democrats will be a disappointment here, too? i'm missing the point? forget what the democrats dork the gop is not going to do anything? >> no look what people don't understand about politics they get frustrated by, it seems like the letters of two evils that's true. we don't have a choice. never going to find a perfect candidate, right? you can tell i'm enormously frustrated by the democrats, you know one side's not on your side. you know it for a fact. >> i gotcha. >> you don't have any other choice. >> thank you, cenk that will do it. "hardball" is up right now. shake it up. let's play "hardball." good evening, i'm chris matthews in washington. leading off tonight, change we can believe n so here is the question for democrats, progressives and moderates both, what do you do to show the voters that you pay attention that you're listening that you believe in what you've done but know you can do better?

how do you get better politically as well as get the policy right, you know, the policy that will put americans back to work and in time to save your party? nancy pelosi laid out her defense today and said the avalanche of democratic defeats was simply a reflection of the unemployment rate. it wasn't her fault. it was the economy's fault. not all democrats see it that way. 15 members of the house of representatives have questioned the current leadership team and it's our top story tonight. how do the democrats beef up after a bad fall? how do they build up to win it all back in 2012, including the public's confidence in them? we will get to the hard geography of it, too it, how president obama can win with back the faith of those rust belt voters getting smashed today by the economy. also, remember the heroes, remember that great senator from new york, daniel patrick moynihan, remember when our cleared see the future coming and could tell us how to prepare for it? oh, yeah, he also could talk to the other side. and the republicans certainly staged a comeback in this election but not too long ago,

widespread scandals cost the party control of congress and corrupt lobbyist jack abramoff was in the middle of it. now abram smof being played by two-time academy award winner kevin spacey in the new film "casino jack", he will be here, kevin to talk about it, and what it is like to play a spleez ball that brought down the republican party the last time they had power. let me finish tonight on the very same subject, political corruption and how it gets going here, how absolute power corrupts absolutely. let start with the big question, all right democrats in congress change or stay with what they have got to what got them here after the worst defeat in 70 years? congressman john garra minute i did a democrat from california and donna edwards, a democrat from maryland. mr. garra mindy, first of all, are you happy with the leadership of the democratic party in the house that led you to 60-some defeats in this deelection? >> you bet i'm happy with nancy pelosi and steny hower in the leadership. it is not just the election, you look at what is actually

accomplished, extraordinarily legislative accomplishments that took place, all the way from this -- american recovery act, bailing out and saving the financial base of america, jobs bills, high-speed rail, all kinds of legislation passed the house. very important, largest legislative agenda perhaps in the last 50 years. not all of it in fact, very little of it passed the senate and got to the president and because of that, i think we were unable to turn the economy around as fast as we could have had those bills actually been passed into law. nancy pelosi a great leader, steny hoyer is a great leader and we are going to need that kind of strong leadership. >> okay, let go to donna edwards? do you agree with that? everything that congressman garamindi questioned was passed by the house and the senate. al regulation was passed by the president, by the senate, the stimulus bill, passed by the senate, signed the president. the health care bill. those are the issues and knocked

almost all of your moderates out of congress and reduced you to a minority, you have lost all the seats you won in '06, all the seats you won in '08 plus more seats and you are sticking with the same team. no sports general manager would do that no sports general manager would stick to the same team after such a wipeout, your thoughts? >> i will start out by saying we have had three volatile elections in this country starting with 2006 and what we are doing is we are sticking with a leadership team and i would count among them jim clyburn as part of that leadership team that is going to get us back to the majority. >> who are you going to vote for, steny or clyburn? >> i'm from maryland, share a county with steny hoyer, part of the congressional black caucus. > how are you going to vote? who gets to be whip? >> i think leader that nancy pelosi is going to work out a dole with the three of them in the room that makes sure we have a leadership table that really represents -- >> if you were going to vote right now, steny and jim clyburn for majority whip, number two, who would you vote for? >> chris, i'm not voting, i'm

not voting on that. >> what is the name of the show, congresswoman? >> it is really "hardball." >> all right. thank you. go back to nancy pelosi, here speaking in her defense today, felt she had to do. this she is, i think smart to reach out to the public, not just members of congress, she hasn't been doing that for two years, thanks to having an outside public relations communications strategy, i don't think. here she is attempting that in "usa today," one of the big national newspapers. "results of last week's elections reflected the general frustration of the american people who are justifiably angered by the continued high unemployment rate. while democrats are also disappointed at the rate of job growth it does not diminish what we have accomplished." it sounds to me, mr. garra mindy, had her attitude is, yeah, it suggestion out there the economy is bad but don't blame me and that seems to be your view as well, don't blame pelosi is that your view, don't blame pelosi? >> no my view is that the economy was in a terrible, terrible state when obama came into office and major legislation was passed to turn

