back with us is michele cottle, julian epstein and professor michael eric dyson. i love polls as much as the next person. but when i read seven in ten believe gas prices were very important, why didn't newt gingrich and his $2.50 a gallon promise simply sweep super tuesday away. >> each seen other polls that cite gas prices as a factor and not a major factor. look, there's a couple points about this, martin. one is the fact that you hear republicans now talking about energying is evidence of the fact that they don't think that they can compete with obama on the economic argument. his economic plan with respect to stimulus, the rescue of the banks and the auto industry have all worked, widely endorsed by mainstream economists. you see them shifting away from that argument because they don't think they can win on that, moving to energy. i think obama was very intelligent today in talking about this had to be a three-legged stool in terms of production, alternative fuels and conservation. he has done an enormous amount on energy in terms of 400 new licenses for rigs,

so julian epstein, if we're headed for recession, let's take goldman's numbers. you take three percentage points off gdp, and it's only growing at 3%, maybe less. what do you do? this is bernanke's fiscal cliff. this was an important warning, but i don't know if anybody is paying attention to it, and i'm not sure congress has a plan for it. >> let's answer your question a little more directly. he was not speaking about the bush tax cuts. he was speaking about sequestration. i think sequestration will never occur for the following reasons. >> no, he was talking about both. >> i think -- >> he has talked about the rolling back all the bush tax cuts and the super committee's cut of $1 trillion. >> 1.2 sequestration. i don't think it's going to happen for the following reason. you look at 1985 1k3 1991, the last time we had these big budget deals. you had strong enforcement provisions. you don't have any enforcement provision in the sequestration deal. it's very easy for congress with one line to just wipe it off, which i think it should do. i think it's -- i think i

now columnist for the hill and goldy tai tore, managing editor of the gold i tailor project and julian epstein. julian, start with you. did you get your etch-a-sketch yet? >> this is funny. you remember after the florida primary when mitt romney said he didn't care about the poor. this is the silver foot in the mouth syndrome. similarly after a big win in illinois the candidate staff comes out and says the positions can be like an etch-a-sketch, he can just erase them for the general election. you ask anybody that's been involved in presidential politics and they will tell you it takes two wings to fly. you have to motive at it independents on the one hand and the liberal base on the other. what he has done is alienate both bases. he has no love coming from the conservative base as many commented on he is 20 points behind on independents and this comment under scores the two worst narratives, one that he is inauthentic and not trust worthy. >> if it were another candidate it might not be a major faux pass. >> right. people perceive him not to be awe ten thick and people now i think you have th

joining me now is karen finney, jonathan capehart and julian epstein. good day to all of you. karen, just so that we can understand her argument, ms. palin says that rush limbaugh is a good guy because she was called a four-letter word by bill maher and the president pals around with terrorists and radicals, right? >> apparently that's her argument. i'm hearing this from women let's not get distracted. this is not just about a couple of words that rush used about sandra fluke. it's about the whole picture he painted of her as a slut/whore/make a vitd owe. it was far more disgusting than just two words. he is a public person. sandra fluke isn't. you can make the argument whether you like what bill maher says you do put yourself out there in a way a private person testifying in congress should not expect to be attacked. >> yesterday fox news had this conspiracy involving derrick bell. he's passed away and has been raised from the dead by fox news and every aspect of his personal achievement working from difficult circumstances working himself up is completely rubbished. we're su

julian epstein is a democratic campaign san sult want.ay allen sekulow is the chief council for the center for law and justice. thank you so much for being with me. i'll start with you on this. jay. eric holder has come under fire for saying that he is disturbed by this program, because he says it's based entirely on news reports, and the criticism has been, what is the attorney general doing reviewing news reports and nothing more about a tram and then publicly criticizing it? >> well he actually went even further. right he said it was under review by the department of justice. i made the comment that if he had questions he could have picked up the phone and talked to ray kelly the police commissioner. look, the nypd, i said this the other day, success speaks for itself. there were 14 known attempts on manhattan itself after 9/11, none of which were able to be implemented because the nypd's intelligence intelligence gathering capabilities are on par with any intelligence force in the world. the nwpd has operations and offices around the

