unicorn had gone away. the man sat down amongt roses and went to sleep. the wife got up and dressed as fast as she could. she was very excited and there was a gloat in her eye. she telephoned the police and she telephoned a psychiatrist. she told them to hurry to her house and bring a straitjacket. they looked at her with great interest. my husband, she said, saw a unicorn this morning. the police looked at the psychiatrist and the psychiatrist looked at the police. he told me it ate a lilly. she said. the psychiatrist looked at the police, and the police looked at the psychiatrist. he told me it had a golden horn in the middle of its forehead, she said. a signal from the psychiatrist, the police leaped from their chair and seized the wife. she put up a terrific struggle but they finally subdued her. just as they got her into the straitjacket, the husband came back into the house.

did you tell your wife you saw a unicorn, asked the police. of course not, said the husband. the unicorn is a mythical beast. that's all i wanted to know, said the psychiatrist. take her away. i'm sorry, sir, but your wife is as crazy as a jay bird. so they took her away, cursing and screaming, and shut her up in an institution. the husband lived happily ever after. the moral? don't count your boob ys until they are hatched. "the unicorn in the garden" by james thurber. we'll see what we have for you again next week. i'll tweet about it. that's "countdown," portions written by james thurber. rachel maddow and the rachel maddow show is up next. i'm keith olbermann. good night, and good luck.

good evening from orlando, where what began as a friday, wound up, sarah palin has us look at the party right now and the party of sarah palin. bart stupak called it a career. we were challenged to so we did do some research on what it should cost to live on c street. it's a friday. there's a lot to get to. but we begin with a one-sentence letter that was delivered to the white house at 10:30 this morning. my dear mr. president, having concluded that it would be in the best interest of the court to have my successor appointed and confirmed well in advance of the commencement of the court's next term, i shall retirement from regular active service as an associate justice. most respectfully yours, john paul stevens. 11 days before his 90th

birthday, justice john paul stevens, officially announces today that he is stepping down. his retirement not exactly a surprise. it had been speculated upon for weeks now. but today the justice made it official. when the letter arrived at the white house this morning, its intended recipient was on board air force one. once president obama returned to the white house today, he gave some early insight into what he's going to be looking for in a replacement for justice stevens. >> i view the process of selecting a supreme court nominee as among my most serious responsibilities as president. while we cannot replace justice stevens' experience or wisdom, i will seek someone in the coming weeks with similar qualities. an independent mind, a record of excellence and integrity, a fierce dedication to the rule of law, and a keen understanding of how the law affects the daily lives of the american people. it will also be someone who, like justice stevens, knows in a

democracy, powerful interests must not be allowed to drown out the voices of ordinary citizens. >> just about immediately senate republicans started to give indications that they're gearing up for a big fight here. >> i've got to say, he has a propensity to choose people who don't care what the law is, they're going to make the law from the bench. judges are not supposed to do that. and i personally am very upset about it. >> except of course in the citizens united case where the court totally made up the law, but that was in a good way, right senator? in addition to those in the senate who will actually decide the fate of president obama's judicial nominee there is also a whole century in washington that exists solely for days like this. it exists to not only fight over supreme court nominations but to raise as much money as possible off of the nomination fights. it's a washington machine that -- it's weird. it lies semi dormant for years

and then it awakens every time there's a supreme court vacancy. and all of a sudden, right now, you can consider that machine woken up and cranked up. the conservative group judicial watch blasting out a statement today, warning that if president obama nominates a, quote, empathetic liberal judicial activist, he will have a fight on his hands. they didn't include any mod conof themselves rubbing their hands in glee but it was implied. with the letter delivered at 10:30 this morning, supreme court confirmation season has officially begun. among all washington political events, not much tops supreme court confirmation hearings in terms of unrestrained, over the top, civic-minded drama. it wasn't always this way. nominees weren't even always required to testify on their own behalf. the first one to do that was harlan fisk nom named by calvin

coolidge. it wasn't until the '80s in the advent of multi day hearings being televised things got rolling in terms of the political drama. july 1st, 1987, ronald reagan nominated a vacancy created on the supreme court. within 45 minutes of the bork nomination, 45 minutes, ted kennedy stormed on to the senate floor to declare jbork's nomination essentially dead on arrival. >> robert bork's america is a land in which women would be forced into backaly abortions, blacks would sit at segregated lunch counters and school children could not be taught about evolution. >> that's 45 minutes into the nomination process. how's that for opposition? mr. bork was in fact one of the most radical jurists ever proposed in modern times for any judgeship, let alone for the supreme court.

