thanks for being with us. "the ed show" with ed schultz begins right now. good evening, americans, welcome to "the ed show" tonight from new york. politico delivers the deep dish on herman cain. does the candidate finally have his arms around this story? he's moving a lot. we have a lot to talk about. this is "the ed show." let's go work. >> i have never sexually harassed anyone. >> herman cain's reaction to the politico bombshell keeps evolving. >> we have no idea the source of this witch hunt. >> tonight, ken vogel of politico is here to defend his reporting. meanwhile, the cain campaign can't get their story straight. right wingers are attacking liberals and herman cain is playing the clarence thomas card. steve kornacki, joan walsh on the fallout. 99%ers protest eric cantor. elsewhere the occupy oakland

talk of a general strike is getting louder. we'll ask labor strategist steven learner where all of this is headed. in iowa, the aftermath of corporate greed. i'll talk about my trip to newton, iowa, on saturday, after whirlpool announced their latest rounds of layoffs. and the muffin man's rant is debunked. >> i want to taste that muffin. know why? because i bought the muffin. >> bill o'reilly going in the "zone." great to have you with us tonight, folks. thanks for watching. the white hot spotlight of the 2012 election is on herman cain this evening. the pizza mogul has been on an anthony weiner-like media tour after politico reported about past allegations of sexual harassment by at least two female employees during herman cain's stint as the head of the national restaurant association. after the pizza man appeared on "face the nation," politico's jonathan martin questioned him

outside the studio. here's the exchange. >> i'm not going to comment about two people who you won't tell me who they are, okay? that's like negotiating -- i'm not going to comment on that because, you know, i think that that is one of those kinds of things that -- >> that was the last question. thanks. last question. >> have you ever been accused of sexual harassment? >> politico posted this blockbuster story on sunday night. then the flood gates opened. right wing hate machine merchant ann coulter instantly jumped to herman cain's defense. >> it's outrageous the way liberals treat a black conservative. this is another high-tech lynching. >> the words of clarence thomas, supreme court justice. >> that's right. there's nothing liberals fear more than a black conservative. >> this morning, herman cain's smoking campaign adviser mark block read a carefully worded response on this network.

>> herman cain has never sexually harassed anybody, period, end of story. every negative word and accusation in the article is sourced to a series of unnamed or anonymous sources, and this is questionable at best. >> so the fun starts. moments later, herman cain showed up on fox and gave a more forceful denial. >> i've never sexually harassed anyone, and, yes, i was falsely accused while i was at the national restaurant association and i say falsely because it turned out after the investigation to be baseless. the people close -- the people mentioned in that article were the ones who would be aware of any misdoings, and they have attested to my integrity and my character. it is totally baseless and totally false. never have i committed any sort of sexual harassment.

>> cain said he was falsely accused. cain proved the validity of politico's reporting was spot on. the herman cain media tour rolled on to a prescheduled speech at the press club. >> in my 40 years of running businesses and corporations, i have never sexually harassed anyone. while at the restaurant association, i was accused of sexual harassment, falsely accused, i might add. as far as a settlement, i am unaware of any sort of settlement. i hope it wasn't for much, because i didn't do anything. but the fact of the matter is, i'm not aware of a settlement. >> tell you what, he's getting better as the day goes on. you can tell the godfather's former ceo has been schooled up. herman cain said he was unaware of any sort of settlement. shortly after the speech, cain taped an interview with greta van susteren at fox which he

reportedly said, "i don't remember a number. we ended up settling for what would have been a termination settlement. maybe three months salary. i don't remember. it might have been two months." nbc news has confirmed one of the cain accusers did receive a cash settlement. later in the greta van susteren interview, herman cain described one of the encounters which led to a sexual harassment charge. >> she was in my office one day and i made a gesture, saying, oh -- i was standing close to her. and i made a gesture, you are the same height as my wife, and brought my hand -- didn't touch her, up to my chin and said, you're the same height as my wife because my wife comes up to my chin. my wife of 43 years. and that was put in there as something that made her uncomfortable as part of the sexual harassment charge. >> earlier this evening, herman cain was a guest on the pbs

