dick cheney and george w. bush throwing a black bag over your head and extraditing you to a secret torchen position to experience a torture position. on the eve of the dick cheney fund-raiser, the first appearance of this year's republican nominee with either george w. bush or dick cheney, they picked dick cheney, not george bush, and the romney campaign has decided to try to draw everybody's attention away from this. they have tried to draw everyone's attention away, while they're doing this thing tomorrow, they're feeding a story from the washington post telling everybody to ignore, instead of telling everybody to look at that era of the recent republican past, the romney campaign has decided to direct everyone's attention to a different period in republican history. as of last night, they have debuted at the romney online swag store a new item of historical commemorative rugale yeah. it's this pin showing the romney guy currently running for president sitting with his dad who was also running for president

dick cheney and george w. bush throwing a black bag over your head and extraditing you to a secret torture chamber to experience a torture position. on the eve of the dick cheney fund-raiser, the first appearance of this year's republican nominee with either george w. bush or dick cheney, they picked dick cheney, not george bush, and the romney campaign has decided to try to draw everybody's attention away from this. they have tried to draw everyone's attention away, while they're doing this thing tomorrow, they're feeding a story from the washington post telling everybody to ignore, instead of telling everybody to look at that era of the recent republican past, the romney campaign has decided to direct everyone's attention to a different period in republican history. as of last night, they have debuted at the romney online swag store a new item of historical commemorative regalia. it's this pin showing the romney guy currently running for president sitting with his dad who was also running for president in 19

dick cheney is a political lightning rod, loved by some, despiced by others. he has lived through the last two years in limbo, slowly wasting away as he waited nor a heart transplant. tonight, in a candid encounter, he tells it all to jonathan karl in a "nightline" interview. >> reporter: while we were walk requesting dick cheney in wyoming, we ran into a 12-year-old boy who was able to one up the vice president. >> how are you? >> he two heart transplants. >> i had just one. you are ahead of me. miracle stuff. >> reporter: the man talked to us about facing his own death two years ago as his heart, after six heart attacks, started to fail for good. >> two years ago at this time, i was a respirator, heavily sedated. just had a pump installed on my heart. you know, it was the end. >> reporter: it was dick cheney like i had never seen him before. reflecting on his own mortality. personal. >> i was sefly sedated in the intensive care unit for weeks. i had pneumonia recovering from surgery. be by the time i looked in the mirror, what i saw was my dad shortly before

dick cheney is a political lightning rod, loved by some, despiced by others. he has lived through the last two years in limbo, slowly wasting away as he waited nor a heart transplant. tonight, in a candid encounter, he tells it all to jonathan karl in a "nightline" interview. >> reporter: while we were walk requesting dick cheney in wyoming, we ran into a 12-year-old boy who was able to one up the vice president. >> how are you? >> he two heart transplants. >> i had just one. you are ahead of me. miracle stuff. >> reporter: the man talked to us about facing his own death two years ago as his heart, after six heart attacks, starte >> two years ago at this time, i was a respirator, heavily sedated. just had a pump installed on my heart. you know, it was the end. >> reporter: it was dick cheney like i had never seen him before. reflecting on his own mortality. personal. >> i was sefly sedated in the intensive care unit for weeks. i had pneumonia recovering from surgery. be by the time i looked in the mirror, what i saw was my dad shortly before he died. >> report

was not george bush or dick cheney. so they're getting new communications in over at romneyland. seems like a good idea. with or without these, i'm sure excellent new communications folks coming in to try to tune up the shop at rom com, it's going to be hard for them to run from the real connections between mr. romney's campaign and the last republican presidency. i mean, even if mitt romney has so far managed to avoid being seen next to george w. bush, there are now a bunch of statements on the record of him and dick cheney making proverbial googly eyes at each other. romney saying dick cheney is a man of wisdom and judgment, somebody he would model his own vice presidential pick after. dick cheney saying last night, when i think of the kind of individual i want in the oval office, that man is mitt romney. mitt romney then returning the favor, saying of dick cheney last night, quote, that's quite a man. quite a leader. 17 of mitt romney's 24 foreign policy advisers are people who served in the bush/cheney administratio

