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morning, everyone. welcome to a brand-new hour of "msnbc live." i'm carlos watson. is the anger and outrage projected across town halls across the country going beyond health care. reports of wildfires are sparking and revealing a deeply divided nation. ration health care and a divided nation. we talked with a former executive blowing the whistle on industry tricks. former vice president dick cheney unleashes on his old boss, president bush for going soft, in his term. the fed says the recession is leveling off. reports out today are painting a different and darker picture. leniency for lockerbie? authorities in scotland discussing releasing the only

individual involved. former chair and one-time democratic chairman howard dean joins me, congresswoman louise -- "washington post" gelman and tge. news we use every morning, fast forward through top headlines. new economic data reveals recession still has a grip over much of the country. retail sales fell 4%, worse than expected. adding concerns jobless claims raised by 4,000. a deadly end to a police chief in detroit. a man careens into a power pole. the truck burst into flames killing the driver. no one else was injured seriously. you can see it right now on the

screen. scottish authorities considering an early compassionate release for the only man convicted in the bombing of flight 103 over lockerbie scotland. he was sentenced in 2001 to the attack which ultimately killed 270 people including 180 american. on the "today" show, a mother of a victim expressed her anger over the idea. >> we are the victims. we are tossed aside. i can only tell you megrahi is guilty, should serve time. the human rights records are the worst in the world and instead i see appeasement. >> a lot of pain there. defense team is saying he's dying of cancer and should be granted release to spend remaining days with him family. each day on "msnbc live" i welcome someone to join me for the hour. today i'm pleased to have back karen finney, democratic

strategi strategist, former press secretary for hillary clinton and howard dean, lot of bona fide democrats there. >> yes. >> how do you feel about the poll coming out that says this health care showdown, if you will in the town hall, a move of independent against the president. what does that say about where the party stands? >> it says we need to get our message out in a clear and simple way. part of what happened in the last couple of months, fractured messaging, not a clear sense of why do we need to reform health care, what does it mean to you which left us vulnerable to attacks, some of the say in 1994. >> i want to bring in savannah guthrie live at the white house. in fact, president obama's hope of a bipartisan health care bill may have gone outside the window, the only republican still trying to reach across the aisle came pretty close yesterday to endorsing the death panel. take a listen to this.

>> the house bill, there's counseling for life. from that standpoint, you have every right to fear. we should not have a government program that determines if you're going to pull the plug on grandma. >> pull the plug on grandma. savannah guthrie, white house correspondent, chuck grassley, finance committee, ranking member, key republicans president obama had lunch with, talked on the phone with a bit, in holly's hopes he would be critical to a bipartisan deal. hearing that kind of comment from grassley, has that shaken the white house on how much support they can expect? >> they still want to work with grassley. it is not helpful to the extent it fans the flames over this death panel euthenasia debate. i think grassley was just saying he didn't care for that provision in the bill.

he didn't go so far as to say it was a death panel or a slippery slope to euthenasia. but what he said was not helpful to the white house. the senate finance committee, grassley is still at the table for the mom. in the town hall he said he doesn't care for the talks of doing this in an entirely partisan way using reconciliation rules that the president has acknowledged in so many words that's still on the table. in other words, he can't get a bipartisan deal done. they are not afraid to ram it through on a democratic only basis. he's still at the table. those statements at the town hall don't help. you know, the white house is trying to keep it all in perspective. >> what do you think when you hear what savannah just shared. >> one question i have from you, if you're hearing from the white house, any concerns they have on the senate side they are trying to obviously create a bipartisan bill, on the house side they have drawn some pretty clear lines in the sand. at some point we may get to a

place where the white house will have to abandon the idea of this bipartisan bill. i'm wondering how concerned the white house is or if you've heard but about that tension from the house and senate? >> a few things going on here. first of all, i don't think there's any question that the white house regards that as a possibility, that there will become a time when senate finance doesn't get it together, can't produce a bipartisan bill. if that's the case you do not hear people at the white house saying, well, i guess health care reform is dead. the bottom line is they are going to get something passed one way or the other. there was a write-up, i think in the "new york times" that alludes to something you're saying essentially, is the white house playing favorites right now, more involved in the senate finance committee proposal than it is in the house committee proposal. i think folks would say, no, there's two different processes going on. i think there's no question who is leading the charge from the house on health care reform, dealing a lot with what's happening in the senate finance committee. it would feed the notion somehow they are playing favorites.

