i'm chris matthews, and this is london. let's play "hardball." good evening. i am chris matthews, of course. i'm glad to be coming to you from london, always wanted to say that. i've been traveling this week with bill clinton trying to catch up with what he's been doing as an ex-president. it's been a phenomenal experience and we'll give it to you in an hour long documentary. leading off tonight, prime minister's question time. tony blair formed half of that famous special relationship with bill clinton.

i asked the former british prime minister how clinton was able to unite progressives in our country and also political sent trysts behind him and why the clinton brand has remained and he during force if our politics and around the world. my one-on-one interview with tony blair at the top of the show. plus, big trouble for meg whitman. now we find out that her husband knew that their house keep her immigration issues. whitman, pal din know and o'donnell are, some republican candidates this year just not ready for primetime? and president obama is at it again, urging young voters not to quit on him after taking a whack at his liberal supporters earlier in the week. is this like the coach blasting the team at halftime and will it win the game? also, a sad story about america came to light today when the u.s. government apologized for intentionally infecting people down in guatemala in the late 1940 oz with venereal disease. a professor researching the infamous tuskegee experiments on

african-american men made this discovery. let me finish tonight with what clinton told me about the upcoming election. first the latest poll numbers. let's go to the "hardball" scoreboard. we'll start with that new york governor's race, democrat andrew cuomo now leads carl pal dean know by 16 points. pal dean know threatened the life of a new york reporter wednesday night raising a pretty basic question about that guy's fitness for office. in new hampshire, republican kelly ayotte sol didfying her lead over paul hodes. finally to alaska. joe miller leads with 43% right now. scott mcadams at 2%, just 18% of respondents volunteered murkowski's name. she's running as a write-in candidate. when poll sisters offered up her name, her total went up to 43%.

the problem for murkowski is there will be no one in the voting booth yelling out the name mur c.o.w.kowski. we'll continue to check the scoreboard each night leading up to election day. now, my interview. this is going to be great. my interview with former prime minister of great britain united kingdom, tony blair, now the envoy in the middle east talks on behalf of the u.n., the eu, russia and us. we spent a lot of time talking about bill clinton. i began by asking him, what makes the former president, bill clinton, such a dominant politician even today. >> i think he is the master of the trade really. i think he's the single most ept and competent politician i've ever met. that's not because he's good at communicating and good at the art of politics. this is the thing i think people don't understand about him

sufficiently. it's all anchored in what are in fact very strong and very well worked out convictions. people sometimes see him as the great communicator, but he was just a good politician as it were. he's not. he's got a core of beliefs that are very, very strong. and that completely defined where modern progressive politics has got to be if it's going to be successful. >> how did he tie together and how does he tie together this centrist leaning liberalism, if you will? somehow he's positioned himself close to the center on the progress i be side in a way that grabs the loyalty of working people, as we say in our country, working middle class people? >> because he understands peep. he's curious about people. when i came to speak tore me in black port, which is a very sort of strange in a way old seaside town in the uk, and we were

♪ed to meet him after he had spoken. and we found him eventually down in the lowell macdonald's you know holding court wall the people in black port who happened to be in there and they were a bit surprised to see bill clinton suddenly amongst them. i wasn't there, but my people who went into find him found him sitting there talking with these people as if he was their local counselor and will been for many, many years. it was an extraordinary thing. so you see, he has got this ability therefore to feel where people are. but here is the thing that's very interesting about him. he's got modern progressive politics. he's got a framework that i sometimes describe in shorthand in social terms for what i would call the tough on law and record pro gay rights position, right? in other words, he understands that our generation and younger, they don't have these old predge

dises that frankly my dad used to have and probably yours too and all the rest of it. but they don't like people who beat up other people or misbehave or all the rest of it. they want rules but not prejudices. his ability to define that and that's just an example, meant that he pitched the democrats exactly where they needed to be. >> people that work hard and play by the rules. >> yeah, and it's a -- it's born out of a complete understanding of the generation you lead. >> do you think that's because he comes from that background, sort of middle class, middle, middle, not upper middle, sort of regular person? >> yeah, but also because i think he is genuinely interested in people. and that's what a great politician is a politician is always somebody who's genuinely interested in what makes people tick. sometimes it's a funny thing in politics. you meet politicians pretty successful and so on.

