here. i think it's giving up. this is so bad, this is so egregiously bad if they don't correct this one we can safely assume that >> well, rachel win heard this in my ear as i was running to the studio, and i went, wait a minute, wait a minute, rachel has to toss. i have to thank you that i couldn't possibly be better defended than that, but i just lost a segment of my show, because i was going to do something like that in the rewrite, which i can't possibly do, because you did it so masterfully. we have about a half an hour to come up with something. >> i can rant about that whole, like, ultrasound thing for half an hour on cue. i will be here. >> don't you think that maybe there's someone at politifact now who's trying to serve up easy ones for you?

>> i actually feel like there is a silver lining here. that this is so bad, that it's got to be bait or some sort of signal or a cry for help. i don't know. >> absolutely brilliant, rachel. thank you very, very much. >> i appreciate it. thanks, my friend. and our big get for tonight is the ohio republican attorney general, who endorsed mitt romney, and then dropped him for rick santorum. he's going to be my first guest. the age of santorum. >> rick santorum is campaigning in ohio and michigan today, and not backing away from a series of controversial comments he made over the weekend. >> it's not about you. it's not about your quality of life. it's not about your job. >> rick santorum is under fire this morning. >> it's about some phoney ideal, phony theology. >> what in the world were you talking about? >> some phony theology. >> the president's agenda is based on a, quote, phony theology. >> you can't play with the term "theology."

theology is what it is. >> some phony theology. >> social issues. they are front and center. >> prenatal testing does, in fact, result in abortion. >> this kind of talk is dangerous. >> i know what i'm talking about here. >> this is a human being that is running for president of the united states. >> rick santorum with 36% nationally. mitt romney with 28% nationally. >> soaring to a ten-point lead over mitt romney. >> now, i don't get that. >> rick santorum is beating now mitt romney in almost every category, but women. >> just 29% of women in a national gop race. >> women's votes will be critical in this election. >> the romney people did not attack him for it. >> somewhere, someplace, mitt romney is sitting there, wondering, how did it come to this? >> if he loses michigan, what happens? >> well, that won't happen. >> a loss in michigan would really wound his candidacy. >> well, that won't happen. >> what kind of concessions does romney have to make? >> this was not how it was supposed to go down for mitt romney. >> a new poll shows that

president obama's approval rating has risen in recent weeks. says the president, keep talking, fellas. the new national front-runner in the republican presidential primary campaign is widening his lead. rick santorum now is a ten-point lead over mitt romney in the national gallup poll, 36-26. newt gingrich is a distant third at 13, with ron paul performing consistently at 11%. and the nation's new republican front-runner spent the weekend trying to get into a theological argument with the president, then comparing the president to hitler, and then, of course, denying that he was comparing the president to hitler. here's rick santorum on saturday, talking about the president's positions on the environment, although you'd never know it. >> this is what the president's agenda -- it's not about you! it's not about you. it's not about your quality of life. it's not about your jobs. it's about some phony ideal, some phony theology. oh, not a theology based on the

bible, a different theology. but none -- no less a theology. >> sunday morning, bob schieffer asked the logical follow-up to that. >> so, senator, i've got to ask you, what in the world were you talking about, sir? >> well, i was talking about the radical environmentalists, that's why i was talking about energy. this idea that man is not -- is here to serve the earth as opposed to husband its resources and be good stewards of the earth. >> i don't want to just spend the whole program on this, but was your use of the word "theology", perhaps you could have had a better word than that? i mean, don't you know that -- or do you wonder that that might lead some people to suggest that you were questioning the president's faith? >> well, no, because i've repeatedly said i don't question the president's faith. >> then, sunday afternoon, rick santorum tried to tone down his

rhetoric by dragging hitler into the campaign. >> the greatest generation for a year and a half sat on the sidelines while europe was under darkness. why? because we're a hopeful people. we think, well, you know, lit get better. yeah, he's not -- i mean, he's a nice guy. i mean, it won't be near as bad as what we think. i mean, you know, this will be okay. i mean, oh, yeah, maybe he's not the best guy. after a while, you found out some things about this guy over in europe and he's not so good of a guy after all. it's going to be harder for this generation to figure this out. there's no cataclysmic event. >> then this afternoon, rick santorum pretended to try to put the hitler tooth paste back in the tube. >> i know were you comparing the president to hitler? >> no, of course not.

