else. protect me. >> and president obama weighing in again, admitting he added fuel to the fire, but hopes good can come from the controversy. >> my hope is that as a consequence of this event, this ends up being a teachable moment, where all of us, instead of pumping up the volume, spend a little more time listening to each other. >> joining me now on the phone is tracy jan. good morning. the president also as you know, has invited professor gates and sergeant crowley to the white house for beer. how was that received by both parties. >> well. we want to go to the white house. a date has not been set yet. >> both the mayor and police commissioner issued statements

saying they were pleased with the president's actions. is this coming closer to an end? >> i think so. not just the men involved, but also the communities are hoping this will die down. >> yesterday, the african-american officer seen in the photo of gates being arrested spoke out. let's listen to what he had to say. >> i support what sergeant crowley did. that's as simple as i can say. i can what happened. speculation is a whole different thing. i know what he did. i support what he did 100%. >> how are his comments being received today? >> i'm not quite sure. i know the police union really stands by his remarks. >> what's the fur yor about this been like? >> i know in the beginning, i think the feelings were divided

along racial lines. in general, they were. i think right now, people are hoping that lessons can be learned. conversations will be scheduled about policing and racial profiling. >> i know that professor gates remains in his vacation home on martha's vineyard. he was rumored he might plan to sue. >> yesterday, he was flying to l.a. when he e-mailed me. his comment about the lawsuit was from a couple of days ago. i think with the president's call, both are trying to put this behind him. i believe he's returning to the vineyard on monday. >> so l.a. is a business trip? >> he's working on a documentary on immigration. >> thanks so much.

coming up, we'll talk e elijah cummings and have a live report from massachusetts for you. meanwhile, i'm joined by jon decker, washington correspondent for reuters. the president says he hopes this is a teaching moment, but what has the president learned from this incident? >> well, this is a typical question that i don't think the president really anticipated on wednesday night at the white house. i was caught off guard being in the east room that evening in terms of the response that he gave and remarks that he made. i think the president realizes that it's been said before, alex, race really is the third rail of american politics and you really have to be careful, even if you're the president of the united states in terms of what you say and how you say it. i think that the president and the white house feels that the

president's comments he made yesterday in the briefing room have really diffused the situation and i would imagine by next week, no one is going to be talking about this. >> okay. we're going to move on right this minute. health care. democrats are at each other's throats. what are the main sticking points, that are keeping this bill from coming out of committee? >> what you see is a battle developing within the democratic party, between the leadership, who wants to have a vote taking place in the house very soon, and the blue dog democrats, that number around 52 or so, who are concerned about the size, the scope, the long-term costs of this health care plan. they're hearing a lot from their constituents, the but dogs are, specifically about the impact this would have on small

business. and the president is trying to answer those critics today in his message on youtube, tauging about how small business would be helped by this legislation. not hurt by it. that really is the sticking point for so many of these democrats. >> congress goes on recess at the end of next week and even if the bill makes it through, we're not expecting a vote. who does this five-week recess benefit more? people for or against the health care bill? >> i think both sides would argue that time benefits the opponents of this legislation. it gives them to mobilize and also for those congressmen and senators that are going back to their districts, they will hear from their constituents about whether they approve or disapprove of the plans congress is considering and that's one reason the white house would

like to see a vote take place very soon in the house of representatives. rahm emanuel says a vote will take place this week, but stenny hoyer says it won't. >> jon decker, thanks so much. watch "meet the press" tomorrow. hillary clinton joins david gregory for a full hour. texas senator john cornyn is joining the list of conservative republicans who will vote no on sonia sotomayor's supreme court nomination. orrin hatch also will vote against sotomayor. hispanic leaders were quick to criticize both. the chair says cornyn's no vote

will be a symbolic guester to the largest growing demographic in texas. a new report says president bush considered sending u.s. troops to buffalo to arrest suspected terrorists. dick cheney cited a justice department memo saying it would be okay on u.s. soil as long as it was for national security purposes. fbi agents were sent to arrest the men. all six ultimately pled guilty to terror charges. the international space station is charged up and sporting fresh batteries. four new batteries were installed friday. the last time one of the astronauts went out wednesday, he moved so fast the air cleansing can is in his suit

