and he's been talking now in his ads about how his dad worked in the auto industry. and his tone last night, i think, was also very familiar. let me play a little sound bite from yesterday. >> i'm just delighted to be back in michigan to see some old friends. gosh, i got lots of old friends here. here's another guy from he high school. and a gal -- there's a lot of high schoolers here. this really does bring back memories. any old girlfriends here? oh. i have to be careful. ann's not here today. don't tell. >> is that the guy, i don't know, that you want to have a beer with? i know he doesn't drink, but, you know, was that sort of george w. bush thing that people felt like you could sit down and you could talk to the guy? is that what mitt romney's problem is? what do you think it is? >> well, that is not a mitt romney we see a lot. that was actually a really nice moment for him. again, he is the kind of -- it

is sort of his quasi-home state, michigan. i don't know how much governor romney's problem is stylistic and how much of it is substantive. the problems in his candidacy right now per the conservative base have been there all along and it goes again to these issues. on top of that we don't see that mitt romney often. >> i do think you also have all these things that are happening. you have gm profits. right after he wrote that op-ed, james, defending his belief that there should not have been an auto bailout. today the taxes come out. rick santorum not exactly hurting. he earned almost a million dollars. but he doubled in taxes what mitt romney did on $27 million. that's really the issue. >> yes. six months ago mitt romney's main campaign argument was the economy is terrible. people are losing jobs. i've been in the business sacramentoer. i've been very successful in the business sector. turn these decisions over to me.

as the business economy improves it's hard for him to make that argument. in specific in michigan, the must do state for him, the state's economy has been rescued by a plan he opposed. it is, again an awkward situation for him. >> does suddenly if santorum wins here, he's a favorite all of a sudden? >> this year, everything is unpredictable, i'm afraid to say. i do think this is a huge problem. it totally up ends everything that we thought about that race from the start. >> you guys stay with us but i want to bring in bill ballenger, editor and publisher from "inside michigan politics." bill, let me get your take on this. he has the momentum. but today, your governor, is going to endorse mitt romney. where do you think the race stands right now? >> i think rick santorum is ahead. it's a surprise because rick santorum is a totally unknown

quantity in michigan. he's arriving in michigan today, speaking at a couple of major venues. he will be introducing himself to the state for the first time and, yet, he's already in first place without even showing up for work. >> yeah, what does that tell you about mitt romney? >> well, that's exactly right. he's the unromney, the anti-romney, he's where he is because he isn't mitt romney. even in romney's home state where he was born and brought up, you're right. >> and i'm wondering if you think that the endorsement today is going to help him because i'm always of two minds. i think that there are very few people who actually give an endorsement that moves the needle. is the governor of your state one of them? >> i don't think so. i think you're right in your suspicion. rick schneider won the republican nomination for governor in 2010, running against four more conservative candidates who split up the opposition vote to rick schneider. he got the nomination. he was elected. he is a little bit suspect

himself to the tea party and the conservative voters who are going to be casting ballots on february 28th. and so the idea that he would line up with mitt romney, i think these people will think, uh-huh, two peas in a pod. >> and when you think to -- we were just talking about this in michigan, you think the auto industry obviously and when we start talking about that, i think of what mitt romney said yesterday and he really is trying to push this belief, get people to believe that this is something he knows deeply about because of his dad and cares deeply about. here's what he said. >> i care very deeply about the auto industry. i want to make sure we have good jobs, not just for a few weeks but for many, many years. i want michigan to come back in a big way. and i've -- i've taken on union buses before. i'm happy to take them on again. >> is that a popular message with republicans in michigan? >> well, i heard what you said before, and what you're saying now. mitt romney's problem with the

auto bailout issue and the idea that as he believes the auto industry should have been allowed to go through a structured bankruptcy rather than have federal intervention is going to be more of a problem for him in the general election if he's a nominee against the democrats and barack obama. it's not really, i think, going to be that much of a problem in this primary because, after all, santorum and gingrich and paul are not really going to differ with romney openly, i don't think, on that issue. in michigan, however, you could keep this in mind, democrats in and democrats can vote in this primary and they will. how many of them? could be as much as a quarter of the electorate. will they flood p primary and embarrass romney and be angry with him? a lot of them will be. >> you know michigan politics well. what does your gut tell you about that? how high is the interest in this? >> the interest is peaking. day by day, it's getting higher and higher.

