and defend her irrationally to get back at what they see as the elites -- >> that's how bush was. >> exactly, and that was the great trick of the george w. bush campaign. here's a guy who had gone to andover, yale and harvard and he made al look like the swell. >> everyone in the white house is making fun of sarah palin, manging the mistake of saying it's about intellect. the people who are so obnoxious to the tea party movement out there -- >> it's about being too sneaky. and not knowing things if you're in the field. i don't know a lot of things, i couldn't tell you the names of the philadelphia flyers right now. i'm not a hockey guy. i grew up a little later than they -- the broad street bullies showed up after i was in town. i don't know some things. i know the phillys. >> in fairness to her, she said the other day on chris wallace's show, she said, i hope i'm learning things. she did say she knew she had to -- >> politics is about education of yourself. she has to keep learning as we all do. howard fineman, clarence page, the pros. join us again tomorrow night. countdown with keith olbermann starts right now. which of these stories will you be talking about tomorrow. even as a prominent conservative commentator says gop precondition for the health care summit are silly, they get sillier. >> why are we going to talk about the bill. it's time to scrap the bill and start over. >> kind of passed already. at the daily press briefing. batting for the press secretary, the president, number 44. >> i won't hesitate to embrace a good idea for my friends in the minority party, i also won't hesitate to condemn obstinenc. it's official, everyone has had a hand in it. the startling news that england's formal inquiry into the iraq war, which has raked tony blair over the coals is seeking conversations with bush administration figures. the light bulb goes on over the heads of the near right. tom tancredo's response to testing for voters. >> it is inniate racism. >> yes, it is, thank you, megan mccain. the insurance company will not pay for his life saving drugs because look at what they cost. one book, one movie, and one joint super bowl commercial later, the war is over? >> i walk in, i see dave, whatever happened for the last 18 years disappeared. >> i just want to take a second here to thank the actors who played oprah and jay leno. >> all the news and commentary now on countdown. >> we lost touch. he found me on facebook. good evening from new york. when even the woman asking the questions for fox news tells minority whip eric kantor that his letter to the white house is not in the tone of bipartisanship you know that the republican party seems to have seriously miscalculated in its attempt to deny the president bipartisanship and to protect our insurance companies from the dire threat of affordable health care. the president welcoming the republican leadership and democratic majority to a meeting at the white house this morning -- the president already having welcomed lawmakers to the white house earlier this month. minority whip kantor setting preconditions yesterday. the democrats scrapped the current bill and start again. at today's meeting at the white house, the republicans still advocating do it our way as the only course for health care bipartisanship. >> why would they want to keep pushing something that the public is overwhelmingly against. >> it's going to be very difficult to have a bipartisan conversation with regard to what 2700 page health care bill that the democratic majority in the house, and the democrat majority in the senate can't pass. so why are we going to talk about a bill that they can't pass? it really is time to scrap the bill and start over. >> the bill passed in your chamber, mr. bainer. maybe you were in tanning bed number four at the time. say something like that on the lawn at the white house after you just met with the president of the united states, say that in a five-day span in which the president has already taken questions from you and your counterparts in the senate, needing neither crib notes on his hand to do it, you might prompt the president to step to a microphone once again. the third installment of president's question time, a surprise appearance before the reporters who cover the white house at the daily briefing, beginning with the precondition that the health care bill be scrapped. >> i'm going to be starting from scratch in the sense that i will be open to any ideas that help promote these goals. what i will not do, what i don't think makes sense, and i don't think the american people would want to see would be another year of partisan wrangling around these issues, another six months or eight months or nine months worth of hearings in every single committee in the house and senate in which there's a lot of posturing, let's get the relevant parties together, let's put the best ideas on the table. my hope is we can find enough overlap that we can say this is the right way to move forward, even if i don't get every thing that i want. >> the president defining bipartisanship how far he's willing to go, and what he expects in return when it comes to his proposed health care summit. >> bipartisanship can't be that i agree to all the things that they believe in or want and they agree to none of the things i believe in and want, and that's the price of bipartisanship, right? but that's sometimes the way it gets presented. and i'm willing to move off some of the preferences of my party in order to meet them halfway, but there's got to be some give from their side as well. that's true on health care, energy, that's true on financial reform, that's what i'm hoping gets accomplished at the summit. >> republican