challenge al roekner a tweeting contest. don't do it. >> that is smart. i want to borrow that sweater. thomas. i learned even though it's valentine's day, mike barnacle still gets a hard time on this show. really. >> a lot of love. >> he still does, but fortunately for his sons they have a wonderful mother. well listen, have a great valentine's day, everybody. have a wonderful weekend. thank you so much for watching. we will see you monday. if it's way too early, it's "morning joe." stick around, chuck todd is up next with "the daily rundown." washington still sort of shut down. no, not because of political gridlock, because of the snow. federal agencies are on a delayed opening this morning after the massive, deadly storm that has dumped snow and ice from mississippi to maine. and other states not beginning with m. more than 100 million people are digging out this morning and another blast of snow, believe it or not, is on the way. and from one weather extreme

to another. what's causing california's worst drought in more than 100 years? this historic dry spell is crippling the agricultural industry and stoking fears of a devastating wildfire season. and now the white house is getting involved. and strategy session, the president before he heads to california will huddle with congressional democrats this morning. what's giving the party this hope that they can take back the house? we'll do a little bit of a reality check on that. good morning from washington. it's friday, february 14th, 2014. you know what that means. it's valentine's day. in fact it's valentine's day pretty much everywhere unless you're in okinee county, georgia. in that case you're off the hook. i'll have details on that later in the show. but let's get right to my heartwarming first reads of the morning. this is the house democratic party retreat on maryland's eastern shore. that's where vice president biden is going to be giving democrats a pep talk.

the president will also speak there later this morning. today the battle for the house and a look at the democrats very long shot campaign in their attempt to win back the majority. republicans currently hold 232 house seats. democrats 200. there are three vacancies. that means democrats do need to net 17 seats to regain control of the house. let's be realistic here, it's an uphill fight in a midterm year. and the post world war ii era, five presidents have served long enough for a second midterm election. president obama will be the sixth. only one, bill clinton, in 1998 has seen his party gain seats. democrats lost 29 seats under truman. republicans experienced a shellacking in eisenhower's second midterm, losing 48 seats. reagan stopped the bleeding at five seats in '86. republicans lost 30 seats in their house and senate majorities under bush in 2006. in fact since fdr, the party in the white house has only gained any seats three times in a

midterm. under roosevelt in his first midterm of 34, clinton in '98 and bush in '02. guess what, all of those gains have been in the single digits. nobody has ever gotten -- no party holding the white house has ever won double-digit seats in any midterm, either the first one or the second one. and frankly, democratic leaders admit in more candid moments that winning back the house is a long shot. >> i'm not going to confidently predict that democrats will take the house back. what i will predict is that we're going to pick up seats. >> where? >> and it's because -- down, boy. >> it would be hard to do worse than democrats did in 2010 when they lost 63 house seats and 2012, despite his sweeping re-election victory, president obama won 17 districts that elected republicans. democrats would have to hold all of them and hold the democratic districts romney won in order to

win back the majority. democrats would need a very substantial lead in the preolympics generic ballot surveys, something in the vicinity of 12 to 14 points. at this point that appears highly unlikely. democrats have not had a double-digit lead in any respectable poll in the last year. in our last nbc/wall street journal poll we had democrats ahead on the generic ballot by just 2 points. so the big question for democrats, what do they run on in order to somehow get a double-digit lead in the national ballot there that would actually give them this chance. democrats hope that if they can't win the house, maybe republicans can lose it. at this week's retreat they are plotting how to successfully capitalize on what they say is the gop's troubled brand and to find a contrast with house republicans. >> rising wages, pay equity for women, a fair tax code, immigration reform. these are not just topics, these are the fundamental differences

