in iowa last night. >> i'm sorry, andrea. i thought we were playing a clip of it. >> i thought so, too. let's make the point because immigration is the cutting edge issue. we have the bloomberg poll today, two to one in favor of what the president did last friday, short-circuiting going around congress. lot of controversy over this. now i think we've got that clip of what mitt romney had to say in davinport, iowa. >> he was going to deal with immigration, he said, in his first year. he was going to focus on that, did he do anything on immigration? while he had a democratic house and senate? no. this is a president who has said one thing and done another. >> so where do you think this comes down now on immigration, because we've seen that marco rubio was really put on the spot. he met with some of us at bloomberg last week at a breakfast and said that he was

getting closer, he had not discussed it interestingly with mitt romney, had discussed it with people in the romney campaign, his dream act light, if you will, and now there are reports that he's pulling back from it. we'll play a little of his interview on cnbc. but what does the romney camp do about immigration now that the president has taken preemptive action? >> you know, i think what they do is what you saw mitt romney do in part, essentially to say this is too little, too late. this is a short term fix for a long term problem, and then they pivot back to the economy. they do not want this election, and frankly, i don't think this election will be about immigration. i think it will ultimately be about the economy. that's where mitt romney is the most comfortable. it's where his experience, his resume, speaks to the best and it's what the romney campaign believes is their winning message. i think they address it. i think they put it in the context of barack obama talks a

big game, but he doesn't deliver, which is kind of the broader economic message, and they very quickly, if they can, move back to talking about the economy first, second and third. >> now, mitt romney was interviewed by sean hannity and this is to air tonight, and understand he got asked about whether or not these reports that marco rubio has not even been vetted, has not been asked to turn over his financial records for the possibility of being the running mate, and he said i get a kick, this is romney, i get a kick out of some of the speculation that goes on. i'm not going to comment on the process of course but i can tell you this, only beth myers and i know who is being vetted. beth, of course, his top aide who is handling the process. this was rubio being asked about it on cnbc today. >> as i've said repeatedly, i won't discuss the vice presidential process. >> you're only 41 and you haven't been in the senate that long but how does it all figure out in the political calculus, do you think?

>> two things. one, i'm not discussing the vice presidential race. i have no doubt i'm qualified to serve in the senate. >> do you have a doubt you're qualified to serve as president? >> i have no doubt i'm qualified to serve in the united states senate. that's the job i have and the job i'm doing. >> that was of course on "squawk box." marco rubio will be on our show on thursday. but he is really such an interesting character for the republican party because he was trying to come up with some sort of compromise on immigration and as you point out, it's not the biggest issue, not even the biggest issue among hispanics but it is an important issue and an issue that could drive the democratic base. >> first of all, i would say it is an important issue in 2012 because of the democratic base, but in the longer term, it is a critically important issue for the republican party because if hispanics become a 65% democratic, 35% republican vote

in perpetuity, given how young that population is, so many of them are going to be coming into as potential voters, people like jeb bush, like marco rubio, haley barbour, understand republicans can't afford to simply say okay, we'll win 35% of the hispanic vote and find votes elsewhere because there eventually won't be enough of those votes. >> chris cillizza, thank you very much. see you later. leaders of the world's top 20 economies are trying to present a united front today as they work to prevent the european debt crisis from triggering a global recession. but the headlines are all focusing on the first one-on-one meeting between president obama and russian president vladimir putin in his new role as president. >> we discussed syria, where we agreed that we need to see a cessation of the violence, that a political process has to be created to prevent civil war and the kind of horrific deaths that

we've seen over the last several weeks. >> we have been able to find many commonalities. >> the body language alone. nbc news chief white house correspondent, chuck todd live from los cobos, mexico, where he is traveling with the president. chuck, that could not have been a colder session. it looked like the cold war all over again. then as you were pointing out earlier, they went back at it, did a do-over by showing a little bit of smiles and a slap on the back later on. >> it was clear, trying to fix it for the tv cameras, the white house folks here really didn't realize how bad that looked on television, and they realized it was bad enough, a bunch of us asked a lot of questions about that just is not the way we've seen president obama interact with any other world leader, particularly a former russian president. we've seen how chummy he was