could not keep up. that same incident happened friday, but didn't crop up until the work was complete. california state assembly has come up with a plan to close the deficit. governor schwarzenegger held a press conference to discuss the budget cuts to help california. >> i'm not happy about the one-time solutions over the other solutions up there. no other way to go. it was necessary. but in change, we achieved major and lasting reforms that would save billions of dollars and benefit our state for years to come. >> lawmakers rejected two measures. a plan to take about a billion dollars from transportation funding and allowing oil drilling off the california coast for the first time in 40

years. life guards in malibu, california continue to be on the lookout for a big shark. the shark appears to be about 12-feet long. it was spotted about 25 feet from the shore. today, new pictures of a powerful tornado. florida authorities are assessing the damage from what could be two tornadoes that tore through a community near tampa on friday. more than 160 homes were damaged near the tampa area and one person is recovering from minor injuries. a strong storm also pounded parts of north dakota and northern minnesota. golf ball-sized hail and winds lecht behind about $250,000 worth of damage. bill? >> good saturday morning. we have bad weather out there this morning.

i'm sure a lot of people in ohio and indiana were woken up with that line of strong storms. also storms in kansas city and missouri. here's a closer look. look at all the active lightening strikes heading through the columbus area. that's going to be the trouble spot today. the other area of interest is in the northwest. look at portland, oregon. this looks like the forecast for dallas. sunny and hot every day. your saturday forecast, eastern seaboard, probably the warmest and best forecast we've seen for you on a saturday. the deep south is going to be hot. looks like a decent saturday to head to the beach. >> thank you. still to come, a live report on sarah palin's final weekend in office. what to expect from the governor

once she steps down. plus, you're going to hear why some markets are still a long way from hitting rock bottom. and pictures of jupiter's new shiner. (laughing) good night buddy good morning dad (announcer) oreo milk's favorite cookie milk's favorite cookie. now available in a cookie straw. new oreo fun stix myth. head & shoulders is just for dandruff. myth. the fact is, it gives you... seven scalp and hair benefits including beautiful, 100% flake-free hair. respect the scalp. love the hair.

msnbc is the place for politics and president obama trying to walk back the comments he made on the arrest of the harvard professor. the president's now called gates and a arresting officer and even invited them to the white house for beer. it's time to talk health care, but the gates issue may not be that easy to lay to rest. i'm joined by elijah cummings of maryland. he is a former chair of a

congressional black caucus. what do you make of the president's move to walk back on this? >> i thought it was the right thing to do. the president said before he even went into office when he was campaigning, that he might make mistakes, that he would make mistakes, but he would not be afraid to correct them and let the public know it and he did that. we do have a racial profiling problem in this country. and the fact is that i think that this, all the talk we're having right now about it, tells us that there are concerns. keep in mind that most police enforcement officer in our country have racial profiling classes that they address so, there must be an issue here. i think that here, what happens is african-americans see race from one perspective and whites

may see it from another. whether this case was involving racial profiling is another matter. >> we have sergeant crowley saying he wasn't motivated by race in arresting gates, but does that matter if that's how his actions were perceived? >> it's almost impossible, but i can tell you, that if you go to any barbershop in a black community this morning, the african-american men sit lg around there will tell you, i guess 99% of them will say they think it was about race. while others may not feel that way. i think that's why it's so good that a mayor of cambridge and police commissioner are going to have these dialogues. we need to talk about these issues and try to address them. what happens is, i'm a trail lawyer and i've seen a lot of

cases like this. you have a police officer and then you have a citizen, both great, wonderful people, but because of the tension that comes about when the police officer meets up with the citizen, a lot of times things do get out of hand. officer crowley is one who teaches these courses and so, you know, you just don't, you would think that one that teaches these courses, you've got to look at and say well maybe we need to step back from this and i think that's what the president was saying. make i need to look at both sides and maybe get the whole story. cle clearly, there's a problem and we need to try to address it. but we need to get back to health care. >> i know there are those who say this is the last of that edition, but had the professor been white, would there have

been a different result? >> if gates was white? >> yep. >> i don't think, i was talking to morning joe the other day, listening to him, he said if it were him, he knows it wouldn't have happened. >> can you put this into political perspective? what are the implications for president obama and his agenda? >> i think this will be off of the radar screen next week if not before. the fact is is that -- because this president is absolutely brilliant. he's an honest man. he expressed feelings and came back and addressed it. what politicians do a lot is make a mistake and don't admit it. now these gentlemen are going to be coming to the white house. i can hardly wait. they can be part of helping america address this problem.

