than sergeant brennan and specialist mendoza that are the unsung heroes of this war and will never come back and return a handshake or give a hug or see their family again. we have to take the time to remember them because that is the quality of american soldiers we have, wanting to go to war and fight and do whatever is necessary until the battle's done. thanks for coming again. take care. >> medal of honor is the highest military award given by the united states of america. it is bestowed very rarely. it is bestowed excruciatingly rarely to those who survive to receive it. today is an important day. now it is time for "the last word" with lawrence o'donnell. weddings are fun. well, that's what it says on my teleprompter anyway. i got to say it for the rest of this opening bit to work. so i'll start over. weddings are fun. there's a big ceremony, a fun reception, then the honeymoon, but the honeymoon doesn't last long and then you have to figure out how to live together. good luck with that.

the royals are getting ready for the wedding of the century, but washington is showing them what happens next. dealing with the in-laws. >> i appreciate michael steele's service. >> okay. calm down. >> i'm looking for some alternatives right now. >> attacking sarah palin. >> i don't think that she enjoyed governing. >> i'm hoping that nancy pelosi will step aside. >> democrats and republicans and their own family struggles to get their own houses in order. >> i haven't decided who i would support. >> head of the republican national committee, michael steele gets a vote of no confidence from the tea party republican senator from south carolina. >> i want to look at the choices. >> and gets blindsided by an informer inside his own office. >> your mismanagement of money and mismanagement of the rnc. >> sarah palin's nemesis is closer than ever of to beating the half-term governor. her write-in campaign could

defeat palin's tea party candidate. >> you would not support sarah palin. >> i just do not think that she has those leadership qualities, that intellectual curiosity. i don't think that she enjoyed governing. >> and the republicans still haven't dealt with their tea party problem. >> let's talk about earmarks. >> mitch mcconnell. >> the ban on spending called earmarks. >> oh, my goodness. >> and for democrats, the fight over nancy pelosi. >> speaker pel oeser as minority lead are is unacceptable. i will challenge her. >> we don't do marriage well in this family. >> good evening from los angeles. i'm lawrence o'donnell. republicans are celebrating their success by attacking party leaders. in spite of taking the house, republicans are blaming chairman of the republican national committee michael steele for not taking back the senate. one of steele's top aides

resigned today and leaked his four-page resignation letter that calls steele incompetent, blames him for mismanaging everything from get out the vote efforts to fund-raising and leaving the rnc $15 million in debt. this weekend, tea party republican senator from south carolina jim demint said steele must go. >> i appreciate michael steele's service, but i'm looking for some alternatives right now. i haven't decided who i would support. but we need a strong national republican organization to help organize the energy of the tea parties and the other citizen activism that we're seeing out there right now. we need to make sure we have a lot of boots on the ground. >> former michigan republican chairman calls michael steele a friend, but he's also running to take michael steele's job as head of the republican national committee. thank you for joining me tonight. >> glad to be with you, i think.

>> yeah. well, you can decide afterwards how glad you are. the republican dictionary, could you please read for me what it says beside the word "friend" in the republican dictionary? >> well, look, a friend is somebody who is a person who has a relationship with somebody, a friend that works with somebody. but this has nothing to do with us personally. this isn't about michael steele and this isn't about saul anuzis. this is what's best for the republican party. >> and what is your case against michael steele? what has he done wrong? why does he have to be replaced? >> i think that the number one reason that we need change is that the circumstances have changed. in 2008 after we came off two very bad cycles, republicans were looking for a national spokesperson, to have somebody that would be the face and the voice of the party. michael steele made that case to the committee. i ran against him on a nuts and bolts strategy and he ended up

winning. this time around we've elected a majority in the house, a speaker of the house that will have a voice. governors and senators across our country that represent a large number of our demography. now we have to return to a nuts and bolts approach. that's the alternative that i'm going to offer. >> would you say over his term michael steele has -- how does it net out? has he helped or hurt the party? >> well, i think he's been probably a net help overall, but clearly, look, he's got a number of successes but he's obviously had some pretty big bumps in the road as well. we have a responsibility as a board of directors for the national committee, so to speak to take a look at what we're going to need for the next two years. people are coming to the consensus that we need change, and we'll come to a different type of direction, a different type of focus and get people to get the trains to run on time and get out the vote to support

