i got a bigger one and the top dog is -- >> best in show at the 136th annual westminster kennel club, america's dog show, is -- the pekignese. >> and let the drinking begin. the celebration continuing to the wee hours of the morning. so what's the best in show winner going to do now? forget disney world. the very first stop, right here on the curvy couch. i guess i'll slide over. >> i guess i'll put papers down. >> fantastic. "fox & friends" starts right now. >> i assume those full breed dogs are all potty trained. i assume that they are but we're going to find out in a matter of moments. about 40 minutes from now when we meet the ottoman. that looks like an ottoman to me that dog, that fluffy thing.

>> he must have something special and great conditioner. want a single split end on that dog. >> i was watching "the five" they were doing the dog show for three hours and there was no mess. nobody was picking up and no one was doing it. >> one of the best assignments ever in my career, covering the dog show. it's amazing to go behind the scenes if you've ever seen that movie "best in show" it's a lot like that. very funny. >> let's take you behind the scenes, what's going on in washington, d.c. it sounds like there's a tentative deal on that payroll tax extension. keep in mind the president of the united states has said this is pretty much the number one thing he wants to get accomplished during this election year. extraordinarily, though, when you look at it, he's talking about something that will just affect a portion of the population by 2% for 10 months. all this is for 10 months. >> at a cost of $100 billion and what the republicans have said all along, you want to do this tax holiday. we have to find a way to offset

the cost. that money is not going to go into the rainy day fund. it will go into social security which everybody is saying is going bankrupt anyway. what they're doing now is essentially passing with very little in offsets and gretchen, there's some lawmakers that won't have it and a lot of -- this is going to pass the republican held house, they'll need a lot of democratic support. >> this is what americans should be upset about with regard to politicians, folks. this is pure political theater. no one on either side of the ee conveying, even independents do not want to be the ones that the president can point the finger at and say you raised taxes on middle class before the election. this is total politics and it's driving me crazy. how about you? these guys are upset, too. >> they're still talking about. it it's a little heated. i'm not against right now. >> what's your problem? >> i don't think we should be -- it's bad politics to start off with. four years of successive trillion dollar deficits. unprecedented. that's what we ought to be focusing on. >> i think we should be getting

it off the table. we got to move on to another issue and i think that's what the mood is. >> i'm concerned about raising the fees on the loan guarantees for the government sponsored enterprise, that's the thing i didn't like about the two month and as you well know, we're talking about $9,000 to $10,000 on the backs of our home owners and the other thing is we got to get serious about social security. i mean, we continue to run social security in the hole. we got to be honest with the american people and we got to be held accountable for some of the things that we're doing that can have long term ramifications. >> here's my question, does this create jobs? >> no. >> it doesn't and that's why this is political theater and this is a new normal, i believe. this is the new normal now. what politician is going to say, by the way, we're going to actually put that tax back into action? >> not during an election year. they broke it up and said wait a second, they said it was a shrewd move. speaker boehner has come forward and said if you want to do this, fine, do the payroll tax in one place but don't include the fix

with medicare payments and don't include the extension of unemployment benefits. let's take that one by one and now they think they have a deal when it comes to unemployment benefits as bad as it is to try to work, 99 weeks, too much? they're talking about a deal that will knock it down to nine weeks. >> meanwhile, "the wall street journal" on the op ed page what they think today, well, the republicans are caving. what they say is the republicans are getting smarter when it comes to taxes because what they're doing and to gretchen's point, they take a false attack off the table that republicans don't care about raising taxes on middle income taxpayers but they go on to say now the republicans can debate things like the doc fix and about unemployment which, you know, have the democrats defend paying somebody two years not to work. "the wall street journal" editorial page says this is a step in the right direction with this tentative agreement. >> it does take away obama being able to point the finger at republicans and saying they're against the middle class. >> right because the republicans

have to -- >> in an election year, i understand that part of the equation. but folks, we're broke. we are broke. and this money is what goes to fund social security which we already can't afford. >> of course, you're saying, gretchen, $40 could be coming our way. $40, here is -- that's what we're talking about when the payroll tax holiday, that's $40 extra basically per paycheck in your paycheck as opposed to going to social security and, for example, we might need that money because if you look at what gas prices are today, they are up 83% from when the president came into office so serbly stop paying social security to pay for the rising gas prices. >> why has nobody been talking about this? >> headline on drudge right now. >> gas prices have been incredibly high for the last couple of years and it seems like this is not front and center. i remember when president bush was president, gas prices -- people talked about it almost every single day. let's look at the difference right now. when president obama took office in 2009 of january, gas prices

were $1.79 a gallon. look what it is now. >> exactly right. it looks like there's a possibility, i heard on one of the tv channels a couple of days ago that -- >> you have a television at your house? >> the tv channels. by may, the price of a gallon of gas could be $4. why is that? could it be, remember that long moratorium on permitting out in the gulf? could it be this xl pipeline was put on hold or, you know, kicked to the curb. that would have sent a message to speculators, hey, more supply is coming so drive down the price. but it all adds to, nonetheless, you know, gas supplies, the administration said have never been higher and yet, neither have prices. >> we don't know exactly why the prices are high. >> we never know. >> we in every know my point this morning is why aren't we hearing more about it and why aren't the american people not demanding answers? why are the american people not -- maybe they are and nobody is covering it.

>> we have $40 extra now. >> do the math. $40 extra from bankrupting social security and i guaranteeing you're paying a lot more to fill up your car at $4 a gallon and nobody is talking about it? >> as the economy strengthens opec raises the price on us all the time. our economy is technically strengthening and the prices are going up. that's what he says, you just watch, he said it on our show almost every week. you just watch, when the economy starts healing, the prices are going to start going up against because consumption will go up again. >> prices will go up from $4? >> sure. they're supposed to go up by memorial day. sure. >> meanwhile, let's talk a little bit about this, i saw something also on one of the tv channels that the highest place in america. >> how many channels do you have? >> i have four! >> and animal planet, fox news, anything else? >> no. that's pretty much it. chicago pays the most for a gallon of gas in this country. interestingly enough, there is a political science guy, he's a professor at the university of

illinois. his name is dick simpson. he has done some calculating and he has figured that illinois is one of the most corrupt states in the united states. and that chicago is the most corrupt city in the united states of america. >> and they'd hand out prize money but they don't think it will go to the right people. they essentially believe the city -- the corruption has cost the city $500 million. that's essentially a corporate tax on everybody but who gets nothing for this? >> you know it's a problem when your governors most of them recently have gone to prison. >> that's the first clue that it might be corrupt. >> right. and when you -- so when you're talking about corruption, he says, you know, you're talking about bad behavior, police brutality, bogus contracts, bribes, theft and ghost payrolling as well. and so given the fact that chicago is the most corrupt city in america, and what you ask?

president calls out his hometown. >> there is some hope. hong kong and sydney were once very corrupt cities. they have changed their ways. so -- >> come on, chicago! you can pull it around and apparently this guy is going to make a presentation to city hall later today. of course, no corruption at city hall in chicago. >> not that i know of. >> the ball is yours and i guess blagojevich is heading to prison? >> maybe. >> there's blago. >> i told you he turned up at the massapequa community fund with steven baldwin. made sense. >> he still has a way about him as far as getting his name out there with public relations, right? >> he really does. >> and he has good hair. let's do your headlines -- >> those are the positives. >> israel vowing to settle the score with iran after a series of terror attacks overseas. latest, a botched bombing attempt that killed four people in bangkok. two iranian men are charged in that attack and a third on the run. israel convinced the suspects meant to use the bombs against

israeli diplomats like two car bombings one day before, one in india. the other targeting an israeli embassy car in georgia. georgia russia, i mean. the attacks believed to be retaliation. iran blamed israel for killing one of its top nuclear scientists last month using a bomb attached to his car. whitney houston's funeral will be invite only despite reports that her family was considering a massive public service. family and close friends will say their final good-byes saturday in the church that she first sang as a child. her eulogy will be given by the pastor who married she and bobby brown. the family does not want him to be there. he wants to be there for bobbi kristina. the family is warning him to stay away. a vote that could reverse the controversial contraception

mandate? the bill is sponsored by roy blunt of missouri lets any employer opt out of the mandate, not just churches and catholic institutions. reid blocked the vote last week before president obama announced some accommodations for religious groups. those changes have failed to silence an uproar among some catholics. call him the top dog. take a look at the prized pooch that took home last night's top honors at the westminster kennel club dog show. >> best in show at westminster kennel club dog hoe is pekingese. >> he will be joining us here on "fox & friends" 30 minutes from now and the voice of the westminster kennel club david fry will be here. we are their very first stop so you definitely don't want to miss it. i was watching with my daughter who is a huge dog fan and david

fry gave us a shoutout. the tour starts bright and early. we always go to "fox & friends" first. >> he has done that for 15 years so the dog, the big winner coming up shortly. >> 12 minutes after the hour. coming up, a warning for the ladies as you get ready for work this morning. there's a danger in your lipstick that you have to hear about. >> that's right. plus, part of president obama's re-election campaign is the economy is getting better. will voters really buy that line? dick morris takes a look at what history says about that and so much more. you're watching "fox & friends." it's a wet wednesday here in new york city. i habe a cohd. i toog nyguil bud i'm stild stubbed up. [ male announcer ] truth is, nyquil doesn't un-stuff your nose. really? [ male announcer ] alka-seltzer plus liquid gels fights your worst cold symptoms, plus it relieves your stuffy nose. [ deep breath ] thank you! that's the cold truth!

