you know, michael steele, it's interesting that mayor brown says that. only because i can't -- you do the numbers and you crunch this, and i go seven out of ten times, and i think a third party candidacy makes an obama landslide more likely than we realize. what do you say? >> actually, i kind of agree with the mayor there. and it's good to see the mayor again. and i think that he's on to something. i think it really boils down to who that third party candidate is. i think in the case of the gop, if you're looking at a ron paul jumping into the third party ring, yeah, he's going to have an impact, because he's going to have a lot of libertarian conservatives and conservatives generally who are not, you know, enamored with mitt romney, if romney is the eventually nominee, saying, look, i'm going to go this way, which opens up a real avenue with independents for obama. if it's huntsman, on the other hand, huntsman could very well eat into that very strong independent base that the president's going to rely on for his re-election, which would probably more

himself to be the very essence of the washington insiders. >> it's about serial hypocrisy. >> michael steelepeople always say, you know, why all the negative ads. the answer -- because they work. >> they work, they work, brother. they work. they do, michael. >> especially when they are true though. >> well, it's -- it's not a question of what's true or what isn't true. it's how it's packaged. it's how it's all put together in a series of little vignettes that -- that tell a different story or the same story or continue a narrative, and -- and that's really what it's all about. >> right. >> when you're doing these ads, you can take a fact, david -- you know this -- you can take a fact and you can make it say and untrue in another. >> in newt's case they don't have to do that, that's the thing. he's being hoisted on many of his own his own petards. >> this is the broader point that should not be lost here. this is a level and a threshold where the voters go enough is a enough, and i think you're beginning to see that threshold being reached in iowa. when you're looking at 1,200 commercials bei

you know, michael steele, it's interesting that mayor brown says that.i can't -- you do the numbers and you crunch this, and i go seven out of ten times, and i think a third party candidacy makes an obama landslide more likely than we realize. what do you say? >> actually, i kind of agree with the mayor there. and it's good to see the mayor again. and i think that he's on to something. i think it really boils down to who that third party candidate is. i think in the case of the gop, if you're looking at a ron paul jumping into the third party ring, yeah, he's going to have an impact, because he's going to have a lot of libertarian conservatives and conservatives generally who are not, you know, enamored with mitt romney, if romney is the eventually nominee, saying, look, i'm going to go this way, which opens up a real avenue with independents for obama. if it's huntsman, on the other hand, huntsman could very well eat into that very strong independent base that the president's going to rely on for his re-election, which would probably more likely benefit

and also, michael steele, there is the the problem. and you and i have seen it because we've been around political campaigns. if someone is branded an angry candidate going into a campaign and i saw this with a good friend of mine who was seen as a negative guy, the second he put on the first negative ads, his numbers went from 52% to 42%. newt can't swing wildly in the final weeks of iowa or it's over. >> he can't. and i think that's why you've seen him try to get out in front and say, look, you know, anyone who is associated with me when he does have a super pack has created -- and they do their thing. if they say anything negative, i'm going to come out publicly and denounce them. because of the narrative that's already been set in place about him ahead of time, if he comes out with a very hard negative punchback, it's going to blow up in his face because he has been in the debates the one who has been above it all. >> let's just say this around the table. mitt romney could very easily say -- because i have done it before, when some

. >> dan is the washington journal chief correspondent and michael steele is a former chairman of theican party. michael steele, let me start with you, i think the biggest favorite myk a factor in iowa in about two weeks. romney, i thought, didn't really help himself at the end of the day. i mean, the $10,000 bet, the twitter feeds were just blowing up with that, and i think he really has to do a little bit more to distinguish himself. newt had what he had to hold, and i think he's in a strong position going into iowa. >> it's interesting, another big debate moment was some of the gingrich retorts. we knew this was going to be about him. basically, the moderators invited romney to throw out their criticism and one of the ones he went early with is career politicians spending your life in washington, and of course, newt shot back. >> well, we have a little bit of a tape issue, but dan said let's be candid. the only reason you didn't become a career politician is because you lost to teddy kennedy in 1994. he immediately wanted to respond to that. what's the response? >> he wanted to wor

we've got mark haleprin and michael steele still with us in washington.lumnist thomas friedman. he's the co-author of "that used to be us." how america fell behind in the world and how we can come back. that's a good one. >> so by the way -- what happened at the top. >> i missed the top of the hour. >> was that real? >> yeah, that was real. and -- that's what you call making chicken salad out of bad stuff -- >> no, sometimes you have to throw the food away. >> i like that ad. i really did. i think you had to do that. so you know what happened at the top? >> yes. >> michael steele yelled at me. >> look, no. >> it was more of a lecture, i thought. >> he was condescending, trying to explain -- no, actually i did the yelling. but he was trying to explain to me my republican party. >> oh really? then did you try to explain back your republican party to him? >> yes, it didn't work really well. see what he was saying -- what he was trying to suggest that newt gingrich was ideologically consistent. and i just -- >> you know what? >> i wasn't saying he was ideolog

