we'll have it live, obviously, wolf. >> we're going to get back to you as soon as susan collins wraps up. charlie webster, republican party chairman will go to the microphone and make the formal announcement. they've already counted the ballots? >> reporter: i spoke with charlie webster a few moments ago. he was walking around with an envelope. he said these were the results. he wasn't revealing the numbers to anyone. he wants to wait for a few moments to reveal them to everybody, wolf. >> we'll get right back to you shannon as susan senator susan collins wraps up her pep talk to the supporters, republicans who have shown up in the caucus in maine. david gergen you're in maine yourself. this is tailor made certainly for mitt romney who is from massachusetts, but it certainly is tailor made for ron paul as well. >> it is, although it seems a more natural state for mitt romney, he did win the caucuses there with 52% four years ago, and ron paul came in with only 18%. so i think it's historically been more of a romney type state, but a time and attention that ron paul has paid to maine,

. >> senator susan collins has called the usps financial situation "dire." what legislative solution is that committee working on? >> that committee has a bipartisan bill. it came out of committee in november. it is expected on the senate floor in the next few weeks. before presidents day or after presidents day. what that bill would do is allow the postal service to recoup a refund from the retirement account to use about $10 billion and take that money and do 100,000 buyouts. basically they would use that money for about $25,000 buyouts. mostly through attrition. there will be a lot of folks retiring. they will phase out door-to-door delivery. allowing the post office to ship beer and wine and allowing you to buy fishing licenses at the post office. >> is the post master general in agreement with the senate bill? >> the post master general has said he agrees with parts of the senate bill. ideally, he just wants as much flexibility as he can get. since the postal service is partially a governmental agency, it needs permission from congress to do a lot of th

she formed that sisterhood with susan collins, that earned them the name the sisters. tonight, senator collins says she is devastated by this decision. >>> and as we all search for results from michigan and also arizona voting tonight, one american town, chardon, ohio, is searching for meaning today. learning more about the high school student that opened fire in the school cafeteria. and abc's reena ninan is back on the story for us tonight. >> reporter: desperate calls for help from a school under siege. >> we have multiple gunshots. >> chardon high school. we need police up here. >> reporter: today, police announced that two more students shot in the school have died. russell king and demetrius hewlin, seen here in their yearbook photos. a third student, daniel parmentor, died just hours after the shooting. late this afternoon, a glimpse of the 17-year-old suspect, t.j. lane, on his way to court. prosecutors say lane confessed to the crime. but offered no explanation for what drove him to kill. >> he admitted he went into the school cafeteria and fired ten rounds at

the piece of legislation that is essentially identical that susan collins is working on. and the economy can't afford the rule either. the epa says the rule is going to cost $5.4 billion. that's the epa's number. they say the epa says it's going to cost 3,000 jobs. other private analysts come up with a number of over 230,000 jobs. i don't know what the right number, but the epa and this administration says it's 3,000, yet there is reports that the commerce department says it's between 40,000 and 60,000 jobs. and if we're going to be talking about unemployment insurance and extending that, we have to be talking about something that is going to put 40 to 60,000 by the administration's own numbers on to the unemployment roles. thing is a critical part of this. so there are things that we need to be doing today. and then i would say as a doctor, and the issue came up with asthma and what the impacts are. the air is cleaner today than it was 30 years ago. we have a couple of doctors on this panel. the air is cleaner today than it was 30 years ago. and yet the incidents of asth

. >> well, senator susan collins of maine, ranking member of the governmental affairs committee, called the usps financial system "dire." what legislative solution is that committee working on? >> so, that committee actually has a bipartisan bill. it came out of the committee, i believe, in november. and it's expected on the senate floor in the next few weeks. before presidents' day or just after presidents' day. and basically, what that bill would do is it would allow the postal service to recoup a refund from a retirement account to use about $10 billion and take that money and do 100,000 buyouts. right now, the postal service has about 500,000 postal workers, and it has too many, and it needs to downsize. so, basically, they would use that money for about $25,000 buyouts, mostly through attrition. there's going to be a lot of folks retiring. so, they'll be doing that. they would also be phasing outdoor-to-door delivery under this proposal, allowing the postal service to ship beer and wine, allow people to buy fishing licenses at their local post office, and also consolida consolidate

