4% of you said yes, 96% of you said no. what's wrong with public education in america? that's "the ed show," i'm ed schultz, chris matthews and "hardball" is next. we will see you tomorrow night. that backed by the national group led by dick armey because they said snowed chachbs winning. attack by the republican party and the editor of the new republic has tonight won the gop nomination for the senate from delaware. it is, quote, perfectly clear says the democrats you will face in the general chris kuhns, that the republican party is purging itself of moderate voices and embracing the radical. christine o'donnell one vote away from representing the senate.

which of these stories will you be talking about tomorrow? how to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. republicans get a hint at filibustering obama tax cuts for the middle class. >> we think most american think it is a bad idea to raise taxes on anybody in the middle of a recession. >> even the rich? you might be wrong about that. the house democratic caucus meets to decide whether to force the republicans to reveal their toting to the rich to vote against the middle class tax cuts. our special guests, caucus chairman, chris van hullen and the pollster who addresses the caucus, stan greenberg. republican racism mea culpa. last year florida gop chair jim greer led the charge calling the president's speech to school kids indoctrination. now mr. grier with an extraordinary admission. i found that many in the gop have racist views, and i apologize to the president for my opposition to his speech last year, and my efforts to placate

the extremists who dominate our party today. who writes economic policy for that party? fox's as man. >> no new taxes, no new bureaucrats, cut spending. repeal obamacare, would you be in favor of those? >> absolutely. not only would i be in favor of these things, i will be in favor of these things. delaware debacle, you might be in trouble if on primary day your former campaign manager comes out against you. you may be in trouble if a conservative heavyweight blasts you like this. >> the palin endorsement is destructive and capricious. what's wrong with this picture? everything. worst persons, her, the team, the players, the league, reporters in locker rooms, and giving her network media passes when their last reporter showed up in a wedding dress and proposed to the quarterback at the super bowl. all the news and commentary now on countdown.

good evening from new york. with control of both houses of congress hanging in the balance. democrats are hungry for something with which to motivate their voters and get out and vote. there's one issue on the table between now and november which holds the potential to fire up the voters. the democrats have not yet decide make it an issue by bringing it to a vote in the house on election day. republicans refusing to pass obama's proposed tax cuts for the middle class, unless democrats agree to pass tax cuts for others. they could determine whether the next congress is gavelled into order by speaker pelosi or speaker boehner. at the meeting, democratic

pollster stan greenberg who briefed democrats on what his polling says about the issue. also standing by to join us with what he said. the argument for voting on this. similar to today's vote in the senate, tax breaks on small businesses. senate democrats got two republicans to break their party's filibuster, to give small businesses $12 billion in tax breaks and create a $30 billion fund that will leverage as much as $300 billion in small business lending, which means senate democrats can argue republicans tried to block small business tax cuts in the middle of a recession. the argument against voting on the middle class tax cuts now. some democratic strategists are telling members of congress that even saying the word taxes helps republicans. that's it. but some republicans seem to understand the prospect of them blocking tax cuts for 98% of the country on behalf of the richest

2% a month before election day. i understand how that might not be a good thing. john boehner sunday said he would vote for the obama middle class tax cuts if those were the only tax cuts he could get. his counterpart in the senate tried to claim most americans agree with him, congress should extend tax cuts for everybody. he refused to say whether he like boehner would support the obama middle class tax cuts if those are the only ones he can get. >> i'm not going to answer any of the hypotheticals. that is my position as we go into this debate. and if the other side thinks this is a great debate to have six weeks before the election, to look at the politics of it. i assume they want to have the debate now, before the election, even though this could be dealt with after the election. the reason they want to have it now, they think it's a good political debate for them. we're happy to have this debate. we think most americans think it's a bad idea to be raising taxes on anybody in the middle of the recession. >> most americans think it's a

bad idea to be raising taxes on anybody in the middle of a recession. the plumb line blog found a half dozen polls show just the opposite. most americans support at least letting the bush tax cuts for the rich expire. pugh research, 57%. national journal 56%, gallup 59%. cnn 69%. cbs 56%. newsweek 52%. we asked senator mcconnell's office today to supply a single poll showing majority support for extending bush's tax cuts for the rich. no reply. grover norquist told the hill they would fall into a trap if they blocked obama's middle class tax cuts. former speaker night gingrich asking the question. why would you vote against the tax cut for millions of americans just before the election, so the liberal democrats could attack you. even before mr. boehner some republicans showed signs they don't know how to proceed. if democrats make them choose tax cuts for 98% of america or tax cuts for no one.