and former chairman of the republican national committee michael steele. michael, very good to have you back. >> look who's back onset. it's about time, willie. >> we missed you. >> everything's good out west, primary's going to go off without a hitch. >> good. good. willie worked early on the california primary. >> june the 5th. >> june the 5th, and i had no idea that the epicenter of california politics was in santa monica in a bungalow in santa monica apparently involving lots of alcohol -- >> i was talking to lots of operatives. >> and late night strategy. >> newt got hammered last night. >> he did. >> he recovered. >> then it spread out, but there was a little bit. it was interesting. >> what was interesting about it? i found it just an overall blur last night other than a great tim tebow reference. it just blurred. the whole thing blurred. >> we need to just go ahead. >> just cut to the chase. >> literally -- >> no, we've got to do it. >> do it. go first. go first. >> this is rick perry. >> take it. >> by the way, rick perry now who set the bar so low

by the way, i have to add i'm not actually sure that michael steele would vote for ron paul for president even if he won't say it. >> well, i won't put him on the spot right now but i will ask you this, michael. if the scenario that bob just laid out was the case, if you see romney win iowa or come in a strong second, win new hampshire and well in south carolina and win florida, is it over? >> i don't think so because i still think there's going to be other candidates -- maybe two at the most who will still garner some electoral support because the early states are proportional states so they will get something. how much and how that's leveraged could have an impact and stretch it out, not necessarily to june but maybe through late march possibly, but we'll see on that, and i think the other point, that you know, bob made about, you know, the establishment, i think he's exactly right again. they have clearly made up their mind. the bill kristols of the world are listening and whistling but that reality is not going to come home. there's no life in that energy at all so romney's the go-to

alex wagner, richard wolffe, michael steele, maria teresa kumar, a real pleasure. >>> and hopefully 2012 will bring us mower interesting debates and opportunities to aw5rd revvies. good night. merry christmas. >>> obama's workshop. let's play "hardball." >>> good evening, i'm chris matthews, in washington, on the night before christmas eve. leading off tonight, the president plays hardball. for much of his term, some democrats have worried that president obama has been the compromiser in chief, that he was more worried about getting along with republicans who didn't want to get along with him and that he and his party were getting rolled in the process. but his total victory in the payroll tax fight has changed that. democrats now see a leader who staked out a position, stuck to it, and got what he pushed for. the president is making himself now the defender of the middle class. and that has democrats a bit more optimistic about next november. while the democrats are feeling more confident and satisfied, republicans are angry, confused, and as charles krauthammer pointed out today, look

thank you, michael steele. thank you, bob shrum.air with herman cain will be on "the last word" with lawrence o'donnell tonight at 10:00. she'll make some news. >>> up next, should john hinckley, the man who shot, he did do it, and nearly killed president reagan, be granted more freedom? ron reagan, the president's son, says no and he's coming here next. he'll have a lot of us agreeing with him. this is "hardball," only on msnbc. >>> secretary of state hillary clinton's in myanmar right now, the former burma. and she had dinner today with that country's most famous former political prisoner,ing i an awning san suekey. so i'm glad it's with fidelity. they offer me one-on-one guidance to help me choose my investments. not just with my savings plan here at work. they help me with all of my financial goals. looking good, irene. thanks to fidelity, i can stay on top of my financial future, huh? good one. why, thank you. whether it's saving for retirement, college, or anything else, contact a fidelity investment professional today. show m

thank you, michael steele. thank you, bob shrum. woman who says she had an affair with { herman cain will be on "the last word" with lawrence o'donnell tonight at 10:00. that's in our world a good get. good for him. she'll make some news. >>> up next, should john hinckley, the man who shot, he did do it, and nearly killed president reagan, be granted more freedom? ron reagan, the president's son, says no and he's coming here next. boy, he's going to have a lot of us agreeing with him. this is "hardball," only on msnbc. [ male announcer ] you never know when a moment might turn into something more. and when it does men with erectile dysfunction can be more confident in their ability to be ready with cialis for daily use. cialis for daily use is a clinically proven low-dose tablet you take every day, so you can be ready anytime the moment's right. ♪ [ man ] tell your doctor about all your medical conditions and medications and ask if your heart is healthy enough for sexual activity. don't take cialis if you take nitrates for chest pai