negotiate down his stimulus package and make a full third of the tax cuts just to get three republican susan collins olympia snowe and arlen specter on board with it and when it came to health care you president obama really get everything you water from congress he can get a public option and he sure as heck didn't get the cornhusker kickback or did didn't want rather the cornhusker kickback that so-called democratic senator ben nelson demanded for the louisiana purchase the so-called democratic senator mary landrieu asked for in return for her support it that's exactly the congress gave him a cap and trade energy let reform legislation through the senate as he wanted because he couldn't overcome a unanimous republican filibuster he couldn't get the disclose act require full disclosure of who's spending how much money in our elections post citizens united because it too couldn't break a unanimous philip republican filibuster he couldn't get comprehensive immigration reform and legislation like the dream act passed again thanks to a unanimous mcconnell led republican filibuster in the senate and he

done is to essentially set up a list of every main political can name under the son that is not susan collins as a potential candidate for the successor to snowe and so both democratic members of congress and the members of the house from maine are looking at it, and they are different styles and they may not be the only democrats who are jumping into the race. they may not both jump into the race. so there is a number of questions about whether the republic republicans can take, can convince a good candidate to enter the race or whether an independent candidate since maine has a pretty strong independent streak enters this race, and makes the calculus even more difficult. >> david wassermann who is the house editor or the "cook political report" and the one person who knows more about every congressional district nationwide. thank you so much for your expertise. >> i will look up a tthe rules committee succession. >> and so there is scrambling going on, but thank you david wassermann of the "cook political report." >>> and meanwhile, the debate this week on the issue of birth control may hel

susan collins says her son might still be alive in maryland have stronger driving laws. the 20-year-old john hopkins student was struck and killed last year riding his bike and baltimore. police said the 83-year-old driver did not see him. she was issued a fine and gave up her license. >> were very close. he was my little brother. >> family testified against the bill that would allow the renewal to be every eight years instead of five. to go>> we need to find new ways of delivering services. >> many drivers say would save them a lot of hassle. >> long lines. the less time to be there. >> they fear longer licensed periods make drivers even less accountable. they want a new amendment to take computer test for reaction time recall, and other driving skills. the efforts are fueled by losing their son and brother far too soon. >> i am always hoping that we can make some changes. >> more and more states have upped it to eight years. so far there is no data showing any increase in accidents. if the bill is approved, the long curve license fee would increase from $30 to $48. >>

i also agree with susan collins, who says this shows how dangerous a threat is in this country.any people choose to ignore it horrid don't realize the full dimensions. the fact is you could have had many americans killed in the heart of our capitol, and apart from the tragedy, what signal that would have sent to the world. >> as scary as this is, and reading the afterward is pretty darn scary, when you see how hi mind was working, but this is in some ways our intelligence community and law enforcement community getting it right, correct? >> absolutely. the fbi has done a phenomenal job. my concern is i'm hearing people saying they're too aggressive, but the fbi is should be doing and area agency allowed to do what they have to do, then we have a much better chance of being safe. my concern is if people start to lose interest, if there's political pressure brought to back off these operation. these sting operations are absolutely essential, because al qaeda has a very difficult time from attacking us from outside. that's where the main threat comes from right now. >> were you bri

senator susan collins of maine is calling into question a government report that says the amount of radiationted by scanners is members -- is members -- is negligable and dangerous for práeg -- pregnant women. >>> high tension power lines, trees, and an angry community leads to new legislation aimed at pg & e. >>> and the rain and the wind picking up, snow in the mountains. when we come back we'll have the forecast that takes you right into thursday and into the bay area weekend. sometimes the door gets stuck... oh sure. ooh! [ man ] ...and then, i didn't. um... [ sighs ] [ man ] so, i got a car i can love a really, really long time. [ male announcer ] for the road ahead, the all-new subaru impreza®. ♪ experience love that lasts. here's big news from verizon wireless and xfinity from comcast. now get the xfinity triple play and verizon wireless together. call 855-704-7400 to sign up and get a free smartphone. choose one of our hottest phones. verizon wireless and xfinity. tv, home phone, internet and wireless together. >>> a pg & e plan to cut down thousands of tree social security creating t

senator susan collins of maine is calling into question a government report that says the amount of radiationed by scanners is members -- is members -- is negligable and dangerous for práeg -- pregnant women. >>> high tension power lines, trees, and an angry community leads to new legislation aimed at pg & e. >>> and the rain and the wind picking at bank of america, we're lending and investing in the people and communities who call the bay area home. from funding that helped a local entrepreneur start a business... to providing grants to a nonprofit which offers job training and placement... and supporting an organization working to help the environment. because the more we do in the bay area, the more we help make opportunity possible. it's nice having u-verse, isn't it? see back in my day, we didn't have these newfangled wireless receivers. fangled? no, we watched march madness in the living room... that's where the tv outlet was. what is he talking about? and if mom was hosting her book club that day, guess what...you missed it! we couldn't just move the tv all willy-nilly all over the hou