the fight to keep him off the court set new standards for how these things are fought. people for the american way enlisted gregory peck, the hollywood legend in the fight against bork. >> there's a special feeling of awe people get when they visit the supreme court of the united states. the ultimate guardian of our rights as americans. that's why we set the highest standards for our highest court justices and that's why we're so concerned. this is gregory peck. robert bork wants to be a supreme court justice. but the record shows he has a strange idea of what justice is. he defended poll taxes and literacy tests which kept many americans from voting. please urge your senators to vote against the bork nomination. if he wins a seat on the supreme court, it will be for life. his life and yours. >> robert bork ultimately made it through his confirmation hearing on the senate judiciary committee. but the opposition did not let

up. as it headed for the senate floor. >> robert bork's america, there is no room at the inn for blacks, no place in the constitution for women, and in our america, there should be no seat on the supreme court for robert bork. >> robert bork's nomination was voted down on the floor of the senate, with 58 senators voting against him, including six republicans. rivaling judge bork in terms of pure drama were the hearings for clarence thomas in 1991. his confirmation process was going along sort of swimmingly until news reports leaked one of his former employees made statements to the fbi accusing him of sexual harassment. that accusation and the treatment in the in the made it some of the most riveting, a

two-word explanation for a generation of women being utterly steved out by politics. >> this is a circus. it's a national disgrace. and from my standpoint, as a black american, as far as i'm concerned, it is a high tech lynching for blacks who think for themselves, do for themselves, to have different ideas. and it is a message that unless you kowtow to an old order, this is what will happen to you. you will be lynched, destroyed, caricatured by a committee of the u.s. and u.s. senate rather than hung from a tree. >> professor hill, you said you took it to mean that judge

thomas wanted to have sex with you. but in fact he never did ask you to have sex, correct? >> no, he did not ask me to have sex. he did continually pressure me to go out with him continually. and he would not accept my explanation as one as being valid. >> clarence thomas squeaked out on a 7-7 split vote. he was narrowly confirmed two weeks later. that is not how things went for the second nominee after john roberts. >> this morning i'm proud to announce i'm nominating associate justice of the supreme court. she has devoted her life to the rule of law and cause of justice. she will be an outstanding addition to the supreme court of the united states. >> exactly 24 days later, harriet miers withdrew that nomination to the supreme court, after undergoing a barrage of

criticism from all corners of the political world. for all the drama, passion and raw emotion that comes out of the supreme court nomination process, you know what doesn't happen? supreme court nominees don't get filibusters. for as partisan as these nomination fights can get, filibustering really just isn't part of it. in the entire history throughout the years, exactly one judge has ever been successfully filibustered. in 1968, president lyndon johnson wanted to elevate abe fortas to being the chief justice of the court. he was filibustered, not allowed to become chief justice. the very next year he resigned under threat of impeachment for having done stuff like accepting thousands of dollars on outside payments on top of his supreme court salary. he was not your typical case. aside from abe fortas in 1968, nobody ever gets filibustered. sometimes nominees don't get confirmed by the senate,

sometimes they do, only after a brutal confirmation process. sometimes nominees withdraw before making it to the senate judiciary committee so the brutal nomination process can begin. but by in large, supreme court nominees are given the deference of an up or down vote on their nomination. they are not filibustered. as much as it seems this can't get any more exploited, can't be any more partisan, it is now in 2010, officially more polar rised, more exploited and more partisan than it has ever been before. you can tell that because republican members of the senate are already threatening to filibuster the nominee to replace justice stevens. even though there isn't even a nominee yet. just minutes after president obama accepted justice stevens' resignation today, lamar alexander released a statement that reads, quote, i hope president obama will nominate his successor from the middle and not from the fringe.

