very poor. i'm not concerned about the very rich. i'm concerned about the very heart of america. >> an america where money is power and super pacs rule, and a vanquished newt is a vicious one. >> i'm not running for entertainer in chief. >> could have fooed me. -- fooled me. >> and we begin this afternoon with mitt romney. newly crowned front-runner in. the republican race. kicking off his victory lap with a kick to the poor. indeed. fresh off his win in florida, thanks to about 16 million dollars worth of negative ads, he chose this moment to describe his lack of interest in the very poor. take a listen. >> i'm not concerned about the very poor. we have a safety net there. if it needs repair, i'll fix it. i'm not concerned about the very rich. they're doing just fine. >> even cnn's soledad o'brien was a little taken aback by the comment but listen to what

governor romney says when he's pressed on it. >> you just said i'm not concerned about the very poor because they have a safety net. i think there are lots of very poor americans who are struggling who would say, that sounds odd. >> we will hear from the democrat party the apply the of the poor and there's no question, it's not good being poor. you can choose where to focus. you can focus on the rich. that's not my focus. you can focus on the very poor. that's not my focus. my focus is on middle income americans. >> for the record, more than 46 million people live in poverty, according to latest census. the highest number in the 52 years that that statistic has been measured. but all right. we know mitt romney is not worried about the very poor. that's actually not a big surprise. but mitt shouldn't shouldn't the multimillionaire be concerned about the very rich? if mitt romney won't look out for them, who will? i mean, sure, romney could buy a win with those $16 million in florida ads on his own.

but it's not so much -- but isn't it so much better when your friends do it for you? by friends, i mean completely uncoordinated super pacs, of course. word to the wise, mitt. when you get 62 people to give you 100 grand, seven people to give you a cool million, in the space of just a few months, they expect you to look out for them. just look at "the washington post's" list of big spenders, people who donated a million, half a million, tens or hundreds of thousands to romney's super pac. that list keeps going. there's your 1% folks. shelling out more than $30 million to romney in 2011. mitt, these people care about you. aren't you going to show them some love in return? or is it that mitt romney just can't be bothered? >> i'm not concerned about the very poor. i'm not concerned about the very rich. they're doing just fine. >> let's get right to it now with our triple panel. with us from washington, dana

milbank, columnist for the post and nbc political columnist karen finney and in minneapolis, ana marie cox, correspondent for the guardian. karen, given the fact that nearly 40% of voters in florida in an exit poll said they would prefer another candidate to enter the race, isn't the only conclusion that one can draw from last night that mitt romney bought the primary hook line and sinker? >> it surely seems that way. maybe that 40% realized they were not going to be in the group of people that he seems to care about. so, you know, who knows? but look, what we are seeing, this election cycle particularly we're seeing this in the primary is going to be a lot about what money can buy. right? and what big money can buy. it's not small donors as you pointed out. it's not -- small donors generally tell us about the broad-based grassroots support for a candidate like we've seen with president obama. that's not what we're seeing

with mitt romney. i think there's another piece to what he said i want to raise here. it was on some level the way i heard it is incredibly cynical because it assumes that poor people don't vote. so they don't care about the process. so you can say you don't care about them because you know what? they don't vote. you don't need their vote anyway. i'm going to focus on the middle class. i mean, you know, it's a pretty stunning statement. >> it was. anna marie, you're there in minnesota where mitt romney is today. he just got glitter bombed. take a listen to this. he joked about it. >> oh, i've got glitter. my hair. that's not all that's in my hair. i glue it on every morning whether i need to or not. >> miss have i has been involved. without a tel prompter, he does say the most bizarre things. he likes firing people and now he's not concerned about the poor. >> he's a very odd candidate. it's true.