. >> your point about the republicans and we should say senator susan collins and olympia snowe haveth the line because the politics of this the way it is playing in the different coalitions, appears to have reversed in the last week. a week alg you were seeing splits across the democratic coalition now the republican one. aside from collins and snowe, in the house are you seeing any movement of similar frictions? >> well, first of all let me tell you that even before the compromise, the majority of americans were in favor of organizations, you called them religious organizations but we're not talking about churches, houses of worship. we're talking about hospitals, charities, universities, that are catholic affiliate order religious affiliated, but their employers that employ janitors and ordererlies and nurse and those individuals ought to have access to contra shin was always majority view. quite frankly what we saw were some of the men talking about how this was about religious freedom, when in fact it is not about religious freedom. this is about access to contraception. i think

maine's republican senators broke with mcconnell on this issue, joan, what do you make of that, both susan collinsit, frankly, i think it's terrific. i'm excited for elizabeth warren, because scott brown announced today that he is supporting roy blunt's ridiculously broad legislation. he did a great favor to elizabeth warren. >> does she run commercials on that issue, do you think? >> i think so, yeah, i do. >> can i just point out one other thing here? the importance of having more women in office, i think it's notable that the two republicans who are breaking ranks here are two women! and right now we have 83% of the legislature is men and that is not to say women always vote the right way, but having those voices at the table makes a real difference. >> you think --. >> womjumped out last week to defend the president. >> both of you comfortable with what the president did, did he handle it properly? >> wonderful. >> absolutely. i think the american people will say the president is being reasonable and republicans are being unreasonable, as usual. >> great to have both of you, joan walsh and kry

both susan collins and olympia snow. >> i think it's terrific.thing. i'm very excited fioor elizabet warren because scott brown announced today he's supporting roy blunt's ridiculously flawed legislation. he did a great favor to elizabeth warren. >> does elizabeth warren run commercials on that issue, i think? >> i think so, yeah. i do. >> could i point out one more thing here? there are more women in office. i think it's noted the two republicans breaking ranks here are two women. right now we have 83% of the legislature are men, and that's not to say women always vote the right way, but having those voices at the table makes a real difference. >> you think -- >> and women jumped out in front last week with president obama and senators and house members. >> are both of you comfortable with what the president did? did he handle it properly? >> wonderful. >> absolutely. america will look at this and say the republicans are being completely unreasonable, as usual. >> great to have both of you with us. joan walsh and krystal ball. that's the ed show

. >> i think, it sounds like we have susan collins speaking right now, addressing folks in maine.re we have heard there's a record turn-out. there she is, right there. talking to the folks in maine about tonight's results. we don't have the results yet. we have heard, however, that there is a record turn-out, which may indicate good things for dr. ron paul. if in fact it's a show of the ability of the organizers to turn their folks out. steve, i'm sorry i interrupted you. >> it's an interesting thing, you look at the story of the republican party and the post-bush era, they basically launched a two-front war. the conservative base of the party. one is a war every time a democrat becomes president. the on the other hand they had to explain how the democrat took power. they explained for the last decade we had the george w. bush and the republicans selling out conservatism. they've been looking for this vision of purity. it's difficult to define, but all they know is that mitt romney represents the forces that sold them out. >> the other side of the exact same argument, which i thin

when olympia snowe is gone, imagine the pressure on her state colleague susan collins, who often votesa tough fight in massachusetts. ben nelson of nebraska, a democrat on the more moderate sit side, he's not seeking re-election. it talks about the at fare of the mood of getting things frustration is genuine. >> a lot of these guys are leaving. thank you, kelly o'donnell for your expertise from capitol hill. >>> let's bring in russ feingold. he's also author of a bright new book out right now, "while america sleeps." i want to get to your book. first your reaction to people like snowe quitting. >> chris, good to be talking to you again. it's a real loss. she's one of the finest senators. a model of bipartisanship. she was a key to getting mccain/feingold passed. i served with her on the intelligence committee. there's a person who always worked across party lines where appropriate. she'd co-sponsor amendments with me that had to do with national security or civil liberties. and it's a terrible sign when a person like that who was reasonable. she was not an easy mark. she was hard to pe

