perfect place. we had a great time. the people have been great, truly a great city of vancouver and great country. the crew has been standing out here with us in the middle of the night every week. we had a great time here. >> willie, you've done a great job out there. we can't wait to get you back here to where there is actually a little bit of snow on the ground. the canadians, i have a new found appreciation, i really do wonderful people, beautiful country. let's hope they get their brains beaten in on sunday when the usa hockey team wins, 7-0. >> that's right, joe. if you don't mind, joe, i'll start boozing with the canadian women's hockey team. they left me a couple of stoegies and champagne. i have to run here in a second. >> looks like a lot of fun. that's what norah o'donnell will be doing in a minute when she gets off the morning show. thanks for filling in this morning. we love having you on. >> enjoyed it. willie, bring back that leotard.

>> i'll bring back your producer, adam. >> thanks for being with us. what have you learned today? >> we learned the truth and without mika, it is a different to show. >> all right, hey, if it is too early, willie, what time is it? >> it is "morning joe." right now it is time for "the daily rundown" with chuck and savannah. >> 16,000 employees. >> they moved their mouths, but did they move votes? the day after the health care summit, can the president get democrats to go the distance? >> a ferocious storm hits the northeast, packing winds like a category 2 hurricane. a rough day for travelers across the country. it is february 26th, 101 2010, chuck todd. >> i'm savannah guthrie. >> we start with the weather this is stopping travel and work

across the country. a snow hurricane of sorts, sweeping across the northeast, more like a classic nor'easter, winds up to 90 miles an hour, three-quarters of a million people without power, more than a thousand flights expected to be canceled today, just in new york. that's on top of hundreds of preemptive cancellations of airlines made yesterday. even if you're not flying in this direction, check your schedule before you go. the impact is being felt across the country, even in sunny tampa, florida. nbc's rehema ellis is in central park, a record-breaking snow there. and i have to be honest with you, rehema, thank you for not bringing that snow to d.c. >> well, you had your fair share, chuck. no doubt about that. the stuff is beautiful, great for making snowballs today. what i should tell you and people should know, it is also very dangerous. we had at least three fatalities blamed on this snow. one happened right here in central park, a man was killed by a falling tree branch. and then the reports of at least two other fatalities on the

roads. it is pretty stuff, but it is also slick and slippery and they're having a hard time getting around, including me. i was coming in this morning, many i driver, we did a 360 on the road and i have to give a shoutout to boss from pakistan, he drove like a real new yorker. and i'm very grateful for that. it is no better if you're trying to travel from this area of philadelphia, new york, new jersey, and parts of new england. as you pointed out, chuck, thousand plus flights canceled. people are going nowhere fast. back to you guys. >> all right, thank you, rehema. >> all right, well on the political horizon, a showdown is looming after more than seven hours of debate and no big breakthroughs. the president made it clear he's looking to democrats to push this across the finish line. >> we cannot have another year long debate about this. is there enough serious effort that in a month's time or a few week's time or six weeks' time

we could actually resolve thing. if we can't, i think we have to go ahead and make some decisions and then that's what liberatiel are for. >> six weeks' time, that's your new deadline. we're looking at easter, end of the month of march. politically, let's be realistic here, march 18th is when it goes. you have easter after that. this thing drags any longer than that, you'll lose any momentum going to out of this, and who knows he got any -- we know the audience was the conservative democrats in the house. any momentum he has, he has to take advantage of it in days, not weeks. >> already the senate majority leader isn't into the six-week timeline. they want to get it done faster. there is a key difference between republicans and democrats. do you do health care in one big competen comprehensive bill or do it piece by piece? >> our country's too big, too

complicated, to decentralized for a few of us to re write the rules about making 17% of the economy all at once. >> let's bring in kelly o'donnell. we have two tracks here. we have the house, got to figure out how to vote on the senate bill. that's been clear that at some point that's going to happen and then the senate to do their fixes via the reconciliation process. what is the attitude on the hill this morning compared to yesterday morning? >> there is real concern. i think everybody can claim some sort of victory because they all played very nicely they had their moment to explain their views, they can check that box. now what do they do? it is a lot of pressure on house leadership to get people in line, if they can convince them it is not a political walking off the plank moment to vote for this. now, the rules sometimes really matter. this is one of those cases where the procedure will really count. can they get the house to agree to the senate version which we passed, you know, back on christmas eve, and then believe in the senate to make the

