as mitt romney gets mired in the tax return issue and shows that he really can't get his -- get out of it. they are going to, like, all-out obama hatred. and attack. so you have john sununu saying what was he smoking in hawaii and indonesia? you know. have you mitt romney calling barack obama foreign. we have been over this a couple of hundred times, chris. it is all about painting barack obama as nonamerican and as different from you and me and the other, one can see this -- racially tinged or not is up to you. chris christie is one of the best sluggers they have. you know, what's he bring to the republican party that mitt romney doesn't? earthiness. he can connect with people and he can talk like a real person. that's not translate flood human. they will bring him out the first -- to sort of start -- beating the meat. you know. sort of tender it up. so -- for later in the -- in the convention, when mitt romney finally shows with or without his tim pawlenty vice president. >> let me -- bring new here in a second, john.

take a look at this. by choosing chris christie to give the big keynote speech to set the tone for the convention in tampa, romney is ensuring what the theme of the campaign will be. come out snarling. here are examples of christie at his most charming. >> real big shot. >> on monday, are you going to be addressing the legislature? >> did i say on topic? first off, none of your business. i don't ask you where you send your kids to school. don't bother asking me where i send mine. it is people like you divide thing country. we are here to bring this country together. not divide it. you have to be one arrogant sob to be telling the people of new jersey he'll decide when you have been good enough to get some of your own money back.

>> so joining us tonight is john who worked for rick santorum. who decided to bring miss personality, miss congeniality to start the republican convention? what do you think is going on here? >> i think it is great pick. first of all, you have a governor who ran in a democratic state of principles cutting spending and taxes and got elected and governing that way. he is a great speaker. he will go out there and make a great case why this president has been a disaster. >> what will he subway the guy that won the nomination? >> i think he will -- he has been with romney from day one. he has been out there supporting him and saying that we immediate somebody that knows thousand turn this economy around. but at the same time, you have to remember, this is a referendum on the sitting president and the, frankly, i'm -- i'm happy the romney people are willing to take the gloves off and start fighting back. >> have you noticed when -- let's go back. have you noticed the republicans who are up for vp are the only ones not saying release your tax returns?

that's one way to shut them up. you may object my list. here is a list of republicans who say mitt romney should release tax returns and grows day by day. former republican haley bore bauer, bill kristol, george will, matt dowd, rick perry, ron paul. among others, dnc already put out the republicans web video. let's look at what the democrats are doing, excitement among republicans to have this guy show where he made his money and if he paid any taxes. >> more and more republicans agree mitt romney has not released more tax returns because he has something to hide. >> the cost of not releasing the returns are clear. therefore, he must have calculated there are higher costs in releasing them. >> obviously there is something there because if there was nothing there he would say have at it. >> leer lay problem with the tax returns otherwise he would release ten years of tax returns. >> if he had 20 years of great, clean everything is fine, it would all be out there. ton post" reports at that

there are riffs even within the romney campaign how to handle the tax return matter. some are arguing privately romney needs to release additional returns. others are insisting the candidate's longtime resistance to publicly disclose information about his personal finances. looks like the palace guard business types around romney from the begin ring protecting his sensibilities or sensitivities here where the tougher political types say that this ain't going away, governor. >> listen, mitt romney went to harvard business school. one of the first -- in bain consulting before he was in bain capital. when the deepest -- core principles you learn in both places is cost -- benefit, and analysis. he knows the political hit he is getting. he also is probably of the few people even if he does who -- who knows what's in his own tax returns. he knows whether he paid zero percent or not in 2009. tax return that was not looked

at my the mccain campaign. he knows whether he listed a couple of swiss bank accounts that haven't been disclosed previously. you have to believe at this point in time that if he's not doing the obvious political move of putting that stuff out, there is a strong reason and that would be that putting it out would give people a road map to romney world which would be not flattering or would be something that he couldn't overcome. if he didn't pay tax necessary 2009, i don't think that he could have -- could really stand that going into the november election. >> what do you think, john? >> well, i think the decision that they inside sort of move forward but not close the door on this is the worst decision. either they got to put them out there or they have to saw we are not talking about this anymore, any time anybody brings up the word tax we are going to remind them it is this president that gave tuesday biggest tax increase in history. but the sort of -- >> what happens if they go in, look, what happen it is he stonewalls and that's his decision, right through, say, mid september. they go into national debate, hour and a half on national television.