it was the end. >> reporter: dick cheney like i'd never seen him before. reflecting on his own mortality, personal, even vulnerable. >> lost 40 pounds, heavily sedated in the intensive care unit. had pneumonia while i was in recovering from the surgery. and by the time i came out from under, looked in a mirror, and what i saw was my dad shortly before he died. >> reporter: back then, cheney looked like a shadow of his old self. today, he's transformed. thanks to an anonymous organ donor. do you know anything about the donor? >> i don't. they deliberately maintain anonymity, at least at the outset. i can't think of a more magnificent gift than to be given additional years of life and that's what it is. >> reporter: don't think cheney's gone soft. when it comes to politics he's as confrontational as ever, even taking a shot at john mccain for choosing sarah palin as his running mate. >> i like governor palin. i've met her, i know her. attractive candidate. but based on her background, she'd only been a governor for two years, i don't think she passed that te

like dick cheney. he needs someone who is going to have instant credibility with conservatives and is going to be seen ann as one of their own but also somebody who has the gravitas and seen as ready to take on the presidency on the first day and first day in office o. the reason that's important is that obama is running a strategy of trashing mitt romney and trying to paint his ticket as unacceptable alternative. he will understands that millions of people have made the decision to make a change. and the only way he can stop them is by convincing them that the romney ticket with whoever he puts ton is unacceptable alternative. romney is going to pick somebody along dick cheney's advice energize conservatives cheney like gravitas and seen like somebody who could step into the presidency. >> who would that be? >> i think that the most likely pick is paul ryan. paul ryan. >> let me stop you there. you say you believe paul ryan will get it and we will get back to why. all right, mr. shaffer, dick cheney o

bush or dick cheney. so they're getting new communications in over at romneyland. seems like a good idea. with or without these, i'm sure excellent new communications folks coming in to try to tune up the shop at rom com, it's going to be hard for them to run from the real connections between mr. romney's campaign and the last republican presidency. i mean, even if mitt romney has so far managed to avoid being seen next to george w. bux, there are now a bush of statements on the record of him and dick cheney making proverbial googly eyes at each other. romney saying dick cheney is a man of wisdom and judgment, somebody he would model his own vice presidential pick after. dick cheney saying last night, when i think of the kind of individual i want in the oval office, that man is mitt romney. mitt romney then returning the favor, saying of dick cheney last night, quote, that's quite a man. quite a leader. 17 of mitt romney's 24 foreign policy advisers are people who served in the bush/cheney administration. when joe biden accused the romney campaign of being laden wi

they called in dick cheney. that's right. the former vice president and accidental shooter who went to capitol hill today for a little republican pep talk. meeting with house gop leaders and going to a senate lunch. let's take a trip down memory lane, shall we? cheney helped turn a $236 billion surplus into an over $1 trillion deficit. he watched the unemployment rate grow more than 3.5%. he has no regrets about waterboarding. he left office with a 13% approval rating. yet, this is who republicans are calling in to rally the troops. and he's fighting today against defense cuts set to go into effect in january. saying they are unacceptable but how about this one? the republicans voted for these cuts. 174 house republicans voted for last year's budget deal. amazing. you really can't make this up. joining me now is former pennsylvania governor ed rendell. now an nbc news political analyst. and richard wolffe, msnbc political analyst. and author of "revival." thank you both for being here tonight. governor rendell, they are looki

