i want to bring in columnist dana milbank. what can we infer when harry reid and mitch mcconnell refer to each other on the senate floor as "my good friend," or is this like a fellow referring to someone as honest and brave? >> well, they are always having to refer to each other as "my good friend" but that's followed by saying "my good friend is the worst leader in the history of the united states senate." the difference today, they appear they might mean it, which is a sign of the apocalypse, or in fact means they are in fact reaching a deal. so i think there is a whole lot of optimism right now, as luke outlined. there is various ways in which this can can get tripped up. but it's easier and easier to see how they get some sort of resolution. of course, that resolution is nothing to celebrate. they merely are punting it a few months down the road so we can do this all again in the winter season and be done with the fall standoff. >> but dana, that presupposes that some kind of senate agreement will pass through the house. an

joining me now are dana milbank and maria teresa kumar. thank you for coming on the show. is titled, quote, the cruz afiction of the gop. you write the standoff has been a political blood bath for republicans and maybe that's exactly what was needed to right the political system. what do you mean by that? >> well, look. ted cruz did something very good for ted cruz and very bad for the republican party. and for that matter, for the conservative movement now you showed him being under water with that negative 14, the reason it's not much lower than that is not enough people know him yet. the more he's getting known to the american public, the more negative his numbers become. so he became the de facto leader of this shutdown, this -- and it was chiropractor clear from the beginning that it would be a disaster for his party. he took them in that direction anyway. they were intimidated into doing it. ted cruz isn't at this moment scaring the democrats to death. he's scaring his fellow republicans to death. >> maria, is ted cruz like other states rights defenders who oppose pro

joining me now dana milbank and clarence page. thank you for being here. dana, i know we only caught one republican congressman sleeping on the job, but doesn't it seem like they all are? >> i think that's the larger issue here, and you could forgive anybody going to sleep while louie gohmert is giving one of his winders on the floor. but the real problem is republicans have gotten themselves into a box. you saw ted cruz, he wants to keep this being about obama care. look, this isn't about obama care anymore. it's about how the government got shut down. and the polls are showing no surprise the republicans are being blamed for that. the problem is they don't really have a way out other than doing these sort of silly bills to open one thing at a time. it is like the who's going to be allowed into the lifeboat. it only shows the parts of the government that these guys don't actually care about. the problem is they don't really have a way out of this now. but maybe if they close their eyes and rest for a few minutes, they'll come up with one. >> you know, clar

. >> let's get right to our panel from washington and the "washington post" is dana milbank. mckay coppens, political editor of "buzz feed." dana, the rollout of affordable care act has been disastrous for administration and presented a great opportunity for the gop, so they decided to joke about the wizard of oz and frat guys doing keg stands. with people like, of course, congresswoman marsha blackburn folking at the mouth, it seems as they were less interested in exploiting the opportunity than auditioning for the house republicans' vampire costume this evening. >> yeah. i think they could have really done sebelius and the administration some damage if they only had a brain. but in this case, it turned out not to be functioning very well. the collective republican brain. i think what happened is, she simply disarmed them by doing that rarest of things in washington, and taking responsibility for something saying, yep, we screwed this thing up, i'm sorry, we're going to nix it. that seemed to have taken the wind out of their sails. you had a few. you had marsha blackburn, yo

with us from washington is dana milbank, political commentist for "the washington post" and in new yorkmsnbc contributor jared bernstein, also a senior fellow at the center on budget and policy priorities. dana, i have to start with you. you were present at the rose garden event today. and there was this moment when a woman standing behind the president became a little bit wobbly, and needed to be escorted out with an assist from the president himself. we understand her name is carmel allison, both pregnant and a diabetic, but doing fine. republican congressman steve stockman couldn't help himself, tweeting, quote, the guy who made a pregnant diabetic woman stand until she faints now runs your health care. dana, doesn't that speak to the bigger problem for affordable care act opponents? here is a woman who stands to benefit from this policy, but all republicans can think of is attacking the issue or her, indeed. >> yeah, i'm surprised we didn't have michele bachmann coming out after that saying, i told you obama care would kill people. look what it's doing. >> of course. >> you know, i