senator grassley to the a.p. it's kind of a conundrum i'm not sure i can answer your question. i'll probably vote for it. congressman from texas to politico yesterday, out there in theoretical land might there be something that we vote on that is half a loaf? i suppose so. joining us back here in actual land as promised. stan greenberg, we should note does polling for nbc news. great thanks for joining us tonight, sir. >> npr and l.a. times. >> we got the whole roster out there. give us your assessment of the caucus tonight and what you told them and how much they listened? >> this issue is obviously taken seriously. i came over here, the caucus was supposed to be over, it was still going on, discussing this subject with a lot of support

for addressing this. i don't want to talk about what members said in the caucus. that's for them to raise. i can talk about, you know, the polling that we did, and what i said, which was, essentially, this is an issue in which about 38% of the country supports the republican position to extend these tax cuts. which is ten points below the vote that republicans are getting right now. so this is an issue that drags them down. it's an issue that helps democrats. it is an issue that i believe democrats want, it creates a framework of choice, and it defines the two parties. it's a defining issue. democrats need that, both to build turnout, but more than that, to create a real choice. not a phony choice. it's a real issue, it's real money involved, and democrats have the advantage. >> 49 days to go, is that time enough to brand these things the obama tax cuts? and did any democrats still think that they would lose if republicans are out there blocking the obama tax cuts?

>> again, i can't speak for the members and the caucus. but i -- there's -- clearly there's strong support for extending middle class tax cuts. i don't know what they're doing with the other piece of it. i think people understand just as devoters, i think are so clearly expressing. you know, that there is a difference between the parties reflected in this issue. sometimes you have spin and -- this is not spin. this is not real policy. if you don't do this, there's $700 billion you're not going to do for deficit or investment for jobs. and 700 billion you're going to take out some place else. this is a real choice. what our poll shows, not just that voters agree with the democrats, they shift their vote after hearing the arguments. we get a five point shift in favor of -- toward the democrats.

after the tax debate. people often think it is a tax debate that's not good for democrats. i always get that. i get it from other pollsters and elected officials. a tax debate is good for the democrats. people want the priorities the democrats bring to taxes. barack obama ran on it and won on it. bill clinton ran on raises taxes for the wealthy, and won on it. democrats should want a tax debate, particularly the kind of choices that are faced on this extension of the bush tax cut. >> does it help to actually brand it with the president's name? is there any indication of that? >> look, the president has an overall approval rating, low to mid-40s. you know, it varies by district. but this is not an election about the president. it's fine to bring the president into it, obviously it depends on the district. but it's not about the president, his tax cuts could come into play. we listen closely to mitch mcconnell, he's talking about repealing those and opposing

their extensions. he's talking about raising taxes on the working poor, a lot of middle class people. obama's name is certainly going to be prominent if that's what you're talking about doing. the bush tax cuts represent trickle down economics. that's the strongest message, republicans believe in trickle down economics, you help the people at the top, it's going to help everybody else. people don't believe in that, they don't want to go back to that. >> stan greenberg, who does polling for nbc news, npr and the times. got it all that time. thank you. >> thank you. the message not surprisingly given the poll we rattled off earlier. a tax debate is good for the democrats, but this issue cutting taxes for 98% of the country an obama tax cut, if you will. while letting bush tax cuts for the rich expire, is a political winner for democrats with the majority of americans solidly

behind it. we go back to the hill. with chris van hollen. fresh from that very same meeting with the democratic caucus. he is hooked up and we appreciate you running out to do this for us tonight. >> good to be with you, keith. >> grover norquist as we quoted him before you arrived thinks republicans could be falling into a democratic trap on this exact issue. have your members decided to spring that trap? >> well, as you know, keith, mr. boehner, the republican leader, made it clear from his remarks the other day, that he recognizes america will not stand for the idea that 98% of american tax cuts will be held hostage to get a big break for the top 2%. a break that adds $700 billion to the deficit and slow down long term economic growth. this is a very clear and defining issue, stan greenberg talked about that. i think it does let people know throughout the country. whose side are you on? and when you have mitch mcconnell coming out and saying, you know what, 98% of the

