the crime of wrong-way wilson was not reflected in his emotions or disagreement or inappropriate conduct nor in his incivility. it was in his prideful wrongness. there are many vague portions of this bill, but section 246 says it plain. no federal payment for undocumented aliens. i defend congressman wilson's right to instability. a little incivility six years ago might have stopped the iraq war. he can shout anything he wants at anybody he wants in any circumstances he wants providing that he is willing to suffer the consequences of his action. i am willing to suffer him. this nation can survive a president being disrespected by some nickel-dime congressman from beaufort. the shame falls onto the shouter and not the one shouted at. but this nation cannot survive the continued acceptance, the continued endorsement, the continued encouragement, the continued institutionalization of stupidity. i think if mr. lincoln were alive, he might recast his most famous imagery -- a house divided against itself cannot stand. i believe this government cannot

endure permanently half smart and half stupid. section 246 is written expressly. there will be no health care funding for those who are here illegally. there will be no mechanism created to establish such funding. i fear section 247 will have to be rewritten expressly so that there will be a mechanism created to establish stupid panels. now, ladies and gentlemen, to detail the desperate defense of congressman wilson, colonel wilson of the south carolina national guard, calling the commanding officer a liar, ladies and gentlemen, here is rachel maddow. good evening, rachel. good evening, keith. thank you very much for that. and thank you at home for tuning in tonight. president obama followed up on last night's speech with a personal visit with 16 conservative democratic senators today.

one of them, mark begich of alaska, will join us thrive hour to tell us how that all went. but we begin tonight with what could fairly be judged as a distraction from the president's health care message last night, but it is a distraction that's also turning out to be a very clarifying look at american politics. the south carolina republican congressman joe wilson, who yelled "you lie" at the president in the middle of his address to congress last night, today felt himself on the receiving end of support and congratulations for that outburst. while many of his republican colleagues in congress express their disapproval of what congressman wilson did, a steady stream of well-wishers descended upon the congressman's office in d.c. today to say quite the opposite. among them were radical anti-abortion activist randall terry and members of the montgomery, alabama, tea party patriots. congressman wilson also found a wealth of support from conservative outposts on the online machines. today, the conservative website palmettocoop began giving away "i'm with joe wilson" t-shirts. the red state blog dubbed congressman wilson, quote, a great american hero, urging its

readers to open our wallets for joe. for his part, congressman wilson released a youtube video tonight incredibly trying to raise money off his newfound notoriety saying, i will not be muzzled, and railing against, quote, the liberal who is want to give health care to illegals. the groups that have come to congressman wilson's defense over the past 24 hours, that have even literally come to his office to show their support can help us understand the state of american politics right now, at least the state of republican politics right now. the extent to which the republican party has integrated itself with its own fringe extremes. joe wilson is not a well-known congressman. and he's not a well-known congressman for a reason. he's not considered to be an extremist in his party. he's considered to be a typical back-bench republican congressman. and right now in american politics today, being a typical

back-bench republican member of congress means doing things like opening the doors of your congressional office to participants in the 9/12 march on washington, which congressman joe wilson is planning to do this saturday. the 9/12 march on washington is essentially a national tea party, a big organized ostensibly grassroots march on the nation's capital. if you go to their website, you'll see that, quote, we've had enough of the out-of-control spending. we are gathering on 9/12/2009 to deliver our message in person that we've had enough. the "we" here is actually the republican-run corporate-funded organization called freedom works. freedom works is charging some groups tens of thousands of dollars to take part in this grassroots event. during the kickoff event for this whole weekend of 9/12 things, the head of freedom works, former republican house majority leader, dick armey, came to congressman joe wilson's

defense, arguing that we should, quote, cut mr. wilson a little slack. the crowd of several hundred people who were listening to mr. armey at that rally reportedly shouted "you lie, you lie!" not because they thought dick armey was lying but because they liked that congressman joe wilson yelled that last night at the president in the middle of his address to congress. if you look at their website, you can see the organizations sponsoring the event. one group that's listed as a bronze co-sponsor of the event is called the national association of rural landowners, or narlo. if you surf to their website, turns out they're calling for violent revolution. they're calling for the overthrow of the united states government, the government and the media both described as, quote, our enemy within. unless we come together in a cohesive, fighting unit, our freedoms and liberties shall fade into the dark campaign finance reform of socialism and radical environmentalism. included on the website of this group, that, again, is a bronze sponsor of the 9/12 march on

