i feel fine. they say this is very common. if you have to have cancer, i'm told by some doctors this is the slowest growing, the best one to have, and the most manageable. >> chris dodd, a key player in the health care debate,

diagnosed with prostate cancer. we'll have the latest on dodd's medical outlook and how this illness could affect the battle in washington. plus, from bailouts to bonuses. outrageous new numbers on the billions doled out by bankers while taking your taxpayer money. and the top military man in iraq says, time to declare victory and come home. is this the right call? or will it just lead to another mission accomplished moment? also, an astronaut brings some very dirty undies back to earth. and a divorce court parody of that dancing wedding party becomes the latest craze on youtube. it is real, charlie gasparino. i'm tamron hall live in new york. >> i'm donny deutsch. veteran senator chris dodd, a key player in the health care negotiations, just announced a short time ago that he has early stage prostate cancer. the democrat from connecticut says he'll have surgery during

the august recess and will be back to work, he says, in no time. >> i feel fine, i'm going to be fine. we caught this early, and i look forward to getting back out on the trail and doing my job on behalf of the people. >> and we're going to have nbc's kelly o'donnell here to talk about mr. dodd's situation. and also how this all affects the health kay debatcare debate >> he's going to be fine and he's going to use this as a platform. we have kelly now. tamron and i were just talking about the prognosis for him is very good. they caught it early. he's going to take advantage of this to point out that a lot of americans don't have the kind of health care that he has that would have caught this. >> reporter: we saw that already, donny and tamron. what he did is he acknowledged to us he's known about this for a while, and he was quick to say that as a member of congress, he's got a terrific health plan. and he pointed out that it was an annual physical paid for by his government insurance that

caught this, and he pointed out that many people don't have that luxury of having an exam like that, a preventative type of thing, that would perhaps save them from a scary diagnosis. so he will use his personal story to highlight what's going on in the health care debate. it is a sensitive issue because he has been at the front of this chairing the committee that worked so hard on part of the legislation, the part with that public option standing in for senator kennedy, dodd's long-time friend. they have been buddies for decades. of course, we know senator kennedy is fighting a very serious cancer, brain cancer. so the personal intersecting with the political here, and for chris dodd, who has some political trouble back home in connecticut for his re-election, all of this coming together at a time when he is telling us it's good news that he will go through surgery and whatever treatment is needed with a good prognosis, but he'll be doing that while he's also trying to shoulder a lot of this health care debate. >> because this is all still

breaking, we want to play another clip from senator dodd and what he had to play, kelly. . >> i want to remind people about this health care debate. i didn't want to be an exhibit necessarily, but i didn't want to be the issue. it's not about me. it's about people without health care or who are underinsured. people out there struggle every day. that's the risk here by not getting this job done. >> he's saying he'll be back, he'll be ready for this fight that certainly looms ahead for the democrats. >> reporter: yes and the answer we just heard from him was in response to a question about why he didn't tell the public earlier. he has known since june about this cancer diagnosis. he said when he was at the most critical point, the public point of his committee dealing with this bill, he didn't want to be confused with the story. now he felt he needed to come forward because the recess is coming, he'll be going into surgery, and it was sort of unavoidable to not reveal it now. there was some strategy in his decision to outline this today. >> always a politician there.

all right. nbc's kelly o'donnell. thank you very much. now for the bigger picture at this hour, there are plenty of signs out there that the economy is rebounding. the closing bell just rang on wall street. stocks rose again. investors were encouraged by new numbers that showed the economy contracted less than expected in the second quarter. the dow gained 17 points. july was a hot month with the dow up almost 8.5%. it's the biggest monthly gain in nearly seven years. president obama also heralded today's numbers on the economy. >> this morning the gdp revealed that the recession we faced when i took office was even deeper than anyone thought at the time. it told us how close we were to the edge. but the gdp also revealed that in the last few months the economy has done measurably better than we had thought, better than expected. >> the gdp numbers show the economy contracted at a slower

