Guests: Austan Goolsbee, Peter DeFazio, Bob Shrum, Joe Madison, Heidi Harris, Lionel, Lizz Winstead
ED SCHULTZ, MSNBC ANCHOR: Good evening, Americans, and welcome to THE ED SHOW tonight from New York.
These stories are hitting “My Hot Buttons” and on the table at this hour
A very confident President Obama came out today to announce strong new job numbers. But John Boehner and the Republicans are already trying to take credit and rewrite history.
Austan Goolsbee, President Obama‘s top White House adviser, is here with reaction on the numbers tonight.
House Republicans say they want to cut the deficit, but John Boehner refuses to name a single program to cut. Not one.
And today, they cleared the way for a vote to repeal the health care bill which we all know will blow a $230 billion hole in the deficit. Congressman Peter DeFazio of Oregon, he went after the Republicans today, and he will join me live here tonight.
It‘s already getting ugly out there for the righties who want to be president. Today, Rudy Giuliani is taking a shot at Chris Christie, and I‘m loving that. Bob Shrum is here to tell us just how far it‘s going to go and how ugly it‘s going to get.
And folks, we all know Glenn Beck, “The Beckster,” is crazy, but now he‘s talking about trust and dead birds. I don‘t know what the connection is there, but it does land him in “The Zone.”
This is the story that has me fired up tonight, folks. Listen very carefully.
Republicans—the Obama economy has created jobs for 12 straight months.
Mr. Boehner, if you want to know where the jobs are, wipe the tears out of your eyes and take a look.
The economy added 103,000 jobs in December. The unemployment rate dropped from 9.8 percent to 9.4 percent. And an upbeat and confident President Obama talked about the new job numbers at a window manufacturing company in Landover, Maryland, today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The economy added more than 100,000 jobs last month, and the unemployment rate fell sharply. And we know these numbers can bounce around from month to month, but the trend is clear.
We saw 12 straight months of private sector job growth. That‘s the first time that‘s been true since 2006. The economy added 1.3 million jobs last year, and each quarter was stronger than the previous quarter, which means that the pace of hiring is beginning to pick up.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHULTZ: Well, the president is finally showing some swagger for the work he‘s done to turn the job numbers around after the Bush nightmare. The president thinks America‘s economic future looks even brighter in 2011, partly due to the tax cut deal he brokered last month.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: We‘re also seeing more optimistic economic forecasts for the year ahead, in part, due to the package of tax cuts I signed last month, including a payroll tax cut for workers and a series of tax cuts to encourage investment and innovation and hiring. And I fought for that package because even though our economy is recovering, we‘ve still got a lot to do.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHULTZ: A lot to do, but the president is spot on.
Now, a survey of 28 economists in “USA Today” predicts employers will add 183,000 jobs a month through 2011. Moody‘s is predicting that 2011 hiring should lower the jobless rate to 8.9 percent or so by the end of the year.
This is positive news. Is there anything wrong with positive news? But, you see, the Republicans, they still refuse to give President Obama an ounce of credit.
Boehner and his buddy Eric Cantor can‘t admit that the president‘s policies are working. Instead, they have their own plan.
Today, House Republicans introduced what they call—what they call the repealing of the job-killing health care law act. Cantor put it like this:
“We will repeal Obamacare.” I hate it when they say that, but of course that‘s their bullet points.
They‘re going to repeal Obamacare. “With the repeal of the job-killing legislation, businesses will be able to breathe a sigh of relief. The Republican majority is committed to a cut and grow agenda”?
Oxymoron there, huh? What is a cut and grow agenda? The Republicans are the masters at cutting help for the middle class and growing the bank accounts for the top two percent, the super rich in this country.
Cantor and “The Tan Man” are hell-bent on taking this country back to the Bush economic years and the disaster that put us right in the mess that we‘re in right now.
Nancy Pelosi put it like this: “Today‘s jobs report provides evidence that the policies of the Democratic-led Congress are helping create jobs and revitalize our economy, adding more jobs in 2010 than President Bush did over eight years.”
Is that true? It is.
President Obama and the Democrats need to keep talking up the record on job creation before the Republicans start to realize that, hey, we better take some credit for this.
Well, John Boehner and Eric Cantor think that they run the country right now, but they still haven‘t brought anything to the table to create jobs.
Face it, folks, the stimulus package worked. The health care bill hasn‘t killed one job in this country. And the Republicans, they are still Republicans.
But here‘s what bothers at least me, as an American, why I name-called them the other night. Why can‘t we get, since this is a new Congress and we want to change everything, and we want to make sure that America moves forward, can‘t on the economy, when there‘s positive news out there, when there are numbers out there, can‘t for just a moment as a country we just come together and say, you know what, this is going in the right direction and 12 months in a row it was good news?
It‘s not the way we would do it—this is the Republicans talking. It‘s not the way we would do it, but this is going in the right direction.
No, they can‘t do that. They‘re not honest brokers. Even when you put the numbers in front of them they‘re not honest brokers. And it‘s unfortunate that taxpayers have to put up with this kind of bickering that goes on, even when the numbers are there.
