workforce. the workforce shrank. that's why the unemployment rate came down so sharply to 8.6%. 315,000 people, by the way to put that in some perspective. that is the like the population of pittsburgh walking away from the labor force. this is really a picture of despair right down there on the ground level. we now have the smallest proportion of people of the overall population, the smallest proportion who are actually working or looking for work for generations. we're down to 64%. that is all it is. bill: that is truly remarkable a lot to go through here. the headline would seem to be good news when you see 8.6% there is big political factor. explain. >> that is political number, is it not 8.6%. they will do high-fives at white house at 8.6% because down from the 9% range. superficially looks very good indeed. politically it is a good number. that is real progress on the unemployment rate. of course if you dig deeper, look at 315,000 people walking away from the labor force it is not so the pretty if you dig down deeper. bill: to be clear, stuart, you have to be part of the workforce or you have to be looking for work in order to be counted in the numbers in order to show up? >> that's correct. you have to be in the workforce working or actively looking for for a job to be counted as part of the workforce. bill: your big point, more people are just giving up? >> i think there are a lot of people in their 50s, early 60s out of a job. they're simply saying i can not get a job in this environment. i'm walking away. live on savings. take early social security. i'm walking away. in despair. bill: you have to be hugely discouraging? >> it is. it is. there is a real position change here. at the top level, the political level, 8.6% unemployment is good news indeed. it is a great political headline. dig deeper, you see the despair underneath the surface. bill: that's why we have you. see you at 9:20 on fbn here is martha. martha: the unemployment rate dropped from 9% in october. you have it at 8.6% in this area. it was at that level the last time. go back into the early months of 2009 you see where we hit that level again. go back to december of '07, you were at 5% unemployment. so let's take a look at number you would have to be at healthy economy. here is our yellow line. 6% you want to be for healthy economy. as you can understand, the administration argument will be that the number from its high of 9.9% has been working its way down and they will claim that they believe this is a positive picture. of course it will all come down to individuals and what their own experience is this in the economy and whether or not they feel like things are getting better. the number 8.6% is politically a good number for them to focus on, bill. bill: martha, we're getting reaction from a lot of candidates. republican candidate newt gingrich getting ahead of the jobs announcement. he says he wants to be the best paycheck president in american history. he would create mandatory job program for anyone collecting unemployment benefits yesterday. >> giving people money for 99 weeks for doing nothing is essentially destructive and harmful to them, harmful to society and a waste of your money. bill: in a moment newt's strongest comments to date on the campaign. why gingrich says he will be the nominee. wait for that. coming up. martha: one of the other nominees, some are saying it could be the last stop for the cain train. herman cain hitting one last campaign event before he heads home to see his wife. that will be an interesting meeting, right? he says at that moment when they talk, and wouldn't you like to be a fly on the wall on that conversation, they will decide the future of his political campaign and whether or not he will continue to run for the presidency. he has not been home since the allegations of this 13-year affair became the latest scandal to side track his run for the republican nomination. the decision on his future will come in a couple of days. listen to this. >> i'm going to make a decision before monday. now, you know, before monday and we have not worked out the logistics yet, the decision could be, we're going to continue with that campaign full speed ahead. the decision could be, that we're going to suspend the campaign. that's why i'm doing a reassessment. martha: reassess something not a word any candidate wants to start talking about but that's where they are in that situation. he denied that he had an affair with ginger white but has admitted helping her out financially and he said his wife was not aware he had a friendship with this woman and text messages and all that stuff. i would have probably said i think you need to come home today and we'll talk about it and then go back out on campaign trail. bill: it is clear these allegations hurt him. taking a huge hit on his campaign. hitting most in first in the nation caucus in iowa. new polling numbers out, "des moines register." cain at 8% among republicans. that is down from 23% in late october. four weeks into the iowa caucuses, january 3rd they go down and republican strategist ed rollins joins us in a moment. he led huckabee's campaign back in '08 to victory we'll talk about cain and gingrich and what in the world is going to happen next. martha: let's go back to capitol hill here for a moment and a senate stalemate. lawmakers defeating both the democratic and republican plans to extend the current payroll tax cut. if congress does not reach a compromise on this issue soon, a lot of americans will see their taxes go up next month because that payroll tax cut will be removed from their paycheck calculations. president obama is placing the blame on this as he has been throughout this process squarely on the shoulders of republicans. doug mckelway is up there in the box over our shoulders and live at the white house. good morning, doug. what happened last night? >> reporter: this is very, very interesting. the failure of these two votes to extend the payroll tax increase will feed into emerging theme for the president in this campaign season, that he is campaigning against a do nothing congress. the democratic version of the bill had majority of votes 51-49 but fell short of 60 votes needed for passage. what was surprising republican version of extension of tax cut failed by overwhelming margin, 20-78. 