[cheers and applause] >> thank you, mitch. and now i've got the great honor to introduce mayor lee, whose commitment to clean tech and jobs to san francisco. it's a testament that you're here. welcome. mayor lee: welcome, tim. thank you, and welcome, everybody. welcome to the greenest city. it's in the world, right? we just have north america but i'll accept the world. mitch, congratulations. thank you for starting greenstart right here in downtown san francisco. and it's amazing, our was on of workforce development and our department of environment, we are very much loving today because we've been talking with clean tech for a long time and everybody asks, when's the right time for this to start happening? well, now. and i love this term "accelerator" because we don't have time to waste. we need innovation right now if we're going to reduce carbon emissions below the 1990's levels, by 20%. we need that now and we need people to have that vision in a very real way. it's more than a vision. we have to have those examples out th

remember, mitch mcconnell, senate minority leader mitch mcconnell had boehner's proxy -- i mean, he could not get all those senators to vote for this if there was not an understanding that once this passed and went to the house, that the house would take care of it and then they could all move on. imagine, mcconnell just came out today with a statement, after days of silence. i think we're seeing the beginning, not the end of an intense battle within the republican party, in the house, but also between the house and the senate. >> and when you have boehner being fraged, essentially by his ostensible followers in the house, that is just a washington reinforcing story of what's naturally going on in a primary campaign, in iowa and elsewhere. so it's this intermural republican battle, sort of, doubled or tripled. >> and what is -- >> there are lives at stake here. there are people's economic livelihoods. >> and we will actually be talking specifically about the human side of this battle coming up next. we will keep this robust discussion going with our panel and talk about the optics of the

and now mitch mcconnell puts out a statement very cryptic. he says house republicans sensibly want greater certainty about the duration of these provisions while senate democrats want more time to negotiate the terms. these goals are not mutually exclusive. we can and should do both. so the way it's being imagined right now, and i have to caution, thomas, none of this is firm. is that house republicans would come back to the white house or come back to their senate counterparts and say, we don't want the two months, let's make it three months, which happens to be a quarter, a full fiscal quarter, which many businesses plan around, and try to go from there. and mitch mcconnell's statement certainly does nothing to throw people off the trail who suspect that could be the emerging deal. having said that, republicans time and time again in the house have insisted that the deal lasts for an entire year. they say that's what is required. that's the basis of them digging in their heels after everyone thought that 89-10 vote in the senate would be th

is mitch mcconnell in many ways more powerful than harry reid? >> given the cooperation that mitch mcconnell has been able to engineer a month republican colleagues in the senate they do have a veto with a majority party would like to do. this can lead to universal gridlocked meaning that not much is getting done. in fact, very little has emerged from the sand over the past year. but it's hard to say who is more powerful. most legislation that passes innocent has to clear both parties. clear the process by which they discover that there is sufficient support to move forward on the floor without running into problems spent mitch mcconnell got a lot of press when he said a couple years ago that his job was to make sure that barack obama was a one-term president. it isn't that his job? >> it is. the president opposition's job to do that. they see that as their roles just like the presidents fellow partisans, their job is to champion the president's agenda. these institutions do not work in isolation from one another. >> dr. lee, is a safety say that

that is the difficult battle speaker mccain -- mitch mcconnell and speaker boehner have.o find out what is the right course in their party to do. >> we will leave it there. thank you. >> thank you. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2011] >> throughout my military career, a kind of prided myself on not being afraid to tell people what i thought. the worst thing you can

we want to read for you part of a statement from mitch mcconnell that reads this.se should pass an extensions that locks in thousands of keystone xl pipeline jobs. allows congress to work on a solution for the longer extensions. you write that the entire project is a boone dogle and propped up by industry lobbying, you say, as well as corrupt science. >> the jobs of course is the issue that everyone is talking about now and the main selling point for office. they are building the pipeline and talking about 20,000 new jobs and that was based on a side that even the company itself suggested was wrong they suggested that the real jobs would be in the neighborhood of 2,000 or 3,000. >> i was reading and they were saying at least in their analysis with the environmental impact, the incremental when we look at the billions of gallons of gas and unemployed across the country, with that all is the background. does it get built? >> i don't know. in the long-term, a lot of oil and we in america has a voracious appetite for it. despite the things that have been don the standa

