favor of the public option. and among democrats in mike ross' district, democrats were in favor of the public option by a walloping 74%. that's the hardball context in which the specifics of our new health care system will be like are being worked out among democrats. republicans are not a big part of the legislative process. even orrin hatch today offered an amendment to the baucus health care bill singling out and i quote, any state with a name that begins with the letter u to get special federal health care assistance. when your policy suggestions could double as skits about the alphabet on "sesame street" it may be fair to say you're not doing real heavy lifting regarding legislation. even as republicans become more and more irrelevant to the content of any health reform

bill, they are launching new attacks on the whole idea of reform itself. and they're scary. after promoting the idea that health care reform was a secret plot to kill old people and a secret plot to take away veterans health care and a secret plot to kill women with breast cancer and a secret plot to deny health care specifically to republicans and even a secret plot to deny care to disabled children -- that one was particularly classy -- just when you thought they might be running out of groups of americans to scare about what secret plot lurks within health reform they found a new one. a new survey says health care reform is a plot to deprive you of health care on the basis of your race. and you know, the president is black. we don't want to give you any ideas but guess which race will be discriminated against? under the heading rationing and

restricting health care on this fund-raising fake survey from the republican party appears this question. are you concerned about health care rationing could lead to a quota system which would determine who would get treatments on the basis of race or age? we're not saying that's going to happen but hypothetically would that sort of thing concern you? they have been among the worst offenders in terms of scaring americans by making stuff up about health reform. the republican party is not exactly alone here. consider this letter that's been sent out from the health insurance company humana to its customers. millions of seniors and disabled individuals could lose many important benefits and services. that's not proposed in any health care bills in consideration and that sort of health care reform fear mongering might also be illegal.

humana is being investigated because the government pays humana to provide medicare coverage to medicare patients and by virtue of that humana agreed to abide by marketing rules. marketing rules that are in place so medicare patients won't be confused about who's sending them information about their benefits, confused between their insurance company and the government. now in this case humana says they don't think they broke the rules but are cooperating with the investigation nonetheless. an advocacy group called consumer watchdog on friday released underwriting guidelines from the industry that may clear just how sweet the deal has been for companies in the current system and how bad that system has been for those of us trying to use it to get our health care needs met. blue cross california guidelines from 2004 for example said you could be disqualified from health coverage in certain circumstances if you had varicose veins. guidelines in 2006 said you could be denied coverage or charged higher premiums if you

ever had treatment for toenail fungus or allergies. healthnet said you could be rejected from coverage if you were pregnant or an expectant father. who could be expected to cover a high risk freak like that? a group called pacific care in 2003 not only said that pregnancy or being an expectant father were grounds for automatic rejection of health coverage, they refused coverage to police officers and firefighters as a class. what's actually scary about health care is what passes for a health system in this country now. why again is anyone in congress fighting to preserve the industry that brought us the genius idea that police officers don't deserve health insurance in america? why is it so important to preserve that system? joining us now is wendell potter. he's a former health insurance executive turned whistle blower. he was head of public relations for cigna. he is now a senior fellow on

health care at the center for media and democracy. thanks very much for joining us tonight. >> i was at humana for a few years, too. >> that makes it more relevant to have you here. thank you. i have to say that i was sort of shaken up by these industry documents made public this weekend. internal rules that say you can't cover police officers. you can't cover firefighters. don't cover anyone who is going to have a baby. this pre-existing condition system was created by the industry. what was the purpose of it and how has it worked out for them? >> it worked out great for them. they avoided paying billions of dollars in claims because of the system it created. they did this primarily to avoid anyone who might need health insurance. they had such a sweet deal over many years by avoiding or not having to accept anyone who applied for coverage who might have had an illness in the past. in fact, there are some professions in the industry that

in the past they have written do not quote. it's something -- in fact, health care workers are among those that health insurance companies would rather not cover if they had a choice. >> what about when someone already has coverage? do pre-existing condition clauses factor after someone has been granted coverage? to avoid paying specific claims or drop them? >> absolutely. this is in the individual market where someone doesn't have access to health insurance through the workplace. you have to fill out an application. you are expected to try to remember everything that you can throughout your medical history throughout your life. if you miss something or if you forget something, then if you do get sick, if you do have medical claims, the insurance company will go back and look at that application and they will have better memory -- they'll have better records than you will have memory and they very often will cancel your coverage even though you paid premiums year in and year out every month on time, even if you had acne or

