but pay no attention to the jack abramoff scandal. jack abramoff himself at least has the decency to be embarrassed. the people who helped him out in his legendary republican corruption and bribery scandal, though, do not have that same decency. nor do we as a society have the decency to remember scandals like this, long enough to shame people like this out of our politics when they try to come back in this lifetime. in the long run, we have to grapple ethically and practically with the fact as a society, ralph reed walks onto a high profile political stage in the year 2012 and people do not laugh and throw proverbial tomatoes. that's about us. and the short run, though, the thing all of these abramoff scandal sleaze balls have in common in addition to being abramoff scandal sleaze balls and they're working hard right now on the practical, it starts early this year election end game of getting one side's voters to the polls and keeping the other side's voters away from the polls. we saw the emergence of hand to hand combat on early vo

but pay no attention to the jack abramoff scandal. jack abramoff himself at least has the decency to be embarrassed. the people who helped him out in his legendary republican corruption and bribery scandal, though, do not have that same decency. nor do we as a society have the decency to remember scandals like this, long enough to shame people like this out of our politics when they try to come back in this lifetime. in the long run, we hav to grapple ethically and practically with the fact as a society, ralph reed walks onto a high profile political stage in the year 2012 and people do not laugh and throw proverbial tomatoes. that's about us. and the short run, though, the thing all of these abramoff scandal sleaze balls have in common in addition to being abramoff scandal sleaze balls and they're working hard right now on the practical, it starts early this year election end game of getting one side's voters to the polls and keeping the other side's voters away from the polls. we saw the emergence of hand to hand combat on early vot

but pay no attention to the jack abramoff scandal. jack himself has the decency to be embarrassed. the people who helped him out in his legendary republican corruption and bib bree scandal, though, apparently do not have that same decency. nor do we as a society have the decency to remember scandals like this long enough to shame people like this out of our politics when they try to come back in this lifetime. in the long run, we have to grapple that as a society ralph reed walks onto a high profile stage and people do not laugh and throw tomatoes. that's about us. in the short run, all of the sleaze balls have in common, in addition to being abramoff sleaze ball scandals, they are working hard on the practical it starts early this year election end game of getting one side's voters to the poles and keeps the other side's voters away from the polls. we saw combat over the issue of early voting in ohio. there is this underappreciated role of the hundreds and millions of dollars spent by outside groups on both get out to vote on their own side and what is unknown now but will be answ

i talked to jack abramoff today about all this who said nothing has changed. he'll be there as a common tear for "inside edition." and he's say lg of the old games that were in play that led to these congressional lobbying restrictions are back in play in a very big way at this convention. >> i'm just imagining all of these lobbyists wearing those tool belts they wear to make change at the ballpark for beer. cashing out at the restaurant, cashing out at the vip rooms. michaelish acousikoff. thanks very much. >>> chris hays is joining us just ahead. the last time we talked to chris hayes on a friday night, remember what happened? moments after we talked to chris, the whole news cycle blew open with a friday night leak about who the vice presidential nominee was going to be. that's what happens the last time we talked to chris on a friday night. let's see what happens this time. why not use all your vacation days this year? get points you can easily redeem for your vacations, with chase sapphire preferred. trick question. i love everything about this country! in

i talked to jack abramoff today about all this who said nothing has changed. he'll be there as a commentator for "inside edition." and he's saying all of the old games that were in play that led to these congressional lobbying restrictions are back in play in a very big way at this convention. >> i'm just imagining all of these lobbyists wearing those tool belts they wear to make change at the ballpark for beer. cashing out at the restaurant, cashing out at the vip rooms. it's going to be quite a sight. michael isikoff. thanks very much. happy tampa. >>> chris hayes is joining us just ahead. the last time we talked to chris hayes on a friday night, remember what happened? moments after we talked to chris, the whole news cycle blew open with a friday night leak about who the vice presidential nominee was going to be. that's what happened the last time we talked to chris on a friday. okay, here's the plan. you have a plan? first we're gonna check our bags for free, thanks to our explorer card. then, the united club. my mother was so wrong about you. next, we get

these are the real vips, pointing to someone who is one of them, convicted lobbyist jack abramoff. >> they're people who want something back. they're doing it because they have an agenda. >> reporter: at&t have taken over a nearby restaurant to entertain public officials and other vips for the week. abc news showed up, employees first tried to hide the sign with the honored guests names. and then ordered us to turn off our cameras or else. even the wind and rain from isaac did not put a damper on the big money. by the gathering. including a performance by the commodores, put on by senate republicans, someone inside took these pictures for us as six grateful senators, including john cornyn of texas, thanked the corporate sponsors who put up as much as $25,000 apiece to be there. >> romney is thanking blue cross and blue shield. aflac, at&t. >> reporter: blue cross blue shield and aflac, of course, have a huge stake in health care coverage laws and republican senators they spent time with who helped write those laws. brian ross, abc. it was not something that missouri senator roy blount

