od. told ya! i'm feeling better already. [ male announcer ] new alka seltzer fruits chews. enjoy the relief! and the real issue this morning is the drifting. over here basically bare ground, and look at this drift i'm walking through, this is about a two-footer. as you get out in the parking lots in town here in plymouth, we have four to five-foot drifts. >> flights cancelled up and down the eastern seaboard, so today the challenge is to get the airports and challenges to where they need to be. >> you can really feel it here on cape cod, where we have the winds picking up, gusting at 42, at times 50 miles per hour. >> a white blanket slowing down everything in the northeast. check out the apple store on new york city's fifth avenue shattered after a run-in with a snow blower. it could cost $450,000 to replace that glass. another very different, but still fragile situation, a phone

call between president obama and russia's president putin as concern over olympic security now hits the highest level. plus, what can we expect from the presidential visit with the pope? will they bond over their shared pledge to help the poor? we have more on that coming up later. good morning, i'm chris jansing. a former republican rising star once considered a possible running mate for mitt romney is looking at the possibility of prison time this morning. governor bob mcdonnell and his wife facing charges of taking thousands of dollars in cash, loans, and lavish gifts from a rich businessman. the former virginia governor said last night at a news conference, though, he did nothing wrong. >> while i deeply regret accepting these legal gifts and loans from mr. williams, all of these now have been returned or repaid with interest. i repeat again, emphatically, that i did nothing illegal for mr. williams in exchange for what i believe was his personal friendship and his generosity.

i never promised at mr. williams and his company never received any government benefit of any kind from me or from my administration. >> the indictment includes the details of that long gift list, from designer dresses, golf clubs, iphones, a silver engraved rolex. it includes a shopping trip in new york for mrs. mcdonnell, where the former ceo of star scientific spent $11,000 on her out oscar de la ren that, $5,000 at louis vuitton. let me bring in our company, anna palmer, alex, political correspondent for the national journal. good morning. >> good morning. >> alex, you heard what the former governor said, he said he used poor judgment but didn't do anything illegal. now look, neither one of us is a lawyer, but is the question here the line between what's ethically wrong and what's

legally wrong? >> yeah, i think that's right. even if these charges don't stick, even if he's acquitted, his career is over. this behavior is so unseemly. you can read the indictment and it's just something that is just icky and turns off any voter, any politician, especially a guy like bob mcdonnell, he had such a squeaky clean image. so it's a real shock. huge rise and fall for this guy, almost four years, almost a shakespearean collapse. he packed a lot in this short time there. >> you have this lengthy paper trail, 43-page, 14-count indictment, e-mails from the governor and his wife with johnny williams, who's that former ceo of a company that was promoting a dietary supplement. they vacation the as his home, drove his ferrari, then got two loans, one for $50,000, the other for $15,000. bob mcdonald said it was friendship, but if you're a

businessman, i guess the common sense question is, anna, if you're a voter, potentially future in a presidential campaign, don't you think that maybe they might expect something in return even if it's maybe not written down or spelled out? >> absolutely, and the thing where you're really wondering what happened and i'm sure the court case will go into is what the official acts were in terms of, you know, there was the ferrari, clothes, and he was also seated next to, you know, the governor's wife at different events or had certain meetings with different politicians and regulators in virginia, so that's where you get into the real kind of legal issues, not just the benefits of maybe having political donor where it's an actual political acts may have taken place. >> i think also you talk, alex, about this being shakespearean how fast the rise and fall was, also keeping up with the joness, you could argue this is that on steroids. let me read one of the e-mails

from mrs. mcdonald. "i need to talk to you about inaugural clothing budget, i need answers and bob is screaming about the thousands i'm charging in credit card debt. we are broke, have an unconscionable amount in credit card debt already, i need answers, i need help, and i need to get this done." at the very least, obviously, it's relatable this is somebody who's living beyond their means, but when your means take you to places like louis vuitton and bergdorf goodman, obviously, the problems just keep piling up. >> yeah, i mean, politicians are humans, too. but it just shows an incredible lack of judgment, i think. this guy is the governor of virginia and he's getting so excited about getting a ride in a ferrari, gets a rolex watch, governor of virginia sketched on