obstructionism also leading to a log jam of appointments. senator shelbey having lifted some but not all of his con electrover electroversial holds on senate nominees. >> often positions related to our national security have been held up despite having overwhelming support. my nominee for one important job, the head of general services administration, which helps run the government, was denied a vote for nine months, when she finally got a vote on her nomination, she was confirmed 96-0. that's not advise and consent. that's delay and obstruct. >> delay and obstruct. right up there with lying. the president hoping to keep any fictional dramatics out of the health care summit as well. >> my hope is that this doesn't end up being political theater as i think some of you have phrased it. i want a substantive discussion. i am reminded of the story that was told about senator moynihan, who was, i guess, in an argument with one of his colleagues and his colleague was losing the argument. he got a little flustered and said to senator moynihan, i'm entitled to my own opinion. senator moynihan said you're entitled to your own opinion, but you're not entitled to your own facts. i think that's the key to a successful dialogue on the 25th on health care. >> another republican precondition, no facts. one of the nonelected leaders of the party of no having instructed republicans to go to the health care summit, william crystal criticizing the attendance, calling their letter to the white house silly. adding when the president inv e invites you to the white house, go. mr. crystal wants them to keep trying to kill the bill. by lunchtime, the minority whip back ago way from his preconditions. >> we're going to show up, because we want to continue to ask what the money people are asking for. right now it's up to the president and speaker pelosi to start listening to the american people. if they don't, there's not much to talk about. >> once the press secretary received the podium back from his boss, it seems he could not help but poking fun at senator palin's study methods. >> the entire -- i wrote a few things down. i wrote eggs, milk and bread. i crossed out bread, so i can make pancakes for ethan if it snows. then i wrote down hope and change in case i forgot that. >> fastest root to the oldest joke in the world in history. we welcome lawrence o'donnell, good evening. >> minority whip kantor saying republicans are going to go to this health care summit without the preconditions, but only so as we heard him say, they can speak up for the american people. you know, i'm thinking they bought into the supreme court ruling that corporations are people too. >> well, theoretically they're going to go there to speak for the roughly 53% who show up at polls as opposed to being opposed to obama health care reform, what the obama administration is looking at is another 65% in polls who say we want to see the president and republicans work together. that's the picture that president obama's going for on february 25th. that's the picture he's going to get from his side clearly. because you just look at this tape today, there's no question. just contents aside, there's no question who is the most reasonable man after the meeting going to the microphone. he's going to win the contest every time. >> the letter backfire together degree bill crystal said it was silly, some woman reading a script at fox news, it was not bipartisan in nature. why did the republicans, who usually excel at the message war and are in this debate entirely because of the message war, because they don't have any facts on their side, how did they -- why did they write this? why did they make such a blunder? >> i think this particular team of house leadership is the worst i've seen by far. they should have absolutely have treated thisry spectfully as an invitation, because there's a serious problem inside this for the democrats, which is that the democrats plan is to come up with one bill, to somehow get the house and the senate to agree on one bill before february 25th, and discuss that one bill at that meeting. the democrats might not be able to do that, so if you're the republicans, just sit back right now and watch the democrats fight for the next two weeks over what that one bill is going to be. >> and then come out of that going, we were prepared with our ideas, but they couldn't. they couldn't even get the bill together? >> the republicans have done nothing right so far in the health care debate. it has fallen of its own weight, because of lack of cohesion among democrats. it's not that the republicans have had any particularly great winning strategy going into this thing, and it would be better for them to hang back right now, their instinct is always wrong. the bainer/kantor instinct is always wrong. >> and the instinct we saw provoking the president to take over the press briefing today, does they not get the message in the last couple weeks that the administration was no longer going to say, well, they're lying about us again, but we're going to try to take direct action against those? >> it's clear this president is looking for those moments to go to the microphone, and they gave it to him today. i have a suspicion he would have done it no matter what they said on the drive way, so he could control what was coming out of that meeting as he did so well in the briefing room today. he took care of every single question that came in, very smoothly and easily, and dominated what the message is coming out of that room today. >> the ranking republican has issued a shadow budget, we're talking parliamentarian suddenly. it eliminates social security, it eliminates medicare, and this is is the party that spent last