the and everybody's hands ♪ it's thursday, welcome to "way too early." the show that doesn't do windows for a good reason. that story is amaze pg. in just a few hours, capitol hill lawmakers will vote on party leaders for the next session of congress. there could be one high profile addition. harry reid is reportedly holding talks with senator elizabeth warren about joining leadership. politico reporting that reid is creating a special role for her. senate leadership is expected to remain the same with senators dick durbin, patty murray and chuck schumer as deputies. reid is promising to work with mitch mcconnell and other republicans as well. >> i saw firsthand how a strategy of obstruction was debilitating to our system. i have no desire to engage in that manner. although the desks in this group

chamber may move around and change, our duty to help working american families never will. senate democrats are ready to work in good faith if the republican counterparts whether it's today, tomorrow, january, no matter when it is, to help the middle class and when we do that, we help all our citizen. >> five senators would not commit to backing senator reid for leader. republicans are making him a top target for 2016. nevada's other senator republican dean helder is urging sandoval to run, and he says he's focused on being. governor, at least for right now. for the first time both the senate and the house will vote on the keystone excel pipeline. this is big news and mostly because of the razor thin senate race in louisiana. bill cassie and democratic senator mary landrieu are in a runoff after finishing extremely close in the general. both are sponsoring bills in

their respective chambers trying to show support for their home state. landrieu is chair of the senate energy committee, a committee republican leadership says cassidy would join if elected and faces an uphill reelection battle even more so after the campaign committee pulled tv money ahead of a runoff. >> if taking my name off this bill help it is to pass, go right ahead. this is not about credit. it is not about glory. it is not about politics. it is about getting our work done. >> senator landrieu, democrats have pulled their ads. your leaders are not standing with you today. are you a lost cause? >> no, i don't believe that i am. and of course, i have stood against my leadership when i have had to and this is one of the times. my leadership, at least the two or three that are elected, have not been strong keystone supporters, but the fact of the matter is we have members of our caucus that are.

so this is just another example of many that i can give you where i have had to stand up to my caucus and done it. i wouldn't count on me being a lost cause. >> so there's debate over whether coop has the authority to approve this plan and remains to be scene whether president obama would veto it. more bad news for the democrats in. the wake of the losses. the party has a 36% favorable rate i rating. this is a record low after falling 6 points since prior to the election. they are also lower than the republican party, which holds a 42% favorable rating. the democratic party image hasn't been this low since gallup started polling in 1992. this morning gay and lesbian couples in kansas are able to say i do. the supreme court lifted a tem pair stay from issuing marriage

licenses. a court said the ban was unconstitutional, but state officials challenged that ruling. kansas becomes. the 33rd state plus washington, d.c. where same-sex marriage is now legal. and a federal judge struck down south carolina's ban. the state's attorney general says he will appeal that decision. mike huckabee may be gearing up for another presidential bid. according to "the washington post," the former arkansas governor's group is staffing up on experienced campaign hands and advisers are looking for headquarters in little rock. huckabee will spend time this month globe trotting leading a group of pastors on a trip through europe and will meet with financial gate keepers across the country. huckabee won iowa in 2008 and polls show him with a lead should he choose to run again. listen to this one opinion the outgoing governor of arkansas is defending his decision to pardon his son's

drug conviction. he was convicted in 2003 of felony marijuana possession with the intent to deliver. the governor says he would have issued the pardon sooner if his son asked earlier. in his petition, in part, quote, at the time of my arrest i was living in fantasy world, not reality. i was young, dumb, i'm asking for a second chance to be a better son to my parents and prove to them that i am the person they raised me to be. the governor says his son deserves the second chance other nonviolent offenders receive. the governor issued more than 700 pardons. this brings us to our twitter question. do you think the golf governor should pardon his son for that conviction or is there a bigger conflict of interest going on here? tweet us your best answers to us. we're going to put your thoughts up later in the show. for the first time,

scientists have successfully landed a vehicle on a comet. this is a cool story. this time yesterday we were awaiting anxiously as the lander separated. it made its final approach in spite of problems with its thrusters, but the lander made it successfully to the comet's surface. there was celebrations, particularly in germany when the mission was controlled. some even cried they were so happy. others paid tribute in their own more permanent ways. but the it's still to wonder, this image. france's president watching in 3-d. the lander is now traveling 40,000 miles per hour through space between mars and jupiter more than 300 million miles away. there are some concerns at this hour and it's not clear whether harpoons have properly anchored the lander to the surface. such a cool story to follow. we'll bring you updates on this