it around. that legislation would have been even more successful had the action of the house actually been made into law. but the reality was that when obama came into office, we had -- he was handed a $1.3 trillion deficit. >> right. >> and we had no help no help whatsoever from the republicans in the house or in the senate. they simply refused to help, basically following the mitch mcconnell strategy of let it all go straight -- >> he asked for the job. he asked for the job knowing what the def of sit was going to be. let's not get crying over this. not crying, but chris, we need to understand the progress that was made. >> okay. . and in fact very significant legislation was passed. >> okay. >> which is very, very important for now and on not future. you talked at the outset of this about moynihan looking to the future. you look at those pieces of legislation that you talked about, those are all things that will change america for the better in the future as well as right now. >> okay. you got 15 members of congress

out, let's take a look -- runt picture of -- 15 members of congress, going to run their names thought now if we have it the 15 names of congressmen out there and women who are saying, here are the nice. ones who have raised i shall because this election of speaker pelosi and heath shore of north carolina, dan borne of oklahoma, jason at meyer of pennsylvania on this show, peter defazio of oregon, daniel help penske, larry kissle, north carolina, tim ryan of ohio, michael quigley of i will and also albee yo sears of new jer city is all across the country, not just conservatives, most of the conservatives and moderates wiped out of the party. now let's look at this issue, "usa today," i mentioned, a gallup poll on the cover today, fascinating number, they have asked people, should the democrats basically stick to their principle, the question, the way they put it 59% of democrats think it more important for political leaders, democrats to comp prom my only 18% stay is more important to stick to their believes. congressman garra mendy, 18% say

stick to the democratic line, this is democrats talking, democratic voters, 59% compromise. what do you think? >> of course we must compromise. >> have you been doing it for two years? have you been doing it for two years or just -- >> chris, you know there's been major efforts to do just that it was the republicans who absolutely refused to work with anything, even such things as ending tax breaks for american corporations that shift jobs offshore. the republican reese fused to sport end of those tax breaks they can want more jobs shipped offshore, little thing things and big things, no support, no compromise from them. yes, we will compromise, we always have you take a look at those major pieces of legislation, each one of those is a compromise and significantly, in my view, weakened in the compromise that it can tuque place in the senate. >> congresswoman edwards, is it right when the 59% say comp promise or 18% right say hold

your position, stay liberal, stay progressive? >> the public is right they want us to get something done, not for us or them. >> are they right about compromise? >> i think if you look at the health care bill, it was a compromise, may not have been the one everyone wanted but some of us who would have written a different bill had we had a chance to do it. >> better off with the country on a mon more lib wall position? >> i'm saying -- >> would you in better shape now if that was a more progressive bill? >> i think people would have understood it a little bit more and i think that we can do a lot -- but it's transformational. what i would like to see us do and i think there are points on which republicans and democrats can agree, we have got to get down to that bus that's what the american -- >> i'm going to ask you first this time then congressman garameddi next, how do you send a message voters to you have ears and brains? everybody knows democrats have hearts that is the strength of party, you do care about regular people it is the republicans tough on law and order and tough on defense, the tough guys, you are the party that cares about people. we know that party. do you have a brain? do you have ears? can you hear the public?

they voted against your party. they knocked out 60-some members of your party, they are friends of yours, you know them personally, work with them every day, get in the elevate we are them every day, you take the escalator, you know these people. they are gone. do you hear the message and what are you going to do to prove you heard the message? >> i heard the message that american people want jobs and want us to focus on bringing them jobs much the american people are disappointed rightfully so and frustrated that all across this country, unemployment is still where it's been, 9.6%. >> and when is it going to change? hasn't changed in a long time. >> we have been to on a steady -- we haven't increased unemployment. i think we have actually begun to create some jobs in the private sector. >> come up since january. >> but able to increase some jobs in the private sector, which is really important, but republicans and democrats, because people lose their jobs, they are not republicans or democrats, they are just people without jobs. >> you two folks are from the coast, you know, like my wife, she has lived in california, lived in chevy chase, not sure a lot of people are familiar what

