jake sherman is a congress aal reporter for politico and he's live in washington this morning. > how are you? >> i'm well. this seems to be all the buzz. i have to question for you. this is a man who is considered to be one of the sharpest tools in the shed. could he have made a mistake on the dates when the tax cuts needed to be decided upon? >> far be it for me to get inside bill clinton's head, but i will say one thing. he's trying to say he thought the tax rates needed to be extended before the election, and i'm not sure of anybody who thinks that. what this does is highlight how interesting president obama's campaign strategy is. he's running on higher taxes, and that is extremely rare in today's political climate. so what the president says is, listen, don't hike taxes on the rich. what's lost in the argument is there's no disagreement, republicans and democrats want to keep taxing low on most americans. the sticking point is the people at 250,000 and above. what president clinton said was don't raise taxes on anybody, which is what a lot of people say during an election y

. >> joining us now is jake sherman. obama had verbally. will this make a difference? will this make any kind of impact? >> you do not want the narrative to slip away. things of that nature stick with you and the become campaign ads in the fall. the narrative could switch quickly and mitt romney could have a bad week. >> i am sure the of volek campaign wants to stop it before it gets to that point. they are pouncing on their marks about the economy. >> obama came out right away and reversed what he said. hours later and reversed his talking point. the romney campaign is all over it. circuits -- circuits are out there. very reminiscent of john mccain in 2008 when he said the fundamentals are sound. trying to take advantage of it. nothing obama's campaign will lead to a gun. gregg sheppard republicans say the white house leaked this generation. the this come back to hurt him even though the white house is denying this? >> the president has to forcefully -- say the intervention did not come from the white house. it wanted a way -- and they want to take away a strong point

joining me, politico's jake sherman covering the hill. >> how are you? don't know if you just saw marco rubio saying eric how older should resign. he was asked about it today in denmark. holder was. again, said that they provided what the committee asked for, or what they think that they should be giving the committee. where is this all headed once it gets to the floor? >> it's headed for a floor vote. it's expected to pass on the house floor next week. now, this is a longer process than republicans would like you to believe. i mean, this is likely to go to the courts. it's likely to get to refer to obama's justice department. so it's not -- these documents aren't going to start pouring out of the air as soon as contempt passes congress. now, it's going to be a long slog, but the one thing could happen that could avert this or at least slow it down. if holder brings up some documents to the hill, the committee will have to take some time to look through those. leadership would want the committee to take time to look through those and have to do their due

joining me is jake sherman writes of "politico."hether or not the obama administration health care law will survive. >> both parties have been waiting for this. the supreme court will send down its ruling on whether the law is constitutional. democrats are confident and are not planning for any contingencies. they think law will be upheld republicans. say no matter what happens, if any part is lost, they will try to -- if any part is upheld they will try to wipe away. it will be a politically charged couple of days. >> up in the air is the court could keep or throw out the chance for individuals to buy their own individual insurance but keep another part. how could that be managed? >> there are so many possibilities. they say the people that talk don't know and the people that know don't talk. a lot of people think the most likely scenario is that the individual mandate which requires people to buy health insurance could be overturned. that would be a big blow to the law and a big blow to president obama. >> congress is expected to

joining me now is jake sherman. how do the leaders explain doing nothing all summer?the issue is simple. they think they are far too far apart from president obama on taxes on entitlements and spending. these are very real issues. taxes will go up on every american. they will pass bills and as we have seen over the last day or two, the president does not seem willing to raise taxes on the highest earners. they are going to do some stuff, but nothing that is going to be law and they decide these things get in the lame luck powers. mitt romney said he didn't want anything on the lame duck to president obama. >> it becomes a serious issue. it's a very sticky issue and they have to figure out a way to deal with the taxes and across the board defense cuts at the end of the year going into effect for the military. that's a huge thing for contractors and businesses and the military. they will have to find a way if mitt romney wins, the likelihood is they do something temporary, but this is not going to be easy. both jane boehner and eric kantor said there is not a lot of tim