i think you're going to have a big turnout. >> all right. stick with us, if you will. i want to bring james and jim back. interesting when you hear not just him talking, mitt romney talking about, you know, obviously the auto industry but his roots in general. though he hasn't lived there since he was in high school. that's more than a few decades. peter alexander, one of our correspondents, was interviewing a guy last night who was 46 years old. he didn't even know who george romney was. are we over-stating this hometown favorite thing, do you think, james? >> we could be. kids today can't remember anything. >> kids today, 46 years old. >> i think there's a point obvious worth making again, which is that poll suggests the most important thing to republican voters is they beat barack obama. that's number one. number two is, until now they thought mitt romney was the person most likely to do that. every time he losses, including if possible in his family's home state, that is another round away from his most important argument. >> and the other thing that was interesting about this new poll,

jim, was that when they looked at really sort of this how much they really like the person, how likely are they do stick with them, the numbers for rick santorum are twice what they are for mitt romney, so clearly his numbers, at least in michigan, are softer. >> right. give romney campaign a couple of weeks. i mean, because they will start attacking that number with negative ads and tax from the stomp. there's no question that governor romney has had a really rough couple of weeks. >> well, you know, bill, let me ask you about that because i haven't been to michigan since the push has been on. are you turning on the tv and seeing this onslaught of ads yet? >> starting to see them, yeah, they started yesterday in ern t ernest. we got to remember, mitt romney was trailing john mccain four years ago in 2008 with a week ago and turned it around and beat mccain in the primary then. he's got nearly twice as long this time to get the job done. and he can do it.

>> and the l.a. times is citing a source saying that he will outspend santorum at least through next monday 40-1. how much will that make a difference? >> that will certainly beat up santorum. the question is whether weakens romney in the longer run if he makes himself -- because negative ads hurt both sides. whether that moves him farther to the right in the general election, if he does survive. >> we were talking about this yesterday, bill. i find it interesting again. ask you to get in the psyche of the people likely to vote in michigan. but, again, we've known, history tells us that negative ads work. but there's also a question of, is it up to a point, when people really get bombarded, when people feel overwhelmed and they think the negativity has reached a new level which with super pacs, it's completely changed the game. do you think that there is a fine line between going after the other guy and completely turning michigan voters off?

>> i think there is a fine line. i think what's happening with negative ads in this particular presidential campaign is they're working state by state in the particular race that's right in front of you. but then they're hurting overall with the national image, bumping up the negatives for mitt romney. i think your two other guests are absolutely right in pointing that out. i think mitt romney has been hurt by the super pac attack ads on gingrich in iowa in december and in florida before the primary down there. and if he outspends santorum 40-1 in the next week and it's all negative, i think it's going to hurt romney in the long run despite any victories he may have achieved in arizona and michigan. >> and the numbers boggle the mind. 40-1. let me put up, we talked about it, but here are gm's earnings. $7.6 billion in 2011. that's up 62% from 2010. the highest profit ever.

can't hurt barack obama with certainly a certain segment of michigan voters. let me ask you this to skip ahead because you mentioned electability. james, let me start with you. who is the strongest candidate in michigan against barack obama? >> i would assume that mitt romney is in the long run the strongest candidate against barack obama but the longer this process goes on the weaker he and any other republican becomes for the general election race, in my view. >> do you agree with that, jim? >> i don't know. i'm a little -- i'm always nervous. i've been burned so many times by predictions. >> especially this year, right? >> it's been so hard. i do think as this economic climate changes the race really kind of moves out of romney's sweet spot. he really needs to stay on the economy and for him the fine line is how much do you talk about how bad things are and how do you modulate if things get better. >> jim, do you have a sense of who might be the stronger candidate against barack obama in michigan? >> i tend to agree that romney

should be the stronger candidate because, number one, of his name and pedigree here, the amount of time he spent in the state, and also because he is the more moderate centrist type, potential nominee for the republicans. republicans cannot afford to nominate somebody whose view is too far to the right. republicans have not carried michigan in a presidential contest since 1988. >> bill ballenger, james, jim, thank you, gentlemen. president obama will continue his fund-raising on a trip to california today. first at a private home in corona delmar and three events in san francisco. kristen welker is in san francisco. kristen, what's the price of admission there? >> reporter: well, the average price today, chris, $35,800, certainly a big day of fund raise for president barack obama. in fact, it's one of the busiest days of fund raise that he's had