26 republicans voting against their own bill. preemptively anticipating failure of two bills. the president speaking in scranton, ohio, this week and laid the blame squarely on republicans. >> republicans said they're a the party of a tax cut. a lot of them swore an oath never to raise taxings on anybody as long as they live. that doesn't square with their vote against these tax cuts. >> reporter: then the president added in the statement after failure of both votes last night this in part, quote, senate republicans chose to raise taxes on nearly 160 million hard-working americans because they refused to ask a few 100,000 millionaires and billionaires to pay their fair share that is characterization which republicans repeatedly called class warfare. martha: let me take a wild guess. i'm going to gamble the republicans are blaming democrats for the failure of this tax cut extension, right? >> reporter: you're absolutely right, martha. specifically blaming democrats for their failure to reduce spending. here is congressman moran, republican from kansas. >> wouldn't we be using better of proceeds of reduction in spending to reduce the debt and deficit, rather than a short-term change that reduces the revenues going to the social security and medicare trust fund? when are we going to admit that we are broke? >> reporter: leaders from both parties still believe they will find agreement to extend the payroll tax cut it expires december 30th. if they can't they will leave working americans with a great big lumpp coal in their stocking. a $1,000 payroll tax increase at the start of the new year. martha? martha: tough for people to deal with and tough for politicians on both sides. thank you, doug. bill: i have a feeling they will work this out. >> you think? bill: yeah i do. a little bit of context. payroll tax cut was part of last year's agreement extend bush tax cuts as doug mentioned. without that extension 160 million americans will see taxes go higher the to put it in real numbers the democratic plan would give a worker earning $50,000 a year, about $1500 tax cut. two-income family making $200,000 a year, they would see $6,000 under the democratic plan. as for the republican version, workers would see a bit less. $1,000 for that worker who earns $50,000 a year and $4,000 for the two income family. got it? 10 minutes past the hour. we'll see where we go. martha: yeah i think you're right. i think they will probably figure that one out. nobody wants to see other fingers pointing at them. bill: they were writing this on the wall in long hand to get it done. martha: we'll talk to chris van who loan coming up. -- van hollen. a beautiful morning. look at the white house today. what do republicans have to say about this whole tax cut issue? white house saying democrats fight for the middle class. who are republicans fighting for? this is kind of language back and forth. republican, chairman i should say of the republican national committee will be here. we'll talk to him about that. bill: president obama saying if you like your health care you can keep it, folks. now alarming report. can a company actually dump you because you are too sick? martha: newt gingrich saying quote, i am the nominee. is getting too bold too early? we're going to talk about that. >> certainly moving in the right direction. for a guy who was dead in june, this is pretty exciting. ♪ the weather outside is frightful ♪ ♪ but the fire is so delightful ♪ nothing melts away the cold like a hot, delicious bowl of chicken noodle soup from campbell's. ♪ let it snow, let it snow this was the gulf's best tourism season in years. all because so many people came to louisiana... they came to see us in florida... make that alabama... make that miissippi. the best part of the gulf is wherever you choose... and now is a great time to discover it. this year millions of people did. we set all kinds of records. next year we're out to do even better. so come on down to louisiana... florida... alabama... mississippi. we can't wait to see you. brought to you by bp and all of us who call the gulf home. martha: boy, this one has been a mystery. now there is news this american is reportedly being held by al qaeda. the terror group claimed responsibility for the kidnapping of contractor warren weinstein. as you may remember he was abducted last august by gunmen in pakistan from his home. the terror group is demanding a release of prisoners and an end to airstrikes in exchange for this man's freedom. bill: good luck to him. prayers for him. president obama using the fight over the payroll tax cut to take a shot yet again at republicans. >> are you willing to fight as hard for middle class families as those who are most fortunate? what is it going to be? bill: chairman of republican national committee is here to respond. reince priebus is back here. how are you doing this morning? >> i'm great, bill, how are you? bill: we're listening to doug mckelway talk about back and forth on payroll tax cut. how do republicans win this battle? >> i don't know about winning a battle. i think republicans agree that you obviously want to extend this payroll tax holiday. just a matter how you pay for it. i think republicans want to get serious about paying for it in a way that doesn't add to the debt and deficit. so, you know, this is a red herring by the president as is most of the things lately he has to say. i mean owe he is in full-time campaign mode. he will get out there and give speeches and not pay attention to what is happening in washington. he has been asleep at wheel for a long time. bill: they want to raise taxes on millionaires. that's how they want to pay for it. republicans want to cut the size of government? >> well, i think we want to do both. i think we want to make sure that we can extend