good morning, everyone. i'm carlos watson. on msnbc live pictures out of boston where more than a thousand people have lined up for a second day to pay their final respects to senator ted kennedy. as the public and private memorials for kennedy continue, democrats are now starting to face some criticism. in fact, they are being accuse of trying to politicize his death and legacy to bolster support for kennedy's signature

issue, health care reform. a california girl kidnapped in 1991 is found alive. the man who held her in a secret prison forcing her to bear two of his children is now speaking out from behind bars. we have exclusive tape of the man speaking. plus is danny a dud? the tropical storm is falling apart in the atlantic. what does it mean for the east coast now? the latest update is straight ahead. i'm carlos watson. a lot coming your way this hour. senator barbara boxer and congressman jim clyburn and yvette clark and clint vanzandt and fran treasure drescher joins us live in the studio. first, the top headlines. thousands of southern california residents fleeing wildfires there. hundreds of homes are threatened near a trump national golf club in rancho pal verdas.

propers are worried a key evidence may have been tainted in jackson's house and key evidence may have been skipped entirely. president obama taking flak for biking without a helmet. he went helmet-free during a bike ride with his family there. the first lady played it safe with a daughter and the two daughters followed massachusetts law requiring anyone under 16 has to wear a helmet while biking. right now mourners paying their final respect to the senator edward kennedy. this, in fact, if you take a peek here, a live look at the john f. kennedy presidential library in boston where the senator's body lies in repose until later this afternoon. mike taibbi is there and joins us from boston. it's amazing. they were saying even last night at midnight there were 6,000 people still out on the streets. how many people seem to be out there this moment? >> a whole lot of people are here, carlos. they were estimating any given time, more than a thousand people were in line. it's more than that right now because the lines are much thicker as i look at them.

yesterday, they say that 25,000 people came by to pay their respects. in fact, they extended the viewing until wijs to 1:30 in the morning for everybody in line. as much as three hours wait in the line. the wait here is about an hour but a steady stream of people coming in on a beautiful day in boston. blue skies and gentle breeze and bright sun. the kind of day the kennedys always loved. we're about three miles south of the city right now. this will go on until about 3:00 this afternoon unless it's extended and don't be if it is a bit if the crowd is legion the way they are right now. then, tonight, a memorial service at which many speakers starting vice president joe biden and four ted kennedy colleague, orrin hatch and others. all along the way members of kennedy family made it a point to come out here and talk to the mourners personally. >> mike taibbi. >> we're so honored that so many people have come out to pay tribute to my husband and i just

wanted to thank them. that's really the only message here tonight. thank you. >> oh, that's nice. >> can i get you -- >> thanks so much for coming. >> my birthday is four days before yours. >> oh, it is? you look great. >> you do, too! >> carry owe. >> my understanding is the -- is that senator ted kennedy's widow is greeting the massachusetts delegation right now. is that right? >> yes. that's part of the plan this afternoon and tonight as i said that memorial service will go on and many speakers at that. the last of which will be caroline kennedy, ted kennedy's niece, who will follow a list of speakers and a film about the senator's life by filmmaker ken burns. that is tonight. a prilve memorial tonight that will be televised by full

coverage. >> thank you so much, mike. i want to introduce my guest co-host for the morning. every day as you know on this show, on welcome someone to join me for the hour. today i'm pleased to have the "time" magazine world editor. ramesh, good to see you. >> good to see you. >> a lot to talk about, including, obviously, senator kennedy. you guys did a major special edition on the senator at "time" magazine? >> right. we have a commemorative issue on newsstands now. a lot of beautiful pictures and great stories about the senator and his life and the impact of the kennedy family on american life over the last century. i'm struck watching these scenes at how much the kennedy story is a story of america in the 20th century and i think we're marking the close to that kennedy century with the last

brother passing away. >> do you expect as things sort out in boston, they talk about a potential replacement for the senator do you expect kennedy will emerge like joseph kennedy, bobby's son? >> certainly sounds like those names have been floated. i don't know how serious that is going to be and even the politics of the succession, obviously, are still being worked out. i think there would be great interest in having one of the kennedys take that spot. i know mrs. kennedy, some suggested she potentially be a candidate. i don't really know how serious it is but, obviously, the tradition and the mystique of the family will be powerful no matter what and will bear on that decision, i'm sure. >> it will be interesting to watch. in fact, as we said earlier, tens of thousands of people have already filed by senator kennedy's casket. thousands more set to pay respect today but tomorrow's funeral mass will be a more high profile affair. president obama, three former presidents and nearly half the u.s. senate will all expected to attend.