our candidates. >> but he has a pretty good winning record for a party chairman, if you assign those wins to him. these governorships, new jersey and others that were big wins for your party. winning the house of representatives. you guy, i hope you're not getting used to that. that was a historic rarity, that's an amazing achievement. what i'm wondering in terms of the winning electoral record for michael steele, which is extraordinary, does this all come down to the senate and does it all come down the christine o'donnell, joe miller and these tea party candidates that have, in effect, lost you the senate this time around? if you had nominated other candidates in those races, the republicans would have held on. >> yeah. i don't think it's that simple. look, michael steele led the party and was clearly part of many of the victories, but at the same time, there were a lot of things that we could have done differently. again, the circumstances are now

changing where we have to reassess whether or not we want new leadership. this debate we'll have over the next six weeks is to some extent people will be looking back at the past and judging him based on his record. the record is pretty clear. there will be good pluses and minuses. but more importantly we'll be look at the future. the candidates will be focusing on how do we prepare for 2012? we've got a presidential race coming up. we've got over 30 senate seats plus 20 of them are held by democrats. great opportunity for us to take the senate. i think you'll see 90% of the focus will be on the future and who is the right person to lead us the next two years. >> now on november 11th when you announced your candidacy for the rnc chairman, you said this is about one thing -- ending barack obama's presidency before he destroys our country. now, for the sake of saving time, i'm going to ignore the silly spin about obama destroying the country. the number one thing, ending

barack obama's presidency requires a candidate who can beat him. who do you have -- >> absolutely. >> who is the best candidate in the republican field to beat barack obama? who can do it? >> well, i think we have a lot of people who can do it. this is the process we go through. i'm very comfortable and very confident if you take a look at the names that are currently being mentioned not to mention the crop of senators who have emerged, i think we'll have a very robust debate. you'll see great republican leaders step forward. and we'll offer people a tremendous alternative. i'm convinced that this is going to be a very competitive race talking about the issues that matter to the people of this country. i think republicans will have a great chance at taking back the white house. it is a critical election for this country's history. >> now, saul anuzis, if you are the chairman of the republican party, do you see it as your role to prevent the party, help prevent the party from making the mistake of nominating a

hopeless loser, someone who has no chance of winning, as you did in 1996 with bob dole, as the democrats did in 1998 with michael dukakis, as these parties do from time to time? and who is the biggest loser in your field that you worry about the most getting the nomination? do you agree with the white house that their dream candidate is sarah palin and sarah palin is your worst nightmare if you're party chairman? >> well, i think that's a pretty big nightmare that the obama folks have to worry about as well. look, i think that we have a process. it is a longstanding process that has worked out very well in general. our candidates campaigned in all 50 states as they go for our nomination to become the republican nominee. that process helps us weed out the stronger candidates and most of the time we nominate a very strong candidate. i don't think it is my job or anybody's job to dictate who the republicans nominate nor is it

our jobs to dictate who the democrats nominate. let the process work its way through and let meese candidates make their best case. we'll choose a nominee that will go up against president obama. i'm very comfortable that any of the people we choose will be a serious challenge to the president. >> come on, saul, before you go. it's msnbc. republicans aren't watching. they won't know you said this. if palin gets the nomination, obama's re-election is automatic, isn't it? >> i just completely disagree. i think anybody who underestimates sarah palin and her ability to appeal to the american people and connect would be making a major mistake. i personally have said before i'm not sure she wants to run. she's clearly keeping her options open. but she's going to be a major player that will influence this political process for some time to come. if the liberals and the democrats underestimate her, you'll be making a huge mistake. >> i don't think she's going to run. i think you'll be saved that

