i'm chris hayes in for keith olbermann, you can read more of my work on msnbc.com. have a great night and a great weekend. it's friday night but the workweek is not over yet on capitol hill. harry reid's diabolical plan to make republicans work before christmas. somebody's got to pass the bill to keep the lights on and the government's only funded right now through tuesday. also don't ask, don't tell, could repeal finally happen this weekend? unanimous consent, unanimous consent, all members of the

senate actually agree on something, so why then did it take nearly ten months for them to say they agreed on the thing they all agreed to? ten months? >> i'm bobby jindal, governor of louisiana. >> the case study of bobby jindal's $20 million boondoggle. a drone, not a drudge, not a honeybee, but an unmanned vehicle, i think the rachel maddow show is the only show to have its own drone, which i will inexpertly federal ahead this hour. all that and more starting right now on the rachel maddow show. >> hey, happy friday. are you familiar with the

concept of a frappe, not a frappe like a whipped iced beverage. but a frap. it's an acronym. i didn't grow up with pets, i didn't have dogs for example, but my partner suzanne and i have a dog now. when we first got our dog, when he was a puppy, he would act really strangely sometimes. he would act in a way that would make me feel very strange, something that weirded me out that seemed quite atypical for me, but admittedly didn't know. she was not at all surprised by what i saw as our puppy's wacky behavior when it happened. she told me it was no big deal, but it was strange. that's him in his halloween costume when he was a puppy. essentially he would just sort of tweak out, everything would be fine, there would be no strange external stimuli, no

noises, no putting a hat on him like in this picture. no oil smells, nothing they say can scare puppies, none of that, otherwise he was normal. but he would get tweaked, he would flip over on his back, then he would flip over again. he would run in a circle over and over and over again. he would get his tweak on, he would freak out for a little while inexplicably and then he would be fine. it never seemed upset by it. he was a happy puppy. it would last main a minute or so and then he would be sort of out of breath and wide eyed afterwards, but happy, this was an enjoyable thing for him. apparently this is what's known as a frap. it is a frenetic random activity period. it has a name, it's a thing that dogs do. frenetic random activity.

it's a thing that dogs do, and it's a thing that senators do, the frap, the frenetic random activity period is the most kosher explanation i can come up with with what's happening right now in the united states senate. things are happening fast and furious in the united states senate. we know why that is, the democrats have this big long agenda they have been trying to get passed. they have a spending cut, and the repeal of don't ask, don't tell. the dream act, the immigration bill, and the 9/11 first responders bill and judicial confirmations and the international trade bill, anding the newi isnew improvements to bill. they have all this stuff they want to move through. that's why they are passing things as fast. you can't do some new indignant senate republican press conference.

the senate is going as fast and as furious as it can go right now. among to the republicans, it is frenetic, it is activity and it is totally random. here's what i mean about this. the nukes treaty with russia. this has been on the docket for eight months now, there's been 1,000 senate questions asked and answered about this. there have been 20 hearings about it, probably half the senators can read this treaty to you in their sleep. there is nothing at all out of left field about this. randomly, during this lame duck period, they said they had no time for anything but their very important amendments. they wanted to add a treaty. democratic senator john kerry who appeared on this show two nights ago said essentially that's what republicans needed in order to finally bring this thing to a vote, sure you want to debate amendments, we can

debate amendments. senator kerry that went to the senate floor and said essentially, okay, i don't really know why you need more time on this, but you say you want this time for amendments, you're outraged that we would have a vote on this without you having time for your amendments. i have got the floor time right now, here's your time for amendments. republicans it turned out did not have any amendments. nothing ready to go. nothing written out, nothing to offer, nothing planned. ultimately today a day later, john mccain finally figured out an amendment that he might want to try, republicans insisted this could not be voted on. they could not vote on this treaty until they had time to offer their many and very important amendments. so when they got the chance, ker plunk, one and it took them a day to come up with it. why did we have to have all that screaming and drama for one -- on judges, last night the united states senate approved four of

president obama's judicial nominees. that in and of itself is kind of a miracle. but here's the random part of this frenetic action. the senate approved these judges unanimously. these judges were also approved in the judiciary committee unanimously. every republican and every democrat voted for his judges. there's nothing controversial about these judges whatsoever. but between the first time they were voted onan mousily and last night when they were voted on unanimously. six months passed. six months during which time no one had any objections to them being judges, not a single vote against them, not a word against them, nothing. but six months of just you can't do it. six months of nothing until now, last night, unanimous, let them go through, frenetic random activity period. the great meltdown in the senate last night was over the big regular spending bill, the bill that congress needs to pass to keep the government going.

