energy independent. so being able to make these changes is a critical part of what we do. >> and labor and love are linked and you've got a good thing going. >> thank you so much. if i had a couch, i would have been lying on it. it's a graphic. kass couch. that will do it for us. i'm dylan ratigan. "hardball" is up right now. stag party. let's play "hardball." good evening. i'm chris matthews in washington. leading off tonight, the missing witnesses. how do you hold a hearing on birth control without anyone on the panel who might actually give birth? that's a question democratic women were asking today when a hearing on the contraception rule led by republicans held no

witnesses. they still it's about religious liberty even if it's not about churches or religious institution. both sides think they are holding the winning hand on this fight so it's not going to go away. voter city. michigan is the first of mitt romney's many home states. he assumed would propel him to a big super tuesday. but right now, every poll there shows rick santorum with a lead in michigan. the quiet talk has now begun. if romney can't win there, he may not be able to win anywhere. then what? santorum becomes the nominee. really? romney will try to do to santorum what he did to newt gingrich in iowa. carpet bomb him with negative ads. but santorum may have the money to fight back this time against romney's strategy. and not only doesn't mitt romney know how to talk like a conservative, he doesn't know how to talk to conservatives. commentators on the right are wondering does had he even want to talk to us? finally, let me finish with the missing witnesses today.

women. we begin with the gender war on capitol hill. it broke out today. eleanor holmes walked out of the hearing today. we want to talk to her first. tempers flaired at that hearing. lines were crossed. separation of church and state. that was the name of the hearing. has the obama administration trampled on freedom of religion? caroline maloney criticized the premise of the hearing and the makeup of that all-male panel. let's listen. >> where are the women? when i look at this panel, i don't see one single woman representing the tens of millions of women across the country who want and need insurance coverage for basic preventive health care services including family planning. where are the women? of course, this hearing is about rights. contraception and birth control. it's about the fact that women

want to have access to basic health services, family planning through their health insurance plan. >> u.s. congresswoman eleanor holmes took on the panel. watch this picture of an all-male panel there. let's listen to the delegate. >> one thing, mr. chairman, we have been denied the right to have a witness -- i want to have the right to make a parliamentary inquiry. >> the chairman of that committee from california is a republican. he defended the panel. let's listen. >> since only yesterday, two days after what would be the appropriate time for the minority to name their witness request, we were given it. with the short notice, final schedule was determined based on the unusual circumstance of the minority not in a finally

fashion submit iting no valid request for a witness. even though on a dilly basis the majority requested that. >> also with us now is u.s. congresswoman jackie spear who boycotted the hearing all together. you were strong today. when did you find out it was an ale all-male panel. what did you first realize this was going to be a deadly visual for the guy holding these hearings? >> i realized it this morning when i saw our witness. she was there in the audience. we wanted her to be added to the panel. here we had five men sitting across the line and one woman sitting there. apparently, the committee thought it would have turned the tables on what they wanted to do because that woman would have talked about why contraceptives were important. she would have told a poignant

story. instead, they wanted to rel relitigate the health care law. they wanted to make this a hearing in the abstract on religious liberty, when of course, there would have been no hearing in the first place except for the controversy about religious liberty and contraceptives last week. which by the way, we settled to the satisfaction of most of the american people. you can't get a better win-win than what the president found. you can get your contraceptives. won't have to pay for them anymore than if you had worked for a religious affiliated institution, and the religious affiliated institution doesn't have to pay for it. what more could we have done? >> by the way, i happen to agree with you. which makes it easy to do this show tonight. i thought the issue was resolved last friday. most were active in the good american of religious

organizations. letd me go to congresswoman spear. you have been dramatic on this topic. you didn't show up at all. when you got the word that it was going to be an all-male panel of birth control? >> it reminded me of what happened when we had an all-male u.s. senate talking about sexual harassment with anita hill. that's when american women just blew up. >> that was the year of the woman. >> that was the year of the woman for elections across this country. more women elected than all the years since then. more importantly, this was a sham hearing. it was a biassed hearing. and there was not the opportunity to have a balanced discussion on it. and you know what else is interesting? no one talked about vasectomies. it's not an issue that the catholic church wants to raise. that's a form of contraception. that's covered. >> let me ask you while you're

still on this issue. i think men and women have the same values. they have different perspectives. that's fair. women who can bare children and get pregnant, especially when they don't want to get pregnant and live in that fear, talk about why men ought to hear from women on the topic of contraception. just give me the basics here because i think a lot of men don't get the perspective women offer, deserve, and are now demanding. >> when they denied us the right to have a woman on the panel, they then added -- this was my parliamentary point, they added two witnesses to the panel to the second panel. both of these were women. they were freedom religiously-affiliated institutions. and they were dealing with the optics then. they weren't dealing with the