something like that. >> when we look at the prospects for reform right now, the idea of getting rid of pre-existing conditions is something that pretty much everyone seems to be on board with even the health insurance industry. they're willing to let the pre-existing condition thing go. if you put yourself in the mindset of yourself when you worked in the industry or executives there now, surveying the reform prospects right now, how are they feeling about what may be happening to their industry? >> they would be willing to give up pre-existing conditions as a condition to deny coverage because they see this as a potential bonanza for them. they have gotten the president to go along or change his course and agree that everyone should be forced to get coverage and that would mean that if there's no public option, they would have billions of dollars in new revenue coming from new policyholders and from those who can't afford to pay the overpriced premiums taxpayer dollars that would go into these

companies and a lot would come out in terms of profits for shareholders so it's a sweet deal for them. they would give up pre-existing conditions. they said this in 1993. it's empty rhetoric. they would go along with it because they can't avoid it this time and secondly in exchange for getting all of the new customers, you bet they'll go along with it. >> i think of my own health insurance coverage and my experience with health insurance coverage, i've been through a long period of life where i've been uninsured. a lot of people in my family and friends have been through times we were uninsured but i also know a lot of people who have health insurance right now but still feel we are under insured. still feel that we're being given unaffordable costs even after paying unaffordable premiums. do you feel like the sort of new regulation for industries including getting rid of pre-existing conditions and other things being proposed would make our insurance less bad if we'll all be required to have it. >> i think it will make it even more bad. pre-existing conditions could be

eliminated. they should be made illegal a long time ago. a lot of the legislation would still enable and sanction or enable companies to continue to shift more and more of the cost of health care to us. the so-called premiums might be more affordable comparatively but we would pay more out of our own pocket for coverage. the goal of making sure that no one has to file for bankruptcy because of medical bills is a pipe dream with the kind of legislation we see right now. >> that is the argument for the public option to compete with the private system. >> exactly. >> wendell potter, thank you very much for coming on the show tonight, sir. >> thank you, rachel. >> last weekend in washington the conservative place to be was the oddly ill focused tea party held on the occasion of the 9/11 anniversary. now to be remembered forever in journalism school textbooks for this scene of an associate

producer at fox news rallying the crowd so the network could show images of a crowd that looked rallied. this weekend in washington the conservative place to be was the value voters summit where the chief of staff to a u.s. senator told the crowd that pornography makes you gay. i would never make something like that up. you would never forgive me. we have an eyewitness report to this guy saying that next. . tdd# 1-800-345-2550 when my broker said, "i make money when you make money," tdd# 1-800-345-2550 he neglected to mention tdd# 1-800-345-2550 he also makes money when i lose money, tdd# 1-800-345-2550 withdraw money or do nothing with my money. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 tdd# 1-800-345-2550

>> it's important to realize i was actually black before the election, so -- >> that was president obama on "the late show with david letterman" in this afternoon's taping. he was answering the claim made by former president jimmy carter that racism was behind the most recent political attacks against him. mr. letterman asked the president about putting this visit to a late-night show on his presidential itinerary.

>> you ask who is responsible. everybody kind of looks down. and they pull out their black berries. >> president obama on his sixth visit to "the late show." this was his first as president. . hear that? seals it tight. smells like fresh ground. fresh fresh fresh fre-- that's our favorite part. ...fresh! (announcer) taste why maxwell house is good to the last drop. so, at national, i go right past the counter... and you get to choose any car in the aisle. choose any car? you cannot be serious! okay. seriously, you choose. go national. go like a pro. garth, you're up. hold on, i'm at capitalone.com picking a photo... for my credit card. here's one from my prom. oh, what memories. how 'bout one from our golf outing? ( shouting )