despite the fact that they helped write it. despite the fact that they were intimately involved in the last minute changes to it. last night republicans stood united against it. they did everything they could to obstruct it. they did everything they could to ultimately defeat this bill that they have been helping write for a year. >> the most junior member, for those of you who are not understanding what just happened. did we just win? >> i think there's very little doubt. >> 6,000 earmarks will not now move forward. >> yes, and i feel badly about some of those earmarks because i had so much with them. >> republicans defeated their own bill. whooo! full of their own earmarks, whooo! . we stuck it to them, we voted down our own team we have been building. i don't know what's happening but it sounds like fun, because

it was sort of like losing because it was our own bill. frenetic action, i feel out of breath. now we have ended up with the kind of legislative outcomes that one might expect from a frenetic random activity period. because republicans defeated their own spending bill last night. the government runs out of money on saturday, right? congress today in order to deal with that, today congress voted to pass a stopgap spending bill. and they decided randomly that this stopgap spending bill would fund the government for three days. now nothing's going to be different after three days. when the funding of the government runs out again on tuesday, we're going to be exactly where we are now. but whooo! three days, frenetic action. they will be voting on two pieces of legislation that will have majority support. republicans will not let them pass without a supermajority. now one of the things that

they're going to vote on this weekend, the don't ask, don't tell repeal. that's expected to come up on saturday. it reportedly has enough votes to clear even the supermajority. but even though republicans know it will pass if and when it comes to a vote, they are threatening all sorts of ran don frenetic action to just make it take longer than it might otherwise. bob corker said today that he and other republicans might vote against the nukes treaty with the rush yes if don't ask, don't tell is brought up for a vote on saturday. why? who knows? not even his fellow republicans seem to know. >> allegations there's going to be a vote for or against because of another piece of legislation or for other reasons, for other political reasons, i reject that allegation. >> what's bob corker talking about? who knows? random frenetic action

republicans will insist on a lot of hours of senate time elapses before the vote on don't ask, don't tell is allowed to happen. even though it could be voted on as early as saturday during the day, maybe even early on saturday. if republicans decide to randomly insist on lots of hours of senate time before the bill gets voted on, it could happen as late as on monday. will the elapsing of those hours make any difference in the vote? probably not. but it will be exhausting. it will be fun, it will be frenetic random activity. voting against things you support, killing you own bills, demagoguing your own earmarks in your own bills, making promises you can't keep, running out the clock, doing nothing, while insisting that time is short and what you really need is more time. republicans are keeping the bills very, very busy right now. they're busy with frenetic

random legislative activity and this is the point, that is unconnected to any policy goal. this is what happens when you do not see yourself as having any responsibility for policy. you don't see yourself as having any responsibility for getting stuff done for the country. and in combination of that lack of responsibility, you have the power to stop everybody else from getting stuff done too. my cute little puppy is now a giant, full grown dpauog, he's enormo enormous, you could put a saddle on him. he does not do that anymore, he outgrew his frap phase. but this weekend, washington i'm telling you is going to be fraptastic. making sense of it will be something you can do if you lie about what happens. if you're honest about what happens, you'll admit it's just activity for the sake of activity. no telling when that vote might

happen and what might screw it up.

what should you watch on the this veekd, besides northern illinois versus fresno state? how about a whole lot of politics, including don't ask, don't tell, finally and the dream act. christmas time in washington coming right up. and i crashed a very famous spy drone today. stay with us. [ female announcer ] there's complete. and then there's most complete. like what you get from centrum silver ultra women's,

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politics, not just for weekdays anymore. why is the senate going to be in session doing really important stuff this weekend? and how likely are they to actually do that really important stuff? joining us to break down is roger stanton. thank you very much for your time late on friday. really appreciate it. the senate was initially going to adjourn for a year today. what do you expect they're going to try to do this weekend and what are they actually going to try to get done? >> the first thing they'll do tomorrow morning at 10: 30 is vote on the dream legislation, which is to help children who have brought here by their parents illegally, if they go to college or serve in the military to give them a pathway to citizenship. there are some republicans who support it but because of election politics it seems that

it won't have enough votes because of conservative democrats voting no and republicans staying fairly united against it. the next thing about 11:00 tomorrow, they're supposed to vote on the don't ask, don't tell repeal. and that sort of a concerted effort to use s.t.a.r.t. as a reason not to vote for it should pass. >> are there delaying tactics available to republicans to push that don't ask, don't tell vote past tomorrow morning maybe even further? >> what will likely happen is it's a closure vote that they're going to take which is a procedural vote to end debate. and then they have 340 hou0 hou debate after they decide they're not going to debate anymore. probably about 6:00 sunday, would be the vote assuming republicans don't give in and let them call for a vote. >> i know this is always hard to say with the senate, but sort of outer edge for what the latest the vote could be?

