finally, losing weight clicks. welcome back to "morning joe," what you got going today? >> no time. i will see you at the mirror awards. wrap it up. >> very good. andrew gold passed away in los angeles, lonely boy, thank you for being a friend. willie, if it was way too early what time is it? >> morning joe. stick around right now "the daily rundown" with chuck todd. well that bad economic news has taken a political toll on president obama. a new poll finds mitt romney not just even but even slightly ahead in a matchup, proof the president's most lethal opponent in 2012 is the stumbling economy. plus --

>> this was me doing a dumb thing, doing repeat lid and bribing t. >> congressman anthony wiener comes clean after ten days but doesn't resign. an ethics probe looms. is there any way for him to salvage his political career? the president delivers the strongest words yet about getting americans out of afghanistan. wait until you hear how he put it. it is tuesday, june 7, 2011, i'm chuck todd. let's get to the run down. with we will start with afghanistan. we begin the south lawn of the white house, where the president going to be rolling out the red carp forth german chancellor angela merkel, the whole meetings this morning, the topics will be afghanistan. in an interview monday, the president went as far as he has ever about how close we are being done with our mission there take a listen. >> by us killing osama bin laden, getting al qaeda back on its heels stabilizing much of the country in afghanistan so

the taliban k take it over it is now time for us to recognize that we have accomplished a big chunk of our mission and it is time for the afghans to take more responsibility. >> let me repeat, he said we have accomplished a big chunk of our mission. nbc's kristen welker live for us at the white house. that on the heels of that leaked "new york times" trial balloon of yesterday shows that the president may be leaping much harder toward a larger withdrawal this summer than we thought. also, tell us about what to expect today with chancellor merkel. >> right, chuck. good morning to you. first to start with that "new york times" article, just to put it in perspective, yesterday we learned that there were potentially calls for a secret troop withdrawal from afghanistan. president obama making those comments, the strongest comments he has made yet about the situation in afghanistan, really providing an interesting insight into his mindset as he prepares to make a decision about the pace of troop withdrawals, but white house officials are saying

officially that a decision will come fairly soon. just yesterday, the president had his monthly meeting with his national security team and he was briefed by secretary of defense robert gates via video conference about the situation in afghanistan. secretary gate also hs had been afghanistan over the weekend and seemed to be publicly calling for a modest withdrawal. this there had been some concern the fact that a speedy withdrawal could undermine the gains made in the region. secretary of state hillary clinton said, and she made it very clear no decision has been made yet. she said we are still very much assessing the situation on the ground there. >> and kristen, let's talk about -- let's talk about germany real quick. we have angela merkel, come in an official visit, not a state visit, she is the head of government, not head of state. we have a joint conference later today, official welcoming ceremony. the two had dinner last night, just one-on-one at a georgetown restaurant and there's a lot of

sticky issues between the two countries. >> certainly, chuck, there are r the biggest one would be libya. president obama has expressed concern about the fact that chancellor merkel did not have and did not engage german troops in that nato-led military strike that was led in libya are. so president obama said in recent comments he looks forward to talking to her about that you can also bet that afghanistan will be a big topic of conversation as well as the european debt crisis. >> kristen welker on the white house north lawn this morning. thanks very much. staying at the white house, one of the president's key economic advisers, austan goolsbee, says he is going to step down by the end of this summer. goolsbee's resignation from the coupe sill of economic advisers comes at a difficult time for the white house as the recovery sputters, unemployment ticks back above 9%. goolsbee says he needs to return to teaching at the university of chicago or risk losing his

tenure there. that is also where he has family there president obama called goolsbee one of america's great economic thinkers and says he helped steer the country out of an economic crisis. >> no word yet whether it will be an internal promotion like the last time when goolsbee replaced christina romer or whether they will go to the outside. moving overseas now, nato aircraft have been hanger the capital of libya all day. more than a dozen attacks in broad daylight. nbc's stephanie goes sex live for must tripoli. real ramping up, haven't seen a lot happen in daylight before, had we? >> no, we haven't. this is a bit unusual. having said that, not a discern aable pattern by nato. we knee nato sentence fig its operation here, chuck. we are getting a taste of that over the last few hours. we have been hearing air strikes in bursts of two and three, some of them quite loutd, even shaking our hotel here. some in the direction of the gadhafi compound, which has been hit a number of times. our hote. some in the direction of the gadhafi compound, which has been hit a number of times. the minister of information tell

