i'm bret baier. welcome to fox news reporting, 36 days that decided the presidency. the 2000 campaign between george w. bush and al gore was a tight race. as a result, election night coverage was filled with mistakes and blown projections by all of the television news networks. that let to endless legal battles in the courts of florida and finally the u.s. supreme court. join me as we look back as the suspenseful 36 days as the fight for the white house continued between then vice president al gore and texas governor george w. bush. >> so much bitterness in washington. time to have a fresh start. >> one of the reasons i was successful as the governor of texas is because i didn't try to be all things to all people. >> the only way to convince voters to vote for al gore was to not ask them for a third clinton term. >> we are entering a new time. we are electing a new president and i stand here tonight as my own man and i want you to know me for who i really am. >> well, about a week and a half before t

back in a minute. >>> i'm bret baier. this is a fox news alert. the house has just voted to censure congressman charlie rangel. the 80-year-old harlem democrat will stand in the well of the house as the house speaker reads the shine resolution. let's listen. >> the house resolved that representative charles rangel of new york be censured. the representative forthwith present himself in the well of the house for the pronouncement of censure. that representative charles rangel be censured with the public reading of this resolution by speaker, that he pay restitution to the appropriate authority for any unpaid estimated taxes outlined in exhibit 066 on income received from his property in dominican republic and provide proof of payment to the committee. >> the gentleman from new york asks unanimous consent to address the house. without objection? >> so ordered. >> i fully recognize that constitutionally that this body has the full jurisdiction to determine the conduct of one of its members. my predecessor suffered because they didn't allow him to be

the anchor of "special report" bret baier is here with the break details.his thing is literally falling apart in the house. >> reporter: it's a snowy day in washington, the streets are a mess and the situation on the floor of the house is a mess. they came out of the rules committee to unveil how this tax bill was going to be debate, then voted on. the rule is a blue prifnts how t of how it's going to go. they didn't have the votes to pass the blue print because no lawmaker liked the what it was set up. and there was a provision in there that if they passed an amendment to adjust the estate tax provision -- when talked about how house democrats don't like that provision, fit was amended at all it would be bummed over to the senate and so they didn't like how it was structured. they sent it back the rules committee and they will come up with a new blue print of how to do it. they probably still have the votes to get it through once they figure out how the blue print will look like. megyn: why can't they figure it out. nancy pelosi runs the house. aren't they

glenn beck returns in a moment but first bret baier previews "special report." >> bret: what is goingrview with mitch mcconnell. join nein 27 minutes for "special report." now back to glenn. ♪ ♪ >> glenn: back now with part two of america's first christmas. watch. >> i still think it's fun to be santa, but it's really fun to be a kid. really fun to be a kid. last year we got nerf guns. it was the best! going shopping with my wife. she's never been a boy and has no idea what she is looking for. she goes around and she is looking at the stupid nerf guns where you put one thing in and it has a suction cup on it. "this would be fun." i'm like three aisles down, with one with the bullets that are all in line. it's like rambo. i come out of one aisle. shooting her like -- i'm like this is the greatest ever! i'm standing there with those guns and my wife comes out. oh, no, you are not going to do that. don't give me we're not teaching our kids violence. you're standing there with a gun, mama. "i don't know this --" and she's just like -- [ babbling ] the reason i have two is they're two bran

glenn beck returns in a moment but first bret baier previews "special report." >> bret: they will startding the omnibus spending bill page by page. it could take 40 hours. we'll explain it all at the top of the hour. now back to the judge in for glenn. ♪ ♪ >>> wikileaks founder julian assange released on bail a few hours ago. he's wanted by prosecutors to answer their questions about alleged sexual assault in sweden. here is what he had to say. >> it's great to smell freshbe air of london again. first, some thank yous. to all the people around the world who have had faith in me. who have supported my team. while i've been away. >> he has lots of supports and critics but did he commit a crime? with me now kathryn mango ward. and radio talk show and fox news contributor leslie marshall. leslie, to you first. do you think that there is a basis to charge him in american law for his dissemination of documents, bearing in mind the manner in which the supreme court treated the first amendment and bearing in mind the special protection the first amendment gives for journalists in our society to

