. >> woodruff: and it's friday-- david brooks and ruth marcus are here to analyze the week's news. those are some of the stories we're covering on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: ♪ ♪ moving our economy for 160 years. bnsf, the engine that connects us. >> lincoln financial-- committed to helping you take charge of your life and become you're own chief life officer. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> woodruff: fresh off his address to the nation last night, president obama launched an effort today to win support for his immigration moves. he headed back to a place where he has addressed the issue before. >> today, we're doing something about it. ( cheers and applause ) >> woodruff: the president chose del sol high school in las vegas for his forum. it's where he opened a drive last year for overhauling the immigration system. >> and what we have to do is be hon

ruth marcus, what about nancy pelosi? what about harry reid.er taking such a beating, historic beating on the house side, do the caucuses turn on their leaders? will there be a shake-up? >> i think they may be a little bit more apt to be turning on president obama because that's actually the one piece that seems to be uniting congressional democrats right now, which is they're pretty annoyed with the impact of the president and his policies on the elections. i think i would have more questions about the future of senator reid than i would about the future of leader pelosi. no one expected her to have a good night in terms of taking back the house, though. if it was worse than expected, okay. losing the senate and losing the senate is a bad thing for harry reid. and -- but i -- in the end, i think they're both apt to survive, including leader reid. >> and then, we look forward to the launch of the 2016 campaign already, rand paul last night tweeting and in interviews. he tweeted that tuesday's biggest loser is @hillaryclinton and then also on th

. >> i am joined by ruth marcus.talk about the same names, we are talking about michelle and jack reed who said he is not interested. that's what people might say at this stage and ashton carter. they are both having served in the pentagon. >> sure. one thing that is interested is if you wanted the definition of a thankless job, go for secretary of defense. the problems that congressman keon mentioned and dealing with the implications of sequestrations. to add wrinkle to the others, we have an important pending nomination in the form of the attorney general nominee. now you have the two big asks to the senate and two critical positions having just royally annoyed them. i will use nice language. how does that go together? it will be a mess and who will want that? >> they are not even sending the nominee. because they are concerned about doing it in the lame duck. they have to get them through as the secretary of state. chris a lisz a let's take a look at the history of resignations or requests that they leave or whate

and ruth marcus. luke, good morning. we're waiting to hear from speaker boehner. obama move ahead with plans to issue executive orders on immigration. >> he certainly does, jose. the main decision he has to make with mitch mcconnell is how long do they want to dig in and fight about whether or not to fund the government, which the funding for the government running expires on december 11th. so we don't have a clear cut answer as to what the house republicans are going to do. there's some speculation that the white house will wait to move until after the deadline. but what we're looking at now in order to fund the government is two things. would it be a year-long funding bill which is something mcconnell and boehner want. they don't want the first few months of the leadership. and will it be a smaller funding bill. a shorter funding bill that would make the fight inevitable next year over top level number. any one of these bills more likely than not you'll see a joining bill that has strict language at the president not being able to use funds for the immigration e

managing editor post politics.com and "washington post" ruth marcus.ing about the precedent-setting. you wrote a column about beware of what you wish for. if you take these actions and there is a republican president, democrats may not like what happens. >> we have gone through a lot of debates about executive authority and the correct uses of authority and taking us to war and things like that. i understand that there is a very serious humanitarian concern. i am open minded about the president's legal authority to do this. there is a lot of leeway. >> you don't just play one on. >> i did read a lot of articles about this. there is a particular history we go into. we talked about it with presidents reagan and bush in allowing classes of people to remain. there is the policy precedent. what happens when say president cruz or president paul decides that enforcing the mandate as part of health care is not going to be part of what his irs does? i keep being assured this there will be a satisfying answer to it. i am staying tuped. >> what about that? >> we

ruth marcus in the washington post agrees with what sheila had to say."required to vote" is the title. the last word this morning. caller: wonderful, good morning. seerned the show want to the election results and i was very disturbed about people claiming that they had to have proper identification to vote. the young people voting. when i first started voting, you had to be 21. to register to vote. i turned 21, i went down to the courthouse, i registered to vote , the man gave me a voters id card. shortly after that, they dropped the election age to 18. i thought, isn't that sweet. my point is i know maryland and you, it both will issue looks just like the gyrus to cash it is an id card with your picture and address on it. all you have to do is bring in proof of identity, either a birth

. >> ruth marcus writes this in the walk post, every democrat should be nervous about president obama'sn for unilateral action on immigration reform. not because of the impact on an already gridlocked congress, or because it ricks inflameing the increasingly hostile public, democrats should be nervous about the implications for the president to act on his or her own. there are compelling humanitarian reason force president to act, but the president and his allies must keep in mind, presidential power, once expands, cokie, how is this different from reagan and george wind chill bush? >> it's not significant difficult. it has nothing to do -- maybe it las to do with the humanitarian response. it has to deal with the political response, hispanics went off 9% on democrats from this election. their vote for democrats dropped 9%. the asian vote for democrats dropped by 24%. >> really, oh my god. >> yes. this is all ability immigration. the democratic party has got to get out front on this issue to keep the coalition together that elected it in 2012 and they want to re-elect it in 2016. and th

then on the far side here is ruth hannah mccormack of illinois. her father was marcus hannah, the republican kingmaker in the early part of the 20th century. d constantly butted heads with what jennings bryan. his daughter is on the side of the picture. we have a press account when these two ruths came down the center aisle together arm in arm. and wowed the members and the press because here are two daughters of about political enemies. if we go back into the picture. norton.mary this is another one of the interesting characters. california, who represented a large portion of san francisco. and she is another widow who followed her husband to congress. thehusband julius was chairman of the -- rogers, sheourse was another woman very involved in her husband's political career. when he passed away, she was asked to run for the seat, she was decided she was going to stay on. she stayed on for more of a decade. she is the first jewish woman elected to congress pitches also the first woman to be appointed to the prestigious appropriations committee. responsible for steering