issue. >> congresswoman spear, give me some education on why women, let's do it again and dramatically if you wish. you have been involved in this. men are involved secondhand. women can give birth, men can't. >> that's right. and i think what's most disturbing is that contraception is something that is used by women for many purposes besides not getting pregnant. it's used for purposes of end mee trio sis. it's used for ovarian cancer, acne, migraine hax. it's like we're treated like we're nothing when this issue comes up. like somehow we're being told what we can do and can't do. i must say. i'm a deeply devout catholic. i elector in my local parish.

but once you become secular in your activities, the largest health care system in this country in asengs has a venture capital fund. now where do we go? do wi ae low the venture fund to also aspouz their believes and prevent their employees from accessing contraception? >> i'm with you. i don't know if it matters, but i'm with you. earlier today, andrea mitchell asked rick santorum who is running for president about his candidate's comments about social issues including women in combat. this is going to rock some people what you hear now. you probably haven't heard it in 50 years. now you'll hear it from rick santorum. something from the old days here. >> this contraception thing, it's such inexpensive. in my days, they used aspirin

for contraception. they put it between their knees and it wasn't that costly. >> excuse me? i'm trying to catch my breath from that. >> i can't catch my breath. i don't think that was the thought process, but he said the old days. what do you make of a guy who is a big shot backing a guy for president who talks like he's who? who is this guy? >> the last thing women need is to be insulted on this issue. most women use contraceptives, even catholic women. we ought to tread lightly when talking about something that is important to women's health. but the way they have avoided the issue have no women there. they expected us to sit there and listen to it. when in fact, it it seems to me we had to make more of a statement about the exclusion of women from an issue that affects primarily women.

>> have you ever walked out of a hearing before this? >> never and i've been in congress more than 20 years. never have i seen such high-handed dealings. remember, they refused our witness and then decided who was qualified to be the minority witness. nobody does that. no chairman does that. so he overreached in a very long way and he insulted the committee. he insulted the house. even in this polarized house, do business in that way. >> let me go back to congresswoman spear. i respect your view because the fact you are who you are. i want to ask you this. i didn't put that lightly what fost foster frieze said. he's now representing a candidate, santorum, who said it would be fine for him if states outlawed the sale of birth

control. you're talking about a guy from an old era. ask he's making a joke about women. talk about an insulting comment. that was insulting. clearly. what do you make in this that we're still in a world that that is still going on? >> the ignorance is really breathtaking. to say that contraception doesn't cost a lot of money. it costs from $60 to $100 a month for prescription birth control pills. aspirin doesn't cut it it. i just find it appalling that women are being thrown around like they are pieces of property here. this really is taking us back in time to a point that i don't think any of us want to go to. and in california, not only has this issue been legislated, and i carried the legislation in california, we have had a supreme court decision that said to catholic charities that when you are secular in activities, there is an overriding state

interest to make sure that women do have the kinds of benefits relative to health care and this they are not discriminated against because of their gender. >> i think the line is clear and it was clarified a moment ago. it was clarified on friday. the line has been drawn and done fairly. if any woman votes for rick santorum after that comment today by his number one spokesman, i will be surprised. if he doesn't fix this within a few hours, you can kiss off all the women voters in this country. and a lot of men. thank you both for coming on. coming up here on "hardball," michigan is the first of mitt romney's many home states. he has five homes he's claiming now. he's like mccain. getting much of his home state love? no. voter city is not liking romney right now.

if he can't win in michigan, republicans will be look around for the big, fat, panic button and start pushing it. you're watching "hardball" on msnbc. everywhere you go, america, i see your cup of joe goes with you. how nice of joe to, how you say, have your back. try something different. a delicious gevalia kaffe, or as i like to say, a cup of johan. will johan power walk the mall with you? i don't think so. but he will spend time rubbing your feet, discussing your feelings. ♪ joe may have your back, but johan has your feet.

gevalia. meet me in the coffee aisle. obama leeds does best in the southern states where e he leeds romney by 14 points.

he leads santorum by 18 points. those western starkts obama is up by 7. he has a 14-point lead over santorum. but things are much tighter in the midwest. look here. romney is within one point of the president. i've said it for a long time. and santorum managed to tie him in that area at 43. that's where it's happening. we'll be right back. [ male announcer ] we know you don't wait until the end of the quarter to think about your money... ♪

