bill: air pelosi. the worst thing about lending pelosi in aircraft is it always comes back with an eye job on the cockpit where the shields are pulled up in and a disturbing arc. somebody thinks this empty headed manikin has to be guarded from people. it shows you how absolutely mad the world has gotten. the woman volunteers to go to summit because she thinks the gulf stream is rolling out the new model. bill: you are invited to disney -- to dinner with chavez and obama but you could not make it. what was your assessment from afar? >> all for this campaign, i heard from barack obama that words matter and pictures are worth a thousand words. i understand, keep your enemies closer, but you do not have to spoon this guy. imagine how it breaks the spirit of a freedom fighter to look up and see barack obama with this pig. it is unbelievable to me. barack, he appears that he does have -- he likes to bully people who bully bullies. i do not know why he would want to be in a photo op with this guy from the sop

pelosi is a train wreck.lood in the water on her and i hope they bring in cue so's kids to document it. if you thought the eyes twitched in the past, watch her during the next couple of weeks, a hummingbird in time travel. she's not getting out of there. but if she makes one more mistake like that, they'll drag her out of there. >> she's not going to make a mistake, a gaffe a second and i don't know if he dislikes her. i do know he's embarrassed by her. this guy is ready to stroll into history for all time and he's got this shrieking hairdan mag pie. >> bill: and calling about the pirates. >> yo ho, ho, it's the end of life for me. i think they shot him simultaneously all about spreading the wealth. if you shoot them in descending order, two pirates are standing there, wait a second, wasn't i good enough to blast first. they blasted them simultaneously and barack showing his human side. we're throwing the word pirate around now and won't say terrorist. i'm looking at the daily press conference, an eye patch,

nancy pelosi might have a two -track system. >> i hadn't interview earlier today with speaker pelosi and. -- i had an interview today with speaker pelosi. >> she said that there was a separate track. some legislation would be more incremental in nature. it was difficult to determine what she was talking about. she believes that there are some things that could be done now even as the larger comprehensive health care project is in a log jam. >> what about senator reed and other democrats? >> she did not tip her hand. i don't know. >> what can you tell us about the president's speech tonight? what do you expect to hear? >> the expertcerpts that we have heard include a renewed call for bipartisanship. that is a familiar message from the campaign. it is pretty discordant with reality. obama has presided over very sharp partisanship. >> the president also talking about the rising deficit. the senate took up a vote to create a commission but they failed to get the necessary amount. now the president says that it is time for an executive commission. >>will they be able to lower the deficit?

. >> another story line looks like he's yielding to nancy pelosi. looks likee's more interested of being president of the world? critic bill crystal says this -- >> obama is making us weaker. he tries to placate adversaries. >> this idea that he's somehow a global blowny guy. not too much of a good old yankee american. >> what he has chosen to emphasize in the early going has led to that perception. there's no doubt by favoring the wall street crowd that he fed into that whole thing. then talking about global warming, it all leads to this perception. i think the perception is a problem for him. chris: tipping to the atlantic and not too homegrown. >> those two things i think are real problems for him in 2010. chris: do they sense that they have to be a little more heartland? >> i think they do. they got very upset about the storyline that they themselves help to create after his asia trip. he said i'm america's first pacific president. he struck a lot of conciliatory notes when he was china. japan and the united states don't want that story line. th

i know you know. >> this is more pelosi and reid. so is it more an embarrassment -- >> it's more an embarrassment to the democratic structure. people are going to vote party. if this happens again, the democrats already are wobbling. but i just think it's hugely embarrassing. c-span doesn't carry too many -- >> next time if you don't look at me, i'm going to slap you. >> you're not that good looking. >> can i look at lesley. >> everybody looks at lesley. this evening, glenn beck spend ago lot of time on his program answering his critics. he'll tell us why he's doing that. then, more cheap shots leveled at sarah palin by her biggest an tag mist, joy behar. we hope you'll stay tuned for those reports. an tag mist >>> friday, breaking news, the ap is reporting michael jackson's doctor will be charged with involuntary manslaughter. also, where does the aarp lost 150,000 members since the health care debate began. check out the new beard and all the gray. he's here to comment. let's go to the jackson doctor situation first. involuntary ma

