national reviews, jonah goldberg wrote this. let's take the idea of a president paul as seriously as supporters say they should. though the idea that he could take them in the elections strikes me as crazier. >> and it speaks to where the conservative movement sees paul and supporters say, fine, we'll show them in iowa and may not, but they're trying. >> we'll see. time for another break. if you see something that shows evidence of media bias, e-mail us at news watch@foxnews.com. up next, a fact checker gets hit from the left and the interesting coffee clach at the white house. it was liberal media day at the white house. a chance for journalists from the left to chat with our president about his plans to win reelection. and other things. what's wrong with this picture? details next. on news watch. me, and get a cold... ...you need a cold medicine with a heart. only coricidin hbp has a heart, right here. it's the only cold and flu brand that won't raise your blood pressure. coricidin hbp. powerful cold medicine with a heart. >>

jonah goldberg, and mara liasson, national political correspondent of national public radio.dicated columnist charles krauthammer. mara, explain for folks out there, the payroll tax cut extension, has been tied -- the republican tied it to the keystone xl pipeline approval. there isn't a standoff. the white house pushed back and said no, it won't fly. essentially, we have another government shutdown looming friday at midnight. >> there are two things that are at issue. the payroll tax cut, which expires at the end of the year. the president wants that extended. that is what they want to pay for with decision on the pipeline. this is one thing. the other issue that you heard speaker boehner talk about is an omnibus spending bill to fund the government after friday. once again, here we are again, am looing government shutdown. the president wants to use, get as much leverage as he can to get the payroll tax cut extended so he is trying to hold up. the omnibus spending bill saying we should do -- nothing is agreed to until everything is agreed to. do all the business of congress

let's bring in our panel to talk about it jonah goldberg, editor of national review online.r citizen powers and charles krauthammer. gingrich was once a fan of romney care. he says not so much anymore. >> well, this quote is a set back. i'm not sure if it's waterloo, or spanish armada, it could be the battle of the marathon. i'm not sure that newt could do the whole 26 miles. look, i know i'm beating a dead horse but sometimes you just can't resist. i will get serious about this. this is a damaging piece of information. and the reason is, two reasons. number one, it's a question of can you believe him? he has been explaining away his support for the individual mandate. that is the core of his support for romney care. as well something did he in the early 1990s as a way to oppose hillary care. this quote, this statement occurs 13 years after hillary care. only five years ago. and so you have got to question how long ago did he abandon the individual mandate? secondly, it's a matter of substance. the main attack he has on romney is that romney is not authentic. the main issue

jonah goldberg is with us.ould a signature, third party candidate have on this presidential race what happens in the way that ralph nader played argue ooh lee the spoiler, drawing away votes from al gore and giving george w bush votes. >> i think that is the right question. all due respect to gary johnson this is the equivalent of lickenstein declaring war on the united states. he's not a very good candidate. someone like ron paul would be a different story. a lot of people don't know about ron paul in the general election right. the polling right now says that ron paul could probably cost whoever the republican nominee was the election by taking more antiobama votes away from the nominee. gregg: he's still running for the republican nomination, he's leading in iowa with six days to go, and the libertarian party will nominate as i understand it may 5th. let me quote today's "wall street journal." mr. paul who ran for president as a libertarian in 1988 has said he has no plans to pursue a third-party bid but he

jonah goldberg, an editor and fox news contributor. asure what the republican strategy should be, jonah? >> this is a very strange story. if it is in fact true it was an accident, somehow the reporter from yahoo news got to be a witness to a political suicide packet. it is a very strange thing to say that they shouldn't attack the president because he is popular. in politics when your opponent is popular, which i don't think obama is, the may you make them unpopular is you educate the public by attacking him on why he shouldn't be popular. that's what they did to george bush, to bill clinton, that's what they've done in politics for as long as there has been politics. the republicans i think they should not go after, try to attack obama personally with nasty personal attacks, because for the most part i think they are groundless, he's a good family man and all the rest. but his political character is fair game and the guy has provided a lot of ammo to the republicans and conservatives generally? on that point, this is when ari fleischer

jon: there's a great quote from jonah goldberg who is frequently a guest on fox news channel, and rewritessident paul as seriously as his supporters say he should although the idea he could beat president obama in the general election strikes me as crazier than joe biden on angel dust. [laughter] kirsten, some of the conservative pundits really don't like this guy. >> yeah. i think, you know, they're very concerned that if he was to -- you know, i don't think he's going to become the nominee, but even be taken seriously that it will look very bad for conservatives and for the republican party. and you can kind of look back to pat robertson when he won new hampshire. it's a similar thing where conservatives really came out of the woodwork trying to stop him because they didn't want him to represent conservativism for some similar reasons, frankly, because he's very noninterventionist, and he also has some racist things associated with him, so they really came around and tried to discredit him. so i think that, like i said, you will see the same thing with ron paul if he wins iowa. you're go

jonah goldberg, editor at large, national review, fox news contributor, good morning to you. >> hey,ill: republicans, do they see this issue sticking more than just beyond the hearings we watched last month? >> oh, i think so. whether or not this is the watergate that some bloggers want to make it into remains to be seen, but i think it's a big and legitimate issue, it's a serious scandal. i think eric holder has behaved abysmally politically and on the policy. but i think why prebus is doing this is to fire up the republican base. conservatives care about this a great deal, and they want to keep this issue alive particularly because they think the mainstream media isn't following it. whether, in fact, this is a major issue in the 2012 election campaign kind of remains to be seen because it depends on who the nominee is and the issues he or she wants to focus on. bill: i see his biggest point was level of confidence, right? when you put fast and furious along with stories like solyndra, that's what he's going for, would you agree? >> you know, i think that's right. they're trying to