for the courts to declare it unconstitutional. it would make for a smoother transition. so under article i of the constitution, congress has the constitutional right to raise an army. it's congress that has the right and the duty to end, don't ask, don't tell. that's "hardball" for now. thanks for being with us. "countdown with keith olbermann" starts right now. which of these stories will you be talking about tomorrow. now the president confirms on short-term tax cuts for the rich, it's let's make a deal. >> my number one priority is making sure that we make the middle class tax cuts permanent. i continue to believe that extending permanently the upper income tax cuts would be a mistake. >> the democrats' possible plan allow a temporarily extension of all cuts then go for a permanent vote extending only cuts for the middle class. details with richard wolffe, impact with robert reich.

don't ask, don't tell your husband. >> i will filibuster or stop it from being brought up. >> our political and rogge us tells l bchbgu that they can't e our country openly. >> mccains at war. our guest lieutenant dan choy. glenn beck's unconscionable untrue accusation. >> george soros was part of it. here's a jewish boy helping send the jews to their death, death camps. >> david brock's progressive and honest answer to the rove group and u.s. chamber of congress and surprise winner of a charity lunch with rupert murdoch, win lunch, schedule lunch, lose lunch and "decision points" or as it might be subtitled "the 43rd president borrows from bob

woodward." the second option combined cruise missiles with manned bomber attacks. decision points, the second option was to combine cruise missile strikes with manned bomber attacks. i like what you did there, sir, changing combined into to combined. the dramatic reading and all the news and commentary now on "countdown." >> all i ask is that people read the book. good evening from new york. this is friday, november 12th, 725 days until the 2012 presidential elections. and after the president today said yes extending the bush tax cuts for the rich is a bad idea but we can talk bit, the outgoing speaker of the house, nancy pelosi said in effect not on what's left of my watch. the story with the battle lines and tax cuts for the middle class and debt for america's future generations hanging in the balance how it will proceed once the president returns to

united states soil. in his news conference overnight friday morning his time president obama was asked point blank not just about where he stands on tax cuts but on top adviser david axelrod's signal that the white house might compromise and despite his pledge to kill the bush tax cuts for the rich and extend them temporarily for the middle class, mr. obama did not quite deny that that's where he stands. >> some are interpreting david axelrod's comments to a newspaper back home that your compromised position is temporarily extend them s that the wrong interpretation? >> that is the wrong interpretation because i haven't had a conversation with republican and democratic leaders. here's the right interpretation. i want to make sure that taxes don't go up for middle class families starting on january 1st. that's my number one priority. for those families and for our

economy. i also believe that it would be fiscally irresponsible for us to permanently extend the high income tax cuts. i think that would be a mistake. particularly when we've got our republican friends saying that their number one priority is making sure that we deal with our debt and our deficit, so there may be a whole host of ways to compromise around those issues. >> democratic senator mark warner, one of those putting forward a way to compromise specifically suggesting that the bush tax cuts be extended on household income on less than $250,000 and instead of using 70 billion more for people who make more than $250,000 use it for tax cuts that actually create jobs, tax cuts targeted to reward businesses that hire and incentivize investment. meanwhile, the huffington post reports unnamed other democratic senators have another idea in

mind, pass a temporary extension of all the tax cuts and turn right around and force republicans to vote on a permanent extension of just the middle class cuts. speaker pelosi not seemed warm to that idea saying "even one year would be around 70 billion. that's a lot of money to give to a tax cut at the high end. i remind you those have been in effect for a very long time. they did not create jobs." big labor opened to temporarily extending them for the rich. afl-cio legislator bill samuel saying congress ought to vote on the middle class cuts and not even hold a vote on tax cuts for the rich. let's turn first to msnbc political analyst richard wolffe author of two books on mr. obama, renegade making of a president and revival, the struggle for survival inside the obama white house. good evening, richard. >> good evening, keith. it's one thing to be open to compromise. but why keep advertising this fact like he's carrying a banner around with him and yet keep denying you're doing it?