american people, their tax relief has to wait until we do something for the top 2%, even though it puts it on our national credit card, and we'll all be paying years and years for the tax cuts for the very wealthy. that's an issue that clearly defines the candidates and the parties. >> congressman, wouldn't calling these tax cuts what they actually are, the obama middle class tax cuts and then forcing republicans to go out there and vote against them in a month before the election or even in the senate filibuster against them. would that not be political heaven for the democrats, especially the way the midterms are shaping up 49 days out? >> i do think it's worth a fight, i do think it's worth a vote. as to whether we start in the house or senate, that's something we have to figure out. there's no doubt about it. with mitch mcconnell saying he intends to block middle class tax relief, it's a fight we want to have, i think we want to put them to the test. this whole argument they make about needing to protect small businesses is bogus.

we now know that the nonpartisan joint tax committee has said only 2% of small businesses fall into that category where they would be effective at all. and what we're learning, this is an important point that these 2%, they include a lot of big hedge funds, they include some of the fortune 100 companies, they include bechtel. a major construction firm that does a lot of contracts with the federal government. the reason is that under the definitions of small businesses, it includes s corporations. it's not your mom-and-pops they're talking about. among those 2% of small businesses they're talking about, it's actually a lot of big lobbying firms in washington. hedge funds on wall street and bigger corporations. we should put to rest they're out there protecting the small business guy. we all know after two bush tax cuts for the wealthy, what happened?

we lost 630,000 private sector jobs in the economy eight years later. the notion that you need it for job growth and economic growth has been proven false by the history of the last eight years. what we do know is that in the long term, doing this and adding $700 billion to the deficit will hurt job growth and slow down the economy. >> mr. greenberg just told us, and we presume he told the caucus, that the middle class tax fight versus the taxes for the rich is one that democrats can win and explain, and that the voting public is ready to hear that argument. you told plum line today it's a good issue for your party. was there pushback to any degree at this caucus meeting today by democrats who don't buy into this argument still? >> look, keith, we are now having our members come back to washington from all over the country. and so we're going to have a discussion. but there's no doubt that the

overwhelming view was that set forth by the president. which is that it's important to move forward on this issue, you know, the republicans set this ticking timebomb, when they passed these tax cuts way back, they said, we're going to have them expire at the end of this year. what we're saying is, let's make sure that the middle class gets a continuation of a tax cut, but we can't afford it for the top 2%, and the notion that it's somehow necessary for job growth is proven wrong. and number two, their whole approach is betrayed by the fact that they are over in the senate filibustering the small business lending bill. finally we got senator voinovich who broke loose. but they're against that, they come out against the president's proposals for direct tax relief to small businesses which really would help the economy. i think what we're seeing here is a very clear contrast as we go into this election.

and, you know, the republican leader, john boehner knows they're vulnerable on this issue, and he knows the american people are not going to stand for the idea of, let's hold back tax relief for the overwhelming majority of americans so we can help the folks at the top, including, as i said, some of these fortune 100 companies. and that's why he said what he said the other day. because he realized at the end of the day, it's untenable to take that position. >> one last finding from mr. greenberg's data which showed that running on this tax message would improve polling from a 7-point deficit to a 2-point deficit. that sounds like the tonic the democrats need in terms of the enthusiasm gap and the get out the vote project. is anybody baking at that? >> the main idea that sound goods is the. the notion that we need to provide tax relief for middle income america. we need to move forward because it all expires at the end of the year, and we need to make sure

that relief is there for 98% of the people. and that we address our long term budget deficit. there is an agreement with stan about what his numbers are showing because when you talk to your friends and we talk to the neighbors around the country they're telling our members, you know what, number one we have to get our budget deficit under control. why should our children and grandchildren be paying the bill to provide this tax break for the folks at the very top, including the fortune 100 companies and the hedge funds and the lobbying firms when we have to get our deficit under control to move our economy forward? i think that's why you're seeing a steady migration. including the statement from john boehner about the importance of moving forward on this. >> so with all that as preamble, are you going to take this to the floor? is this going to be going to the house to put them on the election? >> i think this is going to the congress.

