and bill maher attacking the republican party and messing with the wrong woman. >> the republican party doesn't care about knowledge or knowing things. >> that's not true. that's not true! you know, because you're so brilliant. wow. i actually feel smarter sitting next to you. >> really, i feel like i'm in high school sitting next to you. >> wow. >> how long ago was that? >> can i watch the rest? that was just the beginning. wait until you hear how round two went with elizabeth hasselbeck and bill maher. "fox & friends" starts right about now. >> hi, i'm donny osmond and i'm watching "fox & friends." all the osmonds love it except one, that's tito. >> he's from a different family. it's wednesday, right? >> it is, hump day. >> we made it to the middle of the week. >> thank you very much. a couple of days a little under the weather. i'm ok now. speaking of under the weather, where did you sleep last night? they cleaned out the park. >> it was very difficult. if i'm a little groggier and nod off in the middle of the dick

morris interview that you're doing in seven minutes, you have to understand they took away our tents and sleeping bags and made new rules. >> i thought all that time you were sleeping in your pocket chair. >> you were so wrong. did they ban the pocket chair at zuccotti park? write us, friends at foxnews.com. >> did they consider camp gear? >> while brian is trying to find his chair, i'll do the headlines. a bullet hit the white house. it may be connected to a shooting that happened nearby on friday night. the bullet hit a window but was stopped, of course, by the ballistic glass. a second bullet was found outside the white house. police are searching for this man, 21-year-old oscar ortega hernandez. they believe he was involved in friday's shooting. penn state assistant football coach mike mcquery now saying he actually confronted jerry sandusky when he allegedly caught him abusing a child in 2002. in a new e-mail to a friend, he claims he then went and told police but according to his testimony to a grand jury, mcquery originally said he only

told his father and head coach joe paterno. mcquery says the scandal is taking a toll on him. >> just kind of shaken. >> crazy. >> crazy. >> you said, what, like -- >> like a snow globe. >> yes, sir. >> new documents show paterno transferred his house into his wife's name for a dollar less than four months before the scandal broke. while you were sleeping, about 100 protesters returned to zuccotti park in new york city just hours after police kicked them out during a surprise raid. most of those protesters followed court orders and came back without tents or sleeping bags. tomorrow marks the movement's two month anniversary. protesters say they plan on forming a blockade in the streets and on the subways to prevent wall street traders from getting to work. that may be the first thing that actually stopped what they were trying to stop instead of the small businesses. fannie and freddie owe you, the taxpayer about $141 billion in bailout money. but according to a new report,

that did not stop the mortgage giant from giving those nearly $100 million of those tax dollars to pay packages for top executives. we've been telling you about this story. guess what, there's now a new headline. there's a new bipartisan legislation to try to stop those bonuses. lawmakers trying to pass a bill to block the bonuses and put employees on scale with other federal employees. you can bet that topic will come up today in the nation's capital because the ceo's of both fannie and freddie will testify before a house oversight committee. that's going to happen this morning. and those are your headlines. it's interesting because it's one of the very few bipartisan things that's happening on capitol hill right now. democrats and republicans say that they are serious -- excuse me, about the multimillion dollar -- >> nobody heard that at home. >> was that your blackberry or book? >> yeah, i really am. >> oh, boy. >> it's actually a guest we'll have on in an hour talks about how congress is wasting so much money and doing some insider trading. we'll talk to him shortly. >> we will. in fact, rick perry yesterday, governor of the great state of

texas had a big speech where there you can see right there, there he is, he has made that proposal. >> listen, he's not doing well in the polls right now. and this is redstate.com said this isn't red state, it's red meat, his proposal. look at some of the things the governor is proposing. cut congress' pay in half. slash congressional staff budgets and make lawmakers, part timers, allow lawmakers to hold jobs in their home states, among other things. >> it's interesting, i guess i understand where he's coming from because congress is at an all time low. we know that as far as an approval rating. so -- and he's trying to label himself as this washington outsider. which, you know, is appealing to many people who are going to vote in the polls. listen to what he had to say. >> i don't believe that washington just needs a new coat of paint. i think the whole place needs to be overhauled. i'm a true believer we need to

uproot and tear down and rebuild washington, d.c. and our federal institutions. i'm unique in this republican field. i've never been an establishment figure. i've never served in congress. i've never been a part of an administration. i've never been a paid lobbyist. my career has been that of a washington outsider. >> but he is a career politician so far except for his time in the air force. he points out that texas has the 13th or 14th largest economy in the world and they only named his legislation at 114 days. >> every other year. >> i don't think a congressman or congresswoman can afford a part-time job. i think it takes too much time. what he can do is do that one job and have term limits on it and you have the 174,000 dollars and try to make ends meet that way. >> those are two the key words, term limits. interesting thing is guess who had to vote on whether or not all this would happen, congress. i don't think they'll vote to go home and have part-time jobs and

more importantly, they'll never vote for term limits. steny hoyer, a democrat has slammed perry's plan. here's what he says, if he thinks this is pandering to the tea party is not speaking to the issues that the american public feels are critical to them, jobs being a number one issue. i don't think it's a very serious effort on his part. >> look, the texas legislature is able to get it all done. and when you look at how often congress actually votes on stuff, is it a full-time job? absolutely not. there's a lot of times they're just sitting there at their desk. we going to do anything today? i get where it's coming from. >> they have to be in two places at the same time. his theory is they spend more time in their districts and less in washington they'd be more effective along with having a job at the hardware store where you hand out nails. >> i think people -- i think the american public just wants congress to do something. if they work full time but i don't know if it's a state of being there too long or being there halftime, they want them to do something. that's why they feel this way.

13% only approve of congress right now. 82% disapprove of the job that congress is doing. >> yeah, but it all goes down to this. if you say congress, i don't like them. how is your congressman? seems like a good guy. you're not voting for the guy in wisconsin if you live in new york. >> sure. let's talk about presidential politics and we go to the great state of new hampshire. the bloomberg people have a new poll out and this is actually not good news for the president of the united states. keep in mind, he did win that swing state in 2008 and right now, when you look head to head, mitt romney clobbers him by 10%. and now we should point out that this particular bloomberg poll only tested mr. romney against the president of the united states because he's so far ahead of everybody else. >> and as usual, the most important thing to look at in any poll is the independent vote because that is what decides elections and in new hampshire only 37% of the independents

approve of the job that president obama is doing. that is a stark difference from how they felt back in 2008. >> right. by the way, 54%, president obama got 54% of the vote in beating john mccain last time so he loses new hampshire, i think that will mess with his matrix. quick, mitt romney did get a warning yesterday from the governor of iowa. you better get back here. if you don't start campaigning in iowa before new hampshire, you could end up in fifth and sixth and lose any momentum you have. >> because right now in iowa, they're kind of in a cluster, the four of them are right there at the top. meanwhile, let's go to a mcclatc mcclatc mcclatchy marist poll where they match up. keep in mind these are registered voters across the country. guess who does best with the president of the united states, newt gingrich. he trails by two. mitt romney trails by four points and the reason that gingrich and romney do better than other republicans is they both win over independents and while mr. gingrich apparently

wins independents, 47% to 41% over the president of the united states, mr. romney does better, 55% to 39% with the important independents. >> and it begs to talk about the fact that you should never rule any candidate out. we've been saying that for the last couple of months. people thought the gingrich campaign was dead in june. i think his positivity was 1% back then and now he's risen up to 17%. never call anyone out until the fat lady sings. >> by the way, that is why i'm going for buddy romer. >> exhibit e. >> can't be stopped. >> he's still here. >> he's still there somewhere. >> tell you more about the solyndra fallout. you know, of course, that's the solar panel company out in california that went belly up after taxpayers gave them $500 million. well, now, new e-mails have been released and they show that the energy department pushed solyndra to try and not announce some of the layoffs that were going to be coming to that company until after the midterm elections. so lo and behold, what date do

you think that solyndra announced that it was laying off 40 people and it had other financial problems. yes, brian? >> now? november 3rdrd. >> correct. what day was the election for midterms? >> pass. >> november 2nd. the day before. >> there we have it. >> it looks as if this particular e-mail that was provided by an investment firm that backs solyndra and -- >> is that a canadian joint or canadian football team? >> it sounds like it, doesn't it? owned by that barack obama fundraiser, george kaiser. this supports the idea that apparently the administration asked solyndra to keep information from -- keep in mind, there were people out there trying to invest in the company. keep that information away from them until after the midterms but you know what, that has simply got to be a coincidence. >> keep in mind, steven shu goes to capitol hill and he'll have to defend all these e-mails. we'll see what happens because he's really, really smart.

>> "the washington post" did break this story. can we now officially say it's a scandal? >> i'm -- let's vote on it in the break. it sounds like the beginning of a scandal. >> coming up on our show, bill maher's latest blast against republicans hits some opposition. >> the republican party doesn't care about knowledge or knowing things. >> that's untrue. >> look, because you're so brilliant. wow, i actually feel smarter sitting next to you. >> really, i feel like i'm in high school sitting next to you. >> wow. >> how long ago was that? >> but there's oh so much more. it's about to get even more personal. >> and newt gingrich's momentum grows. will the attacks bring him down? dick morris weighs in. >> we're going to weigh dick morris? >> yes, and then we're going to talk to him. [ male annouer ] juice drink too watery?

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>> a slew of new polls proving newt gingrich is surging to the front of the g.o.p. race right now. take a look at this. in the latest poll, he's in a statistical tie with frontrunner mitt romney. gingrich has 22% compared with romney's 24 and the latest poll out of iowa it's a four way tie, talking about it for a moment for first with cain, paul, romney and newt gingrich within the margin of error for the top spot. what does newt need to do to carry on this momentum? talk to former advisor to bill clinton, fox news contributor and author of "revolt" dick morris. good morning to you. >> good. >> live here at the big plastic desk. >> and without my dog. dubs came in last week because i issued this children's book "dubs goes to washington." >> great. now we have just you. why is newt surging?

>> adalai stevenson was asked in 1960 who would win the nomination. he said the last survivor. >> there you go. >> obviously, a big part of it is cain dropped but mainly it's day after day, week after week, people see him in these debates and it's always so obvious he's the smartest person in the debate. >> you're always waiting. what is he going to say? >> he's the most articulate, the most experienced, the most profound, the smartest and it eventually dawns on people, why don't you run for president? >> exactly. in the beginning, he had some rough spots. >> yeah. >> there was some personal stuff out there. >> takes a while to grow on you and i think he does. but a lot of people are asking me, is he electable? because there will be a lot of negatives thrown at him. and i think we have to revise our understanding of these negatives. it's not that the negatives knock you out. it's that they make you sick. and they inoculate you against

them. when you look back at kerry, he didn't have to defend his vietnam record until after he was nominated. on the other hand, clinton had to go through flowers and through the draft scandals before he was nominated and by the time the nomination came, those were after thoughts. i think that cain as a result of the sex harassment scandal and i think gingrich as a result of the stuff that maybe dumped on him now will both falter and both come back. and romney also over the flip-flop stuff. and then i think you can look forward to a very vigorous, tight, aggressive three way race. and you can't count bachmann out either because bachmann's day in the sun will come when boehner proposes tax hikes as part of this deficit deal. >> so dick, are you saying that because the primary system right now is so bruising, by the time somebody makes it to the general, they will be completely vetted by the media. >> yes, but bruised but not dead.

because they will be inoculated. the media will have been through everything, vetted them eight ways. >> would you say that happened with president obama when he was senator? >> not still senator but as a candidate for president, yeah, he had to live through reverend wright. he had to live through bill ahers and by the time he ran, those were after thoughts. so i think that in this case, this down and up syndrome we're seeing with cain and so on, i think you bounce back from that because i think you get inoculated and then you move on. i think herman cain will be back in contention in this race. and i think gingrich will be right up there, romney, of course, and like i said, wait until you see what boehner does as to writing off bachmann. she's got a shot. >> stay tuned. dick morris will stick around to talk next about bill clinton, somebody he knows. knew quite well for a while. he was a big player in hillary's presidential campaign launching vicious attacks against president obama. but now, obama turning to bill clinton like in the picture

right there? we'll talk about that. talk about deer in the headlights. this animal was so shocked, he's unable to move. details ahead. how can you get back pain relief that lasts up to 16 hours?