but it's very much a game of calculation for them. you sometimes come across politician who's love humidity in general, just don't like them in particular whereas the thing with. >> that's what we said about woodrow wilson i think he didn't like anybody in particular. >> but the thing with bill clinton is, he actually likes them in particular too. >> let me ask you about his success among independents. we have a new nbc poll that showed that among democrats he's obviously very popular. that's no surprise. but among independents who are the hardest people to reach in america because they don't trust politicians he's up something like four to one. he only has one in six independents who don't approve of him which in today's environment in a tough economy is so rare. >> you see, that's because his political position is dead center. and it is a very modern political position. so, the old left would have said, the answer to our problems is big state. >> right. >> big government. he doesn't. he says actually we need to

reinvent government, make it strategic and empowering. the old left would say we're with the unions and business are the people we have to deal with at arm's length. he understands for a modern progressive win, i have some part of business on your side. he's got a set of positions that made people in the center ground very comfortable with him. they actually understand that he believes those positions. they're not tactical maneuvers. >> by today's standards, it's almost uncanny how good he is. his position today, it's hard to believe but he's been not president for ten years now. he's now into his second successive president after him. yet, the other day up in northern ireland, we watched the people react to him. i mean, not to put them down but robinson and mcginnis were ignored, the local political leaders of that part of the world ignored while they all cheered bill clinton.

what is that endurance about do you think after all these years, ten years? >> i think people like him. i actually think they like him. they feel comfortable with his personality. they actually think he's human. and they think he's approachable. and they think he's smart. and that's a pretty rare combination, never mind in politics in any walk of life. >> are you still optimistic? >> i am still optimistic, but then i think i'm a born optimist. >> thank you very much, mr. blair for your time. >> thanks, chris. >> well, that interview with prime minister tony blair is part of a documentary we're working on about former president bill clinton in his role as an ex-president. coming up, meg chitman looks to be in big trouble over an illegal housekeeper of hers. carl pal dean know threatened a reporter every day. you're watching "hardball" only on msnbc. i know who works differently than many other allergy medications.

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welcome back to "hardball." california's republican candidate for governor, meg whitman, is in hot water now that it looks like her husband was alerted to the possibility that their housekeeper was an illegal immigrant. yesterday, whitman said if the social security administration ever sent her a letter requesting information on her housekeeper, the housekeeper must have intercepted it. >> neither my husband nor i received any letter from the social security administration. and if there is a letter out there, i don't know how they got it. we never saw the letter. nikki did bring in our mail and sort the mail. if she had gotten a letter two weeks before alerting her to a problem and saying we're going to alert your employer, she might have been on a lookout for that letter.

it pains me to say that because gosh, that's not the nikki i knew. it would pain me to believe that that's what she had done but i have no other explanation. >> well, i don't know. the housekeeper's attorney gloria allred unveiled a letter yesterday that show a note she says was handwritten by whitman's husband. there's the handwriting. >> meg whitman and her husband denied receiving the letter, but please look at the bottom of the letter. on it, dr. harsh has written "nicky, please check this. thanks, end quote. nicky recognizes this as dr. harsh's writing since he wrote her many notes. he wrote this on the letter and then gave it to nicky. >> well, the revelation prompt whitman's husband then to

release a statement that reads in part "while i honestly do not recall receiving this letter, as it was sent to me seven years ago, i can say it is possible that i would have scratched a follow-up note on a letter like this." did whitman knowingly employ a legal immigrant? chris eliz za is an msnbc political analyst and david corn from mother jones and a clinter to politics daily.com. david, i don't see any way this doesn't hurt whitman because she's running as this knowledgeable businesswoman whose competent, got her affairs together, well organized. here she is covering up for what looks to be a way to save money by hiring somebody in the country illegally, the usual game so many play in this country and trying to deny the obvious fact she was hiring this person illegally. her husband is not denying it. that statement was cleverly written. he's admitting he signed off on that letter.

what do you make of this? >> it's hard to believe that in -- if a couple had a housekeeper they liked and there was a problem, one spouse wouldn't tell the other at some point. may say i'm taking care of it, don't worry about it, but there would be some knowledge passed. meg whitman has spent about $150 million so far, and she still hasn't really sold her story to the voters of california. so this, you know, can't help. and maybe will distract from the next $150 million she's going to be spending on campaign ads. >> you have to ask why if she's a good person i should say, a compassionate person, why years ago when she realized the person working for her, she said she's affectionate toward, didn't peel off a few of those 150 million bucks she has to spend to get her immigration lawyer and help her out. why was she callus to have her husband sign the note saying take care of this, nicky? >> i still think that, chris,

let's say this. meg is trying to turn it into a she said versus she said. the note does not help the husband coming out and saying i may have written that. one thing you didn't mention in the contempt of california politics. whitman moved very hard to the right to win the primary. she was being attacked on immigration. she moved to the right which i don't think she wanted to do. remember the hispanic vote a very powerful bloc of voters in california. she does not want to be relitigating this a month before the election. whether she's right or wrong morally, she's clearly wrong politically right now and wants to be talking about anything other than this. this has already been basically a week long story and probably going to go into next week. >> this isn't going away. >> people love to find out what the person's really like and want to know the real story

