the team for the leader, and i made a mistake. you know, politics is a team sport, folks. >> and ron paul continues his attacks on santorum. >> we have a new television ad that labels him a fake. why? >> because he's a fake. >> i'm real. i'm real. women strike back. shut out by republican leaders last week, house democrats staged their own mock hearing today. >> we've heard from over 300,000 people saying, we want women's voices to be heard. and whose rights are they? ca capehart versus christie, the fight over gay rights. >> first of all, i used to be a prosecutor, i don't know if you did too. but i'm not going to be cross-examined by you this morning. >> i'm having fun try. >> i know you are, and you're

going to lose. >> i would love for you to answer the question. >> here's the answer to the question. >> jonathan will be joining us to talk about the morning joe shoot-out. in our daily fix today, mitt romney hammered away at rick santorum tonight, and again today for being a washington insider. a direct hit against santorum's tea party and conservative credentials. santorum tried to defend his past support for earmarks, but couldn't seem to stop speaking beltway. >> congress has a role of allocating resources when they think the administration has it wrong. i defended that at the time. i'm proud i defended it at the time, because i think they did make mistakes. >> i didn't follow all of that, but i will tell you this. i would put a ban on earmarks. i think it opens the door to excessive spending. while i was fighting to save the olympics, you were fighting to save the bridge to nowhere. >> chris slisza is an msnbc contributor and managing editor of postpolitics.com. chris, this was rick santorum's moment leading into the michigan -- the critical

michigan primary. and he really blew it, according to all the headlines, every newspaper. every tv show. he was not in his game last night. >> it was odd. i feel like it's this pattern, you know, i feel like it's deja vu all over again, to quote yogi berra, which is each time we see someone rise up to be the anti-romney, whether it's newt gingrich or herman cain or rick perry, when they're in the focus at one of these debates, they don't perform. remember, newt gingrich, the last time we had this conversation, he was the anti-romney. and he gave too listless performances. he kind of endured a lot of attacks. i think rick santorum did the exact wrong thing last night, which is spend too much time talking like a washington insider. go ask john kerry, go ask any number of senators who have run, other than barack obama, for president in the past. that almost never works. defendi inin ining earmarks for second, andrea, is one second more than you should spend defending them. >> and romney was still going at it today.

here's romney defending michigan. >> he talked about this as being taking one for the team. i wonder which team he was taking it for? my team is the american people, not the insiders in washington. >> not that mitt romney had the greatest debate either. because it was really santorum's loss, rather than romney's victory. when given a clear opportunity by john king, the moderator, to define himself, to perhaps say, i'm a real conservative, not i am severely conservative, take a look at what they all had to say. >> he supported the folks on wall street and bailed out wall street. >> you also voted for the bailout of the steel industry. i don't think i agree with that one. if we had said no to arlen specter, we would not have obama care. so don't look at me. take a look in the mirror. voting for raising the debt ceiling five different times. >> teaching is a missionary vocation. when you brocktize it, you kill it. >> it was the principle priority of president bush to try to take

on a failing education system. you know, politics is a team sport, folks. >> and when king, as i say, did give them an opportunity to define themselves in one word, here's what happened. >> help the voters who still have questions about you. what is the biggest misconception about you. >> we've got to restore america's promise in this country. >> is there a misconception about you? the question is a misconception. >> you know, you get to ask the questions you want, i get to give the answers i want. >> why did he do that? >> look, i would admit i'm biased, as a reporter, that it's nice to be able to ask questions and have politicians attempt to answer them. but this is a classic mitt romneyism. he does this processes thing. i'm sure strategist said, you don't have to ask all the questions they ask you. >> remember when he went after anderson cooper for not keeping time. >> the thing you don't do, even if that's in your mine, if a

question you don't want to answer, i'm going to deflect and move elsewhere. you don't say, i'm not going to answer that question. he's a management consultant running for president. he lets the things that should stay unspoken, he speaks them. it's not always bad, but it looked bad. it was an odd note to end a debate on. >> and when asked to define himself in one word, he has resolute, not conservative. >> yeah, i mean, i just -- look, mitt romney, the thing he struggles, these debates, anytime he gets a question like that, that he's not ready for, the one word, he's not prepped adequately. he doesn't think that well on his feet in those moments. still, to your point, hedown. >> below expectations. >> right. >> thank you, chris cillizza. >> thank you. >> rick santorum is today unleashing a new tv ad against mitt romney in michigan, undermining romney's claim to be a true conservative on key issues.

