on funding the war in afghanistan. and the president reacts in the rose garden. >> the fact is these documents don't reveal any issues that haven't already informed our public debate on afghanistan. >> tonight representative lynn woolsey on what she is calling an unwinnable war. don't vote for my dad. a family feud in oklahoma leading to a bizarre campaign by a daughter to keep her father out of elected office. >> i love my daughter. i want to make peace. and that is my goal. >> and the california town with the highest paid public official in the country and a quarter of its population living below the poverty line. >> you all need to go to jail. tonight more resignations and more outrage in bell, california. all the news and commentary now on "countdown." good evening from los angeles. i'm lawrence o'donnell in for keith olbermann. with 98 days to go until mid term elections democrats have come up with a new campaign strategy and our number five story tonight, it turns out it's the same campaign strategy that gave them victories in 2006 and 2008. run against president george w. bush. how's that supposed to work now? according to the newspaper "the hill" the white house and congressional democrats this summer will point out how congressional republicans would govern in exactly the same mold as they did when they were working hand in hand with president bush. democrats plan to hit the gop on one issue each week beginning with the august recess. the idea is to reveal the bushian elements on issues ráy to jobs to veterans. this, a marked contrast to last year when democrats went into the august recess uncoordinated and unprepared for dozens of angry town halls and shouting matches about health care. those town halls, however, did advance the democrats' ultimate goal this year, to reveal the republicans as having no plans whatsoever. something republican senator tom coburn confirmed last year when a woman asked what the republican remedy is for her husband with traumatic brain injury whose insurance refused to cover his home care. >> the first thing we'll do is see what we can do individually to help you through our office. but the other thing that's missing in this debate is us as neighbors helping people that need our help. the idea that the government is the solution to our problems is an inaccurate, very inaccurate statement. >> and republicans, always good neighbors, continue to provide democrats with new ammunition for their back-to-the-future argument including republican congressman joe barton apologizing to bp, something he would be doing as chairman of his committee if republicans were running congress. and florida senate candidate marco rubio just posted his fiscal platform calling for raising taxes on the middle class by eliminating the stimulus and its tax cuts even though he supports renewing, of course, the bush tax cuts for the rich. without saying how he will pay for them. let's bring in msnbc political analyst eugene robinson, also associate editor and pulitzer prize winning columnist at "the washington post." eugene, you and i have never had the burden of coordinating strategy for mid term elections but can you really use the president who hasn't been in the white house for the last two years as your rallying cry this year? >> only if you do it properly, lawrence. you can't expectç democrats toe re-elected or newly elected on the basis of conditions two years ago. you can't just do it directly and say, you know, it's all george bush's fault. i think there is a certain fatigue about that line of argument. however, i think if you point across the aisle at the republicans and say, what's their plan? what do they actually propose to do if they win yourupport and get elected? and win perhaps majorities in one or both houses of congress and if you can demonstrate that they haven't offered any new solutions and, in fact, are talking about the same old policies that george bush followed, we all know where those policies led us, i think that's, perhaps, a fruitful line of argument for democrats. >> and if democrats run against bush and we assume that republicans of course will run against obama, will anyone be running for anything? >> nah. we're not going to have -- this is not going to be a positive campaign i think. you know, a negative campaign for a country that's in a negative mood, so i think it's going to be each side trying to scare people about the other side. >> now, how does this play on the left of the democratic party? it seems to me there is a little bit of a problem with this on the left side of the party where there are some democrats whose passion is needed in mid-term elections and they feel that the obama administration in too many ways resembles the bush administration and is an extension of its war policies. how do they get that side of the party activated for this mid term election? >> well, that is a very good question, lawrence. frankly, at that point i think you'd have to say that that may be a structural issue rather than a tactical issue. i mean, i don't think that just waging the campaign in this way, trying to scare people about the republicans, in and of itself, dampens passion among the democratic base. it's just that if you didn't push hard for card check are the unions going to be really excited about mobilizing their vaunted get out the vote efforts? if you didn't really push on immigration, are you going to lose some of that 69% support that you had from latinos? but, again, these are thingsç that either got done or didn't and i think on a parallel track the democrats are going to have to make their arguments to the democratic base and try to stoke that sort of passion. given the actual circumstances, given what they did and what they didn't do. >> now, does anyone expect this august to be as noisy as last august? or has in the meantime the tea party in effect been institut n institutionalized within the republican party so that they have to be much more careful about exactly what kind of noise they're making since the tea party candidates like sharron angle are going to be, you know, suffering guilt by association if tea party members get out of hand at town halls? >> right. well, first of all that's an interesting image of the tea party being institutionalized. you know, i think the tea party -- last year of course it was democrats who were most at risk from the tea party. this year i think it's republicans in that i don't think the tea party, the various tea party factions, intend to become wholly owned subsidiaries of the republican party. i think they're going to be fractious and