>> obviously it's pointless to talk because they've made up their mind and they're going to ram it through whether we like it or whether the american people like it. >> that was the number two republican in the united states senate, jon kyl of nevada who blasted them for engaging in a go it alone approach behind closed doors and out of sight for the public. now that the president said okay to jon kyl, let's open the doors and do this in full sight of the public, jon kyl's other face is against it. jon kyl is now against the thing he has been demanding for a month. senator kyl is finding that being two-faced, being a hypocrite on this issue is actually not a very lonely place to be. many of senator kyl's fellow republicans are now trashing the very invitation that they spent months asking for. exhibit "a," joen boehner. >> there has been no attempt, not one attempt by the administration or the democrats in congress to actually sit down and work with us. >> okay. that's argument from john boehner face one. here's the argument from john boehner face two. >> i don't want to walk into some setup. i don't know who is going to be there. i don't know how big the room is going to be. i don't know what the setup is going to be. >> i don't know how big the room is going to be. how big? john boehner's second face has also been articulating republicans' specific concern that the health care bipartisan summit will be televised. >> you know, is this a political event or is this going to be a real conversation? >> the concern is of course that it will be hard to have an honest conversation about the real issues when there are tv cameras everywhere. i think that is a reasonable concern. but john boehner's other face begs to differ. >> the president during the campaign last year said that when we got to this part of the process, that would be a big open room and he'd invite the c-span cameras in so the american people can see how the bill is coming together. i do think it's time to let the american people see what's going on. >> republicans have been hammering president obama for not holding televised negotiations on health care. and now that he wants to hold televised negotiations on health care, they're against it. if this feels like a familiar dynamic to you, you are guilty of paying attention to recent events in american politics. even suddenly retiring senator evan bayh today called out this outbreak of hypocrisy. >> two weeks ago the senate voted down a bipartisan commission to deal with one of the greatest threats facing our nation, our exploding deficits and debt. the measure would have passed. but seven members who endorsed the idea, actually co-sponsored the legislation instead voted no for short-term political reasons. >> much more on senator bayh's retirement. later in the show the chair of the democratic party will be here. but what senator bayh was pointing to is seven republican senators were for a bipartisan deficit commission until president obama said he supported that same idea. the seven then voted against it. among them arizona senator john mccain. same thing happened when the senate voted on a paygo bill. four republicans who had been fierce supporters of a pay-go rule after president obama endorsed it ended up voting against it, against their own position. among them again arizona senator john mccain. in addition to pay-go and the deficit commission senator mccain is against the same sort of climate change legislation he once reported. he opposes the appeal of don't ask don't tell even though he said he would reconsider it once military leaders said they were for it which they are. he opposes the immigration reform legislation he once co-sponsored. senator mccain, i'd like to introduce you to senator mccain. we keep talking about political hypocrisy on this show for two reasons. first, someone ought to. even if politicians are not capable of feeling shame and embarrassment for raw hypocrisy, we in the media i think owe it to the country to make clear politicians ought to feel ashamed and embarrassed about if. second, it seems important to make clear politicians who are willing to take two totally opposite positions on the same policy, those politicians should not be taken seriously when it comes to policy. if you're for pay-go until the president is and then you're against it, i don't care what you think about pay-go anymore because it's clear you don't care either. no one should bother engaging with policy hypocrites on policy because by their very hypocrisy they prove that they do not care about policy. >> i mean you in your district just this week you were at a community college touting a $350,000 green technology education program talking about how great that was going to be for your district. you voted against the bill that created that grant. and so that's happening a lot with republicans sort of taking credit for things that democratic bills do and then republicans simultaneously touting their votes against them and trashing them. that's, i think, a problem that needs to be resolved within your caucus because you seem like a very nice person but it's a very hypocritical stance to take. >> i can assure you republicans were not consulted on the stimulus bill. >> whether or not house republicans felt adequately consulted on the stimulus