that has a name, other than ted cruz. what ted cruz just did there is a thing that has a name in american politics. >> the did the civil liberties union provide you with money at that time? >> offices of attorneys and one of them was the civil liberties union, yes. >> but the question is did the civil liberty union supply you with an attorney? >> they did supply an attorney. >> the answer is yes? >> the answer is yes. >> you know the civil liberties union has been listed for a front for doing work for the communist party. >> that was footage for "good night and good luck", the george clooney movie that came out in 2005. and the footage you can see playing there along with the actors, the footage playing in the background of what is supposed to be the cbs newsroom there along with edward r. murrow looking on, the footage of is joe mccarthy, senator if there wisconsin. and joe mccarthy is famous for stuff like this. >> there are the millions of loyal americans who have voted the democrat ticket, individuals who are just as

washington needs more common sense and more principle. >> bret: freshman republican senator ted cruz ttention lately in washington. "new york times" had a big spread about the senator. and the attention he is getting and the elevator in there. the quote, last month, mr. cruz faced off aggressively with senator chuck schumer of new york on a sunday talk show. mayor rahm emanuel wrote to the chief of big banks urging them not to invest in gun manufacturers mr. cruz followed up with letters criticizing the bullying of a political godfather. after she raised speckor of mccarthyism, mccaskill from missouri asked if she had spoken to cruz about her concerns. "i'm not sure it would do any good. do you?" back with the panel. what about this? steve? >> look, ted cruz came to washington and med a conscious decision he would accept the public role he was certain to have being outspoken conservative from texas and hispanic, when he got to washington. it was different. different course than marco rubio took, different course than hillary clinton took. to a certain extent you expect he would get gr

when you hear ted cruz, you're wondering, what happened? why aren't there more? 're facing and ted is one of those guys. >> ted krrksz ruz, i've seen him speak and he is spell binding. he really is. he's just a tremendous or tor. >> today, cruise was one of the 15 gop senators who asked president obama to drop chuck h arks gra hagel as secretary of defense. >> i think president obama is the most radical president we've ever seen. but i think an awful lot of republicans fail to stand for prinsz pl and contributed at getting us in this mess. >> president obama is the most radical president we've ever seen? good luck on that rebrandings, republicans. jonathan, is ted cruz the right's idea of change? >> ever since they've loes, they've looked for someone to be their standing bearer. we talked about congressman ryan and then we moved onto chris christie and now everyone is focused on ted cruz because ted cruz has made some impertinent comments and he's been sort of the bull in the china shop among republicans, but also democrats. and my colleagues at "the washington po

but, boy, they all want to say, go, ted cruz.arco rubio tweeted, there's always a sense that there's supposedly not so the great blood between the two. he tweets this morning, happy to see ted cruz came to d.c. to make a difference, not just make some friends. he's doing very well. >> yeah, okay. >> yeah, you don't believe that, huh? >> look, the reality of it is, cruz has come in and he's defining his own terms. he's his own man, to your point. and i thought your piece was spot-on. it's what's not being said publicly, as you just noted. these guys in the senate, they're very a cloistered community. and they like the quiet, they like the downplay. you've got someone who is the bull in the china shop, coming in the door, mixing things up, because his agenda is not about the senate's agenda, it's about a different agenda, which may be something down the road for him. >> speaking of people who are trying to make their own way, elizabeth warren, i want to play a clip of elizabeth warren yesterday, who on one hand has kept a low media

ted cruz starts attacking the loyalty of america, of one of mccain's fellow vets. the viciousness is something we haven't seen before because of its combination of mccarthyism and weird unconnectedness, attacking chuck hagel because no one will give info about the benghazi situation, even though hagel wasn't even in the government when benghazi happened. sick stuff. seems to be growing. the better he looks the worst these characters, inhofe, cruz and lindsey graham are determined to look. notice the smile on john boehner's face sitting behind the president at the state of the union. if you did you're imagining things. so afraid of the hard hating right are republicans these days of every stripe even boehner's scared of looking like he might actually like something barack obama had to say. to do that today is to risk political death in these days of republican defeat, anger, discontent and downright hatred. joy reid of the grio and michael steele, former chair of the republican national committee. both are msnbc analysts and good ones. is this delay on the hagel vot