>> eric fernstrom is a senior adviser to the romney campaign and joins us now. eric, hi. what happened last night? >> well, what happened last night is i think you saw a very vivid contrast between two candidate. mitt romney is a person who has spent his career in business, running the olympics and running a state. he'd go to washington as an outsider. and rick santorum has spent his entire career in and around washington. he sounded like an insider when he was dwefding earmarks. he sounded like an insider when he was defending his deal to support liberal arlen specter over conservative pat toomey. and he sounded like an insider when he was explaining that he voted for no child left behind, even though it violated his principles, because he had to take one for the team. well, as you heard mitt romney say, you're never going to have

to wonder what team mitt romney is fighting for. it will be the american people. >> what about this new ad. how do you respond to that? >> well, i'm not surprised that rick santorum would try to change the subject from his disastrous performance in last night's debate. look, andrea, we feel good about the state of the race. mitt romney this week put out a pro-growth tax cut reform plan. he had a good debate performance last night. we're going into some voting in arizona and michigan on tuesday. and we feel that we're going to do very well. >> at the same time, let's talk about the american spectator, and others, certainly, the santorum campaign are coming back at you over some of the fact checking. this was mitt romney last night, denying that he had gone along with the 'morning after' pill during -- for rape victims, when he was governor of massachusetts. >> there was no requirement in massachusetts for the catholic church to provide 'morning after' pills to rape victims.

that was entirely voluntary on their part. there was no such requirement. >> now, nbc news and factcheck.org and others have pointed out that, in fact, after attempting to veto that legislation and then saying that he would give a waiver to the religious institutions, he came back and actually did order them, in a state ruling, according to his legal counsel, including religious hospitals, that they did, in fact, have to follow the requirement that the 'morning after' pill had to be dispensed to rape victims, if they had moral objections. but he later flipped on that position, saying that his legal counsel concluded that all hospitals would have to follow the new law. isn't that the bottom line there? >> there's a little bit of confusion, because in massachusetts, there were two separate issues. one is, there is no requirement that religious hospitals or universities have to provide contraception coverage. that's what the governor, i think, was trying to address. there is an exception in the law for that.

with respect to emergency contraception, that was an issue that we dealt with in 2004, 2005. there was a bill to require more broader distribution of emergency contraception, without a prescription. governor romney vetoed that bill. i did pass over his objections. and of course, as governor, he doesn't have the luxury of picking and choosing which laws he's going to enforce. he has to enforce them all. so, yes, it was a requirement that catholic hospitals in that bill that was vetoed by the governor had to provide emergency contraception. >> you think you're going to win michigan? >> yeah, we feel very good about michigan. look, michigan has unemployment that's near double digits. they have suffered probably more so than any other state in the country, through the last three years of the obama presidency. mitt romney has a plan that will cut tax rates and create growth in the economy, and, of course,

he's also a native son of michigan. spent the first 18, 19 years of his life there. his dad was a three-term governor from michigan. i think the people of michigan would be proud to have a michigander like mitt romney in the white house. >> thank you so very much. thanks to see you, eric. and joining us now from ron paul's campaign, doug wede, senior adviser to the paul campaign. good to see you. there was certainly a lot of ron paul going after rick santorum. let me play a little bit more from last night's debate. >> he calls it a team sport. he has to go along to get along and that's how the team plays. but that's the problem with washington. that's what's been going on for so long. >> it does seem to a lot of people that he is wingman for mitt romney. that he seems to keep going after rick santorum, he's got a very effective ad, i heard mark mckinnon say today that your ads have been the best ads of the whole campaign, going after

