"countdown "t is next. which of these stories will you be talking about tomorrow? that a local credit union would let a man's house burn down because he failed to pay a surcharge. some come out in favor of the fire. >> if you don't pay your $75, then that hurts the fire department. and you would be sponging off of your neighbor's $75. there. >> it's not the best solution. the last thing a firefighter

wants to do is not be able to help when they would like to. >> the politics of a la carte government with chris heys, the preview of a tea party america this provides with robert reich, and our special guest to respond to those who call him a freeloader, gene cranick. foreign money already in our electoral currency. they are keeping it separate, walled off. a chinese wall? worse, the gop candidate for governor of oklahoma will only speak after all the democrats have left the room. and the latest christine o'donnell farce. >> i'm not a witch. i'm not a witch. >> i'm not a witch. >> not that. her claim that her father was philadelphia's local bozo the clown. there are bozo truthers. turns out dad was only an unofficial bozo, a vacation relief bozo. and we'll be joined by a real bozo and a real witch who are not happy. and as to ms. o'donnell, boy, is her nose red.

all the news and commentary now on "countdown." good evening from new york. in both the small and big picture it represents the breakdown of government, hands-off, minimalist approach. an a la carte system that openly invites destruction in the short term and the deconstruction in the long term. the home that was allowed to burn to the ground over a $75 fee not paid. now drawing the cheers of some conservatives, eager to defend the policy and blame the victims with local county authorities evidently unmoved by this, the home of gene and paulette cranick burning as firefighters watched because they failed to pay their $75 subscription fee. the obion budget committee of tennessee chose to expand the fire service, pay to spray. the decision was two years in

the making and will not go into effect immediately. also not changed by recent events. meantime, the prince of too bad for you as well as other conservatives happily defending the system and explaining how that system worked exactly as intended. >> if you don't pay your $75 then that hurts the fire department. they can't use those resources and you would be sponging off of your neighbor's $75 if they put out your neighbor's house and you didn't pay for it. if your neighbor department pay for it, you it did, and they put out their house, your neighbor is sponging off of your $75. and as soon as they put out the fire of somebody who didn't pay the $75, no one will pay the $75. >> which, if true, is why government services should never be constructed to put people in these situations in the first place. not the homeowner, not the firefighter. back to the they got what they

deserved chorus. daniel foster saying i have no problem with this kind of opt-in government in principle but forget the politics. what moral theory allows these firefighters to watch this house burn to the ground? good for you. and that was the compassionate entry. dan, you are 100% wrong, responded kevin williamson. the world is full of jerks, free loaders, and ingrates and the problems they create for themselves are their own. jonah goldberg noting how well the system works. here is the more important part of the story, letting the house burn, while i admit sad, will probably save more houses over the long haul. i know that if i opted out of the program before, i would be more likely to opt in now. no, that is not the important part of the story. indeed, when the fire chief was asked about the decision to expand pay to spray, he was at first diplomatic and then frank. >> i think it would be really effective.

it's not the best solution. without a doubt the best is a fire tax. eliminate us having 911 or whoever to check to say are they covered or are they not covered? the last thing a firefighter wants to do is not be able to help when they'd like to. >> and what about the fire department's proposal, one trying to achieve a local government solution tells the larger story about what government should be doing to protect its citizens. the obion county fire department presentation. the very proposal considered by those budgetary authorities before they decided to expand pay to spray, page five, purpose, to formally establish a countywide fire department which will provide quality fire protection and emergency response to all areas of obion county in a timely manner with no subscription fees or requirements for response. page four overview, no other emergency agency responds solely on a subscription basis. ability to pay basis or under

the threat of not responding if you don't pay your bill. page six, explanation, it is becoming more difficult to convince municipal leaders that the municipal fire departments responding to calls outside the municipal boundaries and for which no compensation is guaranteed is just the right thing to do. the fire department presented five different funding solutions including one which would increase property taxes slightly for all residents or one that will include the monthly electric bills by $3, also presented a countywide fee of $ 116 for those living outside the municipalities. joining me now once more from outside where his home was gene cranick. we thank you again for your time tonight. i know it's hard to believe people could be that cold, but they are. how do you respond to those people who are saying today that you got what you deserved somehow? >> well, i respond to those people like this. the shoe is on the other foot, on their foot, and see what