us that libyan tv was hit overnight two people killed, dozens injured, although we haven't been take town see that site. the libyan government is eager to show us that civilians have been dying or injured in these attacks and civilian targets have been hit but because of that eagerness in the last couple of days [ inaudible ] suspect things including what they said was a injured little girl at a hospital from the attacks, but while the journalists on the scene in that hospital one of the doctors slipped a reporter a note, happened written in english saying she was actually in a car crash. anthony wiener had a press conference yesterday in a new york ballroom and came clean on his online behavior, spent an half an hour answering questions including you the possibility

that his indiscretions warranted an investigation by congress. >> i don't see anything that i did that die violated any rules of the house. i don't see anything that i did that certainly violated my oath of office to uphold the constitution. >> nbc's kelly o'donnell is on capitol hill with us with more today. kelly, i don't know where to begin, but let's start with something that i just think's been remarkable and that is how democrats handle their members of congress who have personal problems versus how john boehner has handled this. >> and there is a stark difference. when similar with some parallels i think you can argue, republican was involved in a case like this earlier this year, chris lee also of new york, but upstate, it was about three hours from disclosure of the scandal to his resignation and john boehner said very little about it, except that chris lee in that instance, made his own decision. in this case what we are seeing democrats are not coming out in support of anthony wiener, except to say he is right to at

the time truth about this and his long-time mentor, chuck schumer, a senator from new york said he is still a very capable public figure. nancy pelosi, the democratic leader said she is saddened by this and the one who first set said an ethics investigation is warranted here. and that's are the big issue now, beyond the embarrassment, beyond the media glare, the incredible badgering of questions he subjected himself to and, of course, the photos and perhaps more will come out. an ethics question lingers now that mean it is suspect over and the ethics committee may take this up and some of the thing these could look at would be did he use any government resource, government property, his phone, office that kind of thing. but the bigger issue is the first rule of all members of the house, bring no shame, bring only credit to the institution. and certainly, anthony wiener's critics can argue what he did here by lying publicly for days and days and the underlying issue could be argued that that

is shameful behavior that really does bring shame to the house. >> never mind by staying in congress, leading others to potentially more stuff to come out and potentially dragging his wife into even more humiliating circumstances. any way, kelly o'donnell on capitol hill, kelly, thanks very much. >> you bet. well with four straight losing sessions on wall street, investors will be paying close attention to what fed chair ben bernanke has to say this afternoon. cnbc's becky quick is here for a look he at the markets. can bernanke say anything that in will make people feel belt ber this economy? >> that qe 3 is coming do what they can, spend more money to making the economy come back. chuck, don't belt him on sayingthiny of those things. markets higher today, as you mentioned, after four down days, the dow will open up by 70 points but watching what bernanke said today, speaking in atlanta, people want to know what his sense is from all the weak economic numbers we have been getting recently. odds are he is not going to

deviate from what he has been saying in recent times, but if he does, you can bet the markets will be listening and will react, probably pretty sharp any one direction or another. i can tell you, we did have the dallas fed president, richard fisher, on "squawk" today and talked about what's seeing in the economy. this is just one man but he says thinks the economy will pick up in the second half. he thinks qe 3 is not necessary. and we will be waiting, chuck to see if ben bernanke echoes the comments today. >> becky quick at cnbc world head quarters this morning. becky, thanks very much. >> see ya. all right, up next, defining victory in afghanistan. what's risk of getting out too fast or too soon? we are going to ask republican senator john barrasso next. plus, anthony weeper the latest politician caught in the grips of a sex scandal, can he come back from it? can his political career survive? does he have the right mix, as one put it, of shame and shamelessness?

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the debate heats up how many troops to full pull out in july, 2011, the president's top military men are hedging on that question whether significant numbers should come home from afghanistan in the next few months, but that's decision and a direction the president maybe heading w me now, wyoming senator john bar ras he sew, vice chair of the republican conference and joins me this morning from capitol hill. senator, i want to play for you something the president said yesterday in an interview and see what you think.