changes that the house really needs to see? that's a leap of faith. >> it is so fascinating that there is such a trust problem between the house and the senate, that this is -- >> within the democratic party. >> within the democratic party, a five-week standoff between nancy pelosi on the house side and harry reid on the senate side whether the house can trust the senate to do what it says it will do. >> and only a third of the senate is up for re-election. all house members are. that's a big difference. >> nbc's kelly o'donnell, covering capitol hill for us, lots of action to expect in the next few weeks. >> and weren't they also passive aggressive? >> it was -- >> tune in at 9:30. we'll show you the highlights. >> clearly not a negotiation up for debate. >> the other big story percolating on the hill today, a powerful house veteran, chairman of the tax writing committee, reprimanded by the ethics committee. congressman charles rangel stepped into the fight for his political future.

mike viqueira is at the white house this morning. is this the beginning of the problem for congressman rangel? >> reporter: no, the beginning was so months ago when the revelations became public. the ethics committee handing out a public admonishment, bad news for charlie rangel all the way around. the only good news is the attention is focused elsewhere over the course of the last few year. it goes to a trip to antigua and barbuda that ended up being paid for by corporate sponsor, that violates house ethics rules that the democrats themselves wrote when they came into power. the good news, the silver lining for rangel, the ethics committee found it was his staff, rangel's staff, that made the mistakes when they asked the ethics committee in advance for permission to make this trip. they misrepresented the facts. rangel, they said, didn't know about it. this public admonishment for charlie rangel has other ethics investigations active against him at this time. he's far from out of the woods. >> i was going to say, mike, the other ones have to do with taxes

and not reporting some income. what's the status of that inquiry by the ethics committee? >> reporter: well, charlie rangel, of course, is the chairman of the ways and means committee, a cliche to say the powerful ways and means committee but it is powerful because it writes taxes and republicans and rangel's opponents said we can't have someone in charge of the tax writing committee who is not paying his taxes. the charge stems from a rental property that charlie rangel has in the dominican republic and whether or not he's been paying adequate or proper amount of taxes on that. he's been changing some of the statement of his personal assets over the course of several filings over the past few years. there is also the question of whether he used congressional resources to raise funds improperly as this is the allegation for his foundation at a new york university. >> all right, nbc's mike ha mik at the white house for us this morning. >> this isn't going to help him. nancy pelosi will have a lot of pressure on her to do something about this sooner rather than

later. now to orlando, seaworld officials say they'll keep the killer whale that killed a veteran trainer there on wednesday. this is at seaworld parks nationwide, they're suspending all of their orca shows until they decide if the shows themselves are safe. nbc's tom trung joins us from orlando. why aren't they at a minimum retiring this animal from shows? >> reporter: well, chuck, there is a lot of questions right now. you can imagine some of them will go unanswered. there is going to be a press conference with the ceo of seaworld later this afternoon, around 1:00. and we're hoping to find out the future, if you want to call that, of the shamu show. it is one of the biggest, if not the main attraction here at seaworld. you can imagine it is going -- the show is going to go on. but you can rest assured there is going to be some changes to how the trainers interact with the killer whales here. the killer whale in question there was home video of the

interaction between dawn and the whale moments before her death. in that video you see both of them, everything seems normal, she was playing with him, dancing around, splashing some water at him and then witnesses say the killer whale just somehow just went up and grabbed her by the ponytail when she was on a platform and dragged her down. at this point, there is a lot of questions of what the behavior was that led the killer whale to do that. but that's going to be all theory at this point. that may never get answered. >> thank you, tom. >> there is news out of afghanistan this morning and it isn't good. taliban fighters struck the heart of kabul today, two suicide attacks and a car bomb. 16 people were killed, 38 more wounded. this is the second attack in the afghan capital in the last six weeks. there is word this morning that more arrests may be coming

