nbc news special correspondent for rock center ted koppel. nbc's own ted koppel.tor for "the washington post," bob woodward. and nbc's chief foreign affairs correspondent andrea mitchell. welcome to all of you. a lot to get to. and as we react to paul ryan this morning, i want to show some of the headlines from the president's inaugural address. obama offers a liberal vision. we must act. charles kranthammer wrote this in "the washington post" and it caught my attention on friday and i want to put on the screen. his mission is to redeem and resurrect a 50-year pre-reagan liberal ascendency. accordi accordingly, his address is his historical marker, the reagan of the left. if he succeeds in the next four years, he would have earned the title. and i so that, bob, because of what paul ryan said that i thought was so notable, is that he believes this president is more interested in political conquest than political compromise. that is the backdrop for a second term. >> and ryan is an important figure in this in many ways. and i think you agree. he's quite likely the f

tonight his story as told to ted koppel. >>> but wait, there's more. the man who talks us into buying stuff, the man who tells us to set it and -- >> forget it! >> tonight at home with ron popeil, the master tv pitchman who is still going and actually never stops. >> you're not going to spend $400 or $350 or $320 or $290 like you may be thinking. not $280 or $250 or $260 -- >> that and more as "rock center" gets under way. >>> good evening and welcome to "rock center." we begin tonight with the youngest actress ever nominated for an academy award, and win or lose, maybe the nicest thing about her nomination will be that more people will seek out the movies she's in. it's called "beasts of the southern wild" and it's part fable, part clear-eyed view of nature and nurture, love and death, poverty, family, the environment. it's her first film performance. it's a small movie, make no mistake, compared to a 007 or a "lincoln," but it leaves a big mark on you. as ann curry reports tonight, the only thing more compelling than her work on screen is her story i

joins our future and ted koppel joins our political round table. >> welcome back.morning, everyone. plenty of sunshine out there to start the day. the time is coming up on 41 minutes past the hour. 27 degrees at b.w.i. 31 downtown and light northwest wind at three miles an hour. you would say it's mild compared to a week ago. but 22 in randallstown and 22 in rising sun. we should be able to sneak above freezing today. clouds we had earlier this morning have dissipated. it will probably start to fill back in as this next storm approaches. storm system here coming across the northwest producing freezing rain and sleet. from st. louis back into parts of iowa. unfortunately, i think it's going to do the same thing here. the time frame is early you remember the morning. we could see problems with rain, sleet and possibly a little bit of snow. we will transition from the cold to the warm and tomorrow morning there will be a warm front south of us and north of that warm front we could see a period of icing going on for the monday morning. in the western suburbs, i talked

and i remember i was to follow ted koppel and it was the first of pain times i had to follow ted koppel. and that's to the where you want to be. because he is very, very funny. and as i said that night, maybe a little too funny for a newsman. this was, gosh, 90-- i don't know, way, way back, a long time ago, '94, something like that. >> rose: one of your guests tonight is one of the funniest newsmen we've ever seen. >> well, brian williams, he's pretty fasel. pleasant fellow. very, very knowledgeable, very, very smart. and maybe funnier than everything else he is. and-- . >> rose: meaning that he's funnier than he is a good newsman, he's funnier than anything else he does. >> yes. he probably is what they're looking for, for this job or for the comparable job at fbc or any other job. this is-- this guy is a real throwback. i mean many guys are smart and knowledgeable. yourself included. and you're funny enough. but brian williams, i mean this guy is a triple threat. >> yeah. might he want to do something like that? >> i would hope so. i think he's honestly between you and me wasting his

