let's play hardball. >> good evening. i'm chris matthews back in washington. leading off tonight, sex, drugs and audio tape. let's start with the sex. it began with a dispute between a secret service agent and a prostitute over payment. where it ends is anyone's guess, but as of now, as many as 20 secret service personnel are now suspected of bringing prostitutes back to the rooms in cardehena, columbia. that means prostitutes were allowed into the security zone of the president of the united states making this, perhaps, the biggest security breach in the history of the secret service. next, mitt romney has spent a lot of time talking about president obama and very little on the record about what he plans to do were he elected president. but we learned a lot last night

where someone taped illegally romney speaking about money at a fundraiser, who he will ax if elected and who he will not tax. we also learned romney is worried about losing the election because of the lost latino vote. he only has about 20% of it right now. and drugs. should they be legalized? the president of columbia suggested to president obama that we should take a look at taking the profit out of the drug running to starve the narco terrorists. romney was over hillary rosen's stay-at-home mom comment last week. thanks to that tape we got last night, we now know what anne romney really thought when she heard that remark. she thought they just won the lottery. things are looking up economically south of here. we start with the secret service sex scandal -- a lot of s's

there -- ron cassler is the investigative journalist and author of "in the secret service." this was a secret service man himself. he is currently running for the united states senate from the state of maryland. that's where i live. one of the largest scandals in the agency's history involving prostitutes and a night of partying ahead of the president's trip to the summit of the meramericas this weekend. the congressional investigators are looking into the possibility that as many as 20 secret service agents were involved, and that's nine more than the agency itself has acknowledged so far. they include two supervisors, three members of the elite team, and today the pentagon acknowledges that at least five members of the u.s. military might also have been involved in the prostitution scandal. let me go to the man who broke this story, ron kessler.

tell us what you know about the bre breadth of this scandal. >> if one of the prostitutes decided to blackmail one of these agents, it would have led to russian foreign attendants being allowed in to plant bug devices. that's why it is the biggest scandal in the history of the secret service. but it's not the first security breach. they did the intrusion at the white house, the party crashers, and in my book, i go into dozens of corner cutting of the secret management, ranging from letting people into events without a proper screening, it's just like letting passengers into an airplane without magnetic screening, to not keeping up to date with the latest firearms,

to not even insisting that agents comply with physical fitness tests or firearms testing. they'll even ask agents to fill out some of their own test scores on these tests. >> let's go to what we've got hot right now. let's take a look. here was the president taking a look at his first reaction to the president yesterday. let's listen to the president. >> what happened here in columbia is being investigated by the director of the secret service. i expect that investigation to be thorough and i expect it to be rigorous. if it turns out that some of the allegations that have been made in the press are confirmed, then, of course, i'll be angry. we're representing the people of the united states, and when we travel to another country, i expect us to observe the highest standards because we're not just representing ourselves.

>> let me go to don. thank you, congratulations for your service and good luck in the race for senator. let me ask you, dan, this whole question about the culture. is there kind of a macho man culture in the secret service where this is normal behavior? >> no, chris, this is not normal behavior. there's no question this is a high stress, high results job, but it's the nature of the human being that make human mistakes. nobody, and i mean nobody, is running from this. the secret service has said all the right things to this point. they're embarrassed, they apologize. me, i'm a republican. this is not a president issue. >> let me cut you off. it's not a bad apple, it's a bad dozen apples, at least. we're talking maybe 20. so who would organize 10, 15, 20 prostitutes all being assigned to different rooms, all being allocated, distributed to these agents? who put this thing together? this isn't like one guy got drunk and found himself with

somebody who was behaving professionally and didn't know about it, this looks like an organized event. by the looks of it. >> it looks to be some tremendous -- and that may be an understatement -- lapses of judgment here. i'm personally involved way lot of the agents in this case, so i'm being a little circumstance -- circumspect in that regard. they're embarrassed, and this is not the policy of their behavior. the agency is embarrassed. it's a disgrace. there is no one around who is impartial right now. >> i haven't heard that one. there are some stories breaking up about wheels up, parties. these are very informal events. i've been to a few of them overseas. as a matter of fact, they're very boring, actually. most people tend to leave early. i'm not saying every wheels up party that ever happened in the