problem. saul anuzis, thank you very much for joining us tonight. >> great to be with you. thank you very much. >> now to the struggles on the democratic side. last week the co-chairman of the president's bipartisan national commission on fiscal responsibility reform released a draft of their plan to balance the budget by 2015. like many democrats, congressman jan schakowsky who is also a member of that commission immediately opposed the simpson-bowles proposal. president obama didn't like that. saying before anybody starts shooting down proposals, i think we need to listen, we need to gather up all the facts. now congresswoman schakowsky has done just that. she's drafted her own version of a deficit reduction package, a version she claims would reduce the deficit by $427 billion by 2015, all without harming the poor or middle class. among her proposals, 110 billion

in cuts to defense spending. letting the bush tax cuts for the top two brackets expire. enact a cap and trade system. and increases in social security taxes. joining me now congresswoman jan schakowsky. thanks for joining us tonight, congresswoman. >> thank you, lawrence. >> now, the biggest tax increase you have in your proposal ooze i've scanned it is the elimination of the capital gains tax rates so that capital gains is taxed at the same rate as other income, something that i think is a great idea. but the capital gains tax rate, as you know, has been a sacred cow for a long time. do you think you can get democrats to unite on a tax -- what is in effect a tax increase on capital gains especially for the higher income taxpayers. >> i want this proposal to be taken seriously.

i think it does start the discussion about who really is going to pay the bill for the deficit and the debt that was created not by the middle class and not by lower income people but often by the coupon clippers, those people who make money off their investments and not by the sweat of their brow. this is something that needs to be fully discussed. we can cut -- if we're serious about deficit and dead reduction, reductio -- debt reduction, we can do that without these people that have created this debt that we have and are really victims of the economic decline right now. >> now, i really have to congratulate you, congresswoman schakowsky for actually coming to work and coming up with a proposal. it doesn't get to a balanced

budget, but it used to be taken very seriously in washington. that's what president clinton did in his deficit reduction bill in his first year in office. you also have in here is the cap and trade bill which one democratic senator elect has said he absolutely won't allow, a senator from west virginia. it seems from a practical standpoint unlikely that you would get cap and trade through the senate. which brings us back, if we're going to talk energy taxes, to what is in the simpson-bowles proposal, a gasoline tax, something that we know how to do and have increased before. is that where you think the compromise might end up in the area of energy taxation? >> there might be except a gasoline tax doesn't impose a burden on lower income people who still drive to work and have to buy gas. if we end up with a gas tax, i would certainly want some sort of benefit to offset the cost to lower income people.

you know, again, we have seen over the last couple decades middle income people losing ground. all of the growth during all the bush years went to the top richest people. and it seems to me that now saying that we all have to share the pain, we all have to share the sacrifice doesn't take into account who's really been sacrificing all these years. i proved that we can actually get to a budget, serious budget cuts by 2015 without hurting middle class people. >> congresswoman schakowsky, do you think your kind of plan, which is more of a first step toward balance is the way to go at this point, especially in light of the fact that we're trying to gain altitude out of a recession? there's an economic argument to say we shouldn't be trying to do too much deficit reduction too

quickly, that the deficit reduction should wait until we are clear of the recession and then we should do it more carefully than some of the kind of quicker timetable deficit reduction and balanced budget proposals that are out there. >> exactly. the simpson-bowle proposal does begin to make cuts by 2012, which i think is too early. we should be investing $200 billion in 2011 and '12 to create more jobs, to help move the economy forward before we start really making those cuts. but actually, lawrence, to achieve primary budget balance, that is, to actually balance the budget minus the money that -- the interest that we'll pay on the debt, my proposal does that by 2015. that was our assignment by the president of the united states. this is a good start.

i cut, for example, the tax expenditure, the tax break that you get for meals and entertainment. and yet this proposal would actually put a cap on discretionary spending that could cut food stamps. food stamps or the tax break for corporate meals, two-hour lunches. i think that the choice is simple for me. >> well, there are unintended consequences in all these things. people are going to get laid off when you cut that tax, dishwashers and people that democrats care about. nothing in this is easy. that's one of the things that i think is gray about your proposal. you are willing to take on things that are difficult and stake out a position and seeing these counterproposals is what makes the dialogue reel. when people just come up and trash your proposal or trash simpson-bowles without coming up with an alternative, that's where the system take us

