president bush declared mission complished with 299th since he declared victory in afghanistan and 166th day of the deepwater horizon disaster in the gulf. now to discuss why the democrats knead to work on offense, ladies and gentlemen here is rachel maddow. good evening coach. >> have you been reading my phonetic pro nuntions offense and defense? >> you just sounded very hockeyesque right there. thanks for staying with us. like most americans i am extremely skeptical of sequels with the obvious exceptions of godfather part 2 and astrodome sequence in the bad news bears breaking training. but thanks to pair of republican congressmen the rachel maddow show is proud to present "bacon police 2." if you missed the original one we will catch you up in 45 seconds and present the sequel

which we believe will be fattening, salty, delicious hit like one. between that and vindication of my carl paladino is a performance artist theory and the most interesting thing yet written about the tea party after the barrels of ink that have been spilled on that subject we are loaded up for a friday night show. we begin tonight with the continuing fail of this year's political common wisdom. >> so many democrats that don't even say they're democrats in their ads number one and certainly don't say that they voted for health care or stimulus. >> common wisdom about this year's elections is that democrats can only compete this year. they are only competing this year by running away from the democratic record. common wisdom is that democrats can only get elected this year if voters can be bamboozled into thinking that they might maybe be republicans or at least that they are republican-like. >> joined republicans to fight

internet predators protecting kids. >> earl pomelroy from north dakota. the only member of congress from north dakota. common wisdom all democrats have to do what earl pomeroy is doing and run essentially as fake republicans or if they are going to cite democratic accomplishments in the campaign it's only because they're going to run against those accomplishments. that is this year's beltway common wisdom. and it is pretty much bull pucky. wisconsin democratic senator russ feingold is running for re-election this year. he is banking on the fact that that common wisdom is bull pucky. senator feingold has a difficult race facing an uphill battle against a very, very, very, very conservative rich opponent but not playing to common wisdom. he spoke before the president at a barn burner of a rally earlier this week in madison, wisconsin. the president's speech did not include a pause for applause where his speech got to the part about health reform but, lo and behold, when the president did

mention health reform, the 26,000-plus people in the audience record with cheers and applause. >> we passed health care reform that will stop insurance companies from denying you coverage or dropping you coverage because you are sick. >> that cheering spontaneously for health reform. so common wisdom be damned. senator russ feingold is campaigning on health reform as an accomplishment that democrats are proud of. and an accomplishment that republicans want to screw up. >> to stop insurance companies from denying children health care due to preexisting conditions. >> mr. johnson would put insurance companies back in control. >> ron johnson, hands off my health care. >> the other side of the anti-democrat common wisdom this year is that not only can't democrats run on the democratic record. but they also always have to be on defense. you have to be on defense.

just wait for and then try vaguely to fend off republican attacks. republicans get to play offense. and whatever you do for the love of god make as little noise and take up as little space as possible and maybe nobody will notice you're there and you'll get reelected. republicans' turf and you democrats will play on republican territory and please shut up about it. please sir may i have another. that is the common wisdom this year. it's also bull pucky. i can show you why and how. not only can democrats play offense this year, but we have examples. we have really good examples of what it looks like when they do so. we're about to play for you now something you have never seen before. we obtained this today from the st. petersburg times and "miami herald." it's never before been shown on tv from an event in tallahassee, florida, in january in which senate candidate marco rubio is asked how he would fix social security. watch. >> i do think that the retirement age issue is going to have to be confronted at some point as part of a measure to

reform social security. the other is giving people the option of taking some of their social security money, at least a portion thereof and investing in an alternative to the social security system itself. >> but you've had people that have made terrible mistakes and lost everything in their 401(k). wouldn't they do the same thing with social security? >> potentially, but it's their money. >> it's their money. cardboard is cheap. that was republican senate candidate marco rube yoe speaking to reporters in tallahassee in january about privatizing social security. that exclusive video again courtesy of the "st. petersburg times" and "miami herald." thank them for getting it to us. it was quite a challenge and we're glad they did. the democrat in that case kendrick meek has used that statement, used rubio's position in favor of privatizing social security in a campaign ad against marco rubio. >> i'm kendrick meek, the democrat for senate and with three of us running you should know what makes me different.