You know, there‘s an old jockstrap saying from the locker room that goes this way: “It‘s amazing what we can accomplish as a team when we‘re not concerned with who gets the credit.” I think those days in Washington are long gone, because it‘s all about political credit. It‘s all about one-upmanship. It‘s all about “us versus them.”
In the radio business, they say, well, gosh, talk radio today, all the conservatives are over here, all of the liberals are over here. Well, what the hell? It‘s just a reflection of what the country is right now, and it‘s just a reflection of what Washington is all about, because they‘re all about credit. Even when you put good numbers in front of them, the Republicans are in denial.
Get your cell phones out. I want to know what you think about this tonight.
Tonight‘s text survey question is: Do you think the Republicans deserve any credit for job creation? Text “A” for yes, text “B” for no to 622639. And we‘ll bring you the results later on in the show.
Joining me now from the White House is Austan Goolsbee, chairman of the Economic Counsel of Advisers.
Mr. Goolsbee, good to have you with us tonight. Congratulations.
AUSTAN GOOLSBEE, CHAIRMAN, ECONOMIC COUNSEL OF ADVISERS: Hey. Great to see you again, Ed.
SCHULTZ: You bet. Congratulations, I think, is in order considering the fact that this is the 12 straight month that we have added private sector jobs as an economy, as a country.
But I want some real strong confirmation from you tonight. Are the things this White House is doing for the economy, is it working? Do you believe it‘s working? Can you say with conviction that we are headed in the right direction and these policies that have been implemented are working?
GOOLSBEE: Yes. Look, they are working.
I think the numbers speak for themselves. You don‘t have to take my opinion for it.
I mean, we had 12 straight months of private sector job growth. We added 1.3 million jobs for the year.
Now, I‘m not going to tell you that‘s all we need to do or that we‘re home free. But, look, the car drove way the wrong way and drove into a ditch. We‘re out of the ditch. We‘re a long way from home. But we‘re on the road back, and we‘re rolling.
SCHULTZ: This is more than a trend. The president, I thought, was upbeat and confident today. He says it‘s trends.
But isn‘t this a direction? Are you willing to say that we are definitely headed for the kind of recovery we‘re looking for?
GOOLSBEE: Well, look, I try to stay out of the prediction business. We‘ve got an official government forecast, you know, of what the GDP‘s going to be, of what unemployment—and that will come out with the budget in a couple weeks.
But I‘m telling you, if you look at 2010 numbers, you cannot help but note that for the year 2010, that‘s the best private sector job growth we‘ve had in four years. The fourth quarter of 2010 was the best quarter that we‘ve had in almost four years, and none of those numbers even include the benefits of the tax deal that the president got put into law. That stuff‘s going to kick in 2011.
So I think that there‘s—there are clearly positive signs and we‘re on the road out, but the president‘s the first to say we‘ve got to grow faster.
SCHULTZ: Is the White House willing to not be so coy about it? You have, if you can confirm, created more private sector jobs than the Bush administration did in eight years? Are you willing to say that?
GOOLSBEE: Is that true? I‘ve got to go back and look that up.
What we‘ve mainly been trying to focus on is the jobs going forward, not the comparative looking backward. But, you know, I do know that 2010, it can be better. We want 2011 to be better. But adding 1.3 million jobs in the private sector is exactly how we have to start growing our way out of this thing.
SCHULTZ: Mr. Goolsbee, you being on the economic team, it‘s all about the numbers, and it‘s all about what spending is going do. The Republicans in the House are about to repeal the health care reform bill.
This is what the Speaker of the House had to say. Mr. Boehner said, “Today, we will take the first steps towards repealing the job-killing health care law so we can replace it with the reforms that will lower costs and protect jobs. Our economy will ultimately recover, but it will do so because of the hard work and entrepreneurship, not more wasteful Washington spending.”
And now the Republicans are saying that the CBO scores are phony, that they don‘t agree with them.
Does the White House believe that the CBO scores are correct? They put out a statement yesterday saying that if they repeal the health care bill, it will added to the deficit to the tune of $230 billion.
Where does the White House stand on this?
GOOLSBEE: Well, look, the Congressional Budget Office is nonpartisan. I couldn‘t help but notice that some of the same people are saying, well, they don‘t want to take what the CBO said are people who, on other things, when they agree with them, are out trumping the CBO. So, look, the umpire is who the umpire is.
And I absolutely believe that the CBO, as well as many other private forecasters, have pointed out that the health care law would reduce the deficit by hundreds of billions of dollars. And if you went back and repealed it, in addition to making it so that people with pre-existing conditions could be denied health coverage, in addition to throwing millions of people off of their—off of health care and preventing small business from being able to get cheap health care, you would also add $230 billion to the deficit over the next 10 years.
I just think it‘s confused. It doesn‘t make sense.
SCHULTZ: Are they fraudulent in their terminology when they say it‘s a job-killing health care bill?
GOOLSBEE: Well, I don‘t know fraudulent. They‘re not correct.
I mean, if you look at a small business—and you know this, Ed. You talk small business all of the time. The biggest problems facing small business in a normal period have been the dramatically high costs of health care and the difficulty to hire workers to come work for you at a small business when there has been outright discrimination against small business.
They often have to pay 50 percent more for exactly the same health plan as big business does. And that ends. Small business, through these exchanges in health plan, can suddenly get much—significantly cost-reduced health care that gets a subsidy from the government and makes them competitive and allows small business to grow.
