the fact is joe sestak is to the left of nancy pelosi. that is no exaggeration. he's voted for every item on the big government agenda we have lived through for the last two years and his only criticism has been it doesn't go far enough and joe sestak is the guy who is outside the mainstream of pennsylvania. >> chris: i'm curious and want to get into your record and then joe sestak's and you disagree with christine o'donnell on what? >> i think, you know, some of the accusations joe sestak was attributing to her, i don't share those views. >> chris: any in particular? >> i think there was a reference to repealing one of the amendments, and question about the first amendment, you know, that is nothing that i've ever spoken about or agreed with. >> chris: okay. let's talk about your record now. you ran the club for growth in washington several years, very tough on taxes and has come an issue in this campaign and joe sestak ran a claim from you from a few years ago. >> i disagree with the idea that we want to have a corporate tax burden at all. just doesn't make sen

to get into your record first and then to joe sestak's. but you say you disagree with christine o'donnell. on what? >> i think that, you know, some of the accusations that joe sestak was attributing to her, which i don't share those views. >> chris: any in particular? >> i think there was some reference to repealing one of the amendments. and question about the first amendment. you know, this is nothing that i've ever spoken about or agreed with. >> chris: okay. let's talk about your record now. you ran the club for growth in washington for several years which is very tough on taxes. that has become an issue in this campaign. joe sestak has been running a clip of you from a few years ago. let's watch. >> i would disagree with the idea we want to have a corporate tax burden at all. it just doesn't make sense. i think the solution is eliminate corporate taxes altogether. >> chris: seriously, no corporate income tax? that brings in $300 billion a year to the federal government. >> yeah, chris, this was perhaps inartful on my part but neverthe

senate candidates there, pat toomey and joe sestak making last-minute pitches near philadelphia, fresh from their final debate in pittsburgh in this key toss-up race. >> the only time joe stood up to his party was to promote his own personal career. the fact is last year joe sestak voted with nancy pelosi 100% of the time, on everything. he accepted this entire agenda. >> one of the zainiest ideas i've heard is when he wants to eliminate all taxes for corporations. in fact, he says buying american, in his book, is an unfortunate tendency. >> congressman robert brady is chairman of the philadelphia democratic party and joins us now. hey, congressman. you've got your work cut out for you because this race, as many have in the past, will likely turn for democrat joe sestak on what the turnout is in philadelphia. >> yes, that's true. what we do in philadelphia will overcome other parts of the state that may not turn out as high as we do. you know when a candidate has a 20 or 30-point lead or behind, we don't matter. but when you're in the majority of victory, when you in the 5%, you know,

while many members of the pennsylvania delegation, including democrats, voted against elements, not joe sestakhe voted for all the bale outs and introduced a new bill to create a new bailout. that stimulus bill, joe might have been the only person in the united states who thinks that should have been a trillion dollars because $800 billion of money we didn't have was not enough. joe voted for cap and trade which devastated our economy. he voted for the healthcare bill and in committee voted for a version of the bill that would have allowed states to ban all independent insurance companies altogether. that's an extreme agenda, out of step with pennsylvania. >> that's not true. my daughter, with brain cancer, if that bill had passed that way, would have lost her health insurance. you know i voted against that. but we did say that health insurance companies that were defrauding the government of 20%, actually charging us more, we stopped that. we don't breed liberals, we don't breed conservatives on the ground in afghanistan. that is there is problem-solvers. i went to congress and my first job w

joe sestak voted for every item on that agenda. his only criticism was that it did not go far enough. we have ourselves in a bad spot, but i am very optimistic about our future. i think we can have strong economic growth again. i think we can restore prosperity. we need to remember the source of that prosperity. it came from a free enterprise system. if we clear a way of the threats of this excessive government agenda, if we provide steady flow of taxes for everybody, if we get spending under control, i am confident that the 21st century can be another great american century. >> t y for a great debate. i want to think our host tonight. >> thank you, george. i also want to thank the candidate for participated tonight. and also to the audience and for those of you watching at tom and online. these final words from the league of women voters from pennsylvania. >> i and the chair of the league of women voters. we want to think the candidate for participating in this debate. active and informed citizens are a keystone to a strong democr

