. and with us from washington, msnbc political analyst, former dnc communications director, karen finney, a columnist for the hill and julian epstein, former chief council for the house judiciary committee. i have to congratulate you because you have consistently said the mandate would be upheld and you've been proven absolutely right. how did this happen given that the solicitor general in those three days of oral arguments was criticized. people said he choked. couldn't even drink his water properly, then today, you have this decision by the supreme court. what happened? >> i think the media did a woefully bad job covering this. the justice department and many of the lower cases argd it was not just the commerce clause. it was the taxing authority. if somebody doesn't get married or have a kid, there are tax penalties. there's nothing new about this. it is a huge victory for the tens of millions of americans that have no or inadequate health care. not just a political victory, it shows he's a very strong person and an çunbelievable slapdown the theory that has been the opponents have

i columnist for the "washington post" and crystal ball is a democratic strategist. while we await representative issa's contempt vote, dana, i want to get your considered opinion about what we're seeing on capitol hill. you've been at the hearing, have you not? >> i was for a long part of it, but not the entirety of it because of course, every member has to get in his or her five-minute speech even though we know exactly what the outcome is and that's all the republicans votes for this contempt vote and all the democrats vote against it. and nothing happens because the guy in charge of enforcing this vote answer holder is eric holder. >> so the point of this exercise is what, please, dana? aside from a witch hunt? >> it's going to shock you, martin, to know that there's an election coming up and this is a time when they have these fights. they're not fighting about the underlying issue in this fast and furious program within the department of justice. they're fighting about what happened after this program was canceled. so it gives you an idea of what it's all about. >> what do yo

own sense of paranoia. let's get right to our panel now. "washington post" columnist dana joins us live from washington. here in new york, jonathon altar, columnist for bloomberg view and msnbc political analyst. dana, have you just come from this hearing. it has been testy, vociferous. >> it is a small room. it can overheat quite quickly. they started out were w the pleantries but quickly turned into really a food fight. unfortunately i left as they were taking out the mashed potatoes. it is -- very tense. unlimited debate in that room. it will go on for a while. it has been all laid out. they are going to proceed with this regardless of what the facts are as presented in the report. whether or not they were fair with the investigation. they will have the contempt vote and then nothing will happen. just another day of theater. >> did anybody mention this bombshell report in "fortune" magazine? >> no but they mentioned the democratic committee report that said there are 100 errors of fact in the majority report. the democrats accept that something was wrong with this gun walking pr

. get it right. let's get right to our panel. with us from washington, msnbc analyst, eugene robinson, a columnist for the "washington post." mother jones washington bureau chief, david corn, also an msnbc political analyst and jared bernstein, senior fellow at the center for policy priorities and former adviser to vice president joe biden. eugene, donuts and slogans are fine things. even if mitt romney can only identify one of the two, but how much longer, seriously, can he simply run on platitudes and hollow cliches? how much longer? >> well, first of all, martin, i'm proud to say this show runs on freedom and you know, i think he intends the go on is way for some time. he comes up with these sound bites that i guess somebody tells him sound good, but what i'm hearing is an increasing impatience among voters, people who write to me or call me who say they're independent minded, but would like to have some idea of what he's talking about. what he would do if elected president. >> good question. david corn, peggy noonan took romney to task for his pandering speeches. she writes applau

home. from wisconsin to washington, it's all about the money and the message. just moments ago the paycheck fairness act was shot down in the senate 52-47. democrats did not get the votes in an issue pushed by the president. >>> and in the presidential race last night found former president bill clinton warning that a romney presidency would be calamitous for the country combining with the current president to deal some body blows to republicans at a new york fund-raiser last night. >> there's no vision for the future there. there's no imagination. somebody is going to have to explain to me how repealing obama care and throwing 30 million people back to a situation where they don't have health care, somehow that's an economic development agenda. nobody has really explained that to me. >> who would have thought after years and years and years, even decades, in which the republican right attacked old europe, that they would embrace the economic policies of the eurozone? austerity and unemployment now at all costs. i mean, after all, their unemployment rate is 11% and ours is 8%. we c