in the united states congress right now between democrats and republicans. this is about who's side are you on? >> but republican leaders are very aware of their vulnerabilities. house speaker john boehner has been doing his best to neutralize issues where the gop could be dragged down by the obstructionist label. in their latest attempt at a contrast campaign, democrats announced they'll try to force a house vote on raising the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour. >> we believe we should join with the president and join with all americans who say it's time for america to get a raise. we are prepared to submilt a discharge petition to begin the process of collecting the votes it will take in the house of representatives to pass a bill. >> still, it's unclear if the attempts to draw a contrast on income inequality can overcome republican attacks on the health care law and the president's very tepid approval ratings. republicans are spending millions on ads tying democratic incumbents to one issue, health care. >> if you like your current

insurance, you keep that insurance, period. end of story. >> congressman nick rayhall agreed. it was called the lie of the year. >> if you like your health care plan, you'll be able to keep your health care plan. >> that was the lie of the year. but now we know the truth. so why does congressman joe garcia still support obamacare? >> and republicans are doing their best to tie candidates to the president in districts where voters have never been sold on the president. >> still loyal to obamacare, not us. >> congressman grayson backed him up. >> alex thinks loyalty is to them, not florida. why else would she continue to support obamacare. >> an outside group that's helping democrats is trying to inoculate some of these vulnerable incumbents and they're using ads like this. >> it's here, in small towns and

wide open spaces, that ann ki kirkpatrick listens an learns. it's why she blew the whistle on the disastrous website, calling it stunning ineptitude and tried to fix it. >> tea party billionaires think attack ads can cover the truth. joe garcia is working to help fix health care. >> that is tough when you have two competing ad campaigns with the same message, which is the health care law is kind of a mess. anyway, despite the health care challenge, two things give house democrats some hope. one, their fund-raising has simply been outstanding, thanks to the tireless fund-raising by their leader, nancy pelosi, and congressman steve israel, house democrats have somehow outraised rips, even though it's the republicans in the majority in the fourth quarter of last year alone. they had a $15 million advantage for 2013 and an $8 million in cash on hand. remember they were raising all that money while the president's

approval rating was dropping and amid the rocky healthcare rollout. is this a reflection on how good the democrats -- house democrats are at fund-raising or how poorly house republicans have been raising money? house democrats also announced yesterday that the president has promised to headline at least six fund-raisers for them this year. and with the potential, of course, for more. and though it's true that outside groups and super pacs are pouring money into ad spending, democrats feel a bit more optimistic about the breaks they have been getting on retirements. 18 members of the house have announced they're not coming back in 2015. republican congressman gary miller is the latest. he announced yesterday he's leaving his seat in california's 31st district. just the latest example of an exit where democrats will have a prime pickup opportunity. miller's district voted for obama by 16 points. basically democrats really messed up their recruiting in 2012 or they would have won that district. mirm is not alone. half a dozen of the 11 republicans retiring are leaving

swing districts or districts that the president won. two of the seven seats democrats are leaving behind, jim matheson and mike mcintyre's district are seats that romney won decisively which are almost certain to flip to the republicans. although democrats home they can take advantage of tea party primaries on the house level, those have not panned out. tea partiers aren't threatening establishment republicans on a broad scale on the house. much more of an issue in the senate side. at this point there are only really two serious tea party challenges. art hal voerson is taking on bill shuster and bryan smith's endorsement is challenging mike simpson in idaho, second district. hard to manimagine, though, the democrats can win either district even ifincumbents. in less than four weeks on march 11's there's a special election where alex sink and david jolly are doing battle for bill young's district.

absentee ballots, which are expected to make up most of the votes cast, believe it or not, were mailed to voters on february 7th. and the florida air waves have been flooded with ads. steny hoyer, who argued this week his party is in a good position to take back the house admitted democrats have to win districts like florida 13 in order to sell a credible message that they actually have a smart at the majority in the fall. in one indication the democrats in swing districts believe they need to localize their races, when sink was asked whether democrats can retake the house majority this fall, she didn't hesitate. she said this. not this year. it's not going this year. so you all shouldn't write about that because that's not happening. okay then. nbc's luke russert joins me now. he is at the democratic retreat in cambridge, maryland. i know it's not been easy traveling there. when you hear the words "retreat" you hear the maryland eastern shore, you think, oh, boy, these guys are going to be

