roy sekoff and ron christie are still with us.roline kennedy is going to be speaking tonight. she was very close to senator kennedy. what do you think she'll say tonight? >> you know, ed, i really got to go back to this whole politicalization thing. it's one of the most ludicrous things i've ever heard. a memorial is supposed to honor the person and their life. ted ken dnedy spent his entire life in politics. to think you can have a memorial service devoid of politics strikes me as politics is absurd. >> ron christie, where do you draw the line tonight? >> people can get up and talk about his vast accomplishments in the united states senate. i think a memorial serviceha

bush ron christie with us tonight. nancy, starting with you. of the american people, where is it right now on afghanistan? >> i don't think it's there. i think as the casualties keep mounting and as the financial and human cost of the war keeps getting bigger, i think people are getting frustrated. i keep going back to thinking, though, that it's the war that is eight years late. if we had stayed in afghanistan back in 2001-2002, when we had osama bin laden at tora bora, we could have made some progress. now i feel like barack obama inherited this mess and the timing is just extraordinarily bad. as you said earlier, we've got financial woes here. we've got health care reform -- >> we don't know how much finances. that's the thing. secretary gates is saying a few more years. that could be billions and billions of dollars. ron christie, it appears to me that president obama is rather hawkish on afghanistan. what's your take on his position? >> ed, i don't think he's hawkish. i think what the president articulated today is the best way for victory

if he does that he'll have them back in his camp again. >> ron christie, have you seen anything likeeer, that you have to admit, ron, that there are a lot of things being spewed out there that simply are not true, and yet so many people are believing what is being broadcast and the conservative, you know, torpedos that are in the water constantly at the obama administration. what would you compare this to? >> the only thing i can compare this to, where we were in the middle part of the 1990s, when the republicans were trying to slow the rate of medicare when you heard the republican party didn't care about the elderly. let's stick to what we do know, ed. you look at the numbers where it says 56% of the american people say it doesn't think we can afford this. and we have seen the four bills going to the congress, going to cost at least $1 trillion, and the other thing i might say, had you the mid session budget review that came out today, that says the size of the deficit will increase by $2 trillion. the american people, 56% recognize that the government is spending an awful lot of m

ron christy from washington, d.c., james toronto and hank shinekoff. thank you very much. at the top of the hour, campbell brown. what are you working on? >> hey there, lisa. tonight a girl kidnapped nearly two decades ago, as you reported earlier, she has been found alive. what happened to her? where was she during all of this time? we're going to have the latest details. plus, reaction tonight from her parents. >>> we'll also hear from elizabeth smart who was also kidnapped then found alive and her father on what it's like to reunite with a child who has been missing. >>> also, tropical storm danny, we're tracking its path along the east coast this weekend. that along with all our "mashups" of the other top stories at the top of the hour. >> thanks, campbell. >>> we'll have complete coverage of the funeral of ted kennedy tomorrow. you're looking at live pictures from the j.f.k. library where he -- the body is lying in repose. reminder to join lou on the

with me now, ron christie, and chris kofinis. great to have you.ask you, chris, we saw kathleen sebelius this weekend talking about how it was a sliver of this option and then yet today, we have linda douglas saying nothing has changed and the president still thinks this is the best option. mixed signals? >> i'm not sure if it's mixed signals. i think what's happening is the significant piece of health care reform everybody agrees on, putting a cap on out of pocket expenses is significant. people agree, i think most democrats and even a few republicans, that is always going to happen. now, the bigger question is in terms of insuring competition and bringing cost down, do we go with a co-op route or the public option route. i think that's where you're going to see a lot of debate and you're already seeing a lot of the debate and discussion among democrats and republicans. >> ron, it's interesting because when you hear republicans talking about health care reform, they indicate that yes, it would be nice if everyone had access to health insurance. wh

