>> that's what they have come down to. i think what this is is the republicans who want to be re-elected are really running away from guano crazy as fast as they can. they -- if they want anyone to vote for them, gave got to sort of distance themselves from the death panels and then from just the sort of -- you know, the crazies that we've seen in the last week or so that don't want a black president talking to their children. >> how much -- last point, how much do you think this dinner's going to go for? is it going to go for $25,000? where should i bid when i finally get through the bidding process? >> oh, it will be priceless. we all know that. if she actually shows. i don't know if you can get preapproved, keith. i think there's probably a line of people that would probably like to go to dinner with you and the palins, the former governor palin as she neglected to mention on her facebook when she signed her death panel clarification notice today. >> it's signed governor palin? she -- >> it is signed governor palin. >> she forgot. alaska radio host, huffington post contributor shannyn moore

in alaska. great thanks, shannyn. >> always a pleasure, keith. now to emphasize a point we noted last week in all of the hysteria over white house czars, the right is forgetting it invented the white house czar. incidentally to celebrate her first anniversary on the air, thanks for the shirt, ladies and gentlemen, here's rachel maddow. good evening, my friend. congratulations. >> thank you very much, keith. that looks very, very, very nice on you. you know how hard i had to fight to make sure it wasn't going to be yankee pinstripes? >> who wanted yankee pinstripes as oppose to the gaudy alternative red sox uniform color that you happen to boy coincidence to pick out? >> see, i just said i want something that looks commey. >> notice i'm wearing it and you're not. once again, that's the story of my life right there. all right. have a good show. >> thank you very much, keith.

and thank you at home for staying with us for the last year and for the next hour, we hope. we enthusiastically begin our second year on the tv machine with the story of the growing anticipation for president obama's big speech before a special joint session of congress tomorrow night. if there were a way to judge the importance of a presidential speech based on its setting, the ranking would probably go something like midday speech in the rose garden, and then primetime conference in the east room, and then primetime speech in the oval office and then we appear, primetime speech before a joint session of congress. this is a big deal. this is one of the president's biggest rhetorical guns. and it's probably the biggest opportunity that president obama will have to sell the american people on health reform. and unlike the other settings at his disposal, the joint session of congress offers the unique

opportunity for the opposition, for the other side. his last such address was his pseudo state of the union address back in february. after that speech, the party out of power, as it always does, gets an opportunity to deliver an official response. the last time around back in february, that honor went to republican governor bobby jindal of louisiana. and we know how that went. >> i'm bobby jindal, governor of louisiana. like the president's father, my own parents came to this country from a distant land. when they arrived in baton rouge, my mother was already 4 1/2 months pregnant. i was a thought in the insurance industry now called a pre-existing condition. >> at least he foreshadowed the coming health care debate. yeah. this time around, remarkably, republicans have decided to go back to the louisiana well. they have picked a republican congressman who is also a physician, who happens to be a complete unknown on the national political scene. america, meet republican congressman charles boustany of louisiana. he has been tapped to deliver the response to president obama's speech. despite of being one of 16

physicians in congress, he also may have fancied himself british royalty at one point in his life. yeah, in 2004, congressman boustany's opponent ran an ad against him mocking his unsuccessful attempt to purchase the british title lord charles boustany from someone he thought he could buy that from, this is before he got into politics. according to court records reportedly filed by mr. boustany he was conned by two brits who made a nice living on selling fake british aristocratic titles to rich, gullible americans. so it's nice to meet you, sir, lord, congressman. good luck tomorrow night. america is looking forward to getting to know you. awkwardly, congressman boustany was also a co-sponsor of legislation that would have reimbursed doctors for talking to medicare patients about end-of-life issues. that's the type of provision in

the proposed health -- excuse me, house health care bill that republicans demonized all through august as a death panel, the secret plot to kill old people. so charles boustany is one of the original republican death panel endorsers, if you buy that conspirorsist clop troop about what used to be a reasonably total nonpartisan title. but august has been nothing but unreasonable. it's been nothing but politics in extremist. two sides have emerged after this hot, long, weird month of congressional recess. for democrats, president obama's speech tomorrow is obviously the very big deal this week. but it is part of a larger effort to show the american people which party is working towards trying to get something done. august was the conservative movement's chance to try to make health care reform seem like communism or fascism or the plague or whatever. now that august is over, the job of actually trying to legislate has begun again, and democrats do appear to be re-energized.

