high-profile republicans.ot pundits, former elected officials. people high-ranking in the party. >> ted olson. >> all these people you'd think would be able to really swing not just lip service, but power. but then when it comes to the republican nominating contest it's gone off the charts right wing, well to the chart of what george w. bush was campaigning on in terms of being anti-gay. what's the relationship in terms of what republicans do? i don't understand the disconnect. >> there's a complete disconnect and i guess it's just a kind of dispratt, craven relationship to the base of that party. look, we now have a base, the republican party, that is so radical that they can be pandered to by calls for elimination of public education for, you know -- we have a major candidate who yet could rin win campaigning, as you've been talking earlier, against college education. and so they're also as we know taking these bizarre stands about women's reproductive rights right s rights rights, about contraception. so th

tomorrow republicans in michigan and arizona will get their chance to vote in the republican primary and both of those states and in both those states, mitt romney has gotten the endorsement of the state's republican governors. michigan's governor, rick snyder came out and endorsed mr. romney earlier this month. the latest polling out of michigan, he has erased rick santorum's advantage there. mr. romney holding a slim lead in michigan ahead of the vote. the republican governor of arizona, jan brewer withheld her endorsement, waiting until yesterday, two days before the primary to announce she, too, is endorsing mr. romney. governor brewer's last minute endorsement is not exactly a profile in courage. given so much of the state has voted when you look at the polling, it looks like mitt romney will run away with arizona. governor brewer waited long enough to figure out who was going to win and then she said i'm with that guy. jan brewer, always brave, always classy. if you believe the polls, mitt romney has a prohibitive lead in arizona right now. but if you believe the curse, maybe j

colleagues, when you talk to republicans in your home state of vermont, are there republicans who are concerned about how difficult these state law changes are making it to vote or this is really purely a partisan thing? >> i think this is 100% partisan. it goes even further than we've talked about. they are trying to create a situation where if you're a college student you can't use your college id card to register to vote. they are trying to roll back same day registration. eight states have same day registration where you can register on the day you vote. there are states that want to repeal that, they want to repeal or move back early voting which has been very, very successful in getting more people to participate. the bottom line is that some of us think that in a democratic society the goal is to bring as many people as possible in the political process. it's very clear what the republicans want to do is drive as many people, he is personally poor people, old people, minorities, out of the political process. that is just reprehensible. >> senator bernie sander, hau for being wi

republican primaries. in 2008, that is how many people turned out. this year, this is how many people have turned out to vote in the republican primaries. it's a smaller number. there is nothing about barack obama being president that seems to be motivating people to turn out. you say 08-12, that is apples and oranges, you can't compare the two years, there could be enthusiasm cross-over because of the democratic race. if you want to take the pulse of republicans in this year's primaries you should just compare what republicans did last time, compared to what republicans are doing now. if you like at just self-identifying republicans, people who tell exit pollsters, i identify as a republican, those numbers are worse this year. here is iowa, 08, republican turn out on the left, this year on the right. 11% drop. in new hampshire, numbers from 08 to this year, they dropped 15%. south carolina did go up, south carolina went up 20%. but in florida yesterday the big enchilada, all the other previous races flori

republicans booed. they were booing the thought that it was even brought up because they realize it is no longer good for the republicans. and what alison was saying about the dog with the bone, they all said, this is silly, let's not talk about it, and then they talked about it. they talked about it at great length. another thing you saw last night that really hurt the republican party is wrestling with the bush legacy. that's why i think rick santorum's turn as front runner is so interesting. so far george w. bush has been entirely absent from these debate. rick santorum has to essentially answer for the bush record because he was a senator during the bush years and he owned the reason the debt ceiling and the no child left behind and the increased deficits, and the party doesn't look very good when it sits and meditates for two hours on the record of the previous presidential administration. >> i want to talk about one of the peculiar performances last night, and i'm going to have a lot more to say a

republicans are psyched! republicans see political hay that could potentially get made here.blicans get psyched, when they think there is political hay to be made, they go on tv and they say stuff like this. >> look, president obama has been anti-energy from the beginning. the president even gave a loan to brazil, brazil which is eating our lunch economically, internationally. he gave them a loan and told them, as you just alluded to, went down there and told them, we want to be your best customer. >> that was karl rove on the fox news channel this week saying that president obama is so anti-american energy that he gave money to brazil, so we can buy that oil from brazil. if you travel around conservative media circles, this has been taken as gospel for the last few years. president obama loaned brazil $2 billion so they can drill for oil, while he's all but stopped oil production here at home. now, while that might make for an awesome conservative talking point, it also happens to be 100% total unadulterated bullpucky. here's karl rove again. >> look, president obama has bee

