mitchell reports" a major gutting of the health care law. is this a sign of what is to come? the tax cut faces the first test hours from now in the senate. after the president called in the cavalry. >> i have been keeping the first lady waiting for about half an hour, and i will take off. >> i don't want to make her mad. please go. >> at last report, bill clinton was not still talking at the white house podium. and chances are john boehner does not take the gavel in three weeks, but the white house is working behind the scenes to build a relationship with the republicans. and speaking of republicans, will he stay or go? decision day for republican national committee chairman michael steele. plus, the case for ratifying s.e.a.r.t. and we will speak with sam nunn, the former author of the initiative. >> if i come to you and say, mr. mayor, i want to take a hard look at this and this is not a

vanity play and we could win this thing, would you change your mind? >> no way no how. >> no way, no how. mayor michael bloomberg says he is not running, but he is offering a new political vision, politics without labels. this hour we will talk with another key player behind the effort. los angeles mayor antonio villaraigosa. and michelle ree is not done fighting. we will have more on that union fight as msnbc continues. i'm andrea mitchell live in washington, and we begin with news that ta virginia judge has struck down part of the president's health care law as unconstitutional. and pete, let's break it down, because thisis arguably the most imparent part of the law. >> it is. and the judge said it is one

thing for the congress to regulate activity, and the congress has broad powers to do so, but what it can't do, the judge said, is to regulate economic inactivity, and that is what happens if someone chooses not to buy health insurance. and the obama administration said that everybody participates in the health care system sooner or later and even if you choose not to buy insurance, you will be hit by a car or get old, and ultimately, you are in the health care system, so the government argued not being a part of it, but the judge rejected the argument and i'm quoting from the decision, this dispute is not about regulating the business of insurance, but about an individual's right to choose to participate, and he said that congress does not have the power to force somebody to buy insurance. there was a backup argument in the obama administration that there was a tax, because if you don't buy the insurance, you will get taxed, but what the judge said, yes, it is true that congress has very broad taxing

authority, and the courts can't say much, but this is a tax and a penalty. so andrea, the score is 2-1, and two courts in michigan and another court in virginia have found the law constitutional, and this one was closely watched, because it was brought by the virginia attorney general, and also virginia had passed a law saying that people can't be required to buy health insurance, so it gave the state a little extra legal standing. >> thanks so much. this is of course, heading to the supreme court, pete, and this is just the beginning, but this is the key part of the health care law, because this is the part that they said was needed economically in order to make the law broad-based enough to capture everyone in the system, and make it work, and make the budget cuts work. >> right. what the government was saying is that the other part of the law that says that you can't turn down somebody for pre-existing conditions, and the government says if everybody does not buy insurance, then the companies cannot afford to do

that. >> we look forward to the reporting throughout day. we should point out that the person who heads the international law will join us with the white house reaction on this setback to health care. in couple of hours, the senate will be having a procedural vote to clear the way for the tax showdown vote on the floor. it is expected to pass, but will the house democrats follow? kelly o'donnell joins us from the capital. kelly o, this is a big deal, and a procedural move as the first step for a dramatic week of tax cut votes this week? >> yes, it is a powerful signal, because fit gets through as expected, it will put much more pressure on the house democrats who have been reluctant to go through with the package to extend the bush era tax rates and extending unemployment benefits and tax cuts aimed for families and businesses expanding, so democrats in the

house have been saying they would be willing to deal on some of this, but they cannot handle one piece of provision for estate taxes which would levy a tax on the families that inherit honey differently, and they will be calculating it differently. the house democrats say as much as they do not like this, they don't believe it will be scuttled, but some way to go forward, but they want to figure out a way to do some adjusting to the the package. many other people say that is not going to work, and that the time which is left. and what happens in the senate will put more pressure on what is being done with the bipartisanship of the republicans and some democrats on board. >> and kelly o, the whole problem that the administration faces is that nothing can be done until the tax cut has done because the republicans have laid it out as a first step of anything else in the lame duck agenda. >> exactly. they want to see that the

government is spending into next year the lights and everything, and those things they are united to say, that until that is done, nothing else can be done. it is the time pressure and the urgency of the moment. this has been talked about for two days now and the president has been advocating for it, and there is a moment of time in which things have to move and the white hoe is hoping that today is an important step. >> kelly o'donnell from capitol hill. thank you. independents are joining democrats and republicans in a new political startup to bridge the partisan divide or try to. the group is called "no labels." it is encouraging politicians to set aside the party ideologies and do what needs to be done for the country. los angeles mayor antonio villaraigosa was a speaker there, and joins us now. mr. mayor, thank you for joining us. let's talk about the no label approach. is this a third-party movement? >> no, it is not a third-party movement.

