obama's workshop. let's play "hardball." good evening, i'm chris matthews, in washington, on the night before christmas eve. leading off tonight, the president plays hardball. for much of his term, some democrats have worried that president obama has been the compromiser in chief, that he was more worried about getting along with republicans who didn't want to get along with him and that he and his party were getting rolled in the process. but his total victory in the payroll tax fight has changed that. democrats now see a leader who staked out a position, stuck to it, and got what he pushed for.

the president is making himself now the defender of the middle class. and that has democrats a bit more optimistic about next november. while the democrats are feeling more confident and satisfied, republicans are angry, confused, and as charles krauthammer pointed out today, look as organized as -- look as organized as that marching band at the end of "animal house." ♪ >> right into that wall. anyway, this particular gop defeat was written and produced, many believe, by the tea party. and many of its members are as frustrated with john boehner, the speaker as he is with them. we're going to talk to two tea partiers about how the gop managed to hand the president a big political victory that could have been theirs. plus joe biden stuck it to mitt romney in an op-ed piece saying mitt romney would double down on the very policy, the economic

policies that actually caused the great recession. we're going to talk to the "hardball" strategists about what romney and the other republican hopefuls need to do between now and the iowa caucuses january 3 to seal the deal. also, what republican turned down desperate pleas he run for president won't say no when it comes to being a v.p., that's in the "side show," and it's our last show before christmas. that means it's time for the new york magazine critic david and me to go over or top movies of the year. many have political issues. we start with president obama playing "hardball." michael steele is here, and he's dressed in fine christmas fare. new dress code, bob, you're in your usual suit. i see no sign of christmas on you, except -- >> it's red, it's red, chris. >> red, pink -- >> we have decked the halls with bows of holly here, and you,

sir, are pathetically pink. >> i wouldn't wear that coat that michael has on. he wears it well. >> let's listen to the president. >> when congress returns, i urge them to keep working without drama, without delay, to reach an agreement that extends this tax cut as well as unemployment insurance through all of 2012. you didn't send us to this town to play partisan games and to see who's up, who's down, you sent us here to serve and to make your lives a little bit better and to do what's right. and fortunately, that's how this week ended. >> well, i'm going to let you have this first ball here, bob. it seems to be nice for the president to say he's above politics, having won one of the first big political tussles of the term.

>> oh, sure, the republicans blunders into this. the analogy i might use is i haven't seen anything this dumb since custer got himself surrounded at the battle of big horn. mitch mcconnell tried to stop them, took a position that is untangible. they have helped the president do exactly what he wanted to do. he doesn't want this election just to be a referendum on the economy, although there are signs that it's getting better. he wants it as you said earlier to be a choice, who'standing up and fighting for the middle class. that's what came across here. the polling data has moved very substantially since october on who's better on taxes, and quite frankly, the best thing the republicans can do when they get back is pass a clean extension of this without a bunch of poison pills because that -- they need to get rid of this issue. they don't need to relitigate this fight from a political perspective or from the perspective of the country. >> your thoughts, michael? i'm looking at these numbers here. we know there's a 99% to 1% fight going on in this country. seems like he has grabbed the position of the 99% here, the president. >> obama took the easier route.

he got above the fray and the noise and he said, look, the american people, it's coming up on christmas, the american people are still concerned about jobs and the future. and so this is at least a little bit of something we can give to get us through the new year. the republicans took -- and i agree with bob shrum here, they took is miscalculated route to nowhere. it is very much like walking into that wall. the reality of it is, they've got to come back in january, got to do a clean bill. you don't want this argument again in february and march of next year. the presidential race is under way, the candidates running for the presidency don't want to have to do this dance on -- >> i love the way, by the way, you say the president took the easy side of being for tax cuts when your party takes easy side as you put on every tax fight i've seen. what's wrong with being on the side of the people? >> how do the republicans get on the wrong side of a tax cut for goodness sake? >> you've got a point there. i've looked as these numbers you've looked at. our polls show that the middle class is being defended by the president.

they show on the question of taxes, just say the word taxes now and for the first time i can remember, bob, democrats win. democrats -- >> obama had a slight lead on this in 2008. but if you go back to october, he was way down, now he's ahead pretty substantially. and what the republicans did and michael's exactly right, it was a road to nowhere. they ended up looking like they were for tax cuts for the wealthy but they were against tax cuts for the middle class. it's the worst possible position they could put themselves in. >> why do they do that? why does your party do that? why does your party do that? why do they fight for the tax cuts for the richest billionaires, and don't do it for the people working for their paycheck who get about $40 break every two weeks. by the way, the president does play one game here. the president says $40 a paycheck because people get paychecks every other week, but fair enough. >> right. this is the reality. number one, you're absolutely right, the president got the upper hand on this, republicans played themselves out of position. they took the wrong end -- >> why? >> who knows why -- >> this is what i can't figure out. who's leading them up on the

