it around. >> mitt romney outsourced zero, obama outsourced -- >> zero? >> zero! >> that is not what glenn castler with "the washington post" or the joint committee on taxation said. >> writes the responsibility on the left? >> i have a bad habit of saying exactly what i believe and i'm going to say it today. >> vice president biden -- >> it's their economic philosophy, a policy that would be absolutely devastating. >> romney is for the rich, obama defends the middle class. >> if you all sit on your hands this race, the consequences will not just be immediate, they will be long-term. with vivid images of what it's like to grow up romney fresh in the american mind, president obama today in iowa reminisced about what it was like growing up obama style. there were no gaudy, overpowered speed poets for the family to buzz around in, there were no jet skis, no mansions on a lake, no deciding how big the new car elevator had to be in the new beach house. the water sports were limited to what you could get away with in a howard johnson swimming pool. >> once in a while, we'd rent a

car, but a bunch of times we'd just take greyhound buses. and sometimes we'd take the train, and stay at howard johnsons. and, you know, as long as there was a little puddle of a pool, i'd be happy. and you'd go to the ice machine and the vending machine and buy a soda and get the ice, and you were really excited about it. and what was important was just the time that you had to spend with your family. it wasn't anything fancy. >> while the president was fondly reminiscing about his nothing-fancy summer vacations, mitt romney found himself forced to talk about something no other presidential candidate has ever had to talk about. where his money lives. >> with regards to any foreign investments, i understand, and you understand, of course, that

my investments have been held by a blind trust, have been managed by a trustee. i don't manage them. i don't even know where they are. that trustee follows all u.s. laws, all the taxes are paid, as appropriate. all of them have been reported to the government. there's nothing hidden there. there's nothing -- if, for instance, you owned shares in let's say renault or in fiat, you still had to pay taxes, you still have to disclose that in the united states. >> the president campaigned in iowa today, which he won in 2008 by ten points, but is now running tied with mitt romney in the polls. mitt romney campaigned in colorado, which president obama won in 2008 by eight points and where president obama now has a lead over mitt romney in the polls, 49 to 42%. and with just 119 days until the election, a new "washington post" national poll finds the two candidates tied at 47. and a new reuters poll has the

president leading mitt romney by six points, 49 to 43. it seems the romney campaign has decided he cannot win, running as a republican, so he is now trying to appeal to independent voters by running as a new democrat. a bill clinton democrat. >> bill clinton called himself a new democrat. he put that behind him. he believed in smaller government, reformed welfare as we knew it, and tried to get the economy going with trade and other provisions, lowered taxes. look, new democrats have done some good things. >> and with that statement, mitt romney has left us with a choice. he is either a liar or what george will would call a bloviating ignoramus. he actually said that bill clinton lowered taxes. that's it. that's his statement about bill clinton and taxes.

bill clinton not only raised taxes, he signed the biggest tax increase in history. he didn't just raise taxes on the rich, he signed the biggest tax increase -- he raised gasoline taxes, he raised taxes on social security benefits. it's not what clinton wanted to do, raising taxes. in fact, he had campaigned for president on a middle class tax cut, a proposal he abandoned when he was faced with the awesome responsibility of governing. bill clinton did the right thing. he abandoned his campaign pandering on tax cuts, reversed his position, and raised taxes and cut spending, including medicare spending, in order to get control of the deficit. and he did it without a single republican vote. and he was attacked as a tax raiser by republicans. a tax raiser, who was going to ruin the economy.

in fact, the economy during bill clinton's presidency soared and mitt romney's right about one thing. new democrats, as he put it, have done some good things. bill clinton did some good things. and raising taxes was one of them. joining me now, co-host of msnbc's "the cycle," krystal ball and richard wolffe, an msnbc contributor. krystal, the clinton thing for me is fascinating with romney. he's -- it seems to me that he thinks he's taken the republican thing as far as he can go. in order to get these swing voters, in order to appeal to people in colorado, independents, he wants to now run as bill clinton. >> it's an awkward fit, especially -- >> it's an awkward fit. >> the best comparison to him with recent democratic candidates is probably john kerry, just in terms of being the sort of out of touch wealthy guy, who's running against an incumbent president, rather than actually portraying himself, and putting himself -- >> john kerry, let's get one

