in out of pocket expenses with a medicare supplement plan. call now and learn more about aarp medicare supplement insurance plans, insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company. get this free information kit and medicare guide you don't need to be an aarp member to call. don't wait. call now for free information about the additional coverage you may need. ♪ good morning. i'm richard lui in for chris jansing on this tuesday. first off, your tax break in jeopardy. here's a countdown clock. 11 days, 13 hours, 59 minutes and 30 seconds that's the deadline for congress to extend the payroll tax cut for 160 million people across the country. that's about half the country. now we thought we had a two-month deal over the weekend. but house republicans are rejecting the approved senate plan.

they want a full one-year extension. democrats are skewering the gop accusing them of playing politics now. >> it's grinch time in washington, mr. speaker. >> here we go again. another phony crisis courtesy of the extremist bah-humbug house republicans. >> our members do not want to just punt and do a two-month short-term fix where we have to come back and do this again. >> two months, really? come on, that is really do nothing. what's going to be different in two months. >> nbc's luke russert is live on capitol hill where the vote is expected to begin this hour. and luke, you could hear the exasperation across the beltway when those announcements came out. first of all, tell us about the timing of this vote that's supposed to happen today. >> the main vote that folks should be look at here in d.c. and around the country will be around 12:00 moon today. the house is going to vote to go to conference with the senate. the senate passed that two-month

extension. the house passed a yearlong bill about a week ago. there are real discrepancies between the two of them in length, cost and what they do with unemployment benefits. republicans want to take unemployment benefits from 99 weeks to 59 weeks. that is going to be the vote around noon. we originally thought that the senate bill, the two-month extension would see a vote on house for the gop leadership in the house. pulled that bill from the floor they were weary of having their members go to the floor to vote against a tax cut that would appear in a 2012 political ad for democrats. the idea, this gets wonky and confusing is if you're supporting the bill to go to conference to go negotiate with the senate, it's supposed to be taken house republican aides say as an outright rejection of the senate bill. so their members if they want to get on board against it, they should vote for this. the house is going to conference. harry reid said that the senate will not come back into session.

he will not appoint conferees. nancy pelosi told me last night she will not appoint conferees from house democrats to go to conference. the house is trying to take the next step to force what they want to see happen. if the house votes to go to conference and the democrats don't send conferees was the conference really happen? that's the question we're asking on capitol hill. nobody knows what's going to happen going forward. there are a lot of loose ends that need to be tied up. right now it is stalemate city. >> it could be an empty room. >> luke, stay with us, i want to bring in new york congressman steve israel chairman of the national campaign committee. we have ezra kline. chairman, let me start with you first, i was reading some of your tweets. one of them you said this, quote, help wanted. 40 reasonable house republicans to join democrats in approving bipartisan middle class tax cut compromise. no experience necessary.

a little tongue and cheek there right now. do you think there's any sign here that any republicans will side with democrats on this? >> well, i'll tell you what, you hear two things. you hear the sound bytes and the spin that the tea party republicans put out and then you hear common sense in elevators. i had a conversation yesterday with some republicans who said we're trying to find 30 or 40 votes to support the bipartisan compromise that 38 republican senators already supported. i said, you must be part of the we want to go home for christmas caucus. they said, no, we don't want to commit political suicide caucus. we have a bipartisan compromise that will prevent taxes from going up in january. the senate agreed to it. house democrats agreed to it. lots of people agreed to it. now extremist republicans in the house who are only good at saying no are saying no again. >> that's right, congressman, 09 did vote for that bill. let's go to you, ezra, here.

what's the problem here? is it a tea party as nancy pelosi is saying, or is this really an issue about cantor, boehner and mcconnell not getting together? >> the problem is on the other side of the ledger. we've been talking about the payroll tax cut itself. when you talk about it like that it seems confusing. democrats want a two-month extension. republicans want a year. don't democrats want a year? the issue is what republicans want in exchange for the payroll tax cut. if they wanted to offer up a clean one year payroll tax cut that would clear. so far they've wanted the keystone excel oil pipeline as the other side of the ledger for the payroll tax cut. something that the obama administration has not been willing to give them. they said you don't do environmental policy on deadlines for tax policy. that's a stick point. that's a question about a conference or a two-month extension whether you're trying to make the final deal in the