hill? >> i can't understand the lack of coordination between the house leadership with mccarthy whipping the numbers to be able to tell the senate that the numbers aren't there for the bill you're passing or the senate to tell the house -- that this is the deal we need to cut. >> could it be they're in a rut and they're used to voting against anything the president is for? >> that's too easy. i don't think it's that so much as it is -- >> bob, do you think that's it? i want to ask bob this. you're a political analyst as well as a progressive, bob. why would the republicans take this position of opposing a tax cut for absolute regular working stiffs? what is the plus here for them? i don't get it. >> there is no plus. and what happened in my view is that mcconnell made a smart political deal, handled it the way it would have been handled in any other congress. and chris, you worked there a long time, so did i, any other congress over the years. and the tea party guys just revolted against boehner, put him in an impossible position, he was about to lose his own caucus, he kept walking down the road with them. and then, by the way, several of

them got home, people started yelling at them and said we can't do this, we have to vote for this two-month extension. it was a fiasco. i also think you're right. the fact that president obama was for it meant a lot of those tea party folks were going to be against it no matter what. >> let's take a look at the "new york times." it is liberal on the editorial page, but look at what it said tood. the president's biggest move was upending that he was too big to too quick to compromise. here it comes. president obama did not win much substantively. but he got a lot politically. a big start to retiring the perception, even among democrats in a pinch with the other party he will inevitably surrender. boy, that's a big turnaround for him. bob shrum, i'm looking at the backdrop for you, in this spirit in the eve before christmas eve, where is that poor people's watering hole you are in? >> it's in west los angeles, actually, about a mile and a half from where i grew up in culver city. >> okay. thank you.

have a nice time out there in california. coming up, who is more upset, republicans with the tea party or tea partiers with the republicans? we're foung to talk about tea partiers about the christmas gift. you eyre watching "hardball" on msnbc. [ female announcer ] the healing power of touch can be even more powerful, with precise pain relieving heat patch. it blocks pain signals for deep relief precisely where you need it most. precise. only from the makers of tylenol.

sometimes it's hard to do the right thing. and sometimes it's politically difficult to do the right thing. but you know, when everybody called for a one-year extension of the payroll tax deduction, when everybody wanted a full year of extended unemployment benefits, we were here fighting for the right things. may not have been politically the smartest thing in the world, but i'm going to tell you what, i think our members waged a good fight.

>> what a normal seeming person that guy is in the end. welcome back to "hardball." that was john boehner yesterday trying his best to explain the payroll tax deal. when he was asked by a reporter whether or not he had caved. a lot of tea party republicans feel boehner did just that. caved. disappointed, horrific, and bad deal were just a few of the ways the angriest republicans have described the deal, but not every tea partier agrees. joining me now to talk more about the tea party's anger with boehner over the deal are u.s. congressman michael grm, a freshman republican who was elected with tea party support. and phillip dennis, the chairman of the dallas tea party. you gentlemen are smiling, maybe we can be jovial through a difficult debate here. nobody agrees on much these days, but let's talk about this issue. taxes, class, all kinds of things involved in here. fairness. congressman, you're from new york. >> yes. >> did speaker boehner betray

the tea party yesterday in the deal? >> no, absolutely not. the speaker didn't betray anyone. first of all, you have to remember something, just like myself, speaker boehner has an obligation to govern. and governing is not an easy thing to do. we went into this with good faith. we wanted to push -- that's why i got a big kick of your first segment how we're not protecting taxpayers. we're pushing for one year because it's good policy. everyone has told me since i took office in january, don't do band-aid approaches, don't take the easy way out, stand up and try to enforce good policy even though washington is broken. and that's what we tried to do. maybe we were naive in taking the president at his word that he really wanted a year and maybe i didn't want to believe that he would just trick us, but that's what happened. and the truth is at the end of the day, there's only one loser here, that's the american people because they did not get good policy, they got another band-aid approach and talk to any doctor or any patient and they'll tell you, two months with a doc fix is exactly what they asked us not to do.

>> we go to a tea partier in plano, texas. is it plano or plano? >> it's plano. >> was the president right? was speaker boehner right? >> you are quoting a lot of "animal house." this goes for the grade for all of congress. 0.0. the fact that we are sitting here discussing a $40 pay period rebait to taxpayers is ridiculo ridiculous. now, the national debt is over $15 trillion. that means every american taxpayer owes over $40,000 in debt. it's ridiculous. the fact we sent the republicans there to drastically alter and cut the spending in government, the best anybody can do is come up with $40 a pay period. the if i was going to pay for president obama's vacation, i would have to work 1,000 pay

periods to pay for it. >> let's go with your principle here. should we pay for the bush tax cut for the rich? i'm just asking that, going by your principle. >> well t tax cuts for the rich -- the rich 1% pay over 37%. they are taxed enough. they creigh yait the jobs. that's not why you brought me on here. >> i just want to see if your principles are consistent or not. they cut the tax rates for the rich. 39% would have the clinton tax cuts back again. your party, if it is the republican party opposed restoring the same tax rates we had during the economically excellent 1990s. your party is protecting the rich. >> wasn't president obama, today, patting himself on the back that $40 is going to help every american family?

