Transcripts For MSNBCW The Rachel Maddow Show 20140725

Her name was Florence Schumaker Thompson. She was asked if she would fill in and become the sheriff in her husbands absence. She said yes. She was sworn in in davis county the day after her husbands funeral. And as unusual as it was at the time, in the 1930s, to have a woman sheriff in the United States, the reason Florence Schumaker Thompson became nationally famous as a local county sheriff in kentucky at the time is because while she was sheriff of that county, she had to carry out a hanging. Just a few weeks after she was sworn in, an africanamerican man named rainy bathea was sentenced to die in davis county, kentucky, after he was convicted of raping and murdering a local white woman. He did not protest his innocence. Although he did fight his sentence. He tried to avoid the death sentence, but the county did convict him and they were determined to hang him and sheriff Florence Schumaker Thompson thereby became the first woman in the United States to be given the task of carrying out an execution. Hundreds of reporters and photographers from all over the country descended on owensboro to cover the hanging, a hanging conducted by a woman, right . Sheriff thompson had secretly arranged to actually not hang the guy, herself. She had agreed with an exPolice Officer, a male former Police Officer from louisville, kentucky, that unbeknownst to everybody who was turning up to see the hanging, he actually would be the one to pull the trigger to open the trap door to actually kill the guy. And they knew they were going to get a lot of people turning out for this execution. They moved it from the courthouse to an empty lot in town. 20,000 people showed up to watch that hanging. As did the cop who had agreed to serve as the executioner so the woman sheriff wouldnt have to do it. But reports from the time indicate that that cop who agreed to actually be the one to pull the trigger there, he turned up too drunk to actually do the job. The convicted prisoner was prepared for the hanging. They had him up on the gallos. They reportedly screamed at the cop twice that it was time to do it, he should do it, he should pull the trigger, operate the trap door and kill the guy. The cop from louisville either wouldnt do it or he couldnt do it. He was maybe too drunk to be able to perform his duty and eventually somebody else crammed up there on the gallows triggered the trap door and the hanging was finally done. The photos and the articles and the headlines from that hanging ran all over the country. The New York Daily News ran this collage of pictures showing the huge crowd of 20,000 people. You can see the headline up there at the very top. Dropped through trap to eternity provides populace with Roman Holiday. Its essentially chastising us as a country for treating an execution, even this one with scandalous truth of a woman sheriff and everything. Essentially its sort of a chastising tone that we as a country were treating an execution as an entertainment, a Roman Holiday, like the romans turning out to see the christians fed to the lions. But that hanging in owensboro, kentucky, in august 1936, that was the last legal public execution in the country. The last legal execution that was held before a crowd in the Public Square. We never did it again like that after that time. Thereafter when americans did turn out in large groups to see People Killed in public, we didnt call it a formal execution. We didnt call it a state hanging. People did turn out to see public executions after this but they werent official ones. They were lynch mobs. When the state does these things officially, we no longer conduct them out in an empty lot somewhere so tens of thousands of people can crowd in. We dont put executions out in public the way we used to. It has been 75 year since we last did that when we last did it in owensboro, kentucky. Executions now still are public proceedings, right . Theyre an act of government. Legally they cant be secret. The public has a right to know. There have to be witnesses. Theoretically, at least, its all a transparent process. You see that in granular ways. Like yesterday in arizona, efforts of prison officials to kill a man at the Arizona State prison complex started to go wrong. Not long after they started the process of killing him. The expected 10 or 15 minutes, what everybody was expecting for the execution, it stretched on and on. 20 minutes, 30 minutes, 40 minutes, 50 minutes. More than an hour after they had injected the guy, the guy still was not dead. He was still gasping. His stomach was reportedly visibly convulsing. He was making loud sucking sounds. More than an hour into their efforts to kill him. More than an hour and a half into their efforts to kill him. In the middle of that, his lawyers called a federal judge to try to get this bungled execution stopped while the guy was lying there on the gurney sucking air more than an hour into his attempted execution. At one point, the lawyers got Supreme Court Justice Anthony kennedy on the phone. Justice kennedy reportedly declined to stop the execution. They also got another federal judge, a Federal District court judge from arizona on the phone, and in that conversation, because this is a public matter, there was a Court Reporter on the phone writing down everything that