noisy at times. their candidates are going to want to take positions that cause republican senior leadership to develop more white hairs than they already have. it's going to be -- you know, you ride a bucking bronco and then you just try to hang on and i think that's what the national party is going to be doing with this tea party element that is unpredictable and, you know, i'm not going to sit there and predict that all is going to be calm. >> msnbc political analyst eugene robinson also of "the washington post" let's see how your nonprediction of calm works out. thanks for your time tonight. >> great to be here. here is another issue for the republicans in november. house republican leader john boehner has reportedly spent the last year and a half trying to get his fellow republicans to stop partying with female lobbyists. his attempts to avoid drawing attention to the issue have now drawn attention to the issue. several unnamed sources told "roll call"ç that boehner has spoken privately with, quote, several house republicans. he refused to comment when asked about it last week but now "roll call" confirms a story first reported by "the new york post" that congressman lee terry was overheard asking what "the post" called a comely lobbyist, quote, why did you get me so drunk? then there is congressman sam graves pictured at dinner with a woman reportedly identified as a lobbyist for big oil among other industries. in may boehner told "roll call" quote i've had members in here where i thought they crossed the line and said, quote, i'm the most transparent person in this town. of course, the perfect segue for boehner's spokesman telling "roll call" quote any conversations boehner may or may not have had with other members are private. today in the senate republican leader mitch mcconnell succeeded in protecting lobbyists and senators from that transparency, filibustering the disclose act which would have required lobbyists to disclose their sponsorship of some campaign ads. let's turn now to alex wagner, white house correspondent for politics daily. alex, good evening. i want to get to the partying with the lobbyists. we'll get there. don't worry. first of all let's talk about a little bit of governing. the disclose act seems to have been stopped in the senate. the goal of the act was to mitigate some of the effects of the supreme court ruling in citizens united that lets private companies put more money into campaigns during certain times on the calendar where they used to be prevented from doing that but the disclose act was not exactly a clean bill moving through the senate. it had some problems on each side of it. didn't it? >> it did. it was kind of like fruitcake. i mean, nobody really liked it and it was jam packed with all sorts of stuff. the issue is that, you know, gun control advocates like senator dianne feinstein had an issue with the bill because there was a pretty large carveout for the nra making it exempt from some of the legislation in the bill and then labor unions, who had supported the house version oft carveouts for labor unions, didn't support the senate version of the bill, which did not have the labor union carve out. and then republicans of course didn't support the bill on whole because they stand to share in the windfall of money that would come from corporations and businesses in the runup to the mid term elections. >> so just to clarify the disclose act required big money interests to disclose who supplied the money for these campaign ads except of course for some big money interests that were exempt from this law. >> exactly. i think that messiness sort of complicated its passage in congress. you know, this was something that was supposed to mitigate the supreme court decision and then there were these holes for special interest groups. i think that was a problem for a lot of legislators. >> now, "roll call's" piece about fun with lobbyists starts by saying d.c. is abuzz with rumors about house republicans and female lobbyists. john mccain had to deal with a story like that in the "new york times" during the presidential campaign. he seems to have gotten by it. is there any more substance in this round of possible lobbyist scandal? >> the walls are literally buzzing. the, certainly the "roll call" revelations today with the sam graves photo and the lee terry comment of why did you get me so drunk are difficult for a republican party that is still dealing with the wake of the scandal a few weeks ago when it was revealed that the rnc had sort of footed several thousands of dollars in reimbursements for a night out at a bondage club in west los angeles. so i think republicans are trying to really be on their ps and qs with stuff like this and it doesn't help that they have candidates or sorry representatives that are going out with lobbyists. now, boehner is an interesting fellow, because he is known to sort of be a bar fly about town, you know, joe scarborough even said a few weeks ago, this is a guy who you can find at a bar at 5:00 or 6:00 p.m. who is not known to be the hardest working man in washington. so, you know, boehner knows. >> boehner reportedly told his members the partying was a distraction from his attempt to win back the house but now has his attempt to keep this thing quiet become even more of a distraction? >> yeah, i think it's sort of a general rule of thumb. if you, you know, td more effort you put towards brushing something under the rug,ç the bigger deal it's going to become especially in this day and age where people have camera phones and you're never far from the media. >> alex wagner, politics daily, please find out why that lobbyist got that congressman so drunk. >> i will, lawrence, for you. >> thanks for your time tonight, alex. >> thanks. bp's ceo is set to change. but what difference does that make if the company won't put safety ahead of its stock price? up next, what is congress doing to make sure oil rig workers won't be sacrificed for corporate profits? and the political fallout from the wikileaks documents. some democrats already working to end the war in afghanistan say the leaks documents just show it's time to stop wasting money there and bring troops home. which is why we do all we can to help you move on after one. [ engine turns over ] and when you insure both your home and car with us, we dit for even less. liberty mutual insurance. responsibility. what's your policy? this is what it's like getting an amazing discount on a hotel with travelocity's new top secret hotels. ahh. and this is what it's like when you have to bid on a hotel. aaaaaaaah! travelocity's