saturday, is an ominous warning that, quote, a day of reckoning is at hand. they also encourage people who are visitors to their website to buy guns now. they also posted a video that forecasts massive protests followed by the rapid secession of states, followed by a new civil war. congressman joe "you lie" wilson is opening his congressional office to these nice folks for the 9/12 march. the march will be addressed by republican members of congress including tom price and mike pence and marshall blackburn, also republican senator jim demint will be speaking. doesn't make sense anymore to talk about the relationship between the extreme fringe of the conservative movement and the modern republican party, because you can only discern a relationship between two things, if you can tell those two things apart. about half an hour ago, the

top-ranking republican in the house of representatives, not some anonymous back-bencher nobody's ever heard of until he had a tantrum on television, the top-ranking republican in the house of representatives, the minority leader, john boehner, appeared on a webcast organized by the lobbying arm of the family research council. this is an anti-health care reform webcast. it features the top republican in the house of representatives and it is hosted bay group that describes health reform as, quote, obama's tax and death power grab which will, quote, produce a moral disaster and enable the washington liberals to use your taxes to turn their entire anti-life agenda from unrestricted abortion on demand to euthanasia into national health care policy. getting called a liar was a distraction from president obama's speech on health care last night. it created a circuslike spectacle last night and, frankly, all day today. and it was also a clarifying moment about who the opposition is right now.

for the president and for democrats. and maybe for some moderate republicans. joining us now is former republican senator lincoln chafey of rhode island. he left the republican party, now an independent, exploring a possible run for governor in the great state of rhode island. thanks for joining us tonight. >> my pleasure, rachel. >> let me ask you about the premise here of the introduction that i just did. do you agree that the fringe of the conservative movement has really been invited into the mainstream of your former party? >> absolutely. we certainly saw it with vice presidential pick with sarah palin. it's that same population within the party that revels in driving out moderates such as myself, more mainstream republicans. and the ramifications, of course, are that the republican party is in an ever-shrinking minority. and you mentioned minority leader john boehner, and that's the problem with this strategy, if you will, by the republican

party. they're going to keep losing seats. they're down to 40 in the senate, 60/40, and although the money is pulling in to mr. wilson, congressman wilson, around the country in states such as rhode island, minnesota, oregon, people are embarrassed and appalled by this behavior. and that causes any republicans that are left to have a harder time winning. so, it's the ever-shrinking republican party. >> when we look ahead to a republican party's future that obviously right now the republican party is not in good electoral shape. but when we try to forecast the future of the party, what do you think is more likely? do you think it's more likely that the fringe continues to be courted and welcome within the mainstream, or do you think other forces within the republican party decides there needs to be a more moderating

influence? >> well, i think the former. and that is, after losing all the seats in 2006 and me being the victim of that, having high approval ratings in rhode island but still losing my seat just because i was a republican, and then in '08 again another big wipeout, nothing has changed. and so, i think that the fringe is still going to dictate the agenda in the republican party. and i do think that that means that there's going to be an opening such as i've stepped into to run as an independent. i think things are going to change, that people are going to look at running on something different. in massachusetts, there's a former democrat that's running, former attorney general elected statewide, cahill, running for governor as an independent. so, even from both parties, i as a former republican, cahill as a former democrat, looking at running in a new third party, if you will, independent. i think that's going to be something, a tectonic shift in american politics. >> wow. a major legislative issue on the table right now is obviously

health care. there are a handful of republicans, mostly olympia snowe and susan collins we're talking about, who support the white house, it is hoping for. let's say those two senators did vote for health reform, did vote with an overwhelming number of democrats and they were the only republicans who did it. what do you think the reaction would be from the republican party and from party activists to them voting for health reform? >> well, you always worry in those circumstances of having a primary. and i'm sure that that's what senators collins and snowe definitely worry about. the right will challenge them in a primary and the money will pour in. that's what happened to me as a moderate republican in maybe the most democratic state in the union, rhode island. and here i was a republican having a senate seat from this democratic state, yet i was primaried. and the money poured into my primary opponent. i was able to defeat him, but it cost me in the general, definitely. so, that's what you worry about if you step out of line. it doesn't make any sense. as guy back to what i first said, the republicans are losing seats, it makes no sense. you want to win elections. >> when we look at what happened last night with congressman wilson shouting at the president in the middle of that speech,

