steve stockman saying he isn't conservative enough. have to tell you, handicappers right now will say that john cornyn will easily win this republican primary and steve stockman will be out of a job come november, wolf. >> yeah, because he can't run for both the senate and the house of representatives. going to make a decision. we'll see what he does. thanks very much, mark preston, doing some good reporting for us. >>> the joint committee investigating the new jersey governor, chris christie, and that so-called bridge scandal is meeting this hour. the new jersey state assembly and the senate merged their investigations into one. they're looking into lane closures that caused huge traffic gridlock in the ft. lee area and george washington bridge, separating new jersey and new york. and whether it was a political retribution. the panel is meeting to decide the process for issuing subpoenas. >>> just minutes ago, the maryland mall that was the scene of a deadly shooting over the weekend reopened for business. we'll have the latest on the

someone who's challenging from the right, but steve stockman, he's massively in debt.k. he's trying to get that tea party, voter rs essentially saying, conservative enough for us. doesn't have much of a chance -- paying him much mind, so this just looks like a vanity run. doesn't seem to have a real shot of doing much of anything unless he's trying to other route, too, which is becoming somewhat of a celebrity politician himself. >> clay aiken is seeking to become a celebrity politics. >> it's so bizarre on so many different levels. coming in second on "american idol" because people vote for you, that's not same as winning a candidacy for political office. and then i thought wow, in north carolina, it's easier to call up and vote for clay aiken than it is for african-americans to go to the polls and vote. i don't know if this guy has ever been on a committee, a task force and when you think of it, congress has done such a bad job that if you get selected, all you have to do is say no. >> he's got good pipes, but it used to be you had to pay your dues. before thinking y

. >>> coming up, why is congressman steve stockman scrubbing his web page?sement, next. >>> and years before the dream speech, martin luther king jr. was nearly stabbed to death. tonight we remember the last surviving surgeon who saved his life and saved history. [ male announcer ] this is the story of the dusty basement at 1406 35th street the old dining table at 25th and hoffman. ...and the little room above the strip mall off roble avenue. ♪ this magic moment it is the story of where every great idea begins. and of those who believed they had the power to do more. dell is honored to be part of some of the world's great stories. that began much the same way ours did. in a little dorm room -- 2713. ♪ this magic moment ♪ >>> we have an update on steve stockman's consent campaign. he is the far right texas congressman challenging senator john cornyn in the primary. he is also the guy who invited the infamous rodeo clown in a president obama mask to texas. and the guy who handed out an impeach president obama book to every member of congress. so why is he scru

it's everything that's wrong with washington, and it's congressman steve stockman's troubling record. is brian walsh, former spokesman of the national republican senatorial committee. brian, sal, how are you doing? sal, i'll start with you. i think you might contend that my setup there buys into the premise that says the tea party has been a problem for republicans regaining the senate. why is that -- why do you not believe that's the case? >> well, i think you just look at the facts, you know, starting with 2010. people like you and your fellow pundits said democrats will gain seats in the house, and we won 63 -- >> i don't know how many people thought they'd gain seats, but go ahead. >> i mean, i think if you go back to early 2009, most people thought that democrats were going to win seats. and so, that tea party injected so much energy and enthusiasm and excitement in the republican party that it led to that terrific election in 2010. in 2012, the tea party did quite well. we peicked up, 27 house seats, tea party members, won three of the four senate races we were in. it was really

. >> finally, republican congressman steve stockman of texas is the tea party challenger to senator johnt with that primary less than two months away, the candidate is nowhere to be found. he has been missing in action so long that his supporters are beginning to wonder what exactly is going on. well, according to the associated press, stockman, quote, has made virtually no public appearances in texas as questions mount about his campaign finances. now he's stopped showing up for his day job. stockman has missed 17 straight house votes since january 9th. furthermore, stockman's staff won't say where he is. they have ignored more than six weeks of e-mails, telephone messages, and social media posts from the associated press and other news outlets. but we may have an explanation soon. according to a tweet from his campaign late last night, we will find out where he has been this coming monday. >>> that's "hardball" for now. coming up next, "your business" with j.j. ramberg. it's hip-hop. for cross-country, classical. and for jumps, i need something...special. so i use my citi thankyou visa

