"inside politics" with john king starts now. stay close. no government shutdown, but at what price? >> so here we are in the house being blackmailed, being plaq blackmailed -- >> liberals mad at president owe ba in. >> this was a top-down yam it down your throat bill that let us have a vote on defunding the president's illegal amnesty. >> politics sourced by the best reporters now. welcome to "inside politics." i'm conditionijohn king. with us to share their reporting and insights, robert costa of

"the washington post," lily of "the new york times" and nia-malika henderson. there will be no christmas season government shut down. the senate last night joined the house in passing legislation to keep most of the government funded through next september. it exposed deep tensions in both parties that will carry over to next year when republicans of course will control both the house and the senate and this debate also likely to spill into the 2016 presidential campaign as well. >> if you believe president obama's amnesty is unconstitutional, vote yes. if you believe president obama's amnesty is consistent with the constitution, then vote no. >> the junior senator from texas is wrong, wrong, wrong. >> the junior from texas, ted cruz, got a lot of attention in the final acts. robert costa, liberals don't like this, the tea party doesn't like this. start with the tea party.

senator cruz infuriated his republicans leader soon to be mitch mcconnell. he did get a final vote. do you think the president's executive actions were constitutional, executive actions on immigration? democrats say he made a fool of himself. what the democrats are saying by stringing this out what he allowed them to do was get a whole lot more of the president's nominees confirmed and put in jobs. >> procedurally senator cruz caused a lot of problems for his own party enabling these nominations to come to the floor but he did prove a point and he's showing senator mcconnell that come next year, once mcconnell has the majority, cruz will still be a thorn in his side. he still knows he wants to wield some power and he wants to show mcconnell that conservatives may have had a bad year, tea partying losing in the primaries but they'll be a force in congress. >> still a force, a nuisance or a real force? that's my question for both tea party and liberals after this. they were mad about provisions in the bill but in the end they lost.

>> yes, they lost and sort of the moderate wings of the party prevailed and the centrists. elizabeth warren on one hand, nancy pelosi vocal against some of the provisions of this bill that had to do with wall street, that had to do with campaign finance but ultimately they lost but they're flexing muscle and doing themselves some good. elizabeth warren very much out front stoking more speculation she'll run for president and ted cruz saying i'm ted cruz and i'm all about ted cruz. >> is it all about ted cruz, is he running for president? i'm old enough to remember in the old days even if you were going to defy your leader in the senate, you drop by the office and you told him you were going to do it or gave him a phone call and edds up. mitch mcconnell was surprised, stunned by ted cruz. what's the carryover? is this a one-off for this spending bill or does it carry into next year? >> all indications are cruz will continue this next year whether it's on immigration or other issues. it's important to remember the number that matters in the

senate is one. one senator can hold things up or slow things down. that's what he did this week. he inevitably raised money. he certainly caused a stink, his name is back in the headlines after a few weeks of laying low. elizabeth warren saw this spending bill, wednesday says a speech and says libical democrats should vote against it. house democrats heard her, they held it up, it passed but she got the microphone as well. cruz is exploiting the rules of the senate trying to make his point, if it inevitably helps him politically that's great for him but it happened and we were here on saturday and you're right, the nominations will get through. >> ted cruz loses and the president gets his people. the question is, as we go into the next campaign, who is the president doing business with? >> i don't think he knows. i think after the midterms, one of the things that the white house is saying was the silver lining of republicans having won and them now being in control of the entire congress was okay, now they have to govern and

they'll have more incentive to join me and help me get some of my things across the finish line. i think that's certainly true but whether or not mitch mcconnell is able to do that when ted cruz will play his role and elizabeth warren will play hers and nancy pelosi hers, it's an open question whether that new spirit of we all have to work together and get something done is actually made into reality and i think the white house has seen this past week how difficult it is going to be to forge that relationship, even if both sides want to. >> we just heard from ted cruz. he objected because he wanted to vote on the money that he says is funding amnesty, the tea party guys had others as well including campaign finance provisions. elizabeth warren was the president's consumer advocate for some time, believes after the financial crisis of 2008 you needed stricter rules on the banks. some rules were eased in this bill, she was mad at republicans for putting it in there but equally mad at the white house for agreeing to it. listen. >> who does congress work for? does it work for the

