blagojevich talking about how to pick up big campaign cash off barack obama's empty senate seat. we'll hear from two insiders what's on those tapes. also, could the tea party wind up hurting the gop? can republicans really afford to have people like sharron angle become the face of their party? we'll talk about the danger the tea party poses to the gop. but then tonight, have you to watch my new documentry, and i mean it, what an hour that will be for you. a real eye-opener, "the rise of the new right." that's at 7:00 eastern tonight right here on msnbc. plus, he made $1 billion fortune betting that the housing market would go bust. can he win a u.s. senate seat in florida, a place filled with vacant condos and broken dreams? jeff greene joins us here. finally, guess who is coming to the defense of bp? where others worry about the roughnecks and the shrimpers along the gulf, michelle bachmann worries about british petroleum getting beat up. check out the sideshow tonight. we start with the bp oil spill and the $20 billion fund set up to fix things on the gulf. nbc political director chuck todd is our correspondent. chuck, what do you know about the inside? what the president was able to say last night and i was skeptical, that he had informed bp that they will have a $20 billion escrow account to start with? >> for about the last year, call it shuttle diplomacy, if you will, carol browner, the white house energy adviser, bob bauer, the white house counsel, doing and having these talks with bp about figuring out how to structure this thing, figuring out how to have this independent panel, so clearly the president knew, they had the outlines of a deal, but they haven't been able to cement it. no doubt politically, would the white house have been preferred to announce that deal last night as opposed to today you? bet they would have, but they got their deal today. this is a big deal. when you see how it works, it's -- it is hard to look at this on paper right now and say this isn't a pretty fair way to at least start this process. they got the 20 billion, $5 billion overfour years. bp promises to fund this independent fund. ken feinberg, the guy who handled the 9/11 victims' fund, and if anybody ever saw the "60 minutes" profile of feinberg knows just what a tough job that was, and he did it with so few complaints. it's truly amazing, so he might be like the one unique person in america to run a fund like this. so that's what it was. the sticking points, frankly, had to do, and that's why you saw this $100 million that was set aside for unemployed oil rig workers that are hurt by the moratorium. that was a sticking point, and then figuring out a process, chris, about how do they ask for more money? what happens when this fund is done, and it looks like bp relented pretty much on every point that they may have been fight being at one point or another. >> well, let's take a look at some of the president's words today. president obama told the bp chairman not to forget the people in the gulf. let's listen to this admonition. >> so i emphasized to the chairman that when he's talking to shareholders, when he is in meetings in his board room, to keep in mind those individuals that they are desperate, that some of them, if they don't get relief quickly may lose businesses that have been in their families for two or three generations, and the chairman assured me that he would keep them in mind. that's going to be the standard by which i measure bp's responsiveness. >> let's take a look now at chairman of bp and what he said about a group he called the small people. >> bp has agreed to set aside $20 billion to pay claims for damages resulting from this spill. this $20 billion will provide substantial assurance that the claims that business people have will be honored. it's important to emphasize this is not a cap. >> here's the chairman responding to what the president said a moment ago, the chairman talking about a group he called the small people. see how that's gone over at the white house. >> i hear comments about the large oil company or greedy companies don't care but that is not the case in bp. we care about the small people. >> is that just lost in translation, a sense of perhaps condescension that got in there? >> certainly feels like it. that said, any time an executive, let's say he meant the little guy, no matter how well, it's probably not the right time to be bringing up these disparities between executives and folks who are working down there, and it's not going over well, and the thing is it looks even worse in print, and you're already seeing a lot of reaction to that. that said, let's not take our eye off the ball. the $20 billion agreement on this, the fact that they are not somehow getting a or are waiving somehow any potential future liability. there's also another part in this that has not been talked about that much. bp is funding $500 million to monitor the health of workers, of rescue workers and others in the gulf coast over the next ten years because there's been a lot of concern, chris, that we don't -- you know, we don't know home of the effects of all of this oil, the dispersant and all of these things, so