"news hour." judy woodruff asked cain if he asked two women to his hotel room. >> and there was some mention of a hotel room at a convention or at a meeting. did either one of these women, were they ever asked to meet you? >> that i absolutely do not recall. you know, i have no recollection of that. >> this story is less than 24 hours old and herman cain's answers keep raising eyebrows. republicans now have to render judgment on cain's credibility. so far the conservative echo chamber is circling the wagons around herman cain. >> natalie, you're saying occupy politico in other words? they're occupying wall street, we need to occupy politico.com. >> exactly. we need to get people outside downtown. we need to get the camera crews there and say these people are sleazy -- >> stop destroying a good man. stop destroying a good man's reputation. >> rush limbaugh is attacking the mainstream media for being racist.

>> look at how quickly what is known as the mainstream media goes for the ugliest racial stereotypes they can to attack a black conservative. >> herman cain is going to continue shopping for sympathy in the media on hannity's show tonight. hannity tweeted this out today. "we are talking about herman cain and the attacks on him from the liberal left because he has done so well in the polls." i tell you, sean, that's really deep. we have shown tonight just the wide array of answers that herman cain has given. this is a credibility killer. first of all, dude, you're running for president of the united states. that's what you want. you want to be the republican candidate. did you think this wasn't going to come out? are you that naive? talk about a credibility killer. what we have seen today in the last 24 hours, we've seen him not knowing anything, to giving

descriptions of what he says happened. is that a 180? what if president obama had any kind of an issue like that and went that far in a 24-hour period? what would the republicans be saying, what would the right wing media be saying? bottom line here, this is a credibility killer. what we have is an accusation and we have a response and somewhere in between all of that is the truth. okay? attorneys get involved. insurance policies for the company and everything else. all that stuff happens, right? somewhere in there is the truth. what we do know now for sure is herman cain's answers from yesterday and what they are today are totally different. you want that guy to be president of the united states? this has nothing to do with the color of his skin. this has nothing to do with the liberal media. it's cain who's changing his answers. the man doesn't know. get your cell phones out. i want to know what you think. tonight's question, do you believe herman cain's denial of sexual harassment charges? text "a" for yes, text "b" for no to 622639.

go to our blog at ed.msnbc.com. we'll bring you the results later on in the show. joining me now, ken vogel, chief political reporter for politico. great to have you with us tonight. i appreciate your time. >> my pleasure, ed. >> since the report came out, what do you make of herman cain's changing of answers in 24 hours on a number of different venues? >> it's been a little ham handed, ed. what you failed to mention is, we initially approached the campaign ten days before this story ever came out, so they had plenty of time to come up with a coherent response. we approached him both prior to publication as well as sunday during which the interview you saw jonathan martin encountering herman cain outside the cbs studios with the name of one particular woman who alleged sexual harassment and yet still there was a failure of the campaign to both i think realize the seriousness of this as well as to come up with a coherent

response that would last and be able to be sustained as this story developed. >> what do you say to the critics who are saying this is a personal attack? >> well, certainly we have heard from folks who have wanted to know where we got this story, suggested that perhaps we got it from another campaign. what we say to them is that we corroborated this. regardless of where we got it, we spent a lot of time, we did dozens of interviews with both former board members of the national restaurant association, former staffers, folks who knew these women. we actually physically examined one of these settlements and only when we got to the point where we were extremely comfortable with the validity of this did we run with it. and you see herman cain now admitting that there was a settlement which we previously refused to. i think that's a testament to our reporting. >> based on his answers which have changed over the last 24 hours, he's gone from almost a denial to a description in his terms what happened.

