construction jobs. the federal gas tax has been capped around 17 cents a gallon. drivers from the northeast to the midwest don't need a reminder how bad our roads can be. the drivers $6.5 billion. jonathan, how about those potholes, do you have a view on that? >> i like to avoid them. >> i'm anti-potholes, too. >> that's all the time we have. it was nice having you on. >> thank you, ari, i appreciate it. >> $300 billion over four years. put aside the skepticism about getting anything done in washington. walk us through you there at the white house what you know about this and the plan. >> well, i think what you've got is the president again trying to get congress, trying to get the government to invest in infrastructu infrastructure. this is something he's been trying to do for several years. not just invest in it, invest in

it ahead of time so as anthony fox, the transportation secretary said earlier today, you don't continue to put band aids on for the nation's highways and other infrastructure. that's what we've been doing to borrow a term for the show. there's been a cycle of emergency. >> oh. >> that has made it difficult for businesses to plan. made it difficult for localities to plan for the transportation needs for the long term. that's a problem that's recognized on both sides of the aisle. it's recognized in the white house and congress but the solutions remain elusive. >> jonathan, ari asked you to put aside your washington skepticism. i will ask you to bring back your washington skepticism. bring it on back. what do we think is actually going to happen here? as ari was pointing out, the current authorization expires this fall. the president's current plan would be a little more expensive than what we would need to continue meeting the obligations that we have. what do you expect is actually going to happen down the road with this? >> i think at the very last

minute after some emergency continuations of funding for highway projects they'll do some sort of short-term band aid type patch like they've generally speaking done for many, many years now. the money isn't there for what the president wants to get done and even his plan today relies on getting certain tax revenues from a plan that chuck schumer, the democratic senator from new york, says is dead on arrival, that being the dave camp tax reform. obviously the tax reform isn't going to happen in the way dave camp wants it to. there are so many cross-cutting interests here. something happened by august it would be a miracle. >> yeah. you know, abby, it's as dead as the pothole. >> that's right. i want to get your take, jonathan, on how you think republicans will respond to this because you have some who recognize we need to take steps to improve infrastructure and transportation. this is key to economic growth and -- or job growth and

economic recovery and one of those is, as you know -- i forgot his name right now, dave camp. representative dave camp who put out his proposal this morning. in his proposal he highlights between 120, $125 billion will be put forth to supplement the highway trust fund. so 25% from 35%. we're going to get more on this a little bit later on in the show. you also have conservatives who say we don't have the money to afford this right now. how divided do you see republicans on this? >> very divided and i think it's one of the reasons that you have not seen the white house throw cold water on the dave camp plan as yet. if they keep it alive, they keep people talking about it, they say encouraging things about parts of it, then they can perhaps keep republicans fighting each other on whether or not tax revenue ought to be raised as part of a plan to lower the overall corporate tax rate and part of a plan to put infrastructure money in. it's an earnest effort by dave camp that the exiting chairman

of the ways and means committee from michigan, this is his last year. >> i agree with that. >> will have something on the table. i think he tried to bring things in, different ideas in from around congress and the white house. the problem is, these days nobody is willing to have half a loaf for 60% of a loaf. they want 90% of a loaf or nothing so i think it's doomed. >> i mean, yeah, it's doomed for a lot of reasons, probably because republicans can't walk in a straight line, that's why we have this tax plan coming on now. that's why we had the immigration conversation go awry, that's why we had the shutdown that we had because republicans can't work together in their own caucus. also, this idea that 25% is some reasonable amount for the top earners to be paying, that does not strike me as a reasonable assertion. >> the truth is there's a very small difference between where democrats say that overall rate needs to be and where republicans say it needs to be. so camp's got it at 25%. you can hear democrats sometimes talk about 27% or 28%. i think there's an overall