it. wait a few years, then cash out, get a job on k street. it's incredible how they just get lured in by these luxury goods and seem to put so much on the line, not just for themselves, but for their party, for the state of virginia. so much for these, you know, very kind of superficial benefits. >> anna, what do we know about the legal part of this, and from what i've read and what i've heard, there is, you know, the hobs act, which basically says that you're not allowed to accept something of value as a public official in exchange for a promise or agreement, and i guess that's where the governor is hanging his defense here, that there was no promise, there was no agreement. >> virginia has really loose laws in terms of campaign finance, so as long as you disclose what you're getting, there's really very little regulation in terms of that, but the real question here is, were there official acts done, did the mcdonalds get gifts and then make official acts and do

official things on their behalf of johnny williams? and the other kind of real question going back to this is, you know, whether or not he can amount any kind of defense. he really took some partisan shots at president obama and tim kaine from virginia yesterday, and so didn't really mount necessarily the most credible defense in terms of the legal claims that are going to be against him. >> alex, the analysis seems to be that this is it, as you have suggested, for him, but there's another gop governor. someone else considered a 2016 contender. he was considered a potential 2012 romney running mate, chris christie, of course. yesterday, we played live his inaugural address. he did not mention the bridge scandal or any of the other problems that are surrounding him, although polls show nationally he's slipping in a hypothetical matchup with hillary clinton, 46% to 38%. and the question becomes, can he come back from this? and one argument by supporters of his is that two years is a

very long time and that, you know, we don't know what's going to happen yet, and, in fact, people have a very short attention span. other scandals come up, this perhaps being a case in point. where do you see the whole christie story standing right now? >> i think it's certainly possible that he comes back, but the more this goes on, the more we learn things, and it just confirms a narrative already existing, which is always harder to come back from if you're a politician, and i think it's really bad for the party. these two guys were both elected in 2009, the tip of the sphere for the tea party wave which came a year later in 2010. if you talk to smart republicans, they tell you don't look at congress, look at the governors, that's where we're having good ideas, smart ideas. these were two bright stars and now both have a taint of scandal. even if christie can recover, there's no doubt that it's hurt him and going to hurt his party in 2016. >> thanks to both of you. >> thanks. >> thanks so much.

u.s. officials say the terror threat in sochi is the highest of any olympics ever and this morning several new developments on that front. olympic delegations from germany, italy, and hungary say thai gotten threatening letters and e-mails warning about terror atax against their athletes. the international olympic committee sent out a statement saying the threats are not credible. president obama called russian president vladimir putin to talk security and nbc news learned u.s. military officials are considering sharing sophisticated detection devices to find roadside bombs. i'm joined by michael leiter, michael, good morning. >> good morning, chris. >> let's start with this u.s. offer to share these sophisticated detection devices. what does that tell us about how seriously concerned u.s. officials are taking this terror threat, and what about the technical worries about could they even make this work? >> it certainly shows how seriously we're taking it.

i think even more importantly, the fact that this is a possibility shows us how seriously the russians are taking it. the russians are really not inclined to look for u.s. assistance, and we have seen on the front of the president calling president putin, this offer from the u.s. military, and also some increasingly good ties between the fbi and the russian security services, but the russians are opening up some. in terms of how helpful this would actually be, it will be complicated to actually get those tools in there, understand if they can work in that environment, but again, i think more than the specifics, it is the general that the russians seem to be opening up a little bit to u.s. assistance. >> we don't know details about this phone call between president obama and president putin, although, again, i think you have to look at it as significant they were even talking, and do you think this kind of communication can do anything to change the russian position, which has been this is our country, we're going to take care of this? >> even without knowing the details, the fact that the call