>> by us killing osama bin laden, getting al qaeda back on its heels, stabilizing the country of afghanistan so the taliban can't take it over it is time for us to recognize we have accomplished a big chunk of our mission and that it's time for the afghans to take more responsibility. >> do you agree with the president that we have accomplished a big chunk of our mission in afghanistan right now? >> think we are not quite ready for the afghan people to take over. i have been there to kabul, to the military training camp and we are continuing to train the afghan afghans to do that. i'm not convincered this ready to do that quite yet. huge progress from when i was there last year and the year before they are making steps in the right direction. all the soldiers are asking, they did the morning after they learned the good news that osama bin laden was killed kirk go home now? and i don't think it is time for every ton come home. the debate is about how many soldiers will come and at what

time. >> and are you comfortable that th that's what the debate is at the white house no change in policy but a debate how many troops will come home in the next six months? >> that's wait i see it and what secretary gates and general petraeus who have been in afghanistan visiting the troops the last several days are visiting you with the troops specifically about. it's topping the mission. realize, the afghan percentage i mean, they are classic hedgers, they hedge their belts. they believe we are leaving and then they have to be concerned about what's going to be left of we are the taliban. what i want them to be left with is a country where they have their own afghan people trained to deal with the taliban. >> if united states says it puts up the kerry/mccain resolution on libya are you prepared to support it? >> they are still debating that and there will be debates and ameantments and we will see what

is actually brought to the floor for a final vote and i will make a decision then. >> where are you on this action in libya? do you support what the president has done up until now? >> i think the president had a right to do what he has done. i wish he would have come back to the congress seen but not going to quibble with the president on his decision. >> at this point then, it sounds like would you probably support the kerry/mccain resolution not a binding resolution but more of a show of support of the mission itself. >> yes. >> that's a fair assessment? >> i think that's fair assessment, chuck, yes. >> l i want to move to the economy and these dealt limit negotiations. right now, there seems to be folks behind the scenes that make the larger conversation how to deal with the long-term dealt and deficit issues this issue of should it be three to one spending doubts tax increases, all of that, might get aged instead, a short-term, say nine-month, one-year solution of simply spending cuts in exchange

for raising the debt limit might be on the table. are you comfortable what happens here if we sort of split the talks into two and go down those two paths? >> i think they are debating all of the various approaches that you've mention $, long-term, short-term, two-year budget cycle, balanced budget amendment, medicare, medicaid, all of those things, 9.1% unemployment, the last thing we ought to be talking about is raising taxes. that's the last thing that the job creators of this country need are more impediments to create jobs much the american people, you saw the front page stories today, are very discouraged about the economy and the economy is made worse by this president and this administration. unemployment has gone from 7.9209.1%, another 2.5 million jobs have been lost, the cost of gasoline, the pain at the pump is worse because of, i believe, the policies of this administration. we need to focus on jobs and the

economy and the debt and the spending. the number one concern is the spending. >> right now, i just want to let our viewers know and listeners on radio know we are showing pictures of the welcome ceremony, official welcome ceremony for the official visit of german shan seller angela merkel. one final question for you, senator bar ras so much one reason why the unemployment numbers have been hit pretty hard the past six months is there has been a continuing loss of jobs in the public sector on the state and local level because there's no more federal government stimulus. is that a concern to you at all that in the short term, there's some parts of this economy that are going to get hit even harder? >> my concern is there's no certainty for the private sector. this administration has made it harder and more expensive for -- to create private sector jobs in this country. and as long as there is that much uncertainty with increased cost and mandates, that's not the sort of thing that we need for a recovery are.

what we need is more certainty and you can do that, in terms of energy costs, mandates, things that have come out of washington that i think are making more expensive to create jobs. >> all right. to be continued. senator john barrasso, republican from wyoming, member of the senate leadership, thanks very much for joining me this morning. >> thanks, chuck gentleman. all right, coming up, the art of surviving scandal. how are some politicians able to weather the storm while others get swallowed up whole and where will anthony wiener land in all of this? shame versus shamelessness. plus, retooling the re-election message s it time for president obama to stop talking about the past when it comes to the economy? first, today's trivia question from the almanac of american politics. which member of the house beat a member of her own family to win her seat in congress? tweet me the answer at chuck todd or at daily run down. first correct answer gets a pound ff from us today. stay tuned "the daily rundown." we will be right back.

