visit pnc.com/wealthsolutions to fd out more. thanks so much for watching this afternoon but don't move, chris matthews is next. tea party wars. let's play "hardball." ♪ good evening. i'm chris matthews in washington. let me start tonight with the strange business on the right. one thing you could say in the old days about this country's right of center politics is that it was tightly organized. there were no huge wars separating the north from the south. the center right from the hard right. well, tonight as we end this week, the chasm today is deep, dark, and alarming. look at karl rove out there barking orders like someone has elected him ring master. look at newt gingrich out there blasting away at rove.

consider the mayhem now afoot. the center right wants to bring discipline to the party. they're tired of losing elections they figured they were going to win. the hard right wants none of this proctoring. they want to run free wherever they want for whatever office they want. you have the gop big shots running the little people around and the little people in the party fracking the big shots. it's quite a show. joy reid is managing editor of the grio and david corn is washington bureau chief for mother joans. both are msnbc political analysts. and glad for that. let's talk a like at michael, a pretty smart guy used to write speeches for "w." the self-diagnosis is going on. we'll see what's going on. he wrote today, quote, the republican nominee mitt romney lost by 5 million votes to a beatable incumbent presiding over an anemic economy. the explanation is not purely technical or personalality oriented at the national level. republicans have a winning message for a nation that no

longer exists. you got to start with this, joy. it's a well-crafted sentence. they have a winning message for a nation that no longer exists. in all fairness, they didn't know it existed until the day after the election, sometime around 9:00 at night when we all saw virginia looking close. what he, goes og on? it looks like a new country is voting here. they're still playing to the old country. >> it's like they didn't get the message in 2008. a lot of people on the right thought 2008 was basically a fluke, but what they have missed is the mi nofert -- >> didn't you worry it was? >> actually, no, i thought barack obama was going to win to be honest with you. i didn't. because the thing is if you look at the trajectory of the minority share of the electorate, it's been growing by a pretty consistent 2% every four years. so if you look at the electorate when bill clinton got elected versus when ronald reagan got elected, the electorate has been changing for a very long time but the right didn't notice because they have been able to use these tricks to gin up their base and maximize their vote and they have always used the far

right to do it. they get them excited over cultural issues -- >> what went wrong this time? for every african-american vote or latino vote you were going to lose a more conservative white person from say the southwest, but that doesn't exactly happen. the white vote sort of been up a bit for obama and then the african-american and the other minority votes zoomed. >> and part of the problem is number one they have lost the cities. they're losing including the urban white vote, losing more educated white voters among with minority vote% and losing young voters. part of the problem is them. the messaging they use to gin up their base turns off obviously younger people, it turns off women, turns off minorities and this time they really got minute norths excited about voting. there was already loyalty to barack obama among african-americans but when you started doing voter i.d. and things to prevent people from voting that made that vote determined to come out as if it was 2008. >> this is the problem they have. the leadership, the michael gersons of the world, god bless

them as joe biden would say, are alienated from the people who support the party, the people who vote for the party. we talked about this earlier this week. >> the angry guy out in arizona. >> with john mccain, the town hall meetings. there's a reason why a lot of more centrist or less yahoo republicans did not run for president last time. there was all the crazies and mitt romney and if you saw the people turning out, as we keep playing those clips from the republican debates, the audience was one that they don't care what michael gerson says about republicans need new poverty programs or new ways to structure the government to make it -- >> environmental programs. >> environmental. they don't care. a lot of this for them is cultural. they want to go back to whatever they think the good old days were. they don't like the influx and rising -- >> you give advice to a guy like john mccain and you say, yeah, you have to become a little more today a little more open to the hispanic population in your own state, but the minute he does this happens.

here he is at this town meeting. this is what happens when the republican party follows the vice of the thoughtful people like michael gerson. he's a former maverick taking on the current mavericks. let's watch. >> why didn't the army go down there and stop them? because the only thing that stops them, i'm afraid to say and it's too damn bad, but is a gun. that's all that will stop them. >> i remember when you were in bed with kennedy -- >> in bed with kennedy? thank you. >> most of the people that come across the border are illiterate, they don't speak english and they're dependent class. we have a large group of dependent people that are going -- you want to make citizens that are going to be on medicare, they're going to be on welfare, they're going to be on food stamps. >> again -- >> and you know it. what's going to happen -- >> again, sir, you're not telling these people the truth. >> you said build the dang fence. where is the fence? >> in case you missed it, i showed you -- >> that's not a fence.

