 20 years and not hear some of that stuff and not have it wash over. what kind of president of the united states immediately jumps on the police just like what kind of president would ever

say, oh, well, yeah, well, he's black, of course he was breaking into the house. you'd never do that. you'd never do that. he wanted to address this. now, now they're going to have a beer? that's obscene. >> well, that's the thought. he's obviously embellishing this, congressman, get into this use of the word racist. racist in common parlance means you don't like the other race. if you're black, you don't like white. it means a sense of racial superiority, one race should dominate the other. historically whites dominating blacks. what do you think he means by this idea that barack obama is a racist, that blacks should rule the world and whites subservient? what meaning can you ascribe to this fellow this broadcaster? >> aside from the fact that he's laughable, he's also just a great big problem in the terms of the road of progress. you know, chris, i was born at night. i wasn't born last night. i served under ronald reagan, george bush, bill clinton.

every president says something in the heat of the moment that they back off from they say i may have misspoken. that's normal, going to always happen but for him to take this and to play it in such a way to suggest, well, you know, you've got to watch out because these black people are getting ready to take over, that is offensive. >> let me ask you, joan, about, this question of the birthers. you and i have talked about it before. i have thought there's an attempt by some people, not the republican party per se, but people on the far right who have tried to delegitimize our election and can't live with the fact that barack obama won so they're trying to say basically he wasn't a legitimate american, therefore it wasn't a legitimate election. therefore our democracy almost needs a new election. this guy needs to be picked up and taken out by ins beak. if you follow their logic to the extent that it exists, he ought to be picked up because he doesn't have a green card. >> lou dobbs came very close to that. >> if you listen to them as if they were logical, this is what they're saying.

is this of a piece, to de-americanize the guy? >> i do. i think it's related. it's all an attempt to dehumanize him and delegitimize him in a deep way. it does go back. you led the segment by talking about sarah palin, he's palling around with terrorists. it goes back to the palin campaign. i will not say the mccain campaign because john mccain did come out and tell people he's not a muslim, he's a good american family man and i value that moment because it's been way too rare in the last six to eight months. we need more of it. we're not hearing enough of it from republicans. michael steele finally today, michael steele did make a statement and said i do believe the president is a citizen and he's a legitimate president and i want these people to stop. but it's just been far too slow in coming. >> it's getting worse. lindsey graham is taking heat from the south down there from some of the right for daring to vote for his supreme court nominee of the other party. it's unbelievable.

it's getting very heated. congressman, thanks you very much for joining us. >> it's being taken over by the supremacists. the moderate republicans need to speak up and say something. >> well, let's wait and see if they do it, if there are any left. sir, thanks for joining us. joan walsh of salon, thank you. coming up, a brand-new nbc news/wall street journal poll to share with you. tough numbers for barack obama and very tough numbers for his health care plan. it's ail coming up here on "hardball" on msnbc.

>> coming up, a republican civil war? george voinovich says the big problem with his party is that it's all run by southerners. is he right? ♪ then bring 'em o where your laptop's at... ♪

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just prep, cook and share your way into a gourmet meal. wild salmon dijon in puff pastry with whole-wheat orzo and vegetables. new stouffer's anytime gourmet. make it amazing. welcome back to "hardball." president obama hit the trail again today to sell his health

care plan. what do you make of these job approval numbers what's causing them to go down, shuck? >> i'm glad you brought up the campaign aspect of this. that's what we've seen more than anything else in this poll. ifrk everybody has put their jer southeast on. maybe there was soft republican support over three or four month, giving the president the benefit of the doubt on the economy or health care. not anymore. this campaign atmosphere we've seen the last three weeks with the president out there every single day, talk about health care, it has hurt him, it has hurt his party. he's still hanging in there. he still has enough to win an election, but it isn't pretty.