having a good time. it's been quite difficult traveling but let's run down where democrats are. are they -- they really do believe they can win back the house or are they just trying to make the public believe that they can win back the house? >> well, there are always a few true believers, but i think that if you talk to any member off the record and you give him a little bit of truth serum, they'll all say it would take an absolute stunning sequence of events for them to take back the house in 2014. what they're really trying to do here, though, chuck, is trying to figure out a la the virginia governor's race last year, which terry mcauliffe was able to win unmarried women, right, across all cultural sort of platforms what could be that sort of magic bullet issue for them. they think maybe it's the minimum wage hike, maybe it's unemployment benefits, perhaps it's immigration, but they're not really moving too hard on immigration. they're loefg that eaving that outside groups. but the math works against them.

how do you get to that 17? you laid it out there, it's very, very difficult. what we see here this morning is joe biden giving a little pep talk saying the prospects for america are great and so are the prospects for our house majority some day. president obama will say the same thing. president obama will commit to giving six fund-raisers for dccc, but it is very much an uphill battle, chuck. >> i'm curious, you know, there's always some -- the leadership will always deny this, nancy pelosi says no, no, no, she's running again and we know she's running for re-election. but have you noticed any quiet leadership where you see some democrats trying to start to make their move in case the dominos do fall in december and after the elections we see some vacancies in the house leadership. >> reporter: well, there's always rumblings that the current leadership has stayed on too long. steny hoyer obviously would like to be the top dog some day. andrea mitchell had a great line saying he's the prince charles of american politicians and there's some element of truth to

that. i think you have to look at three people, debbie wasserman schultz, clearly ambitious, clearly wants to get up there. joseph crowley and javier bacera, the chairman of the caucus. if the dominos were to fall into place where let's say they lose again poorly, let's say mrs. pelosi decides she doesn't want to continue moving forward, would they make a move on hoyer? possibly, we'll see. one last thing i want to throw in there, jim clyburn introduced joe biden saying he's become almost a native son of south carolina. i wonder why. >> did he now? >> reporter: he did skboindeed. >> i wonder if this clyburn little feud with the clintons is more real than we all think. >> reporter: look at that. look at that. could be a happy early endorsement. take care. >> i fine nugget there. we're digging out and now measuring the snowfall in feet and the economic impact in the billions. first a look ahead at today's politics planner. the president, a very busy day

today. we're going to be talking a lot about climate and the trip that he's making to northern california. but let's not underestimate what the president has got to be doing with king abdullah starting tonight down in palm springs. you're watching "the daily rundown" only on msnbc. a few th. you stopped by the house? uh-huh. yea. alright, whenever you get your stuff, run upstairs, get cleaned up for dinner. you leave the house in good shape? yea. yea, of course. ♪ [ sportscaster talking on tv ] last-second field go-- yea, sure ya did. [ male announcer ] introducing at&t digital life. personalized home security and automation. get professionally monitored security for just $29.99 a month. with limited availability in select markets. ♪ with limited availability in select markets. [ male announcer ] can't take a sick day tomorrow. [ coughs ] [ male announcer ] so he can't let a cold keep him up tonight. vicks nyquil. powerful nighttime 6 symptom cold and flu relief. ♪

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unless you're a complete shut-in, then you know that ice, snow, rain and slush has been all over the east coast. 100 million americans across 14 states have been hit by this storm and there's more on the way. check ahead, by the way, if you have weekend travel plans. flightaware.com already has the total cancellations into and out of the u.s. at over 1,000. power outages are still a big problem, particularly in the south. over 400,000 homes and businesses stretching from louisiana to maine having

