riseoth democratic watch, the republicans randeed to lower them. a continuation of d.a.d.t. and a good chance of renewed hostility with russia. if president obama can do this well with a pair of twos in his hand and that's certainly the best that you can say he got handed to him by the election in november, just think what he'll be able to do the moment and it will come when he gets dealt a decent hand. that's "hardball" for now. thanks for being with us. right now it's time for "the ed show" with ed schultz. good evening, americans and welcome to "the ed show." tonight live from minneapolis, these stories are hitting my hot buttons at this hour. well, the president sold it hard and he got what he wanted. it's a huge victory for the white house depending on how you look at it, but john boehner is already giving the president the cold shoulder. by commentary on that, plus reaction from house majority whip, jim clyburn and ohio senator sherrod brown coming up in the program tonight. darrell icea is planning a witch-hunt against the obama

white house, but democrats are ready with a counteroffensive. there is a big development in the democratic strategy tonight. congressman dennis kucinich will join me to talk about it in the bottom of the hour in the "battleground" story. and coming up, "club ed" lizz winstead finds common ground with sarah palin? plus, michele bachmann has just been named to the intelligence committee. l lizz will have something to say about that but this is the story that has me fired up tonight. the hostagetakers of the republican party got $9 billion in ransom and now let's see if they will have the character to let the american people free on the job front. now the party of no just got everything they wanted when the president signed the tax compromise bill into law earlier today. >> both houses of congress have now passed a package of tax relief that will protect the middle class, that will grow our economy, and will create jobs for the american people. the legislation i'm about to

sign is a substantial victory for middle-class families across the country. they're the ones hit hardest by the recession that we've endured. they're the ones who need relief right now. and that's what's at the heart of this bill. >> you got to hand it to the president, he worked it hard. he managed to get an extremely controversial tax bill through a fractured congress in less than three weeks. speaker nancy pelosi said the republicans forced the democrats to, quote, pay a king's ransom in order to help the middle class. liberals might not be too happy with the outcome of this tax debate but no one can argue that president obama has -- he's done absolutely everything he possibly can to jump-start this economy after eight years of bush destruction. congressman elijah cummings didn't vote for the bill, but he says he understands why the president cut this deal. cummings says he believes he's got to do something to create

jobs as fast as he possibly can, and he realizes that there's only a limited amount of time to accomplish that before the next election. i understand him even if i don't agree with him. that's the linchpin in all of this for the democrats especially the liberals. cummings, i think, is spot on. president obama has been laser focused on getting this economy moving and the republicans have done everything they possibly can to make him fail. but no president has ever had to deal with as many senate filibusters, and yet president obama hasn't let that get in his way. for the record, for the record, in the last 24 months in office, president obama passed the largest stimulus bill in american history. he saved the automobile industry with a loan which was on the brink of disaster. he pass said the greatest health care reform in the last 50 years in this country. he passed over 16 measures to spur small business and now he's put more money into the pockets of the middle class americans in this country than any president

ever has. the ledger is long but maybe the credit isn't coming because this fight has been so hard. john boehner, by the way, was a no-show today and reacted to the bill this morning. >> the congress has acted to stop all of the tax hikes that were scheduled to go into effect january the 1st. but it's a good first step, now let's be clear if we actually want to help our economy get back on track and to begin creating jobs we need to end the job killing spending binge, we need to cut spending significantly, and we need to provide more certainty to small businesses around america. >> more certainty? it's unbelievable, a good first start, i'd hope so. i mean just gave the top 2% exactly what they wanted. big business got what they wanted. wall street got what they wanted. so there's no reason for anybody to be talking down the economy saying, well, we don't know if we can move forward because of all of this uncertainty that's out there. we shouldn't ever hear that

again. president obama has done everything a president can possibly do to jump-start this economy and get things rolling again. liberals, here's where i think that we are tonight. we've got to keep our eye on the ball. it has been a long, tough fight for the left and strong progressives are feeling bruised tonight after the last few weeks. there's been disagreement. there's been disappointment on the left about these tax cuts and the performance and the position of the president on this issue. did he cave in? well, president obama, give him credit, he took a course, he staked out a position, and despite the heat he stayed the course. some call it a cave-in, some call it a big political victory. the bottom line is the president feels like he got a lot of what he wanted. >> there are some elements of this legislation that i don't like. there's some elements that members of my parent don't like. there's some elements that republicans here today don't like. that's the nature of compromise.