is there a chance the women would want to be identified, is there a chance maybe more would come out? are you working on more stories in this genre? >> we continue to look into strings of reporting, lines of inquiry we put out there when reporting this story. as you could tell, nbc news and other media outlets also are working on stories that are related to this. and so i don't think that we've heard the last of either this story or potentially herman cain's struggles in dealing with this story. >> can you emphatically state tonight that no other campaign was involved in helping with this story? >> i can -- we're not going to get into our sourcing of it, again, what was important to us was that we were able to verify what was initially a very vague sort of broad contour of a story and we were able to really put

some meat on the bones and figure out precisely what happened and present it in a way that has yet to be challenged. >> cain said the following after his interview with pbs. here it is. >> mr. cain, why the discrepancy? first you said there was no settlement. now you reportedly said there is a settlement. why the kind of disconnect there? >> can you remember everything about an incident from 12 years ago? and the other thing is, politico said there was a settlement. i know that there was an agreement. whether it was a settlement, agreement, or whether it was termination, i don't remember what it was called. so that choice of words, i'm not going to say that it's changing my tune. they used the word "settlement." i know that the restaurant association had an agreement with this lady. >> he is wordsmithing this big-time, would you agree? >> that's a bit of hair splitting certainly. it seems sort of semantic here. what we understood, that this

settlement was was that there was actually a statement of the allegations against herman cain and there was a -- it was signed by the national restaurant association by representative from it and that there was a payment of -- monetary payment in the five figures with a nondisclosure agreement that forbade this woman in particular to talking about the issues raised in the settlement. that's one of the reasons why we have been so careful about not naming either of these two women. >> what's your day two story on this whole thing? >> we start to look a little bit at the restaurant association. you heard herman cain say there was a thorough investigation by the general council and head of human resources and the head of human resources of the restaurant association. we talked to the head of human resources last week. we had no clue about any of this, so that would seem to question either the thoroughness or the scope of the investigation because additionally we talked to many,

many board members including those who were officers of the board who probably if you're going to have an investigation like this would be brought into the loop and made aware of it. they were not. some of them frankly were upset, while some denied outright the possibility this could have occurred. some of them said, huh, i really wish i would have known about this. >> i find it amazing that you went to him some days ago and he has botched the response in such a terrible fashion. it makes it look like he certainly isn't ready for primetime. and getting some very poor counseling throughout it all. politico's ken vogel. good to have you with us tonight. i appreciate your time. remember to answer tonight's question at the bottom of the screen and share your thoughts on twitter @edshow. will the allegations against herman cain actually help his standing on conservative voters? we ask the experts, next. 1,200 whirlpool workers in ft. smith, arkansas, are about to lose their jobs. i went to visit the folks who used to work for maytag in

newton, iowa, who were bought out by whirlpool. they'll tell their story tonight here on "the ed show."

rick perry says he might skip some of the upcoming republican presidential debates but based on the speech he gave in new hampshire on friday, perry might want to skip public speaking entirely. in case you missed it, we put together some of the more eye opening moments from one of his strangest speeches of the campaign season. >> gold is good. if you've got any in the backyard, because, you know, if they print anymore money over there in washington, the gold's going to be good. that -- you know, it's pretty easy math. subtract it, send it in. it's awesome. and among those were life -- i love it that they start with that one, catherine. life.

that little plan i just shared with you doesn't force the granite state to expand your tax footprint. if you know what i mean. like 9%. i mean, i mean, like -- today has been awesome, girl. this has really been a great day. >> we're getting to know rick perry. if perry shows up to any future debates, i really hope it's the rick perry we just saw. up next, more on the source behind herman cain's allegations. political fallout. stay with us. when i inspect homes, i can't be in an allergy fog.

so i get claritin clear for strong, non-drowsy relief of all my allergies like dust mold pets and pollen. looks good. thanks. i live claritin clear.

