and that can is called spending cuts. >> reporter: hey, we're not blameless. >> that's congressional malpractice. >> economic storm of our own making. >> we are in detox from our fiscal cliff addiction. >> reporter: but the masters reside in the halls of congress. >> like a bull in a china closet. >> like salespeople who tell their customer they can have the $30,000 car. >> we should look at those who have lit the candle. >> like an airplane, did we climb over it, no. >> reporter: so now, can we please put the metaphors out to pasture? [ moo ] >> we soon face the valentine's day cliff and perhaps the april fools' day cliff. >> reporter: what the president was saying was i'm not going to play chicken with the dlemt. i guess not. -- the debt limit. i guess not. we'll examine the mini cliffs ahead and torch some more metaphors coming up with my friend ali velshi. i promise you'll be smarter and madder when we're done with you. find us on facebook and twitter,

cnnbottomline, and cnn begins with randi kaye right now. partisan, unpopular, ineffective. just some of the words used to describe congress. all morning long, we'll go in focus on whether the house of representatives is more like a house of cards. it's the case outraging the nation. a girl's brutal rape celebrated on tape by her attackers. but it isn't the first time social media has played a role in a sexual assault. i am not your peasant. why one marine sent that message to senator dianne feinstein and how his letter went viral. good morning, everyone, i'm randi kaye. it is 10:00 on the east coast. 7:00 a.m. out west.

glad you're with us. we start with a bombshell from lance armstrong. "the new york times" says that he is ready to admit to doping. in the report, sources close to armstrong say he's considering it because he wants to persuade anti-doping officials to allow him to get back into professional cycling. but armstrong's attorney tells cnn that his client is not in talks with u.s. or world doping agencies. on the phone now is peter flags, editor-in-chief of "bicycling" magazine. good morning to you. so first off, your reaction to this. i mean, would this admission be a part of a bigger negotiation perhaps? >> yeah. my sources also indicate that armstrong and some of his representatives have been reaching out to people at the u.s. anti-doping agency, at the u.s. justice department and some of the individuals that might have financial claims against him. and he's really seeing if he can negotiate a situation where he could make a confession.

and if that happened, even though i've known the accusations to be true for a couple of years at least, there would be a shocking thing to finally see him come out and make that admission. >> so but i guess the question is, he's had so much time over the years to do this. why now do you think? >> well, i think in the last six months he's really seen just how bad his situation could get. that he's been forced to step down from his leadership role in his charity livestrong. he's been banned from competing as a triathlete. and i think he realizes now that the best path forward for shim to admit what he did and start taking steps to rehabilitating his legacy. >> what would this mean for his titles? the titles were taken away. i'm assuming that he will not get those back. >> yeah. i would be really shocked if somehow this ended up with him

returning a seven-time tour de france champion. but i think in the past the anti-doping agencies have offered more lenient penalties for people who offer a full convention. so i could imagine that he -- he could negotiate on being able to return as an elite triathlete. and have some of his early results held up. so it -- you know, it depends on what he negotiates and exactly what he confesses to. >> yeah. whether or not he confesses, this of course also involves the justice department, right? >> yeah. there's a whistleblower suit that presently one ex-teammate of his, floyd landis, is in. it hasn't been clear yet whether the justice department is going to join that case. i think he would have to negotiate or have assurances in advance that the just department isn -- the justice department isn't going to get involved. otherwise there could be

criminal implications for lance if he made a full admission now. and there's also claims that could total into the tens of millions of dollars, and i'm sure that right now they're trying to figure out exactly what kind of financial exposure they could negotiate. lance has a lot of money, and i think they're trying to see if this was something they could negotiate. >> why is it so important for him to return to cycling and what would it mean if he came back? >> to clarify, i don't think he'll be returning to professional cycling. to professional triathlon. and i think within the professional cycling world they're looking at this as a positive thing because everybody wants to put the lance armstrong situation behind them. this feels like it could be the last chapter. i think he's a guy who's been in the limelight for his entire adult life. and you know, he's an athlete who's super competitive. and i think the way this played out where he wasn't able to

compete has been possibly the hardest thing of this last six months. that, you know -- he wants to get back out there and win races. and i think he's trying to negotiate that. >> does this help his legacy? >> it doesn't hurt. i think he's at a low point now, and i think either way in a decade or two he won't seem as much a pariah as he does now. in terms of him being able to get back with his livestrong foundation, you know, he needs to be a visible figure and being a professional athlete is what he knows how to do best. so i think in that regard in the short term, if he's able to return to sport that would help him in that way. >> peter flags, editor-in-chief of "bicycling" magazine. thank you very much. >> nice to be here. now the next step in president obama's big cabinet shakeup. sources tell cnn that the president is likely to nominate republican chuck hagel as defense secretary next week. hagel is a former republican

senator from nebraska who retired in 2009. the president explained why he is behind hagel on "meet the press." >> disqualify him -- >> not that i see. i'm served with chuck hagel. i know him. he's a patriot. he is somebody who has done extraordinary work both in the united states senate, somebody who served this country with valor in vietnam. and is somebody who's currently serving on my intelligence advisory board and doing an outstanding job. so i haven't made a decision on this. with respect to the particular comment that you quoted. he apologized for it. >> the president is referring to anti-gay remarks hagel made in the past. remarks that this ad in "the new york times" points out. the ad from the log cabin republicans mentions other criticisms of hagel. he has opposed sanctions again iran. and some say that he's been less than emphatic about his support for israel. we saw it with the fiscal cliff, now the capitol hill confrontations over the debt

ceiling are expected to get as intense if not worse. the debt ceiling is the legal limit on the nation's borrowing. in his weekly address, the president says he is taking a hard line on the issue. >> one thing i will not compromise over is whether or not congress should pay the tab for the bill they've already racked up. if congress refuses to give the united states the ability to pay its bills on time, the consequences for the entire global economy could be catastrophic. last time congress threatened this course of action, our entire economy suffered for it. our families and our businesses cannot afford that dangerous game again. >> as you would expect, republicans are also drawing a line despite approving the fiscal cliff compromise. gop lawmakers say it was missing something monumental -- long-term spending cuts. here's a clip of their weekly address. >> the simple truth is that we are in this fiscal mess because washington takes too much of your money and then waists it -- then wastes it. that's the real problem and needs a real solution.

we have to make sure washington is accountable for every tax dollar it spends. we have to make sure that your money is spent efficiently and effectively. in venezuela officials say president hugo chavez has a severe lung infection and is "fighting for his health" right now. despite rumors that the 58-year-old won't be able to be inaugurated to his fourth term next week, the vice president says chavez can always take the oath at a later time. famed italian designer i haver toia -- vitoria mussoni and his family went missing in a plane friday morning shortly after takeoff over the lo los roquez islands. the family has been informed while search and rescue efforts continue. new details emerging about the fatal gang rape of a 23-year-old medical student in me to delhi. a horrific crime that led to protests in india. the victim's male friend who was

also attacked is speaking out for the first time about this. here's what he told reuters. >> translator: from where we boarded the bus, they took us around for two, 2 1/2 hours, across overpasses, through all of delhi. then they dropped us below an overpass. then they tried to run over us. we had no clothes. >> so far, five men have been charged with murder, rape, and kidnapping in this case. they are scheduled to appear in court on monday. in the u.s., another rape case is making headlines in steubenville, ohio. two high school football players are accused of raping a classmate at a party earlier this year. the social media response has taken a life of its own. hacker activist group anonymous has released information on those they believe are involved in the assault. they've also planned a rally scheduled to start a few hours from now, their second in a week. in regards to their release of information, the county sheriff has made his outrage clear. >> now listen, anonymous, whoever's out there, you could

say whatever you want to say about me, but when you start attacking children and putting their names out where everybody can see it and their addresses, then i'm coming after you. anonymous, you're watching it -- i'm coming after you. >> we'll go live to steubenville for much more on this story at the bottom of the hour. a new congress with the same old problems. coming up, i'll talk to two congressional veterans to see if it's possible to get the house back on track, or is the fighting we've become so used to just something we have to live with? aig? we said we were going to turn it around, and we did. woman: we're helping joplin, missouri, come back from a devastating tornado. man: and now we're helping the east coast recover from hurricane sandy. we're a leading global insurance company, based right here in america. we've repaid every dollar america lent us.