happens. it happens to anybody. i don't care. you forget things and i did. i suffered the consequences for it. i'm not a freeloader. i've worked all my life for everything i've got. and another thing about it, they have waived these fire fees before. they waived them at my son's house three years ago in it december. they waived them over on another road over here out of town. and saved the guy's house. i know they waived them before. so, therefore, they could have waived mine. i would have paid it. my neighbor offered to pay them. i don't know if it was $500 or $5,000 to spray the house down, put it out.

but, no, they sprayed the fence. >> my understanding is you heard about the coverage on some other cable networks today about this, people who said it doesn't matter, that rule has to be enforced. what do you think about that point of view, the coverage on fox news, for instance? >> well, i say to those people that they don't know the whole story about everything and they shouldn't be judging people when they don't know what they're talking about. >> the idea that this has to -- that they had somehow gone in and put out the fire without you having paid, that would hurt the system, that would punish all the people that did pay, does that make any sense to you? >> no, it don't because i would have paid. i offered to pay. i told them i would pay whatever it took. >> from what we're gathering from looking into this today it

looks like the firefighters do not like this system. the politicians apparently like this system. how do you respond to that disagreement between those two parties? >> well, i don't know but i did understand the man who was calling the shots on this fire told them not to put no water on it within half a mile of playing golf. he was playing golf right down here on the golf course within half a mile. that really tells you that they really care. no wonder we can't get any industry or anything in this little old town around. why should i want to put up a business or build a new home around when they're not going to do you -- treat you right? and another thing is, and i don't know whether i'm right or whether i'm wrong, i haven't researched it yet but part of my

tax dollars comes back to this town, i think, for fire trucks and the personal things, they don't just use it for fire trucks or the police department or whatever. and i know for a fact they take their prisoners, when they built this new thing up here about $3.5 million and i understood it will supposed to have a jail in it but they don't. they take all their prisoners over to the county to union city to the county, so what do they even need all that up there for? they're not going to use it. >> that they could afford but your $75 they could not afford. let me ask you this, let me just see if there's something a little nicer to this story than we've told everybody about. i know you're living it and nothing is nice for you but what's the reaction of your neighbors to this? you mentioned your neighbor was willing to pay on the spot as you were as this fire was going on. has it generally been

compassionate and neighborly? >> most everybody has been compassionate and neighborly and i talked to a guy from the city today, he lives up in the city, and he said he hated it. but that was the rule up there. he hated it that it happened. and the way it happened and everything. he hated it. i understood some of the firefighters went home and were sick. some of them even cried over it. i appreciate it. >> let me ask you one more and we'll let you go again with our thanks. what's next for you and the family? >> right now i don't know. we haven't talked. we have to wait until our insurance company comes around and says it's all right to clean up. and then we'll clean up and we'll go from there. will we build back now or later?

we'll just have to make a decision later on this. >> all right. >> so we may not build back and then again we may build something. i don't have any idea. >> all right. we'll be in touch with you if we have your permission to do so and, again, in the interim -- >> yes. >> thanks for your time and continued -- our continued best wishes in this terrible situation. >> all right. >> gene cranick. >> thank you. >> mr. cranick's story has resonated in a way he could not have foreseen nor could we have predicted the huge reaction bmt that let's bring in the washington editor of "the nation" chris hayes. before we get to beck and the i say let them crash crowd, what is resonating here and why is it resonating? >> i think it's resonating because it's sort of the entirety of the kind of tea party, you're on your own agenda. the idea that every single last

thing is a matter of individuals. margaret thatcher said there's no such thing as society. there's just individuals and there are no public goods, there is no solidarity. there's nothing, absolutely nothing that weigh do collectively as a society that we sort of mutually agree to that we bind each other to through formal government, through paying taxes. the extremism of the universe which is substantiated in the policy in this county is when you're faced with the consequences of it it's so morally abhorrent that i think it really does resonate because it's a picture of what a certai section is trying to drive us. >> with the exception of dan foster, gets a check mark next to his name for expressing the human point of view on this as opposed to the robot viewpoint, they were all focusing on how well the system worked instead of questioning the whole system

