Michael Thomasky News Today

[ theme music ] stephanie hello, current tv land, good morning. Good morning jacki schechner. Good morning, love what is going on . Stephanie well knowing more fun than a sequestration. Apparently it is both disastrous and it is the president s fault and its no big deal, but it is a disaster. Hashtag stephanie right. Hashtag lame ass rightwing moron. Yes. Good morning everybody, lets talk sequester. President obama is travelling to new port news virginia today where he will talk about sequestrat...

Who loved being who she was. Anna nicole smith had fought all her life to escape her troubled past, recreate herself, and put her name in lights. And, for a brief time, she managed to do just that. [ theme music ] bill good morning, everybody, what do you say . It is the full court press here on a wednesday february 20th. Welcome to the prom on current tv, coming to you live all the way across this great country of ours, coasttocoast. Bringing you the big stories of the day and giving you a chan...

And the fact is anybody coming into the speakership, kevin mccarthy coming in now is not going to have any republicans, or many republicans who are going to be eager to go along with the notion that, well, weve got to govern, which is what mccarthy himself said after the republicans took the majority in the senate. so nothing seriously changes except the deck chairs right now. >> michael there, seems to be a thesis that show the base it cant be done, let them walk to the cliff, let them incite a...

Of extremism." michael, let me start with you. what do you think john boehners politics truly are? jonathan chait posits that effectively boehners differences with the radical republican base are more tactical than philosophical. molly ball in the atlantic says effectively john boehner is the front man for the gops business-oriented wing. where do you think he actually is in terms of his ideology? >> i think hes what we would have called 20 or 30 years ago a rock-ribbed conservative. i dont thin...

"khatallah ought to be held at guantanamo," which he has previously said we should close. graham tweeted, "naval vessels were never meant to be detention and interrogation sit sites #benghazi." now, indeed republicans could barely bring themselves to acknowledge, much less applaud a major development in a tragedy that sparked 13 public hearings, 25,000 pages of documents, and 50 separate hearings. as michael thomasky aptly points out in todays daily beast the republican response has been driven ...

Did reduce the fiscal damage that was baked in the cake for 2014 and 2015. so, again, if you kind of look at some knew answered policy changes, you can see some recognition that the agenda that republicans have had on jobs has been a big failure. but you got to look pretty carefully to see any of that. >> that is for sure. thank you, michael thomasky and jared bernstein. we discussed ohio governor john kasich who is facing potentially a reelection challenge on the far right from tea partier te...

But i dont think it is. for a long time, the idea has been to create jobs if youre a republican, is trickle down tax cuts. >> sure. >> and deregulation. so cut taxes for rich people, shutter the epa, repeal dodd/frank. they have really yet to come up with much new, although michaels article gets some interesting nuance theres. >> michael, here is another piece of this list that i just had to read. it basically, i mean, this is more about -- these are warmed over ideas that seem to be about hurti...

Government spending has no positive effect on jobs. >> all right. former congressman barney frank. great to have you with us tonight on "the ed show." appreciate it so much. now lets turn to michael thomasky, special correspondent for "newsweek" and the daily beast. and david corn with us tonight, washington bureau chief for "mother jones" magazine and an analyst here on msnbc. i want you both to hear what nbcs mark murray had to say about the e-mail bob woodward got from the white house. here i...

This is a reauthorization. if there are provisions you think are unconstitutional, then submit the bill to deal with that or let the supreme court handle it. thats not our purview in the first place. why are we going to, you know, fall on this particular sword? this is not a battle for us because its just a reauthorization, its not a new bishlgs theres very little change from -- >> but it took a year. >> it took a year. thats the point. it took a year. and it brought a lot of unnecessary attenti...

Ive known bob woodward for a long time. they both have played this game. they both have seen a lot worse from the other side -- >> well, why do you think woodward did it? >> im puzzled by that. ive had differences with woodward over the years on some stories he and i have written. ive also supported and ive been supported by him on some of the stories ive done. and i think he had a bad day, but i think one story here, too, is that the politico, you know, which puts a premium on doing what? enhan...