happened in that conversation. This is a public proceeding. This is something being done with taxpayer money as a matter of Public Policy, we are supposed to know about it. And so even though that was just a phone call, it didnt happen in any courtroom, we have the transcript today of that conversation between the lawyers and the judge from when the man was on the gurney and they were trying to kill him and it was more than an hour into him not dying. We have the transcript. So the judge says to the mans attorney, robin konrad, miss konrad, she responds i just filed a motion for an emergency stay of execution. Mr. Woods execution started at 1 52. Being sedated at 15u 57. Since that time hes been gasping, snorting, unable to breathe and not dying. Were asking, our motion asks for you to issue an emergency stay and order the department of corrections to start lifesaving techniques as required under their protocol. Then the judge responds on this phone call. Okay. Ive been pulled out of a meeting. We will do everything we an to deal with the emergency it denands and i have a Court Reporter here. We are on the record. Then the judge says i want to make an attempt right now to obtain participation of an attorney for the state. Who would that be . The prisoners attorney suggests she might want to be talking to an attorney named jeff zick who works for the state. They have the discussion do you have phone numbers for these people . The judge says the reality is ill take anybody we can reach right now but we should start with the most appropriate person. The lawyer and the judge then discuss what might be the phone number for this attorney who works for the state of arizona. The judge explains he doesnt know how to do Conference Calling on his phone then the lawyer for the man whos strapped to the gurney gasping for breath says she knows how to do Conference Call on her phone so they can do it through her phone. The judge says, no, my staff here figured out to do the Conference Call. They put her on hold. The judge says, mr. Zick, this is judge wake calling. Hi, judge wake. I need to put you on a Conference Call with robin konrad. Im sorry, the lawyer says, let me step out of my office. This is while this man is on the gurney gasping and not dying. More than and hour into them trying to kill him. And while that is happening, the judge explains, mr. Zick, miss konrad advises me mr. Wood has not yet expired and this has been going on for, what, nearly and hour and a half. And they go back and forth in this conversation. Weve got the transcript. They go back and forth about whats happened thus far, how long the guy has been not dying on the gurney since they injected him. They talk about what the protocol is for the state if they have procedures for trying to stop the execution to maybe try to bring him back. And who would make that decision . Would it be the governor . Would it be the warder . Would it be the director of corrections . Does anybody know how this works . And then the lawyer for the state, hes assistant attorney general, he interjects with this information he had fed to him from the prison. He tells the judge, again, we have the transcript. I am told mr. Wood is effectively brain dead and this reaction youre seeing, this is the type of reaction one gets if theyre taken off life support. The brain stem is working but theres no brain activity. The judge responds well, tell me briefly how it is. Is he . Do you have leads or probes necessary to determine his brain state . Repeat that, judge, im sorry . Do you have leads or probes connected to determine his brain state . I dont believe there are leads connected on the head, but im not sure, but i know the individual who told me this information is medically trained. The judge says what im wondering is what the basis is for the conclusion that hes effectively brain dead. The lawyer responds its because of the medical training and all i know is thats the information that was given to me. I can certainly find that out. The judge says well, if there are not monitors connected to him, if its a visual observation, thats very concerning as not being adequate. Tell me, what is the current status and what is the anticipated course of action from this minute forward . And they proceed. The lawyer for the state saying basically everythings going fine here. Theres a medical professional overseeing this. He says, were pretty sure hes this is not a quote. He says basically were pretty sure hes brain dead, i cant tell you how we know that but basically we think he is and i trust the people on site who believe that he is. The judge basically seems like hes not necessary live believing that, right . The judge says seeing it doesnt sound like enough for me. The attorney for the man whos lying on the gurney then says they want the state to step in and stop what theyve been doing now for more than an hour and a half, since what theyve been doing doesnt appear to be killing him and its been a long time. Ultimately, 13 minutes into this phone call, while the execution is going on, the uj explains im considering right now based on whats presented to me whether the execution should be suspended. He says questi s i do intend t this matter. And the inability to deliberate at any length. They argue about it, discuss the protocol, try to get more information. 