if americans need $40 a pay period, what is going on. i'll buy 12 gallons of gas rather than 35 when he took office. we want boehner and the democrats to do, all of them, to drastically change the way washington does business. borrowing and spending is a nightmare disaster. it's about to happen to us like europe and greece. >> it's good for a protester. you are a protester. you get paid a salary, staff, you get staff salaries to be participating in governing the united states. that's a different job than standing with a placard out in texas, right? >> absolutely. >> tell me why it's different. >> go ahead. >> what's the different of being a protester and a member of congress who represents principles of the tea party? >> by doing what i have been

doing. i don't understand your question. i go to work for the american people trying to bring change to washington. washington is broken. as far as the tea party is concerned, i support their ideals of getting the debt under control and the size of the government under control. it is completely out of whack. washington is upside down. people voted for me to try to change things. i tried to change things with this vote saying one year was better policy. look what happened. politics prevailed. all the rhetoric in the world continues -- >> let me ask you this. you first. >> it's your business. >> you can say that. you can always make fun of somebody. here is the question. it looks to me like the only way to cut a deal in congress, get it signed by the president is reach a compromise. why not go with a big set of spending cuts with revenue increase for the better off people rather than a roadblock where nothing gets agreed upon?

>> i'm part of the go big caucus. there's 145 of us sitting down three, four times a week to discuss that. we need to have a plan to go big. we have to control this debt. for the purpose of discussions, everything is on the table. we are working bipartisan. it's going well and i'm hopeful we'll be successful in a deal that makes sense to the american people. at the end of the day, i answer to the american people. there's nothing i wouldn't do for this country, but there are limitations. big government is not the answer. we cannot continue to spend money we don't have. these are the realizations. >> i'm with you if you get that done. >> great. >> i love staton island. you have bay ridge, right? >> yes. >> do you think that would be a good thing for america to get through the little deal that is

don't work to big deals? we have big cuts in entitlements, reduction of the debt but you have to have some revenues on the rich or the democrats will never sign the deal and you never get anything done. do you want the deal or no deal? >> everything is on the table. we never said we are totally antitax. the problem is, we have been almost 1,000 days since harry reid and the senate passed a budgeth. it's against the law. we don't want to spend anymore money because we don't trust washington with our money. you can make fun of tea partiers but every day my behind is going to work. the last time i took a vacation is five years ago. it pisses me off for you to say that. >> are you getting something done or protesting? >> i'm working to elect people to hold fiscally conservative values. you want to know what makes it

tea party happy? for the government to spend no more money than it brings in. obama increased our national debt $4.5 trillion in three years. >> congressman michael grim, phillip dennis. who turns down a run for president? i love this thing if it happens just for sheer sport. you're watching "hardball" on msnbc.

back to "hardball." and now the "side show." first up, will he or won't he? one more time. did you think the chris christie 2012 speculation would end when it was confirmed he would not be making a white house run? well, you're forgetting that the republican nominee needs a running mate. and surprise, it's not a yes, and it's not a no from the new jersey governor, chris christie. here's how christie responded when asked if he would be up for a romney/christie ticket. >> i think it's presumptuous to do that. running for president, that's my decision and mary pat's decision alone, we decide that. vice president's a decision of only one person. whoever the nominee to your party is. and i think it's awful to say i won't do something when it hasn't been offered. the fact is, if governor romney comes to me and wants to talk to me about that, we'll have a full complete conversation about it and mary pat and i will make a decision about what we want to

do with our future. >> christie makes sense as a running mate to romney and of course he'd take it. finally get out the vote, newt gingrich would be on the final stretch of pushing for votes in the early primaries and caucuses, but this is not the first time newt has found himself knocking on doors in the lead-up to an election. get ready for this one. here's a slightly younger version of newt hitting up a georgia domino's pizza place back in 1992, he didn't exactly strike a chord with the employee who was working here. let's watch. >> how are you doing? this is not a robbery. i'm newt gingrich. >> hi, how you doing? >> and i am the congressman now. for this area under reapportionment. i wanted to come by for a minute and ask you to consider voting for me there. i'll be the only newt gingrich on the ballot. are most of your calls on the weekends or evenings? what's the pattern? >> friday night. >> that's the big time? that's great. well, i'm -- i -- i'm the house republican whip and the second-ranking leader and i'll be running in this summer.

and since i'm the only guy with a name like newt gingrich on the ballot action i thought i should get out here personally. what's your name? >> john. right here. >> john goodwin, good to see you, john, take care. >> that's what it takes. that's "hardball" now. up next, "your business" with j.j. ramberg. e ♪ ♪ she bought a pizza party for the whole dorm floor ♪ ♪ hundred pounds of makeup at the makeup store ♪ ♪ and a ticket down to spring break in mexico ♪ ♪ but her folks didn't know 'cause her folks didn't go ♪ ♪ to free-credit-score-dot-com hard times for daddy and mom. ♪ v.o.: offer applies with enrollment in freecreditscore.com nyquil tylenol: we are?enol. you know we're kinda like twins. nyquil (stuffy): yeah, we both relieve coughs, sneezing, aches, fevers. tylenol: and i relieve nasal congestion. nyquil (stuffy): overachiever. anncr vo: tylenol cold multi-symptom nighttime relieves nasal congestion... nyquil cold & flu doesn't.