updated 9/17/2012 12:16:32 PM ET 2012-09-17T16:16:32

September 14, 2012

Guest: Charniele Herring>

Klein, in for Ed Schultz.


RACHEL MADDOW, HOST: Good evening, Ezra. Thank you.

And thanks to you at home for joining us this Friday night.

There`s a lot going on. The biggest story in the country remains
exactly what you think it is. It`s American embassies being targeted all
over the world and the continuing aftermath of our ambassador being
murdered this week in Libya along with three other Americans

There`s a lot else that happened today in the news. There`s a ton to
get to in tonight`s show. Including a surprise ruling out of Wisconsin
that has overturned Republican Governor Scott Walker`s union stripping law

And surprise ruling in Virginia on Republican efforts to effectively
ban abortion in the state of Virginia.

And another surprise ruling today shutting down a big voter purge
planned by a Republican secretary of state in one of the nine swing states
that both presidential campaigns believe is going to decide this election.

That is all ahead this hour, all from today`s news. It is a very big

But we start with tonight`s top story and with a decision made in
March 2003, which is when then-President George W. Bush ordered the U.S.-
led invasion of Iraq, March 2003.

It was also the month when it was ordered that the flag-draped coffins
of American service members killed abroad could not be photographed when
those coffins got back to the United States.

That change in policy under George W. Bush was a source of anger and
controversy. It is why coffins were sometimes used in anti-Iraq war
protests to visually represent those real caskets of Americans killed in
the war that the Bush administration would not allow the country to see.

The Bush administration banned the media from showing those dignified
transfer ceremonies as the invasion of Iraq started in 2003. And they kept
the policy in place throughout George W. Bush`s time in office, as the
country waged two of the longest wars in our history.

It was not until the new president replaced George W. Bush that the
ban was rescinded. On Thursday, February 26th, 2009, just five weeks after
President Barack Obama was inaugurated, the Defense Department lifted the
ban and one week after the ban was lifted, the following Thursday, the
in a long time.

And maybe it is because we did go so long as a country without seeing
see these images. Today was the transfer ceremony at Andrews Air Force
base just outside Washington, D.C., at which the bodies of the four
Americans killed in Libya this week were brought home. It was the middle
going on in American news and politics, but it was like time just stopped.


tears, stiffen our spines, and face the future undaunted, and we will do it
together. Protecting and helping one another just like Sean, Tyrone, Glen,

all who loved them. And may God bless these United States of America.


MADDOW: At this incredibly somber ceremony at Andrews Air Force Base
today, remarks from both Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and President
Obama at a time when both Mr. Obama and Mrs. Clinton as head of the State
Department, when they have to do things like addressing the nation while
also managing in a hands-on way what is an ongoing and significant crisis
for the country.

Protests at U.S. embassies grew and spread today -- in Egypt, in Iraq,
in India, in Bangladesh, in Turkey, in Pakistan, in Kuwait, in Syria, where
you might think they`d have other things on their minds.

In Afghanistan, in Malaysia, in Nigeria, in Lebanon -- where a
Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant was torched.

In Tunisia where the U.S. embassy compound was breached by protesters
but no personnel were hurt in Tunisia. In Qatar, in Bahrain, in Sudan.

Here`s Richard Engel reporting for NBC.


U.S. diplomatic outposts now appear to be easy targets.

In Yemen for the second day, furious protesters tried to storm the
embassy in Sana`a, burning American flags, as riot police fire water
cannons. Gunshots can be heard.

Why? Because they say the U.S. isn`t doing enough against the makers
of that now infamous anti-Islam Internet video.

In Tunisia, demonstrators set fires by the U.S. embassy gate.

And in Sudan, protesters turned their rage on the British and German

Those countries had nothing to do with the video, but they`re foreign
Western powers and for the mob, that`s close enough.

In Cairo, the government called off massive planned demonstrations.

The president went on television to urge calm. But clashes near the
U.S. embassy continue. Authorities had to build a wall to block an access

(on camera): This has clearly moved beyond demonstrations against an
offensive Internet video. It`s become an opportunity for radicals in many
countries to express their anger with the United States. And they`ve
learned from watching each other that U.S. diplomatic facilities overseas
aren`t as protected as they thought.

(voice-over): I asked a group why the clashes are continuing, even
though U.S. officials have criticized the video. Not enough, they say.

(on camera): That the response from the United States was late.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I mean, Hillary Clinton, Obama, all of your
government, it was very late.

ENGEL: So all of this is because the response was late?

(voice-over): But there was little time for interviews.

