here's what we learned. read the shriver report, halprin. >> i'm going to tweet every day about the animals going forward. >> awkward. >> and tina fey has a love child, randy. >> and welcome to way too early for "morning joe." if it's way too early, it's now time for chuck. bye. ♪ thanks, team. and welcome, thomas, to the early morning hours. well, the storm has not passed. chris christie's crisis isn't going away anytime soon. and now, federal investigators are looking into whether storm recovery money was misused on tv ads that featured christie and his family. also, this morning, the supreme court looks into whether president obama's recess appointments are legal, and the president's former defense secretary bob gates says the tough talk in his book has been hijacked by politics.

plus, as russia's president putin gets ready to host the world, u.s. officials caution americans headed to the olympics. we'll go live to chechnya with richard engel on the security situation in that region of russia. good morning from washington. it's monday, january 13th, 2014. this is "the daily rundown." so many stories on this busy monday. we'll have the latest on the iran nuclear deal, the recovery effort on the chemical spill in west virginia, a preview of florida '13, even a little "american hustle." let's get to the first reads. for new jersey governor chris christie, last week's obsessive scrutiny of the bridge scandal wasn't the beginning of the end. it looks like the end of the beginning. he will deliver his state of the state address, and another mea culpa will be unavoidable given who his audience is. his star power will be tested when he headlines three fund-raisers for florida governor rick scott in ft. lauderdale, west palm beach, and

orlando. it's his first big campaign swing since taking the reins of the republican governors association, and it doesn't get any bigger than the state of florida and that governor's race. and in a sign of how any new revelations could follow him to florida, state senate president don goetz, one of the highest ranking republicans in the state, quipped to "national journal," i just hope he doesn't snarl up traffic on the pensacola bridge. hardy-har. remember, christie hasn't been sworn in for a second term yet. that happens a week from now in trenton. frank palone announced the inspector general will indeed audit new jersey's use of $25 million of sandy aid that was money for a marketing campaign to promote tourism at the jersey shore. at issue, the bidding process for the stronger than the storm ads, which did feature christie and his family. the winning firm charged the state about $2 million more than

the next lowest bidder. it's just the latest shoe to drop, the chair of the new jersey legislative panel investigating the lane closures this weekend said this. >> if it becomes known that the governor was involved, and he knew about it and he knew about the cover-up, and he was approving the actions taken by his senior staff, that raises serious questions that the assembly ought to look at. the assembly has the ability to do articles of impeachment. we're way ahead of that, though. >> but john wisniewski used the "i" word there. given that they were together in seaside heights, responding to a boardwalk fire at the time. now, new jersey democrats plan to issue a new round of subpoenas as soon as today. and incoming state assembly

speaker vincent prieto plans to convene a special legislative session thursday in order to officially reauthorize subpoena power for this investigation. remember, subpoena power in new jersey in the assembly is not like congressional subpoena power. now, new documents released on friday reveal that christie's next chief of staff, regina egea, a senior member of the staff at the time, was forwarded an angry e-mail from a port authority chief from the new york side, patrick foye. he called the lane closures abusive and said, i believe this hasty and ill-advised decision violates federal law and the laws of both states. again, foye is andrew cuomo's appointee to the new york-new jersey port authority. don't expect questions about why christie didn't know of this sooner, if he did not, to go away anytime either. another democratic mayor, who did not endorse christie, is raising questions about how she was treated over hurricane relief money. she said she received $300,000

of the $100 million they requested. >> with 20/20 hindsight, by the context we're in right now, you can look back and say, okay, it was retribution, so i think probably all mayors are reflecting right now, and thinking about it. you know, i really hope that that's not the case. >> yet another problem he faces now in hindsight, a whole bunch of mayors like mayor zimmer thinking, well, was i punished for any reason, looking back, and frankly even using the scandal as a way to beat up governor christie. now, when it comes to christie's 2016 prospects, there's a difference between surviving and thriving. even christie's supporters who defended him on sunday are at best making the case that he can survive and get a second look. >> we've got a -- we've got a really smart person in chris christie who's a former u.s. attorney, who understands what's out there. and thousands and thousands of documents have been revealed, and not one single link to chris christie has been found.