are these trial balloons? is there a jujitsu strategy? tell me something. >> if only i was successful at jujit jujitsu. i've been speaking to white house officials and they clearly want to say we're open to compromise and we get it and ready to reach across the aisle. important for them. but the follow-up question from everyone if you're open to compromise what is the compromise look like. that's when you get into this vague quagmire which is where they're at right now. they're negotiating against themselves. it's a pattern we've seen before with this white house and if they give stuff up at this stage republicans just drive a hummer through it so the problem they have here is that clearly there is going to be room for debate about is it 50, is it 500,000. is it temporary, is it permanent? there is going to be a compromise clearly but that dividing line if they get out there too much and they fear that david axelrod may have spoken too vaguely for everyone's liking but if they get out there too much then they

are negotiating against themselves yet again. >> but never mind the hummer being driven through it. what about the election being driven through it? if the tax cuts get ex-tended any job created after the 1st of january will be credited to the republican answer stimulus will be called a failure and come 2012 it'll be republicans saved the economy. why not take this opportunity to let all the tax cuts expire and hammer home the lesson of the clinton years that, you know, taxes going up can be part of a good plan to strengthen the economy in the country? >> simple answer is, number one, the economy isn't strong enough right now and number two, middle class families, those independent voters, folks out in the midwest, upper midwest will be really upset about this kind of thing and they have not exactly got that political feet on the ground right now. they are still shell shocked after this election last week or two and they're trying to figure out what the right path is. i think they have a path when it comes down to this debate about the deficit. if independents care about the deficit, republicans say they also care about the deficit then that's where this issue, this

whole tax cut debate has to go but right now, seeing taxes go up for the middle class is electric trorl disaster for them and have to call them on their political gimmicks about the concerns about the deaf sut but be aware this economy, recovery is still fragile. >> what does the president want the house to do in a lame duck session with all this? >> well, he wants this done. they cannot be in a situation where democrats get blamed for doing fog when it comes to taxes going up. so he has to bounce nancy pelosi off of this position. you know, nancy pelosi obviously wants to hold her caucus together but this is going to be yet again if they're not careful a case of the president negotiating with his own democrats. he's got to avoid that. this has to be him calling out republicans on the rhetoric, the very same language they have used in the election if it's about him and pelosi, it's health care all over again. >> and lastly, what is the president going to do when he gets behind closed doors with

pelosi, reid, boehner, mcconnell about this. >> he's going to try to look reasonable. one of those person says he wants him to be a one-term president and it's not nancy pelosi. this is one giant photo-op. he has to pry them apart in some fashion, you point idea that they're going to find a compromise these four together is going to have to be forced and that forcing is going to come with those votes. you suggested at the top of the show. >> msnbc political analyst richard wolffefe. it comes out tuesday, rye visital struggle for survival inside the white house. thanks. >> thank you, keith. let's turn to robert reich also author of "after shock the next economy and america's future." great thanks for your time tonight. >> hi, keith. >> what would clinton do at the risk of spawning an acronym? >> bill clinton did try angulate, that is, he separated himself from both parties and tried to create the impression he was above everyone. but, in fact, clinton did raise taxes and that 39% tax rate on

the very wealthy, well, that was bill clinton's tax rate. it was not a terrible economy by the end of the 1990s and anybody who is at the top and says, oh, please, please, don't send us back there to the 1990s, we can't live with a marriage fall tax rate of 39% doesn't remember what happened in the 1990s. >> say neither side budges and all the bush tax cuts manage to expire during the lame duck or as the lame duck ends. economically what happens then? >> well, that is a problem, keith. i agree with richard. the economy is not strong enough right now. it's not nearly as strong as it was in the 1990s when bill clinton did succeed in raising taxes. right now for the vast middle class, no, you don't want to raise faxes but when it comes to people at the very top, they are doing fine. they're getting bonuses, their wages are going up. they're doing wonderfully well, even now and so they cannot only afford a little bit of a tax increase, but also they need to participate in this long-term

