Circus. You have your choice, folks. A cowboy, a curmudgeon, a biker or a normal guy. Were a wasting all kinds of wood out there, and theyre burring it and smogging this place up. I dont like political correctness. Can i say this, it sucks. As it says in my motorcycle club, hey Diddle Diddle right up the middle is my style. Because those guys will be on the ballot in your state. Oregon is getting nasty too with Senate Candidate monica wehby and a 911 call in which her exboyfriend calls her a stalker and which her exhusband accuses her of slapping him and throwing items at him. Nasty in kentucky where mcconnells campaign has challenged bevin with an east coast con man and attacking him for an appearance at a cockfight. Paul brown, the one who called evolution a lie straight from the pit of hell and phil gingrey who tried to bolster his fading prospects with this tv ad. Georgians can send a true conservative but will we promote teenage homosexuality . The nastiest in my opinion involve candidates you probably have not heard of but which feature the person most likely to emerge interest this election cycle as a new tea party star. Its the senate race in mississippi where sixterm senator thad cochran trying to hold off a tea party aligned lawyer and talk show host named chris mcdaniel. Mcdaniel made it clear he knows how to rally the base. Let me just get crazy with it. If they pass reparations and my taxes go up, i aint paying taxes. Get crazy with it, chris. This primary is still a couple weeks away and the polling out of mississippi is pretty spotty but mcdaniel became a real darling of the right wing media trying to take out cochran in which the dominant narrative has been the return of the gop establishment. And curiously, recently stories have been popping up in conservative Media Outlets pushing rumors that the incumbent thad cochran, whose wife has been in a nursing home for 14 years with progressive dementia, that cochran was engaged in an affair with a staffer. We have absolutely no confirmation of this rumor nor does anyone else but has been pushed hard in stories like this one on brightburn. Com. On friday in an absolutely insane development, a blogger named clayton kelly, who is a mcdaniel supporter, was arrested for allegedly sneaking into the nursing home in which Thad Cochrans wife lives, photographing her as part of a gutter attack on cochran himself. It appears to be related to the attacks on cochran over the alleged affair and sheds light on just why it is the tea party has been so effective in the last four years in bending the Republican Party to its will. Because the costs of primary challenges are so high for incumbents and establishment figures high in money, in time, in reputation, theyre so high that even when the tea party loses, it wins because theyve made those who cross them pay a price. Whatever the result and whoever ends up heading to washington from the great state of mississippi, they will go there thinking in the back of their mind, how the heck do i avoid slogging through something as ugly as that the next time around. Joining me now, robert costa for the Washington Post and, robert, that has been the dominant narrative. This is the sort of Empire Strikes back round. This is the establishment coming back, but i think if you scratch the surface and look at whats happening in georgia you are seeing establishment candidates have only won insofar as they can take up the tea party mantel. Thats correct. We have not seen a diversion on ideology from the republican establishment. If anything, theyre moving farther to the right and championing people like ted cruz when theyre in Republican Senate primary debates so we see the tea party temperament is not necessarily winning when it comes to candidates and establishment style of being more business and polished seems to be doing okay in the primaries but when it comes to the platforms, theyre in step with the rest of the contenders. You see that in georgia where you have the candidates that people call the frontrunners or the establishment frontrunners and thats kingston and purdue and handel, a longtime republican congressman who was a big kind of pork barrel, go along, get along, log rolling kind of guy has now reinvented himself as a firebrand kind of tea party insurgent, and he is now near the top at the head of the pack. Thats something to really watch. Can jack kingston, whether this is appropriate or in the house who hasnt necessarily shied away from his role in congress, hes battling karen handel who has been endorsed by sarah palin for the second slot in the primary runoff. If karen handel can slip through and beat him, thats a victory for the tea party. If kingston and purdue get in the runoff, a win for the socalled establishment. I was having dinner and some folks were talking about the candidate who was poised to win the primary. A woman by the name of monica wehby. She sounds like a formidable person, a pediatric neurosurgeon, telegenic, pretty good in front of a microphone. Her campaign is absolutely imploding. A tweet from a general assignment reporter with an affiliate said gop Senate Candidate wehby appears to have gone underground. This is a nearly unprecedented implosion happening. Monica wehbys situation in oregon is really indicative of how the narrative of this primary cycle has some fault lines and has some problems because monica wehby was this doctor, republican woman who was supposed to represent the establishment, had a backing of a lot people close to the nrsc running against jason conger, who is endorsed by Rick Santorum and has a fiery temperament. As we see with the reports, monica wehby is having problems and just necessarily not if youre the establishment candidate and touted by those in washington doesnt