in truly extraordinary cases i reserve the prerogative to vote no on confirmation or even to vote to deny an up or down vote. just saying. i might filibuster, i'm already thinking about it. same goes for his republican colleague jon kyl of arizona. >> are you willing to pledge right now that the gop will not filibuster whoever the president nominates? >> it will all depend on what kind of a person it s i think the president will nominate a qualified person, i hope, however, he does not nominate an overly ideological person. that will be the test. >> the republican party now threatening to filibuster a supreme court nominee who doesn't yet exist. the supreme court nomination battles have brought a little bit of everything with them, but republicans are ratcheting up for a fight for the sake of a fight, one that's basically never been seen before. in the absence of president obama even picking someone for

the job yet. and that is worth remembering when they declare inevitably that the nominee is the worst communist fringy ideological pick ever. it's not about the nominee. it's not about the nominee. they're already pledging to filibuster beyond the nominee. they are just licking their chops for a fight for the sake of the fight. we'll be right back to talk potential nominees. [ male announcer ] dear user of mayo, an invitation to come over to the other side. what else is gonna take your sandwich up a notch?

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news flash, retiring justice john paul stevens is a liberal. not some pseudoprogressive left-leaning right, a liberal. so unless he wants the court to slide to the right, president obama will have to pick a liberal to replace john paul steve stevens. and a review of sarah palin's gob smacking speech at the republican convention in new orleans. it was a remarkable speech, and therefore we shall remark. how you doing?

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do you remember the hits for jesus case, remember that case? in 2007 a school did have the authority to suspend a student from school for holding up a banner saying bong hits for jesus at a school-supervised event. john paul stevens wrote the dissenting opinion in that case, and that dissent was amazing. in the dissent he wrote, quote, the current dominant opinion supporting the war on drugs in general and our anti-marijuana laws is reminiscent supporting the nationwide ban on alcohol consumption when i was a

student. of course referring to prohibition. you know, back when he was a student. justice stevens has been around for a while. he turns 90 this month. he appears to be in great health. as president obama pointed out today in acknowledging the retirement news, justice stevens enlisted in the navy the day before the attack on pearl harbor in 1941. he saw babe ruth's legendary home run in the 1932 world series, the one where he pointed out where he was going to hit it and then hit it there. justice stevens saw that live from the stands. he was there. justice stevens was appointed to the court in december 1975 by president ford. that makes him the longest-serving justice on the bench right now by more than a decade. if anything, justice stevens is probably a republican. he doesn't talk about his partisan affiliation, but he has hinted over the course of the years, over the course of his career and at the time he was appointed of being a republican, and, of course, he was appointed by a republican president. at the time he was considered sort of a moderate conservative. and whether politics has moved

to the right of justice stevens or justice stevens has moved to the left of the politics, whichever it is, he is considered the liberal on the court right now. as "the washington post" said, his leadership of the liberal wing of the court is responsible for, quote, groundbreaking decisions in favor of gay rights, restrictions on the death penalty, preservation of abortion rights and establishment of the role for a judiciary in the nation's terrorism fight. in justice steven's dissent in bush v. gore, handing the president to president bush, justice stevens wrote, quote, although we may never know with complete certainty the identity of the winner of this year's presidential election, the identity of the loser is perfectly clear, it's the nation's confidence in the judge as an impartial guardian of the rule of law. in 2004 justice stevens wrote the majority decision that prisoners being held at guantanamo had the right to challenge their imprisonment. justice stevens is credited with

bringing justice kennedy on board in a 5-4 vote that gave the epa the authority to regulate carbon ee medications. when the supreme court ruled in 2007 that schools couldn't promote integration by considering a child's race when they assigned students to schools, justice stevens dissented from that case. in that case, the majority cited brown v. board of education. the 1955 case that ended legal school segregation. they cited that in the majority. in his dissent, justice stevens called that a cruel irony. just this year in the citizens united ruling, a 5-4 conservative majority ruled in favor of limitless campaign contributions, including foreign corporations, justice stevens in the minority wrote, quote, our lawmakers have a compelling constitutional basis, if not also a democratic duty, to take measures designed to guard against the potential liddell tier yes effects of corporate spending in races.

