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what else? >> brandon from indiana writes, i'm awake because i'm having psychological illusions due to a fever. why is his head the twice the size of his torso? >> it's not your favor. i have a big head. "morning joe" starts right now. ♪ the chairman of the republican national committee, michael steele, he got in a lot of trouble. i guess they dropped over $2,000 for staffers at a topless bondage theme nightclub right here in hollywood. apparently this is the republican version of a stimulus plan. stimulus plan. yes. >> that's funny. 6:00 on the east coast. good morning, it's wednesday, march 31st. wow. march is done. welcome to "morning joe."

i'm mika brzezinski. joe scarborough is off this week. we have mike barnicle with us, jonathan kay park from "the washington post" and willie geist. a lot to talk about today. the gop is backing michael steele so far, but new questions this morning about how far out this strip club goes. nice way of writing that. >> avoid the obvious joke there. >> yeah. new polls show americans are spreading the blame around for the threats and acts of violence surrounding health care reform. that seems fair. we'll talk about that. and the big washout, can you believe this rain? if you're on the east coast, my god, you can't miss it. historic flooding across much of the northeast this morning. what will it bring today? we'll talk about that and check in with todd santos ahead. former white house chief of staff andy card will join us. john shadic will join us as well. maxine waters will be on the show, dan bartlet, savannah will join us from the white house and

dan ab rrams. we'll be talking about that suicide story out of massachusetts. two kids have been expelled. the role of administrators and parents. let's get straight to news. it is a time for a look at today's top story. the republican national committee is insisting chairman michael steele knew nothing of an infamous nightclub visit by a group of young republicans in january. party officials say steele will weather the storm and promise to tighten accounting practices. the rnc has since fired staffer allison myers. it's a girl. who helped organize the visit to the hollywood club, which features topless dancers and bondage. it was myers who initially approved the expense, but conservative website "the daily caller" by our friend tucker carlson, reports two top rnc officials also signed off on the expense.

so why just allison myers? i don't get it. >> why are they firing her for approval to the bondage club, while clarm steele, 20 grand for private jets to go like six miles in six days. >> that seems a bigger story here. >> rented cars, limousines, hotel bills over the top and they fire a bookkeeper? >> yeah. when pressed by msnbc david schuster tim kaine didn't sound so sure his party hasn't used the same indiscretions. >> for the record, as any member of your staff in any official capacity been to a strip club or the voyeur club in hollywood? >> well, i tell you, we have -- i cannot say for sure, but let me tell you what our practices are. we have very tough practices on what people charge to the dnc. we have very tight review practices when charges are made and they come back if. we look at them carefully to make sure nothing is wrong. when we're preparing fec reports

you can be darn sure no one is going to write down the name of a strip club and make a question about it before they send it to the dnc. >> i would say has no one in my entire national committee ever been to a strip club. that's not the point. the point is actually the bigger picture. jonathan kay park, chime in. more surprised by the private jets, hotel costs and the money spent. he raised $96 million but left with a fraction. >> they're in a deficit because he spent more than $100 million already. the thing though is, this guy, michael steele, can make all of these mistake, all of these blunders and he's going nowhere. >> tell me why, jonathan? >> the last time i was here i made that point. i had made the point it's because -- >> and what happened? >> -- because no one -- to one would want to be the person who ousted the first african-american leader of the republican party. but there's something deeper than that. michael steele, for all the money he spent for all the

stupid things he's done, is extremely popular with the base of the party. meaning those party chairman across the country. he treats them like royalty. those are the people who will have to decide whether he stays or goes. right now, they don't want him to go anywhere. >> okay. he's popular. >> with the right people. >> he's done a very good job raising money, but he's also done an exemplary job spending money. it is it an unpopular point to say, the first thing you said, whether people have the guts to fire the first black chairman of the republican committee? >> i don't know if it's unpopular but an edgy thing -- >> sta keeping him in his job? >> no, i don't think that's the thing keeping him in his job. the thing that's keeping him in the job is the party structure, the party apparatus and the process it would take to get him out. the people who would have to

vote to remove him are the very people who like the job he's doing. they are the -- the party chairmen across the country who have been stroked by him, who have been taken care of by him, who probably has flown on these jets and stayed in hotels and entertained in this manner. >> yes. >> but let's -- come on. so far we haven't had any evidence that chairman steele was at the voyeur west hollywood -- >> no, as far as we know he was not there. >> he was on a flight. he was not there. >> on one of those private jets. >> that's not even the issue. why are you smirking, barnicle? >> i'm at the point in my life where i find michael steele, tim kaine, nice guy, i find them unbelievably tedious, you know. >> he doesn't want to be here. >> this whole thing. he was talking earlier about the bullying case in massachusetts. i think that preoccupies more people than michael steele does. >> good point. we're going to get to that. let's move on with news. the president signed a sweeping reform of the college student

lending industry yesterday. the measure essentially cuts the banks out of the government-backed student loan business and limits loan repayments to 10% of a student's annual income. the provision was part of a final piece of the health care legislation. meanwhile, a new poll is out showing who americans blame for the increase in threats and violence against members of congress when it comes to health care. 49% think it's due to democrats' political maneuvers. 46% blame it on conservative media. 43% it's republican criticism. interesting. the blame is spread all around. does that surprise you? >> no. >> because there are many who feel it's just the right and the trouble comes from one side. >> no. i think this poll is actually -- is pretty good. actions were taken and things done on both sides that riled up everyone. the democrats wanted to get it done. the president wanted to get this done. they used maneuvers that aren't

illegal, that are perfectly within the rules, but they're uncomfortable. but on the other side, the reaction to all of that, you know, we -- you've been talking about it on the show for the last couple of weeks. the bricks through windows and all those things. politics is a messy, messy business. weights that old saying that watching legislation being made is like sausage being made. we just sat through a year and two months of sitting in a sausage factory and it raent been pretty. >> and it hasn't been legislation america is fully behind or fully understands. depending on the polls you look at, there are many that say, they don't really like it. >> and i think those polls -- i'm not going to pay attention to polls on the health care bill until maybe june, july. certainly by september when people really have had a chance to understand what this bill is about. you know, the president's going on the road and secretary's going on the road to explain it.

maybe by then, people will get it. >> and this is a story that's making headlines on every major newspaper. later today, president obama is set to reverse a two decade old ban on offshore drilling by proposing a plan that would open up the east coast from delaware to the central coast of florida. that's over 167 million acres of ocean. until now, drilling has largely been climentd to the gulf of mexico. this is a turn-around, for sure. according to an abc news report, an iranian nuclear scientist who has been missing since june has defected to the united states and is helping the cia. the report says the physicist working for iran's atomic energy organization disappeared three months before iran disclosed the existence of its second uranium enrichment site. the report also claims he's helped confirm u.s. intelligence assessments about the iranian nuclear program. yesterday president obama and

french president nicholas car ko nicolas sarkozy said they hope to have international sanctions against iran, quote, within weeks. >> the long-term consequences of a nuclear armed iran are unacceptable. so nicoli, myself and others have engaged that the door is open if iranians choose to walk through it. they understand what the terms of a diplomatic solution would be. in the interim we're going to move forcefully on a u.n. sanctions regime. and this is an incredible story. outrage is building for a fallen marine's father who received a court order to pay legal costs racked up by anti-gay protesters that picketed his son's funeral. what's going on? when the case was first heard,

albert snyder was awarded $5 million in damages for the protests organized by the westboro baptist church of kansas whose demonstrators carried signs with provocative messages such, thank god for dead soldiers. i mean -- but the church claimed its free speech was violated and won an appeal. so now the dead soldier's father is being held responsible for the protesters' $16,000 in legal costs. where do we even -- >> i'll give you you $1,000 right now on this table to help defray that man's costs from those creeps who appear at funerals across the nation, for dead soldiers, dead marines, creeps. i saw them on cape cod last summer at the funeral of a young marine killed from cape cod. >> oh, my god. you know, where do -- what decade are these people living in? >> decade? what sentry? these are people, if i'm not mistaken, these are people

related to fred phelps' church in kansas and they go and picket. now they're picketing soldiers. remember, they were picketing funerals of gay people who were killed in gay-bashings and things like that. these are folks who say that they're part of a church, apparently, believing christianity, apparently believing christ and yet everything they do runs counter do that. i've seen them in washington with their provocative signs. it's outrageous. >> it really is. you hesitate to give them attention but in this case you want to make sure this guy's bills are taken care of, but to draw a link with their views on gay issues are bad enough but to draw a link to that to soldiers dying, confusing -- >> who died and their right to do idiotic thing. >> the link they try to draw is you were killed in a war in afghanistan or iraq, fighting for a country that allows gays

to live in peace. therefore, you deserve to die. that's their link. that's how crazy they are. and that's how -- that's how -- you know, you hate to say it. something has happened to the culture in this country over the past 15 or 20 years where it's no longer enough that we can disagree. now we have people poking one another to try to create more controversy, more conflict than already exists. >> i believe this is headed to the supreme court. we will follow this. it's not done yet. and i appreciate your offer. that's fair. i'll match it. president obama has declared a state of emergency in rhode island and has ordered federal aid for a state ravaged by its rainiest month ever with more than 15 inches of rain thus far. the latest major rain storm to rock new england has led to flooding, road closures, power outages and evacuations. with as many as 9 inches of new rain since monday, the month of march has been brutal for most

of the fornortheast and i thinke most in some areas. let's get the latest from meteorologist todd santos. >> you're right to say the most. in some cases it really historic as far as these floods are concerned across the area. to put it in perspective for elsewhere in the country, some rivers, patuxet river in cranston, we've turned a lot of streets into rivers. it's not until later this week, if not even the weekend before we see some of these even roads start start to clear out. never mind this portion of the country, you have basement in houses. a lot of clean-up to be done. this morning on the radar, this is a 12-hour loop, the last frame, just a few pockets of light drizzle so we're not adding to this even the most 0.1 offen anch. most of those numbers up in maine.

cranston, almost 20 rain gauges picking upwards of 7 to 10 inches of rain. coming up, we'll talk more about the good news as far as the weekend's concerned. a beautiful forecast. >> i like that. todd, thank you very much. up next, an exclusive first look inside the politico playbook. also, a developing story overnight in russia. two more attacks by suicide bombers. we'll have the latest. later, it's been called awesome, adorable, and downright scary. scarface, the school play coming up in "news you can't use." what is that? what's the popcorn? national car rental knows i'm picky.