>> that's not a fence? it's a banana. we put up a banana with $600 million worth of appropriations we have. sir, you're entitled to your opinion, you're not entitled to your facts. >> well, there he is, joy, and david using words like bananas, an old joke. i don't think irony work was this crowd. number two, quoting the great pat moynihan of new york, you can tout your own opinion, not your facts. it doesn't work. they have a gut attitude that we're being overrun by illegal immigrants that are changing the culture of the south, they don't like it and they don't want to hear this quibbling about we're going to let them say here and all this. they really seem to think -- i wish there was somebody out there to talk like i talk. we've got an illegal immigrant problem. you want to deal with it, put it on paper and make it official. you want to come in this country, you got to go through the reasonable channels. you want to work here, go through reasonable channels. we'll give you a document and you'll get social security.

but you have to have a work permit. they know that offends business so they talk about building walls and electrifying fences 20 feet high and you shall be killed if you touch this wire. the crazy kind of fascist talk they get into because they can't deal in reality. you may not be as conservative as i but i think there's a middle of the road position, joy, on immigration which is what every other country, including mexico, does. you can't come in the country without permission. that's the way countries are. it's the world we live in but they don't seem to want to approach it that way. >> i love the clip you played. if you listen to that crowd and the audience, that's savage nation. that's limbaugh, beck. this is 30-something years of these guys being fed by the entertainment complex on the rights. >> you think so? >> i get -- >> do you think they were educated to those opinions? >> i think it plays into already a feeling of sort of victimhood that the country is somehow being stolen out from under them. >> that's rush. >> that's been stoked by rush, stoked by these guys on talk radio saying these people are taking your country whether it's black people or brown people. i get e-mails from these people.

>> when your driving around and you're listening to rush and you hear him talk about femmei nazis and minorities like they're all stomping on the white man's grave and that nonsense. what is your reaction? do you think they're crazy, showmen, manipulators or do they really believe it? >> i think they're using these people because that's the way they make money. they stoke these people's sense of victimhood. they feel their economic situation is worse than their parents'. they need somebody to blame and you have rush and beck and saarage saying do you know whose fault it is, it's those people getting in your schools. i get e-mails from these people saying, well all of you people, all you minorities are on welfare and then the thing is you played this piece of it, chris, real quick, where the guy threw back in john mccain's face the build the dang fence because he did it, too. when he needed to get re-elected, he was willing to play that game and now it's coming back to bite him. >> you're a sweetheart but why do you read these e-mails? >> i can't resist. >> you're such a nice person and you actually think you owe these

crazy people that attack you racially -- you don't respond to them, do you? >> no, i don't respond to them but sometimes you have to though what these people are thinking. they authentically think they're making an argument to me about why i'm wrong about policy by saying all minorities are on welfare. they have been fed this for some 30 years. this is their excuse for everything wrong in their lives. >> it goes back to nixon's southern strategy that are friend pat buchanan tried to put in place. for eight years, 12 years now, these are karl rove's people. >> but the difference between pat -- let me defend pat. he's not here. the difference between pat and limbaugh, he's not selling it. he believes it. he believes everything he says. >> but the thing is -- >> whether you like it or not. >> i don't care whether glenn beck or rush limbaugh believe what they say or not. it's an interesting academic -- >> i do. >> it's an interesting academic discussion. the outcome is the same. and you get these people riled up and now karl rove wants to try to put this angry jeanne back into the bottle and they're saying no -- >> you don't focus on integrity? i do.

i know you do. it wasn't just john mccain who was the target. newt gingrich went after the architect himself karl rove in his efforts to recruit and back electable republicans as he put it. gingrich wrote this this week. this is gingrich by the way of all people saying i am unalterably opposed to a bunch of billionaires financing a boss to pick candidates in 50 states. this is the opposite of the republican tradition of freedom and grassroots small town conservatism. no one person is smart enough nor do they have the moral right to buy nominations -- this is adelson's best friend here. -- the system of tammany hall and the chicago machine. it should be repugnant to every conservative and every republican. this man is a walking etch-a-sketch. newt can't remember who newt was yesterday. wasn't he the guy with the bank roller from macao pouring in the millions of dollars to him so he could win the nomination? >> the only reason he stayed in the republican proo marry as long as he did was because of a billionaire trying to pull a tammany hall with him. it's absolutely absurd. without irony he changes