santorum again. why isn't he going after mitt romney? >> well, he is. our number one campaign in terms of dollars spent are three of a kind, which includes mitt romney, rick santorum, and newt gingrich. and you know, andrea, everybody talks about brokered conventions, very, very unlikely, but there are four candidates, theoretically, mathematically, it is conceivable, though far-fetched. the reason there aren't brokered conventions because in this day and age, there are brokered campaigns. and i'll give you an example of that. rick santorum and mitt romney are working together in minnesota, just a few miles to the west of michigan, where they're fighting tooth and nail in michigan, they are cooperating in minnesota against us. so rick santorum's people are telling their delegates at the precinct level to vote for mitt romney delegates to go to the district level. so there is that sort of exchange going on among all the campaigns. >> but is there anything explicit? have there been conversations, to your knowledge, among either the candidate themselves or

their surrogates to beat up on santorum and try to help mitt romney? and is there any quid pro quo ethat's been discussed involving ron paul, his future, his son's future, or any role in the perspective campaign? >> absolutely not. now, rick santorum went to south carolina. and he campaigned all over south carolina, saying that ron paul was opposed to the defense and marriage act. that's fall. and then he went to cpac, handed out literature that says that ron paul favors t.a.r.p., which is ridiculous and is false. and we cannot let ron paul be a doormat to rick santorum. there's this old saying that if you keep lying about me, i'm going to start telling the truth about you. and it got to the point that we had to start telling the truth about rick santorum. ron paul will not be a doormat to another candidate. >> at the same time, you brought up the subject of the fact that there could, with four candidates, still in the race, if four candidates are still in the race, by the time we get to tampa and the convention, there

could be conversations about what to do on a second ballot, if no one has a clear majority on the first ballot. >> and there are conversations. i didn't deny there were conversations. i denied there was any kind of an alliance. there are conversations going on. there are brokered campaigns, that's part of the process. and ron paul is much stronger in those conversations than he appears to be in the media, because the media's delegate count is off. >> and your delegate count indicates what? >> our delegate count indicates we're very much in the game right now. now, it's almost like the stock market. you anticipate what's going to happen by the time you figure it out, it's too late, you've missed it. and the same in this delegate process. there's some anticipation of what's going to happen a few days out. for example, we know the powerful born-again vote is going to play in the south, and mitt romney's not going to get it. it's going to go to someone. and with santorum now flagging, it's possible newt gingrich could come alive again. >> let me call you on that. why do you think mitt romney will not get the powerful born-again vote in the south, as you describe it? >> well, just the numbers. the numbers that we've seen.

and it's been frustrating for the romney campaign, but it's a fact. >> do you think it's because he's mormon? >> yes, i do. and i think it's part of the reason why florida was moved up and nevada was moved up and colorado and other states were moved up. to make it easier. and it's part of the reason why it's proportional, so when mitt romney goes into that south, he'll get a little piece of it. >> thank you very much, doug wead, ron paul campaign. no question ron paul will be a power broker. coming up, border wars. what works in the primaries could spell doom for the republicans in the fall. plus, murdering our troops in afghanistan. the continuing fallout over that koran mistake. this is "andrea mitchell reports," only on msnbc. [ male announcer ] this is lois. the day starts with arthritis pain... a load of new listings... and two pills. after a morning of walk-ups, it's back to more pain, back to more pills. the evening showings bring more pain and more pills. sealing the deal... when, hang on... her doctor recommended aleve.