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♪ yesterday, yet another trusted public figure came forward with a shocking revelation. jim? >> mickey martin has announced that he is gay on a posting on his website. >> i am stunned. shocked! people are reading ricky martin's website? >> that's pretty good. >> i know. welcome back to "morning joe." 19 past the hour. time now to take a look -- what's that? you read the website? >> he does. >> i knew willie does. let's take a look at morning papers. houston chronicle, president obama is set to unveil a broad new plan for oil drilling along the nation's coastlines. new areas of the eastern gulf of mexico, even alaska. >> drill, baby, drill. wall street journal -- bp has awarded $500 million in

contracts to drill wells in iraq's giant ra maliyah oil field. it kicks off a huge push by foreign oil companies. boston globe -- anger turns toward staff in bullying case. residents and public officials yesterday angrily accused the school system of neglecting vulnerable students and called on top administrators to resign. this comes amid revelations that staff members at south hadley high school knew that 15-year-old phoebe prince was the target of harassment long before her death. >> and they denied they did. "new york times" -- scientists are thrilled today after the world's biggest atom smasher kited particular particles at record settings. it happened outside geneva. comes closer to replicating the big bang on a much smaller scale. here with us now, executive editor of politico, jim

vandehei. good morning. >> good morning. >> it looks like a back and ford, like a tennis match, liberals and conservatives wanting to have the record for the most threats against them. first, it was the democrats. now the republicans are coming out. so, what's going on here? >> it's like a ghoulish battle of the bullets. >> it is. >> in the beginning it was democrats right after passage complaining they got a lot of threats -- some threats on their life, a lot of vandalism done because of their support for health care. and then the next came republicans saying, no, we're getting a tremendous amount of death threats because we opposed health care. there was an incident where eric cantor had a death threat against him videotaped and that person was arrested. this issue is exploding on the left and right, online and on cable tv, where you have both sides saying that they're the bigger victims. you have personalities on tv saying they're getting death threats, personalities online like andrew brightbarth who runs a bunch of conservative websites saying they get them all the

time but mainstream media doesn't pay attention to it when conservatives get them. >> you are around capitol hill, and there are thoughtful people on both sides of hill, house and senate. what do they have to say about the possibility of lowering the temperature and actually getting something done rather than this back and forth? >> well, it's interesting because i've talked to a couple members who say they wish leaders of both parties would stand up together and say, let's lower the temperatures. number one, death threats are all the time to politicians. this happens sort of repeatedly. most of the time it's just -- it's cuckoos and people dismiss it. the danger you get is when so much attention is paid to this and at some point, like something bad could happen and people worry that people are -- just because they're playing politics, they lose sight of what can happen if you incite people to do nutty things. i think if eric cantor and nancy pelosi and john boehner stood up there and said, both sides, cool it down, we could have a very rigorous debate about health

care without resorting to cries of racism or, you know, death threats we've seen on a lot of members. >> they've done that separately but not together. the next thing for president obama, looks like might be financial reform. we heard robert gibbs talking about that yesterday. i understand barbara boxer had a plan for these wall street bonuses. tell us about it. >> she's told at least one of our reporter who covers financial issues she would like to push again to try to tax some of the bonuses for many of these executives who work for companies that got bailout funds. she's working with jim webb from virginia. they're going to try to push this potentially into the financial regulatory bill. democrats feel very good right now about getting a pretty sweeping regulation bill. they seem content. i think this is true of obama and democrats on capitol hill, to do it without republican votes. they feel the politics are much, much better on this issue than health care. and that if they can get something done on financial regulation after getting something done on health care, that that would be a powerful

one-two punch heading into november. i think republicans i'm talking to are much more nervous about this issue than they were about health care because it's hard to explain away that you don'tment to clamp down on wall street after the mess we got in last year. >> yeah. senator boxer talking about a 50% tax on bonuses over $400,000 paid out to people who work at companies that got taxpayer money. jim, thanks so much. we'll talk to you a little later. politico's jim vandehei. still ahead on "morning joe," andy card joins the conversation. plus, our friend harold ford jr. is back. after a four-month layoff, what can tiger woods expect when he tees off just in a few days at augusta? sports is next. we'll be right back. you're watching "morning joe" brewed by starbucks. ♪

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live shot for you from the top of the rock, new york city. kind of a misty, rainy morning as the sun has yet to come up. welcome back to "morning joe." just before 6:30 on the east coast. time for a look at some of today's top stories. two suicide bombers, including one impersonating a police officer, killed at least 12 people and injured 1 others in southern russia this morning, coming just two days after suicide bombers struck in moscow killing 39. no one has claimed responsibility, but russian prime minister vladimir putin suspects it may be the same group behind the moscow bombings. a good piece in "the new york times" editorial section about this today. the vatican is launching a legal defense in hopes of shielding the pope from being deposed in a case filed by a kentucky -- in kentucky by three men who claim they were abused by priests. they claim negligence by the vatican. their attorney is seeking a class action status for the case

saying they are among thousands of victims around the country. court documents obtained by the associated press show vatican lawyers are preparing to argue the pope has immunity as head of state. and that american bishops who oversaw abusive priests were not employees of the vatican. >> what a day that will be for catholics throughout the world if the defense of the pope comes down to, he has immunity. >> i don't think that's going -- i just -- you know what, maureen dowd has a piece in "the new york times" this morning, which we'll do in "must reads," the first line kind of sums it up. >> once again, we should reiterate, as did you yesterday when we were talking about this, that this past sunday, palm sunday, i was at church, mika was at church. i was at st. ignatius in boston, on the campus of boston college, 800 people in the church, celebrating mass on a holy day, palm sunday. this is a crisis for the catholic church at the top.

crisis of leadership. it's not a crisis for the constituency, for catholics throughout the world. it's the problem about these old guys who have been running the church. that's their problem. >> i agree. i will say, though, as i'm bringing up two daughters in the catholic church that for me, i want to be able to be proud of the church that i belong to. i'd like to see them handle this well. >> i just wonder, since this is a problem that's at the top of the church, the old guys, as you called them, who are they accountable to? if they're up at the top, they -- i'm assuming they are -- they're accountable to god. are they so far removed from their flock that nothing can happen to them. >> there's right and wrong. it's so simple. >> the church has been around for a very long time. >> in this case they have to be held accountable to civil law. >> we'll be talk about that in the next block. president obama has declared a state of emergency in the state of rhode island after

they've been hit by more than 15 inches of rain this month. the president's declaration authorizes fema to coordinate all disaster relief efforts with the purpose of saving lives and property as well as the public's health and safety. the city of providence has received nearly 9 inches of new rain since monday. more flooding expected today. those are live pictures right now of new jersey, where that state also hit hard. the rain hasn't stopped yet either. >> when the sun eventually comes out, i want all of you to come over. i have a new swimming pool. >> in your basement? >> called my cellar. >> yes, do you. >> is it bad? >> i have one called our school, which appears to be flooding. thought they fixed that. anyhow. we will get you that a little later. let's go to sport with willie. >> it's always beautiful in augusta, georgia, where tiger woods will find himself next week. he's holding a press conference on monday, the first time he'll face the full media since this

all went down on thanksgiving night. stevie williams, tiger woods' caddy,s he's not expecting any problems at augusta when they return to golf after that four-month break. which is why tiger chose augusta. he's not competed since his win at the australian masters on november 15th. speaking in his home country of new zealand, stevie williams talked about what he and tiger need to do to get the world's best player back on track. >> just focus. you know, i think that's going to be the big thing. tiger hasn't played competitively in four months. hasn't played any warm-up tournaments. difficult tournaments at the best of time, not playing a practice tournament or pretournament is going to be difficult. just to keep his focus on what we're doing. that's going to be the foremost thing in my mind. >> hasn't played in four months, but he's still the favorite to win the tournament. >> you're going. >> i'll be there. >> you're going to augusta? >> i'll be in augusta, covering it from outside --

>> that's the end of the masters. >> -- in a strip mal. >> interesting prer speculat pe women's hoops, this is amazing, uconn in the elite eight. they're playing the elite ate against florida state. florida state, one of the best eight teams in the country. uconn won by 40 point. the biggest margin in an elite eight. they'll go to the final four playing baylor. they've won their tournament games by an average of 47 points. >> 47 points. >> and that is their 76th cob sentive victory. >> absolutely incredible. >> ucla men's team had 88. they're creeping up on that one. one incredible shot, don't care about the game, but just watch the shot by flip murray, sky hook from 60. came after the buzzer. >> no, no. that's beautiful! look at this.

holy mackerel. >> that is cool. >> i think you can see that one in the game of horse. we'll be right back with andy card with his take on the rnc spending spree that has chairman michael steele under fire. plus, mika's must read opinion pages. you're watching "morning joe" brewed by starbucks. what's around the corner is one of life's great questions. and while it can never be fully answered, it helps to have a financial partner like northern trust. by gaining a keen understanding of your financial needs, we're able to tailor a plan using a full suite... of sophisticated investment strategies and solutions. so whatever's around the corner can be faced with confidence. ♪ northern trust. look ahead with us at northerntrust.com.

i haven't given up on republicans. i do believe there are republicans of good conscience who want to work together on issues. i think our view is to keep way. and ultimately, i believe more and more republicans are going

to come to the conclusion that it is better politics to work on the problems facing this country than it is to work on the re-election process every single day. welcome back to "morning joe." 39 past the hour. live look at the wous. t the lights are on. the sun is coming up in washington. joining us from washington, former bush white house chief of staff, andy card. good to have you with us, andy, once again. >> top of the morning to you. >> top of the morning to you. got a couple of must read op-eds. the first one -- i'm sorry, i'm going to take make you tired, mike. i'm going to make you tired, andy. >> don't do that. >> it's from "the new york times." low sweet, low fat, low salt. >> oh, god. >> i got your back, mika. >> listen to me, jonathan. >> yeah. >> pepsico has an intriguing new approach to salt. it has reportedly designed a powdery salt crystal that dissolves more efficiently on the tongue, releasing more of

its saltiness before it's swallowed. the company hopes it will allow it to reduce by a quarter the amount of salt it puts on its lay's potato chips. most of the salt we eat comes in processed foods. so pepsico's new product might help. but it's not going to bring everyone's blood pressure down. it's not enough for snacks to have artificial sugar and new-fangled salt. high tech or not, we also have to eat less of them. the bottom line is, we have an obesity crisis in this country. everybody is fat. everybody practically. it's an epidemic. and we've got to look at what's in our food and change it. >> what's next? >> you're done? that's it? you don't -- >> you're absolutely right. i love your -- >> don't pander. >> i'm not pandering at all. >> stop this. stop this. >> all i can tell you -- >> andy? >> all i can tell you is i weigh about 6'4" but i'm only in a 5'8" body. >> oh, you look good.

