you can get my tweets, go to twitter.com/wolf blitzer cnn. it's all one word. i'm wolf blitzer in "the situation room." "john king usa" starts right now. >> thanks, wolf. a busy day. it is cinco de mayo. as we welcome latinos to the white house for a celebration, the president weighted into the dicey politics of immigration, but nowhere near his guests would have hoped. the president made a promise to push major immigration reforms in his first year of office. listen closely, this pledge has no commitment to get it done in 2010. >> i want to begin work this year and i want democrats and republicans to work with me because we've got to stay true to who we are, a nation of laws and a nation of immigrants. >> back to immigration policy in a moment. we begin with your safety, because of important new details about the suspects in the times

square car bombing attempt and because of a new government statistic you might find hard to believe. do you think someone on the government's terrorist watch list should be able to buy firearms. now the statistic, over the past six years, 91% of such purchases were approved by the government. there were a lot of them. 1,119. >> the key element of any smart counterterrorism strategy is to make it harder for terrorists to strike. that's why air passengers walk through metal detecters. that's why our police randomly check bags in the subway. that's why our police patrol sensitive locations. it's common sense to give the fbi the authority to keep terror suspects from buying guns and explosives. >> should gun laws be changed? what else are we learning about the suspects, his motive for the

attack and his claim to have received training in pakistan. with us, mike rogers, former fbi agent, democratic congresswoman, donna edwards and jeanne meserve. jean, let's begin with you on the latest of the investigation. >> a federal law enforcement official tells me that they do not believe he had any associates in the united states. they believe he built and placed that bomb on his own at this point in the investigation. they're still looking very hard at the international connections and a senior pakistani official tells us that in july of 2009, it's believed that he traveled up through the waziristan portion of pakistan where he met with one or more leaders of the pakistani taliban. with him on this trip was a man named mohammed rehad. that group is believed to have

links with the pakistan taliban. rehan has been taken into custody. despite all this, at this point in time, they aren't ready to draw a link between shahzad and any other group. >> another question is how did he get on this plane? you have new information about the time line of the watch list? >> this from an administration official. apparently at 12:30, he was added to the no fly list and a lookout was posted to customs and border protection. at 12:39 a message was sent out to be on the lookout. there's a special addition to this list. at 6:30, he made a flight reservation, and at 7:35, he arrived at the counter at the emirates airline. he got on the plane. at 10:40, the national targeting center got a hit because of the

cdb lookout, and they pulled him off the plane. if they sent out a lookout at 12:39, why didn't the airline pick him up? the reason was that emirates had not updated its no fly list. today that changed. the tsa is saying if you get a notification that there's an add to the list, the airlines have to check within two hours. >> let's start the conversation with the members of congress. is that enough or does more have to be done to finetune how this watch list system works so that this guy -- there's no way a suspect can get on a plane? >> i think even from the christmas day bomber, we know we've had to tighten up the way we look at these watch lists. this is yet another tweak. this watch list and the process and how you get on it and who looks on it is a work in progress. we've seen that clearly today. what's really clear is he was on the watch list, the notification went out and they were able to

pull him off the plane. >> are they doing this right? >> there are obviously things we have to do. there were too many people on it, that was the complaint. now there's not enough people on it. the problem is that's our absolute last line of defense. the real question here is what things have been suspended? what collection, intelligence collection activities have we not been doing that would have caught him not while he's getting on the plane after he would have set the bomb off but when he gets on the plane from pakistan back to the united states. those things are missing. this administration has made those changes, i think we ought to have a debate about it. >> when he did come back into the country, he was flagged for a secondary screening. they questioned him more closely and they did file a report on him at that point with the fbi and other intelligence agencies. on that report, there was a phone number, several phone numbers, apparently associated with his travel. on sunday, when they associated his name with this bomb through

