. >> john nichols of "the nation." always a pleasure. tonight i asked do you believe that president obama's tax compromise with republicans will create jobs? 23% of you said yes. 77% of you said no. that's not a good number. >>> house call. president obama's tax cut deal cruises through the senate but the fight is not over yet. >>> head scratcher. a team of forensic scientists manages to unravel a 400-year-old mystery. >>> and ice castle. frigid winds create a giant frozen sculpture on the shores of lake erie. i'm lynn berry. those stories and more are straight ahead. this is "first look" on msnbc. we begin with rounding the bend. in a rare bipartisan push, the senate voted overwhelmingly in favor of a people that will prevent a new year's day tax hike for millions of americans. still, despite the inclusion of a provision to provide jobless aid to many house democrats will try to make one more change before it's a done deal. nbc's tracie potts joins us from washington. good morning. >> reporter: lynn, good morning. house democrats are ma

bring in john nichols a washington correspondent for "the nation."u would had been on there. you wrote a piece on bachmann's new constitution class. this is comedy hour, is it not! >> well, it's comedy hour, ed, except forrion thing, you have a justice of the united states supreme court. in fact, a guy who most people believe is the central justice on that court, the guy who defines its direction going in, having private meetings with michele bachmann and then ranging, deciding, to come down and have this private session with right-wing members of congress and he'll be followed in one of the ensuing sessions by a guy who says that the separation of church and state is a myth. i don't mind michele bachmann making a fool of herself but what really troubles me is that we have a u.s. supreme court justice hanging out with people who deny the basic truths of our constitution. >> has this ever been done before? has a judge ever been this actively involved with a member of congress going down the road of ideology? >> well, it's possible you could say willia

journal," robert nichols talks about financial issues, including the democrats' opposition to the tax bill. then, doesn't chafee speaks of the funding for detainees for prosecution. and then john gannon details a state-by-state survey of financial literacy. financial literacy. "washington journal," live