itself, weren't they? >> right, exactly. that's so interesting. talking about this moral hazard problem. as you said in the beginning this is why you do not structure these services. in a sort of interesting way, it's an argument for single pair health care. the whole thing is we have single pair firefighting. the reason is to avoid this kind of situation. we all pay our taxes. we all receive this universal benefit and there's a tremendous amount of science literature and sort of comparative that show these are the structures that are most efficient that work best. social security is the same thing. we all pay in. we all universally receive the benefit. when you look at the health care bill, right, it makes you wonder about how we would design a fire department today in the face of right-wing obstruction and corporate interest because the health care bill is mandatory insurance. it requires everyone to buy the equivalent of fire insurance and sanctions them as having the single pair system.

>> we did, by the way,many parts of the country, try firefighter by subscription and one of the results about 1770 or so was that new york burned out. not really a big sort of chicago fire. it was a smaller town at that point. i may have the year wrong by quite a lot. we did try this before. >> there were badges on the building. >> yes. and otherwise you let it go up in smoke and they'd realize that doesn't work long term if you have any buildings within half mile of the fire. we have here people for whom empirical results like that mean nothing. would beck have been saying the same thing if people had been injured or killed? do we know the on-demand fire department would not have stood back and let people be injured or killed? isn't theoretically that part of the equation? do we know if they would have stopped it if the five adjoining homes didn't subscribe at a square mile and tennessee went up in flames as a result? >> absolutely. moral hazard is moral hazard.

if you didn't to disincentivize not paying that, a bunch of third degree burns or a casualty in the family. you'd really think twice about not paying the $75. the whole point is it shouldn't be an opt-in subscription service. you can imagine subscribing this to all sorts of things. one can imagine punitive measures being undertaken by right-wing state legislatures to repeal that, to check people are up on their taxes, for instance, or paid all their bills or check the credit rating of people who get dropped off at the emergency room with a bullet to the chest. you are seeing two things. one is the ideological commitment there is no public sector, there are no public goods. the other is an aspect that is really part of conservatism going very far back and manifesting the tea party with a sheer punitive contempt in the face of suffering.

kevin williamson calling ingrates and losers and jerks. that runs through the framework and you see it in all the rick santelli grams and talk about spongers and moochers, this contempt for people instead of basic human compassion. >> two points as mr. cranick point out, didn't his tax money go to the fire engines and piece of crap. chris hayes, washington editor of "the nation." thank you, chris. >> twitter review. >> and all it needs. thank you much, my friend. one quick note we have been inundated with offers of help. we've spoken to mr. cranick about this off the air. he is very touched. he wants to talk about it with his family, assess the insurance company. he will keep us posted and we will keep you posted. thank you for the thought. robert reich on a tea party america supplied to us by one tiny story in obion county next.

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the cranick fire is the difference between the america you and i know and the america the tea party and republicans apparently want. with more evidence of foreign money coming into the midterms via the u.s. chamber of commerce the demand that he be investigated by the irs for his midterm money. the republican candidate for governor of oklahoma will speak provided all democrats leave the room first. and she's not a witch and it turns out her father is not actually a bozo. the newest adventure of old christine ahead. [ smack! smack!] [ male announcer ] your favorite foods fighting you? fight back fast with tums. calcium rich tums goes to work in seconds. nothing works faster. ♪ tum ta tum tum tums

