good evenings, everyone. tonight the strategist who helped bill clinton win two terms as president has one word of advice to the current democratic incumbent. panic. >> there's a real clear message here and i tell you, these democratic politicians are getting it and they are running scared. >> republicans have plenty of problems in their party, too, including this. a fascinating split right down the middle of republicans who support the tea party and republicans who don't. this divide now defines the republican presidential race. >> i think we ought to have a conversation -- >> we're having that right now, governor. >> if you let me finish -- up first tonight, troubling questions about why the obama white house ignored appeals from the pentagon and other government officials and approved a major broadband internet license for a major campaign supporter. it is the second consecutive day a republican-led congressional committee has explored whether campaign contributions play a role in big government awards. as yet, critical to note, there

is no proof of that, just questions. but the hearings are exposing inconsistent, sometimes nonexistent explanations from the obama white house. yesterday, we told you about solyndra, a now-bankrupt clean energy company whose default left taxpayers with a half-billion dollar bill. the obama administration approved that loan despite warnings the company's plan didn't add up. congress now investigating whether political support for the president greased the wheels. tonight's example is a company called lightsquared. it was green lighted to build a new broadband internet network despite objections from several government agencies. the pentagon complained the most, warning this new network could undermine satellite-based weapons targeting and other sensitive systems, not to mention your efforts to get driving directions. >> based on the test results and analysis to date, the lightsquared network would effectively jam vital gps receivers, and to our knowledge thus far, there are no mitigation options that would be

effective in eliminating interference to essential gps services in the united states. >> two big questions tonight. did top obama administration officials give favorable treatment to lightsquared, including overruling the pentagon, because its major investor is a big obama campaign and democratic party fund-raiser? and in its response to this and other inquiries, is the white house violating this commitment? >> let me say it as simply as i can. transparency and the rule of law will be the touchstones of this presidency. our commitment to openness means more than simply informing the american people about how decisions are made. >> on that transparency question, it seems pretty clear the administration is falling short. exhibit "a," the federal communications chairman, julius janikowski, himself, a big obama fund-raiser had a huge role in green lighting the lightsquared project. janikowski was called to testify at today's hearing on the controversy, but he didn't show. >> personally, i believe this is an absolute effort by the

chairman to avoid the oversight questions by congress, to avoid the responsibility of the issue of how this will affect gps and what the fcc's process is appears to be irregular as to how this manner is moving forward. >> let's dig deeper beginning with the congressman, the chairman of the subcommittee looking into the issue, republican congressman michael turner of ohio. i want to start, mr. chairman, with your own words about why you thought it was so important to have this hearing. let's listen. >> we cannot afford to have federal telecommunications policy, especially where it affects national security to be made in the same way the white house parceled out a half billion dollars in loan guarantees to the failed corporation, a large campaign contributor to the president. >> that's a brig big charge off the top there, saying this was done for political reasons, that the lightsquared deal and the

solyndra deal, we covered that yesterday, was done for political contributions. is that what you think? do you have evidence to support that? >> the issue is that the fcc chairman refused to come before our committee and answers questions as to why they would be proceeding with the lightsquared technology at a time when there's unambiguous testimony from general shelton that this absolutely conflicts with gps and threatens our national security. so, these are questions that you have reported on, that you know. i was merely citing them, indicating these are things we have to be concerned about as we look through an irregular process going through the fcc and unambiguous answer from and unambiguous answer from dod that this threatens our national security. >> i think there's 100% reasons to explore this and to provide oversight and find out why the pentagon objections were ignored, to find out why the chairman of the fcc wouldn't show up at your hearing, when i assumed they said he was going to come. for you, as the head of this committee, and new republican majority as it asserts more oversight, is going to face these questions. you're saying this wasn't a bad judgment, you think this was a political judgment. can you prove that? >> i think what people are saying is that the fcc is following an irregular process.

this absolutely effects our national security. the fcc chairman failed to come before our committee and answer the questions as to why this is an issue that's even proceeding. there are serious questions as to what is occurring here. we know general shelton is very concerned about the process moving forward. these are the types of questions and reports circulating that certainly the fcc needs to take into consideration and that they need to answer. why are we in a situation where unambiguous evidence shows this affects our national security and our gps and things appear to be proceeding? >> i'm going try one more time. i agree there are legitimate questions that need to be answered. as you seek to answer them, do you have any evidence before you on this day where you can say, a-ha, the political contributions overruled the other objections of another agency or is that's what you're trying to find out? >> why is the fcc going forward with an irregular process with a system that absolutely violates our national security and our gps? and there are questions that clearly the fcc chairman did not want to answer by not appearing before our subcommittee today.