the court's ruling under mines institutions across the nation. the path it has taken to reach its outcome will, i fear, do damage to this institution. justice stevens so strongly opposed what the court did in in landmark citizens united case, that he read allowed from his partial dissent when the decision was handed down. they never do that. according to people who were there at the time, justice stevens did not read allowed from his decision very well, because he is almost 90 and he said he was tired that day. but the fact that he did it, the fact that he not only wrote that sort of blistering condemnation of the ruling and felt strongly enough about it that he needed to read it out loud, gives you some idea of the degree to which justice john paul stevens has been the anchor of the court and the leader of its liberal minority. with justice stevens leaving the court it's losing its true blue magnetic north. keeping status quo means finldsing a replacement for stevens who is as liberal as he

is. what are the odds of that. joining us now, senior editor and legal correspondent for slate.com and the person who i most wanted to read as soon as i heard about this vacancy. thanks so much for joining us. >> well, thank you for having me. >> what are the odds that the court doesn't get less liberal in the wake of justice stevens' departu departure, that president obama nominates someone as reliably liberal as he has been? >> well, i think you really flagged it in your intro. there's two issues. one is how liberal the next person is, the other is, will they have the mastery and the skill to shirp pa the other liberals along, and that doesn't even really touch on that next nominee's jurisprudence. how do you handle this court, this sort of fractious left wing of the court, how do you handle justice kennedy who really does

need to be sherpaed along. do they have these foundational skills, these skills to get to five, and that's a really, really tough thing. >> when you wrote about this on slate, one of the things you described was the empathy factor, which of course became such a hot button issue during the sonia sotomayor confirmation process. the president today said he's looking for somebody with a keen understanding of how the law affects the daily lives of the american people. how important was that characteristic to understanding justice stevens on this court? >> i think it's critical, rachel, and i think it's something before we all sort of pounce on the demographics question, and the diversity question, before every woman in america starts screaming we need a third woman, before we start screaming we need an asian or hispanic or a gay or a disabled justice, it's so important to

honor and recognize in justice john paul stevens that this was a rich, white guy who didn't grow up in the projects, who went to the right schools and had all the breaks, and still managed throughout this amazing decades-long career to kind of get it about what it is to be a prisoner at guantanamo, to get it about what it is to be a mentally retarded person on death row, to get it, what it is to be a 13-year-old girl who's strip searched because there might be, god forbid, advil in your bra. so i think it's critical to see that quality. i know it's a bad, bad word, empathy is synonymous in the gop with some kind of derangement that needs medication. but, really, i think that if you look at stevens' great gift as a jurist, it's that simple ability to put yourself in the other guy's shoes, and one of steven's former clerk and i wrote a piece today in slate, saying, before we go crazy trying to find a

justice that looks just like us, let's recall that stevens doesn't look like us but he really got us. >> he said in 2007 for the piece rosen wrote, he said, including myself, every judge who's been appointed to the court since louis powell in 1971 has been more conservative than his or her predecessor, except maybe justice ginsburg. has it been a steady march on the court? >> i think it's indisputably true. he's citing data that is i think unequivocal, that everyone is succeeded by someone slightly to their right. and we certainly see that, i think, with david souter, who is succeeded by sonia sotomayor who is a more proprosecutor bench, we saw it with then-chief justice renquist being succeeded by justice roberts. and the moderate sandra day o'connor being succeeded by

samp alito. the court pivoted around stevens, and what was a far right liberal disappears, the moderates become the wing nuts and the right is never cob te contemplated on the court. >> we could do this all night, but who do you think he's going to nominate? who should be considered on the short list? >> you know, it's whether or not obama has a stomach for a big fight or little fight, and i don't know the contents of obama's stomach. if he wants a little fight, garlland on the d.c. court of appeals is a smart liberal. if he wants a medium fight,

alena kagan, if he wants a big, big fight, he can take diane wood from the seventh circuit court of appeals. harold koh, there's a long list. steven bright suggesting brian stevenson at the equal justice initiative. those guys, i have to say just personally, are two of my heroes. would that be the biggest fight ever? >> i think that would be one of the biggest fights ever. i suspect a pam carlin or a kathleen sullivan might be on that same richter scale. >> i hear you. thank you for your time tonight, i hope we can sign you up for a lot more of it in the coming weeks as we continue to talk about this nomination. >> thanks for having me, rachel. okay. dave weigel from the washington independent, great reporter, was in new orleans today for sarah palin's big, don't retreat, reload speech. he will join us next from new