isn't that the easiest pedal important the president to push? to say what about your tax returns? and then it becomes the number one story in the debates which are critical of romney to show a better person, i think. >> no good answer. >> you know what will happen. every time he throws more information out there there will be more scrutiny and a lot of it is going to be insignificant but the obama people are going to make it into something it is not. the romney people know that. what they really immediate to do is start acting more like a challenger than an incumbent and start going after this president and his record and not let this middle ground stay there where they are not seeing anything. >> it is amazing. there is an old thing in politics. jerry brown has done tonight the past in california. he went after his opponents' pension he was getting. younger back in the -- what was -- in 1978. spending the whole summer talking about the other guy's pensions and you have them beat by labor day. no one missouri and i don't know for sure what's in mitt romney's unreleased tax returns. the void leaves room for as if mating guesses. romney paid no taxes in 2009.

he carried his losses forward from the financial hit of 2008. business week's josh green, among others, writes it is not implausible he carried forward those losses from the financial meltdown in 2008 and paid no federal taxes whatsoever the following year. number two, romney took advantage of a one-time irs program in 2009 that gave amnesty for fraudulent none disclosure offshore income. even though it is unlikely that could be lurk in romney's returns. since 2009, the last year in which romney got payments as part of his retroactive retirement deal, there could be something in that he doesn't want us to see. let me ask you this, dan. david. it seems to me what's the worst case here? let's be honest about this. if it shows he didn't pay taxes for a couple of years, that's devastate to a guy talking about reducing the corporate tax and putting more pressure on

lower-income people if he carried interest in the way equity people are able to get the pay -- regular income tax owes what's capital gains. what else? >> let's listen. >> i'm sorry. they don't pay regular taxes. she enthused pay regular taxes and get capital gains treatment which is 15% rate rather than 30-some percent eight rick santorum developed a populist appeal running against mitt romney and didn't quite work. can you imagine what he would have said if it calm out during the campaign and that mitt rom new -- for all of his riches -- did not pay any taxes in a given year or two. i don't know if a candidate can withstand that. working class voters in ohio, michigan. mitt romney would be spending every day between now and november explaining that. he may have even a good explanation. you know. that there was nothing illegal about it. but it just is exactly the wrong position for the top -- 1% candidate of the gop is about to nominate. >> i want to talk about romney's

dancing horse. featured in a new dnc website that skewers romney for not releasing more tax returns. i'm not sure this is fair game. let's judge it. let's listen. ♪ >> governor, will you release your income tax records? >> if that's been the tradition, i'm not -- opposed to doing that. time will tell. i anticipate most likely i am going get asked to do that around the april time period. i will keep that open. >> when you release yours, will you follow your father's example? >> maybe. >> that must be an attempt to win surfing commercial. never go after the spouse. last question to you, why are so many republicans led by haley bo barbour calling for him to release them? they are partisans with him, not against him. >> they know every day like today, somebody like myself on here talking about this issue as a good day for obama and bad day

for romney. i think that a lot of republican just think it is time to put this behind us and get back to what this race really should be about. that's obama's record. >> john, it is great to have you on the show. thank you for joining us on "hardball." david, you have great insight and passion always, sir. >> thank you. >> coming up, republicans are desperate to change the subject as john just said. once again, they are trying to turn president obama into a -- i hate saying this -- a foreigner. they are all doing it. they do it relentlessly. it didn't work four years ago. vetting candidates for vice president. you will find this fascinating. we will talk to a journalist that wants to get himself vetted by the people vetting people like sarah palin in the recent history. see how it works. could the bombing that killed three top syrian government officials, including the brother-in-law of president assad, mark the beginning of the end for the assad regime? i'm very skeptical. i think he will fight to the end. let me finish with mitt romney's board rock emperor, chris christie himself. why he picked christie to trash obama. [ donovan ] i hit a wall.