what it is, is a movement that says that we want to get back to common sense and civility and common ground and statesmanship matters and that people want to see the elected officials put the nation before the party. they want us to compromise and get things done to move america forward to get us back to work, and i think that is what this is all about. it is a conversation that we should be having in our kitchens, in our neighborhoods and in our cities and all across the nation. >> and are you planning to endorse candidates? are you planning to look forward to 2012 and endorse presidential candidates? >> i don't know that this is so much about endorsing candidates. i am a democrat, and i'm a progressive democrat, but what it is, is that we want the country to move forward. look, the nation is evenly divided. we just had elections, and there are consequences to that. many people are criticizing

president obama for the compromise on tax cuts, and i came out in support of it, and 70% of america is in support of that compromise, not because they want to extend the tax cuts to the rich, or row deuw -- red the estate tax, because they want to move forward to the issues facing us. they want people to have unemployment insurance going into the next 13 months and reduce the payroll tax and get people back to work. what this conversation is about is to bring civil ity and commo sense back into the equation, and common sense back into the equation, and find common ground. >> before i let you go, i'm going to the teacher's union meeting soon, and you have seen the dreadful way that the american children compete internationally, and what would you say to the head of the teacher's union president, and what would you like us to ask

about what is helpful and not helpful in los angeles? >> well, andrea, that is the other part of the space that no labels is talking about. we have to challenge our orthodoxies, and we have to -- in both parties. we have to challenge the special interest that stop us from moving ahead to defend the status quo. the fact is that the schools all across the nation just aren't working at a world class level. the fact is that we are going to have to spend more money, but also spend it more wisely, and with more investments, we are going to have to hold all of the stakeholders, including the teachers more accountable. here in los angeles, at every turn, the teachers union has been against race to the top, the parent trigger, public school choice, charter schools, my partnership schools and every effort to reform the schools. what we are saying is let's work together and let's not continue to defend a broken st en status. that is what the exercise is

about and not an anti-union exercise, but it is about saying that the system is not working for kids and work together to inform and innovate and set high standards and hold the parents and the leaders accountable for a world class public education system. >> all right. you have laid it out. thank you very much. we will follow-up right here on education nation. mr. mayor, thank you again for joining us from no labels. up next, the white house trying to thaw the chill between the president and the next speaker. and michael steele gets ready to announce his future. you are watching "andrea mitchell reports" only on msnbc. ...with...stage presence. ♪ now get an htc surround for $199.99, and get one free. only from at&t. rethink possible. and get one free. [ malhis day starts thwith his arthritis pain.. that's breakfast with two pills. the morning is over, it's time for two more pills. the day marches on, back to more pills.

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when you say the word compromise, a lot of americans look up and go, oh, well, they

are going to sell me out. and so finding common ground, i think that makes more sense. >> i reminded him that his goal had been to get all of the bush tax cuts made permanent. so, you did compromise? >> we found common ground. >> why won't you say -- you are afraid of the word? >> i reject the word. >> so why is compromise a dirty word? one thing is clear that the white house now realizes it needs to work with the new republican house majority. the president is finally reaching out to try to warm up what has been a frosty relati relationship with the republican leaders before the next congress is sworn in. david winston is senior adviser for the speaker elect and joins us from capitol hill, and so why is compromise a bad word for both sides. why can't they say, look, we have tocompromise, to get things done in washington.

