can watch it all the time. >> if it is way too early, what time is it? >> it's time for the great regressor on the "daily rundown" right now. mitt romney rules out the chance he'll lose in michigan, but polls show he's behind. party insiders are starting to whisper something unthinkable just a few weeks ago. if romney loses his native state, could we be headed to a brokered convention? plus, congressman paul ryan says the payroll tax deal being voted today in the house caused political damage to republicans and called the president's budget a, quote, campaign gimmick. we'll talk to the outspoken man often referred to as the brains behind the house gop. and passions flare over birth control at an oversight hearing while one of rick santorum's top donors is forced to apologize over remarks he made about the issue to msnbc's andrea mitchell. as the economy improves, the culture wars come roaring back. it's friday, february 17th,

2012, this is the "daily rundown" and i'm luke russert in for chuck todd this morning. let's get to the first reads, rick santorum's super pac is finally on the air in michigan, out this morning with this new ad -- >> obama's reckless agenda must be stopped and there's only one principled candidate with the courage to do it, rick santorum, father, husband, a champion for life. >> but nobody's really talking about it. it's dead. instead these comments from his megadonor, the bankroller of his campaign, foster friess that he said to andrea mitchell have gone viral. >> the contraceptive thing, my gosh, you know, it's so expensive. back in my days they used bayer aspirin for contraception. the gals put it between their knees and it wasn't that costly. >> excuse me, i'm trying to catch my breath from that, mr. friess. >> last night on the trail santorum was forced to respond --

>> i'm not responsible for everything that somebody says in my campaign. >> senator? [ inaudible ] the basic premise, it was a joke. it was a stupid joke. it was bad taste. and, you know, i don't know what your preoccupation with that is. >> mark murray is nbc's deputy political director, and mark, santorum had a lot of momentum here in these polls but seems to be bogged down by the comment by foster friess made on andrea's show. >> the conventional wills dom might be that rick santorum is on the defensive here. i would put it in a different way. this is actually really good news for rick santorum, the more the fight is about cultural issues in a republican primary that plays into rick santorum's

wheelhouse. he showed the pro-super pac ad, one of the claims it made, a champion for life in there. he's talking about the economy as he did in detroit yesterday. but also social issues have always been a part of rick santorum's candidacy and the more we're talking about social issues, the more republicans are, the better news it is for rick santorum in the long run. >> let's show the apology that foster friess tweeted out. he said this on twitter, to those who applauded my comments and remember the jokes, thanks for your encouragement. to those who thought i was callusly encouraging that as a prescription for today, i kindly ask you for forgiveness, god bless, foster. he seems to try to make it into a little bit of a joke. i know a lot of women at least i spoke to and read out on the blo blogosphere after it went viral, thought it was a little odd. >> right, luke. that was kind of a semiapology there. look, as i said, this is good news for a rick santorum in a

republican primary right now. if we look at it if the culture wars have returned and if it's on capitol hill with the darrell issa committee where female democrats said there wasn't a single woman on the first panel there as well as foster friess' comment yesterday, i'm not sure it's good politically for the republican party. they want to be talking about the economy. they want to talk about the budget deficit. those are the conversations that allow them to take control of capitol hill and the house in 2010. when they get on social issues, i'm not sure they're on strong footing. >> the big issue now politically, at least for mitt romney, for his campaign, is whether or not he can win michigan. listen to what he said about his confidence going into his native state. >> wh >> you understand with the polling process, you have seen

just how mercurial the sentiments of voters are until they get to know the candidates a little better. >> usually mitt romney kind of laughs it off and says, oh, we'll see what happens with the voters. pretty authoritative right there. >> that will not happen. the polls show something else. could he survive a michigan loss? >> for his candidacy, it can't happen. he can't lose michigan at all and what the romney campaign has to be banking on is, look, we've seen this movie before, after losing in south carolina, newt gingrich's numbers soared head into that next florida contest and after campaigning, after some debates, mitt romney was able to easily win that contest. they're hoping the same thing is true in the next 10, 11 days before that michigan primary. but i have to say when they're looking at their situation right now, and chatting with some republicans, people say, look, that pattern might still be the case. mitt romney's going to rebound, but others are actually saying i'm not so sure this time around. we'll see if that movie plays or if it doesn't. >> and ohio he's behind in a lot of polls, too.