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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? right now this is the welcome ceremony for the official visit, not a state visit, because angela merckle is a head of government in germany, not the head of state, but this is the welcome ceremony here. you see the president there waiting for the german chancellor to arrive. we will keep mon thofrmgt when remarks are made, we will cut in. meanwhile, talk a little bit about crisis communication and crisis management. congressman anthony wiener not the first politician to confess his impro-pry test. i have acted in a way that violates my obligations to my family and that violates my or any sense of right and wrong. >> the bottom line is this i have been unfaithful to my wife.

>> i have decided the right course of action is to resign. >> we showed you three clip there two of them resigned, one did not, for wiener yesterday, admission aft win week of denial, maybe one of the biggest pr nightmares we have seen in a while, eric, public relation and crisis management firm here he mans in washington with his name on t so, joining me now. watching anthony wiener, a great line from in politico said co-survive this because he has the right mix of shame, he was in tears most of the time yesterday, and shamelessness. he is not resigning. >> well, one of the cliches you often shear that if somebody just fesses up at the beginning, the problem goes away. nearly three decades of doing this, i don't see he a lot of evidence that that's true. the gamble that he made was the gamble people used to make, which is that there would not be

evidence. and so there's lots of scandals that dissipated because nobody could find the evidence n this case there are photos. i think at this point, this is really an inside game. we can sit here on the air and speculate all we want. how do his stilts feel? a lot of people and wu we saw this story in the clinton era who separate sexual behavior from political performance. that may or may not happen here. >> david vitter wagered that and relike theed in louisiana when he was caught with a prostitute. so but my thing in office, it means he is susceptible to more drip drip. if he resigned today the focus would guy away. >> spitzer resigned, daughterized the wound, nowhere to go mcgreevey resigned, nowhere to go but they were out of a job f wiener resince, yes,

the story would, for the most part, be daughterized and go away, but he is wagering that he can slug it out. and i can't read the minds of his constituents. he may be able to do thatis wag out. and i can't read the minds of his constituents. he may be able to do that there is bless prest cement for people subviving these things. >> he chose to do a dozen interview, national and he lied in every single one, when you saw him do that at the time, what did you think? >> who hasn't gotten a peculiar e-mail wish wasn't on your system f you are not a tech person, you think, my god, what if i -- >> happened on my facebook page there are boxes and you have to get -- proactively deleted or people can put anything on them. >> i'm learning this thing called skype.

you log on and there's someone, hot russian model that knows your name and where you live. so, i gave him the benefit of the doubt. when you know things are going bad is when you hear a characterization that makes no sense. and when you hear something like i had no idea, i can't say for sure. >> with certain tude. >> if you are taking photos of your nether regions you know whether or not you are doing it and that's when you know is a problem. i think what he tried to do was filibuster. one happened, let me be open and have a news conference, the other hand, i'm not going to tell you anything. you can't believe too much in the power of your own persuasiveness. >> i was watching this last week going, dude, get off stage this is not fair to your wife. forget any of your own personal -- you are now making it even worse for your own family. >> there is no correlation between how much you say and whether the problem goes away.

the media are always saying if you just tell me more it will go away. no that's good for you not good for the subject. and so i think that yesterday actually was something he had to do. we can quibble about whether or not he should have stayed on as long as he did. i definitely disagree with the decision last week to hold these tortured interviews, but at some point, there is a time to get off the stage and stop listening to all the pundits. >> the other lesson in this look there is not a mainstream media and there is just -- you can have a rogue element, somebody leak something to an andrew bright bart who is certainly a provocateur online when it comes to these things, can happen on the left, too. this is the new world we are dealing with. how do you tell a client to handle something like this? >> the world has changed. the old days, there were two newspapers that matter and three networks. now aday off media climate that has an active investment in keeping the story going. and so when you have that, years

ago, there was a purge mentality, now a less is more mentality, now i tend to discourage a corporate client or individual in crisis, i don't like the idea of providing running commentary. >> don't respond to anything? >> no respond to some, but at some point there are diminishing returns. >> eric dessen hovg the pr expert? town when it comes to crisis commune care you have seen it all. thanks for coming on. >> thanks for having me. trying to find the deadly source of the german outbreak of e coli. no pain no gain, the president's economic message stuck on blaming the past. some critics and supporters argue he actually needs to be embrace the pain everybody is feeling now. this is the daily run down, only on msnbc. ♪ sun in the sky