millionaires, the billionaires, the giant companies with their armies of lobbyists and lawyers, or does it work for all the people? >> again, here is the question and the new washington as we close this congress and move into the next one, tea party guys were mad, they vented their anger, they lost. the liberals are mad, she vented her anger, others joined her, they lost. >> she may have lost the political battle in congress, but i really believe that this week was senator warren's moment where she ascended within the democratic party and she, there's always a question of how did warren transition her popularity with the base into congressional power. she figured out a way to cause a fuss on the floor and i think we're seeing warren taking the reins of the party preparing for the post-obama era saying i'll be here as a progressive and stand up for you. >> is she to harry reid what ted cruz is to mitch mcconnell? she's actually in the leadership. >> exactly, they put her in leadership to do exactly what

she did. >> the same thing to ted cruz, vice chair of the nrsc. >> that's more of a political role. in this case shes aa policy and messaging responsibility. she did what she had to do on behalf of the liberals, use her star power, make the principle point. she did attempt to get an amendment that failed but didn't cause as much of a fight as ted cruz did. >> reid is okay with her, he was for the bill. >> but she knew liberals had to have their moment to vent and she did it for them. >> it's festivus, the air of grievances of the liberals. >> all week. >> you saw elizabeth warren on tv talking about this and she said listen, go to her website and of course on the website you were directed to where you could donate to elizabeth warren, so i think she definitely did herself some good this week, she's all along said she's not going to run but she certainly looks like if she doesn't she's going to give whoever runs some problems. >> when we get the next act, there will be more republicans in the house, speaker boehner thinks he's in stronger position, mitch mcconnell will

be the majority leader with 54 members of the senate. he thinks most are with him, not ted cruz. we'll see how it plays out. washington is a funny town. what did we learn this week about the president that would carry over into next year or are we confused? it he going to work happily festivus wise with the republicans, is he going to triage late his own democrats? >> it was fascinating, as robert mentioned what warren was doing was a glimpse of the post-obama era and where democrats will be or where the base wants to be. you had president owe pa ma whose legacy was in many ways shaped by dodd-frank advocating for passage of this bill that weakened what he and his own white house was calling a centerpiece of his legacy. we saw a much more aggressive president, he was making calls, ducked out of a holiday party and making calls to house democrats. he had the vice president doing the same, cabinet members. he muscled this through at the end and so it's interesting to question whether that's going to be the president we see next year. he may have to do a whole lot

more of that, given that he has his left flank to deal with and as we saw mitch mcconnell has a pretty aggressive conservative flank he has to deal with. he may have to be more aggressive than this president we've seen on the hill. >> i had a frustrated house democrat tell me in the midst of all of this, he declared this is the beginning of the clinton era of the obama presidency, he's triage lating and it is to our detriment he'll do this. he knows he had to do this deal in order to maintain political clout and kind of threw house democrats who were upset with the bill under the bus to do it and they realized that's probably what the next two years is about. >> the rank and file of both parties is unhappy, distrustful of leadership. >> yep. >> which means more dysfunction, more chaos? >> i don't know. one of the most interesting people to watch i think is steny hoyer, number two in the house. he was able to get his favorite people into committee slots and worked with the white house to whip the omni bus spending bill. hoyer breaking with pelosi, still have divided government. it will be interesting to see

how the intraparty dynamics work out. disarray on the right and left, maybe bipartisan coalitions can come together. >> if the democrats are talking about the post obama era with two years to go in the presidency, it reminds me of republicans talking about the post-bush era with two years to go and what you get in the meantime is chaos. up next, should we jump to conclusions because a potential presidential candidate with a familiar name started losing weight and plans to write a book. an overdue apology from a key architect of obamacare. >> i'd like to begin i go apologizing for the offending comments that i've made. the american public is too stupid to understand the difference. >> are you stupid? >> i don't think so, no. >> does mit employ stupid people? >> not to my knowledge. >> okay. >> basically call the stupid of the american voter or what have but basically that was really,

really critical to get it to pass. >> so you're a smart man who said some, as the ranking member, some really stupid things, and you said the same. is that correct? >> the comments i made were really inexcusable.