a meeting with former vice president dick cheney. cheney came to capitol hill this week to discuss the automatic military spending cuts that will start in january. apparently, cheney proved to be very persuasive, because the same officials that want to cut jobs from other departments now are worried about job loss at the penton and the impact it will have on defense contractors. >> we're looking at a potential, just on the defense side, 1.5 million jobs. think of what that's going to do to a fragile economy. >> according to senator lindsey graham, cheney predicted the cuts would be devastating to the military. more importantly, it will make the planning of the next war more difficult. according to graham, cheney told the group defense spending is not a spigot you can turn on and off, that you need to keep money flowing in a predictable way so you can plan for the next war, yet according to the cbo, even with big cuts, the pentagon will still be able to spend as much money as it did in 2006 when we were fighting two wars. joining me n

with dick cheney? do i have to leave? >> jennifer: you have a little identity crisis at that moment. >> but john mccain hit him back. he said, i love to hear these comments four years later. >> jennifer: like you couldn't have raised your hand at the time of course he didn't. he thought he was brilliant at the time. >> it's amazing. >> jennifer: so another big bit of news is that justice scalia is out with a book. he's doing his media tour on this. he was talking with fox news. take a listen to this. >> obviously the amendment does not apply to arms that cannot be hand carried, to keep and bear. it does not apply to canons, but i suppose there are hand-held rocket launchers that can bring down airplanes that will have to be decided. >> cenk: he's talking about the second amendment and the right to bear arms. he's talking about the original list intent that you could bear the arm. it had to be smalled enough to carry, like a hand-held rocket launcher or nuclear device. >> things that were at the ready for the minutemen. >>

is there a resurgent of dick cheney? >> it's interesting. dick cheney had kind of disappeared for a while, but now, he's back in a big way and a lot of republicans no longer fear being pictured with him. a lot of republicans i spoke to today welcomed him. he didn't talk about the politics of it when he met with the republican senators. he talked about the direct impact, the idea that these cuts, over 500 billion scheduled on top of the 487 already agreed to could decimate the d.o.d. he used his experience to talk about when planning for weapons systems, they go far in the future, so if you cut any money, you could decimate the ability for america to defend it. you could say he can preach all he wants, they agreed to this deal. the reason this is so difficult is because no one wanteded to have this. the super committee was supposed to succeed. hone honestly, they didn't get there. no one on either side wants to budge. >> this is red meat for the republicans obviously and dick cheney is ready to feed it to them, but how is this going to get ca

and like dick cheney, he also does not want an end to the ghantan r. undetandome whathey ght ink theppeaof fltingondoezzaice tt rney'viceresint, rticarlyincet's t out bain capital and that makes it a comparatively good topic of conversation today. did they not realize that putting condoleezza rise into day'newsake em tnk abouall theonneions beeen e bu andomne admistraons. is condoleezza rice supposed to be so blindingly interesting thate d'tememr wh she is fous? ybe wasn inntiol thg. maybthe mneyampan is gettg cler tallong t phos, ght? sayubliy th a mt roey psidey mit be thd te of sh/cney d wh abo it? joining us, melissa harris perry. a man medelis hars pey. grt toave u he. thk yo >> tnks. >>hichs yo dre tict. mitt romney condoleezza rice or mitt romney liz chen? >>t's mneyice? why >>ell,omnerices futo y. on i le thideaf a ndi ce/j bid debe. 's aebataboufolkwho have foreign policy conversation about the two big issues that have domined our forgn pocy scenfghastannd aq. d i uld ke thear condeezzricealk out w shwouldefe tha partular in polical rcumanceec

maybe take liz or lynne cheney as his vp. >> think about under the bush regime and dick cheney and i mean, you know, he was the guy as we now know, who was very much behind the idea that you know, the white house has every right to be as secretive as possible. very much in the power of the executive. so, i mean, i really think there's something to this idea that here you've got mitt romney. it's a very corporate style attitude to suggest that the american people don't deserve and it's not even just to what jewulian was saying. the answers don't match up. you sign documents saying one thing that were then submitted by bain and yourself to the sec. you're now saying something different. okay. tell us how that happened. prove it. he doesn't think that anybody deserves an answer to that kind of a question? i think dick cheney is exactly the kind of person to give him the advice he needs to keep on avoiding telling the truth. >> not only in term of the secrecy that can be generated, this just can't be for money though, can it? romney's getting the neocan blessing from dick cheney. >> i th

