hall. >> mike, he stole your line. what did you learn? >> i learned that austin rivers, son of doc rivers, who plays for duke university, might be the best college basketball player in the country. >> that's not true. >> how exciting. if it's way too early, what time is it? >> time for "morning joe." see you tomorrow. stick around for chuck. will the president find a compromise? this morning we'll talk to leading senators on both sides of this issue. senator boxer and rubio and manchin, who thinks the president made the wrong move. conservatives merge into washington for the annual cpac meeting. plus mississippi's highest

court weighs in on whether former governor haley barbour misused his authority with the hundreds of pardons before he left office. s in "the daily rundown." right to pie first reads of the this morning. the republicans running for president have the opportunity to deliver their arguments for conservative activists in person. will rick santorum be able to build momentum and steal a straw poll win, from ron paul. can newt gingrich find his voice again. four years ago this week, this is where romney announced he was dropping out of the race. in georgia wednesday romney rolled out his new line of attack calling him a washington insider with a nod to the tea party. >> this is one of the reasons the tea party grew up, of course, is that people were unhappy about incumbents, people

who had spent their careers in washington. i'm the only guy that hasn't spent time in washington. senator santorum and speaker gingrich, they are the republicans that acted like democrats, and when they act like democrats, they lose. >> the attacks only escalated as the day went on for romney. >> he voted to raise the debt ceiling five times. >> the other major candidate in this race governor romney's plan is exactly obamacare. there's very few things i great with barack obama on, this is one of them. today he campaigns in oklahoma, a super tuesday state, where 72% of republican voters call themselves evangelicals. santorum is embracing that

social conservative base with visits to big churches. pastors in texas literally embraced him in prayer at one stop yesterday. >> they are taking faith and crushing it. why? why? when you marginalize faith in america, when you remove the pillar of god-given rights, then what's left is the french revolution. what's left is a government that will tell you who you are, what you'll do and when you'll do it. what's left in france became the guillotine. >> usually it's newt making the historical references. mitt romney is clearly regrouping. he moved a speech to ford field,

where the detroit lions play. it's set for february 24th. you don't choose a setting like that unless you have something new to say. he as trying to fix his narrative. we saw it first on tuesday night when someone tried to talk about his father's humble roots. >> my father never graduated from college. he apprenticed as a lath and plaster carpenter. he was pretty good at it. he could take a handful of nails, stick them in his mow and spit them out pointing end photographed. the romney campaign put out a statement commemorating the tenth anniversary of the salt lake city olympics, and reminding everyone of romney's role in it. then his son tag tweeted an article about how romney rescued a kidnapped victim, an old story we heard about before in 2008. and finally on the trail in

atlanta, romney in a rare moment talked about his role as a leaders in his church suggesting his time as a mormon lay pastor helped him learn empathy. >> in my church we don't have a professional ministry, so people are asked to serve as the minister or pastor of their congregation from time to time. i had that privilege i think for over ten years. in that capacity i had a chance to work with people who lost their jobs or facing other financial stress, losing their homes. i found those kinds of circumstances were not about money or numbers, but about lives and emotions. >> clearly the romney team realizes that santorum's ability to talk xw a personal story, his more blue collar roots in the conservative movement is an effective message. romney trying to get his

narrative a little more personalized, not just be the guy who gives a good powerpoint presentation. that's what you're going to see the rest of february be about for the romney campaign. finally republicans have decided to make a big issue out of this contradeposition rule and are launching a coordinated attack. house speaker john boehner delivered the first floor, promising the house will undo the january 20th rule. >> if the president does not reverse the department's attack on religious free done, then the congress acting on behalf of the america peep and the constitution that we're sworn to uphold and defend, must. this attack by the federal government on religious freedom in our country plus not stand, and will not stand. >> by midday the fight had moved to the senate side with republicans throwing punches and democrats responding. >> this is not a women's rights

issue. this is a religious liberty issue. >> women in this country are tired of being treated like a political football by republicans in congress. >> this has nothing to do with contraception. it's whether the federal government should they have to pay for something they teach their members shouldn't be doing. >> we have news for republicans. this is about contraception. the tax on women's rights never come without being disguyed as something else. >> some democrats are breaking ranks white house press secretary jay carney spent most of wednesday's briefing taking questions about the rule and says the president understands the groups of catholic groups. >> he is very sensitive to concerns like these. he is committed to making sure that women have access to this coverage. he wants to find a way to

