two female lawmakers leave a hearing. was it a hearing about birth control or religious freedom? they said the women. >> reporter: missing. listen. >> what i want to know is, where are the women? >> we're going to talk to one lawmaker who stayed and was part of that. also this morning, secretary of the treasury tim geithner is pointing finger at republicans. laying the president capitol hill fight over taxes. that and much more as "starting point" gets under way right now. ♪ let's start with a little stevie wonder. me, anything really good is mine. i should do all of my classic disaster songs. my husband would say i have many. i want to introduce you to our panel. tom davis is back with us. came back for more. former virginia congressman.

martin frost is a former texas congressman. and connie rice is a civil rights attorney. nice to have you joining us this morning. lots to get to including conversations about whitney houston and i really want to talk about whether it is religious liberty or are we really talking about contraception. first, though, the headlines. christine romans has that for us. good morning. >> good morning, soledad. workplace dispute between two i'm immigration custom agents went into a shootout. left one dead and one wounded. authorities say one agent opened fire on the other. then a third agent then intervened and killed the shooter. investigators aren't saying what led to that confrontation. they call it an isolated incident. top u.s. intelligence officials say al qaeda is likely behind some of those recent bombings in syria. syrian security forces bombarding the city of homs now for a 14th straight day. activists say at least nine people have been killed in the

latest assault. it comes after a non-binding united nations resolution called for president bashar al-assad to step down condemning the region's human rights violations of the regimes, rather, anti-government's demonstrations taking place right now. hearing getting heated. two female democrats walked out of the hearing in protest. they accuse the republican chairman darrell issa of manipulating committee rules to block female witness fres testifying. >> don't we owe it to the tens of millions of american women whose lives will be effected to let just one, just one woman speak on their behalf today on this panel? >> inquiry? >> the gentlelady, parliamentary. >> we just made an interpretation of the rules. and i stress the word interpretation because it is

precisely that. >> the gentle lady will state her inquiry. >> i ask the staff to get me the rules. one thing, mr. chairman, we've been denied the right to have a witness. i want to have the right to make a parliamentary inquiry. >> and state your parm meantry inquiry. >> later this hour, soledad talks with democrat who stayed, virginia congressman gerry connolly. the nasdaq hit a decade high. highest since december 2000. stocks at more than 1% overall looking at today's futures, gains expected in the dow and the s&p, nasdaq though futures are a little bit lower here. mysteriously stops production. comedy central only saying it was for undisclosed reasons. though "wall street journal" reported thursday it was due to a colbert family emergency. the baseball world mourning the loss of hall of fame catcher gary carter. he died after a battle with

brain canner. he started with the montreal expos before helping the new york mets win the 1986 world series. gary carter was only 57 years old, soledad. >> such a sad story. >> i know. >> accomplished so much. so sad. christine, thank you. >> you're welcome. fireworks on capitol hill. how often do we start our intros like that. always the treasury secretary tim geithner was testifying at a house budget hearing and was pressed by republicans on the need for tax reform and lack of proposal from the president. here's what he said. >> that you would be coming to us not today but prior to this with a simpler tax system today and not waiting until the end of your term. >> even in tax reform that raises the revenues for example simpson bowles suggests we need, in that context, the effect of tax rate on somebody is going to go up. that's why we spent so much time with your leadership discussing

in the summer. >> i understand. so in other words --, - -- go a. i yield. >> was it really always like that, i yield, you yield. hey, listen, today is my day to really dig into the congress people. >> pretty tape. >> it was but you can tell he said, listen, the effective tax rates has got to go up on somebody. let's not play. >> that we're all really saying is that we're not really going to do this this year. nobody expects tax reform to be done right before an election. >> both sides of the aisle. >> we've been talking about tax reform for years and it keeps getting kicked down the road. but they're going to have to come up with revenues somewhere. just might be before the election. >> they are not going to go tax reform this year. >> neither is the democratic administration. >> they're not going to do this in an election year. let's agree to that and move on. >> a lot is not going to get done because it's an election year. interesting is this conversation over religious liberty or, wait, are we really talking about contraception? >> of course we're talking about contraception. look, religious liberty was

never in this picture. churches never have to pay for anything that goes against their basic values or tenets. >> if their employers, if they run a hospital they do. >> religious affiliated is what we're talking about here. the president's compromise says, look, they have to do it. they say that employers tell women that whether contraception is better or not so your quloier now gets to determine that. this is ridiculous. >> has this become a big problem for republicans? >> this is nuts from the republican standpoint. >> says a democrat. >> no no, it's true. they won last week. they got the president to change his position. they were able to make the point that the catholic church was being abused a little bit by the administration. they should have stopped right there. when you're ahead, you stop. except they wanted to keep going. now they've made this into an issue of contraception and they look like they're crazy. they look like they're back in the dark ages. >> why would the gop bring the conversation of contraception

kind of decided in 1965 decades ago. >> the narrative here is can government get into religious institutions and start making them do things against principles. even the president backed down on that. he was warned by joe biden and bill daley and others not to go there. the problem with their compromise is there is still a lot of gray area out there because a lot of these programs are self insured. >> the conversation though has really turned to contraception. you're on that slippery -- >> no. >> democrats. >> you lose -- you tlooz argument. >> it's an store rum and romney. >> i was going to say -- >> losing the argument on religious liberty. >> you had your leading republican candidates quoted about a decision that was decided in 1965, griswold, about a married couple's right to have access to contraception. it's a conversation about privacy. this is the new yorker, 2-17-2012. both of them are quoted about their feelings about griswold.

i think that -- doesn't that have a slippery slope? is that a conversation that the gop wants to have? >> i wouldn't have it. i wouldn't have it there and people are pushing it in that direction. i don't think ultimately that's what the decision was about. the decision was about making religious institutions do things -- >> from last week. >> that's right. >> the point is -- it's still -- it's still unresolved. the hearing yesterday, by the way, only one catholic on the first panel. there were two women on the second panel. >> overwhelmingly men. >> there was a rabbi on there who said, look, i happen to agree with contraception but we look at that as an assault on religious liberty. i don't think that conversation is over yet. >> you can't really take the conversation about religious liberty and remove from it the conversation of contraception. aren't they intertwines? >> you can't when the leading -- for now leading presidential nominee, when mr. santorum says that contraception is bad for women i think we've got a problem here. that's why it's front page and

it's turned to contraception. churches have never had to do p this hospitals that are self insured, they've had to do this under state law forever. and a number of states, they have. but the real thing is, how come vasectomies are covered but women's contraception is not? we've got real problems here. >> let me -- let me join in here for just a moment. i headed the democratic congressional campaign committee for four years. tom headed the republican congressional campaign. >> maybe we should have separated you. >> we didn't do it at the same time. look, i want to go back to the point, the the republicans won last week. they were successful last week. they ought to move on to other issues now. now they're giving the democrats to get back in the game to be on the side of women, on the side of basic principles about women's health. they have changed the subject. they have kept this thing going. it is a loser for them that the point. i don't know why someone in the republican party didn't put up a

stop sign, we won, we won. >> we're going to continue this conversation. i find it fascinating in terms of the political implications as they try to figure who the candidate is going to be, interesting. i also want to talk about iran and just hours ago the president's -- did you see this picture with -- there you go. the presidents of iraq, afghanistan, and pakistan. holding a joint press conference in islamabad. it was part of a sum mid focusing on stability in the region. it comes after cnn obtained a letter from president ahmadinejad to the european union. in that letter he says iran is ready to resume talks about the nuclear program. former u.s. ambassador to nato is anything glanicholas burns. he's in boston this morning. is this a legitimate offer, do you think? it's a very conciliatory letter. >> well, you know, the iranians have been resisting negotiations for a very long time. and it is in the interest of the u.s. and the europeans to talk with them. we haven't talked to the iranians in 32 years on a

stained basis. if they want to talk, if that's one way to resolve this problem, it's far fetched. it's worth offering this offer to negotiate. >> you said it's both far fetched but also we should sit down and talk which sounds contradictory to me. >> no, not at all. we're trying to prevent iran from becoming a nuclear weapons power. use of military force is highly problematic. sanctions, there are sanctions being introduced, central bank sanctions, oil sanctions by the eu to pressure the iranians. at some point before we consider the use of military force down the line if that's going to happen, you do want to get a sense of what this government believes in iran, whether there's a way to resolve this problem shorter for and we haven't had that opportunity since the jimmy carter administration. so diplomacy actually makes a lot of sense right here as part of a larger effort. >> ahmadinejad has claimed earlier in the week that iran has produced fuel that could power a nuclear reactor.

