said before. in other words, your mission is to go on those shows and only use words in combinations identical to or similar to combinations you have previously deployed. otherwise you commit the sin of making news. in fact, one of the obama administration's favorite rhetorical strategies for escaping a we is to get very meta and actually come out and say, i'm not going to make news. >> andrea, i'm not going to make news on the president's beliefs on gay marriage today. >> i'm not going to make news. i'm not going to make news on that today. good try, though. >> i have almost all the confidence in the world that whatever i say is not going to make the news tonight. >> vice president joe biden is the rare newsmaker who seems to relish in making news. and so here he was on "meet the press" yesterday asked about his position on gay marriage, and here's what he said. >> the president has said that

his views on gay marriage, same-sex marriage, have evolved but he's opposed to it, you're oppo opposed to it. have your views evolved? >> i think the good news is as more and more americans come to understand what this is all about is a simple proposition, who do you love? who do you love? will you be loyal to the person you love? that's what people are finding out is what all marriages at their root are about. whether they're marriages of lesbians or gay men or heterosexuals. >> is that what you believe? >> that's what i believe. >> you're comfortable with same-sex marriage now? >> i'm vice president of the united states of america. the president sets the policy. i am absolutely comfortable with the fact that men marrying men, women marrying women, and heterosexual are entitled to the same exact rights, all the civil

rights, all the civil liberties and quite frankly i don't see much of a distinction beyond that. >> in a second term will this administration come out behind same-sex marriage? >> i can't speak to that. i don't know the answer to that. >> you can sort of see in vice president biden's response there in the end to the question of theoretical second term policymaking that he thinks he might have gone too far. perhaps minutes after the remarks on sunday senior obama campaign adviser tweeted what vp said that all married couples should have the same rights is potus' position. which is not exactly true. he didn't just say that gay couples have the same right, he said they should be able to get married. the reason the obama campaign was in a rush to assure everyone has news was not made after all because the president is not a

supporter of freedom to marry. despite a 1996 candidate survey he answered saying he did support gay marriage rights his position in recent years has been to support civil unions only. not actual equality, not gay marriage rights. >> with respect to the issue of whether gays and lesbians should be able to get married, my feelings with this are constantly evolving. i struggle with this. my baseline is a civil union that provides them the protections and the legal rights that married couples have. and i think that's the right thing to do. i recognize that from their perspective it not enough, and i think this is something we're going to continue to debate and i personally am going to continue to wrestle with going forward. >> that position increasingly puts the president at odds not just with the base of his party not just with democrats more broadly but with the american public. that blue line, the one that's going up, up, up, it's moving away from the president's

current stated position on this issue. it's something of an awkward issue for the obama administration. it explains why the walk back has not been a straightforward joe biden misspoke kind of walkback but an attempt at blurring the line between what joe biden said sunday and what the president has been saying for years and years. that strategy was undermined today when another member of the administration, education secretary arne duncan set forth and made news on gay marriage again. >> just a little ice breaker. we're going to go through the whole cabinet. do you believe that same sex men and women should be able to get legally married in the united states? >> come on. you're going to start there? >> yes, i do. >> have you ever said that publicly before? >> i don't know if i've ever been asked publicly. >> we made news. >> that was sam stein of "the huffington post," saying we made news. he knows when news is made. that's the job at "the

huffington post." the real news is the growing momentum behind an effort to put a plank supporting marriage equality into the democratic party platform this year. if you were to poll the delegates of the democratic convention, a plank would almost certainly win by a landslide. a group called freedom to marry has penned an open letter and started a petition calling for such a plank. 11 state party chairs including chairs in texas and kansas have signed on to that petition. the texas democratic party chair saying, quote, in texas we love all our families. we know to build a strong democratic party. a strong texas, we must honor the core principles of our party and champion the rights of every citizen. four former heads have signed on to the effort and so have more than 40 elected officials including the house minority leader nancy pelosi, and senator mark udall of colorado. so has the man who is actually

