house to follow. will prag mattism rule? >> the legislative process as the president said today is a series of taking some things you want and taking some things you don't want, because you think there's a net plus in the action. i think that's what happened in the senate. i think that will happen in the house. but liberals in the democratic caucus may go down fighting. congressman john larson tops our jam packed show today. granted bail but without his australian passport, wikileaks founder julian assange wins a small victory in london as he continues to fight extradition charges. plus in a federal court in virginia, the first big legal setback for the president's landmark health care bill. how will team obama respond? from virginia, governor bob mcdonell who says the justice

department should fast track the case directly to the supreme court. plus david eisenhower and julie nixon eisenhower to share their memories of life with ike. and a powerful voice of diplomacy is silenced. memories of the most unforgettable character we have known, richard holbrooke's long-time confidant joins us. the fight over tax cuts is reaching a boiling point, not on the floor, the house or the senate but behind closed doors. house democrats will meet tonight to determine if they will keep on fighting. the rank and file and the leadership may not be on the same page. congressman john larson joins us now. thanks for joining us. >> happy to be here. >> steny hoyer today, the majority leader seemed to be warming up to the deal. where do you think it now stands as you go into this critical meeting tonight with your democrats?

>> i think members of the democratic caucus still have major concerns, certainly over the kyle lincoln provision and the estate tax. but the other issue that has not been discussed much, andrea, is the whole issue of its impact, the payroll tax holiday and the impact on social security. clearly there is a desire and you certainly can see that over the weekend to want to work with this president, understanding that there's been a gun held to the middle class people of this country and have held the president, the republicans have held the republican -- have held the president hostage as well. but our caucus feels very strongly about making sure that we have input into this agreement. >> well, rick ddick dermot it ts

this morning, and here's his view of how the senate vote would have some inflauns on the house side. >> over 80 united states senators of both parties support a measure, i think the house takes notice. i think there will be several stages in this debate, but ultimately those who oppose it will have their day. >> so you'll have a chance to propose amendments and have them shot down or not, but it seems as though this thing will pass. >> i think you said at the outset, will pragmatism prevail? there is room for pragmatism, but there has to be a room for opportunity to step forward. we feel strongly about a number of proposals that came through and indicated in our caucus last week that we would not vote for a measure in its current form.

now, hopefully we're going to get to add on to that and as dick durbin said we may be here to christmas or slightly after. but hopefully we'll get it right for the american people. >> what amendments would you like to see? is the estate tax the most important provision or the payroll tax is another issue? >> the estate tax is like rubbing the salt into the wound of so many people. if you look at bookends of the past two years, people in our caucus are saying, look, we come in bailing out wall street and we end up bailing out billionaires? what happens the senior citizens in the meanwhile, and there's been great tension between the house and the senate in their refusal to take take up more than 450 bills, including in the last couple of weeks, making sure there was money, if there for the victims and survivors of

9/11. to the to take up the disclose act over in the senate that is wildly accepted by the public out there. not being able to take up defense authorization and holding all of those hostage for tax breaks for billionaires? that's what the rub is in the house of representatives. >> i hear your anger. let me ask you about don't ask don't tell. you were an early supporter of it. now we're told patrick murphy of pennsylvania will introduce it. it will be a stand-alone bill. what is the future of that? >> we're hopeful of that he would like to see that pass in the house. i'm told by my colleague joe lieberman that this have over 60 vote force that bill in the senate. so we are encouraging patrick and behind him. and we would like to see the senate join what we think is a practical vote. >> okay. thank you very much, congressman. appreciate very much your insight today. now to a developing story in

london. swedish authorities say they will challenge the decision to release wikileaks founder julian assange on bail. assange will remain in a british jail for now at least. stephanie? >> yeah, that's right. the swedish authorities had two hours to challenge this decision, that's what they have done. now it has to be heard by britain's high court condition the next 48 hours. that means julian assange will still be in jail during that period of time. if they lose that case, and then he is granted bail, as the magistrate court granted him today, he will be allowed to go but he has to stay at a registered address. one of his supporters, luckily enough, has a 600-acre mansion in southern england. he has to stay. there he's not going to be free to roam around. he has electronic surveillance a curfew, he has also turned in his passport. but it has been a victory for his lawyers today, a small one.

