discrete itted case that he and his supporters are anti-white racists or tolerant of that kind of racism. a department of agriculture fixture was pushed out after a video was released by a right wing website in which she admits 24 years ago she failed to give a white farmer all the help she could because of his race. shirley sherrod says the speech was to show how wrong she was at the time. but the right wing media machine has suggested that she discriminated while an obama appointee, in other words, within the last year. that's our top story. plus bp and the lockerbie connection. both president obama and british prime minister david cameron today condemned the release of the lockerbie bomber one year ago. little of that was said today crossed suspicions that bp may have influenced libya's decision in order to get its own oil operation going in libya. also senate democrats plus two republicans have overcome republican opposition to extend the unemployment benefits. it's a big win for president obama today. can he make the gop pay for it this fall? and show time, b-rod, rod blagojevich is finally taking the stand in his own defense out in chicago. we'll get a preview from those who know him best. and don't mess with maddow. that's msnbc's rachel maddow. when florida republican marco rubio put out a web ad against her, she didn't get mad, she didn't get even, she had fun in the process. that's in the sideshow. we begin with the case of shirley sherrod who was pushed from her post at the department of agriculture. eugene robinson is a pulitzer prize winning columnist with the "washington post" and michelle bernard is with the independent voice. both are msnbc political analysts. let's listen now. here's shirley sherrod in tape from a march speech this year to a local naacp group as it appeared on biggovernment.com yesterday. let's listen. >> the first time i was faced with having to help a white farmer save his farm. he took a long time talking, but he was trying to show me he was superior to me. i know what he was doing, but he had to come to me for help. what he didn't know while he was taking all that time trying to show me he was superior to me was i was trying to decide just how much help i was going to give him. i was struggling with the fact that so many black people had lost their farmland, and here i was faced with having to help a white person save their land. so, i didn't give him the full force of what i could do. i did enough so that when he -- i assumed the department of agriculture had sent him to me, either that or the georgia depth of agriculture, and he needed to go back and report that i did try to help him. so i took him to a write lawyer that had aconcerneded some of the training that we had provided because chapter 12 bankruptcy had just been enacted for the family farmer, so i figured if i take him to one of them that his own kind would take care of him. that's when it was revealed to me that it's about poor versus those who have. it's not so much about white. it is about white and black, but it is not, you know, it opened my eyes because i took him to one of his own. andrew breitbart posted the video on his website under the headline, video proof. the naacp awards racism 2010. let's take a look at what was said on cnn today about this issue. let's watch. >> did you discriminate against this white farmer 24 years ago when you were, i guess, about 38 years old because he brought you what you described in your march naacp speech as a superior attitude? >> you know, initially, and that's why i said -- i took the time to weed what was happening there. he did come with a superior attitude. i did not discriminate. if i had discriminated against him, i would not have given him any help at all because i wasn't obligated to do it by anyone. i wasn't working for the government. i didn't have to help him. but i did, and i went on. that was the first white farmer i helped. i went on to help hundreds of others through the years. here's eloise spooner, the wife of that farmer from 26 years ago, on the phone with cnn today. let's listen to her story. >> what do you think of shirley? >> she's a good friend. >> describe your relationship with her through the years. >> she helped us save our farm. that ain't right. they have not treated her right. she did -- she's the one i give credit to helping us save our farm. she gave enough that it helped us save our farm. >> you know what, gene, i think of that old song, how can people be so heartless? you know, here's a story of reconciliation of a quarter century ago of a woman who came to understand the plight of all poor people, not just black people in the south where she grew up. despite all that racial difference and all that racial hell that black people put up with, that she understood people could be in the same situation economically and here this guy, breitbart, has taken this and turned it into something mean and nasty. >> yeah, through the miracle of editing. you no, if you post a clip of the first part of her remarks you would have a different interpretation when she actually appears to have been telling a parable about rec sillization. it's really quite a heartwarming story. you know, that's not journalism. i mean, it's lying is what it is. i think we ought to call it for what it is. >> michelle, this is part of a larger attempt, i believe, to rip the scab off race problems in the country. i really do believe, and i will say it at the end. show, that people on the white side are trying to show it on the black side to give them moral justification for their attitude. i can't think of another reason to do this. there's no political advantage of this except causing trouble. >> i have never seen, literally sense the time barack obama