it is like from the middle of this country, what i like to call from scranton to oshkosh, i will members of congress on too. the midwest voted for jerry brown, voted for barbara abortion, voted toer patty murray it is fine there the east coast, kerren gillibrand walks in andrew cuomo walks in, you own the two coasts, you are losing in the middle of the country it suggestion out there from pennsylvania all wait to wisconsin including a clean guy like russ feingold got blown blown away for reason, jobs are not created. most people don't think jobs are coming back for american what is are you going to do to bring jobs back to people voting democrat for hundreds of years and respect voting that way anymore because they are reagan democrat again? how do you bring them back? >> chris, you're a sports fan, we have talked about this. >> i'm talking about the big ten states. >> let's talk about the big ten. if you considered the first quarter being the eight years of the bush administration in which things went into a tank in a bad, bad way, 800,000 jobs per month being lost, per quarter

being lost in those years, then the second quarter was the last two years with obama coming in, stabilized things, brought the country back to stability, not where we need to be. we are now in the second half. here is what we must do, chris. >> can you get it down to the 8% the president promised, that christine romer promised, his economic visor? down to the 8% he promised? >> chris there is a way of doing it and what we have set out to do and this is part of the agenda that was started, we need to carry this on for the next two years and is that the agenda of rebuilding the american manufacturing sector, make it in america. if america is going to make it we must make it in america. for example two things. we have green technology tax credits for solar and wind. but those pieces of equipment are not made in america that's our tax money it should be spent on american-made equipment and similarly, buses and trains, all of that transportation money. >> yes! yes! yes! that's all i say.

yes! >> second agenda. >> have trains again, build things again like they did when growing up. why do we have to outsource building stuff? aren't americans up to building anything? >> no chris, you have got right. >> let's have the other country, third world countries, we will be thoughtful, they will build things that is the kind of stuff -- we got to compete -- yeah, i know. if you don't get this goal done by the spring of 2012, do you think congress -- do you think ask you -- >> do it by creating jobs. >> thank you, thank you so much, congressman have a nice -- i think thanksgiving is coming too, thank you congressman garra mendy, such an arresting last name, i call you by your last name, thank you, john garra mindy and donna edwards. coming up, one thing we learned from last week's midterm, president obama has a problem in the big ten states, pennsylvania westward, all the big industrial states where people wear jobbers to football games, from scranton to oshkosh, can you win them back?

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love this story, they started counting write-in ballots up in alaska, senate race through. joe miller filed suit in federal court to block state officials from counting any misspellings. how is that for populism? any misspellings of the name murkowski. in other words, what an elitist. the state plans to use voter intent as it tallies votes for murkowski, presumably lisa m. or murkowski misspelled would be a vote for the incumbent senator. miller is more than 11,000 votes behind the total of write-in ballot so trying to turn this election into a spelling contest. what a regular guy. don't elitists do this thing? if you can't spell murkowski, you can't vote for the person? "hardball" back, rights after this. this. leaders to develop curriculum to meet the needs of top businesses. which means when our graduates walk in the room,

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back to "hardball." president obama won his election, tough remember this 53% of the vote, not a big margin, it was decisive, of

course but wasn't much of a cushion. the midterms snowed that democrats are struggling, especially if some important 2012 states, states the president needs to win. joining me right now, senator robert casey of pennsylvania. senator casey, it is great to have you on because you won last time, this is a very tough year. i keep saying from scranton to oshkosh, with an exception, the governor's race in illinois, a bad year for the democrats, i say is sort of the big ten states have lost out. regular people, i look at these numbers, people make less than $50,000 a year, white to be blunt about it african-americans stuck with the president, stuck with the party what will you do about that president? toomey is down ten points now, toomey won big and the president is down ten points so what do you make of this? >> well, chris, it was a very tough day for democrats there is no other way to slow it. no question when that you have kind of a tough year tough

examine the results and the exit polls, in our statewide races, for example, we lost tremendous ground with regard to older -- older voters, and we lost among independents two key groups for 201 i think we can get a lot of them back but mostly, chris, and you know this from the discussions you have been having, mostly it is economic and people want those of us who represent them in washington to continue to fight for jobs. i think we have got a pretty good record on it when it comes to creating jobs and incent advising the creation of jobs, recovery act, 3 million jobs, the small business bill we just signed into lawmaker the president did a couple weeks ago, the community bankers tell us will create a half million jobs but we have to keep putting in place strategies to create jobs and work together to do that and try and try again to work with our republican colleagues. >> you know, i listen to my colleague, ed schultz and for a while there i thought he was too far out and i begin to get closer to him in politics, listening to him, because he

