cred creditable -- incredible lives. >> there's a problem with this, country music star toby keith and rapper ll cool j, they were never interviewed for the show. toby's representative told the "new york times" toby's talked to fox a number of times and i had no idea that this was going to be on sarah palin's special. fox has never contacted me before on this, not when they were putting this together, not at all. i have no idea what they're using. toby keith wasn't the only star who didn't get interviewed for the show on fox. ll cool j tweeted fox lifted an old interview i gave in 2008 to someone else and are misrepresenting to the public in order to promote sarah palin's show. wow. well, fox head of programming,

responded to cool j, also known as todd smith, says real american stories features uplifting tales about overcoming adversity and we believe mr. smith's interview fits that criteria, however, as it appears mr. smith does not want to be associated with a program that could serve as an inspiration to others, we are cutting his interview from the special and wish him the best with his fledging acting career. >> aren't they good folks? bottom line, folks, fox news, they lie. they do it because they know their audience will believe it. they have one strategy, play to the gullible folks of america. all of the shows do it, make money scaring people about socialism and mr. intellectual honesty, sean hannity has spent the last 14 months lying about virtually every aspect of the health care bill. sarah palin, she will fit in

right at home with this new show. she's lying about death panels and obama palling around with terrorists. she's never been big on details, has she? she didn't even care enough to interview people, yes, for her own first show. now, this show goes right to the heart of what fox news and sarah palin are all about, just throw it out there, no matter if it's right or wrong, remember, palin, always has a reality show coming out. she has no idea what reality is, yet in the midst of all of this fabrication about sarah palin, bill o'reilly is saying that we hire bad people here at msnbc? it's interesting this show is coming out now because i've been on this program for exactly a year, this is my week's anniversary, some righties thought i wouldn't last six weeks, i lasted 12 months and i'm happy about that. i hope i can do it again.

if i had come on the air a year ago and told the liberal audience, who is happy i was getting a tv show that, you know, i'm going to interview this person and this person and show the videotape of all of that, what do you think the right wing would have done to me? do you think they'd have had some fun with that? tell me what you're thinking in our telephone survey tonight. the number to dial is 1 d 1-877-ed-msnbc. my question tonight, a holiday favorite, do you think fox news ever deliberately misleads its viewers. press 1 for yes and 2 for no and i'll bring you the results later on. joining me now, robert greenwald, his 2004 documentary was the first to disclose them from what they're all about. thank you for being on here tonight. does it surprise you they kind of didn't tell the truth on what

really was happening behind the scenes? >> first of all, happy anniversary, ed. >> thank you. >> they make up fake news, so why shouldn't they make up fake interviews? it seems fairly consistent with what they've done and what we know they do over and over again. they're calling it real american interviews and from the subtitle, that know how to make stories. i think we should all poke fun at them mercilessly. the serious point is the fact they lie and distort about everything from health care to obama's religion, et cetera, and it's had very serious repercussions. >> i have to tell you, when i first saw the promo, i thought, gosh, toby keith, that's kind of cool. he's a big star. this is going to playwright to the middle class working folk of america. then to find out, there was no face to face, it makes me wonder, mr. greenwald, how many

other times does fox do this with their programs? >> that's a good question. we should be starting to ask that and ask them, do they not have the money to do real interviews or is that so much like real journalism they don't even know how to do that. >> what was the most flagrant thing you ever saw that network do when you put the documentary together like you did in 2004? >> we don't have 4 or 5,000 hours, the list is so long. it's really outrageous. one of the most outrageous things i remember from the documentary and all the fox attacks we did, a celebration of reag reagan's birthday at the reagan library and the crowds weren't big enough, so they brought in additional people to fill up the room, i thought was interesting. then, we have to remember, on the serious side, it was them who took ahold of the swiftbo swiftboating, stayed with it and forced it into a story. they do something very interesting. when they get on something, they

stay with it and stay with it and will not let go until the rest of the media pick it up. that's where they're really dangerous, it's not dwrous their audience, they in effect have affected other media. >> mr. greenwald, good to have you with us. thanks for your time tonight. i had to reaffirm i wasn't the only one. >> definitely not. >> sarah palin is in the news for another reason. she is the latest to pile on the nation national republican committee. it seems the rnc has been using palin's name to promote a series of upcoming fund-raisers except palin is not attending the fund-raisers so she wants her name taken off the invitations. hold it right there, she wants absolute accuracy when it comes to the rnc and raising money. with the tv show, we'll kind of let it go a little bit. here's even more bad news for the rnc.

