is at the front of the bus. >> all of this is to the benefit of pawlenty. >> tim pawlenty. >> tim pawlenty. >> tim pawlenty. >> tim pawlenty, vice presidential slot. >> i appreciate the tip of the cap that you've given me. >> you should really see me when i'm pissed. >> if you don't run chris christie, romney will be the nominee and we'll lose. >>> today the romney campaign continued to dodge questions on mitt romney's position on immigration as a new poll shows president obama widening his lead over mitt romney. the bloomberg poll of likely voters shows president obama polling at 53%, a full 13 points ahead of mitt romney's 40%. the romney campaign hosted a conference call with reporters today to discuss the economy, but after the first three question the reporters asked were about mitt romney's position on the president's position on immigration, the romney press aide, christie campbell, decided the the call was over. >> we'll have more information in a run-up to the governor's speech tomorrow and he looks forward to addressing naleo and chatting about a number of issues, including how t

. >> 2% tim pawlenty is the new darling for the vp pick. i'll tell you why he's a perfect pick for mitt romney. >>> and republicans are about to cut food stamps for the poor again. senator bernie sanders is fighting back and he's here tonight. >>> good to have you with us tonight. thanks for watching. republicans are trying to take out president obama at any cost. today, the united states attorney general was collateral damage. it was a straight party line vote in the house oversight and government reform committee today. all 23 republicans on the committee voted to hold attorney general eric holder in contempt for an investigation into a failed firearms sting operation in arizona. the program was inherited by the obama administration, and it was ended by attorney general eric holder. committee chairman darryl isis said he wanted to avoid the contempt vote. it would not have occurred had attorney general eric holder actually produced the subpoenas documented he said he would provide, but he pushed ahead with the contempt vote even after pre

i would insert pawlenty or bobby jindal. into that second slot. >> isn't pawlenty too much of a moderate? >> i don't think so. i think pawlenty was a good governor. >> terrible candidate for president. three hours. >> that could be true but a different -- >> okay, your number one pick. >> portman. two, pawlenty and thune for three. >> maggie, your picks if you dare to do this. >> i dare to do it. it is not that riveting. the same as michael. i think pawlenty is very much under consideration. >> how did he get to be the hot tomale this week? every one of my producers are are talking about. is that because he's all with the guy he's traveling around? >> a, they wonder whether they can put minnesota in play. whether that's realistic or not. number one, two, mitt romney likes him, trusts him. he's be out there aggressively for him. this is a do no harm situation. >> we can all agree on that. why do we all agree? not trying to get a game changer. why would -- why do we agree he's not going for a game changer like sarah palin? >>

>> i guess it's pawlenty but i have no idea.o. i think we go back and take a look at his ideas about infrastructure way back when he was governor of minnesota. there would be questions. he's not quite as bland. he's certainly not unaccomplished as we're acting like he is. anybody who surfaces at this point or resurfaces i think comes in for a lot of new vetting. and nobody is without questions in their past. >> thank you. good luck with your book. >>> when we return, allow me to finish with another acquittal in a perjury case. you're watching "hardball" the place for politics. while you're out catching a movie. [ growls ] lucky for me, your friends showed up with this awesome bone. hey! you guys are great. and if you got your home insurance where you got your cut rate car insurance, it might not replace all this. [ electricity crackling ] [ gasping ] so get allstate. you could save money and be better protected from mayhem like me. [ dennis ] mayhem is everywhere. so get an allstate agent. are you in good hands? more than 50 tim

. >>> and is tim pawlenty the new inside favorite? here's what he told us a month ago. >> why wouldn't you be a good choice for mitt romney? >> well, i'm going to do whatever i can to help mitt romney defeat barack obama because i think the future of the country is at stake and i think mitt romney is going to be a fantastic president for our country. i'll do whatever i can do. >> tahrir square erupting again in protests against the military rulers while hosni mubarak clings to life and the election results are in dispute. >>> and they're back. regis and kathie lee reunited on the fourth hour of "today" to cohost for the fourth time in a dozen years. >> all i said was yes, i'll come in and pinch hit for hoda. and i wind up with this fanfare like it's the st. patrick's day parade. >> good day. i'm andrea mitchell live in washington. in our daily fix, a house committee is expected to vote to hold attorney general eric holder in contempt. it's a republican controlled committee, of course. after a contentious debate over documents that hou

