John mccain, who served the country so admirably, has become an angry fellow from dawn until dusk taking an occasional break to remember who he is and saying enough of this when his new allies get out of hand. When ted cruz starts attacking the loyalty to america of one of mccains fellow vietnam vets, a combat vet at that. The viciousness is something we havent seen before because of the combination of mccarthyism and this weird unconnectedness, attacking chuck hagel, for example, because no one will give us info or anyone info about the benghazi situation even though hagel wasnt even in the government when benghazi happened. Sick stuff. And it seems to be growing in inverse proportion to obamas popularity. The better he looks, the worse these characters, inhofe, cruz, mccain, and Lindsey Graham, are determined to look. Did you notice the smile on John Boehners face sitting up there behind the president during the state of the union . If you did, youre imagining things. So afraid of the hard hating right of republicans these days of every stripe, even boehners scared to death of looking like he might like something barack obama had to say. To do that is to risk political death in these days. Lets go at it. Our guests are joy reid of the grio and michael steele, former chairman of the Republican National committee. Both are msnbc analysts and good ones. Lets take a look at this. Is this delay on the hagel vote about playing for time hoping new information comes out about them . The New York Times reports today that antihagel groups are right now hoping for exactly that. Quote, leaders of these groups said in interviews that they expected their efforts to include more phone calls urging conservative voters to tell their senators to vote no, new efforts to unearth embarrassing details from mr. Hagels past, and potentially a new round of Television Advertisements pressuring democrats to drop their support for him. Michael steele, it used to be a president got his cabinet. Yep. Now when you want your own defense chief, you get the entire Opposition Party to the last man and woman voting against it in what i dont even get is one reason. I mean, if you ask all those republicans what do they do to filibuster this, they wont give you one answer. Each one will come up with his own or her own little number. Right. Because there is no real reason to filibuster this nomination. I mean, the president has made his choice. Hes coming off a very, very strong election, and, you know, as much as, you know, i may have an issue here or there with something that hagel said or did in the past, this is the president s choice. Hes ultimately going to be accountable to the president , not to the republicans in the congress. And i think, quite honestly, mccain put it out there in the real. This is personal. Its not even political at this point. This is the fact that this man bucked the Party Establishment in 2007 in his views on the war. I think legitimately so. And the fact of the matter is so what . So they in other words theyre saying he cant be president obamas defense chief because he agrees with barack obama on the war. Yeah. Well, im sorry, joy, that is the irony here. Theyre attacking him for being the guy who gets along with obama. President obama and chuck hagel agree on so many things theyre actually friends. Right. They have a positive view about the same things in the world. Thats why hes going out and i think the president is sticking his neck out for this guy because he really wants him to be his defense chief. They agree on things. Somebody pointed out to me that mccain said the statement back when he was a republican, as if hagel is no longer a republican because he dares to agree with the guy hiring him to be the defense chief. Look, mccain i think did put it out there. Okay. Dwight eisenhower wasnt a republican either because he wasnt a hawk, and he kept us out of indochina and the middle east, and he took the heat for that because he was a guy who knew what was going on in the world. Right. And didnt believe in frivolous wars. Youre not sufficiently republican if you dont want to bomb iran. It was ironic when john mccain put it out there and said basically, you know what . Chuck hagel was mean to president bush, he relentlessly criticized the iraq war. His fellow members of the senate thought he was not a sufficiently loyal republican. Thats pretty rich coming from john mccain who basically made it his lifes work to oppose george w. Bush. Oh, im sorry, was it chuck hagel who said he had an illegitimate child with an africanamerican and that somehow produced a south asian young woman. That stuff about his wife being a drug addict. That was ws people. That was karl rove and that crowd. I dont know which of them did it, but one of them did it, yet he forgives those people and he says this must be some kind of weird transportation of emotion. Yesterday john mccain said something truly remarkable as my friend here said, michael, about a moment of pure honesty. He exposed whats really behind his opposition to hagel. Lets listen. Theres a lot of ill will towards senator hagel because when he was a republican, he attacked president bush mercilessly. At one point said he was the worst president since herbert hoover, said that the surge was the worst blunder since the vietnam war, which