than expected pace of just 1% in the second quarter. that's after a free fall in the first quarter when the economy tumbled at an annual rate of 6.4%, the sharpest drop in nearly three decades. some retailers aren't celebrating christmas yet, christmas in july to help get you to start spending some money. so sears is among the retails things like this, christmas sales and promotions this month to get customers inside the month. also toys "r" us, they have been struggling for a long time, and also k-mart. >> a new backlash over ball street bonuses. the house voted to restrict how wall street executives get paid. the measure would give shareholders a nonbinding vote on compensation packages. nine banks, get this, that took

a total of $17.5 billion in taxpayer money last year awarded $33 billion in bonuses, nearly 5,000 employees got bonuses topping $1 million each. you heard it right. merrill lynch is a perfect example. it lost more than $27 billion last year and got $10 billion in government bailout money but still paid $3.6 billion in bonuses. i got to do some math here. it doesn't add up. maybe my good friend charlie gasparino will help me with that math. he's the author of "the sellout." it will be coming out. this explains better than anything the crisis. charlie, we fight about a lot of things -- >> your publicity hound friend andrew cuomo repackaged old information. >> if the bank lost money, where do you get the money to pay the bonus? bailout money was $32 billion. the banks lost $81 billion. i'm a taxpayer. explain to me, charlie. >> listen, i can't believe i'm

agreeing with andrew cuomo and donny deutsch on this one. it reminds me of the immigration debate. milton freeman said you can't have open borders and a welfare state. the banks have been bailed out, they have been subsidized. do you realize goldman sachs is considered a commercial bank too big to fail. that means we, the taxpayer, are subsidizing their risk-taking, which paid off last quarter, $3 billion. we have every right to put controls on their executive compensation. >> but nothing has changed. this is egregious. you know better -- >> i would say this. >> it's going to get ugly. >> donny, i would say this, you have one person -- you have two people to talk to about this. you have barack obama and you have ben bernanke. >> barack obama. >> and here is why. >> did you just -- >> no, no, who is allowing them to do this? right now the fed --

>> i thought -- >> wait a second. wait a second. the federal reserve -- this is what you did miss. the federal reserve and the treasury says goldman sachs, all these firms are too big to fail. we bailed them out. they are banks. okay. while that is happening, they're allowing them to take these bonuses. there is no doubt about that. >> first of all, they had to bail out the banks. >> they're still commercial -- >> something has got to change. >> where is the administration on this? >> charlie, how do we change wall street -- >> did anybody ask them. >> what do -- >> we know congress is looking at and have been looking at ways to cap it. >> they didn't own the banks back then. >> i think you have people at home, taxpayers, regular people, losing their job, maybe making $60,000 a year and they hear all of this bold talk from both of you, bold talk from some -- >> not bold talk from me. >> i mean it's accurate. i'm not knocking you.

bold talk from wall street guys because usually you stick with your own kind. >> finally charlie is seeing the light. >> i'm not a wall street guy. i'm a simply country reporter. >> the point is who should they be mad at? >> my book is called "the sellout" how wall street greed and government mismanagement, dysfunction destroyed the economy. it's a combination of both and it went from administration to administration. if you really look at what's going on now in the management of wall street, it's really not that much different than from bush did. >> you said administration, it should not just be the obama administration. >> it's both of them. i'm not -- >> think about it, where is the administration on this? they own the banks. >> are you kidding? >> they didn't get the banks into this trouble. >> who owns the banks right now? who owns citigroup right now. >> owned by the taxpayers. >> the treasury holds those notes. >> they had no choice. >> donny, clear out your ears for two seconds. they are a major shareholder in

the federal government. excuse me, the federal government is a major share holder in citigroup and bank of america, two of the most egregious examples of this ov overcompensation. why isn't the administration going to them saying you have to do this? >> i agree with you. >> the fed declares citigroup -- the flip side is do you let those banks go under? >> we got to go. >> we already had that conversation. >> charlie, you can see him on cnbc and at the tiki lounge on route 22 in new jersey. >> what have we learned from that? still ahead, gone but not forgotten. karl rove is back in the heedlihee headlines. new report he had a much larger role than first thought in a controversial firing of those u.s. attorneys. plus, is it time for the troops in iraq to come home. a new momentemo from a toll col is raising questions.

and bringing your skivys home from space. we'll tell you about an astronaut -- all you have to do is say scivvys and two wall street -- we're not inviting you. >> he's invited anytime. i was in the grocery store when i had a heart attack.