summer claiming cutting waste was going to kill grandma? >> here's why the best plan for minorities in the congress is to do nothing and offer nothing. >> okay. >> this is -- for people who have been saying, where's your plan, and you're wondering, why don't they come up with something, this is why. i mean, they can come up with the craziest things imaginable and they're always better off in the house especially, staying quiet. let the democrats struggle among themselves, they've done a pretty messy job of that this year, i'm not one who's betting on the democrats to pull the magic rabbit out of the hat by february 25th, i don't know why the republicans think they might. >> two words, kill medicare may change things. >> that could change things. >> great thanks as always. you want to see an actual death panel in action. nice to see an insurance company come out and say, yeah, it will save your life, but we're not paying for it, it costs too much. i mean, we have stockholders, buddy. a comment next. missing something? now at sears optical, get 2 pairs of glasses for $99.99. with bifocals just $25 more per pair. sears optical. don't miss a thing. the startling word that great britain's formal inquiry into the iraq war may seek questions of the bush administration. kyler has cancer, it was in remission, it's back now. the doctors have a do or die treatment that his insurance company considers investigational so it won't pay for it. the insurer is health america, covered two earlier investigational therapies for kyler. just a coincidence the therapy for which it will not pay costs $110,000 for two treatments. the hospital is giving it to him free while he sues health america, possibly because otherwise he will give him his -- look. kyler's five, that's the look he gave the photographer, his disease is neuroblastoma. health america will not help him nor his parents nor the hospital pay for the drugs he need s to stay alive. and there is your death panel bill crystal, betsy mccoy, senator grassley, there is your death panel, sarah palin. there is, perhaps, only one scenario in which this nation would conduct a full inquiry into the war in iraq and how pervasive the lying was if a prominent figure from the bush administration were to say something on the record. unexpectedly tonight that scenario is still viable. what we did not do, the british have, and now those whom our leader not question, the british want to. the members of the bush administration, perhaps the former president himself, the head of england's official iraq war inquiry recognizing that "we cannot take formal evidence as such from foreign nationals but we can have discussions with them." sir john did not say whether his panel hopes to interview the former president, a no comment from the former president's press people. the british panel already has details between president bush and tony blair as well as tens of thousands of highly classified documents from the british government. mr. blair was questioned by this panel for six hours late last month, britain's former ambassador to the u.s. told the inquiry that bush and blair used an april 2002 meeting at bush's ranch in crawford, texas to sign in blood an agreement to take military action in iraq. that about one year before legislators in each country approved the actual war. blair's former chief of staff has denied such an agreement, one member of the inquiry's panel has indicated that bush told blair he planned to take out saddam hussein even if saddam hussein cooperated with investigators. what about the downing street memo which claimed the u.s. government fixed the intelligence and the facts around its policy, the report is due by year's end, it's scrutiny and analysis will not establish criminal or civil liability, just the facts. let's bring in jonathan turley. good evening. >> hi, keith. >> what do you make in this interest in conversations with the american officials and will the inquiry get them? >> the british have this quaint notion that their leader should have to explain decisions that have cost thousands of lives and billions of dollars. could you imagine george bush being questioned for five or six hours? the fact that we can't imagine that really says there's something wrong with our political system. ultimately american citizens are likely to learn more from our british cousins than they are from our congress or our leaders about a war that has cost us dearly. >> what have we learned so far in your opinion, what is is the iraq war inquiry's biggest find or amplification so far? >> i thought you really isolated it well, i think that the statement from sir christopher meyer that there was an agreement signed in blood in april 2002 is very telling, particularly when you line that up with statements, for example, from the british/u.n. ambassador, that bush was hell bent on war. we're getting a lot of these different accounts that indicate the decision had been made, and the only decision was the rationale. we're also getting the seam developed which is so disturbing, it's like something out of the ottoman empire of absolute rulers deciding that they're going do package regime change and the rationale doesn't matter much. >> and we have also heard, and it hasn't gotten any attention here, how blair purged his cabinet of anyone who was asking the mildest of questions. the big picture relative to us again, this formula i postulated at the start of the story, something of such import that congress would have to start its own inquiry, and the whus be dammed, i think it's plausible, but its realistic chance of it happening is less than 1%? >> part of the problem is that there's a collective interest in trying to keep history from