that's it for this "special report." fair, balanced and unafraid. we are going to catch a flight to new york. >> good morning. bright and early, everyone. it's tuesday, the last day in january, the 31st. i'm gretchen carlson. thanks for sharing your time. why are we up early? it's primary day in florida, of course. t minus two hours until the polls open and newt gingrich is making an 11th hour pitch to steal the lead from mitt romney. we're live on the ground moments from now. >> meanwhile, president obama is taking his plan, his jobs creation plan that is to say to a very personal level. he is now personally accepting people's resumes. details straight ahead. >> all right. first hand account of this deadly chain reaction as dozens of cars collide. >> oh, my god! oh! >> wow!

the 911 calls now released. you heard a little bit of it. you'll hear more. "fox & friends" starts right now. >> it's finally the day we've been waiting for. >> it's finally 5:00 a.m., is that what you mean? >> florida has been going to the polls for over a week but today is the official primary. we'll know tonight, at 8:00 p.m. eastern time who the big winner is tonight and lots of people to talk about that than so much more. >> scott rasmussen is the pollster guy. >> mention more names. >> the senator, we have so many guests you could have started it for us. >> i'm thinking about it. i have no support in this room except for joel. >> it's all yours, baby. >> newt gingrich will be coming up in a couple of hours. it will be exciting to talk to him and rick santorum back on the trail. she's going to talk about what

he needs to do and why he went to missouri yesterday. >> laura ingraham who hosts a radio show on great stations across the country and fox news contributor will be joining us as well to do last minute analysis and the guy who has a congressional district in the sunshine state of florida, allen west. so we got a busy four hours to kick off right now, ladies and gentlemen. thanks for joining us. >> i believe that was the talking heads. >> i was going to say -- >> we are the talking heads. >> i was trying to figure out what the name was song was to see what the relevance. this must be the place. thank you very much. >> right. that's great. plus we can also take -- we are talking heads. >> this is your place for election results. >> ok. >> tonight. >> and before we do that, we have to tell you the other news of the day as well. fox news alert. 15 suspected al-qaida terrorists killed by air strikes in yemen while you were sleeping. police people that is who live in the city of ladar says the drone fired missiles at two vehicles on the ground. among the dead, four regional al-qaida leaders. no word on who is behind the

strike. democrats looking into operation fast & furious say their year long investigation has turned up no evidence that high level officials at the justice department planned or directed the botched gun tracking program. democrats on the house oversight and government reform committee releasing their report this morning. it's expected to differ sharply with the conclusions of congressional republicans who are grilling attorney general eric holder about fast & furious and his possible role on thursday. brand new 911 calls just released revealed the terrifying moments before a deadly chain reaction crash in florida. it happened after heavy smoke from a nearby brushfire made it impossible for drivers to see. >> that fire now being investigated as arson.

but no arrests have been made. what's wrong with this picture? no, your eyes aren't fooling you. that light pole on a runway at denver's international airport got knocked on its side. the culprit -- the wing of a southwest airlines jet. the pilot ran right into the pole while taxiing to the gate. a passenger snapped this picture from the cabin. no one was hurt. and those are your quick headlines. >> a little something extra for your -- >> i hope they looked at that wing before it took off on another journey. >> i'm sure they did. >> four minutes after the hour. we have a very excited reporter up early in florida. excited that we're going to be leaving florida, perhaps. >> there he is right there, florida primary is finally here, the g.o.p. candidates are making their final push to get people to go to the polls, brian. >> phil keating is live, i don't know how i know this but he is live at the polling center according to reports in a suburb of tampa with more on what the candidates are up today to try

to get some final primary votes. hey, mr. keating. >> good morning! you know you're up early in florida when you can actually see your breath. that's a rarity here in the sunshine state. around 80 degrees eventually once the sunrise happens. this is the center point church here in valrico, about a half-hour drive southeast of tampa. this is a very thick conservative republican voting bloc of people in this part of the metro area. this has the second -- >> well, mr. excitement had a little problem with his live shot there. >> they don't like being up that early either. >> we'll check in with him as he brings updates from florida. there he is! >> we're back. >> all right. let's pick up right where we were. so at 7:00 a.m., people will start to show up here to start casting their ballots. about 2/3 of the registered republicans in florida have yet to actually make up their mind.