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welcome back with the daily run down. german officials are backtracking on suggestions yesterday that they somehow pin point the cause of the deadly e coli outbreak it turns out bean sprouts may not to be blame. nbc's michelle dozen xblin ski has been covering this story in germany and she joins us now. >> reporter: there are new cases every single day, 124 hours, built mystery is is still there, where is this coming from and let's get to the bottom of it. that's what officials have been trying to do three weeks now. just the last few days, they point the finger strongly to this sprout farm north of hamburg twhechlt to a number of different restaurants where people later ate and became ill and patients remembered suddenly having eat an sprouts before they became sick.

the tests they did from that farm all came back negative. officials will test again but they know even if that farm is the south, the contamination might not be where they tested, might be gone now, might have already been distributed and it might not actually be the source. health ministers are warning the public, don't eat raw sprout, still don't eat raw cucumbers, tomatoes and less lett us it, sam says don't eat raw vegetables, drawing lot of criticism from the eu, no business warning people when you don't know the source and farmers are losing tens of millions of dollars but health officials here have defended their decision saying, hey we don't know where this is coming from, that's true we need to warn people using the best knowledge that we have. back to you. >> all right, michelle kosinski for must germany with the latest no news there. the white house is sticking to a highway metaphor when it comes to the struggling economy, only now it is not a car stuck in a ditch it is a hospital patient run over by a truck. paints a graphic picture but

some democrats warn it is time to stop talking about the past. dan greenburg is a democratic pollster, pollster for president clinton president clintduring h. you have been critical of the white house and how they talk about the economy, not just the last few week bus frank lit last year. explain. >> i have been critical in the leadup to 2010 election, i just never thought, you know, the -- what they were saying about the economy reflected people's pain and experience. and also just premature that the voters judgment on performance. it was a hard road. i know where the white house is going based on what the president said last week. they have obviously moved to a metaphor of pain, seriously ill. but it is still about the past. if is totally natural,

instinctive, common sense is, every leader i have worked in in the world from bill clint top nelson mandela wants to convince people that their economic policies work. they were very -- you know, they were very tough, you know, bill clinton gave up his economic plan for deficit reduction. nelson mandela gave up his promise and pledges in order to meet the international [ inaudible ] so every leader i know wants to do it, but you know what this economy is so tough and i think so unique, and if you had respect for people, you know, how much they understand what's going on with this economy, the president levels with him, says, look, we have got big problems, a future problem, get out of the past, address the future. >> when you have studied this you know, there really aren't a lot of historical parallels, i guess could you say the 36 re-election of fdr are, jimmy

carter in '80 didn't work for him, george hw bush in '92, didn't work for him, not a lot of hist troipt side of president obama here, correct (the history is most people, presidents, including the george bush loss, did try to make the case economy as doing better. i remember the ads we ran, said the economy was getting better, how were you doing? that was the entire ad, how are you doing? saying you got to break that pattern normal to try to run on your economic performance, running for president. what we are saying what happened is crying out from the american people is we are in a lot of pain, the middle class is hurting, american jobs are lost. we need a new approach what you are going to do now that matters, what you are going to do in the future. the argument about the debt from the republicans is a future argument, and so you know, i'm -- i actually have

confidence the president is going to make the turn. this is a moment. >> how would you make the turn, you say you are confident what would you tell them to do? what would be the memo you would be writing him today to say you got to talk about the future? they got that slogan that not everybody is crazy about wind the future, seems a little too sledgehammery what would you tell them to do? >> i would look at the job numbers last moment and say that is the tipping point that number says -- not like it is going to get better next month this is the rate this is americana we face. you move to the future, nelson mandela it got to the economy, he wanted to convince people that ultimately said the a apartheid pure rock crass circumstance change is much tougher to bring than we thought. you know what we need to do

more, you know what, voters give you a shot, they will give you another look, particularly if they in general agree with where you want to take the country. i think the president has an opportunity to look at this, rethink, you know, and, you know, go forward with a real choice, because there is a real choice, between the republicans and democrats and where they want to take the economy. it is difficult but i think they can get there >> all right. stan greenberg, democratic pollster, a little bit of tough medicine perhaps for the west wing folks to be listening to today. stan, thanks very much. all right. up next, the race for 2012. we have got another power panel to break it all down four. mitt romney celebrates an announcement bump. tim pawlenty rolls out his own tax plan. first, the white house soup of the day, not very dramatic. gazpacho. coming up with something with weinerschnitzel or something like that? some sort of german soup? maybe a beer soup? beer and cheese? that would be a good one.