secret service, there's never been an event, but in general, i can just speak in totality. again, it's a human agency. it's a very regimented, dedicated group of guys. chris, i spent 300 days on the road. i almost missed my daughter's birth for this, and i really -- >> i mean this, i'm trying to get to the bottom of this. let me get back to ron who has written about this. ron, i've heard the opposite. i've heard these people are monkeys, they go to bed early, work out, they stay physically alert and they don't behave like this regularly in the way it's been described. ron, your view. >> yeah, as dan was saying, these are very dedicated agents. i know the fbi add meyers secret service agents more than any other law enforcement, but the problem is the management under mark sullivan, the director, tolerates corner cutting, tolerates uniformed officers letting people into the white house -- >> when did this start? >> it really began when the department of homeland security

took over. that's when the corner cutting began. and these particular agents, i think, are just emulating the example of the management which is cut corners, wink and nod -- >> why was the treasury department a better structure for these agents? why was it better to have the secret service at treasury? >> when it became immersed in the homeland security department, all of a sudden there were 22 other national security agencies competing for budget and that contributed to this. but it's always so hard to pinpoint why would anybody allow this to happen. it goes back to mark sullivan. he doesn't know how to manage the agency. he's presided over all these, and he still hasn't been removed. barack obama's life is at risk, and agents i talk to say there could very well be an assassination given all this corner cutting. the only way to fix it is to

remove him and bring in a director from the outside, as bob muller came sbinto the fbi from the outside, who will restore the standards that the secret service has always been proud of. >> let's go to correspondent darrell isis, chairman of the investigating committee in the house. he has some strong words for the secret service today. let's listen. >> this story is larger than 11 individuals. it's part of what has been told to us as a pattern of behavior that's built up, so-called wheels up parties and the like. we clearly have lost confidence. we need to get that confidence back by knowing that the system will be changed. >> well, let me go back to dan here. dan, you're running for the senate in maryland and you're also an agent who has had experience guarding, among others, president obama. do you think there has been a problem of structure, putting this under homeland security? do you buy the argument of ron

kessler that there's been a loss of discipline since the shift to department of homeland security? >> no, and i was there for the transition, it was rather seamless. i'm sure at the management level, there were some hiccups. there's always going to be when you move from one level to the next. i don't think that's going to filter down to a discipline level. they were as regimented a group of human beings, and i am proud to say i was a part of them. >> let's take a look at the spread of this. today the chairman, the joint chiefs of staff, the general martin dempsey talked about the scandal which has increased to include five people in the defense area. let's see what he says about letting the president down. pretty strong words. >> i can speak for myself and my fellow chiefs who are embarrassed by what occurred. what we do know is that we distracted several of our members, distracted the issue from what was a very important regional engagement for our

president, so we let the boss down because nobody is talking about what went on in columbia other than this incident, so to that extent, we let him down. >> that's my reading of it. ron kessler, do you have anything to report on the military involved in this scandal? >> that's not nearly as important because they don't have access the way the secret service does. an agent could tell a possible assassin where the president is going to be at what time or even bring him in. and president obama's comment, you know, if these allegations in the press are proven to be true, i'll be angry. you know, we already know that the secret service has confirmed that there was misconduct. that's why these agents were withdrawn. it wasn't allegations in the press. "i'll be angry" is not the way to reform this agency. that is something that requires some leadership. >> i imagine there will be some steps taken here that might

include some beheading of people you want beheaded. dan, good luck in your race and thanks to your service in our country. mitt romney hasn't said what he plans to do if he's elected president, but guess what? it's gone out. we heard about his plans. the unmitigated, unadorned reality of what agents he wants to cut, who wants to ax and what he wants to pay taxes. he's worried about losing the latino vote. he thinks he's going to get 1 in 5 and that spot is doomed for him, he says. great stuff coming up. this is "hardball." ♪ and you end up strapped for cash ♪ ♪ patching your board with duct tape ♪ ♪ so hit free-credit-score-dot-com ♪ ♪ find out what credit's about ♪ ♪ or else you could be headed for a credit wipeout ♪

