my exclusive interview with house democratic leader, nancy pelosi. this is the ebb show. stay tune. we will be right back. >>> more analysis of the republican debate with the panel coming up. nancy pelosi on income inequality, republican obstruction in congress and her plans to take back the house in 2012. stay tuned. >>> in the debate tonight in iowa, the republican candidates went after president obama on foreign policy again and again they said he is weak. >> president obama's actions invited war. >> absolutely. the right course under obama's pants is to shrink our military. if we -- the world will be safer. >> if we had a 11 missiles fired in the united states, this president might as well say, maybe we could communicate and you would like s'mores. >> this administration has absolutely boggle the. >> i am at present joined by richard wolf . also joining us tonight, john smoltz, chairman of voice vote vets and iraq war veterans. let's start with you. a lot of saber rattling going on. when i listen to santorum, i thought we would hit by the iranians in about ten minutes. the depic

nancy pelosi is now the democratic leader in the house. saying pelosi was clirly referring to the extensive am of information that is in the public record, including the comprehensive committee report with which the public may not be fully aware. all of the other campaigns already had that report. they're preparing whether or not they'll use it but now they have it. do you think, gloria, the democrats know he is combustible. the democrats know he gets mad when you question his past. does nancy pelosi say wait for the day. is she planting a seed? is it on purpose? >> i think she is planting a seed. and, but it is clear that everybody knows that the history is there. i think the question with the romney campaign right now, it's not really about nancy pelosi. it is about mitt romney. what does mitt romney do? he's been calling him a career politician. actually, i would think that the way to confront newt gingrich would not be on the career politician but would be on this question of power and how he used power and can you trust him with power

>>> still to come tonight on "the ed show" my exclusive interview with house democrat ecleader nancy pelosilks about the divide in washington and slams republicans for protecting the wealthy at the expense of the middle class. pelosi also weighs in on the tragic income inequality in this country, and tells us why she's putting her foot down on the bush tax cuts finally. i also found out what she thinks about her former colleague newt gingrich as a possible president and why she is optimistic about the democrats chances in this 2012. it was a great conversation. we'll bring it to you next. later former new york governor eliot spitzer and msnbc political analyst eugene robinson join me for analysis. stay with us. we're right back. [ male announcer ] you are a business pro. lord of the carry-on. sovereign of the security line. you never take an upgrade for granted. and you rent from national. because only national lets you choose any car in the aisle. and go. you can even take a full-size or above. and still pay the mid-size price. i deserve this. [ male announcer ] you do, business pro. you d

gingrich was embarrassed when a video of him and nancy pelosi sitting on a couch talking about global warming surfaced. apparently that didn't warm up ms. pelosi much toward mr. gingrich. this week she told a web site she knows a whole bunch about gingrich and ethical problems investigated in the 1990s. that obvious threat did not sit too well with the speaker. >> if she is suggesting she is going to use material that she developed while sheet was on the ethics committee. that is a fundamental violation of the rules of the house and i would hope members would immediately file charges against her the second she does it. i think it tells you how capriciously political that committee was she was on it. tells you how tainted that committee was the outcome was she was on it. >> bill: reprimand $300,000 fund because he used a political action committee to help teach some college courses low level beef to be sure. with us now our barack and hard place duo monica crowley and alan colmes. how do you see this threat thing here? >> what is she polywalnuts pelosi. trying to do this to -- this is

>>guest: when nancy pelosi comes to hawaii she comes every christmas holiday she stays in the $10,000 a night room, she is there, again, this year, but in the past that is where she has stayed when she has come to hawaii. >> that is fantastic the how much money must you have to be able to afford $10,000 a night. well, we won't do that. >>guest: more than i make as a reporter. >> and now, i have a tie that i wore to commemorate the trip to hawaii with palm trees on it, i wanted to point that out. >>guest: great. >> and now, president obama, the family is out there, and your publication said it will cost about $4.1 million for the time they are spending there. where did you come up with that number? >>guest: well, just, that is just what we know. when you try to get information from the secret service or from the white house it is very difficult as you can imagine, especially when they use the excuse that it is about security so they cannot tell us, but based on what we know, just the air force e alone to travel from washington, dc, to hawaii, and back, is over $3.6 million. so, that ta