do you think that's legitimate or not legitimate? >> you know, i hard to know about the credibility of ahmadinejad's statements. but i will say this. the irans are making progress in enriching uranium. the iese, international atomic agency has said that. there is cause of concern but there is time available for u.s. before iran has nuclear weapons capacity. here's a space for president obama to work in. maybe over the next year or so. what's the combination of threatening force, sanctions, but also looking for a opportunity to negotiate. the iranians are sending lots of conflicting signals, soledad, and lats ots of saber rattling. we do have a lot of the world with us so we're not without assets here. >> when you listen to all these sort of various statements and sometimes threats and sometimes conciliatory letters, how do you assess that? is that sort of overall a move to buy time? is that, no, actually it is a response to sanctions and the sanctions are working?

what do you think the take-away is? >> there are a lot of indications that sanctions are beginning to work. they are feeling the pressure and crowded out of some of the oil markets if chinese are reducing their purchases. the government is not mono litic. it sends out lots of signals. you have to stay steady and focus on what we think is right to pressure them and hopefully maneuver them into a state of isolation from the rest of the world. i think that both president bush and president obama have tried to do that. >> let me ask you about syria for a moment. the resolution passed by the u.n.'s general assembly calls for al-assad to step down, but has absolutely no power of enforcement at all. what is the point of a resolution like that? >> the point is that a couple weeks ago russia and china vetoed a resolution that might have made a difference in the security council because that could have been enforced and that was a cynical move by the russians and chinese. this really reflects the will of both countries. like the syrian government has

been zelling its own citizens, using brutal indiscriminate force. it's worst human rights force since the uprisings began a year ago. i think most countries are outraged and they want to see the syrian government pay a price and isolate it. it may not have endporsment but symbolically it was an important resolution. >> director of national intelligence james clapper told congress he believes al qaeda is behind the most recent attacks tons al-assad regime. play that out for me a little bit. if that's the case, then if assad eventually is forced out of power, some people predict will happen, what does that mean for al qaeda in the region? >> you know, there's no easy answers here. you're right, it's very complicated because lots of syrians are against -- sunni syrians, especially, the assad regime. some of the vial liens appears to have come from al qaeda affiliated organizations. one of the proposals that people have been talking about is whether we should arm the syrian

rebels. that would be very risky considering the fact we don't know them very well. there's no coherent rebel army. some of this violence may be al qaeda perpetrated. they are trying to sanction and isolate the syrian regime. there's a proposal to create safe havens where inside syria, where innocent sevillians can go to take cover from this bombardment but arming the rebels is probably a bridge too far right now. >> thank you, sir. appreciate your insight. >> thank you, soledad. still ahead this morning on "starting point," the stars will be singing at whitney houston's funeral tomorrow. three generations of legendary voices. there are new details about the investigations this morning. chris christie under fire. this is so insane. for flying the flags at half -- is it half mass or half staff in half mass at whitney houston's funeral. peep are giving him flack about that. but he -- this is no surprise. he's not backing down. i'm not shocked about that.

he is taking to twitter to fight back. we'll tell you what he's saying. plus, our get real this morning. a mother makes ore 10-year-old son walk almost five miles to school. and gets arrested. and now the kid is defending his mom. we'll explain that story on "starting point" straight ahead. you know when i grow up, i'm going to own my own restaurant. i want to be a volunteer firefighter. when i grow up, i want to write a novel. i want to go on a road trip. when i grow up, i'm going to go there. i want to fix up old houses. [ female announcer ] at aarp we believe you're never done growing. i want to fall in love again. [ female announcer ] discover what's next in your life. get this free travel bag when you join at aarp.org/jointoday. so i used my citi thank you card to pick up some accessories.

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cnn's going to be covering whitney houston's funeral, which is set for tomorrow in newark, new jersey. our coverage be l. begin at 11:00 a.m. the funeral itself starts at noon. there are dozens of stars to turn out to pay tribute as celebration of the hometown hero, new jersey governor chris christie will be flying flags at half-mast. he's getting flack for it. people on twitter are slamming him. she's not a fallen hero. i am not alone in taking offense to this. she's no role model. she's a dead junkie. totally inappropriate president another one said this. shame on you for ordering our flag to be flown at half-mass --

mast,ic th i-- for a singer who. what about our soldiers and real heroes? governor christi fired back. every new jersey soldier who has been killed in action during my administration had their flags lowered in their memory. learn your fags before accusing. a -- flags before accusing. >> i understand that some will disagree. every decision i make, someone disagrees with. i believe that drug addiction is a disease. and i think that she struggled mightily with that disease. and i don't believe that that diminishes the cultural contributions she made to this state. >> i thought you could not put it better than that. >> yeah. >> i heard him say that. i was like, go, governor chri i christie, well put. >> he got the upper ground. >> he should be so lucky to be attacked by people on the far right. this is good for his politics. this is good for him personally.

i want to make one point. >> i'm not so sure they're on the far right. >> it's unclear. we know they're on twitter and that's it. >> talking point, exactly. >> they're on twiter. >> let's put this in context. i'm from texas. i don't wish him any ill, but whenever -- whenever willie nelson passes on, whenever that is around i hope it's a long time from now, you can be assured that whoever is governor of texas will do the same type thing for him me has had substance abuse problems, problems with the irs, but he's a state figure just like whitney houston is someone for people of new jersey to be proud of. >> i like christie's tone here about addiction and so forth. when elvis presley died he had serious problems as well with drugs. and the flags were lowereded a half-mast. they should have been. you've got stars who change the game. i mean, they change the country. and there aren't many of them, but, you know, there are few. >> chris christie had the right

tone and elevated the conversation by even talking about addiction, you know, as a huge problem. >> maybe he should run for president. >> he might be thinking now he should have. >> yeah. >> all right. we've got to take a short break. still ahead on "starting point," an allegedly drunk pilot stopped just minutes before he was about to take off. passengers have a bus driver to thank for thancht. a mother makes her son walk almost five miles to school. the police say that's too far. the little boy said, no, my mom was right, i was wrong. have i got a surprise for you! [ barks ] yeah, it's beneful healthy fiesta. gotta love the protein for muscles-- whoo-hoo! and omega-rich nutrition for that shiny coat. ever think healthy could taste so good? [ woman announcing ] beneful healthy fiesta.