>> it is really tough, but a win cures all. he's able to win in michigan, his numbers will rebound in a lot of these other states. >> he'll want to hear "hail to the victors" at his campaign party. one last note, the guy enjoying this probably more than anybody, barack obama, had a significant fund-raising toll. $29 million? >> $29.9 million, divided between the campaign and the democratic national committee. just to put that in perspective in the last three months of 2011, they raised a combined $68 million, so this almost $30 million in just the one month of january shows that they're well beyond the pace and we're automatically really headed to the general election. >> well rewarded for working the fund-raising circuit, mark murray, deputy political director, thank you. >> we agree with you and we have your back, mr. president. this is something that we need

to rally around as a nation, regardless of party affiliation. president obama is absolutely right. it is unacceptable for the iranian theocracy to obtain nuclear capability. >> nstephanie gosk is in tel avv for us. give us a feeling on the ground in israel. the war drum is beating quite significantly in the united states. talk of iran really moving on their nuclear program. what is the feeling there amongst the citizenry and how has the government reacted to the latest developments out of iran? >> hey, luke. well, the feeling on the ground here is no one really wants war with iran. they don't want to attack and then have to deal with the retaliation. you did hear some very strong words thinly veiled threats from israeli leaders that they would take the matter into their own hands and attack iran. tough to tell whether that is just sort of saber rattling,

diplomatic strategy or actually a substantial threat. but what united states officials have been saying all along to israel, publicly and behind closed doors is, look, give these sanctions a chance to work. let's get political pressure a chance to work and that pain is still coming. you have the european oil embargo, that doesn't even go into effect until july. they want to see if they can get iran back to the negotiating table, and it looks like they might be able to do that at least there was an overture from tehran to the iaea, the u.n.'s nuclear watchdog. they are sending a delegation on monday to start talking about opening up negotiations after a year, more than a year, of having halted them. luke? >> and, stephanie, there's new developments today in the investigation in thailand. i mean, this struggle between iran and israel has spread all the way over there. what's the latest? >> well, investigators are now saying that they think that this group that was involved, this

three-person group involved in a bungled attack on israeli diplomats is actually it's bigger than what they originally thought. they're looking for two more people including a 52-year-old man that visited that apartment the day before the explosion. they believe that he might have actually been giving explosive guidance and classes to these guys to show them how to blow up israeli diplomats. here in this country, israeli officials are saying that that was a terror cell and that it was receiving its orders directly from tehran. tehran's denied that completely. luke? >> stephanie gosk in israel, thanks so much for being on the show. what a week it's been in washington. late nights on the hill. president obama closing out the week with a huge domestic policy victory. nbc's kristen welker has been watching it all and joins us now, kristen? >> reporter: good morning, luke, we're about to leave san francisco and head to seattle, washington, where president obama will talk about american manufacturing at the boeing

plant. there but in the meantime, we wanted to give you a look at some of the stories you may have missed this week in washington. they said it couldn't be done. but congress actually breck through four years of gridlock which allowed the president to sign a long-term bill to fund the federal aviation agency this week. >> we can actually sometimes get things done. >> reporter: but up until tuesday, the faa had been funded by no less than 23 short-term resolutions. the congressional intransigence even led to a costly two-week shutdown last august. >> the shutdown of the faa is now in its 12th day. >> reporter: but when the president signed the $63 billion bill tuesday, it was without public fireworks. and white house press secretary jay carney used the senate's inability to approve a judicial nominee to take a shot at the slow-moving legislative body. >> it's just simply delay tactics and they're shameful. >> reporter: it turns out justice jordan was confirmed

wednesday. jordan who lives in florida and was warning cuba will be the first cuban born to sit on the 11th circuit. and love was in the air, yes, even in d.c., where the m.o. is partisan bickering. the president used valentine's day to rise above it all for a moment. >> let me start with a quick public service announcement for all the gentlemen out there. today is valentine's day. >> reporter: when the public gave the first lady some love back when she surprised white house tour groups. but when the president visited master lock in milwaukee, he admitted he's not ready for his daughters to find love, yet. >> as i was looking at some of the really industrial sized locks, identify was thinking about the fact that i'm the father of two girls that will soon be in high school and that it might come in handy to have these super locks. >> reporter: looking ahead to next week, president obama will