nowhere. do you think in a lame duck session wrsh where do you think we're going on taxation. >> my position would be that we extend the tax cuts for the middle class people and not the top 2%. i think it's possible that we do all of the extensions for a year. i would argue strenuously against going anymore than a year and certainly not making the top tax cuts permanent extension in any way. but i think a year is all we ought to do. but here's the other problem. in order to do that, i think we have to make sure that unemployment insurance is extended. that has to be part of the deal. millions of people are about to lose their unemployment insurance. this is bad for them and it's also bad for the economy if that many people have no money in their pocket to buy things, to create demand and thus to move the economy forward. >> congresswoman schakowsky, the white house is afraid of not

getting a deal, not getting a tax bill so that in people's paychecks in january, they will see a very significant tax increase in their paychecks. the white house is afraid of that happening. it sounds like they're willing to do anything to not allow that to happen. do you think that the democrats should be willing to say no and if the tax bill is not to their liking, to say no and allow taxes to increase in january and see if they can fight this out again next year? >> well, certainly that would have a down side to the economy, but i'll tell you, lawrence, if we can't extend unemployment insurance benefits, if the deal is we have to give the wealthiest americans $700 billion of tax breaks but we can't give the unemployed an extension in their -- for a little bit of money in their pockets, i think that that is a deal that democrats really can't make. >> congresswoman jan schakowsky,

democrat of illinois, thank you for making a real contribution on where we go from here. >> thank you, lawrence. >> after a bruising emptied tmie white house turns its sights on 2012. is she the republican they're hoping to run against? remember the florida pastor who threatened to burn the koran? today he took his protest straight to ground zero. hey, guys, i know i've been bad at this in the past,

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president obama called the midterm losses a shellacking. what can he do to turn thing around by 2012? richard wolffe joins me. sarah palin is changing the english language. [ gobble, gobble ]

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a new book by richard wolffe goes inside the obama white house to document the new presidency's struggle for survival. in the aftermath of the midterm election's disastrous results and renewed talk of compromise on republican priorities like tax cuts and deficit reduction, he write, how and why obama grew detached from change even as he was enacting big changes is one of the stories at the heart of his white house. it is the paradox of a president who wanted to effect change while seeming unchanged, who entered office on a wave of public emotion while appearing unmoved by it all, who campaigned as an outsider and

governed as an insider. joining me now is richard wolffe author of "revival, the struggle for survival inside the obama white house." richard, do all new presidents have any choice other than campaigning as an outsider and governing as an insider? >> well, if you come in with 80% approval rating and you control both sides of congress, you can do pretty much whatever you like. you don't have to poll members in the way that maybe establishment figures would like you to do. you campaigned on a slogan of change and talked about reform and then sign an appropriations bill that has 9,000 earmarks in it and proceed to conduct business in an untarns parent way. doing deals with industry folks, democratic senators in a way that undermines the campaign brand that you've worked together for 21 months for. so yes, he had a choice, but his choice was to govern first and

to assume that the other party would join them in governing. and that was a giant mistake. >> what was the alternative choice? >> the alternative choice was to take his case to the public on a number of different issues. for a start, look, we're going to come to health care pretty quickly, so let's start with that. if you start out saying we're going to hand over the formation of this policy and learn is lessons of clinton and hand over the formation of policy to leaders in congress, that means you cannot actually go out and sell a policy framework at all. it was true on the economy as well where an economic team deeply divided was giving the white house no story to tell about what they were trying to do. if you don't decide the policy, you cannot communicate it. one thing it seeps that everybody can agree on is that this white house has lacked a communication strategy. for me that's because of this essential fault line in this white house. >> another bill clinton lesson is that he started campaigning the day after the disastrous midterm elections that were

actually worse for him. he lost the house and the senate in his second year. he started campaigning for re-election that day. is the obama white house in campaign re-elect mode now? >> not right now, but it's most clearly focused on that. you're going to see people drift away very quickly to re-establish things in chicago. i will say this about what i saw at the start of this year coming straight after the massachusetts defeat. everyone said at the time this presidency's over, the agenda's over. they recovered themselves. they revived themselves by getting back to a campaign mode. so people have said before, they said after new hampshire, they said after texas and ohio, this guy was finished. when he we gains that campaign identi identity, when he revives himself that way, he can connect with people. now, this is a bigger challenge than massachusetts, of course, but campaign spirit is what got health care over the finish line. >> well, it was also a

