the supreme court wrapped up the final day of oral arguments as the future of national health care hangs in the balance. depending on what happens, does the white house have a plan b? does the republican party? it is wednesday, march 28th. and this is now. joining me today steve kornacki of salon and now officially an msnbc contributor. golf clasp on that. brook silva-braga was inside the supreme court yesterday. mark halperin, the cheshire cat of american politics and from "the new york times" sunday magazine, hugo lindgren. can health care reform survive without an individual pan date? what's what the court debated this morning as the press corps called into question the survival of the president's most significant achievement. joining us justice correspondent pete williams justice inside for

day three of oral arguments. what was the situation today inside the court? >> well, i think a majority of the court believes that if it rules that the individual mandate is unconstitutional, then the rest of the health care law probably cannot be saved. i say that for two reasons. one is it would seem a majority of the court again breaking down along the familiar lines believes number one, it would be a very difficult almost impossible chore to figure out which parts of the law can still it be saved. and secondly, they're also very concerned about the effects on the insurance industry of leaving the obligations for the insurance industry for minimum coverage, you can't turn people down, pre-existing conditions without the source of income from the individual mandate and they're very worried about sad ling the insurance industry with that. justice kennedy who could again be perhaps a pivotal vote says he thinks that would be the ultimate in judicial activism to

leave that in place. the other members of the court say no, the better thing here is to allow this to be a salvage operation as justice ginsburg said, not a wrecking operation and send it -- leave the bill as intact as it can be and let congress then work out how to fix it, how to repair it, what to do with it. you know, i think everybody on the court all nine justices agree that there are clearly parts of this law that have nothing to do with the individual mandate. covering black lung benefits, all kinds of peripheral things that were stuck onto the bill because it was a moving train that was going to pass. a lot of things that are only peripherally related to health care and probably have nothing to do with the requirement that everybody has to buy insurance. they all concede that. but the question is, what to do about the main parts of the bill or the law and i think a baer

majority five members seem to think it's better just to strike the whole thing down and in a sense let congress decide whether it wants to start over, whether it wants to reenact parts of it. but here's a very interesting thing. and this may be just because of the sort of purist way the court works. it was a given today that the if question, if the supreme court strikes down the individual mandate, none of the justices revisited that question. they all came in today assuming that was the chore today, to decide what to do if that is the case. i don't know that you can read anything into that that they've pretty well all concede that's what's going to happen. i'm just saying the court was very disciplined today and followed its instructions of assuming that that -- if that is struck down, what then would be done. >> a very, very large and significant assumption. pete, thanks for your reporting these past three days. it has been excellent. thanks for your time. i want to open this up to

the panel a little bit. brook, you were in the room, the chamber as it were. let's talk about the dynamics yesterday. i think what pete was saying about the salvage operation is telling. he's we've heard it thus far, the white house does not want the individual mandate to get untied from the broader act. they know there's a lot of support for other pieces of the affordable care act and separating the two would sort of undermine the entire plan. >> it's probably not practical. but to what it was like in the courtroom yesterday, i know there's been some debate of just how bad a day it was for the obama administration. if you've ever been to a fifth grade play and looked into the eyes of a kid who is not sure if he's going to remember his lines, that's when's donald verrilli looked like yesterday. >> mother jones said it was like one of the most spectacular flameouts in courtroom history which is not exactly what you want to hear from the guy arguing your case. mark, you know, what pete is saying about the assumption that the individual mandate may be,

in fact, found unconstitutional is not good news for the white house. to put it mildly. and yet, we've seen out of the white house kind of a confidence that this thing is going to get held up. >> what else can they say? they can't say we think we might loss. everybody agrees that the solicitor general didn't do a great job. white house is now defending him saying he's fantastic. the question is why does that matter. i think what this is about is the psychology and the political sense and historical sense of justice roberts and justice kennedy. it's ease for them to join a majority to strike this down. that's a perfectly legitimate argument. the question is, do they find some other compelling reasontom find a majority to uphold the law. the solicitor general being bad gives them a little bit more cover in the wilder world because they do live in the wider world to strike this down if they want to. >> the white house responded regarding ver lily and his performance saying he is an

