That isnt the world we grew up in. That isnt the world you want your kids to live in, the world you want your grandkids to have. It is really great to be back in america. Holy cow, people in texas actually like what this guy is doing getting awfully windy. Texas term. Ted cruz will meet with the owners of Small Businesses in ft. Worth, less than 24 hours after the countrys biggest Business Leader criticized him. The president of the u. S. Chamber of commerce had some harsh words. One thing cruz could work on is learning how to sit down and shut up. You guys, you know what, youve got me straight now. Urgency to fix the healthcare. Gov website is growing. It faces growing criticism from conservative cry babies. Obama cares most outside wart and awkward opponent, senator ted cruz, gave a speech to a tea party crowd in his hometown of houston monday night. During the speech, he highlighted the websites rough rollout in a manner most foul. You know the nigerian email scammers . They have been a lot less active lately. Because they have all been hired to run the obama care website. Wow, enough of the nigerian nightmare already. The joke was clearly cruzs attempt to brush off criticism for his own failed effort to defund obama care. The law is getting stronger support from the public, despite technical issues from the website enrollment. A New Washington post abc news poll shows obama care continues to be divided among party lines. But there is a slight uptick from 42 in september to 49 in october. President obama acknowledged obama cares rollout has been rocky, but defended it. Theres no sugarcoating it. The website has been too slow. People have been getting stuck during the application process. And i think its fair to say that nobody is more frustrated by that than i am. Ted cruzs preel school level cracks didnt stop with the nigerian comment. He tweeted the picture of a welcome home cake he received from his supporters. The green eggs and ham themed cake pays tea party homage to cruzs 21hour floor speech where he argued americans did not like green eggs and ham and they not like obama care either. Dr. Seuss wouldnt have dug you, brother cruz, at all. Heres what cruz went on to say at his homecoming. It was unfortunate. That Many Senate Republicans made the decision not to stand united with the house republicans. But ill tell you, im hopeful with a little bit of time and reflection that Senate Republicans will decide to come together again. I would love to see republican unity. You see all of us stand together against this train wreck that is obama care. Ah, tisk tisk, tisk tisk. Senator cruz is strongly mistaken if he thinks people will stand with the Republican Party. Americans do not like it when the government shuts itself down. They dont like it when political gridlock costs the country 24 billion. 24 billion. They dont like hundreds of thousands of federal workers losing their wages. New polling numbers show americans are extremely unhappy with the way the federal Government Works or fails to work. The abc news Washington Post poll Shows Americans approval of congress is at a 40year low. These wounds to congress are self inflicted. Its a result of budget brinksmanship. Blame for the shutdown is being focused on the Republican Party, which is at least at its least popular level in data since 1984. On the flip side, president obamas favorability is hardly in stellar shape. But he appears mostly unharmed. Is approval is essentially the same now as a month ago before the shutdown. And the furlough notices flew. Get your cell phones out. I want to know what you think. Tonights question, should democrats remind americans that every republican is just like ted cruz . Text a for yes, b for no to 676 it 22 or go to ed. Msnbc. Com. Ill bring you the results later in the show. Congressman Matthew Cartwright from pennsylvania joins me now. Congressman, do republicans care that their image is in such disastrous shape . Oh, i think they do. I think they have to cringe when they hear things like what you quoted senator cruz saying at the top of the show. I mean, jokes about nigerian scamme scammers. You know, i wonder how much offthecuff that really was, and how calculated it was to appeal to senator cruzs base. Many of whom believe that the president is from africa. But, yeah, in answer to your question, i think that republicans really have to be recoiling. The mainstream, you know, i call them country club republicans. The center of the road type republicans. They must be at their wits ends when they try to think about how to deal with senator cruz. But you get this. You know, you see this happening when when a law like the Affordable Care act becomes pretty obvious that its going to take root, that its going to work, that its going to be a part of the american legal structure. Its the further and further right wing fringes that continue to attack it, as the other attacks melt away. Sure. Well, with all due respect to you as a political figure and other politicians, we know that many politicians are polldriven, numbercrunching empirical number verifiers, whether up and down. So why is it the poll numbers that are steadily sinking arent impressing the republicans with the fact that the American Public just doesnt like what theyre doing. Oh, i think a lot of them are paying attention to it. In fact, we saw during the shutdown a lot of the centrist republicans were actually coming out and saying in public that they would be for a clean cr. Opening up the government again with no strings attached. But you hear you know, the continual rain of quotations from the rightwingers. I have one here, michael eric, that i want to read, speaking of senator cruz. Quote, never in the history of the world has any measure been brought here so insidiously designed as to prevent Business Recovery to enslave