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getting you e discounts you deserve. now, that's progressive. call or click today. >> 22 minutes after the top of the hour. i have a couple of headlines for you. a new crew has arrived at the international space station, an american astronaut and two russian cosmonauts successfully docking earlier today. they left for space from kazakhstan. remember those amazing pictures from monday? they will conduct a set of checks before heading back to earth next week.

in time for the tsa's 10th anniversary, florida congressman releasing what's expected to be a scathing report on the agency. the tsa is still plagued by significant administrative and operational problems. steve, dick? >> thanks, gretch. is the white house worried about the president's re-election chances? three years after bill clinton helped his wife launch attacks against barack obama, it's being reported that obama's political aides have been secretly meeting with bill clinton. the reason, to get advice on how to win the job for another four years. talk right now with dick morris, former clinton advisor. why would they ask bill clinton for his advice? >> well, there's some possibility that they really want it. i think he's sent some signals to him that he might be off the reservation. he wrote this book on how to create jobs which is really an implied criticism of the president for not doing it.

he said i don't think you should raise taxes in the middle of a recession and i think they may be a little bit nervous about him and they want to go through the ritual of going to him very publicly, leaking that they're consulting with him, kind of praying before the altar so that he doesn't get altered and stays with them. >> let's take a look at some of the people, some of the obama personnel who were in the meeting with clinton reportedly as you can see, axelrod, gaspard, deputy chief of staff who is a pollster, when you look at that array of people, what does that tell you about what they talked about? >> well, politics. but the important thing is you have them on the screen. normally when you go to do that, it's secret. if you're releasing it, there's a reason to release it which is bill clinton's ego and they're playing to him. also, how useful could the advice be? bill clinton's view is to move to the center and barack obama is doing everything but that. he's moving way to the left. and in the news story, they

identify four states as typical of the battleground states. north carolina, virginia, arizona. and nevada. he has no chance of carrying any of those states. those states are all going to be gone, republican maybe nevada is a shot. the other three are gone. >> what about the fact that when bill clinton first ran for president and they had it up on the wall in the war room, it's the economy stupid. this white house would like to say it's everything but the economy stupid. >> no, no, i think the slogan should be it's the stupid economy. >> that's good. are they interested in what bill clinton has to say? or is it lip service? >> if they were interested, this wouldn't be a story. this meeting would have taken place in the dead of night, would be a phone call. >> at a diner. >> yeah. i mean, you don't do a meeting like this so publicly admitting that you haven't a clue and you're going back to the old master and so on, you don't do that to your president.

releasing the names and releasing the content of the meeting mu meeting. you don't do that unless you're being public and the way they're being public is pay to bill so he'll hate them less. >> good to see you, man. bill maher's latest blast hits some opposition. >> the republican party doesn't care about knowledge or knowing things. >> that's untrue. you know, because you're so brilliant, wow, i actually feel smarter sitting next to you. >> really? i feel like i'm in high school sitting next to you. >> you just wait. it's about to get personal. today, america will make history with its deepest debt to date, $15 trillion in the hole. another downgrade might be on the way. he's on the way, arm and arm with mr. kilmeade. first, happy birthday to diana krull. i think she's married to elvis. costello. [ adrianna ] when i grill lobster, i make sure

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>> before they're putting on their gas masks, they were on the beach and with the flames and fire trucks in the background, they seemed so relaxed. almost immune from the turmoil behind them. >> like a towering inferno. >> we have a request for you. if you've had a wedding debacle, we want to see it and we want to live through it and we want to feel your pain and your anguish. e-mail us, friends at foxnews.com or send it to twitter. can we do that sf>> you're not talking about something small, in our wedding, the cake melted in the trunk of the car. not something small. you're talking about a building ablaze or bigger. >> i would like to know that maybe the car was on fire with the wedding cake in the back of the trunk and there was a flat tire on top of that while being chased by masked maraders. >> brian, you're fired. >> there's got to be more to it. >> you know what? start small and then if you have some huge thing that happened, send that as well.

>> by the way, kim kardashian, you're eligible. there you go. >> speaking of catastrophes. >> in case she's up this early. let's talk about something that happened on "the view." this has to do with bill maher. now, he, about a year ago, remember when lara logan was taken in in february this happened, when lara logan was attacked in egypt when she was covering the arab rising there. and he had made a comment that maybe it would be great if you could trade out lara logan for elizabeth hasselbeck that is one of the members of "the view." >> here's the exact comment. he says this. now that mubarak has released lara logan, he must put her on a plane immediate. in exchange, we will send elizabeth hasselbeck. that's really nice considering she was brutalized. >> she was sexually assaulted by. >> those egyptian upriseers and all of a sudden, he's making a joke of that. >> so you have to figure if you're elizabeth hasselbeck and bill maher is sitting next to

you on the curvy couch on "the view", that's going to come up and it did yesterday. >> say that again. >> what you have to know is that somebody has to be out on the edge to know where the edge is. >> thanks for being a hero. i'm saying would you say -- you can answer the question, would you say that again? use that same -- >> you know what? >> that same parade of women, if you're so supportive of women. >> first of all, i knew i was coming here and had to spend my whole segment coming here, no, i really wouldn't. it really wouldn't be worth it. the republican party doesn't care about knowledge or knowing things. >> that's untrue. that's untrue. because you're so brilliant, wow, i actually feel smarter next to you. >> so his defense was -- hey, come on, elizabeth, first of all, you're a public figure and secondly, i'm a comedian. i'm out for laughs. no funny, no money. so just get over it. >> that is what all comedians do, when they want to become partisan, they blame it on the fact that they're just a comedian so they can get away with it and further more, the rape of women, by the way, rises

above any politics. i don't care if you're a democrat, republican, independent, socialist, whatever you are, the rape of a woman, it doesn't matter what your politics are and that was a stupid comment for him to ever say in the first place and completely offensive to any woman. >> and i urge you not to go out and buy his book. in fact, if you have it, go return it. please, go ahead. >> all right, let's move on to headlines. two murderers executed in ohio and florida after the supreme court denied their last minute appeals. in ohio, reginald brooks was given a lethal injection for shooting his three sons while they slept after his wife filed for divorce. brooks had no last words but made an obscene gesture with his hands as he was put to death. in florida, chandler was given a lethal injection. he was convicted of killing a mother and two daughters from ohio who were on vacation and stopped to ask him for directions. >> a new bill would ban members of congress from using

information for investor purposes. he filed the bill after a 60 minutes report that top members of congress were making investments based on inside information about pending bills including john kerry who is in his state. coming up at 7:15, we'll be joined by the author of this book that he's referring to. it's called "throw them all out." he's the one who investigated this story and revealed the inside information which was -- that's what "60 minutes" built their whole segment on on sunday. >> that's right. meanwhile, another sign that congresswoman gabrielle giffords is on the road to recovery. a day after making her first television appearance, she released this audio message to her supporters. >> i want to go back to work. representing arizona is my honor. my staff is there to help you. they keep me informed on your behalf. >> the congresswoman went on to say she is getting stronger each and every day. the congresswoman is hoping to make a full political comeback after being shot in tucson back in january.

>> talk about a deer in the headlights. a michigan police officer came to the rescue of this dazed doe. check out this dash cam video. you can see the deer frozen in its tracks on the highway. it stood there for a half-hour. that's when the officer stepped in, picked up the deer and carried it over to the side of the road. the deer eventually ran back into the woods. police say it got scared after an accident. >> so that was a deer in the headlights. >> it was. >> fantastic. >> very nice of the officer. >> if you see that deer, be nice to it. he's had a rough day. hey, call it an american milestone. well, not quite. today, the u.s. national debt is expected to pass $15 trillion. >> this, of course, comes at the same time a congressional super committee is far from agreeing on the deal to cut the nation's deficit by a trillion dollars over the next 10 years. mr. stuart varney looks at the fine print and stuart, we're about to hit $15 trillion. this is a big day. >> it's exciting, isn't it? >> oh, brother! >> sometime early this afternoon, i calculate around 2:00 eastern time.

no laughing matter. we cross $15 trillion. that's our accumulated national debt. now, when president obama was inaugurated, it was $10.9 trillion so we have gone up $4 trillion in exactly three years. and that's a huge -- that's a historic increase in debt. one more ugly number for you. this year, 2011, we will spend $454 billion on interest on that accumulated debt. that's $9 billion each and every week. and it doesn't stop. we'll hit $16 trillion on or just before the election of next year. >> when i said earlier in the show that people just want congress to do something, what i was alluding to was they just want people to do something about this deficit. i mean, we're finally concerned about this, that ticker has been down at madison square garden showing us how far our debt is going out of control for years and years but now we're finally paying attention to it. is the super committee actually going to do something, stu? >> everybody -- well, look, everybody.

the comments that i've heard so far are very discouraging. nobody is predicting that they're going to get a solid agreement for $1.2 trillion worth of cuts over 10 years. and nobody is saying they're going to cut $3 trillion over 10 years. that's a magic number. $3 trillion. if we cut that over 10 years, we could probably avoid another downgrade. but if we don't hit that $3 trillion and i'm sure we will not, a downgrade looks probable. that's another hit to our financial reputation. just like it was in august when s&p did it. >> the story today is, as you know, senator toomey came out with a republican plan. republicans embrace it. democrats don't like it. they are optimistic they're going to get something done. democrats suddenly are not optimist you can -- optimistic they're going to get something done. we have until november 23rdrd. >> the two sides are miles apart on taxing and spending cuts. >> we knew that going in. >> there is a lot of brinkmanship like it was when we raised the debt ceiling.

you get a last minute agreement. that's entirely possible. the two sides, your point, the two sides are miles apart but the country is not. the country wants something done. >> sure. so politically, who winds up with the advantage if nothing is done because it's speculated that would be the president. >> i think no, i think the president takes a hit. if nothing is done -- >> that he can run against a do nothing congress. >> he could. if nothing is done, you probably get a downgrade. that will be another downgrade on president obama's watch. i think that's a negative for it. >> all right. we'll be watching you. i know you're going to be talking about this at 9:20 on the fox business network. have a great show. >> thank you. coming up on the show, what's the real reason we're bringing our troops home from iraq? >> truth is that this administration was committed to the complete withdrawal of the u.s. troops from iraq and they made it happen. >> senator mccain, that's just simply not true. >> i guess you can believe -- >> is the withdraw politics? we'll talk to former secretary of defense william cohen.

