>> yesterday. >> i don't know if i've used the word slaughter. >> last november. >> they are taking you to a place to be slaughtered. all the news and commentary now on "countdown." >> that's the dumbest thing i've ever heard. good evening from new york, there's breaking news tonight about the man accused of trying to blow up northwest airlines flight 253 over detroit on christmas day. he's talking. more than that, we are learning tonight umar farouk abdulmutallab, the alleged would-be suicide bomber, is giving up current actionable intelligence about the group al qaeda in the arabian peninsula, without the u.s. using any of the methods approved by the bush administration. and defended to this day by the republican party. no water boarding, no beatings, no sleep deprivation, no military commission, no dishonor to this nation. abdulmutallab is cooperating freely with the fbi, providing quote very valuable intelligence, the u.s. official says, that the u.s. is now

acting on in yemen. nbc news justice correspondent pete williams reports, after the u.s. government gave abdulmutallab the rights enumerated in the constitution, he has a lawyer, he got due process, he got his miranda warning, he will get a trial. nbc news chief white house correspondent chuck todd, quoting the senior administration official, said the fbi did it by going to nigeria and rather than threatening his family, getting their help. members of the family flew to the u.s. on january 17th and helped the fbi get abdulmutallab's cooperation. nevertheless, even though the shoe bomber, richard reid, got exactly the same rights from the bush administration, the republicans disapprove of this. senator lamar alexander calling for the resignation of u.s. attorney general eric holder whose prosecutors are overseeing the case and whose fbi agents first interviewed the man. republicans furious with holder for the fact that abdulmutallab stopped talking for a month, despite the fact that his agents, in just an hour of questioning, almost as soon as he landed in detroit, got abdulmutallab to reveal the key names and locations associated

with the bomb plot. today the fbi director robert mueller explained the concept behind abdulmutallab's cooperation for any republicans not swift enough to follow an episode of "law & order." >> we have found the system of justice in the united states which allows for consideration for contributing intelligence and information and credit for that is a powerful incentive for persons to provide truthful, actionable information, evidence and intelligence. we have other countries that don't have the same system of justice, where there is no incentive to cooperate or provide intelligence, and the person stays in jail without any incentive to provide intelligence and without providing ultimately any intelligence. >> with us tonight msnbc analyst jonathan altar and columnist for "newsweek" magazine. john, good to see you. >> thank you. >> what just happened here?

>> this was a big triumph for the rule of law and lucky break for the obama administration. if this had gone the other way, the heat would have stayed on from the republicans. this lets us say, as fbi director mueller did, that our system works, that there is no fundamental clash between national security and our values. and that's the message the president has been trying to deliver since his inaugural address, and it was reinforced tonight. >> but you said the republican heat would have continued. obviously, pete king and hoekstra and giuliani are not going to say, we were wrong, the system does work. we're sorry. i mean, even though that last "washington post" poll said 62% specifically approved of the way obama had handled the detroit case before this development, where, gosh, the system works and cooperation with the family turns out to be more valuable than, you know, trying to drown the man, they've been selling it, the right has, obama's soft on terror meme.

what pushback will they offer and from which orifice will they pull it? >> i'm not going to hazard a prediction on the last one. i think they're in a place now where they just want to hurt obama. and what they don't get -- and i wish they would look into their souls a little bit -- is that if they convey over and over again that the president of the united states is weak, what does that do? it emboldens the terrorists. and i don't say that lightly. think of terrorists overseas or at home who might be plotting an attack. if they think that the president is weak -- which he is not. he is manifestly not. he's killed twice as many of them, not to put too fine a point on it with his predators as his predecessor did. he's not weak. but if they continue to convey that he is weak, that gives serious help to the terrorists. so i think the pressure should now be on these republicans. aren't you helping the terrorists by insisting, against all evidence -- remember, we

have 100% conviction rates of terrorists in civilian courts in this country. 100%. it's not like any of them are out walking the streets, as we're told. the only detainees from guantanamo who have been released and have returned to terrorism in their home countries were released under president bush. so far, there's not been one case of that happening under president obama. so this line is a bunch of hooey and they have to stop saying it and the onus now needs to be on them for whether or not they're harming us continuing to do so. >> i find myself in a very unusual position on one point, though. is there -- i was the person most aggravated and insulted by the rapidity and stupidity with which the bush administration would trumpet their own successes of stopping terrorist plots that had no more sophistication than using mentos and diet pepsi to blow up the moon. but he's been talking since thursday.