>> savannah guthrie at the white house, thank you so much. >> sure. >> i want to ask you about that and about the notion. part of what i hear on the white house side, let's get into conference. once we get a bill out of the senate pasadena bill out of the house passed and voted on and get those into a conference committee, there we may be able to make things happen that can't happen right now on the sthat side. do you buy that? >> i think there's that potential but still going to have to get a full vote on the bill. i think there is a risk if they go too far towards the republicans they are going to lose some folks on the left. i'm not sure they are doing to -- they are going to have to come up with something to bring back to the middle that the president can sign and voters feel good about. that's the tension we see playing out here. however will we go in the quest for bipartisanship before we say, you know what, we'll have to do what we think is right and might not get a bipartisan bill. >> we might have to ask your old boss. >> let's do that. >> former democratic party

chairman, democratic presidential candidate, governor of vermont. >> good morning. thanks for having me on here. >> hi, governor. >> what do you think about the tension about how bipartisan to be. you said back in july, july 21st, you said ultimately you don't think republicans have an interest in really delivering transformative health care reform under at least president obama. consequently this ultimately was going to be a democratic only effort largely like the stimulus. do you still stand by that? >> i think that's true. i do think there are some senators in the finance committee, senator grassley is one of them, who would like a bipartisan bill. i think in senator grassley's case, they are feeling the heat from the folks busting up the congressional meetings just as well as the democrats are. his response i thought was rather pathetic. he didn't deny there were death

panels in the bill, the most ridiculous idea that i've thought of -- that i've heard of, and didn't have the nerve to deny it. in fact there are no death panels in the bill. but they are afraid of their own people. i think what you're seeing with senator grassley is he knows and he's been told in the senate caucus don't sell us out, don't come to a compromise you can't get republican votes for. the problem is president obama will settle for three or four or five republican votes. that isn't going to deliver additional votes out of the caucus other than those three or four or five and going to cost him six or eight or ten or 15 votes on the democratic side. again, the vast majority of the republicans have no interest in getting the bill. they don't want a bipartisan bill. they just don't want any bill at all. i think at the end of the day, because of that, the president is going to have to come home to the democratic party and pass a decent bill. four out of five committees pass a decent bill.

>> blue dogs made the bill better. >> governor, now i'm in the position everybody dreams about, i get to ask my old boss a question. i want ask the question i want to ask. >> when are you going to get a raise. >> we'll talk about that after. you and i talked a lot about what you were just saying, sort of this tension between trying to get a bipartisan bill, seeing what the house members have said, some of the progressive groups have talked about potentially ned lamonting democratic candidates if they don't -- >> liberal primary challengers. >> if they don't hold firm as you're holding the line particularly when it comes to the public health insurance option. i want to get your reaction on that and if you think that's a possibility in 2010. >> it is the possibility. here is the problem. we're deep in this big political fight and people have lost focus on the policy fight. the bill doesn't work without a public option, which is the big divide between the center left

and the right. so if you have a bill with no public option, basically you're giving $60 billion a year, which is the cost of the bill in the house to the insurance companies. that is probably the worst thing you can do. so i think the position of progressives is going to be if you don't want the public option, then forget it, don't have a bill. you can do insurance reform, doesn't cost you a nickel. do community insurance and rating, doesn't cost a nickel. the rest isn't reform and you're making the problem worse. i think people have got to understand the public option is not about a left versus right, it's about giving americans a choice to reform the health care system or not reforming it at all. >> governor dean, i want to ask you as someone who has overseen democratic efforts in major elections how you're looking not only in 2010 but the critical 2009 race, one in virginia and one in new jersey. do you think those are critical