is nonsense, and was very anti his own party and people. People dont forget that. You should have forgot the fact because he never did say he was the worst president since herbert hoover. Wait until they start with you. Exactly. Who put mike mccain in charge of determining chuck hagels fate. Minority leader Mitch Mcconnell has deputized senator john mccain as the weather vane by which to judge when republicans should yield on the filibuster. That might be a confounding decision since john mccain seems to drift from one position to another. Sometimes in a matter of hours. On sunday mccain had this to say about the prospect of a filibuster against hagel. Lets watch. Weve never filibustered a president ial cabinet appointee, and i dont think we should start here. Well, on monday, which is a day later of course, mccain was urging his colleagues on the Armed Services committee to vote on hagels nomination saying, i believe he has fulfilled the rigorous requirements that the committee demands, and by the next day, tuesday, he rebuked ted cruz for his harsh critique of hagel, which i agree with. Mr. Hagel is an honorable man. He has served his country, and no one on this committee at any time should impugn his character or his integrity. Were going to show some of cruzs mccarthyite statements in the next segment. Tuesday night, hours matter, mccain introduced a new wrinkle with senators graham and ayotte. He wrote a letter to the white house requesting more information about what the white house did during the benghazi attack. He told Foreign Policy magazine, quote, we need to know what the president s conversations were. I would vote no on cloture on thursday unless the information is provided. By tuesday actually by yesterday, which almost every day of the week hes changed his mind, the white house had responded to his satisfaction, but he still didnt vote for cloture. He still wouldnt vote to bring this matter of hagels confirmation up to a vote, and here is his latest. Lets watch. There are still questions outstanding. I believe that senators have the right to have those questions answered. The senator from South Carolina and the senator from New Hampshire and i had a response from the president today on the question that we had, but there are other questions. Like can you give us a copy of every speech you ever gave . Can you give us a dollarfordollar assessment of every dollar you ever made . By the way, if you dont tell us, were going to accuse you of getting money from the north koreans. Thats the way we will pay you. Joy, youre younger than me i think by a lot of years. Were going to get to this. Im going to sell this second segment because were going back. We went back and looked how joe mccarthy did it. The same techniques of innuendo. The same character assassination based on nothing that this guy is doing, this guy cruz, who i dont know what hes running for. People say attorney general. I dont know what job hes applying for. I dont know why hes ruining his career with this crap. Your thoughts . Hes not running for president because i think he was born in canada. You said earlier in your introduction that john mccain occasionally remembers who he is. Im starting to agree with joe klein. This is who john mccain is. This is a man who is showing no principle other than pique. Hes turned on, as you showed, his supposed friend chuck hagel, his supposed comrade in arms in a matter of hours to decide to brook this rear guard effort to drum up dirt on this poor man who has been through i think enough at this point in terms of trying to get barack obama the defense secretary that he wants. And theyve dragooned kelly ayotte into their little club because lieberman is gone. The three of them, the merry band of miscreants standing in the way of this guy getting a vote. Theyre going to torture that guy because he turned against the iraq war. Im not as tough as you are, today at least. Well know the true color of mr. Mccains feelings about life and values when that right wing crowd inevitably turns on his friend Lindsey Graham. And you know they will. They will. They will. It will go to graham in the next primary fight in South Carolina, and he will have to stand up for his friend. Thats when well know. And we will see that. Thats why the bed you make right now, youre going to have to lie in it, and theres going to be a lot of lonely republicans a lot of fleas. And a lot of lonely republicans. The point i take issue with with what the senator said, hagel offended the party. Hes not running for the nomination of the party. Hes not running for anything within the Republican Party. This is an appointment to be secretary of defense. And so all of the arguments that are being put up there against him make no sense because do you think there was a moment of odd candor . Why would he admit that . Remember, that was a party call at that time where the white house and the Senate Leadership needed everyone to rally around the direction they were taking, and he stood alone. He said, no, there is something wrong with this policy. Theres something wrong and the country had more or less rejected that war by the 2006 election. Didnt john mccain do exactly the same thing . Wasnt that his brand . Isnt that why people called him a maverick . He stood against george w. Bush on the torture policy