since thursday of last week. is it not incumbent to some degree under these political circumstances, even for this administration with its very laid-back attitude towards, oh, we stopped this, stopped that, to say something a little bit more loudly to make this point under the circumstances that this system works? >> well, you know, this case has not been completed yet. let's see how it's resolved. apparently they cut a deal where he won't face the death penalty in exchange for his testimony. so i don't think that they need to get out there and start bragging about the case. but it's important for people to understand that this is a good development. lamar alexander wants holder to resign. does he want mueller to resign, too, who was appointed under president bush? does he want the others who have been standing up for the rule of law? look, reasonable people can disagree on whether khalid

shaikh mohammed should be tried in new york city, which apparently he is not going to be. there's all sorts of areas for legitimate debate on how we handle terrorism. but let's not cast these aspersions on people's motives. let's not call people soft. that has to end. >> nbc news can't confirm the story that there was a deal cut, so he doesn't face the death penalty. but is that where the republicans will come back? we're not going to get to hang him, we're not going to get to execute him? >> sure. >> and the point to that is, don't you want that out in a terrorist's mind in the last moment? if i choose -- if something caused ripped reid, for example, not to go into the bathroom where he would have been able to destroy that plane without anybody interfering with him, to stay in his seat and light his shoos on fire with people sitting around him, some doubt existed in his mind. don't you want the reward that if you doubt? >> sure, you want to use every

tool in your disposal. in the same way what apparently has gotten this guy to talk is that his father, who tried to warn the embassy about him, was brought over. his family was brought over. now, if you were in a military situation, that would not happen. don't we want our interrogators to have a lot of different tools to use? why would we want to create a system where they can only water board when -- under torture, as we know from john mccain and others, people will stay anything to stop the torture whether it's reliable or not? >> because republicans in this country want people to live in the world of "24," not the real world where you negotiate and get the information and quietly roll things up rather than blow them up. jonathan alter of msnbc and "newsweek." from another senate military hearing it was the republican party line on all bush era defense issues. listen to the generals, what they said went. until, of course, a republican was no longer the commander in chief. until commander in chief obama called for a reappeal of don't

ask, don't tell in his first state of the union address last week, until his senate leaders went and said it was time to scrap, don't ask, don't tell. that's when the top republican on the armed services committee said this. >> numerous military leaders tell me that don't ask, don't tell is working and we should not change it now. i agree. >> in 2006, on this network, senator mccain on this network having said the exact opposite about don't ask, don't tell. >> the day that the leadership of the military comes to me and says, senator, we ought to change the policy, then i think we ought to consider seriously changing it, because those leaders in the military are the ones we give the responsibility to. >> well, guess what? this is tomorrow. mccain making today's blanket declaration about military leaders in don't ask, don't tell, before the military's top uniformed officer, admiral mullen, chairman joint chiefs, had been given the chance to speak, including, specifically

the chance to say this. >> it is my personal belief that allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly would be the right thing to do. no matter how i look at this issue, i cannot escape being troubled by the fact that we have in place a policy which forces young men and women to lie about who they are in order to defend their fellow citizens. >> that would be the leadership of the military coming to you and saying, senator, we ought to, no matter how you look at this issue, change it. once the questioning began, senator mccain angry that the military had not consulted him first -- >> fortunately, it is an act of congress and it requires the agreement of congress in order to repeal it. and so your statement obvious is one which is clearly biased without the view of congress being taken into consideration. >> sweet. and never mind. let's turn to lawrence korb, assistant secretary of defense under reagan and senior fellow at the center for american progress.

