joining me now for our daily fix, washington post columnist ruth marcus, and nbc news white house correspondenten welker. welcome both. first to you, ruth. you've talked -- you've written a lot about hagel and about the ted cruz fell nonnon, and all of the piling on. we now hear in the weekend interviews that there's going to be an interview and they expect it to go through, john mccain and others are going to vote against. we had the votes in terms of the cloture vote on friday, on wednesday, rather, in terms of having 58 votes, but now what is this whole issue of the rutgers speech? >> i think it's all about sort of desperate search to find something. usually when you are asking questions about a nominee, and i'm a really big dlooefr believer in oversight and the advisory process, but usually you have a reason to think there's someone there. this is just scouring the kitchen cabinets and seeing if you can find any little dust balls any place, and i think they are just -- you and i have seen it so many times. if you can run out the clock enough, maybe something will come up, and this is just s

george will, democratic congressman joaquin castro, former speaker of the house newt gingrich, ruth marcus from "the washington post" and former romney adviser, stuart stevens. >> hello again. george is off today. it's great to have you with us. in a "this week" exclusive congressman paul ryan is standing by to join us live, but first a major political story breaking overnight. a new report from "usa today" with what the paper says is a draft of the white house immigration proposal. according to the report, the plan includes allowing undocumented immigrants to apply for legal status with a pathway to citizenship after eight years. it also expands e-verify and border security. joining us now to talk about this is the new white house chief of staff, denis mcdonough. thank you for joining us. >> thanks for having me, jon. >> now, this hit with a thud as far as marco rubio is concerned. he said late last night in a statement, quote, this legislation is half baked and seriously flawed. it would actually make our immigration problems worse. if actually proposed, the president's bill would be dea

msnbc contributor and managing editor of post politics.com and washington post editorial columnist ruth marcus, and u.s. economics editor for the economist. greg, first to you. you're the expert on all things jobs. the revisions are really good and strong. it shows that 2012 was a lot better. take us through the numbers. >> yeah. well, the numbers for january were more or less as expected. about 157,000 jobs. what was more interesting was that even though that was a slowdown. it was a slowdown from what turned out to be a good fourth quarter of 2012, just when we thought the fears of the fiscal cliff were going to take hiring, we were creating around 200,000 jobs per month. we -- the last estimate suggested it was only around 150,000 jobs. it suggested a nice bit of momentum coming into 2013. >> chris, this is good news for the white house going into negotiations with the hill in terms of the economic movement at least in 2012, but they do have to worry about the softness in january. >> absolutely. you know, i have actually had greg explain to me many times about this because the thing that i'

to head. >> now, before we get to chuck hagel, the sort of train wreck that happened yesterday, ruth marcus, the white house is coming out or hhs is coming out with new rules to liberalize the guidelines so that religious institutions are somewhat insulated, somewhat more insulateded. first of all, they're going to more broadly define religious institutions. also, give a separate provider so that the religious institutions themselves don't have to provide birth control to their employees. >> well, first of all, you said white house, and even though hhs issues these guidelines, one can be fairly sure that the white house was closely following this because this has been a difficult issue for them. what they did today was really an elaboration of a plan that they had proposed earlier. the theory, as i understand it, is that it won't be the employers strog pay for couldn't are a acceptings, nor will it be women having to pay for the contraseptive coverage. the insurers will foot the bill. >> the third parties. >> on the theory that they will save money in the long run because pregnancy is prett

joaquin castro, stuart stevens, george will, ruth marcus and newt gingrich, really appreciate your times a presidential run in store for this brain surgeon? "the wall street journal" hopes so. our sunday spotlight is next, plus, who stole the spotlight at the white house this week? we'll be right back. [ male announcer ] when you wear dentures you may not know that your mouth is under attack, from food particles and bacteria. try fixodent. it helps create a food seal defense for a clean mouth and kills bacteria for fresh breath. ♪ fixodent, and forget it. >>> now time for our sunday spotlight. this week shining brightly on dr. ben carson, one of the top pediatric neurosurgeons in the country who made quite a splash with his recent appearance at the national prayer breakfast where with president obama at his side, he had some choice words on political correctness and even the flat tax. listen. >> we've reached a point where people are afraid to actually talk about what they want to say because somebody might be offended. what about our taxation system? when i pick up my bible, you know w