>> on the economy, he's down below the water line, down below 50%. 49% on the economy. look at health care. on health care, people disapprove more than they approve pop it's upside down. >> is that health care number driving the overall job approval down? >> it's hard to sit there and not say that. what i have also found interesting in this is the more he's talked about health care, i don't know if it's people are confused about the message on health care are just more skeptical, the more they change. but if we see a sort of reaction with, hey, by the way, the economy still stinks, i giese. we still feel like the worst isn't over. and the numbers of people saying jobs and the economy are the most important issue have gone up. and yet he has spent the last --

it's almost as if okay, while you're talking about health care, can you get back to getting me a job. one said i don't need more government help, i need help finding a job. >> some people think both obama's signature issues are a bad idea. on the stimulus bill, that's less popular than it is unpopular. that has 43% saying the stimulus bill passed earlier this year is a bad idea. only a third of the people say it's a good idea. on health care, roughly the same. 36% say positive. they don't even like his economic initiative, which is the stimulus package. >> right. and let me turn this on its head. we have that bipartisan polling team. bill says hey. this means the conventional wisdom about the republicans being the party of no and say zitting here and just trying to say just be against the president. that's a bad strategy, be careful of that strategy.

their message is getting through. there are talking points on the stimulus. they beat this thing up for three months. it's getting through. on health care, we saw it the other day on the aarp town hall. the callers were reading almost as if they had the talking points verbatim. the great communicator that's supposed to be barack obama is losing to congressional republicans. >> let's take a look at these numbers. a majority of the country now blames both parties for the bit partisanship in washington. 20% blame the rs, 18% blame the ds, but a large percent blames both parties. >> aye been look at what's going on in the california budget crisis and in your state of pennsylvania, the stalemate. there are these little prairie

fires all over. what's going to happen to this angry voter who sits there and says can't you guys solve these problems? if the democrats don't get a health care bill, this idea if they can't get it together and get that done is that the spark that takes what's happened with california budget crisis, with new york budget crisis and everybody saying wait a minute, our entire -- all our politicians are failing us, whether they're republican or democrat. that's a warning number out there i think for a lot of elected officials that look at that and say boy, we better be careful. do you remember the ross perot angry voter. they could pop-up and who knows wh wr th where they go. >> which party would you like to see run congress the next time around? the republicans are still below 40 but they're catching up. the democrats are down to 46. that's the closest it's been now since april of 2006. so this is as close a

competitive edge or disedge the republicans have suffered here. does this mean that arlen specter joined the wrong political party? >> that's an interesting way to put it. but let's take this poll and remember, right now, this is a referendum on the democrats and on president obama. that's how i would view this poll. there hasn't been a democratic campaign against the republicans. the republicans are benefit big default. the problem they have, their image is still negative. they still don't have anybody that's seen as a leader inside their own party that everybody is gravitating to. right now, this problem inside the democratic party is not good. obama is above 50 but barely. >> are you suggesting -- i know you can't project it, or diagnose. you can diagnose but you can't prescribe. do you think barack obama would have been better to spend the last several months instead of talking about health care, talk about the economic problem he inherited. the growing unemployment, the problems of deflating the

economy, all this horrible worldwide stuff going on was basically out there when he came into office. if le had been saying that for six months would he be taking less heat now? >> i don't know if he wants to do that, but this poll was a two by four to my head of a reminder, guess what, voters react to their pocketbooks and that's why the health care debate -- people don't understand the plan and they're like what is it going to be? are you going to change my doctor and all this stuff. by the way, i don't have a job. remember, we talked about this in the summer of '08 when we would sit there and say how come neither obama and mccain are talking about jobs, jobs, jobs? >> back in '91, a guy who was not much of a politician defeated a heavyweight in pennsylvania, richard thornburg for the senate seat by saying people needed health care. if a criminal has a right to a lawyer, the working family has a right to a doctor.