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toward the president, 242 electoral votes, just 22 shy of what he needs. now in the red, the states are solid or leading toward mitt romney, the very likely republican nominee. they're good for 191 electoral votes. at least nine toss-up states with 105 electoral votes. consider this. based on the ap's projection, president obama would just need to win florida. all he needs now is florida but he ain't got it yet. we'll be right back. fect for yo. literally across the street from her sister. [ banker ] but someone else bought it before they could get their offer together. we really missed a great opportunity -- dodged a bullet there. [ banker ] so we talked to them about the wells fargo priority buyer preapproval. it lets people know that you are a serious buyer because you've been credit-approved. we got everything in order so that we can move on the next place we found. which was clear on the other side of town. [ male announcer ] wells fargo. with you when you're ready to move. monarch of marketing analysis. with the ability to improve roi through seo all by cob.

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once ran, he acknowledged he's far from being offend bid hilary rosen's comments about women who work in the home. his wife ann was pretty much thrilled and saw it as a gift. and said unless his party does something serious, he's going to lose the hispanic vote 4-1 and he's got problems there. our msnbc contribute toorcontri book is "showdown" and what a book. the fundraiser was closed to the press, but not really. gerald hack overheard from his position what he heard outside the home. here's what romney said about hud. quote, i'm going to take a lot of departments in washington and is agencies and combine them. some eliminate, but i'm probably not going to lay out just exactly which things are going to go, things like housing and urban development, which my dad was head of, that might not be around later.

but i'm not going to actually go through these one by one. on the department of education, the department of education, i will either consolidate with another agency or perhaps make it a heck of a lot smaller. i'm not gog get rid of it entirely. >> show to have. >> mitt romney naked and unplugged is kind of a scary thing. it just goes to show you that everyone knows that mitt romney is not being level when he comes in the public, when he talks out. whether it's immigration or anything else. fred barnes had a piece in the wall street journal a few days ago saying he was talking to a private adviser to romney saying, don't worry. his real immigration stances are a lot different than what he says in public. so when he used to be a moderate back in massachusetts and now he's severely conservative during the primary, nobody knows where he stands so it's not a surprise, but hats off to your

imbed who caught him red-handed. joe, it's always fascinating to get a peek inside, or as i always say, you pick up a rock and all the bugs are running around underneath the rock. it's a good image, because you see the rock, if you get inside politics, you get to see the bug life. here's the real guy, not just a pleasant businessman, but the guy is really talking turkey here. >> well, he's saying things that the donors are going to open their wallets for. this is not really that much of a surprise, those of us who have followed mitt romney or at least seen him up close and personal. when i was in massachusetts, sort of same deal. we knew he was coming from a more conservative background then compared to massachusetts, and all of a sudden he's a moderate, he's a liberal, he's a guy who can get with planned parenthood, who can talk about abortion or pro choice. but one of the things you have to remember is that some of these statements have real impact. talking about consolidating the department of housing and urban development as well as the

department of education, those are agencies with very real impact, particularly on middle class and poor families. going forward they set policies for education, they help people get homes. that's the real agenda at work here. >> just to be completely crass about the way he sounded in this conversation, he's not exactly hurting republicans when he screws hud. but because it's a lot of moderate income people. but when he talks about education, doesn't that sort of grab the antenna of people who care about their kids going to college, of getting competitive in the world ahead? >> particularly for those whose parents can't open their checkbook and fund their college. >> pell grants. >> right, pell grants and things like that. speaking of the dream act, good job getting that through congress, number one, and number

two, inc. it's a little too late to try to get on the side of the latinos dependent on all the stuff that was side in the primary. >> here's the raw stuff. here's the way they really talk dirty. here's mitt romney calling the episode with hilary rosen last week a gift because it allowed his campaign to show contrast with the democrats in the general election. and his wife also spoke about rosen. here's what ann romney was overheard saying. >> it was my early birthday present for someone to be critical of me as a mother. and that was really a defining moment and i loved it. today ann romney told abc news she thought it was a birthday gift. here's the spin because she loved that it created a dialogue about motherhood. here she is admitting she's sharp enough politically and the wheels were off the other side for a couple days because they got caught making fun, it seemed, of women working in the home. she knows what's going on. >> they pounced on it because they know that mitt romney is looking at a 20-point deficit