attend more fund-raisers and he'll also help break ground for the smithsonian's new african-american museum, luke? >> kristen welker, thanks so much. major league baseball and the entire sports world are remembering hall of fame catcher gary carter this morning. the kid as he was affectionately known passed away after a battle with brain cancer. they did a show about the art of being a catcher of cnbc moderated by my late father. here's carter in his own words talking about his final game. >> i realized in '92 when i finally played my last game, i was hurting really so bad and i had double knee surgery at the end of that year and it was the right time. and when i did say good-bye, you know, god really blessed me in my last game to have a game-winning double, you know, and standing out there on second base and lou had a runner come in and run for me and it was

over and it was like, you know, it's like a relief but then it was, like, when it came close to spring training, i was chomping at the bit and wanted to get back out there again, but i realized it was time to let it go. >> gary carter was 57 years old. capital compromise, as one of president obama's legislative priorities heads for a vote, the top republican on the budget committee admits the payroll tax fight damaged his party. plus, republican rumble. a brokered convention is starting to look more likely. could paul ryan be the party favorite that gets drafted last minute to unit the gop? we'll ask congressman ryan about all that when he joins me next. but, first, a look ahead at the president's schedule. you're watching the "daily rundown" only on msnbc. [ male announcer ] this is lois.

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the house is expected to vote on the payroll tax cut extension in just about two hours. what's remarkable is that congress was able to reach an agreement a full 11 days before the tax cut was set to expire. but not everyone thinks it's a remarkable deal. joining me now is one of those people, wisconsin republican congressman paul ryan who is chairman of the budget committee. mr. ryan, thanks so much for being on the program. >> good morning, luke, how are you doing today? >> good. back in june, you said, quote, the following about the payroll tax cut. you said, quote, i'm not keynesian but i don't think sugar high economics works. we've sort of proven this already a number of times. do you think temporary tax rebates don't work to create economic growth, permanent tax

changes do. >> correct. >> this morning do you think the deal the house will pass later today is good for the united states? >> well, what frustrates me, luke, is we couldn't come up with $100 billion out of a $47 trillion budget in savings. so, is it good for the united states? i don't think it's good that we crank up with holding right now in the middle of this economy, but i don't want to pretend that this is going to create economic growth and jobs because i really don't think it will. george bush tried these rebates, president obama has tried these rebates, we proven that tax rebates don't really work because they are so temporary. it's permanency that businesses are looking at when they want to hire. so i'm not going to pretend it's good economic policy because i don't really think it is. as far as consumers are concerned, you don't want to yank money out of people's paychecks especially in the middle of a withholding season, but what's frustrating about this deal, luke, is this what happens when you have divided government and you're in the minority party. we wanted to cut $100 billion to pay for this out of a ten-year

budget that spend's $47 trillion. and so, you know, this is what is you get when you have divided government. >> do you think it's good for the economy, the extension of the payroll tax cut? >> i don't think it will do a lot for the economy. i don't think it will do a lot for the economy. i think if we actually had certainty for tax rates going forward, for businesses and entrepreneurs, that would do a lot for the economy. i think if we put a budget plan in place that showed we're getting our debt under control as ben bernanke told us we should do a week ago, that would be good for the economy. i don't think temporary stimulus is good for the economy. we've proven that already. >> that's good. let's talk about the budget. last week at the house republican press conference you said the following that i would like to play -- >> a trillion dollar deficit added every year, you could get rid of all discretionary spending and we would still have a budget deficit. >> as you know, your budget roughly cut discretionary spending not defense in half. we all know that medicare is

