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jimmy has some e-mails, they're piling up. they're thhigh. >> rich from -- it doesn't say where he's from. he says, i'm staying up to see if barnicle doesn't nod off midsentence. >> it's true. the only thing keeping barnicle away is we have him there at gunpoint. you look like a hostage. sta fair to say? >> no kidding. filling in for you is like being a hostage. >> chris from boston writes, i'm up way too early to celebrate the birthday of two of my idols, joe scarborough. >> peter, we're glad you're with us, baby. he had a close call a couple years ago but he's doing very well. guess what? everything you've been waiting for, patrick j. buchanan,

savannah guthrie, "morning joe" right now. we'll sink in on people that, you know, shooting three-point shots may be clever but it doesn't put anybody to work. what we need is a president, not an athlete. we need somebody who actually focuses on getting people back to work. >> good morning. welcome to "morning joe." today is friday, april 9, 2010. i'm mary tyler moore. >> i neglected to interview the brainiacs. >> i know. we had a funny joke. i'm mary tyler moore. >> i'm lou grant. >> there you go. >> by the way, give me your car keys. you violated your curfew. >> i was at the library. i got so into "war & peace," i couldn't put it down. joe and mika are on assignme

assignment -- >> you're kidding. >> this show is going downhill. time to turn it off. pat buchanan here, msnbc political analyst. bannic barnicle doesn't like you. i neglected to announce, and willie geist, the one and only. >> so i have to be here through the we'll show. my understanding is i only had to do my show. >> yeah, that's awkward. you know what, willie, you'll be here till 9:00. >> you know what -- >> what? that's an outrage. >>-i to tell sa van nashgs his ego is bigger than the water tank behind him in that shot. >> isn't that pretty? >> we've noticed. >> we light that up ourselves just for you guys. >> it's beautiful. i like. it's sort of a kind of sepia toned lighting production you have down there.

it's pretty. >> nothing says the masters like a municipal water tank. >> indeed. willie geist in augusta on tiger watch. let's do the top stories before we -- before further ado. >> go ahead. >> since i can read, they said i should actually do it. rescue workers are resuming their search for the four miners missing after monday's deadly explosion in a west virginia coal mine. officials say levels of gases have dropped enough to resume the seven now but they have acknowledged it is unlikely the four missing men are still alive. nbc's brian mooar joins us from naoma, west virginia, with the latest. how are those rescue efforts going? >> well, savannah, they're proceeding at least today. these rescue workers went in a little after midnight and supposedly been making some progress. we'll get an update in half appear hour, what they found at this point. yesterday was a day of disappointment when they got

within 500 feet of place they believe these missing miners might have bunkered down if they were able to survive this blast, that's considered unlikely, and time is running out today, because if they were in that shelter area, oxygen would be running out. meanwhile, nbc news has learned this upper big branch mine has been cited a startling number of times in the last decade. this information hasn't been made public yet but has been provided to lawmakers who are learning this mine was cited 61 times in the past 15 months alone. and more than 100 times in the last decade. five of those times the miners were said to be in imminent danger because of these violations. massey energy was not given a withdrawal order, which would have pulled all the piners out because the federal government says the mine operator was making progress in reducing the number of these violations. but that goes into the big investigation. president obama has ordered a full report on what happened here. and that is supposed to be on

his desk by early next week. savann savannah? >> nbc's brian mooar in west virginia with the latest for us. thank you. >> i can clearly recall as if it was yesterday, it was quite a while, going down there to cover a coal strike. maybe about 15 years ago. the idea that conditions were as desperate then, both economic as well as physical conditions working in the mine, are the same today. i can't think of another american industry where these violations would be allowed to occur repeatedly over and over and over. >> you wonder, 124 something like that violations in one year, how serious are they and why isn't -- i mean, why aren't these mines shut down if it's that grave and that serious or are these just miner infractions? >> you know what, brian mooar cited some violations said the wokkers were in imminent danger.

sometimes it could be something quite insignificant but it sounds like in this case some weren't very serious. we'll keep an eye on that. a desperate story as they try to rescue those four miners still deep inside the mine. other news now. right now the president is on his way back from a high-profile trip to the czech capital of prague. earlier today the president attended a bilateral meeting with the czech prime minister and russian president medvedev on the heels of yesterday's historic signing of the nuclear reduction treaty, reducing the number of nuclear weapons in the u.s. and arsenals by one-third, a step toward obama's goal of a world without nuclear weapons. obama is expected to arrive in the united states later this afternoon. israeli prime minister netanyahu has canceled a trip to washington next week where he planned to take part in president obama's 47-country nuclear security summit. he made that decision after learning some nations intended to raise the issue of israel's

presumed nuclear arsenal at the conference. as a result, netanyahu is sending his intelligence and atomic energy minister in his place. israel is believed to be the only nuclear-armed power in the middle east but has never confirmed nor denied publicly it possesses atomic weapons. just when we thought relationships between our country and israel were tense, now we have this. pat buchanan? >> you had egypt and turkey both. the turks have turned very anti-israel. the head of turkey calling a dear friend, the leader of iran, so turkey has turned against israel and the egyptians were going to bring up israel's nuclear arsenal, embarrass him and turn the focus away from iran's alleged attempt to get a weapon. and i think it would have been embarrassing but it's embarrassing not to have the prime minister here as well. >> indeed. >> right when you think things are improving in the right direction after a week of friction between the two countries, now you have this. it's interesting to see how this will play out diplomatically.

i could not even guess what it means for -- >> i don't think the president wants to continue the exacerbation of relations with israel. politically it's not good for him. if he's going to try to do something, they've done enough of the face-to-face. >> do you think iran has already achieved its goal of being the most powerful player in the middle east? >> i'm a skeptic on -- i don't think iran is near a nuclear weapon. look at their centrifuges, 8,000, 4,000 aren't even working. and press secretary says they can't even enrich fuel up to 20%. i think iran is running a big bluff in terms of whether or not it is close to a nuclear weapon. >> it may be, but they're holding all the cards. they are basically manipulating the world with the fear that they are on -- >> i actually agree with pat. if you look at the internal dissension within the country that's a ticking time bomb. it means you have to find the right avenue in there for -- >> for all their talk, when was

the last time iran started a war? i can't even think of it. >> well, they're not suicidal. >> that's exactly the point. >> they have a loud mouth over there, we're going to burn up this and that, a lot of baghdad bob in that place, talking about what they're going to do. i'm not sure they've got the tickets. >> isn't it as much about not what iran might do but what israel feels it may have to do because it feels that this poses -- >> well, going over there, all those fellows going over there -- >> that has to be contention -- >> if this goes up, israel goes after iran, we can get every american out of lebanon, hezbollah will be going after the americans, go up for everybody. >> well, let's turn to other stories. we have a hole you'll be interested in. >> let's get back to -- >> i know. we've got to lighten it up. i mean, come on. the latest "usa today"/gallup poll says the

democrat party is losing its favorable party among the american people. >> that's great. >> someone at this desk is going to be happy. >> light news there. >> pat buchanan. republicans now top democrats with a favorable rating of 42%. an area of gop trailed in the previous four years at 41%. the democrats have reached their lowest point in the 18-year history of the poll. >> you know, but we read that like it's a serious news item. it's a serious news item. okay, but 42/41, that's everybody in american saying we don't like anybody on the ballot. >> but the trend for republicans -- >> it's more bad news for democrats. i don't know what the republicans have done to deserve their 42%. >> it's across the board. >> democrats are haurting. >> it's across the board. you look at the internal numbers, the parties down 6% among democrats, 10% among independents, 7% among republicans in terms of favorability. it's not just the base souring on the party, republicans being

against the party. it's everybody. >> i thought they would get something out of the bump having -- he won the battle over health care up on the hill and he did get a bump for about ten days, which you do, and then the thing goes back. he's as low a point he's been since he started. >> to mike's point, don't americans just kind of hate whoever's in power and the democrats hold all the cards right now? >> didn't i tell you he was a brainiac. he looked at the internal numbers. >> he did. look at him. >> shocking. >> he's like that kid in school, i got answer. >> internal numbers. >> he's memorized -- >> it was on the web page. >> whatever. you know what, he's like the cross tabs -- >> i'm going to shut my mouth for now. >> he's got an apple for the teacher later. moving on. the head of the congressional budget office is taking the lead from federal reserve chairman bern nan i can and paul volcker calling the national debt unstainable. is he predicting dire

consequences if political leaders don't scale back spending, increase taxes or both. the report predicts an increase in public debt from $7.5 trillion at the end of 2009 to $20.3 trillion if president obama's fiscal budget is implemented as rin written. quote, cannot be solved through minor tinkering. what about it? >> you know what's interesting to me about that story is that we have -- some of us in the media have confused the tea party movement with being just a bunch of crazy people out there yelling racial epithets. i understand that's what we cover. i understand that happens at a certain level of the tea party movement. there's a lot of people in this country who are very concerned about the size of the deficit and the growing deficit. they don't belong to the tea party but their concerns are similar. >> you're exactly right. look what is happening in greece. today it looks like it's in danger of default. our deficit is almost as big as

theirs. and, quite frankly, mike, when you look at it, republicans aren't going to give the government a dime in new taxes. democrats aren't going to start cutting medicaid, social security, medicare. where is this discipline -- where is it going to come from? i don't think it's going to come. >> i don't know. obama got hit over the head repeatedly by republicans for cutting medicare. there are people trying to tackle it. of course it has to be done more comprehensively. the way out of it, of course, is economic growth. once you can get a more sustainable -- >> can you close at 11% -- >> no, not -- >> you sound like reagan. this is -- >> i'm not saying that's the only thing. >> you're a supply sider. >> that's deep inside the poll. well, i mean, isn't this part of the reason americans are so disgusted? they feel -- >> mike's point is well taken. i think there's a real sense out there, wait a minute, what are we doing? this is huge. government's getting huge. we've never seen deficits like that. they're just out of their scope they're used to. and i think that's what a lot of

these tea party folks are terrified of. >> gives public people the opportunity to prove how hypocritical they are. they stand up, pound the table, we need to cut programs. what program do you want to cut? >> waste, fraud, abuse. >> americans play a role in this, too. we don't want our taxes increased. we don't want our government programs to go away but we like to complain about the deficit. speaking of outrage here's one. a dip from qatar who sparked a terror scare on i flight from washington to denver will not face criminal charges but being sent home. 27-year-old moment al madadi allegedly tried to sneak a smoke in the plane's bathroom and joked he was trying to light his shoe on fire when questioned by a flight attendant. he was traveling on official business reportedly to the super max to visit a qatari citizen

who pleaded guilty in conspiracy to the 9/11 attacks. interesting article in "the times" this morning about whether this is an example of the system working or the system overreacting. the guy had a nic fit. >> what a terrible joke. i'm lighting my shoe on fire. >> you know, i walked past the qatar embassy. there's a cvs across the street. nicorette gum. >> just ask the president. go ahead and joke about lighting your shoe on fire while 30,000 feet in the air. coming, 10,000 people planning to march on wall street. who are they and what do they want? that's next in the "politico playbook ". tiger has been out of the game for months. but you wouldn't have guessed it after his impressive opening day at the masters. what reaction de get from the crowd? more importantly, from willie

geist? he's live in augusta. first, a check on the weekend weather with bill karins. good morning. >> good morning. a good friday out there. light rain to start your commute from new york city up to new england. it will be gone by it afternoon. it's not going to be that hot summer air we had but nice sxen joyable, how it should be for the middle of april. today's forecast, early morning rain, exiting new york city, hartford and boston you have to wait until noon or so. then we'll clear out for a nice day. i mentioned the weekend forecast. looks pretty good. right now, middle of the country, beautiful. all that nice, warm air is going to sweep to the eastern sea board. temperatures will be in the 60s and 70s, just about everywhere. even chicago's going to warm up on saturday. and sunday, by the way, looks like a carbon copy. a very nice weekend coast to coast. you're watching "morning joe" brewed by starbucks. [ male announcer ] there are 16 chevy models

