spicer, make the rnc obsolete?ally don't -- first of all, when you look at the total amount raised, and i'm not demeaning -- i think super pacs have a role in this cycle. but when you look at the rnc last year raised $87 million. we have $23 million in the bank. most of those super pacs haven't even come close to what the rnc has been able to raise or do. so in terms of the total amount of money which is i think you're driving at, katrina -- >> and influence in terms of the primary season which we've seen so clearly with mitt romney's money and adelson and keeping it alive. >> are they playing a role? absolutely. but the rnc, again, you're talking about the primary and the choosing of the nominee, that's not a role we would play in any fashion anyway. so i think from that standpoint, you know, does it play a role to help or hinder some of these candidates? sure. from our stand point looking forward to the general election, however, i think that we have shown, demonstrated not only our ability to raise the money tha

>> any time you want to talk about rnc rules. >> greta: nice to see you. new warning about our national security. top u.s. intelligence officials are warning that iran is now more likely to launch terrorist attacks on u.s. soil. former u.n. ambassador john bolton joins us. saber rattling or we have to worry about terrorism on our soil? >> a few months ago administration ichb diet revolutionary guards to kill the saudi arabia ambassador in the united states. i don't think this is new. what it under lines that iran is determined to reach the successful conclusion to the quest for nuclear weapons. that remains or should remain our real focus. >> greta: my ni real change. i would assume they are threatening us. threats of terrorism on the u.s. soil. did it come as a huge surprise? >> i don't think so. they have armed terrorist in iraq and have attacked coalition forces and aiding and arming the taliban for the last ten years. they remain the world's central banker of international terrorism. but the main threat what ought to concentrate our attention is the nu

about voter outreach and engagement efforts by the dnc, we will also have a representative from the rnc and we're especially interested to hear his role, especially as it relates to director of voter protection. please join me in welcoming will crossley. >> i thank you secretary miller and thank you all for having us back this afternoon. as i did speak briefly this morning, i will endeavor to be fairly brief this afternoon as well. i do want to say that as we enter the 2012 election, we are facing new rules, many of which have been talked about here today, whether they involve photo i.d. or voter registration, new rules happening in the states, many of these rules, we think the fact is that they will have a disproportionate affect on members of the voting public, who traditionally have been disenfranchised. many of them minorities, either racial or language minorities. to that end, our focus and our goal, one of them anyway, is to ensure that we have an elaborate education program so that states -- in states across the country, voters are fully aware of what the new rules are, how they

let's ask the rnc chairman.t week when we talked with andrew he had been in the belly of the beast. had gone inside the obama operation to see some things that were pretty enlightening. here is one of the things he said. i will have you react to it. >> they are really focused on technology as a way to turn out voters and get votes on election day. you know, we saw some of this in 2008 but i think what you are going to see this year this is a quote from the campaign. it will make 2008 look prehistoric. sign in with facebook and get access to the information from the social network there and use that to target messages. instead of sending a message to all your friends, they say send it to your five friends in the swing district in pennsylvania who are really concerned about taxes. >> mike: it is obvious there is a sophisticated technological approach to the election from the obama cam pape. arcampaign. are the republicans ready to match this sort of effort? >> absolutely. besides the money side i know you are aski

the rnc basically told florida then they would risk losing that winner-take-all status. all it takes is one registered voter to file a challenge in this case. then the rnc contest committee will have to consider that appeal one week before the convention in august. we'll talk to bill mccollum, former attorney general coming up. he is a gingrich supporter leading this charge to have the delegate count changed. we'll ask rnc chairman, reince priebus, saying look i warned florida that they were violating the rules in this case. this could be very interesting. bill: from florida to the next contest in nevada, the las vegas review journal shows mitt romney has commanding lead over newt gingrich, 45% in this poll for romney. 25 for gingrich, 11 for santorum and paul nine. it is significant not only romney's lead, paul and santorum skipped florida to get an early start in the silver state n nevada they will find something we've seen threw the country, deeper the red, economic landscape the tougher your state. if you're green you're doing all right. you think florida was bad? re

joining us is karen finney, former rnc chair michael steele and steve kornacke. karen, you played a role in having nevada designated as first in the west, why nevada? >> a couple things, they were -- as -- the west had been a place where democrats thought we could see some important gains, because we hadn't been doing as well in the south. when we made those changes to the primary calendar, the republican party essentially adopted the same changes. what we looked at, though, was high latino population, as chuck said it's very different demographic, that these are mostly of mexican descent who tend to be more democratic versus florida, which is a different mix. we also were looking at union density, which is the people who work on the strip. one of the things i note the for tonight, they aren't making any special accommodations for the waitresses, the folks who work along the strip. >> i remember that issue. >> where you had your i.d. you could come within a certain period of time, and they're not doing that. which obviously i suppose is because you don't expect t