extras narrowly talented advocate who possesses unquestionable integrity. he ably and skillfully represented the united states before the court yesterday. let's talk though beyond the white house in terms of the american public. the question is, what does this get replaced with if in fact the mandate is struck down and the affordable care act is effectively thrown out? and does the american public -- does congress, will congress even take anything up to replace the act? >> no, i think the timing though, that's why it's so significant this plays out in the 2012 campaign because this would then get decided in a way by the 2012 election. there's the case that gets made that you know it might be better for democrats if politically speaking if this thing got thrown out now. right now, the terms of the health care debate are basically defined by obama care. some big thing called obama care that actually most americans when you poll in-depth don't fully understand. it's given republicans an

opportunity to take those voters and basically say regard it as a synonym for every negative thing you associate with bureaucracy. if that goes out of the way and the terms of the debate revert to where they are traditionally are about the nuts and bolts of health care, democrats have had an advantage on that issue. you might say politically the democrats have an advantage and look ahead and say we tried the good faith effort with working with the insurance companies, making them stronger. doing the mandate. now you've got to go single term. >> brook, have you done some reporting on rural health care concerns. one of the things in -- that you've mentioned is that even those who stand to benefit most from the affordable care act are the ones that are sort of most resistant to it. >> you're assuming that democrats can make a case that so far they haven't been able to make. we went to the far rural parts of southwestern virginia, and spoke to people that are getting free care best they can. one gentleman i spoke to is just under the threshold. in 2014, he'll qualify for

expanded medicaid and in theory would be getting free care. he doesn't believe he will. and he's not even sure he wants it. >> right. i mean. >> keep your government hands off my medicare. we saw this during the start of the debate. republicans are able to tap into that so well when it's about obama care. >> i find the whole issue so depressing when you think of a second obama term that they're going to have to go back and rerun the first term again. i mean, they have to go back and redo the health care if in fact the law gets entirely shot down. >> but they won't. >> they have to do something. >> you know, i said i was going to fix health care. that didn't work out. now i'm going to do something else. >> they have spent so much political capital on health care. if this thing goes the way of the dodo bird, who i will be talking about later on in the hour, you know, obama can't just, if he is reelected for a second term, he can't not do anything on it, right? >> i think it's hugely complicated because if this is struck down, the chances that

it's addressed before the election or in the lame duck session are zero. what else needs to be done? probably either in the lame duck session or more likely with whatever the president is and the new congress, sequester huge cuts news domestic spending, expiration of the bush tax cuts and tax reform people think need to be done, as well. all of those things are touched by health care. a big part of obama care is controlling costs on medicare, dealing with medicaid. it's all going to have to be dealt with in a grand bargain by whoever the next president is, but it's going to be complicated because remember, this passed with democratic only votes, one of the biggest mistakes they made in the process. and the reality is, you cannot replace it with another bill with democratic only votes even if nancy pelosi becomes speaker of the house andence harry reid stays as minority leader. >> mitt romney was on the tonight show last night. he was asked about this. he said look people you have the act now which guarantees coverage to people who were never eligible for coverage

before. if the individual mandate is thrown out, how can you get them coverage? his only answer was to explain what the individual mandate did. >> and make the case for free riders can't exist in society. >> there are a lot of american who's don't believe it's the responsibility of the government to have universal health care, as a society. we differ from every other industrialized democracy in that respect. people are not passionate about getting people who don't have the health care health care. >> and even those who need the health care aren't passionate necessarily about getting it. brook, silva-braga, thank you for joining us. we look forward to more reporting. coming up, one candidate is doing some remodeling while another doing campaign restructuring. will it help either one clinch the nomination? we'll talk about that next on "now." when you have diabetes... your doctor will say get smart about your weight. that's why there's new glucerna hunger smart shakes. they have carb steady, with carbs that digest slowly

to help minimize blood sugar spikes. [ male announcer ] new glucerna hunger smart. a smart way to help manage hunger and diabetes.

the day starts with arthritis pain... a load of new listings... and two pills. after a morning of walk-ups, it's back to more pain, back to more pills. the evening showings bring more pain and more pills. sealing the deal... when, hang on... her doctor recommended aleve. it can relieve pain all day with fewer pills than tylenol. this is lois... who chose two aleve and fewer pills for a day free of pain. [ female announcer ] and try aleve for relief from tough headaches.

