that's the kind of commitment to haiti that we want to see from our public officials and former public officials and we didn't get that with sarah palin. >> jonathan alter, always a pleasure. good to have you with us tonight. thanks. >> thanks, ed. tonight in our text survey asked, do you think that the republicans will ever compromise with president obama? 8% of you said, yes. 92% of you said, no. vikings and giants tonight. moving ahead. president obama's tax cut deal with republicans passes its first major test. midwest mess. whiteouts and treacherous driving conditions leave store scores of indiana drivers stranded. and end of an era. an injury derails brett favre and his record streak. good morning, everyone.

i'm lynn berry. those stories and more are straight ahead. this is "first look" on msnbc. we begin with advancing the deal. senate lawmakers rallied a rare show of bipartisan support yesterday with an overwhelming majority agreeing to advance the president's proposed tax cut compromise. time approval in the senate could come as early as today but once the measure moves into the house, its fate is much less certain. nbc's tracie potts joins us from washington with more on this. tracie, good morning. >> reporter: the vote was 83-15 in the senate. rarely do you see that type of support from both democrats and republicans here in washington. it was a test vote, but it could very well foreshadow what we'll see when the real vote actually

happens possibly as early as later on today. democrats and republicans alike say they held their nose and voted for this compromise, but democrats much more so because they opposed that 35% estate tax that would have been 20% higher without this deal, but both sides say they had to move forward. so in moving forward after the final senate vote which could happen again as early as today this deal moves on to the house of representatives where there is not as much support. house members say they want to make an issue especially democrats of that estate tax but leaders say even though there are some who will vote against this deal, it's not the majority they expect to be debating it by the end of the week. president obama in reaction to this test vote said that it proves that washington can work together. lynn? >> tracey potts in washington, thank you. meanwhile, as the president's tax plan moves forward, a federal judge in virginia has dealt a blow to his

health care overhaul calling part of the new law unconstitutional. the judge ruled that congress overstepped its authority by requiring americans to buy health insurance. however, since the plan's minimum coverage requirement isn't scheduled to take effect until 2014 the law will remain in effect while further appeals play out. the white house is predicting what many consider to be the hallmark of the obama presidency, would be upheld if it makes its way to the supreme court citing two prior cases which have already been upheld in lower courts. secretary of state hillary clinton called him "the consummate diplomat, able to stare down dictators and stand up for america's interests and values, even under the most difficult circumstances." ambassador richard holbrooke died last night at a washington hospital after undergoing heart surgery. andrea mitchell takes a look back at his life.

>> thanks, p.j., it's good to be back. >> reporter: widely considered one of the most gifted diplomats of his generation, he began in vietnam in 1963 as an officer. a war that was a crucible forging relationships that would shape his career for decades. he quickly rose to the white house under lyndon johnson where he drafted a key war memo and wrote a chapter of the pentagon papers. during the nixon years he accompanied henry kissinger to the peace talks in paris afternoon alongside kissinger and clark clifford. holbrooke aspired to be a great man himself. his signature achievement negotiating an end to the war in bosnia at the dayton peace talks in 1995. that ended a religious and ethnic war that had raged among the former yugoslavian nations. tearing europe apart leading to ethnic cleansing against minority muslim, rapes and

genocides until he negotiated a peace treaty signed in paris at the end of 1995. >> this the best alternative to continued war. >> reporter: he served as ambassador to germany and then to the united nations under bill clinton. a close adviser to john kerry, holbrooke was known to have aspired to become secretary of state had kerry been elected. instead of next democrat to occupy the white house was barack obama who offered the state department job to hillary clinton. clinton carved out a special envoy role for holbrooke awarding him the toughest assignment of all, pakistan and afghanistan. his difficult relationship with afghan president hamid karzai became an obstacle. married to kati martin, a celebrated human rights advocate he was at the end at hillary clinton's side at duty at the state department. a larger than life presence who helped reshape foreign policy for generations. andrea mitchell, nbc news, washington.

and last night on the "rachel mad dough show" she shed light on why he is being remembered by president obama as a giant of american foreign policy. >> the fact is he took the thankless tasks. no one else would have taken this job but the bottom line was that only by combining afghanistan and pakistan did he think that you could pull all of the strands together and make some sort of a sense out of the policy and do it on a regional basis and there were a lot of bumps in the road. his greatest victory, his triumph which is a lasting one will be the bosnia accords. he single handedly with his brilliant team of chris hill and robert frazier who died -- holbrooke was in that motorcade that went off the road in sarejevo after holbrooke was unwilling to persuade milosevic to fly in and took that dangerous road and lost three

gifted diplomats there but he and chris hill survived and the fact is no one else could have gone head to head to milosevic and stopped that war no no one had been able to bring to the end. >> "the rachel mad dough show" is on here right on msnbc, the place for politics at 9:00 p.m. wintry weather is taking aim at the east coast after blasting heavy snow and high winds all across the midwest. in northern indiana more than 100 vehicles were stuck on highways for hours yesterday as a slow-moving storm blocked snowplow driver's efforts to free them. at least 15 deaths have been linked to the storm which dumped nearly two feet of snow in parts of minnesota and wisconsin before moving into michigan and indiana. last night the biting temperatures stretched further east with snow and parts of ohio, pennsylvania and new york. and here's your "first look" at the news going on around

