reduce it to the most simplistic -- and yes, it will be a hit. hit, ed. >> lionel, good to have you. >> lean forward, ed. >> good to have you with us tonight. i'm always lean, buddy. >> bless your heart, ed. bless your heart. >> tonight our text survey question is i asked you, do you believe the republicans will try to impeach president obama? 87% of you said, yes. 13% of you said, no. that's "the ed show." i'm ed schultz. for more information on "the ed show" go to ed.msnbc.com. check out my radio show noon to 3:00 eastern, 167 on xm. and my radio website, wegoted.com. "hardball" with chris matthews startsz right now. we'll see you tomorrow night. >>> the house is back in session, that means it's time to play "hardball." >>> good evening. i'm michael smerconish, in for chris matthews. leading off tonight, the battle of a lame-duck congress.

sent out a letter to secretary napolitano and lahood, et cetera. they said, you know, these sort of measures should require an extreme justification. when i read it, i said to myself, well, blowing up aircraft, commercial aircraft in the united states would seem to be such a justification. how do you see it? >> i agree with you, michael. and to kate's point, i think there are legitimate privacy concerns. and it is quite intrusive, but the same concerns that an individual passenger has is multiplied by many orders of magnitude for the passenger's right to safety as well. i mean, there are no silver bullets here. the scanners themselves are not going to be the only solution, but as part of a layered defense, front loaded with good intelligence, underpinned with technology and a seasoned and trained workforce, it is part of this system's approach to be able to detect petn and other means of terrorism. i mean, the aviation sector has long been a terrorist target, as far back as 1948, and...