related to that al qaeda plot to blow up a new york city subway train last fall. wnbc's jonathan dienst joins us with the latest. where was the arrest made? >> we don't know for sure. we believe it is in the pakistan/afghanistan border area. again, federal officials saying that this plot to blow up new york city's subways was going to be a suicide bombing plot with three new york men directly involved. those three new york men were in federal court yesterday and it was during that court hearing that the judge asked if there are going to be any more defendants in this case and prosecutors answered yes, there are al qaeda leaders from overseas who are correctly involved in orchestrating and running this alleged plot to bomb the new york city subways and that at least one if not several of those men will be sent back to new york, quote, promptly. we don't know the identity of the suspects from overseas or exactly when they'll be arrive here in new york for trial.

but that's the word from federal prosecutors. you'll recall azazi is the man with two friends he went to high school with who traveled for bomb training and then accused of wanting to come back here and be suicide bombers to set off bombs on the trains. defense lawyers say all of the men deny any wrongdoing. >> all right. jonathan dienst in our newsroom in new york, thank you very much. coming up next, now what? can democrats muscle their members into pushing a health care bill across the finish line? our focus is largely on the house. coming up, the interview with california congressman george miller. he's speaker pelosi's closest adviser. we'll get his take on what comes next. a special friday treat. we're headed live to vancouver with olympian john benton, a member of the u.s. men's curling team. this is our last day of the olympics. and, remember, msnbc stands for must show nothing but curling. >> this is saving best for the

last, as far as we're concerned. a look ahead at the president's schedule. a couple of meetings but not much after that long day yesterday. you're watching "the daily rundown" on msnbc. [ male announcer ] mix it.

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i do not believe there will be any republican support for this 2700 page bill that the american people are so overwhelmingly opposed to. >> time is of the essence. the american people waited five decades for this. it is time we do something and

we're going to do it. >> well, there it is. republicans and democrats just outside the big health care summit and just as politically divided as when it began. >> california congressman george miller was in the room on thursday. he chairs the labor and education committee which helped write the democratic health care bill and shares the party's policy committee and is one of speaker pelosi's closest advisers. simple question, congressman miller, do you have the votes and how quickly are you going to take up this bill? >> when we take up the bill we'll have the votes. i think that will be relatively -- relatively soon. i don't think there is any reason to wait any longer to do this. it is very clear that we need health care reform. we need insurance reform. the current system is unsustainable as you and so many other people have said. and it is crushing our families it crushing small businesses and it is inhibiting our ability to compete throughout the world.

so the time has come to fix this system. >> congressman miller, last night your colleague congressman clyburn told chuck and i and chris matthews on "hard ball," it is fine for the house to go first and pass the senate bill. as we understand it, speaker pelosi wasn't so sure about that. have you now worked that out and you're in a position to have the house vote first on senate bill and have senate do the fix by reconciliation? >> well, i think, you know, the choreography gets a little complicated here but the point is the house will present a reconciliation bill, based upon many of the principles that the president put forth to correct some of the problems that the house and others have had with the senate bill, that may require us to pass the senate bill first and then send the reconciliation bill to the senate for them to pass. i think senator reid believes that he can put together the votes for that. and then we will have a new modern health care system in this country that can be signed by president bush. i mean, president obama. there you go.

>> wow. >> interesting. >> everyone is tired. it is a long day. >> we're all struggling through the week. >> it was a remarkable day. to see the president of the united states engaged at that level of detail, trying to get members of congress to admit where there were agreements on areas of concern. not necessarily the solution, but the agreements that these had to be addressed and then the different ways to address them, it is just -- it was quite something to sit in that room. >> but congressman -- >> -- and watch that process. >> as an observer, it seemed like yesterday, summits, whether international, by definition are supposed to be negotiations or supposed to be at some point potentially a negotiation. yesterday felt simply like a debate, both sides had their talking points, the democratic side said, hey, this is -- we're so close, we agree. the republican side, let's scrap it, start over gerk, get a clea sheet of paper. everybody was on message. where was the moment where there was going to be, okay, let's that i aspect, insurance reform, and see how close we are and