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the right course for america is to drop these lawsuits against arizona and other states that are trying to do the job barack obama isn't doing. i'll also complete the fence, i'll make sure we have enough border patrol agents to secure the fence, and i will make sure i have an everify system. you do that, and just as arizona is finding out, you can stop illegal immigration. >> mitt romney's tough position on illegal immigration last night, it's popular with arizona republicans, but it could very well backfire with hispanic voters if he were to become the knee. the cover story in the new issue of "time" magazine out today explores the impact of hispanic voters this year. joe klein is "time" magazine's columnist and joins me now. it's such an important demographic, and it seems inexplicable that the republican party is ignoring this in this primary. >> well, yeah. i mean, you saw with george w. bush, and especially with karl rove, his master strategist, that they were embarked on a

long-term strategy to move latinos into the republican party. because, you know, a lot of latinos are strong family people, business people, small business people, and so on. and this year, you have the exact opposite going on. and i think that it's going to really hurt the republicans in the fall. >> how is the obama team, the chicago team, trying to take advantage of this? >> well, one thing you'll notice, and it's kind of interesting, is that obama has been very successful at limiting the number of illegals coming across the border. in part because he really has amped up, you know, security at the border. and the other part is that our economy is pretty terrible right now, and you don't have as great a lure to immigrants coming across. but you will never hear barack obama or his team talking about that, because many latinos take it as racist.

>> let's talk also about the whole prenatal testing and santorum last night, again, let me play a little bit of that. >> we know, bob, that 90% of down syndrome children in america are aborted. so to suggest, where does that come, i have a child who has trisumia-18, almost 100% of those children are encouraged to be aborted, so i know what i'm talking about here. >> you wrote about this in "time" magazine, rick santorum on the social issues, how is it playing for him now? he's persistent, he has not backed down in the face of any -- that was with bob schieffer, of course, last sunday. but, again, all through the week. he has been keeping to the same themes. >> well, it's another group that republicans are in trouble, traditionally, but even more so this year, and santorum as well, which is women. but i have to give the guy a lot of credit for actually talking about issues that are very

uncomfortable and where he's walked the walk. and the column i wrote this week, i write about his daughter, isabella, and the very touching pictures you see of her with her dad and mom and her family, smiling. that child is lucky to be alive to this day, and probably would have been aborted by most americans. but the santorums have given her three years of unconditional love and she's given them a lot of joy in return. i think it's important for us to think about difficult choices like the ones that are made about down syndrome children and others who have congenital defects. and i give santorum an awful lot of credit for raising these issues. >> and, in fact, joe klein, sarah palin really communicated that so poignantly during the past campaign, and ever since, with trig, and she's written about that. and it's a very, very important message to all parents with special needs children.

>> he also does the same thing with education. his message on education is very inconvenient. he wants parents to spend a lot more time involved in their children's education. so he's been doing this on a number of issues. >> thanks so much. a good, healthy reminder to everyone. thank you, joe klein. >> my pleasure. and damage control. the republican party struggling with a unified message in this nasty primary fight. the politico briefing, up next on "andrea mitchell reports." [ male announcer ] imagine facing the day

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wait. ♪ it's morning in the himalayas... [ male announcer ] it's sweet. it's nutty. it's absolutely delicious. kellogg's crunchy nut. it's morning somewhere. in today's politico briefing, there's more hand wringing among many influential republicans about the party's brand being damaged in this year's presidential field, and the angry tone and message that it's conveying. politico's john harris joins us now. john, the party leaders in washington are completely disconnected at this point from the candidate, from the fray, and from the people -- the rank and file out there. >> there's been a lot of people

who are sort of long-term thinkers about the republican party, who, for some time, stretching back a decade or more, have said, look, this party's base is with older, whiter, and typically more male soe voters, and the party, if it's going to be a long-term majority party, needs to broaden that base. the concern is that the 2012 election has taken a turn that makes that task of modernizing the party and broadening its base, makes it more difficult. the sort of sprint among the candidates to sound toughest on cracking down on illegal immigration risks offending hispanic american voters who are here illegally, but don't necessarily like that rhetoric. the discussion about contraception and some of these social issues don't help with independent voters and many women voters, who either are opposed to the republican positions on these issues, or feel that they're really a distraction from what they want the party talking about, economy

