penn, chomsky, clinton. what a foursome. going from left to right. look at that pattern there, clinton in middle for us but, boy those other ones. time for tonight s big number. 2010 the year of the tea party, they fueled the republican fire that led to john boehner becoming speaker of course today. and narrowing the field in the senate from republican losses, up to 53-47, a very narrow majority for the democrats. all in all, how many tea party-backed candidates arrived today? 48 of them did. that s tonight hardball big number. 48 tea members in the u.s. congress, 43 in the house, 5 in the senate, 48 all together. tonight s big number. watch those 48. coming up, let s meet two freshman members of the 112th congress, one s a republican, swann democrat and find out what they expect to get done in their freshman year. you are watching hardball, right here in washington, only on msnbc.on in in a affect wheat output in the u.s., the shipping industry in norway, and the rubber indust
league, you know, groomed running this country since 1988. we ve had, you know, 22 years of yale and harvard. well, that s interesting, but for the record, alec baldwin did graduate from nyu, one of the country s top schools. by the way, it is easier to be interested in running for office than to actually to run, believe me. next up, a fracas from caracas. after rejecting president obama s nominee for ambassador to venezuela, president hugo chavez has some suggestions, you are going to love these, who he wants to be the u.s. ambassador to venezuela. reuters reports that chavez said, i hope they name oliver stone and goes on to suggest sean penn or noam chomsky and then he mentioned, guess what, bill clinton there you have it, hugo chavez s wish list, stone, penn, chomsky, clinton. what a foursome. going from left to right. look at that pattern there, clinton in middle for us but, boy those other ones. time for tonight s big number. 2010 the year of the tea party,