26 minutes into this amazing call, theres an interruption. I just, i just, im sorry, judge. The judge says go ahead. The lawyer says i just learned that the Iv Team Leader has confirmed mr. Woods death. The judge says all right. Let me finish my thought. Because its my responsibility. And the judge, in the transcript continues to explain his final legal reasoning in this matter which obviously is now moot in this individual case. The now dead prisoners attorney thanks the judge for doing his best under the circumstances. The judge responds, not at all. Its my responsibility. I have attempted to deal with it as rapidly as humanly possible. Anything further, mr. Zick . No, your honor. All right, im going to have the Court Reporter type this up, type up this transcript and file it so its publicly available. Proceeding concluded. The confusion over who could have tstopped the execution if they wanted to, what the method is for stopping an execution thats already under way, how much of one drug the prisoner received, if it was within the law for him to receive more of the drug since the process already started. All of that confusion was basically totally unclear, right . During the nearly twohourlong process of the execution. And its unclear during the half an hour that they were on the phone trying to decide what to do next. And that confusion is in part because killing prisoners may be an act of Public Policy carried out with tax papayer money by people working for the government, but killing prisoners is a bit of an ad hoc system in arizona right now. Of the last three prisoners arizona has killed since october, all three of them were killed by three different sets of drugs. In october, they killed one guy with a one drug protocol. Two weeks later they culled another guy with a threedrug combination. None of which involved the one drug they had just used on somebody else two weeks earlier. Yesterday is the third prisoner theyve killed since october and another novel combination, this time two drugs, two drugs that arizona had never used before. So in one state, theres been three prisoners, three different ways of killing them. And that kind of chaos, which is not just in arizona, but it is in arizona, that kind of chaos is in part because of the availability of the drugs that states like to use or that states want to try to use to carry out these killings. As we have moved the process of killing people from the gallows in the scarquare, right, as we e moved it to be an indoor thing, it has remained, constitutionally must remain a public process. But its not supposed to be a Roman Holiday anymore, right . Its not supposed to be for our mass entertainment in the streets anymore. Its supposed to be a much more sober, quiet process. We keep trying to find quieter and quieter ways of killing people. Instead of hanging, they went to the electric chair. Instead of the electric chair, they tried the gas chamber. Instead of the gas chamber, they tried the lethal injection idea. Move toward things that are painless, quiet, medical, professional, and clean. And constitutionally, legally, we have to let people see this process. We will never be a country that carries out its executions in secret. Constitutionally, we cant. But if people are going to see it, if we as americans are allowed, at least through the media, to witness this stuff, we have gone through Great Lengths to make it not so much a spectacle anymore, not like it used to be in the bad old days. What we really are the only country in the whole world that tries to it this way. Theres very new countries left in the world that officially have legal killing of prisoners by the government. In all of europe, theres only one nation left. Its the nation of belarus. The former soviet state. Now dictatorship thats sort of a satellite of russia at this point. And in belarus, its one place in europe where they still do kill prisoners legally and their method of killing prisoners in belarus is that they shoot them. They shoot them in the head. Interestingly, though, in belarus when they do it, they do it completely in secret. In belarus in youre convicted of a capital crime, youre not told the date on which you will be executed. Its never publicly announced. Your family, your attorneys, nobody is ever told when or where exactly you are going to be killed. But then once they have killed you, they hide your body. They only notify the family, the lawyers, anybody else once the death sentence has already been carried out. Once youre already dead. And then they secretly bury your body and dont tell anybody where it is. Theres some reports from belarus that suggest that families, when they find out after the fact that their Family Member has been killed by the state, shot to death inside a prison, Family Members then drive around the capital city in belarus looking for fresh graves trying to figure out if they can find where their loved one has been secretly buried by the state because the state didnt tell them. They tnt know the execution was coming. Thats the only country left in europe that still kills prisoners and thats how they do it. Here, of course, its all public. And we dont just shoot people anymore. But last night, after this twohourlong gasping marathon process, the brotherinlaw of one of the victims, one of the murder victims of this prisoner who was killed, was