ramesh, i am struck that at this event, ultimately, you'll have both republicans and democrats speaking, orrin hatch, the very conservative center from utah, will be among those who speak. let's bring in california democrat senator barbara boxer. good to see you, senator boxer. >> thank you for having me on the show. >> my pleasure. senator boxer, tell me a little bit about your relationship with ted kennedy. i understand that he was fairly important in mentoring you during the last 16, 17 years that you've spent in the senate. >> yes. when i came into the senate, came directly from the house of representatives and, of course, senator kennedy already was an icon, and i watched the way he worked. i watched the way he worked across the aisle. i watched the way he never lost his passion for the issues, and i was very fortunate, because in my very early years of the senate, he asked me to be his lieutenant on a very important

bill that protected women who were going into clinics. at that time, they were blocking the path of a woman who wanted to get reproductive health care. they were throwing their bodies in front of the entrance and, you know, senator kennedy and i agreed it's fine for people to protest but let folks go in and get the health care. so he asked me to be his lieutenant. i said what does that mean? he said when i can't be on the floor, you take the mike and lead the fight and line up the votes. i learned from the best. >> senator boxer, we heard the majority leader senator reid say it was important that those in massachusetts consider changing the law so that a replacement senator could be appointed by the governor and appointed soon as part of this critical health care fight. your perspective on that. should massachusetts keep in place its most recent law which would have a special election happening some time in december or january? or should they try and make some

kind of rapid change? >> well, they're going to keep -- if i were in the massachusetts legislature, i would say what is best for the people i represent. clearly, what is best is keep the election, that's fine but add a piece that says in the interim, let's have a caretaker, someone who is there. otherwise, massachusetts in the senate loses 50% of its power. 50% of its ability to fight for the people of massachusetts. so i do hope that the legislature there and the governor and i believe the governor already has said he is for this, will make that small change. it's very difficult to operate with just one senator. the workload is enormous. it isn't just health care. there will be many other things that will come before the senate. >> senator boxer, i'm joined by a native californian, "time" magazine ramer. >> i wanted to ask you what you think the impact on the health

care debate, what senator kennedy's death might have on that debate and whether it might be a spur toward getting some reform in honor of the efforts he made throughout his career to achieve universal health coverage. >> i would certainly hope that people on both sides would step back and we could get past the shouting and start talking to each other, and i think it's important to note that senator kennedy, although he was ill, he had a tremendous impact on what happened in the health committee where he had been chairman up until his death. chris dodd led this health committee bill. it's a good bill. i urge everyone to take a look at it and it did call for a big investment in prevention, making sure that we avoid, you know, the kinds of diseases that cost so much, not only in paying to the -- pain to the individual but also in money. for example one of the leading causes of cost is diabetes.

it's relatively easy to change lifestyle and have your arms wrap around that condition and avoid it getting worse. so that's an example of what the health committee did. in addition, there's a public option there that i think is very sensible, very limited. will spur competition and will help bring down the costs. you know, every single day, 14,000 americans lose their health care. ted kennedy understood the pain and the suffering that goes along with that situation. and why does it happen? insurance companies drop you because you get sick just when you need them or they raise your premium so high that you can't afford it. and i think senator kennedy would want us to work together to address this issue because, as i look ahead toward my constituents' well-being, studies show -- nonpartisan independent studies show if we

do nothing by 2016 californians will be spending more percentage of their benefits on health care coverage. >> we've seen lots of town halls and we've also seen a series of conversation and pronouncements. what do you think this august recess has done to the likelihood the kind of health care reform that president obama wants to get passed will, indeed, get passed this fall? >> well, my hope is that what we learned is that there is a lot of organized opposition to getting this done. but that is nothing new. they are using fear to a great extent and they are using facts that they are making them up, such as the death panels is ridiculous. would i ever pull the plug on granny? i am granny! i'm not going to do that! i feel that i have a lot to live

