you saw charlie crist being pushed out of the republican primary and accused of being too moderate.n the republican side, that is what i am looking -- are you going to see that trend continue, where the so-called moderate candidates are losing d, the tea party-fuelde conservative candidates are winning? i think that is what you would expect. on the democratic side, you are seeing that with the blanche lincoln race and arkansas. you have labor unions and people on the left are very frustrated with her as being too conservative. that is why she is getting this challenge from the left. host: ben evans, political reporter with the associated press, thank you for joining us. following on that, this is a piece from "the new york times" looking at the race and arkansas -- unions take a stand in the arkansas race. they have knocked on 170,000 doors, and spent almost $6 million on television and radio advertisements. that is how badly labor unions want to defeat senator blanche lincoln. even though arkansas's labor force is one of the least unionized, labor has thrown its support behind mrs.

february charlie crist not only introduced him at a speaking engagement but gave him a hug. and for a conservative voter in florida that is totally unforgivable. host: to maine again. republican voting on a house governor and other state offices. paula. caller: yes, hi. i just want to say about -- a few things. you talked about swing voters. i used to be an independent. i just switched to republican because there were people that were urging me we are going to do something, you know, get together and there are a lot of good republican candidates for governor this race. most of the democrats, however, have taken advantage of maine's clean elections money which we have here with taxpayer funding to fund the candidate. it is ironic because we have spent millions of dollars on the campaign we we could have taken the money and hired them all. is ironic. but that is the way politics works and the media and printing presses get their money because of the advertising that the candidates do. host: any thoughts? guest: well, there is the ongoing debate and it will probably never end a

you saw charlie crist being pushed out of the republican primary and accused of being too moderate.the republican side, that is what i am looking -- are you going to see that trend continue, where the so-called derate candidates are losing d, the tea party-fuelde conservative candidates are winning? i think that is what you would expect. on the democratic side, you are seeing that with the blanche lincoln race and arkansas. you have labor unions and people on the left are very frustrated with her as being too

. >> lehrer: and in florida, governor charlie crist said the leading edge of the oil slick could arrive at pensacola's beach before the day is out. >> our state resours have determined that the oil sheen , with it are thousand of tarballs. skimers have been deployed near pensacola. the goal is to remove that oil from near-shore waters and prevent and minimize any potential impacts to our state. will be. >> lehrer: as the oil spread, the federal government again expanded its closure of fishing grounds. more than one-third of federal waters in the gulf are now off limits. more than 75,000 square miles of ocean stretching nearly to cuba. at an afternoon speech in pittsburgh, president obama refocused on possible criminal wrongdoing, leading up to the spill. >> the catastrophe unfolding in the gulf right now may prove to be a result of human error. or of corporations taking dangerous shorted cuts to compromise safety. but we have to conditional that-- acknowledge that there are inherent risks to drilling four miles beneath the surface of the earth. >> lehrer: today, federal officials approv

governor charlie crist: >> the news this morning to hear that there is oil there is one of the most disturbing things that we could imagine. so, obviously, there must have been a shift in the current and the wind over the night. so we're not happy about that. >> woodruff: alabama governor bob riley had a complaint of his own-- that locals, put out of work by the spill, are not being hired to help clean it up. >> every person i saw tending boom was from the state of maine. now that just defies logic. and again, we have had assurances from everyone involved that that's about to change. >> woodruff: meanwhile, scientists confirmed today that at least two giant underwater plumes of oil have accumulated in the gulf. last weekend, b.p.'s c.e.o., tony hayward, denied such plumes existed. today, hayward faced a different challenge-- reassuring b.p. investors. in a conference call, he said the firm had sufficient cash reserves to meet its obligations, and he pledged to restore both the gulf coast and his company's sullied name. but the president said now is not the time to worry about corporate image.

lawyer who was appointed as a special counselor to the state of florida last week by governor charlie crist. he will advise the governor about legal issues related to the spill. and daniel farber is director of the environmental law program at the university of california, berkeley, law school. steve yerrid, let me start with you. can the government under current law compel bp to start an escrow fund? >> well, ray, we're clearly on new land right now, a frontier that was created after the valdez oil spill. what i think they're going to do is premise it upon the responsible party connotation and the oil pollution act which was passed in 1990 which makes the responsible party liable for all the damages and the clean-up. what they want to do now is front-end that and put it in a trust fund to get away from bp looking like an oversight entity and put it on the government, a government we can trust a lot better than we can trust an oil company. >> suarez: daniel farber, you're familiar with what's in that federal oil protection act. is there a mechanism in there for the government to say, you mu

