for analysis weal talk with kevin merida managing editor of the "washington post." and david leonhardt, washington bob orro cheat "new york times." it's cold outside but getting warmer inside because this is "face the nation." captioning sponsored by cbs from cbs news in washington, "face the nation" with bob schieffer. >> schieffer: and good morning again. well the blizzard 2013 may have set records in some areas for snowfall. five states received over two and a half feet of snow. 40 million people in the region have been affected. over 350,000 are still without power in the northeast. and so far, eight deathhave been attributed to the storm. it is bound to get worse as weather forecasters tell us another storm is on the way. massachusetts is among the states who were hardest hit and

we're joined now by the massachusetts governor, "the expats" deval patrick. good morning, governor. i know you're in preliminarying on the this morning but it look likes will you're in the swiss alpis. how did the state come through the night? >> we came through pretty well. we are holding our own. we have 250,000 customers without power, down from a high of 400,000 yesterday, about 1,000 people in shelters, some coastal damage. but considering want severity of the storm, the amount of snow, and the wind we've come through this pretty well. >> schieffer: how about flooding? >> we've had some coastal flooding with high tide yesterday around 10:00. there is some structural damage, which we're still assessing now that we can get out and get eyes on things. but no serious injuries from those-- from the flooding, which is a blessing. >> schieffer: at this point what is the major challenge you have? >> it's cleaning up getting the

power back on. we're trying to make sure that public transit is fully functioning in time for tomorrow's commute, tomorrow morning's commute. we've had the m.b.t.a. our transit system, in suspended operations really since friday. and that will continue through the day. i think we'll be able to get the subways going and the commuter rail. it's a challenge to get the buses going because some of the secondary roads still snead to be cleared but we're working on that today. >> schieffer: what do you need from the federal government? >> well, support and encouragement. they've been great. our fell tow fellow governors in neighboring states have sent equipment and people to help as well, which is most welcomed and appreciated. we have really ready terrific coordination by our own state emergency management, with all of the state agencies local agencies and the federal government. so i think it's too soon to say exactly what we need from the federal government but they continue to check in and have routinely to make sure that we have what we need as we go

along. >> schieffer: there are reports that there's another big storm coming. are you ready for that? >> i don't even of the to think about it, to tell you the truth. i've heard that we may get a valentina day storm. i'll tell you what's more concerning in the shorter run is that we may get rain tomorrow. warmer temperatures which will be great, but rain on top of snow that is so far pretty light on flat roofs and so forth can be a hazard. so we are encouraging people as they can do so-- safely-- to use snow rakes and so forth to start to move the snow off of their roofs. >> schieffer: well governor we want to thank you very much and all the best to you. >> thank you so much, bob, all the best to you. >> schieffer: joining us two key members of the senate armed services committee, republican lindsey graham in miami this morning where the weather is a little better, and democrat jack reed is here with us in the studio, far away from the snow this morning in his home state of rhode island. how is jur state doing,

senator? >> we took a very major blow but the state's responding very well. we have about 70,000 people still without power. that's key issue because power and boilers operate together typically. the governor our. adjunct general, our state police commander did a superb job of preparing, and the utilities are doing all they can to get the power back on. i'm headed up there immediately after this show. >> schieffer: all right, senator graham, i want to talk to you about indoor t t activities because it's gotten warmer here on capitol hill last week during all those confirmation hearings. it was pretty obvious during those hearings senator that you are still not satisfied with the administration's version of what happened on that night when four americans died in benghazi. you brought it up during the hearings that the president was briefed on all of that about 5:00 in the afternoon and then had no other contact with the secretary of defense, with the

joint chiefs chairman or with secretary of state clinton. we also understand that on that night, the state department, or the government chartered an airplane in tripoli and flew some security agents in to benghazi. but it's my understanding, they were heldum at the airport. tell us what you found out about that. >> well, there's a six-person rescue team left tripoli to reinforce the annex in benghazi. they left at 1:30-- excuse me they aride at 1:30 in the morning libyan time. it was not until 5:00 that they could get to the annex. they were held up for three and a half hours at the airport had problems with the militias releasing them and a lot of bureaucratic is that fuse. here's my question-- did the president ever pick up the phone and call the libyan government and say "let though people out of the airport. they need to get to the annex to protect our people under siege?" did the president at any time