implement it that can allay some of the concerns that have been expressed. >> and he pointed out it's already mandated by lawsuit in 20 states. calling him a, quote, odd messenger. >> this is i think ironic that that -- that mitt romney is expressing -- criticizing the president for pursuing a policy that's virtually identical to the one that was in place when he was governor of massachusetts. >> mr. karney flees to check his history. that provision was put in massachusetts before i was governor, and then when i was governor, i tried to have it removed in our health care plan. the argument about what romney did or didn't is how aggressively did he try to get rid of the rule and of course he has the statement where he talked about in his heart of hearts providing the emergency

contraception morning-after pill. is there room for common ground on this issue? joining me is senator bash ra boxer. we are hearing talk coming from the white house that when the official rule comes tout, that there will be an openness to exemptions of some form, i keep hearing the phrase the hawaii compromise what kind of exemption could you live with? >> that's not the point. the point is this is a medical issue. the institution of medicine said it's very important that women have access to birth control, to contraception. for some it's truly a matter of life and death, it's a medical reason, because as many as 15% of women who take birth control pills take it because of debilitating pain to prevent ovarian cysts from leading to removal of an ovary, even for severe skin conditions.

women have to have their medicine. here's the point. there already is an exemption. 335,000 employers who were religious employers will not have to offer, you know, contraception as part of their health insurance package. for the others that are religiously affiliated, they have over a year to figure out how they can manage to do this. this decision by the president is actually quite different from eight states that have no exemptions whatsoever. colorado, georgia, iowa, montana, new hampshire, vermont, a washington state make no exceptions for churches at all. the president has. chuck, when the dust settles here, the women of this country and the men who support them will see it's this president who is standing with women for their health care and republicans like john boehner have been leading an assault against women's

health care. they tried to take away their cervical cancer screening. they tried to take away their breast cancer screening. they certainly won't allow women having a right to choose, and this is just something else. in the 21st century, trying to stop women from getting access to birth control. it's unblechbl to me this is a debate we're having today. >> let me go to the exemption portion of this. >> sure. >> iffing there -- are you opening to an exemption that says it on religiously affiliated hospital that says we're not providing this coverage in our health insurance, but here is a rider, and here's how you get it? >> well, i am saying to you, all i care about is what the president cares about. that everybody have their religious rights protected, but that every woman who wants it should have free access to life-saves contraception.

the ability to plan her family. right now the title x program, which is family planning saves about 400,000 abortions a year. that's a fact. so the president assistants with the women. is there a way in this year's grace period that he gave the religiously affiliated institutions time to decide how to give this benefit? yes, there's ways to get there. there are many ways to get there, and it will be done. they will come up with the ways to get there. >> let me ask you a bit about the politics of this. >> sure. >> is it fair to say that the white house bunkles the roll-out of this, that they didn't -- that they didn't be more proactive? explaining the decision from the beginning? >> i'm not.

>> el press people like rick santorum, they don't want birth control for anybody. that's what it's truly about. it didn't matter if they rolled it out with a ten-piece band or full orchestra behind them. this would have come down to this battle. it's a battle for women to have their rights protected. i have to tell you, this is a medical decision. the institute of medicine under health care reform was charged with recommending what kinds of procedures and screenings women should have so they can be the healthiest they can be and their families can be the healthier they can be. that's what this is about. so there's a lot of uproar and i think when it dies down and the women and their families look at whose side the president is on, he's on the side of women getting health care, on the side of exemptions for religious institution, and he has exempted over 300,000 churches, which

eight states never even exempted from this. so he already has a compromise, and he's given an additional grace period to religiously affiliated hospitals and universities to figure out how they're going to do this. there's many ways to compromise it, and i'm sure it will be done. >> let me ask you a larger constitutional question. >> sure. >> that has come up. what is the line here? when should the federal government stop when it comes to mandates on a religion outs entity in this country? >> well, in this case you've got to talk about all governments, because, as you know, 28 states already do this. >> right. it's a good question. the courts have upheld the california and new york laws which are exactly the same as this one. they have said its totally legal to say you can exempt the churches, but affiliated hospitals who serve a broad array of people, who employ a