chairing the democratic national convention, los angeles mayor anton antonio viller fwrks osa. there's really only one thing that seems like it could block official democratic party support for marriage equality. in the modern era, party platforms are unofficially he handed down by the nominee. there are very few platform fights. the context for joe biden's and arne duncan's comments is that with very little notice and fanfare, the democratic party appears to be on a collision course toward a platform fight. the kind of platform fight you rarely see anymore. the kind of platform fight that would be distracting and embarrassing for the president of the united states. if the president wants to maintain his current position on this issue and keep the party platform in line with him he'd essentially have to go to the mat on this. we'd have to use precious political capital to tamp down the civil rights aspirations of key constituency and fight against the state minority leader p 11 state chairs, four

former dnc chairs, and it appears his own vice president. joining us is founder and president of freedom to marry campaign. they're the masterminds behind the petition i just mentioned. great to have you here. >> great to be here. >> i want to get your thoughts on the vice president's comments on sunday and arne duncan's comments on monday. there was part of me when i heard about the comments on "meet the press" that thought maybe this is a calculated approach in which they will have people close to the president essentially endorse full marriage equality, full freedom to marry and that will seek to satiate the thirst for justice in that community. then i watched the tape and thought joe biden was sort of speaking what he meant. what is your take on it? >> i've known joe biden, vice president biden since i interned for him in the senate in 1976. i saw him on tv speaking from the heart. speaking in real passionate and personal terms. he told the story of going into a gay couple's home and seeing

the love in their kids' eyes for their parents. talking about the families he's met and how he thought about his own values of the golden rule and treating others as he wants his family to be treated and opening his heart and changing his mind. that's the very same journey that so many americans have been on, as you just described. i think it was sincere and what believes and it's what a majority of the democrats believe, a majority of independents believe, what a majority of catholics believe and it's what a majority of americans believe. >> why now are you pursuing this strategic objective of getting an official platform plank in the party? why this year? why now and what do you think your prospects are for victory? >> well, because it's important that the party as it does every four years put forward its vision for what the country ought to look like and the democratic party's vision is much for fighting for families, fighting for fairness, fighting for inclusion. those are some of the noblest moments in the party's history. it's where the party is.

it's wrr where the party wants to take the country. they should say so. it's an opportunity to have this conversation. >> let's put aside any moral concerns and speak purely as if you and i are paid political hacks and our job purely is to get someone elected regardless of what the moral arguments are. i could see myself advising a politician in the president's position saying there's some downside risk if you enforce this and not a lot of upside. the people that care about this issue are probably going to vote for you. you risk alienating people who are on the fence by coming out strongly in this. if i were advising him, i'd say, let's find a way to make this go away. is that compelling? are you creating a political problem for a president that you broadly support? >> let's be clear, as today showed, the only way to make this two away is for the president to be forthright in his support for the freedom of marry and continue talking an the bigger, broader things he wants to discuss with the american people, the things we all care about.

things we all care about, jobs and security and education. until he does there will be the next question and the next wondering what about this, what about that? i think the political analysis is exactly the opposite. happily for the president doing the right thing is also doing the right thing politically. the people who are going to vote for president based on opposition to the freedom to marry are such a small number and will never be for this president because he's never going to be anti-gay enough to satisfy that small slice. the people the president needs to get elected, the people who want to be with him want him to be where they are. that's for the freedom to marry. again it's not just democrats. it's not just young people. it's independents. >> the president has used this term evolving. it's been in some sense as the talking point that's used to describe his position on this specific issue, talking broadly about rights for lbgt folks. there is the 1996 candidate

survey which his staff said he meant to say civil unions or meant to talk about civil unions. some people say it looks as if he's moved in opposite direction. in 1996 he was in favor of this then he was not. how do you understood that word evolving? what do you hear when you hear the president say that word? >> what i hear on the one hand is a fair reflection of a journey so many americans have taken. people have wrestled with this as the president said. people have taken in new information and learned about gay families and why marriage matters and thought about what the vice president said. love and loyalty to the person you love and added that up and said, you know what, it's wrong to deny this to these couples. so many americans like the vice president have evolved in the way he described. evolving is not evolved. and evolved is not evade. so at some point, there comes a time where even people who may not really care that much or may

not be for the freedom to marry don't want to see inauthenticity. they don't want to see a president that seems to be on the advice of political operatives or otherwise holding back or dancing. they want to see a president lead. this president has taken so many important pro-gay, pro-equality, pro-marriage steps of really truly historic magnitude that he's very little to lose and a lot to gain by completing the journey and being authentic. >> evan wolfson, founder of freedom to marry. thanks so much for your time tonight. really appreciate it. the republicans are dedicated to bringing europe's misery to our shores. europe's voters have a message for them. [ male announcer ] want your weeds to hit the road? hit 'em, with roundup extended control. one application kills weeds, and stops new ones for up to four months. roundup extended control. do you really think brushing is enough to keep it clean? while brushing misses germs in 75% of your mouth,