knowing what happened. the people that made these decisions have much to answer for, there are husbands and wives and there are fathers and mothers who have lost loved ones, and they were told that their loved ones went off to war because of wmd's and now we're hearing meetings occurring a year before even the resolution of the united nations. i'm sorry, six months before the resolution, a year before the war. we're hearing different reasons that were put forward. that's a lot to answer for. and i think that you're going to find its going to be difficult to get the truth, i do think the truth is like water, it tends to find its way out, and eventually it will. >> how much of that water will find its way unite through this british inquiry. they have this access to their own classified information, which we're beginning to understand whatever information they had that they claimed was from other sources was made up here, and it looks like whatever information we had that we chairmanned was from other sources was made up there. >> well, we're not going to find clarity in the sense of a clear rationale, i think we will find clarity into what really occurred. i also think that we can come out of this, i hope, with an appreciation for what the framers said. in article i, section 8 the framers required a declaration of war. and congress has circumvented that obligation. when you read the british accounts, it's clear there was a genius in that, that we should have declarations of war, we should have the articulation of why we do things because what we're learning is deeply disturbing. >> jonathan turley of george washington university, as always, john, great thanks. >> thanks, keith. here's a television and history tease for you. who was margaret chase smith and what does margaret chase smith have to do with the next two segments on countdown, one of them about the tea in recent days, our company hasn't been living up to the standards that you've come to expect from us klux are dedicated to making things right we have a fix for our recalls. we stopped production so we could focus on our customers' cars first. and technicians are making repairs. we're working around the clock to ensure we build vehicles of the highest quality... to restore your faith... in our company. for more information visit toyota.com. yeah. would you like a pony ? 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( cluck, cluck, cluck ) oh, wowww ! that's fun ! you didn't say could have a real one. well, you didn't ask. even kids know when it's wrong to hold out on somebody. why don't banks ? we're ally, a new bank that alerts you when your money could be worki harder d earning more. it's just the right thing to do. conscience about the tea party, about this next anniversary in a moment. but first, women who spoke at the lincoln day effect got a little more than they bargened for. joseph mccarthy held up a piece of paper and said, i have a list of names that were made known to the secretary of state as members of the communist party and who are still working and shaping policy in the state department. by the next day the number was 57, within 11 days he changed the number 2081. in "the manchurian candidate" the number was changed. from that bottle of heinz 57 ketchup. let's play oddball. szechuan province, china. they have panda bears like we have squirrels. this little fella stuck on a cliff, the panda remained on the steep face of the mountain for over seven hours as villagers tried to figure out what to do, the plan, a banana on a stick. it sounds like a python sketch, it's just crazy enough to work, and it worked very well. the panda swiped the banana and took off the way it came. to utah, good news and bad news for gary coleman. coleman stopped in front of cameras on his way out of court to address certain rumors? >> i wanted to let you know that without holding them up any more, there never has been and never will be any nude photos of gary coleman, i don't care how much you wish it, and how much you want it, it ain't happening, and unless you're really good at photo shop and i find out about it, those aren't going to exist either. >> so they won't have theirs, you won't yours, i won't have mine, but together we'll be fine? for nearly a week, some of us have said, if you invoke the literacy voting test and dispage voters who can't speak english and the guy who hired you to give the speech says it's great, the whole lot of you are racist. now a prominent republican has said, correct, innate racism, she says, next. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 (announcer) we believe in giving every investor tdd# 1-800-345-2550 is now $8.95. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 no matter your account balance, tdd# 1-800-345-2550 how often you trade or how many shares... tdd# 1-800-345-2550 you pay what they pay what everyone pays: $8.95. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 and you still get all the help and support tdd# 1-800-345-2550 you expect from schwab. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 millions of investors. one price. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 at charles schwab investors rule. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 are you ready to rule? i ve hosting the holidays... but after all the rich, heavy food, i was irregular, so my friend recommended the activia challenge. and it worked. i don't know what i like better-- how it makes me feel... or the great taste. ♪ activia! right now 1.2 million people are on sprint mobile broadband. 31 are streaming a sales conference from the road. 154 are tracking shipments on a train. 