bellwethers? do you think those are critical. right now democrats are behind eight or nine points in each race. >> i think the one in virginia is somewhat of a bellwether. in general democrats have done well, the president won in virginia, we've had two great democratic senators in a row. i think he'll win that race, tim kaine came from behind as well. i think you can argue it's a national race, new jersey is not a national race. i think he'll come from behind and win, too. i don't think you can say that's national. there's a lot of local issues difficult in addition to long-term problem jon corzine tried to fix over the years and had to do unpopular things, hangovers from governor whitman and greeleys era. >> don't you agree democrats can't take 2009 or 2010 for granted. when you were chairman of the party in 2006, not to just win

but turn our momentum around and turn around the feeling in the party that we could win. i worry that republicans, if democrats don't pay attention, could actually do well in both of those races. >> well, they can. of course if i were the republican chair and i were to win both those races i would say that was a national bellwether, now that i'm a dispassionate political analyst i don't think you can say that about virginia or new jersey. but look, everything has changed. the health care verdict probably will not be known by november. everything has changed. we have a democratic president, democratic senate, democratic house. and it's a new ball game. i know they are, the dnc is putting effort and money into virginia and new jersey. i do think we'll turn those around simply because i think in the long run people just don't trust republicans to run the government, after the last eight years and after what they have seen in the last four or five weeks at town meetings. >> governor, thank you so much for joining us.

>> carlos, thanks for having me on. >> thanks, governor. >> thanks. >> is bipartisanship dead in worship. we want to hear from you. go to twitter.com, follow the ling, click on my image. send me a tweet. let me know what you think. we'll read that. straight ahead, former industry insider blows the whistles on the lengths insurance providers are willing to go to save a buck. sounds like roughly crow and "the insider." cheney unleashed. former vp lashes out at his boss for not taking advice in the white house. you're watching "msnbc live," i'm carlos watson.

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welcome back to "msnbc live." i'm carlos watson. as he prepares to release his memoir, former vice president dick cheney is expressing his frustration and disappointment of former president george w. bush. he felt bush was shackled by the public reaction and criticism he took and moved away from him in the second term. joining me to talk about this, staff writer with the "washington post" who wrote the cover story, also former communications chief from dnc. very interesting here, for so many years we actually heard vice president cheney praise president bush as a man of resolve, a man of principle. now it seems like, i don't know what to say, disappointed lovers. >> wow. >> i mean that with the kind of extra frustration that comes from people who once felt very

strongly and positive towards someone now a meaningful break. >> this partnership is not a marriage and not a complete breach by any means. there's still respect there. cheney has been a lieutenant loyal all his life is now unbound by the job. he's making it clear he had substantial disagreements with bush. >> that's a real phrase to say, maybe i'm misreading it, i don't want to do that, to say he's going south and moved away. one of the things people that supported president bush would say, he would stand strong even if the polls were against him. you heard him say frequently in office, i'm doing what truman had to do, lincoln had to do, i'm making tough decisions in a wartime, even if i'm not popular, even if i lose. now cheney seems to be undercutting that, suggesting the president was swayed in some of these critical decisions in the second term. >> now this is what cheney is saying privately to confident ants. we don't know how he'll put it

in the book. president bush sees himself as a guy with the resolve. cheney said that about him. it was a way of keeping him on the straight and narrow. he thinks bush walked off that in the second term. >> one thing that struck me when i was reading your story is the strength cheney has reinforces that narrative that he was the one driving the bus, president bush was kind of along for the ride. when you hear about these tensions and cheney says he was disappointed and he moved away from him, i'm wondering what your take is. it makes it sound more like cheney was more in charge certainly on national security matters. >> this is a hard question, i did a whole book on this after "the washington post" series. there were times cheney did something bush didn't know about it, at times gave him a long leash. in the second term he was backing away and moving away