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david vitter may be known as the gentleman from louisiana with the sex worker line item on his curriculum, go ahead and google it. the senator's dangerous obstructionist games may prove to be the difference in president obama's re-election

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the american people depend on the postal service. check this out. this was the scene last night in paris, france. ♪ >> tens of thousands of french citizens gathered into bastille square last night.

they belted out the french national anthem in unison to celebrate this, the election of a new french president. [ speaking foreign language ] [ cheers and applause ] >> that animation is so awesome. the new president's name is francois hollande. mr. hollande who defeated nicolas sarkozy in a rinounoff. ran on a platform of getting french troops out of afghanistan by the end of the year, support for same-sex marriage and ending france's experiment with austerity. dramatic budget cuts, huge cuts in government spending to boost the economy. yesterday was a bad day for austerity around the world. voters in greece threw out a number of politicians pushing for more austerity there.

in the four years since the great recession through threw the whole world off its economic axis, there's been a grand experiment under way. do you rescue your nation's economy through austerity or respond by actually increasing government spending, increasing stimulus into your ailing economy? in broad strokes the united states and president obama have chosen stimulus while europe has chosen austerity. austerity has turned out to be mighty unpopular. it's not just the french and greeks rebelling against austerity measures at the polls. last month the dutch government collapsed entirely over austerity measures. this was the scene last week in spain. thousands of demonstrators took to the street to protest against the spanish's government insistence on austerity. british prime minister david cameron who has been the poster boy for austerity saw his party clobbered in local elections last week. austerity has proved to be massively unpopular across

europe. it's not just because it brought with it cuts in government services. it hasn't worked to get the economy going again. two years after the election of david cameron, the uk has slid back into recession. it's the uk's first double dip recession since the 1970s. this is what's happened to the u.s. economy and the economy of the uk since the great recession struck. as you can see there, both economies cratered in 2008. since then the uk instituted harsh austerity measures and here's what happened there. their economy recovered initially, but it has since taken a turn for the worse. the united states rejected austerity measures and opted for a government stimulus package and this was the result, growth. slow and at times uneven but growth nonetheless. the u.s. has so far managed to avoid the double dip recession the uk is experiencing now. it's been the same story throughout much of europe as

stimulus measures have jumped started the u.s. economy, europe economies have seen their economies recover at first then drop off. here in the u.s. there's even evidence now that less austerity could have improved the economy even more. this graph was posted by justin lahart of "the wall street journal" today. it showed if they spent money to keep government workers rather than lay them off, the unemployment rate would be around 7.2% instead of 8.1%. in the face of all of this evidence we're now in the precarious situation in this country where one of the two major political parties is unwaveringly zealously committed to austerity. massive cut, massive cuts in government spending. rejection of any government administered stimulus for the economy. precisely the policies that have failed in europe so far. we have one major party in this country committed to bringing europe's misery to our shores and ironically it's the party

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louisiana republican david vitte is a very, how should i put this, a very holdy kind of guy.

under senate rules a single senator like david vitter can hold back the nomination indefinitely of almost anyone for almost any reason. it's a crazy rule, but there it is. this is one main way david vitter makes headlines back home, actually. in 2010, the louisiana republican blocked a string of nominees by president obama for positions in the criminal justice system. in 2001, senator vitter put a hold on president's pick for the department of the interior. this year, he waited more than a year to be considered as chief scientist of the national oceanic and atmospheric administration. today senator vitter is back in the news with a pair of new holds with positions that are to the general public slightly obscure but are also probably the two single most important, unfilled positions in the entire country. i really mean that. nothing less than economic recovery and the president's election chances rest on that. the two men, jerome powell and