mitch mcconnell, the senate minority leader, need to keep that tax cut going for the rest of the yearis with the speaker and with the republican leadership in the house of representatives, they don't want a two-month deal. they say it is too complicated, wouldn't really work, would set matters back. they want a one-year extension and they say there is a formula to do it. just get members of the house, members of the senate, so-called conferrees to get together this week an next week, work out a new compromise, get the president to support it. they'll get a one-year extension, that will be that. >> wolf, stand by. the white house has said a two-month extension of the tax cut going to keep middle class americans with getting hit with smaller paychecks nine days from now. we'll wait for the president's remarks. but i want to bring in dan lothian. dan, you and i are used to seeing this kind of stage craft during a campaign. but the white house is taking this argument to a whole nother level. you got the tax countdown clock. the twitter campaign. he's rolling out these families that will p

speaker bane in the presence of harry reid and mitch mcconnell said let mitch mcconnell negotiate it. he did and there was an agreement. >> last week boehner said this. >> if the senate passed, i am committed to bringing the house back within 24 hours to deal with whatever the senate does. there is absolutely no interest in trying to be striking about this. >> boehner was careful and never said he would support whatever senate republican deal was cut. that certainly was what he was trying to apply at least a lot of people heard that. the house is scheduled to take up the senate bill and leaders expected to fail. they could take up an amended version or vote to take it to congress and force a smaller group of senators and members of congress. in a statement the white house scolded house republicans, telling members to stop playing politics and get the job done. moments from now, the director will join me to talk about where we go from here to keep in this in mind. this was the number two leader in the house. he had been signalling he was not in favor of this extension even before senat

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here's mitch ryder.pplause] mitch ryder: this is a song called "devil with the blue dress on." ["devil with the blue dress on" playing] ♪devil with the blue dress blue dress, blue dress devil with the blue dress on ooh, babe, now devil with the blue dress blue dress, blue dress devil with the blue dress on fee, fee, fi, fi, fo-fo, fum look at molly now here she comes wearin' her wig hat and shades to match high-heel sneakers and an alligator hat wearin' her pearls and her diamond rings she's got bracelets on her fingers now and everything she's a devil with a blue dress blue dress, blue dress devil with the blue dress on hear me say devil with the blue dress blue dress, blue dress devil with the blue dress on wearin' her perfume chanel no. 5 got to be the finest girl alive she walks real cool catches everybody's eye they got to be nervous they can't say hi not too skinny not too fat she's a real humdinger and i like 'em like that devil with a blue dress blue dress, blue dress devil with the blue dress on

that is, the senate republican leader mitch mcconnell breaking his silence. he hasn't said anything at all. he's been home and still is in his state of kentucky. he has what he calls a path forward which is effectively siding with the democrats. let's face it. he says that he believes the democrats should appoint the so-called conferrees or the negotiators to start talking about a long term deal to extend the pay roll tax cut for the entire year which is what republicans want. also telling his fellow republicans in the house, you've got to do a short term extension. that is something that they have simply not wanted to do. really dug in against doing that. one little important thing here is that it was a carefully worded statement. and the republican leader did not specifically say that the house republicans should pass what the senate passed, a two-month extension. he said to sentence it. gave them some wiggle room to see if they can save face a little bit and find a compromise maybe a little short, or a little longer than a two-month extension. >> perhaps i

>> we can all look to mitch mcconnell on various matters that come up on the hill here. not just this, but all kinds of debates to see, where is the end game? he's astute at knowing where the next steps are. today he's calling for a parallel track, acknowledging what house republicans want, supporting that, but at the same time, acknowledging what the president and senate democrats and many of his own fellow republican senators want, what the white house calls that insurance policy, of knowing that if it takes longer than the next week to sort out how they would pay for a year-long extension, make sure that there isn't an interruption in benefits or an increase in taxes. this what this all comes down to is not two months versus one year, it's about, how do you pay for it so that it does noted add to the deficit. that's not a part we've talked about as much, but that is really the undercurrent here of where so much of the disagreement lies. >> and is why, kelly, as you rightly point out, is why you have the tea party faction of the republican party still so antsy about th

. >> mitch mcconnell is the good guy -- >> mitch mcconnell is a good guy. >> all of this is going to be forgotten and it will not meanin anything at next november. it is two months, so there will be fighting about it in february. but it doesn't really matter. >> after two months, what happens? >> they will have two months of argument over this. it is not economic idea. nobody is going to hire -- hiring a person in false -- it commits an employer to many years. he is not going to do it on the basis of a one-year or two-month tax holiday. there is no way you can make a political argument in an election year against putting money -- >> but unlike the bush tax cuts, it could actually help the economy, not because these are people who the employers will necessarily higher, but the tax cut is going to people who will actually spend the money -- >> the way last year's payroll tax cut help to the economy -- you are saying it is going to help the economy. there is no evidence it is going to help the economy. >> that is open to debate. elected as i am to -- reluctant as i am to dissent from ev