next ten days or two months, what can the republicans demand that democrats are willing to accept. there isn't consensus on simply extending the tax cut itself. >> if i could jump in and ask congressman israel one question, we're seeing this debate play out. you're obviously in charge of trying to get democrats re-elected to the house. take back that chamber. how much of an election issue do you see this as brewing in your attempts to win back the 25 seats that you need? can this be the issue that catapults you much like medicare was in western new york? >> it is a defining issue. every election is who are you for? house republicans are standing up for extremism, they're standing up for the tea party. they are turning their backs on middle class voters. in january if taxes go up, it will be owned by these house republicans who rejected compromise after compromise of compromise. it will be a house republican

tea party tax increase. we will hold them responsible for that. let me throw in one other thing quickly. if it were the keystone pipeline maybe there's a way to get beyond that. it's more than that. the house republican want-year payroll tax cut includes tens of billions of dollars of changes in cuts to medicare. what house democrats want is a one-year extension of the payroll tax cut and ask millionaires for a slice surcharge on income over a million dollars. not all million, but over a million dollars. that's the defining line between us. and we're going to take that definition right into the 2012 elections. we'd rather not have to do it. but the republicans continue to give us stuff to work with. >> congressman -- >> if i could ask congressman a related question. i think this sounds strange to americans right now. what republicans are saying why don't we come into conference with us. we have ten days. the senate and house work together to come to a compromise.

democrats say, no, we won't appoint negotiators to go into the room with you. who you do democrats explain that? why not compromise? >> do you really believe in january when middle class americans take a look at their pay stubs and see that they're now paying $100 or $200 more each month that they're going to say if only the democrats had agreed to the motion to go to conference this wouldn't have happened. they want two things, they want compromise and they want middle class tax relief. house democrats have given them compromise and middle class tax relief. house republicans who are in the majority and have to be held accountable have struck out on both of those things. don't talk about conferees. get it done. give the american people mitd class tax relief. embrace the two-month compromise to try and work out an i additional ten months and the republicans said, no. >> ezra, what does this mean? who loses out here more? is this is gop or will the

democrats feel some of the hurt here? >> i think everybody's going to feel the hurt. congress's approval rating is 11%. the comments might be right that the american people blame republicans for it. i think over the last year when washington's gridlocked what we've seen is when the american people blame republicans they throw up their hands and say they're all terrible. for democrats particularly for the president if you don't have the payroll tax cut extended you should shave half a percentage point off of growth next year, what's called a fiscal drag. that's going to be very bad for his re-election campaign and for that channel for house democratic re-election campaigns. >> some numbers we're very familiar with. if this does not pass, if it ends december 31st, this is what people will lose. if you earn $50,000 your taxes will rise by $1,000. if you make up to $125,000 per household you will see your taxes rise by over $2200.

when we look at what's happening right now, the vote was supposed to happen on this, why didn't they vote? did they not have the support on the gop side? >> there's two reasons. number one, just the esthetics were very bad. if the house republicans are going to vote down the senate bill in the middle of the night, that is an ad that writes itself right there. number two members on the gop side, had that bill gone to the floor there's a real chance it may have passed. i spoke to a fair amount of gop members saying going on the floor to vote against a tax cut difficult for a lot of guys. that would have been a terrible ad in the 2012 campaign. that's the reason why they changed how they're going to vote on it and why they're doing it in the middle of the day to avoid pearlous political pitfalls. >> common, this question to you. grover norquist if the republicans vote this down in essence saying no to this bill, will he call them up and say

you've just effectively raised taxes? >> this is a moment of truth not only for the middle class, but for grover norquist. grover norquist has been making people sign pledges even if those pledges are fundamentally divergent with the interest of their constituents. now let's see what he does and says about a house republican tax increase of $1,000 a year for the middle class. comment on the issue of throw all the bums out. when a hostage is held hostage by a hostage talker nobody says they're both at fault. no, it's the hostage taker who is at fault. not the hostage. the republicans are holding a middle class tax cut hostage to their partisan extremism. there is a war going on within the republican caucus. unfortunately the victims are the middle class and the price is going to be $1,000. >> we shall see what happens today. congressman steve israel, thank you so much. ezra klein and luke russert as always. all eyes may be on the gop

in iowa meanwhile, on the other side of the coin, president obama has a formidable campaign machine in the hawkeye state. we've got the details on that just ahead. in a simple ceremony at joint base andrews in maryland today, president obama and vice president joe biden will mark the toend the war in iraq. about noon, mr. obama will receive the military flag that flew over the iraqi capital. the last of the combat troops crossed the border into kuwait on sunday ending nine years of war that killed nearly 4,500 americans.

