first to carl cameron on this challenge to nancy pelosi. the thinking was steny hoyer might step up and run against her when he didn't enter heath shuler. >> this is about the division of the democratic party. nancy pelosi being for democrats a real albatross. so many ads targeting nancy pelosi and linking them to her. by blue dog democrats. the fiscally moderate democrats and even socially conservative democrats that nancy pelosi and her liberalism from san francisco was toxic for them and bad for the future of the democratic party. heath shuler had said on the campaign trail that he was going to run against nancy pelosi if reelected and didn't think she should be speaker. the last several days he has been keeping the door open and not closing it and not making a decision. it has caused a tremendous amount of speculation and we caught up with him just a few minutes ago and he confirmed it this is a very big deal. a conservative democrat saying that nancy pelosi should not be the leader says a lot about the party's future in the upcoming le

wouldn't solve all our problems certainly but karl carl cameron is on capitol hill what's the outlook. >> republicans voted by voice vote nonbinding as a group g.o.p. statement that they are in favor of banning earmarks. only one lone voice of opposition. it came from okin republican james inhofe. a muted grunt in the negative what was a voice vote. republicans also agreed today that as a group philosophically they would support a balance budget. hiring freeze of all federal employees. cut all nondefense spending back to 2008 levels. that they would oppose any new unfunded mandates or any new entitlements and when it comes to that stimulus money, any of it that is unspent, they would actually cancel it all of those things part of the republican agenda they voted by voice vote essentially unanimously but it's all nonbinding. >> shepard: development over the debate of extending the bush era tax cuts set to expire at the end of the year. >> white house set to extend and renew only for the middle class. hundreds of billions of tax cuts for others would not. the president should not compro

carl cameron on the hill. thank you. is a possible showdown looming in the senate over a nuclear arms pact with russia. today the white house says president obama plans to push lawmakers to pass a so-called new start act before year's end. this treat request would limit the number of warheads that each country can hold and allow both countries to inspect the other country's nuclear arsenal. this is seen as one of the president's top foreign policy accomplishments. but the leading republican senator on the matter, jon kyl of arizona has already come out against bringing it to a vote this year saying they need more time. republicans have expressed concern over this treaty saying it would limit u.s. defense options and that it does not provide a way to adequately verify that russia is living up to its end of the deal. we learned of a possible medical break through today and a big one. a drug that could help people with their cholesterol when all other methods fail. we'll explain what it is and what doctors say it can absolu

chief political correspondent carl cameron looks at people and perspective, old and new, starting with attitude adjustment from the senate top republican. >> day one on capitol hill. in the wake of the g.o.p.'s 2010 midterm gain and republican majority leader mitch mcconnell says he's listening. he reversed years of opposition to support two-year moratorium on the so-called earmarks. >> banning earmarks is another small but important symbolic step we can take to show we're serious. another step on the way to serious and sustained cuts and spending and to debt. >> the white house on fox news sunday signalled support for ending earmarks. the shady spending projects that bypass committees but end up hidden in bills without most lawmakers being aware of them. >> we were pleased with the movement and doing away with the earmarks. >> for mcconnell, it marked a political shift and nod for the tea party candidate like rubio and rand paul and nod to the newfound influence. >> the american people sure have chosen outstanding members to join the united states senate. >> a pair of democrats who wo

chief political correspondent carl cameron is following the action on capitol hill. >> senate republicans showed off the newly re-elected leadership team but spent the afternoon behind closed doors proposing ban on earmarks. >> we have a great opportunity to demonstrate we're responding to what the american people clearly would like for us to do. cut the spending. cut the debt. get private sector job creation going again. >> a day after mitch mcconnell banned the earmarks, the democratic senate majority leader harry reid dug in. arguing against sharing congressional control of the nation's purse strings with the executive branch. backward and gives power to the executive. i'm not one who believes in that. i'm not in favor of delegating my constitutional responsibility to the white house. >> the republicans pushed forward with closed door vote putting them unofficially on the record as a group. jim demint was the main force. >> i'm proud of the leadership who listened to the fellow republicans and the voters. >> despite reid's opposition, bipartisan lawmakers hope to force procedural vote