positions on this stuff because that's why he's newt gingrich i guess. >> let's talk about what we want to focus on tonight. >> it's passover. >> it's almost like the first time i have seen turmoil on the right where you have a lot of almost literally kind of finger pointing where karl rove is being attacked by newt gingrich and they're all attacking. sort of the establishment crowd, the people that like to win every year and the people that don't care if they win as long as they make a lot of noise. they're fighting with each other. john bain ser almost irrelevant to this. >> in the '90s we had house republicans turn on newt gingrich. there was almost a coup there. >> they kicked him out. he forgot that. >> they're a party on the outs and they have this tremendous division within the party ideologically, culturally and they can't all get together and say, okay, let's get marco rubio out there on immigration and it will solve our problems because you got the guys in arizona. they can't get out there and say, okay, let's do something

reasonable on sequester because you have ted cruz and the tea party people saying we want to shut government down. rand paul wants to cut government by 20%, 30%. >> you know what i saw last year at the convention down in tampa? i think we saw like the rock on top of the bug life. it covered it up. it was a boring convention. the democratic convention was really thrilling actually. but the republican convention was deadbeat and soggy and hot -- >> it was about papering off all this stuff. >> they papered over with romney who was some ringer they wanted to run. they didn't love him, they didn't know him, they didn't care. they just wanted to hold it together and beat the guy they could beat. had they not beaten the guy that's easy to beat, they just fight with each other. >> people like karl rove have been telling the bug life in the party for decades, listen, vent we're going to implement your beliefs, vote for us one more time. we'll outlaw abortion, deport all these illegal aliens, do all these things and they never follow through. george w. bush was a tremendous disappointment in that regard.

he didn't implement any of this stuff. and i think that the base is fed up. they want their policies implemented. they're sick of being in the background and they're not going to shove them back in a closet as much as they probably want to at this point. >> it's great having you on joy. thank you, david corn. congratulations on hubris monday night. coming up look who is becoming the face for gun safety. he wants to teach jill how to use a shotgun. it's almost that funny. serious business here. to fight guns, you have to be for guns. he's laying the groundwork perhaps for 2016. he's the regular guy with a shotgun. republican governors are quietly buying into the obama care plan to increase medicaid coverage. many have loudly opposed the plan in the past, especially florida's rick scott. well, he's on board tonight and tonight the man scott replaced and who might replace him, charlie crist is come on. what are you doing sunday night in probably watching the

oscars. this year's movie are filled with political overtones and who better to tee up the big night than the iconic host of inside the actor's studio james lipton? he's coming here. finally, it's a right wingers dream. u.s. congressman louis gohmert has figured out a way for americans to keep their guns and prevent the establishment of an islamic caliphate in the old u.s. of a. he's got it all figured. a unitaryian theory for all problems. this is "hardball," the place for politics. ♪ i'd like to thank eating right, whole grain, multigrain cheerios! mom, are those my jeans? [ female announcer ] people who choose more whole grain tend to weigh less than those who don't. multigrain cheerios wingers dream. for politics. this is for real this time. step seven point two one two. wingers dream. for politics. command is locked. five seconds. three, two, one.

standing by for capture. the most innovative software on the planet... dragon is captured. is connecting today's leading companies to places beyond it. siemens. answers. chuck hagel, president obama's pick fok defense secretary, looks like e got the vote he needs for confirmation. it's been a long haul. it's been a week since the republican filibuster slowed his march to confirmation, but senator richard shelby of alabama is now the third republican expected to vote in hagel's favor. that's coming up to 60 now and that means there are 60 votes to beat back any attempt at filibuster. meanwhile, 15 other republican senators are asking the white house -- aren't they sweet -- to

withdraw hagel's nomination, a last ditch effort or attempt to show they don't have the votes to stop them. what is wrong with these people? we'll be right back. ly things. but there are some things i've never seen before. this ge jet engine can understand 5,000 data samples per second. which is good for business. because planes use less fuel, spend less time on the ground and more time in the air. suddenly, faraway places don't seem so...far away. ♪ pull out the paper and what? another article that says investors could lose tens of thousands of dollars in hidden fees on their 401(k)s?! seriously? seriously. you don't believe it? search it. "401(k) hidden fees." then go to e-trade and roll over your old 401(k)s to a new e-trade retirement account. we have every type of retirement account. none of them charge annual fees and all of them offer low cost investments. why? because we're not your typical wall street firm

