charlie rangel's plea today to delay his ethics trial, even though he says he needs time to get a new lawyer. >> 50 years of public service is on the line. i truly believe that i'm not being treated fairly and that history will dictate that notwithstanding the political calendar, i am entitled to a lawyer during this proceeding. this hour, what are the chances for compromise in this new congress? "morning joe"'s joe scarborough will join us. and president harm id karzai locking horns as the white house prepare as longer timeline to get out. defense just back to the war zone. president obama embarrassed in south korea, hostile fire at home. daniel stone joins us for this week's cover story. today i'm andrea mitchell live in washington. while the incoming members of

congress learn their way around the capitol, the lame duck session gets underway. in the last few weeks in majority democrats confront a dilemma over don't ask, don't tell and the fight over the bush tax cuts. nbc's luke russert is live on capitol hill. luke, threats talk about what's top priorities and is there a compromise coming on tax cuts? >> reporter: you heard from the white house this weekend, from david axelrod, there would possibly be open a compromise on a tax cut issue. perhaps a temporary one to two-year extension. especially -- democrats want to ensure the middle class will have those ensured. the problem, any leadership on this issue will come from the united states' senate. a lot of ideas floating around. charles schumer of new york said possibly what if we do a compromise, folks hiring, $1 million or more, still taxed. that expires there, below them, middle class, mark warner, senator from virginia,

possibilities, give big business a tax break. a lot of ideas floating around the democratic table. which of those they'll take in the senate to start the effort as well as which will garner republican support is the million dollar question. >> any compromise on don't ask, don't tell? any effort to try to bring it up before republicans take over and there is little to no xhans of it having been repealed? >> reporter: once again, senator mccain made comments recently that looks like he does not want to move don't ask, don't tell. he has a problem, because the marine commandant said he's not sure whether this policy should be repealed at this time because of morale. senator mccain wants to wait for the results of a military stud toy come try and see what the impact this would have on the troops and whether or not it should be taken -- don't ask, don't tell repealed. the problem, mccain is saying this studsy more about how it will be implemented, not repealed. filibustered and pushed into next year, andrea. >> okay. luke russert. in a nato summit in portugal

this friday, president obama will outline a growing path to end the u.s. combat mission in afghanistan by 2014. using iraq as a model. but that will not be soon enough for afghan's president hamid karzai. this weekend in an unusual call to "the washington post" he criticized the u.s. military operation, and in that call to "the washington post," he infuriated general david petraeus. according to all reports. today secretary of state hillary clinton is defending u.s. operations in afghanistan. senator joe lieberman is senior member of the armed services committee, and just returned from the war zones in iraq and afghanistan. senator, thank you very much. first let's go to this dispute. hamid karzai calls "the washington post" saying he wants the footprint of u.s. troops reduced almost immediately. general pap tray is clearly concerned in sunday meetings saying that -- that that would not make -- make his work even possible.

he expressed "astonishment and disappointment" that karzai's position made his own untenable. what is your reaction to this? what do we do with hamid karzai? >> well i share general petraeus' surprise and disappointment. i mean, this strategy we're following is one that we have agreed on with the afghans and it's -- we're being tough on the bad guys, on the taliban, on al qaeda in afghanistan, but we're doing it to try to protect the lives of the great majority of the afghan people. as far as i could tell on my trip talking to a lot of them way out into rural areas as well as in cities like the capital of kabul, they feel much better about their security today as a result of what the american forces are doing, and i will tell you that this was my first trip since last july. it's the first trip since this surge of american troops president obama ordered had gone

into effect essentially, and our troop, god bless them, are making remarkable progress. clearing areas of taliban. islamist extremists. holding those areas secured and beginning to build in a lot of them. so i hope -- i'm with petraeus, of course, and petraeus is really trying to do what's best for the afghan people. >> what do you think general petraeus means when he says it makes his situation untenable? you don't think he would go so far as to say if hamid karzai doesn't want us there, that, in fact, we cannot stay? >> well, i don't think so, but, of course, that's up to dave petraeus. i think as i understood his words had he said the statements of president karzai could make his, general petraeus' position untenable is that he is implementing a strategy of counterinsurgency, anti-islamist extremists to protect a majority of people. what he's doing is to achieve

