is "now." joining me today, msnbc political analyst richard wolffe, former intern to richard now well established champion journalist sam stein of the "huffington post," catherine crier, author of patriot acts" and former white house press secretary and head of the obama super pac priorities usa action, bill burton. after a weekend of policy heavy discussions in colombia, the headlines out of the trip were focused on a potential scandal involving secret service and prostitutes. but obama's focus was trained on domestic issues especially those he hopes will help him in november including immigration. >> the only reason we do not have a law right now that has provided a pathway to citizenship, not just for d.r.e.a.m. act kids but for folks who are here, are law abiding citizens is because the republicans have consistently demagogued this issue and have blocked action in congress. >> sam, i will throw this first

question to you to maybe time the ire you're feeling because i brought up the fact that you were once richard's intern. i will not comment on that. i thought this was interesting. not interesting insofar as the media picking up on the secret service thing but the president is talking about immigration reform which a lot of folks on the left see as sort of a broken promise and could be a doub double-edged sword. the fact he's blaming it on the republicans, how does that play out? >> you know, it's funny because obviously the media attention has all been sidetracked to this pris to you tuition thing but there are politically important issues is being discussed. immigration at the forefront of it all. you get the sense now that we're in a general election format where the realities of the united states are coming into focus, there's going to be a mad scramable to fix the parties image with respect to immigration reform. we saw with mitt romney saying

the republican needs to introduce a d.r.e.a.m. act. this is what the president's talking about. back ten years ago, the idea of a d.r.e.a.m. act was not that controversial. it was basically rewarding citizenship for someone who jumped into the military and got an education. the fact that it's become controversial even when the republican populace is growing in numbers in the united states suggests we're at a real cross words a year or two from now. >> the president said i want to try this year. i've got a majority of democrats prepared to vote for it and no republicans prepared to vote for it. bill burton, i will play the sound from july of 2008. let's listen to what the president said about immigration reform then. >> and for eight long years, we've had a president who has made all kinds of promises to latinos on the campaign trail. but failed to live up to them in the white house. and we can't afford that anymore. we need a president who isn't going to walk away from something as important as comprehensive reform when it

becomes politically unpopular. i will make it a top priority in my first year as president. >> a top priority in his first year as president. what happened, bill burton. >> it was a priority. the problem was there were no willing partners on the republican side. as much as the president would have wanted to push three comprehensive reform, there was nols republicans willing to go along with it. this is a perfect example what the romney hopes for as his etch a sketch moment where he can shake up the electorate. but here's a guy who said most immigrants come here just for i an free ride. it's going to be very hard for him to walk away from some of the intense rhetoric he used in the primary. >> back to the issue of immigration reform, what gives anybody in the immigrant community and anybody in america a sense of confidence that he will get anything done in the first year of his second term? >> the thing that i think is most important here is that hispanic voters are dproeing as one of the most powerful forces in american politics.

if you look at the fact that between 2008 and 2012 it, the hispanic voter population has grown some 26%. that's not just in the southwest. it's places like north carolina and virginia where it's up 15 and 16%. they're a force, and i think that because of the political energy they bring to the table, they're going to help to bring along the change that the president has been showing leadership on. >> by 2050, if you build a wall and not one more illegal comes in, we will be 50% hispanic in less than 40 years, done deal. math is there. so they either get with the program or they're in trouble. but even. controversial areas, i was listening to a conversation they were talking about sharon engle got 28 to 30% of the hispanic vote. it's out there to be appealed to so the republican party is in trouble in if they don't. >> we can't just -- obama has benefited from the fact that no one else tried to make that