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and who ordered the yummy cereal? yummy. [ woman ] lower cholesterol. [ man 2 ] yummy. i got that wrong didn't i? [ male announcer ] want great taste and whole gin oats that can help lower cholesterol? honey nut cheerios. >> all right. president obama has been busy touting his success for improving the economy after unemployment dropped to 8.3% and

it seems americans might be listening. the new poll shows more americans than before think the economy is actually getting better. but our next guest says the white house is just touting phony numbers? here to explain this, former advisor to president clinton, fox news contributor dick morris. in what way shouldn't we believe these numbers? are there better numbers? >> i ran by the economist from the highlander fund who has been uncanny in predicting what's been going on. and he makes a whole lot of points. first, the unemployment number both the numerator and the denominator are basically phony. the numerator which is the total unemployed is computed in an entirely different way than it was before. to make it look lower. and there -- and they're just not comparable. the denominator excludes 1.2 million people who have dropped out of the work force who technically are not looking for work as they've given up. but he thinks about auto sales,

obama, that's dealer -- that's manufacturer to dealer. not dealer to consumer. so it's piling up inventory but actual sales to customers has not gone up. obama talks about how consumers are borrowing again and cites increase in consumer debt. there's no increase in consumer borrowing. what's happening is student loans are being included in the figure whereas they never used to be and the stock market, volume is down by 36% from last year. so you're talking about institutional traders, not real people making real money. >> now, you compared what's going on now with bush 41 against bill clinton who ended up being 42 and, you know, things are turning around for bush because people weren't buying into it yet. it was almost delayed reaction. look at the approval rating of president obama right now with these numbers coming in better as of late. he's got 50% approval rating, the highest it's been in a long time. >> i think that has a lot more to do with the republican field

killing each other than with any objective performance of his. i think that with the republicans going after each other as they are, i think it's driving up obama's approval. >> right. when we come back, true or false, you will talk about what you did last night. >> true. >> it's true! >> yesterday morning actually. i'm sorry to -- mornings are not as interesting but it was yesterday morning. >> yesterday morning, you went to -- i'm going to leave everybody on hold. and we'll take a little jog over to the couch. dick is sticking around and among the topics he'll be discussing what he did last night and rick santorum, what he's doing today. he is surging in mitt romney's native state of michigan. can santorum actually win there? and it's first stop since winning the westminster dog show last night, the top dog right here on "fox & friends" waddling to a screen near you. [ horn honks ]

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>> 23 minutes after the top of the hour. it's being called a house of lies. new reports show the rental home where josh powell killed himself and his two young sons was a front set up to fool social workers. police say powell did not actually live in the house full time but that he hung up family pictures to make it look like he lived there. he didn't. and a disturbing discovery. the f.d.a. is investigating after a fake version of the widely used cancer drug avastin was found in the united states. tests show the fake doses don't contain the active ingredient that people need. the writing on the boxes was in

french in addition to some versions in english. gretch, brian, dick? >> well, he was urged to drop out, remember that? but now former pennsylvania senator rick santorum surging after his trifecta win in colorado, minnesota and missouri. in the latest national polls, he's actually ahead now of mitt romney by three points. >> what do national polls mean? not as much as michigan polls. could this be a big upset come february 28th. back with us, dick morris. dick, how important are these national polls first off that shows santorum on top? >> well, i don't think the fight of santorum against romney is important yet. the fight that i'm focusing on is santorum against gingrich because if he can drive gingrich out of the race. and get romney one on one. >> which he really has in michigan, right? >> he has a serious chance of winning so i think that -- i believe that it's hard to look into newt's mind, but i think that he'll go through the debate on the 22nd of february.

and then he'll go through michigan and arizona. if the debate doesn't salvage him, i think he'll drop out between then and super tuesday to give santorum a clear shot. i think he'll figure out it's helping romney to stay in the race. important thing to me now, you know, my tennis metaphor, there's semifinals and then finals. santorum has to defeat gingrich in the semifinal and then go into the final round against romney. >> it seems like we keep talking about a different candidate who is the anti-romney candidate and it wouldn't surprise me at all if in another two to three weeks, we had another flip-flop. that maybe gingrich has a stellar -- just hypothetically he has a stellar debate performance. it seems that the voter is unsettled. >> he is hoping that's true and it may well be and there's a lot of lurching going on back and forth but i think eventually, i've always felt that this contest would resolve itself in a fight of the top against the bottom. the establishment of the republican party, the club for

growth, the economic conservatives vs. the evangelicals and the tea parties and i think that that fight of the top against the bottom, not left and right, up-down is probably where this is going and i think romney will probably win because the republican party is fundamentally conservative institution, not just ideologically but procedurally but it was legitimate. >> one thing you talk about, a win is a win. you look at what else it could mean. what would it mean for this overall election if mitt romney in michigan who is up 15 points now trailing loses his home state. >> that would be serious for him but more importantly it would be serious for him because it would animate santorum as opposed to gingrich. romney has a secret weapon. >> what's that? >> barack obama. the better obama does in the polls, the more likely obama is to win, the more people will be voting for romney. >> do you think santorum and

mitt will team up? >> that's possible. i think vice president is spoken for in marco rubio. >> you do? >> i think it's a consensus that whether you like romney or not, he probably is better able to attract independents and therefore, the better obama does in a sense, the better romney probably does. >> that's interesting because i think that a lot of people think they want to put up a candidate who is more different in their minds than obama so you could have the reverse argument there. there's so much to talk about with you and unfortunately, we're out of time. by the way, you left everyone on the hook. he was at the dog show. >> and? >> and watching the golden retrievers and it's president's day coming and dubs goes to washington is still on sale for your children. >> you're kidding. >> to explain what -- >> always comes back to dubs. >> with lincoln and jefferson and washington were really all about. >> exactly. dubs goes to washington. and dick morris came to our couch. it's a good day. thanks a lot, dick. 26 minutes after the hour. a warning for ladies getting

ready for work. 400 of the nation's most popular lipsticks laced with lead. we'll tell you which ones. until then, just use chap stick. >> i've overdosed because the amount of lipstick i've had for the last 20 years is a lot. then the dog is only 4 years old but he's already king of the canine. the winer from last night's westminster dog show headed into the studio for his first interview of the day. >> but first, happy birthday to janice dickinson. she's a supermodel and she is 57 today. [ toilet flushes ] i come in peace... i come in peace. but you go in pieces.

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>> ♪ isn't she lovely >> all right, your shot of the morning and it's very lovely indeed. you're looking at the newest member of the "fox & friends" family, dave briggs' wife brandy welcoming their new child logan briggs. she was born on valentine's day, weighed 6 pounds, 11 ounces. here she is with her big brother

and sister, william and emerson. dave calling her his little valentine. >> he'll call her that for the rest of her life. what a fantastic day to be born on. the day all about love. congratulations, dave and brandy. >> you're right, gretch, because my daughter mary, my wife went in on halloween, born on november 1st but nonetheless, she will always be our little pumpkin. >> i'll tell you one thing, looking at that picture and i don't want to criticize other parents but dave briggs thinks those two kids are old enough to babysit and i don't think they are and as you see right there, they're testing it out in the other shot. >> you know how much a sitter is in the new york city area. those kids look qualified. congratulations to the briggs family. that's a wonderful portrait. >> yep. all right. now to your headlines and a fox news alert for you. iranian president mahmoud ahmadinejad set to reveal what the country calls key achievements in its nuclear energy program. that's going to come today, folks. sources say he'll announce that the underground uranium

enrichment plant is fully operational and its nuclear fuel rods are in the final stage of production. iran is still denying accusations that it's seeking nuclear weapons and says the program is purely for peaceful purposes. >> seems peaceful. >> of course it is. >> meanwhile, you're about to hear an al-qaida terror suspect's 911 call that will be used against him at trial here in the new york city area. he is accused of planning a bomb attack in new york city subways back in 2010. he knew the cops were closing in on him so he made one last ditch effort at jihad calling 911 operators seconds before ramming his car into another on a bridge at 100 miles per hour. listen to this call.

>> hello? >> that guy goes on trial next month. >> i say guilty. a warning for women this morning. the f.d.a. has found trace levels of lead in 400 of the nation's most popular brands of lipstick. worst offenders, loreal, maybilline, and stargazer, two lipsticks that exceeded the f.d.a.'s lead standards, what is that one? the rich lipstick called volcanic. however, can i have the -- >> why are you reading this story? >> the f.d.a. insists there are no safety concerns. most of the people that said there are no safety concerns are men. >> i'm going to have my blood tested for lead any moment now. >> boy george just jumped in the shower. >> he was going to anyway. >> ok. more than a week after his arrest, police in texas are now releasing the dash cam video that captured country music star

randy travis being hauled off to jail. watch this. >> you're going to go to jail for public intoxication. >> are you kidding me? >> no, sir. not going to kid you. >> you're kidding me. >> nope. >> i'm being completely honest with you. >> police say the 52-year-old singer was parked in front of a church and slurring his words. officers found an open wine bottle inside his vehicle. police couldn't verify travis' identity at the time because he wasn't carrying i.d. travis has apologized for his actions. funny thing about that is he was here at "fox & friends" and a similar kind of thing may have happened. let's head to brian now with much more uplifting news. >> oh, yeah! stop me if you've heard this before but jeremy lin continues to shine. he single handedly rejuvenating the knicks season and nba season being named eastern conference player of the week and it looks

like more lin saturday, it's -- sanity, it's far from over. >> lin puts it up! and the knicks take the lead! >> incredible and they go on to win. just lin-credible. lin breaking the tie with less than seconds to play. rallying to beat the raptors 90-87. new york is winners of six straight. lin finishing with 27 points. his jersey has sold more than everybody else in the league. he's only been a pro starter for 10 days. one person not surprised his high school coach. i spoke to him yesterday and he said lin always finds a way to come through. >> you look at his career, it was always in the absolute biggest moments when he'd perform the best. and you look at his harvard career, whether it was at uconn, boston college beating michigan, you know, in high school in the state championship game, any chance he had where it was -- the brightest lights, he always

came through. >> and his high school coach will be on our couch over the weekend. next up for linvincible's knicks, they host the kings tonight at madison square garden. ironically, it was asian night in toronto. real quick, the detroit red wings securing their place in nhl history. they beat the stars 3-1 for the 21st straight win at home. it breaks the single season record the bruins set during the 1929-1930 season when "fox & friends" first started. flyers tied the mark in 1976 and the red wings played their next two at home so they can extend that streak. if you wondered what the longest winning streak in pro sports is, the bulls. 37 home, 1995-1996 season, michael jordan, i believe was in the starting line-up. gretch, steve? >> they were pretty good. >> all right. it was an exciting night as the westminster kennel club's american dog show awarded its top prize. best in show, of course. >> for seven wonderful and

worthy contenders tonight. i have but one ribbon. best in show at the 136th annual westminster kennel club, america's dog show is -- the pekingese. >> and the crowd went wild, taking home the prize, a 4-year-old pekingese by the name of malachy. david fry, kind of rhymes is the voice of westminster and with him is the winner of the best in show, malachy the pekingese. what is it about that dog that wowed the crowd? >> i think he's a wonderful specimen of his breed, of course. but he just sat there and exuded type the way the judge put it. he's everything that the peek should be. >> he wipes it up. >> he certainly wiped up the floor of competition, david fitzpatrick, right? >> he did last night. we were very lucky and i'm glad

he shined and the judge liked him so much. >> did you believe he ought to be champion in your arms when you walked into this contest? did you believe you had a champion? >> well, he already was a champion. i didn't know he would be a westminster champion but i was hoping. >> tell us a little bit about that dog at home. >> well, this dog at home, he gets a lot of freedom. he runs out in the yard, you know, you wouldn't think he was very active but he chases squirrels and, you know -- >> has he ever caught one? >> no. >> wait a minute, this -- >> caught baby rabbits. >> is this true that this is his 115th best in show title? 105, he's only 4? >> 115. >> yes. >> he's officially retired after this. >> yes, he certainly is. >> what will he -- >> he can chase squirms full time? >> i beg your pardon? >> he can chase squirrels and girls full time. >> david, ok, so malachy wound up winning but it looked to me from what i saw on television

that the doberman pinsher was giving him a run for the money. >> i'm sure, you know, we had seven great dogs standing in there together at the end of our dog show and the judge always likes to say when they said who was second, they say well, they all tied for second but certainly the doberman had a great night and the other dogs were out there, too, were no slouches. >> when you have your dog at home, do you keep it as beautifully brushed as it is right now? >> yes, as a matter of fact. >> part of the regimen. >> he gets brushed every day, you know, to keep him in condition for shows like westminster, you have to take care of him on a daily basis. >> does he get a haircut? >> no. this is actually natural the way the hair grows. >> it just stays like this. >> i did see him in line at super cuts a while ago. can we see the magical walk? >> sure. >> certainly. >> do you do a lot of vacuuming at your house? >> which way would you like him to walk? >> right towards the camera. that camera right towards you.