belief that you can get rid of a lot of what they're called loopholes but obviously they were there for a reason in the tax code. you get rid of a lot of those things, you can actually bring down those rates. there is some difference on exactly where and certainly how to get there. and the biggest problem is that even the business community can't agree on what ought to go and what ought to stay. everybody says gore every ox in the pen but not mine, and until that attitude changes you're not going to see a real corporate tax reform. >> that's why we can't have nice things, jonathan, because we deal with potholes. that's all we get, we get potholes. >> going back to what abby was talking about. camp's proposal does have money, sort of one-time money for infrastructure. the president's proposal is also sort of one-time money for infrastructure. it seems to me that the bigger issue, if we're not going to continue having these sort of attempts at band aids to fix the massive problems that we have, if we want to have a sort of sustainable program going into the future, we have to deal with

a continuing revenue stream. what we pay for infrastructure is the gasoline tax. it has been stuck at the same low level for the past 20 years. is there anyone who has a serious proposal on the table to create some sort of longer term funding stream so that we don't have these cycles of uncertainty that hurt the country and hurt business? >> not one that can pass the congress. so there are certainly ideas out there to raise revenue, to raise taxes on everything, including the gas tax and particularly to raise revenue from the gags ts from the legislature. that's a nonstarter in the republican controlled house. especially this year, you might have trouble getting that kind of a thing through the senate democrats that are up for re-election. there's just not a realistic proposal in terms of putting on that cynical washington hat. if i wanted to take off that cynical washington hat and travel out in the rest of the country and not think about the challenges here, maybe i would see a path for it, but i don't right now. >> well, and jonathan, the president is also expected to

talk about this tiger grant program. give us a sense of what that's going to be about. >> well, the tiger grant program has proved positive with communities basically transportation department, i think this is the sixth round, has given out points for innovative transportation projects sometimes refurbishing and renovating the river walks in particular cities and towns. i don't want to give you a dollar figure. >> do you have a wild guess that you can give us? >> i'd like to stay away from it. before i came on, i studied it. now i don't have the numbers in my head. >> that's all right. >> i apologize. the number 600 million sticks with me. i don't remember if that's this round or what's been done overall. i think it's this round. >> actually, you're right, jonathan. >> spot on. >> you need to have more

confidence. >> so one thing that you were mentioning before is, you know, infrastructure investment, it's good for business. they don't like "the cycle" of uncertainty. they need more roads and bridges to move their products. has the business community really lined up and pushed republicans and democrats on making investments in infrastructure, both to create jobs but more importantly to create them and make sure they have a smoothly functioning economy. >> i think they've done what they can do. this is the kind of thing generally speaking you'll see the chamber of commerce get behind. you'll see the local chambers of commerce get behind. you'll see the construction trade folks get behind and so it's not that there's not an interest in getting it done, it's just a matter of how you pay for it. we haven't figured out as you say that sort of consistent revenue stream that's going to continue funding these programs and these projects. not just the repair stuff but, you know, sort of looking forward to what the next -- you know, what the next great transportation challenges and

innovations are. we don't get a lot of that because everybody's so worried about just trying to make sure that the latest pothole is filled. >> we might see the new congress, ari. >> i'm glad you got back to the potholes, jonathan. it was going to be you or me, baby. i'm glad you did it. you mentioned the revenue piece. that's something the president is going to speak to. we've been keeping an eye here on when he's going to come out. we're going to carry that live. jonathan allen. thank you very much. we are waiting on the president as i mentioned. we'll take a look at that. when he goes out to minneapolis. there's a shot. that's what we're waiting for. you can see people gathering and waiting for the president to go out and give his remarks. stay with us as "the cycle" rolls on for wednesday, february 26th. helped many people in the last 23 years, but i needed help in quitting smoking. [ male announcer ] along with support, chantix varenicline is proven to help people quit smoking. chantix reduced the urge for me to smoke. it actually caught me by surprise. [ male announcer ] some people had changes in behavior, thinking, or mood,

