august. let's watch. >> last year, just about this time, you will recall that the republicans had just nominated their vice presidential candidate and everybody was, you know, the media was obsessed with it and cable was 24 hours a day and obama's lost his mojo. you remember all that? >> there's something about august going into september where everybody in washington gets all wee weed up. >> i don't know. savannah, you were at the briefing just now where robert gibbs was asked about that. >> reporter: i don't speak that language. i don't know what it means either. >> i don't either. but you guys -- not you personally, but people -- maybe it was you, personally, savannah -- asked what it all means. >> what does wee weed up mean? >> i don't know if i should do that from the podium. i think wee weed up is when

people get all nervous for no particular reason. this is sort of an august pundit pattern between people getting overly nervous for something that still has a long way to go. bedwetting would be probably the more consumer-friendly term. >> savannah, i don't want to put you on the spot, but is that the best way to regain the initiative on health care? or are we making too much of it? >> reporter: well, you know, it was an interesting moment. i have, certainly, never heard that term, but it's now entered the american lexicon. >> maybe it's a guy thing, savannah. >> reporter: i don't know if it's from having little kids at home, or not, but i think the larger point was clear. this is a theme we hear the president hit on from time to time, where he feels it's the media, it's the pundits, they're the ones who want to write him off, whether it's in the campaign or his health care

reform. and he's just urging calm. and that's something you hear him say publicly and that's an attitude i hear a lot from aides inside the white house. they're saying, look, we're trying to take the long view. if we turned on cable news, we'd be depressed too. we're just trying to keep this in perspective. this is going to get done. >> indeed, it is. savannah, i know you're off to martha's vineyard following the vacationing first family and we'll look forward to your reports from there. and we don't begrudge them the vacation, despite what some of the attack videos say. thank you. and i know it's all hard work covering the president >> reporter: for us it's work, for him, it will be vacation. >> we hope. all of us hope. thank you. and the senate's bipartisan gang of six is working to trim down their yet to be announced health care proposal. but despite outrage from liberals on the left, the finance committee might on the to replace the planned public option with a co-op system. republican senator olympia snowe, a key popularity on the finance committee's gang of six,

negotiateding. and she joins us now by phone. thank you so much for joining us, senator. can you tell us what came out of that meeting? are you going to scale it become and is the co-op still in there as an alternative? >> the co-op is, andrea. we're not scaling anything back, but we're looking at various issues and refining, modifying, evaluating, and we're continuing on track. i think the recess, in many ways, is helpful, because it gives us a chance to meet with our constituents, better understand their concerns, their issues. and to get a better feel for the greatest concerns that we have regarding health insurance. and obviously, they're hearing a number of things about a variety of packages. so i think that it, obviously, adds to the element of the confusion that's surrounding this very substantiative and complex issue. >> do you get the sense that the president is about to give up,

senator, on working on an bipartisan deal with all the pressure coming from the left, from his own party, is he going to go it alone and try to use reconciliation and strip down the budget and tax proposals and do that piece of health care alone? >> you know, i don't get that sense at all, andrea, and i had another conversation with him this week. he really is anxious to get bipartisan package and bipartisan support. he understands that having that type of effort that yields broad bipartisan support will, i think, benefit him and the country for a more sustainable policy in the long run, as well as in the short-term. i think that certainly adds to it. and i think it make us realize and appreciate, as in the magnitude of these issues, and that's why, you know, they'll go through various permutations as we work through. that's the way it should. it's representative democracy. but from everything that i know and my discussions with the president, he certainly has

welcomed, embraced our efforts. he is continuing to await the outcome of our efforts. and he understands that this is, you know, a difficult process and we're just going to have to work it through. but from this standpoint, i do know that he is anxious for us to reach a bipartisan agreement. >> senator, let me share with you something that speaker pelosi was asked about. she was asked, yesterday, has president obama given up on the public option? and she said, no, he isn't, he isn't at all, he hasn't. if someone thinks that a co-op can work for their state, that's fine. perhaps that could be included in their legislation, but it is not a substitute for a public option. so, if the house is not going to go along with that, and is not going to accept co-ops as a substitute, where do you find areas of agreement to come up with a final bill? >> well, you know, it's interesting, about the whole co-op issue, the co-op is an option, perhaps not for all parts of the country, maybe some parts of the country, where it