republicans heard testimony from an all-male panel instead. today democrats announced they will be holding a hearing of their own. with just one witness. a lady on this program, sandra fluke. she was on the program and gave the testimony to the republicans that they would not allow. the republicans in turn are not allowing the democratic hearing and fluke's testimony to be televised. politico reports aides for democratic leader nancy pelosi say the hearing recording studio has denied a request to broadcast the event, apparently at the behest of the republican controlled committee on house administration. evangelical leaders joined the catholic bishops in opposition to the president's administration's compromise on contraception. family research council president tony perkins says more than 2500 faith-based leaders have signed a letter to president obama asking him to reverse the birth control rule. and it doesn't stop there. now, a republican lawmaker in indiana wants to kill a resolution honoring the girl scouts. why? because he believes the

republicans are not caving.he wrong hostage, they have taking the medicare hostage instead. if democrats come back to the table, they no longer have the leverage of the payroll tax cut because republicans are on record saying they want to extend it. i asked brad, the communication director whether the answer was a or b, he wouldn't say. the republican position he said is that "unless there is a deal, we'll move forward to insure no worker faces a tax hike" make of that what you will. so on the one hand, maybe republicans caved on the payroll tax cut. on the other hand maybe republicans have an awesome plan or both hands. maybe democrats have a counter strategy. joining us is brian beutler for talking points memo. we enjoined your coverage, thank you for coming on the show. >> thanks for having me on, ezra. >> you reported on the democrats counter plan, they say this might be republicans might have negotiating strategy but they have a way to combat that, explain that a little bit. >> sure. the way this works is i

if i admire 1930's republicans, why are republicans for almost 29 years trying to transform other republicansnto 1930's democrats? both parties support the clinton administration but it was the gary johnson administration [inaudible] the tea party race was the result of dr. ron paul and the governor's race in florida. host: thanks for weighing in. we will do this for 15 or 20 more minutes. back to the "columbus dispatch" this morning. rick santorum buyers up conservatives and has some things to say about mitt romney as well. he continued his two-one through higher today. two stops in columbus, pitching conservative credentials to tea party members and social conservatives. also fought back criticism of his earmark spending. santorum said romney as leader of the city sought and denmark. he called a mark of use limited and said overall, they make up less than 1% of the federal budget. "let's talk about the real issues of the day," said santorum, his criticism of entitlement spending and talk about freedom from government that is from the "columbus dispatch" this morning. jack thank you for wait

for the republican party. republican senator susan collins and olympia snowe called the revised birth control rule a good one. under the compromise, religious institutions are not required to pay for birth control. the senators aren't the only ones praising the move. a majority of catholics support it. 57% are for it. but you'll never guess who's not. >> the fact that the white house thinks this is about contraception is the whole problem. this is about freedom of religion. it's right there in the first amendment. we will be voting on that in the senate and you can anticipate that that would happen as soon as possible. >> it's a distinction without a difference. it's an accounting gimmick or fig leaf. it's not a compromise. the president has doubled down. >> what has to be protected here is the faith-based rights of conscience. and that's what this debate is about. your either for religious freedom or you're not. >> and on trial, and on the trail, the culture wars are red hot. >> there's no compromise here. th

i have to give republicans a lot of credit. they do a hell of a job of distorting the facts and hood winking everybody that they didn't start this issue. joan walsh, how did it play last night for the republicans in the debate? >> first of all, ed, where do they find these people ? they boo a gay soldier protecting us in iraq. they are booing birth control. i sit here and i cannot believe that they are acting as though they didn't want to have anything to do with the issue of birth control. these mean old democrats brought it up to trick them when they are the ones making outrageous comments right and left about this freedom and i really want to single out rick santorum because for the last few days he has been even attacking "salon" for an article we wrote about his views on contraception saying i don't want to take away your birth control, ladies. i voted for title 9, the family planning act. last night he had to go on the record saying i voted for it but i didn't really want to. i really oppose it. now he's been trapped and

