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The Ed Show for Thursday, October 2nd, 2014

Read the transcript to the Thursday show

Show: THE ED SHOW
Date: October 2, 2014

Guest: Bernie Sanders, Daryl Parks, Ruth Conniff, Brad Woodhouse, Corey
Hebert

ED SCHULTZ, MSNBC HOST: Good evening Americans and welcome to the Ed Show
live from New York. Let`s get to work.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. RICHARD BLUMENTHAL, (D) CONNECTICUT: Student loan debt is at an all
time high.

SCHULTZ: Student loans...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If I could grant you a check...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Whether college is worth the price of admission.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We only finished paying up
our student loans about eight years ago.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Enjoy the -- couch of your politic stage because you
might be fighting for it for the rest of your life.

SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN, (D) MASSACHUSETTS: Everyone a fair shot at an
affordable education.

REP. PAUL RYAN, (R) WISCONSIN: More and more takers than makers in
America.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHULTZ: Good to have you with us tonight, folks. Thanks for watching. I
want to start tonight with the subject that I think a lot of people,
parents and kids can relate to.

Next week I`m going to be in Iowa and in South Dakota. Couple of reasons.
These are cheap Senate seats that I think the Democrats have got a real
good chance at winning.

With the controversies that are unfolding in South Dakota and then being a
three-way race in the SB-5 immigration issue that`s going on there and the
former Governor Mike Raunds whose kind of wrapped in that whole thing. I
know you don`t know about it. I hear you`re saying what`s Ed talking
about? It`s a big issue on there on the prairie. No question about it.

It could swing the Senate race. I want to go find out if it will. I want
to hear what people have to say in South Dakota.

Now in Iowa, we have the biggest Tea Party candidate of all Tea Party
candidates in Joni Ernst. And she is leading Bruce Braley. How could that
be? I mean, this guy is for minimum wage, he is for student loan
correction, he is for workers` rights, he is for healthcare, all of the
basics that family cares -- that families care about. But for some reason,
there must some kind of political exhaustion or deflation that`s taking
place across America and maybe the issues just aren`t big enough.

So what do the Democrats have to do to rile up the base? Everybody is
saying about well it`s not going to be a very good turn out. How do you
know? How do you know? Well, the signs are that traditionally it might
not be but, but, but the issues are so intense right now and the squeeze on
American families in the middle class is still strong today as it was in
2012.

The issues are still the same and even more intense so why would there be a
greater turnout? Liberals, why would you want to give an opportunity for
the radicals to take over the Senate?

It`s the $64 question right now. So I thought tonight I would start with a
subject that I think hits home on every kitchen table in every 20
something, and every 30 something, and every 40 something can relate to.
It`s that bill they get every month, that damn college loan that just keeps
haunting them and they can`t go out and get that new pickup truck or they
can`t have another kid because of the expenses. They can`t do their life
because they`re strapped with that monthly payment.

You know, America, I believe we can do anything we want to do. And I think
we approve in that in the recent years. America has come a long way in the
last six years.

Let me put it to you this way. We were on the verge of total financial
collapse -- total collapse. You never hear anybody talk about that.

In the past six years you just roll it back to September and October of
2008. Our economy was crumbling by the hour, by the minute. It was the
beginning of the Great Recession. It could have been a depression. It
could have been a total loss of our financial resources had the American
taxpayer not stepped up. That`s where we were.

Senator Kent Conrad was on the Senate Budget Committee, he`s no longer in
the Senate. He was one of the very few that was called into a room and
then he -- I will always recall the story -- he couldn`t believe what he
was hearing. He couldn`t believe where we were as a country when it comes
to crisis. But what did we do? We pulled out of it.

Between September 26 and October 10th, the Dow lost 2,700 points. That
means the market had dropped 24 percent in 14 days. The country was in a
panic. No one has known where this was going to go. Confidence was at an
all-time low.

159,000 jobs were lost in September of 2008. In the evening news, it was
not a pretty sight.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRIAN WILLIAMS, NBC NIGHTLY NEWS HOST: Meltdown. The American financial
system is rocked to its foundation as top Wall Street institutions topple
under a mountain of debt.

ANN CURRY, NBC NEWS HOST: Overseas markets tumbled this morning mid word
and one of the world`s largest investment firms, Lehman Brothers is filling
for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The six biggest point drop in history.

SIBILA VARGAS, WNBC-TV HOST: The U.S. stock market under pressure as
people worry about the ripple effect of the Lehman bankruptcy.

JIM CRAMER, CNBC HOST: This was one of the ugliest days I have ever seen
in my career.

MATT LAUER, THE TODAY SHOW HOST: They`re calling this the biggest shakeup
in financial market since The Great Depression.

WILLIAMS: Certainly the largest financial disaster in decades in this
country and perhaps the end of an era in American business.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHULTZ: Pretty rough out there. Lehman Brothers, what do you know about
them? Lehman Brothers. Don`t they go back to before the Civil War? Yeah,
that`s right, Lehman Brothers.