>> that's adorable. >> come on. >> what do you call that walk, david? >> it's a pekingese roll. >> a roll? >> on this floor, it's a little slick. >> it was a great week. a lot of people in the seats probably close to sellout the whole time. >> today is going to be your busiest day of the year, isn't it? >> we had a great time and a lot of great dogs there, a few upsets to see it exciting and we had a wedding yesterday in the grooming area on valentine's day. >> that is fantastic! >> and thanks for the shoutout last night. >> you're welcome! >> coming to "fox & friends" first. we appreciate it. >> we start our day off with you and we've got a long day going lots of places. >> and there's the squirrel, let's relive the moment to watch it. >> all right, david and david and malachy, we thank you all for joining us and it's off to the races. you're going to be on all the channels. thanks for starting with us. >> you bet. >> all right, thanks, champ. >> treasury secretary tim geithner praising the president's new budget as a gift to the economy but stuart varney says it's just a regift of something no one wanted the first time around.

>> then, in another exclusive on the man behind media matters, david brock. should he be allowed to use his tax exempt status to hire private investigators to take down fox news. that's coming up straight ahead. ♪[music pys] ♪[music plays] ♪[music plays] purina one beyond. food for your cat orog.

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his bag. it happened in fort lauderdale and there's a $100,000 reward for information leading -- i should say $1,000 reward leading to his arrest. especially if the money got right in front of you. >> a little difference between 1 in 100. >> well, republicans say that the president's spending plan will give america a larger european style government but treasury secretary tim geithner says making more cuts right now would hurt the economy. >> there's some have suggested that we should cut deeper and faster with more severe austerity now. that approach, though, would damage economic growth. it would reverse the gains we've achieved in getting more americans back to work. and healing the damage caused by the financial crisis and it would push more americans into poverty. >> stuart varney is here with his analysis. all right. let's dissect what the treasury secretary just said. when you hear that, what do you think? >> i think the exact opposite is true.

what triggers secretary geithner opens his mouth, out comes obama-nomics and he's saying the government spends more and you'll get more growth in the economy. ignore the debt build-up. treasury secretary geithner says you tax people more, you get more revenue and ignore the damage that does to the economy. i disagree with that entirely. i think he's -- what he's doing is he's convincing people or trying to convince voters that if we spend more money and create a european style social democracy, spend more, give more, more cradle to grave security, if we do that, the rich will pay for it. i think the exact opposite, the rich cannot pay for all of this and we must not ignore the build up in debt and we must not ignore the damage that tax increases do to the economy. >> but geithner has to say that the day after president obama releases a budget that talks mostly about increasing the debt

and increasing the spending, correct? >> treasury secretary geithner, his job is to articulate the president's world view on economics. and that's what he was doing in that soundbite. he is saying, if you -- basically saying, look, tax increases do not hurt the economy as much as spending cuts. he says tax cuts create more poverty. i think the exact opposite. >> let me ask you this -- once you start this kind of spending in handing out more kinds of entitlements. >> you can't stop it. >> you can't stop it. >> you cannot stop it. look what's happening in europe. they've hit the wall. they've got cradle to grave security. they can't afford it. they've got to pull back on these entitlements and you have riots in the streets. you have bankruptcy. we're heading in that same direction. what happens when we in america say sorry, you can't have all that medicare. you can't do this on social security. you can't have a free cell phone and can't have free birth control. you can't have everything for free. you have to start paying for some of it. when that happens, you got a

real problem. >> all right. hopefully we won't have a problem in watching your show today. it's at 9:20 a.m. eastern on the fox business channel. varney & company. see you soon. it doesn't take a genius to figure out that sand is a little dirty so why did the folks at the e.p.a. recruit 5,000 people to do just that? you have to hear this one. then another exclusive on the man behind media matters. how in the world is david brock using tax-free status to attack fox news? [ male announcer ] juice drink too watery?

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>> some congressional republicans now looking at media matters tax exempt status. that's right, they get it. more specifically why david brock's liberal web site is allowed to use your tax dollars to attack fox newschannel. and this is the same web site a daily caller investigation discovered had very close ties. cozy ties to the white house. it looks like coordination. senior on-line editor for "the daily caller" and joins us live. good morning to you. >> good morning. >> let's start with this extraordinarily even though it was revealed by your organization they have suggested in a memo to hire private investigators to dig into the, you know, into the personal lives of fox newschannel people and executives as well, they are tax exempt and now i understand some congressional republicans are saying, hey, we got to look at that. that's not right. >> the daily caller is reporting exclusively overnight that congressional republicans are interested in looking at media matters' 5013 c tax exempt

status. this is basically taking a government subsidy in order to attack a for profit company like fox news and newscorp so you have a company that's free of tax -- federal taxes, people can donate to and have a tax writeoff and is classified as an educational charity but any conventional standard, doesn't meet any of those metrics. as you noted, we reported there was a memo circulated in 2009 encouraging them to send private investigators after fox news staffers. not just anchors, we're talking producers at fox news. >> we saw another memo where there's an enemies list of people at the fox newschannel and other entities for newscorp and other organizations that they would target but if this is used as a political operation, you know, they coordinate with the u.s., that simply is illegal when you consider the 501c3 status. >> when we looked at it and we have up this morning on dailycaller.com the story

looking at the status specifically and in that story, we asked this question a lot and what's amazing to us is 501c3 status means you can go pretty far but what we were told by a tax expert that in the case of exclusive communications, if media matters is sharing information with the white house, and strategizing with them and this is not something that they're making publicly available, the information that they're sharing, their tax status can be at serious risk. >> absolutely. meanwhile, you talk a little bit about the donors there, a lot of people like george soros have donated a lot of money to this organization but as you revealed in your investigation, david brock highly erratic guy, he's got a mental health history as well. a personal assistant with a loaded glock, illegally standing right next to him. that's troubling. this cannot be what those big donors signed up for. >> no. and we found out as much. we know that -- that -- from the sources that we spoke to at media matters that this is

something that seems kind of odd. the idea that somebody like george soros who wants to control guns in this country who would be very against carrying a concealed weapon has given money, a million dollars to an organization that had an assistant carrying a loaded glock alongside his leader who has been described as very erratic, who has blown up at his colleagues in the democratic movement and has had very strange behaviors that have really royaled this organization. >> given all that, it's hard to take the guy seriously and you have to wonder whether or not the donors that have coughed up all this cash are thinking, wait a minute, that was a bad idea. all right. vince from the daily caller, thank you very much. you can read about it at dailycaller.com. thank you, sir. all right, brand new polls out show rick santorum is now the best person, they say, to beat president obama. we'll have breaking details. and a senate barber shop that ran 300,000 dollars in debt last year and guess what? who paid for those nice haircuts? you. me. your neighbor. ♪

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something that will bring us back. not only this company, but this country. ♪ >> good morning, everyone. it's wednesday, february 15th. hope you're going to have a great day. finally, washington working together? lawmakers ready to put more cash in your wallet but they're using europe money. isn't this country broke? why cut spending when you can add it to the debt of the everyday american? a live report from washington, we'll explain it all straight ahead. >> all right, the debt may be growing but voters giving the president credit for a better economy, i guess. a look at the new numbers. now it's changing the race for the white house. >> it doesn't take a genius to figure out that sand is dirty. >> yes. >> why did the people at the e.p.a. recruit 5,000 people to figure that out? we'll tell you about that and so much more. we got some special guests

coming up. you're watching "fox & friends" for a wet wednesday. live from new york city. > >> hey, this is kelly osborne and you're watching "fox & friends." >> i said we had some big guests. we are going to have mitt romney on the couch today. and for the first time ever, governor sarah palin will be on the curvy couch as well. so we got a big hour coming up. in the next hour. >> sarah palin says as much as she thinks mitt romney is a good candidate, she's not sold on his conservative principles yet. >> i wonder if they'll have a word in the hall. one right after another. >> i wonder if we can tape it. >> we are in the television business. we probably have some cameras around. we'll see how that pans out. >> they're mostly in repair. we're the television repair business. >> oh. >> that's so -- >> that would not be me. >> i miss the tubes! >> anyway, they are in our 8:00 eastern time hour. stay tuned for that. in the meantime, your headlines for a wednesday. israel vowing to settle the

score with iran after a series of terror attacks overseas. the latest botched bombing attempt that injured four people in bangkok. two iranian men are charged in the attack and a third on the run. israel convinced the suspects meant to use the bombs against israeli diplomats much like those two car bombings one day before, one in india. the other targeting an israeli embassy car in georgia. the attacks believed to be retaliation around iran blaming attacks last month. a cut out to syria where an oil pipeline was bombed setting off a massive fire. thick black smoke over a residential area in the city of homs. marine troops have been shelling the neighborhood for two weeks now. homs is home to one of the two refineries. it had been attacked before the 11 month uprising. whitney houston's family planning a private funeral now.

the invite only funeral will take place saturday in houston's native new jersey at the church where she first sang as a child. her eulogy will be given by the pastor who married houston and bobby brown. tmz reporting her family does not want brown at the funeral. he wants to be there to support daughter bobbi kristina but people connected to the houston family are reportedly warning him to stay away. like sands through the hourglass, those are the days of -- no, there go your tax dollars! the government is spending an undisclosed sum of money to fund an intensive study that reached this conclusion. you should wash your hands after playing in the sand. >> ok. >> that's because beach sand might contain harmful bacteria that could make you sick. researchers from the environmental protection agency interviewed 5,000 people and took 144 samples of sand to verify what most moms and dads already know. and those are your headlines. >> how much did that cost us? >> 5,000 people.

i don't remember the actual -- >> it's probably an embarrassing number. >> undisclosed according to the voices in my head. undisclosed amount of money. >> ok. meanwhile, lawmakers on both sides worked through the night trying to finalize a tentative plan to renew the payroll tax cut that runs through the end of this year. conveniently just right after the election. and they're expected to announce the tentative plans later today but there's one problem, they haven't figured out how to pay for it yet. >> peter doocy with the latest on this. peter? >> that's right. and the key right now is this is still a tentative deal according to the majority leader eric cantor's office and it's going to cost congress about $150 billion but it would save the average american worker 20 bucks a week by keeping the payroll tax cut at 4.2% for the rest of the year instead of letting it rise to 6.2% and now the lead g.o.p. negotiator is telling us is that both sides are just putting on the finishing touches. >> we're very close.