appeal because deportations are all up obama. border security is up. although that's tangent shall to the issue of deportations. it's not like he's won them over. he made a lot of promises, but he's done things that have ticked off the community. so it's there to be taken. >> it's a testament to how bad it is within the gop in terms of rhetoric that the president and his re-election team are trying to put arizona in play. let's listen to what reince priebus said earlier today visa vee the hispanic vote. >> we all know the importance of reaching out to the latino community. latinos have been bearing the brunt of the obama economy, latinos are clamoring for change and the republican party is here to offer them the change that they're looking for. >> richard wolffe, what do you think of that? >> do you think he was reading from his talking points? look, this isn't a branding

reaching out problem that the republican party has. it's your nominee one beat out newt gingrich by running to the right of gingrich on immigration. soelts you can understand why they want to make up this ground. they're losing latinos now by what, 70/30 margin which is disastrous. president bush who you heard candidate obama attacking, president bush actually had a comprehensive immigration plan. that plan could never make it through the republican party today. in fact, one of the key advocates for that plan john mccain, the phenomenon knee last time around has backed away entirely because he wants to build his dang fence. so the party has changed. what we're seeing is it changing again because when you see marco rubio come out with his mini d.r.e.a.m. act -- >> which offers no path to citizenship. >> they are moving incrementally. i think the danger for anyone who cares about this issue is that the president made an important statement. this is going to be his priority right out of the gate in that

second term if he gets one. he will only get one shot at one thing in the second term after he does the whole sort of you know the tax stuff at the end of the lame duck congress. but immigration is right there. the problem is it's been defined the d.r.e.a.m. act is a big thing. it's not comprehensive. it's a tiny piece of it. if we get anything close to the d.r.e.a.m. act, that's beginning this thing. i think incrementalism is a big advantage. >> let me make a plug for elyse foley who had a great piece about the how the republican party is recruiting latino candidates. one of them wasn't a registered republican. it was symbolic of what is the problem that is facing the gop. they think they can run latino candidates and all of a sudden, their problems will be fixed. that's not the case. the d.r.e.a.m. act isn't comprehensive. if you're against one small slice, then the community's going to look past just the candidates you put up for office. >> flor are they a monoloithic

voting bloc. much like women. i would be remiss if i didn't mention michele bachmann made political hay out of the secret service scandal. i wonder what you made of that, catherine crier? if you could tell me your thoughts. what your first reaction when you heard about it. >> i'm a grown woman. there's nothing new under the sun. it's a news scandal. shock, surprise, give me a break. yeah, it's bad when it comes out of the secret service. has anything like this ever happened before? maybe. we don't know. but let's give them a break. which doesn't mean maybe some heads should roll, guys should get fired but shock, surprise, a sex scandal. >> i thought the shock ended when bill left the white house. >> we spent this whole time talking about immigration reform and not the prostitute scandal. coming up, mitt romney faces new scrutiny on his stance on stay at home moms. we'll discuss it with tony perkins when he joins us next on

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with. >> i also like the idea ta people who are receiving assistance, welfare assistance have a responsibility of working. i said, for instance, that even if you have a child 2 years of age, you need to go to work. and people said, well that's heartless. i said no, i'm willing to spend more giving daycare to allow those parents to go back to work. it will cost the state more providing that daycare, but i want the individuals to have the dignity of work. >> that was mitt romney back in january saying mothers at least those receiving welfare assist assumptions should be required to have a job in order to have the dignity of working. joining us now is tony perkins,

president of the family research council. thanks for joining the program, tony. >> hey, alex. good to be with you. >> tony, we are now as -- whenever there is some sort of topic of debate inevitably that results in a dig back into the romney archives. this time we didn't have to go far. those comments were made in january. in 1994 he talked about a different world now than it was in the '60s when he was grow up when mom was at home and dad at work. we've been looking at his hiring record while at bain. there were no minorities among the 95 presidents and only 10% women. is this a good line of attack/debate for mitt romney, the war on mops if you will? >> well, only to the degree that it provides a stark contrast with the president. i think that in a way, what we've seen over the weekend is kind of an early mother's day present to the romney campaign. when you look at the fact that while times may have changed a