i cannot believe that joe sestak this should have been even bigger. it is an example of how extraneous. -- extreme that he is. this is an example of joe, butting in lockstep with nancy pelosi. -- voting in lockstep. we cannot borrow our way to the most successful economy. i advocated a different approach. i suggested and across the board cut on payroll taxes for both workers and employers. every worker would have had an immediate take, paris. you would not have to concern yourself with a shovel ready project. every employer would have found it less expensive to hire the next order. that would have been a more constructive way. rather than growing government. >> let's look of the stimulus bill. if we had not done it, mainstream economists said that another 8 million would have lost their jobs and unemployment would be over a 11%. one-third went to tax cuts for the middle class. one-third went to unemployment. pat toomey voted against unemployment benefits four times. one third was for job creation. he is right. i did want to do something else. i wanted

this is the sect depate between the republican pat toomey of allentown, pennsylvania and democrat joe sestak. congress man sestak will lead off by both. minute for questions. they will come from he as well as wpxi's facebook page and we sent a camera and got video you also. let's get things started. we begin with congressman joe sestak. thanks for tonight's debate. we know the challenges of nation. we have two men with different sets of values to approach these values. he believes the answer can be found by giving breaks to large corporations. but with consequences for the middle class for us. mine come from 31 years of serving in the u.s. military. where we bleed problem solvers. with practical solutions. want to focus approximate small businesses and the middle class by driving wealth up. i am standing here tonight party. i believe my party put politics over principle. i want to be an independent representative of pennsylvania where principle will always triumph over politics. that's the choice we have. >> thank you. >> thanks david and wpxi. thank you, joe for being here. i got into this

joe sestak is the extreme on this. he believes in taxpayer abortion. >> palin, toomy, owe done al. they would all like to overturn roe v. wade. i think those decisions should be made within the family. i respect press i dense taken by the supreme court. congressman opposes protecting a victim of hate crimes. congressman toomy's idea of gun control he said is a steady aim. 20% increase. because they have to have a military assault weapon. those views are too extreme for main street pennsylvania. >> again, the extreme view is the view held by the tiny minority in congress and america that believes there should be no restricts whatsoever. tax pay purchases should fund abortions, partial birth abortions should be accepted. he doesn't accept the rights of law abiding citizens to sell firearms. he has views well outside the mainstream. i voted against and i so respkt the send amendment and i lived my entire life in the military with weapons. i believe there is community safety. you voted against an increase of law enforcement officers. >> it is very clear. can you look this up, joe is se

senate candidate from pennsylvania, joe sestak. sestak broke ranks with party leaders to challenge and defeat republican turned democratic senator arlen specter in the democratic primary. but now sestak is trailing his republican opponent pat toomey in the polls. so the establishment democrats he defied are circling the wagons around him. congressman, thanks very much for coming in. >> good to be back, wolf. >> why are you behind in a state which is normally should be pretty democratic at this point? >> you know, wolf, i've never been this close this far out. i was 20 points behind senator specter at this point, and i was 23 points behind congressman weldon. now, we're in a dead heat. we know that. pennsylvanians are pretty cautious people because we've all had the wolf at our door. you can see, beginning to dis criminate right now. next door in delaware we have miss o'donnell all of a sudden there. who do you want on your side? someone who actually believes we should take social security as congressman toomey does and plunk it int