>> andy, you don't happen to have a jelly doughnut on you this morning, do you? >> listen, i'm dead serious about this. dead being the keyword because we are killing our children. the way we feed them. so, that's my -- i'm sorry, joe's not here to shut me up. >> we worry about diets in school or bullying in school? >> when you put it like that -- >> let me tell you something, that story out of massachusetts is horrific. i will tell you, the food we give our children across the board in a lot of the nation's lunchrooms is destroying them. >> true, true. >> is destroying them. >> i never went to school when i was going to school in the 1800s with a vending machine in the school. that's a huge part of the problem. >> it is. >> the vending machines. >> it's the food they cook as well. it's garbage. >> pizza and tater tots. >> let's get to michael steele. andy, going to need you on this. i'm going to read from katrina lynn parker, "the washington post," she has a piece entitleded "the gop's michael steele hangover." let's be clear, rnc chairman

michael steele had absolutely nothing to do with it. got that? he wasn't there. he doesn't approve it. let's move on. rnc and lesbian bondage are now tattooed on the american brain and the buck stops at the top. moreover, if g-string spending were the single offense under steele's leadership, then perhaps this stain would fade as have others in time for republicans to tap into voter frustration. alas, this is hardly the first or the worst example of steele's leadership deficit. wow. that's cutting. andy card? >> well, first of all, michael steele is doing a pretty good job leading our party. we're a minority party fighting to be a majority. we have great opportunity because of tremendous arrogance on the other side, but i want michael steele to exercise great discipline, as he husbands the resources of our party, so that we can put them to the best use in the fall elections. that's what this is all about. >> you're talking about husbanding the resources of the

party. let me talk to you about what he's done with the resources. forget voyeur, strip club and look at the way he's spent the money. is this leadership? >> well, i can tell you that -- first of all, he has to travel around the country to raise money and motivate people to get involved. the democrats are creating a wonderful opportunity for the republicans to win a majority back in the house and the senate. but michael steele has a job to go out, to talk to people at the grass roots level. yes, it's expensive to do that. yes, sometimes he has to go to places not convenient on commercial airlines. so, i understand that. but be careful how you spend the resources. they aren't his dollars. they're the dollars of women and men around the country who send them in to try to help make a difference, to put the republican party back into a position where it can make a big difference. >> mike barnicle. >> andy, you were chief of staff in the white house for several years. we now have out of washington a spate of stories, republicans

versus democrats, saying, we were attacked more than you were. we're subject to more violent outbursts than you are. the president, president bush, was subjected to, you know, a lot of tough stuff when he was in office while you were there. what impact, if at all, does it have on the oval office, on the president, on the staff, when the language is heightened, when the tensions rise, when the temperature in society not just politically, rises around you? what impact does it have? >> it does have an impact, but it doesn't change the president's responsibility, nor does it change the president's ability to meet his responsibility. so, my job as chief of staff was to make sure the president would not be distracted with the clanging symbols outside of the white house or the drums that we're beating and focus on the job. and i think he did a good job of that. remember, when president bush took office we were a very divided country. it was the supreme court that

helped finalize the decisions of the election. that meant that he was a controversial president when he took the oath of office. he overcame that. he met the responsibilities of the office very, very well. he passed his most important initiatives in terms of cutting attacks. he patched the initiative to bring -- to leave no child behind in education. then we have the attack on september 11 #th. but it took discipline on the part of the white house staff and resolve on the part of the president to get the job done. and he did it. but i don't -- i would recommend that, first of all, the rhetoric get toned down, the anger be pushed aside. let's work towards solutions. but, this is a passionate country and we're divided right now in the political debate and we'll have passionate arguments on both sides. but they should be arguments of words, not of action. >> you know, i get the sense the american people are tuned into what is going on. they're trying to understand. and passion is good to an extent. clearly, we don't like the rhetoric or any violence that's happening. but let me ask you this in terms of moving on. what's it going to take for this president to work with the

republican party, given this past year? >> well, he's going to have to demonstrate he's not as arrogant as he appears to have beb over the last six to nine months. he's going to have to actually listen to the other side and try to work with them rather than just dictate to them and demand action. i think he's going to have to work with the other side. so, he's got to get rid of some of that arrogance factor. >> how does he do that, andy? you may be echoing the concerns of a lot of republicans. arrogance is basically putting up a wall between you and the other side. how do you break down that wall? how does he actually do it? >> i think he's going to have to actually put something in place that responds to concerns that republicans have. don't just talk about it. don't just offer your hand. be sincere and try to change the way you put some policies in place. my fear is that he's trying to divide america. everything is against him, so he's against everything -- >> barnicle jump in.

>> andy, what would you have said at chief of staff? what do you suspect president bush had said had a democratic senator said about no child left behind, this is going to be -- we're going to make this president bush's waterloo? >> there were actually some who said that. we had tough times getting legislation through, especially when congress became so divided. remember, when president bush was in office, the senate switched sides. it went from republican control to democratic control in may or june of the first year of his presidency. that did change things. it meant we had to negotiate with different players to try to get the tax cuts through. so it happened. but i think the president has a responsibility not to practice arrogance, but to exercise leadership and governance and emphasis on governance. so far, we haven't seen president obama exercise governance. >> andy card, thanks very much. jonathan capehart is not happy with what you've had to say, but

we'll talk about it. it's how some republicans feel, it's been arrogant. >> that's how they feel. you know, there are democrats who can say president bush acted arrogantly during his eight years of -- >> oh, here we go. we have to go. andy card, thanks very much. we'll talk to you in a bit. come back soon. willie, what do you have coming up next? >> well, you've got little girls. >> yes, i do. >> i'm sure you've attended school plays in their time. >> they've been in some. >> did they ever do "scarface"? >> no, more like wizard of ost. >> you'll see a school play based on "scar face." hi. number two, please. would you like that to hurt now or later?

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plot. we're not worried about plot. >> idiots acting about getting girls? who cares? houchl houmpts have you seen this movie? >> it's about making friends. >> it made $467 million around the world. >> congratulations, america. >> the good news is the sequel is in place. word out of hollywood, they got -- "the hangover 2," very creative. >> i wonder what's going to happen. >> they got all these guys together. apparently they didn't make that much money on the first one. they had no idea it was going to be so huge. now they head them up, going to get $5 million each. so, mika, "the hang over2" is in the works. >> great, great. >> come o let's go together. >> i wonder what's going to happen, jonathan? you'll be on the edge of your seat. >> it used to be when you had a booze problem you go into rehab, a celebrity and everything. now you cheat on somebody, you go into sex rehab. so sandra bullock's husband,

jesse james, has checked himself into a rehab facility to work on personal issues. he says it's crucial to save himself, his family and his marriage. his rep says it was 100% his own idea. >> can it be safd? can the marriage be saved? tell me yes. >> i believe it can, but i'm old fashioned. i'm a hopeless romantic. jesse james in sex rehab. "the scarface" school play, got 1 million views on youtube in the last two days. first of all, people thought it was real. >> look at her. >> i hate to say, it's not. >> where is -- >> that's the michelle pfeiffer character right there, talking about her husband does coke and shoots people. he's sitting in front of that pile of popcorn which is something else in the move have i. here are now scenes from the scarface school play. >> you do coke and kill people. that's wonderful, tony. >> i got a buddy junky for a

wife. you want to fudge at me? you fudge. want to play hoops? say hello to my little friend. take that, you cockroaches. >> oh, my gosh. >> put together, those are child actors. they did it in l.a. with a movie video producer. funny, nonetheless. did you notice the pile of popcorn in there? >> yes. >> that was this in the real movie. they didn't want to go quite that far with a bunch of 6-year-olds. >> i'm thinking just having that little girl say those lines is terrible. >> robert loezier was great in that movie. >> that movie, can't watch it enough. >> apparently the e-mails are coming in about mai tai rad about junk food. i'd like to add -- we'll talk about that it next. it is addictive, these foods are addictive. harold ford jr. is coming in next. hopefully he will change the conversation from salt. also, the very latest on the severe flooding out of northeast. keep it on "morning joe" brewed by starbucks. at northern trust, we understand...

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♪ scientists say a lot of fatty food like cheesecake, french fries, fried chicken can be just as addictive as crack. that's what they say. just as addictive as crack.

they say the most addictive new drug will be, bacon flavored cocaine. >> that sounds -- >> see, this is what we're talking about. top of the hour, welcome back to "morning joe." it is addictive. that's why you love it. it's all addictive. >> it's delicious. >> that's why you can't have -- you can't stop. >> bacon is good. >> it is something we feed to address. even jay leno, i mean, that's a study i was talking about. welcome to "morning joe." >> let's start a food show. >> i want to do a reality show looking at the food we eat and how disgusting most of it is. welcome back to "morning joe," it is, everybody. top of the morning. >> that would soar off the nielsens. >> we need to have this conversation. joe scarborough is off. harold ford jr., msnbc political analyst and chairman of the democratic leadership council, joins us, as well as "the washington post's" jonathan capehart, mike barnicle, me and willie geist. the e-mails are coming in, i'm

sure, in support of my jihad against junk food, right, chris? >> yeah. patrick in arkansas writes, mika reminds me of nancy grace, just not as sane. >> oh! >> obesity, while an issue, is certainly not the mass killer you're making it out to be. you remind me of a teetotaler at a vandy game. >> first of all -- >> we don't look kindly on those. >> -- i think it is killing us. don't know about a mass killer right now, but it is decimating our country's future. and you're wrong, patrick. and mean. that was mean. >> would this be the first segment of your new show, you know, obesity is a killer? >> stay tuned. >> listen, i -- i think we need to have -- and you guys think it's funny, but a serious conversation about just how fat this country is. and we need to be able to talk about it -- >> debbie downer music? >> did chris just say that on the air? all right, i'm moving on.