>> joining me now in a "last word" exclusive, ohio republican attorney general, mike dewine, a rick santorum supporter, a former mitt romney supporter, and also a former united states senator from ohio. thank you very much for joining us tonight, attorney general dewine. >> thank you. >> so you made -- >> great to be with you. >> you did something i've never seen before, that jumping from an endorsement to mitt romney, before the candidate has dropped out. i mean, certainly people change endorsements after a candidate drops out, but there's mitt romney, right up there, running strong, if in second place. you dropped him on friday to go to rick santorum and then in your first weekend in the santorum campaign, you watch all this happen. you find the your candidate getting into a theological fight with the president, you find him dragging in a reference to hitler into the campaign. did you -- don't you miss those romney days, with a nice, controlled candidate?

>> well, i guess you and i look at it a little differently. i was listening to what you said before you put me on, but maybe just tell you why i changed. i was a romney delegate and i guess i bought into the conventional wisdom and felt it back in october when i endorsed romney and actually became a romney delegate. that he was the best candidate to beat barack obama, to beat the president. we run campaigns for a reason. and we learn a lot of things. and i guess there's a reason that even though we kind of laugh about it and say, how many more debates can anyone tolerate or how many more caucuses or, you know, more town hall meetings, there's a reason we do it. and that is, campaigns have a way of sorting things out. and what i'm seeing in ohio and what i was seeing is that the romney campaign was going nowhere. it didn't get any better from day one until last weekend. it's still not getting any better.

there's no excitement. and the excitement that we're seeing in ohio, at least, is in regard to rick santorum. it was fairly easy after that, for me. i've known rick for a long time. i've worked with him in the united states senate. i have a great deal of respect for him. i think he is resonating in ohio because people look at him and say he's real, he's telling them what he thinks, whether you agree or disagree. he's saying what he thinks. he's saying what he thinks. and that's going very, very well. look, bottom line, i think he has -- i think he'll be a good president. and i think he'll have the best chance, by far, of beating barack obama in the fall. and that's my objective. >> well, let's listen to what he thinks about what is apparently the newest issue in the presidential campaign, pre-natal testing. >> one of the things that you don't know about obama care, and one of the mandates is they require free prenatal testing in every insurance policy in

america. why? because it saves money in health care. why? because free prenatal testing ends up in more abortions and therefore less care that has to be done, because we cull the ranks of the disabled in our society. >> attorney general dewine, would you advise where are candidate to stop talking about amniocentesis, which has become a standard and important prenatal procedure? >> well, he's talking about a lot of different things. he's talking about jobs. i was in steubenville today -- >> well, yeah -- >> -- he was talking about jobs -- let me finish. >> okay, do jobs and then prenatal testing. >> he was talking about jobs. he was in steubenville, as you well know, a very democratic area of the state, he had a phenomenal crowd, a very enthusiastic crowd. i will tell you, because he's talking about jobs, he's talking

about energy, he's comparing himself to the obama administration, which is -- i don't believe is concerned about jobs. the decision was made with the pipeline to scuttle it. it makes absolutely no sense. what he was saying today resonated very well with democratic jefferson county. and i will tell you that when rick santorum is the nominee in the fall, he is going to do exceedingly well in the appalachian part of the state of ohio as well as the rest of the part. he's going to do well in the democrat part. let me get to your question. look, what he was saying, i think, is a fact. and the fact is, 90% of down syndrome children are aborted in this country. you know, maybe some people don't think that's a problem. i'm shocked by it. i think it's a sad, sad commentary. and what he was simply saying is, the government should not compel every insurance policy that is written to cover that. i'll tell you a personal story.

you know, my wife was 44 years old. we have eight children, 44 years old when we had our last child. the doctor asked her if she wanted to have this done. and she looked at him and she said, okay, well, why would you do that? to find out if there's a problem. well, what if you find out if there's a problem? what's the solution? well, the solution is to have an abortion. so fran said, no, i'm not going to do that. that's where rick's coming from. that's what he's talking about. and for those of us who think there are too many abortions that occur in this country and that what we're dealing with is a human life is, it's a very legitimate issue. but that's not all he's talking about at all. what happens is, you have a speech where he's talking about energy, he's talking about the deficit, he's talking about getting entitlements under control, and of course, we pick out one thing. i happen to agree with him on it, and i think his audience agreed with him as well. >> attorney general mike dewine, thank you very much for joining me tonight.