joe sestak -- we have a result. we have a result, you guys. cheers and applause ] thanks again to the "late night" puppies. [ cheers and applause ] we'll be right back with "put it in reverse." stick around, everybody. [ cheers and applause ] ♪ huhh...a spider web. is it real? no. it's just decorations. i'm going to make the biggest pumpkin of all. the biggest pumpkin? ♪ i need to make a witches hat. in case my hat falls off. it's pointy and then... a spike. mamma. oh, that's a good broom. [ female announcer ] the best treat is the one you get at home. rice krispies® childhood is calling. oh, sorry... we're sharing. excuse me... can i borrow her? [ male announcer ] applebee's 2 for 20 is now stuffed with more flavor. like florentine ravioli with chicken. one app. two entrees. twenty bucks. get to applebee's today. open until midnight or later. michelle: go red! female friend: go green! amy: go plaid! michelle: are you cheering for our prep coats? amy: yeah! what were you doing? christopher: got it... don't got it. female friend 2: your son is

there's an awful lot of them this year and particularly what the democrats are doing and joe sestak is a classic example, is that they are saying, my republican opponent is extreme, he or she is too far to the right, and he's also associated with the tea party, including christine o'donnell. they keep talking about christine o'donnell. she's the candidate in delaware, given very little chance of winning that race but they love to talk about her because they think she has enough notoriety with the "i'm not a witch and all of that." >> they're doing that in pennsylvania. >> they are mentioning her name in other places, as well. not as much as in the philadelphia area where you get the bleed-over of the delaware media. but sestak, in that film clip, the debate you showed, dropped her name several times and lumped -- repeatedly lumped pat toomey with christine o'donnell and sarah palin. gwen: let's get a sense, kate, you've been covering the tea party movement and have written a book about it. give us a sense about the degree to which efforts like this are energizing the tea party or maybe

was any impeachable offense involved in white house conversations or alleged conversations with joe sestak? the democratic for the state of pennsylvania. >> that investigation has been pretty well been completed. it's not an alleged allegation now that we have e-mails and conversations with joe sestak and with romanoff. what we're trying to get to the bottom of in the next congress, is this business as usual. something that happened under what we believe probably happened under the bush administration and as governor rendell says well you don't change everything. will the american people want us to change that, to quit in the future, using taxpayer dollars and positions? to influence primary events. or save their party money? i think the answer is, we're going to have to try to get compliance. >> well, that's the question. -- okay. well that's the question. are you going to spend the next several months if you get to be chairman of the reform committee, subpoenaing people like rahm emanuel, perhaps rendell, anyone you are mentioning here, i don't know, asking them about a possible deal inv

congressman joe sestak is here. (applause.) congressman bob brady is here. (applause.)is in the house. (applause.) and we've got allegheny county executive dan onorato is here. (applause.) i want to thank pastor kevin johnson for the invocation. (applause.) dj diamond kuts. (applause.) and give it up for the roots. (applause.) now, i'm glad to see that this crowd is fired up. are you fired up? >> fired up! >> are you ready to go? >> ready to go! >> i've got to make sure you stay fired up. i promise you'll be out of here to catch the phillies and the eagles. (applause.) i don't want to get between philly fans and their sports teams. now, philadelphia, two years ago -- two years ago, you defied the conventional wisdom in washington. they said no, you can't. they said, no, you can't overcome the cynicism of politics. no, you can't overcome the special interests and the big money. no, you can't take on the big challenges of our time. no, you can't elect a skinny guy with a funny name to the presidency of the united states. what did you say? >> yes, we can! >> that's what yo

. >> reporter: but no one is getting down and dirty like pennsylvania democrat joe sestak. >> i'm joe sestak and this is belle. >> reporter: who used the family dog to illustrate how he feels about his senate opponent. >> i had to clean up the mess left behind by these guys. they let wall street run wild. now pat toomey is attacking me for cleaning up his mess. >> reporter: incidentally, former president clinton also tried to persuade sestak to drop out of his primary so senator arlen specter could keep the seat. sestak said no and won the primary, katie. >> couric: nancy, as you mentioned, democrats are nervous and you and your ipad can explain why they are in a couple other cases as well. >> reporter: that's right, katie. that's because there are 12 democratically held senate seats that are at risk of changing hands on election night and republicans need to win ten of them plus hold on to all of their own in order to gain control. now, that may sound like a tall order, but right now democrats only have a strong lead in two of those races, one in california, one in connecticut. and t