i think speaker pelosi is also on board with that and chairman levin in the senate. they have not expressed a timeline for when it should be done. where do you see yourself-you said you do not want it repealed -- where do you see yourself in the process? would you be opposing it? >> probably so. for the very reason i just said. >> would you try and convince speaker pelosi not to take it up? >> it is really not my power or place to try and convince anyone else. >> the rules committee makes an order. >> can we talk about the budget and what you think about the size? is it going to be more than $700 billion for the first time in history? >> all we hear is the rumors coming out at the pentagon. we will wait and see what the budget is. i have a feeling it is going to be substantial, because we are involved in serious conflicts. we have people in afghanistan and iraq. we have people in coastal -- kosovo. it was not mentioned as much as it should be, but i am really proud of the young folks who are being deployed to haiti, for the work they will be doing. it will bring wate

speaker pelosi has said she will not ask them to vote for it. it leaves pretty much the vote in hands of republicans and a number of democrats that support the military, they want to pass a supplemental. if anything is added to the supplemental to change the minds of the republicans, would you see the potential of a failing? do you see an increase debate in congress over this and putting the president in a difficult position? guest: there ought to be a debate on this. where we have been, where we are going, where we should go. i do not think we should cross the bridge until we get there. i am hopeful that the situation will continue to improve in afghanistan. goodness knows we have fantastic young military folks there. we have truly outstanding leader. and the training of the afghans seemed to be coming along quite well, turning that mission over to them gradually to fight the insurgenc and the taliban. there is a good chance we will have a positive report when that comes to pass. we had better wait. guest: there has been another troubling repor

pelosi and the vice president have had cosmetic surgery. >> no, she is a perpetual wind tunnel. bill: on your program, you have had callers on the fox news- white house brouhaha. what is the consensus? >> i do not know about them. there is a sign of bought -- sign on's desk that says "the buck starts here." he trundles out axelrod and rahm emanuel like tweedle dee and twiddle -- tweedle rahm. they're like the jocks that hang the rest of us up in the locker with the nuclear wedgie. what is next? a position paper run who is hotter, betsy or veronica? they are acting like little

the democrats and nancy pelosi don't do it that way. 2,000-page bill and they have huge amount of pressure on the members. they have 256 members. they need 218 votes. they have the blue dogs that they have to beat up -- >> mike: the blue dogs always fold. >> the blue dog democrats, the definition of a blue dog democrat is a yellow dog democrat and will vote for a yellow dog if he's a democrat. yellow dog democrat holding his breath and turns blue waiting for something to happen. >> mike: rod blagojevich started to tape as contestant on donald trump celebrity apprentice that will air later this year. reality tv has become family business in the blagojevich home. last fall, the governor and his wife joined us to tell us why she, too, took part in reality series and she revealed how he would stop as nothing to prove he's innocent of charges. >> at that time, you were in costa rica on a show called "i'm a celebrity get me out of here." that had to have been a crazy experience. they wanted my husband on the show. but he was not able to go. a

they are strong armed by pelosi. there is a dynamic of being shut out. and eric kanter presented some substantive job creation, and the attack machine began to marginalize it. it was not productive or within this framework that you are articulating today. moving forward, i think all of us want to hit the reset button in 2009. how do we move forward? on the job creation peace in particular, you mentioned columbia. you mentioned panama and south korea. are you willing to work with us to make sure those get called and ultimately that has to put more errors in your quiver. the obstacle is the politics of the democratic caucus. >> first of all, peter and i did work together effectively on a whole host of issues. one of our former colleagues is now running for governor on the republican side in illinois. in the republican primary, the ads did not say nice things about me. poor guy. is a point we made earlier. we have to be careful of this say about each other's and times. in boxes us in and make it difficult to work together. Ñiour constituents are believing t

and edited and the product of that is the one dated december 30 which we addressed to speaker nancy pelosid senator harry reid, outlining our reasons why we believe that particular provision is unconstitutional. in a nutshell, what it boils down to is this -- the constitution is very broad in giving spending power to the congress. the spending power of the congress is not unlimited. there must be limits and the limit is that the spending can be arbitrary or capricious, is what the case law says britt a bill like this that would affect every state, that would involve texas and benefits for every state, maybe not the same level, but would involve every state, except for the state of nebraska begs the question of why is nebraska being treated differently. if there is a reason for treating nebraska differently, where 49 states are buried their share of the medicaid expansion and indirectly bearing in nebraska's share of the expansion, then there has to be reason for it. the only reason that has been positive by anyone is that what was necessary to get ben nelson paused vote. c5çthat is not a r