and jobs. so a lot of people in our story in politico today were, you know, on the record, voicing concern about the tone of the race. >> is that one reason why you think that bob mcdonnell, who some would say, is on the short list to be vice president, the vice presidential running mate, backed off on what many republicans in virginia are telling me they think, men and women, was an extreme proposal, this sonogram proposal. >> i think governor mcdonnell smartly recognized that the party had overstepped and that it really risked branding itself in a highly adverse way with potentially long-term consequences, in virginia and since this became a national story, beyond virginia. i think a number of people in richmond who passed that bill didn't, from my reading of what happened, didn't even realize just how invasive the proposal was to enforce, that they were trying to enforce sonograms.

highly invasive procedures on women before they were allowed to have an abortion. >> you know, john, that's one argument for having more women in the legislature. maybe men don't understand what some of these procedures are actually all about. you think? >> i do think that's one of the things that many republicans are saying. we've got to -- in order to appeal to women, we've got to elect more women. and republicans, in fairness, have had some success, nikki haley in south carolina and others have. so they're clearly working on this issue. >> thank you, john. thanks for our politico briefing today. always good to see you. and coming up next, violence in afghanistan, iraq, and syria. former u.s. ambassador to nato, nicholas burns. plus, former congresswoman jane harman from the wilson center.

topping the headlines right now on "andrea mitchell reports," seven u.s. marines were killed overnight when their helicopters collided during a nighttime training mission over

the california desert. it's not clear yet what caused the accident, which ocurd over the border. as anti-american protests spread, a pair of u.s. soldiers were shot and killed today. multiple reports blame a man wearing an afghan army uniform for firing the fatal shots. it's not clear whether he was an actual soldier, a trainee, or perhaps a taliban insurgent in disguise. at least 11 people have died in demonstrations after it was discovered that copies of the koran were burned at a u.s. base in bagram. president obama sent a letter to president karzai apologizing for the incident. with me now, former ambassador to nato, nicholas burns from the john f. kennedy school of government at harvard. thanks so much for being with us. let's talk about afghanistan first. the burning of the koran, a terrible error. nato has apologized for it, the president has apologized for it, but that kind of apology is a diplomat note. that is not going to persuade

people that it was not deliberate. >> well, andrea, this is a major problem for the obama administration and for nato. and you're right that an apology might have an influence with some people in kabul, but the vast majority of the afghans probably won't even know of the apology. they're furious because their holy koran was burned, inadvertently, of course, by american forces. and it's really i think indicative of a larger problem here, andrea. there's rising hostility of the american forces on the ground by the afghan public. and this is a problem to sustain american forces there beyond 2014. the other side of that dilemma is that a lot of afghans know that if the united states leaves, it's an open road for the taliban. so it's going to be a very rocky road ahead, as the u.s. seeks a diplomatic way out of afghanistan, but has to maintain troops there for a long time to come. >> and as if that weren't bad enough, let me take you to iraq, where there are reports that 55 people died in sectarian violence overnight. there we don't have a military presence, we have a big

diplomatic and civilian and contractor presence, but is iraq at a tipping point or is this just a temporary eruption and a setback? >> well, i think there are a lot of people worried about iraq, and more so than we even thought six months ago. the sectarian violence, the rivalries among the kurd, sunni, and shia groups. the inability of the government to reach shia-dominated government, to reach out to the population, and now seemingly, andrea, orchestrated car bombings over the last 24 hours and tremendous, bloody carnage in the streets of baghdad. it's very disappointing to see, and one can only conclude that iraq's going to be prone to violence for some time to come. >> and iran, finally, continuing saber rattling, some would say. the tightening of the sanctions, threats from iran. but is the bottom line here that iran is going to go back to the negotiating table and that prime minister netanyahu will be setting down with the president