broad array of people, that they have to make sure that they offer their employees what other employers are forced to do. this is done by state right now. you have to understand, i think you do, that 50% of the women in this country already have this benefit of getting access to birth control. the president is saying let's make sure everybody has it. so it's not just about the federal government. it's about the state, federal government, and it has been upheld in the court. >> senator barbara boxer, democrat from california, thanks for coming on this morning. >> thanks. coming up we'll hear from the other side of this firestorm. marco rubio and joe manchin will be here together. they're sponsoring a bill to call on president obama to repeal the ruling on the health care ruling when it comes to contraception. plus the crackdown in syria is raging on as the world

watching. and mississippi governor haley barbour, did he overreached when he pardoned hundreds of criminals. the state's highest court is weighing in today. but first a look ahead at the president's schedule. he's welcoming the new prime minister of italy. you're watching "the daily rundown" here on msnbc. sweet, nutty crunchy nut. [ sighs ] i can't wait till morning. wait! it's morning in china! ♪ [ male announcer ] it's sweet, it's nutty... it's absolutely delicious. kellogg's crunchy nut. it's morning somewhere. one golden crown. come on frank how long have we known each other? go to e-trade. they got killer tools man. they'll help you nail a retirement plan that's fierce. two golden crowns. you realize the odds of winning are the same as being mauled by a polar bear and a regular bear in the same day?

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as the international community tries to figure out how far it's willing to go.

ayman has more from cairo. >> reporter: good morning, chuck, the loose knit organizations say the death toll from a sixth day of assaults on cities across the country continues to rise. more than -- the vast majority of those more than 90 so far have fallen in the city of homs. people are describing that war-torn city as a city under siege. supplies are running low. doctors that we've been able to speak to say it is a humanitarian disaster. all of this coming again more international in. neighboring countries of syria as well as european allies want to tighten sanctioning on the syrian government. others are considering what options this el can do, perhaps a friends of syria -- there are

calls to arms to arm the -- back to you, chuck. aim iing thank you. . the court will look into whether haley barbour crossed any lines just before leaving office. pete williams, you have read the brief. >> right. >> by now former governor barbour. what did you see? and does governor barbour have a case? >> he may. this thing was percolating, and the supreme court said, wait a minute, this is a constitutional question, they reached out and took it, and they'll hear argument today. the attorney general says these all governed by the actual wording of the mississippi state constitution, which says no person is eligible to a pardon.

unless they have published for 30 days -- of the inmates who had been pardoned or already been released, only 22 the attorney general says actually met the test of the constitution. some didn't publish it at all. some didn't publish for the full 30 days. some where they had weekly papers put it in four times. so he says only 22 of the pardons he's not contesting. what governor barbour says is a couple things. he says as a simple legal matter, if you publish on december 1st, then on december 31st it's been published for 30 days, so he says his's wrong about the law. >> and how many does that affect of the -- >> it would affect all 150 -- >> so they did publish at least once for all. >> some didn't publish at all. >> okay. and bimp both the attorney general and governor cites cases about they're right about what

30 days means, because the law is muddled about that. stepping beyond that, no matter what the constitution says, it clearly gives the governor the exclusive power to decide whether somebody should be pardoned other not, so it doesn't matter whether they published it -- >> isn't it just a statute? >> no, it is in the constitution. >> okay. >> and there is no enabling statute, by the way, to guide that, but he says he relied, the former governor said he relied on somebody in the attorney general's office to make sure all the publication deadlines were met, so he says it's a little rich for the attorney general to contest this when it was someone on his own staff who he says dropped the ball here. the other thing governor barbour says this is a political attack, an amendment to use the courts to make the point that the attorney general if he had been governor wouldn't have pardoned these people. how soon do we expect a ruling? >> i would think rather quickly.

they're going to have to take some teem, i don't think they'll rule from the bench. they reached out and grabbed it. they ordered the briefing very, very quickly, so they'll move it quite fast. >> pete williams, do you feel like governor barbour out-lawyered him? >> let me say, it's a very solid brief. >> pete williams, thanks very much. well, help is on the way for struggling homeowners. apparently the nation's biggest banks have struck a deal. the market rundown is next. plus that battle over birth control, religious liberty, a wedge issue, eye nighting republicans, even a few democrats, against the democrats, we'll have nors marco rubio and joe manchin here to explain. but first today's trivia question from the almanac of northwestern politics. how many incumbent democratic senators who are up for reelection in 2012 are catholic? name them. first correct answer gets a follow thursday from us.