bill, that's not the point. they all voted no on it, every single one of them. and that's fine. you can be against the stimulus and not think it's going to work and not going to create jobs. you can also be for the stimulus. you can think it's going to work and create jobs. but you cannot be both against it and for it at the same time. unless you are a hypocrite. you cannot denounce it as creating no jobs and then claim that it's creating lots of valuable jobs at the same time. or you're a hypocrite. i meant it when i said on "meet the press" yesterday morning that congressman shock seems like a very nice person. he does. i also meant it about the hypocrisy. it's not just the $350,000 green technology grant that he took credit for at home after voting against the bill that funded it. congressman schock's hometown bill noted he voted against the bill that funded a $400,000 upgrade for police radios and cameras in east peoria. his vote against the funding did not stop the congressman from, yes, taking credit for it and from handing over the grant. handing over the grant funding during an event in his district. now, look, again, you can be for the president's policies. you can think they're going to work and be good dpor your constituents. you can also be against those policies and not think they're going to work. not think they're not going to be good for your constituents. but you cannot be against those policies and for the policies at the same time unless you're a hypocrite. you can be for a deficit commission. you can k against a deficit commission. you cannot be a person who is both for and against a deficit commission depending on who proposes it unless you're a hypocrite. you can be for health care negotiations broadcast on television or you can be opposed to health reform negotiations being broadcast on television. but you cannot simultaneously hold both of those positions unless you are a hypocrite. i will admit to being as cynical as anyone about politics and politicians. but even i am not so cynical that i don't think rank, two-faced, i believe it now, now i don't believe it hypocrisy shouldn't at least be embarrassing. joining us now is eugene robinson, pults earp prize winning columnist and associate editor for "the washington post" and also an msnbc political analyst. thanks for being here. you can probably hear the ex-aspiration in my voice. and i will not be upset if you tell me i'm being naive and nobody is ever embarrassed by hypocrisy in washington. >> no, i'm not going to say that. i was going to point out that you used the word politician and embarrassment i think in the same sentence. and that is, you know -- i'm not going to expect them to be embarrassed by hypocrisy. but this is -- this is beyond, i think, the usual sort of two-facedness or hypocrisy or whatever you want to call the usual slipperiness of politicians in washington. this strategy that the republican party had of saying no to anything that president obama said yes to is really an unusual strategy. and it brings with it unusual -- it creates unusual situations for congress people. normally, you know, a congress person who needed that federal funding for his or her district like representative schock did would be able to vote for that bill. but they can't vote for anything if obama is in favor of it, if he proposes it. and so they put themselves in these ridiculous positions which, as you pointed out in your introduction, get noticed at home. that clip from the local paper about the east peoria project, i thought that was very interesting because that's the sort of thing that does resonate with voters. hold it, wait a minute. you said you were against this and now you're telling us what a great thing it is. >> it does seem like it makes sense in aggregate for the republican party to have -- this is a strategy in aggregate. pull out all the stops to say no to everything obama is for. but it must create individual politic political liabilities for the politicians who have to carry out these directives. the house democrats campaign arm, i thought it was interesting, seems to be k57 tallizing. launched an online house republicans hall of fame. they're banking that you can combine politician and embarrassment in the same sentence at least when you talk about the other party. >> well, you know, rachel, keep one other thing in mind, though. all those republican members of congress who have to run in the fall are looking over their shoulders at potential challenges from the right, potential challenges from the tea party faction or whatever. and i think a lot of them are worried about being seen as collaborationists with the administration or with washington, in quotes, or with whatever it is that the kind of tea party faction doesn't like. and so that's another incentive for them to kind of toe the line even if the line is absolutely absurd. it -- this really -- this new phase of this discussion between the administration and republicans in congress really started with that session in baltimore between the president and the house caucus. and so far, this exchange has been going very well for the white house because the president keeps saying, you know, come on in, let's talk. and after demanding to be given a seat at the table all this time, they really can't very well