thank you for some of your time tonight, sir. >> nice to be with you. >> is changing don't ask, don't tell something we ought to be giving serious consideration to now that our military leaders have said it's time for the policy to change or something that should only happen when a republican is president? >> it's something that should have happened quite a while ago. and the interesting thing is that even the majority of conservatives now support changing the policy. and senator mccain three years ago had a chairman who basically did not want to change the policy. in fact, did not even want to have gays in the military at all. so i think he thought he had political cover. and i think admiral mullen's statement took everybody by surprise today, especially senator mccain. >> we were told time and time again during the bush administration, we need to listen to the generals, particularly the generals on the ground. does that apply only to iraq or when broad policy decisions are being made about the military, are the generals somehow

uninformed? >> well, i think what they were doing, the republicans said we ought to listen to the generals because some of the generals were saying what they wanted to hear. but, for example, when senator mccain was saying, well, we can muddle through in afghanistan, the generals there were saying that's not working. but he didn't want to hear that because he was so focused on iraq. and what happens is you try and get political cover for what you want to do by theoretically relying on the experts. but what happens when you open that door, then the experts change, then you've got a big problem. and senator mccain had a big one today, particularly since on the "hardball" tour three years ago he took the opposite position. >> defense secretary mr. gates said it could take two years to implement the change to "don't ask, don't tell." why so long? and would that period of time not allow for plenty of time for congressional opponents to make sure the policy stays in place or to give mr. mccain 10 to 12 opportunities to change his mind

again on this? >> there's no doubt about the fact if you take that long, not just in the congress but some people in the military. and if you look at the experience of other countries it doesn't have to be that way. in 1999 the european corps told the british military, which is similar to ours in terms of they have submarines and they go expeditionary forces, they were told, you've got to change the policy. the british changed it right away. just changed it. so you can do that. i think that's what we have to be very careful of, that people don't try and slow-walk this thing and, you know, keep the pressure on. i'm hopeful that in this year's defense authorization bill, they can put an amendment on there that will change the policy. >> like we have to phase out lying in the military. lawrence korb, former assistant defense secretary under president reagan, now at the center for american progress. great thanks for your perspective. >> thanks for having me. as the fate of health care reform also hangs in the balance in congress, another reminder of

the crucial need for reform, the forth free clinic funded by you, our "countdown" viewer tomorrow in hartford, connecticut. go to freeclinics.us or countdown.msnbc.com. if mr. mccain turned into the party of no into the party of no personal integrity, add in frank lunz's lie and michelle bachman's warning to minnesota. you get put on the list in japan. to install the bounce dryer bar was so easy. just stick it and forget it. you don't have to remember the dryer sheet now. it's one more thing i don't have to think about. it's made all the difference in my laundry. i love it. that's right. enjoy the world's perfect pepper. pace. made right since 1947.

now tonight's first quick comment between john mccain's self-contradiction and frank luntz's advice, just lie, which we'll talk about in a moment, the republicans are slowly revealing their newest policy. say anything, because they believe the republicans to whom they are talking are literally so stupid they'll believe anything. michele bachmann, who has mentally not been on this planet for three years, told a small gathering in rochester, minnesota, this terrible secret. some guy stopped her and told

her he used to live in japan. she didn't get his name or nothing. but he told her, quote, in japan, people have stopped voicing their opinion on health care. he said it's because they know they would get on a list and then they wouldn't get health care. they wouldn't get in. they wouldn't get seen. so people are afraid to speak back to government. they're afraid to say anything. is that what we want for our future? that takes us to gangster government at that point. so if you criticize american health care, you get on a list in japan? or if you criticize american health care, you get on a list in america? or michele bachmann believes every random stranger who tells her a story about japan and assumes it's going to come true here? the congresswoman concluded, i will fight it until my last breath. okay.

