awake at this hour. rob gifford has answers. >> hey, willie. quincy says he's up because the skunk sprayed right outside his bedroom window and his drapes are poisoned. >> see. cornered one more demographic. what else? >> mary ann says werob? >> mary ann says we live on st. croix in the u.s. virgin islands, we're up ready to work with a scuba instructor. >> that's another one, u.s. territories in the caribbean. we're glad you're up, even if it's to instruct scuba or have your drapes poisoned by skunks. "morning joe" starts right now. if i were to call you six months from now, will you be working in the white house or back in chicago on the campaign? >> well, you're right on the line there, chris.

late winter, early spring, i'll be going back -- coming back here to chicago and beginning to work on that project. >> okay. good morning. it's monday, november 15th. welcome to "morning joe." what a weekend. how was your weekend? >> can i say this? my daughter won the new york state championship. >> in what? >> in cross-country, running. >> her team did. >> that coach is amazing. then i took my kids to -- >> that might have been a mistake. it's good, but a little bit not age appropriate, let me just say. seriously. seven-second delay in that. >> a big weekend for your kids. >> yes, it was. >> how was it for you? >> i'm fine. i'm good. how about you? >> you seem a little frenetic. >> i know. i had to put myself down after -- it was just a long

weekend. lovely family, lovely children. >> what color was the pill, over here? >> i don't remember. kind of mixed. >> that means it's blue. >> striped. >> if she doesn't remember, it must be blue. >> mark halperin, i'll move on to you now. i tried to engage mika and that didn't work. >> i think i gave too much information. >> perhaps you did. still frenetic. david axelrod going back to chicago which is great news for his personally. his family loves chicago. and their heart never left there, not even for a second. are you surprised that announcement slipped out yesterday, that he's going home? >> no. i think david is so anxious to go home, he wants to tell the world. >> both he and rahm emanuel only left chicago reluctantly. rahm emanuel went back to run for mayor. now david has a chance to go home and do something kind of unusual. an incumbent president will run for re-election with his campaign headquartered not in washington, d.c., but in chicago. >> i like it.

>> so how does that impact the running of the white house? >> it's going to be strange. barack obama has a national figure without david axelrod physically by his side, it's something we haven't seen. there's been a lot of criticism that the president needs to bring in new people. in all likelihood david axelrod will be replaced by david plouffe. it's not going to be a brand new person. they'll need to bring in brand new people to replace larry summers and others. he'll be on the phone with david axelrod a lot. we have with us the president of the council of foreign relations, richard haass. an awful lot to talk about. the president's trip, afghanistan and the new york giants. richard, what happened to the giants yesterday? they lost to the cowboys. how did that happen? >> energy failure. it was a sucker game. team in first place against the team in lavt place and surprisingly bad play-calling. third and goal, one and a half yard line, giants, instead of running, pass, interception the other way. a 14-point swing in one play. there went the game.

>> unbelievable. the cowboys. my high school, pensacola catholic high, our jv team beat the cowboys second week in october. >> and beat the spread. >> that's a good jv team, in fairness to the cowboys. >> they are very good this year. willie, the jets, what a game. this is what champions -- this is what champions do. they figure out a way to win games. >> they've got like pixie dust this year. they were trying to set up for a field goal, maybe a long game-winning field goal, threw aa little slant pattern. >> what about sanchez? >> he's poised, he's tough. >> we or not just saying that because mark sanchez is going to be on the show. you have to pretend, mika, that you know who he s. he does car commercials. >> i'll talk to him about that.

>> if you see a car commercial and it's not manning -- >> look at ryan. i love it. we have a lot to get to. congress convenes today for the start of the lame duck session that is likely to focus on the expiring bush era tax cuts. president obama told the press aboard "air force one" while returning from his asia trip that he wants to hear from republicans on just how strongly they feel about extending the cuts for americans making over $250,000 a year. adding that he wants to get a sense of how they intend to pay for it. on a sunday talk show, white house adviser david axelrod says the president is opposed to a permanent extension of the cuts. but axelrod refused to tip the administration's hand on the negotiations. >> these taxes, the way the bush tax cuts were designed are going to expire on january 1st. we want people to have the certainty of knowing that's not going to happen. congress ought to -- before they go on vacation, they ought to ensure that people have better vacations of their own by know

that this matter has been taken care of. >> bottom line, he's open to compromise. is that fair? >> bottom line is he wants to sit down and talk about this. >> is he open to compromise? >> there's no bend on the permanent extension of tax cuts for the wealthiest americans. >> he's open to compromise? >> we want to get this done. the american people expect to get this done. we're eager to sit down and talk about how to move forward. chris, i'm not going to negotiate with you on this program. let me repeat what the president's position is. we have to extend these middle class tax cuts, absolutely have to do that. we should do that permanently, give people the security of knowing that their taxes aren't going to go up. that would be important for the middle class and important for the country. >> all right. meanwhile two prominent republicans conceded that the best congress may be able to accomplish is a short-term extension of the tax cuts. >> i hope we can get a permanent extension, but if the president

wants to compromise on a two or three-year extension, what's important here, chris, is that businesses know what their tax rates are going to be over the next few years so they can plan growth and plan to add people. >> but two or three-year extension of all the tax cuts, you'd be on board for it? >> well, if that's all we can get out of the president, and he is the president, we'll work with him on that. i think if he can work on our side of the ledger, i think we might can work together. >> i think they should be extended until we're out of this recession at such time we could look at other tax hikes. but we're in a serious recession. i can't believe that raising taxes is a good thing on anybody. >> there's going to be a bipartisan group of congressional leaders invited to the white house this week to talk about this. what should the president -- >> chuck schumer also floated something we didn't see there, which is let the tax cuts expire on people making a million dollars or more. i always thought that was the democrat's big mistake through this entire process.

if you move your definition of rich from $250,000 to $1 million, you don't lose a lot of urban moderates. if you extend the tax cuts, extend them for a year or two but let them expire on people making over $1 million. and i think actually that's easier to pay for, and it makes more political sense. >> i think you may be right. do you know what's missing from this entire conversation? everyone is talking about the near-term stimulus. not one word about mid to long-term deficit reduction. that's too hot to handle. very easy to talk about extending tax cuts. no one is serious about where to cut spending. >> yesterday on "meet the press" there was a discussion, it seemed like everybody around the table, long-term debt is unsustainable with one exception. newt gingrich, a guy who showed a lot of courage in the '90s when it came to balancing the budget, yesterday talked in generalities. i find this fascinating. right now as far as major figures go, there have been

three people who have acted like we don't have to touch middle class entitlements, social security, medicare. nancy pelosi, newt gingrich and jim demint. jim demint, jim demint. i was reading pete wayner's commentary last week and he brought up the point that here this small government tea party champion is actually -- oh, no, no, no, we don't have to cut social security. and pete wayner who worked in the bush white house, he said, okay, jim demint, you need one of two things. either stop talking about being a champion of less government or start acting like you're a champion of less government. it is inconceivable to me that anybody would paint themselves as a champion of small government and balanced budgets without admitting you've got to do something to social security

and medicare. >> that's where the money is, medicare and medicaid is the biggest single pot. you have to deal with the basics. >> and the pentagon is there, too. let's put in -- here is newt gingrich from yesterday on "meet the press." and i just want to talk about it. i'm not picking on newt. i'm the first to say this guy was a champion of balanced budgets. he's sounding a lot like nancy pelosi here. >> they get together. they issue a statement, guaranteed to frighten most americans which is what it did. a number of people now calling me or e-mailing me about cutting social security. it's absurd, but it's not going to happen. i helped working with bill clinton, we balanced the federal budget for four straight years, paid off $405 billion in debt. it was not a trivial achievement. it can be done. it can't be done by sweeping, slashing generalization by

people who won't be affected. i'm just saying the deficit commission, at the rate they're going, will actually be a step backwards. >> it's stunning. you talked about pixie dust, willie, they said how are you going to balance it if you don't touch middle class entitlements. by the way, why don't you sell more of the spectrum. that's a scam and you know it. he said reduce spending back to 2008 levels. that will save a trillion dollars over the next decade. mabel that will save some money over the next decade. but that is laughable. it is irresponsible. i wonder whether we're seeing, and young republican freshmen coming in, you better buck jim demint up and newt gingrich and people like this. mark halperin, this is a disaster for the republican party. we've seen this movie before where republicans say one thing

to get elected and then they get elected and become cowards. it looks right now like nancy pelosi has friends on the right who are acting like cowards. you've got to cut social security over the next 50 years. >> part of the president's frustration about what happened in the midterms is republicans ran against medicare consults. they said the president wants to cut their medicare. that helped them in the election. the big thing that's going to happen in 2011 is paul ryan and the budget committee chairman has to right a budget. that's where republicans are going to have to put up or shut up. >> as ross perot said, it's are wr the rubber hits the road. no class entitlements is where the rubber hits the road. you get people here actually saying let's not extend unemployment benefits, but we're going to protect people who make a million dollars to make sure they aren't means tested on social security. it's obscene. it's obscene. that's not where the money is. as richard said, the money is in

middle class entitlements. go ahead. let's talk quickly about afghanistan. the other big story of the day. i'll touch on it and we'll get to it later. "the new york times" is reporting that the obama administration will be laying out a new plan that claims to end the combat mission in afghanistan by the end of 2014. the four-year proposal calls for american-led coalition forces to start handing over security duties to afghan troops over the next 18 to 24 months. now, this comes as general david petraeus is expressing, quote, astonishment and disappointment after learning that afghan president hamid karzai criticized the war strategy in an interview with "the washington post." >> astonishment and disappointment. we'll read exactly what he says later. he says you've got to get out of here. your nighttime raids are killing us. >> we don't have a partner in pakistan, we don't have a partner in afghanistan. other than that, we've really got -- >> so what's the deal? we'll talk about that. >> the deal is this, let's boil it down, 19-year-old kids are

getting their heads blown off in afghanistan every day and we're spending $2 billion a week every week to prop up karzai. that's their end game. karzai is the end game. >> he doesn't want us there, at least today. >> cutting a deal between them and the taliban. again, it's not worth it. all right, up next an exclusive first look inside the politico playbook including how washington is bracing for marco rubio. also, tom brady -- tom brady gets angry? how could he get angry and chews out his teammates during a shootout against the steelers. >> prop them up. first here is bill karins with a check on the forecast. >> remember dan would yell at every receiver if he over threw them 30 years. >> he was just upset somebody messed up his hair. any time you want, throw up the shot of the capitol showing the foggy conditions. from new jersey through philadelphia, d.c. and baltimore, you'll drive through dense fog this morning. give yourself a little extra

time. visibility in philadelphia is down to a quarter mile. very slow at the jersey turnpike and also i-95 through baltimore and d.c. a couple sprinkles today from newark northward. temperatures will be mild. it's not that cold. it's kind of cloudy all day today. the rain will arrive on tuesday. could be a soaking rain at that. currently that rain is in louisiana, alabama and mississippi. the travel trouble spot today is from new orleans up to atlanta. much of florida and the west coast looking just fine. that's a look at your monday forecast. you're watching "morning joe" brewed by starbucks. tphone... with an e-trade app.