i'm bret baier. house this afternoon debate and voted on repeal of the "don't ask, don't tell" law. correspondent doug mcelway tells us what happened. >> reporter: good evening, bret. with the clock ticking down on the majority in the house and battered by the compromise on taxes, democrat brought a stand-alone repeal of "don't ask, don't tell" to the house floor today and salvaged another victory. the time vote to repeal it, 250-175. cosponsor patrick murphy reacted moments ago. >> today's vote is about whether we'll continue to tell people willing to die for our freedom they need to lie in order to do so. >> reporter: democrats cited the defense department own study to make a case that it's time for gay americans to openly serve in the military. >> overwhelmingly, our military said you know, this is just fine. many of them said i already know, i serve alongside one who is a gay or lesbian member of the armed services and it doesn't bother us at all. >> reporter: they cite the cost of readiness to losing the 13,000 gays and lesbian discharged in the 17 years of "don't ask, don't tel

. >> bret: good evening, i'm bret baier. this is a fox news alert. you're looking live at picture of the senate floor. they're talking about the stark treaty and ratification of that. in an hour, clerk will read aloud page-by-page the 2,000-page omnibus bill that calls for trillion of spending through september. that process could take 40 hours of constant reading. we'll keep you posted on this. on the other side of the capital, a live look at the house floor. that is congresswoman louise slaughter talking about the tax rate compromise bill and moving forward with that. time is running out and two major concessions are running into roadblock. jame angle will look at the controversial spending bill in senate. but we'll begin with chief political correspondent coral cameron on machinations in the house. >> reporter: they're not pretty. they hoped to be done with the tax cut on unemployment insurance at this time. but they had a meltdown on ground rules and are starting again now. >> the house lawmakers prepare to vote on the tax package, democratic lea

good evening, i'm bret baier. after moving at a snail's pace for much of the lame duck session, lawmakers on capitol hill picked up steam. since we signed off thursday night, the house passed the tax rate bill. and the president has now signed it. senate republicans forced democrats to withdraw the trillion-dollar spending plan. conservatives want to keep victory on guantanamo bay prisoners. we begin with chief washington correspondent jim angle on the effort to keep the government running. >> with the massive spending bill going down in flames, democratic majority leader harry reid and republican leader mitch mcconnell are now working together to fund the government into february so they can start fresh next year on spending bills. >> the senate will take it and pass it. senator mcconnell and senator reid agreed they will pass this. >> the senate hopes to vote this evening on that extension or perhaps the longer one. >> no one should be worried about the lights going off. that will not happen. >> the movement ple

jenna: fox team coverage with carl cameron covering all the action on capitol hill, bret baier with us taking us behind the scenes, taking us to the big pweur if you will. jon: we are waiting for the senate that will limit debate on the tax bill clearing the way for final approval or a final vote by the senate. let's check in with carl cameron. are there enough -- enough votes to clear the first hurdle here, carl. >> reporter: it appears as if there are. lassen at vote is largely procedural. what you've been seeing the past few days is not part of the formal debate. today will formally begin the debate on the senate floor. it will not last very long. it's going to start at 3:00, and it could go several hours. we have lawmakers returning to washington, because of blizzards, their planes could be delayed. it could be a while. the 60-vote threshold is believed to be able to be met. this is something that has essentially been resolved. we could see final passage perhaps as soon as tomorrow or thursday. the democratic leader of the senate has acknowledged this even though the democrats have