talks sort of the labor argument, big labor unions, steelworkers, pell like that and i do wonder if either party can bring us become to the country of country way i crew up with, my grand pop, charlie shield, a local democratic congressman could take the subway, take go a couple of stops and get off and build real stuff. i worked with guys who built subways and trains bud, northeast philly, those places where they put airplanes together, are there going to be jobs like that in pennsylvania down the road or all going to be working at typewriters, desk tops or in hotels? is it all going to be service jobs and high-tech jobs because i wonder about the c student who gets out of high school who is a good kid, where is he going to go, the c student coming out of high school? he is not going to work in high-tech, maybe and probably not going to work in a service job, shouldn't he have a job where you set swett, get a little dirty, come home and feel proud of yourselfsome that asking too much or is that yesterday? >> no no i still believe we can move forward on manufacturing jobs, chris, but part of the

problem is we haven't had a strategy in place for a long enough time period to do that you know that community colleges, we have got in pennsylvania 14 of them and a lot of states have even more but they have become the engines for those kinds of jobs and it doesn't have to be simply jobs that may not be created again. there is a lot of advanced manufacturing jobs which involve the braun and the usual manufacturing sense. >> i understand. >> also the ability to use your -- use your brain as well, but here's the key thugh, chris. you cannot have a strategy in place where we are having companies move overseas and are incentivized by the tax code to do that make a product overseas and then because you're allowed to defer your taxes it provides both incentives to move jobs overseas. we had a vote on this a couple weeks ago, democrats like me voted for -- to change the tax code to create incentive you was and disincentives, you don't have whole plants moving overseas. the other side voted against it

maybe now after the election, the one thing that didn't change, jobs the number one issue, maybe republicans will work with us, changing the tax code, putting in place other strategies to keep jobs here to have those manufacturing jobs you ever talked about. >> you know how we had a civil war, of course, pennsylvania so proud of its role in that war, monuments all over the state to that war. i worry, senator casey about this problem. sort of the civil war economically going on between the two coasts, now the california they doing okay. up in new york and new england they are doing great, democrats doing great on the left and right coast bus once you get to pennsylvania, start moving past philly, start moving westward, there seems to be another economy, the heartland economy that is getting hollowed out. we got the high-tech in the silicon valley, the high-tech in the 128 up in boston, you got new york financial, new york trade and they all benefit from this globalization but then you get pennsylvania, your state and it starts to move over to ohio, indiana, wisconsin, they are getting passed by. they are flyover in more ways than one. people fly over from them new york to l.a. to make their

careers they don't stop in pennsylvania, they keep flying over and look down, 39,000 feet and look down on these states and really do look down on them. don't you worry about that with your colleagues shall people in new york and california look at the problems the way you and sherrod brown do from ohio? do they look at it the same way? >> well, part -- i think there's certainly a different perspective but chris, be i think a state like pennsylvania has great potential to be able to make that shift, for a couple of reasons. number one with, we have great universities, we have great work ethic in with our people. >> that's true. >> we will be able to create those job if we put a tax strategy in place but also, we make the right decisions on creating the workforce of the future. one of the best things we will do in the next year or so work with on the reauthorization of the workforce investment act where we are focused on the skills and training and jobs of the future and one of the twice do that make sure you can diverse fi your economy. i had lunch today with pat

toomey, just got elected in the senate. one of the things we talked about in pennsylvania, you go county by county in a state like ours, the two biggest employers almost every county where it is philly or a small rural county, health care and government jobs. >> if you two guys get together that is good for america, i'm glad to know you went to lunch, i want to know how you can get the tax cut pen tallity, the republican party, job creation mentality of the democratic party to work together for the old states. thank you, senator bob casey of pennsylvania. >> chris, thanks again. >> thanks for joining us tonight. thanks for that. glad to hear about the lunch. go to u.s. congressman gary parties from michigan, he's democrat. same question to you, sir, talk about this beginning to sound like a rant here. i do look at this economics and i look at the politics and they are right on top of each other. the politics is matching the economics. the democratic party of jobs, which has always been the party of jobs, is losing in states were the jobs are disappearing. what are your thoughts? how do you put it together? jobs or politics? >> well, absolutely. we have to put it together and