from advice on security national questions. >> you think it's part, cheney separated himself out from president bush to create his own legacy so people get an idea what his role was. >> he cares about history. he cares about remaining loyalty and friendship to bush. he cares mostly the country get it right from his point of view. he's very anxious about the threat, he's always talked about it. he means it, believes it, that the united states is at grave risk. any time anybody walks frarp that he feels this obligation to push us back. >> substantively what two or three things would vice president cheney have liked to see president bush do and maybe president obama do. >> two or three things president obama could do, one the war on terror as cheney conceived it, keep up the very harsh detention and interrogation program,

secret prisons, enhanced interrogation techniques, waterboarding. another, how you deal with unfriendly regimes, especially iran, north korea. he believes in complete isolation in hope of a regime change. bush moved towards engagement diplomatically. the third thing, most personal, the pardon of scooter libby, the old chief of staff, charged with obstruction of justice. cheney thinks bush walked away from a grave injustice against a man who served bush well. >> the unkindest cut of you will he would say. terrific coverage story on former vice president cheney and his forthcoming memoir including some critique of his former boss, former president george w. bush. >> thank you. >> the buzzword to the health care debate. you've heard them at the town halls, phrases like death panels, government takeover, how do they get started?

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hmm. outrage over health care reform continues to spill out at town hall across the country from iowa to maryland expressing concern using phrases like death panel and government takeover. >> i have four beloved grandchildren and you and the rest of your lot are diminishing any future that they might have. >> i see this health bill not as reform but pure government takeover. >> i've got my nine-year-old son sitting down here and i've got to tell him, explain to him, how he's going to have to pay for your bad decisions. a former health care executive says the industry is playing dirty tricks by using terms to make bigger profits and diminish public opinion. this man left the insurance industry after 20 years, democrat from new york joins us

by phone. karen finney here for the answer. good to have you here. >> thank you so much. >> you were in the industry for 20 years. what did you see and why did you come forth? >> i've been in the industry for two decades start willie geist humana. two things i gradually began to understand how insurance companies make money. to do that and meet wall street expectations they have to get rid of risk. often they will take action toss cut people off, whether they have individual insurance or small employers. they call it purging in the industry. >> how do they do that? how do you percentage someone like me who has had three knee surgeries in the last four or five years. >> if you are in the individual market, going for another surgery, look at the application you filled out when you applied for insurance, see if you might not have disclosed something that indicated you had a knee problem. if if they thought you had not

disclosed it, they would cancel your policy even if you had been paying and paying for years on time. another way, you work for an employer and got sick, your whole company might lose coverage because the insurance company will jack the rates up when it comes to renewal because one or two people had claims. >> a lot of people will say that's not dirty tricks. that's just business. they say banks do that with people they don't think will ultimately repay the loan or cost more to repay the loan, et cetera. you say what to that to people that say that doesn't sound like dirty tricks but what a lot of people do, unforth neale nat as it may be. >> that's true. it's business on wall street. they are for profit companies looking more at the bottom line than individual people. the issue is we're-of- people's lives and people's health is the big difference here. >> what strikes me, this is at the crux of the health care debate of obviously, sure, from

a business perspective you've got shareholder and have to make profits. health care can't be about profits. it's about how do we get the best care possible. you're saying the white house really refocusing the discussion about insurance companies and insurance reform as much as sort of health care reform. >> i want to bring in congresswoman louise slaughter from upstate new york who joins us on the phone, working with wendell potter on this. what do you see when you hear wendell potter's story, testimony, his assertion that the industry has been involved in dirty tricks? >> i'm absolutely astounded at his bravery, his courage. he and i came from the same part of the country. when he talked about goes to wise county to see that 900 people spend the night out in the rain to get free health care the next day. this morning front page of the "new york times," 1,000 people in california lining up for dental care, gives you some idea of the emergency in this country