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welcome back to "hardball." do you need more evidence of the republican party that refuses to p fall in love or in line with mitt romney? look at what's going on now. most suited for an easy romney victory in michigan. he held a campaign event yesterday there. he won the state in 2008. by all accounts, mitt romney is going to have one of his hardest fights so far this year in michigan. the latest polls have him losing

to rick santorum in michigan. believe it or not. what does it mean if the front runner can't pick up his home state? is it time for republicans to start panicking? howard fineman is an msnbc analyst and joe cliens. let's go to a poll. take a look at the latest poll in michigan from the detroit news. santorum now beats mitt romney. this is a very respected poll. wins by 4 points. i didn't expect this, but it's a god send for reporters and anyone who loves the political battle. romney looked like the front runner. eventually, romney is going to win this thing. you ask can everybody who is going to be the nominee. no matter who you asked, they all say after all the excitement

and everything else that goes wrong, it's going to be romney. is that still true? >> that conventional wisdom is teetering on the edge of extinction at this point. it will go away for good if he loses michigan. >> okay. that's true. >> it will no longer be the default assumption. >> if he kwesqueaks it by a cou points, how is he e still the front runner? he doesn't know the -- >> we're in mitt cur fufl here. that's what my grandmother called michigan. >> i'm the ham between the rye between you two guys here. go ahead. in more ways than one. >> or the aspirin between the knees.

who knows. >> that will not be forgotten. we'll go back to that in a minute. >> the thing is i don't know if a couple points are enough. you look at the polling in the super tuesday states, and tan tomorrow is clobbering romney in ohio. gingrich is going to do well in the south. i think that the romney campaign is now reached critical mass. what can he do at this point? >> what about just going negative again like he did before? >> i think that santorum came up with a good ant dote for that. shooting mud at everybody. that's become part of romney's bag at this point. he's a mud slinger and he has nothing positive to say. >> here he is trying to offset this. he's trying to nice it up here. mitt romney made a pitch to michigan residents today he was their native son. listen to how he talks about

this state he was born. he's about to say something so weird, i sometimes wonder if he's been reintroduced to this planet after a long visit out of the solar system. he doesn't speak our exact language here. listen and watch. >>. >> i was born and raised here. i love this state. it seems right here. trees are the right height. i like seeing the lakes. i love the lakes. there's something special here. the great lakes but also the inland lakes that dawn the parts of michigan. i love cars. i grew up totally in love with cars. >> joe cline, you have been covering politics since i've been interested in it. here's a guy who was running for president since he was born and he talks like this. we think he was born here. i was born and raised here. i love this state. even though he left it rather early. it seems right here. the trees are the right height. i'm waiting for him to start talking about precious bodily

fluids here. what is he talking about? the trees are the the right height. help me. >> it's hard to be convincing about a state -- about your home state when you have five of them. you know, he was talking -- he's not good at geography, romney. it's part of his big problem that he has right now is that he just seems wall to wall phoney. every time he opens his mouth. and there's no way of getting around it. the interesting thing about this is that the one way he could go after santorum now would be to run to his left on social issues. but mitt romney has not run to anybody's left on anything in this campaign. >> let me ask you this. he talks about hunting, but he says actually i never hunted. i just killed sma ee eed small .

>> that's a cone-head like statement. >> from another planet. >> that's a cone-head like, your trees are the correct size here. >> i'm sorry. this is -- >> every once in awhile, he recognizes he's sounding like a cone-head so he throws in a var mitt like a warner brothers. >> he starts imitating characters he sees on tv. let's get back to the reality here. his problem, joe, is connecting not with us. we're the wise guys. he can't connect with us. why can't he connect to conservatives and people he's trying to get to vote for him out there? the real voters on the conservative side. he can't seem to talk to them. >> first, i have to give howard kudos for the cone heads. that's brilliant. but the fact is, he isn't one of

them. it's really hard to run for president. it's the most intimate office we have. they live in our kitchens and living rooms. it's hard to do it when you're not being yourself. >> the best of our presidents can talk to us like they are on the telephone with us. >> here's the other thing. people who know him well and who have participated with him as a leader in the mormon church, i think there in there where is a mitt romney who is real. but because he's been afraid to talk about his mormonism because of questions that some people have, probably the area he could most touch hearts and most testify to his humanity he's kind of blocked off from doing because he never wants to talk about it. i give him the benefit of the doubt. >> you're like the part of the

article where you say "on the other hand." >> it's not just mormonism. back when he was governor, i had a couple conversations with him about health care. and he was really impressive. he really knew what he was talking about. he was passionate on the subject and very convincing. but he hasn't been able to do that because he can't run on the things that he actually believes in in this party. >> he's talking crazy now with things like trees just about the right height. thank you, howard fineman and joe klein. up next, more evidence to the awkward coming up. stick around for the sideshow. you're watching "hardball" on msnbc.