he's still trying to fight that extradition back to sweden. andrea? >> stephanie, he could be on a 600-acre estate with all sorts of electronic monitoring, but he can go on the internet? >> that's a good question. he's going to be watched closely. his access to information at this point is unclear. i don't think he'll have the controls that have been over him while he's been in jail, as you heard his lawyer say today, he had a "time" magazine that was sent to him ripped up. he wasn't allowed to see newspapers. you can imagine julian assange desperate to see what's being said about him online and in the media. >> stephanie gosk, thank you very much. coming up next, the legal setback for president obama's health care overhaul. virginia governor bob mcdonell and stephanie cutter, special assistant to president obama from the white house, both joining us. plus as flags fly today at half staff at the state department, we remember richard holbrooke. with us, ambassador christopher

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the first time since president obama signed the mammoth overall, a federal judge ruled a key part of the law is not constitutional. advocates are trying to downplay the importance of this ruling. joining us from the white house, stephanie cutter, assistant to the president. how do you get around this challenge? i knows there a number of challenges, more than 20 legal cases around the country. this was an important district and an important ruling. >> this is an important district and an important ruling. a couple weeks ago, another virginia court in virginia ruled differently and found the law constitutional. we have to let the process take its course and let the courts do their work. in the meantime, we're working

aggressively with states across the country to continue implementing the law. we found it surprising and we were pleased with the decision that the judge went out of his way to say that states should continue implementing the narrow ruling on the individual responsibility provision don't go into effect until 2014, which means states can continue their important work to provide the benefits to american people under the new law. if i recall correctly during the lengthy health care debate, without the individual mandate, which would require everyone to get into the pool, you wouldn't have a broad enough base in order to achieve the health care savings that you need to to justify this. >> well, having the individual responsibility provision works, it makes sure everybody is participating in the health care system. the real impact of overruling the individual responsibility provision is not being able to provide health care to the thousands of americans who are suffering from pre-existing conditions.

they have been locked out of the marketplace for years. in 2014, when everybody is participating in the health care system, these people will be protected, too. but between now and 2014, there's lots that we're doing to increase benefits, protect individuals from insurance industry abuses and lower costs. so that work does need to continue. >> but this is the guts of it. you have always argued or you generically -- the white house has argued that these pieces were locked together, to make the economics of this deal work, you had to have that individual mandate. you had to get everyone into the pool. so what if this is a fatal flaw constitutionally in the health care reform? >> we don't believe it is a fatal constitutional flaw which is what we're been arguing in court, and which two other federal courts have agreed with us on. this has to work itself out through the courts. in the meantime we have to continue implementing it. there has been lots of commentary on the judge's opinion yesterday. there's been lots of

overreaction. we need to take a step back and look at this in then it con test of what's going on in the country. there's been conservative legal commentators and progressive legal commentators that questioned the legal reasoning and the judge's decision. we need to take a step backing let the courts do their work. we have to continue our work with the state to implement this law. the individual responsibility provision is important. there is no doubt about that. we believe, as do many other people on both sides of the aisle, that everybody should participate in our health care system. that's the best way to reduce costs for everybody. when people don't participate in the health care system and go to the emergency room and can't pay bills, that increases premiums for people like you and me. >> do you agree with those on the hill who suggested there was something flawed in the judge's ruling because he was an appointee of george w. bush? are you questioning judge henry hudson's credentials or his thinking on this? do you think this was a political ruling?