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we discussed this issue a

year ago. as i said -- >> so did you bring the check? >> i promise you you're going to get your money. >> all right. that's good enough for me. do you mind if we turn off the lights? >> i'm sorry. i do not understand. >> i'd like to have the lights off when someone is doing sex to me. wait, mr. president -- >> that's terrible. that's just terrible. >> that's a followup from last ye year. >> 19 past the hour. let's take a look at the morning papers. "st. petersburg times," lame duck house faces crucial issues. the first major order of business for the democrats will be to decide who is going to lead the party as it shifts to

minority status. seattle times, republicans preparing to maximus conflict. dallas morning news, texas based mothers against drunk driving has a new plan that critics say goes too far. madd is loving congress to help develop alcohol sensing technology that prevents cars from start fg the driver is intoxicated. >> i kind of like that one. "wall street journal," the federal reserve's lame attempt to boos tt economy is coming under fire. a group of lawmakers are launching a campaign this week calling on bernanke to drop his plan to buy $600 billion in treasury bonds. time for an early check of business. let's bring in cnbc nicole lappan live from cnbc headquarters. good morning. >> good morning to you, guys. this is what i call a meat and potatoes kind of monday. this after markets had their dessert, the candy of the fed stepping in with the $600 billion bond buying program.

investors want the vit michbs, they want the spinach. retail sales at 8:30. wanting to see if the consumer bounced back ahead of black friday. we have retail earnings as well with lows before the opening. we're looking ahead to nordstrom. we'll be looking at the implementation of qe-2 which officially set sale last week. today we're getting $7 billion to $9 billion in purchases from five to seven-year notes. this week we have a big buy, $35 billion. why are we watch that specifically? last week we kicked off the program. and yields actually rose into that option which is not exactly what the fed had in mind. then, of course, somewhere the rest of the world that we will be looking to, not in the likes of the "snl" skit you just showed, but a lot of head wind, of course, in all seriousness from a lack of consensus from the g-20, a big criticism of the fed's bond-buying program from china. we're hearing china's inflation is too hot and therapy central bank may be stepping in to

tighten rates. we care about that because whatever the positive impact the fed was hoping from qe-2, it may be negated if china's central bank does indeed step in. some of the things we'll be looking to. >> nicole lapin, thank you very much. >> i don't like spinach. >> that was just a metaphor. >> i like meat and potatoes. very good stuff. chief white house correspondent form politico is mr. mike allen is here with a look at the playbook. >> i want to say right up front, mike allen, you a champion. you've got a champion in patrick gavin. he came on friday. we ripped the bark off the tree. we savaged him, played cats in the cradle. made fun. he kept going. he said keep harry chapin up. >> he's the energizer reporter.

we had guys if we did 1/100 of that, they would call under the desk and start women perring. >> nfl only here at politico. >> no doubt about it. he's a great guy. >> i love him. >> we'll mock the hell out of him the next time he comes. >> we'll go further. let's see how much he can take. >> that's a man. >> how about a theme song for vandehei? you should work on that. >> we think he might be too fragile. mike, let's talk about marco rubio. marco is heading to the senate with high expectations. we understand he's getting a full roll-out from republicans from washington. >> willie, to continue the culinary analogies, it's appetizer week here in washington. no real bitz being done, but the freshmen are arriving including the most famous republican freshman to arrive on capitol hill in some time, marco rubio of florida.

his people have planned a very specific roll-out to make sure that he doesn't over do it. so they're following the hillary clinton playbook, the barack obama playbook from when they came to the senate, the al frankin playbook. do some work. don't do a lot of national media which can cause you problems and cause resentment. as soon as he was elected -- by the way, at his victory party, marco rubio had 300 foreign reporters, which gives you a sense of the attention he's going to be getting here. he went to israel to try to stay out of the spotlight. the networks wanted interviews with him there. he said no thank you. >> also, let's just say. we cite sized newt gingrich and nancy pelosi for being demagogues, this guy when he was neck and neck with charlie crist in a debate talked about raising social security age to 70. you talk about responsible -- >> in florida.

>> in florida. that's being extraordinarily responsible. i hope jim demint and newt gingrich and nancy pelosi take a page from his playbook. >> speaking of extraordinarily responsible, let's talk about charlie rangel. the ethics trial beginning today. what are we looking at today? >> a new definition of responsible. >> he's my congressman. i'm trying to stick up for the guy. >> democrats are so unhappy about this because in a week when they're trying to get the caucus back together today, this extraordinary public trial starts -- congressman rangel, 80 years old defending himself because he broke with his lawyers over money matters and strategy matters. we'll have the spectacle of a trial that includes documents, witnesses and they'll keep breaking to go into their leadership meeting. they hope to get it done by friday. but then later this month you have another trial of maxine waters. democrats very unhappy about this. >> what's the bottom line? what can happen here? he's already been re-elected. they won't throw him out of

congress. >> willie, i think you're right about that. a public reprimand is probably what happens, after this investigative subcommittee acts, charlie rangel can appeal this. this can go for a while. >> mike allen, politico. >> vandehei's theme song. >> a little preview. nobody tell him. >> it's not ironically. ♪ you're so vein >> maybe "you're so pretty." >> that would be good, too. >> he's not vein. come on. a little bit. >> oh, yes he is. >> i thought he was the carly simon character. >> a humble boy from wisconsin. >> humble media magnet from wisconsin. >> he's not vane. >> what's the difference between not being self aware and vane? >> still ahead, after months of hype, the sarah palin reality

show finally premiered last night. willie and i, seriously, the people at the holiday inn on 57th and 9th, you couldn't see in there. was that not fun? >> it was great. >> midtown, west side, holiday inn. >> i was surprised. it's never good when your new billion dollar stadium can't keep the lights on. the new york giants powerless against the cowboys. sports is next. we'll be right back. so, during sign then drive i can get a cc for just my signature? that's right, right now you can take home a volkswagen for just your signature, like the cc or the tiguan.

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but we've parted ways with our old airline credit card that promised flights for 25,000 miles. it was always... [ laughing ] that seat's not happening without a big miles upcharge. a miles upcharge wasn't part of the deal. was i supposed to go without my wife? [ elevator bell dings ] [ grunting ] haha, that was awkward. so we upgraded to the venture card from capital one. we've had it with the games. [ male announcer ] don't pay miles upcharges. don't play games. get the flight you want with the venture card at capitalone.com. what's in your wallet? [ man ] i thought our family business would always be boots. until one day, my daughter showed me a designer handbag.

and like that, we had a new side to our business. [ male announcer ] when businesses see an opportunity, the hartford is there. protecting their employees and property and helping them prepare for the future. nice boots. nice bag. [ male announcer ] see how the hartford helps businesses at achievewhatsahead.com. very cool shot of the empire state building on a foggy monday morning. welcome back to "morning joe." 31 past the hour. a quick look at the news for you. richard wolffe is out with a new book that sheds light on the working relation shim between president obama and hillary clinton. in the book titled "revival: the struggle for survival inside the obama white house" wolffe writes

the pair's relationship has moved forward. he adds that since clinton became secretary of state, she has faithfully executed the foreign policy handed down by the white house, although she has not had nearly the impact on the president's agenda as defense secretary robert gates. new iphone application is being developed that allows users to snap a picture of their food to determine how many calories it has. can you do it, joe? how are you doing there with that starbucks? >> the whipped cream has 14 calories. >> no. >> the berries, 12. >> applications require people to manually plug in information, this new software can digitally see how many calories are on your plate with a single photo. the application which also gives users exercise suggestions, i

noticed they put the calorie on everything. i was going to get you the thing you usually eat. >> the morning bun. >> only 360 calories in it. >> no. i have three of them. >> all you can have, just one. >> that barely puts me over a thousand calories before 6:00 a.m. i'm doing good. and i work it off. >> extra hot glaze that you can drizzle over it. >> actually, i have downstairs, we've got these faucets and things, syrup runs out of them. i have the cinnabun glaze. i put it on everything. >> you know what? everyone needs to eat better. i'll take the app. >> we'll do sports now. joining us to help us through the highlights, the post's, ed rendell talks baseball on sirius xm and the founder of ed

randall's fight for the cure. we'll talk about the dreadful giants. sunday night game, a fired up and tremendously hansom tom brady yelling at his team. let's go boys. >> taking on the patriots in pittsburgh. >> he heads ron ron cow ski, a 25-yard touchdown. steelers lose to the patriots 39-26. patriots looking good, improve to 7-2. the steelers are now 6-3. >> what's wrong with his hair? he's a hippy? >> he's got the super model wife advising him on his looks. >> is he a great looking guy? >> no. seriously i don't get it. i just don't get it. like the same feeling i get about brad pitt. i don't get it. >> brad pitt is hot. >> i think you're just wrong. >> they're pretty, but that's not necessarily attractive.