for a lack of health care for an awful lot of our citizens. i'm really produced ud of what done. i think he stood up and told the truth. i want to say yesterday what i said to him, this is not new. this is not the first time i've done this. i was part of the clinton health care plan trying to sell that to constituents and was absolutely unable to do so, had to cancel out of fear because of john birch society and others up front not allowing people to speak. people in america don't know what's in this bill. they are not allowed to hear what it would mean to them. that's a tragedy of great magnitude. >> i want to ask you like councilwoman slaughter said, what else did you see? what else constituted dirty tricks in addition to purging. >> tried and true facts going back many years, as

congresswoman said, to scare people away from meaningful reform. it might possibly threaten insurance industry's profits. they spend millions of dollars that come from people's premiums doing focus groups determining what are the buzz terms, buzzwords, like government takeover. >> hold on that. i want to take a quick commercial break. when we come back i want to hear more from you. >> congresswoman, can you stay with us for a few more minutes. >> i can. i'm listening to 40 people on health care but i think they will put up with. >> wendell potter, whil blower another insurance industry. also a statement which we will read when we come back. two medium cappuccinos,

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potter, former insurance industry executive there for 20 years, alleging dirty tricks by the industry which impacted, he argues, a number of people, a number who needed car. we've congresswoman from new york and karen. this is important enough i asked you to stay over the break. you said purging you saw. give us other things that might surprise us. >> people say they were fearful of being pushed out of their plan by the government. they shouldn't worry about the government, they should worry about their own insurance pushing them out. that's what they have planned for them. if they have a plan they like, they will be moved out, as i was, from cigna, to consumer directed plans. they are not. >> why would they do that? what's the argument? >> they have run out of ways to control medical cost. managed care doesn't work for

them anymore. now they are looking to shift the cost onto the shoulders of average americans. >> let's read cigna, we agree with potter health care reform is needed. in fact we also support the president's goal of expanding access, control, cost, improving quality care. however, we do not see how government-sponsored plan accomplishes that, especially since cigna and the industry have put forth a plan that guarantees coverage for everyone, including people with pre-existing conditions, strengthens safety net so no one falls through, provides safety without adding to the debt burden of the country. >> they said that exact same stuff 15 years ago. i can show you where they said it in congressional testimony. they didn't mean it then, they don't mean it now. the proposals are just rhetoric. >> excuse me, i have to get congresswoman slaughter for the final word. we've got about 30 seconds, i apologize. >> that's quite already. hearing from wendell is terribly important because he was on the

inside. it's true, we were told before pre-existing conditions would be done away with. but once the emergency of trying to change health care is passed, they forget all about it. it's been in effect forever and probably actually the estimate the health insurance cost for each individual family will be $1800 a year in perpetuity. so that's what's going to go up to every single year if we're not able to accomplish this legislation. >> councilwoman louise slaughter from upstate new york, thank you so much. >> thank you, carlos. >> appreciate you both joining me here. all the shouting and scuffling at town hall meetings is ostensibly about health care. is the growing anger and frustration about more? some prominent republicans are pushing back the rhetoric at town halls. >> republicans are popping champaign corks because they have managed to make the president's health care bill extremely controversial. there's a fine line. republicans run the risk of overplaying their hand, they themselves being associated with very extreme charges and extreme

rhetoric and that can backfire. >> joining me now live, grover north, president of americans for tax reform and a leading conservative group. good to see you. >> good to be with you. >> grover, what do you mean make of saying the gop is overplaying its hand. is the conservative movement in a better place than it was six months ago and/or is the risk of overplaying the hand as dan suggests. >> dan says the left will try and claim the right is overplaying their hand. he's right. that's what obama and reed and pelosi and all the adds vokts of several million dollars more of tax and spending are saying. why are they unhappy? if you remember six months ago obama was running around saying he was the one. his supporters were saying changing politics forever. now the polling data shows his support has collapsed. the majority of americans oppose

his takeover of health care even in its more modest in carnations. his support for the stimulus package has lapsed. when he called on his 13 million e-mail names and asked them to come down and tell congress he wanted to spend a trillion dollars on stimuluses, he couldn't generate e-mails to speak of. the quote unquote support for obama's big government, he didn't campaign on that stuff. he promised no tax increase for 95% of americans three weeks into the presidency raised taxes on people who smoke cigarettes, the only person that makes more than $250,000 a year and smokes cigarettes is named barack obama. the tax increase was on lower middle income people. then he spends almost a trillion dollars on stimulus. since we've had the stimulus bill, we've lot 2.5 million

