washington is determined to fight. >> let's bring in our company, again, frank donitelli and alicia menendezlic out of out of control spending. as alicia was saying, it is 1% of the budget. >> it has come to be viewed that way. there's a lot of public passion on the issue. i think what senator mcconnell was saying is, look, this is a huge distraction. let's get past this because there's so much more that we have to do to bring federal spending under control. as long as we're just focusing on $15 billion, we're not getting to the bigger issues, which ewwe have to move on righ away. >> is there an argument to be made, i want him to bring stuff home and, frankly, as spending goes, this is pretty transparent kind of spending. i want to go back as a congressman and i want to throw a parade to tell my constituents where the money is going. >> there are constituents when their congressman is able to bring home the bacon. that is part of it. sometimes we really demonize these earmarks. we call them pork. i am sure some of it is wasteful and some less transparnent than it needs to be. a new school in

young us now from washington alicia menendez who works for ndn.he is in for gretchen carlson this evening and here in new york margaret hoover. same old story overreaching government try obligor protect the kids against irresponsible parents because as we although millions of parents don't care what their kids eat and the school, you know, a lot of their cafeterias have all kinds of sugar stuff and the kids go for that pennsylvania is trying to restrict it? >> i don't know. i hate to be a spoiler here. but what actually happened is the pittsburgh tribune review reported a story that the state of pennsylvania was going to ban sweets in the classroom. and then they ended up retracting it. >> bill: they retracted it? >> it was sarah palin that took sarah palin on -- if you want to make a larger nanny state play. there is are plenty of place does that. example in san francisco is good and new york is good. mayor bloomberg has banned transfat in every restaurant in new york city. private sector. big government regulating private sector. that i do not s

. >>> congressman gerald madler, alicia menendez, erin billings and retired army general billy mccaffrey and today is the day to honor america's military veterans. varterousesious events happening around the country and around the world. >>> good thursday morning, i'm chris jansing, this is "jansing & company." >>> the nearly 4,500 passengers and crew aboard the carnival "splendor" can see land. you're looking at a live picture right now and just a couple hour away from docking allowing the vacation from hell to come to an end. stephanie is live in san diego for us and after a cold food, no hot showers, no air conditioning, you can only imagine how happily they'll be, stephanie, to get off that ship. >> yeah, they can't wait to escape this nightmare on the high seas, chris. here at the san diego harbor we understand the ship is about two and a half miles out but three hours from docking. the coast guard official explained the process to us. he said it will take about two hours for those tug boats, those escort ships to actually navigate and maneuver the 952-foot, 113,000 ton ship through

republican strategist frank donitelli and alicia menendez and eril suthers and patrick gavin.times wonder if some candidates are tenacious or masks because we're already hearing whispers of meg whitman who lost 140 and she is now reportedly setting her sights on a senate seat, potentially a 2010 run against dianne feinstein who is trying to make a jump back in the game after a loss. what do you make of that, pat, she wants to get back into the game. we think she'd be done with it now. >> she has an awful lot of good will out there. she's lost, i think, because of the hispanic gal that worked for her she didn't treat very well and this could be a good year in 2012 the year of the republicans. she has $3 million and only went through 3% or 4% of it, you know. >> that's just small change for her. >> yeah, pocket change for meg whitman. what the problem is, money doesn't buy votes. you can have all the money in the world but if your message doesn't resonate with voters or strange or the people don't go for it, you're not going to get elected. she's a prime example and carly fiorin

alicia menendez, senior adviser for the ironically named new democrat network. dave weigle, slate's political report and msnbc contributor and ari berman, with the nation, aught over "herding donkeys, the fight to rebuild the democratic party and the reshape american politics." alicia, how do you keep the exact same people in power in a sweep election that was theoretically a rejection of status quo politicians and yet both the status quo republican and status quo democratic leadership entirely intact? >> listen, first of all, i think this is a very insidery d.c. issue that only people like us and washington are talking about. to the average american, this doesn't make a whole load of difference. you keep these people because they are effective at doing their jobs. >> you made a very interesting point no one in america cares except for guys like me and msnbc and pundits. if the point of voting and maybe i'm wrong but if the point con separately of voting, particularly when you are rejecting the incumbent politician even though they have got 75% of the districts,