>> what was their explanation why he didn't show up? >> well, he had indicated he thought it would prejudice the process when he was in my office. i'm very concerned about, well, what is the process? how is this moving forward? why is it that it's unambiguous statements from dod that this violates our gps or national security, yet the fcc is continuing to advance this? the reports of how this is moving forward should cause everyone concern. those are the issues we need to discuss. >> let me ask you, i'm try to get in a point, i'm not sure i can. your gut judgment on this, based on what you've seen in documentation so far, is this a bad decision or a corrupt decision? >> well, i think, you know, the outcome is the same. the questions are why would this be moving forward and why shouldn't this be stopped? it's fairly clear this violates our national security, but yet no one can tell us exactly what the status is at the fcc, why this is moving forward and really the answer is this should be stopped. >> the outcome might be the same, but again, do you

understand what the responsibility that you have, that you have to be careful about saying things like "doled out for political purposes" if you can't have a piece of paper or have witnesses to say, here's the proof? >> what we want to ensure is there is not undue influence. that's what hearings are for. that's why we're reviewing this process and looking at something which appears to be fairly clear as a threat to our national security. >> congressman, appreciate your insights tonight. we'll keep watching this issue as your hearings keep going. >> thank you. >> thank you, sir. let's turn now to someone who's done groundbreaking reporting on this issue. fred schulte, senior reporter for the senate for integrity. i was not trying to be a jerk with the congressman but trying to be careful. when you have contracts that go out to people who have been political supporters it raises smoke. based on your reporting, obviously legitimate questions, how did this happen? did politics play a part? as of today, can we connect the dots? >> there's no question that lightsquared has had friends in high places. many people invested in the company early on were obama supporters and democratic

contributors. i think that it remains to be seen whether there was any favoritism. i mean, i think that's one of the things we're trying to look at. >> and the company tonight put out a pretty strongly worded statement denying any political influence. it said any suggestion lightsquared has run roughshod over the regulatory process is contradicted by the reality of eight long years gaining approval. they say they were doing this back in the bush administration, trying to move forward. is that fair? >> well, you haven't been looking at what they did during the bush administration. we filed a freedom of information act request with the obama white house to find out what they were doing at the present when it seems to be more relevant. and we got back a number of e-mails that show that they had a number of contacts with senior white house officials and were trying to get a lot of facetime and meetings. >> i want to talk about that. because i played a bite from the president at the top of the show, his promise for

transparency, his promise to be the most transparent administration in history. we have some of the e-mails you got under the freedom of information act. i've had this experience in the past. this seems pretty stunning. i think we can show some of them on the screen. you're trying to get this information, waiting and waiting. there are what we call redactions. you see a b-6 in a lot of places. that's a code. the government can keep policy information. when they delete the names of who's at a meeting, it's hard to figure out if anything bad is happening. >> it is. if you've done this kind of work, we've been doing it for some time, you get back records that are more black lines, in this case yellow lines, than anything else. it's not only that. the attachments to the e-mails and anything that they perceive as indicating what their feel is on something, they wholesale black it out. >> your bottom line here is what in terms of your biggest question about something wrong? >> right.

well, the big bottom line is that you can't figure it out from records that when you have claim of transparency and then you get records that are incomplete and leave out key details, you're really left with a situation where you have to look at what they did disclose. and i think that's what we did. >> and some of that shows pretty damning, hey, we're friends with the campaign, hey, guess what, he's coming to the town to give the president some money, can we get a meeting at the president? they have meetings across the street from the white house. they meet across the white house, which gets them out of their promise of the white house. >> they did indeed have meetings at the jackson place right across from the white house. yeah, those aren't in the white house logs. that's another study we've done is to look at the white house logs. that's another issue in which they're claiming unprecedented amount of transparency. yet the white house logs often don't give you real pictures as to what's going on either. >> lot of questions, frustrating.