>> no willie geist. >> whatever. they seem very cliche. >> let's get to the giants now, this is an easy one. >> this is easy. >> the new interim head coach jason garrett. strange moment in the second half. middle of the cowboys' drive half the lights go out in the giants $1.6 billion brand new stadium. play did resume. a few minutes later all the lights go out. they lost power, 82,000 people in the dark. only six seconds in the dark. >> thank god it wasn't like 1977. there wouldn't have been a scrap left on any of those people -- >> awful. >> they said feeder sources were to blame. >> exactly what i suspected would happen. >> here is felix jones on a screen pass. the cowboys shred the giants defense. cowboys win 33-20. >> what does this prove, willie,

in the nfl? on any given sunday -- and let me just say for three hours -- >> three hours on a sunday afternoon. >> the people at dallas -- that wasn't pretty. on any given sunday. >> on any given sunday, willie. >> this is why we bring ed in. >> ed, i'm sorry. rex ryan and his jets -- >> look at that. they look at that. >> they put on their pants one leg at a time. >> twin brothers going at it in cleveland. >> twin fat brothers. >> that's mean. in the final seconds of overtime, this thing was going to end in a tie or maybe a desperation field goal. sanchez hits santonio holmes and he weaves through the swiss cheese browns defense. the jets eke it out. the jets are 7-2, tied with the

patriots atop the afc east. >> mika, you have to pretend you know who he is. >> i will do my search. >> he's the rising star of the nfl. >> he does ford commercials. >> i like ford. i have a truck. >> he did shirtless with the super model. we said don't do that because they're going to kill you in new york. then we said the jets were hyping it up too much. they're actually putting up. they talk too much. >> the jets are for real, wouldn't you say? >> i think they are. >> this was amazing. this is why you get paid so much money. you're a baseball guy, though. so let's just -- >> i was also going to show up shirtless with the super model, but she's off camera now. >> exactly. >> i'd get killed in new york if i did that. >> ed, can we stop pretending you give a damn about football. it's baseball. >> the only giants i know haven't played in two weeks. >> very good. >> help us out quickly in the

off season here. obviously the red sox had a rough year. they going to pick up anybody in the off season. >> talking about making up jayson werth from philadelphia. surprisingly to some people, they picked up big papi's option of $11 million or $12 million. >> why did they do that? they're usually cold hearted about letting their stars go. >> pedro martinez, one of those guys -- an old saying in baseball don't fall in love with your players. he's one of those guys. they ikd up the option on ortiz and maybe they won't let him start playing till june. >> is the league going to stay in texas? >> they have a new television deal which is going to present to the ball club, a tremendous amount of money in the next few years. they're going to make a real run at them. i was standing next to nolan ryan during the play-offs, and they asked him how much is it going to cost for you guys to keep cliff lee?

he said, i think you should go down the hall and ask those guys. the yankees have no plan b. they've got to sign him. >> one final question. tell me about prostate -- >> you're a survivor. 47 years old, no history of cancer, no symptoms. during a routine physical and blood test i had an elevated psa. it was shocking and i came to understand that maybe i was not alone. as i said with you guys this morning, i felt the way i felt the morning i was told i had prostate cancer. i felt perfectly fine. and i think that there are millions of american men who just because they feel fine think they are fine, and that's anything from the truth. psa exam literally saved my life. >> we heard in the past -- once a year you need to get it once you get to my age. i'm 47. digger was on, and i guess he did -- does he get them every

six months? ef le three months? >> he was getting pretty frequent prostate exams, like twice a year. >> look at these idiots. seriously. >> once a year. once a year would be good with the psa exam and also it would be helpful to take the digital exam as well. >> what's the age when you should start going? >> we at our charity advocate 40-plus. there are major national cancer organizations that say 50-plus. i have people on my board of directors that, like myself, were 40-plus. >> is a blood test -- it's not foolproof, is it? >> no. there are legitimate questions about the efficacy of the psa. but the bottom line here is i would not be here this morning were it not for the psa. it is the horse we will ride until there is something better. i know a doctor at northwestern universe ti who said in the

pipeline right now is an exam that is 40 times more accurate than the current psa exam. hopefully that will become part of the process. >> the thing is, we're joking about digger, it's an uncomfortable process. >> that's why we're talking about it. >> what i'm saying is men may need to be tested in one way or another every six months because once a year may not get it. >> perhaps so. but the bottom line is why wouldn't we want to know? >> exactly. >> women are so much better about this stuff. >> you are the superior species. must-read op eds coming up. thank you so much. 's called thea walmart-preferred prescription plan. ♪ it's a breakthrough in medicare prescription drug plans. hey buddy! hey grandpa! with monthly plan premiums less than $15 and copays as low as $2. but for savings this big,

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christine, i'm just stunned. we had a great meeting. we had a great dinner with

president karzai. we talked about quite frankly looking long term with afghanistan about having two air bases in a permanent fashion in afghanistan to provide stability. so at the end of the day there was no discussion about a difference between pet they yas and karzai in terms of strategy. i think in 2011 we can bring some troops home. we'll need substantial number of troops in afghanistan past that. 2014 is the right date to talk about. that's when karzai suggests that afghans will be in the lead. i'm very pleased to hear president obama talk about 2014. >> all right. 45 past the hour. adding to that debate about our presence in afghanistan, hamid karzai in a stunning interview with "the washington post" over the weekend, mark halperin is with us as well as lich charred haass, the president of the council on foreign relations. let me read some of the reflections to this interview. in the saturday interview karzai said the often troubled

u.s.-afghan dynamic approved since petraeus's arrival in the summer. he also outlined a vision for the u.s. military presence that sharply conflicts with the obama administration's strategy. in addition to ending night raids, karzai said that he wants u.s. troops to be less intrusive in the lives of afghans and they should strive to stay in their bases and conduct just the necessary activities along the pakistan border. he basically said he just feels that they -- we need to get out of the way. >> this is why this is not going to work. the afghans are ultimately going to cut their deals. karzai is playing the nationalist card. he doesn't like a military strategy which confronts the pos tunes, the largest single group in afghanistan of which he's a part. we can make things better while we have 100,000 american troops acting in strength. we can't translate those into anything that will endure. this ought to be another

warning. >> this has been the argument from troops that have been over there talking to me since 2004, 2005. we go into a village, we secure it. we think they're on our side, we leave and they're sending us back into the village six months later. unless we put a million troops there, we can't make significant change and we don't have the troops to do it. >> you can even put a million troops there and it wouldn't last because they have a sanctuary out of pakistan and the afghans will cut their own deal. coming back to our previous conversation, if you're so worried about the u.s. budget and u.s. financial strength, this doesn't make any sense. >> who is the most senior leader in the house or the senator anywhere in washington that has told the truth about the shortsightedness of our afghan strategy and said what everybody knows, it's not going to work. we're treading water for political reasons and people are

dieing. >> i think joe biden is closer on afghanistan than anybody else. >> they ignored him. they ignored him and tripled the number of troops. they ignored joe biden -- >> right, now lit come up for a third time. this is the third policy review in this presidency starting next month. the third chance to get it right. all the signals now are going to stay in in force until 2013. >> we've pushed it from 2011 to 2014. the president said i'll triple the number of troops, and start to get out in '11. >>ly be stunned if there isn't a bipartisan coalition in the new congress, particularly as they confront these budget choices, look to say is this policy really sensible. >> richard, let's move from afghanistan to the ten-day trip. let's talk about south korea. the president went out, said we were going to have a big deal signed, and i don't know that i can think of a parallel where something fell apart on a

presidential trip which they always have these things planned out perfectly. the president didn't get his trade deal. how embarrassing is that? the worst of the four stops. he had the whole embarrassment with the other world leaders, the chinese and european leaders alike over monetary policy. the whole g-20 was a failure. >> are we alone in the world on -- it seems like when it comes to fiscal policy and big spending, it seems like even the -- i mean the chinese are lecturing us, the germans are lecturing us, the french, the british. >> there's a reason. we run the dollar. everyone in the world is dependent on the dollar, the world's reserve currency. if we seem to be running it only for domestic american political and economic reasons, the rest of the world says, hey,out can't do that. you have obligations to us. we are dependent on your financial management. you have to think about the larger world, not simply what's good about american jobs and the american economy. that's what the president got an earful about. >> one of the things i was

hopeful for when the president got elected was that the president would be more revered on the international stage. it hasn't worked out that way, has it? >> in places like indonesia, tremendously popular. that's where you see some turn-around. there's a little of that. people are glad to see him in asia because they want the americans to stand up to china. economically we're clearly on a very different page than britain, germany, china and everybody else. >> richard haass, always good to have you in. thanks again. in a few minutes senator george lemieux of florida will be here. >> let's keep richard here -- >> i always like his commentary. >> this is important. >> secretly he loves the news you can't use. president bill clinton was in southeast asia over the weekend tending to some very, very important matters. >> what are you going to do if you're a former president? >> speak about green energy, maybe get a cameo in a giant comedy film. >> what? okay.

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>> oh, yes, it's time. >> time for news you can't use. let's talk, shall we, about sarah palin's new program on tlc "sarah palin's alaska." >> beautiful pictures. >> we were watching it at the holiday inn. >> when you ordered the meat lovers pizza. >> it tease highly anticipated show where she and her family show the rest of us what it's like up there in alaska.

she came upon in this first episode some real life mamma grizz grizzlies. she's going to talk about -- >> look at that. >> wow. it was amazing to watch. this mamma grizzly -- brown bear really, protecting her cubs and saying, you know, nobody is going to mess with my cubs, nobody is going to mess with the future of the species. >> awe, look at the cubs. >> they can mess with the cubs until the cameras went off and they put them back in the zoo at the anchorage zoo. >> tranquilize them. we got a glimpse of sarah palin, her daughter willow -- the boy trying to go up to the room. >> no, no. keep it on the ground floor young man. >> willow, come here. this gate is not just for trig.

it's for no boys go upstairs. she'll be downstairs in a minute. >> mom -- >> you can text her up there. >> that was kind of familiar, doesn't it, mika. >> keep the boys away. >> that's good. we teased bill clinton here. this is a true story. >> we kid because we love. >> a true story. bill clinton was in thailand over the weekend. >> why was he there? >> doing some important work on green energy. but he did find time to drop into the set of "the hangover 2," this is the same film we heard that mel gibson was going to be in it, liam neeson is going to be in it. the big cameo is for bill clinton. >> you're kidding me. we don't know exactly what the part is, some kind of a walk-on deal. his people confirmed that bill clinton is going to be in "the hangover 2." >> i hope it's better. >> how great is that. one more piece of video. chris licht, a great producer, a journalist said we've got some

bull video. i said where is it? >> no idea but we'll show it anyway. believe it or not, this is canada. canada. >> they don't know how to handle the bulls. >> that's not a bull fight. that's just a road i don't. >> just a little cow. >> that's great. wow. chris, is everybody okay here? >> one woman hospitalized, nobody dead. >> she may be okay. >> you can't laugh at it. it may not go well. >> any given sunday. >> richard, i'm sorry. >> my apologies as always. >> you should have left. it was all going so well. >> do you think it will make the movie better? senator george lemieux next on "morning joe." and had your shoes shined.

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frankly, i think where we lost a few senate seats, our ground game was not as strong as it could have been. we were actually outmanned on the ground. i appreciate michael steele's service. i'm looking for some al certainives right now. i haven't decided who i would support. but we need a strong national republican organization to help organize the energy of the tea parties and the other citizen activism that we're seeing out there right now. we need to make sure we have a lot of boots on the ground. >> welcome to "morning joe."

