save his own life. you'll see it. "fox & friends" starts right now. >> you're watching "fox & friends." that's a great way to begin your day. >> thank you, don king. welcome back to studio e in rockefeller center. brian kilmeade back after a long weekend somewhere. >> i had a day off, that's it. >> long weekend? >> everybody is fascinated with where you go. it's like the big mystery question. where's brian? >> i fight crime. hi try to -- >> i knew it! >> i try to go into nations that don't like america and try to tell them how wrong they are! >> really? so you were with the taliban. a little bit later on, we'll talk about how the vice president feels about that. >> they're not our enemy per se. >> all right, superman. maybe you could fix what's going on on capitol hill. >> nope! >> they need a guy coming out of a phone booth right now. payroll tax showdown. what the heck is going on there?

senators have left town. why? because they passed a two month extension of the payroll tax cut. they passed unemployment benefits coming to people in the new year. but now the g.o.p. in the house say they're going to kill this thing this morning. 9:00 a.m. is when the showdown will happen today. they're looking for this long-term fix. i get that. is this the right time and place to be doing that? i have a scary suspicion that this is going to fall real hard on the house republicans and the general public isn't going to be happy about it. >> bottom line is the premise of their argument is correct. you're going to draw the entire political system, for two months, you're going to have a tax cut. we've gotten this far and we've agreed on the pipeline. can we at least get a year out of this so we don't have this intramural fight again? >> what they're going to do is take it up. we told you yesterday at this

time, 24 hours ago, they were going to kill it yesterday. that didn't happen. instead, they're going to put off the votes and have a series of three votes later on today and start things off at 9:00 and pass a number of resolutions. somehow, what they need to do is vote down the senate bill without actually killing it. >> right. >> how are they going to do that? standby. ultimately, though, it comes down to two points of view. democrats say look, we already did this. republicans say it's only for two months and that's wrong. here's both sides. >> the republicans are not taking yes for an answer is because no is their answer. no to the payroll tax cut. and that is driven, again, by the two party republicans who will be responsible for this tax increase if it happens which i hope it won't. it's just the radical tea party republicans who are holding up this tax cut for the american

people and jeopardizing our economic growth. >> do you want to do something for 60 days that kicks the can down the road? or do you want to do what the president asks us to do? there are people who don't agree with the president on that offer. >> my concern is that it's all about the optics. i mean, how many times can the american people hear, you know, keep in mind the american public, most people aren't watching this as close as we are on a daily basis. all they're going to hear is the republicans are the party of no and they're responsible for not getting this tax cut and oh, by the way, what about the big picture in this whole thing that nobody is talking about? does this tax cut actually even do what it's supposed to do? which is create jobs! nobody is talking about that. everyone is just infighting about whether or not they should do it. i find it ironic that democrats are suddenly so behind the tax cut, number one, that's usually not their m.o. but the bigger question is does it create jobs? and so far, there's really no proof that it has. >> the way i understand the wait out and you tell me if i'm wrong here, the senate did their

version with two guys. harry reid and mitch mcconnell, they emerge from this and say here's the meeting and here's the deal. the senate goes 89-10 we're going to pass it. senator scott brown agrees with you, why would you scuttle this bill? house republicans plan to scuttle the bill to help the middle class families is irresponsible and wrong. i don't think their goal is to scuttle the bill. their goal is to get a year. if you get it to conference, you have to figure it out and get it to the rules committee, if they can do that, it's called negotiation. >> exactly. four senators on the republican side have come out. they're all in districts where -- in states where they're facing a tough uphill battle. they have -- they kind of sound like they're speaking out against boehner so it will be interesting to see what tightrope mr. boehner and company do walk later on today. >> don't you wonder if mcconnell -- sorry, steve. don't you wonder if mcconnell talked to boehner? did you pick up the phone and say listen, i'm about to sign a deal. can you pass that? and boehner initially says ok.

>> boehner says today that he did not sign off on the senate bill. >> that's what he's saying now. the thing is you have to have some sort of bipartisanship to make it -- i'm not saying that you should always cave but you have to have some sort of bipartisanship and the senate in my mind had that. why is that important? because people on obama's team are going to be able it say what david axelrod is saying right now in an exclusive interview for fox news yesterday. he's charging that the g.o.p. is doing this on purpose. to screw up the economy so that barack obama loses. >> you have to wonder whether some folks over there think somehow screwing up the economy, throwing a wrench in the works is a good political strategy for them. that somehow if they can slow the recovery down, if they can cost a half million or delay a half million or a million jobs that that will hurt the president. >> he's a strategist and he did the right thing saying that.

he sees an opening like nancy pelosi sees an opening. in the big picture, if you're saying the republican party does not want this passed, if you're looking what they're asking, they say not only do we want it passed, we want 10 more months that they gave us, that they at least negotiate us. >> the argument from people that have been aligned with the tea party and otherwise are fiscally responsible, for instance, a republican from north carolina by the name of renee elmers, they say we're elected for a reason. they feel if you kick the can down the road for two more months, it's what washington always does, let's do it. remember, this permanent thing is only really a one year deal even though we're talking about an extension of two months, we're still talking about something that would only last one year. >> we're really not even talking about the big picture, guys, which is we're taking away money from the social security fund that we already can't afford to give this payroll tax deduction or reduction so really in the big picture, why is nobody looking at whether or not it

actually works, does it work? what do you think about that? has it created jobs? has it created jobs? somebody tell me that. >> it does put $1,000 into people's pockets. >> does it create jobs? >> it gives people more of the money and that's one of the things republicans don't want to be is known as the party that stood in the way of a tax cut. >> meanwhile, let's take a look at what the president is experiencing right now. he was down as low as 41% in terms of overall job performance, he is up now with his approval ratings on december 18th. that is sunday, right? that's sunday. 49-47 approval over disapproval. that's a big improvement from 41% that he had on november 3rd which is kind of low for a guy who wants four more years. >> in the same poll from "the washington post" asked about whether or not you are optimistic about the coming year for your family. only 14% of those responding, 14% said they are very optimistic. >> and i'd go out on a limb and say that the reason that his

approval ratings are going up is because of what's going on with congress right now. newt gingrich, i once said newt romney. newt gingrich and mitt romney in a dead heat. what do you make of this? newt was so far ahead in the last month or so and romney now for the first time breaking out of the 20's. so they are both at 30%. and then you have the very surging ron paul at 15%. everyone else is pretty much in the single digits. >> and in iowa specifically he's dropped a lot is newt gingrich. he's not leading in the latest poll. ron paul is according to the p.p.p. poll but overall, the one area that romney loses to newt, among conservatives. where newt loses to romney, people ask how do you feel about what newt has done after he left the role of speaker? they're not comfortable with what some say lobbying and he calls consulting. >> there are a number of top democrats who say it looks to us

as if mitt romney has a big target on his back regarding jobs because they've done some opposition research where they've looked into the number of people who have lost jobs and been cut when baine capital ran things and in fact, back -- some democrats did some research when mitt ran against ted kennedy, democrats ran some ads talking about how one paper company, he cut 385 jobs and some other places as well. they feel that if you make the argument, ok, mitt romney creates jobs, that would be the republican side, the democrats can say look at all these people who lost jobs and then they would trot out these people who lost jobs and say, i lost a job under mitt romney. >> i think that's one 30-second ad to be honest. let's talk about some extreme weather. >> yep, so many people will be traveling this week. extreme weather alert. new video, massive blizzard unleashing snow, ice and fierce winds across the great plains. this is usually a busy highway you're seeing right here. this is albuquerque, new mexico,

police shut down dozens of roads because of blowing snow and zero visible. fox news chief meteorologist rick reichmuth tracking this storm for us. he is live in diamond, oak. -- oklahoma. i can see it's snowing. you have the hat on. tell us about the conditions. >> it's really windy and cold. winds have been gusting to around 40 miles an hour for 16 hours now. you're getting the snow out here. this is a main artery here. it's main street but it's also one of their emergency routes so they've have to plow this. they plow out these central routes. yesterday, they had almost an inch of rain before the snow started and that rain has frozen on all the surfaces below and then you had the snow and probably have had about nine inches of snow right here but it's so windy that it's drifting a lot. now, it's right on route 54 or highway 54 and that's kind of a divider line of the main road from new mexico to kansas and that's kind of in the bull's eye of this storm and especially

just a little bit up towards the northwest. i think my mouth is freezing as it melts and freezes a little bit. i want to bring in ivan clark here. you're the public works director here. you guys have your hands full today to clear all this out. >> we have a mess on our hands. that's for sure. >> i know you guys get storms like this but a storm that stays this windy this long, does that make it more difficult? >> it's pretty wide open country in this area. we're accustomed to working with these kinds of conditions. the wind doesn't help matters much. i know the state department and the highway department has been out all night and we met with them last night at 6:00 and it's been an ongoing process. they brought other trucks from down state in here to help us, also. >> we've got some video out of texas from around amarillo that shows people trying to drive through there in almost white-out conditions. amarillo, not that far from here, all part of the same region on the panhandle. we're talking about an area that is right by kansas, right by texas, right by colorado, and

real close to new mexico so a lot of places, you all work together. do you coordinate your effort? >> yeah, the state department helps us a tremendous amount. the county -- our texas county commissioners help us here locally, too, and all the small towns to coordinate the effort between emergency management, fire department, police department, public works, everybody has to jump in together and we've had several meetings, watched the national weather service, they do a lot of conferences with us. so we -- we're prepared for it. we got my guys already out. the city street guys are already out. i got other department heads that are coming in to help bring in our heavy equipment. >> all right. thank you very much. roads are closed in or out of here so they got a tough day ahead of them. much more coming up all morning long. send it back to you. >> all right. get so some shelter, all right? thanks a lot. >> let's get to the rest of your headlines, the american general who oversaw the withdraw of tens of troops from iraq returns with

the military flag that flew over baghdad. president obama and vice president biden will be on hand for the ceremony at fort andrews in maryland. it will mark the formal end of the war. the body of kim jong il lying in a glass encased coffin in the capital. it will lie in state until a funeral next wednesday. the first person to pay respects, you see here that's kim's youngest son and successor, kim jong un. the 69-year-old ruler reportedly died from a massive heart attack on a train over the weekend. and those are your quick headlines. >> all right. 13 minutes after the hour. mitt romney interns the no spin zone and he survived. the topic -- president obama. >> is he a socialist? >> i consider him a big government liberal democrat. i think as you look at his policies, you conclude that he thinks europe got it right and we got it wrong. >> what else governor romney had to say. that's straight ahead. >> then, is occupying state buildings and taking over banks

the qualifications listed on your resume? if so, the services employee international union may have a job for you. stuart varney standing by to explain. come on in, u, you're next. the droid razr by motorola.

the newest droid armed with motocast. granting you wireless access to files on your home computer from almost anywhere. 4g lte equipped to pull pictures, music, and movies. all at mind-melting speeds. powered by verizon, this droid is too powerful to fall into the wrong hands.

shouldn't it be given in an amazing way? ♪ the lexus december to remember sales event is here, but only for a limited time. see your lexus dealer. >> hey, do you have bank takeovers and capital occupations listed in the skills section of your resume? >> not yet.

>> then the service employee international union has a job for you! >> stuart varney joins us live to explain. good morning to you, stu. >> it is a job posting from the sciu, come on in, we'll pay you to lead the occupy movement. we're going to have you teach people how to occupy banks, occupy state buildings, we're going to teach you how to organize demonstrations and we're going to have you lead them and we're going to pay you to do that. >> what do they do? teach you to take a bath in the sink, grow your hair out. >> that's funny. teach you how to occupy a bank. in other words, how to potentially illegally occupy private property and disrupt private business. paid for by union dues to the sciu, is that legit do you think? i'm not sure. >> stuart, as we look at some of these pictures of people who have been at the various occupy movements, if i'm out of work and i hear the sciu is paying, i think i might sign up! >> well, this is an attempt, i

think, to take over the occupy movement and redirect it and keep it directed towards the re-election of president obama. >> so you're suggesting it's no longer about economics. it's about politics. >> it always was. and this is not a movement now or it's not gonna be, a movement for bright young college students who are out to change the world have been redirected by this union. >> where are the union members who say i'm tired of wasting dollars that i need for my family, my house and my car for this movement that is embarrassing the nation? >> maybe they will stand up. i think the attorney general should investigate this. why is it that union dues are being used to promote and lead potentially illegal activity like occupying a bank. doesn't this remind you of acorn? isn't this exactly what acorn did, invade a bank and say we want loans for people in our community and if you don't give them to us, we'll call you a racist. that was the invasion of private property, subverting private

business and look at the results. this, i think, is very much the same. >> and, of course, acorn very famously involved in getting people registered to go out and vote. >> yes. >> if you promise to talk some more on "varney & company" on fox business network. >> you can't shut me up. >> thank you, stu. >> thank you. >> straight ahead, a firefighter engulfed in flames with nowhere left to turn jumps from a window to save his own life. >> oh, my goodness. >> all on video when we come back. >> and congressmen no longer allowed to say merry christmas? who's playing scrooge on capitol hill? that's coming up. [ male announcer ] it's simple physics...

a body at rest tends to stay at rest... while a body in motion tends to stay in motion. staying active can actually se arthritis symptoms. but if you have arthritis, staying active can be difficult. prescription celebrex can help relieve arthritis pain so your body can stay in motion. because just one 200mg celebrex a day can provide 24 hour relief for many with arthritis pain and inflammatio plus, in clinical studies, celebrex is proven to improve daily physical function so moving is easier. a celebrex is not a narcotic. when it comes to relieving your arthritis pain, you and your doctor need to balance the benefits with the risks. all prescription nsaids, like celebrex, ibuprofen, naen, and melocam have the same cardiovascar warning. they all may increase the chance of heart attack or stroke, which can lead to death. this chance increases if you have heart dease or risk factors such as high blo pressure or when nsaids are taken for long periods.

nsaids, including celebrex, increase the chance of serious skin or allergic reactions or stomach anintestine problems, such as bleeding and ulcers, which can occur without warning and may cause death. patients also taking aspirin and the elderly are at increased risk for stomach bleeding and ulcers. do not take celebrex if you'v had an asthma attack, hives, oother allergies to aspirin, nsaids or sulfonamides. get help right away if you have swelling of the face or throat, or trouble breathing. tell your doctor your medical history and find an arthritis treatment for you. visit celebrex.com and ask your doctor about celebrex. for a body in motion.