problem of getting the deficit under control. >> what do you think of this warner plan, what senator mark warner says, spend 70 billion but do it on job intersent advising. >> everybody is in favor of it and i like the idea in principle. the problem is, businesses are already sitting on about a trillion dollars of cash and they are not building jobs. they are not incentivizing anybody except more mergers and acquisitions and buying back their shares of stock and actually taking the money abroad and creating more capacity outside the united states in fast growing places like china and india and brazil. so it's nice to talk about it, but really what we need to do is create incentives in the middle class, in the working class among the poor people. get money in their pocks. i'd rather take the 65 or $70 billion that the rich otherwise would get in a tax break and give it to the states to and localities to preserve the jobs or get the job back of teachers and firefighters and police

officers. i mean we need them and they will also spend 100% of what they get back. i guarantee you. >> but what if it, in fact, it turns out to be what it's looking like, the democrats sign off on a temporary extension of all of the bush tax cuts a year, $70 billion, whatever the figure is or the time is to the high end people in the economy? does it hurt the economy as a whole or does it as we suggested hurt the president politically by letting republicans take credit for any subsequent maybe inevitable job growth? >> well, it certainly hurts the economy is in the sense you got next year alone millionaires basically shirking those taxes, getting a tax break of $70 billion that they otherwise had no reason to expect and that money not going elsewhere in the economy where it could do much better as we talked about a moment ago, but it also hurts the president because, you know, keith, right now, he is in the 2012 presidential election like it or not. he's got to define himself. who he is, who he stands for,

who they are, who they stand for in terms of the republicans and what better way of doing it than saying, look, i am in favor of extending the tax cuts for the bottom 98% of americans, but they, the republicans, are in favor of only extending it or at least extorting the bottom 80% say you don't get a tax cut unless we at the very top get our tax cut. look who they represent and also look how hypocritical they are about the budget deficit. that gives the president in other words, a huge way of defining who he is, who they are and what the next election is going to be all about. >> robert reich, the author of "aftershock." thank you again for your time. have a good weekend. >> thanks, keith. you too. john mccain vows to filibuster and his wifeprotests that they dell lbgtus that they can't serve our country openly but now tweets she supports her husband's position.

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as john mccain continues to insist the repeal of don't ask, don't tell will destroy the military his wife appears in a public service announcement saying it puts a government stamp of approval on bullying gay kids. unbelievable and unconscionable, untrue charge. even from the man without a conscience using the 14-year-old george soros of being a jewish boy sending the jews to the death camp. the u.s. chamber of congress and lunch with rupert murdoch. don't get your fingers too close to his mouth. friday's with thurber and a friend of the earth is no friend of thurber's ahead on "countdown." and when it does, men with erectile dysfunction can be more confident in their ability to be ready with cialis for daily use. cialis for daily use is a clinically proven low-dose tablet you take every day, so you can be ready anytime the moment's right.

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he once said if the military leadership said it was time to end it he would listen. they did. he still did not. but in our fourth story, john mccain, what will he do now that his wife publicly advocated in a sense for the repeal of don't ask, don't tell? we listen to her? "the new york times" reporting that a draft of the long awaited pentagon report on don't ask, don't tell concludes that repealing it will not have an adverse effect on the military but the majority of active duty service members welcome open service and repealing the law may cause temporary disruptions but nothing that couldn't be overcome with the right leadership. seems like it would be a great opportunity for this senator mccain from 2006. >> the day that the leadership of the military comes to me and says, senator, we ought to change the policy, then i think we ought to consider seriously changing it. >> that day came in february. the defense secretary mr. gates