>> i have every belief that when he finishes his speech tomorrow, the american people will be able to put aside some of the ridiculous falsehoods that have been perpetrated these past few weeks. and focus on what we're going to do that's positive for this country. we have a lot of work to do. we understand that. >> if you don't know anything about senate majority leader harry reid, that's actually him ecstatic. he's never been more energetic than that on camera. that's him losing his mind. that's a calm guy. democrats definitely do have some intermural stuff to work out here. will there be a public option? will there be no public option? will there be a triggered public option? what about the other aspects of health care reform that are still not worked out among democrats? democrats are now having the internal debate about the best health care policy for the country. they are debating policy. for republicans, health care

reform is still today a plot to kill your grandmother. it's an untenable situation that will leave us with no choice but succession of the various states. the whole idea of health care reform, according to the republicans now, is unconstitutional. republicans are no longer fighting about what should be in any health reform bill. they're not fighting about health policy. republicans, a growing number of them, are now questioning the whole idea that government is allowed to have any sort of health policy at all. >> where do you find the authority in the u.s. constitution for the federal government -- [ inaudible ]. do you have some responsibility to be responsible for your health and your family? or is the government responsible for everything associated with it? >> that is republican senator tom coburn of oklahoma making the case to an exuberant crowd

that the u.s. constitution precludes the federal government from doing anything about health care at all. it's an argument that's now being made by a number of republicans in congress. they have been nicknamed the tenthers because of their position that the tenth amendment to the constitution prevents the federal government from enacting any health care programs at all or any other programs that are not specifically named in the constitution. sorry, medicare. for all of the conservative crowing about how great the august town hall meetings were for them, and how excited they were to get their freak on in such a public way about health care, if you were trying to get your head around whether or not health care reform is really going to happen in this country, whether we are really going to have a shot at it after some 60 years of trying, ask yourself this right now -- which side of this debate would you rather be on right now? actually, ask yourself if the republicans even count as a side in what's being called a debate right now. it was 47 days ago today that republican house minority leader john boehner said republicans were putting the, quote, final touches on their own health care

plan. 47 days ago. those final touches must be really, really touching. we're still waiting for them to even put forward anything that suggests they're participating in this as a policy debate. and as the republican party continues to abstain from debating policy, democrats are as of today back to trying to legislate what they're able to achieve, of course, remains to be seen. joining us now is democratic congressman anthony weiner of new york. congressman weiner, thanks very much for coming back on the show. it's nice to see you. >> it's my pleasure. happy anniversary. >> thank you very much. president obama on labor day spoke before a union audience in cincinnati yesterday, offered up a relatively vigorous support for the public option during that speech. how important is that in terms of what is still possible for health reform? >> it's very important. frankly, during the month of august there's been a lot of back and forth. but the president of the united states has yet to stand before the american people and say, this is why we need the public

option and why it's so important to getting down costs and health care. that hasn't really happened. to some degree they have been all over the map on the public option, and i think tomorrow night at the building behind me, the president of the united states is going to do what only presidents can do, which is stand up and make the case. but you are right about one thing, we should pretty much internalize as a country we're going to have to do this without the republican members of the house and senate. they have pretty much absenced themselves from this entire discussion. notwithstanding this group of six, they really do not have proposals they are putting on the table for us to consider. >> in terms of the president's leadership, have you been critical, as you are tonight and have been in the past, critical of the leadership on this subject. we have heard from the president repeatedly all through the campaign and again and again since he's been president about the need for health care reform,