they have another sex problem. the republican national committee inadvertently sent a fund-raising mail piece earlier this month with a return number that leads to a phone sex line. the number connected callers wit "hot horny girls, students, housewives and working girls from all over the country. the rnc's communication director said, the mail piece was produced by birch monford, a direct mail firm they've used numerous times at the rnc. the firm will not be used for the foreseeable future. this might be enough to push my next guest one millimeter closer to calling for michael steele, the chairman of the rnc to step down. joining me now is former bush/cheney aide, republican strategist, ron christie. if we're playing slow pitch softball my man, i am serving

you up the biggest fattest softball for you to hit out of the park. how can the republicans continue to mumble, stumble, fumble throughout life the way it's going? >> i think the republican party itself is very strong and we're very poised and positioned to do well in november. i will answer a question directly, ed. i am not happy about the leadership we have seen out of the republican national committee in the last 16 to 18 months. i'm not happy about it. not happy about the money spent, the gaffes by the chairman, about this west hollywood strip club thing. the leadership starts at the top and i think chairman, michael steele is on a very short leash, he has a very very narrow opportunity to show he can raise the money, he can be a strong leader for the party. otherwise, i think the clock in the back of his head in his office might be ticking. >> so you're not ready to throw him under the bus right now, you think michael steele can navigate through this, calm the

waters and be a successful chairman and head of the party and get the money in to help the republicans win seats? you think he can recover from all of this? >> i hope he can. michael's been a friend of mine over 15 years, had a strong record as lieutenant-governor of maryland. he's a very good guy and ability to connect with people unlike previous chairman we have had. although these gaffes are not good for the party. we need to be talking about why we can beat the democrats on a number of issues and we do not need to be talking about michael steele right now. >> it's all starting to unravel. last night, he had tony perkins from the family research council, he put out this statement, i've hinted at this before, now i'm saying it, don't give money to the rnc. if you want to put money in a political process, i encourage you do so, give directly to candidates who you know reflect your values. this latest incident is another indication to me the rnc is completely tone deaf to the values and concerns of a large number of people who they are seeking financial support from.

now, this is a real strong conservative group that has roots and followers and believers and when they say line up, they line up. for these folks to be peeling off the leadership of michael steele, you know how this can happen, ron, this can be an avalanche. why doesn't somebody step right up to michael steele publicly and say, boy, you have to go for the good of the order. are they afraid to do that because he's an african-american? he has the first african-american leader ever of the republican party? there has to be some reason with all this happening around the party, somebody won't stand up and say, it's time to cut on and move. >> i certainly don't think his race has anything to do with it. republicans unlike democrats. democrats like to enjoy getting the circular firing squad and opening fire. republicans don't like criticizing their leadership and criticizing the party. we want to do everything we can to support the party. i will say this, ed and i've been very clear on your show and

i will say it again, i think he is on a very very short leash. he needs to have a strong march fund-raising support and needs to go out and continue to raise money and galvanize the party. if he can't do it, i think we need to have somebody who can. i will make that assurance to you, when that gets close, i will come here and have this discussion. i do not want him to fail, i want him to be successful for the same reason there are those who want president obama to fail, i don't want the president to fail, i don't want the chairman to fail and don't want my party to fail, we need to stop these gaffes and have stronger leadership on the rnc. >> ron christie, a pleasure. >> happy anniversary. >> thank you. thanks for being on the program the past year. i'm sheer you will do it again. >> look forward to it. hannity has figured out one hell of a way to get people to clap for him, calling them timothy mcveigh wannabes?

president obama seems to be damned if he does and damned if he doesn't. rightties are warned not to take the bait. minnesota twin pops a foul at his mother and tefny miller is here for an april fools' day edition of club ed. stay with us. can i tell you what a difference phillips' colon health has made? it's the probiotics. the good bacteria. that gets your colon back in balance. i'm good to go! phillips' colon health. vegetables are naturally low in calories. v8 juice gives you 3 of your 5 daily servings. it's a tasty, nutritious way to make this number go up... and help this one go down. v8. what's your number? absolutely! i have a lot of stuffiness at night. it wakes me up. i have allergies. ♪ you're right. i'm getting more air. -oh, yeah. -oh, wow! [ female announcer ] for two free samples,