♪ i think we played that in band when i was in high school. "chariots of fire." >> i asked for that because i was at ann richards victory party the night she was elected for governor and that's what they played when she walked in the room. >> good song. does a lot of time and thought go into that? >> sure, of course. absolutely. >> i didn't know. >> yeah. >> i figured elected officials would have many more important things to dothan work on the play list. >> shot down from playing somebody's song and don't like us. >> don't play my song. >> we do country music in texas. >> all right. our "get real" this morning is a pretty good story, you think. you hear stories from old people, i walked to school five miles each way up hill. that's not going to fly anymore. one mother from arkansas is

learning the hard way, charged with misdemeanor count of welfare of a minor after she made her son walk to school. she told police her 10-year-old son had been suspended from the bus for the fifth time, kicked off the bus. she's like, listen, i'm going to teach him a lesson. i'll make him walk. a bus ride five miles. a bank security guard spots the little boy walking alone in 30 degree weather on monday and called the police. the mother faces up to a year in jail. $1,000 fine. they interviewed the little boy. >> she did the right thing. she know that i've been suspended off the bus for five days so she didn't do nothing wrong. she made me walk. i just had to walk. they should never picked me up. i could have walked by myself. >> he's so sweet. that is a long way to walk. that will take you like two miles almost. >> i think the mother -- i think defend the mother's decision, make him understand getting ikd can off the bus.

what was entailed, what was at stake. >> the reality of i have personally covered five stories where little kids that age have been snatched because they walked with no one watching them. it is. you know why love the most -- >> it's not a crime. >> do you think she's going to get any time? >> no. she shouldn't be charged criminally, misdemeanor or anything higher. if she's endangered the child she should be counselled but the kid has learned the lesson. >> the biggest upside look how that little boy is like, i got it, i was badly behaved, i got kicked off the bus. my mother made me walk. >> my mother would have done the exact same thing. >> my mother would have hit us with a belt and then made us walk. >> exactly. oh, yeah. if you're watching, mom, we learned that lesson, too. still ahead this morning. on the runway, 14-year-old girls. the fashion runways. designer ignoring some age guidelines that have been suggested for his models.

what 14-year-old girls can afford that stuff? plus, two female lawmakers fed up during a congressional hearing about religious liberty, or maybe it was about birth control. so they walked out. we're going to talk to the lawmaker who did stay and witness what happened. they were saying it was a sham. you're watching "starting point." [ male announcer ] this was how my day began.

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♪ tom davis, i like this song. a little pep by. it sounds old. where is that from? what year is that? >> '60s. liverpooling it. >> i like it. i like it. >> we remember the '60s. >> i remember the '60s. christine has the headlines for us. good morning. >> good morning, soledad. sources telling cnn this hour investigators put a rush on the toxicology testing for whitney houston. investigators are also

requesting surveillance video from the beverly hilton. they're hoping to learn what whitney houston did before she died. funeral plans for whitney houston include an a list of stars. bodyguard co-star kevin costner is expected to speak, alicia keys and stevie wonder. her godmother aretha franklin will perform. bobby brown did get a last-minute invite. soledad, piers morgan kick it off here at 11:00 a.m. eastern tomorrow. a plane filled with pot flying in president obama's airspace. air force fighter jet stopped this private plane filled with 40 pounds of marijuana as it veered toward the marine one helicopter. authorities say the president was never in any danger. a bus driver making a sober decision to keep a drunk pilot from flying. this airline pilot had hopped on a shuttle bus and was supposed to fly a plane to open no a but the bus driver suspected the pilot was drunk.

immediately tipped off airport police after failing blood alcohol tests this pilot was replaced. the so-called underwear bomber gets a life sentence. he tried to argue life in prison was cruel and unusual punishment. he is convicted of smuggling a bomb aboard a plane on christmas day in 2009. following a developing story out of louisiana, a barge colliding with a boat on the mississippi river. the coast guard said it received reports that oil has spill fred this collision. affiliate wwl reporting the waterway is still open. no one is injured. environmental safety and health officials are on the scene. and fashion designer marc jacobs is responding to critics who are blasting him, blasting him for using child models. jacobs sent two 14-year-old girls down the runway on his show on monday. industry group suggested that runway models should be 16 or older. but jacobs says he will do his show the way he wants. he compared young models to child actors and say if the

parents let the girls walk down, then he won't stop them. but are child actors, soledad, playing like grown ups or -- >> put the picture back up. is this what they're selling? he doesn't have to worry about it at all. there is no one in their right mind that who would buy that giant hat. it doesn't matter if there's an 78-year-old woman sell that? what is that? what is that? christine, the news is getting crazier. thank god it's friday. we've got to turn now and talk about the house oversight committee hearing on president obama's controversial contraception plan, almost as controversial as the plan itself. the hearing has been called bias and a sham. here's what carol maloney of new york had to say before she walked out of the hearing along with eleanor holmes nor on tton washington, d.c. let's see. >> what i want to know is where are the women? when i look at this panel i don't see one single woman

representing the tens of millions of women across the country who want and need insurance coverage for basic preventive health care services, including family planning. where are the women? >> excellent rhetorical question. i've got tom davis over here, let me hop in, there were women. there were women. >> tom chaired the committee before issa did. he could have been sitting in that seat. >> so there were women. >> the first panel had women on it. >> first panel had five men, the second panel had women. in a conversation that's really talking a lot -- >> none of the women went to the second panel. >> exactly. >> this is all politics. >> if you were chair -- if you had still been chair that committee you would not have made that mistake. >> it wasn't really a conversation about the issue. it was a very one-sided conversation.

virginia democrat jerry conley is a member of the house oversight committee. nice to have you, sir. >> good to be with you. >> before anyone jumps in and you know all these guys, i know. you called this a sham. why did you think this whole hearing was a sham anyway? >> unlike tom davis who would not have done this, the chairman of our committee, darrell issa, handpicked every one of these witnesses, made sure they were all of the most conservative bent in their respective denominations, absolutely precluded the democrats from having a single witness, and picked two at the last minute to add to the panel this a flagrant violation of the rules. then he created signs and have staff members holding them up as if these historic figures supported his narrow point of view on the subject. they did everything possible to try to change the subject from women's reproductive health and right to contraception to something else. it blew up in their faces. >> the panel was originally

called this. you should talk to your folk tons hill about this. lines crossed, separation of church and state, has the obama administration trampled on freedom of religion? >> you continue even twitter that. >> you're already off the twitter on that. >> conley has davis' old seat. >> i know. i know. he says you wouldn't have done that, congressman davis? >> but, jerry, i understand they did ask the democrats for a witness and the democrats sent them two and they invited barry lynn who then declined at the last mint and i think that was part of the mix-up. they were late getting back. >> tom, i don't think there was any mix-up. darrell issa clearly wanted to censor any dissenting views on this topic. and that's why it blew up in his face. >> there are things united for separation of church and state was invited and i guess backed out at the last minute. >> when you look at the tight of this. let me stop this conversation because i want to go back to the title. has the become administration trampled on the freedom of religion. you're also really -- it's framed around a conversation about contraception.

that really is what everybody has been talking about. so two things. one, why no women? if you're talking about contraception, to have -- >> because the conversation wasn't -- you had a jewish rabbi who was pro-contraception on the first panel and they looked at this as an infringement on religious practice. they felt threatened. i think that was the purpose of the panel as jerry said, contraception was the underlying issue of this. this has become a political food fight. >> let's be realistic, too. the tv cameras were here in the morning for the first panel. that was the all-male panel. in the afternoon not as much attention was paid to the hearing. if you want to be fair, make sure there's a woman on the first panel when there's -- >> i'm going to take exception to that. am i crazy so this really a conversation about contraception that is being framed as a conversation about religious freedom? >> religious freedom being framed as contraception. it depends on the narrative.