problems with the basics, while dealing with this cold. joining me now, a quick update here on what's going on. ron mott is in portland, maine, bill karins, of course, our chief meteorologist here. ron, how are things today in portland? are they dug out? >> reporter: they are digging out, chuck. it's a work in progress. good morning. they got about 9 inches officially here. it's probably generous, concerning what we saw here last night when we left, but it's enough to close the schools. i think folks in new england are used to the snow but they're probably even saying enough already, but they have got snow tomorrow night into sunday, snow possibly monday into tuesday. but look at what the snow and the wind and the ice did to these trees last night. the wind whipped up to 45 miles an hour so there are some tree limbs down. the kiddos get a three-day weekend and lots of snow to play with. portland usually averages about 62 inches. they went past that last night so we've got another month of snow potentially here. they'll shatter what their annual snowfall averages are here in portland. they're done with the snow, a lot of people are.

>> and there are a lot of people in california that would like some of that snowpack, if we could somehow transfer it from new england to california. let me bring in bill. bill, i know that we expect more snow, believe it or not, this weekend. how much more on the east coast? is it going to be a paralyzing snow or something we can all deal with? >> most of us can deal with it but definitely up there right where ron is, that's the worst of it. i've got to show you this, chuck. these are new pictures from wcau in the philadelphia area. this is the pennsylvania turnpike, which is shut down. they are saying a 50 to 100-car accident. they had speed restrictions because that slush froze up overnight. they lifted the speed restrictions about two hours ago. looks like they may have done that a little too early because there's just a horrible accident there, so we'll keep you posted on that. maryland, west virginia was the bull's-eye. 28 on mt. storm. a lot of the big cities, though, 8 and 12 inches of snow. this was one of my favorite

pictures. this was early this morning. you can't even tell what it is. that's a car in glasgow, new york. that storm will be exiting. the next one is on the way. the snow totals are looking like 1 to 3 for areas like d.c., philly, new york, but up in maine we could get as much as another foot. so again, not paralyzing, more inconvenient. >> right, and just when you've shoveled your steps, you slip right on it again. bill karins, thanks for that depressing news. >> 40s and 50s next week. >> yeah, if you say so. i'll believe it when i see it. thank you, sir. on the other side of the country, the problem is not enough precipitation. as the president heads to drought-stricken california, we'll take a look at what's behind the increasing number of extreme weather events, and this is a global issue. first, today's trivia question. under which president was the national weather service established? bill de blasio would like to know this answer. the first person to tweet the correct answer will get the on-air shoutout.

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in today's "deep dive" the snow and ice storms gripping the south and the northeast are just the latest in a series of what we're calling billion dollar weather events over the past year. today president obama is visiting california's central san joaquin valley. he'll be landing in a drought disaster zone over a political battle on how to control the water in one of the biggest states in the u.s. the biggest state. but the severe and already crippling drought is just one of nearly a dozen major weather disasters over the last 12 months. 2013 was a near record year for disastrous storms in the u.s. it started in march when ten confirmed tornados swept through mississippi, alabama, georgia and tennessee. may alone, 151 tornados swept across the plains, devastating moore, oklahoma, and killing 37 people. in september, the flash flooding took out roads and isolated

entire towns across norther colorado. nine people were killed and colorado is still rebuilding from that. again, another billion dollar event. those are just a few of the seven separate major disasters, each costing at least a billion dollars in 2013. according to noaa, while that's close to the nation's ten-year high. the planet earth did set a record for billion dollar weather disasters in 2013 with 41. now we're barely into 2014 and a historic drought is zapping farms in the west. california had zero rain days in january, even though that's usually california's wettest month. this satellite shot shows last january and this january. you can see the drought. now the question is what to do about it. governor jerry brown declared a drought state of emergency and is asking for federal help to manage the state's existing water. >> look, you've got to have rain. aside from the rain, you've got