fred schulte, doing a lot of reporting. before we go, i want to use the wall to show you at home the issues at stake here. this can be confusing. lightsquared is the company got the contract. the fcc gave it out. the department of defense raised objections. what are we talking about? lightsquared is trying to build the nationwide wireless broadband network. the country could use that. 260 million people would be connected under this. the problem is there are issues here. imagine a broadband network like radio, it's complicated, it has a frequency. one of the issues here, if you tap this in, normal gps on this frequency. lightsquared on this frequency. if there are any variations and that's routine, you have interference. what could that impact? it could your ability to get driving directions if there's a lot of interference. of more concern, it could impact air traffic control and the like. a lot of farmers use gps to position their equipment in the fields to know where they are on big farms. they've been complaining about this. and perhaps most critical, the

defense department uses satellites, gps, to position its weapons, to steer its weapons and keep track of troops overseas. these are the issues raised here. the question is, how do you fix it? here's one thing lightsquared proposed. take its frequency and drop it down a bit. if you have a lower frequency, you have less chance of interference. lightsquared said it could reduce the power in some of its towers and reduce the interference. these are the proposed fixes. the general doesn't think they'll work. there are a lot of political questions about why they just happened. that's why we had fred schulte in here and why we'll keep our eye on this as congress is in the hearings. still ahead here, michele bachmann tries to recover from her later campaign stumble. could it be the last straw? in libya today, cheers for the victors, including the leaders of britain and france. but next, are dangerous extremists lurking behind the scenes? [ male announcer ] people don't make a list of websites they want to see before they die. they don't fill photo albums

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[ male announcer ] here when you need us most. in libya today, what you might call a victory lap.

square to cheer the leaders of the revolution. if you look closely at the pictures there, the leaders of great britain and france. [ speaking foreign language ] >> thank you. thank you. >> the british and french offered to help the libyans secure the gadhafi regime weapons and captured the former dictator. these promises go beyond the original mandate to protect civilians. beyond the cheering, there's growing concerns tonight in libya about where the new libya is heading, about how much influence radical islamists may have. a good starting point for a conversation with cnn's fareed zakaria. fareed, i want to start with cameron and sarkozy, the president and prime minister there. listen to prime minister cameron. listen to what france and great britain will help do now.

>> we must keep on with the nato mission until civilians are all protected and until this work is finished. we will help you to find gadhafi and to bring him to justice. and we also want to help you to take the dangerous weapons out of libya, whether that is surface-to-air missiles. today britain is committing itself to helping you with taking -- >> from the beginning here, what the nato mandate said on paper, finding gadhafi, getting rid of weapons, that's new ground, right? >> yes, it is new ground. you can see what's happening. the campaign is morphing inevitably into a kind of nation building, because prime minister cameron said protect civilians. make sure all civilians are protected. from whom? perhaps from various gangs, from some elements of al qaeda-type groups, some rogue operations. so we have to provide order in

the cities, in other words. does that sound familiar now from iraq and afghanistan? we have to find gadhafi. we have to take the mines out of the ground. it's all commendable stuff, but it's, as you say, a big stretch from the original mission. i will point out this is why i think it has been very wise for the obama administration to lead from behind, if you will. they're telling the french and the british, if you want to own libya, it's all yours. >> and i want to come up with the al qaeda concerns in a second. on the issue of finding gadhafi, we have some video, amateur cell phone video. hundreds of gadhafi forces advancing. as they advance, do we think the end is near and gadhafi either will be captured or killed? >> it's very tough to say, john. it's a big world. libya is a big country. most people don't realize, it's actually the biggest country in africa with the smallest population or one of the smallest populations. so, there's a lot of places to hide. i think, you know, i've said