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soom critics say this commercial is a misuse of his deceased father's voice for an easy manipulation. folks, there was nothing cheap or easy about it. they had to go through tons of voiceovers to find just the right father figure. jim? >> glowing rowing up is a prett thing, beaver, if you grow up. it's all right to look back on the good times you had. the thing s when you try to relive them, somehow they're never quite as good the second time around. you know, the sad thing s there are some men my age still trying to be little boys. >> oh, why did that end on the

cutting room floor? that would have been an improvement over the actual ad. >> good stuff. good morning, welcome back to "morning joe." we have mike barnicle here, aka, admiral stockdale. >> what am i doing here? >> pat buchanan is here, sam stein from "the huffington post" and willie geist in augusta. before we go further, let's take a look at the morning papers. how about we read them. >> go ahead. >> wall street journal -- greek bond crisis spreads concern over a potential liquidity shortage at greece's private sector banks fueled a sharp selloff yesterday in greek debt and equity markets. what a mess. >> the washington "times" -- rubio keeps claiming, charlie crist denies that the florida governor will bolt from the republican party. the front page photo shows presidents obama and medvedev toasting their nuclear arms treaty. miami herald -- clash in the classroom, a controversial bill expected to make it's way to the governor's desk would tie teacher pay to student progress.

and the l.a. times -- the nation's retailers had a blowout month in march as shoppers went to a spending spree. it's the best monthly showing in at least a decade offering bolder evidence that a stronger economic recovery could be ahead. savannah, but, you bought this, and that helped. >> i'm doing my part. one-woman recovery package at the shops. the l.a. times -- in kyrgyzstan, the president is now in hiding after a violent uprising there. the front page photo shows members of the opposition posing for photographs in the president's cabinet room. well, wherever he is hiding, i'm sure he didn't like to see that. >> you know who else is posing for photographs? >> who? >> patrick gavin. >> i know, he's such a celebrity. >> only the classiest photos. >> i know you have a big exclusive but let's do the other

story first. you have the morning playbook. turn out -- you have an exclusive with afl-cio president who gave a massive march on wall street, as we understand it. let's play a sound bite and then we'll talk about it. >> people will be talking and chanting, and letting american -- letting wall street particularly know their brand of economics were the financial economy overshadows the real economy is no longer acceptable, we want them to help pay for the jobs that they destroyed. there will be a lot of people and a lot of energy and a lot of fun. >> all right. how does he hope to include washington with this march? what are the plans? >> i think he says it's going to be a lot of fun but it's not going to be a lot of fun if you actually work on wall street. he says he wants 10,000 people to flood the subways, the buses. they'll have union marshals to dispel any counterproductive tactics.

this is part of obama's next pushes, which is financial regulation reform. trumpka wants higher taxes against wall street and he wants to do this rally on april 29th in wall street. it will be interesting to see what the white house's reaction will be. he was very involved in the health care debate but by the same token while obama definitely wants to pass financial regulation reform, obviously his other big issue is jobs. if trumpka or others can somehow make the american public feel as if financial regulation reform is somehow going to hurt jobs, even though trumpka would argue wall street has hurt jobs, it will be interesting to see what distance the white house has from trumpka and others from labor unions. >> you know, patrick, the salehys, a very exclusive couple. how did you manage to grab another interview with them? >> i don't know. must be my charm.

they're actually in town -- or at an event last night promoting polo, their favorite sport. what's so interesting, we asked them, back in the day when this news first broke they went on the "today" show and said, oh, i wish this would have never happened to us. this made our lives miserable. we said, does that really think that's the case? you're on the real housewives, a book coming out. the best part is i got a look at mr. salahi, i call him that as a term of respect, his cuff links were white house cuff links. so, clearly he's not that upset about what happened back at the state dinner last year. a little souvenir the white house must have given them. >> is there a show called "real housewives of washington, d.c.?" ? >> i think it's interesting that barnicle pretends he's not tivoing that? it hasn't started yet. >> they won't officially say they're on it. they say they're huge fans of it. >> is it on the comedy channel?

>> it ought to be. it ought to be. but, no doubt, they'll be on it. sadly, i'm sure it will be a rating bonanza. >> patrick gavin, thanks a lot. >> thanks. we're expecting another news conference out of naoma, west virginia, on the rescue effort. and a little later, moderator of "meet the press," david gregory, join us. >> wow. and starting next week, this is big news, you can take your "morning joe" to go. joe, mika and willie will be broadcasting the show live on satellite radio. tune into sirius/xm channel 90. >> brewed by starbucks. >> well said. [ vrrroooooomm! ]

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♪ ♪ i'm a space cowboy ♪ bet you weren't ready for that ♪ shot of the international space station this morning.

why? because we can. they're doing something with gloves on. good morning, everybody. welcome back to "morning joe." >> getting breakfast. >> they're blogging. >> they're having some tang. 6:30 on the east coast. time for a look at today's top stories. rescue workers are resuming their search for the four miners missing after monday's deadly explosion in a west virginia coal mine. officials say levels of gases have dropped enough now to resume the search but they have acknowledged it is unlikely those four missing men will be found alive. a news conference with the latest information is expected to begin just a few moments from now. police in kabul say they have arrested five would-be suicide bombers making it the largest such capture ever in the afghan capital. the suspects were detained at a routine check point where harnesses and explosive vests were found under their vehicle's engine. if your allergies have been acting up, you're not alone. it looks like it's going to get

worse, too. 20 # 10 is expected to have a brutal allergy season, especially in the southeast where the dreaded oak tree is the main culprit of allergic reaction. the words pollen and allergy are among the top ten trending topics in twitter in several u.s. cities. >> why would you twitter about your allergies? >> why would you twitter about any number of things? wait, i just tweeted, i just took a sip of pie coffee. >> my eyes are tearing up. please. >> i don't know. >> it is bizarre. >> a lot of naval gazing happening on twitter, theeat's r sure. let's do sports. willie geist live in augusta with the latest from there. willie, how did he do? >> yes? i assume we're talking about k.g. choi? he did great. he's 5 under, 1 shot off the lead. i think you might be talking about tiger woods. tiger woods overcame the pollen down here and had a great day. in fact, one of his best in a

first round at the masters. he was a little worried, he said this in his press conference, about what kind of reception he would have got. it's the masters, people are respectful here. he got a huge ovation when he came out and when he was introduced. and he bombed his first shot off the tee perfectly, right down the middle, a vintage tiger woods tee shot. if he was nervous, he dent show it there. right down the middle, he parred the first couple of holes and then he started cooking on the third hole he drops this birdie putt to go under par, 1 under there. on the 8 hole, beautiful approach, setting up one of his two eagles. he shot a 4 under, 6 yesterday. a helpful bounce there coming back in. he would drain the putt. tiger woods clearly back on his game, including on the very next hole, the 9th hole. if you play golf, you know human being can't do this.

wraps it around the tree, runs back to the middle of the fareway to see where it went, fires it up under the green. you know, just a little approach to set up a birdie putting him 3 under par. he did talk about controlling his emotions more on the course. he talked about that during his press conference. well, there was a couple moments where he reverted to the old tiger but nothing to get too excited about. you'll see him on the 14th hole here, a terrible approach. yanks it into the gallery, drops his club. nothing too serious there. what's he going to do? in the heat of battle showing emotion. shooting a 4 under, 68. he shot 33 on the front 9, 4 under 68 best first round ever at a masters. afterwards, he was talking about the reception he received here at augusta. >> the reception was incredible all day, from the time i went to the putting green to putt, the range, and back to the putting green, off to the first tee, and then pretty much all day. it was just -- it was

incredible. i was saying thank you all day. the people were just -- have been incredible, incredible all day. >> well, they were very nice inside the ropes where the patrons at augusta national, but there was a plane flying overhead trailing a sign that said, tiger, did you mean bootyism instead of buddhism. remember he talked about his buddhism getting him through this scandal. bootyism. get yourself our bn our ban. tom watson put on a show. he almost won the british open last season and now he's going to make a run at augusta national. tom watson shooting a 5 under 67 at 68 years old. just unbelievable on a course this difficult with you have to be able to bomb it out there for him to shoot that well.

freddie couples is your leader. fred, no spring chicken, 50 years old. he's got a terrible back. you see him here. he shot a 6 under, 66. he is the sossole leader. fred koums playing in sneakers and no socks because it helps his back. you see the leaderboard there. going back to tiger, a lot of questions about that nike ad. he hadn't addressed that. he did talk about using his father's voice in the nike ad after his round yesterday. >> well, i think it's very apropos. i think that's what my dad would say. and it's amazing how it -- how my dad can speak to me from different ways, even when he's long gone. he's still helping me.

and i think any son who has lost a father, who meant so much in their life, i think they would understand the spot. >> so, guys, back in d.c., he said he had no hesitation about using his old man's voice in that nike ad. >> that's interesting. willie, i'm confused. is it really the emotion on the golf course, is that what the problem was? he needs to cut down on that? i don't get that. >> you know, i'll tell you, big story. the tiger thing is a big story. great golf yesterday. spectacularly beautiful venue. the single most pretension televised sporting event, the masters. >> that's why we could only send one person to cover it, willie geist. he knows his pretension, right, willie? >> when you think country club pretension, take this guy right here. >> exactly.

willie, we'll check in with you in a couple minutes from now, including your interesting run-in with john daly. when we come back, president obama responds to an attack from sarah palin. "the washington post's" jonathan capehart here, glad-handing, politicking, kissing babies. we'll be right back. [ male announcer ] fishing pole, it's been a while. you stood in the basement gathering dust while i, sneezing, itching eyes kept you from our favorite stream. the one that runs through a field where pollen floats through the air. but now, with the strength of 24-hour zyrtec® to relieve my worst allergy symptoms, indoors and outdoors... let's go before the fish stop biting. they won't wait for us. but that's okay.