between him and obama when it comes to women. this january when he was campaigning up in new hampshire, the boston globe has written about this, he got out there and said, you know, when i was governor of massachusetts, even if you were a single mom with a kid under the age of two, you still have to work. here they are being hypocrites. they're talking about choice now. >> you've got an argument here, but i'm telling you, hilary rosen must wish she never said it. it's a door opener because i've said things -- joe, get in here. if you fully understood what i meant, it really was less offensive, but most people don't fully understand what you mean. they get the point and they go after you. >> that's all they're going to see is the headline, the top line of that statement. you dig a little deeper, you find out what she meant and you dig even further as a lot of people were doing on twitter over the weekend and in some political web sites, and you find that romney has made contradictory statements to the statements that he made that was outrage about the statement in the first place.

so it's all a house of mirrors. >> and when the debate comes up with the president, president obama who is very quick and comes up using these things, he will find a way, if romney tries this number about making fun of women who work at home, the president will come out quickly, right, and say let me remind you of something you said earlier this year. right? >> that's why the democrats were talking most of the primary 7-elev season that a lot of the ads wrote themselves. you don't have to go too far back to find something contradictory in his statements. >> that's a telling statement. here's mitt romney acknowledging what most people already know about his problem with the hispanic vote. here's romney: i think it will become a much bigger issue. i mean, we have to get hispanic voters to vote or our party. he acknowledged the polls showing a huge gap among that gl group and says, that spells huge

doom for us. he even knows the number. they do have a profession. it's called politics. whether you're left, right and center, there's romney admitting these screwed if this thing stays where it is. what's he going to do about it? >> you showed that toobama can n with just florida. >> they're talking rubio again as running mate. >> rubio keeps saying, i'm not going to be veep. and you saw what gonzalez said today, too, the former a.g. it shouldn't be rubio. >> you also have to keep in mind that something like this is reminiscent for me, anyway, for 2008 when you had president obama behind closed doors talking about people clinging to their guns and religion. famous statement. dinged him a lot. it also harmed him in a couple key states. let's remember, pennsylvania was turbulent for him, et cetera. even though these statements were made behind closed doors and even though they probably

have a shorter shelf life, they're going to get drejdged u and they could make a difference in these swing states. >> thank you, david coren. ever wonder what it would look like if mitt romney, santorum and the other clowns in the clown show got together for some reminiscing? saturday night live has nailed them next on the side show. it's very important to understand how math and science kind of makes the world work. in high school, i had a physics teacher by the name of mr. davies. he made physics more than theoretical, he made it real for me. we built a guitar, we did things with electronics and mother boards. that's where the interest in engineering came from. so now, as an engineer, i have a career that speaks to that passion. thank you, mr. davies.

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back to "hardball." now the side show. snl paid tribute to all the great players in the 2012 gop -- dairy say it -- clown show this weekend. what would it be like, they decided, if romney, santorum and the rest of the gang got together and began to reminisce at some bar.

let's watch. >> hey, can i admit something to you guys? >> sure, you're among friends. >> romneycare is just obamacare. there you go. >> i knew it. i can't believe none of us could beat you. >> and i can't believe it took so long to win. hey, one more time. ♪ another turning point, a fork stuck in the road ♪ ♪ so make the best of this test and don't ask why ♪ ♪ it's not affected but it's -- die ♪ ♪ it was always unpredictable, but in the end was right ♪ ♪ this campaign was the time of my life ♪ >> what a reunion. let's say goodbye finally. speaking of letting loose. secretary hillary clinton was having a little fun in the night

life area, enjoying the beer, there she is putting it down, and hitting the dance floor. this wasn't exactly a new thing for clinton. during her african tour back in 2009, she got into it in south africa as well, getting to know everybody. a new advertisement going after mitt romney for his opposition to the well-known buffett rule. you've heard the term fat cat, right? here he is in the flesh. >> president obama's buffett rule would require millionaires and billionaires to pay the same tax rate as the rest of us. the romney rule lets fat cats rig the system so they pay less and pass on the burden to hard-working americans like you and me. so tell mitt romney kittens are cute. 100% fat cats who won't pay their fair share? not so much. >> anyway, romney already had a problem with dog lovers putting