was elected to the presidency, there has been one attempt after another to say that he is a racist, that people in his administration are racist, that he somehow condones racism. i think that's what we're seeing here. i think this woman was also not helped by the fact that the naacp originally condemned the statements that we saw in that videotape, and from all of the reporting that i have been able to see and read so far, we have not actually seen the entire tape. this woman went onto help the family and help many, many other white farmers and said her philosophy became one of understanding that it's not a matter of race, of people being black and white, but a matter of people who have versus people who have not, and in reading all the reporting i keep thinking what if people always condemned robert byrd. think about the images of his funeral. robert byrd was a member of the ku klux klan and there was barack obama paying his respects and giving his condolences at his funeral. we've seen nothing at great in our country as we have in the power of redemption and people finding a way to get over race. i hope somebody will have the decency to play the video tape in its entirety so we can go onto see all the statements that this woman made, because i do believe that she is telling the truth when she says she went on to help this gentleman and to help many, many other white farmers after this incident happened 28 years ago, by the way, not while she was working for the department of agriculture. >> right. that's the big lie here, what you just said, michelle. she's telling a group of african-american who is are committed to racial justice in this country about how you can do things wrong as a black person. how you can be discriminatory against a poor white farmer way back a quarter century ago and the dishonesty and deceit and evil of this website as to to put this out as if it's something she did while she's a government official under the obama administration to tag obama with this. here's bill riley on fox. knowing bill is going to correct this tonight, i really hope he does. here he is operating in the same rash judgment that the white house operated in, i should say the department of agrilture backed up by the white house, the naacp. everybody is listening for footsteps on the liberal side of things, the progressive side of things, so afraid to be tagged for counterracism or reverse racism. here's bill o'reilly and i'm betting he's going to correct this. here he is last night. >> that is unacceptable. miss sherrod must resign immediately. the federal government cannot have actions like this. we're requesting an explanation from tom vilsack, and we'll keep you posted. the full transcript of miss sherrod's comments are on biggovernment.com. >> here's sean backing him up on fox last night. let's listen to newt go at it. >> she said she wanted him to go out and deal with one of his own. and she put him in touch with a white lawyer. just the latest in a series of racial incidents. what do you think of this? >> let me say, first of all, secretary vilsack did exactly the right thing. i mean, i often disagree with this administration, but firing her after that kind of a viciously racist attitude was exactly the right thing to do. and the fact that we have to be jen begin icolor-blind. you cannot be a black racist anymore than you can be a white racist. >> this guy is talking about running for president. this is a full dress rehearsal for the bad guys. here they are out here. i don't know why the white house backed up vilsack on this. what do you make of the politics on the liberal side. why is the president scared to back up vilsack. why is vilsack sticking to his guns on this saying she's out? >> well, you said it, chris. it's hearing footsteps. this issue obviously makes them skittish and jittery to the point where nobody it seems bothered to ask ms. sherrod the context of her remarks. if that's in fact what she said, what she meant by what she was saying or indeed to -- to give her a chance to say, but that's not the whole story. that wasn't all of what -- the story i recounted. i was talking about something that happened 25 years ago or more. so it clearly makes them jumpy. we don't know the full story. the white house says it wasn't directly involved at least in her forced resignation. clearly the agriculture department was. i'm not sure why i at this point they are still saying she's out, she's out. >> chris, can i jump -- >> they are backing up vilsack, but you're right on that reporting. they had nothing to do with the initial decision, they say. your thoughts, michelle. >> first of all, i've got to say newt gingrich is right when he says there's no place for black racism or white racism, and if you were to see the videotape and assume that it was the entire videotape, what she said looks very, very damning, but the problem is that as gene said no one took the time to investigate all of the facts before people started commenting on it and painting her out as some sort of rogue racist, and the problem that the administration now has is that after the skipget problem and with the naacp, you know, calling on the tea party last week and alleging that members. tea party are racist, you know, it's a snowball effect one thing after another and with us being -- having our first african-american president, it's as if the president just gets nervous and doesn't know how to handle the fact that he's black rather than simply ignore it, ignore his race and allow him to govern as the president of the united states, period, and stay out of these matters of race. you know, the administration is saying that they didn't call for her resignation, but in every interview this woman has given she has said that