what is to be done with senator ted cruz of texas.'s the question in both parties. [ ♪ music ♪ ] the natural energy of peanuts and delicious, soft caramel. to fill you up and keep you moving, whatever your moves. payday. fill up and go! >> michael: senator ted cruz was testified to be the g.o.p. savior, the young tough-talking hispanic legislator in texas. he has made a name for himself as a pontificating spot-light loving extremist blow hard. he was one of 22 senators who voted against the violence against women act. he voted against john kerry's confirmation as secretary of state, and even slammed kerry as well as chuck hagel for bean anti-military even though both of them serve honorably while cruz spent his formertive years strolling the leafy campuses of princeton and harvard. here he is shapelessly bashing kerry and haig. >> well, we have two pending nominations. john kerry, chuck hagel. both of whom are very prominently less than ardent fans of the u.s. military. >> michael: unbelievable. after those comments even senator john

the problem with ted cruz is not ted cruz.rs of the part mitch mcconnell and john boehner and others. >> do you think they'll do that? >> i can't see what they'll gain from it. you have seen a few attempts. mccain called him out. lindsey graham called him out. >> mitch mcconnell has his own problems to worry about without calling out ted cruz, wouldn't you think, michelle? >> but the problem is the leaders of the party, even very conservative leaders are so incredibly cowed by their base. for a long time you had a party that very adroitly whipped up the frustrations and paranoia and suspicions of their base. they're no longer controlling the base. the base controls them. and so there is not much leverage they have over it. >> they have just enough control to screw things up so legislatively nothing gets done. that's about where they are right now. let's talk about another texan and louie gohmert. >> we have some people who think sharia law ought to be the law of the land and forget the constitution. but the guns are there. the

gulp fiction himself, is out praising freshman senator ted cruz and tweeting happy to see ted cruz camec. to make a difference, not just make some friends. yes, rubio thinks this guy is a super star. >> we need to eliminate unnecessary institutions. >> we are living in the days of atlas shrubs. >> i will never support new taxes. period. the end. >> i think it's time for some more meetings. joining me now are angela rye and dana millbank. is this really the master plan to save the party? >> you know, it's just so hard to keep abreast of all of ted cruz's out rages. he's been on the job for six weeks and he's already sort of rivaling joe mccarthy. you know, in fairness to karl rove, he is telling the republicans what they need to hear. and i suspect republican leaders would like to do it. the problem is you can see like a guy from ted cruz, there's no way to control him. he has this swollen sense of his own importance. and he's made -- look, obviously, he's infur rating the democrats. but even members of his own party are starting to get sore about this. they realize there's nothing they

when ted cruz starts attacking the loyalty to america of one of mccain's fellow vietnam vets, a combatet at that. the viciousness is something we haven't seen before because of the combination of mccarthyism and this weird unconnectedness, attacking chuck hagel, for example, because no one will give us info or anyone info about the benghazi situation even though hagel wasn't even in the government when benghazi happened. sick stuff. and it seems to be growing in inverse proportion to obama's popularity. the better he looks, the worse these characters, inhofe, cruz, mccain, and lindsey graham, are determined to look. did you notice the smile on john boehner's face sitting up there behind the president during the state of the union? if you did, you're imagining things. so afraid of the hard hating right of republicans these days of every stripe, even boehner's scared to death of looking like he might like something barack obama had to say. to do that is to risk political death in these days. let's go at it. our guests are joy reid of the grio and michael steele, former chairman of the re

