retired three-star admiral. let's bring him in and talk about this. of course, his background, naval intelligence. that's on the table with us tonight. congressman, from your military experience, no one's talked about this today. how difficult, if it comes to this, how difficult would it be for the united states to take out this facility? >> it could be done, but it would be difficult. not only that, the results of this would seem iraq look like a walk in the park. iran and those kind of terrorist groups very supportive of the goals of what iran wants in places like the middle east or in even pakistan would just begin to begin a real harsh global war of terror. there's also a concern about israel and that would take even more difficult because if they were try to do it alone it would mean probably flying along

syria/turkish airspace and would have to reposition refueling aircraft. i think in their place it would be much more harsh. if i could add, that's the value of this proech of the u.s. government under president obama. it has put the military option on the back of the table. it's actually then taken a step toward what's most important, building a strong international coalition that can apply diplomatic pressure on iran as well as necessary sanctions because it took aboard what the national intelligence estimate of a year ago said by our cia. it says iran approaches its foreign policy decision in a cost-benefit way. it's not a rush to have a weapon. rather takes into account the cost, economic, political and diplomatic. that's what the president is doing. >> yeah. i thought he handled it extremely well today. congressman, let's talk about the israeli reaction here. this vindicates them. they've been saying all along these folks are cheating and

building and not paying attention to anything else, and i remember a story in "the new york times" back in january of 2005 when former vice president dick cheney made the comment saying that, you know, the israelis may take them out before anybody else. how do you think this news is being received by israel? what do you think their next move would be? >> i think israel will reemphasize its desire to deal with the iranian situation before dealing with the palestinian/israeli. i think we have to deal with most simultaneously. >> this is former president bill clinton with david gregory on "meet the press." let's watch this exchange. >> is this a moment where the president says to iran, we got you and now it's time to act, or you're going to face serious consequences? >> i think that's what they want to communicate with them. i think the reason they want to have talks is if they have talks

then they just don't hurl assaults in the press about it. they can more explicitly lay out things they may not be prepared to say in public yet what the options are if iran continues down this path and they can also talk about where we might go together as a reverse course. i always think it's a good idea, if possible, to look somebody in the eye and have a chance to have a conversation before there's a total breach, but i think this is actually healthy that this has broken. the iranians must have known that the americans knew. somehow they must have found out that. or they wouldn't have voluntarily notified the iaea about this. >> congressman sestak, i think that's a very interesting comment by former president clinton. he says actually healthy that

this has broken, and when i heard that i thought abouts russians today. the russians have been taking by surprise on this and they've done a lot of dealings with the iranians. now we seem to be closer to the russians than we've ever been in the last maybe eight years. your thoughts on this opportunity at a new relationship moving forward to deal with this? >> absolutely. both russia and china issued statements about the iaea going back in for inspections. comprehensive inspections. so we can sit at the table now as president clinton said in a coalition. one that is, together. we can talk about not just sticks, but also carrots. look, iran understandably, it worries about its security. we also know that iran can have influence from al qaeda, iraq, afghanistan, and to the middle east. there's a way to induce behavior and there's a way to talk quietly with it that there's a cost-benefit way to do it. you can only do it if you're

talking with your opponent as we did to the soviet union or people's republic of china. >> i think russians play a big key in all of this. >> absolutely. >> i have to ask you, joe, the united states, president obama making the decision about the missiles in the czech region. do you think this plays into all of this? >> it was a very instrumental piece. we took out of the czech republic and poland a stick in the russian bear's eye. we placed that capababilitcapab. it's actually a near-term capability for us. by removing it we then have the russian president. now we're stating we need sanctions probably. this is the right way to approach the world under a strategy of engagement with u.s. leadership, not just u.s. military leadership. >> congressman, thanks for your time on a friday evening. i appreciate it so much. like to converse with you on issues like this. you know what's going on.

congressman joe sestak on "the ed show." gift from the entertainment gods. tom twinkle toes delay is still in the game. >> the next couple definitely safe to dance next week is -- tom and sheryl. >> they rigged the votes. lizz winstead wants to know what the hammer will wear next week. she's up next live in "club ed." these days, wouldn't it be great if saving money happened as automatically as everything else? at bank of america, it practically does. use the bankamericard power rewards visa credit card and earn rewards like cash back with every purchase. cash you can put into savings. or even use to help pay down your credit card balance. it's one of the many ways we make saving money in tough times a whole lot easier.

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it's friday night. time for "club ed" with lizz winstead, co-creator of "the daily show" and brains behind "wake-up world." >> hi, ed. >> we had a big news day. the iranians playing around with nukes. we got the president out there getting after it today. what's the republican response on this do you think? >> well, i'm pretty sure a.c.o.r.n. had something to do with the nuclear facility. in fact, i think they were the ones who tipped off the iranians to tell them american intelligence cracked and they needed to come forward. let's put a.c.o.r.n. into the mix. it should take ten, nine, eight, seven months until fox is reporting it. >> a.c.o.r.n., they're into it. what do you make of tom delay? he's going in. "dancing with the stars." going to do it one more time.

what did you make of his outfit? >> you're man of a certain age. i'm a woman of not quite your certain age but close enough. do you remember the sayings about slacks? just the brown and then kind of over the belly button pants. a little known poll came out that says on the night tom delay was shaking his tail feather there was not one couple that had sex on the entire planet earth that evening. dramatically every single couple that had sex was grossed out. >> how about all the activities over at the u.n.? any take on that? >> oh, dude, it was so awesome. to watch -- i watched the president speak and i was twittering and someone said gadhafi's up. i watched that. i turned and gadhafi's wearing tom delay's "dancing with the stars can "outfit speeching

before the u.n. which freaked me out and he went on for two hours. i thought, if that guy has a chance tof doing commencement speeches in 2010 -- >> lizz winstead. on a friday night. i asked, the republicans have no solutions when it comes to health care? 26% say no. 74% after you say yes. that's "the ed show." "hardball" is next. have a great weekend. president obama backs iran into a corner. let's play "hardball." good evening, i'm mike barnicle in tonight for chris matthews. leading off tonight, caught red handed. iran admitted to building the second undersecret underground nuclear plant to enrich uranium

and president obama demanded they either open nuclear sites for inspection or be held accountable. >> we're going to operate on two tracks. our preferred method is diplomatic. if that does not work, other consequences may follow. >> nbc news white house correspondent, chuck todd, former state department spokesman jamie rubin will break down what this disclosure means for the nation. before the six-nation talks with iran are set to begin. plus, why are democrats seeing a significant drop in fundraising and how can they convince big donors to open up their checkbooks ahead of the 2010 midterm elections? and remember the conservative outcry over president obama's back to school speech in a student performance at a new jersey public elementary school is now drawing fire from some conservative critics. check it out.

>> barack hussein obama. >> conservatives are saying schools are trying to brainwash students in support for the president. are they right?