>> and i think the death star just blew up behind you. tv's frank conniff. >> yes, there's a lot of very tragic incidents. i'm in a war zone. what can i tell you? >> the three stooges have taken over part of the battle. i'm not a bit surprised at all. they run the show. >> i speak for everyone when i say, nyuk, nyuk, nyuk. >> frank from war-torn santa's village, good luck out there and godspeed. >> god bless you, keith. >> thank you. that's december 13th, good night and good luck. here is rachel maddow. >> good evening, keith. thank you. we begin tonight with some breaking news. ambassador richard holbrooke has died. ambassador holbrooke was one of the most accomplished diplomats in the modern history of our country. he was most famous for having brokered an end to the bosnian war. he most recently has served as the president's key diplomat for afghanistan and pakistan.

president obama expressed his hopes for richard holbrooke's recovery today just before noon. >> richard holbrooke has been serving this nation with distinction for nearly 50 years, from a young foreign service officer in vietnam to the architect of the accords that ended the slaughter in the balkans, to advancing our regional efforts as our special representative to afghanistan and pakistan. and countless crisis and hotspots in between. he's simply one of the giants of american foreign policy. and as anyone who's ever worked with him knows or had the clear disadvantage of negotiating across the table from him richard is relentless. he never stops. he never quits, because he's always believed that if we stay

focused, if we act on our mutual interests, that progress is possible. wars can end. peace can be forged. so tonight we're all praying for richard's recovery. to the family, our thoughts are with you. and i know that everyone here joins me when i say that america is more secure and the world is a safer place because of the work of ambassador richard holbrooke. so michelle and i, the entire family, just know we are thinking and praying for you. for you and for richard every single day. and he is a tough son of a gun, so we are confident that as hard as this is, that he is going to be putting up a tremendous fight. >> ambassador richard holbrooke on friday fell ill while he was at the state department. what was initially reported as a suspected blood clot, turned out to be a torn aorta.

he underwent more than 20 hours of surgery over the weekend, but he died late this evening at the age of 69. although he was not yet even 70 years old, his diplomatic career began roughly 50 years ago. he was in saigon during the vietnam war. he was part of the american delegation to the paris peace talks. i believe he was 27 years old at the time. he offered one volume of the pentagon papers. he helped establish full diplomatic relations with china. he was dee the enlargement of nato. he settled the u.s. dues dispute at the united nations. he was trying to settle the u.s. war in afghanistan. and our disastrous relationship with our would-be sort of ally, pakistan up until the day he died. if there is something in u.s. foreign policy that happened under a democratic president in the last generation, it's something you heard about, then richard holbrooke was probably right in the middle of it. he was right in the middle of my

own attempts -- my show's own attempts to cover our ten-year afghanistan war, which he wouldn't want me to say its in its tenth year, but it is in its tenth year. andrea mitchell joins us now to underscore the importance of richard holbrooke today. i appreciate it. >> rachel, i don't think you can overstate the importance of richard holbrooke. clearly the most gifted, the most brilliant diplomat of his generation, but also such a larger than life personality. you know that from having covered him. he admired and respected you so greatly. just the force of his personality, the way he did business, the way he tried up until his last breath to transform afghanistan into a civilian, peaceful operation and not a war zone. >> i was -- when i first interviewed him, i struggled with finding appropriate

language to describe his role. because while he's a special representative of the president for afghanistan and pakistan, he had previously been ambassador to the u.n., had he been special envoy to everywhere. he had had all of these different titles. i ultimately settled on this very imprecise term of uberdiplomat. he was diplomat with whatever necessary portfolio the president found him -- thought that he needed to have. is there anybody else who has that kind of role? or is that role really invented for him? >> it was invented for him, because this was a man who was born to be secretary of state. as a child, he was friendly with dean rusk's son. that was, perhaps, what fed his desire, his interest in foreign policy, going, as you said too, vietnam, being at the vietnam peace talks, authoring a chapter in the pentagon papers. it was never to be. that was perhaps one of the great disappointments of his life. he perhaps would have been john kerry's secretary of state had