can work, having the exchanges, it's one of the things that i've learned, you know, during the course of my conversations with my constituents and many stakeholders, made exchanges on a broader basis, beyond state, regional, and national will encourage a lot of competition among insurers that certainly could be helpful. i think the key is for all of us, is to be flexible in trying to address some of the key and substantiative issues. and i happen to think there are ways, you know, of addressing this issue, short of having a public option, frankly. and the most important thing we can do is to develop a platform for the kind of change that is important. people are worried about change, but the change they're facing right now is the one where you see the premiums skyrocketing, losing their coverage, or having diminished coverage. and that's what i've learned through my small business owners here. they're not even getting the kind of insurance they had just two years ago. now they're paying $1,500 premiums, $5,000, $10,000

deductibles. so that's not the kind of change that people want. we must do everything that we can to help people so that they can have access to affordable coverage. and that's what it's all about. and i would hope that everybody could be flexible in terms of working towards at least a fundamental change in addressing costs and affordability. >> so, bottom line, speaker pelosi says they will not produce anything that does not include a public option. do you see any way that the gang of six would come out of the finance discussions with a public option? >> no, i don't. we have not had the public option on the table. it's been co-ops and addressing affordability and availability of plans through the exchange and that's -- those are the challenges we're wrestling with to ensure that there are affordable, basic plans to offer americans. i think the key to all of this is thinking about who is

uninsured or who is underinsured, and they're all working americans, essentially 81% are. so something's gone wrong with the current system. so if you have health care and health insurance that you like, we want to make sure that you can keep it, either through your employer or otherwise. and that won't be the case in just a few short years because of the skyrocketing increases. and that's the kind of change we have to stop threatening american families and employers from providing the coverage. >> olympia snowe of maine, thank you very much. a key player on health care reform, who spoke to the president this week. thanks so much. >> thank you, andrea. and this is all taking a toll on the president piece popularity. a new "washington post"/abc news poll today shows that president obama is paying a high political price for waging this health care fight. his approval rating now taking a hit. take a look. 46% approve of how the president is handling the overhaul of health care, down from 57% in april. half disapprove, up 21%, points

now from this spring. dan balz, reporter for "the washington post" joins now, and also author of "the battle for america: 2008." dan, let's talk about what your poll shows. because the results are not very encouraging. somewhat encouraging on the economy. people are beginning to see the end of the recession, but when it comes to health care and overall approval and how he's handling health care, war you seeing in your poll regarding the president's ratings? >> what we are seeing, andrea, is just this kind of gradual slide down for president obama on how the public perceives his handling of the issue and to some extent, their expectations of what might happen. we asked a broad question, which is, how much confidence do you have in president obama to make the right decisions for the country. that was 60%, not long ago.

it's now down to 49%. in terms of what people's expectations are on health care, at the beginning of his presidency, they were pretty substantial, and now they've come down a lot in what people anticipate he may be able to get. the second thing of note that we're seeing is that the debate, obviously, has gotten very intense, but the opponents seem to have more intensity right now than the proponents. and i think one of the things that the president has been trying to do in august and certainly this week is to re-rally his own supporters to encourage them to continue to back him fully on this fight. >> and to get them to stop wee weeing up, i guess, is the way to say it. paul krugman, for instance, who has not been with the president on stimulus and a lot of ore things, so he's not exactly been a supporter, but paul krugman in "the new york times" writes, on the issue of health care, the