say, no, you know, the room is too big or too small or whatever it was boehner was worried about. and so we can't be bothered. >> they could very well say it. the question is whether they can get away with it. so far my sense is that it's 50/50. but i'm leaning on one side of the scale. eugene robinson, pulitzer prize winning columnist and associate editor for "the washington post." always great to have you on the show. thanks very much. >> great to be here. so can you count the number of terrorism suspects arrested on american soil during the bush administration who after they were arrested were read their miranda rights? yes, you can count them. if you can count to all. apparently something has changed drastically under president obama because doing the exact same thing they were doing before has now become a threat to our national security. a long simmering rant breaks free next. and democratic indiana senator evan bayh announced today he will not run for re-election. senator bayh did not bother to inform the national democratic party of his decision ahead of time which is sort of a fitting bye-bye from him. thy cat. his coat is incredibly shiny and soft and very thick. thy cat. everybody thinks he's the most handsome cat they've ever seen. 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>> i think the proper way to deal with it would have been to treat him as an enemy combatant. i think that was the right way to go. >> of course that isn't at all the way that you did go when you were vice president of the united states and making decisions about these things. >> so was it a mistake when your administration took on the richard reid case? this is very similar. this was somebody that was trying to blow up an airliner with a shoe bomb. and he was within five minutes of getting taken off that plane read his miranda rights. four fims in fact in 48 hours and tried through the civilian system. was that a mistake in. >> first of all, i believe he was not tried. he pled guilty. >> you still had an option to put him moo military custody? >> we could have put him into military custody pip don't question that. >> could have put him into military custody. but you did not. the republican effort to attack president obama on the basis of the underpants bomber, unlike the underpants bomb itself, appears to be blowing up. say what you will about dick cheney. he's generally pretty skilled at making political attacks out of national security issues. but this time on this one even he is all tied up in knots. >> so was it a mistake when your administration took on the richard reid case? >> well, we could have put him into military custody pip don't question that. >> yeah, but you didn't. you didn't. you could have and you didn't. the attempted republican talking point on the underpants bomber is that it's an outrage that this would-be bomber was read his miranda rights and treated as a criminal. >> and is reading miranda rights to terrorists any way to fight a war? >> some of us have been so upset about it that they immunized him with the miranda rule. >> i think don't give him miranda rights. >> is it any way to fight a war to read miranda rights? >> you don't go in miranda warnings. >> we don't have to give miranda warnings up front. >> mirandized abdulmutallab is ridiculous. >> the administration seems to have lost sight of this essential requirement for national security out of a preoccupation -- a preoccupation with reading the christmas day bomber his miranda rights. >> he should not have been given his miranda warnings. this should not have been a mirandize situation. you don't mirandize. >> like the underpants bomber, the shoe bomber richard reid, who also failed when he also tried to detonate petn when he was also aboard a u.s.-bound airliner after being at that trained and directed by al qaeda, richard reid was also arrested in the u.s. as a civilian criminal and also read his miranda rights four times. and what was wrong with that? well, certainly no one complained at the time. richard reid was arrested, interrogated, charged as a criminal and is now in prison. he was treated exactly the way the underwear bomber was treated. same for zacarias moussaoui, the only person convicted of participation in the 9/11 plot. he was arrested interrogated charged as a criminal and now in prison. he was treated exactly the way the underwear bomber was treated. he was mirandized. if anyone sees anything wrong with the treatment of the underwear guy who didn't see anything wrong with the treatment of the shoe guy or zacarias moussaoui or the scores of other terrorism suspects we've treated the same way, the only salient difference between the cases is that now barack obama is president. . so there must be something wrong. every single person arrested in this country since 9/11 on terrorism charges or evenly terrorism-related charges, every single one has been handled as a civilian criminal. every single one. and of the years thoof elapsed since 9/11. 