they will know nancy pelosi and maybe even chris holland. they will know the committee chairs. waxman, and randall, and barney frank the financial-services. because they are devotees. they are policy geeks, like myself. they like that level of detail. that is not the full audience. when you are talking to a crowd that is politically attuned and biased, they usually have chapter and verse to backup their creed. i am not just doing this as a former member, i am doing this because this is something that andy and i get into a lot. and he has always been an amateur and a bystander when it came to the political process. he gets particularly upset when i start talking about process of politics because he says that politicians behave this way. my answer is usually, because they can. this is how coalitions are made. sometimes it is not pretty. when it comes down to getting the final votes, a lot of what you consider to be principle and political belief goes out the window. you're talking about some of these newer members of congress. you may have a person that 151- 41, and it will be at

just the obama and pelosi and rooid working on things. the calculation the president has made f he try to do anything that voters view as partisan shenanigans right now, we will be punished for it. >> larry: john do the democrating court out fighting or disspirited in. >> they are disspirited now. people don't like big gomplt, the big banks. peoples a don't like the political parties. more and more are leaving the democratic party and the republican party to by come independent. in virginia, new jersey, and massachusetts this year, they have gone for republicans in a big way. it was in 2008 in november they went for democrats in a big way. they look in new hampshire, and governor races in colorado, states with independent voters will make the difference. and on this morning after this big election, now the evening after the election in massachusetts, they have very nervous. and many democrats are saying, we have so scale back, move to the center, don't govern and she we have willing to have a kfrgts. >> larry: john king remining us that t

house speaker pelosi said it's unlikely the house will simply accept the senate bill. the "newshour" is always online. hari sreenivasan in our newsroom previews what's there. hari? >> sreenivasan: there's more on what today's supreme court decision means for campaign finance from loyola law school we get reaction to secretary of state clinton's speech on internet freedom from rebecca mackinnon, a fellow at the open society institute. former "newshour" correspondent elizabeth farnsworth discusses her film about the quest to bring chilean dictator augusto pinochet to justice, which just won a dupont-columbia award and an interview with the cinematographer of "the white ribbon"-- winner of the golden globe award for foreign cinema. all that and more is on our web site, newshour.pbs.org. judy? >> woodruff: and that's the "newshour" for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. >> lehrer: and i'm jim lehrer. we'll see you on-line. and again here tomorrow evening with mark shields and david brooks, among others. thank you and good night. major funding for the pbs newshour is provided by:

nancy pelosi becomes the first woman ever elected speaker of the house of representatives. federal jury convicts i lewis scooter l scooter libby, former chief of staff. a shooter at virginia tech kills 32 people. a highway bridge over the miss misriver collapses during rush hour. the top media story of the year at walter reed army medical center after "the washington post" launches an investigation into the mishandling of reports of soldiers injured in iraq and afghanistan had received poor treatment there. that story was such a surprise, judy. i mean, people like to think that our soldiers at least for all of their sacrifices are getting the best carry and the media blew the lid off it. >> it was a great piece of reporting at "the washington post." it was really the kind of reporting that everybody could acknowledge. this is obvious what the pulitzer prize is going to be this year, because it's such an important story that had such resonance for everyone and it ran counter to our impressions and our stereotypes about va care. >> jon: and most people think that the army is

nancy pelosi is pretty awful. nancy pelosi is more unpopular than newt gingrich ever was. don't mistake the shift in republican fortunes for a newly enlightened and electric that falls back on the republican party. we are not there yet. americans are simply losing faith in the democrats. they will not fall in love with the republican party again but they have fallen out of love with the democrats. if i am a democrat, in this political environment the last two elections, i know these talking points pretty well. let me walk you through them. we have a long way to go. ten months, multiple political life times, ten months before the next election. a long way to go yet. the political environment will change several times between now and then. that is absolutely true. you know what is going to happen. the environment will change dramatically. republicans don't stand for anything. nothing more than naysayers will retain the advantage. they will run the campaign against republicans. you can say bad things about us but republicans don't have an idea of standing for anything. voters

but there was an inclination by this white house, by this president to turn over the keys to let pelosi and majority leader reid to run the show and how to get it done. >> it's interesting when he came in office so many terrible things happened that were beyond his control. in his control were promises that were unrealistic. the deference he gave congress, and the enormous influence he allowed the congress to shape his agenda, his important first year. has left him 50% in the polls, starting a tough year and heading to difficult mid-term election for the parties where they face losing seats if not the majority in the congress. and i think that was in his control. he has a lot of people working for him, very close advisors who know the congress well and worked in the congress. that was a decision they made early on to let the congress drive the legislative battles. that is where he has been hurt. >> bret: on the world stage, steve, his policy, his tone was to try to engage. by talking. >> he said in his campaign and the inaugural address his goal was to reengage the world. we were essent