>> i think that he can now move on, as long as another shoe doesn't drop. he stated very clearly, he should have known. i think he stated it very clearly and very openly and honestily, and that's why he has to answer every single question, is this a blow to him? obviously. how permanent it is, we'll know in the days and weeks ahead. >> that's from supporters. meanwhile, republicans who may have to compete with christie in 2016 chose strategies ranging from silence to overt criticism. >> we don't know all the facts. i think this is a story that's still developing and we should reserve judgment. >> personnel is policy. and the people that you hire are the policies that are implemented. and what we've seen is two, three, four -- i mean, there's more e-mails -- i don't know how many more come out, that it's very clear that personnel there was not sensitive to what seemed

to be a fairly obvious wrong thing to do. >> right. >> the problem for christie now, instead of leading with his strengths, he has to immediately figure out how to deal with negatives that were there before, like whether his personal style will sell in the midwest. it's clear from the way the conservatives as well as liberals have treated the scandal that it's not going to go away anytime soon. they won't let it go. interestingly, "washington post" columnist george will went ahead and compared the christie scandal with watergate. take a listen how. >> john dean sent a memo to mr. higbee, the assistant of the chief of staff alderman saying we should use the machinery, the federal machinery of government, to screw our enemies. that's what this was about up there. >> ouch. again, from george will. not somebody from the left. just about an hour from now, the supreme court is going to hear some arguments for the first time on the power of any president to make recess appointments. speaking of executive power here. the balance of powers battle

pits president obama against senate republicans in this specific case. for the president, the issue right now is moot as long as democrats control the senate. because by invoking the nuclear option, majority leader harry reid changed the senate rules to advance president obama's nominees with a simple majority, making recess appointments basically unnecessary. but the supreme court's decision is likely to determine the ability of future presidents to get controversial nominees confirmed when their party does not have control of the u.s. senate. the dispute, of course, began two years ago when noel canning, based in yakima, washington, appealed a federal labor board's ruling on its contract with the teamsters union, representing the country's workers. the national labor relations board had decided in favor of the company's workers who had negotiated a 40-cents-an-hour raise. noel canning said the decision was incorrect, and took aim at several of the nrlb board members, appointed by president obama in january 2012 during a

congressional recess. a year ago in january, a d.c. circuit court of appeals ruled that the president had overstepped his authority under the constitution, and that the senate was not technically in recess when he acted. and that the nlrb appointments were invalid. let's go to pete williams who, of course, is live at the supreme court where we'll hear these arguments today. pete, the impact that this is going to have is either on obama appointees post -- starting in 2015, if republicans gain control of the senate, or for the next president. >> reporter: that's right. of course, this is a power presidents have used since the beginning. back in the olden days, the founding days of the republic, congress was in session a few months of the year. so if, say, in august, the secretary of war keeled over, the institution gave the president the power to make a recess appointment until the next congress came back. let's look at the actual provision here. this is a part of the constitution, article ii, the president shall have power to fill up all vacancies that may happen during the recess of the senate. so there's two questions here.

what is vacancies that may happen during the recess mean? does that mean he can only fill up vacancies that happen, that arise, that occur during the recess? and the second question is, what's the recess? a lower court here says it means only the breaks between one session of congress and the next, not every time congress leaves town. well, the obama administration takes the position that the recess appointments president obama made in january of 2012 were legitimate, because basically the senate was nowhere to be found. there was only one senator here to gavel the session to order, and a few seconds later declare a recess. they couldn't have acted on his appointees, so they say, therefore, the president has the power to fill up vacancies during that time. so that's the question -- the questions of, what does "the" mean and what does "happen" mean? that's what the case hinges on. >> you have to love that. we have to remind folks, this is a fairly new thing where starting with the democratic senate of 2007, where harry reid

