. >> that's what they said, by the way, of joe mccarthy. you couldn't be a better friend to the communist than joe mccarthy. >> even if he thought these threats were real and there was a reason to go after them. if you look at how we handled the war, the aftermath, what we did in afghanistan or didn't do in afghanistan, they messed it up every step of the way. not just the reasons to do it, but the doing of it. so it set us back, and that's not just because we attacked, but because we were incompetent after the attack. >> i think we've got to give up on dick cheney. i think it's going to take a cambodia reeducation camp to turn him around. anyway, i salute him for his object duralens. >>> up next, hillary clinton answers the troublemakers who are calling for her to challenge president obama in the democratic primary. an old nixon trick, like kennedy was going to jump johnson. it's always a troublemaking move. let's see that in the sideshow, how she responds. she responds quite well. you're watching "hardball" only on msnbc. [ male announcer

for matt loauer to say some say -- well, you are leaving out george wallace, joe mccarthy and houy long that went to prison as a presidential candidate. it's lack of context. they hate cheney and they will throw the kitchen sink at him. this is a media strategy. dishy book with the news in it. it's provocative. if you are a conservative author, there is no better thing than to have a hostile interview on "today show." >> not sure that heads exploded. >> that wasn't hostile. >> only in the republican party. >> i want to move to president bush sit-down interview with "national geographic" that air an focused on his recollection of what happened on 9/11. how did the media treat him back then? >> by comparison with dick cheney, they were very kind to him now, as opposed to -- right after 9/11, of course, everybody was for bush. the fanstic moment when bush puts his arm around the construction worker. it was all downhill after that moment. compared to how they treated cheney. >> it wasn't a challenging interview. one reason they might be nicer to bush, but bush has held his fire. >> you are

joe mccarthy would not have been allowed to become the phenomenon that he had. ewy would have taken care of it and dewy would have cut mccarthy off at the knees. >> ifill: fascinating. all fascinating. we'll watch it on c-span. richard norton smith, carl cannon, thank you both so much. >> thank you. >> brown: finally tonight, in the last several weeks, we've been looking at the problem of inequality in america, focusing on the extreme top and bottom. recently, i talked with a writer who's studied what he sees as the erosion of the vast middle. don peck's cover article in the latest issue of "the atlantic" magazine asks, "can the middle class be saved?" his new book on the subject is titled "pinched." here's our conversation. don peck, welcome back. >> it's a pleasure to be here. >> brown: now, we've been talking a great deal of late about the ongoing jobs problem. you're making a case that there is something even bigger going on. >> yeah, absolutely. you know, if you look at the structure of job losses in this recession, what you find is overwhelmingly, the jobs

well that's preposterous you're right you're right it is my sense should be he is a good job as joe mccarthy it rooting out communism you know he really got ok last question quick for elizabeth warren is in the race she lost her campaign to unseat republican scott brown in the u.s. some boston to take. i'm willing to throw my body in front of us to try to stop bad ideas. i'm going to be harmful to the middle class i'm just going to keep doing what i john i just want to take that fight all the way to the nice state senate elizabeth hopefully the boss isn't right and how republicans are much of a fan of warren who built the consumer financial protection bureau and was ruled by congressional republicans because of it isis specifically so would you rather have elizabeth warren going after the banks there is the head of the c.f. p.d. or going after the banks there's a sitting u.s. senator i hope some of her constituents made ask her to keep that promise and see what she'll say then look i think i think with one of your sorry senate candidate and i say that she's a professor she's smart person she

been elected in 1948 -- 1944 would have been out of the question -- you never would have heard of joe mccarthy. thomas ewing never would have permitted -- he ran a machine -- thomas dewey never would have permitted -- he ran a machine in new york. there was a debate over whether the american communist party should be outlawed. he took the civil libertarian position, you cannot shoot an idea. >> what year did you publish a book on mary todd lincoln? >> she was not a contender. >> what year did you do the adelaide stevenson book? >> 1985. >> how many years have you taught history? >> since medieval times, almost. >> 30-40 years. the reason i ask is, what has happened to students and their interest in history over the years? >> students keep coming back. i do not want to be one of these lacerating, parental types that say we have significant historical amnesia, but i do think that students think that the past is over. in fact, i have had them tell me that when they're thinking about what is going to be their major. it is over. it is gone. on the other hand, as you say, history is an abiding, in d