yielding on something each of us cares about to move forward on what all of us care about. >> i think we all get that. i think that we're all rooting for the president. we just don't like the method. i'm not happy with the package. i think that the top 2% should pay more, but you know, what folks, we do, as liberals, have to move on and get past this. the consequencings would be too grave if this man was not in office. this is america. we politically fight from time to time and our definition of fight is in the eyes of the beholder. only you at home tonight can wonder whether the left went too far or if i went too far. i don't think that i did and i wasn't going to back off until the very last vote was cast. i'm ready to keep that in sight that star that president obama talked about last week and keep moving forward. it was a tough one, no doubt, but i'm still with this president. and i think liberals need to understand there's going to be a lot of fights on the horizon between now and 2012 and i think we can all predict what the argument's going to be all about just before the next election.

these very tax cuts and of course the social security rate, i don't think the republicans are ever going to serve it up. and there's one more dynamic all of it, in my heart i don't believe that big banks, big business want this president to succeed. that is an intangible and that is a dynamic that i think we've never seen before in this country because they are sitting on so many assets. it's up to them right now to show some economic patriotism. get your cell phones out i want to know what you think on this issue tonight. tonight's text survey question is, do you think the republicans "owe" president obama for compromising on the tax cuts? text "a" for yes, text "b" for no. joining me now is ohio senator sherrod brown, who voted for the bill. senator, good to have you with us tonight. >> good to be back, ed, thanks. >> i know this bill is going to help a lot of people. but how do we know it's going to

create jobs? and that is the key. we must get people back on payrolls in this country. how do you know this is going to work? >> yeah i voted for this bill because i don't think that you look in theive an unemployed worker, shelby ohio, or norwalk ohio, saying that i'm voting tax cuts for the rich. it's my principle, sorry about your benefits and in the end that's why so many progressives i think supported this. this bill, i don't quote john boehner very often but he said it -- you know he talked about certainty and predictability. in bill helps do that. this bill partners with the business community pretty well. i think this bill is -- this new law and the president's leadership and the president's reaching out to ceos is -- really does send a signal that the cash reserves they're sitting on which in some cases and in some big manufacturing companies whose ceos i've spoken to in the last two, three months they're sitting on reserves two or three times the normal cash reserves they sit on. the best stimulus package of all would be if they begin to invest. and i think we're going to see

more of that. i think the president's focus is that. what i'm concerned about in sort of the other part of that, ed, is that the republicans, the john boehners of the world, their focus in the next month or two is going to be in this health care bill. >> sure. >> trying to repeal all of this stuff from -- and you know instead of focusing on jobs. and the president's focus is on jobs. democrats' focus is on jobs. that's where we're going. who knows what the republicans are going to do, but that doesn't matter. we've got to keep our eye on that as you suggested. >> okay. senator, what do you say to liberals in this country who feel like this bill is a sellout? will there be political damage? is there time to patch things up? >> yeah, i mean -- of course we're disappointed. we're disappointed that it came out the way it did. the disappointment started november 2 andy it's continued on this issue. i think it could had been done differently. it's always easy, just like the health care bill should have moved more quickly through the senate. we all knew that.

it didn't. this tax bill, if we had started earlier, particularly during the 20 -- >> but i'm talking about -- senator -- >> yeah. i understand that. >> i'm talking about -- i mean, there's people out there who are off the bandwagon. >> yeah i understand that. >> and what do you say to those people? >> i don't know. i mean i know that people were disappointed that there wasn't a public option, we still got a good health care bill. there were people disappointed that the brown coughlin amendment didn't pass so that those six banks couldn't dominate the banking industry the way they do that ted coughlin and i worked on but we still have a decent bill, wall street reforge. i -- reform. the word compromise is not particularly a favorite word for a lot of my fellow progressives, but i think this, again, i was not happy with in. i voted against cloture. i voted for the bill because i thought if we didn't in the end it would be worse. but i think the president now is -- his popularity is picking up again. i think he knows where his base is. he knows who got him there.