kerry won. and then because of the arrangement between hillary clinton and barack obama and the fact that he had been a clinton person loyal through the primaries, he was not going to be barack obama's choice. he was a hard man to deal with. he could frustrate you. he could be annoyer in chief. he had an enormous ego, perhaps also combined with some insecurities. but the creativity and the energy. i don't think any of us, and i have to tell you here, full disclosure, i count myself as a friend as well as someone who covered him, because knowing him all these years, you either loved him or you didn't. but he would perhaps be alive right now if he had not thrown himself into this job, traveling around the world. and i know of at least three instances where he did have blood clots and heart episodes unreported. one reported right before they were supposed to go to afghanistan, and he still

insisted in taking that trip. one unreported i know of personally from having witnessed it here in washington. and he still did not stop. and if you were in the embassy pressroom in pakistan as i was some months ago, he would pester you admit night because he had one more thing he wanted to tell you. and he would call you or you would call him, and he would be up around the clock. and that was just the nature of the man. not only tireless but bringing brilliance and creativity to everything he did. >> do you know if he knew that his health was in grave danger? i had been in correspondence with him about pakistan and afghanistan. chiefly abo boubout pakistan int months. he never portrayed to me any plans to slow down his travel, for example. >> no, he was not. he would not slow down his travel. the fact is, he took the thankless tasks. no one else would have taken this job, the bottom line was,

only by combining afghanistan and pakistan did he think you could pull all of the strands together and make some sort of sense out of the policy and do it on a regional basis. there were a lot of bumps on the road. his greatest victory, his triumph, which is a lasting one, the legacy, will be the bosnia accords. he single handedly with his brilliant team of chris hill and robert frazier who died within that motorcade in august of 1995 that went off the road in sarejevo, holbrooke was unable to persuade milosevic to allow them to fly in. they took the dangerous road and lost three gifted diplomats. he and chris hill survived. wes clark was with them. the fact is that no one else could have pulled together -- gone head-to-head with milosevic and stopped the genocide, stopped the war that no one else was able to bring to an end. that was his triumph. the dayton peace accords and

what he accomplished. as my colleagues who have covered him and were there throughout, jamie reuben in the state department, warren christopher for whom he worked, no one could have driven that, through the force of personality, through backing down this man milosevic and others who were accused of being war criminals, no one else could have pulled that off. >> andrea mitchell, thank you for making time for us on short notice. nice to see you. >> you bet. >> joining us now is steve clemons, good friend of richard holbrooke. he's author of the political blog, the washington notes. i know you were close with richard, i'm sorry for your loss tonight. >> thank you. i think many people who worked with him over the years are really feeling this enormous void right now. so -- >> steve, for americans who didn't know him, he's not a household name for people who don't know about foreign policy and don't follow foreign policy closely. but for americans who care about

american power in the world, who care about not just what we can project with our military, but the rest of our power too. how important was richard holbrooke to understanding that? >> i think he was extremely important, there are a lot of different factions in the foreign policy area. there are those that worry just about weapons systems and armies and realists. richard really focused on great humanitarian causes. and democracy and global justice. and i often found myself a critic of this field thinking that many people in the global justice community couldn't organize themselves out of a box. and i mean that politely. richard understood the importance of a playbook. understood the importance of how to organize to achieve results. i never met anyone more tenaciously committed to delivering on results. and negotiating and doing whatever had to be done to achieve positive outcomes. and sometimes people get lost in the methods and means, and thinking that has to be very

moral and right. and richard didn't get lost there. he always focused on the goals that he delivered, and i think that u.s. foreign policy now has a gaping hole, because there's really no one else like him. he was of the ilk of a kissinger, and there's just no one there any more. he was as andrea said -- it's going to become a cliche, larger than life. but he was just absolutely focused on delivering. >> steve, what do you think his loss means for our efforts in afghanistan and pakistan? that was his last assignment. >> i think it's very large. you know, he didn't have the security and defense portfolio, but he had the portfolio of sewing up the skeletal structure of what might be the next country there. and dealing with trying to get agricultural changes there. and trying to build civil society and get people to feel as if they could be stakeholders in their communities.

