. >> let me go over to dana milbanks. cuccinelli's positions are extreme, but so are the republican's national platform. even talking about birth control seems odd, and talking about making it more difficult for a woman to divorce her husband. it seem the medieval. >> kathleen's right, terry mcauliffe did do an awful lot -- >> he ran a negative. >> nobody did more to make ken cuccinelli look bad than ken cuccinelli. >> he's focused on the cultural issues. that's what makes him particularly weird. >> this coalition for republicans in the long run is doomed. that doesn't mean they're doomed in next year's midyear elections. they've got a real demographic problem down the road. but this shows that they can still compete. they can still stay there. now cuccinelli wasn't an ideal candidate. certainly mcauliffe wasn't an ideal candidate. >> bill bolling is seen by many in his party as a better chance to take on mcauliffe, but he dropped out. bolling never endorsed cuccinelli. yesterday he had strong negative words for his party

the washington post's dana milbank joins me. alex, i have to ask you about this. this is a concerted effort, it seems to me, to do what everybody fears might happen naturally, but the republicans want to make sure it's going to happen. if young, healthy people do not enroll, and only the people with real health care problems, this program is going to cause higher rates. if they can jam as many people out of this in scare tactics about the fact that they're going to be watched over by the chinese or somebody's going to get all their valuable information as if it's that valuable and interesting. and that women tend to know more than men about what's covered. this is an effort to sabotage this program. don't they deserve some credit for ruining it if they do? >> i think the credit rests on their doorstep if we can even call it credit. two points i'd say in response to your questions. one, i don't think you can scare people with this idea that their information is getting shared. fundamental young people in the 21st century are much more digitally savvy and open about

joining us now is ryan grim of the huffington post and political columnist dana milbank. s a profile today of ted cruz as a harvard law student. in those days, senator cruz played the role of reverend samuel paris, the villain in the great play "the crucible." according to miller, there is little to be said for the character cruz played. so is this another case of life perhaps i mitating art? >> let's see. you have a pious, paranoid, self-important guy who launches witch hunts. i don't see any parallel there at all, martin. >> thank you very much. that's excellent. and, of course, don't forget, dana, that the reverend paris, at the end of the play, is exposed as a sniffling parasite, isn't he? >> oh, i left a piece out, didn't i? >> you did. >> yes, it does seem to be a case of life imitating art. the interesting thing about ted cruz, whether you go back to his college years, law school, as a young man in washington, texas solicitor in the senate. no matter what else people thought of his ideas or anything, friends, foes, alike, all seem to think he is personally something

joining me now is dana milbank from the "washington post." dana, thank you for joining me. >> hi, reverend. >> you wrote something in your new column that really struck me, dana. the president announced the details of the iran nuke deal at 10:34 p.m. saturday night. but an hour and a half earlier at 9:08 p.m., former bush press secretary ari fleischer sent out a tweet that said, quote, the iran deal and our allies. you can't spell abandonment without obama. attacking the deal before it was even announced? classic. they exposed their true agenda. they don't care about policy. they only care about opposing this president, dana. >> i think, reverend, that the president could have struck a deal to promote mother hood, baseball, and apple pie around the world and republicans would have reflexively disapproved of it. and it is sort of -- to call it knee jerk, i think is -- i think the rejection of anything obama does goes more quickly than a knee jerk response. it is truly automatic here. now, in this case what they're saying is any talking with ira

joining me now are michelle cottle andd dana milbank.eing here. >> hi. >> thanks. >> what do you make of palin saying that chris christie has an extreme appearance? >> we got to give her props for not just coming out and calling him fat boy or some other hateful name. she doesn't like his politics. she's made an entire career lately of put iting sound bites over any electability. anything is fair game with her at this point. >> you know, dana, i mean, what do you think about her bringing this up? i mean, as a former extreme looking guy myself, maybe i'm a little too sensitive. >> well, extremism in defense of obesity is no vice, reverend. but i think sarah palin is in an interesting position to be saying it's fair to comment on somebody because they're extreme which of course is just the way we've been describing sarah palin these last many years. i'm sure she now approves of the way people have characterized her extreme ideology. >> yeah, well, but we've never talked about her appearance. you know, we notice she doesn't like chris chris