the car transaction, they had some phone numbers but they didn't know the name. they ran it through the system. it was that cbp report that pinged. that i'm told is how they got his name. >> let's go back to this point. i remember your first statement. it is your position, despite what the obama administration would call a success, i know they caught him at the last minute, they had the survei surveillance hitch, but they did catch him, they say he has been talking, and they say he's giving them valuable information. are from your statement, you say this administration has a different approach, my term, not yours, that they're softer than the bush administration in terms of how they go about this? >> if we're calling it a success that a carloaded with explosives was parked and attempted to be detonated, if that's a successful day, we're in a lot of trouble in this country and we're going to lose a lot of americans because of it. the whole idea of preventive intelligence posture is to get that information in the development of those plans. >> what could they have done

differently? >> there are certain collection activity that is have been suspended. as a matter of fact, one particular one that was suspended right after that, the ft. hood shooting happened, the christmas day many boer happened, now this happens. we've had no discussion about how we reengage those collection activities so we don't have gaps in our system. you want to catch them over there. you don't want to catch them after something has gone off. luck is not a national security policy. >> let's look at what the administration is doing. this is an american citizen. this is a different zircon what happened on christmas day and other things we've seen. i do think what the administration is trying to do, i think actually the obama administration has been very aggressive about tightening procedures so that we don't just have, you know, a potful of intelligence and not know what to do with it. here you have an example of citizens who were alert in new york, who notified the authorities, who were able to get to this vehicle before it detonated and could have caused

great harm and injury. then you have a situation that we're trying to tighten up in terms of the watch list, knowing who's on it, making sure there's actual communication and information isn't just sitting there. i would say this administration is being very aggressive. >> a disagreement on this issue. i want you to listen to this quick exchange, mayor bloomberg and lindsay graham. if you're on that watch list, you should go out and be able to buy explosivexplosives. >> if society decides these people are too dangerous to get on an airplane with other people, it's appropriate to look very hard before you let them buy a gun. >> i totally understand what you're saying, but we're talking about a constitutional right here. >> is there a way to address the mayor's concerns and make it so if you're on that watch list, you can't buy a gun and deal with the legitimate gripes that some people have that there are

law abiding citizens that are wrong on on that list. >> watch list is exactly that, it's a watch list. i don't think you want the federal government to make arbitrary decisions about citizens that they can claim something about you and take away any of your constitutional rights. i think it's a dangerous place. >> if i'm an american citizen on that list, rightly so on that list, i should be able to go out and buy a gun. >> here's my argument, if we have enough evidence that they shouldn't be buying a hand gun or you're about to commit a crime, you should arrest them. a watch list is only a tool. it doesn't mean you can't get on an airplane, you can get screened, be on the watch list and still get on an airplane. that can't be the line of defense here. i think it's a red herring. it takes away from all of the things that maybe we're not doing to get them to the fact that they show up at the airport to get on an airplane after they may have committed a crime. >> those things may be true, but in this country, we actually don't allow people who have

misdemeanor domestic violence offenses from purchasing a weapon. i think the same rules might be necessary in this case, where you have somebody, especially as we're tightening up the watch list, we know why we're watching them, there's no reason they should have to purchase a weapon. that doesn't mean they can't travel back and forth. it doesn't mean they're prevented from screening from traveling. >> quick time-out. we're going to continue our conversation. including the comments the president just made a moment ago on the dicey topic of immigration. what are you really buying? a shiny coat of paint? a list of features? what about the strength of the steel? the integrity of its design... or how it responds... in extreme situations? the deeper you look, the more you see the real differences. and the more you understand what it means to own a mercedes-benz.