you heard mitch mcconnell call on house republicans to pass an extension. what's missing -- neither of them is calling on the house to pass a two-month extension. so it seems that there is a little wiggle room. perhaps they are allowing for house republicans to pass something other than the two-month deal. so shorter, longer, maybe that would give boehner -- speaker boehner some cover to do something slightly different. >> jessica, obviously very important, the nuance there, the language, giving all sides just a political cover to come up with some sort of deal and come up with it rather quickly. wolf, i want to bring you back into the discussion, of course. i think what this boils down to, 2012 is all about the state of the economy and whether or not people feel that this president gets it. >> it certainly is, it is it's the economy, stupid," what our friend james carville said in 1992 when president clinton was running for president of the united states. mitch mcconnell did give an opening to the speaker john boehner when he said, we're ready to name sena

mitch mcconnell also telling boehner to get in line. and john mccain warned boehner he's damaging his own party. >> there's no doubt this hurts the republican party. that bothers me a great deal as a republican. >>> all that came today from the right, and president obama threw another left hook today. >> this is an issue where an overwhelming number of people in both parties agree. has this place become so dysfunctional that even when people agree to things, we can't do it? >> make no mistake about it, it's a cave-in and a defining moment for this house and this speaker. we're all over it tonight. luke russert is nbc news capitol hill correspondent. contingentm congressman, and former chief economist for vice president biden. luke, what a day. >> reporter: indeed, reverend al. we woke up this morning with the house gop having a press conference at 10:00 a.m. announcing they still would fight. they would fight this to 9 bitter end, because they thought a one-year extension was the way to go, but surely that's not the case. >> tell me why

republicans like senate minority leader mitch mcconnell argue that taxing the wealthy penalizes the people who create jobs. >> it's about whether we should help those who are struggling in bad economy by punishing the private sector businesses that the american people are counting on to help turn this economy around. >> ifill: but senate majority leader harry reid says republicans are balking because they favor the rich. >> every american family will have a $1,000 less to spend on food and clothing and diapers next year except about 350,000 people. and so republicans can continue to try and protect people who earn an average of $3 million a piece. >> ifill: but both sides appear to be edging toward some middle ground. house speaker john boehner today: >> democrats have called for them to be paid for, and so if in fact we can find common ground on these extensions i

no anger, nothing, just doing what he's supposed to be doing. >> there you go. >> thank you, mitch. good night. >> appreciate it. >> see you first thing in the morning. >> all right. >> as you can see, they're really children's scissors. but we do thousands of quilts with them. last year, we did over 1,000 quilts. the year before, 916. we made some great quilts. to the gentlemen's credit, they do it with these. it's unbelievable. >> still at the end of the day, even children's scissors are safely secured. >> all scissors clear. i put them right here. they're going upstairs. they have to be in the control pod before we change shifts. >> the prison is not taking any risks with demetrius burks either. he will soon be transferred to the secured confinement unit to start a 15-month stay for assaulting a corrections officer. he has lost virtually every privilege he had. but he is allowed monthly visits. >> i'm fixing to go see my mamma. i don't know y'all. i ain't even going to lie. >> his mother, maria burks, and stepfather, tony conner, have come to see him today. >> good morning. visit

mitch will get embarrassed, but it's a great reading.it's a great primer for how to do state government. mitch has been doing this for seven years and for me it was like skipping two grades in terms of understanding what works well. one of his favorite phrases is people will be surprised how much government they don't mess. within that is a situation we've found so many places we were doing things that you would never do with it was your own money. you just wouldn't. and so we really started making those adjustments and changes and every department head if you were starting this over again and if it was your own business would you organize it the same way? starting over again. we are in the process of doing that and that's really painful because you end up addressing things people don't want you to address and a means we will have fewer employees in the future than we have now. we have fewer now than we have had in the last ten years. but along the way this painful decisions with the alternative is people would get that and the final thi

house speaker boehner and your leader mitch mcconnell in the senate are all in favor of extending this benefit because they say it's not the time to hit americans 160 million working americans with a thousand dollar tax hike 234e6ked year. so you consider yourself as an outliar. in your party. even the candidates have said while they might have problems around the edges of it, they believe the tax should be extended. >> that's why joe mantion and i have teamed up. democratic senator and i as a republican both say we should not undermine seniors this way. we should not try to run social zuret without contributions. and that a piece of legislation which increases social security losses by 20 times causing those losses to replenish with u.s. government debt that doesn't even have a aaa rating from standard and poors any more is just irresponsible. >> we can move on, but it isn't being replaced with debt in the proposals. >> you're totally wrong on that. you are factly completely wrong. >> they're paying for it with sputs elsewhere in the budget. >> no, you're totally and utterly wrong. >>

