you know, rachel, it in may of 2010 lindsey graham put out a statement criticizing the president for reaching out to republicans, other republicans other than him, to work on an immigration reform plan. that had befuddled the white house because they did it because lindsey graham urged them to work on in a bipartisan manner. this is part of the gop amnesia on immigration reform and dream act in particular that is just unbelievable in how boldly they erase people's memories of history. >> jonathan, you writing about that lindsey graham episode from a couple of years ago today was the reason i wanted to talk to you about this today. it's the exact opposite of what's going on right now. what lindsey graham was saying at the time was, how dare you reach out and try to start a kvshgs with republicans on there. it will go nowhere. you have john boehner, mash co-rubio and mitt romney saying how dare you go forward on this without coming to us? as if we were willing to do something on this. i think the substantive question here is it possible they make republicans want to do something on imm

lindsey graham believes the leaks may originate in the white house. graham wants a special counsel, independent of the obama administration, to investigate the leaks, instead of holder's own hand-picked lawyers. >> you're not willing to embrace the idea that it would be better off for the country if you would pick somebody that we all could buy into from the get-go rather than picking somebody, two people that you say are great that i don't know anything about. so at the end of the day, i can't believe that this is even a debate, given the national security implications of these leaks. >> question. why won't holder appoint a special counsel? eleanor. >> look at the recent history with special counsels, from ken starr to patrick -- >> fitzgerald. >> fitzgerald. it's not been a happy one on either side of the political aisle. these are two u.s. attorneys that attorney general holder has appear poifnltd one was appointed by george w. bush, the other is an obama appointee. they have specific expertise in the kind of investigation that this requires, and i

but you saw senator lindsey graham suggesting they don't think those u.s.ys can be independent. do you think it's enough to have those two -- they have praise for both sides of the aisle and people talk about what strong good prosecutors and attorneys they are. is it good enough? >> they will spend a lot of money trying to search out who is the leaker in all of this. they will come up with absolutely nothing. everybody will pat themselves on the back and say we did our jobs. because they will find out the leaker is probably a friend of both sides of the aisle and they don't want to take that person down. this seems to be the problem with special prosecutors when we go after people. we don't get the person we are after, we get everybody around them. it seems the collateral damage is very high and the person we are after never gets to be found. i would worry about our friends in israel and other places that we work with to gather information and use that information for the united states of america to be able to use to take down iraq or whatever it might be.

we should point out that senator cornyn, who took the lead along with lindsey graham, but senator cornyn in particular is one of 21 senators who voted against the confirmation of eric holder. so he already had a grievance against him. but it got very fiery there today. what do you think about the whole question of leak investigation, whether the attorney general is correct as democratic senators have said, and some republicans, that it is much quicker and easier to move ahead with u.s. attorneys investigating those national security leaks than to go through the whole process of finding a special counsel? >> well, the question, though, is do we really have an independent and aggressive investigation, because these leaks are very, very disturbing, andrea. there's no doubt in my mind that it's undermining national security and that is very, very important. it certainly looks like a pattern or at least the fact that it's happened repeatedly. this is very disturbing and i think it does call for the most aggressive possible investigation. >> you don't think that the u.s. attorneys who one of t

is a fear mongering as usual going on out there particularly in the last couple of days from lindsey graham about defense cuts and you know leon panetta of course said that this new strategy of refocusing to asia isn't going to be affected but lindsey graham john mccain those people want to keep reminding him that if sequestration goes through then it really will hit the fan and i mean it what's your take here if we want to talk about the need for say. if sequestration if sequestration dozed through it will probably affect all three services equally which will be a strategic disaster for the united states i think that most honest i want to say analysts would agree that you could cut the u.s. defense budget substantially even by sequestration levels if you also cut the strategic commitments of the united states. but sequestration isn't about cutting strategic commitments it's about an across the board cuts. doesn't involve some sort of fundamental reevaluation of american foreign policy priorities and so even people who think that it's ok to cut the defense budget should be a little bit wary

senator lindsey graham is up in moments. you hear this from him just last week. >> every democrat told the bush administration, we don't trust you when it comes to investigating what happened with valerie plame. we don't trust your administration to go after abramoff because too many republicans are potentially involved. to expect me and my republican colleagues to trust this crowd, for get it. my new hearing aids changed my life. i feel so much younger. my husband was able to hear little things again, like the laughter of our grandkids. it's amazing. i can have fun with my friends again. ready to reconnect with your friends and family? the aarp hearing care program provided by hearusa can help you get back to living life. call hearusa... your satisfaction is 100% guaranteed. aarp members enjoy exclusive discounts on a wide range of digital hearing aids for crisp, natural sound even in crowded environments, with a 90-day risk free trial from providers you can trust. i'm enjoying my freedom again. even conversations in noisy