(on camera): We should turn around here. The police are charging.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You see what happened? The Egyptian government is
doing with the Egyptian people because? Because of the Americans.

ENGEL (voice-over): There were demonstrations today in nearly 40
cities across the region and beyond.

But as bad as it looks, the demonstrations were generally small.

But in what will have implications for NBC security worldwide,
extremists have found a weak spot to attack a superpower they believe is
responsible for an offense against Islam.


MADDOW: That was Richard Engel, NBC`s chief foreign correspondent
today reporting from Cairo.

President Obama earlier this week had ordered a detachment of 50 U.S.
Marines to go shore up security at the American embassy in Libya, in
Tripoli. Now the administration says it`s also going to send a similar
sized detachment of Marines to our embassy in Sudan and to our embassy in

The president sent a statement about the deployment to Congress today
which he`s supposed to do under the War Powers resolution. The statement
was sent early in the day. It was about Libya and Yemen then, but now that
the decision has been made to also send Marines to Sudan, presumably the
statement will be amended to also include that third country.

The statement says, "Although these security forces are equipped for
combat, these movements have been undertaken solely for the purpose of
protecting American citizens and property." It also says, "These newly
deployed marines will stay deployed, "until the security situation becomes
such that they are no longer need." For now, of course, that means

We should also point out that aside from these fast deploying units of
Marines fanning out to these three countries, FBI are being sent to Libya
to investigate the murder of the American ambassador there and three other
Americans who were killed. The FBI. We think of the FBI as a domestic
agency, it`s the FBI that`s part of the U.S. government that has the
authority to investigate deaths of Americans in all other parts of the

FBI did it in the embassy bombings in Kenya, in Tanzania in 1998, and
the USS Cole bombing in 2000 and Mumbai bombings in India in 2008 and now
the FBI is investigating in Libya -- or at least we`re told they are on
their way.

The FBI being dispatched to Libya is yet another reminder what
happened in Libya appears to be a different kettle of fish than what is
happening at all the other embassies and other U.S. sites around the world
today. The attack that killed the U.S. ambassador appears to be a
coordinated military assault by well-armed men who arrived at the scene
quite separately from any civilian protest.

Given the militant groups known to operate in the area of Benghazi and
past, intelligence officials tell the "Washington Post" the FBI`s tentative
conclusion, their working hypothesis about what happened in Libya is that
that assault that killed our ambassador there, quote, "was carried out by a
group aligned with al Qaeda."

And that is in contrast to the angry mobs of irate civilians who are
menacing U.S. embassies around the world today. They have been riled up by
reports of this crude anti-Muslim video that turned up on YouTube
purporting to be a trailer for a longer anti-Muslim film. The origins of
murky, no one is claiming credit to the film. YouTube restricted access to
it in countries where anti-Muslim speech is restricted.

And the U.S. continues to try to convince the world that just because
some wing nut in America made this offensive thing, that does not mean that
the U.S. government has anything to do with it. Nor does it mean that the
government approves of it. Nor does it mean that the government should be
blamed for its existence.


CLINTON: We`ve seen rage and violence directed at American embassies
for the American people to make sense of that because it is senseless. And
it is totally unacceptable.


MADDOW: You can hear the frustration in Secretary of State Clinton`s
voice. She has reiterated this over and over and over again this week and
you can hear it every time she says it.

How do you convince people of the truth here? Where do these
conspiracy theories come from?

And that brings us, weirdly, to what Paul Ryan did with his day today.
In the midst of this worldwide conflagration targeting American interest
and American personnel abroad, because of insane conspiracy theories about
the U.S. government and Islam, in the midst of that today, while it is
ongoing, the Republican candidate for vice president of the United States
decided that today that was the day to give a speech at an event called the
Values Voter Summit.

Now, for context here, the last time there were violent protests in
Egypt targeting American diplomatic personnel in Egypt, the target was
Hillary Clinton, herself. Her motorcade was pelted by protesters in
Alexandria in July. Pelted by protesters who shouted at her and who called
her -- look at this sign here that we`ve isolated. Look, Clinton. See
what it says? Clinton is the supreme guide of the Muslim Brotherhood.

A "Wall Street Journal" reporter trying at the time to track down what
exactly made these Egyptian protesters so angry at Hillary Clinton back in
July was directed by protesters and bloggers to go look at transcripts from
American right wing media. Transcripts of a guy named Jerry Boykin,
retired general and a guy named Frank Gaffney explaining their cockamamie
conspiracy theory that Hillary Clinton had secretly rigged the Egyptian
elections to favor the Muslim brotherhood.

