joan walsh will tell us what we have to do to turn that around. national car rental knows i'm picky. so, at national, i go right past the counter... and you get to choose any car in the aisle. choose any car? you cannot be serious! okay. seriously, you choose. >>> welcome back to "the ed show." america's doctors know we have to fix a broken health care system. where a pink slip could be a death sentence right? 75% of doctors support a public option, according to a study in "the new england journal of medicine." doctors don't support the republican plan. now they're resorting to sneaky tactics. congressman tom price from georgia, a doctor, is sending faxes to doctors asking them to be a part of physicians counsel to advise congress. it sounds like he's asking for nonpartisan professional advice except it is owned an operated by the nrcc. now, a republican fund-raiser and campaign group. all right, now, i've heard from doctors who are absolutely fierce about this. one of them, dr. barry kauffman. he joins us tonight here on "the ed show." good it ha

time for "the politics fix" with salon.com joan walsh.massachusetts, i have to give a speech at my college, holy cross, i'm thrilled we are going to have a new senator from massachusetts. the word i'm getting is paul kirk, chairman of the party, a long time kennedy ally. apparently the kennedy people were ticked off at the boston globe gugus who tried to jam dukakis down their throat. >> to have gone this trouble and defy the wishes of the kennedy boy and vicki kennedy is not something duvall patrick could have done. it sounds like you might have another senator during your trip. >> we will have charisma. dukakis has a little, but paul kirk has a lot. will the reality of of democrats change the thinking of you and people like you who are tough and militant. i use that positively in your case. >> thank you. >> and in ed's case, who believe the democrats can rule because they have the power. you don't wait for 60 votes. you jam it through with reconciliation. i'm talking about health care. >> i understand. >> is 60 votes mean they will wait

time for "the politics fix" with salon.com's joan walsh. i'm in massachusetts.'re going to have a new senator from massachusetts within a few hours. the word i'm getting it's paul kirk. chairman of the party, the democratic party, longtime kennedy ally. head of the kennedy library, basically. the foundation. the kennedy people were ticked off at "the boston globe" who tried to jam dukakis down their throat. >> these good government people. mike dukakis would have been a fine choice. this is a sentimental action. to go to this trouble and decide the wishes of the kennedy boys and vicki kennedy would make no sense, something duvall patrick could really think about doing. it sounds like you might have another senator during your trip. >> we'll have charisma this time. dukakis may have been deficient in that department. paul kirk has a lot of it. what about this question of 60 votes? will the reality of 60 democrats change the thinking of you and people like you, like ed schultz, my colleague, who are tough and militant? i use that word positively in your case. >> t

he called them out already. >> jonathan alter, joan walsh, thanks so much for joining us tonight. great insight, as always. >>> joining me now is congressman chris van hollen, who's in charge of getting democrats elected. you got a boost tonight. >> we did. >> but now you got to get these blue dogs squared away. did he connect with the blue dogs, and do you think he recruited some of them to the cause tonight? >> he did. i think what was really important about this speech is that democrats are united in the goal of getting health care reform done this year. but we still have our differences, and what the president did tonight was left every democrat in the room leaving saying, we are going to get it done. i spoke to blue dogs afterwards. i spoke to progressives. people have a new energy. this speech was delivered at just the exactly the right time in order to get the process jump-started. and this was the opening bell in round two, and we're going to get it done. we'll get the bill to the president's desk by december. i think there was a really great feeling in the room that now i

i have joan walsh. editor of salon. and mark mckinnon writes for the taillybeast.com. as a republican strategist and work very closely to elect president george w. bush. mark, i want to start with you because you have the column of the day, i believe, of the two of them. no offense, joan. you write on "the daily beast, n pay, because as long as louts can spout out of and call the president a liar, then louts will continue to spout off. it is, as you go on -- you want to start republicans for rob miller, who is the democrat, who is challenging him. you're talking about trying to get rid of all partisans who are a little out of the main stream, is that your agenda here, mark? >> i think that's the only thing that works at the end of the day, chuck. we have ongoing discussions and frustrations about the partisanship we see in politics, but as long as people like joe wilson keep getting re-elected, they get rewarded by their behavior if they keep their seat. so i think the only way we address this is to go to the ballot box and throw these bums out of congress. and that's

why do i feel, joan walsh, that the white house staff is behind closed doors high fiving one another saying, yeah, those liberal groups are going to get them now. >> i don't have a problem with that. i'm fine understanding the liberal and progressive group have to stick together and make this president, in the famous words of fdr, make me do these things. we have to make him do these things, be organize the, tough, smart. i'm okay with that. >> absolutely. great to have you with us. joan walsh, salon.com. >>> our staff received a phone call from congressman jim cooper's office in tennessee. he says he is firmly supporting a public ogs. two great things. number one, i'm glad they're watching and number two, most of all he's on the correct side of the issue. what do you think? do you think liberal groups targeting democrats is a good or bad idea? 92% said it's a good idea, 8% say that's a bad idea. that's "the ed show." "hardball" is next. >>> will israel attack iran? let's play "hardball." >>> good evening, i'm chris matthews in washington. leading off tonight, will israel attack iran

here she is debating salon's joan walsh on cnn last june. listen. >> to may be the case it's easy to sit in manhattan or wherever you're sitting, joan, and say these people don't want to harm us and we shouldn't detain them. you know, we're at war. the laws of war very clearly states that while you're at war you can detain enemy combatants to prevent hem them from returning to the battle field. 75% of the american people don't think our government should be bringing terrorists to the homehand. >> with us, two military voices urging president obama to close guantanamo. retired army lieutenant general, harry soister, former director of the defense intelligence agency. retired navy admiral, john hudson, a former judge advocate general. general, i want you first to talk about this. the difference between putting the bad guys, the terrorists, alleged some cases, clearly guilty in other cases, in guantanamo out there in cuba or putting them in some maximum security prison in the united states. what's the difference? >> we have them in guantanamo, o

joan walsh, mark mackinnon. chris matthews returns friday at 5:00 and 7:00 eastern for more "hardball" to interview rod blagojevich. right now it's time for "the ed show" with ed schultz. >>> good evening, americans. i'm ed schultz. this is "the ed show" on msnbc. lots on the table on this friday night. let's get into it. the republicans have got a new word. they don't have any ideas so they're getting new language. has nothing to do with the football season but the word is prevent. they don't want to stop health care reform. they just want to stop prevent death panels. that's what they want to do. listen to minnesota governor tim pawlenty on msnbc today talking about what's not in the bill. >> there is nothing in the legislation that directly says it's the indirect concerns that i'm trying to articulate. i think are at least worth raising. what if it becomes so expensive and the trajectory of it is even close to what's being predicted ten years out that they can no longer afford what they promised and somebody

joan walsh, mark mckinnon, thank you. >>> chris matthews returns monday night and he'll interview rod blagojevich. "countdown with keith olbermann" starts right now. >>> which of these stories will you be talking about tomorrow? the gop's civility crisis, as joe wilson goes -- >> you lie! >> so goes the crackpot faithful. >> last night we heard our president address this country. >> clarence page on the political ramifications as the republican party continues to careen off the tracks. and melissa lacewell on how our political discourse came to this. >>> also, the art of turning "i'm sorry" into "send cash." >> go to joewilsonforcongress.com and contribute to my efforts to defeat the proponents of government-run health care. >> it takes a much better actor than joe wilson to get away with faking sincerity. fighting health care reform at all costs. if it finally passes and becomes law, governor tim pawlenty of minnesota says his state still might not stand for it. >> depending on what the federal government comes out with here, asserting the tenth amendment may be a viable option. >> w