thank you, michael steele. thank you, bob shrum.man who says she had an affair with ç herman cain will be on "the last word" with lawrence o'donnell tonight at 10:00. that's in our world a good get. good for him. she'll make some news. >>> up next, should john hinckley, the man who shot, he did do it, and nearly killed president reagan, be granted more freedom? ron reagan, the president's son, says no and he's coming here next. boy, he's going to have a lot of us agreeing with him. this is "hardball," only on msnbc. m falling ♪ ♪ i think i'm falling ♪ i think i'm falling [ male announcer ] this is your moment. ♪ for you [ male announcer ] this is zales, the diamond store. take up to an extra 15 percent off storewide now through tuesday. sweet & salty nut bars... they're made from whole roasted nuts and dipped in creamy peanut butter, making your craving for a sweet & salty bar irresistible, by nature valley. >>> secretary of state hillary clinton's in myanmar right now, the former burma. and she had dinner today with that country's

congressional exit in the late 1990s and i want to break it back with the former rnc chairman michael steele. it is nice to have you here to talk about this. on one hand, you have gingrich the surging candidate and then a presidential hopeful whose numbers are bad against the president internally, and how are the staff seeing the numbers as they continue the stamina? >> well, this is newt's campaign or the president's campaign? >> newt's campaign? >> because they have blurred together after a while. newt's campaign right now is, you know, running on two sets of fumes. one is the natural high of being in the front, and having this poll reflect a real strong or depth to his campaign. the other fume is trying to get a ground game organized, trying to get dollars in the door, and boots on the ground to help him to be competitive so that he can do a couple of things. one, build the organization, two, have the surrogates and the voices out there to pushback on the noise that is emanating about him and his candidacy. so you are seeing a two-tract approach by newt right now. polls are important at t

michael steele had a slight headache when he heard newt was number one, as the former rnc chair, butand hollering when he heard this -- when he saw these polls, that ron paul is now leading the pack in iowa. let me show you these figures. pull at 23, romney at 20 and gingrich at 14. i mean, we're just -- when you thought, mr. chairman, it couldn't get any worse, it got worser. >> it hasn't gotten worser. it's actually -- >> look in that camera and say you would love to go over this country and campaign ron paul. >> i will go across the country and campaign for the republican nominee regardless, period. >> i said ron paul. >> ron paul, if he's the republican nominee, regardless, because -- >> are you good at concession speeches, drafting them? >> he's just not going to give me a break here, but the bottom line is, the one thing i can appreciate as a former rnc chairman is that what we intended it may actually work out, have a very fluid process that allows the voters the opportunity to really size these individuals up and come to their own conclusions, not the establishment's conclusi

michael steele is here, and he's dressed in fine christmas fare. bob, you're in your usual suit. see no sign of christmas on you, except -- >> it's red, it's red, chris. >> red, pink -- >> we have decked the halls with bows of holy here, and you, s , sir, -- >> he wears it well. >> it's a zippered sweater. anyway, the president signed a payroll tax extension into law today and he thanked congress for ending the political stalemate but warned there was more work to be done next year. let's listen to the president. >> when congress returns, i urge them to keep working without drama, without delay, to reach an agreement that extends this tax cut as well as unemployment insurance through all of 2012. you didn't send us to this town to play partisan games and to see who's up, who's down, you sent us here to make your lives a little bit better and to do what's right. and fortunately, that's how this week ended. >> well, i'm going to let you have this first ball here, bob. saying he's above politics having one of the big political tussles of the term. >> the analogy i might use, i haven

michael steele was chairman of the republican national committee and is an analyst and mark halperinuess there is a shame factor, there were so many hoots from the crowd that people running for president decided it wasn't really fitting for them to show such support for someone who is not really, in any way, in the political process. >> well, chris, i think the other factor for a lot of these candidates is they don't want to do an unpredictable debate that close to the caucuses. they've got two more debates in iowa before the trump debate is scheduled. and i think the risk of candidates like mitt romney getting involved in an unpredictable thing with an unpredictable moderator wasn't something they wanted to take on. >> let me ask you about this, how it got started. trump is a brilliant showman, obviously very good at business. talk about how many times a billionaire, once or seven times. once is pretty amazing to me. if he's -- what is he up to? he decided to announce for president -- think about the gamut he pulled. that got him at the top of the poll from your party. a guy from ou

this is all working towards mitt's probable win on tuesday. >>> michael steel, richard lui, we'll see minutes, as well. here in iowa, republicans aren't the only ones mobilizing for caucus night. the president's re-election team is hoping to re-ignite the grassrootds support that powered him to a win here three years ago. >> they said this country was too divided, too disillusioned to ever come together around a common purpose. but on this january night, at this defining moment in history, you have done what the cynics said we couldn't do. >> well, he didn't have any gray hair before he took the oval office. the chair of the iowa democratic party, sue, thanks for joining us here. the action's all on the republican side, of course, but what do democrats do as they watch this play out in the gop? >> well, the thing that we do is we just keep working, we just keep organizing. the sound and fury and all the drama is focussed on the presidential selection on the other side and i understand that. really these things are won in the frenchs. and we started re-igniting the president's organiza

