when a lot of people think about that story, they think about jim demint but your story says it is this duo, two guys that are younger than jim demint that have taken it and turned it away from being a think tank into a pure partisan war machine. tell us who they are and how they've done this. >> my piece focuses on michael ne. dham, 31, the ceo of heritage action. that i title is significant. he has a lieutenant, tim chapman, who is the coo. they were helped to be put in place by the chairman of the heritage foundation. a guy named saunders, a wall street banker in the '80s. when he was elected to the board in 2009, he pushed for a more aggressive approach, for heritage to take a more aggressive approach on the hill and to create a lobbying arm. by this point, michael needham had served as chief of staff to

against you even know your former colleague jim demint is going to run ads against you. now even ted cruz is getting wishy washing when it comes to purity. joe scarborough lakes it say, if republicans want to win, they better put up candidates who can win races instead of using races. >> thank you so much all of you. coming up, what if the gop numbers guy, paul ryan, had his way with the global economy? a worst case scenario survival guide is straight ahead. avo: the volkswagen "sign then drive" sales event is back. which means it's never been easier to get a new passat, awarded j.d. power's most appealing midsize car, two years in a row. and right now you can drive one home for practically just your signature.

will they heed jim demint on this and vote against her. i have no idea what republicans are going to do on this. republican politics right now are amazing. they would have to go amazing to try to gin up a republican revolt against somebody like janet yellen. but they are that amazing and they are not like the rest of politics here in this country or anywhere else in the world. my insurance rates are probably gonna double. but, dad, you've got... [ voice of dennis ] allstate. with accident forgiveness, they guarantee your rates won't go up just because of an accident. smart kid. [ voice of dennis ] indeed. are you in good hands? i have a big meeting when we land, but i am so stuffed up, i can't rest. [ male announcer ] nyquil cold and flu liquid gels don't unstuff your nose. they don't? alka seltzer plus night fights your worst cold symptoms, plus has a decongestant. [ inhales deeply ] oh. what a relief it is.

blood fuel between senator mcconnell and jim demint right here in kentucky. >> the mcconnell poll numbers, right now whether he's polling versus bevin, his primary challenger, or polling versus his democratic challenger aren't great. and he has the highest profile you can possibly have in the senate. and i'm wondering why he thinks pushing hard is going to be pushing effectively. what's the battle plan? >> well, that was my first question as well, when mitch mcconnell unleashed this really withering attack last week on matt bevin, my first response was, wow, this will backfire. he will make matt bevin if bevin can't make himself a candidate. i think that while it looks like senator mcconnell is operating from a position of weakness, and i agree, those poll numbers are anemic at best, but he's sort of feels like he's got the moxie, he's got the blood and guts to really sort of take on the matt bevins of the world, the senate conservative fund. and he's the one, he thinks of himself as a knife fighter. and he thinks that he's the one who can give them the fight that they've been spoiling fo

when congress was debating health care in 2009, republican senator, jim demint, predicted it would beaterloo. we are going to break him on this. he hasn't stopped doing that ever since. it is a request that he has finished at the heritage foundation. the heritage foundation that demint took over was and is very different than the one that produced that health care policy paper all those years ago. it is one where the think tank wing has taken a back seat to the political action wing, something called heritage action. it's heritage action with its legislative score cards serving as measurements of conservative purity that set a radical goal this year. the end of obama care through the shutting down of the federal government in the threat of a debt-ceiling default. it was the threat of landing on the wrong side of heritage and getting a bad number on the scorecard that kept all those republicans in line for so long as the government closed down, as their poll numbers dropped, as they asked themselves, why are we doing this all again, 24 years before the shutdown. it was the heritage fou

so no, jim demint, it's not terrorism, and no bushes, it's not katrina. and no, senator ayotte, your joke of a plan is no plan at all. here is the plan. we have a health care law and it's already working. right now. joining me now congressman emanuel cleaver and salon's joan walsh. thank you both for coming on tonight. >> good to be with you, reverend. >> congressman, let me go to you first. what do you make of all of this? >> i think it's silly to talk about something that costs american lives and a program that was approved by congress, upheld by the supreme court designed to provide health insurance for all americans. i think many of my colleagues on the other side are actually hoping for rain instead of sunshine. because they fear the sunshine because it will give people insurance and they think it will be political arepercussions tha will hurt them. >> joan, you know, repeatedly the gop said our health system is just fine. the way it is is just fine. >> best in the world. >> in fact, senator john barossa repeated that this weekend. >> it's time to st

i think this guy sees beyond that, and he wants some kind of jim demint gig where you really don't havet the american people to elect you president. you don't have to conduct that awesome responsibility of being president. when jim demint left the senate, he got a driver and a limo and a big fat expense account. >> you think he wants to elevate himself and then make the big bucks. okay. >> yeah. he's heading for k street. don't let him fool you. >> all right. he recently made a joke about a nigerian scammers that he was asked to apologize for. here it is. >> you know, have y'all noticed you ow the nigerian e-mail scammers? they've been a lot less active lately because they've all been hired to run the obama care website. >> i mean, he just has no feel. there just are some people out there that can be passionate. but when it's time to do a bit of comedy, they bomb. >> i bet he's going to be on his best behavior when on with leno. let's assume he's got a boiler room full of joke writers sanitizing what he does so that it makes his point but it's more acceptable than that. i predict he'll

