and people worry that jim messina thinks too much like max baucus. >> when messina worked pour balk es was very much thought of as the enforcer. you could say he was just doing his job but -- >> i would say oh, he's doing his job. >> absolutely. but then he went and worked for rahm in the white house. there's a reason why he worked for rahm, why rahm wanted him to work for him. and you see when he was deputized as a liaison to the progressive groups, for example, which was a major part of his which was a major part of his portfolio, he had a lot of clashes with them on health care, on gay rights, and that's all we can do, is look at what has he done and in his time at the white house, in his time working for baucus he's clashed with democratic activists, with grassroots organizers over and over and over again and that's a pattern to his career i found in this article. >> on don't ask, don't tell you have complaints about how long it took and -- but they succeeded. >> absolutely. >> so when you succeed, in my experience working in the senate there's all sorts of tensions and negativity

but this really made jim messina's career. >> people can watch that ad on the website, try to find out what's gay about that ad or anti-gay. ari berman, contributor to "the nation." >> thanks, lawrence p p. >> you can have the last word online at our blog the last word.msnbc.com you can follow my tweets @lawrence. "the rachel maddow show" is up next. good evening, rachel. >> lawrence, at some point we will collectively write an msnbc host political science textbook and i will write the side bar in that textbook about how any reference to any male politician that involves the word hair is probably what ari was saying. >> all right. you know, my gaydar just isn't -- >> it's your anti-gaydar -- >> my anti- -- i've dot to work on my anti-gaydar. >> seminar at 11:00. i appreciate it. thanks to you at home for staying with us for the next hour. this past weekend the governor of maine, republican paul lepage, the governor of maine had state workers in maine tear down a mural at the state's department of labor, a mural that offended the governor. i don't know if the workers got paid double-tea

"the new york times" -- jim messina is going to be the campaign manager. he will have a sprawling office overlooking the park where president obama delivered his historic victory speech. the campaign being run from chicago, not here in washington, d.c. garland joining us on the democrats' line. caller: good morning. i appreciate c-span. i supported mr. obama and i still do. i have the feeling that he is hunkering down more than anything, as far as leadership style. the republicans will smack him at every turn if he proposes anything of substance. no matter who we have as president, we are still stuck with the senate rules, rules like what senator udall has condemned and made an effort to change. as long as we have those, i do not see much happening. los >> thank you for the call. two stories from "the new york times -- host: thank you for the call. two stories from "the new york times." there is a story on the rnc sponsoring debate in exchange for help with its own debt. the story points out that the republican national committee has asked the party boss l