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The Ed Show for Thursday, June 7, 2012

Read the transcript to the Thursday show

Guests: Ben LaBolt, Thom Hartmann, Joy Reid, Susan Del Percio, Dave Zirin

ED SCHULTZ, HOST: Good evening, Americans. And welcome to THE ED
SHOW, tonight from New York.

Is it really about jobs? Then, Mitt Romney, where is your party?

This is THE ED SHOW -- let`s get to work.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MITT ROMNEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: With America in crisis, with
23 million people out of work or stopped looking for work, he hasn`t put
forward a plan to get us working again.

SCHULTZ (voice-over): Mitt Romney is running for president of
fantasyland, with his latest claim on jobs.

Ben LaBolt of the Obama campaign responds tonight.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Let`s get to work!

SCHULTZ: Governor Rick Scott is officially refusing to stop his voter
purge. The attorney general is responding. We`ll have the latest from
Florida.

ERIC HOLDER, ATTORNEY GENERAL: We will make sure that the federal law
is enforced. And we have to enforce the law to protect the rights of
American citizens.

SCHULTZ: And it`s the biggest lawsuit in sports history. Two
thousand former players are suing the NFL over their handling of brain
injuries. I`ll ask "The Nation`s" Dave Zirin if they have a case.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SCHULTZ: Good to have you with us tonight, folks. Thanks for
watching.

Republicans think that they can beat President Obama by just hammering
him on the issue of jobs and jobs performance. But the president made it
clear today that he`s not going to be running away from his jobs record.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: We`re still fighting our way back from the worst economic
recession since the Great Depression. Our businesses have created almost
4.3 million new jobs over the last 27 months. But we`re still not creating
them as fast as we want.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHULTZ: It`s all about the numbers. The Obama campaign put out a
new TV ad today, highlighting the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the figure of
4.3 million new private sector jobs.

Now, President Obama was in Las Vegas today, asking Congress, why have
you not helped create more jobs?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: I told Congress months ago, let`s pass a bill to put hundreds
of thousands of construction workers and contractors back to work,
rebuilding America, rebuild roads and bridges and new schools for rising
populations and --

(APPLAUSE)

OBAMA: That`s good for the economy now, it`s good for the economy
later. There`s no excuse for Congress to just shrug its shoulders. Let`s
get it done.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHULTZ: But Mitt Romney wants to erase President Obama`s job
proposals from history.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROMNEY: With 23 million people out of work, or stopped looking for
work, he hasn`t put forward a plan to get us working again. Now, I know
we`re getting close to an election, so he`ll come out with one soon. But 3
1/2 years later, we`re waiting.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHULTZ: Do you want to talk about the political divide in this
country? I have just shown you a couple of sound bites that are totally
different. Totally set of facts.

And I have to say that Mitt Romney is so far off base, it`s misleading
to the American people to do this. I guess we`re here tonight to refresh
Mitt Romney`s memory.

The president proposed the American Jobs Act in 2011. This is a fact.
I think I was covering the news when this was taking place. This was a
$450 billion plan that would have created at least $1.3 million jobs and as
many as 2 million jobs.

What happened? Well, it was rejected by the Republicans. That`s a
fact, despite its bipartisan proposals.

Now, the full bill was introduced on the Senate floor, this is a fact,
October 11th, 2011. A partial bill, another one for teachers and first
responders, that was introduced on October 17th. I promise you, folks, I`m
not making this up. An infrastructure jobs bill was introduced on October
31st.

My friends, all three bills failed to receive enough support from
Republicans to proceed.

Here`s what Republicans did pass in the House. Maybe Mitt should be
talking about this. A useless bill to repeal the health care law, a bill
to defund National Public Radio. Hold it right there. How many of your
neighbors have been complaining about NPR?

I mean, OK, no taxpayer funding for the abortion act. That was
another dandy that they had to get. Now, this week, the House Republicans,
just this week, forced another vote on light bulb efficiency standards.

Now, hold it right there. Now, Larry, if you`re talking to harry over
the garden, you know, after work, you run into your neighbor, do you talk
about light bulbs? I mean, where is the government?!

Why is -- and now, of course, you`ve got Mitt Romney out there
campaigning, saying, well, President Obama hasn`t done anything. There`s
three positives right there that were shot down by the Republicans because
of the political divide in the country.

How do we tone this frustration down as Americans? The Republicans
will vote on anything but jobs. This isn`t the first time Mitt Romney
claimed the president`s job-growing policies just don`t work.