and that's what caused the whole circus of coverage and everything today, is that a canary in the coal mine sort of moment? is that an indication that it's not just that the fringe is being welcomed into the mainstream but their tactics are, as well, the types of destructions we saw at town hall events, for example, may be seeping into mainstream elected republicanism? >> absolutely. the canary in the coal mine. absolutely. address to the joint session of congress, the house and the senate, gathered to talk about an important issue, reforming our health care system, very important issue, to all americans having the best health care system, and we cannot have that conversation without the president of the united states being heckled by a major party member. yes, definitely a canary in the coal mine moment i think, as we see the republican party just shrink down into south carolina and alabama, idaho, whatever. >> former republican senator

lincoln chafee of rhode island, now an independent. always very welcome guest on this show. thanks very much for your time tonight. >> thank you, rachel. tomorrow is the eight-year anniversary of the attacks of september 11, 2001. some conservatives plan to honor this somber event by a tea bag rally, a movement they are branding september 12th. that's a way to camouflage the cynicism, right? make it september 12th, not september 11. right. more on that next. the real food. featuring a half rack of our new double-glazed baby back ribs with your choice of sauces. get one full-sized appetizer and two real entrees for just twenty bucks. it's 2 for $20. only at applebee's. great looking skin... it's in the dna. [ female announcer ] new regenerist dna cream with spf 25 doesn't just correct. it helps protect your dna without a $200 department store price tag. olay regenerist.

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no right-wing fury over anything president obama does is complete until we've heard from former half-term governor of alaska sarah palin. her take-away from last night's speech on health care reform, according to her facebook page, was this -- >> okay. never mind that the president's remark was a cost comparison between health reform and the wars in afghanistan and iraq, and never mind that the iraq war and 9/11 still have nothing to do with one another despite how inconvenient that is, sarah palin is staying in the news now by using 9/11 to try to score political points against president obama on the eve of the anniversary of the attacks. but that cynical is merely an appetizer before the main course

of exploiting a national tragedy that this year had been prepared for september 12th by the sous chef of performance art, mr. glenn lee beck. >> the answers have never come from washington. we weren't told how to bethey've day after 9/11. we just knew. it was right. it was the opposite of what we feel today. let us find ourselves and our solutions together again with the nine founding principles and the 12 eternal values. this is the 9/12 project. are you ready to be that person that you were, that day after 9/11 on 9/12? are you ready to be that person you were that day after 9/11 on 9/11? i launched a project back in march and it comes together saturday, september 12th, 9/12. thousands of people are going to

gather in washington, d.c., and around the nation to stand up for the principles and the values that have made america great. >> it's called the 9/12 project. it's not the 9/11 project. presumably because 9/11 falls inconveniently on a friday this year, not a saturday. joining us now is princeton university politics in african-american studies professor melissa harris-lacewell. thanks for joining us. nice to see you. >> good to be here. >> is there a statute of limitations or something on when it's okay to start being really blatant about exploiting a national tragedy for other purposes? did that statute expire this year, do you think? >> well, you know, interestingly, our friend keith was very critical about how the gop deployed 9/11 even in the context of the rnc's nominating convention last summer. so, it's possible that this is already expired, that it's already been used in some blatantly kind of personal political ways. but i think what i want to say

here is it's not necessarily wrong to take a moment of great national tragedy in order to reflect on who were we, what does it mean, what was that moment of possibility. that in and of itself is not exploitive. but the idea that who we were on september 12th, 2001, is who we want to be right now, people who were terrified, people whose cities were burning, people who had a vague sense of an enemy but not knowing who that enemy was, mothers and fathers still waiting for their children to come home and spouses hoping that their partner would call, i mean, is that really what glenn beck is calling us to be again? >> i was struck today when i was reading about the kickoff events for the 9/12 weekend. and dick armey, the head of freedom works, which is a corporate-funded group that's

organizing the march and that is charging groups a lot of money to participate, even though it's supposed lay grassroots group, he was speaking at a rally. and he defended congressman joe wilson, and then the crowd, which was reportedly about 800 people, started yelling "you lie, you lie, you lie," not because they thought dick armey was lying but because they thought that was a good chant to support that member of congress who had interrupted the president. what's the connection between disrupting the president in a speech to congress about health care and the day after 9/11? >> well, it's a particularly odd connection, because if there's anything that we all were on september 12th, it was rallied behind our president regardless of ideology, regardless of party. you know, i sometimes mention that african-american men were in the city of new york while rudy giuliani was still the mayor and they were wearing nypd hats, right?