willingness to compromise on anything, which brings us to the lame duck session. what will the alababecome obama re-elect team want out of it. will they want a candidate who has stood his ground against republicans on the top tax brackets? >> well, they know they have to speak out to independent voters who have drifted away from them so sharply over the last two years. so first of all, they've got to look reasonable. secondly they've got to protect what's left of economic growth in this recovery. so the default position here is either do nothing or kick this can down the road for two years. you and i both know if they're going to defer this, that's the easiest thang they'll do and that will be for everyone. so they're going to have a fight, lay out some principles, but a, look reasonable, and b, get by and they're working with a bunch of scared democrats, as you know. >> is sarah palin the white

house's dream candidate in 2012 for the republicans? >> she is, but they kind of like the idea of some of these governors, too. the vice president told me there's governor barbour out there and jindal. they were happy to take those recovery checks. they've not really exploited that to many people because those recovery checks kept those state budgets alive. they're going to be campaigning against everything to do with that recovery act. >> yeah, but there's nothing like a governor who quit before the recovery check showed up. richard wolffe, author of "revival." thank you for joining us tonight. >> thank you, lawrence. florida pastor terry jones backed away from burning the koran on september 11th to protest the construction of an islamic center near ground zero. today he brought his protest straight to ground zero. sam harris, author of "moral landsca landscape" joins me. and as great britain makes

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terrorists have won. what does the reaction say about the united states and the reaction to islamic extremists? and later, sarah palin made the history books as the first female running mate for the republican presidential ticket. now, she's changing the dictionary thanks to her inventive word refudiate. e to ge capital for money. they come to us for help. at ge capital, we've been financing taylor guitars for over eight years, helping them build a strong dealer network. bringing music to people... i like that. ♪ ♪ [ bob ] i didn't know you could play. i didn't either. ♪ ♪ ♪

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in the spotlight tonight, remember that crazy florida pastor who threatened to burn a copy of the koran on september 11th to protest the planned islamic community center near ground zero? well, it took him two months, but pastor terry jones finally visited the proposed site for the mosque today. jones encouraged those building the mosque to do as he did with the whole burning the koran thing and just change their minds. but he also discussed a larger mission, that of his new organization stand up america

which will combat radical islam worldwide. >> know that there is a very strong, violent element of islam. we see that very, very clearly in things that have happened in america like ft. hood, we see it clearly in what just happened in iraq where around 58 people were brutally kill and murdered. we have to understand in america is that these things happen in the middle east on a regular basis. that is why we hope sooner or later to bring our request in some form in front of the u.n., that we might be able to look into these things and demand that these countries like iraq, iran, even egypt, that they begin to adopt normal human rights. >> joining me now, co-founder of project reason and "new york

times" best selling author of "the moral landscape, how science can determine human values." sam harris. thanks for being here. >> thank you. >> so how crazy is pastor terry jones? >> he might be crazy, he's not crazy about islam, however. inconvenient for our democracy that only our own religious demagogues are making sense and speaking candidly about the nature of islam. we have this one word, religion, which everyone wants to think names doctrines. there's sports like badminton and boxing and they have nothing in common except for breathing. the doctrines of martyrdom and jihad. only our own religious lunatics frankly are incessantly honest about the liabilities of these ideas. and people like mayor bloomberg that 9/11 had nothing to do with

islam and islam is a religion of peace, that is delusional on its face. and i think it's a destabilizing lie that we can't keep telling ourselves. >> someone like pastor jones can be, in your view, right about islam, but what animates him is a defensive competitiveness about his own religion. mine's better than yours. my religion is better than yours and here's how crazy your religion is. that's what directs his thinking? >> he's right for the wrong reasons. and this is something that should trouble us. i'm worried about living in a world where the only people who are certain of moral truth are religious demagogues who think the universe is 6,000 years old and we'll have a dangerous game. we have to talk honestly about human well-being and the factors that encourage it. pastor jones is not well equipped to do that. he's well equipped to notice that the jihadists believe what