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welcome back. this story just coming across the wire here in our newsroom. the associate the press says former first lady laura bush is

giving high marks to her successor. mrs. bush tells the ap first lady michelle obama is, quote, doing a great job. he says being a first lady is like being a member of a club that very few people get to be a part of. that is very nice. >> both of those women are very great women. turns out the bush white house played a larger role in the firing of nine u.s. prosecutors than originally believed. >> karl rove, white house lawyers, and aides discussed at least three of the nine attorneys who were fired in 2006. karl rove just wrapped up two days of closed door testimony about the firings before the house judiciary committee. josh is the white house reporter for politico. josh, good to see you. >> tamron, donny, good to see you again. >> we're learning more and more about what was going on in the eight years during the bush administration, and this is one i think a lot of people -- this is an achilles' heel, this is one part of the story that they want to unravel a lot quicker.

we're learning more about karl rove. tell us what this report is saying. >> that's been this quiet investigation going on on capitol hill. you might remember there was actually a big fight over executive privilege on this earlier in the year, and the obama white house basically brokered a deal between these former bush administration officials. basically karl rove and harriet miers who was one of bush's attorneys to allow the investigation to go forward and take this issue out of the courts. this is all looking into what role the white house played, and particularly political officials within the white house like karl rove, played in the dismissal of about nine or ten u.s. attorneys back at the end of 2006. >> josh, a great leader looks forward and not back. if i'm barack obama similar to the cia issue we were dealing with a couple weeks ago, don't they want to just leave it alone at this point. we have so many problems. in a strange way, if there's egregious behavior, we have to pay attention to it. the last person i'm ever

defending is karl rove. >> we even heard this come up in the beer summit last night. president obama's line, we all need to look forward and not back. i think that applies in this situation as far as the white house is concerned, but remember some of the president's most strident supporters, the people from moveon.org, the internet acted democrats are some of the ones who remain most exorcised about anything karl rove did during the bush era. >> we can't forget these attorneys. these people lost their jobs. it's not just about administration versus administration. there are people caught in the middle of this. >> yeah, and as far as i'm concerned it's not so much about them losing their jobs because they could have been dismissed at any time for any reason, but the issue is more that what happened was after they were dismissed the bush administration cooked up various allegations against them in terms of their competence and made it sound like they were incompetent lawyers or even worse incompetent u.s. attorneys that weren't doing the prosecutions they needed to do. >> and whether they were

targeted because of politics. that's at the heart of this. what happens next with karl rove? we have the closed door testimony. what happens now? >> the house judiciary committee is preparing a report on this. there's a possibility rove or miers could be called to testify but i think that's unlikely. there's a criminal investigation that's still going on into all of this. it's not believed to be focusing so much on white house officials, but on justice department officials who prosecutors think maybe didn't tell the full story or maybe misled congress when they described what happens with the firing of these prosecutors back in 2006. >> all right, josh, thank you very much for joining us on this friday. we greatly appreciate it. >> i think the part about moving on is a significant part of the conversation, but you just can't wash everything away. >> maybe me personally, i don't want to look at karl rove or dick cheney's faces anymore. they looked like bond villains. we're at a different place in time. we can't sweep it under the rug but i know barack obama, this is the last thing he wants to deal

with. it's that simple. they do looked like bond villains. >> like a james bond -- >> dick cheney and karl rove look like they should be cast in bond movies as villains. >> the casting agent and so much more. coming up, grading president obama's cabinet, who is helping him, who is not? who is the real bond villain, if there is one? >> i can see dick cheney petting a cat, welcome, james bond, welcome. and from wedding to divorce court. we'll show you the new video. (announcer) sleep is your body's strongest ally. it can lift your mood, help rebuild muscle... and improve your concentration. tylenol pm works with your body

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there are a lot of things considered news in this world. >> but there are only a few things that make us say --

>> no way. >> that's my niece. >> is that cute? >> i think it's my niece. is it? oh, it is. good thing i know my family. okay. the seven astronauts aboard the space shuttle "endeavour" are back home after a 16-day mission in the international space station, and get this, at least one of them wearing underwear older than the mission itself. the astronaut wore the same pair of underwear during the entire month. i'm having a hard time because i'm trying to visualize. the undies are experimental and designed to be odor-free. before his return the astronaut said he thinks the experiment worked because his station crew never complainted. they are underwear designed not to have an odor y do we need that? at what point do you need to wear undies for a month? >> at some point we have to say stop the insanity. >> stop wasting my time. >> stop wasting my time on month-old skivvies.