the chairman of the joint chiefs admiral mullen testifying to the armed services committee saying end the policy. mccain, the ranking republican told them you're wrong. >> at this moment of immense hardship for our armed services we should not be seeking to overturn the don't ask, don't tell policy. >> mccain led the successful filibuster to block the repeal of don't ask, don't tell in september and he pay do it again in the lame duck session. so color us intrigued over this anti-bullying message from the no hate campaign featuring cindy mccain. the senator's wife blaming government policies for contributing to the problem. >> our political and religious leaders tell lgbt youth that they have no future. >> they can't get married. >> they can't donate blood. >> they can't serve our country openly. >> what's worse, these laws that legislate discrimination -- >> teach bullies what they're doing can acceptable. >> our government treats the lgbt community like second class citizens. why shouldn't they? >> time now to call in

lieutenant dan choy, former army officer and iraq war veteran discharged under don't ask, don't tell. currently an advisory council member of the american foundation for equal rights. thank you for some of your time tonight. >> great to be with you, keith. >> am i overstating this? there's further information from her but it seems like an extraordinary thing for her to do given her husband's position on this and given that she probably could have made a case in that public service announcement without contradicting him at all. >> i think it's very significant what she said because it underscores the values behind the repeal effort and the values behind any kind of movement to restore justice or to increase freedom and to support our basic values. what you're seeing, though, i think in the mccain family is mrs. mccain misses what mr. mccain was when probably she married him, a maverick who was able to stand up for what he knew was right, saying that,

look, if the military leadership says let's get rid of it, let's do the right thing and get rid of it. it looks that in my opinion, there is a don't ask, don't tell policy, not only in the military but in certain political parties where we're saying we shouldn't be able to say what we know is the right thing to do. >> there is this as i suggested update from her. she tweeted not long ago i fully support the no hate campaign and all it stands for and am proud to be part of it but i stand by my husband's stance on dadt. i guess the simple question on that is how is that possible? >> it corrects everything that the no hate campaign stands for and it makes no sense. i think when you talk about as she did in some of the psa that bullying leads to the suicides and when you talk about the legislation that okays the bullying we have to realize that if you speak one way and then

your actions speak in a different way, it's irreconcilable and immoral. we have to realize one thing, that there's allowed homophobia on the part of certain people with certain platforms but there is also a silent homophobia on the part of certain people who have the power but do nothing. loud homophobia and soft or silent homophobia end up having the same result. >> for months the republicans said, you know, wait until this report is out from the pentagon before voting on repeal. now we've got a preliminary sense of what's in it. how does senator mccain, how do the others continue to justify their position? >> there's no justification for discrimination. i don't know how they got away with it in the first place. i think when you take a look at what the study was saying, we are validated in the fact that if you listen to the veteran, if you listen to those soldiers who are serving on the ground right now and the younger generation who says why are you even making an issue of this, there's gay people everywhere.

there's gay people in our military units, in our churches, in our families, in our communities and there is no reason to have any kind of discriminatory policy or unjustified study or poll. well, we talk about when we want to get rid of discriminatory and unjust policies and unconstitutional infringement on our way of life, i think we have to realize that if we don't speak up because it's the right thing to do, then we really are failing beginning and to say that we need to have a study, that's the reason why we're here in the first -- why we're here in the first place with only so many more weeks in a lame duck session to get rid of don't ask, don't tell. if you really want to do a study you could have started that immediately but the bottom line is you don't need to study discrimination. you just need to do the right thing and get rid of it. >> last thing maybe the overarching news. there's a linkage that a lot wouldn't jump to moodily. does don't ask, don't tell in the military actually connect to bullying in the civilian world? >> absolutely.

when you have justified discrimination in any government agency or in any public policy, you give cover to those people to those young kids who can say not only that is so gay or give negative and pejorative statements and saying that's the gayest thing i've ever heard or when you use the term faggot i think you're giving cover to those bullies on the playground when you're a bully in the legislative arena and that's what we need to learn, learn responsibility in parenting and learn some responsibility in our lowership and public discourse. >> lieutenant dan choi discharged from the military under don't ask, don't tell. as always great thanks. >> thanks, keith. the mccains may or may not be in disagreement. perhaps everybody should be in disagreement about the latest offense from glenn beck. it's not even joke worthy. ahead. ♪