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mitt romney's surrogate former governor sununu of new hampshire left little doubt where the campaign is headed when he said on a conference call just yesterday, quote, i wish this president would learn how to be an american. even his clarification obama should be learning to, quote, the american -- learn the american formula for creating business left the romney

campaign intent quite clear to portray president obama as un-american. charles is the columnist for "the new york times." joe walsh, columnist for salon. and msnbc analyst anybody that doubts is this is not paying attention, charles and joan. this is a symphony. it goes and on. he is foreign, references to by sununu all over the place. the candidate himself yesterday said he's foreign. i think that the president play it is like lionel hampton and lets the orchestra fill it in. they are all singing street same song. this guy is not one of us. sheer guy that has been president for four years. he knows he's one of us. he is one of us. why are they doing it? >> me? >> yeah, you. yes, sir. >> well, i mean, you know why it is. it kind of connects to a certain part of the base that --

republican base this feeds barack obama even to this day as very other than they are. it is much -- as much as they can drive a wedge between the american population and the american electorate and barack obama, they see that as a winning strat. that has happened not just in this campaign cycle but since the 2008 campaign of trying to paint this particular guy as other. it is not completely different from clinton but it is kind of one-up it is clinton -- >> i just -- do you think it would be the case if he was a regular guy with a more familiar african-american background than n this country? coming up from slavery and jim crowe moving north into the midwest, do you think they would be playing the same card or would it be different? >> i think it is absolutely different for a lot of reasons. and -- part of that is that he's worn in hawaii -- born those in hawaii, for those that even believe he was born in america. many believe he was born innen or some other country. his mother dated, fell in love and married two men out of her

race and never once married another white man. he was raised in hawaii which not every republican even believes is part of the zbluns that's the funny part. i would like to see that test on jaly leno some night when he does -- you know, jaywalking. do you think hawaii should be independent to the union? >> like a foreign operating base in asia ever gets out of control. how people see it. not -- drawn in this that way. have you education that is in part in indonesia and -- even if you don't know where that is you know it is not england. it is very exotic, the tale of barack obama. >> hay went to prep school in honolulu. one of the best in the city of honolulu. he has gone to columbia, went to school in -- california. columbia undergrad, harvard law. he has been involved in politics since he got out of school. he has been a public figure. he has not lived his life in the shadows. let me bring in joan. the other day sununu -- there he is atalking the guy saying all

this sununu -- all this stuff about cocaine and all this stuff. all these old charges and saying that he went back to indonesia a second time. only there when he was a kid. then made it sound like he had to go back to his homeland and just keeps putting -- by the way, this terrible thing, the -- michele bachmann is push being we have muslim brotherhood running the show. why doesn't john sununu who comes from a middle eastern background, members are -- member of a lot of legitimate organizations, why doesn't he speak up and say stop this rot? mccain has said this. he said it today. joan? >> yes, chris. mccain came out and you a tacked bachmann and defended aberdeen. mack cane, we have to bee become to 2008 when john mccain stood up and said to that woman who called barack obama an arab, ma'am, he is a good christian man. we disagree on policy. that's the last decent thing

that -- republican has done. he was called upon basically to do it again. he did it. john sununu should be saying that. he should be talking about his palestinian american father and should be talking about his international roots. but he can't because they have double downed on the hatred and doubled down on demonizing this president that most of us recognize as one of us who was raised by his white grandparents,s who grandfather was a world war ii veteran, who has -- a different background and then a very, very, very american background. >> at love us are proud of the fact where he came from and how far he has gone. as he said in the way that always grabbed me, and i -- think of this as -- something only could have happened in this country. today in the senate floor john mccain snowed himself at his best and showed courage and decency. look at what he did here. defended the longtime clinton aide who has been on many trips to -- several trips with he and secretary clinton when she was in the senate. here he is going after republicans including michele bachmann for this trash talk. let's listen.

>> on june 13, five members of congress wrote to the deputy inspector general of the department of state, demanding he begin an investigation into the possibility that abidean and other officials are using their influence to promote the cause of muslim brotherhood within the u.s. government. these allegations and the report from which they are drawn are nothing less than an unwarranted and unfounded attack on an honorable citizen, dedicated american and loyal public servant. >> you know, charles, it seems to me even the right wing on the far right ought to pay attention. hillary clinton supported the war in iraq. i opposed it. i believe you did, too. one of my problems with her candidacy. she was a hawk on that war. houma was with her on that. she is having a lot of influence

in arab -- it is so ludicrous. to say she some how is is being the tool through houma of the terrorists, it is -- well, it is ridiculous but somebody is buying this. certainly somebody is selling right. i think this is less about houma and more about barack obama. if you look at the anti-international laws, they don't pop up right after 9/11 which you might have thought maybe that's the impetus for this. they p don't pop up when we go to war in iraq. they poup up post-barack obama. this is kind of -- that whole kind of other -- will is some kind of muslim relationship there, there's in kind of devious activity that's happening in the government and it may creep into my local municipality. it also allows people to paint someone who is other they don't necessarily live around.

