. >> brown: and mark shields and michael gerson analyze the week's news. >> woodruff: that's all ahead on tonight's newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> bnsf railway. >> support also comes from carnegie corporation of new york, a foundation created to do what andrew carnegie called "real and permanent good." celebrating 100 years of philanthropy at carnegie.org. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. and friends of the newshour. and... >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> brown: the remaking of the obama administration's foreign policy team began today as the president nominated massachusetts senator john kerry to replace hilary clinton as secretary of state. the former presidential candidate who lost to george w. bush in 2004 got the nod after u.n. ambassador susan rice withdrew her name. she'd faced republican criticisms over the benghazi terrorist attack. president obama made the announcement this a

michael gerson of the "washington post." cbs this morning cohort norah o'donnell. and we'd especially like to welcome our new chief white house correspondent, major garrett. major what's going on over there, anything new? >> bob i deeply regret i have no news, but i have a story and the story will have to substitute for news. i was conversing this morning as i do every morning, with the white house about is anything going on? is anyone of importance talking to anyone else on capitol hill of%? and i was given the same nonresponsive answer i get daily "lines of communication are open." finally getting sick of that i said look, the lines of communication were open during the cold war too." and i thought that was an extravagant over-the-top comment. >> and the other side said, yes the cold war ended when one side realized they couldn't win. so i think we're on a cold war footing right now. >> schieffer: what do you think, joe? what's happening anything? >> not all that much, but also, i think that this is-- this has been an over-hyped situation from the start. you know

"washington post" columnist michael gerson, and our own norah o'donnell and major garrett, our chief white house correspondent. it's all ahead on "face the nation." captioning sponsored by cbs from cbs news in washington, "face the nation" with bob schieffer. >> schieffer: good morning, again. well, to the famous combos of modern life, from mac and cheese, peanut butter and jelly, rum and coke, bread and butter, and salt and pe pepper, add one more pair simpson-bowles. alan simpson may be in wyomingy and erskine bowles in north carolina but you can't mention one without think of the other. when you headed up the bipartisan deficit commission appointed by the president you laid out the dire consequences if we don't get the country back on a sound financial footing. the two sides are still at loggerheads. i guess i would start this morning by mr.-- and mr. bowles, why don't you go first-- is all this just posture or are they really going to let us go over this fiscal cliff? >> lord, i hope not, bob. i think it would be disastrous for the country if we did. you know, you can look at the

plus we'll have the analysis of mark shields and michael gerson. special pbs broadcast called "after newtown" begins a national dialogue about the issues raised by that tragedy. it's a collaboration of all our national news and science programs and will be hosted by our own gwen ifill. check your local listings. i'm jeffrey brown. >> suarez: and i'm ray suarez we'll see you online and again here tomorrow evening. thank you and good night. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> and the william and flora hewlett foundation, working to solve social and environmental problems at home and around the world. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. and... >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by macneil/lehrer productions captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org >> this is nbr. captioning sponsored by wpbt >> susie: good evening, everyone. i'm susie ghar

>> well, i think michael gerson is right in the sense that you have to have something that john boehnerke to the house, and then can pass the house of representatives, that the president agrees to sign. whatever that is, carl, i believe that will pass the senate. so that's the fundamental decision and discussions that have to be done between john boehner and the president to come up with a big solution that deals with the amount of spending that we have on social security and on medicare, before john boehner says anything in terms of raising taxes through rates. the issue is, john boehner has already put revenue on the table through other ways to do it rather than raising rates, and i believe those other ways are better ways to go. >> so, senator, how difficult is the debt ceiling discussion? it's quite clear that the president would like to bolt that on to any deal. and yet, for rank and file gop, to lose control of setting the ceiling on the debt is a huge issue. can it be sold, could it be sold by boehner to the party? >> you know, the president, when he was in the senate, voted agai