take a look at my new christmas present, from none other than susan del percio. in here? it's a "get money out" jersey. can you get a reverse shot. see that? hang on, that's lately cockeyed, but you can get the point. now a reverse shot. see that? this is one of those things, now they know we're serious. see, before, when we just had a petition, a few hundred thousand people, largest nonprofit, single issue nonprofit in the world on this issue, which jimmy is involved, 13 amendments. they don't know we're -- with a ratigan jersey, now they know we've come to play. and speaking of coming to play, there's a lot to play for. it's not just about bought elections for a moment. today's specialist is here to talk about how special interest cash has increased our national debt seven-fold since the '80s. dan glickman is a visiting scholar at the bipartisan policy center. and dan, susan del percio purchased this as a gift for me, as a holiday gift, and i'm thinking that we could sell these jerseys to help pay off the debt. do you think that that -- would that be a valuable

susan del percio, for once, you won't be the only one to the right of jimmy. e've got a little backup today with tim carney with the washingt"washington examiner." as usual, jimmy williams. susan, let me start with you, you've got the home court advantage here in new york. what do you make of this? it's been a topsy-turvy race, romney looks like he's the a strong position, but santorum looks like he's coming out of nowhere. >> well, every candidate that looks like they're coming out of nowhere, day fall off overnight. i don't think you'll see that with rick santorum. he has a grand operation, but he's starting to get some hits. radioç ads came out today. plus, when you start looking at such a fluid number of people surging, it means there's a lot of undecided. but romney's people are staying strong with him. so probably, given that and the fact that you can register same day and change your party affiliation and vote will all be good news for romney. >> jimmy, what do you make of all the -- it sort of just going back and forth and back and forth. what are you

as we dive into this, let's bring in our mega panel, msnbc political analyst, karen finney, susan del percio, and traveling professor of government, my goodness, what a title, at wesleyan university, mike williams. if you're wondering where jimmy, you have to know that this chair simply has to be occupied by a man whose last name is williams. thank you for laughing, karen. the interesting dynamic here, and we were talking about -- susan, we were talking about this with the book and the swaps market, the swaps segment with "greedy bastard$!." there's one reason why i'm almost inclined to believe jon corzine, and it's this. because the credit default swap market is run in secret without anybody knowing -- no bank ceo knows what our exposures are. the central banks can't tell you what our exposures are. the federal reserve can't tell you what our exposures are. jamie dimon at jpmorgan can't tell you. jeff immelt can't tell you. i don't know that that's an explanation for why jon corzine doesn't know where his client money is, but all of this is incredibly instructive as to how what we thought w

i want to bring in our monday megapanel, susan del percio, karen finney, and jimmy williams.ghts on the kangaroo court arriving? >> there's a part about d.c., and when you talk about extraction, what goes on in the capitol behind me, in terms of the money between "k" street and the capitol and the money that is extracted from the district of columbia and the lack of services and budget that we have here in d.c. is obscene. part of this movement was also to say, you can't just put all that money in there and not be responsible for what goes on in this city, with the kids in this city creating jobs in this city. >> is it the right metaphor, jimmy, to look at washington as the courthouse? it's as if the occupation in new york, they're at the guillotine and protesti ining the executio. but the fact of the matter is, you have to go to the courthouse if you want to alter the ways that the rules are being made. and that courthouse in this country is washington, d.c.. >> you know how when you go to the bank and go to the drive-in teller and go up and put your check in the little thin

. >> susan del percio, i'm not sure your liberal, but a democrat. the point is, it's got to be post-partisan. look at congress right now -- >> but hang on a second. it is post partisan -- >> but it's not. >> it is for the american people. just because our politicians want to slice everything into a reason to fight with each like a bunch of yeehaws doesn't mean that the rest of us have to actually -- we don't have to -- believe me, everyone i talk to says that's right. it's just that it's a function of a shattered media and a shattered political apparatus that makes money like a blender chopping up our souls for money. anyway, go ahead. >> what happens if you get all of these things done. here's the bigger problem, who's going to run for office what quality of person is going to subject themselves to what they have to do to run for higher office? >> i think that they're going to get much better. i think as people get more comfortable, to go to karen's compassion narrative, right -- >> but then you have to go through -- >> no, no, no. so as we develop