would force a u.s. senator to have a pro forma session to prevent bush appointees. >> reporter: yes. >> and republicans essentially carried on the practice, right? >> reporter: that's right. and every president has used a recess appointment power since george washington, but only in the sort of latter half of the last century did they start to use them to get around the senate's refusing to act on their nominees. >> very quickly, the supreme court on friday announced they're going to hear a case that has to do with a congressional race, a couple of cycles ago, where the losing democratic candidate -- it was actually a sitting member of congress -- was taking issue with whether a group has a right to lie. and those are his words. explain this issue of free speech and it has to do with a pro-life/anti-abortion rights group. >> reporter: right. this is congressman steve drehouse in ohio. >> now a former congressman. >> reporter: right. at the time he was a congressman. they wanted to put up a sign, a bill board, shame on him, he

voted for taxpayer-funded abortion. he said, that's a lie. all he did was vote for obamacare. yes, it authorized insurance for those who needed it, but it didn't mean automatic payment for abortion. a third of the states have the laws that make it a crime to publish untruths during political campaigns, and, of course, the challengers say the law shell political speech. >> all right. a busy day. thank you, sir. >> reporter: you bet. for the first time in more than a decade, iran has agreed to curb its nuclear program. we'll go live to tehran to find out how that works. plus, the big reveal. president obama will outline his plan for reforming the nsa later this week. what is the plan? will congress cooperate? we're going to talk to adam schiff, a senior democrat on the house intelligence committee, what he'd like to hear from the president. first, a look at the politics planner. the president today has a meeting with the king of spain. vice president biden is paying

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one week from today a new agreement regarding iran's nuclear facilities will go into effect starting january 20th. tehran has agreed to limit uranium enrichment in exchange for relief from sanctions. all of this, of course, is temporary. at the same time, international experts will be allowed to conduct daily inspections to make sure iran is abiding by the agreement. now, republicans have their doubts about whether it will work. frankly, there's a lot of democrats on capitol hill that also have their doubts. majority leader eric cantor released a statement, saying the underlying agreement does

nothing to reverse iran's nuclear program, it allows it to continue enrichment of uranium and fails to address critical aspects of the weaponization research. this is step one, negotiations to secure a more comprehensive agreement are expected to begin next month. >> negotiations will be very difficult, but they are the best chance that we have to be able to resolve this critical national security issue peacefully and durably. >> ali aruzi joins me now, and ali, we have -- the agreement gets put into place one week from today. february 1st is the first time iran will experience some sanctions relief. do you expect as this gets implemented that we're going to actually learn more about the sophistication -- level of sophistication of iran's nuclear program? >> -- very cagey about the nuclear program, as you very

well know. they've been very -- they don't like to let inspectors in. they haven't wanted to open up all of their facilities. but now, they've agreed to daily inspections. so i think a lot of iran's nuclear facilities will be opened up, will be made public. a lot of questions will be answered. i mean, iran has been more open than it's ever been before in this nuclear program, and quite frankly, everybody here has been quite surprised about how far iran has gone, even though there's been a lot of criticism in the united states. so i think over the course of the next six months, if the agreement does go according to plan, and both sides are reading off the same page, then we'll find out a lot more about iran's nuclear program as it's scaled back. chuck? >> and very quickly, ali, explain what the sanctions relief will mean for the public there in iran. >> well, the public here are hoping this will revive the economy. the economy here has been in absolute chaos. the local economy has been

devaluing and devaluing. the price of everyday goods has gone through the roof. so iranians just want stability with their economy here. and they're desperately hoping this deal will yield those results, that the economy will come back, will revive to something it was four, five years ago. i mean, iran is an extremely rich country, but it's having tough times right now. chuck? >> all right, ali, thank you very much. of course, u.s. congress will have something to say about iran and some other issues. president obama will try to put the nsa controversy in the rearview mirror if he can on friday. he'll announce his reform plans. he's expected to embrace recommendations floated by a review panel he convened last month. many will testify at a senate hearing tomorrow. among the changes the president is expected to lay out, extending privacy protections to non-u.s. citizens, and installing a public advocate to argue before the foreign intelligence surveillance court. but the biggest reform he's expected to endorse is