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if you want to protect yourself, get a double-barrel shotgun, have the shells of a 12 gauge shot gun, and i promise you as i told my wife, we live in an area that's wooded and it's somewhat secluded, i said, jill, if there's ever a problem, just walk out on the balcony and walk out, put that double-barrel shotgun and fire two blasts outside the house. i promise you whoever is coming in is not -- you don't need an ar-15. it's harder to aim. it's harder to use, and, in fact, you don't need 30 rounds to protect yourself. g buy a shotgun. buy a shotgun. >> welcome back to "hardball." buy a shotgun. buy a shotgun 37 that was vice president biden's feed for gun

control this week in an online town hall and that response came to a question whether an assault weapons ban would prevent citizens from defend themselves. yesterday he was in connecticut making an emotional push for stricter gun laws. >> if the shooter in tucson had a ten-round magazine instead of a 30-round magazine, little granddaughter of a friend of mine from wilmington, delaware, who used to manage the philadelphia phillies, she'd be alive today because when changing his magazine, a woman leaned over in the crowd and knocked his arm and that's how they subdued him. it makes the difference. wouldn't have saved everybody, wouldn't have saved everybody, but the last two people shot would be alive. >> let's go to steve mcmahon. what role is he playing for the president by being such a shotgun willy here?

he's talking about get yourself a shotgun. he said it twice. i'm going to teach my wife to use it. get up on the cal bonny in our leafy neighborhood, let off a couple shots. this is what he's saying, not just have a gun but let off a couple shots in the direction or somewhere around the guy you think is trying to get in your house. it's pretty weird -- this isn't liberal talk. this isn't big city we're against guns talk at all. >> well, it's not, and it's -- >> what is it? >> it's talk like this -- it's regular joe talking to joe six pack about common sense gun control laws, and he's doing it because it's the middle, if you will, the people who could go either way on this who respect the first amendment -- sorry, the second amendment, who are hunters who may own guns. it's the obama administration and joe biden through joe biden sending a message we get the importance of second amendment. we understand the value of owning a gun. we understand what it can do for people who want to protect their families. but there are limits to what you need to protect your family and a shotgun is enough. i mean, i think this notion

that, you know, if you fire two shots at somebody coming at you with a shotgun and you hit him in the chest, they're not going to come at you anymore. you don't need an assault weapon to hit them and you don't need an assault weapon to protect your family or to hunt. >> well, yeah, but doesn't that sound like odd -- if you look at the democratic platform even most recently it's all about gun safety, gun control. here is a guy saying go buy a gun. let me ask you, don't give me the political correct answer. what are they up to? is this to move beyond the cities, beyond the suburbs even to try to make sure the democrats have somebody -- >> yes. >> -- that can talk to the rural guy? >> chris, i think it's that. it's moving beyond the cities and even beyond the suburbs and into more rural america, but that's where the votes are to make the difference on something like a magazine clip limit because everybody in the big cities already supports whatever gun control democrats bring

forward and it's in rural america and in the suburbs where they resist it. so joe biden is out there basically saying buy a gun, own a gun, protect your family, respect the second amendment, but you don't need a clip, you don't need an assault weapon. and so it's a smart play. >> okay. let's be totally political about this. suppose we don't get gun control. where does that leave biden? where does that leave the president? say this year is a good year to get it if we're ever going to get it. if we don't even get the magazine limit because it doesn't clear the senate and therefore doesn't have to come up in the house, it doesn't happen. politically where does that leave the president and then secondly where does that leave the vice president going towards 2016? >> well, i think the president is in a good position because he tried and i think the vice president is in a good position because he's out there making the case. and you have to wonder as you look at 20916 and what the field looks like, let's assume for a second hillary doesn't run. you have two governors who are moving andrew cuomo and martin

o'malley of maryland, both very progressive, and i think joe biden is trying to check them on gun control, but demonstrate to democratic primary voters for 2016 and we know he's going to run because he's already indicated he wants to run, that he's somebody who can go into pennsylvania, who can go into ohio, who can go into some of these communities where democrats, northeastern liberal democrats, have a tough time winning a general election. he can speak to those people, he can get their votes, he can earn their trust, and democrats can win in 2016 with joe biden. i think it's a really, really smart play for the administration all the way around. and by the way, you know, the other thing here is from the president's perspective, you put biden out there and if it doesn't go well and he doesn't get everything he wants, then the president snd quite as personally and politically invested as he might otherwise be because he's got a lot of different things he's got to do, a lot of balls in the air. this is really important to the administration but it's something that biden can do very effectively for the pres and it can do everyone at the administration a world of good. >> steve, you know the democrat