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it was all in the family as senators took the oath of office for the 113th congress on thursday. some senators like kirsten gillibrand of new york held their children as they raised their hand in front of vice president joe biden. they're getting in on the act there. her son certainly not making things easy as we see there, playing with her hair. at some one point biden picked up the 4-year-old daughter of ted cruz, from texas. she was overwhelmed by all this ceremony. all right. to politics now, we've got a new beginning but an old problem. partisanship and in-fighting have become the norm in congress. somehow, work still has to get done. we saw how long it took to get a fiscal cliff deal done. not very pretty, was it? and now congress has to get a debt deal done and work on the spending cuts from the last crisis. the broken congress is our focus this morning. and joining me now is veteran

congressman john campbell, a republican in from california's 48th district. welcome, how are you? >> good morning, i'm fine. >> good. let's start with that fiscal cliff deal. you were one of the no votes. and this is how you described it -- "i personally hate it. the speaker the day after the election said we would give on taxes, and we have, but we wanted spending cuts. this bill has spending increases, are you kidding me?" first off, are you surprised that it passed the house? >> no, i guess i'm not because clearly what was it -- 95% of the democrats in the house voted for it. i wasn't that surprised. it only took a few republicans -- i think about 35% of republicans voted for it. but if 10% had voted for it or 15%, it still would have passed. this is unfortunately what's gotten us into the problem that we have is that when you -- when all you do is spend more money

and do a lot more special interest tax breaks and different things like that, everybody wins except the deficit. and the deficit is what loses. that's why we've done this for years now, almost arguably decades. and this is what's creating this gigantic deficit and this gigantic debt. and eventually this is going to explode on us. we have to stop doing it. it's the popular thing to do, what was done last week. it's not the right thing to do. >> yeah. but even with your criticism of speaker boehner, you still supported him, right, to remain speaker. >> yes, i did. and -- >> why is that? >> my wife doesn't agree. my wife doesn't agree with everything that i do, but we've been married for 33 years. so i didn't agree with what the speaker did on this decision, this agreement. he's our speaker. i've agreed with a lot of what he's done. as you mentioned coming into this, we have a big challenge

ahead in the next 0 days. >> speaking of the debt ceiling, the speaker said he's not going to be doing negotiating with the president anymore. with the cliff behind us and debt ahead of us and the sequester, do republicans really have any bargaining power left do you think? >> sure because we have this debt limit. right now the president's bargaining power in the last few months has been that all we cared about was "protecting tax cuts for the rich." that issue is off the table now. what we're trying to do is reduce the deficit, stop the spending, reform the entitlements in order to reduce costs but also to save them. only 1/3 of medicare is paid for by medicare taxes. the rest is borrowed every single day. this can't go on. it's not speculation that it can't go on. the only three countries that have a greater debt-to-gdp ratio

than us is greece, spain, and japan. the outcome is bad for them, the outcome for us will be bad. i'm not sure how and when it will manifest itself, but it will be bad. we have to get it under control and under control now. i think that's an argument that most of the american people understands and support us. >> let me ask you about a comment made by republican senator john cornyn. he says the next step for republicans may be partially shutting down the government. is that really the way that republicans are thinking? >> we not want to do that, but i can tell you from the perspective of this republican, if that's what we have to do in order to get the savings that we need to save this country from the debt crisis that absolutely will come in the future, then this republican is willing to do that. i'm willing to go over that limit and suffer that consequence which will be of a time of our choosing and totally controllable by us, then let this situation go on for a much

worse and greater crisis sometime down the road at a time not of our choosing when we have no ability to stop it. >> finally let me ask you about "business week's" label of congress calling all of you babies. would you like to respond to tha that? >> unfortunately i guess i didn't read that article so i'm not sure why we're babies. if they're saying because of some of the -- as you when you got into this alluded to, the infighting, there's been bad legislation that's been unanimous. i think the public deserves a vigorous debate. and i think i have to defend my positions, democrats have to defend theirs. and i don't think there's anything wrong with vigorous debate. now in the end, we have to do something. we can't just debate and have no accomplishment. and that's been the problem of late. there's nothing wrong with the vigorous debate. if that's what they're calling us babies for, i don't agree with that. if you're calling us babies

because we haven't had the courage to do the things popular or unpopular that we need do to get this debt or deficit under control, then i'd probably agree with it. >> california congressman john campbell. thank you very much. >> thank you so much. up next, we get the other side's view. new york democrat elliot engle on the dysfunction in the house and the confusion over superstorm sandy relief. first, trivia for all of you political junkies watching this morning. which speaker of the house later became president of the united states? if you know the answer, tweet me, @randikayecnn. no googling or cheating. be first to tweet me.

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before the break i asked if you knew the answer to this -- which speaker of the house later became president of the united states? drum roll, please. the answer is james polk. he remains the only president who served as speaker. big congratulations to kevin for being the first one to tweet the right answer. way to go. we are taking the pulse of congress this morning. trying to get a handle on whether the new congress will be any different from the old one. moments ago i talked with california republican john campbell. and joining me now is new york democrat congressman elliot engle. good morning to you. >> good morning. >> so let's start with the fiscal cliff deal. passed on tuesday. for the record, you voted for that deal. were you happy with it? >> well, it was a compromise. in a compromise you don't get everything that you want. i think this was the best we

could get under the circumstances. it shouldn't go down to the last minute. unfortunately, this is what happens. we feel there are a lot of ideologues on the republican side who don't understand that when there is a crisis, you have to move to the middle and find common ground. but we did it, and now we live to fight another day. and in two more months we have another battle. i would hope that in the future we could have a permanent agreement, a grand plan so to speak so we wouldn't be having to come back every two months and have another crisis. >> so why should we believe given what we've witnessed in washington over the fiscal cliff, why should we believe that a debt ceiling deal is even possible? i mean, how ugly is that going to get? >> well, it has the potential to get very ugly. i mean, from my vantage point, you have ideologues on the other side who have an attitude of my way or the highway, particularly the tea party people who feel that they don't want to do any compromising. i almost feel sorry for speaker boehner. he has a tiger by the tail,

people in his own conference that won't listen to him. you saw by the vote he barely got enough votes that he needed to get re-elected as speaker. and i think he's going to have a tough time. >> the house approved the aid package for superstorm sandy victims just yesterday. not the whole aid package, a partial version of it. what does that mean to you and your constituents? >> well, you know, superstorm sandy was a terrible thing that happened to the northeast. and you know, in the last 20 years, this is the longest it's taken for congress to step in and give aid in a time of national emergency. and that's why we were outraged on tuesday evening when speaker boehner pulled the bill which meant it died in the last congress. now we have to repass it in pieces and then send it ever to the senate and have them once again pass it in pieces. we're hurting, we need help. new york has traditionally been a donor state. we give more money to the federal government than we get back. i have voted for every other

natural disaster that's happened all across the country. and now it's our turn. so i hope that the speaker doesn't play political games. we passed a piece just yesterday of flood insurance. and now we've got to pass the major pieces which the speaker says will pass on the 15th. but it's a push, and we have to make sure that it's done right. >> and switching gears here, we've been talking this morning about senator chuck hagel. no secret you're not a fan of his. certainly haven't been. what is your reaction to what many say is his imminent nomination to be secretary of defense? >> look, the president of the united states has the right to support whomever he feels is best. and there will be a hearing in the senate and confirmation hearing. they'll make the decision. people have expressed some concerns, but the president's the guy. he's the one who makes the decisions. >> what are your concerns? >> well, there are certain things that the -- that mr. hagel said when he was a

senator, both in terms of iran and -- and israel. there's been some things that he's mentioned in terms of -- of slur involving someone who's gay. but look, he's entitled to go through the senate and have a confirmation. and everything comes out in the confirmation hearings. i support the president's right to nominate whomever he sees fit. and let's see what happens with the senate hearings. >> congressman elliot engle, great to chat with you. thank you. >> thank you. thank you very much. a crime that has shaken an entire community. social media taking center stage in the race cape in stub -- rape case in steubenville, ohio. we'll hear from the victim of another sexual assault who got her own justice on line. saving 20% on everything your company needs. it's a big deal. check your december 30th sunday paper or print the coupon at officemax.com.