occurred is critical, and really because these are putin's games, everyone in russia knows that president putin runs everything, and especially when it comes to these olympics how central he is. having him actively engaged with president obama is really important to push the bureaucracies of these security services to try to get greater cooperation. now that cooperation is not going to make sochi magically safe. there are things that we can do on the margins, some of this technical assistance, assistance in helping them identify people who might be traveling to russia of concern, but ultimately this is going to remain a russian challenge, and u.s. intelligence and security only has so much visibility into a lot of these threats in and around sochi. >> let me ask you specifically about a threat, house homeland security committee chairman is in russia right now reviewing the security situation and he says he still has very serious concerns. i want to play that. >> it's very eerie when you go

into sochi to see the mountains and to think about these black widows that they call them, who have had their spouses killed by the fsb now retaliating through suicide bombing. it's eerie to think of them coming out of these mountains into the olympic village. >> now we have learned that one of the black widow suspects was killed, but three other women are still wanted, along with two men. what about this ring of steel, what about all the troops on the ground, and what about the suicide bombing threat? >> the russians have taken extraordinary measures to protect sochi with that ring of steel and then even more close in the olympic venues, and i tend to think those venues are going to be quite safe and very well protected. as you go out into sochi again, a very significant layer of protection and i think that's a relatively safe area. i think the most likely threat remains outside of that ring of steel, volgograd, what we saw last month extremely dangerous and very, very hard to defend at these soft targets. as you move in towards the

center, less likely, but the fact that the russians went as far as posting wanted ads for one of these black widow potential suicide bombers shows how seriously they are taking it and even their admission that their ring of steel might not be quite as complete as they hoped it would be. >> let me ask you finally about these letters, e-mails, that went out to very specific delegations, threats aimed at olympic teams. is this something that we've seen before, because the ioc was pretty quick in issuing a statement saying these aren't credible. >> we have, and really since 9/11, these sorts of large international events, the olympic games, the world cup, nato summits, we always see lots of noise in the system. what is markedly different about sochi is its setting and how close actual terrorist events have occurred so close to the games in a really specific credible threat. that is what is different. that is what is causing, i think, legitimate concern on the

part of athletes, countries, and the host in this case. and i think over the next two weeks in the run-up, we're going to see lots of offensive action by the russians, lots of threats, and then even into and through the games, this is going to be an ongoing story, chris. >> michael leiter, always good to have you on the program. thank you, michael. >> thanks, chris. checking the news feed this morning, police are searching for a motive in tuesday's deadly shooting at purdue university. 23-year-old teaching assistant, cody cousins, has been arrested after shooting a fellow teaching assistant in a classroom before calmly surrendering to police. classes are cancelled today and a vigil will be held tonight. the pentagon has submitted a proposal to keep 10,000 troops in afghanistan after the combat mission ends this year, quoting sources "the new york times" says the alternative is a complete pull-out. military leaders say the all or nothing approach is to ensure adequate protection for diplomats and military that will

remain in the area. president obama has yet to decide on final troop numbers. syria's government and the opposition that face-to-face for the first time today in peace talks in geneva, switzerland. secretary of state john kerry is there and says president assad cannot play a role in the country's transitional government, but a syrian official says assad will not step aside. the three-year war in syria has killed an estimated 130,000 people. edward snowden insisting in a new interview that he acted alone. after two prominent lawmakers suggested he might have worked with russia. snowden told "the new yorker" he, "clearly and unambiguously acted alone with no help from anyone, much less a government." you know the saying all politics is local, the president will meet with mayors across the country today. what do they want? the head of the conference of mayors will join me next. od gum. they're fruity delicious! just two gummies have 4 grams of fiber!