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a couple minutes away from the opening bell. time for the market rundown. cnbc's mandy drury is here. what do you have for me? >> lots of things going on. before the break you were talking about the report that states have reached a deal with banks on so-called foreclosure abuses. it could lead to more than 2 million homeowners getting relief from a number of the biggest banks in the u.s. we're expecting some broad settlement announced today. the president, of course, is is it going to work? will it stop the housing market's downward slide. at the end of the day it will only help a relatively small portion of the millions who are out there delinquent or facing foreclosure, so the success really depends on how well the program is implicated. there is something else also very big in the market this

morning, and it broke before the market opens. that does seem to be some kind of agreement coming out of greece. mario draghi announced party leaders had reached an agreement on austerity measures. those are absolutely necessary to obtain a bailout. again, it all boils down to implementation, but at this stage, the euro is up and stocks look as if they'll open higher as well. >> and the eu would approve of that plan? or not yet? >> you know, i think at this stage we're still looking for more details on what's happening. again, you know, it all depends on implementation. it's one thing to get agreement, another to actually force it on the greek people. they've proven how much pushback is already in the country and i believe strikes are planned for tomorrow. >> deja vu. "the daily rundown" will be back in 30 seconds.

you're looking at live pictures of cpac, going on right here in d.c. we told you what's become the largest annual gathering of conservative activists. kicking off the hour is senator jim demint, one of the first speakers. big confab there. president obama will announce ten states are now exempt from the bush era no

child left behind act. it will give those states the ability to come up with their own plans to make -- washington state lawmakers have cleared way for the state to legalize gay marriage. it will make washington the seventh state in the country expect to do sign the bill into law next week. the pregnancy rate among teens dropped to just 7%. the birthrate peeked in 1990. republicans every calling the president's new rules on contraception a war on religious liberty. some democrats are now switching sides, trying to forget the administration to revered on find a compromise, but the white

house publicly isn't budging. >> we want to work with all these organizations to implement this policy in a way that's as sensitive to their concerns as possible. but let's be clear, we are committed -- the president is committed to ensuring that women have access to contraception without paying any extra costs, no matter where they work. florida republican senator marco rubio and west virginia democratic senator joe manchin are introducing a bill today that would allow organizations to opt out of this new mandate. both join mess now. senator rubio, let me start with you, what are the limits? and what are the exemptions? >> bell, it's pretty straightforward. it deals right at the core of what this decision is about. what it basically says it if there's a religion/sill affiliated organization and the religion they're affiliated with

specifically teaching something like that, that contraception is wrong, the federal government shouldn't have the power to go in and require them to have to pay for it. i bl elf that protection already exists in the constitution, but the reason we need this legislation is because hhs and the white house has decided that it doesn't apply. so my hope is we didn't need the legislation. my hope is the white house would proactively fo doesn't sound like they're headed there. >> do you have some birth control prescribed for health reasons, not for contraception, but for other health reasons, an exemption for that? >> well, right now i'm not sure it contemplates that, but i think those things can be worked out. the bottom line is what we want to get at is whether the federal government should be able to mandate that a religiously

affiliated organization ha manda mandate. senator martialing, you're introducing this bill. in your state of west virginia, you have an exemption, and correct me if i'm wrong, but religious groups can opt out. if they do the exemption, then it means they have to tell the employee the insurer has to provide them with an opportunity to buy a rider to get coverage for that. will that be part of this bill? >> chuck, it should be.

i was on the conference call with the white house on december so 3rd, urging them not to do this. i thought it was wrong, infringement of the religious rights that we have in the constitution. they went ahead and did it anywhere. >> we just keep overreaching and

it's wrong. >> senator rubio, are you okay with that exemption? if that is what -- you know, there is some -- it's my understanding that when the rule is actually announced by hhs, there will be some contemplation here of potential exemptions if it at least finds a way to provide employees at religious affiliated institutions with the opportunity to get -- >> if thoept to advocate f

if that is sort of over this next one-year grace period where they try to figure out how to implement this? >> the grace period, i'm not sure if it's trying to work something out or just a tactic or delay. i just repeal what you have. if you want to use this, adopt this. our legislation has worked perfectly. we give exemptions for religious convictions. that's all we've said. we haven't had any pushback whatsoever. i've not had any phone calls from constituents working in religious organization or hospitals saying i'm not -- so i don't know why we made a problem something that wasn't a problem.

