thomas cole says republicans should support his view on taxes. >> in my view we're not going to raiset make less than $250,000. we should take them out of this discussion right now, continue to fight against any rate increases, continue to fight for a much bigger deal. >> but in the poerltales of pow es power, this is how john boehner responded to his colleague. >> i told tom in our conference meeting i disagreed with him. he's a good friend and supporter of mine. >> luke russert joins us from capitol hill. luke, the speaker refers to mr. cole as one of his greatest personal supporters. but mr. cole has just torn speaker boehner's talking points to shreds and he's done it publicly. >> quite a development. thomas cole is former chairman of the nrc seat, che did a few years ago, which is really the wing of the house republican conference in charge of getting, what, house republicans elected to congress. so for him to come out and take this position shows you that there is an appetite, at least among some very prominent republicans, that perhaps go down this road and allow for an increas

do you agree congressman cole is actually giving the speaker more flexibility in the negotiations? >> yes. thomas, there's a tendency to watch these negotiations from the sidelines and to think that the prince piples speak for everyone. i think we learned two summers ago speaker boehner may be in a position where he's ready to cut a deal with the president but he can't control his caucus. to me the significance of congressman cole saying that is that it showed there's residual interest on the part of the constituency boehner must control to make this deal. you're right. you can't take it back. it seems quite obvious now those tax cuts are going to be extended for all but those ea earning in excess of $250,000. >> the president has the leverage going into this, basically the mandate of a federal election and the fact that these, you know, the taxes are going to go up on everybody after the first of the year anyway. the republicans need to get something done now while they still have a little bit of wiggle room here. democrats need 25 republicans. that's it. to get a middle class tax cut through th

thomas. so why don't we, instead of throwing insults, why don't they just pick up and pass that part as their own republican, tom cole suggested, let's have some good faith here, and we'll hammer out the rest of it. >> so senator, one thing you say about show me the money, if we talk about the lack of structural changes that are out there for entitlements, nbc's first read makes that point about that saying that the white house is sending the message that if republicans want entitlement reform, they're the ones who have to propose it. so is the white house forcing republicans basically to do the dirty work on social safety net programs? >> no. no. i think if you look at the president's program, he's laid out hundreds of billions of savings in entitlements. that's no small feat. and people forget, we've already cut a trillion dollars of spending. so the point is, they have to come up with their package. they're laughing at the president's package. that's their right. but they also have an obligation to put out their package. i promised them i won't laugh at it. i will look at it, as will the president, as will all the