let's bring back in goldie taylor and karen finney. karen, can i ask you this question?as been, in effect, made impotent as he's tried to pass his jobs bill through the congress, do you think that republicans were also hoping, hoping that his foreign policy would also fail? >> absolutely, no question. which is why, again, they've been so ungracious in their comments. i mean, you know, there's also an argument here to be made that, look at when we got accomplished in libya. it was less expensive than iraq, it was more effective than iraq, and no loss of american life, like we saw in iraq. >> goldie, as a former marine, can i ask you what it would feel like if you were in the field, hearing that your president, your commander in chief, was opposed by this republican house, the majority in the house, in this way? how would it feel as a soldier? >> well, if i'm a soldier or a marine or a sailor and i'm out in the field and look back at home and find my own u.s. congress isn't standing behind me, that does something for my morale. so applause for this president for doing ever

karen finney and karen nussle, two karens, it's always nice to see you. thank you both. >> thanks. >>> testimony continues in the conrad murray trial as the prosecution prepares to rest its case. what will the defense strategy be? we'll take a look at the case next. >>> and which candidates are in it to win it? who really wants to be president, and what could the other motives be? >>> but first a look at the markets. let's take a look at what they're doing now. all markets are up, the dow is up about 99 points, s&p 500 up 15 points, and the nasdaq also up as well, 58 points. we'll be right back. o cleaner, domestic, abundant and creating jobs now. we're america's natural gas. . >>>well the defense phase of the trial against michael jackson's personal physician is expected to begin later today, but first, dr. conrad murray's lawyer also get their last crack at cross-examining the prosecution's star witness. propofol expert dr. steven schaeffer. schaeffer testified last week murray was a direct cause of jackson's death. on friday attorney ed chernoff attemp

jonathan alter, msnbc political analyst and columnist with bloomberg view and karen finney, also a politicalmer communications director for the dnc. good afternoon to both. karen, if i can start with you, anita perry said the attacks were based on his christian beliefs. i can't recall anyone attacking his personal faith. is she diverting grief in an order not to confront the truth, which is that her husband may not be a good bet for president? >> i have to say, spouses always have a tough time i think seeing their loved one or loved ones in general attacked. she has to buck up. this is nothing. in 2004 when i worked with elizabeth edwards, there were claims because of her weight, she was too dowdy to be with someone as attractive as john edwards. this is nothing compared to how mean it can get. you have to face the fact that on this one, i think the criticism is pretty well justified and has been substantive. it hasn't been about looks or hair or religion certainly. >> jonathan, rush limbaugh says romney isn't even a legitimate conservative. does that leave the door open for rick perry? he c

karen finney is here from the dnc and ramash pinuru is a columnist at bloomberg view.. happy monday. rick perry's response to this, at first i think would have come something like what we saw in red state from eric erickson who went after the reporter and said she was fanning racial flames out of context. hugh hewitt said no detailed reporting on what the seven saw and when they saw it is included and call it a drive-by slander but cain gave it legs. >> this was a carefully reported story, not a drive by slander. >> how long has the post been working on it? >> six weeks or more. >> basically since he was thinking of becoming a presidential candidate you have been working on the story. >> well, we wanted to see what paint creek texas was like. stephanie went down and began to talk to people. >> and stumbled on the story. >> and then went back and talked to a lot of different people, did a lot of phone calling. it took a long time to put the story together. we wanted to be sure we had what we had. >> do you buy the fact that if it wasn't for herman cain, perry could have

karen finney, susan del percio. thanks for your time. >>> the family of a missing ten month old is scraping together a reward fund in a desperate attempt to find the one game changing clue that could lead investigators to their baby girl. lisa irwin was last seen sleeping in her crib. peter, what's the latest? >> reporter: craig, just about 20 minutes ago, we saw lisa irwin's father, jeremy irwin, drove by the family home behind us to pick up the family's mail before taking off to where they have been. they are not speaking publicly, they are keeping the focus on their daughter and the police investigation. heart breaking and challenging time for the family. but investigators had a busy weekend back here at the home, looking for any new clues that might lead them to the missing baby girl. at the irwin home this weekend, investigators tried to recreate how an abductor might have gotten inside as the parents have suggested, crawling through a window over and over, recording the entire thing. sunday, investigators also