the fact is they have already set up a foundation to do that. look, it is -- it is not going to mean that people are going to stop beating up on bp, but this does seem as if as tough of a day that the white house may have had and the way people were responding to the president's speech last night, this is a big deal, a big victory for them in that they got it done and that bp seemed to give in on pretty much every white house demand. >> let's talk about the big picture now, and i do think this is a sputnik moment, to use a phrase from 1957 when the united states was confront all of a sudden after years of von braun and walt disney telling kids back then that we're ahead in the space race and we learned the soviets were ahead because of rooster booster rockets. that turned the united states around. we had the national defensive education act and really got serious about the race to the moon. let's get to the very point here. wasn't the president objectively connect in connecting what happened down in the gulf with the need for an energy policy? i think that's an objective fact. for the conservatives or the people in the republican party to say he's exploiting this situation. it seems to me it's very germane. >> actually -- >> can we avoid this kind of thing again? >> actually, i noticed a split inside -- some of the serious guys, lamar alexander, for instance, this morning, he agreed with -- with your premise, agrees with your premise which is, yes, this should be a moment where you start thinking about energy policy. he may disagree on some of the specifics, but i noticed there is a split. there are serious republican lawmakers are like, yes, let's have -- let's have a discussion about this where to go. look, they disagree on some of the policy implementations. senator alexander wants -- he would like to see some sort of government mandate that says 50% of all cars should be battery-powered by a certain year going forward, but he's got the same sentiment. what you see the split is, some of the political folks who believe that the specific vote on pricing carbons, the cap and trade, is going to be something that they can defeat democratic members of congress so you've seen the michael steeles of the world use it as a political sledgehammer but there are republican legislators who actually do want a discussion. we should at least discern between those two >> i think you've done that well. thank you very much. chuck todd at the white house. >> all right. >> larry johnson, a councilman down in pensacola, thank you very much. what is your reaction on hearing that the president has a $20 billion commitment up front in an escrow account for bp to pay those hurt by this spill? >> chris, i think that's a step in the right direction. what i'm hearing in pensacola and from people in the legal field, that $20 billion might not be enough. >> yeah. well, let me ask you about who thinks they are in on this deal and this pie and who doesn't? if you're a guy or a woman who runs a small snack bar on the beach and the tourist season flags, and you just don't have the customers or the sales you would have had in a regular season like this, will they -- do they believe that there is -- that they have a shot at some of this money? >> well, i believe they think they have a shot at it, but i'll tell you, bp has not been real straightforward in their claims. i'm hearing stories still to this day, 58 days into this spill, that people aren't getting paid. >> well, what do you think the president -- the president basically said today that he's going to judge bp's performance basically by basically it sounded to me like the noise level coming around here. if you people down there along the gulf aren't satisfied, the president is not going to besou that's what he was saying today. >> politically because we're not satisfied today. there's 30,000 skimming boats in the world and 59% of every skimming boat in the world needs to be in the gulf of mexico and we need to be dealing with this spill out in the gulf of mexico, not in our waterways, inland waterways >> i keep bringing that up having talked to an expert, john hofmeister, head of shell, and i kept getting, i talked last night to carol browner who knows the environment issue and she said it's being looked at. i keep getting pushed back on this. what are they saying to you when they say there's a lot of boats in the world? they have them over in holland and different parts of europe. we've got private enterprise shipping that can come in here and help. what's the white house folks saying to you when you push them on this for a need for more skiming? >> well, i'll tell you, i really didn't get anything from president obama yesterday. that's one thing i wish he would address. i would hope that president obama was on the phone four, five weeks ago asking for skimming boats, asking for everyone all over the world to get in here and get in the gulf of mexico and help us. >> let me ask you about this weird thing. the president last night was very optimistic, and tell me if you've heard anything that backs this up. he said the next days and weeks, sounded like pretty soon within the month, we'll have 90% of what