busy morning. let's start with nancy pelosi who has just a few more weeks as speaker. job one, rally liberal democrats to be minority lead somewhere negotiate a smaller, but vocal group of moderates. blue dog democrat heath shuler is challenging her for minority leader though he admitted on "morning joe" he won't win. >> it is a long shot. this is a long shot to even come close. i mean, i can add and subtract and realize quickly there's no way i can win, but i'm going to take a stance for every moderate democrat in america. >> brian, kelly, steve, all here. what does nancy pelosi have to do if she's going to be effective. >> i'm contributor to loop 21. only thing to be effective is to step aside. one of the things that came out of the midterms when you democrats who are trying to run for office and running against nancy pelosi, just as much as they're being forced to run against the republican in the

race, that shows she's a polarizing figure, and i think it's -- there are a variety of reasons why she might be perceived as polarizing. but reality of the matter she is. the president used that analogy so much about the republicans were driving the car and now asking for their keys back, and it's like, if nancy pelosi was driving the car, during midterms and the car crashed, you know, down an embankment, i'm confused so what that message is that they want to give her the keys back though they don't want to give key backs to the republicans. >> what message does this send if she's minority leader? >> i don't think nancy pelosi, she's not running for president, and her job changed on november 2nd. she doesn't have to be a legislator. she has to run interfere erns for barack obama. she's going to be the spokesman for liberal democrats in the house, also going to try to stop as many things as she can. harry reid will do the same in the senate.

she can be effective by rallying the liberal base and giving obama cover on capitol hill. >> it's interesting, heath shuler, when he was on "morning joe" said forget 2010. nancy pelosi, he thinks, doesn't get credit for the democratic gains in 2008. listen to what he said. >> 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. if you look at the 60 losses, we took a beating in the last election. two words, rahm emanuel. rahm emanuel did the recruiting, it wasn't nancy pelosi doing the recruiting. >> do democrats, as they're considering this, have to look at two things, not just what is going to happen over the next two years legislatively or running interference barack obama, but who are they going to get to run in 2012? >> well, you know, i have to say this, chris, i have talked to republicans, you know, many of the republicans on capitol hill, they're absolutely elated that

nancy pelosi is going to be the minority leader because she really is the punching bag. almost be like people in illinois re-electing blagojevich for the governorship. she is the kind of symbolism of what went wrong in last two congresses. debt went through the roof and so on. so i think it's a mistake if the democrats want to turn the page if they want to -- i agree with heath shuler if they want to win back those moderate districts, those centrist districts i think nancy pelosi is the wrong ring leader for the democrats. >> brian, it's not just nancy pelosi. obviously, clyburn stays essentially number three, hoyer at number two. does it send the message, no matter what you voted, same old, same old? >> look, if the democrats are trying to get rid of polarizing figures they should get rid of barack obama. barack obama is a polarizing figure in america. harry reid is a polarizing figure in america. democrats are polarizing figures in america. i think that 2012 is not a referendum on nancy pelosi.

i think it's a referendum on barack obama. i don't believe republicans are going to have success putting her in commercial after commercial. it's clear who the leader of the party is. >> let me say one thing about that. you're right, that the election in 2012 will be obama referendum but it's also true, republicans are going to run the same hats running for congress. they're going to say do you want nancy pelosi back as speaker and that, i think, is big trouble for democrats. >> thanks so much. more to talk about coming up. what in the world is going on at charlie rangel's ethics hearing? rangel has walked out. the proceedings are going on without him after the committee refused to give him more time to hire a lawyer. earlier this morning a combative and feisty rangel tells lawmakers he's being treated unfairly and he made an impassioned plea for more time to make his case. >> it's a lot of pain that i feel because i fought in the wars. i prosecuted in the u.s. attorney's office. i've served as a legislator in

the state. i am so proud of my record in the congress. i love this congress. i love this country. i think i'm entitled to more than being suggested. >> nbc's luke russert live on capitol hill. well, luke, we were expecting fireworks. i don't know, did anybody expect this? >> reporter: no. no one expected charlie rangel to walk out of the ethics committee hearing or trial, rather, and just not show up. sources tell us rangel was in his office right now, we don't know exactly what he's doing, possibly waiting this out. the way the trial's proceeding now, chris, it's going on as the ethics trial would have proceeded it's just going on without charlie rangel. that being said, there is some interesting developments that happened within there. we're at the round of questioning. a gentleman, the staff director of the house ethic committee, the one who was the prosecutor in this case, the one who is describing the charges against rangel, and what he did ethically wrong. he was questioned just now by a man, mr. butterfeield of north

