republicans stand for.consin this year is where republicans are getting all of their ideas. >> we want to hire more government workers, more firemen, policemen, teacher thes? did he not get the message, wisconsin. the american people did. it is time to cut back on government and help the american people. >> i think at the national level we can learn a lot from this guy. >> this guy, republican governor t scott walker of wisconsin. the message of wisconsin, according to the republican party's presidential nominee this year is, it's time to cut firemen and policemen and teachers. that's the message of wisconsin. and he says the message of wisconsin is now the national message for the republican party. here's the thing, though. if the big republican idea this year is cutting firefighters, teachers and police officers, it is shrinking the public sector, firing people with public sector jobs. we're already doing that now and you know what? it is not helping. this is a chart of public sector jobs in the last four

the republican candidate, the republican winner, scott walker, that's no surprise. the non-union house holds. here's what surprised me. if you look at is someone in your household a union member, remember, this all started because of the collective bargaining dispute. look at these numbers. might have to punch it twice. there it is there. governor walker getting more than a third. 36% of the union household vote. what does that tell you if a number of blue-collar union voters, more than a third of the them, in a big dispute that was about collective bargaining, are voting for the republican governor? >> that's a remarkable thing. you're exactly right to pull it up and highlight it. a union member who votes for scott walker is like a chicken voting for colonel sanders. he did not mislead anybody about his agenda. he succeeded in taking away the right to collective bargaining. not just cutting the pensions and their pay, which the unions agreed to. but he took away their right to collective bargain. and he has now succeeded. i think in part because of this mindset we

republicans extended their majority. tom daschle was defeated, the majority leader, in part because of the argument that he is an obstructionist to nominees. terry reid comes in and joe biden was asked to come into said this -- he said majority not filled that role. dianne feinstein said that if we keep going on this way, we will be a minority party. this kind of presumption made perfect sense in 1955 or 1965 or 1985. it does not make sense after the 1990's. you see this subtext often. there's something unnatural about republican majority? this adds to the ferocity of the republicans who say it will not kick the football again. >> thanks, gentlemen. that was very civil, wasn't it? [laughter] i'm supposed to take some questions but i thought i would each of you one quick question. would you respond to a political party that is about to nominate mitt romney as its presidential nominee and four years earlier, nominated john mccain as its presidential nominee? alice that fit with your idea that this is a bunch of -- how does

since the day president obama took office republicans have been systematically planning to destroy his presidency by taking down the american economy is this an example of petty politics at its worst or if something even more sinister also why can't that romney stop why it would increase transparency in washington destroy the republican party all that more in today's politics panel and as united steely take it's the end of the world as we know it and you shouldn't feel fine but this startling new research reveal about one of the pillars of life on our planet. you know this house republicans on the oversight and government reform committee have scheduled a june twentieth vote to hold attorney general eric holder in contempt over the a.t.f. fast and furious operation program started under a different name by the bush administration which may have led to the death of a border patrol agent republicans argue that holder's obstructing an investigation into the operation despite the fact that holder the justice department to give and thousands of documents to house republicans and holder hims

in michigan and tennessee and in maine, republican governors with republican legislatures just could not wait to go after union rights in their states. in the great state of ohio, the fox news personality and "wall street guide" john kasich put his own stamp on the anti-union agenda. in some other states they would exclude cops and firefighters when they went after union rights. that's because cops and firefighters are sympathetic figures and who wants to alienate them by going after their own rights, but republican governor john kasich did not feel that way about cops at least. not at all. >> have you ever been stopped by a policeman who was an idiot? i had this idiot pull me over on 315. listen to this story. he says to me, he says, he says you passed this emergency vehicle on the side of the road, and you didn't yield. he's an idiot. >> unlike some of his fellow republicans in the class of 2010, ohio governor john kasich had no qualms after going after cops and firefighters. when ohio republicans wrote their law to strip union rights in the state, they included uniformed officers