>> jim stansfeld scaled a building with a pair of gloves he built. he was attached to a safety harness and had trained professionals by his side as he climbed up the bbc building. maybe you need a little bit of a life. >> i thought you would like that because it's a great invention. i don't know what you would use that for, but you like people who think out of the box. you don't like it? >> people who scale buildings i think maybe need -- >> come on. >> better than the month-old skivvies. i'll give you that. and then this minnesota couple who danced down the aisle at their wedding. it was just a matter of time until, you know, a copy cat cmee out. this is a divorce court parody of the wedding. ♪

♪ >> who are all these people that have time to do this? it's very funny but -- youtube has just created a world like we have nothing to do. >> i love it. they're dancing -- >> that little shimmy. >> these are professional dancers because i don't think that that chick -- >> look at that. wow. tamron, that's like you kind of studio 54. >> i'm way younger than that, donny. >> there you go. dancing divorce court. did you want to say something about that?

a 7-year-old took his parents' car for a joy ride to avoid going to church. he's speaking out on his escapade. preston scarborough took police on a slow street chase surprising even then when he bolted from the car outside his family's car. during an appearance on the "today" show preston talked about the punishment he's facing. >> grounded to my room for four days, no tv, no video games. >> do you think that's fair? >> uh-huh. >> do you understand what you did, maybe it wasn't the smartest thing? >> uh-huh. >> i think the punishment met the crime. >> four, that's lenient. >> but four is a lot. for that age. preston's parents say they're extremely grateful everything turned out okay. by the way, they did make preston go to church on sunday. preston, i still don't know how he literally did it. >> the cop said he slid down, hit the pedal, and came back up.

>> kids, do not try this at home. still ahead, some are asking sarah palin, where are you? >> i'm not. many, many. >> i didn't say donny, but some people. lots of speculation today about her next move. there are people, donny, on facebook and other places begging for her to make her big return. they want her but her numbers are down. first a top military man says it's time to declare victory in iraq and come home. should we listen to him? you're watching not the small, but "the big picture" on msnbc. but i did. you need to talk to your doctor about aspirin. you need to be your own advocate. be sure to talk to your doctor before you begin an aspirin regimen. you take care of your kids, now it's time to take care of yourself.

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i'm mary thompson with your cnbc market wrap. a mixed end to the week on wall street with the dow climbing 17 points. the s&p 500 finishing up a fraction, and the nasdaq actually closing down five points. investors were somewhat pleased with the gdp report. contracting at an annual 1%

rate. the federal cash for clunkers program is getting some roadside assistance from congress. the house pumped another $2 billion into the popular program. the senate is expected to vote on the funding bill next week. that news extended a rally for ford today. the auto manufacturer saying it already had seen a gra mdramati boost in sales thanks to the program. disney was the biggest drag on the dow. earnings report released after the bell on thursday beat profit forecasts but revenue fell short of expectations. that's it from cnbc, first in business worldwide. now back to msnbc. >> welcome back, i'm tamron hall. >> i'm donny deutsch. right now, a shocking conclusion from a senior american military adviser in baghdad. colonel timothy reetz wrote in a memo despite weaknesses with the iraqi troops, u.s. troops have done all they can do. quote, it's time for the u.s. to declare victory and go home.

guests like fish begin to smell after three days. since the signing of the 2009 security agreement, we are guests in iraq, and after six years in iraq, we now smell bad to the iraqi nose. well, the white house and senior u.s. commander in iraq general ray odierno do not agree with that controversial conclusion. >> should the u.s. declare victory in iraq and go home or with the time table withdrawal happening too fast. jack jacobs is a retired army colonel and the author n author. peter brooks is a retired member of the u.s. navy. mr. brooks, basically the colonel wrote the fact that the combination or the thinking behind it is the sectarian fighting, the corruption in the iraqi government, nothing is going to change in the coming, we don't need to wait two years. let's just cut bait, declare victory and go home. do you think he's smoking something or do you agree? >> i'm sure his input was welcomed, but his commander and