our panel now from tr washington, julian epstein. with me here in new york, michael eric dyson, professor at georgetown university. steve cornacki. steve, just explain something to me. republicans say the president is blaming the congress. okay? so the president goes to the congress with a jobs act. he agrees to break it down into selective parts and he says to them, here it is and they oppose it. but it's his fault. >> that's because he's not a strong leader. >> right. >> i think that's the conclusion they want people to think. what romney's team is hoping people are going to ignore context. they're going to ignore or not be aware of or not care about the context that you just laid out. >> you mean the facts? >> they're going to look at the unemployment rate. they're going to say, it's higher than it should be. i've been out of work longer than i should. . they're going to say that and their instinct is going to be to fire the guy would is in charge. so the sole mission of romney is basically to throw out every possible rationalezation that he can think of so the voters in tha

. ♪ >>> something quite extraordinary is happening in washington right now. the republican controlled house of representatives has actually managed to pass a bill, yes, and it's a real bill. this time, one that will finance $120 billion in transportation work while also preventing a doubling of student loan interest rates, so congr congratulations to speaker boehner and cantor, but sadly, even after today's effort, republicans are planning to follow up their pointless and purely symbolic vote on fast and furious withanother meaningless vote on health care. >> there is no question that thç court's decision delineates what's at stake in november. we're going to kopt to try and fight and repeal this bill. >> we're joined from washington by jim moran of virginia. good afternoon, sir. we just saw house majority leader eric cantor, your fellow virginian saying that congress can still the president's health care reform and this in spite of thursday's ruling, does this man not realize it's become apparent to all of us that he will do absolutely anything other than something that actually might hel

all times. let's get to our panel. in minneapolis, anna marie cox, in washington, karen finney, who's now a columnist for the hill and democratic strategist, julian epstein, former house council. julian, the president has welcomed the supreme court's decision and i'm quoting him, no american should ever live under a cloud of suspicion just because of what they look like. are you surprised that the one section of the law that appears to favor racial profiling has actually been allowed to stand by the court's ruling? >> no. and in fact, the court said that one provision, if it was carried out in a way that would be discriminatory or encourage racial profiling that it could be challenged on that basis. i'm actually very pleased with what the court did. it's important for your viewers to understand what the arizona law was about. it was about creating a criminal law that made it illegal to fail to carry immigration papers, seek work and gave police broad ranging powers to have warrantless searchers. the supreme court said today they're going to throw that out. this new set to enforce immi

deer valley especially after waking up today and finding this front page story in "the washington post." it appears that in addition to taking away the jobs of american workers, mr. romney's private equity firm bain also played a pioneering role in shipping them overseas. of course the romney campaign is now disputing the story arguing the semantics of outsourcing versus offshoring. however, it is still downright awkward in part of big party mr. romney is throwing for big donors this weekend at deer valley. that's where romney supporters who have given at least $50,000 are now gathering for a couple of days of sheer luxury. it boasts a list of accommodations that's long enough to impress even the most pampered aristocrat, including individual hot tubs and signature bath robes. while all of this sounds really nice it probably isn't doing much to help mr. romney's image as a job creating champion of the middle class so let's welcome back our panel karen finney, ken vogel, and chris hayes. the romney family's connection to deer valley as you know runs deep because the private firm was est

multitude so let's welcome back our panel. david, i found something interesting in the "the washington post" about mr. rove and his appearance at this elite retreat. it seems this may raise a few legal wrinkles for the man they call the bush brain. is that not correct? >> i like the idea they call it like a victory retreat. sounds like an oxymoron to me. the whole fiction here and it is a fiction you can be an independent expenditure group and spend as much money as you like as long as you don't coordinate with the campaign but these groups are run by people who know the candidate, come from campaigns and there's a lot of back room connections. they just take their ladies what the campaigns do publicly. so this idea of coordination as the regulations have been put together have been very loose and it seems it doesn't really play to common sense. so if you're having a meeting about a victory, you know, strategy and you have the campaign and people in the super p.a.c. there it would seem according to common sense descriptions to be coordination of some type but still might not violate the act