so, despite everything that had happened on questions of race and that mayor, people were willing to, you know, really look to our national leadership. if there's a connection to be made between 9/12 and our current situation, it ought to be that our health care crisis is similarly facing down our country, that we are in a serious time of crisis, and so it's a time for kind of somber reflection and for supporting your president regardless of your ideology, finding the common ground on which americans stand. >> when we look at -- ahead to this weekend, and there's going to be a weekend-long celebration of these events, or i would usually call it a commemoration, but it does seem quite celebratory in terms of their

tone, do you think that when we look at those crowds, we should expect that they're really only speaking for themselves, or is this one of those incidents where a protest group represents a larger group that sympathizes with them but are not interested in getting to washington on the weekend to be there themselves? >> you know, it's really hard to tell. as we would say in the academy, that's an empirical question, and i'm not sure i have the answer yet. it does seem, as your first guest said, that this is a shrinking party, an exceptionally vocal, incredibly well-organized faction but still a minority faction, even relative to what we know about the strong support for the president's health care plan after his speech last night. so, i'm going to say that for now let's take it as just a group of individuals who apparently are as terrified today as they were the day after our country was attacked on september 11th, 2001. >> and they want the rest of us to feel that way, too. >> and you're a truth teller, by the way. >> you lie! professor of politics and african-american studies, great to have you on the show. thank, melissa. >> thanks. after last night's epic health care address, president obama zeroed in today on his real audience. he had a sitdown audience with

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president obama summoned 16 conservative democrats to the woodshed -- sorry, white house today to have a friendly chat about passing health reform. alaska senator mark begich was

one of those senators there this afternoon. he'll be with us in a moment. but we begin with news of life during wartime. friday, german nato troops in afghanistan called in american aircraft to drop bombs on two fuel tankers that had been hijacked. afghan officials say those bombs ended up killing 70 people. that would make the bombing the deadliest incident initiated by the german military since world war ii. the germans initially insisted that all those killed were insurgents. the afghans said no, the casualties were civilians. and nato says that it is now investigating the incident. but the day after the bombing, a "new york times" reporter named stephen farrell and his interpreter sultan munadi headed out to the site to interview villagers there, despite being warned that was taliban-controlled territory, that the villagers were angry about the bombing and that it wasn't really safe at all to travel there. sure enough, scarily enough, farrell and mr. munadi were both kidnapped by the taliban at the site of the bombing.

but here's where the story changes from a war movie script to a steven soderbergh war movie script, and one with a brutal ending. stephen farrell is irish, a dual irish/british citizen. by 2:00 p.m. on saturday, the day they were kidnapped, a website called irishcentral had already broken the news about the abduction. then, right away, irishcentral unbroke the story. they erased the story from that i shall website. they erased it from the other websites they share content with and erased it from all their news feeds. they disappeared the story after "the new york times" called them and told them they wanted to keep the kidnapping under wraps because they thought that would be in the best interest of the hostages. we've seen this before, sort of. current tv, for example, wouldn't tell us anything about laura ling and euna lee when they were being held in north korea. at first, "newsweek" magazine wouldn't say anything about its reporter when he was first being held in iran, though they have since changed their mind and are publicizing his case.

"the times" kept the taliban abduction of another one of its reporters, david roady, under wraps for the full seven months he was in captivity earlier this year, until rhody escaped. the reason we know about and can talk about the abduction of stephen farrell and sultan munadi is because it's over. at 7:30 on tuesday night, mr. farrell called his editor and said, "i'm out. i'm free." despite some reports that quiet negotiations had been happening behind the scenes for their release, ultimately the way that stephen farrell was freed was by a british commando raid on the compound in which he and sultan munadi were being held. now, in the resulting chaotic firefight, sultan munadi was shot dead, as was one of the british commandos, as was one local woman and one child. the reporter stephen farrell was unharmed, the media embargo was ended and now a new association of afghan journalists who work with western reporters is protesting both that military raid and the fact that

mr. munadi's body was left behind on the scene afterwards. now here in the u.s., "the new york times," having had two of its key reporters abducted this year alone and having one of its longtime translators killed, "the new york times" says it is reviewing security procedures, reviewing the dangers that it's willing to have its reporters face in afghanistan in order to cover what it is that western troops are doing there. just as we here at home are reviewing the danger we are willing to put our troops in eight years into this war in order for us to be there at all.