the commander in chief don't agree with him. there is a schedule and i understand his frustration. at the time this was written in early july, just after the changeover was happening, but now we're a month away from that, and it's obvious that his commander does not grae wiagree his assessment. >> colonel, this is interesting timing. you've got gates saying that troops may be coming out early and then you've got this memo being made public. what is happening here in our thoughts? >> i don't believe in coincidences, but this is one case probably where there was a coincidence. reese's paper was probably an after action report, but in terms of the question of whether or not it's time to declare victory and go home, i think the administration has already done that. one of the president's campaign -- major campaign promises was that we were going to leave, and the question is not whether or not we're going to leave, but when we're going to leave, and all reese is arguing is we should do it more quickly, not whether or not we should do it at all.

>> but the part about declaring victory, what would be the declaration of victory here that you think reese is talking about? >> i think he's saying that it's clear to him that we've achieved about all we can achieve with the forces we currently have on the ground and in the air in iraq, and that there's not much more we can do to improve the situation. there are lots of endemic problems inside the iraqi government with the forces and the police. we've done a very good job, but we can't do much more without a larger commitment which we're not willing to do. he's saying we reduce our forces to between one and three bases with sufficient people to protect them, but that by and large our business there is over. >> peter, i want to talk about this colonel. he's certainly a bit of a wildcard. also a memo he wrote about health care. the logic of government health care costs will drive big brother to intrude every more

deeply into your life in the vain hope of making it work. this is a hero. he serves our country, but certainly sounds like he's a bit loose with the words here. is his credibility in question? >> oh, i don't know about that. he's serving in a senior position there as an adviser to the command elements of the u.s. forces there as well as working with the iraqis. so military matters i think he should have a say. whether we agree with him or not, that's another issue. in this case i don't agree with him. i don't think he should have publicized this and i don't know if he did it intentionally, but it did get publicized, and that can be very counterproductive -- >> i think the memo was leaked. it was leaked out. >> i want to ask both of you guys a question, does the american public think we've been victorious there? i mean, we've lost a lot of lives. you know, we clearly went off the rehash as far as why we went there in the first half, weapons of mass destruction, they weren't there. with all the declarations, both of you guys, start with the

colonel, do you think the average american thinks we've been victorious there? >> i think that we've been inured since the second world war to view success as the unconditional surrender of the enemy. we don't have a good view of what unconventional war is like. indeed, we tried fighting a conventional war in unconventional environments like vietnam and indeed in like iraq until about three years ago. so the american public's view is going to be that we are not successful because the american public's view has been inured to viting a conventional war and does not understand how unconventional wars are fought. >> peter, same question. >> yeah, the fact is it depends on the individual, obviously. i mean in terms of i don't think we're quite at the point of saying victory in my view right now. we need to leave this place in a stable condition. you know, nature abhors a vacuum. if we pull out precipitously, there could be others that would rush in such as al qaeda, the iranians want influence in iraq.

there's interethnic tensions as well. so i think we're still moving in the direction of what i would call victory which i see as stability in the iraqi state. >> colonel jack jacob, thank you as well peter. thank you. just in, this afternoon new pictures released of the infamous air force flyover that caused quite the fright in lower manhattan and new jersey. >> the defense department released 146 pictures. here are a few of the ones we pulled out for you. local officials in new york and new jersey, we know the story, not informed of that photo-op around the statue of liberty. the incident led to the resignation of the director of the white house military. it also led to panic in lower manhattan. the president spoke out on this as well. so now we're actually seeing the sky view. this was supposed to be a photo-op for the air force one, one of the planes that is air force one. it created panic and -- it was very scary for those folks down there.

up next, our face-off. it's friday face-off. this one involving obama's cabinet. >> hillary clinton, tim geithner, robert gates, are they doing enough to help the preside president. and then on "hardball" chris matthews will have more on the birther campaign and how it may hurt republicans. hambger helper? oh! tada! fantastically tasty, huh? ummm, it's good. what would you guys like? hamburger helper. what?! one pound... one pan... one tasty meal! as we get older, our bodies become... less able to absorb calcium. he recommended citracal. it's a different kind of calcium. calcium citrate. with vitamin d... for unsurpassed absorption, to nourish your bones.