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a lot of you experienced it, traffic snarls, airport delays up and down the east coast from yesterday's winter blast, but there was also fun to be had, thanks to social media, twitter in particular, hundreds of folks showed up for a massive snowball fight in washington, d.c. well, today the wintery weather just isn't letting up. let's get out to mike seidel in plymouth, massachusetts, where it's still blowing pretty good there. mike, when is this going to end? >> well, chris, it's just about over, in fact, if you look at the national radar, the only snow falling east of the mississippi is right here, the south shore south of boston out to the cape is basically over within boston. logan has picked up four or five inches. north and west of the city, hardly any snowfall, but here we've had upwards of 18 inches, out on the cape, seven to eight

inches combined with wind gusts 40, 45 miles an hour. looking across the street, the visibility has come up some now, just about a quarter of a mile, but still a lot of snow flying in the air. let me show you the difference of a few feet, couple inches here because of the wind and drifting. watch this, i'm going to hike over to this drift and give you an idea how deep the snow is. look at that, up to the waist. this is what they are dealing with right now because of the temperatures in the mid teens. logan airport, up and running, no delays, but 300 departures cancelled, that's a third of their schedule today. chris, this is going to ease up, but the bitter cold comes in tonight with temperatures in boston around zero. that's 20 degrees below average. this air mass, not quite as cold as the one a couple weeks ago, which brought out the term "polar vortex," which by the way, has been around a long, long time, just wasn't

fabricated two weeks ago. chris, back to you. >> you have water proof pants on, i hope. >> oh, they are water proof. the problem is, it's really -- i'll get out of this before lunchtime. it's really hard to get out of this. >> can somebody, please, if the camera crew is listening -- >> can someone call aaa? if you have aaa around here. >> easy for me to laugh in the warmth of the studio. good luck out there. >> chris, you need to move on. >> i do, i do. it's going to get ugly out there, thanks, mike. let's talk about tomorrow when president obama will be meeting with a group of mayors at the white house. 280 mayors coming together in washington right now with the main focus on the economy and specifically jobs, but importantly, it can mean face-to-face time with the president and cabinet officials. we'll also get a gauge how the economic recovery is specifically affecting all of the nation's 363 metropolitan

areas. joining me now is the president of the u.s. conference of mayors, republican mayor scott smith of mesa, arizona, who is also running for governor in his state. good morning. >> chris, good morning, thanks for having me. >> i've been reading a lot about this meeting, which has been described as an annual wish list of projects and programs. what would you like to say to the president? >> i think wish list is probably a little ambitious, because our biggest wish with washington is we can work together and create some stability so america's cities can get back to doing what we do best and that's driving america's economy. that's the biggest ask of not only the white house, but washington in general. we like some of the things that have come up, like the budget deals, simply because it shows that maybe we can get back to making decisions, and when washington makes decisions, then there's a little bit more confidence out there and the cities can thrive. >> and i think sometimes people look at these meetings and think it's a good time for you all to get together, but a case in point is that the president recently announced these promise

zones and that stemmed from last year's conference. for folks who don't know, they are aimed as helping areas struggling economically. do you see this as the kind of project that is a good, federal local partnership? >> we know when the federal government and cities work together, and that is not us sitting back asking or collecting checks, we understand, mayors understand better than any level of government what it's like to have limited resources, because we balance our budgets. we have to make things work. we're not here to ask for money, but do like these kind of partnerships where cities and the federal and state governments can work together to create opportunities and help businesses thrive. when businesses thrive, jobs are created. >> congress, you mentioned partnershipship and trying to work together. congress has not been getting a lot done. it was the most ineffective congress we've had. a handful of cities, for example, pushing through their own minimum wage hikes. at the same time, we've heard

from mayors who have complained about a lack of action on issues like immigration. as a mayor, how much do you feel the onus is on you locally, directly as a result of what hasn't happened in congress? >> well, there's no doubt that cities, we live among a macro economy and macro political environment, so what happens in washington affects us, but on the other hand, we don't have the opportunity or the luxury of not doing things. regardless of what they do in washington, we still have to enforce the law. we still have to pick up the garbage, we still have to deliver services on a daily basis. we meet our citizens in the grocery stores and city council chambers, so if nothing's getting done in washington, that doesn't mean we can sit back and rest on our laurels or wine about our problems. mayors have a tendency to get out and get things done, to make tough decisions, sometimes they are not popular, but that's what we need to do to continue to deliver services and to help create jobs and grow our economies. those are our number one jobs.