people said it at the time that people who were worried about losing their jobs were afraid they would be stuck without health care. that was the way to sell health care in the old days. why doesn't obama say it this way. the way to say health care is this is something you'll lose if you don't get protected. norsds, tie it into the employment situation. >> i think he has tried that. it hasn't worked. now they changed to this idea of saying hey, this is turn into health insurance reform. he found a bad guy. not a bad guy in the republican party, but the same way everybody got angry at wall street over the economy, you can always get a bipartisan agreement that insurance companies are book ghee men and women. they're heartless and make decisions about what medical care you can get. they've decided politically they're going to have to make the insurance companies the face of the problem now and it's the

only way to get some form of reform out of congress and on his desk by october 15 and have something signed. >> he does have a bad guy out there, his name is glenn beck. thanks for joining us. colin powell hits back against rush limbaugh and republicans who are too afraid to stand up to rush-bo. they're all ditto heads. that's next in the "sideshow." tools are uncomplicated? nothing complicated about a pair of 10 inch hose clamp pliers. you know what's complicated? shipping. shipping's complicated. not really. with priority mail flat rate boxes from the postal service shipping is easy. if it fits, it ships ywhere in the country for a low flat rate. that's not complicated. come on. how about...a handshake. alright. priority mail flat rate boxes only from the postal service.

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back to "hardball" time for the "side show." first up, the feud rages on. last night general colin powell took on the entertainer in chief, rush limbaugh and the dittoheads who think that every minute of rush-bo amounts to a teachable moment. every criticism is a round of

revenge or public debasing attrition. >> the problem i'm having with the republican party right now is when he says things that i consider to be completely outrageous. and i respond to it. i would like to see other members of the party do likewise. but they don't. >> they're afraid to take him on? >> i know a number of instances where sitting members in congress or elsewhere in positions of responsibility in the party made light criticism of rush and within 24 hours they were backing away because there is -- >> why? >> there is a strong base of support for mr. limbaugh. >> i think there's three parties out there right now, the democrats largely loyal to president obama and the clintons, republicans looking for leadership right now and the hating tribalists living in nightly fear of the black helicopters arriving tomorrow morning dispatched by celebrity left wing commisars from new

york, washington and hollywood coming to take away, well, first their guns and then their families. that's the third party out there and glenn beck is talking to them. next up, a reckoning on the "new york times" opinion pages. columnist maureen dowd has been known for tough criticism of hillary clinton. here is speaking today in our quote. maureen who's a master of the pen has shifted her sharp literary focus to the more topical ex-governor of alaska. look out, sarah. and finally, goodbye rats ratso rizzo. the "new york times" reports that new york mayor mike bloomberg's administration has

been trying to save money on shelters by buying the homeless one-way tickets to place where is they've got relatives willing to take them in. the city spends half a million dollars a year now on a program which sends people mostly back to georgia, the carolinas, and other points south. i guess if you can't make it in new york, it's time to get on the bus, gus. anyway, time now for tonight's "big number." republican congressman jeff flack of arizona, who was a guest on the show yesterday, wants to slow the progress of a $600 billion plus defense appropriations bill which he says is loaded down with wasteful earmarks and no bid contracts. how is he doing it? by filing amendments one after the other. how many is he filing? a record 553 amendments. according to the politico newspaper, if the house actually votes ends up voting on all of those amendments, it would mean roll call votes for 50 hours straight. congressman flake's making a stand with 553 amendments to that big spending appropriations bill. tonight's big number. up next, the republican party has been shrinking the last few election cycles and now republican senator george voinovich of ohio thinks he knows why.

he says there's too many southerners aboard. are southerners driving the gop south? you're watching "hardball" only on msnbc. i'm mike huckman with your has the fastest serve in the history of professional tennis. so i've come to this court to challenge his speed. ...on the internet. i'll be using the 3g at&t laptopconnect card. he won't. so i can book travel plans faster, check my account balances faster. all on the go. i'm bill kurtis and i'm faster than andy roddick. (announcer) "switch to the nations fastest 3g network" "and get the at&t laptopconnect card for free".