>> and instead of cutting the medicare budget, why doesn't washington cut the billions in fraud first? two congressmen leading the charge here live. we're going to head on into the interview. john, jill. . . mr. jacobson . . . what's it like driving the fusion hybrid? you can read every system that is operating by pushing a button. it's like driving a computer. what would be the hardest thing for you to give up? the miles per gallon, the fuel. when you're used to filling your car up once a week, then suddenly it's every three weeks,

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>> the decision to pull all u.s. troops by the end of this causing a sparring session on capitol hill. you have john mccain battling with leon panetta. watch. >> this administration was committed to the complete withdrawal of u.s. troops from iraq and they made it happen. >> senator mccain, that's just

simply not true. >> i guess you can believe that and i respect your belief. >> and i respect your opinion. and the outcome has been exactly as predicted. >> but that's not how it happened. >> that's exactly what did happen, though. william cohen is former secretary of defense and author of this brand new book called "blink of an eye". it's a political thriller based on today's events with all your knowledge as a senator, as a republican who went into a democratic white house, the secretary of defense, you simply have a diverse background. welcome back, mr. secretary. who won that exchange and who was right? >> i believe that we made a mistake in pulling all of our troops out. i think that iraq is not ready to defend itself adequately. i think the seeds of democracy are still pretty shallow in terms of their depth and i think we're going to see a lot of turbulence and violence coming in the weeks and months ahead once we leave. if, however, the president or secretary panetta is correct

that they had no alternatives in terms of keeping them under jurisdiction of the rockies, then i would not have kept the troops there. i don't know if they failed to negotiate or simply wanted out. that's going to be determined by others. >> you know what, secretary cohen. i think the fact that the president did not pick up the phone from february 13th to the day he called them to say we're pulling our troops out, how important is it for the chief executive to make calls like that to another chief executive? >> i think it's critically important that you continue to talk to your counterparts. i also was informed once the decision was made to pull our troops out, that prime minister malaki prevented his troops from talking directly to the u.s. counterparts and had to go through him. so there's been a lot of, i think, attention as a result of the decision but you always want to talk to your counterpart whenever you can, especially when they're making big decisions. >> to give away the fact that senator mccain in this argument is the fact that the president a week after doing that is campaigning on it. i told you i'm pulling the

troops out of the iraq and i pulled the troops out of iraq. that seems to be a line that he wanted to be able to effectively use because he can't say i closed gitmo like i promised. >> right. i'm sure he's going to take advantage saying this was a pledge i made, pledge kept. this was also, i believe, a time frame set by president bush initially, whether it could have been extended and should have been extended in my opinion. >> right. the super committee has a few days now to get their act together. they say military will be cut to the bone. to the levels of 1940. you were secretary of defense. how unsafe are we if that's the case? >> if we have these across-the-board cuts of a trillion dollars coming out of defense in the next 10 years, it means we'll have to have a much smaller force in terms of aircraft, ships, we will not have the same capability we have today. >> in blink of an eye, you'll take today's events and play them out in a way in which could actually come to fruition.

tell me how. >> the theme of the book is a bomb explodes and destroys an american city. the president needs to make a decision, how do i get relief to the people affected? number two, what do we do about it? all in a four day frame. this could happen, this is how we prepare for a catastrophic attack. >> based on the politics on earth as we do it, it's a novel based on a true story and all your knowledge. great to have you, mr. secretary. great to have you in studio. meanwhile at 13 minutes after the hour, let's change gears. instead of cutting the medicare budget, why don't they cut the millions in medicare fraud first? that's the question of our next guest, democratic and republican congressman will join us and we all know politics can get dirty but this fight on live television actually has them coming clean. >> down goes frasier!

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>> we're coming down to the wire. the super committee has one more week to find a trillion dollars in savings and cuts. if they can't come up with the deal, we could see major cuts to medicare and medicaid. our next guest, one from each side of the aisle say before we make those cuts, let's fight the fraud and limit the impact on our seniors in that way. joining me now is former democratic senator from louisiana and former republican congressman from louisiana, billy townsend and they're sitting next to each other. how nice. good to see you, gentlemen. >> yeah, we were law schoolmates a long time ago. >> i remember. you've been friends for quite

sometime. >> let's start out by talking about if the super committee and it doesn't look good right now. if they don't come to a decision of $1.2 trillion in cuts, what will happen to medicare and medicaid? senator? >> well, under the rules, it's an across the board sequestration that could amount to a 2% cut on the provider which is what congress would probably intervene before that happens. what we are suggesting is none of that is necessary. instead of trying to fight crimes or illegal activities after they occur, what billy and i have formed is a group that recommends to the committee to stop it before it ever happens and we've proposed a whole series of recommendations to fight fraud before it occurs and not go after the bad actors after they've committed the illegal activity. we think of fighting fraud before it happens is a better way to save the money. >> congressman, you've put together this letter to members of congress and you're working under the title "fight fraud first."

but is it a little too late now? because how are they going to be able to stop this process of what's going to happen on november 23rd if they don't come to a deal? >> realize we're losing $70 billion a year to fraudulent payments of medicare and medicaid. it is really $700 to $900 billion when you add interest charges. that's an amazing amount of money lost in the system. if you can keep that money from leaving the system, you don't have to cut seniors. you don't have to cut their providers. you can maintain health care access for seniors and go after this money that's leaving the door unnecessarily. >> right. it was interesting because this week at this very time whether the both of you are talking about this, new reports came out saying that actually, the way in which we're trying to fight fraud with medicare and medicaid, we're wasting $60 billion a year in the way in which we fight it. how could that possibly be, senator? >> well, i mean, that's the point that we're trying to make

is that they're going after the waste after it occurs. they're spending a lot of money tracking down people who have committed illegal activities and doing it after the fact and what we're suggesting is stop it before it happens with a new series of regulations and standards and the industry itself as proposed to make sure that the people who are participating in the program, the company that are providing the services, that they are reputable companies. check them out before they get into the business. make sure they're being properly audited. in other words, our whole effort is trying to stop it before it happens and we've submitted our recommendations to the committee members. they're looking at it and hopefully they'll adopt our recommendations. >> so as i'm listening to you, senator, i'm thinking, ok, this is going to take manpower to come up with these kind of alternatives and to look at these companies more closely and congressman, this question to you. yesterday, i interviewed somebody about this and they said the reason that this hasn't happened yet is because politics are involved in this. republicans might be against creating bigger government to

actually investigate more. your thoughts? >> well, you really don't need to create bigger government. if we were suggesting this five years ago, 10 years ago, you probably would need a lot of -- hire a lot more people. today, with internet access, with hippa compliant access to incredible new data banks, you can spot fraud when it's occurring. you can actually stop it before you send the checks out. you can identify the aberrant behavior and you can identify the fraudulent players before the checks go out so you don't need a bunch of investigators and policemen, what you need now is to take advantage of the internet data systems that can identify quickly, stop the payments before it happens and you can save $70 billion a year. >> i know i'm going to say what a lot of people are thinking at home watching this senator, why is this not happening? it seems to be a bipartisan effort. >> it is and i think that's what beauty of it is and we can help the committee save literally billions of dollars in

the program without cutting the benefits to the nation's senior citizens who need them very badly. it's a better way of saving the same amount or a greater amount of money than going out and cutting the benefits that seniors would cut. so fight fraud first is about preserving the benefits but make sure you get rid of the fraud. we think it can work. >> we have a web site set up www.americansagainstfraud.org. visit it, you'll see this is possible today. >> we'll link that to our web site. >> thanks. >> so nice to see the two of you together. i hope this program gets off the ground. i don't know who would be against it. thanks so much. >> thank you very much. >> thank you. >> coming up on "fox & friends", the prosecutor who worked on the casey anthony case breaking his silence calling casey's lawyer despicable in a new tell all book. jeff ashton joins us live next hour with more details. then politicians on both sides of the aisle using inside information to make big money on the stock market. the man who broke that story

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>> good morning, everyone. it is november 16th. thanks so much for sharing your time with us today. you might want to call it all washed up. zuccotti park gives a facelift as police give protesters the boot in new york city. now that they have no place to occupy, will the movement go away? we're live at the park as the occupiers try to return some paraphernalia. >> and remember this -- >> we've been a little bit lazy, i think, over the last couple of decades. >> now, mitt romney firing back. >> sometimes, i just don't think that president obama understands america. >> and he doesn't stop there. steve? >> i stop here. >> you do, brian, and i start here. and here's a way to cool things

off. throw a glass of water at your opponent on television. like that. what was that? >> what are they complaining about? >> what the heck? >> no kidding. you need a bib! here comes the chair. "fox & friends" hour two for a wednesday starts right now. >> hey, y'all! it's paula deen here and you're watching "fox & friends." best dishes in love, y'all! >> is she from the south? >> i think so. >> every time i think of paula deen, i think of when she said sugar on the show. >> i said sugar! >> she said something before -- >> that's what else i think about. she makes me smile. >> can you imagine if hannity and combs had that attitude of those syrian -- those syrian pundits throwing water at each other. every day they'd be soaked or wearing wet suits. >> exactly. their ratings would have been absolutely sky-high more than they were. >> vince mcmahon probably

thought about something like that at some point. >> it's too cutting edge for him. >> might be right around the corner. in the meantime, your headlines are right now. secret service says a bullet hit the white house. authorities believe it may be connected to a shooting that happened nearby on friday night. the bullet actually hit a window at the white house. but was stopped by the ballistic glass. a second bullet was found outside the white house. police are searching for this man. 21-year-old oscar ortega hernandez. they believe he was somehow involved in friday's shooting. occupy protesters once again setting up camp at u.c. berkeley in california hours after a gunman threatened to shoot up one of the school's computer labs. four students were in the lab when a suspect came in waving a gun. police shot him before he could open fire and the suspect now recovering in a local hospital. officers are not sure if he had any connection to the ongoing protests. penn state assistant football coach mike mcquery now saying he actually confronted jerry sandusky when he allegedly caught him abusing a child back in 2002.

in a new e-mail to a friend, mcquery claims he then went and told police but according to his grand jury testimony, mcquery originally said he only told his father and head coach joe paterno the next day. mcquery says the scandal is taking a toll on him. >> it's just kind of shaken. >> crazy? >> crazy. >> you said what? like -- >> like a snow globe. >> like a snow globe. >> yes, sir. >> new documents show paterno transferred his house into his wife's name for less than a dollar less than four months before the scandal broke. when things get too heated, just cool them off. that's what happened between two lebanese politicians during a live television debate and anti-syria politician called the syrian president assad a liar. that's when words were exchanged. and then they each hurled glasses of water at one another and at one point, the pro syrian politician picked up a chair and tried to hit the other politician with it. there goes the water right there. oh, my goodness!