the payroll tax holiday here but we want to do it in such a way that just doesn't borrow and spend like what the democrats are proposing. so i just think we need to get serious about our debt and deficit here in this country. i think most people agree, this is the most predictable economic disaster facing america. it is all there and on paper. anyone can look at it. and, we just need to get serious about taxes from this president and he is bent on campaigning. bill: you're saying extend the taxes? find a way to pay for it without raising taxes on americans with small business? >> we need to extend the tax credit by find a way to pay for it without cutting into the debt and deficit and making sure our liabilities as far as social security and medicare don't get worse. bill: yeah. >> i mean i think as far as the tax credit self i think we're on the same page. it is a mat other how you pay for it. bill: senator schumer, the democrat from new york, he is saying that he is beating republicans up with this issue. at the moment, are you being outflanked or is that just what it appears to be on the outside? >> i don't, i guess i just reject the premise. i don't think anyone is outflanking republicans on third quarter issue at all. the fact of the matter we need to get serious in regard to debt and deficits in this country. poll after poll says the economy is number one issue. people are concerned about spending. we see a president not engaged. his polling can't get any worse because people are seeing a president that is more interested in campaigning than getting serious about things like simpson-bowles, the debt commission he put together. the debt commission he himself, bill, said that he would make it a priority to follow. he has ignored. a super-committee that he helped create that he ignored and had nothing to do with. this president has decided that the narrative of his campaign is to allow everyone to hate everybody, divide this country in half. roll the dice and see who wins. that is his strategy. bill: how do you think that plays in an election year? >> i --. bill: how do americans react to it? >> i don't think americans will react very well to it, especially coming from a guy who campaigned as the great you fighter of -- uniter of america. he came here four years ago said would unite everyone. he would be a different kind of guy. now he will go back, what has happened, bill, the president's advisors have looked where he is sits with independents. where he sits with independents is not good. so politically what do you do about it? the only with way to tackle a problem like the president has, to get rid of the middle. in other words divide the middle. bill: independents determine elections in america these days. we shall see. reince priebus, thank you for coming back. we want to get you to react to what we were hering late last night and we'll talk again, okay? thai, sir. >> thank you, bill. bill: 19 minutes past the hour now. here's martha. martha: one of the biggest stories this morning is breaking news on unemployment. unemployment at its lowest level in 2 1/2 years, but mostly economists are saying 300,000 people just stopped looking for work. they dropped out of that number. why are some employers struggling to find people they can hire for jobs that they have available? mike tobin is looking into that. he has stunning news on the jobs front. plus, there is this. ♪ . bill: apparently justin timberlake has something to worry about. challenge of daughters of jon huntsman, burning up the internet. ♪ so who ordered the cereal that can help lower olesterol and who ordered the yummy cereal? yummy. [ woman ] lower cholesterol. [ man 2 ] yummy. i got that wrong didn't i? [ male announcer ] want great taste and whole gin oats that can help lower cholesterol? honey nut cheerios. yeah, it does seven great things like ving me a healthy scalp and great looking hair. you should make that eight things. dude, why don't you just use the stuff? [ male announcer ] head & shoulders: seven benefits. every bottle. bill: the huntsman daughters are going viral. presidential hopeful, jon huntsman's daughters the three of them, releasing a rendition shun of justin timberlake's, sexy back. listen. ♪ the rest of them are one big circus act, we're right behind the guy who is right on track. you know we're going to bring jon huntsman back ♪. ♪ take it to the bridge . bill: points for creativity. martha: i'll say. bill: about 80,000 hits so far. martha: they're getting ton of attention. bill: really lovely daughters. the dad's polling number still in the single digits. if the daughters bring that up. martha: hoping he can do it in new hampshire. he is 6% in new hampshire right now. bill: i think double digits in one poll in new hampshire. maybe the song is helping. martha: maybe the song is helping. going after herman cain and everybody else in that one. >> called this monument to the sports complex. it is a wide area that we would consider back home. it is open. it has been rebuilt. another sign of the change we have seen with the ferris wheel down below. martha: guess who that is? that is our own bill hemmer just over three years ago, flying over baghdad. today we are marking the end of an era there. the u.s. military handing over camp victory to the iraqi government. what a moment that is. for years it had been the center of american operations on the outskirts of baghdad. dominic di-natale dreaming live for us this morning. what is the significance of this handover today, dominic? >> reporter: martha, this is the first in this three final milestones of the withdrawal stage of u.s. forces from iraq. camp victory of the biggest of bases america had here. up to 84,000 soldiers and contractors living on there pretty much from early 2003 onwards. it was the center of all the commands there. it had much more influence across the country in terms how it impacted in iraq than the embassy, the u.s. embassy in the green zone for example. hundreds of thousands of u.s. soldiers came in and came out through this particular