You know, they went through the industrial revolution. Lehman Brothers
went through World Wars, Vietnam, the Gulf War. Lehman Brothers went
through a lot of stuff. Big picture, they couldn`t hang in there. That`s
how bad it was.

An American institution on Wall Street absolutely crumbled. An institution
that had been around since the Civil War -- Lehman Brothers. Everybody
knew Lehman Brothers, they didn`t make it.

It`s important to remember that criminal activity on Wall Street, well it
lead to the 2008 collapse. Everyone who fell on tough times had these guys
to blame. Meanwhile, the government didn`t prosecute anybody on Wall
Street. Hell, we helped them out.

We bailed these guys out with a big check. You taxpayers out there -- me
included.

On October 3rd, 2008 our government bailed out the financial system.
President Bush signed the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008. He
had to do it.

The bailout provided $700 billion of your taxpayer money to Wall Street big
banks plus much more was spent in the following months and thankfully, it
worked. Basically, this is what we did so they could open their doors and
function the next day. We did that.

The economy since then has seen 54 straight months of private sector job
growth. Over 10 million private sector jobs have been added. That`s a
turnaround. That`s what you like to see, the numbers count.

Wall Street is doing better than ever. Yeah, we`ve had a couple of rocky
days but when you look at the totality of it, the Dow Jones hitting record
highs over 17, 16 and 17,000. It`s a far stretch from March 6 of 2009 when
we were just over 6,500 -- 6,626 to be exact.

Big banks in Wall Street today are doing just fine. Their numbers are just
fine today. The numbers don`t lie. The problem is this. You folks out
there in the middle of the country, who have a chance to have a say in all
of this, for some reason seem to be politically exhausted because you have
been left behind, because you haven`t seen the kind of growth of Wall
Street and the financial institutions in the insurance industry?

Middle class Americans aren`t feeling the recovery. Gosh, that was an
interesting question that President filled at the other day on 60 minutes.
He said the American people aren`t feeling it. You know what I say? Let`s
make them feel it.

Medium household income is down from the beginning of this recession. In
2007, it was $56,000. In 2013, it was $51,000. How the hell that
happened? What?

You mean, medium -- yeah, yeah, yeah, the incomes in households went down
but everybody else kind of went up -- the folks that we helped out.

It`s harder for Americans to afford everything especially in education. We
stick it to the kids and then we`re going to keep sticking it to the kids
the way it`s set upped. Student loan debt in the United States is
currently sitting at $1.2 trillion. Seven in 10 college students who
graduate have a student loan debt. They graduate with an average of
$29,000 of debt.

Here`s an idea for you. How about a bailout for student loan debt across
America? Now in 2008, the government had no problem throwing over $700
billion of taxpayer money at Wall Street. How about the government
throwing $700 billion at the middle class in this country and let`s start
with the 20 and 30 somethings, in these folks who`ve got college loan debt
out there?

If middle class Americans get a bailout, this chart, no question about it,
will change. That chart will change. Something radical, something
drastic, something big but you got to believe it can happen and you got to
know it can happen.

The middle class income in this country will rise in the economy, will
flourish again if we do something like this. Consumer spending will rise,
home sales will go up and the American economy will be much better off.

Now wait a minute, that`s kind of a theory, isn`t it? Yeah, it`s a theory.
You see the bailout on Wall Street was an absolute. We were going down.
If we didn`t put that money into Wall Street, we`re going down.

It`s an absolute. There would be a total loss of our financial structure
in this country. That`s how critical it was.

Now if we do the same thing with student loan debt, we can theorized that
people are going to buy homes, people are going to buy trucks, people are
going to pay off debt, people are going to have a better chance in American
life -- that`s all a theory. But it`s a chance I think we have to be
willing to take because if you got another 250 or $300 a month of
disposable income, what do we do as Americans? We spend it.

We need to take a page out of the country Germany. Here`s some good
socialism for you. This week, Germany abolished all tuition fees. Not
some, all. A college education is now free in this country.

Free. Education is not a right. Is it? Now wait a minute, in this
country Germany, education is a right not a privilege. It`s so different
here, isn`t it?

Six years ago, the American government bowled -- bailed out Wall Street.
Today our government should bail out middle class Americans and younger
Americans and give them a fresh start, so to speak. Why not? Well, the
power brokers aren`t going to go for it. And it would take real political
change for that to happen.

And I know that I have one over a lot of Americans across the country
saying, "Gosh, we`ve never heard anybody say that before." I would venture
to say that most people would say, "You know, that sounds like a fair deal.
We`ve done it before, let`s do it again. Let`s revamp our educational
system in this country and make it available to everybody not just the
wealthy or those who want to go into debt."