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tim pawlenty in chicago today will become the latest presidential hopeful to roll out his economic plan, doing it in chicago, as we said. he will call for an overhaul of the tax code, slam the president as "a champion practitioner of class warfare" at a speech at the university of chicago. ahead of the president's economic focused trip to north carolina on monday that state's republican party is signaling it is prepared to fight to put the state back in the republican column. watch this ad. >> in 2008, we fell for his hope and change but all we got was broken promises. >> today, i'm pledging to cut the deficit we inher rid by half by the end of my first term in office. >> now, he is back, asking us to believe him again. >> i need you, north carolina. >> contribute today and help take back north carolina.

>> i got to read all these titles and get the plugs in at the same time. but let me start with the biggest front page news today in politics and that is the abc/"washington post" poll, clarence page, anything in the poll surprise you? shows the president with an upside down job approval rating, disapproval on the economy at an all-time high and mitt romney actually leading obama in a head-to-head? >> that last part is probably the biggest surprise. but at the same too,le washington pundits for a while have been saying in spite of killing bin laden and other advances at the economy, it is still persisting as the big issue, especially as long as

joblessness is up and the recovery is as slow as it is. seeing signs now. even mitt romney coming across, looks like a fresh face, knows something about business and might be able to turn the economy around. that's obama's biggest challenge. >> stu, the president is losing to mitt romney or losing the american economy? >> the economy. that is the albatross around the president's neck. you know, chuck, he could actually see this coming for the past few moment here. weeks of bad data. we had a bin laden bubble and everyone overread that fundamentals, like baseball, albert pujols gets out to a bad start, nine times out of ten -- >> going to hit spawn 300. it is the fundamentals, the numbers are bad. >> charily, if mitt romney said, wow, the only guy to lead obama is me and i announce i'm on the economy. i seem tonight most electable and yet we go to become what he

just said about fundamentals there are still a lot of fundamental issues mitt romney has got deal with any today, showing a poll ahead of obama help him all inside the republican party? >> to me, i think mitt romney would have a better chance in a general election than he has winning the primary because his biggest problems that is he too moderate in the mormon thing with evangelical christians, all those people i think would come into line for him in a general election against president obama but i think are real problems for him in terms of whinning th nomination two different challenge he faces. >> clarence page, stan greenberg on, bill clinton's pollster and he has been critical of the president for not being empathetic enough on the economy. basically that he has not been bill clinton. he has not felt the pain of the average american. how does the president turn that around? >> he has to get out love to and show that some of to i feel your pain bill clinton was so good

at. optics are good here. president obama, who has become who personally a reclusive and a thought f thoughtful fellow, doesn't care that much for the showbizes a spoesks politics nevertheless has to get out and do it, it is too early for him to make at a big push yet but certainly, going to need all of his orator cal skills, et cetera. my colleagues back there in the studio are right, the republican side, the biggest friend is the fact that the tea party right-wing base of the party is so strong in the primaries, you may see michele bachmann making bigger headlines than romney right now. >> charlie, your column today, owning it about the economy and the fact that the president owns this economy. another problem he has got, he k do anything about it, where the republican house, a senate basically that while in democratic control is every man for himself. what is he going to go around the country -- >> the standard recipe at this

point was jack up spending, prime the pump. economic stimulus has been totally discredited, one bite at the am at it wasn't a very good bite back with the stimulus package in 2009. >> the perception, you can go back and argue, perception is that it didn't work. >> i would argue it was unfocused a lot of things that where are you going to get bang for your buck? to clarence's point, you are either bill clinton or you're not. empathetic has to be natural. empathy has to be natural. if it doesn't -- excuse me, come natural to you, you can't fake it you can't -- >> one of the things that bill clinton did well empathy was lose his voice like charlie that happens lot. >> let me bite my lip. >> i think go further than charlie did. >> very quick. >> i feel your pain works in the first six or nine moments of administration. after two, three years, the public says what have you done for me?