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to attack a prominent liberal glenn beck stoops to accusing him of being a teenage jewish fast si collaborator. where is the sanity break and tweet of the day pertains to the daily beast and "newsweek." i made the lame joke it would be called the daily weak. benji godfried answers why not news of the beast? pay give fox a run for their money. actually i think fox has that name already and saving it for when they start a second channel. oddball. to the internet, sweeping the ranks of youth football league the trick play. we begin with your basic wide

receiver goes in motion then begins to do backflip, the refs out of confusion blew it dead and dejected the coach. wrong sport then there's the classic wrong ball play where the quarterback pretends they have been given the wrong ball and hands it over his back to him and works pretty well. they're not going to get him and yet another example found on the internet everything is doing it so why hasn't the nfl team aadopt a trick play, down goes frazier. still i'm sure i'm not the only one who would like to see t.o. doing backflips. get your popcorn. on to the highway and use a car pool lane but this person is bucking the law. you are not seeing things. that's a horse in a car. got it all figured out. by dame they roam free and at night nestled in the garage. although it makes sense he'd sit in the back for some reason the horse got spooked when he talked about all his horsepower and we

travel down under to the australian open where robert allenby is about to tee off. oh looks as though he's using a driver. uh-oh, it looks like it's heading left. pow, right in the kisser. the err apartment his the ball, knocks the spectator down. fan okay, jim, a little woozy. allenby signed a ball for the man, jim, though the biggest concern, jim, is the increase in the man's, jim, ha handicap. time, jim, marches on. glenn beck and george soros, david brock and rupert murdoch and later, fridays with thurber ahead. eally knew what they were doing. so i switched to e-trade. it's high-tech, easy to use, low cost. i can screen investments, analyze them, diversify properly, track everything, even on my smartphone. and help is available any time.

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this week during his attempt to dry george soros glenn beck of fox news claimed as a 14-year-old boy in nazi occupied hungary, the political activist helped, quote, send the jews to the death camps. in our third story there are jokes to be made about what mr. beck does and how his employers let him do it but not when he throws out accusations that a teenage jewish boy collaborated with those who destroyed his family, his religion, his nation.

all week long mr. beck has dedicated tv and radio shows to taking down the man he calls the puppet master. according to beck, george soros intends to destroy america as we know it so he can create a new world order with one world government. the usual paranoid crap from the '50s. beck begins his theory with sore ross as a teenager. the following is what we know about soros. when he was 14 his brother bribed an agriculture official to pretend that the boy was his christian godson. soros had to accompany him to inventory a confiscated jewish estate. michael t. kaufmacougkaufman wr they had fled living in lisbon and soros collaborated with no one and paid attention to what he understood to be his primary responsibility making sure no one doubted he was sandor kiss, he told "60 minutes" i had no role in taking away that property so i had no sense of guilt. this week glenn beck gave his

version of those effects. >> george soros was part of it. he would -- he would help confiscate the stuff. it was frightening. here's a jewish boy helping send the jews to the death -- death camps. and i am certainly not saying that george soros enjoyed that even had a choice. he actually had to endure watching people send off to their eventual murders. watching people gathering their stuff sending them off knowing that they were going to go to their death. >> anti-defamation league put out a statement for political entertainer to have the audacity to say inaccurately there is a jewish boy sending jews to death camps as part of a broader assault on mr. sore ross can

horrific. fox news was typically unmoved saying information regarding mr. soros' experience were taken from his writings and interviews given to him by the media and no negative opinion was offered as to his actions as a child. clearly they did not see what mr. beck said. joining us simon greer president and ceo of jewish funds for justice. mr. greer, thanks for your time tonight. >> thank you, keith. >> those who are recognizing your name here may do so because they might remember that you've been a target of mr. beck. last may he said your claim that putting the common good first was in his words what led -- leads to death camps and in his words as a jew you should know better. you had a meeting with the fox people about that. explain what happened. >> that's right. i sat down with roger achiles a roger cheatwood and conveyed to them my horror and outrage. i simply asked them that if i sat with my son and watched their tv program night after night and heard the 400 references to hitler, holocaust and nazis what would i say to