>> well, as the speaker said, when you say compromised, you are saying that you got nailed in a deal. so the finding common ground is what john boehner found when he was in the last leadership with newt, and working with bill clinton, the country could balance the budget, and great jobs and grow the economy and reform welfare, but it is a process of figuring out how the two sides can come together and as he describes finding common ground and get it done. >> how would you describe the relationship between john boehner and barack obama? >> i don't think it is particularly defiant at this point. i mean, the president had not spent much time reaching out to republicans in the house or the senate, so they have had minimal interchanges, and so i think that we are sort of on new turf here, and we will see how the president handles it. >> we are trying to get john boehner better, and certainly the viewers have not seen that much of him, and this is another part of leslie stall's interview

with him. he is known to be an emotional person. >> yes, that is correct. >> i used to go to schools all of the time, and i used to see all of the kids running around -- i can't talk about it. >> why? >> making sure that these kids have a shot at the american dream, like i did, it is important. >> david, you know him well, and would you explain what is it that pulls at his heart stings and motivates him and makes him respond so emotionally as he does on election night? >> well, this a is a part of who he is. he lives the american dream and started out in a family of 12 with only one bathroom in the house, and sort of the classic success story, and he really believes that is what the country offers and he wants to make sure that other people have that opportunity. look, you may disagree with john boehner in terms of policy, but when it comes in terms of

caring, this fellow cares about where the country goes, and other things in the terms of the leadership style. and those who work around him hear this line, you can disagree without being disagreeable. it is his nature to want to move it forward, and because he think has the opportunity for folks is so important, and it matters so much, that he gets emotional about it. >> well, we heard from mitch mcconnell the famous quote in "national journal" that his main objective is to stop the president from being re-elected, but from what you are signalling from the house leader, the new speaker of the house, is that he actually wants to get something accomplished even at the expense of helping barack obama win re-election? >> well, the winning or the losing re-election is not in the framework. it is the sense of now, he is the speaker of the united states, and he has a chance to accomplish some things as he said to help other people to live the american dream. that is what he wants to do with the position. and he is going to work to try to do that. he understands that he has a

responsibility now to govern now that he has won the election, and he has to do something to make that work. and he will work towards those goals and not necessarily the election of barack obama, the re-e lek kelection of a republ majority, but make the country better off so more people can live the american dream. >> do you believe that the tax deal going through senate will pass the house? >> given what is happening in the senate, i think that is very likely, yes. >> david winston, adviser to the speaker-elect john boehner. thank you very much. >> pleasure. and could to tax cut deal make its way through the senate and help the president with independents, having made this compromise is the real issue. and now charlie cook, editor of the "cook report" and thank you very much. we have seen a different barack obama now, and a lot of signals, bringing in bill clinton most-notab most-notably, and more on that in a moment, but what is going on as the president is trying to

reach out to republicans and arguably moving to the middle, and i don't know if you want to call it triangulation. >> well, there was a good first-effort with the cause of freezes for the cost-of-living increases for civil servants and then the tax deal language and clearly the white house administration saw the election polls and digested it and saw that they have to reclaim the middle, and house democrats, it is not quite so clear that they've done that yet. >> is this a deliberate attempt, a sister souljah moment or is this the pragmatic facts of life? they have to reclaim the independents if they want any chance of re-election and tnl o -- the only way to govern? >> well, this white house have had a lot of people telling them for a long time they were making a huge mistake over the last two

year, and they sort of refused to accept it, but then the election results sort of convinced them, rowoh, i guess were wrong, but the health care decision today, and i'm not a lawyer and qualified to say whether the democrats and the administration overreached, but clearly they overreached, and the president is acknowledging, okay, we have to do a mid course correction, and the question is how fast will the rest of the party do that? >> and if you look at the new washington post and abc poll today, 69% of all americans support the tax cut deal. 49% among independents and 46% of independents oppose. so, it is pretty much a split, but that is really where the broad base of americans are moving. >> voters and particularly independents want the two sides to work together, and spending some time talking with the republican senators a few weeks ago, i am convinced that the problem is trust. most of the people understand

the problems facing the country, but they fundamentally don't trust the other side. they have good reason not to trust the other side, but it is equal on both sides. >> bill clinton, of course, showing up in the briefing room, and talk about calling an audible. the two presidents are meeting together, and they say, hey, let's find the press, and they find the door to the briefing room, and the idea of these two guys wandering around the west wing to find a reporter, so the door is locked, and they go the find katy hogan in robert gibbs' office, and say, we need some reporters and gibbs said, let me set it up properly, but the whole thing sounded like it was right out of the "west wing." "west wing" being the show. >> yes, and the picture of president clinton speaking at the podium, and you see the back of president obama walking away, it is like, oh my! >> i was imagining a "saturday night live" routine where bill