his shamus on the roof. for example, big cat diary and my cat from hell. get the picture? what president obama heard a lot over the weekend about down in cardarena. you're watching "hardball." fondue tex-mex fro-yo tapas puck chinese takeout taco truck free range chicken pancake stack baked alaska 5% cash back. right now, get 5% cash back at restaurants. it pays to discover. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

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to help us get there. they helped me fix my economy, the one in my house. now they're managing my investments for me. and with fidelity, getting back on track was easier than i thought. call or come in today to take control of your personal economy. get one-on-one help from america's retirement leader. i'm sue herera with your cnbc market wrap. the dow fell two points today, the s&p off just a fraction, the nasdaq fell 23 points. sales rose .8% in march, and economists expect a gain of only 3.8%.

investors also had city earnings. meanwhile, apple shares slid for the fifth straight day, dragging down the nasdaq. that stock is still up, though, about 45% this year. that's it for cnbc. we are first in business worldwide and now back to "hardball" and chris. welcome back to "hardball." we're going to take a look at the worldwide look at drugs right now. i asked columbian president santos and president obama about the future of the so-called drug war in this country, specifically should drugs be legalized here in this country in an attempt to put an end to the narco terrorism in the south. you have a chance to sit next to president obama now.

do you want to ask him about ways the united states could help your country in the drug war? >> chris -- >> don't you have a simpler question? >> how can we improve north-south relations, generally speaking? >> we have the obligation to see we're doing the best that we can do. if there are other alternatives that can be much more efficient, on one side it can be to put all the consumers go to jail. on the middle ground, we may have more practical policies. >> i think it is entirely legitimate to have a conversation about whether the laws in place are ones that are doing more harm than good in certain places. i personally, and my

administration's position, is that legalization is not the answer. that, in fact, if you think about how it would end up operating, the capacity of a large-scale drug trade to dominate certain countries if they were allowed to operate legally without any constraint could be just as corrupting, if not more corrupting, than the status quo. >> just as corrupting or worse than the status quo. kevin sabat is a senior adviser on drug policy for the white house. kevin, make the case for legalizing. >> well, you know, i think legalization would just make our problems worse. we would have more addicts, we would be spending more on our health care system. already illegal drugs cost us $200 billion in terms of lost

social costs. and legal drugs cost us $400 billion in social costs and we only get about 400 billion so the numbers don't add up for legalization. these cartels are dealing with drugs, human trafficking, piracy, on and on. it would be a small dent in their overall balance sheets, and we would be instead creating addicts here and abroad. >> why do i hear -- i was down this weekend listening to people like santos, the very impressive president of columbia. they seem to think what's going on here, the vast corruption is killing those countries with weapons, with murder, with horror and corruption. how do we respond to that by saying, oh, we'll keep going the way we're going? we'll keep going in the so-called war on drugs? >> chris, we shouldn't keep going the way we're going. i think santos said it right. on one hand you have the legalization, on the other you

have the blocking of policies, but there are other policies we can work on in the middle. fighting for addiction parody to make sure health insurance companies cover addiction like any other health illness, looking at drug courts, matthew sheen fans of drug courts, make judges sort of intervene on an addict's life. that's the way to do it. >> let's hit the other side. ethan with the other side. it seems to me we have kids making careers starting at age 18 as drug salesmen. that's their great business plan, to go out and sell drugs to the neighborhoods. what would legalization do to that market? >> it would do the same thing that any alcohol prohibition did to that market. let's face it, what you're seeing, chris, in central america, columbia, other markets in the region, it's like al capone times 50. the violence, the power, the organized crime, the black