workers and to prevent any possibility of employers providing work for the people. I mean, that kind of over the top, overblown rhetoric we have seen. But that wasnt from senator cruz. That was from republican congressman john taber in 1935, and he was talking about Social Security at the time. Wow. The parallels are pretty frightening there, as dr. King would say. What is it about the whistle politics that you referred to earlier in regard to ted cruz about the nigerians now on the payroll, basically trying to work on the website . Why is it that they continue to exploit the impolicit racial passions deeply embedded as opposed to playing to the higher road where we can all come together . I dont know that theyre doing that, michael eric. But i will say that i suspect it. And whether theyre doing it on purpose, it does appeal to the people who think that way. There are, you know, a lot of fairly backward people that are a part of the base of people like senator cruz. And comments like that just are right up their alley. Yeah. Well, were going to talk about a judge later on, a republican, who you might have heard about. Who said, look, enough is enough. You know, are there going to be other republicans joining him who say, look, this is too extreme. Im here as a republican, i want to stand behind principles that can be morally defensible, but this kind of stuff that theyre doing now is playing to a base constituency in their party which really goes against the best interests, even of the Republican Party, much less to say the entire nation. Well, as i say, i think i see it as kind of the last great gas gasp of the right wing against the Affordable Care act. Its sort of to be expected. The moderates fall away from the attack, you know, after 44 times repealing it. They got tired of that. They were bound to. The rest of us already are. But the right wingers stay at it. And thats whats going on here. Well, do you think that the moderates are going to be able to gain any ground in terms of trying to regain the authority within their own party . I just dont believe that john boehner cottons too well to the right wing of his party, even though he defers to them with regular intensity. I see a great irony here. Somebody like senator cruz or folks who are in bloodred districts who can go on with nonsense like this, theyre not in trouble. Theyre not going to be in trouble. The people who are going to be in trouble are the ones who are guilty by association, and were talking about the moderate republicans who are in closer districts who stand a reasonable chance of losing because of their association with the Republican Party, and what it got up to with this ridiculous shutdown we just went through. Right. Well, look, finally, tell us behind the scenes whats really going on, what some of these moderate republicans you know who are really, you know, just turned off by what they are, you know, right wing brothers are doing. Youre there behind the scenes. Tell us, is there really a ground swrel for some kind of simpatico for moderate democrats, moderate republicans, to move this country forward . You know, michael eric, i want you to know, i get along with all of my brothers and sister members of congress, and most of them are great company, nice people to be with. Its just that when some of the hard line right wingers get up to a microphone you kind of just have to put your hands over your ears when you hear the things they say. But, yes, there are a lot of moderate republicans that i think really want to save their party. It sounds like senator mcconnell is desperately trying to save the party. And i think the speaker of the house is really at his wits end, and has been for some time with how to deal with this situation. No doubt. Well, all i can say is god bless you up there, my friend. Congressman matt cartwright, thank you so much for your time tonight. My pleasure. Remember to answer tonights question at the bottom of the screen and share your thoughts on twitter at ed show. And on facebook. I want to know what you think. Coming up, a fox Conspiracy Theory that will take your breath away. Plus, a texas judge does the texas twostep away from the Republican Party. When we made our commitment to the gulf, bp had two big goals help the gulf recover and learn from what happened so we could be a better, safer energy company. I can tell you safety is at the heart of everything we do. Weve added cuttingedge technology, like a new deepwater well cap and a stateoftheart monitoring center, where experts watch over all drilling activity twentyfourseven. And were sharing what weve learned, so we can all produce energy more safely. Our commitment has never been stronger. Mmm this is delicious katie. Its not bad for canned soup, right . Pfft [ laughs ] you nearly had us there. Canned soup. [ male announcer ] they just might think its homemade. Try campbells homestyle soup. Time now for the trenders. In the social media world, this is where you can find us. The ed show social media nation has decided and were reporting. Here are todays top trenders, voted on by you. Diamonds are a girls best friend the numberthree trender. The lockdown. The pair got engaged in front of family and friends. Was it love at first sight . Kanye puts a ring on it. Kanye popped the question at at t park. He rented the park out for the occasion. She is my joy, she brought my new joy into the world. Posted this photon instagram of the 15carat stunner. The number two trender. Five for fainting. This story is just perfect. Like every little, like, frightening bedtime story. Twist the bones in the back. The five things the falldown was a setup. Did you see this going on in the background towards the end of the speech . She is okay. She tweeted she is alreal right. Pregnant and diabetes. Tell me this isnt a staged event. He