i spoke with ari fleischer, former press secretary for george w.llegations. >> i was shocked. i read that story like it was a page-turner. frankly, my first three questions were, where's the beef? then you read what they said was the evidence of it. here's what the scandal is, three sources told the "washington post" reporter that the independent investigator for the ig, the inspector general, said he was told to delay his research until after the election, because they knew it was embarrassing. that's the scandal. the white house cannot and should not dictate how investigations go. >> for people looking at this from the outside, they may say, that's just politics as usual. you know, people want to play down anything that might be potentially embarrassing in an election year, or scandalous, so to speak. >> it is politics as usual to play things down in the election year. but the media protects us from any change to the rules to manipulate processes, to put pressure on inspector generals so they don't do their report in the manner that they want to

also with us, ari fleischer, former press secretary for president george w. bush.ary panetta saying what john mccain said to you last month on cnn that the obama administration could have left a residual force in iraq and should have left a residual force in iraq. you obviously disagree with mccain. is panetta wrong as well? >> the fact of the matter is as i discussed with senator mccain, the president did try to negotiate with the sovereign iraqi government for the presence of a residual force in iraq of u.s. troops for the training and ct missions that were vital to the u.s. interest. and the iraqi government refused and no u.s. military leader or civilian defense secretary would have agreed to place u.s. troops in a country like iraq absent the immunities that we demanded in those negotiations. >> ari, what about panetta's comments? >> most people, not everybody, most people in the administrations are willing to share the real things that happened inside. i happen to finish secretary gates' book last night. here is the context for the discussion he had. the gene

bush ari fleischer and juoan walsh. >> ice like saying there was 100-foot hole and now it's a 90-footut of the hole a little bit. >> wouldn't democrats say it was actually our party that put americans into the 100-foot hole? >> actually that is true, joe. he did inherit a deep recession. the problem is policies he's implemented haven't gotten out of us. the top 1% have gain but for the average american worker, the average household income has dropped from 56,000 a year in 2007 to 50,000 a year. poverty rate is up to 14%. you don't have to convince the american people there's a recovery. they would know it. >> that's the question. let me go to joan. wages haven't budged. i don't think people are feeling it. i wonder how this can be a winning message. i'll convince you you are doing better when you don't feel it. >> there are some incontrovertible facts. under the president there were 4.5 million, almost 5 million we'll get job numbers today jobs created in his two administrations as opposed to 1.5 million in the entire eight years under george bush. the stock market is booming. people

where -- >> read the ari fleischer comment. >> i did. how about the people that they don't want bill maher speaking at berkeley because he's too conservative? they don't want him there because of the islam comments. there's a big protest at berkeley. they don't want that right wing nut glenn beck type bill maher. are there people like that on the right that are that crazy on an extreme? >> who would it be? oh. coming up -- that's not nice. coming up, the profit drive at autonation. the nation's largest auto -- that was a good call. ceo mike jackson talks sales. air bags, not wind bags in this case. but air bags and the impact of sinking prices at the pump. a card that gave you that "i'm 16 and just got my first car" feeling. presenting the buypower card from capital one. redeem earnings toward part or even all of a new chevrolet, buick, gmc or cadillac - with no limits. so every time you use it, you're not just shopping for goods. you're shopping for something great. learn more at buypowercard.com takeand . . . exhale. . . . . aflac! and