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back to "hardball." now for the sideshow. first up, a change of scenery. usually it takes one late night comedy host to get us going, but jon stewart joined david letterman to talk about presidential politics. here he is last night on cbs. >> i don't know if he's going to reelect us. i worry about obama. he begins every president conference with a heavy sigh. bush was all, everything was here. he was the kid in 6th grade that gave a book report about a book he hadn't read. obama is the kid who read the book in first grade. and he can't believe you idiots are just getting around to it. the guy i feel worse for is romney. he's the guy you know considers himself next in line. he's like but i'm number 6 at the deli, but they don't like him. the voters. he wants to be a regular guy, but he can't be himself.

he puts on jeans, but you know he has suit pants underneath it. >> can you imagine a debate out there between jon stewart and mitt romney? that would be something to watch. that's the debate i want to see. it's no secret with the michigan primary coming up in ten days, romney is going on to on to make sure we know he's in his old stomping grounds. romney might have paged through his old high school yearbook before a rally last night. let's listen to him. >> i'm just delighted to be back in michigan to see some old friends. i have lots of old friends here. that's another guy from my old high school. there's a lot of high schoolers here. any old girlfriends here? be careful. don't tell. >> oh god. is that for real? romney can't bank on the hometown advantage anymore

santorum may just bank in. he has to run negative ads but santorum is fighting back. we'll look at the latest ad war with the "hardball" strategists. the big question can santorum survive the onslaught of carpet bombing of negative ads against him in michigan? you're watching "hardball" on msnbc. ♪ home was an airport lounge and an ipad ♪ ♪ made sure his credit score did not go bad ♪ ♪ with a free-credit-score-dot-com ♪ ♪ app that he had ♪ downloaded it in the himalayas ♪ ♪ while meditating like a true playa ♪ ♪ now when he's surfing down in chile'a ♪ ♪ he can see when his score is in danger ♪ ♪ if you're a mobile type on the go ♪ ♪ i suggest you take a tip from my bro ♪ ♪ and download the app that lets you know ♪ ♪ at free-credit-score-dot-com now let's go. ♪ vo: offer applies with enrollment in freecreditscore.com™. laces? really? slip-on's the way to go. more people do that, security would be like -- there's no charge for the bag. thanks. i know a quiet little place where we can get some work done.

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i'm brian sullivan with your market wrap. the dow surging to its best close since may of 2008. the nasdaq rising 44. weekly jobless claims fell 13,000. housing starts rose last month and profit at gm came in at the

highest level ever at $7.6 billion. now back to "hardball." welcome back to "hardball." the big showdown in michigan. rick santorum may have momentum on his side but mitt romney has his cash. and his super pac is hoping to eliminate santorum and the threat from his ads like this. look at these ads in michigan meant to destroy rick santorum. >> in a single session rick santorum cosponsored 51 bills to increase spending and 0 to cut spending. santorum voted to raise his own pay and joined hillary clinton to let convicted felons vote. rick santorum, big spender, washington insider. >> today santorum his own campaign and super pac announced

they are pouring in cash to run ads to rebut the romney onslaugt. will he be outspent and written off as newt gingrich was in florida? the "hardball" team is here. two political ad makers who know the game. steve mcmahon. todd, when you're confronted with a guy like romney who is out to erase you, is there any way to stop them? >> to go after romney because his record has been legislated over and over and over again. people are generally aware of it. so you have to turn it into a character logical fight and get after who he is. what's he going to say the third day? >> go at his soul.