during the eight-hour attack pick up the phone and call anybody in libya to get help for these folks? secretary clinton said she was screaming on the phone at libyan officials. there's no voice in the world like that of the president of the united states. and i do believe if he had picked up the phone and called the libyan government these folks could have gotten out of the airport to the annex and the last two guys may very well be alive. if and he did call the libyan officials and they sort of blew him off that would affect whether or not i would give foreign aid in the future to libya. but if he failed to call on behalf of those people under siege, and i think that's a massive failure of leadership by our commander in chief. >> schieffer: have you tried to find out if he did call? >> i've tried-- we know he had a 15-minute briefing by secretary panet and the chairman of the joint chiefs right after the attack happened. it was a preplanned meeting. it just happened that benghazi came up at the meeting. i don't know what the president did that evening. i don't know if he ever called anyone. i know he never talked to the

secretary of defense. i know that he never talked to the chairman of the joint chiefs. and they never talked to anybody at the white house. i know the secretary of state never talked to the secretary of defense. this was incredibly mismanaged. and what we know now it seems to be a very disepigauged president. again, if he had lent his voice to this cause, i think it would have made a big difference. and i'm not going to stop until we get an accounting. i pushed back against the bush administration. we know nothing about what the president did on the night of september 11 during a time. national crisis, and the american people need to know what their commander in chief did, if anything during the eight-hour attack. >> schieffer: what can you really do about it? you can ask them what the president was doing. if they don't give you an answer what, can you do? >> i don't think we should allow brennan to go forward the c.i.a. directorship hagel to be confirmed for secretary of defense, until the white house gives us an accounting.

did the president ever pick you want pope and call anyone from the libyan government to help these folks? what did the president do? we know he talked to the israeli prime minister from 8:00 to 9:00 on september 11 about a dust-up of a democratic platform and the fact he didn't meet the prime minister of israel when he came to new york to visit. but that's not related to libya. what did he do that night? that's not unfair. the families need to know. the american people need to know. >> schieffer: i'm not sure i understand. what do you plan to do if they don't give you an answer? are you going to put a hold on these nominations? >> yes, " why i'm going to ask my colleagues, can just like they did with john golpin, joe biden said no confirmation without information. when secretary clinton said she had a clear-eyed assessment of the threat in libya that turned out not to be true. want department of defense knew of the cable saying they

couldn't defend the consulate. the secretary of state didn't know any of this. so she was blind. the president was disengaged and the dodd department of defense never launched an airplane. this is a complete system failure. and chaim going to get to the bottom of it. i don't think it's fair to ask these questions. quite frankly, how could they say after panet and dempsey said they knew it was a terrorist attack. how could susan rice come on to your show and say there's flow evidence of a terrorist attack when the secretary of defense and chairman of joint chestles said they knew that night? i think that was a misleading narrative three weeks before our application. >> schieffer: let me just make sure, because you're about to make some news mere, i think. are you saying that you are going to block the nominations -- you're going to block them from coming to a vote until you get an answer to this. john mccain has already said he doesn't think the republicans ought to filibuster this.

what will you do? you're just going to put a hold on it. >> i'm not-- >> schieffer: and what-- >> i'm not filibustering. >> schieffer: what would they have to do then to bring this to a vote? >> i want to know who changed the talking points. who took the references to al qaeda out of the talking points given to susan rice? we still don't know. richard burns, saxby chambliss discovered e-mails discussing change the talking points. i think her story after what we found out was incredibly misleading. i want to know what our president did. what did he do as commander in chief? did he ever pick up the phone and call anybody? i think this is the stuff the country needs to know. we pushed back against bush. we asked for rumsfeld to resign after iraq went to shambles. chaim not going to stop until we get to the bottom of it. >> schieffer: all right. >> if it hadn't been for the investigations and your show we would still think it was a video that caused a riot and the senator was hands on.