inspiring figure progressives thought they had elected comes across as a dry democrat. obama's plangss of his plan have gotten clearer, but he still seems unable to sell on a simple, pithy formula. his speeches and op-eds still sound as if they were rain by a committee. is there passion gap here? >> well, certainly the criticism from the left of late is that there is a big passion gap. i think one of the problems -- i think paul krugman rightly identifies one of the problems that they've had, which is a simple, clear message on what this health care package would actually do. but part of the problem is, they're dealing with so many moving targets. you have multiple bills, as you just had in the discussion with senator snowe. you have one view from the senate finance committee, another view from elsewhere in the senate, another view from the house. until those begin to get hammered out a little more clearly, and that can't happen until next month, the president is limited or has limited himself in how concrete he wants

to be about what this package really would do or should do and how it would work. so there is something of a passion gap. the president, you know, likes to be kind of a cool customer in a lot of these debates. the inspirational figure from the campaign is something that a lot of the liberals want to see back. perhaps we'll begin to see that. but this is a messy kind of a fight and it's hard to recapture some of that. >> and charlie cooke, the best expert, he and his team on house races, certainly says that the summer has scliped completely out of control for president obama and congressional democrats. the cook political reports congressional election model based on individual races is pointing toward a net democratic loss of between 6 and 12 seats, but our sense is that this is far too low. of course, it's really early and there's always a loss midterm for the party in power. so this would not be surprising, but this is the nervousness that is afflicting the congressional

members, particularly, the house members out in the field right now. >> it is one of the reasons that the president talked about the wee wee period in august. there is a lot of nervousness within the democratic party at this point, and for some good reasons. i mean, they see the president's numbers sliding. they recognize that there is unrest. they recognize that a midterm election after a presidential victory and after two consecutive victories is likely to be difficult. so there's understandable nervousness. >> okay. dan balz, co-author with haynes johnson, of course, "the battle for america: 2008," we thank you for joining us. >> thanks, andrea. straight ahead, explosive accusations from former homeland security director tom ridge. what he says his fellow cabinet members pressured him to do on the eve of the 2004 presidential elections. you're watching "andrea mitchell reports" only on msnbc. still gt room for the internet. with my new netbook from at&t. with its built-in 3g network, 's fast and small, so it goes places other laptops can't.

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and you're looking now at live pictures of the south grounds of the white house. the president is going to be coming out any minute to talk about afghanistan, the elections, on his way to camp david, and we'll of course bring that to you when you comes out. meanwhile, former homeland security chief tom ridge is accusing former bush officials of trying to use the politics of fear to try to get president bush re-elected in 2004. in his new book, ridge writes that he was pressured by top bush administration officials to raise the terror alert level just before the 2004 presidential election. right off the presses, tom ridge's "the test of our time." joining me now, virginia democratic congressman jim moran. congressman, this book just into us, "america under siege and how we can be safe again." the former homeland security chief, cabinet secretary, saying some very serious things now about the terror alerts.

what he writes is, quote, got it right here, at the point, there was nothing to indicate a specific threat, no reason to cause undo public alarm. it also seemed possible to me and others around the table that something could be afoot other than simple concern about the country's safety. namely, he's talk about politics. how surprising is this to you? we know there's been pushback from rumsfeld today saying that this was not the case and al qaeda was a threat and al qaeda does look at holidays and events to try to attack the homeland. f >> we both remember that time, andrea, and i suspect that you had the same sense that i did, that the timing was suspicious. i do think the bush administration had a habit of using emotions like fear and the need for security and so on for its own political advantage. so tom is, essentially, confirming what many of us suspected.

that timing was suspicious, even when they would show videotapes of bin laden, there was nothing new there. but they knew the reaction it would get, because the reason that george bush was re-elected in 2004 was largely because people were scared and they felt that he would be the toughest on the perceived enemies, real or unreal. and i think the threat alert was, you know, the kind of tool they would bring out in their political tool box. and the problem that troubles me is what i know troubled tom. if you raise the alert too many times or at times that are really not necessary, then people become accustomed to it. it doesn't have the impact that it should have. and so i know tom was concerned. you keep doing this and when there really is a clear need for

an orange or red alert, people are going to wonder, well, it may not be real. same thing happens when you do these fire alarm drills and everybody has to get out of the building. you know, you eventually become accustoms and you slow down and you don't react in the way you need to. >> of course, i know many of your constituents in virginia had to deal with the tragedy at the pentagon and 9/11 very directly. let me switch to what's happening with the party now. we were just referring to what charlie cook is reporting, what the abc "washington post" poll is reporting, talking to dan balz about confidence in the party. confidence in democrats is at a 35%, and the republicans are doing a lot worse in congress, 21%. but people are rejecting both congressional parties now and health care seems to be dragging you all down. is this one of the reasons why the president's having so much trouble securing his democratic support? >> i don't think it's why he's having so much trouble.