>> i think that was part of rehearsals for "the five". pretty sure we have very similar footage. >> keep in mind, bolling saved beckel's life. >> that certainly will heal some wounds. >> the heimlich. >> let me pick this up. over the weekend, interestingly enough, the president of the united states was in hawaii and he referred to hawaii as being part of asia. he said here in asia, kind of a little faux pas. have you noticed that anywhere? nobody is really repeating it and keep in mind, hawaii is where the president was born. it is one of the original 57 states. anyway, he did say something else at that particular event that a lot of politicians have taken umbrage with and that's calling and referring to americans and the american spirit as lazy. listen to the president right here on saturday. >> but, you know, we've been a little bit lazy, i think, over the last couple of decades. we've kind of taken for granted, well, people would want to come here and we're not out there hungry in america. and trying to attract new

businesses into america. >> a lot of people are upset by that. governor rick scott says you got to be kidding me. and a lot of international businesspeople are making a lot of money. the question is are we making this country amenable to those who want to turn a profit? that's what businesses are all about. i was shocked to hear him use that language because he's a leader and usually leaders look to inspire people and he also says the president recently, we've lost our ambition and lost our imagination. >> yeah, but when you have 9.1% or 9% unemployment, you have to find somebody to blame if you don't want to blame yourself. i'm not saying that's right. i'm saying that's probably the strategy here while mitt romney on the opposite side of the fence and actually ran a business before, several of them and turned around the olympics. he had this to say about those comments. >> sometimes, i just don't think that president obama understands america. until last week he said that americans are lazy. i don't think that describes

america. then in october, he was saying that we have lost our inventiveness and our ambition. and before that, he was saying other disparaging things about america. i don't think he gets what's happening in this country. >> mitt romney is absolutely right. you know, it was inappropriate to describe us, the u.s., all of us as being lazy. i mean, look at unemployment is north of right around 9% and i'm sure there are a lot of people on their hands with nothing to do. would you categorize them as lazy? no, they're out looking for -- >> i'll give you an example, stuart varney, he does our show and hannity and combs last night, how dare you call him lazy? >> i'll give you another example. brian kilmeade does three hours of "fox & friends", three hours of fox news radio and has been doing "the five" after work. >> how dare he call us lazy. >> what about the president's comments that we've gotten a little lazy? do you agree with that, part of a brilliant strategy to keep the

eye off the unemployment rate? e-mail us, friends at foxnews.com, perhaps we'll share our comments a little bit later on when we talk about this again. >> let's talk about something else that's going to get your blood boiling this morning. that is fannie and freddie. remember the last couple of weeks we've been telling you about these amazing bonus packages that the executives were going to be getting millions of dollars even though $141 billion of your dollars went to bail out those two mortgage companies. guess what? in a bipartisan effort, lawmakers now are upset on both sides of the aisle. they think that this is absolutely ridiculous and they want to try to change it. listen to this. >> we're talking about compensation of the time when we read last week that freddie mac reported $4.4 billion in losses and requested another $6 billion from the treasury. these bonuses just represent a failed grasp of reality. on the part of the institutions. >> so what happened yesterday

on a bipartisan basis including barney frank voting against it, the house financial services committee suspended the compensation packages for executives we told you, they wanted $6, $7 million more. the ceo's of those organizations, fannie and freddie will be on capitol hill today. their base pay starts at $900,000. they can make as much as $6 million in the coming year. and apparently -- you know, one of the things the lawmakers are saying, look, you know, the average cabinet secretary makes $200,000 a year. these guys are making four times more than that? >> because the argument -- >> head of a government agency. >> you can't get top talent if you don't offer these bonuses. they're going to stay on wall street. >> bottom line is guys that go into the -- become treasury secretary, they're all wealthy. they don't do it for the money. if they're doing a great job, though, if they're doing a great job, they wouldn't need another $10 million for bonuses. >> if they were in the private sector, nobody would be caring about this.

the fact of the matter is they are now a federal entity. so it looks as if those bonuses may be going away and some of the taxpayer dollar may be coming back to you. in the meantime, their tents are gone but the occupy wall street movement here in new york holding on to this morning but just by a thread, it seems. >> fox business network's adam shapiro joins us live from zuccotti park in lower manhattan. >> i lost the ifb, i think what you were saying is they're holding on by a thread and in reality, they are holding on by a thread. just 30 protesters spent the evening in the park last night after they were allowed to move back in. the police had cleared zuccotti park out at roughly 1:00 a.m. the morning before. now, after the park was cleared, protesters were allowed to come back inside the park but then at 8:00 a.m., they were asked to leave again. there was a fight over whether the protesters would be allowed to come in with tents and with sleeping bags. the bloomberg administration had always intended to let the protesters in the park but

without the sleeping bags and tents. that went to court. the bloomberg administration won and the protesters were allowed to go in. roughly 30 of them spent the night in the park but almost four times that amount of police officers and security to make sure things didn't get out of hand. protesters are assembling again at the park. they're planning a very large rally that will take place on thursday involving occupy wall street protesters swlas well as labor unions. they intend to have protests at subway stops in manhattan and promise that the protests will spread for the rest of the country. i'm going to throw it back to you. i don't have the ability to hear you but that's the latest here from zuccotti park. >> what did he say? >> two can play that game! >> exactly right. it's amazing, too, you cannot lay on the benches. you cannot bring sleeping bags, you cannot bring tents. they took 1,000 officers from 1:00 a.m. to the early morning to clean it up along with 1300 sanitation -- excuse me, 150

sanitation workers and they had to call through five burroughs to clean it up. >> they have the right to protest and freedom of expression, they do not have the right to camp there. >> about time is all i have to say and also, do you think the timing is interesting? mayor bloomberg had a change of mind. why? who comes to new york city around thanksgiving and christmas? >> santa? >> tourists. tourists. and a lot of tourists were not coming here to new york. thinking they'd run into those -- >> it is santa. there were two right answers. >> and the turkey. >> don't feel bad. >> plus they had threatened to close the new york stock exchange tomorrow. maybe that's why they decided, hey, let's go pop the tents. meanwhile, straight ahead, 7:11 right now in new york city. coming up, gabby giffords' husband ripping into the speaker of the house. we'll tell you what mark kelly had to say about john boehner, not pretty. >> then politicians on both sides of the aisle accused of using inside information to make a lot of money on the stock market. next, a man who broke that story to show us what he found.

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>> call it the cash register congress. house and senate members getting rich trading off of insider information, it is said. >> people like nancy pelosi who bought stock in credit card company like visa as major legislation to reform the credit industry was actually pending. "60 minutes" confronted the former speaker. listen. >> what i'm asking is do you think it's all right for a speaker to accept a very preferential, favorable stock deal? >> we didn't. >> and you participate in the ipo. >> that doesn't -- >> when you were speaker of the house. you don't think it was conflict of interest or has the appearance of conflict of sfw.

>> only has appearance if you decide you're going to have -- elaborate on a false premise but it's not true. and that's that. >> i don't understand what part's not true. >> yes, sir. that i would act upon an investment. >> peter sweitzer broke this story, fellow at the institute and author of the new book called "throw them all out". that's what the segment was based on. good to have you. >> great to be here. >> nancy pelosi trying to depict that she is absolutely innocent and yet the information seems to indicate that she and her husband made hundreds of thousands of dollars in a couple of days on that deal. >> that's exactly right. if you can get an ipo on a very hot stock, you can make a lot of money. in march of 2008, visa was going public. it was impossible for individual investors to get shares. even the big boys like goldman-sachs were complaining they couldn't get them. the pelosis managed to get 5,000 shares, about $220,000 worth,

the stock went up and they made a couple hundred thousand dollars in a couple of days. >> the underlining theme of this book is not illegal, maybe immoral but not illegal. john kerry before the tarp bailout and found out, you know, he's on these committees, finds out, oh, wait a second, i think i'm going to buy citigroup, $500,000 worth and $200,000 worth of bank of america. next thing he knows, the banks get bailed out by the federal government. he says he doesn't make his own trades. come on! >> it's really a question of timing. when the sec looks at executives and question insider trading, they're look at access to information and timing. what you find is that people like senator kerry, whether it's the 2009 health care debate, whether it's the prescription drug benefit in 2003, whether it's the bank bailout, there's this amazing level of timing of picking the winners and jumping the losers and so you have to wonder, is there information going on that he's exchanging with brokers or whatever so that he's benefitting from it?

because the timing is just so curious. >> what is also very curious is the fact that if a staff member from one of these members of congress were to trade on the inside information, they could go to prison. however, if their bosses, the esteemed madam or sir from a particular state does just that, it's a cake walk. they can make money. >> really, the only class in america that is exempt from these insider trading laws are members of congress. and it seems to me that the first people you'd want to watch would be the politicians in washington. >> you have $174,000 in actual salary, put another $100,000 with perks on top of that. that should be enough. >> yes. >> and you found out, too, former speaker denny hastert came in, a guy with a farm that left with $11 million. how does that happen? >> he did what i point out in the book is the land deal. this is completely legal amazingly so. in hastert's case, he went out and bought 160 acres of farm land. put an earmark in the transportation bill to build a $220 million highway with our

money near his property. that, of course, more than doubled the value and he turned around and sold it and made a couple million dollars off that one deal and this is completely legal. that's what i think is so stunning. >> right. and also your book and the report that we've seen, it's bipartisan in your tarpths, yet, pelosi's teams that were, in fact, part of a right-wing smear job. >> no, she was pretty upset. she put a lot of pressure on "60 minutes" and she's been calling me a hatchet man. both parties do this. "60 minutes" and "newsweek" both investigated this. this is not a right wing smear job. >> what makes this an easy read even for someone like me is you go back in history. what did thomas jefferson say? the original tent of government, what did he say? >> jefferson pointed out in his case and the people he knew, he came into office and left office with his hands as clean and as empty as they were before and i don't think you can say that about many politicians today. a lot of them come in of modest

means and leave multimillionaires and that's simply wrong. >> maybe something will happen. scott brown of massachusetts proposed this bill based on your information yesterday and rick perry made a part of his platform, the book is called "throw them all out." thank you very much for joining us on the curvy couch. >> great to be on. >> nice job. >> thank you. >> coming up straight ahead, the very first written account from a key player in the casey anthony trial. the prosecutor who claims the defense used a nuclear lie to win. he's here live. >> when is the last time you took a vacation? members of congress taking a whole lot of them to the tune of $5 million. peter, you should investigate that. >> come on! >> you're not busy. [ male annouer ] juice drink too watery?