People in Egypt read that. They did not know the people who were
talking were wing nut right wing conspiracy theorists. They believed what
they were reading. They believed what they read and they then attacked
Hillary Clinton`s motorcade in Egypt two months ago, while calling her the
supreme guide of the Muslim brotherhood.

Well, today while American diplomats were again under siege in Egypt,
Paul Ryan spoke at an event that also featured those right wing conspiracy
wing nut theorists -- conspiracy theorist wing nuts who got Hillary Clinton
attacked in Egypt in July. See, there`s Paul Ryan on the speaker list.
Same event, also featuring Jerry Boykin, the former retired general, and
Frank Gaffney.

Frank Gaffney has a 10-part DVD series called "The Muslim brotherhood
in America: The Enemy Within." these were saying Secretary of State
Clinton`s chief Huma Abedin, Anthony Weiner`s wife, remember when they were
saying they were part of a plot to destroy America, that`s these guys.
That`s the event vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan spoke at today.

Paul Ryan is featured right next to a man whose occupation, look at
this occupation, see there, author, comma, former terrorist. Oh, OK. It`s
true. It`s alphabetical is the way they lined up the speakers. So, Paul
Ryan is at the end of the R`s and he`s right there alongside the guy who`s
at the start of the S`s, a guy named Kamal Saleem, former terrorist.

As our embassies burned today, Paul Ryan spoke today at this event
just a little while before Kamal Saleem did.


KAMAL SALEEM: How do you change a terrorist? Introduce him to Jesus.


MADDOW: How do you change a terrorist? Introduce him to Jesus.

Journalist who have looked into Kamal Saleem uniformly do not believe
this guy is actually a former terrorist. One giveaway is that the FBI
seems not at all interested in him. But he makes his living by telling
right wing Christian groups that he is a former terrorist.

He also says President Obama is se secretly praying Islamic prayers
when it looks like President Obama is pledging allegiance to the flag.
He`s not really pledging allegiance, he`s secretary saying Islamic prayers.
So, he also says President Obama is right now legalizing terrorism in

He says if the United States passes immigration reform, I`m quoting
him here, "We`ll be wearing rag heads." He says Roe v. Wade is how the
United States is getting taken over by Sharia law. Roe v. Wade is Sharia
law, that`s what the man says.

And that`s where the Republican Party put its vice presidential
nominee to speak today. That`s how they decided to clean up after their
presidential nominee this week denounced the U.S. embassy in Cairo while
the U.S. embassy in Cairo was being attacked.

I don`t know if the Republican presidential campaign sees this kind of
thing as winning or not, maybe they do. Maybe they see this as their way
to the White House. But whether or not it is winning, it is not helping.


MADDOW: On days like this with one giant story in the news,
understandably sucking up all the attention, on days like this, even
important other stories that are off that main story line can sometimes get

Coming up next, we`re going to un-swamp a very big story about a very
important swing state and a governor whose nickname involves the word
ultrasound or sometimes the word probe, depending. These guys are at it
again. That story is next.

Please stay with us.


MADDOW: The news coming out of Libya and Egypt and elsewhere in the
Middle East and north Africa this week has understandably pushed almost
everything out of the headlines. But even with all that is going on
abroad, we are still in the homestretch of the presidential campaign. And
there is a lot going on.

The Obama campaign this week quietly released its fifth ad focused on
women`s health and reproductive choice. Ad number five.

And it`s not just an ad that they put up on the Web somewhere. This
is an ad that is airing on TV in the swing states. This new ad argues like
the previous ones did that both Mr. Romney and his running mate Paul Ryan
say they would overturn Roe v. Wade and both have supported banning
abortion even without exceptions for women who get pregnant because of rape
or incest.

The ad is airing in five states. All of which are swing states that
the president and the Romney campaign are fighting hard to win. It`s
airing in Colorado, Ohio, Iowa, Nevada, and Virginia.

The Obama campaign is essentially showing with all these ads how
seriously they are taking the women`s vote in this election and how they
are appealing for the women`s vote by talking policy.

But, hey, the Romney campaign is serious about the women`s vote, too.
And here`s how you can tell. I want you to look at the crowd staged behind
Mitt Romney at a rally yesterday in Fairfax, Virginia. What do almost all
of the people standing behind Mitt Romney at this rally have in common? If
you said matched chromosomes, ding, ding, ding! It seems like there are a
couple of "y" chromosomes in the back row maybe, but right next to Romney,
it is lady time all the time.

When I saw this yesterday, I was watching this with the sound off and
I thought he was speaking at some sort of women-only event. I thought, how
many women-only events are there in the world and why would they invite a
presidential candidate? But he wasn`t speaking at a woman-only event.
They just moved all the women at the event so that they were standing right
next to him and behind him.