joining me to talk about the politics, "washington post" opinion writer dana milbank and msnbc contributor james peterson. thank yo thanks to you both for joining me. dana, i want to start with you. already there are suggestions maybe this is some kind of distraction from obama care. when we learned from the associated press that actually these talks began a very long time, in fact, something that the president said he wanted to be a priority right after he became president. >> yeah. well, from the point of view of the republican critics, this deal has one very important flaw in it. that is it was negotiated by the obama administration. >> right. >> so, i mean, it doesn't matter. the president could come out with some statement in favor of motherhood and apple pie and the republicans are going to be opposed to it. so i think the fact that they're opposed to it, the fact they were opposed to it before seeing the nature of the deal indicates all you need to know. but it is a reflective opposition. and sort of silly in this case since they're actually talking about a very short-term reversibl

thank you, raul and dana milbank. >>> next, the rallying cry for states' rights reaches deafening levels under our first black president. coincidence? that's coming up. [ woman ] too weak. wears off. [ female announcer ] stop searching and start repairing. eucerin professional repair moisturizes while actually repairing very dry skin. the end of trial and error has arrived. try a free sample at eucerinus.com. it's been a happy union. he does laundry, and i do the cleaning. there's only two of us... how much dirt can we manufacture? more than you think. very little. [ doorbell rings ] [ lee ] let's have a look, morty. it's a sweeper. what's this? what's that? well we'll find out. we'll find out. [ lee ] it goes under all the way to the back wall. i came in under the assumption that it was clean. i've been living in a fool's paradise! oh boy... there you go... morty just summed it up. the next 44 years we'll be fine. >>> next, the battle cry for states' rights. it's more like a dog whistle. and it's a very busy sunday.

with us from washington is dana milbank, political column inconsistent from "the washington post" andn from the american enterprise institute and author of "it's even worse than it looks." dana, "saturday night live" has the president gulping down antidepressants. columnists like your good self are asking, quote, does the health care fumble mean game over for obama? are you suggesting, dana, that the president should just roll up the rugs, pack up the truck and head back to chicago? >> sure. maybe call mitt romney and see if he wants to take over. >> he certainly doesn't have much to do at the moment. >> no, right. he's free. no, i don't think so. and i don't pretend to know the level of depression or -- that's going on in the president's mind. what i'm looking at is there's sort of a polling phenomenon. once you lose the public's sense that you are trustworthy, that you are honest and trustworthy, we never see presidents recover from that. that doesn't mean he's finished. he can certainly -- hopefully get the health care and all the problems we have seen so far fixed. he may have ach

we'll bring in dana milbank now, political columnist for "the washington post." e's the solution. problem solved oh. let's elect some republicans and that will fix the affordable care act. >> i am sure republicans will appreciate that endorsement. they have tried that a couple times now, and they're trying it in virginia tomorrow. so far, the american people aren't going along with that plan. now, if these problems are real, and the problems with obama care are not fixed, that's an entirely different story. but i don't think it's an outright panic at this moment. >> one of the things that mitt romney did get right, dana, he is not in fact president of the united states. >> he's got that right. >> there is a new book that talks about the process he was going through called "double down," the game change sequel and claims that republican elders got so freaked out by mitt romney's inability to defeat rick santorum, the former pennsylvania senator about halfway through the republican primaries, they actually secretly hatched a white knight scenario to draft a savior c

. >> i want to bring in our company, the "washington post" columnist, dana milbank, manu raju from politicogood morning, guys. >> good morning. >> what's this shaping up to look like, dana? how big a battle is this going to be? >> it's been an ongoing battle for a long period of time, not just in the stimulus but also in the farm bill, also with the sequestration. and, you know, it goes back to remember during the campaign when newt gingrich talked about this being the food stamp president and republicans have taken on this issue like it's a second phase of welfare reform. in a way, welfare reform worked because there was this safety net of food. now if you're actually going to make people go hungry and the impression that you're going after abusers of the program, they're going to wind up hurting a lot of kids and a lot of older folks. >> in fact let me go through some of the stats because they're very instructive. 87% of food stamp recipients are in homes with kids, seniors or people with disabilities. more than one in four children live in households that get food stamps. we're also talk

