and if you look at the poll numbers of mitch mcconnell in kentucky done right now done by one of the l newspapers, only 17% say they're going to vote for mcconnell. 34% say they plan to vote against him. and 44 say they want to see the opponent. what do you make of these numbers, and is he vulnerable? >> he is absolutely vulnerable. you mention that we took out an ad. it features an actual gunowner from his state, and folks can watch it at gunownersforreform.com. he squealed. he reacted to it, because he doesn't like the face of accountability. the reason that mitch mcconnell's numbers are so low is that on pretty much every single issue of the day, including guns, he consistently sides with his big corporate campaign donors as opposed to everyday kentucky families. and the only thing missing from the the debate up until now, the only reason that mitch mcconnell and other republicans have been able to get away with these absurd positions is a lack of real accountability back home. so that's why we took out this ad, and we're going to be airing it all week long in his home state. >> wh

the stunningly stupid staff of mitch mcconnel.that his staff wrote to the assistant secretary of military affairs. i would appreciate your review and response i have enclosed a copy for your information please direct any in inquiries sincerely mitch mcconnell. i'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt this is the kind of letter that the staff writes all the time and he never sees. all indications are that the letter was written by a young staffer. the name and initials are those of a staffer who graduated from college just last year. i have never known someone that junior on staff to write such a letter from some senior staff. it is asking if guantanamo bay detainees are getting veteran's benefits but the enhanced benefits of the post 9/11 gi bill. mitch mcconnell's staff is wondering if the obama administration is giving benefits to the people that blew up america. the question did not originate in his office. the question came from a person who wrote to mitch mcconnell. below is the opening portion of that article. in a con

and if you look at the poll numbers of mitch mcconnell in kentucky done right now done by one of the or mcconnell. 34% say they plan to vote against him. and 34 say they want to see the opponent. what do you make of these numbers, and is he vulnerable? >> he is absolutely vulnerable. you mention that we took out an ad. it features an actual gunowner from his state, and folks can watch it at gunownersforreform.com. he squealed. he reacted to it, because he doesn't like the face of accountability. the reason that mitch mcconnell's numbers are so low is that on pretty much every single issue of the day, including guns, he consistently sides with his bigpo

mitch mcconnell has never been that popular in kentucky. in the state of kentucky, partly because he's from louisville, is not that popular. >> joy reid and howard fineman, thank you both for joining me tonight. >> thank you. >>> coming up, paul krugman joins me he to talk about whatever he wants. >>> and in the rewrite tonight, the england that oscar wild would not recognize. england has gone from throwing oscar wild in jail for a crime of homosexuality to this week's vote house of commons overwhelmingly voting for legalizing same-sex marriage. that's coming up. there's nothing better than salon color, full of beautiful highlights and lowlights. that's why nice'n easy builds dimension into every shade. so here's a challenge: love the gorgeous dimension of nice'n easy or we'll pay for a salon color. take the salon challenge, from nice'n easy. >>> our big yet tomorrow is paul krugman who will join me next. that's why i'm wearing the glasses. it makes me look smart. i'm talking like nobel prize winners. >>> and it turns out, begging works. yo

mitch mcconnell has never been that popular in kentucky.n the state of kentucky, partly because he's from louisville, is not that popular. >> joy reid and howard fineman, thank you both for joining me tonight. >> thank you. >>> coming up, paul krug man joins me he to talk about whatever he wants. >>> and in the rewrite tonight, the england that oscar wild would not recognize. england has gone from throwing oscar wild in jail for a crime of homosexuality to this week's vote house of kmons overwhelmingly voting for same-sex marriage. that's coming up. so, beginning today, my son brock and his whole team that's coming up. gsame-sex marr. that's coming up. asame-sex marr. that's coming up. lsame-sex marr. that's coming up. isame-sex marr. that's coming up. zsame-sex marr. that's coming up. isame-sex marr. that's coming up. ngsame-sex mar. that's coming up. same-sex marr. that's coming up. co overwhelmin voting for legalizing same-sex marriage. that's coming up. m overwhelmingy voting for legalizing same-sex marriage. that's coming up. m overwhe

