a school is changing the christmas story adding anti-capitalist twists. finally, "fox & friends" starts right now. >> you're watching "fox & friends." the number one morning cable news show in america. >> that's right. thank you very much. >> interesting people introduce us in the morning. don king and colonel david hunt. both people demand your attention. >> attention, folks, today is the first day of winter. if you're cold where you're at, there's an explanation. >> take off the tank top. >> i'm saying put it on. it will be a high of 56 in new york today. all right! >> fantastic. check out that hair. >> all right. i'm all for the warmer weather. let's start the show this morning with a fox news alert because nato says that five service members have been killed today when a roadside bomb exploded in eastern afghanistan. no further details at this time. more than 530 service members

have been killed this year alone in that country. today, the young man accused of leaking nearly a half million government secrets to wikileaks will say it was the army's fault. bradley manning's attorneys about to launch their defense against the u.s. military. it wants manning court-martialed and sent to prison for orchestrating the biggest national security leak in united states history. their argument that manning was emotionally troubled during his time in iraq and afghanistan and the military should have provided better computer security. manning, a former programmer was his unit's go to guy for a computer project. earlier this week, they painted him as a hacker so confident he wouldn't get caught he didn't bother covering his tracks. the pilot of a small plane that crashed in new jersey killing all people on board was warned of possible icing before the plane went down. take a listen to the exchange between the air traffic controller and the pilot. >> take your hand off and get you higher. >> we'll let you know what

happens when we get in there and if we can straight through it. no problem for us. >> the plane requested clearance to climb more than 17,000 feet before it crashed on to route 287 in new jersey. the pilot, jeffrey buckaloo, his wife and two children as well as a family friend and a dog were all killed. they were both new york city investment bankers, the two men there. >> and jewish people around the world celebrating hanukkah this morning. you're looking at video out of washington, d.c. where local rabbis kicked off festivities by lighting the national menorah. hanukkah known as the festival of lights. it will last for the next eight days. each day marked by lighting another candle on the menorah. and i believe that you get a present every night as well. deadlock in d.c. this morning. that payroll tax cut extension that passed so easily in the senate now hitting the major road block in the house and that could mean less money in your paycheck.

>> all right. peter doocy is now live in washington with more. hey, peter. >> hey, brian. and as gretchen just mentioned, senate had no problem passing a payroll tax cut extension on saturday but yesterday, the house had no problem rejecting that senate bill and speaker boehner says a two month attention that the senate wants is not long enough. it should be a year long, he says, there should be a congressional conference between the house and the senate to merge both their bills before it's too late. >> the house has acted and it's up to the senate to act to stave off this. >> there's clearly a difference in this house on a number of things. one of the things that i don't think we differ on is a confidence or a lack of confidence that the senate will do its job. i don't think we differ on that greatly. >> all yours, sir. >> and yesterday, president

obama popped into the brady briefing room at the white house unannounced and railed on republicans for being stubborn and potentially taking the money out of the pockets of 160 million americans on new year's day. >> because of their refusal to cooperate, all those americans could face attacks like in just 11 days. i'm calling on the speaker and the house republican leadership to bring up the senate bill for a vote. and give the american people the assurance they need in this holiday season. >> and very interesting numbers came out yesterday. 46% of adults now trust president obama to do a better job handling their taxes in a new abc news/"washington post" poll. just 41% trust republicans and today, we wake up on wednesday and we see the video that yesterday, tuesday, many congressmen and women went home for the holidays and they won't be back unless there's something for them to vote on. back to you guys. >> all right, peter, thank you very much for that live report. so what does happen next week -- >> so many people got out of dodge, would there be anybody to

conference? nancy pelosi says no, we're not going to send anybody. interestingly enough, charles krauthammer had a little advice for the republican speaker of the house on what he should do next in this gigantic chess game. listen to this. >> what i think boehner ought to do is call the house back, propose the bill that the senate has passed with one change. you change the date of expiration of the tax cut from the 29th of february to december 31st. every other comma, noun and adjective in the bill remains exactly as is and pass it. and then dare the senate and the president not to accept it. >> so with that big change, you make it one year. >> that's what the house republicans have been asking for. but what we talked about a lot yesterday was the politics of all of this. we understand that the house republicans are standing by principle in saying that they want this to be a year long thing because it's tough for employers and accountants to only go at this with a two month extension but interesting editorial in "the wall street

journal" today that points out exactly what we were talking about on the show yesterday. this is what it says. they say the short extension makes no economic sense but then neither does a one year extension. no employer is going to hire a worker based on a small and temporary decrease in employment costs as this year's tax holiday has demonstrated. the entire exercise is political. but republicans have thoroughly botched the politics. why? because this gives president obama and all of its people an ability to say, the republicans didn't pass a tax cut, folks. this will be used in his state of the union address in january, just wait. >> yeah, on the tax issue right now, the president walked out and he says abruptly and unscriptedly, he went out and started addressing the media yesterday in the press briefing and said how disappointed he was and called on the republicans to pass the ball and saluted the senate republicans for giving the bill to the house. that's gotten speaker boehner more emphatic to say we're not

going to do anything with this bill because we don't believe in it. unemployment insurance is supposed to be 26 weeks and now we're up to 59 weeks. they're looking to go beyond the 59 weeks. that's part of this bill. >> just like high gas prices, this is the new normal now. unemployment insurance for life. payroll tax holiday for life! what happened to funding -- that's the way we're going here, at least in a political election year because no politician wants to go out on a limb and say they're not going to pass this tax holiday. >> i think the people who are going out on a limb are the very conservative members of the tea party caucus because what they're doing they're saying look, we're standing on principle right here. remember, the house passed a bill that was one year in length, right? and it was the senate that said ok, we want two months. the standard operating procedure is you go to conference and that's where they kicked it to yesterday. i understand that but at the same time, if you're going to do -- if you're going to play by washington's rules, play by washington's rules. the democrats have gotten out of dodge.

at the end of the day, i believe absolutely folks will get this two month extension. >> got 11 days. >> absolutely. >> at the end of the day, does it create jobs? >> two separate issues. this game and then what does it do with the result? but how we get there, i think, is also, i think, we're wrapped -- >> we need fundamental change in washington, d.c. on taxes and a whole bunch of stuff. that's why there's so many people on the republican side who say elect me because i got a great plan. interestingly enough, yesterday, rick santorum in iowa got that big endorsement from the family leader. while that's a headline. >> bob vanderplaats. >> a very nice fella that has many interesting points of view. what he said is reportedly he asked michelle bachmann's campaign to try to talk to her into dropping out and supporting rick santorum or rick perry and in fact, her communications director says yep, that

absolutely happened. >> she called it a weird call from vander plaats. they wanted this endorsement. last time they said mike huckabee, you're our guy, he came out of nowhere to win. a lot of people thought newt gingrich would get this nod. he worked hand in hand with bob to get rid of three supreme court justices who were pro same sex marriage but in the end, michelle bachmann, rick perry, i guess mitt but i don't think mitt was a finalist and rick santorum are all together. he had to go, he believes with rick santorum who visited all 99 counties and his record in the house and senate makes him more family friendly. >> she's also visiting all 99 counties and she's going to be coming up on our show at 7:50 a.m. and we have mitt romney joining us at 8:00 a.m., this is all eastern time. if you're michelle bachmann, do you drop out because -- she's polling higher than rick santorum in iowa, why would she drop out? >> not in the last poll.

>> she's out of money! >> i don't know. is it up to one guy to ask a presidential candidate to drop out of the race? >> i think it's outrageous! i think it's outrageous. >> i do, too. >> now he's more important than the actual candidates themselves? i like this guy. i don't know if he should have that kind of power to be able to call up other candidates and tell them to drop out of race. that's their own personal decision. >> his idea apparently was, look, we got to all band together. we don't think you're the one. we think that santorum is the one. >> that's his one opinion. >> right and if people are looking for his endorsement. that's his point of view. >> take a look at iowa real quick, the last ppp poll, ron paul, of course, placed 23. mitt 20. newt 14. rick santorum 10. my goodness, is ron paul going to win iowa? >> there's a possibility. occupy iowa from occupy iowa to occupy the north pole. there is a quaker-based school in newton, pennsylvania, the george school that this christmas, guess what, their

christmas show is going to center not on jesus but on santa. >> what's the problem with that? >> well, it's -- ok, it's basing itself on santa. it's not any santa story where santa is up in north pole and puts together some toys and brings them. no, the story is about occupy the north pole. it's about corporate greed. >> i love plays. >> let's watch this holiday show. >> far and beyond a steady drum beat. the movement was swelling and the masses were organizing and the dissidents were finding their strength and their voices and their power to declare, we are one and we're not going to take this anymore. >> what is that? >> you know what? i'm so glad that i can counter in my mind today this production vs. what i got to see at my daughter's school yesterday

where it's a private institution luckily and they sang for an hour christmas carols. it was dark. they were just holding candles, every class, it's a tradition sings the same song. third grade sings "away in a manger." wow is all i can say that i had the opportunity to go see that yesterday, folks in pennsylvania got to see that. >> and evidently, the dialogue goes on to -- they talk about the greed, the bad part about outsourcing which should be involved in every child's story. the evil -- and the evils of capitalism and other societal ills and very dexterious santa who is able to dance around in a circle. >> i wonder if santa has mace in that big bag. this is a statement from the school and the teacher that came up with the play. we all need to be politically and socially aware. we have to step up and help each other. i got to wonder whether or not this occupy message is going to be lost on the kids and if

you're one of the parents who is spending a lot of money to send your kids there, are you going -- i'm spending money for that? >> right. >> so they can emulate those geniuses in zuccotti park. >> i wonder if one of them goes and poops on the sled. >> perhaps, if they want to be true to the story. >> exactly right. >> i can't believe you just said that. >> yeah. from that -->> i can't believe they were doing that. >> i thought he was hanging out with my 6-year-old for a machine knit. that word is his joke of the day every other sentence. >> i wish it was a joke. >> the tea party poll is in and the winner is newt gingrich! the anti-establishment group standing behind the establishment guy. what does it mean for mitt romney? >> and then president bill clinton enters the no spin zone. dick morris, the man who helped clinton navigate a disasterous midterm is here for his analysis but first, more from occupy the north pole. >> please. >> fantastic! >> to know that far and beyond a steady drum beat, yet the movement was swelling.

and the masses were organizing. and the dispossessed were finding their strength and their voices and their power to declare we are one and we're not going to take this anymore. occupy north pole was born! to , i find the omega choices overwhelming. which one is right for me? then i found new pronutrients omega-3. it's from centrum, a name i trust. it goes beyond my heart to support my brain and eyes too. and these ultra-concentrated minigels are much smaller than many others. it's part of a whole new line of supplements. there's probiotic and fruit & veggie too. new pronutrients from centrum helps make nutrition possible.

