appointments except the supreme court. good day to you. i'm craig melvin in for thomas roberts today. senator reid saying moments ago that the obstruction in the senate is completely unpre unprecedent unprecedented. so he wants to change the rules. rules that have been in place for about 200 years or so. senate minority leader mitch mcconnell is responding in. let's listen. >> the minority leader changes the rules for some judicial nominees, he's effectively changing them for all judicial nominees including the supreme court as senator grassley pointed out just yesterday. so, look, i realize this sort of wishful thinking might appeal to the uninitiated newcomers in the democratic congress who served exactly zero days in the minority, but the rest of you guys in the conference should know better. those of you who have been in the minority before should know better. let's remember how we got here.

let's remember that it was senate democrats who pioneered, who literally pioneered the practice of filibustering circuit court nominees, and who have been its biggest proponents in the very recent past. after president bush was elected they even held a retreat in which they discussed the need to change the ground rules by which lifetime opponents are considered. the senior senator from new york put on a seminar, invited lawrence schrieb, and in the past the practice had been that neither filibustered circuit court nominees and i can remember at senator lott's insistence, gagging several times in cloech our circuit judges to the ninth circuit knowing full well that once cloture was invoked they'd be confirmed so this business of filibustering circuit court

justice was entirely an invention of the guy, oh, here, on the other side. the ones you're looking eigat rt over here. they made it up, they started it and this is where we ended up. after president bush was elected they held this retreat that i was talking about. they made a big deal about it and it was a prelude to what followed, the serial filibustering of the circuit court nominees including miguel estrada whose nomination to the d.c. circuit was filibustered by senate democrats a record seven times. seven times. and now they want to blow up the rules because republicans are following a precedent they themselves set and i might add we're following that precedent in a much more modest way than democrats did. so how about this for a suggestion? how about instead of picking a

fight with senate republicans by jamming through nominees by a court that doesn't even have enough work to do, how about taking yes for an answer and working with us on filling judicial emergencies that actually exist. yet rather than learn from past precedents on judicial nominations that they themselves set, democrats now want to set another one. i have no doubt that if they do, they will come to regret that one as well. our colleagues evidently would rather live for the moment. satisfy the moment, live for the moment and try to establish a storyline that republicans are intent on obstructing president obama's judicial nominees. that storyline patently ridiculous in light of the facts and utterly absurd suggestion in light of the facts.

before this current democratic gamut to fill up the d.c. circuit one way or the other, the senate had confirmed 215, 215 of the president's judicial nominees and rejected two. that's a 99% confirmation rate. 215 confirmed and two rejected. 99%. look, if advise and consent is to mean anything at all occasionally consent is not given. but by any objective standard senate republicans have been very, very fair to this preside president. we've been willing to confirm his nominees. in fact, speaking of the d.c. circuit we just confirmed one a few months ago 97-0 to the d.c.

circuit. so i suggest our colleagues take a time out. stop trying to jam us, work with us, instead to confirm vacancies that actually need to be filled which we have been doing. this rules change rate has gone from being a biennial threat to an annual threat, now to a quarterly threat. how many times have we been threatened by colleagues? do what i say or we'll break the rules to change the rules. confirm everybody. 100%. anything less than that is obstructionism. that's what they're saying, to effect. let me say we're not interested in having a gun put to our head any longer. if you think this is in the best interest of the united states senate and the american people to make advise and consent and

effect mean nothing, obviously, you can break the rules to change the rules to achieve that, but some of us have been here long enough that the shoe is sometimes on the other foot. the strategy of distract, distract, distract is getting old. i don't think the american people are fooled about this. if our colleagues want to work with us to fill judicial vacancies like we've been doing all year. 99% of judges confirmed, obviously we're will willing to do that. >> senate minority leader mitch mcconnell there making the case against the so-called nuclear option moments before he took the podium there on the senate floor we heard from senate