lot of desires of mothers haven't. 75% of working moms say they would rather spend less time at the office and more time at home, working less hours or not working at all. this administration has been championing women and they do represent some present, but certainly not all women and certainly not working mother who are concerned about their kids, about the future of their kids and the ability to stay home and influence those children. thisization end of this year, the child tax credit goes out. that's an increasing financial burden upon those families and when you look at the fact that about $96,000 is what it costs or what that family values from that working mom in the home, that's a pretty significant price tag. >> catherine, you're headache shaking your head here. take it away. >> it is so outrageous because no offense, tony, you say the women in the office. we're talking about women on the assembly line, we're talking about women cleaning homes. we're not talking about elite well to do consultants.

women just like men have seen their salaries sag nant and wages stagnant since the late '70s. two-earner families are out of necessity. yeah, there are women who have chosen to get wonderful professional careers. most women work because the family needs the money. and the cognitive dissonance to say on the one hand, women should raise their children and be at home but we're not going to support family leave, we're not going to support equal pay, any of the things that facilitate women making the choice, can i afford to stay home with my children or at least can i care for them appropriately if i have to work. >> you know, what prizes me in, and sam you were the reporter that asked the question of team romney, does the candidate support the lily bed leadbetter fair pay act, they know they have a problem with women.

the candidate has odd rhetoric and with basic positions they haven't figured out where they stand. >> you know, we're making so much out of this hilary rosen stuff and also about the lily leadbetter act. they came back to men an said they wouldn't repeal the act. i think you're right. the perception that's out there is that he's sort of unrelatable to women. i'm not sure how much focusing on his story or his and ann's story helps out. precisely because of what you noted which is that a lot of women do work out of necessity, a lot of them don't have the laws or structures in place where they can actually have a job, raise a kid at the same time, and so then you have to start asking the question, i'm curious what is tony says to this, what role does government play in facilitating either stay at home families or allowing a mother to have a child and go out and have a job as well? does government have a role in it? >> contraception or we're going to control that issue. >> that's a whole other bag. >> tony, what role do you think government has to play?

in that clip from romney a few months ago, he seeped to suggest that government should take on more of a financial burden to help women get back to work. >> well, i think first off, you look at your tax policy and tax policy is one of the areas that government clearly has a role in shaping. some argue that's not the place for social policy in our tax structure but the reality is that it is. and when you talk about very fundamentally the child tax credit, whether or not a family who stays at home receives a little bit of money because of their raising and the expense of raising children, but i think also what is do we attach to welfare mothers? is it getting a job? is it getting an education, is it preparing for them? what is the offset there with that mother being at home with that child? one of the things we should do when you talk about welfare mothers is encourage marriage and not discourage it by eliminating marriage if they get married. that could strengthen the environment for the child. >> this is -- i want to pivot a little bit because you bring up

the notion of the family and the family unit and this sort of conservative family nucleus. i think romney has a very tricky line to play in the coming months. we talk about the etch a sketching and so on on. we know his staff is expanding from 80 to 400 people in the coming weeks. there are no high profile moderates on the staff. there's been a lot of debate on this very show where romney needs to go with his message. michael steele says he needs to bring conservatives, evangel cas into the fold because the expectation is he's just going to go further towards the center. richard, what do you think he needs to do? >> the telegraphing they're expanding their staff means they're worried because this is the period of maximum vulnerability when you come out of the nomination battle still not ramped up for the general election and you cannot respond or engage with especially a presidential re-election campaign. so there's a moment here where they've got to talk about lots of different things and can't execute on them. that's why i think what we had

out of that hot mic moment from that fund-raiser the other day is very interesting because mitt romney was talking about how to close down various parts of the federal government. what departments could he eliminate and consolidate? it's still the rhetoric of the nomination contest. how conservative can you be? again, we should ask tony about this. if he still feels, if mitt romney still feels he needs to problem his conservative credentials he's doubly vulnerable. he doesn't have the staff and the position. >> speaking at a tea party event, he's still speaking in front of tea party crowds which is that he still feels vulnerable or needs to assure these people he's one of hem. that's the only thing that's noteworthy of this rosen gate to me is that the -- >> you've given it the official rosengate moniker. i take that back. that was being richard's intern, that's what happens. it's how quickly conservatives