whether the senate goes first or the house goes first. that's the kind of thing that needs to be resolved. and in the senate, you know, we know that mitch mcconnell, the senate republican leader has said he will stand in the way of middle class tax relief. he will stand in the way of 98% of the american people getting tax break, even at this very tough time. so we'll have to see how it plays out. to your anxious, i think it is important to move forward on a vote in the congress. the seek wednesdaying of that is something to be determined. >> chairman of the democratic committee, great thanks for rushing over and joining us tonight. good to be with you. i think there will be a vote in the congress. senate or house undecided. when you begin to think you might be getting a little paranoid about the gop, something like this other thing happens. a year ago, he was the chairman of the florida republican party. a year ago he was dismissing the president's speech to school kids as indoctrination and liberal lies. now the same man is admitting

there is racism inside the gop and he is sorry he enabled it. his story next.

the man a year tag chairman of the republican party on jim greer. we're all paranoid about fox? when the republican wiz '60 accepting platforms proposed by hosts on the air? her former campaign manager records a robocall against her. in worsts, now we know why bp agreed so readily to the fund. his plan to use to it outlast those who could go bankrupt before they get to sue bp.

>> his message, indoctrinating the children of america. this time the right wing his today,s have been silent except for one who has now apologized to the president. and has blamed the extremists who dominate our party today. the florida gop chair jim greer who was ousted, has been indicted on six felony counts because he allegedly funneled money from the state's party revenues. that man with that credibility caveat has issued this statement. in the year since i issued a prepared statement, i have learned a great deal about the party he i so deeply loved and served. unfortunately i found that many within the gop have racist views and i apologize to the president and for my opposition to his speech last year, and my efforts to play indicate the extremists who dominate our party today.

my children and i look forward to the president's speech. here is part of mr. greer's five paragraph diatribe. as the father of four children, i'm sloodly appalled the taxpayer dollars are being used to spread socialist ideology. the idea that school children across our nation will be forced to watch the president to just identify his view. increasing tax on those who create jobs, et cetera. we can stop right there. you got the idea. of course the president did not do anything like that. he talk instead about the importance of staying in school, and working hard and he will school kids that they would write their own destiny. today's speech at the masterman school in philadelphia hughed to the same theme. while it will be shown in classroom across the nation like last year, this time there is no longer a plea for parents to pull their kids out of school. >> you have to show up to school on time. you have to pay attention in your class. you've got to do your homework. you've got to study for exams. you have to stay out of trouble.

you've got to instill a sense of excellence in everything that you do. that kind of discipline, that kind drive, that kind hard work is absolutely essential for success. >> one more thing mr. greer amplified, to a message in the palm beach post. no name but committee consists of people who fought me on outreach and i had to discipline state member who promoted racists' comments which i was also fought on too. let's bring in the washington editor of the nation. chris, good evening. >> good evening, keith. >> this was more starting than what he said about aier ago. because of these other troubles of his, do we have to take it worth a grain of salt? >> yeah. i think there is a certain degree of consider the source. he is in hot water. he is extremely angry and feel betrayed by the gop establish many which is cutting him loose as soon as the charges surfaced. so i think that's part of it. i think it does reveal, just how disingenuous and trumped up so many of these invented scandals are.

i was going through google today and i was trying to recall them. they'll appear and capture one's attention. they kick the ball, we all chase after it, and then they're gone. i was remembering, there was a week where all we talked about was czars. was the president appointing too many czars. it was totally invented. no one talks about it because it wasn't meant to leverage any kind of substantive policy argument. it was simply a distraction. it was something that kind of kicked up dust. and obviously, the complaints about the speech last year were the same way. >> and by the way, in terms of gop figures who criticize and then are thrown under the bus. i was thinking of paul o'neill and scott mcclellan. mr. greer's statement and the text message, he did not make a direct cause and effect link between and the indoctrination hysteria of last year. is the implication as clear as it seem? >> i think he is saying, i thought the most interesting part of that message for him was saying, appeasing the extremists within my own party.

