only have nasty words to spew about the people running it or hoping to. john mccain who's served the country so admirably has been angry. he's been saying enough of this when new allies gets out of hand. a combat vet at that. but the viciousness is something we haven't seen before because of its come by inbound nation of mccarthyism and weird connectedness, attacking chuck hagel because no one will give us info about the benghazi situation even though hagel wasn't in the government when it was happened. sick stuff and seems to be growing. the better he looks, the more these characters are determined to look. did you notice the smile, by the way, on john boehner's face sit behind the president on the state of the union. if you did, you're imagining things. so afraid of the hard-hating republicans that even boehner is scared to death of looking like he might like what the president is saying. let's go at it. our guests very joy read and michael steele former chair of the republican national committee. both very msnbc analysts and good ones. let's take a look at this. is this delay on t

john mccain jump all over hagel for opposing the surge in iraq. >> were you correct or incorrect when you said the search would be the most dangeus foreign policy blunder in this country since vietnam? correct or incorrect? yes or no? are you going to answer the question, senator hagel? the question is, were you right or wrong? i would like to answer whether you were right or wrong. and you are free to elaborate. >> i am not going to give you a yes or no answer -- >> let the record show that you refuse to answer the question. >> he finally gave the answer he wanted to give. >> i saw the suffering and consequences of a war. i did second think the search. would this be worth the sacrifice? we lost almost 1200 dead americans during that period was it required, necessary? >> how much of that exchange was political, how much was personal, and how much was related to our defense policy, mark? >> 92, 11, 13. [laughter] a lot of it was personal. one could not watch those hearings without feeling that there were a lot of personal grudges, even vendettas, being settled. >> entered john cornyn o

: john mccain was not talking to be population. he was talking about hispanic voters. karen, forgive me. 2007 sounds like an echo of some place we've been before. >> yeah, the things that people are talking about now -- enhanced security on the border. cracking down on hiring of illegal immigrants, a legalization program, all of those things were actually done, written into the law in 1986 and i looked back and looked at the signing ceremony where president reagan declareed that future generations of americans will be faithful for our efforts to humanely regain control of our boarders. that law -- borders. that law, the last immigration reform that this country attempted actually left the country the exact same problems it had then, only worse. back then there are three million to five million illegal immigrants. now there are 1 1. rather than settling this question of who gets to be an american, it's now more enflamed than it has been in memory and it's in part because of that law and its failures that i think we are where we are today. >> as i understand it, the decree teak of the

services committed tee this week. is senator john mccain grilling hagel about hagel's opposition to the surge in iraq in 2007. >> were you correct in your judgment. >> i would defer that to history. >> when you were right or wrong about the surge. >> i'll explain why i played those comments. >> i want to know if you were right or wrong. that is a direct question. i expect a direct answer. >> senator hagel explained he opposed the surge in iraq because it cost nearly 1200 american lives. >> i saw the consequences and the suffering and the horror of war. so i did question a surge. i always ask the question, is this going to be worth the sacrifice? because there will be sacrifice. >> that was hagel's emphasis on the cost factor. my question is this. his emphasis on the cost factor in military decisions, does it serve as a dodge to senator mccain's bullet? or did he mean this completely from the heart? and if he did, isn't he exactly the man we want over at the department of defense? >> he was talking about the cost of lives. >> that's correct. >> and i think in that exchange that you s

." >>> from washington, let me start with this, why is john mccain so angry? 40 years after the vietnam p.o.w.s came home the most famous of them is angrier than ever. we are we fighting vietnam again in the u.s. senate. the ticked-off hagel, is it just for show? the basic unfairness of vietnam itself that some went and some didn't? is it about lyndon johnson's inability to win the war or end it? what is it about john mccain that seems to excite those who know nothing about vietnam. well tonight we dig into the deep well of resentment burning in john mccain's patriotic heart. a resentment not against the north vietnamese who imprisoned and tortured him, not against george w. bush and his political henchmen who tried to stain mccain's reputation. but just like he did, in the same army of america's long nightmare in vietnam. i'm joined by david corn with "mother jones" and joy reed with the grio. i have to tell you i'm convinced we're watching a flashback. watch this, here's senator john mccain, he did a long, angry wind-up before he launched into his first so-called question. it was real