but mitch mcconnell and john boehner it is not likely to happen.r for the republican party to survive the long term they need to look like they are interested in governing in washington. that's the only way that they will sway independents or a swear people of color or young people if that they look they are interested in governing. and mitch mcconnell on the senate speaker boehner they have to stop this tea party movement. thank you a for being on the shown. could ainging christie run for president in after the break we'll find out if his fans have a reason to believe. you're in the -- klee documentaries... on current tv. ♪ >> michael: as we mentioned at the top of the show, the president hopes that governors will rescue him from his congressional battle over the sequester. he told them today if a deal isn't reached, the $85 billion in automatic budget cuts would cripple their state's economies. >> obama: rest assured the uncertainty is already haven an effect. companies are preparing layoff notices. families are preparing to cut back on expenses

now, what that means is mitch mcconnell is in grave trouble. supposed to poll over 50%, usually significantly over 50%. whenever they poll before bee low 50 they're in grave trouble. the presumption is if the election was held literally today, the undecideds would go to the challenger ashley judd. she's a shoe-in, is what i'm saying. >> there's a lot of time but there's no doubt that mitch mcconnell has a problem here. he has not solidified his support among his own base, the tea party. you know, he went against graham paul in kentucky, he doesn't have as much control over the grass roots. people forget kentucky is a state that does elect democrats. had you ford, huddleston, barclay. this is not a place for republicans only. he's got to be nervous. >> ashley judd at 43%, i want to double underline this, that is extraordinary that you could put her name in a poll, she would poll within the margin of error basically with an incumbent senator who has been there forever. it is a conservative state. i mean, she is -- the democrats better be begging

is this mitch mcconnell saying i'm going to set this economy up to fail.t to hurt the president and see him not succeed and see democrats not move forward. is some of that in play here? >> i think it's fair to say that the republican leadership have certainly dug their heels in now, if you listen to john boehner saying i agree with secretary panetta that sequestration would be damaging. but they are saying this is the president's invention. >> michael: it's good public relations, but the president comes in with something like 52% approval rating at his last polling and congress is so low. doesn't the president have a little more to lose here? >> he does absolutely. if you look at this week no members of congress are in session this week. they are having townhalls they are doing speeches they are talk about -- there are very few people from the small towns of america that don't know what sequestration means anymore. so there is a lot to lose for the president. and i think everybody has a lot at play here if we don't find a way to avert these cuts. and it lo

the deal harry reid cut with mitch mcconnell is coming back to bite them. they could have gone for a lot more. they backed off. they shook hands again and went with something milder and then boom, he gets clowned two mornts later. >> nia malika, i want to be real clear. the filibuster has been around for decades. but its use has exploded in this past few years. in fact, two of the three sessions of congress with the worst filibuster abuse have happened under president obama. so let me just cut to the chase. is the gop's obstruction about policy? or is it just something personal about president obama. >> well, it's probably a little bit of both. it's about policy. it's about this president whose policies they vehemently disagreed with. harry reid had a chance to go for a more full-throated filibuster. but his reasoning was that when the democrats are in the majority -- in the minority and that could happen, this next election, that they want to have that same leverage that republicans have been using with this filibuster reform to block many of the president

do you think that if rand paul and mitch mcconnell and and the republicans in the senate along with their colleagues in the house who actually control the house who not only are opposed to card check but probably in favor of this national right to work for less law i think if that were to happen that that would put firm on and your proposed legislation passes without modern opposition of federal law on what might be the result of that. you know it's hard to say with divided government at the federal level i don't worry all that much about them getting together to affect us either for good or for ill. so you know there are a lot of things that i would like to happen but they can't make it through the house of representatives similarly i can't see them managing to pass legislation that would take away this new fierce you're right that the unions have one thing i want to put it put out there though is in contrast to the national split between republicans and democrats on this issue this was a bipartisan effort the economic development committee which i'm the vice chair but to cheer as a repu