obviously a driver of the debt. you've addressed that, but the bush tax cuts also add $4 trillion to the debt over the next ten years. you had basically admitted that you would cut discretionary spending and you'd still have a debt. why not examine new revenue and allow for new taxes to be raised? >> so, even if you keep all the tax cuts in place today, revenue still grows according to the cbo even above our historic levels, so tax rates -- tax revenues still grow. our argument is that we should do fundamental tax reform, give businesses certainty. have a tax system that's really competitive so small businesses can thrive and you can get higher revenue that way, but just cranking up tax rates with this kind of tax code where washington's doing the business of picking winners and losers both hurts economic growth and jobs and doesn't give us the -- >> but you said last week if you cut all discretionary spending you would still have a deficit. >> that's true. that's true. >> how cannot new tax revenue be a part of the discussion? >> we're not saying it shouldn't be part of the discussion. our negotiators put new revenues

on the table a couple of times last year, but let's do it through tax reform so it doesn't sacrifice growth. there are ways you can raise tax revenues which kill jobs and growth. we don't want to do those ways, we think there's better ways of getting revenue to the government with tax reform, that's-the-pa the path we want . we have think we can get more revenues to the government but let's not sacrifice economic growth and job creation. but if we grow fast and have a good growing economy if you don't deal with entitlements you won't balance the budget. that's the big issue we need to get a handle on. >> will your next budget cut discretionary spending in half like your last one did? >> i don't know, we haven't written it yet. i don't know where you get the half. >> you had a lot of discretionary spending cuts in your first budget, correct? >> we cut about 10% of discretionary spending, i'm not sure where your half figures

come from. >> we'll have that debate at a press conference on capitol hill. >> i'll go back and look at my numbers and i'll be ready for you. >> you do that. let's talk about the rumor that we've sort of thrown around over the last year or so, back in may, i asked eric cantor whether or not you should run for president and he said, quote, the following, he said, sure, i think paul is about real leadership. i think that that's what the public so desperately wants to do right now. they want to see washington that will lead. they don't want to see individuals dismiss the current problems as something that we can sweep under the rug. now you see mitt romney is trailing in his home state. there's a lot of folks that this fight could go all the way to the convention leaving romney considerably weakened. have you been approached and would you participate in a brokered convention that would give paul ryan the republican nomination for the presidency in 2012? >> look, i think this is silly talk. if i had a burning ambition to be president, luke, i would have run for president. i don't have the burning ambition, therefore, i didn't run. i don't -- look, it's february.

these things have a way of working themselves out. look, if you remember when barack obama and hillary clinton were running against each other, you had all this talk about this thing's going to go on for a long time and eventually president obama who is now president won that primary. i think this will go like that as well. we haven't even gotten to super tuesday yet, so i think all the talk about a brokered convention is extremely premature. >> under no circumstances will you be the gop nominee this year? >> no, i really don't see that happening. no, i really don't see that happening. >> paul ryan, thank you for joining us. we appreciate it. >> you bet, luke. paul ryan and chris von hollen, will be david gregory's exclusive guests on "meet the press." we'll get a check on wall street after the dow's four-year high. and super pac, super

spending, it's been the story of the primaries, but will it matter in the general election? we've got the top five reasons that super pacs may be overhyped. but today's trivia question, how many u.s. presidents went by their middle name. give us their whole name. tweet us at "daily rundown," the first correct answer will get a follow friday. if you want it, send us some answers. [ laura ] maine is known for its lighthouses, rocky shore,

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we're just about two minutes away from the opening bell, so it's time for the market rundown, cnbc's becky quick is here. becky, what do we got today? >> the bulls out in full force, yesterday the market closed at its highest levels in nearly four years and now it looks like the dow will open up by another 50 points. it's key because if the dow opens up 50 points up we'll be less than 50 points away from

the key 13,000 level that we haven't seen in quite some time. it's the type of thing that people start sitting up at home and pay attention to when they see that in the morning newspapers. part of the reason we see so much optimism right now is because of this idea that we're going to get some sort of settlement, a deal for greece over the weekend, that's the word once again that we'll very likely have a deal by monday. but we've heard it before. the other part of the robe is because we've been seeing so many strong economics numbers here particularly the job numbers number and a lot of key numbers leading up to the jobs numbers. now, yesterday one thing to watch out for the philly fed report has a jobs component in it and the jobs component if you take it and look at it and stretch it out and look at what it means for the february job report would indicate we would only see a gain of 50,000 jobs for february. that's concerning. it's only one key indicator, but the philly fed jobs component has been closely linked to the numbers we've seen in the actual government jobs report. so, that has people concerned. the gallup ceo says that the