consistently, i don't believe he will surrender. that part i think i have a strong sense of. he's a real revolutionary. he's not a bureaucrat. he's a soldier. he will try to go down fighting or escape in some kind of mysterious way. but whether they can really find one man in all of libya, if he's even still in libya, and i think he still is, it's a big country. >> "the new york times," a front page story today raising a question i think could be asked about many of the countries going through these dramatic changes in the region and that is as the old power gets kicked out or leaves, what comes in next? "the new york times" reporting that there are growing concerns that radical islamists are the best organized forces in libya and, therefore, could have disproportionate influence. a concern there and across the region? >> it's a concern there, it's a concern in egypt. i think that you put it exactly right, john. the concern is not that they are wildly popular but that they are

well organized. it's not clear the libyan people are strongly islamist. it's clear the islamic parties are strongly organized. in this political vacuum, what happens? you already see some of the jockeying. people are already taking shots at the interim leaders, mr. jabril and others. my own sense, however, is that the libyan movement is diverse, there are lots of different elements. so, no one element seems strong enough to dominate. certainly not the islamic one. it doesn't seem that powerful. and it's also clear that people having paid for this revolution in blood are going to quiet down easily. if they feel the revolution is being hijacked by islamic organizations that didn't really participate in the revolution itself, i don't think they'll take that lying down. so, cause for concern, but really, the libyan opposition seems pretty broad-based, pretty diverse with lots of non-islamic elements as well. >> that's a big shift here. we're going to talk more about this tomorrow in much greater detail.

take a minute, before i let you go tonight, you're working on this special this weekend for the biggest issue here at home. how do we create jobs? give us a preview. >> what we're trying to figure out is really two things. why is this happening? why is it that this recession is taking so long to get back on track? it will be five years before we just recover all the jobs lost in this recession. it's unprecedented since world war ii to have a recession -- a jobless recovery that long. we go into that and ask practical questions, how do you create jobs? we do it with the people who are now called job creators. we asked ceos of general electric, dow chemical, of starwood. we talked to others as well. the focus is really practical, nonideological solutions. figure out how to get the jobs first then worry about what ideological box it lands on. >> we'll dig deeper on the details with that one when fareed joins us tomorrow night. if you can't be with us tomorrow

night, i can't think of one, watch the fareed zakaria special "restoring the american dream." next here, republican presidential candidate michele bachmann backtracking from what some say is potentially a campaign-killing comment. cereal? yummy. that's yours. lower cholesterol. lower cholesterol. i'm yummy. lower cholesterol. i got that wrong didn't i? [ male announcer ] want great taste? honey nut cheerios. want whole grain oats that can help lower cholesterol? honey nut cheerios. it's a win win. good? [ crunching, sipping ] be happy. be healthy. can i try yours? it's real milk full of calcium and vitamin d. and tastes simply delicious. for those of us with lactose intolerance...

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michele bachmann is trying

tonight to quiet a controversy some republican strategists believe could derail her presidential campaign. at issue, comments the minnesota congresswoman made while criticizing texas governor rick perry, one of her rivals. it began at monday night's cnn tea party debate when bachmann and others took issue with perry mandating teenage girls be vaccinated against a virus that can cause cervical cancer. >> i'm a mom of three children. and to have innocent little 12-year-old girls be forced to have a government injection through an executive order is just flat-out wrong. that should never be done. that's a violation of a liberty interest. that's -- little girls who have a negative reaction to this potentially dangerous drug don't get a mulligan. they don't get a do-over. >> medical experts quickly took issue with the potentially dangerous assertion. and then congresswoman bachmann dug the hole deeper the next morning. >> well, i will tell you that i

had a mother last night come up to me here in tampa, florida, after the debate. she told me that her little daughter took that vaccine, that injection, and she suffered from mental retardation thereafter. it can have very dangerous side effects. >> there is no evidence, zero, that hpv vaccine can cause mental retardation. and tonight, the congresswoman is backtracking. >> during the debate, i didn't make any statements that would indicate that i'm a doctor, i'm a scientist or that i'm making any conclusions about the drug one way or another. i didn't make any statements about that. at the conclusion of the debate, a woman came up to me who was very distraught. she was crying and she thanked me for my remarks and said that her daughter had had a negative reaction and that's all i related. >> one more question. >> did you apologize for that remark? >> i'm not going to answer that question. >> so, should she apologize? and is this latest bachmann diversion from the facts proof she isn't up to the demands of the presidency?