rallied to him after all the skepticism we were supposed to get, they just went boom, there it is. >> tony, if you could touch on sam's point and also in politico today, they're saying the romney campaign has a power play point presentations, acronym tmt as in that mormon thing and how much he needs to talk about his faith going forward. >> i think he needs to talk about the issues. richard's point i think you can't start building the walls till you've built the foundation. all the exit polling in the recent contests showed the support among conservatives in the party for mitt romney, even if he were the nominee was very shaky. he still has to solidify that base so he can build out and to skip that step would be a huge mista mistake, especially when you think history is not necessarily on the side of the republicans in this election. go back 125 years, only one democrat has been unseated in 125 years. that was jimmy carter by a conservative ronald reagan who reacheded out to reagan

democrats that crossed over on those core economic and social conservative issues. mitt romney has to shore up that base of support. >> is he going to shore it up by going on "saturday night live," tony? he has an invite out there. >> well, i used to be a big fan of "saturday night live." i haven't watched recently. but it certainly couldn't hurt his image. >> you're on the record saying it couldn't hurt. i hope team romney is listening. tony, thanks for joining the program. after the break, afghan militants launch a new spring offensive with a prolonged deadly siege. what will the attack mean for u.s. withdrawal plans? we'll have a live report from kabul next. unner,marathon r in absolute perfect physical condition and i had a heart attack right out of the clear blue... he was just... "get me an aspirin"... yeah... i knew that i was doing the right thing, when i gave him the bayer. i'm on an aspirin regimen... and i take bayer chewables.

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you're probably muddling through allergies. try zyrtec® for powerful allergy relief. and zyrtec® is different than claritin® because it starts working faster on the first day you take it. zyrtec®. love the air. the taliban says a deadly 1-hour seen on kabul and three other provinces parks the start of a spring offensive in afghanistan. however, a captured insurgent

claims the haqqani network which operates in pakistan and has ties to al qaeda is responsible for the attacks. we're joined live from kabul. what's the assessment of who was really behind this, sohail? >> well, alex despite the taliban taking responsibility for the attack, the afghan interior ministry have been saying since yesterday that the assault had all is the patterns of a haqqani network attack. even u.s. ambassador ryan crocker agreed saying this is a network of haqqani operations. it's very indicative of that and told cnn he didn't think the taliban were good enough to carry out such a sustained attack as we saw yesterday. a senior security official today confirmed that some of the insurgents who were arrested confessed that it was all planned by the network but we're yet to find out. however, on the other hand, the of taliban soaksman told

reuters, had a conversation with reuters today and talked to them about strategy behind the attack, how their military experts sketched the maps of the targets and created a mock-up where fighters practiced before carrying out the large scale operations in the four provinces, including kabul that we saw yesterday. it was a rare insight into their thinking. >> so i wonder how this affects the americans -- well, our country as we try and -- as the president tries to sell the notion of negotiating with the taliban. >> well, you know, the negotiations with the taliban are setting up meetings, loya engineering gas with the taliban, there's talk of that all the time. not every member of the taliban is an insurgent who goes out shoot. they do plan it.had he are very militant in their thinking but in order for stability and in order for the u.s. to leave properly in 2014 and to have

stability, they have to talk to the taliban because the taliban are a large force here. >> richard, thank you. >> moving on to our panel here, richard, how does this affect -- i mean we know we're supposed to be withdrawing troops in 2014. you have something like this. i think there's a broad understanding or acceptance of the fact that the situation in afghanistan securitywise is going to deterite when u.s. troops leave. the proof is in the pudding. unfortunately it's happening ahead of the withdrawal. how does that affect the timetable? >> first of all, domestic politics has shifted decisively. there is no real downside for the administration. withdrawal, when you see things like this it looks like a civil war to many american voters in which case what is our role here? is this really an unending nation building effort or is there any counter-terrorism aspect to it? so i don't think the domestic side of it changes very mech. it reinforces the push for withdrawal. what's interesting to me is on

