joining me now is luke russert, who covers congress for nbc news. luke, nancy pelosi wants to stay in charge. how much has she done if she's in charge and wants to stay in charge, how much has she done, can she do to put an end to this fight? >> well, lawrence, sources tell us that nancy pelosi has been in constant contact with both hoyer and clyburn over the last few days. she doesn't want a public spectacle between these two because they both represent factions of her caucus. clyburn african-americans and hoyer moderates. she doesn't feel that a public spat would not be a unified democratic party. now what exactly can she do in terms of stifling this? not that much so far. both sides have told us that they believe they have the votes to become whip. hoyer has actually ruled out a lot of public endorsement, so much so that it angered clyburn today. he said, why are we making it a numbers game? but if you look at the people endorsing hoyer, lawrence, you have guys like henry waxman, howard berman who are pretty much california democrats, pelosi-crats

let's go to luke russert.is happened, when he was standing before the committee, he said, look, i'm going to walk out if i don't get a lawyer. so now i guess we'll have to wait to see whether he shows up again, right? >> reporter: right. an amazing bit of political theater. charlie rangel says, look it's not fair to stand trial before the ethics committee because i do not have a lawyer, i do not have counsel. charlie rangel has spent over $2 million over last two years trying to defend himself on these charges. he had run out of money. his legal team did not show up. we weren't expecting them to show up today. lofgren explained, look, you can pay this out of your campaign funds there are different options to take. we can't afford to delay on this because we've given you ample time to be ready and prepared for this day. charlie rangel, himself, chris, has said, i want to clear my name. i want to have a trial. well, a lot of his colleagues are saying, here's your opportunity and now charlie rangel is walking. wh

let me bring in our congressional correspondent luke russert.g there listening to charlie rangel or listening to blake chisam go through members of the house of representatives that have been re rr rerepri manneded. >> he got reprimanded in 1997 before he left congress. he used government funds in the teaching of a college course. it seems that he most likely will recommend a reprimand which is the original subcommittee recommended a few months back. he's going through the different types of violations that happen all throughout the years and said this type of penalty -- violation, penalty which is a reprimand. it is less serious in the house then a censure, hasn't been one of those since 1983. it is still significant and would be the first one in over 13 years. this is something that charlie rangel would probably not risk losing his position in the house if he were to want to run again in 2012. what we can be assured, charlie will not be kicked out or expelled by any means. >> he says he is guilty of breaking rules and laws. how come there has

nbc's luke russert is live on capitol hill. luke, threats talk about what's top priorities and is there a compromise coming on tax cuts? >> reporter: you heard from the white house this weekend, from david axelrod, there would possibly be open a compromise on a tax cut issue. perhaps a temporary one to two-year extension. especially -- democrats want to ensure the middle class will have those ensured. the problem, any leadership on this issue will come from the united states' senate. a lot of ideas floating around. charles schumer of new york said possibly what if we do a compromise, folks hiring, $1 million or more, still taxed. that expires there, below them, middle class, mark warner, senator from virginia, possibilities, give big business a tax break. a lot of ideas floating around the democratic table. which of those they'll take in the senate to start the effort as well as which will garner republican support is the million dollar question. >> any compromise on don't ask, don't tell? any effort to try to bring it up before

luke russert is looking at who some of these new members are. e, they are nothing, if not a diverse group. >> certainly diverse and dynamic group. let's look at some of this by the numbers here. we have about 39 members affiliate would taffi affiliated with the tea party. 5 served in congress and 35 lawyers. one was a reality tv star, one was a former ex-nfl lineman and a few were funeral home directors pizza shop owner, a gospel singer and an auctioneneer and a pilot. sean duffy from wisconsin, he won in an open race and very power democrat he was on the "real world boston" back in the '90s and john ronion played for the philadelphia eagles and mr. schilling a guy who owned a pizza parlor right outside of illinois. what a group there. >> we'll talk more about that and tap new information on that breaking news from ohio state university. a news conference going on right now. let's listen in. >> i also need to share with you that this is an open investigation and, so, therefore, there are some things, some data, some facts some other unconfirmed i