in recent years and certainly since he announced that he is run for re-election. as you mentioned, an event this morning in corona del mar. home of business owner there's. then he comes here to san francisco for a trio of fund-raisers. and the final fund-raiser tonight is going to be at the knob hill masonic center. big names there, including chris cornell who is with sound garden as well as al green. we all know the president loves al green, especially after he sang "let's stay together" recently and got a big response from the audience there. now, this comes on the heels of a star-studded event last night. two different fund-raisers there. a lot of big names, including jack black, george clooney, as well as the foo fighter, jim belush s belushi and l.a.'s mayor. this is also coming after a "usa today" report which found that

president. is out-fund raising a lot of his republican rivals right now. two-thirds of the country. of course that dynamic will likely change once there actually is a republican nominee. that's where things stand right now. certainly today represents the fact that president obama kicking his re-election campaign into high gear as we sort of get closer and closer to the general election. now there is going to be a little bit of official business on this trip. yesterday president obama was at master lock talking about the importance of bringing manufacturing jobs back to the u.s. he will attend another official event tomorrow in seattle, washington, at boeing. >> thank you so much for that. the other big story that we've been following now since the weekend. subpoenas being issued in whitney houston's death. what are investigators looking for with those subpoenas? well, we'll talk to a lawyer who defended a dl doctor in the anna nicole smith case. and right now, iranian president mahmoud ahmadinejad visiting with the leaders of pakistan and afghanistan, strategizing about how to deal with the taliban.

meantime, after days of conflicting statements iran sent a letter to the european union saying it's willing to hold talks over the nuclear problem. but iran's also threat. ing to cut oil supplies to the west. something u.s. officials call bluster. hours after that threat iran's [ female announcer ] try aleve d

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we're here together to announce that we do have an agreement and we're moving forward. >> 160 million americans are now going to maintain their payroll tax cut. a lot of folks have lost their jobs through no fault of their own, they're going to receive unemployment benefits. seniors are going to see their doctors and mget medicare. >> it was a little after midnight that lawmakers came out of that tough day of

negotiations, the tax cut was extended. i'm joined now by a democrat from new york. good to see you, congressman. good morning. >> thank you, chris. great to be with you. >> are you happy with this deal? >> well, i'm still going through the deal. we're still reading through it, my staff and i are going through it. there are some aspects of it that jumped out that we like, in particular the spectrum sale. that will make available for first responders, you know, the interruptibility that we've been looking for since 9/11 so they can talk to each other. know where the danger spots are and have that communication going, which is critical. what i'm very disappointed in, though, chris, quite frankly, is the failure to find a permanent solution to these sustainable growth rate for doctors or the doc fix, as it's called. to make sure that sdrs are getting paid what they deserve to be paid. if this is a temporary fix until the end of the year but i was look more for a permanent fix.

>> we obviously have that shot frozen. are we -- we lost him completely. if we have a chance to get congressman crowley back, we will do that for you. in the meantime, let me how you what's going on with that very controversial commercial. the young chinese-american actress featured in this plital ad. now she says she's sorry she did it. former congressman went after debbie in michigan with this ad featuring lisa chan. she's playing a chinese woman with a fake accent, thanking stephano for sending jobs to her country. chan is now posted an apology on facebook. quote, this role is not in any way representative of who i am. it was absolutely a mistake on my part and one that, over time, i hope can be forgiven. and congressman joe crowley is back. congressman, look, you were renumerating some of the things you liked and didn't like about this deal. obviously everything is a

compromise when you come to things like this. but let me ask you about both sides, obviously not getting what they wanted. and a couple of things that were sources of contention. under the deal states can require drug tests to get unemployment benefits. new federal workers will be required to contribute more to their pensions. $5 3w8 billion slashed from part of president obama's signature health care law. did democrats give up too much? >> again, we're still going through it and trying to calculate what this compromise really means. i can say that a made-up crisis was averted apparently. do nothing republican congress in december. looks as though we might actually get a deal done here although it's not complete yet. whether or not too much was given up remains to be seen. i'm concerned about the doc fix and seniors are concerned about whether their doctors paid inadequate fee whole the service