she has been told that the administration wanted her out. >> well, let's take a look. here she is on cnn on the white house reaction monday. let's listen. >> they asked me to resign, and in fact, they harassed me as i was driving back to the state office from west point, georgia, yesterday. hi at least three calls telling me the white house wanted me to resign. that was sheryl cook, the deputy under secretary. she called me and said -- she called me and i said, sheryl, i've got a three and a half hour ride to get into athens. she called me a second time. where are you now? i said i'm just going through atlanta. she called me again and i said i'm at least 45 minutes to an hour from athens. she said, well, shirley, they want you to pull over to the side of the road and do it. because you're going to be on glenn beck tonight. >> well, let's skip over the likes of glenn beck and the others over on fox. want to pay tribute to tony harris at cnn. his interview today with shirley sherrod and with elois spooner, the white woman who after all these years recalls shirley as a woman who looked out for her, who, quote, saved our farm, shirley, that she saved the farm. it was eloise spooner said it was shirley sherrod, this woman who has now been fired basically, who, quote, i give her credit to helping us save our farm. she gave us enough. it helped us save our farm. she's been friends all these years and there she is getting blamed for something she did against this family that owes her their farm in terms of her help for them. gene, i think it's an amazingly good story behind a bad story that was told to us by this website. >> exactly. i mean, it -- it all comes back to the initial big lie. i mean, the story as put out by breitbart on -- on his website, which i won't even repeat the name of initially was simply a lie. it was edited in a way to make the facts seem totally opposite to what the facts actually were. and the sad thing, of course, is that this -- the individual who was trying just to tell a story about learning and growth and reconciliation, shirley sherrod, was forced out of her job because of a lie. >> you know what i think tonight, that o'reilly is going to correct this story. i'm not counting on the other people on fox to correct this story. michelle, you betting for or against o'reilly to straighten this story tonight. >> i'm betting for o'reilly to change it and also for breitbart and his website. i think that once this video is available in full, if he gets, it i'm betting he'll put the entire videotape on the website and allow people to watch the website for themselves and judge whether or not people actually think that this woman is a rogue racist and should have lost her job. >> well, you do -- you do believe in redemption all the way. good for you. >> i do. >> for the most optimistic voice. i'm only betting on o'rail. thank you gene robinson and thank you michelle bernard. coming up, the bush republicans have fought like mad not to extend jobless benefits, including a lot of middle aged women who bounced out of their jobs. can president obama and the democrats make them pay politically in this november's coming elections? you're watching "hardball" only on msnbc. [ male announcer ] why all the excitement? because new chips ahoy made with reese's peanut butter cups are here. our real chocolate chips... and reese's peanut butter cups... crammed into one exciting new cookie. so now, more than ever, there's a lotta joy in chips ahoy! elena kagan is one step closer to, on the supreme court. the senate judiciary committee approved her nomination today. the vote was 13-6 with one republican, lindsey graham, of south carolina voting in favor. senator graham was the only republican on the committee to vote for sonia sotomayor as well. the full senate is expected to vote on kagan's confirmation next month. we'll be right back. ♪ [ male announcer ] we make them beautiful. ♪ we make them tougher. ♪ we make them legendary. we make them better... ♪ to make your life better. ♪ and we've never made one... quite like this. the 100% electric nissan leaf. ♪ welcome back to "hardball." after months of republican efforts to block it, 60 senators voted to move forward on extending unemployment insurance today. president obama and his party sound happy. will it help them in november hold power? with us jim mcdermott of washington state. this is strange. it seems like all the advantage is on your side. why wouldn't people want to help people who have been out of work a long type? let's face it. it isn't just people who are usually unemployed out of work right now. it's a lot of men and women who have jobs in their career for 20 or 30 years and have been bounced. politically that doesn't make any sense to me. >> i have been never, chris, been able to understand that at all. how you could look middle class people in the face, who have played by the rules and done everything according to the way it's supposed to work and say to them, we haven't got enough money to take care of you when you're bailing out banks and fighting wars and paying for drug benefits and all kinds of stuff with borrowed money. you can't find the money for people who have been good solid middle class people in this country. it doesn't make any sense at all. >> let's take a look at the president on monday on this issue. let's listen. >> over the past few weeks, a majority of senators have tried, not once, not twice, but three times to extend emergency relief on a temporary basis. each time a partisan minority in the senate has used parliamentary maneuvers to block a vote, denying millions of people who are out of work much-needed relief. these leaders in the senate who are advancing a misguided notion that emergency relief somehow