these laws don't pop up necessarily in the blue states. if you look at the way muslims are distributed in this country, just a top ten states where they are, it is not really blue states. only one that -- fits into their there is texas and less than 1% of the population of texas is muslim. it is somebody other than the people who live next to me and i can demonize them and can dem demonize barack obama through these people. people are being used in that way. very sad kind of statement about where we are in our politics in america that we would choose to do that to people who have done nothing wrong. >> well, making your p point, romney adviser signalled in a paper, website buzz feed, that the next phase of the romney campaign strategy will be ruthless said one adviser, i mean this is a guy who admitted to cocaine use, talking about the president. had a sweetheart deal with his house in chicago. was associated worked with rod blagojevich to get valerie jarrett appointed to the senate. i guess that didn't work out if it ever happened. joan, are you old enough to

remember -- i'm not sure you are, the fight that -- crazy right was -- they are fluradatining or water to control our mind. >> it is ball our minds. chris, you know to go back again, this brings up john mccain to me because one of the things they are saying there is that john mccain ran a lousy campaign and john mccain had access to this stuff and didn't use it. and that's just not true. the other group that is being insult bid romney campaign is the media. it is basically saying that we didn't look into the rasco stuff which we did. we didn't look into the cocaine stuff which we did. this president has been vetted. we looked into those stories. i certainly -- we all spent time talking about reverend wright. think think they are going to go back to playbook that didn't work in 2008, four years later, when we know this president. you may disagree with him but the affordable care act. have at it. but we know who he is. he has been under the spotlight.

we know his family, his wife. we know he's one of us. this isn't going to work this time. as you made the case, many times before, this is all they have. they are terrified. >> speaking of that topic, you just talked about, old bad habits, admitteded to publicly, i want to thank charles blow for joining us tonight. i'm sure you heard that one before. >> that's the worst -- >> thank you. thank you, joan walsh. sorry, i can't avoid it. up next, paranoia. latest conspiracy theory. this one involves bain capital and cape crusader. i love when he does that. i love white the walrus jumps up and down like that. hey america, even though

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political story of the moment is the old venture capital company. which happens to bear the same name as the most frightening and current batman villain. >> that's jon stewart sticking in the knife and wiggling it. that's that is the name in "the dark knight rises." is it a coincidence the bad guy bears the same name as bain capital? enter el rush-bo p.m. here's the verdict from his parallel you don't know sxwlers the villain in "the dark knight rises" is bane. do you think it is accidental the name of the really vicious fire breathe be, four-eyed whatever it is villain name in the movie is named bane? the audience will be huge. lot of people will see the movie. it is a lot of brain dead

people, entertainment, pop culture crowd, they will hear bane in the movie and associate bane. >> now back to earth. the bane character was created by comic book author chuck dixon in thor '90s when romney was proud of his time at bain. so rush's theory seems to be the then nonexistent team obama and conspired with the author would decades ago so the movie company invided with an election between a then unknown obama and then unnoticed romney. here is comic book author chuck dixon on the point. movie people are in the process of making money. not alienateding 50% of their potential audience with some goofy, ridiculous political point. in today's show limbaugh denied that he was into a conspiracy theory but he does think this democrats will use the name coincidence to their advantage. next, here is a guy that wants to play mitt romney for a living. remember this anti-romney ad? put out by the santorum campaign during the primaries. keep an eye on the guy playing

mitt romney. >> mitt romney's negative attack machine is back on full throttle. this time he is firing his mud at rick santorum. romney is trying to hide from his cam and support for job killing cap ask trade. in tend mitt romney's attacks are going to backfire. >> looks like romney. the time romney called at this time most negative ad of the season. actor did romney in that ad hopes to perfect his romney impersonation. according to the "l.a. times," he picked up -- pay attention. these are really good. romney stands up like he has a plank nailed to his back. he looks starry-eyed when listening. that's rue. he wears a smirk during debates. all three are true, i think. if ram boy were flamboyant it would be easier impersonating him. the man he's trying to mimic is like a ken doll with a string. that's tough. he needs romney to win or his