mean youre going to win the general election or be a solid contender in the general. You know, interesting fact about cochran in mississippi coming back to that race, which is fascinating and find this whole the level of dirty ops happening breaking into a womans nursing home, cochran, when you clear away all the nastiness, cochran actually is more moderate than he should be given what state hes from, and it is a perfectly rationale enterprise for people to his right like the tea party to primary him into line. More moderate than 85 of the caucus that is in a state that no democrat is going to carry into the foreseeable future. Thats right. And it is surprising to see how the Mcdaniel Campaign in mississippi is focusing, it seems, on cochrans personal life or at least the allies of mcdaniel are doing that with their attacks, but cochrans voting record of bringing back pork to mississippi as you say, chris, alarming to Tea Party Activists but its not catching on right now as a narrative in cochran though the top target for the tea party isnt vulnerable yet. This is a guy it occurs its not that dissimilar in mcconnell, run in his state and won time and time and time again and a lot of times the way they have won is by bringing back the pork to the state and whether theres an ideological opposition emanates out of the cato institutes, poor states like kentucky and mississippi voters dont necessarily mind someone looking out for them in washington. Robert, thank you so much. Thank you. Coming up, Jill Abramson, the fired the New York Times editor broke her silence for the First Time Since the whole ugly incident today. A couple of students who i was talking to last night after i arrived, they know that i have some tattoos and one of them asked me, are you going to get that times t that you have on your back removed . Not a chance. Do you think thats awkward wait until you hear the latest installment of what happens when the worlds most Important Media enterprise covers itself. Thats next. Coming up premiering all in america on the road in the conservative heartland as we travel to kansas. A story of kansas most powerful native sons and their unlikely defeat. You dont want to miss it. Lets see what you got . Rv covered. Why would you pay for a hotel . I never do. Motorcycles check. Atv. I ride those. Do you . No. Boat. Ahoy, mateys. House. Hello, dear. Hello. Hello. Van with airbrushed firebreathing dragons. Ah check. Thank you. The more you bundle, the more you save. Now, thats progressive. The most brutal pr train wreck in america got even more train wreckier this weekend. What has become a cant look away battle between Jill Abramson and the person who deposed her the Times Publisher arthur sulzburger. Other news outlets are reporting on the times. The times is reporting on itself and employees are expressing support and di sent. Sulzburger finally taking another shot and yet another statement about her dismissal and then today abramson made her first public remarks since fired by speaking at the Commencement Ceremony for wake forest university. Sure, losing a job you love hurts, but the work i revered, journalism that holds powerful institutions and people accountable, is what makes our democracy so resilient. Whats next for me . I dont know. So im in exactly the same boat as many of you. [ laughter ] joining me emily bazelon, Senior Editor at slate who knows Jill Abramson. Emily, are you astounded at how ugly this entire thing has gotten . I just cannot believe every day that passes more leak, mor more. Sulzburger coming out to say she was terrible . Its headspinning. Its gotten so bad and so public so fast. Its true. You know, the media is obsessed with the New York Times and obsessed with the story and so i think part of what were seeing here is a kind of feeding frenzy where everyone is thinking about this problem at the New York Times and taking sides. Weve seen battling kind of accounts of what was prompted her ouster. Originally there was talk about pay equity. Jill abramson, it was reported that Jill Abramson was paid 475,000, a starting salary compared to that of 559,000 of her predecessor, her salary was raised and only after she protested and the idea was that she had got to the times and protested and that was part of her dismissal and seen in the New York Times david carr their media reporter writing a column saying, so i like jill, my reporter including interviews with senior people backs up the conclusion of sulzburger this was not about pay equity. How do you make sense of this whether that was the issue . I think david is right. I think the pay equity story is a sideshow and there was a lot of unrest and division at the New York Times and discontent with having an editor who was really aggressive, brusque, whatever adjective you want to use. It is also true that sometimes adjectives like that get used about women in a way that are different from men but that doesnt necessarily mean this was a sexist firing. So i think that is a really key point that everything seems overdetermined here. It seems to me the possibility this is someone who had a whole lot of sexist expectations put on her and there were sort of sexist ways in which she was interpreted and how to manner that rubbed people the wrong way and those could both be true. Yes, i think thats right and to me its been important that we have not seen an upriding on the part of women of the New York Times. There are a lot of women like me who are grateful to jill. She was a tremendous promoter of women. But that doesnt mean that people cant see some of her weaknesses. Yeah, Lydia Pollgreen saying there has been no revolt. Many conversations but though womens revolt over Jill Abramsons firing at the New York Times and struck me as an interesting