we talked to several voters yesterday while mitt romney was up at the villages, the big retirement center campaigning for the elderly vote and gingrich was out stumping around the state as well. we talked to several still undecided voters yesterday and they all said the reason they have yet to pull the trigger was because they were really turned off about all of the negativity. all of the attacks from newt gingrich on mitt romney and from mitt romney on newt gingrich. and they said we're not hearing anything about the issues but last night at the villages, mitt romney certainly seemed to take a corner here and turn it for his own positive benefit seeming very confident singing, of course, "america the beautiful" and also not hammering gingrich all throughout that stump speech. he was actually hammering president obama really feeling like he is the eventual nominee. he's up in the polls by as much as 14 points. today is the last push for newt gingrich to pull an underdog upset.

back to you. >> all right, phil keating live for us in florida. we'll check back in with you as well. will the negativity now go away on the final day? i mean, it's interesting because mitt romney did the same thing in new hampshire. when he won in new hampshire, his entire speech there really sounded like he was the nominee because he went after president obama in that entire speech. then when it went back to campaigning, they've gone at each other again. at least yesterday up until that speech, they were still doing that. >> but we have yet to see a candidate go in front, look ahead at president obama and then not be tripped up in the next state. >> sure. >> so we saw it in south carolina, mitt romney approached the debates and everything like basically i've got this thing wrapped up. newt gingrich went after him. went after him. went after him along with rick santorum. he was the target and now by the time we got out of florida, he suffered about a double digit loss in south carolina. so see where it goes. it was a little bit personal yesterday, especially when it came to newt gingrich. he was firing away. this time from a whole new angle. >> yeah. we hadn't heard this before and

in this little excerpt, you're going to hear something about kosher meals for the first time. this was reported over the weekend by "the new york post." newt picked it up on the stump while going after mitt romney on religion. >> governor romney imposed activities on the catholic hospitals against their opposition and refused to allow them the right of conscience in romneycare. just as, by the way, he eliminated serving kosher food for elderly jewish residents under medicaid. >> all right. that was when mitt romney had his health care plan in the state of massachusetts when he was governor. it's interesting because i think the two biggest critical attacks against these two candidates are romneycare from gingrich's side and romney's attack on gingrich which is that he was a consultant for freddie mac and fannie mae and that is playing big down in florida because most of the people down in florida, a lot of them have bought retirement homes down there so

they may have been affected by the whole fannie mae, freddie mac thing. >> newt gingrich says mitt romney was investing in goldman-sachs and gretchen, also, this is the quote. he's extraordinarily -- mitt romney is extraordinarily insensitive to religion -- insensitive to religious freedom in this country. he's a liberal and out of touch with honesty and referred to allow catholics the right of conscience. that's a little bit of a leap to say we can't afford kosher meals for the elderly at $5 a day. >> what this whole kosher food thing came up in 2003. >> kosher food has been around before. >> in the massachusetts legislature. that's exactly right, brian. and what happened was they eliminated briefly but then it was reinserted so it's a broo-ha-ha much ado about nothing. newt was throwing everything but the kitchen sink at mr. romney. here is mr. romney. talking a little bit about newt. >> i think the real reason he didn't do so well is people had the chance to hear the different