that goal, to liberate the people of afghanistan. to protect them from the taliban coming back and just destroying their lives, as they did for too many years, and if he begins to change that military strategy, the position of our troops is going to be untenable, and i'm afraid the position of the people of afghanistan is going to be untenable. the taliban are more than ready to kill civilians, to kill american and coalition and afghan soldiers, and you know, war is hell. so dave petraeus and his troops are being tough, but they've got to be to secure the future of his country. so i hope president karzai essentially comes back and withdraws the statements he made. they're not honestly and respectfully in the interests of the people of afghanistan. >> they seem more directed to the taliban, reassuring potential taliban negotiators he

is on their side and open to bringing them back and reconciling them into the government. let me ask you about don't ask, don't tell. that's coming up in the lame duck, or if it doesn't, it's pretty much dead for all intents and purposes. you and other leaders including other armed services members have been on the forefront of this. senator mccain, your colleague and traveling buddy, and good friend, was on "meet the press" with david gregory. this is what he had to say. >> the marine corps whose people is directly responsible for saying this could hurt our ability to win. this is -- >> do you believe that? what are you thinking? >> i pay attention to the calm daunlt of the marine corps, paying attention to the chee ef staff of the air force, army and -- >> do you have a sense what should happen? >> i have a sense that i respect and admire these four service chiefs. >> with all due respect in watching that yesterday i was kind of stunned, because what about mike mullen?

admiral mike mullen is the chairman of the joint chiefs. they report it him. if it's good enough for him and for robert gates and if this is the survey that we understand is coming out in december, why isn't it good enough for john mccain? >> well, of course in this case i disagree strongly with my friend john mccain and agree with you. the fact is that this is a policy -- we've got thousands of gay and lesbian americans putting their lives on the line to protect our security and we're telling them that basically they've got to lie about who they are. i was so encouraged by the first indications of the study that's been done thousands and thousands of our military personnel and their families question, more than 70% apparently said, no problem, because, in the classic situation, when you're in battle, you don't care what anybody's sexual orientation or race or gender or nationality or religion is. you care about whether they're going to fight well. and that's the way it ought to be, and you're right. the measure we've put in doesn't

automatically repeal don't ask, don't tell. it says that the president, the secretary of defense and the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff have to certify based on everything they know including a study that's been done that repealing don't ask, don't tell won't compromise military effectiveness or morale, and that's pretty rational. i'm not giving up on us doing a repeal of don't ask, don't tell during the lame duck session. to make that possible, i hope that the defense department can find a way to issue this report that they've got pretty much done but going through clearance now as quickly as possible and certainly before december 1st. we've got time to do this, and it's the right thing to do. >> joe lieberman, let me ask you, you're holding a homeland security hearing tomorrow on cargo restrictions during the recess, of course, we had this really scary experience where cargo as we saw got as far as

england and dubai with bomb components, and could have, if not detected, gone off over the east coast of the u.s. and canada. >> right. >> secretary napolitano today was defending the patdowns and the other controversial procedures being used. what about the public's real distress over these patdowns? i want to add one other thing. i have heard from breast cancer survivors, from women who have had mastectomies and undergone breast cancer reconstruction, breast reconstruction, rather, and they say these new body scanners are not appropriately detecting the implants. and they're going through really invasive and very offensive and unpleasant patdowns. special patdowns. just because they've got these implants. how do we -- reach a balance between the security we need. >> right. >> and the inappropriate invasive procedures that nobody wants?