the short version of the advice from pollster strategist frank luntz, to republicans moving from try to kill health care reform to trying to kill financial reform, lie about it. paint it as a massive government takeover. again. only this time the pollster behind the strategy is so enamored with his own influence evidently he's leaked his own memo. you may recall that even president obama at the gop retreat recognized republicans get their poll tested wordage from frank luntz. the gop pollster and strategist. in a new 17-page guide book obtained by the huffington post, he says they can kill it by portraying that reform as punishment for taxpayers and reward for big banks and credit card companies even though the opposite is true of financial reform. and while luntz fancies himself

as the yoda of republican obstructionism, his real motivation is slightly more crass. just look at his client list. it includes merrill lynch, bear stearns, american express, ameriquest mortgages. the proposed consumer financial protection agency would eliminate predatory mortgages. it would police the kind of financial products that nearly brought down the entire economy. it would regulate the credit card industry with rates and fees. don't think for a second that those corporate clients want any of that. as for lies, we know they work, whether created by luntz, or sarah palin or michelle bachmann or insert your name here, betsy mccoy. look at how republicans responded in a poll which we briefly referred last night. 63% of republican respondents believe obama is a socialist. no one asked if you could define that. 36% believe he was not born in the united states. another 22% not sure. 21% think a.c.o.r.n. stole the election even though obama won by the largest margin since ronald reagan and no one explains how they would have stolen it. 39% think president obama should be impeached for something.

let's bring in the former deputy campaign manager for president obama and head of hilda brand consulting, steve hilda brand. the thrust of the luntz memo is take anger at the big banks and paradoxically channel this into opposition to bank and finance regulation. is that a fair characterization what he and the right wing are already doing on this? >> sadly, keith, it is. what frank luntz and the republican party is doing is playing reckless havoc with the american people. they should be ashamed of themselves. they should get their act together. and take back a position in this country where they can provide some political leadership. this is a disaster waiting to happen. >> are democrats not very skilled at combating the nonsense? and do you have a handle on why that might be, if it is the case? >> i think our president is very skilled at it.

i think every democrat in the country, every political leader in the country on the democratic side ought to be raising hell about this memo and they should be calling on the corporations to fire frank luntz. they should be calling the republicans to distance themselves from frank luntz. but we also have to look at who funded that research and that memo and call them on the carpet, too. you don't go out in a strategic way and try and kill financial reform that is desperately needed for the american people, the people that are hurting the most. we're going to hurt them even more with this strategy that frank luntz and the republicans are trying to enact. >> a couple of other lies from this memo said that the consumer protection agency would be headed by a czar even though the position would have to be confirmed by the senate and nobody using the term czar except the republicans. luntz said financial reform opponents should pound away at loopholes like the exemption for auto dealers introduced by a

republican congressman john campbell. is there any expectation this sort of stuff won't be effective once again? >> i just think they're crazy to even try this strategy. these politicians and republicans are more notorious about it than anybody. they need to stop worrying about their re-election and get to work for the american people who are hurting in this country. our country is on the brink of catastrophe if we don't get moving. and washington should be held accountable for it. and these republicans should be ashamed to have this strategy in place. and frank luntz's clients, ameristar and bear stearns and these others, they like those loopholes in this bill. i'm not sure why they're trying to kill it. it seems a little bit on the odd side. >> this also addresses another catastrophe in a different direction. to the recent supreme court decision in the citizens united case. if luntz does bidding for corporate clients where there are still some brakes on the system -- are we getting an idea what the system would look like without the brakes, with more

corporations pouring more money and taking over politics? >> keith, this is disturbing and this is where i got to go bipartisan a little bit. democrats and republicans both need to get behind reform. they need to reform the finance -- the campaign finance system in this country. they need to do everything they can to reduce the influence of money in politics, because it's gotten so out of control. with this supreme court decision, corporations have the ability now to put unlimited amounts of money into campaigns to elect or defeat a candidate. and you're going to see the likes of exxonmobil and their $45 billion profits and goldman sachs and their $12 billion of profits being used to buy washington in an even bigger way than they already have bought it. >> and frank luntz will look like a minor leaguer when the money gets like that. steve hildebrand former deputy campaign manager for the obama campaign. great thanks, steve. if you've watched carefully

the last week you will have noticed another obama campaign just under way. could the secret to saving the nation from the party of no and the party of no principles be a new invention called facts? ♪ fearless performance. that's what you get with secret clinical sport. proud sponsor of tanith belbin... and all of the fearless athletes of the u.s. olympic team. so i got my nephew to build a website. i hired someone to make my website...