they render. we're still going through it. >> obviously the president had been pushing very hard for the extension of the payroll tax cut. do you think this helps him? does it help members of congress going into the election? obviously the republicans felt this was something that if it got blocked was very bad, that they couldn't live with s. >> well, i think they learned a lesson from back in december when they put it to the brink of not passing it again. reenacting this on a temporary basis. i think this is critical for the average person in america. it comes out to $1,000 per family. that is really the bread and butter politics. whether or not they can afford to put food on the plate. very popular tax cut. one we've been pushing for for some time now. i'm glad that it's been resolved, at least in the short-term basis. >> i want to move away from politics quickly and glif you a softball or should i say a basketball. what do you think of this guy jeremy lin? >> incredible. looking at his frame, he's so

thin. i played a little basketball in my day and remarkable to see someone who is really energized the knicks and bringing basketball in such a bag way back to new york city. it's been away for a while and i think this is very uplifting and great to see his hard work pay off. someone who wasn't supposed to make the team, supposed to get cut, and providing mightily to success seven games in a row. who would have thunk it at this point in time. >> degree from harvard. are you going to the game soon? >> i don't know if i can afford it. >> i went on to see if there were tickets. forget about it. i said scalpers, you fwhoe whkn that costs. another kennedy run for congress. details on robert kennedy's grandson's run coming up in politics now. boy, he looks like a kennedy, doesn't he? ashleigh christiansen gained fame on "iron chef" when a

piggly wiggly became available in north carolina he bout it. instead of opening one restaurant, she opened three. chicken and honey andburgers and bar. they share the same kitchen so she saves on resources. my name is robin. i'm a wife, i'm a mom... and chantix worked for me. it's a medication i could take and still smoke, while it built up in my system. [ male announcer ] along with support, chantix is proven to help people quit smoking. it reduces the urge to smoke. some people had changes in behavior, thinking or mood, hostility, agitation, depressed mood and suicidal thoughts or actions while taking or after stopping chantix. if you notice any of these, stop taking chantix and call your doctor right away. tell your doctor about any history of depression or other mental health problems, which could get worse while taking chantix. don't take chantix if you've had a serious allergic or skin reaction to it. if you develop these, stop taking chantix and see your doctor right away as some can be life-threatening. if you have a history of heart or blood vessel problems, tell your doctor if you have new or worse symptoms.

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[ doug ] i been lobstering about all my life. i'm a lobstergirl. [ laughs ] [ laura ] top quality lobster is all we catch. [ male announcer ] it's lobsterfest at red lobster. the one time of year you can savor 12 exciting lobster entrees, like lobster lover's dream or new maine lobster and shrimp trio. [ doug ] the sweet, succulent meat. that's a good-tasting lobster. [ laura ] i'll eat it any way i can. [ doug ] we're the mclennan family from spruce head, maine, and we sea food differently. to politics now. democratic congresswoman maxine

waters caught on tape calling the republican leadership demons. >> i saw pictures of boehner and kantor on our screens. don't ever let me see again in life those republicans in our hall on our screens talking about anything. these are demons. >> and how's this for an attention-getting headline. newt gingrich, the most disliked politician in america. thanks, "washington post," it looked at two new polls that showed his favorability rating in the toilet. but it's rick santorum now formerly asking for secret service protection. his campaign has sent a letter asking for the detail. mitt romney currently has ats protecting him and so did herman cain. another kennedy is run for office. joe kennedy iii, grandson of robert f. kennedy. here's his big announcement have. >> hi, i'm joe kennedy.

i'm announcing a campaign to be your democratic nominee for the fourth congressional district seat now held by barney frank. congressman frank has done so much for massachusetts and america during his service in congress and he leaves very big shoes to fill. chris christie defending his position to lower flags to half staff for whitney houston. he was criticized by people. he told the a.p., quote, i am disturbed by people who believe that because her ultimate demise. and we don't know what the cause of her death is yet, but because of her history of substance abuse, that somehow she's forfeited the good things that she did in her life. i just reject that on a human level. what do you think? you can weigh in on our facebook poll at facebook/jansing. so far most people think he is wrong. february is black history month. on this day 1972 basketball hall of famer wilt chamberlain became the first player to score 30,000

points in an nba career. known as big dipper and wilt the stilt, chamberlain still holds the all-time nba record, the only player to score more than 4,000 points in a single season. that was in '62. chamberlain's superior skills forced the league to change inbound and scoring rules just to curb his dominance. [ woman speaking indistinctly over radio ] home protector plus from liberty mutual insurance... [ alarm blaring ] where the cost to repair your home, replace what's inside, and stay somewhere else if you need to are covered. because you never know what lies around the corner. to learn more, visit libertymutual.com today. spark card from capital one. spark cash gives me the most rewards of any small business credit card.