discourages people from looking for a job should talk to these folks. >> congressman, we had a conservative intellectual on last week. i think i challenged him well. i think i did a good job challenging him. let me have your thoughts. he said the reasons the republicans are opposing extension of unemployment benefits is that people who are out of work a while should be taught a lesson, that they can't have a good job back basically. they have to take a job a cut below. identification asked him how about your friends at the heritage foundation wherever you work. have you told them to go looking for a job flipping hamburgers? have you told them to take a greyhound to nebraska from new york looking for a job? it seems the academics believe in the pure labor market notion that there's a job for you somewhere. you just have to accept it and find it. i don't know. is this academia talking or what? i don't know. >> there is only one study that anybody quotes that says that getting an unemployment check may have some effect on people's willingness to go look for a job. but that's in a market where you have all kinds of jobs. right now you've got five people at a minimum looking for every job that's available out there. you've got close to 15 million people without jobs. and this nonsense, if you just want to go look, there's a job. "the new york times" had a story on sunday saying a woman had been sending him out for 18 months. she had had three call-backs in that period of time, and she was trying to go from a $14 job down to a $7 an hour job and it won't even pay her bills, but she was still willing to take it if they would accept her. there are people struggling all over the country. those guys talking like that have never been out of work or never knew anybody out of work or haven't talked to anybody who is out of work. >> well, the same crowd that's defending the ramparts of fiscal responsibility on this issue are ready to let it all fall down. they are opening the draw bridge for the bush tax cuts to be extended. they can't wait to continue to invite -- how are you guys going to stand and when is the democratic power going to stand up against the power of the country, the real business and economic power people who want to keep the low tax rates that bush pushed through, even though it will keep the deficit high? >> well, it's going to be a very interesting debate, because what jon kyl is saying on behalf of the republicans is we don't have to pay for the $834 billion in tax cuts, but we can't find $34 billion to pay for the unemployed. now, my view is if you're worried about dev fificits it'se for to you step up and put your nickel on the bar. they have not paid for the wars. they didn't pay for the tax breaks in the first place. they haven't paid for the bailouts or any of this stuff, and now they want to say let's let these tax cuts go forever. make them permanent. that's not good politics. it's not good fiscal policy. >> isn't it wonderful the way the neo-cons sell war after war without any notion of cost or human life or national treasure? it's all free. it's all just free. we'd "the weekly standard." read one of their rags. the wars are wonderful. anyway, thank you congressman jim mcder motd of washington tate. which teen idol pop star does jay leno think looks like charlie cook? there's charlie cook. that's in the sideshow. you're watching "hardball" only on msnbc. all the nutrition of , plus 10% daily value omega-3 ala, and a delicious honey almond crunch. new total plus omega-3. i want to fix up old houses. ♪ [ woman ] when i grow up, i want to take him on his first flight. i want to run a marathon. i'm going to work with kids. i'm going to own my own restaurant. when i grow up, i'm going to start a band. 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[ female announcer ] together we can discover the best of what's next at aarp.org. back to "hardball." time for the sideshow. bp is facing more scrutiny today as a blogger noticed recent photo manipulation by them. take a look at this photo in bp's command centers in houston. see the blank screens? there weren't video feeds on every monitor. now take a look at edit the photo of the command center that bp posted on its website. presto. changeo. the blank scres are gone. these screens now appear to have video feeds on them. why even bother editing the photo? all bp is saying is it won't happen again, but if bp executives are wondering why people question what they say, all they have to do is look at their own website for the answer. bp has now posted the original unedited photo. last week florida republican marco rubio released a web ad against our colleague rachel maddow. here's a taste of it. well, last night rachel issued a rebuttal. take a look. >> well, as my hero winston churchill once say i like a man who grins when he fights. dare i like an update. i like a man or woman who grins when they fight. you may have heard the young singer justin bieberer and bieber fever across the country this summer. according to my pal jay leno, bieber has a striking resemblance to a "hardball" guest up last night. >> time for a thing we call too old for bieber hair. this one features political analyst charlie cook. let's take a look. too young for bieber hair! >> he doesn't connect with people as much as say bill clinton did. >> that's good. >> well, maybe they've got the same barber. now for tonight's big number. it's no secret our friends in print journalism are facing declining numbers. but just how doomed do americans think the newspaper business is? according to the pew research, 64% of those polled think by 2050 there won't be hard copies of the newspaper anymore. no morning edition to hold while you're drinking the coffee. 