>> yeah. i hadn't before, andrea -- before what you just said heard about this special problem of breast cancer survivors with implants. we need to find way to deal with that in a way that's respectful and sensitive. overall, tough decisions. i come down on the side the patdowns. in other words, we've done all of this whole body imaging because of what happened on christmas day. if that bomb hadn't failed he would have blown up a plane, and whole body imageer -- here's what happens. you've got to go through the whole body scanner. if they see something they're worried about, then you're suggested to a pat down by someone of your gender. now, i understand it's unusual, but we've got to all think as we're feeling uncomfortable about the patdown that we could be on a plane on which somebody is prepared to blow themselves and us up unless there is such a patdown. so -- unfortunately, that's the age in which we live and i think

what the department is doing, homeland security right now, is necessary. >> okay. thank you. we'll follow your hearings tomorrow. thank for all of that, and look forward to any progress that you can report back to us on don't ask, don't tell. thanks, senator. >> will do. take care. and coming up, the challenges facing this new congress. there are a lot of them. "morning joe"'s joe scarborough joining us. and next, challenging steele. meet the michigan republican who wants to be the next chairman of the republican national committee. this is "andrea mitchell reports," only on msnbc. ♪ [ male announcer ] what does it take to excel in today's business world? our professors know. because they've been there. and they work closely with business leaders to develop curriculum to meet the needs of top businesses. which means when our graduates walk in the room,

they're not only prepared... they're prepared to lead. devry university's keller graduate school of management. learn how to grow the business of you at keller.edu.

republican national chairman michael steele is up for a second in january and facing former michigan state party who announced his bid last week focusing on fund-raising and turns the party's mid-term gains

into 2012 victories. the republican chair joins us now. first of all, why go through this fight? isn't this the time where the republican party should try to come together and look towards the future? why is this the time to have a knockdown drag-out over the party leadership? >> well, i think we are coming together and looking at the future. that's the whole point. every two years the republican national committee sits down and analyzes where we've been, where are we going and what we're going to do. what should be our game plan the next two years and who's the best leader to take us there. so as the circumstances have changed, as the situation requires a little different leadership and different direction i think that we're going to have this debate. it's going to be a very normal and a debate we've had many, many times in the past and healthy for the party. >> in terms of fund-raising what we saw in this last cycle was that haley barber and others had to subplant what should have been republican national committee fund-raising because

michael steele was so widely criticized for wasting money. remember the whole sex club deal, the membership deal? and also just not doing a good enough grass roots effort. what is your pitch to be able to do a better job of fund-raising? >> well i think the bottom line is you have to build the confidence back of the donors so they know there's a plan, you'll about good steward of their money and it's going to be wisely invested. had i was chairman here in mish machine i spent over 70 m% of m time raising money, reaching out to donors general. having personal one-on-one meetings as well as dialing for dollars in foect having a phone call with people willing to invest in your effort. i think that given the fact that today we have, going to have a speaker of the house. we have many for governors, senators, across the country that can speak for this party, be the face and voice of the party, if we were to spend more time raising money, more time kind of with the boots of the ground making sure the trains run on time and we raise the

money to implement the programs necessary, we'll be stronger and better off for the 2012 cycle. >> is there a problem with the republican party? republicans have not always had great strength among minorities. your first african-american chosen leader. is it hard for you to go up against him and whan will be the backlash from that? >> not in that regard. i think race is really an irrelevant issue here. it's historic. the fact michael was elected as the first african-american for the republican national committee. it is a great honor and i think it will always be something that will go down in history, but this is about the party. this is about the best interests of the party you and i think regardless of somebody's race, religion or any other ethnic indicator, the key is who is the right person to run this party? we'll take a look at what are people's plans? where do they want to take us and who should be the best person to lead us irrespective

of race or anything else. >> thank you very much. good to see you. and we'll be tracking that. up next a blue dog democrat and former washington redskin throws his hat in the ring against nancy pelosi. politico is up next right here on "andrea mitchell reports." consider this: these batteries are going... to the mattel children's hospital, u.c.l.a . because here they use the most... technologically advanced equipment for the healing... and the play. and to power all those toys the people at duracell... packed up a truckload of batteries. because nothing's better than powering a smile. duracell. trusted everywhere. if cars didn't need keys? if you could talk to them with this? if you turbocharged this little guy? if old water bottles became new seats? if you never bought another gallon of gas? or what if cars had force fields?