romney had also run in 2008. remember? he lost to john mccain that year. but that year, 2008, also was not john mccain's first effort at winning the republican presidential nomination. he had run before as well. he had run in the year 2000, when he lost to george w. bush. and while that john mccain campaign and his loss that year has mostly been remembered for the egregiously racist dirty tricks played against john mccain in the south carolina primary that year, that's mostly what we think of when we think of him losing to george w. bush that year, now what is starting to become the more salient thing about that losing run, about that losing attempt at winning the republican presidential nomination, what seems more salient now is who john mccain's national co-chair was for that run. it was republican senator chuck hagel. there he is. you can see him in the little circle on the left there. with john mccain's entourage as john mccain was getting ready to launch his presidential bid back in 2000. this is the same chuck hagel who is president obama's nominee for defense secretary now and w

. >> john mccain has been shifting positions this week. this thing walks like a filibuster, quacks like a filibuster. it is the filibuster. i would like to point out a couple of the facts -- secretary of defense bill cohen, republican. secretary of defense of bob gates, republican. secretary of defense melvin laird, republican national. security adviser brent scowcroft, a republican. former chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, colin powell, republican did all of them have endorsed chuck hagel. who lost benghazi -- next it will be lost china, who prpromoted and is from captain to major? joe mccarthy will find out about it. >> go ahead, charles. >> and have as long a list of endorsements as you want and leave your lying eyes. -- believe your lying eyes. it is less about ideology or any thing is about competence. there's a democratic senator quoted after that disasters day of hearings in which hagel did not even understand what containment of iran and -- he said, "chuck hagel will not be bringing the potato salad to next week's to connect." -- next week's pettitte." he had a performance th

technical, which john kerry did, and he only had three votes against him -- >> on fox news, john mccain recalled that hagel was very rough on bush, said he was the worst president we ever had, that the surge in iraq was the worst mistake since vietnam, and that is why republicans are down on him. >> john mccain has been shifting positions this week. this thing walks like a filibuster, quacks like a filibuster. it is the filibuster. i would like to point out a couple of the facts -- secretary of defense bill cohen, republican. secretary of defense of bob gates, republican. secretary of defense melvin laird, republican national. security adviser brent scowcroft, a republican. rmer chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, colin powell, republican did all of them have endorsed chuck hagel. who lost benghazi -- next it will be lost china, who prpromoted and is from captain to major? joe mccarthy will find out about it. >> go ahead, charles. >> and have as long a list of endorsements as you want and leave your lying eyes. believe your lying eyes. it is less about ideology or any thing is about competenc

matthews in washington. let me start with this. why is john mccain so gri? why america? why are we fighting the vietnam war all over again in the united states senate. the have it tree troll against chuck hagel. is it about lyndon johnson's inability to win that war or end it? what is it that burns so deeply in john mccain today? for some reason he wants to play it again and again in iraq and afterno afghanistan and again in iran. we look at the resentment burning in john mccain's heart. it's not against george w. bush and his political henchmen who tried to stay mccain's reputation in 2000 but a guy who fear and rallied against wounds just like he did. chuck hagel, a nightmare, by the way, whose flashbacks must haunt still the heart still of john sydney mccain. both are msnbc analysts. both of you, sir, and lady, are younger than me, but i must tell you i'm absolutely convinced we're watching a flashback. watch this. he did a long angry windup before he launched into his first so-called question which was really an indictment. it included putdowns as well as references to vietnam.

pay back for the surge and that lindsay graham and senator john mccain have decided somehow in their minds they're doing this. >> i don't think it's pay back for the surge, i think this is pay back for a republican willing to serve in a democratic administration. no matter what you call this, filibuster or otherwise, i think it's at odds with the constitution, i think it'sed a odds with the device and consent language of the conversation. the language says that president obama gets to pick his team exempt in extraordinary circumstances. and the extraordinary circumstances are not met here. john mccain said that chuck hagel would be a great member of cabinet. he spoke of chuck hagel as a tremendous secretary of state. >> political betrayal is a worse sin than being a member of the opposing party, so you have john mccain in the hearing really going after chuck hagel, especially after iraq and the sunshine. but then you have a committee hearing and the new senator from texas, cruz, goes after chuck hagel where then john mccain defends him. it's baffling, it's like we're in a sort of ups