clinton would change the locks, and just take over. >> yeah, had the secret service would have a siege situation, yes, absolutely. >> well, he certainly taught everyone, taught every politician how to do the comeback deal in the second term, and move toward the center, and neighbor is the road map for what is to come. >> well, this is not rocket science, and he has to do something. independents just don't walk away from a party like that, and you can't continue that course. >> charlie cook, thank you very much. >> thank you. >> and coming up next is michael steele going to stay or go as republican chair? and former senator sam nunn on the chances of repealing that s.t.a.r.t. treaty with the russians. and "don't ask, don't tell." you are watching "andrea mitchell reports." nobody in my family ever had a heart attack.

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reveal whether or not he intends to run for re-election and a handful of challengers have already emerged. jonathan from politico is gathering all of the information for us. what are the chances that he will run? >> well, most of the critics and allies suggest he is not going to run again, but the caveat is that you don't know. andrea, it has been a month since election day, and he has been noticeably quiet and it is impossible to get a real sense for where his head is, because he is not talking, and some of the folks around him, say they don't have a great sense of what he is thinking, so while the speculation is centering around a not-run scenario, the fun part about this is that we don't know 100%. >> well, let's talk about some of other contenders and in particular the head of the wisconsin republican party who is considered one of the front-runners? >> yes, reince priebus who is

the nephew of governor haley barbour is a strong person because of one important fact, he comes from the committee. i think that having relationships on the committee will serve him in good stead, but the question for him is how does he do with the pro steele faction and the hard core anti-steele faction, because he is now anti-steele. >> well, to be continued. we will talk to you tomorrow about all of it. thank you, jonathan. >> thank you, andrea. and a state of emergency in florida as residents brace for some of the coldest temperatures in two decades. it will affect all of us with fruit prices. and we will show you how lucrative the excess baggage fees have been for the airlines, because it is said that they made $1.5 billion on baggage fees and $195 billion in

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and topping the headlines right now on "andrea mitchell reports," in afghanistan, several suspects have been arrested in a suicide attack that killed six u.s. soldiers. they were on a mini bus when it was detonated outside of kandahar. here at home, no relief in sight as a major winter storm continues to blanket parts of the country. heading east now with heavy snow and bitter temperatures. the storm produced so much snow in minneapolis, that it deflated the bubble roof on the metrodome which forced the nfl to reschedule the vikings/giants game tonight to be played in detroit. and today, officials declared a state of emergency ahead of what is the coldest night in 20 years. freezing temperatures could cause widespread temperatures to crops and create a major disaster. kerry sanders is in miramar,

florida. kerry, already, so much crop damage and what is the outlook now? >> well, it doesn't look good, because of the projected temperatures here. the forecast in tallahassee is 22 and orlando 23 and down to miami and possibly 32 degrees. it is estimated there are $700 million worth of winter crops in the ground right now. those are the strawberries, your lettuce, your green beans and then of course what florida is well known for the citrus. the citrus industry got the harvest started late this year and 7% of the crop has been picked so far. if the temperatures hit 28 degrees and remain at that temperature for four hours or more, that is when the damage sets in. that why they have made the state of emergency in the state of florida right now, and what it does is to allow the officials from the department of transportation here in the state to lift the weight regulations meaning they can put as much as they can on the processing plants as fast as they can, but the cold temperature is rapidly

making its way here, and it is what they can pick today and pray tonight that the temperatures do not remain that cold for that long causing them serious crop damage. >> oh, kerry, thank you very much for that not such great news from florida. and the justice department insists that the president's health care law will be ultimately found unconstitutional and despite a big setback, the insurance ruling is that they crossed the line. and we are visiting now with nancy from the justice department. so, this was a major setback and the virginia challenge of the individual mandate. >> that is right, andrea, but as you know, there are 20 cases like this winding through the federal court, and in fact, there have been two of the federal district court cases in which the judges have held that the same requirement is in fact constitutional. so this is one today where the judge held it is not, but there are two where the judge held that it was, and these are just cases that are going to wind