guest: i haven't heard questions like that since joe mccarthy, because americans are common is becausetheir belief in a fair share. that is exactly what we do not need on either side. ridiculing some one's belief is not america, whether republican, or a democrat, and more and more independent. host: steve is of independent from connecticut. caller: i love your persona. you have a great person appear you are really interesting to watch on tv. america's businesses is not war. our business should not be focused on war. it should be focused on business. i am on medium income earners, and it would make me -- take me close to 100 years to earn a million dollars. this idea of the wealthier job creators? is the idle rich, and let's be honest about it. you seem to have -- revenue raising seems to be off the table, for whatever reason. but what about restructuring that tax code? any possibility of that happening? host: that question has, on twitter as well. guest: and i was chairman, i was working very closely with the secretary of the treasury of the bush administration. but what did the republ

been elected in 1948 -- 1944 would have been out of the question -- you never would have heard of joe mccarthy. thomas dewey never would have permitted -- he ran a machine in new york. there was a debate over whether the american communist party should be outlawed. he took the civil libertarian position, you cannot shoot an idea. >> what year did you publish a book on mary todd lincoln? >> she was not a contender. >> what year did you do the adelaide stevenson book? >> 1985. >> how many years have you taught history? >> since medieval times, almost. >> 30-40 years. the reason i ask is, what has happened to students and their interest in history over the years? >> students keep coming back. i do not want to be one of these i do not want to be one of these lacerating, parental types that say we have significant historical amnesia, but i do think that students think that the past is over. in fact, i have had them tell me that when they're thinking about what is going to be their major. it is over. it is gone. on the other hand, as you say, history is an abiding, in during interest and discipline.

mccarthy? like alan west and joe walsh, stick to do them every day of the week? does he have enough fear? >> we're going into to find out. we may not find out tonight. again, it's a tricky setting to do that sort of a thing, but we're going to need to find out in the next few days here. you know, the president, again, it's always a catch 22 for any president. you have peek pecking at you all the time, but you can't get down in the gutter with them. you have to maintain the prestige of the office, and so when you respond to people like that, it has to be in a very pointed, very specific way. you've got to pick your moment and do it right. the president needs to do that, though. >> okay. you're putting a very fine point on your pen tonight. let me just ask you this -- ron, i'm surprised you're careful of this. do you think there are a lot of republicans without naming them all on capitol hill and in the back rooms up there who wouldn't like us to have a second dip economically? to suffer a second recession in recent history and have president obama pay the price for it? would they like to s

. >> do you believe as a political person that eric cantor, larry mccarthy, all those republican hot shots, joees we see on television all the time, basically thumbing their nose at the president? they want him to get re-elected? they want to give him a solid economic program to run on? >> no, i don't -- i'm not under the he lugs that eric cantor might vote for barack obama in 2012 nor that he voted for him in 2008. but each of those individuals took an oath to do what was best for this country and to uphold the constitution and i think that it is not good for our economy and it is not good for them politically to simply say no, no, no. and to stand in the way of things that they have supported in the past. i mean, let's take some of those examples. not six months ago, these canned dan candidates or those officials that you just mentioned, all supported a payroll tax cut to get our economy moving again. now that we have a middle class tax cut, they are balking that but have no problems ensuring tax cuts for millionaires and billion airs keep right on going. that just doesn't make sense to the a

mccarthy, who pitched the 3-hit shutout. this wooz pro-football count dyne and college football and we'll have that t-all tonight on sportswrap at 10:00. >> thank you, joe. >>> coming up on the 10:00 news, if you are planning to enjoy this holiday weekend you have plenty of company on the roads. law enforcement is looking for drunk drivers and tonight we'll go along with the chp as they crackdown, tonight on the 10:00 news. >> that is our report. >> i'm ken wayne. >> i'm heather holmes and for joe and mark and all of us, thanks for joining us tonight. our next newscast is the 10:00 news. hope to see you then.