and romney was the sort of like straight man, like tim pawlenty who, you know, didn't hurt pawlenty to, this is who i am endorsing. >> i don't like pawlenty. thane is just as boring nikki haley is a clown. rick santorum. >> they will never go with rick santorum. >> scott walker is a deeply unlikable guy. they think he is a rock star. i think he would play very poorly with a national audience. >> i think so, too, with an independent audience as well but he has proven to be a really good politician. >> that's the kind of energy. i think it would be a terrible pick. >> one last thing is the possible candidate that might do well. you have jeb bush on that list. chris crist irving i think would be interesting. bob mcdonald and rob portman. look, my favorite on that list -- i don't like him at all. i think he is a big fraud in a lot of ways but if i was a republican, after rubio, i would think about christie because he does a great job of getting hedge fund and private equity money, et cetera, while sounding like a regular guy with his new jersey schtick. >> but that's just it. schtick can o

tim pawlenty, those four. there is somewhat of a split on portman in evangelical circles.talk to evangelical leaders in ohio, they really like the guy. nationally there are evangelical leaders that are concerned about him. so it kind of runs the gamut. >> david brody, fascinating new book. thank you very much for taking a fresh look at all of this. thanks for joining us today. >>> up next, politico briefing. do we have a new favorite in the vice presidential sweepstakes? we'll take a deeper dive. >>> first, senate majority leader harry reid channels washington nationals star bryce harper. who wouldn't. the 19-year-old rookie phenom coined this phrase last week in a locker room interview with the toronto tv reporter. >> you know you of course in canada are of legal drinking age so what celebratory canadian beer would seem to make sense after a hit like that. you got a favorite beer? >> it's illegal to drink in the states at 19. why don't you ask something else. >> not canada. >> i'm not answering that. >>> tuesday on the hill, senator reid showed that he follows the nats. a

with all due respect to tim pawlenty, the idea that barack obama sounds like an arsonist.like romney saying, a vote for president obama would be unpatriotic. to me, that's language that this country doesn't need. >> i think the argument -- >> i think matt's right. we ought to come forward and both sides, and the president should have a mea culpa. we have gotten into a place that was very different from where the campaign wanted to be in 2008. we got to back away from that. otherwise, we're not going to be able to confront this pretty serious challenge at a time when we could do it. if there's someone on the other side that's willing to meet the president there, i think they could get a deal. you saw a glimpse of that last year. if they're going to come at it like it's the eastern german judge at the olympics, president said that i'm going to do something historically republican, i don't think it can work. >> we're seeing the consequences of the stalemate pretty much across europe right now, but particularly in greece, where they're voting today. it could be an election whe

i think people like portman and pawlenty possibly play that role.io all along was a higher risk proposition both as a junior senator and with some financial problems in his background, so i think they're settling towards the safer optionsed. >> all right. jeff and ann, thank you so much for your time. i greatly appreciate it. thanks for joining me. still ahead, skipping the party. why three prominent west virginia democrats say they won't attend this summer's dnc convention, and waste of time and your money? from the acquittal of roger clemens to a new proposal to regulate boxing. is the government out in left field when it comes to regulating sports and investigating these superstar athletes? emily's just starting out... and on a budget. like a ramen noodle- every-night budget. she thought allstate car insurance was out of her reach. until she heard about the value plan. see how much you could save with allstate. are you in good hands? what if i can't lose the weight? what if weight watchers can't help me? what if i'm not ready for change? what if

i feel like we talked a lot about tim pawlenty obviously when he was a candidate. he sort of went off into the magical ether and seems to be back. and have a fairly strong showing, i thought, as mitt romney's road dog. >> i think so, too. i got really excited. i thought it was thursday for a second. >> that's what happens when the prompter breaks down and you're ad-libing the open to your show. >> i was set for the weekend. secondly, i think you hit the nail on the head. tim pawlenty has suddenly, maybe not unexpectedly, resurfaced as one of these front-runners for the veep stakes. if we watched his trajectory, we would have been shocked because the man, you didn't think there were people more boring than mitt romney but tim pawlenty did hit that note. that might be what they want. listen, he's a perfectly capable guy. he has a resume that is, you know, he was two-term governor, he can bring that to the table, and they don't want -- from all i can tell, they don't want to have some sort of massive game-changing pick. they want to do something very close to the vest