through the federal courts. >> what do you say to those who say that the individual mandate, and orrin hatch and others in the senate side, and certainly some house leaders, eric cantor are saying that this proves that the law, the guts of the law was unconstitutional and they want the administration now to support an expedited review by the u.s. supreme court, and will the u.s. solicitor general proceed that way? >> well, i will let the lawyers at the justice department and the solicitor general analyze those requests, but i find it interesting this idea that everybody who can afford it needs to have health insurance, and the so-called individual responsibility requirement is something that the republicans in the past and in the senate, and senator hatch, you remember, have embraced. s so, i'm kind of surprised that they are saying that. >> nancy ann depaul, thank you for this report of the health

care edpolicy which is a signate achievement of the obama administration. and the president says he is going to start s.t.a.r.t. treaty negotiations with russia, and will that mess up his christmas holiday? he is calling it the top foreign policy initiative, and david axelrod said he is confident it will be ratified. >> they will help us enormously on the cooperation of iran and north korea, and we cannot delay that. i am hopeful we will get a vote for that, and the support is there for it. former senator sam nunn is former ceo of the nuclear threat initiative and also co-wrote the n nunn/lugar treaty.

what do you say to senator kyl and others who say that this is not conclusive and much more needs to be studied about this treaty before it is ratified? >> well sh, first, it is thorouy studied and unprecedented number of hearings and the chiefs have testify and the lar toir drbora directors have testified and all of them favorable to the treaty, and so it has been studied. andrea, we have to back off every now and then and say, what is this about? russia and the united states have a unique relationship, because we are the only two countries who can destroy each other while the program lasts an hour. that is an acute danger and responsibility on both of the countries. when you have that situation and no verification in place, which is the case unless this treaty is ratified, then military leaders on both sides assume the

worst case. assuming the worst case is always enormously expensive and sometimes dangerous. so verification is certainly a key part of the treaty and important. in addition, we have a lot of front-burner issues, including protecting the nuclear materiels all over the globe, and iran and north korea and supply lines to our troops in afghanistan and the middle east and including energy security. all of those will be made more difficult if we do not ratify this treaty, because we cannot accomplish these tasks alone. have to have russian help and help of other countries. so that is what this is all about and i hope they do ratify it before they go home. >> do you think it will preclude american options on the missile defense? >> absolutely not. there is nothing in the treaty whatsoever, and everybody has testified that it will not limit

our own defense when it comes to missiles. but when people complain about any reference of offense and defense, it is like complaining about the law of gravity. you won't repeal the law of gravity, and since the beginning of time, offense and defense are related. that is inevitable, but the russians have no veto here in what we do in the missile defense program, but from my personal point of view and has nothing to do with the treaty, i think that we need to work with the russians on missile defense, and we don't want to have to spend billions and billions of dollars to respond to that, and u.s. and russia have a lot of things in common, including the threat of terrorism, and the threat of short-range ballistic missiles, and we could benefit and russians could benefit if nato and u.s. and russians find a way to work together on missile defense, and i hope that is what takes place. >> briefly i wanted to ask you about "don't ask, don't tell," and you were in there in the beginning when this compromise

was worked out, and as former chairman of the senate armed services committee, you had a change of heart at least about the original policy, if the changes are implemented with a good deal of studying and training. am i correctly characterizing your point of view? >> i would say yes. the facts have changed, andrea. the joint chiefs have testified and the survey that was done very thoroughly over the last nine months have shown that the troops belief in the, and the leaders believe they can maintain the military effectiveness and unit cohesion if you repeal "don't ask, don't tell," but everybody says including the joint chiefs who are members of the joint chiefs who believe we should take longer before we repeal it is going to take time, and education and training is absolutely essential to maintain military effectiveness while the transition takes place. if i were in the senate, i would vote to repeal only on the condition that the president and the secretary of defense commit to taking at least 12 months and longer if need be to make sure