Here`s Mitt Romney on the stimulus package in 2009.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROMNEY: You have to recognize that the stimulus that the president
and Congress passed is not what`s helped this economy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHULTZ: But yesterday, just yesterday, the president of the
nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office testified at a House hearing about
the stimulus package. He said a vast majority of the nation`s economists,
a vast majority, that means a lot of the nation`s economists believe that
the stimulus created jobs.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DOUGLAS ELMENDORF, CBO DIRECTOR: Because of the Recovery Act, the
unemployment rate was lower at the end of 2010 than it would have been
without the stimulus bill. Eighty percent of the respondents, 80 percent,
agreed or strongly agreed with that statement.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right, so --

ELMENDORF: Only 4 percent disagreed or strongly disagreed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHULTZ: Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke gave his own testimony
today. He said the Fed can`t rescue the economy by itself. You know what
has to happen? Congress is going to have to get on the stick and get
something done.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BEN BERNANKE, FEDERAL RESERVE CHAIRMAN: Monetary policy is not a
panacea. It would be much better to have a broad-based policy effort
addressing a whole variety of issues. I leave the details to Congress, who
has considered many of these issues.

So I would be much more comfortable if, in fact, you know, Congress
would take some of this burden from us and address those issues.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHULTZ: Now, that`s a very academic way of Larry saying to Harry
over the hedge row in the backyard after they got off work, gosh, I wish
those guys would work together in Washington and do something about jobs.
The Republican-appointed Federal Reserve chairman went to the Hill to tell
Republicans that they are on the wrong page.

Congress needs to spend money to make money. That`s what the economy
needs right now. The proof is in the results of the first stimulus in
2009. We don`t want to make anything up now.

Steve Benen of "Maddow Blog" put these charts together. They`re very
easy to see. This is the nation`s gross domestic product before and after
the stimulus, OK? The red is for the Bush years, the blue is for the Obama
years.

Look at what happened when the stimulus kicked in -- same thing with
private sector job growth. The stimulus starts, jobs, what do they do?
They start to come back.

And Wall Street has done, I think, pretty well since the stimulus.
Mitt Romney can say President Obama has no jobs plan, but it`s obvious the
president`s plans when he got some cooperation worked.

What are we against? Why are we against success in this country?

Well, it`s all about politics. It`s also obvious Republicans want to
prevent the president from having any plan work right now.

Hell, it`s June. We`ve got an election coming up. We can stall this
thing until November. It is more important to beat him than it is to help
the country.

Now, let`s take a real close look at this. You Wall Streeters -- you
know, look, where are the numbers? Well, let`s see. This is the one I
like. This is where the stock market was in March of `09. Here we go.
All the way, over 11,000 and where it closed today.

Folks, look, the guys in the backyard after work who talk over to the
hedge, hey, Charlie, how`s it going? Oh, not too good. How about those
guys in Washington? They can`t get a damned thing done.

Well, here`s what`s happens. You have got two political parties who
are just like this and they`re not going to give up and they don`t care
about American workers. You can put plan after plan after plan on the
table, which the president has done, and you`re going to have the opponent
out on the campaign trail saying, we haven`t done anything.

Facts don`t matter to these folks. Because they`re going to have
enough money out there to stick in those guys in their heads in the
backyard to say, oh, hell, Obama`s not doing anything.

No, the president has tried to do everything, but it`s been total
obstruction. And who`s paying the price? We are. How do we get solutions
when we have people who are on the payroll?

We must remind everybody that these congressional members are on the
payroll to serve the public. But you see, they want to stop everything,
because they want to make sure that Obama`s put in a bad light and they can
win the White House and get the power of the government back.

Get your cell phones out. I want to know what you think. Tonight`s
question: are Republicans more concerned with the president`s failure than
creating jobs? Text "A" for yes, text "B" for no, to 622639. You can
always go to our blog at Ed.MSNBC.com. We`ll bring you the results later
on on the show.

Joining me tonight is Ben LaBolt, national press secretary for the
Obama campaign 2012.

Very basic, Ben. I mean, you know, how can Romney go out there and
the Republicans go out there and get away day after day of saying, you
know, the president has no plan. It`s easy to pick up the research here of
what we just did. It`s very easy to see exactly what was introduced, when
it was introduced, what it was targeted for, and what it would have done.

But your opponent is out there saying, hasn`t done anything.

So, how do you not let him get away with it?

BEN LABOLT, OBAMA 2012 NATL. PRESS SECY.: Well, that`s a good
question, Ed. There is a candidate in this race who doesn`t have a plan to
create jobs, and it`s Mitt Romney. He`s been telling voters he has a 50-
point economic plan, but it`s just filled with warmed-over Republican
rhetoric and things we`ve tried before and haven`t spurred job creation.
Things like $5 trillion tax cuts for the wealthiest, repealing Wall Street
reform and leaving the middle class held hostage to the sorts of risky
financial deals that put our entire economy at risk.

The president`s had this plan to create over a million jobs on the
table since last fall. It would address specific weaknesses that we saw in
last month`s jobs report. It would put public sector workers back to work,
teachers in classrooms, cops on the street. It`s got an infrastructure
plan in there that we could get construction workers to work.

So we know what we need to do right now. The president`s got the plan
to do it. And Congress is absolutely being obstructionist here and needs
to get this done.

SCHULTZ: Well, I would like the American people to view this for what
it is. This is an admission of guilty, I think, on the part of the
Republicans. Because they know they`re wrong. If they go along with this,
it will create jobs, and that`s the last thing they want to do right now.