So I think it‘s totally wrong to call that job-killing. It‘s job-creating.
SCHULTZ: Mr. Goolsbee, good to have you with us tonight. I appreciate your time on THE ED SHOW. Thanks so much.
GOOLSBEE: Great to see you, Ed. Thank you.
SCHULTZ: Coming up, after yelling about budget cuts for years, Speaker Boehner, well, he was asked point blank, “What would you cut?” And he had absolutely no clue. This guy‘s winging it and they don‘t have a plan, and we‘ll show you the tape.
And Congressman Peter DeFazio gets ahead of Boehner in just a moment.
“The Beckster” somehow found a way to link dead birds to the South—in the South to trusting the media? Wow. What a stretch. You‘ve got to see it to believe it. He flies into “The Zone” on this one.
Plus, President Obama sits down with O‘Reilly? I want to know, what‘s the president going to gain by sitting down over on Fox, the people that are trying to defeat him?
And “Daily Show” co-creator Lizz Winstead headlines “Club Ed.”
You‘re watching THE ED SHOW on MSNBC. Stay with us. We‘re right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SCHULTZ: Welcome back to THE ED SHOW, and thanks for watching tonight.
Republicans spent all year hollering about cutting the budget, and their “Pledge to America” promised to chop $100 billion of government spending this year, right out of the budget.
“The Tan Man,” John Boehner, led the charge.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. JOHN BOEHNER (R-OH), HOUSE SPEAKER: We need to cut spending.
Cut spending.
Make it easier to cut spending.
We have to stop all of the coming tax hikes, and we have to cut spending.
Economists say that we should cut spending now.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHULTZ: All right. He was on the trail talking about that a lot. But yesterday, when Brian Williams, the most watched anchor in America, asked Boehner about cutting specific programs, he kind of drew a blank.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BRIAN WILLIAMS, NBC NEWS: Do you consider the defense budget sacred?
BOEHNER: Absolutely not.
WILLIAM: Do you consider the homeland security budget sacred?
BOEHNER: No.
WILLIAM: What goes? Name a program right now that we could do without.
BOEHNER: I don‘t think I have one off of the top of my head.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHULTZ: Not off the top of his head.
Now, think about this, folks. You win the election, you know you‘re going to be the Speaker. This was back in, what—early November, I think. You‘ve had all of this time to prepare. After running around the country telling people that you‘re going to cut the budget, you‘ve got to cut everything, and you‘re about do an interview with the number one anchor in America, and when you‘re asked a question about cutting, he doesn‘t have anything off of the top of his head.
Now, let‘s see, let‘s review the record.
They‘ve had no ideas on health care, no ideas on job creation. And, of course, they run around talking about cutting spending. But when you ask them when the rubber meets the road, they don‘t have an answer.
Boehner knew he was going to be the Speaker of the House back on November 2nd. It gave him 65 days to figure out what to cut in the budget. This is just proof the Republicans have no plan for this country. They‘re winging it.
The only thing they‘re focused on is sucking up to the Tea Partiers with a health care repeal vote. That‘s how deep they are.
The vote is a complete waste of time, my friends. And the Democrats are pointing out to the righties that repealing health care, this will hurt people across this country.
No one was stronger on that today than Congressman Peter DeFazio of Oregon.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. PETER DEFAZIO (D), OREGON: The Republicans are going to allow the return of the worst abuses of the health insurance industry—pre-existing condition exclusions, taking away your policy when you get sick, lifetime in annual caps, throwing your kids off of your policies.
I haven‘t had a single constituent and I know you haven‘t beg you to bring back these abuses! Is that what you‘re doing? Is that what they want?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHULTZ: Congressman Peter DeFazio joins us here on THE ED SHOW tonight.
Congressman, I appreciate your work on this and telling it like it is.
That really is the game plan, is it not, for the Democrats to make sure that the American people know the human cost of this? What do you think?
DEFAZIO: Absolutely. The Republicans said repeatedly, “Our constituents are demanding the repeal of this law.”
And I would beg them to deliver one constituent who will speak publicly to say, oh, I think we should go back to the good old days when they could cancel your policy when you got sick, when they could not issue you a policy because you had once been sick, where your kids aren‘t eligible for coverage between ages 21 and 26, where seniors are in the doughnut hole without any help. All of those things would be result of the complete and total repeal of health care which they‘re pushing.
And they‘re pushing, you know, because they know that those things won‘t happen, I guess, is why they‘re pushing it. So it‘s all for show and kind of a waste of time.
And yes, there‘s a lot of things we could be talking about. And as you said earlier, about real places to cut waste in government. They‘ve got to have some ideas. I‘ve got some ideas—how we‘re going to move toward fiscal responsibility.
You can‘t do it if you keep reducing the government‘s income and you don‘t make any cuts over here. They‘re increasing the deficit.
SCHULTZ: Congressman, your thoughts on how all of a sudden, the CBO, they‘re just a bunch of bums that can‘t add and subtract?