for. so i mean, has that whole thing was absurd and now they are saying we're going to use federal funds for abortion. not true. the hyde amendment stands. so that is not true either. so in some ways even though we missed some deadlines, let's just take a look at the opposition. a lot of it is the continuation of a campaign against our president and against the democrats in congress and i hope that we have the strength and courage to continue to keep our eye focused. i know the president is doing it. and continue to try to work across party lines. if that fails, we can't walk away from this, carlos. we don't deserve to be in the senate or the house. >> thank you for joining us and look forward to talking to you about this much more. we'll learn a lot in the next couple of weeks. >> we will bring you live coverage of tonight's service for senator kennedy at 6:00 p.m. eastern. in fact, you see there his wife, his sister jean continue to hug

people and well-wishers come from all around the world literally to honor this 47-year member of the senate, this icon, this youngest son of the kennedy family, ted kennedy. coming up next, snatched off the street and held for nearly two decades. the disturbing details of jaycee dugard's captivity and life continue to emerge. the kidnapper is now speaking out. he speaks out. that is live in a moment. plus, michael vick returns to the gridiron. were eagle fans ready to share the brother love? tell you in a moment. you're watching msnbc live. i'm carlos watson. .. a heart attack at 53. i had felt fine. but turns out... my cholesterol and other risk factors... increased my chance of a heart attack. i should've done something. now, i trust my heart to lipitor. when diet and exercise are not enough, adding lipitor may help. unlike some other cholesterol lowering medications,

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welcome back to msnbc live. i'm carlos watson.

california woman forced to live in captivity for nearly two decades has been finally reunited with her family. jaycee dugard was kidnapped near her south lake tahoe home in 1991 when she was 11. it was believed one of her alleged captors philip garrido raped her. george lewis is following this story from antioch, california and also with us is fbi analyst clint vanzandt. complicated case, george. whetherwhere do things stand this morning, including garrido speaking to a tv station out there in california. which seems a little strange. >> yeah. it does seem a little strange. normally defense attorneys tell suspects to clam up. but philip garrido spoke to our affiliate in sacramento. a long and rambling conversation that didn't make a whole lot of

sense, except at one point, he said he loved his two little daughters, the two girls he fathered with jaycee dugard. and that he cuddled them but never touched them in any inappropriate way. he and his wife will be in court this afternoon to be arraigned on a variety of charges stemming from the kidnap and molestation of jaycee dugard. we expect to hear in more detail what those charges are after the 1:00 p.m. pacific time arraignment. >> clint, i got to bring you in here. there's, obviously, a lot of frustration by people like me who aren't involved in lomplt but look at this and say how in the world did they not catch that guy, especially since my understanding he was arrested at least once in that time. i think in 1999. and so a lot of us are left to ask how did this happen? how did he remain undetected for 18 years? >> you know, let me get on the bus with you here, carlos, because as fbi agent for 25

years, this frustrates me, too. i'm so tired of these things slipping between the cracks, you know? one neighbor said she told her husband, look, there is children living in tents out there. that's not right. the husband said it's none of your business, don't do anything about it. another neighbor reported this to the sheriff's office and nothing was done about it. in july of '08, just last year, a sex offender task force came out to the house and looked around allegedly looked in the back yard and said they didn't see anything. carlos! there were -- there were extension cords running from the house to the back yard. pick up the darn cord and follow it and see where it goes to! i mean, my frustration cup runeth over not because of this religious delusional fanatic and his wife who kidnapped this child and now these children, but also the efforts of law enforcement and a parole office that seemed to kind of go over the surface but not in-depth

that would have rescued these girls much, much sooner. >> clint, is there ever -- i don't mean simply to look backwards or to point fingers -- but i want to try and understand this because we've seen it in this case and a number of others. >> yeah. >> do the law enforcement ever look back at these cases and say why didn't the local police follow up and is there ever any kind of reckoning for those who had clues who should have followed up and ultimately didn't? >> you know, just like politicians who make bad decisions who never are accountable for them, unfortunately, we in law enforcement may be in-house, you are, but the finger-pointing will go on and different agencies will say it's their responsibility, our responsibility. you know, you'd like to find the deputies, the marshals, the fbi agents, whoever was in the back yard of this house a year ago, saw these power cords, extension cords running out into the woods and didn't think let's go see where they go to.