>> mayor scott smith, good luck with the meeting and thanks so much for coming on the program. >> thanks for having me. speaking of gatherings, republican party leaders have having a strategy session in d.c. starting today. will they be able to take back the senate, and what about a plan to take back the white house? details on that coming up. ♪ they lived. ♪ they lived. ♪ they lived. ♪ (dad) we lived... thanks to our subaru. ♪ (announcer) love. it's what makes a subaru, a subaru.

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responsibility. what's your policy? [ angelic music plays ] ♪ toaster strudel! best morning ever! [ hans ] warm, flaky, gooey. toaster strudel! [ female announcer ] try new pillsbury heat-n-go mini pancakes. republicans are strategizing. believing they have a real chance to take back the senate and hold on to the house in this year's midterm election. it's been a year now since reince priebus announced plans to widen the party's appeal. that includes reaching out to racial and ethnic minorities, the hiring of 170 state-level staff with more planned, and investments in technology to better track potential voters, a tactic pioneered by republicans, but perfected by democrats. despite these new efforts,

republicans are still losing the p.r. war. since losing the 2012 presidential election, republican approval ratings have continued a slide. they are now at 32% in the most recent gallup poll. i want to bring in former rnc chairman michael steele and democratic strategist and former clinton adviser kiki macleclean. good morning. >> good morning. >> nationally, those numbers have been consistently declining in terms of their effectiveness and their popularity, so is it a sign that recent republican outreach strategies aren't working? >> you know, there are a lot of variables there, and i think a part of that is, yes, they are not working as effectively. there's been sort of a tone deafness to actually the pulse of the american people right now on a number of issues. we saw that played out, for example, in the virginia race with ken cuccinelli and it wasn't until the 11th hour that they found a voice on obamacare,

if you will. but it was too little, too late. we've been at this doorstep before in 2012 and 2010 with the senate as a possible takeover and lost that opportunity both times, because we have not effectively engaged people in the conversation they are having as opposed to the one we want to have, and i think we need to be very smart about that going forward in terms of the civil rights agenda for african-americans and all americans, quite frankly. certainly, the immigration issue, so there are a number of issues we can begin to carve out space. and the real test, i think, will begin with the state of the union when the president starts a new conversation on the wealth gap in this country and the minimum wage and a host of other economic issues where i think we could have a sweet opportunity to gain some new ground. >> well, kiki, when you look at the national numbers, obviously, they are not great for the republicans, but we know that the senate is not won or lost on national numbers, so how does the democratic party and how do democratic candidates look at what's going on in the

republican party, and maybe as michael just suggested, take what the president has to say about income inequality and use that to their advantage to hold the senate? >> well, what you have to remember for either party, chris, the key to success is ideas, and a vision and leadership. and so the republican national committee has lots of programings, mechanics, that's what a political party does, but it has to exist for the purpose of moving forward an idea, an agenda, and it has to do so with leadership. that's what's lacking there. the democratic party, we may have some debates inside and that's good, that's what keeps us healthy and keeps us viable, but there is leadership. there is a point of view on this, and to michael's point, we'll hear the president lay that out in his state of the union address and we also see democratic leaders working toward a set of ideas. and this is crucial when you are trying to move a party forward in terms of its own political gain. that's the real problem. chairman priebus can do a lot at the republican national