i asked about the spat with former speaker nancy pelosi about who you just spoke.ld trump is here as well and brit hume. you don't want to miss the show. stick around. >> greta is coming up 20 short minutes from now. let not your heart be traveled, the great, great, great american the great, great, great american panel, i seed deirdreny great ps before me, guided only by a dream. i'm embarking on a journey of epic proportion. i will travel, from sea to shining sea, through amber waves of grain, and i won't stop until i've helped every driver in america save hundreds on car insurance. well i'm out of the parking lot. that's a good start. geico, fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent, or more on car insurance. with less chronic low back pain. imagine living your life with less chronic osteoarthritis pain. imagine you, with less pain. cymbalta can help. cymbalta is a non-narcotic treatment that's fda-approved to manage chronic musculoskeletal pain. one pill a day, every day, can help reduce this pain. tell your doctor right away if your mood worsens, you have

house leader nancy pelosi, stay with us. we're going to do some more of this. next up, we're going to be talking about the 2012 election. newt gingrich is still running strong. i'll ask leader pelosi about her thoughts on her old colleague. and later, msnbc political analyst and former governor eliot spitzer will join us. so stay tuned for that. you're watching "the ed show" on msnbc. we're right back. ♪ it's nice to see you [ male announcer ] this is your moment. ♪ this is zales, the diamond store. take up to an extra 15 percent off storewide now through sunday. premier of the packed bag. you know organization is key... and so is having a trusted assistant. and you...rent from national. because only national lets you choose any car in the aisle...and go. you can even take a full-size or above and still pay the mid-size price. here we are... [ male announcer ] and there you go, business pro. there you go. go national. go like a pro. your new progresso rich & hearty steak burger soup. [ dad ] i love this new soup. it's his two favorite things in one... burgers an

the first is nancy pelosi. when she first came into congress her net worth was around $3 million. in the 20 years she has served after that her net worth has gone up 870 6% which means on a compounded basis averaging 24% return on investment every year. i think george soros or worn by federal me would kill for that type of return. so a dramatic increase in wealth. have at least a large part of that is connected to her political position. what about a republican? the speaker of the house immediately before her dennis faster from illinois when he became speaker in the late nineties had a net worth around $300,000. when he laughed less than one decade later it was in the millions and could be close to the 11 million. he did not in your money or win the lottery it is a function of him leveraging his position in order to enrich himself. those are two individuals but there are multiple other side talk about in the but. i name people from both parties this comes from their public financial disclosures and comparing their activities with what they work on with legislation and to sensitive

hurt newt worse than this is hurting nancy pelosi.ng those ethics rules. if there is one thing that republicans and democrats is abide by and have integrity for or they like to maintain the integrity of the ethics committee. they do cut each other slack or do it the right way, and her even suggesting that is so egregious, newt is exactly right. stand back and let everybody else make those charges. get out of process and keep talking about message. >> what she said, donna, i know you like nancy pelosi and admire her a great deal. but what she said about in that statement, i know a lot about him, i served on the investigative committee that investigated him. four of us locked in a room for year. a thousand pages of stuff. that's pretty threatening and inappropriate for a member of that pan toll release that kind of confidential information. >> first of all, let's focus out there on the public record. >> but she wasn't focusing on the public record. if that statement she was focusing in on the secret stuff that is never supposed to be re

>> greg: nancy pelosi is a terrible poker player. says something given the fact that her face has no expression. but the thing is, if she real ihad something on newt, she wouldn't stay so because she would want him to get the nomination and then spring it loose. what she portrayed was her fear of gingrich nomination. this was just like with the agent, it came out of her as a reaction he could be the nominee. >> andrea: the republicans can say this is part of the pelosi hatchet job. people are sick of it. enough already. >> bob: greg is being mean to nancy pelosi. her face is frozen for reasons that are not -- let me move right on. >> andrea: yes. >> bob: if you could, the fact is that newt gingrich did get epic violations. he did pass the ethics committee? he was going to make a lot of money and he backed off on that and the book deal. it wasn't as if newt came out of that thing. 83-nothing. he did violate ethics. he got penalized for it. unless, yononetheless, nancy pes not the right person. no democrat -- >> eric: she is bringing t