fact straight. john kerry did not grow up in a family that had some wealth in the past, but no big -- he wasn't a rich guy by inheritance. >> but in terms of the public caricaturing. but i think for romney, he has this problem where he's gone so far to the right, in the republican primary, and he's still having his feet held to the fire by his base, he can't actually change where his policy positions are, so instead, he just has to invoke bill clinton, so that hopefully people will get some sort of warm, fuzzy, centrist feeling from him, even though his policies are veryfar away. >> richard, i want you to use your x-ray vision. you've been out there on the campaign trail many times, and you've studied candidates. and when you're studying candidates, there comes a momentum when you stare at them and say, is he lying or does he not know what he's talking about? >> or both! >> you're a professional. you've stared at this. >> was that man lying about bill

clinton raising taxes? i think it's conceivable he actually has no idea, since his taxes has never gone up, he's all been paying, you know, 12, 13%, so his taxes didn't go up. >> in a good year, or a bad year. i almost thought he was going to bust out the phrase, i'm severely progressive. i'll tell you what i heard when i heard him say that. he's a "me, too" candidate. there was a time in 2008 in his first struggling presidential campaign where he got signs printed up that said the slogan of the other guy who was campaign was going better on the other side, which was a guy called barack obama, he had signs printed up saying "change," because change was working president obama, so he just lifted it. this is a pattern with him. if it's working for the other side, i've got to do it too. if it weren't for ted kennedy being a progressive in massachusetts, i've got to do that too! he is a me, too candidate. bill clinton was a success, i've got to be like bill clinton. this is a man without a rudder.

he's got no compass. so whether or not he knows the fact, whether or not he has an ideological side to him is irrelevant, because he can be pushed any which way you like, and that's what conservatives, if you read between the lines, and sometimes they're saying it explicitly, that's what they like about him. all you've got to do is tell him it's the winning way and he'll print up your slogan. >> just for a comparison, i want to look at some video where we know he's actually telling the truth. this is from 1994 -- >> we had to go back to '94 to get a piece -- >> well, this is a piece where we know he's telling the truth and we can compare the way that guy talks about and the one pretending to be bill clinton. in 1994, he's talking about blind trusts. he's telling the truth. >> a blind trust is an age-old ruse, which is to say, you can always tell the blind trust what it can and cannot do.

you give a blind trust rules. >> spoken like an honest businessman. that is absolutely true. every one of these blind trusts in politics is completely bogus. he knows what his money is up to. >> and his blind trust -- now he's a pretending, it's a blind trust, i don't know what's going on. >> and his blind trust happened to invest in his son's company. it happened to be a really great investment for them, so they went for it. i'm sure he had no idea that was happening. >> he's also super careful about the language he uses around the taxes. he says, and i'm sure as a tax expert, you pick this up. i have paid all the taxes that i owe -- >> legally required, currently. >> it's all present tense, and there's a future tax liability these things are supposed to shelter. he doesn't talk about that. there are tax benefits that accrue to him that are not yet owed, but that's outside of his language. he can be very precise with language when he knows what he's talking about, and sure enough, tax havens, blind trusts, he knows what he's talking about. >> and i don't think anyone's questioning whether he's

technically by the letter of the law paying what he's required to -- >> i am! i am, i'm questioning that. and we have no idea, because this guy has tax returns that are hundreds and hundreds of pages long and we've never seen them. and the irs does not have the resources to comb through every tax return that involves hundreds of millions of dollars, nor does it have the creative analysis to figure out exactly whether this guy is complying. this kind of tax return can get away with very high crimes. >> that's true. that's true. but even putting that aside, there's a moral issue of a man who's running for president having swiss bank accounts, having money that's offshore, that even if you believe that he complied with the letter of the law, that moral issue is still outstanding. >> and it's a breathtakingly stupid thing for someone who's been in politics since 1994, not to have realized, i wonder how