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>> behold a missouri congressman, candidate for u.s. senate until recently the number three republican in the house telling what seems to be a really long meandering gut churning racist joke. >> supposedly it's the turn of

the 19th century, the end of the 19th century, beginning of the 20th century, there was a group of british occupiers in a lush, very quiet, very peaceful, very uneventful part of india. this group of british soldiers who were occupying that part of india decided they would carve a golf course out of the jungle of india. and there was really not much else to do so for over a year this was the biggest event going on getting this golf course created. they got the golf course done and almost from the day the first ball was hit on this golf course something happened they didn't anticipate. monkeys would come running out of the jungle and they would grab the golf balls. if it was in the fairway, they might throw it in the rough. they might throw it back at you. and i can go into great and long detail about how many things they did to try to eliminate the

monkey problem but they never got it done. so finally for this golf course and this golf course only, they passed a rule and the rule was you have to play the ball where the monkey throws it. and that is the rule in washington all the time. >> where the who does what? so who's the monkey in washington in this story? republican congressman roy blunt who wants to be the next republican senator from the great state of missouri. mr. blunt performed his lamentation of the washington monkey at this weekend's values voter summit in washington, which in addition to hosting most of the republican congressional leadership and most of the probable republican candidates for president in 2012, it also had some kind of strange stuff going on. you might recall on friday's show we warned you there would be a breakout session at the summit to define what they

called a new masculinism like feminism but for guys. here's how that went. >> it's been a few years but not that many since i was closely associated with pre-adolescent boys, 10 to 12 years of age, but it is my observation that boys at that age have less tolerance for homosexuality than just about any other class of people. they speak badly about homosexuals. they don't want to be that way. they don't want to fall into it. that's a good instinct. homosexuality we know, studies have been done by the national institutes of health to try to prove it's genetic and those studies proved it's not. it's inflicted on people. >> inflicted on people. speaker there is chief of staff to united states senator named mike schwartz chief of staff to

tom coburn of oklahoma. he is also a founding member of operation rescue and also co-authored a book accusing gay people of using aids to advance a nefarious gay agenda. now, well, this weekend he moved quickly from the gay being inflicted on people to some remarkable advice about pornography and preteens. >> all pornography is homosexual pornography. because all pornography turns your sexual drive inwards. now think about that. and if you, if you tell an 11-year-old boy about that, do you think he'll want to get a copy of "playboy"? i'm pretty sure he'll lose interest. it's the last thing he wants. >> chief of staff to united states senator. how does a person have time both to be chief of staff to a united states senator and to develop complicated theories about how porn makes you gay and that's a

good thing to tell an 11 year old? under the same roof as that breakout session at the values voter summit, the most absurd award ceremony award was earned by the values voter summit organizers. bill o'reilly accepted the first ever media courage award. the ceremony to award mr. o'reilly his media courage award was closed to the media. courage. joining us now is the man who snapped that photo of that sign a reporter for "washington independent." he filed several reports from the values voter summit. thanks very much for coming back on the show. >> thanks for having me again. >> was the media award ceremony being closed to the press. was that a mistake? it seems like an awkward decision. did they follow through on keeping reporters out? >> it was a surprise to everyone. reporters were ushered out at 5:00. we were supposed to be allowed back in at 7:00.

when we showed up very bashful staff informed us that mr. o'reilly just instituted the rule. someone inside the event with a camera was kicked out loudly seconds after i took that photo. it was surprising but the content of the speech was about according to people inside, why the media doesn't cover conservatives. up until now getting kicked out wasn't a reason the media didn't cover conservatives but o'reilly is doing his part. >> at the new masculinity breakout session, we just played some clips, what was the crowd's reaction to mr. schwartz's comments that porn will make you gay and we should tell preteens this? >> a door was open and they just discovered an answer to questions that had for years and years. it's not audible on that tape but there's a gasp and after he explains the truth in the story, some people started asking about where he heard this and what the

guy's name was and they wanted to know more about this theory. i think it cracked open a lot of theories that value voters as they define themselves at this conference had about why america keeps getting further from the values they like and this was a very nice silver bullet explanation. you know that american evangelicals talk about this. it all came together for them. i heard people nudging each other to hear more about this. >> in addition to talking to people like tom coburn and his staff, senator coburn is on the far right end of the republican party. i was interested to see people like tim pawlenty turning up at this event. he is still talked about as a moderate in beltway common wisdom. can you tell us what he was like before this values voter summit audience?

