martha: what do you say to that, lanny?vative than my friend steve. senator pat toomey who is a friend of steve's and a conservative republican supported tax loopholes that benefitted wealthy people. >> i'm all for that. martha: the president -- i don't know if the president is behind that, though. >> so if steve and i today can agree that the president should extend the bush tax cuts for one year if the republicans commit to supporting simpson-bowles, and if barack obama will support simpson-bowles which is across the board cuts, closing the tax loopholes and entitlement reform then you'll make history by steve and i agreeing on your program. >> hold on, hold on here. hold on. martha: go ahead, steve. >> wait a minute. lanny, this was president obama's own commission, simpson-bowles, he appointed the commission and then he let the report die. so if you can get barack obama to get behind this entitlement reform tax reform we can talk about it. but if the president is not going to jump on board his own commission i don't thi

lanny breuer signed off, approved multiple drops of the letter that was signed by ronald wyche who is ugly the deputy attorney geral. i could at that title wrong, but essentially he was working for the justice department. and the letter said flat out these allegations that we're gun walking into moscow are actually not true. senior level officials don't know anything about this. that letter was sent to congress in february 2011. since then, that letter had to be withdrawn from the record because it was so full of falsehoods, which is something that rarely ever happens, of these high level officials who these wire tap application show were signing off and seen the documentation, that, you know, they actually did know about these things. every step of the way they have been saying no one at a high level has been involved in this. and about a year ago, the former atf acting director who is also been transferred to another position said the reason they are so, they are denying this is trying to put treasure away from political parties within the justice department. >> the timing of the ap

jon: go ahead, lanny. >> excuse me for interrupting, senator. that republicans really can't have it both ways, although we know they try. we have a 15 trillion-dollar debt, and all republicans say we've got to cut the entitlement programs. part of those entitlements are medicare and social security, and we democrats have to be willing to support senator simpson, a great conservative republican senator, i believe the senator served with and erskin bowls who was chief of staff in the white house came up with something to do something with that debt that tightened up on medicare spending and social security and spending and cutting out the tax loopholes and democrats and republicans like the senator and myself we are both on opposite sides philosophically on many questions, we have to come together to do something about that national debt and i hope president obama will make the simpson-bowles step, it was his commission and endorse going forward and i think he will really defeat romney if he does that. jon: it does seem like there is a lot of whee

lanny, this white house needs to distract attention from the debate over the economy.t needs to do everything it can to smear mitt romney even000 "the new york times", "washington post" fact checker, factcheck.org all say this is total nonsense about mitt romney running the company after 1999. martha: you see how much the american people care about this discussion, about when he left bain and when he didn't leave bain and all of that. it does, lanny, feel in some ways like an effort to distract from what most american people see as reality of their daily lives, whether or not they have a job and whether or not the economy is improving. >> no doubt an effort to distract and no doubt i agree with rich 100% suggesting it is a felony is way over the top. if we stick to the facts mitt romney wasn't running bain capital when he was running the olympics period. innuendo and suggesting felonies is way over the top. so i agree with that. the american people want to hear about the economy and i agreed with karl that they are making a mistake not focusing on independent voters wh

reminded me of when lanny -- grown she teaches at harvard. the hiroki kuroda annie of the majority about different ways to do democracy and different ways of voting and weighted voting and things like that. is any of this relative? is it possible to get headway on different ways of representing the plurality if not the majority. there a lot of reforms out there that -- i will give my own bias. a lot of reforms don't make any sense. i will give you a couple of examples. i talked with the people and the americans-elect and they asked me to support them. they have come up with this brilliant idea that would solve the problem. we will have a presidential candidate at one party and a vice presidential candidate with the other party. since vice presidents have no more influence in this, it doesn't make any difference at all. there is another that got and a friend of mine is pushing this. it sounds good at first. instant run off voting. here's what's wrong with that. if any of you -- i don't know new york well, but if you are familiar with the state