>> you mentioned the nukes treaty and whether or not that's going to factor in today. i know they spent all day today debating the s.t.a.r.t. treaty, the new treaty with russia. now i know that john mccain threw some cold water on that, as did sort of john kyle. what exactly happened there? >> well, it was sort of an odd thing for him to do, frankly, i think some republicans just don't want to take this vote, they don't want to be seen voting on anything that has to do with gay rights and it's a difficult vote for some folks because they may support it, but they don't want to vote for it so they're going to have to vote against it. he and senator lindsay graham also both made the same argument which is that they feel like harry reid is trying to jam things down their throat like don't ask, don't tell and the dream act and other things and that has poisoned the sort of atmosphere with the s.t.a.r.t. treaty. it seems like it may be to

create a reason to not vote for the don't ask, don't tell, but it doesn't appear at this point that it's working. >> them saying we don't want you to poison the well, poison the atmosphere with these, they're not making a specific procedural objection, they're just saying we don't want to vote on this, correct? >> that's as close as you'll get to an honest answer for them. everything got jammed up until the end and they're trying to find ways not to vote on certain things and they're using s.t.a.r.t. which is the house's biggest priority as a bludgeon really. >> let's look at the 9/11 first responders bill. this is a bill that passed the house by a wide margin, it's said to have majority support, a filibuster is threatening it. do you think that will get done this weekend? >> that will probably half after the s.t.a.r.t. treaty which will

probably take until tuesday or wednesday, they'll continue to talk about why they don't like the bill or why they do like the treaty, but have some votes tuesday or wednesday on that. the 9/11 bill is a little odd, there's not a really good sort of coherent reason why republicans don't want to pass it. there's some financial reasons and things like that, but it's a little unclear if on this try they'll have the votes. they have come close, they have come within a handful of votes multiple times in passing it. so we'll have to see what happens on wednesday. >> we'll talk with anthony wiener from new york in just a moment. thanks for your time, i'm sorry you're going to end up working this weekend too. so today here in our offices i broke something that was brand-new and really expensive. oh!

live, well now taped, but at the time live from the drone as it crashes. that's what it looks lying when the brand-new rachel maddow official crashes into a wall because of a pilot that shall remain nameless. that connects to the news, i swear. plus congressman anthony wiener, that's all coming up. ters. >> boy: go down, down, down. down. straight. go straight. no, to the right. to the right. >> go to the right, go to the right. >> whoa! >> whoa! >> what is that? >> man: well, that's a, uh... i don't know. >> whoa. >> can we call him blinky? >> woman: expert teaching. deeper learning. together, we are the human network. cisco. mom, new shoes?

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jon stewart and the daily show at comedy central did a great service on their show last night. when despite everybody else's inability to focus on a matter for any amount of time, he refused to stop covering the 9/11 first responders bill. the 9/11 first responders bill would provide health care for men and women who are sick, in some cases gravely so because of the work they did after 9/11. the bill is not controversial, it is paid for, it passed with a more than 100-vote margin several months ago, but say it with me now, it has yet to pass the senate. to be clear, the 9/11 first responders bill has majority support in the senate, as you would expect, if it were voted on in an up-or-down vote, it would pass. but republicans are not allowing it to be voted on, they are filibustering it.

they are not allowing it to come up for a vote. jon stewart is the person in politics who has kept the most attention on this and last night he blew it out. last night he was talking to four first responders who themselves are seriously ill from the time they started doing rescue and recovery at ground zero. check this out. >> the senate is filibustering the bill. what's going through your mind as you're watching this process go down? >> we discussed it, we're disappointed and unfortunately, we're hurt. we are -- we are proud protectors of the constitution. for the people, by the people. >> right. >> and we want to know where it was lost. >> you know, none of the republican senators went on the floor of the senate to talk about why they were going to filibuster the bill. but senator mitch mcconnell a couple of days ago did actually