DEFAZIO: Well, it‘s like when, you know, the Republicans often use the CBO numbers last year, when they agreed with assessments by the Congressional Budget Office. Now, when those same objective, nonpartisan group of folks, professionals, say, well, gee, you know, if you take out the cost controls, if you allow the abuses of the insurance industry to come back, if you increase the cost for prescription drugs for seniors, it will cost both the seniors more and the government more, these things all add up to about $230 billion in additional costs.
That‘s just an honest assessment of what total repeal would do. So we bring back the abuses of the insurance industry and we add more money to the debt.
SCHULTZ: Don‘t you find it rather odd that John Boehner is going around the country talking about cutting spending, yet when he‘s asked about it in an interview, he has no answer?
DEFAZIO: I thought that was extraordinary, Ed. I‘ve got to tell you, that was like, whoa, really? I would have had a long list. I could come up with a list. You know, especially if I was going to be Speaker of the House.
There are places we can and should cut government. I mean, the secretary of the defense just came out with a pretty good list today.
SCHULTZ: Where would you go to cut spending, if that‘s what it‘s all about at this point to get our fiscal house in order. Where‘s the first place you would go, Congressman?
DEFAZIO: Well, you have to go where the big money is to start, so that means the Defense Department cannot be exempt, particularly those huge costs overruns of major weapon systems for Cold War-style weapons we don‘t need, some of which don‘t work. I would—but I would not—I would go to the Department of Agriculture. You know, that‘s one the most expensive subsidies provided by the government, is the subsidies that go to five states for four crops that are grown in surplus in this country. Huge, huge and unnecessary subsidies put on the taxpayers.
I would—I personally would eliminate the idea of going back to the moon and Mars until we‘re in better fiscal order here. We have sent robots. We can send more robots if there is something up there we‘ve really got to look at. But to spend a trillion dollars on a manned mission, or to borrow a trillion dollars from China for a manned mission to Mars, that‘s kind of nuts.
Little things—selective service. We‘re still making young men register for the draft that‘s never coming back. I mean, there‘s a lot of places to go, and he should have been able to name a few.
SCHULTZ: Why am I not surprised that your answer is a heck of a lot longer than John Boehner‘s?
Congressman, great to have you with us tonight. Always a pleasure.
DEFAZIO: Thanks, Ed.
SCHULTZ: You bet.
DEFAZIO: Thank you.
SCHULTZ: Coming up, Glenn Beck is preaching about trust, honor and integrity. And he‘s talking about dead birds falling out of the sky.
Folks, he‘s flying into a new stratosphere of crazy, isn‘t he? “The Beckster” makes his first appearance in “The Zone” in the new year!
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SCHULTZ: And in “Psycho Talk” tonight, well, folks, I guessing it‘s come to this—“The Beckster” is lecturing the media on trust. It all started when Beck went off the deep end over the media coverage of the thousands of birds and fish that have been found dead recently in Arkansas and Louisiana.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GLENN BECK, FOX NEWS: One of the big stories on the Internet is dead fish and dead birds popping up everywhere. And if you look at these stories, you‘re like, holy cow, birds are dropping out of the sky, animals are dying, rivers are turning green. It‘s the end of the world. The media seems content with just throwing it out there.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHULTZ: Oh, yes. First of all, Beck shouldn‘t be criticizing anyone for fear-mongering about the end of the world.
But he didn‘t stop there. He also decided to lecture us on the problem with America.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BECK: The problem we have in this country is trust, honor, integrity, all of that stuff. And it‘s going to lead to big problems because you don‘t know what is true. And it‘s so easy now to go into crazy territory.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHULTZ: Oh, yes. Well, Beckster, you know all about the crazy territory, don‘t you? You‘ve been living there for years, showing us your warped version of trust, honor and integrity.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BECK: We‘re going to scare the bat snot out of you in the next hour.
I‘ll show you how we go from French fries to global unrest.
The government and its friends are indoctrinating our children for the control of their minds, your freedom, and our choice, and our future.
The government is full of vampires, and they are trying to suck the lifeblood out of the economy.
There will be rivers of blood.
I fear the trouble is just about to begin, and it will only get worse.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHULTZ: Rivers of blood? Wow.
Glenn Beck is the definition of a fear-mongerer. And now he‘s lecturing the rest of us about the big problems we‘re facing because of the lack of trust?
Folks, that is high-flying “Psycho Talk.”
Coming up, fasten your seat belt, folks. There‘s a report out that Rudy Giuliani, well, he may run for president in 2012. And the first thing he did today was take a shot at Chris Christie.
Hey, that‘s OK. I‘m all right with that.
And there‘s a whole bunch of righties going at one another right now.
Democratic strategist Bob Shrum is watching from afar, and watching the Republicans, wondering just how far this is all going to go.
And President Obama is reaching out to big business and moving to the center. I think he‘s playing with fire on this one. The panel gets after that tonight.
Plus, why on earth is President Obama sitting down for a big interview with Fox News‘ Bill O‘Reilly?
And Harry Reid says the Tea Partiers, well, they‘re going to disappear.
They‘re going to disappear.
I‘ll show you the tape.
You‘re watching THE ED SHOW on MSNBC. Lots coming up in the next half hour.
Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SCHULTZ: Welcome back to THE ED SHOW. The “Battleground” story tonight, well, it snowed in New Jersey today. Now, folks in the garden state, do you know where your governor is at this hour? This is a live picture on route 17. It‘s snowing. It‘s a late misting snow, are we sure the governor is in the state? Hmm, Christie‘s spent some rare quality time in his home state this week, but he‘s still taking some heat for being at Disney world a couple of weeks back when his state was hit with one of the worst snowstorms in the state‘s mystery. And the latest criticism comes from a member of his own party. Former New York Governor—New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani. Rudy is reportedly thinking about another run for president, since his first one was so successful, right? And this morning, he took his first shot across the bow at the only republican who seems to be able to pull out better than President Obama.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: It was a mistake on Chris Christie‘s part?
RUDY GIULIANI, FMR. NEW YORK MAYOR: Yes. And Chris should have come back. I mean, if you ask me my advice, I would have said, they elect you governor, they‘ve got an emergency, they expect you to be there, you know? You‘ve got to be there if you‘re a governor, a mayor, or even a president if it‘s important enough.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHULTZ: Well, Rudy, you‘re not going to dinner with him anytime soon, and Rudy isn‘t the only republican presidential hopeful to take aim at a potential opponent. Mike Huckabee recently slammed Sarah Palin after she came out against the first lady‘s anti-obesity campaign, and this week, former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty took a thinly veiled swipe at fellow Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, when asked about Bachmann‘s rumored presidential ambitions, Pawlenty put the deep freeze on it. “Well, it‘s a free country. Anyone can run that‘s over the age of 35. I have respect for Michele Bachmann. I‘ve had a cordial and a positive relationship with her.” Cordial and positive, not exactly a ringing endorsement, so, governor, where‘s the love? In fact, these righties are just getting started, folks, beating each other up and it‘s going to be a great side show for us, isn‘t it?
Joining me now is veteran democratic strategist and NYU professor, Bob Shrum. Bob, great to have you with us tonight.
BOB SHRUM, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Great to be here, Ed.
SCHULTZ: You know, they seem—you bet. They seem to be getting away from the old Reagan thing. You don‘t throw your old partner under the bus. How dogmatic are these candidates going to be, how vicious could this get on the Republicans‘ side?
SHRUM: Well, I think it‘s going to get really tough. First of all,
everybody‘s out after Romney. They‘re all accusing him of betraying
fundamental republican principles because Romney-care, they say, was the
model for Obama-care and Romney‘s trying to run away from it, trying to
move to the right everywhere else, and he‘s not getting much room to do
that, I think, from these fellow Republicans. I am amused by Rudy Giuliani
and Chris Christie, because Giuliani is right and he‘s wrong. He‘s right
that Chris Christie was in fantasy land in more than one sense. If he
thought he should be in Disneyland while his state was going through this
emergency. He keeps going at that rate, nobody will be talking about him
for president. They‘ll be wondering what the guy‘s much of a chance to be
re-elect the governor of New Jersey.
But Giuliani himself suffers from the persistent delusion that somehow or rather he can par lay his performance on 9/11 into a republican presidential nomination. He is not nominatable in the Republican Party, he‘s pro-choice, they‘ll never nominate him. And then what w what you‘re seeing with Pawlenty and Bachmann, I mean, you know they‘re looking for the same constituency, they‘re looking for a kind of the hard right constituency, that‘s what Huckabee‘s looking for. By the way, I have to defend Huckabee. He was absolutely right to go after Sarah Palin for attacking Michelle Obama for fighting childhood obesity. It was ridiculous. It was graceless on Palin‘s part, and it was stupid. But you‘re going to see more and more of this as we go through in the next few months.
SCHULTZ: What about Michele Bachmann? I mean, there‘s been a lot of conversation this week about her wanting to go to try to get the nomination. She‘s raised a heck of a lot of money. She is a Tea Party favorite. If you diss her, you diss the Tea Party. I don‘t think anybody on the right—in the conservative movement or in the Republican Party can win the nomination or win the presidency without the Tea Party. So, is she going to be kind of off-limits in all of this in a sense, what do you think?
SHRUM: Well, that‘s why I think you saw Pawlenty not quite knowing what to say. What he wanted to say was that he‘s a serious conservative, he‘s serious about government, he‘s been a governor, and she‘s seriously off of the edge, but he couldn‘t say that so he said, well, she‘s old enough to run and we‘ve had a cordial relationship. Look, Michele Bachmann would be my second choice for the republican nomination after Sarah Palin. I don‘t think she‘d get elected president. I don‘t think the country would think she was qualified and I think Americans would think her views were entirely extreme. The person who is benefiting from all of this right now by the way is Barack Obama. His ratings are moving up after the lame-duck session of the Congress they‘ve gotten better. I think there are signs, although not as fast as we would like that this economy may be improving and people sense that he‘s the one trying to reach out to the Republicans and that they‘re spurning him. They‘ve had a terrible first week in Congress, he‘s had a very good last month, so he‘s sitting here watching the demolition derby on the other side and if think enjoying it.
SCHULTZ: I agree with you, it has been a bad week. You‘re not supposed to vote unless you get sworn-in.
(LAUGHTER)
Kind of a big deal. Bob Shrum, always a pleasure. Great to have you with us. Thanks so much.
SHRUM: Thanks.