Well, judging by the latest polling out of Virginia, it looks like the
Obama campaign strategy of highlighting Mr. Romney and Mr. Ryan`s records
on women`s health may be trumping the Romney campaign`s strategy of just
standing the candidate up next to a lot of women.

President Obama`s beating Mitt Romney among Virginia women by 14
points right now. And it was in this political environment that something
happened in the state of Virginia today, that is not necessarily being
billed as relevant to the presidential race, but boy, howdy, is it relevant
to the presidential race.

Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell who spent a lifetime as an
antiabortion activist and his attorney general, Ken Cuccinelli, who also
spent a lifetime as an antiabortion activist, these two aggressively have
engineered a meeting of the state`s health board that happened today. They
aggressively engineered that meeting toward a decision that could have the
effect of shutting down most of the abortion clinics in Virginia.

Last year, bob McDonnell signed a new law calling for special
regulations just for abortion clinics -- targeted regulations designed to
make it economically impossible to operate an abortion clinic in the state
of Virginia. It`s the same thing the Republicans did in Mississippi this
year. These are called trap laws -- targeted regulations.

These do not apply to any other form of medical facility at all. The
law would not apply for dental surgeons or for outpatient plastic surgery
clinics. It`s just for abortion clinics and it`s very obviously designed
to shut them down.

And it is expected to shut down a majority of abortion clinics in the
state. Informed estimates are it could shut down at least is15 of
Virginia`s 20 clinics.

But when it came down to implement the new special abortion clinic-
only red tape plans in Virginia, the state`s health board voted that they
would exempt existing clinics from the most onerous new regulations, from
the regulations that were designed to force most of these clinics to close.
So these targeted regulations would only be likely to prevent new abortion
clinics from opening in the state. They would not necessarily shut down
the clinics that were already operating there.

That, it turned out, was not enough for Bob McDonnell and Ken
Cuccinelli. They refused to accept the new rules from the Health
Department, refused to certify them unless the board of health changed its
ruling to get rid of the grandfathering in, to make all of the new red tape
apply to all of the existing clinics in Virginia.

Bob McDonnell and Ken Cuccinelli leaned on the board of health to go
back and overturn their previous ruling and today, the Board of Health did
what they wanted.





MADDOW: After Bob McDonnell and Ken Cuccinelli told the board of
health and the state how to vote, told them they were not allowed to exempt
existing clinics from the new regulations that are designed to shut them
down, the Virginia board of health voted to go along with the governor
today. They voted to impose those targeted new regulations on all of
Virginia`s 20 abortion clinics.

That is the vote Bob McDonnell and Ken Cuccinelli told them to make
and that vote is seen is likely to shut down most of the state`s clinics.

This is not being sold really as a national political issue. But in a
really important swing state, this is Republican governance at work.

It`s not exactly a triumph of small "C" conservatism, right? I mean,
this is really big government purposely using mountains of red tape in a
targeted way to shut down specific private businesses in order to get the
government`s chosen outcome in a medical decision that you are supposed to
be able to make yourself in conjunction with your doctor. But now the
government is going to make that decision for you.

Virginia women right now, you have 20 options in the state if you ever
need to terminate a pregnancy. Nobody can guarantee you are going to have
any options in the state once these new regulations are enforced.

This is how Republican governance is being modeled in the swing state
of Virginia. The women of Virginia and the men of Virginia are being shown
what Republicans will do if you vote them into office.

So the implicit question here is, hey, Virginia, do you like what Ken
Cuccinelli and governor ultrasound have done to your state and to your
rights? How about those forced ultrasounds? How are those going for you?

Is the government closing clinics and making medical decisions for you
your kind of thing? Do you want that for the whole country? You want the
federal government to be like that, too? Because that can be arranged.

Joining us now is Virginia House Delegate Charniele Herring. She`s
the Democratic minority whip. She`s the chair of the legislature`s
reproductive health caucus.

Delegate Herring, it`s great to have you here tonight. Thank you for
joining us.

STATE DEL. CHARNIELE HERRING (D), VIRGINIA: Thank you for having me.

MADDOW: Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan are trying to win over female
voters in Virginia. Yesterday, we saw Mr. Romney was campaigning against a
backdrop of all women in Fairfax. Paul Ryan was in Virginia today.

How do you think what`s happening in Virginia in terms of women`s
health at the state level, how do you think that`s going to play into the
presidential race there if at all?