mitch mcconnell.ared, speak he john boehner just two months ago suggested he could stump up $800 billion by closing tax loopholes. nowadays he never mentions it. would closing tax loopholes, jared, again as an economist send the economy into a downward spiral of descent and destruction. would it ruin the economy? >> absolutely not. in fact, i happen to be writing testimony on this that i'm giving a week from today on this very topic on reforming our tax expenditure system very much in the spirit of what the president said earlier. if you comb through the system of tax expenditures, which by the way is one of the ways in which we spend through the tax code, so if you're one of these republicans who believe we have a spending problem, then by definition you believe we have a tax expenditure problem. if you look at the carried interest loopholes, the favored treatment of capital gains, if you look at how we favor debt financing over equity -- anyway, there are so many -- >> how about massive oil companie

>> oh, i think mitch mcconnell is totally freaked out about an ashley judd candidacy. one thing that he has been able to do over the years is spend lots of money demonizing his opponents and having a huge financial advantage. he won't have as big a financial advantage, but the real difference is ashley judd will be on television virtually every day for the length of the campaign if she runs. mitch mcconnell won't be and people will see and hear from the real ashley judd and then they won't have to worry about relying on the information in mitch mcconnell and karl rove's paid ads. reality trumps political advertising all the time and ashley judd is a terrific candidate. i was with her with a group of people. she is a total natural in terms of retail politics. he endears herself to virtually everyone she meets. >> do you -- >> she's going to be a formidable person. >> do you respect her commitment to service in this way, her political antenna. >> absolutely. ashley has been an activist over the years. she has a public policy masters from harvard. this has been most of he

when harry reid and mitch mcconnell agree this is really worth it.n if, we said at the time this was phony, it was not going to work, it was not going to make any change. republicans were going to abuse it. they would never abide by that agreement. two weeks ago. republicans trotted it out yesterday, put a filibuster on the nomination of chuck hagel to be our next secretary of defense, and they won. you need 60 votes to get over it. and the most they could get with the democrats and four republicans was 58 votes t he lost by one vote. harry reid ended up having to vote no. that way, by voting know he has the right to bring this back up for another vote when they come back from president's day weekend, which he will, and hopefully by that time, some republicans, one more republican, will have come to his or her senses. at any rate, it was the 55 democrats, 55 democrats and independents and four republicans came up to 59. harry reid voting no. that made it 58. so chuck hagle was not confirmed. and leon panetta is out. so we have no secretary of defense

mitch mcconnell said it will take place. some republicans believe that the democrats will be to blame for this. >> well, the notion that the president should sit down and work with paul ryan and his colleagues is just flying in the face of what these guys have said themselves in recent days. remember john boehner said he wasn't going to do any more big deals or even try. he knows these folks in the republican conference won't vote for anything. mitch mcconnell said the discussion is over and no more talk of revenues. just a summary statement. what have they got to offer? are they sitting down to work it out? no. they offer yet another crisis and sequential series of efforts to shut it down so as to get their way. all they have got to offer is that and that means the sequester will come and a lot of republicans are saying let it come. in effect, don't worry about slowing down the growth rate and the job impact. let it come. >> the belief is that republicans think if it comes, folks say here are the democrats and the president

it said this woman has the ear of mitch mcconnell. she's his wife.y explain why your job moved to choina. they claimed that chow who was born in taiwan has a history of racism against american workers. kelly o'donnell joins me now. this is bad for so many reasons. they have taken down this tweet and apologized. >> we have. there not many rules, but this seemed to violate several of them and going after candidates's wife or family member is always on the list. it's not the office here and they did react and said that the chow family represents what is the american dream. they were very offended. they said it is unconscionable that they would use it for cheep political gain. this is shining a light on an important political race. powerful here up necessary reelection in 2014. his wife is say figure unto herself as a former labor secretary and widely regarded by people in both parties. to have her targeted as another level of discomfort then. one of the people talked abouts a rival as the actress ashley judd. she wanted to decry this and say it's not th