we're looking at right now in this split screen shut off. are you hearing anything that optimistic? >> i'm not hearing anything that optimistic. >> that they are going to cap this spill? >> i'm not hearing anything that optimistic, and i'm wondering where president obama is getting their numbers from. if they are from bp, don't trust them. i hope he has somebody independent telling him this. 90%, and i'll tell you, weeks, that's unacceptable. we need this to happen in days. >> okay. >> this oil spill must stop in days. 90%, i hope that he's right. >> okay. let's take a look at record of bp to make your point, sir. the oil spill estimates coming from bp range from 1,000 barrels per day initially. look, we have a chart here. watch it on the reruns tonight, actually better watch it now because we've got the special tonight at 7:00 on the "rise of the right." take a look. what we're showing sheer only 1,000 barlgs a drels a day was initial estimate and now it's up 2060,000 barrels a day yesterday. this is a reality. they are saying this about the same reality, they are getting it off by maybe 59,000 barrels a day. what do you make of why they are so off or on now or off now? >> well, i'll tell you what. what i've heard numbers that they will be fined $4,400 ber barrel of oil leaked into our gulf of mexico, so that could be into the billions, so i think it's to their advantage to keep numbers low. what's the number going to be next week? is it going to be 100 gallons? mean, who knows? let's sit around and watch, i guess, but we've got to stop that leak now! >> okay. you've explained a lot to me, sir. thank you, larry johnson, downs in pensacola. we'll have you back on again. coming up, federal prosecutors are laying out their case against ex-illinois governor rod blagojevich, and they have released a batch of audio tapes of catching blago in action. we've got the tapes and will show them to you. you're watching "hardball" only on msnbc. to help with my investments. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 so where's that help when i need it? tdd# 1-800-345-2550 if i could change one thing... tdd# 1-800-345-2550 we'd all get a ton of great advice tdd# 1-800-345-2550 just for being a client. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 i mean, shouldn't i be able to talk about my money tdd# 1-800-345-2550 without it costing me a fortune? 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[ crunch ] wheat thins. toasted. whole grain. crunch. the crunch is calling. welcome back to "hardball." actually the trial of former illinois governor rod blagojevich is under way in chicago. witnesses are taking the stand, and the prosecutors have a money tavern evidence, apparently, featuring some audio tapes of blago himself. lynn sweet is a columnist for dailypolitics.com and jim warren is a columnist for the chicago news cooperative. let's listen right now. here's some of the audio tape played at trial. this is a conversation between the governor and his brother robert about barack obama's senate seat. it was on the saturday before the 2008 presidential election. let's listen. >> well, then, it sounds a little bit like eddie coyle mob talk. you make the ask. explain. go to this guy and in this case go to blair hull. >> blair hull, quickly ran against obama in the senate race that one time was a front-runner. he put 29 million of his own money in the ration, but in 2002, two years before, he gave $466,000 to rod's re-election fund. in illinois at the time things were wide open. you could just -- you could tap somebody for as much as they wanted to give. but blair had not been a player in rod's re-election campaign, and rod wanted to use the senate seat, could you hear from this tape now, to try and turn on the spigot again by playing him. >> let's go to jim on that. the same thing. is that clear that the references there to fellow blair hull and not to jesse jackson jr., when he says there, well, he's pulling a full-court press on you, that's jesse jackson jr.? >> yeah. >> he's going to raise a lot of money, pal. raise you money and then the governor says you and lon coordinate. somebody make the ask to blair hull. it does have in it the information that jesse jackson jr., the congressman from out there in illinois, is going to raise him a lot of money. how does he get dragged into this this thing at this point? >> he gets dragged into it because he obviously wants to be a united states senator as amazingly does blair hull, who lynn mentioned, was a big blagojevich contributor. blagojevich's first gubernatorial campaign he ran around in blair hull's campaign, blair hull having made hundreds of millions of dollars as what wall street would know as a technical trader. he was a contender against ob obama in the primary and then was undermined by charges of spousal abuse and hosting champagne and cocaine parties. what i think is real interesting here and what one is beginning to see is you're demolishing the claims that blagojevich that there was this firewall between politics and government. that's what he told the fbi which is why he's certainly going to be in trouble, at least when it comes to possible perjury charges, but