i don't have anything to announce right now but we've been working all weekend and the staff has been working all weekend and we're very close. we have a structure and framework but nothing i can announce right now. >> with this potential deal, unemployment benefits would be extended until the end of 2012 and so would medicare payment rates for doctors. and even though this bill has a big price tag, we're told it would not be paid for by new taxes of senior house leadership aide tells us all new spending here is fully offset by spending cuts and government reforms to things like unemployment benefits and a number of weeks a person can be on the jobless insurance program which appears to make it more attractive to members of both parties in the house and in the senate. it's pretty clear at least to me that the payroll tax is going to pass. the question is whether it will have unemployment connected with it in some fashion and some of the extenders we're concerned

about. >> again, stressed to both sides that nothing is final yet and president obama said yesterday, he can't take anything for granted here in washington until my signature is actually on it but we're actually just hearing in the last five minutes or so from a senior house source close to the talks that congressman max bakus, yeah, the senator from montana, democrat and congressman dave camp in the house are hoping to make an announcement on a potential deal later on this afternoon but they're rushing to get everything in order. >> all right, peter doocy with some breaking news. thank you very much. there are a number of freshmen republicans who are upset because it would add to the deficit. but there are also a number of very liberal senate democrats who are angry that they are going to reduce the number of weeks that unemployment insurance would run from 93 to 63. and so you could actually have some democrats voting against this as well in the senate. >> i've heard 75 and i've also

heard 59 so they're going back on those weeks. senators like john thune comes out and says i can't believe what the republican house is doing, i can't believe they're looking into this, going ahead with the payroll tax cut without any offsets. meanwhile, what's the good economic news if you believe these numbers mean for president obama's fortunes? it means a lot. it means he's up around 50% approval according to "the new york times" poll. >> to most pundits is the break even way of looking at it. once you get to 50%, you're in pretty good shape when you're looking at re-election. more americans see the economy improving than they did last month. so they approve -- >> of the way he's handling. >> the same. 43% better. 34% worse. 22% and people who don't know anything about the economy as far as its growth, 1%. but the overall feeling you get from this poll is that in the last month, i believe that president obama has gone up six points in approval as to how

he's handling the economy. and i guess, guys, that kind of makes sense because some of the numbers we've been reporting, unemployment has gone down. more jobs have been created. now you can argue about how those numbers some people say are fabricated but the bottom line is he's up at the 50% mark. >> you know one thing that's not calculated into this is the catholic vote and the recent polls show the catholics are about 60% are against them especially after what happened last week. >> right, the contraceptive mandate. what's interesting with this particular cbs news/"new york times" poll and we didn't include this, 60%. just about 59% say the country is still on the wrong track. we had a report last night on "special report" with doug mcelway and he said people are paying attention to the economy because people want to know -- people get elected for the presidency based on the economy and the price of gas and right now, the price of gas and we reported this in the last hour, the price of gas has gone up, what, 83% since the president of

the united states took office. that's not good for him. >> it's not. not many people are talking about that. i mean, you would think -- you would think that people seeing gas prices would not approve of the economy. i mean, it's gone up $2 a gallon in just three years? i mean, that's big news to me at least. dick morris has a theory about why the president may actually be seeing this bump in performance and it doesn't have to do with the president. here's dick. >> i think that has a lot more to do with the republican field killing each other than with any performance of his. i think that the republicans going after each other as they are, i think it's driving up obama's approval. >> wow, that's absolutely right. and talk about republicans beating up republicans, rick santorum and mitt romney are going at it pretty strong. rick santorum has to feel pretty good today because as he goes -- as they put all four candidates against president obama, guess who does the best but still trailing because president obama on a bit of a roll.

rick santorum. he is five points from barack obama. just behind mitt romney who has always had the electability in his column. now all of a sudden for a brief time anyway, does not. he trails obama by eight points head to head. ron paul does better than newt gingrich. that's significant, too. >> one thing that's important, i think, by going head to head is the strategic decisions moving forward for both of these camps, santorum and mitt romney. will mitt romney attack rick santorum in the way that he did newt gingrich and many people believe debate performances and the attacks help him win florida. will he go after rick santorum in the same way? rick santorum has been on the record as of last night saying he's going to do all positive advertisement in michigan and in arizona which are the next two contests. >> right, right. and mitt romney himself has got an ad that shows him driving through the streets of detroit behind the wheel of a stationwagon. it's very positive. however, there is a pro romney group that is spending a lot of

money in michigan. they have an attack ad. they're attacking not santorum but attacking newt gingrich. >> that makes sense who isn't even trying in michigan. in 50 minutes we'll talk to mitt romney about that. in the meantime, rick santorum and mitt romney claiming they are qualified to win the job. >> you look at the other candidates in the race, they are not well positioned. to take on president obama on this issue. one in particular is uniquely disqualified. we won't mention his name. but don't go to massachusetts and try to get any health care is what i'm having to say. >> the other guys have spent their lives entirely in government. and my view, it's helpful to have been involved in two businesses, olympics and a state and had the chance to run those as an executive. >> i talked to mitt romney yesterday on the radio and he said -- >> name dropping. >> you're dropping it later.

but he'll be here at the top of the hour. in 50 minutes. but he said look, we haven't rolled out any advertising yet and looked into those two states and i said do you regret losing -- not focusing on those three states that you lost to santorum? he said, we made a strategic decision to go to states that can give us delegates but lost momentum in doing it. >> and perception. >> look forward to those interviews coming up in the next hour. in the meantime, the president's defense cuts about to get even deeper by decommissioning our nuclear weapons. is that a good idea? we'll debate that with peter johnson jr. >> wants to cut our nuclear arsenal by 80%. >> we don't need so many, do we? meanwhile, does this supermodel look fat? despite landing herself on the cover of "sports illustrated" kate upton's friends say she should lay off lunch. lose a little weight. >> and she did and she got the cover. >> i know. it [ male announcer ] juice drink too watery?

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>> i've embraced the position of ronald reagan and john f. kennedy for the strategy that reverses the use of these weapons. >> that was president obama pledging to eliminate nuclear weapons. it looks like that's what he's trying to do today. the a.p. reporting he's considering cutting our nuclear arsenal by up to 80%. is this a good idea? joining us right now, fox news legal analyst peter johnson jr. we're going to disarm as a nation? >> the president has not approved these takedowns yet but there's a various set of proposals and one of the proposals would bring us back to levels that we haven't seen

since 1950. and this is one of the reasons that the president won the nobel peace prize and he's articulated it time and time again and we've heard it that he wants to bring us to a zero, a global zero with regard to nuclear weapons in the world and of course the united states. >> i mean, we're just showing different options one, two and three from 300 to 400, from 700 to 800 so these are different options in what the nuclear warheads did, where they're located and what they have. in the big picture, do you think that china and iran and north korea will also disarm? >> no. >> do you think russia will get rid of their nuclear arsenal. this is irresponsible. >> that's one of the fallacies of nuclear disarmament that has to be understood. one of the reasons that we would say the world would disarm is if there's universal compliance. if there was universal ability to go in and see what people are doing. that's what we're facing now with regard to iran.

iran will not disclose if in fact and we do believe that they are pursuing a nuclear weapon. and so the -- the argument against nuclear weapons is in this world of mutual destruction, in this world where you can have nuclear accidents, in this world where there's miscommunication, we can't risk that. >> how has it gone so far? we've had world peace since world war ii. >> the truth is we have to understand that deterrents usually mean strength. the issue becomes what is deterrents. a lot of people around the world saying let's disarm. we don't need nuclear weapons. we all agree that nuclear weapons are destructive. but in the real politic that we live in, it's clear that nuclear weapons have a deterrent. >> what kind of power does he have? congress can speak out. republicans and democrats, i imagine. >> and there was a lot of debate about the star treaty. nobody is saying at this point the president is going to

unilaterally disarm. this will be the subject of conversations between us and the russians but as the world changes and the threats become different, we may in fact have to change the way shorter range nuclear weapons, more targeted nuclear weapons, to deal with the terrorist threat. >> but the problem is we're not dealing with the russians, we're negotiating with ourselves. we're doing this to ourselves with no other up side and it cost a lot of money. >> most americans are saying in the ideal world, we don't want nuclear weapons. this is not in the ideal world. in the ideal world, we want america to be protected. >> in the ideal world, sesame street and we're not on sesame street. >> we're not on sesame street. this is a tough game and they're protecting us right now. >> thank you very much, peter. >> good to see you. >> we'll find out more about nuclear weapons on monday. >> unfortunately, i hope we do. >> straight ahead, the barber shop ran $300,000 in the red last year. yes, the senate has a barber

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>> now some headlines in the form of news by the numbers. first 17.1%, that's how many americans don't have health insurance. that's up nearly 3% since president obama's health care law passed. interesting. next, 25 bucks a week. that's how much a charter school in cincinnati is paying its students to show up and go to class. just started this week and so far, attendance is up is 15% and

finally $235,000, that's how much taxpayers are getting clipped for to keep the senate barber shop up and running, the salon in the red despite charging double the price for most services. terrific. >> this is an incredible story of bravery and charity. for six days, 48 women braved the cold, the altitude and the exhausti exhaustion. they climbed to the top of mount kilimajaro for one goal, to raise awareness of injustices faced by women across the world. three of those women join me today. katherine anderson is the leader of the global campaign called freedom climb along with two of her co-climbers, madison and tina yeager. good morning to all three of you. what i love about this idea, kathy and it was the brain child to come up with this idea. >> you have a cross section of all different kind of women who joined you in this goal. what was it that you wanted to prove? >> i'm not sure what we wanted

to prove. it's what we wanted to say. what we wanted to say is that the injustices to women these days are far more than most people would ever imagine and so the whole purpose was to bring a cross section of women from around the globe to stand up for those that have no voice for the women that are being oppressed and exploited and crushed so that was the purpose. >> you're a grandmother and we move to the mother of four, and why would you be inspired for this? i know it has something to do with your personal past, right? >> it does. actual, i did have a past of being abused as a child so i really felt strongly that i connected a tiny, tiny piece of what they felt. what these victims feel. felt like i could identify with it. and then i also went to india on a mission trip and saw first hand what happens. once i did, there was no way i could not be involved and do something about it. >> madison, you're only 18 years old. >> yes. >> were your parents nervous

you were going to do this climb? >> my mom is the one that suggested it. she's a brave little lady. they know me and they were proud that i would be doing something like this. they weren't nervous. they were excited. >> i was reading the notes last night about what you went through to actually get through this climb, cathey. this is not like going out for a jog, ok? >> no. >> tell me a little bit about the battles that you faced. >> well, when you start out and you have 48 women, you're trying to get everybody organized but you climb and there are no modern facilities as we would know them. no luxuries. and that's an understatement. the hardest day was the last ascent day and you're climbing up and you're getting up to 18,000, 19,000 feet and there's no oxygen so at that point, things just start shutting down in your body so to continue the hike, with hands down -- was the hardest thing we've done to go through that. >> life changing experience? >> absolutely. it will never be the same. >> madison, is faith a reason that some of you decided to do this climb? >> absolutely.