newt gingrich is renovating his campaign because he's running out of money. meanwhile, mitt romney doing renovating of his own tearing down his old house in la jolla, california, to build an 11,000 square foot mansion. he is installing a car elevator to a four-car garage. his campaign telling "the new york times" it's "just a mechanism for storing cars in tight spaces." joining us now is lynn sweet is, columnist and washington bureau chief at the "chicago sun-times." now, lynn, we talk about the president and whether or not he should vacation in martha's vineyard. we find out mitt romney at this moment of economic duress is building an elevator to a four-car garage. there are decisions you can make when running a political campaign. this would seem to be not the

most prudent in terms of optics. >> it isn't because what you see are metaphors. that's why the etch a sketch comment by eric fern strom got so much tracks. if you want to conceptuallyize moisture does mitt romney have, the short answer is enough to build an elevator for a garage. it is the shorthand ways campaigns try to avoid of being caricatured. that's the problem here. romney has been called rich before. this is just something that you can mock him on and it's just material for late night comics. >> and let's talk a little bit about how the polls are sort of reacting or not reacting. but evidence of how this stuff may be undermining his popularity. a "washington post" abc news poll shows mitt romney's favorability is tanking among all adults. favorables at 34%, unfavorables at 50%. the more we see of mitt romney, the less the american public

seems to like him. >> part of that is going through an expended protracted presidential primary season. the example i've written about it before and others brought it up, i can't think of a single nominee who was more damaged by the primary season than bill clinton in 1992. his favorable image was about 32% at this point and he bounced back and won. the key with bill clinton, there were two keys. one was his personality which i don't think mitt romney can compete with him there. bill clinton could win people over in a way i don't think romney can. what underlined it all forum -- for clinton was the economy. the economy was going in the wrong direction. that's really what romney is betting on here. those numbers probably will come around if the economy kind of goes in reverse and people want to get rid of obama, then they'll be receptive to obama. >> i don't think the problem with romney is the money. he's a rich guy. there's a lot of rich guys who run for political office. may not be the best time to build your car garage or whatever he's doing. he's a rich guy.

a rich successful guy. the problem is, he's not connecting with people. he's not perceived as a normal person. if he was a more bill clinton-like figure or had other social gifts these things really wouldn't matter. it's not -- most of these guys are pretty wealthy. most live lives not like normal americans. so -- >> but look, the likability thing and the connecting to john q public does matter in terms of fund-raising. if you look at mitt romney has raise the $75 million so far, 49 mlds from people who gave maximum donations. 6.5 million or 9% of overall donations are from voters giving $200. >> i wouldn't give money to mitt romney on the basis he doesn't appear to need it. >> he does need to in a general election cultivate that donor base. >> i used to be an elevator operator. so i can't speak to that. he's not going to be bill clinton. he's not going to be a brand like barack obama even as the nominee and raise hundreds of

millions of dollars on the web but he doesn't need to be. people reacting now to some polls i think are right as a snapshot. if he's the nominee and he probably will be, he will have a chance to use the convention to rebrand himself. i think he will be the underdog till election day. it's hard to beat an incumbent with the skill of barack obama. he has a chance. he's in the game. i don't see the electoral college map radically different than it was months ago. his hispanic problem is a big problem. i don't see a path to fixing that easily. but everything else, when the reset happens, if he and his campaign are skilled, the stuff we're talking about now won't matter all that much. i will say on the garage, i think there's way too much made in the press about that. we should be talking about serious things. he's made a series of choices. the way his blinds trust handled suggest he doesn't really, really want to be president. you've got to the make sacrifices if you want to be president. it's obvious these things would be a problem and he's chosen a

certain route that does materially worsen his chans because of the way the media handles these things. >> does newt gingrich really want to be president, mark? >> desperately so. >> he is scaling back his campaign "we are focusin it wile to win, what we're going to be calling a big choice convention august." what's a big choice convention? >> whatever they think it is, it won't lead to the nomination. i think what we're seeing here, this is it. if we want to mark the week the gingrich campaign became worse than dropping out, it became irrelevant in the march to the nomination. >> did it just happen this week? >> if you have to look for some evidence on his side of making a concession, that happened. >> he just failed to bounce back weeks and weeks ago. you know, he went down for the count and didn't seem to want to get up. i think mitt romney desperately wants to be president. >> here's why he wants to be in play. this is the only vehicle -- once