joe sestak voted for that bill. he is the only guy in america who think it should of been $1 trillion. whetted then spend $800 billion that we did not have, -- rather than spend a canner billion dollars that we did not have, -- rather than spend $800 million that we did not have, there would have been a better way to do it. >> i know you voted for it. unemployment is still high. why do you think it is working? >> i arrived in congress the year the recession began. we were headed to a depression. mr. bush called upon us to help. mr. paulson did. alice in the navy during vietnam -- i was in the navy during vietnam. we lost 3 million americans that lost their jobs. in the first three months during mr. obama's term, we lost another 3 million. and the past few months we have created 8 million. we would have had a slightly harder down if we have not done anything. another 8 million americans would have lost their jobs. he is right. we wanted to do something else. i had when it to record republicans and say we could get ta

congressman joe sestak, democratic nominee for the senate in pennsylvania.gressman, good to have you with us tonight. >> good to be back, ed. >> you've spent 31 years in the military, retired as an admiral and now you have foreign money working against you in your campaign with all you want to do is serve the country. what's your response to that? >> i protected the sovereignty of this nation for those 31 years, and to think now that there's probably approximately $70 million of outside interest group ads pouring in here like the chamber of commerce with, because of the way that they have it setup, we can't know who is doing this. but we do know that corporations overseas are actually funneling money into them and it's sort of like, i'm just waiting for congressman toomey to say, my opponent to say, wait a minute we can't have that. >> that was my next question. has your opponent responded to any of this? in the state of the union. of course it was in the congress in year. the republicans didn't want anything to do with it. is he on record against this. >> a

joe sestak is to the left of nancy pelosi.that is no exaggeration. >> shannon: toomey held on to the lead for much of the campaign season but sestak has been making a comeback in recent weeks. this makes it anyone's game going to november 2. earlier i sat down with chris. you had republican and democrat on the show today. start with pat toomey out of pennsylvania. what did you make of his explanation that the polls have changed? >> he was leading by 8-1/2 points labor day and now he is leading by less than two points. he says it's a natural tightening. another factor, christine o'donnell, the controversial republican senate candidate in neighboring delaware advertises on philadelphia television, because it covers part of the state. the opponent to toomey, joe sestak is saying that toomey is extremist, like o'donnell, tea party. there is some evidence that the linkage to her is hurting toomey, though he went to some pains on "fox news sunday" to say never met the woman don't agree with her on a lot of things. he feels confident

. >> does congressman joe sestak understand israel is america's ally?ised money for an anti-israel organization, the fbi called a front group for hamas. >> the emergency committee for israel is one of those groups not required by law to reveal who gives it money. so pennsylvania voters don't know who specifically paid for that ad. we'll ask gary bauer about all of this next. you can compare rates side by side, so you get the same coverage, often for less. wow! that is huge! [ disco playing ] and this is to remind you that you could save hundreds! yeah, that'll certainly stick with me. we'll take it. go, big money! i mean, go. it's your break, honey. same coverage, more savings. now, that's progressive. call or click today. imagination and reality have merged. because of one word, a new generation-- a fifth generation-- of fighter aircraft has been born. because of one word, america's air dominance for the next forty years is assured. that one word... is how. >>> joining me now, conservative activist and former presidential candidate gary bauer. >> my pl

senate candidate in pennsylvania, congressman joe sestak.ere are some things you should know about our guest. he is a former -- retired, i should say, three-star vice admiral in the navy and the highest ranking former military officer serving in congress right now sestak broke ranks with party leaders to challenge and defeat a veteran incumbent in the primary, the republican-turned-democratic senator arlen specter. sestak claimed publicly that the obama white house had offered him a job to drop his challenge to specter. the white house eventually acknowledged offering him an unpaid advisory position through bill clinton. right now, sestak is trailing his republican opponent, pat too many mir, in the polls. recent surveys punt him anywhere from 3 to 9 points behind too many mitch the president and establishment democrats are right now circling the wagons around sestak. let's go to congressman joe sestak joining us from philadelphia. thanks very much for coming in. >>ed about to be back, wolf. >> why are you behind in a state which is normally