33 are iming on a ferry. and 1300 are secretly checking email on vacation. that's happening now. america's most dependable 3g network. bringing you the first and only wireless 4g network. right now get a free 3g/4g device for your laptop. sprint. the now network. deaf, hard-of-hearing and people with speech disabilities access www.sprintrelay.com. startling assessment of the state from the gop from one of its prominent members -- fear, ignorance, bigotry and smear, i doubt if the republican party could, simply because i don't believe the american people will uphold any political party that puts political exploitation above national interest. surely, we republicans aren't that desperate for victory. unfortunately for the republicans, unfortunately for the nation, the republican senator who said that, while being from maine was margaret chase smith and she was speaking on june 1, 1950, delivering her historic declaration of conscience, pushing back against the fear and bigotry and smears and ignorance being practiced by her own party. in particular, the wisconsin republican witch hunter, joseph mccarthy began all that 60 years ago tonight. the gop has plenty of mccarthys. but these days the two republican senators from maine stand by quietly, bearing mute witness unconcerned with what margaret chase smith would think of their silence, so we were surprised to discover yesterday, that it is the daughter of a republican senator who seems is to have taken up the mantle of margaret chase smith. her name is megan mccain, guest hosting "the view" tv show. she responded to the tea party's opening speech by tom tancredo. she may have been cheesed off that an arizona teabagger is about to announce his primary challenge to mccain, what she said was that she was cheesed off by tancredo harking back fondly to the electoral strategies once used to keep poor people, specifically black people from voting. >> congressman tancredo went on tv, and he was the first opening speaker, and he said that people who could not spell the word vote or say it in english put anide anideologue into office, barack hussein obama. it's why young people are turned off by this movement, revolutions start with young people, not with 65-year-old people talking about literacy tests and people who can't say the word vote in english. >> mr. tancredo is still 64. you're as young as you feel, congressman. joining in with his opening night race baiting was joseph farrah, mastermind, that's the right word for it, of the political world's online big foot world net daily. farah trotting out -- i say if it's been settled, show us the birth certificate. simple. simple's the word for it, and your own website proved it. time now to turn to eugene robinson, also, pulitzer prize winning columnist of the washington post. thanks for being here tonight. >> good to be here, keith. >> did you ever think you would as a grown man in the 21st century, see the once proud republican party let it happen with the only kind of peep of integrity coming from the daughter of a senator? >> i hoped not. let's be clear, as you pointed out earlier in the program this is naked jim crow racism of the kind that was practiced in this country, especially in the south. not just in the 50s, but for many decades. people died in order that people who look like me would be able to vote without trumped up facing trumped up literacy tests and poll taxes. and it -- for tancredo to say what he said is just outrageous, it is a new low, and i am not -- you know, the republican party does have a proud tradition, there are a lot of republicans who can't possibly believe this stuff. but it is actually a new low in this political year, and that is really quite something for me to say. >> is it fear or is it stupidity. fear of speaking out against this, what this mob means, or is it stupidity because they haven't figured out a way to do it that would benefit their own political aspirations, which would be 12 or 15 easy ways to come out against racism and race and ethnic baiting that may work to your benefit. it's amazing they can't find it. >> six of one, half dozen of the other. >> i guess. >> i go with the profiles in cowardice theory, that they're afraid of offending the racist wing of the party in violation of what i sincerely hope are their own principles. but when asked the question, if they won't stand up for those principles in the face of something like this. have we heard even from chairman steele, for example? >> megan mccain is who we have heard from. now, politically, and practically speaking, is her saying this in that way in that venue, no matter what her other complaints were about tancredo being a family of nature, is that going to cost her father votes in the primary, and will her father care, and are the forces of good going to defend john mccain? >> arizona's a difficult state to predict. in a real politics sense, have you to say that the racist wing of the party is energized right now, and maybe likely to turn out in the primary. you could also point out that arizona was a state that rejected the idea of a martin luther king holiday for a long time. on the other hand, i was out in scottsdale, arizona, which is the fifth whitest community in the nation not long ago delivering a speech, they do a really huge and interesting and important martin luther king day celebration every year now, that is bigger and more elaborate than most i've seen in the country. it's a funny state, i'm not sure that this actually will go over as well as before hayworth might want it to. >> briefly, megan mccain, margaret chase smith, any similarities there? >> well, we'll have to see in the fullness of time, maybe she'll run for the senate, but it certainly, hers is a voice of conscience and a voice of the future. what i hope would be the future for the republican party, and clearly the party needs such a voice right now, it is ironic that it -- that this voice comes comes from not from one of the senators, one of the -- or indeed anyone who has any sort of official position in the party. but for megan mccain. may she continue to co-host the view as long as she wants. >> they'll kick her out soon enough. >> not the view, the rnc. >> gene robinson, a great pleasure as always, thank you. did megan mccain step in here too, the end of the late night wars? this promises to be a baron source of entertainment now. the latest on the south dakota reservations and how can you help. why does the president think he has ground to share with republicans who want him to start killing health care reform. thanks for your help. ♪ contact solution? really? 