to use the water efficiently, you've got to have storage, and we have to balance all of the interests because we have no other choice. >> governor brown is also worried about this. there have been 406 wildfires so far this year. it's february, folks. last january there were none. congress is already getting involved. last week the house passed a controversial water bill. democrats say it steals water from people up north. republicans say it will help deliver water to struggling farmers in the central valley. >> california's drought is nature's fault, but our failure to prepare for it is our fault. >> whatever little whistles and bells and bows you want to put on it, this is essentially a theft of water from someone to give to somebody else. >> this is essentially throwing a grenade into california water that would ignite a water war unlike anything we've ever seen. >> ah, water, the oil of the 21st century, right? anyway, president obama has said

he'd veto that bill if it ends up landing on his desk. but senators -- dianne feinstein and barbara boxer, they want to send california $300 million in drought aid. they want to give flexibility pumping the water and let water districts delay their payments. senator feinstein says her bill won't waive the endangered species act but gives more flexibility in managing the water supply. that's the crux of the problem. democrats have championed river restoration and environmental proms. republicans say the cities are paying the price for that. the president is already anticipating the next big problem and that's wildfires. california is just one of 11 states where critical farming areas have been declared primary disaster zones because of this drought, so let's get a little about it behind this issue. i'm joined by reed wilson and climatologist brian fukes from the national drought mitigation center at the university of nebraska. now, reed, i'll start with you.

you lay this issue of the wildfire preparation that california is trying to go through, and this is really among the president's motivation of going to do this. they think their summer is going to be dominated by this issue and they politically want to show that they're on top of it. >> california has 23 aircraft that they use to fight fires. this is the type of year when those aircraft go in for servicing. eight of those aircraft have been flying continuously because there have been so many fires over the last month or so. in humboldt county, one of the wettest counties in america, sees an average of more than 100 inches of rain every year, there was a 333-acre wildfire last month. officials are worried that this is happening across the west and we could be in for a serious landmark year in terms of wildfires. >> so brian, explain why -- what is the weather pattern in the pacific that has caused this -- that has caused basically

california to go without a single rain day in january? >> well, what we are seeing is a high-pressure system that had established itself over the western part of the united states. as that high pressure set in, what it was doing was deflecting all the storm systems way to the north into canada and essentially those storms that were coming ashore or coming toward the west coast just didn't have the opportunity to reach the west coast and they were being deflected into canada and then riding down into the central part of the united states. >> now, what is it about -- why is it -- why have we been getting all these storms in the east then, explain that. is this a case where this system has essentially pushed all weather systems either north or south of california? >> yeah, that is the case. with the way the high pressure is, the storm systems that are approaching california get deflected further to the north and then as they do get a chance to move further south, they end

up in the central part of the u.s. and either get into the southeast or the midatlantic or up into the northeast depending on the storm track. that's why we've seen the active and cold weather over the eastern half of the united states while the western half has been fairly quiet through much of this winter. >> now, do you have an -- is there an explanation to this that you think is man made? is this an impact of climate change? is this something that's cyclical? what is it? what have you found in your research? >> looking at this situation, we are not seeing any single driver that's establishing this weather pattern over the western u.s. other than saying that it's just the roll of the dice of how weather patterns work, there really isn't a strong scientific explanation for it other than it did happen. and once we see these high pressures start to establish themselves, it is very hard to break them down. and we've seen this in other parts of the country as well when droughts have been established for quite some time. >> now, reid, obviously state

governments are trying to -- one of the stories out east is about how state government, winter budgets are blown through, you know, they're blowing holes through them and they're running out of money. jerry brown is trying to come up with some money. we do have this issue of water. so this preparation, though, politicians aren't very good at saying, hey, let's have a rainy day fund or drought day fund to prepare for this. >> no, they're not. especially because in this instance you have to have interagency cooperation. in a lot of cases the wildfire situation actually is being made worse by mankind, not necessarily because of the climate but because we're building in new places. the wildland urban interface is the area between urban areas and the wild lands where these fires happen. human construction is going into those new areas now. only 16% of that area is developed. if you get up to 50% of the western wildland urban interface