the only one against privatizing social security. >> yay! marco rubio has what amounts to a politically indefensible position on social security in a state that has demographics like florida does. indefensible position. so the democrat running against him hits him on that politically indefensible position. the result is that the republican runs from his own position. >> no, i do not believe it should be privatized and i do not believe it's outlived the usefulness. on the contrary i think social security is extremely important and should be preserved and saved. >> that tape of me saying otherwise is going to be really hard to find, isn't it? privatized social security, did i say that, not that i think anybody can fine. not me. that's crazy talk. >> the other is giving people an option to take social security money at least a portion of it and investing. >> like the stock market and if

they lose it, hey, dummies. marco rubio. marco rubio, you have no idea what to say you believe about this now, do you? you are lying about your old position or you at least are flip flopping on it. you're denying your own beliefs. you're a mess on this! in florida you're a mess on social security. that sounds like trouble. not only can democrats fight on offense. it works when they do. every year, even this year. want another example? va privatization. privatizing the va? yes. as crazy as it sounds, this is an actual position taken by a number of republicans this year, including senate candidate sharron angle in nevada. in a radio interview ms. angle said this when she was talking about her father who is a veteran. >> i know he pays over $800 a month in prescription drugs that we can't get through his va nor through medicare. they just won't cover those things. and i know lots of seniors -- >> should they cover those things? >> no.

not if you're working toward a privatized system. >> what is this privatized system of which you speak? >> a privatized va. an eye dee veterans groups immediately went through the roof about. and an easy target that ms. angle's democratic opponent harry reid took a shot at. >> now in another extreme proposal, sharron angle says privatize it, end the va as we know it. when she was asked whether veterans benefits like prescriptions and doctor visits would be covered if she had her way. >> no, not if you're working toward a privatized system. >> ends our promise to veterans? sharron angle, dangerous ideas that put veterans at risk. >> i'm harry reid and i approve this message. >> democrat on offense against a republican's totally politically indefensibility unpopular position. result, republican runs from that position falling all over herself along the way. sharron angle, i yield the floor. >> i said that they could do a

better job. that's all i said. is the va could do a better job for our veterans. >> that's all i said, i hope. that the va could do better by privatizing itself. that's all. did i say privatize? i meant personalize. i meant everybody should get monogrammed va stuff. also forced to play defense was ken buck, the republican running for senate in colorado. after supporting legislation that declares a fertilized egg has the same rights as you and i have, his democratic opponent michael bennet came out swinging with this searing attack ad. >> as a doctor, i try to protect the health of women. that's what i do. that's why i'm very disturbed by ken buck. ken buck would ban common forms of birth control and ken buck wants to make abortion illegal even in cases of rape and incest. but that should be a woman's decision, not a politician's. as far as i'm concerned ken buck is just too extreme for

colorado. >> since originally supporting the birth control pills are murder legislation, ken buck has changed his position sort of. quoting "the denver post" during the primary he ken buck said he supported the measure. last weekend his campaign said he would vote against it because he doesn't believe in banning birth control. then on monday he said at a jewish voters' forum that he is not taking a position on the amendment at all. it's ken buck flip-flopping, falling over backwards, running from his record not sure what his new record should be. this is what it looks like when democrats are on offense. this is what it looks like when democrats commit politics. this is what happens when democrats try to win. sometimes it works. this year's anti-democratic common wisdom is bull pucky. when we come back, the strategy behind one of the hardest-hitting ads of the election so far. >> every four minutes in america, a woman is sexually

assaulted. almost half are teenage or younger. but for a victim of rape or incest, sharron angle would force her to have the baby. angle says -- >> two wrongs don't make a right. >> for girls raped by a relative, angle says they should just -- >> make a lemon situation into lemonade. >> if it's not extreme, what is? sharron angle, too dangerous to have real power over real people. >> more on that when we come back.

for better or worse i prekly find my own understanding of things to be at odds with the narratives in the beltway. does anybody see that tea party backed for governor carl paladino isn't actually running a political campaign? i'm telling you carl paladino is an art project. i'm almost not kidding. carl paladino is, i believe,

performance art. but he is performance art that could conceivably be elected governor of new york state. the evidence of his performance art hiding in plain sight. we have assembled it. it's fun to do. as we all know, geico has been saving people money on rv, camper and trailer insurance... ...as well as motorcycle insurance... gecko: oh...sorry, technical difficulties. boss: uh...what about this? gecko: what's this one do? gecko: um...maybe that one. ♪ dance music boss: ok, let's keep rolling. we're on motorcycle insurance. vo: take fifteen minutes to see how much you can save on motorcycle, rv, and camper insurance. [ female announcer ] mousse temptations by jell-o. decadently delicious. 60 calories. it's finally me o'clock. time for jell-o. try new chocolate mint sensation.