these republican governors are in a tight spot. they could be honest about their economic success or lie for the candidate romney. let's turn to ben, national press secretary for the obama campaign. ben, good to have you with us tonight. >> nice to be with you. >> to be fair obviously these republican governors are saying, hey, what i'm doing in my state is why we have better numbers than anybody else. they're very nervous via the romney campaign when romney is saying tone it down a little bit? which is it? >> some have been honest that the president's policies has helped their state economically. governor mcdonald talked about how it benefitted his state. governor kay sick in heez is rushes for the auto that obamamented it and he posed. he opposed many of the same policy that is have led to a boost in the recovery since the economic crisis in these states. this comes on the heels of the report in the "wall street journal" that congressional republicans will hold up legislation it to help the economy until after the election becaus

republicans did not want that. democrats went for it and republicans stopped it from going through congress. so now president obama found a way to get it done anyway. president obama him will address the group that mitt romney addressed today tomorrow. he has the disadvantage, of course, of not himself being a son of a mexican immigrant, but he has the distinct advantage of having a specific, observable policy on this issue. and of not having aan alliance with the most virulently anti-immigrant elements of republican politics hanged around his neck. johns us now is jonathan, and it's nice to have you here. thank you for being here. >> thank you, rachel. >> let me ask you about the republican history on these matters. orrin hatch was an original sponsor of the dream act. when it went up for a vote in the senate, he skipped out and did not vote on it at all. is orrin hatch kind of a parabole or microcosm for understanding republican politics on this now? >> remember, when president obama was elected when he was on in

so given that the republicans have filibustered all the serious job creation legislation that's come out of the democratic party in the last three years and that they are demanding austerity shrinking the economy that republican governors all around the nation of laid off a half a million people have been imposed austerity in their states and that the republicans lousy representatives passed a budget according to the congressional budget office would lead to four point one million jobs going away as john boehner just bragging mark i don't know that it was bragging that he was taking it when he was taking credit for some of they didn't do either whatever is going on here is a blame game these numbers become a hot potato especially around election time they don't serve us well because for every number that we get up front they give us one or two numbers there are pages and pages and pages of those reports what are the quality of these jobs being created how is small business going to get reinvigorated and nobody seems to have an answer the problem we have an incumbent problem nobody se

for the republican party, wisconsin is important because wisconsin all of a sudden is what republicansfor. wisconsin this year is where republicans are getting all their ideas. >> you want us to hire more government workers, he says we need more firemen, more policemen, more teachers. didn't he get the message, the american people did, it's time to cut back on government. >> i think at the national level, we can learn a lot from this guy, you know that? >> this guy, republican governor scott walker of wisconsin. the message of wisconsin, according to the republican party's presidential nominee this year is it's time to cut firemen and policemen and teachers. that's the message of wisconsin. and he says the message of whisk wiv is now the national message for the republican party. here's the thing, though, if the big republican idea this year is cutting firefighters and teachers and police officers, it's shrinking the public sector, firing people with public sector jobs. we're already doing that now, and it's not helping. this is a chart of public sector jobs in the last four recessions

but i think the republican philosophy is. ever since its inception that party has been under they're going to throw a special privilege and then it concretely approved it in a.t.f. con artist and. i still ask for adequate and big. for displaced persons and that added to magick and it catholic now which is eighty five years. by exposing the republican sabotage strategy truman got a real like that in a squeaker the next big democratic incumbent running for election as president was lyndon johnson's vice president hubert humphrey in one thousand nine hundred sixty eight the vietnam war had become enormously unpopular and in the spring and summer of sixty eight l.b.j. had negotiated a peace a preliminary priest a peace deal between the north and south it amaze the would have actually ended the war that year before the election so richard nixon had his operatives reach out to the south vietnamese and tell them that if they just refused to go to the peace meeting in paris or refused to sign the deal he'd give them a much better dea