>> pretty shot of new york city. >> clearing up a little bit. great to have you with us. we have mark halperin still here. also we've got republican senator from florida senator george lemieux here as well as the great willie geist. mika, there's jim demint, going back to pete wayner's column earlier this week, i can't get over the fact that mr. tea party -- i like jim. when i say i like people, i mean i like him. i like him personally. because i like him personally i'm trying to save him from himself. when jim demint says he's a champion of small government, a tea party guy and we want to only elect people that are going to take care of the debt, and then he pulls back when they ask him about social security, medicare, no, we don't have to touch that. we'll take care of it with waste, fraud and abuse. >> you see -- >> i want to send a picture of marco rubio telling the truth. and the debate against charlie crist, guess what?

he did it in florida in the middle of the debate when it mattered the most. when telling the truth to senior citizens in florida was the hardest thing to do. and he won by 20 -- he got over 50% with three people in the race, told the truth to floridians that were going to have to raise the retirement age to 70 at some point on social security. >> hard things have to happen in order for tous get where we meade to go. ed rendell was saying they could have gone further on social security. and they should have. >> it's very simple. you tell senior, tell people that are 55 or older, we're not going to touch your social security. when somebody says granny is going to get thrown out in the street. >> they're not saying drop dead. >> nobody is saying drop dead. >> although some might say they're saying it. >> that's just irresponsible. >> irresponsible and silly. >> nancy pelosi, irresponsible. we have this try um vent, jim

demint being reckless on social security. we have nancy pelosi being reckless on social security and we have a third, a guy who actually was the first speaker in a generation to balance the budget. take a look. >> they get together, they issue a statement guaranteed to frighten most americans which is what it did. number of people now calling me or e mailing me about cutting social security. it's absurd, it's not going to happen. the deficit commission at the rate they'll going will actually be a step forward. the tea party wants real change. they will stop and say what john boehner has said, the new speaker, roll back the discretionary accounts to the 2008 level. that's a trillion dollars over ten years. we published a study of fraud in medicare and medicaid because the federal government is such a bad manager, that's 70 to $120 billion a year. you do a lot of things to get back to a blanksed budget without having to hurt the american people. >> senator, senator, senator,

senator, it's stunning that newt gingrich -- i'm going to say also jim demint, are playing this game, waste, fraud and abuse. why don't you just say you're going to sell the spectrum? isn't this what got republicans in trouble during the bush e.r.a.? >> we won't be able to balance the budget or get close to that. what you said before about marco rubio doing the debate, he said we're going to have to go into social security and fix it. that problem is pretty solvable. the hard one is medicare. >> underline, if you will, what happened to marco rubio when charlie crist was ahead of him in the polls and he went on the fox debate and he told the truth and he said we're going to have to raise the retirement age to 70? what happened to him after that? it's the end of his career? you can't say that in florida. >> he won by 20 points. >> with three people in the race. >> that's always been the third rail in florida, never talk about social security or the

entitlement programs. what we're finding in florida is what we're finding in the whole country. seniors are saying we don't want to leave this country a place where our kids and grandkids are under water and in debt. it's becomes a positive, a voting issue for seniors that we have to do something about reckless spending. >> willie, we talked earlier about our children who were being thrown out in the street. i've got a 2-year-old boy -- how old is w.? >> 16 months. >> w. is 16 months. w. will have to get his social security when he's 69. >> can you believe that? >> kate who is 7 years old get it probably at 62. she could probably smoke cigarettes for eight years, whatever she wants to do. >> >> it's going to be all right. >> for these clowns to talk about throwing seniors out -- why are they lying about this? >> you tell us. >> senator, with politics involved, with people having to answer to their constituency, is it actually possible at this

point to get any consensus, to get anything done. lawrence o'donnell chaired this commission, a fake commission, they balanced the budget, but their bottom line was but we don't have to go get elected so we can balance the budget. >> is it actually possible to get this done? >> it has to be possible. if we don't do something by the end of the decade, it's not too alarmist to say the government could fail. by the end of the decade we'll be paying $900 billion in debt service. the government can't function paying that much. we pay $200 billion now. if we said we'll cap all spending at 2007 levels, across the board, entitlements, all discretionary funding and held that fast for ten years, we'd balance the budget in 13 and cut the national debt from $13 trillion to six. that's not rocket science. that can be done. it will take members of congress getting around the table, having difficult discussionless. it's going to mean we have to go into these agencies, find what they're spending that money on.

no one knows. congress doesn't do oversight. congress doesn't call in a secretary and say tell us what your budget is and whether or not these programs are efficient or effective? >> maybe darrell isaac can investigate that instead of digging through white house files. >> maybe. newt gingrich said waste, fraud and abuse. are there any legitimate alternatives? if not, politically can this be done? >> you've got a couple big pies, middle class entitlement s, social security and medicare. by the warks you can reform medicaid, but i don't think there are too many americans that think we're giving poor people a free ride on their health care. >> we just put 18 million new americans into medicaid. >> you have to go after these areas. i want to follow up on what we've been talking about as far as marco rubio. my personal experience and i talked about it before, in 1995 newt gingrich was courageous on

medicare. and we reformed medicare. we extended the life of medicare. we slowed down the rate of increase in spending. i spent the first election talking about nothing but medicare. i brutalized my opponent when he tried to decmagogued it. i said all we have to do is slow down the rate of growth for medicare. that's taking money out of their pockets in realtime, not like 80 years from now like this debt commission says. they all responded. i got like 75% of the vote. i want to ask you, mark halperin, other than marco rubio, is anybody telling the truth? >> retiring senator george lemieux of florida. >> anybody else? >> is it easier when you're retiring? >> can't they figure out that americans are adults and if you tell them the truth like george

is doing and like marco is doing, you get rewarded? >> we'll see. up until now, republicans have been attacking the president for cutting medicare. in a of races i think that helped him. if the president said to you i need your advice, i need to get republicans in congress co-cooperate with me on deficit reduction, what does he need to do to get that level of trust and cooperation from republicans? >> two words, spending cap. the only way that congress is going to balance the budget or come anywhere close to it is if we put in a cap that says congress can only spend this much money. and above that, in the deficit commission has recommended this. there will be automatic cuts across the board. if you don't put handcuffs on congress, they will continue to rob the gook key jar. >> go to 2008 levels? >> i would go to 2007. >> if the president agreed to that, would republicans then allow him to have a big political victory by extensive deficit reduction on social security cuts and on medicare cuts? >> yeah, i think they would.

you have to talk about social security and medicare. when i sigh san jose freeze the budget, you have to freeze medicare, social security, medicaid. all that has to be on the table. you can say, look, social security is more important than the department of labor. we'll cut more from labor in order to shore up social security. if you don't tie congress's hands, congress as an institution is incapable, and joe knows this, of being able to stop spending. >> what if you said let's do all that but i want to raise more revenue? let's say he wants to do a 15 cent gas tax. would republicans go for that? >> i think you'd have to have a constitutional amendment at that point. no one would trust that congress wouldn't still spend the money on whatever program they wanted to. if you're going to have some kind of revenue increase, if you were going to get any republicans to support it, you have to put in the cons tux and say this is a cap, require a supermajority to overcome it. >> that's not politically plausible. >> it may be because people are getting really upset with their government.

>> the easiest thing to do -- it does sound like it, but is to raise taxes and then blow the money. if you're going to raise my taxes, i want proof that you're not going to use it to stop having to make unpopular cuts. that's the thing that democrats don't understand. they talk about expiring tax cuts. nobody believes that rising taxes is going to reduce the deficit because it never does. it dampens the economy, and politicians in washington keep spending money. this is -- this is why california is in the state it's in. connecticut, connecticut, lowell weiker praised for bringing income taxes to connecticut. that's going to take care of all the budget problems? no, it's not. they kept spending at reckless rates. do you know how many millionaires in new york city would be living in connecticut but for lowell weiker, how much tax revenue they would be generating right now? willie geist, his if connecticut

didn't have that state income tax, they would have so much cash shoved down their throats every year, they wouldn't know what to do with it. weiker raises the taxes and what happens? spending explodes. >> they all move to florida. >> no income tax. >> florida is still a great deal, buddy. >> come on down. >> i wish we could move the studio down there. >> please. i'd love to have you. >> i miss home. people make rational decisions. people with lots of money. if i had lots of money and i was going to start a birksz would i start it in new york or new jersey? give chris christie five years and i'd start in new jersey. i would go to florida, no state income tax. >> just likes o.j. did. >> but in o.j.'s defense, the murderer, seriously, we thought he was hanging around panama city golf courses. that's why he went to my district. >> give chris christie five years, that's because it's hard.

often it's unpopular. that's because you need somebody who doesn't care about being re-elected. >> i guarantee you if chris christie cuts taxes and the second people in new york city say, okay, i can move to new jersey and i don't have to give up 55% of my income -- >> i'll move to new jersey. >> they'll have to build a tunnel and he'll have the money to build the tunnel. >> they'll be going the other way. >> people make rational decisions, george, don't they? >> they development that's why hopefully people come to florida and realize we don't have state income tax, a low regulatory environment. we want their businesses. they do make rational decisions. >> my dad moved us from upstate new york down to florida back in '78, he was stunned for a year what he didn't have to pay taxes on. >> interesting op ed, we'll go to break, to be a great president, obama should not seek re-election in 2012, by doug showen and patrick o'dell. get things done and don't worry about the next term. you'll be more effective.

still ahead on "morning joe," "the new york times" thomas friedman will join us for our power in progress section to look at our nation's dependence on foreign oil. chuck todd has the developing headlines out of the white house. first, the workweek forecast with bill karins. >> good morning, mika. dealing with fog this morning. it's been very dense around philadelphia. visibility very poor. washington, d.c. looking at the capital, a little worse than an hour ago. starting to lift a little bit. the morning commute, give yourself a little extra time. as far as the forecast goes today, we're looking at drizzle around new york city currently and also northern new jersey. may want to bring the umbrella this morning. forecast for the rest of the the day should be dry and should be okay. don't count on a lot of shine. heavy rain in new orleans, mississippi and alabama, all heading forl atlanta. flying in and out of atlanta, expect delays. the forecast for the rest of the country, florida looks nice, not bad in dallas. minneapolis after eight inches

of snow, a slow melt. highs only in the 30s. west coast looks pretty good t. rain in the southeast moves right up the east coast on tuesday and wednesday. not to best weather to start our workweek. hey, we had a great weekend, didn't we? you're watching "morning joe" brewed by starbucks. [ male announcer ] you are a business pro.

