includes bill bradley, bill from new jersey who played with the knicks.ler was a quarterback for the redskins in the nfl. jim bunning, he's a hall of famer from the phillies. metcalfe a hero of the olympics along with jesse owens. bob mathias was on the wheatty's box for years. and congressman jack kemp, a good friend of mine who passed away was a hero for the buffalo bills. why do you think athletes want to go for the big shot job of politics after they've already been heros? >> i know bill bradley. my brother used to work with him in the '70s and '80s. we retire and serve in the community. interact with people. this is a service, it isn't a politician, it's service so an extension of what we've been doing. >> carl lewis. good luck. i wish you well. i won't say break a leg. anyway, thank you, go for it. congratulations for getting on the ballot. >>> when we return, let me finish, the planet for the battle of the ape. the republican party, they don't like human history, they don't like science. where'd ya go? there you are. there you go. [ female announce

>> i really think first of all -- i know bill bradley because my brother used to work for him back in70s and '80s. i think what happens is we retire and we serve. so many athletes go to schools, so many places and interact with people. just like me, we realize this is a service, it isn't a politician, it's service. >> okay. gotta go. carl lewis, i guess i can say good luck. >> exactly. >> i wish you well. and i won't say break a leg. congratulations for getting on the ballot. >>> when we return, let me finish with i'm calling it the battle for the planet of the apes. today's republican party don't like human history and don't like science. you're watching "hardball" only on msnbc. down the hill? man: all right. we were actually thinking, maybe... we're going to hike up here, so we'll catch up with you guys. [ indistinct talking and laughter ] whew! i think it's worth it. working with a partner you can trust is always a good decision. massmutual. let our financial professionals help you reach your goals. ♪ [ male announcer ] unlike some car companies, nissan is running at 100%, which m

>> either that or the bill bradley campaign.d a great health care plan. >> he did have a great health care plan. >> it says something about the republican party when the "the wall street journal" editorial board is somewhere in the middle of republican politics. huntsman's plan is moderate when you compare it to where the tea party extremists want to take this. it's similar in some degree to the bowles simson. you cannot get anyone in congress to vote for ending the mortgage interest tax relief. >> right, his plan in some specifics calls for lower tax rates across the board, income tax rates, just leaving us with only three, 8% for the lowest, 14%, and 23%. but to get there, he eliminates every single deduction and credit in the personal income tax code, so he eliminates the biggest one, the mortgage deduction. as you've said, it means it would also eliminate the deduction for health care that if you receive health care through your employer, that would be taxable income, and so it's a fairly easy thing to rip apart. if a plan l

people together and at the national level, there were people like howard baker and bob dole and bill bradleyatic side. you can go through the list. a lot of those folks either went home disappointed, they were tired or they got beat. so -- go ahead. >> what happened? what caused that disappearing middle? that fracture that you write about in your piece? >> well, the fractures really began with the vietnam and watergate period. we also have had a long period of stagnation and incomes in this country that started in the '70s and a growing sense of disillusionment. we had spikes of upward and i believe the government can get things done. ironically, one of the big spikes came with ronald reagan, the conservative who wanted to have less government. but, bill clinton got some of that and we saw that around 9/11. but over time you can look at the cnn poll that just came out yesterday and it showed just 15% of americans now have confidence the government is going to do the right thing. you know, all or most of the time. back in the early '60s and the '50s when i was growing up those numbers were in

and -- look at the -- howard baker or bilko hen or bill bradley, jack danforth.to and said they really made the compromises and the deals that kept the country moving. of course, we have always had a fractious politics and always had people with different points of view. but we have had people we call statesmen. and it is like -- almost in archaic word now. people who -- actively work to see if they couldn't bring the best out from both sides and at least reach an agreement to the go forward, the paralysis. and -- poison we now have. >> right. we love our politicians. we love tough talking people. that's the american way. but -- maybe the next generation of voters will have the answers. do you suppose? >> i spoke to a couple of authors that are baby boomers and they think the reason our government is broken and gridlocked is because baby boomers have throughout their entire lives this sort of moral superiority about themselves whether on the right or left. you have now conflict in washington in congress between people that are just not ready to move off of their

they should enjoy their natural rights bill but somewhere else. bradley'sn years we can promote this idea of colonization because -- not because he thinks there is anything wrong with black people. racism is so deeply embedded in american life that even if every black people will never be able to achieve equal rights. it is simply impossible in this country. now, this, of course, led to much criticism. frederick douglass, the great black abolitionist said, no, this notion of colonization is based on the idea that black people are not genuinely american. what needs to be done is to condemn racism and slavery as well, but lincoln supported those two issues. he said combined against slavery. i'm an agnostic. i neither condemn nor adopted. he did not think debt race was the second political issue as slavery, but during the civil war he will change on this and other issues. much of my book is trying to track down with guns evolution during the civil war. of course it is the evolution of the nation itself, not just one man command of the entire northern populatio

bradley is joining us with more. >> good morning, tanya, rob, the hearing was pretty fiery as lawmakers demanded to know why taxpayers were stuck with the billistration's connection to an energy company thth received a $500 million loan and then collapsed. >> why did the administration think solyndra was such a good bet? >> reporter: the solar energy company, solyndra, had its loan placed on the fast track shortly after president obama took office. and investigators are poring over documents trying to find out why. >> documents reviewed by the committee staff raise serious concerns about whether the, this deal was better for the taxpayers. >> reporter: new e-mails show solyndra got its $535 million loan despite apprehension from some inside the government. the issue of working capital remains unresolved, wrote a department of energy official just weeks before the loan was approved in 2009. the message accurately warns, solyndra runs out of cash in september 2011. the loan went through and in two years, solyndra was bankrupt, with tax payers on the hook for the bill. documents show solyndra's own auditors spottededroblems writing, "the compan

bradley fighting vehicle. these small business innovation loans were terrific for bringing out the innovation creativity of the american people, creating thousands and thousands of jobs. they forced that bill off the floor. the fate of these two pieces of legislation alone costs more than half a million jobs, more than 500,000 jobs. but not only did it take away these two pieces of legislation -- there are many others -- but these two, but their obstructionistic tactics also cost us lots of time. for every moment wasted on procedural hurdles -- and we spent months -- or these useless amendments is a moment we weren't creating jobs. as republicans held up the work of congress for months in hopes of defeating the president -- and this is not something i made up. my counterpart, the republican leader, said that's his number-one issue, making sure president obama is not reelected. but this effort to defeat president obama has also held up our economic recovery. we saw the total last month's job report which showed unemployment holding steady. for the eighth month in a row that we've created jobs, private-sector jobs, we didn't create many last months -- it was about 20,000. but because of what