in two weeks, or do you think something more serious, more ominous is about to happen? >> there's always the risk and possibility of some kind of a conflict, particularly in the gulf, where the iranian and american navies are very close to each other. but i think that you're going to see a return to negotiations. iran is under tremendous pressure. the toughest sanctions yet by the european union and the united states. there's a lot of political pressure on the iranians to at least find their way to the negotiating table. that's obviously the desire of the obama administration, quite rightly. and the european union to see if diplomacy might be at least part of the answer to resolving this problem. so i think that the chances are reasonably good that we will see negotiations in the next several months, regarding iran's nuclear future. >> nicholas burns, thank you very much. >> thanks, andrea. and the u.s., europe, and arab nations are now moving quickly to demand a cease-fire in syria, where the government's relentless attacks on civilians have placed that country on the brink of civil war.

richard engel has more on the scale of destruction inside syria. >> reporter: for the last several weeks, all of homs has been surrounded by syrian government forces. they have been shelling the city from the outside, but the opposition does control a few pockets within the city, and this media center was in one of those pockets. it was one of the only places that had limited internet access. the journalists were in this center this morning when it was destroyed by a rocket, apparently fired by government troops, posted around the city. >> and of course, we had the incredible death of marie colvin and others only yesterday. at the same time, today in london, hillary clinton suggested that the time for bashir assad may be coming to an end. it is clear to me that there will be a breaking point. i wish it would be sooner, so that more lives would be saved than later, but i have absolutely no doubt there will be such a breaking point.

>> former congresswoman jane harman is president of the wilson center and joins me now. jane, it just seems as though all the rhetoric is not going to get us anywhere, as hard as hillary clinton tries, in her meetings with the prime minister cameron today, as long as russia and china, following russia's lead, are not willing to join in the pressure against bashir al assad. >> well, first of all, i hope richard engel is staying safe. it is just tragic to see the press that is bringing us the stories, those out in the field, lose their own lives. so i would say that as a frequent viewer of his reports. as for this, i'm less optimistic than nick burns. there will be a friends of syria meeting in tunis tomorrow. it's significant that tunis is the place. hillary clinton is going there and i applaud her, along with 70

other nations. that is an opportunity, one would hope, to put more pressure on the bashar government. i think she's right that he has to go. he's about -- or his government is about to be named as war criminals by theuati united nat. i want to put up there a thought, and that is, let's look at the success of the transition of yemen, which six months ago i said was the most dangerous place on earth. sada, the autocrat who had ruled the place in a totally vicious way is now out of there. he's been granted personal immunity, but his vice president has been elected, albeit in a plebside, earlier this week, in a fair election, and the violence has subsided, and certainly, we, the u.s., are able through whatever means to try to reduce the al qaeda presence in the boonies in

yemens. maybe there's an example there for syria, maybe there's a slight window not just to declare a cease-fire, which is a good thing, and access for humanitarian aid, but to find an end game. and the end game, it seems to me, should be the departure of bashar and somehow the creation of a functioning unity government, which might even include alowhites, bashar's tribe. but one of the good things about that, should that happen is, if we can break syria away from iran, that puts additional pressure on iran in addition to sanctions, which are succeeding. we should give success a chance in iran, to force the government in iran to abandon its nuclear policy. and, you know, so i see some optimism, but we have to keep the use, the potential use of military force on the table. david ignatius, someone i read carefully in "the washington post," has a piece today where he says the only time the iranian government has ever agreed to do anything is when the possibility of military force was very, very close.

>> jane harman, thank you very much. >> thank you, andrea. and while the republican candidates, meanwhile, here are slugging it out, the republican party is trying to pivot of fall campaign against president obama. here's the republican national committee's latest ad, hitting president obama, as he campaigns in florida today. ♪ ♪ come on, baby don't you want to go ♪ >> the republican national committee is responsible for the content of this advertising. >> that was a quick turnaround. ryan lizza is a political reporter for the new yorker. they certainly mashed that up quickly. >> yeah, very fast. not bad. >> what is their strategy? because they've got to be, we know, from all your reporting, from my reporting, that they are really worried about the way this primary campaign has evolved. >> yeah, these campaigns with these guys going at each other for this long and it may go on longer is not good. and the guy who's still likely to be their nominee is getting

