right now on "andrea mitchell reports" the senate debate begins. democrats newly confident they can beat back dozens of republican amendments. many of which they say are a joke. republican senator judd gregg sarcastically agreed, or did he? >> they shouldn't be voted on not because they don't make sense but because, get rid of them. they're the opposition. >> senator gregg joining us just ahead. the state of black america. the urban league's annual report today offering very little encouragement for those still struggling to catch up on jobs, housing and health care. urban league president joining us. anger over health care turns

to sporadic violence across the nation. the latest from politico. and the mysterious night at the white house. what went on? >> we have a strong relationship with a strong ally. there are areas that they discussed last night, some of which they agree and some of which they disagree. >> it went on for hours. it was all in secret. there was no coverage. highly unusual. we'll have the latest from chuck todd. hillary clinton hosts a ground breaking summit with all of pakistan's top officials. military and civilian together, trying to reset relations with a key ally against al qaeda. >> our countries have had our misunderstandings and disagreements in the past. and there are sure to be more disagreements in the future, as there are between any friends or, frankly, any family members. but this is a new day. good day to you. i'm andrea mitchell in

washington. the senate inches closer to finalizing changes to the brand-new health care law. democrats insist it's all over but the shouting. republicans aren't quite ready to move on. nbc's ken strickland joins us from the senate. ken, where do we stand today? they're going to start voting, the debate is almost over, then that votes could go on for quite a while? >> reporter: it's almost over as far as the shouting is concerned. i think with all the debate that should wrap up at about 5:00 eastern time this afternoon. this there could be dozens upon dozens of votes. right now democratic aides tell me they have about 35 amendments ready to go. what is unknown is how many amendments will come during this voterama. after the 20 hours of debate is over there could be vote after vote after vote. today senate majority leader harry reid says he feels confident they can beat back all of those amendments. some of those amendments vary on substance, dealing with mandatinmandate mandates, dealing with catastrophic care. others deal with viagra for child molesters, preventing that

from happening. in addition to beating the amendments, senator majority leader reid will have to beat back -- because this a reconciliation bill, all the measures have to have some budgetary impact. we expect to hear some points of order challenging that. if anything gets changed in this bill it has to go back to the house. there's still some drama yet to unfold here in the senate. >> it's obviously in the democrats' interest to ride the amendments. some of them do seem a little bit silly. this was harry reid just within the hour talking about some of the amendments that have been proposed. >> how serious could they be offering an amendment dealing with viagra for rapists? >> it does seem a little bit silly. ken, right at this stage, the democrats think that they can beat back the amendments, the procedural issues may be a little more troublesome? >> reporter: right. right now senator majority leader reid says he is comfortable and confident. there's a process, a procedure,

they say they scrub the bill. senator reid and budget committee chairman kent conrad said they have strubed it with pine sol, lysol and mr. clean. they think there's nothing in there that can be beat back with a procedural hurdle. history is on the side of republicans right now. >> mr. clean, indeed. thank you very much, ken strickland. the battle may be ending. the political war is escalating. >> one of the most perplexing things about this health care bill is the determination of the white house and the democratic majority to shove this down the throat of the american people, even though they've made it clear they don't support this bill. >> i can tell you with regard to the campaign that will continue with the american people, i think the slogan will be repeal and replace. >> repeal and replace.

senator judd gregg was standing there with senator cornyn. and with, of course, the republican leader, mitch mcconnell. republicans offering dozens of amendments to the so-called fix-it bill. democrats insist they should just give up the fight. senator gregg now joins us. >> they shouldn't be voted on not because they don't make sense, but because, get rid of them. they're the opposition. why have an opposition party? you know, i mean, maybe we should just go to a cuban system. that seems to be the attitude of the other side of the aisle. the american people are an unfortunate inconvenience. the fact that they've elected a republican membership to this senate and to the house, they're an unfortunate inconvenience that should be ignored. >> senator gregg, we don't want you to feel ignored. here you are with us now. >> thank you, andrea. >> thank you very much. enjoyed your speech today. looked like you were having a good time, too. but there is a serious purpose to your sarcasm. do you really feel that this is -- that you haven't had the

time in the past year to voice your concerns? >> you've got to remember, this bill, the guts of this bill, the main part of the big bill that was just signed yesterday arrived on a saturday afternoon. we were given three days to debate it in the senate. no amendments were allowed. then we were forced to vote on it on christmas eve. then it went over to the house where no amendments were allowed. none. and it was voted on on a party line vote. the only bipartisan nature of the bill was that there was bipartisan opposition. so -- >> of course, speaker pelosi has said she incorporated republican amendments in the body of the bill. >> yes, andrea. that's why all the republicans opposed it. >> there were maybe other reasons why all the republicans opposed it. the politics of the house are another whole animal over there. the bill as it has now come to you, the fix-it bill, does take out some things that y'all wanted to see taken out. some of the perks and some of the cornhusker deal and some of the other deals.