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if i were to call you six months from now, will you be working in the white house or back in chicago on the campaign? >> well, you're right on the line there, i think, chris. sometime in the spring, late winter, early spring i'll be going back -- coming back here to chicago and beginning to work on that. >> welcome back to "morning joe." willie, you want to go to chicago? >> i love chicago. >> you spend much time in

chicago, mark? >> i was born there, evanston hospital. >> a great mayoral race. >> phil griffin doesn't know this, we'll do a live show from the rl grill. >> they have salty and greasy food. >> no, it's a great place. >> i meant that in a good way. >> rahm goes there. >> everything there comes with a side of bacon. doesn't matter what you get. >> u i don't have actually been there. >> have you been there before? >> rl -- ralph lauren, it's connected to the store, isn't it? yeah, it is. don't mock me. >> i didn't know that. >> why do you mock me? >> because i love. >> you do mock because you love. >> it's great. let's go to chuck todd. i wonder if he's been to the rl bar and grill in chicago. how are you doing? >> when i think diners, i don't think ralph lauren.

>> it's not a diner. it's off michigan avenue. it's great. david axelrod is going to be spending a lot more time there going back to chicago. any surprise there? >> no. it's been -- they've telegraphed this one for quite a while, david plouffe coming into the white house at some point in the next couple months, david axelrod going out. it's part of this whole decision about who is going to be on the outside putting together the re-election campaign and who was going to be doing it from the inside. look, they did what the bush '04 folks did. they've studied the various reelects, how clinton did it from the white house in '96, reagan in '84, bush, '04. a lot of people give the bush '04 team credit. it was as well run of an operation of a reelect between a white house internally and an external. the one thing they're going to try that we haven't seen before is to set up the headquarters outside of the metro area. >> let's talk about bush 2004. that campaign was different from

just about any other in modern american politics because nixon gave us the old formula, you run to the right during the primary, you run to the mid nl the general n. '04 karl rove said, we can't run to the middle because we're not going to sway voters. we're going to go to the right, stay right and make it a turnout election. any evidence that obama's people are going to follow that strategy or does the president go to the middle? >> oh, i think he's definitely looking for a way to go to the middle in some form. is it going to be as obvious as the way clinton did it? no. i also believe they think they're more of a hybrid. they think there is a way for them to do a turnout election between what bush did and what clinton did, that there is a way for them to do a turnout election, that they can uniquely make sure north carolina and virginia stay in the battleground, for instance, that they can change the numbers in a place like florida with their ability to turn out

african-americans, hispanics an young voters. and then at the same time, do enough in the middle to start of ease the anxiety, frankly, that is clear in the midwest. that's their two challenges. challenge number one they focus on over this next year which is dealing with this anxiety with midwestern voters. >> let's talk about david plouffe. he's going in and going to replace david axelrod. is there any concern among democrats -- were i a hill democrat i'd be very concerned, you're trading one chicago campaign guy for another chicago campaign guy, another guy that flew too close to the sun in 2008, another guy who thinks barack obama is special and this unique character in american politics and there's nobody else like him. basically there have been a group of people that have, for lack of a better word, worshipped barack obama. doesn't he need an outsider to go in and say it ain't 2008

anymore, the world has change and this is how we're going to win in '12? >> if you spent time with david plouffe you realize he's not a guy that is as affected by the kool-aid as others around. this is a guy that ran bob toracelli's campaign in new jersey. >> if you've run the torch's campaign, yes. you're left wide open. okay. sorry. the torch. >> it means he's seen babies lit on fire. >> it means he's dealt with a lot. ask halperin. he's dealt with a lot. you have to deal with the torch, the ex-mrs. torch. >> one of my favorite moments is when the torch talked about he remembered the flickering black and white tv screen at the

mccarthy hearings. he was 2 at the time. >> precocious. >> he was a precocious toddler. i have to throw it to you because i'm going to start laughing thinking about the torch. >> there's this conventional wisdom that the president is out of touch that he doesn't get it. inside the senate republican conference, how do you all view the president and how he's reacted to the midterm results? >> well, i think it's going to be so far there's been a lot of disappointment. there was hope he was going to try to work together. remember, he was going to try to change the tone in washington. remember he was going to work with both sides. no red states, no blue states. he's been as partisan a president as we've had. it hasn't been let's work with republicans, it's been let's pick off one or two and steamroll over the rest of them. that's not going to work anymore. that's what got the american people so upset. that's why you had this big change election two weeks ago. >> chuck, i've been struck by john boehner, how measured his

tone has been. boehner, and very impressed with him so far as sort of speaker elect. but telling republican incoming freshmen and this is a guy that learned from all of our stupid mistakes in '94, telling them stay humble. this isn't about us, stay humble. boehner may be a surprise -- a real surprise as a speaker. maybe he strikes deals with the president. >> we'll see. i think he caught a break, frankly, when republicans didn't get the senate because it gave him -- i think it gives them a freer path to potentially give votes to the base that before, if he would have given it to them, it would have been completely the republican senate isn't coming through. now it's the democratic senate. he can feed the base some votes that he knows has no chance, but he gives them their votes at the same time he can be magnanimous, be the good cop to mcconnell's

bad cop. the mcconnell people seem somewhat comfortable as well. i think he caught a break there. i think he realizes that. let's see how he does in the first six months. >> chuck, you and i both know -- some people may roll their eyes -- mitch mcconnell wasn't excited about being majority leader by one. he's very comfortable in the position he's in as well. >> he is. he and harry reid operationally may understand the senate better than any two individuals in the last 10 or 15 years. better maybe than a daschle and a lott who are very good at understanding how to play the games on the floor. mcconnell and reid are very good at it, too. >> chuck, thank you so much. who do you have on "the daily rundown?" >> we'll talk to you soon. we cut off his mic. "the new york times" thomas friedman. up next, the hippy heats up during last night's showdown against the steelers. what would eric cart man say

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yankowski is over thrown and now the lights go out. the lights just went out here in new meadowlands stadium. >> wow. i hate it when that happens. >> they did go out at the new meadowlands stadium. >> can you make the metaphor more obvious? >> $1.6 billion. let's have the lights go out on the set. >> joins us for the "morning joe" gridiron recap, the founder of the sports blog, profootballtalk.com in partnership with nbc sports. good to see you, mark. >> that partnership is great. not just because this is msnbc, but it's great. >> ebersol, seriously? >> excellent. >> say something bad about dick ebersol, come on? >> i could never say anything bad about him. >> you would not be back. we love dick ebersol.

>> i actually mean it. >> why doesn't dick ebersol run for like the senate. >> dictator. that's what he is. let's talk about the giants game where the lights went out. how are the dallas cowboys that bad through eight games and look like a totally different team? >> something we've seen over and over. teams look horrible one week and the next week they look like a different team. maybe they can keep it together for a couple weeks and then they're bad again. i don't think anybody ten weeks in can make sense of where this is heading. the cowboys, now they have interim head coach jason garrett, he pressed the right buttons, at least for one day. the other thing about the giants, weave seen them be very, very good september, october, and then they slide. like last year they slid down the stretch. >> if you're wade phillips sitting at home -- i like wade, sitting there drinking beer and getting drunk. >> he had to be fired. jason garrett looks like they had him working last night. the other jets, the other new york team, the jets, they just

find ways to win. >> it's amazing. you look at it. how many times can you get lucky and steal a game late? i think if you can keep doing that, if you get to the postseason, when you get to the postseason, you have an attitude. no matter what curveball gets thrown at us -- >> you know what willie and i thought, the better you are, the luckier you are. >> they got lucky yesterday. >> not just a coincidence, great teams get lucky and they find a way to win. >> they make breaks. the browns were in field goal position overtime and the ball pops out of chancey stuckey's hands. at the end of the game, i tell you what, browns should have played tore the tie. you're not going to drive against the jets defense from your own -- deep in your own end zone. >> three missed field goals. >> he's a good kicker, too. >> that's going to get you beaten in the play-offs. >> and fired before the play-offs. there's kickers everywhere. if a guy can't make field goals, you find another guy. they're everywhere.

>> the new england patriots winning near the top of the afc. they look good. >> another example of looking good one week. >> look at the hippy. >> they should play their home games in pittsburgh. they have played five games at heinz field and won four of them. >> he needs to cut his hair. who is the best team in the nfl right now? >> if everybody leans towards the afc. >> can we stop for a second. look at this girl. that does look like lewis. that's not a compliment. god. hold on. a little silence. just look at that. drink it in. >> doesn't do it for me. no. >> i think we have to start thinking about the atlanta falcons in the nfc. that was on a bad pass interference call that wasn't made when roddy white, their star receiver. they're 7-2, separateing from the pack in the nfc and

virtually unbeatable at home. they can lock down home-field advantage in the first season, they can be penciled in as well. want to get to the jacksonville game, the jags will a hail mary, the end of the game. >> unbelievable. >> against the texans. the jags here, texans try to bat the ball down -- >> never do that. >> he just strolls into the end zone. >> when you bat it down, you'll bat it right into his stomach. >> mike thomas told peter king of nbc last night they never practiced that play. the jaguars never practiced that and still when they needed to do it, they were able to pull it off. >> florida senator george lemieux, good day for you. >> dolphins won, jags won. >> dolphins in big trouble. >> why is that? >> they elevated chad pennington to starting quarterback this week. he got hurt and is out for the year. the guy who was benched, chad when any, he's probably out for

the year. one healthy quarterback and their left tackle is hurt and face the bears. >> third string quarterback did pretty well yesterday. >> he did okay. the question is can you get him ready for thursday night. if he gets hurt, who in the world is going to back him up? >> let's be more optimistic about the miami dolphins. >> at this point, super bowl picks? sglid' say ravens and falcons, rematch of the game we saw thursday night. >> mike knows his stuff. >> he does. another guy that knows his stuff, tom friedman from "the new york times" is next on "morning joe." subscribe to the newsletter by going to joe.msnbc.com. >> tom friedman is my florio. >> exactly, and energy. >> and energy. >> absolutely. we'll be right back. [ male announcer ] at e-trade, low cost investing means getting a low price.