of penalties that the rnc can level against all the states that violate the timing rules.ery single penalty that we can level against florida and if there's a further -- if there's a further complaint, the rnc has a committee that's called the committee on contest. there are very few standing committees at the rnc but there's a committee on contests whose sole purpose is to hear complaints of delegates. >> so look forward to just before the convention, most probably if the past is prologue, there's a real good possibility that half of those delegates that were ditched will be receded before the convention, it happened in 2006 on the democrats side. what's interesting and curious as well is with this small print out there, why didn't newt gingrich mention this before the primary? >> i don't know. the interesting thing is he has the former attorney general in florida bill mccullum, i guess, making his fight for him. he was on greta's show last night and he had this to say. >> it's a rule, it says up front that's what happens and i have reason to believe just talking anecdota

wants it to happen now and whether he challenges it now or before the convention, which is what the rnc rules say he has to do, that is another thing but look what he told greta a few days before the republican primary in florida. >> look, i'm not going to get involved in rnc procedural fight. i'll play by whatever the rules given to us. >>reporter: the rules were, florida is a winner take all state but now newt gingrich campaign is saying, no, no, no, we want proportional allocation. here is what ron paul said about that, the campaign manager, this is typical newt gingrich thinks the rules don't apply to him and dr. paul's campaign based on rules of winner take all changing the rules after the fact because newt gingrich dent like the results is simply not an option. gingrich has support from santorum saying, you could challenge the rules but do it up the rnc guidelines so just before the convention in tampa in the summertime. >>shepard: john roberts, live in las vegas, thank you. donald trump announcement, when it comes we will bring it to you like, and, wait, i got word in the next ho

. >> thank you very much for being part of -- we're going to save the questions until we have the rnc representative and then we'll do the questions together. as you know, the rnc frequently has their former chair of the rules committee come address nass and he was unable to be here today. he asked that christopher adams fill in for him. mr. adams is the election attorney at the election law center. he was a former general council to the south carolina secretary of state and worked as an attorney in the voting section of the department of justice. recently he has served for as a counsel on four different presidential campaign on ballot issues. christopher can address some of the activities taking place in the states this year, please join me in welcoming christian adams. there are three things that i will characterize the 2012 election from my perspective that you probably haven't seen before from republicans. i think you're going to see it andic it's going the affect the work that you do during the elections. very briefly, the first one is that you will see an unprecedented social me

paul's budget can tell us when the balance of the rnc can tell us when it's balanced. a simple year. what year would a zero budget? >> this budget makes signature kabts pro seg across this decade. the president is willing -- >> is your answer that this budget -- >> willing to do more work to drive it towards progress. >> is your answer that the budget nerf ball lances? >> time is short. obviously not going to answer the question. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i want to make a comment or two about the conversation that's been going on, the questioning. two points i wanted to make quickly on the last questioning. you may want to -- you were gracious not to, but to point out that the oh ryan budget last year voted by the republican house did not reach balance in the ten-year window. so that's the standard -- i think the president's doing pretty well. just a comment, also, about the chairman's not wanting to acknowledge what i understand to be the budget process, which is to take current law even -- which might be a law passed in the past. and apply it to our current budget

. >> right now what are conservatives looking at when they talk about the fact that the rnc wants toge that conservatives are watching through this primary vetting service. >> in poll after poll in terms of the exit polls, you see all not just conservatives, but a lot of americans joining this movement who want to change direction in this country, they think this president has failed to live up to the promises that he made in 2008. especially on the economy, you still have a huge, way too many americans unemployed, you have grass prices through the roof, energy costs through the roof, housing foreclosure is a major problem, so i think what's going on on our side is a lot of people are taking their time to evaluate the candidates and choosing the one candidate that they think will replace barack obama come november. but i think that, you know, there's some sort of consternation about this idea that it's because, yourjs within the first couple weeks of the process, we haven't settled on somebody, i don't see that as some major problem here, i think we are taking this choice very seriou

i think the rnc made clear they already punished florida.lf of their delegates because of when they're holding their primary contest. the convention is in tampa. they're not going to be litigating florida delegate rules. >> bret: next up, ending combat operations next year in afghanistan >> bret: defense secretary leon panetta may have gotten ahead of the administration with this one on the way to a nato summit in brussels. the secretary announced u.s. forces will end combat operations in afghanistan next year. here is the specific quote. hopefully by mid to the latter part of 2013, we'll be able to make a transition from a combat role to a train and advise role -- advise and assist role. it's not going to be a kind of formal combat role that we are now. he did say hope, but it still had some analysts scratching their heads. >> it seems to me that our government is at odds with itself in a sense that senior commanders in afghanistan and also general are under the clear impression that 2013 is a fighting seizing for them, with full combat ope