they say they believe. and they're infringing their rights on women based on beliefs and not based on economic problems or our own missteps in our war on terror. but we have to talk about -- we should be talking about nuclear proliferation and climate change and education and poverty, not about thins like gay marriage, which i'm sure pastor jones is also exercised by and we shouldn't be watching cartoonists have their lives threatened by people who can't tolerate jokes about the prophet muhammad. >> reporter: ron paul says the building of t-- banning of the is like blaming all christians for the occupation because some christians supported the neoconservative wars in iraq and

afghanistan. >> that would be great if it were not. >> what's not true about that? >> osama bin laden is given a very implausible interpretation of islam. >> people say he's distorting the text and islam doesn't say that. you say islam does say what osama bin laden says it does. >> yes. now, you can split some hairs and talk about just when should an apostate be killed. but the crime of apostacy is punishable by death in islam. just the product of human minds, the prophet muhammad was a man like any other man. there's no reformed judaism version of islam. >> but there are moderate muslims. >> i should be clear. in criticizing islam, i'm not criticizing all muslims. there are muslims who don't take the doctrine very seriously, don't read the koran with any

attention. >> same thing in any religion. >> but islam is at a very different moment in its history. it's as though we're encountering the christians of the 14th century armed with 21st century weapons. we have a real problem with islam. it is not an accident that we're not having this conversation about the amish or quakers or jains or even buddhists. ideas have consequences and the idea that you can get to paradise by dying in defense of the faith, in fact, dying in defense of the faith is the best thing that could possibly happen to you, that is a mainstream notion in islam. >> -- in how catholicism worked its way through its homicidal phase of a couple centuries for present-day islamic extremists? >> yeah. the problem is we just don't have 500 years to work it out. we're burning heretics alive for five centuries in europe. it's understandable based on a certain reading of the bible.

we have incredibly destructive technology spreading all over the world. it is getting increasingly easy for one person to screw up life for millions. and so i think we have some decades at best to get straight about this and to build a viable global situation that is compatible with human well-being. and religious demagoguery of any kind is the worst piece of software to have running on your brain when it comes time to actually engage that challenge. >> sam harris, author of "the moral landscape." >> thank you very much. >> sarah palin didn't go to oxford, but she's making the oxford dictionary. i'll refudiate that decision in tonight's rewrite. william and kate are getting married. who cares? these subjects of the queen of england, that's who. exactly how infantile do you have to be to care about a royal wedding?

will the wedding of william and kate hasten the end of the royal family as people focus on how much the windsors actually cost the public and how unbearably absurd it is to have a real life queen in the 21st century. will sarah palin bring about an end to english as we know it now that her word refudiate has made its way into a dictionary as word of the year? by thorough preparation for events to come. well somewhere along the way, emily went right on living. but you see, with the help of her raymond james financial advisor, she had planned for every eventuality. which meant she continued to have the means to live on... even at the ripe old age of 187. life well planned. see what a raymond james advisor can do for you.

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time for tonight's rewrite. leaving aside the mount been inevitably of alaska senator lisa murkowski closing in on victory over sarah palin's chosen candidate, it's been a good week so far for the most recent vice presidential candidate who will never be president. sarah palin's tlc reality series debuted to record breaking ratings. i is at this point i feel compelled to remind you that tlc stands for the learning channel. nearly 5 million people watched the premiere on sunday, which is way more than watch any cable news show. but while reality shows eventually fade away, sarah palin made a much more lasting and damaging contribution to society this week. she is being allowed to rewrite the english language. yes, our english language. well, ours and england's and

canada's. australia's. you know. the editors of the publicity seeking new oxford american dictionary, not to be confused with the still authoritative oxford english dictionary have named refudiate as the 2010 word of the year. used loosely to mean reject. she called on them to refudiate the proposal to build a mosque. its original blend of refute and repudiate. palin was ridiculed when she first tweeted the word on july 18th. her tweet was quickly deleted, but the damage was done. so palin followed that up with this tweet comparing herself to shakespeare. because he liked to coin new words, too. but her very first use of the word was actually a few days earlier on fox news. >> the president and his wife, the first lady, spoke at naacp so recently, they have power in