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welcome back to "the ed show" from minneapolis tonight. fpresident obama said environmentalists will disagree with his decision on offshore drilling. >> the se ierra group says it wl hurt the economy and drive down tourism and will drive down gas prices. all it will do is help big oil make a big dollar. the president's decision could be part of a bigger game plan if it helps get republican votes for the climate change bill that's been stalled in the senate along with a bunch of other bills. for more, let me bring in the executive director of the sierra club. good to have you with us tonight. i want you to talk about the decision the president made. did it catch the sierra club and

environmentalists off guard or did you think he was going to go in this direction? >> we thought it might be coming, ed. we were paying attention in the state of the union speech, where he talked about the perceived need to open up more areas for oil drilling. it doesn't mean we weren't surprised and certainly doesn't mean we weren't disappointed. >> does this mean you would maybe take your support away from the president? i mean, how big of an issue is this for your environmental group? there's nothing bigger than drilling for oil, is there? >> it's a huge issue. let me put it into context. sierra club supports president obama. we think that by and large, he's doing and outstanding job. we have some disagreements but we think he's doing a good job. to be clear, yesterday's news was a huge disappointment. we simply don't need to be sacrificing our beaches, our coastal economies, the tourism industry, marine life for what represents a drop in the bucket

in the world oil market. at the same time, today -- >> how is this going to affect the tourism along the coast, when these rigs are going to be, first of all, they're years away, and, secondly, are going to be 50 miles offshore, nobody will be seeing them. you can't see it from the coastline. how will that affect tourism? >> you have to remember in the oil spill in prince valdese, the valdese oil spill from 20 years ago, the oil actually traveled almost 500 miles. if there's a spill, when there's a spill off the atlantic coast, you can bet the oil will be washing up on-shore and could travel as far north as massachusetts or as far south as florida. we think this is not a good investment in our energy future. if we're going to be building the clean energy economy of tomorrow, we shouldn't be subsidizing the oil industry today. >> why do you think president obama did it? he didn't campaign on it. in fact, this is the contrast. this is the opposite of what he was talking about on the

campaign trail. >> you'll have to ask the white house why they're doing this. we think it's a big mistake. we don't think there will be any extra votes coming as part of climate change legislation. it only undermines what we support about the administration in their long term broad objective to promote clean energy. this is -- it's one step back even as the administration is trying to run forward. >> finally, mr. brune, executive director of the sierra club, you said there will be a spill. how do you know? the technology has advanced tremendous lin the last five years, when it comes to their techniques of being able to go down and get the resource. how do you know there will be a spill? >> because there are all the time. even under the bush administration, the interior department estimated there will be at least one major spill every year for the next 40 years. accidents happen. there was a state -of-the-art

facility in australia last year, these state-of-the-art facilities spilled almost 7 million gallons of oil last year. we can't guarantee there will not be a single accident for the life of these facilities. we can guarantee you don't hear about windmill spills or you don't hear about solar energy spills, you don't hear about major toxic releases associated with renewable energy. we know investments in clean energy produce more jobs, cut plugs and give us greater energy security. so moving towards a continued reliance on fossil fuels, on dirty energy, like offshore oil drilling is a mistake. we don't support the president's move. >> michael brune of the sierra club, appreciate your time. i'm taking notice, whereas you disagree with the president, you're not willing to pull support over all of this, i think is a big point. thank you for being here. coming up.