he ceases to be relevant, which i think is just a short time, then he's not part of the conversation and that will be painful to him. >> that's the sort of herman cain model of things. talk about the issues, be a rabble-rouser for the far right. have a point of view. make it known. >> isn't with gingrich the added element where he's seeing all these converging world historical forces and every election is the definitive one for the next 200 years? i think part of him, that side of him looks at the possibility and that the possibility is just varnishingly slim at this point of this open convention this summer as the thing historians will write about 100 or 200 years from now. wouldn't newt gingrich love to be one of the central players in this drama. >> he would rather be the sprawl player as a nominee. >> he'll take whatever he can get. i think newt at the convention will be a fun spectacle. >> do you know how many zoos there are to visit between now and the convention? a lot of zoos. newt gingrich has wrapped his

arm around the zoo tour. >> if he chooses to go overseas, there are many more zoos, the berlin zoo in particular i would recommend if you're watching. >> we recommend the berlin zoo. esbefore we go, let's talk about wisconsin and what's happening there and a new marquette poll shows romney at 39%, santorum at 31%, ron paul at 11 and newt gingrich zoog lover 5%. the dem graphics in wisconsin would seem to favor rick santorum. and yet, if we talk about not death knells but the end nigh, if santorum loses this as polls suggest he may, mark, do you think he stays in to try and fight another day in may? >> i think he does. i think both newt gingrich and rick santorum have a similar psychology which is they don't think romney would be a good nominee and president. they think they would be better. they think it's still possible to find a way 0 keep him short

of a majority of the delegates. if he loses wisconsin, there's a chance he could also lose pennsylvania, he will be so thoroughly marginalized won't matter because romney won't get the majority. >> one thing to appreciate is how the role of the super pacs kept santorum and probably gingrich alive probably longer than their shelf life should have been. stripped that have support which will happen for santorum if he loses badly in wisconsin, it will be hard for them to keep even the campaign apparatus going they have now. it will be the beginning of the end or even the end of the end. >> sheldon adelson, foster frees if you're listening. shenanigans at a caulk site involving helicopter. that is all next on "now." i'm al ways looking out for i'm al small ways to be more healthy. like splenda® essentials™ no calorie sweeteners. this bowl of strawberries is loaded with vitamin c. and now, b vitamins to boot.

coffee doesn't have fiber. unless you want it to. splenda® essentials™ are the first and only line of sweeteners with a small boost of fiber, or antioxidants, or b vitamins in every packet. mmm. same great taste with an added "way to go, me" feeling. splenda® essentials™. get more out of what you put in.

multi-policy discount. paperless discount. paid-in-full discount. [yawning] homeowner's discount. safe driver discount. chipmunk family reunion. someone stole the nuts. squirrel jail. justice! countless discounts. now that's progressive. call or click today. mitt romney and ron paul are

teaming up to get some of rick santorum's missouri votes thrown out. santorum is firing back accusing his rivals of some sketchy caucus behavior. including asserting that a helicopter and a s.w.a.t. team needed to come and break up a kerfuffle between romney, paul and santorum supporters. steve kornacki, ron paul, let's talk about his end game here because "the new york times" asserts what mr. powell may have at the end of the race is a valuable collection of delegates so he can still play an important role at the convention in tampa. whether whether he will use his delegates to help romney is an open question. >> the value of his bloc of dels is diminishing by the hour because the prospects of mitt romney not coming to the total are getting smaller and smaller. the whoa potential of ron paul has been to come to the convention with 200, 300 delegates, romney is a couple hundred short and he needs to deal with ron paul. if ron paul is sitting on 80, it

doesn't matter. he'll be as relevant as pat buchanan was to the 1996 convention. >> let's assume paul's delegates end up mattering. he's not a man of compromise, not a guy who just wants a little piece of the action. he's got these crazy ideas. so how do you give him a little something? >> it's awkward bed fellows but it is a shred move by the romney camp to make friends so early on with ron paul. >> it does because he brings in some segments of the vote especially with young people that they will need. so it makes sense. >> what do they give him, the gold standard. >> those voters are adamant ron paul supporters. it will be interesting to see if they cross the aisle over to romney. after the break, is it the ends of governing as we know it or just the end of team unity in politics? former senator arlen specter joins us next to discuss his new book, rick santorum and the changing republican party coming up on "now."

