joining me now are dana milbank and maria teresa kumar. thank you for coming on the show. is titled, quote, the cruz afiction of the gop. you write the standoff has been a political blood bath for republicans and maybe that's exactly what was needed to right the political system. what do you mean by that? >> well, look. ted cruz did something very good for ted cruz and very bad for the republican party. and for that matter, for the conservative movement now you showed him being under water with that negative 14, the reason it's not much lower than that is not enough people know him yet. the more he's getting known to the american public, the more negative his numbers become. so he became the de facto leader of this shutdown, this -- and it was chiropractor clear from the beginning that it would be a disaster for his party. he took them in that direction anyway. they were intimidated into doing it. ted cruz isn't at this moment scaring the democrats to death. he's scaring his fellow republicans to death. >> maria, is ted cruz like other states rights defenders who oppose pr

joining me now are michael eric dyson and maria teresa kumar.r being here. >> thank you, rev. >> thank you, reverend. >> dr. dyson, the right wing could find policies to disagree with, but they just want to make up their own facts, why? >> you're so absolutely right. they're living in a parallel world. the world of facts suggests this government shutdown hurt the very people that supposedly they want to take care of. working class people. though they don't mention them. middle class people. government workers. 800,000-some strong. the reality is poor people were disadvantaged during the shutdown. people lost access to health care and on top of that, some people even lost their lives as a result of some of the extreme measures taken in observation of the shutdown. the reality is obama care was not the supposed victim of this shutdown. it was the american people. and even though they said they wanted to get at obama care, that wasn't on the table. all they did was get out there and show their right wing base they can be rebelliourebelliousy did no

us now is angela rye, a political strategist with impact strategies and also joining us is maria teresa kumarbc contributor. maria theresa, in less than four weeks, one week before valentine's day, we get to do this all over again. my question is whether mr. boehner has learned how to lead. and if not, are we in for another repeat performance? if you look at him earlier, throwing his fist pump, he looks like he's ready to go again. >> go again against his own republican party. that's completely de facto, the right wing of the republican party that he doesn't identify with. what's happening right now, and that was basilically the battle cry that ted cruz was really saying, was that come 2014, he knows that there's going to be a lot of republicans that are up for re-election and they're going to need those primary voters to vote for them in spades. and unfortunately, a lot of them are tea party members. they're going to it use this discussion, once again, the debt ceiling, the american economy, as a battle cry to go -- make sure these folks go back to the polls. and that's where we have to see

someone else who's been a guest is maria teresa kumar. >> and what do you think these kinds of -- i'mlion awards. you probably have boxes in your attic somewhere. but why are awards in a situation like this important? do they matter? >> i think it matters in terms of public machine, influence, just the essence of what's in the zeitgeist. when you see people like christiane receiving an award tomorrow night, she's greatly admired, she's certainly plenty smart and has done a lot of extraordinary things. >> a lifetime achievement award in her case. >> what's it going to take to move to the next level, though? >> i was talking earlier to somebody and i said, you know, it took 20 years just to get people to wear seat belts, so it takes -- it takes time. this is a whole cultural thing. we've lived with this for eons and some people live with it in a far deeper, rigid, tragic equation. >> it's moving faster because of the technology and communications. and it took 100 years for women to get the vote, and i think we're about halfway through the 50 -- the 50-year mark offemini. it's also seein

and in san francisco, msnbc contributor and president of voter latino, maria teresa kumar. troubles with the affordable care act website go beyond being parroted on "saturday night live." health sites woes could dissuade vital enrollee, the young and healthy. they write in its worst iteration, it could lead to a death spiral on falling enrollment and climbing prices. the president, dana, is sending his cabinet on the road. about you how much time is there to turn the tide before what have been glitches on the website become a real enrollment problem, do you think? >> well, nobody knows for sure. the administration has set itself a target of the end of next month. i mean, people generally tend to say it's within a four to eight-week period. you know, it's way too early to be talking about a death spiral. but if you don't get the young and the healthy signing up, and already they've had to postpone the penalties for not signing up. if you don't get those people signing up, all you're going to get is the older and the sicker signing up. and then it's just not going to be econo

maria teresa kumar. nbc's richard engel and "new york times" mark masseti u.n. report on drones and america's security state all that when "now" starts right after this. avo: the volkswagen "sign then drive" sales event is back. which means it's never been easier to get a new passat, awarded j.d. power's most appealing midsize car, two years in a row. and right now you can drive one home for practically just your signature. get zero due at signing, zero down, zero deposit, and zero first month's payment on any new 2014 volkswagen. hurry, this offer ends october 31st. for details, visit vwdealer.com today. have hail damage to both their cars. ted ted is trying to get a hold of his insurance agent. maxwell is not. he's on geico.com setting up an appointment with an adjuster. ted is now on hold with his insurance company. maxwell is not and just confirmed a 5:30 time for tuesday. ted, is still waiting. yes! maxwell is out and about... with ted's now ex-girlfriend. wheeeee! whoo! later ted! online claims app