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we are in a position where we are moving forward largely because the rest of the world is moving forward. so we're moving forward but at too slow a pace to bring the unemployment rate down, but there's very little evidence of any deterioration that suggests we're about to have a double-dip as they call it. in fact, if there's any evidence at all, we're actually picking up some. >> welcome back. 41 past the hour. this morning along with the start of another green s&p universal week across all nbc universal platforms we here on "morning joe" start our week-long series on america's energy future. power and progress. we're bringing together -- >> my polo horse here is green. i'm shouting it out. i'm green and i'm proud. >> we're bringing together the

world's brightest minds. joining us from washington "new york times" columnist thomas friedman the author of "hot, flat and crowded," which we need a green revolution and how it can renew america. you've written over the weekend "the new york times" some concerns that conservatives, tom, have ruined any chance of getting through a clean energy bill. why do you say that? >> well, mika, when you basically spend two years mounting a disinformation campaign about climate change and the reality of climate change, it's not surprising that when it comes around to passing a clean energy bill, which will require some kind of carbon tax, some kind of price signal, you undermine all support for that. and when you undermine all support for that, you really undermine any chance of having a differentiated and i think important clean energy policy in this country. without a price signal, nothing is really going to happen.

i live in montgomery county, maryland. when gasoline was $4.50 a gallon in montgomery county, you couldn't buy a toyota hybrid, they stopped taking names on the waiting list. when gasoline prices fell to $2.00, you couldn't sell one. price matters. without a price signal, you don't have long-term consumer demand. without that, you don't have any differentiated change. >> so what would you hope? what kind of compromise would you hope the president and the republicans in the house and the democrats in the senate could strike? what's our best hope over the next two years? >> joe, it really isn't complicated. what we've been doing up to now is throwing money at the problem. we say we've spent x billion dollars on clean tech, research or the like. if you don't have long-term consumer pull, you know there are consumers out there for those products, ready to buy them and demanding them, you

won't get long-term investors. investors will game the tax system, find some wind subsidy here or solar subsidy there. what have we been doing? bob lutz of general motors, the vice chairman before it went bankrupt, he said something i thought was very important. he said what is the congress telling us to try? they're saying make smaller cars. but we won't put a gasoline tax on to get you, the consumers to buy those cars. he said that's like ordering every shirt maker in america to only make size smalls but never ask the american people to go on a diet. you won't sell a lot of size small shirts. people will go to the salvation army to get mediums and larges. it's the same with the energy economy. price matters. no price signal, no transformational energy revolution. >> tom you've been outspoken for a long time saying there should be an increase in a gasoline tax. pretty clear in the slerm that nothing like that has a chance

to become law without the support of the business community. where do you see in the business community elements of support for that kind of measure? >> it would depend where in the business community. i think you're raising a broader question. the american business community has been missing for a long time. part of this goes back to when carly fee rin any came to washington and dared to tell the truth, a job is not an american right. it's something we've got to earn in this world where we're not compete being a billion chinese and a billion indians. a lot of business leaders saw where she got pilloried for that. they headed for the hills ever since. in what i call this flat world, basically business can move to any opportunity. our biggest multi national companies in america, they're not in america, they hover here. they see where the opportunities are. if there's a good opportunity here in america, the right workers are here, they'll invest here. if they z the opportunities better abroad, they'll go there. what's happened in the process, mark, is american business no

longer comes to washington and basically lobbies on broad principles. broad principles of free trade, of investment, of education, of infrastructure, of the right energy policy. they come to washington to lobby for their specific interests, subsection 4-b, the right of my company to repatriate income from surry familiar. they don't come anymore to participate in the big national debate about economic policy or energy policy. i think it's a real loss. >> tom, it's willie, good to see you this morning. >> thanks. >> you've been screaming every two weeks in your column we need to transform our economy into a green economy. washington doesn't seem to be listening f. you could game it out a little bit, 10, 20 years from now, what does the united states look look economically if we don't make the change right now within the next couple years? >> that's an easy one. we'll go go from having i'm porlted our oil from saudi arabia to importing our battery

and electric cars from china. just from one to the other. you'll never have that industry here. what i say when i speak to people, you don't believe in hot, you don't believe in climate change. anybody got an eraser out there? take off hot. you don't believe in climate change? that's between you and your beach house. i'll let you sort that out. what about flat and crowded. flat means a world where more and more people can see how we live, aspire to how we live and live how we live with american sized homes eating american sized big macs. crowded, we know those two things for sure. when flat means crowded, when there are more and more people and more and more people who can live like us, what do we think is going to happen to the price of energy? so forget hot. you don't believe in hot. like i said, that's between you and your beach house. you better believe flat and crowded. if energy prices are only going to go one way, what's going to

be the next great global industry? it's got to be clean renewable energy. we'll either be part of that or we're not. china, india, brazil, europe, they're going to be. they're going to own the next great global interview. >> senator lemieux, let's talk about the politics of this. mika and guy out and talk, and i've said this for the past two years, we talked about the need to balance the budget overtime, talked about the need to tackle entitlements aggressively, talked about the need of growing the economy, of a lot of things. we always talk about the need to move forward aggressively in these areas that tom is talking about with green energy. everybody agrees. what is the political barrier from the united states moving aggressively like tom suggested? >> it might be a little different in florida because we believe in green energy. i think there is a consensus to be built here, especially after the election. why don't we build 10 nuclear

power plants in this country? we know 70% of our clean energy base load comes from the 103 nuclear power plants we have now. let's fast track them so it doesn't take ten years. three approved plans so the power company can say i'll take plan a, b or c. let's get them built. let's have natural gas like boone pickens wants to power our commercial trucks. let's do nor solar like we're doing in florida. create tax incentives. the pricing of carbon issue, that scares folks like me because in my state one electric company says it will raise prices in the next few years 30%. maybe a renewable portfolio standard. the key of electric generation in my view in this country is nuclear. >> there you go. >> what about helping detroit out? >> figuring out a way to create a partnership? eisenhower got involved after sputnik in pushing technology and science along.

can't conservatives also believe we can do something to move this green revolution forward? it is a national security issue. >> sure, it is. >> if we control the next wave of clean energy, we control the economy for the next century. >> plus we're spending hundreds of millions spending it overseas to feature. >> let's take -- in venezuela. let's keep that economic energy harnessed here. lamar alexander, my colleague, wants to have more electric cars, but you've got to have the base load for those cars and then you've dpot to make it easy. >> tom, final thoughts to you. >> we need all those things as the senator said. the problem with nuclear is it's too expensive. a new plant would take six to eight years to build. i'm for all of those things we

need to have mix, but unless you put in place, you know, senator said we have to be worried about energy price are going to go up. you have no idea where the prices are going to go if we don't shift to a renewable economy. >> thank you. >> thank you, tom. coming up, democratic congressman and former nfl quarterback heath shuler, who says he'll challenge nancy pelosi to be house minority leader if she doesn't drop her bid for the post. you're watching "morning joe," brewed by starbucks. [ j. weissman ] it was 1975. my professor at berkeley asked me if i wanted to change the world. i said "sure." "well, let's grow some algae." and that's what started it. exxonmobil and synthetic genomics have built a new facility

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welcome back. mika, this one's for you. you know they call it the biggest little game in america. >> jacks? >> yes, yes. >> i love williams. the new president of the college is very impressive. >> the 125 meeting, williams

goes undefeated. they won 31-16. >> that gets them in the sugar bowl. >> it does. automatic bcs bid. >> so, the eves won. all 14 people went on to the field. it is a mad house. >> stop it. you love it there. >> it's great up there. >> a great environment. >> a great high school atmosphere. >> if you went there when my brother went there, you would have ripped down the light post then called your sister and asked her to pay for them. >> that is like the rival. >> that's it. biggest little game in america. 31-16, williams. so, bill clinton is going to be on this show. >> the sequel to the "hangover."

>> is bradley cooper in it again? >> of course he is. he's over there shooting right now. bradley can cool opull off thatr hair unlike the hippie from new england. >> and bangkok. congressman heath shuler. he's going to tell us about it. >> i'm just joking, constituents. he's right here. [ male announcer ] you are a business pro.

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i'm hoping that nancy pelosi p will step aside and will allow leaders that are available who are ready to go, but because of her being at the very top right now, no one's willing to throw their hat in the ring and if it comes down to this coming week and she doesn't step aside, then i will challenge her. >> interesting. mark halperin is still with us and joining the table right now, that man. the man who is calling for nancy pelosi to step aside, democratic congressman from north carolina, representative heath shuler. >> tennessee, really, the vols put a whipping on ole miss.

>> you've got the commodores and vols saturday. >> when you go into the stadium -- >> dudley field. >> on a saturday night and you have 24,000 people, you go crazy out there sometimes don't you. >> that will be tough this week. >> so, you guys have eight freshman playing at one point. >> on offense. >> this is going to be a good team. >> in years to come. i think coach d li will do an incredible job. expectations are really high! they' . >> i think that's going to come over the next two, three, four years. i think we'll get back to where we need to be. >> some people might say, you're young, inexperienced, taking on the big game, but you're taking on the jets and nancy pelosi. >> someone has to stand up and

what we believe as a democratic party, that it is the big tent. we're all inclusive. we're not just going to stand under an umbrella. >> you're not going to throw in a willie geist to make the hail mary. >> will we see what we saw in the jags game where it hands in the hands of the receiver. what are the risks of this fight for you? >> i don't know if there's a risk as much as it shows people are will be to stand up for what they believe in. if it comes down and it's a risk for me, and this is not about me. it's about the party being all inclusive, not just being a one dimension of the democratic party. republicans were like that. it's not good for our country and we cannot do that or allow that to happen. >> i understand you won a big ten, but understand what you think will happen if nancy pelosi is elected as your leader.

>> well, i think we have to look to the 2012 election cycle. in order to regain the house for the democrats, we have to be able to go out and recruit in moderate districts. we took a beating in this last election and we have to go back and recruit some of those members to come back to the party and unaffiliated voters in america. >> she was the leader when you took over the house and won a lot of those races. >> it's no different. i hate to use willie's sports analogy. but look, he's been at the helm. we had the largest defeat in almost a century. you have to take responsibility if you're going to be at the top of leadership. even though there's problems with the economy and you can place a lot of blame, but at the end of the day, she was the leader, at the very top.