so long, i knew his first wife. and most of his girlfriends. herman cain caused a lot of controversy. herman cain had a lot of problems with grammer. he could never find the right word. it goes back to his days in junior high school. no matter how hard his teachers tried, they could not persuade herman cain that harass was one word. >> that was five-term senator arlen specter this week at carolyn's comedy club not pulling any punches. the normer senator is out with a new memoir "life among the cannibals" the best book written about a cannibalistic republican

party ever. thank you for joining the program. >> thank you, alex. >> so we know your name has come up a lot in the first few months of the republican primary. you have said in the past rick santorum is too extreme perhaps to be president. this is what you said this morning regarding mitt romney. let's play that tape. >> the republican party has moved so far to the right, you can't recognize mitt romney. mitt romney has changed positions more often than a important graphic movie queen. >> senator, tell us what you think really about who should be leading the party if not mitt romney or rick santorum. >> well, it's a little late now for me to enter the race, about you. >> never say never. >> if there's a brokered convention who knows. when they had the debate the other night, i was mentioned more often than iran. i had more attention than ayatollah or unemployment. i ran for president in 1996.

the other day, i got more publicity than i got in my entire campaign. so when you ask me a wide open question -- >> you would suggest yourself perhaps in. >> well, i never say never. >> well, let's talk a little bit about the mitt romney comments though. do you think that mitt romney can in fact tack back to the center and gain the support, broad support of the american public in advance of election day? >> well, let's see what mitt romney emerges in october. regrettably, the american people are used to candidates who change positions consistently. and the reality is that the winner of the republican nomination, you have to be so far to the right you're practically off the boards. that's what i write about in this book "life among the cannibals." i write unless you are way off to the right, you can't survive in a republican primary. bob bennett great senator from

the utah, 93% conservative rating. gets beaten in a republican primary. same thing with the democrats. great senator like joe lieberman can't win a democratic primary. and in this book, i go behind the scenes and il suggest a way out. and the way out is what lisa murkowski did. she was cannibalized in the primary. she lost to a tea party person. she came back on a write-in. do you know how hard it is to write murkowski? if you spell it with a "y" instead of an "i," the ballot's out. she proved if you inform the public and an rouse the public, you can bring back moderates to government in washington. >> and let's talk about the disappearing moderates. there has been an exodus that copies. olympia snow, joe lieberman, kay bailey hutchinson. >> arlen specter. >> dick lugar facing a significant challenge.

>> maybe orrin hatch. >> maybe hatch. we have a map or some kind of graphic that sort of shows the decline in sort of moderates. we know statistically, the middle has shrunk if it even exists anymore in congress. the most conservative democrat and the most liberal republican no longer overlap in terms of bipartisan support for legislation. so steve, when we look at our broken congress to what the senator says, do we think there is hope for moderates in the future? >> i wanted to ask senator because of what you said interested me. i wondered this while you were trying to survive in the senate in the 2010. you started out as a republican, you were facing the primary challenge from pat toomey. it was looking kind of grim. you switched over to the democratic party. you faced a primary there and you couldn't win. you mentioned the lisa murkowski model out in alaska where she lost the primary, came back and won as an independent in the fall. did you ever give thought in pennsylvania to not running as a democrat but running as an independent?

is it something you look back at and say maybe that's how i should have handled the 2010 race. >> i did consider running as an independent. it wasn't realistic on pennsylvania politics. if you run in the primary unlike connecticut i could not have run as an independent. >> do you think rick santorum is going to win pennsylvania? we're asking every pennsylvania statesman what their thoughts on that are. >> there are a couple of competing factors. one is, he's home state boy. so there's local pride. the other factor is that pennsylvania issians really know him. the last time he was up for election, he lost by 17 points. my speculation is that he will not win. >> i have a question on the role of moderates. when you look at pennsylvania, big battleground state in november, does the nominee matter, or will it just be -- will the moderates go -- will a republican moderate switch because of who the nominee is in the republican party or do they