>> no. we disagree with the result of the ruling, but we're not questioning anybody's politics or judgment in this. we disagree with it. >> if you disagree with it, what about governor mcdonald and other governors, we will be talking to him in a bit what about their request, suggestion, demand, if you will that this be fast tracked? that the solicitor general and the justice department send it directly to the supreme court so we can have clarity once and for all? >> andrea, we don't think that makes sense. the justice department will be getting back to the governor in short order. but we question the necessity of that, particularly because there are two other federal courts who ruled differently than judge hudson yesterday. even a judge in the governor's own state. so why is judge hudson's decision any more important than these two other federal judges? >> is it because you don't think the roberts court will uphold

the health care and you don't want the health care bill to be overthrown more quickly than it might some day by this supreme court? >> well, no, that's not the case. we believe we will win, when and if this gets to the supreme court. and the court will find the law constitutional. but we believe that nobody should be able to game the system here. and that we should let the courts do their work. what do you say to the people in michigan who had a federal court uphold the law as constitutional? why is that decision any less important than the decision yesterday, which came down on very narrow grounds? this is just not the way the system works. i don't think the governor should be allowed to game it. >> thank you very much, stephanie cutter. the question now is not if but when will the health care bill finally reach the supreme court? because inevitably it will get there. virginia governor bob mcdonell says the legal decision is a victory for the constitution and he is calling on the justice

department, as we pointed out, to fast track the case, sending it directly to the u.s. supreme court. you heard stephanie cutter what is your response to her which says she is basically saying let the law take its due course and it will get to the supreme court when it does. there are other cases that disagrees with what happened in virginia, the michigan case in particular. >> first, it's curious she would call it an individual responsibility provision, it's an individual mandate from the governor on the citizens of virginia and every other state. that's what the guts of judge hudson's ruling was yesterday, is that the commerce clause of the u.s. constitution does not permit the federal government to main tate the buying insurance policy or any other good or service. if you don't, to be fined, a penalty for it. the reason this needs to be fast tracked -- i don't care if the governors are for or against the underlying health care policy, it is in the needs of certainty and predictability that we have finalization of this case.

there is no need to go to an interim circuit court of appeals in this case. why waste another year and a half in litigation when tlhere' millions and millions of dollars of expense that may be borne. we need an answer for the american people and we need closure on this issue. >> as stephanie cutter and the white house pointed out, only one court has struck it down, struck down one of the key provisions, as you point out. two others have upheld it. 12 have been dismissed. so the courts are all over the place. why not let it follow its course, are you trying to "game the system?" >> no you have different district courts with different ruling, you will have different appellate courts with different rulings.

everybody knows that this will be decided by the united states supreme court because they're the final arbitrator of the commerce clause. why take three years, hundreds of millions of dollars of costs by the states setting up somebody that might be stricken by the united states supreme court? let's cut a year, year and a half offer the appellate process. let's stop the litigation and go directly to the supreme court. it should make sense for every attorney general and every governor to have finale, business, doctors, citizens need to know the answer, is it or is it not constitutional? will we have a mandate on health care exchanges or not? >> governor, i wanted to bring to your attention the "washington post" op-ed today from the cabinet secretary, eric holder, writing as these lawsuis continue americans should be clear about what the opponents of reform are asking the courts to do.

striking down the individual responsibility provision means slamming the door on millions of americans, who have been locked out, and shifting the costs on to families who have acted more responsibly. you have many people who have been unemployed for many, many months, why would you slam the door, according to this op-ed, slam the door on them getting health care reform? >> there is broader people who want to see expanded access, reduced costs, less litigation in the health care system. this case is not about the policy. the case is about whether or not the congress, the united states government can make you and me buy a product of insurance or any other good or service and if we don't, to fine us. that's the issue. how they went about the process. and judge hudson has rightly rule that you can't do that under the commerce clause no

matter how the court cases come out across the country, don't waste three years in litigation. let's go to the supreme court. they will make the final decision any way. i think it's gaming it the other way by going through extensive litigation when everybody wants certainty, finality and predictable. let's get an answer and get it over with one way or the other so we can go on and implement it or redo it. >> governor mcdonell from richmond, thank you very much. good to see you, sir. >> okay. up next, former white house chief of staff rahm emanuel in court trying to prove he is a legal resident of the city he wants to run. coming up later on thursday, an exclusive interview with vice president joe biden. that's this thursday at 1:00 p.m. only on "andrea mitchell reports." ah, it's stinging a little bit more than usual! yeah, you'll get used to it. the longer you keep your high mileage car, the more it pays you back.