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>> now, it's time for your news by the numbers from the control room. first, $10 billion. that's how much the united states postal service is estimated to have lost in the past year alone. man. but it deferred a huge payment to the federal government so it's actually only officially declaring losses of $5.1 billion for 2011. next, $5 million. that's how much corporations, nonprofits and trade associations paid out to send members of congress on vacations to places like vegas, new york, and israel. and finally, 13%. that's congress' job approval rating for the month of november. that ties an all time low. all right. gretch, brian, back to you. >> the casey anthony trial captivated the entire nation and now we're hiring the first written account from a very key player. the lead prosecutor in the case has harsh words for the defense and casey anthony's mother. >> it's all in the new book "imperfect justice, prosecuting

casey anthony" from prosecutor jeff ashton. welcome, jeff. >> thank you very much. >> hard to write the book since the verdict was so distasteful for you? >> it was hard but sort of cathartic, too, to get the truth out as much as i could and put it on paper. nice way of getting closure. >> people were so into this case and so shocked by the verdict. the right to look at all your details in the book. if you can change one thing about this trial, what would it be? >> if i could change one thing, it would be cindy apt any. i wish there have been a way to get her out of her denial about casey. and about her relationship with casey because the one thing that we always felt was there was a lot more to that relationship than cindy was willing or able to reveal. you know, she painted a very idyllic picture of her relationship with casey, you know, and i think if we had

gotten her to be as candid as she had been with some of her co-workers and friends, that we had talked to, we would have found a much different relationship and i think a much clearer indication of a motive for the crime itself. >> at what point when you took this case were you convinced that she was guilty? >> i think once i looked at the details of the 31 days, what she did during that period when, you know, initially reporting or saying that caylee was missing and when you look at the evidence in the trunk, the decomposition evidence, the odors, etc., the hair from a dead body in the trunk of the car, to me that was very compelling. then, of course, when we found caylee and found how she was left, the duct tape over her nose and mouth, it sealed the deal even more for me. >> so again, i go back to the point that so many people were flabbergasted when the jury came back with not guilty. and a lot of the pundits who we talked to throughout this case said they believed that this case may have been lost in jury

selection before you even presented any evidence. would you agree with that? >> i think there's some truth to that. one of the things i talk about in great length in the book is the effect that the pretrial publicity had on that process because essentially all the jurors who viewed the evidence the way we did, you know, had already seen all the evidence through the media and so we -- they were excluded because they had already decided. so what you were left with is people that either weren't aware of the case or had seen the evidence and weren't compelled by it so we had a jury that was sort of skewed to that side a little bit by that. >> so jeff, people are still -- they have to find out what happened. in your best estimation, was caylee intentionally killed? >> to me, there's only one theory that explains everything. you know, the biggest thing was the duct tape, you know, no theory of accident or anything else explains the duct tape. and to me, the only theory that explains the duct tape is

premeditated murder. why else do you put duct tape over the nose and mouth of a child? >> that was so compelling when you said that in the closing argument. what was the line? i've never seen somebody try to cover up -- >> nobody makes an accident look like a murder. it's ridiculous. >> exactly. i remember that in my mind. it obviously didn't ring with the jurors, unfortunately. >> unfortunately, yeah. >> let me ask you about jose baez, the defense attorney. everyone was so startled when he came out in his opening argument and said that casey had been abused by her father. and then he provided no evidence later on. how could he do that? >> well, if those statements were made and at the time he made them, he believed that he had a good faith possibility of proving it, then it's ethical. if he said that knowing that casey was not going to testify. knowing that there was going to be no evidence of it, then that wouldn't have been ethical but, of course, that's between the two of them. so we'll never know, you know, what he actually thought or knew at the time he said it. >> wow.

well, some very interesting read and it came out so quickly. "imperfect justice, prosecuting casey anthony" written by the lead prosecutor jeff ashton. thanks so much. >> thank you very much. >> you had a lot of stuff written down already, i imagine. 29 minutes after the hour. recordings we've never heard before, transmissions from the day that president kennedy was killed. >> new evidence exposed politico's left wing bias. a look at who is running the web site and what their agenda might be.

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booking your flight and hotel at the same time gets you prices hotels and airlines won't let expedia show separately. book it. major wow factor! where you book matters. expedia. >> during the big apec summit in hawaii, president obama is there with the world leaders. rather than wear the traditional hawaiian shirts, obama had them dress in something more trendy. take a look. here's the story. >> president obama ditching tradition at the meeting of pacific rim leaders in hawaii. the president chose not to wear hawaiian shirts for the group photo, over the years, it has always been a tradition to wear clothing from the host country but this year, president obama had something different in mind. his new choice of attire, however, did raise eyebrows with

some of the other leaders. >> is that real? >> gregg jarrett's voice was absolutely real. that was so true. 27 minutes before the top of the hour. the united states is expanding its military presence in the country of australia. that announcement coming from president obama earlier today during his trip down there. >> yeah, no kidding, steve, you want to talk about it a little bit? >> well, i think we might have ed henry come by and talk a little bit about that a little later on. >> not right now. i don't think there's any reason to rush that. >> exactly right. >> i mean, it's my time, not his time. >> and ed is live with us now from australia. ed, this is two days in a row. now, i don't know about you but this is becoming a pattern and i like it. >> well, it's good to see you at least, gretchen. i don't know about the other two. they don't want to seem to get behind you but this is a 60 year alliance between the u.s. and australia ramping up now because the obama administration next year is going to send 250

marines down under, the force from u.s. troops will eventually grow to 2500 troops and officials say there's many factors. u.s. military combatting terrorism in this region, also allows the military to have a better place to respond to natural disasters, for example, the japanese earthquake where the u.s. military had an important role responding just a few months ago but, of course, another factor is the growing military might of china and at a news conference a short time ago, the president got a question from a "new york times" reporter about whether or not his china policy is schizophrenic. we saw him in hawaii at the apec summit engaging china on various issues. now, we see this move today. maybe we'll antagonize china. the president insisted that fear is not a factor here. take a listen. >> i think the notion that we fear china is -- is mistaken.

the notion that we are looking to exclude china is mistaken. >> now, china none too pleased. the official news agency putting out a commentary saying that the u.s. should be playing a constructive role in this region and the u.s. and china likely to have, perhaps, some more disputes later this week. the president's last stop will be in indonesia after he's finished in australia. there's going to be a summit there in maritime disputes in the south. china's seat will be one of many big issues that will play out there. >> a quick observation, i know you're tight on time but you've been to hawaii getting up in the middle of the night doing these hits and doing specials during the day and now you're over in australia, if that was me, i'd look like rocky after rocky won -- >> after punching -- >> you have a corner man traveling with you? how did you get so ready? >> i have two corner men traveling with me, we call them the brians. they're both first names is brian. it's basically a lot of make-up guys. >> wow. >> mostly that.

also some spa -- also some early morning spa treatment. >> really? >> the feminine side of ed henry. >> yes. >> comes out only on "fox & friends." all right, ed, hope we'll see you again tomorrow. >> i look forward to it. >> we'll try to tear you away from your pedicure. thanks very much. >> i got to check my appointment schedule. i'll look at my appointment book later. >> don't make any promises. >> unlike some americans, he is not lazy. he's our globe trotter. he is ed henry. thank you, sir. >> better than a wax. now to the rest of the headlines, san diego police are blasting dr. phil over a tv show that examined the california woman who was hanging from her boyfriend's mansion, her death. dr. phil bought on a pathologist who said there's major holes in zahau's autopsy. the county sheriff calls the show "sensationalism at its lowest point." just in time for the tsa's 10th

anniversary, congressman john micah released what is expected to be a scathing report on airport security and the agency in particular. the florida republican says the tsa is still plagued by significant administration and operational problems. some good news, the tsa is trying to make thanksgiving travel less stressful this year. kids 12 and younger won't have to take off their shoes, fantastic! and most of the full body scanners are now showing generic images. great. generic male without a gun hopefully. >> how can you show generic images of people who find out what's happening underneath them? >> i think they mean their private parts which i would be in favor of. >> chilling new tapes from the kennedy assassination finally revealed including the long lost recording of the white house situation room alerting officials aboard air force one about president kennedy's murder.

>> wow, a collector in philadelphia is selling the original unedited reel-to-reel tapes for $500,000. and those are your headlines. let's go over to steve. >> thank you very much, gretch. we've been telling you about the web site politico how they insist they're not a left leaning organization and deny having a liberal bias. but the site run by fred ryan is under scrutiny for its reporting on the herman cain scandal. as well as its link to left leaning cable channel msnbc. the publisher of "the daily caller" joins us from d.c. good morning to you, neil. >> good morning, steve. how are you doing? >> doing ok. it's extraordinary that they denied, no, we're not a leftie blog. i called them a leftie blog for a very long time. but when you look at how the organization came into being, it was started by a bunch of

"washington post" leftie journalists, they all got together. it was bound to turn out that way, wasn't it? >> you know, based on the evidence that almost the entire media minus fox news, "the daily caller" and maybe a handful of others are on the liberal side, just by the odds, bound to be that way and they kind of did as you said out of the "washington post" and more liberal outlets. when it first launched, though, i was serving in the white house with vice president cheney when politico came out and it did seem in the very beginning it might be a little more balanced than some. that sort of gave way really quickly when you got into the election cycle with president obama running. but at least a little bit before that, it seemed like maybe they would be a little more balanced. >> but that simply has not materialized. you look at the fella, i think one of the top guys, fred ryan who had -- he is extraordinarily on the board at the ronald reagan library and he somehow talked the library and the

republicans into having that debate on msnbc. what's his story? >> you know, i don't know him personally. i've heard he's a nice person. but he did arrange this debate where -- and the republicans agreed to it somehow. i'm not sure why. where the republican field debates with msnbc and politico hosting and the panel analyzing the debate is al sharpton, ed schultz, rachel ma dow, chris matthews. i mean, sort of an outrageous thing to put together and to use what apparently this guy used his role with the reagan foundation to put it together. you know, i can't picture president reagan, you know, loving that debate. >> yeah, no kidding. now, there at the daily caller where you work, you actually have the proof that shows that their reporting has been slanted. it does have an anti-right bias. and all you got to do is look at the stories on the contain allegations, 930 stories on cain

scandal, first five days. 138 contain related stories by the end of the week. in comparison to nine stories on solyndra and three stories on operation fast & furious. that is pretty graphic, isn't it? >> that is pretty graphic. and to add on that, it's not like these stories, solyndra and fast & furious has been dormant during this period. a lot has been happening. just this week, we get the story of how the department of energy was pressed solyndra this solar company that they were backing with people involved in it who had ties to the democrat party, they pressed them to push off their layoffs until after the 2010 election cycle. that's about as explosive as you can get. so i look -- it's on the cover of "the washington post" today. i looked at politico. maybe it's on there. maybe it's buried somewhere. i couldn't find it today. >> i'll tell you what, somebody came to the -- right to the rescue of politico yesterday to say that they are fair and balanced and that is media matters. you know, that outfit from the

soros-sphere has defended them for being fair and balanced. neil, thank you very much for joining us live. >> thank you. >> all right. very good. all right. now, straight ahead, what's the real reason we're bringing our troops home from iraq? >> truth is that this administration was committed to the complete withdrawal of u.s. troops from iraq and they made it happen. >> senator -- >> so was the decision purely political? senator claire mckaskill from missouri is coming up shortly. some of the soldiers are about to be reunited with the animals they befriended in afghanistan. a story you'll see here on fox. i've got nothing against these do-it-yourself steam cleaners.