you know, tough things, important things should capture our attention, should be controversial, should be vetted and subject to debate. and i think he knew this was going to happen. i think he's doing the right thing. even though people are criticizing him for leaving it up to the congress to work it out so that the congress will own this health care reform bill, he learned from the experience of the clinton administration. but i do think the need for health care reform is so much more compelling today, than even than it was then. >> on that, you agree with olympia snowe, we just interviewed her. but she said that the senate finance committee version will not have a public option. as far as you're concerned, is the speaker's edict the word, that it will have a public option coming out of the house? >> the house will have a public option. all of us are going to have an opportunity to vote for a public option, which may not be the case for the senate, and i suspect that when we get into

conference, wore going to be insistent on that public option being included. >> even if that means no deal? what if that means no bill? >> we will get a bill. and i do suspect that the bill will be more incremental than many of us would like and that it should be, and that it probably will be even more expensive. >> phased in? >> phased in. we're not going to be able to do this overnight, even if we wanted to. but i think it's still going to be transformative. i think you'll get well over 90% of the american people having access to quality, affordable health insurance. and i think we're going to be a healthier population as a result. we can't continue spending the kind of money we're spending on health care today. and this is our best opportunity to change that. >> before i let you go, i wanted to ask you about one of the two gubernatorial races, the democrat decrees is not doing

well. he's behind bob mcdonnell, the republican. in fact, he's running pretty much even in northern virginia, where he needs to come out with a pretty big democratic margin in order to win statewide. this is a tough race, to hold the governor's race, governor's chair. >> sure. creigh had a very long race, it's toughened him up, but he had to spend a lot of money. bob mcdonnell spent a lot of his time growing up in northern virginia, but as things play themselves out in the fall and people really get focused on the campaign, creigh will get things -- >> one of the reasons he had a tough primary was because your brother was running. >> but he did very well. that's credit to him. he knew what he was doing and i think he knows what he's doing in the general election.

he may be a little bit more conservative than northern virginia would like, but that's more representative as the state as a whole. bear in mind, mark warner, for example, took very conservative positions, which was somewhat out of step of northern virginia, but we were very proud -- as of tim kaine. so i think creigh is still going to do very well -- >> can he win? >> absolutely, he can win. >> but it's tough. >> it's going to be tough, but, you know, we've had -- for eight years the democrats have controlled a statehouse that used to be in republican hands. so to win a third time, it's tough, but creigh's totally prepared to do that. >> jim moran, thank you. >> great to be withes you. and just minutes from now, president obama is expected to make a statement on this week's presidential election in afghanistan. stay with us. we'll bring that to you live right here on msnbc. you've wanted to quit smoking so many times,

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welcome back. and you're looking at live pictures of the south grounds, that beautiful rose garden, right outside the oval office. the president is expected shortly. he's going to be on his way to camp david, but will stop at the microphones and talk about the elections in afghanistan. so we will bring you that live in just a moment. you're watching "andrea mitchell reports," only on msnbc. teeth. check. bottom. needs work. sorry, son. introducing new charmin ultra strong. its new enhanced diamondweave texture is soft

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drones are doing in hitting taliban outposts, suspected taliban outposts, in pakistan and afghanistan, along that border region. but now the subcontractors are, in fact, in charge of loading hellfire missiles and bombs on those unmanned aircraft. let's join now congressman pete hoekstra, the ranking republican on the house intelligence committee, joins us now on the phone. congress minnesota, first of all, is that an appropriate role, to subcontract such a key part of the counterterror network to a controversial firm, many say it's a rogue firm. some of his former guards are facing trial on voluntary manslaughter charges for their role in iraq. >> i think you've got to first clarify what role you're talking about. i don't confirm exactly what blackwater or any other contractor may have been contracted for, but if you're talking about, you know, mechanically of fixing a