that would be cool. nissan. innovation for today. innovation for tomorrow. innovation for all. ♪ to save me a boatload of money on my mortgage -- that would be awesome! [sarcastically] sure. like that will happen. don't just think about it. spend 10 minutes at lendingtree and save up to $272 a month. [ breathes deeply, wind blows ] something wrong with your squeegee, kid? uh, i'm a little sick. sick?! you gonna let a sore throat beat you? you're fearless! ahhhhhhhhh! atta boy! [ male announcer ] halls. a pep talk in every drop. [ man ]hhhhh! ♪ trouble atta boy! ♪ trouble, trouble trouble, trouble ♪ ♪ trouble been doggin' my soul ♪ since the day i was born ♪ worry

♪ oh, worry, worry worry, worry ♪ [ announcer ] when it comes to things you care about, leave nothing to chance. travelers. take the scary out of life.

it's not about me running against nancy pelosi. it's about the party being all inclusive. we had the largest defeat in almost a vincentury. you have to take responsibility if you're at the top of leadership. >> democratic congressman heath shuler on "morning joe" explaining why he's challenging nancy pelosi's leadership position. she's focusing on trying to rally her liberal base. john harris is politico's editor-in-chief. do you think there's a real threat to pelosi's leadership? >> there's not yet an arithmetic

threat to pelosi's leadership. that is, heath shuler doesn't have the votes and basically acknowledges that he doesn't have the votes to defeat her. where there is a threat is if this battle drags on and there become as consensus, like, wait a minute. we like nancy pelosi, but this is just not good for party and people encouraging her to reconsider her position to remain as leader of the democrats. at the moment, she seems secure. >> does this, though, force her to play more to the liberal base and be more resistant to any compromises on the big issues coming up, such as the tax cuts? >> well, there's no question, andrea, that that is her base in the house. it's the liberals. there's more of them proportionately that that base is stronger than before the election, because as you know, so many of the moderate democrat, the so-called blue dogs and what have you, those people are precisely the ones that got beat in the november 2nd elections.

yes, she's orienting this leadership battle around the liberals. i believe the reason liberals want her they show she's going it fight for them. if there's efforts by the obama white house to encourage compromise, to try bill clinton-style triangulation, she'll be in position to resist that, and that's why there are some people saying, hey, we'd be happy to have nancy pelosi still as hur leader fighting for our interests. >> but big picture. when you play the numbers game, john, doesn't the president have to try to compromise and reach out towards the independents, those people mostly concerned about budget deficits, government spending, government overreach. all of those criticisms to reposition himself for re-election? >> absolutely. that's clearly what's in obama's interests. as you state the question that way, andrea, it highlights that obama's interests is not necessarily the same as pelosis interests. and his prescription of what the

party needs to do and wrap he specifically needs to do is not going to be at all the prescription that nancy pelosi has. fundamentally different diagnoses of what the problem was. she firmly believes what happened in the mid-term elections was not her fault, and she's not going to depart from power with an implicit statement it was her fault. >> thank you so much, john harris. >> sure thing, andrea. coming up, "morning joe" himself, joe scarborough joining us. what are the odds the new congress will agree on anything? we'll talk to him and juggling the job of president, "newsweek's" daniel stone here with his new cover story out today. send me your thoughts. this is "andrea mitchell reports" only on msnbc. it's called the new humana 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, visit walmart.com or call 1-800-808-4003. introducing the new humana walmart-preferred prescription plan. a medicare prescription drug plan that's a step forward in health care... and a step forward in affording the things that really matter. but don't forget, you can only save if you enroll by december 31st. ♪ call humana to take advantage of the medicare prescription drug plan with the lowest national premium in the country. go to walmart.com for more details. ♪

whoa! that achy cold needs alka-seltzer plus! it rushes multiple cold fighters, plus a powerful pain reliever, wherever you need it! [ both ] ♪ oh what a relief it is! topping headlines, on "andrea mitchell reports," a good sign on the economic front, retail sales posted their largest increase in seven months. rising 1.2% in october.