politics man to man, person to person. you talk to people. do you think there's any way a successful effort by joe biden on this or any other issue would forestall even an inch or two secretary clinton's decision whether to run or not. would this in any way chill her wanting to run because everybody thinks he's pull out if she goes in. >> i don't think it will -- i think hillary clinton gets to make a decision and then the field gets to react to that decision. i think what it does do though, chris, and let's assume for a second if she runs, she's the prohibitive front-runner. vice president biden may still run but it's a different race. if she does not run, that's where this kind of activity does the vice president so much good because what he's trying to do is he's trying to make all the oxygen out of the room. he's trying to basically suffocate those who might run against him, which includes those two governors that i mentioned and also probably some other members of the senate who are looking at it. what joe biden does not want is a multicandidate field in 2016. he wants to have a clear shot, get the nomination, probably put

a great big super pac together, of course, completely within the rules, and get started on the general election as soon as possible. what he doesn't want is to go through what mitt romney went through this last year and come through a long primary process weakened, drained, and financially hurting. >> you have taught me a lot in a couple minutes. if he even gets in the running and gets the nomination, i think it's because well secretary clinton decides not to run but also he did a hell of a job shaking up the campaign last fall. that campaign was not in good shape after the president had that problem in the first debate and then biden came in there very unevenly and a little crassly knocked the hell out of paul ryan. i think people really needed that and i think it made 4i78 look pretty damn good. thank you, steve mcmahon. great to have you. where are you at? you look nice down there. you don't have to answer. you don't have to tell me. >> it's warm. >> it looks like it. we've heard a lot of crazy things over the years from texas congressman louis gohmert, but his latest takes it a whole new

level. wait until you hear this guy. this guy is something. he's funny he's so crazy and this is "hardball," the place for politics. [ ship horn blows ] no, no, no! stop! humans. one day we're coming up with the theory of relativity, the next... not so much. but that's okay -- you're covered with great ideas like optional better car replacement from liberty mutual insurance. total your car and we give you the money to buy one a model year newer. learn about it at libertymutual.com. liberty mutual insurance. responsibility. what's your policy? more "likes." more tweets. so, beginning today, my son brock and his whole team will be our new senior social media strategists. any questions? since we make radiator valves wouldn't it be better if we just let fedex help us to expand to new markets? hmm gotta admit that's better than a few "likes."

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back to "hardball." now to the "sideshow." earlier this week we found out why some republicans were asking whether chuck hagel had ties to a secretive group called friends of hamas. what started as a sarcastic joke by a daily news reporter snowballed into a serious feature on a right wing website and caught on from there. here is steve colbert. >> friends of hamas is even worse than it sounds because this organization is so sinister that it doesn't even exist. the fact that these organizations don't exist only make it is more suspicious that chalk hagel has been tied to them. what else is he hiding that

hasn't happened? is he a member of the al qaeda kids club? what about the muslim brotherhood or the muslim sisterhood of the traveling pants? what are his ties to the dead poet's society and why are they dead? did they know too much about benghazi? president obama, you must withdraw hagel's nomination or you will lose the support of every moderate republican, another group that doesn't exist. >> after all that brouhaha it looks like hagel now has enough votes in the senate to actually get confirmed next week. next we welcome back texas republican louis gohmert. the congressman is yet again sounding the conspiracy alarm bell. so take a guess, is it about the government coming to take your guns away or another warning that sharia law is taking over right here in the u.s. of a? no need to pick. here is gohmert on the second amendment and sharia. >> it is for our protection and the funders' quotes make that

very, very clear and including against a government that would run amuck, you know. we've got some people that think sharia law ought to be the law of the land, forget the constitution. but the guns are there, that second amendment is there to mick sure all of the rest of the amendments are followed. >> okay. let's parse that. who have you ever heard of on any medium or in person thinks sharia law ought to be the law of the land. what is he talking about? nobody. secondly, is it really true that the second amendment, the right to bear arms, ensures our freedom of speech and religion and all the rest? i don't think so. i think the american people ensure those rights. anyway. neck, full fication with a twist. a montana gun lobbyist is proposing a new sheriff's first bill which would allow county sheriffs to pick and choose which federal laws they wanted to enforce in their state. if a federal agent arrests someone without stopping in at the sheriff's office first, that agent would be arrested and charged with kidnapping the