base. marking step by step the different stages of war as it went from the early years of optimism through the very difficult challenging years and surge that came in 2007. it really is very much the embodiment of the entire campaign, martha. martha: so, dominic, how much is being left behind there? >> reporter: well, in victory itself there are thousand thousands upon thousands of containerized housing units. these are almost like trailer parks where soldiers and contractors actually lived. now it is like a dust bowl with tumbleweeds blowing down until the iraqis move in and take over. we're leaving behind extraordinary amounts of equipment because it is too expensive to ship home. we're have not calculated items giving away equipment, and machinery, how much it would save the taxpayer 200, to 700 million if you include drawdown of combat troops. that is lot of money. martha: important day. great sig canes of -- significance. thanks, dominic. bill: it was r&r for the people doing work in fallujah and ramadi. those palaces you see a metaphor for the country really was. could put your finger in the walls. looks great from the outside. one inches or two inches inside it was very different picture. state of emergency out of california. powerful winds ripping trees out of the ground. 70 mile-an-hour winds in los angeles what is going on there? we're live in l.a. to see what will happen today. martha: top republican senators say it is the single largest shovel-ready project in the entire country and they think the white house is putting it on hold for political reasons. bill: meet a lawmaker going back to school. a story about what everyday americans are facing in today's economy and how he found out. quite imaginative. ♪ . 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>> i think absolutely it does. i think quite frankly i would argue it would anyway because the politics of that have been so bad for president obama. he already sort of, you know, kicked this thing down the road for two years now and so i think that this absolutely would --. bill: on day one, january of '09, that was the first executive order he signed to close gitmo and still not happened. >> huge political promise. bill: charlie hurt there in washington. martha: republican senators have introduced legislation designed to push the president to make a decision now rather than after the election on the controversial oil pipeline that would create thousands of jobs immediately and some say, up to 200,000 jobs, longer term. it is called the keystone pipeline. it is privately-funded t would not require any taxpayer cash to be used to get this tinge started. it would carry hundreds of thousands of barrels of crude oil from canada down to the gulf coast. republicans are now claiming the white house intentionally shelved the program and gave into environmentalist pressures what they're calling the single largest shovel-ready progproject that exists. they say he did it for political reasons. here is senator mitch mcconnell on that. >> here's the problem. president obama is getting heat over the base on this project, very young and liberal voters he will need to knock on doors before november. the president has said time and time again that his top priority is jobs. yet, here we've got the single, largest, shovel-ready project in the country, ready to go, ready to go and delaying its approval, interestingly enough, until after the election next year. martha: all right, there you have it. we are joined by democratic congressman chris van hollen. set ranking member on the budget committee. congressman, welcome. >> good to be with you. good to be with you. martha: so why put this thing off? >> interestingly the gentleman you just quoted, who is the republican leader in the senate, mitch mcconnell, said as we all know that his top priority was not jobs. it was defeating president obama and his re-election. in fact the personal who is engaging in politics right now is mitch mcconnell just like he told us he would. look the reality is that there are serious questions that need to be resolved and i think we would want our president to get answers to those questions before making a final decision. interestingly while mitch mcconnell says that that's a shovel-ready project, the reality there are lots of infrastructure projects out there around the country right now that the president has asked for additional funding for that would be done by the private sector, that mitch mcconnell and republicans in the senate are blocking as part of the jobs plan, just as they blocked last night to extend the payroll tax holiday. martha: this doesn't require anymore stimulus funds, this program and it would create 20,000 jobs right off the bat. the problem was that they didn't want it to go through a certain section in oil sands in nebraska. they rerouted it came up with another plan and people in that area seemed to be in favor of that doing it that way. just a big question mark and people look at thises scratch their heads, something is sitting in your lap and you have these questions, you point out the argument over payroll tax and want to put money back into people's pockets, here is very direct way to put money in people's pockets. it seems like a gimme having been in the process and having it moved. >> i beg to differ with you on the facts. i don't think this is already to go. i don't think it is all shovel-ready there are these very important questions that need to be resolved. this is an effort by mitch mcconnell, again, the guy who said his top priority was to destreet the -- defeat the president to change the subject. the majority of republicans blocked an effort to extend the payroll tax holiday to every working american. they said no, they want their taxes to go up january 1st. we had recently good jobs report come out. one way to stall the economy will continue to block the payroll tax holiday. i wish mr. being mcconnell what is immediately before the united states senate and help us extend the payroll tax holiday for works americans. martha: no