have no place to go or do they stay home? >> the nominee will be vitally important. the elections are really determined in the suburbs especially the philadelphia suburbs. >> so will the moderates -- what will pennsylvania moderates, they should be happy with mitt romney, yes, no? >> well, i don't know that they'll be happy with him, depends on which mitt romney it is. but he'll have a much better chance than any of the other candidates except perhaps for huntsman or pawlenty. i think he'll have a chance. listen, people are not too happy with president obama. arlen specter included. i don't like what he's doing in afghanistan. i spoke out on the senate floor against the 30,000 extra. i don't like his extending tax cuts for the wealthy. i don't like his supporting the commission to deal with the deficit and the national debt, alan simpson co-chair. right now, i'm citizen arlen

specter. and i'm going to look at the situation and make an independent judgment. >> senator, can i hold your book while i ask you a question? >> oh, yeah. >> so, senator arlen specter author of "life among the cannibals." >> if you hold my book, a answer your request he. >> senator santorum has said now that he regrets helping you -- supporting you, helping your campaign. do you regret helping put two conservatives on the supreme court? >> well, i'm rethinking that. i'm still watching. i will say this about roberts and alito. i'm disappointed in their testimony before the judiciary committee. they both promised to follow precedent and to respect congressional fact finding. and their decision in citizen united was a 180 degree turn. they disregarded recent supreme court decisions. they disrared 100,000 page record. they didn't live up to what they

testified to in the confirmation. >> that's not enough for you to say you made a mistake in championing their confirmation? >> still a little early in their careers. the arlen specter juror is still out on that question. sorry. >> that's okay. go ahead, steve. >> i wanted to follow up on that. there's a third conservative you helped put on the court. that's clarence thomas back in 1991. >> don't forget scalia. >> the thomas one you took a leading role with sort of questioning anita hill's credibility. because that case has gotten more attention more recently. i wonder what the benefit of 20 years hindsight, do you look back at that and still believe that anita hill was not telling the truth in those hearings? >> i believe when he she testified in the morning, that she did not remember metzenbaum's staff telling her that if she came forward, that thomas would withdraw. she changed her testimony in the afternoon. and i think in the morning, she was not telling the truth.

that it was supported by the fact that she changed it. >> do you think that she was sexually harassed by clarence thomas? >> well, i don't know. the hearings were in 1991. she was testifying about something that happened in 1981. the key question in my mind is what happened was it a disquali disqualifier. she and thomas were with the department of education. he went to eeoc as the chairman. she followed him. she left and went on to teach at the oral roberts law school and invited him out to speak. she drove him to the airport. she visited him in washington. but my conclusion was that whatever happened, it was not a disqualifier. >> senator specter, you do medication though throughout the book and especially in and neck dote with michele bachmann that my tough questioning of an mit ta hill continued to shade my

perceptions by women. i decided to make an exception here after you told michele bachmann to act like a lady. i decided to take an exception. bachmann was cordial, peaches and cream, nothing like the on air fire brand i had faced. it does seem anita hill is mentioned throughout the book and when you are dealing with other women. >> it is true. i was on a radio talk show done giordani and i was sandbagged, sitting there being interviewed and michele bachmann saddles up to me, pressing me on my side. and starts to interrupt. and it happened repeatedly. and i said act like a lady. and i didn't quite understand what was wrong with that. still don't. but it was viewed as being sexist. and i've got a very good record on women's issues being

pro-choice, cosponsor with biden the violence against women act. active on the glass ceiling. hired a chief of staff who was a woman, but things last. >> and the party has arguably walked back some of the progress that has been made especially vis-a-vis women's health and reproductive rights in recent months and weeks. >> it's a bad situation. i'm sorry i'm not in washington to speak out against republican policies on those issues. >> senator specter, author of the new book "life among the cannibals." thank you for coming on the program. >> i like it when you hold it. >> thank you. >> thank you, sir. next, one republican is working on a new version of the d.r.e.a.m. act while a survey reveals driving a car and walking in public are the greatest sources of concern for undocumented immigrants. what is the road ahead for immigration policy? we will talk about that next on "now." labored breathing ]