carolina and said do you believe charlie rangel is corrupt? he said new york no, i do not. someone's financial disclosures within his family that he had no direct knowledge of. if there's any big news coming out of the trial itself the leading prosecutor, a gentleman in charge, does not believe charlie rangel is corrupt, just to be sloppy in his accounting. it's interesting to see how that plays out and how that impacts the decision whether rangel is reprimanded o eed or given any punishment. >> thank you, luke. we should make the point that this hasn't happened since 2002 when congressman traficant of ohio went before the ethics committee but he had been convicted of criminal charges. because they haven't done this kind of thing before, at least in a very long time, nobody knows how long it's going to last. nobody knows how many witnesses there is going to be. it could still be going on tomorrow, the next day. i'm reporting live from capitol

hill tomorrow and wednesday. we'll be talking about the new members of congress, lame duck session firsthand but maybe we'll still be talking about charlie rangel as well. well, within an alleged kidnapper in custody, police are trying to track down three missing people in ohio today. this is new video just in to msnbc. this morning of the search. originally, four people were missing but 13-year-old sarah maynard discovered by police yesterday, bound and gagged in the basement of her alleged kidnapper but alive. here's the real mystery. the fate of her mother, brother, and family friend is unclear. nbc's peter alexander joins us live from howard, ohio. what can you tell us. >> reporter: chris a baffling one. investigators are trying to find out. let's catch up on details. we're in front of the home in howard, ohio where the 13-year-old sarah maynard lived with her family. she was found, though, early yesterday morning about ten miles away from the home in mt. vernon, ohio, as you noted, bound and gagged in the basement

of 30-year-old matthew hoffman, he is behind bars. he'll be in court the first time. facing kidnaps charges. the sheriff says he may face other charges as well. when they got to the home sunday, they were hopeful, authorities were, to find sarah, as well as her mom, 10-year-old brother cody and a family friend. the other three were not there. the question is, where are they now? this man, matthew hoffman, has not been cooperative with police sense he was picked up 24 hours ago. there is some new of course that we've gathered over the day. a search taking place in foundation park, a short distance a what from hoffman's home where sarah maynard was found. investigators say an officer patrolling the area overnight found items described as possibly belonging to some of the victims in this case. at this point, unclear exactly what has happened to them or where they are. there's a news conference and we'll be there for you. >> thank you so much, pete. >> in oregon a new search over the weekend for 8-year-old kyron

horman, missing since june when he vanished after a school science fair. kyron's biological parents believe the son's stepmother, thierry, is responsible for his disappearance. kyron's mother talked about horman's newly revealed e-mails that raises her suspicions. >> she had expressed in great detail her hatred for kyron. i now believe, without a shadow of a doubt, that not only is she capable of hurting kyron, that it's clear that she could have hurt him in the worst possible way. >> do you still hold out hope that your son's alive? >> i will until the day i die. >> terri horman has never spoken to the media. no charged have been filed. general petraeus warns president karzai's latest criticism of u.s. strategy in afghanistan threatens to undermine the general's position

as well as progress in the war. a growing backlash against new tsa body scanners and those pat-downs. >> just personal space, invasion of my personal space, my body. >> and to say the least, economists aren't seeing eye to eye on what to do about the struggle economy. richard lui has been following that story for us. >> big names out there have that opinions on this. but there are big problems they have to try to solve and after two years in the economic doldrums, still today, big disagreements between them. if the experts can't come together on this, how will congress?oots. 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