certainly it was very important in michigan. as you know the troubles we have been having in this state is to have certainly president obama and the democrats stood up for the domestic auto industry which was absolutely critical, good news today, general motors earning $2 billion on the verge of having an initial public offering to pay back the taxpayers, it was a tough, tough road that we had to home you talk about the differences on the two coasts. there are big differences of people on the coast who thought that the domestic auto industry should disappear, it shouldn't. you cannot have a manufacturing sector in this country can't have good paying jobs unless it is anchored by a strong and vibrant domestic auto industry and proven to be a success so far. >> why don't you stick it to the republicans? the republicans are making a big race and i give them credit for trying to, trying to steal all the industrial states away from the democrats because the times are bad. why don't you challenge them and say what are you guys going to do women and men to bring back

the states economically, a question of benefiting from the failure of the economy is bringing the economy back politically and economically, are they going to do it or just try to vantage themselves over your failures? >> they can't. now that theft majority in the house, they have got to come with some positive ideas as to how they are out there helping middle class families. middle class families in this country have been stagnant. the wages have been stagnant this last decade to me that is the underlying anxiety being felt by middle class families and is about jobs it is about fighting the outsourcing, we have been -- in michigan, we have lost to over 300,000 jobs to outsourcing, we have got to step up and make sure other countries around the world play by the same rules that we do here in the united states. we have got to get tough and if we don't get tough we are going to be continuing exporting good paying jobs an not just manufacturing jobs. what we have learned, when manufacturing goes overseas, engineering and design follow after that, there will not be good play paying jobs in this country unless we stand up. >> i love those ads by jeff daniels for your state. thank you, congressman gary

parties of michigan. up next, republicans are great about saying they want to cut spend bug not so good when you ask them what to cut. just tell me what i keep asking republicans where are you going to cut in the latest republican plan calls for cuts in programs that don't even exist. well that is nervy. check out the side show you are watching "hardball," only on msnbc. okay, now here's our holiday gift list. aww, not the mall. well, i'll do the shopping... if you do the shipping. shipping's a hassle. i'll go to the mall. hey. hi. you know, holiday shipping's easy with priority mail flat rate boxes from the postal service. if it fits, it ships anywhere in the country for a low flat rate. yea, i know. oh, you're good. good luck! priority mail flat rate shipping starts at just $4.90 only from the postal service. a simpler way to ship. i worry about my son playing football. which is why i'm really excited. because toyota developed this software that can simulate head injuries and helps make people safer.

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back to "hardball," now the side show. first tonight, trick or treat. sarah palin got word that pennsylvania is considering limiting the amount of sweets that public schools give the students so palin brought with her a special gift to a pennsylvania school fund-raiser last night, sugar cookies. >> i think i have to shake it up a little bit 'cause i heard there was a debate going on in pennsylvania over whether public schools are going to ban sweets.

so, i had to bring to these private school students to show them how privileged they are, i brought dozens and dozens of cookies to these students. i had to shake it up for you guys, especially the press, okay? who should be making the decisions what you eat and school choice and everything else? should it be government or should to be the parents? it should be the parents. so using that is kind of a tool. >> of course, this is nonsense. palin read a right-wing newspaper's account that got the whole thing roaring. the fact is as everyone watches this show knows, school districts, public schools always decided what schools to distribute to students. giving kids too much sugar is obviously a bad idea, right? the pennsylvania schools are simply talking about guidelines how much sugar is given to the kids, not mandates. this whole thing is another tempest in a tea party teapot, like the scare stories. my god, the government getting involved in medicare. the government runs medicare. next up, fuzzy math this week, the republican study

committee promoted a new plan to cut $25 billion from the budget. how? they propose eliminating an emergency welfare fund there is only one with hitch there is no fund. the "new york times" reports today that the welfare program in question being targeted expired two months ago. how about finding real programs to cut? i keep asking these politicians who talk about eliminating government programs to just name one here, send this to us and tell us one program it get rid of? is that too much to ask people about people bragging around the country to name one of them. now tonight's big number, which 2010 candidate had the most expensive per-vote campaign nationwide? well, according to the "washington post," it was sharron angle. she spent $97 a vote. nevada tea partier sharron angle spent $97 per vote to lose by 6 points. the song goes, it's my tea party and i'll cry if i want to, tonight's tell tale big number. up next, at a time when we need big ideas to get the country moving again, where do the leaders like the great senator daniel patrick moynihan

today? are there any real visionaries out there who can see ahead to the problems and help us prepare for them? you are watching "hardball," only on msnbc. t must bhard. you never considered making turn-by-turn navigation standard. if you want to talk about it.. call me when you get there. that is if you find there, since you don't have turn-by-turn navigation standard. the all-new chevrolet cruze. starting under $17,000. get used to more. qualified lessees can get a low mileage lease on a 2011 chevrolet cruze ls for around $169 a month. call for details.