the national security debate. what's the strategic interest for being there? clearly this is now really going to be debated among the policymakers. and if this attack was really fundamentally the operation of the haqqani network, we're in afghanistan to deal with something that is in pakistan. pakistan is the destable leezing zone. it is also the national security interests, and to fight or to deal with pakistan across the border seems perverse and inefficient. and the other part of it is, counter-terrorism, that aspect of it that we care about the most, that is just so much of a lesser priority in policy terms than it was even a couple years ago. president has been very effective and his team has been very effective in dismantling al qaeda and the terrorism capabilities of the enemy there. so again from a policy and a political perspective, i think withdrawal is actually sped up by this. >> bill, you're making noises over there. i can't tell if it's begrunling

acceptance -- >> just breathing heavily. i don't think that osama bin laden would agree that dealing with pakistan over the border has been inefficient for starters. the president does have a strategy and he laid it out right when he told the american people what he was going to do in afghanistan. it was three things. it was one, to stop the advances of the taliban. it was two to deny al qaeda a safe haven, and three, it was to stand up afghanistan's army and security forces so they could defend themselves and protect their own country. the president and the american military has obviously made a lot of advances on all three of those things. he's laid out a strategy by which we can get our troops out in a reasonable way. the security situation is not going to be terrific in afghanistan with the american military out of there. the question is, once we've an keaved the objectives that the president set out to achieve, why would you stay in there? with mitt romney on the other side because the choice is important because mitt romney basically suggests we ought to have a presence in afghanistan

that is indefinite. >> the i totally unclear as to what romney's plan is. >> he said i don't know enough. this was what, ten days ago. i don't knowen enough to give you an answer. there is no -- there is no insurgent effort when a foreign army has invaded or call it what you will, that has been defeated in history with the exception of panama and grenada. we're not going to win if our goal is to defeat internal civil disputes. >> the good news out of that series of attacks if there is any is that it was dealt with by afghan forces even though it took them a long time, relatively few civilians is killed. we had to deal with bin laden in pakistan, dealing with him in pakistan with american forces led to another huge rupture with pakistan. the fact that they were sheltering him for so many years has only made things worses in terms of the bilateral relationship. so dealing -- the fact that we

killed bin laden in pakistan is not exactly a triumph for american/pakistani releases or in fact a stabilizing force for pakistan itself but a triumph for -- for america's security. >> which counts for instinct. >> i would tend to agree with you in terms of it being a victory. of thank you for the update. we hope to be speaking with you in coming days and weeks. coming up, have you filed your taxes yet in president obama has and mitt romney has not. will the ides of april haunt romney come november? we will discuss that next on "now." ♪ [ man ] when i went to get my first new car,

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later today, the senate is expected to take up the buffett rule. the white house backed plan to increase tax rates on millionaires. the vote comes as mitt romney gets a little more specific about his own budget plans, hinting that he would consider eliminating the federal department his father once ran. this was overheard at a romney fund raise arer, not an official

policy position but he did float the idea of ending the department of housing and urban development which of course, george romney runs ran and for those of you who don't know what hud does, a little research from the cracker jack team here at "now." hud administers affordable housing and homeless programs. it regulates everybody's favorite groups fan i pay and freddie mac and enforces housing discrimination laws. bill, this is clearly going to be a softball for you. but i mean, what do you make -- romney said he was not going to be talking specifics because specifics could be used against him. >> scary. >> come november. what do you make of that floated idea to shut down hud? >> i want to circle back to something that richard said about this actually. >> please. >> which is, i don't think this was tactical necessarily. i think this is what he really believes and that's what the danger is is that agencies like hud provide some of the safety net for folks in the middle class who are lower income, who don't have all the same