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solve a series of shooting at military installations around d.c. there have been five shootings total between october 16th and november 2nd and police linked all to a single weapon. if you have any information, call the fbi. a very public feud is erupting between the u.s. and afghanistan. just as the public debate is about to heat up over the nato exit strategy. it started when president karzai told "the washington post" over the weekend the u.s. must scale back operations especially night raids. general petraeus was astonished. rumors that he would redesign, denied in his camp. a former marine captain who resigned in protest of u.s. military policy in afghanistan. he's now director of the afghanistan study group. good to see you. thanks for being here. >> thanks, chris. >> officials in both washington and kabul told "the washington post" think is karzai undermining petraeus, making his

position untenable. do you agree with that? and, second, what do you think president karzai's up to? >> well, first of all i think that our current policy is untenable. this is a continuation of policy we've had in place for several years now. we have a different general there. we have more troops. but the same policy of trying to pacify the rural parts of southern and eastern afghanistan, and it's not being successful. we have stepped up these night raids, we've done a lot of other things in terms of special ops or increasing troop presence and all we do is see the taliban gain in popularity, gain in strength. >> as you know, matthew, the military says the night raids are working that they are helping. >> you know i just don't see that, chris, because if that was the case, we would have seen a commensurate effect on the taliban operations. this month alone we've had 25 american service members killed and we're halfway through the month. last november there were a total

of 18 service members killed in the entire month. we've seen the effect on the taliban that these raids and these attacks should be having. it hasn't been busting up their tempo for operations at all. >> as you well know, later this week the u.s.s a going to unveil the most detailed plan with the exit strategy. the goal is for the u.s. combat mission to end by 2014. let me play reaction that we got from republican senator lindsay graham who was on abc's "this week"s. >> i think in summer 2011 we can bring some troops home but we'll need a substantial number of troops in afghanistan past that. 2014 is the right date to talk about. that's when karzai suggested that afghans will be in the lead. i'm pleased to hear obama talk about 2014. >> is 2014 realistic? >> not at the current pace. it is. we can sustain that, at great cost. it's going to cost at the current pace, to go to and 2014,

cost 2500 american and coalition lives, thousands of more afghan lives and half a trillion dollars at the current pace to 2014. can we pay that? yes, we can. what do we get out of it in how does that affect al qaeda? those are the questions that the administration has to answer. and in this review scheduled for december, the white house should answer those questions. how does what we're doing in afghanistan make us safer? how does stabilize the region because, our operations the last four or five years have made the region less stable, and they haven't had an effect on al qaeda, which is an organization that, you know, operate business sending parcel bombs through fedex. so those are questions that the american people should be asking. >> matthew hoh, thank you. a gay student delivered an impassioned defense for a teacher suspended after a heated exchange with another student on gay rights. >> that hurt a lot. a silent holocaust out there

which an pimt estimated 6 million gay people every year kill themselves. >> the student and teacher will talk to us, next. and snl aims george bush and kanye west and their little feud. >> rich, right? i mean, we're both impulsive. >> yep. >> he interrupted taylor. [ male announcer ] humana and walmart are teaming up to bring you a low-price medicare prescription drug plan called the humana walmart-preferred prescription plan. it's a new plan that covers both brand and generic prescriptions and has the lowest-priced national premium in the country of only $14.80 per month and in-store copays as low as $2. when you could save over $450 a year, you can focus on the things that really matter. ♪ go to walmart.com for details. you don't love me anymore do you billy? what? i didn't buy this cereal to sweet talk your taste buds it's for my heart health. so i can't have any? if you can deprive me of what can help lower my cholesterol...

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the flag is flying high on the california teenagers' bicycle. he's 13, he was told by officials that he could not fly the flag on school grounds because of complaints. but an outcry from local, people across the country, even the troops in afghanistan, convinced the school to change its tune. today, 500 motorcycle riders some affiliated with tea party groups are going to escort cody to school. a teacher in howell, michigan, suspend without pay for telling a student who

allegedly made anti-gay remarks to leave the room. thence dent happened on spirit day when advocates of gay rights wore purpose toll school. on try, that teacher, jay mcdowell, had an unexpected advocate speak on his behalf, an openly gay 14-year-old. >> this teacher, whom i fully support, finally stood up and said something. i have been in classrooms where children have said the worst kinds of things, the kind of things that helped drive me to suicide attempt when i was only 9 years old. >> that young teenager graham taylor, joins me with jay mcdowell, the teacher, who was suspended. thank you both for being here. jay, take us through the events that led up to the suspension. >> basically, we had a situation in class where during my economics class, a student came into class, wore a confederate belt buckel from time to time and i asked other take it off, and she did without incident.

another student, who is a good student, he's a great student, he raised his hand and say how that is different than gays flying rainbow flags? he said i don't accept gays because it's part of my religion. at that point, i suspended him from class for the rest of the day. >> well, graham, you done go to the school where mr. mcdowell teaches. why did you decide to get in the middle of this? >> i decided to get in the middle of it because i figured that, whenever we see any display of a teacher standing up for lgbtq youth we should support that eacher especially when he's been disciplined for no reason. >> how did you feel when graham stood up for you? >> fantastic. it's so important that your youth feel compelled to take a stand and feel they can make a difference by speaking, it's really important that everyone feels that they can be their true selves and graham was able to do that on that day, and it was fantastic.

