for governors running against a mess in washington. >> i don't believe washington is the answer to the problems. i believe washington is the problem. chris: meanwhile, president obama also trying to distance himself from all of that dysfunction. there was this week's dinner with a few republicans willing to sit down with him and he's headed for big meetings next week at the capital. david, let me ask you about the president's latest kumbaya, whatever it is, sitting down with people, stuff he doesn't usually like to do. stock market numbers high, jobs numbers great but his numbers dropping. does that explain why he has to change his pattern of being politically? >> i'm a sucker for bipartisanship. so when the president decides to reach out to republican senators and have a dinner with them and talk privately about the shape of a deal that would begin to solve a country's fiscal problems, i say, you know, thank goodness, about time. i think that's what he should be doing. there's an interesting strategy behind what he did with these republican senators, which is to get a senate-first strategy. if he can peel off enough of

these republicans who are willing to talk about a deal, he can get a budget bill through the senate and then puts pressure on the house. and then the house and boehner can't be the stopper that keeps action -- chris: final go be get boehner to release troops? >> a lot of democrats and enough -- enough republicans in the house who if the senate passes a bill would have to -- i think it's a smart thing. i'm glad he did it. chris: never heard that. kathleen, is it for real like david says or phony setup? >> to be the contrairian and you're adorable, david. i love everything you said. i'm a sucker for bipartisanship, too. but i also think president obama was holding this dinner in part because he can now make the case, look, everybody else is making the case for him, including u. look, he's gone the extra mile. extending olive branch. when things go down, can he blame republicans. he's the one who tried. >> he doesn't have anything to lose by doing this. even if it doesn't work, he says, ok, i did reach out and bit way, i think this is the result of the white house

miscalculation over what will happen with the fourth budget cuts. they figured we succeeded in the fiscal liff. we got republicans to raise taxes. on the top 1%. we're going to do it again and they didn't realize the extent to which the republicans would dig in and say, sorry, we just gave at the office a couple months ago. we're not going to do it again. chris: one theory is the president is trying to get around the far right because the far right basically has to control mitch mcconnell, primary him out of kentucky or certainly boehner, who needs their votes to say speaker. he's going around as you were saying, basically cherry-picking, looking for republicans that will deal with him. one of those persons cherry-picked, lindsey graham, who basically put together the dinner is already being threatened in the last hours of the week with a big primary challenge because he was out there subbing with the president the great new hero of the right wing, rand paul, fighting with the filibuster. >> that's what is so great about the republican party now, one thing people miss about the

sequester is the 50% of it is defense cuts. this republican party has decided to put cutting the deficit in front of keep piling money into defense. that's the real lindsey graham/rand paul divide. and that's why in some ways democrats can't say this but they're actually quietly ok with the sequester. what it does is it cuts defense in a way -- the political process would not be able to do. obviously obama has always wanted this grand bargain. the politics is not been able to work for it. but he's also said -- chris: isn't this the bargain? isn't this second best solution by both sigh, this sequester? >> yes. chris: is this the solution? >> if the depresses demand too much -- chris: it's not doing that apparently. >> if it doesn't, i'm all for it. >> there's a possibility to adjust among different budget counts talking to people who run our military services, talking

to people in the intelligence community, they do have real problems and they're not going to be able to watch a spy satellite. they're having trouble juggling ship positions. chris: my question goes back to you, is there incentive enough for both parties to give, real gliv until it hurts? the fact the republicans have to raise substantial revenues. democrats would have to eat into medicare. i mean, i can't see the incentives. >> i think the incentive is long-term fiscal stability. i think obama's now playing the legacy game. and what he talked about at the famous dinner this last week was the cuts hee prepared to discuss in social security, in terms of indexation to social security and medical spin. is he going after programs that are sacred for democrats? >> i think -- >> the union said, i will cut medicare by the same amount as bowles simpson. where has been the republican equivalent? >> when it's in their own

long-term political self-interest as well as in the economy's interest, they will cut a deal. >> i don't think it's republicans' interests 0 to make a deal now. why would they? >> not right now. i'm not saying right now but i'm saying eventually, over -- chris: that's my quandary. why would any republican running as career floigs have it on his or her record they raise taxes? >> they get tax reform. so maybe they lower rates. chris: is that true? >> that could be the tradeoff. >> that's the linchpin, significant title reform or no taxes. there's no way to meet in the middle. >> you're forgetting saying i helped make government work responsively for the people is going to be, i think, an increasingly popular appeal for republicans and democrats. that's what chris christie tells us. that's what jeb bush tells us. chris: let's look at 2016, also coming up. huge week for presidential politics. jeb bush was every why. certainly sounds like he's running for president.