candidates and hear their different views and they heard something they hadn't known and that was that he made $1.6 million in his company standing up and talking about freddie mac. made money from freddie mac. the very institution that helped stand behind the huge housing crisis and here in florida, if you're part of the housing crisis, you're probably not going to get elected president. >> and just to be fair, i mean, they're both mudslinging at each other. who has the upper hand as far as the negative ads? mitt romney. he has so much more organization and money so i forget what the numbers are but it's something like 3-1 as far as the ads. coming up on the show, we'll talk to an ads specialist and he'll break that down for us as well as newt gingrich is going to be here and rick santorum in the 7:00 hour. >> you can look at -- there's the candidates right there. you can look, the proof is in the pudding. it's about getting the most votes and although we don't like to talk about the polls, you heard yesterday that they were leaning substantially for mitt romney. >> right. president obama using the google yesterday. >> the google. >> having give and take about jobs and when one woman decided to ask him a question about her

husband who is an engineer. he is a semiconductor engineer and can't get a job, the president made a brilliant political move, i think. >> can i ask you what kind of engineer your husband is? >> he's a semiconductor engineer. >> the -- see, it is interesting to me and i meant what i said, if you send me your husband's resume, i'd be interested in finding out exactly what's happening right there because the word we're getting is that somebody in that kind of high-tech field, that kind of engineer should be able to find something right away. >> notice to white house -- there's going to be a huge delivery of resumes. >> absolutely. >> you mean, come on. the president is now going to get people jobs individually. i think it's a fantastic political move but beware, you're going to have a huge pack of mail coming. there's a lot of people unemployed. >> sure. the woman was jennifer wedell of ft. worth, texas and her husband

has been out of work for three years. she actually started that interlude, there she is right there, by essentially chewing out the president by saying hey, why are you accepting the visas for foreign workers when there are so many americans who are out of work like my husband, this engineer and he was caught flatfooted by going wait a minute, i thought there were lots of jobs for engineers. send me your resume and let me figure out what's up with that. >> right. just a quick note on that. i know just finishing off the steve jobs biography, we interviewed the author two months ago. sorry, it took forever. he said one of the main reasons manufacturing is not here because he doesn't have enough engineers in this country and you have to fast track those from other nations that want to get here because we have a need. so that seems to be what he was referring to. >> got a lot of show straight ahead for you this morning. we showed you a sneak peek of the return of ferris bueler. >> ♪ shake it up baby ♪ twist and shout

>> now, we have the entire ad and we will play it for you coming up. >> and not awake yet, the lawmakers are probably sleeping very soundly. want to know why? just found out how much more they make than the average employee in the private sector. >> and they get to sleep until 9:00!

>> welcome back, everyone. he is supposed to protect the ballot box but now indiana's top election official is on trial for voter fraud? >> eric shawn has details from indiana. >> gretchen, steve and brian, a jury has been selected. later on this morning, we expect

opening arguments to begin in the voter fraud trial here in noblesville, indiana. ordinary citizens sitting in judgment of the official who oversees voting in this state. >> so help me god. >> so help me god. >> good luck. >> thank you, sir. >> indiana's top election official is accused of voter fraud. charlie white, the republican secretary of state faces seven felony counts including fraud, theft, perjury and voting with a false ballot. he was allegedly registered to vote using his ex-wife's address. and paid a town council salary while living out of the district. white says he spent four nights a week at his ex-wife's because he and his new wife did not want to live together before marriage. >> i got to have my attorney speak for me. >> white wouldn't comment in court but in a recent fox news interview said he didn't do anything other politicians don't do. >> i abide by those same laws everybody else abides by. >> republican governor mitch daniels has called on white to resign but the indiana

republican party has stopped short of that. the state democratic party says he should go. >> when your top person says that i don't have to follow the laws, that just says to the people underneath saying well, i don't have to follow them either. >> the state's bipartisan recount position has backed white staying in office but a judge ordered him out saying the democrat he defeated in november of 2010 should be sworn in, a move that's been stayed pending appeal. white's lawyer says unlike other voter fraud cases, no one tried to steal an election. >> folks were trying to influence the outcome of elections, stuffing ballot boxes, intimidating voters, trying to disenfranchise people. that's obviously not the case here. we're talking about one vote. >> if convicted, white will be removed from office and this is not the only voter fraud case in this state. prosecutors in northern indiana in st. joseph county continue to investigate allegations that the petitions that put president obama and hillary clinton on the democratic primary ballot in 2008 were fake. reports say as many as seven