he knows the party of ideas. he knows the progress in this country whether it's medicare, social security, civil rights, the wilderness act or higher ed comes from progressives, he knows that and i think that we're going to see a better next year and a half that will set the stage for a re-elected sflooiz hope so and i hope that all of this goodwill shows up for the republicans in the next couple of days because votes on the don't ask, don't tell and the s.t.a.r.t. treaty. i hope that they come as honest broke sboers your chamber. senator, good to have you with us tonight. you bet. congressman jim clyburn now joins us, the house majority whip. congressman, good to have you with us tonight. >> thank you. >> you bet. big labor met with the president today at the white house. some of them didn't even show up, they're so upset about this bill. is there some patchwork that has to be done moving forward in your opinion? >> well, thank you so much for having me, ed. but, look, this bill has some great things in it.

if i were only voting on the president's side of the ledger, i would be for this bill enthusiastically. my big problem with the bill was i thought that $25 billion being added to the deficit in order to give 6,600 families a big tax break was a bridge too far for me to travel upon. so i in the end did not vote for it. but i like the tax cuts for middle income people. i like the extension of unemployment compensation. i like the investments being made on tax credits for renewables. those things are great. and i really believe that now that the bill is here, signed by the president, all of us ought to get behind this bill, do what we can to get this economy sped

up. we know that we're exactly on the right track. we're just not traveling fast enough. and so we need to work together, stop smarting over what's already behind us. and let's look to the future with the kind of anticipation that all of us bring to our jobs. so i would say to my friend -- >> you know, congressman. >> yes. >> i think that a lot of americans agree with you that. but today when john boehner doesn't show up, what sign does that send about future compromise and working together after the president and the democrats gave the top 2% everything they wanted, plus an estate tax that they are -- really weren't even asking for, and a reduction in the social security rate? i mean, it looks on the surface, yes there's a lot of good stuff here, but here's boehner not even showing respect to show up.

what does that signal? >> well, if that's the case, that's not a good signal. he may have had a conflict. to his credit boehner did say weeks ago that if he had no other alternative, he would have voted for the middle income tax cut alone. so i give him credit for that. and i do believe that he supports this bill. he may not have liked all of it the way that i don't like all of it, but i would hope that his not showing up for the signing today was anything other than him having some conflict with his schedule. >> and finally tonight, congressman, all your experience, are you convinced in your heart that this is going to work? that this is going to create jobs? that we can go this far in the hole and still get out of? >> well, ed, on the consummate

south carolinan. the motto by south carolinans, while i breathe i hope. it is my hope that this is the right medicine for what ails our economy today. and i'm doing everything i can to help make it successful irrespective of what i felt about the total package. >> congressman, great to have you with us tonight. i appreciate your time. thanks so much. >> well, thank you so much for having me. >> you bet. coming up, president obama is the new comeback kid, at least that's what some conservatives are saying. i will ask bob shrum if the republicans got it right and are they running scared for 2012? now that the president has some mojo back. democrats absolutely destroyed the republicans on the senate floor for their hypocrisy on earmarks. i'll show you the tape. you're going to want to see it. plus, sarah palin flops in her latest interview, orrin hatch gets thrown into the "zone" for not understanding the 99ers. and lizz winstead takes on larry

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the tax deal was a huge victory for president obama and the republicans know it. one conservative columnist says he's the new comeback kid. the president might have to mend some fences with his base. my next guest thinks this could put him over the top in 2012. i'll talk to bob shrum about that next. ♪ [ man ] i thought our family business would always be boots.