have a negotiation? why didn't that happen? >> i think you saw that happen in many ways. we went down the list of insurance reforms. and there was considerable agreement among different members and not everyone republican agreed, but senator coburn agreed, congressman boehner doesn't agree. congressman boehner had three or four insurance reforms in his bill. but everybody agreed that this system is in bad need of reform. and i think that's what you saw with -- we're not willy-nilly just pick on the insurance industry. there is bipartisan agreement that substantial reforms are necessary in this system because too many people are being -- are taken off insurance, can't get access to insurance, pre-existing conditions are killing the abilities of the families to change jobs, to start a new business or whatever it is that happens in their daily lives. >> congressman, before we let you go, on another topic, given the ethics committee's decision about chairman rangel, can you explain why you and the

leadership believe that congressman rangel should keep his committee chairmanship at this point? >> i think at in this finding with respect to these trips, my understanding is that the ethics committee is publishing a finding today that admonishes him and i understand that required to pay back the money because it was improperly paid for by a corporation, that's as it should be. they determined the penalty is the admonishment of him and the paying back of the fines. the other charges before him are before the -- are before the ethics committee and i no any polit in politics this say rough and tumble business, you don't just get to adjudicate people as guilty because of newspaper stories and accounts, you got to go through some evidentiary process. when the ethic committee makes the findings, i hope they will be soon, so we can clarify this matter. the house will then have to take action or congressman rangel will then have to take action. that's as it should be. you don't just get to jump ahead because somebody is in politics that they don't have rights to a hearing. >> but the ethics committee's

decision isn't sufficient to get you to that point, about the chairmanship? >> i'm sorry? >> but the ethics committee decided -- you don't think that is sufficient to get you to that point? >> on the question of the trips alone? >> yeah. >> i don't think so, no. i don't think so. >> okay. >> very quickly, you said relatively soon on the health care bill. does that mean next week? >> that means i would hope that we get it done this month. and hopefully leadership will come together to figure out where we are as a result of the summit. yesterday and understanding that we clearly need comprehensive reform, piecemeal system is what we have inherited after 60 years. and it is unsustainable, it is costly and out of control. >> all right, congressman miller, thanks for joining us on "the daily rundown." lots of news in there today, this morning. thanks very much. >> hope to see you again, sir. thank you. we'll turn to the olympics now. you know all about lindsey vonn and shaun white but john benton is as much a part of team usa as

any of those athletes. >> he's a member of the u.s. men's curling team, becoming one of the olympics more popular sort of events behind the scenes. people are loving to google it learning more about it, people like me obsessing over it. john benton joins us now. he's the lead for team usa. and are you embracing sort of this -- this idea that folks, you know, like us, we get into curling once every four years, how can you get us into curling once every four weeks? >> well, you know, the sport kind of lends itself to tv, i think. much like golf, it is a good thing to lay on the couch and watch for a while and i think with the drama that our team had over the past couple of weeks here, i think we have gotten a lot of people more interested and certainly are facebooks and e-mail and twitter accounts have been overflowed with a bunch of messages from people like yourself, chuck. >> people seem to be totally mesmerized.

"the new york times" has a front page story how wall street has become fascinated by this. for the uninitiated who look at these pictures and see guys with brooms and this -- i guess you call it a rock, what are you doing? explain what the strategy is. explain what makes this game so interesting to you. >> well, what a lot of people don't know is that, you know, the game does take two and a half hours. and in the course of a game, depending on the score and the ice conditions, you know, the strategy changes. and the game develops. so in the earlier olympics where you only get to see part of the game you didn't get the full feel of the game. now we're getting full exposure on the games and people are able to see an entire match, they're really, really getting interested in how the strategy develops. >> very quickly, the broom. is the broom intended to slow down the rock or speed up the rock? >> the broom actually allows the