people may have been involved and there are questions about whether the president even qualified for the ballot in the primary. here in indiana, candidates need 500 signatures in each congressional district to qualify for the presidential ballot. in 2008, the obama campaign qualified with 534 signatures and the hillary clinton campaign 704. but an estimated 150 of the signatures may have been fake. it's all under investigation by st. joseph county prosecutor mike davorak but unlike here, no one has yet been charged in that case. steve, gretchen and brian, back to you in the studio. >> all right, eric shawn. >> does he have time for questions or not? >> no, we're coming up against a hard break. >> forget it. >> we have an extra 15 seconds. >> eric, my mind went totally blank. forget it. >> ok, good thing there's a teleprompter for the tease, then. lawmakers still fighting over how to fix the debt but our next guest says the voters are the ones that will end up solving the crisis. pollster scott rasmussen here to

explain to us. you have questions for him. >> yes, i do! the president getting a singing offer that may have him quitting his day job.

>> if you're just waking up with us bright and early, quick headlines for you. police are trying to figure out who sent an envelope of white powder to arizona's most famous sheriff. it was addressed to the white house but had the sheriff's home address as the return address. the powder turned out to be nontoxic and carnival cruise lines said the costa concordia disaster will wipe $175 million from its profits this year. the bookings for future cruises

are down this year by percentages in the mid teens. >> that's all? i'm surprised. as lawmakers want washington, d.c. to continue to fight on how to address our nation's growing deficit, our next guest says the voters are the ones who will end up solving the crisis. joining us right now, a familiar face, you know scott rasmussen, he's got a brand new book out called "the people's money, how voters will balance the budget and eliminate the national debt." he joins us live in new york. good morning to you. >> good morning. >> what is the people's money? >> "the people's money" is a book that shows the reason we have the budget crisis is the politicians have followed their own agenda rather than listening to the voters. they say the voters don't really want to cut spending. they talk a good game but voters won't believe it. the polling i've done shows that's a lie. voters are the solution sxnt the problem. >> we have a couple of graphics and i want you to walk us through this to make your case. >> sure. >> and scott can explain how to save $100 trillion over the next decade as well. >> operating spending over the next 10 years, if we don't do anything different, the federal government will be spending about $46 trillion.

>> right. >> if you take the changes that are discussed in this book, all of which are supported by voters, you end up with about a $36 trillion spending totals. $10 trillion less in operating spending over a decade. these are little changes. >> the yellow is what we're going to spend but if the people had their way, we would spend the orange. >> that's exactly right. >> like a letter map. >> exactly right. take a look at the federal deficit over the next decade. yellow line on the top is? >> what would happen if we don't do anything. people talk about this $15 trillion debt that we have but they're ignoring most of the liabilities. we also owe all kinds of unfunded liabilities and our real debt today is about $120 trillion. if we do nothing, it will go up another $40 trillion over the next decade. if we implement the ideas that the people would support, we save $100 trillion. these are big numbers. >> those are gigantic numbers and you're talking about saving $100 trillion over a decade. how? >> well, we start with the big areas we spend the money in, national security, social

security and medicare. voters are willing to make sizable and strategic changes in all of them. on national security, for example, we have defense commitments to protect 56 countries around the globe. most americans willing to support only 12 of them. they're willing to -- >> yeah, 12 out of 56. big savings, you cut back on that by a 2-1 margin, people say it's time to bring troops home from western europe and japan. these are sizable savings. when you talk about social security, people are willing to trade off their own retirement age for lower taxes. if you want to retire a little later, pay less in taxes now. if you want to retire earlier, pay more in taxes now, your choice and you end up safing -- saving money. >> the thing about closing the bases around the world, that's what ron paul has been talking a little bit about. >> it's a different attitude. americans very much believe that the u.s. is the last, best hope for man kind and they believe we're a positive force for international good and even on things like iran, most people say if israel were to attack iran, we should help out. it's not a desire to retreat but