asked about the lethal injection yesterday in arizona and how long it took and what he thought of the process. His response in part was this. Why didnt we give him a bullet . Why didnt we give him some draino . In the legal wrangling over this case, before arizona killed this man last night over this long process, one federal appeals judge in california made a similar argument in language that was almost as florid. Alex kosinski wrote in the ninth circuit whatever happens to this particular prisoner, joseph wood, the attacks will not stop and for a simple reason he wrote, the enterprise is flawed. Using drugs meant for individuals with medical needs to carry out executions is a misguided effort to mask the brutality of executions by making them look serene and peaceful, but executions are in fact nothing like that. Theyre brutal events and nothing the state tries to do can mask that reality nor should it. If we as a society want to carry out executions, we should be willing to face the fact the state is committing a horrendous brutality on our behalf. If some states wish to continue to carry out the Death Penalty, they must turn away from this misguided path and return to more primitive and foolproof methods of execution. The guillotine is probably best but seems inconsistent with our National Ethos and electric chair and hanging can have mishaps. Eight or ten large caliber rifle bullets fired at close range can inflikt massive damage causing instant death every time. Sure, firing squads he writes, firing squads can be messy. Sure, firing squads can be messy, but if were willing to carry out executions, we should not shield ourselves from the reality that were shedding human blood. If we as a society cannot handle the splatter of execution carried out by a firing squad, we shouldnt be carrying out executions at all. No one else in the world does what we do. In belarus, they do shoot people but do it in secret. They go so far as to hide the bodies. We used to execute people publicly enjoying the splatter as a Roman Holiday, a form of mass sport and entertainment. We so embarrassed ourselves in the florid public enjoyment of that spectacle that we have since tried to hide it away over the last 75 years. Weve invented this pseudomedical disguise for what were doing. The medical profession is no longer all that psyched to go along with their role in this disguise. If we want to keep doing this, there are few models around the world of other places that are still trying to do it. Theres no normal way to do it and we do it in a way that nobody else even tries. And our constitution will not allow us to do it in secret. Leaving families to hunt through fresh graves hoping one of those fresh graves might hold the secret dead. Right . Our constitution wont let us do that. But the other examples around the world when they do it, they do it like we used to. They do it in the Public Square. They rent a stadium. They dont call it something that its not. We have been congratulating ourselves for a long time on being less barbaric when the few countries left that cut off heads or hang people in the Public Square. Like saudi arabia, or iran, or afghanistan under the taliban. Yesterday in arizona, they took two hours to kill the guy. Arizona today said they think it was fairly normal. They dont think there was anything wrong with the process. Two hours. Is that really less barbaric than the gallows used to be in the Public Square . Is it really less barbaric just because there were fewer people in the room in arizona last night . Ave you fifteen percent or more on Car Insurance. Everybody knows that. Well, did you know words really can hurt you . What. . Jesse dont go jesse. No im sorry daisy, but im a loner. And a loner gotta be alone. Heee yawww geico. Fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more. Jesse . Yyyup. With xfinity internet soyour family can use all their devices at once. Works anywhere in the house. Even in the garage. Max whats going on . Were doing a tech startup. Were streamlining an algorithm. Were going public [cheering] the fastest inhome wifi for your entire family. The x1 entertainment operating system. Only from xfinity. Live in the same communities that we serve. People here know that our operations have an impact locally. Were using more natural gas vehicles than ever before. The trucks are reliable, thats good for business. But they also reduce emissions, and thats good for everyone. It makes me feel very good about the future of our company. This is gary locke, former governor of washington state. He was our nations most recent ambassador to china before max baucus took over that swrob. Before he was ambassador to china, gary locke was the u. S. Secretary of commerce. He had that job for most of president obamas first term. Right before gary locke stepped down as commerce secretary in order to go become ambassador to china, a commerce issue came up of some international delicacy. American states that liked using a particular drug to kill prisoners found that they couldnt get that drug anymore. Sodium th wheryopentol, it was to kill prisoners for years but prisons started to run out. The manufacturer stopped making it in january 2011. The British Government banned it from being exported to the United States from britain because they knew what we were doing with it. An