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005 -- what came next, 2006, 2007, 2008. after all of the years since 2001, after all of the years in which every single person arrested on terrorism charges in this country was handled as a civilian criminal, in every one dick cheney was the vice president of the united states. >> i think the proper way to deal with it would have been to treat him as an enemy combatant. >> that would be a lot more convincing if you had ever done that yourself when you had the chance. every single person arrested in this country since 9/11 on terrorism charges, i repeat, has been handled as a civilian criminal which includes being mirandized. the only twoout liars jose padilla and amarry both in military custody for a while during which they didn't cooperate with their interrogators. then even they ultimately were handled in the federal criminal system. there are no exceptions to this rule. the underwear bomber is being treated exactly the way that terrorism suspects arrested in the u.s. were treated during the bush administration. arrested, interrogated, charged as a criminal. yes, that process includes being mirandized. the bush administration did it hundreds of times. and the current administration has continued doing it. only now the bush administration in exile would have you believe that what they did all those years was a huge mistake. the mistakenness of which only became apparent when some other president did it. someone who's a democrat. this is just like the deficit commission or pay-go or cap and trade or televising the health reform hearings or closing guantanamo or any of these other things where politicians were for it until barack obama signed on with it. then those same politicians are against it all of a sudden. it's called hypocrisy. and it should be reported as such. this has become a joke. i was jn for a few days, and i was wondering if i could say hi to the doctor. is he in? he's in copenhagen. oh, well, that's nice. but you can still see him! you just said he was in... copenhagen. come on! that's pretty far. doc, look who's in town. ellen! copenhagen? cool, right? vacation. but still seeing patients. oh. [ whispering ] workaholic. i heard that. she said it. i... 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hey you guys, miss me? want to know what i've been doing? ever heard of yemen? as it shakes out, evan bayh in typical evan bayh fashion kind of did sucker punch his own party on his way out the door. but the effect of this last punch may well be mitigated for democrats because the republicans themselves have been doing a pretty good job of punching themselves out all this time. joining us now to sort this out is dan parker. he is chairman of the democratic party in indiana and he's getting a lot of attention today. mr. parker, thank you very much for your time tonight. really appreciate it. >> good evening, rachel. >> did you have any inkling that senator bayh was going to quit today? >> no, i did not. he did call me this weekend to let me know of his decision. we were actually planning on doing television ads this week, filming them. and we had the petition drive done and red dwroi file. but he came to his decision this weekend and let me know. >> is it in fact too late for any democrats to meet the primary filing deadline at this point? does it look like there won't an primary? >> well, rachel, it's a two-step process. you need to have your petitions in to the county clerks to be satisfied tomorrow by noon. and then you need to collect all of those and then submit them to the secretary of state's office by noon on friday. so it's a two-step process. it is very difficult no ses to get done because voters' addresses need to match on the voters preparation rolls. it takes a lot of times. mr. coats who got in the race ten days ago has been paying people for ten days to collect his and he just got done today. >> wow. on the republican side, do you think there would have been more interest by more and stronger republican candidates for this race if senator bayh had made this announcement earlier? >> well, i think that the national republican party got mr. coats to get in the race primarily because they were not happy with the republicans that were running. the person who had the most amount of money at the end of the year was mr. stutzman. he had $4,000 in the bank. but as you've -- as you've kind of highlighted, mr. coats is kind of a disaster of a candidate. probably the worst candidate rollout i've ever seen in my life. and he is not gone over well here in indiana. the indiana republican party is somewhat divided, particularly the tea party movement who sees his lobbying for both hugo chavez and bank of america as a pure disaster for the republican party. >> on the democratic side, if there doesn't end up being a primary -- and there's no reason to prejudge that but it seems likely -- on what grounds and by what means will indiana democrats choose a candidate to run for this seat? >> well, rachel, i've been taught never to assume anything in politics. but assuming for a second that no candidate by tomorrow has enough signatures into the county clerks, there is a provision in state statute and by party rule that the indiana democratic party's state central committee can gather sometime thereafter to fill the ballot vacancy for the fall. so there will be a democratic nominee for the united states senate. and our attempts are going to field the strongest possible candidate that we can to make sure that hoosiers are represented with someone that shares our values. >> i imagine -- i can tell both by