every four minutes in america, a woman is sexually assaulted. almost half are teenage or younger. but for a victim of rape or incest, sharron angle would force her to have the baby. >> that may be the toughest most pointed campaign ad of this election and it is on a subject that the conventional wisdom says democrats, at least pro-choice people, are not

allowed to campaign on. joining us is the president of the patriot majority pack which is the group that put that ad together and running it now. thanks very much for your time. >> thank you. >> patriot majority pac is not specifically an abortion rights group. i know that you're generally a progressive pac. can you tell me about the strategic thinking behind why you made that ad? >> sure absolutely. let me say that we agree with you 100% democrats and progressives need to fight back. the reason why we did that ad is sharron angle is basically trying to punish crime victims. people victimized by brutal crimes she's trying to make them suffer more. we think that's wrong. you're correct. it's tough and it's pointed but also factual because it's based on her own words. we want to take the fight to her and we're going to do that over the next 30 days. >> how do you know if your ads are effective? what kind of metrics do you look at? >> we look at -- you know, one, we follow the polls very

closely. two, we see what the responses on facebook are. we see what happens with online traffic. and so far this ad has only been up for half a day and we've gotten a bigger response to this than anything we've done all year. >> are you having negative and positive response or only positive response sf. >> i think that from democrats it's very positive and from people who are in favor of protecting victims it's very positive. i think usually what will probably happen is that tomorrow angle supporters will fight back. but we take in stride because we think that you need to tell the truth here. >> craig, tell me a little bit about patriot majority. what is your group? how long have you been around? who funds you? >> patriot majority has been around since 2005. we were here before the tea party. we'll be here after it. and we'll be here after this election. we're funded by individuals all across the country. our website -- we seek individual contributions. you know, we're funded by people who think that we need to draw a

line in the sand and fight these radicals who are actually, you know, trying to undo the progress we've made as a country. >> the common wisdom is that pro-choice people do not campaign on that issue. pro-choice politicians don't campaign on that issue. you almost never hear it come up during elections unless it's brought up by people who are anti-abortion, people who are in the pro-life camp. you have shown with this out that that doesn't have to be the case. i see this as a very effective ad. it will be interesting to see what effect it has on the race there. given that you've sort of broken the mold on this, are there other issues the common wisdom says progressives can't campaign on but you think they can? >> when you look at what's going on in the election this year, the republican party not only has been taken over by the tea party but people who want to get rid of social security and medicare and some people including sharron angle basically have said there should be an armed insurrection in case if they lose the election, which we think that they will.

we're going to take all of those things on because we think that -- one, we think a majority of americans agree with the position that we have. and we think they disagree with these candidates who in fact are actually very radical. >> are there other candidates, other races you're specifically planning on focusing on for these elections? >> we're looking at a lot of races. i think certainly that people have seen some of the extreme candidates like christine o'donnell and others who -- in any other election, in any other year they wouldn't even have a seat at the table. and they're actually -- they're at the doorstep of the nation's capit capitol. the message that we have, if you go back to the ad is that these people are too dangerous to have real power over real power. we're taking a real close look the last 30 days in order to take this fight to where it needs to be. >> craig varoga, president of the patriot majority pac which as a progressive pac has a deliberately right wing sounding game i'm guessing to make a

point about patriotism. >> no. it's not right wing at all. we actually think that patriotism is something that's not only mainstream. it's the tradition of america and we think what has made this country strong is embracing our heritage, is embracing all the people who can make this country stronger in the coming years. whether it's schools, whether it's health care, whether it's jobs, i mean, our patriotic duty is to advance those things and it is not -- it is not to undo social security and health care and all those other radical ideas that sharron angle and orls have. >> president of the patriot majority pac. thanks very much for joining us. >> very happy to be here. nancy pelosi defied two centuries of american history to become the first woman speaker of the house. barack obama did what many thought was impossible, being elected the first african-american president of the united states. and now new york state's carl paladino attempts something so rare, nobody has ever even considered it before. new york's carl paladino could

become the first example of performance art winning statewide office in america. i am way less than half joking. that's next. ( baby cooing ) our first grandson. he sees you. ( laughing ) ( speaking korean ) ( children squealing, laughing ) dwight eisenhower: in the goodness of time all people will come to live together in a peace guaranteed. ♪ you may say i'm a dreamer ♪ ♪ but i'm not the only one ♪ - ♪ i hope someday... - good night, baby. ♪ ...you'll join us