rock to travel further and in a straighter line. so you're not speeding it up or slowing it down or changing its direction. you're actually just extending the path that it glides. >> you're changing the ice, right? that's what it looks like. yeah. okay. >> you're actually -- heating up the ice in front of the rock for just a quick second. and creating a thin layer of water on the ice and that's what helps the rock glide farther. >> all right, john benton, completely fascinating. >> how do we follow you on twitter? what is your account? >> you can find team usa curling at twitter or each one of the players has their own account. >> okay. great. >> we'll be following away. thanks very much. >> thank you so much. you're going to lose a lot of hours watching curling. it is relaxing. >> it is relaxing. he's right about the couch thing. coming up in today's "2010," our top ten primaries from mudslinging to a knockdown.

washington speak and this one is a classic. >> my friend lamar, who i have great respect and admiration for. >> respectfully, john, what i think you're talking about with health plans -- >> respectfully, we don't agree with that. so our view with all respect -- >> i believe with respect, you're wrong. >> with all due respect. >> i say that with respect. >> with all due respect, those are the words politicians use just to lower the boom on an adversary, loosely translated it means i'm about to say something you won't like. >> it is probably -- it is more dirty than that. >> it is one of my favorites. >> we'll leave it at that. >> with all due respect, we'll be right back. >> with all due respect, this is "the daily rundown." ♪

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live pictures of bergen county, new jersey. we're watching as nbc producer

john baotti is driving around, giving us a view, as you would see if you were driving in this storm. as many as 20 inches expected in some parts of that area it is 9:29 on the east coast. 6:29 in the west. here are some other stories we're following now. that nor'easter hitting the coast is blamed for a fire that engulfed an entire block in new hampshire. the fire broke out after midnight in the hotel in a vacation community there called hampton. there have been no reports of injuries, though. a north georgia woman claims the brakes on her 2009 toyota carolla failed, prompting her to lose control of the car and plow into her neighbor's home across the street. shoppers panicked when a 2.6 million gallon aquarium cracked, leaving saltwater gushing into a dubai mall. the massive tank was designed to hold over 400 sharks and stingrays. that's a look at the news now. i feel like i had a nightmare about that before.

>> i was going to say it hard enough when you're in the little water and then you realize -- >> there are sharks and sting zbl rays. >> jaws, nice. let's get to this week's 2010 top ten. and that's family feud. the most fascinating, competitive and yes, in some cases ugly primary battles of the year. number ten, kansas senate todd hart dehart. the winner of this primary is probably going to be the guy that replaces sam brownback. number nine, all things nevada. in the senate, the two to watch are loudon and tarkanian. that primary hasn't gotten too nasty yet because both are focused on all things -- onin m reid. here is the latest. he and a companion were chased

through a reno airport this week after lying about taking a woman named in his divorce papers to the white house. >> did you go with anyone today? >> what's it to you? i went with security. >> anyone else? >> what's it to you? >> you happened to be on the same flight. >> in vegasvegas, yeah. you know what -- >> she did say she met the governor of california, arnold schwarzenegge they are week er >> she met him some place. you are full of [ bleep ]. you are. all you're doing is out here, late at night, trying to make a scene. and there is nothing to that. >> that's the governor of nevada. they were here for the national governor's association conference and had that dinner at the white house with president obama. he apparently did bring a companion. national republicans recruited brian sandoval who leads gibbons in the primary now in polls but isn't crushing him. that's a competitive race. number eight, utah senate,

three-term republican bob bennett now has four challengers from the right, freedom works want to take him down make him an example of moderate republicans that went too far to the center. number seven, south carolina governor. number six, new york senate, because even as the governor looks like a goner these days, that democratic race has barely gotten started. harold ford probably going to announce in the next couple of weeks. number five, arizona senate, john mccain may be pull be 20 points ahead but his challenger is taking out his campaign parking lot yesterday. hayworth called for ten debates which mccain -- has mccain airing web ads like this one. we'll see. number four, kentucky senate, ran paul versus tray grayson. the nationally recruited candidate is finding himself trailing ron paul's son. the two are exchanging negative