about what is broken in the current system. as yet he's not really defined in specific terms what he wants the character of reform to be. how specific do you want him to get? do you want him to draw a line in the sand? do you want him to wave the veto pen, tell you what would be acceptable in a health care reform proposal the way president clinton did back in 1993? >> i don't know if he has to do it in the negative or in the positive, here's why we need to control costs. i think it's very important and i posted something in huffington post that made this case today. it's very important for him to dial it back 40 years or so when medicare was created and explain the exact same debate that won't there and many people in the country didn't think it would work and it did. the idea that the federal government cannot administer a health care plan has to be rebutted forcefully by the president of the united states. but he does have to say something else, in all of the proposals short of a public option, they all lack one important thing and that is how you contain costs. it's not just a matter of reforming insurance, whatever that means, it's trying to figure out a way to hold down costs. frankly, without a public option, just the same way the president said opponents needed to stand up and say what their choice was, the president has to

do that tomorrow night as well. >> when conservatives both in your own party, the democratic party, and on the other side of the aisle make the case that a public option, any sort of plan that they could term governor run, which is a moniker they will put not only on the public option, not only on something like single payer, they would even put that on nonprofit cooperatives, another option that's being put forward, when they say nothing but government run is acceptable politically, just in terms of the amount of involvement the government has in the health care system, what's your argument against them? >> i think my argument to the president should be the same. we know for example that the private insurance companies take up to 30% out of the pot and put into their pockets for overhead and for profits. we know that medicare does the same exact job but only takes 4%. we know, for example, that you never heard the term pre-existing condition in medicare. you only hear it in insurance companies. we also know something else, we know that we try to give private insurance companies the job of providing low-cost insurance in something called medicare part d. they have broken the bank. they have given us the doughnut

hole and they have shown they can't execute. so i think the president has to rise to this battle to some degree, vigorously defendant what we know works as a medicare system and watch as the republicans try to figure out whether they should applaud medicare or boo it when it comes up before the joint session tomorrow night. >> republicans, as you know from my introduction, i believe are not participating, and this is a policy debate, they are certainly participating this as a political debate, the allegations about death panels to the allegations about socialism, to calling the president a nazi from time to time. the range of allegations that have sprung out of the health care debate that are not about health policy but are just about taking shots at the president has been remarkable. and this august has been very hot. should the president rebut those things? should he name them and shame them, or should he just ignore them? >> i think the answer is yes.

the only way is to push back. let me make a distinction here between republican citizens of the united states who i don't think are in anyone's pocket. they are genuinely concerned. i have to tell you the republican members of the house and senate that work in the building behind me are beholden to the insurance industry. that's the only way to interpret the way they're vigorously defending the insurance lobby. i am here to try to advocate on behalf of medicare, that is a government program that i think works. but there's no doubt about it, the insurance industry holds great sway with my republican friends. but what the president has to do tomorrow is say, you know, we democrats who are trying to reform the system, we stand with taxpayers and patients. let the republicans stand with the insurance lobby. >> congressman anthony weiner, democrat of new york, thanks very much for your time tonight. >> you're welcome. i hope to be getting one of those jerseys keith had. >> i'll work on it. i think i've got to make a few more. appreciate that. i am outraged, i have to tell you, that the president of the united states is trying to indoctrinate america's children with a partisan ideological message while they are at school. don't think this won't go unnoticed, president reagan.

we will revisit a classic moment in modern american political history from 1988. we will also be joined in just a moment by former george w. bush and john mccain adviser mark mckinnon. stay with us. how many washes did it take cheer brightclean to get this from dingy to bright? one might be surprised. twelve. no. uh, excuse me! four? one... would think it would take that many washes. ten? man & woman: okay, we got it this time. yes? it's six. seven.

why? why is... one-derfully bright, hmm? oh, one... yes, yes! hundred. cheer brightclean.