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stufy, can i get a refill? i wanted skim. come on, get your head in the game, stufy! thanks, stufy. man, i love that cookie.

new yorkers are as mad as hell. and we're not going to take it anymore. hi, i'm carl paladino. and i'm mad as hell.

yes, we are mad as hell. i am angry. i'm mad as hell. well, i'm mad as hell. and i'm not going to take it anymore. >> and now a brief history. a very brief visual history of iconic 1990s era american urban street art. we can't understand the phenomenon of angry, angry carl paladino without it. can we dim the lights, please. can we dim the lights, please? can we have the first slide, please? it's labeled twist. for people like me who grew up in california our iconic visual street art included artists like twist. other san francisco icons, next slide please, include the famously oddly wistful horses particularly stark in black and white when viewed in a sea of multicolored gang tags. next slide. new york city's iconic '90s street art reflected by subway graffiti styles like these

classics from the world famous iz the wiz. next slide, please. but if in the 1990s you weren't in the two most urbanized areas of the u.s., you weren't in new york city or san francisco, if you were anywhere in the u.s. even in the burbs you probably came across this, shepherd ferry's andre the giant has a posse. it was everywhere, right? at least everywhere anyone skateboarded. and as he morphed other icons it became more nationally ubiquitous. you know why the obama hope poster had a powerful resonance with anyone remotely near my age group? in part because we all had shepard ferry's art in our veins before we heard of a politician named barack obama. last slide please. in the category of nearly ubiquitous 1990s urban era street art, art so iconic and so

ubiquitous it doesn't really count as art anymore because it turned up everywhere, you also have to include bob dobbs. bob dobbs the icon of the church of subgenius which itself is a subject for another day. but admit it, you have seen this guy's face stickered or stenciled somewhere, haven't you? or a t-shirt or something? we can bring the lights back up now. bob dobbs in the church of the subgenius certainly in the top tier of nearly ubiquitous iconic 1990s american urban street art. now back to carl paladino. i am telling you, i think i have finally figured this out. carl paladino is the republican nominee for governor of new york who i think maybe isn't running a campaign, who i think is maybe doing an art project. here's my evidence. first, the one thing voters mostly knew about him before he was chosen to be the gubernatorial nominee was the super racist videos and pictures and hard core pornography that he e-mailed out, none of which he denies. second, his first campaign act

once he got the nomination was sending out a campaign mailer i'm not allowed to take out of the u.p.s. mailer they sent it in because it's scented with trash. third one of the official platforms is a proposal to send welfare recipients to renovated prisons. the revelation this week that at least four campaign aides either have criminal records or are accused of criminal behavior didn't help things. his campaign manager owes thousands in taxes. his driver served jail time for missing a court hearing. a court hearing on charges of driving under the influence in a hit-and-run on a suspended license. that's carl paladino's driver, a guy with a dui and a hit-and-run. his driver. and then, then there's carl paladino's out of the blue assertion that his opponent had an extramarital affair. on wednesday carl said to

politico.com, quote, has anybody asked andrew cuomo about his mara mowers when he was married? has anybody ever done that? to "newsday," the long island newspaper he said do we know what caused cuomo to break up with his wife? these are the questions the public wants to know. asked by the new york post on wednesday if he had evidence to back up the accusations about andrew cuomo having paramours, mr. pal dino said, of course i do. you'll get it at the appropriate day. today he denied any of that happened telling "the buffalo news" it's not that i was accusing him. dude, yes, you were. then before that bizarre statement could even sink in, carl paladino was back to insisting that he is accusing that guy and there's evidence maybe coming maybe. don't know. >> we will at the appropriate time, okay, say whatever we have in our box at the appropriate time, yes. >> so you're not backing off

that allegation. it is -- you do believe andrew cuomo has had or did have extramarital affairs when he was married? >> what i believe and what is factual out there we will at the appropriate time put out, yes. >> in our box. does this make any sense? no, this does not make any sense. none of this makes sense. on top of all of that carl paladino for good measure for the pure surreal joy of it all, carl paladino has inexplicably started denying that he ever had an affair outside his marriage. why do we care? only because it's so weird because carl paladino has long admitted to fathering a now 10-year-old daughter outside of his marriage. >> what affairs has he had? obviously, i haven't had any. >> obviously i haven't -- because the now 10-year-old daughter you had with another woman while you were married is jesus or something?

