"the wall street journal" where it sums it up pretty well where it says company vets stand on newt, quote, he will continue to lose to his number one longtime foe, newt gingrich. 's human hand hen grade who walks around with his hand on the pin saying watch this. why do you think with the possibility of that on the table is newt still surging? is that a fair thing to call him as well, a human hand grenade? >> never underestimate newt gingrich's ability to talk himself back into third or fourth place. what's important to remember about why he's surging is he has been talking to the base since he has -- since he left the speakership. he's been on fok nex news, done books tours to the republican base. he's not a new figure. but it is reflective on romney and he is making the right choice to go after him. he has to be careful because going after him too close to the primary won't make him look good in that light. >> governor strickland, you came

into congress in the twilight of newt's time on capitol hill. are you surprised there still this much vitriol by the establishment when his name comes up? is that a good thing for him? >> well, it's not a good thing for him but i understand it. newt has a history and those of us who served with him understand that history. we know what he was like as speaker. and we're not at all surprised that there's such a pushback now coming from mr. romney and others. ron paul is pushing back fiercely against newt gingrich, and i agree that if he were to become the republican nominee, it would be a death wish for the republican party come next november. i don't know if he'll emerge as the nominee or not, but this is one fight that's fun to watch, i can tell you. >> susan, are social conservatives going to feel comfortable going with either gingrich or romney? can one of them make a stronger appeal basically to the social conservatives at the debate in iowa this weekend?

>> well, i think it's going to be more about who is going to be able to get the economy going again. that's what the voters are going to be most focused on. yes, social conservatives, they do care about these issues, but frankly there's not a big difference between romney and begin gricingrich. >> so a newt spokesman saying about those who chose not to attend the trump debate, they're going to be the leader of the free world and they can't face questions from donald trump? you might want to e evaluate if you're ready. if he wants to stay on message and say he wants to remain positive, he can have the surrogates do the dirty work. >> well, thomas, newt gingrich has so much baggage. quite frankly, if he were to get on the airplane, it may bring down the plane. he has so much baggage and now the religious social conservatives with embrace this man is beyond me.

they're going to have to just turn off a lot of their prior thinking about what is acceptable in a presidential candidate. if they're going to embrace newt gingrich. he's an anathema to what they say they believe in terms of social conservatism. and the evangelical community i think is going to have a huge problem with newt gingrich. on the other hand, mitt romney is a much more stable person, and he's demonstrating that throughout his life and in his advertising as a matter of fact. so this is a fight that i think democrats are enjoying watching. it's really going to be interesting to see who emerges. quite frankly, i think the republican base is not in love with any of their candidates and that's what we're seeing in this fight. >> you make a great point about romney touting his 42 years of marriage, his family life, being a father, a grandfather. susan, if newt goes negative, would that be like handing a raw steak to a pack of doberman pinchers? >> great much, yes. he can't afford to go negative.

i mean, there's no doubt about it. because he has too much baggage, like the governor just said. it would just work completely against him. >> susan, governor strickland, great to have you on with me. president obama fighting political battles inside and outside of the beltway. the president is still at odds with republican lawmakers over how to pay for that payroll tax cut extension, and he had some candid words for 2012 candidates who claimed his middle east policy position was one of appeasement. take a listen. >> ask osama bin laden and the 22 out of 30 top al qaeda leaders who have been taken off the field whether i engage in appeasement. or whoever is left out there, ask them about that. >> nbc's mike viqueira live at the white house for us this morning. mike, there's a lot on the administering's plate right now with the clock ticking down. so what is the priority as we get closer to the new year? >> reporter: right. on the 25th, of course, is

christmas but we're also 25 days away from iowa. between now and then, between now and christmas and everybody leaves town, including a planned obama family vacation to hawaii, they are going to have to come to some agreement. the president and republicans and the democrats in congress on this extension of the payroll tax cut. as you know, it's due to expire at the end of the year. it was agreed to by the president and mitch mcconnell last december when we had a similar fight about extending bush tax cuts, this was sort of thrown in. it means $1,000 in tax cuts over the course of the next year for the average american family and the president is hammering home. house republicans say they are willing to go along with it if the president will allow that controversial pipeline that keystone pipeline from canada to the gulf of mexico to go forward. as you know, that decision was delayed pending more environmental studies. so a back and forth going on here right now. there's also the extension of unemployment benefits and, by the way, the government has been funded over the course of the next year with another