and the final republican seat up for recall, no incumbent republican. the incumbent republican senator quit rather than go through the recall. it's now this republican state representative, jerry petrowski and he has a comfortable 20-point plus lead but the marquee race for governor is garnering national attention. at his election headquarters, governor scott walker tonight, very, very happy, obviously, with tonight's results and looking ahead to the day after the election. >> tonight, we tell wisconsin we tell our country, and we tell people all across the globe that voters real will you do wanted leaders who stand up and make the tough decisions. but now it's time to forward. a few minutes ago i talked to mayor tom barrett. no, no, i talked to the mayor and said i'm committed to work with you to help the city of milwaukee and the state of wisconsin. tomorrow the election is over and it's time to move wisconsin forward. >> for his part, in milwaukee, at his headquarters on the democratic side, mayor tom barrett of milwaukee, conceded the race tonight.

i think that's why you see some republicans so angry today, that simply electing a republican would fixt. that doesn't take away the urgency from doing so but it does diffuse the argument somewhat. and on chief roberts' part, justifiably so. >> on the anger-o-meter, where are the republicans this morning, vis-a-vis, john roberts? >> i think there are some that are angry with john roberts and some ovp)t statements were made yesterday as the ruling came down. but other people as they read the ruling and realize that now that the mandate is considered a tax and that is the way that congress is allowed to regulate the health insurance industry, they are sort of realizing that roberts may have been pretty clever in how he crafted this opinion. and sort of giving republicans, handing republicans a path to overturn it eventually through this reconciliation process. so i think there are some people who are starting to see that roberts is playing a longer game. there was a good, long post on that yesterday, in terms of how roberts is looking ahead and looking beyond simply one decision. a lot of

you have the republican governor and the republican lieutenant governor surviving. we'll watch the results. is gloria borger ready to join the conversation? >> yes, i am. >> so, gloria, you have hear all this money spent. you have the democrats especially labor saying this was a test run, this was a key test of labor's credibility and the chairwoman of the democratic party debbie wasserman schultz, saying it was a test run for november. safe to say they flunked? >> yes, sure. this is a measure of intensity and enthusiasm among the democrats and a measure of the strength of the labor party movement. and i would have to say when you look at this and you can say, okay, what are the concrete results that this is going to tell us about november? this is a psychological boost for the republican party. they're going to say it's a lot more, but at the very least it's a psychological boost. i mean, you were talking earlier about president obama's numbers. and in these exit polls that you were talking about, he is up 11 points over mitt romney in this state of wisconsin. who'

this is a republican issue. i think that romney, a cautious politician, will make a conscious choice. portland, polenty, i do not know who is third. i think he picks portland. it makes the most sense. romney is a cautious politician. i cannot see him making an out of the box choice. who knows? we will see what happens. tom is in that party. he may have a different view. >> i do not know what he will do. i hesitate to take a choice. i have so many friends. [laughter] everybody has some strong attributes. they all have some negative factors. >> for the record, i was thinking portman at 35%, pawlenty at 20 or 25%. i would put mitch daniels really high. i do not get a sense that he is aggressively getting a look at. i would put him there. after that, -- >> you have to put the governor of virginia in the mix. >> of the wife is on his cabinet. [laughter] i think he would be a great pick. i also think rubio would be a good pick. he is hispanic, he helps you in florida. generationaly. he solidifies your tea party base.

in congress does this say about the republican party and its feelings for hardworking americans also michigan legislators are very close to letting for profit education companies destroy public education in that state all in the name corporate greed and out of the wallets who's behind this attack on public education and how can michiganders help stop it and mitt romney and paul ryan have been getting along really well lately maybe because paul ryan's budget would help the rich like romney get even richer but how do the rest of americans those who will get taxed more and can't afford to buy off someone in washington how do we fight back i'll tell you in tonight's daily to. brood news the u.s. call center industry has lost five hundred thousand jobs over the last six years thanks to corporations like bank of america wells fargo and t. mobile outsourcing american jobs to foreign countries where they can exploit low wage workers the big four wall street banks have all moved their call centers to the philippines in the last few years laying off hundreds of thousands of american workers wh