desire to focus our defense on protecting america. >> this is such an interesting book and this is the first book i've read about where you have essentially interviewed 1 million people. you've talked to one million people to get the data for this. >> that's right. and so every topic, we didn't just ask one question, we didn't come up with the perfect wording to say would you support our policy? we looked in depth at what people are talking about and thinking about and what their distrust is and the good news with all of this and the reason i'm excited about the book is that if you go back through american history, the people are always a couple of decades ahead of their politicians and that's the way change comes in america. >> once again, the book is called "the people's money". you can download it right now to your nook or kindle, whatever. or you could go actually buy a copy. >> walk into a store and buy it. >> scott rasmussen is sticking around to talk about a new poll that shows president obama is the most polarizing president in history coming up later on. >> look forward to that, too. >> good to have you on this tuesday. straight ahead, milk does a body

good. did you know it also does something to your brain? and we told you about ferris bueller's possible return to the small screen? >> how can i handle work on a day like today? >> that's right. the complete super bowl ad that will have everybody buzzing. bueller. bueller. my name is robin. i'm a wife, i'm a mom... and chantix worked for me. it's a medication i could take and still smoke, while it built up in my system. [ male announcer ] along with support, chantiis proven to help people quit smoking. it reduthe urge to smoke. some people had changes in behavior, thinking orood, hostility, agitation, depressed mood and suicidal thoughts or actions

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take control by opening a new account or rolling over an old 401(k) today, and we'll throw in up to $600. how's that for common sense? >> reverend al green was here. ♪ i ♪ so in love with you >> oh, man. >> it's your shot of the morning. president obama recently showed off his singing voice and now the offers are pouring in. "american idol" executive producer nigel lithgo using twitter to invite the president on the show. this is what he tweeted. barack obama, we loved your vocal performance so much, we'd love to invite you on "american idol" this season for a duet with al green! now, it's an election year, folks. >> you know what? he might do it. >> you know, this could be

something they might be considering. remember, the whole election thing changed with bill clinton going on arsenio hall and playing the saxophone. and from that point forward, that humanized bill clinton, it sort of took the rough edges of some of that other stuff that people were talking about off. and it became popular. >> here's the difference. we look at bill clinton as a contender. when you actually become president, to do "american idol" and not "the x factor" and not "housewives from atlanta." i mean, there's a lot of reality shows that would want him. >> what about this, though? what about if you were to do a competition where you had the president of the united states who was channelling al green vs. mitt romney who was channelling kate smith. that's right. mitt romney, last night, was singing "america the beautiful" down at the villages. if you missed it, here's a snippet. >> ♪ o beautiful for spacious skies ♪ ♪ for amber waves of grain

♪ for purple mountains majesty ♪ above the fruited plain ♪ america america ♪ god shed his grace on thee ♪ and crown thy good ♪ with brotherhood ♪ from sea to shining sea oh! >> sounds like our audio guy gave him a little reverb there at the end. >> we happened to have the "american idol" judges on hand for their ratings. >> wow! >> you were born to do this. >> you nailed it. it was like thank you god! >> 100% yes for me. >> me, too. >> what do you think, steven? >> i think so yes! >> that is unbelievable. that's a little overwhelming. i thought mitt was a little off but not according to the judges. >> well, that would be an

interesting head-to-head matchup. instead of doing the debate, they would actually go on "american idol" and have a singoff. >> speaking of debates, newt gingrich said yesterday that if he is the nominee and he is on the debate stage with the president of the united states, if there is a reporter who is the moderator, he's not going to do it because he says he doesn't need two obamas on the stage at the same time. >> what if it's steven tyler? maybe he'd do it. >> well, he's not a reporter. >> i'll tell you one thing, what i learned from this if i'm running for president if i was to advise mitt romney if you want to start with something patriotic, the pledge. i mean, it's just a little bit easier to say and memorize -- >> he did a good job. >> he got all the words. >> compared to president obama. i'm just saying. >> i'm not suggesting that -- >> he got the words. >> they do this instead of a debate. ok. let's do some headlines for you now. a reactor ate nuclear plant in illinois shut down after losing power. steam was released from the reactor at byron generating station. in order to reduce the pressure