luke russert joins us now live from capitol hill where democrats have been meeting for several hours now. luke, what are you hearing? >> well, tamron, there was recently a vote that the members within the democratic caucus offered up to delay the leadership elections until december. as one of those members who offered up this amendment said to me, we've got to figure out where the heck we are. that amendment was voted down 129-68, but it tells us that 68 members of the democratic caucus, a third of those who are left, have a problem with electing nancy pelosi as the leader this quickly. they really wanted time for the democratic caucus to sort of regroup, if you will, and figure out the best way moving forward. what we can report, the democratic caucus chairman going into the next congress will be john larsen of connecticut. he has been reelected. he is currently presiding over the elections for leader. that is the next race. nancy pelosi faces heath schuler from north carolina whose race is really just symbolic, if anything. there's not a real chance of him being able to win. if anyt

luke russert is on capitol hill., how are these house democrats positioning themselves to retake the majority if they have the same party leaders as before? >> a good question, contessa a rank and file member i spoke to yesterday, actually an alley of nancy pelosi said, luke, i don't know how the country will respond when we have the same exact leadership team in place as the team that lost over 80 seats -- or 60-something seats in the house of representatives. it certainly is a question a lot of democrats have to consider moving forward there won't be a lot of change of the makeup of the leadership team. the only change you could really see could be at the head of the dccc, but what we are seeing now, contessa, is a real divide in the democratic party between steny hoyer and jim clyburn right now, in terms of both are trying to line up endorsements for their candidacy to become whip. nobody expected this to occur. everyone thought that nancy pelosi would retire and steny hoyer would go forward and become minority le

. >> nbc's luke russert also caught up with pelosi to ask her about her rather dismal approval ratings>> madam speaker, over 60 house democrats lost this cycle. your positive ratings in the poll stands at 8% y. are you the best person to lead the democrats? >> let me put that in perspective. how would your ratings be if $75 million were spent against you? because i'm an effective leader, because we got the job done on health care and wall street reform and consumer protects, the list goes on. you take 9.5% unemployment, earn a dollar bill, $75 million spent against one person, and i'd like to see what your ratings would be. >> yeah, luke. i'd like to see what your -- what your ratings would be. >>> also on capitol hill yesterday, john boehner was unanimously re-elected as leader of house republicans. officially putting him in line to become speaker of the house in january. >>> the senate is set to reconsider next month an end to the military's don't ask, don't tell policy which, of course, bans gays from serving openly in uniform. senate majority leader harry reid says he will call for

here's msnbc luke russert. luke, who has the political advantage right now? what will happen here? >> chris, welcome to washington. ashame you're outside in that cold. this really is a huge issue for this lame duck session and there are a few options which are available to both republicans and democrats. number one, the one that is getting the most traction, especially after the white house is david alex rod said they'll accept this as a two-year extension for all the tax cuts for the highest earners and middle class. that's all we could get and we'll take it. for us to get anything done, we'll take that. the one democrats want is a temporary extension on the bush tax cuts for the highest earners and a permanent extension for the middle class. those earning under $250,000. that is a possibility but the republicans are going to go for a temporary two-year extension for all of them and won't hold back to the democrats where they want. two other options out there, charles schumer senator from new york have said why don't we absolutely not raise taxes on anyone making less than $1 mill

we're expecting them to talk to reporters like nbc's luke russert who's on capitol hill now. bout nancy pelosi's opposition. >> reporter: well, contessa, the opposition is up in arms right now. there will be a significant delay. we were supposed to hear from democratic leaders, the newly electioned leadership at about 1:00. we've heard that will be postponed possibly several hours because there's now a vote, brought up by some representatives that wanted to delay the election of the leadership until december, becausas one told me, we want to figure out where exactly the heck we are as a caucus. they are now debating whether or not to postpone the democratic leadership elections to december. now they're debating whether or not that decision, that vote should be on a secret ballot. they are saying should it be a secret ballot and should we delay the meeting? there's a possibility it could be delayed until december. then, nancy pelosi and the democratic leaders would not know who is uncomfortable putting them in the leadership right away. if it's an open ballot, they expect the l