you're right in analogizing to tony soprano and the real life tough guys because as one also has gone on so far, one sees these guys talking in code. blagojevich and three other amigos refer to themselves by numbers, one, two, three and four, so clearly they are conscious and caught on these tapes of knowing that they are treading a very, very thin line at times between what's legal and what's illegal. >> okay. you make the ask. here's another audio tape played at trial. this is blago, the governor, talking to his chief of staff lon monk of december 3rd, 2008. let's take a listen. >> so jim, why is the governor in this case so desperately trying to raise money and using this senate seat of barack obama to make some money? why is he doing this right now? >> well, because in that year, as lynn knows, come december 31 of that year, the illinois law was going to change and the wild west which she alluded to was going to come to a crashing end, so he wanted as much money as he could get by december 31st. >> for what? he wasn't running again, was he? >> oh, well, remember, this is a guy who had notions of running for the big prize, president of the united states. i mean, hi dinner with him in washington in the '90s. he was a first term congressman plotting being president of the united states, but he wanted to get as much money into his coffers legally by december 31st, and in this case he was holding hostage to build assist the horse racing industry, and you also have here coaching about how to not go over the line, how to basically tell this guy we need a lot of money from you quick or we're not going to sign this bill. >> lynn, i want you to respond to this. the recording here will be clear. here's blago on lon monk yesterday while leaving the courthouse. here shetrashing the state's witness against him, his former ide. >> as my old friend was testifying and saying things that he knew weren't true, i couldn't help but think about times we spent together. i couldn't help but think about his mother and his father, especially his father and the shame that his father probably feels, and, of course, i felt a real deep sadness for him, and knowing that he's made statements, said things that were not true and is now going to spend time in jail for something that he didn't do. >> he's accusing the guy of being a state's witness, copping a plea and incriminating himself for something he didn't do. that makes no sense. why would a guy cop a plea in part of that deal and incriminate himself for something he didn't do? that's what he's accusing him of. >> if lon did something wrong, then rod black jefgojevich did something wrong. rod, as the prosecutors did say, tried to get rod muzzled from giving these post-conference press conferences. >> was that like mike corleone bringing in another member from sicily. what was that referenced threat? your father must be ashamed, blah, blah, blah. what's that all about, jim warren? >> i don't know if it's about frankie five angels, but the hypocrisy here, the insincerity is too gross to be insisted upon. the faux solicitude towards the poor dad. oh, my gosh. gag me with a spoon. now, whether this will at least work in the court of public opinion, as opposed to the jury, when the court of public opinion, who knows, stranger things can happen, you know. switzerland beat spain in soccer today. >> okay. >> the faux solicitude is absolutely astonishing. >> well, we're picking up the rock and sing the bug life of politics underneath. thank you so much lynn sweet and jim warren. up next, congresswoman michelle bachmann is at it again. now, the woman who wanted to investigate the democrats for being anti-american, wanted us to do it, is defending bp against president obama and what she's calling redistribution of wealth. in other words, paying people who got hurt by the oil spill is some sort of socialist agenda. you have to wonder who she is really representing these days. you're watching "hardball" on msnbc. limit the cell phone minutes. that's not good enough. we're not leaving this room unless we can cut something else. can they really keep us here? 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(announcer) get your first full prescription free and save on refills. built with quality and backed with the best coverage in america including a 100,000 mile powertrain warranty. that's 40,000 more miles than ford. chevy silverado half-ton. a consumers digest best buy and the most dependable, longest lasting full-size pickups on the road. get 0% apr for 72 months on 2010 silverado half-ton models with an average finance savings of around $6,000. bachmann. back to hanchlt now on the sideshow, first michele bachmann in overdrive. she stuck up for bp saying the oil companies shouldn't be made chumps in the ongoing crisis in the gulf and also criticized the escrow account being set up for those affected by this spill. here she is, quote, the president just called for creating a fund that would be administered by outsiders which would be more of a redistribution of wealth fund. and now it appears like we'll looking at one more gateway for more government control, more money to government. well, to congresswoman