the swiss bank account's going to sound -- >> remember, this is after we watched tim geithner almost get completely destroyed as treasury secretary for, what, now, compared to this, looks like a tiny tax issue. you know, if tim geithner had come up with swiss bank accounts and cayman island investments, do you think he would have even got into the senate hearing in the first place? the answer is clearly no. if you cannot get nominated and confirmed as treasury secretary with this kind of tax return, should you get elected president with those kind of tax returns? >> that is the funny thing. the standards for getting elected president are much lower than for being a member of the cabinet. there is no senate confirmation for president or vice president. that's one of the perks of those particular jobs. krystal ball and richard wolffe, thank you both very much for joining me tonight. >> thanks, lawrence. today on fox news, ronald reagan's campaign manager actually said that the republicans -- the republican party's problem today is that the party is, these are his

three words, old, white, and fat. we'll talk about how old and white republicans are in the next segment. and we'll talk about chris christie later in the show. also coming up, a day of rage tomorrow in the house of representatives, rage at the supreme court's ruling that most of obama care is constitutional. that rage will be expressed the only way house republicans know how, yet another meaningless vote on repealing the affordable care act. and later, the most important surveillance tool ever invented, the stories our cell phones are telling about us and why you have no idea who's been checking on what you've been doing with your phone and where you've been doing it. that's coming up. [ birds chirping ]

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that's coming up next. and in the "rewrite" tonight, chris christie shows why he can't possibly be selected as mitt romney's running mate because he has something in common with bill maher, and it's not just that they're both from new jersey. [ male announcer ] for making cupcakes and deposits at the same time. for paying your friend back for lunch...from your tablet. for 26 paydays triggered with a single tap. for checking your line, then checking your portfolio. for making atms and branches appear out of thin air. simple to use websites, tools, and apps.

for making your financial life a little bit easier. some people when they critique the republican party, they say it's just a bunch of old white guys. >> it is just a bunch of old white guys, and unfortunately a lot of them are fat like me like haley barbour. we need to broaden the base, we need to have more women, more latinos, more african-americans. >> that was ed rollins, ronald reagan's national campaign

director in the 1984, when reagan won 49 of 50 states. ed rollins' boss at fox news, roger ailes, who personifies ronald's description of the party, also worked on reagan's 1984 re-election campaign. democrats have tripled their margin of victory among nonwhite votes from 1992 to 2008. in 1992, democrats beat republicans by more than 7 million votes and by more than 21 million in 2008. that has given democrats a popular vote victory in all but one presidential election since 1992. the center for american progress estimates that the percentage of minority voters in 2012 will increase by 3% and the share of white working class voters will decrease by 3%, compared to 2008. today, in nevada, joe biden

spoke to a hispanic audience. >> you, the hispanic community, latino community, is the fastest-growing population in america. you now make up 16% of the population of the united states of america. but, give yourself an applause, because your time is about to come. there are ices among us who fear your inclusion, but that's not new in american history there's always been a fight between the voices of inclusion and the voices of exclusion. >> joining me now, joy reid, managing editor of the agree joe.com and alicia menendez the of huff post live. joe biden in that speech had the political line of the day in nevada. let's listen to that first. >> when his father was a candidate for president in 1968, his father released 12 years of

tax returns because he said, and i quote, one year could be a fluke, perhaps done for show, end of quote. that was his father. his son has released only one year of his tax returns. making a lie of the olded a adage, like father, like son. he wants you to show your papers, but he won't show us his. it's kind of fascinating. >> i did not see that coming, alicia. >> oh, you can tell how excited vice president was -- >> he knew it was coming. >> he knew that line -- that's the type of line you walk around the office trying out on everybody, because it's that good. but i don't want it to overshadow some other really good points from that speech. the language of inclusion, which really is what immigration is about, a proxy conversation for who belongs in this country and who doesn't. democrats want to own that

inclusion piece. also the piece that came right after it about the supreme court. biden reminding voters very subtly that president obama spent a lot of his political capital appointing sonia sotomayor to the supreme court, and he said to them, imagine what a romney court would look like. >> let's take a look at that piece where he says, imagine what a romney court would look like. >> imagine what the supreme court will look like after four years of a romney presidency. literally, just imagine. imagine the court with two more scalias or two more roberts on the court. imagine, imagine what it will be like. imagine what it will mean for civil rights, voting rights. >> he never has to say it, explicitly, joy, but we know exactly what kind of picture of that court he's asking us to imagine.