impression and comments will be pretty much worthless. next, scoop that failed. columnist connie schultz wound up a little more tickled after receiving an e-mail from a blogger she is choosing not tool name. she's recounted the exchange on facebook. here is what she got in the mail. dear miss schultz. we are doing an expose on journalists in the elite media who socialize with elected officials assigned to cover. we found numerous note owes of you with sherrod brown. you appear to be hugging him. care to comment? turns out she did care to comment. here is what she wrote back. dear mr. blank p.m. i'm surprised did you not find a photo of me kissing u.s. senator sherrod brown. so hard, he passes out from lack of oxygen. he's really cute. he's also my husband. you know that, right? connie shulz. ohio democrat. married since 2004. not the hardest info to track down if you are a great blogger. no word from the wildly off-base

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the dow gains is on 3 points. ben bernanke was back on capitol hill today. he reiterated his view the central bank is ready to act if needed to boost the economy. meanwhile, the fed's regional report on the economy called the beige book showed hiring was tempered in most areas. groundbreaking for new homes rose nearly 7% in june. that's the fastest pace in more than threw years. that's it from msnbc first in

business worldwide. back to the sheer game of it. a lot of speculation what mitt romney might name a running mate, when and who. will there be former governor minnesota tim pawlenty or ohio senator rob portman or louisiana governor bobby jindal. they are thought to be topping the list now. vp vetting process itself is shrouded in muft and seystery. one who vetted sarah palin for better or worse. -to-get himself vetted so he could see what it is like. thanks for joining us. susan page, veteran washington report their covers -- hate to do this to you. nine elections so far. i think i may have you beat. washington bureau chief at "usa today."

thank you for joining us. first of all, i want to ask jason about the vetting process. what do you ask about? we were going through dangers here. now put them in regular english so everybody will know. you are a married guy, right? girl friends, drugs? >> ask a lot of questions about your sex life. have you paid for sex, any sex tapes? have you ever had a homosexual encounter? lots of questions about your sex life. they want to know about drug history. alcohol use. they want all of your tax records. it is a fairly invasive process. >> who does the questioning? is it the candidate for president? or -- who -- what kind of -- high-level -- campaign person or somebody just as good at this kind of thing, digging? >> it is usual lay high-level campaign person. in 2008 for john mccain, a former white house council for ronald reagan was in charge of the process. you know, for romney, beth myers. eric holder did it for obama in wait. so it is always someone that's fairly prominent in the party.

and has a lot of washington experience and lot of trust built up. with the tuck presidential candidate. >> susan, it seems to me this started with tom eagleton in '72 who had electroshock therapy and frank -- the press guy, never actually said did you ever have electroshock therapy. you think he would have -- you think he would have offered that up. >> you would think so. that's one reason we know the standard final question people are asked when vetted, is there anything i haven't asked you that could prove to be embarrassing if asked during the campaign. we have seen the process go more and more detail flood finances and drug use and employment of household workers. that's something that wasn't asked too far long ago and then became an issue with a couple nominees for senate confirmation -- for vice

president. it has become a much more elaborate process and look at things that are more personal like the personal rapport between the presidential candidate and the prospective vice president because that's something we know is also important the these nominees. >> what about -- what about questions of belief? i know th what are your religious beliefs? did they get into that? why did you convert from one religion to another? was it that intimate? >> it was with me. i think ted frank was sort of following a script that he used in 2008. he had a lot of questions about, you know, stuff like my synagogue attendance, when i was bar mitzvah'd. if high son had a bris. you want to be comfortable enough sufficiently religious. atheist candidate would be the last taboo and want to make sure they don't get tripped up on something like that. >> one of the problems of the vet sing the old way of shaking hands and saying i like the cut of the guys -- you are now responsible for anything that comes out. you have to say one of the two

following things. i knew it but thought he would still be okay. or i never asked him. >> you know, that's right. of course, one of the -- vice presidents don't make that much difference in campaigns but long time since the vice president has really determined an election. but what -- it does tell people something about the decisi decisionmaking process that a potential president would go so. if you don't have a thorough sxret something embarrassing comes up, it makes you look like you are not a good decision maker and tells voters something. that was one of the things with sarah palin, i think in tend it didn't reflect well on john mccain's decisionmaking process. and that hurt him with some voters. >> let me ask you starting with susan. and you i are pros more than the other fellow, jason. sorry, jason. we know more than you. let me ask you this. it seems to me there are more intimate questions you want to get out african date for vp that have nothing to do with this list. one of them, do you feel comfortable working with this person on a regular basis for maybe four to eight years n they are going to be in the room with you. number two, do they have street kind of character where you don't stay up at night wondering