>> i've enjoyed it. good to be with you. >> joining me now are msnbc political analysts steve schmidt, former senior adviser to john mccain's 2008 presidential campaign, and a senior strategy in the bush/cheney 2004 campaign, and our other steve, steve kornacki, political columnist for salon.com. steve schmidt, you've got a republican front-runner now who's talking about amniocentesis. this is not something anybody would advise any candidate to get into. >> no, it's crazy talk, lawrence. and i tell you, if he is the nominee, given what he said over the last week on the contraception issues, amniocentesis, prenatal testing, one of the big medical advances in the last 15 years, there'll be a blowout the likes that no one has ever even imagined before. >> steve kornacki, you wrote a fascinating piece today, talking about what santorum's move into theology and this religious conversation means for romney. it puts romney in a difficult place, doesn't it? >> no, really, i think it really

does, because you talk about the role that evangelical voters play in republican politics today, and it's really more pronounced than it's ever been before. that's true in states like michigan and ohio, but it's really true in the south. and there's going to be, you know, five or six contests coming up in the next few weeks down south, and where rick santorum has really faced sort of a challenge. there's a lot of, sort of, you know, inborn resistance in the south to a candidate like romney because of his mormon background, but rick santorum is not necessarily the best candidate to take advantage of that, because rick santorum is, you know, a pennsylvania northern-born roman catholic. he's not necessarily a natural fit for evangelical voters either. but when you listen to the way he's been talking for the last few days, it really seems to me that he's really trying to drive home and to create and form a bond with evangelical voters, particularly in the south, which would be the important part of any coalition that he's trying to build, to stop mitt romney on super tuesday. and newt gingrich did very well

with those voters in south carolina and then in the panhandle of florida. so i think there might be a sense on santorum's part, hey, got to make sure newt doesn't get those guys in the south, and this is how to do it, but there's lots of blowback potential here. >> steve schmidt, as soon as i heard rick santorum start using the word "theology," i started to wonder, is this a direct attempt to, in effect, try to tease mitt romney into that discussion? because he comes from a theological tradition that would make absolutely no sense to most republican primary voters if they had to listen to any of the details of that. >> i think his faith is an important part of rick santorum's life. he talks about it a great deal. i think that that is something that you see candidates do pretty routinely in races. bill clinton did it, george w. bush did it. what he's talking about when he attacks the theology of the president, i think it's something that's fairly unprecedented. it's a direct appeal to a voter

that the president is different. he's part of the other. it's -- i think it's terrible and it will have a horrible consequence in a general election. there's just no market for it. when you look at the prenatal testing quotes, you look at the contraception quotes over the last week, and you look at the states where republicans have to win, northern virginia, a moderate area, this is a state that republicans have to get back. the southwestern states, new mexico, nevada, colorado. all important swing states. you look at suburban columbus, you look out across ohio, suburban philadelphia. i mean, he has disqualified himself fundamentally from being able to win a general election in this country. and what's amazing about the debate we're having in the republican party is that there's a significant percentage of the republican voter out will that actually thinks these are winning issues to carry into a general election, and there's no amount of evidence, no amount of

empirical data that will convince them otherwise. so i think you're going to see a very, very interesting fight start to play out here over the next week, next couple of weeks in the republican party on these issues. >> well, as we all know, when a candidate steps into a new territory, let's call it theology, on a saturday, and they're asked about it on sunday, and they're still talking about it on monday afternoon, then something deliberate's going on. let's listen to rick santorum talking about religion today. >> i don't know if you've been listening to the president and the secretary of state and other members of the cabinet, when they talk about freedom of religion. they don't say that anymore. they don't say -- they don't talk about freedom of religion. they talk about freedom of worship. freedom of worship. well, you folks all know,