you know, as this case continues to grow, carlos, number one, it's going to be frightening what we have to listen to about what this young woman and her two daughters that she conceived by her kidnapper had to go through for the past almost two decades, and, number two, the opportunities where it could have been solved where they could have been rescued that were simply missed. >> clint, george, we have to leave it there. thank you very much both of for you joining us. >> okay. breaking news. nbc news is confirming that florida governor charlie crist has chosen george lemieux to fill the martinez senate seat. this hour, quote, i congratulate george lemieux for being appointed by the governor to fill the reminder of my term. george is bright, capable and accomplished administrator. my staff and i stand ready to ensure a smooth transition. governor crist is competing in

the primary. kenneth meek is running on the democratic side. mel martinez, republican senator from florida, resigned his seat early and his seat due to expire this september but he gave it up early. tropical storm danny, what will keep it together? the season's fourth named storm runs into trouble before stirring up trouble for the eastern united states. plus, actress fran drescher is actually going to join us live in the studio and talk about us why she is pushing for a support of universal health care. carol! denise! you've lost weight! it's just all these giant things make me look small. i eat this fiber one yogurt. (mr. mehta) it has five grams of fiber, zero fat, and fifty calories. please, this is too creamy and delicious. it's true, only fifty calories. (announcer) fiber one yogurt. back playing in the afternoon. excedrin back and body has two ingredients to block and relieve the pain.

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welcome back to msnbc live. is danny a dud? now, tropical storm danny is just barely holding on to tropical storm status as it nears the north carolina coast. nbc meteorologist and florida vert bill karins is here with the latest weather channel

forecast. bill, looking like good news, bad news? >> danny is falling apart and barely a storm but a rainy, ugly weekend in many areas on the east coast but not from danny. right now, winds at 40 miles an hour and it did peek at 60 miles per hour and safely off the southeast coastline. the bright red is where all of the thunderstorms are. that is about 100 to 200 miles to the east. this is cool. a visible picture prosecute from your satellite in space. you can see the bright white of the thunderstorms. 100 to 200 miles away and see the low level swirl of danny with the arrow pointing to. i put the blue arrows on top that is the wind sheer and tears apart the center swirl from the thunderstorms and why this thing has not grown at all and forecast doesn't call for it to intensify. it should remain 40 or 40-mile-per-hour winds and

should parallel the east coast the next 36 hours. this will barely produce any large waves at all and it may, at worse, produce some rain in cape cod. as far as the closest that this storm will get to the northeast, saturday at 9:00, it's expected to be somewhere near cape cod but with winds at only 30 to 40 miles per hour, most people won't even realize there is a tropical storm nearby. once again it looks like we did all right with this one. it's not over yet but it's improving. >> let's hope so and hope it stays that way. have a great weekend. >> you, too. line is long outside the john f. kennedy presidential library and museum. people wait to say a final farewell to senator ted kennedy, michael beschloss joins us live, nbc's historian. >> good to see you. >> good to see you, carlos. >> to this day, michael, the favorite gift anyone has ever given me was the tapes of lbj in office that you edited and which tells you what kind of a political nerd i've been for a long time.

>> said by one to another. >> said by one to another. but in those -- >> meaning me. >> in those tapes, a number of interesting conversations that lbj had with a number of members with the kennedy family, including jackie, including bobby and if i remember correctly, including ted. tell me a little bit about lbj's relationship with teddy kennedy and how that evolved and changed of the course of lbj's five years in office. >> well, in fact, one of the tapes has lbj calling teddy kennedy to congratulate him on an appearance on "meet the press" in the spring of 1964. but, you know, lbj as you know well, carlos, had these complicated relationships. huge antagonism between him and robert kennedy. jackie kennedy who loved her brother-in-law robert pretty much felt the same way as he did by 1966, '67. oddly enough, lbj always said teddy is the one i really like. he has always treated me

decently even though teddy had turned against the vietnam war by 1968, they had a pretty civilized relationship. and, you know, no one would have known it in a time but that was in a way a precursor the time of relationships that ted kennedy maintained in the senate with people like orrin hatch with whom he very much disagreed. >> michael, tell me a little bit about it teddy kennedy's decision not to run for the presidency in 1976. we all know that 1972 seemed too close to chappaquiddick and we know he ran in 1980 but 1976 you had a tarnished republican party would have seemed like the perfect opportunity and certainly someone who was not well known at the time jimmy carter ultimately got through and became president of the united states. why did teddy not run in 1976? >> really good point. i think he still felt chappaquiddick was too recent, his family was in some disorder, not a great marriage. he just didn't feel it was right. i did talk to about this toward the end of his life, he always