>> you're right about, schools, though. it's ridiculous. >> how about our children? i tell you the story of the kid at the bronx zoo, three feet tall, two feet wide, and drinking a gallon of soda. he is being ruined by his parents. i'm glad you're amusing yourself, seriously. it's just ridiculous. >> i'm sorry. >> i'm sure he was a sweet little boy. >> we need to go to break. >> all right, that's terrible. you are off the set. until i'm done with -- look at his face. he's terrible. it's time for a look at today's top stories. i will tell you that that right there and that right there is

exactly why we need to have this conversation, because we are -- we have not evolved to understand that this is a serious issue. speaking of another serious issue, the republican national committee is insisting chairman michael steele knew nothing about the now infamous nightclub visit by a group of young republicans in january. party officials say steele will weather the storm and promise to tighten accounting practices. the rnc has since fired staffer allison myers, who helped organize the visit to the hollywood club, which features topless dancers and bondage. it was myers who initially approved the expense but conservative website "the daily caller" by tucker carlson reports two top rnc officials also signed off on the expense. when pressed by msnbc david schuster, tim kaine didn't sound so sure members of his party haven't visited similar establishments. >> just for the record, has any

member of your staff been to the voyeur club out in hollywood? >> i can tell you, i do -- we don't -- i cannot say for sure. let me tell what you our practices are. we have very tough practices on what people charge to the dnc. we have very tight review practices when charges are made and they come back in. we look at them carefully to make sure nobody's doing anything wrong. when we're preparing fec reports, you can be darn sure nobody's going to write down the name of a strip club and not ask a question about it before they send it to the fec. >> harold ford, tim kaine saying what he needs to say there. how uncommon is this, though? if we dig into the dnc books will we see private jets and hotel, is that part of entertaining by big spenders? >> i'm sure you'll find a lot of it. i think that the hotels and the flying and treating donors as nicely as you can to hopefully enkourng or incent them to give money, i think you'll find that. i think that's above board and legal. >> it's just the voyeur part --

>> i've never done that. i know that -- i feel bad for michael steele in some ways because if he didn't know this, this is obviously an embarrassment for him and his staff. hopefully they take steps to correct it and let them get back to letting us beat them up on real issues. >> you get the sense people think it's almost amusing in some way and not a huge problem for the country right now. >> this, the voyeur story? >> yes. >> yes. we were talking about it last hour, an hour ago. i find it personally tedious to continue talking about it, especially when other snippets of the news are far more glaring in terms of the bullying story in massachusetts. i mean, more people are worried about that, concerned about bullying in school than they are about what these fools do with their private jets and voyeur nightclub nightclubs. >> well, i think the rnc has to take a look to see if their leadership is the way they want it to be and behaving in the way they want it to behave. later today, president obama set to reverse a two decade old ban on offshore drilling by

proposing a plan to open up the east coast from delaware to the central coast of florida. that's over 167 million acres of ocean. until now drilling has largely been limited to the gulf of mection mexico. harold ford jr. this is obviously energy advocates and those against this are going to be a little upset. this is kind of a big change, is it not? >> i've been a proponent of this, as i think many of my colleagues, far more democrats are supportive of this than some would believe or surmise. i give rahm emanuel credit on this. he worked on this when he was in the congress. i know they'll try their hardest to do this the right way. they'll probably anger a few traditional alies within the democratic party. this is the right thing to do. hopefully make it easier to gain support from some democrats and republicans as they talk about a broader energy reform bill. i think this is a positive first step. >> i actually agree with harold. i mean, we're talking about, you know, energy independence and

moving to a greener future. we can't do that if we're going to continue to get our oil from overseas. we have to tap what little resources there might be, but we've got to tap our own shores. if we think it's okay to tap oil from venezuela and nigeria and other places. >> but this is an important step in even winning some republican support for broad energy bills. >> that's possible. >> given the level of crisis that energy -- supplying energy to americans is and has been, why does it take so long to get something done? >> well, i think when you have a president from an opposite party reaching out and doing something you would expect the other party to do, i think it's easier for it to happen. for a democratic president to open up this vast area in the united states, off our shores for exploration, hopefully we'll expe diet this. there's no reason we don't deal with entitlement reform, no excuse the education reform show you guys did a few days ago,

there are obviously things that worked that we should be replicating and amplifying but we don't. i heard andy card before i came on. i hope you views this as an example of democrats reaching out saying, we want to work with republicans and pass something broad and bipartisan. >> the president signed a sweeping reform of the college lending industry yesterday. the measure essentially cuts banks out of the government-backed student loan business and limits loan repayments to 10% of a student's annual income. the provision was part of the final piece of health care legislation. meanwhile, a new poll is out showing who americans blame for increase in threats of violence against members of congress when it comes to health care. 49% think it's due to democrats' political maneuvers. 46% blame it on the conservative media. and 43% say the reasons behind the threats are republican criticism. subjects were asked to rate each of those options separately. harold, interesting response, i think, to the poll here.

it's -- the wealth has spread in terms of responsibility. >> what it says to washington and to congress is similar to what mike's sentiment and mike's question which is, you better get some things done. we've watched some of the childish -- what many people thought were immature and childish behavior on part of congressmen. we watched the reckless, dangerous and even criminal behavior of some. i think you have to say largely encouraged by this tea party movement, some of the awful racial and gey -- >> what transpired in the past year on the part of democrats? >> no, i'm saying it goes from all sides. i'm not at all limiting it to one side. the real message out of that is, congress, please, get back to work, answer the questions around jobs, try your hard to stimulate economic growth to ensure that xunts across the nation and small businesses can put people back to work and grow again. >> how does the president do that given this past year? given the fact that the republicans are upset, they feel that he's been arrogant and has pushed them around. how does he now work with

republicans on ornishtives? >> it's not u.n. usual for them to be tension between the parties. some data shows we may be more polarized today than we were even under george bush. i don't know how they measure that. we achieved something monday you mental as a nation and certainly it's not partied in passing health care reform. it's time to focus as some guests on this show, club bob and others have suggested strongly, to focus powerfully and compellingly on a jobs creation package. that will get the country focused, i think n ways and pull people away from the concern -- the angst they have about the kind of partisanship that divides washington. according to an abc news report an iranian nuclear scientists missing since june has defected to the united states and is helping out the cia. the report says that the physician cyst working for iran's atomic energy organization disappeared three months before iran disclosed the

second enrichment site. the report also claims he's helped confirm u.s. intelligence assessments by the iranian nuclear program. yesterday president obama and french president nicholk -- nicolas sarkozy say they hope to have sanctions against iran within weeks. >> the consequences of a nuclear-armed iran are unacceptable. sarkozy, myself and others agree we are engaged, the door remains open. if the iranians choose to walk through it. but they understand very clearly what the terms of a diplomatic solution would be. and in the interim, we are going to move forcefully on a u.n. sanctions regime. >> harold ford jr., you said before the sound bite, this is a big story. a collective front with iran important internationally. >> i think any time the president can stand with another president in the white house and project like this, especially

when there has been some disagreement with france and us on this issue, is an important first -- is a big and important step. over the weekend david sanger wrote one of the more interesting op-eds in the times weekend review where he speculated what would happen if israel would attack iran, how we would respond and the ramifications around the world. i thought sanger's speculations were -- you know, you know i little, you know a lot, some of what he wrote would make sense. for the president to stand with sarkozy and sarkozy to be united with us is an important statement. >> i granted mike barnicle -- you may, you may -- i'm going to lift the ban. you can talk. i actually have a story coming up. we'll do it after the break on the fallen marine. you have good things to say about that. he's now no longer grounded after what happened at the top of this hour. president obama has declared a state of emergency in rhode island. and has ordered federal aid for a state ravaged by its rainiest month ever. look at this.

with more than 15 inches of rain thus far, the latest major rain storm to rock new england has led to flooding, road closures, power outages and evacuations with as many as 9 inches of new rain since month. the month of march has been brutal for most of the northeast. in some areas the most brutal it's been in terms of rainfall. let's get the very latest with meteorologist todd santos. todd? >> well, hey, mika, we're calling this historic and for a reason. with these amounts, topping over 8 inches in some cases, over 48 hours across much of southern new england, especially eastern connecticut and rhode island. the patuxet river one of those areas, to set in perspective, flood stage for that river is 9 feet. we're at 20 or 20-plus feet this morning, i believe 20.6 feet. we also have a shot of wayne, new jersey. we did have issues, if you remember earlier in the month, i want to say the 14th or 15th of the month we had flooding there. there are some shots of wayne, new jersey, again with issues with this rainfall. this morning, as far as the rain

is concerned, we're dealing with at least a few areas of showers, kind of really light drizzle at best on the radar. you can take a look at the radar picture to give you an idea. you really see spotty activity across the northeast. likely central to northern maine will pick up some better totals today. even at that you're talking a 0.1 to 0.2 an inch. you usually see red and yellows on the map but you're just seeing light green. some rivers, essentipecially th patuxet river and suchlt udbury river in massachusetts, cresting about at this moment and we'll see that recede. we should note in rhode island, patuxet not likely to get below record stage level of 15 feet before friday. it will be a slow process. the good news is really into thursday and friday we'll bring some areas of 70s from the ohio valley up into the northeast with some sunshine, something all of us can look forward to. >> oh, yes. thank you, todd. coming up, mike barnicle,

are you ready to behave? >> i am. >> i feel sorry for your teachers. >> how about my mom? >> oh, my god. god bless her. coming up, the moderator of "meet the press," david gregory. savannah guthrie has developing stories out of the white house. plus, the latest on the marine's father ordered to play legal costs racked up by anti-gay protesters who picketed his son's funeral. we'll have that story. you're watching "morning joe" brewed by starbucks. resilience. elasticity. imagine that kind of vitality... in your skin. aveeno introduces ageless vitality. as skin ages, elastin fibers break down.

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♪ is michael steele a distractions? >> i can tell you what is a

distraction. having to explain these weird expenditures, having to explain that we're not high-rollers and high-fliers and duplicitous leaders. that is a distraction. and it is michael's responsibility to make sure that we do away with those distractions and we do away with incompetence and we do away with those who would spend money unwisely. 19 past the hour. live look at the white house. joining us now from washington, the moderator of "meet the press," david gregory. from the white house, nbc news white house correspondent and co-host of msnbc's "the daily rundown," savannah guthrie. good morning. no, no, willie, it's not leather. it's okay. >> i'm just curious. >> david, as we talk -- >> i didn't say anything. >> reporter: it's plastic. >> you got the rolling stones --

>> pleather. we've got michael steele. >> reporter: willie, it's pleather. >> we're off the rails. >> david gregory, i was going to raise the bar, but i guess let's start there with michael steele and the lesbian bondage strip club and the other expenses and how big a hit this is for the rnc. >> you know, look, i think there has to be some perspective here. this particular incident is embarrassing, obviously it's going to capture headlines. it's not that it can be laid at the feet of michael steele as the rnc chairman, but i think it raises questions overall about management of the place. it's not just this. there has been a lot of spending on gifts, on travel at a time -- this is what is substantively important, at a time when fund-raising by the republican party has not been what a lot of republicans think it should be. they'll trailing behind previous years, not just on year election years like 2008, but to other cycles. there's a particularly good environment for republicans to be raising money.

a lot of republicans saying, you know, where's the beef here in why aren't you raising more money during this environment? the rnc will say, look, we're doing particularly well with small dollar contributors, a lot of these blast e-mails you see one about firing nancy pelosi right now, that are kind of getting to the base of the party and the base is responding. but why not more than that? look, the rnc doesn't want this kind of attention. it is not the real gravity of the party right now. those are still congressional leaders and others like sarah palin, mitt romney, those out on the hustings. it doesn't need this right now. >> david, before we get to savannah, i thought michael steele actually was known as an effective fund-raiser and had done quite well in that department. >> well, again, i mean, whether he was, there are a lot of republicans who are grousing now about the fact that he's not seizing a -- such a prime gop environment. and even though the rnc -- look, folks will say, we've got a recession going on, number one.