>> time for some quick headlines on this tuesday morning. bernie madoff's bookkeeper faces up to 50 years behind bars after pleading guilty to conspiracy. she admits faking company records but says she didn't know madoff was ripping off investors. ok. and at&t hanging up on its $30 billion bid to buy t-mobile. the merger would have made at&t the largest cell phone provider in the country but the government feared it would wreck competition. all right, gretch, over to you. >> that graphic made me laugh. i haven't seen it before. that's fantastic. the p.c. police not taking off for the holidays. the house of representatives being told they can't use the

phrase merry christmas in official mailings, only happy holidays. tim gilcamp joins me now. good morning, congressman. >> good morning and i'll say it, merry christmas. >> merry christmas to you as well. don't say that in an e-mail to any of your constituents. you get handcuffed if you do that? >> that's actually an ethics violation we've been told. i'm a freshman and i didn't know, i was told you can't say merry christmas. we made a mistake and said happy thanksgiving a couple of weeks ago. >> apparently all the freshmen and members of the house got a letter reminding of the rule that's been on the books for decades. here's a statement from the franking commission, whatever that is, currently incidental use of the phrase happy holidays is permissible but merry christmas is not. now, let me ask you this, congressman, it's also my understanding that you cannot say happy new year. who is not looking forward to 2012 or acknowledging that, in fact, we are entering a new year? >> well, i think a lot of americans are not looking

forward to another election year. i admit that. but this is p.c. police all over again and it also goes down to the fact that i would gather if you said merry christmas, that might be a little bit more offensesive to them than saying a happy thanksgiving but we got a capitol christmas tree. we have the pardoning of the thanksgiving turkey. we've got happy new year's coming up and the idea in washington, d.c. that somehow it's unethical to tweet out merry christmas, that's silly. and it contributes to the secularization of this holiday. >> no kidding. but it's my understanding that it's only members of the house so senators can go ahead and say merry christmas all day long? >> apparently they can. but if you do it together, i don't know what would be permitted -- this is the silliness of washington, d.c. we can't balance our budget. we have $15 trillion in debt but we get a memo worried about whether or not we say merry christmas or happy hanukkah and that's silly. >> because i guess according to the rules or the franking

commission that you would be using tax dollars to spread the message of religion which would be against the law and in the meantime, we're wasting billions on medicare fraud every single day. >> yeah. that is certainly silly and something that we're going to go ahead and say merry christmas and it's not going to bother us. >> real quickly before i let you go, you're one of the republicans in the house today, the payroll tax reduction, deduction, whatever you want to call it, is coming to you. what are you going to do? >> we're going to go for 12 months and we don't care about the senate grinches who decided to extend it for two months, 60 days and this is just a temporary program and we need to do it for the rest of the year and get it done with and get out of here. get out of town. >> all right. congressman tim huelskamp from christmas, merry christmas. we'll start the segment that way and end it that way. >> thank you. >> next on the rundown, mitt romney enters the no spin zone and the topic was president obama. >> is he a socialist? >> you know, i consider him a big government liberal democrat. i think as you look at his

policies, you conclude that he thinks europe got it right and we got it wrong. >> but that's not all governor romney had to say. stick around for more on that. then can you really catch a cold by going outside with wet hair? that's what grandma always told us, right? was she right? you're going to find out. first, happy birthday to kiss drummer peter chris. he turns 66 today. i karaoked this song over the weekend. watch out! people love the surf & turf. you can't go wrong. [ male announcer ] don't miss red lobster's surf & turf. 3 grilled combinations all under $20. like maine lobster with peppercorn sirloin, or new bacon-wrapped shrimp with blue cheese sirloin for $14.99. offer ends soon. i'm john mazany and i sea food differently.

i'm forty eight years-old, i love to swim, and i love to walk outside. osteo bi-fl has really helped my kne. osteo bi-flex has been incredible for me, and i swear by it. [ male announcer ] osteo bi-flex, the glucosamine chondroitin suppment with 5-loxin advanced. shows improvement

in joint comfort within 7 days. osteo bi-flex, my knees thank you. [ male announcer ] osteo bi-flex. the #1 doctor and pharmacist recommended brand. this was the gulf's best ttourism season in years.ist all because so many people wanted to visit us... in louisiana. they came to see us in florida... nice try, they came to hang out with us in alabama... once folks heard mississippi had the welcome gn out, they couldn't wait to get here. this year wagreat but next year's a be even better. and anyone who knows the gulf knows that winter is primetime fun time. the sun's out and you can go deep sea fishing for amberjack, grouper and mackerel. our golf courses are open. our bed and breakfast have special rates. and migrating waterfowl from all over make this a bird watcher's paradise. so if you missed it earlier this year, come on down. if you've already been here come on back... to mississippi.. florida... louisiana... alabama. the gulf's america's get-a-way spot no matter where you go.

so come on down and help make 2012 an even better year for tourism on the gulf. brought to you by bp and all of us who call the gulf home. auto >> in a recent national poll, newt gingrich and mitt

romney are in a dead heat. mitt has the top 10 things he wants to get off his chest. number 10 -- >> isn't it time for a president who looks like a 1970's game show host? >> number 9. >> what's up gangstas? it's the miw-fizzle. i have no proof but i have a feeling that canada is planning something. >> number 7. >> actually i'm only here to meet tom cruise. >> number 6. >> live from new york it's saturday night. >> number 5. >> my new cologne is available at macy's. it's mitt-fied. i used all my campaign money to buy a zoo with matt damon. >> number three. >> i can do a lot but even i can't fix the indianapolis colts. >> number 2. >> newt gingrich, really? >> and the number one thing mitt romney would like to say to the american people. >> it's a hairpiece. >> there you go. >> talking about his hair or letterman's? >> his. >> i was starting to wonder.

i know mitt romney doesn't have a hairpiece. >> mitt romney showed that he could take a joke. obviously, david letterman's 75 writers did a very nice job not only setting him up but taking some shots at newt as well. >> he did take a shot at newt which is the headline in that all whole thing. you have to wonder if they send the top 10 to the campaign, i'm sure they do, and the campaign goes through them and says we won't say this, we will say this, we will say this. >> true. i'm sure they do. especially that campaign, i know they like to be hands on. i will say this. think about how different things are in a matter of a few weeks. for a while, mitt romney didn't want to do anything and now his game plan that is playing out, i believe it's scripted through a sunday show. i'll do bill o'reilly, you know, he did with us over at the diner and then last night, he actually sat down with bill o'reilly. you know how he ended the day, with david letterman. one of the subjects he came up with bill o'reilly is the

president a socialist? and the question is, does mitt romney with all his criticism label the president that way? listen. >> is he a socialist? >> you know, i prefer to use the term that he's just over his head. i consider him a big government liberal democrat. i think as you look at his policies, he conclusion that europe got it right and we got it wrong. i think europe got it wrong. i think europe is not working in europe. i'll battle him on that day in and day out. i'll not be calling him names so much as calling him a failure. >> mitt romney obviously has a media campaign where he's out there because he was aside from being in iowa and new hampshire a lot, he's on more television screens. >> it seems to be working. >> it absolutely does. as newt was going up, mitt really, you didn't see much about him. as newt has gone down and moderated you're seeing more of mitt and you have to wonder whether or not it's going to help. >> i hope he doesn't become too

scripted because sometimes i think some of the campaign discussions behind the scenes get in the way of the candidate and we could argue that -- >> with all the candidates. but one of the reasons that the american public likes a lot of the other candidates and still do is because they're not scripted. that is one of the biggest failures, i think, that a campaign can do is oh, we should do it this way because this is the way that iowa has always been or we should do it this way because this is the way that iowa has always won. not necessarily. >> you look at ron paul who went on the jay leno show on friday. >> unscripted. >> he said some stuff and got himself in hot water. >> as did herman cain and newt gingrich when he said, immigration, they should be able to say if they're here illegally. i will say this, think about the different tone he had with bill o'reilly. i don't care what the answers were, what the questions were as opposed to bret baier and bret baier, he was quick to answer and seems almost offended by the question. here, he got some tough

questions but he was very controlled, very relaxed in his response. >> uh-huh. >> i think he did himself some good with the bill o'reilly program last night. e-mail us. brian kilmeade, let's kick off the headlines for this tuesday. >> there's still no sign of the missing 1-year-old girl who vanished from her bed in maine. now the little girl's mom is demanding to know what happened. >> i just want answers. i want to know where my daughter is and who she may be with. bring her home. >> turned up nothing so far. the f.b.i. is involved. the little girl was last seen at her dad's house on friday the day before her mom filed for full custody of their daughter. >> after spending 25 years behind bars for a crime he did not commit, michael morten is back home. >> courtroom in austin, texas

erupted in applause when they released morten. he was convicted of murdering his wife christine in their bedroom. now blood evidence found in the bedroom matches a convicted felon who was their neighbor. wow! that man, mark allen norwood is now under arrest. can that guy get his life back? the other one? i don't know. firefighter trapped. his body engulfed in flames makes a desperate dive from a second story window to save his own life. the incredible scene captured on a bystander's cell phone camera. watch this. that is new york city firefighter robert weidman hanging from a second story window. wow, his partners rushed to extend the rescue ladder but he was a few seconds too late. the intense heat and pain forced him to jump. he landed on the edge of that ladder where another firefighter put on the flames. a mask protected his face. he's in serious condition but reportedly awake and talking. >> oh, my goodness. meanwhile, fans at candlestick park should have brought some candlesticks. look at this. a transformer exploded outside

of the stadium last night causing the entire building to go pitch-black. that delayed the starts of the steelers-49ers football game by 20 minutes and during the game, the lights went out again. power was restored and the game was played. and let's find out who won from mr. brian kilmeade. >> yes, it turns out it's just a transformer. everybody was panicking thinking, here we go with an earthquake again. this has happened there during the world series. once the lights were turned back on for good, there was a football game that had to be played and two great teams did it. ben roethlisberger playing with a really hurt leg. b badly sprained ankle to be specific and it showed. couldn't set his feet. this pass was picked off by rogers in the end zone. this is a great defense that the 49ers put together almost overnight. fourth quarter, niners in control. they would put it away. blasting in. 49ers win in shocking form. 20-3. basketball now after the clippers traded for chris paul, they openly announced it would be lob city, turns out they were

right. tp-3 as he's called facing kobe and the lakers in preseason action. who knew he could touch the rim there, deandre jordan for the monster slam. later, chaunsy billups all my himself off the glass. it was a total dunk fest. clippers fighting for los angeles supremacy 114-95. tim tebow and the broncos may have lost against the patriots but they were winners in this way. huge ratings. the clash between tebow and brady, tom that is, ranked in a 19.5 rating. in the middle of the day. making it the most watched nfl game so far this season and highest rated regular season game for cbs in four years. that made up for an otherwise down nfl week. the pats win 41-23. coming up on "kilmeade & friends" from 9:00 until noon, we'll have -- you're going to be joining us, right? >> yeah. >> we'll have regis philbin in the second hour. jennifer griffin, gordon chang, andrea tantaros, reince priebus

and with regis, we'll talk about north korea. i'm going to talk about regis' career to change things up a little bit. >> all right. i guess all those critics who don't like tim tebow watched him play football anyway. >> they do. they can't stop. >> how hypocritical. let the mudslinging begin -- >> paid gingrich at least $1.6 million. >> some of it just before the housing market collapsed. >> the think tank -- >> obviously a negative ad. are those negative ads turning people off or do they actually work? that's up next. >> then your mom probably said this all the time. you'll get sick if you go outside with wet hair. was mom right? brian is going to douse his head in liquid and go outside and then take a medical quiz. >> really? i just thought i was answering questions. i guess i'll do what you said. >> what really happens? find out after the break.

everyone believes in keeping their omises once a year. but we believe in helping people take steps to keep them every single day. that's why every day we help people across the country get into their first homes. prepare for a comfortable retirement and protect the people and things that matter most. at genworth we believe every day is the right day to take a step toward tomorrow.