said he thought that his big opportunity to be president in retrospect was 1968 just after robert kennedy had been assassinated, democratic party in chicago with that horrible convention was, at best, ambivalent about hubert humphrey. he knew and i think he was right that had he given the word, the delegates probably would have gone to ted kennedy, especially because -- didn't feel that antagonism. >> michael, i'm going to ask you to hang on a minute. we're going to take a quick break. >> sure. >> we will come right back and talk more about that. ramesh is joining the conversation. we are not the only three talking about this. you can share your thoughts and memories of senator ted kennedy. go to the following website on your screen and logon. coming up next we now take a look at how younger americans remember the lion of the senate. plus can you say senator drescher some that's right. we ask the actress and health care advocate the question everyone wants to know.

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welcome back to msnbc live. i'm carlos watson. we're going to fast forward through the top headlines. americans are less likely to be disturbed by annoying telemarketing calls or at least so they promise. the ftc will ban many robo calls and violator face penalties up to $16,000 per call and they excued calls from politicians and phone companies. how much will reclassify themselves in we'll see. michael vick got a standing ovation first game back in the nfl. vick filled up the eagles beat out the jacksonville jaguars in last night's preseason game. attack outside of pennsylvania courtroom caught on tape. the father of a woman sentenced to jail for kidnapping hoax was detained by police after attack ago group of photographers outside the courthouse. the father was set off by a crowd of reporters after his daughter sentencing.

a bouncing lottery ball causes a scandal in florida. recent lottery drawing, number 48 called after the ball bounced up into the display tube but didn't drop into its slot. the board of lottery decided not to do another drawing! wow. i wouldn't mind sharing those winnings. the public right now is filing past senator ted kennedy's casket at the jfk presidential library and museum in boston. more than 20,000 people have paid their respects. kennedy's body lies in repose until 3:00 this afternoon. michael beschloss, nbc news historian joins us live from there. good to see you again. >> hey there, carlos. talk to me about political dynasties. certainly we think of the kennedys and bushes, but to my reckoning, they're not -- political dynasties are not receding. when i look at carnahans of missouri or blunt of missouri and evan bayh and culvers in

iowa i feel the political dynasties are only growing here and do we have the kennedys to thank for that? >> i think we do but as you well know you can go back to john adams whose son john quincy adams was elected president and at the time he took a lot of people from people who said adam you're trying to resemble the houses of europe. now they have a leg up they didn't have early in american history because in this new political process, if you're from a dynasty, you have an already made network of relationships with people, especially big dorns but people who don't have serve in office will lack. another thing you have instant name recognition. i think richard nixon's family probably would have had a hard time getting elected in 1978 or in the 1980s because his reputation was bad. but if you're related to a popular political figure, that's a big help. >> michael, i want to bring in

the deputy managing editor of "time" magazine, ramesh. your thoughts as you hear michael share his thoughts on ted kennedy. >> i want to go back to what we were talking before the break and michael's comments that senator kennedy and somebody thought he had a shot at the white house in 1968. in our magazine this week, joe klein writes about covering senator kennedy in 1980 when he did run for the white house and finding that he was sort of uncomfortable in that role and he never really warmed to his candidacy, really until the very end. i wonder if you feel that by that time, the senator kennedy realized that the impact he was going to make ultimately was in the senate and that he could have more of an impact in many ways than he would if he would become president? >> you know, i think largely he did, but two years ago, spring of 2007, i was talking to him and i basically, you know, spoke

the theory that you've just said. i said isn't it great that you found your home was in the senate and you could do so much here and that senators like you can sometimes have a bigger impact than some presidents at certain points? he said -- this is before the presidential campaign began that barack obama won. he said i hate to tell you i think if i was 10 or 15 years younger i might run for president next year myself, so i think evident am bev lent. >> michael beschloss, enjoyed you being here with us. >> thank you, carlos. >> thank you. with us to continue the conversation, democratic congresswoman from new york representative yvette clark. good to see you. >> good to see you, too. >> we talked last night on the phone and you really grabbed me with a couple of thoughts on ted kennedy that i hadn't heard anyone else share. you want to offer those for folks who weren't on our phone call? >> let me extend my condolences to patrick kennedy and the

entire kennedy family. the whole country is mourning. what i was sharing with you is that i'm a generation that feels like they are the beneficiary of the work that ted kennedy has done. i wasn't alive at the time that his brother jfk was killed and an infant when his brother robert kennedy was killed. but i do, you know, have fond and clear recollections of the work that ted kennedy was doing, particularly around civil rights and i kind of feel like because of his celebrity, because of his stature in our civil society, i'm talking about his wealth and his exposure to a whole other universe of individuals, his influence in the bodies of the senate, made a difference for those of us who were coming along and i think that we can all really feel good about the legacy that he has left because it's open doors for so many americans, particularly black americans and people of color. >> you know, i thought that was so powerful.