>> we've talked a lot on this program about bullying and what it has done to a lot of kids out there. and to hear you say that you attempted suicide when you were 9 years old was shocking. give us a sense of what you feel it's like to be in school right now, how hard is it? what was it that at the age of 9 drove you to think about committing suicide? >> well i would have to say that i hadn't been bullied for being gay then, but one of the two factors why i attempted was fear of bullying. i heard so many anti-gay remarks, so many other anti-gay things it felt like i could never be myself, so i fiell lik why continue living? i'm in a safe school but it's bad everywhere. >> and, jay, what's next for you? >> well, we've got a diversity forum tonight at 7:00 p.m. at the school district and i really think that's a great opportunity for the district to move forward

on the issue to hear from students to hear from community members, and to really start to put some programs in place that can lead to a safe school environment. it's really on us, the adults to create the safe school environment. >> jay mcdowell, good luck. graem taylor, thank you. believe it or not, trouble in the gosselin household. two of the sextuplets that charmed viewers of "jon and kate plus eight" booted out of the school. alexis and colin will be home schooled after being expelled for, quote, rage issues. outrageous storey from connecticut a driver striking and killing a 14-year-old boy suing the victim's parents for allowing their son to ride his bike in the street without a helmet. officials defending new tsa screening procedures today but are passengers ready to revolt? [ male announcer ] don't let aches and pains in the morning

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here aresomestories making headlines. a connecticut man behind bars for manslaughter is suing the parents of the victim he claims they shouldn't have let their son ride a bike in the street without a helmet. prosecutors argued the man was driving at a reckless 83 miles per hour, passed another car, then hit the boy on his bike. he has five drunk driving arrests since late 1990s. explosion at an upscale mexican beach resort killed seven people, including five canadian tourists and two workers. the evidence suggests the explosion was caused about a gas buildup under the kitchen at the hotel in play del carmen. nearly a thousand people paid tribute to surfer andy irons in huntington beach, california, by holding hands on their surfboards and calling his name. the three-time world champion

died at the age of 32. and two words that helped define 2010, spill cam, the underwater camera that monitored the gulf oil spill for months and vuvuzela. we'll spare you from hearing the sound. the top words of the year. also in the top ten, yes, refudiate, made famous and made up by sarah palin. a delicate balance impacts everyone who flies. transportation officials are juggling how to keep the nation's airports safe without invading the personal space of people who use them. nbc's tom costello has more. >> reporter: 6:00 a.m. in san diego saturday when john's cell phone went through the airport metal detector face-up and recorded him telling a tsa screen he did not want the screener touching his groin. >> if you touch my junk, i'm going it have you arrested. >> reporter: that touched off a

stand-off, he had to be patted down since he declined to go through a body scanner. tyner refused. >> i don't understand how a sexual assault can be made a condition of my fly yoog. >> reporter: full body scanners the latest tactic in aviation security, able to peer underneath clothing. forepassengers who opt out of the scan a personal full pat-down. since the first of the month, officers are using a front of their hands and more vigorously searching for weapons and exclosives. the tsa chief says it's a direct response to al qaeda. >> we believe this provides the best possible technology identify nonmetallic improvised explosive devices we know have been used before. >> reporter: the challenge for the tsa, searching those private areas of the body most consider off-limits, but have been used by criminals and terrorists to hide drugs, weapons and explosives. most recently, by the underwear bomberer who nearly brought down a delta northwest flight last christmas. the full body skarns obscure

passengers' faces. a screening officer in another room has critical seconds to look for anything suspicious. the tsa uses two different types of imaging technology called back scatter and millimeter wave. right now, 317 units are in use at more than 65 airports nationwide. millimeter wave uses radio waves to peer under clothes while back scatter systems use x-ray technology. for travelers the security over privacy trade-off often comes down to gender. men less offended. >> what we have to do travel these days. it is what it is. >> reporter: women, more. >> it's just personal space, invasion of my personal space, my body. >> i understand why it's needed, however, you know, from a personal standpoint, it is an invasion of privacy to an extent. >> reporter: 2 million people moving through tsa checkpoints every day. tom costello, nbc news, washington. >> i want to bring the founder and spokesperson for