HERRING: I think it`s going to play heavily, Rachel. I mean,
Virginia women are seeing time and time again Republicans cling to an
extreme right and bully an independent agency like they did today, the
board of health, where these are independent people who have medical
degrees and who understand what is necessary to deliver services to
individuals in a safe manner.

And what they saw was the Attorney General Cuccinelli bullying them
sending them a letter saying, if you don`t vote the way I want you to vote,
I might not represent you, you may have to incur legal fees.

So, this is going to affect the presidential race because I`m hearing
from women from both sides of the aisle, Democrats and Republicans, saying
the Republican Party has gone too far, I cannot vote for Mitt Romney, I
cannot vote for Paul Ryan. We have a Senate race, I cannot vote for George
Allen because he, too, clings to these extreme social agendas that are over
to the right.

MADDOW: The reproductive health issue in Virginia came to national
prominence around Governor Bob McDonnell signing a law -- forcing women to
have medically unnecessary ultrasound, even if it was against their
doctor`s orders, forcing women to pay for that privilege.

When you are hearing people talk about presidential politics in the
state of Virginia, is it widely known that the vice presidential nominee on
the Republican ticket, Paul Ryan proposed a forced ultrasound bill just
like Virginia`s for the whole country? Is that connection being made by
people in the state?

HERRING: It is. I think voters are starting to focus and the
Republicans keep just delivering gifts to us Democrats because they keep
going to this extreme agenda and people are digging a little bit farther.
They know that Paul Ryan has had a history of extreme agenda. That`s
against women`s reproductive health and does not trust a woman for what she
does to her body and her health.

MADDOW: In terms of what`s going to happen on the ground in Virginia,
what do you see as the outcome here? We`ve talked to people who are
observers of how trap laws work and are designed to work. In Mississippi,
we saw regulations targeted in which people sponsoring that legislation
openly admitted they were trying to ban abortion in Mississippi by shutting
down all the clinics.

Is it clear that that`s what they`re trying to do in Virginia and do
you think that`s going to be the effect of these laws?

HERRING: Absolutely. I think it`s very clear that that`s what
they`re trying to do. Again, when the board of health said we`re going to
grandfather in clinics and then the attorney general says, well, I`m not
going to accept that, you go back and you do what I want you to do, I think
it`s very clear that they`re trying to close clinics and, you know, the
Attorney General Cuccinelli, he`s running for governor next year and he`s
using this as his platform.

And, you know, it`s one thing to use a bully pulpit. It`s another
thing to be a bully. That`s exactly what happened.

MADDOW: Were there protests today -- when there were protests today
after this board of health ruling, were they reminiscent of the same kind
of protests we saw after the forced ultra -- during the debate over the
forced ultrasound thing, or are there more people being drawn into this
debate now than maybe even were paying attention before?

HERRING: I think more people are being drawn into the debate and they
are, you know, down in Richmond, there was protests. And unfortunately,
let me tell you, the American public needs to know -- the public comment
period was cut down to one hour. Last time, it was two hours. Only a
limited number of people were allowed to be in the hearing room.

So they actually had to have a hearing, advocates and people who were
just concerned that it may not -- pro-choice advocates with their concern
of the overreach of government that`s happening in Virginia. They had
their own hearing outside and the public comment period outside of the
hearing room in the parking lot is my understanding of what happened.

So, we`re seeing a broad reaction in Virginia on the social media and
just outrage about what happened because we`re seeing Republicans with
their heavy-hand of government reaching into the private lives of women
without any exception. Not any exception for rape or incest. Just an out
and out blanket, we`re going to close down clinics.

Rachel, what`s important, people must know these clinics provide
health care. They provide preventative service, cancer screenings. That`s
things that keep us women alive and keep our bodies healthy so we can care
for our families.

MADDOW: Virginia House Delegate Charniele Herring, thank you for
joining us. We`re going to obviously be staying on this story. We`ve been
on it for a long time it seems. But I hope you`ll come back and talk to us
again as the story unfolds.

HERRING: Thank you for having me. Appreciate it.

MADDOW: All right. According to the president`s rivals, he and
former President Ronald Reagan share something very important in common.
And his rivals are against that thing that President Obama shares with
President Reagan.

That weird story is ahead.


MADDOW: OK. So big surprising news. When it happens it makes a
sound and the relatively quiet RACHEL MADDOW SHOW newsroom. A story
crosses a wire or an e-mail goes out with new news and then from the quiet
-- with everybody working away -- you hear these exclamations and it`s
usually people doing it under their breath but you know it`s a big story
when you hear multiple people do it. It usually goes like this, wow, did
you see this? That`s what it sounded like tonight when this crossed.