ramesh, i think i shared with you that as we talked, it's right, that sometimes someone who comes from such a different place, that person stepping up and vouching has an extra punch that frank sinatra stepping up, if you will, for john f. kennedy in that 1960 campaign carried a little extra punch and that the notion that not just anyone, although everyone is important, but a wealthy white man who also was a celebrity of sorts, that as he spoke up for mexican american migrant workers and speaking up for african-americans in the south that it carried something extra, that it pushed it to a different place and may have been frankly harder for an african-american or a latino to push the conversation. >> yeah, i mean, the thing you read about senator kennedy and you would know, congresswoman, but this is a man who was without errors. i mean, he was someone who truly had a common touch and made people feel good about themselves, who never hesitated

to talk to, you know, an average voter on the street. and given the background he came from, i mean, that is remarkable and probably distinguished him in many ways. >> we're going to leave it there for a moment. i want to thank you again for joining us. >> it's my honor. >> a real pleasure. real pleasure. as we continue to monitor the live pictures out of boston we remind you that msnbc will be bringing you live coverage of tonight's memorial service for senator ted kennedy starting at 6:00 p.m. eastern. coming up next, remembering kennedy's work for defending civil rights for all americans. south carolina congressman james clyburn joins us in the conversation. you're watching msnbc live. what's in it for me? i'm not looking for a bailout, just a good paying job. that's why i like this clean energy idea. now that works for our whole family. fothe kids, a better environment. for my wife, who commutes, no more gettin' jerked around on gas prices... and for me, well, it wouldn't be so bad if this breadwinner

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welcome back to msnbc live. senator ted kennedy fought passionately for equal rights for all americans and civil rights pioneer congressman john

lewis thought of the kennedy brothers as protectors and last night jessie yak jesse jackson paid his respects to senator kennedy. >> he live beyond his death because of the changes he made are irreversible. >> joining me on the phone is democratic congressman from south carolina, james clyburn. good to talk to you as always, congressman. >> thank you so much for having me. >> my pleasure. congressman clyburn, tell me about your interactions with senator kennedy who was i across the aisle in the senate. did you interact with him and if so, what did you interact with him about? >> we worked closely together on three different kinds of legislation. first of all, health care. he is very, very passionate about health care and as you know, carlos, one of our biggest problems with the delivery of

health care today is the disparity issue, the fact that we have these big gaps in health care delivery system and how that impacts latinas and african-americans. so we worked very closely with senator kennedy on that. john lewis usually, the person on the outside of the aisle, along with donna christianson, trying to work that out for the ways and means committee and energy commerce committee. secondly, i worked very closely with him on civil rights and voting rights. you know, we just reauthorized -- not just. we recently reauthorized the voting rights act and we had some real sticky issues involved with that. and senator kennedy was the go to guy to insure that we got the reauthorization of the vote rights act without all of the strenuous amendments that were

put up to try and limit the impact. you know, there was this little thing about let's make the voting rights act apply to the whole nation in the same way. you know how that would dilute the impact of that. he is the guy we went to. thirdly, it's kind of interesting, but he was the guy that we went to to increase the minimum wage. we went for years, almost ten years, if my memory serves, without a single increase in the minimum wage and it was senator kennedy that we went to in order to get the most recent increase in the minimum wage. so it's kind of interesting to look at these disparity issues, these economic gaps, these health care gaps and to have someone born into such wealth, into the privilege class, if you would care to call it that, yet he had that common touch.