500-pound bomb to a predator or a hellfire missile to a predator, i would expect something like that easily could be contracted outside of the core cia or defense mission. that's a mechanical operation, it's not an operation that requires a lot of judgment. and the other program that has been talked about, the program that never occurred, it's never been really outlined as to what role a contractor might have performed in that program. is it training? was it reconnaissance? but most importantly, it's a discussion that happens every day in cia and all across government. what role will be performed by government employees and what role will be performed by contractors? >> in fact, dianne feinstein, the chairman of the senate intelligence committee said yesterday that she wants further studies. she has raised the alarms about

the role of contractors and subcontractors and the outsourcing. and what has been questioned, what i've confirmed is that it was at least a training and reconnaissance role in the program that was more than a power point, contrary to what some people have suggested. it was operational, but it never actually had any -- hid any pay dirt, according to people who we've talked to. but this is a program that does include lethal authority. at one level or another, at least it did. is this an appropriate role for blackwater, now known as "z"? >> well, i think if you're talking about the training portion, andrea, where you're saying, is it appropriate for a contractor to perhaps be involved in some very specific training for individuals who may move into a lethal program, i don't see that as being an inappropriate role to at least consider contractors for. you may have a very different

opinion if you're saying, if there's an authority for a lethal program, we're going to hire and we're going to outsource lethal authority to a contractor, that may be something very, very different, depending on the specifics of the program. the bottom line is, you know, we keep -- they keep throwing out blackwater and those types of things. you know, it's also time to seriously take a look at what's going on in the community today and to continue looking back at what happened, in some cases, five or six years ago. >> i know we only have about a minute before the president is now expected out, but i wanted to ask you about your opposition to guantanamo detainees going to michigan. we're going to have the less redacted report of the inspector general of the cia on the interrogations released on monday. what can you tell us about your opposition to these detainees? why shouldn't they go to maximum security prisons in our states?

>> there's a whole series of reasons. number one, we've built them a great facility in gitmo we would have to mothball. why would we want to rebuild that same facility in the united states? it's a financial issue. it's a security issue that brings a new threat to the united states. and thirdly, it is a legal issue. what new rights do these people get the day they set foot on american soil? >> all right. thank you very much, congressman hoekstra. >> andrea, always good to be with you. >> good to talk to you. we are watching pictures right now of the president moving from the oval office down to the microphone. we expect he'll be talking about afghanistan. doubt he'll be taking questions. the view of the white house so far is that the afghan elections were a success, a success because they were held, despite the intimidation, people had the courage to go to the polls. >> good afternoon, everybody. i want to say a few words about this week's election in afghanistan. this was an important step forward in the afghan people's efforts to take control of their

future, even as violent extremists are trying to stand in their way. this election was run by the afghan people. in fact, it was the first democratic election run by afghans in over three decades. more than 30 presidential candidates and more than 3,000 provincial council candidates ran for office, including a record number of women. some 6,000 polling stations were open around the country, and afghan national security forces took the lead in providing security. over the last few days, and particularly, yesterday, we've seen acts of violence and intimidation by the taliban and there may be more in the days to come. we knew that the taliban would try to derail this election, yet even in the face of this brutality, millions of afghans exercise the right to choose their leaders and determine their own destiny. and as i watched the election, i was struck by their courage and the face of intimidation and

their dignity in the face of disorder. there is a clear contrast between those who seek to control their future at the ballot box and those who kill to prevent that from happening. once again, extremists in afghanistan have shown themselves willing to murder innocent muslims, men, women and children to advance their aims. but i believe that the future belongs to those who want to build, not those who want to destroy. and that is the future that was sought by the afghans who went to the polls and the afghan national security forces who protected them. the united states did not support any candidate in this election. our only interest was the result fairly, accurately reflecting the will of the afghan people. and that is what we will continue to support as the votes are counted and we wait for the official results from the afghan independent electoral commission and the electoral complaints commission. meanwhile, we will continue to work with our afghan partners to strengthen afghan security,

