>> "inside washington" is brought you u in part by the american federation of government employees, proud to make america work. for more information about afge and membership, visit afge.org. >> the president is looking arou for someone to blame, and recently i became the reason for all their problems. >> this week on "inside washington," mitt romney on a defense as the president hones in on bain capital. >> that goes to the rarationale of his candidacy. romn's tax returns, the headachy refuses to treat. >> people are asking where the

jobs they are not asking where i held the tax returns are. >> the bloody uprising in in syria. >> this is rapidly spinning out of control. >> a suicide bomber targets tourists in bulgaria. >> this was part of a global campaign of terror. out by iran and hezbollah. >> extreme heat and drought -- acts of god or the wages of environmentalists in? > - envnvironmental sin? captioned by the national captptioning institute --www.ncicap.org-- >>bain capital outsourcing tax

returns -- mitt romney h been on the defense of the p past few weeks, even thghhe issue on which he has chosen to run, the economy, continues at a slow pace. the campaign has been about romney's storch of bain capit what date he walked away from theompany romney's refusal to release more tax returns, even as some republicans urge him to do so. >> it makes you wonder if some years he paid any taxes at all. we don't know because he is only released one of full year of his tax returns. >> he has no n new ideas, , he has no one k knew to blame, and that is w why we will put him out of office. >> is the president out of toucuch with the country? wh doesn't romney just released a tax returns? charles? > gordon you are killing me. this is the week where obamaa

makes the gaffe of the yeaand you lead with the tax returns? look, i will play along. this is an arm of the dnc, but i will play along. [lauter] john mccain released two years, and john kerry -- john kerry's wife who who as willie sutton would ss where the money is, never released any.. >> nina? >> clinton, 12 years, george h.w. b bush, 14 years. these are people who became to president it makes you wonder, what is in there? >> colby? >> 57% of the american people want him to releashis tax returns. you have republicans who want him to release hisax returns. i was thinking this was a non-

issue until i heard george will say this makes you wonder if he has something to hide. >> roger? >> this is a loser of anan issue for george romney. >> mitt romneney. george is the father. >>itt romney, sorry. democratic surrogates are going around and saying that one man has seen romney's tax returns. it was john mccain, when he was a vetting him for vice president. the first thing mcca did was say, "taiwan sarahalin instead." -- i want sarah palin instead." why not t just do it? why not just tell us what was in the cayman islands, the swiss bank accounts? romney separatesimlf from the massive average american people by doing this. >> first of all, cain said that he look at them and his answswer was not to go for sarah

palin. his answer was, "i look in them there was nothing in them." ther he is lying and you think he i is a dishonorable man,n, or he is not. second, you release these for 10 yearars, you can imagine that each of them is hundreds of pages long and you imagine all the complications. there will be and this stuff in there, we will talk about nothing else for a month. romney is right, he should be talking about the economy. yes, he will be hit on this a people will imply darkly that he is fighting stuff. but the issue will be the economy, obama's big staff this weekek, and other issues. -- bigaffe this weeeek, and other issues. >> are these guys ever going to ta about anything real? for example, the real bate of

what is going on in the country, the subject of charles' column this week? >> obama got off the proper and said that ifif you are successful in busess, you'd think it is your intelligence, a lot of people are smart in the country did you think you are working hard -- well, a loof people are working hard. what is ally important? teachers, roads and bridges, the government invented the internet -- in fact, it didn't. he puts government at the center of american life and success. in a center-righght country, that is not play well. romney should hit him o that until election day. >> other republicans l like rush limbaugh have been beating the drum. if you take that same statement you hear him also say that the

point is that w when weucceed we succeed because of our individual initiativesbut also because we do things together. the free he also said -- that the ee market is the greatest force for economic progress in american history. this haseen stated over and over and president obama. but you want to make him the son of karl marx in the w house? go ahead and do that. >> b you do have two views of the economy. >> one reason the tax thing does play is we have the latest banking scandal the libor scandal. bankers and business increasily distant from the american public. they are the super-rich, super-

crooked. people cannot figure out how to get out of this -- >> obama was not speaking about an interest-rate he was speaking abouout entrepreneur -- was not speaking about bankers. he was speakinabout entrepreneurs and said that if you -- >> gaffes are even less important than tax returns. these are for all pickups -- >> you are wrong abouut that. is a gaffe in the washington definition, when pololitician accidentally says what he believes. this is a philophy of government that obama has, that it is the center of american life -- >> i know we want to be fair. when you go back to the kansas spee that statement was about ddy roosevelt liking the free enterprise sysystem but sayingng

that we also hav to have infrastructure in this country. same thing obama is talking about.