that we have the kind of education and training and careful review of the regulations that are going to be required to make sure that we do not lose military effectiveness. in the final analysis, the sergeants have to make this work, and the taliban and the al qaeda are not going to call time-out. we have to make sure we rotate the combat troops through the period of training time, and we don't have the time and timing is the key, but i would vote for the repeal if the secretary of defense and the counter made that commitment. >> i know that you and senator lugar have decades of work with russia, and i want to give you one more reason to be concerned about russia as a partner. this is vladimire putin at a charity in st. petersburg, channeling his country music

star. ♪ on blueberry hill ♪ on blueberry hill ♪ there will be so melody >> what can i say? sam nunn, you are a good southern boy, and you have to appreciate vladimire putin even more now? >> i would say he has uncounted courage in making that appearance, but we have to trust to verify, and from the russian's perspective, so do they. so we will have the treaty passed and then we can have a reason to sing these more entertaining and lighter moments. >> and speaking of lighter moments, i want to say that i know that you are in san francisco partly, because you are celebrating with all of his friends and colleagues and supporters, george schultz' 90th birthday and i wish i had been out there, but i am stuck here, and our congratulations to the

former secretary of state on his 90th and his wonderful wife, charlotte. thank you for joining us, sam nunn. >> they are wonderful people. it will be great. >> they are. they are are. and we will have a visit with the president of the largest union coming up on "andrea mitchell reports." 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. but my doctor told me that most calcium supplements... aren't absorbed properly unless taken with food. he recommended citracal. it's different -- it's calcium citrate, so it can be absorbed with or without food.

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not only am i very proud of the bill, but had i not been able to get this passed, i would be sleeping on the couch. >> president obama had a little fun this morning just before signing a bill to extend and expand child nutrition programs. he is there with the first lady focusing much of her time combatting childhood obesity, a key goal of the new legislation. as we continue "education nation" no one doubts that the schools are in crisis. here is education secretary arne duncan on our show friday. >> everything needs to be on the table. we need great teachers.

we need great principals, and we have to clal the students, themselves and the parents, and i have said that our department of education is a problem, and we are a compliance-driven bureaucracy, and we have to all move out of the comfort zones and move so in a urgency that we haven't had. >> and now we have the head of the teacher's union, and tell us what about the crisis? >> well, for nea, the mission statement is to fulfill the promise of public education, and the priorities is to campaign to make the low-performing schools to make those kids a high pry priori priority, and to talk about how to make teaching profession, and we have

to collaborate between the school board, and the people who work there and the students. >> well shg, michelle rhee sayst the teachers union is at the odds of the core mission of the education mission. one of the core articles says that politic makers and school boards who are beholden to special interests have created a bureaucracy that is focused on the adults instead of the students. the teachers unions get the blame for much of the elected profishls, parents and the purpose is to change, but the purpose is to protect the unions and the pay of their member, and they are doing a great job of that. >> the purpose of the national education association is clear. of course, we advocate for professionals who spend their time in classrooms across america, but it does not end there. it is about uniting the members to fulfill the promise of public

education for every student. that is our mission. that is our purpose. you cannot shout out the voice of the thousands and the millions of people who spend their lives in teaching. with e we know how deeply our members care. we know it takes the collaboration, and to ask them questions. this commission is so exciting to me, because it is time we had a commission on teachers and teaching that is made up of teachers. >> why do you need to study it for another year? i mean, we -- we are told that tenure is one of the problems, that tenure protects teachers who have not performed. what is wrong with evaluating, testing teachers and those who don't test well, out. >> tenure is not a guarantee to a job. but it is simply the right that you must inform a teacher of their deficiencies and have a raring, period. that is all it is. >> but in new york city for instance, if you are a tenured teacher, and you don't perform well, you can sit at full pay in one of those rubber rooms and get paid forever and not even be

in the classroom. that is a job protection that the rest of us don't enjoy in our jobs. if i don't do my job, i'm out of here. >> what i think that we ought to be able to do is to create a system that doesn't allow just everybody into the profession, and then if you fail, make it easy to get rid of you. instead, follow the lead of the other international leaders, the countries we are held up in comparison to like finland. they will not allow anyone into the classroom until theyieved t >> but that would keep out some of the people for teach for america, and some of the young people who are successful and innovative. let me show you something that occurred in the program earlier with mayor villaraigosa. >> at every turn, the teachers union has been against race to the top, the parent trigger, public school choice, charter schools -- my partnership cools, every effort to reform the schools. what we are saying is let's work together and let's not continue