joining us now is dana milbank, a political columnist for "the washington post" and ryan grim for "thefington post." good evening to both of you. dana, given that the speaker appears to be suffering from multip multiple personality disorder, one day doesn't want a debt ceiling fight, next day does, is the president's position the safer bet at this particular point in time? >> well, the speaker is having many conversations and some are with himself, obviously, and within his own head. look, he can -- it's a debatable point whether there are enough -- there are more republicans who would support what's called the clean cr that the democrats are looking for. but there's no question that there are enough votes for it to pass through the house. that's why it hasn't been brought to a vote there. >> of course. >> there's the old -- there's the traditional thing called the hazard role, if the speaker doesn't have the majority in his own caucus, he won't bring it to the floor. it's arguable, i suspect, he may even have enough votes within his own caucus. but problem is, once he does that, he's

dana milbank of the "washington post." jim vandettei of politico. and our own john dickerson. the government is shut down. but we're not. this is "face the nation." captioning sponsored by cbs from cbs news in washington, "face the nation" with bob schieffer. >> schieffer: and good morning gaining gwen and for the very latest on the terror raids carried out by u.s. forces in weekend we're joined by our national security correspondent david mart and i know former bush motor adviser on terrorism, juan zah rawty. david, what is the latest on what happened? >> who trait sprait operations in two separate countries, both in africa and libya. u.s. commandos snatched one of the f.b.i.'s most wanted terrorists off the streets of tripoli in broad daylight, and he is now in u.s. custody, probably on a ship in the mediterranean. this guys names was aby abas el-liby. he was want the for his role in the 1998 bombings of the u.s. embassies in kenya and tanzania and one of the original members of al qaeda, one of the few still at large, but he will now, after he's interrogated, be brought bac

along and not have to have these debt limit increases. >> does nothing but hurt the country. >> dana milbank, tweet level brevity from an unfair question from toure. shot clock running out. >> thanks to you. and thanks to john stan for spending time with us today. that does it for "the cycle." joy reid is in for martin bashir. and that is up next. d we invest? maybe new buildings? what about updated equipment? they can help, but recent research shows... ... nothing transforms schools like investing in advanced teacher education. let's build a strong foundation. let's invest in our teachers so they can inspire our students. let's solve this. you feel...congested. beat down. crushed. but sudafed gives you maximum strength sinus pressure and pain relief. so you feel free. powerful sinus relief. sudafed. open up. katy perrsure how many? town. can we get tickets, please??? thank you, thank you, thank you! seriously? i get 2x the thankyou points on each ticket. the citi thankyou preferred card. now earn 2x the points on entertainment, with no annual fee. go to citi.com/thankyoucards >>> good after

dana milbank, thanks for your reporting today. >> pleasure. >> we turn from the politics to the technical side of things. the website having some extra troubles even today. we're getting ready for the president's health care remarks as the cycle rolls on the day before halloween 2013. ♪ [ fishing rod casting line, marching band playing ] [ male announcer ] the rhythm of life. [ whistle blowing ] where do you hear that beat? campbell's healthy request soup lets you hear it in your heart. [ basketball bouncing ] heart healthy. [ m'm... ] great taste. [ tapping ] sounds good. campbell's healthy request. m'm! m'm! good.® rely on unitedhealthcare for their medicare coverage. if you're looking at your options, see why aarp medicare plans from unitedhealthcare could be right for you. as you know, medicare doesn't cover everything. that's why it's important to consider your choices. aarp medicare plans offer a range of options, including plans that help lower your prescription costs or let you enjoy extra wellness benefits. and all these unitedhealthcare plans are backed by a commitment to qualit

i mean our colleague here dana milbank has taken to calling him spokesman because he's following hisaucus instead of leading them. and i don't mean -- actually, i do mean to compare speaker boehner to speaker pelosi, but if the shoes were flipped and this was speaker pelosi's house, there's no way she would have a vocal minority in her majority telling her what to do. >> let me bring it back to jonathan martin. go ahead, jonathan. >> i was going to say i don't think i'm being -- i'm not trying to suggest that the conservative hardliners in the house would be pleased with one vote on to open the cr back up and raise the debt ceiling. i think it would make them less angry. there's no good options for boehner given his own politics right now. i do think rolling two tough votes into one and hoping to get some type of a face-saving measure, be that the medical device tax or something to throw in there and schedule one vote on the house floor is probably the better of some bad scenarios to the speaker. >> sounds right to me too. that one. although it does get to the body of the health care