aren't republican any more. the party in the '90s. counties where -- >> where did they go? ? >> some became independent, some became democrats. but they're not calling themselves republicans. >> the ideological, today moderates make up a small part of the republican party. 68%, seven out of ten republicans call themselves actual conservatives. compare that to democrats and i think people who watch the show will be surprise bid this. 38% even. 38% call themselves moderate. 38% call themselves liberal. i say, don't be too puristic when you want to get a democrat elected. it also shows the racial make-up of the party, it th doesn't surprise me. the democratic party has grown more diverse with immigrant and the republicans are overwhelmingly white. that doesn't surprise me much. >> no. michael? >> that's the one area where i do have a great deal of -- >> how many jack kemps or michael steeles are there? >> not a lot. that is something i genuinely have a concern about. when i look at the demographic shifts in this co

republicans controlled majorities. in 16 states republicans had the whole legislature and the governorship. they had total control. right away, among this new class of republican, it kind of seemed like they were all pursuing the same agenda. there were slight variations but they seemed to be pursuing the same thing. they wanted to make voting harder with 180 bills trying to make voting harder just since the start of last year. last year they introduced 600 new bills to roll back abortion rights. they enacted 92 of them. that was a record. they moved to give tax dollars to businesses even in states that had big budget deficits and couldn't afford to give money to anybody. after the red tied elections of 2010, new republicans who seemed to be acting in concert doing all the same things, they went after union rights in a really big way. in michigan and tennessee and in maine, republican governors with republican legislatures just could not wait to go after union rights in their states. in ohio, the fox news personality j

there is no moderate republicans, moderate democrats but no moderate republicans. but to come together to make joint decisions that's why the country has all of the countries it has now. the economic situation. it's a big problem. then maybe it was -- historians can look back, one of the last time that people can sort of come together. it's a tribute to i them keep saying we came together. and also what i'm proud of. i think i mentioned this before, if not in this interview. i thought there would be a historical backlash against the impeachment process, against the president nixon reservation because we forced him out of office, this was a part i san gang that put it all together. there was never, that back lash never came. nobody ever writes that somehow -- no meaningful possession i'm sure some have written, that somehow error was committed. this is whang what happened. this point have happened. this was a president being driven out of office and he wouldn't. no respectable authorities have really said that. and that's another tribute to that process. i'm very pr

the only republicans who are not on board are the ones here in washington. paul jump on board with the rhine plan. this throws a monkey wrench into the relationship with rover if you really think it through. the report shows that the ryan plan would actually raise taxes on middle-class americans and receive a lot. the rhine plan would pay with the $10 trillion by getting rid of loopholes. how many times of we heard that? the trouble is that many of these so-called loopholes are actually popular dedications -- i'm sorry, deductions and credits that benefit the middle class. the help families save for retirement and purchase homes. paul ryan and mitt romney would actually raise taxes on the middle-class white family making $1 million a year would see their taxes drop by almost $300,000 under the from the plan. a family making $50,000 would see their taxes go up by more than $1,300. republicans you're enthralled by norquist's pledge, doesn't the romney/ryan the scheme by lead the pledge? he is on capitol hill today. i hope someone will ask him that question and

to show for it what happened at the louisiana state republican convention and what do the events of the convention mean for the republican party as a whole also the mainstream media wants you to think that the now infamous miami zombie is drugged out tripping on l.s.d. like drugs here in the brutal attack is that the truth or just another example of the media using scare tactics when talks about drugs and country clubs caviar and cadillacs three things that are marketed to and usually only be afforded by rich people well you know what else is only for rich people american democracy i'll explain why and i still take. the best of the rest of the news occasionally we here in the united states get a glimpse into parliamentarian chaos and disagreements between lawmakers or delegates devolve into massive brawls like this one in the ukraine back in two thousand and ten and. the full. and wall all out fights have not spilled out onto the floor of the united states congress in a very very long time patiently at local political meet ups and caucuses decorum gets thrown out the window case in poin