person they arrested. as gary mar bid told mother jones, the alcohol and tobacco federation might say that we have probable cause to believe that we have this person in the our county who is making firearms who ut a license and the sheriff might say, well, gosh, under the montana firearms freedom act, that's protected activity in montana, so you don't have my permission for this bust. well, this nullification type proposal was cleared by a vote by the state's republican-led house judiciary committee just this week. finally, who do you think really has got the short end of the stick when it comes to the looming spending cuts that are set to hit on march 1st? well, consider the guy who is coordinating 800,000 defense department layoffs that will happen as a rest. and that would be pentagon comptroller robert hale taking it in strit he told "the washington post." look when i walk doul the hall, people still wave but with fewer fingers. isn't he nice. up next, republican

governors are reversing course and em braying the barack obama maek plan. the latest to do was one of obama care's latest critics, that sweetheart down in florida, governor rick scott who know likes. and the man scott replaced as governor joins us here, charlie chris crist. you've watching "hardball" the place for politics. a hybrid? most are just no fun to drive. now, here's one that will make you feel alive. meet the five-passenger ford c-max hybrid. c-max says ha.

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i'm jane wells with your cnbc market wrap. the dow gains 120 points reclaiming 14,000. the s&p adds 13 and the nasdaq rises 30. hewlett-packard was a winner today. its earnings and revenues beat estimates sending shares up 12%. texas instruments shares rallied after it raised its dividend and boosted its share buy-back program. but abercrombie & fitch shares

moved in the opposite direction. they fell short and guidance disappointed and now all those models will be pouting. that's it from cnbc, first in business worldwide. now back to "hardball." ♪ while the federal government is committed to paying 100% of the cost, i cannot in good conscience deny floridians that need access to health care. we will support a three-year expansion of our medicaid program under the new health care law. even though i believe that the right approach is different than the president's approach, we have a supreme court decision, and we have an election that says this is the law of the land. >> welcome back to "hardball." this is search a new tune for florida governor rick scott to be whistling. he was the leader of the republican pac of governors who

vowed to reject impleamenttation of the president's health care plan at all costs. here is governor rick scott less than a year ago following the supreme court decision that said health care reform was constitutional. >> this is going to be devastating for parts, devastating for taxpayers, it's going to be the biggest job killer ever. we're not going to implement obama care in florida. we're not going to expand medicaid because we're going to do the right thing. we're not going to do the exchange because what this does is raise the cost of health care for all floridians. it just doesn't work. >> also during governor scott's tenure he pushed to disenfranchise some of his state's voters by limiting early voti voting. before he was governor, the business he founded was involved in a medicaid fraud for which is paid a settlement. scott was not personally accused of wrongdoing but the company's board removed him as ceo. it was all with this in mind we

look at governor scott's current change of heart on president obama's affordable care act. charlie crist is the former governor of florida who left the republican party and joined the democrats. he's also frequently mentioned as a candidate for florida governor next time. and jonathan alter is a columnist for bloomberg view and an msnbc analyst. governor, thanks so much for joining us. you're a favorite of this show, as you know. and i want to ask you, explain the 180 here. this guy was one of those -- was it just campaign talk last summer? >> well, it must have been. i mean, i don't know how else you can analyze it, chris. it's obvious he has a re-election he's coming up on next year. you have this dramatic change of heart that is a metamore if sis the likes of which is hard to compare. the only rationale i can apply to it is it's a re-election and it will benefit a million floridians and i'm glad it's happening for that reason, frankly, but it's just a stunning reversal which is pretty amazing to watch and witness. >> you know, i can't help

remember as you and i probably agree on this the wonderful echoes of politics and the ironies thereof. there you were accused by your opponent in that senate race of accepting federal money out of the stimulus package as if this was a stupid thing to do when in fact it was a sound decision later ratified by governor christie of new jersey who said of course you take federal help when you're getting it. right? it seems to me -- >> it was the right thing to do. >> yeah. and now this guy is saying -- >> exactly. >> -- do it, do it. >> well, the way i looked at it back then and the way we should look at these medicaid dollars is in the same light. a lot of floridians' money went to washington, d.c. it's going to end up going somewhere. why not accept it, take it back to benefit your fellow floridians. that was my philosophy on the stimulus money back in 2009 in supporting the president. that's what my philosophy would be about the medicaid money and making sure you help, you know, those lesser income floridians who need this nornd to get health care. for them and their families.