to defend a broken status quo. >> what do you say to the mayor? >> well, of the 11 states and plus district of columbia that did receive race to the top, most of them did have the collaboration of the teachers union and that essential, and the idea that you can change what is happening with america's kids without involving the people who are there is crazy. we must disrupt the status quo, and it is not acceptable, but somebody from the outside cannot change that system. for us, it is so imperative on literally hundreds of schools, every single school that receives school improvement grants from the government, and we have members there, we're sitting down with them to say let's turn this around. let's change the reality for these students. we believe that student success is number one, and we're going to make a difference. >> thank you very much. >> thank you. and what political story will be making headlines in the next 24 hours? it was so complicated. there was a lot of information out there.

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he is stable but still in very critical condition, and we appreciate the outpouring of support and concern that had been evidence d from around the world. presidents, prime ministers, foreign ministers, very experienced diplomats have been calling and expressing their best wishes, and i know how much the family appreciates all that, but so do all of this colleagues. >> that was secretary of state hillary clinton in ottawa talking about richard holbrooke. he was fortunately able to get immediately to gw hospital only a block or two away, and has had a series of surgeries all weekend as he remains in critical condition. but our thoughts and prayers are with him, his family. one of the most gifted diplomats of his generation.

and which political story will make headlines in the next 24 hours? msnbc contributor and managing editor of postpolitics.com, chris cillizza joining us now. what are you looking at? >> gosh, andrea. what sad news. you captured it, but golly, i feel bad coming in on top of that. but here's what i will say, a big legislative week for the white house and for congress. first up, we have this test vote on the tax cut compromise, unemployment insurance, all that stuff coming at 3:00 today. we're expecting that this is going to get in excess of 60 votes and that it's going to pass the senate and eventually mass the house as well. >> right now we have to go to robert gibbs at the white house, of course, responding to the virginia federal judge ruling the individual mandate is not constitutional. >> the individual aspects of

this legislation weren't to go into effect until 2014, so there's time to work this through. >> what gives the white house confidence that ultimately it will prevail? if this case continues to go on. >> well, i think, and i'm certainly not a lawyer in terms of the legal arguments that underpinned the briefs, but i would say that challenges like this are nothing new in terms of laws that have come before the courts in the past, in which -- in which our position has prevailed. we're confident that it is constitutional, and quite frankly of the three courts that have rendered decisions on this question, two have ruled in our favor. >> real quick question on the tax deal. democrats in the house are talking of targeting the estate tax provision that they're unhappy with and may be dealing with that in an amendment or legislatively trying to change

that legislation. is the white house urging democrats not to do that? >> well, i will say this, ben. obviously the senate is going to vote on -- have a procedural vote later on this afternoon. i think the president is encouraged by what we hear in the senate and believe the legislation will pass that hurdle. and be one important step closer to passage. in terms of -- -- i'm not going to get involved in what the amendment process may be in the house at this point. i think you have seen whether it was in here on friday with former president clinton or whether you have seen just this morning that this is something that has broad bipartisan support in the public. it's an excellent -- it's a good agreement.

it's an excellent agreement on behalf of millions of americans who won't see their taxes go up. those that are impacted in having lost a job in this recession will have the security of knowing that their unemployment benefits won't fall victim to politics, and the middle class will enjoy a significant tax cut in the payroll tax portions of this bill. so we are encouraged that we get closer and closer each day to having this agreement become law. >> can you talk about the initial reaction to the health care ruling. were you surprised by it? and how concerned are you about the fact that there's a lot of other lawsuits out there? >> well, again, this is the third federal -- this is the third federal court that's rendered a decision on this portion of the affordable care act, and two of those courts have upheld it.

so i i think we are confident that, that the affordable care act is -- will be upheld. >> so what's the next step for you? >> well, you know, the department of justice obviously is going to have to make some decisions about appealing this particular case. my sense is that appeal decision is something they'll likely make, but i would point you over. >> and just a question. lar larry summers gave a farewell speech. how is the decision going on his replacement? do you still hope to do that before the end of the year? >> look, i will say that it is -- i'm not sure that that's going to get done by the end of the year. obviously a whole host of legislative -- lots of