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convince the chicago board of elections that he has ban legal

resident of chicago for at least a year. that's the minimum requirement for him to run for mayor. at issue, whether he gave up his chica being a residential of chicago when he served as chief of staff. it's striking to see rahm emanuel taking all this. the big issue has been his 2009 tax returns where he and his wife amy ruled -- he has now acknowledged they should not have said they were part-time residents. >> that's right. they were clearly here in washington, their children were being educated. on the other hand, one has to have a certain sympathy. i don't feel like rahm emanuel ever stopped thinking of himself as a chicagoan. and, you know, by the sort of conventional standards of politics, he is very much was

meets the requirements. he's not a carpetbagger in the true sense, where you do sometimes have that, somebody moving into a place where they haven't been a part of the civic life of someplace. that doesn't apply to rahm. there is anuthentic question of whether he meets the technical requirements. there's plenty of people in chicago that filed petitions that said no, he does not. >> the whole time he was here as chief of staff, the rap on him from some in washington was that he was too much of a chicagoan, not well integrated into the political life here. and a number of the president's advisers still have their hearts and soul in chicago. do we have any way of gaining what will happen here? is there any way he gets knocked out of this election which is his heart's desire to become mayor of chicago? >> i guess i would be stunned in that would happen. i can't assert i'm an expert on chicago election laws, i'm

loathe to predict, but i guess i haven't been hearing serious people say this is a serious near-term prospect that it would be found that rahm is ineligible to run for mayor of chicago. in fact, most of the -- the early obstacles in terms of political rivals seem to be falling by the wayside. so if he can get over this legal challenge, it looks as though he has a clear path to the job he's wanted for many, many years. >> john, the last thing you would think about is that some legal technicality would get in the way of political ambition in chicago. that's not the way chicago rules. >> usually the fix is in in chicago, there should be somebody to clean this up, right. >> what's going on here, right? thank you very much. john harris. coming up, paying tribute to richard holbrooke with one of his long-time colleagues and a dear friend. and a majority of americans say it should be easier to fire bad teachers.

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topping the headlines, the canadian military is sending in helicopters to rescue hundreds of drivers trapped in a snowstorm. this dramatic scene is unfolding in southwestern ontario where the storm is too severe for snowplows to handle. if the canadians can't handle it, we sure couldn't. stocks are up on another report of strong retail sales. the commerce department says this morning that retail sales rose for the fifth straight month. november saw the biggest jump in department store sales in two years. yahoo! is reportedly planning to lay off up to 700 employees today. 5% of its work force, because of lackluster growth. this would be yahoo!'s fourth big layoff in just the past three years. a nightmare cruise is finally over for more than 1,000 americans who have been stranded in the eastern mediterranean. royal caribbean's brilliance of the seas finally docked in malta

after a violent storm battered the ship over the weekend. royal caribbean inishtially downplayed the incident. the new york jets assistant coach who deliberately tripped a player on the sidelines on sunday has been suspended for the season and fined $25,000. he has called it inexcusable. as the president met with his foreign policy team for that long-awaited afghanistan review today, there was an empty chair at the table. after the loss last night of richard holbrooke. the most gifted diplomat of his generation, richard holbrooke was brash, he was bold, he was a towering presence. his great and large heart was finally stilled after 30 hours of surgery over the past three days because of a torn aorta. the mood at the state department is somber, here is spokesman