who better to hang out with some tough talk than dick cheney? romney heads to cowboy country for a fund-raiser with the former veep. and more information leads to more questions about the conditions of congressman jesse jackson jr. we'll have the latest from capitol hill. >>> good morning from washington. it is thursday, july 12th, 2012. this is "the daily rundown." i'm luke russert in for chuck todd. let's get to the first reads of the morning. mitt romney had this message yesterday for conservatives who say his campaign has not been aggressive enough in responding to attacks on his business record at bain. >> i, of course, respond to the attacks that come, but, you know, they say in politics, if you're responding, you're losing. >> but today the romney campaign is responding in a new tv ad and it is quite a barn burner. >> when a president doesn't tell the truth, how you can we trust him to lead? the obama outsourcing attacks, misleading, unfair, and untrue. there was no evidence that mitt romney shipped jobs overseas. candidate obama lied abo

. >>> plus -- >> i'm jon karl outside of dick cheney's home, we just had the first interview with the former vice president after his heart transplant. >>> anb abc news is at the olympics. the very latest from london. . is very latest from london. >>> good morning, everyone. george stephanopoulos has a well-deserved morning off. as you just heard, it's been a rough week for both candidates. so, let's get right to it with their senior advisers. robert gibbs with president obama and kevin madden with mitt romney. >> good morning. >> i have a critical question for two senior advisers, who are the junior advisers? >> i tried to get that title before, nobody will give -- >> it doesn't bear any responsibility. >> i make my own coffee. >> i always wondered that. i want to start with, we're 100 days out. dead-even race. as of this morning. robert, what is going to break this race out, or is it going to stay this way until the end? >> i think it's going to be a very close race throughout. that's what we prepared for. that's why we're investing in a grass roots army to win this on election day.

and that's usually a very, very short list. >> well, jonathan, dick cheney ought to know. he picked himself off the short list. is there any chance he will want to choose another game changing pick like sarah palin? >> most people think that romney will go with a safe pick. everybody also fights the last war in politics. so that would argue for a rob portman or tim pawlenty, bob mcconnell, the governor of virginia, somebody safe like that. there could be something unusual that happens. you could get maybe bobby jindal who's got some experience now that he's been governor of louisiana for a while, trying to go for an out of the box choice, somebody who would pass that test of being a plausible president which palin's two years as governor did not get her. she's also not as smart as jindal. so they could go that direction. oftentimes it is not the person that the press most speculates about. there's a long history of this in both parties. so folks that in trade should get pretty skeptical of anybody who thinks they know exactly how this is going to go. you would have to give

in the words of liz cheney this say person, mitt romney is, that dick cheney says he believes would be a great president, he thinks he's the man for the job. he hasn't been active on the campaign trail, but this is the passing of the torch of sorts. >> peter, it seems to be the question on the front of everybody's mind, the veepstakes, and ed rollins said this yesterday on fox, i'll get you on the other side. >> i would get the vice presidential choice out of the way as quickly as i could. and then basically -- >> quickly. >> quickly. before he goes to europe i would pick a vice president. the conventions are so late this time that the end of the day, you're not going to create -- you're not going to create a buzz. the buzz is your candidacy. >> so the great ed rollins saying sooner rather than later. is camp romney hearing that same advice? >> camp romney couldn't have been a lot more vague when asked about this at a town hall in colorado earlier this week. the question was posed. have you decided who you're going to select and are you going to make that decision public soon? and romn

