we will alberto gonzales and david axelrod and jimmy connors oop first the forecast with bill karins. >>> the rest of the country is warmed up and everyone else is talking how hot it's been for you but in new england, another cold frigid morning. frost out there as far south as connecticut this morning. it's 33 degrees in hartford. i'd love to tell you it's going to get better but unfortunately clouds and rain showers now moving out of canada through buffalo and rochester move your way throughout the day today. so no big warm-up for new england. you really have to be about philadelphia south wards to get into that warm air. bring the umbrella today. philadelphia north wards including most of pennsylvania and new york state but from d.c. southward you're going to be dry and much warmer. 84 in d.c. today. talk about shocking. everyone worrying about the climate and the extremes they are having. never this hot this early in the year in areas of the midwest. it was 106, warmer than phoenix or vegas so far this year, in sioux city, iowa. that is crazy temperatures out there and it snowed i

including you and alberto gonzales, believe there should be some limits on surveillance organizations. i thought that was very reassuring. >> well, sorry. i think again, i have always been concerned about surveillance on news organizations and this is, it's a false choice that we're being given right now. brian shactman? >> i was going to say alberto gonzales, they almost went there, but didn't. >> there you go. >> yeah, right. >> all right, if it's way too early, what time is it? >> time for "morning joe," but now time for the daily rundown with chuck todd. thanks, everyone. >>> is it a drip, drip, drip? the justice department's secret probe of a press leak is just one controversy facing the attorney general as he gets set to testify on capitol hill today as president obama's team tries to steady the ship, washington wonders. this morning, we'll hear from congressman levin as well as senator roger wicker on how hot things will get on capitol hill for the obama administration. he's one of those republicans that wants to do the big budget deal. plus, in the wake of more troubling alleg

alberto gonzales in the bush administration certainly was a good example of that, janet reno in the clinton administration, but talking about eric holder specifically. he is someone from very early on, republicans were not thrilled with. they did everything that they could as it related to fast and furious, the gun trafficking scandal to sort of highlight that as that he should leave office, that this was sort of a gross piece of negligence. it never gained sort of national traction. it remains a very touchstone in conservative circles, but never in national circles. what we're seeing now from the doj as it relates to the leaks, as it relates to the heirs, airf these things have more credence. it's a issue where conservatives were never going to like eric holder. is it moving to mainstream thought. we have president obama's press secretary saying complete confidence in him. barack obama has never done things in washington to react to sort of washington conventional wisdom. and youia i can't believe he sort of j sort of jetti sonsons eric holder because of this. >> normally he would begin to

he is best known for his role in the 2004 standoff with white house council alberto gonzales over a controversial domestic eavesdropping program. at the time he was acting as attorney general in place of john ashcroft who was recovering from emergency gallbladder surgery. he, of course, stood in the way of more eavesdropping to be done in the administration. we'll see what happens in confirmation. >>> lincoln chaffe expected to change the letter next to his name from an "i" to a "d." he also had the "r" as well. his staff says it is not a political move. he will face a hostile re-election against other democrats. president obama in a statement welcomed him to the party, and said he enjoyed working with chafee when he was a republican in the senate. according to "the boston globe" the move reflects a broader regional shift with three elected officials changing their affiliations since 2001. some republicans acknowledge a different tact in the northeast because of a progressive evolution that left the area at odds at times with the national party. >>> it is considered one of the worst atrocities in

confused why everyone is so shocked about this just check out president bush's attorney general alberto gonzales you know the guy who codified torture talking about committing the exact same type of activity. there was there was at least one occasion in which we were engaged in a very serious leaking of the leak investigation and we had to make some very difficult choices about whether or not to me so we're going after the reporters in order to try to find out who the source where the source of the leak is. and sometimes you know that if we find that a part of the finds itself in a situation where they have exhausted all means and they have to make a do very hard terminations as to whether or not they want to subpoena the reporter they want to subpoena the reporters no. i guess it wasn't as difficult as you're making it out to be mr gonzales after all the bush administration built the framework for warrantless wiretapping and of course obama's carry this torch through is president presidency so while i'm truly saddened to see the a.p. fall victim to this latest scandal i'm not surprised because