listen to how he answered matt lauer's inevitable question. >> you will not definitively rule out a run for president in the year 2016? >> i won't but i'm not going to declare today either, matt. chris: i'm not going to declare today either. we put it to the matthews meter, 12 very smart people, does it look like jeb's running. nine say yes. gloria, you're on the bullish side. >> i think jeb bush waited this last time out because he understood the country had bush fatigue. the question is now -- chris: rested enough for more stpwhush >> and whether they're well rested enough for perhaps another bush/clinton race, which by the way, we could actually have again in this country. >> amazing. chris: andrew, andrew -- >> and would the republican party be ready for another bush? >> i love your -- andrea, i love the fact you relish certain passions here. is one the perception that jeb is doing what it looks like he's

doing? >> am i giving you the shakes here? >> the whole idea of a bush/clinton election, another bush/clinton election in a country of 300 million people, something has gone wrong. something has gone horribly wrong here. >> aren't there any other people? chris: is that all there is? >> another generation whose movie stars never age? we keep still having the same election. god help us. i think the word bush is still too closely associated with the worse presidency of the 20th century. and the damage -- chris: will jeb run? >> yes. chris: will he win? >> i think he's running. i think he may change his mind depending how things going. once people have heard jeb bush speak and he's extremely articulate and well versed on any issue, people will say that's no bush i know. i think he can stand out for that. chris: you're from florida? >> originally california.

chris: i always liked him. i think likeability is still the key in politics. >> you look at this, you have chris christie suddenly likable guy. chris: one more word here. gloria? >> jeb bush -- >> win or not win? >> very likable. he is running. my suspicion chris christie will eat him alive. chris: president obama seems to have come around to the notion he can gain by hanging around with a republican congress. we saw it this week. there are fascinating parallels in a new tape posted by the lippeden johnson president's library. johnson coming up playing republican house leader gerry ford like a fiddle in that year's debt ceiling fight, boil down a long conversation. listen to ford aasking johnson to even discuss the issue. >> can i talk to you about another matter? >> yes, sir, anything want to, any time. as a matter of fact i recept a little bit you don't call me. >> we have debt limitation up tomorrow. >> you know what, i'm a good country girl. i can feel it when you do it to me. i have been doing it to you all, all these years. i know what you dorks run my

deficit up past eisenhower. >> oh, goodness. chris: and more great stuff here in the johnson tapes. gridiron weekend in washington, of course. that's a peg for this johnson excerpt we found. listen to the president johnson, already pulled down in the vietnam war. refuses to go to the gridiron dinner that year, completely rejected a pitch from the gridiron club president. >> at dinner, we will have, pardon the expression, kennedy and reagan. against that background it seems to me that there's an opportunity for you -- it's an opportunity to set the great dignity of the presidency against these two upstarts. i think it might be a dramatic thing. >> i don't think it does you a damn bit of good. i never found it does. i think you go out and all you do, just sit there while they show their naked legs and act like they're funny and good dancers and horse singing and a lot of crap.

then they spend all of their time trying to be funny. and i think it's best for you all to just embrace bobby and wrap him up and go on and live with him and have good time and then take reagan too. chris: don't think he wanted to hear bobby kennedy would be there. since that year, other presidents ducked the gridiron, including barack obama last year when he was campaigning and might not have loved the idea of hanging out with a bunch of reporters in white tie . when we come back, new documentary on dick cheney. does he have second thoughts? not a chance. plus, "scoops an predictions" from the notebooks.

seeker. >> that's our fight every day to get the facts straight. chris: welcome back. a new dick cheney documentary that will air on showtime this friday night. here's part of the trailer.

>> what do you consider your main faults? >> my main fault? i don't spend a lot of time thinking about my faults would be the answer. it's a war-time situation. it was more important to be successful then it was to be loved. if i had to do it over again, i would do it in a minute. chris: kathleen, that's the great question, of course. there's dick cheney back again. never a popular figure among a lot of people in the left and center. he interviewed george w. bush, does he agree cheney was the boss? >> oh, sure! chris: how do you delicately get to, a lot of people think cheney was the power behind the throne? >> president obama would -- president bush would never make a administration even if it were true. he was command ner chief and proud of the fact and said it on. let's put it this way, if you had a former secretary of defense on your staff as your vice president, when we were hit on 9/11, wouldn't you turn to

him for advice? chris: why go to war with a country that had nothing to do with until until >> -- with 9/11? >> you have to ask them that. i have no idea. chris: it's an attempt ton his part to resuscitate his image somehow. >> really? that's what i find admirable about cheney. he will actually go out in public and say yes, i authorize the torture of people and i'm proud of it. and conventions can go jump off a cliff and i'm glad of it. that is an admission, by the way, of a crime. authorize torture of countless people. we now know authorized torture of people by iraqi militants as well. chris: the question is even larger then torture y. did we go to war? >> here's what struck me in what cheney is saying, it's better to be successful then to be loved. chris: what does love have to do with the discussion? >> which wasn't successful. so that to me -- >> he had this image of himself as the machiavellian, famous

machiavellian, better to be feared then loved. i suppose there's a way in which that is true. but he doesn't begin to understand how much damage he did to the united states. he doesn't see how he providesened our alliances. he doesn't see we're still recovering -- >> he thinks it's a success. >> it's not occurred to him how much damage he did. that's what bothers me. chris: my concern about the docket i saw. some damages but will narcissism. what does he feel and think. it should be about objective history we're trying to figure out. how we got into that war. >> want politicians, people who have been vice president to have a reflective quality. great leaders tend to. >> only thing i would suggest about dick cheney is that among other things, he's not an oprah kind of guy. he's not going to jump up and down on the couch. if you want him to talk about his faults just as we wanted president bush to talk about his mistakes, he's not going to give it to you. i don't know if it's a reflection of his inability to be reflective or whether it's --