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welcome back to "the ed show" and thanks for watching tonight. a week ago it looked like president obama's deal on this

tax issue was on the verge of collapse. now, some are calling him the comeback kid. the president want a bipartisan solution, well he got it. some consider it a huge victory for the president and some conservatives are willing to admit it. here's charles krauthammer of "washington post." with his stunning tax deal obama is back. holding his high cards he's nonetheless managed to resurface suddenly not just as a player but as an orchestrator, dealmaker and central actor in a high $1 trillion drama. obama pulled this off at his lowest political ebb. joining me now is democratic strategist, bob shrum, he's also professor at new york university. bob, you and i were opposites on this, but the deal's done, we've got to move forward. i'm all about that. but i'm curious the two gentlemen that i just interviewed senator brown and congressman clyburn they cannot tell me for sure or our audience tonight that this will create

jobs. they hope it will. isn't this a real leap of faith to give the republicans what they want? a political hot potato? because if we don't create jobs it'll be awfully hard on the sflooez oh if we don't create the jobs it'll be very tough on the president but if you believe the principle of keynesian economics of economics 101 and then you have to believe that a good deal of this bill is going to stimulate domestic demand. it's going to help to create jobs. it's going to unlock that corporate investment you're talking about. look, charles krauthammer is someone that i respect. i never agree with him ideologically but i think his analysis here is quite right. what the president did was take a difficult, if almost impossible, situation and produce a bill that i know is controversial when i say this, that i thought on balance was progressive. number one because it helped the unemployed. number two because it extended the child tax credit and the working families tax credit. and number three because it's the best chance we have to get a second economic recovery package

and get this coming moving again. will it work? >> yeah, what is the measure of success of this bill? lowering the unemployment rate by maybe two percentage points when ben bernanke has been out there in the last couple of weeks saying that we'll have high unemployment 9%, 10%. >> yeah some estimates by the end of next year. this bill could bring the unemployment rate down to a little over 8% and that the trend might then continue. if that happens i think obama's going to be in strong shape. but one thing i will tell you for sure, if there had been deadlock and if nothing here had passed, not only will middle-class families had been hit hard, not only would you have seen the unemployed in terrible trouble but we know for sure that unemployment would have gone up. probably by 0.6 of a percentage point to 1 percentage point. >> okay so the political insight on this, i guess the political

question here is will middle-class families in this country recognize what president obama and the congress just did for nimit's that severe? >> i think they'll recognize that the president moved ahead. that their taxes weren't increased. but you know just getting the knot of this right doesn't work. i mean president obama prevented us from having a depression. by didn't have a depression. people don't reward you for that. what they want is economic rover. what they want is job creation. and the president will be judged in 2012 by the direction of the economy. you know ronald reagan when he got re-elected and said that it was mourning in america had an unemployment rate about where he was when he got inaugurated four years earlier, but in the meantime it had gone to 10.8%, then it started coming down and kept going down in a steady way. that's what president obama needs. and by the way, this isn't just a political necessity. tens of millions of american families now have their standard of living at stake. and that's why i think the

president made the best deal he possibly could have in a difficult situation and now it's just possible this congress is going to move on in it's waning days pass don't ask, don't tell, pass -- ratify the s.t.a.r.t. treaty. and you know if you look across that ed, when you were saying earlier in your commentary, that's going to be two years of extraordinary achievement. >> yeah. oh there's no doubt about it. i hope it all works. bob shrum, always a pleasure. great to have you with us tonight. >> thanks, ed. >> thanks so much. >> thank you. coming up, longtime senator orrin hatch proves he doesn't know the first thing about his job or unemployment benefits. senator clueless. strikes out in the "zone" next. the droid 2 global. run a universe of free apps on the world's fastest mobile phone processor. the droid pro. a fortress for data, a global office as mobile as you. now get a droid 2 global by motorola for $199.99 and get any phone free.

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and in "psycho talk" tonight, i can't believe this one. this guy wanted to be president once. senator orrin hatch of utah, he has completely ignorant when it comes to unemployment benefits. i mean, folks, this guy's been in the senate since 1977 and he still has no idea how it works? here he is on fox complaining about the extension of unemployment benefits in the tax compromise bill president obama signed today. >> i would have preferred the unemployment insurance to be paid for naturally and they weren't going to pay for it, but let's be honest about it, the democrats have always won on unemployment insurance extending it and it's now well over a hundred weeks now. there's no question that there are people who are suffering. i don't want them to suffer.