>> in what way? >> feeling what i find to be god's heart for the oppressed and wanting to do something about it and knowing that i have the means and i have hope and i want to give that hope hands. and i want to reach out to the destitute and the needy and i want to be their servant because they have no one and i want to be their voice because they have no one. and i find that faith was a reason that we got to the top and i find that faith is the reason that we keep going and we keep pursuing this journey and we keep doing everything that we can. for the oppressed. >> i know you want to do future climbs. so what can other women do if they want to get involved and join you? >> well, we would encourage everybody to go to our web site www.thefreedomclimb.net and it's constantly being updated on different opportunities that are available. we'll have a climb in georgia in may and then planning on a conference with a climb in colorado in the fall. and then we'll have another international climb in 2013.

>> look at the group shot here. what a beautiful setting and i can only imagine the bonding of the 48 women who did this. have you stayed in touch with all of them? >> we have. we're like a family now and one of the things that we're trying to continue to do is speak in our communities and getting more people engaged in the u.s. that will join in with us and do events and such in their communities. i would love for people to get involved. >> congratulations to all of you. i can't imagine trying to accomplish that goal but the three of you did it. good to see you. >> thank you. >> warning for ladies getting ready for work this morning. 400 of the nation's most popular lipsticks laced with lead. we'll tell you which ones to be aware of and how much of your salary should you share with your significant other? dave ramsey with the biggest money mistakes even the happiest couples make. and to think we're just one day past valentine's day. [ male announcer ] there's been a lot of talk about the chevy volt lately.

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if you've had enough, ask your dermatologist about enbrel. >> the tourism council is trying to put a good spin on

this all thing. come visit greece, all new ruins. >> leno might be on the morning. the economic turmoil continuing in greece this morning where countries are working now on the largest debt restructuring in history. so are we anywhere closer to getting to a deal? >> i don't know, if you have enough money, you could buy the acropilis. i think it's two steps forward and one back. greece has all the pieces in place now that will satisfy the creditors to give them that money. in true greek style, they did not get all that paperwork done in time. a meeting of the euro zone finance ministers in brussels today was canceled. instead, they're going so have a teleconference and it may not be until sometime next week before

those ministers give their ok to the bailout money and all of this comes when this country is in a severe recession. contracting five years in a row with wages down and taxes up and these people say so what are we going to do? how is this economy going to grow when we have -- we are facing so many deep cuts. guys? >> all right, ashley, thank you very much for the live report. taco bell acropilis. >> does it blow you away they couldn't get the paperwork done as a nation? this should be their only focus. >> they have a lot going on over there. >> nobody is there to work. they get to retire when they're 50. >> i guess so. now to your headlines. senate majority leader harry reid willing to hold a vote that could reverse president obama's controversial birth control mandate. republican senator roy blunt of missouri is sponsoring the amendment that lets any employer opt out of the mandate, not just churches and other catholic institutions. harry reid blocked the vote on

the measure last week before the president blocked accommodations for religious groups. there's an uproar among catholics and they say the changes still violate their religious freedom. >> meanwhile for the first time, we are hearing from a woman who says she was nearly murdered by the so-called speed freak killers. we've been telling you about this week. heidi adams says she was driving one night in california back in the 1990's when two guys in a blue van started chasing her. then they got out and confronted her at a stop sign. only then did she realize she recognized one of those guys as lauren herzog who went on a meth-fueled killing spree. >> i will never forget that face. he had something huge, wood almost in his hands. it was not a baseball bat. it was almost like an axe handle, if you will. and as i'm watching him, i cannot get across the traffic. >> i wouldn't forget it either.

adams was able to escape. as many as 20 others were not so lucky. herzog killed himself in january. shermantine is sitting on death row in california recently revealing where some of the bodies of his victims were located. >> a warning now for women this morning, the f.d.a. has found trace levels of lead in 400 of the nation's most popular brands of lipstick. the worst offenders, loreal, maybilline, covergirl and stargazer. >> what's left? >> two that exceeded the standards, loreal's rich lipstick called volcanic and rich petal. there are no safety concerns. >> i think ours are ok, brian. >> you think our lipstick is it all right? it's the clear. she may be the only supermodel who needs to be told to stop eating. according to today's "new york post," kate upton's friends staged an intervention. why wasn't i asked to go in on

this? before she landed the cover of the "sports illustrated" issue. she told the 19-year-old to lay off the fries and ice cream. it beats being hooked on drugs. she had packed enough pounds to jeopardize her career. she upped her training program that included swimming, pilate and kick boxing and landed the cover. coming up tomorrow, guess who will be here on "fox & friends", we'll provide the sand. she'll bring the outfit. kate upton. >> and brian, you're not going to be here tomorrow, are you? >> that was the old schedule. the new schedule has me on. >> brian deciding to be here on the curvy couch with the "sports illustrated" swimsuit girl. >> ok. meanwhile, check out this weather in the country of china. tourists captivated by a frozen waterfall. is it cold over there? water completely frozen over and many of the visitors choosing to walk and crawl around and inside the rare phenomenon. let's take a look at the map and

find out where it is raining and you can see we have the storms in the central plains and northern plains and lingering showers in portions of new england and some activity down in florida on this wednesday. current temperatures, teens and 20's in the northern tier. chilliest spot on this map, i believe, is rapid city south dakota right now with 15. much warmer in caribou today and new england. still stuck in the 20's. meanwhile, 40's in the mid atlantic. it is currently 37 in atlanta, georgia. and that's a quick look at your fox travelcast. >> are you still glowing from valentine's day? well, get your head out of the clouds, people. money mistakes could ruin even the happiest couple. here to help is personal finance expert dave ramsey. oh, are we going to bring bad news to people today, dave? just one day after everyone's lovefest? >> no. not at all. as a matter of fact, when you learn to handle money together, you solve one of marriage's biggest problems and the best

marriages are the ones that work together on their money. >> right. honey, i love the ring but why is it on my visa? that's a little bit of a problem. number one money mistake you say is no communication. the road to financial frustration lies there. >> well, absolutely. and 97% of the ladies literally, 97% of the ladies in marriage say they'd like to have more communication. and one great way to do that is over the budget because when you agree on your spending, you've really agreed on your life. you've agreed on your dreams, your fears, whose house we're going to for thanksgiving. how do we pay for the soccer pictures? everything is in there. so it creates great communication. >> also, money mistake number two, no team work. those who budget together stay together. second rule in a row where the key word, dave, is together. you got to do it together. >> well, absolutely. couples who operate their marriages as a joint venture really don't win. you have to do this together.

both have a vote and you should both cast your vote. >> what if it's a tie? >> so if there's cooperation -- if there's a tie, we have to argue through it. we have to argue through it before the month begins on paper on purpose on this budget instead of through the month and having the spats and arguments through the month. >> next thing is no trust. financial cheating makes happiness fleeting. what do you mean by that? >> well, when you do the written game plan, the budget, and you both communicated about it and you've cooperated about it, now we pinky swear and spit shake. this is a contract. you don't go spend money that's not on here. i don't go spend money that's not on here unless we have an emergency budget committee meeting. now, we'll have a miscellaneous category for him and a miscellaneous category for her so we got that freedom. but we got to stick to the plan and neither one of you want to be married to your mom or to your dad so both need to be adults. >> well put, mr. pinky swear, spit shake. very nice, dave ramsey. thank you very much for the good

advice for couples today after great valentine's day. he's live today in nashville. thank you. >> all right. meanwhile, straight ahead, we move on. sarah palin, not sure mitt romney is conservative enough to be elected. is she right? we'll ask both the former governors here. we'll have them on the couch next hour. >> they're successful small businesses in america. they're being shut down so the government can save wild animals from africa even though they're here on our home turf. one of those entrepreneurs joins us next. >> first, your trivia question of the day -- [ male announcer ] juice drink too watery?

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>> wait until you hear this. can hunting endangered animals actually save a species? well, take a look at this video. it's not an african safari. it's texas and since 2005, texas ranchers have been bringing exotic animals back from extinction by breeding them on private land. but there's a catch. the ranchers allow a small percentage of the animals to be hunted for profit. it allows them to keep breeding the rare animals. but now, after coming under attack from various animal rights groups, the ranchers face extinction of their own. charlie seal is a fourth generation rancher and executive director of the exotic wildlife association. he joins us from down in san antonio. good morning to you.

>> good morning, steve. how are you? >> doing fine. this is really interesting. first of all, i didn't realize that there are more exotic animals in texas than any place on earth. how did texas become the hub of all these unusual animals? >> steve, several years ago, many years ago, the ranchers needed something to subsidize their income when the traditional livestock ranching wasn't making it. they turned to exotic animals. the climate in texas is almost identical to the native home range in africa and texas is home to about 125 different species. over a quarter of a million exotic animals. >> that's right. and what's happened overtime is you've actually started protecting these animals, brought them there. you've bred them and there are flourishing. we have a graphic that shows three of the endangered species in texas and they are -- they're off the chart. for instance, this first animal in 2004, there were 1,200 and now there are 10 times that

amount. about the same for the middle animal and the dhama as well. these are such unusual species, i don't know how to pronounce them but the problem now is even though you've got so many more of them, charlie, the government, they see money and they want to crack down on you. >> well, as a result of a lawsuit, steve, that happened back sometime after the u.s. wildlife service, it gave us an exemption to be able to manage the herds of those three species. a group called the friends of animals filed a lawsuit. they were successful with this lawsuit and we've been fighting this thing now since 2009 trying to get some sort of successful end to this and as a result now, the permits, the permitting process is going to take place as of april 4th on these three species and it's an arduous process that the ranchers have to go through. >> and the crazy thing is, charlie, this is your private property. this is private land.

the government before had encouraged you to go ahead and build your business. do this. save those species. and now, they're turning around and saying, not so fast. now, you just mentioned the friends of animals. here's a quotation from prescilla ferrell, the president. she says "i think it's immoral. they are saying it's an act of conservation and that's lunacy. i don't think you create a life to shoot it." charlie, what do you say to her? >> well, here's what we say to that, steve. hunters are the greatest conservationists in this country. the income that is derived from hunting, all across the board, in all aspects of wildlife, is what subsidizes the propagation of these species. we could not continue doing what we do without that. they have to have an economic value or the rancher is simply not going to have them on his place. this is the greatest conservation effort that we've ever done. we're sending these animals back to their native countries. >> absolutely. and charlie, it just looks like it's a lose-lose situation for

you folks who have done so much to make sure that those animals stay on planet earth. >> steve, they gave us that exemption back in 2005 and they thought we were doing such a great job at that time but suddenly now the environmentalists, the animal rights people have gotten involved in this and now what we're doing is no longer adequate and so that's why the permitting process is going to take place. and i will say within the next five to 10 years, you're going to see most of these animals, the tens of thousands that exist today, they'll be virtually gone. >> that is too bad. but all a result of regulation nation. charlie seal joining us today from down in texas. thank you very much, sir, for bringing us up to date on this important story. >> appreciate you having us. thank you. >> you bet. what do you think about that? e-mail us, friends at foxnews.com. meanwhile, forget independents. one group of voters could decide this election.