secretary. his old pal and fellow vietnam veteran john mccain jump all over him for opposing the surge in iraq. >> were you correct or incorrect when you said that th surge would be the most dangerous foreign policy blunder in this country sincecorrect or incorrect? yes or no? >> my reference to -- >> are you going to answer the question? the questions, were you right or wrong? that is a pretty sime question. i would like for you to answer right or wrong, then you are free to elaborate. >> i am nott going to give you a yes or no answer -- >> b the record show that you refuse to answer the question. >> he finally gave the answer he wanted to give. >> i saw the consequences and suffering and horror of war, so i did question a surge. is this going to be worth the sacrifice? we lost almost 1200 american during that surge. was it reqred, was it necessary? >> how much of that exchange was political, how much wawas personal, and how much risk related to the defense policy? >> 92, 11, 13. a lot of it was personal. one could not watched those hearings without feeling there were a lot of personal g

ago that john mccain was running for president and suggesting that chuck hagel would make a great secretary of defense. if there is anyone who has turned on his previous beliefs i don't think it's chuck hagel. the interesting thing hagel has been endorsed by dozens of retired generals admirals. the views of being an honest broker to find a solution to the two-state israel-palestine conflict and the pentagon reform needs to be on the table that we have more nuclear weapons than we need in the 21st century. those are all very mainstream views among national security experts and the american people at large. what is going on here is you have some republicans not trying to redefine the mainstream out from under the american people. >> john: i can't help but think that john mccain and chuck hagel once voted for donald rumsfeld not long ago. now you spent time on the campaign. what was their relationship then. >> the relationship was closer--it was close really from the beginning. back in the 1999 when i was a correspondent for a network we won't name in which john mccain and chuck hage

country, nasty words to spew about the people running it or hoping to. john mccain who served the country admirbly has become an angry fellow taking an occasional break to see who is he, enough of this when his allies get out of hand. 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 r

him, but this was one of their own. they are very put out about that. >> on fox news, john mccain recall that hagel was very rough on president bush, said that the surge in iraq one was the biggest mistake since vietnam, and that is the reason republicans are down on him. >> john mccain has been shifting positions this week. he is against the filibuster but wants to delay. this thing walks like a filibuster, quacks like a filibuster. it is a filibuster. secretary of defense bill cohen, republican. secretary of defense robert gates, republican. national security adviser brent scowcroft, republican. chairman of the joint chiefs of staff colin powell, republican. all of them are for and have endorsed publicly chuck hagel. who lost benghazi? next it will be lost china, who promoted the dentist from captain to major, and joe mccarthy will find out about it. chuck hagel wasn't even in the government at the time at benghazi. >> you can have as long a list of endorsements as you want, you can look at that and believe that or believe your lying eyes. is not ideology or history. it is competence p

to -- question, senator hagel. when john mccain and in 20008, he admitted hagel would have made a great addition to his cabinet. is not a sentiment he carried over. theon the side of recovery, over 157,000 jobs last month. the unemployment rate rose to 7.9% in december. some good news -- some good economy, the dow jones industrial average is up to date. is the first time since of 2007 it broke 14,000. year the best start to any of dating back to 1994. two days awayt from the raven's facing the 40 in super bowl xlvii. where espnce is live has set up the ultimate football experience. week i have worn a masquerade mask. is a little face paint? almost game time. very appropriate. the super bowl celebration has transformed the city. this is jackson square, the downtown new of orleans. you can see what happened here. created a super bowl pavilion. watching theeen coverage this week, this is look at whatscenes this looks like here. you see the map, the big screens, and the lights. look at the set up here. you have massive production right in downtown new orleans. some say it is a big dea

give advice to a guy like john mccain. yeah, you have to be a little more popular with your state if he's aware of it. here he was. this is what happens when the republican party follows the advice of the thoughtful people like michael gerson. he's a former maverick taking on the current maverick. hecht let's go. let's watch. >> why didn't the army go down there and stop them? because the only thing that stops them, i'm afraid to say and it's too damn bad is a gun. that's all that will stop them. >> i remember when you were in bed with kennedy. >> in bed with kennedy? thank you. >> most of the people that come across the border are illiterate, they don't speak english, and they're a dependent class. we have a large group of dependent people that you want to make citizens that are going to be on -- they're going to bebe on medicare, they're going to be on welfare, they're going to be on food stamps, and you know it. >> again -- >> what's going to happen is -- >> again, sir, you're not telling these people the truth. >> you said build the dang fence. where's the dang fence? >> in case