jeremy stein are nominated to serve on the federal reserve board of governors and vittere plained his rationale for blocking them this way. i refuse to provide chairman bernanke with two more rubber stamps who approve of the fed's activist policies. this quote is a breathtaking statement for a few reasons. one, vitter is not saying anything about the nominee's qualifications but where their policy preferences might lie. this is all the more remarkable because one economist is a republican. economist justin wolfer commented on twitter, quote, i don't know a single economist left or right who thinks putting a hold on stein and powell is a good idea. i bet you can't find one. he then followed up, quote, literally every republican economist i've talked to thinks stein would make a fantastic fed governor. i agree. the second remarkable thing about vitter's quote, he's

accusing bernanke, a registered republican and appointed to the fed by w., himself, of being some kind of wild eyed activist liberal. third, vitter is saying though not quite in these words he opposes any effort to grow the economy. he opposes any effort to bring down unemployment. he's saying in that quote and showing in his actions that he wants the economy to grind to a halt. he wants it to die. because there are two strategies basically the federal government can use to help in times of economic collapse. the first is for the government to step in and spend money to build roads and bridges. and america parks and so on. during the great recession president obama asked congress for almost $800 billion in stimulus spending. a large amount but an amount that was probably too small. still, consider this chart. you can see the obama stimulus kicks in and then new claims for jobless benefits start falling. the government starts spending and fewer people get laid off. the correlation is pretty direct. government spending props up the economy while the private sector

recovers. the oath i way government can help is the way conservatives have tended to favor and that's through the federal reserve. until his death a few years ago conservative economist milton friedman preached a gospel of monetary policy. the idea is the federal reserve can help a floundering economy by making money cheaper to borrow. if you can borrow money at a lower interest rate, you're more likely to buy a house, buy a car or start a business. friedman's idea is the federal reserve should take action during crises to make sure the supply of money expands as much as the economy needs to grow. friedman served as an adviser to president reagan who considered him a hero of free enterprise, american prosperity and also a hero to ben bernanke whose academic work builds off of friedman's. many people think bernanke privately wants the fed to be more aggressive about putting more money into the economy especially as unemployment remains so stubbornly high.

he needs allies on the fed to make that happen. it's one glimmer of hope that someone, anyone, will join him and do something to hurry up with job creation rather than watch the labor market slowly burn. that's the glimmer of hope david vitter wants to stamp out. joining us, a visiting scholar at the federal reserve bank of san francisco and the national bureau of economic research, and former chief economist for the department of labor, i think i have gotten your full cv into that intro. dr. stevenson, great to have you here tonight. what is the effect of the vacancies on the federal reserve going unfilled? >> let's think about how the fomc works. there are supposed to be 12 voting members. seven of them should be governors. that actually means democrat click appointed through congress approval members. then 5 of them represent the 12

federal reserve banks, and those bank presidents actually get chosen by the individual bank boards. what we have right now is instead of situation of five governors and five bank presidents and two empty slots. first of all, what we have is just, we still have the same amount of work that has to get done. it's falling on the shoulders of 10 people instead of 12. >> you're saying the center of gravity is tipped. in an anti-democratic direction by the vacancies basically. >> it's absolutely right. >> it's local bank presidents essentially helping drive the policy. when ben bernanke goes to the fomc, open market committee, they're the ones who with bernanke say, basically, to oversimplify it, we're going to put more money into the economy. we're going to keep thing where they are, take things out of the economy. there's been a battle in this committee brewing over what's the best path forward? >> there's definitely been a battle over thinking about,

first of all, i think there's two issues. one is how much of our current downturn is still due to a shortfall in aggregate demand and therefore very easily impacted by monetary policy? then second of all, you know, we really have a hard time forecasting where the economy is going in the future. so when they're trying to think about, well, how much accommodation do we need? they need to say what do we think gdp will be next year or what do we think unemployment is going to be next year? the question is how much are we willing to risk overshooting on inflation in order to balance that risk with, you know, not overshooting on unemployment. i think people have different tolerance levels. how much inflation risk will you tolerate? there are folks out there who want to tolerate zero. those are folks who want to get rid of the dual mandate. they do not want the federal reserve board to care about unemployment. they want the board to only care about inflation. >> let me briefly translate that a little bit because this stuff