opportunities for black and other minorities have not been -- there hasn't been a

great deal of them. and i want to know during your term in office, what have you done to increase those educational opportunities for us? >> one of the great things that are administration did when we came in here was immediately turn on to helping something that i think is historically wonderful in our country, and that is the negro private colleges and universities. >> imagine being that girl listening to your president answer that way. that was president ronald reagan in the last months of his presidency, embarrassing using terminology from the imagined presidency of strom thurmond, while dressing school children back in 1988, more than 20 years ago. not a lot of hue and cry about indoctrinations surrounding that. but when president obama

announced his stay-in-school pep talk, the right went off the kook end. >> people are yanking their kids out of school for obama's unprecedented speech addressing pre-k through sixth grade children. >> it's historical in that it's unprecedented. they do this type of thing in north korea and the former soviet union. >> now only was president obama's speech not actually unprecedented, it wasn't north korean, and it wasn't a whole series of other horrible threatening things it was apparently supposed to be. >> it smacks of -- of really underhanded attempt to influence the way these young people think about issues beyond just doing well in school. >> right. an underhanded attempt to influence these young people by saying, i'm calling on each of you to set your own goals for your education and do everything you can do meet them. your goal can be something as simple as doing all of your homework, paying attention in class, or spending some time each day reading a book. ooh! >> this is not merely a

morale-boosting speech that he's giving. >> yes, there's secretly much more than morale boosting going on when barack obama says, every single one of you has something that you're good at. >> this is what chairman mao did, laura. >> oh, my god. >> this is what max hedron. >> this is what chairman mao did. this is max hedron. when genghis khan spoke to mongolian kids, this is what he told him, where you are now does not have to determine where you end up. nobody's written your destiny for you because here in america, you write your own destiny. you make your own future. actually, that wasn't genghis khan. that must have been chairman mao. i tell you. none of history's megalomaniacs went as far as president obama did today with our precious american youth. >> i hope all of you are washing your hands a lot and you stay home from school when you don't

feel well so we can keep people from getting the flu this fall and winter. >> what kind of power hungry, subversive, fascist, communist bad guy would have our children wash their hands a lot? it's a good thing we saw this coming. joining us now is mark mckinnon, former adviser to president george w. bush and senator john mccain. he's now president of the public strategies and contributor to the daily beat. thank you very much for coming back on the show. >> thank you, rachel. i'm running point out here on the partisan control and i had to blow the whistle today on the daily beast. it's insane when a united states president can't deliver a simple speech to the students of this country without everybody going absolutely berserk, and you know, i think it's bad for the country. but i also think it's bad for

the republican party. it makes us out to be incredibly partisan and out of touch, and i think that if anybody actually saw that speech today, they'd recognize that this is great for the kids of this country. >> well, you know, some of the people who had called the speech indoctrination said after they saw the text of it, hey, that's sort of a good speech. i'm thinking specifically of the chairman of the florida republican party, who had been very outspoken about this. i wonder if there is a political cost for being seen to have sort of a chicken little reaction, being able to say, this is going to be the end of the world, going to be the end of the world, and then it turns out to be something you actually admire. >> that's the problem in politics today. partisans on both sides, they should before -- they shoot at anything that moves and they shoot before they actually see what they're criticizing. in this case, people like tim pawlenty, former governor of minnesota, who is an early contender for the 2012 gop

nomination, who i like. he's a centrist and reformer. and i was just shocked to see him jump out immediately. he questioned the content before he saw it. he questioned the president's motives and he said the speech was uninvited. how many speeches are invited by the president of the united states? this was a great opportunity for the kids of the country. so i was very happy to see the first lady, former first lady, laura bush come out today and strongly support the president. so there are moderate, reasonable voices out there who recognize that this is good. but, listen, i think that imagine if jfk had done this speech or dwight eisenhower. we never would have seen this. it's a product of our current age. even ronald reagan gave the speech. george h.w. bush gave the speech, although he got -- his officials got hauled in before a congressional committee for spending $26,000. i'm sure republicans will find out how much obama spent on this. it's really a product of our time and it's very sad. >> do you feel like this is just an example of reflective attack mode that you can sort of just attribute to the individual people who made these attacks?