I mean, if we really want to compete and if we really believe that we can
be the best we can be then let`s give the kids a fresh start like we gave
Wall Street a fresh start. Too big a chunk of ice, isn`t it?

I want you to get your cell phones out. I want to know what you think
tonight. Would you vote for a candidate who advocates for student loan
forgiveness? Text A for yes, text B for no to 67622. Leave a comment at
our blog at ed.msnbc.com and we`ll bring you the results later on in this
show.

Let`s go to Bernie Sanders, Senator from Vermont who is thinking about
running for President, who has made several trips to Iowa.

Senator, good to have you with us tonight.

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS, (I-VT), SENATE COMMITTEE ON VETERAN`S AFFAIRS
CHAIRMAN: Good to be with you, Ed.

SCHULTZ: You have been a vocal as vocal as anybody when it comes to
student debt, what has to be done in your opinion?

SANDERS: Well Ed, I agree with everything that you said and the essence of
what you said is that six years ago this country had a crisis because of
the greed, recklessness and illegal behavior on Wall Street. Congress
voted $700 billion to bail them out and by the way the Fed provided $16
trillion, Ed in all those zero interest loans.

We learned that because of an amendment I passed as part of the Dodd-
Franklin -- the Dodd-Frank Financial Bill. Huge bailout for Wall Street
and what you are asking right now is it a time when the middle class is
collapsing, when hundreds of thousands of young people can`t afford to go
to college, when millions are coming out of college deeply in debt, when we
have the highest rate of child in poverty of any major country on earth are
in those crises that we should respond to. And the answer is absolutely.

And if we respond to those crises, we`re going to have a better educated
workforce, we`re going to be more competitive internationally, and we`re
going to create more jobs. So what we need to do is put together the
grassroots movement that says to the Congress, you know what, start paying
attention to the working families of this country while losing ground every
single day to the kids of this country who want a future and start paying
attention just to 1 percent in Wall Street and corporate America and you`re
absolutely right.

SCHULTZ: Well, it is a bridge that`s real far away. There`s no question
about it. But the interest rates that these kids are paying is through the
roof compared to basic rates. Why do we allow that to happen?

There is Republican -- There`s Republican kids out there right now that
have got high interest rates. They got to feel like they`re getting
shafted. Why do we have to do this for...

SANDERS: Now, I...

SCHULTZ: ... the financial industry when it really slows down our growth
economically and holds people back from prosperity later in life?

SANDERS: Well, this is what we should know, 30 years ago Ed, the United
States lead the world in the percentage of our people who graduated
college. And we were the major economic power. Today, we are in 12th
place in terms of percentage of our people who graduate in college
precisely for the reasons that you gave. People can`t afford to go to
college. They`re dropping out of college.

So it makes imminent sense to significantly lower interest rates. And what
I would argue, if the Fed could charge every major financial institution
and corporations and banks all over the world in a $16 trillion, low
interest revolving loan fund, charge them almost nothing to loans, why
can`t we do the same for young people in this country and to small
businesses in this country? Why can`t we do that?

Why can`t we invest $1 trillion to rebuild our crumbling infrastructure and
put 13 million people back to work? Why can`t we do that? And the answer
is pretty obvious. When Wall Street talks with all of their money and
power, Congress listens. When working class kids talk about being saddled
with these horrendous debts, who is listening?

SCHULTZ: Yeah.

SANDERS: How much power do they have? How much power the middle class
families have?

So what we need to do is raise these issues, like making college
affordable, significantly lowering the college interest rates on debt. We
need to do that. We need to rally the people and there`s massive support
for these ideas, Ed.

That`s the majority of the people support these ideas. But we going to get
Congress to listen to what the people want.

SCHULTZ: This is the conversation that Progressives are going to have to
have for whoever is going to be the candidate.

This has to be talked about because this is what it -- is affecting a
majority of Americans. And I don`t know how -- we`d be remised if we
didn`t have this conversation.

Senator, it`s always good to have you with us. I appreciate your time
tonight. Thank you.

Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont here on the Ed Show.

Remember to answer tonight`s question there at the bottom of the screen.
Share your thoughts on Twitter@edshow and on Facebook. We want to know
what you think.

Coming up, Scott Walker -- dude`s got nine lives. The Rapid Response Panel
weighs in on the Governor`s future. He`s now up in the polls.

But first while protesters continue in Ferguson, Missouri, an investigation
in the possible misconduct in the grand jury is taking place.

The Brown family attorney joins us to discuss the impact it`s going to have
on this case. We`re right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SCHULTZ: What`s out there with Trenders? Here we go. Social media, join
the Ed team. Here`s where you find us, facebook.com/edshow,
twitter.com/edshow, and ed.msnbc.com. My podcast, 24/7 available. It`s
free, wegoted.com, rawstory.com, ringoffireradio.com and on iTunes.