for a hot dog cart. my mother said, "well, maybe we ought to buy this hot dog cart and set it up someplace." so my parents went to bank of america. they met with the branch manager and they said, "look, we've got this little hot dog cart, and it's on a really good corner. let's see if we can buy the property." and the branch manager said, "all right, i will take a chance with the two of you." and we've been loyal to bank of america for the last 71 years.

mitt romney made an appearance on morning joe today saying he can stand up to the attacks. >> i understand in the world of politics that the people around me are the people that are

running against me are going to do their very best to create a narrative that helps them and hurts me. that's the nature of the process. i'm a big boy, i can handle that. >> do you want to win iowa? >> everyone wants to win every state. when we got into this this time around, we thought iowa would be a real stretch. >> do you have to win new hampshire? >> i don't think today you have to win anything. >> mitt romney trying to loosen up a bit here. he wore a blue blazer and cookies on "letterman." here are the top ten things he'd like to say to the american people. >> my new cologne is now available at macy's. it's mitsfied. newt gingrich, really? >> it gets better. chris christie insists he has no regrets about running for president. he said mitt romney will run for the republican nomination and give the president a good fight

and he does not want to see newt gingrich at the top of the ticket. >> i think that the problem for us if speaker gingrich were at the top is election would be about speaker gingrich and not about the president. i think people saw him as uncompromising when he was speaker. listen, do i wish that mitt would be a little edgier and bolder, sure. i told him that. he knows i feel that way. but he is who he is. youtube is out with the top political videos of 2011. number one is a young iowa man's plea to let gays get married. and president obama speaks to the white house correspondents dinner. the obama campaign is wrapping up in a state that helped him win it all last time. the president's campaign may be bigger in iowa than any of the republican nominees. want to bring in our msnbc

contributor. let's start with you first of all, obama 2012, with what we hear january 3rd is he's going to be reaching out to all the caucus goers on that day. a little by unusual? >> no, what the obama campaign is trying to do is spoil the party for whoever the republican nominee is. they understand that iowa likely will nominate somebody who nay not be able to go the distance if ron paul wings it. they want to be heard as well. it was an important state for the president in 2008. >> steal some of the light light there. you've been watching the polls. when you see the president's approval rating up now that's a trend up to 49%, 47% disapproving, this excluding a bump after osama bin laden, is the president now creeping back up? >> i think two things are happening. number one is he's back out of that deficit fight and other thins that were taking a toll.

obviously the economy's not much better, but people are feeling more optimistic. number two, the famous saying about new york, it's distinctly possible to stay too long at the party. and this republican party primary has now gone on too long. the carnival has gotten a little out of control. >> it's been good. >> it's been good for us and good for people who love politicians. i think that the republicans' brand is even a little worse now than it was say six months ago after all this madness. >> we haven't even seen a vote cast. we haven't seen a caucus as of yet. we're looking at some of the numbers that the president has in iowa. just the organization there it is staggering as we started talking about and eluding to those numbers. when you look at that, what does that say about the possibility going forward? i got this article and it says 250,000 calls to supporters already. >> already. they've got more than 1,000 campaign volunteers. they opened up all the offices.

the obama campaign infrastructure from 2008 really wasn't dismantled. >> they designed to continue in all the states where the president did well in primaries and caucuses. in 2008 the obama campaign was particularly good at caucuses in nevada and iowa. this is one of their strengths and one of the reasons they beat hillary clinton. they didn't make the infrastructure go away. they can reactivate it with new supporters. >> amazing stuff here. ari, when we take a look at the president here, iowa has not necessarily seen bad unemployment numbers. 6%, that's below the national average. what do they want from the president? >> i think what you have there are people that remember that they launched him in. some democrats feel especially younger americans who are battling more with unemployment even in iowa feel he hasn't gone far enough. there hasn't been a big structural change. i think what they're doing on the ground in the field is reactivate the network. it's the opposite of newt gingrich whether you like him or not no one can claim he's had a

big ground game. he's had trouble getting on the ball lo lots. he opened his first campaign outside out of des moines where obama's got a bunch of people on the ground. that's different. the media stuff, the tv ads is different than people at your door. >> thank you so much. i know you're headed for a very well deserved vacation enjoy that. >> joanne, reed, thank you. >> thank you. we spend the day with mitt romney in new hampshire tomorrow with chuck. do not miss that. just one phillips' colon health probiotic cap a day helps defends against occasional constipation, diarrhea,