there's a big difference between freedom of worship and freedom of religion. think about what i just said. we have leaders of this country who are now narrowing the view of what religious liberty is in the first amendment. >> religious liberty, the president doesn't talk about religious liberty. listen to this. >> now, as we move to implement in rule, however, we've been mindful that there's another principle at stake here. and that's the principle of religious liberty. an unalienable right that is enshrined in our constitution. as a citizen and as a christian, i cherish this right. >> steve kornacki, if you're santorum and you're going to make these statements, you have to make sure that that tape doesn't exist with the president saying exactly the words you say he doesn't say. >> in a way you do, but i think what santorum is doing here is

channelling a very narrow, very specific, very hard-core element, you know, within the republican party. and like i said, i think it has particular resonance in the south, but the interesting thing here is, remember, when this campaign kind of moved to michigan and kind of moved to the midwest, you know, a week or two ago, santorum went to michigan saying, i'm going to be talking about economic issues and i'm going to be talking about jobs for the next two weeks. and we have not heard almost anything from him on those subjects. instead, we have heard one cultural hot button after another. and i think the risk for him was, you know, he sort of had romney in a difficult spot there, where he was surging and it was tough for romney to come after him and say, you know, hey, rick santorum, by the way, believes some kind of far-out things on social issues, because romney can't really run to his left. but the way santorum is now talking about this, i think it opens the door for republican leaders to say, you know what, we all agree on these issues, but he doesn't know how to talk about them. >> msnbc political analyst, steve schmidt, and steve kornacki of salon, the two steves, thank you very much for joining me tonight. >> sure. >> great to be here. coming up, more on the santorum surge and why mitt romney's dog may have something

to do with it. gayle collins of "the new york times" joins me. and robert reich will guide us to the truth. and in the rewrite tonight, i was going to respond to what politifact said about me, but rachel just did a much better job than i could ever do. we've got a few minutes, so let's see if ian c ce up with mething else. and later, why bill o'reilly is wrong about the media coverage of the death of whitney houston. o'reilly really hated my coverage of whitney houston last week. and he's going to hate what i have to say tonight. the past i. but we couldn't simply repeat history. we had to create it. introducing the 2013 lexus gs, with leading-edge safety technology, like available blind spot monitor... [ tires screech ] ...night view... and heads-up display. [ engine revving ]

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confidence. available in color. depend® for women is now peach. looks and fits like underwear. same great protection. depend®. good morning. great day. this week, foster friess, the billionaire backer of rick santorum joked that when he was young, women held an aspirin between their knees for birth control -- good one! but do you really want to start a discussion of health care with "when i was young"? when you were young, people died of polio. >> really. now later in the week, friess tried to make an apology. we would love to accept your apology, but you made a mistake, and now you'll have to live with that mistake for the rest of

your life. really! >> that was "saturday night live's" take on the new republican obsession with contraception. joining me now is gail collins, "new york times" columnist, and the author of the new book "william henry harrison" the latest in the american presidents series. gail, i want to listen to what rick santorum said yesterday, defending his comments on prenatal testing. this is what he said on "face the nation." let's listen to that. >> but, senator, do you not want any kind of prenatal testing? i mean, would we just turn our i mean, would we just turn our back on science, that this is something that expectant mothers should not go through? that it's best not to know about these things ahead of time? i mean, is that what you're

saying here? >> no, i'm not saying -- look, people have the right to do it, but to have the government force people to provide it, free, just has -- to me, has -- is a bit loaded. there are all sorts of prenatal testing which should be provided free. i have no problem with that. if the insurance companies want to. i'm not for any of these things to be forced. let me just step back and say, i don't believe any of these procedures, anything in insurance should be forced. >> gail, bob schieffer is the master of subtext. he was doing everything but saying, are you kidding me?! here he is with all this experience in washington, he can't believe a presidential campaign has come to this, that we're talking about amnio and prenatal care. >> yeah, it's a surprise to me, too, actually. >> and, santorum and mike dewine, my previous guest, are pretending that prenatal care and procedures like am amniocentesis are for no other reason than to decide whether to abort a pregnancy or not. there's all kinds of information that's very helpful to expectant parents, without any thoughts of even considering an abortion.