what are your main objections to this reconciliation bill? >> the main objections are that the overall program explodes the government by $2.6 trillion. takes a trillion dollars out of medicare that should be used to make that system more solvent. uses it to create a new entitlement which enbe fits people not on medicare and not senior citizens. will significantly raise the premiums of small businesses in their health insurance plans forcing them to drop their employees and will be a major tax on the american people and will interfere with the american people's ability to get health care from their doctors because a lot of doctors will not be able to provide health care under the -- proposed in this bill in the area of medicare and medicaid. and the amendments we're offering, the vast majority of them basically hold the democrats to their word. one amendment says simply that the president and his cabinet and the majority leader staff should be subject to this type of a health care system as well as everybody else in the america. that's something they said they'd do. they don't do it in this bill. another amendment says that

medicare savings should go to medicare and to making that more solvent. something they said that should happen. it doesn't happen in the bill. another amendment says that if premiums go up for small businesses, and the president said premiums would not go up, then you won't institute the policies. another amendment says if taxes go up for people who earn less than $200,000, then those taxes won't go into place. those are all proposals which the president respected were going to happen which were not in these bills, which we're asking for amendments on. yet they're going to be voted down on a party line vote. because we're, as i said, an unnecessary inconvenience. offering amendments shouldn't be part of the parliamentary process or the constitutional process, i guess, the way the democrats want to run it these days. >> let me ask you about the politics of this. because there has been some sense that the republican party is not only encouraging the tea party, you saw some of the house members, the house republicans out on the balcony egging on the

tea party protesters over the weekend, but is actually trying to work in concert with the tea party. and that that, in fact, might not be good politics. it might not be good for republicans. this is something that steny hoyer brought up in an interview with mike allen on politico. let's watch. >> there was, during the past week, an appeal to those who were the most strident opponents of this piece of legislation. and i think that it -- you know, it's not good to incite and inflame. >> do you think that there may be a political downside to this? because the polls show, at least the latest gallup poll, that the support for health care and for democrats seems to be inching up since the signing. >> well, first off, i think they're trying to avoid the topic, which is the substance of the bill. you know, this bill is an explosion in the size of the government. it's a huge intrusion into everybody's life.

this is part of an effort by this administration to radically increase the size of the government, take government spending from -- it'll go from 20% of gdp, which is the historic level since world war ii, up to 26%, 27% of gdp. as a result taxes have to go up or we'll have to do something else to pay for this bill which will be extremely debtmental to our economy and probably reduce, in my opinion, the type of nation, the quality of life we pass on to our children. those are the core issues. they don't want to talk about those issues. so they pick out these marginal groups or these groups that go over the top, and, believe me, groups go over the top both on the left and the right, and try to make them the issue. but that's not the issue. what's the issue here is the fact that they passed a bill without basically any amendments on a party line vote which is going to create a government that we can't afford and put government into the health care system in a way that it should not occur, which is there are going to undermine the fiscal health of this country and the health of american citizens

relative to their getting service from their providers. >> finally, and briefly, senator, i know you've got to go, but do you think you can stop it? do you think this is going to become law, finally, the reconciliation piece of this, before the easter break? >> obviously the big bill has been passed. that's 90% of the exercise here as far as they're concerned. they've got basically what they want, which is the $2.6 trillion bill. the reconciliation bill, unlikely we can stop it. it only needs 51 votes. that doesn't mean we can't try to improve it. that's what our amendments are about. you mentioned some of these things that were knocked out like the cornhusker kickback. not knocked out was the louisiana purchase. senator mccain has offered an amendment on this. why shouldn't we vote for that amendment, send the bill back to the house and knock those things out, too, if that's their attitude. their attitude isn't that they're going to vote for that. they're going to try to defeat that on a party line vote because, as i said, they don't want any amendments because we're an inconvenience.