majority leader harry reid making the case for installing the so-called nuclear option and reid has suggested doing this before, but started seriously considering the change this week after senate republicans blocked the third presidential nominee in just three weeks. on monday, judge robert wilkins was from the november 12th and nominee nina pollard and october 31st patricia millett was blocked as well. joy ann reid is the managing editor of the grio.com and jimmy williams is an msnbc contributor and alahe azad is a contributor. walk us through what happens now and what all of this is going to mean, ultimately? >> so now you're going to see on the senate floor a series of procedural votes that will ultimately culminate in a rule to change the rules. they'll ask the chair how many

votes it takes to pass these kinds of nominations. the chair will say 60. they will then move to change that, but this really is a very significant change particularly because it involves judges. we talked about how reid has made this push before. he did this over the summer and they had a sort of come to jesus meeting in the old senate chamber and they got past their differences. even when we were talking about that it was only for executive branch nominees. it was not for judges. judges are appointed for life and the politics surrounding them is a lot more intense. so this would go all of the way up to, but not include supreme court -- supreme court justices will take -- they would still take 60 votes to get through the senate, but all other judges would not. so part of the reason why that's changed is because there was a ruling from a judge on this d.c. circuit that we're talking about on contraception that allowed a company not to enforce the mandate under the health care law to provide contraception it to their employees. that judge was actually approved

after republicans threatened to go nuclear in 195 and that changed the mind of diane fine sten who was concerned of threatening nominees that they disagreed with on abortion. >> does senator reid have the votes. >> there are a few democrats. senator carl levin is expected to oppose him and possibly senator mark pryor. the majority of the caucus is with him for this reason. we talked a lot in recent months about the gridlock in washington and how unhappy americans are with their congress. this mood is not going to take the temperature down in washington. it will make things more acrimonious even if it does push the obama nominations through more quickly. >> let's listen in again to what senator reid said a few moments ago on the senate floor. take a listen. >> the need for change is so, so

very obvious. it's clearly visible. it's manifest we have to do something to change things. in the history of our country some 230-plus years there have been 168 filibusters of executive and judicial nominations. half of them have occurred during the obama administration. >> jimmy, you know, at the 11th hour in july they were able to hammer out a deal to avoid the so-called nuclear option. we know that senator john mccain was in harry reid's office yesterday in an attempt to broker a compromise at the 11th hour this time as well. what's different this time around, jimmy williams? why weren't they able to come up with some sort of last-minute fix? >> two things. first, liberal groups are obviously progressive groups are pushing the senate democrats to finally pull the trigger on this and that leads to the second reason which is never before in the history of the country have we seen so many filibusters.

122 in the last congress and 120 in the congress before that. here is the bottom line. we have three qualified nominees in the d.c. court of appeals. three have been filibusterefili. three months ago they let a guy go through in the same court. they didn't make the argument that the court didn't have enough work, but they're only making the argument now because it will shift the dynamic in the court of appeals to more democrats than republicans. that's the biggest problem so the democrats are finally fed up. i wish they wouldn't change the rule, but i understand why they would do it. >> why? there's no mention of the filibuster. we should mention there's no mention of a filibuster in the constitution. >> there are not. the senate's rurals the senate's rules and we don't change them that often and when you do, you get consensus which is why john mccain was sitting in harry reid's office. they're just at wit's end.

i don't blame them, i just wish there wouldn't. one day there will be a republican senate and a republican in the senate and if those things happen simultaneously they will be able to ram through any judges and any nominees that they want. one hand giveth and the other hand taketh away. again, never before, and i cannot stress this enough, never before in the history of the united states have you seen so much obstruction in the united states's senate. this isn't about republicans and democrats, this is about obstruction. congress is at 5%, this is an effect of that. this is a problem? >> joy, ann, is this a president that we should be moving away from and the reality in the second -- it was the preferred method of democrats to block