>> yeah, i think we're beginning to see with this campaign now that abortion, the people -- the strong right-to-life movement is about a whole lot more than most people had come to understand, as they've been following it over the years. i mean, it's not just about not having abortions when you're six months pregnant, which is kind of the way it's presented often. it's about things like not having fertility treatments of certain kind, because the fertilized eggs that are excess are done away with at the end. it's about not using certain kinds -- not using any kinds of contraceptive. it's about not using iuds. it just goes way, way, way beyond where most americans are prepared to go. >> now, mitch daniels and other cooler-headed conservatives are

trying to get this, this thing back to the idea of, this subject is really about the obama health care law and it's really about -- it's not about contraception. it's not about abortion. but they have failed. the people who are trying to frame it that way have completely failed. it's out there, as a general conversation about prenatal care and women's health practices. >> it's true, although ironically, i don't know if the bishops, when we started on all this thing last week, down this road, actually understood how much they were doing the work of the let's kill any kind of national health care plan. they must by now have figured it out. but this whole thing has become both sides using one another in a very peculiar way here. >> now, gail, i want to talk about what's happened in the polls and basically we see a romney collapse. rachel, in the previous hour, tracked it to, literally to the day donald trump endorsed mitt

romney, numbers have gone down for him since then. okay. so there's trump, but there's also the romney dog. how much of this collapse can we assign to mitt romney as the worst dog manager in history? >> well, as we all know, mitt romney did, years ago, drive his family to canada with the family dog strapped in a crate on the top of the car, and it was actually wet for most of the trip, because he got diarrhea at the beginning and was hosed down. so you've got a very wet irish setter on the top of the car, going down the highway. i can't imagine he would have been real happy about it. but it's amazing to me that people glom on to this as meaning something about mitt romney. and it seems to. it really does. i mean, it's really caught hold in a very strange and interesting way. and you know, he's going to be forever kind of the guy with the

dog on the top of the car. >> well, candidacies find different attachments to the people, and i think one of the things about mitt romney is, he's not found any personal attachment. no connective spot, except here, with dog owners, and it's an extremely negative can connective spot with dog owners. >> well, he keeps trying. as we all know, he talked this week about how he likes the size of the trees in michigan, and he loves cars. he really loves cars, so on and so forth. but every time he ryes for that really personal attachment, something goes terribly wrong and he winds up saying that he really enjoys firing people or that he got pink slips or something else horrible happens. and it never goes well for him when he tries to make a personal connection. it's very strange. >> gail, quickly, before we go, let's get in a book-selling word about "william henry harrison." >> presidents' day, yes! >> does he have anything to teach us on presidents' day about this the presidential campaign? >> i think so. you know, he like mitt romney,

was the son of a founding father, a signer of the declaration of independence. a very wealthy family in virginia on a plantation. but he ran as president in an age when you could just make stuff up and go with it. >> those were the days. >> a very poor soldier living in a log cabin. and that was the center of his campaign. people danced the log cabin two-step. if only mitt romney could do that now, he'd be so happy. if he could re-create himself as, you know, this guy from brooklyn, who goes by the candy store. >> exactly. gail collins, thanks very much for joining us tonight. >> a pleasure. coming up, lying going on on the campaign trail. robert reich is next to tell us some of the important truths and some of them are inconvenient truths that we need to know as this campaign proceeds. and later in the rewrite, i'm kind of the you can, because rachel already did a much better job of what i had in mind, so let's see if me and the staff can figure something out about politifact's strange take on one of my tv ads.

and later, bill o'reilly thinks there's only one way to talk about whitney houston now, and he is very, very angry at the media, especially me, for not talking about drug use enough. little billy must not have been paying attention in his catholic school when they talked about respect for the dead. [ tom ] we invented the turbine business right here in schenectady.

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bill o'reilly is wicked mad at the media again. he thinks there wasn't enough

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ladies and gentlemen, this president is doing everything he can to shut down the manufacturing sector of this economy. >> that was rick santorum today, finding his way back to a subject he used to talk about, before he got obsessed with theology and women's reproductive health and the grab bag of issues that will sink his campaign if he becomes the republican nominee. in the country where santorum imagines the president doing everything he can to shut down the manufacturing sector, just last week, general motors announced record profits and is once again the number one carmaker in the world. on friday, robert reich wrote, "suddenly, manufacturing is back, at least on the election trail. but don't be fooled. the real issue isn't how to get manufacturing back. it's how to get good jobs and good wages back. they aren't at all the same." joining me now from burton, california, is former secretary of labor under president clinton and former uc berkeley professor, robert reich. professor reich, thank you very much for joining me tonight.