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okay. this is going to end one of two ways. either the president and the democrat leadership in congress are going to agree on a relatively conservative health reform bill, a conservative bill that would dare liberal democrats to vote no on health reform on the grounds that that bill wasn't reforming enough, could go that way, or the president and the democratic leadership in congress could agree on a relatively progressive health reform bill,

and a progressive health reform bill would put conservative democrats on the spot, daring them to vote no on health reform on the grounds that the bill was just too democratic-y. republicans largely out of the legislative equation except to the extent they make news by walking out in the middle of the president's speech to congress or by screaming at the president in the middle of that speech, the distance between liberal democrats and conservative democrats is really what defines the range of potential outcomes for how the battle to finally get america a health care system is going to end. today, mr. obama asked 16 conservative democrats and joe lieberman to meet with him at the white house. don't you wonder how it went? joining us now is mark begich of alaska. he is one of the democratic senators who met with the president today, the first democrat that alaskans have sent to congress since 1981. senator begich, it's great to have you back on the show. thanks very much for taking the time.

>> thank you very much, rachel. you're not going to beat me up tonight, are you? >> well, it depends on what you say, sir, of course, and i assume it would be mutual. >> it's always a pleasure to come on your show. last time we had a little back-and-forth on mr. bill and how to write a book. i hope you got the book i sent. >> i did get the book. it's awesome. >> a great book. we had the author sign it, too, to boot, so i thought it would be a great future for you there to read that book there. >> now i'm worried you didn't get my thank you note and it's stuck in some anthrax-freeze zone in ohio somewhere. i'll redouble my efforts. >> the amazing part for a second, the mail system in the capitol is outrageous because you never get anything because they sanitize it to death. there's nothing left except maybe the postage stamp that maybe someone put on it. that's it. i appreciate being on here. it's a pleasure. >> with that important ground covered, i have to ask you how the meeting went today with the president. i don't know how much of it was -- your able to communicate to us, but i'd love to hear how it went. >> there's some i can talk

to you about. i have to say last night the president's presentation, his speech, was incredible. i think he put to rest a lot of concerns that i know the public has called our office about and set the pace of what we need to do in the next couple months. i think they're as clear as you said last night, 80% of the issues we agreed upon. it's just that last 20%. i heard your opening. i want to say that i think it's a little bit of both, on both ends of within the democratic party that will get to a solution here with regard to health care. and i think today's meeting was an opportunity to be blunt with the president but also talk about the concerns we have on how to sustain it fiscally, whatever health care plan we have. i was very pleased and i know members who were there today were very pleased about the point that the president made about deficit neutral but not only for today but into the future. that last part we really hadn't heard. so, that was kind of new information last night, and we were able to discuss it a little

bit more today. he had his own director there to kind of lay out some of the issues and get our questions on what we were concerned about, which was, you know, the financial costs, making sure that whatever bill we come up with that we can financially support it, not only for today but for generations to come if we truly want health care. but i thought it was a very cordial, positive meeting. i think your point was well taken that it's time that all the democrats sit down and resolve their differences and move forward. i think the president has an opportunity to get this on the road and get this show on the road and get it done. >> i looked at the statement that your office released yesterday about how congruent your goals are with the president's stated goals now. and it seems like you are very much in line with one another, things like covering pre-existing conditions has been a real priority for you. >> absolutely. >> keep your coverage if you want to. increasing the number of people with insurance, as you mentioned, not adding to the deficit. if all those things are preserved, those things you've campaigned on you've defined as

