A short trip in the time machine, back to what this country looked like ten short months ago. The government shutdown, furloughing thousands, closing parks and gutting agencies designed to keep us safe. 97 of nasa is on furlough. Food safety and Nuclear Inspections have been suspended. Shuttering of National Parks has locked out hikers and park goers. Museums closed for business and hundreds of thousands of nonessential Government Employees are furloughed indefinitely. The families of our Fallen Soldiers now being told theres no money to bury those who died fighting for our flag. If it seems like that couldnt happen all over again so soon, a Senate Minority leader appears to have other ideas, or at least a very smort memory, what could be a 100 Million Campaign for reelection, Kentucky RepublicanMitch Mcconnell says he will do what it takes to oppose president obama next year, even if that means shutting down the federal government again. In an interview with politico on his campaign bus this week, mcconnell said he will make the president reign in his policies. Well pass spending bills that will have a lot of restrictions on the activities of the bureaucracy. Thats something he wont like, but that will be done, i guarantee it. Thats mcconnell talking about what life would be like with a republican house, Republican Senate and democratic white house. Mcconnell said the president needs to be challenged, and the best way to do that is through the funding process. So those two weeks in october of 2013 when republicans got the blame and supposedly learned their lesson, we might be seeing a repeat again soon. We might be seeing it often, in fact. This time it wont be texas senator ted cruz leading a band of Tea Party Rebels in the basement of a mexican restaurant, it will be a republican leader of the senate. The issue wont be implementation of defunding of obamacare, it will be over every item, large and small, that Mitch Mcconnell deems necessary to, quote, reign in president pom obamas policies. Most of the capital reacted with indignation. Democrats rejoiced about the member of Republican Party dealing in extremism. Quote, for the sake of our economy, this Republican Congress needs to take shutdowns off the table once and for all. Meanwhile, republicans distanced themselves from the shutdown agenda. Conservative activist Grover Norquist tweeted, if you threaten to shut down the government over x, the press will focus on the shutdown and no one will hear about x. We did this before. They have done this before. The results were disastrous as Washington PostGreg Sergeant reminded us this week, those with an unfavorable opinion of the Republican Party rose to an alltime high during that month of the shutdown last year. Again, if republicans pick up enough seats to win the senate this fall, maybe they would conclude that the shutdown hadnt been that disastrous for them after all. Whats mcconnells motive in bringing this up right now . Is it to rally the conservative base in kentucky where hes facing a perilous Reelection Campaign . Is it to motivate conservatives everywhere so republican ks take back the senator shore up his support within the senate gop, to make sure if he does win his own race in kentucky in november, he wont turn around and face a challenge from his right for his leadership post. When politico asked senator cruz if he would back mcconnell, he paused for eight whole seconds saying, quote, that will be a decision for the conference to make. Whatever mcconnells exact motive, theres the risk of a backlash. Will moderate and independent voters recoil at the new talk of a shutdown hurting the gop this fall . Maybe more importantly theres this, will raising the hopes of the conservative base now, another dramatic shutdown with obama, will that cascade in the months ahead into the pressure Republican Leaders will be powerless to fight next year . In other words, is mcconnell tieing his own hands here . Here to discuss that with us is sigh hoke pour for talking points memo, jane new ton small and beth few from msnbc. Com. This mcconnell comment, this is what the world will look like, if you keep the senate, keep the house and get two years of confrontation with president obama. I guess the first question is just figuring out what his agenda is in bringing this up. The three that jump to mind, Reelection Campaign, republicans everywhere, and trying to retain the leadership position after november. Anyone have a good guess there what it is . I this norquist was right, when you utter the word shutdown, bring up the prospect of shutting down the government, you dont hear about x. X here was about coal, the tough new coal standards. Thats the message he was trying to get out with ken tuckians. Hes looking at his reelection, looking at trying to gain popularity in a state where hes really not that popular right now. Hes not looking nationally at the party, hes look willing nationally. Mcconnell is obviously a strategic guy. As we saw in that ted cruz quote, hes got to be worrying about multiple things. If he doesnt win reelection, ball game, its all over. If he wins reelection, it took ted cruz to Say Something basically neutral. This is a lot of threedimensional chess were playing. Mcconnell may not be reelected, may not want to