bachmann, nobody, nobody wants to hear how bp is the victim in all this. on the flip side, bachmann's fellow republican joseph cao of louisiana is amping up the flip side. calling for the chairman of bp america to resign. the congressman, you could say, took it one step further. >> mr. sterned is mr. mckay to resign. well, in the asian culture we do things differently. during the samurai days. we just give you a knife and ask you to commit hare kare. >> a former ritual of suicide, not the usual business decision in this country. now to the numbers, california's republican candidate for governor meg whitman raised an impressive amount for her campaign. how, just pulled out her campaign. the former head of ebay wrote her campaign a check to the total of $20 million bringing the total donations to her campaign for governor to $19 million. maybe not the people's choice but certainly her own choice for governor. whitman's $20 million donation to her campaign, tonight's big number. up next, the birthers, the tea partiers and the resurgence of the far right in this country and when we return i'll have a preview of my documentary that airs tonight here at 7:00 eastern here on "hardball." "the rise of the new right" here. you're watching "hardball" only on msnbc. larry, we just had the carpets cleaned. that was the pizza guy! and baby, he was messy. come on. you said you bought a digiorno. but the pizza came with cheesy breadsticks. breadsticks? i guess there was a pizza guy. yes there was... me. ( laughs ) new digiorno pizza & breadsticks. unbelievable fresh-baked taste, now with a full order of soft, cheesy breadsticks. taste. believe. it's not delivery. it's digiorno pizza & breadsticks. she found the box. maybe 'cause you left it right on the counter. i'm jane wells with your cnbc market wrap. stocks finishing relatively flat on big news from bp and a disappointing outlook for fedex. the dow jones industrial average adding 4.5 points and the s&p 500 down a fraction. the nasdaq up a smudge. bp announcing today it will suspend its dividend for the year and set aside $20 billion to pay victims of the oil spill. shares actually moved higher on the news now that investors are more certain of what's ahead for the company. fedex shares taking a pounding, down 6% on concerns about rising costs that could eat into future profits. nokia shares plunging almost 11% after warning that it is feeling the heat of a highly competitive smart phone market. this as pre-orders for the new apple iphone hit a record 600,000. and fannie mae and freddie mac de-listed on the nyse. no big deals. shares have been hovering around a buck for so long they are being shifted to the subscription-based bulletin board. that's the first from cnbc business worldwide. now back to "hardball." welcome back to hanchlt coming up in a little more than an hour, my msnbc documentary "rise of the new right." here's a clip. >> but in 1992 the hard right's pat buchanan ran and lost in the republican primary against the incumbent president george h.b. bush to. placate the right, bush's team gave buchanan a speaking slot at the republican convention. he used it to lay out his vision for america. >>? block by block, my friends, we must take back our cities and take back our culture and take back our country. >> some blamed buchanan's rhetoric for hurting the bush re-election effort pushing moderates to vote for the democratic candidate, bill clinton, but buchanan's call to arms resonate loudly in the new right rallies of today, and were he to give the same speech in 2010 it would echo for days and weeks thanks to 24-hour news. john kasich is running for governor of ohio and author of "every other monday, 20 years of life, lunch and faith and friendships." thank you for joining us and good luck in your race. i hate to say it. i'm a fan of you and it may hurt you. let me go to joan, first. >> it is a good book, about faith and not politics. hope people will take a look at it. >> well, good. then we won't argue politics doesn't. we won't argue religion is. joan, let me ask you. objectively, i know you have thoughts and feeling about this and sentiments about this, but do you think it's going to turn by the end of the year that the tea party people, and the whole sort of right wing thing, the birthers, the militia, the truth -- the oath keepers, the whole right wing crowd are going to hurt the republican party's chances of simply exploiting the bad economic times? in other words, the way politics works in this country, when the other party is having a bad time in terms of the other peter the other party wins. when one party is in for a while the other party wins, mid-term elections, a natural real healthy swing that goes on. will the tea party people simply benefit from that, or will they hurt it or help it? >> you know, i think there's already evidence that it will hurt the republican party and not help, it chris. they definitely tapped into voter anger and voter frustration, whether it's about goldman sachs or bp, but what we've seen, is you know, in the new york 23 race at the end of last year they drove a moderate republican out of race so they gave it to the democrats. they