jim cooper, reid ribble, thank you so much for joining us this morning.> thanks, luke. >>> up next, our friday political panel. obama and romney go head-to-head over immigration. and the real story behind the romney camp and florida governor rick scott. and there's a new voice for american latinos. check out nbclatino.com for the latest on the issues impacting the nation's fastest-growing voting block. >>> but first, the white house soup of the day now made famous by the samuel l. jackson iphone commercial, guess gaspacho. cold. you're watching "the daily rundown" only on msnbc. all the young dudes -- this is a one-hit wonder. they didn't have another hit besides this one. mop the hoopel. that's it. ♪ this is the first car that i've been totally in love with in every way, shape, and form. it's my dream vehicle. on a day to day basis, i am not using gas. my round trip is approximately 40 miles to work. head on home, stop at the grocery store, whatever else that i need to do -- still don't have to use gas. i'm never at the gas station unless i want some cof

jim and cooper. >> he does look cool there. that's our broadcast. thanks for sticking around. >> letterman is up next. we'll see you tomorrow. bye-bye. >> good night.

one person who signed that letter, jim cooper, said he's going to vote against contempt.ght committee and he holds from sway with some of the signers. if means that the whole list of those signatories is not going to all vote for contempt. >> what does it mean, i mean, the republicans hold the house anyway. they have the majority. but what does it mean to have these democrats defect? >> a couple things. this is such a momentous vote and it's become such a partisan slugfest the last couple weeks that to switch sides and go with the other party, it takes a -- i mean, you really hate to do it if you are one of notes democrats. i mean, you don't want to do it slightly. at the same time, they are thinking about their districts back home. they represent places where president obama is unpopular. and the nra is scoring the vote and that endorsement means a whole lot to them as a signifier that they are one of them where they live and not a washington democrat. >> and representative john dingle, he is going to vote no on contempt and doesn't believe it's a second amendment issue.

jim cooper who i interview with my book says the problem with capitol hill has become a foreign lead. it's reflecting back on a time when people were -- now an increasing number of people, not just members, but staffers in particular, take the whole game about how do i make -- step out and cash in to the lobbying business. those are decent people. these are decent people, these are good people, smart people. >> how do we repair those norms? i think the bigger question is, how do we get people to act better. let's answer that on television after this break. [ male announcer ] you sprayed them. thought they were dead. huh? [ male announcer ] should've used roundup. it kills weeds to the root, so they don't come back. roundup. no root. no weed. no problem. that's good morning, veggie style. hmmm. for half the calories plus veggie nutrition. could've had a v8. ♪ home of the brave. ♪ it's where fear goes unwelcomed... ♪ and certain men... find a way to rise above. this is the land of giants. ♪ guts. glory. ram. >>> you work in financial markets, you trade in this world and so i want to as

jim cooper from tennessee is one of the guys they're talking about. martha: let's back up and take sort of a broader view in a moment. if he were to be found in contempt of congress what would happen? >> well, it doesn't happen often. it happened in '83 with an epa director. it happened with harriet miers. and sometimes that really forces things. my guess in a political, political year like this that something would have to give way inside the administration to help try to make this thing go away before then. obama does not want --. martha: you can only assume there are things in those documents that they don't want anyone to know or they would say here. you would say that holder mishandled this and got himself in this pickle unnecessarily. >> absolutely. people forget what goodwill there was toward obama when this administration came in. second of all if the talking points from holder and his defenders are true this is continuation of a bush policy. i don't think that is actually the case. i think sidewinder was a different thing, if that were true h

worried do we have to be that cummins actually wants to go after westport, as opposed to a cooperative part? >> jim, i don't know where that one got started. it's really surprising that people have made that conclusion, and we thought we could straighten it out immediately. i thought cummins had straightened it out. they're doing this with our blessing. it's the technology we've had with the joint venture. we at westport don't happen to think that particular technology for that market is really what we want to do, but cummins is doing it with our blessing. we've never said we want to be 100% of the business globally. that's just a fantasy. if anything, i think we should see it as a validation that lots of oems are looking at this saying we want to fill in every segment. that's one where we decline to invest. if we had doing -- cummings will do it on their own. we happen to think there's better things for you to do than that particular engine with that technology. it shouldn't have been a big deal. we're in business with cummins for another ten years. there's lots happening in that joint venture and

we explain it all with the reporters covering the week -- jim tankersley of "national journal," dan balz of "the washington post" and helene cooper of "the new york times." >> award-winning reporting and analysis covering history as it happens. live from our nation's capitol, this is "washington week" with gwen ifill, produced in association with "national journal." corporate funding for "washington week" is provided by -- >> we know why we're here -- to connect our forces to what they need, when they need it. >> to help troops to see danger before it sees them. >> to answer the call of the brave and bring them safely home. >> around the globe the people of boeing are working together to support and protect all who serve. that's why we're here. >> a line is a powerful thing. it connects the global economy to your living room. cleaner air to stronger markets, factory floors to less-crowded roads. today's progress to tomorrow's promise. norfolk southern, one line, infinite possibilities. >> corporate funding is also provided by prudential financial, at&t, rethink possible. additional funding is provided by the annenberg foundation,

cooperative the republicans have been. no one has been more so than the ranking member of the environment and public works committee, jim inhofe. i will always admire jim inhofe for the work -- i'll be darned, here he is. i will always admire jim inhofe for the manner in which he approached this important piece of legislation. and we passed out accolades on this floor about everyone, how hard they worked. but we would not be able to get this bill done except for jim inhofe. fact -- fact. so i'm disappointed we scant do things -- we can't do things tonight. as the chairman of the committee, chairman of the judiciary committee just said, we would stay here tonight on our side, you know, until the wii hours of the -- until the wee hours of the morning because we have some things -- i was scheduled to be in lake tahoe to. but i can't be there. and other people have certainly more important trips than that. but that's one of the things that we have to face with these jobs that we have, which are a tremendous privilege but sometimes we don't have the ability as the governor does, the president does, a member of the court does, to ju

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