I want to go back to December of 2008. This is what Mitt Romney wrote
in the "National Review." "The Democrats may want to wait for Obama, but
the country needs action now. Republicans can and must play an important
role in shaping a stimulus bill that makes sense for America and lays a
foundation for future prosperity and growth."

Here we go again! Will the real Mitt Romney please stand up?

Why don`t more people know about this? This is actually a major flip-
flop on the part of Mitt Romney, isn`t it?

LABOLT: It really is. I mean, he called for stimulus funding at the
time. He knew it was absolutely essential to get our economy moving again
and to create jobs. And the fact is he`s run away from that just like he`s
run away from health care reform, something that he passed in his state,
included an individual mandate in it, said it should serve as a national
model.

It did. It was his signature accomplishment in Massachusetts, and he
doesn`t talk about it anymore.

But let`s take a look at other things that he`s walking away from --
his Massachusetts record. You know, he`s been out there saying he`s a job
creator, saying he has job creation plans on the table. He made those same
promises in 2002 when he was running for office in Massachusetts.

And that didn`t work out. Massachusetts slipped from 36th to 47th out
of 50 in job creation. The deficit exploded.

SCHULTZ: All right. There`s no doubt, I think the campaign is going
to have to continue to get the truth out about jobs, because they got a lot
of money to convince people that President Obama hasn`t done anything,
which takes me to the fund-raising.

What about the last month? They raised more money, the Romney
campaign is getting the leg up on President Obama. Does this concern you
at this point?

LABOLT: Well, we always anticipated that once he secured the
nomination, the combination of the Romney campaign and the RNC would
outraise us that month. They can go back to all of the donors who gave
during the primary campaign and get the maximize contribution from them.
Kerry out-raised Bush by two to one in may of 2004 after he secured the
nomination.

SCHULTZ: So no big shakes right now? It`s a few million off, but
you`re OK?

LABOLT: But here`s what should be a clarion call to our supporters to
give now and invest in building the largest grassroots campaign in history,
which are all these special interests out there, which are giving tens of
millions of dollars to protect their own special interests that aren`t in
the national interests. Things like tax breaks for oil and gas --
subsidies for oil and gas companies, making record profits that we
absolutely don`t need and taxpayers can`t afford.

SCHULTZ: Ben LaBolt, great to have you on. Thanks.

LABOLT: Thanks for having me, Ed.

SCHULTZ: You bet.

Remember to answer tonight`s question at the bottom of the screen,
share your thoughts on Twitter @EdShow. We love those Twitter comments.
We want to know what you think, always.

President Obama needs a game plan if the Supreme Court overturns part
of the health care law. Part of it would destroy the rest of it. I`ll
tell you why. Jonathan Alter joins me for that discussion.

And later, a tip of the hat to George W. Bush? OK. Find out who
wants President Obama to give W. a little credit.

We`re coming right back. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SCHULTZ: Coming up, new proof that the Republican messaging on health
care is working. So what are the Democrats going to do to fight back
against that? Well, Jonathan Alter weighs in. He`s got some ideas.

Florida Governor Rick Scott won`t stop his voter purge, despite the
Justice Department`s request. There are new details tonight, including a
response from Attorney General Eric Holder.

And it`s the largest lawsuit in sports history. Over 2,000 former NFL
players are suing the league for misleading players about the dangers of
concussions. Sports writer Dave Zirin will join me later.

Share your thoughts on Twitter using #EdShow. We`re coming right
back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAY LENO, "THE TONIGHT SHOW": I know guys that work in the auto
industry, and they`re just not covered because they work in brake dust and
they could -- so they`ve never been able to get insurance. Now, they get
to be 30 or 35, they`ve never been able to get insurance before, now, they
have it. That seems like a good thing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHULTZ: Welcome back to THE ED SHOW.

Do you think Jay Leno may be better talking about health care than the
Democrats? Because the latest poll on the Affordable Health Care Act
doesn`t really look very good. What`s happening here? Forty-one percent
believe that the entire law should be overturned by the Supreme Court when
its decision comes out later this month, 27 percent want the mandate
overturned, but not the entire law. And only 24 percent want to see the
entire law upheld.

Now, a couple of things to point out here. First of all, on the
bright side, 51 percent, they do not want to see the entire law overturned.
But 27 percent who want to see only the mandate thrown out don`t seem to
understand how devastating it would be to the rest of the health care law.

Now, as you can see from this graph, the percentage wanting to see the
entire lawn overturned has increased a bit since the Supreme Court heard
oral arguments on the case in March. Were they paying attention to it?
Was the public on top of these oral arguments to the point they were turned
off?

Let`s turn to Jonathan Alter, MSNBC political analyst and columnist
for "Bloomberg View."

What do you make of this shift? Great to have you with us. It`s been
a while.