today republican senator susan collins and olympia snowe called the revised birth control rule a goodunder the compromise, religious institutions are not required to pay for birth control. the senators aren't the only ones praising the move. a majority of catholics support it. 57% are for it. but you'll never guess who's not. >> the fact that the white house thinks this is about contraception is the whole problem. this is about freedom of religion. it's right there in the first amendment. we will be voting on that in the senate and you can anticipate that that would happen as soon as possible. >> it's a distinction without a difference. it's an accounting gimmick or fig leaf. it's not a compromise. the president has doubled down. >> what has to be protected here is the faith-based rights of conscience. and that's what this debate is about. your either for religious freedom or you're not. >> and on trial, and on the trail, the culture wars are red hot. >> there's no compromise here. they are forcing religious organizations either directly or indirectly to pay for something that they fi

maine senator susan collins could force the tsa to study the machines.canners are in about 100 airports nationwide and use low levels of x-rays on passengers as they pass through. the tsa insists the machines are safe, but opponents fear they pose a health risk. the european union even banned their use at european airports over concerns they might be linked to cancer. >>> our time right now is just about 5:21. let's get another look at the forecast. we had rain overnight, right, tom? >> have your umbrella handy. we've got a bit of break west of washington and up into shenandoah valley. out to the west there's another batch of rain about to move in. right now we still have lingering light rain in washington, southern prince george's county and st. mary's and anne arundel. there's rein on the east side of the bay bridge. that's gonl to continue to move off to the east. later today we'll warm up. right now it's a chilly start compared to what we've seen yesterday afternoon. down into the 40s throughout much of the region. it's in the mid-40s in montgomery c

not a teleprompter. [ laughter ] [ applause ] >> arthel: that is republican senator susan collins addressing the crowd there, as we await the results of maine's caucuses. very exciting. today's a game of political ping-pong, i'd like to say, bringing in now to discuss what's happening, democratic national committee member debbie dingell, and phyllomesser, president of the new frontier and former director of the republican governor's association. i want to say welcome to both of you. phil, i'm going to start with you because we just got the big news there coming from cpac, romney winning there with 38% of the vote there. of course, ron paul took it twice, two years. so what is this saying to you? are you reading the tea leaves? i ask you, is this a sign that perhaps the conservatives are finally coalescing around mitt romney? >> yeah, this was a big day for mitt romney anyway you cut it. i'm anxious to see the maine results, which we're all waiting on. cpac, there is a lot of talk in the media about the consternation and the lack of satisfaction with governor romney coming into cpac. but the

senator dashle and susan collins, now senator, have said you have to find ways for people to interact more. so i think that there has been a loss there. but i also think it's a harder media than it ever was -- >> let's talk about that. money is significant, and let me just vouch for that. the amount of time members of the house and senate, republicans and democrats spend, is an outrage and has to be addressed. talk about media. media world has changed. right now, if in the house and senate, you give a sphynx if you're doing commit year, it's going to be televised on c-span or elsewhere. that wasn't the case back then. but what does that mean in terms of how people related to each other, et cetera? >> well, it's a complex question but i think we have so much media and so much coverage that to some extent, it cheapens the debate. in the senate that it described, if you heard that frank church was going to speak on vietnam, democrat from idaho and an early opponent, people went to hear the see. it was big event. and that was true of a lot of the speeches. people didn't speak that often b

we had to rely on susan collins of maine and joe lieberman but it got done.ogress, we're taking the offense this time which is so nice. washington state just passed marriage, maryland is poised, had a little setback in new jersey today. but we are back on the ballot in maine, we won in new york. this should be the will of the people. this is a civil rights issue. >> i don't know if you buy the sort of wide speculation that chris christi vetoed this because to have signed a gay marriage bill would have ixnayed his chances on being a vice presidential choice for his party. do you think that motivated him and was that a proper calculation on his part if it was what motivated him? >> i'm one of the six republicans still standing in this race. i got on the california ballot, as one of the six, i'm poised to get on the new york ballot. i'm one of four, it looks like, in the new york primary. this will discourage me from picking chris christi, as far as the other candidates, i think he's content. he made a bad decision, he said he would do this, he is a man of his w