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for a full 60 days. use promo code: gethelp. plus get this document shredder free-- but only if you act right now. call the number on your screen now! welcome back, everyone. i'm randi kaye. glad you're with us. lance armstrong may be on the verge of crossing a line. he has spent years avoiding. "the new york times" reporting that armstrong is thinking about confessing to doping. his attorney denies armstrong is in discussions with u.s. or world anti-doping agencies about

making the move. it's been a little more than two months since the athlete was stripped of his seven tour de france titles for taking performance enhancing drugs. an act that he for now continues to deny. multiple people say they witnessed armstrong dope including a former teammate who spoke to cnn last year. >> what i do know is, yeah, in '99, there was a positive test for cortizone that was covered up with a back-dated prescription. you're allowed to take cortizone if you have a prescription for it. >> lance armstrong got tested -- tested positive for cortizone and got a doctor, fake prescription, a doctor to back date a prescription saying -- >> a backdated prescription. correct. correct. and the uci knew it was going on. they allowed this backdated prescription, you know, to happen. >> what do you want to say to lance armstrong? >> you know, did he call us

liars? no, probably not. you know, he's got some -- you know, i understand it's hard. i lied for a long, long time. and you start believing some of your lies. he's got himself backed into a corner. you know, i feel -- i feel for the guy. i know speaking from what i went through, coming out and telling the truth, it feels great. you know, people will eventually forgive lance armstrong. and he's a hero to many. sure, he's disappointed some people, but again, people will forgive. >> i'm curious to know when you look at him -- honestly, after reading this report and the details of it, the evidence is just -- it is overwhelming. you know, suddenly i would see a picture and was looking at him in a different way. i'm wondering when you see him, what do you see? do you see a hero?

>> maybe i'm not the best person to answer that question. you know, lance and i have been through a lot together. he's, you know -- tried to intimidate me a year and a half ago in a restaurant in aspen, colorado. you know, i'm definitely not his biggest fan. so maybe you should ask somebody else. >> okay. >> i don't -- >> fair enough. >> i don't care to say anything to lance. >> it's interesting, though. you feel like when you did come forward that a weight was lifted. >> it was huge. it was huge. i had been lying since my positive test back in 2004. you know, part of the reason for lying was to protect -- to continue with the code of silence within the pelatone, the top tier of cycling in europe. i believed that was my only way back into the sport after i served my suspension.

>> there are new developments in the ohio rape case that has torn apart the small town of steubenville. the lawyer for one of the high school football players accused of raping a 16-year-old during a night of partying back in august says the victim, alleged victim sent him a text message. cnn national correspondent susan candiotti is live in steubenville. susan, good morning. you're learning this information exclusively from the attorney for one of the accused, trent mays, who you spoke with. what did the message allegedly say? >> reporter: good morning, randi. yes, the alleged text message from the 16-year-old girl who police say was raped in this case reads, "i don't think you raped me." now that is according to the lawyer for the 16-year-old boy trent mays, the attacker. he was the one that allegedly received this text. now he has not shown us the text. and we also don't know, randi, whether there were other texts that preceded this or followed

it or what the tone was. we also don't know the -- actually we hear the timing of this which is also interesting, according to the lawyer, this text message was sent two days after the parties took place. however, let's remember the context of this. we've seen that blurred photograph. a photograph that was taken of -- according to the liars -- both of their clients carrying this girl who appears to be limp, carrying her by her hands and legs. and there was testimony at a hearing in october that said that this girl was unconscious most of the night and very, very drunk. of course we went to the victim -- alleged victim's attorney and asked him about the text message. while he wouldn't confirm it, he did say this -- >> this young girl was unconscious. so she wouldn't have the ability to know whether she was raped or not on the day after or two days

after, three, whatever the timing of that was. we also don't know whether the defendants were texting trying to coerce or talk people into making statements and trying to build up a defense for themselves after they started realizing. this thing kind of unfolded. >> reporter: now, we have reached out to the attorney general who is in charge of the prosecution, mike dewine for the state of ohio. he's has not gotten back to us to comment on the alleged text message. >> and susan, the alleged victim may have been unconscious, but there are other witnesses who describe what they claim happened, right? you spoke with the accused's lawyer. we have an interview with him. >> reporter: that's right. we can tell you that at that -- again, at that hearing back in october, three students testified for prosecutors. one testified that he saw the girl being assaulted. the defense lawyer for trent

mays says a rape did not occur. and he also claims this -- he claims that that witness and other witnesses in this case were given letters by prosecutors saying that they would not be prosecuted for anything that they did. some of these boys took pictures and videotapes of what happened that night. but then deleted them. the attorney general has flatly denied to us that any deals were made. randi? >> susan candiotti for us in steubenville, ohio. thank you. social media's role in rape cases are not a new thing. not too long ago a similar incident happened to louisville, kentucky, teenager savannah dietrich. >> reporter: it happened inside this modest home in louisville, kentucky. savannah dietrich was 16 at the time that her life took a detour. >> i was unconscious on the floor. >> reporter: she had been drinking heavily with a group of friends -- >> those pictures resulted in the two teen boys in her case being accused of felony sexual assault. but the series of events that happened next surprised just

about everyone. savannah joins me live from louisville, kentucky. savannah, thank you for being here. good morning to you. you say that the prosecutor in the case came to you and said jail for these boys, in your case, was simply out of the question. first of all, why? >> they just assured me that jail wasn't really likely for kids our age and it's just -- it wasn't that -- it just -- they weren't real rapists and jail is for like real rapists, real murdere murderers, real robbers. it was almost like he was making my crime seem -- my assault seem so much less serious than what it was. and i just -- my prosecutor, honestly i don't think he was on my side. >> he didn't seem them as so-called "real rapists." what was the sentence that the boys received? >> they got 50 hours of community service to do with --

it was 50 or 100 hours of community service to deal with women's -- associated with wo n women. then they had to go through the department of juvenile justice until 21 instead of for a year and a half. >> you obviously were not okay with. that you were outraged. what did you do next? >> well, what i did was after that, after i figured out that they were pleading guilty and i figured out they were pleading guilty the day i went to court and they were pleading guilty, they put an order over me not to talk about anything that happened because they were juveniles and juvenile cases are confidential. i was completely outraged. that wasn't right. what was -- to me, i felt

trapped, i felt like i was taken advantage of. what better way to get the message across to people that they can't do -- they can't walk over to me and walk over me then to go out -- >> right. let me get to what do you hear. you violated a court order by revealing the identity of these teen boys. do you see how some in might say it sets a dangerous precedents here? are you okay still with what you di did? >> i can see that. it's just i think my rights in this situation comes before the boys' rights. for every situation there's a different outcome. for me i just believe that this was the appropriate way to go about it. i was sending the message across that i can say my attackers' names, and i can tell anybody about it.

it's my right, and it was my right to reach out to my friends and tell them what happened. >> a lot of people saw it on twitter as a result. i'm sure you've been following the steubenville, ohio, case. certainly a lot of social media coming into play there. there were emails and cell phone video and videotapes going out, being exposed on youtube and twitter and everywhere else. what are your impressions of how social media is playing out in that case in? >> in this case, i feel so disgusted by how these kids have handled this. i don't understand how people can think something like a crime like this is so funny. it's -- for the girl honestly, i know it's affected her. but it's made her case a slam-dunk case because once

coming goes out on the internet, it's never done. whenever you send a text, you forward -- send out pictures or even take a picture, it can't be deleted, and that's going to help her. in the long run, you can't actually delete them. same with the pictures that were taken of me. they'll never actually be deleted. >> thank you very much for sharing your story with us. you're courageous to do so. appreciate that. >> thank you for having me. a dramatic story of survival, two arizona teens trapped on a frozen lake with nothing but a dead tree to save them. [ male announcer ] this is sheldon, whose long dy setting up the news starts with arthritis pain and a choice. take tylenol or take aleve, the #1 recommended pain reliever by orthopedic doctors. just two aleve can keep pain away all day. back to the news.