markets. these are all consequences of a failed prohibitionist policy. the president is smart enough to say not to legalize everything, emerge a political mass that we need to put all options on the table, including legalization of drug markets and everything as well. it's not new that president obama said he was against legalization, every president has said that. >> let me try the tricky question. ten people could have a glass of wine and maybe 1 in 10 or 10 in 100 would become quickly addicted to alcohol. but i'm told if you tried crack cocaine once, you're liable to be addicted. >> well, obviously, it depends on the person. we don't want to overstate the case. but there is a high addiction of crack, heroin one in four users become addicted, so the idea we're going to wipe out these cartels if we legalize tomorrow, alcohol prohibition was over a 13-year period and they were

wiped out, that underground market for that. illegal drugs over 100 years. they're operating on a host of other problems like guns and human trafficking and piracy. the idea we're going to wipe them out is ludicrous. we can have a smarter policy, and we should. we could focus on drug courts, on addiction as an illness, but one point ethan made about decriminalization, it may actually have a more perverse effect than legalization. if we decriminalize but kept the market intact, you could have an increase in users but you wouldn't even touch the market, so we're actually going to be giving more money to the cartels. >> you're already stating things that aren't factually -- what you're hearing from kevin is the same old-same old for decades. >> hold off, kevin. >> the evidence shows that

decriminalizing drug possession will reduce the arrest of millions of poor people and people of color without increasing drug use. that's the evidence. we also know that 50% of americans say it's time to legalize marijuana like alcohol. that would make a significant effort in order to reducing the black market. kevin, stop. what's emerging right now is building on what president cardoza, many of the distinguished leaders not from the left but the center right, are saying we need a new bottom line. >> we're going to be back again and i'm sure this debate will continue on here as well. thank you, ethan. thank you, kevin. those of you who find this debate important, 50% of americans now favor legalization of marijuana use, 50%. so this is right on the edge. lock at that convergence in that chart. this is the hot debate of the future. up next, back to that mitt romney audiotape. it turns out mitt romney and his wife ann were anything but

outraged about hilary rosen's stay-at-home mom comment last week. we know because it was caught on tape. we'll stay on tape here as well. this is "hardball." back in a minute. and even your trade ticket are all on one customizable page. see the all-new 360 investing dashboard at e-trade. ♪ lord, you got no reason ♪ you got no right ♪ ♪ i find myself at the wrong place ♪ [ male announcer ] the ram 1500 express. ♪ it says a lot about you. ♪ in a deep, hemi-rumble sort of way. guts. glory. ram.

introducing gold choice. the freedom you can only get from hertz to keep the car you reserved or simply choose another. and it's free. ya know, for whoever you are that day. it's just another way you'll be traveling at the speed of hertz. three weeks after getting a heart transplant, dick cheney is back on the attack against president obama. here he is over the weekend at the state convention of the wyoming republicans. >> i can't think of a time when i felt it was more important for

us to defeat an incumbent president than today with respect to barack obama. i think he has been an unmitigated disaster for the country. >> the same old dick cheney. we'll be right back. today is gonna be an important day for us. you ready? we wanna be our brother's keeper. what's number two we wanna do? bring it up to 90 decatherms. how bout ya, joe? let's go ahead and bring it online.

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it was in my sister's neighborhood. i told you it was perfect for you guys. literally across the street from her sister. [ banker ] but someone else bought it before they could get their offer together. we really missed a great opportunity -- dodged a bullet there. [ banker ] so we talked to them about the wells fargo priority buyer preapproval. it lets people know that you are a serious buyer because you've been credit-approved. we got everything in order so that we can move on the next place we found. which was clear on the other side of town. [ male announcer ] wells fargo. with you when you're ready to move. well, we had another dust-up in the gender wars. it was over hilary rosen's remarks last week about ann romney never, quote, working outside the home. it certainly put the focus on the women's vote, the gender gap which favors the president. mitt romney just last night told fat cats, quote, it was my early

bir day present for someone to be critical of me as a mother, and that was really a defining moment and i loved it. we think men and women vote rationally whether they work at home or work in the office. great columnist for the "washington post." you made some points today which are fresh off the barrel about issues that unite women who work outside the home, inside the home only. >> exactly. the mommy wars, just as you said, are a little bit of a diversion and also a little bit of a myth. because working women also juggle a lot of the same things that stay -at-home moms do, and people move back and forth. we're not in one basket or the other for all time. but there are issues that do separate women from men, issues