steve stockman has a good record.we do not see any evidence of why we should get involved when there could only be a margin it runs. -- of different. primaries are healthy things. this keeps politicians on their toes. a keeps the more responsive to the voters. we think that is a good thing. let's go through this list from the washington post. senate races for gop. mississippi, he is being challenged by chris mcdaniel. host: we have endorsed chris mcdaniel. why is that he has been in office for nearly four decades. voters need a change. we have seen it and seen the evidence. they like him, but except gone bad. -- things have gotten bad. mcdaniel is an absolute conservative rock. we really look forward to that race. host: on the somewhat endangered list, they include in kansas, pat roberts is being challenged. in south carolina, lindsey graham may face a challenge. there are a number of republicans in south carolina. in kentucky, mitch mcconnell is challenged by matt bevin. guest: let me wrap that up. this also goes to

democrats to hold that banner or have that mangt l and republicans may have stories of people, take steve stockman the representative in congress running against john cornan, he was homeless at one point. there are exceptions to the rule. the representative from arizona lived in an empty gas station when she was growing up with her mother. there are stories of people who came from almost nothing to practically nothing, who rose to a very high salary well into the six figures. >> did most of them inherit this big money or did they make it themselves? >> some of both some came if you will born with a silver spoon in their mouth, have never had a tough day in their life at least economically speaking, they have not wanted, been on food stamps calm the things that have been debairted in congress they have never been themselves, they came from wealth themselves, came from more than modest means, grew up in a middle class or upper middle class family, been able to build a life for themselves and found themselves in a position of power. you do have a bit of a dichotomy there but generally speaking the ma

steve stockman of texas says he walked out of the state of the union last night explaining in one ofdaily press release, quote, i could not bear to watch as he continued to cross the clearly defined boundaries of the constitutional separation of powers. congressman said president obama has openly vowed to break his oath of office and begin enacting his own brand of law through executive decree. this is a wholesale violation of his oath of office and a disqualifying offense. issues executive orders is a disqualified offense. also these tweets from kansas congressman, my new friend tim huelskamp during the speech. the new imperial presidency, obama will do everything without legislation to advance his radical agenda. this one, too. imperium. wherever and whenever i can act without restraint, i will. #lawless. and then the looniest possible thing last night, congressman randy weber from texas who, we checked, is an actual congressman and who has not complained recently that his twitter account has been hacked. last night, congressman weber wrote this -- yes, it's real. on floor of house

but the question is, are the steve stockman, the primary challenger to thad cochran in mississippi, matt mitch mcconnell, they probably will keep talking about it. if any one of them comes close to winning, that's going to be a warning sign for the rest of the members. >> you're talking about people challenging the incoumbents fro the right. they'll talk blindly about let's get rid of it. >> this is a great map and i want to show it. i found it earlier this week. >> you don't want to spend more time talking about the affordable care act? >> let's put up this map. this is andrew shears, a geology professor, fascinating, at mansfield university, which i believe is in pennsylvania. this is a map what if every secession movement succeeded, it would be 124 states. very complicated. david, your take. >> you know, what i was fascinated by is it actually looked like the 124 states almost divide the 1 trcountry i 124 equal pieces. you have south jersey and north jersey about split and it becomes about the same size as whatever it is, western dakota. >> i found fascinating that south carolina was

if you look at the list of sponsors, you go, steve stockman from texas, the most conservative members on this, dana rohrabacher, california, justin amosh of michigan, it seems like there is very weird kind of bipartisan coalitions forming on this issue that we -- >> in the 20 years i've been working on this, people used to try to cast this as a liberal issue. this is now a truly nonpartisan issue. the brookings institution paper, white paper came out this past april from e.j. diane and ga gallston and this is bipartisan and it cuts across all demographics. >> what is the appeal to somebody like steve stockman in texas? is it a states rights issue? >> purely states rights. liberty, personal autonomy, self-preservation. >> if you're high enough, he seems sane. >> less government regulation. >> yeah. >> you that -- rand paul is teaming up, another piece of legislation working its way through right now. i don't know if it will get through, rand paul and pat leahy, democrat from vermont, teamed up, not for legalization, but just to give judges discretion toks ma discretion. there are thin

our next question, do you think it was disrespectful for representative steve stockman to walk out duringma's state of the union speech? well, when it happened, i thought he had to just go to john, but then i realized he's a republican and never has liked obama. they don't want to hear what the president has to say. they don't want to work with him. they were just there because they felt like they had to be there. there were probably a lot more republicans that checked out mentally. we all know who he is. i gue rapid response panel is next. >>> stocks slide on emergent market worries. the dow plummeting 189 point. the s&p 500 dropped 18. the nasdaq 6. the central bank is going to keep rates at record lows. facebook shares are rallying after hours. it posted revenue and profits that beat estimates on very strong mobile add revenues. that's it from cnbc. and for jumps, i need something...special. so i use my citi thankyou visa card for music downloads and earn two times the points... plus a little extra inspiration. [ ♪ music plays ] the citi thankyou preferred visa card. earn two times the