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president obama is moments away from his big transportation infrastructure speech. we'll bring that to you when it happens. meanwhile, the new gop tax reform plan is falling flat. even members of his own party are not behind the proposal laid out by house ways and means committee chairman dave camp. it would cut the top income rate to 25%. now not everyone likes this but at least it is a proposal and someplace to start the discussion in washington and that is where we spin today. you guys, i think this proposal is a great one. there's a lot in it. it's not likely to go anywhere from here. this is how the washington post writes it up. they say it's a simpler code that lowers rates and collects roughly the same amount of money

for the government all without burdenening the core and the unduly rich. some are giving dave camp credit. he tweeted this how the, paul ryan, it's fantastic our leaders are putting ideas on the table and he should be congratulated for that effort. i'm with paul ryan on this. i think we should see more leaders like dave camp putting forth their ideas of how we should move forward when it comes to entitlement reform and tax reform. these are the sacred cows that no politician on either side wants to touch because they are afraid of the backlash that they'll get and the politico put it like this. this makes very clear the divide that exists today in the republican party. they say that the proposal looks like it will reverse more than a decade of gop orthodoxy on taxes by socking big banks with higher levies. their conservatives are very concerned about this. not likely to go anywhere. i applaud him for this effort. i wish we had more leaders stepping up to this knowing it

may not go anywhere instead of saying how dare you go and put something forward that won't go anywhere. we should say, let's get the conversation started and we should have more people doing that. >> i'm not really impressed with this idea of again bringing down the amount that the top richest folks would pay down to 25%, inching downward and downward for decades. i appreciate jonathan allen pointing out that the democrats aren't that far away on this one. that's partly because the political center has moved right ward and right ward all the time. this is where democrats and liberals part ways. to have the richest folks pay less and have less responsibility for what the collective is doing, i don't appreciate that. i don't think that's a good way of governing. i don't think that's moral. i think that's the republican idea of personal responsibility, every man for himself, rather than he would have to work together. we have to take care of each other. we need taxes to create a pool of money so that government can do things that private business can't even do and the less and less folks pay, the harder it is to do that.

this idea that we're going to have two tax brackets for 300 million people is an absurd oversimplification of the potential of the tax code. >> well, we still haven't seen all of the details of the bro pose s-- proposal, but to be far to dave camp, the analysis shows that the burden on various groups in society, various income levels would be roughly the same as it is now. and part of the way that he achieves that is through this 10% surcharge on higher incomes. he also, as you said, has some taxes on big banks and insurers in there. >> we're still not touching capital gains. >> he also has addressing the carried interest loophole. i'm not endorsing this plan whole -- you know, wholesale. i'm not endorsing it really at all, but i do want to give dave camp credit here. this was creative and it breaks with his party's orthodoxy. even though this particular plan

isn't going to go forward as we're saying, i do think it matters. i do think it changes the conversation. i think it opens things up a little bit. now, my critique of this plan is actually on the corporate side because he does lower corporate income tax rates. there's this conservative orthodoxy that we pay, quote, unquote, our corporations pay the highest income taxes in the world. well, the reality is, what corporations are actually paying is nothing close to the highest rates. >> right. >> citizens for tax justice just did a study showing that over a five-year period of the 288 most profitable fortune 500 companies, 111 of them had a year in that five-year period where they paid no taxes at all. 26 of them had all five years where they paid no taxes at all. the corporate tax burden has been going down over time. that's the piece of this that really, really concerns me, but i, like you abby, appreciate the

fact that he was courageous on some areas. he put some interesting ideas out there and i think it's worthy of debate. >> attitudes, people saying i'm not willing to see where the positives are here. areas that might be beneficial to democrats. i think not being willing to acknowledge that or coming to the middle to see that, that is the problem that exists today and why more people aren't willing to be like dave camp and put forward ideas. >> i think part of the problem in discussing the tax code with republicans is they generally want to dismantle it entirely and that makes them a dishonest broker in the conversation. >> you're both hitting to me in my mind on the points. one is the record of this republican party for the most party to toure's point. it's a tremendous attempt to whatever the flat tax, two code, whatever the general rubric is, it usually winds up having huge exemptions for top earners and

protecting the corporate tax rates. to krystal's point. >> this plan seems to guard against that. >> camp is saying in an environment where some of the folks are honest, they want to make up revenue, you have to find it. we are cutting defense spending. we were talking about infrastructure, potholes, state funding. >> you have to make sacrifices. >> in the previous segment. the people who are serious want to pick up the amendment. if there's any room to maneuver or wiggle, i don't think the way they've approached the tax code gives me a lot of real faith. capital gains is an important area. by the way, to abby's point, you want to know a big idea, hold up or down votes on the floor. the speaker can put each one of these out. what i think happens here is similar to what happens on immigration. there's some piecemeal conversations but you can't actually get a vote on what i think are the most important parts. the capital gains thing, i'll end here, it's a problem because

