spiker is the state chairman who was elected in 2012.he straw poll. that's the cattle call for all of the major gop candidates. it does help raise money for them, after all they charge $30 for a vote, some of the campaigns pay for the voter to come in. it's a bit of an embarrassment for main strain republicans. they feel that the straw poll is costing their state party the prestige and costing their state some of the clout in the republican nominating process. this just after the 2012 election that brand stad flat out called for an end to the ritual of the true poll. he said i think it's outlived his usefulless. it's been a great fun raiser for the party but i think its days are over. he expanded on those comments this past august. >> anybody who wants to can have a straw poll and i think that's fine. i don't have any problem with that at all. my interest is protecting the iowa precinct caucasus. that's the first real test of voters. we also know that straw polls have not very scientific and whoever wince a particular central poll is not

house spiker boehner has a plan that would dull leverage that putin has. he said, and i'm quoting, the ability to turn the tables and put the russian leader in check is right beneath our feet in the form of vast supplies of natural energy. he is advocating exporting natural gas to western super the ukraine. we heard in congressional testimony that the administration is considering just that. >> there's active discussions at high levels regarding that. >> there certainly is. >> thank you. >> but on air force one today deputy press secretary says it has been a mild winter in europe this winter in europe and there is plentiful gas. and that coupled with the leak of delivery system to get the natural gas to europe and the fact that winter is almost over, now suggests this plan may not be fruitful, at least in the short term. shep, back to you. >> doug mckelway, thank you. to reiterate, any u.s. sanctions against moscow would hit the united states like a boomerang. the threat from the foreign minister of russia. the russians say lavrov also warned the united st

if russia is going too far in the defense of russian spikers. what will the cossacks and russian speakers going to think about the impolice indication of the eurasian union. so all of these different narratives will work against each other. putin is -- this where is the difficulty becomes of the imbalance, keep control of the alliances. it's important for all the kind overneartives like we just heard today to take precedence in russia. otherwise our competing analysises are being pushed back with a very aggressive defense. so we have to understand here that putin faces just like the rest of us, very complicated political situation at home and he has a big coalition that includes a lot of really nasty generallophobeike views. so he has the same difficulties our politicians have but more acutely. russian language is -- this is something that existed for a very long time. and putin knows what extremists can do to help bring down the soviet union, something which he deeply regrets, bring down the russians. they were a problem at the time the russian