the commerce department says much of that gain came from a big rise in auto sales. yet another mid-air scare for qantas airlines and an electrical problem sent smoke into a boeing 747 forcing an emergency return to sydney. no injuries reported. the fourth reported qantas flight in two weeks. today's incident is not related to the engine explosion that occurred on an airbus a-3 0 earlier this month. no time to relooks for president obama. just back from his longest trip abroad, facing don't ask, don't tell and the ballooning deficit, god of all things why the modern president may be too much for one president to handle is the latest cover story. daniel, thanks so much. wipe do you think the modern presidency may be too big for one person? obviously, according to the

constitution, it's the job for one person, man or woman? >> reporter: that's how it started. one president to handle the entire job. we looked how the office has grown. over the past 30 years mostly, but over the course of u.s. history, this is a job that has ballooned in terms of the amount of management that the current president has to do. it's not only the current president we're talking about, barack obama, but all modern presidents. finding out how much has been added to their plate over the course of, you know, since the 1970s and 1980s. >> well, what fixes do you think might be possible? do you think that the president should eli more on his cabinet? should he rely more on the white house staff? what do you do about the ballooning white house staff? another thing you point out in your article? >> reporter: we talked to a lot of historians for this piece. they all said the president needs it rely more on his cabinet. the people in charge of things like energy and immigration and health care. things that this president has focused on himself over the past two years. he needs to focus more on those

people and then the size of the white house staff. it's about 500 people now. they work closely with the president, reducing that number of staff would require the president to lean on other agencies more than he currently does. >> and do you think the president could do something about the lawn mowing or the leaf blowing on the white house lawn when you come out here? >> reporter: i'll ask him nap will be my next question. >> he's got to be pretty tired after this trip. i heard a lot of spin coming from white house official, daniel, that any way you look at it, that trip was not a success. i mean -- >> reporter: right. >> positives out of india, but there's no way you can describe him going into south korea, having previewed he was going to get a deal, and then not only not coming back with a trade deal that was negotiated three years ago, but being rejected by not only the european union but the asian leaders on every economic front? >> reporter: right. the white house is pushing back

hard on that line of thought. remember, this bass a very expensive trip. a lot of time. a week and a half. we were expecting big deals. he said i made small steps. talking about opening trade. talking about building jobs in the u.s. but there certainly was no marquee headline out of the trip. left the white house tired and groggy is dealing with today. >> okay, daniel stone and thanks to you and the lawn mower man right behind you. thanks for persevering. appreciate it. >> reporter: thanks, andrea. freshmen orientation day on capitol hill. 97 new house members learning the ropes trying to find their way around in the senate. two new members sworn in early to join the lame duck session pap third soon follows. joe scarborough is host of "morning joe" and joins us and you are no lame duck. you understand the hill better than anyone. you've been there. what is facing these new members and given what happened with the tea party, that whole movement

what is the likelihood of any kinds of agreements or compromises such as you've been calling for for many years? >> i smiled when you said this was freshmen orientation. i remember 16 years ago i think this week, packing up the u-haul and heading up to washington. it is very exciting. a lot of things coming at these new members. going to be very confusing, but the biggest challenge is going to be in the hands of john boehner. the incoming speaker of the house for the republican party, because as you know, 40 of these members had tea party support. support from a group at times is very independent from the republican party. that's going to present speaker boehner with many challenges. the good news is, he went through this with the rest of us in '95, '96, '97 '98. i cannot underline it, saying it all year on the show, the parallels between 1994 and today, instead of the tea party we had people who had support from the republican party and

perot groups. i was one of those people and i felt as much pull from the perot supporters as i did from the republican party. it gave me a great deal of independence, along with people like steve largent and lindsey graham at the time, and many others, mark sanford, john sh shattuck, at the same tyke, a headache for newt gingrich. boehner has too figure how to keep the people in line and strike a deal. deals can be done. remember, we balanced the budget. did it four times for the first time since the '20s. reformed welfare, passed tax cuts. still a lot of thing ways president who was hostile to our agenda. yeah, a lot of things are possible over the next two years, but in the end they're going to have to sit down an work together. >> you know, it strike me that john boehner was part of that group, as you point out. he went to school on newt gingrich. he knows pretty much what not