>> couple of quick headlines now, down in the control room. if you want your cards and packages to make it to your family in time for christmas, here's the schedule for you. first class mail must go out today. priority mail by tomorrow. and express mail no later than thursday. and secretary of state hillary clinton is being pushed to run against president obama? a group called run hillary 2012 making robocalls asking people to sign a petition urging her to run. maybe it will be more quiet up in the studio. lot of people talking down here. >> you can handle it. your concentration is above the rest. remember when your mom told you not to go outside with your wet head or you'll get the flu? it's one of the many old wives' tales, not calling your mom an old wife but about cold and flu season. are they indeed true? dr. david sumadi is a member of

our medical a team and the chief of division of robotics at mount sinai and here to separate fact from fiction with a quiz for me. welcome. let's turn the tables, baby. >> there you go. this is end of the year, so now i'm going to ask all the questions. first question for you, there's a big prize at the end of the game. here we go. if you go out with a wet hair, do you have high risk of getting flu or not? >> i would say yes. >> that's incorrect. >> that's incorrect? the buzzer to prove it. that's fiction? >> that's absolutely a fiction because a lot of times, look, they said don't take a shower in the morning because you're going to go out and catch the flu. it's not true. you may get cold. you may be cold but you're not going to get the flu. >> you know what i heard? i heard the pores open up and it allows other stuff to get in like the cold and amoebas. that's not true. second question. >> flu shots cannot cause the flu. >> i believe they can cause the flu. here's why because you're shooting flu into you. logic says you're setting the trap! >> that's a fact.

look, a lot of times flu shots, you know, they're a weakened version of the flu so a lot of times they may not cause the full blown flu symptoms. and they only work about 50% to 70% of the time so they're not effective. so you can get -- end up getting the flu so you're not 100% immune. but the kind of symptoms you will get from this flu are basically some sore in the area or maybe some -- >> not necessarily you get the flu but you get the flu symptoms. >> absolutely. get your flu shot. >> third question. >> how about taking vitamins and herbs, do you think they're effective? >> i think in prevention, yes! >> there's no good evidence to show that any of these -- you're not doing so well over here. >> listen to me, pardon me, don't let the buzzer overwhelm you. i'm going to tell you about your study. i never get the flu and i take vitamins. study done. >> what do you take? vitamin c. >> is it too personal? i'm not going to open up on the air. i take a lot. >> a lot of people are taking echinecia, zinc and vitamin c. with zinc and echinecia, there's

no proof it can help you. if your vitamin c level is low, you want to replace it and bring it to the normal level. only thing that helps is to get a tamiflu and that can shorten the period of the flu. >> back to the big board! >> how about next questions, healthier adults or young ones need to get flu shots. are they immune from getting flu if they don't get the injections? auto i'd say no. >> ok. they need to get the flu shot. that's wrong. so you didn't get it right. that's a fact or you didn't get it right. it's a little confusing. even young ones have to get the flu shots. they recommend anyone over the age of 6 months should get the flu shot. remember a few years ago we were talking about h1n1 and the young ones were getting hospitalized because of this. you're at higher risk because you don't have any antibodies to fight this. you should get this. >> by the way, i didn't understand that question. let's go to the final question. >> getting rid of the flu means antibiotics. >> to get rid of the flu?

>> should you be taking antibiotics in order to prevent or help your flu? >> absolutely. the first thing you do, you go to the doctor, he gives or she gives you medicine. >> right. that's a major myth because a lot of these flus are viruses, ok? and antibiotics is not going to help because antibiotics only helps with bacterias. if you're sick for a couple of days, two or three days and you're not getting better, you want to go back and take the antibiotics. >> can i do this again on the last show? >> i was going to give you -- >> i am off the a team. >> totally. >> i got one right. >> you probably got one out of five. >> do you grade on a curve? >> you're doing better. it's been a fun year. i enjoyed doing these interviews and have fun with gretchen, steve and yourself. i wish everyone a happy and healthy new year. and it's been a -- yeah. >> there you gchlt>> a big -- >> gretchen stand up here, i have good news for you. you were on "house calls" correct? >> yes, we're doing "house calls" on sunday. >> every sunday at 10:30 and we -- jamie colby and eric and

shawn, it's been a lot of fun. we're getting a lot of fans that are actually coming in and asking good questions and it's been very helpful. >> all right. good luck today. i think i will, i guess. >> there you go. >> judging by all the myths and the facts. meanwhile, let the trash talking begin with just 12 days until the iowa caucus. will negative ads make a difference? we'll ask. the taliban, the guys we've been fighting against in afghanistan for 12 years are apparently not an enemy of the u.s. at least that's what the vice president says. is he right? we'll report, you decide. >> tomorrow night is the first night of hanukkah. and the white house already had its annual hanukkah reception. yep, first obama lit a menorah and then biden made a wish and blew it out. come on, somebody keep him away from -- hey guys, i know i told you that head & shoulders

is for more than dandruff. how it gives ma healthy scalp and great looking hair. but who used mine up? it was hines. seriously? you lying fool. [ male announcer ] head & shoulders: seven benefits, every bottle.

>> with the iowa caucuses only a couple of weeks away, the claws are coming out and both parties are hoping to gain some traction with negative ads. but does going negative really work? columnist and former executive director of go pac, rich kalin joins us from washington, d.c. good morning. >> good morning. how are you? >> i'm doing fine. we all say let's take the high road. we would prefer if they not throw the mud and do the negative ads but the dirty rotten truth is negative ads work. >> they do. people are hard wired to -- to like gossip, we deny it but we really like gossip. and negative ads are highly

distilled gossip and in the absence of any other information, people will believe what they see in those adds -- ads and we can see in the polling results, today's poll in "the washington post" shows that gingrich and romney are now tied after gingrich spiked earlier in the month. >> and one of the reasons that gingrich is now moderating is the fact that in iowa, ron paul is running a really tough ad against newt gingrich. here's a snippet, rich. >> everything that gingrich railed against when he was in the house, he went the other way when he got paid to go the other way. >> the essence of the washington insiders. >> it's about serial hypocrisy. >> one of the things about negative ads in iowa and you can tell us about this, is that you only wind up with one side in this particular case because newt is not running any ads there and so after a while, you just hear the one side and if they bought enough time, that's what you start to believe.

>> oh, without question and that's one of the issues. that's why you need to raise money. and newt, he only began to raise significant amounts of money after -- after herman cain actually got out. so he hadn't had the ability to respond, at least not yet but we've got, what is it, 12 days to go so he may be able to get back in the game here but once these things take hold, they're really hard to reverse. they're not impossible but they're hard to get back. and one of the things it's not necessarily somebody who is always going to vote for newt is not going to vote for ron paul. all ron paul needs or romney is for somebody who is going to vote for newt to not vote at all. >> that's a great point. meanwhile, the democrats already attacking mitt romney and in this ad, mitt vs. mitt. >> from the creator of i'm running for office for pete's sake, comes the story of two men trapped in one body. mitt vs. mitt. >> i will preserve and protect a woman's right to choose, the right next step is to see if roe

v. wade overturned. >> two mitts that say anything. >> we put together an exchange and the president is copying that idea. i'm glad to hear that. >> obamacare is bad news. >> see it all at mittvmitt.com. >> we'll see a lot of negative ads in the next year or so. as i understand it and your friend ed rollins told you this, you have to approach a campaign like a prize fight. >> you have to take a punch and throw a counterpunch or be a cpa. >> thank you very much. >> thanks, steve. >> all right, straight ahead, in the market for a car? better do your homework on the dealership because more than two dozen of them accused of sending money to terrorists! the details coming up in the next hour. and then remember when we weren't always so connected? more of the things our kids will never have to worry about

thanks to the info revolution. capital one's new cash rewards card

gives you a 50% annual bonus! so you earn 50% more cash. according to research, everybody likes more cash. well, almost everybody... ♪ would you like 50% more cash? no! but it's more money. [ male announcer ] the new capital one cash rewards card. the card for people who want 50% more cash. what's in your wallet? woah! [ giggles ] with thermacare heatwraps. thermacare works differently. it's the only wrap with patented heat cells that penetrate deep to relax, soothe, and unlock tight muscles for up to 16 hours of relief. that's 8 hours while you wear it, plus an additional 8 hours of relief after you take it off. can your patch, wrap, cream or rub say that? so if you've got pain... get up to 16 hours of pain relief with thermacare.

and video chat with up to 9 of your friends with the galaxy nexus by samsung, or get the samsung stratosphere, and for a limited time, get twice the data for the same low price. verizon.

>> good morning, everyone. it is tuesday, december 20th. i'm gretchen carlson. thanks so much for sharing part of your day with us. let's take a look at what mother nature is doing, delivering an early christmas gift that you may not want. a massive snow storm threatening thousands of people's holiday travel plans. our own rick reichmuth live in oklahoma for us tracking the storm. >> congress' done deal is now undone? and your paycheck hangs in the balance so who's the grinch? >> it's just a radical tea party republican who are holding up this tax cut. >> somewhere in there is the answer. but wait, that spin is missing

something like facts? >> oh, yeah. >> a lot more to this story. i'll explain and then help. >> meanwhile, the vice president says the taliban is not america's enemy and the white house standing by that statement so why are we fighting the taliban, then? "fox & friends" hour two for tuesday starts right now. >> you're watching "fox & friends" and all i can say is i give a big kiss and god bless to everyone out there. >> that's nice. >> who is giving us a kiss? >> who was that? >> peter chris. >> from kiss. >> the drummer, he's 66 today. >> ♪ rock 'n' roll all night ♪ and party every day all right, can you tell i'm looking forward to christmas vacation? >> or to party all night? yeah? >> every day is a party. >> all right. great to have you on this tuesday. we start with an extreme weather alert right now. new video out of garden city, kansas in western kansas where crews are desperately trying to salt down the streets and clear the snow as well, brian.

>> yep, a massive blizzard is expected to bring at least a foot of snow there by tonight, gretchen. >> fox news chief meteorologist rick reichmuth tracking the storm. i feel so bad for you right now. you're in gymon, oklahoma and i'm not going to ask you how the conditions are because we can see it's not good. >> it's pretty clear. we're here in gymon kind of centrally located. there's five states close here. it's kansas, oklahoma, texas, new mexico and colorado. and all of those getting pummelled by this storm. major freeways have been closed. interstate 40 has been closed. anywhere to the west of amarillo towards the texas line. i-25 that connects new mexico and colorado has been closed. parts of i-70 across kansas have been closed so people in this pre-holiday kind of trying to get out and maybe get home or get to their family or having a problem. i want to show if i can look down here at the ground, last night, before the rain kicked in here, they got about 3/4 of an inch of rain.

and the temperatures were into the mid 40's. a couple of days ago, they were at about 60. and then those temperatures dropped. and now we're into the mid 20's and the wind, it feels like around 0 right now. but because of that, there's a thick layer of ice underneath all of these roads and then you get the snow that's on top of it. this main road has been plowed. the side road hasn't been plowed and we've been hearing reports of up to around 15 inches of snow. here, we have about nine inches. it's hard to see it because it's been so windy, it's been blowing and drifting all over the place. so that's causing, you know, so many of the problems, it's hard to get a good read on exactly how much snow is on the ground. i'll give you one good piece of news. people here a little bit happy because the winter wheat crop has been planted and they've been in a drought here across this area for so long so they're happy to get this snow that will slowly melt into the ground and it's going to be real beneficial for them. it causes all kienldz of problems for people as well. guys? >> that is really good news that they've planted the winter

wheat. before you go, where is this monster storm heading? >> today is going to be a snowy day across parts of kansas and then moving up into parts of nebraska as well. it becomes a rain maker for the east. another rainstorm, not a snow storm for the east coast tomorrow because a really, really active pattern, another storm drops back into the rockies, they're going to see some more snow here on thursday. and then we're talking about maybe a rain and snow storm saturday and sunday across the northeast as some places in the northeast that are hoping for a white christmas, i think they're going to get it from a different storm. we have about three or four storms that will pummel through this country this week. >> uh-oh. >> that's good news, growing up in kansas, we hardly ever had a white christmas. this year, they're going to get one. thank you for joining us live from oklahoma. >> he will come back with windburn. that's my prediction and my forecast. >> it's freezing his snozz. >> now the american general who oversaw the withdrawal of tens of thousands of troops from iraq returns to the united states today. with him, the military flag that

flew over baghdad. president obama and vice president biden will be on hand for today's ceremony at joint base andrews in maryland. it will mark the formal end of the iraq war. two brothers from north carolina who pleaded guilty to being home grown terrorists could get up to 15 years behind bars at a sentencing today. prosecutors say dillon and zachariah boyd were part of a group run by their father that raised money, stockpiled weapons and trained for jihadist attacks against u.s. military targets along with other people they considered enemies of islam. mass at school in columbia, maryland, came as a surprise. he shocked his two children when he walked into church with his mom. he spent the last eight months in afghanistan and he mranld the whole thing with her. >> sheer happiness and relief that -- and joy. >> this is the best week of my life basically. getting my braces off tomorrow.