developed, then that basically will eat up the entire u.s. forest service's budget for just fighting fires. >> well, this goes to the whole moore, oklahoma, situation where 50 years ago there wasn't that population density. >> yeah. and the economic recovery is fueling a new building boom. i talked to a couple of fire folks who were saying that 10, 15, 20 years ago it was rare to have a fire that involved human structures. now it's rare to have a fire that doesn't involve human structures. >> so, brian, given obviously the work that you do, but is this something that government is going to have to take a look at and essentially stop some development for simply because of whether it's managing water resources, making sure people are -- wildfires are a fact of life, they're going to happen in nature in some ways. but maybe we're overdeveloping and it costs us -- you know, at the end of the day than it's going to cost taxpayers money so if you want to save taxpayers money you have to slow down

development. >> i think you're exactly right. when we look at the population shift to the western u.s. and even the southwestern u.s., we've developed a lot of areas that up until this point have been pristine. they have been more remote areas. and so as we continue to push people into those areas, not only are we stressing the resources for the region, but we're also putting people in a predicament because of how do we protect them from issues such as wildfires. and when you have a drought situation where you're talking both the lack of water and an increased fire danger associated with that, it does bring up some very tough questions to answer of how do we continue with this moving forward. >> brian, very quickly, any change in the weather pattern that's going to somehow make it so that maybe california gets wetter? >> well, we did see a good shift last week where parts of northern california did pick up some great rains. in some places other a foot of rain just with a two to

three-day event. it looks like over the short term here, again, maybe northern california will pick up some more of that precipitation. and areas further to the north. as you go further south into the central valley and southern california, they did not see those good rains last week and, again, the forecast is not looking too favorable to bring these large storms to really all the west needs to see between now and the end of the winter season. >> all right, brian fuchs, climatologist, national drought meadation center. reid, thanks to you both. you're watching "the daily rundown" only on msnbc. ♪

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rand paul found that out the hard way after he launched a pr stunt that ended up going awry. paul had been working with an attorney, bruce fine, on a class action suit over the nsa's telephone surveillance program. frankly an easy pr hit and a positive for him. when he filed it, file's name was replaced with ken cuccinelli's getting into a back and forth with fine and his spokesperson. fine now says that's not the case but the episode obscured headlines that otherwise would have gone to the lawsuit. then the hillary clinton news of the week. the biggest lesson was how easily old news could be treated like it's new. papers belonging to her late friend diane blair came out this week. carl bernstein wrote a whole book based on them but it was revealing so-called news about mrs. clinton's reaction to her husband's affair with monica lewinsky. the papers added a little context to the episode but nothing significant.

it didn't change sort of bigger trends from that story or what you assumed to be the case with hillary clinton there. nevertheless, it reminds us how easily the scandal can be brought back up and potentially impact the 2016 run. you've got to think that weighs on hillary clinton's mind. then there's texas senator ted cruz. he took a stand on the bill to raise the debt limit. cruz managed to burnish his own reputation with the tea party but like he's done before decided to burn a few bridges with senate republican leaders. let's bring in our friday gaggle to discuss all this. amy walter, national editor for the cook political return. perry bacon jr. is an msnbc contributor and robert costa, national political reporter for "the washington post." your pink eye is okay? >> yes, sir. >> you had to do that joke once. >> have you gotten any of those on twitter? >> the confusion on twitter makes me laugh. >> and we love costas. >> he's greek, i'm italian and irish. >> well, you're all

mediterranean. that's really what it is. well, let's work backwards here and start with cruz. you spent a lot of time covering the intra party fueds of the republicans. there is -- cruz does this and the senate republicans, they can't figure out how to manage him. they certainly can't figure out how to punish him because he doesn't care, does he? >> he does not care. the driving am six right now for senator cruz is a potential 2016 presidential race. he's going to iowa next month, new hampshire in april. this is on his agenda in 2016. this is his focus. when you talk about controlling cruz, you can't, because he's playing a different ball game. >> what's interesting is that mcconnell ends up having to do -- it was just cruz promised that he wouldn't raise money against any of these senate incumbents, but you could argue he did more damage than any fund-raiser could have done by giving mcconnell's opponent something to run on. >> mcconnell complained about it in a meeting before it happened. cruz did it anyway, because that's what he does. yes, this is bad for mcconnell. he's trying to show he's the