jobs. that worked well. now he wants to turn it over to health care. he said it's a government-run health care system like the post office which competes with fedex and ups. >> grover, let me get karen finney in here. you hear a lot of things, grover is clearly offering a view of the world that i suspect differs from your perspective. i do differ. mr. norquist, i definitely want to be respectful, obviously, the president has made clear he's not going to raise taxes on people less than $250,000 a year, which was the campaign promise. >> he already did that. >> he actually didn't. i want to ask you a question about what's happening with the conservative movement. i think what we're seeing is many on the far right, birther movement and tea party movement, moving the party away from the center. it's unclear to me who is the leader of the conservative party, the conservative movement

and how do you bring that back so you can have broader appeal? >> well, two things, the desire for individual liberty does not need leaders. soci socialist, status big government need leaders. what happened with the tea party movement, which obama said he didn't know anything about and was completely surprised by when somewhere over 600,000 people on april 15th had rallies across the country unhappy with his spending policies that are bankrupting the country. the only commune organizing obama has done, if you want to know who the leader is, obama has organized mainstream america against big government in a way that george bush never did. >> respectfully, mr. norquist, who is the leader of the republican party at this moment and does the republican party and conservative movement need to come back towards the center to broaden the base of the party? we hear a lot of that in the aftermath of the election haven't heard much. the rhetoric has been a lot of misinformation and what i would

consider hate speech. >> okay. asking if the democrats would read the health care bill before they pass it is obama's idea for hate speech. it's common sense for middle america. when the republican party takes the ronald reagan world view, we have 60% of america supporting us. obama is the minority position in wanting stimulus over spending and having the government double your cost of energy and on taking over health care. he's off in left field and he's given us all the independents. look at the polling data. >> 70% of the american people want the public option and that includes 50% of republicans. >> that's an odd poll. if you go for the polls that have been run recently, support for his government takeover of heck has collapsed, his own personal support has collapsed. people going to town hall meetings and asking questions,

which the democrats seem to think are un-american, are not getting answers that make them happy. >> grover, we're running out of time here. i apologize, we're running out of time here. final question to you, when you see some of the town halls including the one in pennsylvania and i'm particularly focused on the one in missouri with representatived to aiken from the second district there where people seemed to clap at the notion of lynching, anything in these town hall debates in your mind going over the line or no? >> well, i think some of the union goons that have been not letting people into the town -- >> i know you feel that way about the union side but i'm asking right now about the conservative side which you know well. i understand that overall you think they have behaved properly, good, energetic participate ore democracy. have you seen anything that in your mind crosses the line? >> in the videos that i've seen,

i haven't seen anything problematic. we do know that some of the unions have been trying to cause problems and pretend they were right wingers. they were caught doing that. it's not working. >> grover norquist from american tax reform, thank you for joining me. look forward to having you back soon. >> you got it. >> here is your chance to weigh in on the health care debate. send me tweets by heading to the website, twitter.msnbc.com and follow the links to my twitter page. all about the money. the government won't tell us what compensation they will be getting even if taxpayers are bailing them out. during times like these it seems like the world will never be the same. but there is a light beginning to shine again. the spark began where it always begins. at a restaurant downtown. in a shop on main street. a factory around the corner. entrepreneurs like these