your job description and by your demeanor right here that you are going to be exceedingly diplomatic when i ask you this, but i got to ask you. the democratic short list that's being talked about so far includes congressman if brad elsworth and barron hill and tamara d' ippolito. are those the four you're looking at? are there others you are planning on the list or should we exclude any of those folks? >> i don't think we should exclude anyone. i'm trying not to mention any names because i want this to be an open process as we move forward. i have been contacted by numerous people that are interested in running. but i think that it's a little too early to start talking about specific names because we need to get past tomorrow's deadline first and then we'll move forward with all parts of the party to talk about who the best possible person is to be the nomin nominee. we have a lot of great democrats here in indiana on our bench. and i am very confident that we will field the candidate that can win this race because, as you've mentioned, the republican candidates are an absolute disaster and would be in complete opposition to most of the good things that are going on to get this economy back on track. >> so i nailed it on you being very diplomatic on that one, which i want credit for. but briefly before we go, beltway common wisdom in my experience is usually wrong. beltway common wisdom is that evan bayh is really the only democrat who can win a senate race in indiana. can you make a bumper sticker case to the country that a democrat will hold this seat? >> well, evan bayh was a great governor, great u.s. senator for indiana. and he's going to be very difficult to replace. but we will field a strong candidate. and i promise you this, rachel. i feel confident that we will win this race. >> dan parker, chairman of the indiana democratic party. thank you so much for joining us tonight. i'm sure it was a very busy time for you. really appreciate it. >> rachel, thank you. history may look back on february 2010 as the last month when there was any difference between the republican party and the aforementioned tea party. that story starring michael steele is next. and our contest to replace the snooze-inducing term filibuster continues. and oh, what good work our audience has done on this assignment. we will review our options with chris hayes of "the nation." 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kidding. kidding. next up, the republican party and the amorphous tea party movement are becoming a distinction without distinction. if you go to tea party.com you can send a teabag to the president, the vice president or democratic leaders in congress. i just found that today. tomorrow the perpetual gift to democrats that keeps on giving, republican national committee chairman michael steele, will meet with 50 self-described leaders of the tea party movement. the founder of one such meeting in florida set up the meeting and told our producer, quote -- the problem with wildfire of course is that you can't contain it. you can't just bottle it up and then unleash it wherever you've determined it would be beneficial to do so. take the case of senator john mccain. republican presidential candidate in 2008. a 24-year mainstay of the party. a big leader for the republicans. or at least he used to be. now he's got a primary challenger. a primary challenger in the form of j.d. hayworth former congressman and radio talk show host. >> today i announce my candidacy for the united states senate for the great state of arizona. >> j.d. hey worth indicated in interviews today he'd like to harness the power of the tea party movement even though he's technically not running as a tea party if candidate. it all must be awkward with senator mccain. announcing his tea party inspired run for your job. makes mccain sort of a man without a country first. speaking of senator mccain, mccain alums, john salter, nicole wallace, steve schmidt, even sarah palin they've all since election day '08 trashed john mccain and/or the mccain campaign for president. they have a new member in their ranks. incredibly it is joe the plumber, famous for being neither a joe nor a plumber. he's samuelwurzelbacher. he told someone mccain messed up his life and doesn't owe the arizona senator a gosh-darned thing. here's the quote -- i don't owe him bull pucky. he really screwed my life up is how i look at it. for the record, mr. wurzelbacher did not say bull pucky. new mousse temptations by jell-o. a rich and airy treat. ♪ because after you've washed the bills... and paid all the dishes... it's finally me o'clock. enjoy it with mousse temptations. three decadent flavors. 60 calories. it's me o'clock. time for jell-o. ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] you've wanted to quit smoking so many times, but those days came and went and the cigarettes remained. ♪ today's a new day. talk to your doctor about prescription treatment options and support. and this time, make it your time. we have some breaking news this hour from the war in afghanistan. the taliban's top military commander has been captured. dexter filkins and mark mazzetti of the "new york times" report a secret joint operation by pakistani and american forces captured him several days ago in karachi. he's an afghan named mullah abdul ghani baradar. "new york times" describing him as the most significant taliban figure to be detained since the war began eight years ago. they think this is the biggest fish they've ever got in afghanistan. his influence among taliban leaders is considered only second to muhammad omar. believed to have been close to osama bin laden before 9/11. he's reportedly been in pakistani custody several days. both pakistan and american intelligence officials are taking part in the interrogation. again, this is a big headline. "new york times" reporting that a joint american/pakistani intelligence operation has captured the taliban's top military commander. we will be assessing and reporting on this news in coming days. stay with us on this one. introducing fast crystal packs. a new way from alka-seltzer plus to... get cold and flu relief in a taste-free, fizz-free powder. alka-seltzer plus. i'm just a skeptic so i don't necessarily believe that anything is going to work but i was like, hey, this actually works. (announcer) only rogaine foam is shown to regrow hair in 85% of guys. i'll check it out and i'm like, nice. (announcer) rogain foam. stop losing. start gaining. for months we here at the ra rachel maddow show have been driving friends and family members even occasional people on the subway crazy about our passion about a topic that is vitally important to how our government works or doesn't. it's the filibuster problem, the political jujitsu move by which a minority of senators can block legislation they don't like, threatening to expand debate on it indefinitely until 60% -- i recognize that it's not easy to hear about over and over again. i can't even make it exciting even as excited about it as i am. and that's the problem, because we are smack in the middle of an unprecedented abuse of the filibuster that has changed the way our government works in a radical way. let's bring out the chart, okay. since the republicans lost the senate in 2006 there's been a huge spike in how often the filibuster is used. now for the first time in u.s. history forcing the 60-vote super majorities. for routine senate business. are you still awake? are you still awake? it's very important. now that senator udall and senator tom harkin and senator shaheen are sponsoring legislation to change senate rules so a tiny minority cannot thwart the will of the majority anymore, it's important to keep people interested in how important that is. to that end we're trying some rebranding. we need to replace the admittedly soporific problem description of the filibuster problem with a name worthy of something so important. on friday's show we asked you to help us rename the filibuster problem. here are some of the hundreds of ideas that have already flooded in. pass interference. hung senate. we asked you to help us rename the filibuster problem and here are some of the ideas that have already flooded in. pass interference. hung senate. minority veto. minority rule. simple but effective. and how about this one? lawjam. these are great. we've received a lot. we would like even more. please go to rachel.msnbc.com, click on "the filibuster challenge." we're going to pool the ideas together and then pick a winner. if you win, you get relatively lame prizes that i hope you like anyway. it's a "rachel maddow show" sweatshirt and a "rachel maddow show" mug both made in america. you might be able to add to that swag a country with a future. joining us now is chris hayes, washington editor of "the nation," who is one of the few people to have successfully thought off the urge to write passionately about the filibuster. chris, nice to see you. >> nice to see you, rachel. one of my twitter followers said if we really wanted the republicans to join us, we should rename it "gay marriage," which i kind of like. >> i once -- the first time i ever played laser tag. >> the first time? >> you want to talk laser tag? you can put your name, you can program it into your little laser tag receiver thing so people can, so people can tell when you shoot them. i wanted to be as scary as possible. this was like 1996. so i made my name "gay marriage" in laser tag. everybody just ran out of the maze. >> that's the way to intimidate. >> all right. on the policy here, could democrats get rid of the filibuster tomorrow, if they really wanted to? could that do it at any time? >> the answer to that is a qualified yes. and the reason it's qualified is because it's never really been tested. so let's run through four possible ways to get rid of it, starting with the most difficult. the most difficult will be changing senate rules, right? so senate rule 22 is the cloture rule. that requires 67 votes, to change senate rules. so it's unlikely to get 67 votes. the next most difficult way town statutorily, as tom harkin has suggested, to pass a bill that would change the rule. the two most interesting ways are, one, to start at the new congress, after the elections this fall in january, to change the rules, or to do essentially what the republicans threatened to do back in 2005, which is essentially the nuclear option. the nuclear option would allow them to essentially get rid of the filibuster tomorrow, if vice president and 51 senators were along with it. >> vice president and 50, right, because he would