my dad's here. and this christmas is truly going to be one to remember. >> their family will spend christmas at home and they're going on a cruise to the bahamas. speaking of partying, all right. that's fantastic for that family. >> he's got to be like i just left the desert. now i'm going back to the beach? >> it's hot. where he came from, there's no drinks with little umbrellas in it. >> i'm pretty sure, steve. i'm pretty sure. let's talk about what's going to happen later on today on capitol hill. yesterday at this time we told you that yesterday was the house was scheduled to vote sometime probably last night to kill the senate bill that would extend the payroll tax. cut. well, now fast forward 24 hours and now, it looks like later on this morning, they're going to convene and what they're going to do is they're going to vote on a series of bills. they're going to have a resolution and at the end of the day, the resolutions will say we really prefer our bill to the senate bill so what they're going to do is they're going to

somehow going to appear to vote down the senate bill even though they won't vote down the senate bill. how they do that won't know until sunday. >> because you want to set up a conference. they want to go into a small room and negotiate and come out with a deal and their backs are against the wall. keep in mind, too, these accountants that have to put together our taxes and take money out of our account starting on january 1st, they can't do a 60 day deal so the senate version is not going to fly with the people left to execute the plan. >> let's break this down. the bill that passed in the senate extends the payroll tax cut for two more months in 2012. what the house republicans want is to extend that for one year because their argument is they want to give certainty to businesses and to employees that they know that they're going to have extra money in their wallet. but the question is, the senators have gone home, folks. the senators -- they're not coming back until january 23rdrd. so what kind of negative impact will this have on republicans as

far as the messaging from the democrats? we got a sneak peek from nancy pelosi yesterday and will this work? will the republicans once again be the party of no? >> the reason the republicans are not taking yes for an answer is because no is their answer. no to the payroll tax cut and that was driven again by the two party republicans who will be responsible for this tax increase if it happens which i hope it won't. it's just a radical tea party republicans who are holding up this tax cut for the american people and jeopardizing our economic growth. >> did they want to do something for 60 days to kick the can down the road or do what the president asked us to do. >> what bugs me about this is it's all about politics. this whole thing comes down to

politics. >> not really. >> yes it does on both sides. everybody wants to be re-elected. that's why -- what they should be focusing on is does this create jobs? and should we depleting the social security fund even more? nobody is attacking the real questions here and i have a sneaking suspicion that they are looking for a pay cut. the reason is they want to be re-elected in 2012. >> let them study and find out if it creates jobs. republicans don't think it creates jobs and put $1,000 more in people's pockets and they want to extend to for a year as opposed to two months i'm pretty sure even though their backs are back against the wall, you can't fault someone for peculiar behind a tax cut that lasts 12 months instead of two months. with we stop arguing about this and then we'll have this debate that doesn't work out and another one in february. >> who is going to pay for social security? the whole deficit cost that

we're going to have. we've talked about our national debt for the last year and now we're going to be giving money back to the american public that we actually need to -- we can't even fund social security moving forward. that's my point. >> they have to come up with a way to get $200 billion and they want to tax millionaires to do it. even the president withdrew that. >> you have to keep in mind what's going on in washington, d.c. since this tidal wave of new members were swept into office a year ago, they said look, you send me to d.c. it can and i will actually stand up against stuff that i don't think is in our nation's best interest. they don't feel that this particular extension that's going to cost $33 billion is a good idea. they want to get our entire financial house in order right now when the -- you know, and why not? why not just do it right now. why kick the can, as many people have said, down the road. when they have the opportunity to do something big? >> you don't read the daily beast and you don't read "newsweek"? we'll help you, there was an

interview with joe biden getting a lot of headlines and there's people like mitt romney outraged and maybe you, perhaps, when he was talking about our war in afghanistan and who is our enemy and who's not. biden says "the taliban per se is not our enemy. that's critical." >> really? >> not our enemy. you got to quickly get this information to the people -- the nato forces basically american forces who are being shot at and trying -- we are currently trying to take out the taliban because the vice president says we're not our enemy. >> why would he say that? >> he believes al-qaida is the one that went in. no doubt about it. jay carney backs that up. what the enemy turns out to be is the taliban will not hear of it. once the extreme sharia islamic law put into play and want the current government that we support and help finance out so therefore, they're trying to kill us. but we don't call them our enemy? that's easy for somebody in a nice air conditioned room to say. for those actually fighting a war trying to survive and those who have been killed or wounded, they have -- they probably have a different perspective.

>> somebody who took the flak was jay carney yesterday when asked about that and here he is defending the vice president. >> what the vice president was reflecting is that -- and this is related to the reconciliation process that i was just discussing is that the taliban per se while we are fighting them is not the elimination or the elimination of the taliban is not the issue here. the objectives that the president laid out when he laid out his afghanistan strategy made clear that the number one principle here is to disrupt this mantle and ultimately defeat al-qaida. >> the taliban and the taliban connected haqqani network are a big problem. they're shooting at our people. they seem to be our enemy. >> you have to wonder whether or not that was another biden gaffe. >> i think they believe it. >> that's why i'm asking the question and let the viewers respond and decide in their own minds. in the meantime, mitt romney

reacted this way. this statement is bizarre, factually wrong and an outrageous afront to our troops carrying out a fight in afghanistan. the taliban is clearly a bitter enemy of the united states. vice president biden's statements to the temporary calls into question the white house's leadership in afghanistan and it's typical of the obama administration foreign policy of appease many. both the president and vice president must immediately explain themselves. they didn't really. jay carney stood by the vice president's comments. >> they're in peace talks with taliban for the past 10 months and trying to get something together. when you have peace with the north vietnamese or whether it's with the north koreans or whether it's, you know, with japan after the war, that's called a peace agreement. that's the end, cessation of violence but the violence is still happening! how dare you declare them not our enemy. >> good point. what do you think? e-mail us. who's right? is it biden or romney? straight ahead on this tuesday, why is a terrorist network accused of spending money to buy used american cars?

hadn't heard about that? coming back, why you should be worried about that. >> and last weekend, you saw this chaos on the football field. unmanned electric cart plowing people over. today, you'll meet the hero that brought that all to a halt. [ male announcer ] it's simple physics... a body at rest tends to stay at rest... while a body in motion tends to stay in motion. staying active can actually se arthritis symptoms. but if you have arthritis, staying active can be difficult. prescription celebrex can help relieve arthritis pain so your body can stay in motion.

because just one 200mg celebrex a day can provide 24 hour relief for many with arthritis pain and inflammatio plus, in clinical studies, celebrex is proven to improve daily physical function so moving is easier. a celebrex is not a narcotic. when it comes to relieving your arthritis pain, you and your doctor need to balance the benefits with the risks. all prescription nsaids, like celebrex, ibuprofen, naen, and melocam have the same cardiovascar warning. they all may increase the chance of heart attack or stroke, which can lead to death. this chance increases if you have heart dease or risk factors such as high blo pressure or when nsaids are taken for long periods. nsaids, including celebrex, increase the chance of serious skin or allergic reactions or stomach anintestine problems, such as bleeding and ulcers, which can occur without warning and may cause death. patients also taking aspirin and the elderly are at increased risk for stomach bleeding and ulcers. do not take celebrex if you'v had an asthma attack, hives, oother allergies to aspirin, nsaids or sulfonamides. get help right away if you have swelling of the face or throat,

or trouble breathing. tell your doctor your medical history and find an arthritis treatment for you. visit celebrex.com and ask your doctor about celebrex. for a body in motion.

>> more than 2,000, more than two dozen used car dealerships in the u.s. raided after being accused of helping funnel money to the terrorist group hezbollah as part of an international money laundering scheme. a fox news middle east and terrorism analyst and author of "the confrontation" is here. first off, whalid, tell me how this works. >> this is almost a james bond jihad. you have a network of hezbollah controlled financial institutions sending millions of dollars to banks and networks in north america. they'll be in canada and the united states to purchase from those dozens of dealerships, used cars to be shipped to africa, west africa to four or five countries in west africa and the operation there would be -- send that money plus laundry money back into lebanon. we're talking about half a billion dollars back to hezbollah from the operation.

>> are these dealerships lebanese owned? >> they are many according to the reports of those dealerships are either owned or managed by lebanese. some of them, of course, we're going to see maybe connected directly to hezbollah. others are associated. this is associated. what's interesting, brian, here is we're not talking only about the usual, you know, part of hezbollah. we're talking about lebanese christians as well who in lebanon are allies to hezbollah. that's new. >> that is new. there's a 62 page complaint filed in court in manhattan. it's part of their overall plan when they fight iran and it seems inevitable at this point, hezbollah will be here attacking us domestically. they're trying to get the financing which is worse. >> absolutely. what's worst about it, we're talking about a huge network that is controlled out of

lebanon, out of tiny lebanon, a network which is threading within the united states dozens of people, that if we want to confront the iranians and what is more is the fact that this is connected to another network in western africa so we're talking about three continents where hezbollah can mobilize and in fight and at the end of the day, attack the united states. >> unbelievable. we reached out to dealerships and did not get a final response yet. they are huddling with their lawyers. the big picture, you do worry that we put so much emphasis on al-qaida, hezbollah has been allowed to flourish. >> that's the problem, brian, because over the past month, and i would say a couple, three years we have been the government -- the administration has been saying this is a war against al-qaida. the taliban are not our enemy. that's a new thing that happened yesterday. but we are not focusing on the network of the jihadists including hezbollah, that's a

systemic problem. >> real quick, 15 seconds, are the taliban our enemy? >> taliban are actually the real enemy because they are the ones to occupy afghanistan and pakistan, not the few hundred of al-qaida. they are the strategic enemy. >> ok. i think you differ with the vice president. you are the middle eastern terrorist expert. thanks so much and good luck with the confrontation. >> thank you. >> that's your new book. eric holder thinks race might be the reason he's being attacked. is that a fair argument? former congressman j.c. watt says he faced similar criticism. his thoughts when we come back. plus, it's every parent's dream. no more crying! how this cat found a way to put babies to sleep. nice!

forty years ago, he wasn't worried about retirement. he'd yet to hear of mutual funds, iras, or annuities. back then, he had something more important to do. he wasn't focused on his future but fortunately, somebody else was. at usaa we provide retirement solutions for our military, veterans and their families. from investments... to life insurance... to health care options. learn more with our free usaa retirement guide. call 877-242-usaa. but to be honest, i find the omega choices overwhelming. which one is right for me? then i found new pronutrients omega-3.

it's from centrum, a name i trust. it goes beyond my heart to support my brain and eyes too. and these ultra-concentrated minigels are much smaller than many others. it's part of a whole new line of supplements. there's probiotic and fruit & veggie too. new pronutrients from centrum helps make nutrition possible. is all the wrapping a gift needs. wait a minute...i... [ laughs ] [ male announcer ] the lexus december to remember sales event is here, but only for a limited time. see your lexus dealer.

>> how about some news by the numbers. first up, that's how much money the average american household will have spent on gas this year. that number is the highest in 30 years. next $4 million, that's the total cost of president obama's and his family's 17 day vacation to hawaii. and finally, $130,000. that's reportedly how much suri cruise's christmas list could cost santa. sources say the 5-year-old wants pony, diamond earrings and multiple designer gowns. >> i don't believe that for a second. anyway, in an op ed in "the new york times," eric holder says his critics are gunning for his job partially because of his race. he says "this is a way to get at

the president because of the way i can be identified with him both due to the nature of our relationship and, you know, the fact that we're both african-american. "joining me now to weigh in is former oklahoma republican congressman j.c. watts and says he faced similar criticism. good morning to you, congressman. >> good morning, how are you? >> i love how you said hello to my in the break, j.c. and g.c., hello. >> that's right. >> he's playing the race card, is he right in doing that? >> i don't think there's any political figure in the country that thinks that criticism is fair. i mean, we all have been under the gun like that and, you know, we've all questioned it. i myself, i've been criticized by, you know, members on the left or, you know, elected officials on the left that, you know, i've often questioned their motives but you can't change what you can't see. i can't see their hearts. i don't know what their motives are so you have to look at what

it is that they're being critical of or what somebody is being critical of. in this case, i think it's fair criticism when you look at fast & furious. that's what chairman issa, that's what he's focused on. when you look at guns being -- ending up in the hands of drug lords and criminals south of the border, i think that's a fair criticism when you consider that, you know, the attorney general has been criticized because we filed a lawsuit or the justice department filed a lawsuit against arizona which is an american state but then we say we -- we should sit down and talk to -- to iran. so i think those are fair criticisms. >> right. so you as the first black republican voted into office in the south in over 120 years, you may know something about this topic, and i guess what some people do when they see a quote like that, congressman, is that they wonder, is that the easy out for him to use that?