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find out what re/max can do for you. nobody sells more real estate than re/max. welcome back to "msnbc live." i'm carlos watson. the obama administration will not reveal compensation plans for the highest paid employees of seven companies who accepted federal bailout money. house democrats urging president

to tighten regulations after companies continuing to pay lavish bonus us. a "wall street journal" columnist, author of a new book, in fed we trust. thank you for being here. we appreciate you joining us. >> you're welcome back. >> talking about the federal reserve has not always been a sexy topic but you say it's more important than ever to understand it. you point out villains in the economic meltdown. say a little more about that. >> i think you're right. the fed is way undercovered by the press. when you think of all the reporters we send to political conventions, broadway shows now, and few cover a political institution that exposed itself being a fourth branch of government isn't doing their job. that's what i'm trying to do. the list of villains, it would

take a half hour. it bank risk managers, and the federal reserve itself. i think though alan greenspan, though we respected and revered him when he left the fed in 2006, made some mistakes that we are now paying for. >> david, do you think the fed has done an appropriate job of pulling us back from the brink, number one? and number two, quickly, are there more things you would like to see the fed do to make sure this recovery becomes a strong one? >> to answer your first question, yes. i think the big picture is that the fed helped pull us back from the abyss of a second great depression and that's how the press tells that story. is there more to do? yes. the fed has an enormous challenge. they have to figure out an exit strategy. tighten too soon, another recession. tighten too lake, a big outbreak of inflation and they have to put in place a "never again" plan, some kind of prevention strategy with the help of congress so we don't have to put the american public through this

again. >> david wessel, author of that new book "in fed we trust." good to have you. >> you're welcome. straight ahead, he was arguably the one who got democrats going in 2006 and 2008. he's the man who shook the internet, daily coast founder marc marcos joins us here next. try clearblue easy digital. no pregnancy test more accurate. it's the first test with totally clear results in words. clearblue easy digital: results 5 days sooner. no test is more accurate. [ female announcer ] wishing for a baby? maximize your chances with clearblue fertility monitor. your wish can come true.

nlgtsds wgs bastion welcome back to "msnbc live." i'm carlos watson. a huge gathering of people will hold the president's feet to the fire. over 1,500 activists are headed to pittsburgh for the fourth annual netroots nation convention. marcos is the founder of the daily coast. a real pleasure of you on the show. >> thanks for having me on. >> in some ways, it's a little ironic that bill clinton is your keynote speaker. you could argue that the daily coast and your leadership of the netroots was important to barack obama, instead of his wife getting elected. your thoughts on bill clinton coming to netroots nation and his role and the clinton's role in the new democratic party. >> well, we had some differences last year. i mean -- we can't pretend others. >> well said! >> but we are all really -- at the end of the day, we were all on the same team. we all wanted the same thing, we

want change, a new direction for our country. and while we had some differences, at the end of the day, we had a lot more in common. and i think obama made that clear by choosing hillary clinton as the secretary of state. so the fact that bill clinton is here tonight i think is fantastic. i think it's a sign that we are an important constituency to the democratic party and that we're going to play a role moving forward and in shaping the direction of just not our party, but also our country. >> marcos, i know our time is really limited. one of the things i want to make sure we get so to is the question about where the netroots goes from here. there's a difference in the role that it can play when we're talking about campaigning and when we're talking about governance. i know that's one of the things you want to talk about over the next couple of days. >> well, we spent the first five years -- we really kicked off in 2002. we spent the first five, six, seven years of our existence really working to elect a democratic majority and elect a democrat to the white house. because all this talk of policy would be irrelevant if republicans were in power. now that republicans are out of

power, now we're focusing more on the governance aspect of enacting the change that democrats promised during those elections. >> marcos, head of the daily coast, thank you so much, and promise us the next time you're in new york, you'll stop by the studio and join us for a full hour. >> will do, thank you so much. >> looking forward to it. that does it for me this hour. i'm carlos watson. want to thank karen finney for being a terrific guest cohost. nancy snyderman picks up our coverage from here. nancy, what do you have? that's it. she'll be right back right after this break. i'm carlos watching. bl bicycle, what are we waiting for? the flowers are blooming. the air is sweet. and zyrtec® starts... relieving my allergies... 2 hours faster than claritin®. my worst symptoms feel better, indoors anoutdoors. with zyrtec®, the fastest... 24-hour allergy medicine, i promise not to wait as long to go for our ride. zyrtec® works fast,

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