i find it impossible to believe that these are gaffes, that these are errors committed by an actual candidate, a real well meaning candidate. it's not possible. my brain cannot expands far enough to account for a politician this bad. instead, i choose to believe that carl paladino is an art project. my proof is here. there is a tag line that goes along with bob dobbs, with the iconic '90s street art stenciled guy with the pipe smiling at you. what is the tag line that gets into your subconsciousness for bob dobbs for the church of the subgenius? taste "i'm mad too, bob." what's on carl paladino's lawn sign? i'm mad too, carl. i'm telling you, this is an art project! carl pal dino is not yet a stencil on a skate park, but he

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america turned 200, lefties started a tea party movement. a lefty group called the people's bicentennial mission had a plng and activity guide for citizens' participation during the bicentennial years. in that guide in 1974 they suggested that people form tea parties because they said the country needed, quote, a new party, a movement that will treat tax reform as one aspect of a fight for genuine equality of property and power. equality of property? hmm. yeah, the lefty tea party idea from the '70s was that the tea whereby the "t" in tea party should stand for tax equity for americans. equity as in equality. they made some suggestions for lefty tea partiers including, quote, how about a king george exhibit of tax avoiders in some public park with pictures and charts of the loopholes they used?

why not use the example of the boston tea party to highlight all the loopholes and tricks that rich people and corporations use to avoid paying their fair share of taxes! why not? the people's bicentennial commission in 1974 suggested left wing tea partiers use the slogan don't tread on me. doesn't that just burn you up conservative tea partiers that just one generation ago a bunch of dirty hippies looked at the same gadsden flag, the same chapter about throwing the tea in the harbor and took the opposite message from it today. doesn't that burn you up? i thought it would. which is why if you guys really want to get your blood pressure going you should read the book i got that out of. it's called "the whites of their eyes, the tea party's revolution and battle over american history" written by harvard professor jill lamoore who joins us for the interview.

i think it is a book about american history and the tea party both for critics of the tea party and fore tea partiers. it seems like you actually really enjoyed your interactions with the movement. >> yeah, i did. i teach a research seminar at harvard on the revolution every spring and the tea party was forming. i would do field trips in boston. we would bump into people from the tea party and here we are doing a field trip trying to go down to the ship or the harbor and study the events of the 18th century. they were also deeply interested. i think the interest in most ordinary people involved in the tea party movement is quite passionate and deeply felt. so i thought i got to go hang out with these people and find out -- it's actually kind of a hard sell in class trying to get people to come take a slap. everyone takes like 1968 to the present. it's the most popular. >> i want to know why my dad is so weird. >> the revolution is so interesting. finally all of a sudden all of these people are interested in the revolution. it was fun to go and hear what fascinated them about the

revolution. it was discordant because it's completely different from what i think about the revolution and how i teach it but really interesting to hear those views. >> when you say it's discordant and different from what you know about history as an american history professor, is it that people are telling stories that aren't true or being so invested in coming up with lessons for today's politics from american history they have skewed stuff? >> i think there's a variety of different ways that people -- there's obviously a quite cynical kind of poaching of the past like let's hunt through history to finds something that buttresses our own political argument. people did that two years after the revolution was over. that's kind of how politics works. sometimes that's cynical and sometimes that's not. but i think that for mote of the people i hung out with in the tea party what the revolution meant was something like i would think of as a folklore. they have the kind of -- don't know here in new york but in massachusetts kids learn about the revolution in elementary

school and don't learn about it again. most people when they think about the revolution -- before i went to graduate school johnny tremaine or now the american girl doll. if you have a kimdz of like a child-like nostalgia for how heroic the tales are and larger than life figures. i think that's actually part of our civic heritage. it's not how historians think about the past. so what's kind of odd about the tea party is this just civic-minded folklore that we cherish that are sort of kind of stories we tell about the past being deployed to make political arguments that are completely inflexible. >> yeah. you describe it as a form of historical fundamentalism, this sort of -- this thing that a lot of different people have done from a lot of perspectives. like merchandising of the revolution and the founding fathers. you describe the way it's being used now as a fundamentalism. what do you mean by that? >> i think a bunch of different