. >>> plus -- >> i'm jon karl outside of dick cheney's home, we just had the first interview with the former vice president after his heart transplant. >>> a abc news is at the olympics. is very latest from london. >>> good morning, everyone. george stephanopoulos has a well-deserved morning off. as you just heard, it's been a rough week for both candidates. let's get right to it with their senior advisers. robert gibbs with president obama and kevin madden for mitt romney. >> good morning. >> who are the junior advisers? >> i tried to get that title before, nobody will give -- >> i make my own coffee >> i always wondered that. i want to start with, we're 100 days out. dead-even race. robert, what is going to make this race out, or is it going to stay this way until the end? >> i think it's going to be a very close race throughout. that's what we prepared for. i think what's going break this race out ultimately is the choice between two candidates and two extremely different visions about how we build this economy and how we come out of the economic disaster that we were in and how we

george bush and dick cheney. that's about to change though. the former vice president is hosting a fund raiser for willard in wyoming tonight. it begins at a swanky country club with a golf course designed by arnold palmer. i bet it has a lot of quiet rooms. then supporters can pay $30,000 to hang out at cheney's house. it'll be romney's first appearance with dick cheney on the campaign trail. he still hasn't appeared with bush. remember the endorsement president bush gave romney? he said i'm for mitt romney as the elevator doors closed on him. no speeches. romney doesn't want any public connection with bush except he wants to extend the bush tax cuts indefinitely. he's asked bush advisers to shape his economy policies. 17 of his national security advisers worked for bush. and let's not forget what a spokeswoman for the republican national committee said about romney's agenda. >> it's less government spending. it's lowering taxes so small businesses can grow. >> how different is that concept from what was -- what were the policies of the bush

what is dick cheney doing on the hill today? >> it's interesting. first and foremost he's going to meet with the gop leadership as you mentioned but then he will meet with gop whip mccarthy's whip team which is essentially about 35 or so house republicans that are in charge of counting votes and getting members on board with a plan. now, republicans in the past have been able to sort of say all right, we're not going to have this sequestration go in effect, let's create more spending cuts in programs that liberals hold near and dear. what dick cheney is going to do is apparently go to these authorize whip team and tell them just how dreadful these cuts would be to dod. i asked the same question you posed to the gop leadership and they said quote, the former vice president and secretary of defense obviously has a valuable perspective on the devastating impact of obama's defense sequester that they feel will be invaluable to their members. so the idea here is here's dick cheney, a guy that you all know, love and trust from his eight years as vice pres

that's usually a short list. >> jonathan, dick cheney ought to know. he chose himself off the short list. do you think romney is heeding the advisory. is there any chance he would like to pick another game changing pick like sarah palin? >> not like sarah palin, but most people think that romney will go with a safe pick. everybody always cites the last war in politics. that would argue for a rob portman or tim pawlenty, bob mcconnell, the governor of virginia. somebody safe like that. there could be something unusual that happens. you could get maybe bobby jindal, who has got some experience now. he's been governor of louisiana for a while. so to try to go for an out of the box choice who would also pass the test of getting over the threshold of being a plausible president, which palin's two years as governor did not get her, and also she just wasn't as smart as jindal. they could go that direction. oft oftentimes, it's not the person that the press most speculates about. there's a long history of this in both parties. folks at intrade should getpry sk

of course dick cheney's wading back into the thick of republican publics today. senator mccain could have done without the input here. but let's listen to it. >> well, i'm always glad to get comments four years later. >> what is cheney up to right now in his own right? it's no accident he turned up on tv for his first interview since his transplant. but what does he want? sam stein covers politics for the "huffington post." i want to start with you, susie. this guy is back like freddy krueger. he's only been elected congressman in wyoming. he's making fun of palin for only being a governor. he's never been elected to much before he was vice president. what's he talking about? >> well, of course he got to be vice president because he selected himself -- >> he was head of the selection committee. >> there you go. i don't know. maybe someone needs to play him that song how can we miss you if you don't go away. he doesn't really seem to understand his time is done. and i have to say president bush, i've got to hand it to the guy. i'm sure he's had disagreements with