this is an interesting cycle to say the least. we have some candidates who really eem to not have observed the last you know, 20 years of american politics and learned how to be a presidential candidate. and i just want to point out if you're looking sort of at the chatter on the right today, there's a lot of comments about his dismissal of the very poor and they're not actually you know bemoaning the apply the of the poor but noting what a terrible candidate he is. i think that 40% of florida voters who want someone else, they want someone who knows what to do as a presidential candidate. >> dana, do you agree that he is a terrible candidate? >> well, i mean, as a political matter, what he said made some sense in that the very poor don't vote. and if they were inclined to vote, they certainly wouldn't be voting in a republican primary. so you know, you could look at it from that point of view. i don't think romney is a terrible candidate. i mean, he looks like he's going to emerge as the nominee and has

an even chance of beating the president. he has this is very odd delivery and sense of humor. it's almost as if he is trying to filter all of his words so that he doesn't say something reallied you stupid because he's done this so many times before. the problem is this is self-reinforcing. he's trying to edit and censure himself and then he says something dumb like this. >> that's part of the point. we've seen this pattern before. when he goes off script, he doesn't do well. the last time he went off script, he didn't do well and he lost. now he's flying high again thinking he's doing well because he did so well in florida, decides let's go off script and look what happens. from the perspective of a campaign, that is a very poor candidate and inconsistent candidate in addition to however you feel about what he actually said. >> dana, people talk about the president raising a billion dollars this year. let's be clear. he raked in more last year than all the republican candidates put together. but given both the super pacs

and specifically of course, those super pacs that support individuals but then there are others run by people like karl rove, is it now safe to say that whoever faces the president in november will not be at any financial disadvantage? >> well, it's hard to know exactly what the numbers will will be, but yes, because of the way the campaign finance rules work now, you basically just need a handful of very rich people to get behind a candidate in the form of a super pac. look, newt gingrich won. south carolina in large part because one family gave him $5 million and gave him another $5 million in florida. i guess he needed a little more than that. but what this problems basically is it is possible to buy an election and the only thing that's keeping one side or the other from buying is there's both trying to make the same purchase. >> anna marie, do you think we've all been asleep and are we happy to see the democracy basically sold to the highest

bidder? this isn't a presidential election. it should be called a checkbook election. >> you know, this is a return to how things have been in the past in some ways. of course, it's a result of the citizens united decision which a lot of people were paying attention to. i can only hope i guess this is a pessimistic but hopefully realistic view that thing will get so bad we'll try again with campaign finance reform. this is really getting people's attention, this obscene amount of money being poured into these campaigns that's unaccounted for in some ways or at least you know, untraceable in some ways. and really makes the playing field incredibly uneven. although with obama's advantages on that score, it's not like they're going to be rushing to reform campaign financing either. >> we've just had breaking news. jim demint has apparently called on romney to reframe his remarks on the poor. so to your point, he is obviously being criticized by his own people. that was a terrible mistake. >> it was indeed.

we've talked about this. with mitt romney at the top of the ticket, every single down ballot republican is going to now have to defend not caring about the poor, only caring about the 1%, only caring about the rules that will protect the 1%, and protecting you know, the wealth of someone like a mitt romney rather than making sure that everybody has the opportunity to get wealthy. of course, jim demint popped right out with that and i'm sure he heard from other republicans who said what the heck is going on? take the microphone away. get this guy out of there. >> dayne fa, given that mitt romney raised $18 million from just 200 donors, are you surprised he hasn't made more of an effort to pander to the wealthy electorate? he said just now he's not concerned about them. that's rather cold, isn't it. >> what more could he be doing right now to please the 1%? i mean, this has been -- >> he could for example, embrace newt gingrich's notion on interest for investments, capital gains, sorry, tax and he

could go for a zero percent. >> that's true. he could reprice that is photograph from bain where he's got the money coming out of the pocket and the mouth and the ear and all that stuff, too. as a practical matter, you know, his issue is not so much that he makes the mistakes and says i like to fire people, i only made a little bit of money, a few hundred thousand giving speeches, when it's paired with the policies that make it appear he is trying to benefit people like him, that's where he runs into trouble and that's what's going to be rather easy for the democrats to exploit. >> indeed. sorry, very quickly. >> again, that's why the rich probably when he says things like that, they take it as a wink wink, i don't care but don't worry i got your back. >> karen finney with the final word. ana marie cox, and dana milbank, thank you again for joining us. stay with us, much more to come as we step into the doghouse. >> follow shizzle? did snoop dogg really just