but when he called the state republican party to report how belfast had voted, the state republican party told him over the phone oh, actually they already have those numbers. really? but i'm the guy calling to you report what the numbers are. you say you already have numbers? what do you have? quoting from the local paper, when the woman on the phone read those tallies back, the belfast chairman said they showed romney winning in belfast. which he knew was not the case. mitt romney did not win belfast. ron paul won belfast. the state republican party planned to give belfast to mitt romney anyway. when belfast complained about that, the belfast chairman was told by the state party "oh, i'll be sure those numbers are are changed." so did the final tally from belfast maine show ron paul winning belfast which in fact belfast says is what happened? no, the numbers did not say that. here what is they showed. zero! as in zero votes cast for anybody. it's not like that is what they showed that night at the caucuses, erroneously but resolved since, now they have the real tally, this is what it sa

-- utah republicans are there as much as anyone else, although utah republicans really don't get a say what's going in the race nationally, if you don't want to go state by state, you just want a big picture, national snapshot of how the candidate is doing, how the campaign is affecting their overall prospects, look not just at national "who would you vote for" polling, look at voters' feelings. how the fight is -- if you're looking at how the fight in the individual states is affecting a candidate's chances overall. if you want to know big picture how that fight is affecting a candidate's chances, ask people their feelings about the candidates. ask them if they like them. poll on whether people are favorably or unfavorably inclined towards that specific candidate. this is what i think matters for big picture 2012 politics right now. and i think it's amazing, and really nobody is talking about, you ready? okay, you ready? hey, america, are your feelings about mitt romney favorable or unfavorable? okay. the navy blue line is "i don't like him,," the green like is, "i like him." this is

now virginia republicans are frankly in chaos. there was another day of protests outside of the capitol in virginia. this one was not a silent protest like the one organized earlier this week and also protest inside the building where a committee was passing a forced ultrasound bill and fertilized egg as a person bill that would ban all abortion in the state and hormonal birth control as well. this is the kind of chaos the sponsor of the personhood bill encountered as trying to address the media outside of the room. one woman had to be physically restrained by police while conducting this interview. after all of the drama surrounding today's hearings in the senate on that bill, in the virginia senate, something surprising happened. virginia senate republicans decided to not take a vote on that personhood bill that fertilized egg as a person bill and decided to not take a vote on it in the full senate. went along with a democratic motion to send the bill back to committee and a move that means the bill is dead for the rest of the y

many republicans will vote in favor for it.enate democrats had a press conference to pressure senate republicans to get on board to make sure there's enough votes because they acknowledge they will lose senator warner who has come out of this bill. they are calculating a number of others might fall off before the final votes are held but i think that everyone wants to wrap up work and get on planes and go home for president's day recess and you'll probably see that happen. >> let me tread you this news reasons from senator mansion's office. he says quote for the life of me i cannot imagine why our elected leaders from both sides of the aisle are continuing to play political football with our spending, our debt and our children's future. i did come here to put the next generation into more debt, i came here to get them out it. i mean that seems to be the sentiment. this is a democrat from west virginia, conservative democrat, former governor. he's in his own tough re-election battle in the past and yet he along with senator warn

the only way republicans can add republicans in florida with redistricting is if they redistrict into bermuda and the cayman islands. they will try, but we do have their districts and florida and we are hopeful that -- imagine that we will go into court and hopeful at the end of the process we will have a good map. even republican maps because of the math give us seats. they have to because there are so many more democrats than republicans. if every seat was a democratic seat -- [laughter] we've also factored that in. there is never going to be a perfect is to wokrk hard to create the best environment weekend. guest: you talk to democratic governors. i know you do not have coordination with super pacs, but i am curious about the gap between republican and democratic super pacs. for the house and the senate and the presidency. they have traveled so far behind the republican counterparts. guest: this is what keeps me up at night. we have checked the box on everything, all our strategic objectives. the one that we still have to focus on is the fact that karl rove and the koch are bin goi

instead to was to talk republicans into a tax increase to pay for it. -- step 2 was to dock republicans into a tax increase to pay for it. talk therying to republicans into walking into a room and agreeing to a gain of six or super committee or something or they would agree to have tax increases along with pretender spending cuts. they had reason to believe they could do this. in 1982, they fooled ronald reagan. they got him to agree to all $1 tax increase for every $3 of spending cuts. tax increases, we are still paying for them. the spending cuts never happened. spending went up twice as much. they had more spending, not less. then they turned around to george herbert walker bush in 1990 and they offered him $2 of the imaginary spending cuts for every $1 of a tax increase. he was a cheaper date. the spending cuts never happened. what happened in 2011 was there were not able to talk of republicans into swallowing their own net tongues. [applause] they had been able to do it in the past. they were not able to do it in 2011. the tea party movement, the ron paul movement came into the mod