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breaking news on msnbc. governor joe manchin is giving a

fuse conference. rescue crews once again have to be pulled from the mine because the level of noxious gases is too dangerous. those crews have been pulled again from their work. however, they did go to the first rescue chamber and found no one there. so, that's the news breaking out of naoma, west virginia, this morning. we'll keep an eye on it and let you know if there are any developments. with us now, editorial writer for "the washington post" and msnbc contributor, jonathan capehart. jonathan, let's set the table. since we're surrounded here by men today, apparently we could get no women? no one else -- i'm the only one who would sit with all you guys, apparently. >> it's your massive ego. >> it's not just my hair that's big today. let's play a clip with president obama, he sat down with george stephanopoulos and asked about sarah palin's remarks. >> she says it's unbelievable.

she'ses you're like a kid, punch me in the face and i'm not going to retaliate. your response in. >> i really have no response to that. last i checked sarah palin's not much of an expert on nuclear issues. if the secretary of defense and the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff are comfortable with it, i'm probably going to take my advice from them and not from sarah palin. >> patrick j. buchanan, why are you smiling? >> i'm smiling because he made a mistake. >> you think so? >> yeah, you don't reference sarah palin and say, i have to comment, a big smile and move on, for heaven's sake. he showed she's getting to him a bit. >> oh, come on. >> i thought he showed a lot of restraint. imagine what he probably wanted to say compared to what he did say. >> the president of the united states, he should be friendly and dismisses ive. >> doesn't it say more about sarah palin than barack obama? she understands her hero, ronald reagan, had a vision for nuclear

disarmament, right? that no other -- >> you've got the president responding to sarah palin. palin's here, the president's here. >> that's a media problem -- >> up until 18 months ago sarah palin thought s. tnct.a.r.t. wa something you yelled at a dog. >> now the president is responding to her. >> stephanopoulos asked her the question. >> he did that just to get the response he got. >> i take your point. you know, he could have been dismisses ive and moved on and said, no comment. the thing i found surprising is that he actually uttered her name. >> twice. >> last i checked -- >> i thought you could -- >> i mean, it's a nonstory. >> the policy is what we should be focusing on. sarah palin doesn't understand. >> that shows she won this because we're debating it. >> it shows we have a bad attention span. >> huffington post. >> i'm sorry, you're right. i'll go back to drinking coffee. >> let's do the op-eds.

we're going to do it, a big washington post bonanza for the op-eds, as it should be for capehart. eugene robinson writes, a lone voice in defense of michael steele. he writes, now it is also true they don't make margins wide enough to contain mike's transgressions but consider the context. he's the first black leader after a party that has no african-american members of congress and many americans rightly or wrongly see as indifferent or hostile to their interestses and steele has to deal with bone-head officials thatter. pet the way the party's es strangement from african-americans. without mentioning the tiny little detail known as slavery until the governor was widely criticized. say what you want about chairman mike, he does not have an easy job. jonathan, do you agree with your colleague? >> i do agree with my colleague on that one point. he is the chairman of a party that does have issues with

people of color. on the other hand, michael steele has shot himself in the foot so many times, either through spending or by saying stupid things or seriously questionable things. and, you know, this is a guy who, if he wants to view his -- view himself as having a slimmer margin for error, because of race, and ignore the fact that he's just -- he just hasn't been leading the party well, then he has a problem. gene and i have the same view. he's a little more benevolent in his view -- >> you're mean, in in other words? >> yes, i'm mean. >> he lucked out given the trend we've had, the polls this morning. republicans going this way, democrats going this way. >> one reason republicans picked the guy. he's african-american, articulate, good spokesman, i know we're not -- he's african-american, let's put him in as chairman. he's there. partly because he's african-american and he's made a lot of mistakes.

no doubt about it. i like the guy. i think i contributed to his campaign. i was glad to see him in there. but he's made a lot of mistakes, frank -- i mean, mike. >> frank. >> come on back here. pat's talking to you. >> he was talking to me, i think. >> i must have been thinking of another show. >> this isn't "crossfire ". >> not to interrupt frack's joke there, but keep in mind, michael steele was put in place because his competitor was found out to have belonged to an all-white country club. race does play a component from the beginning. the one saving grace for michael steele in this very limited scandal, if you were, is that actually no one is really paying attention to it. there's a pew poll, 60% of the public hasn't heard about it all. you know, steele's case right now is with the insiders, of course. he has to please them. you know, this hasn't disseminated broadly in the

sense the coverage would suggest. >> it's a beltway coverage. you bring in all the national committee guys and fire the one -- the black chairman that you've got, and you've got a huge story -- >> much bigger -- >> everybody has egg over their face. put the lid on it it and let's go through to january. >> isn't the bottom line the bottom line, though, and isn't the rnc fund-raising looking pretty good last month? >> yes and no. it's good and strong but spending way more than they're taking in. so for something like 10 out of the last 12 months they've spent more than they raised, which is problematic. >> i talked to an rn skrchlt guy and he said they put 9 mill in west virginia -- >> and no one has better facts than eddie over here. >> that's true. know, frank, that's such a salient point. >> thank you, lucy. oh, yes. i thought it was mrs. stockdale. jonathan, you stay with us. willie will be back from augusta

in a minute. we have sam stein here to try to keep the level a little higher. and we'll be right back with willie from augusta. [ vrrroooooomm! ]

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other rare but serious side effects may occur. here he is. tiger woods with his dramatic return to the pga tour. >> golfer has been anxiously awaiting for this moment. here he is. tiger woods. stepping up to his first tournament shot in five months, since his stead in rehab, the sex scandal, lots of dirty and naught y ladies. thank you, waitresses, hookers, short ones, fat ones, physician assistan assistants, bar maids, glass blowers. the list just goes on and on. perfect shot, right down the middle. boy, does this guy love sex. >> oh, yes. is it time? >> that's terrible.

that's terrible. i want no part of that. remember john daly? if you're a golf fan, of course you do. he was tiger woods before there was tiger woods. in the early 1990s he was supposed to bring golf to the masses, to introduce a whole new group of people to this great game. well, he's fallen off. he's had so many personal problems. actually hasn't been in contention here at the masters, believe it or not, since 1993 when he had a top five finish. well, he's here this week, but not to play golf. >> what's your name? >> steve. >> nice to meet you, man. >> reporter: john daly at the masters. >> thank you. >> you got it. >> reporter: it's been a long time since daley was competitive at augusta national. he last made the cut in 2002 and hasn't qualified for the masters in four years. but that doesn't keep him away. the two-time major winner is in town hawking a line of merchandise out of his rv across the street from the club. >> oh, i've been doing this, geez, since '01, '02.

the last couple of years it's been tough. but hopefully i'll get back over there. you know, i'd much rather be over there. >> reporter: how's your game? >> it's coming around. you know, i'm not getting as many tournaments as i thought i would, but definitely going to remember the ones to gave me spot this year, that's for sure. >> reporter: two decades after he burst on the golf scene as a rookie with a win at the pga championship, daley doesn't play on the pga tour much anymore but he remains one of the most popular players in the game. >> john daly is every southern. and everybody loves a person that's a real person. that is john daly. >> kind of sad, here he is. should be playing. i think he'll be back out there. >> reporter: daly's personal problems have often been on display over the years, leaving him with a soft spot for tiger woods. >> you can understand the guy lived a sheltered life for a long, long time. he's been this way his whole life, golf, golf, golf. you know, i'm sure his dad would be whooping his butt right now.

he made some stupid decisions, but it's life. i made tons of them. that's how we bounce back and he'll do it on the golf course. >> john daly knows of what he speaks. he swears he'll be back inside the gates of augusta national playing golf sometime in the next few years. when we send it back to washington on "morning joe," david gregory and norah o'donnell join the conversation. all that and more when "morning joe" comes right back.

we'll presently sink in on people that, you know, shooting three-point shots may be clever but it doesn't put anybody to work. what we need is a president, not an athlete. we need somebody who actually focuses on getting people back to work. >> okay, that was newt gingrich. good morning, 7:00 on the east coast. with us on set for "morning joe," msnbc contributor pat buchanan, "the washington post's" jonathan capehart. i called norah o'donnell, woke her up, got her out of bed and said, we need a woman here, please help me out. she joins us now. and you are, frank. >> we feel, we all feel, pat,

jonathan, myself, like two, three car wrecks in a mercedes showroom. >> wow. >> that's nice. >> barnicle's so charming. >> did we just talk about what newt gingrich just said? >> we have all that but willie geist standing by in augusta. willie, you report last hour about john daly, frankly, depressed me. >> oh. >> why? he's okay. he's selling a lot of measured, his own reality show, a huge rv like a rock star tour bus. don't worry about john daly. he's doing fine. mike barnicle, that was your worst pandering of all time. do you a lot of pandering, just part of the worst. >> it's right up there. >> disgraceful. norah's wearing masters green today. >> yeah. >> the john daly thing, he is so great for the game of golf and has been, before tiger appeared on the scene, john daly was the man. i mean, he was -- before fik ni

and tiger there was john daly and miller highlife. i hope he comes back. >> i've seen him in a bunker whack a ball six times and have a meltdown. he has a ledgeary temper. >> tiger surpassed him in golf and now surpasses him in scandal, too. >> well, yeah, you could say that. if you look at john daly's record, it's pretty impressive of his scandal, too. >> yeah, that's true. the slap, that was shocking. okay, willie, we'll check in with you in a little bit. let's do the top stories this morning. we'll begin with breaking news out of west virginia. rescue workers have once again been forced out of coal mine where four miners are still missing since monday's deadly explosion there. officials say too much smoke and fire to resume that search. they have acknowledged it is unlikely those four missing men are still alive. let's check in with nbc's brian

mooar on the ground for us in naoma, west virginia, this morning. i know there was a news conference last hour. bring us up to date. >> reporter: the odds were long from the beginning. they just got a lot longer. rescue workers were forced to high-tail it out of this mine yet again this morning after finding smoke in an area where they were making some progress toward one of these final rescue chambers that they hoped that a couple of these miners might are been able to find shelter. smoke means fire and in a possibly combustible atmosphere, they had to leave. at this point they have gotten out. officials are feverishly drilling in the area of that rescue chamber, hoping to drop a camera down in around the noon hour and see -- confirm once and for all whether it might have been deployed. that was really the last chance these four missing miners might have had of survival. at this point, officials will not say this will transition into a recovery effort. they say this is still a recovery effort but there was a