>> and what do you hope comes out of that meeting with president obama, professor gates, sergeant crowley? >> saying we're going to work in our neighborhood in cambridge or head up a commission that the president puts together to try to begin to address this issue of racial profiling. and we've got an expert in officer crowley who teaches these things, so we need to use this moment as the president says, as a teachable moment. again, you have people looking at this from two different perspectives and we've got to bring those folks together. we need to get past that. our country is better than that. >> absolutely. you know what i like about what you said, you've got to get back to the neighborhood, all politics is local and get it

going from the ground up. >> and i applaud the police in cambridge for handling it the way they're handling it. >> thank you. for more angles on the controversy, logon to msnbc.com. new pictures from the hubbell telescope are give ago clear picture of jupiter. that's what was created this month when a small comet hit jupiter's atmosphere. g b you're the colon lady!

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more than 1,000 people turned out for the annual picnic in wasilla yesterday. nbc's norah o'donnell live in fairbanks. what is sarah palin saying in these final hours? >> reporter: it's a very crisp, cool morning here for sarah palin's final full day in office. she's saying thank you to the people of alaska and her supporters, but not saying much about what her political future holds. of course, that's the big question. that's the big mystery. she's attending these picnics. yesterday, she was in wasilla with that red sweatshirt on that said, once a patriot, always a patriot. she addressed supporters there and talked about how important holding the officer of governor has been. listen.

>> how do you overcome the negative or the down day. i said, oh, no. it is not a down day. my son called from iraq. it is always a good day. >> reporter: there you hear sarah palin talking about her son in iraq, saying she doesn't have many down days, especially when her son calls in from iraq. today, she's going to be in anchorage, serving the people there. then she comes north, here to fairbanks, where she'll hand over the reigns of power to the lieutenant governor. 45 years old, the first female governor of this state. her political future is unknown, but an interesting fact. she could sit out the next six presidential elections and then run and still be about the same

age john mccain was when he ran for president. so, she's young enough to wait this thing out. alex? >> i think you are unique in putting it like that. no one's done that that i've heard. >> reporter: it just makes the point -- >> no, no, no, you go, make the point. >> reporter: if she doesn't run in 2012, she may decide to do something else. she still can be a player in republican politics if she wants to be. now a lot of people say that being a quitter and quitting this office early with a year and a half left means she's not going to be very influential. it's clear that she's got nearly a million dollars in her fund raising committee. her pact, which she can use to travel across the country. she's still popular, with about 70% of republicans. this new warning sign is the new

poll that show the majority of americans view her negatively. it's hard to win a general election when a majority of the country views her negatively. that's her lowest rating ever since she was named as john mccain's running mate, that was just about a year ago when burst on to the national stage. >> i'm trying to figure out where it is that you're standing and where that is. we'll have you do a little tour. >> reporter: next hour. >> okay. bye. still to come, the blue dog democrats and pushback against the president's health care plan. after the break. hey, it's me, water. did you know that when you filter me at home i'm pretty much the same as i am in a plastic bottle? except that you'll save, like, $600 bucks a year. but other than that, we're pretty much the same. pur. good, clean water.

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early as next week. meanwhile, nancy pelosi says she has enough votes in the house to pass legislation. but reports that leaders of the blue dogs democrats who want the current legislation changed are saying there are not enough votes in the house. joining me from washington, erin billings. where do things stand right now? >> well, it's a little bit of a mess. the way things were left last night, the blue dogs had reconvened with henry waxman of california after a day of a breakdown. they kind of went into meetings and went out and were screaming at each other. but last night, they were back at a table and were going to try to have their staff work through the weekend and there's some narrow possibility they might vote on the bill on the floor before the house adjourns.

the senate is not going to vote until november. i think that's enough to get the house democrats on board to clear the bill. >> give me the points the blue dog democrats are upset over and if those are the kinds of things that can get straightened out to get this passed. >> these are fiscal conservatives. they don't like the overall cost. this is a $1.6 trillion plan so they have a lot of heartburn about that. the other issue is regional disparities. both represent rural areas and they want to make sure that the rates are fair and that the urban areas do not benefit more than the rural areas. they want to make sure dispersement, medicare rates are fair and no regional disparities. >> where do the republicans fit into all this right now? >> they don't like anything.

