. >>> and bob franken joins us with his 2015 political predictions, that's next. >>> new year new edition of scrambled politics to kick off your 2015. and it seems all but certain now, from "the washington post," with eye on 2016, jeb bush resigns from all boards. late last night, his office said the former florida governor had resigned from all his corporate and nonprofit board memberships. that includes his own education foundation. the obama presidential library just had to be in chicago, right? well, maybe not. according to the "chicago sun-times," the barack obama foundation is having problems with bids from the university of chicago and the university of illinois at chicago. so right now, columbia university in new york is the current front-runner. >>> iowa's incoming top election officials expect online voter registration to be ready for the 2016 presidential contest. you'll still need a state-issued i.d., though. dvd player. >>> and the most run videos in 2015. in third place, the brilliant former health care adviser, john st. gruber, who lamented the stupidity of american voter a

i'm joined now by syndicated columnist bob franken. always a pleasure.ing. >> i should provide balance here and point out that the leading democratic nominee candidate is named clinton. >> we have seen that before too. >> we should factor that in. >> good point. confirmation hearings are under way for loretta lynch. her stand on immigration may be a problem for some after she said illegal immigrants have a right to work in this country. >> she backtracked from that as you know. what she did agree is the president's position where the enforcement would not be made against law abiding immigrants affecting perhaps millions which have sent the republicans into all kinds of atwitter. she's saying that no the president is on solid ground. there is prosecutorial discretion and she backs him. at the same time she said she wouldn't necessarily back the president on policies she didn't support. >> all right. you think it will throw a kink in the confirmation? >> i suspect she charmed everybody including the republicans on the panel. unlesses there is a big disclos

in washington, i'm joined now by syndicated columnist bob franken.good morning to you. >> good morning, betty. >> it's been a difficult morning as we follow the attack in france on the journalist there. as a veteran journalist, i want to get your personal reaction to this. >> well, if you allow me a bit of an indulgence to join journalists around the world and say je suis charlie that is to say i am charlie, the homage to the satirical magazine in france which was attacked in the -- and the 12 people -- i guess it's 13 now were killed by the muslim extremists who were offended by the caricatures that offended their sensibilities and of course the stand is we have to stand for free expression as a society, as a world society. that is something that is just very precious if you're going to have freedom. and you can't have people in the name of religion or anything else attack that right. even if you're offended and quite frankly i was a bit offended by some of the cartoons that they printed. that's not the point. having said that, we also have to make

so i am joined by syndicated columnist bob franken.rning. >> you mean sarah palin is not going to support mitt romney? i'm stunned. >> right. big surprise. with mitt romney and jeb bush in competition possibly for big donors in fund-raisers could this squeeze chris christie out of the gop nomination next year? >> i don't think chris christie would think so. he is going to be in the sweepstakes for what we call the moderate republican money which, of course always begs the question, are the rest of them i'm moderate. chris christie of course is devastated because his dallas cowboys lost. >> and so am i. >> you are, are you? >> i'm a texas girl come on. >> i live in washington so we probably shouldn't discuss this. >> probably not. >> in any case i suspect chris christie is going to be very aggressive in trying to encounter both bush and romney. >> absolutely. we heard some of the republican backlash for another run by romney. you talked about sarah palin. but running actually help democratic candidates by creating deep divides within th

congressman joaquin castro of texas and syndicated column ummist and longtime capitol hill reporter bob frankenor john thune of south dakota. go to you have all onboard. bob, get rid of it. get rid of it? >> every time it comes on the ratings for the cooking channel skyrocket. i think that -- a big number of people are starting to not watch, and why should they? first of all, we know what's going to happen way ahead of it and there's nothing new about this year. it's the kind of thing there are lyrics to the anxious reporters who are waiting for any crumbs they can get, so you know what's going to be in it. you have all the people barely maintaining their dignity, at best, who are on the house floor. and then you have a president saying whatever's he's going to say and then you have those of us who are in the media reporting it as very hush terms. like we're doing a golf match or something. >> oh, my goodness. >> so i'm saying, you know what? let's replace it with "hee-haw" or something. >> are you barely maintaining your -- >> i tried hard. state of the union is one of the few evings moments,