>> welcome back on this wednesday. newt gingrich, the tea party candidate, huh? just 12 days ahead of the iowa caucus, the former speaker is beating out mitt romney,

michelle bachmann and rick santorum in a poll hosted by the tea party patriots. is newt now the tea party favorite? former advisor to bill clinton who was on our air last night and the author of the book "dubs goes to washington" is here as well. that, by the way, would make a perfect gift for the young reader on your christmas list. >> yep. 4 to 8 years old. >> very good. >> learn about the greatness of america. >> and america is great. and explain this out in the great state of iowa. newt gingrich is the tea party candidate? >> well, this was a national poll and it wasn't a poll really. it was a referendum. they had 28,000 people who were on a conference call who voted. active tea party people. >> ok. >> and so it's -- they called it a primary and it really was. but yeah, i think gingrich is very much their favorite. bachmann is still a strong second. >> the most conservative guy out there. >> no, i think they'd rather bachmann. but i think that they feel that it's between gingrich and romney, and they don't like romney even though he got 20%.

because romney care and that stuff. but let me tell you how i think this is going to play out in iowa and in the next month, i think that romney is probably going to win iowa because gingrich is having 10 million bucks in negative ads on his head. >> taking its toll. >> and now this focus is shifting to ron paul and voters will realize what a kook he is. >> you're going to get in trouble for that. >> yeah. and then he is the definition of a kook. i mean, he goes around saying that he doesn't care if iran gets the bomb, israel can handle it. we got to denute or military -- >> what about newt's controversial comment about what to do with judges and courts that he doesn't like, just get rid of them and throw people in jail? >> no, i think that's part of a checks and balances system. i think that there's more congress can do to reign in the courts but unilateral disarmament is something else. >> sure. >> so i think that ron paul is going to finish strong but not

win. and i think that romney who is kind of advancing in stealth while the other two take flak is probably going to emerge in iowa. then i think you win new hampshire. and then i think gingrich will have a comeback in south carolina. there will be buyer's remorse particularly in the south and they'll go with gingrich and it will be a fight to the finish for the two of them. >> stand by for a minute. we'll have him weigh in on bill o'reilly's interview with his former boss, president bill clinton. you saw it, right? very good. >> yep. >> you heard vice president biden saying the taliban isn't america's enemy. the military response, four star general jack keene who has been to afghanistan many, many times here live. you're watching "fox & friends" on the wednesday before christmas. [ male announcer ] it's simple physics...

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>> quick headlines for you right now if you're just waking up. eric holder's time in the hot seat is not over yet. asking the attorney general to testify before congress again over the fast & furious debacle. the date requested -- january 24th. holder has yet to confirm. and north korea's new leader kim jong un will share ruling power. sources say he will receive guidance from his uncle and the military. north korea appears to be stable so far after the death of leader kim jong il. >> all right. president bill clinton on the o'reilly factor last night. his first sitdown ever with bill o'reilly. here he is weighing in on his work with newt gingrich. >> you worked with newt gingrich? you respect him? >> i respect his ability to

think and do and i eventually hammered out a very productive relationship with him. he was very far political than i would have been. he's defended what he called scorched earth politics and i certainly was the beneficiary of it. let me just say this, when we were working together, i enjoyed it. and i think he has a lot of knowledge. and i think he comes up with some quite creative ideas. >> was he being honest there, dick morris? >> no. >> he was being very careful and circumspect. >> no kidding. >> weighing every word as it came out of his mouth. i was always struck by the similarity between gingrich and clinton. they're both brilliant. they both come up with lots of creative ideas. they have an encyclopedic knowledge of history. they both -- >> compromise. >> yeah, and i -- and they have many of the same flaws.

i was struck by the similarity but i think there is a key point here. the newt gingrich you're seeing out there now is not the same guy that clinton and i fought against 15 years ago. he's older. he's wiser. and i have a whole theory that when politicians lose and they go into exile, they come back as bigger and more eccuminc with their vision than when he left. it happened with ford, he was a conservative leader and came back as a national leader. >> do you think that president clinton was parsing his words because he doesn't really want to endorse any republican? >> well, he was very careful because he doesn't want to elect the other guy. you know. >> that's what i was saying. and when i was watching him, that's what i was thinking. >> the democrats very much would like to see gingrich as their opponent. because they think, they may be wrong because they ignore the

passion factor. but they think romney would be the stronger opponent. >> all right. >> so clinton was being very careful not to dump on gingrich because he didn't want to be hurting him. >> ok, we have another sound bite, bill vs. bill. here's the former president of the united states talking -- i guess we're not going to have it. he talked about class warfare. that was the question but the former president -- >> let's talk about the payroll tax. >> let's do. what's the end game here? >> first, i think the republicans have really messed this one up. gretchen was saying a minute ago that they took their signature issue of tax cuts and gave it to the democrats and fighting over 12 months vs. two months and holding up washington over that was ridiculous. i mean, i know it's good theory but come on. i think, though, that krauthammer has it exactly right. the senate democrats caved on the key issue which was the pipeline, the keystone pipeline. now, obama has to choose between the labor unions and the environmentalists. his worst nightmare and an impossible choice.

i have a video on that on my site. that's great. let's pass the thing and just change the effective date as krauthammer says. >> but behind the scenes, when it looked like the speaker was endorsing the plan that he got from the senate and the next thing you know, i'm not for it. i was never for it. eric cantor, he was never for it. it looks as though the leadership thought they had the votes. >> i think that's true. >> talked to the people -- talked to his house members and said uh-oh, i don't have the votes. let me go public and change my view. >> a lot of times, boehner negotiates with the senate and gets yes for an answer. takes it back to his caucus and they say oh, no, that's inadequate. >> you did what? >> and i think the issue here is that the republican caucus in the house is really very, very idealistic and ideological and sophisticated in the economy. but not always sophisticated in politics. >> exactly. that's what it comes down to. dick morris, have a great holiday time. there goes my pen because you

said this is your last interview before you go on -- >> before my dog and i go off. >> that's right. >> dubs. >> the dog book, a good book for young readers. >> "dubs goes to washington" which is available for children. >> straight ahead -- >> meanwhile, straight ahead, it got there just in time but not in one piece. a fed ex man tossing a computer monitor over a fence. so what is fed ex doing about this? you got to be kidding me. >> let's hope there's a lot of bubble wrap. a lot, a lot. >> and the blame game continues over the payroll tax cut as we've been discussing. are we missing the point? is it good for the election but bad for the country? all right! stu varney will tackle that. >> are you going to start walking? >> he's angry, that was his computer monitor. >> first, happy birthday to keifer sutherland. remember him? >> oh, no. >> you know how he says merry christmas. people love the surf & turf. you can't go wrong.

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music, and movies. all at mind-melting speeds. powered by verizon, this droid is too powerful to fall into the wrong hands. >> all right. time now for your shot of the morning arguably, the time that most america looks forward to most. >> they're all tuned in. >> this is your favorite topic. >> a tsa agent taking a break from patdowns to spread some holiday cheer. listen!

>> ♪ i think to myself ♪ what a wonderful world >> meanwhile, people are running through the metal detector while they're singing. >> they're doing that without shoes and they had to take off their belts. >> and this video comes to us from los angeles international airport, yes, lax, chorus made up entirely of tsa agents. they sang christmas carols and by the way, they sound fantastic. >> they do. >> and a very fitting rendition of "i believe i can fly." which, of course, is somewhat santa related. >> today, they're all fired. >> let's hope not. >> for singing christmas carols. >> i can't imagine hiring a group of tsa agents with this type of hidden talent. >> you know what, brian? it's like you hire people and then you discover that they're perfect for the company softball team. >> right. >> well, i remember in the "cheers" episode where ted danson thought he was getting the job because of his intellect but they wanted him because he was a great pitcher. >> hats off for those out there

at lax, you have beautiful voices. >> let's do some other headlines for your wednesday now. the f.a.a. releasing new rules today to prevent pilots from flying while fatigued. new guidelines are expected to require that pilots get nine hours of sleep between shifts. i can't remember the last time i had nine hours of anything. the crackdown comes nearly three years after a plane crashed near buffalo, new york killing all 49 people on board and one person on the ground. an investigation later revealed both pilots were overtired. and inexperienced. >> meanwhile, the father of a missing toddler from maine says he has no idea what happened to his daughter. he released this statement. "i will not make accusations or insinuations towards anyone until the police has been able to prove who is responsible for this." ayla reynolds was last seen at her father's house on friday, the day before her mother filed for full custody of her. in their investigation, police have seized two cars including dipetro's and searched a stream

close to his house. >> scary moments for 300 d.c. metro riders during the morning commute. they were trapped underground for more than two hours. a piece of equipment fell from under a train causing a minor explosion. smoke began to seep into the cars and passengers say they were left in the dark. >> people were panicking and we took it amongst ourselves to calm each other down and to comfort each other and try to communicate but nothing is the worst especially after the history. >> firefighters ee very much actually -- eventually helped the riders through the dark tunnels to safety. >> take a look at this fed ex delivery guy, just tosses this package over the fence. the problem -- there was a computer monitor inside. the guy who ordered it, not very happy when he found out it in a million pieces. worst part, he says, he was home when the delivery was made. what about needing a signature? i guess not. >> they oftentimes now leave it without that. >> can i just say that my

experience with fed ex, all positive. nicest guys, always happy to see me. >> you're just saying that because all your gifts are coming fed ex today. >> i'm hoping! >> i got to tell you what's happening in sports even if my name isn't in the prompter. if tim tebow were running for president, this could be considered his biggest endorsement yet. former denver broncos quarterback john elway finally speaking highly of his predecessor in a brand new interview. elway says now that he's the broncos president says tim tebow isn't going anywhere. he's going to be a bronco and we're going to do everything we can and hopefully he's that guy. elway said he intends to personally work with tebow on the field. off the field, something he couldn't do off season because there was no off season last year because of the nfl lockout. hey, it was fun while it lasted but it looks like david beckham and family are leaving los angeles. has anyone told will smith? after four years, the l.a. galaxy star, the soccer stud as joe refers to him, he loves soccer players signed a 4 1/2

year contract with a team. 1 1/2 year contract with the team in france. word is victoria and the kids are going to be moving to paris as soon as next month. more details about beckham's new gig will be released today and stuart varney will be reporting it because you're from england. >> good job. >> as we've been telling you all morning, the house, of course, rejecting that senate plan to extend payroll tax cuts for two months. soon after, of course, the blame game begins. >> these bipartisan compromise that was reached on saturday is the only viable way to prevent a tax hike on january 1st. it's the only one. even though republicans and democrats in the senate were willing to compromise for the good of the country, a faction of republicans in the house are refusing to even vote on the senate bill. >> we've done our work for the american people and now it's up to the president and democrats in the senate to do their job as

well. a two month extension is nothing more than kicking the can down the road. the president has asked us to do this for a full year. we did it for a full year. >> what we got here is a big difference of opinion. stuart varney joins us right now live. it's very clear they're both standing their ground. >> wait a second, that's all politics. >> of course. >> put politics completely aside for one moment, very hard to do. put the politics aside and look at this policy. is this a good policy for the american people? is this good for the economy? does it create jobs? >> thank you. >> thank you for finally asking that question! >> here's the question. if you extend the payroll tax holiday and you increase jobless benefits, that costs a quarter of a trillion dollars. ok? no politics here. that's just pure money. a quarter of a trillion dollars. >> taken from where? >> well, social security. >> taken from mostly social security and the general fund of tax revenue. you partly pay for this with?

a tax. a fee on mortgages and refi. is this good policy? costs a quarter trillion. do you create new jobs and you pay for it by taxing mortgages? i'm not so sure. >> that's one part of the debate is does it even work? do we need it? i guess most of congress does because everybody agrees in congress that we need it. >> they all want to be re-elected. that's why they agree with it. >> the other part is will it work? i have to ask you, where's the aarp on this? they should be saying what they're saying. it's your social security that's being robbed, right. social security is going to be underfinanced even further. i thought they said don't cut my social security and medicare. >> the payroll holiday tax extension essentially removes $110 billion next year from the social security trust fund. from social security revenues, that's what i should say. $110 billion taken away from social security. is that good for social security? is that good for retirees? is that good for the aarp?