most conservative person in the primary and this is dangerous. but cruz is not running to be a senator. he's not trying to be on a committee. he wants to run for president and be the tea party leader. and the polls did show that cruz is ahead in terms of tea party votes right now. >> amy, i want to jump to the rand paul aspect of this. because what to me struck me as a interesting pr stunt, a good one for him, libertarian view on nsa, there's a left-right coalition that's not happy with the nsa, a lawsuit could be one of these populous things and in fact it looked like if you read the initial dana milbanks story, they were going to have a democrat on the lawsuit, they were not going to have -- and all of a sudden it got turned into a very conservative political event, bringing in cuccinelli, bringing in freedom works when the initial plan was not to do that. >> that seems like -- that is the question for rand paul which is he's trying to be this guy bringing together the two sides of the republican party, again for himself in 2016, which is conservative republicans and

libertarians. now, you can get conservative republicans along with you even on something like national security by making it an anti-obama, pro-republican, putting all the conservatives on this. what's going to be interesting to see is, you know, whether or not these conservatives stick with rand paul once obama is not there. once it's no longer just about beating up obama, it's about national security, which he's raising serious concerns about the role of government in -- you know, in our security, where do those conservatives go? do they stick with rand paul and go he was the one taking on obama hard at the beginning. >> this is what i don't understand, robert. it does seem as if paul -- every move he's made in 2016 seems to be to send a message to the establishment that they can trust him. and then he goes and does this. it's almost after if he was spooked by cruz. he turned it into a tea party event when he was -- when he could have -- looked like the initial plan was to not do that. >> i think rand paul is fighting

a two-front war ahead of the 2016 campaign. he's going to the mitt romney donor retreats and trying to court romney's donor base. >> and golfing with romney donors in utah. >> and last year he traveled to iowa at the same time with cruz. he knows he has to win iowa, compete with cruz in iowa. so he's playing two different games at the same time. it's very difficult for rand paul because it's going to be hard to establish himself as someone that's a nominee for the general election while trying to beat cruz. >> he can't afford not to be the tea party favorite. let's move to hillary clinton, perry. i think it's interesting with these papers, washington free beacon the first ones to dig through this, but it didn't to me change the story. we know that she was very supportive of her husband. we did get a little more context that she -- that there was a little bit of an emotional blaming herself a little bit, saying that job is very lonely. so there was an interesting

personal aspect to this but what did you learn out of this episode? >> i guess her comments were interesting that had been reported before when she talks about criticizing the women that accused him of sexual harassment. that was the one thing that was interesting to me, jumped out to me. in broader context, though, conservatives are going to go after her. the campaign is starting already. her approval rating will go down in term of republicans at least and it tells me that the attacks on hillary clinton or the campaign is really going on the conservative side now. >> and you know, amy, i'm of two minds. every time lewinsky is used, hillary clinton benefits. it always has been the case for her. >> sort of galvanizing. >> galvanizes support for her. however, it does remind you she's a person of the past, not of the future. >> it's never going to be that we're going to find something new about hillary clinton. that is going to be almost impossible. the question for her is how much does the old stuff really weigh her down. that's going to be the bigger threat. that voters do get -- once we get away from focusing on obama, we get to hillary clinton,

people say do we want to go back to that time when every day we're going to have to be reminded of the drama that comes with the clintons. >> right. >> and that's the thing. that's why there's nothing new in here. it's just we remember what that was like to go through every single experience. felt like it had all this baggage attached to it. >> what's interesting to me is she does have that war mentality. she'll get into a bunker and she'll fight this. before i go and i guess i'll make you, robert, try to interpret this. it's a steve stockman twoeet. he's a gadfly republican congressman trying to challenge john cornyn in texas. has probably zero shot. can you understand this tweet. he said if you're chilly tonight, huddle near john cornyn's pants for warmth. i cannot figure this tweet out. it made me laugh. there's something about pants, congressmen, senators. can you figure this out? >> i'm not going to on national television try to interpret steve stockman. however, matt bevin running