joe sestak voted for that bill. the only guy in america who think it should of been $1 trillion. -- who thinks it should have been 100 -- $1 trillion. rather than spend $800 million -- billion that we did not have, there would have been a better way to do it. we would not have had to look--- ready programs. there would have been better ways to deal with it. >> i know you voted for it. unemployment is still high. he makes some points. why do you think it is working? hon>> i arrived in congress the year the recession began. we were headed to a depression. mr. bush called upon us to help. mr. paulson did. i'm reminded of my very first job in the united states navy during the vietnam war. i was in the navy during vietnam. we lost 3 million americans that lost their jobs. in the first three months during mr. obama's term, we lost another 3 million. and the past few months we have created 8 million. -- created a million jobs. toomey 00 -- said we -- we would have had a slightly harder down if we have not done anything. an

states, what we saw in california something different appears to be happening in california between joe sestakk is shoring up the base and his support among unaffiliated voters, nearly double what it was earlier and this race leaning barely in the republican direction, but pennsylvania is a state strong for the democrats and fairly handily in the recent elections. >> and it will be if they get out for democrats there. if they don't, they lose. i'm going to hear you call a toss up a lot over the next week. >> i think you're right. >> and video of autistic children physically restrained at school and one mom says this controversial practice needs to be stopped. look at this, and she joins us live next. npr gets millions of your hard earned dollars and outrageous demand to pull that fund: why she says, free the taxpayer. mmmm. you don't love me anymore do you billy? what? i didn't buy this cereal to sweet talk your taste buds it's for my heart health. so i can't have any? if you can deprive me of what can help lower my cholesterol... and live with yourself. right. mmm, i worry about your mother.

forget the fact that the president did not even support joe sestak. today, they came together to get out the vote. >> the success of our mission is at stake right now. on november 2, i need you as fired up as you were in 2008. [cheers and applause] because, because we have got a lot of work ahead of us. >> the former white house speechwriter peggy noonan talked about the lives of americans. >> there is a certain off point -ness. they have been talking about a, b, and c, and he is somewhere else in the alphabet. >> races throughout the country remain closed. today, -- throughout the country remain close. >> what do you really think when you see some of that going on? told by your own husband to, i think, bark like a dog. >> bark like a dog! >> i think you elected to go to a movie, so i am a proponent. as far as wwe, women are really powerful. >> we were talking about the midterms and how they are shaping up. jessica, thanks for shaping -- joining us. one week, it is the republicans. the next week, it is the democrats. who has the momentum heading into

the lead here, joe sestak, 42%.bout this is that he has been trailing behind pat toomey for quite a number of months. and now it looks like the race tightening up. to what so do you attribute the movement? >> one of the reasons is that democrats are coming back home. they have a substantial voter registration against republicans. remember barack obama won the state by 10 plus percentage points in 2008. this environment is a republican leaning environment. that seems to be benefiting toomey. this is as to-up, increasingly competitive. toomey's might have a fingernail's advantage. >> let's move to the west coast now. this california news has been really incredible. the l.a. times poll has barbara boxer now showing 50% and carly fiorina at 42%. carly fiorina has spent a lot of money on this race. boxer has been neck and neck. where is the movement coming from here? >> this is the democratic firewall. they're hoping that they're able to win in washington state and also california to keep control of the united states sen

democrat joe sestak and republican joe toomey both tried to portray the other as extreme and out of stepsestak is pulling ahead just slightly. >> jon karl traveling the country watching debate after debate and noticed a common theme among some of the candidates. here's his take on the campaign catchphrases. >> reporter: it's become the catchphrase of the campaign. man up. >> some of you need to man up -- >> reporter: uttered mostly by women associated with the tea party. >> man up harry reid. >> reporter: concept is not the exact phrase began with none other than christine o'donnell who had this to say about her primary opponent mike castle in september. >> these are the type of cheap, underhanded unmanly tactics we've come to expect. this is not a bakeoff get your man pants on. >> reporter: at least one woman from the other side has also jumped on the phrase. >> man up and do what you're asking other people to do. >> reporter: it's not a bad way to leave your male opponent speechless. >> i think a very effective way for a woman candidate to look tough and it is very difficult for a male