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in "psycho talk" tonight, we have a psychocampaign commercial courtesy of senator blanche lincoln of arkansas. >> when senator blanche lincoln

help helped with the health care law, she hung tough and made it happen, fighting for arkansas's families. >> that's what i like about blanche lincoln. >> that's where our president barack obama stands with language lincoln, she helped pass health care reform. >> hold it. stop right there. she helped pass health care reform, she made it happen? not only did blanche lincoln not make health care happen, she fought it tooth and nail and threatened to join the republican filibuster if the bill included a public option. >> blanche lincoln is not just talking about it, working supporting the senate's plan to expand health care access to half a million kansas and 30 million americans and even passed one of the senate votes. >> she voted for the original senate bill. that was back in december. the ad conveniently leaves out the part where lincoln -- let me

say that again, she voted against the fix-it bill to improve the legislation. >> blanche lincoln wants to lower the cost of health care for low income children and expectant mothers. she boldly took a stance against insurance companies that want to stop coverage for you just because you're sick. wow, wow, blanche lincoln, she didn't take a stand against insurance companies, she played right into the hand while taking a stand against the public option. she raked in a heck of a lot of campaign cash from big insurance and other health care related companies. between january and september of last year, she took in over a half a million dollar from these folks. senator lincoln's ad is a complete distortion of reality. from one of the biggest health care reform obstructionist is in the democratic party, to say she helped president obama, i'm sorry, that is "psycho talk." coming up.

you folks have to leave me alone here. i've been getting a ton of e-mail and response because i suggested the congress should balance out the act when it comes to political talk radio in america. i'll go head to head with a conservative talker in this in just a moment. first, it started out as a beautiful day to take mom out to the ballpark. too bad this minnesota twin nearly took out his mom with a foul ball. i'll show you that in the playbook. ouch. and sean hannity just lost his mind at the reagan library. stephanie miller will break it down for us in "club ed." f stay with us. - easy on the grass please. - chocolate. and 10 percent what i like to call the "wow factor." walgreens makes putting together the perfect basket easy. with reese's peanut butter eggs, oreo cookies, starburst jelly beans, and more. then personalize it with something special. an egg-to-bunny ratio of four to one is crucial.

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welcome back to "the ed show" in minneapolis. how is the economy doing. it depends on what street you live on. over on wall street, banks and investment companies, they're flush. in part because they were just shored up big time with the

bailout money. over on main street, the job market is showing only a modest improvement. we have to be honest about that. the march unemployment report is coming out tomorrow. it's expected to show a net job creation for the second time since the recession started, but treasury secretary tim geithner says it will be a while before the job market bounces back. >> the unemployment rate is still terribly high and it's going to stay unacceptably high for a long period of time. it will take a long time to bring it down just because of the damage caused by the recession. >> while main street is feeling the damage caused by the recession, hedge funds had a record year, with several managers raking in billions of dollars. nbc's lisa myers has the details. >> reporter: they are the whales of wall street. hedge fund managers operate with few rules and handle investments for the super rich. while 2009 was a tough year for

millions of americans, ar magazine reports the recession was over early for hedge fund managers, who had a record year. get this, the top 25 managers made over $25 billion. profits driven, at least in part, by the government's bailout of big banks. >> they saw that the government was not going to let most of these big banks fail and they went and bought the stocks at very low levels. those stocks continued to go up all year long. >> at the top of the heap, david tepor, who earned a staggering $4 billion. >> tepor was the bravest of the hedge fund managers. he was willing to go in at the bottom and say, i don't think armageddon is around the corner. >> tepor it's not your stereotypical master of the universe. he has lived in this new jersey home for 20 years and appears to have no vacation homes. he says he plans to spend less

time in the office this year. >> he likes to call himself a typical middle class guy that makes billions of dollars. >> reporter: george soros, ranked t ranked one of the richest men is in the world. 2.5 billion, john paulson, 2.3 billion, which makes the $41 million he paid for this estate in the hamptons a couple years ago seem like chunk change. at number 5, 1$1.4 billion. >> he is the quintessential living large hedge fund manager with his mansion in greenwich and amazing art collection. >> reporter: a 35,000 square foot mansion with an indoor pool, outdoor ice rink and extra garage for the zamboni. not long ago, he got permission to expand the house, in part, to add to his dressing room. as for his art, he recently

snapped up an early version of jasper john's signature flag painting for an estimated $110 million. c conspicuous consumption in a banner year for the heavyweights of wall street. nbc news, washington. for more, let me bring in laura flanders, author of "blue grit" and host of "grit tv." you are perfect for this interview, you tell it like it is. you are a strong liberal. what does this look like to main street and how do people put rhyme and reason to this? >> if only it wasn't so sad, you would wish it was an april fools joke. you have on the other hand, geithner talking to steel workers in pittsburgh saying there will be unacceptably high levels of unemployment for unacceptably long, then the numbers from the hedge funds. this is a fancy word for speculator, people making money gambling on our economy.