doubt, that is popular thing. that a lot of people will not want to see the money disappear from their paycheck. the big question whether or not the underlying issue actually improving the economy, creating new businesses in the environment, not just doing something that patchworks and gives people 1,000 extra dollars every years nice obviously to have but are we fixing underlying economy and b, doing what we can to become energy independent and wane ourselves from energy dependence on countries that don't like us as we heard a lot about. you personally, are you against this idea of going forward with this project personally? >> well, i want to get the answers to the question that the president has asked for with respect to domestic oil production, you're absolutely right, we should increase oil production. in fact if you look at the domestic oil production today, it is way up under this administration. so i want to do all those things. excuse me. i want to make sure that we boost our domestic energy production. i think we should reduce our reliance on foreign oil. there are lots of ways to do that. one is increasing our domestic energy supply. the other is reducing our dependence on fossil fuels, things that unfortunately mitch mcconnell and his colleagues have helped block. but again, the immediate issue which will have an impact on americans beginning january 1st of this year, is the effort by senate republicans to block this extension of the payroll tax holiday. most economists out there will tell us that consumer confidence and demand is essential to getting the economy going. if you take $1500 out of the average working person's salary, payroll, in the next year, that is less money they're going to be able to spend buying goods and services. that means small businesses won't hire as many people. it is pretty simple math. martha: also good to have new jobs going on in this country. >> that is what that would do. that is exactly what that would do. martha: everything will be decided after the election, you know what i mean? >> i agree. i'm talking about january 1st. i'm talking about january 1st. decide the payroll tax holiday issue right now next couple weeks. let's not put it off. martha: we'll continue to throughout the morning, it is a hot story as well. thank you so much, congressman van hollen. good to have you here. bill: the report for november is out, unemployment rate falling to 8.6%. 300,000 americans simply given up the search for work. with millions of americans searching want ads why are some sectors of the market struggling to fill the openings? there is the number on your screen. here is mike tobin live in chicago on on that. what did you find out, mike? >> reporter: bill, you heard people complain there is problems with american manufacturing. the problem we found a lot of manufacturers are having they're trying to expand their business but can't because they can't fill the jobs. if you think manufacturing is dead in the u.s. businesses in central illinois could just prove you wrong. machine shops and welding companies there are growing. you heard that right. growing. looking to hire. the problem is, finding skilled workers. like many u.s. manufacturers, excel foundry and machine can not fill job vacancis. >> we're frustrated. nine pus percent unemployment and we're doing everything we can to attract employees we desperately need. >> reporter: we're talking about $80,000 a year positions welders, pipe fitters, machinists, skilled labor. that is the problem. a deficit of laborers trained with specific skills. >> we went through this period where many of those jobs were moved overseas. many of them when the manufacturing recession hit just weren't needed. all of sudden we have missing generation of people who can do those technical jobs. >> reporter: the department of labor says there are 4 million fewer people working in skilled labor positions today than there were 20 years ago. >> one of the problems in finding people is the perception that manufacturing is a dying art and that jobs are not going to be there because they're being sent overseas. >> reporter: you remember high school shop class? well that is making a comeback. there is lot of manufacturers are turning to the high schools, the administration, guidance counselors and ultimately telling students that the trades are still a way to make a good income with benefits and long-term security. bill? bill: just need the training. mike, good point. mike tobin live in chicago. thank you, sir. martha. martha: here is a story we talked about yesterday. the big question right now will country music singer mindy mccreedy end up in jail? the judge raised the bar in the battle oaf her son, taking the whole thing to a brand new level. bill: sure is. newt gingrich says it is all over, he is the nominee or will be. ed rollins on that and what herman cain will decide over the weekend. don't miss that in three minutes. ok, people. show me the best way to design a vacation on a budget with expedia. make it work. booking a flight by itself is an uh-oh. see if we can "stitch" together a better deal. that's a hint, antoine. ooh! see what anandra did? booking your flight and hotel at the same time gets you prices hotels and airlines won't let expedia show separately. book it. major wow factor! where you book matters. expedia. how about making it brighter. more colorful. ♪ and putting all our helpers to work? so we can build on our favorite traditions by adding a few new ones. we've all got garlands and budgets to stretch. and this year, we can keep them both evergreen. more saving. more doing. that's the power of the home depot. can you smell those savings? fresh cut christmas trees are arriving weekly. bill: let's get to the good stuff now. a very confident newt gingrich making a bold assertion that he will be the republican presidential nominee. here he is with greta on that late last night. >> you have a very bold statement last night saying i'm going to be the nominee. you have no doubt in your mind? >> well, look it is always up to the