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detroit-bound flight is facing a mandatory sent sense of life in prison. he will officially be sentenced today in federal court. at least five passengers who were on that flight are expected to speak. this just coming in to msnbc. more people turning to products labeled organic but there's a warning now from researchers at dartmouth. they said organic brown rice sir rum could contain arsenic. among the products the researchers tested, infant formula, one of them had a total arsenic concentration six times text pa safe drinking water limit. they also tested cereal bars and high energy foods. josh prou well's family wanted to bury him next to the two sons killed in the home ec ploegs he set off. an anti-crime organization purchased the plots on either side of the boys to make sure that doesn't happen. powell was a long-time suspect in his wife's unsolved 2009

disappearance. fans wanting to watch whitney houston's memorial service will now get their chance. houston's funeral at new hope baptist church in newark, new jersey, will be fed over the internet. you can also see it live right here on msnbc. noon eastern time on saturday. newark officials are urging fans to watch that funeral from home, not to crowd the area around the church. and we're also getting new details this morning about the investigation into the star's death. subpoenas have been issued to doctors and pharmacists as officials try to figure out exactly what caused the 48-year-old's death. nbc's kristen dahlgren is in los angeles with that part of the story. kristen, good morning. >> good morning, chris. we are getting our first look at whitney houston's death certificate. cause of death is listed as deferred, pending an investigation. investigators still waiting for the results of those toxicology tests. also issued subpoenas now for whitney houston's doctors and pharmacists. they're trying to get a look at her medical records, her

prescription records. basically trying to see if she had some type of underlying condition. and also what medications she may have been taking at the time of her death. now, there are no indications according to the beverly hills police department of any criminal intent. no sign that they suspect any wrong doing in this case. in fact, even selectity website tmz is report that investigators told them houston was not doctor shopping and she wasn't using aliases to get medication. so, again, we are still waiting as this investigation continues for the definitive word which will come for investigators after the toxicology reports come in. that is expected to take another six to eight weeks. chris? >> kristen, thanks so much. i want to bring in an attorney, she won an acquittal for a physician charged for over prescribing drugs to anna fnicoe smith. good morning. >> good morning, chris. >> i'm guessing this is a little deja vu all over again.

what will investigators being looking at when it comes to house tot houston's medical history? >> the first thing they're going to look at is the drugs themselves. what types of drugs has she been taking, what was the source of the drugs, wiere they prescribe by physicians, were they obtained in other ways. what they're going to be looking at most closely is whether will is a medical purpose for the drugs. even addicts are entitled to prescription of controlled substances if there is a legitimate medical purpose being treated by the physician. so they're going to look at all of those factors, the drugs, whitney houston's medical condition, to determine whether or not, a, the drugs caused the death or contributed to the death, and, b,whether the drugs were legitimately obtained, legitimately provided to ms. houston. >> so for the doctors and the pharmacists who have been issued a subpoena, if you were their lawyer, what would you advise

them to do? >> well, they really have no choice but to comply with the subpoenas. they will be providing medical records and they will be providing records of prescriptions, the pharmacies keep very detailed logs of each prescription written to each patient, to each customer. beyond that, depending on the circumstances, lawyers may well tell their clients not to speak, to wait to hear the results of the toxicology tests before cooperating with the police. it really is -- those decisions are made on an individual basis depending on the facts of the case and the doctor or pharmacist involvement with whitney houston. if it's just a simple, you know, prescription, a one-time prescription and a pharmacist has no cause to be concerned, then they will probably cooperate with or without the advice of a lawyer. >> we know that it's going to be, what, probably six weeks at least before they get those these tox results back.