>> the largest question is what is the line with federal government and for instance vaccinations sometimes come up, right? you have the federal government has a -- has a mandate if there's a vaccination, to protect the populace at large, but there are some religions that don't believe in that, yet if they go to public schools they should be exposing if they don't get a certain vaccination. what's the line here? >> that's a more broader interview, but you're asking me that's something completely different. i have some sort of contagious san diego, you can make the other kids sick. you can't spread a pregnancy, which is the issue we're talking about here. the fundamental issue here is very, very simple. i know we want to look at the political parameters, i get that. i really am not looking at the politics of this. it's a very straightforward concept. the federal government should not have the power to tell a

religious organization to pay for something that many the religion teaches their members not to do. should they be required by the power of the federal government? i think that's a violates of the religious rights that every american and every organization in america has under the first amendment. >> i guess what i'm going to ask, what you do you tell the employee at a religiously affiliated hospital that wants contraception coverage. what do you tell them? >> i would say basically they talk to the administrator and if they can work out something locally, they can do it. we have not had a complaint. if we were inundated saying i wanted it but couldn't get it, on you something impeded me from having access. we've not had that problem in our state. these organizations do a tremendous amount of good in our state and all over this country.

knoll they'll be told not only can you not and have to go against your religious convictions, you'll also be fined if you don't comply with the law. on top of that we're going to fine you and we're going to penalize you. that's not who we are in this country. >> all right. senator joe martialing, democrat from west virginia, and senator marco rubio from florida. thank you both for coming on this morning. >> thank you. that was my conversation that took place earlier this morning before the live airing of my show, with senator joe manchin and senator marco rubio. coming up, the thursday panel. we have a lot to go over. the white house soup of the day. here we go again, it's been a tomato-heavy week. so they had tomato soup, added some milk and bisqued it up? you're watching msnbc. we'll be right back. let me tell you about a very important phone call i made.

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for the first time in u.s. history the house of representatives had to decide the presidential election. no candidate received so the constitutional dictates, the house voted and they picked john quincy adams, though he had won fewer popular votes than andrew jackson. we know what happened after that. anyway, mitt romney is getting personal. in an event in atlanta, he described his experience as a lay leaders in the mormon church and the people he ministered to. >> in my church, we don't have a professional ministry. so people are asked to serve as the mince trier or the pastor of their congregation from time to time. people became clinically depressed, being out of work a long time is a real -- is a real threat and challenge to human happiness. i feel this president has let us down. let's bring in the panel.

michael scherer, tracy fe if. fel makes her debut here, and ranesh, i'm going to start with you. is mitt romney's problem a humanization problem? >> well. i think clearly what we just saw in that clip suggests that -- but i think actually the bigger problem is conservatives don't have any ideological enthusiasm for him. >> tracy democrats are making the argument that, yeah, mitt romney's problem in the general is this connection issue. maybe this is a case where the romney people are trying to do both, but realize they're not connecting right now with the average independent voter. >> it's amazing over the course of so many days when store lines change quickly, what you're healing consistently is romney

remains this incredibly weak front-runner. that's just the override. that's a suv place for himming to in. is it about the general or the conservatives? no one is enthusiastic. he's striking out repeatedly. >> yesterday felt like it was a biographical issue. tagg tweeted out an old story about the co-worker who had a daughter who was kidnapped he rescued and the olympics release. then something we rarely hear. all of it feels like it's a direct response to rick santorum. >> i think that's right. it's a response to people believing in him, but not something you can necessarily fix.