veteran republican strategist ed rollins was a top player in the bachmann campaign but stepped back into what the campaign calls a senior advisory role. ed, let's start there. she was asked at the end, should she apologize. should she? >> i don't think she needs to apologize. she needs to move away from the subject. there's no evidence that she can back this up. she made very good points on perry that it was executive overreach or cronyism or what have you. that should have been the talking points the next several days. now, the talking points are about her and the scientific community obviously is very opposed to all of this and they don't find any evidence. so, you know, my counsel, which i'm not giving her at this point in time because we're not communicating about it, is just to move on. get back on the economy, jobs, things that matter and count it as a mistake. >> let me jump in on that point. at that point, not communicating about it, if you gave her your counsel, are you done? when you stepped back, everyone thought is he really going to be a senior adviser or is he

leaving? are you done? >> i'm available. i have great affection for michele. i didn't know her six months ago when she started her campaign. i watched her. she's a very gritty, tough, probably the best campaigner in the trail this year. i developed a great affection for her. my leaving had to do more with my own personal fatigue and health than it did anything. we never had any real serious conflicts. >> she said you would still be a senior advisor. i'm available if my high school girlfriend needs advice. she hasn't called me yet. i don't think she will. are you done? >> i've had a couple conversations with her and the campaign. i have to get on with my life and my life is no new york. >> what is it about her? does she not take advice? i know you and others have tried in campaigns. sometime it's about important stuff. is this the day elvis died or the day elvis was born? is this about john wayne or john wayne gacy? what is it about her? >> she's extremely bright. she's a great scholar. and when she has the answers

researched, she can articulate them extremely well. unfortunately, as in this particular case, she's someone that relates to people. a woman walked up to her, told her her story. what we always try to do is get these stories vetted. are there facts to it? did it really happen this way? even in it was in this one circumstance, is that the kind of statement you want to make? that's part of the problem. there's a lot of people come up to candidates and they give them counsel and they basically give them advice and there's a tendency sometimes to repeat them. it's not just her. it's ronald reagan. it was many other candidates i've been with. you have to have a system that vets everything that comes out of a candidate's mouth. anything that goes in has to be vetted before it comes out. obviously, this was a case where the campaign didn't get the chance to vet this particular subject. >> this issue is not new. she was here back in may and i asked her about this problem. i asked her if she was going to fix it. listen. >> i think it's important to have discipline in a message. that's true. and have i been right in -- have i been accurate in everything that i've said?

no. that's not true. you can fact check. >> it's your job as a candidate. the left want -- >> you have a very good point, though, that i think when you're in the presidential realm, i do think that mismessage discipline is required. i think that is something that all of us have areas we need to do better on. and that's certainly one i'll pay a lot of attention to. >> she says there, ed, she'll pay a lot of attention to it. we're months later. there have been several episodes, some significant, some just little details, history details, like i mentioned. if a candidate says these things we end up having conversations like this on cable television, maybe it helps or hurts them in a campaign. if a president says things wrong, the stock market can crash, alliances can be wounded. does she have discipline to be president of the united states? >> i would argue she's very disciplined. sometimes you get out on the bus, get in a bubble, don't have as much control, don't have the right advisers around her. i found her in the three, four months i was around her to be very, very disciplined and very scholarly.

when she goes on her shows, goes on shows like yours, every so often, there's a slip. every so often, there's a piece of information that gets -- >> do you think this slip will hurt her badly? she's already slipping in the polls. >> you know, the bottom line is her path back is iowa. she had three months to win the straw poll that no one said she could. she now has five months to win the caucus. at the end of the day, if we're debating this particular issue or she's debating this issue in iowa before the caucus, it will have an effect. i don't believe that's going to be the case. i believe the case is going to be about obama care, the economy, about jobs and what voters in iowa care most about. >> i want to circle back and close on this point, in case anyone is wondering. on a scale of 1-10, 10 closely involved, what's your involvement with the campaign right now? >> about two or three. there's a willingness on my part. if they want my help, i'm happy to give it.