protections that the wealth awayest americans have. so for him to go to the place that protects the most people is telling about the sort of policies that he embraces like the ryan budget. i mean the ryan budget as a whole is sort of the macro of this nirk cox. it's more tax cuts for the wealthy at the expense of the middle class and doesn't do anything for the debt for 36 years. >> i don't want to gloss over the secrecy aspect of it because like people were outraged obama would say russian/u.s. relations will be different in the second term and he only said that in a hot mic moment, they should only be upset they're only going to get snippets of what romney will do when he's caught or overheard. certainly from the press but also from voters there should be a real demand for the campaign to be more forthcoming about this. this isn't an estoe eric idea. we need to have a fairly clear

understanding of what some person will do as president before we vote on them. that's a logical demand that voters should make. >> you know who else who thinks that? newt gingrich when talking about romney's tax rushes. during the break we were talking about this. mitt romney has taken an extension on his filings for this year. but they are still team romney is still resistant to releasing any sort of substantive amount of tax returns showing you know, long-term trends in terms of his investments and where he's put his money. >> i think it's very important. we keep talking about the ceo who knows how to create jobs and build. we need to see for many, many years, we're basically talking about interest income, capital gains and we're talking about capital gains on a questionable effort as to whether or not he worked when you get your carried interest and not to get too esoteric but how much work did he do to get the money and then get the benefits, giving his

kids hundred million dollar trust fund tax free? people need to understand how had he's benefited and how that reflect on his abilities as an economic leader of the nation. >> i don't think it's about begrudging his wealth. but it is about the decisions he makes, it is about a time when we were talking about a broad overhaul of the tax code and the office, the highest office in the land we should have some sense how the president himself has dealt with his taxes. richard i'm surprised they keep drag this out. >> makes no sense. >> you would think they would want to get this issue dealt with now supposed to much later when there's broader public scrutiny. >> unless they think they can defer it all the way past the election, it strikes me as strange because they're also going straight into the intensifying debate about what to do with the bush era tax cuts. about spending levels and the triggers that kick in. all of this is going to be coming together in the heat of the general election campaign when people are finally paying attention and then they're going to have to deal with where are

your tax returns again? what rate are you actually paying? you really want to deal with it now so that when you get to the fall, when you get to the debates you say that's old stuff. we dealt with that will already. tactically i don't understand it, but strategically, i also just bill thinks this is what mitt romney believes, shut down various agencies. i just think he's caught in a mind-set which we saw when rick perry was up against ron paul. how many departments are are you going to close in it's going to be eight, nine, three. >> he wanted to shut in 1994 when he was the moderate running against kennedy, he said he wanted to shut down the department of education and it was used against him. it's not like he's caught in some trap right now. he's been saying something like this for almost 20 years. >> it's incredit blild in terms of the strategy, smoke and mirrors and nobody in the american public is going to question the strategy. people are looking for substance. >> it's not just the taxes. that's one thing.

the bundlers is another thing. listen, he's doing everything by letter of the law which is very much zero transparency except for the bundles money that comes from lobbies. but it was a practice by bush and mccain to release the names of people who were gathering $500,000, a million dollars on your behalf. the demand for him to release this is list is very minimum. that i can tell. there's no one out there saying this is terribly united nations transparent. people should have a right who is giving this campaign a million dollars. >> playing right into the hands of bill burton. >> i come at this from a press perspective. >> we should have moral courageness if we're going to contribute and stand up and participate getting it out there. >> morally courageous. >> in the next block we talk about fund-raising numbers. after the break, then candidate barack obama said lobbyists would not run his white house.