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i'm milissa rehberger. a grand jury indicted a man accused of kill shooting and killing a security guard at the hol cast museum. he's facting seven charges including first degree murder. secretary of defense robert gates says some u.s. troops could be coming home from iraq ahead of schedule after visiting with military commanders there. gates says the current security situation is better than expected. the national weather service logged an all-time record high temperature for the city of seattle today. the emerald city hit 103 degrees, just after 4:00 local

time this afternoon. on wall street, a late rally and the fed's latest economic snapshot was not enough to move stocks into positive territory. the dow jones stroi stri yals finished 26 points lower. the s&p 500 lost four points and the nasdaq is down almost eight points. that is the news for this hour. we go back to "hardball." this is going to be trouble. if we haven't had enough trouble with glen beck tonight, recent comments by republican senator george voinovich has gotten some other republicans mad. he told "the columbus dispatch," his hometown dispatch, we've got too many jim demints, the conservative guy from south carolina and tom coburns from oklahoma. it's the southerners, people hear them and say these people, they're southerners. the party's being taken over by

southerners. what the hell they got to do with ohio? joining me tom davis, republican from virginia which is somewhere on the border. southern border, it's a southern state. what do you make of this? has your party become the party of ex-democrats who quit the democratic party because of civil rights back if the '60s? they're all dixiecrats now calling themselves republicans? is that kill your party, trent lott? >> a lot of them are northerners who move south in migration for the new economy, as well. felt comfortable, right to work states. >> jim demint, lindsey graham move south? >> lindsay didn't. but a lot of our members are northerners, tom price from georgia. >> richard shelby is an ex-democrat. he's classic. >> it's a coalition. you know what southern politics is about. >> i'm looking at the party. you've had 19 members of the united states senate who are republicans in the last couple elections quit. that's half the number of senators there now.

you've got 40 republicans. almost half have just quit there's no future except for specter who just got in the lifeboat, right? he got in the lifeboat with the titanic. in new england, there's no republican congress people left. >> not in the house. >> not in the house. in the senate, the house in new york, there's like two left. one's leaving to become secretary of the navy. >> we'll hold that seat i think. >> it seems like the whole northeast where i grew up, there was always a republican senator in every state at least. two in pennsylvania for years, new jersey had a republican senator. new york had two republican senators when i was a kid. what happened to your party in the north? >> politics has been defined by culture and we've become a rural party and a southern party. we've been losing inner suburbs and the like. a lot of this was the policies of the bush administration. there are 18 states we've lost now five straight presidential elections. mccain wasn't within ten points. 34-2 is the senate lineup in those states. >> what do you think the problem was when i polled the people at

first presidential debate last year at the reagan library. we asked them a simple question. do you believe in evolution? i think three guys said yes. i mean, you had -- they don't believe in sort of the natural biology courses we all took in high school. you have a party that doesn't believe what they were taught in high school. >> it's changed so that people, the high education areas obama carried, 78 of the 100 counties with the highest education, mccain carried 88 of 100 counties with the lowest education. as we move the cultural politics, that's been the shift. >> is that the smart move for the republican party? >> it's a terrible move. >> to pick up the dixiecrats when they quit the democrats over civil rights? >> it's also rural versus urban in the northeast and midwest and everything else. it's going to change. part of that is the cost of government. >> guys like tony perkins are dancing on your graves. the far right guys, limbaugh, they love this thing. >> they don't think we've gone

far enough to the right. >> they love it. they want a small republican party they can dominate. glenn beck's not upset. >> they want a private club with an admissions test, they don't want a party which is by definition coalition. >> would they rather lose? >> demint said he would rather be 30 true believers than the broad coalitions that make a majority. the democrats have let so many moderates in, they're having trouble passing bills even with big majorities. that's where the country is. that reflects the electorate. but it's going to change a bit. >> would lincoln join today's republican party? >> i think he would. >> what would he like about the republican party. >> i think he would like our economics. i don't think he would like socialized medicine. >> okay. you're back to your party roots. that didn't take long. >> i'm an economic conservative. >> let me ask you about the party's future. it seems to me you've got a choice between sarah palin and mitt romney, just to be cartoonish about it. you have the person who's a full mooner. very attractive politically. she knows how to give a speech