hoping to. john mccain, who served the country so admirably, has become an angry fellow from dawn until dusk taking an occasional break to remember who he is and saying enough of this when his new allies get out of hand. when ted cruz starts attacking the loyalty to america of one of mccain's fellow vietnam vets, a combat vet 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

bomb iran. it was ironic when john mccain put it out there and said basically, you know what? chuck hagel was mean to president bush, he relentlessly criticize the iraq war. his fellow members of the senate thought he was not sufficiently loyal republican. that's pretty rich coming from john mccain who basically made it his life's work to oppose george w. bush. >> oh, i'm sorry, was it chuck hagel who said he had an illegitimate child with an african-american and that swhou produced a south asian young woman. that stuff about his wife being a drug addict. that was w's people. that was karl rove and that crowd. i don't know which of them did it but one of them did it yet he forgives those people and he says -- this must be some kind of weird transportation of emotion. yesterday john mccain said something truly remarkable as my friend here said, michael, about a moment of pure honesty. he exposed what's really behind his opposition to hagel. let's listen. >> there's a lot of ill will towards senator hagel because when he was a republican, he attacked president bush mercilessly. at one

. let me start with this. why is john mccain so angry? 40 years after the vietnam p.o.w.s came home, the most famous of them is angrier than ever. why is america, why are we fighting the vietnam war all over again in the united states senate? the ticked off vitriol against chuck hagel, what is it about? is it for show? is it about something hagel said in the cloakroom? is it the unfairness of vietnam itself, that some went and some didn't? is it about johnson's inability to win that war or end it? what burns so deeply in john mccain these days? it seems to excite those who knew nothing about vietnam but want to replay it. we dig into the deep well of resentment burning in john mccain's patriotic heart. a resentment not against the north vietnamese who imprisoned and tortured him all those years, not against george w. bush and his political henchmen who tried to stain mccain's reputation back in 2000, but against a guy who fought against fear and rallied against wounds just like he did in the same army of america's long nightmare in vietnam, chuck hagel. a nightmare, by the way, whose fla

kennedy and john mccain. it died because of, well, you know? >> there are rising concerns tonight that that amnesty compromise could threaten the nation and security, as well. opening the borders, if possible, with mexico and canada. those fears, washington is hell-bent on creating a union. >> there are consequences to open borders beyond the aliens who want to come take our jobs. >> the islamist terrorists roam our borders. >> who refuse to protect those against those who come to kill. >> yes, whatever would we have done if somebody had not stood up to say that? the kennedy-john mccain comprehensive bill included both security and a path to citizenship. it was written that none of the provisions could be enacted until five areas were achieved. here is what is really interesting, although the bill died we actually made a lot of progress on those provisions anyway. the border security provision largely got it done, even as the path to citizenship got largely left behind. northbound one, operation control the border between u.s. and mexico, that was never really defined. one definition s

bill would be dead an arrival in congress. and arizona senator, john mccain, who suggested the white house has a greater strategy at play. >> leaks don't happen in washington by accident. does the president really want a result or does he want anoth another -- to beat up republicans? >> the president's new chief of staff is defending this back-up plan saying the administration is only doing what it promised to do from the very beginning. >> we're doing exactly what the president said we would do last month in las vegas, which is we're preparing, we're going to be ready. let's make sure it doesn't have to be proposed. let's make sure that that group up there, the gang of eight, makes a good progress on these efforts, as much as they say they want to. >> all right. so if the leak proves anything, this president and the white house is working on an immigration reform plan. joining me is texas democratic congressman henry quayar. some saying the legislation is half-backed and seriously flawed and would make our immigration problems worse. from what you've learned about what the white hou

tea party and what it does to someone like john mccain. i told you it would come to this and now we've got the proof on camera. a party that spits at its leaders listens only to the loudest, angriest person in the back row. boehner is nothing to this crowd. it never heard of kantor. mitch mcconnell, a nobody. what matters to the republican far right are the few to dare to be even further right. now the huffington post editorial director. the 2013 version of john mccain version took on his constituents who looked like a room full of right wing 2010 mccains with their anti-immigrant build a fence talk. here's a bit of his exchange, if you want to call it that, with angry right wing tea partiers. >> why didn't the army go down there and stop 'em? because the only thing that stops 'em, i'm afraid to say, and it's too damn bad, but is a gun. that's all that will stop 'em. >> the border is 2,000 miles long, sir. i don't know how many troops and army people you think would have been required. i don't know how many you think would be required, but i'll give you expert information that sh