squeezed on two sides. he's bleeding independents on the one hand, because he's had to move to the right to ward off these challenges. and he's not doing so well with the conservative base, as gingrich and santorum have challenged him. maybe once michigan and arizona are over, we'll see that romney puts this behind him and he'll start to pivot toward the general election, as he's tried after new hampshire, after florida, after nevada. but we won't know until tuesday. >> but, in fact, while the republicans tried to take advantage of that white house moment, and the president singing the blues, i don't think the president is singing the blues these days. democrats are more and more encourage encouraged, and here's their latest ad against mitt romney. >> made in america. for generations of michigan autoworkers, it's more than a slogan, it's a way of life. but when a million jobs were on the line, every republican candidate turned their back, even said let detroit go bankrupt. not him. >> don't bet against the american auto industry.

>> now a retooled, restructured industry is back, because of the grit and sacrifice of michigan workers. >> don't bet against the american worker. >> i'm still not clear how the auto bailout issue is going to work for the republicans in this michigan primary. >> well, all the republicans have the same position on it, they were all against it. so i don't -- you know, once romney points that out, i don't see how it's a huge advantage for santorum. you know, remember, for obama, this wasn't an easy decision. back when he had to make this, his aides were divided. there was one meeting in larry summers' office where it was 5 to 5, and there was a fight between robert gibbs and the political advisers versus austan goolsbee, the economist who said, no, let me go bankrupt. and this is one of the policies from the first year that they actually have a pretty good story to tell on. you know, the bank bailouts is not such a great story. even the stimulus, not such a great story, because unemployment's still relatively high. this is a story with actual faces and it's a good one. and it's complicated the

republican's messaging right now. as the economy improves, everything the republicans thought they were going to run on becomes much more complicated. and you see romney now trying to shift his message a little bit. >> ryan lizza from the new yorker, thank you very much. >> thank you, andrea. coming up, nancy pelosi takes on those republican men. this is "andrea mitchell reports," only on msnbc. [ coughs ] what is this shorty? uh, tissues sir, i'm sick. you don't cough, you don't show defeat. give me your war face! raaah! [ male announcer ] halls. a pep talk in every drop.

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ohh, no no no. i'm not having a heart attack, it's my head. no, bayer advanced aspirin, this is made for pain. [ male announcer ] bayer advanced aspirin has microparticles, enters the bloodstream fast, and safely rushes extra strength relief to the sight of your tough pain. feel better? yeah...thanks for the tip! [ male announcer ] for fast powerful pain relief, use bayer advanced aspirin. hi, everyone. i'm tamron hall. coming up at 2:00 p.m., we are live after two american soldiers are killed and an apparent retaliation of the unintentional burning of korans on a u.s. base. nbc's jim miklaszewski joins us. and also what president obama said in a letter to the president of afghanistan, hamid karzai. and republicans including newt gingrich trying to go after the president over gas prices. in our next hour, president obama will be speaking live from miami where he will address the

anxiety some people are having over these rising prices. the birth control controversy continued on capitol hill today, where democrats staged what they called a hearing, even though it had no legislative purpose, no republican members invited. that was the point. democratic women were shut out of the republicans' hearing on contraception last week, you'll recall. today's only witness was the georgetown law student who was shut out of last week's all-male panel. and here's our exclusive first look at the cover of the national journal's special vote ratings issue. joining us today, major garrett. that was nancy pelosi striking back. and there was no hearing, it was a complete, you know, circus, we get that fact. but they did bring sarah fluke, and here's what she had to say to our own luke russert in the 11:00 our on msnbc. >> let me be clear. i don't think that anyone has treated me like a political football. if you want to hold a hearing on a sidewalk outside, i'll show up to talk about women's health.