they are strong armed by pelosi. there is a dynamic of being shut out.roductive or within this framework that you are articulating today. moving forward, i think all of us want to hit the reset button in 2009. how do we move forward? on the job creation peace in particular, you mentioned columbia. you mentioned panama and south korea. are you willing to work with us to make sure those get called and ultimately that has to put more errors in your quiver. the obstacle is the politics of the democratic caucus. >> first of all, peter and i did work together effectively on a whole host of issues. one of our former colleagues is now running for governor on the republican side in illinois. in the republican primary, the ads did not say nice things about me. forpoor guy. is a point we made earlier. we have to be careful of this say about each other's and times. in boxes us in and make it difficult to work together. our constituents are believing these could of -- these did they do not know it is just politics. just a tone of civility incident slash and burn woul

i have to think our speaker nancy pelosi. also, mr.oyer and the republican leadership for working together to put together a very positive, strong, and good resolution that passed on a bipartisan basis. let me ask congressman payne to come forward. he chaired the global and health committee of the foreign commanders -- foreign affairs committee. >> thank you very much. let me thank all of you for being here. today we stand in solidarity with the people of haiti. since the earthquake, the congressional black caucus has held emergency meetings regarding haiti. we are getting a sense of the effort on the ground in order to take this information back to our congressional district and our constituents. there has been activity with in their congressional district. most members -- we are moving expeditiously in making sure that information is disseminated to our people. we want to thank the information disseminated by the department of states. we have been able to hold conference calls and a regular basis. following is a the earthquake, membe

just the obama and pelosi and reid working on things. the calculation the president has made an the brown campaign would say it's right, if we try to do anything that voters view as partisan shenanigans right now, we'll be punished for it. >> larry: john, do the democrats come out fighting, do they come out united or come out dispir dispirited? >> they're a bit dispirited right now. a long way between now and november. but there's a great mistrust of institutions in the country right now. people don't like big government, they don't like the big banks. they don't like the political parties. more and more people are leaving the democratic party and the republican party to become independents. and so you have this unpredictable growing group in the middle, and in virginia, new jersey and now massachusetts this year, they've gone for the republicans in a very big way. it was only in 2008 in november they went for the democrats in a big way. the democrats look at that, they look at big senate races in places like new hampshire, governors rac

and president obama does not control nancy pelosi. and the house has just become structured like that. the senate is increasingly structured like that and that's where a lot of the resentments, the feelings of being ignored. >> do you think that president obama could do something about it, has no influence on what happens in the house. >> well, i think the president could do something about it. but it is, you know, the way you get promoted in the congress is fund-raising. and those people are partisan. and that's how leadership works. >> i think it's a lot tougher to be excoriating in speech or condemning in speech when are you sitting across the table from somebody. i really do. i think that the president can do that by more often with a personal exchanges. it's embarrassing then having talked to you and chatted with you than to stand up and denounce your net worth. a great republican speaker of the house joe canon early in the 20th sent resaid the minority has a responsibility and that's to help constitute a quorum. and that's been

and speaker pelosi's agenda and harry reid's agenda and president obama's agenda. the idea of nationalizing proud private sector companies and taking over 1/3 of the private sector profits and doing so in a little more than a year in the united states and then taxing all of our energy and putting the restrictions on america's economy where it ends up the result is to send jobs to yeas and nays are ordered and china. the american people watched that and they thought, surely these people know what they're doing. but the more mistakes they saw and the list of misguided liberal ideas that had been passed out of the house and sent to the senate and some passed out of the senate was stacking up higher and higher and higher, mr. speaker. and the american people in groups incrementally began to realize they knew better than the people who were in charge in congress. and they lost their trust and their faith in the government judgment of the people they elected in this constitutional republic. especially when they saw that there was a determination on the part of the presid