p.j. crowley a short time ago. >> is, of course, a very sad day here at the state department. we have lost one of our own and a legendary figure in richard holbrooke. >> former u.s. ambassador to iraq, christopher hill, worked alongside holbrooke, principally to end the war in bosnia in 1995, but also in so many other places around the world. that was both of your crowning achievement, the 1995 dayton according, signed in paris, chris, 15 years ago today. this is such a bitter moment with so much sadness but we wanted you to join us today to talk about the great answer that was richard. describe what you think were his greatest attributes, what he brought that made him the diplomatic extraordinaire? >> first of all, he was quite an idealist. he combined that idealism with

an extraordinary pragmatic approach, that is he would deal with different people, people that, you know, you would not expect to want to sit down with, he would sit down with them to get something done. that pragmatism was not for pragmatism sake, it was to serve more idealistic goals. another element was this man was incredibly smart. his capacity to understand or to have a strategic vision and then to combine that with really brilliant tactics, you know, he was a brilliant tactician but also quite a visionary. finally, for all of us who worked for him, and there are many, many of white house did that, he was just a sheer joy to work with. i mean, he would -- he could be like the rest of us, a pain in the neck from time to time. most of the time it was just -- you just knew you were alive when you were working with richard holbrooke. >> i want to take you back to

the road around sarajevo and that terrible crash, the motorcade. as i recall it, milosevic refused to grant privileges to fly in, so you lost some colleagues, and you and wes clark and richard holbrooke were part of that motorcade. how depull tid he pull the team together and bring the dayton accord to a conclusion? >> the one thing he made clear was that we were going to go back on the road. we all gathered in washington. we buried our dead. we met with the president and one thing about richard holbrooke, he as made sure that everybody on his team was known to other people. he personally introduced me for the first time to president clinton. he introduced me to then vice president al gore. he made sure that all of us were known to very senior people. so, he was doing really to

empower us. he was doing this because diplomacy was a team sport. we all sat down with the president. we got our instructions, off we went. we never stopped until that day 15 years ago when the final dayton according were signed in paris. >> when did you first meet him? where were you? >> well, it's funny. i was recommended to him as a director for the balkans, so richard never hired anyone who he had not interviewed himself. so i was called up to his office about 7:00 at night, and he was a notorious multi-tasker. so that night i was competing with you, andrea, you were doing the nbc "nightly news" so he would meute you, ask me a question, shush me up. at one point he pointed the mute button at me, and i reacted the

same way you did. >> you know, i wanted to share with you something that admiral mullen, the chair of the joint chiefs traveling, as richard always was. he said i had been, to be honest, quite convinced of his eventual recovery knowing as i do his deep distaste for losing. the truth is that richard never lost nothing. he never lost time fighting for ideals he believed in. he was big man in every sense of the word a cherished friend and a true patriot. everyone on the team knew the value of this man and his patriotis patriotism. >> that says it all. i mean that really says it all. he was really a team player. he really did what he did for our country. and i think he will be sorely missed. >> my condolences to you, chris hill. he mentored you. he advanced you for ambassador to iraq.

and we all know what a major role he played in your life, as all of ours. thank you. >> thank you. and as we continue today, education nation. new numbers out today show that americans are frustrated with just how hard it is to fire bad teachers. here with us now on the spot, randy weingarten from the american federation of teachers. this is more evidence that people are angry, people are frustrated. they see their kids going bad schools and they want answers. how does the union respond? >> look, i read the poll question, what surprises me is not 100% of the team say shouldn't it be right to -- if somebody is not performing to get rid of a person? of course the answer is yes. what's interesting about that -- two things i wanted to say. what's interesting about that poll was how much the folks were polled said parents have to take