or do you think that there's something going on in terms of the standards for what counts as an appropriate political attack? what counts as a smart political allegation right now that there's something wrong either on the right or on both sides of this particular time? >> well, i think it's reflective and i think it's part of the proliferation of media and cable content, and i think people like pawlenty saw it as an opportunity to get out there quickly before he had been really thoughtful about it. he wanted to get points with the right, with the base, and he wanted to get on tv. the way to do that was to jump out there early and that's the way you get on today. but what i say to people, i said in my column today, there are two scenarios that are possible here. there's scenario a, where you have david axelrod and rahm emanuel sitting around and plotting a way to indoctrinate the students of america to ensure the president's legacy. or there's scenario b, where you have that the education secretary going to the president

and probably to axelrod and emanuel as well and saying, you know, i think it would be a great thing if we just had the president give a pep talk to the kids of this country, encouraging them to stay in school. no policy, just a nice, inspirational speech. so you can either believe a or b. unfortunately, because i heard from a lot of them, a lot of people actually believe scenario a. >> it's not just that they don't believe it and they're pandering to it. you think they really believe it? >> yeah, unfortunately. i got the chairman obama e-mails from a lot of my friends. so, you know, god forbid if the president goes out and proposes a speech to the girl scouts and boy scouts of america. >> well, i'm much happier believing craven than i am believing dumb. but or gullible, because i don't like to think of my fellow americans as dumb and gullible. i prefer to think of us as being taken advantage of, you know, by unsavory characters from time to time. and at least those people we can make fun of. your analysis is much darker, mark. >> well, you know, the other thing that i mentioned too is that i think if president bush had tried to do a similar speech, i'm sure there would have been similar criticism from the left. so i just would encourage moderation and judgment from -- from both sides of the aisle

when it comes to something as simple as the presidential address to the schoolchildren of america. >> mark mckinnon, former adviser to president george w. bush and senator john mccain. it's always great to have you on the show. thanks for joining us, mark. >> thanks, rachel. happy anniversary. >> thank you. british police are really, really, really mad at dick cheney, and they're mad at him three years retroactively. this is a strange spy story. stay with us. got nfl-sized odors in your house? febreze air effects actually eliminates odors in the air and leaves a fresh scent. febreze air effects, it's a breath of fresh air. got a wet pet in your house? febreze air effects eliminates odors in the air and leaves a fresh scent. febreze, official air freshener of the nfl.

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world net daily, the extra right wing website which banged the birther drum and sounded the

health care reform will kill grandma alarm is itself the subject of a bull pucky letter from the right. is there a battle going on for the soul of the conservative movement? what activist from the middle of that site joins us next. plus, since the resignation of green czar jones this weekend, forces are very excited to go after other czars, which after all, do sound really russian. and that's bad, right? that's all ahead. first, it's time for a couple of holy mackerel stories in today's news. if you want to know why it is that you can't bring your big toothpaste on board the airplane anymore, why it is that the airport concessions beyond the security gates are able to make a killing on bottled water since you can't bring any water from anywhere else through the security lines anymore, it is because of these guys, three british men convicted yesterday in a plot to blow up planes flying between the uk and here. these men were first arrested

back in 2006. >> british authorities announced they have broken up a major terror plot to blow up airliners flying from great britain to the united states. >> tonight a total of 24 arrests have been made. >> police officials here are saying that they believe they have picked up most of the masterminds behind this attack. >> this supposed attack plot involved using soft drink bottles to bring onto airplanes homemade hydrogen peroxide-based bombs. back in 2006, british police were all over this plot. they had more than 200 people under 24-hour, seven days a week surveillance. according to the assistant commissioner for special operations at the metropolitan police in london, who wrote about the investigation in "the times of london" today, quote, key suspects in the airline plot were under intensive surveillance. we logged every item they bought. we sifted every piece of rubbish they threw away at their homes or in litter bins. we filmed and listened to them. we broke into their homes and cars to plant bugs and search their luggage when they passed

through airports. we watched as they experimented with turning soft drink containers into bottle bombs. we listened as they recorded martyrdom videos. but what the british police hadn't yet done was arrest these guys. they wanted to suss out as much of this terrorist network as they could and they wanted to ensure they had enough evidence to get convictions of as many of these key players as possible on the most serious charges they could get them convicted on. but according to british intelligence officials, who apparently feel free to talk about this case now, now that the men have been convicted, the brits had their hands forced on these arrest when's then-vice president dick cheney allegedly ordered the early arrest of the bombing suspect's point man in pakistan. the u.s. was apparently prepared to kidnap this man in pakistan and fly him out of the country to a secret prison for interrogation if the pakistanis didn't arrest him themselves. the pakistanis did arrest him themselves. the brits were not notified of the pakistani arrest. that arrest would have tipped