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>> all right. time for some quick headlines for you. north korea, one of the most

secretive countries on the face of the earth is now officially open for tourists. oh, goodie. but you're not allowed to bring cell phones or send e-mails and you're banned from taking or talking to or taking pictures of the locals. but other than that, have a great time. wish you were here. and mark kelly, husband of congressman gabrielle giffords ripped in john boehner for not visiting his wife while she was recovering. in his new book, the speaker attended a basketball game in houston while she was in rehab but never called to see if he could visit much only contact he had with boehner was in the form of a get well card. boehner's office responded earlier this morning, saying not only did they get in touch with giffords' staff within hours of the shooting but "the speaker and his staff have been in close contact with giffords' staff throughout this difficult ordeal." >> talking about difficult ordeals, talk about green energy and talk about the administration, 80% of the department of energy dollars, they were put aside from the

stimulus package in other areas were put towards green projects. i mean, there's coal out there. there's oil. there's natural gas. no, they're going for clean. one of those programs and some of those loans went to solyndra. and now we're trying to find -- unwind what happened, why the administration got so behind the company that would lose $537 million of our taxpayer dollars, go belly up. so they've asked for all these e-mails and all the communications between the company and the administration. steven shu in particular. >> they want to find out what the white house's connection was to all of this. we've heard about the e-mails from vice president joe biden's office. but what did the white house have to do with this, if anything? keep in mind, president obama visited solyndra six months before the midterm elections in 2010. now, it's coming out in some of these e-mails that solyndra was going to have to lay off some folks. and the e-mails say, you know, could we just push that until after the midterm elections

because politically, it may not look good for the administration since we're behind this company. so when did those layoffs happen? november 3rdrd. what day was the election? november 2nd. >> it was still a landslide. maybe it would have been a bigger one. who knows? all right. straight ahead, on this wednesday, our next story is going to make your day. we're about to invite -- to reunite a soldier with the dog she saved in afghanistan. they have not seen each other until right now. >> wow. i'm going to look forward to that. [ male announcer ] cranberry juice? wake up! ♪ that's good morning, veggie style. hmmm [ male announcer ] for half the calories -- plus veggie nutrition. could've had a v8. but think about your heart. 2% has over half the saturated fat of whole milk. want to cut back on fat and not compromisen taste? try smart balance fat free milk.

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>> they are k-9s with courage, pups like this one left in the deserts of iraq and afghanistan without a home. thanks to rescue organizations and american airlines, 15 of

them will be reunited with brave soldiers who have befriended them overseas. the head of american dog rescue, arthur benjamin and army specialist guard, specialist sheila schaefer, thanks so much for joining -- thanks for your service and thanks for joining us today. >> it's a pleasure to be here. >> first off, specialist, tell me about the dogs and the role you play when you serve in afghanistan. >> well, we particularly had a mom dog and seven puppies, they're usually not allowed on the fob. >> that means? >> forward operating base so i quickly was trying to get a hold of them to rescue these dogs and get them off the fob. >> because once you guys deployed back home, you'd have to leave these afghan dogs without a home. >> right. right. and they bring a lot of them around for the soldiers. it makes you feel you have a piece of home. when they were picked up finally, there was a lot of sadness that week.

>> that's the name of the organization and american dog rescue is making it happen. when did you realize this is something you have to address? >> it's my interaction with the military and some great marines that i've been friends with that got me involved. the dogs over there are handled by a shelter outside of kabul. they've got about 400 dogs and we've been bringing them back one at a time with that organization. we're hoping that people will get interested and help us bring these socialized dogs because they've come socialized with our troops over to be with us. >> what was your dog's name, she'll gentlem -- sheila. >> charlie. >> how old? >> 8 months old. >> would you recognize him if you saw him again? >> he's going to be very different. he was 3 months old when i picked him up. >> specialist, sheila schaefer, you're about to be reunited with your 8-month-old dog that you've nursed from then to today. now that you're back home, so is

he. >> looks like he recognizes you. >> hey, charlie. >> what kind of dog is this? >> i believe that they're like a lab and greyhound mix. we're not real sure. but they think that that's what they are. so charlie -- >> i'm sure this means a lot to you. is it being with her is also remembering what you did over there? >> yeah. and taking care of him, yeah. >> all right. and could you tell us what role they did play for you. >> they just brought you some peace, you know, some joy, you know, they were grateful to us. they appreciate the love that we give them. it's just -- it's something that's hard to explain. >> make it worth it, arthur? >> everything. seeing sheila with charlie is worth absolutely everything. >> hey, buddy. >> it takes about $4,000 to get a dog back and forth. >> correct. >> how many we still have over there? >> we have two puppies left at nowzad. >> overall? >> there are about 100

socialized dogs and 400 dogs in all. we're trying to start a spay and neuter program over there so we leave something behind in afghanistan besides the memories. >> looks like he's very happy to see you, extremely happy to see him. do you think you'll keep him? >> yes. yes. >> yeah, actually he's going to be with delta, his mom, so -- out at my parents' house in arkansas. >> that's going to be fantastic. >> yeah. >> specialist sheila schaefer, charlie, and arthur benjamin, thanks so much for joining us today. and if you want to help out, friends at foxnews.com, write us and fox and friends.com and you can find out more. >> thank you. >> thanks so much. meanwhile at 4 minutes before the top of the hour, a sickening story. allegations that dover air force base mishandled the remains of our troops. the democratic senator here live. she took action when arlington national cemetery was accused of the same thing and she's taking action again now. so who ordered the cereal that can help lower olesterol

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>> gretchen: good morning, everyone. it's november 16. i'm gretchen carlson. thanks for sharing your time with us today. rick perry looking for a rebound hoping cutting congress' pay could win him some more support. >> i'm a true believer we need to uproot and tear down and rebuild washington, d.c. >> gretchen: suppliesingly slashing salaries on capitol hill is not sitting well with everyone. >> steve: meanwhile, sickening story, allegations that dover air force base mishandled the remains of our american troops. democratic senator claire mccaskill took action when it happened in arlington national cemetery and she's taking action again. she joins us in a matter of moments. >> brian: then these couples got bad luck. the hall erupts in flames during their reception. more on "fox & friends" because it starts -- anyone have a watch -- now. >> i'm matthew johnson and

you're watching "fox & friends." >> steve: if the hall is on fire at your wedding, do you throw rice or flame retardant? >> brian: i would think you should bring your retardant. >> steve: or corn and turn it into popcorn. >> brian: that would be interesting. i think get out alive and continue on with the ceremony. that would be my goal. >> steve: that's quite a story. >> brian: they lost their deposit on the hall for sure. >> gretchen: let's start with your headlines for your wednesday morning. the secret service says a bullet has hit the white house. authorities believe it may be connected to a shooting that happened nearby on friday night. the bullet hit a window, but it was stopped by the ballistic glass, of course. a second bullet was found outside of the white house. police searching for this guy, 21-year-old oscar ortega hernandez. they believe he was involved somehow in friday's shooting. new video of zuccotti park in lower manhattan. the tents are gone, but the occupy wall street movement still holding on by a thread. about 100 protesters returned to

the park last night just hours after police kicked them out during the surprise raid. by the time the sun came up, only about 30 protesters remained. tomorrow marks the movement's two-month anniversary. protesters say they plan on forming a blockade in the streets and subways to prevent wall street traders from getting to work. we'll bring you a live report from zuccotti park in 30 minutes. penn state assistant football coach mike mcqueary now saying he actually confronted jerry sandusky when he allegedly caught him abusing a child in 2002. in a new e-mail to a friend, he claims he then went to tell police what he had seen, but according to his grand jury testimony, mcqueary originally said he only told his father and joe paterno the next day. he says the scandal is taking a toll on him. >> it's crazy. >> like what? >> like a snow globe.

>> gretchen: new documents show paterno transferred his house into his wife's name for a dollar less than four months before the scandal broke. talk about a deer in the headlights, literally. a michigan police officer came to the rescue of this dazed doe. check out this dash cam video. you can see the deer frozen in its tracks on the highway. it stood there for half an hour. that's when the officer stepped in. watch what he's going to do. picks up the deer, carries it over to the side of the road. hopefully it didn't have any ticks. the deer eventually ran back into the woods. police say it got scared after an accident. very nice jouster. to washington now where a heated exchange between leon panetta and senator john mccain is the talk of the town. highlighting a massive political divide over the withdrawal of troops in iraq. >> this administration was committed to the complete withdrawal of u.s. troops from iraq and they made it happen.

>> senator mccain, that's just simply not true. i guess you can believe that and i respect your beliefs. >> but that's your opinion. >> that's not true. >> and the outcome is exactly as predicted. >> but that's not how it happened. >> gretchen: so did senator mccain's suggestion hold any weight? let's ask senator claire mccaskill. she sits on the services armed committee. good morning to you, senator. >> good morning. >> gretchen: what did you make of that give and take between senator mccain and leon panetta? >> well, i know that the president would never allow our military to remain in a country that refused to say we will not hold them criminally responsible for any actions they undertake as members of our military. that's what happened, gretchen. the iraq government said, we will not regive your troops immunity, which means our men and women, if we left them there, could be criminally prosecuted by the government of iraq. we can't allow that to happen.

now, should we keep troops in the area to hold a check on iran? of course we should and, in fact, we will be doing that by repositioning thousands of our troops in kuwait so they are available if they need to respond to any acts of aggression by iran. >> gretchen: but some people argue that the president could have been more involved in this process and i believe phone records show that it had been months since he had spoken to the leader of iraq. >> you know, i got to tell you the truth, i don't think there is a massive political divide on this, gretchen. i think most americans feel like we have given so much treasure, so many lives, so many taxpayer dollars and now we have a country that is refusing to say they won't criminally prosecute our soldiers? we've got -- i mean, to me, that is outrageous. i think most americans say enough already. let's make sure we strategically keep troops in the area so we can protect israel and make sure we check iran, but i think it's

time for us to get down to a very small troop level in iraq, especially with the signals that have come from the iraq government. they don't seem very grateful to me. >> gretchen: i want to move to another topic, i know you were one of the first to bring it to international attention about what was happening at arlington national cemetery with some of the grave sites there. and now i hate to even say that it's happening somewhere else, at dover air force base? what can you tell us about it? >> we are -- i'm pleased, i called for an independent investigation last week and secretary panetta ordered that independent investigation. what i'm most concerned about is the inspector general of the air force looked at this problem and frankly, i found that report lacking. i think it was not as tough as it should have been and more importantly, i'm worried about what kind of protection the whistle blowers received when they brought these problems to the attention of the command

staff. >> gretchen: what did you find at dover? what were they doing with the grave sites? they were dumping them all in one location, weren't they, allegedly? >> what was happening is, unfortunately, these people have very difficult jobs because many times the remains are not all whole. and so different parts of the remains had been separated from other parts of the remains and instead of sometimes notifying the family of those problems or instead of reuniting all the remains in one location, there was some cremation of partial remains and some of those, in fact, were dumped. so we've got to make sure the processes are in place that give the utmost respect are given to these remains of our fallen heros. i know the military wants to do that. we've got to make sure the management at dover is up to the task. >> gretchen: all right. thank you for keeping us informed on this terrible story there. before i let you go, i have to say congratulations to you. you look fantastic and i know that you have been tweeting your

weight loss to all the people who follow you. you lost 50 pounds, senator. how did you do it? >> lots and lots of time on the treadmill. i made up my mind i was going to make time in a pretty busy schedule for exercise and i quit eating sweets and gave up my glass of wine with dinner and stayed at it. it's so. >> gretchen: hats off to personal responsibility. you said you wanted to do it and will power and there you are. >> one thing people need to realize, if we reduce the adult onset of diabetes by 10% in this country, we can solve our debt problem. so this is a public health issue that is very important in terms of the taxpayer's bottom line. >> gretchen: i bet it feels good to put on -- >> it feels great. i'm ready for the campaign, gretchen. >> gretchen: you look great. thanks so much for sharing your time with us. >> thanks. >> steve: all right. i hope the senator is not listening right now because rick perry has got a plan and that is

to cut her pay in half. keep in mind, in the state of texas, their legislature only works 114 days every other year and yet, if you look at their economy, it's roaring. so yesterday rick perry, the governor of texas, who wants to be our president, made these suggestions. >> brian: cut congress pay in half. cut their staff budgets. that would help. make lawmakers part-timers. i don't think that's effective. i want them to do a better job. not work less. allow lawmakers to hold jobs in their home states. i guess the feeling is that they'll know what it's like to work for a living. but to me, i think he's underscoring how -- to do that job well takes a lot of time. you got to be everywhere in two places. >> gretchen: i think he's trying to come up with a way to gain steam in the polls and that this is one thing that people might pay attention to. here is rick perry.