continuing resolution or some appropriations bill. so plenty of nuts and bolts on the agenda as everybody tries to maneuver for the election coming up and the primary and caucus season which starts on january 3rd. >> you make a great point about iowa being just around the corner. mitt romney, of course, is trying to rebound to the top of the polls by putting out that family friendly campaign ad taking a slight dig at newt gingrich. but also the romney camp is also going after president obama with a web message taking a shot at the president's love of being on the links. >> they call it fore, and they're asking for supporters of the romney campaign to donate $18, i guess $1 per hole, trying to make the point that the president has played a lot of golf, and without a doubt the president is fond of golf, often going out to andrews air force base on the weekends to play. if you compare the amount of golf he's done with his predecessor, george w. bush famously gave up the game of golf after the wars had begun. but in terms of vacation time,

the president doesn't really take that much. he plays golf mostly on vacation himself or on the weekend. some of the calculations, some 1800 holes of golf the romney campaign calculated that president obama has played may or may not be accurate. for example, the day they killed osama bin laden, the white house probably wouldn't mind me reminding everybody the president cut short a golf game. only played nine games. unclear whether that was added into the calculation. obviously mitt romney trying to make hay out of that relatively minor thing here as we head into this campaign, all the white house certainly doesn't mind taking on mitt romney. >> nbc's mike viqueira at the white house for us this morning. thank you. police have released the name of the police officer who was shot and killed on the campus of virginia tech. derek crouse was a 39-year-old husband father of five. a gunman fatally shot crouse during a routine traffic stop thursday before abarntly killing himself. officials released more information about a suspect at a news conference saying he was not a student and not apparently connected to the university

either now or in the past. >> we are very confident we know who this individual is. however, do to protocol, the medical examiner's office must make that positive identification, and then we notify the next of kin, and at that point we will be able to release his name. >> virginia tech students gathered at the stone plaza memorial last night. many said yesterday's shooting stirred up memories of the 2007 massacre when 33 people were killed. newly surfaced video from inside a new york hotel is raising a lot of new questions about whether one of the world's most influential financial figures was the target of an elaborate setup. the surveillance video shows the former head of the international monetary fund, dominique strauss-kahn, checking out of the hotel where he was accused of committing sexual assault against a maid. now, another video shows the accuser appearing to act out the alleged attack. nbc news national investigative correspondent michael isikoff joins us live from washington, d.c. michael, there's also this

additional piece of video where two other employees appear to be doing some kind of victory dance. put these images into context for us. >> reporter: well, it's the last one that's really getting the most attention, thomas, because what it does show is within two minutes of the phone call, the 911 call from the hotel that day, these two hotel security officials do what appears to be a victory dance. i don't know if you have it, you can show it, but they do a mock high-five, they bear hug, one twirls the other and then there's a little jig, and it seems so incongruous to what has just taken place. that one of the hotel employees has just called 911 to report -- or the hotel on behalf of one of its employees has reported a sexual assault. now, i should point out there is really no hard evidence of any grand conspiracy to set dominique strauss-kahn up. on the other hand, you watch that video from these two

security officials who were involved in the efforts to make that 911 call, in fact, they were standing right outside just minutes before that victory dance takes place, and it's hard to understand that sort of reaction. it seems a big surprising and yesterday i spoke to lani davis, formy clinton white house official who is representing the french company that owns the hotel. and he says this dance has nothing to do with the -- any celebration. there's no conspiracy, but on the other hand when asked why they are celebrating like that, he says the only thing he can conclude or say is that they were relieved that the 911 call got made. that does seem a bit of an odd explanation. >> and because dsk had french political aspirations, there was a media speculation this was some type of setup by french foes. >> reporter: right, and this new video is causing a big stir in france. it'sga getting major coverage.

it's fueled the suspicions there was some grand conspiracy. people pointing to connections between the group that owns the hotel and its security officials and president sarkozy's office. dominique strauss-kahn was a socialist who was planning to run for president against sarkozy at the time so the allegation is that perhaps sarkozy's people might in some way have been behind what happened at the hotel that day. again, there's no hard evidence, but there's a lot of speculation along those lines in france today. >> nbc's michael isikoff in washington for us. michael, thank you. dottie sandusky breaking her silence on the sex abuse case against her husband defending him vigorously against that's 52 charges. i will talk with the attorney for alleged victim number nine. plus, a deal is reached on the european debt crisis but not everybody is on board with this one. a look at how wall street is reacting right now for you. take a look at the boards as we