SCHULTZ: Now, let‘s get some rapid-fire response from our panel on these stories. Majority Leader Harry Reid beat Tea Partier Sharron Angle. We were there when it happened and now he says, the Tea Party movement is just going to disappear.
President Obama is reaching out to big business for his inner circle and some liberals not too happy about it. Pretty curious about it as well. Today he picked another person with Wall Street ties.
And Rudy Giuliani reportedly says, a far right candidate could help him win the presidency.
With us tonight, Joe Madison, XM Satellite radio talk show host. And Heidi Harris, conservative radio talk show host from Las Vegas. Great to have both of you with us tonight.
JOE MADISON, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: Thank you.
SCHULTZ: Let me play this sound bite, this is coming up this Sunday with David Gregory on “Meet the Press.” This is what Harry Reid says about the Tea Partiers, here it is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DAVID GREGORY, HOST, “MEET THE PRESS”: You ran against Sharron Angle in Nevada. Tough race for election and you prevailed. She was Tea Party-backed, a Tea Party candidate, certainly made a lot of headlines around the country. Do she and others as part of this Tea Party represent a lasting force in American politics?
HARRY REID, MAJORITY LEADER: The Tea Party was born because of the economy. The economy is probably the worst its ever been except for maybe the great depression. The Tea Party will disappear as soon as the economy gets better and the economy‘s getting better all of the time.
SCHULTZ: Heidi, what about that?
HEIDI HARRIS, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: Well, he may be right about the fact that the Tea Party started out as you know taxed enough already, it was what it meant. And he may be right that as the economy gets better, people will be less worried about being part of the Tea Party, but as you also know, the Tea Party members are already warning the newly elected Republicans, hey don‘t forget what you promised about smaller government and lower taxes. So, they‘re going to hold the Republicans accountable as much as they hold the Democrats accountable. So, I don‘t want the movement to die because I don‘t want people to forget about what our politicians should do, which is be responsible to us.
SCHULTZ: What do you think, Joe?
MADISON: Well, I always say that a moment is not a movement. You want fundamental changes. You don‘t want transactional change. There was supposed to be this agreement between the Tea Partiers and the Republicans. So Heidi is absolutely correct, Harry Reid is correct. If they can transact and I‘m speaking of the Democrats, the improvement and people start going back to work—excuse me, people start going back to work, then reality is, there‘s no movement. There‘s no movement and it‘s over. I think the other problem they have, they admit, they‘re leaderless. They don‘t have leaders. Now they‘ve got financial supporters but they‘ve claimed that they‘re leaderless and most movements don‘t exist without some type of solid leadership.
SCHULTZ: Yes, Joe, what about the president going to Wall Street to pick up some help this week? Gene Sperling, his resume, National Economic Council director, adviser to the treasury, Secretary Geithner. National Economic adviser for President Clinton and worked for Goldman Sachs. And then you‘ve got William Daley who was the new chief of staff. Clinton Commerce Department secretary. JP Morgan executive. Is this going to fly with the left, what do you think?
MADISON: Well, no, it‘s not going to fly with the million of the left. Ed, I think the two of us are on the same page on this one. I would love to see in Washington, fundamental change, again, not transactional leadership. But let‘s go to the Midwest. Let‘s go to regional bankers, successful community bankers and these are the Main Street people and I think that‘s what really, we on the left, want to see. That‘s the kind of change we want to see. I‘m weary of these ivy leaguers.
SCHULTZ: OK, Heidi, did the Republicans have a bad first week? Bob Shrum just said that the president‘s had some good numbers today. What do you think?
HARRIS: Do they have a good first week, well, I don‘t know, they‘re barely getting settled in. I don‘t know if it was necessarily a good week or a bad week. The Democrats has starting attacking them from day one, so, so much for bipartisanship that everyone talked about. We‘ll see what happens. I‘m hoping that they hold to the principles that they supposedly got elected on.
(CROSSTALK)
SCHULTZ: He doesn‘t even know what to cut.
MADISON: Hey, Ed they, just spent—they‘ve just spent $1.2 million reading the—oh I‘m sorry, and a version of the constitution. Two, you had two congressmen, now two congressmen who tried to get sworn-in telegraphically. I mean, yes, they had a bad week and their leader couldn‘t answer a basic question. And you just heard a democrat give a whole laundry list of things that ought to be cut, and I‘m hoping he can get bipartisanship support.
SCHULTZ: Joe Madison, Heidi Harris, great to have you with us tonight. Thanks for joining us on a Friday, thanks so much.
MADISON: Thank you.
HARRIS: Thank you.
SCHULTZ: Coming up, President Obama is sitting down for a Super Bowl interview with Bill O‘Reilly. Now, what good‘s going to come from this? And “Daily Show” co-creator Lizz Winstead has a theory on why John Boehner‘s tears just flow and flow. That‘s in “Club Ed.” Stay with us tonight on THE ED SHOW.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SCHULTZ: And it‘s not too late to let us know what you think. Tonight‘s text survey question is, do you think Republicans deserve any credit for job creation? Text A for yes, text B for no to 622-639. We‘ve got the results coming up. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SCHULTZ: And in my “Playbook” tonight, well a lot of liberals really don‘t understand why President Obama has agreed to do an interview with the partisan broadcaster, Bill O‘Reilly on Super Bowl Sunday. Listeners on my radio show today were not happy with the news. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED CALLER: I think it‘s a stupid move.