>> i don't believe that washington just needs a new coat of paint. i think the whole place needs to be overhauled. i'm a true believer, we need to uproot, tear down and rebuild washington, d.c. and our federal institutions. i'm unique in this republican field. i've never been an establishment figure. i've never served in congress. i've never been a part of an administration. i've never been a paid lobbyist. my career has been that of a washington outsider. >> steve: his proposal kind of sounds like what warren buffet suggested a couple of months ago. he said on tv, no member of congress shall be eligible for reelection at any time in which there is a federal budget deficit. one of mr. perry's suggestions is that you cut congressional pay in half and then cut congressional pay in half again, they don't balance the budget by 2020. >> brian: we'll see. for governor perry to pretend like he's not a career politician, which is a little

disingenuous, because he's been a career politician. >> steve: maybe if they worked half as much they would spend half as much. >> brian: james writes, surely the founding fathers didn't want them to vote on their own salaries. >> gretchen: if congress performed as badly in the private sector, they would be fired. >> steve: a twitter comment, absolutely agree. cut benefits and time in d.c if representatives are home, they can do no harm. good point. >> gretchen: interesting thing is you can vote to put somebody out of office. in effect, we have term limits, but is that really the way it ends up working out? you be the judge. >> brian: next up, how would president obama target each of the republican candidates? what would he use against them to get reelected? larry sabato know has thing or two about this. he looks into his crystal ball next. >> steve: this couple has bad luck. the reception hall right behind

them in flames during their wedding. they still managed to squeeze in the vows. their story on the worst wedding ever perhaps, straight ahead. [ male announcer ] where's your road to happiness? what ithe first step on that road is a bowl of soup? delicious campbell's soups fill you with vegetable nutrition, farm-grown ingredients, and can help you keep a healthy weight. campbell's -- it's amazing what soup can do.

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>> steve: well, he's got his crystal ball out and he's never wrong. well, hardly ever wrong. larry sabato is taking a look into the future and hedging his bets on the 2012 race. today we're looking at how the president of the united states would fair against each of the potential gop candidates and the good professor joins us from the university of virginia. good morning to you, sir. >> good morning, steve. i'm never wrong because i do hedge my bets. i appreciate you're not bringing up the wrong predictions.

>> steve: that's for another show. all right. larry, if the president of the united states runs against, first of all, mitt romney, how would the white house position their guy against the other guy? >> all right. obviously a democrat is going to run against a republican from the left. right now all the republicans are running against romney from his right. they're saying he isn't conservative enough. president obama is going to say he's too conservative and he's going to list reasons and he's going to particularly point to the flip flops. some of the republicans are mentioning the flip flops. i think that will be the center of obama's campaign against romney. that and perhaps romney's time autobahn capital and the jobs supposedly lost when the company was restructured. >> steve: so you're saying the flip flops over romneycare? >> how could president obama run against mitt romney on romneycare when the two plans, obamacare and romneycare do

agree to a great extent? so i think both sides would get a pass to a certain degree on health care. though romney will try and say he will relinquish obamacare if he's elected. >> steve: if newt gingrich is the nominee for the republicans, how would the white house run against him? >> oh, boy. i'm not sure we'd get out of the '90s. there would be a lot of things to review, from the speaker gingrich's term as speaker and his dominance of the american politics in the '90s, both the personal baggage and political baggage. you have some things, we're hearing about his financial relationship with freddie mac, for example. so all of these things would be front and center. might be a less ideological race in that sense because the democrats would try to focus on his baggage. >> steve: if herman cain were the nominee, they would do their best to bring up those harassment allegations? >> the harassment allegations

would definitely be a part of the campaign and oddly, i think you would see a flip flop for obama from 2008 when he said you didn't need a whole lot of experience to be president 'cause he hadn't had much. and now, of course, he's had three and then finally four years as president and he'll claim that experience makes him superior over somebody who has never held public office. >> steve: sure. and if the nominee is the governor of texas, you say that they would attack him op his views, which they regard in some cases as extreme? >> they would call him an extremist and they would try to classify him as a pure red state governor. somebody who could carry the south, could carry the rocky mountain states, but whose views would in the appeal at all to the northeast or the midwest or the pacific coast states. it would almost be a rerun of goer versus bush, except in this case, the democrat would be the incumbent. >> steve: and when you flip things around, the way the republicans are going to run

against the president, simply his record. right? >> his record. they're going to say, you've had four years. you failed. americans care most about jobs and the economy. where are the jobs? where is the better economy? if rips are smart, they'll stop right there because that's where people have their major concerns for 2012, the economy ask jobs. >> steve: absolutely. he's got a job at the university of virginia and he joins us every once in a while, larry sabato, thank you very much. great insight. >> thank you. >> steve: all right. straight ahead on this wednesday, parents taking care of their disabled children apparently forced to join the service workers union. it's happening and they don't get a choice. wait until you hear this story, it's coming up. new york judge says wall street protesters can stay in the park, however, they can't sleep there in a tent. does this mean the end of their movement or will it grow stronger? peter johnson, jr. who lives in that neighborhood to weigh in straight ahead. [ male annouer ] juice drink too watery?

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>> gretchen: welcome back. they don't have to go home, but they got to get out of zuccotti park, at least with their at the present time. a new york supreme court judge ruled that occupy wall street protesters can demonstrate, but not set up camp in the privately owned park. mayor bloomberg is not backing down. >> no right is absolute and with every right comes responsibility. the first amendment gives every new yorker the right to speak out, but it does not give anyone the right to sleep in a park or otherwise take it over to the

exclusion of others. nor does it permit anyone in our society to live outside the law. >> gretchen: so what's next for this movement? joining me is fox news legal analyst peter johnson, jr. >> good morning. >> gretchen: it's like he flip flopped a lot. he suddenly made sense yesterday. >> i think when you're the mayor of new york city, you have to be cognizant of the first amendment and cognizant of differences and people's right to protest. i think he was. but then he said, listen, there is public health and safety issues. you got mace in there, people with weapons, gout assaults. you've got alleged rapes going on. it's a public health and safety issue. they've got combustibles, gasoline, they've got generators. and under the law, there are time, manner and place restrictions on the first amendment. meaning that you can say what you want to say and protest the way you want to protest, as long as you do it consistent with certain restrictions. and speaking out and having a rally is not the same as taking over a public space.

>> gretchen: they didn't even start in the correct manner. they didn't get a permit. if you went to these tea party events, you had to get a permit and pay thousands of dollars to have your kind of peaceful protest. and also i'm interested in the timing of the mayor suddenly kicking them out because all that drug stuff and assaults allegedly, that was going on for a long time. why yesterday? >> i think there were arrests that came to light. i live and worked in that neighborhood and i have spoken out in terms of the substance and in terms of the style of these folks from the very beginning. but at the same time, we really needed to be mindful in this country of protest. protest is not closing down the oakland harbor. protest is not closing down the subway. protest is not closing down the brooklyn bridge or means of commerce or egress or transportation in this country. that is anarchy. and so i think a lot of folks were speaking out. the press in new york city was speaking out. people living there. people walking by it.

tourists were saying, i don't want to come here and be subjected to this. so i think there was a national feeling that this had gotten out of hand and they said, enough is enough and people looked at this and they say, what the heck is going on? i'm trying to get a job. i'm trying to take care of my family. i'm trying to be a good american. and then i see looks like the tiki room or something down at walt disney room. people are jumping up and down and dancing and -- i don't know what the heck they're doing. >> gretchen: it's a visual from peter johnson, jr. this morning. they're not going to be tikiing too much. >> the new york judge said enough is enough. yeah, you got a first amendment right. doesn't mean you can be bring tent, tarps, weapons, assaults or rapes and take over a park named after a former deputy mayor in new york city. >> gretchen: you can't bum on the bench either. >> it will go on, though. let's see what happens. >> gretchen: mr. tiki. parents forced to pay union dues

because the government says they're providing a service by raising their disabled children? wait until you hear this story. then their love went up in flames during their wedding. the story behind this photo. be sure to send us your tales of disaster coming up. [ artis brown ] america is facing some tough challenges right now.

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>> brian: we start with your headlines. two murderers executed in ohio and florida after the supreme court denied their last minute appeals. in ohio, reginald brooks was given a lethal injection for shooting his three sons while they slept after his wife filed for divorce. brooks had no last words, but made an obscene gesture with his hands as he was put to death. i won't miss him. in florida, chandler was given a lethal injection, accused of killing a woman and daughter who stopped and asked him for directions. >> steve: it's a new book that has all of washington buzzing. it's called throw them all out. explosive tell all about insider trading among members of congress. featured on "60 minutes" this past sunday and earlier on "fox & friends," the author, peter

schweitzer, defended himself against an attack from house minority leader nancy pelosi, who was exposed in his book and called him as doing a right wing smear job on him. >> she was pretty upset. she put a lot of pressure on "60 s."inu she's been going around calling me a attach committee man. the reality is both parties do this. "60 minutes" and news week both investigated. this is not a right wing smear job. >> steve: a new bill being proposed by scott brown of massachusetts would ban members of congress and their staffs from using insider information for investment purposes. mr. brown introduced the bill in response to the "60 minutes" report. >> gretchen: another sign congresswoman gabrielle giffords is on the road to recovery. a day after making her first television appearance since she was shot, she released a new audio message to her supporters. >> i want to get back to work representing arizona is my

honor. my staff is there to help you. they keep me informed on your behalf. >> gretchen: giffords went on to say she's getting stronger. the congresswoman hoping to make a full political comeback after being shot in tucson back in january. >> brian: state of confusion for president obama. he accidentally said he was in asia. take a listen. >> whether it's in europe or you're in asia, in times of fundamental reforms and changes. >> brian: he was speaking to world leaders in honolulu where he spent most of his youth. >> steve: but he was in hawaii where he was born. he was not born in asia. that's right. incredible video where a slow moving landslide is causing huge chunks of the earth to literally break apart. you're looking at a giant fracture making a seaside highway completely impassable.

i don't think you could get over that easily. officials fear the landslide will cause even more damage in the days to come. slide area. that's an understatement. take a look at the map. the eastern third of the united states from the ohio valley down through the mississippi valley is a soaker, up through the big northeastern corridor cities. a little bit of snow showing up on the doppler portions of western kansas and nebraska as well. current readings as you head out the door, only 10 in missoula. 13 in rapid city. as you can see, 50s and 60s throughout the eastern third as the rain comes through. chilly in the northern plains. later today, up to 50 in kansas city. up to about 60 in memphis. almost 80 in raleigh. along the florida coast back through texas. that's a look at your fox travel cast on this wet wednesday here in the new york city area. >> gretchen: a lot of people paying more close attention to the weather with thanksgiving coming up.