voters and so we have to win iowa on january 3rd. we have it go on and be very, very competitive in new hampshire which is mitt romney's base. then we have to win south carolina and florida. but i think we have a real chance to do that and i feel very good about it tonight. the people decide and in the end they have got to make the decision. but certainly it is moving in the right direction. you know, for a guy who was dead in june this is pretty exciting. bill: he has made a comeback. what does ed rollins think about all this? republican strategist, former campaign manager and a fox news contributor. how are you doing? >> i'm fine. how are you? bill: i'm fine. earlier he said i'm going to be the nominee. lack of confidence? what do you think of that. >> newt has never lacked confidence. you shouldn't underestimate newt i've known him 40 years. i've been ally. he needs 1145 delegates. it is long tedious process. he is leading in the polls. he has momentum. often happens the momentum to lack of organization it --. bill: does he have a structure. >>s that no structure whatsoever. doesn't mean you can't put it together. bill: has no struck schnurr. >> him and his wife and document of friends. bill: you ran huckabee's campaign in iowa 08. there was very little structure. you were scrambling on the last day. >> we were scrambling but great organization of evangelicals turned out and mike was a great candidate. i'm not saying that newt is isn't. there is lot to put together. bill: a few more things to get to. this is gingrich yesterday about inner-city kids in america. we'll play it and listen and react now. >> poor children in really poor neighborhoods have no habits of working and have nobody around them who works. so they literally they have no habit of showing up on monday. they have no habit of staying all day. they have no habit of i do this and you give me cash unless it is illegal. bill: smart move? >> no. newt has a tendency, very smart guy. thinks out loud sometimes and makes statements that he doesn't realize have more impact than just the words that he is stating and there will be a lot of these statements like this will be very controversial and he will have to defend them. bill: how many? >> thousands. thousands. bill: thousands? we always talk about a man of 1,000 ideas. you're talking about a thousands missteps or statements that need clarification. >> go back. opposition research person's dream to go back and get stuff on newt said over the years. once again it may not matter. he may be able to move forward. people want alternative to romney. he is the alternative. i don't underestimate him. bill: herman cain, here is what he said late last night on "hannity". >> i'm going to make a decision before monday. now, you know, before monday and we haven't worked out the logistics yet. the decision could be we're going to continue with this campaign full speed ahead. the decision could be, that, we're going to suspend the campaign. that's why i'm doing the reassessment. bill: what will he do, do you think. >> there is no campaign. here's an example once again a guy had momentum. people pay attention to. very smart, articulate guy but these allegations diminished him and his lack of knowledge and lack of organization and campaign structure to deal with any of this is basically finished. bill: he may have survived latter part of that. >> if he had a campaign. bill: suggesting first part he will not survive. >> i don't think he will survive anything. he is down 3 or 4% in national polls. dropping like a rock. he can stay in willing by his own volition or stay in and get clobbered. bill: what do you think?. >> he will get out, for days and weeks. >> much easier could be to say i could have been a contender to let voters vote. he has no organization or structure in iowa whatsoever. bill: if you're right it will be a major headline first part of next week. we'll see what herman cain decides. pleasure to see you. welcome to the team. >> wonderful to be on the team. bill: it will be a great year. >> huge year. bill: for us and country in 2012. >> a lot at stake. thank you. bill: here's martha. martha: you pay into your health care coverage of course to the plan at work so you can get the coverage when you need it. a new study claims that your boss can remove you from the company plan if you get too sick and too expensive essentially. we'll explain what is going on with that. bill: also what is going on with this? 100 mile-an-hour winds send as truck tipping over on its side. extreme weather it hitting not so sunny california. >> we actually had to drive around trees and take detours of all the trees hanging in the street and everything, to get her to school. there is big sign up says no school today. >> sounded like a bomb going off. or annuity over 10 or even 20 years? call imperial structured settlements. the experts at imperial can convert your long-term payout into a lump sum of cash today. why settle for a one-note cereal? ♪ more, more, more... get more with honey bunches of oats 4 nutritious grains come together for more taste, more healthy satisfaction. get more with honey bunches of oats. martha: the president said it more than once. under the new health care law if you liked your health insurance he said you would absolutely get to keep it. nothing would change. there is a new study out that claims that employers in a loophole in the law can actually dump workers who are too sick and therefore become too expensive. and make them sort of go out into the market and look for public coverage. john fund is the senior editor of "the american spectator" and looked into all this for us and joins me now. good morning. good to see you. >> thank you. martha: talk to me about this loophole. how does it work? >> employers are under the gun because health care costs are going up 15 to 20% a year for many of them after the passage of obamacare and they're hurting. a lot may be attempted by the loophole in the obamacare law which would allow them to make it easy to dump employees who get sick or have