number two, that center of gravity is maybe focused on the tea party movement and the likes of sarah palin. it's more difficult -- again, a lot of republicans say the party should be doing more. >> savannah, we'll move away from the topic of bondage and go to something going on at the white house. what do you expect from this announcement at the air force base today where the president's going to unveil plans tore offshore drilling, something that will aggravate some environmental groups, obviously, but perhaps a political move? >> reporter: yeah, this is really fascinating. the president today is going to andrews air force base and the location is no accident, by the way, to announce a vast expansion of offshore drilling. and i think what we see here is going to be really indicative of how this energy climate debate proceeds in the months and weeks coming forward. that is, the white house is framing this as energy security, a way to reduce dependence on foreign oil. so, he will announce that he wants to expand offshore drilling, large swaths of the

east coast, including off the coast of virginia, the eastern gulf of mexico and also the northern coast of alaska. but he's canceling plans to do some offshore brilings on the bristol bay of lass ras. bristol palin is named aof bristol bay. president obama had planned to do drilling there. it's now canceled. the west coast still offlimits to offshore drilling. no question, this is an olive branch trying to reach middle ground on energy issues. we're seeing it with offshore drilling. the clear hope is that they can get a real bipartisan coalition together on a larger comprehensive energy bill. once again, a key player in all of this will be senator lindsey graham. he found himself in the middle of a lot of these issues, immigration, offshore drilling, the legal rights of detainees and closing of guantanamo bay. it will be interesting to see how this develops. >> david gregory, harold ford made that same point a few minutes ago. what a great opportunity for the

president to show he's reaching out to republicans, perhaps as harold suggests, he should be standing there with a few republicans to show bipartisanship is not dead. >> you know, i think harold raises a really good point. it's a question a lot of people have had really since the beginning of the administration, which is, who are the president's republican friends in congress? with whom is he standing although some of these events? you know, the one area where the president has really kind of fallen down, he has yet to really confound his enemies politically, keep them off-balance in a way he can try to divide them. the success for the republican party tactically, politically, has been keeping pretty unified in opposition. i think this is an example where you're seeing the president now pivot. he had a very confrontational stat, used budget reconciliation, does all the tough stuff presidents are done in the past to get health care through. what is his range to start to pick off some republicans that

we know they've cared about? >> is there an opening here with the gallup poll that shows the major reasons behind the post-health care threats? kind of across the board. democrats, political ma fooufrs, conservative media, republican criticism all get equal footing here. is that an opening for the president to sort of push through this and move on? >> well, i mean, i -- there's always going to be an opening for the president to try to keep the opposition off-balance, for the president to try to enlist support from republicans on issues they have cared about. you see that. he's made that argument with regard to health care, there are things included there that presidents have been for in the past. i think the other question about this strain of america that has lost faith in government or is angry at government, you know, that's something that's sort of always there. if there's a feeling that government is doing something to you rather than for you. that's going to come out as we've seen with some of these threats around the country.

>> hey, savannah, first of all, i'm no longer preoccupied with your nogahide jacket -- >> reporter: pleather, pleather. the leaf blower is back. >> you can set your clock to the leaf blowers for years. it's always the same. >> off of what david was just talking about, savannah, doesn't the white house think politically there's a perfect opportunity to put republicans right in the box of public opinion? make up your mind, one way or the other on financial services reform? >> reporter: oh, there's no question about it. they think they've got republicans right where they want them. frankly, in candid moments republicans will say the exact same thing. this is a tough issue for them, to try to stand united and say, we don't want financial regulatory reform because it puts them on the side of the banks which, of course, are incredibly unpopular. yes, i think the white house is feeling good about financial regulatory reform as the next big legislative achievement. actually, i was promised by september of this fall they'll

have a bill on the president's desk. >> savannah, i'm reading in the washington post style section howard kurtz has a piece, white house is hardly an open book. it's about those in the media who are writing books, including chuck todd, bob woodward. are you writing a book? >> reporter: no, i call this white house the full employment act for washington journalists. >> there you go. maybe you ought to think about it. i think you've got a book. you've got a book in you. savannah guthrie, thank you very much. david gregory as well, thank you. we'll see you, savannah, on "the daily rundown" right after "morning joe." coming up next, life after the health care bill. has the tone in washington become so toxic that nothing else will get accomplished this year? congresswoman maxine waters joins us on the set ahead on "morning joe."

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wayne, new jersey. that is someone's boat. that's right up at the house. that used to be the backyard. that's the story up and down the northeast for you just after 7:30 on the east coast. time for a quick look at today's top stories. a fallen marine's father has received a court order to pay legal costs racked up by anti-gay protesters who picketed his son's funeral. you heard that right. when the case was first heard, albert snyder was awarded $5 million in damages for the protests organized by the westboro baptist church of kansas whose done straighters carried signs with provocative messages like, thank god for dead soldiers. the church claimed it was free speech and violated its free speech and won an appeal. now the dead soldier's father is being held responsible for the protesters' $16,000 in legal costs. the u.s. supreme court agreed earlier this month to consider

whether the protesters are protected by the first amendment. we'll be following that. >> this is the -- >> that's sick. >> this is the ultimate test in your belief as a american citizen in free speech rights. this is the ultimate test to allow the idea of free speech to be so perverted by this obscenity that is the westboro baptist church to be out there. i've seen them out there at other funerals of dead soldiers and dead marines to be saying that the marine or soldier deserved to die because he was defending a country that affords gay people civil rights, at funeral services they do this. it's the ultimate obscenity. >> it's the clash to the right to free speech versus what's morally right and wrong. it's horrific what this father is having to go through. absolutely horrific. at&t executives are feeling the heat from iphone users. complaining about poor service. that's something we've talked about here. chris, how's your iphone?

>> my at&t service? awful. >> yeah, it's terrible. >> since apple's iphone launched exclusively on at&t's network more than two years ago, customers have complained about dropped calls and slow connections, especially in urban areas, such as new york and san francisco. well, now a new iphone is reportedly in the works which would be capable of running on verizon wireless. >> yes! >> at&t's biggest competitor. so, at&t is reportedly working with apple to improving network communications. let me see if i can get this right. hold on. for how long have the calls been dropping, chris? >> years. >> and now verizon is available. >> i must have a super phone. >> my wife is with verizon. she saw a shiny new toy, went to verizon. she had an emotional heart on heart saying i'm coming back to you. i dated a guy you thought was

cooler, he was big, handsome, now i'm coming ba you. i realize you were the good boyfriend. you looked out for me. will you have me back? and they says, we're glad to have you. >> that's a nice story. >> a lovely story. >> as much as this is about veriz verizon/at&t, it's more about the broad band network. there was a new broad band plan released by the fcc. hopefully it will allow us to build as a nation build 4g network with more band width. the reality is, there are steps being taken. hopefully the fcc will move quickly. >> i have a friend in charge of an at&t account and they've been trying to explain that they're really addressing this problem. so, maybe we'll have them on and look into it. because everyone i talk to complains about -- >> i don't complain at all. >> really? >> mine is fine. >> you have no problem. >> there you go. a little balance for you. >> your phone is executive. >> oh, lord, please, don't digress the conversation that mike barnicle -- my very serious

issue about obesity into a joke, which i don't appreciate. we'll be right back with congresswoman maxine waters, who will agree with me on this issue. plus, more with jonathan capehart and harold ford jr. also, spreading spree, fonorah o'donnell has a report on damage control within the rnc. ♪

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what is going on with the republicans? i mean, you've got the head guy spending thousands of dollars to watch topless dancers imitating

lesbian sex. mark sanford, he has a mistress in argentina. conservatives have not looked back at larry craig's affair in the men's room as the good old days. that was the simpler times. you went in the men's room and you came back out. what happened to those days? >> those were the days, huh? welcome back to "morning joe." 40 minutes past the hour. welcome back. the republican national committee is in damage control mode after a new report that outlines spending on private jets and limos and hotels and, of course, that trip to a bondage-themed nightclub. msnbc's chief washington correspondent norah o'donnell joins us now from washington with more on that story. n norah? >> good morning. the rnc has fired a young female staffer who was involved in organizing this visit to the sex-themed nightclub. the rncs ins michael steele knew

nothing about it, he was not there, but some critics are calling for steele to step down. when i asked one of thinks advisers, is he going to resign? that adviser said to me, absolutely not. >> reporter: critics say it gives new meaning to republicans grand old party, $17,000 for private planes, $13,000 for limos, $35,000 for luxury hotels. and then an after-party at a lesbian themed nightclub

featuring topless dancers. >> this is the republican party claiming they would be better fiscal stewards when they are running up massive bills on private jets and limos and questionable entertainment. >> reporter: rnc chairman michael steele has fired allison myers, a 24-year-old staffer who headed their young eagle donor program. she approved the expense at the nightclub voyeur. but the daily caller, an online news site founded by conservative that broke the story reports two top rnc officials also sign about chairman. minnesota's governor tim on msnbc "the daily rundown ". >> they don't want to give money to organizations that spend it frivolously so that should be looked at. >> reporter: over the past decade the rnc has vastly outraised the dnc but no longer. democrats have more money in the bank. >> republicans want to make the 2010 election a referendum on president obama. the more negative information that exists out there about republicans, whether it's michael steele or other people, the more difficult that is.