their words. they could refudiate what it is this group is saying. >> the editors of the new oxford american dictionary write, critics pounced on palin lampooning what they saw as nonsensical vocabulary and saying whether she meant refute or repudiate. they go on to say from a strictly lexical interpretation of the different contexts which palin has use read feud yat, we have concluded that neither refute norepudiate seem consistently precise and that refudiate more or less stands on its own suggesting a general sense of reject. i don't know what's wrong with the word reject then. these are people that call themselves the publishers of the world's most trusted dictionary. this is the dictionary used on the amazon kindle and built into the operating systems of apple computers.

today the last word's lexicographer nick ramsey checked and his iphone still treats refudiate as a typo. but no doubt sarah palin and her supporters will take this honor and run with it. next they'll be demanding that cartographers actually move russia even closer to sarah palin's house. [ j. weissman ] it was 1975. my professor at berkeley asked me if i wanted to change the world. i said "sure." "well, let's grow some algae."

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♪ love and marriage ♪ love and marriage ♪ go together like a horse and carriage ♪ >> it's the announcement royal watchers have been waiting for and no sane person should care about. britain's prince william will marry his longtime girlfriend kate middleton some time next spring or summer on a date the

royal family calculates will get them the biggest tv audience, the royal family being, of course, the world's longest running unfunny reality show. the supposedly happy couple faced a barrage of questions and flash bulbs in front of reporters with nothing else to do today. and the engagement ring prince william gave to middleton may look familiar to jewelry fetishists around the world. >> it is family ring, yes, my mother's engagement ring. i thought it was quite nice. because obviously she's not around to share in the fun and excitement. so this is my way of keeping her close. >> in a hopeless attempt to make the existence of the royal family seem perfectly legitimate in the 21st century, the queen sent out this tweet. the queen and the duke of edinburgh are absolutely delighted that the at the news of prince william and catherine middleton's engagement.

joining me laura, a queen, really, in the 21st century? what is wrong with you people? >> well, lawrence, you got rid of your king, of course. george iii back in 1776. i guess if no one was really interested then i wouldn't be here talking to you now and nightly news wouldn't have devoted the best part to it. but people are fascinated with the royals because of the continuity in britain. the queen herself has known every single prime minister since winston churchill. you know, back in the 19th century, a writer on the british constitution said they were dignified and efficient bits of the way the british government work. well, the royals are the dignified bit of it. and it seems like the whole world loves a royal wedding. this is a chance for the monarchy after the trials and tribulations of charles and diana to get back on their feet in the 21st century. >> well, the trilts and

tribulations included a lot of undignified behavior along the way. what is the cost to british taxpayers of this fantasy of a royal family? >> the yeen actually pays income tax, i'll have you know. she started to pay tax, but the royals do get some money via civil list. but they bring in tourism. i've lost count of the number of american tour is i met outside buckingham palace showing a tremendous interest in royals. it may seem like an anachronism to have a royal family, but they have a role in british society which is above politics. the queen is there. she has the state opening of parliament every year. that's like your state of the union. and she doesn't -- you know, she represents the government that the people have elected. she doesn't do anything that is in contrast to the will of the people. she's even there sometimes to advise. this particular queen has known an awful lot about current

affairs. you may mock them, lawrence, but i can tell you, americans flock to see them. so perhaps you can tell me what the interest is. >> laura, what is the hole in the british soul that is filled by this mythological family? >> well, i guess that's easy for you to say because you threw them off -- >> it is. >> so now you just have an interest in the old country. but you know, in a sense, it's part of the glue. there are lot of things in britain that wouldn't be there if you had to invent them. look at the house of lords, for example, which is a second chamber which is also full of lots of people who didn't necessarily get there by virtue of being elected. but you know, the monarchy is something which is very british. and under the queen, it's something which has endured. and the serious point when char diana went through their very public breakup, there was questioning of the role of the monarchy and questioning of the role of charles as king.