>> a revelation i think. the reason that governor pawlenty is seen as a very credible candidate to take down barack obama is he is a governor of a blue state who has governed for most of his tenure with a democratic legislature. he vetoed a lot of things he didn't like but was close to the middle. before this audience he pushed every button. he compared what president obama was doing on foreign policy to what chamberlain did to appease hitler. he called the president out for debt he was imposing on our children and indulged people who are angry about the president speaking to school children saying the next time you do it you should apologize for this debt you're leveling on them. he quoted from the chronicles that ronald reagan used in his inaugural and there's a moment where a big portion of the audience knew that passage and read it along with him. he sounded like a preacher. it was one -- something that elevated him to the number three position in this straw poll but two just something we haven't seen from this guy before. >> certainly not part of the

national common wisdom but a side of himself he cultivates with audiences like this. thanks very much for your reporting. totally invaluable about this. thanks for joining us tonight. >> thank you so much, rachel. today's big intrigue in washington is who leaked the new war plan to bob woodward at "the washington post" and was that leak designed to push president obama into doing something in the war effort that he wouldn't otherwise do? the reporter who today said that what the bush administration did in iraq is being treated as a template for error by this white house joins us next. you must be looking for motorcycle insurance. you're good. thanks. so is our bike insurance. all the coverage you need at a great price. hold on, cowboy. cool. i'm not done -- for less than a dollar a month, you also get 24/7 roadside assistance. ght on. yeah, vroom-vroom! sounds like you ran a 500. more like a 900 v-twin.

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live better. call or click today. >> until i'm satisfied that we've got the right strategy, i'm not going to be sending some young man or woman over there beyond what we already have. >> beyond what we already have. so the 68,000 americans who are there now have to stay even if we don't have the right strategy? last night "the washington post" published to its website something that had been talked about for a long time in d.c. but so far had been kept secret. the top military commander's review of what we're doing in afghanistan and what we ought to be doing. conventional wisdom said the report was leaked to push the president into doing something sooner than he might have otherwise done it. the report by general stanley mcchrystal raises the possibility over and over and

over again of a u.s. military failure in afghanistan. "failure to gain the initiative and reverse insurgent momentum in the near term risks an outcome where defeating the insurgency is no longer possible." quote, resources will not win this war but under resources could lose it. continued under resources will likely caught failure. quote, the insurgents cannot defeat us militarily but we can defeat ourselves. quote, any of these risks in turn are likely to result in mission failure. over and over and over again this leaked report raises the spector of failure of defeat in afghanistan. even as it defines what's going on in afghanistan right now as "not a war in the conventional sense." it's not a war but a thing that's not a war that we can lose. even though president obama inherited this whatever you choose to call it from george w. bush, no president wants to be the president who loses the not war in afghanistan.

in its ninth year. of course no one quite understands what it would be to win this not war either but fear of losing is perhaps politically stronger than the dread of doing something indefinitely that just can't be won. general mcchrystal has not requested additional troops yet. it's expected that he will. his report indicates that a strategic change is more important than more resources. he defined the goal of resources as creating an afghanistan in which the insurgency never threatens the viability of the state. he says u.s. forces must prioritize responsive and accountable governance. the current government is described as incompetent officials, power brokers and criminality. also high level abuse of power and low level corruption. bureaucratin incapacity. while the goal of creating a afghan government worthy of its people is admirable and well intentioned, we're all left to

wonder as the number of americans in afghanistan pursuing that lofty goal doubled in the course of the last year, we're left to wonder how exactly how america can get the afghans that awesome sounding government and how long it's expected to take and how much it will cost? joining us now senior correspondent for "the washington post" reporting today on how general mcchrystal's report is being received at the white house and also author of the book "imperial life in the emerald city inside iraq's green zone." thank you for coming on the show. you say that the bush administration's iraq policy is the obama administration's template for error. what did you mean by that? >> what i meant and what my colleague who wrote it with me meant is that what the obama administration doesn't want to do is simply give carte blanche to military commanders to define

what they need and how the war should be fought. there's a belief in the white house that what happened in the latter part of the bush presidency in iraq is that general petraeus was simply allowed to define the strategy as he saw fit and bush repeatedly said i'll listen to what my commanders tell me they want and give it to them. the white house -- this white house believes that the appropriate way forward in afghanistan is to consider a whole number of inputs and they view general mcchrystal's assessment as one input in figuring out how to move forward in afghanistan. >> i have one big disconnect reading the mcchrystal report today. i was struck by how frequently it mentioned the possibility of us failing in afghanistan and there's political umph behind that but also how it says the government is corrupt and abusive and all these other things.