JONATHAN ALTER, MSNBC POLITICAL ANALYST: You know, this is just so
perplexing, because you would think that at least part of the message of
health care would be sinking in by now, especially the most popular parts
of it, you know, prescription drug help for seniors, letting your kids stay
on your insurance until they`re it have years old, banning description
against sick people, a terrible form of discrimination, against people who
have pre-existing condition, of whom there are millions.

And so, obviously there were huge messaging failures that the
president has the admitted on the Democratic side, but I think at this
point, you know, it`s just economic anxiety. People really don`t want to
hear about anything except for how the government might help them get a
job.

SCHULTZ: You know, after the health care heavy lift in 2000 and 2010,
then it was all about jobs in a big, big way. OK? We`ve just gotten away
from talking about it. The Obama campaign has gotten away from talking
about it. Maybe people are forgetting all the good things.

And then, of course, it`s in front of the Supreme Court, which is in
the minds of many, I think, a negative. And now it`s almost like a
reintroduction about how good this is.

How hard is that going to be?

ALTER: Well, it`s going to be tough. And I think the Obama campaign
is maybe shying away from it too much, because their polling shows similar
sorts of results, like, this is a loser for us. People don`t like to pay
for people who are uninsured, even though they`re already paying when they
go to the emergency room.

But here`s the thing, Ed, I think a lot of people don`t understand.
If you take the number of voters, of people between the ages of 22, when
they get out of college, they`re no longer covered by the college health
service, and 26, it`s between 10 million and 15 million people.

Now, that`s Obama`s base. That`s the heart of his base, those young
people. And they have to be convinced that it is on the line for them and
their parents as well, who will be having to pick up the cost of their
insurance if this is invalidated or overturned on day one of a Romney
administration.

SCHULTZ: Well, on the line, that`s the key phrase right here,
because if the Supreme Court overturns the individual mandate, important
protections are going to fall apart, like the pre-existing conditions.

Now, here`s Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama on the Senate floor, part
of FOX News coverage today, throwing it at us. Here it is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JEFF SESSIONS (R), ALABAMA: I sense, and a lot of my colleagues
share this view, that the president himself, Democratic colleagues in the
House and the Senate, their friends in the media and liberal government
pro-health care advocates have stepped up, undignified, not justified
attacks on the court.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHULTZ: Bullying? Attacks on the court?

It shouldn`t even in the Supreme Court. This is all just part of
taking down an accomplishment by the president. That`s what I see.

ALTER: Also -- I mean, these are the same conservatives who attacked,
you know, judicial activists legislating from the bench, liberal jurists.
They slammed the Supreme Court so much, you know, when decisions would go
against them and their interests, it`s just another example of their
hypocrisy to go after anybody who would criticize the court.

But, you know, it doesn`t really matter, it opportunity affect the
decision. They`re going to decide in the next few days, possibly what
they`re going to decide. And that will play 52-card pickup, very possibly,
with this whole issue, throw the entire health care system into chaos.
Because even if they only overturn the individual mandate, Ed, that pulls a
thread on the whole blanket of one-seventh of the American economy. And we
have a completely chaotic situation.

If you`re an insurance company and there`s no individual mandate, you
can`t stay in business. You know, because if you don`t have a bigger pool,
you can`t cover -- you can`t stay in business.

SCHULTZ: And --

ALTER: So it will just create utter chaos through the system.

SCHULTZ: It will. I mean, the whole thing they tried to do with
health care is to get more people covered, to get better outcomes
medically, and to bring the costs down over time. It`s another messaging
issue. It`s a heavy lift between now and the election and it`s going to be
interesting to see how it plays out.

Jonathan, great to have you with us tonight.

ALTER: Thanks, Ed.

SCHULTZ: Thank you.

Up next, Florida Governor Rick Scott -- I mean, this guy is not
backing down. I mean, he is picking a fight with not only one, but two
federal agencies. Democratic strategist Bob Shrum will join me for the
discussion.

Jeb Bush is looking back at the primary season with regret and his
older brother has some tough new poll numbers. We`ll have the latest on
bad news for the Bush brothers when we come back.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SCHULTZ: Welcome back to THE ED SHOW.

Now, the state of Florida, interesting outfit here. They are picking
a fight with not one but two federal agencies, all in an effort to purge
thousands of voters from the state`s voting rolls and potentially turn
Florida solid red in November. That`s the mission here.

Governor Rick Scott says his administration will not comply, will not
comply with a Department of Justice order to stop purging voters. Now his
secretary of state, Ken Detzner, is accusing the Department of Homeland of
Security of violating the law by denying the state access to a federal
citizenship database.

Now, the Department of Justice has warned the Scott administration
their efforts to scrub voters from the rolls is flat-out illegal, but that
hasn`t deterred Scott and his team.

Here`s attorney general from Florida, Pam Bondi.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PAM BONDI, FLORIDA ATTORNEY GENERAL: We`re going to keep fighting and
we have Governor Rick Scott, he`s tough, he believes in what we`re doing.
We`re stonewalled right now. But, you know, my words to the Department of
Justice are: shouldn`t we all want legal people to vote and not illegal
people?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHULTZ: But Scott`s purge list is riddled with all kinds of errors.
The state`s election supervisors, both Democrats and Republicans, have said
that they will not continue the purge, because there are just too many
variables with the entire process.