Ed Show social media nation has decided. We`re reporting. Here are
today`s that are out there, voted on by you.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The -- No -- Not going to bring to...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The number three trender, Mighty Mites.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Pee-Wee football team had tried to run through the
banner.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They can`t raise that paper strong enough...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They called the Wallkill Mighty Mites and they come
upstate New York.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A Pee-Wee football team has a break through.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Mighty Mites are back behind the curtain and
they`re ready for redemption.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We did it. We did it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The number two trender, Say What?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You know that popular reality series, "Say Yes to the
Dress"?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sometimes it`s hard to let go of old styles.

MELODY MENDEZ, FOX NEWS HOST: You`d have to give them credit for trying to
think outside of the box.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yeah. Lecture is a big deal for me now that I just
graduated from college.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A college republican organization goes dress shopping.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A nearly $1 million campaign ad modeled after the TLC
show and an effort to draw young female voters to the GOP.

BRITTANY: The Rick Scott is perfect.

MENDEZ: The Republican Party has a problem communicating with woman
voters.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Right.

MENDEZ: And this is exhibit X.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, soon as...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We cannot let her walk out of a voting booth like
that.

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them.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And today`s top trender, Twit Leak.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A Twitter user claim to know one of the jurors.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Grand Jury hasn`t even heard all of the evidence.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Saint Louis County Prosecutor Bob McCullough is looking
into an accusation of misconduct.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Ferguson Grand Jury gets a misconduct
investigation.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The investigation stems from tweet today that said, "I
know someone sitting on the Grand Jury of this case." There isn`t enough
at this point to warrant and arrest.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The Grand Jury is sworn to keep everything that they
hear in that room secret even from their closest friends and family.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: An activist sent the tweet to authorities on Wednesday.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If it`s discovered that the jury did reveal
information, the entire hearing would have to start from scratch.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHULTZ: Let`s go to Daryl Parks. He is the attorney for the Brown family
in all of this. Mr. Parks, good to have you back with us tonight. I want
your reaction to the news of possible misconduct by a Grand Jury member and
as you see it, what is this all mean?

DARYL PARKS, BROWN FAMILY ATTORNEY: Well Ed, first, I have to say, Michael
Brown`s parents have said all along that they are very optimist that they
can`t get a proper investigation and prosecution by this prosecutor and so
now that we are learning this -- that one of the jurors on the Grand Jury
has possibly misbehaved and it`s a very serious concern. And we believe
that this -- we still are calling for a special prosecutor to be appointed
by Governor Jay Nix.

Now, you also have to bear in mind too that we have someone that it had
said that Officer Darren Wilson, who is also being which is it -- in
someone who (inaudible) in the case is that this office is prosecuted, it`s
also have a possible indictment. That comes with the law and we believe
that this Grand Jury proceeding is very, very questionable.

SCHULTZ: Well, about that, Darren Wilson failed to appear at the hearing
for an unrelated case on Monday. Obviously, his police work has taken him
into some legal work that he was working on before all the shooting took
place. So what have you heard about those activities? You know.

PARKS: Well, let me tell you what was happened. Given the fact that this
particular prosecutor`s office is very involved in cases that involved
polices as the arresting an officer or investigating an officer and a main
(inaudible) in this case, being flips out of that, he`s also a possible
defendant in this case. Those two things taken together represent a
serious bias of conflict that exists between this prosecutor`s office and
its interaction with Darren Wilson.

We believe that should call for Governor Jay Nix to then appoint a special
prosecutor given that a clear bias has come for it now in this case

SCHULTZ: All right. Well, the bias is coming from a Twitter user in
question who previously wrote support messages for the officer who killed
Michael Brown, I mean, this could be a lot of things. This could be a
conspiracy. This could be another very smart juror. What do you think it
is?

PARKS: Well, it`s obviously someone who has talked outside of the
proceedings and is attained at the proceeding. So clearly, what this Grand
Jury now has done is totally quest -- Ed, we talked about two different
things so that -- the Grand Jury misconduct is one issue we have here.

SCHULTZ: Yeah.

PARKS: The one issue and I`m bringing it up..

SCHULTZ: Yeah.

PARKS: ... given with the fact that Officer Wilson is involved in other
cases in this office...

SCHULTZ: Well...

PARKS: ... bring about a conflict that exist between him and the
prosecutor`s office.

SCHULTZ: Well -- yeah -- OK. Daryl, I don`t think that`s going to move
this but I do think that the Grand Jury misconduct is your best shot.
That`s just my opinion. Would you agree with that? I mean, legally, is
that probably your best shot at this point?

PARKS: Well, I think for now, yes.

SCHULTZ: OK. So that`s the.

PARKS: I think that`s our best shot though -- yes.

SCHULTZ: ... Go ahead. All right that should lead -- That`s too bad
because...

PARKS: I`ve said clearly that is our best shot...

SCHULTZ: ... That -- OK. That clearly is your best shot legally right now
to move the Governor, to scrap what`s going on and you want him to start
all over again?