megyn: bret baier is the anchor of "special report." it to pass the senate, now it goes to the who is. all this drama we have seen in the house. democrats saying we won't stand for it. the question is will nancy pelosi ignore them and bring it to a vote. now the conventional whistle come is what? >> reporter: there will be some whining from some house democrats. there will be statements about how bad a deal this is, but in the end the house will pass this deal unchanged. despite the fact that you have top house democrats like chris van hollen saying there should be a damage in the is state tax and they should twaict and sendt and send sit back to the senate. everybody believes the threat on the senate side fit comes back changed at all, it will not get through. the threat from the administration that the economy cannot handle that. it should all pals. megyn: we have seen pushback from republicans saying their words we can do better. let's not do this. let's wait until the gop controls the house. and we can take out some of these sweeten

bret baier joins me now from washington, the anchor of "special report." this is a fairly big deal. if you hook at this omnibus spend being bill, it had a lot of dough for health care including 3.6 billion for the guy who's supposed to be overseeing medicare and medicaid. 19 billion for the irs, 12 million to a panel of bureaucrats that oversee some of the mandates, 6.25 billion for the department of human services, so on, so forth. all that's gone now, so o how do the democrats get that money come january? >> reporter: this is a big deal, the fact that it went down and senator reid didn't have the votes to move it forward. democrats had planned, as you mentioned, to bury in there some of the money, a lot of the money for the implementation of the health care law into next year. now, what has to happen now is a continuing resolution which means a funding that continues the levels at the current rate into early next year at which point the republican house and a more republican senate will deal with funding for the rest of the year. republicans have already talked about trying to def

jenna: let's brung -- bring in bret baier to give us some context.rms political exercise, you hear showdown, you hear horse trading, you say political theater. it seems like we disregard some of this pretty l maneuvering as, oh, that's just washington, that's what's happening. is that an adequate explanation for our viewers? >> reporter: well, no. it's not. it's pretty frustrating, wail, the back and forth -- actually, the back and fort especially when you talk about companies that are trying to get a look at what the tax rate is going to look like in the new year. they have to start planning a lot of them in the next week or two, and if this gets pushed to christmas eve; that's a problem. most people up here think there will be some sort of deal because neither party can afford and the country can't afford for the u.s. economy to take such a big hit by the tax rates, basically a tax increase, these tax cuts not being extended. so there is going to be some effort to tie some things together, and that's what's happening behind closed doors. the effort

bret baier explains what's happening moments ago. >>> and our first lady, michelle obama, says childhoody is not just i a fitness problem, it is a national security problem, one that requires several billion taxpayer dollars. up next, why one school administrator says a lot of that money is going into the trash. ♪ [cheers and applause] let me tell you about a very important phone call i made. when i got my medicare card, i realized i needed an aarp... medicare supplement insurance card, too. medicare is one of the great things about turning 65, but it doesn't cover everything. in fact, it only pays up to 80% of your part b expenses. if you're already on or eligible for medicare, call now to find out how an aarp... medicare supplement insurance plan, insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company, helps cover some of the medical expenses... not paid by medicare part b. that can save you from paying up to thousands of dollars... out of your own pocket. these are the only medicare supplement insurance plans... exclusively endorsed by aarp. when you call now, you'll get this free information

of the most lavish estates i've ever seen and wield hae'll have report on "special report" with bret baiern more of her story, head to our web site at foxnews.com, and, jennifer continues her reporting down there. fascinating stuff. arthel: it really is. all righty. well, all for a good cause, vladimir putin taking center stage at a charity event there. the russian strongman, sang a tune, interesting. coming up next. ♪ ♪ naturally colorful vegetables are often a good source of vitamins, fiber, or minerals. and who brings you more natural colors than campbell's condensed soups? campbell's.® it's amazing what soup can do.™ come celebrate exciting cars that are stunning to look at, exhilarating to drive and worry free to own. celebrate this holiday season with the gift of platinum. jaguar platinum coverage: five years or 50,000 miles of complimentary scheduled maintenance, and no cost replacement of wear and tear items visit your jaguar dealer during the platinum celebration foa $599 lease offer on the 2011 x time is running out to review your current medicare coverage. the annual enrollment