america. a missouri man found his home as frozen as an icicle. a water main break shot water into the air and onto his ice and everything around it. at a blast of frigid air and it became encased in ice though he thought his blowtorch would help. insi inside the heat worked just fine. a washington state woman is lucky to be alive after her suv plunged into a pond. the woman was apparently reversing when she went off the road and into the icy water. rescuers say she was cold and weak but she's expected to be okay. in california, it took more than 20 seaworld workers to rescue a beached sperm whale. rescuers treated animal which had cut itself on the rocky surf. a few hours later they muscled the 3,000-pound whale back into the ocean. experts say the animal was

either sick or lost. and pastry chefs at a florida hotel baked a giant 12-foot-long, 8-foot-tall gingerbred house, it's not a house but a high-rise complete with its own circus. it will be on display until the end of the year. for a look at your national weather we turn to nbc meteorologist bill karins with the forecast. good morning. >> you can't see it but i have a space heater down below me and toasting myself. >> did you wake up and your apartment looks like a little icicle? you're luckier than that guy, bill. don't complain. >> i will. you know i will. let's talk about this. there's no escaping. i lived in central florida for knife years and went through a couple of freezes but nothing like what they're dealing with down there this morning. this cold blast, the center is now all the way -- you can draw a line from minneapolis down into the southeast where the heart of this cold air is. you can see it.

they call it a tongue of cold air coming down from canada. if you look at these colors it looks like a tongue sticking out of a mouth and that's where all the cold air is filtering down to the south. atlanta at 15, orlando at 30. the cold air has made it into the cities of new york and philly, baltimore, everyone, boston, the cold air will move in during the day today. you're still one of the warmer spots at 31. it's warmer right now in boston at 31 than it is in orlando at 30 and look at our friends, even miami is now down to 38. ft. myers, 35. it's south of orlando down there where the orange groves are. lake okeechobee is right here. once that freeze gets down there that's when we start doing a lot of damage to the crops. as far as windchill goes it's about 7 in new york. zero in syracuse. negative numbers are still here from detroit to chicago. 1 windchill in nashville and atlanta. and one little surprise this morning has been areas around the tri-state area.

new york city out on long island we got light snow for you. be careful. only a dusting out there kind of blowing around but the sidewalks are very slippery. you can see snow flurries continue. when i was out with my dog this morning, i mean the sidewalks were just glazed over. it was not fun. >> yeah, it really wasn't. wow, bill, you're a trouper taking your dog out that early in the morning. >> yeah. >> you got to do what you got to do. >> exactly. a pretty picture. bill, thanks. acquisitions heat up on the street. a cost of tax deal you pay not have heard of. and the airlines made how much on fees this year? "first look" on business headlines coming up. the lakers visit the president. brett favre's playing days, are they finally over? hey...

everyone's eating tacos outside bill's office. [ chuckles ] you think that is some information i would have liked to know? i like tacos. you invited eric? i thought eric gave you the creeps. [ phone buzzes ] oh. [ chuckles ] yeah. hey. [ male announcer ] don't be left behind. get it first with at&t. the nation's fastest mobile broadband network. period. rethink possible.

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welcome back to "first look." i'm lynn berry. top stories aching news, despite

overwhelming criticism and at least five candidates lined up against him republican national committee chairman michael steele announced last night he will run for re-election. the surprise move ensures a nasty battle over the direction of the party just as the republicans assumed control of the house next month. it's been more than a month since the midterms but alaska's joe miller isn't giving up his fight. yesterday the tea party-backed candidate filed an appeal to the state supreme court three days after a lower court declared that write-in ballots for lisa murkowski can be counted even if they are misspelled. jailed financier bernard madoff will not attend his son's funeral. 46-year-old mark madoff committed suicide saturday, the second anniversary of his father's arrest for the biggest ponzi scheme in u.s. history. small consolation but the statement that likely cost delaware senate candidate

christine o'donnell the election did earn her the top spot on yale university's annual list of most quotable quotes of declaring "i'm not a witch." o'donnell shares the honor with tony hayward who infamously complained "i'd like my life back" during the gulf oil disaster. the first look at how wall street kicks off. it opens 11,428 after climbing 18 points yesterday. the s&p was up a fraction and the nasdaq fell 12 points. taking a look at overseas trading this morning, in tokyo, the nikkei added 22 while in hong kong the hang seng rose 113. on wall street trading was flat, slow and uncertain monday. starting off the final full week of business before christmas, both the dow and the s&p benefited from china's conservative move to slow growth. increasing the amount of extra capital top banks must hold.