chris caliz sdmr a, managing editor of post politics.com, and washington post editorial columnist ruth marcuswelcome all. david taking the 30,000 feet, you, what do we expect from the president? what's the tone? what's the -- you know, how specific, how granular does he get in this speech coming down from the heights of the second inaugural? >> i do think his political playbook has changed. you see him putting a lot of initiatived out there right now. working the outside game a lot more strongly than he has. i think he wants to get out of the business of setting up the idea of a big grabbed bargain with republicans that may fail. he wants to put a lot out there and work as much of his game. not to steel from chris's piece, though, today i think he makes a good point. he is coming at this with an ambitious agenda at a time when he is feeling pretty confident. this is a moment of great confidence for any president. you've just won re-election. you come to the start of your second term. you say okay, i'm going to walk with a bit more strength in my gate here. >> i'm the big sheriff in town, righ

george will, democratic congressman joaquin castro, former speaker of the house newt gingrich, ruth marcusstevens. >> hello again. george is off today. it's great to have you with us. in a "this week" exclusive congressman paul ryan is standing by to join us live, but first a major political story breaking overnight. a new report from "usa today" with what the paper says is a draft of the white house immigration proposal.

. >> the "washington post" ruth marcus calls this obama's marriage equality test in a new op-ed she penned saying a president who speaks so eloquently cannot allow his administration to remain silent before the court where words are translated into reality. so should minority rights be put up to statewide vote for majorities to vote on marriage equality? the president basically said in the interview with robin roberts, that's the way he supports this, that states can figure this out. >> what the president said correctly is that the states are wrestling with this and we're seeing progress in the states, whether it be new york or iowa or four states last november. at the same time, we all have a constitution that guarantees us all protections and responsibilities and rights under the law. if every time somebody wanted their freedom to be respected, freedom of speech, freedom to marry, they had to but it up to a vote, it wouldn't be a right, it would be a vote. that's not the way america is supposed to work. >> republicans have realized to win elections in the future they need to court latino

ruth marcus, james peterson, chip saltzman. appreciate it. coming up, another bombshell in the blade runner murder case. oscar pistorius' brother facing charges for the death after woman five years ago. the other oscar everybody talking about today. big night at the academy awards. especially for political movies. our big question today -- count down sequester. what are you most concerned about if those budget cuts take effect? chances are, you're not made of money, so don't overpay for motorcycle insurance. geico, see how much you could save. >>> new drum a surrounding oscar pistorius. accused of killing his girlfriend. he is not the only member of his family facing charges. his brother, carl, is accused of the death of a woman in 2008. michelle kosinski has those new revelations. >> reporter: for three days, his release on bail, the stuff of global headlines. oscar pistorius has not set foot outside of his uncle's house. waiting army of photographers month doubt a detractor. his older brother, carl, also faces questions of his own out here.

. >> i will bring in "washington post" columnist ruth marcus and senior staff writer for "the hill" alex bolton. good monday morning to both of you. ruth, this is the president's first big sell to the american people. what do you think he needs to say here? >> well, the president said he was going to give it everything he's got. i think what he needs to say is look, don't listen to the nra, listen to logic or listen to the nra from a number of years ago when it supported universal background checks. i think that there are three issues here in order of likelihood. one is background checks which has huge support and makes complete sense. one is limits on magazine sizes which i completely think the administration is right to push for. and the third and most controversial is limits on assault weapons, but in some ways, that's the one that would have the least impact. so i think the white house is right to push for all three, but the president really should concentrate in my view on the first two, background checks and magazine limits. >> on that which is pragmatic and doable is what you're s

editorial writer for "the washington post," ruth marcus, and the person that is in charge of coveringhese cats and dogs up there, nbc's capitol hill correspondent, kelly o'donnell. >> i think we're going to get e-mails from cat and dog lovers. >> i know, like, don't compare us to the u.s. congress. there was a little bit of everything on display in the chuck hagel debate yesterday. he department get that 60th vote, why? what do you think it was? what is ultimately the one reason? is it benghazi, is it his performance? is it real questions about hagel or is it personal? >> on some level, it's personal. but there are enough legitimate reasons that can sort of mask the personal dislike. there are many senators who are very upset about how he performed, not just in the show of what a hearing is, but what it might say about his leadership at defense. the benghazi piece is very important to a smaller group of senators. they were able to extract from the white house a letter, giving them a bit more information. and then there's the group that really kind of hopes that a period of time might