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doing what the average man or woman knows is right, no matter whatan academic says has to happen. faced with a local story which american firefighters were under stores not to fight a fire as it burned down a law abiding american's home, national conservatives weighed in as we showed you in the previous segment. the verdict, this, a family's home burned to the ground, the family's cat and dogs dead. this is no unfortunate side effect. this is the desired end. this is what they want. free loaders and sponges to be made examples of those who can't afford to pay given reason to sacrifice their health, their kids' education, whatever it takes, to pay more. pay more for health insurance. pay more for social security. pay more for fire prevention, police, ambulances. after you paid already, pay or we'll burn your house. how did common sense traditional values and conservatism leave

firefighters watching a man's house burn down. let's bring in the author of "aftershock: the next economy and america's future" robert reich. welcome back to the program, sir. >> hi, keith. >> what's the argument here? why is it morally better to have a system those who can and do pay -- they get the fire department service and those who do not lose their homes? >> well, at least the conservative argument as i understand it, and it is a little bit hard to understand it carried to this extent, people need to bear the consequences of their own behavior. that creates a better society obviously people do need to bear the consequences but carried to a degree like we have here where somebody who forgets to pay the $75 fee or somebody who is unfortunate enough to have something bad happen to them doesn't get help really does create a very different -- fundamentally different society than the society you and i and most former conservatives, people used to talk about

community, really see and understand. >> is there an end game here? do they applaud a man's home burning down over a $75 fee, what is the ideal economic system they would establish if they could? is this the next economy in the title of your book? >> well, i hope not although there is a movement, keith, to have social darwinism, a survival of the fittest. if we coddle people -- this is kind of a tough love idea. if we coddle people, if we save people from the consequences of what they do, society gets flacid, morally bankrupt. we saw a little bit of this in the first days and actually the first years of the great depression. herbert hoover and his secretary much of the treasury said we ought to purge the rot out of the system. let people stew in their own juices. don't save anybody. government has no role. just balance the budget. but, you see, we are in a very complicated society. we are interdependent. we do need each other and that

kind of view gets us just deep into trouble, deeper into trouble. >> i'm paying for his fire truck when he needs it and he's paying for my medical insurance when i need it. that's the premise. it's not more complicated than that. back to this other idea, this replacement society. who benefits from pushing and implementing these kind of economic philosophies? is there a real motive behind, oh, yeah, just the survival of the fittest? >> if you are already well connected, if you are very wealthy, if you basically don't have to worry about all of these services, if you can take care of yourself, then the notion that we're not all in it together is very comforting. you don't have to pay for them. you don't have to worry about them because we against them and them and they are the people that would otherwise take from us who have it all and, keith, in this kind of society right now, unfortunately, we have

never seen, at least since the 1920s and the 1990s, the year of the robber barons, this degree of concentration of income and wealth. and so you have a lot of people who are very comfortable, don't have to worry about their house burning down, don't have to worry about having protection. they can get private security guards and they are, in effect, saying to themselves we don't want to pay with our tax dollars or anything else for the protection or the well-being of them. let them take care of themselves. >> what about the people who don't want that to be america? are there democrats that will stand up for this? is this man's story is not supposed to be somebody's campaign? are we not to ask every tea partier and republican where they stand on gene cranick's house? >> there are a loft issues. look what we just had a big debate about unemployment insurance and the republicans again and again said, no, we don't want to extend unemployment insurance because that will deter people from getting jobs. they forgot the basic reality that is that there are five

people for every job opening right now and in most states unemployment insurance only pays a fraction of the normal wage. so why would anybody want to take unemployment insurance if they had a job available? no, it doesn't work that way. again and again we are seeing in this coming election whether the issue is health care or unemployment insurance or the issue is what do we do about jobs overall, the unemployment situation, the fundamental question, the fundamental question, keith, are you on your own or are we all in this together? and i think democrats have to say over and over and over again in a civil society, in a modern society and there is a society -- margaret thatcher, remember, said there was no such thing as a society but in a society there are very important ways in which we're all in this together because through no fault of your own you might get into trouble. you might be drowning and if you didn't pay for your beach sticker you would not otherwise get the lifeguard to save you.

>> that's one step removed from where we are now. robert reich, as always, thanks for your great insights. >> thanks, keith. good news that decision has no impact on our elections and your freedom. pay no attention to the chinese money that appears to be flowing into the u.s. cham berp of commerce. ♪ ♪ i was young and i was stupid ♪ i had just turned 17 ♪ a harmonica and a box guitar ♪ ♪ in a canvas-covered wagon stuffed... ♪ [ male announcer ] while the world's been waiting on the electric car, maybe the whole time, the electric car has been waiting for this... the wattstation from ge. it's going to change the way we get to where we all want to go. ♪ i didn't think much of it till i took it apart ♪ lord of the carry-on. sovereign of the security line. you never take an upgrade for granted. and you rent from national.