can get sort of jargonny. the fed has two jobs which is the dual mandate. they're supposed to reduce unemployment and make sure we don't get a ton of inflation. there's a tension between those two because you have to trade off between the two of them. right now they're sitting there as unemployment is very high and inflation is very low. right? and so the obvious thing, as an amateur, not an economist, myself, but people who are watching this happen, say, look, we have very high unemployment. it's higher than it's been in a generation. we have long term unemployment that has tons of people sitting on the sideline, the fed should be doing so much more to get that unemployment down. there's still people on the federal reserve board that are saying, nope, nope, sorry, we've done all we can do, this is basically it, right? that is essentially the status quo right now? >> i think, yes, that's exactly right. i do want to emphasize, i have no idea what jeremy stein or powell, what these guys would do. are they going to be hawkish or

dovish? vote for more accommodating monetary policy? i don't know. i do know they're incredibly skilled and know the financial system in and out. they're going to bring good decision making and strong analytic skills to the board of governors. that's what we're crowding out. peter diamond in his complaint about not being appointed said we were drowning out skilled analytic thinking in favor of partisan politics instead. that's a mistake for running our monetary policy. >> peter diamond was a nobel prize winning economist who was blocked by republicans and did not make the cut for reasons one imagines similar to the reasons these economists are being blocked. >> but actually, you know, peter diamond didn't make the cut because he showed in his research that he cared an thought about unemployment. that was a big no-no. these guys they are blocking now, they're financial market guys. they are not guys who have shown they care or think about unemployment. i'm not criticizing. i'm just saying that, you know,

we understood -- the constraints were understood. the administration chose people to nominate that really you shouldn't be able to protest against. that's what justin wolfer's tweet was all about. these guys are just straight up thinkers. they served under both -- jeremy stein served under both administrations. jay powell's a republican. >> right. >> they're technocrats who know the financial system. to put a hold on them is absurd. >> we have seen an evolution similar to judicial nominees. the boundary of what is the threshold of acceptability? first if, you know, you show you're a liberal, then you're out. you can't just be a moderate, you have to show you have conservative bona fides. we're ending up in this position similar to what we're seeing in judicial nominees where we have this dysfunction born. betty stevenson, thank you so much in sharing your considerable smarts with us

tonight. it's a treat. >> great to talk with you. as i said, if you like the run out the clock game of obstruction republicans are playing with the fed, then you'll love what they are pulling in our court system. it's officially empirically worse than it's been in a very long time. that's coming up. [ molly ] wash your paws, mr. man! [ female announcer ] think your kids are getting a dependable clean -in the bathroom? -[ gasps ] [ female announcer ] think again. try charmin ultra strong. for a clean that passes inspection with fewer pieces left behind. its diamondweave texture is soft and more durable versus the ultra rippled brand so it holds up better for a more dependable clean. fewer pieces left behind. now who's the man? [ female announcer ] charmin ultra strong. and now enjoy the go on the go with the sit or squat app. the clean restroom finder from charmin.

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the mitt romney campaign had

to put out this statement today which is pretty strange considering romney is the presumptive nominee. quote, governor romney has a lot of respect for dr. paul, that's ron paul, of course, and the energy his supporters bring to the process we look forward to working together to help mitt romney defeat president obama this fall. as for individual state conventions make no mistake the tampa convention will nominate mitt romney and be his convention. think about this mitt romney the presumptive nominee who racked up the primary wins thinks we need to be reminded he will in fact be nom natsed at his party's convention. the reason is headlines like these. ron paul wins majority of nevada delegates with romney all but the nominee, ron paul snags convention at maine's gop convention. if this sounds like news, you're not wrong. mitt romney already won, in quotation marks, those contests earlier this year. in february he won the nevada caucus and maine straw poll. in nevada romney got 50% of the vote, ron paul got 19%.