>> so then -- >> go ahead. >> give jerry a shot here. >> he's like, let me in. he got up early to be here. >> thank you. i want to agree with you. think about the title, trampled? why not have it neutrally wored. have they crossed the line? fair title. when you they trampled you've given away the game. you clearly already in advance decided the answer. >> it's a little bit like snorks when did you stop beating your wife panel. >> the whole frame of this is silly. this is about access to health care. and women need access to contraception. it was always about contraception. >> if, in fact, about religious liberty, if it is, let's say that congressman davis is right. it's religious liberty. still have been no women of religious freedom and religious liberty, framed around contraception, having no women on that panel -- >> soledad. >> go ahead. >> i just want to point out about religious freedom. mike huckabee when he was governor of arkansas signed into

law exactly the compromise president obama approved. mitt romney, republican governor of massachusetts, in trying this in his romney care exactly the same policy. it is nonsense to claim this is suddenly a religious freedom issue. this is a policy that's been embraced by republicans all over the country until now. and you have to say what's changed? what's changed is we're in an election year and they want to try desperately to find somebody that can hang around the president's neck. >> what changed though is the catholic bishops and the church, from every pulpit across the country, readen edict opposing it. >> on the original policy and the president fixed it. >> but the problem -- it's not fixed yet, jerry, because some of the plans are self insured but it's something they can get to. but it is still a work in progress. >> here's the deeper thing here. this is -- and senator santorum said it himself. contraception is bad for women. that's the underlying fault line

here -- >> that's a democratic narrative. >> no, he said it. >> that is a quote. we have to go to commercial break. i love when we keep talking because we can continue on the other side. still ahead on "starting point," we're going to -- congressman conley, thanks for being was. i almost forgot to thank him. we appreciate you being with us, sir. we're going to talk about mitt romney straight ahead. is he in danger of losing the state of michigan? and super tuesday is right around the corner. we're going to bring in rick santorum's campaign representative to join us to talk about that. also, a wounded syrian activist talking to cnn begging president obama, bigging israel for help saying that assad is going to kill millions. that's straight ahead. back in a home. [ female announcer ] introducing coffee-mate natural bliss. made with only milk...

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and when i do find it, i share it with the world. you landed the u.s. tour ? done. this is fantastic ! music is my life and i want to make the most of it without missing a beat. fly without putting your life on pause. be yourself nonstop. american airlines. welcome back, everybody. nonstop shelling in syria this morning. government forces have desieged the city of homs. so far nine people are dead

today alone. the u.n. general assembly has passed a nonbinding resolution that is condemning president bashar al-assad for human rights violations. activist named danny who was shot in homs spoke exclusively to cnn. listen. >> how do you think history will judge the diplomacy of the past few months? >> for the last few months, it's a crime against humanity. russia and china will deal with that. they've got syrian blood on their hands. this is all their fault. last time the u.n. did nothing, they gave the green light and the okay to assad to kill more. it was the first time that he used rocket launches after the u.n. he felt safe. they gave him the okay. >> nick peyton walsh is live for news beirut this morning. what is the latest this morning? >> reporter: this morning, again, heavy shelling in homs. we're hearing five dead from that shelling this morning.

and actually has dawn broke, nine bodies found across cities. the death toll there continuing. interestingly, though, a separate development to the east of where i'm standing here in beirut, a town which had been held by the opposition for a period of time and then some kind of pause in fighting with the army took place in which the army used to move into the town, take it over again. we're now understanding it's under a strong grip. this morning clashes again apparently breaking out in that particular area spop yesterday's u.n. resolution having very little impact in terms of the pace of fighting. this onslaught continuing. and it now al appears renewed crack down in this town. >> talk to me about what potentially lies ahead. when you hear some of the opposition literally beg for help, it's troubling. when we hear what's happening certainly in the u.n. it doesn't look like anything is going to be forthcoming soon. what happens in between? >> well, putting aside the u.n. vote yesterday, that was nonbinding. that has no legal teeth, so to

speak. it is basically a piece of paper in which many countries have already condemned this, condemn again together, after quite a lot of diplomatic wrangling. the next step which danny asked potentially the west to do was to own the free syrian army, provide what he referred to as modern proper weapons. claiming they don't have bullets or rocket propelled grenades that work as they face this well equipped russian armed military. syrian army. that may potentially be difficult. you may argue we did hear yesterday u.s. intelligence officials making the case that they are concerned radical elements within the region are slipping into the movement. something danny furiously denied but that could potentially complicate any efforts by anyone in the west to provide more discourse support to the free syrian army on the ground. but all these steps seem pretty far off. there's been an awful lot of talking. with just heard, in fact, david cameron of the uk and nicolas sarkozy of france stands together and frankly most we heard from that is is their

desire to cooperate more and britain sending food rations. very slow international response being felt by the people of homs on the thick receiving end of this syrian onslaught. >> it's terrible to watch from here. thank you for the update. still ahead this morning on "starting point," rick santorum's surge in the state of michigan. home field advantage might mean nothing for mitt romney. we'll talk to the santorum campaign up next. you're watching "starting point." [ horn honks ]

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welcome back, everybody. less than two weeks to go before the michigan primary and the latest poll shows that santorum and mitt romney are in a statistical dead heat with santorum at 34% and romney at 32%. a similar picture in michigan. it's technically a statistical tie as well. this morning we're joined by the santorum campaign press secretary, alice stewart. it's nice to see you. thanks for talking with us. certainly appreciate it. what do you make of your candidate's recent surge in the polls? >> well, it just goes to show that voters are taking their time and repeated really getting to know the candidates and beginning to recognize that mitt romney is the most liberal candidate we have in this race

and rick santorum is the true consistent conservative and that goes for social and fiscal issues. people this year are concerned more than ever about the economy, jobs and they want to create an environment that will help create jobs. with the unemployment rate at 8.3% and a debt and deficit continuing to rise. they want someone in the white house not like president obama who will create jobs and stimulate the economy and restore confidence in our government and economic system more than anything else. >> yesterday we were talking about what i thought was a funny ad that was done by the santorum campaign. we'll roll a little bit of it. which is a guy with sort of the paint gun full of mud. this character here is meant to look like mitt romney aiming at rick santorum. people say that's an inoculation ad. he's trying to plant in people's minds what might be ahead. mitt romney fired back about that ad. here's what he had to say. >> look, it's not something i'm going to whine about. i know there's some candidates

that want to whine about the fact that in campaigns you go back and forth, talk about the distinctions between one another, but let's talk about a process that gets us to a nominee. >> do you think he has a point. listen, let's move off the ads and talk about some substance here? >> i believe rick santorum was the very first person to say that in the debate not too long ago. quit the bickering. let's talk about the issues and what people want to hear about. that ad, i might ad was in response to an ad that came out from a romney super pac. rick santorum is to go well because he's talking about what people want to hear about. he ga i have a great speech at the detroit economic club yesterday that was very well received because he talked about creating opportunities, creating a ladder of success for people of all income levels across the country. >> why is he doing not well among women though? why do you think that is? let's throw up a poll number here and you'll see that mitt romney leads republican women by nine points. santorum's behind on that. why do you think that is? >> well, there's several different ways to break out the

polls. >> give me the top two. >> every poll shows something different. an important factor to consider in a lot of these polls is you break out the numbers. rick santorum has the highest favorabilities among the candidates. he is someone that people like. >> no, i get it. >> and can trust. >> you're going over ground you've covered. i'm going to stop you there. i want you to answer the question. when we throw up that poll he's nine points behind for women. why? give me the top two reasons. >> he appeals to women on many levels. most particularly because he is very strong on family and life. >> why is he behind mitt romney do you think? what are the two reasons he's behind in the polls by a decent number. >> gender gap. >> i'm curious what do you think that is due to? >> i can assure you he is reaching out to women across the country. he does very well as he speaks to women's groups and republican women's groups across the country because they see him as someone and we most recently saw with his daughter bella who was sick. he left the campaign trail to go spend time with his daughter.