instead of the more severe option of raising interest rates. that helped oil companies like chevron and mining related companies like caterpillar drive the dow higher. the nasdaq saw an eight-day winning streak end but apple still closed slightly higher up 53% for the year. one spot on wall street was red hot. mergers and acquisitions. general electric, the current owner of this network rose after confirming it would buy british oil field services company wellstream holdings for $1.3 billion. dell fell almost 4% after sweetening its cash offer for network storage company compe compellent and they rememberofisher buys die joenex. yahoo! will lay off 5% of its workforce as early as today. elsewhere, moody's warned due to the increased debt it would bring on if president

barack obama's tax and unemployment benefit package becomes law it may cut the united states' aaa bond rating. data released monday by the government shows u.s. airlines collected more than $4.3 billion in baggage and ticket fees so far this year. some of it mine with delta pocketing the most. and finally a forensic scientist nicknamed the jigsaw expert helped one very lucky man recover 200,000 taiwanese dollars he actually dropped into his factory's shredding machine last month. in seven days she pieced together the remains of $200 thousand notes. the texans made a frantic comeback only to fall short in

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unitedhealthcare. we could stay here i'm a member of this hotel's loyalty program.ce. well, how far away is it? okay, we take a train to a dude ranch, then we canoe to the conference. or we could book with hotels.com and stay closer. [ male announcer ] accumulate 10 nights and get a night free. welcomerewards from hotels.com. welcome back to "first look." i'm lynn berry. in sports for the first time in more than 18 years brett favre did not start an nfl game. here's nbc's fred roggin. >> good morning to you. the streak is over and maybe his career. brett favre was inactive against the giants because of a shoulder injury that stopped his record streak at 297.

last time favre didn't start was back in '92. probably glad he didn't play. the giants rolled the vikings. bradshaw rolled off a touchdown won and won it 21-3. ravens up 8. the texans' matt schaub found andre johnson. they needed a two-point converse and got it. to jacoby jones, houston rallied from 21 down but the texans came up short. returned this for a touchdown. the ravens won it, 34-28. new york jets have come down hard on their strengthening coach sal alosi. baseball according to sources cliff lee reached an agreement with the phillies and joins roy halladay to form one of the best pitching staffs. basketball heat and hornets. wade scored 20 in the second

quarter and finished with 32. but the shot of the night from lebron james, shot clock winding down, he lost the ball had to heave it up from behind the back board and drained it, won it 96-84. to the victors go the spoils. lakers met with president obama yesterday. usually teams visit the white house but this year a little different. they joined the president at a local boys and girls club to promote community service and celebrate athletic achievement. that's your first look at sports. i'm fred roggin. another quick look at the weather. bill has the weather chapel forecast. >> good morning, a peak out the window. flurries in new york city but beginning to taper off. still snow showers up the hudson valley. heavy snow coming off the lakes once again today, cleveland, erie, buffalo, syracuse, you could get into snow squalls. here's that light snow set up over a good portion of long island this morning. there's at least a coating out there on the ground, maybe up to an inch. it's a slippery cold snow that's on the pavement and the

sidewalks so be careful heading out to the car and driving. windchills will get your attention. minus 3 in buffalo. highs won't even get up to 32 so, lynn, as advertised the coldest day so far this winter. >> thanks so much. so how did kate goslin get along with sar czar palin when they were out in the wilderness shooting reality tv? you may be able to guess. plus, it was supposed to be gwyneth paltrow's special day but lindsay lohan and her mom had to get involved and get snarly. [ manager ] you know... i've been looking at the numbers, and i think our campus is spending too much money on printing. i'd like to put you in charge of cutting costs. calm down. i know that it is not your job. what i'm saying... excuse me? alright, fine.

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welcome back to "first look." i'm lynn berry. it's time for your first look at

entertainment news. gwyneth paltrow proved it's never too late to reinvent yourself. she recently resurrected herself as a country music singer with a star on hollywood's walk of fame and got rave reviews doing a cameo on "glee" playing a spanish teacher quizzing her students on how many times lindsay lohan has been in rehab. she signed up for two more episodes but dina lohan complains that daughter lindsay was watching that "glee" episode in the betty ford center and was devastated and told the website she went overboard and it was unnecessary. finally we report that sarah palin's alaska show kate goslin and her host had zero chemistry together. they never spoke to each other off camera and given goslin's fancy tastes she said to have recently got a thousand dollar hairstyling, it's no surprise she hated the food, the camping

accommodations and she actually left before sundown. >> that was the most money ever spent on a haircut. hairstyling. >> hairstyling. did you like that? oh, please, i mean -- >> 300. >> not even. >> 400. >> bill, what do you think i am? come on. come on. >> cash daddy. >> no, how about you, bill? you one of those guy, you are. >> barbershop all the way. >> right. i'm lynn berry. this is "first look" on msnbc, but stay tuned. "way too early with willie geist" starts right now. president obama's tax deal expected to breeze through the senate perhaps later today after picking up 83 votes in a test run yesterday. the question is, will democrats in the house put up a big enough stink about e estate tax to prevent it from passing that chamber. we'll see. meanwhile, the president's signature legislative achievement is picked apart by a federal judge who declares parts of the new health