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directly to the president, be signed into law today, we moving all doubt in the minds of the american people leader pelosi on screen asking for the speaker to take the payroll tax cut bill from the senate to the floor to vote. listen to what she's saying. >> 160 million american workers will get the tax cut. it will mean 48 million seniors will have access to their

doctors under medicare. it will mean up to two million people will be receiving unemployment insurance in the next two months. for some of those people losing that unemployment insurance is -- cuts off any means of support for them. is that what we are here to do? i thought we were here to do what the american people want us to do. what they have said they want us to do is to work together to get the job done. why can't we work together? b, they want jobs. and they want this tax cut. democrats, independents, republicans want this tax cut. in fact, republicans at 50 something to 30 something support the payroll tax cut. that is republicans across the country. >> minority leader pelosi there urging again a vote on the floor on the senate approved payroll

tax cut bill. right now that is not going to happen. we expect something to happen at noon. we'll be watching all of that on msnbc. voters in the first nominating contest live in a state with bustling factories and a 6% unemployment rate. we're talking about iowa. 100,000 caucus goers will crown the first 2012 winner. but they seldom pick the eventual nominee. despite its track record iowa is where it is at right now. some fear if it gets the nation's winner wrong again, it could lose some of its clout. matt schultz is iowa's secretary of state. good day to you. >> good morning, richard. >> there is a statistic i want to show you here. i eluded to it just now in. 2008 drks 114,000 republicans went to caucuses. if you compare that to the nearly 31 million registered voters -- republican voters in 29 states, you can see how iowans have a very large bull horn, if you will.

tell me if you can, how do iowans take on this loud bull horn that they have, the responsibility that they have here? >> look, we take this seriously. and i'm proud to be an iowan and proud to have the opportunity to look at each one of these candidates and vet them. i would take issue with your introduction. i think iowa's really important. the last two presidents of the united states were won the iowa caucuses. george bush won the republican caucuses. and barack obama won the democrat caucuses. i think it's really difficult to make the argument that iowa doesn't matter and we don't take this seriously. >> certainly not saying that sir. we're saying sometimes in the past it's a good pick, sometimes it's not a good pick. definitely iowa is important in the scope of what we're going through right now which is the republican caucus very soon. candidates and super pacs supporting them. let's talk about the money behind this. when we look at the numbers more than $10 million in iowa have been spent so far.

we've got rick perry with $4.3. we have a proromney superpack at close to $3 million. a properry pac at $1.3 million. that's $105 per vote. almost $6 million has been spent for rick perry. with all of this money around in iowa, what's your take about that effect on what happens in iowa? >> well, money always plays a role. i think iowans look at people individually. i think you'll see especially in the caucus process the importance of good ground game. we're seeing candidates going to all 99 counties. we're seeing candidakancandidate held lots of town hall meetings. that plays a huge roechl i don't think you can necessarily rely on the polls. especially the volatility we're seeing with people rising and falling. i think that the number that matters is on january 3rd. and money will play a part, i

don't think you can discount the personal contact that those candidates are doing a grassroots campaign. >> like rick santorum who has hit all 99 counties. he understands the value of retail politics here. what do you make of ron paul here? some critics are saying if he wins the iowa caucuses that may take away some of the shine about what happens in iowa. certainly, again, i'm not trying to underpin here or take away the importance of iowa. >> well, you know, as you probably know, i endorsed rick santorum and not ron paul. i give ron paul a lot of credit. four years ago and how a lot of the issues that he brought out four years ago that people kind of laughed at are now talking about. ron paul does well, it helps bring credibility to some issues that he cares about. but at the end of the day, i think it just shows how iowans take the grassroots seriously. and even if he doesn't catapult all the way, if he were to be