luke russert joins us now. what happens next? >> it's quite remarkable. a two-year investigation essentially over. we heard he was guilty of 11 of the 13 counts they put against him. ethical wrong doings if you will. what will happen now is that this subcommittee will then meet for a hearing to decide what exactly his punishment should be. it could be a rep remand, an pums, a fine or the committee would write a letter saying the case is over. once they recommend a punishment, it will go to the full ethics committee. if it is -- it will then go to a vote of the full house. if you want to look at this historically, the last rep remand we had was newt gingrich. the last expulse was jim trafficant. as well as a fine or official letter. >> there's a personal drama here, also. he was just re-elected. a legendary congressman. what about his clout in his district? he has been extraordinarily popular throughout this. >> he was re-elected with stunningly high numbers. a beloved member of congress to many. he has been in the congress for almost 40 years, so he haslo

let's go to luke russert. >> it's actually 11 out of the 13 violations. what will happen now is that the ethics committee will go to a sanctions hearing. they will decide by a vote what they believe his punishment should be. it can be a rep remand. it could be sen sure, expulsion. it will be voted on at a later date, but until that time, we don't know exactly what the punishment will be charged against him. we don't know exactly what will happen to mr. rangel, but he watched the proceedings from his office and it remains to be scene what if any response he will give to this in the coming day. >> so, at this point, is expums off the table entirely? >> not entirely because members have not discussed what they want the punishment to be. it is a possibility. will it occur? most likely not. considering if you listened to the testimony yesterday, the prosecutor in this case when asked by butterfield whether he thought rangel was corrupt, he said no, did not use his office to enrich himself. he thought he was a victim of terrible accounting and terribly sloppy i

. >> nbc's luke russert is live in washington, and, luke, while we're watching the fight over leadership on the democratic side, on the gop side, will we see real fireworks over earmarks? >> reporter: a contentious issue, contessa. this week when the senate republicans meet in their conference meeting, that introduced will be an earmarked moratorium, earmarked ban. support of 13 republican senators. a lot of that support comes from newly elected senators. people has use the tea party to their benefit. now mitch mcconnell is not on board with this idea. he feels if you ban owl congressional earmarks it gives way too much power to the executive branch. president obama said he would have a blank check in terms of government spending because congress wouldn't appropriate specific projects in their districts allow them to be held hostage, shall we say. an issue interesting to see thousand will play out. it's more symbolic, even if the republican conference votes to have an earmark ban, a nonbinding vote. can go in the non-congressional session and vote earmark. symbolic more than anything els

luke russert is on capitol hill now. a battle to become the minority whip in the next conference. we're hearing nancy pelosi trying to broker a deal before the current leader steny hoyer and the majority whip, james clyburn? >> reporter: what nancy pelosi doing, the last few days, in continuous contact with steny hoyer and jim clyburn, she doesn't want to lose the caucus. talk about having every bump down because she would become minority leader. that hasn't worked out. john larson announce head wants to run for his position again. what you're seeing now is a divide between hoyer and jim clyburn a divide that a lot of folks with the democratic party do not want to see go public. yesterday jim clyburn was critical of hoyer questioning his decision to roll out public endor endorsements practicing a numbers game essentially undercutting clyburn's campaign. clyburn responded showing off endorsement of the black caucus over 40 members. you see right now a typical washington horse race election, which democrats feel really illu

first let's go to luke russert on the hill to bring us up to date on what's going to happen next withcharlie rangel. we've of course looked at seeing the penalty face with john lewis testifying to the character and history of his friend charlie rangel, not to the facts of this case. >> reporter: it was unexpected to see john lewis next to charlie rangel. he decided john lewis next to him would be who he would bring to this sanctions hearing. and john lewis gave a very powerful statement about how he's had 50 years of friendship with charlie rangel and charlie rangel has been a hero to the city of new york and done a lot for his country by serving in korea and being an absolutely invaluable member of the civil rights movement. and it will play into because now if you're trying to compare this to a trial, this is going into the jury deliberation about what the punishment will be. that's why john lewis spoke there. let's backtrack and talk about what occurred today. charlie rangel appeared before the committee for first time since monday when he so famously declared to all of us on capit