u a math as a legal framework for torture and legal documents drafted under attorney general alberto gonzales the mouth was cited as a justification for the use of force on individuals with specific foreign policy knowledge number two the e.u. a math keeps get moment jed's while the doesn't explicitly give the president detention authority the resolution was interpreted to allow the bush administration to open guantanamo bay that detention facility for suspected foreign terrorist in two thousand and two and eleven years later it remains open while the length of time a detainee can be held is not specified holding enemy combatants for the duration of hostilities is just part of the necessary and appropriate force congress granted the president under the a u a math now with over one hundred detainees on hunger strike there to protest their extended detention president obama has said he wants to close gitmo yet still this administration continues to rely on the a u m f as the legal basis for keeping it open number three the a you a math makes it legal to spy on you warrantless surveillance and w

when he refused to renew a controversial surveillance program, then the white house council, alberto gonzalesndrew card, rushed to the hospital to get ashcraft to overrule him. tipped off to the plan, comey was already there. >> ashcroft stunned me. lifted his head off the pillow and in very strong terms expressed his view of the matter, rich in both substance and fact, which stunned me. >> ashcraft supported his deputy. the next morning he went to the white house for a routine briefing. >> as i was leaving, the president asked to speak to me, took me in his study, and we had a one-on-one meeting for about 15 minutes. >> after that the president met briefly with muller. >> after those two sessions, we had his direction to do the right thing. >> in a statement, a senior republican on the judiciary committee, senator charlesç grassley, hinted comey might face questions about his recent in the hedge fund industry. >> bret: a follow-up on a story from china. officials there say the mother of the newborn rescued from a sewer pipe over the weekend will not face charges. authorities have concluded

alberto gonzales was not without controversy, janet reno was not without controversy. as we look at you know the percentajury claims and his testimony, what is your assessment of how questionable his future is or how much in jeopardy it is? >> look, i don't think he's in any legal jeopardy of any kind. on the perjury allegations. that seems way over the top. but clearly, he's been weakened here. i mean he does have a very strong defender in the president. they are very close. and so he's got that. whether this you know, adds up to political pressure on him to step aside, i don't know. i think he's, i think that "daily beast" article was very telling. that he really has been stung by the disclosures about this. and is probably really agonizing about what he did. and but that still should not insulate him from having to answer some very specific tough questions about why he approved that search warrant. what was going on, what the discussions were. and whether it was filed in good faith or not. i think that is a really significant line of inquiry that needs to be pursued

led to a confrontation with white house chief of staff andrew card, and white house counsel alberto gonzalesashcroft's hospital bedside. comey recounted the incident at a senate hearing in 2007. >> i was very upset. i was angry. i thought i just witnessed an effort to take advantage of a very sick man, who did not have the powers of the attorney general because they had been transferred to me. >> woodruff: a year later, comey tried, unsuccessfully, to limit waterboarding and other enhanced interrogation methods used on terror suspects. since leaving the justice department, he's served as a corporate attorney, first at lockheed martin, and later at the hedge fund bridgewater associates. those ties to business may raise questions for some. in a statement last night, republican senator chuck grassley of iowa said: comey is also sure to face confirmation questions about how he would handle leaks of sensitive information. the obama justice department is now under scrutiny for its tough tactics with journalists. comey addressed the subject in a speech in 2007. >> troop movements, search warrants a

of attorney general alberto gonzales as politically motivated removal of eight united states attorneys and in the case of one of those removed attorneys caraway am i so allegedly helped to create the misinformation that was given as an excuse to the public after lemond been dismissed the congressman i say isn't just fond of sacking us attorneys for political motivations is also very opposed to the freedom of information act or so it appears back in two thousand and eleven i saw under the roots of wanting to make sure that federal agencies responded in a timely manner to four requests requested that one hundred eighty federal agencies release all of their electronic files containing the names of people who had requested to see documents the date the requests were made and the reasons for the requests i says apparently always been a hostler before i said even start a career in politics he had been arrested for felony car theft and allegedly burned down the factory of his car security alarm company for the insurance money this company now makes car alarms and agent making ice and the seco

were you present when alberto gonzales visited attorney general ashcroft's bedside? >> yes. >> and am i correct that the conduct of mr. gonzalez and mr. card on that evening troubled you greatly? >> yes. >> okay. let me go back and take it from the top. you rushed to the hospital that evening, why? >> i'm only hesitating because i need to explain why. >> please. i'll give you all the time you need. >> i've thought quite a bit over the last three years as to how i would answer that question if it was ever asked, because i assumed at some point i would have to testify about it. >> james comey, then at this point in the hearing explains that he will not explain what this classified program is, that caused this standoff in the hospital room that he's about to describe. he says he will not describe the classified program itself, because he's in an open hearing. and he will not say what his legal advice was as a deputy attorney general. bus nevertheless, even though he won't describe those two things, he is going to tell the senate and tell the country, the story of what h