there toxic for nancy pelosi. top of the most anti- congressional mood we have seen since 1994. it does not take a rocket scientist or are years of experience to save whoops, the democratic majority is in huge trouble. host: both strategist and individuals behind nbc newss/ wall street journal survey. henry is joining us. caller: one of the major problems we have in this country is to many in foreign, misinform voters who are under the spell of propaganda like bill mcinturff who was posing as a pollster but is really a propagandist. when you talk about transparency, bill, how transparent and the president began telling the people that health care reform is one of the most important legs to economic reform? he show them which senators and congressmen are on the payrolls of the healthcare, insurance company. he showed them who was on their side in the economic realm. bill paulson -- secretary paulson give $750 billion unconditionally to wall street. president obama came in and give them another $850 billion i think,

nancy pelosi is standing next to the chairman of chrysler. is there a particular relationship between the lawmakers and chrysler? why did the focus on chrysler? guest: chrysler is a unique case. and did not bring any real new production vehicles to the show. is still probably the detroit auto maker with the most questionable feature at the moment. sergio, the head of fiat is trying to combine the two and restock a depleted pantry of new models chrysler needs to compete. it is an open question as to how well they can deal with the future. he has been making the statements of the past few weeks that they have things under control and chrysler will bounce back. given the amount of money the u.s. government and canadian government and politicians have put into making chrysler succeed, it will be closely watched in the future. host: and the headlines also, members of congress and try hybrid vehicles. what was that like? were they driving around the arena? guest: there are couple of places where during that pressed these people can try out the hybr

nancy pelosi stands for regulation of speech on the airwaves. and, i think that america should turn the heat up on her office, called her out on this, because if you are not for free speech, and she is clearly not by resisting this broadcaster freedom act, which is sponsored by congressman my pence and greg walden, two former broadcasters who understand what is at stake here, if you are not for that, then i don't know how she can look yourself in the mirror. >> host: are there republican members of congress speaking out forcefully on this and do we have legislation either in the hopper or being considered here for and against what we are talking about? >> guest: the two gentlemen i just mentioned are the chief spokesman for the conservative talk radio side and that is congressman pence and walden. the understand what is at stake here. are there regulations are legislation that would prevent it? yes, they would queue up legislation but it would be shot down by the democrat-controlled majority in both houses, no question. the only thing that we re

. >> reporter: in the house, speaker nancy pelosi was only able to pass healthcare bill after allowingote on tough language sponsored by bart stupak, prohibiting any taxpayer dollars from funding abortion. supporter describes it this way -- >> it prohibits abortion funds not only within the public programs, but for any insurer who wants to participate in the public program. >> reporter: allowing a vote on that, the only amendment miss pelosi alo youed won her 40 democratic votes she would have otherwise lost. even with them, she only won by five votes leaving little room for compromise. pro-life forces are not happy with the senate bill which has looser restrictions. it would create exchanges to offer insurance plans state-by-state. at least one plan would have to offer abortion unless the state's opt out, which isn't easy. >> each state if they want out of the abortion mandates that are in the senate plan would have to pass their own laws to get out of funding abortion. >> reporter: so will house members vote for the stupak amendment accept anything less? >> the exclusion has to remai

from the house to pass the senate bill, which is still a very tough list -- lifting force speaker pelosi. host: emily pierce, from roll call. we will direct our viewers to find your story on rollcall.com. what does the stock brown victory mean? "usa today" headline -- they have a chart on special election upsets with impact. they said during the past several decades of sets and special congressional elections sometimes have been a sign of coming political trends. that is what we're talking to you about today. they cite the may 1961 election, john tower, first gop senator from texas since reconstruction and republicans became the dominant party. 1974, the first house democrat from that. in michigan in 62 years -- voter anger over watergate. republicans lost 49 house seats and three senate seats. may of 1994, the first republican in 129 years in his district. march of 2008, democrat bill foster, dennis pastor has held the seat for 11 terms, discontent with bush was building. scott brown coming to washington today, as we heard. and he has recorded his first row -- robocall for john mccain.

>> give award to eloquent lawmaker, let's say, would you choose perhaps nancy pelosi?lect on some of the super classic nancy pelosi lines like this one. >> i have concern of some of the language that's being used. >> san francisco, there was violen violence. >> i saw this myself in the late '70s in san francisco. this kind of rhetoric was very frightening. it created a climate in which violence took place. >> by liberals? is that biased? yeah. that's a good one. i love the c.i.a. statement is clear one. >> my statement is clear. let me read it again. let me read it again. >> sorry, i have to find the page. >> there is the maxine waters, tell you what this liberal is going to do. >> guess what this liberal would be all about? this liberal would be all about socializing -- would be about, basically taking over and the government running all of your companies. >> that one is just the best piece of video ever for holy crap, uh-oh. um, um. i can't think of anything barney frank has done this year that's been crazy, except for maybe -- i do like -- when i think barney frank,