to people who run the plant say the steam does contain radioactive material. but the levels are not dangerous. why the reactor lost power? still not known but the other reactor, good to know, is apparently working fine. brian? >> all right, freddie mac is betting against your house. yep. according to a report released last night, the government-run mortgage giant has spent years -- spent years placing multibillion dollar bets that the housing market will not recover. in other words, they get paid as long as interest rates stay high. freddie mac insist it's on the american people's side and the investment in loan departments are separate. >> sure. >> milk does a body good. you've heard that phrase. did you know it does your mind good by boosting memory? a new study in the international dairy journal found adults who drink dairy products about five or six times a week performed much better on memory tests. researchers believe certain nutrients in milk like magnesium could help prevent memory loss. interesting. >> meanwhile, last week on the

program, we showed you a sneak peek at matthew broderick's commercial spoofing his fame use character ferris bueller for a new super bowl ad. now honda has released the full ad. >> i'm not sure what it is. i guess i'll be ok. i'm calling the studio, matthew! you're not shooting today. >> no. people are depending on me. movies bring so much joy. >> stop, it's done. just get some rest! >> he bought it! >> you got to live a little. >> ♪ oh yeah >> calm yourself, woman. she's 7. the ad is for honda's brand new crv and it is full of nods to the 1986 john hughes classic "ferris bueller's day off." there's the agent who just saw -- >> i love it! i watched the whole thing last night. i think the commercial is about two minutes long. that costs honda a pretty penny.

speaking of super bowl, let's think about the super bowl. >> all right, steve. i think it's going to cost about $4 million. now the giants are finally in indianapolis for their super bowl rematch against the patriots. they waited until the last minute to get everybody nervous. eli manning's team not taking tom brady's bait. he predicted a huge victory party in new england next week. the giants making no such predictions trying to avoid the hype! >> you don't think about that as a player. i think you concentrate on the opponent and that's new england trying to get ready for them. trying to keep your mind focused on the job. >> wow. one of the proudest players to be at the super bowl, giants linebacker mark hersluch. he was here before the draft. he's a cancer survivor who visited us here on "fox & friends" recovering from a rare form of bone cancer. two years ago, i was told i might never walk again. just walked off the plane in indy to play in the super bowl. take that, cancer! great story.

giving haircuts make headlines during the super bowl week. check this out, the new england patriots wide receiver getting caught up in the super bowl excitement. he had the patriots logo shaved into his head and posted a picture on twitter and this is what joel, our floor manager wants to see. here's why 58% of women watch the super bowl, just for the commercials. soccer star david beckham wearing just a few tattoos and his underwear in his new super bowl commercial. beckham's body wear collection will be sold at h&m starting thursday. the underwear sells for about $15. beckham not included. so that's -- that's one form of football taking part in our american football. >> where did you get that stat? >> i've been working on it all day. >> sure. >> i'm heading out to the game in indianapolis on thursday, we'll be live in the morning on friday. we've got a great guest list coming your way which we're willing to unveil shortly. >> it's a time honored tradition, brian. super bowl.