But despite the bipartisan pushback in the state of Florida and an
order from the Department of Justice, the Florida secretary of state, Ken
Detzner, has sent the Department of Justice a letter, claiming that the
Department of Justice is at fault and has violated federal law.

As "The Miami Herald" put it, "The letter all but dares the Justice
Department to sue the state of Florida for allegedly violating the 1965
Voting Rights Act and the 1993 National Voter Registration Act."

Detzner also accuses the Department of Homeland Security of not
allowing access to a federal database for voter registration checking.
Now, "The Miami Herald" reports Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, who you
just heard and saw, hasn`t ruled out suing homeland security to gain access
to that database. And now, some right-wingers are siding with Scott and
accusing the Department of Justice of playing politics. But Attorney
General Eric Holder isn`t buying their argument.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ERIC HOLDER, U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: The notion that this is somehow a
political ploy is inconsistent. At base, we have to enforce the law, a law
that was designed by this Congress or its predecessor to protect the rights
of American citizens. That`s what our action is all about, to protect the
rights of American citizens.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHULTZ: For more, I`m joined by Democratic strategist, professor at
NYU Bob Shrum. I mean, this is, OK, we`ve got attorneys, you`ve got
attorneys, let`s go fight. What`s happening here?

BOB SHRUM, NYU PROFESSOR: Look, the first thing I`ve got to say is
that Rick Scott knows something about fraud, because he was involved in the
biggest Medicare fraud in history. But there`s no evidence of voter fraud
in Florida. The officials in the state say it. They go down the list. I
think there have been only a few cases in the last 10 years.

This is really an attempt to go back to the post-Reconstruction south,
to pass Jim Crow laws on voting that disenfranchise African-Americans and
Hispanics. It`s disenfranchisement as a way to dominate, because they
don`t want these new folks or these folk who suddenly have the power and
the vote, to be heard, because it threatens their vision of America.

You know, we do have, as you said, federal laws here. The Confederacy
did not win the Civil War. And those laws ought to be enforced. George
Wallace stood in the schoolhouse door. Now you`ve got Rick Scott standing
in the polling place door. He ought to be held to account.

SCHULTZ: This is all about winning Florida. It`s all politics.
There`s no question about that. Of course, they come back and say,
everyone should want fair elections. What`s your response to that?

SHRUM: Well, first of all, there`s no evidence that we have unfair
elections. There`s no evidence that there`s any kind of widespread voter
fraud or even very minor voter fraud.

The other thing they are doing, by the way, because they keep saying
illegal immigrants are voting, they`re trying to pick at that scab. This
is where the Tea Party people go. It`s the politics of grievance. It`s
all this stuff about give us back our country, Obama is alien, different,
strange.

There is no evidence that this needs to be done. There is massive
evidence that it will differentially discriminate against African-Americans
and minorities. And it`s illegal!

SCHULTZ: Now, Holder is going to be accused of being the political
pawn of the president, but he`s got the law on his side. He cannot back
down at all. He has got to go to the firewall on this.

SHRUM: Look, Republicans -- the accusation that somebody`s being a
political pawn comes with ill grace from people who stole Florida in 2000
and who used the secretary of state in that state to do it. Holder needs
to enforce the law. The Voting Rights Act is very clear. The 1993 Act on
voting is very clear. You cannot pass laws that make it very difficult --
by the way, not just for many African-Americans and not just for many
minorities and Hispanics to vote, but make it very difficult at times for
senior citizens to vote.

SCHULTZ: OK, he has got his election commissioners down there,
Republicans and Democrats, saying we`re not going to do this. Well, he can
get rid of them and he`ll get somebody in there that will do it?

SHRUM: Sure, Katherine Harris is unemployed.

SCHULTZ: She`d probably dust off a few old tricks too, wouldn`t she?
Look, I mean, this is headed towards a major legal battle. This is like
Florida saying, you know what, we`re our own state; we`re going to do
whatever the hell we want. We don`t care about any kind of federal laws
that you`ve had before. By the way, we just want to do it because we want
to rig the elections, but really everybody wants fair elections. That`s
really where they are.

SHRUM: It is what they`ve done on everything. It`s the first report
you had on this show, where Romney says Obama doesn`t have a jobs plan.
Not true. This is -- of course everybody wants to enforce the law. And of
course everybody thinks only citizens should vote. There`s no evidence,
number one, that this is a problem.

Number two, their remedy throws American citizens off the voting
rolls. That`s why these local officials don`t want to do this.

SCHULTZ: And Scott is so callous about it, he acts like he doesn`t
even care. Bob Shrum, great to have you with us.

SHRUM: Great, Ed, thanks.

SCHULTZ: Lots more coming up in the next half hour of THE ED SHOW.
Stay tuned.