Indian Company for a time was still willing to send it to the United States and they did send it to a few prisons. But that didnt last for long. The Indian Government figured out what was going on and they put a stop to that as well because of what we are using that drug for. The execution chambers were running dry so gary locke, u. S. Secretary of commerce, called up the german secretary of commerce and asked his german counterpart for help. Hey, germany, do you guys have any sodium thyopentol you could help us with . You know what we use it for, right . I noted the request and declined, the german minister said and then the german minister went further and actually banned any german and from sending this drug to the United States. And then by later that year, the whole European Union banned sending that drug to the United States for any purpose. Since everybody knew that the u. S. Was using that drug to kill people. Since then, the manufacturers of a substitute drug called pentobar pentobarbol restricted the sale of that drug in the United States. When missouri announced plans to use another substitute for that substitute, propofol, when they said they were going to use propofol to kill people, the manufacturers of that drug said if you do that, missouri, well ban our drug from being used anywhere in the United States for anything, and since that drug has other uses that are medically appropriate that arent just for killing people, missouri backed off. They didnt want to get the whole drug banned from the United States for all purposes, so they took it back. Then the state of indiana announced plans to use another substitute for the substitute. Indiana suggested they would use a drug called brevetol to kill people. The manufacturers of brevetol immediately then moved to ban the sale of that drug to any prison in the United States or to anyone who would resell it to any prison in the United States. And that has left another substitute for the substitute for the substitute for the substitute, a drug called midazolam, not an anesthetic, just a sedative thats now been used in three consecutive executions that have received wide attention for being botched basically. Nobody likes that word, but three executions that took way longer than anybody expected. The prisoner appearing to gasp and snort air and in some cases writhe and choke or start to try to speak, when they were supposed to be unconscious. There was one of those in january in ohio. There was one of those in april in oklahoma. There was one of those last night in arizona. All of them midazolam. There are two companies that manufacturer midazolam, both based in illinois. One of those two Companies Says they do not want their drug, they do not want their mizazolam to be used by prisons to kill people. Its not at all clear if the company put in place real restrictions to stop that from happening. Weve seen it happen with other drugs. They say dont want it used. Its not clear that theyve actually stopped their drug from going into prisons. Thats one of the two. Thats called sagent. Sagent. Theres another company in illinois, acorn, and theyre fine with that drug used to kill people in experimental measures all over the country now, at least three of which have been botched to point of Getting National headlines. This other Company Called acorn, they appear to have no policy about the Death Penalty at all. The company is called akorn, spelled with a k, akorn. It was used in the execution last night in arizona that took nearly two hours to kill the man. Joining us, robin konrad, one of joseph woods lawyers. Some of her words i was reading in the transcript in the frantic conversation with the judge while the execution was taking place. Robin konrad, thanks for beings with us. Thank you for having any. You were the attorney appealing last night. Your client died before a ruling was rendered. What were you hoping to happen in that conversation . What did you want from that federal judge . What could he have done . We wanted the federal judge to stay the execution. We got word after an hour that mr. Wood was gasp iing. The execution had not been completed. This was unusual. This was an experimental drug combination and we were concerned. So we went to the federal court and asked for a stay of execution and asked that the department of corrections use lifesaving measures. Obviously the judge was in the process of turning you down on that request when the word came through that your client had died. I understand there was also an effort to contact the United States Supreme Court during the course of the execution. Can you explain what happened there . Yes, we actually went to every court possible. We contacted the arizona Supreme Court and the United States Supreme Court and went to the Federal District court judge who had heard mr. Woods case when we asked for a preliminary injunction. And we were seeking a court that could hear the request for the stay as soon as possible. And the Federal District judge was the court that heard the motion first. I know you are representing other prisoners on death row in arizona right now. At least thats my understanding. How do you anticipate that last nights events may effect the cases of other prisoners who are looking at an execution date in arizona . Well, it certainly will have an impact on the pending case