off the suspects in britain that their plot had been found out. and so because of that arrest, because of the alleged u.s. actions to cause that arrest, before the british investigation was complete, before british law enforcement had exploited that known terrorist cell to its best counterterrorism purposes, they were forced to act early, prematurely, because of the bush administration. this was three years ago and british law enforcement are clearly still really po'd about it. stay tuned for more on this. it's not the last you will hear of it. and today is the big day in the history of combustible engine powered transportation. as it stands, about two-thirds of the world drives on the right. the other third drives on the left. in the past 40 years or so, only three countries have decided to change sides, all of them from left side of the road drivers to right side of the road drivers. no country has made the switch since 1970 until yesterday. at 6:00 a.m. yesterday, the pacific island nation of samoa

made the historically unique switch from the right side of the road to the left. nobody switches that direction. the samoan prime minister, a man who does not deserve to have his name mispronounced by me, but you can read it there, he thinks it will be cheaper for his country to import cars with the steering wheel on the right from new zealand and australia, rather than continuing to import cars with the steering wheel on the left, from us. and preparation for the big switch, the samoan government set up a driving course at a sports stadium so people could practice driving on the left. they gave the people a two-day national holiday to prepare and although this may have been a little rash, they banned alcohol sales in the whole country for three days prior to the grand move from right to left. so at 6:00 a.m., the prime minister went on national radio and he told everyone in the country to bring their vehicles to a halt. apparently, everyone did. and then he said, after this announcement, you will all be

permitted to move to the other side of the road to begin this new era in our history. after he said that, everyone did, moved to the other side of the road. and then according to the associated press, everybody who had stayed up late for the announcement or gotten up early for the announcement, honked their horns and clapped and cheered and started driving on the left without incident. so far, no accidents. they can do that and we can't do health reform. maybe if we banned booze for three days. can help my business. tara showed me how i could keep track of my employees in the field and get more jobs done faster. i was blown away. i'm blown away. only verizon wireless has small-business specialists in every store to help you do business better. we should get you a hat. now buy any blackberry, like the new tour, at our lowest prices ever, and get one free. [ birds squawking ]

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by now we are all familiar with the birthers who claim that president obama is a kenyan born manchurian candidate, despite the release of the president's for all stages of alzheimer's. studies showed aricept slows the progression... of alzheimer's symptoms. it improves cognition... and slows the decline of overall function. aricept is well tolerated but not for everyone. people at risk for stomach ulcers... or who take certain other medicines... should tell their doctors... because serious stomach problems... such as bleeding may get worse. some people may experience fainting. some people may have nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, bruising, or not sleep well. some people may have muscle cramps... or loss of appetite or may feel tired. in studies, these were usually mild and temporary. mom. talk to your doctor about aricept. don't wait. alzheimer's isn't waiting.

it's now time for an official "rachel maddow show" conspiracy theory special report. by now we are all familiar with the birthers who claim that president obama is a kenyan born manchurian candidate, despite the release of the president's birth certificate, the birthers continue to demand the release of the president's birth certificate. and, of course, we've also become acquainted with the deathers, who claim the president's publicly stated desire to reform health care is actually a front for his secret desire to kill everybody's grandparents. promoting the two corrosive theories, the right wing website

worldnetdaily.com recently expanded its already extensive repertoire by expanding the benefit to the natural disasters is actually a secret plan to up, quote, concentration camps for political dissidents such as occurred in nazi germany. okay, aside from the obvious, which is additionally annoying about this new achievement in excellence in wing nuttery is now we have to come up with a name for its adherence. concentration campers does not really roll off the tongue like birthers and deathers. what's different and politically significant about this as new unnamed yet concentration camp conspiracy theory is that it prompted a forceful pushback from at least one prominent voice on the political right. after world net daily published its concentration camp theory, conservative blogger john henke responded on the next right, a website he co-founded, saying, quote, this is just hideously