do. hard to remember those who covered newt gingrich back in those days knew there were many missteps that caused the republicans to lose their -- >> funny you say that. remember coming out of one heated meeting during the government shutdown and boehner sat on the front row. head of the conference at the time, pard hardly ever talked. we were walking out of a meeting when the government was shut down, very contentious and boehner looked at me, shook his head, rolled his eyes and walked on. he went to school on newt gingrich, and while john boeh r boehner, we poke him pretty hard sometimes in the morning on "morning joe," i think actually that experience, it puts him in a better position to run this house right now than any other republican on capitol hill, because he's been there. he's done it. and he saw the mistakes we immediate and i would guess not going to repeat the mistakes i. think you're right. i think he's been caricatured a

great deal and we had fun with him and the tan and all the rest. i think boehner really has studied very hard as to what they need to do to try to strike some deals and then also satisfy the base. not that it's going to be easy. of course you and mika and the rest of the "morning joe" gang have your special coming up, "power in progress." the real solutions for the energy crisis. we're looking forward to that. >> all right. >> of course, to you on "morning joe" every weekday morning from 6:00 to 9:00 eastern on msnbc. thanks to you, joe scarborough. >> thank you, andrea. coming up next, the battle over immigration reform. we'll get a preview of tonight's special, two-hour town hall event, latinos, maria teresa kumar. this is "andrea mitchell reports" only on msnbc. if you live for performance,

upgrade to castrol edge advanced synthetic oil. with eight times better wear protection than mobil 1. castrol edge. it's more than just oil. it's liquid engineering. funny how nature just knows how to make things that are good for you. new v8 v-fusion + tea. one combined serving of vegetables and fruit with the goodness of green tea and powerful antioxidants. refreshingly good.

tomorrow, army staff sergeant salvador guinta becomes the first resip kbrent of the

medal of honor. bryant, thanks for joining us, brian williams. looking at this conversation that just took place. >> okay. >> you realize, though, that here's your challenge. you have this in common now with 86 men alive today for some reason your act was written up, and when the president places the medal around your neck, you will, in fact, feel that you're wearing it for a whole bunch of guys, and you'll get there mentally, but i guess you realize that's the journey have to do be on now? >> it's all kind of fallen into place that way, but there's no way i can wear the medal of honor for myself. i can't. it's too big for me. i can't bear that myself. it's not for me. if i'm going to be the one that's up there and gets it, that's fine. by no means is that mine.

i'm just the one there at that time. if for all of these people. from iraq and afghanistan. all of these unsung heroes. >> brian, it's so powerful. his story. a valley in afghanistan are richard angell depicted he was with the troops, in so many fire fights and we lost so many and then, of course, they retreated. >> yes. >> they couldn't hold the positions? >> this was a withering firefight. his best friend named sergeant brennan was mortally wounded. shot eight time, and here's sal gent ta from iowa, second tour, seeing afghans pulling his buddy away and said in effect, we're not going to have this. not today. i'm not going to allow this. walked into the fire. and when you question him about that he said, everybody that day did perfectly. i, too, did perfectly, but he believes that either he shouldn't get the medal are

honor or everyone in his unit should. because i'm on the board of the medal of honor foundation, and i get to hang with the 86 living recipients, and i'm so happy to report that he sounds just like the other 86. there will be 87 effective tomorrow. none of them believes they should wear this. every one of them believes that it's for other people that they wear it. this is a true patriot. a great kid. he's all of what 26 years old. >> and i saw you with some of them, some of these other recipients just lack week at the veterans day parade in new york city. it's astounding the contrast between their valor, heroism, courage under fire and their sense ever modesty. >> if you're looking for swagger you'll be sorely disappointed. there's a helicopter pilot named bruce crandall who is depicted in the movie we were soldiers by

greg kinnear. just a modest -- they're all such modest people, almost to a person, they're no fans of war, but they just had a -- they had a day where they had to step up, they all insist everyone else would have. you would have i would have. i reserve the right to disagree with them. >> maybe you would have. i wouldn't have. i would have been scared to death. >> this will be emotional tomorrow at the white house. >> emotional for the president. any president, and the president has said there is no role that is more powerful than being commander in chief, and it is going to be a very powerful moment. >> that's right. >> thank you foresharing that. looking forward to. >> thanks. >> to watching this on "nightly news" tomorrow night. >> thank you. >> a big interview tonight. >> yes. well, we kind of debut prince charles. we have an hour-long conversation with him friday night. and tonight on "nightly news" we will show people part of what he said. especially about his two boys in the military. we snuck over to scotland and had a conversation with the prince of wales.