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we're back with republican congressman, mike rogers and democratic congresswoman. this one related to the terror investigation. tomorrow senator joseph lieberman and scott brown of massachusetts, they have co-sponsors, democrat and republican on the house side will introduce the terrorist ex pat ration act. it will allow a u.s. citizen to lose their citizenship to if

they had any hostile acts against the united states of america. good idea? symbolic idea? >> very problematic. we're talking about constitutional rights of american citizens and we do still have a constitution in this country, even as we want to protect us from any kind of terrorist's acts. i think we have a process and that requires due process and the justice department has been able to extract, it seems, quite a significant amount of information from this suspect, using our process. there's no need to strip him of his citizenship rights. i would fear what would happen with the rest of us. >> if somebody has taken acts against the united states, think of this individual has traveled overseas, trained with a foreign entity, taken assignments and guidance, come back to the united states to try to blow up his 23e8 low citizens, i would have no problem making sure that he was no longer a united states citizen. i think most americans think that's a fair process. there's more symbolism in that.

i think the state departments in these cases can revoke citizenship. al awlaki in yemen is under the same circumstance. i think if we can make it tighter, moster americans would be for that. >> what happens to the citizen born in the united states. you don't have any place to ship him back to, you strip citizenship rights. i think we need to go through a process and the administration is doing that. our constitution is actually about us. it's not about somebody zblels i want to get the broader immigration debate. before i do, i didn't gets to this, in your role in the intelligence committee, have you been told anything in the classified briefings that you can share with us, not the classified part, but the bullet points of it about what he did in pakistan. they said they haven't yet been able to corroborate it. did he go to training camps and associate with known terrorists over there? >> well, nothing i can talk about. a lot of that is still being vetted. the important thing is if you look at the planning phase, he

had moved his family back. this was considered an operation by those who were seeking to harm the united states. including a pakistan connection. so, those things evolve. if you look at the pattern of the way they're trying to target individual that is either have u.s. passports or have easy access to the united states, it presents a whole new level of danger for us, the ft. hood shooting was a radicalization recruitment, the christmas day bomber because he had easy access. what you saw here was a u.s. citizen who had a united states passport makes them incredibly dangerous if recruited by al qaeda. i think that's the change that you had seen. this connection, you'll probably hear more about in days and months ahead. we as a nation understand that. it will impact our national security sb back to the immigration debate, the president as a candidate promised, in his first year in office have a comprehensive reform bill. that didn't happen. he said last week, he would like

one this year, but he's not sure there is an appetite. in the place you work, in the united states congress, here's what the president said a short time ago at a cinco de mayo celebration at the white house. >> i want to begin work this year. i want democrats and republicans to work with me because we've got to stay true of who we are, a nation of laws and a nation of immigrants. >> translation to those not from washington. begin work this year sends a clear signal that he's not expecting to finish work this year? >> i don't think he can get it done this year. i think et cetera explosive. if they back off the notion of amnessty, jump ahead of the line, people legally going through the process to be immigrants, i think we're going to get to a great place. i think you can find huge agreement on both sides of the aisle if you understand we have to control our borders. it's a dangerous world we live in. it's not just our mexican neighbors who are coming through

the southern border, there are other nations using the southern border to enter the united states. that's a huge problem for us. if the president would back up and say the first step in this process has to be controlling our borders and getting control of our borders, i think you would find a lot of agreement in congress. i'm concerned that's not where he's at or where he wants to go. >> is that right approach? >> i'm readying the tea leaves. we had a number of senators who voted for comprehensive immigration reform in 2006. they seem to be backing away. that makes it challenging for the president. >> challenging in your chamber too. a lot of conservative democrats don't want to take that vote. >> i think that's fair. i think what is really true is that on immigration, one, i think all of us recognize that the approach has to be comprehensive and it can't be piecemeal. i think it's important to know who's in this country, how they travel here and we do secure our

borders, but we have to make sure we have a process. even after you secure our borders, we still got a lot of folks here. there needs to be a fair process for people who are legitimately able to pay their back taxes, move forward, become productive citizens to go through that process. i think that we can do that. we may not be able to get to it this year. >> the congressman is shaking his head. we'll bring you both back. it's an interesting issue. congressman edwards and congresswoman rogers, a sense of what's coming ahead tonight. when we come back, we'll go wall to wall. they are trying now to speed up the plugging of the leak in the gulf of mexico. we'll talk also about who's going to pay. is bp trying to pass the buck. when i go one on one, you'll meet a music icon. emilio estefan, he's getting political, his plan to boycott