. >> let me ask ron christy the same thing. if president bush had been reported playing golf with one of the big wall street bankers or somebody whose company, as james said, is being associated with offshore investments being hidden from the america taxpayer, wouldn't the media be going after him? >> the media would be in a revolt. i appreciate the opportunity to join you. sorry about being on a train. listen, when president obama and his administration came into power, they said they were going to have the most transparent administration and redo the way that washington conducted business. unlike what james just said a second ago, these gentlemen aren't old friends. they met when president obama was the then senator from illinois and he was running for president. this is a company that's at the heart of a department of justice investigation and the internal revenue service for illegally keeping billions of tax dollars away from the american people. just when we hear there is a new estimate that the deficit is going to be an a

ron christy, erol lewis, and democratic strategist ank sheinkopf.ooks like quite a reception there and already the debate as organized by the white house at least, is are these real grassroots responses or are they synthetic astroturf as lloyd benson once referred to them? what's the deal, hank? >> some may be manufactured and some may be -- look, we're talking about fooling with the economic issues in this country. health care being the significant one and voters historically going back feel when you fool with the economy you're fooling with a well-timed time piece, very well cared for. and people get nervous. that's part of what's going on. >> what concerns me are the instances where it's clearly over the top. you've got in at least one case a congressman hanged in effigy where it's starting to get ugly and nasty. and in some of the cases, you have people trying to shut down debate. that memo that you talked about with candy crowley, it references tactics like standing up and shouting down the congressman before the first question gets asked. that

alicia menendez is a democratic strategist and contributor for thestimulus.com and ron christie is a el's clip from the show. a lot of republicans are saying the senator would have brought something different to the table. do you buy that? >> i do actually, tamron. when i was in the white house, our staff negotiating very closely with the senator for no child left behind as well as the president's commitment for a national citizen's service act. he was a very, very good negotiator. he sat down by himself and worked with the staff. he found him to be very, very strong and easy to work with. i do think his absence is very, very much missed right now. >> what about the point that rachel made about the kennedy bill and those same senators saying no, and can one person truly -- i mean, they're all there because of their political skill and hopefully their interests or the best interests of the american people. so can't the show go on, unfortunately, without this one voice? >> i think the united states senate is bigger than any one individual. >> right. >> and i think senator kennedy will b

. >> roy sekoff and ron christie, thanks for joining us tonight. appreciate your time here on "the ed show." i'm ed schultz. msnbc will carry senator kennedy's memorial service live tonight. our special coverage starts at 6:00 p.m. "hardball" with chris matthews starts right now. you're watching the place for politics, msnbc. >>> irish wake. let's play "hardball." >>> good evening. i'm chris matthews in new york. it's not just a man who passed away this week but an era that's now passed. it's not the new frontier figures like jfk, jackie, the irish mafia, kennow o'donney o'd lyndon johnson, it's the generation of massachusetts politician who is came later, tip o'neill and gary studs and top insiders like kirk o'donnell, and leo deal. they're all gone, and now eunice and teddy. the obituary page, the irish sports page. this year the traffic has been brisk, and not just in the political world. so what we're seeing right now is a victory not of violence or disease, but of time and change. the end of an era. the question is what is coming in to replace

democrats abandoned the zbld firing off in the power grid, democratic strategist, liz shatter done and ron christie, former assistant to bush-cheney. you each get 20 seconds. ron, i will start with you. does it sound lake to you these democrats have abandoned cost controls here? >> certainly does. when we first start the health care debate at the beginning of the obama administration, we heard they wanted to introduce legislation that was going to bring costs down, ensure that as many people as possible will be covered while making deficit neutral. we haven't seen a bill get coalesced all sides will been able to agree on, the house or senate, expensive, scored by the congressional budget office to me, seems like the democrats are shifting the debate away from keeping costs down. >> liz? >> well, i completely disagree. the whole point of health care reform is to try to get costs down for individuals and businesses, particularly small businesses. this is not going to be easy. everybody knows it we are trying to get a bill that in the end does this yes, do you have to spend a little money to make a li

former cia special agent and host of his own program on air america and republican strategist ron christieassistant to george w. bush and served as deputy assistant to vice president cheney and karen finney, democratic strategist and jonathan capehart is handsome and charming of "the washington post." ron, the appropriateness of prosecution in this case, period. and perhaps beyond the appropriateness of it, where that prosecution ought to be directed. in other words, is it proops to direct it back to the people doing it back to the things, even though they fear they were cleared by virtue of higher powers or are we headed to one of your foirmer bosses, dick cheney, higher power whether he authorized these behaviors? >> i think the first thing we should take a look at back in april of this year the attorney general eric holder said we should not go back and relitigate this. we should not say to people we looked into this, we've had an opportunity to look at the facts, you're clear. now a few months later, the people in the clear, all of a sudden, maybe they're not in the clear and maybe we