. >> speaker pelosi said that did you do not have the votes. what are the options left? >> you know there are a number of other options. we are discussing them. it has been widely reported that there are several and one does not have precedence over the other right now. >> when will there be a persist -- rent will be a decision about how to proceed? >> we cannot rush to judgment. we did not have to have something on the floor today or tomorrow. we have to take a deep breath and explore the ramifications and where to go. that does not mean we are going to sit here and twiddle our thumbs. it will take a few days to figure out what the best solution is. >> if you have the vote, can you pass a bill? >> our goal is to put something into place that would affect the 2010 election but it is not easy. this is a first amendment decision. we have been thinking about this for a while. there are a number of avenues and some of them may have been limited or made more difficult by the decision particularly of the corruption issue. >> can you outline what the legislation would look like

. >> health care legislation was the main topic of house speaker nancy pelosi's weekly briefing today. >> pure pelosi's said the house will continue to work to get something on health care passed this year. this is just under 20 minutes. >> here we are coming back again in this room. looks like we need a bigger room. many of you have asked many questions about where we go from here. let me congratulate the new senator, senator brown from massachusetts. while it is the massachusetts election may have diminished by one the number of senators and the senate, last year at this time there were 58 senators i remind you, the 58 democratic senators or 59. it's not diminish the need for affordable quality health care reform. and for health care to be available to all americans as a right, not a privilege. the need for us to the address health insurance reform, to end discrimination based on preexisting conditions, to stop decisions that when people are sick even though they have health insurance their policy is, has a precision to say that if you pay your premiums and do so on time, yagee get

pelosi, clinton and palin, they are extremely polarizing.you wrote that they sold out to wall street, and let that stand. but she was good in campaigns. guest: she was with the president for eight years as first lady, and that gave her the stature to run in new york. and part of her fund-raising network was the part that she and her husband had been a team. and a lot of voters, not just male voters but i heard from young female. we want someone who got there on their own, not through their husband. who didn't see her rise as part of her own attributes. and as the campaign went on and her husband made inflammatory remarks and he became a liability as well. host: our next caller. caller: good morning, steve. i would like to say a few things steve, and we will touch on women for sure. one as a non-hyphenated american, i would love to see condoleezza rice run, i would like to see her run and she's pretty dark skinned. host: speak of condoleezza rise. guest: there are a lot of republicans that would like to see her run, i am doubtful because of h

leader that if i were pelosi i think i would keep a somewhat lower profile.he thing is if your say john spratt in south carolina. i think john spratt should be the face of the democratic party in south carolina. not nancy pelosi. you know, hispanic or theica th political figures in terms of household names. i think if she did fewer press-conferences and stuck to where her strengths were, i think there her party would be better off. just as republican party was not helped by having a tom delay as most visible member of the house even if he was at no time speaker, i think that was true. democrats are better off if speaker pelosi is not quite as visible as she is. so i think the caller is not all wrong. host: last fall you talked about a primary in new york and match up with rudy guiliani. what's happening in that raise in new york? guest: well looks like senator is in good shape to me. the democrats problem is on the govern nor ship there's a lot of turmoil there. will governor patterson seek re-election. the two senate seats run but we don't see these as high

pelosi's numbers as low as they are reid about to lose -- >> it's a snapshot. >> sean: the snapshot goingix months. the longest -- >> there's -- >> sean: if you are chairman and sees these numbers hower in russ -- now nervous are you? >> i would take stock. one of the things the president has to do is lead. the biggest part of his oath is to defend and protect the american people. he has to have that front and center everyday to keep this whole establishment, as you said on his toes everyday. >> sean: with his weakening on defense we are one attack away from him creating the biggest political landslide in our lifetime, right? >> any president faces that. that is not just -- >> sean: not after he gives miranda rights to enemy

he also, you know, he handed over a lot of control to nancy pelosi, to the democratic party. >> he had to. he had to. i think we often want the president to have more power than he really does. or to overreach. and all along i have felt that obama could not afford to be out in front. >> the drumbeat of partisanship or whatever we call it seems to have done all right for the other party. i mean, you know, no matter how you spin it at the end of the day, at least the last set of elections have been good for the republicans. why do you think that is? >> there was a gallup poll out this week that said essentially it was a fairly broad poll, and people said but it had gone up about 12%, the number of people who thought obama was governing from the left, not from the center. it used to be about 42%. now it was about 53% or so of people. i think the president in a number of ways domestically, a lot of business, a lot of spending. the promise, i think, of tax increases has taken people aback a little bit and i think he has damaged his brand, as they say in the language of merchandising which h