you and i probably don't disagree with you and i making some money, i'm not against fat cats, it's what they eat. in this case, they ate our economy. you talk about the top of the list there, this was a guy, i don't think he was brave, he perhaps knew what we didn't know, banking on the fact aig would get bailed out by the government, not that it was a good company doing great stuff but deemed too big to fail. at number 6, $1.3 billion, you have carl icahn. you probably remember him from the '80s, laying people off. in the "new york times" this day, of his earnings this year, he says, well, i was investing in debt. it was a great opportunity for gambling on debts. they were undervalued. what does that tell americans? we're in debt and that's a boon for someone else? our recession is their opportunity. this is just sick stuff, if you ask me.

>> this has to be a tough balancing act for the president, trying to get unemployment numbers turned around and create jobs and folks who had tough economic times go home and see stuff like this. here's how the president is talking about jobs today. >> folks are asking, how am i going to find a job when i've only known one skill my entire lifetime, i just got laid off and i'm in my 50s. how am i going to retire when i keep spending my savings just to get by? or trying to make sure that my kid can go to college and tuition keeps ongoing up? how will i make it when i'm stretched to the limits on my mortgage and on my bills? those are the questions that i hear. i want you to know we are working every single day to spur job creation and to turn this economy around. >> where's the fairness here, laura? i have to criticize the president somewhat for not speaking up against this.

i'm a free market guy, but these profits are really obscene and i really get my back up when we're looking at record deficits in our economy, we have people who need jobs, yet we're afraid to tax the top 1% rolling to the bank tonight because they got lucky and they took a chance with taxpayer dollars after we propped up the system. >> i don't disagree. i completely agree. i think you're message to obama is totally right. let's go back to how this money was made. these are people who made a billion betting the t-bill will go up 2 cents on tuesday. flort making jobs, or feeding or educating people. this is money on gambling. i think you're right. is there a point where the federal government has to step in. what they've done so far is step in and sure up exactly this gambling, those whose debts went bad, they have to create jobs. we could have an fpr type

program tomorrow. if the president wants to keep his majorities in congress, that's what he has to get serious about. these folks are not creating jobs. one thing we haven't said, i don't see the incentive, if the opportunity incident, for them to do any job creation. >> laura, appreciate your time tonight. thanks for weighing in on this. i want to get rapid fire response on our panel from these stories. president obama has taken heat from environmentalists for back offshore oil drilling for florida, virginia and parts of alaska. the president hit the road to sell health care reform in maine today and righties are still screaming about repealing it. i think it's pastime for the congress to apply some balance to political talk radio and end the constant stream of right wing hate merchants with microphones in this country. i think they're having and effect on society. with us tonight. political reporter from "huffington post" is joining us

and michael, nationally syndicated radio host. michael, is the oil drilling a reversal on the part of the president and how should conservatives and how do they view this? >> a lot of conservatives are saying he didn't go far enough because we maintained the entire moratorium on the pacific coast. i think it's step in the right direction. is it a reversal for the president? absolutely. is he listening to the people and doing something that's correct, just as he did with nuclear power, i give the president props on this. >> samstein, is this a political move on the part of the president to get republicans to help him out with the energy bill or does he really believe we could possibly enhance our torsion costs for the middle class in this country by digging for more oil. what do you think? >> i to have go with the former. most environmental experts look at this and say, it will be 10 to 15 years minimum before you get any energy source from drilling. the president with nuclear power

is hoping to pick off one or two republican votes in the senate. it's what he needs, otherwise the bill doesn't pass. you saw it's not doing him any good. the statements from republican leadership were tepid or against the announcement, didn't go far enough, deemed misleading. once again, the president is negotiating against his own party on a major policy area. >> he certainly is. to health care now. the president was on the road selling the health care bill and commented on the gop attempting to repeal the bill. here it is. >> now that it's passed, they're already promising we're going to repeal it! they're going to run on a platform of repeal in november. and my attitude is, go for it. you try to repeal. it if they want to have a fight, i welcome that fight. i don't believe the american people will put the insurance industry back in the driver's