what they are up to. did you absolutely know they are telling thank you truth and not trying any crazy stuff around your back. three, do they have judgment. will they be forcing you -- getting up in the morning and read something stupid thing they said in the paper the day before? judgment, character, and comfort. personal comfort. you can't get somebody to vet that stuff, can you? >> well, that's right. and -- those are the more important things. you can find out that someone had an affair, had smoked don't in college and still think that they were okay to put on the ticket. but you want somebody that you trust and you trust to have your back. and that's not -- not going to embarrass you. that's why i think you -- among the reasons i think that ted pawlenty and rob portman have come to the top of the list because these are people that i think governor romney seems to trust and when you see them campaign together, you can see that they have a relationship of some comfort. >> top two. did you have a third possibility in your list from what you have been able to get? >> well, you know, i was out in wisconsin before that primary and i was really struck by the

relationship, personal relationship there seemed to be between mitt romney and paul ryan. you know, they -- they campaigned together in a way very comfortable. that made paul ryan a little high other my list than he would be otherwise. he comes with some risk because he has that -- >> there are a lot of jobs out there. your thoughts. do you have any thoughts on this, jason, young man? i smell pawlenty for all these personal reasons. >> i think the three mentioned. i think the personal sort of -- you know, relationship between the two is really important. i think that's something that in 2004 with kerry, he had a bad feeling about edwards and ignored it. you saw the result of that. looking at the way these guys react with each other, based on that, one of those three. >> pawlenty seems like a good guy. whatever your views are. i would sense that would be romney's reaction. portman, a little bit too boring. if that's possible in the case of romney that thinks somebody else is too boring. i'm getting sarcastic.

want to do that. thanks for that experience you have been through. you have been vetted. you are clean. you can read about his vetting possible in "g.q." thank you, susan page, for joining us. can see be seeing the beginning. end in syria? here is a guy assad that didn't want the job. had to do the dirty work and is doing it. what options does this guy have now? are we seeing today's bombing of government officials there and killing of people so close to him including his brother-in-law suggesting we may be the -- facing the end of this regime? down here, folks measure commitment by what's getting done. the twenty billion dollars bp committed has helped fund economic and environmental recovery. long-term, bp's made a five hundred million dollar commitment to support scientists studying the environment. and the gulf is open for business - the beaches are beautiful, the seafood is delicious. last year, many areas even reported record tourism seasons. the progress continues... but that doesn't mean our job is done.

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♪ this dream last month president obama softened the government's policy on some illegal immigrants who had been here a long time. now he's reaping the political benefits, the president is. register eed latino voters find the president leading mitt romney now 70% to 22%. first time in almost two years mr. obama has been in 70 or that high in this poll. if you are one of the millions of men who have used androgel 1%, there's big news. presenting androgel 1.62%.

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words of leon panetta today is spinning out of control. bomb thing morning by the opposition hit in the heart of the regime and killed three senior officials. very close to assad. casualties included the country's defense casualties in defense minister and the deputy defense minister who happens to be the president's brother-in-law. it's getting close to the leader. the question is how much longer can president assad hold the reins of power? what is assad's next move and what are his options? what can he do? will he evacuate or start killing people by the thousands? richard engel is nbc's chief correspondent. i do think about his predicament. does he have any options really in life now? >> well, his probably only physical option would be if he wanted to leave power would be go to russia. i think that's probably the only country that would take him in at this stage. i don't see any kind of political solution.