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in wall to wall tonight, an update on the effort to cap that tragic oil spill in the gulf of mexico. we want to show you this structure right here. it looks a little awkward, but it left port today. it's a giant dome, a cap they want to use to plug the biggest leak underground. they capped the small one today. let's show you how this is supposed to work. here it is right here. it will be brought out on a crane. the idea is to lower it down over where the oil is gushing out. if it is successful, the oil would be taken in a tube to a tanker ship. that is a plan. still questions about the engineering of this would work. let's walk over to the magic wall. a big political debate about the pace of the disaster response, whether bp has been forth coming, let's go back and look at the key days. it was on the 20th of april that the oil rig exploded. search and rescue was the top priority in those first days.

couple days later, the president received his first briefing in the oval office. he received other information before that, but that was the first oval office briefing. the first leaks were discovered on the 24th. four days after. you see some of the images, the red in the water. on the 25th, the sunday after, secretary salazar ordered all rigs inspected to see if there were safety problems. it wasn't until the 29th that the president declared the spill of national significance. that is nine days after the spill that many critics say the administration took too long to recognize the urgency of this. it was acting urgently all along. on may 3rd, that's when the president toured the area and made clear, in his view, bp was going to pay the entire bill of the cleanup operations. today on may 5th, the first of the three leaks capped, the smallest leak was capped today and the dome shipped out.

it is here, where they hope, they hope a week from now to have that dome installed and they hope, bp officials saying if that doesn't work, they have other plans. one of the big concerns, if this dome doesn't work, just lowering the dome could cause the spill to accelerate if this doesn't work. we'll be hopeful that it does and we'll continue to follow that operation as it goes on. when we come back, there's a growing chorus. one of those voices is emilio estefan. president ahmadinejad says he knows where osama bin laden is. you'll never guess where we were actually thinking, maybe... we're going to hike up here, so we'll catch up with you guys. [ indistinct talking and laughter ] whew! i think it's worth it.

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in any and all of our decisions. ♪ emilio estefan is an american success story. he's a music mogul and part owner of miami dolphins, but he rarely dips his toes into

politics, but now out of anger from arizona's new immigration law, he is. you believe a boycott is a proper response to this law in arizona. you have a new book out. ? >> absolutely. i don't think we feel welcome. they're misjudging a lot of people. because they feel they didn't approach this in the right direction. i feel in the long run, it's a situation that like i told you, they need to fix this. this has been a problem for so many years. i don't think because you have an accent, they can ask for papers, you want to feel uncomfortable going to a place you don't feel welcome. >> i want to play a public service message. let's play it first. >> i'm an immigrant who left my country with nothing but dreams and hope. i dreamed of a new rhythm that would unite people from all over the world. >> these will air in arizona, but it is an inspiring message

from you about your success story. nowhere in this public service announcement does it say repeal the law. why a softer approach? >> this was done before everything was happening. recognizing how much we represent the united states. that's democrats, leaders that we've been working to protect the image of the latinos in a better way. we tell the united states how much we appreciate this country, how much we contribute to this country and how much we want to give back. including a soldier, a doctor, i feel, you know, people recognize that the way it is now, we're all criminals. it's definitely a lot of things that need to be fixed. >> but supporters of the law in arizona say they're not trying to portray all of you as criminals but they're trying to portray those who come in illegally as criminals, especially now recently the violence with all the drug war. if you look at the national polls, people support this law.