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in today's face-off, it's the six-month morning in the

obama presidency. >> just about 2 1/2 hours from now the president will convene a meeting with all of his cabinet members at blair house. maria cardona is a democratic strategist, leslie sanchez, a republican strategist and former adviser to president george w. bush. great to see you ladies on our panel this morning. >> thanks, tamron. >> ladies, where were you monday and tuesday when we were talking about beauty and power? we'll get past that. >> we were in chicago actually together. >> that's right. they were representing. >> maria, let me ask you this. in every team there are people who are your stars and there are people who lag behind. looking at the cabinet six months in, who are the stars of the obama administration, people who are really holding their own here? >> i think the stars and the people who have really come out shining are, of course, hillary clinton, my former boss. i have to say that. but i think that you really have seen her make sure that the role

of the secretary of state is taken incredibly seriously across the world. she's really started to fix our reputation overseas. she has been diligent, become a consummate team player, and has really focused on president obama's philosophy of smart power. >> so hillary is your derek jeter, your star, who then is your bust there on the team obama? >> well, you know, tamron, i think you won't be surprised by what i'm about to say, which is that i think it's actually too soon to say that, you know, anyone has not been up to snuff or up to par. what i do think is there are a lot of folks on president obama's cabinet who haven't really had the attention that they deserve. i think there are other stars in the making, secretary solis, secretary salazar, secretary donovan, secretary -- i mean, you have really a lot of -- >> all right.

come on. >> you're the republican here. >> i have an opinion. >> is it an all-star lineup that's fantastic. do you buy what maria is selling? >> no, i will tell you i think the stars are rahm emanuel by far out of the park in terms of his ability to put a short leash on k street. that's a very difficult task. he did it in the first 100 days. i think that's -- he was able to take the president's positives and sell the idea that the economy was not going to go to shambles. but the second 100 days is implementing change to actually protect the economy. >> let me ask you is geithner doing a good job? this is a guy who had tax issues and we were told that he was the only person that might be able to help the administration steer the economy in the right direction. >> absolutely not. that's probably one of the biggest failures, geithner by far. he was somebody, people questioned his stewardship, his leadership ability. to be fair to him, he does not have his strong principals, his assistant secretary. he's working with a small staff. but they admitted they misread the economy, they misread the

economic data. he pushed forward a stimulus plan that basically is infective. >> tamron, can i just say one thing? can i just say one thing? >> ladies, ladies, we want to shift the discussion to something we've been talking about all week, since i have three powerful, beautiful women here, i have a theory about sarah palin that if she was not physically attractive, she wouldn't be on anybody's radar. the first time the american people have seen a woman in power with sex appeal, both men and women are fascinated. don't know how to handle it. i would love both of you powerful really smart women -- >> her approval numbers are certainly down. her negatives seem to be outweighing her positive. but i want them to have the new information. maria, go ahead. >> validate or invalidate my theory. >> look, i think sarah palin's national profile ruined her national profile. and what i mean by that is before she was tapped for national office, she -- >> answer the question. if she wasn't hot would we be

talking about her? come on. >> god. >> thank you. that's what i've done 100 times. >> i think clearly that there has been a lot of attention on her physicality, which i don't think is something that should be done. this is actually a topic that leslie and i talked about this past week. i think there is a double standard, but i think that this is not the issue with sarah palin, nor should it be. i think it's her policy that is actually got her into trouble and the way that she really wasn't able to focus on what her views would be if she did come into national office. >> leslie, she is as attractive today as she was when she was the most popular governor in the country, but now her numbers are down. why do you think that is? >> well, look, her numbers are down in alaska. yes, her numbers are down nationally too, but i think there was an alaska poll that was really interesting. people are frustrated in the fact that she's left office, there's no doubt. she's transcended from a state candidate to a national one. what she does in the next 18

months is going to determine her viability for future office. can she show that substantial intellectual -- >> what about -- donny wants to get to the look. >> the only reason we are so fascinated -- the american public has never seen a woman that looks like this in power. that's where the fascination starts. agree or disagree, leslie? agree or disagree. >> disagree. >> okay. >> there's no doubt that the appeal -- there's an interest in the appeal, but had she not had a record as a governor trying to bring people together -- >> she'd be exactly where she is if she looked like golda maier. >> i'm with leslie. i disagree with that. i think it's her policies and the way she's handled herself and the way her advisers have not advises her very well. >> both of your smiles said it all. you know what i'm saying is true, and it's both men and women and it's fascinating. i think there's not enough meat on the bone and we'll see that over time.