i thought mitch was going to have to tap dance or something at the last session. so i hope we'll see a question, but just in case i will ask one. of the group. scott counties that are four ways to deal with an imbalance, and i suggest there's a fifth. and that's gimmickry. and i know we found a ton of it when they got there, you know, bills stuffed in the drawer seek pretend, shove them into the next fiscal year, don't fund the pension programs when you, fiduciary duty, things like this. i'm just guessing that the mess that each of you came into, that you found some gimmickry. does anybody have a choice example or two that they would like to share with the group? bill, looks like you do. >> well, i actually, i call someone who's a democrat who is fiscally responsible so that's one of the things that help, they did choose the stimulus plan money for ongoing expenses. but by and large is the responsible. what i think one place where you see gimmickry happening is when some states go in and put together and send packages. and is it okay, we're going to do xyz. will h

a lot of anger now between the house republicans and mitch mcconnell. that is an anger that will fester into the new year. >> and it's not a new anger. there has been frustration for a very long time. house republicans can tell you how many bills they've passed they believe the senate has igno ignored. those house republicans especially some of the newer group believe they were sent here with those marching orders that you talked about earlier, and they feel the senate has not responded. so there was a real tension that didn't get as much public notice as sort of an intramural fight between the house and senate. so senator mitch mcconnell pushed, that gave other republicans cover to say let's get this done. >> kelly o'donnell, thank you very much. >> thank you, kelly. >> happy holiday. >>> we're going to turn to the other side of politics now, which is the republican presidential candidates, mitt romney for one, is focusing his attention on new hampshire, striking a confident tone there after picking up the support of george h.w. bush. the former presid

. >> what does minority leader mitch connell do now. does he stand with the deal he struck with harry reid or walk away from that and run to hospitals is friend speaker boehner? >> mitch mcconnell has been a good ally to speaker boehner throughout the years. that's why you could assume that mitch mcconnell would not have made a deal if he didn't think that john boehner wanted to move forward with it in the house. i think mitch mcconnell will sit back and see how the house nl handles this. he is far out on a with this deal. i'm not sure how he can walk away, but he is going to try to do it from this point forward and anything he can do to avoid under cutting john boehner and making the problems worse. >> as we know, 160 million americans stand by and wait to hear if their taxes are going to go up. nbc's luke russert, thank you very much for joining us. newt gingrich from professor to sheriff. stay with us. . >> just in the capital police to arrest him? >> if you had to or instruct the justice department to send the u.s. marshal. just one

. >> republican minority leader mitch mcconnell said the house should pass an extension that locks in the thousands of keystone pipeline jobs and prevents disruption in payroll tax holiday. both sides have been publicly bickering say they both want a year long extension and claim the solution is simple. >> he can bring his dog up here. we are pet-friendly. again, it will not take a long time. we can probably resolve the differences within an hour. >> speaker boehner and the house republicans have the power to go up and open the doors and pass the bill. >> joining me now, kelly o'donnell. let's talk about the tone. it's hard to believe this is taken seriously when you have people like congressman kantor referring to the president taking his dog bo out for a holiday trip. people are saying $40 means heat and $40 means gas to get back and forth to work. >> the tone is heard in different ways depending on the context. had there been real americans standing there talking about what $40 means, kantor would not have used the kidding about bo the dog. the bigger picture is what mcconnell did.

but they reversed course after a statement by senate republican leader mitch mcconnell. in it, he said: six hours, house republicans >> when everybody called for a one year expension-- extension of the payroll tax deduction, when everybody wanted a full year of extended unemployment benefits, we were here fighting for the right things. it may not have been politically the smartest thing in the world, but let me tell you what, i think our members waged a good fight. we were able to come to an agreement. we were able to fix what came out of the senate. >> moments later president obama issued his own statement welcoming the end of what he called the partisan stalemate. covering today's late-breaking developments is todd zwillich from the takeaway on-- and he joins you now. so todd what happened, what changed the speaker's mind and the mind of the republicans around him? >> judy, there's been a study drumbeat for the last few days coming, of course, from democrat, that's predictable. but also from republicans leaning on house republicans to relent here and go with the two mo