tv ads already, listen to one of them. >> rand paul opposes the war in iraq and doubts whether afghanistan is still a threat. he even thinks we should cut military spending and operations. >> rand paul will stop obama and the epa from crippling the mining industry. trey grayson, listen for yourself. >> i look forward to doing my part as secretary of state and the citizen of working with president obama. >> a friend of obama, no friend of yours. >> they make the case that grayson is the only one that can hold the seat. we shall see. last week it was number nine. this is the big mover for us. number three, pennsylvania senate, the best primary on the democratic side. trying to take down arlen specter by reminding democrats that specter was once a republican, a takeoff on obama's yes, we can. number two, texas governor,

primary day is tuesday. can rick perry pull it out and avoid a runoff? end up making this primary not the one that everybody thought it was going to be. number one, though, we have been reporting on it all week. it is that florida republican primary for the u.s. senate. it got a little dirtier this week. rubio ahead of crist in the pauls. credit card statements showed he charged personal experiences to the republican party. charlie crist said yesterday, welcome to the nfl. probably a little subtle sign by the way that maybe the crist folks were behind it in some form or another as the rubio folks have been maintaining. very quickly, anyone planning on making a bid for north carolina, and congress in north carolina, has about 2 1/2 hours to make it official. today is the filing deadline. already a crowded field. six republican congressional primaries have four candidates for more. i can tell you this, there was some nervousness about some that hadn't filed until late. but heath schuller did file, he is running for re-election,

potentially saving a democratic seat in the south for them. >> all right, chuck. thanks. coming up, president obama says he doesn't want to waste another year debating health care. how quickly will democrats make their next move? plus, flights are grounded, schools are closed and power is out to half a million on the east coast. what a mess. winter returns. did it ever leave? first, today's trivia question, from the almanac of american politics. this is a good one. which senator has a bug that is found in the great smoky mountains and it is named after him? we'll give you the intriguing answer and show you the bug. (an) we believe in giving every investor a lot more for a lot less.

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well, the tiguan's great. mm. and the routan has everything we're looking for. plus, every volkswagen includes no-charge, scheduled, care-free maintenance. so, what's this punchdub days about? you know, where you punch someone in the arm every time you see a volkswagen. red one! [ baby crying ] test drive? [ male announcer ] with great deals on all 13 models, it's a whole new volkswagen. and a whole new game. ♪ you're looking live at philadelphia right now. as we have been telling you, record snowfall and winds up to 60 miles an hour are creating blizzard-like conditions across much of the northeast. at least three deaths are blamed on this storm. the wet, heavy snow is bringing down trees, power lines, it is

knocking out electricity, already for half a million customers. and as we watch our own john biatta, driving through bergen county, new jersey, plows having a difficult time keeping up with the quickly falling snow, making travel treacherous in many places. authorities are urging people to stay off the roads. apparently john is not listening to that. in new york, i-84 is closed in both direction. more than a us thethousand flig already been canceled. >> it is pretty there. here in washington, it is just gray. to politics now, democrats appear poised to go it alone on health care. all signs point to the party pressing ahead to pass the bill before easter break and using the r word, reconciliation. >> here now is mark whitaker. mark, it was, yesterday, i guess maybe we were naive, i think some of us expected more actual negotiation. it was purely a debate, wasn't it? >> there was a lot of posturing. on the other hand, it actually got at a fundamental difference

between the two parties. and that is the democrats believe in comprehensive health care reform. they think it is a moral issue. they also think it is an economic issue, that basically you need to get everybody into the pool in order to bring the cost down. the republicans simply don't believe in it. so the question is, if that's the case, and this is where we were going to end up, where did we spend the last year trying to reach a bipartisan compromise, fundamentally, philosophically, they are at such an impasse. >> speaking of talking points, i think we notice thed it seemed they were talking past each other and both parties came armed with their message. let's go first to the republicans and see if you can pick up what their main message was yesterday. >> this is a car that can't be recalled and fixed and that we ought to start over. >> a lot of the people that i talked to want us to start over. >> they would like for us to start over. >> we're talking about as leader boehner said and mr. mcconnell -- senator mcconnell