. >> let me go to dana milbank of the washington post. you know, we read him all the time. this character, daryl issa, he spent like $30 million trying to get elected to the senate. that wouldn't work. but he wanted to get as much publicity as the senator so he comes over to this oversight committee with the expression intention of be being acrimonious. of being a noise maker and trying to destroy anything that gets in the way. it has aspects of the old days of the witch-hunts and he keeps finding new witches. >> he viewed the obama administration as corrupt. and he has been seeking to demonstrate it ever since then. we see the same pattern over and over again. you'll have something where something went wrong. fast and furious, benghazi, the obama care rollout, and he takes this leap, perhaps a kangaroo sized leap if you will, and says there's high level political scandal in the white house that's politically motivated, and that's what's driving this problem. and then he'll selectively leak some testimony to make it look like it's supporting his point. then it all comes out

. >> we have contributing editor at "member conservative magazine ," and dana milbank. >> what did they do? >> they stonewalled and did not open their mouth. it always leads to more questions from the media as the media should know, however, they bet all their marble on a guy who lied to them. they said they had systems in place to do it. the apology was rockstar. >> given the response of the beach -- benghazi story, the credibility of the witness has collapsed. how bad? >> a bad mistake. they had the book publisher from the same division so they knew they would make a lot of money but also what needs to be told is the story of the pressure that the independent groups like media matters but on "60 minutes." hillary clinton pushing back on everything on benghazi including questions of the timeline of the night and where the mohammed video came from, those questions are being stopped by an enormous amount of pressure from independent groups on behalf of hillary clinton. if the story was wrong as it appears, isn't the prior pressure warranted? >> yes, any story that any network or journali

msnbc contributor jimmy williams, and dana milbank, who is a political columne esist fo "the washingtonost." dana, you have to help me. i don't understand the right wing reaction to this election. they're attacking chris christie who won his election but the cuch who lost is now being elevated into a martyr for what? his crusade against the affo affordable care act? >> well, they want to figure out a way to steal defeat from the jaws of victory. >> exactly. >> look, i think there is an element within the party, the republican party, the tea party, that would rather have some sort of a heroic defeat, a heroic failure, than an actual victory. there's a path to salvation staring them in the face and that's chris christie, by far and away the candidate most likely to have a victory in 2016. and he's the last guy they want to see get through a republican primary. so i think this is -- it's sort of the purity test gone mad here and the idea is we'd rather go down in flames and be pure about it than actually win an election. >> jimmy, it hasn't even been a full 48 hours since the cuch slumped

joining me now are michael eric dyson and dana milbank.for coming on the show. >> hi, reverend. >> michael, nullification surfaced at the final rally for a republican candidate last night. what's your thought on this? >> we've been celebrating the 50th anniversary of the march on washington and that speech that martin luther king jr. made. remember he said about those southern politicians whose lips were dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, this is what he was referring to. interposition is close lly alli to nullification. the idea states have the right to push back on federal law. and nullification is not only to push back on it, but to really refuse to implement it on the local level. so here we have the harkening back as you give the history lesson to those who are unaware of the uses of these principles to make unconstitutional any attempt of the federal government to impose justice on local municipalities and to have federal law recognize as it justly deserves to be. what happens here is cuccinelli and rand are

dana milbank and joy reed, let's start with the bushes. thankful for. but tensions may lurk under the surface now that jeb has an eye on the white house himself. after all, it's practically a family tradition. but he couldn't be very pleased when his own mother played down his prospects in 2016. here's how she responded. >> he's by fall the best qualified man, but no. there are just, there are other people out there that have very qualified. and we've had enough bushes. >> if you were a fly on the wall at the bushes, do you think this is an issue to be discussed? >> i think the other thing for jeb bush that's really unfortunate for his potential plan is that the neocons are back. he probably wants to roach across the table and say george, please get the neocons to stop talking about me. >> you're talking about iran. >> absolutely. >> your assessment of how thanksgiving plays it out at the bush compound? >> i think the dynamic is that you have the older brother has crashed the car. and now the number two brother did not get to drive it to t

this is what the "washington post" dana milbank wrote. in a narrow sense, there may well be enough time to salvage obama care, but on the broader question of whether obama can rebuild an effective presidency after this debacle, it's starting to look as if it may be game over. is it game over and if not, how does the president come back from this? >> well, one, it's a little frustrating that we kind of pundit this and talk about it as if it's a game but because health care is actually about real people's lives. so i want to lead with that point. in terms of the obama legacy, at the end of the day, obama care and his legacy is going to be about helping people, about protecting consumers from predatory insurance companies, about making sure that no matter who you you are, no matter how much income you have, you are not going to be financially strapped because you you are in poor health. and we have to remember that congress has not been with the house particularly not willing to work with the president on anything. obama care or anything els