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welcome back. the wife of former penn state football coach jerry sandusky is adamantly denying allegations her husband abused young boys. sandusky was released last night on bail after two new accusers stepped forward. he's under house arrest facing criminal accusations from ten young many and facing more than 50 counts. his wife dottie says i have been shocked and dismayed by the allegations made against jerry. i continue to believe in injury a's innocence and all the good things he has done. i am joined by chuck schmidt, one of the young man alleging abuse. your client is a 19-year-old

young man who ways safes sexually abused by sandusky in 2004. what specifically are the allegations that your client has come forward with? >> tom, thank you for having me. he was a participant in the second mile program in 2004. at that time after an activity, a planned activity, he was taken back to mr. sandusky's office in one of the athletic facilities, and he was given alcohol and then a sex act was performed upon him. >> when you talk about alcohol being given to this young man on the campus of penn state, we've heard a lot of things, we have read a lot of things in the grand jury report obviously from the original eight, now these two other people have come forward, one being your client. we have never heard that alcohol has been given to any of the suspected victims. >> yeah, i'm aware of that. of course, there are a lot of people out there that haven't come forward yet.

>> when you talk about what happened on the penn state campus with alcohol, what does your client say about what he was served? was this something where jerry sandusky was encouraging -- allegedly encouraging this minor to drink? and what does he say about the instance, that specific instance, on the campus? >> yes. he was groomed by mr. sandusky in a relatively brief conversation where mr. sandusky asked him why he was participating in the second mile program. he was then given a glass of whiskey, which he was asked to consume, and thereafter mr. sandusky performed a sexual act on him. >> chuck, how many times did occurrences of inappropriate sexual behavior happen? is it just one time your client is alleging or is it more? >> one time only. >> one time only.

and when we talk about what the investigators have now come forward in respect to the additional charges that have been filed which are attributed to your client? >> neither one of the two additional charges are my client, tom. i wanted to clarify that. i represent another person who has been -- has not been identified by the grand jury but who has alleged that he was sexually molested by mr. sandusky. >> chuck, you have done your own investigation within your offices internally into this, correct? >> yes, that's correct. >> and what have you found -- >> so far -- >> go ahead. >> i'm sorry. i was going to say so far everything our client has told us we've been able to corroborate. >> chuck schmidt, attorney for one of the abusers -- one of the alleged victims who has come forward alleging sexual abuse against jerry sandusky. chuck, thanks so much. i want to pass along to

everybody we have a live picture of the sandusky house. as we said, jerry sandusky was released after being released on bail. dottie coming out in defense of her attorney. we understand joe amendola, the attorney representing jerry sandusky is on site having a meeting preparing for the hearing coming up on tuesday. also, in reference to dottie sandus sandusky, it is said one of the accusers said he was being molested while dottie was in the house. this is a live picture of the sandusky household. a critical eu summit in brussels has ended with a deal

which leaders could keep europe out of an economic crisis. it's far from a sure thing. one nation remains the key to making all this work. ron insana is cnbc's senior analyst. ron, we have 26 of 27 eu member countries. they have agreed to this new deal. so what is it and explain why britain is being the holdout on this. >> britain is being the holdout because as it long has been the case, they have not wanted to give up their sor rinty. it's why they're not part of the currency union itself and it's also why they don't want to go too far in because europe wants to put a financial transaction tax on. they want budget discipline that's enforced by the entire group. britain is not willing to give on those issues. however, the members of the euro zone who are, in fact, using the euro as a currency have agreed they will tighten their belts and be governed by the entire body. they're trying to make a much tighter union both not just in monetary terms with the currency but also in fiscal terms is

budgets are all in alignment. >> can we pull up the markets now. i want to show ron what's going on. if this deal does work out, ron, as we see green arrows across the board right now. the dow jones up 160 points. we're above the boon mark of 12,000 psychologically. what is it going to mean for the u.s. economy? >> well, you know, what's eironc in a certain sense with the u.s. economy looks just fine. jobless claims fell yesterday to 381,000. consumer confidence is up to a higher reading than expected. and a variety of different numbers have been quite strong irrespective of what's happening overseas. china is slowing down, europe is slowing down. so the european union dean that was announced was helpful to the market. the better than expected economic data was also helpful. and there's no place like home. the u.s. economy, whether you're talking about debt and deficits, whether you're talking about growth, whether you're talking about the political environment, just in absolute and relative terms looks better than the rest of the world and that's what the