committee, but he's not the leader of the party in its ideas factory. >> let's talk about the leadership. who the leaders are. michael, as you well know looking ahead to 2016, a couple of big republican stars have faded, bob mcdonald, chris christie, you can make an argument whether chris christie can recover, but who is the leader, who is the voice for the republican party? >> that's a good question, and i think quite frankly that's going to emerge over the course of this primary season. i think this primary offers that republican leader or those republicans leaders who will be a part of the 2016 battlefield to begin to emerge, because you're going to get a sense from where the base of the party is in senate campaigns in georgia, for example, kentucky with mitch mcconnell, who's getting a very strong tea party pushback, then we'll have to confront a very strong democrat in the general election. i think the party leadership will begin to emerge around how those campaigns take shape. now, you know, the chris

christie element, yeah, that's a factor, but it's not the be all and end all. you have a lot of folks who have yet to get on the playing field in a serious way, and i think they will. i think to kiki's point, without that message of leadership, it's not enough to say we want to overturn obamacare, we want to do away with it, you have to replace it with something. it's not enough to say the president's economic agenda is, you know, irrelevant or illegitimate if you don't replace it with something, so this idea of this competitiveness over ideas is going to be very, very important for that leader to emerge. >> you know, there's always a suggestion and we've seen it many times before, we've heard rudy giuliani over the last week or so joking about look where i was at a certain point in the race. kiki, is this maybe in some ways a chance for a fresh face on the republican side? president obama to emerge? >> listen, as somebody who worked for bill clinton at the democratic leadership council 20

years ago, it was ideas that drove him and propelled him forward, and that merried with his own political talents and his intellectual power is what made him president, to be honest, and there are candidates, at least in the democratic party, i believe, who have the ability to do that. republicans will have to work that out, but right now, the question is, will forces within the -- hyperpartisan forces within the republican party allow that to happen? and i think that's the challenges. you can get all the databases, all the technology, wrap yourself around numbers, and they are crucial in the last month of the campaign, but at the end of the day, it's there to support an idea and leader whom americans or citizens of a state or community believe in, and right now the republicans just aren't stepping up to the plate on that factor. >> kiki, michael, thank you. >> good to see you. checking the news feed, a new report indicating two l.a.p.d. officers left their post to take a break without telling their supervisor just minutes before a gunman opened

fire at lax last fall, killing a tsa agent and wounding three others. the associated press reports the officers were outside the terminal when the shooter entered the area and started shooting. their departure left a handful of unarmed tsa agents in the area when the shooting happened. a hearing to overturn a 70-year-old murder conviction resumes this morning. the family of george stinney jr., the 14 year old executed in 1944 for the murder of two girls, asking a judge to correct a miscarriage of justice. three of stinney's siblings said he spent the day with them. the state prosecutor says most of the evidence has been lost or destroyed. convicted felon bernie madoff was hospitalized last month for a heart attack. madoff said he was hospitalized at duke university medical center but has since returned to a medium-security prison in north carolina. the 75 year old has served less

than five years of a 150-year sentence for running the largest investment fraud in u.s. history. he also has stage four kidney disease but is not receiving dialysis. if you read one thing this morning, they are growing in popularity. you can find them from fresno, to atlanta, to new york. got a hangover? get an i.v. drip. in manhattan, medical professionals will make house calls to cure the aftermath of the night before. it's my must read and it's up on my facebook page. let us know what you think. her: is your tv powered by coal? natural gas? nuclear? or renewables like solar... and wind? let's find out. this is where america's electricity comes from. a diversity of energy sources helps ensure the electricity we need is reliable. take the energy quiz. energy lives here.