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little jimmy olson o'keefe keeps talking about his future journalistic career as if he had one. or as if he had had one previously. first, since i heard somebody talking about how great it was they had a holiday for that movie "groundhog day," on this date sometime in the late 1700s

the first groundhog day celebrated in the german communities of central or western pennsylvania. the first one in punxsutawney was in 1886. there's a reference to one in berks county, pa, in the diary of a store keeper named james morris, dated february 5th, 1841. let's play "oddball." we begin with the groundhog day weather whip and groundhog roundup. countless towns and villages cashing in on the weather forecasting ability of bucktooth rodents. punxsutawney phil saw his shadow this morning. even though it was completely clouded over. it might have been the lights. winter or lights. general beauregard lee didn't see his shadow, so we're back to even. charles g. hogg from statin island didn't bite the mayor and didn't see his shadow. we're still even. lastly, also no shadow for sir

walter wally in north carolina. summer arrives in march. by the way, on the internets, paranoid punxsutawney pete says we'll have six more weeks of intrigue. sydney, australia, hello. we go behind the news for the real newsroom no-no. during an afternoon broadcast, a of sydney's channel 7 news, a financial analyst for the mochrey bank was on to discuss reserve bank interest rates. except the guy in the upper left there, he was not interested in interest rates. he was using his workstation to view soft core pornography. viewers paying extremely close attention saw him check out a seminude woman during his colleague's news report. it's been brought to the attention of the bank mcment. who said they're dealing with the issue internally. and the woman has been brought to the attention of fox news manager. we'll see her on the air next tuesday. the president on the road again trying to radicalize this nation by the forced imposition of democracy, next.

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freshly energized from the state of the union and his nose-to-nose encounter with

congressional republicans, the president hits a town hall in nashua, new hampshire, in what suggests the outline of a new traveling war of facts tour. in the granite state, the president taking questions from voters, but once again, engaging his republican opposition by painting it as political opportunists willing to switch positions at will just to score points. the president urging lawmakers to work together to get things done for the american people. remember them? >> it's one thing to have an honest difference of opinion on something. there's nothing wrong with that, but you can't walk away from your responsibilities to confront the challenges facing the country because you don't think it's good short-term politics. we can't afford that. we can't afford that. the message you all sent when you elected me, the message that was sent this past month, whether you're democrat, republican, independent, you're

out of patience. you're out of patience with this kind of business as usual. you want us to start worrying less about our jobs and more about your jobs. >> the president set for another round of question time with lawmakers this week, this time with the senate democratic caucus tomorrow morning. majority leader reid's office telling the huffington post that camera crews will record obama's remarks tomorrow and will continue to roll once the questions begin. the president's desire to pass a jobs bill this year already seems to be heading down the same path as health care reform. senator baucus would like a crack at marking up the jobs bill before democrats give any thought to trying to pass one. numerous aides telling talkingpointsmemo.com the jobs bill is and would be different, the house having already passed a jobs bill, and a good one at that. anyone notice it's groundhog day. time now to call in david corn. washington bureau chief of mother jones magazine and columnist for politics daily.com.

>> good to be with you, keith. >> the state of the union, the house meeting, nashua. has it become clear that the white house has a new strategy for going after its opponents with these unusual things called facts? >> i think obama is on the offensive. it's sort of game on for barack obama once again. i think massachusetts was indeed a wake-up call to the white house and perhaps caused them to re-evaluate their legislative and political strategy of the past year. i think obama is trying to address two constituencies at once. one is the american public, who indeed -- many of whom are out of patience or worried, they see unemployment high even if the economy has grown a lot in the last quarter, and they see big bailouts. i think the other constituency that obama is aiming at is the democratic senators. he wants to basically show them that he can be a strong political leader and can be of help to them in the fall and get them to pass this health care reform bill within the next couple weeks.