joining us to discuss it, karen finney and host of "roll call" tv, robert traynham. y, alex. >> what is it about herman cain, karen, that is the appeal? i mean, is it his businessman, because that's how people know him. do people get a sense, this is a guy who understands business in this time of economic woe? >> you know what i think it is? particularly if you think about what's going on with the occupy wall street movement, it's the simplicity, i think, of the 999. and when you hear him talk about economic issues at the debates, actually, aside from some of the odd things he'll say about who can or can't work in his administration in terms of loyalty tests, he makes it very simple, it sounds straightforward, it sounds fair, and he's very kind of candid about it. i think people like that about him, frankly. >> okay. robert, i just want to tell you, and you probably noticed, we have a little bit of a delay with you, but here's the deal with most of these polls. they put mitt romney in front, all but this one, should he be worried about herman cain, or is it more rick

cain on the rise and religion in 2012, joining me now is a roorp error rin, and pat buchanan and karen finneyomments. >> right. >> does he need to? >> no, i don't think so. we talked to reverend jeffress in the green room and that is his opinion as to the theology of mormonism. i don't think mitt romney has got to address that. but i will say on tuesday night at the cnn debate, they are going to go after rick perry and the mormon cult and what does it mean, i think it's going to be a coming issue certainly this week and certainly up until january. >> yeah. erin, you can weigh in. you're new to the conversation this morning. >> well, you know, alex, four years ago mitt romney had to deal with this a lot and he got questions everywhere he went in iowa, just about how he was going to handle his faith and then he gave a big speech. as you were talking about this morning, he gave the speech about freedom of religion. he's taken a long time to ramp up on the campaign trail and hasn't spoken to many voters this year but it's certain to come up again and he's going to get asked those questions again

mysteries of herman cain at the end of a busy week, goldie taylor is with us and from washington karen finney. karen, if i can start with you. before we come to mr. cain himself, his chief of staff who smokes also has an interesting personal history. for three years and fined 15,000 for voter suppression, we reported that earlier and were one of the first to do so. there was a tax warrant for an unpaid bill and arrested twice for drunk driving. a chain smoking drunk driving operative who doesn't pay his bills. >> he would make a great chief of staff. the drunk driving obviously not good, but the thing that i find most disconcerting is that this is someone who has a record of disenfranchising voters. actively trying to stop people from voting. for herman cain to think that that individual is appropriate to have on his ticket, granted this gentlemen has predominantly focussed on the democratic party and the base is african-american, latino and youth voters and easterns in their tactics, but i find that appalling and a collapse of judgment on the part of mr. cain. >> is herman cain serious about

joining me is karen finney. >> i'm sure it's not something that they wanted to do but they realized that fortunately inside and the numbers were not going to work, we can not do this for now but i still think it's important to know that it's still a good idea that we need to figure out and come back to. >> martin, this program was part of ted kennedy's vision. how much of a blow is this? >> i don't think it's a big deal. it was always the weakest part of health care. people already have this under medicaid. poor people have this coverage, get rid of all your assets, and also federal employees, both civilian and military have had this option and there was a very substantial premium that you have to pay under a private insurance program and i guess they figured out they couldn't make this work. they certified it as being financially sound over a period. >> like you, i have signed up as well and pay a pretty penny. but from a political perspective, a lot of people are going to want access to this. how damaging is that, martin? >> i think it's a blip on the screen. if people knew how much it

. >> joining me now is karen finney and pat buchanan. they are both msnbc political analysts., we've seen this before. mitt romney gave a speech on this back in 2007. do you think he's going to have to give another one? >> no, i don't think he's going to have to give another one. lee say, i think romney's speech, as i mentioned, was outstanding. and what john f. kennedy said -- and i still remember it -- don't pay attention to the fact that i'm a catholic. it will have nothing virtually to do with me being a president and when his brother joe hit the v-2 sites in france and died in that, it was a very powerful thing and very effective. but i think the problem here is really not mitt romney in that everybody knows mitt romney is a mormon. if you don't like mormons, maybe you won't vote for him. but the problems with rick perry and how he needs to deal with this during the debate. >> but how about for president obama? how does it play out for him? >> you know, i actually very much respect mitt romney and the speech that he gave in 2007. i agree with pat on that. but the point th