. >> brown: then, we turn to politics and talk with former minnesota governor tim pawlenty- - a co-chair of the romney campaign-- about the 2012 presidential race. >> mitt romney has a specific set of proposals on the table, the president is ducking, hiding, weaving, bobbing on those issues. won't lead, won't propose and he is hiding on one of the most pressing issues of the day and that's unfortunate. >> woodruff: as congress investigates leaks about war tactics, from drone strikes to cyber attacks, we talk with a journalist who has reported on the secret programs. >> brown: spencer michels looks at one city's plan to combat obesity and diabetes by discouraging people from drinking sodas. >> people in richmond, california, are debating a controversial measure on the ballot, to tax sugary beverages. >> woodruff: and we close with a profile of the newly named 19th u.s. poet laureate-- pulitzer prize winner, natasha trethewey. >> brown: that's all ahead on tonight's "newshour." major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> this is the at&t network-- a living, breathing intell

>> i guess it's pawlenty, but i have no idea.at his bridge issues, he's not without vetting issues, too, and i think we go back and take a look at his ideas about infrastructure when he was governor of minnesota. there would be questions, he's not quite as bland. he's not as unaccomplished as we're asking like he is. anyone who surfaces or resurfaces comes in for a lot of new vetting and nobody is without questions in their past. >> thank you, good luck with your book. thank you, joan walsh. >> allow me to finish with another acquitalt in a high profile perjury case. you're watching "hardball," the place for politics. whole grain, multigrain cheerios! mom, are those my jeans? [ female announcer ] people who choose more whole grain tend to weigh less than those who don't. multigrain cheerios >>> let me finish tonight with some thoughts about the not guilty verdict in the roger clemens trial. in the last 24 hours, i have heard many paired this result with the outcome of the john edwards trial. yes, viewed one way, the feds are 0-2

pawlenty -- francois pawlenty was pushing hard for a growth path and was successful -- francois pawlenty -- francois hollande will call for more austerity measures spiritual call for reform, and she demands a political union, fiscal union for the euro. the french government -- hollande sees it the other way around. he demands more solidarity, which is exactly the opposite of what the german government is asking for. >> a sign of just how hard the eurozone crisis is hitting spain, the government has announced further cuts to health care for citizens just after announcing more cuts for medical care for undocumented migrants. this on top of numbers out today showing spain's recession deepening in the second quarter. spanish 10-year bond yields aren't notching 27%, forcing greece, ireland, and portugal to call for sovereign bailout. spanish prime minister has for more help from his eurozone partners. >> the spanish prime minister did not mince words in his speech to parliament. he warned that funding spain's debt would be unsustainable at current borrowing costs. >> we cannot keep finding ou

pawlenty's stock is rising.closer to the campaign than people have -- than conventional wisdom holds. is he getting serious consideration. the interesting thing about this, north carolina is the audition spot. everybody is going to north carolina to give their big speeches, paul ryan and -- >> of course donald trump. >> is he a wild card? >> sure. i think in our list we say the on the bubble spot, fortunately not donald trump. but, you know, portman headed to north carolina this coming weekend. paul ryan and tim pawlenty were there last week. >> interesting. you guys put daniels in there. we basically are eliminating him this morning. is that rough on our part? >> i think at this point, mcdonell -- mcdonell's stock has fallen the most. he was up in the top spot early on in the process. but the problems he's had with his own state republican party pushing him so far to the right has been -- has limited his options. >> there's been a lot of -- it seems as if the romney campaign allowed word to leak, hey, they coul

so are marco rubio, tim pawlenty.ll see whose stock is overvalued and undervalued. >>> president obama has his worst week of the year. 93 points today alone, s&p up 48 points, the nasdaq up 111. >>> whether it's wisconsin, california or bill clinton, are u.s. politics moving in a pro-growth low-tax supply-side direction? maybe the stock market is picking that up. but first up, it has been a bad week for president obama. hit with a mountain of bad news, threatens to become an avalanche. he's been out-fund raised by mitt romney, undercut be former president bill clinton. nearly every time clinton opens his mouth, wisconsin proved that big loser and democrats and unions alike, and romney pulls ahead in michigan. ed rendell slams the president for his inexperience as an executive and with a dismatt approval rating of over 46%. the president squarely in the danger zone. can the president hold back the avalanche, or is the political tide turning against him and formitt rom n i so let's talk about all this. we have cnbc cont

tim pawlenty will be with him. sunday, rob portman will be with him in ohio, the ohio senator. monday, paul ryan will be with him. all these people have something in common. they were all mentioned as vps. lot of chatter. do you expect mitt romney to make an earlier than expected decision? by that i mean sometime right before the convention on this? how far along is the process? >> there haven't been any decisions made about making a decision. that's about as apt a summary as i can tell you. >> that's incredibly insightful. >> i think this is going to be a very detailed process. i think that's reflected in the governor's appointment of beth myers as part of his search committee. i think it will be a lot of information, going to be a lot of discussion, going to be a great deal of vetting and i think it will ultimately come down to a decision the governor makes. when he makes it, beth will learn, i will learn and so will the american people.