>> every single parent who saw that all hearts all broke for him on that. any parent who's ever had to deal with any child's emergency, you know, it kills you if you're trying to do something else. i think you're right in connecting to parents, but i want to go back to the woman thing. how much do you think the fact that some of the things that rick santorum has said about contraception are working against him when it comes to women? let's play a little bit of what he has said. listen. >> from a governmental point of view i support title 10 i guess it is and have voted for contraception although i don't think it works, i think it's harmful to women and our society. >> i don't think it works. i voted for contraception. i don't think it works. i think it's harmful to women. is this to account for the gap, the gender gap in people who support him among republican women? >> well, i can assure you contraception -- the contraception issue is taking center stage this week, but it's one of the many issues that rick santorum stands firm on the

issues. >> which is what? what is that firm stance? >> he is a catholic. he believes that contraceptive -- he doesn't support contraception. >> at all, period? for married couples? for anyone? >> but if you look at his record, soledad, this is the important point, personally his faith is opposed to t. politically he has not stood in the way of contraception. he has supported issues that allows people to receive contraception. that's the point. that's the difference between him and president obama. >> do you think that that stance -- >> he personally is opposed to it but he does not let government get in the way of women having access to that. >> i hear what you're saying. my question to you is do you think that stance is hurting him among republican women when we see in polls that he's nine points behind mitt romney who is struggling himself in the polls? >> no. >> no, you don't think so? >> the point is that he has a personal faith view on contraception. he does not allow that to affect him politically and i can assure you, look at me. i'm his national press

secretary. he has a lot of faith and confidence in women all up and down the campaign and as a member when he was in congress. he is a strong supporter of women, working women, single mothers, and so any claim that he doesn't support women in the workplace are certainly unfounded. >> you know i certainly did not say that. i was just asking you to explain to me the gender gap. i'm not sure i got an answer on that. we're out of time. i appreciate you joining us this morning. alice stewart is the press secretary for rick santorum. got to take a short break. ahead this morning on "starting point." some new information in the whitney houston investigation and now of course people are focusing on bobbi kristina and concerns about just how she's holing up. this morning going to talk to richard prior's daughter. she had a parent who had a problem with addiction. she has some advice for bobbi kristina. she also said people reached out to her when her dad died and how helpful that was. we'll talk about adele on the cover of owe vogue"

magazine. she looks different than she did at the grammys. was she photo shopped, not photo shopped? i personally support that. we're talking about that and much more straight ahead. "starting point" continues after this. look, every day we're using more and more energy.

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-- captions by vitacr-- wi hwww.vitac.comisor, good morning. welcome, everybody. our "starting point" focuses on whitney houston and some new details about her funeral. we know who's going to sing, speak, and who will be invited. richard prior's daughter has some advise for bobbi kristina. the growing threat from iran is what we're talking about. intell officials are saying iran could fire missiles at u.s. targets around the world. and then this, adele on the cover of "vogue." . some people say, no, she is photo shopped. i think she looks great no matter what. "starting point" begins right now. ♪

me again. me again. it's an all soledad friday. that's what i like. that's trey songs. my special friend. welcome back, everybody. let's re-introduce you to our panel. we have tom davis back for more. he's a former virginia congressman. martin frost and connie rice is a civil rights attorney. a sizeable celebrity lineup will be at whitney houston's funeral. families, close friends of course. the funeral is tomorrow, private, invitation only. here are some of the names of people we know who will be attending, tyler perry, kevin costner, alicia keys, steve have i wonder. we're learning more about whitney houston's final hours. some people are saying she was drinking pretty heavily, that she had some erratic behavior. she had well-known battles with addiction. that had to be a real burden for some of her friends and family members, and her daughter, too, who has been talking about it for the past couple of days. rain prior is richard prior's

daughter. >> thank you for having me. >> it must be so hard to have a parent who has struggled with an addiction and then on top of it struggled so publicly with an addiction like your father. was that chaos for you? >> it's not that it's chaos. it's in the open. you kind of can learn from it, at least we have. i think us as children have. we decided we'll go a different route, a different path. >> so you wanted to learn from what your dad was dealing with. >> it's not that i wanted to learn, i think i just happened to learn. that's the way it was. it was right in front of us. you have a choice to make. you either follow that path and choose that direction or you say, you know what, i want a life. >> i heard that you reached out to bobbi kristina. >> i did actually through twitter because i didn't know any other way because i wanted to say to her, one, i would be a big sister to her and help her walk through this and give her time to grieve and sort of say there's someone around you that sort of removed herself from hollywood that gets it because

my dad was so huge and to say, you have the comfort of someone there. if you -- if she chooses i'm there. >> did someone do that for you? >> yeah, kelley car lynn did it. >> george carlin's daughter? >> i know she didn't tweet you. >> no, she facebooked me. after her father died and she said will you be my little sister because i think you'll get it? we just automatically became instant friends. >> what kind of conversation if you don't mind revealing them? what kind of things did you talk about that were helpful? >> the fact that we have lives and how hard it is to explain to people that we don't -- you know, it's like i'm a mother. i'm married to a cop first off. that's the oddest thing anyway. i have a life outside of hollywood and how we just sort of removed ourselves. if we choose to be a part of hollywood, we do it on our terms, not their terms. >> when i interviewed ber niece king years ago, i think it was for the 40th anniversary of her father's death. she said as a kid i was so jealous that other people got to

share like at the funeral that all these other strangers were like -- they loved my dad, too. she was mad about it. did you feel that way, too? that all these strangers wanted to grieve as much as you wanted to grieve? >> i think the hardest part was learning how to have my solid grief to myself and process that and realize that i'm also having to process other people's grief. like you go to the airport. i went immediately after i heard my father passed, i was in baltimore at the time, went be to the airport and people were like grabbing me and -- you know, you kind of have that moment of like, but it's my dad, not yours. and then -- >> so what did you do about that? >> i kind of just sat with it and just realized there's going to be that. there's going to be the people who want to throw their grief on you because you're attached to him or in her case, you know, to her mother. but she has to know how to step away from that and for me i moved 3,000 miles away out of hollywood. >> you were older too. >> i was older, right. >> you were not 18. what advice do you give -- she's -- i know she probably

thinks she's big, but she's a girl. >> she is a little girl. right now she's around family and really strong family to sort of keep her base with them. if i was really in her pocket i would say, stay in new jersey. be around where your truth is at the moment so that you have a chance to grieve and make this change for yourself. and don't worry about the rest of the world. don't worry about the people who want to glom on. there's going to be a lot of sick people. it's okay to make that choice. say i need to process. i'm a little kid. i need my family. be with it. >> do you think that today with everybody, with a camera phone, that that's going to be a much tougher struggle for her, right? the stuff that you went through everybody wasn't recording it on their own little personal device, uploading it to youtube. >> right. >> it may have come to you in an airport but it wouldn't necessarily go further than that. >> absolutely. >> that's going to be a challenge. >> it is going to be a challenge but, again, if she surrounds

herself, if she allows her grandmother and that family because they seem so spiritually sound and strong to embrace her and she allows that, she has to allow that, then i think she has a real big shot at being able to go through this process on her own without everybody around. i mean, of course there's going to be people outside and people want to take pictures, but it's not going to be so much as if she went back to los angeles or someplace like that. she needs to kind of remove herself for a while so she can breathe. >> you were very honest about what your dad was doing. he had multi-sclerosis and he was still doing drugs, still smoking. >> yes. >> it had to be incredibly painful. >> it was. you can't save your parent. that's something you learn as well. i was an addictions counselor. that's how i thought i could help. and then i realized i can't even help those people so i stopped doing that. i realize it's a choice one makes. you can't control the people that are around them and you can't control them at that time. so you have to say do i want to

be carried down with them or do i want to still go upward? for me i chose to go upward and kind of remove myself at times. >> was that a tough choice? did you have to struggle with the -- >> absolutely. >> really, was it hard? >> yeah, you feel guilt. i could have saved, could have, should have, would have. then you realize, no, really, you can't. you're powerless over them. >> a lot of fans. i was a big fan. >> thank you. that's what you want to remember, too, that he was great and wonderful and the good times. yeah, there's always bad -- every family has some drama. i mean, name one family that doesn't. >> not everybody's drama shows up in the newscasts. >> no, it doesn't. that's what makes the difference is that ours is so public. the other thing is how are we going to handle it? do we use that as an excuse or do we grow from that. we have an opportunity and she has an opportunity to really grow from that and so i hope that's what she does. if she chooses, i'm here. >> good. i hope that she reaches out to you. >> i hope so. >> i know some of her family

members, the faith thing is going to be really -- >> absolutely. >> it must be so hard. ica not imagine dealing with that in the -- under the glare of the lights and people screaming questions at you. >> and let her grieve. realize she's a child. >> and grow up. >> absolutely. >> thanks, rain. appreciate you joining us. other stories to get to. christine has those headlines. >> good morning again, soledad. under the threat of more sanctions iran now says it's ready to resume talks on the country's nuclear program. still u.s. intelligence officials are concerned about iran possibly launching a terror attack on american soil even though there's no specific or credible threat. pulitzer prize honored reporter anthony shadid died in syria. he was just 43 years old. he suffered an asthma attack. the two were both kidnapped in libya last year, cnn's anderson cooper discussed that experience with shadid in april.