on the other hand, we also know that there are people who could be working, who won't work because they've got unemployment insurance and they just keep -- don't go out and start looking for jobs. >> a swing and a miss. on all three. old orrin. strike one, complaining about spending $57 billion in the unemployment benefits when you demanded $830 billion in tax cuts for the rich. strike two, saying the deal extends unemployment benefits, well over a hundred weeks, when anyone who pays attention to the news knows that 99 weeks is the longest anyone can get benefits. clearly the 99ers don't mean anything to hatch at this point. and strike three, saying people on unemployment don't look for jobs. this is a constant republican talking point. it's offensive and studies have shown that it is flat out not true. orrin hatch's garbage on unemployment benefits is just a bunch of old ignorant, out of

touch "psycho talk." coming up, congressman darrell issa, this guy's trying to take down president obama one subpoena at a time. the democrats have got the man in place to stop issa's witch-hunt dead in his tracks. congressman dennis kucinich lays out the plan next and the "battleground." plus, sarah palin slams the president as a flip-flopper and the viks, the vikings, man they're trying to dig out. you're watching "the ed show" on msnbc. calm down. i know that it is not your job. what i'm saying... excuse me? alright, fine. no, you don't have to do it. ok? [ male announcer ] notre dame knows it's better for xerox to control its printing costs. so they can focus on winning on and off the field. [ manager ] are you sure i can't talk -- ok, no, i get it. [ male announcer ] with xerox, you're ready for real business.

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welcome back to "the ed show." the "battleground" story tonight, well, the new republican majority is gunning for this white house. and democrats better be ready to rumble. it's going to be a whole different world, folks, when the house reconvenes in january. the republicans will have the gavel and the democrats better prepared to fight especially on the oversight committee. incoming oversight chair darrell issa is on a witch-hunt against

the obama administratiwhite hou >> his administration received $700 billion worth of walking around money in the stimulus and used to just that way. a great deal of it was used for political paybackp his administration has a love explaining where the $7 billion went. where investigations that should have gone on particularly into a.c.o.r.n. organization that he had passed influence with and should be willing to do a lot to end. i think those have to be dealt with. >> folks, that is a criminal allegation. issa's not blowing smoke either. he's already met with vice president joe biden to get more information. this week democrats picked the person who will lead the counterattack against issa. democrats elected congressman elijah cummings to go head-to-head with issa as the next ranking member on the committee. joining me now is congressman dennis kucinich, who backed congressman cummings for the leadership post. congressman, how much of a

battle is this going to be, in your opinion? how serious is issa, and how serious do the democrats have to take it? >> mr. issa's very serious. and i might point out he's very confident. he's someone who has a great skills at taking a set of facts and shaping them in a way that he would like to communicate them. doesn't necessarily have to be directly connected to the way things are. but with mr. cummings, mr. issa will have met his match. mr. cummings is a former defense attorney, someone who also has a background as a bond counsel. so he's familiar with wall street. he's a person who has a great amount of skill. if you've ever watched him question a witness, you'll know that he's second to none. he's very powerful. and i think that mr. cummings is going to lead a very strong democratic response to any efforts to engage in innuendo or any taken approach that would be

less than forthright. >> congressman cummings on record saying that, we'll go toe to toe on everything and hopefully i'll be ten steps ahead. but as a women who, is the congress mentally prepared for what could be a long, drawn out process, played out probably by the conservative media painting the obama administration and the white house as a bunch of crooks? i mean there has to be some level of attack and return fire on this, don't you think? >> the fact that the caucus saw foyt choose elijah cummings means that they wanted someone who is a battler, someone who is not going to sit down and see an abuse of the great power of the oversight committee. and so, yes, a democratic caucus is well aware of the challenges that are faced here. and again, no one will underestimate mr. issa. no one will sell mr. issa short.