get on the floor of the senate and made i thought a really emotional speech and i wanted you guys to listen to it and maybe get your reactions too. >> judd grew up in nashua, in southern new hampshire, he found time to dress up as the school's mascot. he decided to run for the u.s. senate. he's been instrument al -- when he walks out of this chamber for the last time, he'll leave an enormous void behind. >> senator mitch mcconnell who's talking about senator judd gregg who's retiring from the senate. >> he's shedding a tear on his lunch buddy that he hangs out with every day, where is his human feeling for not only the four of us, we represent the brothers and sisters that were down there, this isn't a me, me

to any one of us, this is about the brothers and sisters that can't come out and speak like we can. it's sad to see someone like him -- >> to be fair, they have worked together for like six years. >> oh, yeah. >> on 9/11 when you heard that the towers got hit and you were with your colleagues in the nypd and the fire department, when you guys voted, obviously you needed a supermajority to vote to go down there, right? i mean you vote, you need a supermajority. >> we barely made it by one vote. >> did you have to promise things to the other firefighters or the other police officers, vote with us on this to go down to the towers to save people and we'll have chili on friday night. >> fortunately nobody retired that day because they would have been crying. >> it would have been a very difficult day for you guys.

>> the 9/11 first responders bill has passed the house, it has majority support in the senate. there are no substantive arguments that are being made against it whatsoever in the senate. but republicans in the senate are still stuffing it from being voted on. we'll have more on that ahead. love legendary covergirl lashblast?

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the gentleman from new york is recognize it. >> i yelled to the distinguished gentleman from new york, senator wiener. >> we see it in the united states senate every single day where members say we want amendments, we want debate, but we're still a no. you vote yes if you believe yes. you vote in favor of something if you believe it's the right thing if you believe it's the wrong thing, you vote no. we are following a procedure, i will not yield and the gentleman will observe regular order.

the gentleman thinks if he gets up and yells he's going to intimidate people into believing he's right. the gentleman is wrong. it's republicans wrapping their arms around republicans rather than doing the right thing on behalf of the heroes, it is a shame, a shame. if you believe this is a bad idea to provide health care, then vote no. but don't give me the cowardly view that oh, if it was a different procedure. the gentleman will observe regular order and sit down. i will not. the gentleman will sit. the gentleman is correct in sitting. i will not stand here and listen to my colleagues say oh, if only i had a different procedure that allows us to stall, stall, stall and then vote no. instead of standing up and defending your colleagues and voting no on this human bill, you should urge them to vote

yet, something the gentleman has not done. >> democratic congressman anthony wiener in new york, back in july. quite indignant about republicans in the house using procedural complaints to stop health care for 9/11 first responders. ultimately two months later the house did get it together and managed to pass the 9/11 first responders bill. the 9/11 first responders bill is still not law. it still has to get through the senate. it could pass, a majority of senators are in favor of it but it cannot come up for a vote because it is being filibustered by senators. congressman, thank you very much for being here. as somebody who worked very hard to get this through the house, how do you feel about the fact that it is still being held up

in the senate? >> all we want is a vote. we just want a yes or no vote. this is nine years later, quite literally people are dying as they're watching this show. you're right, there really isn't a substantive argument against this. yesterday in the house of representatives and today the president signed a bill that gave tax cuts to millionaires and billionaires in the amount of about $70 billion. this is a $7 billion program for a dissecret group of people whoever day are coughing. the challenge that we have here is trying to stop the moving target of what the objection is. is it that they don't like the bill because it's just for new yorkers? it's not that. frankly, 435 districts and 434 of them have someone who's dying of 911 related illnesses. is it the procedure? they said if only you pass the tax bill, we'll go on to the other things. and this is one of the other

things. we have close to 60 votes, but the objection to even having a vote on this thing is what makes so many americans watch what goes on in their legislature, and maybe i was a little bit overexcited there. but the sentiment i was hearinging expressed on the street is that at least vote on it. this could be the last week we get to do it because i believe the republicans in the house won't bring this up again. so we literally need this vote now or never. >> i saw your office put out a statement specifically responding to john mccain on this. he described work on this bill as fooling around and you put out a statement in response to that. again, just a question about whether or not procedure matters, whether or not actually getting to vote on something matters. >> well, look, i think of all people who would understand john mccain at least in theory should. i think what my friends in the

senate don't realize is that what they think is regular day to today procedural maneuvering looks to the rest of the country as standing in the way of really letting democracy work. but in this case, we have this universe of people and we think it's about 10,000 people. no one wants to get this benefit. it's not like an entitlement, no one's trying to get toxic stew in their lungs to try to get money. for john mccain saying this is some kind of a game or a stunt, this is what i think we should have done on september 11 and we're trying to finally do now. and i would just say to senate colleagues if there is one issue all year that should politics, it's this one. i don't think this is a partisan thing here and hopefully they'll