if that were true republicans would never win. they seem to be able to win despite media criticism or hostility, whatever you want to say and also i think what's really fun these days is people, i just watched robert reich give a lecture, i would like the good old network and watch the same old news, the criticism we select the news we agree with, that's a reasonable criticism, but i think to the extent that media bias, i think the most egregious in the goldwater years. look at the media coverage it was atrocious. that doesn't happen as much anymore. you can criticize individual pieces but i don't tend to play that game much. >> norm any thoughts? >> of course, tom and i have written a lot about this. i do think there was substantial liberal bias in the mainstream press in the 1960s, i think there's no doubt about it. i think our media environment has changed radically. we have a partisan press now that is back to the future, but with much greater reach, depth and immediacy than we have ever seen before. this is not like william r

is the republican party to extreme? one thing i learned was the institute's mission statement, 10 simple words. with the slogan he did not simply mean we value the competition among various institutions. of course, we do. he championed as his successor is spirited debates within the family. they have differed on the wisdom of organ donations. scholars have publicly sparred over the merits of the carbon tax. there were disagreements about the a rock or. in the fall they will publish a book on competing views of china's rise. scholars have differed about the merits of -- the debates have always been vigorous and always simple. our debate on but the republican party is too extreme is keeping with that history. i would like to acknowledge the work of those who have made this a success. it is available to you on the web site. his columns are must resign capitol hill. steve hayward is the fellow at aei and a regular blocker. we are fortunate to have him as our moderator tonight. he writes about this twice a week for roll call

as to why republicans want to kill obamacare. al grayson is here with reaction. >> folks, thanks for watching. republicans drag their radical witch hunt into the mainstream today. the contempt charge against attorney general eric holder helps achieve three possible goals for the republicans. damage the president, fire up the right wing base, and as democratic house leader, nancy pelosi pointed out, take out eric holder. >> it is no accident, it is no coincidence that the attorney general of the united states is the person responsible for making sure that voter suppression does not happen in our country, that issues that relate to the civil liberties of the american people are upheld. these have same people holding him in contempt are part of a nationwide scheme to suppress the vote. >> indeed, republicans are jumping at the chance to get rid of eric holder. senator marco rubio from florida where voter suppression is running rampant. rubio was ask by reporters today if he thinks the attorney general should resign. he said yes, i d

importantly bill clinton even as he took on the republicans and you pointed out he did say the republicans were wrong about trying to make permanent tax cuts and wrong about going to austerity but we should look at and he would favor extending all the tax cuts, all of the bush tax cuts and the obama tax cuts for a few months into next year to help the recovery. there are a lot of americans who believe that, and more importantly, john, too many people in washington have refused to face what's going to come after this election and he's helping to get the ignite debate. >> to ignite an important debate for the country which has the potential of a fiscal cliff. however there's one important person the incumbent president of the united states who says the bush tax cuts should expire, wealthy americans pay more, the buffett rule or some other way. what bill clinton says you can do as long as you can get the right price from the house republicans is contrary to that. >> absolutely he's saying we don't decouple now. it's the wrong thing to do. remember, though, this is what president obama himself

you know this house republicans on the oversight and government reform committee have scheduled a june twentieth vote to hold attorney general eric holder in contempt over the a.t.f. fast and furious operation program started under a different name by the bush administration which may have led to the death of a border patrol agent republicans argue that holder's obstructing an investigation into the operation despite the fact that holder in the justice department are given thousands of documents to house republicans and holder himself has testified on the matter eight times republicans believe that holding a sitting attorney general in contempt during an election year could be embarrassing for president obama so they're going to take a shot at holding attorney general holder in contempt of course would not create one single job however passing the senate version of a highway bill that would keep one point nine million americans on the job building our roads and bridges republicans refused to act on that legislation which prompted senate majority leader harry reid to call out republican