>> there it s stu rothenberg, charlie cook, clarence page, stick with me. what member of a house beat her own member of her family in congress. you said you couldn't google to find this answer. it was representative judy chew in her 2009 special election. she beat betty chew, the women are cousins by marriage. sorry that google didn't help you find that one. up next, haggling scandal on the hill who does a better job handling internal problems? pelosi or boehner? the take on the opposite side of the break. follow me and the show any time at twitter, at chuck todd and at daily run down. we will be right back. i'm loving weight watchers new pointsplus program and the edge it's giving me. ♪ freedom is mine ♪ and i know how i feel i never feel deprived. you know how freeing that is? ♪ it's a new dawn, a new day i feel good. i feel good. i feel good. ♪ and i'm feeling good [ female announcer ] join now for free.

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all right, let's bring back our panel, and because i have charlie and stu in here i'll throw in special election house race news. there's a special ad going on

california 36 jane harmon's old seat. janice hahn is up with a new ad. >> sarah palin and craig huey, which would ban a woman's right to choose, both palin and huey. a radical plan to end medicare? which called it a plan for a murder mill? only craig huey. >> clearly she saw -- >> republicait's clearly a demo base to energies democrats. >> energy democrats. >> i think this year there's going to be or i think this cycle there's a lot of volatility lashing out, we're seeing two anti-republican years, then anti-democratic year. >> this could be anti-everybody. >> i think this is a lashing out where everybody's really safe

for sure. >> clarence page i want to talk about anthony weiner in this respect. john boehner and nancy pelosi seem to go about their problems and their caucuses in very different ways. anthony weiner and charlie rangel are not forced out on the democratic side when they're creating issues for the d democratic party. people don't know who chris lee is anymore, he was gone so fast. >> he was gone before sundown. look at the different bases of those parties. the republicans have made much more of an issue out of these moral issues, so-called family values, they've been very strict from, they've seen the voter backlash out there, even so as you mentioned earlier, louisiana congressman survived a scandal in which he was involved with a prostitute, so it can be done.

but i think nancy pelosi did move quickly to have an investigation of anthony weiner to see if he did something wrong over perhaps his congressional blackberry. >> right but an investigation this drags it out, does it not, stu? >> she should call him in the woodshed tell him it's time to go and i think boehner saw what happened to republicans before the 2006 election with a number of republican congressional scandals. i think the democratic leader probably ought to operate the same way in this instance. >> politico is a great way of describing anthony weiner maybe the right combination of shame and shamelessness to survive this. >> i think all you need is look at the front page of the paper. there's no investigation. he's already brought shame to the constitution, boom. this is where i think boehner is absolutely right, zero tolerance, you bring shame on this constitution, boom, you're gone. and if you're not gone, you know what? we'll put new a trailer in a

parking lot. >> you got the new york tabloids that are going to drip, drip. shameless plugs, clarence page, what you got a plug for me? >> i think we're going to hear a phrase that an australian demme graphers come up with bernard salt, hotless delusion syndrome, men hotter in the eyes of women than they are. >> people can google that, plug for me. >> i'm plugging my column today. >> there you go. >> shameless. >> richard nolan, democratic congressman elected in 1974 for three terms and he just walked away, decided not to seek re-election in 1980, and now think being running again more than 30 years later. >> sandy koufax never did. >> pre-plug, social security, we hear people say ending -- republicans want to end social security as we know it. there is an urban institute

study, i'll use one group, for a couple retiring in 2010 who made about $43,000, they paid $109,000 in medicare taxes, got $343,000 in benefits, up and down the line -- >> math is off. >> medicare is unsustainable. >> that's it for this edition of "the daily rundown." tomorrow, former florida governor and senator bob graham will be here, now a novelist. coming up, "chris jansing and company." bye-bye. good tuesday morning. i'm meteorologist bill karins. for business travel it's going to be hot just about everywhere, the exception the west coast and northern new england. temperatures have soared, in

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