with dmitry. they were definitely on a first name basis. but the way the president interacted with a lot of other world leaders. that was just a stark contrast. but what was interesting is all of our badgering i think of them on this issue, we did finally learn more of what was the disagreement, what was at the crux of the disagreement with the russians. it seemed they spent over, there was a two-hour bilateral meeting, a third of that time was spent on syria, and apparently, the reason why there isn't an agreement yet on what to do is the hypothetical is okay, if you push assad out, then what. that was the bottom line question of the russians. we heard for the longest time, the obama folks didn't want to say what the russians were saying, they didn't want to speak for the russians and finally the ambassador said it's clear, what is plan b here, what's the political vacuum look like. is it going to be as bumpy of a ride, for instance, as egypt. so apparently what's going on in egypt now came up in the

conversation of okay, if we agree to this assad plan, pushing assad out but not totally overthrowing the regime, what is it going to look like in between and the russians want a better process. they want a better idea of what that looks like before they agree on this idea of finding a safe haven for assad, gently pushing him into the night, but the fact is, apparently there is an opening here that they would be willing to consider it if they're satisfied with the plan b. >> you know, there are a lot of people in congress in the senate who are also saying what is the plan b, so not to take up for the russians, because we know they have been playing all sides of this, and they have their own self-interest. >> sure. >> but there really is no answer to what is the plan b, because the administration tells you and tells me they don't know enough about the opposition. they're trying to train up the opposition. we're going to be talking about that in a little bit. but they don't really know who would take over. >> and that's the motivation, if

you will, of why actually they think this is more elegant. that it's the yemen plan because okay, you let the assad regime sort of bring in somebody of their own choosing and then maybe that eases tension a little bit, where you can start slowly bringing the country to a more open democracy while we in the western side learn who the opposition is. >> mitt romney, taking advantage of what he perceives to be the weakness of the administration posture at the g-20. this is what he had to say today about the obama white house and russia. >> the obama message to moscow has been a reset policy that somehow, everything is warm and fuzzy between us and moscow, and what we've seen over the last several years is that moscow didn't get the message. the president's reset policy has been an abject failure. >> so that is of course the political context in which all of this is happening. speaking of the political context, the g-20 and europe,

they're basically kicking the can down the road saying to the europeans deal with this one, you all meet at the end of the month. >> well, which was what we were warned was likely going to be the case. this g-20 was set up in part, the assumption was answer sort of the global recession worries, if you will, and there's going to be a statement about how all of the g-20 member nations, the noneuropean ones, are going to be focused on growth policies with a balance on fiscal, so sort of the obama administration is saying hey, it's more like our outlook of how you deal with a slowdown. don't cut too much too quickly, try to do some stimulus, don't call it stimulus, but you're right, in as far as the european issue is concerned, they're going to have some detail the europeans promise are going to bring stability and some rules to the road for their financial markets, and for their banking systems. is that enough to calm the

markets, obviously this isn't going to get solved until this meeting of the eu member nations at the end of the month. >> take off your hat, your chief white house correspondent hat and put on your political director hat, just a footnote from indiana, it looks like from the tea leaves, there are reports that mitch daniels might be the next president of purdue university. his term ends in january and i'm being told while we can't comment on that, but the purdue board on thursday, looks like could be offering a nice job to mitch daniels, who took himself out of the presidential running. >> it is, and you talk to folks close to mitch daniels and that are mitch daniels fans and he may, along with jeb bush, be the two guys that regret not running the most. both of them have their own family reasons for why they didn't feel like a campaign worked this year for them, but as far as their political careers, this was their shot. that said, a reminder,

university presidency jobs are about one thing, fund-raising. that's why politicians usually make pretty good university presidents. >> he's going to be a boilermaker. watch the space. thank you very much. >> there you go. attorney general eric holder is meeting today with republican house government and oversight chairman darrell issa, trying to stop issa from pushing ahead with a threatened contempt of congress vote over the controversial fast and furious program, the program that permitted thousands of guns to reach the drug cartels in mexico. issa has been demanding that holder turn over more documents on the program. >> i want to ask you first of all today, have you and your attorneys produced internally the materials responsive to the subpoenas? >> we believe that we have responded to the subpoena -- >> no, mr. attorney general, you're not a good witness. a good witness answers the question asked.