which was also a party call. This was something they all were unified on youre so smart. I learn more by the way, stood against the party on funding. Went against the right wing Church Groups and everybody, all the ideologues on the right hated that law. And climate change, too. He did that, too. Its personal. Its nothing more than that. This is vendetta. This is what goes around comes around. The more i watch this congress, the more im reminded of why the greek people said enough of this parliamentary system. They are blowing the republican form of government. The reasonable representation of people out there, not their own piques and weirdnesses. Theyre not doing their job. This isnt about the public interest. Joy right or left. Thank you, joy reid, and michael steele. Coming up, are you now or have you ever been . Well, those were the words that defined the red baiting of the mccarthy era back in the 50s. Ted cruz demonstrated hed be comfortable having those words spill out of his mouth. Can president obama beat the nra . Wayne lapierres apocalyptic rantings about a World Without guns are easy to lampoon, but he may have the support and the votes to block any kind of real Gun Legislation and thems the facts. Also, illinois has moved a step closer to becoming the next state to approve gay marriage. Conservatives are chronically worried right now that theyre losing the culture war, at least on that front. For once i think theyre right. And watergate. Water hyphen gate. Marco rubios water bottle moment may be the image that haunts him for a long time. A look back at some of the other moments that, fairly or not, have come to define some politicians forever. And this is hardball, the place for politics. Rea lly getting salon qu ality. Or settling for wannabes . Stop compromising new Vidal Sassoon pro series. Care and styling from the original salon genius, created to let you have it all at an affordable price. New Vidal Sassoon lets you say no to compromise and yes to very shiny. Very silky. Very sexy. Very you. Its salon genius in a bottle now in your store. New Vidal Sassoon pro series. Salon genius. Brilliantly priced. Well, this is a sad story. We learned today jesse jackson, jr. Is being charged with conspiring to spend Campaign Funds on personal expenses. Jackson allegedly conspired to spend 750,000 in Campaign Funds. Sources tell politico those expenses are said to include a 43,000 rolex, home renovations, and fur coats, among other things. Jackson issued a statement this afternoon saying he fully accepts responsibility for his mistakes. Politico says prosecutors will recommend a prison sentence of between 46 and 57 months, and he had a career ready to go. Jacksons wife also pled guilty to one count of tax fraud. I guess this is all a plea bargain. Well be right back. We saw with his nomination something truly extraordinary, which is the government of iran formally and publicly praising we saw with his nomination something truly extraordinary, which is the government of iran formally and publicly praising the nomination of a defense secretary. I would suggest to you that to my knowledge that is unprecedented to see a foreign nation like iran publicly celebrating a nomination. Just watching that reminded me of mccarthy. Welcome back to hardball. Thats just a sample of freshman texas senator ted cruzs language this week about defense secretary nominee chuck hagel. Here is what really happened at his weekly news conference. The iran foreign minister spokesman was asked about hagels views on israel and u. S. Sanctions on iran. As reuters reported, the spokesman responded, we hope there will be practical changes in american Foreign Policy and washington becomes respectful of the rights of nations. Well, not exactly an extraordinary unprecedented celebration of hagels nomination. Cruz, however, used this kind of innuendo and guilt by association that reminds us of another senator, senator joe mccarthy. See if you agree, however. A month after edward r. Murrows march 1954 see it now broadcast in which he exposed mccarthys tactics, the senator accepted murrows invitation to respond. Here he uses a favorable tv review in a communist newspaper as evidence of murrows connection to communism supposedly. Lets listen. Lets take 30 seconds or so and see who was giving comfort to our enemies. March 9 containing seven articles and an editorial all attacking mccarthy, and the same issue mr. Murrows program has put one of tonights best bets on tv. Also that week senator cruz this week cruz took another opportunity to tar hagel with innuendo that he may have received, catch this, may have received 200,000 from, of all places, north korea. I dont think north korea has 200,000. Lets listen. It may be that he spoke at radical or extreme groups or antiisrael groups and accepted financial compensation. We dont know. He could not even say that the 200,000 he received did not come directly from a foreign government, and the question this committee asked, have you been paid directly by a foreign government, i would suggest it is every bit as relevant to know if that 200,000 that hes disclosed came from a foreign government. It may be perfectly appropriate. We might conclude that it was benign, it was reasonable, but it is at a minimum relevant to know if that 200,000 that he deposited in his