find their way clear to do it. >> the compromise that the president made with republicans to extend the bush era tax cuts, you voted no on that. what do you think is going to happen in two years when all these things sun set again and those debates start all over again in the middle of the presidential race? >> we have a near term problem, the near term problem is that the republicans ate our lunch in this card game, they got everything they wanted during this session, the estate tax and the extension of the bush tax cuts. then there's the medium term in two years, i am concerned that whatever political pressure we all felt this year to get this done, we're going to feel even more profoundly in an election year in two years, and that's the problem, and it's also worth noting that a lot of the middle class benefits don't go two years, they only go one year. so you're not going to have the -- if this becomes permanent, which seems like the

path it's going on, and the sinister objective of the republicans when they passed it, it was a ten-year sun set. they knew it would be very hard to drop this thing. cannibalizing programs that are important to pay for it. so i think we're going to be seeing the echos of this tax fight again and again. and now i hate to say it, these are not the bush tax cuts anymore, now these are the obama tax cuts and that's what so frustrating about it. >> senator wiener, democrat from new york, thanks, i appreciate it. guess who got a brand-new spy drone and then broke it. i feel like i want to fight it. you know what i mean? i said back up. i said back up. okay. and then right after that, i broke it. this does relate to developments in the larger world, i promise, boss. we had a really long week, we

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remember the food safety overhaul? it looks like you're going to have to keep thinking back on it fondly. because the food safety bill was part of the omnibus spending package that died in the senate late last night. a republican senate aide tells the hill newspaper that it will not be placed in the stopgap measure. a spokesman for majority leader harry reid says they're still, quote, working with our republican colleagues to include food safety in the continuing resolution. so in the recap, keeping the government up and running for hours at a time, yes, we can. giving your government the ability to protect our food supply beyond med measures and technology that were developed 22 years ago, no, not with this senate.

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imagine you are in a quiet neighborhood in el paso. all right, this is texas, this is el paso. ding. this is the specific neighborhood, the specific intersection we are talking about. imagine you're in this quiet, relatively suburban neighborhood in el paso, texas. and then this happens. all right, so, it wasn't exactly like this drone that you can see here on the desk. but it was a drone.

that crash landed in the backyard of a private home in el paso three days ago. it wasn't an american government drone, it was actually one owned by the mexican government. this is what we think it might have looked like. we can't show you the drone itself, because after the drone was recovered by local police, it was actually returned to the mexican government. who knew the mexican government had drones? where did they get them from? we don't know. our best guess is that it's this israeli model marketed to countries all over the world. this is a picture we got from their website. this is a surveillance drone, this is not an armed drone. the one that we got is not an armed drone either, but it is weirdly intimidating. we bought this across the street today on the flimsy excuse of having an american drone story that we needed to cover. >> you can control this with your iphone. >> really? >> yes. >> i thought you were going to call up some directions.

the iphone is your remote control? >> there are two cameras. >> if you don't have an iphone? >> you don't have a drone then. >> that's very intimidating. >> it is. >> can i drive it? >> go for it. >> what does this one do? i know that this is tilting, i just push? >> push it forward. perfect. how far away can it go? >> we haven't figured that out yet. i think you should get on an elevator. >> andy, i've been meaning to talk to you. sorry. i feel like i want to fight it. you know what i mean? no, i said back up, i said back up. okay.

>> you have to get underneath it. >> i don't know why it just dropped like that. >> whoa. >> i crashed. so it works. >> it does. >> it's weirdly terrifying. >> it's the fact that it can see. >> even if it couldn't see, the fact that it moves up on you. the other big drone story in the news today is a scoop by msnbc's michael isikoff said that a suspected terrorist a high value target for the united states was killed in a drone strike. he was a high value target for

the u.s. because he had been implicated in the bombing that killed 17 american sailors. on the eve of the tenth anniversary of the cole bombing there were multiple international news reports that one of the cole bombers was killed in a u.s. drone strike in pakistan. if those reports were true, that would mean the guy has now been dead by drone for about two months. that would also mean that this picture cannot exist. this is the supposedly dead cole bombing suspect guy on the right with a journalist on the left. the suspect reportedly allowed himself to be photographed to prove that he is in fact not dead. the drone strikes in north waziristan of which there were more than three today and 100 this year, they also led to a big shock in the word of spy craft today. a lawsuit was filed in pakistan by a man who said his brother and his son had been killed by a u.s. drone strike in the tribal areas in pakistan last year.