i thought the fact is, it is very difficult to get a sort of quantitative sense of, how hard core or large that kind of extremist fringe is. the fact is it is dominant right now. the center of gravity. i think what you see is every politician in the gop feels right now that those are the people they need to speak to. particularly in primary season. you have someone like rick perry talking about this, people spouting off about socialist indoctrination. you have night gingrich saying the same things. all of this is done because the audience presumably is the most extremist and zell us on and sort of ideology rigid reactionary element of the coalition. >> and you don't need facts for them. you just need fresh kusz for them. is that basically the gist of it? that is why you're not hearing tim paw lenny apologizing for his crap in this last year? >> right. that's, paw lepty really think this was illegitimate use of tax dollars?

i have a hard time sometime what i think is disingenuous outraged theater and what of it is that the people have gotten delusional. they've gotten wrapped up in the fever of the tea party generally. but i think most of is it disingenuous. particularly people angling toward the ultimate primary nomination 2012 the presidency, that is where they're casting everything that they're saying right now. >> and we now know, after hearing george 59ovich being the whistle blower last week complaining with the messaging, blocking good leg on small businesses, that it takes either retirement or indictment for republicans to come clean? >> yeah. i thought it was so interesting today. the two votes they got, they got two votes to get the small business tax cuts bill through. they were both from republican that's aren't running for re-election. i think that's very revealing. and i think that's basically been, either you're in this little beach head of moderate republicans in the northeast, or you're retiring.

those are the only ways to vote with the democrats or with the president no matter what the actual substantive agenda. is i think from the beginning, we'll see wisely or not. certainly terribly for the country. i think wisely politically. the idea is that you just say no. >> nobody retires from the gop family. msnbc contributor chris hayes of the nation. thank you, good to talk to you. >> thanks. there was another republican whistle blower this one telling the truth about the campaign she once managed, christine o'donnell or she is known around here, christine when i think about you, i don't touch myself o'donnell.

a fox commentator literally writing for the gop on the air. that's next. first a tweet, middle class girl gets tax cut eats more meat. rich girl gets tax cut, makes dress with meat. thank you. and thank you for writing lady gaga's next song for her. let's play oddball. we begin in singapore, and talk about going out in style. welcome to the cutting edge of urn storage. your ashes can collect dust in history, and luxury. of course, with such nice surroundings, the regular monks sinking at the ceremony won't do. everything is running with an iphone.

there's an app for that. a death app. i knew he was planning that. the system utilizes a $1.5 million light and sound system. it would not be complete without a laser light show. as the old saying goes, ashes to ashes, lasers are awesome. on the internet, you see a man getting his car washed. he missed a spot on the windshield, better get out and get that, and boom goes the dynamite. the man escaped unharmed, a little soapy. just not sure he thought the machine was done or he wanted suicide doors. anyway, it's the worst thing to happen to a car wash since lenny dykstra. it's yet to officially reveal any of them. you wouldn't think the fox business channel had a lot of sway, except it's writing fiscal policy for the gop live on the air. representative debbie wasserman-schultz next.

the good news is, the republicans had plans for the economy, the bad news is, they copied them down as they were dictated by a guy on fox. our third story as roger ales once sent president bush instructions for his presidency. now they've given the guy on the fox business channel his orders live on tv. debbie wasserman schultz joins me in a moment. paul ryan of wisconsin, making an appearance on america's nightly scoreboard. the scoreboard ratings for them to be 21,000 viewers nationwide. host david asman serving as a yes man to the talking points after he brushed off boehner's assertions that americans are willing to have tax cuts for the wealthy. he had a proposal. a right wing agenda called the scoreboard contract. surprisingly from the 1994 contract on america. >> you got a very clear choice.

one ideology or the other. limited government or more government. >> that's right, we have two futures for this country. let's make a choice. >> the scoreboard contract is no new taxes, no new bureaucrats, cut spending, repeal obamacare. would you be in favor of those? >> absolutely. not only would i be in favor of these things, i will be in favor of these things. fox prime time viewers, they finally agreed to run a media matters ad. detailing the million-dollar donation they gave to the governor's association. the donation received one mention on the self-declared news network. the ad had to be tweaked multiple times before fox deemed it suitable. joining me now as promised, the vice chair of the democratic national committee, congressman debbie wasserman-schultz. thanks again for your time tonight. >> thank you, keith. >> the last point, first.