welcome back to "the ed show." everyone wants to know who leaked the sexual harassment allegations against herman cain. cain was asked about the anonymous sources during his appearance at the national press club today. >> do you think one of your rivals might have helped to put this out there? >> i told you, this bull's-eye on my back has gotten bigger. i have no idea. we have no idea the source of this witch hunt. >> rick perry's campaign issued a flat denial. "every time one of the other campaigns gets a bad story, they try to blame us. it's way off base. it's completely inaccurate." mitt romney's campaign had a similar statement, we had absolutely nothing to do with it. pretty clear. let's turn now to our panel tonight. for more on the story, joan walsh, editor at large, salon.com. also, goldie taylor joins us tonight, columnist for the grio and managing editor of the blog, the goldie taylor project.

steve kornacki, political columnist at salon. joan, let me ask you first. in some strange way, might this help herman cain? did he really damage himself today in your opinion? >> i think he damaged himself today, ed. you and i, we all thought he was going to plummet in the polls after his terrible debate performance. where he really couldn't explain his 9-9-9 plan and brought us the apples and oranges we loved so much. you know, his standing did not fall which was kind of amazing to me. he's handling this a lot like 9-9-9. he really isn't ready for answers. he's changing his answers. you depicted it really wonderfully. this crazy day. and, yet, i don't know, maybe his voters will rally around him and see him as a victim. i don't think so, though. he looks really unprepared. he's reeling. he's kind of fighting back and punching and missing. i do think this is going to hurt. and also, sadly, i think that we in the media, not us, but others

pay more attention to sexual scandals than we do horrible tax plans. so this is not going away. >> as someone who wants to be a leader, as someone who talks about his business experience, especially at the corporate level, goldie taylor, i'm amazed at how poorly he has handled this with a whole array of different answers. what about that? >> i think that was the most stunning thing, ed, i saw today, was sort of the rolling disclosures. if you're going to run on your business acumen and going to run on your leadership experience, if you're going to say, i'm going to run this white house like a business, then the communication strategy is certainly a part of that. that's the place where herman cain and his team fumbled this ball. the story, itself, in and of itself, won't be all that damaging among his conservative base. this is a conservative base that doesn't believe racism or gender bias or some of those other things really keep people back in america. what will harm him most is how this campaign has managed these answers.

frankly, the flip-flopping throughout the day won't help him and it makes him unelectable. >> steve kornacki, who did it? somebody leaked this to somebody. somebody gave a tip to a reporter. and kind of maybe directed somebody. could it have been another campaign? they, of course, are denying it. what are you hearing? >> i'm hearing an awful lot of theories. i think that's just the point. if you want to come up with a list of potential suspects from this, the list is going to be about as long as the phone book. the reality of herman cain's campaign has been, for all the support he's shown in the polls, he's basically gotten absolutely none from the sort of republican establishment. he has no big-name endorsements. if you talk to republicans, republican political professionals and get them to open up a little bit when they know they're not going to be quoted, they don't really think this guy is a serious threat to win the nomination. they don't think, you know, he'd be a good candidate for them in the fall at all. so it certainly raises the question. if it's -- maybe it's another campaign. that's certainly possible.

republican campaign. maybe it's a member or group in the republican establishment that thinks cain is getting too close to the nomination, becoming a little too serious of a threat, they feel he'd be a disaster in the fall and want to hold him in check. if you look at the republican establishment, i couldn't give you one name that stands out. so many people could apply to. >> what we have here is a complaint. we have an admission. but we don't have a guaranteed guilty person here. joan, what do you think? i mean, you've got an accusation and then you've got a settlement. does that mean that herman cain absolutely 100% is guilty? he's out there defending himself. how is this going to play with supporters and voters? will it hurt him in the polls? >> you know, ed, i looked at the story this morning and think politico is a solid news organization. but i thought it had some holes. it's all anonymous. and a five-figure settlement, you know, that could be $10,000 or be $9,999.