dana milbank from the "washington post," jim vandettei, from politico, and rounding out the group, our own john dickerson. john dickerson, where do you see this government shutdown ending? is there a way out of this mess? >> well, there may be but we should-- looking at where things are now, i mean, if you look at the white house positions, they see the republicans are totally divided, shooting at each other in public and saying things in private unmentionable, particularly the house very conservative caucus-- >> schieffer: and you're saying that about republicans. >> the democrats think as long as we're united and they're divided we're nay good place. they think we'll keep the pressure and the house will have to cave. you talk to house republicans and they say the president cannot on this debt limit question with so much in peril, the president, it's not tenable for him to just say i'm not going to negotiate because the polls show that people want some spending reductions in exchange for an increase in the debt limit, and also they sort of expect a president to do this. so that's kind

joining me now are dana milbank and angela rye. u for being here. >> hi, rev. >> thank you. >> dana, some republicans do admit the shutdown is horrible for the party. but with tea partiers ready for round two, have they learned anything? >> well, here's the problem, reverend, is when you say "they" it's not clear who it is we're talking about in the republican party now. it's become some sort of sea monster with the various heads it has. and yes what's left of the establishment of this party is very clear that things have to change. but if you look at sarah palin and ted cruz, cruz is very thrilled with the outcome. because it's good for his bank roll and his popularity within the tea party. the question here is are the financial interests that have been bank rolling the tea party finally realizing that these people are not aligned with their interests and are going to push back and launch primarying against sarah palin's candidates in these republican primaries. >> angela, another sign the shutdown has been very bad for the republi

with us from washington, dana milbank, a political columnist for the "washington post" professor michaelc dyson. dana, let's take a quick look at some of the international reaction to this debacle. the south china morning post says default or not, the united states has damaged its credit rating and its standing in the world. britain's telegraph says america is the certain loser. two continents, two condemnations but according to ted cruises and tim huelskamp, it was outright victory. >> it was a victory for ted cruz. he's raised all kinds of money. he has endeared himself to this very passionate but rather small and shrinking segment of the electorate, so it was a victory for ted cruz. there is nobody -- i mean i think the president is right. there is no winners except for maybe the senate chaplain, barry black, who got parodied on "saturday night live." but in terms of elected people, i don't think anybody is happy with it and there is a real sense of foreboding that we are just looking at -- just punted this so we can do the same thing again in 90 days. >> i was reading benjamin witts

joining me now are mismi shell cottle and and dana milbank. thank you for your time tonight.f the anniversary, they're fund raising in the new york area. your reaction? >> well, it's not surprising. especially if you're in a tough race like mitch mcconnell is. you always go with your hand out to the new york area because that's where the money is. so, you know, at this point it's a by gones be bygones situation. >> you still have houses in new jersey and far areas of new york. it's not over. and what they did in many ways was something that people that have had the rest of their lives altered and the families who lost lives, dana, cannot just act like it's just something that can be forgotten that easy as they're saying give me a check. >> no. it's a bit rich to be raising money on this anniversary. and it's worse than that about ignoring the anniversary or raising money on it. you have tom coburn out there complaining that the aid hasn't been distributed fast enough. well, that's the aid he opposed in the first place and that if people washington put in all these rules to av

joining me now is dana milbank and joan walsh. thank you for being here. >> hi, reverend. >> thank you. >> joan, the president admitted there's a problem and that there are problems with the health care website. but he also made it clear the website is not the policy that will give health care security to millions of americans. what did you make of it? >> i thought it was great, reverend al. people were saying he was going to come out and apologize which i thought was crazy. it was set up as an apology tour. and he was really defiant and proud of what the affordable care act has accomplished. it is not a website. the website has a lot of problems. none of us here would dismiss that or deny that. but it's not the website. they will work out the glitches. and it's really rich for these men who've worked so long to defund or repeal obama care to deny these 30 million americans government help with health insurance. suddenly being so concerned that these people might be having trouble reaching the website, getting their applications t

