our deputy political director mark murray. you so much. >> thank you. >>> the battle over the new federal health care law is under way in pensacola, florida. attorneys for 20 states fighting the law say the law will expand the government's power in dangerous and unattended ways. attorneys for the obama administration are asking the judge to rule that 20 states don't have legal standings to challenge that law. earlier this week a federal judge in virginia rule that had citizens could not be forced to buy health insurance. let's rethink the unthinkable. a surprising new message from the government on how best to survive a nuclear attack on a major city that is to stay inside. you can dramatically increase your chances of survival by holding up inside a secure building away from deadly radiation until you're told it's safe to come out. but how do you educate the public about a doomsday scenario white sending alarm signals. michael smerconish, you have been talking about this. what are your listeners saying about the potential of

. >> mark murray, i got say, chuck, you said keep an eye on this one yesterday. you said he is full of surprises. >> running against total operatives at this point. presidential candidates may have to step up if they want to stop steele or the rnc might become completely irrelevant. >> interesting times for you and mark murray, our deputy political director. thanks so much. >>> now to the brutal weather. at least 16 deaths are being blamed on this slow-moving storm that brought snow and bone-chilling cold to a big part of the country. nbc's john yang is live for must michigan city, indiana, this morning. john, you just look cold. >> i am cold, savannah, believe me. this is the third straight day of snowfall here in northwestern indiana. the snow be, make effect snow blowing in here off lake michigan. there's already two feet of snow in a lot of the areas around here. the wind creating drifts of up to four feet and the roads and highways are being covered with with snow as quickly as they can be cleared. still, roads, highways closed here. there were about 100 car

>> mark murray joins us live from washington. rk, before we talk about this earmark debate and senator mccain's comments, i got this note that president obama is saigh he wants the house to approve the tax-cutting legislation without changes. what else are we hearing on this? >> that's the only way that this is going to pass. we heard the verdict from the senate by that overwhelming 81-19 vote. getting the senate to renegotiate, redebate legislation is very difficult. so for these tax cuts newt go up that beginning of the new year, pretty much the house is going to have to pass what exactly the senate did. really that's been the handwriting on the wall for the past two or three weeks now. >> let's talk about this earmark debate. senator mccain saying what's going on here? is there amnesia? many of categorized this as one last party before members of the tea party roll into town. >> exactly, tamron. one of the biggest changes in washington over the past two or three years is how the earmark has become a four-letter word. it used to

. >> i'm joined by deputy political director mark murray.e said he had to look at it in the context of victories under his leadership that were chapped up to the republicans. on that conference call yesterday he started in for a long while naming all the good things that have happened since he was chairman and then said i want to run again. >> certainly the republican results from november is one that miele headache. but it will be an up hill climb for him. yesterday's news took washington and the political world by surprise. there were a lot of indications steele might not run. he's not shy about talking to the press. but there have been virtual radio and tv silence. there were no indications he built campaign infrastructure for re-election. and lastly we've now seen several republicans enter the field officially to replace him. al those signs added up to the fact that steele wouldn't run, but he surprised everyone by getting into the race last night. >> you name all the reasons why we should be surprised. one of our producers said knowing

for the dynamic spectrum item, wind up in paul murray, gary mark cote and gary, from the office of strategic planning deficit, benjamin and a boost from jerry mattis. >> good morning. we have two items before you that will promote innovations technology. and updating the commission's experiment radius service rules and a notice of inquiry that examines how advanced radio technologies with new models of spectrum management to advance innovations, increase and use and stretch the capacity of a valuable spectrum resources. many innovative ideas in an all sectors of the economy can be traced back to ideas and inspiration developed under experimental radio licenses. and the city of may technology found in the 3-peat system as well as the ltv powering the latest high-tech devices. the experiment radius service has been instrumental in development of cutting edge medical devices. a camera and april provides an examination of high resolution images of internal organs. to assure the united states remained at the forefront of innovation, we accelerate to rate birdies ideas transformed to a consumer de

marks. roger wicker, another republican from mississippi, $199 million. patty murraymocrat of washington, $172 million. senator mccain made this big speech from the floor. it's what are the chances that these earmarks will stay in if this is debated and passed by the senate? guest: i honestly do not know. because of the time faiz -- timetable that we are facing, because of the race to get out and we do not know how many votes are going to be allowed, it is not clear who has the votes to take out which earmarks or whether we just throw the whole thing out and start again with this continuing resolution. taxpayer common sense is building a database that will run through all of them. you will see. part of what happened here is this conversation began nine months ago. when they started to try to pass an appropriations bill and a regular cycle. everybody did what everybody does, which is, the members of congress requested their earmarks nine months ago. this whole thing basically lay fallow throughout the summer and fall. all of a sudden this week as they and and pick it u