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if 2011 was the year of the do nothing congress, what will 2012 bring? especially with a group of tea party lawmakers who now have a year under their belts, a huge election coming and visceral disdain for president obama. consider tea party freshman joe walsh, a guest on this program just last week who told us republicans have no intention whatsoever of working on anything with this president. >> there's not a lot that's going to get done this next year. he and us republicans we have a dramatically different vision of

what needs to be done to this country and i say bring on the election. >> sure. >> i think the election will present a wonderful contrast and look, the american people can decide which way they want to go. >> congressman steve israel is a democrat from new york and chairman of the democratic congressional cane committee. good afternoon. >> hey, martin. >> before we get to your tea party compatriots, i wanted to ask you about a comment by republican front-runner mitt romney that's generating quite a bit of attention. he said that he's not concerned about "the very poor." what do you make of a comment like that, knowing that we have the highest rates of poverty in this country for something like 50 years? >> well, it may be the first time that mitt romney has ever told the truth. look, mitt romney says he's not concerned about the poor and not concerned about the rich. mitt romney is concerned about one thing and one thing only and it is mitt romney. he doesn't know which mitt romney he's concerned about. is it the mitt romney who ran left of center as governor

massachuset massachusetts, the mitt romney who ran has a far, far right wing extremist in florida? you know, he is likely to be the leader of his party running for president, and house republicans have been supporting those kind of not kind of but extremist policies. they voted to end medicare and to protect tax cuts for the richest even if that means taking away tax breaks for the middle class. you have mitt romney and house republicans trying to pull this country to the far right and that's why i'm so confident that house democrats will win this election and take the majority back. >> the democratic congressional campaign committee is recruiting new blood to run in november. is this a concerted effort to counter balance the influence of the tea party? is that what you're targeting? >> look, we only need 25 seats to take this house back. and it's going to be razor close. this house is in play and we are

in range. we're doing it with what has been described as the most diverse group of recruits in recent history. we're going to win this by holding republicans accountable. and by running candidates who reflect the values of the middle class and working families. look, joe walsh just said it last week on your show. he said bring it on and let the people decide. let's have a contrast. so we're going to give you that contrast. >> are you going to target joe walsh? >> we're going to target anybody. if you voted to end medicare in order to protect tax breaks for oil companies, we're going to target you. if you voted to protect 350,000 millionaires but hurt 160 million middle class families with a payroll tax cut, we're going to target you. when i say target, what does that mean? we're going to hold you accountable for the wrong priorities. when we hold you accountability for those priorities, my guess is in districts throughout america including in districts in illinois, if you're a tea party republican, you've got a

real fight on your hands and we're going to take your seat. >> so you're actually laying down the challenge directly to joe walsh? because as you know, he's been the victim of some form of redistricting. i think he was feeling pretty confident about fighting his seat and defeating you at the election. >> well, look, you know, joe said on your show, he said bring it on. let's have an election. let the people decide. >> that's right. did he. >> let the people decide, joe. that's exactly what this election is going to be about. they are going to need to decide, do they want somebody who voted to end their medicare in order to protect tax breaks for big oil companies? they have to decide do they want somebody who is willing to take away their middle class payroll tax cut so as not to hurt people making over $1 million a year. they're going to have to decide do they want somebody to represent them who is willing to shut down the federal government over a woman's right to go to planned parenthood. if they decide that they want a candidate who is going to reflect middle class values and protect the middle class and working families, they're not going to decide for joe walsh or

any of his other tea party compatriots. >> congressman steve israel from new york. i'm sure mr. walsh is listening. thank you very much for joining us. >> i hope so. thanks. violence erupts in egypt. dozens dead inside a soccer stadium. we'll take you there when we return. i had a heart problem. i was told to begin my aspirin regimen. i just didn't listen until i almost lost my life. my doctor's again ordered me to take aspirin. and i do. [ male announcer ] be sure to talk to your doctor before you begin an aspirin regimen. [ mike ] listen to the doctor. take it seriously.