successful, it would show those issues in which he was credible would help change and make a move. i think it will affect it. >> secretary, thank you so much. i know very busy times for you. thank you for taking the time to speak today on what's happening. we appreciate it. >> thank you very much. have a great day. >> you, too. this morning on the "today" show, former president bill clinton talked about the negativity and nasty campaign attacks between newt gingrich and mitt romney and how you survive as a candidate. >> the one with the greatest resilience with the ability to come back from adversity will probably prevail. perhaps one of the others will rise. but i think that will be the test. that's what these elections are for. they tell you a about people. when you're getting the living daylights pounded out of you and people continue you out and you're down. i was pronounced dead more times than a cat has lives in '92, that's when you find the something people want in a

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a massive and deadly snowstorm is making preholiday travel nearly impossible in parts of the country. take a look at this. about 75 miles west of albuquerque. poor visibility to say the least. shuts down an interstate and several state roads and schools as well. and, it's the same story across much of the southwest and plain states. whether channel meteorologist mike slidell is in garden city, kansas with more. >> reporter: good morning, richard. it was a deadly combination of high winds and heavy snow. at least six fatalities from this high plains blizzard. here at the hotel in garden city we have two, two and a half foot drifts. in rural kansas four to five footers. southwest colorado a report of ten foot drifts. snowfall totals generally six to ten inches. up to two feet in parts of new mexico. the roadways are a solid sheet of ice. some of the roads were plowed this morning.

we have here plastic. it's packed down ice and snow. yesterday it started as rain and some sleet and then went over to wet snow. this is solid ice. until we get some heating which is not in the cards or some sunshine, at least until tomorrow, these roads are going to be like skating rinks. that's why major interstates were still shut down mid-morning. a huge stretch of i-40 from amarillo to the east side of albuquerque, 25 northeast of albuquerque is closed in a small stretch of i-70 in kansas. in garden city you can't go west or south on those u.s. highways because it's just too dangerous. a lot of spinouts, a lot of accidents. the wind has backed off. the blizzard warnings will drop off at midday today. it's the cleaning up process. it will stay cold here all week. we may have a little bit more snow for thursday. this will be one of the few places outside of the mountains and west and ne england guaranteed a white christmas. >> thank you. and talking about lights out in

kansas, it's lights out when it comes to debate for the the next two weeks. the focus is on retail politics right now on the ground shaking hands and meeting the men and women who want to be president. we're checking the ground game in the early states. good day to you. >> in iowa is where we'll start. there's ton of activity on the ground. these bus tours happening. michele bachmann makes nine stops today on that bus tour. she's going to try to hit all 99 counties. rick perry's making four stops with louisiana governor bobby jindahl hoping to get the momentum back. the big story in iowa is newt gingrich and whether or not he can hang on. >> in your note you're staying sst all about iowa and new hampshire where ron paul is pushing hard. what's going on there? >> ron paul people think has a pretty good shot in iowa is taking a break from the iowa campaign trail and he's making five stops in new hampshire. in 2008 he was finished in fifth

place in both iowa and new hampshire. this time around in both states he's second or third and has a pretty good shot. he's within striking distance. remember new hampshire is live free or die state very open to ron paul's economic message. >> he could be breaking at the right time. let's go to south carolina. a very important state. that's a pretty good indicator of who the nominee will be. what's happening there? >> absolutely. as we know since 1980 every republican nominee has won the palmetto state. mitt romney somebody we want to talk about today. he's sort of testing the waters. new hampshire is the place where a lot of people think he's going to do really well. iowa, south carolina, not exactly romney states. there's 60% of the state last time around of republican voters were born again or evangelical christians. romney's mormonism can be an uphill climb for him in those two states. he's up on air now in south carolina with a couple of ads

and some cable buys. mitt romney he said over the weekend in south carolina that he would be the ideal tea party candidate. >> lots to watch. two weeks to go until iowa. thanks. >> thanks, richard. looks like newt gingrich's big surge is over. it's a two-man race to the gop nomination. three new polls to show you. show that gingrich and mitt romney are in a statistical dead heat. the only candidate even close, ron paul. what's going on there? here's newt's take. >> watch tv here for two days. you've had all sorts of people and all sorts of superpacs who have consistently been running negative ads. well, you get enough negative ads before you start answering them, your numbers go down. >> joining me now former gingrich spokesman rick tyler and worked to sign on as a senior advisor for winning our superpac and ed rendell. rick, let's start with you.