>> reporter: now, a spokesman for the rnc suggests democrats, too, spend lavishly when it comes to these luxury hotels. still, the rnc admits it is embarrassed by this whole event and that it hopes to, quote, put this behind us. mika? >> norah o'donnell, thanks from washington. let's get get to maxine waters. we were talking in the last hour why michael steele may be untouchable. first of all, do you think, maxine, this is a -- kind of a final check in the box in terms of the trouble he's been in or will he be able to hang on? >> no, i think he won't be able to hang on. every few months we hear something about michael steele. and this one is worse than the last three or four things we've heard about him. i think he's going to -- >> jonathan capehart thinks he'll stay. >> congresswoman, don't you think, though, that one of the reasons why -- i disagree with you.

i think he's going to hang on with all ten fingers to the job. and the reason -- one of the reasons is because, well, who wants to be the person to can the first african-american head of the republican party? >> oh, i don't think -- >> you don't think that plays a role at all? >> no, i don't think so. i think what has happened is they've allowed these various negative incidents to just keep building. and they've built up to the point now where i think it's, perhaps, credible for someone to say he's got to go, no matter what color he is, what background he is. he's got to go. >> let me ask you about the toxic nature of the tone in washington at this point and whether or not this will get in the way of the president being able to move forward. look at this gallup poll. what it shows, basically, among other things, is that 49% believe that the garbage being whipped up in washington is caused by democratic maneuvers and they really look at who's to blame here. it goes across the board. but 49%.

they're not buying a lot of what's out there. >> well, the fact that the matter is, what people had seen on television in recent days is outlandish behavior by the chief party operation in washington, d.c. and i think that speaks volumes about what's causing problems in washington. >> what exactly outlandish behavior? specifically, what do you mean by that? >> the shouting, the overrunning of the capital, the sneaking in of tea party participants into the basement of the capital, the name calling, the spitting, all of that, i think -- >> but i would say that is -- i've seen that on both sides. there's code pink and other left wing efforts to sort of express themselves. some of them get out of hand. i wouldn't just say it's the tea party, would you? >> well, the tea party emerges as rather -- not only outrageous, but they have turned

up the volume in ways that even code pink has not been able to do. >> here's the thing about code pink. they've disrupted committee hearings, they've held up signs -- >> the book event the other day. >> but you don't have members -- you didn't have democratic members of congress egging on code pink from the well of the house. that's what we saw that weekend of the house vote with republican members cheering on people in the gallery who were protesting, republican members standing on the house balcony with, don't tread on me flag and kill the bill. >> didn't we just have a member of congress who had the most serious thing happen to him and that is a death threat to him and his family. >> well, i think -- >> if we're going to look at it, i mean, my god. >> there have been a lot of death threats all over. and this is not the first time we've had death threats on both sides of the aisle. but i was out on the balcony. i went out to stand and watch to see what was happening. and some of the reporters reported that.

and i was amazed. i really was. i didn't say anything to anybody. i just watched. the republicans were out there having a great time. they were laughing. they were waving the american flag. they were egging them on. and i thought that was outrageous baif behavior. i really did. >> could we agree, congresswoman, that company in your district, big or small, could function if they operated the way the congress of the united states functions, with one side viewing the other side as if it were the taliban? so let me ask you, do you have any republican friends? >> i have lots of republican friends. >> do you get along with them? >> i get along with them. >> why can't you transfer that onto the floor of the house? >> well, take, for example, joe and i. he's republican. i'm democrat. we're friends. we get along. we talk. we talked when he was in congress. and there are many members who do that. >> you mention the tea party. there's a lot of talk about tea party. there's a fringe in the tea

party that's vulgar and obscene and stands for everything this country doesn't symbolize, just like you can find stuff on the left that way. but there are people in the tea party who may call themselves tea party people, whatever, maybe some of us sitting around this table who are tremendous tremendously concerned, even though we want health care reform for all, tremendously concerned about the costs. what's it going to cost? >> there have been overshadowed. if they're there, we don't hear their voices. we heard the loud, vulgar voices of the tea party. that's what's out there. >> all right, let me -- >> unfortunately. >> a lot of what has made some people concerned, let's leave the fringe anger aside, but very concerned about our future has to do with jobs and money. i want to read from "newsweek." this is our unhealthy financial future by robert samuelsson. he says, should the united states some day face a budget crisis it will be hard not to conclude that obama and his allies sowed the seeds.

a further irony will not escape historians. for two years obama and members of congress have angrily blamed the shortsidedness of bankers and rating agencies for causing the recent financial crisis. the president and his supporters, historians will note, were equally short-sided and self-centered though their quest for political glory not financial gain. robert samuelsson, have we not, maxine waters, let the problem exacerbate rather than bring it to a close? >> well, you have to recognize that our financial crisis, the meltdown, was causeded by greedy wall street bankers, who targeted minority communities for subprime loans, which has caused this foreclosure, which has caused, basically, the crisis we're in. that cannot be denied. and it has to be fixed. and the president is moving with recovery legislation to deal with wall street, to deal with

the economic -- >> is it enough, though? is it enough to turn the problem around, to not recreate the bubble? >> the fact of the matter is, the president is the one who initiated the consumer financial protection agency. which is an agency that will finally look out for consumers. even though it has not been embraced by wall street and bankers, they're fighting it tooth and nail with well-paid lobbyists. we hope we'll get this bill passed because we think it will go a long way towards helping wall toward reforming wall street. >> congresswoman maxine waters, thanks very much. coming up john shadegg of arizona will be on the show plus, inside with willie geist. we'll be right back. (announcer) we're in the energy business.

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and sausages and all sorts of nice yummy delicious food. and it's an institution. it is a washington institution right there on u street between i believe 12th and 13th streets right in the heart of you know sort of young, old african-american washington is where that -- ben's chili bowl is. >> good food? >> it is great food. they should have a treadmill inside or a stationary bike. >> exactly. >> mickka, you would hate that. >> you can't go anywhere near it. you shouldn't even look at the tape. >> here's the problem. >> in moderation could you do it. >> it's delicious. >> mika doesn't like kids eating bad food. you probably don't want kids acting in school plays of "scarface." this is a video making the rounds on youtube. it's not real. don't worry. it's not a real school play. it was put on in l.a. but a music video producer who hired

child actors. let's watch a clip of young 6, 7-year-olds doing "scarface." >> you do coke and you kill people. that's wonderful, tony. >> i got a buddy. okay, sosa, you want to fudge with me? you fudge with the best. want to play with my little friend. take that, you cockroaches. >> it's kids being kids. that's the nice thing about that. is he good. coming up next, republican congressman john shadegg of minnesota. keep it on "morning joe" brewed by starbucks. [ pearl ] i bought this piece of property

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>> i think he won't be able to hang on. every few months, we hear something about michael steele. and this one i think is worse and that the last three or four things we've heard about him. i think he's a goner. >> all right, that was congresswoman maxine waters just moments ago on morning squloe". be talking more about michael steele and his potential future with the rnc in just a moment. max inwas on the set because she is attending the haiti's donors' conference at the u.n. she has been a long-time supporter of haiti and wants to make sure relief efforts continue there. she's head there had now. welcome, everyone. top of the hour, we have joining us now pull listser prize winning author and editor of

"newsweek" magazine, jon meacham. he won a pulitzer. he has a picture of the moment taken by his personal archivist right in his home. >> i think i've explained that. >> i know you have. it's okay. we won't let you forget it. >> live from phoenix, republican congressman john shad des is a member of the house energy and commerce committee. very good to have you on the show as well, john. we'll be talking about the situation in washington, the toxic nature of things and who's to blame. it will be interesting to get your two perspectives is on that. first today's top stories. the republican national committee is insisting chairman michael steele knew nothing of the now infamous nightclub visit by a group of young republicans in january. party officials say steele will weather the storm and promised to tighten accounting practices. the rnc has since fired staffer allison myer who's helped organize the visit to the hollywood club which features topless dancers and bondage.

it was myers who initially approved the expense but conservative website the dahler caller reports two top rnc officials also signed off on the expense. meanwhile when pressed by david schuser, dnc tim kaine didn't sound so sure if members of his party haven't visited similar establishments. >> just for the record, has any member of your staff in any official business capacity been to a strip club or been to the club out in hollywood? >> i can tell you, i cannot say for sure, but let me tell you what our practices are. we have very tough practices on what people charge to the dnc. we have very tight review practices when charges are made and they come back in, we look at them very carefully to make sure nobody's doing wrong. when we're reporting fec reports, you can be sure nobody's going to write down the name of a strip club and not ask a question about it before they send it to the fec. >> i like the aye yi yi i don't know.

it's not just the strip club although that makes it a headline and a risque one i guess but the spending on the part of michael steele opposed to the fund-raising, are you concerned about the nature of the amounts of money that he spent and on what? >> absolutely. i think it's unacceptable. it has to stop and he's got a lot to explain before he can quite frankly, receive the support of the party to stay in the job. >> let's talk about his job. should he, given what we've seen so far, do you think he should resign? >> well, i think we need to get to the bottom of this particular incident and feed to get to the bottom of the spendures that have been made. at this point, i'm not calling for his resignation. i think there has been excessive spending. the republican party and donors need to be doing their best to raise money and to spend that money to advance our philosophy and elect our candidates, not for frivolous wastes of money or extravagant expenditures of

money. >> i want to talk to you more about that -- >> good morning, by the way. >> it's good to see you, shadegg. >> thank you. >> isn't it like 3:00 a.m. out there. >> it is. it was nice of him to be on the show. we wanted his point of view. meachem, while we're on the top pick of michael steele, i'm not even sure i care about voyeur. it's a $2,000 expense, it's stupid. sounds like a bunch of young staffers went out and made a mistaking. >> it's all relative i guess. it's bad, don't get me wrong. it's the other millions of dollars though that i think look very questionable, just on the face of it when you look at private jets, hotels and tens of thousands of dollars. no? >> it does. i don't mean to be high brow about this at all, but given what we've just been through the last three weeks and what we have ahead of us, to me the real issue is what's going to be the nature of the republican

opposition. more so and that how they spend their donors' money. are they -- is there an engagement? is there a constructive conversation? to what extent is the tea party anger and rage going to be front and center? who is, and i'd love to hear the congressman on this who is the leader of the republican party right now? usually it's the past nominee. is it senator mccain? is it george w. bush? is it congressman boehner, is it chairman steele? when you think about it is it glen beck or rush limbaugh. >> good lord. who's the leader of the republican party as we see it right now? >> well, it's certainly not glen beck or rush limbaugh. i think it is john boehner or john mccain. but i think the question is the right question. that is, where is the republican opposition going. i like to make the point on health care, just because the democrats pass their bill does not republican good ideas went away. we're beginning to see all kinds

of serious problems with this health care bill. corporations saying look, we're no longer going to get one of the subsidies we used to get or one of the support payments we used to get to provide health care to retirees. that requires them to immediately disclose that loss. they're doing that, and mr. waxman is attacking them for simply complying with the law. i think the answer is republicans have to stay positive have, to continue to say we think there are things about this bill that will not work and we have solutions and we have solutions for health care that will give you choice and options and actually control costs where the current bill won't and we have to move on on financial reform and where we are on cap and trade and on and on and continue to demonstrate to the american people that we can govern without spending the nation into oblivion whereas the democrats can't. >> sir, if i can follow up, is it your definition of constructive or positive opposition to use congressman boehner as an example to scream

about armageddon on the floor of the house when you have a health care bill that historically as john dingell has said is to the right of where president nixon was? >> well, i think john dingell is dead wrong about that. richard nixon never advocated an individual mandate. that is unprecedented in american history and i think unprecedented in any health care legislation. i don't know that i would have used the word armageddon but it is important for the american people to understand, this is extraordinary. the american government has never ever, ever inserted it selves in the lives and the businesses of the american body politic the way this administration is doing, and this bill goes stunningly further and that anything anybody had con tem plated before. republicans do have ideas and we should be talking about those ideas. i think there are many failures in this legislation you're seeing. >> with respect sir, particularly given perhaps the demographic. >> you can call me john. >> or shadegg.