(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A lot of it`s modeled after --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Forty three.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Forty three. And it would be nice, a little tap
of the hat might be a nice thing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHULTZ: The Bush boys are back and you won`t believe what they`re
saying this time. The big panel weighs in next.

Two thousand former football players drop a bombshell lawsuit on the
NFL. "The Nation`s" Dave Zirin has details.

And if you think cable news in America gets a little rough sometimes

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHULTZ: Wait until you see the Greek version of let`s get to work.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SCHULTZ: Good to have you back with us. Jeb Bush thinks President
Obama needs to give his brother more credit for setting such a good example
on national security.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEB BUSH (R), FMR. GOVERNOR OF FLORIDA: A lot of it`s modeled after -
-

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Forty three.

BUSH: -- forty three. And it would be nice. A little tip of the hat
might be a nice thing. I think it would be helpful for him politically.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHULTZ: Jeb thinks W. set the standard for going after al Qaeda?
Let`s jog his memory a little bit here.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Whether we
bring our enemies to justice or bring justice to our enemies, justice will
be done.

My intentions are to find those who did this, find those who
encouraged them, find those who housed them, find those who comforted them,
and bring them too justice.

I just don`t spend that much time on him. I don`t know where he is.
I -- I -- I repeat what I said, I truly am not that concerned about him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHULTZ: Jeb`s big brother gave up on finding Osama bin Laden. He
gave up just seven months after 9/11. President Obama didn`t need a role
model. He got Osama bin Laden, and he hasn`t stopped, if you look at the
numbers. A drone strike killed Al Libi last week in Pakistan. He was al
Qaeda`s second in command. Al Libi is one of 18 top al Qaeda commanders
taken out since the president took office.

Maybe Jeb should tip his hat to President Obama instead. Let`s turn
to our panel tonight. A number of topics to go after. Joy Reid with us of
TheGrio.com, Susan Del Percio, MSNBC contributor, and radio talk show host
and author Thom Hartmann.

All right, why is Jeb Bush bringing this up? Has the president just
been too successful, Joy, on foreign policy?

JOY REID, THEGRIO.COM: Well, you know what, I think that there`s
always a little bit of a bittersweet edge whenever Jeb Bush speaks about
anything to do with the White House, because I think this is a man who most
people believe wanted to be president, still probably wants to be
president. So I think he might be now a little wistful, looking at now
maybe what could have been.

And he`s a good defender of his big brother. But the problem for Jeb
Bush is that, in a lot of ways, President Barack Obama has had to finish
what his brother didn`t. On the issue particularly of Osama bin Laden,
that`s what the country wanted most from George W. Bush after 9/11, get
Osama bin Laden.

He didn`t do it, and then seemed to not show much interest in it. In
a lot of ways, Barack Obama has been more aggressive at fighting the so-
called War on Terror than Bush was.

SUSAN DEL PERCIO, MSNBC POLITICAL ANALYST: He`s certainly been more
aggressive on the drone attacks. There`s no question about it. And as far
as the cyber attacks against Iran, that started again in Bush`s
administration. And so did going after Osama bin Laden. I mean, the intel
that we got took years.

THOM HARTMANN, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: Wait a minute, the drone attacks
started during the Bush administration?

DEL PERCIO: Yes.

HARTMANN: And yet when Barack Obama on the campaign trail said, if I
knew -- somebody asked, if you knew that bin Laden was there, would you
take him out with a drone, and he said yes. And John McCain went all
ballistic on it, and George Bush and the whole Bush administration standing
right there, going oh, no, we don`t invade Pakistan. Don`t you remember?
This is the last couple months of the Bush administration.

DEL PERCIO: -- what I was saying is that a lot of these things
happen. Now, I happen to disagree with Jeb Bush that politically it would
be helpful, because it would be a disaster for President Obama to say any
of that. And I think that there is or should be respect between the
president. And things like this probably shouldn`t be said now.

But you can`t question the fact that these policies started and the
men and women who have carried them out on the ground have been doing a
tremendous job since 9/11.

SCHULTZ: But the drone attacks have been the most effective, have
they not?

DEL PERCIO: They absolutely have.

SCHULTZ: And they started under Bush? No, they did not.

DEL PERCIO: It was under Obama.

HARTMANN: In an aggressive fashion.

(CROSS TALK)

HARTMANN: Bush was using them for surveillance. Actually, it was Joe
Biden who was pushing this policy when he was a senator.

REID: Right. And the issue was that President Bush certainly had
drones in the air, but arming them was a policy specifically of the Obama
administration. Similarly, the bin Laden unit, which was closed during the
Bush administration, if you`ll remember -- I think a lot of the feeling
within military circles was that they were given sort of the go ahead to
start to look for bin Laden, but were never given the go ahead to finish
the job, and that they got that under this president.

SCHULTZ: I want to switch subjects here, because we`re having this
ongoing discussion in America, and action on municipality levels, on local
levels, about what to do with public employees. On Tuesday, voters in both
San Diego and San Jose, California, voted to cut public sector. Now not
just future hires, but current worker benefits. We`re talking about
firefighters, police officers and teachers.