>> arehese guys ever when to talk about anything real in this campaign? how about a debate about the subject of charles' column this week the role of government in our society? how about the medicare crisis? what are they going to say about syria? wouldn't you like to hear these candidates talk about this stuff? what do you think? roger? >> they to talk about it. we td not to hear it. what campaigns a are really about as roger ailes sd when he was not in tv but working for george h.w. bush -- he said campgns are about creating cartoons about t your opponen.

obama is the out of touch incompetent guy who does not know how to run the economy and wants to turn america into european socialism. mitt romney is the out-of-touch rich guy who hides his money and wants car elevators in his house and a dog on his car roof. we tend to concentraten enormous amount of time on the cartoons because t media is set up for that. >> we cannot win the candidates, we have to blame oururselves. >> we have to blameme ourselves to some extent. ii talalked to a democraand republican, and each one thought that the only way they were gog to win was to savage the other guy. if you turn on youtelevision now, it is and disgsgusting. i don't want to see it. the american people don't want to see it, probably, either. but it has worked in the past,

and therefore they think it will wowork now. maybe they are right. it will be a very close election. that is not a way to run a democracy. >> everybody should calm down a little bit. the important things will be detes. that will givus the opportunity t to frame the issues and listen to the candidates. we will get a sharperr contrast and better understandg and they won't be able to speak in sound bites. this will play out through the summer but things will get down to this serious business sometime after september. >> they will be able to speak in sound bites. i've never seen a debate where theyan ask each other questions. >> there will only bebe three debates? >> three presidential, one vice- presidential. >> roger had a good point about

how the candidates c caricature each other. when you don't have the presidency at stake, when you don't have personalities and therefore, curtains -- cartoon -- 2010 was one of the most seriouslection of our time. it was about what obama had done obamacare, the size of governnt expansion. there was all th resistance by conservatives, which resulted in the change in congress. it was bought issues because you did not have the personalities. once you get t the psidential electition, where the ideas have a head and face and history attached to them, it becomes about personalities and then sell to the kind of caricature -- lends itself to the caricaturing -- >> 201010 did have a personality barack obama. republicans ran against barack obama -- >> as a man who had achieved in two years somethinghat was historic -- >> they were making the same arguments against obama and not just on health care, but running

in the economy, that it anare making now. >> why did the disclosure act die in the senate, roger? >> it to die in the senate because the politicians don't want people to knonow where they get their money from. even john mccain, the champion of campaign finance disclosure voted against it.. >> what about -- the unions are protected this tng. >> unions have to disclose, too. >> are you suggesting it comes from union members? just the way aexxon pac comes from exxon. this has been one of the great political flips of all time. it ud to be that republicans argued that theyey did not wantt restrictions on the amount, that you should d disclose and that wa good enough.

now, suddenly, the ball has moved. the supreme court said that you can spend anything you want andd the ball as move completely down the field to an entirely different place. disclosure means that people will be targeted. >> which is exactly what has happened with the donors on the republican side, who have been targeted personally, the families and businesses. people are worried about disclosure because of the bindi did treatment of people as a exercising the free right of association. >> sorry to interrupt -- you are giving money to produce a vindictive attacking ads. that is targeting. millions and millions to produce some of e most vicioious -- >> when you spend $20, you are not writing the script.