there's a big range there. it's not as though he couldn't necessarily survive this. when he starts saying, it might be a settlement, it might be termination, i mean, if i were one of those women and he was throwing around the idea that i was terminated and i wasn't, i don't know. i think he sort of the more he answers badly the worse it is for him. he might have survived it. but i don't know with all these stories. >> here's what cain said on pbs tonight about a settlement. >> my general counsel and head of human resources had the authority to resolve this thing. it wasn't one of those things where it got above a certain authority level and i had to sign it. if i did, i don't think i did, i don't remember signing it because it was mineral in terms of what the agreement was. >> goldie, why didn't we get that information from jonathan martin when he approached cain outside the interview he did yesterday on the sunday show? >> i think the real question is, why didn't he answer this ten

days ago when politico first asked him the question? gave him an opportunity to go on the record. i've represented a lot of candidates. i've worked with a lot of fortune 500 ceos. i've never seen anything quite like this. we've been hit with hard scandals when we had to answer the reporters upfront and wind up killing the story because they frankly told the truth. this guy and the rolling disclosures is what's going to hurt him the most. i'm here in atlanta. i've known herman cain for some time. i don't get to see him around the state an awful lot these days. he frankly doesn't have a reputation for this. we women talk about these things when we run into men who tend to be predators. we share information. herman cain was never known in atlanta as a skirt chaser. that doesn't mean this story is not true, but it doesn't mean because there is an agreement or settlement that the story is true. the facts are going to come out, and i just, you know, would say to the cain campaign, you need to get ahead of this story and stop letting it chase you down the railroad track. >> joan walsh, steve kornacki, goldie taylor, great to have you with us tonight.

our good friend across the street has an interesting story and history with baked goods. this time the muffin spin stops here. o'reilly, we're looking out for you in "psycho talk" tonight. senators john mccain and tom coburn are talking about wasteful transportation projects, but many of the projects on their list never got federal funds at all. stay with us.

and in "psycho talk" tonight, bill o'reilly gets up on his high horse and lectures one of his guests about responsibility. >> you're a fox news contributor. you have a responsibility. can you prove the koch brothers are tied into the tea party financially, can you? >> with a check in hand, no. >> okay. thank you. >> but the -- >> your turn is over, leslie. your turn is over. we'll get back. i want to remind you not to make statements you can't back up on this network. we don't do that on this network. other networks do. we don't. >> oh, oh. first of all, it's easy to show financial ties between the koch brothers and the tea party. the koch-funded organization, americans for prosperity, has been involved with the tea party since it began. and has hosted a number of tea party events. secondly, bill o'reilly makes statements he can't back up all the time. one example is his recent obsession with a report claiming

the department of justice spent $16 per muffin at a 2009 conference. >> $16 muffin. broke the story last week on the "factor." muffin-gate. the $16 muffin. a $16 muffin. what about those muffins? >> i want one of those muffins. listen, i'm perfectly happy, bill, to join your anti-muffin jihad. >> $16 muffin. muffin problem. knock out the $16 muffins. craziness on muffins. i want to see that muffin. i want to taste that muffin. know why? because i bought the muffin. >> i'll tell you what, don't say anything on that network unless it's absolutely true. the $16 muffin claim was immediately disputed by the hotel that provided the muffins. and last week, lo and behold, the department of justice, the department of justice, those government guys, they released this following statement. "after further review, we determined that our initial conclusions concerning the itemized costs of refreshments at the eoir conference were

incorrect and that the department did not pay $16 per muffin." don't say anything wrong across the street. the day the doj statement was released was the day o'reilly said this. >> i want to remind you not to make statements you can't back up on this network. we don't do that on this network. other networks do. we don't. >> hey, leslie, he's looking out for you. certainly not looking out for the hotel. i'll keep my eye out for a correction, muffin-gate bill. for you to say fox news does not make statements that can't back up, well, that's unbalanced "psycho talk." i went to newton, iowa, this weekend. as i said i would. and i talked to the people there. what happened to newton, iowa? what did you go through when whirlpool came in and bought maytag then all of a sudden the jobs were gone? two of those longtime maytag workers will tell the arkansas folk tonight what you have to