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welcome back. fresh evidence that jeb bush is gearing up to run for president and fresh evidence just ended spending fight as we just discussed is bringing new calls for elizabeth warren to jump in, too. jeb bush planning to release 250,000 e-mails from his two terms as governor and write a book using the e-mails to define his governing philosophy. ed i put jeb bush in the hillary clinton camp. we've been saying is he going to

run. we put him in he's running. >> it was the e-mail release that said to me this is happening. losing 15 pounds we'd all like to lose 15 pounds. >> he thinks it's closer to 20. >> good for him, stay away from the carbs. now it allows us to preemptively look at things, find any skeletons and he must be confident there's nothing there and he has something to prove by releasing all of this. >> this puts pressure on hillary clinton, too, this big back-and-forth with new organizations trying to get the state department to release documents from her tenure there, so far it's been an unsuccessful fight, wanso some pressure ther for her to be transparent and release documents. >> he's picking this fight and you're dead right picking a fight not with republicans in this, to a degree any republicans out there but this is going direct at hillary clinton.

he served two terms as governor in a big state. of course there will be controversial stuff in the e-mails but politics 101, get it out early. >> that's right. two things immediately taken away from this jeb bush news. one he's sending a signal to governor christie of new jersey. as you deal with your bridge episode and all the questions about disclosure in your office, i'm disclosing everything and i'm going to put it all out there. the other part of the news jeb bush will release an ebook, that's how governor bush wants to run the campaign. mike murphy wants him to be disruptive if he runs and that means being on the web in a savvy way, publishing ebooks, being out there in policy. this to me is jeb bush gearing up. >> that's been a big question for jeb bush who hasn't run in more than a decade. can he adapt his personal style, he's a policy guy and also has some fights with his own base over immigration and education, but can he adapt his ways to the new world of politics? >> absolutely. this was an attempt to draw a contrast with the rest of the field as you point out clinton

and also christie and show not only does he not have anything to hide but wants to put forward big ideas. it was beg, hairy awedicious goals, bhags was the acronym. if you think about it, if hillary clinton gets into the race which we expect she will and jeb gets into the race it will be a throwback, a clinton against a bush once again so that's an irony here. he is trying to be a new disruptive candidate but in a lot of ways this would be a campaign if it's the two of them that's a very old sort of -- >> governor bush would have to get through the primaries first and we've seen the republican parties in the middle of this tug-of-war over who we are, what we are, after since george w. bush left the republicans debated. >> he's conservative. part of the reason governor bush will release his ebook trying to remind conservatives when he was governor he was tea party before

tea party to a lot of people on the right. he has to remind conservatives of that as he retenors. >> he did relatively well with african-american voters and latino voter s as well. rand paul has a good record as well. >> if you call around some big fund-raisers have spoke on it governor bush he said hold your powder, don't sign up with anybody else. some of his staff people are calling in to states saying give us more time but the big dogs have not received especially in iowa and new hampshire have not received a direct call from the governor saying i'm in. that makes hesitancy this is a dance but that he won't get out on the floor. >> he and hillary clinton both i think have this, they understand a two-year campaign versus maybe a, you know, 18-month campaign or a 16-month campaign much easier to handle, two solid years of having your entire life looked at every single day. they understand with their name power they can wait if they can afford to. >> the other thing strategically

smart about this story about the 250,000 e-mails, another story came out about jeb bush about his sort of financial status. >> working for venture capital firms and overseas investments. >> some say he has the romney problem. in many ways they changed the subject to say this guy is running, he's not afraid of looking like romney. >> quickly on the democratic side, elizabeth warren being so front and forward in this debate, some people say great, she's in the senate leadership, that will be good for liberals but democracy for america, moveon, thare they raising mone because of her or do you think they'll listen? >> because secretary clinton is out there in such the front-runner whether it's governor patrick of massachusetts, whether it's senator warren, someone will get in, someone of substance with real stature and challenge her at some point.

i don't know when. >> don't know when. we'll watch around the democrats, great. up next, tomorrow's news tooed. our great reporters share from their notebooks.