96-hour window for the oxygen supplies in that rescue chamber. officials acknowledge that this is getting very tight and really their hope is running out. savannah? >> brian mooar in west virginia for us this morning. thank you. >> you know, it is unacceptable, really, and ought to be unacceptable in this country, that one industry, the coal industry, has remain unchanged in 50 or 60 years. certainly the technology has changed. there's no other industry in this country where the lack of safety and the working conditions would be tolerated the way they're tolerated. >> i've heard -- i don't know, maybe it was you that reported that one woman said, you know, i tell my husband i love him when he goes off into the mine every day and i pray that i'll see him at night. but you're right, this sounds like something from the 1930s. and you hear this, 124 -- i mean, how do you have 124 violations and still have a mine open? >> well, they tried to fix this after the sago mine disaster with the miners' act in congress

but congressman rockefeller says there are gaping holes. the fact that in the past two months there had been three times where they had to shut down the mine because of rising levels of math an gas should have sent a warning signal. it had a reputation of gassy mine. don blankenship beliefs in production, production, production. the question is if it's at the cost and safety of those people who work so hard, this is back-breaking, really difficult work for people in poor economic situations. there are no gas stations, no grocery stores, no target stores to work at, nothing, no cell phone coverage, the only choice they have is to work at the mine. coal makes up 50% of our energy use. we could not survive without what they're doing in mines, west virginia and kentucky, and other places. >> you were just there

reporting. i was watching you the other evening on the fightly news. the last time i was there for a story was 15 years ago or so, and the conditions as you pointed out, are virtually unchanged. you creep along these beautiful roads, carved into the hollow of hills and you come along a general store. there's no 7-eleven. >> my whole family is from harlan county, usa, harlan county, kentucky. we've gop gone back to visit. it's frozen in time. as you mention, coal gives and coal takes away. it's a coal town. the whole town revolves around it. it's the life blood. it's such a sad, sad story. we'll keep an eye on it. nor nor the president is on his way back from a high-profile trip to the czech republic -- the capital of prague. earlier today the president attended a bilateral meeting

with russian president medvedev on the heels of yesterday's historic signing of the strategic arms reduction treaty with russia. that new treaty reduces the number of strategic nuclear weapons in the u.s. and russian arsenals by one-third, a step toward obama's goal of a world without nuclear weapons. the president is expected to arrive in the united states later this afternoon. israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu has canceled a trip to washington next week where he planned to take part in president obama's 47-country nuclear security summit. netanyahu made that decision after learning that some nations intended to raise the issue of israel's presumed nuclear arsenal at the conference. as a result, netanyahu is sending his intelligence and atomic energy minister in his place. israel is believed to be the only nuclear-armed power in the middle east but it has neither confirmed nor denied it holds atomic weapons. this is a story we'll talk about all weekend. things were already tense

between the u.s. and netanyahu. netanyahu didn't want to come here and be embarrassed, so now he's not coming. >> what was the problem, someone's going to ask him if he has nuclear weapons? >> the egyptians and turks. they were going to turn on him and say, you have nuclear weapons, why don't you sign the nonproliferation treaty, which you have never signed, and all the islamic countries get together and demand israel do it on they put them in the spotlight for the whole meeting and netanyahu knew if he were here, that's what would happen. so, you send a lower-level delegation. >> well, we'll move on to the new "usa today"/gallup poll, bad news from democrats. the democratic party, it seems s losing its favorable status among the american people. republicans now top democrats with a favorable rating of 42%, an area the gop trailed in for the previous four years. at 41%. the democrats have reached their lowest point in the 18-year history of the poll. pat pointed out last hour,

though, 42/41, still pretty tight. >> right. i'm not surprised that those numbers are down. that's what happens when you go from being the minority party to majority party and you have to govern and take positions on policy. >> you don't think the republicans were helped by confederate history month? >> well, let's talk about -- >> no, not at all. >> we played newt gingrich's comments last night. let's play it again. >> we'll presently sink in on people that shooting three-point shots may be clever but it doesn't put anybody to work. and what we need is a president, not an athlete. we need somebody who actually focuses on getting people back to work. >> okay, norah o'donnell. >> this was largely a good speech about not being the party of no, let's be yes on this. i'm not sure what he means by this particular sound bite. i think it's open to some

criticism because it suggests the president is an athlete. and some people may suggest, you know, because all black people are good athletes. that's what it sounds like to me. >> wow, i didn't see that at all. >> i didn't get that. >> i didn't -- >> that went right by me. >> norah -- >> jonathan -- >> i will back you up because my eyebrow arched as well, one. let's put this in perspective. the president does play basketball. he did, you know -- >> but the suggestion about him playing basketball, he's not doing his job? >> that's what i thought was odd about it, is we see him on the basketball court all the weekend. it's actually on the golf course. >> but he just had that one-on-one with the fellow shooting three-point shots and stuff. >> you can easily disprove that president obama is an athlete by showing his first pitch. >> yes. >> you can show that. >> or show him at the bowling alley in pennsylvania. >> maybe the dnc could do a

whole ad around that. >> what does that mean, we need a president, not an athlete? >> a typical newt gingrich cheap shot. i didn't read into -- >> i didn't hear it either. but we're insensitive. we don't know. >> it's not like the guys on the court -- >> you think barnicle's insensitive. the head of the congressional budget office talking about the deficit, taking the lead from the federal reserve chairman bernanke and former fed chairman paul volcker calling the national debt unsustainable, noting a recent cbo report, if they don't scale back spending or increase taxes or both. predicks an increase from $7 trillion to $20.9 trillion at the end of 2020 if the budget's budget is implemented as written. he stressed the urgency saying it, quote, cannot be solved through minor tinkering. >> you know, this is such a huge

story in this country. one i think we continually miss because we merge the tea party activities into the concerns that a lot of ordinary americans, average americans, have about this increasing deficit. it's a huge story. >> the post did a good job this morning. i believe they have it all on the front page about -- and there's a lot of people talking about this. retired cbo people and stuff like that. and i really think it could be one of the biggest stories of the decade. this thing -- this thing in greece -- >> yeah, and this is more from the "usa today"/gallup poll. you can see what voters say is extremely important to them in congress for this year for the votes they'll cast. economy, 57%. health care at 49%. unemployment, below health care, that's surprising given what we've seen in past polls. look at the federal budget deficit, it's very high. this is something voters say continually the white house knows they've been vulnerable on in polls before. >> and it's very high with independent voters who make up a

significant portion of this group that's swinging back and forth that's angry with the democratic party. one number i noted, the head of the cbo noted, that the debt is going to go from 7.5 trillion at the end of 2009 to 20.3 trillion by 2020 if president obama's fiscal budget is implemented. $20 trillion? >> how do you run on this issue in any intellectually honest way? because everybody can complain about the debt all day long but is anybody going to say, and i'm going to increase your taxes and that's how we'll fix it, or i'm going to cut spending? >> republicans will run as the party of no, opposition, do very well in november. when romney gets out in iowa, palin get out in iowa, they're going to say, where exactly are you going to cut besides waste, fraud and abuse? where are they going to cut? >> value added tax, will come -- >> who's going to run on a tax?

>> republican that goes for that is dead. >> there's a way to do it, though. if you run on it honestly, about we have to, we have to trim this deficit, and you tell people the truth, that if you operated your house, your family, the way the federal government operates, you would lose your house. >> right. >> we're going to lose our house unless we start cutting programs. sorry, but we have to do it. >> make commonsense arguments. a dip from qatar who sparked a terror scare on a flight from washington to denver will not face criminal charges but he is being sent home. 27-year-old mohammed al madadi allegedly tried to sneak a cigarette in the plane's bath roam and then joked he was trying to light his shoe on fire when questioned by a flight attendant. they say he was traveling on official business to the super max prison in colorado to visit an alleged terrorist who pled guilty to conspiracy in connection with the 9/11 attacks. so, they have said apparently at

the state department, you know, we're not going to be asking for charges because there is dippic immunity but why don't you pack your bags and get out of town. >> can we have a picture of him? when they say they're sending him home, do they mean -- he looks like he's 12. >> that's sal. that looks exactly like sal mineo. >> raise your hand if you know who sal is. >> you didn't see "rebel without a cause" in 1954? >> you don't know who he is? >> whoa, hey! no, i don't know. >> guys, we had -- >> jonathan capehart, we have to say good-bye. thanks for being with us. >>, yeah i will. right now. >> get back to us. coming up, a preview of "meet the press" with moderator david gregory, he joins the discussion next. also, mixed messages, sarah

palin and newt gingrich about the party dubbed no. first, bill karins with a check on the weekend forecast. good morning. >> good morning to you and everyone down in d.c. this morning. here in new york the rain is just something-b over with. for that matter, a lot of locations on the east coast. take a look at the airports to see how we're doing. i was a little concerned the airports would be a problem but right now we're looking good. no delays from any of the new york city airports and boston, too. if any airport's going to have minor delays, maybe up in boston as we go throughout the morning. forecast today, rain exits. you'll come home to dry conditions, the sun will be out, 100 times better than what you see this morning. rest of the country looks good, too. dallas to chicago to minneapolis, enjoy a beautiful spring friday. even your saturday looks good. this is probably the quietest weekend we've had weatherwise in weeks. i'll enjoy it. hope you will, too. you're watching "morning joe" brewed by starbucks. as a dermatologist, i always hear about products

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welcome back to "morning joe." let's resolve a raging dispute at the table. who is sal mineo? >> sal. >> sal! >> david grew up with sol. >> oh, sol. >> ox, for those just joining us, this is the issue. the guy on the left is the

qatari diplomat who set off a terrorism scare by smoking in the bath roam and then joking about it. on the right is -- >> sal. >> -- sal mineo, whoever that may be. they do look alike. >> he was a movie star. >> barnicle and buchanan are taking us back into the day -- >> this is senior abuse. >> did you have a little bit of an age gap -- >> by the way, sol is not happy either. >> we have to bring in a tie-breaker. david gregory, moderator of "meet the press" joins us. did not know who sal or sol was. here now. as we -- >> sol? >> oh, sol, i knew sol. >> oh, yeah, comedy. >> well, moving on to politics, shall we? okay. so they're having a southern republican leadership conference. a lot of speakers. it's sort of, i don't know, a

beauty show for republican potential candidates in 20 # 12. let's listen to what sarah palin and newt gingrich said at this at conference about the party of no. >> here the republicans have been getting criticized lately with this mistaken concept, i guess, sort of surrounding republicans right now, that they are the party of no, we're the party of no. and we're saying, what's wrong with being the party of no when you consider what it is that obama, pelosi and reid are trying to do to our country? so be it. >> the left wants to say, we're the party of no. i think we should decide we're going to be the party of yes. and we should say, republicans can say yes to a balanced budget through controlled spending. republicans can say yes to more jobs through tax cuts. there are many things that we can say yes to. if we would discipline ourselves to start out every conversation, whatever the news media asks us,

and however the left attacks us, our first answer should be, let me tell you what i'm for. >> all right, so now that we've set aside the sol debated, let's have a new one. which is it? what should republicans do, should they be the party of no or party of yes? we'll start with you, david gregory. >> what newt gingrich talks about is something going on within the party is a big kvgs. they want to become a party of ideas for a new generation of republican leadership. you can have this debate about the party of no, not the party the no. the reality is they want to have a shift, probably later this year, where they've got a renewed contract for america, where they've actually got some platform. the optional strategy is what they need. republicans know -- you talk to republican officials at the rnc or governors, they haven't earned the right to be back if power of their own accord. their oppositional party to the president's agenda. they'll continue to make those