. >> karen finney does not think hillary clinton runs in '16. karen and joe, thanks so much, as always. appreciate it. >>> we continue to follow a developing story here, two people have died separately abroad a norwegian cruise ship docked in boston. it appears one of the two deaths at this point looks like it is suspicious. police are searching a cabin of a 23-year-old man who has died. the cause of death hasn't been released yet. mean while, a 76-year-old passenger appears to have died of natural causes. >>> coming up, one tea party leader wants congresswoman bachmann to move on. what that could mean for her campaign. >>> plus, why the judge in the conrad murray trial is concerned jurors could start leaving. >>> plus, surprise celebrity guests at the courthouse today. we'll talk about that on the other side of this break. i needed more customers, so i got my nephew to build a website. i hired someone to make my website... five months ago. we are building a website by ourselves. [ woman announcing ] there's an easier way. create your own small-b

here to talk cain and other candidates, karen finney and susan del percio. et's start with you. did you see the interview on "meet the press"? >> i did. >> how did he defense the 9-9-9 plan as well as foreign policy? >> it was terrible. you can really tell that herman cain is not ready for prime time. and also, you know, he kind of has this way about him that in a corporate world you can spin things a certain way. but you can't do that when you are running for president. to say that some people. pay more and the point after new economy is you want people to buy new goods. so if you are creating a disincentive for people to buy goods, and his numbers are off across the spectrum. economists have said the lowest income people will be the hardest hit. he didn't explain himself very well. >> it was certainly a difficult set of questions to deal with. susan, we will stay on cain here. cain just bringing over $2 million wab far back from rick perry's 17 and mitt romney's 14, what is your thought here? it doesn't seem like he has front-runner cash at the moment. >> b

msnbc political strategist karen finney. also, matt louis from the daily call in. hello to you both. karen, let's start with you. rick perry showed us the texas fight in him last night. he came out fighting. but the question is, we have been watching, karen, is it enough to reverse a slide. >> it is unclear. here is the problem i think rick perry has right now. he has shown he can attack and attack and attack. but he hasn't been able to answer questions or talk positively about what he would do. and when he has tried do that, he really hasn't done so in a way that anybody's walked way feeling like they understand what he is actually talking about. my other thought was, you know, the more you attack and attack and attack and if you listen o to comments post debate, his negatives are going up because people see him as a bully. that may work as strategy to drag romney down, but again, i don't think you see any movement for perry. so i don't think we know yet whether or not it was successful for him other than the fact that he, you know, basically muddied up romney pret

and joining us from washington, karen finney. can i start with you? rick perry came into the debate. having seen his numbers 1/2 in four weeks. he said i am the authentic conservative, not a conservative of convenience. so did rick do enough to pummel romney? >> well, he sure gave it his best, didn't he? here's the thing. it's clear that the perry strategy is to use this flip-flop, pick your metaphor for mitt romney, to sort of bring him down. to drag him down and drag down his likability. trust worthiness, all of that. at the same time, what perry also did, he came off seeming like a bully. and in doing so, he is probably driving up his own negatives. it will be interesting to see that. and he takes risk that people don't see him as being presidential but they see him as, we know he can throw a punch but can he put forward a coherent idea that sounds like something, someone who wants to be the next president should be talking about. >> but perry also blasted cain's 9-9-9 plan. now we are learning he will unveil a flat tax, something like 17%. what's

karen finney, susan del percio, and of course, the newly minted get money out foundation executive director, jimmy williams. karen, there's an obvious desire to look at the president's intent and this mission as honorable, as righteous, as the correct path. at the same time, how many chances does the president or any politician or any coalition get to go to the floor with a major plan? and if the plan goes through and isn't actually the solution, a la a lot of the things that we've seen, not just from this president, but from a lot of presidents in this country, does he and do they not risk further alienating the electorate, ultimately by saying we've got this plan, and even if the plan happens, it doesn't address the scale of the problem. >> look, i think, ultimately, that's the question that the election is going to be asking people, right? is that, let's say -- everybody's assuming that the president's plan doesn't go through. let's say it did go through. that's exactly the question. people will be asking whoever the republican nominee, who will be saying, i've got a better plan, and pre