>> yeah, absolutely. and i think what's really smart about what vice president biden was doing is that a lot of people like to think of latino voters and african-american voters as just voting for identity politics, but it's really about policy. if you go back and look at the democratic party in the 1930s, when fdr first ran for president, he got a third of the black vote, right? by the time we get past the 1960s and the civil rights act '64, republicans couldn't get more than 15% of the vote after that. but if the republican party really wants to stare into the abyss, they should realize that as late as 1960, right, when nixon was attempting to beat john f. kennedy, he got a third of the black vote. the republican party is now, with hispanics, on the cusp of where the democratic party used to be with blacks. the black split, democrat/republican, was exactly what the hispanic split is now. you could go 20, 30 years from now and see the hispanic vote just like the african-american vote, absolutely ungettable for republicans, if they continue on these policies.

>> richard nixon got a third -- >> a third. >> a third of the african-american vote. >> wow. alicia, ed rollins on fox news, i don't know, maybe he's trying to get some days off from fox news, but saying the kinds of things that they don't want to hear, but that was kind of an amazing statement that it's not clear to me what the republicans might try to do about that, about this aging demographic that they have, this narrow ethnic demographic that they have. >> there are whistle-blowers in the party who are trying to make it clear to everyone that the shift is in progress, that they are largely out of step with this demo, but it seems to be a problem in leadership, that the leadership doesn't truly get it. >> i notice that it's the campaign types like rollins, like rove. >> you mean the people who want to win? >> the people who run presidential campaigns to try to win them are the ones who have been saying, you've got to worry about this. >> right. they are the ones who are

looking at those margins. there's a disconnect when you look at the legislative agenda in the house and in the senate, where those people are not thinking about winning nationwide. they're thinking about winning in their districts. and districts have a much greater differential, where you either largely have a district where you know that these demos are playing a major role or you have a district where you can largely dismiss them. so by everyone doing it piece by piece, district by district, they're missing the national picture. >> and joy, the latest phenomenon in the party, the tea party movement, makes this problem all the worse for the republicans. they would have to buck the tea party to go in a direction that could possibly appeal to more people. >> right, and the thing is, in the short-term, it makes sense for romney and the republicans to just maximize the white vote

the most they can for this upcoming election. the problem for them is long-term. i mean, in the next couple of months, they're not going to be able to shift enough policies to attract more black and brown votes, they understand that. but your point is exactly right. in the long-term, this is armageddon for the republican party, as the country, the younger cohort is much more diverse. by the time my 12-year-old is able to vote in a presidential election, we're looking at very close to almost half of that electorate being minority. what are republicans going to do long-term, if this young generation of people grow up thinking that they are extremists? >> joy reid and alicia menendez, thank you both for joining me tonight. coming up in tonight's "rewrite," we have a new recruit in the war against the war on drugs. and he's a republican and ann coulter has a big crush on him. okay, you can send me your guesses now on twitter. and later, the most powerful surveillance tool in history is probably somewhere within your reach, right at this moment. police are getting huge amounts of information about us from cell phone companies and we have no idea what they're doing with it. that's coming up. but they can be really well thexpensive.ted a puppy, so to save money i just found them a possum.

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republicans are fwoik going to try again once again to repeal the affordable care act tomorrow. now, i thought this was maybe the third or fourth time they've tried it, but the crack research staff here at "the last word" tells me, it is actually, tomorrow will be, the 31st time they will vote to repeal it in the house of representatives. that's going to be coming up. and your paying someone right now to spy on you, every minute of every day, and police are taking advantage of that in every way they can. what you don't know about the spy in your hand. a "last word" exclusive is coming up. [ mrs. hutchison ] friday night has always been all fun and games

