joining me now, congressman keith ellison, democrat from minnesota. your reaction to the ruling in terms of what it might mean for governance inside the house of representatives. will it in a weird way help john boehner get control of his tea party caucus? you know, i think it will make the polarization even worse because you ll have one person who can just bankroll the whole republican caucus and insist that all of them abide by a certain political line. the fact is now you have some variation among the republicans. you have far right tea party types and some what i call republican country club types. but now you can have the far right types like the koch brothers who insist on the most extreme right wing swing for everybody to abide by their party line if they want to get a check and, yes, they re in a position to give everybody a check given the explosion of these limits. so i think go ahead. as i was going to say, i
to at least charles koch sounds really exactly like kind of the tea party they fund. well, it s interesting because i think this goes back to what harry reid s trying to do with the, you know, the use of the koch brothers in a political context. modern conservatism, movement conservatism have been really good at creating conjuring words for their base that really, you know, all they have to do is say them. alinsky, benghazi, a.c.o.r.n. i m sure the people at a.c.o.r.n. who used to work for a.c.o.r.n. are finding it hilarious that charles koch finds himself put upon as a political symbol. the right has been very good at creating political symbols that are durable for political purposes within their own base. and i think that s a little bit harry reid is trying to turn koch brothers into a conjuring spell for democrats. and i think he s doing it. and just lastly, you know, you said speaking to the base, obviously this was on op-ped that doesn t seem to be aimed at
a little more people are looking for work but that s, obviously, minuscule when you look at the big picture of the economy. eric cantor said, quote: today s jobs report underscores there remains a real crisis for the chronically unemployed in this country. it s too hard for many to find good jobs, wages are stagnant, and it s harder to get ahead. i think the bottom line here is you have a president who s been trying to talk up an economy that s been improving in little bits, but he keeps getting hit with these jobs reports and other factors that suggest it s still struggling. meanwhile, on the hill he can t get immigration reform, some of his other priorities. the big picture for the president, it s been a rough second term, jenna. jenna: ed henry live at the white house, thank you. jon: obamacare unpopular with so many americans will play a key role in november s midterm elections. but while republican candidates are already on to offensive, many democrats and pro-democrat groups are
haley barbour ally ed rogers told the washington post this. there s no romney wing in the party that he needs to address. he never developed an emotional foothold with the gop, so he can exit the stage anytime and no one will mourn. so i guess i want to address a question to joy here. you know, among minorities, among people that are perhaps generally democrats but, you know, for example the african-american community, you know the history as well as i do or maybe better, they were about 2 to 1 democrat going into the 60s. because of what jack kennedy did, wonderful call of consolation to mrs. king when her husband was in prison, what he did on civil rights with lyndon johnson, the community went about 99 to 1 pro-democrat, but it was only 2 to 1, you re only losing a third of a black vote if you re a republican. you re doing okay in big states. you re winning state governorships and senate seats. you start losing a community of the size of the african-american community, which is 1
plus, disturbing video of a deadly police beating. the victim, a meanta willy ill homeless man who can be heard calling out to his father they re killing me. i m wolf blitzer. you re in the situation room. captions by vitac www.vitac.com while we begin this hour with the romney campaign, having some trouble staying on message. let s go straight to our national political correspondent jim acosta. he s on the campaign trail with the presumptive republican nominee. you re in lansing, michigan, right now. tell us what s going on, jim. reporter: wolf, earlier today mitt romney accused president obama of governing to the left of bill clinton and bringing big government back with a vengeance. it is a new message for a campaign that is sometimes straight off script in recent days. in michigan, mitt romney tried to steer his campaign back on message. america is going in the wrong direction. not forward, but sideways, or worse. reporter: he not only hit the president s