he brought together in the u.s. government about 17 different agencies and bureaus in a regular meeting. i remember talking to one of his senior -- you know, very big critics in the white house saying, i don't understand why holbrooke is just replicating the functions of government that already exist. and my response was, richard holbrooke is single handedly knocking down the bureaucratic barriers to moving forward. one of the things that's not known, i've been trying -- i was actually negotiating with richard over the last couple of weeks of trying to attend a sura meeting. we have in the u.s. government a weekly sura meeting of heads of these different agencies that come together and meet with richard and talk about the area. it's going to be an interesting story to go into. not just delivering on the ground there, but getting government to operate differently, i think, was a key part of this. the afpak portfolio is the single most toxic portfolio one could be given. and richard took that. it was a thankless task. i really do think he gave his life for the country in dealing

with this. and i think that there are very few people who are going to be able to hold together the structure that he put in place to try to move the u.s. government to behave less dysfunctionally than it normally does in a very, very complex challenge. >> steve clemons, a friend of america's uberdiplomat, richard holbrooke. author of "the washington note." thank you for being here, it's nice you to make time for us on short notice. >> thank you. much more to come, including a tax compromise in washington. big news on that today. please stay with us. >> ( baby crying ) >> grandfather: our first grandson. >> father: he sees you. >> ( "imagine" by john lennon playing ) >> ( laughing softly ) >> ( woman speaking korean ) >> ( child speaking korean ) >> ( children chattering )

>> dwight d. eisenhower: in the goodness of time, all peoples will come to live together in a peace guaranteed... >> john lennon: ♪ you may say ♪ i'm a dreamer ♪ but i'm not the only one >> ( blowing whistle ) >> ♪ i hope someday... >> good night, baby. >> ♪ ...you'll join us ♪ and the world ♪ will be as one >> woman: together, we are the human network. cisco. [ phones ping, buzz ]

[ laughs ] that's so dumb. [ laughter ] nice. [ male announcer ] don't be left behind. get it first with at&t. the nation's fastest mobile broadband network. period. rethink possible. whoa! that achy cold needs alka-seltzer plus! it rushes multiple cold fighters, plus a powerful pain reliever, wherever you need it! [ both ] ♪ oh what a relief it is!

i think it is only fair to warn you as a consumer of news about our nation's politics that the beltway media is about to become quite useless to you in your efforts to understand what is happening in our politics. the beltway media is about to venture into territory in which it is not capable of adequately describing what is going on. what's about to happen in

washington, is that liberals are about to say and show what they believe about something that's very important. and that will cause every mainstream publication that covers washington from inside the beltway to stop reporting what washington politics are saying. instead, they'll start writing these condescending think pieces about how deluded and dumb the people are who are saying those things. but they won't report what they are, because you couldn't possibly understand this crazy liberal talk. we've seen this happen again and again and again. whenever liberals become central to u.s. policies -- become central to u.s. politics, the beltway media that's responsible for covering what happens in washington, loses their ability to stay focused enough on what liberals are saying that they stop covering the debate itself, and instead cover the fact that liberals are complaining about something. and they do it in a generic way that helps you understand nothing of the real debate. we saw some of this on friday. bernie sanders taking to the floor of the united states senate for eight and a half

hours. not to just stand on the floor, not to be there as some sort of procedural door stop. not to stand there and read the phonebook, but to make an eight and a half hour long substantive case against the tax deal. beltway media coverage about senator sanders was essentially about this eccentric liberal saying something for a long time. making some point by his very presence. but damned if they would paraphrase his argument, let alone quote him. >> our republicans want -- our republican colleagues want huge tax breaks for the richest people in this country, but the reality is, that the top 1% already today own more wealth than the bottom 90%. how much more do they want? when is enough enough? you want it all? over the eight-year period of president bush from 2001 to 2009, we lost 600,000 private sector jobs. so for my friends, my republican

colleagues to tell us that we need more tax breaks for the very rich because that's going to create jobs. that's what trickle-down economics is all about, what i would say to them, you had your chance, it failed. >> senator bernie sanders, making a substantive fact-driven relatively cogent argument against president obama's tax cut compromise with republicans. because senator sanders is a liberal, the beltway coverage of his one-man stand may as well have been about him using that time to hold a love-in or some other incoherent but lefty protest. today the senate took an important step to approving the plan that senator sanders spent so much time arguing. by a vote of 83-15, the senate moved procedurally closer today to passing president obama's tax deal with congressional republicans. what happens next is that it

goes over to the house. what will happen in the house is that liberals and progressives will make their case against the deal. if you were in the beltway media, that's your signal to go take a coffee break. no reason to actually listen to these arguments, you know, liberals, blah, blah, blah, income disparity, blah, blah, blah, deficit, blah, blah, blah. guilded age, you know. no one knows what will happen with this deal in the house. it's entirely possible it will pass. among the reasons it's going to have a rocky road is this case against it. >> there are millions of americans who believe that when they die, their children will have to pay an estate tax. that is absolutely and categorically incorrect. the people who do pay are not the rich. it is the very, very, very rich.