numbers he sees in his polls of 30,000 people says we could see the unemployment number returning to 9% this month and that's something to watch out for, too, but luke, it looks like the bulls are winning the day, at least the early part of it. >> bulls on parade, running of the bulls, thanks so much, becky, we appreciate it. the "daily rundown" will be back in 30 seconds. just about the bottom of the hour, and we're back with the "daily rundown." i'm luke russert in for chuck

todd this morning. here are some other stories making headlines. human rights activists in syria say the government troops are still sending in tank fire and artillery shelling into homs, a day after the u.n. general assembly voted against the retaliation against the protesters. also in syria today, two-time pulitzer prize winning reporter anthony shadid has died of an asthma attack while on assignment there. he was best known for his dispatches from the middle east for "the washington post" and most recently "the new york times." he was 43 years old. last night the new jersey state assembly passed a same-sex marriage bill by a vote of 42-33. new jersey's republican governor chris christie has promised a swift veto. gay rights activists are vowing to fight any veto to the end. the conventional wills dom

right now is that super pac money the unlimited donations by corporations and unions is fundamentally transforming this year's presidential election, but will it really be a decisive factor come november? ben jacobs is with the daily best and he has a contrarian opinion of this, ben, we've heard all along the super pacs are the end of democracy from a lot of democrats on capitol hill. republicans saying they don't really like this system, but it is what it is. you say at the end of the day when it comes to presidential politics these won't be that significant. why? >> well, first of all, luke, thanks for having me. the reason with super pacs is because there's so much money going to presidential elections anyway and there are a variety of factors that it limits the impact they can have as opposed to in primaries. once you reach a general election, you have so much more money and there's a much more limited amount of tv time with all the races and for a variety of other reasons, it ends up not being as decisive. >> i want to get into some

specifics that are in your article. number one, you say, super pacs don't get subsidies or discounts on local tv airtime. explain why that is significant. >> well, that's significant because fcc regulations mandate that candidates get a major discount called lowest unit rate. as a result, super pacs have to pay the same rate as everyone else. they also don't get -- don't get any sort of priority that candidates do as well. they pay as much as everybody else, and so that it's more expensive for super pacs to advertise. >> the candidates have the priority, then, on the airwaves ahead of super pacs 45 day before the election, correct? >> yes. federal candidates do and super pacs don't have any priority. they're at the same place with car dealerships and toothpaste. >> you also say that they have limited tv time? >> uh-huh, yes.

there's a finite amount of tv time, even if there's more money coming into politics, that it doesn't mean that tv stations are going to suddenly shorten their shows to air more super pac ads, you still have to sell all the products anyway. you still have to sell beer. you still have to sell de detergents. >> the area that they could have an effect, though, instead of affecting the presidential race, down-ballot races it could have more of an impact. >> oh, most certainly and that's what a lot of election law experts believe because the money in down-ballot races is a lot less, that president obama, you know, that the republican rhetoric is that he's going to raise a billion dollars which isn't quite true, but it will still be in the hundreds of millions of dollars and in contrast a sitting house member only raised a couple million dollars and a super pac buy coming in unfortunately makes a much bigger difference there than it does in a national race. >> and last but not least,

because of the lack of coordination between super pacs and campaigns, especially close to election day, you think that will nullify their impact. >> well, it limits the impact that super pacs can't really do direct voter contact, they can't make phone calls or knock on doors because they can't share that information with campaigns which is the point of campaign -- which is the popet of point of doing that, that tv ads you don't have to know who is watching them, you just know that they're on. and it limits the field, one place where super pacs may play more is sending out direct mail, but in terms of calling voters or knocking on voters' doors it's not going to be possible for them to do that in a practical way. >> ben jacobs from "newsweek" and the daily beast, thank you so much with your very interesting article that made us think, turning conventional wisdom on its head. it's great journalism. thank you for being here. >> thanks for having me, luke. tomorrow at 10:00 a.m., msnbc will debut a new program hosted by longtime contributor