The tenth biggest city in America has to shut down a firehouse one day
a week to cope with all of these can cuts. Thom, where are we going?
There seems to be a narrative going on right now, especially coming from
the conservatives, we`ve got too many public workers. They get paid too
much or benefits are too good. The divide is taking place. What`s
happening here?

HARTMANN: Scott Walker said it very well, divide and conquer. This
is go after the public sector workers, go after the government employees,
like government employees don`t do anything. And you`re right, it gets
down to firefighters and they actually do do something.

But San Diego`s an incredibly conservative, incredibly Republican
town. So they`re all --

SCHULTZ: But this is a wave that`s taking place now.

DEL PERCIO: And this is taking place with Democrats and Republicans.
San Jose has a Democratic mayor, San Diego has a Republican. You see it in
New York with Democratic Governor Cuomo and with Chris Christie in New
Jersey. The fact --

SCHULTZ: I mean, it`s everywhere.

HARTMANN: It`s a race to the bottom.

DEL PERCIO: But here`s the issue. They have serious budget problems
they have to face. And both sides, for a very long time, offered a lot of
sweeteners for public union support, or in some cases with Republicans,
hoping that the unions wouldn`t do anything, to get their votes. And
really, the leadership of these unions really have to stop worrying about
themselves --

SCHULTZ: Many of them have taken cuts, though.

DEL PERCIO: The police chief of San Jose retired in 2010 with a
535,000 dollar salary. That is quite large.

SCHULTZ: I could tell you CEOs that have got deals like that.

DEL PERCIO: OK, but that`s not what we`re talking about, because
that`s not the problem at hand. You`re talking about municipalities that
have actual issues. They have to meet their budget. It has nothing to do
with what a CEO --

SCHULTZ: So this isn`t philosophical about public workers. This is
about a budget? If the budget was OK, these workers would be OK. Is that
where the Republicans are?

DEL PERCIO: Yes, because you know what? If they could keep them
happy and not have them working against them, absolutely.

HARTMANN: So this is all --

REID: I`m sorry, I didn`t mean to cut you off, but I think what`s
interesting is that the public sector unions that have been the most
successful at negotiating large benefit packages, health benefits, et
cetera, retirement, have been the police officers, who are traditionally
Republican, a lot of the constituencies.

But these were negotiated during good economic times. Now you are
seeing across the board this attack. But I think what a lot of people at
least on the Democratic side find really jarring is this idea of sort of
vilifying and calling people thugs.

We are talking about cops who are patrolling our streets. It`s a very
dangerous job. We`re talking about firemen and teachers. And it doesn`t
feel right when, at the same time, the Republican party is saying, almost
worship CEOs that are making going gargantuan sums of money.

(CROSS TALK)

DEL PERCIO: Let me tell you, Republicans want the support of
firefighters and police officers. That`s something that they have done in
state houses around the country for years to get their support.

HARTMANN: But what`s happening right now is that this is the Bush
Great Recession. This is the Bush Great Depression. If the economy wasn`t
in the tank right now, nobody would be having these conversations. And
that piece of the equation nobody wants to talk about that.

SCHULTZ: Joy Reid, Thom Hartman, Susan, great to have you with us
tonight. Thanks so much.

George W. Bush is still tanking in the polls, even though he`s been
out of office for over three years.

And things turned violent on live TV in Greece. I`m so glad I work in
America after seeing this videotape. Stay with us. We`re right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SCHULTZ: Well, who`s hot? Who`s not? It`s not the Bush brothers.
They are back in the news for all the wrong reasons. Former Florida
Governor Jeb Bush is looking back at primary season with regret. He thinks
2012 could have been his shot at the White House.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

J. BUSH: There`s a window of opportunity in life for all sorts of
reasons. And this was probably my time. Although I don`t know -- given
kind of what I believe and how I believe it, I`m not sure I would have been
successful as a candidate either. I -- these are different times than just
six years ago, when I last ran.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHULTZ: They sure are. Jeb`s right about one thing. There`s no way
he could survive a primary with the crazy state of the Republican party
today. He went on to say that he`s not ruling out a White House run in the
future.

Meanwhile, older brother W.`s poll numbers, they`re still horrible.
Despite being out of office for over three years, George W. Bush is the
most unpopular living president. A new CNN poll shows that 54 percent of
Americans have an unfavorable view of the former president.

And finally, if you think the cable food fight is bad here in the
United States, take a look at what`s going on in Greece.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHULTZ: Yow! Things got a little violent live on a political talk
show. A member of the ultra right-wing Nazi party -- neo-Nazi party lost
his cool on left-wing politicians. Police in Greece issued a warrant for
the man`s arrest and they are still looking for him.

Tonight in our survey, I asked are Republicans more concerned with the
president`s failure than creating jobs? Ninety eight percent of you said
yes, two percent of you said no.