i think they view the american people as an inconvenience, too. there's a real arrogance about the approach they're taking on this bill. >> senator judd gregg, thank you very much. coming up, what happened when israel's benjamin netanyahu went to the white house last night and disappeared for hours? speculation stirs over the president and prime minister's closed door meetings. plus, is the tea party hurting or helping republicans? we talked about that. but new poll numbers show just how much of an influence the movement could have in november. and the state of black america. why are african-americans twice as likely to be unemployed as whites? what's being done to reverse the trend? president of the urban league joining us only on "andrea mitchell reports." urking, waiti. a heart attack caused by a clot, one that could be fatal. but plavix helps save lives. plavix taken with other heart medicines, goes beyond what other heart medicines do alone, to provide greater protection against heart attack or stroke and even death by helping to keep blood platelets from sticking together and forming clots.

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on the senate floor, health reform remains the subject of fiery debate.

outside the beltway, things have turned ugly. in some cases violent. opponents have resorted to smashing windows of democratic offices around the country, even issuing death threats against lawmakers and their families. joining me now, politico's ken. thanks very much. rachel maddow has done a lot of reporting on this as have others and you at politico. let's talk about louise as the rules chairman was the name on the slaughter rule. they didn't end up using it. that was one of the controversial issues as the house vote took place. what have you learned about what's going on in upstate new york in her district? >> well, she got a death threat called into her office. she informed authorities. they're investigating it. this is really unfortunately emblem att emblemmatic of a larger trend we're seeing. a lot of these protesters who really invested heavily in this, this was really their first sort of defining issue.

there were new to politics. they really threw their energies into opposing this bill. it pose passed. it's like like they don't know how to channel it effectively to remain involved through the political process. we're seeing a little bit of spillover to some of this unacceptable behavior. we have to stress here it is really an extreme minority. nonetheless, it's enough to paint the movement in a really bad light here. >> we should point out that the tea party is, as we know from covering the nashville event, it's not an organized party, per se. and in that sense, people can say they're part of the tea party. but there is no such thing as a membership. it's not like even, you know, organized as republican or democratic parties. there can be fringing here. one man, we've pointed out in your reporting, mike vanderbow, took credit for inciting attacks. tell us what you know about this individual. >> yeah, that's right.

he posted a representative from central virginia, posted what he thought was his address on a blog that sort of has the tea party theme to it. turns out it was tom perriello's brother's address. apparently there was an incident of vandalism at the brother's house. again, authorities are investigating it. to go back to what you said, andrea, you're right. there's no organized structure here. the tea party organizers such as they are are really working hard to discourage this type of violence, vandalism. instead, trying to channel these activists' energies toward the 2010 congressional mid-term election, saying if you don't like the way your lawmaker voted, you need to work for that lawmaker's opponent, to defeat that lawmaker in november. instead, what we're seeing, certainly we're seeing a lot of that. we're also seeing a little bit of this really unacceptable behavior that, again, is going to pose a problem not just for the tea partyiers, but potentially for republicans.

because it really has the potential to kind of engender sympathy towards some of these democrats who might otherwise be vulnerable, possibly still will be vulnerable. >> and some of the language that really is beyond the pale, vanderbow, this is what he had to say about this whole posting regarding periello's alleged address. >> we are 3% of american gun owners. that's the muzzles of 3 million rifles who can be, if required, pointed directly at the hearts of anyone who wants to be a tyrant in this country. >> i mean, it just is insane to think that this is the level of debate with some of these fringe elements. now, republicans have responded. some are backing away from this kind of thing, obviously. we just heard judd gregg say

this is just a fringe element. this is what sarah palin posted on twitter. she said that common sense cob servetives and lovers of america don't retreat. instead, reload. please see my facebook page. that shows -- her facebook page shows a map with rifle sights over the states with vulnerable democrats. some of the gun imagery is a little misplaced. >> certainly. we see this sort of rhetoric. we talk -- national parties talk about targets. unfortunately, in this context, that has quite a different connotation. you're right. republicans have -- are sort of acutely aware, as are tea party organizers, of how this could sort of rebound against them. and they're working hard to kind of tamp down this rhetoric. but all it takes is a handful of folks to sort of step over the line and it really casts dispersions on the entire movement. that's kind of unfortunate, because there clearly are folks who are involved for the first time in politics and are really motivated. and they should be encouraged to channel their energies.

unfortunately, this is not the appropriate way to do so. >> it shows what happens when some intemperate rhetoric gets out of hand. it can inspire people to behave really badly along the fringes. thanks very much. right now on msnbc, we are following these developments out of the white house. in the efforts to contain iran's nuclear ambitions, president obama held telephone consultations today. unusual talks with british prime minister gordon brown, german chancellor angela merkel and french president nicolas sarkozy. the leaders also, according to robert gibbs, discussed the middle east peace process and global economic issues. e's a hoa powered by the wind on the plains. there's a hospital where technology has a healing touch. there's a factory giving old industries new life. and there's a train that got a whole city moving again. somewhere in america, the toughest questions are answered every day.