PARKS: Yes. Well, the good thing about starting over again, if he
appoints a special prosecutor, that prosecutor then can make the decision
whether or not he wants to direct file a case or whether he or she wants to
take it to a Grand Jury.

SCHULTZ: OK.

PARKS: So, you get a fair starting and then they get -- they may going to
see it`s about a direct file in this case.

SCHULTZ: Now, what`s interesting is that there are over 3,000 Ferguson
residents who have registered to vote since the killing of Michael Brown.
It`s rather important statement, isn`t it?

PARKS: Well, for sure and I think if nothing else, Michael Brown`s murder
in Ferguson, Missouri in Saint Louis County has now become a catalyst for
really getting people to pay attention to what`s going on civically and
realizing that the prosecutor in this case is an elected official and that
people have to become far more engaged in voting empowerment right now and
have their voices heard to have a better chance of avoiding these type of
situations go on into the future.

SHULTZ: OK. Daryl Parks, good to have you with us tonight, attorney for
the Brown family. Thank you so much for joining us.

Coming up, the Republican Party has been busy for the first time in months.
Governor Scott Walker leads the Wisconsin polls. Ruth Conniff and Brad
Woodhouse weigh in on the Governor`s race, coming up.

Plus our friends on Fox News believe that they knew the perfect candidate
to lead the Secret Service. If you guess the right wing extremis with a
rough military record, you`d be right. Pretenders is coming up.

Your question is next, Ask Ed Live. We`re right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SCHULTZ: I started this program tonight talking about Iowa and South
Dakota. Here`s what`s stuck in my craw. It`s expensive to win a Senate
seat in California or New York or Florida but Senate seats in the middle of
the country with small markets are easy to win and the national Democrats
are not funding. To my liking, what`s happening in Iowa and South Dakota
and I`d like to know why.

More coming up on the Ed Show. Stay with us.

JOSH LIPTON, CNBC MARKET WRAP: I`m Josh Lipton with your CNBC Market Wrap.

The DOW falls three, the S&P ends flat, the NASDAQ is up eight.

J.P. Morgan is disclosing a massive data bridge with 76 million households
and 7 million small businesses effective. Tesla shares ended up more than
4 percent. Sector CEO Elon Musk said the electric core maker would unveil
something called the D next week.

And weekly jobless claims fell by 8,000 to 287,000. That reports comes one
day before the government`s closely watched jobs data.

That`s it from CNBC, first in business worldwide.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SCHULTZ: Welcome back to the Ed Show. Thanks for watching tonight.
Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker seems to have the cat with nine lives.
There`s a new poll out there showing the Republican Governor with his
widest lead among likely voters since March.

A Marquette University poll has Scott Walker leading Mary Burke, 50 percent
to 45 percent among likely voters. Among registered voters, Walker just
barely leaves Burke, 46 to 45. And these polls are the first to come out
since accusations that Burke had copied policy proposals from other
campaigns. Mary Burke released a new ad to address this accusation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARY BURKE: In August, Wisconsin lost another 4,300 jobs. That`s probably
why in September, Scott Walker is attacking my jobs plan saying it takes
ideas from other states. Well, you know what? Of course it does. As
governor, I`m going to take the best ideas wherever I can find them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHULTZ: Governor Walker spent his first term breaking promises. So far,
the numbers say that. He promised to create 250,000 new jobs. New figures
show that just 28,000 private sector jobs were added in Wisconsin from
March of 2013 to March of 2014. That ranks Wisconsin at number 33 in the
country for job growth.

Walker also limited collective bargaining rights, boosted funding for
vouchers at the expensive public schools and enacted new voter I.D.
requirements.

Earlier today, attorneys for the ACLU filed an emergency appeal with the
Supreme Court asking to block Wisconsin from enforcing that voter I.D. Law.
The law requires nearly all voters in the state to have a driver`s license
or a U.S. passport with a current photo. Tens of thousands of elderly and
low income voters in the state who do not drive cannot be expected to
obtain the IDs with less than five weeks before the election.

Progressive voters? Well, it`s just going to be a bigger challenge in
November than what you previously thought and that exactly the way Walker
wants it.

Joining me tonight in a Rapid Response Panel, Ruth Conniff, Editor of the
Progressive Magazine, also with us tonight, Brad Woodhouse, Former
Democratic Party Communications Director.

I want both of you to give us your take on -- give analysis of this race,
where it is right now with all the controversy that has surrounded Scott
Walker.

Ruth, you first. How do you break it down?

RUTH CONNIFF, PROGRESSIVE MAGAZINE EDITOR: Well, obviously, it`s not great
to see a poll where Walker edges ahead but I think he got to put it in
perspective and I mean he is five points ahead in the poll with a four
point margin of error. So the news here is that after months, after
months, after months of Mary Burke and Scott Walker in an absolute
statistical dead hit, he`s now craft out of the margin of error and he is
leading by a little bit. But we have a month to go and so this is not the
last word. There are two debates coming up, those have not happened yet
and there`s a lot of news that can happen.