civil rights legislation. jimmy hit the nail on the head when he talked about the composition of this particular court. the d.c. circuit where four out of the nine justices of the supreme court came from. john roberts' seat is actually one of the ones they're trying to fill. he came from scalia, thomas and ruth bader ginsburg and this is whether obama will leave his stamp on the court and it is about looking forward to the supreme court. you heard mitch mcconnell mentioned miguel estrada and robert bourque. a lot of this is recrimination on the part of republicans. right now there is a four-four balance. four nominations by democrats and four by republicans. if president obama is able to put one more person on the court, suddenly the balance will be five 'em democrdemocratic pln the board. when it comes to things like abortion, getting the full 11 members on the court, if barack obama can do that he will shape not only this court, but potentially he'll be teeing up people for the big one, for the

supreme court. >> alahe, i want to pick up on what casey hunt said at the top here. what is the so-called nuclear option and the tone of washington moving forward? >> it will just get more and more intense, more partisan especially in the senate we're seeing the rollout of obama care has been a disaster for democrats and now you're seeing harry reid going to the floor and pushing for the rules change and the indication being that he has the 51 votes at the very least and he has a united democratic caucus on this and it will pit the republicans and democrats more and more against each other and to see if any kind of bipartisan bill can come out in this environment would be kind of miraculous. >> casey, i want to come back to you quickly. walk us through what we're looking at right now. >> so what you're seeing right now on the senate floor is the first in a series of procedural votes in the nomination. this is the motion to

reconsider. because she failed earlier, they are now bringing her back up again. you will see a couple of more votes and the process can take up to an hour, an hour and a half depending on how quickly they move through it. so the critical moment is going to come when i believe it's still senator leahy sitting on the chair. we were expecting him to be in the chair for the critical moment. they will ask him for a ruling and say what are the senate rules for approving nominations. the chair will rule that they'll take 60 votes and then someone on the floor, harry reid will change the rules for a certain category of nominees and in this case, executive branch and judicial nominees and you'll actually want to watch the no votes and not the yes votes. that's sort of a technicality and the number of people that votes no needs to be more than 50 and we're expecting that reid will get there? we can probably expect at this point, senator carl levine, for

instance to vote no and who is the other no? >> potentially senator mark pryor has also been on the fence about this. >> thank you so much. the grio.com's julie reid, and msnbc jimmy williams and alahe azad and casey hunt on the hill for us. that leads us to today's big question. harry reid going nuclear, smart move or being it come back to bite the democrats? you can tweet us and you can also chime in on facebook, as well. florida's trey radel is taking responsibility for his actions, but that did not include stepping down from office. what he said he will do instead to make up for that cocaine bust and did you see this story? after 12 days a-rod storms right out of the hearings with the arbitrators. what he says was the last straw. stay with us. 0%! i can't get her to warp. losing thrusters. i need more power. give me more power! [ mainframe ] located. ge deep-sea fuel technology. a 50,000-pound, ingeniously wired machine

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some developing news right now. the senate banking committee just approved janet yellen to be the head. her nomination will go to the senate for a final vote. yellen is currently number two at the federal reserve. ben bernanke's expires. republican congressman trey radel is now on a leave of absence from congress. he is expected to check himself into rehab today. in an emotional news conference late last night radel said he was sorry and that he had no excuse after that cocaine bust. >> i'm not going to sit here and try to make any excuses for what i've done. i've let down our country. i've let down our constituents. i've let down my family. i have been getting the help that i need and i will continue to get the help that i need. i want to be a better man for

you. i want to be a better man for southwest florida and most importantly, i want to be a better man for my family. i hope that i can be a role model for millions of others that are struggling with this disease. >> nbc's gabe gutierrez joins me now from cape coral, florida. gabe, do we know, first of all, whether the congressman has checked himself into rehab yet? >> reporter: craig, good morning. as you mentioned, he is expected to check himself into the in-patient rehab facility today. as far as we know he has not done so yet, but as you just played a clip there in the late-night news conference he was very apologetic and he said he was taking that leave of absence and he did not specify how long that leave of absence would be, but he did say he would donate his salary to charity, craig. >> gabe, there had been some questions about whether radel got special treatment after that cocaine bust. prosecutors insist that was not the case. what's protocol?

