Business Insider’s Josh Barro said Christie took up this fight to be “Mr. Conservative” again instead of a wishy-washy New England moderate Republican. Frank bashed Christie’s anti-gay record and said he agrees with the Pauls (both Rand and Ron) on drugs and civil liberties. Maher questioned why the Department of Homeland Security still exists, and while Frank did push back a bit, the others agreed that it might be wise to scale back the government bureaucracy and the “internal lobby” it created.

Maher brought up Manning and found it “odd’ that he was found guilty for exposing crimes, and somehow the people who engaged in these crimes have not been brought up on charges at all. Frank insisted it was dangerous for Manning to release all those cables, but Goldstein shot back that they were important and in the public interest.