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the bright glaring light you've been noticing from the southern sky these past couple of days, that shine from the south? it's because all the brightest stars of the republican have been been in constellation. it's the southern leadership conference, but what it is is a chance for the republican party

to find its voice, what language, what tone and whose language the republican party will challenge president obama in 2012. in practice that means all the potential republican candidates for 2012 are trying out their applause lines. it all started last night with professional potential candidate newt gingrich, trying to hit the sweet spot between his new newt, bored professor persona and his old familiar new persona, a screaming man on a street corner threatening to hit you with his misspelled sign. >> this is the most radical presidency in american history. i began to realize after a year of watching them, if you think about the group that meets together in the white house, their experience is the machine politics of chicago, the corruption of springfield, and the radicalism of alinsky. and it comes together in a format, then they meet with their colleagues, pelosi and

reid, and you have a perfect, unrepresentative left wing machine dedicated to a secular socialist future. >> most radical? actually i think i stand corrected here. i don't actually think newt gingrich here was either the professor or the angry man with the misspelled sign here. i think that former house speaker gingrich might be trying a new role, the role of angry commentator on right wing blog. chicago machine, pelosi, lol, lol, lol, lol. rolling on the floor laughing. oh, gee. today sarah palin took the podium. people waited in line two hours to see this speech. >> what's wrong with being the party of no? we will oppose it. or, better said by the good

governor of this state, he said party of no. nah, we're the party of hell, no. >> see, if this is how it's going to be, the leadup to the november elections will be a lot more fun than i thought it would be. it will at least be way more simple. >> hell, no, you can't. >> yes, we can. >> hell, no, you can't. >> yes, we can. >> what's wrong with being the party of no. >> yes, we can. >> we're the party of hell no. >> yes, we can. >> they're really going for it. she got huge applause for that. she also got huge applause for her best lines on energy. >> and now we're going to study, more study of the south atlantic and parts of the gulf of mexico and a couple of other areas that, my goodness, folks, these areas have been studied to death. let's send the white house this message that, no, we can save taxpayer time. save money and announce, there

is oil and gas down there, and we can produce it safely and responsibly. we don't need more studies, we need more action. >> no more studying. no more stuff with the studying and the -- just act. stop with the learning and the gosh darn studying and the reading all the time, and the figuring. always trying to figure stuff out. just do something. do anything. just randomly do stuff. stop thinking about it. >> because energy produced in america is security for america. and it is jobs for american workers, jobs that can't be outsourced. lets drill, baby, drill, not stall, baby, stall. >> if this part is confusing to you, you are forgiven to that. didn't president obama just make an announcement he was lifting the decades old offshore drilling ban? the same headline, how obama was a new convert to the whole

drill, baby, drill idea? >> today we're announcing the expansion of offshore oil and gas exploration. >> i thought -- yes. isn't obama actually a drill, baby, drill guy now? yes, he is. remember all the dumb punditry of his would make republicans nod in agreement and side with him on energy policy? yeah. that didn't happen. president obama may be drilling now for sure, but according to sarah palin, he's not drilling fast enough. >> let's drill, baby, drill, not stall, baby stall. >> of course it is possible that maybe she just wanted to say baby again. joining us now is dave weigel, reporting now for "the washington post." he's covering the republican conference in new orleans and joins us live from there. dave, thanks very much for your time. hope you're having a good time down there. >> i am. i didn't know how much pink floyd, we don't need no education there was in that palin speech until you played it back. >> did newt gingrich enter with