UNIDENTIFIED CALLER: He‘s continually abandoning the left to try to get the right and the right is never going to vote for him in this environment.
UNIDENTIFIED CALLER: If he wanted to forget an objective viewpoint to try to sway people, there are millions of different newscasts and vehicles that he could do it on. O‘Reilly calls his show fair and balanced, it should be insane and imbalanced.
UNIDENTIFIED CALLER: I think it‘s a mistake.
UNIDENTIFIED CALLER: I think he‘s degrading himself by even talking to that whack job.
UNIDENTIFIED CALLER: I think Obama is degrading himself giving anytime at all for this guy who is a bully and a low-life.
UNIDENTIFIED CALLER: Why are you giving this guy any credibility? Why are you debasing yourself and the office of the president of the United States with this moron?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHULTZ: Don‘t you just love the base? President Obama has been interviewed by FOX a few times. He knows what he‘s getting into. He definitely can handle himself. But, what‘s the upside? Last time he went on the fair and balanced network, he was treated rudely and could hardly get a word in.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PRES. BARACK OBAMA (D), UNITED STATES: I don‘t think we should pretend otherwise...
BRET BAIER, “SPECIAL REPORT” HOST: But Mr. President this Monday --
OBAMA: Let me finish, 25, 40, 60 percent.
BAIER: Mr. President, let me insert this.
OBAMA: I could read these e-mails.
BAIER: But it‘s not just Washington punditry.
OBAMA: No, listen. Enormous challenges that were faced because of that...
BAIER: I understand. But do you know which ones...
OBAMA: Hold a second, Bret, it was ugly when Republicans were in charge, it was ugly when the Democrats were in charge.
BAIER: This is 1/6 of the U.S. economy.
OBAMA: Sir, you have to let me finish my answers.
BAIER: But sir, I know you don‘t like to filibuster.
OBAMA: Well, I‘m trying to answer your questions and you keep on interrupting.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHULTZ: You can‘t trust them, and does the White House—have they really made the determination that an interview like that, and that‘s what it‘ll be with O‘Reilly, is going to be good for them? Sure, the Super Bowl has a huge audience, so do a lot of playoff games, but President Obama has the state of the union coming up, I think it‘s pretty sure that he could call up just about anybody and get an interview with him. So, why O‘Reilly? It‘ll be O‘Reilly‘s biggest audience ever.
Joining me now for more on this is New York Pix 11 commentator, Lionel. And you can find him on lionelmedia.com. Good move, bad move, what do you think, Lionel?
LIONEL, NEW YORK PIX 11 COMMENTATOR: Edward, in the pantheon of political genius, Obama is Zeus. He has to go on and do an interview in which he did last year which is kind of a protocol on the station that handles the Super Bowl. Last year, it was Katie Couric, it‘s going to be FOX. Now, if you‘re going to pick somebody from FOX, because he can‘t back out, who better than the a-team Bill O‘Reilly? You‘re not going to see that with Bret Baier again. Believe me, you know, they call Bret and they said, Bret, that dog don‘t hunt. That‘s not the way that we do it, and I know, Ed, you‘re going to fall off of your throne when I tell you this, but of the FOX News folks, the guy you‘re probably going to get the most fair and balanced, or as approximately close to that as you‘re ever going to get is with Bill O‘Reilly. Listen, the left loves...
SCHULTZ: They‘re not capable of fair and balanced.
LIONEL: The left loves him, the right can‘t stand him but if you‘re going to pick somebody, if you‘re going to pull from the other side, what better venue than the enemy side, so to speak. I think it‘s genius. He is the most disarming, defusing—you know they talk about how cold—we‘re talking about Obama, not Bill, but we need a teleprompter. He is deadly in an interview. I‘m telling you, they‘re going to walk back—leave from this, and be amazed. His group right now with Plouffe and with rouse and with even with Daley, this is—this is the a-team of a-teams. It is brilliant. Now I would have gone on THE ED SHOW but that‘s me.
SCHULTZ: I‘m rooting for you for president if that‘s the case.
LIONEL: No, but I‘m serious. Listen, I know this is going to kill you but a lot of people will going to be watching it, it is the Super Bowl, but watch him defuse and I don‘t want to say make a gelding out of Mr. O‘Reilly but as close to it as you‘re going to get.
SCHULTZ: But don‘t you think O‘Reilly is going to ask him if he was born in America, we‘re going to go down that road, the birther, and everything else.
LIONEL: If he wastes his time on that, bring it on. I mean seriously. If he wastes his time with that, and do you have the long form of your birth certificate? No, no, no, no. You watch because they‘re saying to Bill O‘Reilly listen, you have to make up for Bret Baier. That was not helpful at all.
SCHULTZ: Yes. Lionel, good to have you with us tonight. Thanks so much.
LIONEL: Really, Ed?
SCHULTZ: Yes, it is. I am very honored to have you on—in fact any night. Not just Fridays. All right, buddy.
LIONEL: Thank you.