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44 minutes past the hour now. welcome back, everyone. the only thing between two arizona teens and the bottom of an icy lake was that dead tree you were looking at there. they hung on to it for four hours in 20-degree weather after the ice around them started cracking. firefighters came to the rescue and later the boys thanked the firefighters and promised never to explore any more frozen lakes. >> dear firefighters, thank you

very much for helping me and my friends be able to get back safely to the ground. we're very sorry about making you come out and do this. we shouldn't have even walked on the ice in the first place. >> i regret my choices deeply. thank you for sacrificing so much to save us. >> thank you. >> and a third boy who had made it to shore called for help on his cell phone. quick thinking there. take a look at this. that is a passenger. see him there? restrained by zip ties and duct tape on a flight last thursday. the picture went viral when it was posted on facebook. the airline says that a disruptive male passenger on a flight to new york was hitting, screaming, and spitting at other passengers while yelling profanities. the man was arrested when the flight landed. no charges were fired. a former marine has a message for senator find stein's gun control bill. ttention. so we invented a warning you can feel. introducing the all-new cadillac xts. available with a patented safety alert seat.

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listen to these words -- you, ma'am, have overstepped a line that is not your domain. i am not your subject, i am the man who keeps you free. those words are from a former marine to democratic senator dianne feinstein of california telling her that he would not register his weapons with the government even if her proposed ban on assault weapons is

passed. the letter started on a cnn ireport and has gained attention on line. joshua boston, an afghanistan veteran, joins me from louisville. your ireports, joshua, have gone viral. more than a quarter million views in the last few days. what made you write it, and did you ever think it would get so much attention? >> didn't expect it to get as much attention as it did. these things happen. i wrote it because i kept seeing in the news this debate about gun control and points being brought up by senator feinstein, a lot of it's misinformation. it's fear mongering that she's spreading and it's being perpetrated by the media, as well. there's just not a lot of double checking, not a lot of facts coming out in this discussion. >> you wrote this letter, i'm curious, is it in regard to any proposed assault weapon ban or specifically the senator's? >> specifically the ones she posted up on her baby pa-- her b

beige a couple of days ago. she intends to bring it as soon as possible in this next congressional session. >> what will you do if an assault weapon ban is passed? >> i'm not going to be registered. the precedent's already been set by david gregory who doesn't have to abide by the laws of washington, d.c. >> whatever happens happens. i have a right granted to me by my second amendment in the bill of rights. says it shall not be infringed. >> most if not all assault weapon bans are looking toward the future. they're not retroactive. according to feinstein, her bill will ban the sale, transfer, the importation and possession not retro actively but respectively. it will ban the same for big clips, drums, or strips of more than ten bullets.

in response to your letter, i want to read the statement that the senator released. she writes, "senator feinstein reports corporal boston's service. she has heard from thousands including many gun owners who supports her plan to stop the sale, transportation, importation of assault weapons and large capacity magazines, strips, and drums that hold more than ten rounds. as senator feinstein has said, the legislation will be carefully focussed to protect the rights of existing gun owners by exempting hundreds of weapons used for hunting and sporting purposes." that was from her office. what do you make of that? >> i'm confused as to where the hunting and sporting clause is in the second amendment. it's nowhere to be found in the brths bill of rights or constitution. >> when you look at the shooting in newtown or in aurora, colorado, you don't think there should be any change to the law? >> the laws we have are extensive. there's over 2,000 gun laws as

it is. and the fact of the matter is predators are amongst us. we have to recognize that fact. we don't live in a utopia. our citizens have to be armed to protect themselves from these madmen. >> what is the solution then? i mean, is that the solution to stop these tragedies, for everyone to be armed? how do you stop this from happening again? >> not for everyone. but it ups the probability of successfully stopping a shooter before you have 20 dead, 30 dead. >> joshua boston -- >> people choose whether or not -- >> go on. >> people will choose whether or not to carry if they want to. i've made that choice, as have hundreds of thousands of other americans. should we unfortunately ever find ourselves in a situation to protect others in our lives, we will. >> but the law is the law if it becomes law. and you're willing to break it. >> unconstitutional laws aren't laws. >> okay. i'll leave it at that. joshua boston, thank you very much. and do keep us posted on what comes of your letter. >> i will. thank you, randi.

and to read the full letter and share your comments, we'd love it hear from you. haven't ireport.cnn -- visit ireport.cnn.com. it's a bird, it's a plane, wait, what is that thing? some people think it's superman. -oh! -oh! oh! oh! ♪ what do you know? oh! ♪ bacon? -oh! -oh! oh! [ female announcer ] with 40 delicious progresso soups at 100 calories or less, there are plenty of reasons people are saying "progress-oh!" share your story for a chance to win a progress-oh! makeover in hollywood. go to facebook.com/progresso to enter.

time now to take a look at the top cnn trends on the web this morning. an early contender for dunk of the career in the nba, that is the knicks' j.r. smith. take a look. an insane spinning reverse alley-oop dunk last night at madison square garden. it brought the crowd to their feet. the knicks' bench almost hit the ceiling, too. the knicks beat the spurs 100-83. "gangnam style" so 2012. will 2013 be the year of the one-pound fish then? ♪ >> "one pound fish." 3-year-old muhammad nazir has catapulted to fame in pakistan with this hit, "one pound fish."

sing. it now with 11 million hits, it is spreading around the world. he apparently came up with the song while hawking frozen snapper and mackerel for one british pound at queen's market in london. it's going to take off. already is. in california, some people were shocked when they thought they saw superman flying over the coast. genie moos explains. -- jeanne moos explains. >> reporter: he may look like the man of steel, but he's actually the man of lightweight foam. >> faster than a speeding bullet -- >> reporter: actually his top speed is 30 miles per hour. but the sight of superman flying above the california coast was enough to make a cyclist stop and shoot it. the video went viral and now folks are wondering -- >> up in the sky. it's a bird -- >> it's a plane. >> it's superman! >> reporter: yeah, if superman were 5'2" and weighed less than two pounds. he's a sensation on the local news -- >> the big question, where did they hide the propeller?