said, let's start over. >> if we can do that, start over. >> it is time to start over. >> we with like to start over. >> what we want to do is start over, work on a clean sheet of paper -- >> starting from a clean sheet of paper. >> let's start with a clean sheet of paper. >> let's start with a clean sheet of paper. >> take the etch-a-sketch, go like this, let's start over. >> let's wrap the bill. >> the american people want us to scrap this bill. >> start over. >> we believe a better approach is to go step by step. >> it means going step by step together. >> they want us to take a step back and go step by step. >> move through these issues step by step. >> that's why we continue to say go step by step. >> let's take it step by step. >> what american families want is a common step -- a common sense step by step approach. >> he got sort of tripped up on his script there. actually before we have you comment on that, democrats also had their own set of talking points, not quite -- they had a

little wider vocabulary, but take a listen. >> quite frankly we may be closer together than people really think in actually getting agreement that we can move forward on. >> many of the provisions that are in our bill are initiatives put forth by the republicans. >> there are some additional ideas that republicans have presented that we think are interesting and we also tried to include. >> i think there is a lot of agreement that the current insurance market really fails way too many people. >> i was glad to hear my friend tom coburn's remarks. i think we agree with most of them. >> we are so close to national health insurance. >> main point is we're not really that far apart. >> so, you get the message? >> here's the thought. with the democrats sitting there, as the republicans are talking about let's start over, and they're saying what you really mean is let's just kill this, move on, let's just forget about health care reform. the democrats are sitting

there -- or the republicans are sitting there hearing democrats talk about we're so close, and basically they're saying, yeah, you're just going to push through a democratic plan and then you're going to say it actually has republican ideas in it so it is more bipartisan than you think. >> so basically the audience was obviously these waivering democrats in the house to try to get something through. did the president help himself or hurt himself yesterday? i had some argue that he brought himself down to their level too much. i had others argue, look at him, he's so good at the details and he was able to push back. what did you feel like he -- >> he was trying to strike a balance. on the one hand, he was trying to show the general public he was still reasonable, he actually that the republicans were prepared to come to the table on what he wants, you know, the comprehensive plan that he would be willing to deal with them. at the same time, i think he was trying to show enough backbone in going toe to toe with the republicans so he could show the democrats behind him, look, you know, fall in line, you know, i'm your leader, and, you know, i'm going to be tough on your

behalf. but, you know, it is an interesting question. right now there is only one path left. that is this reconciliation two-step. clearly pelosi does not have the votes lined up right now. and there are a lot of obstacles in terms of getting all the democrats together. >> do you think it was a good day for washington? we had fun with the talking points and no question there were those. but it also shows many members of congress on both sides it is a real mastery of policy here. >> i think once you got beyond the posturing, it showed they are serious, on both sides, about dealing with this. it is just that they have, as we said before, this fundamental, philosophical difference. >> do you think if the cameras were off it would have been a different conversation? >> absolutely. that's the age we live in. >> we're hardly ones to speak of it, right? >> exactly. we'll do the trivia real quick. a good one. which senator has a bug found in the great smoky mountains named after him? it is republican lamar alexander, senator of tennessee, scientists named a bug with checker board markings lamar

alexander after his trademark plaid shirts and attention to air quality in the mountains. he thinks it a pretty cute bug. >> he always wore the plaid shirt and it was always lamar exclamation point. >> any higher compliment than having an insect named after you? up next, taking on the terror threat overseas. we'll get a debriefing with congressman adam ship who just returned from yemen and afghanistan. and in the don't say that don't, you're not going to believe what the folks in california have up their sleeves. first, the white house scoop of the day, they'll be eating maryland crab in the white house mess today. >> not even going to lanham. >> i thought you were going to make a crabby joke or -- anyway. next time. next time. you're watching "the daily rundown" on msnbc. don't forget mrs. collier. i won't.