64%, two-thirds say the paper is gone soon. tonight's big number. up next, british prime minister david cameron is in washington today, and he couldn't avoid questions about bp and what role the british oil giant played in getting the lockerbie bomber freed. the latest details on bp's dealings next. you're watching "hardball" only on msnbc. stopping. it's not that hard. and only allstate pays you an extra bonus to do it. get one of these every six months you go without an accident. [ judy ] what are you waiting for? call or click today for a free quote or to find an allstate agent. [ male announcer ] anything mayo can do we can do bolder. ♪ the choice is yours. are you up for some sandwich kicking flavor? are you miracle whip? ♪ the kincaids live here. across the street, the padillas. ben and his family live here, too. ben's a re/max agent, and he's a big part of this community. there are lots of reasons why re/max agents average more sales than other agents. experience, certainly. but maybe it's also because they care about the markets they serve and the neighbors who rely on them. nobody sells more real estate than re/max. visit remax.com today. here's what's happening. a final vote on extending unemployment benefits could come before the end of the day. the bill cleared a senate hurdle today when newly sworn in west virginia snort goodwin cast a crucial vote ending a republican filibuster. supreme court nominee elena kagan is one step closer to nomination after winning approval from the senate judiciary committee today. a bp employee says he reported a leak in a critical safety device before the explosion on board the deepwater horizon, but he doesn't know if that report was passed on to federal regulators. meanwhile, the coast guard says leaks in the new containment cap are more like drips, and they are nothing to be concerned about. bp also announced today that it is selling about $7 billion worth of assets to generate cash for cleanup operations. and a federal judge in new york has just approved a deal allowing goldman sachs to pay $550 million to settle charges that it misled investors on risky mortgage-backed securities. now back to "hardball." back to "hardball." the release of the only terrorist convicted in the pan am flight 103 bombing dominated today's press coverage by the british prime minister and president obama. at issue, whether british company bp lobbied for the terrorist release in exchanges for getting access to libya oil. british prime minister cameron says there will not be a new uk-based inquiry. here he is. >> in terms of an inquiry, there had a boston an an inquiry by the scottish parliament into the way the decision was made. the british government, the last british government, released a whole heap of information about this decision, but i've asked the cabinet secretary today to go back through all of the paperwork and see if more needs to be published about the background to this decision. but in terms of an inquiry, i'm not currently minded that we need to have a uk-based inquiry on this. partly for this. i don't need an inquiry to tell me what was a bad decision. it was a bad decision. well, here's president obama supporting the prime minister. let's listen. >> so we welcome any additional information that will give us insights rand a better understanding of why the decision was made, but i think the key thing to understand here is that we've got a british prime minister who shares our anger over the decision. >> well, michael isikoff, nbc news investigative correspondent and david corn is washington bureau chief and a columnist for politics daily. i want to start with michael. by the way, welcome aboard. it's great to have you on the team here. what do you think is the big question that looms here about the role that bp played as a lobbying firm, firms lobby, to get this guy al megrahi out of the clutches of the scottish government and back to libya where he seems to be growing in health? >> well, there are two tracks here. there is this whole issue of the prisoner transfer agreement. this is the agreement that was signed between the british government and the libyan government that was insisted upon by the libyans as part of an arrangement by which they would grant this huge oil concession to bp last year. and we now know, although we knew some of this last year as well, that bp weighed in with the british government. the guy who did it, who was the bp point person on this, was a guy by the name mark allen. a former high level mi-6 spy master. he was their chief of counterterrorism, one of their top middle east experts, then went to work for bp. had a relationship with khadafi. he weighed in with jack straw, then the british foreign minister and he said please sign this, sign the prisoner transfer agreement. what the libyans wanted was a prisoner transfer agreement to allow for the only uk prisoner to be held in the uk jail to be let go. that's the convicted terrorist al megrahi. the brits went along. they reversed their position. they basically broke their word, an agreement they had with the united states that said megrahi would never be eligible for release. but what the brits say all that may be true. we don't know -- we can't confirm every detail. there may be more in the documents. all that may be true, but at the end of the day that's not why the scots released megrahi. the scots released him on a totally different ground, compassionate release, a prognosis that he had only three months to live. what you've got within the uk is this very interesting arrangement when the scots, when asked about this, like to talk about the prisoner transfer agreement and bp lobbying and saying they didn't like that. the brits saying it doesn't matter. you released him on