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don't want to downsize your safety and the results aren't good. 10 out of 11 mini cars tested failed this insurance institute of highway safety test. admittedly, it was a new and more challenging test, but it is the kind of crash that is common out there in the real world. which one passed? the chevrolet lay spark, but only just. it got an acceptable. the institute says small, light-weight vehicles have a safety disadvantage, that's why it's more important to choose one with the best occupant protection. if you go up from the mini car section to the small car category, five out of 17 models passed the frontal crash test. in the small and mini car categories, results aren't good. >> some of them did pass, maybe that's a word of warning to the other car companies. all right, here we go, close to college basketball bracket time and warren buffett is

really upping the ante. >> of course, we're all trying to predict the outcome of the ncaa men's basketball tournament. the odds are not in our favor. the perfect bracket every game gets correctly -- i think the odds are to the tune of 9.2 quintillion to one. >> more likely you're going to win the powerball, right? >> yes. there's apparently $1 billion being offered by quicken loans, but it's got the backing of warren buffet. that is, of course, if you fill out the perfect 2014 tournament bracket. the first 10 million people who enter the contest will be eligible for the grand prize, so get it in quick. >> unbelievable. cnbc's mandy drury, thank you. >> thank you. it is 11 days and counting until super bowl xlviii, but football fans have been supporting their grid iron heros all along. here's a list of the top-selling player jerseys according to nfltopshop.com. drew brees, patriots'

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to the vatican. now the two, the president and the pope, have never talked, but on march 27th during a four-day trip to europe, he will meet with pope francis. the associated press describes it this way, in the complicated relationship between the obama administration and the catholic church, the white house sees the popular new pontiff and his emphasis on the plight of the poor as a form of moral validation on the president's economic agenda. i want to bring in washington post columnist and msnbc contributor e.j. dionne and columnist and reporter of call to action, kate childs-graham. good morning. >> good to be with you. >> when president obama was at the vatican in 2009, pope handed him a document. are you thinking this is going to be a different kind of meeting? >> you know, when you go back to that meeting, i believe the pope also handed him his economic document and on economics,

benedict was to the left of president obama, much more critical of capitalism, and i think once again, i think francis's critique of the workings of the economic system are far more radical than anything president obama would be willing to say. i think it's worth remembering that barack obama's first salary as a community organizer was paid indirectly by the catholic campaign for human development. the president has a very complicated relationship with the catholic church. he's had a big fight with them about the contraception mandate, but he's talked as in the notre dame speech in 2009, very movingly about catholic social thought, and i do think that what the pope has said about inequality has been a boon to progressives everywhere, and particularly progressive catholics in the united states. it will be interesting to see what the pope says back to president obama. does he stick to economics? does he talk about abortion? that's going to be a very interesting dynamic. >> well, let's talk about this

economic alliance if we dare to call it that, because last month when the president looked at a draft of his speech on economic inequality, he looked back and said i want to reference to the pope, and here's what it ended up being. >> some of you may have seen just last week the pope himself spoke about this at eloquent length. how can it be, he wrote, that it's not a news item when an elderly person dies of exposure but it is when the stock market loses two points. >> as e.j. pointed out, this is longstanding church doctrine about social justice and economic equality. but i guess the question then becomes, and you work at this every single day, are you sensing that it will have, do you think it can have an impact on public policy. >> >> i mean, i think we're already seeing pope francis's impact on public policy, if not on economic justice, then definitely on lgbt rights, in

illinois, state lawmakers pointed to pope francis's words on lgbt equality as reason for passing same-sex marriage, and i think we'll see the same impact on public policy, but i think for this pope, his message to leaders at the economic forum this week do more for the poor is as much personal as it is political. he wants this to come from people's toes, from their souls, and not just through policies. >> and e.j., when you look again at the impact it might have, there's a reality that we're at an historic high for the number of catholics in congress with 163, about 30%. that's higher than the general population, which is about 22% catholic. now, let's not pretend that all catholics who are in congress have the same opinions about things, but you do wonder if it could be influential in congress and if the net effect of the

emphasis that francis is putting on this could help barack obama. >> yes, sometimes i think catholics fight more fiercely with each other than they fight with anyone else, but kate, first of all, is right that when you look at pope francis, it's very much about both the personal and the political. he brings the two together, and i think you're seeing a francis effect even on conservative catholics. now, those of us who are more progressive look at what some of the conservative republicans are proposing and say this doesn't go far enough, this isn't the kind of change we need. however, it's very significant that they are saying, yes, it is time to worry about the poor. it's time to worry about inequality. one of the most powerful impacts a public figure can have is to change the nature of the conversation, to change the subjects we're talking about, and i think pope francis has already had an enormous effect in that direction. >> i wish we had more time, but come back, both of you, e.j.