more responsibility, kids have to take more responsibility, educators have to take more responsibility, and public officials have to take more responsib responsibility. so i think the public is pretty exasperated with all of us. the bottom line in terms of teachers, though, is this. we all know we need to have a better evaluation system. that's what about 50 or 60 district are doing. if you don't have an evaluation system, you can't figure out who is doing a good job, who isn. once we have better evaluation systems which we're doing in lots of places, what happens is due process becomes only due process. it doesn't become what it has in so many places which is a job for life. no one should have a bad teacher. no one should put up with bad teachers. we need to make sure we support the good teacher we have and make sure we prepare them, train in them and invest in them. >> it's all well and good to say

the teachers have responsibility, the parents have responsibility, the children have responsibility. i met a young woman, her mother a high school dropout, no father. her mother taking care of a household of other children and two factory jobs. this child had to raise herself and her siblings. if a teacher had not intervened, given her money for a college education and told her how to apply, she would not be at east tennessee right now. there's a fundamental role for a teacher when there's a vacuum. >> frankly, most teachers want to play that role. we know we're more than teachers we're moms, dads, guidance counselors, all of these things. but what's happening these days we have more and more of these roles at the same time where there's an epidemic of bad teachers. what we should say let's prepare teachers to be the best they can

be, use schools as community centers so we do mitigate the effects -- >> we know the positive effects of that. let me ask you to respond to the cover story of "newsweek." you have seen all sides of this. she writes policymakers, school districts administrators, and school boards who are beholden to special sfwress have created a bureaucracy. the teachers unions get the plame for much of this. i don't think the unions can or should change. the purpose of the teacher's union is to protect the privileges, priorities and pay of their members, and they're doing a great job of that. >> i don't think that's the purpose of unions. i think the purpose of unions is to make sure there's respect and dignity for them, but it's also to make sure that there is really quality in the institutions we serve. and so ultimately we fight hard to get the tools and conditions teachers need to do a good job.

at the end of the day, the public schools are important in order for us to have -- prepare kids for the global economy but also maintain our civic society. what's unfortunate these days is that conflict sells, but conflict is status quo in education what is not status quo is team work that moves the ball ahead for a kid. >> rashgs andi w ishgi weingart thanks. hello. hehe sorry. we're doing a tea party. we have cookies and raspberries. awesome. what's the first thing to do at a tea party? do the tea. okay. i can do that. put it in your cup. ladies first. thank you. men with skirts second. introducing cisco umi, together we are the human network.

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a simply wonderful new memoir is giving readers a glimpse of a different side of president dwight david eisenhower, through the eyes of his grandson. "going home to glory: a memoir

of life with dwight eisenhower." nixon was eisenhower's vice president from 1953 to 1961, two terms. it is such a privilege to have both of you here today. >> great to see you. >> julia and david, thank you very much. the genesis of this david, when did you first start conceding this book. >> i dictated a version of it shortly after he died. and put it away for many years. not certain that i would ever really bring it out as a book. i finally decided this was a book that i had to do. i know we're going back to publishing in a big way, this is a book i want to be sure of. so we put it out now. >> what do you think people will be most surprised, julie, about president eisenhower, who many of white house grew up in the '50s, remember the war hero,

secondly peacetime, economic expansion, golf playing, genual m man. >> i think the portrait of him as an adviser to johnson and kennedy is absolutely fascinating. we have some new material. just the role he carved out for himself as a former president. there is no script for that. his desire to be known as general eisenhower again. that will be the most interesting. >> that's one side of it. i think another surprise, my grandmother quoted her husband saying don't let them put my on a horse, don't let them marbleize me, put me on a statue. i think that's happened to eisenhower, he has been marbleized. the biggest surprise to me, looking back over this draft which is something i did shortly afterwards, i preserved that