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guess what? turns out there is evidence of foreign money flowing into the american election. details ahead. first the tweet of the day is ripped from the day's headlines from haymakers. that's just identified as

michelle. the tea party coloring book requires only one crayon, white. nice. let's play "odd ball." last week you recall we introduced you to a kitten in a tea cup. we all had our heart strings tugged and then we went on with our lives. however, someone liked the concept and decided to make it more hip-hop. say hello to bunnies in paper cups. if we can all agree the quality of the cup is not nearly as nice but the cuteness of the animal is comparable which leads me to the obvious question when will we see the puppy in the beer stein? breaking news tonight from the president's speech at fortune's most powerful women's summit in washington. the presidential seal became unsealed. >> in science, engineering and math, we cannot sustain --

whoops. was that my -- oh, goodness. that's all right. all of you know who i am. but i'm sure there's somebody back there that's really nervous right now. don't you think? they're sweating bullets back there right now. >> $2 to the first conservative who says that's some sort of sign from god. fire the presidential sealer or maybe it was a witch. finally to bolivia, the president and a group of his bodyguards decided it would be a real good idea to play a soccer match against their political rivals. all was going well until president morales decided to have some polite discourse with a member of the opposing team. hello.

the president says he was merely retaliating after a hard foul and refused to apologize. so i'm thinking obama versus tea party basketball game, no refs. time marches on. why worry about the zit zens united decision. all it's led to is chinese money apparently being funneled into the campaign spending by the u.s. cham berp of commerce and questions whether the u.s. should be looking into karl rove, too.

one of the many great fears following the supreme court's january citizens united decision is that not only could anonymous civil interests and because the donation process is done in secret so could foreign interests. explosive new reporting that alleges the u.s. chamber of commerce is using money from foreign donors to pay for attack ads mostly benefiting republicans. they say it will spend $75 million this election cycle, a large majority of that money used to support republicans with attack ads like this one against jerry brown in california.

because it's a nonprofit trade association it is not required to publicly disclose its donors. the american lobbying behemoth going global according to a report on the website thinkprogress, the chamber has opened several foreign chapters known as business councils. they include american businesses based abroad as well as foreign corporations some controlled by foreign governments. citing today's report these foreign members of the chamber send money to the u.s. chamber of commerce or the foreign members fund their local chamber which in turn transfers dues payments back to the h-street office in washington, d.c. these funds are co-mingled to the 501-c-6 account for the vehicle to the ads. through the u.s./bahrain business council they raise over $100,000 a year in money from foreign businesses in bahrain and $200,000 for india through the u.s./india business affiliate.

the u.s. chamber of commerce appears to rely heavily on fund-raising from firms all over the world including china, india, egypt, saudi arabia, brazil, russia and many other places. officials responding in two separate statements to politico.com saying they are independent organizations. they do not fund political programs in the united states. we are careful to be sure we apply with all applicable laws. no foreign money is used to fund political activities. no foreign money from am-ch ams are used. al franken called them to investigate the investigations. the blogger, researcher and author of the report today at think progress joins us now. lee, good evening. >> good evening. >> the idea that the chamber of commerce has some imaginary wall in the bank account separating foreign and domestic money intuitively sounds like that's

not possible. is that your finding? >> they're spending an unprecedented $75 million in attack ads going to foreign businesses and foreign individuals saying if you send us checks, you'll have a voice in american public policy debates. they're sending those checks to the same bank account used for the attack ads so, you know, these funds can be moved around. we really don't know. what's alarming is the chamber of commerce hasn't put out any documentation. they haven't proved that there's some firewall. they're just saying, hey, trust us. >> your report mentioned money going to the chamber from corporations controlled by foreign governments. what do you know about that? >> well, i have here a membership application they're distributing in bahrain saying in this application that foreign companies are welcome and that they should wire the money, the same tax entity you use to run attack ads. so we don't know the extent of this.