>> issa had threatened to hold a contempt of congress vote on mr. holder for the failure to turn over those documents. the two will be meeting in just a few hours, hoping to reach a deal. joining me now, elijah cummings, the ranking democrat on that committee. thanks so much. first of all, what can the attorney general do short of turning everything over to stop this vote from going ahead? >> well, andrea, over the last year, this attorney general has produced 7,600 pages of documents, gone through millions of e-mails, appeared nine times before the congress on fast and furious, has made 26 members of his administration available to our committee. he's done everything he could do. the fact is that all the way up until now, until last friday, chairman issa was demanding documents, andrea, that the attorney general could not lawfully give him. or documents that might interfere with the prosecution.

well, finally last friday, chairman issa took those documents off the table and he is now requesting documents concerning a february 4th, 2011 letter addressed to mr. -- senator grassley, wherein the department wrongfully and inaccurately stated that there have been no gun walking. basically, that's what we're boiled down to today. this what is the meeting's all about. mr. issa wants documents that led up to that february 4th letter that again misstated the fact that gun running had taken place, again, gun walking had taken place, and second, he wants documents that may have been available after, may have been written after that february 4th letter. so that's what we're going to be discussing today. i applaud chairman issa for

taking the documents that was unreasonable demands off the table and now, i also applaud mr. holder for already delivering to the chairman documents which led up to the february 4th letter that i just talked about. >> congressman, do you think this showdown can be averted? you know darrell issa really well. you work next to him. obviously you know eric holder, you know the situation. are you going to be present at that meeting or is this going to be one-on-one between the two of them? >> oh, no, i will be present. i think this can be averted. i think that if chairman issa really wants to resolve this issue, and get it over with, i think it can be easily done. and i think that we really, on the 1 foot line, and the question is whether we're going to fumble the ball before we can get it over the line. i really believe that the

attorney general has acted in good faith and now it's just a matter of the two parties sitting down and trying to figure out how to resolve this last issue. >> all right. elijah cummings, thank you very much. get back to us after the meeting, will you? >> i certainly will. next, what are the options in syria. we'll talk to p.j. crowley, next. senator marco rubio is our guest thursday. don't miss that interview at 1:00 eastern here on "andrea mitchell reports." on my journey across america, i found new ways to tell people about saving money. this is bobby. say hello bobby. hello bobby. do you know you could save hundreds on car insurance over the phone, online or at your local geico office? tell us bobby, what would you do with all those savings? hire a better ventriloquist. your lips are moving. geico®. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance.

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the bloodshed and turmoil in syria is testing the world's ability to respond. the situation spiraling out of control. there is little consensus of course on what to do in the midst of an apparent civil war. former state department spokesman p.j. crowley joins me

now. you have been there, been at the white house, been at the state department, been at the pentagon, been all sides of this. you've seen it in the past. our institutions don't seem to have a way of responding to a situation where there is no clear-cut opposition and where there's no will to get involved in another shooting war. >> well, i think it goes back a little bit to that terminology from 25 years ago, vital interests. we went through with the powell doctrine, and weinberg doctrine. we're getting better at assessing how to intervene militarily and getting smarter in terms of what kind of costs. so to some extent, syria's a victim of libya. we've set a bar in terms of how we want to manage costs here with compelling, clear call from the region. u.n. security council resolution and willing allies. we don't have those ingredients in syria yet. >> we've seen a war of words between the u.s. and russia. obviously, not a great meeting yesterday between vladimir putin

and president obama. russia has its own self-interest and vital interests and it sees its vital interests as sticking with its ally, assad, because they don't like what happened in libya or egypt and we all have concerns about what happened, is happening in egypt, and they don't want to replace the devil you know, if you will, with the devil you don't know. in their case it's a friend. >> this is the difference between the u.s. policy and the russian policy. syria's far more important to russia and it is to the united states. the united states is trying to find ways to raise the cost to putin, and as chuck just indicated, there's now some indications that russia's prepared to look at a syria beyond assad as long as it feels its interests are protected. >> there are reports that a program, a 2010 program from the state department to help the syrians with new media technologies is now being used to help the opposition get the word out. what do we know about what kind of communications gear and