salon.com, the tea party is beating mitch mcconnell. htag. >> hashtag. >> stephanie: wow. okay. and in other tea party news, "the huffington post" writes the ted cruz missile gift to democrats, the people of texas have sent their very own cruz missile to the senate. said to destroy any remaining vestiges of modern republicans. and just about certain to alienate republican-leaning independents everywhere. yeah, that guy. piece of work. >> 250 communists in the state department. >> stephanie: if he spends the next few months doing what he's done since the 3rd -- the approval disapproval numbers dismal for both parties but worse for republicans. congressional democrats at 33% approval. 59% disapproval. congressional republicans at 19% approval. 72% disapproval. he was talking about what he did in these -- the chuck hagel hearings. he literally demanded proof that chuck hagel had never taken money from north korea. he had no documentation to back up his demand. even benghazi all the time senators mccain and graham -- they wills vote against

doesn't look terrific for mitch mcconnell.ight majority people favor a weapons ban and kentuckians favor a background check. when we look at the overall gun problem in the country even the stuff that is being pushed right now, the assault weapons ban and high capacity magazines this is low-bar stuff. good stuff but most people should be able to agree on. these numbers in kentucky show that there are a lot of people who just don't think--even if they own guns--they don't think it should make sense that folks should have what amounts to military weapons in their homes or out on the streets. >> john: sadly harry reid does not agree. vice president biden was in pennsylvania to push the president's gun control ban including that expanded background check and the end of the sale of large-capacity ammo clips. do you think it will go over in pennsylvania as well. >> in most states even conservatives once you'll see a split where gun violence is an every day problem and people are exposed to it and they have an issue with it. in the ru

is airing in and mitch mcconnell will be re-elected in 2014. lled too liberal. no mention of senator mcconnell's stance on gun safety. it looks like progressives struck a little nerve. >>> now to a laugh. new jersey's republican governor chris christie, the butt of jokes of our own brett erlich and others stopped by the late show with david letterman last night. check out how he handled the heat. >> i made jokes about you, not just one or two, on going here and there not just intermittent intermittent. [laughter] >> i didn't know it was going to be this long. >> jennifer: you got to love the guest who brings his own snacks. a quick break and then brett erlich. stick around. [ ♪ music ♪ ] >> jennifer: you 49ers coach jim harbaugh may have come up short but "the war room"'s" life coach brett erlich has can't-lose wisdom for prayers who are in the news. shh brett's talking now. >> you got to like the game. and you can sit them next to you and say you're done! [ whistle ] the boy scouts, you're done deliberating whether to let gay people into your r

this is republican leader mitch mcconnell reacting to the speech today. here it is. >> last night's speech was pedestrian, liberal boilerplate that any democratic lawmaker could have given at any time in recent memory. >> howard, your response to that. >> well, i spoke to mitch mcconnell yesterday. i think that's what he was expecting and he got -- he heard what he was expecting to hear in his own mind. but i think even in kentucky, believe it or not, where mitch mcconnell is going to be up for reelection next year, he is going to have to be careful on a couple of these issues. i mean, kentucky is a gun state if there ever was one. but cities like louisville and lexington, some kinds of further measures of gun safety may be more popular than he realizes. and as neera pointed out, in terms of women voters, in terms of the demography of the vote, it is important. and i think by the way it's going to be key for the president to force some democrats to go along. in certain respect, the president was speaking to harry reid, the democratic leader as much as he

i spoke with senate republican leader's mitch mcconnell.was of course the republican leader. >> glad to be with you. from what i gather president obama tonight will make a strong case to not have a see quester. well it was his idea by the way which is interesting to see him walk away from it. we made a promise to the american people that we would cut $1.2 trillion in spending. and and here the presented was ready to walk away. but if we walk away from ( y for ( y the amount of spending reduction we promised from a little over a year ago then we have have no credibility at all which is the spending is out-of-control which is we now have an economy that looks like greece. associated with high def sit and debt countries. we need to go in a different direction. >> i'm the commitment you recorded today assaying there will be no last minute hectic negotiations and tax increases do you stay with that? >> the president signed into law to reduce spending this amount of money. it will go into effect. we are willing to discuss how to achieve this same