top secret hotels... bidding. yaaah! naughty fish! introducing travelocity's top secret hotels. the new, easy way to get unpublished discounts of up to 45% off 3 and 4 star hotels without the hassle of bidding. ahhh. which makes travelocity the best place for hotel deals. coming up tony hayward says bp is the picture of good social corporate responsibility. where was the sense of responsibility to the families of the dead rig workers or the survivors who were forced to sign waivers before they could see their families again? up next, if bp can't be trusted to change, what can congress do to fix that? and later, a man running for a judgeship in oklahoma has a big electoral surprise. his daughter wages a campaign against him called "don't vote for my dad." details ahead on "countdown." activia is better than ever! hey, you guys. want to try activia's great new taste? today is your tasty lucky day! sure, why not? isn't this the yogurt that, you know... helps regulate your digestive system. ooh, i think i'll pass. no, no, no! trust me. it is beyond tasty. okay! mmm! wow! i can't believe it, i love it! mmm, this is really good! new best tasting activia ever! taste it, love it, or it's free! ♪ activia as if the gulf coast were not suffering enough already from the impact of all the crude oil that gushed from bp's damaged well in the gulf of mexico for three straight months now oil started spewing today from a new damaged well along the louisiana coast. in our fourth story we can also expect more of the same inept leadership from the bp executive suite where the company chairman claims replacing one failed executive with another amounts to a fresh start. the coast guard says it is investigating how a tow boat collided with a wellhead near bataria bay, louisiana, right in the heart of the bayou where authorities have been fighting wave after wave of oil from the gulf spill. the coast guard said a company named sadeko owns the small oil well but couldn't yet say how much oil has leaked or when they might be able to stop the leak. and speaking of leaks, getting rid of tony hayward as bp's chief executive does not seem to have humbled him. the fired executive complained to a british newspaper that he has been unfairly demonized and vilified in the u.s., adding that bp's response to this tragedy has been a model of good social corporate responsibility. it has mounted an unprecedented response. hayward also said he won't be showing up on capitol hill thursday to explain bp's role in the release of the lockerbie bomber because he's got a busy week. the senate was forced to cancel the hearing as a result. hayward's boss, the chairman of bp, told cnbc this morning that replacing hayward with another company executive, bp managing director bob dudley, was the chance for a new beginning. >> in order to rebuild our position, in order to rebuild our brand and reputation we need fresh leadership and that is why we're doing the change. >> as we reported last night the senate held hearings last week on safety at bp before the blowout at which bp's so-called vice president of safety refused to say he felt in any way the 11 workers who were killed. senator jeff merkley, democrat of oregon, took part in those hearings as a member of the health, education, labor, and pensions committee. he joins us now from washington. senator, if bp's vice president for safety, steve flinn, isn't responsible for the explosion that killed 11 workers on the deepwater horizon, then no bp executive is responsible. isn't that what bp is trying to tell us? >> well, absolutely. he came into our committee and said in the beginning of his testimony, safety is our top priority. and we had before us all kinds of history of bp safety violations. you have a situation where over a three-year period exxon had one, i mean one single egregious willful violation while bp had 760. and that contrast, this is a company that absolutely ignored safety, cut every corner in favor to turn a larger profit and coming before the american people, before congress, and saying safety is number one, completely unacceptable. >> now, if the vice president for safety still has his job and the company has replaced the ceo with another executive who was in place before this disaster occurred, before this explosion occurred that killed bp workers, what has really changed? i mean, why wouldn't they be bringing in someone who didn't have any of this blood on his hands? >> well, i tell you this. i hope that bob dudley seizes this opportunity to completely change the corporate culture. exxon after the 1989 spill, exxon valdez, it proceeded to change everything. they brought a top team together. they looked at everything from the salad dressing to the safety of deep water drilling. the result was a complete corporate makeover. bp could go through that but it has to have the will power and has to start with bob dudley. i guess we'll find out soon if he has that determination based on what actions he takes in the department of the safety team. >> now, tony hayward is out there very proudly talking about bp's çunprecedented response t the environmental disaster. of course it's an unprecedented disaster so of course the response would be unprecedented but what is really unprecedented is what you just pointed out about bp's occupational safety record as was pointed out in the hearing and here again, egregious violations in this industry, 760 out of 761 of them belonged to bp prior to this explosion. i mean, what do you have to do with a company like that to get real change? what will you be looking for after dudley takes over that you could call real change? >> well, i think the first thing we'll look for is whether steven flinn remains in charge of safety. this is a man who has been with the company for 25 years. he's been head of safety for a long period of time. he had every opportunity after previous disasters to make over the company, didn't do it. maybe he tried. maybe he wasn't allowed. but whatever the reason, he didn't make it happen. and so that will be a clear indication. but congress also has to do its part. certainly we have not been clear enough, strict enough about the requirements necessary both to protect workers and to protect the environment. >> now, senator franken referred to bp in the hearing in terms of safety as an outlier, a company that seemed to be much more reckless than anybody else in the inland. is that your feeling? is the rest of the industry operating at a substantially safer level than bp? >> there is no comparison. you have other companies like conoco philips and so forth that may