SCHULTZ: Some final pages in the “Playbook” tonight, I‘m gearing up for a big week for playoff football here. Some of the big Eddie picks. I‘m taking Indy at home against the Jets. I know it hurts. I don‘t see the Saints losing at Seattle. I like the Eagles against Green Bay. And I think Baltimore wins on the road at Kansas City.
And there must be something in the water over at the Turner network. TNT‘s Charles Barkley waited on Tucker Carlson calling for Michael Vick‘s execution. It‘s true Barkley fashion and he didn‘t back off.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHARLES BARKLEY, FORMER AMERICAN PROFESSIONAL BASKETBALL PLAYER:
Some idiot on another station named Tucker Carlson who called out Michael Vick, number one, Michael Vick, we are all pulling for you, man. You keep doing your thing. You paid your debt to society. Good luck to you all in the playoff, and Tucker Carlson, who‘s a nobody, he used to work for us over here. We fired him because he sucked, now he goes over there.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: And you were part of that process in the firing.
BARKLEY: You know I had to fire...
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: You were in that meeting?
BARKLEY: No he said Michael Vick should be executed which is total bs.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHULTZ: Coming up, Michele Bachmann, well, she made headlines all week with rumors of a presidential run. “Daily Show” co-creator Lizz Winstead snaps her out of the trance. Next in “Club Ed.” Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SCHULTZ: Welcome back. If it‘s Friday, it‘s time for “Club Ed” with “Daily Show” co-creator Lizz Winstead. Coming to us from—of Minneapolis. Already, Lizz, we‘ve got John Boehner, he‘s got the gavel now. What do you make of all of this?
LIZZ WINSTEAD, CO-CREATOR, “DAILY SHOW”: Well, you know it‘s so exciting to watch how he, you know, takes the gavel and then the first thing that they do is partially read the constitution which, I don‘t know, this is kind of a fun fact, Ed. This is the first time that Republicans have read anything on the floor that a lobbyist hasn‘t written for them, so it was historic.
SCHULTZ: What do you make of the crying? And then there‘s a study out there, you know, linking it to women‘s tears. What‘s happening there?
WINSTEAD: Well, what‘s crazy, there‘s a couple of things. I think that we need to remember that the first three letters in sobbing, spell s.o.b. For what‘s that worth but I think that the crying is—it‘s a little frightening to me how there was this study done that says that women‘s tears lower than testosterone in men, and then there‘s another study done that‘s lesser known that says, John Boehner‘s tears actually lower the I.Q. in the Republican Party.
SCHULTZ: Yes, I would agree with that.
WINSTEAD: Did you read that, yes.
SCHULTZ: All right. Now we‘ve got all-American psycho-talker Michele Bachmann thinking about the oval office. What do you think about that?
WINSTEAD: Well, the first thing I have to ask you is, have you considered at all this year just changing the name of your show to “psycho talk”?
(LAUGHTER)
I don‘t know...
SCHULTZ: The Friday edition.
WINSTEAD: Do it, it‘s crazy. But second of all, Michele Bachmann‘s threat to run for president shouldn‘t scare anyone because she and her ilk believe that the rapture is coming on May 21st, so she can say she‘s going to run for anything. Apparently, you know, I‘m not, you‘re not, but she and her people are going to ascend into the heavens. The chosen and the rest of us will be left to pick through their stuff, I guess. I want her plaid jacket.
SCHULTZ: And you want her plaid jackets. All right.
WINSTEAD: I want her plaid jackets.
SCHULTZ: All right. What do you make of Michele Bachmann and Sarah Palin being silent on Antonin Scalia‘s comment that women don‘t have equal protection into the constitution?
WINSTEAD: Well, first of all, Ed, you‘re making assumption that they know who he is, they. And second of all, see first of all. I mean, I don‘t think that they think that women have equal rights under the constitution either the way that they talk. I mean, I really honestly think, I mean, they‘re not pro-choice. I look at them and I think, I don‘t know how they really get through the day as women. But, you know, they‘re stand by your mannish. And both I think—I think Michele Bachmann believes in some sort of coveted marriage and she has like five kids and 87 foster children. And you know the family comes first. And so I don‘t know. I really think that they believe that—when you believe in the rapture and when you believe that you are chosen by God, you aren‘t really paying much attention to any fact-based thing anyway, and so, when Scalia says, oh, women don‘t have any rights and Scalia also comes from some kind of crazy bible skewed philosophy, they just all run with the same wolfs.
SCHULTZ: All right, Lizz Winstead, always a pleasure, looking forward to reading that book coming out. We‘ll talk about it later. Great to have you with us.
WINSTEAD: Thanks, Ed.
SCHULTZ: Tonight in our text survey I asked, do you think Republicans deserves any credit for job creation? Twenty one percent of you said, yes. Seventy nine percent of you said, no.
That‘s THE ED SHOW. I‘m Ed Schultz. Actually, I‘m rooting for the Jets tomorrow but I‘m not really sure they‘re going to get it done. For more information on THE ED SHOW, go to ed.msnbc.com or check out my radio Web site at wegoted.com. Twitter, Facebook, blogging, all of that stuff is right there on that Web site and the radio show is on XM 167 from noon to 3:00. Monday through Friday. “HARDBALL” with Chris Matthews starts right now. Have a great one. We‘ll see you back here on Monday.
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