where are they? good question, i don't know. >> and it flies in the face of the entire debate that we've been having for the last year about our national debt. i mean, we're just talking about how do we try to cut billions of dollars because our debt has reached $15 trillion and now, this is pure politics in my mind. this is why both sides are calling for what i believe to be the new normal where people aren't going to pay payroll tax. they're not going to pay it. like high gas prices. new normal! >> what happens on january 1, 2013, if we extend the payroll tax holiday until then. answer on january 1, 2013, that tax holiday ends so everybody's social security taxes go up and all of the bush tax cuts end so everybody's taxes go up on income. you want that? >> just remember, stuart, that happens after the presidential election. >> i forgot. >> i forgot. >> that's politics! >> we thank you very much. always enlightning and stewart will be on the fox business network today all fired up.

check him out, 9:20 eastern time right over there. >> gotcha. >> thank you, sir. coming up on the show, the pope warned the world that christians were under attack in iraq. his worst fears coming true? that's next. >> you heard vice president biden say the taliban is not america's enemy. what would members of our military say? jack keane, co-author of both surges in afghanistan and iraq and has been to afghanistan many times personally will weigh in. >> right now! my name is ron orsini,

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( laughing ) it's actually a pretty good day whenou consider. that's great. with doctors dregenberg and honeydew. and we're here at the ul labs to demonstrate the do's... and don'ts... of holiday safety. ma ma ma me me. do water your tree every day. don't let your tree get too dry. oh! do make sure your lights have the ul mark. ooh ooh ooh! and don't use worn or damaged lights. oh! oh! ohh. are you okay, beaker? >> all right. headlines for you right now. occupy protesters sinking to a new low in denver, colorado. they reportedly interrupted a prayer vigil for murder victims late last night. great. violent clashes with police began on monday when protesters were told to leave their makeshift campsite.

and take a look as this tractor-trailer jackknifes on an icy road in russia. the truck just inches away from an oncoming car that happened to have a dash cam. who doesn't? luckily, nobody hurt. all right, gretch, quarter before the top of the hour. >> last night marked the first night of the jewish holiday, hanukkah, the festival of lights is a good time to pause and reflect on the religious freedoms we sometimes take for granted in this country and joining me now with more is rabbi joseph patnick, the executive vice president of the new york board of rabbis and host of the religion on the line. good morning to you. >> good morning. >> please say hanukkah correctly for me. >> hanukkah, right, with that guttural sound. practice a little bit. >> all right. so sometimes you see it spelled c-h, right? >> we have never had unanimity of opinion on this issue. for years, it's c-h, it's h because there's no comparable

letter in english for the h-a. >> we have the menorah behind you and also in our studio. the tradition of -- and the tradition of lighting the candles is what? where do you start? >> you start with the higher candle. and that says to us that when you light other candles, you stand a little bit higher. so that's the shamus and second night you go to the left a little bit and you go from right to left. >> and what does this say to the rest of americans right now when we can celebrate christmas and hanukkah and other religions at the same time regarding freedom? >> you know, i had a christian leader say to me thank god for hanukkah. without hanukkah, there might not have been a christmas. it says to us we have a right to our particular celebrations and we don't impose one on another. that was the battle of hanukkah, a small group of minority with conviction, the mackabees fought against a large group, the syrian greeks who said you're

going to follow our rules. they said we'll give up our lives if we have to protect our religious liberty. that was an inspiration to many others, even the pilgrims related to that story. >> interesting. other people will find it fascinating you as a rabbi are concerned about christians in iraq. specifically now with u.s. troops moving out. why? >> well, personally as a jew, we know what it is to be under attack and we very much need others to stand with us and we need to stand with other people so today, for example, there's a press conference in new york, christians and jews standing together to say don't forget about the half a million christians left in iraq who are facing imminent, imminent devastation because they're labelled infidels and you know what the rest of the story is there. so we have to stand together. it's again, it's the parallel of hanukkah today. stand up for those who -- what do they want to be? they want to be christians and we as jews want to be jews and we need to stand with one -- >> i find it fascinating you have this organization because jewish leaders here get together

with evangelical christians and you talk about, what, all world religions and freedom? >> yes, because we know that it may start with jews but doesn't stop with jews. so today's jews, it could be evangelicals and could be some other minority. it's imperative not only to care about your own but others as well. >> merry christmas to you. >> thank you very much. always great to speak with you. >> thank you so much. >> would you pay $765,000 for pancakes? i hope they're good. maybe they have chocolate chips in them or something. how about $45,000, well, there you have it, for chocolate? the government did all your money. we'll tell you about that and you heard vice president biden say the taliban isn't america's enemy. jack keane got back from afghanistan in august and said there's more to comment on this than meets the eye. like a deal with the taliban?

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>> he's done it again. vice president joe biden is under fire for the latest of his controversial comments. this time biden said "look, the taliban per se not our enemy. that's critical to understand." so the taliban not our enemy. is that indeed true? what does the vice president mean by that? let's ask fox military analyst and four star general jack keane back from the region in august. is the taliban our enemy? >> they've been our enemy going back to 9/11, they had the safe haven in afghanistan for years.

al-qaida had the training camps there. in those training camps, al-qaida prepared, organized and trained for the 9/11 attacks. the taliban had their hands in that because they provided the safe haven. they cooperate with the al-qaida on a regular basis. they share intelligence. they have a common enemy. the enemy happens to be us. our soldiers know that the taliban are their enemy and fighting them every day. >> i took calls on the radio for this. callers called up and said are you kidding me? i have friends that were killed by taliban, every day we plot to thwart them and preserve this government and we find out the vice president doesn't think they're the enemy. >> i don't know what's behind the statement. i mean, it's an outrageous statement and it simply isn't true. the facts are the facts. taliban have been our enemy for sometime and they're going to continue to be, frankly. >> let's listen to jay carney try to explain to the vice president and let me see if this flies with you, general keane. >> what the vice president was reflecting is that and this is

related to the reconciliation process that i was just discussing is that the taliban per se while we are fighting them, it is not the elimination, the elimination of the taliban is not the issue here. the objective that the president laid out when he laid out his afghanistan strategy made clear that the number one principle here is to defeat, disrupt, dismantle and ultimately defeat al-qaida. >> that usually means enemies. what's going on behind the scenes that you've learned with the taliban and u.s.? >> we're conducting unilateral negotiations with the taliban and i think that's fine. i mean, we should -- >> where, in cutter? >> we should be talking to them frankly. the fact that the karzai government isn't involved, i don't think there's much chance we'll have a positive outcome. >> going on for 10 months, i understand. >> the other thing is the taliban just as happened with the al-qaida and the sunni insurgency in iraq, until we

totally turn the tables on these guys and they see that they don't have any other options, you're not going to really have serious negotiations. >> and that's want -- not going to happen if we keep taking troops out, correct? >> the president's decision to pull the troops out by december 2012 is a disaster for us. it undermines the main outfit that we're conducting against the haqanni network. we have dominated the taliban in the south over the last 18 months. very successful campaign. now we don't have the forces necessary to be able to do the same thing in the east. >> and finally, if you're military commander like colonel general allen, does that help you, inspiring your men and women to fight this enemy, the taliban? >> general allen is not going to be making any statement but the fact of the matter is, just commonsense. he knows in a statement like that from a leader, a prominent leader in our government and he's got soldiers out there

every day fighting this enemy and getting hurt by it, it's not helpful and he probably has some level of frustration with it but they'll move on. >> right. they don't take it personal but think about the men and women wounded and killed in war and the parents sitting there listening to that going wait a second, my son was killed by somebody who we don't declare as the enemy. that's unbelievable. general keane, thanks so much for coming in. we'll talk to you again. >> all right. >> coming up straight ahead, a burglar thought he got away until he heard freeze! but it wasn't a cop pointing the gun. you have to hear this one. then president bill clinton enters the no spin zone. the topic? class warfare. you have to hear what president clinton had to say about it and say about president obama. that coming your way. worried about retirement. he'd yet to hear of mutual funds, iras, or annuities. back then, he had something more important to do.

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>> good morning, everyone. today is wednesday, december

21st. i'm gretchen carlson. thanks so much for sharing your time with us today. he was caught with stealing government secrets and accuse of sharing them with the world. bradley manning's outrageous defense. it's not his fault. it's the army's and he wants to go home. >> president clinton balanced the budget. what does he think about president obama's plan often called class warfare? >> that won't solve the problem. >> i thought he was a little more expansive he will be shortly. more from the former president straight ahead. >> you're right. my fault. >> hot off the griddle, pancakes that cost $765,000. for yuppies. would you buy them? well, you already did. courtesy of the federal government. "fox & friends" starts right now at breakfast time. >> wishing you a happy and healthy hanukkah. you're watching "fox & friends."

>> $700,000 for yuppy pancakes in washington, d.c. not making it up. part of the waste that coburn from the great state of oklahoma has uncovered. >> there must be some secret ingredient, very expensive in that. let's get to your headlines now this morning. the young man accused of leaking government secrets to wikileaks will say it's the army's fault, not his. bradley manning's attorneys about to launch their defense against the military. it wants manning court-martialed and sent to prison for orchestrating the biggest leak in u.s. history. their argument -- he was emotionally troubled during his time in afghanistan and the military should have provided better security. he was his unit's go to guy for computer projects. capitol hill about to shut down for the holidays but congress is leading a major issue unresolved. house leaders refusing to pass that two month payroll tax cut extension holiday really. the bipartisan measure passed easily in the senate but house

republicans say the solution is too short term. without the extension, millions of americans could see an average of $1,000 taken out of their paychecks. the move also puts three million americans' unemployment benefits at risk of expiring. snow across the southwest could delay your holiday travel plans and the snow already dumped more than a foot of snow from new mexico to kansas. at least six people were killed in car accidents. interstates and highways in five states were shut down. many of them opening back up, though, this morning, colorado reportedly seeing 10 foot snow drifts. how's this for a role reversal? a burglar running scared from an armed home owner? that's exactly what happened in melbourne, florida, home owner walked in his door to see the thief inside. he pulled out his gun. the burglar wasn't too tough after that. the gun toting home owner able to keep the burglar at bay in his front yard until police showed up. and those are your headlines. you always wonder how you would react in those situations.

i mean, hats off to people who can go right into their plan of action. >> and are armed. >> no kidding. >> you have to prethink it. i thought it was finally good that bill clinton stopped prethinking his appearance on the o'reilly factor and said i'm going to go do it. >> only took 15 years. >> he's trying to sell books and talking about a third way forward in his new book and he weigheding for the g.o.p. nomination. >> all right. >> you worked with newt gingrich. you respect him? >> i respect his ability to think and do and i eventually hammered out a really productive relationship with him. i think he was way more political than i would have been. he defended what he called scorched earth politics and i certainly was the beneficiary of it. let me say this, when we were working together, i enjoyed it

and i think he has a lot of knowledge and he comes up with some quite creative ideas. >> ok, so is there a snippet in there that newt gingrich could use in his ad when we worked together? i enjoyed it. because you know the current president of the united states is going to be using class warfare and, you know, those darn republicans, they won't let us raise taxes on the really rich people. bill o'reilly got him to weigh in on those two topics as well last night. >> i don't look at it as class warfare. i think if you look at what's happened over the last 30 years, the middle class has lost ground. i don't mind paying more taxes but -- because i think i got the benefit of the tax cuts under president bush. and the benefit of being in the top 1% so my income went up but that won't solve the problem. that will help us balance the budget when there's growth agenda. we have to change the whole jobs structure of america. we've got to basically realign our economy towards the future. that's the real answer. >> but that's not being discussed. >> the interesting thing that i took away from this interview

was how different president clinton is from president obama. you know, it's interesting when he was talking about how he worked together with newt gingrich, remember, they actually did work together. i mean, they actually got stuff done. and in that interview, clinton also said hey, i would have gone along with the erskine bowles plan, the committee that was coming up with how to solve this debt problem. he would have taken the lead and put that in place so while he says in this interview, of course, he's voting for president obama, he does take digs at him in his book and you get the sense of the stark difrnlss between the two presidents when you see an interview like that. >> newt gingrich, for example, said when he was asked about john boehner said, well, bill clinton and john -- bill clinton, i had somebody to work with that had negotiated with a conservative legislature over in arkansas as a governor. he says john boehner doesn't have that. he is somebody that is a state senator and a two year u.s.