stock market appears to be looking down. >> as we close down q4, what issue of the euro zone crisis hasn't been addressed yet? >> they haven't ratified any changes to the treat whyy. it will have to be done by the 26 out of 27 individual nations. china is slowing, europe is slowing. we could slow, although it doesn't look that way. so we're going to be headline-driven for a while. i don't think anybody should get too complacent about the volatility we've seen, but i think the market is probably more inclined to go up than down through the rest of the year. >> ron, nice to see you. thank you so much. >> you too, thomas. thank you. this is, indeed, more than a similarity to jim crowism and poll tax. it is identical. >> straight ahead, a look at one of the nation's strictest voter i.d. laws. plus, election day is always the first tuesday after the first monday in november. why one group says it's time to change all of that. this is $100,000.

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all this week we have been focusing on voter i.d. laws and the challenges they pose for some of the most disin fen from chised among us. south carolina is getting a lot of attention. some are calling the new laws modern day jim crowism. mara joins us to fill us in. >> good morning. it's estimated that blacks are twice as likely as the general population not to have a government-issued photo i.d. and will be one of the groups most disinfranchised by the south carolina law. we spent time with one woman in south carolina who is working around the clock to help people get their proper i.d.s and they quickly realized the challenges involved. these days in sumter, south carolina, a lot of folks have a lot of questions.

>> will that student i.d. allow him to vote. >> is this going to be true? >> this is an informal meeting at the office of dr. brenda williams. >> you wouldn't be allowed to vote as you usually have. >> reporter: why? this year south carolina passed one of the country's strictest new voting laws requiring everyone to show a government issued photo i.d. at the polls starting next year. >> now, you had a photo i.d. before, right? >> yes, ma'am. >> reporter: she's volunteering with people like amanda wolf who doesn't have a current i. dmpl and quickly learned getting one is not so simple. >> we must get your divorce decree first and your marriage license. have a seat here, please. >> reporter: it's a process dr. williams has been through with dozens of others in the area, almost all poor african-american or both, but it's not just happening in south carolina. voter i.d. has become one of the biggest legislative issues of our time. 31 states now require a form of i.d. to vote, including several

2012 battleground states, the strictest laws passed just this year. they have the potential to impact up to 5 million voters in next year's presidential election. advocates say these laws are infective way to prevent voter fraud. >> you can see mara's full report at the grio.com. be sure to watch our special series "block the vote" an investigation of new voting laws around america. the series wraps up tonight on "politics nation" with the reverend al sharpton, 6:00 p.m. eastern only on msnbc. three things that you never want to do on the job unless you want to get fired, of course. drink on the job, call your boss that you work for on capitol hill an idiot, and then, yeah, tweet all about it. plus, a couple living in this million dollar-plus home was collecting welfare. and federal authorities, they knew all about it. we'll explain. details ahead. uarantee me they won't be beat. oh, actually... then i'd be like, you rule! and my kids would be like, you rule!

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the clock ticking on capitol hill with partisan politics holding up crucial legislation for the middle class as well as the unemployed. senate democrats and republicans saw their dueling plans for extending the payroll tax cut fail on the senate floor while house republicans are raising the stakes attaching the keystone pipeline to their payroll tax extension bill. luke russert covers capitol hill and joins us now. luke, there's a lot left to do as we watch the year tick down and we had the clock lit ramaley kicking at the briefing yesterday that president obama gave. does anybody here have the upper hand? >> it's an interesting question, thomas, because earlier this week you could say that democrats definitely did have the upper hand because republicans were still trying to coalesce around a message. they were in the awkward positioning of not liking a payroll tax cut extension because they thought it would harm social security and didn't think it was a permanent fix to the nation's tax code but it put them on the side of wanting to raise taxes for the nation's middle class. they have coalesced around a plan in which they would include the keystone pipeline and

restructure unemployment benefits and freeze the federal pay of workers possibly until 2015 to pay for the extension of the payroll tax cut holiday. that plan would then seem to say now both sides are on equal footing because house republicans are going to coalesce around this plan, it's going to go on the floor probably around tuesday or wednesday of next week and as they have shown in the past in their negotiating tactics, thomas, they will stick to a plan, they will pass it, and they will say, well, the onus is on the senate to show us what they can produce. if they can't produce anything, we've done our plan, we might even get out of town. that's been their strategy before and it usually makes it so president obama and harry reid have to give in to some of their demands. this is a long way from being over. we could see congress being in up until december 23rd i have heard from some aides. that's the big fear on capitol hill. but these are important things, unemployment benefits, their extension, as well as the payroll tax cut holiday.