for all of you science fans. new yorkers, they truly held their breath on wednesday after two window washers found themselves trapped and dangling. the two were reportedly on their way up to the top of the new world trade center building just before 1:00 p.m. when something wept wrong with the cable pulling up their scaffold. they spent the next 90 minutes hanging through the air bringing them in safely one at a time. look at how that's precarously hanging there at this angle. here's a picture tweeting out from inside showing the terrifying angle of that scaffolding pitched just straight down. amazing. thankfully they are safe. bono is safe after a midair scare on his private jet yesterday. the rock star and four friends were flying from dublin to berlin when the rear door of the

jet fell off 15,000 feet over germany. the pilots told investigators they didn't realize what happened until the aircraft, which is the same model as the one you see here, was safely on the ground minus two suitcases. can you imagine that? the rear door blowing off? you don't realize the missing suitcases. look around germany. we're going to turn to business news now. the big news is youtube announcing a paid subscription muse. ic service. steve sedgwick joins us live with more. what does this announcement mean for youtube and for the other music creators out there in this marketplace? >> sure, streaming has been great for the consumer. it's legalized free music. now they are saying we want better revenues and provide streaming services like youtube having to up their game and give music industry something back.

we have had a recent spat that you and i talked about between spotify and taylor swift. for $8 per calendar month, apparently you can get rid of certain things including ads and other things like extra services as well. the most recent deal on a particularly arcade fire and. vampire weekend, which i understand is some of your favorite bands. moving on apple has their own music service as well. record shares. these shares are trading at $111. the viewers who know this, that's not that much, but they had a 7 for 1 stock split. basically the iphone 6 despite bendgate, has been going great. and many things including the

ecosystem as well and the apple pay, people are saying they have momentum behind them. some brokers are saying it could go as high as $143 a share. >> it was a home run for apple with the iphone 6. let's talk about hasbro and the idea that there's potential for dreamworks animation to buy the company? >> i have two young daughters and they must be excited about this one. my little pony could have become a movie with dreamworks animation. the bid is going to come in at about $30 per share. this will be a 35% premium to where dreamworks animation closed on wednesday as well. dreamworks, smallest of the hollywood studios, has been struggling to find a buyer. they were doing a deal with japan. but hasbro looking for more markets. drooemworks someone to support them financially. it could be a match made in my

little ponyland. >> your girls will be excited. did they have those with the big combs and combed the tails? >> they have everything. >> you spoil them. still ahead on "way too early," lebron james said football was his first love but when it comes to his own family, it's off limits. why he's telling his sons no. that's next. and why this little one loves a good tune. look at this cute guy. wait until you see what happens when the music stops. look at this baby. baby got rhythm. that's when "way too early" comes right back with our weather guy bill karins. and al roke too, he's doing something special. >> watching all that cold air coming across the great lakes and bringing that snow and so we're going to continue to

watch. really not going to see tons of snow shs but you put the maps in motion you can see the lake effect starting to get --

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welcome back. time for sports. we got to talk sports. major league baseball was announced and its cy young award winners. it's clayton kershaw, his third time winning these honors. he led l.a. to its second straight west title. klubar was named the top pitcher with 17 of 30 first place votes. some struggling news for baseball, we have cardinals rookie outfielder reporter under the influence when he lost control of the car.

the toxicology report showing he had a blood alcohol level five times the country's legal limit of .05. he was killed as well as his 18-year-old girlfriend died in that incident. switching gears to the nba. we have the rockets and timberwolves swearing off in mexico city, the first game south of the border since 1997. dwight howard added 22 points. the rockets won 113-101. the nuggets hosting the trailblaze trailblazers. just one basket short of a team record. the blazers beat the nuggets 130-113. another blow to youth football as the sport has lost

the eandorsement of one of the world's top athletes. lebron james won't let his sons play football. he told espn, yes, when asked if it was because of football's health risks. james who stopped playing in high school after he broke his wrist. holding the world record for the longest basketball shot was not enough for the harlem globe trotters. after sinking that 82-footer there. look at that. he made a shot from the stands 109 feet. slow motion, whoa, look at that beauty. >> don't we need to know how many times he tried it? i mean, is that going to take

away from it? do i have to be the negative nelly hene nel? someone has to bring us down to earth. >> speaking of records, al roker is going for it. >> no, i was going to talk about you. >> shortest weather forecast. >> back to you, thomas. >> thank you, bill. what's going on weather wise? and roker is doing this big thing. >> 34 hours straight. tomorrow morning at this time, yeah. >> it's going to be crazy. >> endurance crazy. this morning if you're walking outside, cleveland, you have snow coming down. in little rock, arkansas, it snowed last night. just a little coding. so the cold air has headed east. it's here on the east coast. you can see all the snow on the map. all the whitest snow from grand