i can't do the day-to-day aspect. it was never my intent. i wanted to start the campaign up and leave. i made a decision if i wanted to go another six months in the caucus. my health was being strained somewhat. i made that decision. i have great affection. if they want anything to me, i'll be happy to give it to them. >> will you vote for her in the primary? >> i hope she's on the ballot here. certainly will. i certainly will vote for her. if she's on the ballot and our nominee, i'll do everything to help her. >> we'll keep in touch. still to come here, fascinating new numbers showing the tea party divide within the republican party. and our friend james carville has one word of advice for president obama. panic. should the president accept it? that's just ahead. ♪

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welcome back. here's the latest news you need to know right now. late today, the senate approved $7 billion for fema running out of money to deal with all of this year's natural disasters. the house still needs to take action on that. this afternoon, the senate cleared and sent to the president a spending bill to keep the federal aviation administration from shutting down midnight saturday. citing what it calls, quote, the ongoing uncertainty and volatility, end quote, in syria, the state department issued a travel warning today urging u.s. citizens in syria to depart immediately. commercial transportation is still available. two years ago, marine sergeant dakota meyer repeatedly

ran through enemy fire to recover the bodies of fellow american troops in afghanistan. at a white house ceremony this afternoon, he received the medal of honor, the first living marine to be recognized for actions in afghanistan or iraq. god bless him. next, should the white house panic? james carville explains his strong words. ♪ ♪ co-signed her credit card -- "buy books, not beer!" ♪ ♪ but the second that she shut the door ♪ ♪ girl started blowing up their credit score ♪ ♪ she bought a pizza party for her whole dorm floor ♪ ♪ hundred pounds of makeup at the makeup store ♪ ♪ and a ticket down to spring break in mexico ♪ ♪ but her folks didn't know 'cause her folks didn't go ♪ ♪ to free-credit-score-dot-com hard times for daddy and mom. ♪ offer applies with enrollment in freecreditscore.com™. ♪ whoa! hey! [ dog barks, growls ] ♪

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consider this, the political version of a family intervention. you know, someone steps in to stop troublesome or reckless behavior. you can be certain this intervention is not welcome. we all know our cnn contributor and veteran democratic strategist james carville is anything but shy. like us, he's been soaking in all the bad economic numbers and day after day of horrible polling data. today, james decided to offer president obama some advice. it's posted on cnn.com. it includes this. "what should the white house do now? one word came to mind. panic." james carville is here to explain just what he means and why. and we thought it best to bring in democratic pollster cornell belcher to see if he thinks, too, it's time to hit the panic button at the obama white house. mr. carville, to you, first. panic, why? i should say at the beginning you've been at the front of two successful presidential campaigns for bill clinton. so, why do you think this democrat needs to panic? >> well, a couple of reasons is panic is a joke here. we have a terrible election in 2010. we had a terrible election night

tuesday night. the opposition party in my opinion is totally nuts and the economic numbers keep sliding in the sense of the wrong way. i think that the white house needs to demonstrate to the country that it gets what's going on. the country keeps signaling to the white house that it's looking for something different. i think the white house should supply something different to the rest of the country. the way you start doing that is by holding people accountable. that's what you have to start doing i think. 1994, you mentioned that, a lot of my friends lost their jobs. i lost a consulting contract with the dnc in an awful year in 1994. this is not nothing new. sometimes the innocents get hit -- >> sometimes, innocents get shot. okay. that's one of your points.

i want cornell to jump in. one of the points you make upfront, fire someone. you say, fire somebody. no, fire a lot of people. this may be news for you but this isn't going well for president, see russian army 64th division at stalingrad. i know you are a student of history as well as politics. is it as bad as james said? number two, do the american people need to see something from the president that he gets it, that he shares their pain to borrow a line and people need to go? >> james is sharing frustration, internal fame frustration. it's broader than that. the american people are frustrated. they aren't approving -- the president's job approval numbers are dropping and so is congress'. >> he's at the top of the ticket. >> the american people aren't happy with anything going on in washington right now. i don't approve of anyone's job right now in congress. >> but if everything cornell says it true, but there's one problem. we keep losing elections. so what difference does it make

