GLENN: By the way, did you see the Robert Reich interview on CNN yesterday?

PAT: Yeah, Drew Griffin impressed him a little bit on CNN because Robert Reich has been saying — he's been calling for a federal takeover of BP.

GLENN: I'm sorry. What?

PAT: He's been calling for a federal takeover of BP.

GLENN: So what you are saying is this liberal, what this liberal is all about —

PAT: To socialize... calling for basically —

GLENN: To take over.

PAT: And run.

GLENN: And run.

PAT: This company.

GLENN: This company, okay.

PAT: All of this company. So Drew Griffin presses in on that a little bit.

GRIFFIN: Mr. Secretary, I gotta tell you I have always considered you a very serious person, but this doesn't sound serious to me at all. Are you serious about this or was this some kind of a joke to get things going?

REICH: The government does have to be in the position of weighing the risks and benefits and also making sure the public is getting the right information and also making sure that all resources that BP has are being put to stopping this leak.

GRIFFIN: But to take over a company like this sounds not only highly illegal and counterproductive but seems to me to smack of something that we might see in Venezuela or in Russia under Putin.

REICH: Oh, please. You know, this is — definitely receivership is not a wild legal remedy.

PAT: Come on, please.

REICH: In fact, it's undertaken quite often.

GRIFFIN: So Mr. Secretary, just to wrap this up, a temporary receivership, put the power in the hands of the government, somehow appoint somebody who would be the government CEO of this oil company and then run the operation from there? That sounds incredibly time consuming and a waste of precious time.

REICH: I'm not suggesting, I'm not suggesting in any way that we wait. In other words, we ought to — BP ought to be doing exactly what it's doing now, the government ought to be doing what it's doing now. But alongside we need to have government take BP's operations over at least until this is, this is solved.

PAT: That is —

GLENN: That's incredible.

PAT: That's amazing.

GLENN: And if that's not helpful for BP, you know, hey, by the way, the government is trying now to take us over and put us out of business! Don't worry about it, though, because we're just going to be — we're going to concentrate on this. Can you imagine that? What is the distraction level of the people at the top of BP now on good God almighty. Lawyers, everybody, you've got the justice department going after them legally. So now you've got the people at the top, "Okay, wait a minute, don't — wait a minute. Keep them at bay. Let's look at what's going on here." You don't ever — when you have a group of people that want to take over, you don't just say, hey, yeah, whatever, you just go in here and you look at whatever you want; we're busy over here. You've got to be with them the whole time. You've got to be on them the whole time. This is a predator. This isn't your buddy. This is a predator. So you've got the DOJ going after them before they've sealed the oil. Do it afterwards, do — take them apart afterwards. Let them plug the hole, Daddy, let them plug the hole!

PAT: The heat's getting too hot for them, though. He's got to take the pressure off himself and I think —

GLENN: But it's not — that doesn't make any sense.

PAT: To take the pressure off himself?

GLENN: No, no. No. Who? You mean Obama?

PAT: Obama.

GLENN: Oh, well, yeah.

PAT: Yeah.

GLENN: But I don't think it's about taking pressure off himself. It's not. Go back to what's her name, go back to is it Waters, Maxine Waters? Go back to Maxine Waters.

WATERS: And guess what this liberal will be all about. This liberal will be all about socializing... would be about basically taking over and the government running all of your companies.

PAT: Never gets old. Never gets old.

GLENN: Now, what was she saying? What was this about? This was about the government taking over because they were charging too much for a gallon of gasoline. That's what it was about: You charge too much; so we're going to take you over, that's what this — now remember, she is a member of the progressive caucus. Who do you have in office? The progressives. So there's your stated goal. But doing it at that time and doing it for a will gallon of gasoline wasn't enough. But now you have an emergency. Never waste an emergency. So now you have somebody who is very credible, somebody that the press always looks at and says, oh, well, I've always taken you as a serious man. And listen to what he says again.

GRIFFIN: But to take over a company like this sounds not only —

GLENN: This is CNN.

GRIFFIN: — highly illegal and counterproductive but seems to me to smack of something that we might see in Venezuela or in Russia under Putin.

REICH: Oh, please. You know, this is — a temporary receivership is not a wild legal remedy. In fact, it's undertaken a great — quite often.

GLENN: Show me where it's taken over quite often.

GRIFFIN: So Mr. Secretary, a temporary receivership, put the power in the hands of the government, appoint somebody who would be the government CEO of this oil company.

GLENN: Good heavens.

GRIFFIN: And then run the operation from there? That sounds incredibly type consuming and a waste of precious time.

REICH: I'm not suggesting, I'm not suggesting in any way that we wait. In other words, BP ought to be doing exactly what it's doing now, the government ought to do what it's doing now. But alongside we need to have government take BP's operations over at least until —

GLENN: Unbelievable.

REICH: — this is solved.

GLENN: Unbelievable. You can see, just, "Oh, well, that's Robert Reich." Yes.

STU: I mean, you've got to remember, too, that the one major thing that they've done here is essentially have BP do five solutions they didn't want to try because — and skip all that time, all that failure the past, what, month has been BP trying things that they wanted to do out of order. They wanted to try the one they are doing now first, but the government told them no. I mean, they have been delayed through all of these past failures we've been seeing over the past few weeks by the government.

GLENN: I'm telling you BP seals this thing on this, on this idea, this is the biggest — and it won't matter because the press will not cover it. Have you heard that this was like the fifth or sixth idea that they've tried? You've heard that, right? But did you know that this was the first thing they wanted to do?

STU: One of the first, yeah.

GLENN: And the government said, no, no, no, no, no, don't do that; try... something else. I mean, have you heard that? I haven't seen that in the press. I don't watch a lot of news, but I haven't seen that in the press. Have you seen that on ABC? Have you seen that on NBC, the Today Show? Have you heard that the White House and the government has told them to do all of the other things and not do this one first? If this works, it is a repudiation of the government's involvement in anything. Have you heard that the government — BP wrote memos! "Hey, we're really concerned about this. This doesn't look good." What did the government do? What did the government do? They had the information. What did they know and when did they know it? You won't hear any of those questions.

I mean, what is it the government is going to do? Just plug the hole. Get it done. If the United States Navy can do it, tell BP get the hell away from it. We'll plug the damn hole. And send the Navy down and do it. But to take over a country, I don't understand that. You can take over the problem. But to take over a company? Hmmm. That's an interesting solution.