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cairo. what happened at these matches could lead to such horrific violence? >> well, martin, let me bring you up to speed on a few things. you mentioned the helicopters on their way to the stadium to evacuate the players. we've just spoken to the soccer association. they're going to have an emergency meeting. the participant is having a meeting tomorrow as well as the general prosecutor who has launched an investigation into this incident. we don't know exactly what triggered the violence but what we do know, the game taking place in the port said stadium between two ivl teams, the fans of one team attacked that of another team as the game was winding down. now, the irony in all this, it was the winning team's fans we understand from witnesses and others that attacked the losing team's fans. 73 people have been killed. we understand that security was present at the stadium but they were really unable to bring the situation under control. there was all of these images that we've been seeing on state

television of both fans attacking each other with sticks, attacking each other with whatever metal rods they can break from the stadium. we've seen images of fireworks being lobbed at one another. it gives you a sense of the chaos that broke out after this match. members of the team that lost remain in the stadium. that's why the military has deployed to evacuate them. the situation remains very precarious. still not under the control of security officials. martin? >> and do we know if the individual supports had any firearms with them? because for 73 people to be killed just with, i don't know, steel implements doesn't seem right. were people seen carrying guns? >> it's very difficult at this time to ascertain that information. the general prosecutor has ordered the investigation. now, i've been to stadiums like this in the past and attended these games. i can tell you that security is not necessarily tight for fans going into the stadium. a lot of times these stadiums hold tens of thousands of fans.

people are able to smuggle in weapons, smuggle in whatever they can, sometimes fireworks. that's what leads to a lot of incidents of chaos that ensues at these games. health officials have been describing some of those injured and killed as a result of trauma to the head. it gives you a sense that more likely that it was fighting supposed to gunshot wounds and perhaps even some knife injuries. >> nbc's ayman muhadin. stay with us it today's top lines are coming up. >> the american public does not want to seep two or three candidates get into a mud wrestling match where everybody walks away dirty and not in a position to be able to represent our party proudly. [ male announcer ] we know you don't wait until the end of the quarter to think about your money... ♪ that right now, you want to know where you are, and where you'd like to be. we know you'd like to see the same information your advisor does

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>> i'm not going to compete with the obama in singing because i'm not running for entertainer in chief. >> he sings to me all the time. >> really? >> yes, he does. >>. ♪ i'm so in love with you >> now, did you hear mitt romney sing? what did you think? ♪ bob the fruited plain >> it's beautiful. >> beautiful. >> it was then that everyone in the crowd at the villages pressed their life alert button at the same time. >> newt didn't call after iowa or new hampshire. i called him after south carolina, his win there. but he didn't call again last night. guess speaker gingrich doesn't have our phone number. >> get off the phone. >> this will be a two-person race between the conservative leader, newt gingrich, and the massachusetts moderate.

>> any question about the support of conservatives i think was cleared up last night in florida. >> now, all of your friends in the other 46 states. >> it would be wonderful if campaigns were all nothing but positive, but that's certainly not the reality. >> bring the [ bleep ] values. >> let's get it on! >> the american public does not want to see the two or three candidates get into a mud wrestling match. >> there will be absolutely no biting. >> ow! >> and no pulling on the nose. >> do something about this, ref, come on. what kind of place you running here? >> if enthusiasm wins elections, we'd win hands down. >> a competitive primary does not divide us, it prepares us, and we will win. >> we are going to contest every place and we are going to win and we will be in tampa as the nominee in august. >> oh, newt, we can't knock the hustle. joining us from washington is chicago tribune columnist

clarence paige. good afternoon, clarence. >> martin. >> poor old newt, we knew he wasn't going to fare well in the sunshine state but a 14-point beating. but can you remember a less generous candidate in your life? i mean, when he wins, he attacks everyone else. when he loses, he does the same. he doesn't even bother to call the victor. >> that's right. i was quite surprised actually because i've been covering newt gingrich off and on for years. he's usually a pretty gracious guy, speciallyo camera. he can get caught up in the theater of the moment in running for office. even more than that, watching him in give this speech, the speech of defiance really, i felt like he's starting to take this personally and turn this into a real grudge match. i suspect he will stay in the race as long as he can just to spite romney and anybody else in his way. >> do you think he's beginning to lose his mind, perhaps?