flyersrights.org. good morning. >> good morning. >> i know your group hasz@ñ ace primary tell us how you envision a security check point looking an ideal situation would than passengers are able to be prescreened with biometric data, like the global entry program which the government runs now for international flights. you can give them retinal scans and fingerprints, have a background check down, put your identification or your passport

on the screen and you'll be able to go through the metal detector and have your bags screened as you used to be able to do. if you present an additional risk, then you could go through the body scanner or the pat-down, because then it would be necessary to determine, you know if someone's caring bomb. but 100% of the american people should not be put through these very intrusive, potentially risky, scans or pat-downs. >> let me read to you what the tsa posted on their blog. quote, there's nothing punitive about it, it just makes good security sense. and the weapons and dangerous and prohibited items we found during pat-downs speak to this. i guess the message here is, look, we live in a dangerous world and this is the new reality. what do cow say to that statement? >> i say that there's something more go on here than meets the eye. there was -- there were other technologies being developed that had they waited about nine months would have been able to detect bombs. these scanners will not detect

powdered explosives spread out on a person, under a breast or under flab or in an anal cavity. the scant scanners will not detect the types of bombs used. we have to get smart security and the tsa needs to stop being so tone deaf to the passengers' needs or people aren't going to fly. >> we just got sound from janet napolitano. i haven't heard that either. i'll get your reaction on the other side. >> we also recognize we're in the holiday period, new travellers and new procedures in place. we want to explain them. we want to show how they work if and make sure that travel moves smoothly and safely. >> there is concern there's a backlash, it's going to cause problems. i've noticed lines are longer in many instances. what would you propose in the interim that travelers do?

are you hear prosecution people who say we're not going it travel? >> yes. i'm getting several hundred e-mails a day, and our hot line is ringing off the hook with people saying 3-year-olds have had their genitals patted down and they're never going to fly again or people witnessed their wife's breast examined by someone not a doctor and it's extremely uncomfortable. we recommend, a, if you have a child under the age of 12, go to the ticket agent and ask if your child has been preselected for this advanced screening. if they have, ask they be deselected. it's not a 100% guarantee that they will, but they have ability to do it and that could save you a lot of agony. b if your child's toys or teddy bears or you know pacifiers have met until them, put them in the baggage screening device and let them go through there. don't wear any metal if you're a woman or you're guaranteed to be patted down even if you go through the scanner.

they're going to have to give you a pat down additionally which is intrusive. i've had it done. it's no fun. and your best bet is to say opt out of the scanners, do the pat down if you're modest, ask for a private room, and additionally ask for a witness because we do have some reports of tsa protocols being broken and people's genitals being fondled more than they should be for a regular screening. >> kate, good advice in any case. thank you for coming on. >> thanks for having me. programming note to tell you about now, don't miss tonight's msnbc immigration town hall hosted by lawrence owe donele and maria teresa kumar live from san diego at 10:00 p.m. eastern. if you'd like to give questions for lawrence and maria to consider asking tonight, send them to msnbctown hall question@nbcuni.com. what needs to be done to jump start the economy.

how can congress move forward if they can't figure it out. guess which former president is joining the cast for the sequel of the hit film "the hangover." back in the 80's, it was really tough for me and my family. i was living on welfare and supporting a family of four. after i got the job at walmart, things started changing immediately. then i wrote a letter to the food stamp office. "thank you very much, i don't need your help any more." you know now, i can actually say i bought my home. i knew that the more i dedicated... the harder i worked, the more it was going to benefit my family.