saxby chambliss and lindsey graham, and coburn's running for the senate, and others. so you know, there's other careers, too. c-span: tom coburn did this show once, and it was -- i think i can say without exaggerating, it was a -- the book was a real criticism of the house in this town. did you read the book? >> guest: i read excerpts from the book. c-span: if you were going to criticize your own institution over there, after you've now been there for -- how many years? >> guest: this is my 18th year that i've been in the congress. c-span: what would you tell those kids out there in civics class? >> guest: well, you know, i always said -- you know, i taught government for 16 years. and when i first went to the illinois general assembly, i said, you know, the real difference here is the difference between theory and practice, that this place is a people business. it's how you treat people. it's how you deal with people is really how you get things done, not necessarily if you're a great orator or if you're a great attorney or, you know, a great writer. it's how you can

. >>> as we told you at the top of the show about senator john mccain and lindsey graham calling forsecutor, into the white house leak. senator mccain has taken to the floor. let's go ahead and listen in. >> has been articulated by many, both in and outside of the administration. including the most damaging that we have seen, including our director of national intelligence, saying that it's the worst that he's seen in his 30 years of service in the issue of -- in the area of intelligence. all of the ranking and chair members of the intelligence committees, the armed services committee, foreign relations committee and homeland security committees, have all described in this most strongest terms what damage has been done by these, quote, leaks. >> meanwhile, not that far away, and not that long ago, senator lindsay graham was asking attorney general eric holder directly about these leaks during a senate judiciary committee hearing. take a listen. >> we're talking about -- >> special counsel, somebody new, other than these two people, that all of us could buy into. >> but senator, i mea

basically today, that lindsey graham says immigration is a congressional issue, so they're forcing the supreme court to say wait a second, the state's can't be deciding. >> the days of waiting for labor day for the starting gun to be fired are long over. thank you, howard fineman. thank you maria teresa kumar. >>> coming up, president obama and mitt romney offer two different visions of how to fix the economy. mitt romney wants to leave it to the private sector. president obama says that's what got us into this mess. this is "hardball." the place for politics. to your kids' wet skin. neutrogena® wet skin kids. ordinary sunblock drips and whitens. neutrogena® wet skin cuts through water. forms a broad spectrum barrier for full strength sun protection. wet skin. neutrogena®. 14 clubs. that's what they tell us a legal golf bag can hold. and while that leaves a little room for balls and tees, it doesn't leave room for much else. there's no room left for deadlines or conference calls. not a single pocket to hold the stress of the day, or the to-do list of tomorrow. only 14 clubs pick up the

senator lindsey graham said it may also be illegal. >> it's also throwing a thunder bolt into this election. the romney camp not coming up with a statement yet. >> romney has come out forcefully about immigration in the campaign. here comes the president now. >> good afternoon, everybody. this morning secretary napolitano announced new actions my administration will take to mend our nation's immigration policy, to make it more fair, more efficient, and more just. specifically, for certain young people, sometimes called dreamers. now, these are young people who study in our schools, they play in our neighborhoods, they're friends with our kids, they pledge allegiance to our flag. they are americans in their hearts, in their minds, in every single way but one, on paper. they were brought to this country by their parents. sometimes even as infants. and often have no idea that they're undocumented until they apply for a job, or a driver's license, or a college scholarship. put yourself in their shoes. imagine you've done everything right your entire life, studied hard, worked hard, maybe even g

senator lindsey graham. bill: based on that it is not going away. will be more about that. >>> dramatic 911 call from a man mauled by a brown bear. he was 30 years old. attacked on a hiking trail in alaska. here now the desperate call when he was high up in a tree. listen. >> 911 what is the address of your emergency? >> i was mauled by a brown bear. >> okay. do you need an ambulance? >> yes. >> okay. i'm bleeding bad. >> where are you bleeding from? >> my back, my neck and my lower back. please get an ambulance. >> 911, where is your emergency? >> hi i'm the guy that just got mauled by a brown bear. >> we're getting paramedics. >> i can hear the brown bear still huffing in the trees. i'm i believe to climb a tree. i'm as high up in the tree as i can get. >> stay, okay. stay just in that treat then, if you can hear it, okay. >> how long do you think it will be here? >> it will be a little while. we'll come as quick as he can, okay. >> i think i'm bleeding quite a bit. bill: wow! took rescuers two hours to reach him. he was taken by a hospital, rathe

which basically today the congressional members, lindsey graham said that immigration is literally a congressional issue. so now they're forcing the supreme court to say, wait a second, the states can't be deciding. it's going to be interesting how it plays out. >> the days of waiting for labor day for the starting gun to be fired are long over. >> true. >> this baby is under way. >> that's correct. >> thank you, howard fineman. thank you maria teresa kumar. >>> coming up, president obama and mitt romney offer two different visions of how to fix the economy. mitt romney wants to leave it to the private sector. president obama says that's what got us into this mess. this is "hardball." the place for politics. ♪ ♪ [ multiple sounds making melodic tune ] ♪ [ male announcer ] at northrop grumman, every innovation, every solution, comes together for a single purpose -- to make the world a safer place. that's the value of performance. northrop grumman. you know you could just use bengay zero degrees. medicated pain relief you store in the freezer. brrr...see ya boys. [ male announcer ] new