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( crowd roars ) that's a great call. one a day men's. by booking my family trip with expedia. first i find the flight i want. then a great hotel my kids will love. yeah. but wait... here's the really cool part. when i book them at the same time... voila! i can save up to 450 bucks. and we all know that can come in pretty handy. book flight and hotel, and save more. where you book matters, expedia. ♪ dot com oh, just come snuggle with momma! missing something? now at sears optical, get 2 pairs of glasses for $99.99. with bifocals just $25 more per pair. sears optical. don't miss a thing. the second of tonight's comments, at a college basketball doubleheader next week, they are asking fans to share your sole. they're asking fans to bring shoes. haiti? south dakota. the shoe donations are being sought at the university of south dakota and they're for the residents of the cheyenne sioux river reservation. electricity, water heat and light are cut off and dozens are still cut off, and the government has done next to nothing for the residents. doing nothing for these people, an american tradition since at least 1776. many viewers advised us they were horrified, it's not haiti, it's not 3 million people, it's 50,000. and it's 450 miles away from st. paul, minnesota. the most bang for your buck, cheyenne river, sioux tribe storm relief emergency assistance. we've linked to it from our website, countdown.sin nbc.com, princeably because the address is really long. the gift is up to $25,000 total, the edith bush foundation will match your donations. the university is asking for shoes for these people. the local energy companies are accepting donations so they can buy more propane for those people who are still without heat for god's sake, in america, tonight. there's a hospital where technology has a healing touch. there's a factory giving old industries new life. and there's a train that got a whole city moving again. somewhere in america, the toughest questions are answered every day. because somewhere in america, more than sixty thousand people spend every day answering them. siemens. answers. carter of the new york times has only been covering the bloodshed for years in the jay leno/david letterman wars. that's next. but first, the longest mono toned question to the president at the meeting. allowing younger americans to privatize their social security accounts where they can get wiped out the next time the mortgage industry wipes out a chunk of the economy. federal budget debt is a good thing in a recession, it's not a bad thing. it's about the same as it was in 1970, as it is right now, far less than it was throughout the reagan administration. the runner up, molly and jimmy rapert, daughter and son in law of senator james inhofe of oklahoma and their four children. after the d.c. snowstorm, they happily built a big igloo with a big sign reading, al gore's new home and honk if you heart global warming. obviously that's funny during a storm that killed people. to the political statement, you do realize it's climate change, where when it's supposed to get warm it gets warmer, and where it's supposed to get cold it gets colder. you got that, right? it isn't a freakin' weather forecast from channel 4? our winner, david steiner, commissioner of the new york state department of education, his investigation has invalidated the regent's exam score. a student had to miss the scheduled exam and take a make-up. the score of the make-up was thrown out because it doesn't accept rosa's excuse for missing the regularly scheduled test. her excuse was she had to be at a family meeting, the meeting was at the new york city central intake center. those bureaucrats insisted they all had to show up for a seven-hour meeting at the same time rosa was supposed to take the regent's exam or else, they would have been homeless again. the meeting was at the central homeless family intake center. so rosa either skipped the meeting and her family, all of them would have been denied shelter, or she skipped the test and didn't graduate from high school. there are 16,000 homeless kids in new york city, this one just worked her way through that, a semester early, and you clowns just told her to go jump in the river. david steiner, commissioner of the new york state department of education today's worst person in the world. first priority. ♪ in recent days, our company hasn't been living up to the standards that you've come to expect from us or that we expect from ourselves. that's why 172,000 toyota and dealership employees are dedicated to making things right we have a fix for our recalls. we stopped production so we could focus on our customers' cars first. and technicians are making repairs. we're working around the clock to ensure we build vehicles of the highest quality... to restore your faith... in our