restructuring the phone data program that's collected information on billions of calls, texts, e-mails, et cetera in the u.s. one idea is to put the information back either in the hands of a third party, or in the telephone companies' themselves, instead of having it housed by the nsa. like many of the reforms, he is expected to seek, the proposal may have to go through congress first. adam schiff, member of the house intelligence committee, and also briefed last week at the white house about some of the reforms. before i get to nsa, very quickly, there's a lot of bipartisan skepticism about this iran deal. i know you see this as a positive first step. but do you believe passing sanctions now, even if they're delayed to take effect until after the six months' deal, is as detrimental as the administration believes it is? >> i do. i think it's a real risk. we don't know how the iranians will respond, but iran has to know if they renege, if they cheat, sanctions will come flying out of the congress.

so it's not necessary to do it now. and by doing it now, we do run the risk of iran walking away and -- >> you worry about giving the iranians an excuse to work. >> i do. i do. and i also worry our partners, key to the sanctions, will view us as the one driving an end to the negotiative process. >> all right. let's go to the nsa. you were a part of the intelligence committee folks, brought in, a bipartisan group, brought in. a little bit of a briefing. what did you learn? what should we expect to hear from the president on friday as far as these reforms? >> it was really the president's effort to try to get a sense of what the congress thinks. how should the meta data be restructured, and if we move to an independent advocate, what should that look like? should that advocate be appointed by the court, appointed by an outside expert? >> so who decides who the advocate is. >> who decides who the advocate is. will it have the confidence of

the public? he got conflicting feedback from the group of us there. a lot of deeply held and divergent views, though i think on the issue of the independent advocate, there was a lot of consensus. >> okay. we'll get an independent advocate. the meta data. this is the big breach americans sit here and look, boy, is everything i'm doing, the nsa has access to? he's going to announce some reform. the question is, is it the phone companies that keep it themselves, and dolls the u.s. government have to use taxpayer dollars to pay them to do this, or is it a third-party entity? what do you favor? what do you expect? >> i don't think it will be a third-party advocate. and that's something i tried to make a point on with the president. >> don't do that. >> don't do that. you don't gain anything from it. >> keep it with the phone companies. >> keep it with the phone companies or in the present form. if you have a third party do this, it will be viewed by the public as a surrogate of the nsa. you gain nothing from the privacy point of view. i hope that he moves to the model where the phone companies keep their own records. we can get those records, i

think, still in a timely way. there is some cost to it from a national security point of view. but the privacy cost of gathering all of the millions of domestic calling records of americans, i think, is too high to pay. >> and there's a new report out, new american foundation, in the "washington post," that all of these -- that this data collection, you can't directly link it to any thwarted terrorist attack, can you? >> the impact of that program has been modest, i think, is fair to say. but the intelligence community views it as one used in combination that one can be as effective. if it has only a modest impact, and no one can make the case it's much more than that, it can't justify the gathering of millions of records when it can be done in another way where the government doesn't have to obtain all of that information. >> do we expect congress to send its own set of reforms to the president's desk? can this congress agree to a set of reforms that actually gets

voted out in the house and senate? >> very difficult. very tall order for a very dysfunctional congress, which is why i think the president is going to need to go as far as he can through the executive process. a lot of these things can be done. the restructuring of the meta data program, in significant part by the executive acting on its own. >> so you guy as bystander by -- >> we shouldn't -- >> you shouldn't be, but probably. all right. thank you for your time. thank you for coming in. up next, securing sochi. the state department is now officially warning americans planning to attend the winter olympics that terrorists have threatened to attack the games. there's a civil war, folks, unofficially going on, only about 100 miles away. nbc's richard engel is live in chechnya next. first, the trivia question -- [ male announcer ] here's a question for you:

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♪ [ dad ] jan? a ban on tap water for some 300,000 people in west virginia has stretched into a fifth day after the chemical spill that tainted the water supply. officials expect the ban to be lifted soon, but they wouldn't provide a timetable of what "soon" meant. it was put in place after about 7,500 gallons of chemicals leaked into the elk river and made it to the area's water treatment plant. the chemical is not deadly, but it can cause skin irritation and vomiting. so far, ten people have been admitted to the hospital for exposure. none of them is in serious condition. meanwhile, we're 25 days away from the opening ceremony of the olympics in sochi. but already, the state department has done something that the russians feared and the international olympic committee feared, they've issued an

official travel advisory for americans going to the games. it could mean an economic hit to the olympics. the russian government says it will deploy tens of thousands of police officers and soldiers to protect the olympic venues. and next month, the fbi is also going to be sending extra help, but the real terrorist targets could be hundreds of miles away from the games, like the train station in volgograd. 34 people died in twin bombings there last month, so how can russia protect the games? joined by richard engel, nbc chief foreign correspondent, in chechnya. let's do a little bit of geography here for americans. on one hand, we're not talking thousands of miles from the games. we're only talking hundreds of miles, this battle, this unofficial civil war going on between the russian government and the chechen rebels, but it's separated by a big mountain range. walk us through the true security risks here. >> reporter: the true security

risks probably come from this area. we are now in chechnya, in grozny. this was the scene of two very violent wars between chechen separatists, chechen rebels who wanted independence and the russian government. and grozny, if you remember, became something of the by-word for destruction. this entire city was flattened during the two wars in the 1990s. after and during those two conflicts -- by the way, you can see the city has been completely rebuilt. it's something -- >> it looks terrific behind you. >> reporter: a lot of people were surprised. i myself was surprised at how gleaming sochi has become. but during these two very violent wars in which tens of thousands of people were killed, an islamic insurgency came to this area and developed quite a strong militant al qaeda movement, developed. not just here in chechnya, but not very far away in dagestan, which is another republic in the

north caucuses. and this is the main concern that the russians have right now. that a militant -- they're here in chechnya or in dagestan, or somewhere from this entire area -- could be inspired to carry out an attack during the sochi games in order to revive the conflict, to get attention, and to embarrass the russian government. that's the main concern. not that they would necessarily attack sochi, although there were some reports just in the russian papers today that militants from chechnya might even try to use homemade drones, the kind of toy drones you can buy commercially and put them in explosives and carry out some sort of attack. it seems speculative, but there's reports in the press what militants might try to do, as you mentioned, just a few hundred miles away from sochi. but at sochi, they have the entire country. >> that's right. as you point out, they could do

this in other parts of the country while the world is watching and it does bring attention. very quickly, the economic impact of the united states government issuing a travel advisory to the sochi games, can you put a number on that? and what kind of trickle-down impact does that have on other countries who may take their lead from the united states on deciding whether to issue a travel advisory? >> reporter: it's hard to know how many people will decide not to come because of that travel advisory, how many ticket sales will be lost. most of the money for the olympic games is really in merchandising. it's in the broadcast rights. it's not necessarily in people coming to the games. usually, the cost of the games is so much more that they could never really make it up in ticket sales according to multiple sources, the cost for these games so far, the ones that will be held in sochi, is about $51 billion, and some officials said about a third of that was due to corruption. >> well, there you go.

all right, richard engel in the chechen republic for us this morning. richard, thanks very much. well, first, do not harm. the white house just went an entire week without a health care media crisis, believe it or not. does that mean the system is on the mend? that's coming up next. plus -- >> and the golden globe goes to -- jennifer lawrence, "american hustle." >> amy adams, "american hustle." >> "american hustle." >> ahh, "american hustle." based on a real fbi sting operation to expose politicians on the take. we'll give you a history lesson about it later in the show. go-gurt? yep...doh. [ boy ] slurpably fun and a good source of calcium. dads who get it, get go-gurt. did you run into traffic?