are very few from the nelson rockefeller wing of the party -- people like o olympic area snowe, susan collins, more or less moderate republicans, they're so scared now they're going to be primaried by a tea party person you can't tell the difference between them and the tea party. it's really a terrible situation. >> if you'll let a republican talk here briefly. the situation, this is pat kadell, a poster for carter and doug sharon, a poster for clinton. they wrote an article and the conclusion was the president was so divisive in the way he was conducting his campaign by going far left and campaigning on class warfare and then -- >> but president obama is not -- >> -- if he were to win, he would not be able to govern. >> but president obama is empirically not going far left. that's my point. >> these are two democrats. >> but which democrats are those? >> there are two things important here. the first is that the republican party is deeply divided so when rick santorum says he is not a libertarian and in fact he disagrees with libertarians he means that. in contradiction to ron paul, that's

i want to thank the chairman and our ranking member, susan collins, for calling a hearing, for working with us, for giving what the chairman said -- mentioned trying to open up -- got an idea, bring it to us, and that, i think, an open door, and to bad some haven't taken full opportunity of that. we have a lot of distractions around here. >> we know we're being attacked in cyberspace some are there to cause mischief, some steal ideas, steal our defense secrets, steal our intellectual problem, blackmail businesses and nonprofits and do worse. also the challenges i think we have here, really need a ball plan, road map, i call it a common sense road map to move forward. and i hope we can move along that way today. i'm especially pleased the legislation that is being introduced includes a number of security measures my and my staff worked on with me colleagues for years to better protect our federal information system, and having said that, i'd like to begin, madam secretary, by asking a couple of questions about the departments efforts in this area, if i could. as you know i've been calli

inhofe: i would like to ask unanimous consent that senator susan collins be added as -- withdraw that request. mr. president, today i'm -- i understand that senator toomey is going to be introducing an amendment that will -- it is quite an oversimplifying to say it that way, but it would make permanent the temporary ban on earmarks. and i think this is something that we have talked about and talked about and talked about on this floor. in fact, the last time we talked about the amendment to do -- to put a moratorium on earmarks, my conservative rating of number one in the united states senate moved to number 20 because i was telling the truth, not demagoguing an issue. the problem we have is this: when the -- when we -- the house of representatives first of all came up some time ago -- two years ago -- with doing away with perms, putting a moratorium on earmarks. then they define what had that moratorium was and defined an earmark as ash i -- in a certaie rule and said, it is any kind of an appropriation or authorization. here's where the problem is, because everybody is upset with th

i want to thank the chairman and ranking member, susan collins, for calling a hearing for which and what is complicating really what the chairman said, he mentioned try to open up, if you have an idea, bring it to us. and that i think is had an open door, too bad some have taken full opportunity of the. i know have a lot of distractions around you. sometimes that happens. we are being attacked by hackers across the world and closer to home, and it's likely to get worse, not better. while some of -- some of them are there to steal ideas, steal our defenses secrets or intellectual property. blackmail businesses and nonprofits and to do worse. they are also, the challenges that i think we have here, i think we need a bold plan, we need a roadmap. i hope again we can move along that way, too, today. i'm especially pleased with legislation that is being introduced including number of security measures that my staff and i have worked on. .. hardly anybody understood how it made it any safer. the bill that is before us today includes many improvements to so-called federal information, security

i want to thank the chairman and ranking member susan collins for calling the hearing and working with us and giving -- if you have an idea, for it to us. i think you had an open door. we have a lot of distractions around here. we're being attacked by hackers across the world and closer to home and is likely to get worse not better. summer there to cause mischief and summer there to call ideas and defense secrets. -- to steal ideas and defense secrets. we really need a road map. to move forward. i hope we can move along that way today. i am especially pleased that the legislation being andrew -- being introduced includes a number of suggestions from my staff. i would like to begin by asking a couple of questions about the department's efforts in this area. i have been calling for some major changes to bill law that controls how federal agencies protect their information, our information systems. we looked at this issue several years ago and we found federal agencies were wasting millions of dollars on reports that nobody read. the bill before state includes many improvements to the fed

i want to thank the chairman and our ranking member, susan collins, for calling a hearing, for working with us, for giving what the chairman said -- mentioned trying to open up -- got an idea, bring it to us, and that, i think, an open door, and to bad some haven't taken full opportunity of that. we have a lot of distractions around here. >> we know we're being attacked in cyberspace some are there to cause mischief, some steal ideas, steal our defense secrets, steal our intellectual problem, blackmail businesses and nonprofits and do worse. also the challenges i think we have here, really need a ball plan, road map, i call it a common sense road map to move forward. and i hope we can move along that way today. i'm especially pleased the legislation that is being introduced includes a number of security measures my and my staff worked on with me colleagues for years to better protect our federal information system, and having said that, i'd like to begin, madam secretary, by asking a couple of questions about the departments efforts in this area, if i could. as you know i've been calli