howard fineman from "the huffington post." always good to see you. >> hi, abbie. >> congress has made it clear they're not going to let it happen. they want a bigger role in these talks and frankly so do the american people. take look at the latest pew poll on this. it shows 62% want congress to have a final authority over the deal. 29% say they should have file authority. howard, the president's got some work to do here. >> well he does but other polls show the american people want the united states and want barack obama to try to get a deal so they're in favor of the negotiations but they also want congress to have ultimate oversight of it. congress was going to have that oversight anyway. there's no way the white house can avoid it. symbolic of that is the fact that chuck schumer of new york, the democratic leader, has signed on to a bill that would require any deal to be reviewed by congress and would put off sanctions -- the lifting of any sanctions against iran for 60 days while congress looks at it. that's very importan

howard fineman is the global editorial director of the "huffington post." ruth marcus, columnist for the "washington post." and perry bacon is nbc news senior political reporter. perry, i want to start with you about the question. i didn't think it was a worry anymore. somebody in "the new york times" figured the rest of them, that this is a big worry in the hillary clinton land about how they use bill or don't use him. >> it's got to be a big worry. i mean, he's been a great campaigner for obama and other politicians. when hillary clinton ran, he made a lot of mistakes. the big one, of course, being when he compared obama's victory in south carolina to jesse jackson's, offended a lot of african-americans. even before that he made a lot of gaffes -- >> you swallowed that. offended a lot of -- why did it offend him? he seemed to demean the victory, that the victory didn't mean anything. he basically said only black people voted for obama, that's how he won south carolina. it goes to the point -- >> he also yelled, it's a fantasy. >> it's a fantasy. he said a

. >>> howard fineman is global editorial director for the huffington post and david korn from "mothernes" both are msnbc political analysts. crunch time for an iran deal. what's at stake, howard? >> what's at stake is some measure of good news out of the middle east at a time when the rest of it is being torn apart by sectarian violence by problems in israel and with the palestinians. this would be some measure of advance toward some form of piece and lessening the possibility of iran becoming a nuclear power. it's very important the president is right, he's right to be pursuing an agreement, but the details are what matter. and my understanding is the big problem now is over as you said when and how and under what conditions to start lifting some of those sanctions. i think the big purpose of bibi netanyahu's speech here substantively was, look don't lift those sanctions right away. if nothing else keep all the sanctions on till the very end. that's not going to happen. but the question is what will. >> how does prime minister netanyahu's re-election complicate things or change the t

howard fineman is the global editorial director at the "huffington post." and clarence page is a pulitzer prize winning columnist for the "chicago tribune." wayne slater, senior political writer with the "dallas morning news" and author of "bush is brain." thanks for the invitation to the gridiron dinner the other night. >> glad you enjoyed it. >> let me ask you, i have a problem with cruz because i'm old enough to remember even though i was a kid what mccarthy was all about. he was mr. division, accused people of being communist. here's this character accusing chuck hagel of taking 200k from the north koreans, accusing obama the president of the united states of being under communist influence because he went to harvard law, which, of course, where ted cruz went. this guy is bad news. his voting record is the most right wing we've ever had. what he's going to do to the republican party? he's not going to be the nominee probably. >> he's so low in the polls right now among republicans that he is desperate. his desperation is showing. >> isn't that scary? >>

howard fineman director of "the huffington post" and eugene.t elections are about unemployment, inflation, usual stuff. this one is getting hotter maybe because the republican party is getting hotter. maybe because it's a trickier path for this president -- >> one reason is the economy is doing better. and obamacare is actually working. and i think on cultural issues the republicans realize they're not going to fight on that ground because it's out of the mainstream for them now. by process of elimination in addition to which this is the most complex it turns out that the president has to deal with. when you look back at history from perspective of history, we're going to see that this era has been the beginning of what amounts to a full scale war between sunni and shia. >> we're not even relevant to that. >> in that sense we in some respects aren't relevant to that. that complicates everything in a historic way that i think george bush started out by getting rid of hussein. that pulled the piece out of the jenga tower. the tower collapsed, so