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i know i have to say latte, but i feel like my character would drink tea. ♪ [ male announcer ] get unlimited calling to any mobile phone on any network when you get unlimited messaging. rethink possible. president obama's march fund-raising numbers are in and show sla he and the democratic national committee raised a combined $53 million. nearly all of the donations were $250 or less but according to new reports, big donors are the ones with front row seats at 1600 pennsylvania avenue. bill burton i have to ask you about this first. we're talking about a "new york times" sunday article yesterday. 75% of donor who's gave between $100,000 and -- or $120,000 to the dnc or the obama victory fund visits the white house, not the same, not true for lower dollar donors. what do you make of that? how do you respond to that? >> well, i think that the notion

that this tells the story of the transparency and the reform that president obama brought to the white house is misleading because you look at what the president did. he created a whole new realm of transparency by telling everyone who comes to the white house. the whole reason that we know who is on that list is because of a policy that the president put forward. weighened to make sure people had the chance to finds out who is visiting the white house. >> visitor logs. >> if it weren't for that, we wouldn't know. whereas with mitt romney, we don't know who's bundling donations for him. there's a real difference on this and the transparency the president brought to the white house is something no president before him had done. when i was working for him, it was sometimes a real pain to tell these stories who was coming and who was going. it was important to the president he be transparent about his dealings with the american people and he has been and this is the result. >> it certainly does show some line, however inex-electricable it may be between the folks with money in that town or this town

and the white house. >> and who is surprised? would anyone please raise their hands, money buys action ses. money has always bought access until you get major campaign reform and if heaven were to create public financing we might resolve this problem. but republicans and democrats alike have been basically bought and paid for for generations. >> i don't agree with that necessarily but i would say how about doing an analysis of all the big republican donor who's visit this had white house? because the bottom line is that -- >> just pointing to the republicans as if it's an excuse. let's be honest. obama administration came in with a lot of promises, achieved some of them but clearly whether it's the lobbyists coming in as part of a donor meeting or the meeting at caribou coffee house, or whether it's. >> obama cannot pass reform without congress. >> or whether it's bringing in advisers when he said he wanted to get new blood, there have been shortcomings.

we point to mitt romney and the things he's done wrongs but we can say the president fell short in some respects. >> the bright line was crossed not with these meetings with some people are lobbyists and some people influenced, the bright line was crossed when he named bill daley as his chief of staff. he wasn't a registered lobbyist but he ran the lobbying operations for a major financial institution. at that point, the promise that lobbyists would not run the white house was fundamentally broken with. >> take a step back here. >> wait a second. so the question is what do lobbyists or influence peddlers get for this money and that's where the story breaks down, right? did bill daley do anything to help banks? the answer is we're not quite sure what he did. you know, there are all sorts of -- there needs to be a quid pro quo to make the scandal and corruption work. we have yet to see that. there are all sorts of reasons why the obama administration has failed to live up to promises but hard to say that it's been in the pocket of business

business. >> if you listen to what wall street and big money is saying about the president hardly seems like a quid pro quo. bill burton, you're going to be releasing super pac numbers for march. was it a good month for you? >> it's the months keep getting better and i think that the fact that we have the resources to put together the kind of ad campaign we're starting today to help tell the story of mitt romney and who he is and where he is ontachs is telling about how we're doing. >> a fascinating yarn, the story of mitt romney. coming up, eric cantor faces new criticism about his donation to a group focused on ousting congressional incumbents. awkward probably doesn't begin to describe the mood in congress all next in what now. mine was earned off vietnam in 1968. over the south pacific in 1943. i got mine in iraq, 2003. usaa auto insurance is often handed down from generation to generation. because it offers a superior level of protection, and because usaa's commitment to serve