senator who doesn't understand the bipartisanship or chooses not to in the way that bill clinton was used to cutting deals before he became president. >> one other side note in their conversation. by the way, did you know that they had great product placement there. that cup like this was there during the whole thing. >> do you tell the president you can't leave that on the table? no. >> mr. president, can you put that down on the floor. clinton agreed with bill o'reilly that the people gave president obama a pass during the 23008 election. and bill tried to get the former president to explain why in this country, mainstream media supports liberal candidates more. you know what? nothing i say will be helpful on this. nothing i say will result in anything good in america. also talking about his wife. >> maybe he understands it a little bit better because hillary did get a tremendous amount of different treatment than the eventual president

obama. >> he admitted that. >> so you know, maybe he does have a better understanding that. >> i love what he says about taxes. really not going to help unless we get to restructure everything and the other thing -- >> sounded republican in that. >> he really did. meanwhile, newt gingrich came on last night and he has decided and gretchen and i have debated on this back and forth. i will not go negative. i will not fight back. every once and a while, i might slip but newt gingrich will not fight back. he's very close to opening up, i guess, with double fisted. >> he says he'll fight back. i mean, he'll fight back when he fights against things that aren't true. what he says he should not do is do not start a negative ad about any other candidate and i think that that is a smart maneuver. >> won't fight. >> no. >> yesterday, he's coming out -- >> he said now he'll come out. >> he said if i made a mistake, it is not coming out and correcting those who are saying wrong things about me.

>> no, he said the opposite in arms this morning, that he will in fact go after people who -- >> has he yet? >> he says he will plan to now but what he will stand true to is that he will not start a negative ad against another candidate and now he's calling on mitt romney to stop the negative ads in iowa. he's calling on ron paul to stop the negative ads. he actually said last night during the interview, he wouldn't vote for the guy that they're making him out to be. >> here's the thing. the way the law is right now, the candidate can't talk to these super pacs and the super pacs are the ones putting all these millions and millions of dollars into the game. yesterday on another network, mr. romney said "super pacs have to be entirely separate from the campaign. we can't communicate in anyway. if we coordinate, we go to the big house. so in other words, when newt gingrich says you got to call up your guys, mitt romney is saying i can't communicate. >> i don't know if i believe that. here's what newt gingrich said to that.

>> this pac was created by his former staff and they are misleading. clearly false. and politics and his words. this afternoon, condemn any further negative ads and as to that fact would have only caused you this. >> you know, we were talking yesterday with rich who used to work with newt and he said that the dirty little secret about negative ads is they work and remember, newt gingrich is way up here about two weeks ago and then you had all the negative ads from ron paul and others and suddenly, he's down here and in fact, mitt romney is on par with it. if newt wants to fight back, fight back with your own negative ads. >> ok. >> fight back with super pac negative ads. >> obviously. it doesn't make sense because newt gingrich's pac organizations for newt gingrich are not doing negative ads. he must have some influence on them to tell them not to do it. i don't know who to believe in that. all i know is i don't like the negative ads. let us know what you think.

>> this is what he said. he said the way mitt romney can do it is to simply say people supporting me, i prefer you stay positive and pull the current ads down. you're not ordering. you're not picking up the phone. that's how newt says you can finesse it. coming up shortly in about half-hour, michelle bachmann will be joining us live and then we're going to ask mitt romney that very question, if he could do more to stop the super pac from coming out with newt gingrich claims are negative ads that don't tell the truth about him. >> in the meantime, senator tom coburn does this every year, he releases his waste book. and it's really compelling actually because it details where all your tax dollars are going and you're not going to be too happy about it. so it's $65 billion in waste including $113,000 for video game preservation in the state of new york. what the hell is that? >> apparently, it's a way to keep video games in perpetuity. >> it's one way to keep my

asteroids relevant. >> ok. >> miss pacman. also now, look at this. 3/4 of a -- well, it looks like 3/4 of a million dollars to subsidize pancakes for yuppies in washington, d.c. also, $10 million to remake a pakistani version of "sesame street" just what the pakistanis have been clamoring for. >> absolutely. >> we need our own oscar the grouch. >> $74,000 to examine how college students use mobile devices for social networking. we know that they use them. why do we need to spend that money to find that out? $550,000 for a documentary of how rock music contributed to the collapse of the soviet union. huh? >> remember, sang back in the ussr and that got under their skin. >> money for a festival promoting hawaii's chocolate industry. i thought they were about leis and coconuts. >> macadamia nuts. >> been to hawaii?

ok. >> that's part of the money that coburn has identified. he said some may have merit but they're not national priorities at a time when the united states government is operating at such gigantic deficits. >> all right. meanwhile, straight ahead, it's the part of the payroll tax that no one is talking about and you're going to hear it next. >> plus this -- elves making toys at the north pole. now the poster people for greed. >> finally! >> that's right. a school play changing this christmas classic to occupy the north pole. oh, man! details straight ahead. let's go to vegas. alright, let's do it. let's do it, let's go to vegas. vegas baby!

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>> 15 minute after the top of the hour. house republicans squashed a bipartisan senate plan that have would extended payroll tax cuts for two months saying it's not long enough. they wanted a year and then the squabbling began. >> because of their refusal to cooperate, all those americans could face a tax hike in just 11 days. i'm calling on the speaker and house republican leadership to bring up the senate bill for a vote. give the american people the assurance they need in this holiday season. >> president obama needs to call on senate democrats to go back into session, move to go to conference and to sit down and resolve this bill as quickly as possible. >> i need the president to help out! all right? >> yea! >> here's the part of the payroll tax hike that no one is talking about. does either plan really create

jobs? joining me now is national radio talk show host and best selling author neil borst. good to see you on the curvy couch. does it create jobs to give people $1,000 more in their paychecks? >> no. no. to create jobs, you have to incentivize the employer. nobody is going to go out and say let's hire somebody for a two month tax break or a one year tax break. you need permanency in these tax breaks in order to encourage employers to say ok, now, we can talk about expanding. this is not about creating jobs. this is about creating political advantage. >> right. because republicans and democrats alike know that there's an election year coming up and nobody wants to be the person who said that they weren't going to put more money in somebody's wallet? >> well, the way things have been going the last week, you would wonder if the republicans really know there's an election year coming up. i mean, does boehner have mitch mcconnell's phone number? does mitch mcconnell have boehner's phone number? they weren't talking about this thing. this is one of the great

political sandbags of all times, what the democrats have pulled on the republicans the last couple of days. >> meaning, moving forward president obama is going to be able to capitalize on this. >> sure, they pass a two month extension and they leave town. they're off christmas shopping right now, the republicans look hapless and it will probably go through january, who knows and can you believe this? barack obama is now cast as the tax cutter? i mean, that's like me being a hair model. it doesn't work! >> because for the first three years of his administration, many people would argue that he was all about raising taxes. >> anybody that has been paying attention would argue that. now he's the great and wonderful tax cutter and it's the republicans that want to raise taxes. i cannot -- i can't think of an escape plan. i was -- >> what would you do? if you were advising john boehner right now, the speaker of the house, what would you tell them? >> cut your losses! pass the senate bill, send it to

obama for a signature. enjoy the holidays with your family and then come back ready to fight in january and talk to the other house during the holidays and come up with the unified plan. and then maybe and i like the tea party people. i really do. but maybe get them in line in the house a little bit. it was their inexperience in large part that led to this mess. >> so you don't necessarily disagree with the tea party house republicans on principle. >> nope. >> but right now, we're talking about the political gamesmanship. >> you know, sometimes you can yell principle your third time down under the water and nobody ever sees you again. they need to come up -- what the republicans really need to do during the campaign year next year is do what herman cain did. one of the reasons for his success was he was the only candidate with the exception of gary johnson really promoting fundamental tax reform. if the republicans would come up

with a plan and i could help him but if they would come up with a plan, then the voters will react to them the same way they react to herman cain. this payroll tax cut or tax holiday which is what it -- that's not fundamental tax reform. that's just playing around trying to make people happy for political advantage. >> it's a band-aid on a big, huge problem. >> huge gaping sucking chest wound. >> all right. >> sorry for the visual. >> you know now why he's a successful radio host, he knows how to tell about it. >> thank you so much. >> yesterday, we told you about a teen with down's syndrome suspended because he gave a hug. his mom joins us next. plus -- >> ♪ oh girl ♪ you got to know >> got a hankering for some private eyes? no worries, just call the hall and oates hotline. we'll tell you where to find it. how can you get back pain relief that lasts up to 16 hours?

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>> topping the news by the numbers. first, 12,000, the number of foreclosed properties that california is suing fannie mae and freddie mac over because of bad mortgages. next, $0.05. that's how much the national gas prices tropd in the -- dropped in the last two weeks. good luck. and finally, $200 million, the amount of money m.f. global transferred to a company account at j.p. morgan chase three days before it filed for bankruptcy protection. i'm going to move on this story. steve? >> that sounds kind of fishy. thank you, brian. here come the p.c. police! we told you about this story yesterday. a 14-year-old missouri boy with down's syndrome suspended from school for five days for

allegedly sexually harassing a school bus aide. but the little boy's mom says the charges are outrageous and that her son was just hugging. joining us from st. louis is that boy's mother, good morning to you, tonya. >> good morning. >> and joining us here in the studio is fox news legal analyst peter johnson jr. who brought us this story yesterday. tonya, it's been alleged that your son sexually harassed the bus aide but you say look, he has down's syndrome. he was hugging. he hugs everybody. right? >> well, the biggest thing is when it occurred before, the hug had happened, the thing is that the bus driver had actually thrown off his routine. and overshot the house and was joking that he was going to take him back to school. so alex thought that he was going to get to go bye-bye again.

and what he ended up doing was he was pretty much hugging the school bus aide in either excitement that he was going to leave again or pretty much kind of in a plea that he wanted to leave again. >> and if the bus driver was joking around that they were going to take him back to school or something like that, i can understand for a young boy like yours with down's syndrome, he would be very confused. since then, the school kind of looked into it and they wound up suspending him for five days. and now you've decided to put him in another school, right? >> correct. >> all right. peter johnson jr. >> we understand, we're told that they dropped the charges. but that's not exactly what you're seeing and what you're hearing. what do you know about that? what can we do to help? >> well, right now, with the meeting that we had with the superintendent on monday, he said that the charges had been

dropped but when i called juvenile office yesterday, the charges still haven't been dropped. and pretty much i'm asking for the community out there to be able to support my son and show, you know, that this -- this did not occur. there's no way that this occurred. i think it was just completely taken out of context. >> sure. tonya, what should people know about children with down's syndrome? >> people should know that they're very loving and caring people. and you cannot always jump to conclusions with them because you never know what's in their minds. and, you know, you can't really joke with them like you would be able to with you or i. you have to really tell things straight forward with them. and they can be very stubborn people. >> sure. we've got a quotation from the schools superintendent. they say he, your son, grabbed her around her waist like a bear hug and then he gets on top of her and moves in a sexual motion indicating a sexual act.