about a person, not the stuff they pay speechwriters and ad men to write for them. this is how she does business. i've got to move onto the pal din know case. >> can i very, very quickly it's more dangerous for whitman than some other candidate because of her wealth. wealthy candidates struggle to say i may be a billionaire but i understand the concerns of the working person. it's even a bigger hurdle she has to clear. >> she could have taken care of this. that's the thing. you get a note from immigration and have the ability to deal with it. but they didn't seem to do that. >> okay, here's a part of a confrontation the other day between carl pal dean know and fred dicker of the new york post on the show all the time. it happened wednesday night where dicker is asking him about, show me the evidence you have about cuomo and his private life. here it is. let's listen. >> do you have the evidence or do you not. >> i will at the appropriate time. yes, i do. >> how can you say that about

him? >> i have a daughter too, fred. >> you talked about her. >> i have a daughter. >> you brought it out. >> fred, that's it. >> stay away from me. >> what evidence do you have? >> listen, all right you after my daughter. say that one more time. >> guys, easy. >> come on. stay away from me, man. >> don't touch me. >> who are you? who the hell are you? i just want to ask him a question. do you have any evidence for the charge you made? >> at the appropriate time, you'll get it. >> do you like the body guys defending him, the bruiser that came in? pal dean know told the buffalo news he's not accusing cuomo of having extramarital affairs. he said i'm sick and tired of people asking me if i've had affairs. i was talking to a reporter and saying why don't you ask cuomo about this stuff. he's still pushing the story. what do you make of this? he's saying i'm going to bring it out at an appropriate time?

here's what he said on fox a few hours ago when asked whether he had any proof of misbehavior by cuomo. let's listen. >> we will at the appropriate time, okay, say whatever we have in our box. at the appropriate time. >> so you're not backing off that allegation? you do believe andrew cuomo had extramarital affairs when he was married? >> what i believe and what is factual out there we will at the appropriate time, put out, yes. >> i don't think roger ailes is behind pal dean know. just guessing, chris, i don't think he's a favorite of fox or anybody. he's talking about he's got some box somewhere with dirt on his opponents. what's this box he has? one of these lockboxes? >> is this a pandora's box? look, chris, this is what, to be honest, this is what the republican establishment is much maligned republican

establishment, the tea party is beating them in a lot of places, this is why they tried to recruit a democrat to run in the gubernatorial race. this is why they were at least ostensibly behind rick lazio because they knew pal dean know was going to do this. >> the joe pesci candidate. >> strange crowd. >> the joe peschi comment. >> that's your comment, not mine. this guy's making charges and saying things like i got dirt in my box here. i'm going to release it at the appropriate time. what kind of talk is this, i'm going to take you out? i got some dirt on you in my box? franklin roosevelt's old job. >> rough and tumble. >> thanks chris, david. forget the pesci references. they're dangerous. up next more right wing hysteria. a republican congressman says a campaign by the centers for disease control to get americans to eat healthy is swhou you'll love it socialism. there you have it, it's

socialism to try to make us healthy by our food decisions. you're watching "hardball" only on msnbc. words alone aren't enough. my job is to listen to the needs and frustrations of the shrimpers and fishermen, hotel or restaurant workers who lost their jobs to the spill. i'm iris cross. bp has taken full responsibility for the clean up in the gulf and that includes keeping you informed. our job is to listen and find ways to help. that means working with communities. restoring the jobs, tourist beaches,

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back to "hardball." now to the sideshow. first up, the food police are coming. that was the rallying cry of paul brown of georgia at a town hall last month. here's brown describing what he call the big problems going on in washington today. >> 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 fruit and vegetables you eat today. this is socialism of the highest order. >> oh, we got trouble in river

city. socialism of the highest order. the center for disease control does do nutritional surveys via the telephone. but this hardly constitutes socialism of the highest order. they're just asking what people are eating to try to get them to start maybe eating better word. next, senator russ feingold's republican challenger millionaire businessman ron johnson just told the associated press he believes global warming is unproven. his quote is, the point is, because we're not certain because it's not proven the last thing we should do is penalize our economy. the science of global warming is unproven, it just is. well, there's tremendous evidence that human behavior co2 emissions are driving up greenhouse gases and creating wild changes in the climate globally. people refuse to deal with the evidence because they don't want to face the consequences. he's selling the happy days position because it else is to people who don't deep down care

what they're doing to the future of the planet. in the 1960s we called these folks pigs. that's "hardball" fur now. thanks for being with us. up next, your business. she felt lost... until the combination of three good probiotics in phillips' colon health defended against the bad gas, diarrhea and constipation. ...and? it helped balance her colon. oh, now that's the best part. i love your work. [ female announcer ] phillips' colon health. stay twice...

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