governance, and opportunity. our goal is clear, to disrupt, dismantle, and defeat al qaeda and their extremist allies. that goal will be achieved and our troops will be able to come home as afghans continue to strengthen their own capacity and take responsibility for their own future. our men and women in uniform are doing an extraordinary job in afghanistan. so are the civilians who serve by their side. all of them are in our thoughts and prayers, as are their families back home. this is not a challenge that we asked for. it came to our shores when al qaeda launched the 9/11 attacks from afghanistan. but america, our allies and partners, and above all, the afghan people, share a common interest in pursuing security, opportunity, and justice. we look forward to renewing our partnership with the afghan people as they move ahead under a new government. i want to, again, congratulate the afghanistan people on carrying out this historic election and wish them a blessed

month as they come together to welcome the beginning of ramada. thanks very much, everybody. >> the president walking off right away after saying that thebls the afghan election is an important first step. that will, of course, be pursued as they count the votes. meanwhile, back on the domestic front, ana berger joinses now. she's the secretary of treasurer at service employees international union and chair woman of siu's change to win campaign. thanks for joining us. >> good to be here. >> the first question, the fundamental question, we talked to olympia snowe who said there will be no public option in the senate version. we talked to jim moran and he's echoing nancy pelosi, saying there has to be a public option in the house version. how do they pull this together and come up with a bill? >> i think it's important to get the process moving. so i hope that the finance committee finally gets their bill out. whether it has a public option

or not, i believe the public option will be debated on the floor of the senate. and i'm confident at the end of the day, we'll have a public option. >> is that a bottom line demand for your union? >> we need to figure out a way hold down costs. we think it's really important to solve the health care crisis now. if you think about what's going on in america, this week and every week in america, 44,000 people lose their health care. 17,000 people file for bankruptcy because of health care costs and 4,500 people die because of lack of health care insurance. we have to make sure it's available to everybody, but we also have to contain the costs. the public option does that. we think it's the best way of doing -- >> why not the co-ops? >> first of all, the co-op has never been done nationally, it's only been done in two small markets, so we have no proof it's going to hold down costs, only for the co-ops itself, not that it's going to drive down costs, because they have no national purchasing ability.

i think the public option is something we could gear up, it could work, and it's an option. it's not something that we're going to mandate for people. it's something that people can opt into and it's a good choice. >> but it's a deal breaker if it's not in there? >> i think it's an important thing for us to all move forward on. i want to see the debate in the senate. i am positive that at the end of the day, my belief is, that we will have a bill that works for everybody. one of the ways to make that work is a public option. we are out there, we are going to town on meetings, we are calling on members of congress, we are calling the finance committee to say, we want to solve this problem. the way to do sit is to includea public option. >> ana berger, thank you so much. coming up, as president obama gets ready to set off on his first official vacation as president, he's getting an earful from critics. should he take a break with so many pressing matters still on the table? what do you think? you're watching "andrea mitchell

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the obamas will be spending the weekend at camp david before heading out to martha's vineyard for a week-long family vacation. critics are slamming the president more leaving town right in the middle of the heated health care fight. >> the beach is nice this time of year. but while president obama vacations, concerns mount about his health care plan. mr. president, when you go back to d.c., drop your government-run public option plan. >> joining us now, republican strategist john feehery, and marshal carlson, a columnist with bloomberg news. first of all, john, i want to ask you about this video. it's done by rick scott, same people behind the swift vote attacks on john kerry, someone who was in the health care business and in fact had some problems, we understand, in that industry as well. what's wrong with the president taking a vacation?