>> i mean, isn't it a fact that there's an independent witness, another home health aide, on the bus who says that's just not true? >> correct. but first of all, i would like to say that if you were to go on to the school bus and look at a school bus, there is no possible way that he could have laid on her or she could have laid. if they would have laid in the aisle which the aisle is only about two feet in width, she would have been -- they would have been on camera. if they would have laid the other way, they would have both fallen down the bus step and both of them would have been injured. so there is no way possible that this could have occurred! >> so tonya, you're saying that he was simply reacting as any person would with down's syndrome, so -- and i have heard yesterday peter suggested that he was suspended for having down's syndrome. >> well, he was suspended due

to this incident is what it was. but, you know, i've had several problems in the past with the school and i know that i'm not the only one with the developmentally disabled child that's had problems with this school in the past either. >> merry christmas to you and your blessed child and your children. what i'm going to do today and steve and i have been talking about this, i'm going to call up these folks in that school district in that juvenile authority and find out what's going on because i believe that this is wrong. and let's find out what we can do together. i know you have a lawyer. but let's see what all of us in the fox family can do. >> that would be terrific. >> peter, thank you very much for taking up this woman's case and tonya, thank you very much for joining us live from st. louis today. >> thank you, merry christmas to you. >> merry christmas to you. >> straight ahead, presidential candidate michelle bachmann reportedly asked to step out of the race. will she? we'll ask her when she joins us in 20 minutes. plus this --

>> far and beyond a steady drum beat, yet the movement was swelling. and the masses were organizing. and the dispossessed were finding -- >> what's that about? it's a school play called occupy the north pole. elves now the poster children for corporate greed? what? where is that happening? details straight ahead on this wednesday before christmas. hi, santa! [ male announcer ] who fills their holidays with sawdust?

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>> as they do every year, al-qaida has threatened to disrupt and ruin christmas. ooh, i'm scared. you know, we already have a group that disrupts and ruins christmas every year, they're called relatives, ok? and they come and they stay in

your house. so i'm not frightened. >> that's right! >> steve, you're outside. why would you leave the couch? >> because the weather outside ain't frightful. today is actually the first day of winter. and we know that it's a nice day here in new york city. we're going to have the weather in a moment but we're outside, we got the christmas lights up already and we're going to tell you folks -- they started putting those things up in september here in rockefeller center. there's a school in pennsylvania, the george school. it's a quaker based school and what they've done is apparently somebody has been watching the news because they decided that this year, the christmas story would be based on santa and santa would essentially be occupying the north pole because those darn elves and greed have made christmas a living heck. >> to know that far and beyond the steady drum beat, yet the

movement was swelling and the masses were organizing and the dispossessed were finding their strength and their voices and their power to declare we are one and we're not going to take this anymore! occupy north pole was born! >> when do they sing on dancer and blitzen and donner, whoever. i don't understand. they are actually talking about anti-capitalist behaviors and talking about essentially spreading the wealth and the glory of sleeping in a park. >> that is the message on christmas? >> i don't understand the relevance for kids especially to -- i mean, it's one thing to have people argue that some teachers teach leftist viewpoints in the classroom. but to have a holiday production based on occupy wall street? are you kidding me? >> by the way, the whole spirit of blaming others for the plight that you're in, not a good habit to get into. that's just my opinion.

i'll find out what you're tweeting about from -- from dane bash, she writes or he. he uses an a for an identifier. pure idiocy. the parents should be ashamed. >> from -- >> that was a brianism. >> let those kids be kids and not try to bring politics into it. all right. >> can't pronounce the name. i agree with you. >> you know what? this version, though, of occupy the north pole probably better than had they done occupy bethlehem whereas, you know, jesus and mary, there was no room at the inn so they slept under a tarp in zuccotti park. the story could have gone that way. >> i appreciate that. trying to find the good in a bad story. the silver lining to the silver bells. let's talk about winter 2011. it kicks off officially today. let's go ahead and take a look at the maps and find out where it is wintry. and as you can see, we got a big -- we actually have a little bit

of snow moving through the home state of minnesota at this hour and the dakotas as well. that's the storm system that's left a bunch of snow in kansas and oklahoma and now it's marching across the eastern third of the united states of america today. actually a line of thunderstorms down along the gulf coast and portions of the ohio valley as this system moves through. might hear a rumble of thunder as well. current temperatures as you head out in cleveland, good morning, cleveland. 52. about the same for new york city. 60's across much of dixie land and florida. if you're in central plains, it's right around freezing. 33 in kansas city. north of that in -- good morning. somebody going by. sharing the season. today's daytime highs almost 60 here in new york city. not exactly going to feel like the first day of winter. almost 70 in raleigh and it's going to be 80 in tampa. northern plains, temperatures in the 30's in montana today, it's going to be 27. hey, brian and gretch, tell the studio crew if everybody is taking the bus, it leaves in 30

seconds. >> ok. >> i got to go! >> go ahead. cross the camera. >> there you go. >> there he runs! >> he'll be here in a second. >> have a good christmas. see you in the new year, john. bye-bye. >> coming up on the show -- >> i never liked him! >> come on. >> we've been -- >> sorry. >> we've been hacked by china just this morning, "the wall street journal" reports that chinese hackers made their way into the computers of the u.s. chambers of commerce and it wasn't the little league. they had access to 300 million members for more than a year. this started happening back in 2010. the chamber apparently unplugged those computers and later fixed the leak. we're told the chinese who by the way, can you make the music louder? i'll scream if you give me a bullhorn. they only had access to trade policies, meeting notes, trip reports and schedules but they seem to be all over us. now, give gretchen a new song. >> hard to keep your concentration with that music. >> i was trying to see the relevance to see if the music matched the actual story. >> nah! >> let me tell you about this.

a record drug bust in tempe, arizona. $12 million in drugs are off the streets and 200 people are behind bars. it went down during a traffic stop and an officer saw a known drug user making a purchase and that's when officers stepped in. those involved, part of the cartel. >> sounds bad. a pin was spotted inside a 76-year-old woman's stomach. does she know? it's apparently been there for the past 25 years. this according to a report in the british journal medicine that i read every day. the woman says she's used the pen to inspect her tonsils when it slipped. >> after 25 years? >> how could you not bring that up? i might have swallowed a pen. >> forget about hall and oates. how about call and oates? a bizarre new service providing a direct line to hits like this one. >> ♪ private eyes

they're watching you ♪ ♪ private eyes ♪ they're watching you watching you watching you ♪ ♪ watching you >> well, it's not a joke, folks. a communications company has actually set up a hall and oates emergency hotline. customers can call in and request one of the rock 'n' roll duo's classic songs. for example, you can dial 33 for maneater or 4 for "private eyes". or i guess what number would rich girl be? >> 5. anything without hall and oates singing on them. not a big fan. i'm so sick of that song, it's ridiculous. >> i love them. ♪ she's a rich girl and it's gone too far ♪ >> that's not a bad song. i don't like the others. >> why more average people are taking on the duties of regular priests. >> and major blow to michelle bachmann's campaign this week. reports say she's been asked to drop out by an iowa powerhouse? we're going to ask her about it in a few minutes. >> first, your trivia question

of the day -- [ knock on door ] coo you found it. wow. nice place. ye. [ chuckles ] the family thinks i'm out shipping these. smooth move. you used priority mail flat rate boxes. if it fits, it ships for a low, flat rate. paid for postagenline and arranged a free pickup. and i'm gonna track them online, too. nice. between those boxes and this place, i'm totally stayinsane this year. do i smell snickerdoodles? maybe. [ timer dings ] got to go. priority mail fla rate shipping at usps.com. a simpler way to ship. we get double miles on every purchase. so we earned a holiday trip to the big apple twice as fast! nner!

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>> all right. it's the christmas season. it's important to remember the role that god plays in your lives, perhaps. even if you don't join the clergy or the church directly. you can still help others. what am i talking about? well, let's expand on it. with more on that message is the author of this book "living the call, an introduction to the vocation." bill simon jr., welcome. first off, when you were in business, you were religious but you weren't comfortable talking about it. you thought it showed weakness, why? >> well, i'm not exactly sure, brian.

you know, i just felt like, you know, your faith is a very private thing. and, you know, if you talk about it, maybe somebody would think you're not tough enough. maybe you're not going to make the, you know, very difficult decisions that sometimes are required in business. >> since the 1960's, the catholic church in particular has had trouble attracting priests. they fill the gap with laypeople doing various jobs. how valuable has that been? >> well, i think it's been incredibly valuable. if you look at the numbers of lay people that have now jumped into the mix, if you will, it's thousands of lay people over the course of the last 20, 25 years. not just in the parishes but in the schools and across catholic church. literally hundreds of thousands of people. >> and it's people who choose not to be going to -- to become a priest or a nun, they're in their families but they still want to spend a lot of time in their church like cambria smith, you point out, she's a parish life director at the family

church in pasadena. >> that's exactly right, brian. cambria is in effect the chief executive officer of a large entity. it has over 100 in staff. 10,000 in parishioners. millions of dollars in their budget. and cambria is an incredibly capable individual. >> and so augustine as well, correct? >> absolutely. angela runs the youth adults ministry in new orleans and is a 32-year-old african-american individual who, you know, caters to a very important segment of people in their 20's that sometimes go away from the church, you know, just like i did, you know, people that are, you know, questioning things. faced with life's challenges, not exactly sure where to turn, he has dedicated his life to making sure those people know there's help out there. >> right. you have so many examples in your book. real quick, people are out there saying i want to become more active, how do i start, what would you do? >> you know, i'd do two things. first, go to your church and second, i'd pray.

i mean, that's what happened to me in my own life. i just started to go more frequently to my church. i talked to my pastor. i asked him the same question you asked me. and over the course of the last 10 years, the results have been incredible. just very satisfaction with my family with some of the things i've been lucky enough to get involved with in my life. >> no one has to tell you to enjoy the christmas season. you're in the middle it was -- and spreading the word. congratulations on book "living the call." >> thank you, brian. merry christmas to you. >> same to you! all right straight ahead, next michelle bachmann is in the bull pen. she's here just hours after reports claim she was asked to drop out of the race for president by a powerhouse over in iowa. then mitt romney will join us right after. but first on this day in 1987, george michael had the number one song. it was called "faith." [ male announcer ] what can you do with plain white rice?