tyler hicks carried his body over the border. >> there are some stories worth taking risks for. it is a little bit of a cliche. there is some meaning. unless you're there covering it, no one is going to know about it. unless you're there trying to bring meaning to it, to bring a certain depth to it, it won't be done otherwise. shadid was reporting on the military resistance in syria. he has won two pulitzer prizes for his coverage in iraq. a workplace dispute between two immigration and customs enforcement shootout left one dead. it happened at the federal building in long beach, crite a california. a third agent intervened and killed the shooter. investigators are not saying what led to this confrontation but they are calling it an isolated incident. following a developing story out of louisiana. a barge collided with a boat on the mississippi river spilling oil, we're told. according to a cnn producer, the

national response center dispatch has been notified of the spill. coast guard teams are efforting cleanup operations. at this point we're not sure how much oil is going into the river. environmental safety and health officials are on the scene. watching your money this friday morning with today's futures. gains expected in the dow and the s&p 500. nasdaq futures leaning a little bit lower. on thursday the nasdaq hit a decade high. stocks overall closing at more than 1%. the dow jones industrial average within shouting distance of 13,000. baseball has lost one of its grates. hall of fame cash jerp gary carter died after a battle with brain cancer. he starred with the montreal expose before he helped the new york mets win the 1986 world series. gary carter was just 57 years old. and a final farewell to "soul train" creator done cornelius. there was a memorial in los angeles yesterday.

in his eulogy reverend jesse jackson said when "soul train" debued it created a platform that had never existed before. >> that is so true. i remember watching "soul train" on saturday mornings and my parents. that was just -- that was quite the thing back then. >> i know. i had to use the vacuum cleaner. i had to clean the house, use the vacuum cleaner. >> watch, clean the house. thanks. still ahead this morning on "starting point," they could have had it all but did vogue photo shop adele to make her look skin i err. an autism break through to talk about. doctors say they might be able to derail it early for children. we'll tell you what parents need to know this morning. then treasury secretary timothy geithner making republicans a little bit mad with his, quote, silly little smirk. it's come to that on capitol hill, hasn't it? fireworks at the hearing.

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♪ you had my heart inside of your hands ♪ but you paid it, you paid it, you paid me to ♪ >> we all love adele. she's awesome. you can blame some of this latest perfect if you havele, if you will, on the designer carl lag girl felled. last month she said adele was a little too fat. so now she's on the cover of the current issue of vogue. she doesn't look chunky at all on that cover. there are a lot of people who think that photo has been retouched to make her look thinner. our next guest knows a thing or two about modeling. she's a world famous top plus size model. >> so good to see you. >> we've been having these conversations literally now for a million years. we've known each other for a long time. do you think that's been retouched? >> yes. >> i'm not a trained professional but that looks retouched. >> yes. it's definitely not the woman we

saw over 72 hours ago. >> so big deal, no big deal? >> it's a big deal if millions of young girls and women just saw her over 72 hours ago and looks at this cover and says, this is what i have to go for in my life. this is what i have to look like. >> isn't every single model retouched? every photo that you took as a model, weren't you retouched? >> yes. >> okay. what's the big deal? >> because there's a line. there's definitely a line that you cross, whether you're the talent -- adele does not have any control over the cover -- this cover or this spread but when you do your own photo shoot you know a line and the photo toucher knows the line as well as the magazine knows the line. and there was a line that was crossed. >> she doesn't want to be a mini -- that was her words. >> no. >> when she did an interview with anderson that aired on ""60 minutes."" she was like i like me the way i am. >> that's why we love her. we love adele because she

accepts herself. >> she dropped weight for the grammys. i mean, from a year and a half, 18 months ago she's dropped quite a bit of weight. >> no. i would like his number so he can air touch me. >> i agree with you. when i have pictures taken, please, photo shop all you want. >> exactly. i do. i do. i don't care. >> you know, but you want to be able to take out major stuff if you had something in the morning you want to take it out of your teeth but i do leave lines. i do leave some of life on my face when i do have images. >> so tell us how it works for these major magazine covers. is the reality nobody is going to buy that cover even if it's a woman who's just won an arm load of grammys. by the way which had the biggest grammy audience in the history of forever. she can sell albums, for god's sake, just the way she is. >> so are the conversations

literally -- >> i think it's too limited in the magazine and not the mainstream -- mainstream consumer media has a very, very different view of what is acceptable. i think men like women of a bouquet of beauty. i think women are a bouquet of beauty. we are very diversified. how would we all like it if we were all tulips. >> at this age, please. but you want to know something, there is a cult of youth. the pressure on women has quadrupled. when we grew up there was no tyranny of oversexualizing young girls, which is what that earlier segment was about with the runway. but you want to know something, it's getting to a point now where in l.a. people give girls gift certificates for plastic surgery and they're not even -- >> where are we going with this. >> going to get a final word from the men on the panel because they've said absolutely nothing. join in.

honestly. >> i'm all for photo touching. i agree with you. politicians will often use younger photos of themselves in the literature they send out. >> do you agree with that. >> i have no problem with that. >> oh, my gosh. >> running the campaign. i want my candidates to look as good as possible. >> oh, my goodness. >> i agree with martin. >> we need to talk about it around the kitchen table. >> it's come to that. >> help our girls. >> i think that's true. still ahead this morning, nice to see you. >> nice to see you too. >> we're talking about whitney houston. the man who defended michael jackson, mark geragos is going to talk to us about the whitney houston death investigation. now there's a rush on those toxicology reports, which i think is a good idea. they can lay to rest any of these conversations, i think. i think it'll bring it to a close a little bit faster. also the smarter the car, the dumber the driver it goes. new crackdown on distracted driving. checking your facebook on your dashboard? you have people who are checking in on facebook while they're

driving. that's ridiculous. watching "starting point." we're back in a moment. so, how was school today ?

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. few quick headlines for you. the senate is the next stop in the battle over the keystone pipeline. the house passed a bill that would strip president obama's authority to decide on this $7 billion project and open atlantic waters to offshore drilling. three 60 foot beams weighing several tons fell 40 stories at the world trade center construction site after a crane cable snapped. amanda knox lands a $4 million book deal selling her memoir to harper collins. it will come out early 2013. knox was accused of killing her roommate. that conviction overturned by an

italian court. thank you very much. one of the most sad things and tragic things about kids who have child who had leukemia, they suffer from a completely wrecked immune system. that makes it very, very hard to go ahead and be a kid. today's cnn hero, nancy zuk, mom who's working to change that. >> reporter: morgan wu morgan was a very happy child and had friends. when she was 2 years old she was diagnosed with leukemia. to make it worse she had no immune system. she could not be around other children. i was driving morgan to the hospital and all of her friends were going to the preschool and i thought we need to start a program for children with cancer where they can socialize and have friends and learn and play. >> my name is nancy zuch. i give children battling cancer a preschool experience. >> exposures to a simple

childhood cold or illness will become life threatening to these children. clean hands, good girl. >> we provide a safe and clean environment. they have individualized supply boxes. >> reporter: tell us about the special doll. >> leukemia doll. i have leukemia and i have no hair. >> doll's just like you. >> everything that you hoped for your children, it's like you have to rebuild that. it's a really difficult thing to do. it's wonderful to see my daughter to be like a normal kid. >> they love school because they're around other kids which they're not used to. we live in isolation. we don't do anything. we can't go in. >> why? >> too many people in there. >> before we found the morgan center the hospital was the only place that my kids would go. >> part of me lives through every treatment. to see the smiles on their faces and they're reclaiming their childhood, that feeling is such a joy that it's indescribable.