them? what would i tell my child? would i say it's a joke should i say we should be scared and they said there was unanimous agreement at fox that the ultimate sensitivity needed to be displayed in reviewing and looking at issues related to the holocaust and events that led up to it and i believed at the time that they were sincere in their commitments and obviously what we've seen this week shows that they were not. >> did -- do you get some idea that mr. ayles had talked to mr. beck about this. >> i did. i received a handwritten note from mr. beck two days later where he under -- he expressed that he felt how serious this issue was, that he had sensitivity to it, that he took my candor and my concerns to heart and i actually believed for a minute that his values were values and that he would stand by them and keep his word and this week the invocation of anti-semitic rhetoric and a form of holocaust revisiting shows he

will do anything to gain points. >> these comments about soros, one of the vics of this atrocity in both the small -- focused on his life and second of the world war and years leading up to it, is that defied -- is the term anti-semitism enough to describe that? isn't this with with an asterisk? this is anti-semitism and the remarks by mr. beck but also an accusation of collaboration which is about the worst thing you could do in this circumstance, isn't it? >> yeah, i would say that it is a form of holocaust revisionism which is grotesque in any form and suggesting these kind of things is completely outrageous. using it to try to paint a picture of this notion of a puppet master takes us back to the protocols of the elders of zion some of the worst text in the last 100 years and somehow makes it okay again to bring up these stories and images and, keith, what i would say is what we've seen across the jewish community is that, you know, there's this old saying for every two jews there are three

opinions and it week there is only one opinion in the jewish community and that's that glenn beck is way out of line and i think that's because of the kind of language he used to score these sort of cheap political points. >> do you think that's true in this occasion because there seems to be -- he's defending himself by saying that he's a great friend to israel and to the jewish people and he says if anybody is anti-semitic it's soros and if there has been some restraint in some of the organizations, the skwush organization organizations response to this. if it had been said in some other context there would be rightfully protests on the streets but doesn't seem to be happening. >> i think the comments from along sign berg from the gathering of holocaust survivors who said beck's remarks from monstrous. the one you mentioned earlier i think we're seeing whether people agree or disagree with mr. soros on politics what they know is that we slip into a very dangerous place when we can misuse and misappropriate the holocaust and invoke images of anti-semitism to score points

and i think across the jewish community in the weeks to come i wouldn't be surprised if we see people like representative eric cantor coming out and saying this is unacceptable because this truly is a sacred realm in america, that's something the jewish community has accomplished here and we won't let it slip away. >> at this point he has been described as a jewish nazi collaborator, puppet master which is almost all the cliches except some of the physical skriepgss. simon greer, thanks for your perspective and insights? thanks so much, keith. there is an ironic post description to the glenn beck puppet master conspiracy theory. soros is pulling the strings of every progressive in the media and government particularly the strings of an advocacy group he founded in washington,

the house. how about this connection david brock of media matters and rupert murdoch fortunately it's just for lunch and then there's the treat we do our best to offer every friday, "fridays with thurber" a friend of the earth no friend of thurber's and when rachel joins you at the top of the hour, a beard, the latest in the alaska senate vote count grossed out. because toyota developed this software that can simulate head injuries and helps make people safer. then they shared this technology with researchers at wake forest to help reduce head injuries on the football field. so, you know, i can feel a bit better about my son playing football. [ male announcer ] how would you use toyota technology