i'm a viewer, my thoughts would be, so what's wrong with giving money to oppose democratic candidates? does the ad change anything? >> well, i guess what it changes -- i don't know if the ad changes anything, but what seems to have changed is at least fox now seems to be being transparent. about being an arm of the republican party. someone who is an occasional guest on that network, very often struggled to find the neutrality in the interviewer's questions and at least now they're letting all hang out there. >> they're fair and balanced, they have conservatives and republicans. >> and tea party. >> one of your house colleagues, mr. ryan, was signing policy pledges put forward by a supposed news organization. is this new or have republicans actively been taking policy from fox and congressman ryan just happened to do it in front of tv cameras? >> all kidding aside, it's actually really disturbing. any news network, even one with

a particular slant should at least represent themselves as being neutral. and any politician, any candidate, anyone being interviewed on a network should feel like they have a fair shake. republicans and democrats, and on fox, when the host made it clear they have an agenda, they're trying to get members of congress to sign on to publicly on the air, they're making contributions to republican organizations, it's just -- it's unbelievably outrageous they continue to represent themselves as a neutral television network, news organization. and -- but at the same time, they're transparently advocating for support of -- and success of republican candidates for office. >> let me revert to the lead story tonight. you may have heard of congressman van hullen before talking about whether or not to force the republicans to vote against the middle class tax cuts while trying to preserve their tax cuts to the rich. his answer was he expects there

will be a vote on congress. he's not sure if it will go to the house first or the senate will take the lead on this. i guess the question is, is a two parter, why would democrats not want to see that vote happen, and b, are you going to call the middle class tax cuts the obama tax cuts to differentiate them? >> we do want to see them happen, and we want to see them happen sooner rather than later. we want to make sure of any of the bush tax cuts that are made permanent, the ones that focus on the middle class and working families are the ones that are reenacted. the ones that focus on the wealthiest americans should be allowed to expire, they don't do anything to turn the economy around. most wealthy americans simply invest in the stock market, sit on their money, and working families put that money back out into the economy. >> dnc vice chair, debbie wasserman schultz, thanks for your time. disorder in delaware as her ex-campaign manager campaigns

against her, and accuses her of not paying her staff and living off her campaign contributions. when rachel joins you at the top of the hour, a flashback. she talked about being master of your domain. unrelated among rachel's special guests tonight is me. at worst, you all heard the story, now hear who's at fault. the answer is everybody.

when they offered a compensation fund of $20 billion you knew there was a catch. they revealed that catch tonight. we have a call shortly out of delaware ahead on "countdown."

nothing like having your former campaign manager come out against you on election day. christine o'donnell. first get out your pitchforks and torches. sports reporter at the mexican tv station azteca. she shares the bronze with everybody in the world. that's right, i said everybody in the world. don't cross me, i'm in a bad mood. the jets coaches said throws during practice should be directed toward her. the players acted inappropriately toward her in the locker room. national coverage has given her more coverage of bp gulf disaster just so they could show more pictures of her. various women's media groups have thrown their weight behind her as she undermines every hardworking woman's sports reporter who knows the game. she was dressed unprofessionally.

trust me, the bar for professionally at a sporting event is only an eighth of an inch off the ground. she has done this before at a super bowl media day. the team's media office should have known what was likely to happen. even if she hadn't. it was tv azteca which sent another reporter to the super bowl who showed up in the wedding dress and proposed to tom brady and jumped in this guy's arms. why do the nfl keep giving this station credentials? you have to keep media days and locker rooms open for stunt reporting? you can't say, fine. here are the credentials. no wedding dresses or provocative outfits. that goes for men too. ultimately, what are reporters doing in locker rooms anyway? the runnerup, bill o., his new book has a picture of him above the word pinhead. he takes shot at two major two conservative figures above him in the food chain reading my

colleague glenn beck thinks the 48th president of the united states is a conservative man. rush limbaugh and others think the president is a force for change. i'm not so sure -- >> hold on there, sparky, you're going to insult beck and limbaugh, i'm afraid i'm going to have to ask you to step outside. our winner, the new chief executive of bp, bob dudley. dudley and transocean and halliburton now claim the plaintiffs in the 400 or so lawsuits filed thus far can't sue them yet. bp's court filings say the fishermen, seafood processor, hotel owners, oysterers and the like must first apply to the official bp fund. they must play that bureaucratic red tape before they sue. even the lawyers for those suing

are suggesting the courts wait until next march to decide which cases to pursue and which not to. that's moving too fast for bp. now we know why they agreed to the $20 billion fund because it buys them time for them to forget, for the oil to dissipate, to lose internal messages and text messages and other evidence of their culpability. and most importantly, time for their victims to run out of money to run out of money. today's worst person in the world.