what do you think? >> well, gretchen, i honestly think that both sides, republicans and democrats jump to race and i think it cheapens and it weakens the legitimate claims of racism and i think that the fact -- and i think racism is obviously alive and well. but i think it cheapens it when we so quickly and such cavalier ways often jump to that. i'm not saying that the attorney general is being cavalier. i can't see his heart as well and he probably honestly feels like that but be that as it may, i would caution both sides and i would caution all of us to be very careful in jumping to those conclusions because we often delegitmai delegitmaize or weaken real points of racism. >> i want to move on to another

reason you're joining us this morning, you're about to endorse a g.o.p. candidate for president. who is j.c. watts going to endorse today? >> i'm still trying to figure -- no. no, i'm going to throw whatever influence, however big, however small, i'm going to throw it behind newt gingrich. newt is a friend. he has been a friend. and he asked me and, you know, gretchen, when you consider where we are today and you think about the good, old days of balanced budgets and entitlement reform and paying down our national debt, getting tax relief as a republican majority, newt gingrich was the speaker. we haven't seen things like that in the last 13 years. i'm not looking for a candidate that's perfect. that's not flawed. all of them are flawed and those that's not -- to think they're not flawed, that's their flaw! i'm looking for somebody -- >> i like that. >> that can -- that will be

willing to do the heavy lifting to get us to where we all want to be as a nation. and i think newt fits this profile and today, i'm formally announcing my support for newt gingrich. >> thank you for doing it on "fox & friends." i know you're going to be campaigning for him in d.c. the next couple of days but then on the 30th, folks, j.c. watts is going to be watching his son as a running back at the university of tulsa in a big football game. good luck to you. merry christmas. >> bring on the -- gretchen, bring on the turkey and dressing and the bowl games! >> i'm looking forward to it myself. great to see you, congressman. >> thanks for having me on. >> all right. well, do you remember this? cameras catch an unmanned cart plowing through people on the football field? that is until the coach stepped in to save the day. you're going to meet him next. and it's being called a snub to our nation's bravest soldiers. some lawmakers say spending cuts should include spending on memorials to u.s. veterans. huh? okay, team! after age 40, we can start losing muscle --

8% every 10 years. wow. wow. but you can help fight muscle loss with exercise and ensure muscle health. i've got revigor. what's revigor? it's the amino acid metabolite, hmb to help rebuild muscle and strength naturally lost over time. [ female announcer ] ensure muscle health has revigor and protein to help protect, preserve, and promote muscle health. keeps you from getting soft.

[ major nutrition ] ensure. nutrition in charge! okay... uhh. the bad news, it's probably totaled. the good news is, you don't have to pay your deducble. with vanishing deductible from nationwide insurance, you got $100 off for every year of safe driving, so now your deductible is zero. the other good news ? i held on to your coffee. wow. ♪ nationwide is on your side ( laughing ) it's actually a pretty good day whenou consider. that's great.

>> tim tebow, tim tebow and the broncos lost this weekend to tom brady and the patriots. i got to wonder, got to wonder who the lord favors more. he gave tim tebow six wins in a row but then again he gave tom brady giselle, you know. you got to say -- >> he's got a good point. >> what did you think of the snl skit of tim tebow? over the line? >> it was significant. >> i thought it was over the line. >> it was a slam. >> let's talk a little bit about this and that's "forbes" magazine has come out with a list of 10 things our children going forward won't have to worry about thanks to the

technology revolution. for instance, number 10 -- don't have to worry about not living without the internet because now everybody is instantly connected wirelessly. >> thanks to wi-fi. sending letters, they're probably going to be immune from doing that after a while. i don't think they're going to be sending it. >> all e-mail. >> can i raise my hand? that bugs me. that one bugs me. i think it's important to teach your kids to write thank you notes the old fashioned way. let's take off number nine. number 8, having to search for content. they won't have to do that anymore. >> no more encyclopedia britannica collections on your shelf. >> like the dewy decimal system at the library. >> you can buy music digitally and store it on your computer and with the cloud, share it with all your devices. >> it's sad that the kids don't listen to a whole song anymore. they get a quarter way -- or a whole album. it's just one song at a time. how about renting a movie from a

store? yeah, blockbuster went belly up, remember that? how about having to develop pictures. no such thing as film anymore. some people do. most don't. >> using a pay phone or racking up a big long distance bill. that is absolutely true. you no longer need change or a credit card number. >> thanks to the internet, you don't have to buy the expensive set of encyclopedias which sadly has to put a lot of door to door encyclopedia salesmen out of work. >> you don't have to write checks. you can do it all on line. >> he refuses to do it on line. old-fashioned guy. taking a typing class. this one i also disagree with. you need to know how to type to be on a computer. come on! that is like the most important thing. i never took typing in school. did you guys? >> yeah. >> no, i didn't. i took speed reading instead and but -- i had a choice in my school evidently, we're cutting back! but my son says that they all take competency tests when they

get into high school and 99% of them pass it because they start typing so early on these keyboards. >> absolutely. typing and texting, they can do it with their thumb by age 3 so by the time they're in high school, all my kids took typing in high school. they can type faster than i can. >> all right. what's on your list? let us know some things that you used to have in your life that your kids will never experience. >> my children will never know the joy of using a rotary telephone. remember? >> it was so joyful. it was fantastic. >> those were the days. >> it was therapeutic. >> or getting a busy signal, right? >> yeah, i guess, yeah. once and a while, we do and they think it's crazy. >> in the meantime, e-mail us, friends at foxnews.com. in the meantime, headlines for you. there's no sign of missing 1-year-old ayla reynolds who vanished from her bed in maine. now the little girl's mom is demanding to know what happened to her. >> i just want to know where my daughter is. and who she may be with. just bring her home! >> dogs have turned up nothing

so far and now the f.b.i. is involved. little girl was last seen at her father's house on friday, the day before her mom filed for full custody of their daughter. >> after spending 25 years behind bars for a crime he didn't commit, michael morten is back home. the courtroom in austin, texas, erupted in applause when the judge released morten. he was convicted of murdering his wife christine in their bedroom but now blood evidence found in that bedroom matches a convicted felon who was their neighbor. that man, mark allen norwood is now under arrest. wow, i hope that guy can get his life back. >> no one thought about that guy? >> yeah. >> next door neighbor. imagine that. >> so conspicuous. veterans in massachusetts are getting angry with their state over how it's spending money. lawmakers are setting cash aside to fix two different memorials to the vietnam war but when it comes to memorials honoring

others like the korean war, those vets say the state won't give them a dime! >> well, it's more than insulting. it's recognition of, you know, the old adage that we have that korea was a forgotten war. >> lawmakers blame inflation and necessary spending cuts for putting certain projects aside. they've promised to put some money back into the korean war memorial. that will be next year. >> how do you stop a baby from crying? right. here's the three things. you feed them. you change their diaper. and sing a lullaby? nope. watch stuey the cat. >> well, aaron grant caught it on camera. dewy patiently pawed the baby's forehead until the baby fell asleep. video is already going viral.

it has more than 160,000 hits on you tube. >> doesn't that cat have claw? >> right. declaw your cat if you're watching at home with a child. >> look at that. >> i don't know if that's such a good idea. >> the cat is declawed. i love that. i love that. the baby just wants to be soothed a little bit and maybe it felt like that was the parent. >> look at tarzan. he turned out great and he was raised in the jungle surrounded by nothing but animals. it's not new to him. he came out with no shirt ever. monday night football was about two great teams playing each other. blackout happened moments before kickoff. it was a transformer that blew causing a 20 minute delay. the teams eventually started playing football again. in the second quarter it happened again. play was stopped for 15 minutes. when it all shaked out, the 49ers were the better team and this touchdown would give the 49ers a very impressive 20-3

win. they are going to be tough to beat in the post season. tim tebow and the broncos may have lost against the patriots but they were big winners in the land of ratings. the land we live. in the clash between tebow and tom brady raked in a 19.5 rating making it the most watched nfl game in the regular season this year. cbs' top game in the last four years. that made for the otherwise lopsided score. but it was close until the fourth. >> and a great game! >> yep. >> talk about a big break, a hollywood newcomer scores a role in a steven spielberg movie? it's his first role. >> won't be any good in the war either. >> sorry. >> after jeremy irvine talks about his role in the movie "warhorse." that's coming up. >> plus, no education experience? well, you can forget serving on the school board. that includes you, the stay-at-home mom. is that fair? that story is coming up next.

right now, the pfizer trivia question of the day. i take an omega for my heart. but to be honest, i find the omega choices overwhelming. which one is right for me? then i found new pronutrients omega-3. it's from centrum, a name i trust. it goes beyond my heart to support my brain and eyes too. and these ultra-concentrated minigels are much smaller than many others. it's part of a whole new line of supplements. there's probiotic and fruit & veggie too. new pronutrients from centrum helps make nutrition possible.

and video chat with up to 9 of your friends with the galaxy nexus by samsung, or get the samsung stratosphere, and for a limited time, get twice the data for the same low price. verizon.

have given way to sleeping. where sleepless nights yield to restful sleep. and lunesta can help you get there, like it has for so many people before. when taking lunesta, don't drive or operate machinery until you feel fully awake. walking, eating, driving, or engaging in other activities while asleep, without remembering it the next day, have been reported. abnormal behaviors may include aggressiveness, agitation, hallucinations or confusion. in depressed patients, worsening of depression, including risk of suicide, may occur. alcohol may increase these risks. allergic reactions, such as tongue or throat swelling, occur rarely and may be fatal. side effects may include unpleasant taste, headache, dizziness and morning drowsiness.

ask your doctor if lunesta is right for you. then get lunesta for $0 at lunesta.com. there's a land of restful sleep. we can help you go there on the wings of lunesta. > >> an out of control electric car speeds out of control through the stadium plowing through a group of people and hitting the game-winning coach and taking out a bunch of players in between. look at this, gretchen. you know how many hits this has gotten on you tube? 890,000 before this segment. it's going to get a lot more. >> even though he fell hard into the cart, he managed to stop this runaway cart. who am i talking about? the coach who joins us live from houston. good morning to you. good morning to you, too. >> so you were there at this game. you are the high school head coach. the game was over, right? and suddenly this cart comes out

of nowhere. was your back turned to it or did you see it coming? >> we never saw it coming. it hit us from behind. it was completely unexpected. >> so -- by the way, congratulations on the win. you get hit and you're sitting there talking and you get hit in the back so it just -- it scooped you up and left you in the passenger's seat. what were you thinking at that moment? >> i don't know -- i mean, i don't know if i thought of anything. i thought what am i doing here? i didn't know what happened and i found the steering wheel in my left hand and i started kind of steered off to the end zone out of the way of the people. >> so are you the one we see in the video actually in the cart and stopping it eventually? >> no. i'm the guy that rolled out of the cart. one of the field workers caught up to it and took the pylon off the accelerator and it brought it to a halt. >> did it hurt? if i got hit by a cart going 25

miles an hour, it would hurt. >> yeah, you know, it was stunning, i'll tell you that. i wasn't expecting it. it hurt a little bit. >> uh-huh. >> this is nothing that you can prepare yourself for because who would think that suddenly a golf cart starts going on its own. i know your wife was on the sidelines. what was she thinking? >> she was worried as you can well imagine. it was a lot of panic going on out there for a few seconds there, for sure. >> all right, we saw what happened. evidently the story goes right now unless you know something different. the pylons were leaning on the gas pedal. they were just tossed into the cart and that forced it forward, is that what you hear? >> well, one of the videos on you tube shows the car starting in the end zone and a man jumps out and he takes off when it finally comes to a stop, you'll see the pylons on the accelerator and that's what he was reaching to get off the accelerator to stop it. so i mean, i don't know if anybody knows exactly what happened. that's what it looked like. >> we're glad that everyone is ok. seven people were hurt but you

and the other six are going to be just fine. thanks so much for joining us. >> yeah, we're going to be fine. >> and sharing this experience as well. congratulations. >> on your state championship. congratulations, coach. it's a year you're never going to forget. i guarantee that. have a great christmas. steve? >> thank you, you too. >> thank you very much, gretch and brian. trouble with school. listen to this, a local tennessee union president says only people who have worked in the education field, only they should be able to serve on school boards. in particular at the state level but shouldn't the people paying for our schools have a say in how our kids are educated? joining us right now is the founder of the education group and author of "indoctrination" kyle olson. good morning to you. >> good morning. >> so this suggestion was made by sandy hughes out in tennessee. what do you think about that? should you have been in the education field to be on the school board? >> well, what's interesting about this is that the purpose of a school board is to have a

cross section of society operate the schools and so if a stay-at-home mom wants to run for the board, she should be able to do that. if a business owner has to make ends meet and has to balance the budget and wants to serve on the school board, he should be able to do that. but the arrogance that's coming through in this particular situation is that you've got a union president saying only people who apparently understand these issues should serve on the board and i just -- it's very arrogant but i think it's typical of the establishment today. >> here's a statement from the woman who came up with the suggestion, sandy hughes. the tennessee state school board is composed of businessmen and only one or two educators serve as voting members. education seems to be served with educators not involved in the profession. you look at the american bar association, all lawyers. you look at the american medical association, all doctors. school boards, she says, by

extension should be all people in the school business. >> well, then she should figure out a way to pay for it because the reality is everyone that pays a sales tax or property tax pays for our schools. and therefore, we should be -- we should be having a say in how those schools are run. >> sure, and one of the things about the teachers union, a little back story here, is during the campaign for somebody running for school board, they do oftentimes support a local member who they would like to see sit on the school board who eventually would decide how much their pay raises will be, right? >> that's exactly right. what happens is that the teachers union will identify candidates who are sympathetic to the union, they will endorse their campaign. they'll give them campaign contributions, they'll go out and go door to door for them and that sort of thing. and then love and behold, when contract negotiation comes, who are they negotiating with? the person that they just elected. >> interesting stuff. so they'd like to stack the board. >> that's exactly right.