joining us now our panel, karen finn finney, julian epstein and krystal ball. how many times have we polished the jewels only to find that romney can't be crowned. is he going to be the prince charles of the republican race? >> maybe she should stop talking about the birds and the bees and the flowers and the trees. >> and the dna. >> here is the problem he's going to have. he cannot close that enthusiasm gap. he's been consistent. i'll give him that. he hasn't improved as a candidate. he hasn't really picked up support. the irony here that the republican party wants this race to end sooner rather than later because his negatives are going up and because it's hurting their party when i'll give credit to my democrats, last cycle while we had a tough contested primary, everybody's numbers went up. >> that is a big difference. julian is this just about ohio? if santorum loses there, can he show off wins in other states and make a legitimate argument he's in the race. >> probably not. he's starting to trail in some of the southern states as well. i think this is a

>> let's bring in our two expert guests now, chief washington correspondent john harwood and julian epsteinist. julian, haven't the last three days at the supreme court proven once and for all that for all its claims of i am pashlt although and non-political decision making it is idealogical as congress with the prospect of a 5-4 decision and 75% of americans think it will be a political decision in june. >> no, i don't think the last three days have shown that. i think your point that the public approval of the supreme court has gone down ever since the bush v gore case and citizens united and i think it is weighing heavily on the justices. to your question, i think it is being cord like a sporting match right now. the conventional wisdom that predicts this will go down 5-4 and that healthcare will be over turned 5-4 is about as reliable as my ncaa brackets are. i mean, the fact of the matter is trying to read where the justices are going to be in terms of their question is consistently wrong. as was pointed out by a former clerk of just kennedy, everyone thought he was going to take a pos

and julian epstein. good job to both of you.eek of concentrating on this tragedy, what is it you think that dmabds the greatest attention? is it the repeal of the stand your ground laws? the issue of racial profiling? a matter of police competence in their investigation of what happened? what is it? >> i think there are a number of issues that have to be addressed here first of all. it's how we use whether it is skin color, gender, religion, creed, or any other thing about us as tools to fear one another. i think when we begin to fear each other based on attributes like that based upon action, i think that tears at our nation's fabric in ways that are just really unfortunate. but i think the thing that i am most interested in today, after viewing the tape of the police department, of mr. zimmerman walking into the police department that night. i am concerned about who made the call that night to bring that state's attorney in to meet with that police chief over this killing. i'm concerned about who made that call. why it was mad

julian epstein, he's written extensively on congress' power under the commerce clause which is the linchpin case. also jay seculo. he has argued before the court 12 times and has had 20 cases before the supreme court. before we get to the audio, how did you think it went? >> it went very good. i'm very pleads. i will say, you never go about it oral argument, but clearly the key vote here is justice kennedy. his statement that the government had a heavy burden to establish the fundamental change easd called it between the roll of government and its citizens. that was an important statement. he also said can't find a limiting principle here. i was very please'. justice alito -- thomas did not speak. chief justice roberts expressed significant scepticism with the government's case. i'm going to say this. i would rather be on my side of the case today than on the government's side. but oral arguments are oral arguments. paul clement did a magnificent job. megyn: we'll talk to him live about how he thinks it went tomorrow. we are getting from the left -- jeffrey toobin, who is a liberal commenta

joining me now to discuss us, julian epstein, former legal counsel to the house judiciary committee,d jay sekulow, chief counsel of the american center of law and justice. i want to read to you what chris cox, the executive director of the nra, has written on this. he says, quote: in retrospect, holder's speech was an ominous foreshadowing of the lengths he was willing to go to to suggest a gun-ban agenda and suggests this video afters evidence that fast and furious was a premeditated, criminal act conceived and covered up under an anti-gun i'd log intent on brainwashing americans. julian, i'll let you take the first shot at that one. >> well, i think drawing a connection between what attorney general holder said in 1994 and fast and furious is about as fanciful and about as paranoid and grand conspiracy a theory as you could come up with. i don't think anybody takes that theory seriously. what holder was saying in 1994-'5 and i think the term "brainwash" was unfortunate, he was saying the glorification of guns and violence in the popular media on television and movies, in music was