ra pids. not so much in indianapolis or columbus, but cleveland and buffalo, you'll see some flakes as you walk out the door. tomorrow morning, this will all make it through southern new england. there's going to be a burst of snow tomorrow at this time. it will be cold enough to stick too. from boston to providence, springfield, wooster, we could possibly see 2 to 4 inches in the hills. so that's kind of the first snow of the season and the timing for the morning commute will make it difficult. the rest of the forecast, we can't complain in the east. it's not that bad. highs in the 40s and 50s. compare that with denver at 16. windchills around 0. it's still cold in the middle of the country, but it bleeds east, but it's modified. it's not the full blast. we get very cold and looks like the great lakes and new england, look out next week. much colder. >> bill, thank you. at the top of the hour on "morning joe," how the white

house is responding to their health care architect. saying the stupidity of the american voter is what led to obamacare passing. but first, stephen colbert must see analysis of the state of the democratic party after another senate seat turns red. . is it really as bad as he says it is? and we're going to have the cute baby that i have been told is really a girl, not a boy. but it's a cute baby. we know it's a cute dancing baby, so stay tuned for that. nineteen years ago, we thought, "wow, how is there no way to tell the good from the bad?" so we gave people the power of the review. and now angie's list is revolutionizing local service again. you can easily buy and schedule services from top-rated providers. conveniently stay up to date on progress. and effortlessly turn your photos into finished projects with our snapfix app. visit angieslist.com today. ♪

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welcome back. it's time to huddle around the water cooler. let's check in with lewis who is going to fill us in on stephen colbert's epic reaction to more blue going red. >> let's start with politics. news from alaska that senator baghdad begich has been ousted. sullivan is expected to hold on. let's go to stephen colbert for some analysis. >> the good news from the midterms just keeps coming. last night the ap called another senate race, alaska has turned red or maybe thanks to climate change that might just be the temperature up there now. of course, analyzing the midterms is like peeling back the layers of an onion in that the deeper you go the more the democrats cry. jim? >> they lost control of almost

every major state legislature in the country. >> that's where the farm teams are. >> it's a huge problem for the democrats. not just the farm team is being deple depleted, it's the farm team to the farm team. >> democrats have lost their farm teams. who will they turn to when hillary clinton blows out her knee at a pancake breakfast. remember, just two years before he ran for president barack obama was an illinois state senator. who could have imagined that today he would be in the white house wishing he was an illinois state senator? >> good news out there for ohio cuss to cuss fans. the cast wants a sequel. bet midler was bombarded with questions. they are all on board and would

love to do a sequel. inundate the disney company because i have canvassed the girls and they are all willing to do it but have no say in the matter. so ask the walt disney company. she said playing the character is one of the highlights of her career back in 1993. if you were born in the '80s, that was a classic. >> if you were born in the '70s or '60s, you can like it too. >> fair enough. finally, our cute baby video of the morning because who doesn't love cute babies. especially when they can appreciate a good birthday card. ♪ ♪ >> whatever you do, just don't stop the music.

>> never. it's like that dancing baby on allie mcbeel. remember that? what's going on with the chin? >> i know, i need to clean it up. >> when does the lip come. >> i just want to keep it going. >> that's a heavy chin area. >> it's coming, though. i'm going bring you some louisiana tees for your lips. we asked if the governor should pardon his son for a pot conviction that happened in 2003. we have some of the the guest responses. >> so ginger says, the governor's son seems repent ent and deserves a second chance. another says he should pardon everyone with similar convictions as his son be consistent. >> it's a great point to talk about consistency here. it is suggested by the parole board, but we have to make sure

that the governor is following this not just for family members but for everybody that meets those standards. appreciate it. next a look at the stories you'll be talking about in the days ahead. "morning joe" just moments away. i make a lot of purchases for my business. and i get a lot in return with ink plus from chase. like 50,000 bonus points when i spent $5,000 in the first 3 months after i opened my account. and i earn 5 times the rewards on internet, phone services and at office supply stores.

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welcome back. let's get a check on the day ahead check on the day ahead before we toss it over to "morning joe." chuck hagel is set to testify on a house hearing on the administration's strategy to beat back isis. general dempsey will also be a witness. and mitch mcconnell is expected to be elected majority leader and harry reid minority leader. that will do it for "way too early." "morning joe" starts right now. ♪ ♪ this is ground control to major tom ♪ ♪ you've really made the grade ♪ david bowie this morning. alternative version, actually. hey, welcome to