walmart's owners, that's sam walton's family, the walton's own walmart, they are the heirs to the walmart fortune, which is worth -- you know, this may be dated it may be more or less now, about $86 billion. that's what this family is worth. one family, 86 billion. they're doing pretty good. if we abolish the estate taxes as our republican friends would have us do. have us do, the walton family alone would receive an estimated $32.7 billion tax break if the estate tax was completely removed. one family. $32.7 billion. this is patently insane. this is insane. >> that is not a hypothetical. this is not some fanciful misspelled rant on a poster at a hunt for peace rally. and i know hunt for peace rallies. that argument is true. it's one of the substantive objections to what's wrong with

the tax deal. senator sanders eluded that this tax deal contains a giant giveaway to the richaest people in the country. because the estate tax was folded into this deal instead of what happened if you left it alone, it would go back to the level it was at before the bush tax cut. instead of that, the estate tax is dropping like a rock. it's not just the walton family that will benefit from that. the last time the republicans tried to get rid of the estate tax was in 2006. at that time, some of the richest families in the country banded together to support the republican effort to kill it. according to a report from public citizen at the time 18 families pumped more than $200 million in an effort to kill the estate tax. why would they do that? let's say you're the mars family, lucky you. the net worth of the mars family right now is about $30 billion. if this compromise plan passes, it could save the mars family $6 billion in taxes. let's say you're the campbell

family, lucky you. best we know, that family's net worth is about $6.8 billion. if the president's compromise plan with republicans passes, it will save the heirs to the campbell's soup fortune about $1.3 billion. one family. both of those families in the past have lobbied to kill the estate tax. they've spent millions of dollars lobbying to kill the estate tax. and for good reason. if you were a member of the mars family and your family stood to save $6 billion, thanks to the republican estate tax plan, would you probably invest some small change in trying to get that benefit too. the reason -- the real reason house democrats oppose the tax deal that president obama came to with republicans, like the estate tax provision, the real reasons i hearby predict will not get broad and detailed attention from the beltway media. but the estate tax thing used to

be the kind of thing that democrats agreed drew the sharpest contrast between the democratic party's world view and the republican party's world view. >> the congress put it on its way to extinction, however, it comes back to life in 2011. and that's not right, and it's not fair. they need to put the stake in the heart of the death tax forever. and get rid of it. >> this is the paris hilton tax break. it's about giving billions and billions of dollars to billionaire heirs and heiresses at a time when american taxpayers can't afford it. if we, in fact, repeal or substantially cut the estate tax, this is what it means, it is breathtaking that we are even having this conversation. >> that was then-senator obama back in 2006 arguing against repealing the estate tax or even substantially cutting back. senator obama pleaded with his colleagues then to stand up to

that republican-led effort. >> my hope is, is that we stop this thing right here and now in the senate. and if we don't, then i'm looking forward to having a debate in november about what, in fact, we've done to the american people. >> what we have done to the american people. now, president obama says he did not want to either extend the bush income tax rates for the richest people in the country nor did he want to give them this giant multibillion dollar estate tax giveaway. what did he call it? the paris hilton tax break. he didn't want to do those two things. but in doing those two things, he thinks he got the best deal for the things he wanted. washington liberals say that deal is not good enough. that's why they're raising the hullabaloo that they are raising. i know it is an unspoken beltway rule that liberal arguments don't bear repeating. that liberals are always supposed to be represented in the media as incoherent.