>> reporter: it's not nice to laugh at superman. we'll show you on the female version, supergirl. >> there's a propeller -- >> reporter: with an electric motor and battery that goes on her head. otto defenbach has built these figures, he's a former air force test pilot with a long career in aviati aviation. he even customized superman with a cape that he had to shorten to keep his superhero aerodynamic. >> aesthetically it adds a lot. plus it sounds cool when you fly by it. >> plus, it's removable -- >> reporter: otto and partner gary graff plan to launch a business in a few months selling slightly smaller remote-controlled figures for under $500 each. the buyers would assemble and customize their superheroes. >> what i like to show off are her stiletto heels on the back. >> reporter: she's very shapely, actually. >> she actually started as a --

a nose art like the old aircraft used to have nose art. >> reporter: modeled after pinup vargas girls. but supergirl's anatomy offered engineering opportunities. you mean her breasts are actually landing gear? >> yes. >> silicone implants so that she would roll along the ground and do graceful landings. >> reporter: while the males have to resort to sticking their landings. she's shapelier than a speeding bullet. jeanne moos, cnn. get your hands off her, gary! >> is my wife going to see this? >> reporter: new york. much more ahead in the next hour of cnn "saturday morning." it starts right now. from the cnn center, this is "cnn saturday morning." it is saturday, january 5. good morning everyone, i'm randi

kaye. city leaders in a small ohio town addressing the public this hour about a disturbing case of alleged rape. and the lawyer of one of the suspects speaking out about the accusations. if you're about to have surgery, be careful. there are some common surgical mistakes you need to know. also, some experts saying there's a simple way to solve the u.s. debt crisis. it has to do with a magical coin. w we have all that and much more. we begin with new details about the disturbing rape case in a small town of steubenville, ohio. city leaders talking to the public this hour about a web site that they've set up with information about the case. two 16-year-old boys, ma'lik richmond and trent mays, are accused of raping an underage girl while she was drunk or unconscious. their trial starts february 13. national correspondent susan candiotti joins me live from steubenville this morning. susan, what is happening there

this hour? >> reporter: you know, this whole set of events has really turned this town upside down. they don't know what to make of that. they're concerned about what the outside world thinks of them. there is a news conference scheduled about to begin at which as we understand it the city is announcing that it is starting, as you indicated, a web site that people can go to that will summarize the amount of information about this alleged rape case that they are allowed and per mmitted to reve at this time. as much information, possibly a timeline, that if people have questions they can refer to it. that is at least part of what we understand they'll be talking about at this press conference. and then in about an hour from now, directly behind me, maybe you can see some people gathering, there's a protest scheduled to begin. this involves people who believe that investigators are not doing enough to get to the bottom of this. some people are even saying that there is a cover-up. that's been denied by the city. they maintain that they've been

as open as possible about the entire investigation. randi? >> and you also have information, exclusive new details on this alleged text message that was sent from the 16-year-old girl, the victim, alleged victim in this case, to trent mays, one of the accused rapists. what did that text say? >> reporter: right. apparently this was allegedly sent about two days after police say this 1year-old girl was raped. it says, "i know you didn't rape me." now we are told that it was sent, this is according to the defense attorney for 16-year-old trent mays, one of the accused. he says it was sent august 14ment and sent by the alleged victim to trent mays. now remember, we have not seen this text message. we don't know whether there were messages before it, after it, what the tone was. this is all we know at this

time. however, here's a time line. the alleged rape happened, according to police on, august 11 of last year. in the overnight hours into the 12th. on august 14, a lawyer says that's when the text message was sent. on that same day, august 14, at 1:40 in the morning, police say that is when the mother of the alleged victim in this case went to police armed with all kinds of copies of text messages that had been sent by this time and images that have been put over the internet. randi, we asked the victim's attorney what he makes of this text message. >> this young girl was unconscious so she wouldn't have the ability to know whether she was raped or not on the day after or two days after, three, whatever the timing of that was. we also don't know and we don't know whether the defendants were texting, trying to coerce or talk people into making statements and trying to build up a defense for themselves

after they started realizing. this thing kind of unfolded. >> reporter: remember, at some preliminary probable cause hearings back in october, there were several witnesses who testified that the girl was drunk most of the night. some people say she was unconscious for different times during the night or semi conscious. that's why her lawyer is saying that. >> all right. susan candiotti, appreciate that. thank you very much. in india, the men accused of gang raping and killing a woman will be in court monday to hear the charges against them. they are being charged with murder, race, and kidnapping and will be tried in what they call a fast track court where cases are tried very quickly. the brutal crime has prompted protests all over the country. meanwhile, the woman's friend who was also beaten during the alleged attack spoke out for the first time about their ordeal. >> translator: from where we boarded the bus, they took us around for two, 2 1/2 hours,

across overpasses through all of delhi. then they dropped us below an overpass. they tried to run over us. we had no clothes. we waited there hoping someone would help us. i tried to flag down vehicles. three-wheeler taxis would slow down, look at us, and move on. we got no help for nearly 20 or 25 minutes. >> the police are refuting the friends' claim that there was a long delay in help arriving. lance armstrong's attorney is denying his client is talking with the u.s. or world anti-doping agencies it publicly admitting using illegal performance enhancing drugs. his lawyer did not address claims in "the new york times" that the cyclist was considering the confession as a way to restore his athletic eligibility. armstrong has been stripped of his seven tour de france titles and banned from cycling for life. armstrong has always denied using banned performance enhancing drugs. i asked peter flags, editor-in-chief of "bicycling"

magazine if this admission is all part of a bigger negotiation. >> my sources also indicate that armstrong and some of his representatives have been reaching out to the people u.s. anti-doping agency, at the u.s. justice department and some of the individuals that might have financial claims against him, and he's seeing if he can negotiate a situation where he could make a confession. in f that happ-- if that happen though i've known the accusations to be true for a couple of years at least, it would be shocking to see him make that admission. >> i guess the question is he's had so much time over the years to do this. why now do you think? >> well, i think in the last six months he's really seen just how bad his situation could get, that he's been forced to step down from his leadership role in

livestrong, he's been banned from competing as a triathlete. and i think he realizes now that the best path forward is to just admit what he did. and start taking steps to rehabilitating his legacy. >> what would this mean for his titles? those titles were taken away. i'm assuming that he will not get those back. >> yeah, i would be really shocked if somehow the -- they returned the seven-time tour de france champion. in the past the anti-doping agencies have offered more lenient penalties for people who offer a full confession. i could imagine that he could negotiate on being able to return as an elite triathlete and have some of his early results held up. so it -- you know, it depends on what he negotiates and exactly what he confesses to. >> yeah. >> once again, that was peter

flags, editor-in-chief of "bicycling" magazine. we'll continue to watch and see if lance armstrong does come forward. as allegations of rape against two ohio teens unfold, we'll talk about the implications of that case.

ten minutes past the hour. the story of two high school football players accused of raping a 16-year-old girl at several party in steubenville, ohio. what makes this case stand out is the explosion of chatter on social media, photos and an online video showing teens joke, laughing about this. earlier i asked cnn legal contributor paul callen how damaging this might be for the

defense. >> the whole landscape's been changed by the cell phones and availability of video in cell phones. a crime like this in the past -- and we only know that there are allegations that the girl was drunk, maybe unconscious when people -- these two boys or maybe others were involved in sexual activity with her. normally, she may never have known about this. she may never have known who engaged in the sexual activity. now we have show of it. we have the availability of this technology. so the answer is yes, this crime can be proven through that technology in a way that never could have happened before. people got away with this in the past. they're not going to get away with it in the future. >> cnn spoke exclusively, paul, with one of the defense attorneys who says that his client, trenton mays, manufactureceived a text from the alleged victim saying "i know you didn't rape me." we don't know what else she could have texted in the message. could that affect the case and how so?