of power is intelligent so pat a half a minute you think that eric holder is barack obama's alberto gonzales absolutely he has been for such a long time if you remember briefly he was going to he was going to step down this administration wall street put pressure on obama and on holder to stay because holder is such a great gift for wall street so he remains there that's remarkable mike having tonio thanks so much for being with us tonight thank you soem. after the break i'll dig deeper into president obama's big speech and what it means for the future of the war on terror. let me let me i want to know why don't you let me ask you a question from. here on this network is we're not in the bay we have our knives out for. you to do for you this time it's about staying there again you're in a situation where b. and i don't even talk about surveillance me. you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so for lengthly you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else and you hear or see some other part of it and realize everything you thought you knew you don't know i'm tom harpur

jon: democrats were incredibly rough on alberto gonzales when he was attorney general under george w. bush, bush 43, have they -- are they thinking about doing the same kind of thing? is there the same kind of backlash against eric holder? >> i think a while for it to develop. i think gonzalez was under attack early on. the attacks against holder have -- it's dash in conservative circles of course with fast and furious and so forth he's been very much a target, people have been angry and wanted him to leave. but the fact that this is now spreading to liberal critics who for example are angry about signing off on the president's drone policy or gan guantanamo r-r. particularly th guantanamo. the rozen case is bringing this to a head. jon: thank huh, nina. jenna: the whole debate about the debt ceiling, the good old days -- jon: is there a debt ceiling? >> we could be heading for a bit of a deja vu, the u.s. treasury shifting money around to stay under the debt ceiling. there is only so much they can do before it becomes a big problem again. what lawmakers are doing now to gear up for t

with ashcroft very sick, comey was the acting attorney general when then white house counsel alberto gonzales and chief of staff andrew card visited ashcroft's hospital room, a last-ditch effort to get his endorsement of a warrantless eavesdropping program he thought was illegal. comey caught wind of it and ordered his driver to speed through the streets of washington, sirens blaring, and beat them there. >> attorney general ashcroft then stunned me. he lifted his head off the pillow, and in very strong terms expressed his view of the matter and then laid his head back down on the pillow, seemed spent and said to them, "but that doesn't matter because i'm not the attorney general." >> reporter: cnn contributor fran townsend was one of president bush's top national security advisers at the time. >> this is a man with a very strong sense, internal sense of right and wrong and what is appropriate, and he's going to follow that sort of moral compass. >> reporter: as a federal prosecutor, comey handled the khobar towers terrorist bombing case following the 1996 attack on a u.s. military facility i

of the most dramatic moments of the bush admin stretch appeared in 2004, white house counsel alberto gonzalesnd white house chief of staff try to persuade the attorney general don ashcraft -- john ashcroft -- host: a little bit of news for me from page of "usa today." we will dig more into the papers. in the meantime, we're asking you how you get your news. democrat caller from florida. caller: i get my news from the newspaper, from the internet, from television, on my iphone. some traditional ways, others more recent. as far as what that one man was saying about robert mueller leaving the fbi -- i think the reason for that is because they have term limits on the fbi directors, which are 10 years. he has been there for 12 years. that is probably because of the way the terrorism situation -- but they only serve a certain amount of time. that is most likely why he is retiring. more let's look at some from the pew center for the people and the press. we see a graphic that shows where those polled got their news yesterday. this coming to us from september. you see in blue those who watched news o

power is intelligent so have a half a minute left you think that eric holder is barack obama's alberto gonzales absolutely he has been for such a long time if you remember briefly he was going to you he was going to step down this administration wall street put pressure on obama and on holder to stay because holder is such a great gift for wall street so he remains there that's remarkable like having tonio thanks so much for being with us tonight thank you soem. after the break i'll dig deeper into president obama's big speech and what it means for the future of the war on terror. the worst year for those. white house is to give it to the radio guy. because you've never seen anything like good. little. while back let's dig a little deeper into some of the issues the president obama brought up one of the first things he did was quote james madison james madison the father of the constitution the third president of the united states one two three fourth president has said that one of the most corrosive influences. that could be had our president on the presidency itself is actually was warfare be