. >>> finally, congressman steve stockman's challenge hit another bump in the road after "the washingtonalled him out on several inconsistencies on his campaign website. in a section titled past and present endorsements, the post found that seven of the 12 listed groups had not actually endorsed stockman for senate, including one endorsement, quote, attributed to howard phillips, a conservative activist who died seven months before stockman got in the race. also listed the nra who had actually endorsed his opponent. since that article appeared on friday, the entire page has conspicuously vanished from stockman's campaign website. >>> up next, the war on poverty. a lot of people on the right say we're not winning, and that's their excuse to cut back the government's safety net and cut taxes for the rich. >>> and a reminder, chris matthews returns to "hardball" tomorrow night. you're watching "hardball," the place for politics. >>> very often a lack of jobs and money is not the cause of poverty but the symptom. our aim is not only to relieve the symptom of poverty but to cure it, and above

. >> we'll get you to channel steve stockman next time. >> that's closer. >> i'm not pleased or happyt all because to do -- to get to bipartisanship, by leaving out voter i.d., we have left a key hurdle to voting to exercise in the franchise in place to me it seems to be too much, giving up too much, a pennsylvania court just struck down that state's voter i.d. law because as the judge found, it prevents tens of thousands of folks from voting. and if we're not dealing with voter i.d. in this thing, we're not doing what we really need to do to get people to vote and to the polls. >> i happen to agree with you 100% on the policy, and i wish the politics were there. i think the challenge for democrats is they're dealing with the hostile supreme court and also a hostile republican congress. they feel they have to make concessions to convince both of those sides. if this is ultimately deemed to be an unconstitutional remedy by the supreme court, that's problematic, as well. so i'm totally with you. i think to not include voter i.d. laws really makes this, you know, at best an incomplete re

steve stockman walked out midway through the speech to protest it and in an op-ed in "the wall streetournal," ted cruz wrote this, "none is more dangerous than the president's persistent pattern of lawlessness, his willingness to disregard the written law and instead endorse his own policies via executive theot. is there a debate and could that have a net effect? appropriations bill, farm bill, which they'll probably pass some time in this hour, could the net effect be to make more progress less likely? >> look, you always want checks and balances, that's the way it should be, but when you have a republican tea party congress that's only been willing to act when they can act on behalf of oil companies and insurance companies and special interests, you can't expect the president just to sit still and stand by. i don't think republicans really object to the fact that the president is invoking his presidential authority. i think they object to the fact that he's invoking his presidential authority but it helps the middle class, it helps the working poor. that's their objection, not the p

. >> finally, republican congressman steve stockman of texas is the tea party challenger to senator johnh that primary less than two months away, the candidate is nowhere to be found. he has been missing in action so long that his supporters are beginning to wonder what exactly is going on. well, according to the associated press, stockman, quote, has made virtually no public appearances in texas as questions mount about his campaign finances. now he's stopped showing up for his day job. stockman has missed 17 straight house votes since january 9th. furthermore, stockman's staff won't say where he is. they have ignored more than six weeks of e-mails, telephone messages, and social media posts from the associated press and other news outlets. but we may have an explanation soon. according to a tweet from his campaign late last night, we will find out where he has been this coming monday. >>> up next, the lesson mike huckabee taught all republicans yet again, how not to talk about women. you're watching "hardball," the place for politics. aflac! aflac! got 'em. ♪ yeah, he's clean, boss. no

in fact, steve stockman, a republican from texas walked out of the state of the union. is also the congressman who invited ted nugent last year. but he said he felt that the president was abusing his constitutional powers. but p when you hear this morning, anna, not a single republican i've heard say, well, maybe there's a compromise on minimum wage or maybe a compromise on one of the other ideas from the president. how is it seen as going it alone? >> there certainly wasn't an embrace by any means by republicans last night, this morning, i think one of the main messages we heard over and over again last night, the reaction by republicans was that he, you know, simply said it was going to be his way, he wasn't interested in what senate republicans had to say. almost as if they're living in two separate worlds where you see democrats. i talked to this morning chris van haollen. and they thought he was trying to use the powers he has and wants to work with republicans. but if you talk to the other side, they had a different feeling. >> and i'm curious what people were say