so he that senator but now we know jack abramoff and said i need the 18 to do a special job. paying out 150,000 per month and they started to create a fake grass roots organization the other is to the campaign fund. and you could defeat the loss of $4 million. there is no activity in the world the other solution is to tax it. but taxation does the trick. ring being close to home we need to look at the social norms pro-business school should think seriously. that would frame under the could set of laws to know that dream is good. it is passed the normal level with the consensus of the free market system. they may have a different agenda and thrive of the free success. how do do that? but to celebrate alumni. and with of ph.d. from m.i.t. the claim to fame is with the techniques to gambling. to maximize revenues. let the catalyst to doubts that with the enemy of catalyst stronger. it should not be something as an example. at the same time we should teach cannot deeply religious so i have no qualification but i do have an knowledge to talk about general norms how to make the mar

the abramoff scandal, which involved jack abramoff, a person very close to house leadership and some people in the bush administration, our democratic colleagues, 34 of them, asked -- said the following, "f.b.i. officials said that the abramoff investigation involves systematic corruption within the highest levels of government. such an assertion indicates extraordinary circumstances and it is in the public interest that you act under your existing statutory authority to appoint a special counsel." so our democratic colleagues back during the bush administration said, we don't trust you enough to investigate compromising national security by having a agent outed allegedly by members of your administration. we don't trust the republican part apparatus enough to investigate jack abramoff because you're so close to him and that you should have special counsels appointed. well, guess what? they did. here's what i'm saying. i don't trust this white house to investigate themselves. i think this wreaks of a cover coverup. i think that the highest levels of the -- this government surrounding

those charges include accepting gifts from jack abramoff. the disgraced republican lobbyist who spent nearly four years in prison for corruption and fraud. and pled guilty to a misdemeanor charge. admitting he didn't tell ethics officials about the gifts he received. cooper got three years probation. this is the guy who's behind the big shiny new gop fake voter fraud theory. aside from cooper's own troubles, his report also makes some serious misleading claims. he credits the success of voter i.d. laws as the reason for increased black voter turnout in states like georgia from 2006 to 2010. this truth is georgia did see an increase in voter turnout during those years. but in north carolina, a state without voter i.d. laws, black turnout at the polls was more than double the increase in georgia. voter i.d. laws depressed turnout, not the other way around. so this is one of the experts supporting voter i.d. laws? nice try. but we got you. with our babysitter. no. these work, right? no. all right. mom! look what i found in the shed! no! no! no!

the abramoff scandal, which involved jack abramoff, a person very close to house leadership and some people in the bush administration, our democratic colleagues, 34 of them, asked -- said the following, "f.b.i. officials said that the abramoff investigation involves systematic corruption within the highest levels of government. such an assertion indicates extraordinary circumstances and it is in the public interest that you act under your existing statutory authority to appoint a special counsel." so our democratic colleagues back during the bush administration said, we don't trust you enough to investigate compromising national security by having a agent outed allegedly by members of your administration. we don't trust the republican part apparatus enough to investigate jack abramoff because you're so close to him and that you should have special counsels appointed. well, guess what? they did. here's what i'm saying. i don't trust this white house to investigate themselves. i think this wreaks of a cover coverup. i think that the highest levels of the -- this government surrounding

abramoff. but none of the insinuations of impropriety have ever stuck. >> norquist: it didn't work, because at the end of the day, there wasn't a there there. >> simpson: he is a houdini. he... you can throw him in the bottom of the east river in chains, and he'd come out of there. >> kroft: but alan simpson predicts that norquist could soon become irrelevant. he thinks the country's financial situation is so dire that tax increases will become inevitable, and that a lot of republicans who have signed the no-tax-increase pledge are already experiencing buyer's remorse. you think there are republicans who have signed it who regret it? >> simpson: i do. i know damn well they have. i've talked to them. they come up to us and say, "save us from ourselves. i got trapped by this guy." >> kroft: in fact, there are a few signs it's already beginning to happen, albeit on a small scale. 37 republican pledge signers have urged the select committee to consider all options in solving the debt crisis. and si