>> still ahead this morning on "starting point," investigators are now rushing whitney houston's toxicology tests. we're going to talk this morning with criminal defense attorney mark geragos on what that could mean. chris christie under fire for flying flags at half mass. it could be half staff, people, i've looked it up, at houston's funeral. he is not backing down. two female lawmakers leave a hearing on birth control or was it a hearing on religious liberty. they were saying, there are no women here. you're watching "starting point." ♪

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♪ here comes the sunday ♪ here comes the sun. i say it's all right ♪ i really am liking the "starting point" play list this morning. that's martin frost's play list. >> the story on that 40 years ago was a very young man, i was on a public affairs program in

dallas, texas, with jim larab before he went to pbs. that was the lead in music. >> you can't have beetles as your lead in music, ascap, all those groups would go crazy. could you imagine the price of that? >> lots to get to. hey, christine. >> hi, soledad. u.s. intelligence officials fear al qaeda is slipping into syria. they're being torn apart with government forces shelling the city of homs again this morning. top u.s. officials are blaming recent bombings in syria on al qaeda extremists from iraq. meantime, the united nations general assembly has passed a non-binding resolution condemning president bashar al-assad's regime for human rights violations. new jersey governor chris christie defending the decision to fly flags half staff. people slamming the decision on twitter. one says she's not a fallen hero. i am not alone in taking offense to this.

she's no role model, she's a dead junkie. kristie fired back on twitter. he said every n.j. soldier who's been killed in action during my administration has been lowered in their memory. learn your facts before you accuse. >> i understand there will be some who disagree. every decision i make someone disagrees with. i believe that drug addiction is a disease and i think that she struggled might tilly with that disease and i don't believe that that diminishes the cultural contributions that she made to the state. >> those flags will be lowered. a new study could provide a break through in treating autism. the study looked at mri images for 92 infants and it showed autism may be detectible in infants as young as 6 months old. 28 of those mris revealed results of slower brain connections and those infants went on to be diagnosed with autism disorder. but some doctors say the results

are not distinguishable enough to make a clear-cut diagnosis at that age. the federal government proposing new guidelines to prevent distracted driving. among the recommendations to automakers, disabling built in defies for text messages and gps devices when the car is moving. they have 60 days to review and comment on the proposed rules. send a text, the car stops. >> whatever happened? we have a couple of elected officials on our panel. would that ever happen? >> the answer is i think it could happen. my wife is on me all the time when we're driving and when i'm looking at my blackberry or when i'm talking on the phone. i think it could happen. >> really? >> it's happening in states. >> i would have thought people would push against that. let's talk about whitney houston and the new toxicology tests they're hoping to rush to figure out the cause of her death. doctors who prescribed her medicine and then pharmacists who filled those prescriptions are now facing questions about the role of medication and whether it played a role in her death. while the chief coroner says

nothing looks criminal, that's a quote, there are reports of drinking and some erratic behavior. it's certainly kind of a troubled picture of her final days. mark geragos a criminal defense attorney. 's he in los angeles. we know him because he has defended some of hollywood's biggest stars including michael jackson and many others. let's start at the very beginning. >> good morning. >> first, the toxicology tests we were told were going to take eight weeks. then they'll rush the toxicology tests. how long does a regular old toxicology test take and what does rush mean? >> well, normally it takes anywheres from six to eight weeks and that's standard operating procedure. in this case they can do it as quickly as 72 hours if they want to. clearly because of all of the attention in this case they're going to rush it through. what they're looking for is they want to see what kind of levels and then i would assume from there they're going to kind of reverse engineer and see who was prescribing these medications and who was dispensing the medications.

i agree with the coroner. i don't think you're ever going to see anything criminal, but i would not be surprised if you see some kind of administrative action, either the medical board or the pharmacy board. >> what's that mean? >> the medical board or the pharmacy board comes in and does some kind of an investigation to look and see who was dispensing or prescribing these drugs and then they may want to take some action gents somebody's license. >> when you look at so far, a lot of this hasn't been confirmed because we don't know the results of the toxicology tests, but it sounds like xanax, other anti-anxiety drugs, maybe some kind of antibiotic for the throat, stuff that people have in their cabinets. what kind of follow-up or even -- you know, what could they do to doctors that prescribe things that a gazillion americans take? >> here in los angeles on the west side of l.a. 80% of people have those things in their medicine cabinets but in their systems. >> is that a real statistic? >> yes. it's my own statistic. >> oh, okay. i was going to say, wow.

>> based on anecdotal experience. >> a lot. i gotcha. >> who are you hanging around with? >> if you get me up this early again i'm going to need to have some xanax in me. what they're looking for and what they eventually will do, they found, at least it's been reported that they found prescription bottles there. they will then go backwards and see who was prescribing what kind of quantities. normally that's not a problem. if you prescribe it, the doctor saw you, he kept a medical record. none of that will be anything that raises any sush sppicion. if you start seeing that there are all kinds of prescriptions that are issued and under various names, that's my prediction, that then there's going to be an accusation of doctor shopping or things of that nature. that's where the medical board's antenna get all kinds of attention. >> all right. let me ask you a question about a report that said that whitney houston's body had been taken,

dragged out of the tub, and into the bedroom before the police arrived. and on one hand you think, of course, trying to save her. they were administering cpr. others would say that puts a lot of the evidence that you could be looking at, makes it suspect because it's not a pure scene that investigators can look at. what do you think? >> i think if you remember back to conrad murray, one of the things that they -- the prosecution condemned him for was not adequately doing cpr, not doing it quick enough and being on the phone and things like that. you can't win for losing in this situation. if they had done nothing, somebody would have argued, why did you just leave her there? why didn't you do something? if they did do it then somebody's going to argue, now the crime scene's not -- if there is a crime scene is not pristine. i just think that there's no way to win that argument. >> mark geragos, we do appreciate you getting up for us this morning, by the way.