>> with the demographics potentially of some of your constituents in arizona, i think social security and medicare, which involved broad-based taxation would count as interference in the lives of the american people on arguably a larger scale. >> fascinating point. i couldn't agree with you any more. social security was adopted by huge bipartisan majority, almost two-thirds of the republicans in the u.s. house at the time social security was adopted voted for the program. when medicare was dataed, more than half the republicans in congress voted for it. those were broadly supported programs that were supporteded by the daily politic the day they passed. they didn't have to be crammed down the throats of the american people with the speaker of the house saying let us pass it, you'll like it later. that's a huge difference. >> congressman, look where we are now. i have a question for jon meachem i'd like to you follow up on, as well. given the post health care reform, threats that we're

hearing about and sort of the ratcheting up of the tension in washington, look at this poll. gallup poll, 49%, jon meachem, believe the stories of threats and harassment are democrats. is that surprising to you? >> it is surprising. >> tell me what you think is behind it and why does that surprise you. >> because it presumes -- we're all pundits now. so to some extent, it's people in kind of a virtdal opinion rendering business there because i don't know if you listen to those messages, if you hear the accounts from john lewis from congressman cleaver who i think are above reproach to say the least. >> they're not on tape. their accounts, i don't not believe that something happened. >> i'll go to the crossthon particular week with john lewis. >> i understand. i understand that completely. but i'm telling you that there's

lots of things on both sides. >> i think -- no, i'm not sure if that's true fairly. >> a death threat to a republican, eric can'ter. >> yes, there is a rage that i find interestingly disproportionate to the nature of the legislation. again, with respect to the congressman. the fact that something is broadly popular is a distinct without a difference really in terms of whether it's a big broad-based program that should pass or not pass. but i believe, i find the complete kind of madness here, the spitting, the epithets, all of that on both sides to be weirdly out of what can with to my mind the nature of the legislation. >> that begs the question for you, congressman, i would think that given your reference to the passage of social security, the passage of medicare, a unique

single pair system, that people seem to be pleased with both social security and medicare. it begs the question of you off of what jon meachem just said, where do you figure the train went off the tracks here? >> well, first of all, willet me say i think the comment is absurd. the fact that. >> what comment. >> the comment that it is stunning that the american people are upset about this given the nature of the legislation itself. you may not find the legislation all that radical but it's not just the legislation that counts. it's the process by which it passed. and the claim that, well, nobody should be upset because this passed by a very, very narrow purely partisan margin and the opposition was bipartisan and they ought to look at the bill and not look at the base of support for the bill, if i did my job that way, i'd be out of office in a matter of weeks. you have to look at where the public is on an issue. the american people not only are upset with the content of this bill, they're upset with the

procedure by which it was adopted. and with regard to people 49% of them not believing that this is in fact, a serious threat just coming from republicans or from tea party people that, reflects on the credibility of the media in this country on the bill itself and on the process by which the bill was passed. indeed, the fact that we're discovering all kinds of errors in the bill right now. the american people don't like things crammed down their throats and when medicare or social security, important policies for this country passed with broad bipartisan support and then bill passes on a sheer partisan vote after a kind of stuffing it in the face of the people who oppose it, and you're shocked that the american people are unhappy? >> shocked they wouldn't believe, no, wait, you're shocked they wouldn't believe that this might be democrats trying to ininto your sympathy for their position on this bill? i think. >> what i'm shocked about is that your colleague who's an

american saint and hero, john lewis, was spit on and called the worst possible thing on capitol hill. you're not surprised by that, about health care? >> everybody is shocked by that, but if you haven't been around the body politic enough to know there are people on the fringe on both sides by now, if you haven't walked through crowds, i was feev or eight feet behind john lewis and i have huge respect for him, but when you get an angry crowd, you're going to have people in that crowd out of the control. if you haven't been around people in that circumstance before, you haven't been to some of these tea party rallies or for that matter regular congressman's town hall. go to a democrats town hall last august. people become intense. if you think everybody in that audience is going to stay in control particularly when they feel in the minority and being shutout and it's a partisan position where you know, it's hike take it or leave it, we're going to stuff it down your throats no matter what and use every procedural trick in the book, if you don't think that's

going to evoke can reaction from somebody in the crowd who has lost their control then i think you need to spend more time around the country. >> you used the talking point that the american people don't like things shoved down their throats or hurled in their faces but the american people what, they do like is leadership. what i want to know from you or from anybody in the republican party, what is the gop's positive agenda going forward? what is the republican party for? i've heard a lot about what the party is against. what is it for? not on health care, the bill has passed but on other things coming up, energy security. >> number. >> financial reform. >> number one thing that the republican party not only is for now but was for the whole time we've been doing health care is getting this economy going again. not by imposing higher taxes, not by increasing regulation, but by encouraging capital formation, by encouraging job

creation. this legislation, i'm sorry you don't want to talk about it, will in fact kill jobs. there's a report out this morning that shows it's going to kill jobs in the student loan sector. americans want in economy taken care of you're back on negative. i want to know, people want leadership. >> i'm telling you we need to promote job creation. >> how. >> by cutting the burdensome taxes we mut on this economy, not adding to them. you tell me, what's our positive agenda? you serve in the minority in the u.s. house or the senate and tell me how you move a positive agenda. we're outnumbered in the house by almost 80 votes. we have an agenda. the agenda is the economy. the agenda is creating jobs by reducing the tax burden on american job creators, on small businesses. that's an agenda. will you let mrs. pelosi, will she put that bill on the floor. >> mike barnicle. >> congressman, i am far from steeped in economics and i think i would ask this same question

of people of both parties. you talk about cutting taxes. we're fighting two wars, social security's on the verge of going bankrupt. medicare is rocky in terms of funding. how do we cut taxes at this time? don't taxes have to be raised eventually? >> well, you find me -- you said you're not steeped in economics and i'm not either and i'm sorry if you consider this comment negative but i just -- that's a question you need to answer. you find me an economist in the world who says the right thing to do in a down economy is raise taxes and we'll have a conversation. we are in fact raising taxes. >> when the economy wasn't down, people of both parties continued to spend without addressing the expenditures and tax revenue. >> i've never defended their spending. take a look at my record. >> why are you retiring? >> seriously. >> the crowds. >> i'm, no, i love the crowds. i enjoy campaigning. because i think after 16 years,

it's somebody else's turn. i think it's time for me to move on and let somebody else come in and serve. i have a passion for freedom and this fight. but i think this is an institution that needs fresh blood. it's an institution that needs younger people. we are driving policy for america's children and grandchildren. i think it's somebody else's turn to take a turn at bat. >> the congressman john shadegg, it was great to have you on today. your voice refreshing this morning. i appreciate your passion, as well. thanks for coming on the show this morning. >> thanks, anytime. >> take care. come back soon. still ahead, taking a bite out of bonuses. senator barbara boxer goes after a big chunk of wall street money. that's next in the political playbook. a special business before the bell. if it's wednesday, what do you think, it's petra? we'll find out live from jordan. what erin burnett is learning about economies in the middle east. but first the latest on the flooding in the northeast with meteorologist todd santos.

>> hey there, mika. still kind of following the story as follows the flooding in the northeast is concerned. the rain showers have tapered off to a few light little pockets of drizzle here and there around central connecticut extending down towards bridgeport. for the most part, compared to yesterday, nothing even close. these numbers under boston, problem dense and hartford select 48-hour rain gauge totals. notice providence that, one stands out with that 8.1 inches. there were a number of gauges, at least five or six gauges in the state of rhode island that picked up over eight. s of rain. we're still dealing with the streams slowly running out and rivers cresting at this point. airline delays not an issue so far this morning. there's a look at temperatures outside right now. by later this afternoon, looking at 50s. notice some of those 70s back to the west and the ohio valley into thursday, they are on their way to the northeast. so something to look forward to. something else to look forward to, we'll be back in a bit. for now you're watching "morning

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he's just sitting there in her radiant aura. look at it. it's bad optics. she's beaming. she's got on her jacket. she's got the for god's sakes when you're interviewing two people, you're supposed to shoot

them both in color. the viewer at home is not even listening. it just sounds like this to them. i found this man wandering at mall. if he looks familiar to anyone, please contact me. i like corn dogs. >> that's just mean. >> no, that's mean. >> 23 past the hour. time now to take a look at the morning papers. "houston chronicle" a big story we've been following all morning. obama today set to unveil a broad new plan for oil and natural gas drilling along the coastlines. it would pave the way for energy companies to explore previously untouched atlantic waters off virginia and possibly new areas of eastern gulf of mexico and even alaska. >> "wall street journal" bp was awarded $500 million in contracts to drill wells in iraq's giant oil fields. >> boston globe anger turns

toward staff in bullying case. residents and public officials yesterday angrily accused the school system of neglecting vulnerable students and called on administrators to resign amid revelations that staff members at south hadley high school knew that phoebe prince was the target of harassment long before her death. >> the "new york post" bull sit! new york state education officials long out on a big grant from obama's race to the top competition after admitting they would have spent more than $200,000 of the prize money on expensive chairs and desks for their offices. >> that's a headline. >> lost out on the money. >> yeah. >> to expensive chairs. tennessee and del care. >> delaware. $500 million. >> that's a lot of money. >> here with us now jim vandehei with a look at the morning playbook. >> how you doing? >> want to pick up on something you were talking about on your last visit.

senator boxer furnishing for a 50% tax on bonuses for wall street executive boards. how does this fit into the debate over financial reform. >> i think this fits into the debate you were having on set with the republican congressman. i think it was capehart who asked the question, what is the republican agenda. and his response was we want lower taxes and less regulation. one of the tricks for republicans in the next couple months is they have to put specificity to that, what does that mean when it comes to arab like health care, what does it mean for job growth and financial reregulation. you can't just say we don't want regulation when you look at the polls and people are angry what happened last year and angry about the bailouts of the banks, the auto industry and other folks. you've got to be able to say this is specifically what we want to do to fix this problem. that's been one of the trouble spots for republicans. they've not been able to agree sort of at least broadly on a specific set of agenda points. there's been talk of doing a contract with america two or

some sort of conservative document but at some point, if you look at polling data, people are really displeased with the lack of ideas from republicans. on financial regulatory reform this could hurt them more than it did on health care reform because the politics are behind doing something on financial regulation more powerfully and that on health care. >> the white house likes where it's sitting in this position, forcing the republicans into a box on this. >> they feel the politics on financial regulation are great, great, great for democrats because the public wants action and democrats seem satisfied going it alone if they have to and weren't in the beginning on health care. >> jim, thanks so much. all day at politico.com. coming up next here, big money in the middle east. erin burnett is live in jordan. the best travel budget in the business belongs to erin burnett. she'll have a look at why economies in that region continue to grow even in the toughest of times. we'll be right back.