santorum has to go negative. >> but you can't go negative by saying romney used to support this and now supports this. you have to cut underneath that. >> it's like the old jimmy in the old movie. hit him harder than he hits you. >> it has to be about character. mitt romney's changing position is somebody you cannot trust when the chips are down. >> santorum has held back on the attack on his soul. i thought because in the end he would like to be on his ticket. >> right now, he seems an opportunity to win the nomination. the ad where the guy comes in and sprays mud at rick santorum. it's a good ad. >> why is this good? >> because when you're desperate and say almost anything to win, people smell your fear. they don't like vote eing for a presidential candidate who behaves that way. >> react to that. here he is trying to deal with the negative onslaugt he knows

is coming. >> i'm rick santorum and i approve this message. >> mitt romney's attack machine is back. he's firing his mud at rick santorum. romney and his super pac spent a staggering millions of dollars attacking republicans. because romney is trying to hide from his big government romney care and his support for cap and trade. and in the end, mitt romney's ugly attacks are going to backfire. >> wow. so that's the first time i have seen a guy try to neutralize the attacks. >> a preemptive negative attacks attacking his negativity. >> it's not true. >> i told you he would do this. >> we have three experts here. why don't we tell the people of michigan, pay no attention to the man behind the curtain. don't buy any negative ad because it's all ma lar i can.

>> it's not. he makes a legitimate point. >> these negative ads, they turn voters into nonvoters. >> they certainly move voters away from your opponent. that's what they do. that's why they keep running them. you can run positive ads. people remember the negative ones. >> it killed newt badly in iowa. also in florida. it was a series of super pac ads with no fingerprints on them. by running this defensive ad, will you say he has the spray gun, does that help you put the guy on the negative ads against you? >> i think that mitt is being tarred with his super pac's ads as much as everybody else is with theirs. the voters have no idea what a

super pac is. >> they know it's a romney ad. >> sure. >> here it is. look at an ad from yesterday with romney talking about his michigan roots. this is positive. let's take a look. >> i grew up in michigan. it was exciting to be here. i remember going to the detroit auto show with my dad. >> here's a full screen image of that photo with his father there. you can get a better look. think progress. that photo was not taken at the auto show. it's at the 1964 worlds fair in new york city. this thing shows the fairgrounds with the elder romney pointing to the car down there. it's a chrysler. does this matter that there's technical dishonesty in these ads? it's part of me being a rich kid. >> i don't think that's going to matter. romney's michigan roots are not under dispute here. >> yes, they are.

>> sure by someone who wants to think that. >> why did he leave? >> i don't know. >> after he loses michigan, he will be like i was never really from michigan. >> he's saying he lived in massachusetts, new hampshire, a home in california. how many homes can he have and say he's from there? >> his dad was governor of michigan. his de dad was head of amc. he has legitimate michigan roots. >> he's a legitimate michigan guy. but rick santorum is ten points ahead. he's going to beat him in michigan. >> you think? >> i do think. democrats are going to come out. >> the spot that you showed before the attack on santorum, the way it started out, it said how did rick santorum actually vote? that was the key line. it's saying he's not who he says he is. >> a lot of the catholic democrats and independents in michigan are going to vote in

the primary like they did in mccain. thank you steve mcmahon and todd harris. up next, conservatives find mitt romney disengaged. maybe it's because he can't talk their language. romney doesn't even like to talk to conservative commentators. why doesn't he want to hang out with the people who agree with him? this is "hardball" on msnbc. ♪

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remember this controversial ad that aired in michigan during the super bowl? >> thank you, debbie spentit. you borrow more and more from us. the economy will get weak. ours get very good. we take your jobs. thank you debbie spenditnow. >> that's part of an ad running for the senate against debbie stabenow. it was criticized for being racist. now the actress in the ad is apologizing for the role there. she wrote "she's deeply sorry for any pain that the character i portrayed brought to my communities. i feel horrible about my participation and i'm determined to resolve my actions." she's likely not the only one who is sorry.

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a deep blue state, but i was a severely conservative republican governor. [ applause ] >> jeremy peters of "the new york times" wrote that article. let's start with jeremy for the straight report on this. where did you start pick up on the story that even the pun dits weren't even talking to the guy? >> i think it's a problem that you hear echoed a lot by not just journalists covering the campaign, but commentators who are -- you would think would be loyal to republicans and mitt romney. there isn't a lot of outreach going on. there's outreach in select cases. shawn hannaty, he loves to go on his show. but there seems to be a disconnect with the campaign and

these opinionators. >> ronald reagan liked the company of bill buckley. he would go to their fundraisers and read read the national revi openly and make a big deal about it. president obama is not particularly friendly with people like us on our side. he doesn't hang out with pundits on the center left or left that i know of. what is it about his personality that says i don't like hanging around with people that i am supposed to agree with. >> you look at the cpac conference. santorum -- >> was he a fish out of water there or what? >> romney? >> sure. >> santorum was walking around the college students, the gray-haired activists. going to the basement of the marriott hotel. >> that was a young crowd and santorum hooked up well with them. >> romney was backstage giving a speech but santorum was mingling with the conservatives. a connection with them. >> mitt romney's comments about