[ coughing continues ] [ gasping ] [ elevator bell dings, coughing continues ] [ female announcer ] washington can't ignore the facts. more air pollution means more childhood asthma attacks. [ coughing continues ] log on to fightingforair.org and tell washington: don't weaken clean air protections.

and tell washington: avoid bad.fats. don't go over 2000... 1200 calories a day. carbs are bad. carbs are good. the story keeps changing. so i'm not listening... to anyone but myself. i know better nutrition when i see it: great grains. great grains cereal starts whole and stays whole. see the seam? more processed flakes look nothing like natural grains. you can't argue with nutrition you can see. great grains. search great grains and see for yourself. for multi grain flakes that are an excellent source of fiber try great grains banana nut crunch and cranberry almond crunch. is the pain reliever orthopedic doctors recommend most for arthritis pain, think again. and take aleve. it's the one doctors recommend most for arthritis pain. two pills can last all day. ♪

republican senator marco rubio is looking to introduce an alternative to the immigration bill known as the d.r.e.a.m. act. critics say it would hardly be a dream for immigrants. it this recent push for reform nothing more than election year smoke and mirrors. alisha menendez joins us now from washington. alicea, it is wonderful to have you on the show. >> hi, alex. >> let's talk about this faux d.r.e.a.m. act. apparently the republicans are cooking up something that would grant legal stat to us students or potentially, would not grant legal status or citizenship but a student visa that would allow students to finish their studies and apply legally. no path to citizenship. what do you make of this? i know the latino community is a broad one. how does this play among hispanics in the u.s. >> republicans are trying to act as if this is the only bipartisan compromise offered. that's false. there is a compromise offered

called the d.r.e.a.m. act originally written by orrin hatch and dick durbin. we could be voting on that. instead they've come up with this alternate legislation that really demeans the experience of these young immigrants. it forever keeps them in a secondary status where they cannot vote. i mean, they exist as a second class of citizens. that is not going to play well with the immigrant population with latinos with their allies. it's really just quite cruel. >> you know, i want to draw everyone's attention to a report by the center for american progress which talks about what happens to undocumented workers once forced underground. it makes them afraid to report crimes and interface at all with local police. it has repercussions in terms of education. they often don't take their children who are here legally to school for fear of being caught. it fundamentally keeps them from engage with their own communities. many times undocumented workers illegal immigrants, whatever your term of preference is, are

married to or live in house holds where someone is a legal citizen. but that legal citizen is also forced underground. and yet, the republican party i think maybe is just waking up to the reality of what happens when you have the rhetoric and the policies that you do, and especially in an election year. >> well, everything you say is right. i think i could try to explain what's happening politically. what the republicans realize they need to do is to put something out there to masquerade and i say that kind of chairbly as the real thing which alisha talked about i with which was the bipartisan d.r.e.a.m. act. the idea politically is to create confusion so politicians could say no, i'm not against students staying. i'm for my version of it, not their version. they do all the time. that's going to be the political wedge. >> alisha, harrioid is saying don't take the bait to hispanic business leaders. do you think there's a chance the community will take the bait or certain corners of it will? >> no, at this point you have a

much more savvy electorate. the difference between these pieces of legislation is quite clear. what republicans are trying to do is to making this a values conversation. you have mitt romney being asked about marco rubio. one word to describe him. he gives you three, the american dream. that's the type of narrative they're going to try to carry out, and i don't think latino voters are going to buy it. >> it is amazing how far right the party has swung on this. george wfrl bush more a fan of reform. george h.w. bush is going to be giving his formal endorsement to mitt romney later today. alisha menendez thank you. >> thanks, alex. >> coming up, darrellis sass issues an apology to a democrat. that's next. ♪ ♪ i can do anything ♪ i can do anything today ♪ i can go anywhere

♪ i can go anywhere today ♪ la la la la la la la [ male announcer ] dow solutions help millions of people by helping to make gluten free bread that doesn't taste gluten free. together, the elements of science and the human element can solve anything. solutionism. the new optimism. cannot be contained. [ clang ] the all-new 2013 lexus gs. there's no going back. see your lexus dealer.

welcome back. time for what now.