. >> sorry, rnc, doug forgive me. >> i'm from the dnc. >> i'm cpacd out. forgive me.nt to women, especially these women. what does it mean that the white house, the president has gone back in a retreat to come out with this accommodation? >> i don't know that i see it as a retreat as much as a way to try to, as is vintage barack obama, which i appreciate to say look x we can protect the rights of women, which is critically important and we can respect the rights of religious liberty. i think that's what he is going to try to articulate when we hear from him at 12:15, which is this shift, essentially. all it says is the institution of the church or the religious institution does not have to provide or pay for the contraceptive services. the woman can get that directly from the insurer. that was one of the big arguments we heard this week from the bishops, they didn't want to be forced to pay for it. it's good for the president for women's groups to hear from him directly to say this is my goal, this is what i'm trying to accomplish and take ownership of it. >> doug, fr

>> the rnc sees trouble for the president regarding this.y sent out something according to the papers called pundit prep for the talking heads to good out. they say the three best ways to define the barack obama economy, the national debt, which is skyrocketing, the unemployment which is north of 8% and gas prices. >> jon: fascinating. and while we're here mr. doocy would you like to make the pivot from revealing the game to playing it? >> and gas prices. >> they are impacting you. how has it affected you? what are you going without? e-mailzv us, we would like to know. >> jon: you can't do that. that's like hosting a show with a lab when this guy is on there. he just gave the game away. you know, they sent up a talking point which brings up a point i'd like to talk about. that ruins the game it's like second an e-mail to someone thats says hey click on this, it opens up a video of rick astley sing" never gonna give you up" which under most circumstances you would not expect to get. i'm not the only one who things he wasn't supposed to do tha

goes all the way up to the rnc, where you have his people meeting with the rnc right before the election. it goes to tim russell. can you imagine having to rely on tim russell as the guy who will keep you out of trouble? this is a guy i can promise you, is telling the prosecutors everything, he's a guy $60,000 embezzlement charge against him. this is the guy walker has to count on, there is no honor among thieves. fbi raids, immunity for john doe witnesses, this is a classic investigation. i'll tell you something, these investigators are talented he better be careful when he walks in that office. >> goldie taylor, what do you think it means for the recall? where do you think this goes as far as the recall is concerned? why wouldn't republicans step up in the state of wisconsin and say you have way too many problems? what about that? >> i think it only strengthens the recall and at the end of the day, the national republicans have put their arms around scott walker and can't let them go, they will let him go by force when he takes a perp walk. >> i've never seen mitch daniels, jan brewer

talk about the state of the 2012 race with ted strickland and michael steele, msnbc analyst and former rnc chairman. thanks for joining us. >> governor, i want to go to you first. president obama won michigan in 2008 by 17 points, but he seems to be on the air with this ad already in that state. why is he on the air? is it a fear that perhaps he's got a place in catch up in that state or maybe the numbers we've seen are inflated or just trying to seal the deal and put it away early? >> he has a good story to tell. not only for michigan, but for ohio and any state where autos are produced or auto parts are produced. it's a great story. this industry is alive today because of president obama's decisive action and i think that's the story we ought to applaud and celebrate and to draw the contrast between what the president had planned and what mr. romney and other republican candidates would have done had they been in the oval office when the auto industry was in need of this kind of help. >> let's talk about that. i want to put a graphic here on the screen from "the new york times" op-ed by

it's delegates will not truly be decided until prairie next month likely rnc wants. there may also be no new because it could be a rough night. polls show him in third or fourth place in each state along with ron paul and rick santorum mostly leading the pack. >> they will be appearing in mid day which he was also tsk office ishee shoppach frack sorry to the lakehead ifhammering barack obama over a lot recurring churches to cover birth control. >> this kind of assault on religion will and if i am president. >> the obama administration will code -- go down the road. that is an american. >> the other reason you saw newt gingrich in ohio is an early voting is underway there. he is focusing on super tuesday in march because that will introduce the next batch of state he is most likely to perform well in, ga., obama kanawha and tennessee. >> thank you. the investigation into the use of synthetic marijuana at the u.s. naval academy is over. 16 students were expelled from the academy for the use or possession of spies which is banned by the navy. the cases were filed betwee