seat. >> all right. michael, is this a platform that the republicans can run on? and do you think they can repeal it because -- go ahead. >> we can't repeal every aspect of the health care bill but what we can do is do something about the cost of it. $950 billion at a time when we already have a defendaicit of $ trillion is just irresponsible. where republicans are going to make a difference when we take over the congress of the united states is cutting off the oxygen for this thing, cutting off the money supply. a lot of the big costs of this thing only actually hit the government in 2014, 2015. those costs are not going to be affordable. we have to fix medicare and social security an not create a brand-new entitlement. >> i can tell, michael, you don't believe the cbo report and you don't believe it will reduce the costs over time. i know where you're coming from. >> neither do you. you're too smart. >> yeah, okay.

samstein, can the republicans run on repeal and replace? would that be an effective campaign? do you think they can do it? >> no. i think it's too difficult to actually explain. you see the difficulties. i cornered the republican of the senatorial committee, he said we don't want to get rid of the good stuff, we want pre-existing conditions. we want to get rid of the bad stuff. that's tough when the tea party crowd and right wing base want a full on repeal. you're already seeing divisions what to do with this thing. >> political talk radio. michael, i don't want to take you off any but a huge percent is controlled by conservatives, broadcast stocks are terrible and radio folks firing people yet you on the right are telling

us it's the free market working. why won't the fairness doctrine correct that? >> the fairness doctrine would not correct it because it would put government in charge of free political speech. it's an outrageous idea. that segment you did before with laura flanders pointed out george soros made as much money as nearly everyone else in the country. get george soros to set up a liberal network with decent funding. the answer for speech that you don't like is not cutting off the speech you don't like, it's providing people with alternatives. your ever a shown you can do that. there's no reason other liberals can't do it as well. why not engage in the kind of debate you relish and welcome otherwise? >> sam stein, your thoughts on this because a lot of people believe these tea partyies and lot of stuff going on, you can listen to the audio on conservative talk radio on some selective shows in the country have fueled the fire for a lot of this stuff, what do you think? >> i'm generally in favor of anything that would expand your

audience, ed. if it means the government getting there in and making sure you're in more media markets, i'm all for it. >> sam, this isn't about me. this is about the fact -- >> it doesn't matter. for me, it is about you, ed. i understand both sides of the debate here. my main issue is with media concentration in terms of monopolies of markets. i don't like having one network, one station, one conglomerate own the market in chicago for instance, i'd much rather have diverse set of ownership. >> coming up. a psycho group of pirates got way more than they barring gained for when they decided to attack this missile guided frblt in the indian ocean. ♪ breaking up is hard to do

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in my playbook tonight, the united states navety battled a group of pirates in the indian ocean today. it was no contest. the pirates didn't stand a chance. early this morning, somali pirates opened fire on this frigate, the united statss narc and they confiscated their mother ship and five pirates wear taken in custody on board. how did this start and was this brewing some time? >> these have to be the dumbest pirates on the high seas ever. it was very early this morning, the u.s. navy got word there

were pirates from the seychelles, hundreds of miles away from where they usually operate. three pilots and a small skif opened fire on the u.s. nave sy ship with small arms, u.s. 47s. i can only imagine the crew aboard said, are you kidding me? it was only within seconds they returned fire with a deck mounted 50 caliber machine gun. the pirates quickly gave up. they were taken aboard the ship, the skif was sunk and they grabbed the mother boat with two other pirates on board. here's the problem. within the past couple of month, the navy grabbed a half-dozen pirates and had them aboard a u.s. navy warship for several weeks until they had to release them, without any charges, because nobody apparently would take them in.