they all became republican. now, the danger in 2012 is if we run with electability instead of big ideas for reform and then suddenly the top of the ticket doesn't look that electable, you will have a lot of people running away from the ticket who have poured money into there and don't have money to pour into state races, gubernatorial races, senate and house races. we can't just focus on the white house, we've got to focus on the house and senate and governors and state legislatures. we would be nowhere on the obama care decision without an effort by conservatives to elect conservative attorney generals. >> what would a bad turnout mean for those super pacs? >> i think a bad turnout in 2012 would actually hurt us in a number of the swing states. remember, this is the first redistricting that the democrats have ever controlled. since the passage of the voting rights act in the 1960s, the republicans have controlled the department of justice for every census redistricting. this is the first time the democrats have

let's not overlook the fact that the republican -- there isn't yet a republican, optimistic republicanlternative. i think that is helping the president. because these debates have sort of dragged down everybody in the republican party, in this presidential race, you say those enthusiasm -- it is as much about the democratic number going up as frankly the republican number is going down and that's because there is just less enthusiasm for this. >> let's take a look at the president. he gave a rousing speech in milwaukee. listen to what he had to say about the state of the economic recovery. let's watch. >> we're still recovering from one of the worst economic crises in three generations. and i'm not going to lie to you guys. you know it. we've still got a long way to go before everyone who wants a job can find it. but here is -- here is what i want everybody to remember. over the last 23 months businesses have added nearly 3.7 million new jobs. manufacturing is coming back. companies are starting to bring jobs back. the economy is getting stronger. the recovery is speeding up. and now w

are you concerned as a republican that republicans are overdoing this issue and it can hurt the party's chance in november? >> no, i am concerned the issue might get miscontrued. everybody in america is free to use contraception as they want to, and that's not the question. the question is should the government have power to mandate these things of us. the compromise is a distinction without a difference, and it's mandating that everybody pay for everybody's free birth control and contraception. can the government mandate that people violate their freedom of religion, the conscience. the catholic charities don't interpret document, but it's the bishops, and they are saying it's a violation of the constitutional rights. it's an issue of constitutional rights and of the government having the kind of power to trump them. the way i look at it, if the president is willing to trample on the constitutional rights in a difficult election year, imagine what he will do implementing the rest of the law when he doesn't have to face the voters again if he gets re-elected? >> you heard what ryan said

gene, that is the part that won't fly with the republicans. >> yeah, nothing will fly with the republicans in anything the president proposes. >> even a small fee on the banks, my friends. bob shrum, eugene robinson, great to have you with us. >> thank you. >> answer the question at the bottom of the screen, share your thoughts on twitter. >> bernie sanders joins me, the buffet rule was brought to the senate today. >>> governor jan brewer is pushing the country's most anti-union agenda yet. it's wisconsin on steroids. the democratic leader of the arizona senate is calling for a wisconsin style backlash. he'll join me coming up, stay with us. in an allergy fog. so i get claritin clear for strong, non-drowsy relief of all my allergies like dust mold pets and pollen. looks good. thanks. i live claritin clear. >>> coming up on "the ed show" the buffet bill was introduced senate. >>> massive protests in indiana where right to work for less is now the law of the land. is this what the people really want? were there demonstrations in favor of this? arizona jan brewer is picking a fight with the c

so this is not clearly a democrat versus republican issue a lot of republican support marriage equality in new hampshire and across the country there was a brilliant viral video of the republican state legislator in washington state last week talking about you know the importance of loving relations between relationships being. sanctified being held up as opposed to you know and. looking down the road say five years and. i would guess maybe. it's my guess is that will be like him it will just be a national thing what are your thoughts well it really depends on a lot of politics really makes a difference. in our country right so we have state after state has to have these conversations the decision of these legislative elections and the courts make a huge difference state courts federal courts as well i would say that it's a really important for everybody everybody watching the news everybody paying attention to what's happening in the real world to understand that this is impacting real people's lives this is not a tax going up or down this is not about what's happening somewhere else i