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Where is the racial diversity in the senate?

Sat, 29 Jun 2013 18:00:00 +0000

With the departure of Mass. senator William Cowan, who was appointed to replace John Kerry as Secretary of State, the number of African-Americans in the U.S. Senate will be "slashed to half," says "Up with Steve" host Steve Kornacki, to just one person, Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC). "In all of modern history, there have only been six African-Americans to have served in the U.S. senate, and half of them weren't even elected -- they were appointed to their seats. Two others served back during Reconstruction, almost 150 years ago," said Kornacki.

MSNBC contributor Perry Bacon, Jr. explained on the show that "It's still really hard as an African-American politician to win in a big state":

"We only have on black governor, Deval Patrick (D-Mass.). This is not an accident. It's really hard. A lot of members of CBC districts are pretty liberal, don't have big fundraising bases, so they have a hard time winning races, but it's really galling. And it also really matters in terms of policy as well. Think about the Voting Rights Act this week -- was struck down -- who in the senate is going to take that out? You watch the female senators handing sexual assault in the military? The female senators are really driving that because there are 20 of them and they can speak to the issues."

Jan Brewer expands Medicaid in Arizona: Will other states follow?

Sat, 22 Jun 2013 18:45:00 +0000

In a bold move this week, Gov. Jan Brewer (R-Ariz.) called a special session to expand Medicaid measures in her state. Brewer, known to be a staunch critic of Obama, surprised many in her party and set a precedent that other conservative states might follow.

On "Up with Steve," Business Insider's Josh Barro, Center of Social Inclusion's Maya Wiley, Politico's Maggie Haberman and Slate's Matt Yglesias discussed the possibility of Medicaid expansion in other states, which Yglesias feels is likely:

"In a lot of ways, the surprising thing about this is the fact that is has become surprising to see Republicans embrace this. When the Democrats were writing the Obamacare bill, they knew some states were more conservative than others. They knew that Republicans wouldn't be enthusiastic about this. They made the terms of Medicaid expansion extremely generous. It's all federal money and the people who live in Arizona, Michigan or wherever are paying taxes to the federal government one way or the other. Not expanding Medicaid doesn't save anyone money. It just costs your local healthcare providers and local citizens a bundle. When the bill was first passed I think no one thought this was so controversial and now Jan Brewer is doing what is simply the common sense solution and saying if the federal government is here, take my money. You take it. What is weird is so many Republicans don't see it that way."

Privacy versus security: Does the NSA’s surveillance program work?

Sat, 15 Jun 2013 18:50:00 +0000

Recent revelations over the government's expansive surveillance program has jumpstarted a national conversation on privacy and security long overdue in post-9/11 era. "The fact is," said The Atlantic's Steve Clemons, "that the American public was not dealt in to these questions and now we're having the debate we should have had years ago."

Clemons spoke on Steve Kornacki's "Up with Steve," joined by Ana Marie Cox and Spencer Ackerman from The Guardian, and Washington Post Columnist Matt Miller to discuss the effectiveness of NSA's surveillance program.

While the panelists debated whether the loss in privacy from surveillance results in increased security, Cox posed another relationship between the two ideals:

"It's an imperfect world that we live in, and sometimes I think of privacy and security as being an arm's race. We make strides in one and then make strides in the other. But as we've been talking about this, I wonder if it's more like a market and what's been happening is that the government has been operating in a competition-free market for privacy. You know, they have gone and done all this stuff without like the check of a competition and they've operated in secrecy without people talking about privacy. And now the bubble has exploded."

The rise of Cory Booker

Sat, 08 Jun 2013 18:13:00 +0000

Newark N.J. mayor Cory Booker announced his candidacy for U.S. Senate on Saturday morning, running in a special election for a seat that opened up after the death of U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg.

On MSNBC's "Up with Steve Kornacki," panelists discuss Booker's chances in the democratic primary and the general election in October.

Kornacki describes Booker as the "overwhelming favorite" of the candidates and potential candidates in the democratic primary, which include Rep. Rush Holt, U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone and speaker of the state assembly Sheila Oliver.

Ingrid Reed of the Eagleton Institute of Politics, said, "He is well known, so around the state if you had to name one person, showed them the list, they would point to Cory Booker."

"But if you look a little deeper, Newark is not Cory Booker's place," she said. "He's not -- doesn't seem to be in control in administrative matters, budget, police, so on, but he's had political problems in Newark. How do New Jerseyans look at that?"

Steve Kornacki: Anthony Weiner “made an ugly appeal to voters’ worst nature”

Sun, 05 May 2013 15:32:00 +0000

As former congressman Anthony Weiner talks about returning to politics after an embarrassing Twitter scandal, Salon columnist Steve Kornacki reminded voters that there's another, more compelling to reject Weiner -- a history of race-baiting and slimy politics:

It was at this point that Weiner’s campaign decided to blanket the district with leaflets attacking his opponents. But these were no ordinary campaign attacks: They played the race card, and at a very sensitive time. They were also anonymous.

On his MSNBC show, Kornacki explains further:

"This is the story that reveals something important about what Weiner's been willing to do in his public life. He made an ugly appeal to voters' worst nature. He did it at a very sensitive time. He did it to get ahead and he did it because he figured no one would catch him. Really he did get away with it. If it hadn't been for the Twitter silliness, he'd be well on his way to being mayor right now and maybe more."