. >> let me bring in mike barnacle. he is able to join us. , you have talked about this, on "morning joe", i heard you this morning. what is your gut reaction, if you will, to the selection of this man who studied and earned a diploma in chemistry, juror daned ad ordained as a priest in 1969. and today wanted to begin the path with the people and asked for their prayers, mike? >> he was ordained in society of jesus, the jesuit tradition. and it is as if the board of directors, if you will, college of cardinals, chose a representative of growth industry in the catholic church. latin-america, south america, third world, africa, this is an extraordinary development. this pope coming from argentina, rep c representative of an area where the catholic church is enjoying enormous growth. i'm going to assume that part of the appeal of the cardinal was the fact that he is a good administrator. the vatican needs to be managed. i think he has a strong management hand that he has shown throughout his career as a priest and cardinal. in addition to the hum

who wouldn't want to read a long winded mike barnacle essay. sorry. other early investors in the app included arbon kutcher, yoko ono and rupert murdoch's wife wendy. he doesn't have any immediate big plans for his paycheck except to have his parents help manage it. >>> as always, let us know why you are awake. shoot us an e-mail at way too early@msnbc.com. >>> still ahead on "way too early," tiger woods regains his status as world's number one golfer heading to augusta. highlights from the arnold palmer invitational are next in sports. >>> plus, stephen colbert is back after a two-week hiatus, just in time for pope francis to lead the catholics into holy week. >>> and get a check on that forecast. and a grumpy old man when "way too early" comes right back. >>> 39 people are dead in an apparent mass suicide in a million-dollar mansion just north of san diego. the bodies of the victims believed to be members of a religious cult. >> they believed there was a ufo following that comet and when the comet came close to earth that they would join the ufo and

okay, this is mike barnacle, sequester is latin for incompetence. and i have just said the dreaded s word. it seems to me across the board, jack, i saw your tweet as well. here's the point, when you see that john boehner and barack obama haven't met in person to discuss this economic meltdown in their country, this is what they're elected to do. they haven't met in person since the middle of november. i find that utterly shameful. >> and as the ceo of the country, who should call the meeting? >> right, but i think you can blame the president. at the same time, there's just no -- never mind no love lost between them. there's no camaraderie, no sense of working together for the bigger picture of the american cause. there seems to be a complete kind of frigidity between the speaker and the president, which is reminiscent, i think, of when newt gingrich and bill clinton co-conspired, if you like, to the government shut down, but after that, they did sort things out and they did begin to get together and make things happen. but i don't really have much h

. >> mike barnacle. we're about do see these doors close on the sistine chapel. i think there is, dare i say, a sense of hope or at least optimism about what might happen in the course of the next few days in this vote. do you share that? >> sure. i'm an optimistic person. i'm optimistic each day when i wake up and you know i value my faith. as chris said, you know, one of the great gifts that pope john paul ii gave was he was accessible. he seemed accessible to people who never met him and only saw him through television. and the first pope john of this century gave the same impression, he was accessible. as they close the doors, they're closing the doors on the chapel filled with 115 men, not all of them have done this. but too many have done this -- they have made the church the faith seem inaccessible and remote from every day life. and strange to people who are worried about crimes being committed by priests, going unaddressed by the leadership. >> one can hope that though the doors are closed, their minds and hearts remain open and that some kind of change

back with us on seat we have mike barnacle, john heilman and richard huss.uestions. i liked it. that was a great line about passover, and passover you get four questions. >> i like it. you get your chance, take it. >> okay. we'll start there actually. president obama touched down in the west bank city of ramallah this morning. he was greeted by president abbas kicking off the second leg of his visit to the middle east. today the israeli army confirmed four rockets were fired from the gaza strip landing in southern israel and causing some damage. the rocket strike, which has not been claimed by any palestinian militant groups is the second violation of the cease-fire that ended the clash between the hamas and israel this past november. yesterday the president's meeting with israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu focused on another threat to israel in the region, iran's nuclear ambitions. >> woe agree that a nuclear armed iran would be a threat to the region, a threat to the world and potentially an kp thr to israel. >> so richard, help somebody out at home