nonlethal idea we're providing on the ground? >> this is a conundrum in a global marketplace, that the same technology that can expand the ability of the public to communicate enables regimes to spy on their own people, and the government has become a little bit better at trying to track where this technology goes, but that is -- unfortunately, in the post-9/11 world, where we have added a lot of surveillance technology around the world, that's now being used against those who want to change the middle east. >> i wanted to ask you about a controversy which was resolved unhappily for the administration yesterday with the withdrawal by bret mcgurke to be the nominee to be ambassador to iraq. this exploded last week with e-mails, very suggestive e-mails that were disclosed between mcgurke when he was in baghdad as a number two at the embassy, a lower ranking embassy

official, and a "wall street journal" correspondent at the time, they were both married to other people, now married to each other very recently, but it suggested a relationship. there were a lot of inferences. he had enemies on policy grounds on the hill as well as those who criticized his judgment in having these kind of e-mails at the very least with a correspondent. where does it place the administration now? they've had -- this is the biggest most complicated embassy and we have to start all over again coming up with a nominee? >> it happens from time to time. this is not unprecedented. >> this was pretty embarrassing. >> i think obviously the administration underestimated not only the nature of these questions about his behavior in baghdad but the opposition that did emerge within political circles. i think they looked at mcgurke because he was there at the creation of the malaki

government. he would be replicating the experience of the ambassador who had moved up. the iraqis are comfortable with someone they know and can trust and have a relationship, but obviously, politically, this has been a tough week. >> tough week for the state department. thank you very much. p.j. crowley. up next, the politico briefing. mitt romney's democratic d iic doppelganger. what happens when classroom teachers get the training... ...and support they need? schools flourish and students blossom.

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partner. how important is that role in preparing for debates? >> well, i think this position is perfectly tailored for john kerry. he knows mitt romney's record, he was a surrogate for ted kennedy in the old senate race where romney faced the deceased senator. he's been through this himself in the 2004 presidential campaign and widely was thought to have won the debates against president bush, although he ultimately lost the election. even going back to his senate days, he held lincoln/douglas style debates so this is a perfect fit for the obama campaign to have kerry perform this task. >> rob portman of course, on the other hand, has played barack obama. he even played hillary clinton in debate prep in 2000 when clinton was running for the senate. that didn't go so well for lazio. he made every mistake in the book in that debate up in

buffalo moderated by our friend, tim russert. this is a very important role, getting these candidates ready also involves being willing to ask them really tough questions, get under their skin, make them angry. that may not be something rob portman wants to do. >> right. remember, if the romney campaign goes forward with an early vp pick and it happens to be rob portman, that's probably going to take him out of the running. he's got to prepare for his own october vice presidential debate if it is him. but it's going to be someone very comfortable to romney. i wouldn't eliminate someone like tim pawlenty, who has been out with him, knows him well, but you're right, it's got to be someone willing to challenge the candidate and be able to deliver that blow that you know your opponent is going to do onstage in prime time under the lights. >> of course, john kerry also has his own future at stake, not only being the chairman of the foreign relations committee but widely discussed as a potential future secretary of state if

there were a second obama term. so how eager is he going to be to be nasty and mean and really challenge barack obama in debate prep? >> well, that's true, but you know, it's almost the truth hurts sometimes, that could help him in the end, being a tougher candidate. the kerry office isn't commenting obviously on what type of role he's going to play, but you know, obviously that secretary of state post has got to be in the back of his mind. i still think he has potential to be tough on the president in the most important forum this campaign is going to have. >> when we talk about debates it's not only the answer, it's the way you deliver the answer, whether you look at your watch, whether you sigh. more on body language coming up. thanks very much. we'll talk to you about the debates next. up next, the power grab in egypt. we're live in cairo with richard engel. plus lone star state of mind. [ male announcer ] considering all your mouth goes through,

