. >>> debbie wasserman schultz has been tapped to be the chair of the democratic national committee who will succeed tim kaine. he announced he's running for virginia's open senate seat in 2012. >>> after a firestorm of criticism, wisconsin governor scott walker has reversed the promotion of the son of an influential lobbyist to a high ranking state job paying more than $80,000 a year. democrats complained the appointment of the 27-year-old who has limited experience and no college degree amounted to cronyism. >>> and a potential crisis was averted in space after an old fragment of a chinese satellite threatened to fly close to the international space station. normally, nasa would move the iss out of the way. but it was discovered too late. it missed the space station by a little more than three miles. >> and now here's an early look at how wall street will kick off the day. the dow opens at 12,393 after shedding six points on tuesday. the s&p lost a fraction. the nasdaq inched up two. taking a look at overseas trading this morning, in tokyo, the nikkei fell 31 points. but in hong kong,

. >> tim kaine will be succeeded by it debbie wasserman schultz. >> she was greeted by the traditional values coalition -- "way to go, dnc. you found a candidate best fits your profile for chairman, a junk yard dog who is mean, nasty, able to speak at a moment's notice, and able to manipulate the facts and always uncompromising." >> strong press release to follow. >> was it not so long ago -- to be more strident of the big issue of the budget, and my fear is that that democrats will just demagogue and their way to the election. the democrats will not accuse republicans of -- will now accuse republicans -- old age in their playbook -- throwing granny in the snow. >> she is tough, but this is kind of -- is the kind of reaction -- >> will they throw granny in the snow. >> dnc is saying that the ryan plan will kill granny. this will be one of the most demagogic campaigns we have ever seen it is irresponsible, but i think it will work. if you want to get reelected in 2012, as obama does, i predict he will sit back and ride that demagoguery into it election. >> demagogues have shown that the

debbie wasserman schultz would be the first woman elected to chair the dnc. she is expected to play a key role in the president's re-election campaign. >>> and another woman is moving to the forefront of leadership in las vegas. carolyn goodman won the 65% of vote in the primary. she is running to replace her husband, oscar, who held that job for three terms. mrs. goodman faces an election against the number two candidate. that comes up in june. >>> a west virginia mining community is coming together, 1 year after an explosion killed 29 miners. family, friends and elected officials gathered in a school gymnasium last night. in front of the stage, 29 hardhats and photos of the miners rested on white crosses. other memorials were held during the day. >>> a line of violent storms that hammered 18 states may be the worst severe weather outbreak on record. at least nine people were killed, including a georgia man and his 3-year-old son, found huddled together after a tree fell on their house. fierce winds and as many as 38 tornadoes swept in from texas to florida

. >> host: would you comment on debbie wasserman schultz? >> guest: i don't are very well so i look forward to getting to know her. urge views are impressive and smart and articulate. i just don't know her very well other than what i hear, which is good things. >> obviously the primaries and the caucus will be somewhat in flux. the rnc has tried to bring our some rnc mbs have tried to bring some order to the debates with the limited success. what should the role of the rnc -- have you heard any positive reaction from campaigns? >> guest: lots of positive reaction from campaign to i'm not going to get into the details because there's a degree of confidentiality. it's been very positive as far as having -- the idea is pretty simple. and i think it's been work in a different angle. at the idea is that the republican national committee would put our stamp of approval, or sanction, or whatever word you want to call it over one, maybe two debates a month, at the most, tried to do one a month. starting in august, through sunday, say, in february or

the bad of the very very mind bogglingly ugly first up the good democratic congresswoman debbie wasserman schultz the representative from florida is taking a tough stance on the ongoing budget negotiations demanding that republicans don't include a defunding planned parenthood provision in the budget washerman schultz said we would face a crisis in terms of the explosion of cancer particular more advanced stage cancer if women didn't have access to the services that planned parenthood provides it's like oh my niece trying to take sides in the in the war. by republicans against women i for one am on the congresswoman from florida side. sharon angle in another movie just confirms what about of voters thought last year that she's too wacky to serve in the senate angle is now arguing that there are enemies within our government her campaign sent out an email last night arguing that such as radical groups like al qaeda that threaten our liberty maybe many of our own leaders elected leaders have decided that the constitution is archaic and therefore threaten america a way of life for us and future gene

the incoming head of the democratic national committee, representative debbie wasserman schultz, she called that plan a death trap for some seniors. do you agree with that? >> well, if you look at what cbo said, the congressional budget office, which is the independent, non-partisan arbiter and analyst in this that congress relies on, what they said is that plan, if enacted, would raise the cost of medicare to seniors by about $6,000 a year. now, that is a major shift, a major increase in the burden on the elderly. and the reason why that is in their plan is in fact because he wants to maintain these tax breaks for the top 2% of americans. >> but he also argues, look, if you're serious about this, you have to do something fundamental. the president's plan did not. all he said was we're going to set up a group to work on some of the areas where we can try to reform medicare. is that really a serious way to reform that? >> no, i'll tell you the difference in the strategy. okay, in one strategy, which is the president's strategy, we have to put in place new reforms that reduce the cost