51% of the people think it's about right and 9% say they don't think it goes far enough. a rockie mountain poll says the majority of the people support it. the majority of the latinos do oppose it. some people say it's our business, our state's business, but forgive me, what right does a rich guy from miami who had special status as a cuban have to do to comment on arizona. >> i want to tell you why, when i went to the marshal on saturday, i saw the images on saturday, it didn't portray any good image of the latinos in the state. one of the astronauts was from mexico, the lady to signed the bill was hispanic, you see so many latinos making contribution to this country, they never show that. this would show the world how much we have luck to live in the united states, how much appreciation we have, i don't think it's obama's problem, it's a problem that happens for many

presidents for years and years. we are asking people to please help with this immigration reform. >> you say it's not obama's problem. he's the president now. president bush tried to pass comprehensive reform. president obama is the president now. he promised he would push this issue in his first year in office. we are now four months in the second year of office. you did have the president down to your house in miami for a big democratic fund raiser. you will see him at the white house today on cinco de mayo. the one thing that people who detest the arizona law and those who support it agree on is it was born of a political climate in which the federal government failed in its responsibility to secure the border and the other immigration issues. have you expressed your frustration to the president that you must do this now? >> we did. i think the reason, i don't get involved in politics, when the president asks you to come to your house, i felt to have spent

20 minutes with him about human rights, everything happening in cuba and talk to him about the immigration reform, i know he was focused. he has a lot of problems, but he didn't say he was going to help. we got a briefing and they feel that definitely it's on his agenda. he's going to work on it. >> working on it and taking the risk of getting bruised up to try to get it passed are two different things. the president himself said he would like to get it done but he's not sure there's an appetite. is your advice to him, mr. president, you must do this, you must take the risk or you risk losing the big latino support you had in the campaign? >> the history, i want to tell you something, it doesn't help the latino community, he's going to lose their vote. people are counting on him. he promised that. i feel he will do it. i feel he has a lot of problems now on his agenda. i feel the commitment. i think what he told me it was a priority, he's going to work.

he will do it. i hope so. because if he doesn't do it now, people will ask him why he didn't deliver his promise. >> what about the election this year? do you think latinos are going to turn out and vote. in 2002008, latinos voted 68%. if latino support for democrats drops by that much, democrats will suffer even more. >> i think so. people are counting on him. when i was in the march in los angeles, i felt the pain of the people, the frustration of the people. we understand something. it happens for so many years. it's a problem that we have to fix. >> who's the better president for the latino community, bush or obama? >> i think bush was great. he tried to do a lot of things for the latino community. i think obama is trying to do that. the minority right now, we are the -- if you ask about the

politics power we have at this moment, it's very powerful. they have to -- they have to listen to the latino people because i think we're important enough. i feel it's important to listen carefully. obama promised the latino community he will help. he needs to come through and help us. we're going to work hard to make this a better place. i feel that latinos love this country. we make a great living for so many years. >> i appreciate your coming in today. >> thank you very much, sir. >> today's most important you don't know. he's one of the best harmonica players on capitol hill. now he saysest going to have a lot more time to play it. [ baby babbling ]

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today's most important person you don't know, probably don't know, once said washington is so full of b.s., i don't have the patience for it. the day i do, i quit. david obey quit today. as to whether the congressman is any more patient, that's debatable. obey has been in congress since 1969. back then, the national debt was $360 billion. today it's almost 13 trillion. as chairman of the house appropriations committee krks obey has approved a good chunk of that spending. he apologized for not making the obama stimulus plan even bigger. he was the bill's principal author of the bill. >> members of the u.s. senate might take offense at one of his parting shots today. >> frankly, i don't know what i will do next.

all i do know is that there has to be more to life than explaining the ridiculous accountability destroying rules of the united states senate to confused and angry and frustrated constituents. >> with me in the studio, two guys who are happy they don't have to explain the frustrating rules of the united states senate, nathan daschle, nick ars. congressman obey is not your concern, but does it say anything about the political environment, veteran guy,s the chairman of the appropriations committee, said he's just bone tired. >> look, if i had the record -- if my party had the record of congressman obey has amassed in the last 18 months since taking office, i would be frustrated and ready to pack it up and head home too. he's been in office since 1969. your numbers showed it.