the international community keeps talking about a ceasefire or a political reconciliation. that's not realistic. the opposition doesn't want him. they want to kill him. they tried to kill him today. so i think he either has to pack it up, go to russia, live in exile, live badly and then be hunted down by international criminal courts or he has to try and win this conflict which doesn't seem likely. or he goes down fighting and probably is arrested or killed. and that seems most likely at this stage. >> i look at that predicament. he knows what's going on. he's seen history and saw what happened to gadhafi and saddam. they hid somewhere and got found. that seems to be the worst way to end it. why can't russia protect him? why couldn't russia -- i was reading history recently. back through the soviet union going back to the '60s if not the '50s was strong. don't they want to keep a worldwide network of power by

showing their loyalty to this guy? >> that's exactly what russia has been trying to do. but it seems like russia misplayed the syria card. russia was very upset when libya suddenly went from a humanitarian intervention to an all-out military assault that involved regime change. russia felt duped by that and lost one ally which was libya. and russia decided it wasn't going to lose another ally and it wasn't going to do what the obama administration did which was turn on an old ally in president mubarak and decided to ride it out. the problem was, bashar al assad turned out to be a brutal dictator in his final months. there's that expression be careful of the quiet ones. a lot of people including -- i was very surprised at the way the syrian regime was acting. this was not the kind of person you would expect to become a

saddam hussein-like leader. yet for the last several months, that is exactly what the inner circle of bashar al assad's government has been behaving. >> in the god father where he kbam more evil, more evil, more evil until he was a devil basically. or was it a bunch of uncles he found took over thinking he's a doctor, he ends up on the throne. but he realizes immediately he's surrounded by a bunch of uncles telling him what to do. what happened here? >> yeah. a little bit of both. and in the beginning if you remember, bashar al assad was the darling of the international community. and some people in syria were very happy that he had come. and there was talk that he was going to be the new reformist and he was going to change the tone of syria. syria was becoming a hot travel destination. and there were travel magazines writing about the old city of a damasc damascus. and they were not lying. it was a great place to visit a few years ago. >> what about "vogue" magazine

building up his family and glamorizing it. >> exactly. then when pushed and cornered, i don't know if it was an evil streak within bashar al assad himself or if he became a prisoner of his inner circle or as i said earlier, a little bit of both i suspect. but this regime started behaving like saddam hussein's regime in the worst days. there's really no way to go back from there. >> i wish there was some place to go. some old sandals where we could dump these guys and -- >> sandals? >> wouldn't have this many people killed in the end. it seems these guys go down and tens of thousands of people go down with them. >> chemical weapons are the biggest concern. syria has a lot of chemical weapons. and the big concern is syria could use them. it's not like a nuclear weapon. you can use chemical weapons for practical purposes. to punish a particular area. saddam hussein did that. i don't know if he's going to do it.

i hope he doesn't. >> his father did it, he could do it. you're right. thanks for being on top of this. you're one of the best. i think you are the best when it comes to anything foreign. anything outside this country, you're the best. >> you're nicer to me than on the last guest. at least you didn't call me a young kid that doesn't know anything. >> that's not true. chris christie trash talked obama. you're watching "hardball," the place for politics.

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let me finish tonight with this. the word has gone forth. this killer of hecklers, chris christie. he's the voice that mitt romney wants belling forth from tampa the week before labor day. where once it was the great jerry lewis setting the tone for back to work week, now it's the emperor of the boardwalk himself. i think this tells us what romney is up to. outsource the spanking of obama then put a more pleasant fella on the ticket. he wants christie out there doing the dirty work. he wants a nicer guy like pawlenty on the ticket with him hopefully sharing space with him some day. use the big guy from jersey to clear the beach of obama. let tim enjoy the comfort of a good job. this is what see shaping up.

a snarling campaign with the elephants trampling their way around the circus tent. what's the old romney formula? support the enterprise by shipping the dirtier jobs off shore. now, that's what i call equity. that's "hardball" for now. "politicsnation" with al sharpton starts right now. welcome to "politicsnation." i'm al sharpton. tonight's lead, the gop divided over willard mitt romney's tax returns. today rush limbaugh launched a scathing attack on a growing list of republicans calling on governor romney to release his taxes. >> i saw practically the entire republican establishment thinks he should. what an asinine thing to suggest.

i don'think romney ought to release his tax returns. i hope romney is keeping track of who on our side is caving to obama's demands. i hope he understands it's the tea party sticking by him and not the establishment republicans. >> but the whispers in the gop have turned into a deafening chorus. republicans are calling for romney to release his tax returns. "the washington post" says the debate is now causing some divisions inside his campaign. but romney is still shrugging it off. >> i think people in my party just say, look. this is a nonissue. release the returns and they'll go away. my experience is the democratic party has approached taxes in a different way than in the past. their opposition people look for anything they can find to distort, twist, and try to make negative. >>