lindsey graham is live in a few moments on that.dards expressed -- [cellphone ringing ] jamie: don't let that happen here bill, okay? it was a big oops, the ring that silenced the senate floor. one. fiber one. uh, forgot jack's cereal. [ jack ] what's for breakfast? um... try the number one! [ jack ] yeah, this is pretty good. [ male announcer ] half a day's worth of fiber. fiber one. welcome to hotels.com. summer road trip, huh?ood. as the hotel experts, finding you the perfect place is all we do. this summer, save up to 30%, plus get up to $100 on us. welcome to hotels.com. jamie: the obama administration is disputing these claims that it actually leaked intentionally a string of national security secrets to reporters for its own political gain. republican senator john mccain, speaking out pretty harshly about it and demanding an investigation, calling for a prosecutor to examine the white house's role in those leaks. listen: >> the only conceivable motive for such damaging and compromising leaks of classified information is that

from 2001 to 2004. [ applause ] beyond lorne, we have paul grove, who is the minority clerk for lindsey graham. and next to -- and you have much longer longer bios. and the majority clerk for patrick leahy on foreign operations. and we want to dive right in. oh, and i haven't introduced, now with us now running the savon center at brookings, which is a very, very powerful think tank on the middle east, particularly the savon center. i'm a fan of the work there. let's dive right in. it's 2001. i actually remember being involved in an event in the spring of 2001. actually, a lot of interesting intellectuals. we were talking about what the next crisis might be in the spring of 2001. and no one mentioned anything approaching what was happening, what was about to happen on 9/11. so on 9/11, you are -- you find yourself here running drl. and what does this mean for your priorities? what suddenly becomes your primary challenge? >> well, let me start by thanking mike for organizing this conference. truly. let's have a round of applause. [ applause ] i recently met a friend of pat darian's at a dinner.

stock that virus but right now everybody's chimey and it's a bipartisan effort everybody from lindsey graham to carl levin and even dianne feinstein people are placed in danger and american lives are lost because of it and people just talk too much and this didn't used to be the case but suddenly it's like it's a spreadable disease they're painting this president right before his election is a strong leader on national security they're doing in a way that our allies will help us in the future they're putting people at risk i've got a new communication strategy for you and should what shut the f. up now the white house's response to all of this has been kind of a hold up you should respect the office of the president and don't you dare question the white house on something like this but what do we think about the entire thing and the selective leaking what does it say about the relationship between the white house and the press and of course the obama administration's aggressive war on whistleblowers while they do simultaneously leak here discuss it with me is treason leopold investigative re

actually there's been a number of senators lindsey graham i believe it was today came out and you know it was no slouch i mean he's been around for quite a while and very powerful man of a party basically said the same thing jeb bush said it is romney looking to revolt before he even gets to his coronation. no because they will absolutely stand behind mitt romney just so that obama does not get any get but when we talk about norquist we need to understand what he created in one thousand nine hundred five that's what we're missing it was two parts the first part was that they would never raise taxes but more importantly and this is the part that nobody is reading the second part and i'm going to read it verbatim says and they would only close the tax loops if the additional revenue was used to pay for tax cuts so everyone wants to call his interpretation that he was changing his mind on what he was doing that's not it i think he was clarifying what he created in one thousand nine hundred five when norquist come on to me i got to tell you i think you are going to tell you really point ou

now there's going to be the automatic cuts grover norquist is all freaked out lindsey because lindsey grahamis talking about raising taxes so what do we do how how are why are republicans willing to raise taxes to keep the war machine going but not willing to raise taxes for it's to i think it's a glimpse into their morality i would say here you have forty nine million people in poverty fifty million people without health insurance you have economic crisis in america but we will not raise taxes help these people however at the fence contractors in virginia want to build unnecessary jet plane engines then for sure let's raise taxes to make sure that defense contractors get their corporate vote on a gun doesn't want two thousand and nine two thousand and ten you guys had super majorities in both houses and the white house and you didn't address those problems so if as serious as you claim they are they didn't get addressed then i'm not going to take responsibility and i don't believe the republicans ought to take responsibility for what i wanted to say when i was there with what i did i will s