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remarkable then happened last week on capitol hill. on the first full week back to work in 2014, the feeding frenzy over health care seemed to die

down a bit. republicans ratcheted back their rhetoric and the white house seemed to have stopped the bleeding. but are problems with online enrollment actually getting better? well, not in oregon, a local station reports that democratic governor the press secretary cut short the interview with them when the governor started to get press about problems with the oregon exchange. there are allegations that the governor knew the site wouldn't be ready for the scheduled october launch. phil hasn't enrolled, by the way, a single person. maryland governor martin o'malley championed the health care cause, but now is asking for millions of dollars in emergency funding to cover people who haven't been able to enroll. maryland's had problems with their exchange. at the same time, the "washington post" published a blistering account of how maryland's exchange simply wasn't ready on time. it's clear some democrats are feeling the health care heat more so now on a local level than you see with the president himself. let's bring in the monday gaggle, "usa today" susan page, and perry bacon jr. you know, dan, my inspiration of

starting with health care, i can't believe we went an entire week without a health care feedi feeding frenzy -- >> so let's start -- >> no, if you're at the white house, is it a sense of relief, or people are saying, this enrollment is happening and a sign that enrollment is working? >> there's been a slight sense of relief at the white house, since they hit the december 1st deadline, and things seem to be better. are things working better? better than they were. are they working as well as they should be? these isolated, or not so isolated examples, suggests there's still problems with the system, and the administration is getting rid of the main contractor on healthcare.gov, another sign that all is not perfectly well. >> right. susan, it does seem as if they now have a plan going forward, and how to deal with the enrollment. i guess the next step for the process, as far as the public's perception is concerned, is the enrollment working? is the demographics of the enroles, are they young enough to make the law work?

>> right. if the law works, the law is on its path. even now, it's hard to repeal, increasingly hard to repeal as millions of people sign up for it. i'm not sure, jim, it reflects the reality of the health care system. i wonder if it reflects the reality of the news business, where we cover one thing at a time, so we covered health care, and now robert gates' book and now chris christie. if there are problems with the health care, the affordable care act, like lots of people aren't recognized by the insurance companies, or there's more catastrophes -- >> people are using the system, right. it's one thing about enrolling. we've only been talking about enrolling. people are using. >> it will be back as a story f it works well, then this is the republican nightmare that other issues will take over from the affordable care act. >> go ahead, perry. >> big date is march 31st. we know the enrollment data shows lots of young people are not enrolling. the enrollment is really among people who are older and not well off. that's the key thing. march 31st, it will be

interesting, 40% of the people in the pool between 18 and 35. there's evidence that's not true right now. >> no, and i think that's sort of -- that becomes a serious hit, because then it changes the numbers, and changes the -- and then, a year from now, we see a different pricing structure. and then, all of a sudden, premiums are going to go up. i want to switch topics to the gates book. let me play a little bit of this idea, should he have done -- there's been a couple sets of criticisms here. one, a big one, should he have done it at this point in time during the obama presidency? here's the back-and-forth he had with matt lauer this morning. >> do you think that by calling him into question at this stage, it is either dangerous or dishonorable? >> well, neither. i think the decisions have all been made with respect to afghanistan. i agree with those decision. >> you don't think it undermines his credibility with the troops? >> no, i don't. >> you know, dana, it was

interesting, marco rubio, before he was asked about the gates book, before he launched in and taking -- criticizing the administration, then said gates shouldn't have written this book at the same time. it's very interesting to me how washington collectively has responded in almost a bipartisan way about the timing of gates doing this book. >> yeah, and i'm not sure i understand that. >> since when does that become an issue, right? >> right. he's been out of office for several years. these things are fresh in his mind. >> we've had two defense secretaries since him, by the way. we're on the second one since then, for what it's worth. >> it is -- i have not read the book. i've read the reporting about it. it is by all indications a thorough book. it talks critically about the president. it talks favorably about the president. it is the gates portrait of this administration. i don't see any problem with him coming out at this point with this book. >> i can understand the criticism, especially since the afghanistan war's not a done deal. we're still trying to work out the withdrawal. on the other hand, how often do we get an honest depiction of