but as a frequently incoherent and angry liberal myself, i can say what liberals are thinking and arguing is very much explicable. and the divide between what democrats say they value and are able to achieve politically is an emotional divide that will persist as a deep cleft in the democratic party from here on out, even if this tax deal passes. and that will be very important in understanding u.s. tax politics between now and 2012. liberals do not get their side of the story told well by the beltway press in washington. and in a story like this, that means the story gets missed. s d. one thing our scientists are working on is carbon capture and storage, which could prevent co2 from entering the atmosphere. we've just built a new plant to demonstrate how we can safely freeze out the co2 from natural gas.

it looks like snow. it's one way that we're helping provide energy with fewer emissions. [ breathes deeply, wind blows ] something wrong with your squeegee, kid? uh, i'm a little sick. sick?! you gonna let a sore throat beat you? you're fearless! ahhhhhhhhh! atta boy! [ male announcer ] halls. a pep talk in every drop. missing something? now you get a cleanser with scope freshness. new fixodent plus scope ingredients. cleans and kills germs that cause odors to your dentures. new fixodent cleanser plus scope ingredients.

oh, my gosh. [ male announcer ] we know diamonds. oh, my gosh. [ male announcer ] together we'll make her holiday. that's why only zales is the diamond store. where you'll pay no interest if paid in full by january 2012. aren't absorbed properly unless taken with food. he recommended citracal. it's different -- it's calcium citrate, so it can be absorbed with or without food. also available in small, easy-to-swallow petites. citracal. bring in the parrots. home. auto. life. you see, jack, when your home, auto and life insurance are with separate companies, they're just noisy, right ? but when they work together ? ♪ home ♪ auto life ♪ wow. beautiful. nationwide insurance can get your policies in sync,

and save you up to 25% ! i didn't know they could sing like that. hit it, fellas. ♪ nationwide is on your side ♪

do you think republicans -- >> not this year -- >> to sum up -- >> this was a war of obama's choosing. this is not something the united states had actively prosecuted or engaged in. >> the four of us are all wearing a hat that says gop for the sake of this argument. you wear your hat one way, kind of cocked out to the left. that's cool out west, right? in the midwest you wear it a little to the right. in the south you wear the brim straight ahead. now in the northeast, i wear my hat backwards. that's how we roll in the northeast. if i do something, there's a reason for it, even if it may

look like a mistake, there's a rationale, there's a logic behind it. i want to see what the landscape looks like. i want to see who yells the loudest. i want to know who says they stand with me, but they really don't. it helps me understand my position on the chess board. it helps me understand where the enemy camp is and where these who are inside the tent are. >> it's all strategic? >> it's all strategic. >> none of those things were mistakes, it's all strategic. and michael steele has looked into the tents that the enemy pitched on the chess board, he found something very surprising in those tents. today he messed up everyone in washington's expectations that today he would quit. instead he announced he will be running again to stay chairman of the republican party. even as the republican party's infrastructure teetered. even as the republican party just gave up on its famed 72-hour get out the vote program

for this election. even as people who worked with michael steele at the rnc went screaming to papers. even as the donors' money got spent at a lesbian themed strip club in west hollywood. remember that? even after all that, michael steele has announced he wants to hang on. we probably should have seen this coming when at the start of the election season this year, michael steele took a trip to guam and saipan, where no one is voting for congress. we probably should have seen this coming. but with michael steele, who can see anything coming? >> i don't need some judge sitting up there feeling bad for my opponent because of their life circumstances and condition. and short changing me and my opportunities to get fair treatment under the law. crazy nonsense empathetic.

i'll give you emathy. i'll empathize right on your behind. it's crazy. >> you know, we still own the url empathizerightonyourbehind.com. that is still ours. we have held on to it. very proud of that. hi, nice to see you. >> always good to see you, rachel. >> is that my stroke of pure web genius? >> perhaps can you sell that to the lesbian dominatrixes that might be out of a job should michael steele not be reelected. i know i having some sympathies would totally support him in his run. he does not have the support of a lot of actual republican national committee members. >> when he said, if i run it will be because i know i can win. you think he can't win? >> he's going to have an uphill battle, let's say. it's not surprising to me that he's running. he really has nothing to lose by running.