I think what has happened in this race is not so much that Mary Burke has
come out swinging and has knocked Walker down, so much that they are dead
even despite his enormous name, recognition and her practically now coming
into this, I think what`s happened is that a lot of bad news has hit
Walker. And his strategy has been though a negative Ed, attacking Mary
Burke on the issues where he himself is vulnerable and that`s what you see
when he goes after her for being -- for working for her family business
that outsource some jobs although fewer than any other bicycle business in
America.

When he has been giving away tax dollars to companies that then outsource
jobs and closed companies here and closed their headquarters here in
Wisconsin. So, he hit her where he is vulnerable. This thorny plagiarism
scandal is the latest news and I think he`s attacked on that and her not
responding really extraneously, Chris Christie coming to the state and
attacking her the plagiarist has had some effects and I think we`re seeing
that in his poll.

But if you look at what he`s saying, he`s saying she takes policy proposals
from other people in her jobs plan. You know, Scott Walker has taken
legislation written by out of state companies, by his own admission, an out
of state mining company basically drafted a piece of legislation. He
solicited a major campaign contribution from that company...

BRAD WOODHOUSE, FORMER DEMOCRATIC PARTY COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR: That`s
right.

CONNIFF: ... received $700,000 through the club for growth. So he has
plagiarizing legislation from special interest groups in order to do a way
with regulation in the State of Wisconsin, do away with open meeting flaws
and push through their agenda. So the plagiarism charge, I think, is one
more example of him attacking on something or he himself is doing the thing
that he is attacking her.

SCHULTZ: On a roll, tremendous insight and great information. Brad, how
do you break it down?

WOODHOUSE: I don`t know. Ruth kind of said it all but look at the way I
break it down. The way I beak it down is this is -- look -- look, I think
Scott Walker is in trouble. I mean, yeah, he`s got a poll that shows him
at a 5 percent lead and a little bit outside the margin of error but he`s
an incumbent. A month out, he`s at fifth -- you, know, he`s at 50 percent
and Mary Burke is really low.

And so he may think that, Ed was exactly the right -- exactly the right
approach. Are you kidding me? Of course we want the best policies from
other states. We don`t want policies that Scott Walker has delivered that
he`s put in the Midwest -- has put Wisconsin dead last in job growth. If
you want to move to the Midwest to get a job, don`t move to Wisconsin where
Scott Walker is governor. That`s the message.

And I think Mary Burke is going to have a strong -- there`s a month to go.
Let me just say this, Ed we believe to the poll in the presidential race
after the debate in Denver, if that`s when the race ended Mitt Romney,
would be President.

So this notion that one poll after one set of campaign facts is the end is
crazy. I think that Burke is...

SCHULTZ: No, I think it`s significant because it is the widest lead by
either candidate since March. And maybe people are starting to pay
attention right now, I don`t know what it is and there`s a lot of water to
go into the bridge between now and then, but the table is set for the
Republicans in Wisconsin and seems like it`s going to take extra effort by
the Progressive movement.

And Ruth, this voter I.D. law, is it going to help Walker? What`s it going
to do to low income people? I mean you going to have a photo I.D., you
going to have all the stuff, what about it?

CONNIFF: You know, honestly, Ed voter I.D. is much more significant then
this latest poll.

WOODHOUSE: Yes.

CONNIFF: I mean this is tight, tight race. It`s going to take getting
every voter to the polls and the Republicans have squared an enormous
victory by preventing people from voting here, you know, I think if they`re
-- if we didn`t have voter I.D. and we had a totally clean election and
everybody cast a vote, there would be no question at the outcome.

And I don`t think that this little slippage by Mary Burke in this one poll
would mean very much at all. But what voter I.D. means if you are a
student at the University of Wisconsin, your student I.D. doesn`t count
under the voter I.D. law because it`s -- too long a period, you have to go
get a special extra I.D. And then that I.D. is not enough, you have to
bring separate verification that you`re enrolled as a student along with
that special student I.D.

So there are many...

SCHULTZ: Wow.

CONNIFF: ... intense hurdles that are being set up. And there is nothing
more important in...

SCHULTZ: So...

CONNIFF: ... Wisconsin that in ground game that gets voter I.D. to people
who need this.

SCHULTZ: I go across the border quite a bit. You actually have to have
more documentation in Wisconsin to vote then you`d need to go to another
country. I mean that`s what you said.

CONNIFF: Yeah.

WOODHOUSE: It`s insane.

SCHULTZ: I mean that`s what I just I heard.

WOODHOUSE: Yeah.

SCHULTZ: I find that unbelievable.

CONNIFF: Yeah.

SCHULTZ: Brad...

CONNIFF: And Ed they`re throwing out absentee ballots.

SCHULTZ: OK.