i asked about the spat with former speaker nancy pelosi about who you just spoke.ld trump is here as well and brit hume. you don't want to miss the show. stick around. >> greta is coming up 20 short minutes from now. let not your heart be traveled, the great, great, great american panel, i seed deirdre imus in the wings next. [ malannouncer ] imagine facing the day with less chronic low back pain. imagine living your life with less chronic osteoarthritis pain. imagine you, with less pain. cymbalta can help. cymbalta is a non-narcotic treatment that's fda-approved to manage chronic musculoskeletal pain. one pill a day, every day, can help reduce this pain. tell your doctor right away if your mood worsens, you have unusual changes in mood or behavior or thoughts of suicide. antidepressants can increase these in children, teens, and young adults. cymbalta is not approved for children under 18. people taking maois or thioridazine or with uncontrolled glaucoma should not take cymbalta. taking it with nsaid pain relievers, aspirin, or blood thinners may increase bleeding

plus, could harry reid and nancy pelosi be on the out in washington in 2012?t is what karl rove think. are the girl scouts trying to indoctrinate our young girls to lin ral ideology? we tell you what they are up to. a pro-abortion blogger campaigns against tim tebow. "the five" starts right now. ♪ ♪ >> kimberly: our top story, bad news for white house. rasmussen report has mitt romney with a six-point lead over president obama in a 2012 matchup. to make matters worse, obama is upside down in the gallup daily tracking poll, a couple of days after bob beckel was down right giddy. only 41% approve of obama. 50%, i don't think so. all right, andrea, what do you think about the numbers? >> andrea: he is in big trouble. he saw a very short-term bounce. democrats were starting to rally around him in payroll tax. the optics of that fight helped him because he stayed out of it. now, he has to deal with an economy he hasn't fixed. contrary to what democrats say, it's still in the gutter. i also think the reason for this is mitt romney hid in the tall grass for a long ti

i asked about the nancy pelosi issue. i asked about the personal life.if he should be discipline. i asked the questions of the guys. they have been asked to death. there is so much scrutiny, the democrats get a pass. then the fear begins. they're too flawed. but the most flawed person in this case is barack obama. it gets frustrated to me to see the in-fighting and the nitpicking on the guys. >> i understand your frustration but i don't think it's nitpicking to look at each and ercandidate -- >> sean: you are misunderstanding me. >> no, i'm not. >> sean: there comes a point. >> i think you're frustrated, sean. it understand that. >> sean: they all have strength and weaknesses is what i'm saying. >> i am saying i think it's important toddling up mitt romney statements when he describes himself as a progressive several years ago. justs important to talk about newt gingrich actions to talk about progressivism and in some cases uncontrolled sense of narcissism. look, the seahawks, wh tea parta party? national review and washington republicans don't like newt

. >> i want to start with the spat between nancy pelosi and newt gingrich over his ethics violations. what is the latest on that and how much could those ethics violations hurt him in the long run? >> it seems like we're reliving the 1990s all over again, a time when i think we said before you and i couldn't even vote when all this was going on. >> we weren't yet born, luke. just kidding. >> we were born. >> show over. >> continue. continue onwards. >> but nancy pelosi a few days ago said in an interview up here and sort of a tongue in cheek way talking about the possibility of newt gingrich being the republican nominee, how a lot of democrats would welcome that because of all the ethical baggage he had in the 1990s. she was a member of the ethics committee that investigated newt gingrich back then. it started in 1994, went through 1997. it was about whether or not newt gingrich improperly used a tax deductible dollars for political purposes, specifically teaching a class at georgia college that had some political overtones for a pac that he was associated with and then lying to the h

. >>> plus, nancy pelosi says she might spill the secrets of newt. we're talking about thousands of pages of secrets. >>> and we're exposing the gop effort to suppress minority votes in our special series "block the vote" starting tonight. you're watching "politics nation" on msnbc. usa prime credit... this peggy... hi, i'm cashing in my points... peggy? no more points - coupons now. coupons? coupons. coupons? next, you convert coupons to tokens. tokens? then you trade tokens for credits. and then i get the cash? then you call back. bye bye. peggy? hello? what just happened? want rewards that make sense? switch to discover. america's #1 cash rewards program. it pays to discover. when you pour chunky beef with country vegetables soup over it... you can do dinner. four minutes, around four bucks. campbell's chunky. it's amazing what soup can do. but my nose is still runny. [ male announcer ] truth is, dayquil doesn't treat that. really? [ male announcer ] alka-seltzer plus fights your worst cold symptoms, plus it relieves your runny nose. [ deep breath