joe sestak in pennsylvania has surprised a lot of pollsters.he edge. russ feingold in an unexctedly tough ride, in danger of losing his seat to republican ron johnson with the edge, 49-47%. and some recent polling in republican-held seats now. the contest in alaska, a wild run, lisa murkowski is waging a write-in campaign against joe miller, who defeated her in the primary. the two of them in a dead heat at 37%. you have scott mcadams at 23%. in florida another three-way contest. marco rubio leading charlie crist and kendrick meek. rub at 41%, cristt 26% and meek at 20%. and finally in kentucky, rand paul, close and increasingly nasty race against jack conway. rand paul at 48%, five-point spead over jack conway. so, those are some of the latest polls. let's talk, overall, about the landsca landscape. i'll do it with my round table ere, as i make my way over to them. joining me to break it all down, e.j. dionne of "the washington post," "new york times" david brooks, msnbc's rachel maddow, cnbc's rick santelli and harold ford jr. that was a mout

my apologies to joe sestak. and much more on the crucial midterm elections coming up on "this week." christiane, we'll see you then. bianna. >> all right, dan, now to the fallout from the single biggest leak of information in history, the u.s. is racing to contain the damage from the explosive allegations of torture contained in the documents. our reporters across the globe are assessing the fallout and we begin with lama hasan in london. good morning. >> reporter: good morning, bianna. well, ever since those secret documents were made public, the international media has been all over the story. and just to give you the tone of what's being reported on the front page of "the independent" today, the headline is "the shaming of america." >> this is an al jazeera news special. >> reporter: news channel after news channel. >> hundreds of thousands of america's military secrets. >> reporter: after news channel, the biggest leak of military documents quickly hit the airwaves making its way to the top of almost every n

. >> ifill: similar themes are playing out in pennsylvania where democratic congressman joe sestak and former republican congressman pat toomey are also locked in a toss-up senate race. whoever wins will replace arlen specter who lost to sestak after switching parties last year. in their debate last week, each sought to paint the other as out of touch with the concerns of average pennsylvanians. sestak attempted to tie toomey to conservatives linked to the tea party movement. >> palin, toomey, o'donnell. they all would like to overturn "roe v. wade." i believe that the life decisions of a family should be made within the family. i don't think government should intervene. i respect precedent on the supreme court. i think there's even more of an extreme taken by congressman toomey on such social issues and others. >> ifill: much as rossi has done in washington toomey tied sestak to the obama administration's economic policy. >> that stimulus bill, joe might be the only person in the united states who thinks that that should have been a trillion dollars as he said because $800 billion of

clinton was already stumping for joe sestak in pennsylvania in an election filled with close races. miller rallied with sarah palin last night. president obama will spend weekends campaigning. tonight he took his focus from the senate to make his first stop this election season for members of the house. emily schmidt, abc news, washington. >> republican gubernatorial candidate meg whitman is backpedalling on comments about her former housekeeper. nikki diaz, her former housekeeper of nine years should be deported for forging documents and lying about her immigration status. when asked about dias again during a campaign stop, she said she was breaking the law and the decision was up to federal authorities. whitman said she fired dias in june 2009 after learning she was working illegally. diaz claims whitman mistreated her and didn't pay her for all the hours she worked. >> a new admission from one of the contractors working on b.p.'s oil well before it exploded. it skipped a critical step on the cement used to seal the well. the company says b.p., they ordered a change of the key ingr

congressman joe sestak is here. congressman bob brady is here. mayor michael nutter is in the house. and we've got allegheny county executive dan onarato is here. deejay diamond cutz and give it up for the roots. now, i'm glad to see that this crowd is fired up. are you fired up? are you ready to go? i've got to make sure you stay fired up. i promise you'll be out of here to catch the phillies and the eagles. i don't want to get between philly fans and their sports teams. now, philadelphia, two years ago, two years ago, you defined the conventional wisdom in washington. they said, no, you can't. they said, no, you can't overcome the cynicism of politics. no, you can't overcome the special interests in the big money. no, you can't take on the big challenges of our time. no, you can't elect a skinny guy with a funny name to the presidency of the united states. what do you say? >> yes, we can! yes, we can! >> that's what you said. but, philly, i've got this message for you today. i want everybody to understand our victory in that campaign. that wasn