today's wealthy americans make more money through stock dividends than were before in history. >> right. >> our tax code has not caught up with that. you were alluding to that. if we don't deal with that, and i think deal with it in a much more assertive way, then we will continue to have a de facto loophole for the people who need it least. >> i think there is some credit due here because the republican party clearly is uncomfortable with this plan and he put it out there anyway. >> he did, but sadly it's just a proposal so everyone can rest assured of that. nothing will come of it. up next, new this afternoon, reaction from the top military officer on that threat to pull u.s. troops from afghanistan immediately and what it could mean for the future of that country with the former under secretary of defense. that is next. the day we rescued riley, was a truly amazing day. without angie's list, i don't know if we could have found all the services we needed for our riley.

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back now in the news cycle, arizona governor jan brewer is still reviewing whether she will veto the bill. the state senators along with former presidential candidate mitt romney are encouraging brewer to veto it. her top aides, some of them, have told msnbc that is the direction she's leaning. in her own words she's only tweeted she will, quote, do the right thing. she has until 11:59 mountain time saturday night to make the decision. >> just say no. new details in the fight against military sexual assault. the fight we've been following on "the cycle" for a year. nearly 600 soldiers have been relieved of their duties. they were disqualified because of child abuse, sexual assault and having duis. this was reviewed by chuck hagel after a pentagon study showed

sexual assault incidents had soared 35% in two years. bloody clashes continue in the ukraine this afternoon. today's violence is between pro and anti-government protesters in a pro russia strong hold. secretary of state john kerry addressed the up rising in an exclusive interview with our very own andrea mitchell. he had strong words for vladimir putin. >> i think russia needs to be very careful in the judgments that it makes going forward here. we are not looking for confrontation, but we are making it clear that every country should respect the territorial integrity here. this is not rocky iv. >> from tough talk by the nation's top diplomat to a warning from the nation's top military officer. one day after the president ordered the pentagon to prep for a troop withdrawal by the end of this year the chairman of the joint chiefs is weighing in. in an interview with nbc this

afternoon, general martin dempsey warned about potential consequences. >> we don't want that to re-occur. we don't want afghanistan to become a safe haven in any way, and in order for that to -- in order to prevent that future, we need a stable, reliable partner. we need an afghan government that rejects the presence of al qaeda inside its borders and we need security forces on the afghan side that can generally provide stability and partner with us in order to defeat any elements of al qaeda that would reemerge. >> dempsey agreed there was no possibility of remaining without a security deal which karzai has refused to sign. more than 33,000 american troops remain in afghanistan and the u.s. hopes to leave a small force behind after this year. would a complete troop withdrawal reverse all the gains we have made in afghanistan.

our next guest knows about all the gains made there. he served under bush and obama. in his new book, "war front to store front" brinkley shares his efforts to rebuild the economies of iraq and afghanistan. thank you for joining us. >> thank you for having me. >> i do want to start with the news of the day. you've been in afghanistan. what do you think the impact on the stability of the country would be if u.s. troops withdraw by the end of this year. >> it's a little counter intuitive. the thing that worries me the most about the afghan entire system of the defense structure that general dempsey was describing but also the entire governmental structure we sought to put in place is the foundation at rest, the afghan economy. today the government of afghanistan security forces are heavily dependent on foreign aid. foreign aid institutions are very actively engaged in afghanistan. billions and billions of dollars representing afghanistan's

domestic gross product of aid. the question you have to ask is if this drawdown becomes precipitous as it looks like it could, what does that mean to the economy of afghanistan, the livelihood and the ability of the afghan state to sustain the institutions that the international community has spent over a decade trying to put in place? that really worries me. >> you look at general dempsey, he spoke about how as a country we act in our self-interests. there's a lot of other interests we have an eye on. take a listen to this news sound. >> nations act principally on their own self-interest, but we also are here because we genuinely care having made quite a commitment over the last 12 years to the future of afghanistan. we genuinely care about a stable afghanistan and its people and the progress they've made in health care, education, and economic development. >> i'm sure the general cares, you care, our troops care.