>> all right. something to think about. going on out in tennessee. kyle olson, thank you very much for joining us today from grand rapids. have a great day, sir. >> thank you! thank you. you, too. >> all right. straight ahead, steven spielberg just gave this hollywood newcomer a gigantic break! >> won't be any good in the war neither. shies at every sound. >> that is warhorse star jeremy irvine. he's here in the studio and he's going to be on next. but first on this date back in 1988, the number one song was "every rose has its thorn." [ male announcer ] what can you do with plain white rice?

when you pour chunky beef with country vegetables soup over it... you can do dinner. four minutes, around four bucks. campbels chunky. it's amazing what soup can do. simple relief is here. introducing robitussin® nasal relief pills. the right relief for nasal congestion...in a pill. ♪ ne from robitussin®. relief made simple.

>> answer to the pfizer question of the day is david cook. congratulations. "warhor "warhorse" is the story of friendship and loyalty between a boy and his horse as world war i tears them apart and now it's coming to the big screen. >> i see. what's your name, lad? >> albert, sir. >> how old are you, albert? the truth. >> no, sir but i look 19 and i'm bigger than most 19-year-olds and i'm strong, sir, and i'm not afraid of anything. >> i doubt your qualifications. >> jeremy irvine plays albert in the film and he joins us now. so great to see you in person. >> thank you. >> talk about the emotion. you were about to cry in that. what just happened? >> that's a scene where my

character albert is this young, quite lonely 15-year-old boy from devin, his father buys this horse and this horse becomes his best friend and his brother, i think, and this is the scene where to save the family business his father sells the horse to the british calgary. >> oh, man. a lot of young men and women have dogs. you have horses. it's kind of like that. is it true that one of the horses used in the movie was in the movie "sea biscuit". >> yeah, i mean all these horses have much more experience than me anyway. yeah, a lot of them. but a lot -- >> really? >> they were great. >> i want horse meat. >> i like that. >> no, that's -- but yeah, they've done -- they've done so many movies. >> and you have done no movies. so you auditioned for steven spielberg who is putting this movie together and he picked you on the spot. that was it. what did you do in the audition?

>> i don't remember. i'm trying to work it out. i think, you know, it was -- at the time i wasn't getting call backs for commercials, why on earth would i get a movie? >> what did he ask you to do in the audition? >> i start off with go in and read a scene in front of a casting director and that gets shown to -- i now know it gets shown to steven spielberg that evening and filming with the horses and, you know, you got to do a few screen tests and things. >> when does it come out how much? if steven spielberg wants you, do you care how much you're getting paid? >> yeah. exactly. >> perfect. come on, every actor would kill for this role, you know. it's -- it's kind of -- i don't know, i mean, as soon as i wanted to be an actor, watching steven spielberg's movies, it kind of becomes your dream. >> it opens on christmas day. we'll all go and see it. it looks fantastic. in the movie, you look like you know what you're doing on top of a horse.

before you did that, have you ever been on a horse? >> i've never been on a horse. >> how are you now? >> i'd like to think now i can go know my way around. i know how to go forward anyway. >> front end of the horse. >> yes. >> can i give you quick advice? we're up against the break. get rid of your old friends and get the new celebrity friends. hang out with them. they're so much more fun. >> i'll let them know. >> break up with all the old guys. >> this seems to be working for you. you're in a bunch of other movies coming up as well. three more roles. continued success. >> thank you very much. >> congratulations. >> thank you very much. >> good job. >> thanks. >> straight ahead, strong accusations from the obama camp. >> you have to wonder whether some folks over there think somehow screwing up the economy that that will hurt the president. >> screwing it up on purpose? really? we're digging into the -- that topic this hour. next hour, i should say, with laura ingraham. >> plus a banner reminding everyone the reason for the season. under fire. what's wrong with that? the guy responsible for this sign defends his message.

forty years ago, he wasn't worried about retirement. he'd yet to hear of mutual funds, iras, or annuities.

back then, he had something more important to do. he wasn't focused on his future but fortunately, somebody else was. at usaa we provide retirement solutions for our military, veterans and their families. from investments... to life insurance... to health care options. learn more with our free usaa retirement guide. call 877-242-usaa. a body at rest tends to stay at rest... while a body in motion tends to stay in motion. staying active can actually se arthritis symptoms. but if you have arthritis, staying active can be difficult. prescription celebrex can help relieve arthritis pain so your body can stay in motion. because just one 200mg celebrex a day can provide 24 hour relief for many with arthritis pain and inflammatio plus, in clinical studies, celebrex is proven to improve daily physical function so moving is easier. a celebrex is not a narcotic. when it comes to relieving your arthritis pain,

you and your doctor need to balance the benefits with the risks. all prescription nsaids, like celebrex, ibuprofen, naen, and melocam have the same cardiovascar warning. they all may increase the chance of heart attack or stroke, which can lead to death. this chance increases if you have heart dease or risk factors such as high blo pressure or when nsaids are taken for long periods. nsaids, including celebrex, increase the chance of serious skin or allergic reactions or stomach anintestine problems, such as bleeding and ulcers, which can occur without warning and may cause death. patients also taking aspirin and the elderly are at increased risk for stomach bleeding and ulcers. do not take celebrex if you'v had an asthma attack, hives, oother allergies to aspirin, nsaids or sulfonamides. get help right away if you have swelling of the face or throat, or trouble breathing. tell your doctor your medical history and find an arthritis treatment for you. visit celebrex.com and ask your doctor about celebrex. for a body in motion.

>> gretchen: top of the morning to you. it's tuesday, december 20, i'm gretchen carlson. thanks for sharing part of your day with us. it could be a full on white out? a storm unleashing snow and fierce winds threatening thousands of people's holiday plans. rick reichmuth is live in the middle of it all coming up. >> steve: down in oklahoma. the president's campaign manager says the economy is not their fault. it's the republicans. are rips really out to sabotage the american economy? we're going to report and you will decide. >> brian: congressman no longer allowed to say merry christmas. who is playing scrooge on capitol hill, i ask? "fox & friends" starts right now >> you're watching "fox & friends," the number one morning cable news show in america.

>> steve: thank you very much, colonel david reporting for duty this morning, as we are. good morning. >> brian: good morning. we got an exciting hour to close up. first things first, this will be an exciting day, at least on capitol hill. so much for a done deal. house republicans expected to shoot down the payroll tax cut extensions that passed the democratically controlled senate overwhelmingly. >> steve: to explain what happens next and give it back story, wendell goler is on the north lawn of the white house. good morning to you. >> good morning, steve. both sides want to extend the payroll tax cut for a year, but they disagree on how to pay for it. the democrats, having had their millionaire's surtax shot down, say let's extend the tax cut for a couple months and spend that time reaching a compromise. but house republicans say we've spent enough time talking about pay forces. there is no need to continue this fight into february. let's deal with it now. you would never know that to hear them talk, however. each side suggesting the other doesn't care as much about

saving average middle class families about $1,000 next year. >> our members believe we passed a reasonable, responsibility bill that extends the payroll tax credit for a year. we'll take care of those doctors who treat medicare parents, reduction in their payments. solve their problem the next two years, and extend unemployment benefits for a year. exactly what the president asked us to do. >> certainly our expectation and we certainly had reason to believe that there was support in the house for a measure that would insure that americans didn't have their taxes go up in 12 days. >> house members plan to pass their own yearlong extension of the payroll tax cut today and set autopsy conference committee to try -- set up a conference committee. but the senate has gone home for christmas break and since senate democrats managed to get almost all the republicans to go along with their two-month extension, majority leader harry reid

doesn't see any reason to compromise with the house. he's threatening not to participate in the conference committee. once again, the end of the year drama we've come to expect from the congress. guys? >> steve: all right. thank you very much. >> brian: so that's what's going on there. i'm very curious to see if we look for seeing him in the conference room alone. the other big story, big weather. >> gretchen: extreme weather, that's why we have an alert across the great plains. let's go to oklahoma where as you can see, winds are hitting 30 miles per hour, tossing snow all over the place. nine inches in oklahoma have fallen already. and now let's take a look at garden city, kansas. crews are trying to salt down the streets and clear all of that snow away. a massive blizzard expected to bring at least a foot of snow there by tonight. would you believe this is usually busy snow this is albuquerque, folks. police shut down dozens of roads because of blowing snow and

limited visibility. rick rite matthew has told us this will be a rain event here. the american general who oversaw the withdrawal of troops from iraq returns to the u.s. today, carrying with him the military flag that flew over baghdad. president obama and joe biden will be on hand for the ceremony at joint base andrews in maryland. that will mark the formal end of the iraq war. the body of kim jung-il now lying in a glass encased coffin at a memorial palace in the capitol city. it will stay there for a week until a state funeral is held next wednesday. who was the first person to pay respects? that's kim's youngest son, and successor, kim jong-un. the 69-year-old ruler reportedly died from a massive heart attack on a train over the weekend. bizarre end to go a police chase when cops stopped this car. a man gets out and uses his four-year-old daughter as a human shield. the girl's mom was at work and reportedly in contact with

police while this whole nightmare played out. officers swarm his car and took the girl away from the girl safe and sound. those are your headlines this morning. it's time to bring in laura ingraham from washington, d.c. good morning to you. >> hey. don't you love how i'm camouflaged with the background? i meld right in. you can't see me at all. >> steve: we can see you, and we can hear you. >> brian: most important, we can hear you, laura. by the way, what are your sources telling you, are the republicans intentionally screwing up the economy, as david axelrod contends? >> axelrod is floating some lines of attack for the president next year and this is probably going to be one of them, right. it makes sense when you spent the first two years that you had with the democratic congress fully democratic, with a democrat president, you could have done anything on a menu of ideas to revive the economy, but you choose instead to do health care reform which most americans want repealed and stimulus that

wasn't shovel ready and now what do you do? you talk about how it's all the republicans' fault. they're going to try that. i don't think it's going to be successful. but look, they're going to do the best they can and they look at the ratings for congress and approval rating for congress, they're really bad. >> gretchen: and going down. let's listen to david axelrod saying what the gop is trying to do, in his words. >> you have to wonder whether some folks over there think somehow screwing up the economy is a good political strategy for them, that somehow they can slow the recovery down, if they can cause a half million or delay half million or million jobs, that that will hurt the president. >> gretchen: let me ask you this, laura, are the republicans and the house right now, by not vote not guilty this two-month extension of the payroll tax cut, are they playing into david axelrod's hand there, because then they'll be able to say that they truly are the party of no, whether or not it's true, are they playing into his hands and is that why we've seen the

president's approval ratings go up in the last week? >> yeah. look, the "washington post," abc poll is a bit of an outliar. they've always had a slightly higher rating for the president than some of the other polls like gallup and the "wall street journal." but nevertheless, you're right. this is a political move, i think, to characterize what the republicans are doing and they may be playing into his hands. but you have to ask the question, in a country where 50% of americans pay no taxes at all, was it really the right thing to do for the republicans to ever agree to this payroll tax, quote, holiday? this is our retirement. this is social security and we're all supposed to pay into this system. now we're vote to go make social security more insolvent. okay, that's a great idea. >> gretchen: that's not looking at the big picture. >> it's ridiculous. >> gretchen: it's all political games because they all want to be reelected in 2012. >> it should never have been done in the first place. i think that was playing into the democrats' hands when they agreed to do this last year. i think it was a huge mistake

until i loved the pipelines is in this deal and i know the president is hard and fast saying i'm not going to put the pipeline in it. well, it's in there. >> right. so axelrod says republicans are job killers, economy killers. well, obviously thousands of jobs in the heartland would be created by the keystone pipeline and yet, they're really internally opposed to that. i think his argument kind of collapses on itself. >> brian: he's against fossil fuel. >> steve: who isn't? >> cheap energy. >> steve: what about this, what about some are considering a cheap shot against christmas. we had earlier a congressman from kansas, he found that in initial correspondence, you can't say, merry christmas or happy thanksgiving or anything like that. what do you think about that? >> well, i have a question, can they send out condolence cards to people? we're sorry for the loss of your income. we're sorry for the loss of your home value. we're sorry for the losses in your 401(k). all right. they should be able to send

those cards out. but, look, here is the deal, congress, the fact that we're spending money sending out any cards, to me, seems ridiculous. we shouldn't be spending money on this stuff, number one. number two, if you're a congressman and you want to send out merry christmas greeting, i think it's great, but at this point, you shouldn't be doing it on the taxpayer's dime. >> gretchen: these are e-mails that are quite frankly free because the franking commission, whatever that is, this is what they said about not being able to send out merry christmas. currently the use happy holiday social security permissible but merry christmas is not. >> this is more pc nonsense. remember, the constituency outreach that is done on capitol hill for a variety of reasons includes all sorts of political gamesmanship all the time. so i think the whole franking privileges and all these things, to me, i don't think it's as big of a deal as some people are

making it. i think it's more congressional waste. they shouldn't be doing this! the country is going down the tubes if we don't do anything to turn it around and people are worried about the merry christmas franking commission? i think it's all silly. i don't think it means much. >> gretchen: the congressman disagrees with you. here he is. >> this is just the silliness of washington, d.c we can't balance our budget. we got $15 trillion in debt, but get a memo worried about whether we actually said merry what is or happy hanukkah and that's silly. >> yeah. we have a supreme court that makes really stupid decisions and the rulings coming down if federal court say that you do something like this and it's the establishment of religion and it's contrary to the first amendment. this is what happens when you have run away courts who have ridiculous rulings. >> steve: you sound like newt gingrich for a minute. >> i do, good. >> steve: always a pleasure, thank you very much. >> merry marks you guys. >> steve: don't send an e-mail like that. >> condolence card, for people's loss of income. >> steve: thanks. >> brian: straight ahead, a judge set him free early.

now a good cop is dead and he's a suspect. but our next guest says don't blame the judge who let him out. blame the system. >> steve: then mitt romney enters the no spin zone. the topic? president obama. >> is he a socialist? >> i consider him a big government liberal democrat. i think as you look at his policy, you conclude that he thinks europe got it right and we got it wrong. >> steve: and mitt had more. stick around. >> north korea announced the passing of their leader, whose younger son will take over. it could take over to one of his two sister, kourtney or khloe. but that did not happen. ♪

♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] some people just know how to build things well. give you and your loved ones an expertly engineered mercedes-benz... ho ho ho! ...at the winter event going on now. but hurry -- the offer ends january 3rd.