the debt was less than a trillion dollars now it's nearing 14 trillion. 15% of that would have come since his party has been in power and in the last 18 months. i bet he does have a lot of explaining to do. we've seen that across the board in democratic politics. it's not happening with the congressmen. it's happening with the governors who cannot defend their fiscal record. they're likeable folks. bill ritter is not seeking re-election because he can't defend his record. >> this is it. this is how it works in washington. the governor's association takes a democratic congressman who retires and he's talking about the governors. >> a lot of people want to know whether this environment is pro democrat or pro republican. the reality is it's neither. this is an electorate who wants serious leadership and results. i would be more concerned about nick's talking points, if they had any validity to them. the reality is whatever arguments the republicans might be making at the national level,

they can't make at the state level, because state spending in the last decade has been less in the democratic governors than republican governors. if you look at unemployment rates, the states -- the top five states, with the highest unemployment rates have republican governors. four of them have democratic governors, the talking points that nick wants to bring out simply are not supported by facts at the state level. >> let me take a moment to get both of you. hang on. i want to get into the environment. investigateman obey is now the 13th democrat in the house to say he's not running for re-election. there are ten senators who are incumbents who decided they are not going to seek re-election. the races, you had four democrats and four republicans who could have run, four democrats and three republicans, including bill ritter who could have run but decided i'm not going to do this. is there an anti incumbent, anti

establishment atmosphere out there that convinces these guys i don't want to fight? >> there was a great 19th century british prime minister who says there are damn lies and statistics. the three states with the lowest unemployment in the country are three states in which republican governors are north north dakota, south dakota and nebraska. there are three states with bipartisan legislatures. he said four of them had republican governors, but more than two-thirds of the state are controlled by democrats in the supreme court and legislature. the republican governors were elected to stop the hedmorrhagig of the fiscal policies of the democrats. places like nevada, florida, i said since last november, i don't think this is an anti-incumbent year, i think if they're proud of their records, who have held down spending, not

raised taxes, they're proud to put their records on the ballots. it's democrats who are not going to be the right side of voters, republicans and independents who are going to vote like republicans this year who don't want to run in an environment where fiscal issues really matter. this election is going to be very simple. are you willing to take on the public sector unions and bust them up and deal with their pension problems? are you willing to make tough decisions and cut government spending or do you not want to make those tough decisions and raise taxes? more often than not, our guys are going to be on the right side of that issue. >> that's one of the things i want to get to. i got to give you time to come back. >> here's the problem nick's going to have this year. first of all, nick's going to want to talk about unemployment in the states. the chair of the governor association says he has a 5% unemployment rate. two candidateses that nick is going to support this year, bobber lick and terry branson in

iowa, bobber lick proposed the single largest sales tax this year. the problem with the republicans this year is twofold. one is they have to radicalize their base to get them active. the second is that all the candidates and all the ideas the republicans are putting up, this is especially true at the state level are retreads. it's the same people and same ideas that have been in for the last two decades. >> in georgia, there was a governor thrown out of office in 2002 that the dga said was one of the best candidates in the country. >> we're not going to litigate all 37 governor's races. >> we would be happy to. >> you guys hang on, next in the play by play, how good is tina fey's sarah palin. you'll get to hear how bristol palin rate it is.

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surprisingly bright at a new lower price. here comes the pli ay by pl. >> we replay the tape and breakdown the action. here is nick ayers and nate daschle. let's start with the first ad we know in the campaign season. this is mark kirk. he's a republican running for senate in illinois. >> mark kirk is a naval intelligence official who served in afghanistan. because he stopped the pollution of lake michigan, he's independent and effective.

elstop wasteful spending in washington. >> we're two weeks from the bp spill in the gulf of mexico. bp did want to have exploration in the lake up in michigan. would you like to see more of that? >> probably so. it's political silly season. i think you'll see candidates on both sides of the aisle take shots at bp. me personally, i'm going to wait and see what the investigation holds. i think energy is such an important issue. the left loves burning oil. they hate producing it. i think before we all pile on to these folks, we should wait to see if it was an equipment malfunction or if they weren't following regulations. if he cleaned up lake michigan, then it's his right to run an ad about it. >> i think we'll see more and more of this. i know this isn't supposed to be political, it's all i know to do. this came up in the texas governor's race. governor perry said that the oil spill was just an act of god.