they're out there in harm's way, and yet a lot of americans when you look at other entanglements, something you've been thinking a lot about in syria and other places, we also care about people being hurt there. but many people feel we've tried to do too much in too many parts of the world. >> and i'm sympathetic to that point of view. so it's a bit of aiko none drum. we ha -- a conundrum. we've had our presence and a lot of our rhetoric and we said we would help people create a better life. the economic piece of that puzzle has been short changed in my opinion and so people are looking at it today and saying after a decade the most powerful nation in the world engaging, a lot of promises about how life would get better, and it has gotten better in afghanistan. what happens when we leave if that isn't stable, if that isn't sustainable and who is blamed? so i'm very sympathetic to the

point of view can we afford to maintain these entanglements. the american public is seeming to make up its mind yet at the same time how we disengage, how we choose to engage needs to take into account whether we address this fundamental need in the state. we need to think we can build democratic institutions first and things like economics follow. i would argue we need to turn that on its head. it's based on the foundation of which democratic and socially limited institutions rest. without that we're not building sustainable -- >> you have to have a job first. >> that's exactly the point. as long as you have young men in these countries who are chronically jobless, then that is the root of the radicalization that leads to terrorism that leads to us feeling like we have to have a military response. until they have economic opportunity, we're still in this conundrum. >> agreed. if we approach the problem that way, the one thing america is good at, we do it all over the

world every single day, is economic engagement t. doesn't require tax dollars to facilitate economic engagement in the developing world. we have ten years on, we've spent a trillion dollars on the iraq effort, right? i think we can all agree that the outcome is at least underwhelming relative to the investment of the money, but more importantly the blood of our young men and women. now afghanistan is fair. to step back and say is our entire approach to foreign policy and the war torn trubltd parsds of the world imbalanced. it helps connect these populations to the global economy they're bombarded with on their cell phones and satellite tvs all the time is absolutely essential to us avoiding entanglements like this in the future. >> right. speaking of taking a step back, when you look at the big picture of both iraq and afghanistan, is

there anything we could have done differently that might have led to a better outcome where we would say, this is all worth it? >> i don't like bashing on early decisions because circumstances are different. i think you owe it to yourself to look at the sweep of an experience and make some judgments about what you might have done differently. afghanistan, we ignored the economic piece of the equation. we didn't perceive. we spent a lot of effort on rudimentary development, great successes, increasing life span in afghanistan from 45 years to 62 years in such a short amount of time. that's a miraculous thing. we did not engage in basic efforts to develop an indigenous economy. the company is laid deened with mineral wealth. oil wells have within capped since the soviets left. we weren't comfortable with those dirty businesses. as a country we stayed away, waited to see if that would develop on its own. i can't think of a better

example of where our practices could have ensured socially and environmentally responsible engagement and resource development over this past decade in afghanistan that would have given that country a base of revenue on which to rest its institutions, and we chose not to do that. we didn't even get started on that. that was an effort of my team i describe in the book in 2009. it takes time to build an industry. >> right. >> they haven't had time. >> had we taken that approach early, we might be having a very different discussion. >> great perspective. thank you so much for joining us. >> thank you. up next, the inside track on how to win your oscar pool or maybe just to impress your friends. betting site bovada's top bookie tells us where the smart money is next. >> you should treat people the way you want to be treated. >> didn't you just say that? >> also, always take a favor over money. i think jesus said that as well. ♪

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$430,000 in one month? business expense. >> $26,000 for one dinner? >> no, this can be explained. we had the pfizer clients. >> expensive champaign. we had to buy champaign. >> you ordered the sides. >> the sides? >> $26,000 worth of sides? what are these sides, to cure cancer. >> the sides did cure cancer, that's the problem. that's why they were expensive. >> did you see how he killed leo in that scene. this sunday brings the oscars and a tinge of sadness for abby. >> huh? >> as her beloved leo goes home empty handed. >> you are a jerk. >> he's a good actor but not a great actor. in the year when matthew mcconaughey did that, leo will go home. >> you suck. >> you can discuss it with him.