. >> so let's take it to the bank, "washington post" dana milbank, that is. as our favorite d.c. cynic. what do you make of these snubz. >> i'm not a cynic, just a little -- >> they are disappointing numbers of course, but expectations are so low. if they -- the fact they made it out of the double digits is going to surprise some folks. but of course, you know, the people are just pouncing at this point. i was on a conference call this morning and it was just painful. i think she should -- after the q and a in there she'll qualify for some sort of trauma coverage under obama care. but this is a person who is looking really strong for re-election just couple months ago and upended by this. they have to fix this and fast. the administration wants to spin this, the matters speak for themselves, estimated 500,000 the first month of october. it's well below that, just 50,000 so far. and naturally you have the insurance companies and the folks that have already enrolled that are incredibly nervous as we know with low enrollment the premiums could go up, but i want to focus on the polit

we've got dana milbank writing a scathing op-ed titled "the democrats naked power grab." he wrote if congress wasn't broken before, it certainly is now. what reid did was take the chamber of congress that still functioned at a modest level and turned ed ied it into a clone other that functions not at all. they turned the senate into the house. sir, do you agree with that and do you feel there is a right to have this reaction, especially when we look at the tape from 2005 when we had senator hillary clinton, we had joe biden, we had the senator then barack obama saying that this was a terrible thing that the republicans could do and now here we are less than a decade later and the democrats have done it? >> harry reid's leadership here, the majority leader's intervention was fundamentally and profoundly necessary and important because right now the senate has not been working on judicial nominations and executive appointments. the last five years have seen about half of all the filibusters on these nominations that occurred in the last 200 years. so it is used now at an un

jenna: dana milbank wrote in the "washington post" how the gop rhetoric is scaring people away and isg the law and success of the law because of the scare tactics. steve, whether or not you agree with that point there is a big question about the gop tactics here. we've heard for the last three years about how horrible this bill is according to republicans. their tone hasn't changed. their poll numbers also haven't changed. their few of health care hasn't come through. so should the gop revisit their strategy? should there be a change in tone? >> it is difficulty for the democrats and the president ordain that milbank or any of these people blame any of these problems or on republicans since it is quite true the republicans have basically clean hands on this they didn't vote for it. they haven't supported it. they didn't write the web page that isn't working. now look, it is true that republicans are not invested in it, they don't want to see this thing succeed. by the way that is one of the reasons, jenna, when you do a major reform in america, to major social program, you've got to d

let's get to our "brain trust," dana milbank, bob franken and amy holmes. good to see you all. days ago. in it you talked about the president and the white house excluding photographers from certain photoo ops. you said, you don't have to alter photographs to make them misleading. releasing photos selected to to show the most flattering -- they say it's a matter of convenience. you can't get all the photographers in one room for a medal ceremony, whatnot. if not that, what? >> they also say they're using new technologies that weren't available before. president kennedy didn't have flickr at his disposal. they're keeping professional photographers, independent photographers out of the room and having the in-house photographer taking pictures of the president and then releasing it. and these get their way into circulation. in some cases, they're actually doctored images like that famous situation room photo when they're going on the rate of osama bin laden. even when they're not actually doctoring it, those photos are designed to put the president in the best possible light. whit

dana milbank, columnist for "the washington post," bob franken and mercedes shop, political commentator have you all here today. bob, i'll start with you. there are so many "what ifs" when it comes to the kennedy legacy. one of the biggest is the vietnam war. i was born in vietnam. i am a product of that war. michael cohen writes in "foreign policy" kennedy was a reluctant hawk who believed that the united states should try to prevent south vietnam from falling to the communist but who also avoided deploying american combat troops. lbj had a different take on vietnam and it ultimately became the issue that drove him from the white house. how different was the johnson approach from the kennedy approach on policy, bob? >> well, the kennedy approach was to use special forces to put advisers on the ground. and after president johnson took over, he kept on expanding at the behest of the generals, and then there was the gulf of tonkin resolution which has shown to have been based on some misleading information. and of course as you point out, he was forced out of office because of his role in