lindsey graham of south carolina.ve king, republican of iowa, and he says this, and i will put it up on the screen. americans should be outraged that president obama's planning to usurp the constitutional authority of the united states congress and grant amnesty by edict to 1 million ill league hle aliens. steve king goes on the say this, the american people have rejected amnesty, because it will erode the rule of law in much the same way as i believe the american people will reject president obama for his repeated efforts to violate the constitutional separation of powers. representative steve king, an opponent of comprehensive immigration reform speaking out on this sensitive issue. our chief white house correspondent jessica yellin, like all of us awaiting the president. do we know any details of what the president will say, and how long he is going to speak, answer questions -- any of those matters resolved as far as we know, jessica? >> well, wolf, my guidance is that he will speak for less than ten minutes, and

take a license to yesterday's exchange between republican senator lindsey graham and abc news jonathanl. >> the taxpayer finds. >> i think -- i think dib -- i think the pledge has done a great service in the sense we are talking about a more entrepreneurial tax code but when you eliminate a deduction, it's okay with me to use some of that money to get us out of debt. >> that's where i disagree with the finds. >> can you believe it? j.d. you have a republican senator saying he disagrees with pledge. i am standing up to applaud. lipped see graham -- lipped see graham because it means he is willing to compromise. >> yeah, but remember, jen the way he couched that. remember lindsay and joe lieberman and john mccain were hanging out together withwing in 2008. there is an m.o. to this. lieberman would use it when he would back into republican arguments with a word of praise but then a little bit of a different take. now, the lindsey m o. is like we have a found an here in fountain hills, arizona. once every 15 minutes, it goes off kind of like a man-made old faithful and you can basically se

. >> the fever is expanding where lindsey graham drew a rebuke from richard durbin. >> i really thinkt was over the line. >> yes, it is the crusade against leaking and it is latest rallying cry. >> those who have made c comparisons to iran. those in the president's team that is putting people's lives in jeopardy just to make him look good in the election year. >> let's go back to our panel, david corn. the name, tom donnein. do they have any claims? >> no, except he is the national security adviser. >> good guess. >> the important point is i did not see these people crying out for special prosecutors or counsels when woodward was writing the book on the bush and national security team which is full of information. they were upset about the counsel that investigated the valerie plame leak. then the computer cyber warfare. it is probably good the public and others know that so they don't sit around as republicans say all the time, believing that obama is doing nothing to stop it, so we have no choice to set up conflict. >> david, sean hannity is saying lives are being damaged by the cau

as you heard earlier in the show from lindsey graham have the democrats presented the mandate, as a taxwould not have passed in the house and senate. that is why the president kept saying it's not a tax. it's simply, you know, a mandate. it will practically speaking make it harder, because it will be harder to expand the size of government. under the guise of a tax because people don't like taxes. >> if it's a hidden tax, they won't notice they are paying it in many cases. they won't get a new drug. >> if you want to pass the roberts test as constitutional you have to call at it tax. in the legislation. >> bret: yeah. so white house press secretary jay carney asked about this numerous times, numerous ways in the press gaggle today. he said in one response about this, calling at it tax. you can call it what you want. he said it's a penalty. not a tax. is this a problem for them, john? >> i hope so. penalties, taxes, it's 2400 pages of micro management. it's a bad thing. it takes our freedom and our money. i hope it's a problem. >> it's not a problem. c'mon. even mitt romney in romney car

lindsey, right? >> schieffer: senator graham, since he brought up grover norquist, let me ask buthat.bout this idea? governor romney you heard him say he would not accept even one dollar in increased revenue for $10 in spending cuts, if that could be found. i know both you and jeb bush said this week that maybe republicans ought to kind of be thinking about this idea of this pledge of no new taxes under any circumstances. what about that? >> well, good question. what governor romney said is he would look at simpson-bowles as. simpson-bowles, the gang of six, the super committee-- even though it failed-- there's a formula that i think will take hold eventually. nobody wants to raise tax rates. not one person who has looked at this problem we have as a nation suggested raising tax rates. but tom coburn, pat toomey, the gang of six, simpson-bowles commission-- all said let's flatten and broaden the tax base. let's eliminate deduction, and when you ask him how many deductions? i think we should eliminate all deductions except interest on your home and charitable giving with a cap, take th

south carolina senator bill graham there giving some harsh questions -- lindsey graham.can you give us a taste of what he's asking. >> he was just asking, basically running why did checking account democrats are ritzing them on these items and more in the obama administration sort of a classic political back and forth. back in the bush years it was republicans resisting those calls. holder degenerativing his decisions on this saying he's appointed prosecutors to take a look at this. republicans rallying around this issue feeling like they can put the white house on the defensive. >> you can find a link to his washington insider blog on our web site. go to ktvu.com pull down the news, menu bar and politics page. >>> police in richmond hope to get some new clues when they questioned a woman who was almost killed in a freeway shooting. that's shot spotter technology capturing the sound of gunfire. police say a 57-year-old new ark woman was shot in the throat as she drove on westbound interstate 80. she's in stable condition. she is recovering. and police say that shooting a