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>> the answer to the question of the day, jane seymour and the winner is dave in california. wow, he's up bright and early. >> he is. >> congratulations. >> he's an insomniac. take a look at this, they're an incredible number of unmarried americans living alone up from just 22% back in 1950. that's almost double what it is -- was then. it's double today. >> and brian, take a look at the biggest battleground states also have a huge number of singles in ohio, michigan, pennsylvania and florida.

the number of unmarried singles is above 50%. so how will that impact the presidential election? i love these kind of brain thinking questions, brian. >> you look at me but should really be looking at the nyu professor, the author of this brand new book "going solo." why are we going solo first and then we can see how it plays into the election. >> the incredible thing is wherever and whenever people can afford to live alone, they'll do that. people are putting off marriage more than ever before. the typical age of marriage in most big cities now is over 30 and people are getting out of marriages if they aren't working for them and they're finding when they live alone, they get control of their time and space. >> and they can blast music and watch sports. >> how does this affect politics? >> it's going to be very interesting. in the last few years, the political parties have woken up to the fact that about half of american adults are singles and they're trying to find a way to target them and their messaging. single women are interested in things like reproductive choice, access to health care, the bread

and butter issues so the democrats have been incredibly aggressive about reaching out to them. one of the biggest challenges for democrats is mobilizing those voters. they came out in force in 2008. will they come out again in 2012? >> you think the g.o.p. should emphasize the fact that the economy will be bad for a very long time. >> i'm not a political strategist. i can say for single men and single women jobs is a big issue so voters will have to decide which party is going to generate that kind of economic activity that will get them back at work. >> if you go back just two years to the 2010 midterm elections, 50% of single women ended up voting g.o.p. that was higher than usual, right? >> single white women. that was a big spike so only 39% of single white women voted for the republicans in 2008 election. a big spike in 2010 so republicans feel like this is in play in a way that they didn't before. they had to recognize this social change had happened and figure out what to do about it. >> could it be a turnoff if

candidates are talking about family and the nuclear need of family when you know you're living off that beaten path. >> i think the republican party will have to deal with that question, family values kind of campaign has worked for republicans in the past. will it work in an age when half of american adults are single? >> it's such a fascinating topic. and one that you can learn much more about in your new book "going solo", you are eric klinenberg and you've been our guest and we appreciate it. >> congratulations on your book. straight ahead, why is this man behind media matters so dedicated to bringing down fox news? coming up, disturbing new details from david brock's past. >> and governor mitt romney live here in the studio? we have a jam packed show on tap. so don't go anywhere. sarah palin coming up after romney. >> he's going solo today. no ann! >> i think they're still connected. ♪

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>> gretchen: good morning, everyone. hope you're going to have a fantastic day. it's wednesday, february 15. i'm gretchen carlson. sarah palin says mitt romney is not conservative enough to win an election. is she right? both of the former governors here live this hour to set the record straight. they're both going to be on the curvy couch. >> steve: meanwhile, republicans and democrats on the same page. are you kidding me? it's true. both apparently agreeing on a tentative plan to keep your paycheck from shrinking next month. there is one small problem. there is no way to pay for it and that has got some republicans steamed, brian. >> brian: and the top dog is? >> best in show at the 136th annual westminster kennel club, america's dog show is the pekinese. >> brian: let the party begin.

what's the best in show winner going to do now? he just stopped by. we'll tell you how it went in our studio. i'll translate. "fox & friends" starts right now. >> i'm ivanka trump and you're watching "fox & friends," the best show on news television. >> gretchen: that's aproceed poe to have ivanka 'cause her dad endorsed mitt romney who will be joining us. >> steve: you don't make it to the curvy couch very often, governor. so we appreciate it. >> brian: you're always on the road. >> gretchen: let's get to your headlines and a fox news alert. moments ago, iran says that it began loading home made fuel rods into its nuclear research reactor in tehran. according to state run tv, it was ahmadinejab who dropped the first rod into place. this morning's announcement clearly out to anger western countries who have slapped iran with major sanctions. that's not all.

iran not only flex its nuclear muscle this morning, it also announced a plan to cut oil exports to six european countries, mainly those who have come out against its nuclear aspirations. whitney houston's funeral will be invite only now despite reports that her family was considering a massive public service. family and close friends will say their final good-byes in houston's native new jersey at the church where she first sang as a child. her eulogy will be given by pastor who married her and bobby brown. her family does not want bobby brown at the funeral. he wants to be there to support their daughter, bobbi kristina, but people connected to the family are reportedly warning him to stay away. he's th country's most prized pooch. malaki. he was named best in show by the westminster kennel club last night. his first order of business was visiting us right here on "fox & friends." here he is along with westminster announce be david fry who explained what made

malaki top dog. >> he's a wonderful specimen of his breed, of course, but he just sat there and exuded type. he's everything a peke should be. he owns the ground he stands over, even though you may not be able to see it. >> gretchen: everything a peke should be. he also shows off his signature walk. this was the four-year-old's 115th best in show. it will be his last because as of right now at four years old, malaki officially retired. i wonder if he can collect social security. >> brian: joining us in studio, he's now live right here in new york city, governor romney. welcome back to the couch. >> thanks, good to be with you guys this morning. >> brian: you look great. you're at about the halfway point. what's it going to take for to you get back on top in michigan? >> i'm going to get out and visit people across the state. i'll probably spend quite a few days between now and the 28th primary and talk about my roots in michigan and talk about what it takes to get the

state working again, get the country working again. we've got a president who frankly has failed on the job. he said he was going to cut the budget deficit in half by the end of his first term and he doubled it. he said he would get the american people back to work. he hasn't. i know what it takes to get people back to work and rein in the size of government. those messages will resonate with the people of michigan. i hope so. >> steve: rick santorum is running an ad called rombo. we'll play a snippet for you. >> i'm rick santorum and i approve this message. >> mitt romney's negative attack machine is back on full throttle. he's firing his mud at rick santorum. romney and his super pac have spent a staggering 20 million attacking fellow republicans. why? because romney is trying to hide from his big government romneycare and his support for job killing cap and trade. and in the end, mitt romney's ugly attacks are going to

backfire. >> you know, that's the nature of politics, which is that you always accuse the other guy of what you've done yourself. so my campaign hasn't run any negative ads against rick santorum. his campaign ran attack ads against me in south carolina and his pac did so in missouri. so i'm not saying we won't finally go after the guy. but frankly, he's been going after me as that ad suggest, that's pretty good attack ad to me. >> steve: he's loaded for bear. >> brian: you had a nice body double. >> gretchen: what will your strategy be? in florida, you did go after newt gingrich and did really well in the debates and those two things voters i think said that's why they wanted to go with you, along with your policies. what will you do now with rick santorum that he's in the lead? will you do the same type of thing? >> you have to lay occupant the differences between yourself and the people you're running against and rick santorum and i have very different views on some issues, but in particular, very different experiences, life experiences. he worked as a lobbyist, then

worked in congress, and then went back to being a lobbyist. he's never run anything. i actually ran two different businesses. i ran the olympics. got the chance to run a state. so my experience as an executive and as a leader, i think we've seen what happens in a country when you have a president who has no experience running anything. that's what we have now. i don't think it will be difficult to contrast the difference between our backgrounds. >> brian: governor, one thing about you, you can adjust and you've proven it. you did south carolina, did not go well, you changed tactics in nevada and florida did. now it seems as though the dialogue could be turning away from the economy just a bit and focusing on culture and social issues. how will you respond to that? >> i'm going to continue talking about what it takes to get the economy going. i know some people want to talk about other issue, but frankly, the issue that is beneath much of what's happening in this country is the need to get our economy going again, to get people are rising incomes, gas prices lower, more people going

back to work. that will continue to be there. with regards to social issue, the big issue that came out was the attack by the obama administration on religious conscience. that happened in my state when i was governor. if you will, the secular liberals in my state tried to get the catholic church to stop being able to provide adoption because they had a preference for putting kids into homes with a mom and a dad. i worked with the catholic church to put in place a piece of legislation to allow the catholic church to stay in the adoption business. this kind of attack on religion is happening all over the country and i'm one of those that's actually not just talked about fighting it, but actually have fought it. >> steve: there are a lot of questions now about social issues, a lot of social conservatives are concerned about where all the candidates stand. i'm sure you saw sarah palin, former governor of alaska say mitt romney? yeah. good guy, but i don't know if he's conservative enough. >> well, we could spend time with sarah palin, although she's hard to find.

she's on your show all the time. i'm not quite sure what she would be referring to. i'm pro-life, pro traditional marriage. i believe in the second amendment. as governor action i balanced the budget. every year i was in office, put in place a $2 billion rainy day fund. cut taxes 19 times. >> steve: you have changed your issues in the past, your stances on some things, but each time you've become more conservative. >> i think living life tends to make you more conservative and if you've been in the business world, you can't help but be conservative because if you don't balance your budget in business, you go out of business. >> gretchen: speaking of business and the economy, which is so important to your candidacy, what about tax reform? there is a wall street editorial that says since obama looks like he's going to continue to talk about fair share and people paying their fair share, maybe mitt romney should too this, pick up the gauntlet, he might give his candidacy some life with a theme for tax reform. will you do that? >> i've already laid out some things i'd like to do in tax

policy. one is to provide for middle income americans thible to save money without having to pay taxes on their interest, dividends or capital gains. so no taxes on those things for middle income americans and then i've said i'm going to lay out a plan at some point and we're working on it, that brings down rates for everyone and that makes it simpler for people to pay their taxes and we get rid of some of the deductions and exemptions, make the code simpler and at the same time, create a more pro growth oriented tax system. right now, the high tax rates keep some people from going to work and generating the income. >> gretchen: if you're the candidate, you know that's going to be president obama's strategy, this whole fair share thing. how would you combat that? >> we're going to point out that we're going to lower taxes for everybody and that includes people from the very highest to the very lowest. but i'm not going to look to find a way to reduce the share paid by the very highest income people. the president wants to see if he can't punish some people. if people are really interested in attacking fellow americans and dividing america, then they can vote for president obama.