if nothing else, he has a chance to make the case that he's had a good run as chairman. and if -- whereas he just sort of gave up and went home, we were still making fun of him. whereas now we have more time to make fun of him. he may give us fresh material. and i think that this is mainly going to be a test for the republican -- i'm sorry, the republican national committee, which really is actually very different than the republican party as a whole. as to what kind of leader they want next time. i was talking to some people today. they don't want another michael steele. the quote i have here, we have someone who demanded attention, and we didn't like it. >> and it's a very small number of people that get to make this decision. to be a republican national committee member, and, therefore, to have a vote in this, means you are probably anonymous, probably very well off. and probably you have been lobbied by michael steele? >> you're not technically anonymous. >> no, but you're not well known. >> people who work in this area describe it to me as the pathetic 98-year-old people, in

the contest who can suck up to them the most. it is to keep the pathetic 98-year-olds happy. and michael steele did it not keep them happy. >> and he bragged about that. that was part of his appeal. he said, listen, i'm raising small dollar donations and it's a positive thing because it shows i have a broad appeal. yeah, i'm neglecting the larger scale donors, but he carried them as a larger -- >> to look at the people that are against him, none of them are bragging about it. everyone who's running, has a working-class background. they have backgrounds with big-money republican donors. they're all people whose names you wouldn't recognize. they're for the most part people who haven't held public office and aren't interested in having public office. but who are interested in just

raising lots and lots and lots of money. as another person put it to me about the race this year, the race two years ago was about ideology, getting someone different in the job. there was a lot of talk about twitter and facebook, and changing the face of the republican party. >> right. >> the way that people describe it to me this time is who can run the building? who can just get in there and have everybody be happy inside that building? that's a very small group that needs to be happy inside that building. >> do you have any suggestions for me as to how i can get republican candidates to come on this show? oh, please. oh, please. >> you might get michael steele. >> i've been begging. i will continue to. >> with a good judgment that he's shown throughout his tenure as chairman, i think he might come on your show. >> i am very happy to have heard you say that. very good to see you, my friend. thanks. >> thank you. still to come, senator orrin hatch takes a real pop at senator orrin hatch. really landed one on him right in the kisser.

and health reform in court. and what is surely the hardest sell in the world of tourism ever. that's all still to come. first, one more thing about the gop in exile. about the republican party finding itself figuring out its leadership and what the party stands for post bush and post mccain. in minnesota last weekend, the state republican party made the whole gop in exile metaphor almost literal. minnesota banished 18 people from party politics as punishment for not supporting the failed candidate for minnesota governor this year. those banished include two former governors of minnesota and one former u.s. senator. they've been banned from participating in republican party activities for two years and they're forbidden to attend the republican national convention in 2012. apparently you can just dictate that. one of the former governors has been banished said the party was exhibiting introverted totalitarianism. quote, it's just plain dumb on their part. if they persist on this, it's

going to be smaller and smaller. that former governor is al quie. he's 87 years old, his grandfather helped carry the state of minnesota for abraham lincoln. i kid you not, but now he's been banished from the party. safe to say he's taking what you may call a long d on this one.

we've saved people a lot of money on car insurance. feels nice going into the holidays. ohhhh....

will you marry me? oooh, helzberg diamonds. yeah, well he must have saved some money with geico. reminds me of the gecko mating call. really? how does that go? shoo be doo be doo. geico. 15 minutes could save you 15% or more on car insurance. thank you for calling usa primyou have problem? is peggy.

peggy? ok, i've been waiting for fifteen minutes for someone to pick up. you're tenacious like bull. i like. please hold. no, no, no...pe- (phones ringing) so pretty. want better customer service? switch to discover ranked #1 in customer loyalty. it pays to discover. what do you call it when politicians proclaim their vehement opposition to themselves? they're against themselves. what do you call that? it starts with an "h," hippo -- shameless, hip. it will come to me. we saw that word in action today when senator orrin hatch republican of utah took a vicious swipe at senator orrin hatch, republican of utah. when bill clinton was president orrin hatch had a big idea about health care. he and 20 other senators proposed that everyone would be

required to buy health insurance. they called it the individual mandate. quote, individual mandate. the secretary shall specifically make recommendations under paragraph one regarding establishing a requirement that all eligible individuals obtain health coverage through enrollment with a qualified health plan. individual mandate that was the republican proposal, that was the republican approach, the one that senator orrin hatch, and more than a dozen other republicans all co-sponsored. that was their republican health care idea. that republican idea that orrin hatch proposal finally did become law when the democrats passed health reform last year. so how does orrin hatch feel about his big republican idea finally becoming law? when a federal judge ruled against it today in virginia, orrin hatch declared, today is a great day for liberty today's a

great day for liberty, because my own idea has been rejected. now that that idea was adopted by a democrat -- see, it feels different, feels dirty somehow. dahlia lithwick joins us in a moment on what that big ruling means. 