The thing that made Governor Scott Walker famous is Wisconsin law
stripping union rights ruled today by a Wisconsin circuit court judge to be
a violation of the state Constitution and the U.S. Constitution. The judge
declared Scott Walker`s year-old union stripping law to be null and void.
Whoa! Wow! Did you see that? That`s what it was like.

There was an appeal. Maybe people in Wisconsin don`t get their rights
back right away because of that appeal. It`s not clear yet. But wow,

And what is equally stunning is that that ruling from Wisconsin was
only the second-most surprising court ruling of the day today, involving
the incredibly politically charged and contested rights of people who
happen to live in the swing states. The ruling that was even bigger news
than that Wisconsin ruling and that was also totally out of the blue today
is what`s coming up next.


MADDOW: It has been three days since violent protests began in the
Middle East and North Africa which resulted in dozens of injuries and the
deaths of people in Tunisia and Sudan and Libya, and the murders of four
Americans at the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, including the U.S. ambassador
there, Chris Stevens, three days.

For Mitt Romney and the Republican Party, those three days began with
the Romney campaign ineptly and falsely accusing the Obama administration
of apologizing for American values, and even going so far as to say that
the president of the United States sympathizes with those attacking our
diplomatic outposts, and saying that while those outposts were still being

On Wednesday, lots of people in the Republican Party expressed real
discomfort with both the timing and the substance of Mr. Romney`s remarks.
But by yesterday, the shock of what he had said and done eventually, I
guess, wore off, and Republicans started lining up behind him again. After
all, he`s running for office, for Pete`s sake.

Well, today, on this third day since the first attacks in Cairo and
Benghazi, the argument from Mr. Romney`s defenders went to a whole new
place -- a whole new place that I`m not sure anybody expected it to go.
Richard Williamson is this guy here, a top Romney foreign policy adviser, a
veteran of the Bush/Cheney administration.

And consider that fact when you see what Mr. Williamson told the
"Washington Post" today. He told the "Post" if Mitt Romney were president
there wouldn`t be any protests at U.S. embassies in the Middle East and
Africa because the rioters would have too much respect for the United
States. He says, quote, "There`s a pretty compelling story that if you had
a President Romney, you`d be in a different situation." Mr. Williamson
told "The Post," quote, "In Egypt and Libya and Yemen, again,
demonstrations, the respect for America has gone down. There`s not a sense
of American resolve."

So there wouldn`t be unrest among Muslims in the region, over a
blasphemous video on the internet and wouldn`t be terrorist attacks on U.S.
targets and personnel if only the so-called Arab Street respected the U.S.
president`s resolve. In this Republican vision, a Mitt Romney presidency,
by the power of its mere presence, would make anti-American unrest
disappear around the globe because attacks on American installations and
diplomatic posts worldwide only happen when a sitting American president
lacks resolve.

That`s the Romney campaign`s new attack on the U.S. government and the
president. That`s how they are explaining now the demonstrations at the
embassies and the attack in Benghazi that killed our ambassador. Those are
all a sign of President Obama having a lack of resolve, so says the former
Bush administration official who is speaking for Mr. Romney on this

During the administration in which that official served, there were
fatal attacks on U.S. diplomatic sites in places like Yemen and Syria and
Pakistan. By some counts there were more attacks on U.S. diplomatic
facilities abroad under George W. Bush than by any other U.S. president.
Not to mention 9/11. Were those attacks because George W. Bush didn`t have

When there were terrorist attacks during, say, the Reagan
administration, say, the horrible Beirut bombing in 1983, was that a
reflection of a lack of resolve on the part of President Reagan?

Under the Romney campaign`s new argument for understanding
international unrest, Presidents Reagan and Bush lacked resolve. President
Obama similarly lacks resolve. And the country`s only hope for security
lies in the unprecedented toughness and scary awesomeness of an unpopular
former one-term governor of Massachusetts, under whom there won`t be any
more anti-American unrest.

I do not think that`s an argument the Romney campaign wants to have
but it is the argument they are making in public, to reporters who are
writing down what they say. And then after that, as a country, we get to

Joining us now is Eugene Robinson, Pulitzer Prize columnist for "The
Washington Post" and MSNBC policy analyst.

Gene, thank you for being here.

EUGENE ROBINSON, WASHINGTON POST: Rachel, great to be here tonight.

MADDOW: Isn`t this a weird variant on blaming the victim but one
which they make themselves look really bad, too?