that's just a sample of ted cruz's comments.reuters reported the spokesman responded we hope there will be practical changes in foreign american policy and washington will become respectful of the rights of nations. not exactly. it reminds us of another senator, joe mccarthy. see if you agree, however. a month after his famous 1954 "see it now" broadcast in which he exposed mccarthy's tactics, he asked him to respond. here mccarthy uses a famous tv review in a communist newspaper to connect him to communism. let's listen. >> but take 30 seconds or so and look further and see who's giving comfort to our inmys. here's from march, all attacking mccarthy and the same issue is mr. murrow's program as one of tonight's best bets on tv. >> well, also that week senator cruz -- this week cruz took another opportunity to say that he may have received -- catch this. may have received $200,000 from of all places north korea. i dome think north korea has $200,000. let's listen. >> it may be that he spoke at grou groups or anti-israel groups.

who elected him are looking for. >> yeah. >> i am not sure what to make of this ted cruz. >> ted cruzof tea party maniacs. i get why rand paul does it another tea party crazy elected by tea party crazies. but john mccain who once was a maverick, you know, the creator of mccain-feingold, somebody who usually is moderate i don't expect that from him. this is just not -- this is just not john mccain behavior. >> it's kind of sick i think what john mccain has done with himself over a couple of different issues but specifically the chuck hagel thing. this was a guy that said chuck hagel would be qualified to serve in any leadership role. i don't get it. mccain looks silly in all of this. >> completely silly. at the end of the day, it makes me big the question like john, mccain what are you thinking? you were such a legend somebody who people applauded and looked up to. you could have had a career like ted kennedy. could have. but you are just squandering it, absolutely, positively squand squandering it. i remember when teddy passed and they had the people on the hill people lining the stre

you know, and ted cruz is a tea party guy.-- he is the fruit of a movement that in some ways has burned itself out but we still have a few of them around -- >> but it's also burning out this country, isn't it? >> that's what -- just to get back to my earlier point, the president has to engage in full political combat on this and not -- yes, if he can get it through and cobble together five votes to break the filibuster and not break too much china, that's fine, but if he can't, if we get to a situation where this nomination is truly in limbo and it is hurting the united states, then he he has to go to the public and go after the obstructionists and he's already in the last few weeks of his second term, he has begun to be more confrontational. he needs to continue on that path. >> dana, does it seem remarkable to you that he's only just given his state of the union address at the beginning of his second term and yet the obstructionism that we observed in the first term only seems to have been amplified? >> well, certainly. it d

yeah and this is is this comes from from some of the the whack a doodle like ted cruz and some of the other name computes and capitol hill that seem to think that you know if you criticize israel at all and you're you know if you say anything a slightly critical that somehow your you're useless to american society so he's been he i want i want the entire hearing i read the transcript word for word tell you this he said so many times over other times they supported israel he said over one hundred times that he would leave military options on the table for so overall i think does a goal would probably be very good moderate in the secretary defense position and then to the much and ted courier there who was one of the more outspoken critics call and what he said today is that if hey the last confirmed quote military conflict and the next four years will be substantially more likely what you make of that what you think you meant by that. well ted cruz knows about just about as much about foreign policy as i know about the bottom of your shoe you know i i don't know anything about your sho

hatch. >> bill: john cornyn, i'm thinking ones who are up, i've heard that john cornyn is asking ted cruzi vote on almost every issue. >> that's not true. he's the whip. he's telling cruz how to vote. cruz is a good example of somebody who did win. as far as i'm concerned as of right now, he's an embarrassment to the state of texas. where i've lived for a long time. for most of the '90s. i'm not a fan of her policies but you look at what's her name -- >> bill: you mean from -- elizabeth warren. >> elizabeth warren. you look at the way she's at least acting. she's acting like a serious senator and ted cruz is acting like he's running for city council in dallas. >> bill: i talked to a couple of senators last week, ran into them at a local restaurant. they were just saying you know, if you look at -- let's take -- you mentioned elizabeth warren. i was thinking hillary clinton. when al franken -- have you heard from al franken? >> i had breakfast with him about four months ago. he lost a bet like 12 years ago. so he finally paid it off. he was a joy to be with and he's very serious about maki