ted strickland and congresswoman debbie wasserman schultz. obama's campaign manager in waiting, jim messina, has asked the party's biggest supporters to raise $350,000 each this year -- ethan is joining us on our republican line, bellingham, washington. caller: my comment or question -- are we expecting anything different from obama's upcoming announcement? the gop candidates and platforms seem to be geared towards a certain prospective audience. do we expect anything different from obama as opposed to his first campaign announcement and subsequent campaign? host: the announcement will be done electronically. it will not be the type of rally we saw in springfield, ill., that took place on a very cold saturday morning of february, 2007. "the new york times" -- jim messina is going to be the campaign manager. he will have a sprawling office overlooking the park where president obama delivered his historic victory speech. the campaign being run from chicago, not here in washington, d.c. garland joining us on the democrats' line. caller: good mor

congresswoman debbie wasserman schultz. again, congratulations on the new position. >> thank you very much. thank you. >>> it's now 13 after the hour. it's meredith. >> matt, thank you. we are learning more this morning about the mother who drove her family minivan into the hudson river killing herself and three of her children. the woman's family spoke exclusively to nbc news. we have the latest from maria schiavocampo. maria, good morning to you. >> reporter: good morning, meredith. we now know that the 10-year-old boy wasn't let out of the van as previously thought. he actually escaped. this is the brother and sister of the mother la shonda armstrong. they say they never imagined she would do the unthinkable. >> we need you right now, lord. heavenly father come into our lives. >> reporter: after losing so much, the family of la shan da armstrong is make sense of the senseless and figure out why the 25-year-old mother would kill herself and three of her young children. >> and i'm like, mom, what happened, calm down, calm

slaughter: madam speaker, i'm pleased to yield two minutes to the gentlewoman from florida, miss debbie wasserman schultz. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman from florida is recognized for two minutes. ms. wasserman schultz: thank you so much, madam speaker. i rise today in opposition to h.r. 1255. i say to my friend from georgia that no matter how he slices it, if you are saying in this law, in this bill, that if the senate fails to act then h.r. 1 becomes law, check websters, that's deeming. this is blatantly unconstitutional, deem and pass legislation, offered by representative womack, and it makes me wonder what sort of april fool's day joke is being played on the american public. to be sure congressman womack cited constitutional authority for his bill. first he cites clause 7 of section 9 of art igle 1, that congress has the authority to spend money by passing laws. he then cites clause 1 of section 8, for the idea that congress shall have power to lay taxes and pay the debt. but what my republican colleagues fail to cite, is clause 1, section 1, article 1 for the fundamental concept that con

her friend and congressional colleague debbie wasserman schultz says giffords' recovery is going well and she's excited about her husband's mission. >> they live in a perpetual state of newlyweds, and so there's no place she'd rather be. >> reporter: president obama followed through on his plans to come to the kennedy space center, while he didn't see a launch, he and the first family had a brief tour of the facility. the president offering words of support to the crew. mark kelly. and later, with gabrielle giffords. well, we're told that meeting between giffords and president obama lasted about ten minutes. they haven't released any details on what specifically was said. there are also no pictures of that meeting to protect giffords' privacy. we also don't know exactly what gabrielle giffords' plans are, if this launch were to be delayed more than just a couple of days. whether she'd return to houston or try to stay here until the launch finally goes off. rebecca? >> don teague at the kennedy space center. thank you and we'll continue to watch whether or not gabrielle giffords will b

you notice a black woman gets three weeks, but i'm not complaining, because debby wasserman schultz, she's going to keep it for two years. we cover these lile districts and then we're stuck there. i want more than just a few handful of districts. if we really leveraged our political power, we wouldn't have 44 members of the black caucus, we would have 76. we would have -- almost 70 members of the latino and asi asian-american-pacific caucus. we would have more people. but when you're stuck in tse districts, or these places, how do you leverage a policy so you can become a statewide official? the reason why north carolina could be turned blue is because we had damn blue ralph campbell. we h african-americans run statewide and win. me is true as virginia. we've already laid the ground work. so you've got to look at how you lay the ground work. and that's the problem with black politics in this country. if we don't lay the ground work, if we don't go out there and run statewide and begin to expand our messaging, expand our reach, expand our districts, expand our borders, then we are stu

you notice a black woman gets three weeks, but i'm not complaining, because debby wasserman schultz, she's going to keep it for two years. we cover these little districts and then we're stuck there. i want more than just a few handful of districts. if we really leveraged our political power, we wouldn't have 44 members of the black caucus, we would have 76. we would have -- almost 70 members of the latino and asi asian-american-pacific caucus. we would have more people. but when you're stuck in these districts, or these places, how do you leverage a policy so you can become a statewide official? the reason why north carolina could be turned blue is because we had damn blue ralph campbell. we had african-americans run statewide and win. same is true as virginia. we've already laid the ground work. so you've got to look at how you lay the ground work. and that's the problem with black politics in this country. if we don't lay the ground work, if we don't go out there and run statewide and begin to expand our messaging, expand our reach, expand our districts, expand our borders, then we

. >> host: would you comment on debbie wasserman schultz? >> guest: i don't are very well so i look forward to getting to know her. urge views are impressive and smart and articulate. i just don't know her very well other than what i hear, which is good things. >> obviously the primaries and the caucus will be somewhat in flux. the rnc has tried to bring our some rnc mbs have tried to bring some order to the debates with the limited success. what should the role of the rnc -- have you heard any positive reaction from campaigns? >> guest: lots of positive reaction from campaign to i'm not going to get into the details because there's a degree of confidentiality. it's been very positive as far as having -- the idea is pretty simple. and i think it's been work in a different angle. at the idea is that the republican national committee would put our stamp of approval, or sanction, or whatever word you want to call it over one, maybe two debates a month, at the most, tried to do one a month. starting in august, through sunday, say, in february or