i do want to bring in michael steel to discn happening today, that's developments on polling in fromew poll. he's former chairman of the republican committee michael steel and nbc news analyst as well. >> how you doing, man? >> very well. yesterday you probably saw this at a new hampshire home, mitt romney went off -- matt romney, rather, went off the elderly, matt romney here, went off the message and said his dad mitt would only release his tax returns when obama releases grades and birth certificates. so when you look at surrogates and how they could help this doesn't look like they're staying on script here. >> oh, surrogates are the life of the candidate with surrogates run amok. yeah, they can mess things up a bit, and in particular when you're this close to the vote coming to the table you don't want to have a conversation on something other than what mitt has been out there talking about. which ostensibly has been in very, very broad terms. he has not focused on specific policy initiatives. while the other candidates are kind of batting back his offenses against him, you know

back with us on set mike barnicle, governor ed rendell, michael steele, and gillian tett.in the eurozone reminds me of a friend with a bad relationship. every night on the phone they say you never guess what he did. we got in another argument. the last few weeks, we've had the eurozone going through a relationship crisis. yesterday they failed to resolve it. nobody dumped anybody, but nobody got to deal with questions. and we're still hanging in limbo. i think the real problem right now is the financial markets are getting really concerned. and unless they pull out the infamous eurozone bazooka, it's going to get very messy. >> merkel holds the bazooka? >> hank paulson had a bazooka and had one finger on the trigger. with the eurozone is you have 17 fingers on the trigger. and you can't fire. angle and merkel are crucial. but the other person is the head of the central bank. unless he buys into something, there ain't going to be any answer. >> and what are france and germany asking of the eurozone countries asking. >> they want to transfer a lot more power to france and ge

michael steele is here, and maria teresa kumar. richard wolffe dusted off his tux to be here, and of course it wouldn't -- we wouldn't have had the reservies without a strong opinion or two from mike real steele. let's get right into it tonight. first up, the spotlight awards, for the best thing that hopped in alex, who is your pick? >> i think it's the c changes going from the midterm election. so a real broad conversation. and this year really feels like the turning point. >> so the turning point was the change? >> i think you could credit occupy as a major catalyst. >> so going from that talk of deficit to talking about income and inequality. >> first of all, i wear this every day, so i didn't have to dust off anything. >> internationally the arab spring. democracy takes hold, enormous story. domestic, right back to the start of the year. and the reaction to the speech. >> the best thing about politics for 2011 is it's over. it's over. >> i would feel that way if i was a republican. >> no, i feel that way just as a citizen, but

earlier, first thing in the morning, we heard from lieutenant governor michael steele, who testified on suric's behalf. later in the day, we heard from governor martin mandell. he spoke with wjz. we're live downtown. derek valcourt, wjz eyewitness news. >> derek, thank you. campaign consultant, julius henson goes on trial for similar charges in february. >>> the campaign to set a maryland man free moves in a new direction tonight. alan gross is jailed in cuba. his family said quiet diplomacy has failed, so they're turning up the heat. >> reporter: this marks the arrest and imprisonment. his family is increasing the pressure on the castro family to reunite them. >> and i know that allen must be suffering more than i am. >> allen gross's mother makes an emotional appeal directly to cuban president raul castro. evelyn gross has terminal lung cancer and is afraid she will die before he is released. >> i get up in the morning. first thing i see in the morning is allen. when i go to bed, it's allen. i can't be without him any longer. it's not fair for him or his family or me. >> reporter:

joining me today here in washington former rnc chairman michael steele, sam stein and the washington correspondent for bbc world news mark, katy kay. i think if anything the list of things that congress has to take care of before the end of the year seems to be growing and growing. and i want to talk about a couple of them. we have unemployment benefits and payroll tax extension and keysto keystonepipeline is in the mix and temporary tax bill and defense bill. the thing that strikes me here is not just -- >> all in a week's work. >> you know how fast congress moves. >> if we rewound the clock to december of last year, there were -- there was a litany of things on that to do list as well that was the bush era tax cuts, the new start treaty, don't ask, don't tell, the dream act and government spending bill. a lot of those things got taken care of. i wonder what your prognosis sis is for congress actually making it through this list by the end of the year. >> they won't make it through the whole list but the spending bills have to get done. i would guess that a payroll tax cut deal gets