>> like most americans all working up to the 23rd for sure. luke russert, thank you, sir. >> take care. republican candidates are drawing distinctions between one another in attack ads across the country but there's one political player who is putting big money into influencing the republican race. the democratic nebraska committee. ads like mitt versus mitt help drive the discussion of who these gop hopeful are politically and they give us a preview of how the re-election team will press forward into the quest for four more years. michael shearer is the white house correspondent for "time" magazine. he's joining us this morning. these ads are effective in brining up key flubs. >> you have seen this happen before. back in 1971 richard nixon's dirty tricksters were really messing with the democratic primary trying to soften up the democrats for '72 when nixon would face them. you saw it happen again in 2004

when ed gillespie working for the republican national committee was going around the country giving speeches about how terrible basically the entire democratic field was. once again the obama campaign is really trying to soften up the republican field to establish some narratives, particularly mitt romney who has been the front-runner in almost all measures except for the polls, but they have recently been turning on newt gingrich as well. whoever comes out of this process, there's already a negative story line in place in the minds of voters so then the democratic -- when the obama campaign starts spending on television ads and big ad buying happen, the american people are ready to receive the democratic message. >> currently the conversation about any sitting president in this position catches a lot of flak for whether or not they're governing or just campaigning. how involved is the president in this 2012 strategy currently because we see david axelrod, robert gibbs taking shots at mitt romney and gingrich already. how much of that is signed off by president obama?

>> there's only one strategy at play here, whether it's the chicago campaign headquarters, democratic national committee, or the people at the white house, they're all talking daily by telephone. the president very purposely is not really taking part in this. you saw just recently him on jay leno saying i'll wait for them to be voted off the island before i weigh in. jay carney, the spokesman at the white house, has been arguing that the president isn't paying any attention. it's a distinction without a difference because the people the president is overseeing are working at the d this. c, working at the chicago re-elect. they're very focused on it. >> michael, the ads from democrats from the dnc, could there be a backlash? newt gingrich is saying he's going to stay positive while the dnc is on this offensive. will there be this push to accentuate the positives for their candidate? >> i'm actually very curious to see how long newt gingrich can maintain that pose. newt's problem right now is not the dnc. his problem is mitt romney and the pac supporting mitt romney

who are unleashing an enormous amount of negative attention on newt and he's going to have to deal with that in the coming weeks. everybody in this campaign is going to be going negative at this point. newt is not going to be able to get through the general election without going negative against the president. he's already going negative now. at some point voters cancel that out. i think most political consultants think newt's positioning right now is a way of putting the spotlight on romney to pak him look a little desperate now that he's behind in the polls and we're just a couple weeks from voting. but in the end everybody is going to be going negative. we'll see at the debate on saturday. newt is going to be biting back as well is prediction. >> thank you, sir. be sure to pick up the latest issue of "time" magazine. in the wake of recent sex abuse scandals, there's a new report attempting to shed light on the causes of pedophilia. in that report a leading psychiatric professor says the pedophilia is a medical condition not a moral failing. he argues the condition may be

caused by a biological disorder at birth, a disoferder that is best habituandled with preventi rather than treatment. casey, this article in the daily beast cites the research of several leading psychiatrist, one of them saying, telling me that someone has pedophilia is like someone saying about me that i'm a heterosexual. it doesn't tell me whether i'm kind over cruel, introverted or extroverted, caring or not caring, intelligent or not inat the -- intelligent. >> the title of my piece, as you know, is what science tells us about pedophilia. the quote you just read is from a researcher named fred berlin and he emphasizes the endless variation to be found in this disorder.