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suicide attacks in the afghan capital killed at least

17, proof the u.s. is still facing a long, tough fight against extremists in that part of the world. >> california democratic congressman adam schip is a member of the intelligence committee and just returned from a trip through afghanistan, pakistan and yemen and joins us for eye a debriefing. what do you make of the attacks in kabul? do you feel this is a concerted effort by the taliban, given our efforts to strike at heart of the city? >> absolutely. the taliban are really on the defensive in many places like maharajah and they're feeling the heat. they need to show they have the capacity to strike, they're not just on the defensive and what better way than to strike at the heart of afghanistan in kabul? so i think, you know, unfortunately we'll see more of this. it is hard to stop all attacks in kabul. and they're going to want to make sure they show the afghan population that they can strike anytime, anywhere. >> look, you got two types of briefings, one sort of a war type briefing in afghanistan, about the war against al qaeda

and extremist allies and then you end up in yemen, a different type of war. where is the bigger al qaeda threat these days? did you get the sense it was in yemen more so than afghanistan and pakistan these days? >> that's a great question. and when you look at the raw numbers of al qaeda, there is a debate going on, do we have more c al qaeda in yemen than afghanistan? what is the capacity of al qaeda in the ajane pennsylvanrabian p. as we saw on christmas day, they have unfortunately much greater capacity than we may have thought. the greater threat is still, i think in afghanistan and pakistan. the deizatistable dagilization e region, that is the most threatening place. but in places like yemen, i would add somalia to the list, we have a real growing al qaeda presence, very fragile situation. we have in one case somalia, a stateless, ungovernable country

and in yemen, not too far away from that. >> you think yemen is that unstable? >> you got the rebellion in the north, the secessionist fight in the south, you have a president saleh been there for 30 years, kind of carefully orchestrating the different tribes and playing all sides. it is a very tenuous situation and feels like the wild west in yemen. >> speaking of pakistan, i know you met with president zardari, pakistan has been quite cooperative in recent weeks, picking up high profile taliban. what do you think tipped the balance? what has changed where it seems like pakistan is more willing to help out in this area? >> that i think is the good news in terms of the changes we have seen over the last year. that is pakistan is engaged in this massive military operation south of waziristan and the valley. i think when the pakistani taliban and the home grown militants were within 60 miles of islamabad, threatening to cut off the heads of the government

literally and figuratively, it had the effect of capturing their attention and recognizing that threat is very real, very proximate, and really on par with the threat they always see from -- >> congressman schiff, thanks for doing this debrief for us. it is always an important story that we sometimes don't focus enough attention on. thank you. >> thank you, much, sir. coming up, what's wrong with a little beer and bubbly on the sn ice? canada's women's hockey team raises some eyebrows. because i think it ought to be a national holiday, on this day in 1932, the man in black was born. you're watching "the daily rundown" on msnbc.

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all right. if you can't say something nice, stay out of california. the state assembly gave the green light to officially make next week cuss free week in

california. >> they have quarter jars? >> i'll tell you about that. legislators are aware they can't expect to wipe out profanity among all the people in the state, but here is a start. the assemblyman who introduced the bill plans to deliver a swear jar. >> a little controversy at the olympics. the ioc is questioning the canadian women's hockey team after they celebrated by having a little party, after party on ice. an hour after the game, the girls returned to the rink, tossed back a few beers, a little bubbly, smoked a couple of cigars and apparently tried to tip over the zamboni. i'm not sure. >> crazy. they seem like a lot of fun. that's it for "the daily rundown." david patterson, governor of new york, not seeking re-election. we'll have much on that in the next few minutes. >> we'll see you monday. e will k with their old way of getting vitamins and minerals. others will try incredible total raisin bran. with 100% of the daily value of 11 essential vitamins and minerals, juicy raisins and crunchy whole grain flakes. guess it's all about what kind of crunch you like. how are you getting 100%?

guess it's all about what kind of crunch you like. i was just in town for a few days, and i was wondering if i could say hi to the doctor. is he in? he's in copenhagen. oh, well, that's nice. but you can still see him! you just said he was in... copenhagen. come on! that's pretty far.