i think the rnc made clear they already punished florida.gates because of when they're holding their primary contest. the convention is in tampa. they're not going to be litigating florida delegate rules. >> bret: next up, ending combat operations next year in afghanistan [ jody ] four course feast. man it's great. the guests love it. [ male aouncer ] red lobster's ur course seafood feast is back. get soup, salad, cheddar bay biscuits, dessert and choose one of 7 entrees. four courses for only $15. offer ends soon. i'm jody gonzalez, ed lobster manager and i sea food differently. i'm here to unleash my inner cowboy. instead i g heartburn. hold up partner. prilosec can take days to work. try alka-seltzer. it kills heartburn fast. yeehaw! that's good morning, veggie style. hmmm. for half the calories plus veggie nutrition. could've had a v8. [worker 1:] we need to produce our own energy. [announcer:] and, the architect who says... [worker 2:] we need environmental protection. [announcer:] we say, you're right. find out how natural gas answers

hasn't he played by the rules and won by rnc rules?ario do people who are not voters, elected officials or rnc chairman come in and say you're not acceptable. >> would have to start filing into the primaries, let some voters decide. >> obviously. but it seems like the hum in the background is romney's death star putting lasers on rick santorum. the gap is closing. couple polls said he closed to single digits, romney of santorum. begs to mind this was not in a script, not how it was supposed to go down for mitt romney. every time he has to do one of these most critical weeks, seems to me it damages him further into the convention. >> that's the thing. what does he do at the debate, go ultra negative on santorum? santorum has -- romney and santorum have prickly sides. which one shows that side on camera? >> i suspect it will not be mitt romney. when he had to be cool, he has been cool. when he had to be aggressive, he's done that. if he's aggressive, it could be santorum gets more prickly. >> susan, is it one of thee that could step in i

and michael steele, former rnc chairman.of the things i read romney's speech, i don't care how many people were there and all this other garbage. he's using the language of supply-side conservatives. that's what interested me. unlike george bush, he's talking about putting more money in people's pockets, which is keynesian, demand side, romney talked about the extra dollar earned. it's an incentive model. is he going to convince conservatives now that he really understands the incentive model, the ronald reagan model? >> larry, if mitt romney becomes president, this will be the week that really made him. i think he's had a great week. he did a great job in the debate. and i think this tax policy change, because remember, mitt romney 1.0 wasn't something you or myself or the "wall street journal" editorial pages were very excited about. this is pretty exciting. it's reaganesque. i think he's got to run with this, there's no backing off of it, but i really believe he has enhanced his chances not just winning michigan but winni

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but we cannot do it alone at the rnc. we need all of you to help us. i tell you -- and i mean it from the bottom of my heart -- i am not here today and you're not here today because we love our party. we are here today because we love our country. we know there is an opportunity for stopping what is done to this country in the past three to four years as we go forward. so i will ask you to give everything you can in the next days ahead to make sure that we select your local candidates, those individuals who are putting themselves out there on your behalf, to make sure that barack obama does not serve another day after january. so make sure that we can do everything that we can do to make that difference. if we do,, every second of every day, if we give the maritime, if we think we have given every penny that we have to give, every penny that we have to give to our candidates and the party and we find 50 cents more in our part, we reach in and give it to that candidate -- if we do that, we will make a difference and we will stop what has been the damage

not an rnc campaign. he's trying to rally the people. >> the very division goes back all through the division of the party. newt is grabbing the other half he didn't win tonight. here's gingrich talking about people power. let's listen. >> now you might ask, how can that be true? i'll give you the answer. it was stated at a historic moment in 1863 a in dedicating our first national military cemetery. by the president of the united states, abraham lincoln who said we have government of the people, by the people, for the people. and we're going to have people power defeat money power in the next six months. >> you know, we have evidence he may have a case here. 41% of the people backing mitt romney or of the party say he's too liberal. is newt here offering to be that guy who is still to come in the race? >> loob at what mitt romney did get. he got a big vote. he didn't get a majority. >> swept the panhandle. but if you add up newt gingrich and ron paul and rick santorum, it's still a majority compared with