the twitter account of john kerry may have expressed the new

conventional thinking tonight. della wow! tea party jumps the shark. great for chris koobz, real public servant. they're celebrating, albeit nervously in the democratic party tonight at 9:00 eastern at christine o'donnell's headquarters in delaware. endorsed by sarah palin but not dick armey. she's earned delaware's republican nomination for the senate. the problem is, this was not much of a night for the conventional wisdom. lawrence o'donnell, host of the last word debuting here september 27th at 10:00 p.m. >> good to be here, keith. >> she can't win, that's from matt kibby of freedom works yesterday. tea party conventional wisdom is no longer applicable? >> there is no conventional wisdom for the tea party, keith. we don't have a neat precedent, which is what all political analysis needs, a neat precedent to tell us how this is going to behave and how this is going to

work in the general election. yes, this is better news for the democrats than mike castle getting the nomination. the presumption was mike castle would easily roll to victory in delaware, mainstream delaware republican candidacy. the christine o'donnell candidacy is considered far too extreme for delaware, it wasn't too extreme tonight. it wasn't too extreme for republican primary voters. >> turnout was about a quarter higher than expected. who voted for her? >> well, that's the indication of real energy behind her candidacy, you don't see turnout bumps on these kinds of primaries in off year elections. so the energy is on her side of the ballot. it's going to be very hard for koonz and the democratic side to get that kind of energy in november. this is the better opponent for the democrat to face. but running as a democrat in delaware this year, is going to be difficult, even with this opponent. >> republicans do what? they embrace her and try to keep

her contained? to borrow my old friend dan patrick's phrase? >> they're going to have to do something like that. they didn't want this to happen, they didn't want it to happen as recently as days ago. however, mitch mcconnell has very recently had to say, i will support the nominee. he has had to say, whoever this nominee is, he's going to get behind, because they could see this coming in the last 24 hours, and so it hasn't taken them completely by surprise. but they are going to have to find a place for her in their national plans. >> and what happens if she says, look, i did this on my own without you guys, screw off, i'm going to do this myself? >> very unlikely she will do that. you see the tea party candidates trying, some with more success than others, to find their way to a middle. once they get that republican nomination. you saw sharron angle trying to literally run away from her previous positions when they were put in front of her by reporters.

and so i would expect that with this candidacy, you're going to see a similar move in delaware to try to find something closer to the middle in delaware, to try to just pooh-pooh the negative talk about her. her previous campaign manager has come out and that she just used the campaign money to pay her own rent. which is not legal use of campaign money. i think she is going to try to just brush that story aside as the typical cross fire that any politician gets into and try to find her way to the middle on some of these policy questions. >> but in 49 days, how much nondamage can she do to herself when as rachel maddow showed these tapes from 1996, there are tape with the senate of the united states, which is what she is, is discussing openly how people shouldn't masturbate. that would seem to be a difficult sell even in delaware. >> she is going to say it was 14 years ago and she won't get in -- she will try to not get into

repeating those specifics. that she got into on that taup. and try to say something that sounds, call it religiously high-minded, or that is just kind of general. and probably say something defensive about no one should be pressing me on these kinds of personal issues. she may take what she turned into a punish you've, and now try to play it as a personal issue that should not be questioned in this kind of election. >> in 30 seconds, it's a sarah palin impression. does she go heavier on the impression or less heavy? >> what she's done so far has worked. so i don't think you're going to see her performance skills changing any. i think she is going to run this way all the way to november. lawrence o'donnell. september 27 at 10:00 p.m., great thanks. that's september 14th. the night of the o'donnell nomination in delaware. i'm keith olbermann. good night and good luck.