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the first official single off michael jackson's new album is out. take a listen. ♪ when it gets cold we hold each other until we see the sun ♪ ♪ hold my hand baby, i promise that i♪ >> "hold my hand" unreleased but jackson wrote a note saying he wanted it to the album's first singal. former president bill clinton is making a cameo in "the hangover" sequel. "people" magazine report he already shot his scene in bangkok on saturday. the president will play himself. now the question is, will his scene include, say a bengal tiger, police cruiser or a white

wed, for those of you who saw the original. the biggest issue facing washington is job creation. but even the smartest economists can't agree on what should be done to get people back to work. richard lui has details on this. i find this a little upsetting, there's a lot of disagreement, actually. >> a lot of disagreement. it's surprised you when you heard about opinions here, chris. a lot of big brains, two years after the great recession started, technically ended and experts do not agree on we what we all feel, a bad economy. on the big ideas, big agreements according to l.a. times. first, big idea, stimulus. 787 billion invested, 18 months ago. john cochran, from the university of chicago says, don't do it, not again. it's not needed and it's not free, he says. wait to see what's working first. nobel prize winner says, hold on, the only solution is large government spending. we can't afford not do did but do it surgically. tax cuts, on one side economists

brad schueler says keep them. but speed is important here. throw in tax rebates of $300 to $600 per person. alicia minnel says, no you don't, cut them for the upper and middle class, use that cash to create jobs. last big idea, paring deficits, one corner, keep the deficits, keep on spending it, it helped us avert a depression says robert colin. mark zandi says this deficit spooks us. it need to be hammered out by congress to get cuts. what paul ryan said on the subjects. >> thesed a ideas are obvious, either we do this on our own terms, get the fiscal house in order, do it in the way we want to do at a time of our choosing where reforms phased in or it's a painful vigilante always terry greek-like reforms whacking

benefits to seniors, raising tacks on the economy. we have to choose. >> that was on cnbc's "squawk box." experts don't agree that might be good here, chris. john snow says in politico the current trajectory is not working, perhaps too much common think on the central bank level is not good. >> a couple more people who we want to talk about-to-about this. steve moore, back to talk with us. dean, all of this was laid out yesterday in a terrific article in "the los angeles times." i have to say, as i read it and reread it, it was pretty depressing. smart people disagree all the time. economists disagree. is there some growing consensus, though, at all about what we need to do to get out of the financial situation we're? >> go ahead. >> i think there is some consensus. first of all, the biggest place to start is to stop the policy uncertainty that we have in washington. virtually everybody would agree

on that. that ranges from taxes to health care to monetary policy. second, would be doing some things right. you know, extending tax cuts until we're ready to have a longer conversation and to follow as paul ryan was saying in your clip, outlining to the public what a long-term path toward fiscal sustainability is. if we do those things, i think we can make real progress. >> do you think, steve, people a ready to listen to this? is the al ternive to doing what was just quoted, painful vigilante reforms, it's going to be forced on us? >> there's not a lot of disagreement. you've got the two smartest economists in the country right here, and glenn and i agree. i don't think there's disagreement. >> extend tax cuts. >> what i find troubling about the debate about the economy is, look, we can disagree about what might happen in the future, but we just had a two-year experiment in keynesian economics, we spent this, you

know, trillion dollars and i think anybody who looks at the objective evidence would have to say it's a failure. yet you have people say, let's do more of this. what glenn and i are saying, why don't we do what worked in the '80s under reagan last time we were in an economic ditch? cut tax rates. i'd like to see a flat tax. fix the tax system, get rate as low as possible, get rid of deductions. i think that would be rocket fuel for the economy. >> the question, dean, you're an economist, you're not a politician, but if you have on one side economic theory and on the other side you have political reality, can the two meet and can something get done? >> they can definitely get done. we saw this in the '86 tax act, we've seen this in budget deals. this is something i think the american people understand better than their political leaders. the country's on an unsustainable fiscal path. >> they have to -- the average american is saying i've got to

write my checks. >> for the government, the question is not do we need to do all of this this afternoon and put the economy in a recession. nobody's saying that. people are saying, let's put forth a sensible long-term path for poll that reduces government spending, keeps tax rates modest. we can do this. paul ryan outline one sensible path. >> so, steve, just about out of time. but what do you think the likelihood is that we're going to start on a path that leads us some sort of better financial situation, even in this lame duck session? it does look like they're going to extend tax cuts maybe for everybody unless you make a million or more. >> i think they need to extend them for everybody. i was really encouraged, chris, if you asked me this question last week i'd probably have said we're not going to get a consensus. the budget reduction commission that came forward, i didn't have high hopes for that, and i don't agree with everything they came out with but there's a lot of good ideas in the commission, bipartisan. i'd love to see congress and the