the u.s. has had an agreement with kenya, but apparently kenya felt there was in sufficiesuffi evidence against these individuals to take them through their legal system. ultimately, they say the problem has to be solved by going ashore in somalia, improving conditions there and eliminating the pirate camps that thrive in that ungoverned space. that will not happen any time soon so u.s. officials acknowledge eliminate iing pira is not going to happen any time soon. >> is this now official operate ing procedure for the united states navy on the high seas or that the american public don't hear about or for lack of a better term, they're on pirate patrol all the time? >> they are, hundreds of miles to the north in the gulf of aden, where they usually operate, a very busy shipping

lane, many of those cargo ships were very vulnerable to attacks by pirates. there have been two developments. they have put together a task force which routinely patrols those waters and many private shipping companies have gotten smarter, their ship captains take evasive action and some have their own armed guards on board. it doesn't take much to detear pirate attack if you choose to take that course of action, ed. >> jim, thanks for joining us tonight. a final page in my playbook tonight, one of my favorite minnesota twins hit the mother of all foul balls during the first inning of a spring training game yesterday afternoon. denard span hit a foul ball that flew into the stands and hit his own mom in the collar bone knocking her off the seat. she was treated by paramedics and gotten an ekg off the field and it turned out all fine and

she was back in the stands a few minutes later. what are the odds of that happening? slim and none. coming up, don't let that pretty face fool you. great american stephanie miller is here, to set the record straight on sean hannity and caribou barbie, all coming up with an april fools' day edition of "club ed." at wachovia and wells fargo, we're with you, when a house turns into a home... excuse me, rufus. [ male announcer ] ...when a passion becomes a career... ♪ ...when a relationship turns into a lifetime... and when all the hard work finally pays off. we're with you when you need someone to stand by you. wachovia, wells fargo, and you. together we'll go far. take things as they come? i've got an idea. or improvise? maxwell house custom-roasts each bean...

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welcome back to "the ed show." we have a special edition of "club ed" with nationally cindy indicated talk show host and my good friend, stephanie miller. i have to get you to comment on sarah palin's fake promos. >> a cool j interview she didn't actually do. many people may not realize i'm not talking to you live now, this is from an interview i did with someone else a couple months ago. people are not embarrassed to be on with you live and be on your show like they apparently are with sarah palin. >> here's the hottest audio on the internet the last few day, sean hannity comparing the tea partiers to timothy mcveigh. here it is. >> i think we won the debate. >> when you think of the vast majorities they have in congress and they had to bribe, back room deals, corruption, that's all because the tea party movement,

all these tim mcveigh wannabes. >> all these tim mcveigh wannabes. they must have liked it, they clapped. what do you make of this? >> i had a right wing caller tell me, i just don't get sean hannity's nuanced humor. apparently his audience didn't either because they appeared to be clapping for tim mcveigh. one thing i have learned in my travels, republicans and comedy, not so much. i think what his point was, ed, everybody in the mainstream media calls all tea baggers tim mcveigh wannabes, have you heard anybody in the mainstream or progressive media say that? i haven't. >> not at all. i couldn't believe some of the callers were trying to tell me, stephanie, the audiotape was doctored. good to have you with us tonight. >> thank you. >> in our phone survey, i asked you do you think fox news

deliberately misleads its viewers, 94% said yes, 6% said no. that's it. have a good holiday. chris matthews now with "hardball." the mouse on the republican floor, let's play "hardball." good evening, i'm chris matthews in washington on this holy thursday. leading off tonight, the elephant in the room, sometimes a mouse is enough to scare an elephant. today, the mouse on the floor is the sex club scandal, that little rodent of a story that's causing such a big scare in the republican party. it's got them running for the trees. tony perkins' family research council and of course, sarah palin are both running from the republican national committee. and now a group of big-name republicans are starting their own group to compete with the rnc. a group that could starve michael steele's rnc of money. how bad will this get for the grand old party?

that's our top story tonight. plus, all this embarrassment, confusion and running away comes at an odd time for the republicans. polls have them moving past the democrats now, who just got the lowest ratings ever recorded in a cnn gallup poll. is there anything that the democrats can do to keep 2010 from looking like 1994, the year they lost both houses of congress to the republicans? also, remember the anti-gay church group that believes american war deaths are god's punishment for the tolerance of gays here at home? well the father of a fallen marine who is suing that group for protesting at his son's funeral has been ordered by a federal appellate court to pay the group's legal fees. talk about blind justice. the father will be here tonight. and the gop sex scandal gets a little sexier. check this out, an rnc fundraising letter just went out directing people to a phone number of the kind that young single men are sometimes known to be drawn to. you know -- that kind of phone number. the interactive kind.