caught her. You are a conspiracy theorist. Top trender. Republican rejection. I have tried to live a life of principles. Shaped by mi familiaria and country. I can no longer be a member of the Republican Party. Forget it. Im outta here. Im now running for reelection as a democratic candidate. A texas judge rules against running on the gop ticket. Rational republican beliefs have given way to ideological character assassination. I cannot tolerate a Political Party that demeans texans based on their sexual orientation, the color of their skin, or their economic status. I cannot place my name on the ballot for a Political Party that is proud to destroy the lives of hundreds of thousands of federal workers, my principles have led me to the Democratic Party. I can only hope more people with principles will follow. Change will do you good lets turn it Professor James peterson, director of africaa studies at Lehigh University and msnbc contributor. Professor peterson, before i get to judge keys, i have to ask a question about con kanye west, getting heat because of his interview on the bbc, and on jimmy kimmel. Even though he i man misdirected in some areas, i think hes essentially right and brave. Tell us just a very briefly why its important he brings up the subjects he does, aside from getting married to kim kardashian. I think in his music he has raised a lot of important issues. I would love to see him talk about issues of gender and i disagree about classism completely displacing racism. Although i love the fact that a hiphop artist is raising that issue. And the stories about the merchandise with his Confederate Flag image, it seems to me that kanye west is really good at raising issues. I think i would challenge him to be a little bit more constructive in his music and engage some of these issues a little more longterm. Important considerations, though. And always at the center around issues of class and center. Back to the judge. Is judge keys decision a sign of things to come for the Republican Party . Will the rational republicans begin to distance themselves from the lunatic fringe . I think so, in some interesting ways. So i think the moderate republicans, particularly in the senate, are really just done with senator cruz, a lot of reporting about the kind of internal conversations. We saw last week some of them come out against the heritage foundation, an interesting move in and of itself. I think well see this play out in different ways. We have to understand that judge key, he was getting ready to engage in a primary. By someone who is a little bit to the right of him. But also someone who was connected to Law Enforcement, and judge key has made some interesting decisions against certain tactics, specifically here, the use of certain tests for intoxication. He has been against certain Law Enforcement tactics. So i think he saw the writing on the wall in some ways. But i also take his explanation at face value, as well. Which is the party has kind of left him, particularly in the rhetoric. Even if we cant get comprehensive Immigration Reform done, a state like texas is sort of engaged in the demographics of destiny. Getting browner. He understands that its also getting more progressive and getting younger. And i think in that environment hes a young man, i think hes under 40. And i think in that environment, the Democratic Party seems to be more appealing to him politically. Isnt it interesting that the republicans are leaving a lot of dough, so to speak, on the plate. Theyre leaving a lot of votes in a voterich potential constituency that would be conservative, morally. Whose ideas think about it, as a latino if hes catholic and conservative with moral values, that would line up nicely with the republican plank, if you just dont insult me as i enter your bigger tent. What is it about the republicans that they have an inability to take advantage of the natural moral constituency that they might have available to not only latino, but africanamericans who are cultural conservative . Its right. I think sometimes the politics of the of the tea party sort of caucus within the Republican Party, seems to me to defy lonlic, along the lines of just plain politics. If you just look at the numbers, look at demographics. Clearly, the latino voting population votes overwhelmingly for the Democratic Party. But to think that suggests that there is no room or no space on the conservative end of the political spectrum for hundreds of thousands if not millions of latinos in this country doesnt seem to make sense. And theyre unwilling, it seems, to check their messages of hate. Too many stories over the last 18 months, not just around Immigration Reform oh, but about race, around gender. Where we see republican political leaders, you know, making comments that are just you know, theyre just sort of retrograde, racist, sexist type comments. And we have seen them push for some policies that match that kind of rhetoric. And i think, you know, the american people, millennials, people of color, just have little to know tolerance for that. Well, you mentioned something earlier about judge key that he was running against somebody who potentially is to his right, and as a result of that, this is a absolute political calculation, along with his, you know, if you will, innate feelings about the situation. But to what degree can we count upon those kind of political calculations in the future to create a broader Republican Party where theyre able to bring in people, maybe bring a judge key back in . Do you think a guy like him will never have space within Republican Party . Or can the Republican Party take the challenge and say, hey, lets grow a bit to include people like him . Well, you see, heres the trap the Republican Party is in. Theyre in favor of things like citizen united, and the kind of u