live from washington by julian epstein, also from washington, we're join by judson phillips, associate director of the tee.net. let's talk about wisconsin and the recall election. a very spirited debate last night between governor walker and milwaukee mayor tom barrett. bill clinton appeared in milwaukee today. lots of outside interests, as you know. lots of money, too. is this a preview of the presidential election that we've been led to believe it is? >> it is quite the opposite, as you know. walker has about a five to seven-point lead depending on which poll you look at. obama has a five to seven-point lead. there's no real extrapolation ability to the president. first the republicans have outspent the democrats by at least 7-1. secondly, there is an enormous amount of fatigue after 15 months of this campaign by organized labor. and third, if you look at the polling, while many people don't like what walker has done, particularly with the public unions. they're not ready to go through an impeachment mechanism. so there's no real, you cannot really extrapolate what's happening in the

cox correspondent of "the guardian" with me in the studio. in washington democratic strategist julian epstein of media group and msnbc political analyst, former dnc communications director karen finney columnist for "the hill" and also appearing regularly on bill maher from now on. we'll come to that in a moment. he was amazed by the touch screen technology. >> touch tone. >> touch tone. absolutely. that is what he said. why do i feel as though mitt romney is like a guy visiting this country for the first time in his life? he is like a tourist rather than a presidential candidate. >> well, if you consider the divide between rich and poor to be two different americas he is visiting this america for the first time. >> that's true. >> basically he did not tie any dogs to the top of the bus in order to visit it. instead, he tied vice presidential possibilities to the top of the bus. >> he did. >> you know, the more he gets out there, the more we see him being unsure of how to interact with normal, regular americans. i think this bus tour was intended to get him out there to get people to

bring in our political panel now. ken vogel, reporter for politico. and "washington post" columnist dana milbank and msnbc contributor joy reed, the managing editor of the grio.com. ken, the excellence of your reporting is before us once again with you pointing out wall street has dumped its love affair with the president and fallen for mitt romney. so the seven-year itch is reduced to just three. i guess they've forgotten that many freewheeling lack of regulation brought the country to its knees. >> well, it's not just the regulation which of course has increased under the obama administration in the form of dodd-frank overhaul but it's also the president's plan to raise taxes on the wealthy and fear among wall street types particularly hedge funders he'll do away with this so-called carried interest provision that allowed mitt romney to continue to profit from his holdings in boyne capital and pay a relatively low tax rate on it. additionally, the president has engaged in a lot of aggressive rhetoric towards wall street targeting it. wall street fat cats. we've heard that a lot from th

, washington bureau chief -- the aught o of the best-selling and international brilliant showdown, and ken vogel, chief visit i reporter from the politico newsroom. stop laughing. it appears that mitt romney -- >> i'm not laughing. i'm gafawing. >> the heat is beginning to affect the building, and, mitt, he says campaign -- he says he is not a scintillating speaker, and republicans don't have all the answers. explain. what is happening? >> i give him points for honesty. he has been watching your show. finally, the truth is seeping out. the thing is, you know, david axelrod has said this to me and other reporters that a campaign is a giant magnifying glass. it's really hard to hide your true self under the spotlight of doing this again and again and again. particularly when you have a hard schedule like a bus tour and you are going and you have to deal with commoners -- i mean, voters. so you show your -- you show dirch sides of your personality, and i think you see that with mitt. we see he is not really good to talk on his feet. he doesn't engage well with people, and you saw that wit

. they will happily take your rent. let's bring in your panel now. in washington, richard wolfe and david corn. then we have jonathan altar. richard, does mitt romney believe we are all imbeciles? the report suggesting that 92% of jobs lost were held by women. one report was closer to 56%. that 40% is mostly the value of people's homes. >> yes, i recall at one point he pretended he was in the middle class as well. it is true. he really did. you can fool all of the people some of the time. actually a little bit perplexed here by what romney has done. he is clueless or playing clueless on tv. his position here as someone who knows about the private sector, his position on the recent swings we have seen. the boom and the bust, leads you to one conclusion. we have been through the three bubbles. internet bubble and housing bubble and economy bubble. it has taken the middle class to a point they have not been to a long time. to suggest that is down to the last two or three years or to suggest that any president could change it around in two or three years is something that has gone on fo