the impossibility of making a generalized statement about it. >> as we're seeing with zach tomaselli, he is the young accuser who came forward against bernie fine. zach tomaselli is now facing criminal counts, 14 i believe, in the state of maine because he has admitted to being an abusive camp counselor to a young man, a young boy. are we to believe that this is nature versus nurture because in a lot of instances pedophiles have been abused themselves and they pass on that type of behavior through instances like we're seeing with the zach tomaselli case. >> that's true but i think the most important point to emphasize about that is the vast majority of kids who are abused do not become pedophiles. >> when we talk about the most interesting research out of this, the fact that the psychiatrist, one of them saying there is prevention. what are they saying could be done to label this before you act out on it? how do you prevent something like this if you haven't acted

out an a pedophile tendtendency? >> for instance, james cantor at university of toronto is searching for a biological trademark for this disorder in the hope that he can pinpoint when in development a child might be particularly susceptible to going down this trajectory so it's at that point that a doctor can act, intervene, prevent. >> when we talk about that, that's certainly years down the line if they were even ever able to figure that out. have they been able to show any red flags or triggers that people can watch for now because that's what people need to know now. how best to protect their kids, whether they're in danger from a pedophile or whether they fear that their child is exhibiting some type of behavior or a young man or a young person in their life is exhibiting that type of behavior. >> i think if a parent is actively concerned about behavior they're seeing in their child then the best thing to do is seek out a doctor's perspective. >> it's interesting to see though how this is returning and how the doctor is taking a look

at it, especially right now with what's going on in this country and how the dialogue has been reopened. >> absolutely. >> with what's going on with bernie fine and jerry sandusky. great to see you. the house oversight committee has launched an investigation following the shocking admission by air force officials that as many as 274 sets of cremated partial remains were disposed of in a virginia land fill. leaders of the congressional committee investigating the dover air force base mortuary wrote a letter to department of defense secretary leon panetta on thursday. it requests documents on the allegations of improper handling of remains dating back to 2002. a well to do seattle couple who live in a million dollar lakefront mansion is accused of filing false claims to collect more than $100,000 in welfare over an eight-year period. look at these images of this house. federal investigators say the man and woman collected tens of thousands in food stamps and

disability payments and $135,000 in housing subsidy benefits on the lake right there. inspectors visited the home nine times but none of them reported the possibility of fraud. the couple now facing a federal civil suit to pay the government back. american airlines flight attendants want the show "30 rock" pulled from the carrier's in flight entertainment and they want baldwin slapped with a fine. this following a war of tweets about his removal of the american airlines flight. he was kicked off the flight for refusing to turn off his ipad and he tweeted about that incident. he was playing the game words with friends. american says baldwin was malicious and slanderous towards crew members in his comments. baldwin then said he was going to quit twitter but he has since taken to "the huffington post" where he has written about the incident and written about it now twice. prince charles has picked a photo for his official christmas card this year. the picture was released today showing the prince standing next

to his wife camilla where he holds up his wife's then 3-year-old granddaughter eliza lopes. it was taken on the wedding day of prince william and kate middleton so merry christmas to them. oh, my god! >> i was waiting for that. you had to see it. the holiday season is upon us, and there are some out there that will mix prank was their gift gfg. this isn't the first year the scary snowman has reared his frozen head. look at him. if you do see a snowman on the street with a grimacing looking face, just beware, there could be a guy in there ready to scare you. >> oh! just one phillips' colon health probiotic cap a day

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welcome back to msnbc. time for the poly-sci bar. big news for rick perry.

matt schultz is throws his support behind the form er man from pennsylvania. he says he has the experience to win tough elections. however santorum lost his last election in '06 to bob casey. michele bachmann's memoir has only sold 3,000 copies since it was released last week. so are you looking for a job? rick larsen just fired three of his staffers for apparently drinking on the job, insulting the quote, idiot boss, and we get that quet frote from twitte because they tweeted about it. i'm pretty sure i couldn't pass a field sobriety test right now. looking forward to a day in the office. dear taxpayers i hope you don't mind that i'm watching youtube

clips of nirvana at my government job. thanks, you're the best. i guess now the former staffer is watching youtube at home. have you ever wondered why election day is always on the first tuesday after first monday in november? it's because way back in 1845 congress decided november was the most convenient month for farmers after the growing season was over and the harvest was in. and because it sometimes took days to get to town where the polling place was, they picked a tuesday. that way voters wouldn't have to start their trip on a sunday. so here we are 166 years later and we're still voting on a tuesday. all right. so you're scratching your head and wondering why? that's exactly what a group of people from the why tuesday campaign are asking and jacob is their executive director. he joins us to fill us in. jacob, why have the rules around this vote not changed and stuck around so long as modern day society has obviously advanced from having to worry about our harvest and leaving from home on a sunday night to get somewhere