against mitch mcconnell in kentucky, steve stockman running against john cornyn, they're outside contenders, long shots. but cornyn and mcdonnell are both nervous that with the debt limit votes, this could get some traction. >> does john cornyn wear wool pants? i can't figure out the attack. it was just one of those things -- >> like maybe those pajamas that are nonflammable. >> it's basically weird things steve stockman tweets. you believe probably start a whole show if anybody cared about what steve stockman was tweeting. thank you. we'll be right back. we've got our valentine's day special data bank. first the white house soup of the day. it's the friday staple, raj uncajun g uncajun gumbo. we'll be right back. in good shape? yea. yea, of course. ♪ [ sportscaster talking on tv ] last-second field go-- yea, sure ya did. [ male announcer ] introducing at&t digital life. personalized home security and automation.

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voter-approved amendment declaring it unconstitutional. she stayed, though, the ruling pending an appeal. these things are piling up. the supreme court asked for this when they essentially didn't really rule on the legalization back last year. our next number, three, that's how many nsa employees have been disciplined in connection with edward snowden's intelligence leaks, according to a letter first obtained by nbc news, who allowed snowden to use his personal log-in, next number, 27.1 million that's how much money that was spent by washington lobbying by comcast and time warner. they are important because this week's $45 billion deal still needs to be approved by congress. of course, fcc is going to have to say. that's thanks to the sheriff in

one county that wrote on facebook that valentine's day has been cancelled from a line north of i-16 to the georgia/tennessee border. men who live in the designate the no-valentine's day zone are exempt from having to buy lottery scratchers and hershey stores from the corner stores due to ice, snow, and freezing rain. some of us try to buy the single roses sometimes. trivia time, 1870 president grant authorized the national weather service. congratulations to today's trivia winner. we'll be right back.

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comes to health care television advertising. we've been talking about the koch brothers, you know about them, americans for prosperity. democrats, of course, they are spending a bunch of money, too. they started airing ads defending candidates that are the targets of those a.f.p. ads, including joe garcia. other democrats like alex sink, they are running ads painting they opponents, who want to repeal the law, as too extreme. but here's the question, who is spending the most on health care advertising? guess what, it's not the democrats or the republicans, it's the health care providers. >> you want us there when you're feeling good. then when you need support to help you reach your goals. a little help goes a long way. we're stepping up for better health care. >> that's right. according to our friends at kantar media, for every political ad dollar spent on the affordable care act, insurance

companies are spending considerably more. take a look, american for procesperities is equal to what health insurers are spending in three weeks. since december, health insurers have spent over $124 million on over 200,000 ads related to the affordable care act. now, the obama administration probably didn't expect health insurers to play on the ankt over consumers, but enrolling ugly is better than not enrolling new folks at all, but don't expect this advertising to help any party, because they are still playing off the negative feelings and anxiety about the law itself. that's it for this edition of "the daily rundown." coming up next, chris jansing, and i'll see you monday, yeah, president's day. we're working, because it's president's day. [ male announcer ] this is jim.

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president obama speaking live this hour, rallying house democrats at their annual retreat. do democrats have any chance to take back the house? meanwhile, hillary clinton's got some advice. she told students to grow a thick skin, and she's the one who will know. she'll need it if she does run to president again. and we're talking to authors of a new book about her inner circle. and a big victory for same-sex. meanwhile, ted cruz and mike lee are pushing for a bill that would roll back gains for marriage equality. good morning to you, i'm ari melber in for chris jansing. we're beginning today with the snowstorm, impacts being felt far and wide. in philadelphia, for example, a huge pileup involving up to 100 cars you can see in, snarling traffic and that's on an icy philadelphia turnpike. two people were already sent to th