things come together. the tea party is vast and diffuse and confused movement in a way. one of the things i think that's happened is originalism as a mode of jurisprudence and argument how to interpret the constitution and the courts contributes to how we think about the 18th century especially people on the far right as does fundamentalism. since the reagan revolution you think of evangelicals and their role in the culture. religious fundamentalism share a set of ideas about the past that are completely opposed to how historians think about the past. we want to investigate it and question it and uncover it and explore and inltd gate the past. they actually want us to revere the past and we want to understand the past as having a finality to it. so -- >> so questioning is a fofrm of blasphemy? >> right. if you make a political argument like i disagree with the bailout and i say to you here's my disagreement with the bailout.

i don't think the tax structure is effective. i'm worried about the debt, et cetera. if i say to you the founding fathers would have been opposed to the bailout and said the founding fathers are divinely inspired and the constitution is a sacred document and speaks to us the way the gospel speaks to us, the way jesus is alive today as the day he died. this is an important truth for many people. to think about the people who drafted the constitution in the same way that's what i mean by historical fundamentalism because then how can we debate the bailout. because if i say i actually support the bailout -- >> i'm going to burn you at the stake. >> then i'm a heretic. this is not where we're at but it's worrisome to me because that's not a political conversation. that's where civility ends. >> you have to be invested in evidence that has no meaning to be sure your interpretation of history will win the day. >> right. >> jill le poor, author of "the whites of their eyes."

american history at harvard. this is a great read and i really enjoyed it. it's nice of you to come in. thanks to the courage and vision of one brave conservative texas congressman, we are already aware as americans that the federal government is arming a squad of bacon police to prevent you from enjoying delicious and fatty and salty pork products. now another congressman from georgia has revealed the next move in the administration's paraculinary offensive against food freedom. the sequel to

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bacon police! put your frying pan in the air where i can see it. i'm so unexpectedly turning out to love this election season. you may recall who inspired my brief return as officer oscar mayer this summer. a very happy night when the news gods managed to deliver politics and breakfast meet. this congressman took to the house floor in july to warn that the federal government might soon be monitoring your cholesterol level and keeping track of exactly how much bacon you've been buying at the grocery store. the better to calculate just how much you irresponsible high

cholesterol bacon eater, how much more you are going to have to pay in taxes to fund evil government health care. you know, the bacon police state. thank god congressman gohmert is there to warn us. today the sequel came out called bacon police ii. this time it's vegetables. >> centers for disease control in atlanta said people in america are not eating enough fruits and vegetables. they want to get all the power of the federal government to force you to eat more fruits and vegetables. this is what the federal, cdc -- they're going to be calling people and finding out how many fruits and vegetables you eat today. this is a socialism of the highest order. >> republican congressman paul brown of georgia campaigning for re-election at a town hall in elberton georgia on the platform that the centers for disease

control will call you every day to find out how many vegetables you ate today. how many. count them! and once you're done taking that daily phone call you will need to go answer the doorbell because there will be first lady michelle obama on that crusade that glenn beck and rush limbaugh have been warning you about. she'll be there to take away your french fries. see, first they came for the bacon. then they came for the french fries. we're vegetable police, man. put your cruciferous items where we can see them. everybody freak out. switching to really save you 15% or more on car insurance?

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we have found a surprising consistency in the wave of scandals that have hit top of the ticket big name republican candidates.

it's an odd but noticeable commonalty. almost every politician preaches about the idea of personality responsibility. time to bring personal responsibility back to america, back to washington. that term is a focus group approved tagline for all sorts of politicians. but it's the republican party that's been trying to make it the brand of late. >> i believe this nation is on the cusp of welcoming if a period of personal responsibility. a responsibility era. an era that says each of us are responsible for the decisions we make if life. >> pure unadult rated generic politics right there. president bush speaking to a republican party gathering. eight years later, the republican party starting to claim that responsibility thing. >> leaders overreach, because the rules allow them to. legislators adduct their responsibilities, because the rules help them to.