chronic health problems. there are several ways to do this. we'll limit number of specialists in the network that you have available that will discourage you have having health insurance because if you need a specialist, hard to get one. we could also raise deductibles and co-pays so, if you have a chronic condition you need to go back to a doctor over and over again, that will be expensive. and lastly, we can force you into a wellness program, going into a gym three times a week. you may not feel like doing that. you may have other conditions that prevent that. so the employer then loses the employee, saves maybe $20,000 for a family policy in many cases, and, the penalty from the obamacare bureaucrats will be between 2,000 and $5,000 according to the galen institute. martha: it is interesting because one of main talking points during the whole argument about this plan if you were sick you couldn't be bumped off your plan. i remember president obama saying, when you get sick you can't kick you off the plan. essentially what it does it discourages people from wanting to be in that plan. it makes perhaps the public plan look a little bit, look cheaper for them, right? >> right. martha: it is nudging them out in that way. >> it is not kicking them. giving them a gentle shove. martha: right. >> i think the public plan of course, may be adequate for some people. on the other hand it is more likely will be a stripped down bare bones model because the reason public plan will exist to try to control health care costs. there may be other problems in that plan. the bottom line here is, what nancy pelosi said when she was the house speaker and pushed this plan through, she said you will have to pass this plan. after you read it you will figure out what is in it. here we are 2 1/2 years after obamacare passed and we're figuring out what it is in plan. not always looking if it makes sense. the worst part of this plan because i don't whether it is liberal or whatever. the parts don't fit together. it is like a giant rube goldberg contraption. martha: joan fund thanks. people are digging into the pages and figuring stuff out. bill: we're looking at numbers how president obama stacks up against republicans in 2012. scott rasmussen is here with new numbers on that. also --. martha: you heard about the show under cover boss. what about the undercover congressman? 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[ male announcer ] the new united mileage plus explorer card. get it, and you're in. when i got my medicare card, i realized i needed an aarp... medicare supplement insurance card, too. medicare is one of the great things about turning 65, but it doesn't cover everything. in fact, it only pays up to 80% of your part b expenses. if you're already on or eligible for medicare, call now to find out how an aarp... medicare supplement insurance plan, insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company, helps cover some of the medical expenses... not paid by medicare part b. that can save you from paying up to thousands of dollars... martha: we have a fox new alert, and we have brand-new poll tphoepls that are just comin numbers that are just coming in. if the election was held today a generic republican would beat the president by 6 percentage points. we'll see how he does against people with real names. that is coming up. good to see you i'm martha maccallum. bill: i'm bill memorandummer. mr. obama's approval rating continues to drop. that's what we find in these numbers. martha: scott rasmussen is here, the president of rasmussen reports. good to ask you here. >> great to be with you, martha. martha: the one we just saw, the generic ballot, how significant is that against u know, some unnamed person? >> generic hasn't taken part in any of the debates. this tells us more about president obama more than anyone else. he has low support in the low 40s. if the election were held today that would be a problem for him. martha: 40% do not approve. 21% strongly approve. how does that rank with prior presidents who have been trying to get reelected for another term. >> these numbers are weak for any president trying to get reelected. for the full month of november president obama's ratings have ticked up just a little bit. they are still not in great shape. if his numbers continue to improve between now and november he'll be just fine. if they stall and head in the other direction it will be hard for a republican to loose. martha: the unemployment picture may be helping him as well. >> consumer confidence is up a little bit. martha: there are a number of indicat indicators that look like they will help him out. we may end up with a supreme court decision that could happen right in the sweet spot they've hrebgs with regard to healthcare. this number slightly higher than it has been in the past, right, scott? >> it's really pretty table. the week after the law was passed 54% wanted it repealed. it's been a little lower, a little higher. seniors are supportive of repealed, republicans want it repealed or lean in that direction and democrats want to keep it the way it is. this is not something that has changed a lot. if the supreme court overturns that law it may help barack obama, he could campaign on the ideal of health reform and what he would like to accomplish rather than being burdened with an unpopular law. martha: interesting point. great to see you scott. interesting numbers this morning. see you soon. bill: fox news alert set to talk in about an hour from now about the new numbers just out on the jobs crisis. unemployed falling to 8.6% in november, employers adding about 120,000 jobs for the month. but the drop in percentage largely due to the 315,000 americans who are no longer looking for work, that means they are not counted as unemployed. eric bolling host of follow the money on the fox business network, member of the five panel at 5:00 in the afternoon, how are you doing my friend? >> doing all right. bill: explain this to us based on your chart you brought. >> it dropped from 9% to 8.6. i'm