run for majority leader. Theres a whole lot of variables going on. I agree with jay. This is a very shortterm ball hes playing which is odd. Hes in a very tough reelection. One of his biggest problems is a lot of republicans in kentucky think hes totally sold out. Thats why he had a Tea Party Challenger in his primary. He dispatched with that guy. Still 35 against him. Theres real unhappiness with Mitch Mcconnell that hes a total tool of washington, in with lobbyist, he doesnt care about the folks back home. Hes got to play this hard. Hes in trouble, the only republican at this point, chances are, who has any chance of losing his seat in 2014. Hes got to play to the base. There may be a second republican in trouble. Well talk about that later the show. Sahil, looking at the shutdown from last fall, its interesting. When that was playing out, we were looking at those poll numbers, looked like an epic disaster for republicans. I guess you could make the case if republicans turn around and pick up those six seats and win the senate, they look around and say, hey, that didnt hurt us at all. Theres no doubt they will say that. Hes not a loose cannon, hes very shrewd and calculating. He knows this stuff doesnt fly with the average american voter. The problem is, it plays well with the conservative base. As beth was pointing out, he needs to shore that up back in kentucky where hes not doing well with republicans. His overriding priority is to win the senate and become minority leader. The problem with the comments hes made is once you dangle Something Like this before the tea party, in front of them, theyre not going to take it lying down. When push comes to shove, if hes a majority leader, hes going to have to follow through. You can bet ted cruz will put these comments 234 front of him if he doesnt go that route and doesnt force a confrontation with the president over Something Like coal and other things republicans want. This is difficult to walk back from. This gets to what is the mindset, what is the psychology of the tea party. I can remember back to the 1990s when republicans had their shutdown dramas with bill clinton. Theres this band of republicans who emerge from that. Any time younded it, it was going to be too soon. If we had held out from our hour, another day, another week, another month, we would have gotten the conservative dream realized. We talk about what the poll numbers look like from the Republican Party. Is there their reading of the shutdown different . We were this close to victory . Absolutely. This is a playbook taken from the democrats. This is what harry reid and nancy pelosi did at the end of the Bush Administration to try to end the iraq war. We tried to put timelines and withdraw of troops, a huge gamble because everyone was, like, thats really unpopular, the prospect of a shutdown. It actually worked because the war was incredibly unpopular and the prospect of a shutdown was so distant, so improbable, no one would ever realize it. The problem now is weve had a shutdown. We have this group that hankers for a shutdown. Every time you raise the prospect of it, they go, yay, theyre really excited about it. It takes on a life of its basement of mexican restaurants, its a completely different last year it was over obamacare implementation, over health care. Lets say republicans were to get the senate. They have the house. They have the senate. Is there an issue right now, you look at the conservative base that, hey, this is the thing they want to turn around in next november and pick the fight over. Immigration. No doubt it will be immigration, especially if the president unveils an executive action which would expand daca, the program that applies to young people. Probably would encompass their families. Theres a lot of angst over whats happening on the southwest border, a lot of angst over president obamas agenda generally. If he does something, it would be take that off the books, threat of a shutdown. It would be roll back what hes already done. If he does something by the end of the summer, it would be roll that back. The deferred action. Let me make a contrary argument. Theres no question that legislatively thats what they would want to do, politically moving into the 2016 election, the president ial which is immediately, as soon as 2014 ends, youve got rand paul. You have ted cruz, folks who are going to probably run for president. Sure, they want to play to their base and win the primaries. They know this is a complete disaster for any chance of republicans taking the presidency in 2016. And especially to go right for immigration that way just seems completely suicidal. It gets to the psychology, if were talking about december 2014, republicans have won the senate. Theyre saying, hey, they told us it was a disaster to shutdown the government. My thanks to you for joining us this morning. Coming up, president obama orders a new review in the wake of ferguson. Well have the details of that plus a look at the administrations overall response. Thats next. From the customers, to the staples associates. With guaranteed low prices on comp books. 