bank account came directly from saudi arabia, came directly from north korea. In his 1953 hearing to investigate the voice of america for communist infiltration, senator mccarthy tried to discredit state Department Employee reed harris by insinuating his choice of legal representative 20 years earlier made him suspect. Lets listen. Did the Civil Liberties union provide you with an attorney at that time . I had many offers of attorneys, and one of those was from the american Civil Liberties union, yes. The question is did the civil libertys union supply you with an attorney . They did supply an attorney. The answer is yes . The answer is yes. You know the Civil Liberties union has been listed as a front for and doing the work of the communist party . Mr. Chairman, this was 1932. I know it was 1932. Do you know that they since have been listed as a front for and doing the work of the communist party . I do not know they have been listed so, sir. You dont know they have been listed . I have heard that mentioned or read that mentioned. We see some similarities in these two senators. Joining me is the washington posts niamalika henderson and senior Political Writer for the Dallas Morning News wayne slater, who is the author of bushs brain. I watch there in which he sits there in that prosecutorial manner throwing out incredible innuendo like unless you tell us where you got that speech money from, we can assume it came from north korea. Im sorry, how do you make comments like that when Everybody Knows they dont have a nickel to rub together up there . They got nothing. Who would you speak to in north korea . Just throwing that out so then he has to deny it and then he gets into the game of he denies being an agent of the north koreans. This is mccarthyism. Theres no other word for it. Even looks like mccarthy the way he does this stuff. Wayne. Well, he does. Theres a certain condescension. This is six degrees of separation way of asking questions, an old ploy, and if its done recklessly, it can really cause damage. The whole purpose of this kind of six degrees of separation questioning is not to find out something, a piece of information. Its to plant a false idea. Maybe you got the money from a foreign source, maybe from north korea, maybe from a muslim caliphate. All im doing is asking a question. Why wont you answer it . It is an amazing approach, and when used recklessly as i think in this early weeks of ted cruzs tenure, i think it invites the idea that he might look a little like joe mccarthy. You know, the comparison there, nia, with the way mccarthy connected somebody because they had an aclu lawyer 21 years before or the fact that they even had the aclu was never listed as a communist front. They may have defended communists because the aclu will defend anyones rights. Thats what they do. But to make that weird connection that somehow this guy is a commie, this is what this guy is doing. Look at this. Because the iranians would like to see somebody who wasnt a super hawk coming in as defense secretary, that somehow makes him the best friend they ever had over there. Look at the look on his face, that sarcastic look hes got. He looks like mccarthy looked, the way he does this thing. Go ahead. Your thoughts. Im just trying to document this. Right. Hes a harvard trained lawyer. He went to princeton. Hes a debate champion, and you can see him employing those sorts of tactics here. I dont think any of this sort of innuendo and sort of guilt by association would fly in a courtroom, but i think in ted cruz you have someone who is essentially auditioning to be a jim demint with an attitude. Conservatives want an attack dog. He is very much auditioning for that role. Hes a tea party favorite. If you look at the national review, they very much like his style. But, again, i think in some ways it certainly reflects what republicans i think are hoping to do over this next week, and that is further chip away at hagel and hope that something will stick and that another shoe will drop. Lets take a look at another thing. First of all, just in terms of britishstyle debate, britishstyle debate you use innuendo, you use rhetoric. Americanstyle debate, guys, is about documentation. Its about bringing in evidence. Thats how we debate in this country. The british do it with flair and all kinds of rhetoric and oratorical devices. Thats what hes more like. Anyway, both senator cruz and senator mccarthy at times have used media props to make their points. At hagels hearing, cruz employed a video clip from al jazeera. Here he sets up the presentation. Id like to draw your attention to an interview you did in 2009 with al jazeera, and with the chairmans indulgence, if we can play an excerpt of that interview. Well, cruz played a clip of an al jazeera callin show in which a caller suggested israel had committed war crimes. Well, cruz contends that in his response hagel did not refute the caller. During the 1954 Army Mccarthy hearings, senator mccarthy held up the communist daily worker as a prop. Lets watch. Yesterday a senator made an attack upon this committee, senator flanders. I find that attack headlined in the communist daily worker, flanders likens mccarthy to hitler. I believe you described the daily worker as the telegraph agency of the communist party. Senator flanders, who was heading