the poor turned into a big campaign gaffe. let's listen. >> i'm in this race because i care about americans. i'm not concern eed about the vy poor. we have a safety net there. >> i care about americans, not the very poor. that's an interesting comment. even charles crowdhammer criticized romney. let's listen to charles. >> it's not just that it strengthens the stereotype of romney as the patrician who is only aware of the poor as people who clean the streets and wash his car. it shows he doesn't have a fluency with conservative ideas. >> i find it hard to believe that a guy of his education, harvard business and harvard law and all that stuff, to talk about -- to be so unfamiliar with our language to use words like severely conservative and -- let me go over to jeremy again on that. i mean, just as a journalist it must seem odd covering a guy who seems so unfamiliar with our

idiom. american idiom, not just right wing idiom. >> i think it's political idiom. he's just not all that comfortable speaking political language. this is a guy who was not a career politician and as "the wall street journal" editorial page pointed out recently, they are happy to help translate for him. but it -- you know, he is a businessman. but now his business is politics. and he needs to have a better fluency in speaking in the political sound bite or else he's going to keep getting himself in these traps. >> talking about how the trees are the right size. as howard fineman said earlier. it's cone head talk. it's alien coming into this universe of ours. >> it's okay to be square. conservatives are okay if you are a square guy. they wonder if you are a conservative. i think -- >> so it's all right to be square but -- >> you got to speak the policy ideas. >> you can be a little dorkish, but as long as you are a right dork. in the october debate, romney

basically defend himself on the issue of hiring illegal imgrants by pointing out how politically stupid it would be for a guy running for president. he's openly admitted he's something of a fraud. let's listen. >> we hired a lawn -- a lawn company to mow our lawn and they had illegal immigrants working there. and when that was pointed out to wirks let them go. you have a problem with allowing someone to finish speaking. and i suggest if you want to become president of the united states you have to let both people speak. so, first, let me speak. so we went to the company and we said, look. you can't have any illegals working on our property. i'm running for office for pete's sake. i can't have illegals. >> in journalism we don't say illegals. we might say illegal immigrants. we might say undocumented workers. doesn't have a prep session where he's told how to talk. >> he doesn't seem to have those prep sections. >> i think conservatives like

when he's tough in debates. >> i want to get back to jeremy peters. a hell of a news column and a news item. i think you're on to something. the times had a great story which i read every single morning, the "new york times." thank you jeremy peters. after i had a warm-up with some less sophisticated newspapers. robert costa, please come back. when we return, let me finish with the missing witnesses today. women. you're watching "hardball" only on msnbc. extra butter tickets, swoon penguin journey junior mints moviefone evil prince bollywood 3-d shark attack ned the head 5% cashback right now, get 5% cashback on movies. it pays to discover. i'm going to own my own restaurant. i want to be a volunteer firefighter. when i grow up, i want to write a novel. i want to go on a road trip. when i grow up, i'm going to go there. i want to fix up old houses. [ female announcer ] at aarp

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let me finish tonight with this. in politics, topic selection is everything. you talk jobs which the president is doing now and it's a winner for him. you talk the growing national debt, however, as the republicans are doing and it's a solid issue for them. well, sometimes the same discussion can involve a number of different topics. one can be a winner. take this issue of religious organizations and birth control. when religious organizations, especially the catholic church, were being told to pay for birth control, two issues were prominent. the right of churches not being forced to act against their deep bleefrs and the concern of women for readily accessible birth control. last friday that first topic ceased to have its prominence when the president decided that insurance companies not religious institutions would finance birth control coverage. now the issue sits squarely on the question of birth control itself. should women have it as part of their health insurance coverage or not? should the government require that they do as president obama

has decided they should? well, the republicans held a hearing on that today and their first bank of businesses including a group of religious leaders, but here on a question of birth control, they had not one of that highly visible group, not one of them, could possibly give birth. they were all men. and not surprisingly, several women members of congress noticed the selection of first witnesses and demonstrated their objection by either boycotting the hearing today or walking out of it once it started. i get it. most voters certainly get it. for the ample reason that most voters are women. most voters are born with the possibility of giving birth, a reality that men, including me, don't. they, therefore, know that life may well include the possibility of getting pregnant. pregnant, in fact, when they don't want to get pregnant. and this is the reality that women in politics are bringing to national attention on this day, february 16th, 2012. not exactly early in the game, but early enough to warn the republicans that if you want to