>> you tube missed me terribly. >> then he saves at a hotel 75 miles away from the actual super bowl. >> i take a plane to the actual game. >> and we're very envious that you get to go. >> right. and i'm not complaining but i will say that oftentimes, we go for a hotel further away to save a few dollars. >> sure. >> basically i got to get up at 2:00 in the morning. >> that's when you're going to bed. >> let's talk about this -- workers and the difference in pay that they receive. do you think that government workers make more than private workers? or the reverse? well, here are the results. federal workers get 16% more than the people in the private sector on average, the congressional budget office recently found. >> right. this is how it breaks down. people in federal jobs get about 2% higher wages but their benefits, the benefits are 48% higher than the private sector. congressman paul ryan's reaction

to this congressional budget office report is "while millions of americans continue to struggle with stagnant wages and high unemployment, government bureaucrats that is to say in washington continue to enjoy significant advantages over those whose tax dollars finance their compensation. >> why is that important right now? because i believe the president has asked for a pay increase for federal workers of .5%. >> right. now paul ryan is saying i want you to contribute more to your benefits and i want a freeze and also the congressman that was here yesterday. >> sean duffy. >> is the one leading the charge in the house. >> the office of personnel management says that federal employees are underpaid by 26%. that's what the federal government says, relative federal jobs to private sector jobs so even though they're making a whole lot more than you are, the government says they should be making more. >> all right. 19 minutes before the top of the hour. we have a little bit of show left. >> a little. >> c.i.a. head leon panetta

getting credit for killing bin laden. is he the right man to head the c.i.a.? a retired army lieutenant colonel and best selling author with the surprising reaction next. as you know, moved over to the defense department. >> wal-mart readers going bye-bye now? are you kidding me? we'll explain.

>> all right. now it's time for a look at the news. mike, can you put it in the teleprompter? >> oh, i thought i did. >> no. i'm going to have read it off the wall. wal-mart is rolling back but we're not talking about the

prices. the discount giant getting rid of their greeters. their workers being reassigned to checkout duty. they're going to guide customers to open lanes during busy hours. greeters have been a staple since wal-mart opened its stores in 1980. and senator edward kennedy's private home going public. the family house in cape cod being donated to charity. it will be used as an education center aimed at encouraging public service. and that's a quick look at news. off the wall behind you. mr. kilmeade? >> i'll read off this camera and not show off like you. 15 suspected al-qaida terrorists killed by air strikes in yemen overnight. one of them is said to be a terrorist wanted for the uss cole bombing. the u.s. government saying more targeted strikes like these are in the future. is this a good idea? he was an officer in the special forces and joining us right now is retired colonel and author of this book "all necessary force" brad taylor. welcome. >> thank you.

thank you for having me. >> colonel, first off, let's look at special forces and the new generation of american war fighters. are you comfortable with cutting back conventional force while re-emphasizing special operators like yourself? >> i'm not -- people are hyperventilating over the size of the cutbacks and saying that, you know, we're eviscerating the force. the truth is we'll have the same number of forces that we had prior to 9/11. at that time we were saying that we could fight two conflicts. what concerns me more is the rhetoric of leaner, more agile. we'll rely on technology, drone strikes and not do stability and support operations because we don't like them. >> give me an example of what a support and stability operations is. >> boots on the ground. you're helping the villagers. you're stablizing the country and there's plenty of times we do much more what people say low intensity conflict and we do that much more than we do larger wars. if we need to do it, we need to do it. >> when baseball expands and football expands, they say the problem is there's not enough great players to fill up these

teams even though you might have fans to watch them. it's hard getting somebody like you to get into the feshl forces and qualify. are we ready to go from 63,000 to 70,000 by 2015? >> the -- it depends on the recruiting base but you're exactly right. one of my concerns is, i mean -->> can't lower the standards. >> right. truth is you can't create forces after the event and it takes a while to build them up. special operations guy is a problem solver at the end of the day. >> i want you to hear leon panetta, now secretary of defense, former c.i.a. director on "60 minutes." >> if they proceed and we get intelligence that they're proceeding with developing a nuclear weapon, then we will take whatever steps are necessary to stop it. including military steps. >> there are no options that are off the table. >> you're a fan of the way he's done both jobs. >> yeah. i think he's done a pretty credible job. that comment took me by surprise because if we have intelligence, this is a red line, we'll take it out. even the u.n. says they're building a bomb. i mean, we have the intelligent.