i mention this not to get my friend nick excited but this is going to come out in the governors' races as well. nick white was saying who can call this an act of god. >> we'll watch bp's role in the campaign. bp competing with wall street right now. the iranian president, ahmadinejad sat down for an interview with george stiff police. they went through questions about the nuclear programs. george asked him a question about osama bin laden. listen. >> is osama bin laden in tehran? >> your question is laughable. >> why? >> the u.s. government has invaded afghanistan in order to arrest bin laden. they probably know where he is. if they don't know where he is, why did they invade. first they invaded, then they try to find out where he is. is that logical. >> he went on to say in this interview, he heard that he was in d.c., because he had such

good relationships with his partner, mr. bush. >> you know, i think it says it all, john, that it's laughable, right? this is the same guy that our president wants to sit down and negotiate with. >> they've not said they would sit down with him. they did say he wanted an engagement with iran. >> i think it's clear that our foreign policy strategy of sending iran once a year happy new year messages have not paid off. the guy is a serious threat to our allies. he wants israel taken off the map. it's tough for me to find anything comical about ahmadinejad, because i think he's such a risk to our allies and citizens in the states. >> you want in on this? >> let me take this a slightly different way. first of all, i think the president has done a phenomenal job of restoring our international relationships and isolating iran in the process. this actually gives me hope for the political process. i think so many silly things are said in the political campaign

and process during each day. now i look and see there are leaders of foreign government that say sillier things. >> let's do something that i think is more playful. bristol palin was on the view today. she was asked about the great impersonation of her mom. let's listen to this. >> how do you like it when tina fey does an impression of your mother? >> it's funny to a point, but the accent, it's not real at all. >> no? >> no. >> not real. let's listen. not real? back to back. here we go. >> but ultimately, what the bailout does is help those that are concerned about the health care reform that is needed to help shore up our economy, to help -- it's got to be all about job creation too. >> it's got to be all about job creation too, shoring up our economy, putting it back on the right track. >> bristol palin, right or wrong? >> i think she's wrong. i think that impersonation is spot on.

i think tina fey is going to be a verb in politics. >> i would agree. one of the other things that is funny that may not be well known, tina fey's parents are big fans of sarah palin. agree with nathan. i think the ak sent is pretty good. >> that is pretty good. nathan, that's very much. >> pete dominic explores the new political meaning of cinco de mayo. ♪ we'll begin with a spin ♪ traveling in the world of my creation ♪ ♪ what we'll see will defy

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>> it is cinco de mayo, a day for celebrations across the country. not just here in the united states. south of the border as well. somebody who likes to celebrate and likes to explore the source of celebration is our offbeat

reporter, pete dominick, i'm going to apologize in advance for pete's hat. >> that's right. i wanted to find out what americans knew about cinco de mayo. let's take a look. >> cinco de mayo party. the phoenix suns are renaming their team for the night during the playoffs to los sun. >> i think that's awesome. >> are you going to rename anything to celebrate cinco de mayo. what's your name? >> mary. >> not anymore, maria. cinco de mayo. >> don't leave me hanging. do you know what it means? cinco de mayo. >> may 5th. >> what's the significance? >> that's what the mexicans beat the [ bleep ] out of the french. >> i'm here with -- are you going to have tacos today?

>> cinco de mayo. >> take yourself a nacho. cinco de mayo. ♪ . take two. are you good? happy cinco de mayo. all right. cinco de mayo nacho. whoa. happy cinco de mayo, juan king. there's a party at your house tonight. i have a bet that i can get you to dance tonight. will you bilar with me, john king. dance, john, dance. >> i don't dance. pete. i saw you giving away the nachos. by your current state, i suspect you kept all the tequila yourself. >> john king does not dance well. are you havinga