. >>> all that plus richard wolffe, e.j. dionne and terry sewell of alabama if the republicans believe the president is a muslim you're watching "the ed show" special coverage here on msnbc of mississippi and alabama we're right back. , minnesota. in here, the landscaping business grows with snow. to keep big winter jobs on track, at&t provided a mobile solution that lets everyone from field workers to accounting, initiate, bill, and track work in real time. you can't live under a dome in minnesota, that's why there's guys like me. [ male announcer ] it's a network of possibilities -- helping you do what you do... even better. ♪ ♪ imagine zero pollutants in our environment. or zero dependency on foreign oil. ♪ this is why we at nissan built a car inspired by zero. because zero is worth everything. the zero gas, 100% electric nissan leaf. innovation for the planet. innovation for all. >>> polls are closed in alabama and mississippi, and alabama the race is too early to call. in mississippi, that race is also too early to call. more

. >> e.j. dionne joins us. >>> republicans just can't bring themselves to criticize rush limbaugh in any way, shape or form. the gop candidates have been so critical of president obama but they will not condemn out rainous attacks by a commercial talk show host. mitt romney punted on his first chance to address rush limbaugh. he was given a second chance and ran away from it again. >> my campaign is about jobs and the economy and scaling back the size of government and i'm not going to weigh in on that particular controversy. >> not going to weigh in on it. romney says he's not going to weigh in on rush limbaugh. because it's not what his campaign is about. really? mitt, it doesn't have anything to do with money? romney's former company bought rush limbaugh's syndicator, premiere radio in 2008, an article in the daily beast described the valuable relationship between clear channel communications and mitt romney. how about this, 14 clear channel directors have personally given more than $726,000 to mit

e.j. dionnehe washington post," thank you very much for joining me tonight. >> good to be with you. >>> coming up, we do have breaking news on the advertising stampede away from rush limbaugh. we've just learned that national advertising on the rush limbaugh radio show has been suspended. that's going to be next when we come back. >>> and in "rewrite," mitt romney turned 65 today and celebrated his eligibility for medicare by lying about medicare, knowing full well that the press will let him get away with it. [ ringing ] hello? [ sea ] hello, this is the sea calling. [ laughing ] [ sea ] what's the last romantic thing he did for you? ohh, i don't know... ummm... did you have to do that to me? what counts as romantic? is somebody watching me somewhere? like emptying the dishwasher? [ laughing ] is this your mother? ♪ ♪ consider the journey of today's athletes: ♪ their training depends on technology. [ beeping, ticks ] and when their devices are powered by a battery, there are athletes everywhere

joining me now are "washington post" opinion writer and nbc political writer e.j. dionne and former communications director and an msnbc political analyst karen finney. thank you both for joining me tonight. e.j., you have breaking news from one of the advertisers who has dropped rush limbaugh. tell us about it. >> i didn't think it was breaking news, but i happened to be at a dinner tonight. and david friend of the carbonite company, one of the companies that dropped -- >> longtime -- i've been listening to rush for years, many, many years. carbonite's been with him for at least ten years, maybe more. >> you know, we tend to, when we talk about this, to make it all about politics. and i asked him the simple question at dinner, why did you drop your advertising? and he said, i have daughters the same age as the woman he attacked. and i think that the reason this was different -- i mean, rush limbaugh has said a lot of outrageous things about a lot of people over the years. we tend to let it go by when he says it about public figures. and in fairness, some people on our si

e.j. dionnef "the washington post," thank you very much for joining me tonight. >> good to be with you. >>> coming up, we do have breaking news on the advertising stampede away from rush limbaugh. we've just learned that national advertising on the rush limbaugh radio show has been suspended. that's going to be next when we come back. >>> and in "rewrite," mitt romney turned 65 today and celebrated his eligibility for medicare by lying about medicare, knowing full well that the press will let him get away with it. [ female announcer ] wish you had that list huh? the one you swore you could memorize. that's the all-natural straight from the earth sugar she puts on her grapefruit. but is she eating sugar this week? she ate pizza. but she did blot it with a napkin. maybe she wants the all natural, zero calorie stuff. but if you're wrong, you're insinuating she's fat. ♪ save yourself. it's only natural. in here, the landscaping business grows with snow. to keep big winter jobs on track, at&t provided

. >> joining me now, e.j. dionne with "the washington post," also an msnbc contributor, and former labor secretary, robert reich, a professor of public policy at the university of california-berkeley. he's the author of "aftershock: the next economy and america's future," now available in paperback. thank you both for joining me tonight. the bob kerry news, i think, has changed the dynamics for the democratic senate campaign committee, as patty murray told me. e.j., you've been watching bob kerry campaign for a long time. you saw him campaign for president back in 1992. he is polling reasonably well in nebraska. he has a 39% favorable view right now, of bob kerry, unfavorable view, which is remarkably low in nebraska, for anyone with the word "democrat" associated with their name. and 27% to have open minds and they're ready to hear what he has to say. do you think bob kerry, who's been living in new york for about the last them years or so, can go back to nebraska and take back that senate seat? >> i think he's got

e.j. dionne in "the washington post" put it, i think quite eloquently when he said yesterday, "romney's plan is simultaneously extreme and very, very boring. it draws on the one and only idea that today's conservatives offer for solving any and every problem that comes along. just throw yet more money at rich people." >> the only reason i disagree with e.j. dionne on that is that mitt romney's is the only plan of the four gopers that has any element of progressivity in it as all. he says he would close the loopholes for the top 1% so they don't pay -- >> for which rick santorum has said he has adopted the rhetoric of occupy wall street. >> right. and he also, there is -- everybody else would totally eliminate the estate tax, totally eliminate on taxes on capital gains and te ductideduc. so they are getting rid of almost all tax receipts in their plans. and mitt romney doesn't get any credit for being at least a little progressive. i would love to ask ezra, the conservative argument is that there