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it, replace it, and we are resolved of the this law go away and we're going to do everything we can to stop it. >> in the spotlight tonight, with house republicans tomorrow scheduled to vote to repeal the affordable care act for the 31st time, the democrats are trying to help clarify exactly what this vote is about. >> to hope this debate ensues, what we can perhaps call this for the next hour, instead of obama care, why don't we call it romney care. this is based upon the massachusetts model that governor romney signed, with ted kennedy standing next to him. >> obama care is modeled on romney care. if you can afford health care

coverage, but you decide to free ride on other people, then there's a little penalty under this bill, just as there is around governor romney's proposal. >> for serious discussion of the impact of mandated care on doctors and patients, we need to look no further than massachusetts. since 2006, massachusetts under governor romney mandated near universal coverage for its population. curiously, the majority did not invite a single doctor or patient from massachusetts. >> i think it would have been relevant if we could have had a doctor from massachusetts, since for the past five years, they have been living with

comprehensive health care reform, signed into law by governor mitt romney. >> republicans could have dodged this line of argument, if they had just listened to rick santorum. >> this is so important, yet, mitt romney agreed with barack obama on every single thing that he did. why would we put someone up who is uniquely -- pick any other republican in the country! he is the worst republican, in the country, to put up against barack obama. >> joining me now, david corn, the washington bureau chief for mother jones and an msnbc political analyst and ana marie cox, a political correspondent for guardian u.s. ana marie, you may have figured out that that is my favorite, favorite rick santorum clip

ever. >> it's a good one! >> i can't remember a candidate, a major party candidate within a major party primary actually saying that the front-runner in his field, in his part, was the single worst, in the country, of any republican, anywhere, and today, at least the democrats tried to use mitt romney in every way they could to help frame that so-called health care debate in the house of representatives. but this is -- this is one of the strains now between the house of representatives and mitt romney. it seems mitt romney would love the house of representatives to

just drop this kind of voting so the discussion of romney care could stop right now. >> well, he's not the only one who would like them to drop it. the american people would like them to drop it. polls are showing that everyone who is not a committed republican or leaning republican would really like congress to just move on from this issue. the law is still not that popular. it's about 45, 47, 48, 46 on either side, it's kind of changing and slightly getting more popular, but the idea of moving forward is incredibly popular. and as for the republicans, i don't know if they're looking at the polls literally upside down

or not, but they are much more popular than the law. if congress had a point for every time they voted to repeal obama care, they'll be 50% more popular than they are today. >> rush limbaugh today said something about mitt romney and how the party is just kind of stuck with him. and he was never a big romney supporter during the primaries. but let's listen to this, because what he's really saying is mitt romney doesn't really matter at all. >> romney better learn the election isn't about him. all i mean is, let's -- can i just be honest? among our side, the conservatives, the independents, everybody who wants drastic, significant change in this country, very few are running around saying, we want mitt, we want mitt, we want mitt. they're running around saying, get rid of obama and the democrats. get rid of obama and the democrats. that is the animating thing of this election. that is the motivating thing of

this election. >> david corn, i think rush actually was being honest there. >> yes, once in a while, a broken clock is right, sometimes twice a day. first, i've got to say that i feel like ana marie and i should be singing, "i got you, babe," -- we won't do that, don't worry viewers out there. >> i can't carry a tune. >> with the republicans going after this, again and again and again, beating a dead horse, and then you have the dead horse of the candidate, mitt romney, and rush limbaugh is getting it right. just sit back for a second. here we are, one thing that rush limbaugh and i, you, lawrence, and ana marie would agree on,

that the united states is one hell of a country. so the leader of this great land of ours should be a pretty damned good person, male or female. but yet he's willing to settle for someone no one really likes, just so they can get rid of barack obama. so we'll go with grade "b," we'll go with plan "b," "c," "d," or "e," so we can get rid of barack obama and have a not very impressive fella lead this great land of ours. that shows you how deep rush limbaugh and his side into the we hate barack obama gig. >> ana marie, if i have to bet, i'm going to bet this is the last time the republicans will vote to repeal, because john boehner knows -- >> i don't know, 32nd time's the charm. >> i'm betting exactly one dollar on this. but john boehner has to know, this is not good for the image of the republicans in the house who should be about the business of trying to create jobs, and he knows that this doesn't look like they are about the business of trying to create jobs. and he has to do this, because they had to have this big, you know, outraged statement after the supreme court. but after this outraged statement, it seems that they should be able to move on. >> one would hope. i mean, it's definitely something that the obama campaign is already kind of pouncing on, to draw attention to the fact that, yes, they're doing this sort of meaningless stunt vote, that will amount to nothing, instead of creating jobs. and of course, they've been doing a lot that amounts to nothing. and i just want toed add really quickly that all of us saying rush limbaugh was right, and rick santorum was right, tim that, a >> i'll have that. d thanks ve >> su c criticizes oppos okay, tonigh