>> could it affect the case. this is a case that's going to be proven or disproven with social media. if she send him a text saying, "i know you did not rape me," a jury will be looking at that at some point in time and saying, you know, it -- does that help disprove the prosecution's case. it would sound like strong eviden evidence. but we'd have to see the tape and the text. you know, a lot more is coming out the more we hear about this story. how many phones were there, how many high school, drunken high school kids were close by and in a position to observe? this -- we're going to find out more about this story as the weeks go on. >> and i want to mention this internet hacker group called anonymous. they posted the picture showing the girl whose face is blurred being carried by her hands and feet by the two males. now the defense attorney for one of the accused, malik richmond confirms to cnn that his client is in the photo but said the photo is out of context. we can't tell from the photo

whether the girl is conscious or not. her lawyer said she was somewhat conscious. what could the defense attorney mean by "taken out of context"? does this help or hurt the defense team? >> the defense attorney is obviously saying just because two boys are moving an apparently drunken girl doesn't mean anybody engaged in sexual activity with the girl. his context is going to be different from the context that prosecutors talk about. but i think the thing that interests me in this context argument is that these kids, watching sexual activity like this and maybe a rape go on normally would not be guilty of any crime. people are shocked to know a group of boys can stand around and watch a crime, it is not a crime to do that. however, if they recorded the crime on their cell phone and deleted what they recorded, they could be guilty of obstruction of justice and could be drawn into this conspiracy and crime in a way that never was possible in the past before social media

and this kind of technology. so -- >> even if they weren't participating, you're saying, if they were there and recorded it? >> yes. yes. they'll be involved in the cover-up of the crime by destroying evidence. so technology really is going to increase the liability of these kids, and you know, watching drunken high school football players talk about an incident like this is very, very disturbing. usually we don't get to see it, fortunately. but you know, with this new media, we do. >> my conversation there with paul callen. she's a little girl and her case is headed to the highest court in the land. at issue, who gets to have baby veronica.

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a custody battle over a 3-year-old girl known as baby veronica has been brewing for years. in all that time i've been there covering this complicated case. it all began back in 2009 before veronica was even born. her biological mother decided to put her up for adoption, and that's when the couple stepped in to adopt her. just four months after they brought veronica home her biological father, dustin brown, filed for custody after he legally waived his parental rights. now a little-known federal law from 1978 called the indian child welfare act allowed him to do so. that's because brown is part cherokee and a member of the cherokee nation which means veronica is part cherokee, too. the law is designed to keep indian children with indian family members and protect the interests of those children. and just this week, the u.s. supreme court decided to step in and hear the adoptive parents' appeal. they are joining me to talk about the high court's decision.

good morning to you. what a roller coaster this has been. you have veronica for a couple of years and then the supreme court there in south carolina where you are decided to have her be handed over to her biological father based on this law. first of all, your reaction to the news that the u.s. supreme court is going to hear your case. what did you think when you got that news yesterday? >> so, it was just unbelievable. i mean, we weren't sure what to expect. we knew it was a low chance and we just feel extremely happy that they decided to hear it. >> matt, did you get any sleep last night? >> not too much, no. i kept looking at the clock and realizing it was later than i needed to be up. it restored some hope and a little faith in the judicial system. >> yeah. certainly too early to know exactly what's going to happen. but why do you think this case

deserves to be heard? why do you believe it doesn't really fit under the umbrella of the indian child welfare act which was designed in 1978 to try and keep those indian children in the indian homes, melanie? >> well, i mean, veronica was always a part of our home from birth. and we just felt like she was in a happy place and that those kind of needs could have been met through us. and i just don't think that that was what congress was thinking about when that act was passed and so many american and native children were being removed from their homes just like veronica was being removed from our home. >> and matt, she wasn't removed from an indian home, correct? >> no, she wasn't. and we certainly would have never deprived her knowing anything about, you know, her indian heritage or would never -- we never would have deprived her knowing that side of her

family if they had ever asked to know her. but you know, we wouldn't deprive her knowing her mcha-- her mexico heritage. she's multiracial and just a beautiful little girl, she's our daughter and we love her. >> she is beautiful, no doubt about that. in this case as i mentioned, it was a non-indian mother who initiated the adoption. she may not have been fully forthcoming with social services and the adoption agency that the girl's father was cherokee. she also had sole custody, right, of the little girl because dustin brown had signed away his rights. how important is that detail do you think, melanie, to the outcome in this case? >> well, i think it's very important. but i -- you know, we just got accepted, and i think the lawyers are going to hash that out. we just, you know, know that we feel like it was misused in this case. and -- i mean, regardless of the

particular issue, i mean, she was -- she was happy and loved and under state law she would have stayed with us. >> yeah. absolutely. >> yeah. i know the hearing is supposed to take place, the court's supposed to take this up in april, mid-april. and then you may not have a decision until june. so what will the next six months or so be like for the two of you as you wait to know if you're going to get your little girl back? >> well -- >> we bite our nails. >> i mean, just -- the last year's been so hard, and at least now we have some hope. and it's going to probably -- it's been a roller coaster, and i'm sure it will continue to be a roller coaster. >> i know you've only had a chance to speak with her once. any hope, matt, that you'll have another phone call with veronica? >> there's always hope. but i -- i don't expect it. >> we would love that. >> we would love that. but you know, me and melanie, we're just -- we've been really

strong together and been a united front. and we're just going to have to remain that way and do what's best for our little girl. >> at your home you have all her toys and things laid out. you're hoping she'll be able to come home to them. we'll continue to watch this and check in with you, as well. matt and melanie capobianco. thunk and best of luck -- thank you and best of luck. >> thank you. let's look at the jobs numbers. showed little change in december. the economy added 155,000 more jobs, that wasn't enough to affect the unemployment rate. it remains at 7.8%, exactly what it was in november. the economy added over 1.8 million jobs for the entire year. some career counselors are urging their clients to do all they can to strengthen their standing at their current jobs as they prepare for the possibility of better jobs in the future. tom foreman with today's "american journey."

>> reporter: roughly 12 million americans are without work, nearly 5 million for a half year or more. career counselors across the country are starting 2013 with a clear message -- keep hanging on. >> it's slower than we would all like. you know, it's incredibly competitive now whether you're working or not working. and i think that individuals that have the advantage of having employment now should make sure they're taking full advantage of that. >> reporter: that, they say, means three things -- first, ask for opportunities. build your professional network inside and outside of your office. workers who go unnoticed are often the first to go out the door. >> they don't raise their hand. they don't raise their hand for the difficult projects. they don't ask for lateral moves. they don't ask for more responsibilities. they don't join teams. these are things that companies look for for people for the longer haul. >> reporter: she works for the apollo research institute which promotes further education.

and that's what many job advisers say is the second key. take advantage of every training opportunity. >> good times or tough times, there always should be looking at how you're going to be developing and growing your skills, whether for your current employer and current position or perhaps it's something, you know, down the road. >> reporter: and lastly -- ♪ >> reporter: unlike the unhappy guys in the movie "office space," embrace all sorts of technology. >> by the year 2020, over 75% of jobs will have a technology component. and i think that's very important for people to understand for longevity and for employment in the future. >> reporter: staying employed this year will be easier in some fields than in others, of course. for example, jobs in health care and business services like sales are expected to be plentiful. and as 2013 goes on, the job market is predicted to pick up steam, setting the stage for better days in the next new

year. tom foreman, cnn, washington. a new study says medical mistakes are much more common than you might think. find out what questions you need to ask to protect yourself. try running four.ning a restaurant is hard, fortunately we've got ink. it gives us 5x the rewards on our internet, phone charges and cable, plus at office supply stores. rewards we put right back into our business. this is the only thing we've ever wanted to do and ink helps us do it. make your mark with ink from chase. [ male announcer ] can a car be built around a state of mind?

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welcome back, everyone. a new study shows medical mistakes are much more common than you think. cnn's senior medical correspondent elizabeth cohen has a special airing tonight on "20/20," shocking medical mistakes. so when you hear that, i'm a little unnerved already. >> it is unnerving. the reason why we did this special is -- is i know so many people this has happened to, just personally. i said i've got to do a special that helps protect people because you don't hear about these things, right? you can't hear about them. >> no. >> interestingly enough a study has come out that looks at surgical mistakes and shows how often they happen. and these numbers, i'm glad you're sitting down because they are really pretty horrifying.