contrasts known. ultimately they want to turn a corner and say, republican leadership in congress means the following things. and i think newt gingrich is one of those voices as an idea man inside the republican party trying to push that. >> newt gingrich used the phrase, controlled spending. in your experience, over -- let's say, the last two years, talking to various people on both sides of the aisle, republican and democrat, do you find anyone, do you interview anyone, controlled spending, here's what i'd cut? >> no. he also said no to -- no to more taxes and yes to controlled spending. but, in fact, the budget deficit rose precipitously under george w. bush, domestic spending rose under high levels under george bush. the republicans have a problem on this, too, in terms of spending. right now you have some of the smarter people out there, economists, talking about, in fact -- , -bernanke talked abou this, a value-added tax. the deficit is so out of control that the parties have to come together on this, not only

reduce spending, but an increase in some type of tax. >> republicans go for an increase in tax, they're heeded for suicide. they're not going to do it. they're not going to go for taxes and democrats are not going to cut social security, medicare, medicaid, education, unemployment. those are the big items on the spending side. i think we're headed for the cliff. >> that's what i think is interesting about it. you can blame politicians but i think everybody has to look inward as well. are americans ready to make some sacrifices? their politicians don't believe they are. >> when you get to -- when you say control spending, right are you. and you say, here's where we're going to control it. look at rubio, he made a courageous statement. he says, we have to raise the retirement age on social security. everybody knows that. charlie crist piles on, i don't think the voters in florida are going to like that. and so as soon as you do that, you get burned and cut. >> it's very interesting. whether mitch daniels, governor

of indiana, who a lot of people talk about as a sleeper candidate for 2012, has talked in the past about survival issues for the country. so there's national security issues but issues like entitlement spending, issues like the debt, where he and others in the republican party want to bring to the floor a conversation, a real adult conversation about what to do with some of these huge spending problems and debt problems. if the tea party is a real force in republican politics, they may actually put to the center some of these fiscal issues and leave some of the social issues behind for the republican party. that's the sort of shift sha that some of the party expect could happen. >> when they put the fiscal issues, let's take social security, everybody agrees you have to raise retirement age, probably have to cap spending -- i don't know if you can have total means testing but you might have to raise that $106,000 up to $150,000. you start getting specific and

somebody will rip you to bits politically on the stump when you do it. he'll back off. so, it's -- >> let's move on to another subject. the president in prague, signing this historic s.t.a.r.t. 2 treat y new s.t.a.r.t., they're calling it. we saw the president flying to prague to sign this treaty and next week doing this nuclear summit. what do you make of this policy? is it smart politics for him to be focusing so heavily on an issue that is not at the forefront of a lot of voters' minds and does it open him up to allegations, from conservatives, that he's do dovish on this? >> there will be a big debate about deterrents and america's role in national security. i think it's interesting to look at america's role in the world and to what extend this obama administration is trying to redefine that after the bush era. and i think that this national posture, the nuclear posture review, gives us some insight into that.

into what role the united states plays, into what role deterrents play. we have a practical problem on our hands with all of this. we talk about rogue nations, outliar nations, there are a lot of people in the world not listening to united states. friends and foe alike. if that continues, then you have to ask yourself, so what's this new period going to be about? and how does america wield its power. >> do they get this treaty through the senate? >> that's the question. they like to cite overwhelming bipartisan majority that other treaties were passed with. >> i'm not sure. >> isn't it what ronald reagan started? >> ronald reagan, he believed the world ought to be without nuclear weapons. i don't agree. i don't think the folks on the hill -- one of the problems is going to be, what happens to missile defense in this thing because this treaty doesn't talk to that issue. that's a big issue with republicans. >> and also, what are russians prepared to do down the road? the idea that they're -- is a russian leader, who's got an

aging conventional force, really going to cut missiles below 1,000 going forward? or is that something that the russians would consider to be too weakening to their country? i mean, i think that -- >> that's the only thing they've got. >> who's on "meet the press" this weekend? we'll have secretaries gates and clinton talking about this and other matters on the world stage. queen fonora will talk about getting rid of nuclear weapons. >> when will you have sal on dau -- >> very hard to get. >> sol's actually a part of the staff. >> yes. we should work on that. that would be a good exclusive for "meet the press." david stays with us. we'll be right back. ok, maybe it was my fault.

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that's a live picture, spacewalk, upside down this morning on -- >> why are we doing that? >> because we can, mike barnicle. >> yeah. >> joe and mika are on assignment on earth. they'll be back, of course, on monday. 7:30 on the east coast. mike barnicle alongside me. should we do our joke? no. we'll go on to news. >> we'll do it at the top of the 8:00 hour. >> the joke will be i'll be all by myself. let's take a look at the news. rescue teams have been pulled from the west virginia mine where four men are missing due to dangerous conditions from smoke and fire. earlier this morning they reached one of the two rescue chambers and found nobody, reducing the likelihood of a rescue. teams will head back and check the second rescue chamber later today when conditions improve in the mine. police in kabul say they have arrested five would-be suicide bombers, making it the largest such capture ever in the afghanistan capital.

the suspects were detained at a routine checkpoint where harnesses and explosive vests were found under their vehicle's engine. if your allergies have been acting up lately, you're not alone. it looks like it's going to get worse, too. 2010 is expected to have a brutal allergy season, especially in the southeast where oak trees are the main culprit of the allergic reactions. as a result, the words pollen and allergy are among the top ten trending topics on twitter in several u.s. cities, that along with sol mineo. after two days of heated testimony from alan greenspan, can we make sense of the financial meltdown? i hope so. >> why don't you just tweet you sneezed during the commercial. >> i will. that's so fascinating. coming up, douglas holtz aiken next on "morning joe."

♪ almost all of us, including me, who were involved in the financial system, that is to say, financial firms, regulators, rating agencies, analysts and commentators, missed the powerful combination of factors that led to this crisis and the serious possibility of a massive crisis. we all bear responsibility for not recognizing this and i deeply regret that.

>> that was former treasury secretary robert rubin offering an apology for citigroup's role in the financial meltdown. here now the head of that commission, and former mccain economic adviser, douglas holtz aiken. thank you for joining us. >> thank you. >> sometimes i have commissionitis. what is this commission going to accomplish? >> i think we have two opportunities. the first opportunity is to provide the american people with a definitive government sanction of what happened. this was an enormous crisis. it had great fallout for the american people. they deserve an explanation for what went on. >> don't we know? >> well, we know a lot of the pieces, but, you know, i sit in these hearings. it can be terribly frustrating to listen to, alan greenspan, a robert rubin, what you heard in that opening clip was the closest thing to someone taking responsibility. but you still didn't hear that.

you know, the federal reserve had responsibility for federal regulation, citigroup failed, we had a housing bubble, had responsibility for regulation of mortgages and we got an epidemic of bad mortgages. no one says, you know, we made a mistake. so i think we deserve better than that as an explanation. >> doug, in terms of nobody taking responsibility, you sit there at the hearings, as you've indicated. why is it that you sit there as an average citizen thinking to yourself, okay, i get the wall street thing, i get the deregulation thing, i get the fact that, you know, banks just kept doing this and doing this over a period of five or six years, but how come nobody, it seems, has stood up and said, there's an element of public policy that was responsible here, too, the sense that the government, both administrations, three or four in a row, kept telling americans everyone has the right to own a home? everyone can't afford a home.

>> yeah, i think that's exactly right. you'll see that today. we'll have both former executives at fannie mae and freddie mac, the large housing government-sponsored enterprises and we'll get to ask the questions. in this epidemic of bad mortgages, how many came from the fact that it was the he explicit policy of republicans and democrats alike to make sure more americans were in homes? that leads to putting people in mortgages they can't afford. how much was it because they wanted to make a lot of money? and how -- why was it they had so little backing, so little capital, so that when things went bad, they ended up being owned by the government, paid for by the taxpayers and are the single biggest expense in this whole fallout so far? >> norah o'donnell. doug, you saw the cbo chief talking about the debt being unsustainable going from perhaps $7.5 trillion to $20 trillion at the end of 2020. what do you think about what volcker said about a fall added

tax? how would that work? is it a real possible? >> in terms of the value added tax, the tax i was has international experience. a lot of companies have used it. it's a tax, taxes consumption. that's our problem. we assume too much, save too little. i will say the big problem in our budget is one that is spending. if you look at the obama budgets, they're going to run a deficit of $1.2 trillion in 2020 because spending will be $1.2 trillion above historic norms. a congress and administration are going to talk about tax policy, but you've got to begin, as you mean to go on. that means, doing the hard thing, cutting some spending programs. that's politically unpopular but realistically the only way to survive. >> are there any republicans that would come out in favor of a value-added tax? >> there are a lot of republicans who would love a value-added tax if it was to replace some taxes. our corporation taxes hurt the average american worker's ability to compete. so replacing some bad taxes with

value-added tax is sensible. layering it top of a broken tax policy is not going to work. >> you had alan greenspan up there. one of the problems was too easy money for too long in the first decade of this century. interest rates weren't raised. now we take a look at greece, on the verge of default. do you think the interest rates, we've got too much money out there and do we need to raise interest rates now? >> i don't think we need to raise interest rates now, but i do think that the federal reserve's going to face a real challenge. it printed a trillion dollars in the cries and bought everything in sight to prop up the economy. it has to get that trillion dollars back without igniting inflation. that's going to be hard. i would say the odds are we'll probably see up tick in inflation in the united states. >> hey, doug, you know, when you mention politicians talking about cutting spending and the need to cut spending, i think the average person at home has to soak their face in cement to

prevent themselves from laughing because everyone stands up there and says, we have to control spending. we have to cut this program and that program, but, hey, not the big highway program, in my state. so, what's going to happen? nothing. >> i'm sympathetic. look, republicans, democrats, for a long time, we talked about this, but the word has changed. we're no longer 20 years from the retirement of the baby boom. the baby boom is here now and entitle programs are going to explode in their costs. we're to longer in a position for a big cushion. we used up that cushion in the financial crisis. it is time to get series about this. it is time to recognize, you have to pay for services you demand from the government. we're not willing to pay for the ones we're doo demanding. >> is part of that seriousness not continuing bush tax cuts in 2011? because the president plans to continue the bush tax cuts for the middle class but end them for the wealthy. what do you think? >> i think we've seen some

unrealistic solutions to this problem. the administration's just attacking those making $250,000. there's a group called the tax policy center in washington, one of these bipartisan, you know, nonpolitical entities. what they have calculated is that if you only tax the rich and try to get the deficit under control, the top tax rate has to be 92%. the second tax rate has to be 86%. that's unrealistic. >> you think we should tax the middle class, too? >> the president has taxed the middle class if the health care bill. it doesn't add up. you get serious about spending or tax everybody, to an extent that harms the economy. >> former cbo director. barnicle? >> i have to tell you, more and more people are talking about cutting social security benefits. pat and i, this is getting close to home. >> and sol mineo, too. he wasn't happen. >> sal is no longer with us. >> well, now i feel terrible, pat. thanks.