which most people don't in america. she draws a crowd. then you have mitt romney who's dull who doesn't seem to know that he's a politician. he doesn't seem to know how to be a politician. who wins? >> i think you'll see maybe a john kasick emerge. >> if he wins in ohio. i think the midterm will bring in a new breed of republican out there that can appeal, will hold the base. >> can you win with a party where charlie crist wins in florida, tom coburn wins in pennsylvania, christie wins in new jersey, mcdonald wins? virginia? is that the basis for a national political party, a bunch of governors? >> i think it's going to be. i think we'll pick up in the house as well because the midterms are a referendum on obama. the voters will want to put a check on him. >> you're saying abraham lincoln where he brought back to life today would not join the party of obama but the party of mitch mcconnell? are you serious? >> i am serious. >> can i put you under oath right now.

>> and tom davis and john warner. we can go on and on. absolutely he would be a republican. he's a fierce independent. >> how about teddy roosevelt, a conservationist? >> he's a new yorker. i can't comment on that. >> thank you, sir it tom davis. a virginian. up next, talk about scare tactics, the latest right wing strategy to defeat health care telling old people the government's going to get them, go to their house and ask them how they want to die. we'll get to that. it gets worse in the "politics fix."

the politics of personal destruction from glen beck to the birthers. will republicans pay a political price for the right wing smear jobs? we'll be back to talk about the president and his enemies.

we're back now with the politics fix with the "washington post" lois romano and the politico's jonathan martin. let's take a look at the president, here he was talking about the health care plan after being asked a question by a wary caller at an aarp meeting today. >> i have been told there is a clause in there that everyone that's medicare age will be visited and told to decide how they wish to die. this bothers me greatly and i'd like for you to promise me that this is not in this bill. >> you know, the -- i guarantee

you first of all, we just don't have enough government workers to send to talk to everybody. to find out how they want to die. i think that the only thing that may have been proposed in some of the bills and i actually think this is a good thing, is that it makes it easier for people to fill out a living will. >> well, here's north carolina congresswoman virginia foxx speaking on the house floor. >> republicans have a better solution that won't put the government in charge of people's health care that will make sure we bring down the cost of health care for all americans and that ensures affordable access for all americans and is pro-life because it will not put seniors in a position of being put to death by their government. >> that's how hot it's getting. lois romano, jonathan martin, your thoughts about this debate. it's a provision in the energy and commerce version of the

health care bill in the energy and commerce bill. it was put in by earl blumenauer from oregon. there it stands. it's a provision that allows you to get counseling every five years or so. i wonder what the hell this provision is doing in a bill aimed at people who are younger? it's not about medicare an recipients. why we would want to be visited every five years by somebody to talk about how you want to die. i think it's crazy this is in there. your thoughts? >> it's not in there. >> it's in the bill. it's in the dingell bill. >> chris, first of all, it's an extension of a 1999 bill enacted during the bush bill and it's a self-determination, a patients rights bill. all it really says is that medicare will pay if somebody wants to go in and have a consultation. it doesn't say you have to have a consultation. >> it's not about medicare, lois. we already have that in medicare. this is about people under 65,

younger people. this is not about medicare. we've got it in -- you're saying that. this is about a health care bill to help people in their middle and younger years. why would you have this conversation with them? >> i think it's basically to give patients some rights. they want to go in and have a conversation. it's about a living will, as obama said. it's about making choices, about being prepared. i think most people would opt to use it if they were will. i don't think you and i would go in and say can we talk how i'm going to die in 20 years if instinct happens. you're talking about a person say they're 45 and they're dying and they just want to go and have a consultation. >> this is on a regular recurring basis. >> it's not mandated. >> it's not mandated. what's it doing in there? i have a sense this was put in by a lobbyist who wanted this for hospice care. smsh pushed this in there. it's the social policy dynamite that sounds like denmark or scandinavia that drives a lot of moderates or conservatives crazy.