s today a federal judge in the state of virginia ruled that a specific part, a controversial part of health reform is unconstitutional. the judge had the opportunity to rule more broadly on other parts of the law, but he zeroed in on the individual mandate, originally a republican proposal in health reform and said that that part of the new law does not pass constitutional muster. how important is this for republican efforts to dismantle health reform all together? how important is this for democratic efforts to try to hang on to the president's signature legislative

achievement? joining us now is dahlia lithwick at "slate" magazine. it's great to see you. thanks for joining us. >> thanks for having me. >> as i understand it, we've had two federal rulings in favor of health reform, and one against. how important do you see this ruling against today? >> i think it's largely symbolic. the white house is likely to point out that there's also been at least 12 efforts to scuttle health reform in the courts that have been dismissed at early stages by judges. so is the white house wants to really put this in the perspective of, this is a teenie little win in -- for opponents of health reform in a field that's been dominated by judges who want nothing to do with it. i think symbolically it's very important. it's not an accident this was the cuccinelli suit. this was a very bold suit. it was rushed through the white house before the ink was dry on

the legislation. it was a bold suit. because it featured a little nullification provision in the virginia challenge, which virginia says we don't even accept. we as virginia have to do this, so it's -- in some ways more interesting and more controversial than the florida suit that's coming down the pike. but really, i think it's just a very symbolic victory. it says there are judges out there who are going to say the commerce clause just doesn't allow what president obama sought to do. >> well, in terms of the commerce club, in terms of the constitutional ruling here. does this ruling today say more about the law itself, or does it say more about the varietals of justice that we have? i mean, judge henry hudson has a long history as a republican political activist in virginia. he was seen as being the best potential political shot for ken cuccinelli's lawsuit in virginia. is this a matter of just landing

in front of the right judge? this doesn't necessarily tell us what might happened if this gets kicked up to the supreme court. >> well, it's certainly not, again, a complete coincidence that the two judges who have upheld the health reform legislation so far have been clinton appointees, and i think they're making great hay of the fact that this says more about who appointed you than your views of the constitution. i think as we watch this unfold, it's not only going to tell you an awful lot, i think, about who the republican and who's a democrat, but what's intriguing about the suit is what i'm calling an aspirational view of the constitution. cuccinelli doesn't like much about the 14th amendment, the 17th amendment. there are whole chunks of the constitution that he wants to do away with.

he's challenging the epa's power to regulate. he's challenging the birth right -- the provisions of the 14th amendment. he has a sort of a cut and paste view of the constitution. and i think this is not just about the obama health care law. i think this is about a rather radical rewriting of the constitution, and a sensibility that there are enough judges out there -- and rachel, i've said this often to you in the past. president bush appointed one third of the sitting judges on the federal bench. i think there's a real hope they will not look at what was said, what case law said, what has happened in the court since 1942 when the judges started thinking about the commerce class, i think this is a lawsuit that aspires to something different, that aspires to really fundamentally rewrite the constitution. i think there's a real hope there's enough judges out there, including maybe at the supreme court who agree with that project that they think they

really have a shot at this. >> conservative constitutional radicalism is, i think, becoming well-known in legal circles and political impact of it is only starting to trickle down into how our politics is working. i think you're right in which this is one of the cases it becomes very, very very clear. dahlia lithwick, thank you very much for helping us make sense of this. really appreciate it. >> thank you, rachel. lawrence o'donnell talks with white house secretary robert gibbs about the tax cut deal. the surprising story about how president clinton and president obama ended up at the white house briefing podium together on friday. first on this show, news of a literally hot, new vacation destination and interesting and surprising news, unexpected news out of the senate tonight. please stay with us.