>> to follow up and i agree it's best if she step aside, but if i'm nancy pelosi, i would say, you knew i was in 2006 and we took over the house. we had great wins in 2006. picked up another 20, 25 seats in 2008. i won an off year. she's 2-1. >> how do you recruit? >> that's my question. how did she recruit in 2006? because she did a good job. >> two waords. rahm emanuel. we don't have rahm emanuel back recruiting and the problem is no one knew who nancy pelosi was in my district in 2006. everyone knows. >> other democratic members of congress afraid of her, is that why they're supporting her? >> i think that obviously, it is a long shot. this is a long shot to even come

close. i can add and subtract and realize quickly that there's no way i can win, but i'm going to take a stance for every moderate democratic in america. >> what separates their judgment from yours? >> if you look at who's left, we had 60 moderates lose in the house. you take those out. the progressive caucus is still in tact. the blue dogs, we lost more than half. we lost the new dems. a substantial amount of moderates in the house. what is left is a small amount of moderates and large group of progressives within our caucus. >> what happens if the progress is continue expanding and they take over your party? do you say, this isn't my democratic party and start looking to the republican party? >> no, but i think you can't to message. you continue to message on

moderate so even within our caucus, we have to expand out and try to recruit the moderates because we need a coalition to move the policies back. we need to move policy back to the middle. >> it's going to be very interesting because the lame duck session of congress started. >> yes, and the focus will be the tax cuts and whether or not they get extended. president obama says he wants to hear from republicans about how strongly they feel about the cuts and how they'll pay for it. david axelrod says the president is opposed to a permanent extension, but he refused to tip the administration's hand. >> the way the bush tax cuts work are going to expire january 1st. we want people to have a certainty of knowing that's not going to happen. congress ought to before they go on vacation, they ought to ensure people have better vacations of their own.

>> bottom line. bottom line. he's open to compromise. is that fair? >> bottom line is he wants to sit down and talk about this, but -- >> is he open to compromise? >> there's no bend on the permanent extension of tax cuts. >> he's open to compromise. >> we want to get this done. american people expect to get this done. chris, i'm not going to negotiate with you on this program. let me repeat what the president's position is. we have to extend these middle class tax cuts. absolutely have to do that. we should do that permanently. give people the security of knowing they're taxes aren't going to go up. >> why just compromise? >> they're having bipartisan group over at the white house thursday and i think they're waiting to see what both

sides -- >> we're willing to compromise. willing to meet in the middle. i think they'll wait and hear how the other side plans to pay for it. >> are they still scared of the liberal blog es sphere? caused them so many headaches over the past two years. drove them too far left, artificially to the left and i can't believe they don't realize -- >> they say they're not afraid, but they certainly dance around it. >> i want to know what the compromise is and what you think it is. >> what's the compromise? >> i think the compromise is a, to pay for it and how long you're going extend the tax cuts. eight months, 12 months, 18 months, two years? who will get the tax cuts. is it less than a million in

income or over? >> right, and definition of rich. frank rich wrote about this in midwest reads, here we go. who will stand up to the super rich by frank rich. a, chris -- the business owners would be hit so hard they could no longer hire new employees, but the tax policy center when checking out claims by joe the plumber, only 2% of americans reporting income regardless of tax bracket would see tax increases if obama fulfilled his pledge to let the bush tax cuts lapse. explain. >> i like frank's columns, but that's just -- that's just a --

if you're a small business owner, you file as a corporation, but you know your taxes are going up. there's not like a chinese wall. the guy decides he's going to hire a fourth or fifth person before he finds out the government's going to take more. he's going to save that money because he's got to pay for his kids getting through school. they just don't matter. if you hammer the person that runs a small business economically, they will make decisions in their best interests and hold on to this money instead of investing. >> isn't it an overreach? >> it's not an overreach. there is a much bigger problem. that really i thought frank's piece was provocative because the much bigger problem and

nobody has the answer to this and we've got to keep grasping for it. is the collapse of the middle class and the fact that the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. it's been happening since 1975 and it's been happening because of the way our economy is run. we've got to figure out a way to rebuild the middle class and you're the only elected official at the table right now, so how the hell do we do that? you can't tax your way to income equality. you just can't. if that worked, the soviet union would still be operating. >> the most important thing we can do and this may sound really unusual, but until the way we're gerrymandering districts in this country, i truly believe that we have to get a more of a middle of the road census in the congress. the members of congress that have been here for years and years that end up being chairman and ranking members, they've

been here for so long in the congress and they never have a fight. they never have a fight within their district. they never are really challenged because it's the way we gerrymander the districts. until this country wakes up and says, we have to make sure that state senators and house members in the states don't draw the lines for themselves and for members of congress, we're going to continue this down this same division within congress and never have a compromise. i believe that you could take the tuesday froup on the republican side and blue dogs on the democratic side and we can certainly, a, compromise to get things i comp lished. >> you could tackle tough issues like this. income and quality. mark halperin. what's the best idea you have heard out there? let me back up and say, name a public figure. pat buchanan, that's been talking about the collapsing

middle class for 30 years now. a public figure out there that is focused on the fact that the middle class is collapsing, the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. >> bill clinton. manufacturing jobs and you need investments in education. that's the way to do it. >> friedman's article that he continues to talk about, energy is that next cycle for us. we saw the industrial revolution, the tech revolution. it has to be an energy sector and that's where we have to start working together. >> the thing that hits me because we talk about green energy, you're not going to be finding like oil fields in texas. it's not going to be specific. if you have let's say dartmouth might crack the code for some form of energy battery in oregon.

you've got opportunities for individual colleges, labs, to come up with breakthroughs. businesses can grow around there. and instead of a few people who find the wealth, becoming extraordinarily wealthy off of oil revenue, maybe it's a bit more diffuse. maybe you rebuild the middle class that way. but it's something that we really have, this over the next decade, this is going to be every bit as critical, reversing these trend lines that have been going on for 35 years. >> it should be our new frontier. doesn't feel like we're launching it. question for the congressman and for you because the president meets with democrats and republicans on thursday. what should he do when it comes to dealing -- >> i just got distracted. i open up a -- there's a picture. plastic surgery, before and after. it's distracting.

>> yes. what should he do, how to bridge the divide on tax cuts. >> first of all, it's a good thing that he doesn't have an ipad. i like the fact that what chuck schumer is talking about and that is moving the number up to a million dollars. definition of rich. i'll guarantee you there are people who make $250,000 in new york city with four kids that don't feel rich. then let the tax cuts expire in a year or so and extend the rest out for two years. i want them paid for. i want them paid for, so if you extend them much further, congressman, how do you pay? >> i totally agree with joe. you have to pay for any tax extension that we have. if you don't, all we're doing is borrowing the money or printing more and we're not making progress. >> china's giving tax breaks. >> they're giving tax breaks.

the u.s. dollar is funding the chinese currency. how we pay for it, but get stability. perception is reality so often. whether it be in small businesses or big corporations, we have to see a true goal in mind and we have to obtain that and have the steps between that to make it work. >> when the congressman talks about stability, i think the economy's going to grow in the next two years because there is going to be stability, maybe even a stalemate, but the $3 trillion sitting on the sidelines, it will start coming in as soon as the people with the money realize the rules aren't going change dramatically. >> or reward that money. >> so you don't raise capital gains taxes, grow the economy, grow jobs. >> you got it. >> i like it. you're my kind of democrat, baby. >> congressman shuler, thank you

very much. nice to meet you. next, an update on the alaskan senate race. plus, a special edition of business before the bell international superstar erin burnett joins us live from dubai. amazing. but first, here's bill karins with a quick check on the forecast. bill? >> i'm lucky to get to sit here at the desk. good morning, everyone. we've been watching the foggy conditions at philadelphia and d.c. airport delays aren't too bad. philly, 15 to 30 minute delays and no delays at reagan or dulles. we have rainy conditions out there, mostly in the southeast. i've hard reports of drizzle in jersey and connecticut, but mostly cloudy today, temperatures in the 50s. heavy rain from atlanta to new

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president has called nearly every newly elected republican

in the congress and all of the newly elected senators in what did he say to you? >> he hasn't got through to me yet, but i'd love to speak with the president. i haven't heard that identify gotten a phone call, but i think i would hear about that if the president calls, t i'd love to show him that people from the tea party can work with the other side of the aisle. >> an interesting question. >> no call from the president. >> george w. bush was pretty miserable if first couple of years reaching to people. i remember lincoln chafey saying he had never talked to the president, been to the white house. >> you asked what the president needs to do thursday at this

meeting. i think the personal matters a lot more. at least got to breakthrough to those guys. >> the president and this is very revealing. this is the sort of thing that outside of washington, people roll their eyes, it doesn't matter. the president goes golfing every weekend. bill clinton would take everybody golfing with him. republicans, democrats, everybody. by the end, arms around him, i understand you're trying to impeach me, let's get this bill -- everybody likes bill clinton. he worked the system. barack obama golfs with staff members, people he knows. somebody told me that it's such a tight -- there are a lot of opportunities like that that the president needs to seize on and mark, he hasn't seized on them. >> he hasn't. he's had some contact with them,

but nothing like -- just like you said. he doesn't like and respect them. president has a lot of skills. poker face is not one of them. which is to go back to get people to work. >> the president has to stop being proud of the fact that he and his people have contempt for washington. he's working in washington. chief white house correspondent for politico. hey, mike. you almost forget there's still one outstanding senate race. what's going on in alaska? >> there is and it's hard to overstate how amazing this is. lisa murkowski, who lost her republican primary to joe miller, a tea party guy. her family, amazing alaska dynasty. she looks like she's going to win the recount. like she's going to win a write-in. it's so difficult. so much easier to check a box than to write in a name, but the trends have her passing joe

miller and joe miller has a real problem because he's going to court trying to argue that voters have to spell her name perfectly and that it will not be judged on the basis of what the voters intend. so, he's taking ballots where people clearly intended to vote for lisa murkowski and he's challenging them. >> no judge is going to override a vote and throw a ballot out. >> i think that's right and part of the reason she seems in such clear command. his approach seems outside the tea party ethos, but she's going to have fun when gets to d.c. some revenge. >> what about sarah palin, lisa murkowski battle and how stunning that sarah palin loses in her own state. this is one of the greatest

rebukes in cent political history. no doubt. in her home state. she loses -- >> what's that? >> she doesn't even care. she just doesn't care. are you kidding me? >> she declared war against her. i love her show though. >> i want to go to dubai. >> i want to go to alaska. sarah palin's alaska. >> i want to go to dubai. >> they shoot them with guns after they do this. erin burnett in dubai next. [ male announcer ] you are a business pro. princess of the powerpoint. your core competency... is competency. and you rent from national. because only national lets you choose any car in the aisle. and go. you can even take a full-size or above. and still pay the mid-size price.