completely separate grounds. >> david corn, let's go et to the real politics of this. here's the question. wee government bp not too popular in this country. they are responsible for, they are responsible for the worst environmental anti-conservation actions in history, and now we find, and they got to pay for that, and now we find out that they have got this role in letting a bad guy go. now, just to remind people watching right now, and sometimes you lose the humanity of this. this happened back in 1988 which is what, 22 years ago, but the fact is look at this. there were 259 people killed on that plane. it was taken down on purpose. these people were all killed, pre-meditated murder, let's face t.190 of them are americans. that's important to a lot of americans. a whole bunch of them are students that went over there on student like junior year abroad from syracuse, from schools like colgate and hampshire college. schools around. we can identify with these kids, you know, 18, 19 years old, going away to school. the excitement of coming home to see their parents and being back with their families and dying in this over-air collision or over-air horror. >> explosion. >> and completely created by the act of man. people wanted what we're looking at to happen. they systematically planted the bomb. systematically killed these people, totally innocent people, to make this sick point and now we let the guy go who we now know did it under this bogus -- he's been alive for years. i don't know how bogus this was. your thoughts, david. sheer politics and why wasn't the president louder on this a year ago when he got up? backing up the tory prime minister now. a little late on the draw here. your thoughts. >> i had a friend that day who had a ticket for that flight but she didn't make the connecting flight so she wasn't on it. so i nearly lost a close friend in that explosion, so these things do. they sort of subside in time, but for the victims they remain very real and very tangible. and what -- what struck me today was when david cameron was talking about barack obama by his side. he said don't blame bp. blame the scots. you know, he really went out of his way to distinguish between the two and to sort of make it sound like whatever bp did, it didn't really matter because they didn't have the power at the end of the day. it was either the uk government, the brits, or the scots. now that -- it's technically true, but i do think it would -- you know, when we see there's going to be a hearing next week here in washington, the senate foreign relations committee. they are trying to call some bp officials. i think it's -- it's the right thing to do, to try to get to the bottom of this and see if there's more to the story than we know. it's quite possible that the story is we have learned it to be, that bp made this effort targeting jack straw and that the scots made a decision based on something else. maybe after getting a nod and a wink from london, maybe not. >> okay. >> but, you know, i still think there's plenty of room to dig further. >> we've only got a little time here, michael. is this bs or "braveheart?" i mean, we think well of the scots, but it looks like their biggest products are whiskey and oil d.they do this to get an oil deal with bp? did they do this for jobs? >> i don't know if the scots did it to get an oil deal with bp. i think the scots, you know, putting the best face on for the scots, the sort of misguided compassion, you read the report that kenny mccaskill, the justice minister issued in talks about compassion for megrahi's family, and this will allow him to reunite with his family and that will psychologically benefit them. i don't think the victims' families would feel very comforted at all for this compassion for a convicted terrorist. but look, at the end of the day you asked a good question. you said why didn't we hear more outrage from the united states government a year ago when all this took place and that's a very good question. >> yeah. >> we heard some. both secretary clinton and attorney general holder called mccaskill and tried to lobby him against releasing megrahi, but at end of the day the obama administration has continued the bush administration policy of restoring relations with gadhafi, taking him off the state sponsor of terrorism list. >> look at the kissing of this guy. this is it. they are not kissing him because he's sick. they are kissing him because he's a terrorist. that's why they are kissing this guy. >> and a here -- >> let's go. >> a year ago we didn't care that much about bp. the bp angle has made the story, you know, more electric. >> got to go. >> more important. >> got to go, guys. we're on television. thank you, michael isikoff, thank you david corn. up next, will b-rod testify and the latest twists on the trial. former ilfor governor b-rod will be talking soon. we'll be right back to talk about it with the experts. you're watching "hardball" on msnbc. 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[ male announcer ] fiber one. cardboard no. delicious yes. west virginia governor joe manchin announced today he is running for that senate seat formerly held by robert byrd. the special election is now set for november. manchin, a democrat, is very popular. he won re-election as governor in 2008 by a 44-point margin. by the way, former manchin aide cart goodwin is the newest u.s. senator. he was sworn in today and will fill that seat until november's special election. 