>> can i just say i have yet to meet a politician who is naturally reflective. i don't know about you guys, the politicians that i cover move on to the next thing and they write 500-page books but in a couple of paragraphs in those -- >> what is reflective? >> lately, bill clinton is reflective. chris: carter was. >> i agree with you. >> let me say that -- ok, i will amend to say there are exceptions to the rule. maybe they will look back in history as bill clinton, as bill clinton has done. not a natural -- >> i think infallible self-belief that cheney and that period of the republican party adopted and embraced that with poisonous discourse. adopted and embraced that with poiso[ male announcer ] with citibank it's easy for jay to deposit checks from anywhere. [ wind howling ]

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chris: welcome back. tell me something don't know. >> talk about iran is all about negotiations but the u.s. navy is juggling. its order of ships so makes sure it has two aircraft carriers in the persian gulf this summer when this can turn into more of a confrontation. >> do you think we're going to war in iran this year? >> no. but i think that preparations are being made for the possibility we might. chris: i'm getting that thing i get. sense thing. >>ly tell you, you're right.

planning is being done. >> i will tell you, saw this week the right and the left get together on the issue of drones and i think you're going to see it more in the congress. chris: what do they have in common? >> look for it on the issue of wall street. it's in the interest of the republican now to get back to the main street thing and back to the wall street thing. and it will be against wall street and big banks too big to fail. chris: i think you're on to something. >> a footnote to what david is talking about. of course, you do know that the president is going to israel soon. the word out of the white house is there's no real agenda. it's anything but that because the power of the president's presence is huge. certainly israel sees it and the president is demonstrating he's foursquare with israel in the face of all of these crises in the middle east. chris: is that dangerous territory for him? will he be trapped? >> he will not have a lot of exposure, i suspect.

chris: andrew? >> i think the odds are we will not go to war with iran and the president has no intention of doing so and the hope is we can defuse and neutralize this. but this was -- this was apax weekend and the president only had so much leeway and public opinion also. i think when public opinion actually hits the ground, are we going to go to another war in iran didn't we elect barack obama to do that? they're going to say no and the bluff will be called. chris: when we come back, big question of the week, american society embraces gay marriage question of the week, american society embraces gay marriage and even catholics

chris: welcome back. new poll reflects eenourmous shift in enormous support of gay marriage. 50% of american catholics back it which brings us to this week's big question. what does this say about religion in america, when americans are so willing to set

their own moral courses. david? >> i think america's civic religion, pervasive thing americans believe is libertarianism. don't tread on me is our national motto whether you're republican or democrat. chris: i think naturally protestant. >> i think it's all about demographic. i think younger people by overwhelming margin of support gay marriage. >> i would agree with both of those and add that it's just -- these things take time. as more people know more gay couples and they see there are families like the rest of us, then it changes attitude. chris: my fellow catholic, we were talking about three of us, for of us, will that have any influence on the selection of the next pope? >> zip. i mean, there are so many gays electing the next pope, who knows -- chris: the cardinals? >> yes. >> -- whether that would happen. the most interesting thing, all christian denominations, all

christian denominations favor except one, white evangelicals who oppose it by massive margins. over 75%. that is your republican base. they cannot compromise on this. that issue will kill them as it's killing the church if they don't actually just start being honest. chris: i agree. practicality. thank you for the round table. kathleen parker, andrew sullivan, congratulations, andrew on launching "the dish." great blog is now an independent site. we know you will do well building a solid subscription base. this is an advertisement for andy sullivan. that's the show.

welcome to "on the money." i'm maria bartiromo. surprisingly strong jobs report. but all things as good as they seem. what's next for your money. i'll talk to bond king bill gross and former obama economic adviser austan goolsbee. plus, searching for the latest gadgets from google. the vision from the leader in technology. >> they are pretty cool. it's everybody's favorite time of the year. tax season. last-minute tips from the experts that can save you money. "on the money" begins right now. this is america's number one financial news program, "on the money." now, maria bartiromo. >> here's a look at what's making news as we head into a new week "on the money." a surprisingly strong jobs report for the month of february.

the labor department report that employers added 236,000 now jobs north month. pushed the unemployment rate down to 7.7%. that's the best numbers since december of '08. the most jobs added in more than a year. manufacturing and the services sector, both showed strong growth in jobs. it was a record week in wall street the. the dow industrials reaching an all-time high. each day setting all-time highs. the market has strong tail winds of low interest rates and the federal reserve and lack of bad news from washington driving them with strong earnings. former general electric chairman weller told me the economy can take off if regulators get out of the way. >> this economy is sitting here like this. from underneath is the bad. with all this trade. pressing down from the top, incredible array of new regul regulations and pressures. you've got these two f