. >> pennsylvania can't afford to joe sestak. >> couric: of the more than 37,000 campaign ads that have aired here in the last two months, a whopping 80% of them went negative. >> i thought about this before coming here, and i felt like i'm in a supermarket in the cereal aisle, and every box is one of the attack ads. it's like take it down and look on the back to find the ingredients and the nutrition. but there's no labels on it. there's no labels. , you know, how are you supposed to find out how you can vote when there isn't even anything to tell you what they stand for? >> couric: are you willing to take out your anger about what is or isn't happening out on the democrats in november? >> well, i don't want to look-- i'm not out for revenge. i'm-- i'm out for answers. >> right. >> exactly. >> results. >> i don't want excuses. i want results. >> couric: but those have been hard to come by as are jobs. since the last election, the unemployment rate in pennsylvania has jumped from 6% to 9%. in fact, scott barkley's job as a marketing director, and its six-figure salary, will be eliminate

. >> reporter: in pennsylvania's democrat race, joe sestak and pat toomey discussed extremism. >> the stimulus, government run health care. cap and trade. >> we have someone who is really extreme that believes, for example, corporations should pay no taxes. >> hey, guys. >> reporter: barack obama smiled through a seattle coffee break. but with 12 days to go, the senate races that will determine the president's power through 2012 are as bitter as overheated espresso. i'm steve handelsman, nbc news, washington. >>> amid the illegal uncertainty over don't ask, don't tell, the pentagon is now restricting who can expel openly gay members of the military. in a memo yesterday, defense secretary roberts gates ordered that only five people will be allowed to make such discharges as opposed to the previously hundreds that could do so. that announcement came a day after a california appeals court lift add judge's order barring the pentagon from enforcing the controversial policy. >>> those in quake ravaged haiti are threadening another crisis. a deadly disease wreaks havoc in the region. a bacte

. >> joe sestak is about all alone among any elected official i know of in pennsylvania who believes that even khalid shaikh mohammed, the admitted mastermind of 9/11, should be given a civilian trial. >> reporter: today the president continues his west coast campaign swing through california and washington state. and here on capitol hill, senate republicans smell victory. in fact, now, lynn, they're saying that they believe a republican congress and a democratic president like president obama can actually get a lot more done. >> tracie potts in washington, tracie, thanks so much. >>> the national association for the advancement of colored people released a controversial report wednesday accusing some tea party members of racism. the study was written by the institute for research and education on human rights which describes itself as dedicated of examining and mobilizing against racist, antisemetic and far right social movements. the study concluded that tea party groups have given platforms to racists and bigots. however, the report also includes a foreword by the naacp's presiden

look for russ feingold in wisconsin as a possible surprise, joe sestak in pennsylvania as a possible surprise, alex sink, governor can date in florida as a possible surprise. >> maybe somebody from the rent is too high party. >> who knows. >> what do you say? >> i think that the democrats will maintain control as well. i think that the gubernatorial seats are absolutely important, particularly if there's a push for federal moneys to come down to the state level. that's important and african-americans and others need to be particularly mindful of that and its impact. and i definitely am looking for a democratic governor in new york where i'm from, so i look forward to that as well. >> okay. and david? >> i think realistically we're looking at about 43 to 53 seats by the republicans in the house. senate's going to be a tough race. seven looks possible. they need ten. i don't think they're going to get it but nobody can tell the final vote. 37 governors races are up right now and that's very important for 2012. it's very important for the redistricting process and other things. i think