if what winning means in afghanistan means the afghan government has credibility that we fostered and can stand up on its own two feet, aren't we undoing that by defining them as the problem. shouldn't we promote the credibility of the afghan government? >> it would be fine to promote credibility if there was a credible government. that was the assumption going in when the obama administration took over and they set out a

afghans. you have smart people back in the white house saying how do you implement a counterinsurgency strategy aimed at promoting good governance helping to connect the afghan government to the people there if at the very top you have a leader who has won election through fraudulent means? >> briefly, is leaving one of the options that's being considered right now? obviously there's a lobby in washington right now that not only wants more troops but wants a lot more troops but is one of the options on the table not only just not adding more troops but actually taking the ones there and bringing them home? >> that's one option. it's not a full just pack up bags and leave but a drastically scaled down mission that would involve perhaps special operations forces and aerial drones to go after al qaeda

high level operatives who might seek to come back to afghanistan and the people who support that view say that's the truest approach in keeping with the strategy outlined or the goal outlined by president obama, which is fundamentally to keep al qaeda from returning to their safe havens in afghanistan. >> senior correspondent for "the washington post," thank you for your reporting and for joining us tonight. >> as always. pleasure. >> if you think there's something notable about the saudi national security adviser prince bandar owning a customized dallas cowboys silver and blue private jet, you are not alone. it's not just people that root against the cowboys thinking so ? if you're using other moisturizing body washes, you might as well be. you see, their moisturizer sits on top of skin, almost as if you're wearing it. only new dove deep moisture has nutriummoisture,

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still ahead, we score the first interview with the head of the afl-cio. and a moment of geek that features ronald reagan and a 1959 chevy bel air. best ever coming up. first time for a couple stories.

those things usually referred to as enhanced interrogation techniques that people for centuries considered store chur like waterboarding and stress positions have long been considered illegal and long been considered by many to be immoral. now they've been proven in terms of biology to be counterproductive. in a new report in the scientific journal, scientists looked at the ways that bush era interrogators tortured people and looked at the effects on the brain. the physical effects, particularly on memory. the conclusion? not only doesn't torture coax useable intelligence out of people but physically inhibits memory and distorts it and mixes false memories with actual possibly useful information. torture is "biologically counterproductive to eliciting quality information." the mixing of memory with false memory is known as confabulation. which i will admit is a very fun

sounding word. confabulous. it is also a terrible side effect if what you want to do is get real, true information from people about something as serious as terrorism. also, the dallas cowboys debuted their new stadium this weekend with a big texas style last second loss to the new york giants. the cowboys amenities include the owner's club boxes where for $500,000 a year, you get access to a bar, a private elevator, guards and a nice view of the game. but the team's owner has one of these boxes and so does the saudi national security adviser. the son of the crowned prince and a really, really big dallas cowboys fan. like so many sports fans, the prince likes to wear his team colors. i have a number of new england patriot t-shirts but the prince has a private wide body airbus

painted in the cowboys' colors of silver and blue. unlike your kansas city chiefs bed sheets or milwaukee brewers bobblehead doll, this dallas cowboys airplane is the focus of a british corruption investigation of a massive arms deal between the brits and the saudis. this exact plane was allegedly a bribe to the prince from a defense contractor. now the prince's representatives who weirdly include the former fbi director li oor louis freeh denying the charges. until it's sorted out i suggest we repaint the plane in patriots colors while we're waiting. a smidge? y'know, there's really no need to weigh packages under 70 pounds. with priority mail flat rate boxes from the postal service, if it fits, it ships anywhere in the country for a low flat rate. cool. you know this scale is off by a good 7, 8 pounds. maybe five. priority mail flat rate boxes only from the postal service.