voice, is to remind myself of what a phenomenal human being this was. the care, the gifts that he gave. >> even though he fired you. >> well, he fired me. but i was rehired the same day. but i would say what comes through, this is -- the soldier particularly of world war ii, dwight eisenhower is remembered address commander of world war ii. they are no longer human beings, patton is a caricature, marshall is forgotten, eisenhower is a tremendous human being. i experienced that for years. just had to make a record of it. >> you add so much -- you talked about the role of former presidents, we just saw a former president last friday in the briefing room. >> after the 22nd amendment, we require these charismatic people to step down. >> he didn't get along with john f. kennedy, at least in the

drive up to the inaugural in 1960. >> this is the way it works. eisenhower wanted to see a republican victory, it's not surprising there was a certain wariness between the two. one thing i do hope that comes through is the extraordinary courtesy of president kennedy shown by president kennedy for president eisenhower as in the friendship between my grandfather and lyndon johnson. these people did get along in the final analysis. i think they were -- as you recreate the conversations that they had and so forth, there is this national interest, there is this vision of the national interest that brings them altogether. >> i hope you'll come back for a longer interview. there is a picture in the book, you're both 8 years old, it's january 20, 1957 at the inauguration of your father and grandfather, second term. you're looking at her. it's a wonderful picture what

were you thinking? >> i was thinking he was a really cute 8-year-old. he liked my black eye. he also -- >> you had a black eye. >> were along at tanks, airplanes, missiles coming down pennsylvania avenue. >> we are in washington, it's cold. this is a day like today in 1957, and we had this phenomenal parade, sort of -- >> those men, they are always looking over the shoulder at the tanks and the weapons. julie mnixon and coming up nex. what political story will be making headlines in the next 24 hours? that's next up here. and the 68th annual golden globe nominees have been announced. the big winner of the day is "the king's speech" which got seven nominations all together. they go for colin firth, "the fighter" certained six nods. [ female announcer ]

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so which political story will be making headlines in the next 24 hours chris cillizza is joining us now. hi, chris. >> hi, andrea. we keep talking tax cuts and we're going to keep talking tax cuts and the compromise until we get either a deal or no deal. the important thing tonight, 6:30 house democratic caucus meeting. they're trying to plot strategy, what they should do. there's significant unrest still about this package. it's primarily centered around the estate tax. in the senate bill that we expect to pass later today, you have a higher -- $5 million would be exempt. and there would be a 35% tax once you went over that. house democrats want that exemption to be lower and the tax to be higher. the issue, if they change the bill at all, it has to go back to the senate. it's not clear whether the

senate can put together that coalition again. president obama and everybody else wants to get home, get this deal done and get out of here on their christmas break. so it's not clear what democrats in the house are going to do yet to make their opposition and at least make clear to this the president that they're just not going to accept everything he wants. >> stay tuned. we're seeing those from steny hoyer today that they need to make some compromises, but we know how angry the liberal base is. >> you know, andrea. it's really a question of what can they extract to make that liberal base feel like they're getting something. it's not clear if they try the state tax amendment swap they'll have the votes. this is the 111th congress. you have lots of moderate and conservative democrats, many who lost in november, who might not vote for this. >> maybe the tradeoff is the stand alone effort to do don't ask, don't tell and the tax bill goes through as is. tomorrow we'll have more on that. and that does it for us.

tomorrow on the show, we have the "time's" person, thing, or it of the year. and my colleague tamron hall has a look at what's next on "news nation." >> hey, andrea. great show. we are awaiting a final senate vote on the tax cut compromise. it is expected to pass, and then it is onto the house. adam smith who opposed the deal will join me live. plus the host of msnbc's "the last word" lawrence o'donnell will join me to talk about the big moves happening in congress. and julian assange remains behind bars right now despite a judge granting him bail. we'll get the latest from london. plus why michael moore, the fame director, is now involved. the "news nation" is moments away. [scraping] [horns honking] with deposits in your engine, it can feel like something's holding your car back. let me guess, 16. [laughing] yeeah. that's why there's castrol gtx... with our most powerful deposit fighting

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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. right now on "news nation," fight for freedom. >> i feel elated that