embarrassing for the right. i think it's time to figure out what conservative libertarian organizations support wmd through advertising, list rental or other special collaboration and boycott any of those organizations that will not renounce any further support for worldnetdaily. inside america's conservative ranks, that call to action has thus far started something slightly bigger than a squirmish but i would definitely say smaller than a war. here to find out more about it is john henke. john, thank you very much for venture ago cross no man's land to what might be new territory. i look forward to a chance to talk to you about this. >> thank you for having me. >> you called the founder of worldnetdaily, joseph farrah, a demagogue who appeals to our basic instincts. you describe the site itself as the fevered swamps. what's your overall beef with worldnetdaily?

>> worldnetdaily is a traffic and par know conspiracy theories that take away from our ability to discuss more important issues. they feed people with perhaps perhaps what they want to hear instead of actual facts and justify it by saying we are just reporting what people are saying. for example, they're not saying the birth certificate is actually fake. we're just saying that some people say the birth certificate is fake or some people are concerned or we want to see more evidence. of course, if you're not willing to listen to an answer, even credible, legitimate questions seize to be credible and legitimate. and they have not listened to answers. as they tear down the intellectual foundations of the right and they take away from our ability to discuss much more important things. >> what do you think is their motivation for doing so? clearly they're getting attention for putting out this more outlandish stuff but they are not seen as particularly credible. >> i think they probably genuinely believe in what

they're doing, i'm sorry to say. >> that's scary. >> and let me add, my point is not so much to says that people should boycott worldnetdaily, or that they should be shut down. i don't think it's very fruitful to argue with people who are wrong on the internet. there are no end of those people. what we need to argue with are the credible organizations, the credible people or the people who should be respected, who are associating with them and urge them not to be associated with the disgraceful organizations. >> among the groups that you have urged to at least disclose its full association with worldnetdaily, if not cut ties with them all together, is the republican national committee. you have raised concerns that they are -- they appear to be purchasing e-mail lists from worldnetdaily, essentially targeting their message to worldnetdaily's audience and paying the organization, paying the website money in order to do so. how has the republican party responded to your charges in that area? >> they in response to repeated inquiries responded once and then blew me off after that. their one response was to point to a news article weeks prior that did not address this whatsoever. they have been completely silent

and i'm very disappointed about that. >> your concern with the republican national committee and other purportedly mainstream organizations right sort of flirting with or making alliances with what you see as this fringe group because you think that undercut the legitimacy of these mainstream groups or because you think it elevates the fringe? >> actually both would be true. i think we have a problem where the republican party, the economists made this point late last year. the republican party has abandoned the intellectual foundation, has abandoned intellect and the elites that actually deserve to be elites because they are the credible thinkers, the buckleys, the kirks of our side. and they have turned to the world net dailies and the people who sell conspiracy theories and fears and frankly the fevered swamps. >> i will say that as a liberal, i was interested in your critique. ly i will tell you honestly because i feel that it's really important for our country to have a good, solid,

hohn nest left-right debate and a good, solid honest partisan debate and i'm concerned about what i see as the evolution of the craft of argument and adherence to the facts on the right. that's why it resonated with me. i'm wonder what reaction you had on the right from fellow conservatives to your critique? >> i've had mixed reaction. probably a third of people, mostly privately unfortunately, have told me they support it, they think this is -- we're going god's work. we're doing the important thing in rescuing the party from those lunatic fringes, from the peeve fevered swamps. a third of people said they probably agree but it's not their fight. they want to focus on democratic issues right now. and fine, and perhaps a third of people have actually taken what i think is a no enemies on the right stance and said, they're on our side. they're taking shots at the obama administration. lay off. and i'm very disappointed by that. but actually i'm disappointed by this in every respect. the left has certainly not buried their truther fringe. the left has not turned on them.