as you mentioned we've documented how the bahrain petroleum company, a state-run oil company, is a member of the state bank of india, one of the largest banks in india is a member. we've documented at least 300,000 but it's probably just the tip of the iceberg. >> do we know anything else about the motivation of the foreign corporations and giving money to the chamber of commerce, no matter where it's going out, where is it going in? >> they are killing the disclosed act. campaign finance law would have added transparency and made the shady attack ads very difficult to run or at least they would have had to disclose their funders so, you know, the chamber has lobbied against closing loopholes for companies that ship our jobs overseas. they lobby for unfettered trade deals and overall this fits the pattern earlier this year taking money from bp another foreign firm. tom donahue, head of the chamber

of commerce says taxpayers should pay for the oil spill in the gulf. they took money from health insurance companies and ran ads against health insurance and health reform. so we don't know the extent of this. >> the claim that they're taking precautions did not break the law, isn't that really one of the sort of side problems here that some of this is not against the law? >> well, it's illegal for foreign nationals or foreign corporations to spend money in american elections. however, because of the citizens united decision and because the chamber of commerce lobbied to kill the disclose act of campaign finance law, there's a loophole where we don't know if they're actually using these foreign funds and we don't know who is funding these attack ads. so they basically create a loophole for themselves f. they're breaking the law, we don't really know. >> last point, another loophole, two watchdog groups filed complaints with the irs over the karl rove 501-c-4 group,

crossroads gps. they are not supposed to be primarily political but this seems to be spending a ton of money on ads to elect republicans. do you have any idea if and when those loopholes will get closed? >> i don't. one of the top political operatives went earlier this year to work with karl rove and actually helped him set up this vast network of shady attack groups and they're doing a similar thing because they don't have to disclose their donors and they're running millions and millions of dollars of attack ads. so here we have an election that's about jobs and the economy but also about the integrity of future elections because you have these rich and powerful interests coming in and trying to subvert our democracy. >> lee fang of thinkprogress.org. thanks for your time. worst person, he's also hinted that unemployment benefits are unconstitutional. does that include the ones his wife got? first she had to deny her own confirmation that she dabbled in witchcraft.

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and about lipitor. > first it was the junior anti-sex league and then it was dabbling in witchcraft and now a member of her family was an unauthorized bozo. time for tonight's worst person in the world. now self-described idiot after he walked up to a dog in the baggage claim at the airport in guam. i love dogs, may says. the dog promptly sat down next to mr. may and another dog appeared. may patted it and it sat down next to him, too. they were drug sniffing dogs and they sat down because that's what they do when they recognize the drug smell on somebody or some thing. he had a small quauptty of medical marijuana in his bag. he only paid a small fine because the customs agent knew i wasn't trying to smuggle drugs in. the tea party candidate for

senate from alaska yesterday was claiming the federal minimum wage was unconstitutional. anything that isn't in the constitution isn't constitutional like federal taxes and unemployment benefits. federal unemployment benefits. unemployment benefits like the ones his own wife got in 2002 and 2003 after she lost her job. lost her job that consisted of working for her husband as a part-time clerk. that convenient scheme is in the constitution. miller is also attacked lisa murkowski on charges of nepotism. our winner, oklahoma republican gubernatorial candidate mary fallon has taken this only talk to your tea party -- late last month she attended the forum at the jim fork where she and her opponent governor jerry atkins were asked to speak. fallon would take questions and atkins would speak and take questions. congresswoman fal lop lon insisted that atkins and staff

leave the room and then demanded that mike morgan and other democrat be removed or she would not go to the podium. look, i don't know how to put this in a way you might understand, let me reverse the phrase, how are you going to take on al qaeda if you don't take on mike? congresswoman mary fallon, candidate for governor of oklahoma today's worst person in the world.

once again tonight christine o'donnell's campaign must explain inflated credentials. the candidate lets everyone know she is not a witch. now it turns out, however, her father is not really a clown. in a moment a real bozo and a real witch will join me to share the outrage.