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will join me in a moment as promised attempting to start up a 527 group that might begin to counter the conservative money machines of karl rove and the u.s. coc, u.s. chamber of congress and our number two story, also this other rad venture. a lunch. the prize for brock's winning bid of $86,000 and the online auction to benefit the global poverty project, mr. brock along with five other attendees of his choosing will dine with rupert murdoch. you know, the head of news corp, fox, about which mr. brock's

media matters so regularly performs a fact check. still looking for one. i can hear it now. no, no, rupert is here he's just invisible at the moment, david. joining me now the founder and ceo of media matters for america, david brock. good evening, david. >> good to be with you, keith. >> let's go to the 527 group thing first. can you confirm that is something you were trying to establish? >> well, yeah, this is what i could tell you, so as you know, starting wednesday and an enterprising reporter greg sergeant in "the washington post" reported my intention to form an independent effort to elect democrats and defeat republicans in this next election cycle, okay? >> uh-huh. >> "the post" was accurate in all respects except for one, "the post" said that i was forming a 527 with partial donor disclosure. >> uh-huh. >> it was an easy mistake. i don't know who greg sergeant talked to. he talked to people who talked

to me and to most people this is a lot of gobbledygook and frankly you know i'm not a lawyer and it can seem that way to me too so let me just clear that up. what i am forming is an independent expenditure committee that can accept unlimited donations from individuals, from corporations, from unions, can raise money online in small dollars. these kinds of federal committees are required by law to fully disclose their donors and to release every expenditure and report to the s.e.c. any expenditure over $200 so we're going to follow that law. >> so you're going to set up obviously this is an answer to some degree to the chamber of commerce and the karl rove thing, however, they aren't raising money without having to reveal, you know, whether or not it came from this planet and you're obviously going to be not just partially disclosing but totally transparent and total disclosure essentially anything you said above $2 roo. can you compete.

>> that's right. >> can you compete when you're playing under rules and they're not playing under any? >> sure. look, here's the thing, first of all, let's look at what has just happened. okay? the republican independent groups versus the democratic independent groups in this cycle. they spent about $100 million more than the democratic independent groups. i think what people are missing in this, though, is if you look back, you know, progressive donors have stepped up when ask ed to advance our values, our american values through politics. they've come through. so i think the problem in this last cycle is very simple. no one asked. >> uh-huh. >> we know, we know and, you know, particularly since last week that elections have consequences, we know we can't

sit on the sidelines. we know we cannot disarm, and so why we're doing this is really for the future of the country, keith. for the folks out there who are suffering, the republicans are not going to help them. this effort for these folks, it's going to help them, and what we're going to do is we are going to win. house, senate, president and one of the lessons we learned this year is we need to start now. >> david brock of media matters, great thanks and as to the murdoch lunch my only suggestion is make one of those inviteties a food taster. all the best. >> thank you very much. >> we're going to do a segment on similarities between george w. bush's new book and bob woodward's books. there are some one we mentioned at the start of the program. only when i saw the actual books before air was it evident that a lot of these so-called similarities appear only when some very selective editing is

done either in bush's book o the other ones so the segment is dead. back instead in a moment with a thurber story appropriate to the mood, his war of words with the local character everybody else loves, a friend of the earth. ued to over 40 campbell's condensed soups. ued helps us reduce sodium, but not flavor. so do a few lifts. campbell's.® it's amazing what soup can do.™ the doctor leaned over and said to me, "you just beat the widow-maker." i was put on an aspirin, and it's part of my regimen now. [ male announcer ] be sure to talk to your doctor before you begin an aspirin regimen. go see your doctor now.

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ah, the rural rustic stage, the standard character in every small town from bank gore, maine, to soda city, california. james thurber hates his guts. i'm reading tonight from thurber country originally printed in 1949. at the time when the author really was living in the wilds of connecticut where one of these local yokels really ticked him off. never get into a war of words with an author as mr. thurber reminds us in "a friend of the earth" by james thurber. when my mother was in ludlow,

connecticut on one of her visits ten years ago she took a fancy to so zef leggen. practically everyone did except miss leggen and me and he gave her a picture of themselves. people were always taking pictures of him in one of his framous poses playing his harmonica, whittling, drousing in a chair against the lull of his shed, eating a hard boiled egg, the most celebrated of the egg studies shows him on his 36th day or his 36th dare the day he ate three dozen at a sitting on a bet. zef was a character in the classic mold, a lazy rusz tick philosopher whose comic criticism of the futility of action and accomplishment made up, i was told, for his inability to complete a task, his failure to show up on time or sometimes even at all, his genius at waggish confusion and his light regard for the convenience of others. wait till you meet zef leggen an ecstatic neighbor said to me.