dionne, kate childs graham. thanks so much. today's tweet of the day is reflective in ways in which the church has not changed. it comes from pope francis, "i join the march for life in washington with my prayers, may god help us respect all life, especially the most vulnerable." . what? [ male announcer ] alka-seltzer plus severe cold and flu speeds relief to these eight symptoms. [ breath of relief ] thanks. [ male announcer ] you're welcome. ready? go. [ male announcer ] you're welcome. my dad has aor afib.brillation, he has the most common kind... ...it's not caused by a heart valve problem. dad, it says your afib puts you at 5 times greater risk of a stroke. that's why i take my warfarin every day. but it looks like maybe we should ask your doctor about pradaxa. in a clinical trial, pradaxa® (dabigatran etexilate mesylate)... ...was proven superior to warfarin at reducing the risk of stroke. and unlike warfarin, with no regular blood tests or dietary restrictions. hey thanks for calling my doctor. sure. pradaxa is not for people with artificial heart valves. don't stop taking pradaxa without talking to your doctor.

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to politics now, and we're hearing from the man behind the mitt romney documentary. the film premiers friday on netflix and showcases six years of romney's run up to the race for president. romney and his family were at the screening last week, and they were asked what they thought of the movie. >> he said, there were things in the film that he would not have put in. it was uncomfortable for him to watch, but he was touched by what he saw his family go through. the strength of my footage was just these very candid personal family moments and we edited them and strung them together. >> big-time romney supporter donald trump mentioning yet again yesterday he might think

about running for president in 2016, saying he's unhappy with the way things are going. he said that in 2012, too, but then decided not to run. senator mike lee will give the tea party response to the state of the union. it has not been announced who will give the republican response. that's going to wrap up this hour of "jansing and co." i'm chris jansing. brian shactman is up next. good morning, brian. >> hi, chris, thank you very much. the agenda next hour, falling gop stars. two once promising power houses in the republican party now facing uncertain futures, former virginia governor bob mcdonnell and his wife indicted in a gift-taking scandal, while chris christie continues to fight for his political life in questions regarding bridgegate and sandy aid. we have both stories ahead. also, brand new information coming to msnbc on terror threats in sochi. a life report from london with the new information coming up. roe v. wade 31 years ever. our agenda panel will weigh in.

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developing news this hour on msnbc, a winter storm dumping up to a foot of snow on some of the busiest cities on the east coast and brings with it cold wind. we have coverage of this winter storm from our reporters across the map. we'll have that for you coming up in just a few minutes. good morning, everybody, brian shactman here. we lead off with this story, falling gop stars, two republican governors both considered up and comers in their party just four years ago, now fending off some serious political problems. one of them, former virginia governor bob mcdonnell indicted along with his wife. now the other, sitting new jersey governor chris christie. he is not facing charges of any kind, but he clearly begins the first full day of his second term in a battle for his political future. let's start with virginia where bob mcdonnell and his wife have been indicted on corruption charges by a federal grand jury.

they are facing decades in jail for accepting more than $140,000 in loans and gifts. mcdonnell yesterday owned up to accepting the gifts but called the charges, "unjust overreach." >> while i deeply regret accepting these legal gifts and loans from mr. williams, all of these now have been returned or repaid with interest. i have apologized for my poor judgment, and i accept full responsibility for accepting these legal gifts and loans. however, i repeat again emphatically that i did nothing illegal. >> meantime, in new jersey, chris christie was sporn into office yesterday amid a state investigation of lane closures at the george washington bridge and new questions about the use of aid money from superstorm sandy. last night,