>> brace myself? >> yes. they're pretty horrifying. i'm glad you're not having surgery any time soon. there's a study out of johns hopkins. they found that they looked at surgical tools being left inside patients. that happens 39 patients a week. surgical tools left inside. 39 patients a week. 20 patients a week have an operation on the wrong body part. so they were supposed to have their tonsils out and instead they did something else. >> the wrong leg or wrong eye or whatever it might be. >> exactly. and 20 patients a week have the entirely wrong procedure. they go in to have, again, their tonsils out and instead they -- they mix it up with the record for someone else and end up having knee surgery or something crazy like that. >> there has to be a better way -- >> there are supposed to be, but the o.r.s are doing a lot of work. mistakes happen. mistakes happen where we work. >> not too many. >> but miss tangs happen. think about anybody's workplace, mistakes happen. the difference in an operating room is that you can do serious

damage. your life is on the line. >> in your special you'll reveal how they happen. >> right. people think how in the world does, say, a sponge get left inside someone? a surgical sponge. take a look at this -- this is from our special tonight. >> okay. >> there's often blood, there's tissue, it's very difficult to see, and sometimes sponges are tucked under an organ inside you that they're not in clear view but they're soaking up some fluid or blood. >> all right. given that these mistakes happen so often, in our show we give tips on what to do to try to avoid them. so first of all, go over with your surgeon before the surgery -- and i mean as close to the surgery as possible, what is supposed to happen. ask -- say, i want to talk to the doctor, you say, "dr. smith, we're doing a knee replacement on my left knee. get specific." the second thing is for the whole time you're in the hospital, ask the staff to wash their hands. that's so important. especially after you've had

surgery and you've got an open wound probably, likely do something, tell them to wash their hands. thirdly, if you have a fever after surgery and it persists and they can't figure out what's going on, actually say to the doctor, hey, is it possible that an instrument was left inside me? they may not think of it. >> the fact that you have to think of that. i guess it's good to have someone looking over your children, checking the charts. >> that is an excellent point. you're there because you're sick, not at your best. have someone be vigilant. it saves lives. >> sounds great and could be a lifesaver for people. elizabeth, thank you. you can watch the special tonight, 8:00 p.m. eastern here on cnn. "the empowered patient: 25 shocking medical mistakes." ♪ into a scooter that talks to the cloud? ♪ or turn 30-million artifacts... ♪

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34 minutes past the hour. sources telling cnn that president obama is expected to tap former nebraska senator chuck hagel as the next defense secretary. his nomination could come as early as next week. hagel's confirmation could be rough. he's likely to face questions about his opposition at one time to sanctions against iran. hagel also opposed the 2007 troop surge in iraq.

a new poll shows neither republicans nor democrats in congress came out of the fiscal cliff debate looking very good. the nationwide poll taken thursday shows that only a quarter of those surveyed approved of how congressional republicans handled the talks. that compares with 34% of approval for democrats. as for the party's top leaders, well, 46% of people said president obama handled the budget talks well. only 31% said the same about house speaker john boehner. the dell ceiling is one of several issues landing in the lap of a deeply divided congress. i spoke last hour with democratic congressman john campbell of california. he said he voted against the fiscal cliff deal brokered by senator boehner in part because of its implications for the deficit. he also weighed in a possible partial government shutdown. take a listen here. >> when all you do is spend more money and do a lot more special interest tax breaks and things,

everybody wins except the deficit. and the deficit is what loses. and that's why we -- we've done this for years. almost arguably decades. this is what's creating this gigantic deficit and this gigantic debt. eventually this is going to explode on us. we have to stop doing it. it's the popular thing to do, what was done last week. it's not the right thing to do. >> yeah. even with your criticism of speaker boehner, you still supported him, right, to remain speake speaker? >> yes, i did -- >> why is that? >> my wife doesn't agree with everything that i do, but we've been married for 33 years. i didn't agree with what the speaker did on this particular decision and on this agreement, but he's our speaker. i've agreed with a lot of what he's done, we have a -- as you mentioned coming into this, we have a big challenge ahead of us in the next 60 days. >> yeah. in talking about the debt ceiling, the speaker said he's not going to be doing any of the negotiating with the president

anymore. with the cliff behind us and the debt ceiling ahead of us and the sequester, do republicans really have any bargaining power left do you think? >> sure because -- because we have this debt limit. right now i mean the president's bargaining power in the last few months has been that all we cared about was "protecting tax cuts" for "the rich." that issue is off the table now. what we're now trying to do is reduce the deficit. stop the spending, reform the entitlements. in order to reduce their costs but also to save them. only 1/3 of medicare is paid for by medicare taxes. the rest is borrowed. every single day. and this can't go on. and it's not speculation that it can't go on. the only three countries that have a greater debt-to-gdp ratio than we do are greece, spain, and japan. s and and -- and what's happened for them is bad, the outcome for

us will be bad. i'm not sure when and how it will manifest itself, but it will be bad. we have to get it control and under control now. and i think that's an argument that most of the american people understands and support us. >> let me ask but a comment made by republican senator john cornyn. he says the next step for republicans may be partially shutting down the government. is that really the way that republicans are thinking? >> we don't want to do that, but i can tell you from the perspective of this republican, if that's what we have to do in order to get the savings that we need to save this country from the debt crisis that absolutely will come in the future, then this republican is willing to do that. i'm willing to go over that limit and suffer that consequence which will be of a time of our choosing and totally controllable by us, then let this situation go on for a much worse and greater crisis sometime down the road. >> of course we will be

following that story very, very closely. up next, we'll have some of my earlier conversation with texas congressman mark vicci. he's new congress but in plenty to say about the fiscal cliff deal and more. there are nearly 100 new members in the 113th congress, and we'll talk with one about the fiscal cliff and what needs to get done. diarrhea, gas, bloating? yes! one phillips' colon health probiotic cap each day helps defend against these digestive issues with three strains of good bacteria. live the regular life. phillips'.

there are lots of new faces in the 113th congress, nearly 100 in all. one is texas congressman mark vicci. earlier he told me that he would have voted for the fiscal cliff deal but he doesn't agree with waiting until the last minute to pass it. >> the fact that we could have gone into a fiscal cliff and aim that close i thought was unfortunate. but it's my hope that we -- congress will hear from the american public, people will go back to their districts for this next week while we're off. and people's constituents will tell them, hey, we sent you there to do the right thing. stop the partisan bickering and let's get to work for the country. >> if you had been in the 112th congress, how would you have voted on the bill to avoid the

fiscal cliff? >> i would have absolutely voted yes. i would have been unhesitant to vote yes. it was, again, the right thing to do. you leak at the jobs report that came out today, that showed that construction jobs for the first time is showing an uptick. you look at the real estate market and what's going on with existing home sales. the economy is going in the right direction. the president has done a great job to get things back on track, but we need to keep moving forward in that direction and so i would have voted yes. >> you're going to be a busy man in a busy congress. a lot of big issues ahead of you. you've got the federal deficit, spending cuts, the debt ceiling. it's the last -- if the last congress had so many challenges producing a bill to avoid the fiscal cliff, do you think this congress will be more productive, and if so, why? >> you know, i think that remines to be seen. i think that, again, that congressmen need to hear from their constituents and people

need to know that hey, we sent you guys up there to get to work. we mean business. stop all -- all of the partisan bickering. of course, republicans and democrats are always going to have differences on issues, but things of this nature that could cause economic catastrophe, those sorts of things, we should be able to work a lot easier on. and that's why i'm up here. i want to work with my republican colleagues. i've reached out to all of my republican colleagues in the north texas area to let them know that i want to work with them, and i will continue to reach across the aisle, all across the congress with -- working with republicans because i know that it is very important that we do a better job of workiwork ing -- of working together. >> i want to ask but something said by senator john cornyn. he faulted the president for fiscal brinksmanship as he calls it but suggested it may be necessary to shut down the

government, in fact, in order to secure this long-term fiscal well being. what are your thoughts? >> i think that that would be a disaster. particularly for our state of texas where our economy continues to do a little better than maybe the rest of the country. yoj the average texan would want that. i think it would be terrible. i hope that senator cornyn would rethink that. i think that that's the sort of thing woo me to toad get away from in washington, d.c.. >> yeah. certainly the new congress has a diversity that we've never seen before. record number of latinos, women. where does this tell you where we'll number the country and what difference will it make for the president in getting his agenda done? >> absolutely. the new congress is amazing when you look at the number of latino. you look at the number of women.