they don't like anything that the democrats are talking about. they actually came out yesterday with more details about their the floor. the blue dogs don't want to go that route. but the republicans aren't really in favor of anything the democrats are talking about. they don't like the senate plans, house plans or obama's plans. they do not want government involved in providing coverage. the democrats call it a public option. so you know, semantics,

semantics. so far, they don't seem to be enamored by anything the democrats are talking about. >> have the republicans reached out to the blue dog democrats? >> that's a good question. i don't think at this point, they really have. this is, i think the republicans are pretty happy watch tg democrats eat each other up. not to use a bad pun here, but i don't know if they need to have a dog in this fight. i think the republicans can sit back, criticize the democratic plan, watch them beat up on each other and see where the chips fall. the republicans have said they'd like to be involved. they've said the democrats have not included them. i don't know if they really have to do much. this is playing all out on the democratic side. >> how do you see this ending and do you see house leadership abbreviating everyone's august vacation? >> i hope not, for my sake.

i'd like to go on vacation. you know, it's possible. the house majority leader steny hoyer yesterday suggested that the democrats in the house may stay a few extra days if they're that close. if they're close enough to get this to the floor and have a vote, they may stay. i think he suggested august 4th, which is a few days later. the house is supposed to get out on july the 31th. in the senate, no. they're looking to leave on august 7th. they're going to vote on the de. >> dave niehaus: of sonia sotomayor. maybe a couple of days, i don't see them staying through august and if they did, they may have a wholesale revolt. i don't think tensions are going to wane any more than they are. >> no one wants to tick you off.

>> you know, really. >> really. okay, thanks so much. >> thanks, alex. and for the latest developments on the battle, logon to our website. let's go to wall street. friday, the dow closed about 9,000 for the second day in a row. and good news for the housing department this week. sales of existing home sales shot up, taking three months in a row of gains. amanda of "money" is here. this is good, right? the first time the dow has experienced three straight gains. how encouraging is this? >> it is somewhat encouraging. baby steps in the right direction. we need to see sort of many months of consecutive gains and sales to be able to confidently

say sales have stabilized. but that means we still have a ways to go for prices. we're going to need to see many more months of gains and sales before we see prices sort of stop declining. when prices will hit bottom depends on how you talk to. some say that could be as early as next year, others say 2011. >> you see the nation's media home prices another 5 to 10% or so to fall. what other markets could see the significant drops? >> i think a lot of people don't know that california and many city ins california are actually closer to the bottom than other parts of the country. you hear they're some of the hardest hit markets, but they started falling faster and earlier. who still has a ways to go? new york city.

unfortunately, because we just sort of began falling later. it's also the cities where the economies are in trouble. what's going on in the housing market in detroit is just absolutely painful for anyone who owns a home there. >> i was there yesterday and driving through. just the number of foreclosed signs the painful. neighbors looking around and seeing the communities there. what about the markets though in terms of prices levelled out. where do you think things, where are they going to go? >> i think the one thing everyone agrees on even if we don't know when exactly prices will hit bottom, once they get there, they're going to stay there for a while. it's not going to be a v-shaped recovery. one economist said it's going to be like a bathtub, where the prices go down and stay down for a while. >> we're going to have you back later this morning. want to talk about the five

factors that help a home keep its value. thank you very much. up next, more perspective of the arrest of a harvard professor. businesses more efficiently, so we've brought in a team of experts to help. one suggestion is to make your shipping more efficient with priority mail flat rate boxes from the postal service. call or go online for a free supply

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to help you meet the one and recognize the other. thanks. because the future's counting on us. nobody sells more real estate than re/max. questions of race linger today over the arrest of harvard professor, this despite president obama trying to walk back his comments about the police acting stupidly in the matter. joining me live is ronald hampton. he is also on the advisory board

for the national police accountability project. good morning. i want to ask you first of all, as a former police officer, what is your take on this whole situation? >> a number of things happened. i think mr. gates arrived home, tired from his travels, was confront td with a situation after trying to get into his house. the conversation ensued and he was obviously placed under arrest. i personally think there was some form of racial profiling that took place you know that was involved in the incident. >> all right. let's talk further about that because yesterday, the african-american police officer seen in the photo of the professor spoke out. >> i support what sergeant

crowley did. i support what he did. i support -- i can what happened, speculation is a whole different thing. i know what he did. i support what he did 100%. >> sergeant leon lashley there. what do you think about what he said? do you believe what he said? do you think that he is speaking from the heart? >> i believe what he said. i mean, he gets paid by the cambridge police department so his allegiance lies with those who pay him and sergeant crowley. i wouldn't expect anything other than that. it takes a great deal to speak out when we see trans gregss take place in our community. that's not the only incident where african-american officers fail to speak out against situations that take place that are sometimes they are, sometimes they're not, race-based situations that take place. i wasn't surprised to see that