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what's your policy? topping the headlines on "andrea mitchell reports," the trial of former penn state assistant coach jerry sandusky is barreling toward completion as the defense called two state troopers involved in the initial investigation. the defense is arguing that the troopers tainted the investigation by encouraging the alleged victims to say they were abused. the jury of seven women and five men is expected to get the case later this week. top west virginia democrats, senator joe manchin, governor earl ray, tom lennon are ducking out of the national convention in november. all three face republican challengers in the election and president obama is highly unpopular in the state. he was challenged by a primary challenger who got 40% of the vote there and he was a convicted felon. police in texas are searching for a man who they say vandalized a picasso painting at a houston art museum.

he was captured on surveillance video spray painting the 1929 "woman in red armchair." security officials immediately rushed the painting to the museum's conservation lab, where they say they believe they will be able to restore it. dozens of protesters gathered outside egypt's parliament today as the muslim brotherhood stepped up its opposition to the ruling military leaders. egypt's general dissolved parliament and preemptively declared the military would not be subordinate to civilian leaders. we also heard that the campaign is at least claiming victory. nbc's chief foreign correspondent richard engel is in cairo. are both sides now claiming victory? i know the results won't be in until thursday. >> reporter: yes, this had seemed settled yesterday according to accounts by the egyptian media and by the muslim broth brotherhood's own campaign. the muslim brotherhood declared its own victory and said that it won the presidency with 52% of

the votes. now today, the campaign of president mubarak's former prime minister made an announcement and said no, shafiq won the vote. so a tense standoff is under way. the official results will be announced on thursday but there is now the potential for violence, potential for clashes because expectations are being built so high. the muslim brotherhood candidate is convinced it won. shafiq and his supporters coming out today saying their side won. if you look right now how this is shaping up, tahrir square is once again filling up with thousands of people. these are muslim brotherhood supporters. they are staging a show of force, telling both shafiq's camp that they won't back down, also telling the military that they do not accept that intervention by the top generals in this country limiting the

president, limiting presidential authority. a showdown is under way and that decision on thursday from the electoral commission is a critical one. if shafiq as he claims is ultimately declared the president, there could be a lot of violence here. >> richard, in the past, we have relied, we in the united states have relied on the nongovernment organizations, the mdi and iri, the election monitors, they of course were shut down previously in egypt and some were put under house arrest, weren't allowed to leave the country for awhile. we really don't have eyes and ears there, or do we? is jimmy carter coming, any other election monitors or others that we know of? now that the election is over, for the counting process? >> reporter: the counting process was actually quite transparent. the way it was done is ballots were cast and then in front of monitors and often in front of television cameras, the election, the ballot boxes were taken at the same station into a

back room, opened in public, turned upside down and then the votes were counted in public. so corruption and cheating in this election has been fairly difficult. there have not been very many international monitors. i spoke with former president carter and he complained that his teams weren't really allowed to go to many different sites, but even with this fairly transparent process, you have both sides claiming that they won, and both sides, so much is at stake here. that's why tensions are high. >> richard engel, thank you so much. joining me now here, robin wright, the editor and lead author of "the islamisists are coming." thank you very much for joining us. do we have a lot of concerns about the military? there's been a lot of talk in washington of course. what about the military and the potential for them to try to

keep control despite what happened at the ballot box? >> absolutely. in many ways the uprising is unraveling as the military seizes more and more power. they have taken over legislative responsibilities, some of the executive power, the interim constitution basically puts the military as well as its budget beyond government control. it's also grabbed the wright to define the new order because after parliament was dismissed, they dismissed the assembly and now the military has appointed -- is appointing 100 of its own members or 100 people that it selects to write a new constitution. so it's not just the moment and the power, it's the future it's seizing as well. >> how does this get resolved? it seems as though it's a standoff, it is such a rebuke to all the aspirations of the so-called arab spring. we know that that was a false hope in many, many cases. women are concerned about their possibilities in this future