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democrats. chris alizza is "washington post" reporter and author of "the fix." let's talk about the quinnipiac, chris. it shows basically the tea party movement is made up of people who are more closely tied, consider themselves republicans, if you look at the numbers? >> you know, andrea, i don't think we should be surprised by this. this movement grew out of sort of a backlash against president obama on the economic stimulus package and obviously on health care and the town hall. i don't think it's terribly surprising. i think if you're a republican strategist, you have to realize this is a big group of people, a big passionate group of people that you need to bring under the republican party umbrella more than they have to date. i was at a meeting recently with hayley barbour. he essentially said we have to find a way to convince these people that we share their values. they need to be with us in these mid-term elections. mid-term elections are a lot

about turnout. it's about turning out the most passionate, intense people to vote in what is usually a low turnout affair. republicans need to make it part of their coalition to run well in 2010. >> one of the more interesting numbers here is that 60% of the voters in the tea party group, 60% of them identify themselves as a member of the tea party movement have a favorable impression of the republican party and 82% have an unfavorable opinion of the democratic party. so they are pretty well self-identified as favorably impressed with republicans more than democrats. >> no question, andrea. the problem is, this is a group that is very anti-establishment. this is a group that doesn't necessarily -- clearly dunlt like democratic leadership but isn't in love with the republican leadership, either. so it's hard. how do you gather and harbor the power they represent in terms of turning people out without turning them off by having your leaders dictate a top down strategy to them? i don't think republicans have figured that one out yet. >> and when we look at the last

part of this poll, the tea party could be a republican dream or a nightmare. if the tea party candidate is on the ballot in november. take a look at those numbers. tea partiers say 9% republican, 31% tea party, 40%. >> that's the question that's posed. is this a third party or wing of the republican party? one race i think we should watch, may 18th there's a primary in kentucky. ram paul. he's an ophthalmologist. his father is ron paul. 2008 presidential candidate from texas. lots of tea party backing there. if he loses, i wonder if he might try a third party run of some sort. keep an eye there. that's going to be a very interesting primary no matter what happens, win or lose. >> anybody named paul has an interesting effect on the elect rat. thank you very much. read more from chris on his blog at voices.washingtonpost.com/thefix .

the united states and russia may be close to an agreement on a new nuclear arms treaty. plus, from health care to employment, why are african-americans still lagging behind whites? national urban league president mark morial right here joining us next on "andrea mitchell reports." for the aches and sleeplessness in between, there's new motrin pm. no other medicine, not even advil pm, is more effective for pain and sleeplessness. new motrin pm. vegetables are naturally low fin calories.sleeplessness. v8 juice gives you 3 of your 5 daily servings. it's a tasty, nutritious way to make this number go up... and help this one go down. v8. what's your number? a red italian sports car. ( flatly ) i've been told beige and predictable - fit my lifestyle. - ( both flatly ) we've been told hollow status symbols are the goal. ( flatly ) i've been told it captures my essence. ( engine revs ) - ( triumphant music playing ) - ( chorus vocalizing )

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topping the headlines right now, the obama administration is finalizing its negotiations with russia on a nuclear arms reduction treaty. today czech officials said that prague would host the signing of a new pact to reduce long-range nuclear weapons. that would be next month. saudi arabia's interior ministry has announced the arrest of more than 100 suspected terrorists. saudi officials intercepted communications between a terror network, two cells, and al qaeda officials detailing an imminent attack on oil and security facilities in the country's eastern province. the treasury department today setting its sights on key drug lieutenants and enforcers