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now, that's progressive. call or click today. our "moment of geek" requires you watching this simulated car crash. it's a 1959 chevy bel air

colliding head-on with a 2009 chevy malibu going about 40 miles an hour. if there's a fundamental dividing line and one way to tell conservatives from liberals, it's the issue of regulation. liberals think the market doesn't produce the best results for the country or us as individuals and families so sometimes government needs to step in and set ground rules and limits. conservatives classically believe the market should be left alone and companies should do what they want. the free market produces the best outcome and government regulation interferes with that. >> government is not the solution to our problem. government is the problem. >> that's one way to look at it. here's another. this is what 50 years of safety regulations forced on industry looks like. which car would you like to be in? the one the product of the safety regulations forced on it by the government?

the '09 malibu? or would you like to be in this one? it has nicer upholstery until, god, yeah, it really doesn't. yet another moment of geek that will keep you up at night particularly if you don't have air bags. sorry. .. the only one that has bifidus regularis .. and is clinically proven to help regulate your digestive system. activia light. ♪ activiaaa!

as you listen to president obama reiterate his plan for a consumer protection agency, try to imagine who would be his most meaningful opponent as he tries to get it done. he went to wall street last week on the anniversary of the

collapse of lehman brothers and proposed new rules to protect consumers and a new agency to enforce the rules. after that was his weekly address in which he said again what he plans to do. remember as you hear this, try to imagine who would be opposing this. there will be a quiz. >> i called on congress to put in place a series of tough, common sense rules of the road that will protect consumers from abuse, let markets function fairly and freely and help prevent a crisis like this from ever happening again. central to these reforms is a new consumer protection agency. we need clear rules clearly enforced and that's what this agency will do. >> the proposal here is akin to an fda for financial services. the fda makes sure that nobody bottles antifreeze and sells it as baby formula. baby formula is regulated so as to protect babies and parents. in that spirit, banks and lenders should be prevented from bottling financial antifreeze and calling it a mortgage. now for the quiz, who is the

active opposition to the president's plan to stop banks from gouging consumers? if you said wall street, you definitely do not fail but you're not quite there. if you said republicans, you have to go back and count seats in the house and senate. it's not really them. the answer is actually democrats. specifically blue dog democrats. conserva-dems, the same crowd holding up health care reform right now. the freshman democratic congressman from idaho, a member of the blue dog coalition, says he'll propose an alternative to regulate wall street and his unfinished bill would eliminate the president's proposed consumer financial protection agency. he proposes an agency that has the power of suggestion not any power of enforcement. you know who thinks that stinks? congressman barney frank on whose committee walt minnick sits. mr. frank told the huffington post tonight that mr. minnick

should withdraw about opposing r financial protection agency. number one, ouch. getting spanked down hurts, particularly when you're a freshman congressman. number two work guys like this, who need republicans? joining us, a man who was just name to be the head of the nation's largest federation of unions. the afl-cio. congratulations. thanks for joining us here tonight. >> thank you. thank you for having me on. i appreciate it very much. >> in washington right nourg it is not just republican versus democrats. it is a battle of liberals versus conservatives within the the contractic party and o'a lot of the most important policy issues. how does labor factor into that we'll try to keep them honest. we'll try to get them to live up to their promises on health care. we'll try to reregulate the financial economy and give as you consumer protection agency that is not a hobby to four other agencies but actually protects consumers. i talk to a woman in atlanta.

she was making an $1162 a month on a fixed salary. and they gave her a $900 a month mortgage. that type of predatory lending should have been picked up by any of those agencies. it wasn't. what we're going to do is make sure that they live by. that we'll educate our members. we'll mobilize our members. and i think our member will hole them accountable on election day. >> when labor is active on big contentious policy issues like on health care, this regulation will be, you get denounced from the right as bullish. you get de announced. the word goon arises. what do you think of the caricatures? >> it is totally fair. they can't answer on the issues themselves so they try to demonize us. we don't care about that. what they say. we know what we're doing is right. standing up to the health care option that's will hold up, we know that is the right thing to

do. they can call us whatever they want. it won't deter us. maybe it has in the past but it won't now. this reregulation of the economy. we know that wall street hasn't learn its lesson. we know unless we reregulate, the same thing will occur again and again and again and again. we'll push for that regulation. regardless of what they say. >> think about right now, the power of labor, the power of really, the middle class, the hope for the future of the middle class in the united states. i think about the proportion of the work force that is unionized. over the course of my lifetime, i was born in 1973, the proportion has dropped steadily. dropped by a lot. what are the prospects for rebuilding, restructuring the american economy in a way that has a lot of union job in it? >> well, first the laws are stack against workers. over 30,000 workers a year get fired illegally for trying to form a union. we get intimidated and harassed. there is an act called the