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i'm julia boorstin with your cnbc market wrap. stocks bouncing back after a rocky session, the dow finishing 10 points higher, the s & p up 5, nasdaq up 15 points. boeing the biggest decliner on the dow after a dreamliner test flight was forced to make an emergency landing. intel plunging to the bottom of the s & p on abused forced place insurance policies, oil prices had hitting a high for the year, a big drop of inventories, taking energy cop companies along for the ride. pager retailers see mixed results on strong sales and upbeat holiday forecasts from

macy's and ralph lauren and networking giant cisco posting after the closing bell, delivering bether than expected profit bus falling short on gross margins jooch and general motors posting a $2 billion profit ahead of next week's big ipo topping ford's $1.7 billion profit and chrysler's $84 million loss for the quarter. that's it from cnbc first in business worldwide. now back to "hardball." welcome back to "hardball." the late new york senator, daniel, patrick moynihan favored things missing from today's debates. steven wiseman is with us now, he is with the peterson institute for national economics, the editor of a fabulous book called "daniel patrick moynihan, a portrait in letters of an american visionary" one of the beautiful

books i have come across and joined by an inside expert, lawrence o'donnell, great colleague, a superstar of prime time, host of msnbc's "the last word," served as senator moynihan's director of the senate finance committee and other high responsibility. i will start with steve and go to you for the color, lawyer reg, since you worked with him every day this book is a reminder in this time, this thicket of mediocrity we are in now there is a memory august recent memory of a senator who had a vicious he sought end of the soviet union coming, he saw the need for rapid rail, he saw the need to make washington a beautiful city. he had -- he understood the problems of the african-american family disfunction that led to so many problems. he was ahead of so many things. >> he was one-of-a-kind. i'm not sure we will see his kind again, chris he understood the yin and yang and had a foot in both camps. he understood the thinking of republicans and democrats and

the interaction -- >> how did he work with jack kennedy, a true emotional tribal believer in jack kennedy? >> very irish tribal. yet work hand in glove with richard m. nixon. >> he saw in nixon and later realized how naive he was a chance to find a new center in american politics at this explosive time of 1968, the country -- there were riot acres sass nation and believed that nixon could bring the best of both worlds to the white house. >> you know what lawyer reg, you were with him every day, i do envy you this, sir, the chance to get up in the morning go to work with and realize that across the hall, rather in your own office suite was the presence of this great man. you could actually great him in the morning, say hi, senator, how's it going and begin your day. how did he avoid personalities in politics? he think he made a point, like ike did never attacking an opponent by person eighth, it was always about the policy

issue. >> he never did and he never did privately. i can tell you i heard him once in all my years say one sharply critical thing, it was about a local new york city politician, and it was a very brief moment and i never heard had him say anything personally critical about any other politicians. he didn't participate often in profiles. people would want to call -- they are doing a profile on so-and-so and he just didn't participate because he didn't think about them that way with. he thought about them as people who have a job to and do doing their job to varying degrees of confidence, it was never really personal to him. chris, i think one of the great keys that has delivered us steve's box, whiok, which is a about a thinking politician it is a steve's box it is beautifully, as you say, brilliantly written, pat moynihan is a co-author there would be no book without steve. he put this together in a beautiful and artful way. the key to, i think, everything

you are talking about and how he was able to take a breath and do this thinking is he did something that now politicians would be condemned for and many even in his own day could be, he took the august recessed and he recessed, he went up to his farm in upstate new york. he sat alone in his one-room schoolhouse this old one-room schoolhouse on the property, he wrote he thought, he collected had his own thinking, he took that pause you have to take to think in that incredibly hectic job as senator, what do you really think? >> let me make a pitch for your book, if you have a relative -- >> please. >> who cares about democratic politics who is a liberal, a smart liberal this book is christmastime here, this is the book you want to have to sit under the christmas tree or hanukkah bush or whatever. let me ask you, steve, about this my favorite project at this

