barbara boxer joined me, she tried to quadruple the amount of money in that bill. things that would take care of a crumbling infrastructure. in oklahoma, not long ago we had a bridge just start falling down, it killed one lady, a mother of two. that is what we are supposed to be doing up here. we are not supposed to be going through this social re- engineering. we are supposed to defend america. susan, i positioned myself on afghanistan when that legislation came out. i knew that -- i knew what he would do to the military. he terminated our fifth generation fighter. he terminated the third site in poland that would defend the eastern half the united states. he did all of that, and i did not hear that he was disarming america. we have elected a person who is going to go down as the most anti-military president in history. he has all of these social programs that are costing us more. i have 20 children and grandchildren. they will be paying for all of this. >> how is he doing? >> first of all, he is spending us into a situation that will be very difficult to recover

barbara boxer, democrat of california, sponsoring the violence against children act.th us in d.c. still with us, brent and kelly king in san diego, parents of the late chelsea king, and also california assemblyman nathan fletcher, republican of san diego. as we mentioned, he is working with chelsea's parents to enact legal reforms to protect children from violent sexual predators. senator boxer, governor schwarzenegger has ordered a review of the way the state has handled the 2000 molestation case against the accused john gardner. and again, we must remind you, he is the accused. he was released from parole supervision although he remained a registered sex offender, and parole records say he should have been sent back to prison in 2007 and 2008 for parole violations. what is wrong with the system, senator? >> well, it's clearly broken. and i want to compliment the kings for turning their grief into action and the assemblyman for working with them. we all have to work together. this isn't about party. this is about our kids. larry, every year 200,000 children are victi

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in california, three republicans are running for the chance to take on democratic senator barbara boxer in the fall. newshour correspondent spencer michels reports. >> reporter: conservatives who gathered at this recent event in california's silicon valley were practically giddy about republican prospects in the 2010 election. >> the mood of the country is really encouraging to me, because i've been seeing things go in the wrong direction for a long time. >> as a republican, i'm optimistic this year. i think if we can't throw some of these democrats out, we'll never be able to. >> reporter: while california often votes democratic in national elections, republicans win their share of state contests. and this year, they believe they can cash in on popular anger over government spending and health care reform. they will choose between three candidates for u.s. senate in june-- candidates whose ideologies range from moderate to very conservative. at stake is the senate seat currently held by democrat barbara boxer, but also the direction of the republican party in the nation's most populous

and i think you poll even, if not better, than the incumbent, barbara boxer. what's going on?s a lot of concern about the people who brought us into the crisis we're in today. senator boxer has one of the biggest spending records in the entire congress. over 28 years. two of the five congresses where i served, i was the single most fiscally responsible member in congress. the contrast is wonderful. more big government, more big spending is her. more fiscally conservative responsible, that's me. >> we have all the republican congress -- we placed calls to barbara boxer' office. >> the president signed healthcare reform into law. the man behind the party, dick army is here to set the record straight. even 20 years? call imperial structured settlements. the experts at imperial can convert your long-term payout into a lump sum of cash today. >> neil: all right. we keep asking, with the president take a swipe at the tea partiers. the next guest is the founder of freedom works, the group behind many of the rallies. dick, it was a popular view in washington that tea partiers were dun

i wonder if that works in barbara boxer's favor? >> i think it does.think that californians understand how important health care is. i authored the healthy families act which about 950,000 kids have health care in california as a result. and there's still too many children and families that go without health care in california. and i think that's why a majority of californians do support this plan. >> do you -- there's a lot of talk today in washington about this unorthodox procedure democrats are thinking of using to get health care reform passed. is it okay with you if they do it any way? >> i used to be speaker of the california state assembly and i certainly understand that rules are sometimes used in a way to move legislation. i hope that whatever happens that there will be a vote. i think it is important that people stand up and say that health care's a right, not a privilege, that we can disagree on the details but that we ought to pass this health care issue. >> let me ask david gergen because he's been around for a while. how much of an issue

even opponents of the war like barbara boxer all said that iraq had wmd. this was a consensus of the intelligence community shared broadly throughout the government, sure probably to the government under clinton and bush and shared widely to western intelligence communities. and the preponderance of the evidence was that he had wmd. so in fact their 110 democrats who vote for the war resolution. 149 who oppose it. 110, 67%% on the 4000 senate and say saddam had wmd. if you want to say bush lied to have to say everyone of those people lied including people like that kennedy and barbara boxer who oppose the resolution. we now know that he didn't have it. we found he had 500 times uranium yellowcake. we found tens of thousands of artillery shells and other delivery vehicles that had contained biological and chemical weapons that had degraded over time. but we didn't find wmd operative and usable, which is what we feared. in fact, as we approach baghdad, the third infantry approaches baghdad, we are chatter of the radio from the iraqi scene when are we going t

barbara boxer joined me, she tried to quadruple the amount of money in that bill. things that would take care of a crumbling infrastructure. in oklahoma, not long ago we had a bridge just start falling down, it killed one lady, a mother of two. that is what we are supposed to be doing up here. we are not supposed to be going through this social re- engineering. we are supposed to defend america. susan, i positioned myself on afghanistan when that legislation came out. i knew that -- i knew what he would do to the military. he terminated our fifth generation fighter. he terminated the third site in poland that would defend the eastern half the united states. he did all of that, and i did not hear that he was disarming america. we have elected a person who is going to go down as the most anti-military president in history. he has all of these social programs that are costing us more. i have 20 children and grandchildren. they will be paying for all of this. >> how is he doing? >> first of all, he is spending us into a situation that will be very difficult to recover