investigative reporter ken vogel joins us live from d.c. from the nation's capital, "washington post" columnist and msnbc contributor, jonathan capehart. we just heard the bloviating idiot explain that he is not a racist because arsenio hall was the winner on his reality show. i have to assume you're entirely satisfied with that. >> reporter: i believe the term of art is bloviating ignoreamus. >> it was intentional for brevity. >> either one works. for the donald to say that he doesn't want to talk about this. the biggest line is when he talks about the place of birth and bringing up the birth certificate issue. this is something that has made donald trump the darling of the far right. a darling of the birther conspiracy movement. that even though the president has released several times his birth certificate, both the short form and the long form. there is a constituency out there that still believes barack obama is not the legitimate president of the united states. mitt romney will ride that wave as long as he believes it is beneficial. >>> what did you think of his defense of not

and ethnicity. the medicare debate continues in washington... ...more talk on social security... ...but washington isn't talking to the american people. [ female announcer ] when it comes to the future of medicare and social security, you've earned the right to know. ♪ ...so what does it mean for you and your family? [ female announcer ] you've earned the facts. ♪ washington may not like straight talk, but i do. [ female announcer ] and you've earned a say. get the facts and make your voice heard on medicare and social security at earnedasay.org. i'm here to unleash my inner cowboy. instead i got heartburn. [ horse neighs ] hold up partner. prilosec isn't for fast relief. try alka-seltzer. it kills heartburn fast. yeehaw! that's good morning, veggie style. hmmm. for half the calories plus veggie nutrition. could've had a v8. >>> there's a new spirit of bullies. >> now it seems to be reaching critical mass. mr. holder is taking incoming on all sorts of marines. >> i'm afraid we've come to an impasse. >> does eric holder survive? >> you lead me no alternative than to join th

washington, julian epstein of the law media group and political analyst and former dnc communications karen finney, now a columnist for the hall and here with me in new york republican strategist ron chrissy and former special assistant to george w. bush. karen, isn't it time to give republicans real credit here? they realize they have a mediocre candidate, a man with few core convictions and changes his position more times than a tornado and will shore him up by literally throwing money at him. >> absolutely, throw money at the problem. that is the gop way, martin. he is doing quite well in texas today, a fundraising, and as you pointed out, you know, why let any of these pesk i questions get in the way and have rick perry there and have to answer questions about what did you mean by vulture capitalism and not having former president george bush and having to answer pesk i questions about the fact that george bush left barack obama with a mess but it doesn't seem to matter when we're talking about obama yet the fact that romney thinks he was left a mess by a republican governor, that

behind me actually came to washington, actually worked for government because they are trying to do some good. so bashing public sector employees which, by the way, means fewer cops, you know, on your streets, fewer teachers in your kids's school. >> that's right. >> the one thing i want to take on in terms of what president obama said in the full context he is not wrong. if you look at -- even moodys has suggested if you look at nonfinancial firm corporate profits are at -- up 15% and haven't been that high since the '60s. >> that's right. >> technically, we know they are sitting on over a trillion dollars while middle class wages are stagnating and people don't have more in their pockets and these companies aren't hiring. again, sort of blaming people who don't have jobs for what is going wrong in the economy when the people it at the top are doing better than ever in the corporate world and sitting on, you know, over a trillion dollars in cash. that's not an understanding, again, of how the economy is supposed to actually work. >> we have dealt with that issue. anna marie, we are hear

analyst joan walsh, and in washington, jonathan capehart, an opinion writer for the "washington post." i want to start with you, david. there's been much ado about the president having a terrible week and mitt romney trying to exploit that. talking about how he wants americans to help themselves. i guess he is referring to that nonexistent biblical reference that god help those who help themselves. it is not in the bible. what was your reaction? >> i want to say this was probably my time, too. i'm not running for president either. can't we all say that? probably my time. jonathan's time, joan's time. >> shucks. >> for mitt romney to get out there and talk about a moral failure in regard to the poor. i can't help but think about the ryan budget that he has endorsed if passed would cut food stamps for millions of low income americans. medicaid as well. throw hundreds of thousands of kids off head start. igs so bad that the catholic bishops have called it -- that's my term. >> they basically eviscerated it on the base i of morality. how can he get out there and say, wait. i've discovered po