president rally behind that. >> let's see how it goes. i'd love to have both of you back. steve moore, dean glenn hubbard. the dean is the co-author of "seeds of destruction." thanks to both of you. it appears former president bush and kanye west made amends but leave it to "saturday night live" to take things one step further. the show spoofed the two. >> everything's good with you guys? >> i mean it's all good now, fam. we had problems. now we solved those problems. >> yeah, fam, absolutely. i love conway. i do. >> kanye and w. best of friends ♪ ♪ united by forgiveness haters. >> come on, haters, recognize. >> despite snl's image, west and

the former president have not met face-to-face since their war of words. a navy sailor gets the surprise of his life at his homecoming. a story you'll be talking about all day. ♪ when you're responsible for this much of the team, you need a car you can count on.

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a navy sailor deployed to iraq for the past seven months came home to find a surprise. it was the surprise of a lifetime, and it walked right into his arms. mike's daughter savannah sufficienters from spinal bifida. he left for iraq believing she would never be able to walk, well, when she returned, savannah was standing there waiting for him. here with me now, navy chief petty officer, his wife stephanie and their 2-year-old daughter savannah. mike, can you even put into words what it was like seeing your little girl standing there on her own two feet in front of you? >> it was like witnessing a miracle. it was -- more than i ever could

have asked for. after the doctors told us she'd never walk, it's just amazing to see her. >> what went through your mind? you must have just been astonished. >> i really wasn't even -- i wasn't even clicking into my head that it was actually going on. it was -- just amazing. >> when i even see the picture, it's so remarkable. stephanie, tell us a little bit about what that process was like, getting stephanie to this point. >> it was a lot of long, hard work, and watching her physically struggle a lot. it was very emotional some days. >> i can only imagine. was it a daily process? who was working with her? what kind of physical therapy was she taking? >> it's a weekly physical

therapy, once a week we had a therapist that comes to the house and she works with her for an hour or so, and just stretching all the muscles and going through all of the different goals that we have set up for her. >> i've got to tell you, there's no way i could have kept this to myself. how did you manage not to tell him, to keep this a secret? >> told everybody on the earth that i knew. that would hopefully i could get it out of my system and not tell him. >> see? she wants to get in on the act, too, and i don't blame her. i'm the one that did all the hard work. why aren't you asking me any questions. >> did you ever in your wildest imagination think that this could happen? >> i did not. we had already prepared for her life to go through it with not walking and be wheelchair bound, and it went right into planning

for getting a new house. so if the, with the wheelchair ramps and everything else. now that she can do this, she might go past this to walk on crutches, it just changes everything. >> i was thinking, again, as i saw the pictures of your beautiful little girl walking. i thought, you must have seen a lot of acts of bravery in your time in the service, and especially over in iraq, but how does savannah rate in terms of bravery with all the people you've ever known in your life? >> it doesn't even rate. the things that she did is just amazing. i watched her go from -- i mean she was born not even realizing she had legs, and she worked through every little thing with a smile on her face. she would have a bad day, and then just jump right back on and keep going. i mean, she has more dedication than i probably could ever have

had if i was faced with the same issue. >> i tell you, she got that dedication and strength from somewhere and i have a feeling i'm looking at the two people who genetically gave her all of that, and i'm just so happy for you, and we're all so thrilled that you would share your story with us. good luck to all of you. mike, stephanie, savannah, thank you so much. >> thank you. >> give her a big hug for us. will you? i know everybody out there watching wishes they could give savannah a hug. that's going to do it for us this hour. i'm chris jansing. i'll be heading to washington, d.c. where i'd broadcast from inside the capitol tomorrow and wednesday. starting as usual, 10:00 eastern time. joined by two people, valerie plame and her husband joe wilson. contessa brewer picks things up next. hi. coming up next hour, a 13-year-old girl found bound and gagged a week after disappearing with three other people. so where is her family? groped at the airport.

under fire over the touchy topic. a recent incident that has passengers crying foul. why a breed of fish is facing a firing squad. it actually said at this point, ready for this, do it and grill it. we'll be right back. y" earn. oh, that's 'cause fedex ground helps you save money. that's right, penny. do you know ours? heavens to betsy. dwayne the bathtub. magic wanda. yeah! what's mine? uh, you're a dan fool. oh. it's just a device, dan. you can't take it personally. yeah, i suppose. [ male announcer ] we understand. you need a partner who helps you save. fedex ground.

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