ranking member of the committee and a member of the committee at the time, even opponents like barbara boxer all said that iraq had wmd. this was consensus of the community shared broadly throughout the government commissure broadly throughout the government of clinton and probably into the government of bush and shared widely through western intelligence communities. and the preponderance of evidence was that he had wmd so in fact there are 110 democrats who vote for the war resolution, 149 oppose it. of the 110, 67 stand on the floor of the house or the senate and say saddam hussein had wmd. if you want to say bush like you've got to assume every one of those people live including ted kennedy and barbara boxer who opposed the resolution. we now know that he didn't have it. he had lots of material. we found 500 tons of yellow cake uranium yellowcake. we found biological and chemical delivery systems and tens of thousands of artillery shells and other delivery vehicles that had contained biological and chemical weapons that had degraded over time but we didn't find wmd operative in the usabl

barbara boxer has been very, very vocal against mr.tupak's language, and could -- if things were to occur in a certain way, could really be harmful to the overall passage of the legislation. >> okay. well give us a shout and come back on if you find out exactly what's going down with regard to this whole thing. >> the theme of the day, they're cautiously optimistic, right around that magic 216 number. all indicators are fighting yes. >> i'm sure they won't take the vote unless they have the 216 in the pocket. >> correct. >> thank you very much. >>> despite more than a year of debate, many americans are left wondering what's actually in had health care reform bill. joining me now, ed o'keefe, political reporter for the washingtonpost.com. you should have sat right here at the desk with me. anyway, let's talk more about this legislation. which is going to expand health care to a huge segment of the american public. if the bill passes, ed, how many additional people will be covered? >> it will cover roughly -- mandate that roughly 94%, 95

want to say bush lied and you have to assume everyone of those light including ted kennedy and barbara boxer. he had lots of material. we found 500 tons of yellowcake, uranium yellowcake. we found biological and chemical delivery systems. we found tens of thousands of artillery shells and delivery vehicles that contained chemical weapons that had raided over time. but we didn't find wmd operative and usable which was what we feared. in fact is we broached baghdad, the third infantry approaches back that, we hear chatter on the radio from the iraqi saying where we going to get permission to use the weapons? we now know because of two reports by weapons inspectors that saddam did obtain an active response to these weapons. his attitude was the west is going to loose interest in sanctions. oil for food and i saddam is going to do everything i can. i am going to take that money and spend it on keeping together the dual use facilities like chlorine gas plants and engineers scientists and technicians who know the systems and how to deliver them so that those sanctions, i can reconstitute these pro

i understand barbara boxer had a plan for these wall street bonuses.l us about it. >> she's told at least one of our reporter who covers financial issues she would like to push again to try to tax some of the bonuses for many of these executives who work for companies that got bailout funds. she's working with jim webb from virginia. they're going to try to push this potentially into the financial regulatory bill. democrats feel very good right now about getting a pretty sweeping regulation bill. they seem content. i think this is true of obama and democrats on capitol hill, to do it without republican votes. they feel the politics are much, much better on this issue than health care. and that if they can get something done on financial regulation after getting something done on health care, that that would be a powerful one-two punch heading into november. i think republicans i'm talking to are much more nervous about this issue than they were about health care because it's hard to explain away that you don'tment to clamp down on wall street after the

. >>> coming up, is senator barbara boxer showing signs of vulnerability?s next. >>> also, the whistle-blower that went unheard. we'll talk to the man who cracked bernie madoff's ponzi scheme years before his arrest. he's my hero. you're watchingmonger "morning- >> i thought i was your hero? >> sure -- brewed by starbucks. hey! increase in 6 months. pete, back it up! ( marker squeaking ) when business travel leaves you drained, re-charge with comfort suites. spacious rooms, free hi-speed internet, and free hot breakfast. comfort suites. power up. now stay two separate times with comfort suites... or any choice hotel and earn a free night. book at choicehotels.com. >>> welcome back to "morning joe." we are going to be talking to jim vandehei, the executive editor of politico in just a moment. but first, jon meacham, your cover of "newsweek," tell us about it. "victory at last: the emergence of a democratic iraq" and looking ahead to elections there. >> yes, the liberal media has done this, just keeping score for those at home. our reporting has shown, in a p

the chairman -- that's barbara boxer -- and i were working hard to find an offset. senator boxer got democratic leadership to agree to use tarp as an offset. and i was very excited about this. i remember, i thought that night -- that was on a wednesday night. it was getting close to midnight. we had to do something or everything was going to fall apart. but i thought when he it resolved. unfortunately, many of the republicans and some democrats, senators, objected to this offset. as a result, we were stuck with a 30-day extension on the continuing resolution that funded the program at a billion dollars a month lower than the 2009 levels. now, i have to say that -- and i blame republicans for this -- i've often said that one of the really bad things that happened to the senate happened on october 1 of 2008. it was when we passed the $700 billion bank bailout bill, and that's the tarp funds we're talking about, and a lot of conservative republicans objected to offsetting with tarp because that would be an admission that that money probably wasn't going to be repaid any