"eye of the tiger?" >> he entered the haul walking slowly to the tune of eye of the tiger, then made reference to how he was a historian, teacher, author of books and documentary producer. i think his thought was obama was being too arrogant. >> i understand. not mentioning the whole ousted by his own party as speaker of the house. are we hearing the loudest cheers at this event for the harshest rhetoric? we think about this as the republican party trying to find their voice. are you getting any sense of what this new voice is? >> well, it's similar to the voice you've been hearing for months. it's similar to the voice of the tea parties, really. it's identical. it's still very focused on economics. one thing that struck me, there was no mention from the stage, there weren't too many speeches, but no mention from the stage of bart stupak's retirement, no mention from the stage of john paul stevens' retirement. they're still focused on this

idea that gingrich articulated very well, obama poses a secular, socialist threat to america. it's not issue by issue. >> is there no mention of bart stupak retiring, no mention of john paul stevens retiring. they are in new orleans. has there been significant mention of hurricane katrina? >> actually, none. no. and there are people sporting george w. bush buttons, and some of those shirts saying, do you miss me yet, with bush's face on it, which is not the least offensive shirt you can wear in new orleans. but there is an argument that any time democrats bring up george bush they're just excusing barack obama's mistakes. if you can say it here, you can say it anywhere. >> yeah. last question for you, the main republican news and drama we've been focusing on has of course been over michael steele and his sort of troubled chairmanship of

the rnc. how is michael steele faring at this event? >> rather well. i talked to people who think sarah palin should replace him as rnc chairman. but the people who have the power to do this, the members of the rnc, any don't like talking about it. they're not going to get rid of him. 58 of them have signed a letter saying they want him to stay. you need all but 56 to vote for removing him. technically if they all stand by their word, he's safe. when he shows up tomorrow, there's some anticipation about it, i'd be surprised if he was booed. this is a crowd that believes any attack on a member of the party is a distraction created by people like, i don't know, you and me, for example. and they're not going to pile on michael steele. it's unfortunate for them that the north carolina party chairman went after him this week. i talked to one member that told him to resign, that's it so far. >> dave weigel, having a very

good time in new orleans, i can see it on your face. thanks for joining us tonight. have a great weekend. >> thank you, you too. all right. c street residents are not happy that everybody keeps talking about the issue of subsidized rent at the c street house in washington. these guys say they are not getting rent subsidies, they are paying what everyone pays for a place like that. that's an impeerically checkable fact, isn't it? let's check. that's coming up. it's not always easy living with copd, but i try not to let it hold me back... whether i'm at the batting cages... down by the lake or... fishing at the shore. i'm breathing better... with spiriva. announcer: spiriva is the only once-daily inhaled maintenance treatment for both forms of copd, which includes chronic bronchitis and emphysema.

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after addressing the impending resignation of justice john paul stevens this afternoon at the white house, president obama turned the bully pulpit to a far, far more sober subject. >> because mining is a tradition often passed down through generations, it's not uncommon to see an entire family choose this line of work. and sadly, when a tragedy like this occurs, it's also not uncommon to lose almost an entire family all at once. i spoke to some surviving members to one such family on wednesday. this week, tim davis and two of his nephews, josh, age 25, and

cory, age 20, were killed in the explosion in the upper big branch mine. rescuers have reported that tim and his two nephews were all found together. two other members of their families that worked in the mine were able to escape unharmed. before he left for the mine on monday, josh wrote a letter for his girlfriend and young daughter. in it, he said, if anything happens to me, i'll be looking down from heaven at you all. i love you. take care of my baby. tell her that daddy loves her. she's beautiful, she's funny, just take care of my baby girl. reflecting on that letter, and the losses she endured in just one week, josh's mother pam simply said, it is just west virginia. when something bad happens, we come together. when something bad happens, we come together.

through tragedy and heartache, that's the spirit that has sustained this community and this country for over 200 years. and as we pray for the souls of those that we've lost and the safe return of those who are missing, we're also sustained by the words of the psalm that are particularly poignant right now. those words read, you, o, lord, keep my lamp burning. my god turns my darkness into light. thank you very much. >> president obama has asked for a preliminary report on what went wrong at the upper big branch mine, and why next week. meanwhile, rescue workers are on the fourth attempt to find missing miners from the deadly blast. officials just concluded a news conference saying they were optimistic saying they will know the fate of the four miners who remain missing by midnight tonight. early this morning rescue teams were forced to retreat from the mine because they encountered smoke from what they think was

an underground fire. before aborting the search, five miles into the mine and 1,000 feet underground, the crew confirmed that the miners who were missing were not in one two air tight chambers stocked with food, water and oxygen. they're within 2000 feet of the chamber. if the miners are not there, their survival is considered extremely, extremely slim. among those remembers, benny willingham, five weeks away from retiring. as the mining community copes with this loss, the company operating this mine is under fire again for comments that its ceo made just last year about safety rules. >> very difficult to comply with, there's so many of the laws that are, if you will, nonsensical from an engineering or a coal mining viewpoint. >> mr. blankenship's upper big branch mine has appealed or is dleeng went on 21 major fines