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chris christie went to washington yesterday to deliver a speech to a distinguished audience and to show just how classy he can be, he didn't call anyone in the room an idiot. but he did say something very surprising about the war on drugs, and that's next in the "rewrite." new jersey governor chris christie is back in the moistu. while five blades get venus close. revealing smooth and goddess skin begins. only from venus & olay.

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idiot, said leadership is about nuance. that was his word. nuance. and to prove what a master of nuance he can be, chris christie didn't call anyone at the brookings institution an idiot. and then he said this amazingly wonderful honest thing about mitt romney. he talked openly about what drives him crazy about romney and the horrible frustration he has experienced in making appearances with romney on the campaign trail. >> we shouldn't listening to political consultants whispering in our ear to tell us, say as little as possible. we shouldn't be listening to those voices who say, just use the party doctrine and don't stray. we should be telling people how we think and how we feel and let them judge us up or down. you can't lead by being a mystery.

you can't lead by being an enigma. you can't lead by being aloof. you can't lead by being programmed. i think you have to lead by being yourself and being who you are. and then people will trust you. and when they trust you, they will follow you. >> yeah, amazing. a perfectly honest description of romney delivered by a prominent republican in the middle of the presidential campaign. now, strictly speaking, in his text, he did not specifically say he was talking about romney, but, come on, who does that sound like? christie's been on stages with romney in new hampshire, iowa, and now he just can't hold himself back from saying what is so easy to see about romney. he's a mystery, an enigma, aloof, programmed. you can just feel christie dying to call romney an idiot, right

there. but he was trying to impress the brookings crowd about just how nuanced he is. now, i officially took chris christie off mitt romney's potential vp list weeks ago. i'm sure that came as a big blow to him at the time, but now he seems to know that he really doesn't have a chance at the vice presidential nomination, and he made that as clear as he possibly could to the brookings crowd by taking a position on the war on drugs that puts him in complete agreement with another famous son of new jersey, bill maher. >> the war on drugs, while well intentioned, has been a failure. and that we're warehousing addicted people every day in state prisons in new jersey, giving them no treatment, sending them back out on to the

street after their term of incarceration, and wondering why recidivism rates go up, and why they don't get better, why they commit crimes again. well, they commit crimes to support their addiction. for some people, they can try it and walk away from it. but for others, the first time they try it, they become an addict. and they're sick. and they need treatment. so i said what we need to do is for all first-time, nonviolent drug offenders, we have to make drug treatment mandatory. because if you're pro-life, as i am, you can't be pro-life just in the womb. every life is precious. and every one of god's creatures can be redeemed. but they won't be if we ignore them. and by the way, for those of you who are concerned about economics, it cost us $49,000 a year to warehouse a prisoner in new jersey state prisons last year. a full year of in-patient drug treatment costs $24,000 a year.

so it makes economic sense also. but to me, that's just a collateral advantage. the real reason to do it is that we have an obligation to understand that addiction is a disease and that we need to give people a chance to overcome that disease and to restore dignity and meaning to their lives. that's not a republican or democratic issue. >> no, drug treatment, instead of incarceration for first-time nonviolent drug offenders, is not a republican or democratic issue. it is a liberal issue. and so tonight, it is a pleasure to welcome chris christie into the war against the war on drugs, and to welcome him into, on this issue, liberalism. and, i just can't wait until christie calls mitt romney an idiot for disagreeing with him on this. now, according to "the new york times," you don't have to