let me just share with you some of the numbers here. we've got president bush 43, who had 27 days at the ranch during his first august vacation. of course, that was before 9/11. only days before the 9/11 attack, in fact. 149 trips, 487 days at camp david. 77 trips, 490 days at the crawford ranch. bill clinton, of course, went to martha's vineyard, had a ten-day vacation back in 1993. bush 41 had 543 days at camp david and kennebunkport, maine. and that says nothing about ronald reagan who was riding horses at the ranch for 335 days in santa barbara. that's almost a year spent in california alone. that doesn't include, you know, palm springs and l.a. what is wrong with the president of the united states going to martha's vineyard with his wife and kids? >> nothing. >> okay. >> i think it's fine. i think from a chicago perspective, he could go closer

to krig for his vacation, but martha's vineyard is a nice place -- >> by the way, john, i don't mean to interrupt you, but right behind you are the window cleaners up there at capitol hill. >> oh, i -- >> we can see the ropes. capito. we can see the ropes. we hope there's nobody dangling. >> you know, nothing's wrong with martha's vineyard. when he comes back, drop the public option, ipg that's enough of the ad. i also think that actually the president's been overexposed. you probably need to step back and let others talk about this issue. >> mark, if you want to weigh in on this. >> from no statistics, republicans are really good at taking vacations. this is nothing. remember when bill clinton appalled where he should go on his vacation and ended up on a

horse in wyoming instead of martha's vineyard because it looked bad? they're going where the kids have friends and want to go. no one begrudges the president a vacation and it's odd how things happen in august, which is when most people go on vacation. >> remember when hillary clinton polled and when she was running in 2000 -- >> lake sken -- >> i know -- and poor bill and hillary clinton, they're now in bermuda at their first vacation. there they are. she's finally gotten off on vacation with bill clinton and you've got hurricane bill. no pun intended. coincidence, that is his name. >> there are no coincidences when it comes to bill clinton. >> give him a vacation.

well said. thank you both very much. up next, the political stories that will be making headlines in the next 24 hours and on "meet the press" this sunday, david gregory has a big show with orrin hatch and chuck schumer. all that on nbc, if it's sunday, it's "meet the press." check your local listings. i hired him to speak. a lot of fortune 500 companies use him. but-- i'm your only employee. we're gonna start using fedex to ship globally-- that means billions of potential customers. we're gonna be huge. good morning! you know business is a lot like football... i just don't understand... i'm sorry dick butkus. (announcer) we understand. you want to grow internationally. fedex express

anne kornblut, white house reporter for the white house joins us now from the white house lawn. there is no window washer there. you're over in the post news room today. the anonymous window washer, he was up there, swinging back and forth. poor man. does not get a vacation, but we were watching online and he was

watching the windows. in any case, it is a silly -- can the president get a little time off and get back on top of this debate? >> it is a silly season and he's e leaving on his vacation today, so in the spirit of things, he coined a new phrase, all we wee weed up. that was brought up at the briefing today, put everyone in a good mood. >> and vacation week for some, not for others, not for us. thank you very much. norah o'donnell comes next. you're watching msnbc, the place for politics.

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option will not be part of a bill negotiated in the senate finance committee. this comes as president obama heads for vacation. facing new numbers that show the health care debate is taking a toll on his party. and shocking accusations in a soon to be released back from the nation's first homeland security secretary. tom ridge saying he was pressured by the bush administration to raise terror alert levels right before the 2004 election. donald rumsfeld among others reacting. and new numbers on housing sales show the biggest monthly jump in more than ten years and if you want to take part in the cash for clunkers deal, you better get to your local lot this weekend. we've got new developments this afternoon surrounding the health care debate. last night, the so-called gang of six held a 90-minute

conference call to discuss the bill. just a short time ago, olympia snowe told andrea mitchell that it won't include a major part of the president's plan. >> bottom line, speaker pelosi says they will not produce anything that does not include a public option. do you see any way the gang of six would come out with a public option? >> i don't. we have not had the public option on the table. >> with me now is white house deputy press secretary, bill burton. bill, good to see you. want to get your reactions about senator olympia snowe says no public option coming out of the senate finance committee. is that troubling? >> that's democracy, isn't it? come from all different spectrums to get something done and wepr