he believed that health care is, in fact, a fundamental right and should never be treated as a privilege and that is why he was so great to work with him. >> congressman clyburn, i'm joined by one of your colleagues, congresswoman clark and the deputy managing editor of "time" magazine, ramer. >> good morning, mr. clyburn. i recollect very clearly as a new member of the house how senator kennedy was passionate advocate for comprehensive immigration reform as well, and as a member of that and the labor committee, the renewing of our commitment to the policy of national education in the united states and he did have that common touch. woe come over to the house of representatives, meet with us and make sure that he knew that he had our backs and that was what was so extraordinary about him, that common touch, that ability not only to cross the aisle in the senate, but to come

over to the house of representatives and rout with us. >> ramesha final thought and unfortunately have to leave it here. >> what is interesting about it he was the leader of the wing of the democratic party and so successful at working with republicans and that is something we don't see very often anymore. i'm curious whether that is something that is going to live on now. >> and who might be the successor? >> a big question mark. >> congressman clyburn, thank you for joining us and we look forward 20 having you join us again toon soon. >> thank you, carlos. >> up next, fran drescher joins us live in the studio to talk about her own ballots with cancer and how it has influenced her perspectives on the paerlt debate

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welcome back to "msnbc live." as the nation mourns the death of senator ted kennedy, questions remain about what impact his passing may actually have on the efforts to fix

health care. joining me now is emmy and golden globe nominated actress, best selling author, health care advocate, fran drescher. he's a cancer survivor and launched cancer skmanser foundation and the cancer skmanser movement. did i say it right? a little miami something. so tell me, because it's not only your own personal story, but you've taken it to capitol hill, yes? >> oh, absolutely. i was very instrumental in getting the gynecologic cancer education and awareness act passed by unanimous consent, the first of its kind in u.s. history. written up twice in the congressional record for my lobbying efforts. and now in 2010, i plan to go again to washington and start a new initiative for young people, his and her reproductive organ cancer, research, and prevention act. because reproductive cancer is on the rise in young people and i find it extremely alarming and

wing we need to arrest the situation asap. >> you said part of your personal story was maybe missing some signals about uterine cancer. >> it took me two years and eight doctors to get a proper diagnosis and i had classic uterine cancer symptoms, but i fell through the cracks every step of the way, because i think that -- and my story is not unique. most doctors are bludgeoned by health insurance companies to go the least expensive route of diagnostic testing. and unfortunately, many cancers, at their earliest whisper point, when it's most curable, mimic far more benign illnesses. and doctors tend to subscribe to the flphilosophy, if you hears hooves galloping, don't look for a zebra, it's a horse, but unfortunately, i was a zebra. for women who have ovarian cancer, it's even worse.

they get misdiagnosed for irritable bowl syndrome, but that's a much more aggressive cancer than i have and they absolutely could not wait two years. i was very, very lucky that i was functioning not as a patient, but as a medical consumer. and i didn't feel like the treatment that i was being offered was helping me. this is why i think that it's so important that we must have a national health care system of some sort put into place as soon as possible. and i fully support our president on that front and i think that, you know, in the same way, we cannot have health care just be dependent on publicly owned companies that are be hoholden to shareholders and not really the consumer. >> so you're speaking out strongly for a public option? >> absolutely. and it's not going to make, you know, private health care go away at all. but it's -- i liken it to the similarity between -- you have an option of using the privately

owned u.p.s. or fedex, but there is the u.s. mail as well. and i think that one keeps the other one in check. >> unfortunately, we have to go. a ten-second answer. are you running for office? some people talk about, are you running for office next year, are you running? >> not next year, i don't believe next year, but some day on the horizon, absolutely. >> queen's finest, coming to you soon. hey, that's it for me. i'm carlos watson. i want to thank today's cohost for being with us. thank you very, very much. dr. nancy snyderman picks up our coverage from here. nan nancy, we could not have given you a better, more appropriate handoff. you have fran drescher talking about the importance of health care, talking about prevention, talking about policy. it's not going to get better than that. >> no, i love fran. i'll vote for fran. live in new jersey, where i live, fran. coming up on this program, we're going to pick up where you left off. we'll talk about health care reform, obviously, in the shadow of the passing of senator ted kennedy. we're also going to look at

toddlers and whether they're too young to sort of participate in triathlons. that's happening a lot in this country, particularly on the west coast. swine flu on the horizon. we have a lot coming up on "dr. nancy," because it's almost noon on the east coast and the doctor is in. (announcer) before they give you the lowest price, some pharmacies make you work for it with memberships and fees. but not walmart. they have hundreds of generic prescriptions for just $4 for up to a 30-day supply and no gimmicks. save money. live better. walmart. but i did. you need to talk to your doctor about aspirin. you need to be your own advocate. be sure to talk to your doctor before you begin an aspirin regimen. you take care of your kids, now it's time to take care of yourself.

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