steve stockman put out a cryptic tweet, writing, "where am i? find out monday." firebrand has made virtually no public appearances and missed 17 straight house votes since january 9th. according to reports, stockman may have turned up in london after a trip to russia. stay tuned. >> strange. >>> new details expected this morning in a bomb case from pennsylvania. police say 19-year-old vladisala miftikof made a bomb and other bomb-making materials? a suitcase in altoona. he's a russian national and engineering student and police say he was going to blow things up in a field. he is being held and is due in court next week. >>> toledo is mourning the loss of two hero firefighters this morning who died sunday battling a blaze at an apartment complex. officials say 42-year-old steven mckinski and 31-year-old james dickman, a rookie, suffered fatal injuries while inside that building. it's the first deaths for the department in an active fire since 1981. autopsies scheduled for today. no word yet on what caused that fire. >>> this morning thousands of natural gas custo

we're going to get another example of that march 4th in texas when john cornyn goes up against steve stockmanative representative running against him there. and both are expected to win. so, if that happens, how this story line starts to change as republicans try to take back the senate should be interesting to see. >> absolutely. and just regarding that battle for the senate being up for grabs, what kind of allies does mitch mcconnell have at this point? who are his strongest allies? >> well, he has a lot of the kentucky establishment behind him. he's been there a long time. he has a ton of money in the bank. he's got all of the d.c. establishment that he could want. and he's decided to wage this war. this is a really important race because of this rift that we've seen, and mcconnell's basically had enough. he's had enough of being dictated to by the jim demints of the world. he's had enough of being dictated to by the ted cruzes of the world. he sets the agenda in washington for republicans and he wants to make sure the tea party understands that. >> democrats have had enough of tea party e

saw john cornyn earlier who's facing a primary challenge from another member of his own caucus, steve stockmanmember of the texas congressional delegation, as he approaches. rachel, what do you think tonight -- the other big thing when i think about the difference between the last state of the union and this one is in the last state of the union obamacare and its implementation was a distraction, it was still in the future. now it's reality. what do you expect to hear the president say and talk about in relation to the aca, the affordable care about, tonight? >> i think the president telegraphed what he'd say about the aca in the way he's been talking about it publicly over the last few months which is not just touting the website is working better or the enrollment numbers are up but when you look at it through the per sperktive of individual americans getting coverage you couldn't get before, look at it from the perspective of individual people who were essentially boxed out of coverage by the old insurance ways of doing business that are now precluded by the aca. he's going to tell stories

steve stockman has a good record.do not see any evidence of why we should get involved when there could only be a margin it runs. -- of different. primaries are healthy things. this keeps politicians on their toes. a keeps the more responsive to the voters. we think that is a good thing. let's go through this list from the washington post. senate races for gop. mississippi, he is being challenged by chris mcdaniel. host: we have endorsed chris mcdaniel. why is that he has been in office for nearly four decades. voters need a change. we have seen it and seen the evidence. they like him, but except gone bad. -- things have gotten bad. mcdaniel is an absolute conservative rock. we really look forward to that race. host: on the somewhat endangered list, they include in kansas, pat roberts is being challenged. in south carolina, lindsey graham may face a challenge. there are a number of republicans in south carolina. in kentucky, mitch mcconnell is challenged by matt bevin. guest: let me wrap that up. this also goes to the

the republican primary, this is an important race because we will see in march he is up against steve stockmannell after that, it could reshape the narrative on the tea party versus conservative story line if mcconnell is able to beat the challenger and he is able to run against grimes and all indicates it's a fairly close race and a lot of money and attention going to be spent on that race to watch. >> it's a mid-term year, but last year was an off year. you will have a busier 2014 than last year. >> it's always busy. whether it's capitol hill politics going on this year that we thought would be able to go in place after obama's first year, there is no off years anymore. it will be busy, but i like to watch the races. it will be fun. >> thank you and happy new year, friend. >> same to you. >> barbara bush is in a texas hospital. a statement from george hw bush provides details. the 88-year-old is being treated for respiratory illness. she is in great spirits. it's the new year and a new struggle for many of the unemployed americans who lot of their benefits. you will hear from one of them am