>> gretchen: welcome back. the sing am father of four girls and veteran police officer killed in the line of duty last week. the accused killer, a convicted felon facing drug charges who was set free. new york city mayor waste nothing time blaming the judge who released him. >> obviously the judge should have done more work. obviously everybody could have done more work to see what the warrants were in north carolina.

obviously it was not done. >> gretchen: but is the mayor too quick to point fingers against that judge? defense attorney and fox news contributor joins me now and he says yes. why? >> that's just so disingenuous what the mayor said. i would like to give two disclaimers. one, i'm a big fan of mayor bloomberg. number two, i donated to the police officers scholarship fund yesterday and the day of this funeral. this is a tragic new york story. with that being said, look, gretchen, what speaks volumes is that the police commissioner did not rag on the brooklyn judge. did not give her a hard time of the the nypd spokesman did not give the judge a hard time. the district attorney of brooklyn did not say she did anything wrong. they all supported her decision because those of us who work there every day and know the decisions that the judges need to make, and this particular decision, nobody thinks she made

the wrong decision. >> gretchen: so he comes before her. this is before he kills the cop. >> this is months before. >> gretchen: he comes before her. there is an arrest warrant out for him for shooting somebody in north carolina. >> which the judge on the night of the arraignment, the night of the arraignment, 'cause the mayor says she should have picked up the phone and called someone. who is she going to call at 9:30 at night in north carolina? where do you find a phone number? our system would come to a grinding halt. >> gretchen: we live if a 24/7 society. >> not in a small town in north carolina. she did 122 arraignments that night. 122 people went before her. she asked all the right questions and a new york city police officer stamped his paperwork, no hit. it means there is no active warrant for him. >> gretchen: is this a problem where people are doing their job, like they're sleeping, like here is 110, here is 111. why couldn't she have held him overnight? >> she made the appropriate decision under the circumstances. she's supposed to base her

decision on what is the strength of the evidence? there was a search warrant that was executed on someone else in someone else's apartment. he happened to be in a room when someone else was found with drugs in front of them. she asked the prosecutor, were there any drugs on him? no. does he have an active criminal record? no. the mayor says he did. he did not have an active criminal record. so she got somebody with no drug, no criminal record and the warrant is nonextraditable. >> gretchen: who is to blame now? this cop is dead. he leaves behind four beautiful girls and what you're telling me is that these people are lining up every -- >> you though is to blame? the defendant! the guy who pulled the trigger! why are we not blaming the guy who killed him? put number a closet, a closet. not the death penalty. that's too easy. we'll put him to sleep. put number a closet with a slit where he gets his food to keep him alive for the rest of his life. that's who to blame. >> gretchen: i agree with you, with you you know that's not going to happen because prisoners have more rights than

the rest of us. >> not prisoners that get convicted of first-degree murder of killing a police officer. >> gretchen: what does it say about our system? you're down there every day. what does it say about our system, that there is 122 people going before a judge every night and they're getting stamped, stamped, stamped? >> but they're not getting stamped, stamped, stamped. a lot of them are having bail set. guys charged with robbery, rape, murder, burglary, personal assaults. this is a guy who was in a room with a misdemeanor wage drugs. if we send everybody to jail, we'll have the same problem of overcrowding that california does. so when lindsay lohan gets sentenced to 30 days, she gets five hours. is that the kind of system we want? absolutely not. she was a former prosecutor. we are in her courthouse every day. she run has good, tight ship. she's no left wing. she's no defense friend. but she's fair and honest and

that day, that night of the facts she had before her, she made a very reasonable decision. >> gretchen: all right. you had both sides of the story now. we heard from mayor bloomberg and now a spirited arthur who will still be my friend after this segment. if you want to donate like arthur did, to that family who lost their father, you can go to nycpolicefound.org. you're looking here, this is the video of that funeral that took place yesterday in new york city. arthur, merry christmas. >> merry christmas. and everybody should donate to that fund if they can have left over. those poor young women, definitely deserve that much. >> gretchen: all right. coming up on our show, a 14-year-old with downs syndrome accused of sexual harassment for giving someone a hug. is that fair? we report. you decide. plus, a banner reminding everyone, 'tis the reason for the season and it's on private property even. but somebody complained, of course. some grinch. now it might have to come down

[ woman ] my boyfriend and i were going on vacation, so i used my citi thank you card to pick up some accessories. a new belt. some nylons. and what girl wouldn't need new shoes? we talked about getting a diamond. but with all the thank you points i've been earning... ♪ ...i flew us to the rock i really had in mind.

♪ [ male announcer ] the citi thank you card. earn points you can use for travel on any airline, with no blackout dates. the newest droid armed with motocast. granting you wireless access to files on your home computer from almost anywhere. 4g lte equipped to pull pictures, music, and movies. all at mind-melting speeds.

powered by verizon, this droid is too powerful to fall into the wrong hands.

>> brian: quick headlines. if you want your cards and pack annuals to make it to your family in time for marks here is the schedule. first class mail, must go out today. priority mail, by tomorrow. express mail, no later than thursday. secretary of state hillary clinton is being pushed to run against president obama. a group called run hillary 2012 now making robo calls asking people to sign a petition urging her to run. i'm going to run upstairs and watch steve do this interview. >> steve: okay. check this out, a simple banner right there, reminding everybody to remember the true meaning of christmas. that's under fire from atheists.

wisconsin-based freedom from religion foundation says that that banner we just showed you violates the constitution. but even though the banner hangs over the road, it may still techiccally be hanging on private property. so now what happens? we're joined here on the curvy couch by carl anderson, the ceo of the knights of columbus, the group that hung that banner. good morning to you. >> good morning. >> steve: first of all, you have had this program, the reason for the season, keep christ in christmas for 60 years, right? >> for more than half a century and the idea is it's a holiday that's not called shopping mass or gift mass or party mass. it's called christmas. so let's remember why we celebrate this. >> steve: so in pittman, new jersey, the banner is hanging between two buildings. they aren't public property. they're private property. they do, however, as you can see right there, hang over a public street. they want it down, the atheists

do. >> well, we've been doing this for many, many years. we've had psa radio announce ams. we usually put them in billboards. we have nativity scenes in city parks and things like that. i'm not sure it's really a question of where it's located as much as the message. >> steve: sure. the knights of columbus took a case all the way to the supreme court. >> it was our case in trumble, connecticut, that guaranteed that you can have nativity scenes in county parks and city parks. >> steve: thank you very much. here is what the organization from wisconsin says. they say the issue is that to us, it appears to be city property. it goes one of two ways. either it's city property or some level of government is endorsing that sign by allowing it to be stretched over a public street. that's what the freedom from religion foundation says. however, the mayor of that town says, as long as he can, he's going to keep it up. >> well, constitution guarantees freedom of religion. i think we're getting pretty

close to this ridiculous situation where it's like observing martin luther king day, but not wanting to talk about martin luther king. >> steve: right. >> the message here is to remember somebody who said blessed are the peace makers, love your neighbor, help people when they need help. that's what we're trying to get people to remember in the stress of all the commercialization. >> steve: and that's such a good point. there are so many holidays in the month of december. you get into trouble when you start to exclude people. let's include everybody. >> i think freedom isn't about being told stand in a corner and keep silent, but you're welcome to celebrate your faith, your traditions, as long as you leave room for your neighbor to do that and you respect him when he does. >> steve: carl anderson, ceo of the knights of columbus. >> nice to be with you. >> merry christmas. >> steve: and happy new year. >> same to you. >> steve: coming up, they run in when everybody else is running out, but this time it was a firefighter who needed the

saving. more of the dramatic video and the back story coming up. then hoping for a white christmas? rick reichmuth is tracking a blizzard. he's in oklahoma and he's coming up next [ sniffling ] [ male announcer ] all stuffed up? simple relief is here. introducing robitussin® nasal relief pills. the right relief for nasal congestion...in a pill. ♪ ne from robitussin®. relief made simple.

>> in a recent national poll, mitt romney and newt gingrich are in a dead heat for the republican nomination for president. top ten things mitt would like to get off his chest. number 10. >> it's that time for the president to look like a 1970s game show host. >> number 9. >> what's up gangstas? it's the mi double fizzing. >> um 8. >> i have no proof, but i have a feeling canada is planning something. >> number 7. >> actually i'm only here to meet tom cruise.

>> number 6. >> live from new york, it's saturday night. >> number 5. >> my new clone is now available at macy's. >> number 4. >> i just used all my campaign money to buy a zoo with matt damon. >> number 3. >> i can do a lot, but even i can't fix the indianapolis colts. >> number 2. >> newt gingrich? really? >> the number one thing mitt romney would like to say to the american people. >> it's a hair piece. >> there you go! >> steve: congratulations, mitt romney, he's got a sense of humor. >> brian: i thought it was good. we did cut out the last section. >> steve: it would have lasted four minutes. >> gretchen: we should explain writers come up with those joke, but you can be sure they were running them by the romney campaign. probably some of them on there that they wouldn't want to say, although they kept in the dig on newt gingrich. >> steve: mi doubletsle? >> brian: mitt right before doing the pretape for david

letterman, he sat down with bill o'reilly and he talked about a myriad of topics. he talked about his biggest mistake and said being against abortion and talked about the big difference between him and the others and backs up statement about niney and newt gingrich and brought up the economy and what kind of philosophy the president has. >> is he a socialist? >> you know, i prefer to use the term that he's just over his head. i consider him a big government liberal democrat. i think as you look at his policies, you conclude that he thinks europe got it right and we got it wrong. i think europe got it wrong. i think europe is not working in europe and i'll battle him on that day in and day out. but i probably am not going to be calling him names so much as calling him a failure. >> gretchen: there you have it. and mitt romney has been doing much more media since newt gingrich surged so far ahead of him in the polls. what's been happening is that while he's doing more media and more interviews, the attack ads are taking a toll on newt gingrich because now let's look

at the latest "washington post" abc poll that has romney and gingrich in a dead heat. i guess you could say somewhat negative news for newt gingrich. it's good news for mitt romney because for the first time i believe in any poll, he's out of the 20s and up to 30%. >> brian: it also shows it's good to be in second because newt gingrich in the top spot was not able to absorb the heat like herman cain was able to absorb the heat, as michelle bachmann was not able to absorb it. now he's getting beat up on by ron paul and mitt romney, if you combine them both, it's $10 million. so newt gingrich, who is still underfunded despite his status is putting out $200,000 worth of tv ads. >> gretchen: what else is miss something a lot of debates back to back? that l i believe, contributed to newt gingrich rising in the pollices substantially. there has been only two debates recently. now there is none up until the iowa caucus.