>> schieffer: senator reed, i have to ask you, can senator graham do this? >> this is unpress dented unwarranted to stop or attempt to try to stop the nomination of a sopped. we need the men and women-- the men and women of the department of defense need a secretary of defense. he has been supported by madeleine albright brent scowcroft, by a host of alexanders knowledgeable of national security patriots who served both republicans and democrats. the same way with mr. brennan. and the central intelligence agency. i think the issues of benghazi are important. the report that ambassador pickering did was quite thorough, indicated the situation, the confusion. and i think something else that has to be recognized is that...

there was attacks on our embassies in cairo. in fact mobes were storming the gates purpose there were threats throughout the region. the idea that the president was not engaged is, i think completely wrong. he directed the secretary of defense, as secretary panetta testified, to begin moving assets into the region to provide any response. ambassador pickering, admiral mullen concluded a response would be difficult if not impossible because of time and space. >> schieffer: a lot of people don't know want rules of the senate. senator graham said he's simply going to put a hold on these nominations. you say that's unwarranted. but what will happen next if he does that? >> well i would hope we would have in regular order a hearing and a vote on senator haig expel haig expel brennan and then we would bring it to the floor. i can't recall a secretary of defense that has not least had

an opportunity to have their nomination brought to the thereafter senate. the last example was senator tower. it was brought to the popular. it was defeated but it received an up-or-down vote. these are critical offices, the secretary of defense, at a time when we're looking at sequester, looking forward-- looking at crises across the globe to dwell on a trag i think ofic incident and use that to block people is not appropriate. to ask legitimate questions as senator graham is doing is completely appropriate. but then to turn around and say "i'm going to disrupt, essentially, the nomination of two key members of the president's cabinet," i don't think that's appropriate. i don't think it's warranted. think it is an over-reaction that is not going to serve the best interests of going forward for the security of the newt. >> schieffer: all right, senator grarnlg i'll give you a short response. i'll give you the last word here. >> jack is a very dear friend. we're going to get to the bottom of benghazi.

the administration has been stonewalling before the election and after. they've been misleading. they've been deceptive. and they have been delaying and haven't been forth coming. in a constitutional democracy away need ton what our commander in chief was doing at a time of great crisis and this white house has been stonewalling the congress and i'm going to do everything i can to get to the bottom of this so we'll learn from our mistakes and hold this president accountable for what i think is tremendous disengagement at a time of it national security crisis. >> schieffer: all right, we have to end it right there. i want to thank both of you. we'll be hearing more about this and be back in just a few minutes with the chairman of the house intelligence commit canny, mike rogers more and more energy. the world needs more energy. where's it going to come from? ♪ ♪ that's why right here in australia, chevron is building one of the biggest natural gas projects in the world. enough power for a city

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what lindsey graham and jack reed were talking about there. of course people in the house don't vote on the confirmation. that's the senate's business. but senator graham sounds pretty-- pretty set that he's going to do everything he can to block this unless he gets some answers. >> well, i do think answers appropriate. there was catastrophic failure in the decisions from a security perspective from the state department on keeping the ambassador and the employees in benghazi safe. that to me is clear. we've done our intelligence investigation in the house, some 4,000 cables cables and documents. it was clear the threat stream was very real, which is why i think the secretary of defense panet said yesterday they knew that night and the joint chiefs said in testimony yes they knew that night it was a terrorist attack just by the sheer volume. the question here is what happened? why did the state department fail those people that were in the field in benghazi? that is not clear yet and i think the american people deserve at least to understand what failures happened and how

we're going to prevent that moving forward. >> schieffer: let me ask you about something that former vice president dick cheney said last night. dick cheney has had the heart transplant. he seems to be up and running and going full steam. he told a group of republicans last night talking about the nominees that the president has put forward so far. he said, the performance it's request this is a direct quote: what would you say about that? >> well, i know one thing, we have first-rate problems. when you look at the security in northern africa, the growing, metaft sizing of al qaeda in the northern magreb-- >> schieffer: do you think these people are up to the job? do you think mr. cheney is right or is that maybe a little beyond how you would-- >> it may be a little beyond where i'm going. i do believe the policy