gave jake murtha's seat to the democrat and then you've got these three amazing fascinating senate races, charlie crist in florida driven out of the party, sharron angle, best thing that ever happened to harry reid in nevada, and our friend rand paul being kept away from the media under house arrest. so when they are given an opportunity to come out and speak to the public and to the press, they really kind of self-destruct and they scare people so i think -- >> congressman kasich, your thoughts. you know a lot of republicans across the board from center to right. do you think that the ones on the right like sharron angle, i don't think would have a prayer in ohio, are hurting the party nationally? >> chris, i think have you to look at the overall tea party movement, and what these people are worried about is big government. they are worried about massive debt that threatens their kids' futures. they are worried about, you know, the federal government getting in between themselves and their doctor. i mean, these are legitimate concerns. they don't like earmarks which i think you and i both can agree is really a crazy thing that's proliferated in d.c. that's not good. your old boss tip o'neill never would have put up with it, so i think it's an national guardizing part of the party and i also think it's an accountability part of the party and have you to look at it as a broad movement. i've been to several of their gatherings, one about 5,000 people in the rain and another one about 11,000 people. it was amazing and crosby, stills, nash & young weren't even there. they had a lot of energy and i think it's been pretty positive. >> you're giving the positive side which everybody can argue about taxes. we'll argue begun it until the day we die. fair enough. what's the gun thing? what why a sharron angle talk about a second amendment remedy when congress votes the wrong way? that's gun play, like lee harvey oswald. you don't like a politician. you shoot them. what's the crazy talk about guns? i understand the right to bear arms, it's in the constitution, but when you bring guns to rails and say we need that second amendment remedy and need to stand up to the government with our arms and the militia people that we'll have in the documentary, why the use of gun play as a political al attorney sniff. >> i can only tell you about ohio. i'm not in nevada. people are concerned about the second amendment. i support it. >> as a political -- as a means to arm yourself against your government? >> chris, what we can't do this with and take some things that some people say, we can take things that people on the left say and we can say that represents the whole progressive movement when it doesn't. i mean, look, i can tell you about ohio and what they are most concerned are taxes, debt and another value. you know what it is? they are worried that they are going to be punished for their success and america's greatest legacy is your kids do better than you, and they are worried that that fundamental value has been taken away. >> okay. joan, you know some of this stuff better than i do. the fact is for the first time in our lives government of the united states is being treated by its enemies now as tyranny. they are waving the flag of the american revolution against honestly elected government in washington and referring to the president of the united states as not legitimate. there are people like michele bachmann talking about investigations of congress for anti-americanism and in the documentary tonight, wait until you listen to this, here are voices you'll hear in the doc tonight at 7:00. here they are. alan keyes, michele bachmann, let them speak for themselves. >> obama is a radical come nifrkts and i think it's becoming clear. >> barack hussein obama is completely illegitimate u.s. president specifically because his father was never a citizen. >> i wish the american media would take a great look at views of the people in congress and find out are they pro america or anti-america? >> what do you make of that, john, these voices? >> hey, chris, i mean, you've known me for a long time. i'm guy that has been able to reach across the aisle and i've done that all my life. let me tell you another person that was supported by the tea party, scott brown. now there's a guy that the tea party people went out and said we want a change. we don't want to take our orders from the elite. there is no question that there are people on -- you know, who are extreme part of this movement, but that's not the thrust of this movement. that's not the housewife. that's not the reagan democrat. that's not who this movement is. >> what do you make of the fact that the latest cbs poll taken in april, the most recent one we have by cbs, that shows that 32% of the republican party, republican party, thinks that barack obama was foreign-born. what do you make of that? >> well, i don't happen to agree with that, okay, but that's not what the thrust of the tea party movement is in my state. in my state, chris, it's blue collar democrats worried about their kids' future. it's people worried that the government is ringing up debt, sacrificing the economic future of our country