Coming up, this is the largest lawsuit in sports history. And I`ll
tell you why 2,000 former NFL players are suing the league over workplace
safety. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SCHULTZ: And in the big finish tonight, more than 2,000 former
players are part of the largest class action lawsuit in sports history.
The plaintiffs say the National Football League created and covered up
unsafe working conditions. The lawsuit filed today says the NFL concealed
information related to head injuries in football and in connection to long-
term brain damage.

It says "the NFL deliberately and fraudulently misled players about
the link between brain damage and concussions."

The league said in a statement today, "any allegation that the NFL
intentionally sought to mislead players has no merit." Former NFL fullback
Kevin Turner is one of the players suing the league. He suffered long-term
brain damage and does not think that the NFL took the proper precautions.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KEVIN TURNER, FORMER NFL PLAYER: I just, you know, wish they had, you
know, looked into this. And I think they probably knew something about it.
The studies were out there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHULTZ: The issue of concussions in football has intensified after a
series of players committed suicide. In the past 20 years, a dozen well-
known former players have taken their own lives. Pro Bowler Junior Seau
was the most recent. The players suing the NFL say the league has not done
enough to connect the dots.

Former Green Bay Packer Dorsey Levins says he has seen the effects
firsthand.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DORSEY LEVINS, FORMER NFL PLAYER: I`ve talked to guys who are in
their early 40s who have already been diagnosed with dementia. You know,
I`ve talked to their wives, their kids. These people are human beings.
And I think people lose sight of that as athletes because you make so much
money.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHULTZ: Joining me now is Dave Zirin, sports editor for "The Nation"
magazine, who`s been covering this. Dave, nobody made those players go out
on the field. What do these players hope to accomplish here?

DAVE ZIRIN, "THE NATION": One of the things they hope to accomplish
is to pull the veil back on the reality of what it means to play in the
National Football League, of what they and their families go through on a
day-in, day-out basis. That`s why they`re combining all the lawsuits
together. They want to be able to paint a picture for the public, not just
the jury, but for the public, of an NFL that does not care about the
welfare of its former players, an NFL that as recently as five years ago,
its chief neurologist was a rheumatologist, and Roger Goodell sat in front
of Congress and said that they didn`t believe the science was there to
connect concussions with the kinds of long-term brain injuries that people
like Kevin Turner suffer so terribly from.

They want to pull back the veil so people can see the reality of it,
and hope to get a settlement out of that and I think hope to also damage
the NFL brand.

SCHULTZ: What`s the mood of the players? Do they think they really
have a good case here? I talked to Boomer Esiason today. He said he`s not
with the players on this because no one ever forced him to go out on the
field. And he didn`t think, when he told me, that any NFL team ever put
him on the field not fit to play.

ZIRIN: I think what Boomer is missing here, and what some other
former players who I`ve spoken to who object to the lawsuit are missing, is
that of course you would say you could have the expectation of a knee
injury, a hip injury when you go out on that field. But the idea of if I
know I`m going out on that field that I will not be able to remember the
names of my children when I`m in my late `40s, or I will suffer from ALS,
Lou Gehrig`s Disease, like Kevin Turner, the idea that those risks were
there and players were not told about those risks, and the NFL had
knowledge of that, that`s where you get into a serious problem.

SCHULTZ: Well, common knowledge is that concussions aren`t good.
What did the NFL do wrong? I mean, football is a contact sport. Do people
go to see big hits? That`s what the fans love. What are they going to do?
Change the game?

ZIRIN: Yes, that`s a very good question. And this is the specter
that hangs over the NFL right now, is the specter of the fear that they
will turn into boxing. Boxing was once the most popular sport in the
United States. Of course, everyone always knew, if you box, you`re going
to get hit in the head. You`re going to get hurt.

But we know so much more now about what the actual long-term effects
are. And the NFL is scared that generations of parents will keep their
kids from football. This year the number of players playing youth football
is down by a million over the previous year. And a lot of the analysts say
it`s because of more knowledge about concussions.

SCHULTZ: That and they`re playing soccer. Here`s another thing. The
NFL wants to increase the football season by two games. I mean, I think
this is just eating their young. I mean, how much can a player take in a
year? It`s going to take time off their career by extending the season.
What do you think?

ZIRIN: I talk to a lot of players, and this is why they don`t think
Roger Goodell really cares about these issues in good faith. One is the
reason that you just said, the idea of extending the season from 16 to 18
games.

SCHULTZ: I mean, they`re just eating their young.

ZIRIN: The NFL is also locking out the referees right now and
bringing in scab refs. And the referees have been trained over the last
two years to identify things like post-concussive injuries on the field,
and play more of a safety role with the players. So this is actually
freaking some players out.

SCHULTZ: Dave Zirin, great to have you with us. We`ll stay on the
story. It is a big one, no doubt.

That`s THE ED SHOW. I`m Ed Schultz. I`ll be off next week because
I`m going fishing. "THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW" starts right now. And I need
a good fishing trip. Good evening, Rachel.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY
BE UPDATED.
END

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