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>> of violence is creaeasing rather than decreasing. all of our partners internationally need to come together and support transition. >> a bomb tore through the syrianecurity compound killing three high-raing officials, including assad's brbrother-in-law. russia and china vetoed a resolution that would hav applied military sanctions. looks like a matter of time before assad goes. these people are fighting for their lives. the alawites are a 10% minority and they ruled the sunnis for half a century and they will beme decimat because it has become a sectian war. i guess not like you can get on an airplane and if -- it is not like you can get on an airplane and live in moscow. th will be a long, drawn-out fight the house of assad do

not have a future. as, weeks, hours, it could be months. but i don't see how it can continue its role. it has lost so much of the poulation. it is a little more reason that they are moving chemical weapons, because it tyou never know what they will do in desperatio >> it has gone much moreuickly than any of us thought. it i turning into a sectarian civil war, but substantial parts of the mililary are defecting. they actually know how to fight unlike the street fighters who just pick k up a gun. >> china and russia vetoed the resolution. >> they get. it stops the resolution but it does not stotop the changes taking placee inside syri the larger question of what ppens to the country after they leaves and who is going to

have fluence of there -- that is why athey are working to get rkey involved. >> the question to me is what is e u.s. will going to be in this. -- role going to be in this. it is not like we are just 20 sit ck and watch, because the president feels we have a duty to stop savage murders of so many people. republicans are urging no-fly zones. this would be very costly for the u.s. in terms of u.s. lives. and once again, we have a mideast and problem arab problem, and we're not urging atn arab solution. the countries colby mention have large armies. why are to be e encouraging g them to be part of the solution?

>> a suicide bomber kills tourists in bowl. and a netanyahu said it was agents of hezbollah. >>, he was right. it was 18 years to the day after a hezblah attack destroyed a jewish center in argentina. it wasas not even an israeli facity. it killed over 70 people. it is no aident that it happened on that day. everyone knows it was iran acting. how woulisrael retaliate? my g guess is that itould not be anttack on iran. it would allow iran to dictate the timetable of an attack. the quiet way that israeael when ter the terrorists, you will see people disappearing.g. >> the first time i saw fios it was absolutely amazing. for years and years we had to put up with cable. once we got fios it was like somebody like took our computer and shook all the junk out of it. [ male announcer ] don't settle for

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the obama stimulus money go? windmills from china. electric cars from finland 79% of the 2.1 billion in stimulus grants awarded through it went to overseas companies. [ romney ] i'm mitt romney and i approve this message. >> 61% of the land mass in the united states is being impacted

by this and drought, and our hearts go out to the producers and the farm families who are struggling through something they have no control over. >> that is tom vilsack secretarary of agriculture. 15 states energy to advisories. -- statetes under heat advisory. elizabeth kolbert of "the new yorker says "nothi is being discussed about what to do withh climate change even though the insanity odoing nothing is becoming obvbvious." >> there are 2000 heat records that in broken alrea trade you hear responsible s scientists -- nobody can s that this s has been precisely caused by climate change, but everybody seems to accept that clite change is moving the planet to give e and weatather patterns and a warmer conditions -- different

weather pattern and a warmer conditions. it has since emerged as an issue. >> why is this a political issue, and if ththearth is our only home, why don't we take betttter care of it? >> we have to go to mars, but you gs are not inteterested in nasa. this absolutely ridiculous. we liv on a small patch of the planet and the variations in climate in a small patch are always unpredictable. the ea that because we are hot today, it means the planet is rming -- there is other evidenence -- >> there is other evidence. >> b the recent it is the topic onon this sh is we have a drought. it is ao called on iin northern europe -- >> that is why we are not talking about warming. it is climate change. >> it makes the theory and the great it i -- it makes the

theory and th -- empty. if you want to be consistent, say warmer or colder. "climate change"? >> you know better than this. you are a smart person,ou know better than this. >> colby when wathe last time you heard candidates talk about this issue? >> i think we ought to allow this to o be carried out in e debate. candndidates will talk about it and what it gets down to is the fundamental question -- how this government respond to this question of ideologies kicking in. how does government affect industry. when youou get the depa the picture and you want to

fight the epa. >> politics is parochial, nature is not. >> last word. see you next week. >> "inside washington" is brought you in part by the american federation of government employees, proud to make america work. for more informationon about afge and membership, visit afge.org.