your real priorities, if all that is preserved and there's a public insurance option as part of this bill, would you be able to vote yes? >> can i define it further? two other pieces. one is, and the president talked about it today and of course last night, and that is the important impact on small business. he has, i think, a plan that's going to save small business folks future costs in regard to insurance and make sure that they have access, which is important from alaska's perspective and i know across this country. i guess i don't want to put the word public option. i'd rather say that there's going to be some mechanism, i guess, at the end of the day to ensure that insurance companies are held accountable, that they are not going to be able to jack up rates and have changes in their formulas in the future that cost american taxpayers and rate payers. what i don't want to have happen is that the bill lives or dies by that issue, that we have to get health care reform, we have to get insurance reform, and it means that that part of the

equation will deal with it at that time. but it shouldn't be the item that makes it live or die. >> not the basis on which you'll make your own decision on how you'll vote? >> exactly. it's a combination of the things you just mentioned as well as -- i have to say last night he helped at least from an alaskan perspective the issues he laid out on the seniors. he really hammered down that seniors are not going to lose benefits, they're going to gain from this, that -- he did a lot of things that i was looking forward to, but now it's about fiscal discipline on it and making sure it has long-term stability and it can be paid for and do it with the savings and the efficiencies that he talked about. >> senator mark begich, democrat of alaska, thanks very much for joining us tonight. a lot of people curious about your exact position on this. great to have you on the record. great to have you here. >> thank you, rachel. always a pleasure. >> just ahead on "countdown," congressman joe wilson is the subject of a very, very special comment by mr. olbermann. next on this program, it's the intersection at last of barack obama and the l-word.

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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. i think we have the can-do. we have the capability. we have the technology. the solutions are here. we just need to find them here.

call or click now. senator, you criticized the

bush administration frequently, but you almost never criticize the republican party itself. other democrats -- >> much to your chagrin. >> well, yeah. i mean, other democrats, you will hear them talk about the gop as the party that's been wrong in the big stuff, creating social security, civil rights, the war in iraq. >> right. >> you don't really do that. do you think there is a stark difference between the two parties? >> well, i do think there's a difference between the two parties, but here's my belief, that -- i'm talking to voters. and i think there are a lot of republican voters out there, self-identified, who actually think that what the bush administration has done has been damaging to the country. and what i'm interested in is how do we build a working majority for change. and if i start off with the premise that it's only self-identified democrats who i'm speaking to, then i'm not going to get to where we need to go. if i can describe it as not a blanket indictment of the republican party but instead describe it as the republican party having been kidnapped by

an incompetent highly ideological subset of the republican party, then that means that i can still reach out to a whole bunch of republican moderates who i think are hungry for change as well. >> they do not see you the same way. when john mccain calls you a socialist -- >> right. >> -- this redistribute the wealth idea, calls you soft on national security. >> yes. >> that's not just an anti-barack obama script. he's reading from an anti-democrat and specifically an anti-liberal -- >> absolutely. >> and so you have the opportunity to say john mccain, george bush, you're wrong. you also have the opportunity to say conservativism has been bad for america, but you haven't gone there either. >> i tell you what, though, rachel, you notice i think we're winning right now, so maybe i'm doing something right. i know you've been bruising -- you know, cruising for a bruising here for a while, looking for a fight out there. but i just think people are tired of that kind of back and forth, tit for tat ideological approach to the problems. now, there is no doubt that

there is a set of premises in the reigning republican ideology that i just think are wrong. the important thing, though, is i just want to make sure that i'm leaving the door open to people who say to themselves, well, you know, i'm a member of the republican party and i remember people like, you know, chuck percy in illinois or abraham lincoln of illinois, pretty good republican. that there are some core values that historically have been important to the republican party but just have not been observed over the last several years. >> that was then candidate barack obama last october, just five days before he was elected president, refusing to take the bait from me, right? overtly declaring his disinterest in talking about ideology in america. the really big picture of political disagreement that exists among american, the philosophical divide that separates the american right from the american left. since then in his acceptance speech the night of the

election, in his inaugural, in his not exactly state of the union address, in his press conferences and his town hall meetings, even in his legislative strategy as president, president obama has kept to that same course, calling for bipartisanship time and again, even as it's become clear that the hand he is reaching for across the aisle is actually a closed fist. speaking charitably of individual republican members of congress, even those who have made wild accusations against him and leaving his own most ardent supporter, liberals, to argue among themselves as to whether they should trust that this president isn't just above the fray. but this president understands the fray is there for a reason, that his election was not just about him seeming like a competent guy, it was also a rejection of the proud and professed conservativism of the last president and the last vice president and their whole proudly conservative administration and their party. the election of barack obama and the landslide victories of democrats in congress in the last two elections weren't just