>> wow. prince william was just in afghanistan over the weekend. >> you don't know where i am at all times. >> i thought i d. you think you do. >> we know where you will be tonight on "nbc nightly news." we'll all be watching and, of course, watching brian's interview tomorrow evening on "nightly news" and check your local listings. of course, the medal of honor ceremony live right here on msnbc tomorrow. and holding a town hall hosted by lawrence o'donnell and maria teresa kumar covering the growing influence of latinos and including the state of immigration and latino's effect in the 2010 mid-term elections. the executive director and nbc contributor joining me now from san diego. you're all the way across the country. what was the -- biggest -- >> reporter: yes. >> great to see you. what was the biggest takeaway from this mid-term election in terms of a latino vote? was it nevada? >> reporter: nevada, colorado and california, and what

basically align all of those three states was that latinos came out to vote as much for candidates as against them. where the three stop states were, folks were running terrible anti-latino, anti-immigrant ads and folks forget that latinos are not monolithic. in this record came out in record number opens the reason they came out for job. an astounding figure. >> well, it's really astounding -- go ahead. >> reporter: sorry. you're slightly delayed. we're hoping to accomplish, starting to bring in voters. the american latino voters that are going and participating in the polls, starting to bring them into the political conversation for everyone to enjoy and understand this growing demographic. >> it was targeted saw it in arizona and nevada and california. meg whitman's campaign saw it go off the rails after that dispute over her fired housekeeper.

so it's really important that in a large sense the overall we're told the latino vote wasn't that much larger but important in key states. >> reporter: exactly. larger where they ran anti-latino, anti-immigrant ads. actually saw a surge. normally you see a surge between mid-terms. this time in the states discuss wed saw a surge from the 2008 presidential elections. so people are starting to pay attention and they're getting active and more importantly, this is a new population where you also saw strong support for some latino republican candidates from the latino community. goes to show it's not a solidified block and both parties need to court them and start talking about issues they care about and start toning down this divisive rhetoric when it comes to anti-latino and immigration unfortunately and start finding solutions. >> how do you think this is going to play in 2012? >> reporter: well, i think that the republicans and democrats have a great opportunity right now to start courting and talking to the latino community

both in english and spanish, and when you start looking at the -- start looking at who wants to buy the white house, you can't get to the white house unless you have at least, at least, andrea, 44 percent of the latino vote. republicans will have to change their tune when it comes to anti-immigrants and also have to start following closer to the playbook that president bush and karl rove did. really trying to court them. recognizing you don't need all the latinos but talk to them about issues that he care about. family values definitely. business is important. talk about immigration. but in a way that is affective and create as conversation instead of shutting down the door. >> all right. thank you so very much, maria teresa kumar. if you'd like to participate, email your questions. the address is on your screen. watch beyond borderlines tonight at 10:00 eastern only right here on msnbc. and up next, chris alyssa with the next "24." send me your thoughts. find me on twitter.

this is "andrea mitchell reports" only on msnbc. what? they think you're a businessman, using our house to meet new clients in china. for reals, player? [ woman speaks chinese ] they overheard a phone call. [ speaks chinese ] something about shipping with fedex to shanghai. and then you opened a bottle of champagne. that was for a science project. [ man and woman speaking chinese ] i'm late for...soccer... rehearsal. [ man speaks chinese ] you and i are cool? i'll be home by curfew. [ male announcer ] we understand.® you need a partner who can help you go global. fedex.