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now, according to "the new york times," you don't have to be famous to have a biographer. you don't have to be present to have a biographer. according to the times, we all have, now, their phrase, a virtual biographer of our daily activities. and that biographer knows more about us than our best friends do. that biographer knows where we are every minute of the day. that biographer is the most effective spy, the most effective surveillance tool ever

invented and we pay it to spy on us. our cell phones can tell a story about us that no one else can. that's why police are demanding and getting cell phone records from wireless service providers in dramatically increasing numbers every year. police requests to verizon have increased 15%, each year, for the last five years, and we don't know what's happening to the information that police are collecting. last year, wireless service providers handles 1.3 million law enforcement requests for cell phone information, including text messages, call logs, location data, and cell tower dumps, where they provide police with all phone numbers

that connected to a particular cell tower during a certain period of time. the aclu said in a statement, "the cell phone data of innocent americans is almost certainly swept up in these requests. without clear safeguards and standards for how law enforcement gathers and stores location information, there is a massive privacy gap that leaves all of us vulnerable." joining me now, in a "last word" exclusive is congressman ed markey of massachusetts. congressman, thanks for joining me. you conducted your own investigation of what's going on

out there with the wireless companies. what have you found out? >> well, i found that the law enforcement officials of the united states, in 2011, made 1.3 million requests of cell phone companies for information about americans, as they use their cell phones. and as this digital dragnet is put out across the country, there are real questions as to whether or not the fourth amendment protections against illegal search and seizures are sufficient here in the 21st century. and so, this kind of dekeynesian world we live in, it's the best of technologies, it's the worst of technologies.

at the same time, it does help law enforcement officials, but as the police look for the illegal criminal needle, there's also an innocent haystack of americans whose information is gathered up, and we really don't know right now how that information is, in fact, handled by law enforcement across our country. >> and it seems at first that the cell phone companies were unsure about how to proceed, unsure as to whether there have to be warrants for this, so some of them have handed information over without warrants, some of them have required warrants in certain situations. but then there's this other

interesting development that "the new york times" reported on, which is the possibility that the companies are making money on this. "the times" said cell carriers staffed with special law enforcement liaison teams charge police departments from a few hundred dollars for locating a phone to more than $2,200 for a full-scale wiretap of a suspect. is this becoming a profit center for wireless phone companies? >> well, for some of them, they do get paid, but there are other cell phone companies that told us that they weren't fully compensated for what they did. but it's clear there is some compensation that goes to some of these phone companies, for some of the activities that they engage in to provide information to the law enforcement officials. but what we found in our investigation is that there are cell phone companies that are concerned about what the standards are. that is, if an emergency is declared by a law enforcement agency, how long does that gathering of information go on before a warrant is obtained from a court, to continue the gathering of cell phone information? because these devices that every american is now carrying around, they're just gps devices. they're loaded with all of the personal secrets of every american, and right now we really don't know what the standards are that are being used by law enforcement or by the phone companies in our country to protect the privacy of innocent americans. >> and then what happens to this massive amount of information that they collect from a cell tower dump, when they get all

the data out of one cell tower. presumably they're going to use, if any, some very small amount of that in some criminal procedure. what do they do with everything else they harvested in that kind of dump? >> you put your finger right on it, lawrence. what they might say is, ah, that criminal, he was on the corner of first and main street. so they go to the cell tower that was nearby that location. and in the cell tower dump, it's every bit of information, of every person who was making a cell phone call off of that cell phone tower. innocent americans in answer for that one criminal >> good evening, americans. welcome to "the ed show" from > defining romney before he defines himself. let's play "hardball." good evening. tonight, richie rich for president? if there's one big take away from president obama's big tax announcement is that he's trying to frame mitt romney as richie rich.

the tax cut proposal itself is likely to go nowhere, but throw in romney's tax cuts for the wealthy, his homes, cadillacs, corporations or people comment and you can see the strategy. romney is for the rich, obama defends the middle class. may determine who wins in november. also, dirty, angry money. lost in the news about republican fund-raiser is how much it might affect house and senate races. karl rove's has just dumped a million dollars to unseat ohio's sherrod brown, which would likely give the republicans the senate. sherrod brown joins us tonight. plus, we've got new poll numbers out from key swing states that he's going to win in november. happened when the mayor of one city wanted to raise taxes an the city council said no. the mayor busted employees -- how he defends that one.