i was thrilled to read your article this week, and i said, we got to get bob to talk about this. the title of your piece is "manufacturing illusion." are the presidential candidates trying to manufacture illusions about manufacturing? >> i think they are, lawrence. look, i'm all in favor of trying to get manufacturing back, and certainly, rick santorum and mitt romney have been talking a lot about manufacturing. even the president unveiled last month a six-point plan for getting manufacturing back. and i think the president's plan is much better than the republican's. but the fact of the matter is, we're not going to get manufacturing back. for one thing, a lot of those jobs have disappeared forever, not only to foreign countries, but more importantly, to computerized machine tools, to robotics. i mean, look at a modern factory today, in the united states, and you don't see many jobs. the old assembly line is gone. you see a few technicians sitting behind computer con solace that are soles that are

connected up with all the robotics and all the machine tools, but you just don't have that many jobs. >> why do our politics, on both sides, democrat and republican, seem to have a prejudice in favor of manufacturing jobs over, for example, nursing? >> well, i think the entire country does. i remember clint eastwood's, i mean, that incredible halftime super bowl, you know, that sense of patriotism and nostalgia we have about manufacturing. it is also true that over the last two years, as chinese wages have gone up and as a lot of american consumers have wanted to replace, finally, there's a lot of pent-up demand for cars and trucks and appliances, and even companies have got to get new machinery. there has been a little bit of a boom of manufacturing back in the united states. but we're still way down. i mean, we're 5 million jobs, manufacturing jobs short of where we were in -- ten years ago, in the year 2000. and the nostalgia, i think,

lawrence, comes from the fact that manufacturing used to be the place where we had really good, high-wage jobs for americans who did not have a four-year college degree. and that's still the case, to the extent that there are manufacturing jobs out there. the problem is that there's a misconception. and the reason that those good manufacturing jobs existed was not because of manufacturing per se, it was because we had strong unions in manufacturing, and in the manufacturing sector. and those strong unions were able to negotiate from a position of power and get very good wages for workers in manufacturing. those days, unfortunately, have waned. look at gm. and gm has huge profits, but the uaw, the united auto workers, you know, managed to negotiate a new agreement that provides new workers with only $14 an hour, starting salary. that's half of what all new workers were getting.

>> robert reich, thank you very much for joining me tonight. everybody should read your piece, "manufacturing illusions." thank you very much. >> thanks very much, lawrence. next in the "rewrite," now that politifact is checking the accuracy of msnbc tv ads, i actually saw one today, on msnbc, the that just cries out for the politifact treatment. and later, bill o'reilly is very angry at the media for the way we covered whitney houston's death last week. he says no one was talking about drug addiction in the coverage. which is, of course, a lie. everyone was talking about it, except me, and i will explain to little billy something the nuns tried to teach him about respect for the dead. which helps keep his socks brilliantly white. bye mom. hold on. [ horn honks ] show 'em what you got!!! mom!! that's my tide. what's yours?

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our blog now has links to all of rachel's takedowns of politifact, which everyone in journalism should see. i was going to fill this space tonight with a detailed defense of my use of the word "welfare" in our ad, which is the only word that politifact objects to. i was going to explain that other words were used at that time, such as "the dole," and "relief," and those words morph offered the decades into what we now call welfare, and that if i used one of those words in the ad, no one under 70 would know what i was talking about. but, as you saw earlier tonight, rachel already did that, better than i ever could. now if i could just get rachel to do my msnbc ads for me and maybe co-host this show -- well, i know i'm not going to get that lucky. tommy christopher at mediaite, who has found fault with both my style and content in the past and surely will again today posted a review of politifact's evidence and found that it, "not only supports the claim but renders it an understatement."