>> reporter: well, craig, the u.s. attorney's office has said that in the district of columbia it's typical for a first-type drug offend toer to get one yea probation as the congressman did. we spoke to another law enforcement officer said why they would have gone back to the congressman's place and talked with him and found that vial of cocaine as court documents allege in that home, and there are several reasons. one, this was an ongoing drug trafficking investigation, and news of his arrest would compromise that. we just don't know at this point. another question is is he a flight risk? chances are probably snot, crai. the congressman, did not get any special treatment. >> gabe gutierrez, live for us from florida. >> can chris christie save 2016 and beyond.

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we'll donate 250 dollars to a choice of charities that benefit your community. it feels good to be a helping hand. we are not talking about years and years. that is not what is contemplated. >> it's certainly what the afghans say and the nse today confirmed the letter from the president. >> that is not con what is contemplated years and years. it is to help the afghan military train, equip. we will advise. it is a period of time, but i have no contemplation that i've heard from the president or otherwise about some -- >> not until 2020? >> no, ma'am. none. >> that was secretary of state john kerry talking this morning to our own andrea mitchell. approval of a security deal in the works for the united states

and afghanistan may be on hold. in kabul today afghan president hamid karzai urged tribal leaders to approve a deal between the two country, but karzai deferred signing that deal until after elections next spring. nbc's eamon mohyeldin. >> perhaps this agreement, even if it could be approved by them, could wait until the presidential elections as late as april could delay the united states in the way it prepares to either wind down its operations in afghanistan or perhaps extend its presence in afghanistan beyond the 2014 deadline. one of the reasons that the afghan president did say he wants the incoming administration in afghanistan to deal with this issue is because he wants to make sure that it's

not seen or perceived as something falling on his legacy and that is something that's going to be many afghanistan citizens are going to be very critical of if, in fact, this agreement goes forward partly because of the issue of sovereignty and immunity for u.s. soldiers. according to this draft agreement, u.s. soldiers and personnel and others that are in afghanistan would not be subject to any type of afghanistan oversight. they would be subject to u.s. laws and that is a sensitive issue for many afghanis, in particular, many afghan politicians. one of the issue his to deal with an apology and this is what secretary of state john kerry had to say about that specific issue. >> let me be clear. president karzai didn't cask fo an apology. there was no discussion for an apology, it's just not even on the table. he didn't ask for it. we're not discussing it.

>> reporter: now president obama did address the issue of sovereignty saying the united states will respect the sovereignty of afghanistan going forward, but you can imagine it is a sensitive issue for the afghanistan government. >> eamon mohyeldin, and andrea mitchell will have much more on the conversation with secretary of state john kerry. her show will start at 1:00 p.m. eastern on msnbc. we continue to follow breaking news. harry reid officially moving to change the rules on executive branch nominees that so-called nuclear option would change the rules by a simple majority vote. we'll have much more on this right after this. once upon a time, an insurance clerk stumbled upon a cottage. [knock] no one was at home, but on the kitchen table sat three insurance policies. the first had lots of coverage. the second, only a little. but the third was... just right!

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briefings to come out swing against the white house and the flawed rollout of obama care. we continue to monitor that podium, and we also continue to follow the breaking news in the upper chamber. just moments ago senate minority the leader mitch mcconnell moved to adjourn the senate until 5:00 today and that's because majority leader harry reid made that historic change of senate rules. that change would eliminate all filibusters on executive nominees and judicial nominees with the exception of the nominees to the supreme court. chuck todd, host of msnbc's "the daily rundown" also our political director joins me live now from 1600 pennsylvania avenue. let's start with the so-called nuclear option. this is something that harry reid had threaten onned to do before. it appears as though it is going happen. how did it get here? >> and bill frist before that when he was senate republican