ROBINSON: Well, this makes absolutely no sense first of all. Let`s
get that straight. I mean, this is a kind of late and halfhearted and
amateurish, frankly, attempt to make lemonade out of lemons or chicken
salad out of something else, because it really doesn`t make sense on any

I mean, do you really set your foreign policy as the criterion on
which you judge and set your foreign policy, whether irrational mobs and
determined terrorists attack U.S. diplomatic outposts or not? That doesn`t
seem to be really a comprehensive world view that takes you very far. It`s
just ridiculous.

MADDOW: You know, my feeling about the Romney response this week, and
this is just my personal feeling about it, was that I was upset by the bad
temperament that it showed, essentially, the inappropriate temperament for
somebody who is really close to being in a really, really sensitive job, at
a really, really sensitive time in world affairs. And I just thought it
made me feel like, whoa, I`m not sure our American vetting system is good
enough if you can be one of the last two candidates for president of the
United States and treat sensitive and deadly international affairs in this
reckless a manner.

In your later column, Gene, one of the reasons I wanted to talk to you
today is that you wrote about Romney`s ignorance. You said, Romney`s
ignorance of foreign policy more profound and potentially dangerous than
anyone could have suspected.

Why did you focus in there on the issue of ignorance?

ROBINSON: Well, I, too, saw the temperament issue, and that, I
thought, was genuinely frightening. But I have seen no indication from
Romney, including in his "No Apology" book that he`s done any serious
thinking about American policy, about America`s place in the world, about
diplomacy, about how we proceed in a very different world from a world in
which we grew up.

I just don`t see it. And I think this is -- this is an example,
temperamentally he didn`t realize this was a potentially dangerous moment
for him to be spouting off in this sort of pandering way that he does. But
beyond that, there was -- there was no analysis there.

There was no -- you know, is he critical of the way President Obama
handled the Arab Spring? Does he have a better idea? Does he compare this
geopolitical transition, for example, to the fall of the Eastern Bloc, say,
the dissolution of the Eastern Bloc where it worked out in some countries,
didn`t work out in others?

Is there anything we learned from that we can apply here? Anything?
Is there anything in there?

I haven`t seen it.

MADDOW: Everybody has been saying all year, OK, yes, Mitt Romney
maybe doesn`t have much to offer on foreign policy, but it doesn`t matter
because the election won`t be about foreign policy. And maybe that is why
he didn`t bother coming up with theories that he could repeat about the
sort of things you were just questioning him there.

But is that operating assumption sort of still true? Is it still
clear that foreign policy isn`t going to play a role when people vote
November 6th?

ROBINSON: Well, number one, I don`t think that`s true about the vote,
and it`s never true about a presidency. Remember, George W. Bush was going
to be a domestic president. Foreign policy wasn`t going to feature in the
George W. Bush administration. And then it overtook the George W. Bush
administration, became all about foreign policy.

So that can happen. There will be crises in the next four years.
There will be perilous moments for the United States, for Americans abroad,
for our diplomats, for our troops, for us.

And you need somebody who can guide us through those shoals, to use an
overused metaphor, and Mitt Romney really, really, I think, contrary to
what he was trying to do, I think he convinced some people this week that
he is not the man to guide us.

MADDOW: There is always the possibility he will retroactively become
statesmanlike. You never know.

Gene Robinson, Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist for the "Washington
Post" and MSNBC policy analyst -- I love talking to you about this stuff,
Gene. Thanks for being here.

ROBINSON: Great to be here.

MADDOW: One of the world`s leading birthers, the birther laureate,
you might call him, has moved on. Now, apparently, it no longer matters as
much where the president was born as how he was born.

Seriously. This is incredible. These people never give up.

What the birther in your life is going to start ranting about next.
It`s coming up right at the end of the show tonight. If you don`t already
know the story, there`s no way you can predict it. It`s amazing.

Stay with us.


MADDOW: We have news tonight about voting in the swing state of Iowa.
We`re not used to thinking of Iowa as a swing state but it is one of the
nine states included in the Romney campaign`s first big multimillion dollar
ad buy after the conventions.

So, this is the 2012 playing field as defined by where the challenger
has chosen to compete. The race right now in Iowa is essentially tied when
you look at the polls. President Obama in the lead by a smidge.

Well, this year, swing states that have the Republican holding down
the top job of being the top elections in the state, all of the states that
have Republican secretaries of state, all of those swing states have at
least tried to make voting harder for the election. Alone among them, Iowa
has been getting no where with those efforts.

Iowa`s Republican Secretary of State Matt Schultz started the year by
asking the state`s bipartisan legislature to pass a new law requiring Iowa
voters to show documentation in order to vote that voters never had to show
before and that many Iowans do not have. He did not get his new law, in
part because Mr. Schultz himself was forced to agree that there have been
no real votes of voter fraud in Iowa, at all. Let alone the kind that
would be hampered by blocking people from voting in this particular new way
he wanted to block people from voting.