melissa harris-perry, during the weekend mornings you'll get two more hours of great discussion about national politics and culture. and our new team member just so happens to join me now, melissa harris-perry, welcome to the squad, how you doing? >> i'm doing pretty good. i don't know that anyone would have told me i'm this tired the day before the show premiered, but i'm doing great. >> get your caffeine fix. let's talk about your show. what will be the central focus on your show? and what do you hope viewers take away from it? >> well, you know, i am still a college professor and i spend that time during the week doing that. so, i think we've been calling the -- the staff has been calling the show nerd land, because what we're going to try to do is think about the political questions of the week, but we're a little less driven than daily shows about sort of what happened just yesterday. we can take a longer view look at the entire week, breathe a little bit and try to figure out what's important. so, you know, undoubtedly this week we'll be talking about the gop primaries which continue to

be hot and we'll also undoubtedly be talking about these issue of women's bodies, contraception, personhood, all of that that we're seeing emerge over the course of this week. >> you've been chosen on the 100 list of influential leaders not just from the black community but as america as a whole. can you sort of talk about that honor and what it meant for you? >> well, you know, i got a really nice e-mail from reverend al a few weeks ago because i'd gotten the naacp image award nomination and the grio 100 nomination and he sent me an e-mail and said you are officially a black leader kind of lol, right? and, you know, for me, i think it's really an extraordinary sort of thing to be recognized in part because, i mean, you just kind of keep your head down and you're doing the work and you're trying to report what's important. you're trying to analyze what's important. in my case i'm trying to write and teach and to have somebody say, hey, we think you're doing

a great job. i will take that every time. >> and you're obviously a professor at tulane as is my old buddy james carville. >> of course! >> how is he in the faculty lounge? does he behave himself? >> he does. james is a great gift to tulane because he teaches a class where he brings all of these fantastic speakers in and he makes the class open to the entire campus, so, in fact, halperin was talking around on campus and talking about game change this week, and so actually i very much enjoy spending time on campus. >> look at that. we just did a pr ad for tulane university. go green wave right there. melissa harris-perry, thank you for being on the program, appreciate it, don't miss her new show tomorrow on msnbc. wake up on the weekend. check it out. it's going to be a winner. up next, our friday panel will be here to wrap up the week in politics. but, first, the white house soup of the day. keeping up with the theme of new orleans, louisiana bisque, which

has some deep broth and oysters and artichokes are in it. that sounds pretty good. i'll have that after the coconut we had the one last, the coconut crab which sounded terrible. i like louisiana bisque, john fogarty, you can't get enough new orleans. go down and visit. it's a beautiful place. you're watching the "daily rundown" only on msnbc. i'm freaking out man.

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and discuss whether you've been to a region where certain fungal infections are common. don't start enbrel if you have an infection like the flu. tell your doctor if you're prone to infections, have cuts or sores, have had hepatitis b, have been treated for heart failure, or if, while on enbrel, you experience persistent fever, bruising, bleeding, or paleness. if you've had enough, ask your dermatologist about enbrel. the government of the peoples republic of china and the government of the united states have had great differences. we will have differences in the future. but what we must do is to find a way to see that we can have differences without being enemies in war. >> a flashback to this day in 1972 when president richard nixon left for his historic chip to china.

close to 8,000 people attended the departure ceremony on the white house lawn including federal employees and 1,000 schoolchildren who were bused in to see the president off on an historic trip which set up the current diplomatic relationship we have now with china. the culture wars are back, on the other hand, passions flared at a thursday house hearing on contraception which featured only men as witnesses on the first panel. >> our country, for hundreds of years, has understood that faith comes first. >> where are the women? when i look at this panel, i don't see one single woman. >> we've been denied the right to have a witness -- >> i may at some point be moved to explain biology to my colleagues. imagine having a panel on women's health and they don't have any women on the panel.