i mean, i think this whole tour he's on now is about demonstrating once again that when he wants to, he can indeed grab hold of some of those independent voters out there, and he can mobilize the base and keep that coalition together jazz it up, and give these democratic senators a little more security about what they believe, rightly or wrongly, might be a hard vote on health care. >> what should we expect out of the question time tomorrow with the democratic caucus? >> well, probably less confrontational than the one that we saw on friday. which is pretty breath-taking with obama versus the house gop. i thought it was great. in fact, i think there are going to be a bunch of conservative and liberal bloggers and political activists in the next day or two calling to have those things on a regular basis. nevertheless, i think tomorrow morning, he's going to appear before the democratic senators, and i hope he asks them, hey, what are you doing with health care? and when are you going to pass this? letting this sort of -- letting this get stuck in the muck for too long again.

letting the jobs bill go back to max baucus, who we saw took forever to mark up a health care bill is not going to be successful i think for the democrats overall. obama is still their star, still the leader of the team, the -- to the degree he can take whatever shine he has and put it on what the senate and the house is doing, it can only help the house democrats and the senate democrats. so i think he missed an opportunity to do that with the health care bill a year ago, he has to do that with the jobs bill now, and they have to let him do that. >> i'm going to put you on the spot for filling in the details of something chris matthews said a week ago after the republican event. that the president's learning curve should be a frightening thing to republicans. how does it tangibly -- what is he doing differently as opposed to a year ago, with -- fill in the topic of which policy it is. but just materially,

politically, strategically, what does he do when he says to them, do something, and they don't? how does he make it actually happen? >> well, far be it from me to add to what chris says, he's the "hardball" expert here. i think he has -- a lot of this is frightening to say so. a lot of his personal relations, particularly when it comes to senators. every senator believes that he or she should be president of the united states. and they expect to be catered to a bit. you have to do that while at the same time putting the pressure on and showing -- demonstrating to them, as i said earlier, that i can help you win elections and stay in your job. that's what he's doing now. but i think at some point he has to sit down with max baucus, and he has to be very clear and say, we can't repeat with the jobs bill what happened last spring with the health care bill. and that's just it. no ifs, ands or buts about that. >> david corn, washington bureau chief for "mother jones."

great thanks. little jimmy olson o'keefe scoop news boy now explains he does not know the difference between a u.s. senator taking a bribe and a u.s. senator winning funding for her state. not just another denial from glenn beck about using the word "slaughter," but a denial that contradicts yesterday's denial. and when rachel joins you from washington at the top of the hour, the don't ask, don't tell hearings as she witnessed them and a serviceman about to lose his job because of a policy based on forcing american heroes to lie. host: is ed "too tall" jones too tall? host: could switching to geico 15% or more on car insurance? host: does a ten-pound bag of flour make a really big biscuit? i just want fewer pills and relief that lasts all day.

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announcer: there's an easier way. create your own business site with intuit websites. just choose a style, then customize, publish and get found. sweet. get a 30-day free trial at intuit.com. the second of tonight's quick comments, and a visit to the land of the former half governor of alaska, the foremost taker of umbrage sister sarah. she's called for the white house to fire rahm emmanuel after his unacceptable use of a term which miss palin aptly describes as offensive to special needs kids and their families. in doing so, she has done three things, proved that she will use her kids for political hay at any time under any circumstances. she's reminded us all that last october her ex-future

son-in-law, who she also once used for political hay, quoted her as having called her own youngest child her retarded baby, unquote. thirdly, her credibility is so slight, she's probably just guaranteed mr. emmanuel his job for life. perhaps her real intent has failed. she was trying to divert attention from her latest skeevy scandal in which she has used $63,000 worth of contributions to her political action committee to buy copies of her own book wholesale from her publisher and then give them to donors. the blog hot air, one of the greatest sources for soffestry on the web, says this is no big deal because it would only involve 4,700 books. the number of books is not the question. it's the royalties on the books. at her publisher, harper collins, division of news corp, an author can set themselves up as a special sales client, buy their own book in bulk, and then the author gets a 10% royalty on the deal. in other words, there's a way for sarah palin to tithe all the donations to her political action committee and keep it for

herself. it's only $6,300. and, of course, this is not the kind of person who would do something unethical for only $6,300. smooth, even tone, reduce the look of lines and pores, and lock in moisture. 7-in-1 olay total effects. take half off the price of delivery pizza. digiorno is half the price. so for an awesome pizza on game day, why order out? taste. believe. it's not delivery, it's digiorno.