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Louis Police Forces as well as departments across the country, how did they come to be equipped with militarystyle quip nmt the first place and should they have been . Last night we learned that president obama has ordered a review of the program that supplies local Police Forces, the pentagons excess property program. Spent nearly 500 million last year alone. The president is sending three aides to the funeral tomorrow for michael brown. Those are two actions taken by president obama. How are americans feeling about his response overall especially in one key demographic thats helped to propel him to the white house. 60 of africanamericans agree with how president obama respond to the ferguson shooth and the aftermath. The number is not as huge as maybe you think it might be when you consider black voters helped to deliver the white house to obama by significantly higher margins. President obamas response to what has been happening in ferguson has been measured. He endorsed the rights of the protests, condemned the looting and violence. There were remarks full of nuance and caution. That neutrality has prompted so blowback from some of the president s most local demographic. Georgetown sociology director Michael Eric Dyson calls the president s remarks, quote, extremely disappointing, Elon James White tweeted, i get his role, but if he cant speak directly to this situation, what president will. After the shooting death of Trayvon Martin he took to the podium saying the man could have been his own son, the kind of personal response people were expecting from the president this time around. They did get it in his administration. President obama sent attorney general eric holder to ferguson instead. Holder told ferguson residents, quote, i understand that mistrust. I am the attorney general of the United States but im also a black man. Holder added an anecdote about something that happened when he was a federal pro can you teller living in washington, d. C. I think of georgetown, running with my cousin, a police car drives up, flashes his lights, where are you going. Hold it, whoa, im going to a movie. To talk about the administration response, we have Michael Eric Dyson from georgetown. We were saving the rest of the thoughts for you to share with us. Also beth fouey, Senior Editor at msnbc. Com. Michael, ill start with you. We laid out a little bit of what you said in the opening. You talked about the monkish silence on race that president obama has exited. Im curious if you can explain more fully your frustration and more generally what you mean by the monkish silence on race. We can count the number of times president obama has weighed in. He has brilliantly and wisely protected his racial capital so when he does speak, it will make a difference. I think hes done too good a job of that. He hasnt intervened in a fashion that allows him to take full advantage of the range of experiences, talents and gifts he uniquely possesses of any president of the United States of america in history to speak to the greatest problem that weve confronted as a nation, and this is the issue of race. His personal discomfort with the issue plus the fact that when he speaks about it, true enough, he takes a dive in poll numbers, but when he speaks about iraq, the same thing. When he talks about issues of the environment, same thing. When he talks about gay marriage even among africanAmerican People, the same thing. Hes going to take a hit regardless. With two years left, its time to step up i think and represent the full range of gifts he has and to speak more seriously and in a more sustained fashion to this issue of race. In this particular case, what saturday youd like to hear him say that he hasnt said . First of all, the tone of empathy, to come out and first of all underscore that weve got to keep the law and order and the peace, i get that, and make those the major predicates for what we see going on. By the way, also, citizens should be protected and have a right to peaceful protests without acknowledging the vicious history of assault upon africanamerican and latino people in this country by the state. Police repression, police aggression, police execution, if you will, of africanamerican men and women, the degree to which black people have been vulnerable, to rebuff in the criminal Justice System and the degree to which the criminal Justice System has worked vigorously against the interest of africanamerican and latino people, in other words, to show he understands that issue and dont recriminalize young black people the way he did in his second set of ferguson remarks when he talked about the fact that some young black men commit crime and they should be punished. How tone deaf is that while in the midst of a riot ous or rebellious uprising, because of the fact that black people havent had access to equal jaws tis under the law, to further criminalize them i think is an ill considered statement. Beth, thats the criticism. Michael is not alone in making some of those critiques to the administration. From the administrations perspective, what is the reasoning, what is the thinking behind the approach the president has taken here . It seems really regrettable. The first black president is so hamstrung about speaking on these issues. He has spoken before. In his defining speech in 2008 was on race. That was during the democratic primary where he sti