when is this red line going to be met? are we going to wait until after they have the bomb? >> how do we handle iran? we see scientists being assassinated and see explosions at plants. are we there? >> we're not there. the only way you'll stop them from building the bomb is the regime change or the threat of regime change that causes them to worry about themselves enough to stop themselves. if we -- first of all, the question is, you know, is israel going to attack them? the truth of the matter is the question should be can they do anything even if they did attack. >> how did you do the book in fiction knowing all you know? how did you write a fiction book that was really based in reality? >> well, it's -- i painted myself in a corner a lot of times. at the tactical level i made it as accurate as i possibly could. i didn't put anything classified in the book. i didn't want to put anybody's lives in jeopardy. luckily it's fiction, i need to rewrite it to get back where i don't have to use a classified piece of technology. >> "all necessary force" is the book based on the career of chad taylor in the studio. thank you so much. >> thank you. appreciate you having me. >> now, 11 minutes before the

top of the hour. stunning revelations from inside the war room. when president obama gave the ok for the raid to kill bin laden, it was not a unanimous decision. wait until you hear who was not on board and the president rejected the keystone pipeline putting thousands of jobs on hold. our next guest says not taking that laying down, the senator with what he's going to do to get the plan back on track.

>> 53 minutes after the top of the hour. the president, as you know, refusing to give the keystone pipeline the green light. even though it would reduce america's dependence on foreign oil, people say, and create 20,000 american jobs. now, a group of republican

senators claim the constitution actually gives congress the power to authorize the project without the president's approval. one of them is the louisiana senator david viter. he's our guest this morning. what kind of power are we talking about? >> the commerce clause, it's a very big part of the constitution and clearly gives congress the ability to regulate commerce so i don't think there's much of an argument that we don't have the ability to react directly based on that. i'm introducing legislation with colleagues this week that would absolutely grant the permits so we can move forward on the pipeline. obviously, we need to pass it, house and senate. the house will pass it. the challenge is in the senate where the republicans are a minority but we will get some democratic votes for this. the question is how many? >> right. you already know a couple of democrats that would be on the side of this. but you need 13 of them in total. >> yep. >> what kind of work will it take to try to convince them to come to your side? >> it will take quite a bit but that's been going on for weeks and the american people are

really get this, they really understand the jobs impact and the energy impact so this message has absolutely been resonating and building for weeks and that's certainly helped our efforts, house and senate. >> i think one of the misconceptions about this pipeline is a graphic that i'm about to show our viewers which shows how many existing pipelines already exist in the united states. now, look at the red there. that's -- we just didn't blot that on there for effect this morning. those are all existing pipelines coming down from canada down to your state of louisiana. >> that's been a huge part of our infrastructure for decades. we also talk about the positive and necessary importance of infrastructure. this is a big part of our energy infrastructure particularly coming out. the gulf coast into the heartland of the country but pipelines like this are absolutely nothing new and have never been controversial before their standard operating procedure when you do it right that we can clearly do. >> it appears the messaging on

this was the problem. i think a lot of people have not seen that's the reality of it. why do you believe that president obama would be against this particular one? >> i think it's pure politics. pure and simple, gretchen. there's nothing else against it except the politics of the far left and i think he's throwing a bone to his supporters, his base, if you will, politically in the far left of the environmental movement but even on his side of the equation politically, there are major splits particularly, for instance, within the union movement and you have a number of unions and a number of union leaders who are all for this project as they should be because of the jobs. >> keep us posted. >> absolutely. >> on how your efforts work as you introduce the legislation this week. great to see you. >> thanks, gretchen. thank you. >> when is your brain at its best? that's a good question before 6:00 a.m., right? is it when you're 25 years old or 45? there's actually an exact age and we will reveal it top of the hour. and the ads keep on coming.

>> while florida families lost everything in the housing crisis -- >> newt and romney spending a ton of money on these ads. are they a big old waste of dough? surprising answer next hour.