he's probably wishing there was another one. >> brian: now they got to do the free media, which we're not against. meanwhile, the other big story, weather. >> gretchen: new video right now from new mexico where an estimated 16 inches of snow has fallen. you can see the roads completely empty. whiteout conditions making it almost impossible for drivers to see. fox news chief meteorologist rick reichmuth has been tracking the storm and he's in oklahoma. >> the temperatures and the wind, wind chill feels like around 0 and the actual temperatures, only 22 degrees. so temperatures have really fallen and causing problems. they had a lot of rain before the snow yesterday and that rain kind of piled up across a lot of the area and froze very quickly as the temperatures dropped. then the snow came in on top of that. this right here is main street in guyman, oklahoma, route 54, highway 54, connects new mexico up with kansas. you can see the main fair has

been plowed, although it's extremely icy. the side roads, people are starting to drive on a little bit. but they've got kind of a big mess on their hands. very cold temperatures and i tell you what, you're showing that video out of new mexico, that's interstate 40. right along interstate 40, that's been closed. closed it because the hotels had become completely full and the roads, they had so many accidents, they didn't want people getting caught and thinking you could get shelter. roads closed all over the place. i'm joined by jerry tucker action a very kind man who we stumbled upon because he brought us coffee this morning. he saw us out here. thank you very much for that. >> you're welcome. >> this is a big storm for you guys. >> it is. like we was saying earlier, we don't get it very often, but it's bad right now, but it's a blessing 'cause we need the moisture so bad. >> you guys have been in a drought like you probably never seen in your lifetime. and you get this kind of moisture in, that's great. >> right now it's hard to put up

with. but it's good. >> if inn a few weeks, you'll be thankful it happened. >> oh, yeah. >> you said you had two foot snow drifts you had to dig out of this morning? >> yeah. and going down the side roads a few minutes earlier, it rained first, like you was saying, now that they're getting packed a little bit, it's slick. >> they are. people coming to work together, guys, so they haven't closed everything down, but it will be a slow go. guys. >> steve: i bet it's a snow day for the schools. >> brian: you know what that is? that's rick reichmuth saying that's why i'm late. >> steve: don't you have a question for rick? >> brian: i do. rick, what about the weather? is it coming to us, up north? >> yeah. i tell you what, this is going to be a really active week of weather. you're getting rain from this storm. rain tomorrow across the east coast, but there is another storm that's going to drop down into the rockies tonight and tomorrow and that's going to be a snow storm, possibly for the

northeast saturday and sunday. so maybe a white christmas in new england, in the nor east, maybe even i-59 corridor by saturday night. >> gretchen: no, no. no. let's abridge that forecast. >> steve: no snow on christmas? >> it's christmas. you want it. >> gretchen: no, no, no. all right. be safe. we'll see when you you get back here. >> brian: 23 minutes before the top of the hour. more headlines. >> gretchen: former oklahoma congressman j.c. watts announcing his endorsement of newt gingrich for president this morning on "fox & friends." >> newt is a friend. he has been a friend and he asked me and gretchen, when you consider where we are today and you think about the good old days of balanced budgets and entitlement reform and paying down our national debt, getting tax relief as a republican majority, newt gingrich was the speaker. we hadn't seen things like that in the last 13 years.

>> gretchen: well, watt says he's not looking for a candidate who is flawless, but someone who he thinks can fix the economy. brian? >> brian: four days have passed and still no sign of missing one-year-old ayla reynolds of maine. she vanished from her bedroom on friday after her dad put her to sleep. this morning her mom has issued a plea for any information. >> i just want answers. i just want to know where my daughter is and who she may be with. just bring her home. >> brian: so far, team of search dogs have not been able to find anything. police say f.b.i. agents will join them as they continue the search. >> steve: after spending 25 years behind bars for a crime he did not commit, michael morton is finally going home. [ applause ] that austin, texas courtroom erupted in applause as the judge set morton free. he was wrongfully convicted of murdering his wife, christine, back in 1986.

just recently, blood evidence found at the crime scene, the bedroom, matched up with a different convicted felon. their neighbor. that man, mark alan norwood, is now under arrest for her murder. >> gretchen: the firefighter trapped, his body engulf in flames makes a desperate dive from a second story window to save his life. it's captured on a bystander's cell phone. that is robert weedman. hanging from a second story window, his partners rush to extend the rescue ladder, but he was a few seconds too late. the intense heat and pain forced weedman to jump. he landed on the edge of that ladder where another firefighter put out the flames. he has burns to nearly half his body. but a mask protected his face. he's in serious condition, but reportedly awake and talking. amazing video. we're glad he got out. >> steve: straight ahead, the vice president says the taliban is not america's enemy and the

white house standing by joe's statement. so why are we fighting then? >> brian: there is only 100 al-qaeda left in the country. that's what they say. coming up, we'll ask rick santorum that. >> gretchen: a 14-year-old with downs syndrome suspended from school and accused of sexual harassment. for what? a hug? is that fair? we report, you decide [ knock on door ] coo you found it. wow. nice place. ye. [ chuckles ] the family thinks i'm out shipping these. smooth move. you used priority mail flat rate boxes. if it fits, it ships for a low, flat rate. paid for postagenline and arranged a free pickup. and i'm gonna track them online, too. nice. between those boxes and this place, i'm totally stayinsane this year. do i smell snickerdoodles? maybe. [ timer dings ]

got to go. priority mail fla rate shipping at usps.com. a simpler way to ship. let's do it, let's go to vegas. vegas baby! maybe we should head back to the dealership first? vegas! no, this is a test drive. vegas! [ male announcer ] it's practically yours. but we still need your signature. volkswagen sign then drive is back. and it's never been easier to get a jetta. that's the power of german engineering. get zero first month's payment, zero down, zero security deposit and zero due at signing on any new volkswagen. visit vwdealer.com. forty years ago, he wasn't worried about retirement. he'd yet to hear of mutual funds, iras, or annuities. back then, he had something more important to do. he wasn't focused on his future but fortunately, somebody else was. at usaa we provide retirement solutions for our military, veterans and their families. from investments... to life insurance... to health care options.

learn more with our free usaa retirement guide. call 877-242-usaa.

>> gretchen: 43 minutes after the top of the hour. quick headlines. brand-new numbers out right now and a mall piece of good news for the real estate market. apartment construction spurred a 9.3% rise for november. that's the highest level since april of 2010, but far below amount built each year in a healthy housing market.

fans of candle stick park really should have brought candles. a transformer exploded outside the stadium, causing the entire building to go pitch black. that delayed the start of the game by about 20 minutes. during the game, the lights went out again. 49ers went on to win. brian? >> brian: wow. a 14-year-old missouri boy with down's syndrome suspended from school for alleged sexual harassment of a school bus aide. what did he do? the boy's mom says he was hugging and it's something he does a lot. peter johnson, jr. joins us to explain the situation. >> good morning. >> brian: you actually called the mom yourself? >> yeah. and laurie winier, our producer, did as well. i spoke with her and talked about her son, alexander, 14. unfortunately, his down's syndrome and has the mental capacity of a five or six-year-old boy. he sleeps with his little

chihuahua dog every night and likes to do puzzles and draw and color. accused by this school district of allegedly sexually harassing the aide on the school bus where he goes to a main stream school. according to his mother and the aide, he was confused to where the school bus was stopping and they said they joked they were going to take him back to school and he was fearful, but he wound up hugging the person on the bus and now we wind up with a sexual harassment claim for which he's been suspended for five days. we called the school for comment. they've spoken to other outlets and to fox, but not to us, they weren't available. >> brian: here is what the school said. quote, from the superintendent, he grabbed her around her waist like a bear hug and then he gets on top of her and moves in a sexual motion, imitate ago sexual act. >> i don't give credit to it. i haven't seen the tape. but his mother hasn't seen the tape either.

they won't show her the tape. they said they're going to destroy it. this is a real problem in our society. >> brian: one thing that, allowed? if you're the mother, how can they destroy the tape? >> i find this to be absolutely incredible and disturbing and i want to help this family in any way i can. we cannot stigmatize and stereotype people with down's syndrome and you can not charge people with down's syndrome who have the mental capacity of a five or six-year-old. they need consciousness. they need choice and they need control. where is the criminal intent in this child? and i was reading a lot about down's syndrome last night 'cause it really bothered me. there is a guy named dennis mcguire who is a ph.d. in park ridge, illinois. he's an expert on down's syndrome. he said that if people with down's syndrome ruled the world, we'd have more affection, more caring and we'd have more hugging. people with down's syndrome love

to hug. >> brian: and they should take that into account. >> hopefully this school will lift this suspension, take the criminal yoke off this boy, let the boy go forward. this is an innocent mistake, i think. >> brian: peter, i'm sure you'll be back talking about this. >> if they go after him, i will. >> brian: they got to get him back in school. thanks. >> good to see you. >> brian: 13 minutes before the top of the hour. guess who we're closing the show with? rick santorum has been investigating extremists in the middle east for years. what does he think about the vp's claim that the taliban isn't the enemy? he's got high hopes in iowa and will join us next. just one phillips' colon health probiotic cap a day

helps defends against occasional constipation, diarrhea, gas and bloating. with the strains of good bacteria to help balance your colon. you had me at "probiotic." [ female announcer ] phillips' colon health.

>> steve: welcome back. 2012 presidential candidate and former senator of pennsylvania, rick santorum, has some reasons to smile this morning. two, to be exact.

>> gretchen: the presidential candidate about to get some big endorsements, but will it be enough to give him a jump in the polls? >> brian: senator rick santorum joins us now. senator, welcome. you feeling optimistic these days? >> good morning. >> brian: feeling optimistic? 12 days until iowa and looks like you're starting to make a move. >> i feel very good. we've got a lot of energy on the ground, bigger crowds. even in the supermarkets. people coming up in the aisle and saying, yeah, we've been hearing a lot more about you. people are just starting to focus their attention on how they're going to make the decision o vote in these caucuses. i believe if you invest in iowa, you put the time in, you can't buy iowa, you got to work iowa. by the end of this week, we'll have done 249 town hall meetings in the state of iowa and people are responding to it now and it's just a cumulative effect and good message and hopefully a good messenger. >> gretchen: it's interesting because i think you visited every county. am i correct?

>> yeah. most of them more than once. but yeah. we did all 99 counties. we locked that away a couple weeks ago. >> gretchen: who are the big endorse ams today? >> we had two endorsements yesterday. i know there is a big endorsement being announced in about an hour or so here in iowa. we're very hopeful that we get that endorsement. we had two endorsements yesterday that we're very, very -- were very, very important to us. we had a radio talk show host, sort of the rush limbaugh of northwest iowa, some clovis, who was just spent the entire show talking about how we're the best candidate and is going to be doing that. we have a pastor who stepped forward also yesterday to help us out who was for michelle bachmann in the straw poll and came over to us here in the caucus. so we're building up. we're building up momentum and we have the secretary of state, the only statewide elected official to endorse in this race who is matt schultz, who is in our corner, terry amon, another pastor. terry gordon, all of these folks

who have been scrubbing these candidates for months now have decided to come down on our side as the conservative alternative to mitt romney and newt gingrich. >> steve: that's great. there is a brand-new "washington post" poll out, i'd like your reaction to it. it shows that at the top of the heap you've got mitt and you've got newt and they've got, at this point, ten times more support amongst republican voters than you do. but you're going to keep on keeping on, right? >> those national polls don't mean anything. they're not -- people aren't paying that close of attention to what's going on here. the people in iowa are the ones paying attention. if you look at the polls here, we have had steady movement and we're now up into the double digits. we're within a dozen points of first place and those folks in first place are not going up. but we are. and we believe in these next two weeks, the solid message of having a consistent conservative who is from a swing state, who actually won a swing state, actually beat democratic

incumbent, run against the best, consultants and folks that the national democrats have. one of my races we took on james carvelle and was one of two republicans to defeat democratic incumbent. we've got the track record of winning elections and being a consistent conservative, standing up to the tough buffets that come when you're in washington, d.c. and getting good things done for americans. >> gretchen: it was interesting because rudy guiliani, the former mayor of new york, was on our couch last week and he said, wow. i don't know why rick santorum hasn't gained more steam in the polls because he likes what he's hearing coming out of your mouth. one of the things you want to happen today for the candidates vying for bob sander plat's endorsement, you, perry, gingrich and bachman, you're going to hear that in an hour. what would that endorsement mean to you? >> well, it would be a great boost for us because it's a pro-family organization here. again, they've been deliberating

on this for really months. whoever gets this endorsement, clearly is going to have an edge. we obviously hope it's us. they've been pretty tight mouthed about it. but we feel that we're the candidate on the move. they're looking for the conservative candidate who has got a chance to win and i think people here in iowa, the buzz is that this is our moment, this is our chance to rise in the polls and once we rise as we have very slowly, steadily, based upon people not getting buzzed by the media or by debate performances. there was a survey out from the university of minnesota the other day that showed we got half the am of time that mitt romney had. we're tied for last with herman cain and herman cain missed two of the ten debates they survey surveyed. >> brian: we still have some time, let me get a question to you. vice president biden's comment, quote, the taliban per say is not our enemy. that's critical. he went on to expand on that in the daily beast and news week. is the taliban our enemy?

>> of course they're our enemy. the push ashtuns are not, but not all are taliban. so hopefully joe's got it just wrong again and is mixing up who the taliban is as opposed to who the pashtuns are. we've had difficulty in trying to bring them into -- trying to work together in afghanistan. but please, mr. vice president, identify the enemy correctly. the taliban is our enemy. >> steve: all right. rick santorum joining us today from des moines, good luck with that potential endorsement later today. >> thanks so much, steve. appreciate it. >> brian: we'll be back in two minutes.

♪ [ woman ] ♪ what i want this season ♪ if you'd like to try and guess ♪ ♪ it is something very special ♪ i would readily confess [ dogs barking ] ♪ 'cause all i want this season ♪ ♪ is something from your heart ♪ la da da, la da da [ male announcer ] thinking of others this holiday season, travelers.

>> steve: earlier we told you about things the kids will never experience today because of technology. here are some of your ideas. our kids will never know about physical address books