there's an ad on the air in iowa that's on about every three minutes or so. now you're a part of that as well. do you think your old boss, newt, can take the heat? >> he can take the heat. he has a history of that. the question is whether these attacks by mitt romney will work or not. i would say mitt romney didn't learn anything in 2008. this was his tactic against mike huckabee in iowa. mike huckabee beat him coming in second to john mccain. the ads didn't work them. i don't think they're going to work now. >> governor, one way to address these attack ads is with counter ads. nbc news has learned that gingrich has purchased now close to a quarter of a million dollars of air time. is that a good start? will this work? >> he has to fight back. if you just stay silent in the face of ad after ad after ad, it's not just mitt romney, it's the perry campaign. it's the paul campaign who run negative ads, eventually the

weight of those ads is going to make a difference to people and they're going to start answering saying to themselves if this isn't true, why isn't the other side come back and said it's not true. it's imperative they get back on the air. what you'll see if those ads are good the quarter of a million buy, it may boost newt's numbers up. he is not dead in iowa by any means. in fact, if the election were held today, i think he would win it. ron paul is a factor. i think the ron paul vote is coming more from gingrich than it is from romney. >> he's been heavy on the airwaves. mitt romney is on his interview tour. here he is earlier on "morning joe." take a listen to this. >> the only way we're going to get president obama out of the white house, because it's hard to replace an incumbent is if we have someone run against him who is different than a lifelong politician. there's nothing wrong with being a lifelong politician. we have one in the white house

right now. newt gingrich has spent his life in washington. >> we've seen mitt romney on a lot of mass media in the recent week. is the shift to doing a lot of interviews, is it helping him in the polls? >> well, you know, he didn't want to do any interviews. he's now appearing on cable news and sunday morning shows because he's behind. the establishment has been telling us for a long time if we only elect someone that's a moderate, a social liberal and fiscal conservative i want to know where these candidates are. new england followed that policy of recruiting moderate candidates and mitt romney is from new england. we don't have a single member of congress left in new england anymore. they're all gone. we recruited moderate candidates. >> what about scott brown? >> scott brown was an exception. >> he's a moderate. >> he's in the senate. >> we have not a single member of the house of representatives left in new england. i would submit to you that policy's a failure.

we should look toward people that have a record. newt has a record. he cut taxes, 11 million jobs were created during speaker gingrich's tenure in washington. he reformed welfare and paid off debt and unemployment went down. the stock market went up. so newt's done these things. >> governor, to you on this. >> i seem to remember that bill clinton had something to do with all those things as well. look, the problem here is -- first of all governor romney on tv doing his interviews is a plus and his numbers are getting better. he can handle himself on tv. he comes across as a very likable person. i think she should have been doing more of that from the get-go. i think his strategy was flauds. newt gingrich is an extremely bright and able guy. but he has got to get out there and respond and the biggest thing he has to respond to, i think, if i'm an undecided republican voter is who can beat out president obama. the polls consistently give

governor romney a decisive edge here. >> wish we had more time here. thank you very much. happy holidays. >> thanks. you're running out of time to procrastinate. five days until christmas. if you're like most americans you still have a bunch of shopping to do. we're here with what's moving your money. jackie, one analyst was saying this is going to be a crazy mad week. >> that's right. it's crunch time right now. a recent survey has found that 75% of shoppers still have gifts to buy this week. they're going to be battling the traffic and crowds to make those last-minute purchases. what's driving consumers out so late in the became? some of them are waiting for better deals. thinking the closer to the holidays the better the sales. others they use black friday for self-gifting. the deal oefrs thanksgiving weekend were things they needed for themselves. hanukkah starting tonight, it's fallen later this year. we've got 19 days difference. last year we started on december 1st. then people that wait for the end of the year bonuses to kick

in before they hit the stores. that's actually smart then they would know exactly what they have to spend. then of course, we've got the serial procrastinators the people who cannot help but wait for the last minute. they could be out there christmas eve finishing up. >> i was a self-gifter as well as other things procrastinating, too. thanks a lot. >> sure. former speaker newt gingrich says he is not sure why his opponents are making a big deal about the money he made at freddie mac. >> freddie mac hired gingrich group which is a firm with offices in three cities of the total contract a six-year period contract of the total amount they keep talking about i probably got about $35,000 a year. that's less than i was making per speech. >> gingrich responding to attacks by opponents who have questioned why he has not returned the money he made from returned the money he made from the mortgage giant. ...got promoted to director? so 12 seconds ago. we should get him a present. thanks for the gift basket. you're welcome. you're welcome.