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welcome back to "morning joe." live pictures there of met ra, jordan. erin burnett is truly living up to her name. truly living up toner name as the international superstar of c cnbc. this is business before the bell a special edition. erin burnett, take it away live from jordan. >> hey, guys. i got to tell you, it is a gorgeous, gorgeous gorgeous day here. and i hear joe isn't there. i don't know if that's because he's trying to come here or what's going on. been coming through the middle east a lot. this time we did a trip to dubai to find out what's going on there and a stop in rejod where we met with the prince to find out what's going on in the world's largest exporting country and up here in jordan talking about the middle east overall. a couple of things i found. what's going on in dubai right now. everyone wants to know if that situation is resolved and

whether it's the next big thing to fall or not. we went. i think we have video. mickka, i am particular want to hear what you have to say about this. it is apparently the social event of the year in dubai, the world cup horse race. $10 million purse. i can hear it right now. the most ridiculous outfits i've seen. it puts the derby i've ever seen. do you see it. >> now i do. >> yes. >> what the heck is that? >> hmm. things that make you go hmm. sometimes when you don't have anything nice to say, that's all you should say. anyway, finished $2 billion. it was full. although i have to tell you guys some of the people, we went up to one of the boxes to visit with some of the people we know and they had this giant halftime before the final race thing. and there were all these birds flying over, manmade birds and things like that, and everyone kept making jokes, there goes

another million dollars that we don't have. so yeah, there's a lot of that going on there. hotels were full. we visited the atlantis in dubai. and i think every british person and german was there on vacation. dubai seems to actually be holding in there in terms of a tourist destination. night and day, saudi arabia, incredibly different. a headline i want to tell you all this. i talked to the chief of investment and asked him how he felt about oil at $80. it's hurting american consumers. he looked at me, he chuckled, he knocked on wood on his chair and said hope it stays there. that's the download from the middle east. >> the tour of the middle east continues. >> a lot more coming up on our show. billionaires coming to meet us. watch "street signs" today. >> looks beautiful. stunning. >> they come to the desert to see erin. erin, thanks for that report. i'm glad cnbc sends you halfway

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there is a real issue of whether or not this is another distraction from what the rnc is in business to do. we have a historic opportunity to win over 50 seats this time

around and we can't blow it because we are apologizing or explaining our leadership is explaining this sort of nonsense. >> at this point, i'm not calling for his resignation but i think there has been excess i be spending. the republican party and its donors need to be doing their best to raise money and to spend that money to advance our philosophy and elect our candidates. not for frivolous wastes of money or extravagant expenditures of money. >> that was congressman john shadegg a few minutes ago. 38 minutes past the hour. welcome back. we still have jon meachem with us, jonathan capehart, willie geist, and here with us now former bush communications director and former counselor to president bush dan bartlett. good to have you on the show this morning. >> good to be with. >> you talk about michael steele. you just heard john shadeggquiv indicating a bit, not sure this is the end for michael steele.

we had maxine waters on the show who said he's a goner. what do you think. >> i a lot of lot of people have counted him out more than one time. it's hard to tell with positions like being the head of the rnc as to whether those who control the, pull the levers who's in charge whether they'll toss him out. but his actions right now are not defensible. i think shadegg put it right. at a time when american people are worried how their leaders -- this is not a very timely event to see how their leading at the top of the rnc. it's very unfortunate and it's taking the eye off the ball during a crucial midterm election. >> you're a republican and saying this doesn't look good. you're not alone. why do you think he's hanging on especially when the republican party certainly doesn't need a distraction like this right now and we're looking toward midterm elections where there is tremendous opportunity for your party. >> well, again, you know, i

don't know all the details about which itemization of expenses that he was directly knowledgeable or not. but i do think that some of the concerns that you know, one young staffer gets fired over this, whether that will satisfy those concerns. you know the donors themselves will speak the loudest. if they stop giving money to the rnc, everybody knows money is the life blood of american politics. if they are not getting the type of money they need during this crucial election, that will probably force his hand. >> jon meacham. >> hi, dan. >> hey, jon. quick question about nationalizing midterm elections which is tricky. it's happened a couple of times historically. but to some extent does steele matter? i can only think of two republican national committee chairmen who went on to grander and glorious things. one became president and one became the nominee. but does, is, steele a useful foyle for democrats or is this

something you think we won't remember in a week? >> i think that's a very good point. it's a distraction at the national level at a time when the congress is on break. will this really matter at the end of the day when we're talking about in crucial districts whether the democrats are going to hold the congress or not? frankly no. what's going to matter more is going to be the health care debate, the jobs picture, what's going on there. and more importantly today, i think what's looking like a shrewd move by this white house is the announcement they're doing on energy and offshore oil drilling, the type of measures you expect a white house to take in order to help many of those moderate democrats who are concerned about the vote they just had to take on health care. these are the things they need to demonstrate to constituents that the democratic party is not just catering to the extreme aspects of their base. >> let's talk about this latest move by the president. is that going to help, do you think, especially in terms of

working with the republicans and get them to support the climate bill? >> i think two things. one, i think it will help key democrats, mary landrieu, people like that in key districts or key states up for re-election that need to demonstrate that this administration is listening to their concerns. now, do i think that this measure here will help grease the path for a climate change bill and bring republicans on board? no. republicans i think in the congress have made a calculation that cooperating with this administration at this time is not necessary in order for them to pick up seats during the midterm election. so if this is more of a legislative maneuver in order to get a broader bill on climate change, unfortunately, i think it's going to come up short. >> jonathan capehart of the "washington post" has a question for you. >> dan, i want to ask you a question i asked congressman shadegg in the last interview a little differently. do you think the republican party has a responsibility to put forth a positive agenda for

america rather and that completely focusing on the negative and hammering away at what's wronging with what the white house wants to do? >> well, john, that's a good point, as well. i think every party should feel compelled to put forward a positive pro active agenda that demonstrates to the voters that they have the type of solutions to the problems that our country is facing. but let's be frank. midterm -- a midterm it were election during the first term of a president is a referendum. i don't think it will make much of a difference at all if republicans were to put forward a very comprehensive proposal. this is going to be a referendum. i know the white house is going to try to make it a choice and make it about the future. but reality is is that this is the first report card on a white house and on a congress. it's the next cycle when we start talking about presidential politics where the party will be compelled to put forward not only candidates but ideas that the american people can rally

to. >> dan, the atmosphere within which both sides are working, we've had interesting conversation about this gallup poll and the numbers that have come out asking the questions about the reasons behind the post health care threats and rhetoric we've seen out of washington. 49% believe the stories of threats and harassment are simple political democrats posturing for political gain. what do you make of that? what do you think is behind that? >> i think everybody now is can league to these polls and they're looking through it through an ideological lens. democrats are going to say these are true threats. i think this demonstrates the partisanship we're seeing in our country across the boards. >> people are fed up with both sides. there may be an opening here. dan bartlett, thank you very much. great to have you on the show. >> always good to see you. >> when we come back, bullied to death. this morning, nine students are facing serious charges linked to that story in massachusetts. we'll bring in chief legal

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all right. here we go. the story we've been talking about here and how the computer plays a role, as well. but this is about 15-year-old phoebe prince who committed suicide in january after what's been described as relentless bullying. now massachusetts prosecutors have charged nine of her classmates with a number of crimes including state statutory rape, criminal harassment and stalking. we are joined by chief legal analyst dan abrams, founder of the website mediaite.com among others. tell us first of all, bring us up to date where this case goes in terms of who could be held accountable. >> yeah, the d.a. has i think taken a somewhat aggressive move here. generally these types of cases horrible as they are dealt with in the civil courts, which is that something like this happens and the family ends up suing the school, the individuals, et cetera. here, the d.a. has said that she believes the conduct was so

egregious by these other students in terms of the stalking, in terms of not just following this girl around, but tormenting her, throwing things at her, threatening her, et cetera. it was so bad they've decided to charge six of these kids criminally and three of them in juvenile court. >> first of all, how do you charge kids for blowing over a long period of time without then holding accountable those who knew about it? how do you know about it unless administrators were given some sort of. >> because the action is a crime. knowing about it is a moral crime, right? one is a criminal act allegedly, the other is a sort of moral crime. now, the law has changed in massachusetts as a result of this case. >> last week. >> that's right. and so now if school officials know about bullying that is potentially criminal, they're

abili obligated legally to go to the authorities. you can't pass a law after the fact and apply it to something that happened earlier. >> the issue of bullying in schools if you break it down, there's various forms of bullying in elementary school, cruel, and this was just a second up to an entirely different level in high school. but the district attorney, elizabeth shibal is her name, my view is she should be applauded for her prosecutorial courage in filing charges because all tool often, they are, as you just pointed out go to civil court by the parents suing or get kicked back to the school department, please take care of this. what's your view on this very aggressive prosecutorial action. >> we don't know all the evidence yet. i'd like to know more before i come down one way or the other. based on what we know, i think this seems like a smart balance meaning there are going to be some people who say about this da, wait a s.e.c.

we've got a dead girl and you're charging these kids with harassment? the da i think made the smart decision to say wait a second. there is no way i'm going to be able to criminally charge anyone with her death. different from civil. so i think it was a good move on her part. >> let me ask you this. i know you said the cyberbullying component of this was lower and that a lot of this was physical and verbal abuse, but had the facebook pages and all the internet transactions of students been an open book to their parents every step of the way, would they have known about this and could they have known about this. >> the parents did know about this. the parents report this had to the school authorities. this didn't come as a surprise. that's the problem here is that these are parents who said, we've got a problem here. some of this bullying occurred in front of school officials. so, that's why i think so many people are saying, you know, what about the school? what about the responsibility of the officials who knew about it

and that's why i think we saw a change in the law. >> you know what's kind of interesting about this at the level that you just referenced is that at one level the administrators, the teachers who knew and did nothing, it's morley reprehensible. and yet at another level, so many teachers in so many public schools living in this litigation crazed society we're a part of are afraid of getting sued if they correct a kid in class. >> i think that's right. look, i need to know exactly what they saw to know sort of how bad the situation was, but the teachers are in a tough spot. this sounds like a case where school officials dropped the ball. at least according to the da. and look, these are the times when the laws get changed, right? when there's so much outrage out there in the public that people say the law has to change. >> it sounds like with the new law teachers will be in a position to make distinctions of

calling a kid a bad name as opposed to the something that rises to the level of this kid might take action. >> it's got to be something that could be a criminal act. >> what's the distinct there? >> when you talk about stalking or criminal harassment, how is a teacher to know what is criminal harassment versus just harassment. so i think the goal here is to simply get school officials reporting more to the police about what's happening. >> there's a way you behave and there's a way you don't. that's the bottom line. >> definitely this case though, the actions were pretty egregious. >> unbelievable. dab, come back soon. your website mediaite.com. we'll be right back with more "morning joe" and what we learned. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 if it was up to me?

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