After that, Mr. Schultz promised Republicans that he was turning over
every stone to find some fraud in Iowa. When he still didn`t find any, he
brought in an agent from the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation to
help him look at the cost of tax fairs up to $250,000.

At least report, Mr. Schultz was still looking for voter fraud in
Iowa, but he gave up looking for the legislature. In late July, Schultz
personally ordered a new set of rules about voting in Iowa. He called them
emergency rules. Rules he needed right away before the November election.
Rules he could not wait for any elected legislature to give him.

The new emergency rules would let Mr. Schultz conduct a last-minute
purge of Iowa`s voter rolls before November voting. Mr. Schultz gave
himself the authority to kick voters that he considers suspect off the
rolls. To force them to prove just weeks before the election that they are
rightfully registered and if they don`t prove it, onus is on them, no

The second emergency rule made it easier for people to allege that
other people are on the roles when they are not supposed to be.

So, that`s how the Iowa secretary of state was going to purge the
rolls under thee emergency rules that he ordered up himself -- until today.
Late today, a judge in Polk County, Iowa, put the rules on ice. She said
those rules can wait. A judge ruled that the only emergency here is the
one that Matt Schultz created for himself. Rules could fall heavily on
newly admitted citizen or lower income individuals. She said the rules
created fears that new citizens would lose their right to vote and/or be
charged with a felony and caused some qualified voters to feel deterred
from even registering to vote."

An injunction in Iowa today is temporary. The case continues. Mr.
Schultz said tonight that he is disappointed by the decision and he said he
will continue to fight.

We will stay on the story. I`ll be right back.


MADDOW: This is one of my favorite places on the interwebs, the Web
site, "World Net Daily," sometimes referred to as world nut daily. It`s
the ultra-conservative, super right wing conspiracy theory Web site that
has made a cottage industry out of investigating whether President Obama is
maybe secretly foreign.

"World Net Daily" is birther central. The Web site store has made
money pushing at discounts the book "Where`s the Birth Certificate." The
author of "Where`s the Birth Certificate," is named Jerome Corsi and he`s
essentially the in-house birther on the "World Net Daily" writing`s staff.

Last spring when the president released a copy of his long-form birth
certificate, it essentially gutted the thin credibility of the "World Net
Daily`s" central mission. And that meant that Jerome Corsi needed a new
reason to get out of bed every morning.

Jerome Corsi has now found one -- oh, yes. Corsi did. You think they
would give up on this?

In recent weeks, Jerome Corsi has written a handful of articles
alleging that Barack Obama the secretly Kenyan, secretly Muslim, only maybe
the president guy, is also secretly gay. Yes, of course. Look at this --
this is amazing.

"A prominent member of Chicago`s homosexual community claims Barack
Obama`s participation in the gay bar and bathhouse scene was well known
president and finally won the White House. And of course, he won the White
House because he had one of his former gay lovers killed and another one
paid off to buy his silence.

Birtherism, it`s not just for geography anymore. Here`s what Jerome
Corsi and World Net Daily now say is their evidence that President Obama
secretly has the gay.

They say long before he married Michelle Obama, he used to wear a ring
on the fourth finger of his left hand. Since that finger can only ring,
not means he was secretly married. And that means he was secretly, well,
it must mean he was secretly gay married? OK.

One source telling "World Net Daily" that when he met Barack Obama at
Occidental College in 1980, his gaydar went off. He believed Mr. Obama and
his college roommate were lovers. Gay!

Just look at this photo of Obama and his roommate that`s been posted
on the Web site of another one of "World Net Daily`s" main sources.
Straight males don`t sit on sofas together like this. Gay!

Straight men also don`t like Florida pizza shop owners pick them up
like this. Gay!

Straight men do play gulf, in foursomes. But when Barack Obama does
it young male staffers? Gay!

Every president of the United States in the modern era has mad a male
personal assistant, buddy man, but when President Obama has a buddy man,
that`s code for boyfriend. Gay!

Kal Penn, the actor who used to work at the White House, they say he
was another one of President Obama`s secret gay boyfriends. I mean, why
else would anybody else leave Hollywood, probably West Hollywood, to go
work at the White House? Gay, gay, gay, gay! "World Net Daily" said so.

Now the president is going to have to unveil his straight certificate.
The long form one. I love these people.

That does it for us tonight. We`ll see you again Monday night. Now
it`s time for "HARDBALL" with Chris Matthews, which is not prison. Have a
great weekend.


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