i said it about ted cruz.things for his state. all the toes that he stepped on are going to turn around and kick him in the shin. so hagel, you know, hagel is paying for his conduct back in '07 and '08. not his positions. but the way he held it. and mika, i've got to be clear here, mika. you know i like chuck hagel a lot. and you like him a lot. >> i do. >> we've loved working with him at the atlantic council. i want him to be sec spadef. i'm just explaining for people in washington, and ed certainly knows this, payback is hell. and hagel's learning it just like ted cruz is going to learn it in the future. >> me thinks, though, carl bernstein is really funny that john mccain or lindsey graham would call someone disagreeable at times. is that just me? >> i'll let you say that. i wrote the original cover story for "vanity fair" on john mccain in 1999. and part of the institutional history here is the john tower nomination, which is the other nominee for secretary of defense who was rejected by a partisan democra

freshman senator ted cruz of texas is leading the charge against chuck hagel and slandered the war herotuesday. cruz said hagel may have ties to iran? and could have taken money from countries like north korea. >> this committee knows absolutely nothing about the personal compensation chuck hagel received in 2008 and 2009 or 2010. it may be that he spoke at radical or extreme groups or anti-israel groups and accepted financial compensation. we don't know. it is at minimum relevant to know if that $200,000 that he deposited in his bank account came directly from saudi arabia, came directly from north korea. >> we should point out that there is absolutely no evidence supporting cruz's claims. florida senator bill nelson was not impressed with the texas senator cruz, and put the freshman senator in his place. >> i want to put on the record that this senator feels like that senator cruz has gone over the line. he basically has impugned the patriotism of the nominee. there is a certain degree of comity and civility that this committee has always been known for. to question, in essence, wheth

. >> steve, you write today in salon.com the risk posed by senator ted cruz of texas and i'm quoting take the party not just back to the embarrassment of jesse helms baugh the embarrassment posed by mccarthy. >> the comparison has been drawn obviously because you have cruz at these confirmation hearings baselessly asirting we don't know if chalk hagel took money from north korea. you have that sort of reminiscent of joe mccarthy. >> also a story about when he was at harvard alleging -- >> the professors who wanted to overthrow the government at harvard. >> you have that same streak and when i invoke jesse helms, he was an irtabt even to the republican establishment. they didn't really like having jesse helms around for all those years but the resistance from the republican establishment only made him more popular with the republican base. the particular danger of cruz though i think for the republican party is the republican party today is less ideologically and geographically diverse than it was in the days of joe mccarthy. joe mccarthy was around when dwight eisenhower, a moderate

you've got a guy like ted cruz, he has a choice to make.by all indications so far, he has great pedigree. he could do exactly the same thing and go towards the mainstream, but he doesn't seem like he's doing that. it seems like he's laying his cards down to go to the far right and appeal just to the pure hardcore tea partiers, as you just said. >> it's a sad statement about the u.s. senate yesterday. fortunately john mccain rescued the body with his comments. >> and by the way, thank you, senator mccain. that's what washington, kelly, used to be about. nobody can disagree -- nobody could disagree with chuck hagel more than john mccain does. and for good reasons. they have a completely different view of foreign policy, how it should be enacted, especially the middle east, but john mccain had the character to stand up and defend a guy he disagreed with. >> mccain had said it was the most unimpressive appearance at a hearing when hagel had his confirmation hearing and then came back and gave those remarks in his defense. he also had tried to d