leader. when the republicans were in charge of the senate and had the white house back in 2005 we almost came to this. this has to do with frustration right now for the democrats in the obama white house with the inability to get a lot of their judicial nominees confirmed and they're specifically upset and there's been a big fight in the last couple of month, a nominee specifically to the d.c. circuit. this is -- the d.c. circuit is one of those that hears a lot of court cases, that may eventually end up in the supreme court. it's also seen as almost like a triple a for potential supreme court nominees to be, so you -- that bench gets proliferated with nominees like that and republicans that right now, there's an ideological balance here that some would argue slightly favors republicans who favors business interests. the obama administration has been nominating some folks and there are some empty lot there,

and republicans have held it up because they don't want to tip the ideological balance of power. they're not upset with the nominees themselves, craig. that's what they're upset about and of course, this has been and we've almost been here before, but this time it looks like harry reid and the white house have had enough and they want to go with straight 51 votes. no more of this filibustering of nominees to any executive appointment that is short of a supreme court. >> chuck, while you were talking there house speaker john boehner also took the podium again. these are his weekly briefings that he holds. we'll listen in for just a few moments, chuck. on the other side i want to talk about what the speaker's saying. >> 20,000 direct jobs and over 100,000 indirect jobs or he can rein in the regulations that are strangling our economy or he can delay this health law which is causing many employers to have doubts about expanding their

number of employees. the solution here isn't more government. the solution lies in pro-growth policies that help create a better environment for private sector job creation. finally, i was encouraged that the president said he wouldn't stand in the way of a step-by-step immigration reform. you know that's the approach the house republicans have taken? the american people are skeptical of big, comprehensive bills and frankly, they should be, and the only way to make sure immigration reform works this time is to address these complicated issues one step at a time. i think doing so we give the american people confidence that we're dealing with these issues in a thoughtful way and in a deliberative way. so i'm hopeful we can make progress on this very important issue. >> after thanksgiving should the house vote to raise the individual mandate tax?

>> listen, the house will continue to do our oversight of the executive branch as we're required to do under the constitution. we're going to continue to get answers to what -- why people are losing their health insurance and why it's costing some more. in terms of legislationive action, no decisions have been made. >> mr. speaker -- >> no, no, no, no. hold on. you. >> congressman radel is pleading guilty to possession of cocaine. he met with you the day he was charged. what did you tell him and do you think he can still serve as a member of congress? >> well, listen, as you all know, i believe that members of congress should be held to the highest ethical standard. i think at this point mr. radel, the issues between he and his family and his constituents.

>> mr. speaker, on immigration reform can you say, is this issue dead for the coming year? do you expect -- what is the expectation that the house will actually lead some of this step-by-step investigation. >> let me answer the question is immigration reform dead? absolutely not. i've made clear until the day after the last election in 2012 that it was time for congress to deal with this issue. i believe the congress needs to deal with this issue. our committees are continuing to do their work. there are a lot of private conversations under way. >> house speaker boehner holding his weekly briefing there, spending some time talking about congressman trey radel and he is expected to check himself into rehab at some point today in florida and also talking about immigration reform. let's pick up where speaker

boehner left off there insisting that immigration reform is not dead, saying -- answering that question of the reporter saying that it could very welcome up this year. >> craig, the most missed story of the week is what president obama said two days ago and speaker boehner referred to it during that sitdown with those ceos that "the wall street journal" put on when he said he was open to the piecemeal approach as long as all of the pieces got to him, right? as long as it wasn't just one, but that he was open to that. that he was basically no longer demanding that the house do an up or down vote on the senate compromise. that -- i think that that was basically, think of it as an olive branch to the house republicans and boehner just grabbed it. so i believe for a while, and i've been talking to people on this issue for a while that there will be another window, probably between march and july 4th that that will probable ey