when nevada sends 28 delegates to the party convention this summer, at least 22 of them will be ron paul's supporters. this weekend ron paul supporters took over the nevada county republican conventions. now, the nevada delegates are bound to the results from the february caucus which means they have to vote for romney even though they are paul supporters. that holds for the first round of voting. if mitt romney doesn't secure it on the first ballot, they're able to vote for whoever they darn well please. 22 of them darn well please ron paul. in maine's february straw poll romney got 39% to ron paul's 35%. when maine sends its 24 delegates to the convention, 21 will be ron paul supporters. because maine's february vote i was nonbinding those 21 delegates get to vote for ron paul in tampa. in other words, ron paul just won maine. he won maine using the delegate strategy our own anthony terrell

said he'd use on the night of the maine caucus. >> the real race is in delegates. that's where the ron paul camp thinks the s they're going to w with the delegates. some of the volunteers were handing out sheets of per explaining to supporters how they could become a delegate. it's not just about the initial vote for the candidate. it's about sticking around and becoming a delegate to go on further and to vote for ron paul at the county convention and at the state convention as well. >> these victories in nevada and maine are not unique. last month ron paul supporters took over the louisiana caucuses, netting paul almost as many delegates as romney won in the state's primary the month before. in massachusetts, ron paul delegates were overwhelmingly elected over mitt romney's. ron paul supporters got a ron paul supporter elected as state party chair in alaska. paul supporters have secured him half the delegates in iowa. more than half the delegates in minnesota and washington state. all told, ron paul and his supporters have had victories in nevada, maine, louisiana, massachusetts, alaska, iowa, minnesota, and washington. that's eight states.

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tonight, the united states senate voted three new judges to the federal bench. testimony votes weren't close. by a final vote of 91-3. jacqueline nuen will be the first vietnamese federal appeal court judge. john lee will preside in a district court seat in illinois. christine g. baker was confirmed by a voice vote for district court seat in arkansas. there was no controversy in getting them out of the senate judiciary committee either. which voted unanimously on all three nominations. so unanimous votes in the judiciary committee and overwhelming vote before the full senate tonight. easy, right? well, no, not at all. this undeniably uncontroversial thing the senators did continue, confirming highly qualified nominees to the federal bench is perhaps the most difficult thing to get done in the current united states senate. tonight's vote only came about

as the result of a deal senate majority leader harry reid struck back in march. he agreed to hold a debate on a republican bill to cut business regulations in order to get republicans to agree in turn to vote on at least two judicial nominations a week. that teal runs out today. which means we'll be back to the broken status quo, a status quo rendered in shocking detail in a new report released today. this morning "the alliance your justice" released their findings of how dysfunctional the senate has become on judicial appoints. judicial vacancies are nearly double what they were at this point in the george w. bush administration. nearly one out of ten federal judgeships are empty. that's not supposed to be the case this far into a president's first term. in president clint's first term vacancies on the federal bench declined by more than half, by 57%. in president bush's first term, they were down by 60%. current vacancies on the bench have gone up, not down.

they've risen by an astonishing 43%. i think this bears repeating. at this point in clinton's judicial vacancies had declined 57%. at this point in bush's presidency, they've declined 60%. at this point in the obama administration, vacancies have increased by 43%. in other words, this isn't just run of mill politics and not a case of everybody does it. things aren't just bad, they are historically bad. there are consequences for that. two of the confirmations were for district court seats. district courts being where the bulk of federal law takes place. majority of federal cases are filed in district courts where they appear on the dockets of judges like john lee and kristin d. baker. leave enough of those seats empty and that creates emergencies where there aren't enough judges to keep up with heavy workload. at the beginning of obama's presidency there were 20 judicial emergencies.

there are now 34. that's an increase of 70%. somewhat remarkably, the republicans have through sheer implaque bl will repetition converted extraordinary obstruction into something ordinary and routine. it's as much a dog bites man story as exists. my next guest is trying to frantically get the media to see this for what it is. an unprecedented crisis. join me is the president for the alliance of justice as well as a lawyer, specializing in public interests law. thanks for being here. >> thank you so much for having me. it's a treat. >> the report is, i will say, i will admit, myself, to finding myself thinking, well, this is run of the mill and we've had these oscillating periods in which one party is controlling a senate and one party's controlling the whouite house a they do what they can. what makes this period

different? why is it so much different than the first three years or first 3 1/2 years of clinton and bush? >> what makes it so different is that republicans are engaging in an unprecedented level of obstructionism. it's pure politics. even nominees who they support they're actually blocking and preventing votes on. today, if you look at those 14 nominees who were confirmed over the pass several weeks, we see that all of those nominees were pending on the floor last year. that just tells you how far back this senate is. there was a meeting today at the white house. i was gratified to see so many activists from around the country who were involved in judicial nominations essentially there to ask the white house to press for the confirmation of