time, look at the industrial part of this country wiped out by this thing, the democratic party wiped out across this country because they don't have something to sell. i don't know why they don't sell what moynihan said, china, certainly europe, you sweep across those countries 300 miles an hour. we are chugging along on amtrak. moynihan is going to have this beautiful station in new york named after him, moynihan station probably but nothing coming in and out of him. people coming in new york like rats, filthy station, penn station and should be coming in like princes, why don't we have pride in the country we are building? we wouldn't be building the golden gate bridge today, wouldn't be building washington today or chicago, we don't build anything anymore, all we do is pay debts what do we do? pass checks around? what happened to the democratic party, used to be roar the moses in new york, build things, pat brown in california built the highway system, university system. what is wrong with democrats building anything anymore are they completely chicken? >> it got labeled as pork barrel. >> golden gate bridge is pork barrel? >> well, i -- >> the interstate highway system. lincoln built the continental

railroad, that was pork barrel? of course, bridge no, sir no where of course there's junk. i'm sorry. >> yeah, of course. also the erary canal. pat moynihan had a lot of projects that didn't go anywhere in new york but he understood he helped turn the erie canal across upstate new york, more responsible for anything that happened in new york city for it becoming the port it became and the empire state, he made it into a tourist attraction, there was not only construction but ingenuity and creativity. >> now the final word, lawrence o'donnell, thoughts on pat moynihan what do we miss now that we don't have from him? >> we do miss that vision and a consistency. i think what you are talking about on infrastructure is it became uncool, chris, just became uncool in government for decades. he kept his eye on it he was chairman of the public works commission -- committee in the senate for a while. he would be horrified by what the governor of new jersey, for

example, just decided on building another tunnel. no vision in that decision at all. the notion that we have to pay for these things out of current receipts we don't do that with anything else we build in the private sector. everything built in the private sector is mortgaged, it is understood it is going to take dedicates to pay for building. we could go on and on about this, chris. it is -- >> somebody should tell -- >> it is a great read. >> thank you, lawrence, so much. by the way, somebody should tell the governor of new jersey it is going to be a wide tunnel, very useful to certain people. thank you very much, steve wiseman. a new film "casino jack", want a good look at how the republicans used power the last time they had it, you got to see this movie. there he is, kevin spacey playing abramoff. "casino jack." this is "hardball," only on msnbc.

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23 senate seats in 2012, republicans only 10, but the democrats like their chances up in massachusetts where they hope to knock off senator scott brown. the warning signs are there for brown, as not a single republican won at the statewide level or federal level in massachusetts last week. a democratic victory across the board. even governor deval patrick beat his challenger comfortably. and brown's 2009 opponent, martha coakley won by a sweeping 26 points, so the democrats are back in massachusetts, back in control. brown has a lot of work to do in that state if he wants to stay there in that blue area. "hardball" will be right back. [ male announcer ] at&t introduces a new windows phone.

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look at politics and celebrities on tv and the newspapers, glossy magazines what do they see? i'm just like that. that's what they say. i'm special. i'm different. i get any woman out there well guess what, you can't. you know why in rate, mediocrity is where most people live. immediate yok crat kritty is in the elephant in the room. it is ubiquitous it is in your schools, in your dreams in your family. those of us who know this those of us who understand the disease of the dull we do something about it, we do something more because we have to the deck was always stacked against us, you are either a big leader or our slave clawing your way onto the c train. some people say jack abramoff moves too fast, jack abramoff cuts concern, i say to them if that is the difference between me and my family having a good life and walking and using the

subway every day, then so be it. >> we are back that academy award-winning actor kevin spacey as jack abam move in the upcoming movie "casino jack." republicans won widely, but what drove them out four years ago? we have to going into this election. a lot of it was the culture of corruption. jack abramoff and his wonderful colleague celebrating influence and power when they had it. here to talk about it and the new movie is kevin spacey. talk about "the usual suspects," another one of your great movies. i think that voters have a limited number of attention span like we all did and after a couple of years they forgot the sleaze balls who ran this country. i was just going over their records here. abramoff served 3 1/2 years in prison. bob ney the congressman he bought served a year and a half this prison probably not enough. michael scanlon believe it or not i guess because he copped a plea is still waiting for

sentencing. what did you learn? i did a lot of work today going through the movie, the parts that i saw and then looking through off. record it's all exactly the truth. seems to be very little what do you call poetic license here. >> no we didn't make anything up and i think one of the reasons why people are responding to the film, comedically is because it's so outrageous, some of this stuff, that it's just inherently funny. i can't believe. it's a little bit like when we did "recount" about the 2000 election i think that people weren't prepared of the film being as entertaining as it was. >> how outrageously how corrupt people are? >> well i think that there is, without question, a culture that abramoff was a part of it. i think that you know, you and i both know that they have a selective justice in this country and i think that in large degree he got thrown under -- unceremoniously under a lot of buses. i think we saw on election in the last week in which the amounts of money that has been raised through lobing. >> let's get to the word "corruption." a lot of people in the tea party