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big surprise. bill o'reilly is mad at the media again. the first sentence of his last newspaper column was, "the media has no bleeping clue how to cover the death of whitney houston." every sentence after that refers to drugs and alcohol. and the o'reilly essay ends with this instruction to the media. "once a person enters the hell of addiction, there is no easy way out. and that's how the whitney houston story should be covered, as a cautionary tale. another life vanquished by substance abuse." that's not the way i've been covering it, but it is, in fact, the way the rest of the media that as covered it. dr. drew was on cnn every night last week talking about addiction in the whitney coverage and i'm glad he did that. but i was in no mood for it. and i know i'm not the only one. i was in the mood for a wake, not for lecturing. i knew, contrary to o'reilly's imagined media coverage of whitney's tragic end that everybody else would be with talking about addiction.

i knew i didn't have to and i didn't feel like it. when one of miss best friends from st. brennan's elementary school drank himself to death while still in his 30s, we had a huge wake for him. some people talked about his addiction, his bad attitude towards aa, the details of his horrible end, and how he was found in his apartment in the same boston apartment where we all grew up. but i stayed in the corner of the funeral room where all we talked about was what we loved about him, how smart and funny he was. we didn't talk about the other stuff, the stuff that killed him. just didn't feel like it. we talked about why we were all drawn to him and the way we wanted to remember him. the way we remember him to this day. so on this show last week, i wanted to provide a corner in the funeral home where the last word you would hear about whitney houston each night would be about why we were drawn to

her. and all the ways we wanted to remember her. and any had it to do all over again with bill o'reilly's attack ringing in my ears, i would do it again. here is how whitney houston was remembered on saturday at the church she grew up in. in newark. >> she would talk about some things that she had went through, some things that had made her sad, some things that were tough. and as i would see her talk about this, i would see this heaviness come upon her. and i'm the type of person, that when i would see this with anyone, i would just want to say something encouraging. but before i could get words out to encourage her, she would say, but the lord. >> she said, okay, okay, okay, well, look. let me just say this, she said, you my brother and sister, right? we said, yeah, we're your -- and i'm your sister, right? and we say, yes, you're our sister. and she said, okay. and we love each other, right? said, yeah, we love each other. and she said, and -- and this is

what i'm going to miss. and she said, and you're all broke, right? and then she said, i'm rich, right? so i can buy what i want to for y'all, right? but that is the whitney, that is the whitney. >> in moments like this, it feels -- it feels like death has won. but the bible says that love is stronger than death. you'll be driving down the street one day and you'll hear whitney's voice talking in your head, something she said or something she did will pop up in your spirit, and you'll giggle inside of yourself, as if she were sitting in the car with you.

and you will find that people that you really love, they may leave you outwardly, but they never leave you inwardly. >> but we have to give a little back, to all our entertainers. we've got to treat them with dignity and treat them with love and stop ridiculing them. they're giving us entertainment, to make our lives a little brighter and nights a little smoother. so let's give -- let's give back to them. >> and you just reminded me of something. i remember sitting in a room with friends of mine, and they all said, girl, did you hear your cousin sing "the star-spangled banner." and i said no, i was there. and when she sold a million copies out of the box of the "star-spangled banner," i looked at her, and i said, well, i guess the telephone book is next, huh?

>> whitney returns home today to the place where it all began, and i urge us all inside and outside, across the nation and around the world to dry our tears, suspend our sorrow, and perhaps our anger, just long enough, just long enough to remember the sweet miracle of whitney. as sure as i am about whitney's place in miracle history, i'm just as sure she came home from the first time she took center stage here as a teenager, flush with the excitement of knowing that she'd exceeded everyone's expectations, an awesome promise of what was to come. but still needing to hear from her mother about how she was received. was she good enough? could i have done better? did they really like me? or were they just being polite

because they were scared of you, cissy? these are the private questions that whitney would always have, that would always follow her. at the height of her fame as a singer, i asked her to be my co-star in a movie called "the bodyguard." i thought she was the perfect choice, but the red flags came out immediately. maybe i should think this over a bit. i was reminded that this would be her first acting role. we could also think about another singer, was a suggestion. maybe somebody white. nobody ever said it out loud, but it was a fair question, it was. there would be a lot riding on this. maybe a more experienced actress was the way to go.

it was clear i really had to think about this. i told everyone that i had taken notice that whitney was black. the only problem was, i thought she was perfect for what we were trying to do. so off you go, whitney, off you go. escorted by an army of angels, to your heavenly father. and when you sing before him don't you worry. you'll be good enough. love you i will always love you