the Committee Investigating mccarthys tactics, is somehow guilty of being a commie again because the communist newspaper reported on what he had said. Who believes this, nia . And im just wondering, youre a reporter. You dont have to make any ultimate condemnation of these tactics, but tactics are tactics. Guilt by association is guilt by association. The tactics are on the table. Ill go back to the manner of his presentation. He looks like a prosecutor, not a senator. Hes prosecuting hagel here for some political purpose. I dont know what it is. I guess its tea party stuff. Thats right. I mean, i think he very much understands that this is theater. He is trying to ultimately land on fox news. To sort of have a highlight reel there, highlight reel on rush limbaughs show. I think that is what hes after, and, again, he is finding some footing among tea party folks, among ultra conservatives. That is his goal. Normally senators come in, they put their head down, and they sort of follow the rules and follow the rules of seniority, and he is not doing that. But i will say in that clip ultimately john mccain brushes him back and says, listen, were not here to improve hagels impugn hagels character, and he comes to hagels defense. I got to end this tonight by saying and advice, good advice i think to senator cruz, youre starting off with a great education and great potential. Demagoguery is not a great career choice. If you look at all the demagogues from huey long to father coughlin, joe mccarthy and onwards, they dont get along very well very long. Make another move, senator. You still got time. Niamalika henderson, thank you. And wayne slater. Up next, marco rubios big gulp might be the moment that defines the guy. Other iconic moments that crippled reputations of politicians in the past. Its all in the sideshow. Its going to be fun. This is hardball, the place for politics. [ female announcer ] going to sleep may be easy, but when you wake up in the middle of the night it can be frustrating. Its hard to turn off and go back to sleep. Intermezzo is the first and only prescription sleep aid approved for use as needed in the middle of the night when you cant get back to sleep. 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When marco rubio made that awkward grab for his water bottle during the state of the union response, i immediately thought, okay, hes now going to forever be known as the thirsty one. Its too early to know if the episode will stick with him years down the line, but it wouldnt be the first time. Plenty of other politicians became that guy after incidents that might be called insignificant. Youll know what im talking about as soon as you hear these names. Michael dukakis. Chances are youre thinking of a photo op that tanked, literally. Dukakis in that tank started off as an attempt to show dukakis was strong on defense when he visited a michigan factory during his 88 president ial campaign. It obviously backfired big time when the footage showed up in attack ads from his opponent, George Herbert walker bush, portraying him, there he is, as not serious on defense. Next dan quayle. You might think of a classroom full of kids and a spelling test. Spell that again. Add one little bit on the end. Think of potato. Hows that spelled . I think he was confusing the singular with the plural. It even showed up in an attack ad against his son, ben, who lost his bid for reelection to congress in november. I dont know if those issues are connected. Next, howard dean. Not only are we going to New Hampshire, tom harkin, were going to South Carolina and oklahoma and arizona and north dakota and new mexico were going to california and texas and new york and were going to south dakota and oregon and washington and michigan and then were going to washington, d. C. To take back the white house yeah its not fair, not at all, but that became the moment in howard deans 2004 president ial run. A rather heroic run actually. This time here are the clues. Hurricane katrina, the fema director, the 43rd president. I want to thank you all for and, brownie, youre doing a heck of a job. Fema director is working 24 [ applause ] theyre working 24 hours a day. Michael brown forever dubbed heck of a job, brownie. More recently before rubio we had oops. The third agency of government i would do away with, the education, the commerce. Commerce. And lets see i cant. The third one i cant. Im sorry. Oops. Well, lets not forget the classic sarah palin quote either. You can actually see russia from land here in alaska. That soon became i can see russia from my house thanks to tina fey. The list goes on. One moment and you become that guy or gal for the long haul. Rubios water break is now very much in the race. Up next, there hasnt been too much or this much momentum behind strengthening gun laws in two decades, but can president obama actually get something meaningful done . Youre watching hardball, the place for politics. too many of our children are being taken away from us. Two months ago america mourned 26 innocent first graders and their educators in newtown. Last year there were 443 murders with a firearm on the streets of this city, and 65 of those victims were 18 and under. So thats the equivalent of a newtown every four months. And thats precisely why the overwhelming majority of