your thoughts, jonathan? >> and chris, that's exactly why you see somebody like foxx from carolina, a very carolina, a very conservative member, bringing this up on the house floor because it does offer political fodder. if you're a republican you're trying to do anything you can to torpedo this bill. you go into this bill and you find any element that you can take out and extract and try and use that to hurt the larger bill. that's why you heard that on the house floor and why the president has folks calling into his aarp call-in show bringing this issue up because the republicans are trying to find something to kill this larger bill. that sounds pretty damn scary. >> the concern i have is that something that can be handled by filling out a form that somebody can handle for a miniscule amount of money and this is a trillion dollar bill here and somebody put in a provision which is a nice, useful handle for somebody that says we've got social policy here and the lefties can't wait for us to start telling old people, well, it's going to cost a lot of money for you to live so maybe

you ought to be doing this other thing here. >> i just don't see it that way. everything that i read about it, it's a provision that asks hospitals to raise the question of living wills, which i don't have but a lot of people have one, and just say, do you want to do this? if you're coming into this hospital do you want a living will? you make a very good point. even, it's even more benign if it's not for the elderly. it's just to be able to inform patients they have some rights. if they want to do a do not resuscitate. i just don't think there is that big a deal about it. >> we'll come back on this. i think it's like the abortion issue jammed into this thing. we have a hyde amendment low thas says the government will not pay for abortion. people were talking about putting that into the bill here. pro choice people that want the government to pay for abortions. there is a lot of social policy being jammed at us on what is essentially a financing issue. >> this is not a social policy. this is just telling a patient what options they have like a patient's living will. >> sure. why is it in this bill? >> well, why not?

>> well, we're talking about it. thank you. we'll stay with this. we'll talk about glenn beck, a simpler topic, when we come back with "hardball" only on msnbc. you have questns. who can give you the financial advice you need? where will you find the stability and resources to keep you ahead of this rapidly evolving world? thesare tough questions. that's why we brought together two of the most powerful names in the industry. introducing morgan stanley smith barney.

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we're back with our guests. let's listen if can stand it of glenn beck on fox yesterday morning.

>> this president i think has exposed himself as a guy over and over and over again who has a deep-seeded hatred for white people or the white culture. i don't know what it is. >> well, he also called president obama racist. listen to this. >> i'm not saying that he doesn't like white people. i'm saying he has a problem. he has a -- this guy is i believe a racist. look at the way -- look at the things that he has been surrounded by. >> lois, what do you make of this character, glenn beck? he's rising high on the right wing side of things. >> okay. so i have a question for you. why are we talking about this guy? >> right. >> he went to the same school of hateful punditry as ann coulter did. he had keith ellison on his show and wanted to know if keith was a terrorist of some sort. he said he couldn't debunk rumors that facilities were going to be used as concentration camps. the guy is bordering on being a

nut. >> more people listen to him than read "the washington post." that's why we're listening to him oh, well. >> the fact is that voice is being heard and some people believe it. i assume people who listen on a regular basis mostly do believe him and are willing to listen to what he has to say because they think it has some value. >> and the more provocative he is, then the more attention he's going to get and we'll talk about it and it'll be picked up online and therefore the more viewers he gets. it's like the coulter strategy as well. the more provocative they are the more attention they get. >> what did you make, lois, of the fact that the fox news network, one of their top executives made a point the other day of coming right out and saying he does not speak for us? this may be a first. he says don't count on us to back up this guy's point of view. >> well, because they know they're dealing with a very popular president and a very hot issue. i mean, we've just come off of two weeks of an intensely hotly debated racial issue with skip gates and the