moment in as we all as everyone enters a world in which social media becomes a platform for people from all the way from someone who has a job at an office, an Insurance Company all the way up to the New York Times the public story of someones firing or conflict and acrimony in a workplace is more and more going to be a public matter, not just to the New York Times but everywhere else because everyone has an outlet to express the discontent and peel the curtain back. Thats right and in some ways the fewer facts the more dahm marks the more room for speculation and this is the kind of office soap opera that everybody is identify with. Weve all had a harsh boss. Weve all wondered if that person would ever get fired or if the people running the show would just tolerate their behavior. So i think theres a way in which this plays into lots of peoples interests. And theres always, of course, the final conclusion which is that when you work for a family business, the family patriarch doesnt like you youre out. Emily bazelon from slate, thank you. Marco rubio was approximately 16 years old when kids all over the nation were being inundated with this psa. Are these your drugs . Look, dad, its dont you get it . Answer me. Who taught you how to do this stuff . You, all right. I learned it by watching you. Did marco rubio learn anything from that psa . That mystery ahead. Just a couple years ago the dea coauthored growing up drugfree. Detailing how to talk to your kids when it comes to drugs. The report states at some point your childs likely to ask have you ever used drugs . Be honest. If your answer is no explain to your child how youre able to avoid temptation and peer pressure. If our answer is yes expand on why you dont want your child to do the same thing you did that reads like pretty sound advice. Marco rubio did not take it. When asked that question that all politicians with white house aspirations get which is have you ever smoked marijuana rubio gave this tortured response. Heres the problem with that question in american politics. If you say that you did, then suddenly there are people out there saying its not a big deal. Look at all these successful people who did it. I dont want my kids to smoke marijuana and i dont want others to smoke marijuana. I dont think there is a recreational uss for it. If you tell them you didnt they wont believe you. If you didnt you can say you didnt. I understand its a question that people think they need to ask but the bottom line is i dont think people should smoke marijuana. We have new technology here so let me run that answer through my handydandy republican president ial translator machine. Yes, i smoked weed but would like to be the nominee when its deeply divided among itself on precisely that issue with libertarians at the throat of older conservatives like bill oreilly who think the country is literally going to pot. I dont want to take sides and expose myself ill give you the most preposterous dodge ever. It appears rubios clearly more concerned with the people who hate marijuana and stand firm than the likes of the cato institute. This chart from fox. Com shows just how terrifying the drug marijuana is in 2010 leaving out indirect causes of deaths for Traffic Accident there were, wait, zero death as tributed to marijuana but 16,000 to prescription and nonprescription drug overdoses and 20,000 to alcohol and half a million to tobacco. Marco should be way more worried about them smoking parliaments than pineapple express. Its a big night for all in telling you about all in america going on the road this spring and sum story find story as cross the country and across the political spectrum, stories at the ground level of American Life that illuminate the biggest conflicts we have in american politics. Tonight kicks off a weeklong examination of a state that lives in our imagination for a couple of reason, first, the wizard of oz and second a book written ten years ago by thomas frank, it was in june 2004 that frank published a book which became not just a best seller but the defines story of the bush years. He looked at his state of kansas and showed how it it had gone to the frontier of the extreme right wing. Ten years later kansas is no longer just the frontier, it is the laboratory for ultra conservative ideas that are being exported throughout the entire country. Kansas Governor Sam Brownback, today he signed into law a bill that requires kansas voters to prove their u. S. Citizenship before registering to vote for the first time. Kansas Governor Sam Brownback signed into a law that requires a drug test for recipient of welfare and Unemployment Benefits in the state. Republican Governor Sam Brownback signed into a law a measure that bans certain abortions and life begins at fertilization. He signed it into law that cuts taxes for the richest people in the state and raises taxes on poor people. You might have noticed that kansas has been something of an innovator it political absurdism. The kind of state that threatens to exploit its draconian ideas as other states look to it as an example. But it wasnt always this way. You like ike i like ike everybody likes ike for president hang out the banners beat out the drums we take ike to Washington Home state of Dwight Eisenhower has a long history of being the kind of place where moderation ringels and common sense is prized in politics. The Governors Mansion has been occupied by an equal number of democrats and republicans over the past 50 years. So bipartisanship has been a way of life in kansas. Until recently. The state of our state is strong and getting much stronger and we are leading an american renaissance. The states recent sprint to the right started with Sam Brownback, a man Bloomberg Businessweek described as having