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however, you can see here by these pictures it looks very concerning. a small plane. we'll continue to watch this crashing in new jersey. where's the tea party? they helped sweep republicans into power in the house in the 2010 elections. but so far have been less visible and vocal in the 2012 republican primaries. i'm joined now by tea party nation founder and ceo judson phillips. sir, let's start with this, we've seen five national front runners so far. who do you think? who's the best candidate for the tea party in your view? >> heyish richard, good morning. well, i've got to say on the front end, i'm a little biased. i came out in september and i endorsed gingrich. the tea party vote is split among a number of candidates because there's a number of good candidates. there's gingrich, there's michele bachmann, there's rick perry. there's rick santorum. so, the tea party vote is split a lot. >> did you change your

endorsement. was it always newt for you, or did you have thoughts of other candidates, too? >> i took a serious look at the other candidates, including michele bachmann. at tend of the day, i ended up announcing i was going to support newt for a variety of reasons. not the least of which, in 1994 he led a pretty good conservative revolution in washington. and that's what i'm looking for in 2012. i don't want to just put some guy in there. i want to change the way washington does business. and gingrich is the guy who i believe has got the vision to be able to do something like that. >> it's a tough question for you. there are thousands of tea party groups and movements across the country. why not, though, get behind one candidate to start and stick with throughout this process? >> getting conservatives together is like herding cats. we are all individualists. we are all right on every issue. if you don't think we are right, just ask us, we will tell you.

that's the problem we have right now. if for conservatives we have a wealth of choices here. we have at least four good choices out there. and that's -- that's one of the problems we've got right now is we're divided among so many candidates and that's one of the reason that mitt romney is hanging in there in second place because he's got the establishment vote locked up. but the tea party's divided and the conservatives are divided out among everybody else. >> may be quite an election. on the hill people are saying that the tea party has had a couple of words on the payroll tax cut. i wish we could talk more. thank you. >> hey, richard, thank you so much. merry christmas. merry christmas. >> we'll be right back. i do. but lately, we've been using k-y® intense™. it's this gel that stimulates arousal... she's a screamer. ...so that big moment feels like nothing i've ever felt before. pretty loud. and it's scientifically proven to... ♪ [ female announcer ] k-y® brand intense™.

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good morning. i'm thomas roberts. in the next hour, deal or no deal. republicans say no to extend the payroll tax cut for two months. has the white house changed the countdown clock to read this, if the house doesn't act middle class taxes increase in, 12

days, eight hours, five minutes and some extra seconds there. now is this just more unneeded tea party drama and does this throw speaker boehner's leadership into question once again. and newt gingrich is speaking today in iowa are he's launching a 44 stop bus tour with just two weeks to go until the caucuses. three new polls show him in a dead heat with romney. can he bounce back. richard. a stadium goes dark. stan da day job and chaz's split. let's start with this, you wouldn't think a place called candle stick park would have a lighting problem. the crowds at last night's 49ers game were plunged into darkness. the culprit a bad transformer not an earthquake that explode ten minutes before kick off. the 489ers won. santa's got a lot of work ahead of him delivering his presents and egg his list and now driving a cab in dallas santa traded in his reindeer and sleigh for a yellow taxi. he laughs like a bowl full of

jelly. just in case you're wondering that beard is for real. >> are you bearing any presents? >> not yet. >> you've got to be good. you haven't been good. >> i'm already out. >> i'm good. we have a hollywood breakup to report. chaz bono and his boyfriend broke off their engagement. we don't know why the couple split. that wraps up this hour of jansing and company. i'm in for chris jansing. you have a great tuesday. thomas roberts up next. ♪ ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] everyone deserves the gift of a pain free holiday.

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house. republicans in a corner this morning after refusing to have an up or down vote on the payroll tax cut. the end result millions of americans will see their taxes go up at the first of th year. is there any way out of the stalemate and what does it mean