which is before the same District Court judge, and that court indicated that the events that occurred during mr. Woods bungled execution will have an impact and will need time in order to see how it will effect the case. I have to ask you, as somebody whos doing Death Penalty litigation, i guess your personal o ppinion on these matters is not necessarily relevant to your role as an advocate, but is something materially unfixable about whats going on in arizona in terms of the way they are killing people or is whats happening now basically a glitch in the system that arizona is between protocols, that they havent experimented enough to figure out the right way to kill people, but there is some right way to kill people that the state could do properly . How do you view this overall . I think the problem is we dont know, and there needs to be transparency which has not happened in arizona. So we requested information about the drugs, about the choice of drugs that the department of corrections was using for the first time in mr. Woods execution and we requested information about the qualifications of the iv team. None of that is provided to the public, and that is a huge concern in knowing if there is a way that an execution can be carried out humanely and consistent with the constitution. And in our name, as a matter of Public Policy, done with taxpayer dollars. Robin konrad, attorney for joseph wood. I know your client has died but this fight continues. Please keep us apprised. Thanks for being with us. Thank you. All right. Theres much more news to come. Just to close, one loop from last nights coverage on this story, we reported there was some question as to whether or not the local medical examiner would take blood and tissue samples from that killed prisoner as a federal court had ordered. Those tissue samples and blood samples were taken from the man who was killed, but not within the timeframe that was suggested or actually ordered by the federal court. They took those samples this morning. Again, in a sort of pseudolegal response to the courts order. It is an ad hoc process and a chaotic one in arizona as it is around the country now. More to come. Stay with us. Honey, look i got one to land. Uhhuh theres good more. Honey, look at all these smart rewards points verizon just gave me. Ooh, you got a buddy. Im like a statue. I just signed up and, boom, all these points. And theres notsogood more. Youre a big guy. Oh no. Get the good more with Verizon Smart rewards and rack up points to use towards the things you really want. Now get 50 off all new smartphones. The summer of this. Mmer. The summer that summers from here on will be compared to. Where memories will be forged into the sand. And then hung on a wall for years to come. Get out there, with over 50,000 hotels at 150 dollars or less. Expedia. Find yours. You pay your Auto Insurance premium every month on the dot. Youre like the poster child for paying on time. And then one day you tap the bumper of a station wagon. 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Weve just got in some new footage that you should see. Tonight in the west bank, there are huge protests. Thousands of palestinians staging a rather massive protest of the israeli invasion and bombardment of gaza. Israeli Border Police and soldiers clashed with these protesters in the west bank tonight. Reports tonight are that two palestinian men were killed in these protests. Dozens of other protesters were injured. To be clear, this is not happening in gaza. This is just north of jerusalem. This is on the other side of israel from gaza in the west bank. I think weve got a map that we can show for context. The west bank as you can see here, weve got the two areas marked in red. The west bank is physically discontinuous with gaza where the war has been raging between israel and hamas nr the past 17 days. The massive protests tonight are in the west bank but they are about whats going on in gaza. Today at least 16 people were killed. Dozens of people were wounded by an apparent air strike on a school that was being used by the United Nations as a shelter for civilians who were trying to flee the violence in gaza, looking for somewhere safe to stay. 16 killed and dozens wounded there including many children. U. N. Secretary general banki moon said that attack took place while the u. N. Was trying to arrange for a pause in the fighting, temporary truce. In part because the u. N. Wanted to evacuate them from the school and move them to some place safer. John kerry is continuing efforts to negotiate a ceasefire between israel and hamas. Mr. Kerry told reporters that the shelling of the u. N. Shelter underscores the work hes trying to do to get a ceasefire. Its been a constant cycle of fighting between israel and hamas for the past several years in gaza. 2009 was actually the last time the fighting in gaza was as heavy as it is right now. And its an interesting historical parallel because that time the war went on for 22 days. Right now were at 17 days in this round of fighting. Back in 2009, in that 22day war, concerns not just about the huge loss of life, but about shortages of food and medicine and water and just horribly deteriorating conditions for the people who lived in gaza, back in 2009, those concerns led israel to agree in the middle of that war to establish what