luke russert joins us from capitol hill. what is the range of punishment rangel is facing?rter: after a two-year investigation after the possible wrong doings of charlie rangel, it only took a few hours by his house colleagues that serve on the house ethics committee. it will now go to a sanctions hearing where the committee that tried him will make a recommendation o the ethics committee of what his punishment will be. the ethics committee will take a vote on that. they will put it to a full house if they deem it should. the worst thing that could happen is expulsion. if that would occur, two-thirds of the house would have to agree. there could be a reprimand, or he could be told to pay a fine. there could be instructions for him to write a letter admitting he was wrong. it will be interesting to see, tamron, what punishment they will give and whether or not they will make the house go to a full vote. the original committee that investigating him recommended a reprimand for mr. rangel. the last one happened in 1997 by a man by the name of newt gingrich, who got in trouble

. >> nbc's luke russert live on capitol hill. well, luke, we were expecting fireworks. i don't know, did anybody expect this? >> reporter: no. no one expected charlie rangel to walk out of the ethics committee hearing or trial, rather, and just not show up. sources tell us rangel was in his office right now, we don't know exactly what he's doing, possibly waiting this out. the way the trial's proceeding now, chris, it's going on as the ethics trial would have proceeded it's just going on without charlie rangel. that being said, there is some interesting developments that happened within there. we're at the round of questioning. a gentleman, the staff director of the house ethic committee, the one who was the prosecutor in this case, the one who is describing the charges against rangel, and what he did ethically wrong. he was questioned just now by a man, mr. butterfeield of north carolina and said do you believe charlie rangel is corrupt? he said new york no, i do not. someone's financial disclosures within his family that he had no direct knowledge of. if there's any b

luke russert is live on capitol hill.down for us. >> well, there's a lot of things the democrats would like to accomplish, but the two important ones have to do with money. number one, unemployment benefit ls. currently 2 million americans have unemployment benefits set to expire on november 30th. a bill brought up in the house to cost $12.5 billion would have extended those benefits for another three months. speaker pelosi said she will introduce it under new rules. then democrats will need one or two republicans to come over and vote with them. it happened last time in july. there's no clear end in sight of whether or not it will go forward because it's not on the senate calendar as of now. the other thing is the bush tax cuts. there are a few things on the table. the possibility of a two-year extension for all the bush tax cuts. however, steny hoyer said the week they get back from thanksgiving, he will offer a vote on extending only the middle class tax cuts. democrats try to put republicans on the record with tax cut

listen to this response to a question from luke russert yesterday. >> how would your ratings be if $75 were spent against you? because they know that i'm the person that can attract the resources both intellectual and otherwise to take us to victory because i have done it before. >> well, pelosi didn't retain that position without a fight voting by secret ballot, 43 of her colleagues backed north carolina congressman heath shuler as the new minority lead sgler by the way, her ratings didn't improve in the new nbc/"wall street journal" poll. what respond enters said to us it's time to hit the reset button. it's what they're telling us now in this new poll. >> while americans say they want to cut government's red ink. it turns out they don't want to make sacrifices necessarily to get it down. we're joined by our poll centers. let's s.t.a.r.t. with this meta question which was, all right, folks, do you think this next year, will it be about division or unity. bill, i can't say this result surprised me. >> no. people know that there's going to be conflict in washington. they presume this i

luke russert is nbc news capitol hill correspondent. they are going for the lieutenants below, right? >> right. it's inside baseball. here is what we have. dan born is a blue dock democrat. he is not excited about nancy pelosi being the leader. what they want to do is offer and amendment to switch the rules so she could not appoint her close confidants in leadership positions. george miller of california and connecticut. head of the rules committee. they want to make the appointments as well as the dccc appointed by pelosi. they want to make them elected positions. releasing pelosi's hand from that type of power. what would it do? it would get a lot of pelosi people out of important leadership positions. they run the congressional campaigns in 2012. what does the steering committee do? decide which people get committee assignments. the blue dogs say look, we are going to try to strengthen or loosen her grip on the power and get rid of the strength. it will be interesting to see if anything will happen with it. talking to a lot of people