look forward to. house majority leader eric cantor is confronted by protesters at a speech in an arbor, michigan. i'll talk about that and the latest on the 99% movement with the labor strategist, steven learner. stay with us. trouble getting around, i thought, end of the line... i was headed to a nursing home. well, i'm staying in my own home now, because we chose hoveround! hoveround's compact round design makes it easier for you to maneuver through the tight spaces in your home. and best of all, 9 out of 10 people pay little or nothing for their hoveround, so call now and you can be the next to pay... zero...i paid nothing for the unit at all. and now only from hoveround, every power chair includes a handy tote bag, so you'll always have access to your favorite items and this sturdy cup holder, so your favorite beverage can ride along with you! the folks at hoveround really thought of everything. that's why i called them and so should you.

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welcome back to "the ed show". we talk about jobs and job creation on the program. we carried a story friday night on "the ed show" about whirlpool shipping 5,000 jobs overseas. now, the community of ft. smith, arkansas, is the next victim of corporate greed. whirlpool has announced the manufacturing plants in that town will be shut down. whirlpool, the largest appliance maker in america, has done the same thing in evansville, indiana, and in newton, iowa. so how do these communities cope after the jobs are lost? on saturday, my wife and i took a trip to newton, iowa, to get the real story.

whirlpool, of course, took over maytag back in 2006 and the nightmare for these folks started shortly after. today with a population of 15,000, the town of newton, iowa, has 700 homes for sale, they have seen over 70 foreclosures in the last 24 months, 4,000 jobs lost has changed that community. >> i mean, there's nobody around. when the farmers were in trouble, the union was there. >> we were there. >> when people were in trouble, the unions were always there. we never separated ourselves from society. we were part of it. we were part of it. we was raised from the new deal, from our folks and grandparents and now we're right back in the son of a -- >> the people in the unions are a lot more educated and on the ball than a lot of the other people just duped by them and what appeals to main line republicans are either religious dogma, evangelical christians or very simplistic answers like 9-9-9 tax or the 29% flat tax.

>> so ft. smith, arkansas, prepare for some real hardship. it's tough to bounce back. let's talk about the product the people were making. maytag, a fabulous product. in fact, they were the gold standard for home appliances. and they gave out gold standard wages to people that certainly earned them. you know, when you grew up in newton, iowa, you did one of three things when you were 18 years old. you either went to college, you went into the military or you were lucky enough to get a job at maytag. because they had great salary, great benefits, great health care and you knew you had a future there. in fact, a lot of college graduates came back to their hometown and went to work at the plant. people worked hard there. there was a tremendous amount of pride. i saw that pride there on saturday. these are americans who are put out of work because somebody at the top wants to make more money. so how is newton, iowa, tonight? and what's on the horizon for

ft. smith, arkansas? let's bring in steven wilcox, a former maytag worker from newton, iowa, who now runs the smoking mississippi queen barbecue catering service which he started. and max tipton, a retired uaw union rep who put nearly 41 years in with maytag. gentlemen, great to have you with us tonight. i loved your community. great people. very passionate about american. the conversation i had with you folks on saturday, you weren't talking about politicians, you weren't talking about party. you were talking about right and wrong. steven, you had 22 years with maytag when you lost your job because of this takeover. what happened, what did you go through? what are the folks of ft. smith, arkansas, looking forward to now? >> a lot of emotional heartache. a lot of questions out there, what am i going to do? how am i going to support my family?