they called a humanitarian corridor. For three hours a day, most days, israel and hamas called a temporary humanitarian truce and the fighting would mostly stop, specifically so civilians who lived in the war zone for those three hours a day could move around, get water, get food, try to get to shelter or do whatever else they needed to try to save their own lives. Israel and hamas agreed to that in 2009, and it was a meager excuse for a real ceasefire, but it was done on purely humanitarian grounds. And there is a history of them agreeing to that. Those temporary humanitarian daily threehour truces, those did happen during the past fierce fighting between israel and hamas, and it probably did save lives. Could that happen again in the absence of a real ceasefire . I mean, there was noise yesterday from the hamas side that hamas might be willing to do Something Like that again in this round of fighting in order to evacuate wounded people and get basic relief supplies to civilians. They did not make a commitment toward that, but they did make some gestures in that direction. If the two sides were able to agree to do that again, to temporary daily humanitarian truces like they did back in 2009, like the u. N. Attempted and failed to get today, that could be possible. That would be a step forward, and that is worth crossing your fingers over right now as the on flikt conflict appears to be spreading. 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Youve not, in fact, attended any of the classes and know nothing about the subject matter but finals are today and now naturally you will fail and you will not graduate. I have that dream three times a week, but that in real life is sort of happening right now in the u. S. Capitol. Its finals week at the capitol, and nobody has apparently done the work and the panic is starting and some of it happened on tape today, and that is next. In the nation, the safest feature in your car is you. Add vanishing deductible from nationwide insurance and get 100 off for every year of safe driving. Which for you, shouldnt be a problem. Just another way we put members first, because we dont have shareholders. Join the nation. Nationwide is on your side. So congress does nothing anymore. Really, nothing. But sometimes every once in a while, something happens in congress on tape, on cspan, that kind of makes you happy that theyre still there even if theyre doing nothing. And that happened today in everyones vote for the most boringly named committee in congress, the House Committee on rules. Its like if you said you majored in homeroom or something. House rules committee. Its the worlds most boring word salad. But that committee is really powerful. Theyre the gatekeeper for every single piece of legislation that goes to the house floor. And because republicans control the house, republicans also make up the majority for that powerful but very boring sounding committee. And today that committee met. They wanted to decide whether they should send a bill that would authorize the lawsuit that they want to file against president obama and the republicans decided, yes, we should vote on that, yes, we should totally be suing the president. Of course, the democrats dont want that. The democrats are outnumbered. The democrats knew they were going to lose this, but the democrats decided today they were going to lose it in the most constructive and entertaining way possible. They decided to go amendment crazy and force republicans to go on the record again, again, and again and again today in ways that the republicans did not want to do. Heres democratic congresswoman louis slaughter, the First Amendment she offered. This explains it. My amendment is very simple. I move the committee adopt my amendment number 1 which will require that every week the house general counsel discloses how much money has been spent on the lawsuit. Miss foxx, no. Mr. Bishop. Mr. Cole. Mr. Cole, no. Mr. Woodall, no. Mr. Nugent . Mr. Nugent, no. Mr. Webster . No. Mr. Burgess . No. If the gentleman will please restate the vote. Thank you very much. The amendment is not agreed to. So democrats make the republicans vote that the public will not get a weekly notice of how much taxpayer money the republicans are spending on suing president obama. No, no, no, no, no, no. All republican nos. Will republicans agree that we shouldnt spend tay payer money for this lawsuit. Can we agree to that . I have an amendment number 2a. I move the committee adopt my amendment which would prohibit the hiring of any law firms or consultants who Lobby Congress, because if they Lobby Congress for a living, congress should not also be paying them. Those in favor, signify by saying aye. Aye. No . No. The noes have it. Your money will be paying law firms who employ lobbyists to sue president obama. By this time, shes obviously having fun. So here is her next idea. Will republicans agree that we shouldnt pay law firms to sue the president if those law firms are making money in obamacare. If the republicans are going to use taxpayer money to sue president obama over obamacare, surely we cant have law firms that themselves have a financial stake in the outcome. You want to get on the record on this one . Cannot hire a firm, and this one is the most important part for me, we cannot hire a law firm with a financial stake in the