that's what he's doing. but i want to bring america together, unite our people and have the revenues that we need to balance our budget, but not by raising taxes, but by cutting the spending that's excessive in washington and at the same time, getting our economy going again. >> brian: i got to bring other news. yesterday came out late, the president's entertaining cutting our nuclear arsenal to 80%. back to the 1950s level. is that where we should be moving as a country? >> he's not just planning on cutting the nuclear arsenal, but all of our military. he's cutting back -- half trillion dollars with the sequestration compromise. >> brian: the super committee did nothing. >> right. it's a trillion dollars in cuts. a navy that's already smaller than any time since 1917. our air force is smaller and older than any time since the air force was founded, he wants to cut 100,000 troops. the world is not safer. it's more dangerous. the idea of cutting our military

is a bad idea. >> steve: i know you've been saying it over the last year, eventually it will be a two-man race. is it a two-man race now, you and rick santorum? >> it's been a two-man race many times. >> steve: and then changed. >> that's right. but me versus michelle bachmann and then me versus tim pawlenty. then i was up against herman cain and rick perry. and then newt gingrich and now it seems like rick santorum. but you never know. newt gingrich can come roaring back in. ron paul. time will tell. >> brian: we haven't seen you and rick santorum go head to head. in the final debate, it will be interesting. in the big picture, could you see a scenario where you two team up? >> i think tails possible to have people come together in our party, whether it's rick and i or others in the party, who knows? a little early to tell something like that. we have similar views on issues. very different backgrounds. >> brian: i don't mean to put you on the spot, but herman cain made a decision earlier and i want to get your reaction.

he turned down "dancing with the stars." good or bad move? >> under no circumstances would i ever do "dancing with the stars." >> gretchen: "american idol" may be in your future. >> i'm afraid i can't make that cut either. >> steve: all right. we know you're awfully busy. it's great to have you on the curvy couch. >> thanks, great to be with you. >> steve: so we just heard from governor romney say he's become more conservative over time. coming up, governor sarah palin who is somewhere in the building, she's going to pass him in the hall and sit down on our curvy couch. >> brian: we don't think she's lost. >> steve: no. she's just somewhere. >> gretchen: why is the man behind media matters dedicated to bringing down fox news? steve ablow reveals disturbing new details from david brock's past [ female announcer ] fashion or food, it's all about taste.

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>> steve: welcome back. he's the top dog running media matters, the liberal web site dedicated to destroying fox news channel. david brock wants an investigative reporter back in the early 1990s, brock now taking taxpayer money just to, quote, wage war on fox news channel. the man has even admitting to publishing flat out lies. what makes this guy tick? joining us, a member of fox news medical a team, dr. keith ablow. good morning to you. >> good morning, steve. >> steve: what do you make of this guy? >> if you look at his history, what you have is back in the '90s when he was vigorously almost violently opposed to the clintons, published a best selling book that was tremendously critical of them, he is a person who you lurches

in whatever direction the wind can blow him the farther. if you don't have an internal self, you feel like you'll capsize. so you have to find enough supposed accolades in the world, enough applause that you feel like a substantial individual. so when republicans didn't respond so well to his book about hillary clinton, he at that point took tremendous offense and went to the other side and said, by the way, i lied about them. the truth doesn't matter if you're in a panic to be -- for adulation. >> steve: combine that with the fact that, according to the daily caller, paranoid guy, history of mental issues as well. but he's paranoid to the point where he thinks there are right wing sniper teams out to assassinate him and, in fact, we were talk being this yesterday. his personal assistant apparently back in the day, had an unlicensed glock in his pocket. so that's very troubling.

>> if you are filled with self-loathing, you will see demons on every street corner because you project that self-hatred. so you see snipers on the roof. why? because you hate yourself and you don't want to be here on the planet to begin with. so that's what may be -- and by the way, i haven't examined this guy. he isn't my patient, but that's what may be working inside the mind of david brock. he's dangerous man because having followers and waging war as he says or previously being a right wing hit man, this isn't accidental language. it's about violence, destruction, and he feels destroyed in himself. >> steve: some power as well because the daily caller has detailed how not only do they coordinate their message media matters out to destroy fox news channel, coordinate it with the main stream media, but apparently coordinate it with the white house as well so they can get somebody in the white house to pick up their phone and answer them. >> this is an adoptive boy who needs to plumb the depths of his

psyche. he was adopted. many adopted children tremendously well adjusted. for some reason this man feels he's unloved and unlovable, shunted to the side and that's the antidote he feels, unlimited power. guess what? it never, ever works. that's why paranoia can set in because in the end, only the truth, a real reckoning with who you are and coming to understand i was always a valuable person, is the antidote for these false ways of getting value. >> steve: it's interesting. we had a report earlier today from the daily caller on how now they're looking into their tax exempt status. so you got to wond where are that will go from here. from the many donors who thought media matters is awatch dog group and now realize it's not a watchdog group if they're out hiring -- they've proposed to hire private investigators to follow fox news people around. can they really trust this guy to do the donors what he promised them to do? >> listen, sometimes like with the president, you just listen to someone and he'll tell what you he really believes. this is a man who says, i lied

in the past, who when he was trying to be ed tore of his college newspaper, how many of us would proffer lies and start a big rumor about his opposition candidate. it's the college newspaper! for david brock, it's life or death because there is nothing inside other than self-loathing, it seems. that's why he hates everyone else and he believes people are trying to kill him, because he projects that self hatred. >> steve: interesting stuff. psychiatrist, dr. keith ablow, thank you very much. >> thank you. >> steve: all right. what do you think about that? e-mail us. next up, holding eric holder accountable. congressman darryl issa joins us with the latest on his investigation into the fast and furious scandal. you heard from governor mitt romney. now governor sarah palin's turn. look at that. she's live here at fox and "friends" and she's coming up next [ male announcer ] every day, thousands of peoe

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>> steve: just getting up and you need headlines? here they are. the attorney who prosecuted casey anthony back in a florida courtroom, only this time jeff ashton is working for the defense representing his 21-year-old son on dui charges. you remember ashton retired six months ago after anthony's famous now acquittal. transcanada looking at a 2015 start date for the keystone pipeline. it says it's fully committed to the project and working with the state of nebraska to find the best route for it. the pipeline could create, they say, up to 20,000 jobs. white house denied a permit for

it. but left the door open for them to reapply for a new route. gretch, brian? >> gretchen: the white house tiptoeing around a mandate that would have religious organizations pay for could contraceptives. rick santorum sounded off on this on "meet the press." >> there is no compromise here. they're forcing religious organizations, either directly or indirectly, to pay for something that they find is a deeply morally, wrong thing and this is not what the government should be doing. >> brian: the white house says the debate on contraceptives is over. but our next guest says not so fast. congressman darryl issa is chairman of the house oversight committee and planning congressional hearings on the mandate this week. congressman, this is just beginning for you, huh? >> it really is just beginning. let's look at it this way. under obamacare, if, in fact, they can tell clerics, rabbis, priest what is to do related to health care, there isn't a

limit. this hearing will be about the basic question of separation of church and state, the basic question of the first amendment, the basic question of whether or not in this country, we tell religious people how to live their lives or what to do. and it's very clear this administration would like to narrow it to essentially inside the church on sunday or the temple on saturday, we'd like it to be the original meaning. the puritans did not come across the atlantic in order to be told they had to be episcopal. >> gretchen: many people they'll this is a slippery slope. that if you start taking some religious freedoms away, it affects everyone. what do you think is the slippery slope? what do you see that could be next? >> i think that when we look at the first amendment, your right to speak, my right to speak, and, of course, in that same context, religious freedom and their right, we have to assume that we have to go back to

literally, original intent. you don't change the constitution. you have to presume that in the pursuit of their religious beliefs, you have to very much support what a religion does. there have been cases as simple as religious people knocking on doors trying to add to their religious following and groups say, well, you can't come to our neighborhood. the answer is, that's inconsistent with the constitution. this administration gets it. they just are ignoring it. this is a political agenda to say, we can force this to happen and we can have it be loosely about women's rights rather than respect the fact that you're going to get 98% of what you want in obamacare without going after the religious leaders and constitutional scholars that we'll have in our hearing. >> brian: according to a recent survey, he's done one thing successfully, that's eyenate catholics. moving ahead to something that's taken a lot of your time over the last two years, fast and furious investigation. how close are you to maybe

moving to the next step of the attorney general eric holder? >> we made it pretty clear with the attorney general when he was before our committee. as he was saying it was a fair hearing, we were making it clear that our patience is limited, that, in fact, if there is another bump in the road where there is sort of a stopping, we won't give you more information, we're going to consider that contempt. as long as we're getting real discovery, we're willing to work with the administration. but let's understand, we have 6,000 pages of documents. our request for documents is just as extensive as the inspector general who has 80,000 pages. it's very clear there is two standards. one when they're trying to spin an internal investigation. one when congress says, look, we want to get to the bottom of it and we want to get this to never happen again. it's taken us pretty close to a year just to get to their real admission that this was felony stupid. this was wrong. and, in fact, it didn't just happen in phoenix. it goes to the highest levels of

the justice department. >> gretchen: all right. congressman darryl issa. you got your hands full with a lot of different hearings going on. >> more to come. >> brian: right. 32 minutes until we're through. you just heard mitt romney about five hips ago say he's more conservative now than ever before and ready to win the election. governor sarah palin will weigh in next if steve brings her right way. sometimes he'll bring guests to the wrong studio. so embarrassing i find the omega choices overwhelming.

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>> gretchen: welcome back. we begin with a fox news alert. iran said it began loading home made fuel rods into its nuclear research reactor in tehran. this is big news. according to state-run tv, it was president ahmadinejab himself who dropped the first rod into place. who else would it be? this morning's announcement clearly out to anger western countries who slapped iran with major sanctions yesterday. that's not all. iran also announcing a plan to cut oil exports to six european countries, mainly those who have come out against its nuclear aspirations. brian? >> brian: you're about to hear terror suspects 911 equal that will be used against him at trial. he's accused of planting a bomb in new york city's subways. he knew the cops were closing in, so he made a last ditch attempt at jihad, calling 911

secretaries before ramming his car into another car on a bridge at 100 miles per hour. listen. >> brian: she played out. he goes on trial next month. >> steve: meanwhile, a warning for women this morning. the f.d.a. has now traced levels of lead in 400 of the nation's most popular brands of lipstick. the worst offenders, l'oreal, maybelline, nars. two lipsticks that exceeded the lead standards, l'oreal color rich lipstick called volcanic. apparently that causes problems. >> brian: how come a guy is reading that story? >> steve: and maybelline's pink

petal. >> gretchen: i knew that was your favorite. >> steve: no, that's brian's. >> brian: my secret. >> steve: sorry, it's out of the bag now. the f.d.a. insists there are no safety concerns. so that is the good news. >> gretchen: talk about shovel ready jobs. the government hiring thousands for a job to reach this conclusion. wash your hands after playing in the sand. researchers from the epa interviewed 5,000 people and took 144 samples of sand to verify what most moms and dads already know. no details on the cost. >> steve: joining us right now, a mom, sarah palin, former governor of alaska. the key here is if you're play not guilty sand, just wash your hands, come on. >> we could have saved them a whole lot of money, asking gretchen. >> brian: welcome to the couch. it's been too long. >> thank you. >> brian: what is it like for the first time? 'cause i don't remember my first time on the couch. >> quite curvy. >> steve: that's why we call it

that. >> gretchen: you can tell truth. >> it's nice. thank you so much for allowing me to be here. >> gretchen: let's talk a little about politics. also earlier was governor mitt romney and you earlier, i think it was on sunday, said maybe he wasn't conservative enough for you. we got him to respond to that. let's see what he said. >> i'm not quite sure what she'd be referring to. i'm pro-life, pro traditional marriage. i believe in the second amendment. as governor, i balanced the budget every year i was in office, put in place a $2 billion rainy day fund. cut taxes 19 times. >> well, what i'll explain was what i meant is this general statement about 70% of gop and independent voters are not yet convinced who it should be, who can contrast them. so there are solutions they will propose to get our country back on the right track. contrast that with obama's failed policies and a lot of that has to do with what inherently they feel about government.