>> fine, i will. >> our friend pat is once again calling in from an undisclosed location. pat, are you there? >> i am here. thanks so much for having me here, guys. >> i know like the stock market, as weeks go on, if a lot of people put their money on one side of one wager, then the odds makers will change to make it balance out. so what has been the biggest mover for you over these last couple of weeks with the oscar odds? >> one of the biggest movers for us, actually, would be leonardo dicaprio down to 5 to 1. >> oh. >> there is a caveat. the caveat if i can ripon your competitor. cnn competed a photo of a leonardo dicaprio best performance, best actor name plate on their official amitriptyline account. so we had a ton of our players bet it down 12 to 1 to 5 to 1. it's left us with a significant

liability right now. so do i think leo's going to win? probably not. if he does, we're going to be in a lot of trouble. >> we've been having a pretty heated debate about a very important issue. leonardo dicaprio against matthew mcconaughey. i think dicaprio is amazing as well. tell me, if i were to bet money on leonardo dicaprio, would i be throwing it away? >> personally, professionally, i would say, yes. i think the only -- >> that's the reason why we have you, pat. >> the only reason we have him as low as 5 to 1 is because of what cnn did to us. it's very rare that a third party outlook could put a wrench in our odds. the race to bet leonardo dicaprio was something we've never seen in the academy awards. even though you have to lay a lot to win, best actor 1 to 5, i would say those are your two best bets. >> okay. good to know. >> not leo? >> leo is still great.

>> you never know is what he's saying. >> he's good, not great. >> not this year. >> pat, i went back and looked at what the odds were for best picture when the nominations were first announced. it looked like "dallas buyers club" moved a lot. did the awards shows influence the odds? do these sort of campaigns by the movie studios themselves influence the odds? what explains the kind of back and forth here? >> there's a lot of key dates and whether it's the golden globes, the sag awards, even the director's guild awards, the last two are really what determine who are the actors of the directors, who can be successful in this. we had dallas buyers club as high as 100 to 1. >> wow. >> we didn't have them in a list of our preliminary films. it came out of nowhere. the fact that it had the success that it had, matthew mcconaughey won the sag award. it's one of our largest liabilities out there. i find myself in a tricky spot because as a better myself i was

able to grab them at 125 to 1 which i thought was a great bet. now down to 20 to 1, if we lose that we're in the six figures. >> of course, not just sag and dga, but the producers gild awards as well are affecting you. what's going to be a better night for you or better day, oscar day or super bowl? which will you make more money? >> the super bowl is much more significant day for us. actually, the past super bowl, the seahawks winning and in the fashion they did was probably the best super bowl win not just for bovada but for big sports books. oscar betting, entertainment by thing is still a niche market. we're raising our limits each year, but it's something that because there's so many unknowns because as we're speaking right now, this is available for wagering and all the votes are in, it is something we have to be careful how we monitor. >> super bowl is still the super bowl in betting. >> i want to put a bet on pharrell to wear the buffalo

hat. pat morrow, thank you so much for hanging out with us once again. up next in the guest spot, she's scaled the highest peak on every continent, skid the north and south poles. adrenaline junkie allyson levine talks to us about living on the edge. krystal, i like her already. why? because selling their funds makes them more money. which makes you wonder. isn't that a conflict? search "proprietary mutual funds". yikes!! then go to e*trade. we've got over 8,000 mutual funds and not one of them has our name on it. we're in the business of finding the right investments for you. e*trade. less for us, more for you. the fund's prospectus contains its investment objectives, risks, charges, expenses and other important information and should be read and considered carefully before investing. for a current prospectus visit www.etrade.com/mutualfunds.