but sol is fine. >> it's been a long time. >> sol is still with us. sol is doing great. he just tweeted, actually. let's go to willie geist live in augusta. what's coming up next? >> savannah, you're so unkind. sal met an unkindly fate. do your history. we'll talk golf coming up next. >> you knew who sal mineo was. >> no, he didn't. >> "rebel without a cause," come on, everybody knows that. >> i call google on you. >> oh, no. >> whatever. >> no, he was a hollywood pretty boy, alo long time ago. we'll talk a little golf from augusta coming up next. tiger woods had a huge first day. back apparently, no nerve whatsoever. we'll see how he does today when he tees off in a couple hours. more tiger talk when "morning joe" comes right back. [ male announcer ] when we built our first hybrid,

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>> here he is, tiger woods with his dramatic return to the pga tour. >> the golf world has anxiously been waiting for this moment, and here he is. tiger woods. stepping up to his first tournament shot in five months since his stint in rehab after the sex scandal. lots of dirty and naught at this time ladies, waitresses, strippers, hookers, short ones, fat ones. physician's assistants, bar maids, glass blowers. the list just goes on and on. perfect shot right down the middle, boy, does this is guy love sex. >> and we're very lucky to have willie geist with us here this morning from augusta. as you can see, his winnebago is right behind me down there.

yesterday, his first day on the course he finished two six-packs under. but he's here with us on the 19th hole. >> he's also raving about the corn dogs. >> yeah, we got the rv loaded up with corn dogs, gatorade and cigarettes. we're going to have a great weekend. i promise you that. let's talk a little golf. we'll get to the leaders in a second. mike, you'll be fascinated by the age of the leaders on the board right now. tiger woods first, a lot of people wondering how he would be received on the first tee. here he is coming out to a huge ovation. if you know augusta national, it's no surprise that he was welcomed warmly. they don't heckle here. it's just not done. there was heckling from the sky which we'll show you later but twoords perfect on the first tee. he said he would be as nervous as he's ever been with a golf shot. he pard the first hole. he parred the second hole. just getting warmed up though because then on the third hole, he drops hisboard to go 1 under

par and he was just getting going. on the front nine, he shot a 33. it helps when you have an approach shots like this. tiger on the 8th hole hits off the mound. rolls up. and then he would sink the eagle putt to go 2 under par, one of his two eagles for the day. on the 9th hole, this is an incredible approach. if you play golf, you can appreciate this. behind the trees, he's got to hit it to the right, bring it back to the left somehow, run it up onto the green. you saw him jog out to the middle of the fairway. he would sink the birdie putt off this shot. that put him 3 under par. he played great. did he have one moment on the 14th hole just because he talked earlier this week about controlling his emotions better. a little frustration with a bad shot here. spins it out, drops the club. i think we can all get over that. so tiger shoots a 4 under, 68.

he left a lot of birdie putts out there he thought he should have made. after the round, he met with the press which he doesn't do every time he plays at augusta. he talked about the reception he received here. >> the reception was incredible all day from the time i went to the putting green to putt, the range, and back to the putting green off to the first tee and then pretty much you know all day. it was just incredible. i was saying thank you all day. the people are just incredible, incredible all day. >> well, here's the one not so warm reception he got from a plane he got flying overhead. they don't restrict the air space over augusta. so this is a plane trailing the banner "tiger, did you mean bootyism," his references to buddhism getting him through

this scandal. the leaders, fred couples and tom watson. tom shot a 5 under 67, one stroke behind the leaders. an incredible performance by watson. remember he should have won the british open last summer. he played great today. you figure a guy his age will have one good round and fall off the table but he did it at the british open. he did it at the british open. so he might do it again. meanwhile, fred couples at 50 years old and with a terrible back somehow shot a 6 under 66 to take the lead. he's playing in sneakers with no socks. he has to wear these shoes with special soles to help his back. no socks. he's as casual as they come but winning the tournament at 6 under par. again, tiger at 4 under. you see phil mickelson in the hunt at 5 under. that is a great leaderboard. tiger woods teeing off just after 10:30 eastern time.

we send it back to washington for a little -- yes, mike, go ahead. >> listen, i played last week. 3 over par. so i'll have you know, i'm okay. if it wasn't for the whale's mouth where i missed like three shots in a row, i would have had par. >> those are the hardest ones getting it into the whale's month. sal mineo shot a 1 over 73. so he's still right in the thick of things. coming up next, eugene robinson from the "washington post" when "morning joe" comes right back. i'm gonna take allison jenkins to the senior prom in this. one day, i'll park this in a spot reserved for me. it's got 26,000 miles on it now, but i'm gonna take it to a thousand million. [ male announcer ] when you own a certified pre-owned mercedes-benz,

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all ♪ >> she said it's unbelievable, no other administration would do it, and then she liken it had to kids on a playground. she said you're like a kid who says punch me in the face and i'm not going to retaliate. your response? >> i really have no response to that. last i checked, sarah palin is not much of an expert on nuclear issues. if the secretary of defense and the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff are comfortable with it, i'm probably going to take my advice from them and not from sarah palin. >> ah, president obama, he took the bait. george stephanopoulos asking about sarah palin and he couldn't help it, he went there.

good morning. i'm savannah guthrie. mike barnicle alongside me in d.c. sal mineo has left the building. joe and mika are on assignment. that's why we're here. sloppy seconds. joining us political analyst -- i was speak of both of us. >> oh, okay. >> okay? >> that's worse. >> chief washington correspondent norah o'donnell classing the place up, "washington post" editor and columnist eugene robinson. willie geist, live in augusta for the masters. i shouldn't forget, pat buchanan. he's like how about me. just because i'm quiet over here, i deserve an introduction, as well. willie, you've been keeping an eye on the golf for us and any other extracurricular events are strictly off the record, right? >> strictly off the record. it's my duty. i'm a journalist. i have to go where the story is. tiger, you have to go to some dark places to find the story. you two are doing a great job.

we're going to keep your resumes on file. mike barnicle, i might extend your run. you're doing a great job. i'm going to talk to john daly. >> remember the great john daly. this year he's in the parking lot behind me selling souvenirs. i'll catch up with him and see what he's up to here. >> we'll forth to you you really depressing us. >> this is an uplifting story. >> john daily has lost weight. >> willie is going to turn around and wake him up in that winnebago in about 15 minutes. >> exactly. those curtains are closed for a reason. all of willie's tv lights, very bright. we'll check in with willie in a little bit. the news at 8:00. a look at today's top stories. rescue workers have been pulled from the west virginia mine where four miners are missing since monday's deadly explosion. it is the third time rescuers

have been pulled. officials say there is too much smoke and fire to resume the search and they have acknowledged now it is unlikely the four missing men are still alive. brian mooar is reporting for us live in naoma, west virginia this morning. i know there have been press conferences from the governor this morning. bring us up to date. >> reporter: savannah, time and hope have just about run out here. you can really see that on the face of governor joe manchin as he made the announcement about 30 minutes ago. for the tird third time, rescue crews have been forced to leave because of dangerous conditions. they had one last refuge to check, a rescue chamber where four miners could have bunkered down after an explosion on monday. the catch is, they only have 96 hours to survive in that little chamber and it now appears that rescue workers will not be able to get back inside because there is smoke inside the mine, meaning there is a fire.

combustible gases are building up once again. so at this point, crews are trying to drill into this mine so they can drop down a camera by about noon today. perhaps see whether this last rescue chamber might have been deployed, whether these miners might have, by some miracle, quite frankly, survived. but at this point, officials say they're holding out hope but they're not all that hopeful. savannah. >> nbc's brian mooar with the latest from naoma, west virginia, thanks. >> the outrage is that that story, brian's report, norah's report earlier this week, you could have it run in 1999 in '89, 1949. it is unacceptable. this is the only american industry where this would be allowed to happen. continually. >> this is the story, the miners let mine let $90 million in safety fines pile up. only 7% have been essentially paid. that's the issue that the senators and jay rockefeller

were talking about. you can essentially lawyer this whole thing up. you can get fined and con tested it and put it in appeal. the fines are not paid and you can slow down the process. that's the real concern, the gaping holes in the current regulation. >> are fines high enough to change anything or will the companies just say, well, it's the cost of doing business. >> you pay a fine of $1 million or so and you save yourself $5 million bill run agunsafe pine. >> let me ask you a question. how much of an element do you think class plays in this story? because it continue little happens. it has been happening throughout history. you've got a bunch of poor, white people living in hollows in west virginia, kentucky. >> right. >> in a very dangerous profession, and it continues. >> well, it's fathers, tear grandfathers. it's a family tradition. and they go to the mine, and frankly it's the best job in terms of money these guys are ever going to know and they keep going down there. what i'd like to know is, have

they closed -- you say the fines. have they looked to one mine and say you're not going down in that mine again, i don't care wa you're getting out of it because it's too dangerous to go down in and we're closing it. >> compare the lack of outrage to this to the crescendo of outrage over toyota's brake problem. >> exactly. you take consumer product safety commission, one person, one kid gets -- dies, it's a real tragedy. but these things happen again and again. >> that's to mike's point it's a middle class problem. >> we're talking priuses. >> come on. >> unfortunately, in some ways it's a powerless group down there. the coal powers have enormous power and the president hassed is for a report from federal officials next week. speaking of president, right now he is back on his way -- way back from a high profile trip to the czech capital of prague.

earlier today he attended a bilateral meeting with the czech prime minister and medvedev on the heels of yesterday's historic signing of the strategic arms treaty with russia that reduces the number of strategic nuclear weapons by one-third, a step towards obama's world of a world without nuclear weapons. the president is expected to arrive back in the u.s. later in afternoon. >> israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu has canceled his trip to washington next week are he had planned to take part in president obama's 47-country nuclear security summit. he made the decision after learning that some nations intended to raise the issue of israel's presumed nuclear arsenal at that conference. as a result, netanyahu has decided to send his intelligence and atomic energy ministers. israel has never confirmed or deny that had it possesses

nuclear weapons. yet another point of tension perhaps between our two countries. this is a summit one would think that israel would very much want to be a part of because there will be a lot of talk about iran. >> there will be a lot of talk about iran. it is a summit of the noblest possible intentions, we want to the keep nuclear materials and weapons out of terrorists' hands and another fefnairious hands. it can't have been a surprise, can't have just occurred to netanyahu that gee, maybe some of these other countries are going to want to ask about our program. so he goes through this drill of saying i'm coming and i'm not coming. this type of tit-for-tat slight for slooilth dance going on between him and obama. >> the israelis have not signed the nuclear nonproliferation treaty and we're going to go to war with the iranians if they don't get more in the line with the npt, which they have signed.