right? the busiest travel time of the year. can you believe it's already next week? looking forward to it. a story that's coming out of all different states. we're going to focus on a family out of michigan. it has to do with parents taking care of special needs children. this particular family is taking care of their two adult children who suffer from cerebral palsy. now it turns out they're being forced to belong to the union and pay a union dues because they are a child care provider. i believe it works out to $30 of their family monthly budget, which they say that they desperately need to spend on other things. >> brian: the parents spoke about it. >> the whole thing that it wasn't a choice. we were just told this is what's going to happen, period. >> they're now taking union dues out of the kids' check. >> steve: that's crazy. so the seiu in michigan apparently winds up taking $6 million out of the family budgets that would have gone to

the disabled children. you got to wonder why unions are under attack these days. but then again, when you sit at the table, when these laws are passed, you get a piece of the pie and that, ladies and gentlemen, is exhibit a. >> gretchen: let us know what you think about that. e-mail us or twitter us. the approval rating for congress at an all new low. just 13% now. we will ask congressman paul ryan to respond to that next, as well as his thoughts on the super committee. >> steve: then the dog named hercules rescued by a family hours before he was put down. less than a day later, he saved the family. details straight ahead. my sinus symptoms come with a cough

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>> steve: we got headlines. just in time for the tsa's tenth anniversary, congressman john mika of florida expecting releasing what is expected to be a scathing report on the airport security agency later today. the congressman says the tsa still has serious administrative and operational problems. amazing survival story, two men survived at sea for four days on chocolate chip cookies when the boat capsized in the bahamas. they climbed into the dingy. they eventually made it to shore in boca raton, florida. they're expected to be just fine. none the less, brian, it was chips ahoy. >> brian: steve, brand-new poll puts the approval rating of congress at an all time low, 13%.

why? let's ask the chairman of the house budget committee, congressman paul ryan. congressman, do you take that personal? >> no, i don't. it's up from 9%, so i guess we're making headway. first of all, i think they paint us with a broad brush. we passed 22 jobs bills. we passed a budget to balance the budget. pay off the debt, grow the economy, reform the tax code. the senate, nothing. they haven't passed a budget for 930 days. so i think you're sort of seeing a little bit of their baggage being carried to all of congress and that's reflective in those poll ratings. >> brian: let's talk about the super committee. you're not on it. you said you didn't want to be on it. i'm sure you would have been put on it. now sitting inside ten days and we see republicans yesterday were optimistic. democrats weren't. in reality, where is the progress? >> well, we've offered solutions. our negotiators in the super committee put forward plans to actually accomplish this objective. we put forward plans that we thought democrats would agree to. they keep seeming to move the

goal post and walk away from the table. one of the negotiators the other day said they can't agree with each other on what they want, let alone negotiate with us. so that's a little frustrating. we're hopeful we can get something. look, they haven't passed a budget for 930 days in the senate. the president has yet to put forward a credible plan in three years since he's been in office. we're looking for any opportunity to get a dent on spending, a dent on this deficit and so we're not going to give up. we're going to keep trying to put ideas out there to cut spending and close this deficit gap and we want to get something done. so we're going to keep trying 'til the final hour. >> brian: both sides seem to want to do tax reform, but can't do it in five days. maybe you can promise to do it. but in the big picture, democrats watching right now are saying will congressman -- will chairman ryan ever agree to get rid of the bush tax cuts? will they ever agree to any type of tax increase even if it isn't as great as they want? will you show some give there? has the super committee been empowered to do that? >> they already did that.

the super committee did that, pat toomey, our senator from pennsylvania, put together a plan to replace the bush tax cuts with tax reform, lower tax rates, broadening the base, meaning get rid of loopholes and that brings in more revenue. so our negotiators already said, let's replace the bush tax schedule, lower everybody's tax rates, get rid of loopholes and deductions and you bring in even more revenue to the federal government. more importantly, you grow the economy and create jobs and that is what we offered and that's what the democrats walked away from. >> brian: we'll see if things will be different from august. i want to you hear from the ceo of scots. he's furious about the super committee. let's listen. >> even if you get change in the white house, a year from now and you say you get some six months or so for everybody to get their feet back on the ground, even if all that happens, that's 18 months from now, that's bull (bleep). that's the answer is 18 months from now we get something done? >> brian: so a little bit of anger there.

i guess you hear that a lot. >> i share it. look, like i said, we put our cards on the table. we passed a budget last april. we're going to pass a budget next april. we passed 22 bills to create jobs and get this economy growing. unfortunately, we hear the crickets chirping in the senate, no budget, no plan. just stalemate. it's frustrating. but i got to tell you, elections have consequences. the president's not budgeting. the senate is not budgeting. and they're not budging and they don't want to negotiate, from what we can tell. so yeah, it's frustrating to us, too. >> brian: you mentioned a few times now the amount of bills sitting in the senate. do any these bills and which bills in particular look at the jobs situation? >> the regulatory perform bills, american energy exploration, create jobs. we're introducing another bill that says let's drill for oil and gas in america and take all those revenues that come to the federal government and put them in the highway trust fund for

infrastructure. we've done so many bills to help small businesses, tax relief for small businesses, energy production, which creates jobs right here and right now and lowers the cost of gasoline. one bill after another. we had 22 of them stacking up over there now that are specifically aimed at creating jobs that are going nowhere in the senate. so that's why we're frustrated, too. >> brian: the pipeline may have a new route. do you feel with this new route, democrats will feel so much pressure to pass it because we all use this thing called oil? >> well, they want to block this 'til after the election. seems pretty clear to me, but the move was by the president to move this after the election so he didn't have to make the decision and he didn't want to take grief for either canceling it or approving it. this creates 20,000 jobs right there. this brings oil from canada into our country where we can get new refineries to create this oil and get us off of foreign oil and they're saying no at every one of these stages. keystone is one example of their

ability or attempts to stop it. >> brian: the heritage foundation, you're going to counter the president and his message. what's chairman ryan's message to the heritage foundation and anyone else listening? >> we believe in a society of upward mobility and equal opportunity. we believe in economic growth and we don't want to pit people against each other in america. preying on people's emotions of fear, envy and resentment makes america weaker. >> brian: how is the president doing that? >> that's what the president is doing. listen to all of the speeches he's giving. he's pitting people against each other. he's playing class politics. speaking to people as if they're stuck in their current station in life, that they're stuck in some class and that the government is here to help them cope with it. that kind of rhetoric divides us in america. >> brian: excuse me. i'm sorry. do you think that rhetoric is directly responsible for the occupy movement? >> i think it contributes to it. i don't know if it's directly responsible, but i think it's synonymous with it and i think it's in harmony with it.

>> brian: the president will be speaking a lot and he's been making congress the bad guy. what could you do, being not in the white house, to let everybody know there is a counter message? >> i'm telling you right here what we've been doing. the super committee is a good example. it seems to us as if the white house doesn't want it to succeed because they've made it harder for it to succeed so that they can continue this narrative of a do nothing congress. the problem is, that case falls down so easily once you realize all the things the house of representatives controlled by republicans have done and all the things that the democrats in the senate have not done. it falls apart pretty fast. so i think people see through this. i think the president enjoys campaigning more than he enjoys governing and he's really doing a divisive campaign these days and it doesn't help us grow the economy and create jobs. >> brian: congressman paul ryan, always great to talk to you. >> you, too, thanks. >> brian: we move ahead. when we return, a family adopted this dog, saving his life.

hours later, he would repay that favor. you will meet hercules next. then their love went up in flames during the wedding. their story and your tales of wedding disaster coming up. let's check in with bill hemmer what's coming up at the top of the hour. anything but a disaster. >> we have two hours of that, brian. we'll see you on radio a little later. i think i heard you, brian. >> brian: i said wear the same outfit. >> i won't change for you. congratulations, america. we are $15 trillion in the hole as of today. how does mitt romney win an election? sarah palin has advice. we'll also talk to one of the leaders of that super committee. is that mission failing? who is calling for eric holder to resign. what we're learn being a bullet fired at the white house. martha and i will see you in 11 minutes. [ male announcer ] have you heard?

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>> gretchen: it is an incredible story. a young couple from ohio recently adopted an underweight saint bernard dog and named him hercules. they intended to nurse him back to health, then find him a permanent home. that all changed when six hours after his adoption, he lived up to his name. the dog ended up saving his owners from a burglar in the middle of the night. lee, elizabeth, and the newly adopted hero dog, hercules, join us from cincinnati. good morning. >> good morning. >> gretchen: so lee, tell me about the trail of hercules. originally you saw him at the pound and there was something about him that made you take him home. what was it? >> honestly, when we saw him there, our first instinct was his size. it's like oh, my goodness. that was an immediate, like,

wow. from there, after talking with some of the people about his story from that point, how he was found over in ross county, the different coyote bites he had received when he was attacked. >> gretchen: you just decided that you wanted to bring him home and give him a chance because you didn't want him to be euthanized, right? but you never expected to keep this dog 'cause you already have so many pets. >> exactly. >> gretchen: elizabeth, what happened then? >> i was ready to kill him. we had four dogs already and i was like, what are we going to do with this 200-pound dog? >> gretchen: but then just after he had only been home for a couple of hours, lee, you decide it's time for him to go out and do his business in the backyard and what happened? >> right. i had opened the inside door to let him out and he had start -- he started growling all of a

sudden, which was unusual because up until that point, he hadn't barked, hadn't growled, hadn't made much noise of nigh kind -- any kind next thing i know, he's ripping free out of my hand and going through the screen door and into the backyard. when i finally get to where i can get the back light on and see what's going on, he's jumped off of the back porch, over the basement and he starts chasing this guy that has just come out of the stairwell toward the fence. he chases him all the way to the fence and just bites on to his ankle and he was trying to pull him back into the yard. the guy eventually just got away. >> gretchen: so this was a burglar who had gone to the effort of cutting your phone lines that you find out afterwards and by the way, elizabeth, you had gone out that same way, you had just gone off to work? >> yeah. >> gretchen: so you could have encountered potentially this burglar, or i guess, lee, he was ready to come in the house if it

wouldn't have been for hercules? >> right. i mean, it's a scary thought. when somebody cuts your phone line like that, you don't know what they're planning to do, especially when they know you're home. >> gretchen: so elizabeth and lee, the end result, the final verdict for hercules is, he's not part of your family? >> absolutely. >> gretchen: lee? >> i have to agree. i mean, so have him go through all of that and defend us like that after we had only had him for a few hours, i think he's definitely earned his right to stay. >> gretchen: wow. what a story. i have to say that as well as going after burglars, he also knows how to relax. >> oh, yeah. >> absolutely. >> gretchen: what an adorable dog and now he joins the four or five other dogs you have and gallons of fish and i know you are pet lovers and what an incredible story you have to tell and we're glad you're safe on top of everything else.

>> thank you. >> gretchen: lee and elizabeth, as well as hercules, thank you for joining us this morning. >> thank you. >> gretchen: great story. their love went up in flames during the ceremony. come to your screen and look at this photo. does it look like your wedding photo? not really. this couple made the most of it. their story and your tales of wedding day disasters, only two minutes away. capital one's new cash rewards card gives you a 50 percent annual bonus. so you earn 50 percent more cash.

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