first two years so republicans won big in the two thousand and ten midterms. and when republicans took control of the house in january two thousand and eleven they kicked their economy crashing agenda into high gear they pledged to repeal obamacare and the repeal of obamacare would kill four hundred thousand jobs every year for the next ten years they passed the austerity soaked paul ryan budget this year which according to the economic policy institute would fill four point one million jobs over just the next two years senate republicans filibustered president obama's american jobs american jobs act which would have created two million new jobs and with each new showdown over the budget or the debt limit republicans have succeeded in getting even more spending cuts that suck even more money out of the economy making things worse and on the state level republican governors pushing their own austerity agendas they've killed more than six hundred thousand public sector as government employee jobs further dragging the economy down in fact if those people were all

we have new evidence the republicans are rooting republicans are rooting for america to fail when it in the economy. the romney campaign asked florida governor rick scott, dude, can you tone it down when it comes to jobs and the economy? when rick scott talks about how great florida is doing, bloomberg says it clashes with the nominee's message that the nation is suffering under president obama. the republicans want you to believe the president of the united states is killing the economy and romney is the only one that can bring it back. >> he's going to say the economy is getting better. thank heavens it's getting better in spite of him. >> romney's people must hate it when rick scott says stuff like this. >> it's all about jobs. >> and you think jobs are turning around there? >> oh, yeah. we were at a three-year low on unemployment. >> if romney wants rick scott to stop talking about florida's economic success under obama, he's got a bigger problem. romney needs to convince the people in ohio, michigan, and virginia that the economy is terrible there as well. republican governors i

>nomination. >> jon: republican nomination. >> republican nomination.that message goes away when his candidacy comes to an end. >> jon: was there any thought that he would then go to the... did do they ever talk to him or is there talk of the two of you or is there any that kind of... >> none of that going on. ron paul asked for my endorsement in 2008. i readily gave that endorsement and when i dropped out of the republican party i asked everyone that was going to vote for me to vote for ron paul. like i say, i think that's going to come to an end. >> libertarian is very interesting. democrats and republicans both seem to agree with half of it. >> yeah. >> but the opposite halves. >> i got it. >> jon: it's like one of those friendship necklaces. each one has the half and if they put it together, oh, my god, a libertarian! (laughter) >> well, i think so. the notion that most people in this country are fiscally responsible, socially tolerant, i'm in that group, i think most americans are in that group. a libertarian candidate is going to come at obama fro

on the republican side, there were six republican senators who got put up for a vote. of those six, two of the republicans lost their seats. and so it came to pass ultimately that the republicans in wisconsin in the midst of this crazy fight, they lost their majority in the state senate. the majority that they had won in the blood red election of 2010. after a resignation earlier this year and after those recalls, the democrats and the republicans are in a tie in the wisconsin senate. and on union rights, one of the republicans is senator dale schultz, who you just met. and he takes the stand in favor of union rights. so republicans are in a tie with democrats overall now in the state, but on union rights, republicans would now lose to democrats. dale schultz, this guy who you may never have heard of, has sort of quietly, through this unique position that he is in, arguably become the single most powerful figure in wisconsin politics. dale schultz is like the swing justice of the wisconsin state senate. he's what sandra day o'connor used to be on the supreme court, eve

republicans averaged a ten-point gap.p has been steadily increasing to now stand at 18 points. steve, i'm trying to come up with a positive spin on this, but there actually isn't one. we know this election is going to be incredibly close largely because it's going to be a sliver of folks that the democrats and the republicans are going to be fighting over? >> yeah what this reflects is just a long-term historical trend that you see the top of the political world. look at congress. there use to the be ideologically fluid in congress, conservative democrats, under the same party banner. bob taft guys, they'd be in the same party, too. so there would be a lot of mixed messages coming up on questions of ideology so for the average voter it was possible to pick and choose, i agree with this party here, that party there. they've really kind of synced up now where the democrats have a clear ideology, clear unified positions on most issues, a few outliars. the republicans are a cohesive idyll idylliccally strong party with a stro