little jimmy o'keefe -- sorry, he's an investigative journalist. little jimmy olson o'keefe identifies the real victim in mary landrieu's office -- himself. that's next. but first tonight's worst person in the world. he led the right wing panic over this photograph.

u.s. president barack obama bows to tampa mayor. on thursday, january 28th, in florida. said gretchen carlson's backup -- now there's a sad job. gretchen carlson's backup, alison camerota. what is going on here? steve doocy referred to previous presidential bows. there he is with the emperor of japan, there he is with the queen, i think. and the next is the king of saudi arabia. and here he's just -- camerota. we've seen it too many times now. now, this is a strange habit. it's a bow. were we raised in a barn? show the argument, please. this is richard nixon. he is bowing to the emperor of japan. only the emperor of japan, he's bowing to hirohito, the one who authorized the bombing of pearl harbor. international diplomats bow to each other, and sometimes men bow to women. our runner-up lonesome roads beck. trivia first. last night on the network that nobody watches, i don't think the cameramen are watching. bernie, are you watching?

no, bernie's not watching. what's his face got on with ariana huffington and said, we have to correct the record here and make sure everyone knows there are standards. the attacks on me in this show and on you for watching it tend to rotate. he said this, he said that, then they always go back to the ratings, beck did this, national review did this. a right wing site called daily finance or finance daily did this. give me 17 seconds to clear this up quickly. "countdown" up 5% in january from december at 8:00 p.m., up 6% at 10:00 p.m. the 8:00 p.m. show beat cnn by 27%, and headline news by 24%. it's the highest rated cable news show not on fox news. meaning, you know, it's the highest rated actual cable news show. thank you for indulging me. now to the meat of the thing. our winner, lonesome roads beck. on yesterday's broadcast i said i never used the word slaughter on the air, never used it on the air, because i'm pretty sure i would remember saying the administration was slaughtering people, going to slaughter people. yesterday, i don't know if i've

used the word slaughter, and if i used the word slaughter it wasn't in the context of stalin or hitler, in the idea that the truth is being slaughtered by this administration. not saying that this administration is going to slaughter anyone. i have said that progressives, this ideology has led to slaughtering of millions. it has. it has! today he says he never used the word slaughtered on the air, yesterday he didn't know. here's november 3rd of last year. >> i told you yesterday buckle up your seat belt, america. find the exit, there's one here, here and here. find the exit closest to you, and prepare for a crash landing. because this plane is coming down because the pilot is intentionally steering it into the trees. they are taking you to a place to be slaughtered. >> yep, he's right, he never said the word slaughtered. he's not even named glenn beck. he's not even on television. we've always been at war with east asia. glenn, did you ever get the feeling some people just stop trying, beck. today's worst person in the world.

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in a few days, the right wing will have its story straight about right wing activist james o'keefe. so make sure you remember today, because they haven't quite got their stories straight yet. last night o'keefe gave his first interview since his arrest on charges he tried to interfere with a senator's phone. gave it to fox news. he still describes his actions a journalism even though his publisher denies knowledge about the plan. >> do you have any issues with the fact this is a u.s. senator's office versus, for example, going into a.c.o.r.n. and that as a u.s. senator this is a federal building, this is federal property, yur going near federal phones. did that enter your mind prior to going into this office? >> well, i mean, generally speaking, it's the people's office. it's -- these are representatives of our country. we deserve to find out if they're accepting $300 million in money, we deserve to find out

what's going on? why the people of louisiana couldn't get through to her. >> of course, most journalists know the difference between accepting money which senator landrieu did not, and winning money for her constituents, which she did. o'keefe need not consider such critiques because the media is out to get him. >> are you now calling on the rest of the media that you feel has wrongly reported this, because they didn't have any of the facts and they ran with this and they tried to politicize it? do you think that was because of your a.c.o.r.n. work, number one? >> i'm probably willing to bet that it was. >> shepherd smith, the day after o'keefe's arrest, it sounds like what they're saying is they're looking for some a.c.o.r.n. hanky-panky and they tapped into landrieu's telephone to get it. andrew breitbart, shouldn't he be forced to pronounce his name breitbart? now says that o'keefe's is a plot to avenge a.c.o.r.n.