walsh does. >>> up next, dick cheney says getting sarah palin was a big mistake. and he wants credit for getting bin laden. he's unbelievable. cheney's back. you're watching "hardball," the place for politics. >>> held lee, everyone, i'm lynn barry and her's what's happening. gefing prosecutors different options to potentially pursue the death penalty. >>> president obama arrived in new york earlier for a high dollar fundraiser. it's the event that went for $40,000 each. u.s. corn and soybean crops are in the worst shape in 20 years. now we'll send you back to "hardball." >>> governor palin. i met her, i know her. but based on her background, she's only been governor for two years. i don't think she passed that test of being ready to take over. >> welcome back to hardball. cheney is wading right back in the thick of republican politics today. let's listen to it. >> well, i'm always glad to get comments four years later. >> what is cheney up to right now in his own right? it's no accident he turned up on tv for his first interview since his transplant. but what doe

some surprisingly blunt comments from former vice president dick cheney. >> indeed. in an exclusive interview with abc news, cheney said john mccain's selection of sarah palin as his vp candidate was a mistake. abc's john karl sat down with cheney and asked him about the vice presidential process for mitt romney. >> how important is it for him to do this in a way different than the way john mccain handled his vice presidential search? >> pretty important. that one i don't think was well handled. i sort of think of it as -- there are two lists. there is the big list, that's got a lot of folks on it. i actually when i was doing it for -- well, i did it for ford in '76, but then again for george w. bush in 2000. i had a couple calls from prominent politicians who would say it would help me in my race back home if i was on the list. you are on the list. then somebody could leak the fact that they were on the list. but that was the big list. it was easy to get on the big list. the tough part is the small list has to be is this person really under active consideration. and

. >> dick cheney speaks the truth about sarah palin and sparks of family feud with his daughter. >> i think that was a mistake. >> liz says palin is more qualified than president obama. we'll see if jonathon alter agrees. bill clinton is set to play a major role at this year's democratic convention. meanwhile, the gop is running away from bush and cheney. e.j. dionne "the washington post" has the latest. >>> governor mitt romney's european missed a venture is now 0 for 2. after insulting britain, he tried to praise israel but it backfired. instead of looking like a president in waiting, he's come off as diplomatically tone deaf, at best. his latest mess happened at a fund-raiser in jerusalem. initially the romney campaign wasn't going to allow reporters. after criticism, it reversed its position, no doubt with great regret. in front of a group of wealthy donors, including billionaire sheldon adelson, as you come here and see the gdp per capita in israel which is $21,000 and compare that with the gdp per capita just across the areas managed by the palestinian authority, which is more l

. >>> still ahead, why dick cheney says sarah palin shouldn't have been a vice presidential candidate. plus, another utility company wants a rate hike. we'll tell you what that means for some customers' >>> thousands of bge customers could see higher utility bills. the company is asking state regulators to increase its rates. electric bills would go up by more than 6%. the average home would pay an extra $7 per month. gas bills would go up 8%. they say the money would go towards replacing powerlines and upgrading gas lines. if approved, the hike would go into effect in february. >>> starting tomorrow, metro customers at two busy stations will be able to pay for parking with their cell phones. the program is launching at the ford, tottenham and rockfield stations. metro customers will be able to pay by phone in the kiss and ride lots of both stations and the surface lot. if the program's successful, metro could expand it to other stations. >>> up next, chuck's going to tell us which day to pack your umbrella and after the olympic, >>> turning to the race for the white house tonight, mi

karen, mitt romney is having a fund-raiser with dick cheney tonight. all jokes aside here, but the vp getting all the love today is joe biden after his naacp speech. he was booed for ending his speech contrasting of course to mitt romney, who was booed for using a phrase, obama care. how would you rate biden's speech today? >> i thought it was like a ten plus plus plus plus. he was awesome. i was on twitter. it was blowing up. people were so excited to see joe biden there particularly because he did what mitt romney failed to do and that is he spoke from the heart and talked about vision, right? he said this is the vision that president obama and i have. i also think you cannot underestimate and underscore given joe biden's personal relationship with the naacp in his own work, lifetime, having