i put that to you seriously as a question because like you say, he's an experienced campaigner. and yet, he's doing things now that seem out of kilter. >> well, no, i think there is a rationale behind it. the language that he uses, saul alinsky, i happen to know who he is because i covered some of his organizations in chicago, the sort of code language, he's speaking to the conservative bloggers out there. they know who saul olin ski is if you look at the conservative blog chatter every day, you'll see the things he's making reference, too. that's a real angry bunch. that's who voted for him in florida, the most conservative voters that probably identified themselves with the exit polls. and the people who were just very conservative or moderately conservative voted for mitt romney. so i think newt is trying to firm up his base in order to carry him through some states

that he is not likely to win. >> indeed. last night we heard more of the same from newt, that he's going to keep going and he'll be the nominee in tampa this summer. i've done quick math. if you combined his results with those of rick santorum last night, you would have had a near tie with mitt romney. so the maybe newt's talk of a moon colony and shuttle trips to mars isn't so crazy after all. >> well, that's right. i mean, the moon talk in florida he was reaching out to the space community at cape canaveral, cape kennedy, people who are facing cutbacks as the space shuttle program is cut back and he wants to show that he has a commitment to that sort of government spending. he -- like i say, there's a calculus to what he says, but yeah, if you put santorum and gingrich's support together, you could just about match mitt romney's support there. but will they go together? santorum voters, many of them were saying in exit polls that

they would vote for mitt romney given a choice between him or newt gingrich. so newt can't necessarily count on all those votes sfin deed. finally, clarence, mitt romney was a victim this afternoon of a glitter bomb. the tape has just been fed in. has the glitter bomb become a kind of badge of honor for republicans these days? >> well, i imagine so. i haven't heard any official response but i think anything that shows them being harassed or persecuted in any way by liberals is going to be -- it's going to fit in with that narrative of conservative victimization. the idea that we happy few we're out there being victimized by political correctness and by liberals who don't want us to speak and who would like to lock us up in jail if they could, blah, blah, blah. in that sense, the glitter bomb really has the impact of impressing those who are already on the side of the glitter bomber, but doesn't really advance their cause.

>> indeed. charns paige, thanks so much for joining us. >> thank you. >> next, did the speaker disrespect the president yet again? >> i'm not going to compete with obama in singing because i'm not running for entertainer in chief. i'm running for president. harvard student james hershfield wanted to translate the look and field of a high end paper invitation to the digital realm. in 2007, he and his sister started paperless post. it quickly attracted high profile users like prince charles, condoleezza rice and the white house. for more, watch your business sunday mornings at 7:30 on msnbc. [ male announcer ] this is coach parker...

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♪ i'm so in love with you >> you'll remember when the president surprised the crowd and even his staff with that al green cover two weeks ago. it was good. and such a warm apolitical moment. how could anyone on tbject to t. >> i'm not going to compete with obama in singing because i'm not running for entertainer chief.

i'm running for president. >>, of course. joining us now the reverend jesse jackson. good afternoon, sir. >> to you, sir. >> governors can stick their fingers in the president's face in public. congressmen call him a liar in the state of the union address. presidential candidates refer to him as the food stamps president. one congressman can go as far as telling him, and i'm quoting alan west, get the hell out of the united states of america. why do republicans think this is acceptable behavior in public? >> well, they're making money off of it when governor brewer put her finger in his face, her book sales went up. when wilson from south carolina called him liar from the floor of the congress, he went on and raised $2 million that weekend. others get more votes when they do that, but demonizing the president is both morally wrong and dangerous. they make the case he's not an

american, he was not born here. that's the donald trump argument. he's not a christian, he's not one of us, he is a food stamp president. well, the packet is food stamps is morally correct and helps people who need food assistance. 50% of them are white, 24% african-american, 22% latino. so the continuous demonization, then somebody shoots an ak-47 in the white house. that's why i say it's a danger and certainly unnecessary. >> i want to go back to your use of the word dangerous. do you really believe that there may be some kind of terrible outcome as a result of some of the comments that have been made about the president of the united states? >> well, ignorance and hatred and violence is in a certain pattern. john kennedy was demonized. he's the guy who imposed himself on the south. he intervened. it's called an interposition. in the end this demon was shot. they demonized dr. king talking