formation that we're walking into here when it comes to syria, which is by the way there is now no good solution in syria today. the best thing we can hope for is the best worst option moving forward. we need very quickly to turn the tide in syria. and i don't mean to win it. ip mean just to getinous a position where we can mitigate what bad things are going to happen in syria in the months ahead. same with northern africa. we've got huge dangerous challenges approaching the united states, and i don't be will-- believe we've configuredly ourselves, our resources or policies will to confront them in a way that will cause an impact. >> schieffer: i want to ask you did drones, when we should use them. first off, has the administration been straight with congress on sharing information about what the rules are about using these weapons? >> i think they have. listen, for months-- there's a change in 2008 in july under the

previous administration, jon of george bush, that changed the way we could use airstrikes to al qaeda. that changed in july of '08. it ramped up. and that was taken over when barack obama became president. as the chairman of the house intelligence commit, even as a member, was awear in part of those discussions. and now as chairman even before they conducted that first airstrike that took awlaki-- remember this was a guy trying to kill a whole bunch of u.s. citizens over detroit on christmas day. this guy's a bad guy. our options were limited. this was a tool we could use to stop further terrorist attacks against americans. i supported it then. monthly, i have my commit go to the c.i.a. to review them. i as chairman review every single airstrike that we use in the war on terror both from the civilian and military side when it comes to terrorist strikes.

there is plenty of oversight here. there's not an american list somewhere overseas for targeting. that does not exist. and i think there's been some sensationalism. this is a serious matter, but i do think the oversight rules have been, i think-- >> schieffer: it is an extremely complicated matter. but what about the argument that civil liberties groups make that if a person is a u.s. citizen, if even if he's a bad guy he has certain rights after the constitution. and you can't just say "okay, we're going to kill him." >> in the united states, that's true. if you join forceses with the enemy, we have a long-standing tradition in this country that that in and of itself you lose your constitutional protection. are you engaged engaged in bridge represent activities against the united states. this happened in world war i, world war ii where americans would join forces with people at war with the united states, and when you do that, you sacrifice your rights. so this is someone who had sworn off his citizenship, had been

actively planning terrorist attack against the united states the most notable was the one over detroit on christmas day and but for a quarter of an inch of an injector that would have gone off and killed hundreds on the plane, if not thousands on the ground. he was a serious al qaeda player. he picked his team. this is not an american citizen of the united states. does not apply, none of this. this is only enemy belligerence with the enemy overseas. >> schieffer: we're going to ask you to stick around for page two. we're going to talk about the idea is the united states vulnerable to cyber attacks and how much of a problem it is. i know you have thoughts about that. we'll be interested to hear what you have to say. you'll be with us with a panel of experts on page two. mr. chairman, until then thanks. i'll be back in a moment now with some personal thoughts.

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family's personal e-mail accounts. in the past, when journalists got personal information about public figures, we normally didn't publish it, unless we determined it was,. >> if true and, second, was in the public's interest to know. did it show the person was dishonest? did his private life impact on his public responsibility? publishing the pentagon papers revealed a government making public statements about the vietnam war that it knew to be false. the watergate revelations revealed a cancer of government corruption. making public personal phone numbers and family conversations about the health of an ill father are no one's business but the family. for the most part the mainstream media handled the bush e-mail hacking with restraint. we report the the hacking. that is news but little else. still, the episode is a less-than-gentle reminder of how technology is redefining our culture, the whole idea of privacy, and, yes the respect or lack of respect that honest

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♪ ♪ >> we're talking with ryan

villopoto who'll be riding the monster energy car tomorrow. >> 30,000 people expected. >> how do you stay focused? >> each year the best riders on the planet assembled to fight the monster energy ama supercross and fim world championship. 17 round side will take place or five months in stadiums across north america. the miss most competitive fields in the sport ryan villopoto has won two straight supercross championships for the task and forward bears the weight of all that success has extracted from his life. >> do i love it? yeah, i do love it. but this isn't everything for me. i will walk tomorrow. i will walk away. >> i was on him a lot, pretty hard on him.