or hear that. >> regardless of who the person in this case, were you to have been in the shoes of sergeant jim crowley, how would you have handled the situation? >> i can tell you that after 24 years of being a police officer, there are a lot of times i've been in those situations and other officers, too. i think the primary job of the police officer is to deescalate escalating situations. with the experience this officer has regarding race and sensitivity and all of that, he should have been deescalating the situation rather than escalating it in the kind of way that ended up in mr. gates getting arrested. a number of police officers in those situations never end up in an arrest situation. >> how about, did you leave any room for sergeant crowley arresting a white man who had

done the same thing? >> well, i had to say, i just don't think that would have happened. i don't think it would have ended in an arrest. i know for a fact because i've seen it, witnessed it, heard stories about that there are two kinds of services that take place sometimes in our community. the white community gets an all together different quality of police service when the black community gets a poor quality of police service. unfortunately, the service is also going to be evaluated by those who are on the receiving end of it. the customer gets to evaluate that and clearly, if you talk to people in the african-american community, they have a very different experience when we talk about police service. >> okay. i want to thank you very much for being here. i appreciate your time. >> thank you. still ahead, we'll have the

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new jersey democrats are re-grouping after this week's corruption involving mayors, state assembly men and rabbis. corzine is not imp kated in wrong doing, but his opponent wasted no time in touting his reputation as a corruption busting prosecutor. >> as a u.s. attorney, i put corruption officials in jail. as governor, i'll make the same, tough independent decisions without regard to party or politics. new jersey's problems are too big to be solved with one-party solutions. >> joining me now, bob -- that's

kind of a big tease of a title there. good morning to you. thanks for being here. we have 44 people arrested including the mayors of hoboken, ridge field and secaucus. >> the governor was behind in the polls before this happened and although he hasn't been implicated, there's got to be spillover. the good news for the governor between now and november is an eternity. >> let's look at poll numbers. the latest shows christie ahead. what do you think accounts for these numbers? >> it's a whole combination of things. some had to do with the governor, some doesn't. people are unhappy with the whole state of affairs. >> okay. governor corzine issued this

statement after thursday's arrest. any corruption is unacceptable. anywhere, anytime by anybody. the scale of corruption we're seeing is outrageous and cannot be tolerated. bob, i'd like you to update on what you're hearing in terms of the bust. >> i would say of the governor's comment, that's pretty weak. why is it that we have to depend on the federal government to do these things because you know these big busts are always the fbi. what i'm hearing about the investigation is it's fair from over. this one has been going on for a long time. it's basically phase three of an ongoing operation and my sources tell me there are going to be more. >> i know the governor has asked for everybody who's mentioned this this case to get out. how's that going over? >> so far, they're ignoring him so apparently, he doesn't have

that much clout with these guys either. >> how prevalent is this? >> well, we're doing the movie, which is going to be out before the end of the year and as a part of the research into that, we wanted to find out when did this corruption thing start. the researcher found something going all the way back to george washington. he wrote a scathing letter to governor of new jersey at the time saying he was trying to win a revolution and the government was charging the troops tolls to get through new jersey. 230 years ago. >> okay. that means we've got a bit of turned around to do in the new jersey. thank you so much. about 2.8 million workers just got a pay raise. the federal minimum rage rose to $7.25 an hour yesterday.

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terrifying impact. good morning. it is 9:00 here on the east coast. here's what's happening. we're going to get right into the latest in the controversy over the arrest of henry louis gates jr. sergeant crowley now says he is profounding grateful the president's trying to resolve the situation and the president called them on friday, invited them to have a beer and talk. >> my hope is that as a consequence of this event, this ends up being what's called a teachable moment, where all of us, instead of pumping up the volume, spend a little more time listening to each other. nbc's ron allen joins me live from cambridge with the latest. good saturday morning to you. >> reporter: the volume has turned down here in cambridge.

it's a lot calmer than yesterday or the day before. one of the key moments yesterday was a press conference by a united front of police officials representing various unions. here's what they had to say in support of sergeant crowley. >> all of us collectively and individually believe he acted appropriately as any police officer would in conducting a response to a break-in progress call and processing that call and disposing of the case. >> reporter: they've also said that race played no role in this particular incident. they were very adamant about that. sergeant crowley has been cleared of any wrong doing by the department here and they say they just want to move forward and resolve this dispute. as for gates, he was in his vacation hom