if you say, well, they like us, they like the republicans in congress, if they keep voting for the republicans. that's the only way that people can signal their discontent. and for a long time, thank god they're not doing it now. the administration is making the case things were actually getting better when people didn't feel it was getting better. this is not some kind of internal family frustration. if anybody would spend time talking to democratic senators, talking to democratic house members, many of them, most of them who were supporters of the president all say the same thing. what i put down on paper is something that's repeated tens of thousands of times within the democratic party. and that's just a fact. and there's got to be -- the way that you show people that you're dissatisfied is you hold certain people accountable. i think that's what we have to do. >> james, cornell is saying publicly what a lot of democrats do mumble privately. maybe not to the degree. a lot are afraid, would like to see action from the administration, see turnover maybe in the cabinet as well. a lot of house members are not nervous right now. a lot of senate democrats are in panic. the leading house democrat,

nancy pelosi, reacting to the democrats losing in new york a seat they had held for 90 years. she says actually it's a good thing. listen. >> it was a good day because it was something where other people realized we really have to buckle down in order to win this. it does not alter our plan for taking back the house. >> it's a bad cliche, but i'm reminded of the denial is not a river in egypt. >> i think we put too much weight on some of these districts. by the way, that new york district is not a bellweather for anything. >> if you can't win in the heart of new york city, how are you going to win in michigan and colorado -- >> if you look at the record the last couple years, democrats won the majority of the special elections. it didn't mean nothing to us in 2010. i think we put too much weight on that one district. and in the end the president, look -- this is where james is right. the president and the white house, they're going to have to do a better job of communicating. clearly, republicans have been winning the communication battle. i don't think there's a democrat in town who argue that they

haven't been. >> quinnipiac poll out today, virginia one of the states the president won. everyone said, wow, the democrats won virginia. disapproval now, 54%. 40%. even california, look, the president is going to carry california unless everything goes south in november 2012. but for the first time, his approval rating in california is under 50%. 46%. so james, i think you're saying look at these numbers and mr. president even if you think you're right on the policy, you have to do something? >> well, look, i would say this. if cornell and the president thinks there's a communications problem, fire communications people. if it's a political problem, fire political people. do something. you have to do something here. again, you go back and look in history, this is what happened. we see this thing -- it's so easy to miss that and say, that's carville, he was for hillary, he just hadn't gotten over the election. people, if they want to believe

that, that's fine. if they want to think that the new york race meant nothing or they want to think that race in nevada -- carried it by 8,000 votes. the person who won carried it by 22,000 votes. if they want to keep discounting everything, that's not going to work. there's a real clear message here. i tell you, these democratic politicians are getting it and they are running scared. and maybe there's just a breakdown of communication, but if there's a communication problem, get new communication people. they are a dime a dozen now. >> i think the white house would say the buck stops with the president. the president would say the buck stops with me. that's why you see him out there being more active, see the change in him on the campaign trail, him hitting the states talking about this plan. he has to change his dynamic. there's not a one person in the white house who can change that dynamic except for barack obama. you know what, he's pretty good. >> you seem to think that's enough. mr. carville seems to disagree. we're going to figure this out in 14 months. republicans no doubt delight in this talk of democrats

panicking. hold the celebration. the gop has its own tug-of-war to worry about. do tea party tensions help or hurt? that's next. as luxury s.u.v.s, it helps to have the quality and craftsmanship of your leather interior test better than the lexus rx 350. it's also helpful to set your "select terrain" dial to "sand." ♪

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the rise of the tea party is a major problem as republicans roared to a big win and took control of the house of representatives. now, movement leaders say they are intent in determining who the gop picks for a presidential nominee. but that doesn't necessarily sit well with what i'll call the more establishment republicans. our new poll out shows a fascinating divide. a republican party split right down the middle between those that support the tea party and those who don't. look at this. 49% of republicans and independents who lean republican, either support the tea party or are active members. 51% of those voters either have no feelings of the tea party or oppose the movement. this divide plays out on several major issues. more tea party republicans, for example, say washington should focus most on deficit reduction right now. most non-tea party republicans say unemployment, jobs is more important than the deficit, in red ink. 6 in 10 tea party republicans say global warming is not a proven fact.