everyone understands that he's very serious in his intention to attack the white house and we know with the charges that he made already, which i saw on your show and i called him out it that caused me to be a candidate for a while. i understood how important it is to fight back and to answer and not to let any unsubstantiated allegation go without a challenge. so i think mr. cummings is absolutely the person for this challenge. he is a very broad support across the democratic caucus. and we're organized and we had a meeting today with individuals who are likely to be subcommittee chairs. and mr. cummings is not wasting anytime getting started. >> congressman dennis kucinich, good to have you with us tonight. i appreciate your time so much. >> and thank you, ed. thank you. >> you bet, sir. now let's get some rapid-fire response from our panel on these

stories. is president obama a comeback kid after his big victory on the tax cuts? conservatives think so. and claire mccaskill, senator from missouri, absolutely destroyed the republicans on the senate floor for mr. hypocrisy on earmarks and for playing games with the omnibus spending bill. with us tonight joe madison xm radio satellite talk show host and ernest istook former republican congressman and fellow at the heritage foundation. joe, look at you, look at ernie smiling tonight, he got that tax cut that he was looking for. so we're -- what about this, joe? is this a good deal for the white house? is this a good deal for the american people? who are the winners and the losers? >> i guess ernie should smile. he's part of that -- he's part of that 2% that now has -- you know, a gold nugget in their christmas sock. look, i think that the president did the solomon approach on

this. you had those on the left that were very upset about this. those on the far right very upset. and he basically split this baby down the middle. we all get a little bit of something there. it's over now. what concerns me is what this republican congress is going to go after come january. and i guarantee you, they're going to go after social security, they're going to go after all kinds of entitlements that's been part of this makeup of the united states since the roosevelt era. this is going to be their game plan and i hope he uses this comeback to really fight and i hope those of us, particularly on our side of the media, are prepared to protect our quarterback, sort to speak. we've got to fight back. we can't leave him out there by himself. >> what about that, ernest, what

do you think? >> i think that the president made a shrewd calcflation we'll help him platecally because he's going to be seen as compromising. he recognized there was a brief moment of opportunity. i wish had waited a couple of weeks because then we would have had the people that have the faith and trust of the american people, those elected in the last election cycle, who i think could have made a deal that would had been better for job growth especially if it had made the lower taxes permanent rather than temporary, just setting up a future battle, but again i think you know if you're talking about from politically, i think president obama made a shrewd calculation in moving at the time that he did. i thought that it was very interesting. >> ernie, he said that it's not politics, though. >> ernie just showed his hand. ernie just showed you exactly why they wanted to wait a couple of weeks. >> sure you were a better deal for the country. >> look, you want to make -- you really want to help job growth, you've got these multimillionaires and

billionaires sitting on top of trillions of dollars. now is your turn or their turn to start spending money, manufacturing, creating jobs and then we'll all be happy, won't we? >> if we could get i received the uncertainty. i've been talking about this for months. >> the only certain thing is high unemployment and they have money. >> ed and joe, businesses trying to make investments that make sense for five years out or even ten years out. not just within a two-year window. so you've got removed all of the uncertainty. you certainly have not removed all of the big regulations. >> you mean to tell me that everything that this president's done, do you think -- you think there's still a lot of uncertainty? i mean, this president has set the table for a rebirth in the economy. you think that there's still more that he can do? >> yeah, yes. if we would have said, look, we're going to take the current tax rates on income taxes, we're going to make them permanent, we should also be doing something about the corporate tax.

japan has realized that they've got to reduce their taxes. >> all part of the plan. >> oh, corporations that aren't paying a dime in taxes. you've got corporations that aren't paying a dime. >> and you've got corporations paying a bundle. you have both kinds of corporations, joe. and you've got the highest corporate tax rate in the world. that's nod good. >> why don't you say to the american people what i just said, we've got corporations that aren't paying a dime and making billions of dollars? why don't you say to the american people. >> if you want to close loopholes that's fine but don't say that therefore you cannot lower the overall corporate tax rate. you cannot bring in some the jobs if going elsewhere in the world instead. >> gentlemen, let's go to the fight over earmarks. this is the gop gloating about them. here it is. >> as the most junior member for those who are not understanding what just happened, did we just win? it seems that change has come to the senate tonight with the death of this $1.1 trillion