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>> all right. the answer to the trivia question of the day, ray romano. the winner is elaine from virginia. congratulations. we're going to send you something real nice. >> when she entered the presidential race back in july, congresswoman michelle bachmann was surging ahead. she was second in national polls, only to mitt romney and she even won the iowa straw poll. >> things were going great but the latest results show bachmann's support has now shrunk to 7%. so with only two weeks left, before the iowa caucuses, does the congresswoman think she can make a comeback? >> well, let's ask her. joining us live from davenport, iowa, congresswoman michelle

bachmann. good morning! >> good morning, gretchen. good morning, steve. >> good morning. >> what do you make of the latest polls especially in iowa where many people say you have to have a very good finish there to continue? >> well, these are so fluid and we have been so thrilled with is after the last fox debate on thursday in sioux city, it's almost like an electric light switch was flipped on. people were very excited about how i took on ron paul and the other candidates on the stage and as a matter of fact, there's a piece out this morning on the huffington post that said of all the candidates, i'm the one that's demonstrated the greatest ability to take barack obama on in the debates and defeat him. and we are seeing that on the ground. we're in the middle of our 99 county tour. we're almost at 50 counties as of today. and so we're excited because the momentum is completely shifted about 60% of the people were undecided and we've seen about 1500 new supporters come my way

just in the last couple of days. a big tea party group came out for me. they were formerly for herman cain. about 900 strong. they're in my camp. so we have very strong support among evangelicals as well. we're surging and we're very excited. we think we're going to be exactly where we need to be on january 3rdrd. >> good for you. in the meantime, yesterday, rick santorum got a bit of good news. two iowa conservative leaders, bob vander plaats with the family leader group, and also chuck hurley chose to support santorum and we understand that mr. vander plaats who is quite influential there in iowa apparently there are reports out that he asked your campaign to persuade you to drop out and support rick santorum or rick perry. what can you tell us about that? >> well, i did receive a phone call and i've been polling above -- above the ricks and so there

would be absolutely no reason for me to drop out plus i'm the only one that actually won anything in this state. plus we -- i have so much support here. i have the former president of the family leader who also has come out and endorsed me. i have the head of concerned women for america in iowa that have come out to support me. i have over 100 evangelical pastors that have come out in public support. they had a caravan going across iowa last week telling them i'm the candidate that best represents the views of the evangelical community. i have the most support in iowa from that community. >> some people find this phone call troubling because it was described as a weird phone call. do you think it's the place of one person to ask a presidential candidate to drop out of the race? >> well, they can certainly ask but we're not here to do that because i think that of all the candidates running in the race,

i will present the most formidable challenge to barack obama. that's really what this is about. who is the best candidate that we can field to take on obama and defeat him? and i think clearly after the last debate on fox, there's no question i'll be the one to go toe to toe with barack obama. and i can win. that's what this is about. turning the country around in 2012. i have the best background. i've demonstrated the best skills. i can do that. >> let's talk a little bit about what has happened there in iowa. a couple of weeks ago, newt gingrich flying high. suddenly, he made a gigantic rebound largely based on his debate performances, people loved the way he went toe to toe with the various participants there and you certainly did a great job, you know, and you really took it to newt as well in the last debate there in sioux city as well. but ron paul has really gone negative toward newt and also, there's some bad ads out there for mitt romney as well. have you thought about going negative because all the data seems to show that it works?

>> well, we're doing exactly what we need to do. we're being very grassroots. very on the ground. we're spending all of our time, 10 stops a day in 10 different counties meeting with iowans on the ground. they appreciate that. they want to look in my eyes and i want to look in theirs, shake their hand, talk to them. this is what iowa does best and i love this kind of politicking. this is positive. this is positive. it's relationship building and i'm very excited about the response we're seeing on the ground. that's the way to go. bring people in and that's what i want to do as the nominee, unite the country. >> a lot of people had said that was a good tactic for newt gingrich to compliment the other republicans on stage during debates and to decide not to go negative. to defend himself but decide not to spark any negative ads. do you think that mitt romney should listen to newt gingrich's claim and for that matter, to any candidates' claim that you should not have any negative ads. do you think mitt romney should

listen to that? >> well, i think we saw, unfortunately, newt gingrich was going negative yesterday himself because he's seeing that he's dropping dramatically in the polls. the best thing that anybody can do is what we're doing, be on the ground. meet with iowans and talk to iowans. it's very personal. it's a lot of work but it's the right way to campaign. that's what we're doing now and i think we'll prevail on january 3rd approximate -- >> we know that you are very busy. thank you very much for joining us live from davenport, iowa, and merry christmas to you. >> merry christmas to you, steve and gretchen and all the viewers watching fox. >> thank you very much. >> thank you, congresswoman. coming up next, we'll ask mitt romney that same question that i just posed to congresswoman bachmann. then remember this scene from "the peanuts"? >> is she really going to kick that football? ahhh!

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( laughing ) it's actually a pretty good day whenou consider. that's great. >> gretchen: good morning, everyone. you made it to the middle of the week before christmas. it's wednesday, december 21. i'm gretchen carlson. thanks for sharing your time. newt gingrich says that he is facing an all out smear campaign from governor mitt romney. >> palpably misleading. clearly false, and are politics in its worst form. >> gretchen: so what happened to not going negative? we'll ask governor romney moments from now. >> steve: that's good booking. nancy pelosi says she's figured out the republicans' dirty little secret. >> this year i'm really going to kick that football. ahhhh! >> steve: yes, the former speaker says congress is just like charlie brown and lucy, always taking the football. who is who, though?

>> brian: that's treatment he was caught stealing u.s. government secrets, accuse evidence sharing them with the world and bradley manning's outrageous defense? it's the army's fault. now he would like to go home. >> steve: sure. >> brian: "fox & friends" starts right now. >> this is scotty north korea on camera 2. i want to wish everybody a happy hanukkah and merry christmas and you're watching "fox & friends." go, giants. >> gretchen: scotty! he operates my camera and little unknown fact about him, an amazing dancer. >> brian: come on out here. i'll him something. >> gretchen: and an incredible voice. frank sinatra, you could have competed with him, scott. yep. >> brian: this true? >> steve: look at the concentration. here we're trying outthrow him off his game and yet he remains focused. >> brian: just like sinatra. >> steve: by the way, earlier i mentioned today is the first day of winter because it is

december 31, historically that's true. apparently it doesn't happen until 30 minutes after midnight tonight. >> brian: which is why it's 50 degrees today. tomorrow it would be 5. you don't know anything about the weather. >> steve: you have no idea how true that is. >> gretchen: hopefully i understand something about the headlines. deadlock in dc this morning. that payroll tax cut extension that passed so easily in the senate now hitting a major road block in the house. gop leaders refuse to go even consider the measure, saying the two-month extension just isn't long enough. they want a year. now congressional leaders are threatening to go home for the holidays. what does that mean? without that extension, millions of americans could see an average of $1,000 taken out of their paychecks over the next year. the move also puts 3 million americans' unemployment benefits at risk of expiring in a couple of weeks. the young man accused of leaking nearly a half million government secrets to wikileaks will say, it's not my fault. it was the army's fault. bradley manning's attorneys

about to launch their defense against the u.s. military. it wants manning court-martialed and sent to prison for orchestrating the biggest national security leak in united states history. their argument is that manning was emotionally troubled had during his time in iraq and afghanistan and the military should have provided better security. manning was his unit's go to guy for computer projects. the faa releasing new rules today to prevent pilots from fly ing. the guidelines are expected have pilots get more sleep. it comes three years after a plane crashed near buffalo, new york, killing all people on board and one person on the ground. an investigation later revealed both pilots were overtired. jewish people around the world celebrating hanukkah this morning. you're looking at video out of washington, d.c. where local rabbis lit the national menorah.

hanukkah, also known as the's value of lights, for the -- festival of lights. those are your headlines. >> steve: very good. well, just a couple of minutes ago, we had somebody who wants to be president of the united states, michelle bachmann. now we go to new hampshire where he's on his bus tour and the former governor of the commonwealth of massachusetts, mitt romney joins us live. good morning to you, sir. >> good morning, steve. >> steve: it's a hair piece? that's what i heard on david letterman the other day. it's a hair piece? [ laughter ] >> i guess i got it glued on real tight. >> steve: way to go. it could be windy on the road today. >> you bet. >> gretchen: let's talk a little about the campaign. yesterday newt gingrich was an "the o'reilly factor" and he has really been spreading the message for quite some time that he does not believe in negative campaigning, no negative ads, he says he will begin. he will defend himself when attacked, but not start them. he offered this challenge to

you. i want you to take a listen and then respond. >> this was created by his former staff and funded by his personal staff. they are palpably misleading, clearly false, and politics in its worst form. this afternoon, we're going -- >> gretchen: can you do that, governor? can you ask your pac to only run positive ads and will you do that? >> well, there are limits to what you can tell a pac, obviously. these coordination rules, you're not allowed to coordinate, but i'm sure i could say, hey, please don't do anything negative. but this is politics and if you can't stand the heat in this little kitchen, wait until the obama hell's kitchen turns up the heat. this is a time when we have to be able to stand up, defend ourselves. i've done the hard work of raising money for ads and the

speaker came after me pretty aggressively in his attacks. we're going to respond and we've got an ad campaign in my campaign that's positive. but this super pac that's been organized, it has to do what it does on an uncoordinated basis. >> steve: obviously the speaker doesn't like the ads because your ads, ron paul's ads have taken their toll on his campaign. you look at the numbers. he was way threw and now he's moderating. he and you are neck and neck. >> well, i think as people have taken a look at his record and the fact that these ads that have come from campaigns and in my case, not from our campaign, but from the super pac organized to help me, pointed out some of the aspects of his record that people weren't aware of and that brought the numbers down. there is nothing that any of these ads, by any of the candidates are showing by speaker gingrich that president obama would not put out with his billion dollars money he would put out down the road. it's probably a good time for people to see these things and

make up their mind. >> brian: the polls seem different from last week. you really rising in a lot of polls. in iowa in particular, there is something else happening. ron paul is leading the politics projection. what does it say about the people of iowa if a libertarian with relatively out of the box view of our national policy and future is leading that race? >> well, i think ron paul has run a very effective campaign. he's been hard working. he's represented himself well in the debates. i don't believe he'll become our nominee. i believe his views are well out of the main stream of republican thought. but he may be able to get some folks to support him in an early contest or two and maybe down the road as well. you have to tip your hat and say he's doing a nice job representing his views. >> gretchen: governor, one of the biggest endorsements that you received quite some time ago was governor chris christie of new jersey and he has been out on the stuff for you in iowa and

new hampshire and elsewhere. yesterday he said something that caught the attention of a lot of people and i wonder how you would react to this. here is his quote. do i wish that mitt romney would be a little edgier and bolder? sure. and i've told him that. i've told him that privately. he knows that i feel that way, but he is who he is. what do you make of that and are you taking his advice? >> i think his advice was that i am what i am and there are times when -- if i have to be tough, and i have in the debates, i'm willing to be tough. but i'm not willing to be a bomb thrower or to go over the top and say outrageous or outlandish things or incendiary things simply for the purpose much getting people excited. i'm hoping to become president of the united states, not a talk show host. >> steve: there you go. plenty of those already. >> brian: not too many. governor, i got to ask you about the big battle in washington because it affects every single american and you're out on the

stump every day. the payroll tax holiday. number one, it would put $1,000 more money in people's pockets. do you side with the senate republicans who said pass it for two months or do you side with the house republicans that say we will not do this unless it's 12 months? >> these kind of internal battles in washington sometimes make you scratch your head. they ought to get the job done. i'd like to see this payroll tax holiday extended and i just don't believe in raising taxes on people at a critical time like this. i hope the people in the house and the senate come together, get this worked out hopefully before the new year sets up. >> brian: is it bad for the party that they haven't, like senator mccain contended yesterday? >> you know, i think if we can speak with one voice, it's helpful. but we elect a lot of people to go to washington. they have activing views and hopefully they can hammer something out to protect the american people at a critical

time. raising taxes now is not a good idea. but do recognize this payroll tax holiday is a nice thing to do for folks, but it's not going to get the economy going again. it is just a band-aid. >> gretchen: right. the interesting thing is that it actually could affect you personally, though, because many people are leaking it to the fact that president obama has gone up in approval ratings in the polls because congress cannot get this done and that he will be able to use this even in his state of the union address to call out the republicans as the do nothing party. >> you know, the president has proven that he is an attack dog. there is no question, he's divisive and attacking and it's one reason that washington is broken is that we have a president who attacks rather than leads. and the president ought to be personally involved in this process and working to try and encourage some reproachment between the various parties. by the way, the republicans don't have the majority in the (the democrats have the majority in the senate. i think people will remember that. i think they'll also remember that the president had both