where ted cruz is.s is an issue -- >> someone wrote something hilarious the other way, after john cornyn, the other senator, voted against john kerry. he said, i now discovered that ted cruz has two votes, not just one. jon cornyn is so worried about a vote to the right, that whatever vote ted cruz makes jon cornyn is going to run to the floor and make the opposite one. >> i think this in the end will be a negotiated resolution. everybody staked out their positions, and now the devil's in the details. we're going to see. >> but the question is it's not in the details if they can kill it. my point is i covered mccain-kennedy. i covered mccain and kennedy. the switchboards. there was this tremendous mobilizing power that was numbers usa and a bunch of different anti-immigration groups, restrictionist groups, hammering this thing six hours a day, and congressional switchboards just lit up. and they really scared the pants off legislators. i want to ask why that's not going to happen this time? what has cha

they think elizabeth warren is more fair than ted cruz?reminds me of something else someone at fox once said. >> we're not nuts, are we? >> i won't answer that one. but did you think we'd let you get away with this ri lidiculou defense of ted cruz? nice try, but we gotchya. here. since we're often all on the move, ashley suggested we use fedex office to hold packages for us. great job. [ applause ] thank you. and on a protocol note, i'd like to talk to tim hill about his tendency to use all caps in emails. [ shouting ] oh i'm sorry guys. ah sometimes the caps lock gets stuck on my keyboard. hey do you wanna get a drink later? [ male announcer ] hold packages at any fedex office location. olay ultra moisture body wash can with more moisturizers than seven bottles of the leading body wash. with ultra moisture your body wash is anything but basic. soft, smooth skin with olay. executor of efficiency. you can spot an amateur from a mile away... while going shoeless and metal-free in seconds. and you...rent from national. because only national l

there are two opinion pieces out today going hard at ted cruz. re is a small heart from raÚl reyes saying he exemplifies the worst of republican obstructionalism and his extreme positions are at odds with latino voters. it is time the gop presses the cruz control button. is he hurting republican efforts to remake the party especially when they're trying to be bigger tent on immigration reform and entice latino voters >> he absolutely is. i think raÚl hit it on the head. not only is he against pathway for citizenship, he doesn't believe in the dream act. he also doesn't believe in the violence against women act. he voted against it. when you are trying to be the republican party of rebranding, trying to bring in not only a bigger tent for latinos and also for women, he is basically -- he is going in the opposite direction. what i really -- when you start looking at where he is from, he is from texas and texas, robert, if you can believe, he has 2.1 million unregistered latino voters. when you went to the polls, 25% of latino voters voted for cruz.

on that list included marco rubio and ted cruz. it reads in part, while we respect senator hagel's honorable military service, we respectfully request you withdraw his nomination. it would be unprecedented for a secretary of defense to take office without the broad base of bipartisan support and confidence needed to serve effectively in this critical position. ted cruz added, quote, in the last 50 years, no other secretary of defense has been confirmed with more than three members voting against him, and in the entire history of the position, no one has been confirmed with more than 11 no votes, end quote. still, hagel got support from former senator bob dole, who called him an exceptional leader, and senator richard shelby of alabama. it was kind of an underwhelming vote of confidence. shelby said, quote, he's probably as good as we're going to get, end quote. the senate returns from recess next week. >>> there are some new numbers out this morning that could impact the debate over gun violence in america. an analysis by "usa toda

i want more ted cruzs. they would never support ted. >> you're right. the problem is this is a discussion about whether a small group of people in washington get to choose who the most conservative, electable candidate is or do the people choose? reagan said in 1975 the american people are hungry for a sense of mission and a sense of greatness. the reason the republican party keeps losing elections is they don't stand for anything. grassroots worked for marco rubio, ted cruz, rand paul, mike lee. all were told by the establishment, well, rand paul can't win in kentucky. or if we put money into marco rubio's race we don't have -- >> take ron johnson in wisconsin. >> they didn't let the american people vote conservative. >> it was jim demint and his crowd that took over. robert costa, look. i'm a national review guy. you're a national review guy. bill buckley said people should elect the most electable conservative. he was giving advice in primaries, not saying they should be picked from above by a small group of people sitting around a table at sunday lu