jim letten recused himself after breitbart blew the whistle despite that letten recused himself last week. breitbart might want to get his accusations straight with o'keefe, who had this to say last night. >> at any point were you held without the opportunity to get an attorney? >> i don't want to get into that, honestly. >> you don't. >> i don't. >> you say you're cooperating with the attorneys? >> yeah, we have no complaints about the way the u.s. attorney is handling the case. >> none at all? >> i have no complaints -- >> do you have any complaints about your arrest? >> i have no complaints about the way the u.s. attorney is handling this. >> with right winger ben stein writing, free james o'keefe and others wailing about the civil liberties hell o'keefe has endured, o'keefe himself opened up about what kind of abuse has these right wingers crying for mom. >> what was it like when you got arrested? what was jail like? >> jail was -- the food was terrible. the applesauce was like water. >> there you go. let's turn to carl frisch, senior fellow at media matters. thank you for your time, sir. >> thanks for having me. >> o'keefe repeatedly and

hanty helped him on this, cite ed dateline as templates for what he does. purely as journalism, can you explain the difference to him? >> i don't think that o'keefe would know what real journalism was if it bit him on the rear end. real investigative journalists and perhaps he could get an internship with mike wallace or chris hansen because real investigative journalists seek evidence. and once they get the evidence, they let that evidence dictate what their story is. they seek evidence and once they get the evidence they let it dictate their story. o'keefe does the exact opposite, he comes up with an idea, he seeks the evidence to prove the idea and runs with it. that's right wing hackery. >> there's no question, one point that was raised in his defense, although it's kind of tangential, some of the initial reporting on o'keefe and the arrest in landrieu's office turned out to be wrong, including on fox news. using his rationale, fox news was punishing o'keefe for targeting a.c.o.r.n.? >> it would be funny if it wasn't so sad. >> yeah. >> we're still waiting for o'keefe and his mentor andrew

breitbart to call for corrections to the "new york post" and fox news. i bet the irony is lost on them, that even breitbart's website ran a wire story with the incorrect information on it. you don't see anybody yelling. ultimately, the question we should be asking is what did breitbart and fox news know, and when did they know it? >> o'keefe told hannity last night that he's at work on new projects. he's already being sued by a.c.o.r.n. for taping people without permission in at least one state where that literally is illegal, clear as a bright line, no pun intended there in maryland. he has a court date for these criminal charges on the 12th of this month. any guidelines for his future journalism you'd like to share? >> first, i never thought i'd live to see the day that a right wing hack like o'keefe would essentially plead the fifth in a softball interview with hannity. but what it's looking like to shape up as is a wild conspiracy theory where the attorney

general got the u.s. attorney's office to hold o'keefe so they could convince the entire media to come up with a story against him, all to cover for a.c.o.r.n. i'm still waiting to find out where sasquatch and obama's birth certificate enter into this. >> o'keefe was part of his own conspiracy theory to take himself down? >> well, you know, it is the people's office, and i live in d.c. and we have the people's zoo. so i'm going to have a couple friends dress like zookeepers so i can pet a panda. >> you monitor media coverage. do the same people who are demanding lawyers for o'keefe within 24 hours make the same demands on behalf of brown people sold to u.s. troops for bounties overseas? >> i think you're not likely to see that kind of coverage on these conservative hack outlets. the real question here is o'keefe told a right wing student publication that if you do this kind of stuff, if you take calculated risks, you'll be rewarded. that's the life lesson he learned from andrew breitbart

and that's ultimately who shares in the responsibility here. >> carl frisch from media matter, great thanks. have a good night. >> you too, thank you. that's "countdown" good night and good news. now after witnessing the don't ask, don't tell hearing today and to the timing on that -- again, i don't know how i'm doing this. it's like lightning. then three seconds later, there's the thunder. to interview another american hero who is about to lose his job because of this lie-based poll circumstances ladies and gentlemen, here is rachel maddow. good evening.