"washington post" columnist e.j. dionne.'s "politics nation" and president of the national action network, our own reverend al sharpton. rev, good to see you. and republican congresswoman of tennessee, marsha blackburn. welcome to all of you. let's start with senator santorum and look at my key questions for the week as we face them. can each of these candidates, romney and santorum, expand their appeal. you saw the math. can romney expand it in the south and can santorum expand it for the party? for romney, can he make the math, because he's in the middle of the math in terms of the primaries, and for president obama, what we've been talking about as well, is he going to get credit for an improving economy, or will he be tagged as somebody still facing bad numbers and is not recovering the economy quickly enough? that's our backdrop. peggy noonan, start us off. how do you see this race right now? >> i think you still have to say that mr. romney is the one everybody watches because he is still the front runner. others have r

and e.j. dionneumnist and msnbc contributor, who's also written extensively about the gop and the economy. thanks for joining me tonight. >> good to be with you, reverend. >> nice to be here. >> michael, let me start with you. >> sure. >> what's the evidence that republicans are deliberately trying to tank the economy? >> well, look at what they do in congress, al. look at what they've been doing, basically, since obama took office. but especially since they took control of the house of representatives. look, there's no question that as they seek, for example, these drastic budget cuts, cuts to the domestic budget, there's no question that they believe that ideologically, and so that they're simply for that. i don't doubt that. but they're not stupid. they know, and they understand that when you make these drastic cuts to the domestic discretionary budget, which is actually a very small chunk of the federal budget, and you reduce dramatically the amount of money that washington is sending out to stat

i'll introduce my first co-moderator for the day, e.j. dionne, washington post columnist that will make introductory remarks and comment on the presentations after they've been made and we'll hear from a couple of university of virginia professors, and jim caesar, professor of politics at uva. next we'll hear from john halpin center fellow from the center of american progress and finally matt spaulding vice president for american studies at the heritage foundation. e.j.? >> first, it's great to see people here, happy holidays and to those that celebrate, merry christmas and happy hanukkah. i want to thank bill for putting together what is a genuinely fair and balanced event which doesn't always happen in washington. bill and i have been agreeing for about a quarter century on the importance of community and disagreeing about what progressives make of the idea of community for about that long, and it's just great to be with him. i just want to say something about each of the panelists. sid's book on the 1912 election absolutely everyone should re

. >> e.j. dionne, always great to have you here with us. >>> he signed the stand your ground law in florida but jeb bush ant talking about trayvon martin. and next i'll explain why the former governor is missing a real opportunity to lead. stay tuned. >>> up next, jeb bush has weighed in on the presidential race this week but silent entree von martin, because it is a law he signed. >>> and the race between tammy duckworth and tea party congressman, joe walsh. tammy joins me later. >>> in the wake of the killing >>> in the wake of the killing of trayvon martin, some legislators have come forward and expressed their dismay over the total failure of the state's stand your ground law. it allowed george zimmerman to kill an unarmed teenager, claim self-defense and walk free. one person we have yet to hear from is former governor jeb bush. he signed the stand your ground law in 2005 with an nra lobbyist at his side. here's what he had to say at the time. >> it's common sense to allow people to defend themse

. >> richard wolffe, e.j. dionne, great to have you with us. that is "the ed show," i'll return at 11:00 for another live edition of "the ed show." msnbc's special election coverage continues now with "the rachel maddow show". good evening. >> this is turning out to be unexpectedly exciting night. >> it's a horse race, we will see if the $2.50 gas promised worked for newt gingrich before the night is over. >> talk to you later, man, thank you very much. >>> thanks to you at home for being with us for this exciting hour. this is in fact a big election night. who would have thunk it. it is a really election night there is a ton of suspense what will happen. election night in alabama, mississippi and in the great state of hawaii as well. now as you know the polls just closed about an hour ago, exactly an hour ago, in mississippi and alabama. the latest results that we have from alabama and mississippi right now, in mississippi, nbc is declaring the race there to be too close to call. also a three-way race, 6% in with the vote in in mississippi, mi

tennessee congresswoman marsha blackburn, "the washington post's" e.j. dionnell street journal's" peggy noonan.

e.j. dionneng yesterday said three days of supreme court arguments over health care law demonstrated for all to see that conservative judges are prepared to act as an alternative legislature diving deeply into policy details as if they were members of the senate health, education, labor and pensions committee. as a court watcher were you surprised by this? >> i was surprised by the level of detail on day three. severability is a fancy word for a simple thing, which is if you find one bad part of a law and congress has said no matter what they want the rest of the law to stand, in many cases the court will just let it stand. meaning the question is not how would it all work, but rather, whether the congressional intent was to leave the rest. and partly because the obama administration moved around on this and partly because the skourt an an assertive mood they scheduled a lot of extra unusual argument for people who don't want the court regularly this is not normal. this was an extra day just to d

e.j. dionne, they had everything breaking their direction, and they just weren't smart enough to pull back when they should have pulled back. and now a month later, the president is killing them in polls. >> it is classic triangulation. the president's up here saying there's a balance between religious liberty and access to healthcare, and he's being helped by some democrats and some liberals just talking about it as a contraception issue. and then you've got republicans who are just talking about it as a religious liberty issue. it's killing them. and they've only made it worse by the fact that some people have been out there, again, just talking about religious liberty, an important principle. but totally disregarding the politics of the concerns and other concerns about the contraception issue. it is a great example of the fact the president knows what he's doing and the republican party is leaderless, and it has no idea what it's doing. >> while everyone was pounding the president on this, yo