abramoff scandals that were supposed to put restrictions on this, that barred, for instance, lobbyist parties for members of congress. well, those rules are pretty much out the window at this convention. the lobbyists, donors have come up with ever-more creative ways to skirt those rules. and we're seeing business as usual in this convention. >> now, mike, you've actually uncovered, haven't you, a clever scheme cooked up by republican lobbyists to avoid what they refer to as those pesky ethics rules and their design to limit the cash flow. what's actually going on there? >> reporter: well, what goes on is, because of those congressional restrictions, a lot of lobbyists, lobbying firms have set up these newly created pop-up consulting firms that are the official hosts of the party. and then they send out the invites, they sell sponsorships to their corporate clients, gold level, platinum level, for up to $50,000 a pop. the corporate clients come in, lobbyists come in, they throw the parties, but it's all officially under the guise of this, you know, pop-up consulting firm. so you get c

the abramoff scandal, which involved jack abramoff, a person very close to house leadership and some people in the bush administration, our democratic colleagues, 34 of them, asked -- said the following, "f.b.i. officials said that the abramoff investigation involves systematic corruption within the highest levels of government. such an assertion indicates extraordinary circumstances and it is in the public interest that you act under your existing statutory authority to appoint a special counsel." so our democratic colleagues back during the bush administration said, we don't trust you enough to investigate compromising national security by having a agent outed allegedly by members of your administration. we don't trust the republican part apparatus enough to investigate jack abramoff because you're so close to him and that you should have special counsels appointed. well, guess what? they did. here's what i'm saying. i don't trust this white house to investigate themselves. i think this wreaks of a cover coverup. i think that the highest levels of the -- this government surrounding

." >> sitting across from jack abramoff, i was deeply angry. i was deeply angry at him. >> it's hurting our country. >> absolutely. it's the worst thing that could happen. >> i had watched episodes of "south park" for a number of years. i thought, you know, this is really brilliant. >> let's roll on this, okay. >> they pretty much start from scratch every week. they start on a thursday and have to deliver a finished show ready to go out on the air on wednesday. so it's six days. >> tuesday is always an all day, all night. >> tuesday is almost always a 24-hour day. >> we work exactly the same way, to the chagrin of all my producers. >> i love the fact "60 minutes" works the same as us. >> his and hers offices. i'm not sure marriages would survive this. >> the fact that they almost dressed identically, i think they went to their separate closets and happened to put on those same clothes. >> she is very analytical and very numeric. >> numeric, isn't that exactly the word that bill gates would use in describing even his wife. >> just exactly what i

." >> sitting across from jack abramoff, i was deeply angry. i was deeply angry at him. >> it's hurting our country. >> absolutely. it's the worst thing that could happen. >> i had watched episodes of "south park" for a number of years. i thought, you know this is really brilliant. >> let's roll on this okay. >> they pretty much start from scratch every week. they start on a thursday and have to deliver a finished show ready to go out on the air on wednesday. so it's six days. >> tuesday is always an all day, all night. >> tuesday is almost always a 24-hour day. >> we work exactly the same way, to the chagrin of all my producers. >> i love the fact "60 minutes" works the same as us. >> his and hers offices. i'm not sure marriages would survive this. >> the fact that they almost dressed identically, i think they went to their separate closets and happened to put on those same clothes. >> she is very analytical and very numeric. >> numeric, isn't that exactly the word that bill gates would use in describing even his wife. >> just exactly what is

abramoff, and so far, they've found about $10 million in fraud, .11 percent. he says he's tphra*or gasted. whether you're a democrat, republican, communist, he likes to say, you've got to be excited about this has not been the big criminal boondoggle, full of cronyism that people expected. >> host: and back to your book before we go to calls, critics often argue that while the new deal left behind iconic monuments, the hoover dam, skyline drive, fort knox, the stimulus bill will leave a mond ain -- mundane legacy, sewage plants, state employees who have been laid off without it. even the recovery act's architects fears that like winston churchill's pudding it lacked a theme. in reality, it's creating its own icon, zero energy border stations, state of the art battery factories, eco friendly coast guard headquarters on a washington hillside, one of a kind advance sycroton life force in a new york lab. it's restoring old icons, the brooklyn bridge, bay bridge and the imperilled everglades. >> what i go on to say, its main legacy like the new deal will be changed

he busted jack ingram off. -- abramoff. he said he was flabbergasted. you have to be excited about this not being the big criminal boondoggle full of cronyism. >> back to your book, critics often argued that while the new deal left behind are conic -- iconic monuments, the stimulus bill will make a monday mmonday legacy. it lacked a theme. it is creating its own icons -- a zero-energy border stations, battery factories, and ego from the coast guard headquarters, restoring old icons, the brooklyn bridge and the bay bridge and the emperor of everglades. >> its main legacies will be changed. obama talked about not just getting the economy out of the gutter, but this new economy where you have a better educated work force, lower health-care costs, less dependent on fossil fuels, using energy in ways that do not borrow the planet. a more fair tax code where the middle class pays a little bit less. better transportation. this was a huge down payment on just about all those priorities. the one campaign promise that is not in the act is the idea he would change