we first learned on this news hour. >> i'm not a witch. >> to hide from her past dabbling, o'donnell hired strategic perception to made the ad. they claim responsibility for the demon sheep ad. then there is the matter of the recent "new york times" profile of o'donnell and her family. according to that piece her father played bozo the clown. christine o'donnell's brother confirming with times reporter bozo the clown is a franchise and back then every major city had bozo. he was philly's bozo for a time. this did not pass muster. they scoured the internet to prove he was the official philadelphia bozo coming up empty. their demand for bozo certificate prompted him to call off the elder daniel and investigate. who told you i was bozo, he asked? after he said it was daniel

o'donnell the younger, the elde admitted he was not certified but a fill-in bozo, subbing in when the accredited bozos would get other gigs. to be an official bozo you had to go to a special school in texas which mr. o'donnell never attended. here to discuss this latest padding from team o'donnell, bozo and a witch. i thank you both for your time considering the circumstances. i'll start with you, your reaction to mr. o'donnell's admission. >> that will get you blackballed. there's no such thing as a rogue clown. i mean there's unions, meetings, dues, even a secret horn blow. sounds more like a scab to me, keith. >> so he didn't go to the special school. did you go to the special school? >> i went to the special school twice. i wanted it covered. >> does it upset you that he only dabbled in clowning?

>> clowning isn't dabbling. it's a life choice. does the pope dabble? keith, are you dabbling in the news right now? i spent $20,000 on huge foot implants. that's not dabbling. that's commitment. >> actually, i am dabbling in doing the news now. let me switch to the witch. spiritually speaking, what kind of witch are you? are you a good witch or a bad witch? are you margaret hamilton or melissa joan hart? >> i'm the wicked witch of the west village. no, more of a christine o'donnell, anti-evolution, i think witches were created by god and your little dog was, too. >> you look vaguely familiar somehow. >> this is not going on my reel whoever i am. >> you have several rather expensive looking accessories. >> thank you. >> is that necessary to be a proper witch? >> bling is essential. look at little kim. and you've heard of the witch and the wardrobe. where is my lion? christine, did you catch the film? >> are you offend that had afte

seemingly embracing the fold originally christine o'donnell is now distancing herself from witches? >> i am. this whole i am not a witch, i am you, christine, you don't have a broom up your -- i know i do. >> do you -- i bet it is. do you think that christine o'donnell is telling the truth about her past or is there something suspicious about her claim had a she only dabbled in witchcraft? >> i think she's holding back. nobody just dabbles in witchcraft. that's like saying i commit add slight case of murder. she is suffering from an identity crisis. is she related to rosie o'donnell? >> do you think that turned her off to witchcraft or what did turn her off was a love of meatballs? can you be a meatball eating witch? is there a conflict? >> i know her favorite foot is toe of frog and eye of newt gingrich. she gets it every monday at olive garden, all you can eat. >> back to mr. zo.

do you think mr. o'donnell's repudiation led ms. o'donnell to dabble in witchcraft and swerve off into that category? >> well, i don't think clowning leads to witchcraft. maybe the other way around. i think clowning more leads to obesity and alcoholism. i wouldn't know anything about that. >> mr. o'donnell claims his role as fill-in bozo he would ride around in the bozo mobile. does that sound accurate? what is your preferred mode of transportation? >> you remember reading i'm funny at any stage. i'll tell you right now i don't want to talk about it, it's a depressing moment in my life. next question, please. >> you had co-bert blow up on you, i know. to the witch again, trailing her opponent here, should she embrace her past and consider using witchcraft to get ahead? >> yeah, i mean, she is anti-masturbation, anti-sex, that is something we can rally around.

put the wart back on. i would even vote for you if you came out of the broom closet if i could see the leaver. i've been making love to myself. what you say about that is so true. >> let me close for both of your reaction to this. is o'donnell missing an opportunity? could america experience a campaign of historic importance, the first witch fathered by a clown to run for senate? >> let me say one thing and i'm going to say this, it wouldn't be the first time and that's all i'm going to say. i said too much. >> speaking of which, i'm going to drop russia on her. >> our friends in rare form, both of you. thanks a lot. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> that's october 5th, the last day -- i'm keith olbermann. good night and good luck. and now a little bit more serious look at the o'