>> they didn't want to be confronted by egypt and turkey. >> the egyptians were going to do it and they go to barack obama and say mr. president, why don't you get the israelis to sign the treaty. what does he say? >> the role of iran here increasingly so, i think, is probably preoccupying a lot of people in the white house. iran and russia, iran, afghanistan, iran, israel and the middle east. they are the pivotal country in the world actually right now. >> uh-huh. >> they are. they're a center of attention for just about everybody and a focus of just about -- one of almost every conflict in the world. >> some people think iran was the primary beneficiary of the war in iraq. >> right. >> shia government. >> makes them much more powerful. >> three of the four parties in the iraqi elections went straight to tehran to ask them to put together the new coalition. none to the american embassy. >> our friend karzai who's in

afghanistan who has to be cozy with. >> just called my dear friend called the ahmadinejad, my dear friend. that's a nato ally of the united states. >> then again, i called you that, pat. >> happy confederate month. >> all right. let's go on, the latest "usa today" gallup poll, the democratic party is losing favorable status among the american people. republicans now top the democrats with a favorable rating of 42%, an area the gop trailed in in the previous four years at 41%. the democrats have reached their lowest point in the 18-year history of the poll. norah o'donnell, what say you? >> yeah, well this is significant because it could affect, some say it's a better predictor what may happen in the midterm elections the question is whether they'll lose the entire house and senator pelosi will become the minority leader

and john boehner will become the speaker of the house. i don't think it's close at this point. actually the massachusetts special election, if you talk to all the best people, they think it was a wake-up call for all the parties. in 1994, just three weeks before that the democrats had a sense that they were going to lose. this was an early wake-up call. you see the dnc raising a great deal of money. they can always fill the grap gap in a lot of elections whether this house or smat seats. they're trying. when we write the postscript in november, if democrats hold onto the house, it will be the democratic national committee had enough money and there was an early wake-up call in massachusetts. >> you know you've said we ought not to be following these polls every day. but this poll shows the democratic party four points below where it was in 1994 when they lost 52 seats or something like this. charlie cook has been saying this. i'm astonished at the deterioration of the democratic party. frankly, it is the nation's

majority party. >> it is. yes. i think it's close to 50/50. >> touch and go. >> another hot topic we'll be at play in the november elections, the deficit. the head of the congressional budget office is taking the lead from federal reserve chairman ben bernanke and former chairman paul volcker calling the national debt "unsustainable" noting a cbo report, doug elmendorf is predicting dire consequences if political leaders don't scale back spending, increase taxes or both. the report predicts an increase in the public debt from $7.5 trillion to $29.3 trillion at the end of 2020 if the president's fiscal budget for the year 2011 is implemented as it is currently written. elmendorf stressed the urgency of all of this saying it cannot be solved through minor tinkering. norah wants to tax everybody. >> just kidding. >> no, no, no, i was merely quoting paul volcker who

suggested we will likely have to raise taxes. there's a lot of people talking about a value added tax, even douglas holtz-eakin said there would be some republicans who would voted for the tax as long as it's not layered on top of the taxes we already have and his concern about increased business taxes that could hurt economic development especially in a recession. >> we in the media are missing the fact that a lot of regular people don't belong to democrats, republicans, tea party people are truly concerned with this rising deficit. >> absolutely threw. >> really concerned about it. >> actually. >> that's true. but there's this disconnect. i mean, we really are not willing to pail for the government services we demand. >> no one wants to sacrifice. >> no one wants to sacrifice. everyone knows it's not just the big while program in my state. it's the entitlement programs. it's, you know, and those are we

really going to tackle those and raise the revenue we need to fund those programs going forward? >> i think there's also a distrust of the government carrying out those programs and ron brownstein had said, you know, when medicare was passed there was like a 70% approval rating for the government and congress. now there's 70% disapproval. people don't trust the government to carry out those services. >> there was no cable tv back then. there was no radio talk. there was no glen beck. >> barnicle's message, we are part of the problem. can't really be denied. one more news story to get through. a diplomat from qatar who sparked a terror scare on a flight from washington to denver wednesday night will not face criminal charges but is being sent packing. 27-year-old mohammed al madadi allegedly tried to sneak a smoke in the plane's bathroom and joked he was trying to light his shoe on fire when questioned. officials say al madadi was traveling on official business

which happened to be to the federal supermax prison in colorado visit al marri, a terrorist who pled guilty to conspiracy in connection with the 9/11 attacks. that's the story that keeps on giving. >> for all the boys and girls at home, if we could put up a picture of the young man who is going to be sent back, there he is. patrick j. buchanan and myself happened to mention he bore a remarkable reem ambulance to the late movie actor sal mineo. we were laughed it. there he is. >> isn't that amazing video? >> mens forth, norah and i and david gregory and jonathan and i, none of us knew who this sol mineo was. >> sol mineo? >> we'll hereinafter be called sal mineo gate here on morning joe with coming up, 10 how people planning to march on wall street.. who are they and what do they want? that's next. plus an interview with the salahis. >> we got one? >> it's quite the world

exclusive on the political playbook coming up next. also, a check on the friday marketses with erin burnett. international superstar i think we call her. >> erin? >> erin is coming up, but we don't get erin till we pass through bill karins with the morning weather. >> tell barnicle it will be the best part of the show. i'm going to walk and talk this morning. first off, we're looking at the white house where it's been kind of cloudy and also a little bit of windy. back here to new york city, this is where the empire state building, new york harbor, rain has just ended in new york. we'll watch clearing skies. we're looking pretty good in new york. 64 in hartford. rain will be ending in hrdford and boston. forecast the rest of the country looks fantastic out there. 69 in kansas city today and buy me a vowel. you're watching "morning joe" brewed by starbucks. [ beep-beep! beep-beep! beep-beep! ]

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>> what exactly are we getting ourselves into with this treaty? >> both countries have agreed to limit their nuclear arsenals to just over 1500 weapons each. >> only 1500 nuclear war heads?

each? that's bareely enough to annihilate the planet seven to 12 times. why don't we just give the russ can is our pin numbers? >> you know what's great about that, that was chuck todd's voice. you made it. you're on jon stewart. it's friday, april 9th. good morning. i'm savannah guthrie along with mike barnicle. joe and mika are on assignment. should we look at the morning papers. >> it's joe's birthday. >> happy birthday, joe. >> we won't sing because that would be painful for all concerned. let's take a look at the papers. "the wall street journal" story this morning, greek bond crisis spreads. concern over a potential liquidity shortage fueled a sharp selloff yesterday. >> washington times, mark rubio keeps gaining in the florida race for senate. aides for charlie crist deny the florida governor will bolt from the party. front page shows presidents

obama and medvedev toasting their nuclear arms treaty. "miami herald" a controversial bill expected to make its way to governor crist's desk would tie teacher pay to student progress. >> the "los angeles times." thefation's retailers had a blow out month in march as shoppers went on a spending spree. the best monthly showing in at least a decade and the 1%, you're wearing it. >> i'm doing my part. all for the economy, barnicle. also in the "los angeles times," in kir zik zig stan, the president is now in hiding after a violent uprising there. the front page photo shows members of the opposition posing for photos in the president's cabinet room, they look like they're having a swell time. >> eating all his food, drinking all his drinks. speaking of drinks, here with us now is patrick norris here with

this morning's playbook. good morning. mike allen sat down with richard trumka who gave details on this big march on wall street slated for later this month. i think we have a sound bite of what he said and then we can ask you about it. >> people will be talking, yelling, chanting and letting america and letsing wall street particularly know that their brand of economics where the financial economy overshadows the real economy is no longer acceptable. that we want them to help pay for the jobs that they destroyed. they'll be a lot of people and a lot of energy and it will be a lot of fun. >> okay, so what's this big push all about? i guess financial regulation would be my guess. >> obviously, that's one of the obama administration's next big agenda items and the alf co-wants do its part april 29th up on wall street. it's going to be organized chaos. they want to clog the buses and sub ways. they're going to volunteers there to control what they call

counterproductive activities which would have to imagine would be the opposition. what they want is the wall street to pay more. they want more taxes and want them to pay for the jobs that the alf cole believes wall street caused to lose, thanks to the financial crisis. how the white house is going to respond to this and particularly to this april 29th debate will be helpful. trumka was very helpful to the white house. the white house is very loyal to him on that issue. at the same time, while wall street certainly hasn't got a great reputation right now, it is key to bringing the economy back, which is what the obama administration wants. they don't want to tackle wall street too much i think. >> patrick, as you know, howard hughes and j.d. salinger are no longer with us. they were very private people, recluses really. they're sort of like the salahis whoion publicity in washington, but amazingly, have you at politico an interview with them? how did that happen.

>> that's right. it's great timing. the pulitzers get announced on monday so i got this in under the wire. take that, brian williams. we got a chance to talk to them last night at an event here in washington, d.c. a couple nuggets that they told me they are working on a book. they also will not talk about whether or not they're involved in the upcoming reality show "real housewives of d.c." they are, they just can't talk about it. most interesting the fact that even though they told me they wish this whole thing had never happened and they want to go back to their regular lives as they're at a party, mr. salahi was wearing white house cuff links rubbing it into the white house they got in. i think they're quite happy with the way things turned out. >> patrick, if you can't speak to this, i understand. what was the event? was the drive-through event at burger king? >> no, it's polo because they're

such big promoters of polo. they were celebrating the beginning of polo season. i had no idea that was in fact, yesterday. it was a big day. >> what did they tell you what they thought they needed to change about themselves after they had seen themselves in pictures and on tv. >> i asked them what they thought about saturday night live's" imperson snags of them. tarek said he thought he needed to lose more weight. >> really do some reflection. that's impressive. >> and she said she needed to come off as smarter and stop posing for pictures. they thought that, they said look, this is apparently how america views us. >> in her case, i think you can say lofty goals. >> at least she's honest. >> politico's patrick colvin. i think we're all going to ponder and reflect on that one. have a great weekend. coming up, stocks are pointed higher this morning.

will today be the day the dow manages to break 11,000? erin burnt will join us next. hi, erin and starting next week, joe, mika will be broadcasting the show live on satellite roo, xm channel 120. they're everywhere.

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>> good morning. live shot of st. louis. beautiful arch. the gateway to the west as the sun is coming up. that shot furnished by ksdk. why? because we can. let's check in on new york city. a beautiful morning. a little clouds in the sky. sunshine with the one and only erin burnett. >> we have erin burnett? >> yes. she didn't know we were filling in and agreed. >> from the new york stock exchange or from the east, whatever. >> two of my favorite people. joe and mika get to sleep in every once in awhile. we all do the heavy lifting.