duh. >> let's bring in our panel, david drucker is a staff writer for "roll call" and the best dressed man on capitol hill, and we've got politico's senior congressional reporter, the terminator with jake sherman, thanks so much for being here. >> good to be here. >> culture wars seems to be back in the lexicon of american politics, we thought it was about the economy. we've taken a shift to the culture wars. listen to rick santorum on cbs this morning. >> this is the same gotcha politics that you get from the reporter. look, this is what is you guys do. you don't this with president obama, in fact, with president obama what you did was you went out and defended him against someone who he sat in a church for. >> now, that was rick santorum talking about foster friess obviously his big donor who said that a new contraceptive method could be putting a bayer aspirin

between women's knees. he apoll jileapologized. >> as an advil fan i'm offended. >> karen, how does this play? the culture wars are back? we thought 2004 would be about terror and -- >> interestingly enough, i guess this means that the republicans think the economy is doing better enough that we should now go to the culture wars because that has been the bread and butter issue that they've used. rick santorum's guys brought it up, right? when we got into this whole discussion about the president and the asomedation with the church, i mean, a couple things. you're seeing the republican party, very interesting, they don't understand what these guys are thinking. they're now aligned with the vatican. the vast -- i'm a catholic. the vast majority of american catholics don't agree with the vatican on a lot of these issues, but they've gone so far to the right, and then you have this comment about, you know, aspirin between your knees and that's the least of it. i mean, santorum also remember his comments about women in combat and, you know, women who work outside the home were just

really selfish, not recognizing that particularly in this economy for a lot of families, the woman's income has been the only income that a lot of these families have had. so, it's not only culture wars, but it's completely out of line with how people's lives in america are lived in the 21st century. >> i think that it's understandable that republicans have pushed this issue, if you look at it, from a religious freedom and first amendment issue, which many republicans including non-catholics are very concerned about. going forward, though, i would say that it's problematic for republicans and for their presidential candidate or candidates to focus on this to the detriment of the economy. even if the economy is improv g improving, it's still not going to be most likely going like gangbusters by the fall. and to sort of cede the issue and stipulate that barack obama has turned around the economy, we need to now focus on other

things, identify thi s things, i think they will did their chances of beating the president a disservice. there might be a case to be made that you might think you're doing a little better, but unemployment is over 8%, why waste the argument? >> you cover the senate, mitch mcconnell said his goal is to make sure that president obama will not win re-election, do you think the establishment guys, the mcconnells, the boehners and do you think they want to bring the culture wars coming back up? >> no, i don't think so. you haven't seen a debate about this at all under mcconnell, and they will recede in the coming weeks. they will bring the economy back as the main issue. like david said, this is an issue that they can win on even if there are signs of a recovery, there are still millions who are underemployed and there were promises that were made that they think they can pin the president for not

keeping. i think you'll see that shift back in the coming weeks and in the debates we'll see. >> women will remember. they may try to move on, but to a lot of women, conservative women, this argument is, wait, we're talking about contraception? we're not even talking about abortion. this is a very basic fact, 58% of women take contraception for reasons other than birth control, so it's a very basic thing and i think important to remember. >> the last thing we saw the gop winning the narrative saying the president had overstepped his authority, he was trying to tell churches and religious organizations how to be. >> and i think he's taken it back. the accommodation the president made was able to defuse the democratic party split and that's why it's maybe easier for the president to move on. >> you don't have joe lieberman complaining. >> joe liege elieberman a big c. >> big.

>> our panel still wickwill sti. but first our trivia question. i got one, i knew it. civil war buff. came in. we'll be right back. you're watching the "daily rundown" only on msnbc. [ lane ] is your anti-wrinkle cream gone... but not your wrinkles? neutrogena® rapid wrinkle repair. its retinol formula visibly reduces wrinkles in just one week. why wait if you don't have to. neutrogena®.