about the war of vietnam, out of his capacity with disrupting things and hoover calling him a damn liar. dr. king died a very hated man in america's margins. so we've seen what demonization can do when somebody feels that you must get the demon out of the way. and so i don't disassociate these name calling and labels from somebody with an ak-47 shooting in the white house and hit a window. if it won't have been on the back, they could have been shot and killed as a matter of fact. these are very dangerous times and these tones set the climate. george wallace never hit anybody. george wallace set the climate for violence and leadership very mindful of the impact of their words. >> i've seen sir, that remarkable photograph of you on the day dr. martin luther king was murdered, was shot. are you saying, sir, and i'm sorry to press you on this, but are you saying that barack obama's very safety is being

imperilled by the kind of abusive rhetoric that is being directed at him as the president of this country? >> absolutely. ignorance and hatred leads to violence. and that's why -- when you go from -- when the governor puts her finger in his face, she was making a cackling political statement and she gained some points from it, but they have the same contempt for the poor. even the idea about the thing statement he made about the poor today and they're all right. you know, 53 million americans are food insecure. 50 million are in poverty. 44 million on food stamps and 26 million looking for a job. why would those be christian demonize the poor? jesus born in an ethnic minority in poverty under a death warrant in a homeless shelter and then became an immigrant and killed ultimately by the government, one who led the uprising is of

the poor, how can you reconcile your sense of the faith with demonizing the poor? we should lift our politics. the good thing is about this is in the south, lease a new south here. you couldn't have had boings and toyota, these companies behind the cotton had we not been successful in the civil rights movement. you couldn't have had the magic. we made a new south. the new south is led by dr. martin kuther king. he's the father of the new south. when lsu plays alabama, that big game would have been illegal. there are those trying to tear down the bridge. we must keep building bridges. one of the most profound things i saw the president do, when she put her finger in his face, could he have grabbed her finger. he absolved the pain and exposes her for that flaw. we must keep going forward by a kind of nonviolent disciplined

hope. let us put your fingers on the ballot box, not in anybody's face. no one deserves that. >> indeed. we note that jim demint has asked mitt romney to, and i'm quoting mr. demint, reframe his remarks where he said he wasn't concerned or focusing on the poor. why don't we hear more members of the republican party call out this kind of dog whistle politics and say enough of this? this is hurtful. it's hateful, and according to what you've said, sir, during this interview, it may lead to something absolutely catastrophic and horrific. >> you know, in florida, 58,000 floridians are homeless and live in shelters every night. i think the press should have had some responsibility for exposing the issue of the property factor. in south carolina, 25% of all children are in poverty. some even the questioning back and forth would not include the poor and those in life's

margins. when i stayed at a homeless shelter about a month ago, 25% were veterans, 25% the working poor, those driven off of their jobs and the home foreclosures and evictions. they need a helping hand and need intervention. they do not need to be abused. so immoral and unfair to do it and dangerous, i might add. >> indeed. the reverend jesse jackson, thank you for joining us. >> thank you, sir. next, congressman keith ellison joins us. first sue herrera has the market wrap. >> thank you very much. it's a strong day on wall street. the dow jones industrial average as we look at how all the averages are doing trading with triple digit advances on the dow right now, about 109 points on the trading session. 108 and change. standard & poor's up 13 points on the session and the s&p is up 35. that's it from cnbc, first in business worldwide. msnbc is back in a moment.

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boeing. the land of 10,000 lakes is getting to meet the man of 200 donors today. mitt romney is in minnesota fresh off a thrashing of newt gingrich not just at the polls. it turns out a few bodies and bundlers can make up for the base of your party not liking you. keith ellison from minnesota joining us today. >> pleased to be on today. >> we talk about the ability of corporate and union money to corrupt politics because of citizens united. when you look at the super pac disclosures, isn't it just individual millionaires and billionaires literally shaping the gop race? >> without a doubt. i mean, outside money since 2008 has jumped 1,600 percent. i mean, it's amazing how much these folks with these high net worth individuals are just telling people what they ought to believe and have the

wherewithal to put it all in front of us. >> and because of the amount that they're giving, i guess there's a commensurate amount of influence on these candidates. is that correct? >> well, of course, they're not giving that money just to be they're giving it for influence, for the purpose of influencing the dialogue. i mean, look at newt gingrich. he just got $5 million from one high net worth gambling magnate, got another $5 million from that magnate's wife. do you think that gentleman is doing that just because he likes newt so much? no. it is because he has a particular economic and world view that he expects newt to push. i think he will not be disappointed by newt you're referring to sheldon addleson. over the last two quarters mitt's super pac has gotten a total of $4 million from two obscure companies that share the same provo, utah address. i mean, isn't disclosure also as big a -- you talk about sheldon addleson, but half of these