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oh, my, that's what they do in dubai. >> it is really? not what i heard. >> who's the burnette -- >> that would be good for your health. let's check on business before the bell with cnbc's international superstar. what the heck is that? >> erin told cnbc she needed to go to dubai because she needed

to be in front of the world's tallest building. >> tom cruise was dangling off this building last week for the new movie. i am more comfortable down here with the bubbles, but this goes up about the height of two empire state buildings. what's cool about it, it takes two -- >> never mind. how many stories is that? >> it's about -- it's north of 16 stories. you go up to the observation deck at 124 where you feel like you're going to puke. because of the crisis in dubai, even though most are sold, only about 20% are full. this place is absolutely crowded right now because it is essentially christmas here. so everybody gets a week off and it is pretty incredible. everyone from the middle east and southeast asia is here, but you have a lot of overhang from

the debt crisis, which literally, guys, is one year ago. which is technically why i'm here, but maybe i wanted to go in those bubbles. you have a country with a hi highest debt to gdp ratio. they have a lot to work through on that front. >> all right. your always found what you call dubai's knight in shining armor. what is that? >> that's right, mika. yes, dubai's got 120 to $160 billion of debt. they're trying to work through the problem. if they didn't have abu dhabi to help bail them out, they wouldn't have been able to work that out, but they do have abu dhabi. i was with a lot of leaders in abu dhabi this weekend and they say dubai's missing more debt payments, that they are here for dubai. it's pretty interesting. abu dhabi has really cemented is

power of dubai. they're like two star players on the same team. this is america's biggest ally in the middle east and i'm sitting 120 miles from iran. a pretty interesting story. >> interesting. we look forward to more reports. thank you once again. enjoy dubai. i'm jealous. up next -- that should be interesting. >> governor bobby jindal. he's got a book and when you have a book out, you come talk to your friends. >> absolutely. and your friends are polite. >> how are you doing? >> good to see you. hey, did you ever finish last month's invoices? sadly, no. oh. but i did pick up your dry cleaning and had your shoes shined. well, i made you a reservation

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37 past the hour. welcome back to "morning joe." mark halperin still with us and joining us now, republican governor, bobby jindal of louisiana on the set of "morning joe," author of the new book, "leadership in crisis." he's here to talk about it. good morning. >> you saw two presidents handle two crises in louisiana. i remember scarborough country, time life is now boxing those things. this receives a three. where you actually had to come on and you were actually the first republican who criticized george w. bush's slow response. what is it about louisiana disasters that make presidents fumble around. >> i talk about this. there was so much red tape and bureaucracy. writing the book for example, a sheriff being told he had to

e-mail his problems because the federal government wasn't taking phone calls anymore even though the sheriff said the water's rising, i've got no electricity, how am i going to send an e-mail. then the president, he was focused, he was mad because we sent a letter asking for food stamps. he wasn't mad about the oil coming into the coast. >> president obama. >> president obama. then you had the federal government shut down vacuum barges and picking up oil along the coast because they wanted count fire extinguishers on the boats. we were in the air, i show the captain oil in the water in the bay, yet there's boom and skimmers sitting on the dock right there. we brought them up on purpose to dpet them to deploy those resources. he said it would take 24 to 48 hours to get the resources there into the water. the federal government seemed to be focused on the wrong things. it was the same message voters sent two weeks ago.

voters are worried about the economy. you've got a federal government focused on taking over health care, running car companies. same thing happened during the oil spill. felt like they were focused on the wrong things. >> but the white house would say you talked to valerie jarrett every day. you had a good relationship, right? >> i like valerie, i like the president. i talked to them every day. >> they said talk with you every day, you didn't have to complaints in these conversations with valerie then hold a press conference attacking the white house. they suggested your complaints were for political purposes. >> absolutely. the second time he came down, he yelled at me and billy nungesser and going on tv. one day, they told us in the morning, they were shutting down the vacuum barges because they wanted to check the valves. these were picking up thousands of gallons of oil every day.

they wanted to make sure they were using the right valves. think about how absurd this is. in the morning of that same call, i say, fine, but you have to get this done. you can't drag your feet on this. hours later, federal government comes back and says they can't find phone numbers from the barges. the right hand didn't know what the left was doing. then when they realized how absurd the situation was, they said we're going to count the life jackets and fire extinguishers. i said in 24 hours, i'm heading to the port myself. on the way, they contacted us to tell us they weren't doing their inspections. >> we're talking to governor jindal. the book, "leadership in crisis." long-term debt, you're a small government conservative like me. like me, you were predicting the republican party was going to

lose power if they didn't stop spending money too much. is it now the time for republicans to step up with this debt commission and tackle middle class? tackle run away spending. whether it's not pentagon or domestic. >> absolutely. if we don't do this now, we don't deserve to be a majority party. you know, there was a congressman who said this. power is being lent. right now, we're on probation. that's right. i write in the book about why we need to tackle medicare reform. there was a bipartisan commission, came up with good ideas in the '90s about premium support, slow down the growth in the entitlement programs. we need to make structural changes. we need to cut spending, but the reforms we talk about like the balanced budget amendment. like line item veto. the republican congress will be

earmarks. >> that's just a small percentage. >> the money -- it is symbolic, but for long-term struck debt. one of the things i argue is that too often they focus on the five, ten-year window. that's the way cbo scores budgets. if we want to make sure medicare is sustainable, the commission said there's a federal employment plan with choice and competition. if you aply those same principles, you can slow the growth. the real savings over the decades as the baby boomers continue to retire -- you're exactly right. now is the time for the republican party to lead. we can't be the party of no. we have to go to the president and say, here are our ideas. because in two years, if we don't do that, the voters are

going to say, we tried to give you power, didn't work, we're going somewhere else. my background is more on medicare, but social security, they need to look at all options. i'm a fan of giving individual investors the option of putting their money into private accounts. i think that makes sense as long as it's optional. i spent a lot more time talking about what they should be doing in health care. we got this crazy idea that once you reach a certain age in this country, all of a sudden, the government's going to tell you how to get your health care. american hospital association says an hour of paper work for every hour they deliver care. many of their nurses spend an hour filling out paper work. for those that like the traditional medicare system, we need to preserve it for them, but a lot of baby boomers are going to be used to making their own decisions about health care. >> mcconnell said his highest

political authority is getting a republican president in. do you share that or would you like to find compromise with the president? >> it's up to the republican party to articulate and present past bills consistent with our conservative principles. it will be up to the president to decide whether he's going to be re-elected o or not. the american voters want less spending, less borrowing, less taxes. if the president loses position, that's the best thing he can do. republicans can't control that. republicans can't decide whether he's a one-term or two-term president. my top goal is to get this country moving again. it is to make sure we're not creating structural debt for our children and grandchildren. my biggest concern is the fact that spending is projected to reach 26% of gdp over the next decade. it's been 18 to 20%. that's not sustainable. that's going to mean higher taxes, a lower value of the dollar. we've got to get spending under

control, cut the taxes, cut the regulations so the private sector can create jobs. >> what are the two best things the president's done since taking office? >> seriously, two. come on. that's tough. >> stop it. i can name ten. you can do it. >> i applauded him in afghanistan, his stand on foreign policy when he was he wasn't going to cut and run. i wished he hadn't set an arbitrary deadline. >> you can't clarify it. that's a good thing. >> secondly, if he's pushing through the free trade agreements that's the good thing. it's a good thing aaligned america's interest with india. >> correct answer was education reform. >> doing well on that, too. on o charter schools, rewarding teachers for performance, i want to make sure they consistently

stand up to the teacher. it's a good start. >> governor jindal. >> hold on a second. willie's going to -- >> rick perry on a couple of weeks ago. when ever a state politician puts out a memoir to a national audience, people want to know why. you have higher aspirations. >> i'll be running for re-election next year. a bunch of republicans in iowa. here in louisiana, we have the second best economy during the recession. just want to share our experiences with the country. want to make sure our federal government stays on track. >> we will not see you in iowa. >> you come down baton rouge, new orleans. you'll see me in louisiana next year. >> most important question, will lsu be the national champion? >> they're going to do their part. we deserve it. make sure the bcs gods recognize the talent and coaching. >> you heard that -- beat amherst this weekend. >> congratulations.

>> who's brown's rival? >> browns just, we have a different approach when it comes to football. our rivals are yale, dartmouth, princeton, columbia. >> who was your rival? >> i hate to say this, columbia. they've gotten better since i left. >> they like to study. thank you very much. >> mika apologizes for all the mean things she says. >> i apologize for joe. >> yes, i take responsibility. >> it's "leadership and crisis." i think they're going to -- somebody's going to kidnap him and take him to iowa. it's going to happen. all right. very good. >> football frenzy with roger bennett, next on "morning joe."

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there's roger in the red jacket, drinking a beer and really, this was "the new york times" covered this. one of the most remarkable tournaments. he ended up winning the pong tournament. he won. >> 9-11 in the final.

an epic ping-pong battle. >> i did not realize, you had great literary talent there. it was wonderful. >> a great evening for ping-pong, which is now inching towards american football and basketball. >> no doubt about it. pong is life. everything you know the pong. let's talk about this weekend. liverpool. it was one of the dreariest performances. one of the dreariest performances i've ever seen. one of the most uninspired performances against one of the bottom teams. john henry is going to have to shake this squad up. >> they're showing the manchester united game. >> what happened with man u.? >> they played villa, this is the -- that's jones. randy learner at the cleveland bro browns owner, that team is so young, this is so young that the

average age is barely shaving. for 18 minutes, they destroyed manchest mancheste manchester. woke up very, very late. in nike town, in beaver ton, iowa. the sun newspaper managed to have 12 articles about the capital of america. >> we're just showing random shots. the words do not match the pictures. >> just listen to roger's words. >> i want to go back to liverpool. uncle roy. >> he needs slippers and sent off to the retirement village. it's very, very difficult for those guys. a team that have won, a long through into the area. everybody knows it's coming. the biggest ears and biggest throw in the league. >> they're a one trick pony, but that is a remarkable trick. >> liverpool could not defend

against this trick. they scrambled in a goal the likes of which another team would be proud of. it's back to the start of the season. it's really rather pathetic. >> you're going to have to get rid of uncle roy. roy has to go. >> come and support everton. >> i'm saying with liverpool, but they were just so flat. >> next week, it's in northwest northern darby. they do play soccer here in america. against the colorado rapids. going to be an epic match. >> big loss for chelsea. >> it's a long story. the day the rolls royce stole. no one wants to win this league. look at this. dirty dancing. >> roger, thank you. tomorrow, mark sanchez will be here. next, what we learned.

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what we learned today. mika? >> bobby jindal, he's got a good sense of humor. >> he's a bright guy. very good. very good. no, he is. mika was so mean to him for years. >> honest surprise at your lack of grace. i'm going to give you grace. >> what did you