>> it's all right. >> yeah, so you guys, this is interesting. 0.00 is an important number to remember today. the reason it is important is because that is exactly how much the market moved since last friday. i mean, it's actually pretty funny. we are opening this morning at the exact same level all the way the decimal points where we closed last friday. that is evidence that the market is confused. the market has been struggling with that 11,000 level but i'm thinking today is sort of the last day of an era is the way to think about it. it's the final countdown because monday, everything could change for the market. for the past three months, everyone has said it's all going to depend on earnings. market's up 70% over the past year. is it a bubble, is it not? monday is the first day of earnings season. alcoa will kick it off. this is sort of the demarcation line, this is the dmz. it's the last day to get your portfolio in shape. savannah and mike, i hope you do that this afternoon.

>> yeah, i'm going to get right on that. portfolio, that's like those notebooks we used to have in fourth grade. remember those, snairn you guys probably don't. sorry -- >> we didn't have pencils or paper when i was in grade school. we used to do it with charcoal. >> i still do it that way. >> erin, let me ask you, how much ketchup does mark haynes have today on his potato chips next to you? we keep seeing his hand. >> it's david faber's hands because haynes is off this week. i want to tell the story of haynes being off. last week i was in the middle east and haynes was going to be off and they wouldn't let him off. they said in exchange, you get a few extra days and take this week. haynes was a good sport and did it. so haynes and mike, as you know, only haynes would get this. he gets the sunny 90-degree week in the middle of april, three days off. he made off like a bandit as only haynes can. >> the sunny week would go with

his disposition, incredibly sunny every day. >> he doesn't want to be there with the dow flirting with 11,000. >> because he was out, the dow couldn't go anywhere. so we wait for his return. >> all right. >> david faber when he came in, we got him the ketchup, the cheatos, the peanut butter, mayonnaise, bacon, tater tots and david faber actually ate it. >> nice. we'll have to tune in and see if the weight gain was instantaneo instantaneous. >> that's why he doesn't fit now in the chair. >> tell him we say hi. have a great weekend. >> all right. well, a few minutes ago we played you the president reacting to an attack from sarah palin. when we come back, the president responds to a personal jab from ahmadinejad. also some breaking news this morning. bart stupak of michigan tells the associated press is he retiring from congress after that pitched battle over health care reform. we'll discuss all of that and more coming up next in our political roundtable. [ vrrroooooomm! ]

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♪ gray skies >> president ahmadinejad took after you personally basically calling you a cal low cowboy. the quote was inexperienced amateur and he wants you to wait until your sweat dries and you get some experience. what do you make of that. >> let's see, george. so far you've quoted sarah palin. >> well, and president ahmadinejad. >> you're trying to get a rise out of me. >> and it's not going to work? >> no, it's not. >> yeah, we'll get to both those topics in a couple minutes. right now, joining us on set the political correspondent for

"vanity fair" todd purdham. savannah guthrie is still here. robert e. lee's driver patrick buchanan is still with us. >> thank you, frank. >> bart stupak, congressman from michigan, has he announced yet. >> he's going to announce at 12:30 today. we're going to report he's going to retire. >> that he's going to retire from congress. the lack of civility so apparent to so many people in the country when it comes to anything in washington, do you think this played any kind of a role in his decision. >> i'm sure it had to. there had been a lot of speculation the strain he was under in the health care battle and being that crucial vote on the abortion question had really taken a toll on him. a lot of people in congress, it's not that much fun. >> you're getting death threats and nasty messages which his office released audio of them. it is painful to listen to. members on all sides of this issue have received messages

like that. what do you make of it, norah? is it that he's tired of the lack of civility as barnicle puts it or perhaps he's facing a tougher re-election because of his health care vote? >> he is facing a tough re-election. i believe palin has spoken out publicly about him. backman has. his wife got threatening phone calls. they had to turn off their phone, change their number. he does lead some of the anti-abortion democrats in the house. it's a different voice within the democratic party and now he's leaving office, which is significant. after essentially extracting what some call a concession from the president with this executive order. >> i'll tell what you his problem is i think he was a tremendous hero in the right to life community, which is very focused and he was standing up for them. and they think he folded completely and my guess is the disillusionment and unhappiness of his strongest supporters, i think he probably lost a lot of folks he thought were his

friends, admirers and supporters. >> but pat, what's your perspective on the town, the principal industry in this town is politics. you were with youth from mckinley. you've been around quite some time. it's different now and that it ever was before, at least in my mind's eye. >> it is but it also isn't. i've told you stories when i was growing up and my father talking about harry truman. i was with nixon during lyndon johnson. they were tearing him apart. hey hey lb jrks how many kids did you kill today. nixon had people outside the white house screaming at you. people trying to break into the pentagon and the justice department. in terms of congress itself, the uncivility itself i think is far greater. i told the other day, if sam rayburn after they have a big battle, the board of education's meeting at 5:00 and you republicans can come down, the board of education would get the

booze out and they were having a great time. >> a lot of people say the real culprit is not the internet, not cable but flights that they can take home to their districts on the weekend so there's more isolation. members aren't breaking bread together. >> you pointed out too, look, had you three networks in '63, '64 and they didn't -- now you've got cable ripping people up on both sides. you've got the internet. you've got talk radio. all these things. it is -- it cannot be very pleasant for these guys to get hammered every day. >> todd, you've written about this for a long time. the role of money in politics that this plays in this fractioned atmosphere they have today. they spend so much time raising money, they no longer have time to go to a cookout with a republican here. >> there's more money and that ever and despite the obama's administration to do something about lobbying, there was a record year for lobbying last

year. congress, the minute they get elect reasonable doubt forced to raise money for the next election. it costs as much to run a senate race as ed rollins spen on the entire re-election campaign in '84 when they took public financing. it's crazy. the members don't know each other. they sleep in their offices. go home on thursday night, come back on tuesday. just in time to vote and there's no -- >> the old school is still around. tuesday, wednesday, thursday a lot of times they're going out with a group of lobbyists and giving a speech to a fund-raiser. everybody pick up all the checks in the envelopes. >> they've never been in each other's houses. it's easier to be rude to people if you don't see them in the grocery store. that's a real problem. dan rostenkowski used to drive thome illinois together. >> michael was out with tip o'neill on the golf course in the afternoons. >> the southern republican leadership conference is going on in new orleans this weekend. newt gingrich spoke last night.

let's play what he said and talk about it. we don't have that sound bite. what he basically said. >> so incompetent in new york. >> this would never happen if joe and mika were here. they have it to you. >> finally. >> roll it. >> will presently sink in on people that shooting 3-point shots may be clever but it doesn't put anybody to work. and what we need is a president, not an athlete. we need somebody who actually focuses on getting people back to work. >> newt gingrich, by the way, urged members not to move to washington to, stay in districts and go home every weekend and not to get to know people so they would be back always having the knight night did newt go back every weekend to his district? he stayed around here, didn't he? >> i think he did stay around here. so president obama probably the first president ever to play basketball on television. i mean, what's the harm in that? i just don't see. >> there's no harm. >> it's an effective shot saying

something like that either. you're right. obama's a great basketball player, let's face it. he did that three-point game with that guy, nba guy and did he, the guy threw it, but he did pretty well. >> i suppose a larger point he's trying to make is the president is somehow engaging in, i don't know, frib lus activity. >> entertainment. >> doesn't he strike you a totally lightweight frib lus guy? >> he's made major reforms to health care and done all these things republicans don't hike. >> spend more time on the court, a lot of republicans would say, sfoorks that kind of a practiced comment and it was clearly written out and practiced. it wasn't an ad lib, shows how lame and isolated some politicians can get. the fact that you're trying to say, a little less time throwing three-pointers. that is so lame. lame. >> i'm serious, i'm a thinker, and he's shooting hoops. >> he should have used, thrown out the first pitch. that problems he's no not an

athlete. >> we're going to get a lot of looks at republican potential 2012 candidates this weekend but mitt romney a no show. >> very interesting that he did not show up there. and i don't know that it will hurt him in the long run. this is sort of a beauty contest for a lot of these republicans down there. >> he's doing fine. running first in the polls. >> he has a presence there i think, some supporters. >> all his boys will be down there talking to him. >> thanks so much. willie, are you there? what's coming up next from augusta? >> first of all by gingrich's logic, eisenhower played too much golf so he couldn't have been a goose president. when we come back here, we're going to take the focus away from the golf being played and catch up with john daly. he's here in town. whaez what's he doing. >> what's the feeling about being out here instead of over there across the street. >> the last couple years, it's been tough. but you know, hopefully i'll get

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commercial is a cheap use of his deceased father's voice for an easy emotional manipulation. well, folks, there was nothing cheap or easy about it. they had to go through tons of voiceovers to find just the right father figure. ji jim? >> growing up is a pretty neat thing, beaver, if you really grow up and it's all right to look back on the good times you had. only thing is, when you try to relive them, somehow they're never quite as good the second time around. you know, the sad thing is, there are some men my age who are still trying to be little boys. >> welcome back to "morning joe." i'm willie geist outside the gate of the augusta national golf club where they've already begun play on round two at the masters. a lot of people talking about tiger after his great 4 under. he's two shots back of the lead.

yesterday we went just up the road about a quarter mile on washington road to catch up with john daly, the one-time golf phenom who hasn't qualified to play here in quite some time, but is he in town doing something different and that playing golf. >> what's your name? >> nice to meet you, man. >> john daly at the masters. >> here you go, brother. you got it. >> it's been a long time since daley was competitive at augusta national. he last made the cut in 2002 and hasn't qualified for the masters in four years. but that doesn't keep him away. the two-time major winner is in town hawking a line of merchandise out of his rv across the street from the club. >> i've been doing this, geez, since '01, '02, maybe. >> last couple years, it's been tough but you know, hopefully i'll get back over there. you know, i'd much rather be over there. >> how's your game? >> it's coming around. not getting as many tournaments as i thought i would. but definitely going to remember

the one who's gave me sponsors, that's for sure. >> nearly two dikd decades after he burst onto the golf scene as a rookie at the pga championship, he doesn't play on the pga tour much anymore but remains one of the most popular players in the game. >> john daly is every southerner and everybody loves aern that's a real person. that is john daly. >> it's kind of sad here he is and should be in there playing. i think he'll be back playing again. >> daley's personal problems have often been on public display over the years leaving him with a soft spot for tiger woods. >> you've got to understand the guy lived a sheltered life for a long time. he's been with this way his whole life, golf, golf, golf, golf. and you know, i'm sure his dad would be whipping his butt right now. he made stupid decisions. but it's life. it's how we bounce back and he'll do it on the golf course. >> reporter: john daly, a great guy just across the street smoking cigarettes hanging out m

flip-flops selling merchandise here in town. by the way, tiger woods tees off 10:35 this morning. we'll be right back to tell you what, if anything, we learned today. [ female announcer ] grass stains, believe it or not, i have missed you. pollen in the air kept hunter cooped up itching his eyes and sneezing. but now i found zyrtec®. it's #1 allergist recommended. with children's zyrtec® he can get 24-hour allergy relief indoors and outdoors. ♪ now he can run wild... with the rest of the pack. with children's zyrtec®, he can love the air®. and now try children's zyrtec® perfect measure®.

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