luke russert is live on capitol hill and, luke, nancy pus lowy promises to bring this back for a vote will she have enough votes by then? >> she could have had the votes if she brought this vote up under normal rules. yesterday the house tried to do it under suspension which they needed a two-thirds majority for this to pass. democrats knew they were not going to get enough republican support and they wanted to publicize the issue before thanksgiving and sandra leaven saying i don't see how republicans can go home for thanksgiving knowing that they blocked this bill hundreds of thousands of people may not have turkey on their table. what exactly is this bill? it's a $12.5 billion unemployment extension, unemployment benefit extension package that will carry on for three more months and extended this year and when the unemployment rate is 4.7 %. what really needs to happen is policies that would create jobs, not necessarily keep on having handouts. democrats say that it is heartless in this time of need and that people absolutely need these benefits and they need them for grocery bills

luke russert who has been following all of for us. you were here late last night and here early this morning. what is going on, luke? >> the democratic caucus meeting and they will, in fact, elect their meeting. not a lot of suspense here and nancy pelosi ex. pected to be the leader and jim clyburn assistant leader and javier viqueira his vice chairman. the same leadership team that led to 60 house losses last congress will be back with the democrats. i spoke to a number of them yesterday and they said they wish someone challenged pelosi. the blue dog democrat will do that. that's more significant than anything. if he can garner any votes, it means people are protesting. puloso so ingrained. it will be interesting to see here, though, chris, there is going to be an attempt by modern blue dogs to change the caucus rules so that nancy pelosi won't have an opportunity to stack her allies on the steering committee, the people who chose to get those committee assignments. if that goes forward, that could be seen as a rebellion. a lot going

nbc's luke russert is live on capitol hill. it's interesting how when i say things they just magically appear. let's talk about rangel. the house panel has recommended censure. what happens now with the vote in the house? >> reporter: well, contessa, the house committee recommended the punishment of sen sure, the second most severe punishment they can recommend. it's only happened 22 times in the history of the house and hasn't happened since 1983. what exactly happens now is the censure motion will go to the house floor and his colleagues in the house will decide whether or not to give him this punishment. what can occur on a motion to recommit, a house rule where someone can offer an alternat e alternative, someone can say, we aren't going to censure rangel, we'll give him a reprimand, what newt gingrich got, but if he is censured, he has to stand in the well of the house and listen to all of his ethical wrongdoings read aloud while he's publicly admonished. the idea is to humiliate him. aloft democrats to avoid the scenario.

nbc's luke russert is live only on capitol hill.ve been tracking the house side, chief capitol hill correspondent kelly o'donnell as well. thanks to you both. first to you, how the house is shaping up now and talk to luke about some of the leadership struggles. >> andrea this is certainly a time when people are trying to get a sense of what the new congress will feel like, what we know on the gop side is they have become -- begun working with the transition team, much like when a new president is elected, a team, a committee of 22 who will work on all of the nuts and bolts as well as the political message going forward. they have started that work and includes a few of the freshmen and a few of those aligned with the tea party. so certainly, republicans are trying to say they are being inclusi inclusive.some of the old bulls who have been around, how it works, the new energy going forward. boehner, the presumptive speaker if we expect him to be elected as everyone does in the new congress, these saying he wants to have new energy of

. >> everybody was yelling at luke russert. i don't want to make an ageist statement.ve it, beyond the entitlement that's been there. >> all right. let's see what happens. >>> speaking of lou, millie has that sandwich shop in nantucket. that is great. >> who would know better than you? you take any of the poor kids there? >> i put them in a line. >> have we learned anything today. >> when you look at a poor kid and he asks you for the deluxe lobster roll. >> see the sauce dripping. >> here is what happened on capitol hill -- >> i wonder if that's open? we're going up there. >>> outgoing speaker nancy pelosi is expected to lock in her spot as the top house democrat. >> good afternoon. >> reporter: and quiet steady grumbling that unhappy democrats would rather see another change election with pelosi out. >> she has to step aside. >> reporter: no drama for republican whose will vote to make john boehner the next speaker. his team could add christy nome and south carolina's tim scott, both tea party favorites. baugh very different kind of house vote tuesday. >> we found a