i think deep down tamron agrees with me. >> it's so funny there's a movie out called "the ugly truth." this is the political version where women think with their heads and men think somewhere else, i think. >> that's terrible. i resent that on behalf of all men watching out there. that's a terrible thing to say. >> i'm not judging. i'm trying to understand. >> each one of you 30 seconds, any recommendations for the obamas on their vacation on martha's vineyard, things they should or shouldn't do? >> no wind surfing, please. it's the photo image of john kerry. we'd like not to see that. >> maria? >> i think that he just needs to be seen having a relaxing vacation with his family, spending some time with the people he cares the most about, and let's face it, a president is never really on vacation. so we all know that he's going to be focusing on every single tough issue he's been focusing on since the day he came into office. >> he can't look too relaxed

because you have health care. we're all going to be inundated with ads from both sides over the next month. >> we're never going to see him clearing -- >> there's an interesting point here -- >> weigh want him relaxed. >> you're talking about the family all together. high marks to michelle obama. she's been superb this first 200 days for what she's been able to do and the image. >> all right, guys. appreciate it. maria and leslie. >> ladies. >> guys is a generic term. i'm so happy -- >> men once dominate ed everythg and people would generally make it -- >> i was always celebrated women. i have always seen them the same way. that's why i call them guy. >> you are woman hear you roar. >> absolutely. >> thank you. up next, some things we thought you should know. >> donny deutsch, i am woman, hear me roar. >> i am in touch with my feminine side. obama family matters and karl rove hoping for a big sale.

those are some of the topics we thought you should know. first am some news about newt gingrich. he's raised more than $8 million in the first half of the year for his political group, american solutions for winning the future. aides say cash is used to promote his book and ideas as well as paying for travel and advertising. they insist it's not part of his early campaign for president. of course, gingrich is at the top of many lists to head the gop in 2012. >> scary, isn't it? ♪

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welcome back, everyone. we're following breaking news from the ap and also nbc news. the u.s. state department says that it is investigating reports that three americans have been detained by iranians after wandering near the border in self-ruled kurdish region of northern iraq. these people are described as tourists who were on an outing. the officials say the three contacted a college friday and said they had mistakenly entered iranian territory and troops, quote, surrounded them. state department spokesperson robert wood says the u.s. embassy in baghdad is aware of this report and they are investigating. but again, three individuals missing americans described as tourists out on an outing have been detained by iranian officials. >> why would tourists be wandering -- >> it's a strange story. we'll have more. there's a lot going on today and there are three things we thought you should know. >> when it comes to tweets, republicans apparently outnumber democrats 2 to 1. that's according to tweet congress which happens to track congressional members on

twitter. politico has a few theories ony de -- on why dems seem to be ignoring this technology. one, they have less time on their hands and republicans are more desperate to appeal to young people. >> democrats i would usually think are more techno advanced. that's surprising. also tweeting is a younger thing, and democrats. that's fascinating. president obama will soon be living closer to his half sister. his he half sister is moving from hawaii to washington, d.c. she's given up her high job as -- her job as a high school teacher in hawaii. she's going to be writing a book. her husband will take time you've from his job as a professor at the university of hawaii. you don't see a lot of her. beautiful woman. >> she was on the campaign trail and she helped out, but somebody who just kind of blended in and

was helping him from behind the scenes. >> put her back up there, that she looks whiter than him. >> they have different fathers. her father was african. her father was indonesian. >> dumb guy. sorry. >> karl rove is leaving washington. former deputy chief of staff and senior adviser to george w. bush has put his d.c. home on the market. the asking price for his washington home, 11,585,000. it was built in 1968. it has five bedrooms, 4.5 baths. is that fair asking price, donny? >> it's interesting, still, it's doubled since 2001 had he sold it two years ago would probably get double that. >> it's on the market. the