constitution, no matter which side wins, actually, and egyptian christians are concerned about their rights. >> christians are 10% of the population and women have been at the forefront of the uprising and they feel some of their rights are at stake in the future order as well. for the past 18 months, since the uprising began, we have really often seen in the back rooms a kind of deal, unspoken deal, done between the military and muslim brotherhood and i think that's one of the reasons the brotherhood took some fairly moderate positions accepting all international treaties, including camp david, promising to deal with the outside world, dealing possibly in principle with the international monetary fund. the question now is as the military takes all of these powers away by dissolving parliament and putting troops in front of parliament so the muslim brotherhood men who were elected can't go back, that there is the danger of some kind of confrontation between the two

that plays out not only in tahrir square but across egypt. and with spillover across the region because egypt accounts for one quarter of the arab world's population and has always been the intellectual center and inspiration for politics. >> that was my next point, because what happens in egypt really affects the whole region and it is the testing ground for democracy. tunisia was first. tunisia worked better than expected. you have the frustration of people in bahrain, a new issue in saudi arabia where the 88-year-old king has appointed a 77-year-old half-brother as the crown prince. what is the positive message coming out of this right now? >> well, there isn't one at the moment. tragically, egypt was struggling to find the new balance between islam and democracy. it rejected the iran model, it rejected the idea of a religious monarchy. it was really looking for some

new balance and there was hope that it would provide the kind of inspiration for other countries so that you didn't have this great enormous fear of the islamists taking over, that there could -- they could actually be true to their word or the spirit, anyway, of democracy, even if in an islamist context. now the military is going to make it harder and is likely to force the muslim brotherhood into harder positions as well. >> very, very challenging times in egypt. we have a crack team there led by ann patterson, one of or best diplomats but they have their hands full from an american perspective as well. thank you very much, robin wright. up next, the "new york times" gale collins, messing with texas. you know, those farmers, those foragers, those fishermen.... for me, it's really about building this extraordinary community. american express is passionate about the same thing. they're one of those partners that i would really rely on

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he is not being vetted at least right now for a possible spot on the gop ticket. also, new response from mitt romney. plus breaking news in jerry sandusky's trial. we are waiting to hear from sandusky's wife of 45 years, dottie. she is expected to take the stand very soon. what will she say about allegations that some of the alleged victims were attacked in her home? and is the government obsessed with regulating sports at any cost? from the failed prosecution of roger clemens to a new call to regulate boxing. what's going on here? what started as an anti-litter campaign 26 years ago has turned into a rallying cry for the lone star state. ♪ mamas tell all your babies don't mess with texas ♪ ♪ keep your trash off the roads and she's a fine yellow rose treat texas like someone you love ♪

>> you can never go wrong with willie nelson. my next guest is daring to mess with texas. gale collins, the "new york times" columnist, of course, author of the new book "as texas goes ", how the lone star state hijacked the american agenda." >> this is an outsider's view of texas to try to figure out what texas means to the rest of the country. >> are you a new yorker? >> i was born in ohio. >> you're a midwesterner. >> we don't have "don't mess with ohio" tee shirts. that's interesting about texas, the self-awareness of being a texan is very unusual. you don't get that anywhere else in the same way. >> even though politically there are other states, ohio, florida, arguably, but certainly ohio and several other battleground states that are far more important not to mess with for each of the candidates, and texas is predictably republican, since lbj.

but why does texas have this outsized sense? is it because it is a new state relatively and larger and western and you know, open spaces and all of that? >> it does have the sense that because it was once a republic for i think it was nine years, that it has -- vermont was a republic for 14 years. it never comes up in vermont. but for texas, we used to be our own country is very important. i was looking back as we went through the secession thing back in 2009 -- >> rick perry. >> rick perry, all that. i looked back and thought wow, basically all the big stuff that's happened over the last 30 years, you can see this massive texas influence in the savings and loan crisis, the bank deregulation, no child left behind and education, environment, energy, so texas is way more important than people who watch "dallas" think, perhaps. >> now we have "dallas" coming