carl cameron, thank you very much, carl.hich is outstanding, by the way, at the hemmer house, right? and the mccallum house and there was supposed to be a big meeting in the white house today, but this week the g.o.p. cancelled, bret baier with me now, anchor of "special report" good morning there. >> reporter: cranberry relish is good. bill: you call it relish, i call it sauce. there is drama in every corner of town and can you chalk it up to a two week delay or does it say about the ongoing relationship the white house has, especially with house republicans now. >> reporter: there's a lot of story lines inside the beltway, it was about gamesmanship and the republicans playing to the best negotiating point, ahead of the deal on tax cuts, whatever that is going to be, that carl mentioned and there appears to be evidence that this is literally just a scheduling mishap, the schedulers from the white house called the republicans the day of the president's cabinet meeting, and were working out a date, starting the process, and t

carl cameron's live on capitol hill watching the drama there. at would you say is the tone amongst the democrats? >> reporter: much more somber. i mean, the contrasts couldn't be more clear to republicans who come in with great energy and enthusiasm, and they're determined and ready to get to work. they're so charged. republicans have a completely different series of problems, and it starts with their leader, nancy pelosi. on wednesday this week all of the, both chambers of the house and senate will elect their leaders, and nancy pelosi will, in all likelihood, become the minority leader of the house democrats. she's not going to give up her leadership post. there had been tremendous pressure from moderate and some conservative democrats -- there aren't a lot of them left anymore, truth is they were still beat b -- so beaten up in the 2010 election, those folks aren't going to be around to vote against her. there is a democrat who may, in fact, run against her, his name is heath shuler of north carolina. a blue dog, fiscally-moderate democrat who

we'll watch all of that, thanks, carl cameron. martha?tha: we are waiting for a decision in the alaska senate race, a couple of weeks after election day. lisa murkowski back in alaska, planning to address her supporters, after the final ballots are counted which we expect to happen this morning. she has a more than 10,000 vote lead now. over tea party favorite joe miller and has tried to become the first u.s. senate candidate to win as a write-in candidate. remember, everybody thought she was a little crazy, to take it on as a write-in candidate and look how she ended up. she's the one who will be, looks like, taking the victory and heading back to the u.s. senate, a look at the new balance of power in the senate, democrats, 51 seats, republicans, 46 and that will not be changed by the outcome in alaska, they are both republicans hanging in the battle and two independents, who caucus with the democrats. so, if she wins, she will caucus of course with the republicans. we'll keep on top of that. bill: in the meantime, the pat-do pat-down br

let's see if we get an explanation from carl cameron on capitol hill. what is the delay, carl?r: there was a easy are solution put behind closed doors among house democrats to would postpone leadership elections to december 8. a pair of oregon democrats put this forth, most notably, peter defazio. been around a long time in the democratic congress. he said it is important for democrats to look at losses they suffered in 2010 and figure out where and under whom they want to go with democratic leadership. therefore he wants to have it delayed. here is how he put it. >> i don't think our caucus has expressed itself in a way the american people have heard and they can see that we're going to do things differently and our leadership has not given us a plan for a path back to the majority. i would like to hear that in the coming weeks and then judge who should be leader. >> reporter: as it stands right now it is a pretty foregone conclusion who will actually be the leaders and that is causes so much of the dissent. house speaker nancy pelosi soon to be the minority leader has made it

with us now james rosen and chief political correspondent carl cameron.eting today, cameron. what was the stuff stuff about. >> their election. they spent hours actually debating whether or not to even have it today. there were a handful of democrats who said hey, look, we have got to reflect more on the beating we took in the 2010 elections a couple weeks ago and really study where we go in the future there was really a lot of doubt about whether nancy pelosi should be minority leader. she hung tough and made it very clear she wasn't going to back down. but there was a very overt attempt to not only postpone it but opponent against her heath shuler from north carolina who said he was going to run on the campaign trail and did. nancy pelosi even critics acknowledged she knows how to count noses. >> bill: no doubt in anybody's minds she is going to maintain power base. i did a radio commentary today that said the reason that is going to happen is because people are afraid of nancy pelosi. there was a song alley-oop a long time ago. she is a mean motor scoo

chief political correspondent carl cameron takes a look at how things shook out. >> when the first post 2010 election votes began, senate majority leader harry reid refused to allow a vote on a bipartisan proposal to ban spending earmarks launched by okin republican tom coburn. >> there are certain people who have grown up on pork. they oink whenever they go back to the district and they talk about what they have done. >> the next chance to ban earmarks comes after thanksgiving. and there is mounting democratic interest. fox news has learned the two democratic co-sponsors mark of colorado and claire mccass skill of missouri have received inquiries in backing the ban. over in the house more democratic division. a third of democrats voted to postpone their leadership elections arguing that nancy pelosi should be replaced as their leader for aligning house democrats too closely with the obama administration's liberal agenda. >> i think the greatest failing in this congress was that the house was basically acting as a -- it enabled the white house and the white house was not always right. >