it was like he was describing a clinical effect. >> on humans. >> it's not like he felt the pain of someone he was counseling, which is what he was trying to communicate. he was saying there's a human reaction when unemployment occurring, and i'm going to describe that to you. that's a performance issue. i think throughout this campaign you've had these tactical responses, tweeting the subway sandwich or i'm doing my own laundry, but really the issue is the actual performance testify the candidate. >> look, let's look at the "wall street journal" editorial page. it just unloads this morning. they say two things here that i want to point out, ramesh, the low turnout is one sign. what he needs is a better and more positive case for his candidacy beyond his business resume. they also add the biggest problem with the presidential field is that each of the

candidates seems to be running to represent only part of the coalition. to adapt ronald reagan's famous line, where's the rest of them? to me this is an editorial like it's a challenge to mitt romney, get your act together. >> i don't buy that turnout argument, by the way. 1998 they had good turnout, 1996, both those elections were lost by those parties, but the overall dissatisfaction with the field, the idea there's something missing, somebody who can unify the whole party, that is very real. >> tracy, three months ago the democratic party did fear mitt romney. they thought here he is getting run -- his opponents are going at him at his right. it's making him look like a moderate. now it seems like they can't wait to face him. >> absolutely. even just one month ago, going back to the humanizing issue, i'm remembering the speeches the nice of the iowa caucuses, and

saeb tomorrow late night when he finally got on stage. the speech he gave in marked contrast to the speech that romney gave, one man was huge -- >> it's interesting you said that. i had a democrat saying if it wasn't for rick santorum, what they call some of his stances on social issues, turns out the middle, but the blue collar -- is a dangerous opponent to them in the midwest. >> accessible. >> western pennsylvania, steelworker heritage, but he has so much other baggage. pinches turning off suburban women, for example. >> his driving force, he's called to serve in a way i think americans are uncomfortable with. stick around, we're going to talk a bit of religion versus women's rights. we asked -- how many incumbent senators are up for reelection.

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let's bring back the chair. straight up politics of this contraception issues. the white house is insistent that in the long run they're going to win this fight. >> they're counting on that the outrage will pass, it does resurface all those old issues at how good is president obama if he can't handle a simple process. >> they clearly had a smart debate about it, snowing the

pros and the cons of this, but where was the implementation. >> own it, just own it. this is a winning issue for democrats. let's boil this town, it's the 21st century. contraception is respected. this is such a winning issue for independence for women voters. if the democrats own this, bring this fight on, expose this for what it's really about. it's not about religious liberty. there's a laboratory, somewhere up on capitol hill where the republicans saw an opening and said how can we the most dishonestly label this issue and go to town on it. and they're wrong. >> care to respond? is this a political winner? is this ultimately potentially a republican sort of alienating republican women? >> i don't think so, the administration is, if you actually look at the kinds of

defensiveness that they have been putting out there, they know they don't have a politically winning hand on this issue, we can nuance this, they know they have made a mistake and i think republicans are absolutely right to seize on it, both substantively and politically. >> shameless plugs, michael you first. >> the story in the magazine out today about wealth and the presidency, about how dwight eisenhower made most of his money from the war, about how abe lincoln went from being the rail house lawyer to the rail split never his administration. >> pond trent can just barely see the republican convention. >> easiest ever, happy birthday terry mcauliffe. >> well, there you go, what is the president going to do for him anyway?

that's it for this edition of the daily rundown. tomorrow on the show, much more from cpap. the big conservative gathering coming up, chris jansing and company and then at 1:00, "andrea mitchell reports," bye-bye. [ male announcer ] drinking a smoothie with no vegetable nutrition? ♪ [ gong ] strawberry banana! [ male announcer ] for a smoothie with real fruit plus veggie nutrition new v8 v-fusion smoothie. could've had a v8.

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so let's hit those orange aisles - and make today the day - we make a big difference - no matter how big our budget. more saving. more doing. that's the power of the home depot. get more project for your money - like this valencia vanity, now just 199 bucks. good morning, i'm chris jansing and more than ever this morning the republican candidates for president are battling to prove who the real conservative is. tomorrow they'll have to promote their credentials to a particular audience. right now in washington, this is a live picture of the political conservative action conference or cpac. on the campaign trail, the candidates have been reving up their push to prove, look at me, i am the real conservative. >> senator