who on the left was supporting van jones being removed from the white house or resigning from the white house? i'm part of the problem because before the iraq war, i was focusing on the truthers and the war for oil crowd and forgot to focus on some of the more important issues. you're part of the problem because instead of focusing on the important entitlement issues and fiscal issues, you're focusing on worldnetdaily and the birthers. so the right needs to clean its own house. so i will make you a deal, i will stop talking about truthers and worrying about cleaning the right's house if you stop talking about world net daily and birthers and support van jones' leaving. >> a, i don't make deals with anybody about what i cover. and, b, my position on van jones is irrelevant because i have never covered him at all because i never thought he was of interest until he resigned under pressure from what i see as the unhinged right. your activism against the unhinged right is what your point of view of interest and

what makes me hope you will come back on the show and have another good, long civil debate with me, john. >> thank you. >> john henke, co-founder of thenextright.com. much appreciate your presence on the show tonight. thank you. there will never be a so-called death panel in any health care reform bill but never fear, sarah palin will still try to claim that there is. just like she did today. that's ahead on "countdown." keith will talk all things palin with alaska blogger shannyn moore. we will be right back. i don't think you can live the american lifestyle without energy. we have all this energy here in the u.s. we have wind. we have solar, obviously. we have lots of oil. i think natural gas is part of the energy mix of the future.

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>> what's all this stuff i keep hearing about violins on television? now, why don't parents want their children to see violins on television? why, i thought the leonard bernstein concert was just lovely. now, if they only showed violins after 10:00 at night, the little babies would all be asleep and they wouldn't learn any music appreciation by learning to play the guitar and bongo drums and go to africa. and they won't drink milk! i say there, should be more violins on television and less

game shows. it's terrible the way- >> that was violence on television, not violins. violence. >> oh. that's different. >> yes. >> never mind. >> they railed against violins on television, against the endangered species act, against -- and thought we shouldn't worry so much about y euthanasia, and then ended with never mind. of all the reasons to miss gilda rasner is because that character may be the most current thing we have to understand the right wing problem with czars in government. >> president obama has 15 advisors who fill his cabinet. as we're learning, they may be the most ineffective

ineffective -- ineffective group in our nation's history because he has 37 czars to advise him directly. what's the danger of czars and special advisors. never before have there been so many executive posts not confirmed by congress and answer only to the president. >> are the mainstream media ignoring questionable backgrounds on some of the other 30 odd czars? >> a select group of unconfirmed individuals are now at the helm of a shadowed government right here at the u.s. without further adieu, let's take a trip to the land of the czars. >> the land of the czars. that sounds so russian 1916. who are these czar people brand do they come from? at least partly they came from richard nixon. nixon appointed john love and then william simon to be his energy czar. it was reported that nixon actually used the phrase "energy

czar," when he offered that job, as in wouldn't you like to be my energy czar. despite that nixon actually used the term, the word "czar" wasn't actually in the job title. this may bring out emily latilla for the people going crazy about czars right now but people who have jobs in the administration called the something czar aren't actually czars of anything. sorry to say, it's a nickname. the drug czar is actually the director of the office of national drug control policy. papa bush created that in 1989. the intelligence czar is the director of national intelligence created by the george w. bush administration in 2005. and the aids czar, created in 2001. the border czar, another one create ed created by george w. bush, the nickname for the international special representative for the border affair for the homeland

security. the science czar? the director of the white house science and technology policy. the regulatory czar is the nickname for the haven't of the office of information and regulatory affairs. which noted at the washington independent today an office created in 1980. take your pick, america, either these are the czars who are turning america into imperialist russia as mimly latilla might say or these are people with specific policy jobs and long awkward job titles, so the press a calls them czars even though they're not actually 19th century russian autocrafts. bush and cheney created jobs nicknamed food safety czar, cybersecurity czar, they created a bird flu czar and manufacturing czar and more. the right did not freak out about those like st. petersburg. president obama clearly, his hiring practices are evidence of him forming a communist fascist

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here at the rachel mad does show we would be remiss not mention we are celebrating the birthday of my 90-year-old grandma truddy in california. happy birthday, grandma and celebrating the 43rd birthday of "star trek." live long and prosper and celebrating our own birthday, one year ago today we launched this show. this is the hardest job i ever had by a mile and thank you for making this a show we're proud of everyday