back. the other thing is texas has been really out front on women's issues. we've seen the whole challenge to planned parenthood, the legislature moving in, the state government really blocking access to screenings. in the state which has i think the highest number of uninsured people who actually need planned parenthood not for abortion help but for medical screenings. abortion is only 3% of what they do. >> i was trying to figure out one of the things i tried to do in the book was figure out what states' rights really means and i took texas and i tried to figure out what things texas does that it regards as its own personal business, really slosh over into the rest of the country. family planning is a great example. they've basically stripped all the government funded family planning out of the state and 60% of the births in texas are funded by medicaid because the moms are so poor. of course, we as national natio taxpayers pay for half the cost of those medicaid-funded

deliveries, and personally as a taxpayer, i'm happy to do it, but i would like to know that those mothers had access to family planning if they didn't want to be pregnant before this all happened. so many players who come out of texas -- rick perry is colorful -- is colorful and had the brief moment in the sun in the presidential primaries. perhaps thinks that he has another future as a potential candidate in 2016. >> oh, please. bush 41 really from connecticut. her daughter cecil rogers, the head of planned parenthood. there have been really progressive, interesting much more liberal democratic characters as well. >> there was a very colorful and very active progressive wing, but to have the progressive --

>> the railroad commission, for instance? >> yeah, you had to have the democratic party to have the progressive wing, and right now the poor democratic party in texas is flopping like flounder. they haven't won a state-wide race since 1994. they're 0 for 99 right now. i mean, they're just -- they're -- it's such a red state that what the old progressive tradition is still certainly exists in places like austin and houston and san antonio, but as a state it's as red as you can possibly be. >> fascinating state. >> large people. >> and large people. thank you very much, gale. good to see you. >> it's a pleasure. >> when what political story will make headlines in the next 24 hours? right here "andrea mitchell reports." me is my high school math teacher, dr. gilmore. i mean he could teach. he was there for us, even if we needed him in college. you could call him, you had his phone number.

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chris is back with us. chris, phil rutger from the washington post is now confirming that mitt romney's

campaign is not seriously vetting marco rubio. i guess they asked a number of people for a lot of information, but the really serious financial vetting is going on with rob portman and tim pawlenty and maybe a few others. obviously. not marco rubio. >> you know, andrea, first let me praise phil rutgers, and i also send praise out to jim carl's way at abc who had this report first. look, i think when it comes to v.p., it's a lot of speculation, but if marco rubio isn't being vetted, it would suggest it isn't, we're looking at a safer mitt romney pick as opposed to a more dynamic. >> and marco rubio speaks at the constitution center tomorrow. his book is coming out today, and we'll talk to him on thursday. thank you very much. "american sentence" is the book. hey, chris, thanks. that's it for us from this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." a proud texan has a look at what's next. hi, tamran.

>> i was glued to my seat watching the great interview from the great state of texas. i'm calling you later, ms. mitchell. >> i'm right here. >> andrea was talking about senator marco rubio, sew the list or not? the washington post now reporting that a senior advisor with romney saying that mr. rubio not being seriously vetted, so what happened? does it have anything to do with the dream act? we'll take a look at it. plus, breaking news in jerry sandusky's trial. we are waiting to hear from jerry sandusky's wife of 45 years. dot tie, she's expected to take the stand very soon. what will she say about the allegations that some of the alleged sexual assaults happened in the family's home? and is the government obsessed with regulating sports at my cost to you, the taxpayer. from the bail prosecution of roger clemens and a new call today to regulate, of all things, boxing.. diarrhea, gas or bloating? get ahead of it! one phillips' colon health probiotic cap a day

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the news nation is following breaking news in the jerry sandusky sex abuse trial. his wife, dottie expected to take the stand any moment. she was spotted going into the court hit-or-miss a few hours ago. it is the first time back at the courthouse since the first day of this trial when the judge ordered all potential witnesses to leave the courtroom. meantime, the defense called two of the lead investigators to the stand after playing a tape of an interview between one of them and one of the accusers. the defense is suggesting police influenced accusers by sharing details of other cases during the interviews. nbc's michael isikoff joins us, and all eyes are on whether dottie sandusky will take the stand here soon. >> that's right. as you mentioned, dottie was seen entering the courthouse today, so the expectation is that she will likely take the stand this afternoon. right now as we speak the defens