CONNIFF: People who`ve already cast absentee ballots are going to be
thrown out if they don`t now present I.D. after they voted. I mean these
are the things that people need to be working on the ground in Wisconsin...

WOODHOUSE: That`s right.

CONNIFF: if they want us to be close to a fair election.

SCHULTZ: Brad, you`re take on a voter I.D.?

WOODHOUSE: Well, look, I mean obviously, you know, this was passed by
Republican legislators, it was signed by a Republican governor, it was
upheld by Republicans...

SCHULTZ: And so they`ve socially engineered this.

WOODHOUSE: They are trying to engineer this election to steal it. I mean
Scott Walker can`t afford to lose this election after all his real price is
be President of United States try for bit. But look, we have overcome
these obstacles before, I mean, I don`t think -- let`s not scare people.
We`ve overcome these obstacles before, people, you know, we need to expand
the elector, we need to find other people and come out to vote, we need to
help people, you know, get the proper I.D., we need to fight in court like
the ACLU.

People stood in long lines in 2012 exactly because they were defined the
Republican efforts in a lot of these states. In Ohio and in Florida, and
other places, they stood their all night long to vote because they were
defined the efforts of this Republican governor to try to prevent them from
voting. And we need that groundswell of anger about this not people who
"whoa, it`s me (ph). I can`t vote." No, figure out, make it happen and
stick it to him this time.

SCHULTZ: All right, Ruth Conniff, Brad Woodhouse, great conversation.
Appreciate your time tonight. We`re going to spend more time in Wisconsin
coming up.

Republicans pushed to cut government spending then complain that there`s
not enough resources at the CDC. Dr. Corey Hebert joins me to discuss the
Ebola threat.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SCHULTZ: And in Pretenders tonight, Secret Disservice. The boys on the
Curvy Couch, well, they picked their replacement for Director of the Secret
Service.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are a nation at war, you need somebody with the
military background and so what he is suggesting is the military take over.
He suggest Lieutenant Colonel Allen West because he`s a leader, he`s got
great diplomatic skills, and you know what, he`s got a military background.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And that`s the Facebook question. Right now, do you
believe it`s time for the military take over the Secret Service and in your
mind, is Lieutenant Colonel Allen West the perfect mix of military and
congressional leader?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHULTZ: That gone and (ph) I should have answered that question. Someone
should remind our friends about Allen West long history of attacking people
not protecting them.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALLEN WEST: I believe there`s about 78 to 81 members of the Democratic
Party that are part of the Communist Party.

American Communist renamed themselves as Progressives.

Take your message of enslaving the entrepreneur will and spirit of the
American people somewhere else. You can take it the Europe, you can take
it to bottom of the sea, you can take to the North Pole, but get the hell
out of the United States of America.

And that enemy represents something called Islam and Islam is a
totalitarian theocratic political ideology. It is not a religion.

To let these other women know, on the other side, these Planned Parenthood
women, the Code Pink women, and all of these women who have been neutering
American men and bringing us to the point of this incredible weakness, to
let them know that we are not going to have our men become subservient.

So I`m here as the modern day Harriet Tubman to kind of lead people on the
underground railroad away from that plantation into a sense of sensibility.
And we need to have approval from our court, "I guess masters for us to be
able to speak." You see, that`s where the true races really lies.
Governor was with the -- at the right liberals.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHULTZ: Sounds like the perfect guy that wants to protect Barack Obama.
If friend -- Fox and Friends think that the controversy of one term
congressman is a great pick for Director of the Secret Service, they can
keep on pretending.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

SEN. RAND PAUL, (R) KENTUCKY: Well in 1918, the Spanish flu killed 21
million people -- more than World War 1, which was a catastrophic war. In
the 14th century, the bubonic plague, before we had a cure for it, killed
75 million people in Europe. It is a mistake. No one can predict. Maybe
this thing Peter`s out that has three or four times in the past 20 years in
Africa, maybe it`s Peter`s out.

But it`s already probably a hundred times larger that any previous
outbreak. Now it`s on various continents and it`s not just going to be a
United States. If we have one case in United States, my guess is there`s
going to be a case in India, there`s going to be a case in China, and once
this gets into close confines there is possibility.

Now, do I know it`s going to happen? No, nobody knows. But it is a
absolutely a mistake to take a political correctness and say they know with
certainty it`s not going to spread and as a consequence so play down fears
that we don`t take precaution.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

SCHULTZ: I can`t disagree with that. But it takes money to buy a Whiskey.

Welcome back to the Ed Show.

Finally tonight, Kentucky Senator Rand Paul maybe a doctor but all he`s
prescribing here I think is a little bit too much fear. Paul is even
warning Americans not to trust the CDC? Maybe the CDC would be better
positioned to contain Ebola if its budget wasn`t cut by $600 million, lower
than it was the last four years ago. OK? So Republican -- I don`t think
they can have a both ways.

