King backtracks on racist rant

>> us. get rapid-fire response on our panel from these stories. mitt romney won't tell jay leno if he's running or not but he had some interesting thoughts on sarah palin and fox news.

>>> republican senator tom coburn says, america is rotting from its reliance on government programs. spoken by a true millionaire doctor.

>>> and iowa psycho-talker steve king says he didn't mean anything when he described president obama as urban during his racist rant from the black farmers bill. with us tonight stephanie jones , a democratic analyst and president of stephanie jones strategies. and earnest istook former republican congressman and now with the heritage foundation . great to have both of you with us tonight.

>> thanks, ed.

>> thank you.

>> let's talk about mitt romney . earnest, what do you -- is mitt going to run or what's happening here? well, he hasn't said whether he's going to run. he was nice last night to jay leno . he was nice to sarah palin . gosh, ed, i think if you had him on your show he'd be nice to you too. what's the fear about somebody being a nice guy ?

>> is the palin wave, stephanie , taken some candidates out early on? what do you think?

>> i don't know if it's taking candidates out but you've got to feel sorry for the guy. he gos on television and then he has to talk about sarah palin . it's sort of like the old line of, governor, enough about sarah palin , let's talk about you. what do you think about sarah palin ? it's really a shame that he can't move on and talk about what he wants to talk about and that he's not talking about politics and the issues of the day that we're all concerned about but he's got to deal with this distraction that many in his parent of having to deal with now.

>> here's mitt romney talking about fox news to leno. here it is.

>> a lot of republican candidates have gone to work for fox news. have they approached you as being a correspondent or something of that nature.

>> well, jay, if you ever see me sign up for a gig on fox news, it will be a clear indication i've decided to run for president.

>> really.

>> yeah, absolutely.

>> wow.

>> so that's not in the cards anytime soon, thanks.

>> i have to say, i'm stunned that he would think -- let it out there that he's thinking about not running. i mean, ernie ithought that he's probably one of the best ones that you've got over there.

>> he wasn't talking about not running, he was talking about not being a commentator or a paid commentator for fox news, that's what he said.

>> all right. republican senator tom coburn says that america is rotting from its reliance on government programs. stephanie , what's your response to that?

>> well, i find those comments very troubling. because even though i think we can all agree with some of what senator coburn was saying that -- that we need to -- need to have shared sacrifice in this country, he did what is all too common now. and he wants -- and elaborating on those comments he pointed his finger on the people on the lowest end of the totem poll. the only people that he talked about of being reliant on government were folks on social security , and on disability. and so once again, we have this -- this sense of -- of blaming the people who are suffering the most. and expecting them to shoulder the burden.

>> yeah.

>> of this difficult economy we're in. it's truly unfortunate.

>> here's mr. coburn 's comment on the issue. here it is.

>> we've created reliance instead of depending on self-reliance. we've created government programs that are unaffordable. we're rotting. we're rotting as we sit here and speak today.

>> ernie , is he talking about social security , medicare, medicaid, the programs that have worked so successfully for americans for generations? what do you think.

>> you know, ed, i'm up he here in boston. all of this week i've been attending a conserve conserve at harvard and harvard economists. are saying that reason that we've got the financial problems in the federal government are because of social security , medicare and medicaid . the programs that are spending so much we cannot afford it. the heritage foundation every year, publishes an index of dependency and it shows that last year in 2009 , national dependence upon federal programs went up over 13%.

>> stephanie , what do you think.

>> and that's even before obamacare kicked.

>> well with all due respect, congressman, i think that there are a lot of other factors that have contributed to this economic crisis that we're in including the massive tax cuts that we cannot afford. the -- we have a tremendous military spending . we have a lot of other areas that we need to look at as well. and so when we talk about shared sacrifice, as senator coburn talked about, i think that's an important conversation but we have to be fair and we have to be reasonable about making sure we -- we're looking at all areas and not just --

>> ernie , you've got to admit that the tax cuts didn't create any jobs. the tax cuts did not work. they've put nuts hole along with the two wars that have been off-budget and i don't know how the harvard economist figure that in, but those are facts, flat-out facts. here's congressman steve king talking about president obama being too urban . here it is.

>> we have a very, very urban senator, barack obama , who has decided he's going to run for president, and what does he do? he introduces legislation to create a whole new pigford claim. we've got to stand up at some pint say, we're not going to pay slavery reparations in the united states congress .

>> wow, what about that, ernie ?

>> well, i don't -- i don't think that reparations is what was pending. i do know other part that steve king was criticized, was saying that obama is an urban president, which some people found offense. but if you'll just google what the obama administration calls its liveability agenda, you'll find there's a common agreement between department of transportation , epa, and hud to try to put americans into more urban settings. so for somebody to say --

>> no, he was describing the president in his priorities.

>> perio pardon.

>> putting a social twist to it. that's how many people took that. stephney, your thoughts?

>> well, yes, i think that we all know that urban is a dog whistle , euphemism in many quarters for black.

>> i don't think so.

>> and i certainly don't know what -- what representative king was thinking. but if he didn't know that, then he's very ignorant of a very important -- of a very important factor in american public discourse.

>> stephanie jones , ernest istook --

>> that's all well and good. but he should say i didn't know, apologize, be done with it.

>> he was surprised by the reaction. he couldn't believe that people responded that way.

>> i didn't know that urban had become a dirty word , ed.