about all those individual candidates seeming like nice, competent people. they were a national endorsement of doing things differently than the conservatives. and in america, doing things differently than the conservatives has a name. it's a thing. it's got a long history. it's got a cogent world view. it's got a track record of bringing us advances that americans have come to like, such as the weekend, civil rights, medicare, social security. last night for the first time in his presidency in a high-profile setting president obama talked liberalism. he did so in the context of the late senator ted kennedy, a man as proud of his own liberalism as he was vilified for it by conservatives. >> figuring out the appropriate size and role of government has always been a source of rigorous and, yes, sometimes angry debate. that's our history.

for some of ted kennedy's critics, his brand of liberalism represented an affront to american liberty. in their minds, his passion for universal health care was nothing more than a passion for big government. but those of us who knew teddy and worked with him here, people of both parties, know that what drove him was something more. ted kennedy's passion was born not of some rigid ideology but of his own experience. it was the experience of having two children stricken with cancer. he never forgot the sheer terror and helplessness that any parent feels when a child is badly sick. and he was able to imagine what it must be like for those without insurance, what it'd be like to have to say to a wife or a child or an aging parent, there is something that could make you better but i just can't afford it.

that large-heartedness, that concern and regard for the plight of others is not a partisan feeling. it's not a republican or democratic feeling. it, too, is part of the american character. our ability to stand in other people's shoes. character. our ability to stand in other people's shoes. a recognition that we are all in this together. when fortune turns against one of us, others are there to len a helping hand. a belief in this country, hard work? responsibility should be rewarded by some measure of security and fair play. and an acknowledgement that sometimes government has to step in to help deliver on that promise. this has always been the history of our progress. in 1935 when over half of our seniors could not support themselves and million had seen their savings wiped away, there were those who argued social

security would lead to socialism. but the men and women of congress stood fast and we are all the better for it. in 1965, when some argued that medicare represented a government takeover of health care, members of congress, democrats and republicans, did not back down. they joined together so that all of us could enter our golden years with some basic peace of mind. you see, our predecessors understood that government could not and should not solve every problem, they understood that there are instances when the gains in security action are not worth the added constraints on our freedom. but they also understood that the danger of too much government is matched by the perils of too little. without the has not of government, monopolies can crash, the vulnerable can be

exploited. and they knew that when any government measure, no matter how carefully crafted, is subject to scorn. when any efforts to help people in need are attacked as unamerican, when facts and reason are thrown overboard and only timid at this passes for wisdom and we can no longer even engage in a civil conversation with each other over the thing that truly matter, that at that point, we don't lose our capacity to solve big challenges. we lose something essential about ourselves. >> the white house also released the letter from the late senator ted kennedy that key noted that passage in the president's speech from last night. the letter may give some insight as to why the president was moved at last, last night, to talking those philosophical terms that he so stood justly avoided for so long. the letter from the late senator to president obama in part says this. >> when i thought of all the years and the battles.

then the liberal fighting words. the kind that made people call the senator who wrote them the liberal lion. with last night's speech by the president a tribute to another man's liberalism? or was it the first public sign

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we send you a check for the difference, automatically. we turn now to our popular divergence correspondent. i still don't know what that means. >> huge american idol news is what that means. ellen degeneres will replace paula abdul as a judge this season. breathe, take a minute, allow the enormity of the news to sink in. >> okay. all right. >> i am going to be the new judge on "american idol." >> they made the big announcement last night because obviously there was nothing else

that might command the country's attention. who doesn't love ellen? of course, when you sit next to simon, everyone's likesable quotient kicks up a notch. or two. >> it was a little like a chihuahua. >> and clearly, paula abdul had been in the frig past her expiration date. >> it is a while party where you are. >> but ellen as a judge of vocal quality? i don't know. i'm not saying she isn't qualified. okay. i'm saying she isn't qualify. what do you say to your kids if you work your heart out and sing for hours every day, someday you'll get a shot at being judged by a comedian? and i don't buy the whole, a performer know porlance argument. i mean, you wouldn't hire chris angel to judge larry the cable guy's jokes or vice versa. is ellen psyched about music?