would hope members would immediately file charges against her the second she does it. >> so does nancy pelosiend to release secret information about the former speaker? here's her official answer. quotes, leader pelosi was clearly referring to the extensive amount of information that is in the public record, including the comprehensive committee report with which the public may not be fully aware. well, this is the sort of sharp, threatening counterpunch newt gingrich would deliver, let's face it, in a presidential debate with barack obama. pay attention, everyone. >>> finally, which gop candidate comes to mind when is comes to waffling on issues? mitt romney maybe? back in 2004 romney was going after a democratic candidate for, get this, flip-flopping. here's what he said about john kerry back in 2004. let's listen. >> when you're running for office, you look at your opponent's record, you find someplace where he or she has changed position and say they're a flip-flopper and that's a pretty standard thing. but in this case, this guy really is. i won't go through that whole list but it's just

i would prefer to see one that held phones nancy pelosi accountable for their actions in these wars. i would prefer resolution of condemnation of those women them to appear before this board and be answerable for their actions. a resolution aimed at generally of the federal government knows -- goes nowhere because we are so small, but those women live in this town. they are our elected representatives. we should pay heat on them to end this war. they are two of the most powerful people in washington. hothis resolution does nothing o mention either one. please reconsider and put more teeth in this. thank you. >> thank you. next speaker, please. >> good morning. my name is sandra schwartz. i serve on the steering committee for the new priorities campaign, and i would like to thank all of you for bringing this resolution. i look forward to a passing. so much has already been said. i would like to offer this, because i think a picture says 1000 words. here we have the discretionary budget, and those of you better here for the parks see there is 1%. those of you that are here for the park

that's what nancy pelosi said. here's what newt gingrich said to our jim acosta yesterday in new york after the story broke. >> i want to thank speaker pelosi for what i regard as an early christmas gift. >> are you concerned about that information reemerging? >> we turned over a million pages of material. we had a huge report. the total, 83 charges were repudiated as false. the one mistake we made was a letter written by a lawyer that i didn't read carefully. >> in all, it was just a couple years ago that pelosi and gingrich made that commercial together for global warming. the times have changed between the two. the story far from over, kyra. >> interesting to see what this 1,000 pages of stuff, paul, that you describe. we'll track it. for all the latest political news, go to our website to cnnpolitics.com 24/7. >>> time is running out to extend the payroll tax cut. no deal by the end of the year, you could pay higher taxes next year. senate democrats are floating a new proposal and our congressional correspondent

what better foil for him with republican base right now than nancy pelosi? u couldn't ask for a better person to come out and attack you. so, i wish nancy would just be quiet here or let somebody else say something. let's keep in mind that the house is full of more senior members who really don't like newt, both democrats and republicans. it goes back a long way. he has got a lot of other timber back there that is still --. bill: you made the point some of his own colleagues will -- >> sure. bill: by the way, let me tell viewers what pelosi said to talking points memo.com that started all this. she said, i know a lot about him. mining gingrich. i served on the committee that investigated him. four of us locked in a room in undisclosed location for a year. >> they found nothing. >> i'll tell you. i've been around washington a long time. i don't know where that location is if it exists. i've known newt gingrich a lot longer than nancy pelosi. believe it or not i hate to say this, i was first one to give him contribution when he ran for congress in the '70s. bil

and then bernie -- nancy pelosi threatening newt gingrich saying she sat on the investigative committee and has all this stuff on him. what about the threats against gingrich, won't that make people feel sorry for him? >> possibly. it depends on what the substance of the attacks turns out to be. if they turn out to be. >> bill: the divorce and all of that? >> my view of that is i think he can get past the divorce, the divorces. the people who are going to be against him because of that probably already are. what i think he is more vulnerable on is his record in office and out and the things he said, the money has raised. the money he spent. the way he has spent it and all of that. >> bill: the tiffany's thing and all of that. >> all of that and more. $2 million or so on private airplanes while mitt romney who is a genuinely rich man flying around same election cycle and spent $270,000 on commercial planes. different world. >> bill: interesting matchup on the republic side. brit as always, thank you very much. michele bachmann is going to be here. her only chance to engineer a stunning u