>> thank you. go back to bed now, sir. >> i will. >> still ahead on "starting point," you'll remember earlier in the week we were talking to senator pat toomey and he said that what what i had described as an analysis of his deficit plan was wrong and ridiculous. the man that's behind that study is going to join us to respond to what the senator said. that's straight ahead. back after this break. of identity thieves "enough." we're lifelock, and we believe you have the right to live free from the fear of identity theft. our pledge to you? as long as there are identity thieves, we'll be there. we're lifelock. and we offer the most comprehensive identity theft protection ever created. lifelock: relentlessly protecting your identity. call 1-800-lifelock or go to lifelock.com today.

welcome back, everybody. congress is once again taking sides over the president's latest budget proposal. on our show on tuesday senator pat toomey was our guest. he's from pennsylvania. he challenged us on his show about what we were saying. sheer's the exchange. here's what you propose, tax cuts for the wealthy, for people who are making up $200,000 taxes would rise. you would limit the child credit. you would limit -- >> wait a minute. i have to stop that. that's factually ridiculous. >> really? >> yeah. factually wrong and ridiculous. >> what part of that. >> not close. >> let's start -- >> raising taxes on people whose income is lower than 200,000. >> so he said factually ridiculous and wrong. now those numbers that we were citing were based on an analysis

that was done by the center for budget policy and priorities. joining us now to explain their analysis is the president of the center. his name is robert wine stooen. thanks for being with us. you heard what the senator had to say. you have said that there are sort of four basic parts to senator toomey's tax plan. can you walk us through them please? >> sure. senator toomey outlined his plan back in november to the super committee and he said he would lower tax rates particularly at the top for high income people. he would lower the top rate down from the bush 35% all the way down to 28%. he said that he would limit credits, deductions, the mortgage interest deduction, the child credit, the tax break for employer health exclusion. there would be a limit on how much you could get from those, but the biggest tax preference for high income people, the very low rate, 15%, the low tax rate

on profits from buying and selling stocks. the capital gains tax rate, he would leave that down at 15%. and the fourth element. he said this would all pay for itself. it wouldn't increase the deficit at all. >> so you heard where he took great exception. >> yes zpl he said it is factually ridiculous. >> yes? and factually wrong that he want bed to raise taxes for people who were making under $200,000 a year. is that correct? >> oh, i think senator toomey is very sincere in not wanting to raise taxes for people below 200. i think he is, indeed, unaware that that is the effect that his plan would have and has to have. the math is very simple, soledad. under his plan by lowering the top rate to 28% for people at the top, it is a huge tax cut at the top. the urban institute brook kings center policy indicates $140

billion a year. if you leave the capital gains rate at 15%, all of the studies of plans like senator toomey's show that you can't raise -- you don't raise enough money from limiting things like the mof mortgage interest deduction or child credit on people at the top to make up for the big tax cut you're giving them by lowering the top 28%. the math is irrefutable here. if you bring in the same amount of revenue overall and you cut taxes for people over 200, then you have to raise them for people under 200. again, congress's official score keeper, the joint committee on taxation, analyzed a plan similar to toomey's and found it would cut taxes for people over 200, it would raise taxes for people under 200. >> okay. then as our intervuf went on he said this about some more details of his plan. i'll play a little bth for you. listen. >> what i've said is we should make the current tax rates permanent. in fact, what i'd prefer to do

would be something like i proposed in the super committee which was a process by which we would simplify the tax code, get rid of some of the deductions, loopholes, credits, broaden the base on which we apply taxes but do it with lower rates for everybody. >> so i asked him about that, get rid of the deductions, the loopholes, some of the credits and broaden the base. is that a viable solution to what he's proposing? >> many people, including myself, like the idea of raising more revenue by limiting credits, deductions, and tax breaks than by raising rates, however, the problem is that virtually everyone else who's designed a careful plan to lower rates and broaden the base finds that as part of that you must raise the capital gains rate from its very low 15%. high income people get a big share of their income from capital gains and that if you don't do that, then you absolutely end up either

cutting -- raising taxes on people below 200 because you cut them on people above 200 or your alternative is you increase the deficit because your plan brings in a lot less revenue. i think the issue here is senator toomey has been talking about this plan since november. he has yet to make public even one page, a single piece of paper with the details of his plan. my proposal to senator toomey is put it on paper and send it to the joint tax committee to have them look at it. >> are you a left leaning organization, the center for budget and policy priorities because when we introduced that to the senator i said is that partisan? >> we are a nonpartisan organization. we tend to be fiscally conservative on deficit issues but favor programs that help low income people and people who are struggling. >> robert green -- >> sometimes we've been called progressive fiscal

conservatives. >> which makes no sense at all really. robert greenstein. thank you for clearing up some of that. we've got to take a short break. we're going to discuss this i promise on our next block. we're going to talk also about this religious freedom contraception issue. two female lawmakers got fed up at a congressional hearing about birth control and religious liberty walked out. some said it was a sham. we'll continue our debate about that

since we last heard from him, butch has retired and is working on a novel about growing up in the south in the civil rights era. his wife is still on the bench. jonathan's moved up in the prosecuting ranks. justin's gotten married and is now in grad school to be a film director all the while still making music. they're still one of the only black families in their upscale neighborhood, the warrens have befriended some of their neighbors who were initially stand offish when they moved in. . .

welcome back, everybody. want to give you some more details about that developing story we've been telling you about all morning. that barge collision that has tangen place in laplace, louisiana. this is after a collision with a

barge that had a crane and a boat happened on the mississippi river roughly 30 miles west of new orleans now according to one of the cnn producers, the national center has been notified of the spill. coast guard teams are there already. it is unclear how much oil has been spilled, how much oil potentially could be spilled and how much is going into the river at that point. environmental safety and health officials are on the scene. we'll continue to update you obviously as we get more information and some more numbers on the story. to capitol hill now. treasury secretary tim geithner testifying at a house budget committee. he was pressed by republicans on a need for tax reform and on a lack of any proposal coming from president obama. >> that's leadership. so wait for other people to do something, then we'll react? >> you know, you guys just spent about six months threatening to default on obligations you gave

us. >> mr. secretary -- >> now if you call that leadership, that's fine with me. >> so where is your tax reform plan? that's why we're here today is to learn where this administration -- >> if you want to bluj gone me to admitting me to admit we're not giving you one. i confess. we're not giving it to you. >> i confess. it's not in the budget. guess what, that wasn't the only battle. would he have' got more. wait, there's more. wait for it. two female senators walked out of a house oversight hearing on the contraception controversy and how it plays into the freedom of religion. they were angry because the first panel was all male. five men. democratic congressman jerry conolly was at the hearing. we spoke to him on "starting point." >> i just want to point out about religious freedom, mike huckabee when he was governor of arkansas signed into law exactly the compromise president obama has approved. mitt romney, republican governor of massachusetts, enshined this in his romney care. exactly the same policy. it is nonsense to claim this is a religious freedom issue.

this is a policy that's been embraced by republicans all over the country until now and you have to say what's changed? what's changed is we're in an election year and they want to try desperately to hang something around the president's neck. >> losing conversation? >> absolutely. the republicans won this fight last week. they got the president to change his position. they made some points about problems with the president he's having with the catholic church. they should have stopped right there. >> mark, if it's on birth control, they lose the argument. when you make it about religious freedom, that's a winner. that's why the administration backed off. there are some issues for the administration. >> republicans, this is hurting them a lot among women. they won last week. they should have taken a victory lap and moved on. >> how about the budget? lets let's look at geithner. >> the president's budget came to a vote on the senate floor.

it lost 97-0. the administration's come up. the numbers are political numbers. this is an election year. we need to understand that and nobody's coming up with anything close to balance on either side. >> there's not going to be tax reform in an election year. there may be tax reform started next year. the last time congress did this was in 1984. it took four years to work that through the congress. this is tough. these are hard decisions. nobody's going -- >> '86 tax reform today. >> you heard them talking about senator toomey's tax plan. very complex. >> toomey was technically correct. his plan doesn't raise taxes. >> technically is the key word. >> that's right. greenstein assumes somebody will pay the difference. the numbers don't add up. >> the problem is also that toomey and others assume dynamic scoring which is the crazy concept that if you cut taxes enough it will generate revenue. we have to take a break. bruce, next time. "end point" is up next. back in a moment. when i grow up,

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time for "end point." congressman davis, you're going to start us off. >> pat toomey did not lie about husband budget plan. the numbers may not add up but he doesn't raise taxes. the administration doesn't have a balanced budget or tax plan. >> what do you think? >> republicans are in the process of taking defeat from the jaws of victory by continuing to press the social issue on contraception. it's a loser for them. >> connie rice, you get our final word. >> president obama needs to be paying these folks. it's helping the democrats. bottom line is authenticity works. numbers you can't do in an election year.