Republic health agencies like the CDC are starved for cash. They`re not
going to be able to do the jobs that we expect them to do effectively.
Just take it from the nurses, the boots on the ground who are the real
front line when it comes to sickness. They are the boots on the ground, a
National Nurses United Union they polled their members, asking them
questions.

30 percent of the registered nurses say their hospital has insufficient
supplies of eye protection and fluid resistant gowns. And a whopping 60
percent said that bottom line that their hospital is not prepared for the
Ebola virus.

In turn the largest U.S. organization of nurses is calling for what?
Proper funding of international disaster relief and global health agencies
whose budgets have been cut as a result of austerity measures.

Joining me tonight, Dr. Corey Hebert, Professor at LSU Health Sciences
Center. Professor, good to have you with us tonight.

DR. COREY HEBERT, LSU HEALTH SCIENCES CENTER: Good to be here.

SCHULTZ: I`m alarmed when I hear these numbers, I mean, I know nurses, I`m
married to one. They are the front line. They do more than doctors in
many, many cases. They know what`s going on.

And they are out there saying that 80 percent of nurses said that their
hospitals have not communicated to them any policy regarding potential
admission of patients infected by Ebola. Who`s responsible for that?
Where do we go from here if that number is true?

HEBERT: Well, I tell you what, the Ebola virus spread in United States
squarely on the shoulders of the front line nurses and doctors at our
primarily care facilities and emergency rooms without a doubt. Because you
don`t know to treat something if you don`t know it`s there. That`s just
the bottom line. And so we know from this case just the other day that the
nurse knew, she didn`t explain to the doctors so the doctor didn`t know.
If you`re trying to contain this, we need more information sharing at the
front line and we also the more supplies which means we need more money.

It kind to made me laugh that you said that you kind to agree with Rand
Paul because I was about to throw up in my mouth when I heard it but I kind
of agree with him too when it comes to, you know, the fact that we don`t
know what`s going to happen. But the issue with Rand is that it doesn`t
matter what happens because we have the infrastructure in America to be
able to take care of those patients even if a hundred people get it, 200
people get it. We have the infrastructure that`s why we need that money so
that we can have the gowns and the supplies to take care of the patients.

SCHULTZ: So we should be listening to the nurses.

HEBERT: Absolutely, we have to. As a doctor, I can`t survive without a
nurse or a medical apprentice to explain to me what`s going on, I mean and
then in medical school we`re not really trained, you know, to do some of
the things that they do. We are trained out there to ask the serious
questions about whether you`ve traveled and in the medical history. But,
we forget about those things that we`ve been practicing for so long, you
know, one of my great mentors told me, when you hear hooves meets behind
you, think horses not zebras.

SCHULTZ: Yeah.

HEBERT: But the reality is we`re living in a land of a zebra now. So we
have to check those things and nurses are great of that.

SCHULTZ: All right. Rand Paul also said this, I want to play this and get
your reactions since he`s a doctor too. Go ahead.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

PAUL: We also have to be concerned about 3,000 soldiers getting back on a
ship. Where is disease most transmittable? When you`re in very close
confines on a ship, you know, we all know about cruises, you know, and how
they get these diarrhea viruses that are transmitted very easily and the
whole ship gets sick. Imagine if a whole ship full of our soldiers gets
Ebola.

So now, I am concerned about this and it`s a big mistake to downplay and
act as if, "Oh, this is not a big deal. We can control all this." This
could get beyond control.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

SCHULTZ: Could it get beyond our control, Doctor?

HEBERT: No. And once again, I kind of have to agree with Rand Paul to
say, there could be a ship that had a lot of people on and they all got the
Ebola virus. That`s very possible. But it`s not beyond our control
because as you notice, when people have been brought from West Africa to
the United States, they don`t die from Ebola because we have the
infrastructure.

So I hate to keep saying that I agree with him...

SCHULTZ: Yeah.

HEBERT: ... but I don`t agree with them a 100 percent.

SCHULTZ: Dr. Corey Hebert, good to have you with us on the Ed Show
tonight.

HEBERT: I`m loosening my bowtie so, you know, don`t feel bad for me, Ed.

SCHULTZ: That`s OK. It all sounded good. Look good. You`re OK. Thank
you.

That`s the Ed Show.

I`m Ed Schultz. Politics Nation with Reverend Al Sharpton starts right
now.

Happy birthday, Rev. I`m a day late. I bet you got that big party going
on over there...

REV. AL SHARPTON, POLITICS NATION HOST: No, your day -- a day early, it`s
tomorrow.

SCHULTZ: Oh, is that tomorrow?

SHARPTON: Thanks, Ed.

SCHULTZ: So you`d have a gig early then, I got you...

SHARPTON: Yeah, and we start early. Thank you. And thanks to you for
tuning in. Lots of news to get to tonight.


THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY
BE UPDATED.
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