plan. >> this may be a seminal moment in the history -- in the recent history the you said senate, because for the first time since i've been here, we stood up and said, enough. stop. >> now, these are the same people that had all kinds of pork that was stuffed in this thing. here's claire mccaskill responding to this on the floor last night as well. >> what's offensive to me is that we've gotten into this bad habit of trying to score cheap political points. and for senators to get on this floor and say we won and you do do this kind of stuff. and the irony is guess who has earmarks in there? the minority leader. who just voted on a moratorium for earmarks ten minutes ago. did he pull his earmarks out? no. did he any of the republicans who had voted for a moratorium on earmarks did they pull their earmarksut before in bill came to the floor? we could have eliminated a few pages so you know i just don't

think the righteous indignation works. >> joe, what do you think? >> bingo, she shot them right between the eyes. she didn't even blink. he got them. she got them. and then the other thing is, let's just speak plain english. if you took all of the earmarks and put them together, how much would that reduce the deficit, really? this is a strawman's issue and they know it. but she hit them right between the eyes and if you look up the word "hypocrite" in the dictionary, the minority leader's photograph ought to be there. >> ernie, you have got the final word on this one. what do you snong well, thanks. first of all, both sides constantly talk in terms of winning and losing. that's no big deal. you want to talk about hypocrisy on spending, it's there. it's absolutely there. but if you don't get ahold of the things that ought to be easy to fix, you're never going to attack the big spending that's tougher to fix. so the earmark -- >> good to have you on, gentlemen. joe madison, ernie istook.

thanks so much. coming up, sarah palin sounds like she's aiming for 2012 presidential run and she thinks her debating skills will take her over the top. you won't able when caribou barbie said about president obama this morning. mike papantonio ring of fire talk show host, he's after it next right here on "the ed show." [ female announcer ] clear some snow. ♪ or spread a little warmth. [ cellphone rings ] [ wife ] honey, where are you? i have no idea. [ female announcer ] maxwell house gives you a rich full flavored cup of coffee so you can be good to the last drop. try maxwell house coffee and cappuccinos in the tassimo single cup home brewing system.

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and to do this at a large enough scale beer and wine and cupcakes. i was doing the corporate grind like everyone else. but to be successful, i knew i had to be different. ink, ink, ink, ink, ink. i mean, i love that card. it does things differently too. great customer service, going above and beyond to help me out as a small business. it's accepted in twice as many places around the world as american express and if i ever need to get my employees ink cards, they're free. make your mark with ink. chase what matters. go to chase.com/ink. this is a case where i am very thankful that the president has flip-flopped. he was so adamant about not allowing the tax cut extension to take place for job creators and then all of a sudden one day he was fine with it. you can term it compromise. i term it flip-flop. >> in my "playbook" tonight

sarah palin's mark andy backhanded compliment of president obama overextending the tax cuts makes it look like she's gearing up to a presidential run. a new nbc news/"the wall street journal" poll shows if the election were held today sarah palin would lose to the president by 22 points. but palin isn't worried about the numbers. she thinks that she can overcome the deficit with her debating skills. >> a poll number like that, it's like ugh, that doesn't look pretty today. but a primary is months and months in the process and there are thankfully many debates and if i were to participate in that contested primary you know i would be in it to win it. >> for more let's bring in radio talk show host mike papantonio, nationally syndicated ring of fire radio host. mike, here she is calling president obama a flip-flopper on the tax cuts when everybody's been talking compromise.

does she have a clue? >> it's impossible, ed, to put person's into economic's theories when it's an individual who changes colleges six times in four years because she couldn't decide whether she wanted to be an actress, whether she wanted to be a sportscaster or whether she wanted to be a politician. she talks about obama flip-flopping, again changed colleges six times in four years. what's important to me, ed, if you listen carefully to what she talks about with her economic policy, when you listen to her almost incoherent rants what she's upset about is that her billionaire friends who put her in this national position to begin with aren't going to get their estate tax cuts that they wanted. the corporations that are already paying zero, that they're not getting enough cuts from the republicans and democrats. look, when big money donors like the heritage foundation and this council i think for national