most non-tea party republicans disagree. we've seen this play out in the presidential campaign. tea party republicans are twice as likely to believe social security should be replaced. >> but the real question is, does governor perry continue to believe that social security should not be a federal program, that it's unconstitutional and it should be returned to the states? or is he going to retreat from that view? >> if what you're trying to say is that back in the '30s and '40s that the federal government made all the right decisions, i disagree with you. >> safe to say i think governor romney is in the more establishment camp. governor perry is a tea party republican. is this a healthy internal debate or a troublesome civil war? amy chamberlain is the co-chair man of the tea party express and i want to get to your point. when we had the cnn tea party debate you were brazen and said, we'll pick the republican nominee. the tea party won't let the republican party hand you somebody. i assume you mean the establishment.

in the poll we found something fascinating, just among republicans, are you very angry about the way things are going in the country today? 50% of tea party republicans are very angry. only 29% of other republicans are angry. does that convince you you have the energy, the intensity, to deliver on your promise? a lot of the establishment says no way. >> absolutely, john. when you introduced this, i was happy to hear you call them establishment republicans because when i read the poll they called them moderate republicans. this is tea party versus establishment republicans and i say the establishment republicans aren't as engaged as we are. and when you look at what happened in 2010, there were candidates outspent 6-7-1. and they won because they had the boots on the ground, the passion and fire and energy with these activists to propel them to victory. and i believe that whoever wins the nomination is going to have that passion, fire in the belly

and boots on the ground like they did back in 2010. so, i think it's a good thing that the tea party movement has come up and grown. it's an organic movement and we want conservatives in washington. >> rich, is this just a tug-of-war and it's healthy or is it a potentially harmful civil war? >> no, i think it's tremendously healthy. look, i have been doing this a long time. let me go back to something james said. i'm a communications person. i'm not a dime a dozen, i'm 12, 13 cents a dozen easy. what amy said, i've been doing this a long time, it's almost never the case that you have to dampen down some enthusiasm for a major part of your base. what is always the case, except for this last few years, is that we have, at least at your poll, we have half of the republican party that is energized to the point that they're driving the message. and if the last segment, you heard it again, we have a message.

democrats, the president, doesn't have a message. i'm telling you having an energized happier -- having your party this energized is helpful. >> some is substantive. tea party is more conservative. they tend to favor outlawing all abortions, much more so than other republicans. some of it is style. i want you to listen here. perry and romney best epitomize this. listen to governor perry talking to "time" magazine, they wanted to know if he wanted to back off of saying that he thinks the obama administration is socialist? >> no, i still believe they're socialist. their policies that almost daily. i mean, look, when all of the answers emanate from washington, d.c., one size fits all, whether it's education policy or whether it's health care policy, that's, on its face, socialism. >> that is, on its face, socialism, the texas governor says.

my friend, wolf blitzer, asked the massachusetts governor if he agreed. >> words have a lot of unintended meanings and calling people "socialists" probably goes beyond the fact that it is true that president obama's team and the president himself seem to believe that government has a better approach to our economy than does the private sector, and i disagree with that approach. i don't use the word "socialist" or i haven't so far. but i do agree the president's approach is government-heavy, government-intensive, and it's not working. >> amy cramer, if you want to win the white house, do you want your nominee saying "socialist" or be a bit more careful? >> barack obama said last election cycle to joe the plumber he wanted to spread the wealth and that is socialism. but what it is about governor perry and about michele bachmann and sarah palin and others that use this language, i think they are straight talkers. they call it like they see it, and they're not concerned about political correctness. and that's what the american

people, that's what this tea party movement is about. calling it like you see it. >> should they be concerned, rich, about political viability, not political correctness? >> yeah. i was going to get to that. all the other questions in this poll pale before one question, and the question was, amongst tea party members, or self-identified tea party people, do you want somebody that can can defeat barack obama or essentially, is true to the tea party orthodox? 80/20 they said we want to beat barack obama. so all this other stuff is just chaff and its fun to talk about. when it comes down to the crunch and actually pressing the button, pulling the lever, whatever you do and your people want to beat barack obama and whoever the polling shows can do that is going to be the nominee. >> i agree. >> we'll have more fun as the campaign plays out. that's all our time. got to go. tonight, what really happened to michael jackson. >> this is a story about greed and power. >> jermaine ck