and it just -- it escalates and you just don't know what you're going to do. >> max, you had 41 years in negotiated labor contracts. what worked well, and what went wrong in newton? >> what went wrong in newton, whirlpool. the maytag company was a very wealthy company for many years. they knew how to make money and they knew how to make the best product on the market. >> and then whirlpool just came in and changed everything? why, why did they do that? what reason was given to the workers? >> i don't know that any reason was given to the workers other than the fact that they bought the plant. they didn't blame the workers. they didn't blame the union. they just bought the plant and made the announcement they was going to close a year later which they did. >> max, when you think of what you hear about whirlpool, in the last quarter, they had a -- they more than doubled their net profit to $177 million but is

laying off thousands of workers. what does this tell you about what's happening in america, max? >> what's happening, in my mind, is these job creators, as the republicans like to call them, they're creating jobs, but they're not creating jobs here in the united states. they're creating jobs offshore. >> there's five republicans running for president who will participate in a manufacturing forum in pella, iowa, on november 1st. steven, what would you like to ask any one of these candidates? >> can you help america out? is what you're doing on the rally that you're on, is that going to help us out? are we capable of having a good, successful life and careers with what you got to say? >> max, are we seeing the american dream evaporate? >> yes, we are. the republicans, their main goal

is to defeat president obama rather than do something for the united states. and workers in the united states. >> max, where did all the workers go when they shut the plant down? where did they go? what did they do? what did it do to the community? >> some of them went back to school. and our son and daughter, for example, our son has 21 years at maytag and our daughter had i believe 14 years. they both went back to school and found jobs. and after they graduated from school. so a lot of the employees, former employees, have done that, but i'm not sure of the number. i know there's still a lot of them looking for work. >> well, i want to thank both of you for being with me tonight. i wanted to tell this story to america. there's a real emotional strain that takes place when things like this happen. and it's all for the benefit of a few at the top. there really -- this is just so unnecessary for this to happen in america.

max tipton and steve wilcox, thanks for joining us tonight. i just want to say that the people of iowa were just absolutely outstanding. republicans are lying about how transportation money would be spent. they're talking about things like a giant coffee pot, turtle tunnels, but we'll tell you the truth. stay with us. [ elevator bell dings ] ugh, great. you may be going up, but those roots are bringing you down! try root touch-up by nice 'n easy. to extend the life of your color. nice 'n easy has 50% more shades, so you can find your seamless match. with root touch-up by nice 'n easy.

and in the "playbook" tonight, the senate is expected to do work tomorrow and vote on a transportation bill. republican senators are still lying about how some of the money will be spent. they say money is wasted on transportation enhancements instead of roads and bridges. but it's not true. the specific examples they offered did not get money from the transportation funds. like john mccain's giant coffee pot. >> one of my favorites is the, of course, is the roadside museum featuring a giant coffee pot. i am a coffee drinker, and so i think a coffee pot is pretty nice. >> or mccain's other favorite. the corvette simulator. >> my favorite national corvette museum simulator theater, i'm going to try to meet, go to that one since my first purchase as a young naval officer was a wonderful corvette that i remember with great affection. so i'd like to two back into their simulator theater. >> and senator coburn put out a list of projects getting federal transportation money. junkyard landscaping. lighthouse renovations. saddle tree factory reservation.

battleship texas restoration. none of these got funds. mitch mcconnell and rand paul complained about turtle tunnels in florida. the truth is very different. coverts were built on either side of u.s. 27 so drivers would not swerve to avoid turtles, alligators, beavers and other wildlife crossing the road. there was also the lie about 10% of funds going to the transportation enhancements. >> and by mandating that 10% of highway funds have to be spent on non-highway needs at a time when our country is running massive deficits. >> that's 2%, not 10%. most of it goes for bicycle and pedestrian projects. protesters in oakland are preparing for a citywide strike. here we go. is this where the 99% movement is headed?

i'll talk with labor strategist steven lerner. let me tell you about a very important phone call i made. when i got my medicare card, i realized i needed an aarp... medicare supplement insurance card, too.

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our survey tonight, i asked do you believe herman cain's denial of sexual harassment charges? 12% of you said yes. 88% of you said to. coming up, speaker john boehner says he understands the 99%ers. and eric cantor hears from the protesters at a speech today. stay tuned.