ted koppel tonight has an interview with general dempsey by the way, on tonight's broadcast of "rock center." >>> elsewhere in washington, secretary of state hillary clinton was back on capitol hill today, though this time it was to introduce the man nominated to replace her. massachusetts senator john kerry testifying before the very same committee he chairs, receiving quite a different welcome than the one she received 24 hours earlier. our chief foreign affairs correspondent, andrea mitchell, in our d.c. newsroom tonight with more. andrea, good evening. >> reporter: good evening, brian. the son of a diplomat, raised partly at u.s. embassies abroad, even republicans said john kerry has lived his whole life preparing to be secretary of state. what a difference a day makes. a day after hillary clinton was grilled about benghazi, she was back to join the same senators and lavishing praise on her presumed successor. >> john is the right choice to carry forward the obama administration's foreign policy. and i urge his speedy confirmation. >> if you confirm me, i would take office as sec

likeness of bill clinton commissioned for washington's national portrait gallery looked more like ted koppel. >> a good portrait, in my point of view, makes you think that you're sitting in front of the person. >> reporter: new york portrait artist marvin mattelson sells his paintings for as much as $45,000 and agreed to let me sit for a quick 30-minute version. >> you can't please everyone, so there's only two people you want to please. you want to please yourself and you want to please your client. if anyone else is happy, that's a bonus. >> reporter: the duchess, an art history major herself, is said to be thrilled with her portrait. >> i'm done. >> reporter: all right. >> this is the finished study. >> reporter: oh, wow. what i see that you got is you -- the look in my eyes. and in the end, if the duchess likes hers too, that's all that really matters. kate snow, nbc news, new york. >> that's our broadcast on a friday night. and for this week. thank you for being here with us. i'm brian williams. lester holt will be here with you this weekend. we, of course, hope to see you right back he

plus, nbc news special correspondent ted koppel. >> "meet the press" is brought we know why we're here. ♪

also, our own ted koppel joins our political roundtable.e press, the press pass conversation is with martin indig of the brookings institution. all ahead this morning. >>> we continue to stay on top of this breaking news out of brazil. the death toll now expected to rise from this nightclub fire as at least 245 people have died. 200 others injured in this fire that happened in santa maria. more than a thousand people were reportedly inside the club called "kiss" when the fire broke out overnight. the fire may have been started by the pyrotechnics display of the band playing in the club. a security guard described it. he said it was at maximum capacity, about 500 people. which means more than 1,000 people with in the building. that would be when the fire started. people started pushing and shoving each other to escape. many people were celebrating this weekend, which is the start of the carnivale in brazil. a lot of people also died when they got trampled. that's what officials are saying now. very tragic scene in santa maria. we'll stay on

what was it, t2002 whn abc caused an uproar to make plans to lure letterman to abc and replace ted koppeluch ankest even in the news business of "nightline" being pushed back to the middle of the night. why do you think that is? >> i would say it was a different universe back then. it was a different tv universe. not quite as technologically advance. the universe wasn't as balkanized as it is now. anybody who wants to see "nightline" and doesn't want to stay up that late to watch it can watch it on their computers the next day. it wasn't the same thing ten years ago. so, i think, also, there's a lot more choices. and if you don't want to watch "nightline" and you want to watch another news show, there will be one somewhere. it's a different show, too. don't forget. in 2002, it was koppel. >> exactly. >> you don't have the stature. >> i have to give credit to sinth cynthia mcfadden and it's tough to put on a news show at 11:35 and beat the two biggest comedians and "nightline" was able to do that, but the program didn't make itself indispensable because more of a variety show where they wo

>> guest: the parties that i went to were parties where there were friends -- ted koppel, eric sevareid, professor richard gordon from georgetown, conservative think-tank people, a.e.i. people. casey was at one party. oh, it's a long list. i believe george bush was also at his house. i'm not a hundred percent sure, but i'm about 90 percent sure. quite an array of people. he really seemed to give parties for a living, but what he was doing was introducing and sort of constructing a matrix of people with influence and within that he was operating -- and so were the japanese. he was a good example, i think, as to how so many japanese were able to get a foothold here to see how it worked, to see how this town worked. it all began to fall apart for him in the '80s when his behavior began to change. things were changing for all of us. i had left the networks or was about to the leave the networks, many of our friends were off doing different things. we were still very much in touch. he appeared very ill. it was quite obvious or it began to be obvious; we began to suspect that he had aids. he