will they at this point know to just instinctively turn right, turn to constitutional conservative principles? i think the majority of us are not yet convinced that not just he, but that any of the candidates yet are the one who will best be that contrast to obama. >> steve: is governor romney conservative enough? >> that's subjective. >> steve: for you? >> a lot of this has to do with somebody's past. were they pro abortion before and now perhaps they're pro-life? what allowed that switch, kind of that flip flop? how have their positions evolved over the years? were they pro-big government, pro increase of taxes back then and where are they now? so it's subjective when you trio measure somebody's conservative quotient and he's had some obvious articulate explanations to why he has changed. he has said that as he's grown older, he's become more conservative. that's a good sign. >> gretchen: so what do you make of the idea that the republican

party seems to be split on this exact topic. a lot of it comes down to what people deem the establishment candidate versus i guess the more conservative candidate. how do you see it? >> for one, i see the establishment as anybody who is embracing still the status quo. what's going on there in washington where too many folks are thinking government is the solution instead of many of us believing government is much of the problem. allow the private sector to grow and to prosper and hire more people by getting government out of the way. those who don't agree with that, much of the time they're part of the establishment because they're doing just fine. they kind of get their benefits and their power and their titles. so those who are a part of that i think we need to throw those folks out and we need to replace them with more constitutionally conservative, common sense folks who just understand what it's going to take to allow a free market to be -- allow it to grow and thrive. >> brian: good thing we have two

segments with you 'cause i want to get your take on what seems to be a compromise on the payroll tax holiday. i want to speak to the presidential race. something happened. the race last time around was about the iraq war. the iraq war got a little better and the economy got worse. so it switched. do you sense that this race is switching from the economy, even though there is some dire signs, to culture? >> it's not mutually exclusive. fiscal and social issues in this country, and we need to discuss both -- don't forget, though, these national security issues i believe are paramount and they will be in the next -- >> brian: but do you believe the american people are thinking like that? they don't seem to be thinking national security and defense. >> much of it has to do with what the media is portraying and helping to educate the public in terms of what the issues are that need to be concentrated on. i think because about 90% of the main stream media is in obama's pocket, they're going to portray and talk about those things that the obama administration wants to talk about and they will

skate from talking about national security issues right now because things are not going well with obama's naivete when it comes to what it is we need to do to keep our homeland safe. >> steve: and talking about the main stream media and how they are on the president's side and going forward into the election, over the last couple of weeks, we've been watching this explosion of anger amongst catholics regarding this contraceptive mandate and people on the left have tried to say, look, it's not about contraceptives. it's a war on women. it's not a war on women. nobody is saying you can't have contraceptives. they're just saying your employer, the church, isn't going to pay for it. >> what we're saying is that government has no constitutional right to mandate one, that we need to violate our conscience, any faith-based institution or organization or individual must violate their constitution in order to obey the one in the white house. >> brian: why do you think the president wanted this fight? where was the upside for him? >> women votes.

>> gretchen: i think this broke down that he thought he would be more popular in the minds of women. >> women understand, there is access to preventive care and to contraception out there and we don't need government to tell our employers that they must provide that for us. no. he has underestimated the wisdom of the people again and that is kind of -- he set that as precedent the day that he took office and things, i believe, have only gotten worse in that regard. >> steve: is he going to have to cave on it? >> he will cave on that, but of course, he'll be able to spin much of it with the media's -- >> steve: trying to make things fair. >> but it's not even about contraception. truly it is a war on a religious liberties and that violation of conscience that he would mandate that is unamerican because it vital our first amendment in our constitution. >> brian: i'm curious. you've been here often. do you know your way around the

halls? >> steve: are you going to ask -- >> brian: like to find the business channel? >> gretchen: he's hoping you're going to find his radio studio 'cause he does a radio show. that's what he's hoping for. but you're going to stick around because we want you to weigh in on this, the president's broken promise to reduce our debt. this is a big story, folks. governor palin will weigh in coming up next. >> brian: will mitt romney become the hillary clinton of 2012? the front run who are suddenly falls behind. so dr. larry sabato who has predicted every presidential race correctly here to talk about his perfect record. >> steve: he's a smart guy [ female announcer ] fashion or food, it's all about taste.

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>> gretchen: the president

unveiling a massive new budget monday, breaking a promise he made as a candidate to reduce the debt. i think he said he was going to cult it in half. yesterday he gave this excuse. >> this recession turned out to be a lot deeper than any of us realized. everybody who was out there back in 2009, if you look back at what their estimates were in terms of how many jobs have been lost, how bad the economy had contracted when i took office, everybody underestimated it. people thought that the economy contracted 3%. it turns out it contracted close to 9%. >> gretchen: back with sarah palin. i hate to bring it up, but if the economy was worse than he expected, then wouldn't you be proposing a budget that had more cuts in it? >> you would think so. what he does is defy common sense and also did you catch what he was saying in there? he is now blaming the estimators, the economists. everyone else is to blame for the economic woes except for his failed policies.

that is another indication of his naivete and his un-- he's not fit to hold this office because we need leadership that will be held at can be, that won't shy away from taking responsibility for mistakes that they have made and president obama has made many mistakes in allowing increased tax, allowing government to grow, accumulating trillions and trillions of dollars more in debt though, yes, as you point out, he had promise to do cut deficits in half. >> brian: right. let's talk about something else he promised. watching the end of jennifer griffin's report last night and said by the way, the administration will be release ago proposal that would cut our nuclear arsenal by 80%. back to the 1950s level. less war heads than china. >> this is part of that fundamental transformation of america that he as a candidate promised us. >> brian: a nuclear free country. >> that is this naive notion that everybody would be nuclear free then, that nobody would have nukes. what concerns me is as lack afghanistan's governor, we have

at fort greeley, a missile defense system up there. in 09 had to battle him and at the time, secretary gates asking what wye in the world back then had they proposed cutting missile defense systems and they backed off a little bit on that, but it was always with the notion that well, when the political timing was right, he'd come back around and he'd start stripping more of missile defense system and overall, this 80% reduction idea to make us much less safe. >> steve: one of the things that he has said is he really wants congress to pass this payroll tax cut extension that will conveniently get him through the election. sounds like there is a tentative deal on capitol hill. there are a number of freshmen republicans that say, wait a minute, we don't pay for this anywhere. it will add to the deficit. what do you think? >> i think at this point the fewer dollars that politicians in washington, d.c. take from us out of our paychecks, the better. i don't want them taking our money. i don't trust the way that --

>> steve: are you telling republicans to vote no? >> i'm telling republicans allow the tax cuts to continue, the bush tax cut, otherwise it's poor politics on republicans' part because the general public is not going to follow that inside baseball stuff about what the offset also be or how will we pay for this. they're just going to see, as i see, government trying to take more from hard working americans, the taxpayer, and spending it frivolously like on things like doing studies o figure out you need to wash your hands after playing in the sand. >> gretchen: with that money, it's going to the social security fund. >> well, it's going to be an idea here again, gretchen, about the general public not being obsessed with the process of how all of this is to work. budgeting is to work. we're looking at it kind of taking that 60,000-foot level look at it saying, we are becoming in this nation a party of big government and a party of

freedom loving americans. this issue isn't a partisan issue. it's not an inside type baseball issue that only the pundits and the politicians themselves will understand. we understand with this issue that president bush had a good idea in cutting the payroll tax and president obama at first, he didn't want any of those to be extended and he had even said as a candidate and then as president, he said, it's poor policy to increase anybody's taxes at a time of this economy. >> steve: we'll find out what capitol hill does. >> we'll find out. but the fewer dollars that politicians in washington, d.c. have of ours, the better. >> brian: all right. stay out of trouble in new york. >> thank you so much. >> gretchen: coming up, mitt romney became, will he become the hillary clinton of 2012? the front runner who suddenly falls behind. dr. larry sabato, who has predicted every presidential race correctly, looks into his crystal ball next

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>> gretchen: coming up on america's news room. we continue with sarah palin. we'll talk about her looking backward and forward. what is her role now on the littlecal stage? we'll get her take on the president's improving poll numbers. and they're calling him the taiwanese tebow. is jeremy lin channeling divine intervention? all that coming up when we see you at the top of the hour. >> gretchen: is mitt romney the hillary clinton of 2012? take a look at this through the first nine contests of the primary season, eight of the results have been the same with mitt and hillary matching victories in every state but maine. what does this mean for the rest of the gop race? dr. larry sabato takes a closer

look. i love this topic. so what similarities do you see? >> gretchen, first of all, those romney and hillary were establishment candidates, supported by the leadership of the party, but not necessarily the base. a lot of pieces of the base wanted to go in another direction. their key demographics that have been opposed to hillary and now opposed to mitt romney. in the republican party that, base includes evangelicals and tea party activists. that's something that is a real warning for romney as he looks back to what happened to hillary clinton in 2008: there are also major differences. >> gretchen: there is the single issue position. what do you mean by that? >> well, the candidates have a single issue that has caused problems for them with the base. hillary clinton had the vote against the iraq war and mitt romney, of course, had romneycare. and that has caused major problems for romney just as the

iraq war issue dogged hillary clinton all the way to the convention in 2008. >> gretchen: you also believe there are noncorrelations between the two. what are they? >> i think the biggest is that the gap between romney's money and organization and that of the rest of the field is enormous. in hillary clinton's case, she actually had an opponent who outorganized her and outraised her in financial terms. of course, that opponent is sitting in the white house right now, barak obama. so it really matters who runs and how organized and well financed they are. that's romney's great advantage and it's why the ending for romney may be different than the ending for hillary clinton. >> gretchen: is that your crystal ball prediction? >> i think it's probable. i think it's probable. i'm going to stick to probable right now. this is such a crazy season. >> gretchen: i know. >> i've been around a long time. this is one of the craziest ever. >> gretchen: i got to go. good to see you. more "fox & friends" straight ahead.

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