judges as well as put names for all of these vacancies in the pipeline before the end of the year. >> well, what, how -- if it's just a matter of the republicans being unprecedented in the way they've gone about this, what does that mean? what are the tools they are using and why would they do something like block nominees they support? >> oh, they block nominees for the main reason of leaving as many vacancies on the bench with the hope that a future republican party will come in and fill them. we saw this with the -- at the end of the clinton administration, there were 61 nominees who never got a vote. george w. bush came into office and all those vacancies were filled. and on top of other vacancies that had recently been completed. this is a very well orchestrated strategy.

on the part of republicans to play politics. >> why are the republicans more effective at this than democrats? why is it the case they're better at blocking judicial nominees and stonewalling and using all these tactics than democrats seem to be? >> i think we've seen with brown versus board of education and roe v. wade, a very organized right wing constituency of the republican party that cares passionately about the courts and they are joined in their passion by republican senators. i should say that today i was really pleased to see so many activists and a white house pledging to press ahead despite republican filibusters which of course we'll see. press ahead for the confirmation. i think it's an amakeening on the part of progressives as well

as the white house that this is really important. >> what does that mean, though, that word press ahead sounds disconcertingly vague to me, because if they are using procedural obstacles that are not violations of the rules, they are in the rules, they're just using them to their effect, what does press ahead look like? how to you force the issue? >> press ahead means that in the wake of what republicans will claim is a slowdown or what should be a slowdown in an election year of senate confirmations. this white house is going to aggressively work for the confirmation of judicial nominees despite republicans' best efforts to curtail these votes or simply eliminate these votes. and that was very good to hear, actually. >> what does that mean? work for? if they can block them, right? if it has now become the case

you need to get above 60% to essentially put an end to whatever techniques they're using, to stall and to obstruct, and you don't have those 60 votes, what does pressing ahead, what do you do? do you put just political pressure on them? is it just a matter of the president taking the rose garden and for democratic lawmakers to make this an issue that's at the top of the priority? >> i think pressing ahead is a few things. one, it's the president talking about judges and talking about why courts matter. it's activists lobbying and pressuring home state senators to push for votes. it's individuals pressing for harry reid to call up these votes. after all, we've got now 19 nominees pending on the senate floor. we're calling on the majority leader, reid, to immediately begin to schedule votes on each and every of these nominees as

well as future nominees that are pending. >> nan aron, president of the alliance for justice. great report out today. check it out at their website. thanks for your time tonight. >> thanks so much, chris. right after this show on "the last word" how chris christie's vice presidential prospects compare to joe dimaggio. and here a rocker who sticks it to the man. it's the best new thing in the world. watch and learn, ted nugent. that's up next. ♪ [ male announcer ] american innovation. 29 years ago, it helped us invent the minivan. ♪ today dodge grand caravan is the most awarded minivan ever. ♪ who knows where innovation can take us next?

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throughout the world and gave herself a bold middle name you can google but i cannot say. she's done something that's the best new thing in the world today. to put out a record has always been a band or performer needed a record company which would front the money for the production of the record and would distribute the record and market it. amman to palmer is over that. a few days ago amanda palmer solicited money for her next project, a record, and tour. she offered cd downloads, sign books and art openings depending on what you donated. her goal was $100,000. she beat that in seven hours. in less than a week she's raised almost $ 600,000 for her new project and started the loan spark collective. she will repay any loan within 18 months but rather than pay interest donate her skills to the chart ity of the donor's choice. what does all this mean? amanda palmer has a lot of very

devoted fans. means she had the, whatever you want to call it, to use the power she has earned in the exact way she wanted to. it means the bureaucracy and profiteering that used to live in between producerses of stuff and consumers of that stuff has at least in ammanda palmer's world been eliminated. it's the best new thing in the world today. that does it for us tonight. rachel will be back tomorrow. you can catch my show "up" weekend mornings at 8:00. follow me on twitter @chrislhayes. right now it's time for "the last word with lawrence >> sounds like joe biden is evolving a little faster. >> i am absolutely comfortable. men marrying men, women marrying women. they are entitled to the same exact rights. >> tell me what you really think. >> joe biden clearly was