in new hampshire, i believe the entire congressional delegation in new hampshire consists of women. >> congressman veasy that's he applauds diversity but congress' number one job, in his words, is to get the economy back on track. we've been talking for weeks about the "fiscal cliff." there were many, many more metaphors tossed around during the debate over tax hikes and spending cuts. and we've got it for you. well, when traveling to other cities and countries, the best way to get a real taste of a place is through local food. a cnn ireport teamed up with "travel and leisure" magazine to create a global list of 100 places to eat like a local. here's cnn's jim spellman with a sample from denver. ♪ >> reporter: it's a damp, chilly morning in denver, colorado.

we're going to try to warm up at the denver biscuit company. a few years ago, this was really a bar. people came here to drink at nighttime. now there's highchairs, kids are here. >> yeah. it was a big question whether people would come into a drinking place to eat breakfast. and i think that's a testament to our food. >> reporter: should we head to the kitchen? >> sure, absolutely. >> reporter: dude, that is a serious rolling pin. >> stainless steel. >> reporter: can i check it out? >> yeah, absolutely. >> reporter: all right. >> it's all right. >> reporter: you're better at this. we must pause for the obligatory photo. >> for sure.

>> reporter: i'm going to start with the franklin. you start with one of those, then we'll switch. >> definitely. >> reporter: my god. it's so good. it's ridiculous. the biscuits at the denver biscuit company are seriously amazing. they're so good we've got to take a box with us. thank you very much. take it easy. well, ireporters, here's your chance to help create a food lover's map of the world. all you have to do, it's really easy -- go to ireport.com/100places. send a photo of your favorite restaurant, dish, why it's special, how you discovered it. and the definitive list of 100 places to eat like a local will be revealed in. -- be revealed in march.

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the details of spending cuts and tax hikes that congress fought over for weeks could have filled the books. so we all adopted the short hand and called it the fiscal cliff. but that was hardly the only

metaphor that got thrown around in the debate. our christine romans has this look at the language of the fiscal cliff. >> reporter: just like the yodeler in that cliffhanger's game on "the price is right," we did fall off a cliff. a metaphor cliff. >> fiscal cliff. >> the fiscal cliff. >> the cliff. >> so-called fiscal cliff. >> reporter: or maybe not. ♪ the hills are alive cue julie andrews in "the sound of music." >> more of a slope. >> more of a slope. >> kind of a slope. >> reporter: hill, cliff, slope, be honest, it felt more like this. >> this place is starting to have the feel of the movie "groundhog day." >> this is pitiful. >> reporter: at least the movie made you laugh. this was more like "the hurt locker." >> congress set this time bomb. now they're scrambling to defuse it. >> reporter: in the end, the cliff, slope, bomb, groundhog day, call it what you will, it became a bill, and a new metaphor. >> kick the can down the road.

>> that's just kicking the can down the road. >> kicking the can. >> kicking the can. >> we are done with kicking this can down the road. we grabbed that can, and that can is called spending cuts. >> reporter: but, hey, we're not blameless. >> that's congressional malpractice. >> economic storm of our own making. >> we are in detox from our fiscal cliff -- >> we are. >> reporter: but the masters reside in the halls of congress. >> like a bull in a china closet. >> they're like salespeople who tell the customer they can have the $30,000 car. >> said look at those who have lit the candle. >> like an airplane, did we climb over it? no. >> reporter: so now can we please put the metaphors out to pasture? [ mooing ] >> we soon face the valentine day cliff, and perhaps the april fools' day cliff. >> what the president was saying was i'm not going to play chicken with the debt limit. >> reporter: i guess not. christine romans, cnn, new york. cnn "newsroom" starts at the top of the hour. martin savidge is in.

i'm tired of saying fiscal cliff, rbt you? so over it. >> going to be deficit deal will be the next phrase we'll work on frequently. >> you'll be saying it plenty this afternoon. >> happy new year. >> to you. thank you. >> we've got coming up over the afternoon some interesting things. i know you've been talking about lance armstrong and the reports he may be coming out to sort of fess up if you will on these doping charges that have been play laid against him. our question is, if he does that, what are the legal ramifications? what could he be opening himself up to? could he be charged criminally? could there be a criminal case? could it open himself up to all kinds of lawsuits or just what is the upside to coming clean if, in fact, that is something he does? >> yeah, because some corporations who have sponsored are already saying they want some of their money back thauz they felt duped. it should be interesting to see what happens. >> could be a lot of money on the line, a lot of people trying to get their money back. the next story is gun control. we'll talk to mike tompson, the

democrat out of california who i guess you could say is kind of the point man of the house and will be leading when it comes to gun control legislation. what is he thinking? in other words, what's out there? what are the plans? what could be banned? what would still be legal? how is this all going to work? we know it's certainly a hot button and very emotional issue. it's one that's going to be tackled and certainly going to be controversial. >> no doubt. then the other thing we're going to talk about is vittorio, the fashion icon. and we mentioned his plane is missing now off the coast of venezuela. we are certainly hopeful that everyone will be found alive and well. but it got us wondering about this brand, this name. i mean, it's certainly high fashion. but this was high fashion that was available at target. sort of available to the masses. >> he made it that way. >> he did. this was sortaeatest of style available to everyone. it was a great marketing plan. this is a chance to speak about that while we wait to hear about

the search. >> his wife was on board and some others. >> again, we are hopeful they will be found, but this is not so much to focus on what if. it's more of what a great legacy and a great family as far as fashion. they are known so well. >> you have a great mix straight ahead. martin will catch you in a moment. >> thank you. another impact of superstorm sandy that devastated the northeast, important evidence in criminal cases now stranded in a damaged warehouse. and court cases could actually be in jeopardy.

superstorm sandy didn't just disrupt millions of people's lives. it now threatens criminal cases in the new york city court

system. it seems important police evidence has been stranded a damaged warehouse. here's mary snow. >> reporter: this flood-damaged warehouse right on new york harbor can actually clog the city's overflowing criminal system for years to come. it zits in an area of brooklyn devastated by superstorm sandy. inside it, there are thousands of pieces of police evidence ranging in dna to narcotics to guns that right now can't be touched. >> significant flooding has taken place. no question about it. we're still trying to sort through this and, you know, assess the total damage. it's a big job. >> reporter: that was back in november. the police department says it still hasn't been able to get into this facility and a second one because sewage contamination has made them unsafe. but trials can't wait. cnn's legal contributor paul callan is a former prosecutor. >> could be a major problem if evidence that has been damaged

is critical to proving a case. >> reporter: the nypd says so far there have been six criminal case where is police have said there is evidence but it's not accessible. those cases have not been dismissed. in cases involving dna and narcotics, prosecutors rely on results from tests that are done on smaller samples of the evidence. police say those results are kept at a different facility that was not compromised by the storm. what about cases where there is, let's say, blood evidence, where the physical evidence is in that warehouse but the test results are in a different location? >> you would have the issue of is there enough for the defense to fairly test the sample to determine whether it's the defendant's blood or not. so it wouldn't necessarily be fatal to a case, but, you know, in criminal cases beyond a reasonable doubt is a very, very high standard of proof. if you e lem nate the physical eviden,