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and finally tonight, six weeks on, the occupy movement shows no signs of letting up, even after scores of protesters were arrested over the weekend from austin, texas, to rochester, new york. today, the movement scored a victory in tennessee. the state has agreed to stop arresting protesters. after they went to federal court seeking temporary restraining order against the republican governor. and in oakland, protesters are gearing up for a citywide strike. here's the report from abc affiliate kgo. >> the group is asking people to skip work and school and not to buy anything. >> i think we're going to shut down the port. for one thing. but maybe we'll shut down some of the banks, too. the main thing is for the workers to show their combined strength, not only by not working but also by not consuming. >> we tried to get a comment from the mayor about wednesday's strike, and other issues, but we were unable to find her. >> and in michigan house majority leader eric cantor was

confronted by 99%ers. dozens of demonstrators turned their backs on cantor during an economic speech. earlier this month cantor skipped out on a similar speech when he learned it would be open to the public. meanwhile at a speech in kentucky, house speaker john boehner saying a different tune. >> i understand people's frustrations, you know, the economy is not producing jobs like they want. and there's a lot of erosion of confidence in our government. and, frankly, under the first amendment, people have the right to speak out. >> joining me now is former organizer for the service employees international union, labor strategist steven lerner. good to have you with us tonight. >> good to be here. >> boehner sounded reasonable in the sound bite. are republicans finally catching on to this movement, knowing they can't get away with it? what do you think? >> it's hard to ignore the fact the 99% all over the country are standing up and saying they're sick and tired of the super rich

and wall street sucking up the wealth of the country while people are losing their jobs and losing their homes. we're in an exciting time. it's great to be on your show to talk about people standing up and fighting back instead of people rolling over and being taken advantage of. >> i tell you what, i was in the middle of the country saturday in newton, iowa. one of the first questions i asked the group, 200 people showed up there, just for a barbecue, i dropped in on the community, we did a tweet on the program friday night. they showed up. they're on it. i asked them, are the protesters out there, are they representing you? i mean, they gave an overwhelming response. this is the middle of the country. now, a new poll out there shows that most americans think income inequality is a problem. where's this movement heading in your opinion? >> i think it's heading into lots of different places in different ways in different places. one thing you're going to see i think is more and more students drown in debt and can't find jobs.

you're going to see more and more protests on campus, see more and more places like oakland where workers and other people stand together to stand up and expose the banks and how they're bankrupting cities and causing layoffs and cuts in services. you're going to see homeowners and people that are under water, refusing to be evicted from their homes and doing like in l.a., sitting in, saying to the sheriff, you can arrest me if you want, but i'm not leaving, i'm going to protect my home. you're going to see more and more of the 99% standing up, saying i've had enough. in a lot of cases they're not going to stand up but sit in and take a stand for justice. >> where does labor fit in in all of this? >> labor has a couple crucial roles here. the first thing we have to realize is that occupy has really taught us some lessons. and they haven't been, you know, they haven't been subtle. they haven't been pulling their punches. they've come out and said, the system is broken, we need to fix it and we're willing to spend weeks and months in one place and even go to jail for it.

so i think for labor, we have to figure out how to support occupy, how to help them spread the movement and then we have to learn some lessons from them about what it takes to win when you're taking on the biggest and most powerful baunks and corporations in the world. >> quickly, what do you make of the 10,000 workers who are expected to participate in wednesday's strike in oakland, including members of your union, the city's largest labor union? could this be the start of something? daily strikes? >> i think what you're going to see is you're going to see all sorts of actions. workers willing to do job actions, see people marching on banks, see people sitting in their homes. it is the start of people saying enough is enough. what's more exciting, more and more people say i'm part of the 99% and tired of the 1% at the top sucking the wealth out of the rest us. >> newton, iowa, do the math. it's hitting a lot of folks. steven lerner. great to have you with us. that's "the ed show." i'm ed schultz.