by that point in time eliot spitzer was on a tear. he had figured out that wall street firms were telling suckers all over the country to buy stock in certain companies. not because those companies were a good thing to buy stock in but because wall street was essentially taking money from those companies in order to say that. give us your investment banking business or whatever and yeah, we'll tell suckers all over the country running some retirement fund somewhere, something, we'll tell suckers everywhere to buy your stupid stock. the wall street firm gets whatever business that lousy company wants to kick back to wall street. the company gets people to buy its lousy stock. and the people who get stuck paying the bill is like your uncle jim, the toll taker in cleveland and his pension fund that he thought they'd invest this year with all those smart young guys on wall street. it was a total scam. and wall street was so confident they were never going to get caught for it that they would openly talk about these scams they were pulling

>> eliot spitzer, what do you now know -- >> here's what i didn't know. we get -- one of the great games ever played. >> amazing. >> and it makes you appreciate the beauty of the sport, the grace of the sport. a sport where a clock doesn't dictate the outcome. we're into the last pitch you can come back. >> congratulations. ly say this. i am -- i was born and raised in the bronx a few miles from yankee stadium but born and raised a cubs fan. my dad is from the north side of chicago. i'm duty-bound to hate the st. louis cardinals as a cubs fan. in fact, it was difficult. i was cross-pressured because there's george w. bush sitting in the front row of the texas rangers, versus the cardinals? my cubs fan won out but i'll tip my cap to the st. louis cardinals. congratulations on a great victory. >> i know something a little more abstract and that is the importance of your own moral comass. along with my writings i've railed against the tsa. i decided i would put something behind it and take a nine-hour train ride instead of a one-hour flight. i felt good afte

i found it ironic last night that eliot spitzer was interviewing people talking about these sorts of activities, and that cycle is going on and on. if you want to play a drinking game, you know, who wants to take bets of when we're going to have the first appearance of gloria allred? it's inevitable. i'm getting off the point a little bit here. but at some point i think it was around the time of the o.j. case where you had this confluence of a big public figure, it was a juicy trial, and cable news was just becoming a force. it changed the environment in which we operate, at least criminal system operates. because it's not just cases anymore, it's entertainment. it's a whole media frenzy on big cases. and i don't think that's a very good thing, but that is the environment in which we operate. and lawyers have to deal with that now. >> a very good point. we have some questions from the audience. i'm going to ask the first one for paulette. in taking tony's essence, who he is as a trial lawyer, how does you tell that story in the book? paulette's book is for sale in the lobby and also

you know joshua holland and eliot spitzer on slate had mentioned that they believe the wall street protesters have already won because they've been able to shift the dollar dialogue from deficit discussions to jobs wealth disparity the fact that corporations are buying our politicians issues that actually matter and you're seeing a shift in the mainstream media and they're finally covering topics although they're doing so in a very shallow superficial way they're finally covering topics that are important to the american people now i'm very hesitant to say that occupy wall street has already won because that sounds to bush to me i don't want to hang mission accomplished banner i really want to be careful with what we say when it in terms of achievements i will say that it's great that we've achieved that goal and that people are now finally focusing on issues that really matter to us however we are nowhere close to winning this war and we have to continue fighting so i want people to remain inspired because even though the dialogue has shifted we haven't seen any policies that are different y

eliot spitzer, former governor of new york and former host of the show on cnn.t zuckerman, the chair. a great writer of the atlantic and we will be talking about his new book on sunday. we have a great line up in store. >> thanks again for joining us. you can see chris on his show. up with chris hayes weekend morning saturday at 7:00 and sunday at 8:00 eastern. thanks again. paul ryan, warrior for the wealthiest. >> this so-called tax increase on millionaires and billionaires would constitute a huge tax hike on the nation's most successful small businesses. what's better than gold ? free gold ! we call that hertz gold plus rewards. you earn free days, free weeks and more fast. that's a plus. upgrade your ride. that's a plus. rewards with no blackout dates so you can redeem anytime. and it's easy to redeem your points online. already a gold member ? just select gold plus rewards in your profile and start rewarding yourself now. just go to hertzgoldplusrewards.com to join. hertz gold plus rewards. journey on. if something is simply the color of gold, is it really

he certainly was not eliot spitzer and now probably in that second camp. interesting thoughts. food for thought for me, or irk. thanks so much. that will do it. i'm dylan ratigan. "hardball" is up right now. >>> top 1% quadruple their money. let's play "hardball." >>> good evening. i'm chris matthews up in new york. leading off tonight, has obama finally got the wind at his back? for months we've been watching president obama's tough re-election prospects. now we've spotted some cause, believe it or not, for some real optimism. the president's approval numbers are inching up, but a poll just out today has him still beating all comers in ohio. that's a key state. despite all the debates and gop publicity, and republicans can't seem to settle on a candidate because it seems they really don't like any of them. maybe the president's non-campaign campaign speeches are also helping. one reason president obama may have more of the public on his side is this "new york times" headline, devastating news. it says it all. quote, it's official. the rich get richer. a new non-partisan report

if we caught a terrorists, -- the only significant conviction of the patriot act is eliot spitzer.of soliciting prostitution. in some ways, that is humorous and in some ways, that is poetic justice. in other ways, it should scare you. what is the terrorist risk of the governor of new york? why should that be used? what information is being gathered under the patriot act? i will tell you that your privacy is being invaded on to the patriot act. there is a huge focus on the mathematical modeling. all the mathematical models failed. we were told numerous times that if we just had mathematical models, we would be in great shape. they can be very useful tools, but they have something called detail. -- call the tails. if something is one% probable, gives it enough time. if you build your house in a flood plain, you will have a flood. nobody can mathematically modeled human behavior under stress. all these models collapse. one of the biggest myths right now is that banks are being encouraged to make loans. the banking regulators have dramatically tightened lending standards. this happened