that's going to be key in determining the cause of death. in terms of this part of the investigation, looking at whether doctors or pharmacists might have done anything wrong, i know there's a huge database in california where they track drugs. i think there's something like 100 million entries for controlled substances. for that part of it, just plugging this stuff into the database, could this part of it be figured out pretty quickly? >> the database is not that easy to use. it can be done relatively quickly, assuming she was not using aliases. my suspicion is she may have obtained drugses from physicians or pharmacists out of the state. those would not necessarily be in the database and floss national database that would be of assistance. so it may take a while, at least several weeks, the not more, until they have a clear picture of all the prescriptions that were provided or at least filled

by ms. houston in, you know, recent -- you know, within a relatively recent period of time. >> thanks so much. >> you're welcome. gas prices once again threatening recent gains in the economic recovery. we've heard the predictions. $5 a gallon gas? so the big question, we ask richard lui to look into it. could have it an impact on the presidential election? there's been some indication that maybe that's happened in the past. >> when we see $5, the question is whether it will impact that dynamic. high gas prices, they're becoming more normal, chris. today half the time gas is $3 or more. 50% of the time, close to that. back in 2006 it was barely a blip in this economist's graph that we have here but we may be better equipped to handle this today. we're buying more efficient cars, says the bureau of transportation. the average miles per gallon of cars muched is at a high of 34 miles per gallon.

50% more than 30 years ago in 1980. we're saving and driving less, too. the number of miles in trillions, driven in the united states, right here, 25 years ago, 1.8 trillion. but after 2007 this peak you see here, a reduction, greatest reduction that we've seen in modern history now we're about 2004 levels. if you chuck the national domino, look at this right here. we're driving 78 billion miles per year less than that peak from 2008, 2007. that's enough gas to fill seven superdomes or save a quarter of a trillion dollars annually. with high price, efficient cars and less driving, a new normal could be in the making. never the less, presidents still have nightmares of this. the '70s. a gallon costs $2.50 in today's dollars. high gas prices just a backdrop to president nixon's resignat n resignation. in the 1980 recession, prices rose to $3.50 if n. today's

dollars. stag place hovering and republican ronald reagan beating jimmy carter then. three decades later. a new record, $4.30 a gallon and teetering economy. obama beating bush. do prices hurt? unemployment is also sided on this, chris, but according to real clear politics, gas prices almost four times more consistent with the president's standing than unemployment. so new normal or not, the presidents watch the pump like everybody else, even since the days of ethol. >> let me bring in john, former ceo of shell oil usa and now the cee of citizens for affordable energy. it's good to see you. and, in fact, i've got to give you kudos, in 2010 you predicted we would see $5 gas in 2012 and now a lot of other experts are saying this same thing. i guess what the afternoon consumer wants to know is there

anything that can stop this train? >> well, we're actually in unchartered waters. that's the problem. and that's why the volatility and the prediction of high prices is so logical. what's different is -- well, what's the same. we have failed to make decisions on increasing domestic production. not just president obama but presidents before him have not made the difficult choices of expand doing most tick production to be more self-reliant. the unchartered piece is unprecedented in history is asian demand for ever more oil products. china bought 20 million new cars last year. these are new consumers, not repeat consumers. so that's an expansion in demand. in addition, the geo politics in the middle east has a psychology of fear about future of supply has probably never been greater and we just don't know from week to week how bad it could get.

in addition to that, on the east coast we just closed three domestic refineries, or are in the process of closing. put that huge population on the east coast more dependent upon imports from a broad which could be more expensive on bread prices rather than west texas prices. these things are combining to make it very uncertain with the solution being more domestic production which we don't seem able to commit ourselves to. >> and without that, i guess the question is what are the suspects. michele bachmann was criticized to saying if she was president, she would lower prices to $2 a gallon. can any president do anything to significantly reduce gas prices? >> not in the short term, chris. that's the problem. i said to senator obama in 2007 to him personally, if you don't do an aggressive drilling program in your first material you're going to have to worry a lot about the gas price in 2012.

she said we're going to be biofuels. i said there won't be enough biofuels to make a difference. here we are. we didn't have an aggressive drilling program and he could well face how to explain $5 gasoline as he runs for his re-election. i think that's a serious problem for him. >> is there anything in this current political climate that you see that could happen that at least would move us in the right direction, in your perspective? >> well, the only solution in the short term is, as the prior speaker said, drive less. so that the impact on the disposable income in the afternoon family's pocket book is not so serious. demand instruction is the way of lowering prices in the short term. that denies people the pleasure of driving or the need for driving. that's not a solid way forward. we can't just rely on efficiency and nonuse because that's not who we are as a people. we don't have public

transportation to speak of. we have a society that lives out from the urban core, not in the urban core. making mass transit very difficult as a solution. more efficient cars help, of course, but again, it's the out of pocket expenditure that people make at the pump that denies them the opportunity to buy other things. larger economy. >> john hofmeister, we are out of time, fascinating conversation. thank you so much. thanks in part to high fuel prices, southwest airlines is raising fares on most domestic flights by about $10 round trip. that increase is to cover operating costs, including the rising price of jet fuel. but they point out they don't charge fees for checked baggage. american and jetblue are considering similar increases. [ male announcer ] juice drink too watery?