was give the phone number for the affordable care act exchanges that led a friends of the show dana milbankequate it to the selling of other things. here on "the cycle" as a salute to dana, we offer this. >> call now, within the next 20 minutes. >> get your questions answered by real people, 24 hours a day in 150 different languages. the phone number for these call centers is 1-800-318-2596. >> when you see the 800 number on the screen, please call it. >> 1-800-318-2596. >> you've got to call now. >> conservatives wanted to make government more like business. there you go. now on quts morning joe, miikka dialed the number and got right through. we wanted to ask you if you think mik a's lead might be a way around this. >> picking up the phone works just fine. next up, a check on the day's news and the spin cycle. krystal, are you sorry you're missing this? feel better. >> please come back. when we made our commitment to the gulf, bp had two big goals: help the gulf recover and learn from what happened so we could be a better, safer energy company. i can tell you - safety is at the heart of e

dana milbank and a.b. stoddard. thought what was really nuanced was john mccain, the good john mccain. he's back to being the good guy in my perspective. he's talking about this is what ted cruz came here to do. he came to be a bomb thrower, blowing everything up and he's doing it. that's a way to say this guy's a disaster. that's a nice way to put it. >> they will tell you the establishment doesn't fight. they just roll over, they lie to their constituents about what they're going to do. >> you mean obama has had a free ride? >> they think that john boehner and mitch mcconnell are sellouts. they think that they always roll over and that they don't fight. so when you talk about ted cruz, even though they know he never told them you need 2/3 majority in each chamber to overturn obama care, they just like the fight. then you have the establishment saying this fight is tanking us in the polls if we want the white house back. the most interesting will be when we punt to the next deadline. does the chamber of commerce ac

here's dana milbanks. he writes not since the ginsu knife cut through an alum numb can and still sliced a tomato has america seen the pitch quite like the one president obama delivered in the rose garden on monday. and then john's take on the whole thing. take a look. >> give it to us straight dot gov, how bad is it? >> according to a poll by the associated press, fewer than one in ten people who tried to sign up in the first week were actually able to complete the process. that's a success rate of less than 10%. >> oh, my god. how low is it? according to a recent poll, more of this country believes obama care has been repealed than have been able to sign up for obama care. >> all right. so does the administration, ezra, need to give a daily update? zeke emanuel suggesting they need to be very transparent about how it's going on with the website. >> should they? maybe they should. do they need to? no, they don't need to. i think one thing i think i've been as hard on them as anybody. i think this rollout h

i mean our colleague here dana milbank has taken to calling him spokesman because he's following hisaucus instead of leading them. and i don't mean -- actually, i do mean to compare speaker boehner to speaker pelosi, but if the shoes were flipped and this was speaker pelosi's house, there's no way she would have a vocal minority in her majority telling her what to do. >> let me bring it back to jonathan martin. go ahead, jonathan. >> i was going to say i don't think i'm being -- i'm not trying to suggest that the conservative hardliners in the house would be pleased with one vote on to open the cr back up and raise the debt ceiling. i think it would make them less angry. there's no good options for boehner given his own politics right now. i do think rolling two tough votes into one and hoping to get some type of a face-saving measure, be that the medical device tax or something to throw in there and schedule one vote on the house floor is probably the better of some bad scenarios to the speaker. >> sounds right to me too. that one. although it does get to the body of the health care

with us from washington is dana milbank, political columnist for "the washington post."bc analyst and former are rnc chair, michael steele. and in san francisco, msnbc contributor and president of voter latino, maria teresa kumar. the troubles with the affordable care act website go beyond being parroted on "saturday night live." health sites woes could dissuade vital enrollee, the young and healthy. they write in its worst iteration, it could lead to a death spiral on falling enrollment and climbing prices. the president, dana, is sending his cabinet on the road. about you how much time is there to turn the tide before what have been glitches on the website become a real enrollment problem, do you think? >> well, nobody knows for sure. the administration has set itself a target of the end of next month. i mean, people generally tend to say it's within a four to eight-week period. you know, it's way too early to be talking about a death spiral. but if you don't get the young and the healthy signing up, and already they've had to postpone the penalties for not signing up.