company. for more information visit toyota.com. affect wheat output in the u.s., the shipping industry in norway, and the rubber industry in south america? at t. rowe price, we understand the connections of a complex global economy. it's just one reason over 75% of our mutual funds beat their 10-year lipper average. t. rowe price. invest with confidence. request a prospectus or summary prospectus with investment objectives, risks, fees, expenses, and other information to read and consider carefully before investing. last month when the tonight show landed back in jay leno's lap, letterman was mers iless as only he could be, he took conan o'brien's side and pummelled leno so mercilessly he had to respond. >> jay leno said the nbc mess is not his fault. i said, iny, i know it's not his fault. but it isn't funny that he always turns up at the scene of the crime. >> letterman's been hammering me every night. you know the best way to get letterman to ignore you? >> what's that? >> marry him. >> it was that kind of back and forth with most of the broadsides coming from this neighborhood. letterman and his art donovan jersey and leno in his denim jersey flanking oprah on a couch. >> this is the worst super bowl party ever. >> oh, dave, be nice. >> oh, he's just saying that because i'm here. >> oh, he's just saying that because i'm here. >> last night, both expanded on their brief reunion during their shows. leno getting a little touchy feely, in a moment, bill carter of the new york times will join me to discuss whether or not there's a late night truce, first the hosts in their own words. >> we put some thought to it, and decided it would be entertaining, we get oprah back here, and we're at a super bowl party the way we were before, and this time we'll invite jay leno to be on the show, because nobody will expect that it will be jaly leno. well, i mean, people thought this was big time stuff, i want to take a second to thank the actors who played oprah and jay leno. >> this was dave's idea, i thought, this is great. no matter what animosity there is among comedians, a good joke is a good joke, it makes it all go away. they said, we have to do this in complete secrecy. i walk in, i see dave, we shake hands. whatever happened for the last 178 years disappeared. it was wonderful to see my old friend again. he was very gracious. we talked about the old days, we told some jokes and it was really good to see him. so we shoot the commercial with oprah and everything, and i put my disguise on, sneak back. nobody knows. next day, nbc executives come to see me, jay, we have a problem. last night i got word dave letterman shot some kind of secret show. i said, what happened? well, what happened was, we know a black suv pulled up, there was security, a hooded figure came in the side of the building they had massive security. who do you think it was? we think it was president obama. >> yeah, that tells you everything about this place. bill carter is the national media reporter for the new york times also the author of the 1994 leno/letterman book "the late shift" which turned out to be only the beginning. he's good enough to join us from burbank. >> good evening, keith. >> was this just a good joke as leno put it? or a peace offering by letterman? >> i think certainly from dave's point of view, it started as a good joke, he liked the idea. i think when they got together, probably there was a little raproachment in the air, it was a good scene. 100 million people watching them on a couch together. it was fun. >> it was 18 years ago, that's a great deal of time, people have forgotten that leno's really big first national exposure was letterman in a motorcycle jacket, totally counter culture, as funny as he's ever been, probably as funny as any regular guest of letterman's has ever been, and i'm including myself in that group. i remember videotaping those appearances in the early '80s, to watch them again and again, does this mean anything in terms of the playing field in late night? >> i think it doesn't -- you know what's going to happen next, jay's going back to the tonight show, he's going to be back against dave and the games will be on again in terms of them being measured against each other. it's interesting when you talk about leno's career was made really by appearing with dave. but dave really became a standup by learning from jake, so they kind of have this mutual thing going on from the beginnings of their career. >> the lumps, most of the lumps in this process, at least the public ones have been taken by jay leno, and letterman ripped him, jimmy kimmel was mers illess, the media made him the scape goetd, it seems that was not entirely fair to leno or was it? >> well, look, you know, at the bottom line of this is that a network wanted to make a change. i think in this case, the reason there was a lot of resentment is that somebody was forced out of a job. and all of his fans are upset. i think you have a real interesting generational thing going on here. a lot of the reaction i got to these stories came from conan viewers saying, we're sick of the baby boom generation getting everything they want and forcing us out, and they want them off the stage. and they see jay as some kind of symbol of that, so he's got that baggage he's carrying, i think it's going to be interesting when he goes back on the air to see if young viewers are going to abstain from watching him. >> but do young viewers see anything still special about the broadcast networks, the time slot or is it really kind of an almost an artificial thing? >> well, it's certainly true that the young viewers a lot of them watch whenever they feel like it, and they watch online, and they don't watch on the air.