there are no accountability, no consequences. >> no accountability, no consequences, it's time for some personal responsibility. well, personal responsibility as a republican brand, it's in a run for its life right now. republican meg whitman in california, for example, white is meg whitman in trouble right now? because a big part of her political platform what she's been campaigning on for months is her plan to crack down on illegal immigrants, specifically workplaces suspected of employing undocumented workers. any employer employing an illegal immigrant will be slapped with fines and will have their business licenses suspended up a meg whitman administration. meg whitman against people who employ illegal immigrants. that got sort of awkward this week when an illegal immigrant who meg whitman employed came out to saying not only did she treat me poorly, but she knew i was here in the country illegally.

he responsible was to deny is. she didn't know the woman who was, cue the high-priced lawyer, unveiling the giant blowup of the letter from the federal government that warned meg whitman that her maid appeared to be undocumented, complete with meg whitman's husband's signature on it. >> do you have any reason to believe tas not your husband's signature? >> you know, i haven't seen it, but i suspect it probably is his signature action and i suspect, you foe, what he said is he doesn't ever remember seeing this letter. >> i suspect what he doesn't remember. who me? couldn't be? blame my husband. in fact, i barely know the guy to be honest with you. i'm sorry, i've got to go, then christine o'donnell of delaware. she also attempted the "who me" defense this week at reporters started turning up some funny inconsistencies in her record. here ace krens teen o'donnell's profile under education. she claims to have attended the university of oxford in england. see it right there?

university of oxford. christine o'donnell claims to have studied post-modernism in the new millennium in objection fer. the problem is greg sargent first reported this week, quote, it turns out that was a course conducted by an institution known as the phoenix institute, which merely rented space at oxford. instead of acfollowinging the exaggeration, se threw a pr company decided to double-down on this. she released this statement, quote, there have been reports that i have released false information on a linkedin profile until my name. i never established a profile or authorized anyone to do so on my behalf. who me? couldn't be me. spbls must have written that o bio page without nigh knowledge, which is a neat execution, check the claim here did not just appear on christine o'donnell's linkedin profile.

it turned you elsewhere, that it was user verified. the i attended oxford appeared on a resume that she submitted to a think called. who me? i'm not responsible for any of those either, i promise. sorry, i've got to go. the who me defense put on full display in connecticut, linda mcmahon is now vying to become that next state's u.s. senator. she faced this question at a tea party event. >> linda, you have -- through your company, made many contributions to special interests, put forward to try to get your point of view supported. haven't you made over a million in contributions and lobbying efforts to the congress? >> okay, think, think, i've raid against special interests and lobbying in this campaign. how do i answer this question?

>> haven't you made over a million dollars in contributions and lobbying efforts to the congress? >> in terms of lobbying dollars in washington, i have not spent lobbying dollars in washington. >> who me? i never lobbied congress. you must have me mistaken with somebody else. the problem is, mcmahon video contradicts lobbying record. between 2001 and 2008, mcmahon's company paid at least $680 though lobby congress and federal agencies on which such issues as the defense authorization bills in '02 and '03. in 2007 and 2008, the wwe paid $sh did taupe the wwe navy gail a congressional investigation of steroids in sports. >> in terms of lobbying dollars in washington, i've not spend lobbying dollars in washington. >> we think of them more as

euros. the who me defense is also being deployed in the one currently surrounding joe miller of alaska. mr. miller took a trip to d.c. this week, at this point the following messages appeared in succession on his twitter account. think i'll do some house hunting while i'm in d.c. then there's the matter of a name block for the door and finally my sincere appreciation for the welcome, including from future colleagues in d.c. after one of joe miller's opponents what canned him, all of those tweets magically disappeared from his twitter account. not only did they disappear, his spokesman blamed the tweets on a volunteer, who will no longer have access to the account. i didn't write those tweets, who me? must have been some volunteer? now, it may have been a rogue joe miller, if so, maybe rick sanchez can draft that

volunteer. but at this point it sort of seems like all of these top tier republican candidates are getting the same advice -- blame someone else. i mean, the republican party has invested a lot in all of these races. is there somebody at republican headquarters steering all these campaigns, telling them all to say, don't blame me, blame a staffer? is that the advice they're all getting? it's essentially the strategy they're all following. maybe there's a puppet master, maybe they're all just learning from the master, though. >> i believe this nation is on the cusp of welcoming in a period of personal responsibility, a responsibility era, an era which says each of us are responsible for the decisions we make in life. >> you've always said there's no do-overs as president. if you had one? >> the biggest regret of all the presidency has to have been the intelligence failure in iraq. a lot of people put their reputations on the line and, yo