americans are asking for some common sense proposals to make it harder for criminals to get their hands on a gun. Now, i think thats smart. Welcome back. Of course, that was president obama speaking earlier this afternoon in chicago, his hometown. Stemming gun violence has become a major second term agenda item for the president , of course. Some of the most memorable moments from his state of the Union Address actually dealt with giving victims of gun now, i think thats smart. Welcome back. Of course, that was president obama speaking earlier this afternoon in chicago, his hometown. Stemming gun violence has become a major second term agenda item for the president , of course. Some of the most memorable moments from his state of the Union Address actually dealt with giving victims of gun o, j. It seems to me since the City Congress people, most of them democrats, tend to vote for gun control because theyve got it in their streets, the women who the mothers have to put up with the gang bang shootings and the kids getting caught in the crossfire on the way to school or even sitting at home, theyve got to be for gun safety. The suburbs it seems to me are always in play. Suburban people have some ruraltype thinking with regard to gun ownership, but they also live close enough to commute to the city and are very scared of the fact that nearby where they live theres crime in the streets involving heavily armed criminals. It seems to me the president is saying, okay, its not just a question of schools being hit by a crazy person in this case but the daytoday threat every friday and saturday night especially around midnight. The next day you read about it, hear about it, crime involving bigtime weaponry. It seems like hes really turned the corner on who hes trying to get the suburbs it seems to me. Well, but he also has to look in his backyard, and literally he was in his backyard today. His home is not too far away from Hyde Park Academy where i was hearing part of that speech. Im glad you mentioned bloomberg. Bloomberg is throwing a ton of money, probably 1. 5 million so far into the race to ironically replace jesse jackson, jr. , who took his plea deal today. You have a couple strong candidates, chris, a white female and an africanamerican female, who are both pronra, and dont mistake the possibility that they can effectively appeal to a fair number of africanamericans in the city who are the pronra candidates . Such as concealed carry. The pronra candidates who is the leading candidate, the one white in a race of 16 candidates, deb halvorson, former democratic congresswoman from mostly the chicago suburbs, and then a woman named Toi Hutchinson who was her chief of staff. Shes an africanamerican. Bloomberg has thrown a ton of money mostly against halvorson, about 1. 3 million up to this point is going to be over that. Last night for the first time he ran an ad supporting a candidate, not just attacking halvorson. That was an antiguns candidate, perhaps the leading antiguns candidate in the race, a woman named robin kelly. Your basic point about the burbs, but theres the interesting possibility by throwing all this attention on halvorson that maybe you rouse some of those folks in the burbs that are vaguely pronra and have them come out and vote in a sprawling 16person race. Theres going to be low turnout, and maybe you win with 16 , 17 , 18 . Nevertheless is the fact you saw again this is clearly a fight obama is willing to wage in a bigtime battle, and behind him now is the x factor perhaps in this issue in american politics, and thats michael bloomberg, and hes willing to wage it even if he knows in his heart of hearts politically he can only win a quarter loaf or a half a loaf. Lets go across the country to ron reagan. It seems to me this is a battle of geography. We know there are various parts of the country, idaho, montana, places where youre not going to get a gun safety vote. Youre just not going to get one, and that includes almost out to california itself. You on the coast, maybe western washington state, parts of oregon, but anywhere east of you guys, its trouble for anybody trying to stop gun ownership. So my question is where does the president win the battle at least on background checks . Something he can put on the wall and say we got this done . Well, i think that hes winning the battle for the heart and soul of the public here. I mean, if you look at the polls, even nra members by a wide, wide margin support universal background checks. Nobody is going to sit still for federal agents coming and taking peoples guns away, but nobody is planning to do that. But everybody supports sensible regulations like universal background checks. Now, is that going to happen in Todays Congress . I dont know. Because the nra is really a shill for the gun industry, and thats a 12 billion industry. So you got guys like Lindsey Graham who is always going to be willing or other senators and congressmen who are always going to be willing to, you know, dance and like pathetic marionettes to the tune that the nra calls. So this is going to be a tough fight, and its not going to happen quickly. But theres nothing wrong with being a dancer, is there . No, no, but you dont want to be a marionette. Let me go back to jim warren on that. It seems to me once we get out of your chicago mindset