houses in his party for his first two years. he put through his agenda. how has that worked out? not so well. we've continued to have people unemployed, housing values going down. the president's agenda hasn't worked u. this isn't a republican problem, it's a president problem. >> steve: the number two guy is joe biden. i'm sure you heard during an interview with "newsweek" magazine, he said the taliban is not the enemy per say. that's critical. well, governor, if they're not our enemy, why are they shooting at us? why are they killing at us? >> i think it's one of the most strange comments ever to be uttered by the lips of a vice president and this vice president particular said strange things. this is really extraordinary. i can't imagine. we are fighting the taliban in afghanistan. they are killing american soldiers. to suggest they are not our enemy is absolutely extraordinary and that kind of communication confuses our friends in afghanistan, our

friends around the world. where in the world is this vice president coming from? >> gretchen: what do you make of it? is it a strategy or did he misspeak? >> i think it's what he thinks. i think the obama administration continues to try and narrow the group of people they consider our enemies to be an almost nonexistent group. they don't want to suggest that jihaddists of all kinds have as their intent the attacking america, attacking our values, and we have to stand up for the kind of approach that we've had under the prior president to recognize we're going to fight jihaddism around the world. >> brian: be honest with this question, please. how is the boss? i heard you just rolled it out? you took the shrink wrap off. is that it? >> we're in the bus right now. i came in here to do this interview. looks pretty nice. we just rented it. we're going to be going up and down new hampshire and iowa over the next couple weeks. >> gretchen: it's made in

america. >> that's right. >> steve: i think you should actually drive it. the other candidates are in the back. you should be in the front! commander in chief of the bus. >> there you go. they might let me drive it in the parking lot, but it's illegal for me to drive this on the road. >> gretchen: i saw your last bus with all your sons in it and i have to say, the bathrooms are all clean. goododo see you, governor. >> thanks, gretchen. good to see you. >> brian: i guess somehow that meant us, too. it's good to see gretchen. >> steve: we just heard from mitt romney. before that, congresswoman michelle bachmann. our political panel here to analyze what they both said coming up next. >> gretchen: if you thought the shrimp on a treadmill was a waste of taxpayer money, you better sit down for this one. a new report on outrageous waste in washington

watching because if you want, you missed a lot. we've just talked to mitt romey and minnesota congresswoman michelle bachmann back to back on why they should be the republican nominee for president. joining us with reaction is our political panel, dane gardner, president, national black pro-life union. good morning. james, the senior managing

direor, tangent capital partners. and julie, former communications director for senator j corzine and fox news contributor. good morning to all of you. >> good morning. >> steve: all right. day, let's start with you. what did you think of mitt romney there? >> well, mitt is mitt. i'm not very -- i don't really find him very believable. >> steve: really? what part? >> i think that -- maybe it comes from everything that i've heard about him over the years. he looks good, but i just don't believe a lot of what he says. >> steve: is there a particular issue? >> not really. i think just around the board, all over the board. >> steve: all right. jim, because a lot of people like mt romney, because he's been in the private sector, been in the public sector and created a bunch of job. >> i thi this year is different because typically, campaigns at this stage are about organization and money and that's impoant. but this year the people are looking for ideas.

i think one of the reasons newt gingrich broke out of the pack and i understand he's faded, is 'cause he was the candidate of ideas. i think we're seeing version 2 of rick perry. he's putting a more robust platform forward. with romney, it's more romney. no real new ideas. playing too cautious. >> steve: julie? >> i agree with everything said. romney is talking about 25%. there is nothing he can do to get out of it. >> steve: he says that's not a ceiling. that's the floor, which is accurate. >> it's been the floor, it's not been the floor or the ceiling. it's been the scats quo for so long and people flirted with michelle bachmann, flirted with herman cain. they flirted with newt gingrich. they flirted with rick perry. poor rick santorum, the only guy left at the altar. nobody is flirting with mitt romney. that's a problem for him. >> steve: there has been a lot of flirtg and we had michelle bachmann on a little while ago. here she is talking about how she's thebest one to go toe to toe with barak obama. >> i think that of all of the candidates running in the race, i will present the most

formidable challenge to barak obama. that's really what this is about. who is the best candidate that we can field to take on obama and defeat him and i think clearly after the last debate on fox, there is no question, i'll be the one to go toe to toe with barak obama and i could win. >> steve: can she win, jim? >> it's possible. she's very bright. the thing with romney, paul simon said one man's creel something another man's floor. he might be stuck there. i'm a financial analyst and political anast. i'm looking at them in terms of hard money versus soft money. >> steve: she needs more none. >> she may need more money, but i'd like to know where she stands on the u.s. dollar. we've seen romn and obama are the soft dollar. >> steve: all right. i've asked the panel a couple of good questions. e-mail us about how you thought those interviews with mitt romney and michelle bachmann went. the panel sticks around because call it a charlie brown congress, nancy pelosi says t republicans are playing peanuts

with your paycheck. how does that work? the panel sticks around because pelosi said something. the white house said behind joe biden when he said the taliban wasn't our enemy. what would bill clinton say? the former president enters the no spin zone. it's bill versus bill everyone believes in keeping their omises once a year. but we believe in helping people take steps to keep them every single day. that's why every day we help people across the country get into their first homes. prepare for a comfortable retirement and protect the people and things that matter most. at genworth we believe every day is theht day to a step toward tomorrow.

>> gretchen: welcome back. a couple headlines. new reports the son and presumed heir of moammar gadhafi is alive and well this morning. american human rights group says he is being held by libyan rebels outside tripoli and says he's being denied legal counsel.

eric holder's time in the hot seat not over. darryl issa says he asked him to testify before congress again over the fast and furious debauchle. january 20 is the date requested. holder has yet to confirm. now back to the panel. >> steve: all right. thanks. we all remember this classic sce from the peanuts charlie brown cartoon series. remember this? how many times did you see this? >> this year i'm really going to kick that football. ahhhh! >> steve: how does that relate to what's going on with the payroll tax battle in washington? house minority leader nancy pelosi thinks it does relate. she is calling speaker john boehner's attempt to convene a house-senate conference on yearlong tax cut an extension of a trick. she says boehner is no lucy and her democrats are not charlie brown. let's continue the conversation with our political panel. jim, what's your first questn

for nancy pelosi? >> she's worried about people pulling tricks on her. i want to know if she's pulling a trick on the american people. i'd like to see the confirmations in her brokerage accot. is she trading ahead of this payroll tax debate? >> steve: whoa. >> seriously. happened in the past. i'd like to know if they're trading on it. >> steve: sure. day, what they have done, first of all, the house passed their version for a year and then the senate said we don't like that. they passed two months. then the house came back and said, okay, let's confer, which is the way congress works. now nancy pelosi says, nope. not going to do it before the end of the year. >> that's what they're supposed to do. they're supposed to come together, confer before the holiday. what really gets me is that they keep saying they -- they talk about the american people and about the two months and about they should know -- have some idea of what is going to happen after christmas. let's make it a year. what does two months do? that's still living month to month. just make it a year. if you really care, make it a year. >> steve: and if they were going

to do short-term, i've talked to some accountants who say you can't base tax calculations on two months. you got to make it three months or a quarter. >> well, obama wanted to make it a year, tea party guys said no way. if you look at who boehner appointed to the conference, none of these guys for the most part support an extension of the payroll tax cut. the president is in washington working his butt off trying to get this done. these guys are the ones who -- >> steve: julie, if the president was doing his job, he probably would have listened to the super committee. he probably would have listened to simpson bowles -- >> the president did his job. the senate did its job. only seven republicans didn't support this? almost 100% of the senate supports this. bipartisan movement. the president says great. i'm sure painer and mcconnell thought they had a deal. the t party says no way. all of a sudden, boehner looks at the weakest speaker i think in memory, and then everything gets thrown out the window. these people people on january 1 have to deal with an average

$1,000 hike. >> steve: has the president doing his job? >> the president is campaigning. let's be real here. he's not where he should be. you know with a? we have to think also about democrats, when they had a controlled congress, they repeatedly let joblessness expire for our nation's unemployed. they missed important deadlines. i think we have to understand that two months will get us to where? they've done this before in 2010 four times. >> steve: right to saint valentine's day. >> they didn't want to extend the unemployment weapons. >> if they don't pass it, there is president obama certainty. if you pass it, there is no certnty of what happens in two months. the markets hate uncertainty. if the markets don't respect it, it's all bad. >> steve: on that note, we conclude the panel. merry christmas. >> merry christmas. >> steve: thank you. meanwhile, straight ahead, world renowned actor and singer robert dobby is here to tell us how

he's helping in a big way this holiday season and how you can, too. hi there, robert. and last year your tax dollars paid for a shrimp on a treadmill. so what gem this year? you better sit down. the new report is coming up and it involves pancakes for yuppies get the technology they love, on the network they dee.

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>> been reported kim kardashian exchanged most of her wedding gifts that she got for rolex watches that she gave to her family. yeah. in kim's defense, the kardashians will need the watches to figure out when their 15 minutes are up. >> brian: i could not believe how much backlash that caused. >> steve: no kidding. 72-day marriages don't end well.

>> brian: even paris hilton is going, i think your time is done. >> gretchen: she should be the model of what happens after you've had your 72 days of fame. >> brian: she claims to have mentored kim. >> steve: well done. >> gretchen: how to become famous for nothing? >> brian: exactly. we've been hacked by china. another disturbing report. the "wall street journal" reports chinese hackers made their way into computers at the u.s. chamber of commerce and it wasn't a little leak. they had access to 300 million members for more than a year. it started happening in 2010. the chamber apparently unplugged those computers and later fixed the leaks. we're told the chinese only had access to key contact, trade policy, meeting notes, trip reports, and schedules. >> steve: thank goodness. i'm peopling so much better. meanwhile, snow across the southeast could delay your holiday travel plans. the winter-like storm in late fall already dumped more than a foot of snow from new mexico to state of kansas. at least six people have been killed in car accidents alone. interstates and highways in five

states shut down. many of them are finally reopening later on this morning. colorado reportedly seeing ten foot snow drifts, rough for driver, but great for skiers. >> gretchen: taxpayer dollars hard at work in washington. check out your screen right now. yep. that's a shrimp on a treadmill. last year we told you that's what your money paid for. oklahoma senator tom coburn's wasteful 2011 reveals more than 6 1/2 billion dollars was wasted. it went to a video game preservation center. whatever that is. 765,000 spent on pancakes for yuppies. 550,000 was used to fund a documentary about how rock music contributed to the collapse of the soviet union. and 48,700 for a festival promoting hawaii's chocolate industry. i thought that it was all about leis. >> brian: do you remember this from ace ventura, pet detective?

you can see jim carey's character can't seem to deliver a package without breaking it. we're about to show you a guy who makes ace ventura look like employee of the month. take a look. this home surveillance shows video of a guy, a real life fed-ex guy delivering a package of the he just tossed it. the problem? there was a computer monitor inside. the guy who ordered it, not happy when he found it in a million and one pieces. >> steve: let's listen to see if you can hear the glass break. >> brian: there is no way. it's not possible. >> steve: let's listen carefully. okay. heave ho. >> brian: 100% right. how did you know that? the worst part is he says he was home when the delivery was made, so he could have got a handoff. fed-ex says it's working to identify the employee. >> gretchen: it's not that tough. you can totally see who that is. >> brian: they must know who

that is. >> steve: how many people are probably now saying, you know what? i'm going with ups? >> brian: the ace ventura guy looked like it was a ups outfit. >> gretchen: let's talk about this because people who know the taliban like maybe our members of the military who have been fighting them in afghanistan and iraq for the last ten years, they're now reacting to vice president joe biden's comments that the taliban is really not our enemy. i thought it was fascinating on your radio show, we talked to a couple military members who served over there and they were highly offended by the comment. >> brian: unbelievable. they were almost dislodged because of it. instead of being angry, they said, wait a minute, we know who killed our guys and we know who is shooting us every day and we know our objective is to wipe out the taliban. but not according to the vice president. he says, quote, look, the taliban per say, not our enemy. that's critical to understand. >> steve: bill clinton was on bill o'reilly's program last night. this topic came up toward the end of the segment. here is the former president's

response. >> i think what the vice president probably was saying is al-qaeda was our affirmative enemy. they were trying to kill us in america and in iraq. and elsewhere. and africa and lots of other places and the taliban itself did not conduct it out of area operations against us. that's probably true. but that doesn't mean that i think we should not be really concerned if they were to govern afghanistan. one of the things that i would be concerned about and always have been with the taliban, is how miserable they made life for so many women and little girls. i mean, downright abusive things. >> it's evil. >> brian: blowing up all girls schools because they were in a classroom. that's not our enemy. general keane, he helped put the afghanistan surge, he helped tell george bush you got to surge in iraq. he's our guy now. earlier on "fox & friends" on the same topic.