say good-bye to typical and say hello to chernobyl! it radiates fun. the most famous little city in the ukraine is about to make headlines again. as a white-hot travel destination. still worried about their little accident? don't be. even the emergency situations ministry says go for it. the chernobyl zone isn't as

scary as the world thinks. we want to work with big tour operators and attract western tourists, from who there is great demand. why wouldn't there be? there's so much to do like swimming, hiking, fishing. s you can feel the history in the air. it may just change you at a molecular level. come to chernobyl, you'll go home glowing. >> that may sound utterly ridiculous, the prospect of vacationing in a place where a nuclear reactor exploded in 1986 and hundreds of thousands of people had to be relocated because of the resulting radiation, a place that is still leaking radiation, but apparently that's true. the "associated press" reporting the ukrainian government plans to next year open chernobyl as a tourism destination. we set out to debunk that as part of the debunktion junction.

we could not debunk it. apparently it's true. which i don't know what to do with. and never overpaying for it. you know, if something is expensive that doesn't mean that it's a must have. pantene can get you to healthy hair. no brand is customized like pantene. for fine, thick, curls and color. pro-v formulas provide every strand with what it needs for results you'll love guaranteed. when you look good, you feel good and if you are getting it for a great price well, then that makes you smart and hot. pantene. healthy makes it happen. i'm off to the post office... ok. uh, a little help... oh! you know shipping is a lot easier with priority mail flat rate boxes. if it fits, it ships anywhere in the country for a low flat rate. plus, you can print and pay for postage online. and i can pick them up for free with package pickup. perfect! cause i'm gonna need a lot of those. wow! i knew i should have brought my sleigh.

priority mail flat rate shipping starts at $4.90 only from the postal service. a simpler way to ship. a body at rest tends to stay at rest... while a body in motion tends to stay in motion. staying active can actually ease arthritis symptoms. but if you have arthritis, staying active can be difficult. prescription celebrex can help relieve arthritis pain so your body can stay in motion. because just one 200mg celebrex a day can provide 24 hour relief for many with arthritis pain and inflammation. plus, in clinical studies, celebrex is proven to improve daily physical function so moving is easier. and celebrex is not a narcotic. when it comes to relieving your arthritis pain, you and your doctor need to balance the benefits with the risks. all prescription nsaids, including celebrex, may increase the chance of heart attack or stroke, which can lead to death. this chance increases if you have heart disease or risk factors such as high blood pressure or when nsaids are taken for long periods. nsaids, including celebrex, increase the chance of serious skin or allergic reactions

or stomach and intestine problems, such as bleeding and ulcers, which can occur without warning and may cause death. patients also taking aspirin and the elderly are at increased risk for stomach bleeding and ulcers. do not take celebrex if you've had an asthma attack, hives, or other allergies to aspirin, nsaids or sulfonamides. get help right away if you have swelling of the face or throat, or trouble breathing. tell your doctor about your medical history and find an arthritis treatment that works for you. ask your doctor about celebrex. and, go to celebrex.com to learn more about how you can move toward relief. celebrex. for a body in motion. yeah. aww...that oj needs alka-seltzer plus. fast powder packs are a taste-free fizz-free way to transform your drink into a powerful cold fighter! there's a cold front moving in, but relief is on the way.

one side affect of the tax cut compromise passing the procedural vote in washington today is that this at least partially, theoretically, this clears the way for other stuff to move through congress. some stuff is on the move. one of the biggest accomplishments of the legislative congress elected in 2006 and 2008 while george w. bush was president, one of the biggest accomplishments of that congress was the post-9/11 g.i. bill. over bush's veto threat it passed. an historic update of the landmark legislation that in many ways made the middle class possible after world war ii. the bill that paid for the education of hundreds of

thousands of g.i.s back from world war ii and the wars after it. the g.i. bill that passed in 2008 was the first big update of the g.i. bill legislation in more than a generation. it was very much overdue and very much important. today the senate passed what is called the new g.i. bill 2.0. a series of fixes for the inadvertent red tape created by the new g.i. bill and extends the bill's educational benefit to include a book stipend for active duty students, it extends benefits for g.i.s in vocational schools and long distance learning, all common stuff that fixing the g.i. bill so it works for new veterans in today's world and passed on a voice vote and heads to the house where there's no earthly reason to expect problems in the democratic-led chamber but we shall see. in other news there's news tonight there will be news tomorrow. after don't ask don't tell repeal failed as an amendment