. >> i than, but the deal was riched in the senate and mitch mcconnell was leaving hie fiving. he praised the deal. >> the house did not agree with that. the senate could have an agreement. >> dear speaker boehner think there was a good deal? >> he did not agree with the deal or we wouldn't be here. that was a senate deal and senate republicans and democrats came together. house members have not. when we have these kinds of differences, we set up a conference committee to iron out the differences. we have done this for over 200 years and on issues far bigger than this. we can make this happen. i don't think the senate is taking the right attitude by saying our way or the highway. we are gone and the american supreme a glitch, it's because house republicans stayed in town and we left and didn't accept the bill. it's not the time for our way or the highway. this is the time to sit down and come to a committee and have hare reed appoint and let's iron out the deal. i am willing to give. i am willing to look at all of the above. options and let's come up with something that's good

not have got i mean this is eighty nine votes in the senate eighty nine to ten but my coffee that mitch mcconnell wouldn't the republican leader in the senate would not have pulled together that kind of a vote in the senate if he didn't think that john boehner wanted this thing to happen and he and john boehner i mean they're the two senior republicans yes they got to be talking to each other so boehner had to have said to mcconnell sure go ahead and do it will you know we'll be able to pass it which means that when it finally got passed and it was dropped and boners lap my guess is eric cantor he turned around he says what's that poking me in the back and turned around and it was eric cantor with the shift you know well you know look i mean i've long said you know john boehner has become kind of like the speaker in name only eric cantor really runs the house of representatives on these any real question about that we this is the first time that bayer has been has been pulled back on his leash you know by by mr cantor and we know from what senator schumer said on saturday that they did

mitch gilbert was waiting at the airport in las vegas when he found two cesar's palace envelope with thousands of dollars cash. instead of trying to keep the money, he tried to return it. a man from el paso had reported the cash missing. >> i knew right then that was the guy. >> i will always thank mitch for doing this. >> the man says he won the money gambling and dropped it while he was running to catch a flight. >>> lucky man in cecil county won't have to worry about money for the restover his -- restover rest -- rest of his life. derek valcourt went searching for the winner. >> reporter: folks are scratching their heads. >> we don't know who it is. >> reporter: some lucky person bought the winning power ball jackpot ticket here on christmas eve. the number is 14, 16, 30, 51, 52 with a power ball of 19 and a power play of two will make someone rich. but even westly's owners don't know who. >> a lottery was in today. they secured the machine, they checked some stuff in the machine, they told us what time the ticket was sold, it was sold at 3:13 p.m. we checked our cameras to that t

mitch mcconnell searched the house to pass a short-term fix. president obama when to the cameras at the white house. >> has this become so dysfunctional that even when people agree to things, we cannot do it? >> i am ready to sign that compromise the second it lands on my desk. >> most members of congress have already gone home for the holidays. this is something that could be passed by unanimous consent. members would not have to be present. >> if those cuts had expired, 150 million workers would have seen a 2% -- two percentage point increase in their social security. a decision to -- is still pending on whether private bradley manning will stand trial on 22 charges against him in the wikileaks scandal. attorneys made their closing arguments today. the defense team said the army had failed the troubled soldier and is now trying to stronghold -- strong arm him into pleading guilty. he is accused of handing over thousands of pages of national secrets to wikileaks. if court-martialed, and he could face a life sentence. baltimore city school offi

here is senator mitch mcconnell on that. >> here's the problem.ing heat over the base on this project, very young and liberal voters he will need to knock on doors before november. the president has said time and time again that his top priority is jobs. yet, here we've got the single, largest, shovel-ready project in the country, ready to go, ready to go and delaying its approval, interestingly enough, until after the election next year. martha: all right, there you have it. we are joined by democratic congressman chris van hollen. set ranking member on the budget committee. congressman, welcome. >> good to be with you. good to be with you. martha: so why put this thing off? >> interestingly the gentleman you just quoted, who is the republican leader in the senate, mitch mcconnell, said as we all know that his top priority was not jobs. it was defeating president obama and his re-election. in fact the personal who is engaging in politics right now is mitch mcconnell just like he told us he would. look the reality is that there are serious questio

we'll get the latest on where negotiations stand from senate republican leader mitch mcconnell. plus, top republican candidates go negative on newt gingrich. we will ask our sunday panel if the frontrunner can weather the political storm. and our power player of the week helps wounded warriors get home for christmas. all right now on "fox news sunday." >> chris: hello again from fox news in washington. with just over three weeks until the iowa caucuses the republican candidates for president came out swinging last night at a debate in des moines. steve brown watched the action to see who scored and who missed. steve? >> reporter: chris, there were plenty of attempts to knock down newt gingrich the frontrunner a peg or two but the efforts came up short. >> we could start with his idea to have a lunar colony that would mine minerals from the moon. i'm not in favor of spending that kind of money to do that. eeoc said that he would like to eliminate in some cases the child labor laws so that kids could clean schools. i don't agree with that idea. we have differences of view point on