worth $90 million. other operators still owe the government for safety violations in the past three years. coal may not cost much money. but it really, really, really does not come cheap. i'll be right back. stunning high gloss and flawless gray coverage all in just 10 minutes that's why it won the most awards from beauty editors perfect 10 the color that changes everything youtube didn't exist. and facebook was still run out of a dorm room. when we built our first hybrid, more people had landlines than cell phones, and gas was $1.75 a gallon. and now, while other luxury carmakers are building their first hybrids, lexus hybrids have traveled 5.5 billion miles. and that's quite a head start. ♪

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if fever, unexplained weakness or confusion develops, tell your doctor promptly. these may be signs of ttp, a rare but potentially life-threatening condition, reported sometimes less than 2 weeks after starting plavix. other rare but serious side effects may occur. they're claiming they pay fair market value for c street. today we had a really, really good time checking out the actual renters market in the c street neighborhood. the collision of denial and realty. maybe that's real reality, realty? either one, next.

a group of pastors in ohio a few weeks ago filed an irs complaint against the members of congress who live at the c street house. the ethics watchdog crew then filed an ethics complaint against the same lawmakers. the allegation of both complaints is the same. that the c street house which is run by "the family" offers its congressmen tenants rent at below market rates. the implication, of course, is the difference between what the tenants are paying and what the landlord could reasonably demand represents a subsidy. and the public should know who is donating what to our elected officials. it ought to fit the rules of

what you're allowed to gift. and frankly those elected officials ought to be paying taxes on it as income. it's been reported and not refuted that a room in c street the luxury building plus amenities including maid service just a short walk from the capitol is being charged to the men of congress at a rate of $950. as recent as last year. tennessee congressman is the latest c street resident to react with indignation to the charge that his rent at c street is anything but totally above board. he told a hometown news service "it's a totally bogus claim. to allege we're not paying market value is simply not analyzing the market. it's the most ridiculous allegation and claim that i have seen." simply not analyzing the market, he said. analyzing. how would one do that nowadays? the internet. let's have a look. comparing similar things in the

same neighborhood at c street. at craigslist, a one bedroom english basement apartment and utilities on c street for $1,750 a month. you don't have to share a bathroom like the c street guys do, but you don't have lux common areas, maid service, or interns working for you as servants. also, english basement is a nice way of saying this apartment is only partially aboveground. for what it's worth, that's almost double the rent of what we think the c street guys are paying. analyzing the market, there's also this one you can live on c street here for $1,420 a month. s that only 50% more than a room at c street. of course, there's no maid, no servants, and not only no other really nice rooms, but no other rooms at all. this is a studio, just one room. in all fairness, we did just one search, our results are not comprehensive.

thankfully senator sam brownbeck of county sent us his own research showing what anyone can get for the same amount of rent he paid at c street. and yes, you can score a room for even less than $950 a month. for example, as the senator points out, for $600 you can live in bowie, maryland, which is lovely. but if you work on capitol hill, it seems fair to mention this apartment is in maryland. in bowie, maryland, which is roughly a 30-minute commute to the united states capital by car, as opposed to the c street residence which is three blocks. the senator suggests you could live in a basement bedroom in vienna, virginia, which happens to be the last stop on that part of the metro. it's outside of the beltway in virginia, roughly again about half hour commute by car or the full length of the orange line. the c street house again, just three blocks away from work. you could crawl there if you

were drunk. according to the senator's search, for $640 a month, you can also share an apartment with a stranger in springfield, virginia, which is again, outside the beltway a good ways from capitol hill and it should also be noted for this listing that in this case you would have to be "an older woman." so there you have it. thank you to the congressmen for directing us to the data. or whether you've, in fact, been getting an unreported and probably illegal big fat rent subsidy -- we're guessing -- from the family. we stand corrected. i mean we stand correct. nice try, gentlemen, but who's paying your rent? ♪ we'll begin with a spin

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