. >> let's bring in our panel, karen finney, david lenhart and former republican member of congress,rubio finding out what a national vp vetting process would be like. david, i don't want to put you in the position of judging other reporting. not going to go there, but is this fair game to talk about this in the sense of a son not vetting his parents? >> i'm happy to judge other reporting. it's good reporting. they did good stories. absolutely this is fair game. marco rubio for a long time has been going around saying my parents came here after castro. his biography had the word following in it. it's not true. we can get into a debate because of family lore, that his family told him something different, despite years of saying this publicly. this puts him in a list of politicians who spent a long time in public saying things that aren't true. richard bloomenthal, richard kirk. the judgment here is for voters. how much does this matter? i don't think there's question about the facts, for a long time, something central to his biography we know is not true. >> he brought up two cases wh

for answers, turn to our political strategist, former dnc communications director karen finney and formerth the ear piece? >> my ear piece is trying to give me a hard time, but i'm good now. i'm good. >> thank you guys both for being here. let's start with chris christie. "new york times" reported saturday that christie's advisers looking into how fast they can set up an operation. karen, is there really enough time for christie to get into this thing? >> you know, that's something that christie is going to have to anticipate with his team. time is really running tight. but i think over the last couple of weeks, rick perry has really demonstrated the challenge of getting in late in terms of not just fund raise bug also being ready. when you let the hype get so high, you have got to come in with perfect pitch, you have got to have your own research done on yourself and have anticipate to you know, questions like we saw rick perry kind of changing his answers over the weekend about this ranch. so i'm sure that's the kind of calculation that chris christie is trying to make is if i do this,

democratic strategist and msnbc political analyst karen finney is with us.ist and msnbc contributor, susan del percio is here in new york. and our washington insider and our get money out curator at large, i think is his current title right now. did you ever think you would be a curator? >> i don't even know what that is. >> you're curating as we speak. >> the democrat s and republicas are going to carry this into triple overtime. they just need to let the clock go until it's time to run for re-election. some will say that's already started. but they're worried about keeping their jobs. they are not focused on what americans want. that's why you see the outrage that you do -- >> occupy wall street. >> that's right. and while 125,000, 140,000 people have signed up to get money out, because they areç tired of the system. what's going to happen is, there are going to be elected official who is will try to tie on to the movement, much like they did with the tea party movement. it's up to the people who are out there to boot them out and not let them try and com

let's bring in karen finney.t's start with the chris christie issue because we are waiting for the news conference at 1:00. >> sure. >> the factthat there is so much heightened interest, do you see it as a sign that republicans are just dissatisfied with the field as it stands or is it just shopping which may not be that surprising this early in the race? >> look, no, i think it shows the kind of fractures that exist within the republican party. you have the social conservatives and the economic conservatives and there are real differences between their candidates. they represent different factions, as i say, within the republican party. >> karen, can i interrupt you for a second because we are hearing from brian thompson at wnbc at one of the political reporters over there that chris christie ty is not going to run. if that is indeed the case, is that good news or bad news for the democrats? >> i don't think -- it doesn't matter for the democrats. i think it's bad news for the republicans because it's an unsettl

joined now by msnbc political analyst and democratic strategist, karen finney. little bit more, and republican strategist rich galen, who once worked for the house speaker. rich, thank you so much for being here. >> great. nice to be with all of you. >> let's start with the big news from the gop field, folks. the new iowa poll that shows that cain and romney are in a virtual tie in the top. karen, these are two very different candidates. the least political of the bunch and one of the most establishment guys, what does that say about the gop at this point? >> you know, i think it says that what the gop would like to have is somebody who's maybe somewhere in the middle. i mean, clearly we've seen this trend playing itself out over the last several weeks and months. and that is that there is a lot of dissatisfaction within the gop primary voters. romney has pretty much stayed at about the same place, and we've had sort of others come and go. and i think cain's ability, frankly, in part to move up so quickly shows people are still looking for that right one. >> ric

karen, susan, and jimmy are here. and the debate, it would seem, mr. williams, ms. del percio, ms. finney, would be about the length of susan's hair. if you noticed, the hair ku. it's very nice, wouldn't you say, jim? >> i e-mailed her yesterday morning, sitting in my office, and said, susan, your hair looks fantastic. >> i think i'm hearing, wrap it up, right? >> and no one told me to do it. >> so, listen, the hope, let's start with -- now that we're done with the hair, now we're going to deal with the pope. the pope has called for a central world bank. specifically, calling for the politics of the achievement of a universal common good. this is not to suggest, i don't know where he's going with that, but -- >> it's kind of what he has in common with the occupiers. it's like, no one's going to be a leader, per se, but i'm just going to throw it out there and you guys work it out. >> what do you think, karen? >> i think on the one hand, obviously, the church has a lot of money and assets to protect. on the other hand, it's not -- i'll be a realist on that side. on the other hand, it is a