congressman darrell issa has apologized for accusing fellow lawmaker carolyn maloney of lying. mark halperin, yesterday john boehner suggested mitt romney had not spoken in turn when he criticized president obama. is this -- are these signs that cats and dogs may get along in the end in. >> nope. they're two one offs i think for the most part. members of you know, tworps pretty -- by not using such strong language about their colleagues. the boehner thing is more interesting. for speaker baner to speak out that way about mitt romney is pretty significant. i don't see him regularly policing republicans critical of the president while he's overseas, there was pretty much nonstop criticism. interesting he singled out romney. i don't think it's a sign of a big change. >> the letter officially said i agree with your point, carolyn maloney's point and regret my choice of words in an interview with a community newspaper did not reflect the open communication you and i have long enjoyed.

this is response to carolyn maloney's question, where are the women when talking about these panels hearing -- >> ps, act like a lady. >> also -- >> she was peaches and cream in the end. >> there's a lot of ways you could act like a lady. okay? a lot of ways. so i would not -- don't go too far there because we could tell you about that. >> true story. like ladies like drinking light beer and regular beer. important to note, it doesn't seem to matter much anymoreful light beer tastes great or is light less filling. wow, people aren't drinking it like they used to. this is a really important topic. >> well, mine's just vodka. at any rate, beer sales overall are down for three straight years. 1.5% decline in 2011. bud light, coors light, miller lite all feeling the pinch. hugo, what do you make of it. >> i think it's exciting. all the new packaging. a new kind of can you get to open with a tool of your choice.

>> it's a shotgun to get the beer in your face faster. >> another beer summit time at the white house. >> lynn always bringing it back to 1600en pennsylvania avenue. >> steve, your thoughts, you consume the stuff? >> i drink light beer so frequent -- well not -- how do i phrase this without sounding like a drunk. i'm trying to say i don't drink the other kinds. they taste too strong for me so i stick with light beer. >> thanks again to steve, mark, lynn and hugo. i'll see you back here tomorrow at noon eastern, 9:00 a.m. pacific when i'll be joined by lawrence o'donnell and dr. zeke emmanuel. till then, you can follow us on twitter @ now with alex. andrea mitchell is next. live from havana. is it down here? >> it is beautiful and a gray day for cubans in revolution plaza when the pope delivered his mass. we'll have all on the papal visit, the politics, the

religion, a little music, a little baseball. what more could you want from havana and all the politics from the u.s., the supreme court arguments that took place today. marco rubio, patrick leahy, both sides of the big xwag date, all that coming up next in a special edition live from havana. i'm bill karins with your business travel forecast. big storm system going through the west. nuisance stuff in new england today. even a little bit of snow this morning in areas of maine and new hampshire. today will warm up eventually. boston chance of showers. not bad around d.c., slight chance of an afternoon thunderstorm for you. all the stormy weather for you on the west coast. [ male announcer ] we got a real mom

and the family car to do an experiment. we put a week of her family's smelly stuff all in at once to prove that new febreze car vent clips could eliminate the odor. then we brought her family to our test facility to see if it worked. [ woman ] take a deep breath. tell me what you smell. something fresh. a beach. a clean house. my new car. [ woman ] go ahead and take your blindfolds off. oh! [ laughs ] look at all this garbage! [ male announcer ] introducing new febreze car. eliminates odors for continuous freshness so you can breathe happy.

you know who you are. you can part a crowd, without saying a word. you have yet to master the quiet sneeze. you stash tissues like a squirrel stashes nuts. well, muddlers, muddle no more. try zyrtec®. it gives you powerful allergy relief. and zyrtec® is different than claritin® because zyrtec® starts working at hour 1 on the first day you take it. claritin® doesn't start working until hour 3. zyrtec®. love the air. do about medicare and social security... security. that's what matters to me... me? i've been paying in all these years... years washington's been talking at us, but they never really listen...

listen...it's not just some line item on a budget; it's what i'll have to live on... i live on branson street, and i have something to say... [ male announcer ] aarp is bringing the conversation on medicare and social security out from behind closed doors in washington. because you've earned a say. ♪ right now on a special edition of "andrea mitchell reports," live from cuba, a historic mass in havana's revolution square. boep benedi boep -- this hour we have senator marco rubio who has criticized the pope for not meeting with dissidents and also senator patrick leahy trying to secure the release of an american government contractor imprisoned .