like pay equity, issues like violence against women, issues like funding for childcare and issues -- not as much contraception as the democrats might hope, but women are more supportive of activists -- >> both side. i keep saying to the people, do you think it's only women who care about contraception? haven't you been around? >> men and women are split equally on abortion rights, but mitt romney the other day was talking about gun rights at the nra convention. well, guess what? do you know who are much more supportive about restrictions on guns than men? women voters? i think they understand that guns don't kill and they're not toys. for whatever reason, they're much more supportive of gun control and this shows the tightrope that mitt romney has mitt romney has to walk because he cannot win with a gender gab of this size.

>> will someone stand up for ann romney here, she knows politics and she got a gift this weekend. it made it look like democrats were elitists -- >> i love hillary rosen, she's a dear friend of mine, no one agreed with her, so where are the other people that -- it's a fake -- her comment i think -- >> she made it about obama's best friend. >> she has been a good democratic and supporter, she's never claimed to be speaking for the white house, and ann romney's comments are saying she wasn't offended and it was a great opportunity to talk about something -- >> can i say something. my mom had five boys. she never worked outside the home, and worked her putt off. she never heard of --

>> i'm sure -- >> she didn't know anybody with a made. my wife, i call her the queen, at midnight when the kids were still at home, when the call came, my paper is done, time to start the editing process, she's the one. >> i've been there. look, it is true it was a huge gift for ann rom any and that is why not only the romney campaign jumped on it but the white house and the obama and first lady, they were driving the bus back and forth over hillary rosen. >> i have heard the term beater, people that wheat their wives,

but it's still around. >> yes, vice president biden started it, it's up for reauthorization. after romney's campaign was asked if he supported the li lily ledbetter act, and they didn't know, everybody is for it and against violence, but there is a dispute if this law should include illegal immigrants and to include gay couples. >> and when he was asked about it, in 2008, he didn't know what it was. >> he now knows. >> here is the issue about ann romney. it's not that he is talking to ann rom any about women, he is only talking to ann romney about women. why does mitt romney go to his wife almost exclusively.

>> what about saying he's going to get rid of department of education. >> it's not the policy of it, it's the politics. not whether it's right or wrong, it's the politics. >> he thought he was off the record talking to a room full of conservative republicans that would support that. >> and education is another huge area where there is a big gender gap. >> i'm not being judgmental, but ask any guy who the kids teachers are. the mother is aware of every teacher, has an add intuit abdomen them, who are the teachers again? >> yeah, i'm staying silent, i don't want to get in a controversy myself. but after four or five days of hillary rosen, the republicans are in no better shape than they were. >> you're great, thank you, very

much, i love your column. when we return, let me finish why what's good for latin america is good for the u.s. things are looking up south of the border. so the eighty-thousand employees at delta... must anticipate the unexpected. and never let the rules overrule common sense. this is how we tame the unwieldiness of air travel, until it's not just lines you see... it's the world.

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let me finish tonight with this. i just returned from columbia in the heart of central america. i have come back with enthusiasm with what's happening.

we in the united states so narrowly focus our attention on what affects us directly. we think of poor people coming north for work, but there's a bigger story than the poverty at the bottom of the pyramid. the president of the americas met this weekend, and i felt the confidence and upbeat zest in the air. as i said, in the confidence of those around me. >> i know you're a democratic and a populist hero, but congratulations on just passing the united kingdom on the sixth largest country in the world. >> president obama showed respect for this. he seems to know how to show

respect to our fellow democracy, including the nondemocracy, cuba, and for them to join the other countries in the hemisphere if it wants to become a democracy. there is a belief in free systems and open markets, and the ability to bring people up from the bottom. the base of the pyramid, and the desire to bring up the poor from the bottom as they expand their gross national products. i heard this from the president of brazil and also from the president of columbia, president santos. lan tin america is on the road to giving jobs and hope to those who need it most, and that can only be good news for this country. that's "hardball" for now, "politicsnation" with al sharpton starts right now. >> welcome to "politicsnation,"