mitch mcconnell maybe, but, remember, mitch mcconnell is up for re-election and is worried about a primary in 2014. you know, when we talk about the possibility of a big deal, i think boehner has been weakened by what happened with the fiscal cliff. mcconnell, i don't think, is fundamentally predisposed to do anything. particularly if it includes raising tacks. so who does he make a deal with? who can deliver the votes? >> and in fact, the senate democrats who are talking about the republicans in the senate who now are a little frightened by the election results and perhaps are looking for ways to come up with solutions, they know that the problem is, mike allen, in the house. the other thing, of course, that's going to be very emotional and send very strong signals is the presence in the chamber of all of these victims, from gabby giffords to the parents from chicago with the first lady. all of these victims of gun violence. >> that's right. we saw earlier this week from gabby giffords new ad, a commercial with her voice. again, it's a different track than we heard from her, and she says

how worried does mitch mcconnell need to be? >> by ashley judd? i think -- >> in general. in general. but, yes, probably. >> i think ashley judd is -- she has her masters from harvard. i will not tolerate any snickering about ashley judd. i think possibly the state of kentucky does not know how liberal she is. we'll see. with regards to dealmaking, i think the problem is that, yes, laugh these -- todd akin came from the house. a lot of these people, they can barely run statewide. they get into the senate maybe on a chance, and he is stuck with them. i think he has a very hard decision if he actually wants to get anything done as opposed to treading water. >> well, mitch mcconnell, we will see. two steps forward, one step back. how long can you do that? can do you that for two years? we have to leave it there. coming up, how am i doing? how am i doing is how he said it was his trademark tag line. former senator city mayor ed koch did pretty well. his life and legacy and that's coming up. the capital one cash rewards card gives you 1% cash back on all purchases, plus a 50% a

it will probably start again in mitch mcconnell's office with mitch mcconnell and joe biden.roads lead through mitch. >> what senator kaine is talking about even though people understand this starts on march 1st, as the pain of these things starts to kick in slowly over time, people are understanding we're still -- it starts on march the 1st but we can still try to solve this two weeks from now or a week from now and those discussions continue to happen. as senator kaine said everybody has to take one step forward together. the old bob dole thing which says, if you're going to get into a canoe, both of you have to step into the canoe at the same time. >> yes! that's perfect. >> if you don't know what i mean, take your friend canoeing and say, hey, you get in the front and i'll get in the back next and bring some towels because somebody gets wet. everybody has to step into that canoe. everybody has to put something on the table. >> it's a canoe! >> so we can make some real progress. i think people want to see balance, they want to see some spending cuts, they want to know wash

mitch mcconnell fell for a different sat fire when he apparently believed an onion-like spoof article claimed that guantanamo bay prisoners were being given benefits under the post-9/11 gi bill. he believed that. inquired as to what might be going on there. my inquiry is what is going on with the republican party right now. i mean, who is in charge? who is going to or who is trying to right this ship? this is going on for a long time now. and the thing that i think is newsworthy right now is that it seems to be getting worse and not better over time. we learned today that the last guy to be in charge in the republican party, mitt romney, has accepted an invitation to speak at cpac this year. last year cpac is where mitt romney christened himself severely conservative. how is mitt romney going to go over with the party faithful this year? if he tried to give the exact same severely conservative speech this year, how do you think it would be greeted? it is not uncommon for the losing party to go through a round of soul-searching after a bad election cycle. nobody expected the republican

the caucus that boehner of course can't control and mitch mcconnell for that matter. they're against a path to citizenship. so how is this going to play out? >> i think that's why one of the reasons why the president's proposal was actually finally put on paper and leaked, actually put a stake in the ground. now, if we don't have a path to citizenship, let's have an honest conversation with americans, basically saying by not having a path to citizenship, we're creating 11 million folks that are living in this country that basically all of the sudden become stateless. we don't want that. we don't want two americas. >> how do you know john mccain is sincere? how do you me if he really doesn't care if immigration reform passes, but he is home right now knowing that the demographics aren't going to work against him if he wants to run again. >> exactly right. well, first of all, you can only take a person's word, right? so right now his heart and the fact that he is going out front and center. but he also recognizes that anything short within the latino community that does