>> we're conducting unilateral negotiations with the taliban. i think that's fine. >> brian: there? >> we should be talking to our enemy, frankly. but the fact that they're unilateral and the pakinstanis are not involved and the karzai government is not involved, there is not much chance we'll have a positive outcome. >> brian: it's been going on for ten months. >> and the other thing is, the taliban, just as happened with the al-qaeda and the sunni insurgency in iraq, until we totally turn the tables on these guys and they see that they don't have any other options, you're not really going to have serious negotiations. >> brian: we call them our friends and not our enemy, we think we can win them over, i guess. >> steve: right. >> gretchen: same philosophy they used with iran, really, to have this kind of negotiations and talks. >> brian: i'm just wondering, how is that going? >> steve: exactly. >> gretchen: let's find out when they have a nuclear weapon potentially. >> steve: all right. moving on. you've seen him on the silver screen, but robert davvy is launching a whole new career. he's singing sinatra and doing it for a good cause.

>> gretchen: he's teaming up with the salvation army and donating his proceeds to that organization. joining us is robert. good to see you, good morning. >> good morning. >> gretchen: you just handed out these beautiful cds to all of us. how did you decide to do a christmas cd? >> this is not the christmas cd. >> gretchen: oh, this is sinatra. >> this was reloosed in october. davi sings sinatra on the road to romance. what happened is -- i feel like i've been let out of prison because for the last 30 years, i've been play ago lot of bad guys. i started as a singer as a kid and i studied opera and all of that stuff. i went back to singing a few years ago, started studying with a guy, did the first album. i wanted to use my voice for something besides narrations. the salvation army, i did a single a few weeks ago called "mistletoe and holly," which is a song that was written by sinatra, and two others. one of the only christmas songs

sinatra had a hand in writing. i was at a restaurant on 56th and i was wondering what to do with the single and there was a woman there, denise richardson, who is the head -- up with of the heads of the salvation army in los angeles -- in new york. i don't know where i am. so i said, hey, i'd like to donate this to the salvation army. and she got it to the major and subsequently, now the download on itunes and amazon. >> brian: robert, your connection to the salvation army goes back, right? >> yeah. there's a few different things. get to the chase is when i was a kid, my grandfather, he was a boot legger during prohibition. >> steve: statute of limitations are running out. >> he got out of it during prohibition, but he was quite successful and had a lot of money. few apartment buildings in queens. but then depression came, he lost everything. when i was a kid, he would take me shopping, the holiday

seasons. whether it was j.c. penney's or macy's or corvettes, the kettle, this is the 120th anniversary of the kettle. he used to put in his buck or loose change and he said to me, i want you to remember always help these people. always help these people because i lost everything. he says, and they helped me when your mother was little. >> brian: and you are doing exactly that. >> steve: you're doing sinatra. you tell a great story about sinatra, in your presence when you had your first drink of booze? >> well, i did my first film with sinatra. he was a friend over the years. it was right here in little italy. we were downtown in a social club. new yorkers don't know with a -- know what a social club is, but think of good fellows on steroids. i'm in a social club at 2:00 o'clock in the morning. i'm leaning over to the side and sinatra is there with martin gables, who was married to arlene francis, like the barbara

walters of the day. a couple of other friends. he looked over, gave me a double take and he said, robert, have a drink. i don't drink, mr. sinatra. you don't drink, you're fired. i'll have what you're having. he puts me on the bar. pours two fingers of jack. ice crew, water, and 35 rehabs ever since. no, i'm kidding. i go to jack honey now, which is real good. and patron. >> gretchen: top of the line. >> yeah. >> gretchen: we're going to hear you sing your song that you are dedicating to the salvation army. we'll hear that in about 15 minutes from now. stick around for that. thank you so much. >> thank you. >> steve: coming up, millions went missing when former new jersey governor jon corzine's firm went belly up. now there is word of a suspicious and fishy transfer. >> gretchen: he's the man with the best crystal ball in the business. larry sabato who has been right about every presidential race.

he says throw the national polls in the garbage. i'm looking forward to that. that's next [ sniffling ] [ male announcer ] all stuffed up?

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>> brian: quick headlines. investigators looking for millions of dollars in missing customer money from former new jersey governor jon corzine's firm. they may have found a big clue. they're requesting questions about a questionable transfer days before the company went belly up. 200 million bucks went to an account at chase bank. take a look at this. a tractor-trailer jackknifes on an icy road in russia. the truck inches away from an oncoming car which just happened to have a dash cam. luckily no one got hurt. from russia to your show.

in your living room, in your bedroom. now gretchen. >> gretchen: it's two weeks before the gop voting season kicks off and in the latest national poll, both mitt romney and newt gingrich are tied at 30%. but take a look at this. in separate polls of iowa voters, ron paul leads the two gop front runners with 23% of the vote. so why is this such a discrepancy between state polls and national polls? joining me now with a look into his crystal ball, professor larry sabato. why is that? >> good morning, gretchen. it's very simple. national polls are lagging indicators or misleading indicators. why? they're measuring the whole country. most people are not following politics as intently as the people in new hampshire or iowa because the campaign is right there. they're listening to the candidates on a daily basis. what happens in iowa, new hampshire, south carolina, florida, that's what matters for january and for the campaign.

gretchen, look four years ago, at this very moment, the national polls were showing that the republican presidential nominee would almost certainly be rudy guiliani. the polls on the democratic side were showing hillary clinton leading barak obama by 17 percentage points. so throw away the national polls. they're worthless. >> gretchen: very interesting philosophy. i hear from a lot of viewers who say what about my state? how are the republican candidates doing in my state? they get a little frustrated looking at iowa, south carolina and others. this morning you have a new poll. >> a virginia survey this morning had newt gingrich narrowly leading mitt romney in virginia, which is one of the super tuesday states on march 6. the reason that people don't see a lot of polls in their states is because by the time the campaign gets to their states, the matchup will be totally

different. some of the candidates won't even be in the race and the results of iowa and new hampshire and south carolina and florida will be factored into their thinking. so it's kind of a waste of money to do those polls right now. >> gretchen: exit question, when we look at the polls then that show how the republican candidates stack up against president obama, that's on a national level. should we toss those out right now? >> they're laughable. it's just a joke. people don't know who the republican nominee is going to be. they don't know that much about those nominees, those potential nominees. we do. we're following it daily. most people have lives. they're doing other things. so there will be a season for that and it's called next fall. >> gretchen: all right. i guess the only one that might matter is when it says generic republican candidate. maybe we should pay attention to that one stacked up against president obama. >> maybe. >> gretchen: i won't see you before marks so merry christmas. you have your christmas vest on. >> got my vest on, merry

christmas. >> gretchen: coming up, we just spoke to him, robert davi here and he's going to sing for us next. stick around. he sounds magnificent. let's check in with bill hemmer. >> how are you? >> gretchen: fantastic. >> we're waiting for you to sing. >> gretchen: well, that would be up for another take. >> will you do that tomorrow? >> i won't be here tomorrow. merry christmas. happy new year. >> breaking news on this tax fight, the latest on that. for the first time, governor chris christie and his wife sitting down for an interview. martha has that this morning. who does he think has the edge in 2012? iowa's governor is a republican. boy, has he said interesting things about the field of republican candidates. he's here live. steve forbes on the state of the economy. and governor jon huntsman picked up a big endorsement from bill clinton. huntsman is here live. we'll talk to him about that, too. we'll see you in ten minutes.

>> brian: yes, we spoke to him earlier. back to sing his version of "mistletoe and holly," robert davi. are you ready? >> i guess so. we're going to go try this. i got my guys in here. randy is a pianist. he came from los angeles. both these guys and the back up guys are from new york. >> steve: hit it, robert. >> hit it. download amazon for itunes and salvation army. ♪ oh, by gosh, by golly ♪ ♪ it's time for mistletoe and holly ♪ ♪ tasty pheasants, christmas

presents ♪ ♪ country sights covered with snow ♪ ♪ oh, by gosh, by jingle ♪ it's time for carols and chris cringle ♪ ♪ tasty pheasant, christmas presents ♪ ♪ then comes that big night ♪ giving the tree the trim ♪ you'll hear voices by star light ♪ ♪ singing that yule tide hymn ♪ oh, by gosh, by golly ♪ it's time for mistletoe and holly ♪ ♪ fancy ties and grandma's pies ♪ ♪ and folks under the mistle ♪ and they whisper merry christmas to you ♪ ♪

♪ ♪ then comes that big night ♪ giving the tree a trim ♪ you'll hear voices by starlight ♪ ♪ singing that yule tide hymn ♪ oh, by gosh, by golly ♪ it's time for mistletoe and holly ♪ ♪ fancy ties and grandma's pies ♪ ♪ and folks stealing a kiss or two ♪ ♪ as they whisper, yes, they whisper, they whisper merry christmas to you ♪

>> merry christmas, everybody. happy hanukkah. [ cheers and applause ] [ jennifer ] and'm jennifer nohcutt. opening a restaurant is utterly terrifying. we lost well over half of our funding when everything took a big dip. i don't think anyone would open up a restaurant if they knew what that moment is like. ♪ day 1, everything happened at once. ♪ i don't know how long that day was. we went home and let it sink in what we had just done. [ laughs ] ♪ word of mouth is everything, and word of mouth today is online. it all goes back to the mom and pop business founded within a family. ♪ when i found out i was pregnant, daniel was working on our second location. everyone will find out soon enough i think that something's happening. ♪

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and find an arthritis treatment for you. visit celebrex.com and ask your doctor about celebrex. for a body in motion. >> steve: all right. 15 years ago, she was here. she has been the supervisor of tech op scheduling since september, 1996. she is one of the founding members of fox news and now flo, it's time to go. she's retiring and we have loved you for so long. what are you going to do in retirement? >> i don't know. i'll be watching you every morning. >> brian: you have to. that's the law. >> but we're -- i'm going o rest a while. my husband has been ill. so we're going to get him back to 100% and go on a cruise in february and we're going to travel. it's time. i'm ready to move on. i'm going to miss everyone. it's been a great ride. i had never been anywhere for a start-up and this has been fantastic. but i'm ready. i'm ready for a change. >> steve: it's been great. i used to see you down in the hall at the very beginning. >> this was the best place