joining me with more is jake sherman.ors mccain and graham, as we have been saying, are promoting a nonbinding senate resolution on the leak investigation. is the administration going to be able to resist these calls for an independent counsel or special prosecutor? we have seen in the past how this has gone down. >> they have been pretty forceful in saying no. holder said toy in the senate hearing that he has confidence in these prosecutors but even more interesting is what's going on in the house and senior republican aides say there's nothing stopping the train from holder being held in contempt of congress. there is only a few things that could happen. the department of justice could give some documents to capitol hill republicans to slow the contempt charges, which could happen next week. there's a committee vote next wednesday. or darrell issa could lose the vote in committee which is very unlikely to happen. but this is huge. a contempt charge against a sitting attorney general is a big deal and republicans are mov

joining me now is politico's congressional reporter, jake sherman.o me that the leadership could certainly schedule this at a time when it would get a lot more attention, perhaps they don't want it to get that much attention? >> some aides have signaled that this is a welcome distraction for them, the supreme court hearing. they don't want a lot of attention on this, a lot of people say. they do think they're in the right. they think eric holder has withheld a lot of documents and president barack obama's executive privilege which was asserted last week just added fuel to the fire. darrell issa wrote a letter to obama saying that his executive privilege was bunk, essentially, that he had no right to exert executive privilege over these documents and even added that it signals that obama might be involved in the fast and furious scandal which he has vehemently de denied. it's another crazy wrinkle in the week on capitol hill. >> what about, i know you guys are all so busy chasing all of this, the transportation bill, the highway bill, is that coming t

and jake sherman, congressional reporter for politico. welcome, all.e marco rubio front yesterday. we wake up, jon karl, our colleague on the hill, says he's not being vetted. a little dismay from donors. and then about the time the night falls, he is being vetted! what happened, michelle? >> let's say that was a big oops moment yesterday. i mean, most -- i would say most of the american public probably was absolutely stunned to arhea the statement he was not being vetted, made no sense whatsoever, he's well-liked, personal, given the republican party's image problem with the hispanic community at this point in time, you had to scratch your head and say, why wouldn't you consider marco rubio? and i think mitt romney woke up by the end of the day, and said, man, we've created a huge problem here. >> and on the hill, jake, rubio has got a lot of popularity. that's right. and you saw rubio's supporters come out and say why isn't he being vetted, this is a mistake. now if romney doesn't choose him, which is a ways off, we're going to see people say what wa

. >> politico reporter jake sherman is live in washington, d.c. this morning. nice to see you. both of the candidates are in the swing state, president obama carried that state back in 2008. but no republican has ever ascended to the white house without taking ohio. so talk to me about how critical it is for both of these candidates. >> it's a huge state. and you're right, no republican has won the white house without ohio. george w. bush obviously notably. george bush is playing a big role all of a sudden in president obama's campaign. he is saying he inherited this from george bush, he inherited this mess. don't blame him. and mitt romney is saying, listen, this guy's had four years. it's time for a change because it has not worked. those are the dueling messages that you're hearing. president obama is gambling that he can blame the last three years, the staggering economy, high unemployment numbers on inheriting an economic mess from his predecessor. it's something that plays very well to the base. but mr. romney's aides would argue that the independent voters, the swing vot

. >> we're not going to see them a lot together as our jake sherman said, take a picture of them yesterdayhe video because they're going to be going on different paths now. speaker boehner's priority, keep a house republican majority. he's more oriented to firing up conservatives who will turn out in his republican house districts where mitt romney will be focused on the middle. now, the significance of yesterday's event is it's another sign that conservatives are accepting not embracing, but accepting mitt romney as one of them. so, as we talked to the most conservative conservatives in the country, they're still not wild about mitt. i don't think they ever will be. but there's not this sort of peanut gallery or drag against him that we thought there might be. so mitt romney heads into the summer, with conservatives behind him. >> what are the perils for mitt romney on the other side? he's had already the ryan/romney budget, the ryan/romney wing of the republican party strung around his neck. he wants to distance himself a little bit and play to the middle. >> that's a good point. he's go