reminded me of when lanny ginere, i don't know if she still teaches at harvard, but she used to. she wrote the book called "the tyranny of the majority" about digit w different ways to do democracy. weighted voting. things like that. is any of this relevant relevant to this discussion? is it possible to get headway on different ways of actually representing the plurality, if not the majority? >> there are a lot of reforms that are out there that -- i'll just give my own bias. a lot of reforms that are out there just don't make any sense. let me give you a couple of examples. i've talked with the people at americans elect and they keep onlyi in coming to me and asking me to support them. they'll have a presidential candidate of one party and vice presidential candidate of other party. well, since vice presidents have no more influence than this glass, it doesn't make any difference at all. but there's another one that's gotten -- and a friend of mine is pushing this and other people, and it sounds good at first. instant runoff voting. but here's what's wrong with that. if any of y

but i was told one day when lanny called and anything that the vice president asked for, i mean, i'm sorry, kenny o'donnell called and said anything the vice president asks for from the pentagon, you got to clear it here. anything, you know. a plane ride, an extra aides or what have you. i thought well, you know, when johnson becomes president, haven't been subjected to that and it will be another world. it wasn't long before he called with the same instruction. you lived in those presidential years. >> yes, but i had left to organize the peace corps. i was close to shriver, whose deputy i became, and i didn't have that much exposure to lbj during that period of time. i would get it reflected from schreiber sometimes. >> let me add to this while we're on the humphrey thing. i was at a the 1968 convention. it's always been my sense that johnson really wanted the convention to draft him. and had they had done that, that he would have come back and run for president. senator mondale, what's your thought? >> well, those of us supporting humphrey thought exactly that. the convention was o

where they were mandated by their superiors -- including senior officials and the number two with man, lanny breuer, in the justice department -- to allow these guns to go to mexico, not to arrest these guys. they watched them buy guns over and over and over again and transfer them over and other again without watching them or seeing where they were going. and so now, more than 18 months later, we've seen -- and fast and furious is such a big scandal, i really don't have time to get into all the details of it, but just catching you up on the current events, we saw the contempt charges of civil and criminal against attorneyeric holder -- attorney general eric holder, the first sitting cabinet member to be held in contempt of congress, and yet the media doesn't seem to think that this is a big deal. they've been complicit in the cover-up, they have decided that mitt romney's tax returns are more important than, you know, hundreds of people being killed in mexico and getting to the bottom of a scandal that resulted in two of the murders of our own federal agents. out of 240,000 documents that e

. >> ice melting at an >>> oakland firefighters responded to a fire at lanny college this evening.e was burning near the baseball diamond. the fire mostly burned grasses along the banks of the water way, and it only took firefighters a few minutes to put the flames out. >>> bay area scientists today said to expect more heat waves like the unprecedented warming that just melted the ice sheet in greenland. showing us new ways to predict it. >> wow. >> reporter: this week's dramatic glacier collapse and tsunami. apparently created by the same heat wave that stunned nasa scientists. 40% is pink. melted. just four days later, 97% melted. scientists say that's unprecedented in the modern era, but not hard to understand. he says july 16, a slab of greenland's peterman glacier, twice the size of manhattan broke off. some people are nervous. >> the world's changing. melting away. >> we human beings are probably part of the cause. >> reporter: the amount of water locked up is truly astonishing. scientists say if it were all to melt, sea levels around the world would rise more than 20 fealty.

. ♪ >>> oakland firefighters responded to a fire at lanny college this evening.he baseball diamond. the fire mostly burned grasses along the banks of the water way, and it only took firefighters a few minutes to put the flames out. >>> bay area scientists today said to expect more heat waves like the unprecedented warming that just melted the ice sheet in greenland. showing us new ways to predict it. >> wow. >> reporter: this week's dramatic glacier collapse and tsunami. apparently created by the same heat wave that stunned nasa scientists. 40% is pink. melted. just four days later, 97% melted. scientists say that's unprecedented in the modern era, but not hard to understand. he says july 16, a slab of greenland's peterman glacier, twice the size of manhattan broke off. some people are nervous. >> the world's changing. melting away. >> we human beings are probably part of the cause. >> reporter: the amount of water locked up is truly astonishing. scientists say if it were all to melt, sea levels around the world would rise more than 20 fealty. taller than that sc