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>> if he doesn't get on it is because he is simply catalytic as a personality. the tapes which we've seen so far are absolutely radioactive. the notion you can offer benign explanations for a lot of the profane scheming is a bit of a stretch. there has been an internal debate for months about whether he should testify. he is the client and he thinks he can talk himself out of everything and to sort of add a capper to all this the last couple days his brother who is a co-defendant testified the last couple days and got sliced up pretty good when it came to government cross examination and asking him to explain what are comparatively far more benign fbi wiretaps than the ones which catch his younger brother, rod. >> okay. let me go to lynn on this. could they make the argument or bluff and say to the jury the case hasn't been made? we don't have to put our client on the stand. >> that's exactly where they're going. there is the division between the lawyers. that is going to be the explanation. might be blocked by the jury. they have to explain something. blagojevich has been telling everybody who would listen. two weeks ago he told me he would testify. he told that to everybody. the lawyers have to provide some reason to the jury why they won't hear from him. >> i'm going to go to jim on this. the o.j. simpson jury had a lot of hunch going for their guy because they didn't like the lapd and the way the case was prosecuted and everything else. is there any reason to believe this jury is so inclined to like the defendant here they're going to give him a break unless they get really hard evidence? >> no. i don't think. look at the polling numbers. or even the king of american mayors richard m. daly here in chicago. he is down to 37% favorabilitiy ratings. it has to do with the visceral disdain which the folks in the white house are very nervous about when it comes to incumbents across the board. combine that with just listening day after day, chris, it's not just the transcripts which you may see but the atmosphere, the tone in the guy's voice as he is scheming and plotting that i think makes it a very, very difficult, you know, call to put him on the witness stand. >> lynn, have they made the case as you've understood it, if you were a jury have they made the case he has taken action not just sat around and bs'd with his staffers about how they can take advantage of obama's open senate seat but is there evidence so far that you've heard that says he took steps to commit a crime here beyond just talk? >> no. i think that is the weakest part of the prosecution case. the better part of the case has to do with his extortion and shakedown chargesment i think they could in defense make it clear that he didn't cross the line, came right up to it. clearly what he did was sleazy but sleazy isn't always illegal. >> that's the question, jim. it's a chicago jury. are they so hardened they say this is the way business is done behind the doors? >> no, i don't think so. i think when they get into the jury room, you know, red, white, and blue, patriotic, listenthat -- the jury instructions. bribery, conspiracy, where all you have to do is prove intent and false statements, clearly they have him on false statements. he said something to the fbi. oh, politics and government. i think even amid the hardened chicago jury is going to find he is in hot water. >> okay. okay. can't wait for tomorrow. thank you. see you tomorrow i hope. when we return let me finish with some thoughts about the right wing mania. you're watching "hardball" only on msnbc. 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[ engines rev ] ...until now. ♪ the 100% electric... no-tailpipe nissan leaf. innovation for the planet. innovation for all. ♪ 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. ♪ this summer, get the exclusive samsung strive for just $19.99. only from at&t. let me finish tonight with a right wing mania hitting this country. i'm not talking about people worried, angry even over the bad economy, the high unemployment, the deficit, the rising national debt. who isn't worried about those things? everything that's been happening in this economy highlighted by the financial crisis of the fall of 2008 is scary. it's only added to the concerns and highly justified i think about the growing tendency of this country to rely on borrowing not just to offset economic downturns which we were taught in school made sense but standard operating procedure. no the right wing mania runs deeper and does no good for america. the tea party people love attacking government itself. it's their favorite target. government. as if they have this alternative to running things in a free, democratic society? what is the alternative i wonder? the ones that aren't talking secession from the union like texas's rick perry say they're for the constitution but keep talking about the parts they don't like, like the progressive income tax. the only part they do like is the second amendment not for hunting or sport or self-protection but to challenge their favorite target, you know, government. sharron angle running for the u.s. senate in nevada talks about second amendment remedies to things they don't like congress doing. give that some thought. congresswoman michele bachmann yesterday created a tea party caucus in congress itself saying no one in congress was responding to tea party demands. no one? not even republicans? a while back bachmann got useful notoriety with her call thon program for an immediate investigation of democrats in congress for what she called antiamerican attitudes. she is talking pure tea party now. the whole government needs to be dumped. forgot something. race. listen to the birthers. catch their latest rant about the woman working at the ag department down in georgia, that mean distortion of her story and you see a right wing effort to rip the scab off america's hard racial history. people push this line and want to justify racism by finding it on