us now is the former agriculture commissioner of texas, the editor of the "hightower lowdown," jim hightower mr. hightower, thank you so much for being here. >> rachel, great to be with you. a joy. >> as somebody who has known and watched rick perry for a long time, has actually campaigned against him before, what do you make of his multipart comeback plan? >> well, you know, lyndon johnson used to say you can't make chicken salad out of chicken manure, though he used a little more barn-yard epithet than "manure." but nonetheless, that's what they're working with. it's not a matter of changing his staff, which he's trying to do. it's a matter of perry himself is the problem. i can tell you, rachel, that this guy in texas, he has put the goober in gubernatorial. >> is he a bright man? he seems to be canny as a politician. he's never lost an election, including running against you, and he's been texas governor for ten years, and texas is a tough state. do you think he is personally a bright person? >> no, i do not. and in fact, you see this oil plan that he's come up with, so-called jobs plan.

before that, he looked like jim hightower had the position. he has been dinged up with a shoulder injury. both are facing philly. i would, too. coach, who is going to start? >> ryan had a heck of a game. any time a guy is averaging seven yards a carry, you are going to give him an opportunity to show us what he can do. and tim when he is healthy has played well. so i think we are in a good situation and we'll see how practice goes this week and make a decision on game day. >> chris cooley spent his day off at redskins park hosting 20 women battling breast cancer. women receive brand-new scarves, wigs, and redskins jersey. cooley's mom is a cancer survivor. it was the day after labor day and danny o'brian shown a national tv audience why the terp nation was gaga over him. a funny thing happened, like the dow jones stock started to drop. he was yanked last week against georgia tech in favor of c.j. brown. quarterback controversy. so coach, who is your man now? >> we are just going to evaluate the quarterback position, just like we do, you know,

jim hightower and the armstrong still limited as you look at going on in the rain.s game will come down to the efficient quarterback. ranks 14th in the league. he has a pepy says in his step. it is always good to get away bit. little >> today was the first time pressman talk to the media. the media has spent plenty of him. alking about statistically he ranks in the of the league's quarterbacks. it is pretty easy to not read or turn on the tv. if he did turn on the tv, he found an unlikely supporter. rick grossman may be the best now. rback right yes, i said it, and i did not spatter. it is hard to forget what he did last season. vick lead the eagles in a monday night victory. it is embarrassing. we then learn from it. the new eagles team is off to start. not let the record for you. everyone talks about the but at the end of the day it is a team that has a lot of firepower. then it was wax figure in new york. look at this. fun.g some come on, man. [laughter] me?you kidding [laughter] how this guy did not have a attack, watch this -- these people are going through mus

well this actually grew out of a little rebellion that katrina and jim hightower and i. started really about a year ago. we brought together a group of. good folks earlier in the year or advocates journalists labor union folks various people with who had who recognized that the corporate power in general and citizens united decision specifically were enormous threats to any any pretense of democracy in this country and. basically people came grew out of that meeting as you know some a an idea that we could get. various parts of the progressive family calling together on a response to citizens united and you have a very specific the budgetary. and i'm told i was going to say you know the nation immediately after that decision which we're coming on two years of we wrote an editorial called democracy in and we said with no quarter for sin a sin a cynicism or compromise this must be the battle of great times in the same way the amendment to end slavery the amendment to bring women's rights the vote women's. the right to vote as you know tom jane i we're talking about this yo

the only time i've seen him an underdog in a statewide election was 1990 against jim hightower. very popular republican. with karl rove's help on rick perry's side, you had karl rove leaking to newspapers including our own information and testimony from a secret grand jury investigating the agriculture department raising questions about corruption. stories in the newspaper. hightower was playing defense and ultimately rick perry won that race. 2002, rick perry went against a democrat, tony sanchez, a banker, a billionaire banker from loredo and the attack, a rather scathing attack at the close of the campaign on television suggested the democratic opponent was involved in some way in the death of drug merchants and drug dealers, also was laundering drug money across the texas border. none of this was true, but perry has shown an ability with the folks around him to go after an opponent hammer and tong. so even though he is behind, if i'm mitt romney, just like kay bailey hutchison, one year ago here, i wouldn't let my guard down. he is a terrific campaigner. >> terrific in the s

i mean, rick perry used pictures of jim hightower with jesse jackson in his first campaign for agricultural commissioner. he attacked his hispanic democratic opponent, a hispanic banker, raising questions whether he was implicit in drug money laundering in mexico. that's racial politics. and you get this kind of thing, if he lied about how much he accepted this, how long he tolerated it, he has a problem. >> you know, from my perspective, chris, i look at this and i say, you know, as i said before, i'll give you the benefit of the doubt in terms of your timeline and what you're saying, but for me, it fundamentally goes to this. if i walk up on a piece of property that i have an interest in, whether i'm leasing it or own it, and i have something so vile that's sitting there in front of me, do i paint over it or do i just remove the damned thing? do i just have someone say, can you take that rock and throw it into the river. can we get it off this property? and that to me is really what this boils down to. you know, we cannot be la lackadaisical about these issues. we cannot be insensitive in