in mexico. officials say 54 members of two powerful drug cartels have been targeted for their role in the rising bloodshed throughout the country. the 2010 state of black america report is out today. while african-americans are making some gains, they are still lagging behind whites in two key areas. employment and health insurance. for the first time ever, the report also includes the state of hispanic communities, noting that latinos are fairing worst of all. former new orleans mayor mark morial is now president and ceo of the national urban league and joins us. great to see you. >> great to be here. >> let's talk about the progress, lack of progress. you've looked at several key indicators. let's talk about jobs first. where is black america now? >> the economy, the recession, has really affected everyone. but it's had a disproportionate impact on black americans. an unemployment rate which is reported at about 10% is really at 15% to 16% for black

americans. so you've got the disproportionatety. and the tough side of it is that combined with the housing crisis and the foreclosure crisis, it threatens to really erode many of the gains that were made in the 1990s, the 1980s, and the 1970s. >> and on health insurance in particular, not only in the jobs area, but health insurance and housing as well, you see real -- >> we're elated, joyous, celebratory because of the passage of the health reform legislation and the president's signature yesterday. i had a chance to be at the department of the interior with everyone who was there. because what it does is it's a giant leap towards closing this health insurance gap. 20% or so of african-americans without health insurance. 10%, maybe 12% of whites. no doubt, this bill is going to go a long way to close that gap.

so it's a powerful step in the right direction. very rarely do i think that legislation represents giant leaps. but the health reform legislation does represent a giant leap. >> why did the urban league decide to take a closer look at the hispanic -- disparities in hispanic achievements? >> it's a great question. and over the last six or seven years as we've done this report, each and every year the question of the status of the nation's hispanic and latino communities has come up. and we decided this year that we needed to answer that question. so we've added the hispanic index, and it's going to be a permanent part of our report every year. >> and what needs to be done to help close these gaps for the minority communities? >> i think what's most important right now is for the congress and the president to get behind a very robust jobs bill. something significant. something that will put 1 million to 1.5 million people to

work in the short run. the long-term rebuilding of the economy is going to take years. the important changes in education that are beginning now are going to take some time to yield benefits. so we've got to think in terms of what we need short term and what we need long term. >> i've got to ask you about your hometown of new orleans. how is progress coming in these years after katrina? >> it's the fifth year of -- fifth year since katrina this august. i think that progress has been slow, but it's been in some areas beginning to show signs of promise. but the tough side of it has been most of the energy around the rebuilding has come from individual citizens, community-based groups. people have done so much on their own. and i think the city's going to ne get a shot in the arm with the new mayor who will take over in may. i think people do want a fresh

start. i think it will be the beginning of a new chapter in the city's recovery. >> the former mayor of new orleans, mark morial, great to see you. thanks very much. coming up, more than 100 alleged terrorists accused of plotting attacks on oil facilities inside saudi arabia. we get the latest in today's "declassified" with "newsweek." as the weather warms, walgreens and the makers of zyrtec...

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somewhere in america, the toughest questions are answered every day. because somewhere in america, more than sixty thousand people spend every day answering them. siemens. answers. secretary of state hillary: listen tries to broaden u.s. ties with pakistan today, declaring the start of a new day. during her meetings with the pakistani foreign minister, both nations vowed to expand the current security focus and to combat extremists. secretary clinton said strengthening this relationship is a personal priority for the obama administration. to make it evident that it is a different approach and attitude. she then appealed directly to the pakistani people. >> to the people and government of pakistan, the united states pledges our full support. you are fighting a war whose out

come is critical. first and foremost, of course, for the people of pakistan. but it will also have regional and global repercussions. >> clinton also acknowledged that there was in the past mistrust and a lot of tension between the two nations. the meetings with nuclear armed pakistan continue tomorrow. and developing right now, press secretary robert gibbs refused to talk about any specifics on the two one-on-one meetings last night between president obama and israel's prime minister benjamin netanyahu. >> at this point not going to get into walking you through the substance of what they discussed. i'm not going to get into the substance of what they talked about at each of the meetings. not everything the president does is for -- for the cameras and for the press. >> chuck todd is nbc's chief white house correspondent and cohost of "the daily rundown."