that was a spectacular failure for tim pawlenty. i understand why he did it. he didn't want to -- >> i'm sorry. i have to interrupt you because darrell issa just started speaking. let's go to the hearing. >> in a canyon west of rio, rico, arizona, u.s. border patrol agents were engaged in a shootout with armed mexican bandits preying on illegal immigrants. one of the agents was 40-year-old brian terry, a 3-year veteran who had served as a u.s. marine and gone through boot camp in camp pendleton in my district. dufrg that fire fight, a bullet pierced agent terry's aorta and he died in that canyon. two weapons were found at the scene. they were later traced to an operation conducted by the department of justice called fast and furious. 16 months ago, this committee along with senator chuck grassley launched an investigation in to whistle-blowers' allegations regarding fast and furious. we became involved only after senator grassley was told he would not receive answers from the justice department because, in fact, he did not have subpoena power and was not the c

governor pawlenty -- i don't disagree with governor pawlenty. i don't think we should be running against george bush. the country already looks at george bush's presidency as pretty much a debacle. let's vilify the people who are actually the villains. look at the senate republicans. democrats take over the senate. we have a chart from this from talking points memo. democrats take over the senate. what happens? filibusters jump. the 111th congress, from in the 80s per congress to 137.e're already at 87. every single bill is being filibustered. the only thing they're not filibustering, post office namings. in the house the president goes before the congress, calls them into session, sends up a jobs bill, addresses the nation. they pass two pieces of a massive jobs bill. and people are sitting around going, where are the jobs? i'll tell you where the jobs are. they're sitting in congress. 535 of them of which half of them are republicans and they're the only ones that care about their own jobs. it's kind of embarrassing. >> right. >> stopping him

we're not going to elect him because he got a participation ribbon. >> strong words from pawlenty. reality, does the message resonate with the independents? those are the people we say matter at this point, the people at the base will follow who they plan to follow here. doesn't the past at all matter or is that seen as whining to independents? >> the past does matter. actually president obama, one of his biggest challenges is going to try to make people remember where this economy was and where this country was in 2008 and 2009. and talking about the debt, tamron, you can't say that there is this $1 trillion deficit and not mings what the drivers were and some of the biggest drivers in the current deficit have to do with the bush tax cuts, the economic downturn and the wars in iraq and afghanistan. so that, of course, president obama had a stimulus. of course, he and his administration have spent money but the biggest drivers of that deficit are those things i just mentioned to you. >> you hear and i describe it as a talking point because you don't just hear from pawlenty. anyone

saturday was the former minnesota governor, tim pawlenty's turn. campaign in the state of pennsylvania. he's also the national co-chair for the romney campaign and he joins us this morning from minneapolis. it's nice to see you, sir. thanks for being with us. will cain was calling this -- was this the "american idol" of trying to figure out who your presidential pick will be. is that a completely off the board way to describe that or does it feel like you are being vetted or being potentially a vice presidential pick for mitt romney when you're on that bus? >> well, you may be making more of it and you think, soledad, as you go through the swing states of wisconsin and ohio and pennsylvania and new hampshire and others. of course you're going to invite the local senator or governor and those are on the speculated list of vps. for me, obviously i want to do whatever i can to get mitt romney elected president of the united states. i think he will be a terrific president. i think i could serve him best in positions other than vp, so i've encouraged pe

and pawlenty makes some sense. the guy has been a very good surrogate for the romney campaign. he -- >> blue-collar hockey player,y january gel california christian. >> two-term governor. and also remember, he took -- he decided to take it pretty easy on mitt romney during the republican primary season. he had the opportunity to go after romney on health care, and he ducked at that presidential debate. >> famous debate. prove your manhood from john cain. but could end up in a vp nod of the maybe nice guys finish second, at least. mark murray, thank you so much for being here. >>> a house committee is expected to proceed with a contempt vote against attorney general eric holder this morning. after a two-minute meeting, darrell issa failed to resolve a disputes over the documents in the fast and furious gunwalking program that led to the death of an agent. pete williams joins me now. pete, these are rare, a contempt vote for an attorney general. as far as i've seen, it's only really happened about two times in the modern era. talk to us about the process here, and what exactly is