joined by lanny davis, and mar mary katherine ham.expect from mitt romney's overseas adventure. >> i think the contrast will be obvious. the excerpt you read is what he's trying to play into. when obama took office to make a contrast with the former administrations before us he went around the world and felt the need to scold our country and some of its actions. there is a clip speaking about europe that he was nearly apologizing for the country. i think this is what mitt romney wants to point out. that's part of the reason he will be visiting israel which i think this is an area he feels like the president is weak on. he hasn't been during his first four years to visit benjamin netanyahu and be in israel and they have had a famously icy relationship. i think he is trying to make some hey out of that. martha: let's take a look at some of the quotes from president obama early in his presidency that he was criticized for that mitt romney is eluding to there let's take a look. >> 9/11 was an enormous trauma to our country. the fear and a

lanny davis good to see you. what is behind europe's beef with mcdonald's, the olympic size stomachs or something else that the europeans cannot stomach? but centurylink is committed to being a different kind of communications company by continuing to help you do more and focus on the things that matter to you. go i want to look natural,l. not naked!razy? but all you need is 3. lashblast for volume, outlast -- for kissing... simply ageless to help you look easy breezy beautiful covergirl. according to ford, the works fuel saver package could literally pay for itself. jim twitchel is this true? yes it's true. how is this possible? proper tire inflation, by using proper grades of oil, your car runs more efficiently, saves gas. you could be doing this right now? yes i could, mike. i'm slowing you down? yes you are. my bad. the works fuel saver package. just $29.95 or less after rebate. only at your ford dealer. so, to sum up, you take care of that, you take care of these, you save a bunch of this. that works. >> thi

no knowledge of that at the high levels an lanny brewer is in mexico advocating for it and you have holder appointed an inspector general and, you see in fortune magazine details that have not been addressed by issa, he issued the citation of contempt with no facts and evidence and he said i don't see a cover-up and that he lied. why are we doing it? we know that that is -- the criminal citation is not going to go through, we just learned that. and... now it is a civil and that is not going to go anywhere and we have the ner general's report coming out. again the objective here was not to get in risewhat david mentio getting the guns they've street which holder is attempting to do. you have stores in phoenix, arizona that are running guns and we can get guns quicker than getting a salad there. >> that is not the issue. >> that is the real issue. >> dave -- >> instead of going after character assassination... >> the last word on -- >> the issue is playing the race card and the grandiose scheme and the national press club and press conference they did to lead into this and the letter

. >> and we find out last week that darrell issa was willing to drop all of the charges if lanny brewer inflamed. >> and i saw they are using this as a way to attack obama. >> of course. >> and giving guns to bad guys is really deeply evil unless it is iran and you are oliver north or ronald reagan. >> right. >> when we come back after the break we have something really funny and true stories about how the right-wing has been trying to sabotage progressive comedy tours. it's the stephanie miller. i'm john fugelsang and we will be right back. >> it's rapidly approaching a spectacle. >> reporter: it's the "stephanie miller show." ♪ ♪ ♪ who thought he was an [ inaudible ] ♪ [ laughter ] >> that's the beatles and lcd sound system. i think it sounds awesome. it's mash up friday here on the "stephanie miller show." i'm john fugelsang joined by travon free and tony on the mic. tony how it is going so far? i'm sorry i'm looking at you and talking to tony -- travon, i know what he is thinking? >> this is great. i love it. >> it's great having you here. and you get the prize of the day for the be

alisyn: lanny davis, former special counsel to bill clinton has an opinion piece out today in which hea today polling that shows they may have hurt president obama, the negative odds, of his own tkofplgt he was thdoing. he was the candidate in 2008 who railed against negative ads. is there a boomerang effect to the candidate that does it? >> potentially. there's been a long history of negative ads working. if you say u know what i really don't light suits. everybody will remember it. they won't remember the rest of the segments. it's attacks on politicians, their family and their character. the people by into the spin, what was that negative comment in we have to watch it. you talked about how much money is being spent on these ads, that's an indication, let me tell you, alyson. the deluge is coming. mitt romney can't spend his money right now because he's not officially the candidate. we are going to be swimming in negative ads come october and november. alisyn: this is the money spent on ads in swing states, here are the top three cities. cleveland, charlotte and tam parks and you se