>> john, it's hard not to argue with the analysis that we just got from the governor. i certainly prompted it to some extent because i believe it. election time bs went on last summer. i'm not going to take any obama care. i'm going to do slow burning nullification. i'm not going to let this guy become legitimized by history and now what do you know, common sense, this obama care is going to be popular i guess with the governors. >> well, and they're paying 100% of the medicaid expansion. i mean, it is just cruel to the people in your state if you're nicki healey in south carolina or rick perry in texas who are still saying they don't want to take this money. they're not only screwing poor people, they're screwing what's called the sandwich generation. you know, the people who have kids living at home and also elderly parents because what's happening is so much of medicaid money is used for the elderly, not just for the poor, that a lot of those elderly will now move in with their children into

rec room, the den, wherever they might be able to live because these medicaid funds are being cut in these states where governors idiotically don't want to take the money. >> florida governor rick scott joins republican governors from six other states who are vocal opponents of the president's health care plan and are now getting on board. people like arizona's governor jan brewer and michigan governor rick schneider among others. governor crist, it looks like the flow is in the direction of cooperation with the president. >> well, and that's a positive sign. i mean, you know, obviously the president got re-elected. he got re-elected handily. i think that should send a message to people all across the country and clearly here in florida, he took florida, too, and that was in doubt for quite some time as you know, but he did take florida. he did well in the sunshine state, and i think the message is very clear that, you know, the people want common sense. they want those in washington to work together. they also want them to coordinate with governors around the country to do what's right for the people at large.

not necessarily what somebody may think is hard right or hard left but what's right for most of the people, what is common sense, and what the people deserve from their elected leaders. >> let's do some math here florida governor rick scott, i'm no fan of that guy-his approval numbers are in the tank. i guess a lot of people in florida agree with me. 33% of floridians approve of the job he's doing. that's rick scott. 57% disapprove. that's a high number of disapproval according to this automated ppp poll in january. here is a good one, governor crist in a hypothetical marvup, you win handily. it's an early number obviously. what do you make of that number, 53% to 39%, you being 53%, governor. rick scott against you. >> well, you know, it's nice to see, but you're right, it's awfully early for something like that. i mean, youknow, we're just under two years away from the election itself, and so a lot of things can happen. >> it's hardly discouraging. >> but i think it clearly indicates -- no, you're right, it's no the discouraging. well, not for me. but at any rate, it's the kind

of thing that, you know, you look at those numbers and you see what's happening, and obviously there's been a shift in the feelings of people across the country. i have seen the republican party, at least the leadership of the party i should say, kind of go off the deep end. i mean, they see it in washington. they saw it here initially with the election of 2010, and after a while they're like scratching their heads, is this really the kind of governance that we want? don't we want more common sense, more mainstream? ned of, you know, sort of an intolerant party that doesn't really care about people who need some help once in a while, and have a compassionate heart about them. and i think they've come around to the view that they don't like that hardline stuff. >> you ought to read michael gerson today. he talks like you. the former speechwriter for george w. he talks like you. jonathan last thought from you about this change of heart from chief executives in states who are not dealing with talk or rhetoric but reality. they're coming aboard for obama care. >> big picture was it was an

attempt to wrench the country to the right and the center held. so people are now saying, no, we are at centrist nation, and these ideologues who hate obama and want to twist their state's policies to do anything to get the president, they're really out of fashion now and we're returning to some common sense, which is very, very good news. >> and you're quoting yates. thank you very much. charlie crist, thank you. and jonathan alter, thanks both, gentlemen. it's oscar time even here. the academy awards are sunday night. we have the great james lipton to preview the big night. he's coming here, and this is "hardball," the place for politics. bjorn earns unlimited rewards for his small business. take these bags to room 12 please. [ garth ] bjorn's small business earns double miles on every purchase every day. produce delivery. [ bjorn ] just put it on my spark card. [ garth ] why settle for less? ahh, oh! [ garth ] great businesses deserve unlimited rewards. here's your wake up call. [ male announcer ] get the spark business card from capital one and earn unlimited rewards. choose double miles or 2% cash back

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our commitment has never been stronger. it's oscar time as you can see with mee. james lipton comes to "hardball" with his picks for the big night and that's coming up next. politics. ♪ politics. politics.