chuck, this was pretty extraordinary. the prime minister comes over, and not only do they meet one-on-one with not even a staff photographer taking pictures, no press coverage, then they break. the prime minister disappears into the roosevelt room with his people. they huddle for almost an hour. and then he asks for the president to come back to the oval office late last night? highly unusual. they have another meeting for 35 minutes or so before the prime minister finally leaves, and no readout. >> reporter: no readout. by the way, it wasn't just aides of the prime minister. the defense minister was among the folks in that room with prime minister netanyahu in the vo roosevelt room. it was an extraordinary situation. what's amazing about today, it certainly sounds from our reporting, andrea, we know the prime minister, israeli prime minister came with sort of a set of plans that he was willing to abide by. a set of -- that they would

abide by to try to jump start the peace process or at least the talks. and, you know, so you would deduce that, okay, must have been rejected. they went back, they huddled, they came up with something new and brought him back. and the fact that they still announced nothing tells you, now, we pressed robert, what would you call this negotiations? he said i like my word better which is talks. and they're ongoing talks. so clearly the diplo speak, as you're very familiar with, everything is reading between the lines when it comes particularly on middle east peace. here's what we know. prime minister netanyahu is meeting behind closed doors with his own aides. we know there's staff to staff meetings taking place right now. robert himself said that senator mitchell, george mitchell, who is the special envoy, president obama's special envoy to the middle east, will be meeting with the prime minister sometime today. >> but no progress to report,

and probably the worst state of u.s./israeli relations in many years, many decades. it was pretty tense with george herbert walker bush, but this is pretty tough to have no coverage at all. and no briefings from either side. >> reporter: i had somebody describe the meetings last night to me as, well, they were not bad, but they were not good. and that's about the state of where things are. but there's still talk and there seems to be a determination to at least try to come to some resolution of something before he leaves -- before netanyahu leaves washington. >> stay tuned, as they say. chuck todd, thank you very much. of course, watch chuck and savannah guthrie on "the daily rundown" at 9:00 eastern. a major blow today in al qaeda in the arabian peninsula. hundreds of expected extremists arrested in saudi arabia. none are big name al qaeda leaders but the cells were reportedly planning attacks on saudi oil facilities. those attacks could have sent american gas prices

skyrocketing. declassified blogger joins us now. investigative reporter for "newsweek" and an msnbc contributor. any time we have arrests in the saudi peninsula, we know that al qaeda is still active and is still a major threat. >> absolutely. what's significant here is about half of those arrested were yemenis. remember, al qaeda in saudi arabia and in yemen have merged. this is the same group that was behind the christmas day bombing attack that sent the nigerian guy to blow up the north wewest airlines flight. also tried to assassinate the saudi interior minister just a couple months before that. so this is clearly a sign that this group remains active, remains vibrant, and still has strength. how big a blow it was to them, we don't know at this point. but it's not a good sign that there are that many people, you know, a foot, working to do

these plots. >> and if you look at the nationalities, they were 47 saudis, 51 yemenis, one somali, one bangladeshi and one arab. this tells us that whole al qaeda in the peninsula group, in yemen, is becoming increasingly active. >> absolutely. and has ties to core al qaeda in the afghan/pakistan border. >> i want to take you to also your blog, your declassified blog, the breaking news that you have covered exclusively about a new -- >> yeah. today, the pentagon is announcing that there is a new chief judicial officer for the office of military commissions. a retired admiral named bruce mcdonald. what's important here, he will be the convening authorities. this allows military commission

trials to go forward. he is the guy who will refer charges that are recommended by military prosecutors to trial. the sources i'm talking to say they are expecting a flurry of activity over the next few months, and perhaps more. we could be seeing quite a few cases, quite a few significant cases. and what's ironic here is where will these trials be taking place? in guantanamo, the very base that the president said was going to be closed by january of this year. the optics of this are not going to be particularly good for president obama. but they are a sign of the direction which this is going. >> it clearly is. thank you very much. logon to blog.newsweek.com for his latest declassified post. what political story will be making headlines in the next 24 hours? tad devine, john feehery joining us next. follow the show online and on

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president obama will take his sales pitch for the new health care law on to on the ro tomorrow. first stop, iowa city, back where it started. and that's sure to dominate headlines in the next 24 hours, so let's bring in democratic strategist tad devine and republican strategist john feehery. tad, it may be obvious but why back to iowa and apparently according to robert gibbs' tweets the ticket sales already 15,000 tickets sold for a field house that seats 3,000. so they're expecting a big crowd in iowa city. >> well, because i think the president wants to build on the momentum that he has right now. politics are a lot like sports. if you get momentum you got to keep it. if you keep the momentum you win the game. i think that's what he's going to try to do in iowa tomorrow. get the grass roots excited. he made the commitment in his