. > nancy pelosi, who held together a caucus and is raising money like crazy, so she can prove all youeople wrong. >> sarah palin, she has a lot more cultural power than her critics can see or admit. >> mort. >> dennis >>> most underrated, the intensity of the anger in the u.s. middle class. 78million american baby boomers will wake up to the fact that their net worth is shatters and 15 million americans will realize their jobs are not coming back. we'll be right back with new year's resolutions. when planning for retirement these days, the forecast is full of ifs. if i'm too exposed to downturns. if i'll go through my savings too fast. to help you feel more confident consider putting a portion of your savings in a metlife variable annuity. when the market goes up, it gives your assets a potential to grow. while protecting you if the market goes down with a steady stream of income. let america's number one annuity provider help you stay on course with guarantees for the if in life. get answers about annuities at metlife.com. ♪[ music ] >>> okay, new year's resolutions, pat. >> begin th

so, nancy pelosi has said it's harder to get 218 votes on the house side than 06 votes on the senatee so i think she's going to stand in there, but she's going to have a hard battle and i think she's going to win. >> let me ask you, susan about the so-called cadillac tax, the tax on the most expensive health care plans that are out there. and it's been proposed as a way to help pay for this health care reform bill. the labor unions, as angela rightly said, they don't like this because they've gone into collective bargaining and able to get these high priced insurance plans for their members, this is one of the biggest voting blocks for the democratic party, the labor unions. >> yeah, i mean, what we're really talking about here, and we probably all three of us have it, is the kind of health care plan which provides you the maximum choices, the maximum options, allows us those optional, but very necessary ultrasounds when you're pregnant, et cetera, and you know, i think there's going to be real debate as to whether they should be taxed because there's a lot of middle class americans

from the policy page pelosi sees democrats close on health care. there are two stories about the use of the excise tax which is the difference between the house and the senate eise tax cut has met resistance in the house. in "the washington post" experts remain skeptical of taxing healthabout how the costh that those are suggesting to support it. in the "wall street journal" david russell writes about the lessons of medicare part d including markets do the work but the prices denied to the predictable and programs never crossed what they predict. and from a local perspective , the "miami herald" has a front-page story about the jackson health system halting dialysis on the poor patience. facing life or death after they stop paying for treatment for the failing kidneys because they cannot afford it anymore. >> guest: the striking thing is we're becoming aware of these situations. it has been common. it is finally a front-page piece of news because the points at which we have been turning people away from care struggling out how to get coverage wheth

nancy pelosi talks about the status of health care legislation and we will have an update on haitian relief efforts from the pentagon and members of the congressional black caucus. " the supreme court handed down a landmark ruling on campaign finance laws. and a 5-4 decision, the court ruled against a regulation that limits corporate spending on political activities. you can listen to oral arguments and read the majority and dissenting opinion on our website, c-span.org. we asked a reporter for details about the ruling. >> to a guses aaron blake of the hill newspaper. is this ruling a major change? >> i did not think there is any other way to read this white now. the initial reaction was that it was a split decision. this opens the floodgate for corporations to spend money like individuals can and the politics wrong irina. that was the big take away. we are waiting to see what finer details of it are. right now, it looks like a lot more money into politics that includes for corporations. depending on where you are standing, that is good or bad. >> which are existing politicians sayin

i have to thank our speaker, nancy pelosi, and mr. cliburn, our whip, who is now the designated liaison on haiti from the speaker's office. also mr. hoyer and the republican leadership for working together to put together a positive, strong, and good resolution that passed on a bipartisan basis with one no vote. let me ask congressman payne to come forward. >> thank you very much. let me begin by thanking all of you for being here, and particularly to commend our chair person, congresswoman lee for the immediate action that she took. today we stand in solidarity with the people of haiti and all those affected by the earthquake. since the earthquake, the congressional black caucus has mobilized to hold emergency meetings regarding haiti the state department, the department of defense, ngo's, and other stakeholders in the region to get a sense of the effort on the ground, in order to take this information back to our congressional districts and our constituents. there has been tremendous activity within our congressional districts. most