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but the president has now taken the stage there st. paul. let's take a listen. >> that had been battering middle class families for a long time have gotten even starker because those at the top are doing better than ever while wages and incomes for a lot of families have barely budged. too many families are working harder than ever just to keep up, so as i said at the state of the union address a few weeks back, our job is to reverse those trends. we've got to build an economy that works for everybody. we've got to restore opportunity for all people so that no matter who you are, where you come from, what you look like, you can get ahead if you work hard and you're responsible. and so i laid out an opportunity agenda that has four parts. number one, good jobs that pay good wages in manufacturing, energy, innovation, infrastructure. number two, train folks with the skills they need to get those good jobs, something that your

senator al franken is doing great work on every single day. he cares a lot about the job training issue. number three, guaranteeing every child has access to a world class education. and number four, making sure that hard work is rewarded with wages you can live on, savings you can retire on, health care you can count on. that's what we're fighting for. minnesota is helping to lead the way on these issues. your state legislature is poised to raise your minimum wage this year. in my state of the union address i call for a new women's economic agenda. it's actually a family economic agenda, equal pay for equal work, paid sick leave and more, and there are leaders in your

state legislature that are working hard at this because they know when women succeed, america succeeds. >> obama talking jobs and investing in america for the long haul. we turn now though to a woman who knows a lot about long hauls and business. she has climbed the highest peak on every continent, including mt. everest, weathered hurricanes, skid to both the north and south poles and she's even survived a stint at goldman sachs. allyson levine has taken what she's learned and compiled the knowledge to her new book "on the edge, the art of high impact leadership." allyson, great to have you. >> thank you so much for having me on the show. >> you make the case in your book that there are a number of similarities and common principles in climbing the highest peaks and the corporate ladder. help us understand what you mean by that. >> the amazing lessons i learned by climbing the highest peaks and skiing the north and south pole really resonate with many

other areas besides these crazy extreme environments. these are leadership lessons that apply to corporate america, to government, to sports. the lessons i learned in these environments can really apply to everybody because with the break neck pace that everything moves these days, we really are living in very extreme environments. >> alison, what's the hardest thing you've done? >> i would say, you know, my second attempt on mt. everest where i reached the summit was probably the hardest thing that i've ever done. >> why was that harder than the first time? >> the first time i came within a few hundred feet. as a team captain for the first american women's expedition and to get so close to the summit and have to turn around because of poor weather is heartbreaking because you put so much blood, sweat, tears into getting there. the second trip to everest where i did make it to the sum met even though i was more familiar with the mountain, i think it was tougher because i felt more pressure. this is my second time, have i to make it. >> you're blaming the weather, huh? >> exactly. blame it on the weather.

>> but the advantage i had was the leadership lessons i learned during the 2002 expedition really helped me in 250010. i was able to carry them i did the top. >> allison, you have become a world leader on leadership. is it necessary that you be an extroverted person naturally to be an effective leader? >> it is not necessary to be an extrovert. it's interesting to talk about leadership after we just heard from president obama who is extremely extroverted. but the most important thing for leaders is to be competent. if you are competent, that is what really fosers that trust and loyalty amongst the people on your team. competence is much more important than being gregarious or outgoing. >> allison, the team wanted me for some reason to ask why you say you want teammates with enormous egos. i don't know why they wanted me to ask that question. go ahead. >> that's a great question.

much of the advice and on the edge does fly in the face of traditional advice that you get about leadership. and this is some advice i actually got from coach k, the head coach of duke university, the head men's basketball coach. we're right in the middle of basketball season so it applies. he's also the coach of the u.s. olympic team and he shared his thoughts on what he looks for when he recruits the u.s. men's basketball team. he said i look for people with ego. i said what do you mean? he said i want people who are good and know that they're good. that made sense to me. because i don't want to be stuck high on mt. everest behind some climber who is not moving, who is saying gosh, i don't know, maybe i shouldn't be here, i might be out of my league. you want to be with people who are thinking yeah, i got this. no problem. i got this. >> see, that's why you guys should appreciate me. >> i was going to say we get benefit from being next too toure every day. >> you do. >> allison, what is your next greatest thing?