policy forced sarah palin on john mccain to run as a candidate. they demanded something. they demanded that sarah palin be their lap dog and be their voice. so for them it's a single issue. it's greed. it's money. it's money. it's money. they don't want to pay any estate taxes at all. >> mike, you know, mike, this is a nonstop media offensive. is she running? >> she is absolutely running. and the fact that she's 22 points, ed, if we had a race today she has to catch up 22 points just to race with obama. absolutely she's running. and the same people who put her in this national scene are the same people that are still backing her. because you know why, ed, it doesn't make any difference if she wins. she's the voice for them. she will say damn near anything they want thorsay because she's like a sock puppet for these inheritance babies who don't want to pay any taxes. >> it's interesting that she's not giving any cover whatsoever to the republicans who voted for this tax compromise bill,s obama

tax cuts. what do you make of that? >> she's already made her choice. she understands there's no place -- there's no place for her in establishment republican party. the people who backed her to begin with think that she's a real contender for some break-away party. every time she talks about her own party being a weak party, her own party not understanding economics, every time we see her attack her own party it's because she really does believe she's going to be a serious break-away candidate and the looney tunes on the tea bagger's side that had been out in the streets are going to come to her aid in the end. the truth is, palin has become the crazy queen. and she can't change that image between now and the next election, i can promise you. >> mike papantonio, always a pleasure. great to have you with us tonight. thanks so much. couch empt final pages in the "playbook" tonight, hundreds of workers have shown up to help shovel out tcf stadium for the vikings' 55th anniversary game

against the chicago bears on monday night. the first time in 20 years that the vikings are hosting a home football game outdoors. the game time forecast is calling for a beautiful evening with the temps in the midteens and a windchill below zero and since the game is being hosted at the university of minnesota, they will not be serving any beer. which is going to be tough on a lot of viking fans. a lot tougher than shoveling. and finally the daily mail is reporting that president obama will not be invited to prince william's wedding since the prince is not yet heir to the throne the wedding is not classified as a state occasion so there's no obligation to invite heads of state. coming up, jon kyl is worried he won't be home for the holidays. not in time for christmas, well, lizz winstead plans to sneak down his chimney and give him a lump of coal next on "the ed show." ♪

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welcome back to "the ed show." if it's friday it's time for "club ed." with "daily show" co-creator lizz winstead. lizz, great to have you with us tonight. >> hey, ed. >> larry king -- larry king said good-bye last night and it was his last show on "larry king live." one of the visitors to the program was president clinton and here's how it came down. here it is. >> we're both in the zipper club. by the way, you look very good last weekend in the briefing room and by the way the suits wanted me to remind you of what

the zipper club is, if you have had open heart surgery they had to zip it up. i thought that everyone in the world but apparently. >> bill, looked confused. >> i'm sure that you did. >> ryan do you have any question for the president? >> i'm glad clarified that. >> well, lizz, what do you think of that one? what were they talking about. >> clearly open-heart surgery. i mean, larry king does not disappoint. every thyme he's on he was the gift that keeps on giving. i'm so sad that he's going away. i just -- he always just knows how to say something and poor bill clinton was just sitting there like, yeah, the zipper club. and the thought of larry king being in any kind of zipper club makes me never want to have sex again, quite frankly. i can't -- i don't want to -- no. no, no, no. >> all right, as a country now, are we going to be a lot safer now that congresswoman michele bachmann is going to be on the house intelligence committee?

>> well, you know it's funny, ed, because you were talking about the dome and the no drinking at the game on sunday. and the reason that there is no liquor at the game is because they took a vote and minnesotaons said that we need to save our alcoholic consumption. we'd rather drink while michele bachmann is on the intelligence committee and forfeit drinking at the game because the reality is just that stark. >> speaking of the dome, they're not going to be playing at the dome. they've got to go over and play at the university of minnesota stadium. what about? man, look at this, kind of a freaky deal, isn't it? >> it's so crazy. being in minnesota you can't even believe it, ed, all of the stuff that's gone on down since i've been here and this massive collapse at the dome i don't know if you know this or not the minneapolis city council is thinking of renaming it because of the collapse and the cave-in. they want to rename it the obama dome. >> oh, okay. and what about sarah palin, she says that the gop is impotent and weak, what do you think? >> well,