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politics" table and ask our great reporters to get you out ahead of the political news around the corner. nia nia-malika henderson. >> it will be interesting to see how tim kaine does, he's vocal in terms of isis effort calling it illegal. he's with the party on keystone things like that but also been critical of this move to anti-wall street. he wants to also make sure there's an aspirational message of the democrats offer as well. it will be interesting to see what he does. certainly if hillary runs he might be on that short list for vp as he was for obama in 2008 and maybe talk about him running in 2016. >> keep an eye on tim kaine. ed? >> the spending bill a noted scuffle between mitch mcconnell and democratic senator pat leahy from vermont.

he is senate pro tem, you get a car and driver and a few extra aides so as part of the spending bill they were talking about the possibility allowing leahy to be pro tem emeritus. they've done this in the past when the parties switch letting the former guy keep the car and driver or keep an aide. mitch mcconnell at the last second said no we're not going to let you do that. the reason pat leahy stood in the way of allowing more changes to campaign finance laws that mcconnell wanted to be added to the bill. so a little bit of petty fighting over only about $200,000 at the most, but it didn't happen and leahy loses all the trappings of the office. >> life is the fifth grade, that's what i always say about the congress. julie? >> we got some interesting hints in the spending bill drama this past week about what next year may look like if president obama has to use his veto pen which we anticipate he probably will have to do at least a couple of times with republicans hoping to thwart some key elements of his

agenda. nancy pelosi and the house democrats lost in taking out provisions of the spending bill democrats were concerned about, this wall street provision and the campaign finance provision, they were able to keep together enough democrats to show they could sustain a presidential veto if indeed one is needed. and that was a big subtext of what they were doing this past week was to show that next year you're going to need us, so just remember that as you look at what's coming down the pike from republicans, you can't take house democrats for granted. he's going to need them to roll back some of the things that republicans want to do to his agenda. >> we'll see how nice speaker bainer is in the new congress. >> senator bernie sanders of vermont, the progressive democrat will travel to ames, iowa, tuesday, to try to jumpstart his potential presidential campaign. i sat down with him, he's going to meet editorial boards and speak to a dinner of activists and have a lot of side meetings to try to drum up support for his possible bid. i think sanders looks at what's

happening in the party with senator warren, with his own efforts against banks and he thinks he's a long shot contender because he's out there giving speeches, engaging with the core democratic base voters he does have a shot. >> interesting point, you're going to iowa. never underestimate the staying power of a good political feud. president obama and hillary clinton have largely made peace but some members continue to snipe. we may be seeing a bit of this on the gop side, this past week pot shots between the mitt romney and the jeb bush camps. top republicans took notice and asking this question, is there real tension between these two former governors, these two gop establishment favorites or is this just the latest chapter in a long running story of bad blood between top top romney adviser stewart stevens and top bush adviser mike murphy. we'll see you soon. "state of the union with candy crowley" starts right now.

-- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com a miracle on pennsylvania avenue. congress passes a compromise budget, keeping most of the government operating through september of 2015. today -- >> the yeas are 56, the nays are 40. >> senator chuck schumer on capitol hill's strange bedfellow moment and what it says about washington and the campaign trail. then -- >> hands up. >> don't shoot. >> reporter: massachusetts governor deval patrick joins us for a conversation on america's great divides, race and politics. then the nation's premiere spy agency condemned for brutal interrogation of terrorist suspects in the immediate post-9/11 era. >> there were no easy answers. >> where does the cia go to get