the next window when significant immigration reform is possible. that the house will do this. there are political reasons for that, craig, filing deadlines would have passed for republican primary challenges. there are some things that maybe republicans realize that health care is such a winner for them that they can keep their base happy on that and upset them on immigration. whatever the political dynamics are, i think that's what we're seeing here. the president opened the door, threw out that olive branch and piecemeal. that's a big development and it's a big deal. >> chuck todd, thank you sir. we do appreciate you. and "the daily rundown" airs at 9:00 a.m. every week day on msnbc. i want to ask you about the battle over the affordable care act, the name of the republican game seems to divide and obstruct when it comes to this. in no uncertain term, gop maps out waves of attacks over health

care. the house gop's obama care playbook and the republicans plan 2014 around obama care chaos. republican national committee chair reince priebus taunting democrats over their plans to run on obama care in 2014, priebus taking aim at the vulnerable dems whose party leaders have vowed that they would stand tall on obama care during midterm elections. take a listen. >> we will make 2014 about obama care, and yes, we will tattoo obama care on each of their foreheads and that will be what 2014 is all about. they want it to be about obama care, but we'll make it about obama care. >> effective strategy? >> there's something new here and there's something old here and it's sort of like those "fast and furious" movies, like where people are, like, are they going to make another one? the truth is if you want to be fair to the republicans, people

do still go to the fast and furious films, right? and you know you have a turnout model here that can favor this republican message, okay? and they obviously feel that the wind is at their backs because there have been problems with aspects of the affordable care act. the rebuttal from the president and whatever allies he has must go beyond the website and remind people that this is a federal law and is not a product. there is not a defective product in one website or one place. there should ideally be 50 websites because we want to have a federalist approach and have medicaid expand. the most.thing that people can say that the president can have policy is half a million, and the state exchanges and the federal exchange. the republican counter argument is that may be, but people want to go to the fast and furious murphy and there have been people who have had their plans

altered in a way that republicans say, of course, was not consistent with the pledges the president made. this debate is not going anywhere. it will be around for a long time. >> we always appreciate your insight. >> i want to give you an analogy that would resonate with you. >> i am a fan of those "fast and furious" moves. . >> you got a plug. >> we'll see you this afternoon and i will see you on the other side of this break.

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this is nature valley. hey, i notice your car yeah. it's in the shop. it's going to cost me an arm and a leg. you shoulda taken it to midas. they tell you what stuff needs fixing, and what stuff can wait. high-five! arg! brakes, tires, oil, everything. (whistling) rebranding their party, republican governors will gather in arizona starting next hour for their annual meeting with one main goal, trying to unite while splintered by civil war. when they kick off their meeting at noon they'll be led by a new chairman. you know him, new jersey's chris christie. he'll be holding a news conference in a few minutes, as well and no high-profile public appearance by christie would be

complete without the $1600 question as in 2016. >> i would think there are some people in this room that are encouraging you to look beyond just this job. >> oh, no, everyone here is laser-focused kell owe 2014. no one mentions anything else. just do the best job you can in 2014, governor. >> he almost said it with a separate face. >> he can lead his party back from the brink. if he succeeds that would help elevate his 1600 stop. >> he's going meet a lot of donors and he will re-elect a lot of governors in big states like ohio, wisconsin, florida, et cetera. >> before 2016 there's 2014 and according to the daily rundown's newest gubernatorial rankings, seven seats could be describedas most vulnerable. among them, pennsylvania, florida, ohio, as well. kelly o'donnell also talked to another name mentioned in the 2016 ranks, louisiana governor bobby jindal.

his message, don't put the cart before the horse. >> as a party, we need to focus the next election, not the next-next election. 2014, two dozen governors races for the house and the senate secondly, as a party, zee to win the the war of ideas. >> i want to bring in deputy political editor, domenico, how much does chris christie impact a potential candidacy in 2016? >> we've seen other pretty high-profile republicans who have been the head of rga before running for president. you'll remember in 2006 mitt romney headed the rga. in 2011 rick perry did, as well, both before their eventual runs for president. so we'll see what winds up happening. obviously, neither of those guys wound up winning their nomination in those years. so, you know, it could go one or two ways -- one of two ways. >> yeah.