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welcome back. time for "what now?!" >> eric cantor may soon face tough questions from lawmakers about a $25,000 donation he made to a group dedicated to ousting

incumbents. sam, a veteran they'remaker says anonymously of course, it's a serious breach of trust and sends a signal to the rest of us if we don't fall 100% in line, they will come after you. >> i'm still trying to get a sense of why he did this. it seems like such a roll of the dice. if the donations work, fine, your hand is strengthened. you seem like a real boss and you might be, but -- >> i think he seems like a boss already in his own mind. >> what if it backfires? why would anyone in your caucus trust you after that? i'm still trying to figure out what is going on here. >> orrin hatch, there are a few that have begun to build defenses against the tea party in the right. even bob bennett is making reappearances in terms of his revolvement. so i think we're sort of at that moment. will the tea party sustain the kind of strength to make an event like this make cantor do something like this, or are the rhinos, the supply moderate

conservatives about to come in and get. >> why do you make the donation in the first place? >> i guess in a bid to not associate himself with john boehner and show he's from a different side of the tracks. we're all pretty well aware of that. speaking of wine knows, catherine, i'll go to you, richard. you probably want to comment on this first. while touring a zoo in st. louis on friday, newt gingrich was bitten by a penguin. >> to which i have to ask, was penguin okay? >> see i knew you'd have a witty rejoinder. newt gingrich is still in this race. apparently -- >> and looking for votes in a zoo. what could be more sensible. >> doesn't have the penguin vote >> he walked out on an interview after the first question. >> i got an alert he had an interview with a student newspaper in many north carolina and mid-way through the first question, decides to cut it off which is what an aspiring is presidential candidate. >> once you're bitten by a penguin, maybe all bets are off, bill. >> students can be really zany

these days. >> i'm moving on to my last thing to talk about, which is that a new pew project internet study finds one in five adults doesn't use the internet at all. that is shocking to me. of those not online, 59% are seniors, 60% adults who didn't complete high school, an 40% are those with incomes under $30,000 and 54% are those are disabilities. >> it just goes to show there's a lot of different folks that you're trying to reach. i would be interested to know what percentage of those folks voted in the 2008 election and what part of the electorate they make up. but different people get their information different ways and this is probably not as funny as you were looking for but it's important for campaigns to realize that. >> sometimes it doesn't have to be funny though. >> the conversation is the infrastructure conversation. go to europe, it's really fast. public access for economic benefit for the entire nation we should have you baseline,

wireless internet coverage around the united states. >> and yet, we do not and are not very close to getting it at all. oh, well. we'll leave it there. penguin bites aside, thanks again to richard, sam, catherine and bill. that's all for now. i'll see you back here tomorrow at noon eastern/9:00 a.m. eastern when i'm joined by carole king, robert costa and eric bates. you can findous at dpfacebook. hello, andrea. >> hey, alex. thanks so much. we are highlighting the battleground battle here in colorado, the swing states. the democratic governor john hickenlooper will be joining us as we also kick off education nation with the governor. also joining me ambassador susan rice on the failed north korea rocket launch and a new u.n. presidential statement on that. and former iran hostage sarah shourd will be with me. andrea mitchell live from colorado coming up next.

i'm bill karins with your business travel forecast on this monday. what a crazy monday it's going to be. summer-like heat with record highs in new england. snow in northern minnesota. rain down along the gulf coast and more and i in the northwest. but boston today, boston marathon, 88 degrees, warmest temperature ever for the boston marathon. thunderstorms possible atlanta and detroit. [ female announcer ] lactaid milk is easy to digest. it's real milk full of calcium and vitamin d. and tastes simply delicious.

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right now on "andrea mitchell reports," live from battleground colorado where barack obama lit up the sky four years ago. can he do it again? it's the first stop on our tour of swing states. and it's here that we kick off education nation today with the state's democratic governor john hickenlooper. then scandal in cartagena. the investigations are launched into 11 secret service agents, officers and supervisors. plus u.s. military personnel accused of soliciting prostitutes when supposed to be preparing for president obama's arrival. >> if it turns outs that some of the allegations that have been made in the press are confirmed, then of course, i'll be angry. mitt romney unplugged. the likely nominee gives donors a sneak peek how he plans to win back hispanics after his anti-immigration stance during the primaries. and also, which