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michigan be the home state advantage to mitt romney or will rick santorum steal what was supposed to be an easy prize pts? general motors earned the biggest profits ever last year. how the 103-year-old company is making a modern day fortune after being bailed out by the sdpoft? breaking news for maryland in the fight more marriage equality. inside sources say they are close to having the votes needed to make maryland lucky number eight for states offering same-sex marriage. full details. chris? >> thank you so much. and the debate over contraception and religious freedom is ratcheting up to a whole new leflt thvel this morn. darrell issa is holding a whole new hearing this morning. title, lines crossed, separation of church and state. has the obama administration trampled on freedom of religion and free democrat of conscience. here's some early testimony. >> our country for hundreds of years has understood that faith

comes first and that no man or woman should ever be forced to betray that faith. >> will our in addition continue to be one committed to religious liberty and diversity, we urge in the strongest possible terms that the answer must be yes. >> joining me now, eleanor holmes nor on the representing the district of columbia. good morning. >> good morning. >> noneigious groups that support the obama station is going to be speaking at today he's hearing. what's the point? >> i just walked out of the hearing because it's a wrong hearing. as member of the minority ruler we are entitled to one witness. that once was a georgetown university law student. she was denied the right to testify. i am still attending professor, congresswoman, of course, but i taught full time at georgetown. georgetown is perhaps the flagsh flagship, catholic university in the united states. it does, in fact, allow cont

contraceptives for students and its faculty and staff in one of that is going to come out at this hearing. it's a total romp one-sided hearing. we protested, asked that she be allowed to come. she was sitting right there. her story would have been a very compelling one. she has a friend who has lost an ovary and may not be able to have children because she did not have access to contraception. >> let me give you an opportunity to respond, but what we're hearing, including from the lead witness, bishop william who we just heard from. his argument and it's one we've heard from the catholic ire i can, and to be fair, from the democratic colleagues, this is a first amendment issue. what would you say from that? >> it is a first amendment issue and the president has accommodated the religious

groups. this is the most extraordinary when it's the kind that everyone prays for. it's the church and religious institutions do not, in fact, have to offer one dime or offer contraception. in fact, this is being done through entirely through the insurance companies. and, by the way, there is no extra cost to them because providing contraception saves -- contraceptive insurance saves money. we religious accommodation is just about accommodation. not trampling on the rights of others. some here are essentially saying that if you work for a catholic hospital that gets half the funds from the federal government and you are a catholic or a non-catholic, for that matter, you cannot have access to contraceptives even

though the religious institution no longer has to pay for it because of the compromised reach. >> if that isn't an accommodation, i don't know what is. >> it's always good to see you, congresswoman. congresswoman eleanor holmes. our tweet today comes from our own political director chuck todd. quote, the only worse time for romney regarding gm's record profit announcements would be the day before the michigan primary. ah, welcome to hotels.com. i get it...guys weekend. yeah! if you're looking for a place to get together, you came to the right place. because here at hotels.com, we're only about hotels. yeah! yeah! noooo. yeah! finding you the perfect place is all we do. welcome to hotels.com what do you get when you combine the home depot with this weekend?

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heart attack grill, canine dining around space vacuum. let's get down to the wire. you can't say he wasn't warned. a man was eating at a vast los angeles heart attack grill, it's called, eating a triple bypass burger, pound and half of beef and a dozen bacon slices. he started having chest pains. he is recovered. glad he didn't add the flat liner fries. fine dining in new york city.

westminster best in cho pe pekingese made a stop. he does not eat steak. swiss scientists say they know how to clean up space junk. developing a vacuum cleaner, kind of, to scoop up thousand of abandoned satellite and parts in the earth. must have gotten the idea from "space ball." remember, mega maid. >> now, commence information vacuum suck. suck, suck, suck. >> mel brooks. that wraps up this hour of "jansing and company." i'm chris jansing. today, 1:00 p.m. andrea mitchell will welcome ambassador to china jon huntsman. but up next, thomas ronts. i'll see you tomorrow. shazi: seven years ago, i had this idea.

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