here, that there is a fight that can be won. We had pat meehan on from delaware county, pennsylvania. I know his politics roughly, but some day he may want to run for governor. When you go statewide, you have to worry about the most right wing people in the state. Thats the challenge for senators who come from states that may have some urban areas like michigan that has detroit but also has upper michigan. They fear you study the polls and ron studies the polls, but is this really something you can poll because its about passion. The guy out there, mostly the guy, that s. O. B. , five, seven years ago they voted for background checks. Im never voting for them. That kind of memory is what im thinking about. Yeah, the passion is an interesting element. On gallup polls when they ask people for spontaneous responses as to what are the big issues in america right now, they dont hear about guns very often. Its only when they start asking specific questions what do you think about this, what do you think about that . And in that case then you see the sort of big numbers which obama is looking at, mayor bloomberg is looking at. And when you talk about some of those governor and state races, all these guys are quaking in their boots about an opponent on the right and, you know, that sort of thing in the primary fights in which the nra has some impact, but its going to thus be real interesting and again the think the real x factor is bloomberg. You know, guys, its getting like israel. The politics in israel, you could have a moderate government or a centrist government, but they have to appeal to the far right on so many issues, and the far right, maybe the far left to some extent, tend to run those parties. Thank you, ron reagan and james warren. Thanks for that reporting from chicago and new york. Up next, the culture wars from guns to gay marriage. Different sides winning on different fronts i think, and this is hardball, the place for politics. Weve got a new poll in the Massachusetts Senate race. Lets check the hardball scoreboard. The poll by wbur up there has congressman ed markey out front of fellow congressman steven lynch in the Massachusetts Senate democratic primary. Ed is up by seven points. 38 to 31 . Both are hoping to replace john kerry who is now secretary of state. The winner will have a big advantage in heavily democratic massachusetts. Most of those polled have never even heard of the two republicans running for the seat. Well be right back. n were back. Its no secret that politicians pander their bases all of the time. Its the way to win elections. Remember when the candidate was a wellfunded crowded San Francisco. This is pandering. Its not surprising then that they get bitter king to guns or religion or antipathy towards people who arent like them, or antiimmigrant sentiment or antitrade center. Well, president obama is actually candidate obamas comments back then became the big party discussion. Were back. Its no secret that politicians pander to bases all the time. When speaking up to reporters up in a well funded crowd in san the comments became a big part of the discussion on the leftright culture war. Republicans were happy to publicize his comments, but these days theyre terrified they might be losing the culture wars on some front, and they may well will. Lets look at the grounds on gay marriage. Once unthinkable, nine states and the District Of Columbia have legalized samesex marriage either by court degree, legislative action or actual popular vote. And now illinois, delaware, and hawaii are also considering legalizing gay marriage, samesex marriage. And the rights retreat on cultural issues extends to other areas as well. Im joined by lauren ashburn, found over the daily download and a contributor to the daily beast. Oftenly confused with Hillary Rodham clinton. But not politically. Let me talk about this, because youre on the front all the time fighting for samesex rights and gay rights generally. Isnt it odd that in a country where we have begun to shift dramatically in that action towards more than acceptance, almost warm acceptance, its much more positive, okay, well go along with that. At the same time we still have a country that still seems to defend gun rights almost to the last man in so many communities. Are they different communities . I think so. There is a whole range of issues, you know, that we could talk about from reproductive rights to climate change. But i think when it comes to samesex marriage, we talked earlier about illinois which is poised to be the next state to vote in favor, i think the trajectory both in terms of public sentiment. When i started at hrc, it was 33 of the American People, now its 43, 53. It will be 60 before long. You have the chairman of the Republican Party of illinois coming out in favor of this vote, which is significant. Even ted cruz says leave it up to the states. Leave it up to the states. Although leave it up to the states, marco rubio says leave it up to the states. Leave it up to the states i think is interesting because it sort of says to me that is where the Republican Party is on this question. Right. Is that dodge ball . Yeah. Its like at the end of lincoln when they were voting, and you looked into those guys eyes. You knew they were struggling with the substance, be they were struggling