so i don't think that the forum could be criticized in that way. >> and so, i mean, they were making a point, a political point, and it's a point that's going to help democrats in the fall, as republicans continue to bash out on these women's issues. >> you have to be cautious. it's incorrect to suggest that all women view this issue universally the same way. but the numbers do indicate that a sizable dimension of the voting women populous in this country. and remember, proportionally, women have outvoted men in every presidential election since 1980. >> and we're not talking about abortion, we're talking about contraceptive. >> by substantial numbers. not all, by a sizable portion of them. and frequently, within the independent ranks of women voter, both democratic-leaning women and republican-leaning women, this issue is a prism by which they view who's on their side or who's not on their side. and that's what democrats sense about this issue. for those jump ball independent voters, in all demographics, married, unmarried, college

educated, non-college educated, this issue more often than not helps them. >> i was just talking to some republican men in virginia who said that the overreach by the legislature there on this issue, sonograms -- >> personhood. >> and all this indicates to them for the first time they think that there's even the chance that barack obama could win virginia. >> could win virginia. and there's also a very strong sense that whomever wins the virginia presidential election, that party's senatorial candidate will win. if it's the republican nominee, it could be george allen, and if it's -- >> and that could -- >> whether the senate stays republican or moves democratic. >> and you see a new vigor from nancy pelosi. >> i wrote, when she decided that she was staying, that she believes -- >> that she wants to be vindicated. >> number one, and believes it's possible. very few people believed it then, more and more m thes, and even some republicans worry,

that it might be true now. >> major garrett, great to see you. thanks so much. and we will be right back. today is gonna be an important day for us. you ready? we wanna be our brother's keeper. what's number two we wanna do? bring it up to 90 decatherms. how bout ya, joe? let's go ahead and bring it online. attention on site, attention on site. now starting unit nine. some of the world's cleanest gas turbines are now powering some of america's biggest cities. siemens. answers.

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the president and the justice department have made it clear they that believe the so-called fence of marriage act is unconstitutional. would you support that as president of the united states? >> he's told this -- >> hold on. hold on. sg first of all, i used to be a prosecutor. i'm not going to be cross examined by you this morning. i vetoed the bill. >> jonathan would you compare the civil rights struggles of african-americans over 300 years to marriage act?

>> yes. it's an issue of civil rights. it's an issue of equality. >> jonathan capehart is an editorial writer of the "washington post" and joins me now. jonathan, what a debate? >> yeah. >> give me your take away from this in terms of the reason why you object to putting the gay rights issue on the ballot as a referend referendum. why you think sieve rights should not be decided by majority vote? >> that's it. i don't think it should be pickup truck toput up to a popular vote. imagine what happened if they voted that way for people to stop drinking in segregated

waters. i'm going to put it up to the vote of the people. he slammed the president for lacking to say whether he supports it. i think it says a lot to not sign a bill when the people of new jersey passed a bill granting marriage equality and he vetoed it. >> let me say in the next few hours, maryland will take a very big step. the state senate is expected to vote on gay marriage this afternoon. the senate passed this before. last year it went down because the house of delegates didn't go along. this week they did approve it. the governor martin o' malley said he would sign it. >> washington state did it a couple of weeks ago. eight states plus the district of columbia that are embracing marriage equality. >> you set the stage this morning with that debate. thank you so much. that does it for us for this

edition of "andrea mitchell reports." tamron hall has a look at what next on "news nation." great to see you. we're live in afghanistan after two american soldiers are killed in an apparent retaliation over the unintentional burning of korans on a u.s. base. why the pentagon calls this the worst case scenarios. republicans have tried to go over the obama administration over gas prices. president obama will speak live from miami where he will address the anxiety over the rising cost of gas. plus. >> why? as you can see -- >> what's with the audience at last night's debate booing over the question regarding contraception the pst what rick santorum said he was ready to defend? details next. ♪ [ woman ] i was ready for my trip, but my smile wasn't. [ female announcer ] new crest 3d white intensive professional effects whitestrips.

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