>> gosh, great question. well, i just am continuing on the book tour to talk about my tour, on the edge, the art of high impact leadership. i really want to spread the word about that and i want people to understand that leadership is not solely the responsibility of people with a certain title or a certain amount of seniority or people that have a certain amount of people reporting to them or oversee a budget. leadership is really everyone's responsibility because we are all responsible for moving forward with the mission and we're all responsible for looking out for the people on either side of us. that's what i'm focusing on these days and i hope to continue to spread the word about the philosophy and about the book. >> really great stuff, allison levine. thanks so much. >> thank you. >> up next,ary's impression of toure's impression of what else, frank underwood. designed for men's health concerns as we age. with 7 antioxidants to support cell health. one a day men's 50+.

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you probably haven't finished the new season of house of cards yet. here at the cycle we're interested in how hollywood views washington and we've been all over this story. >> does that mean i'm ripping off our own segments from last week? well, you know what they say. imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. imitating yourself, that's just confidence. i promise i won't do any more frank underwood impressions. >> thank god. >> stay with us. >> house of cards depicts washington as a town where everyone who is in charge of government is basically a corrupt sociopath and the righteous true believers are actually mostly outside government. the big idea this season, i think, is the leakers and the journalists and a hacker and a businessman who actually keep d.c. somewhat accountable. the billionaire, that's raymond

tusk, he emerges as a straight shooter who stands for something. his business he cares about and his fiduciary duty stands practical. that compounds frank underwood who argues money never beats power. >> he chose money overpower. in this town a mistake nearly everyone makes. it's the mcmansion in sarasota that starts falling apart after ten years. power is the old stone building stands for centuries. >> gosh, i sounded just like him, huh? >> this season shows in a world of secret super packs, money can be fast and discreet and deadly. a true believer shows what real journalism looks like. >> this goes all the way to the white house. >> it might. >> it's hypothetical. you've cherry picked the facts to make your case. >> pac money races questions and it has. i haven't answered those questions but i think the american people deserve answers, don't you? >> that character pursues

answers that spark investigations that box in the white house. it's a long ways from last season's controversial reporter blogger, zoe barnes. she was depicted trading sexual and media favors with underwood and left a traditional newspaper for a new website. zoe was also a cautionary tale. her leads went cold when transactional sources didn't need her stenography any more and her career went cold when sthee tried a different approach with only a blog to stand on. her independent reporting ee vinces the model of a bygone watergate era. disclosures that actually push the government to investigate itself. so yeah, the real washington may be enthralled with twitter and buzz feed. but in the world of house of cards, we long for woodward and bernstein if only to save the town from itself one more time. still, there is hope on the internet this season. our last character, the most intellectually consistent one in the bunch, i any, is a hacker hunting down crimes in high places. >> i've got no one else --

>> i don't understand. and i don't want to. okay? there's no story here. >> just five minutes. >> think about what you're doing, waiting outside -- >> you wouldn't still be alive if it wasn't for frank underwood. >> he puts his life on the line unlike the politicians. house of cards invites us to root for the brave truth tellers. then it squashes our hope that they might get a karmic protection. being right doesn't make you a winner here and being brave doesn't get you in with the right people. no. being a true believer is dangerous. we find soon it's the whistle blowers facing jail time, not the criminals and that's no surprise to the insiders on the show or frankly to a lot of us who watch the real washington. there's lots of drama and exaggeration in this show. but house of cards isn't aiming for accuracy. it's aiming for truth. the truth is, prosecution isn't about crime. it's about evidence. and the frank underwoods of the world, well, they don't leave much evidence behind. all right. that does it for "the cycle" and

now it's time nor "now". his job according to him is to tell us the truth about what's going on. okay governor christie, give it to us. it's wednesday, february 26th and this is "now." chris christie appeared at a town hall. his second since the george washington bridge scandal. >> governor jan brewer is feeling more pressure over the state's controversial religious freedom bill. >> governor brewer has until the end of the week. >> this was such a needless battle. republicans in arizona put on the front page. >> new numbers released today reflected advice that christie has come to occupy. >> new jerseyians are a really funny people. >> it may be the best clue we have. >> arizona is in the headlines for all the wrong reasons. >> why create drama around this? >> my job is not to be the entertainer in chief. my job is to tell