employee free choice act that we are behind and we will get passed before the end of the year. it will allow workers to form a union and get a better share. here's the thing. it is necessary frgs we're going to bull a sound economy. over the last 30 years, because of workers' wages have stagnated, we've had to borrow our way into the middle class. people will be able to bargain into the middle class. get more money, spend more money, rather than borrowing it, and have an economy that really does work for everybody. >> will you be able to down on conservative democrats to support the employee free choice act? >> here's what i think. i think we'll have member of votes to get it passed in the house. i think they will get it by in the senate and i think everybody is on board because they know that the system really is broke and it needs to be changed. there needs to be a downer balance to the power of corporations. and the power of wall street. and the only way to do that is for workers. >> plenty in the house and the

senate. richard, congratulations to you again. good to see you. coming up on "countdown," late, late show host talking about sarah palin's big foreign policy speech on china. next, the newly wed game and the newly legally wed. hear that? seals it tight. smells like fresh ground. fresh fresh fresh fre-- that's our favorite part. ...fresh! (announcer) taste why maxwell house is good to the last drop.

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so you can just stop in. our 16,000 dedicated pharmacists... and take care clinic nurse practitioners... are waiting to help you beat the flu... in neighborhoods nationwide. at walgreens we want you to know, there's a way to stay well. we turn now to our matrimonial recreational correspondent mr. kent jones. this is intriguing. >> good evening. a poll in iowa said 92% of iowans said same sex marriage had no effect on them at all. now there are little 56ries all

over the place. the next one, game shows. once again, star trek george takei bowly goes where no one has gone before. they'll be the first same sex couple on the new newly wed game hosted by carney wilson. mr. sulu $prop 8 on the star board bow. any time gay people get to do anything they never got to do before, the usual suspects make the usual noises. the culture and media institutes quotes, they're trying to use tv and the movies to set the gay agenda and make it mainstream. and yeah, imagine that kind of thing in the main stream. of course for me, the newly wed game will always be the classing hoefld by bob eubanks who quizzes young couple about how well they really knew each other. >> what will your husband say is his favorite thing to squeeze in the supermarket? >> i would say meat.

his meat. he is a butcher. >> gentlemen, how many decades has your mother lived? >> i don't know what decade it is. >> george, brad, congratulations for joining the long list of couple who have appeared on the newly wed game. this is progress. >> what will your husband say is his favorite condiment? >> by would say his pool table upstairs. definitely. >> i think. >> his favorite condiments? >> the pool table. yeah. spectacular. spectacular. i have to say, the idea of mr. sulu is so unsulu to me. >> i have a hard time of keeping any of the, thinking of the people on star trek married. >> it very unfutury.

we'll see you again tomorrow nature. chris matthews is up next. command decision. let's play "hardball." good evening, i'm chris matthews in washington. leading off tonight, this is why we have presidents. president obama cannot escape the most brutal decision of his presidency. whether to put more troops into the american war in afghanistan, or pull out and let the taliban and al qaeda win. that was the word delivered to the president, if you hadn't read it already, on the front page of today's "washington post." the commander of our forces says we have to either put in more troops and fight to protect the people of afghanistan or we will lose, period. that there is no middle way left. so what will president obama do? will he bite the bullet and fight his own democratic party and escalate the war, or will he bite the bullet and pull out? which set of consequences will he find the least horrible?

we'll talk to a democrat who says it's time to go, and a republican who wants to give general mcchrystal the troops he wants. plus, different channel, same results. remember those inaugural balls last january when the new president danced exactly the same dance with exactly the same steps in ball after ball after ball? well, that's what yesterday's tv blitz by president obama reminded me of. the president saying exactly the same thing, making exactly the same points, in show after show after show. so what, if anything, did the president achieve yesterday? and you wouldn't think things could get worse for john edwards when we read -- we read over the weekend he's about to admit he did father rielle hunter's child. after that, more uncomfortable details. and you have to ask, what was he thinking when he ran for president? what would have happened if edwards actually won the role the nomination for president? what would have happened had he actually won the democratic na