movement and they're right about this, think that there's too much power but how you use power is an interesting question. do you use it to distribute justice and make sure that people get it, or do you use power to grab what you can? a lot of questions that i ask are, what does a lobbyist do for i living? they can educate people. they can say go up to the hill. let me tell you about the complication of our industry and that's a job and it's a fair job and then guys who get members who are in trouble, need money, need help, right. >> that's not have a and get them stuff to into just as a favor to an old pal. >> you come over to the white house and i'll give you a picture with george bush and then we'll give you money for your campaign. and you know i think it's still going on. i don't think -- i think that they're very clever about how they get around the new rules. you know in my favorite thing is you're supposed to not have a dinner, right? you can't have a dinner, so what constitutes a dinner? if you're not sitting down. >> yeah. >> it's not a dinner. >> so all of those things. you know i'm going to talk about it in my close in the movie "wedding crashers" you know what that is based on? staffers who work for a congressman up on the hill who

used to go to these afternoon feeds on the hill, afterwards. i used to do it. all of the shrimp cocktail that you can eat because i was single at the time in my 20s. there would be some lobbyist down the hall from your office would be a bunch of food sitting at the table and rather than going at home, go to a restaurant you stop by and eat the the shrimp. so they say if you can do it at the hill you can do a wedding so crashing wedding. >> don't you think also if the networks stopped charging for political advertising, if they actually started serving the public. >> free ads. >> free ads. >> who you would give the ads to. >> i think that in every state you'd have local television showing that senator, that governor, who's going to run. >> right. >> and every national network, you'd have do presidential, viegs presidential. and i think if you took the money away, that they didn't have to raise it and then maybe corruption would actually start to go away. >> back in your corner, do you think that the government of the united states, or the taxpayers, or our industry should pay for these sleazy ads that they put on, these indictive ads that simply call other guy a crook. >> no, i think that there should be guidelines and there should be an effort to make sure if

somebody does an ad, what nair saying about arrival is absolutely accurate. but look, jack -- >> from colorado. >> ran a great campaign. and he ran by a great margin so maybe there is. >> spoke to pat leahy up in vermont and never ran a bad ad in his life. kevin spacey, thank you so much. the full movie tonight. >> yeah. >> i'll be with you the movie "casino jack" opens up in select cities. i love that. only special people go photsay, let me finish tonight about the culture corruption near washington. i know a little bit about it. als it's for my heart health. so i can't have any? if you can deprive me of what can help lower my cholesterol... and live with yourself. right. mmm, i worry about your mother. cry herself to sleep every night over my arteries, but have yourself a bowl. good speech dad. [ whimper ] [ male announcer ] honey nut cheerios tastes great and its whole grain oats can help lower cholesterol.

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let me finish tonight with this matter of corruption. power tends to corrupt lord act and wrote. absolute power corrupts absolutely. it's my experience that anyone who comes to washington this capitol city better come with a strong moral code to start with. you can learn here, a city about power and its division. it's i good place to learn, how to gain it, exert it, and yes samarit. limiting power, forcing people to share it is what our country is all about. the little perks of power like the free meals that you can score up on capitol hill by just stopping by some spread, a lobbyist's laying out in some room down the hall. i talked about that. that's where the idea for the movie "wedding crashers" came from, some young hill staffer

saw how easy it was to crash a feed, put on by lobbyists, even if you weren't invited. simply applied that principle to weddings out in the country beyond in city. okay that's the funny part. the dirty part, the evil part if you can stand that word is how people who used to work for senators or congressmen or still do learn how to work the system. they exploit the perk, the familiarity, the comfort, the friendship that they gain well, lected members of congress and then sell it out on the street. hey, i can get you a meeting with senator. hey i can get your business mentioned favorably in a congressional record. it's an easy statement. first a little meeting and then a record. the congressman doesn't have to deliver a speech, just slip it into the record. it's when this incremental corruption work you up to the food chain to where you're getting taxes and regulations changed based on those personal ties, that's when the real corruption takes over. or do you think it's okay? then where do you stop? someone with a moral register to start with knows, his mind and his gut, get it right. those who don't, see the main