the lawsuit asks for a half million dollars in compensation for those deaths. but the lawsuit named a man who's accused of being head of the -- his name appeared in the press all over pakistan, it started showing up on placards. the "new york times" calls the perhaps the spy agency's most important overseas post. the times also makes the bombshell allegation that, quote, the officer's cover was deliberately blown by pakistan's military intelligence agency. that is an allegation being made by u.s. intelligence sources speaking to "new york times." of course, this all takes place right after another mysterious rushing out of the country of an american diplomat in pakistan. the u.s. consul general in pitch

war had only been there two months when she was rushed out. initial reports said she was rushed out while she was under threat from the taliban. u.s. sources later said it was for personal reasons she was rushed out of the country. as always, news out of pakistan is scary, the place where osama bin laden lives, and oh, yeah, the nuclear weapons. as always scary. as always, drone news both scary and weird. but we did get and maybe broke the best office toy ever. did i break it? not sure i know how to drive it. o. okay, go to break. quick, go to break. ♪

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stella: hmmm. we're getting new medicare benefits from the new healthcare law. jane: yea. most people will get free cancer screenings. and 50 percent off of brand name prescription drugs if you're in the donut hole. stella: you read my paper. jane: i went to medicare.gov. it's open enrollment, you know. so i checked out all the options and found a better plan to fit my budget. stella: well, you know what they say...knowledge... jane: knowledge is power.

i don't think we will ever do a fake political science textbook as a tie-in, but i will admit we've been tempted. foreign aid. npr, how term limits make staffers and lobbyists way more powerful than the people who run for office, since they're the ones left on how to get things done. obviously we thought about it, but we have never done it. if we do it someday, one of the case studies of power brokers, getting stuff done -- one of our

case studies will be bob,jindal. the sand berms that worked for him. it starts in april, with the national nightmare of bp's deepwater horizon well exploding and sinking searcheding millions of barrels of oil gushing into the gulf of mexico threatening fisheri fisheries, but particularly in louisiana. for a savvy politician, though, a national nightmare can be a political opportunity, a opportunity in governor jindal's case into transform yourself into uniformed action man, demanding answers from washington, arranging for buckets of money to be spend on whatever, literally whatever, in mr. jindal's case, whatever meant sand berms. he demanded that the federal government get out of the way and let him build miles of artificial sand berms out in the gulf, because he said that would stop the oil from coming ashore.

here is governor jindal about a month into the disaster. we want them to pluf or dredging, or sand boom plan to keep this oil off our shores. >> except there were lots of good reasons not to do that. federal regulators, experts on these things, warned that the sand booms,ed sand berms could not get built in time to help, that they might increase erosion, which is a very big problem, that they could block tidal waterways, could maybe a horrible situation worse by actually funneling the oil further into the swamps, but because of all that expert opinion that said they were a bad idea and a waste of time and sand, which is actually kind of a valued commodity, because expert opinion was uniformly against the cockamamie sand berm scheme, the federal government was against it, and if the federal government was against it, then that's the fight that bob,jindal wanted to fight.

otherwise, how could conservative uniformed action man be seen railing against federal red tape for political purposes? so governor jindal cranked away on the sand berm scheme and on denouncing the federal government at every turn. he cranked away on the scheme until finally he got permission to build those dumb sand berms, and he got the millions from bp to fund them instead of funding something else. the jindal administration began telling the story in their own way. this would be indexed under "spin" in our textbook. >> others said it wasn't going to do anything to prevent the diluted oil from reaching shore, but the reality is that it worked. the reality is that it prevented that oil from getting into the wetlands. sand berms were a great success, but we are thrilled we did those sand berms. >> was it one of the largest dredging projects in the nation? yes. was it hugely expensive?

yes. tons of man-hours, tons of sand, and tons of money spent on this. did it work? no. it did not work at all. quote, the louisiana berms were not a success. quote -- the louisiana berms were not an effective spill response measure. quote, they were not effective for spill response. those are the blunt conclusions of the oil commission, bipartisan, which released its draft review this week. quote, the commission staff can comfortably conclude that the decision to green light the underwhelmingly effective, overwhelmingly expectative louisiana berm project was flawed. these things cost three times what -- triple the cost of everything else combined. they did essentially nothing, excepts risk some grave damage to the waterways they were built in. what do you do if you're bobby jindal, politician, political science case study in the