people we don't even know who they are. >> yeah. i guess you can say that. at least we know mr. addleson is the one giving the money. >> exactly. >> in many cases we have no idea who's doing it. that's why we've got to pass a law to disclose. i challenge, you know, congress, the body i serve in, to challenge, pass a law where people -- where these givers are required to disclose their identity. where they get their money from and so people can make an honest assessment of what their message really means. and who it really serves. >> when you talk about the message, sir, it is an interesting statistic. in florida there were 13,000 negative ads run by mitt romney, 200 by gingrich. guess who won. >> well, you know, it's no surprise. but i think we got to get corporate money out of politics all together. i got a constitutional amendment i'm proposing that says corporations are not people. money is not speech. and that congress can regulate corporate speech and you know

right now citizens united is promising to be the foremost damaging thing to our democracy. we need a movement to get a constitutional amendment to say no to it all. >> politico is now reporting super pacs representing mitt romney and rick santorum have purchased more than $120,000 in air time in minneapolis. what are your feelings as these ads start in your district? and this is what the founding fathers meant by representative government? >> i think the founding fathers would be turning over in their graves to think that the plutocrats and very rich are having this much influence on our democracy. i think it's not the idea that we had. this has nothing to do with we the people, which are the first three words of our constitution. this is not anything that any democrat small "d" would have in mind republican or in the democratic party. it's a sham and i think people

are going to rise up. that is why we need this constitutional amendment. you can go to keith ellison.org to check it out. >> i have done that. why there is no broad political will to fix this? as you know getting anything in this congress is virtually impossible. >> let me tell you, chris van hollen has a bill called the disclose act. we need to pass it. i think this is a bipartisan issue. i think people who identify republican, democrat, and independent want to know where the money is coming from. if you poll on this issue the american people want to know who is spending money to influence them in a presidential election so it is somewhat of a surprise that congress is not moving. maybe that's a symptom of the problem that, you know, maybe some of us are disproportionately influenced by the big money as opposed to the will of the people. >> i think, sir, that is the view of many of us. congressman keith ellison, thank you very much. >> thank you. >> we'll be right back. the employee of the month isss...

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[ male announcer ] sustainable solutions. fedex. solutions that matter. it's time to clear the air. this year offers two of the biggest events that money can buy. a presidential election here in the united states and the olympic games in london. and, yes, both can be bought. if we've learned anything at all over the last few years it is that the winner's podium ought to have more than just the prize-winning athlete standing there because we now know that some of our greatest olympians were the biggest cheats. marian jones who won an incredible five medals at the sydney games almost 12 years ago had actually used a pharmacy of drugs to improve her performance -- steroids, amphetamines, stimulants. all enabling her to become one of america's greatest athletes of all time. but the truth is she should have

shared the podium in sydney with her dealer or whoever it was that supplied her with the drugs that she used because without those drugs, she was an ordinary athlete who would never have won a single medal. the same now applies to mitt romney. because if he wins the presidential election in november then his inauguration speech should probably be given by the head of his super pac. because mitt romney's performance in florida was not based on some superlative vision of the future for this country. he didn't win because he's a natural leader full of charisma and animal magnetism. in fact, 40% of voters in florida said they actually wanted someone else to enter the race. no, he won because he had the money to win. he won because he could buy more air time than anyone else. he won because his super pac restore our future spent $11 million on negative advertising

in florida alone. and sadly, under the rules that have been established by the citizens united supreme court ruling, that's how you win elections in this country. the sporting equivalent would be for the international olympic committee to disbandi its drug testing unit and allow every athlete to use whatever drugs they wanted. and so we offer our hearty congratulations to mitt romney. but the next time he wins the state, he really should invite the head of his super pac to share in the glory. thanks so much for watching. dylan ratigan's in washington this afternoon and will take us forward. how are you? >> i feel as if you delivered that for me personally. >> you do? i'm not suggesting you use performance enhancing drugs or that you'r