he'll drive you nuts but you'll love him. we all do. except miss elden. we always hire him for odd jobs. used to be a master carpenter, they say but now he doesn't give a good goddamn. funniest guy i ever heard. lost my wife ten years ago he'll say. play it straight. say that's too bad. yep, he'll tell you lost her in a dry good store, slipped out the back door. ha, ha, ha. for such bewildered foreign eyes as may fall upon these lines i should explain that ours is a good natured commonwealth of separate men and stooges willing and eager to let a wall crumble or a roof sag or a pipe freeze, if the vandal responsible for the trouble has a will rogers grin, a soft drawl and a dry way of saying things, must be something grave, the matter with me from the moment i set eyes on efraim j.zef leggen i wanted to poke him in the nose. for the sake of a fair record i must report that zef took an

instant dislike to me too. zef was asitting in front of his shack and a laying his mouth organ, he called it ole pa ria i heard later. when paul morton a neighbor i quoted earlier led me up to him one afternoon i was presented to zef leggen of the it was regard as an honor if he stopped playing, i was told, opened his eyes and daned to speak. zef, i wanted you to meet mr. thurber, said paul. zef kempt right on playing. a new neighbor of hours. paul went on. zef finished another bar of "nelly gray" and looked up at paul, not me, he a married man he asked. that nettled me. he hadn't acknowledged the introduction by so much as a nod and he didn't like the practiced twinkle in his eye. i can see what was coming and i beat him to the punch. it was small of me, i suppose but i offered the purely human excuse that we had come to dislike each other in the first few seconds.

i lost my wife ten years ago, i heard myself saying in a strained but chilled tone. twinkling in zef's eyes died and a hard look took its place. with a rapier's crossed and clashing he was shrewd all right and not slow of mind. he knew that i must have been tipped off to his opening gambit. he threw a quick bailful glance at paul but must have figured was the at that timele tale. lost her in a dry goods store, eh, zef asked me and the devil took hold of my tongue. she died, i said, coldly. it almost brought him out of his tilted chair then he saw the astonished look that paul gave me and he knew i was trying to knock his foil from his hand by an inexcusable trick. that's too bad, bub, he said nastit nastitily. i want to show you my studio. but zef and i were glaring at each other. yes, she died laughing, i said,

at a back woods voltaire. come on, jim, for god's sake, said paul taking me by the arm. zef closed his eyes, leaned back and began to play again on his harmonica. the bargain of our enemity was sealed. the only thing miss eden and i had in common was the lonely immunity of zef leggen and since she was a hard and hollowed old lady there were moments when i thought i belonged to the wrong school of thought. she had not spoken to zef since the day of the great insult may 16, 1934. she kept all dates important and otherwise neatly arranged in the back of her mind along with her fine collection of old platitudes. on the day in question she had summoned zef to her house, rather she had summoned him a week before and he had finally shown up on the 16th and told him her problem was beatles in

the pantry. he had a reputation as an exterminator. he would never tell what he used except that it had been given to his great grandmother by a sick indian she had nursed back to health. hey, beatles in your pantry, ma'am, said zef, these cockroaches, miss elden's nose expressed disgust. well, whatever they are, she said, there's big as mice. she had asked for it and she walked right into it. zef's eyes twinkled and put on his sunday drzal only way to get rid of cockroaches as big as mice, ma'am, is to stop drinking. she ordered him out of the house and he shambled away playing "po "polywaddle doodle" on his harmonica. the man is gross. i had some difficulty maintaining an expression of disapproval of the grave man but i managed it. part one of "a friend of the earth" by james thurber.