events from a key player in realtime, inside an administration? i hope we get more books like this in every administration, because i think it's illuminating and important. >> yeah, i'm all for more information, the better, we're obviously all siding on that. but i think it is as the news cycle speeds up, so does the history cycle, i guess. >> and gates seems not to understand it, the way the book would be covered. he seems surprised the attention was on, what he said about hillary clinton in meetings and what he thinks about joe biden. this is the new media environment. the book is not being consumed as a thoughtful way, the way he wanted it to, but instead, you said joe biden said this, and so -- >> well, he walked back the obama criticism. he walked back the hillary criticism. he did not walk back the biden criticism. >> he clearly has a problem with the vice president. >> this is -- this is -- he is standing by -- he cannot say that that quote was taken out of context. there's no part of that quote -- >> he was very clear. >> it was very interesting. all right.

thank you, all. very quickly, let me go around the table. chris christie. how big of a blow is this? >> it's a serious blow. a, we don't know what more will come out, and we know more will come out. and, b, does it play into this larger question of this personality of his and his governing style and his -- >> how much of a distraction do you think he'll be ahead of the rga when he goes down and campaigns for other people? >> to some degree, it undercuts. we've seen politicians come back from bigger things. >> the bully thing was always a room, and now everyone is on the trail, looking for that example to find and prove that for the story. >> media critics are going to jump on what you just said. thank you, all. up next, a deep dive into the special election that could reshape some conventional wisdom for the november midterms. but first, the "white house soup of the day," tomato basil. simple, plain. could have done something spanish, you do have the king of spain coming. start the engine... and shift through all eight speeds of a transmission connected to more standard horsepower

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it's a political soap opera that's doubling as a dress rehearsal for the november midterms. today, a "deep dive" into the florida '13 congressional election, the election to replace bill young. the primary is tomorrow, and right now, all of the action is on the republican side. david jolly, who worked for congressman young, appears to be the man to beat in a three-way republican race. he's gotten strong financial support, as well as the support of the congresswoman's widow, beverly. >> david will continue with what bill young started. >> david, a conservative in the tradition of bill young. >> i'm david jolly, and i approve this message. >> now, she claims young told her on his death bed that he wanted jolly to take his seat. if that wasn't enough drama, try this. one of young's sons, bill young jr., is backing jolly's opponent. florida state representative kathleen peters drawing sharp criticism from his mother, who now says the two have no relationship.

then, there's the "tampa bay times" report about congressman young's so-called secret family. not a full-fledged secret, but he had a whole other family and three children, he largely didn't have contact with in the last 20 years. some are speculating that that damage could end up damaging jolly, simply by association. keep in mind, this isn't just another house seat. it is a wing district in a swing state, making it a potential national bellwether and something we'll all overread, but it does matter. the late congressman young kept the seat for decades but the terrain has steadily shifted. president obama carried the district twice and democrats believe they have a prime opportunity to turn it blue, and once the general election campaign gets under way, the race is expected to become a testing ground for national talking points. democrats trying to criticize gop obstructionism. republicans wanting to hammer the president on health care. and keep in mind, whoever wins in march will give their party some early momentum that could have a ripple effect all the way into november. the democratic, by the way,

nominee-in-waiting is alex sink. with me is adam, political reporter for "tampa bay times." give me the down low about the turnout. you can't predict too many things about it. jolly's to lose, though? >> yeah, i think jolly's to lose. ize he's the only one been on tv steadily. he's a lot more polished than the other two. >> what has been the issues that we've heard from jolly just to give us a sort of sense of where this is going? obviously, speaking more to republican primary voters in the first line of ads. but give me an issue terrain here. >> sure. he has been -- it's been obamacare, obamacare. and he's bill young's guy. that's what you've hoerd. he's the one who says he wants an outright repeal of obamacare, and main rival, kathleen peters, suggested she wanted to repeal it, but not replacement, but painted her as soft on obamacare. >> and the democrats, have they even started hitting on jolly?