campaign. he's kept that promise to the american people and now he wants to expand information about the benefits they'll get out of health care reform. >> john feehery, one of the things very apparent yesterday was that it sounded in both of the speeches, the signing speech, it sounded like campaign speeches that you could use on the campaign trail. that is what the white house is planning from now on? >> yeah, i think with the campaign season officially started, we're going to see that. and i do know i have a lot of friends in iowa and the iowa gop and they are looking forward to this visit, too, because they'll be raising a lot of money and actively trying to stop tad's called the president's momentum. i think this will be an interesting visit. we'll see how many people are energized on both sides and i think on the republican side people are very energized. i was at a dinner last night and they are really excited about their prospects in november. >> what about that, tad? is it time for the president to stop? i mean, he's got to explain what's in health care and try to

stop the demonization of the bill from his perspective but at the same time he needs to talk about jobs. he's got to talk about the economy. people are pretty much fed up with this. >> well, i think he does have to talk about the economy and i think it has to be his focus between now and november, but there's a lot of good things to talk about in health care. you know, the republicans used a lot of tactics to try to scare people about it and now they're about to find out that the scare tactics aren't going to come true. there's a lot of benefits for people in the short term. it's good for the president to talk about health care but now he needs to tie that to job creation and create the next us between health care reform and also a government that works well and the creation of jobs. >> we were talking earlier about the tea party activists and the fact that at least in the new quinnipiac poll the tea party hurts republicans, doesn't help republicans. do you have the same analysis? >> you know what? i'm not sure if i believe that. i think had this been a presidential election and had the tea party had a charismatic leader like a ross perot, then

it could have really hurt republicans but i think that we'll have an energized primary season. i think that republicans, whoever the republican is, either from the tea party wing or from the main stream republican wing, whoever wins that will be in a binary choice against the democrat and the energy that comes from not only the tea party but independent voters and traditional republicans who are fed up with where the democrats are taking the country, i think that they're going to be energized no matter who wins and that we'll do pretty well in this election. i think the democrats think so, as well. >> tad, is the white house now so ashamed of this abortion compromise -- i mean, the executive order is being signed in the white house at 2:30. no coverage at all. just -- >> it's getting more than last night-dnchts the release of a picture and gibbs, we're very pleased to have one of the wonderful pictures of pete sousa

which are wonderful pictures but why no coverage? if they're so proud of this deal they cut with bart stupak why not let reporters in? what happened to transparency here? >> because, as the president said, the speaker said, the majority leader, as democrats for a long time, this is about health care not abortion. the fact that they're going to do something which makes that clear that there is going to be no change in the law isn't important to the central debate. we've just achieved one of the most momentous of legislation in the country's history. that should be the focus. they signed it and they found common ground. that's really what governing is all about. >> john, do you want to weigh in? >> i don't think they're ashamed of it. i think they want to put it away because it got them where they needed to go which was bart stupak changing his mind and passing the legislation. i do think they don't want to talk about it anymore because they want to talk about other stuff but this executive order is not worth that much in my view and i think in a lot of the people in the pro life movement. >> and what about bart stupak? are democrats going to rally around and try to protect his

back now that he's walked the plank for the party? >> sure. our party is a big tent party. it's an inclusive party and there are pro life democrats and they're welcomed. and he's one of them. >> they weren't welcome in 1996 when bob casey -- >> '92. i was there with governor casey so i remember it well. >> i was standing next to him when he wasn't allowed to even speak. >> times have changed. >> this is now. >> right. >> the big tent. thank you very much, tad devine. thank you, john feeherry. that does it for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." as president obama heads to iowa tomorrow republican senator charles grassley of iowa will join us on the show. and remember, follow the show online and on twitter. tamron hall takes it over now with new developments for toyota as lawyers begin lining up to file class action lawsuits in the wake of the massive safety recall. there's new motrin pm. no other medicine, not even advil pm, is more effective for pain and sleeplessness.

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federal and local authorities are investigating a severed gas line at the home of u.s. congressman tom perriello's brother. this was discovered after tea party activists posted the address online. at the time they believed the address was that of the congressman. it was his brother's home and now there is a federal and local investigation. let's bring in a reporter with "the daily progress." your paper broke this story. what do you know? >> reporter: we know the fbi and the county fire marshal are looking into a severed gas line on a propane tank that was attached to a grill inside a screened-in porch at the home of tom periello's brother bo. nobody was hurt but this came a day after two tea party activists in the district posted the address online