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what frustrates me, luke, is we couldn't come up with $100 billion out of a $47 trillion budget in savings. i don't want to pretend this is going to create economic growth and jobs because i don't think it will. >> let's bring back our panel, david druker, karen finney, and that seems to be a standard viewpoint for a lot of republicans on capitol hill. obviously they conceded earlier this week saying $100 billion payroll tax cut extension can go forward unfunded, but don't see a lot of positive growth. they're taking this with not a lot of excitement. >> the republicans have been

twisting in knots over this debate over the last several months. you see house republicans and senate republicans split back in december over the fight of whether to extend it for a year or two months. this was a deal that was cut by house speaker john boehner as well as his top tax writer. senate republicans didn't sign on to this deal yesterday. that people that were a part of that conference, mcconnell very quiet on this. >> very quiet. i think when this is going to come to a vote today, you're not going to see many republicans support this, at least in the senate, and because there's a fundamental split within the party about whether or not this is good policy. and democrats really believe they have a winning hand on this. >> david, you watched the hill recently and congress over the last few years, this is the last thing they're going to do in 2012. >> yeah. and even this, they're going to do a few things, the cyber security bill that's going to come up and they're going to dabble in a few policy areas. but in terms of real political

hard core political issues, this is about it. republicans lost the politics on this. and they really lost it in december. but it was always, you know, when republicans are referring to a payroll tax holiday that they don't believe is a tax cut, they don't, as a tax cut, that means barack obama won the rhetorical argument. and this was a get out of dodge in terms of politics type of vote that we're going to see today. the reason you saw john boehner, kevin mccarthy and eric cantor all basically say we're going to get this done because there was an agreement, i think, in the house that even though people were going to complain about it, they knew it was a losing issue and if they want to pivot to the general election, let's get it done. >> that's why you're not going to see anything happening for the rest of the year. there are issues still hanging out there. >> i'm not sure this is the last thing we're going to see. i actually think they will continue to abuse their power and hold these hearings on -- >> policy stuff -- >> yeah, well --

>> different than like meaningful legislation. >> i know that. thank you for explaining. >> i know -- >> my point is i think they're going to try to use their power and the opportunity to push messages. i think they realize this was a losing message. they got pushed into the corner on this one and it was so you're for tax breaks for wealthy people but not for tax breaks for middle-income people. >> and democrats pushed those -- >> absolutely. >> they'll push for the expiration of a top income tax. >> they're also going to have to defend that as part of their economic policy and defend sort of where he is in the 1% as part of the republican approach to the economic policy. >> look, there are no good options right now for republicans on this particular issue. either one of the presidential candidates or three for that matter pose problems and potential strengths for them. and i think that what they wanted to do was put this vote behind them and move on to what they all expected was it's a messaging year and there's a chance we could ultimately win

the broad, closing message if not this particular message. >> it's interesting, people now in capitol hill fight until the bitter end not necessarily about the legislation, but about the messaging. as soon as the messaging is lost, then it's time to concede. >> indeed. real quick, shameless plug. what do we got? >> something in tuesday's role call, taking a look at turf war on cyber security, which you would think would be bipartisan, but another problem. >> i would say planned parenthood coalition fighting to preserve contraceptive rights for women, preventive health care service. >> that will get a lot of traction this week. >> two shameless plugs. >> one of the stories we did today in politico about scott brown trying to court the irish vote back home and another one was the story of a great colleague about harry reid's future as democratic leader. he's sending out signals he'd stay on even in a democratic

minority. >> god bless you. thank you so much for all you guys being here. that's it for this edition of the "daily rundown," have a great weekend. chuck todd will be right back here on monday for you goatee lovers. up next, "chris jansing and company" and whitney houston's funeral coverage begins here live at noon tomorrow. i'm luke russert, appreciate it. keep watching msnbc all day. it's the best place to be. hoo! [ male announcer ] but when she used tissues, she went crazy wild. tissue after tissue, she always took a ton. until mom explained with puffs ultra soft & strong, you only need one. two times stronger than the leading value brand, they always win this test. soft non-lotion pillows, they're sure to impress. now the tissue monster had gone away, and puffs ultra soft & strong saved the day. a nose in need deserves puffs ultra soft & strong indeed. for those who prefer lotion, try puffs plus lotion.

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good friday morning, i'm chris jansing. two big problems if you're mitt romney this morning. first, your platform is fixing the economy and things are looking better in that department. unemployment dropping, building permits are up, the dow looks about to hit 13,000, all of that good news for barack obama. second, you're trying to fight off rick santorum who is gaining momentum, leading in the polls,