. >> dana milbank joins me right now. it's good to have you here.onger this whole thing drags on, the stakes get higher. we get a synopsis of the language laced through the president's words. we hear ransom, extortion, deadbeat, hostage-taking, blow the whole thing up, insane. speaker boehner has been hitting repeat on the word conversation. does either side have an exit strategy here or is it just a lot of hot air? >> it's not clear even if people wanted to get out of this now, it's not exactly clear how they do it. the republicans sort of forced by the conservatives are now in a position where they can't seem to agree to anything if it doesn't include removal of the most important achievement this president has had over the last five years, and obviously the president can't surrender to that. so it does seem to be this war of attrition where they just check the polls and see who's coming out the worst. but i'm seeing no sort of appetite -- you know, a general desire to have the government running but no appetite to give in on either side. >> we've

dana milbank, political columnist for "the washington post."bc political analyst michael eric dyson, and msnbc contributor jared bernstein, senior fellow at the center on budget and policy priorities and former aide to vice president joe biden. we just learned that treasury secretary jack lew will be at the white house meeting. how much confidence can we have that at this point republicans are actually starting to make a little bit of sense? >> well, confidence is kind of an iffy word right now to talk about ifs and buts. it's really very unpredictable. but it is looking better than it was yesterday at this time. and i think what you're seeing here is the beginning of some cracks in the republican unity. they're looking at dismal poll numbers. they're hearing it from the business community, and they're realizing -- even the tea party folks are realizing this is not going to be going their way. it's not exactly clear how they fold and how they do it in the most elegant way and the most face-saving way. but certainly the debt limit is the easiest

. >> sir, dana milbank from the "washington post" has this op-ed out asking how could the president not spies were bugging the german chancellor. is it better that he didn't know about his administration's missteps or that he knew about them and didn't stop them? in your estimation, sir, should the president be kept in the dark about certain security situations, ignorance being bliss when it comes to something like this? >> first of all, i'm not confirming that merkel was being tapped but assume for the purpose of the conversation that she was. no, i don't think the president should be kept in the dark. i don't consider that to be a misstep. that would be a policy decision. i don't think that should be done without the president knowing about it or without his very, very top advisers knowing about it because it has intelligence significance. but as you said, there's also the potential diplomatic downside. so i think the president should have been aware of that. it's hard for me to believe that he was not. if he wasn't, it had to be somebody very close to him. i can't imagine the nsa tak

president's speech about the website yesterday may have come from "washington post" columnist dana milbank, quote, not since the ginsu knife cut through an aluminum can and sliced through a tomato has america seen a pitch quite like the one president obama delivered on to monday. then there's the "daily show." >> give it to us straight,.gov. how bad is it? >> according to a poll by the associated press, fewer than 1 in 10 people who tried to sign up in the first week were actually able to complete the process. that's a success rate of less than 10%. >> oh my god. how low is it? according to a recent poll, more of this country believes obama care has been repealed than have been able to sign up for obama care. >> ouch. nbc news has learned "consumer reports" is telling shoppers to stay away from healthcare.gov for at least a month if possible. there are reports verizon's been call in to help fix the glitches with the site, and "the washington post" reports at least 5 million lines of software code need to be rewritten in order to get the site out of icu. and here's the diagnosis from severa

. >> jackie, dana milbank, your colleague wrote this. not since the ginsu knife cut through an aluminum can and still sliced through a tomato has america seen a pitch quite like the one president obama delivered, end quote. here's more of the president's speech here. >> you can get your questions answered by real people 24 hours a day in 150 different languages. the phone number for these call centers is 1-800-318-2596. i want to repeat that. 1-800-318-2596. jackie, did you get the numbers, first of all, and second of all, what did you think of what he said? did he need more details on what the exact fixes are and when those would be done? >> right. i think that's what that speech lacked was detail. we don't know who's coming in to fix this. they said they're going to be tech professionals, but who are these people? what exactly are the problems? of course repeating the number over and over again did open him up to a bit of poking fun. you get knives if you call right now in the next 20 minutes. but again, i think the problem was the lac

joining us now as we watch these pictures is "the washington pos post"'s dana milbank. were you when this was going on? >> i have been in the capitol all this week and then decided to write from home today, so i managed to -- >> thank heavens for that. >> -- miss the mayhem. watching the scenes like everybody who works up there and lives in this town, you, of course, recognize the area as a very familiar one where we walk by and park our cars. that's not the sort of things you expect to be seeing there. >> indeed. one of the attractions of the capitol itself is that it isn't so heavily guarded. it is more open. >> the area around the capitol, you can walk in there very easily. nobody inspects your bags or anything, and often the senators, members of congress, are walking back and forth holding press events outside on the lawn and walking to buildings. i've been surprised, you know, as jimmy williams was saying earlier, particularly compared to the white house complex, how very open it is and actually how easy it would be for people to disrupt what's going on there. >> o