by tuesday? >> hey, thomas, good to be with you again. i think the reason that election day has been where it's been for 166 years exactly as you said is because every member of congress, every president of the united states that's been elected over the last 166 years has been elected on the tuesday after the first monday in november. thomas, if i asked you to reapply for your job using a different job application from the one you used on the day that you applied for your job would you want to do it? probably not because that means that the rules have changed. you already got your job once and it worked for you the first time around. i think a lot of members of congress have the same way of thinking about moving election day from tuesday to the weekend where it would make voting so much easier for so, so many americans. >> let's talk about that though. moving it to the weekend. how possible is that, especially when we have holidays, religious holidays, saturday and sunday, that are different for religious sects around the country? >> no, that's a very valid

point, thomas. in the weekend voting act that's been put forward by steve israel, the congressman from long island, and her kohl, the senator from wisconsin, it called from calls for moving ely from the first tuesday after the first monday in november to saturday and sunday over a 24-hour period accounting for that very thing. if you have a problem voting on saturday you could vote on sunday. have a problem voting on sunday you could vote on saturday. >> the voter i.d. laws, disenfranchised voters around the country, how does that play into the movement? >> i think any attempt to restrict voter participation plays into what we're doing. what we're saying is -- let's me paraphrase chris rock. i won't do him justice. he said why do we vote on tuesday? they don't want you to vote on tuesday. if they did they wouldn't do it on a tuesday in november. you ever to a party on a tuesday in november? of course not. nobody would come. same thing with voter i.d. these are things that are trying to restrict access to the polls. ways in north dakota on last

election day. it's the only state without voter registration. they said dead people don't vote in north dakota. if you don't need it there you don't need these states. >> you're quite the man to quote chris rock and not cuss on our broadcast. good to see you. mitt romney speaking in cedar rapids about the economy. he talked about jobs and the economy. now he's meeting with the people that showed up and signing some autographs there. we're going to be back with much more right here on msnbc right after this. how about a plan with my name on it? can we start with realistic goals, please? show me how to keep more retirement money in my pocket. now and down the road. those are my terms. then this is your place. td ameritrade, where millions of investors plan for retirement on their terms. [ male announcer ] trade commission-free for 60 days. plus get up to $600 when you open an account.

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mod i don't want to vest you out. but there's just 15 soming days left until christmas including today. many shoppers are hitting outlet malls to the hopes of finding luxury goods at deep discounts. our reporter is live at the you let maul in paramas, new jersey. how big is the business we're seeing at outlet mauls

especially where you are? >> reporter: it's actually really booming. when you look at outlet malls versus traditional malls, apparel sales are up 18%, that's 2.5% increase at department stores at traditional malls. so sales are up, traffic is up. occupancy rates are up at outlet malls versus traditional millions. you see fewer of the store fronts empty. very good for both shoppers and investors if you're interested in investing in something that makes you money from the outlets you can look at something called a real estate investment trust. all of those share prices have done extremely well this year, better than some of their other retail counterparts. if all in all it's a really good business for consumers and investors. on average you're going to save about a third over what you would pay at a traditional department store. >> have you ventured into century 21 yet? >> i have. you just caught me. i actually just put down my purchases inside our live truck and ran out here just in time. >> oh, court any.

i could smell a good deal even through the television set. courtney reagan, good to see you. i love that store. that's going to do it for me today. thanks, everybody. have a great weekend. i appreciate your time. i'll see you back here on monday at 11:00 a.m. eastern time. until then follow me on twitter @thomasaj roberts. "now" with lakes wagner comes next. so we really had to up our game. with spark, the boss earns double miles on every purchase, every day. that's setting the bar pretty high. owning my own business has never been more rewarding. coming through! [ male announcer ] introducing spark the small business credit cards from capital one. get more by choosing unlimited double miles or 2% cash back on every purchase, every day. what's in your wallet? ♪ [ gong ] strawberry banana!

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it helps you get a better dental check-up. because not all rinses provide all these benefits. so be ready for your next dental check-up. crest pro-health multi-protection rinse. [ male announcer ] try any crest pro-health rinse. complete satisfaction guaranteed, or we'll buy it back. mod mitt's mitts are off. it's friday, december 9th and this is "now." joining me robert kosta from the -- jonathan capehart and the host of nbc's up with hayes christopher l. haze himself.