and our kids. that's the thrust of it in my state. i can't tell you and looking at the election in new jersey where chris christie wins and look at election in massachusetts, hard to call scott brown some kind of an extremist. i'm not defensive about it. >> i think -- scott brown has run away from the tea party. >> he hasn't run away from anything. >> he refused to go to their rally or tea party day. congressman kasich, you sound like a wonderful guy compared to a lot of republicans. you are a moderate, but i think this is garbage that they represent the underdog. they represent the overdog, and you know in your own race you went to work for lehman brothers, god bless you, that was your right. that's become an issue. how do you get to be the champion of the little guy when you went to work for the firm that helped bring about the collapse of the economy? these are the issues that we're not talking about because we're talking about where the president was born. >> equal time here. >> my father was a postman, i ran a two-man office in columbus, ohio, okay. >> great. >> and one thing people in this country want to recognize if you work hard you ought to be able to get ahead. you play by the rushlgs you can be successful. this is what the tea party wants, not some left wing rhetoric from you. that's not what they are interested in. >> that's not left wing record. >> yes, it is, it's smear. i didn't pick on you, map. if you want to punish success, that's the opposite of what the tea party wants. they want to reward success and that may be a little bit difficult and read every other monday so you don't start pick on people. >> thank you, sir. >> can i just -- joan, you're smiling. let me just go with this, congress m.i like you a lot. you used to make deals with ron getting some of the gold-plated spending at the pentagon. love this. this is a tough call and, joan, jump in on this in a minute. do you think sarah palin has a veto on who the republicans run as president next time? even if she doesn't run herself, if she and michele bachmann and sharron angle and said mitt romney isn't one of us, you have a problem with the centrist wing of the republican party? would you say this crowd vetoes it? >> i have to tell you, i don't think so. it's going to be an interesting race. after 2010 we'll know who the lineup is. the party right now, there is no one that has any veto power, and there's no one that has any anointing power. i mean, that's my party. i'm in it, and i believe it's an open race. i don't think we know who the nominee is going to be, but i will tell you this. i think the republican party will work with those tea party folks who believe debt is too high, our children's future is being sacrificed. government is growing too big, and, look, that's why people are going to turn out. >> okay. thank you, congressman, so much for being on the show. what's the name of your book? >> called "every other monday" and it's a story, chris, what happened to me after my parents were killed in 1987 by a drunk driver and what in fact i did to pursue whether god exists and how i can have a relationship along with my buddies. i trem. >> i'm going to read it. thank you very much. >> thank you joan walsh. >> thank you. >> up next, billionaire florida senator candidate jeff greene is coming here. he's challenging the kendrick meek in the primary and some say if he wins they will back charlie crist instead. charlie crist is ahead right now across the ball. mr. greene joins us next. this is "hardball" on msnbc. 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[ crunch ] wheat thins. toasted. whole grain. crunch. the crunch is calling. \ s 5:50 p.m . we're back. today's politico front page has a story by jonathan martin that says "is the emergence of a political, is, prompting top democrats in the state to say publicly what some have been whispering for weeks. if jeff green who got rich betting on the collapse of the housing market becomes their democratic nominee, many in the party will have the cover they need to get behind republican turned independent governor charlie crist. jeff green joins us now from tampa. well, that's a tough opening, sir. let's look at the numbers in the polling right now to see where you stand. then we'll get to your thoughts about this. in the democratic primary right now is, quinnipiac has the new numbers, undecided is leading with 37%. meek has 29d is, you have 27, sir. if meek is the nominee, charlie crist is beating him and rubio. crist has 37, raubio has 33 is, you have 14. you have only 14. it looks like this is your midsing by jonathan martin is accurate. you're a weaker candidate in the general than kendrick meek. your view? >> absolutely not the case, chris. i've only been in this case for six weeks. i got involved april 30th when i filed. meek has been running for this senate seat for and a half. he's been in congress for eight years and elected official his whole life. the people of florida are embracing my candidacy and the clear choice they have between career politician soz who have failed us in every front and a self-made businessman who will get results and put florida first. i'm sure i'm going to