i know i see press releases that try to make his first name lobbyist, rather than david. >> i think they have not started hilting him aggressively on tv at all. but, yeah, that's it. him aggre at all, but that's it. i think they are very eager to be going up against a federal lobbyist, david jolly, who still has a creature from washington, d.c. image. >> now, walk me through the alex sink campaign here a little bit here. she didn't live in the district, had to move to go in it, but she was from a district next door, right? >> she's from the tampa bay area, not from pinellas county. she moved into a rental place, is going to be facing a carpet bagger accusation, but so is david jolly in some ways, he's criticized as being more from washington than pinellas. >> obviously, hanging over this has always been -- and for those of us, i know you know this and maybe a lot of our viewers don't, but when you have covered bill young over the years,

there's always been, shall we say, intrigue that follows beverly young around, his second wife, but now with more attention paid to bill young's first family, there was a soap opera out of this, child out of w wedlock, all of these things. has that had any impact on this special election? >> we'll see. it's been kind of dallas meets the beverly hill billies, i think, in that soap opera. we'll see, beverly young, there was a story about young's former family before he got together with beverly young and she said some really awful things, comments that were really perceived as horrific. she's had an unusually low profile since, and so far she's still appearing in david jolly ads, but she can't be the help that she would have been before that story came out. >> you don't expect to see her face or name a lot during the general election if david jolly

is, indeed, the republican nominee? >> well, beverly young is beverly young. if she wants to be out there, she will be out there and no one will stop her. >> yeah, well, that's something we've learned here in washington, too. if she wants to talk, nobody will stop her. adam smith, political guru in the state of florida at the "tampa bay times." always a pleasure. >> thanks, chuck. trivia time, hawaii sent the highest percentage of minority represent is to the house in 2012 with 100%. we'll be right back. ♪ [ male announcer ] old el paso frozen entrées. now in freezers. the day building a play set begins with a surprise twinge of back pain... and a choice. take up to 4 advil in a day or 2 aleve for all day relief. [ male announcer ] that's handy. ♪

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well, time for today's takeaway. it's another hollywood tale based on real-life politics. "american hustle" scored three golden globes. it was inspired by the fbi operation abscan.

that was a 1970s sting operation where fbi agents posed as middle eastern businessmen. the amazing thing, politicians fell for this thing. convicted con artist mel wineburg worked with john good and tony amarosso. you can see the different ways they've done it here. new jersey just approved gambling so wineburg created a fake company and served as the go between, offering bribes for gaming licenses and politicians working to accept them. well, the fbi targeted 31 officials and ended up convicting 19, including a big one, a new jersey democratic senator by the name of harrison williams seen here. six congressmen and the mayor of camden, new jersey, also got nabbed. only one lawmaker, larry pres her, flat out refused to take

the bribe. prior to abscam, ten congressmen were. it was considered a success despite the controversy and weinberg avoided a three-year prison sentence for her work with the bureau. see you tomorrow. it's not the "limit the cash i earn every month" card. it's not the "i only earn decent rewards at the gas station" card. it's the no-games, no-signing up, everyday-rewarding, kung-fu-fighting, silver-lightning-in-a-bottle, bringing-home-the-bacon cash back card. this is the quicksilver card from capital one. unlimited 1.5% cash back on every purchase, everywhere, every single day. so ask yourself, what's in your wallet?

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try campbell's homestyle soup. plays a key role throughout our lives. one a day men's 50+ is a complete multivitamin designed for men's health concerns as we age. with 7 antioxidants to support cell health. one a day men's 50+. right now, the supreme court is hearing arguments on what could be the biggest case this term with huge implications for the president. can he make recess appointments, or does it violate the constitution? a huge crisis in america, women on the brink. maria shriver will be here to break down her new report, how 42 million women are struggling to stay afloat. fixing income inequality to minimum wage and paid sick leave will be crucial to their success. and ford is rolling out a brand new version of their most popu