♪ yes! ♪ look, they fit! oh my gosh, are those the jeans from last year? how'd you do it? eating right...whole grain. [ female announcer ] people who eat more whole grain tend to have healthier body weights. multigrain cheerios has five whole grains and 110 lightly sweetened calories. more grains. less you! multigrain cheerios.

virginia thomas. wife of clarence thomas, the supreme court justice resigned her position with the tea party group in virginia. this after a great deal of controversy over the fact that the fund raising was not disclosed, including an initial grant of $500,000. very big number. that there was at least a potential for the conflict of interest. she was the only supreme court spouse involved in such overt political activity. what political story will be making headlines in the next 24 hours. chris cillizza, managing editor of post politics.com and manager of the fix blog joins us now. >> hello. happy monday. second of all, more tea party dreeg tomorrow. the senate republican conference will vote on this proposal by

jim demint, south carolina tea party favorite to ban earmarking. it's an internal vote, so we may not ultimately know what happened. this will just be the republican conference. it's interesting because you've seen a lot of members who got elected in 2010. now they won't be voting on that. remember, this is the lame duck session. but they have signed on it. people close to the ground. people who have just been campaigning, they put their names on this. i'm interested to see how it plays out with the longer serving members resistant to the idea of the plucking out their projects they always rely onto get reelected. >> and when we look at this earmarking, the earmarks really are down from 18 billion to 15 billion. that is not a big part of the budget deficit. but symbolically it has importance. >> it matters symbolically. it does not matter practically.

we're talking point zero something of the budget. mcconnell said it matters symbolically. the ideas politicians are able to insert provisions that help them or their families, though it's not something that happens regularly. but the idea they can do this into these massive bills that a lot of people don't read does not sit well with national polling. it will be an interesting. it's an early test of how much control and power does the tea party have? is the establishment still in krot when it come thos the senate and the house, or have they lost control, as we saw them lose control during the senate primaries? >> on the democratic side, preefly, there is a bit of a prpr problem finding someone to take over the challenge of trying to reelect democratic senators. they have so many more seats than republicans at stake in

2012. it's a tough cycle for anyone. >> very quickly. 23 democratic senators including the two independents who caucus with democrats, just ten republicans. they are having trouble finding someone to chair that campaign committee. michael bennet, the colorado senator who has been there a very short time decided he didn't want to do it. the elections happen tuesday. i have heard from a few people who suggest it may not be done on tuesday. they may not be able to find someone by tomorrow. so this may drag out. not a good sign for a party who wants to start rebuilding. and this weekend, sunday in fact in philadelphia, vice president joe biden joined other leaders at the opening of the first new museum on independence mall. the national museum of american-jewish history. the museum encompassed 350 years of jewish life in the united states. officially opens to the public the day after thanksgiving. i was privileged to take part in opening this museum. it will explore immigration and

civil rights and a broad sweep of u.s.-jewish history as the vice president described. >> when we embrace diversity, america becomes more than a beacon of freedom. more than a sum of its parts. it becomes a magnet. >> directly across from the museum, the national park services is rebuilding president george washington's home during the continental congress. the home to which president washington brought his household slaves for virginia to philadelphia after the first -- when the capital of the country moved from new york to philadelphia before it moved to washington. this will be a special exhibit devoted to the role of slavery as our founders try to create a more perfect union. and that does it for us for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." tomorrow chris dodd is joining us with the latest on the mortgage crisis and the tax cut controversy. and you can follow the show online and on twitter at

mitchell reports. my colleague tamron hall has a look at what's coming up next on "news nation." hi, tamron. >> hey there, andrea. in our next hour we are waiting to hear from police in ohio. an ohio man is under arrest after police find a 13-year-old tied up in a basement. the girl's mother, brother and a family friend are still missing. this is breaking news. a live update from police investigating this tragedy. and drama on capitol hill. new york congressman charlie rangel walks out of his own ethics hearing moments after it started. why? and a "news nation" gut check update for you. a little boy whose principal said he couldn't fly the american flag on the back of his bike for veterans. wait until who you hear showed up to escort him to school. he brought some serious backup. "news nation" begins in three minutes. is more important than ever. at remax.com, you can find experts in short sales or bank-owned properties or commercial real estate, agents who can help speed up the process,

no matter how intricate. and that's good news, whether you're trying to sell or hoping to buy. because the only sign you really want to see is "sold." nobody sells more real estate than re/max. visit remax.com today. [ breathes deeply, wind blows ] something wrong with your squeegee, kid? uh, i'm a little sick. sick?! you gonna let a sore throat beat you? you're fearless! ahhhhhhhhh! atta boy! [ male announcer ] halls. a pep talk in every drop.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] at&t covers 97% of all americans. rethink possible.