rise in the polls. >> let's go through your history politically. you're just a private citizen, never ran for office before, right? >> absolutely. did i run for office. >> what did you run for before? >> i ran when i was just after i got out of harvard business school, i ran for congress in california in 1982. >> soap you ran in california. and where did you vote say in 19 0, where were you voting? did you voted for reagan or carter or mondale? who did you vote for them. >> i can't remember in 1980 who i voted for. >> you can't remember whether you voted for ronald reagan or not? >> i can't remember because i had just moved to california from massachusetts and just gotten out of harvard business school. >> wait a minute. you didn't have an opinion on ronald reagan as a president enough to decide who to vote for? >> i can tell you this. i was fed up as frustrated then as i am now what was going on americaing. >> i don't think i know anybody that doesn't know whether they voted for reagan or not. that was one of the most powerful nom nations ever. when he ran against jimmy carter, you really had a strong view. let me go through it again. in 2000, gore versus bush in florida, did you vote in florida? >> no, i voted in california for al gore. >> okay. you voted in california. so whether he did you start voting in the state you're running for the senate in? what's the first time you voted? >> i have very deep roots in florida, chris. i moved here with my family in 1970. >> i got roots. i went to jersey for the summers, never voted there. when have you voted for a senate, for example, in florida now, the position you're running for now, have you ever voted for the office in which you're running now? >> chris in, 2008, my wife and i got married three years ago, decided to move to florida and raise our child. we have an 8-month-old baby here. i can tell that you 2008, i supported barack obama. i was proud to be at the inauguration for that historic event. i'm excited about his presidency. >> so you've arrived in florida and is you're run forth senate? >> no, i have to tell you my mother's been living here for 33 years. my dad unfortunately passed away. i got my first driver's license here in 1969. my first job was a busboy at breakers hotel in palm beach. >> i'm not running in florida. had i those tw jobs, too. what about the fact that florida is filled with empty, vacate can condos because of the housing bust? you made a lot of money on the bust. how does that sit on all those people sit in the condos down there. >> it's a failure of the career politici politician. guys like kendrick people who sat in congress who accepted donations from freddie mac and fannie mae and encouraged people to take out teaser loans that he should have known they would have no ability to pay it back. i saw the housing crisis coming. i did what i had to do to protect my investments and the jobs that i created and the families i was feeding. i can tell you this. when the people of florida have a choice between someone who saw it coming and did something about it versus career politicians like charlie crist and kendrick meek who are clueless what's going on, they'll vote for me. >> thank you very much, jeff green, making the case he knows more about business than the guys he's running about. let me finish with the tea party candidate sharron angle and those who believe if you don't like what congress is doing, you can use your guns to deal with it. you're watching "hardball." ♪ ♪ a day once dawned ♪ ♪ and it was beautiful ♪ ♪ so, look, see the sights ♪ that you learned [ male announcer ] at&t covers 97% of all americans. get your grad or dad the exclusive samsung strive for just $19.99. only from at&t. 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[ female announcer ] or make his day. yeah. ♪ ♪ today is gonna be my day nice shot. ♪ [ female announcer ] maxwell house gives you a rich, full-flavored cup of coffee, so you can be good to the last drop. \ s e d show let me finish tonight with the express views of the nevada senate candidate sharron angle. just listen to her. >> you know, our founding fathers, they put that second amendment in there for a good reason, and that was for the people to protected themselves against a tyrannical government, in fact, you know, thomas jefferson said it's good for a country to have a revelation every 20 years. i hope that's not where we're going, but you know, if this congress keeps going the way it is, people are really looking toward those second amendment remedies. they're saying my goodness, what can we do to turn this country around? and i'll tell su the first thing we need to do is take harry reid out. >> the second amendment remedies to what you don't like in congress. here's a candidate for the senateling us if we don't like the votes of those now serving in the senate there are those second amendment remedies out there. if you watch the rise of the right" you're going to hear language very much like that, that you wear arms to protect yourselves from the tyranny in washington. what's tyranny? earlier this week we showed you a current tv ad that showa guy dressed like general george washington urging on a ti