>> he's certainly going to be able to get out there and be much more known nationally which i think is pretty important for him because when you looked at our polling in christie versus clinton, one thing we noticed is that he didn't do very well outside of the northeast with republicans and that's one way he'd be able to try to shore some of that up as pushing that, you know, christie conservative message across the country in places like aren't so familiar with him right now. >> domenico montanaro, chris christie will be heading the rga and that will happen at the top of the hour. domenico, thank you, sir. >> thanks. >> folks, we continue to follow the breaking news on the senate floor. members just voted down mitch mcconnell's motion to adjourn until 5:00 p.m. harry reid about to officially move to change the so-called nuclear option. it would change the rules requiring a simple majority vote

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tomorrow marks the 50th anniversary of president kennedy's assassination. make will use the day to reflect on the moment that think changed that trajectory. others will use it as a time to remember the life of our 35th president. author of jfk's last 100 days, the transformation of a man and emergence of a great president. thurston, good to see you. changes for spending time with us. what can you tell us about some of the turning points in jfk's last 100 days. what were they? >> main one for him as far as foreign affairs went was the senate ratifying the limited test ban treaty. this was the first treaty to limit nuclear weapons since the beginning of the cold war. it was very much a kennedy operation. he proposed it during a speech

at american university in june. it gave him according to ted sorensen more satisfaction than anything he had done during his presidency and led to a whole bunch of others things. what i call jfk's forgotten detente. dallas was a kind of black hole that swallowed a lot of what kennedy had been doing before hand. few people realized he had gone to the united states in september during these 100 days and proposed a joint moon mission with the soviet union. he was so sure the detente was not just going to happen but through his second term. headlines in the "new york times" all forthen now. >> there was also a personal transformation that it and as if president kennedy was starting as well? >> absolutely. it started with the death of his son patrick, who died after only two days. the boy was born prematurely. he would have survived now.

at that point often such infants died. he spent the two days the boy was alive with him in children's hospital in boston. he was holding his son's hand when he died. he burst into tears afterwards. he went back to the air force base on cape cod hospital where jackie was. he wept again with her. he tried to take the baby's coffin away with him out of the chapel at the funeral. then he goes back to jackie and says, listen, we can't let this grief harm the work we have to do today. we made a huge impression on jackie. he was putting the presidency as a joint operation. when he brought her back from the hospital, they were holding hands in public. the first time they were ever seen holding hands by the press. extraordinary. it went on throughout the 100 days just before dallas jackie confided in a friend, i think we're going to have a real marriage. i think we've made it. she paused and said, i've won

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in the nation, what's precious to you is precious to us. ♪ love is strange so when coverage really counts, count on nationwide insurance. we put members first. join the nation. ♪ nationwide is on your side ♪ the red phone is ringing. will republicans pick it up? it's thursday november 21st and this is "now." senate majority leader harry reid has his hand on the button. frustrated after five years of unprecedented republican obstruction, aided specifically by historic manipulation of the filibuster, senate democrats are set to use the so-called nuclear option today and may forever change the way business is done in the united states congress. this was senator reid just hours

ago? >> the american people believe congress is broken. the american people believe the senate is broken. i believe the american people are right. during this congress, the 113th congress, the united states wasted an unprecedented amount of time on procedural hurdles and partisan obstruction. time to change the senate before this institution becomes obsolete. >> in a receipt or cal twist worthy of cirque du soleil he managed to link to failures of obama care saying washington is broken and democrats are trying to distract from obama kamplt the showdown come as senate republicans mostly flbd three of president obama's nominees. not because of their views or qualifications but in an attempt to permanently keep democratic judges off the bench. what qualifies as nuclear in the 2013 senate means using a simple 51 vote majority