will they heed jim demint on this and vote against her. >>> i have no idea what republicans are goingo do on this. republican politics right now are amazing. they would have to go amazing to try to gin up a republican revolt against somebody like janet yellen. but they are that amazing and they are not like the rest of politics here in this country or anywhere else in the world. >>> happy almost thanksgiving. without fail, this time of year, you can always count on an influx of news stories to alert you that people are, for example, camping outside your local big box store or there is a long list of ways that you are allowed to cook a turkey, or there's a war on christmas, and you are on one side of that war that you don't want to be. tonight we're having a particularly ripe experience of the problem and maybe part of the solution. is just ahead. [ female announcer ] we eased your back pain... ♪ ready or not. [ female announcer ] ...so you can be up there. here i come! [ female announcer ] ...down there, around there... and under there for him. tylenol® provides strong pain relief and

will they heed jim demint on this and vote against her. >>> i have no idea what republicans are goingo do on this. republican politics right now are amazing. they would have to go amazing to try to gin up a republican revolt against somebody like janet yellen. but they are that amazing and they are not like the rest of politics here in this country or anywhere else in the world. # # lovely read susan. but isn't it time to turn the page on your cup of joe? gevalia, or a cup of johan, is like losing yourself in a great book. may i read something? yes, please. of course. a rich, never bitter taste cup after cup. net weight 340 grams. [ sighs ] [ chuckles ] [ announcer ] always rich, never bitter. gevalia. [ announcer avo: thesales event never bitter"sis back. drive" which means it's never been easier to get a new passat, awarded j.d. power's most appealing midsize car, two years in a row. and right now you can drive one home for practically just your signature. get zero due at signing, zero down, zero deposit, and zero first month's payment on any new 2014 volkswagen. hurry, this offer e

scott was appointed by governor nikki haley to fill jim demint's old seat. by winning a special election earlier this month, cory booker became just the fourth black person voters have elected to the senate since reconstruction. joining edward brooke in 1996, carol mostly ann, and barack obama in 2004. before them, there was hiram revels, a mississippi state senator who was selected by state lawmakers in 1870 to fill a vacant u.s. senate seat. "the new york times" wrote about his swearing in this way. quote, his demeanor was as dignified as could be expected under the circumstances. the abuse which had been poured upon him and on his race within the last two days the might well have shaken the nerves of any one." as you can imagine, 1870, much of that abuse was blatantly racist. they wrote of a descendant of a orangutan in congress. the first african-american to serve a full senate term was also from mississippi. his name was blanche bruce. and both of these men were elected before the passage of the 17th amendment in 1913, when senators were chosen by state

the public face of this transformation has been jim demint, the hardline warrior for tea party purity who abandoned his senate seat -- the guy was a sitting senator at the start of the year -- to go and become the group's president. perhaps just as important has been this guy, mike needham, the 31-year-old ceo of heritage action, the koch brothers-backed activist branch of the heritage foundation. even more than ted cruz, who was featured on heritage action's defund obama care forum in august, needham and his group were the driving force behind the defund obama care at any cost strategy that brought about the government shutdown debacle. this in spite of the fact that as he admitted as the shutdown was finally ending, needham always knew it was doomed. >> with a democrat in the white house and harry reid with the majority in the senate, what can you do? >> well, everybody understands that we're not going to be able to repeal this law until 2017 and that we have to win the senate and we have to win the white house. >> everybody understands! as you might imagine, republican staffers who

jim demint's first year maybe has not been the most positive. >> well, look -- >> i'm the only one ingo ahead. >> senator lee's speech was at heritage, but i certainly think former senator demint's philosophy we would be better off with 30 hard core conservative senators is deeply mistaken. >> david gregory, of course, it's hard to figure out where we are going here. you have the democratic party that obviously -- it's just washington in general. americans are disgusted with washington in general. >> right. you have talked about this but i think it bears repeating. the huge test of obama care and why this start, this failed start mattered so much is that the brand of whether the government brand can pull this off is a huge question. it is a huge question. to your point whether you have companies that get out of the health care business and steer people into exchanges, most of which are run by the federal government. the ability for them to administer a big technological rollout. then to nicolle's point to help manage the implementation of the plans and try to bend the cost curve when

jim demint said i would rather have 33 people agree with me 100% of the time which is the opposite ofme 80% of the time isn't my political oh opponent. we see the consequence of what a contracting republican party looks like in virginia. >> look at new jersey for a minute, too. governor christie himself. >> he's not hiding this. he said the country is watching. we'll show how republicans can win. do we take too much away? is this a new jersey story for the republican party or can it be a national story? >> if republicans want to make it a national story, they can. i don't know if republicans want to unite because the message is you don't govern. you do what you can get done. govern with the state legislature that you have. >> you work with the other side. >> it is -- listen to what we could have today. an historic, once in a generation issue. no republican in a statewide race got over 50% since george w. bush in 1988. >> no pro-life governor has been elected statewide since row v. wade passed. >> this ticket could lead to the first democratic sweep where democrats hold all five statew