. >> ifill: governor charlie crist. >> most of the beaches in florida are pristine. are unimpacted by this event. the vast majority of them are. and the reality is when tar balls come up on the beach, so long as we're able to get the personnel there in a timely fashion, they can be cleaned up fairly quickly. we can't mislead people. but it is not misleading to say to any potential tourist that the vast majority of our beaches are beautiful. the water is clean. the fish are biting. >> ifill: b.p. declined to confirm reports today it plans to raise $50 billion to cover the cost of the spill. we take a closer look now at what may have led to the deep water horizon explosion with two reporters who have been investigating it. aham lustgarten is a reporter for an independent investigative news service. he's covering the broader safety record of the company and james glantz is with the "new york times". the times reported today on problems with a blow-out preventer and with an internal device known as the blind sheer ram. that was supposed to cut the pipe and seal off the o

guest: for an independent candidate, third paerty candidae charlie crist has a better chance than most. he is the incumbent governor. he does come in with a size believe political base. his ability to win the election would really depend on his ability to win independent voters who mainly would be inclined to vote democratic and some moderate replicans who just regret the strong conservative teufpl of the former -- conservatism of mark rubio. but also to go on to democratic turf. the democrats most likely nominee has a pretty liberal voting record for a state like florida but doesn't mean he can't win in a three-way contest especially. but charlie crist is a substantial figure and voters -- what is interesting is this was one of theepublican party's prize recruits. they begged him to run in the spring of 2009 when it bail apparent that mel martinez was not going to run and was resigned and was replaced. but the problem is -- and this is again we talk about candidates embracing somebody. charlie will i ist's big problem is when barack obama came down to promote his economic policies in

charlie crist is still the governor. he gets to take an airplane over to the coast and look very concerned. visuals do matter in elections. i have not seenmarc marco rubio touring the beaches yet. florida's beaches matter to the state and to the nation. that is something where it could have a really big impact. believe it or not, charlie crist is leading by some 10 points in the latest race. did you want to weigh in on the politics? >> i am not a political strategist. it seems to me that, in certain areas, like in my home state of colorado, that they voted for climate change legislation. that may be a subject of discussion with her and our opponent in the future. i do think the policy decisions that the administration makes have an effect on how people view what is happening. i agree with marty on that. that is probably where i would leave it. typically, i do not think environmental issues dominate congressional elections. in most instances, especially where the economy has been hard hit, i think jobs are going to be the

charlie crist running as an independent. kendrick meek, who had been opposed to the democratic primary, now faces a potentially strong challenge from a billionaire candidate who decided to run at the very last minute and has drawn considerable amounts of his own money into the race. he will be forcing kendrick me to be a little more competitive heading into the august primary. host: tennessee, keith on the democratic line. caller: i just wanted to say hooray for the tea party is because they are going to make sure we keep democratic control of the congress and said that over the next four, five, six years. and also i would like to congratulate the governor soon- to-be elective in south carolina to to the fat -- due to the fact that the senator called her a ragged and we will have the first rag head governor of the state. and it proves one main thing that the minority does not always speak the loudest. i am calling to say hurray for the tea party because i am so glad they are self-destructive. host: we will talk about self- r

because these people control the activist base and they are going to get what arlen specter got and charlie crist in florida got. they all know they are going to get that if they don't play ball with rush limbaugh and he doesn't believe in compromise which is why others apologizeed droll rush limbaugh and on fox news carly fiorina apologized to him on the air because she made a comment he didn't like. host: one more solution from the philadelphiaya inquiror. " more states with non- districting commuents. every 10 years after the census crews states redraw the boundaries of congressional and legislative districts. too often, the process is controlled by bipartisans. creating safe districts that are comforted to conclude more democratic or republican voters. next is bob joining us from harrison, arkansas. good morning. democrats line. >> good morning. >> i think our country is polarized by the sided issues whether it's abortion, gun rights or -- but the key are our trade policy. and the olympics were held in china years ago. and they were successful. but there were standards in place and if you hav