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i'm rooting for the underdog, silver lining playbooks and "zero dark thirty" and "les mis." usually in best actor and actress category we usually know who will win but this year we're looking at a couple nail biters. joining us is the legendary james lipton, writer, executive legendary, writer inside the actor studio on bravo. bradley cooper, one of your student, he has come out all right, huh? >> he has come out brilliantly. we are very proud. he is a graduate of the drama school at the university and i'm proud to say i was his dean. >> did you, as a dean, see him coming to be one of the serious contenders for actors. >> his parents haunted us when he was getting his master's degree and i was approached by him one day after he had done one of his projects. this is when he was in his first

or second year, and i said, he is going all away. they have attested to that since then. so i'm not making it up. >> he was spectacular in wedding crashers. a guy that everybody hated. remember the football game? >> of course. but people often achieve glory by playing terrible. they are actors. >> yes. i know. this is what he said about auditioning. keep going. in front of you, the first time. let's take a listen. >> remember when you said, are you prepared to spent the next three years of your life dedicated to this program. and i said, yes. that is it, that all he said. then until i found out that i got in, we deconstructed that sentence. >> want know what it meant? >> yes. >> i never said it unless the

person was that good. >> oh, god. let me ask you about tonight. seems to me, my heart is with "silver linings." is an upset possible or is this possibly going to "argo" or "lincoln"? >> my heart of course is with bradley cooper. it goes without saying. why wouldn't it be? i also had hugh jackman on my show and i think hugh is one of the most versatile actors we have ever seen on the screen and he also is very deserving. do i think it'll go to "argo" or "lincoln"? i think "lincoln" will squeak past "argo," to be honest. >> actresses are now called actors, female actors. i've never seen a person of her generation as good as jennifer lawrence ever. for the first time i saw her, i said, this is something so unique. either she is that person or she is the greatest actor i've seen in her age. >> she is remarkable. 22 years old. >> anything you want to know, i'll just say it -- >> she plays somebody who is bipolar and yet loveable and yet

driven to succeed, all together. and it's just an amazing combination. and wise guy, too. you know, when she says crazy to him out in the street, that's the girl you want it hang with. she reminds me of my cousin, to be honest with you, the south jersey thing. >> when you watch the academy award, you said this evening gets pretty long. they are doing sound, editing. is anybody paying attention to that stuff? who cares except the people actually running for those, wins. >> you mean the people there watching? >> yeah, with editing and sound. >> i've had 15 nominations, that means 15 times i have sat there and lost graciously. it it is the longest evening of one's life. whether one loses or wins, it goes on and on and on. but it is worth it. >> let me ask you about 9 big and little pf. i've been thinking about the movie, or "rocky" done pretty cheaply and these movies "million dollar baby" or "slum

dog." these pictures about little people. i used to think about the more people employed, sound like ed schultz, the more people employed the more they want it root for them or vote for them because that means more jobs. but sometimes hollywood has heart and they root for the little picture. what is the pattern? >> i don't know if there is a pattern. bradley cooper told me how long they shot on "silver lining play book." do you know how long? >> no. >> 32 days. that's a television shoot. and they shot is in 32 days. they got together, did it and did it remarkably well. >> david russell. >> of course it is. of course it is. >> he might get director. here is another thing. how can "argo" win if the director, ben affleck gets snubbed. not even on the list. how can it get best picture. >> it happens very seldom. it is an anomaly when it does. i don't think david russell will win. and i don't think his picture will win. but it is not impossible. it has happened in the past. >> why do they snub affleck?

is it jealousy? >> i don't know. i can't read their minds. but i do know he was snubbed. he wasn't the only one snubbed. if you look at the directors -- >> if they don't put him on top five for director, you have to wonder what is going on. his picture could win easily. >> how about bigelo or hooper or les mis. the people ignored were, all by themselves, make a perfect list any other year. >> okay. i saw this movie, amore. it all takes place in a a pretty upscale appreciatian apartment. >> yeah pz about two people approaching death. one close to it, obviously. part of the story. who has dementia, and the husband trying to take care of her. you wouldn't think of that as a hollywood type movie but it is a great world movie. what do you think of this, the fact that it is in the running? >> it is in two categories, which is well indeed. it will run for foreign film. >> i agree. thank you. an honor to have you on as

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let me finish tonight with this. this sunday is the occasion for my other interest in life, the first is politics and how this country should be run and what it should be in the world, actually. my other interest is movies. i try to see the good one answers root for them on academy award night. i will be doing it this sunday. i think the thing about the academy awards is