make up the 51st -- >> exactly, right. yes. >> they just need a majority. this, i think, is politically important. because in 2005, the republicans threatened to go nuclear and democrats were so freaked out by the prospect, they gave them all sorts of concessions and bush got all his judges. there has to be a credible belief. it's not that republicans had 67 senators at that time. there has to be a credible belief that they actually can do it. when you say it's a qualified yes that they can do it, are you saying there are doubts about whether the nuclear is constitutional. >> it's never been ruled on. in tact it's an uncharted area of law. the constitution gives to the body of the senate the ability to make its own rules. now, that's interrupted, there's an 1892 decision called bawlin versus the united states, in which that's interpreted as a majority of the senate. and it's hard to see how you can construe it otherwise. an internal procedural rules of a body of congress are technically called nonjusticeable. but the court is going to be very unlikely to enter into it. if you made this ruling, the nuclear option is based on a senator raising a point of order in which he claims the filibuster is unconstitutional and that ruling is endorsed and voted upon by a majority of participants. the point is, there is no other body to appeal to. it's possible maybe the supreme court in a totally unprecedented move would assert itself. the point is this hasn't been ruled on. but the larger point, as you point out, there have been moments in which procedural changes have happened in the senate. happened after world war i, happened after watergate in the 19730s and it wasn't a procedural change so much as it was a political change. there was a political recognition the body was broken and things had to change, and that's really the most important thing. >> chris hayes, washington editor of "the nation," thank you for your time tonight. i feel like the politics of this are one thing, but the actual details about how it would get done, there's so much confusion and misinformation out there about it that expect to be called back to say this exact thing all over again very soon. >> i would be happy. and if you ever want to play laser tag, just let me know. >> watch out. here comes gay marriage. thanks, chris. coming up on "countdown," keith's special comment on race and the tea party. first on this show, politics and pooches collide. happily. that's next. stay with us. 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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(pipe woman) so, you could treat yourself to more time with friends and family or more of whatever you like to do with fewer urges and leaks. ask your doctor today about taking care with vesicare. we turn now to our kennis familiarias correspondent. i've spent all day learning how to say that, kent jones. hi, kent. >> today i went to the westminster kennel club dog show, super bowl of dog shows. >> so jealous. >> if you want to look at all the different breeds that gather together at a dog show as a metaphor for america, i won't stop you. when will our political leaders finally profit from the four-legged genius? to explore the connection between dogs and politics, i talked to several dog owners today. and more importantly, i talked to several dogs. you got any names for the filibuster? this filibuster has got to go, right? we can't go on this way. it's untenable. 59 is still a majority. we can't go on this way. you'll get a mug, though, and a sweat shirt. it will almost fit. yeah, i've been saying that for months. i don't have anything either. clearly dogs bring fresh ideas to the political table. but is america ready for a dog president? i have a question for you. >> yes. >> do you think tipper would make a good president? >> yes. >> why? >> she's not afraid to say what she wants to say. >> i'm sold! tipper the beagle 2012. but wait. could there be an interparty challenger? do you think a dog would make a good president? >> well, australian shepherds are very smart, sometimes conniving so yeah. >> this dog would make a good president? >> of course he would. >> you heard it here. spooner 2012. personally, this is who i'm voting for. an exploratory committee has been formed and we're already prepping for the campaign trail. >> i would let that dog kiss a baby. >> i got high-fived by spooner. >> i'm so jealous of you. that does it for us. we'll see you tomorrow night. "hardball" is next. >> ten little democrat. let's play "hardball." good evening. i'm chris matthews, and snowy again washington. leading off tonight, losing indiana. it's like thatting a that christy murder mystery where ten people show up at a house and drop off one at a time. first it was byron dorgan of north dakota who dropped off the re-election list and then chris dodd of connecticut and beau biden said he's not running in november. today, evan bayh took his name out and i forgot the democrat that was going to fill ted kennedy's seat up in massachusetts. she never even made it to washington. suddenly the democrats who thought they could run the country with 60 senators find themselves strangely collapsing in numbers. could they really be in danger of losing not just the house but the senate, too? plus, that split-screen showdown