in the context of history, which column am i going to be in. Part of it is you dont take away anything from anybody by supporting gay rights. You just leave people alone. Unlike with guns. People perceive it as you are going to take something away from me. And that i think is the big difference. Thats what i was saying. But i think there is a crude symbiosis there between people who say leave them alone. A gunowner can hurt you. Somebody in a gay marriage situation, samesex marriage, theyre not pose anything threat to you. In other words, rights end when somebody else is endangered by your rights. If you look at the central strength of what has carried us through this fight and helped us win on this fight for samesex marriage, it is people coming out and be out and open in terms who have they are and putting a name and a face and a personal circumstance to this abstract fight. I think this is what youre starting to see in the gun debate right now. Well, explain that. Explain that connection. I agree with you, by the way. Even in the most rural parts of the country where gay people grow up and are born, they may end up moving to a mecca like San Francisco or chicago. They are born in a place, nieces of people, nephews of people. They recognize them and begin to embrace them. How about guns . Every time you turn on the television, you see a reallife circumstance. The president s state of the Union Address, what did you see . The reallife circumstances. The victims. Absolutely. What do you think . I was going to say that i think the media plays a big part in this, because year seeing when it comes to gay rights, youre seeing happy couples. Youre seeing good, positive coverage of all of this. And then it comes to gun owners, youre seeing newtown, youre seeing death. Yeah. Thats actual. Its reality. It is reality. But i think were not seeing the negative as much when it comes to gay rights in the press. You are seeing it, i think, though, the American People are in the workplace, at church, in any kind of institutional setting, theyre seeing gay people being out and open about who they are. And in some instance, happy and positive, but oftentimes really understanding the circumstances of the inequity that they face. You want to get to reality, listen to the actual sermons at church ive always said. Sermons reflect reality. You dont hear sermons against gay marriage. You dent hear them. You should hear more sermons against too many guns. Thank you for joining us. And a reminder, ill be one of David Gregorys guests this sunday on meet the press. Youll be able to watch me on the Chris Matthews show and meet the press. Youll be able to spend the whole sunday morning with me. Im kidding im not kidding. By the way, one of his guests is going to be john mccain. I cant wait. Let me finish tonight with [ female announcer ] going to sleep may be easy, but when you wake up in the middle of the night it can be frustrating. Its hard to turn off and go back to sleep. Intermezzo is the first and only prescription sleep aid approved for use as needed in the middle of the night when you cant get back to sleep. Its an effective sleep medicine you dont take before bedtime. Take it in bed only when you need it and have at least four hours left for sleep. Do not take intermezzo if you have had an allergic reaction to drugs containing zolpidem, such as ambien. Allergic reactions such as shortness of breath or swelling of your tongue or throat may occur and may be fatal. Intermezzo should not be taken if you have taken another sleep medicine at bedtime or in the middle of the night or drank alcohol that day. Do not drive or operate machinery until at least 4 hours after taking intermezzo and youre fully awake. Driving, eating, or engaging in other activities while not fully awake without remembering the event the next day have been reported. Abnormal behaviors may include aggressiveness, agitation, hallucinations, or confusion. Alcohol or taking other medicines that make you sleepy may increase these risks. In depressed patients, worsening of depression, including risk of suicide, may occur. Intermezzo, like most sleep medicines, has some risk of dependency. Common side effects are headache, nausea, and fatigue. So if you suffer from middleofthenight insomnia, ask your doctor about intermezzo and return to sleep again. Let me finish tonight with this. I keep trying to figure out which way this country is heading. I know were going in the liberal direction with the growing acceptance, i think true acceptance of gay people. The Steady Movement to supporting samesex marriage i think is the most dramatic shift in Public Attitudes on something so basic i can ever remember. On guns, i think its hard to say. Yes, there is the a National Upsurge of desire for gun safety. Yes, people have seen the worst now and want to do something about it. But when i look at gun sales, and nra memberships and all that, i get the sense that a good number of people out there are circling the wagons. They see the government coming to collect their guns, and theyre preparing for fight. The only thingy figure is that movement, crude as it may be to throw these two issues together toward personal freedom, toward individual autonomy is growing, profoundly on the right as well as the left. People want to make their own decisions