implementation of the aca. Surely an amendment like that should go through here immediately like a hot knife through butter. Four yeahs, seven nays. The hot knife would not go through the butter. The amendment is not agreed to. So republicans voted not to tell you how much theyre spending to sue the president. To allow themselves to hire lawyers whose firms lobby them and to allow that those lawyers might make money from the thing they are suing the president over. They did it for the record, on the record over and over again because the democrats made them. Republicans decided themselves that they wanted to sue the president in an Election Year. But the people who seem to most love that the republicans are suing president obama in an Election Year are the democrats. Its the democrats who want the republicans to be talking about this all the time in great detail how theyre spending taxpayer money on law firms to sue president obama. Republicans came up with the idea and now democrats are trying every day to make it front page news in washington. Its the republicans who seem to be getting shyer and shyer about it all the time. Hold that thought. You make a great team. Its been that way since the day you met. But your erectile dysfunction it could be a question of blood flow. Cialis tadalafil for daily use helps you be Ready Anytime the moments right. You can be more confident in your ability to be ready. And the same cialis is the only daily ed tablet approved to treat ed and symptoms of bph like needing to go frequently or urgently. 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Find yours. I have an amendment, amendment number four. Requiring disclosure of where the taxpayer money paying for the law suit is coming from. Those in favor, signify by saying aye. Aye. The noes have it. The noes have it. And the democrats could not appear to be more delighted to keep the republicans talking and voting all day long about their lawsuit against president obama. Why did the democrats make the republicans vote on this 11 different times today and why did the democrats appear to be the ones who are so happy about it . Joining us now is david coin. Thanks for being here. Great to be with you, rachel. Am i imagining it, am i projecting when i see democratic glee over the republican decision to sue the president . Let me tell you about two emails i got tonight. The first one was from a guy named joe biden. And the headline was, i need you. Then i got one from nancy pelosi. Her headline was never in u. S. History. What was happening . These were emails from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee which traces money for the House Democratic candidates and they were hitting me up and lots of other people for money based on this lawsuit. In fact, when they first started doing this, when john boehner first announced that he was going to sue the president , that was the biggest, most Successful Online fundraising day in the history of the dccc, or the d triple c as we say in washington. So nothing gets the base riled up more of the democrats than talk of suing the president. The only thing better, rachel, would be if they talked about impeachment. This stuff turns off those few voters left in the middle and it gets the base, which every democrat is worried about being motivated for 2014, really worked up because it reminds them that these guys are nothing theyre about nothing except blocking and destroying the presidency of barack obama. Do you think that democrats actually are not just hoping that the republicans are going to try to impeach e president obama, but theyre sort of trying to maneuver them into it, is that sort of what theyre doing . Im not sure theyre going that far, though ive talked to people in the white house who have said nothing would make them happier than to hear of talk about impeachment from the House Republicans and a lot of people speculated that John Boehners doing a lawsuit to try to tamp down the impeachment fever on the right, or within his own tea party caucus. I dont think theyre going to egg them on like dare them to impeach. Although the president gets close. Your point at the beginning was right. There are a few days left here in the legislative calendar. This is what john boehner is doing. The republicans who hate frivolous lawsuits and republicans who always say government should be more flexible for business, are now suing the president for being flexible with business. And the most amazing thing to watch is to see if the republicans cool to the idea when they realize how much money the democrats are raising off of it. David corn, thanks for staying up late with us. Great to see you. That does it for us tonight. Well see you again tomorrow night. But now lucky you, its time for the last word with lawrence odonnell. Thanks for being with us tonight. Today in washington, paul ryan became the republicans official leader on poverty policy. President obama is wrapping up his trip to california. Why isnt congress doing something the we have a president thats awol. Congress is just not real productive. They dont want to see the government do anything good. They make sure it doesnt do anything. Raising the minimum wage. Minimum wage has been a poverty wage. I think it would pass. If mr. Boehner would ever bring it up. The worst economic recovery in the president s own