while we wait for the medal of honor ceremony, let's check in with carl cameron. >> reporter: this isr moratorium. iit somehow ends up in the bill. lawmakers, republicans, specifically the gop of the senate have been behind closed doors virtually all day. they emerged to announce their newly elected team. in the next couple hours they will have a vote, just the republicans. this is non-binding. they will find out how supportive they are as a group for this ban on earmarks. mitch mcconnell did a 180 yesterday having opposed any type of moratorium for years arguing that's important congressional spending and lawmakers shouldn't give up the privilege. he decided to listen to the voters of 2010, and particularly the tea party who pushed aggressively for this ban. there are some democrats pac pag this. this is a democrat from missou missouri. >> i think it's important my party his to the voters. we have got to listen to the voters. that's why i think this earmark vote is so important. it isn't always what you expect. >> reporter: she'll support a ban and she is not expecting a lot of democ

martha: carl cameron joins us live on capitol hill, carl, how serious a commitment is this?t do republicans do next? >> reporter: it is a big commitment for him, he changed his position and did so publicly and gave heads up tie handful of senior members of the u.s. senate, particularly, those also senior members of the appropriations committee where he's a prominent and influential member and yesterday he was meeting with the freshmen in coming republican class and that is where a lot of the pressure came from, particularly, from the tea party, that had been calling for and all-out ban on earmarks for the better part of the last year-and-a-half. over in the house, of course republicans have challenged the president, to veto any type of spending legislation with earmarks in it. so, they see this from the house side, mitch mcconnell, getting the message of the 2010 election which is, exactly what he said yesterday. so, there will be a vote today among republicans, behind closed doors, it is nonbinding but is symbolically important, and we'll find out exactly how many additiona

carl cameron is there with the news, stay tuned for that. this is fox news alert, we are now awaiting a news conference on the search for three people still missing in ohio. a mother, her young son and a family friend have all vanished. you'll remember a fourth member of the group, a young 13-year-old girl has been found alive. we are told this she was tied up and gagged in the basement of a house not far from her own. one man now under arrest. steve brown has been following all the developments as they come in. what's the latest, steve. >> reporter: we are hearing that one -- the father of one of the three still missing persons, the father of 41-year-old stephanie sprang addressed the media today. when we get more details we'll get back with you on that. a lot of activity centering not far from matthew hoffman's home, a place called foundation park. this is just a short distance from hoffman's home, that is where the 13-year-old was found yesterday. the park is an old tkpwarl quarry -- guarry and it has retention ponds. there are boats sear

our chief political correspondent carl cameron is live on capitol hill. at republicans are ready to talk, what can we expect to hear from democrats, or from the white house, carl? >> reporter: well, we hope to hear from senate democrats in a few hours. the democratic leadership has just wrapped up its meeting down at the white house with the obama administration trying to get some cues from them as to what they think the president will do as the final negotiation comes out on this extension of the bush-era tax cuts. billions and billions of dollars of taxes will snap up on january 1st, unless these tax cuts are extended, and the administration and democratic leaders on capitol hill have said for months that what they would like to do is only extend tax cuts for the middle class and tax cuts for people making over a quarter of a million dollars they would like to expire, which would mean a huge jump in their tax burdens. republicans having won the 2010 elections in this economy make the argument that any kind of a tax increase would be devastating and they'

majority and now clings to the leadership post in the caucus and chief political correspondent carl camerons live on the hill. nice see you. the republicans seems excited about this and democrats, not so much. >> reporter: sure, and, trials and tribulations of former ways and means chairman charlie rangel only add to that sense of the blues for a lot of democrats, and, the republicans are enthusiastic and ready to get to work and democrats are, too, but don't exactly know how. nancy pelosi now the soon to be minority leader, has decided to try to stay on as the democrat's leader and because the democratic conference has been so shrunken, it is decidedly more liberal and a lot of those moderate, centrist democrats, blue dogs and democrats in red districts and those who were vulnerable because they were in places where perhaps john mccain had beaten barack obama in '08, come back to washington, in very, very smaller numbers, and, really worried about the future of their party. an, nancy pelosi's decision to stay on as minority leader and the election comes on wednesday, to them is a sign thei