trying to figure out how 120,000 job increase can make the unemployment number so down so drastically. let's take a look at this. the workforce 153 million, that is the total workforce. if it goes from 9% to 8.6% that is a four tenths percent drop we should have created 612,000 jobs. we only created 120,000 jobs. they claim 278 people left the workforce. i'm still looking for 200,000 jobs. there are 200,000 missing jobs in this number is right. look at it another way -- bill: they said 315,000 americans gave up, they left. >> that's right. bill: if they are not counted would that account -- >> that's 300. i'm still looking for the 200. we needed 612,000. we have 120,000 created, 300,000 left, i'm telling you there is askew, there is a problem here, there is a problem with the number. if we created 120,000 jobs, right? the workforce is 153 million people. go to the bls, that is the number. that doesn't even move the ned he will by 1/10th of 1%. it should only maybe tick down to 8.9%. bill: historically what happens in washington, the labor department gets together in the next two weeks and they come back and say, hey we stand by this number, or we revise it? >> i think what happens the december number is going to be a dramatic move back up towards 9%. bill: we shall see then. eric, thank you. we'll see you at 5:00. keep kicking butt on that show in the afternoon. nice to see you there. martha. martha: thank you guys. new video to show you of extreme weather that is hitting across the west. authorities in los angeles county have declared a state of emergency. take a look at all this. >> it really sounded like a bomb going off. >> it's one of the biggest storms we've seen in a very longtime. some of our very tenured officers have indicated, as long as 35 years. >> there was a guest room behind the garage where my mother-in-law stays. she won't be staying there any longer. martha: look at this. look at that. a brutal wind storm knocked out power to 350,000 people. uprooted trees crashing on the top of homes as you see there. >> oh, my gosh. my son start screaming, it's a tree, it's a tree. this huge tree tell like this on the side. that's when i heard the noise. when you see the car you wouldn't believe. martha: we've had scary weather patterns in the last few months. high winds in utah forced troopers to shut down the highways. adam housley is live in pasadena, california with more on all of this. hello. >> reporter: we had quite some winds here, even a little bit last night. the good news the winds are dying down, going away. the bad news this is what is left. thithis is an area of pasadena. you'll drive down streets, in places like altadena, north and east of los angeles about 15 miles or so and you see street after street like this. trees knocked down like dominoes. some into homes. all the schools in the area are closed again today. 280,000 people are still without power here. tree services have come in from all over, their jobs are pull for the next week probably. a lot of power crews have been brought in. california ou mutual aid. a lot of crews are coming in to try and get the power back on. you can see how it all works. this is a small lift on the back of a truck and they come through. this is a main treat here, allen street in pasadena where they've got all these branches that came down and they literally pick it up, toss it in the back, chainsaw and move on. right as they pull us up you'll be able to see one of the trunks here behind me. it's got to be a foot and a half in diameter, just stap, stap like a twig. look at that. that came from the wind. again the winds blew through here. there is power out in the areas where we are located. 280,000 people are without power. it may be a couple of days before it is back on. the good news is they left here. but the bad news is they are moving to the east. martha: adam housley in pasadena, california. bill: sometimes when the winds go through you think about the fire possibilities too. that hasn't been the case, luckily for the folks in southern california. we new video of a freak accident. check this out. a police officers dashcam out of kansas shows the moment a huge tree limb gives way right there, crashing down on the front end, busting the front end through the windshield. the officer was not hurt, but he captured a moment driving down that street yesterday. martha: she violated a court order refusing to return her 8-year-old son to his grandmother. what will happen to mindy mccready in this case? bill: iran growing more defiant. a leading democrat hitting the president hard for not doing more. martha: mitt romney take off the gloves, folks, showing some teeth in his battle with newt gingrich. >> let me tell you, over the last year there have been a lot of people who have been real high in the polls that are not high in the polls any more. there is this funny thing in america, it's called an election. you have to win the election and to win the election you've got to earn it. bill: police in tampa florida arrested 29 occupy tampa protestors who refuse to leave a park. those arrests followed what would have been a bees ful peaceful protest last night. they were given several warnings that they would be arrested if they did not clear out. those arrested face charges for trespassing and resisting arrest, tampa, florida. martha: let's go back to politics this morning. there is a lot to talk about. mitt romney is now responding to a very bold statement that was made by rival beginning r-frplt he's than seizing on his front-runner status, and mr. newt gingrich said, quote, i'm going to be the nominee. mitt romney, he takes issue with that. here is what he said on fox & friends. >> there is this funny any this america, it's called the election. you have to w*eupbt election and to w*eupbt election you have to earn it. you have to get out and campaign, see the seem, shake hands. stefl a grand dicing statements about polls is not going to win elections. we will be battling up to the final moment to make sure we are successful. i hope i'm the nominee. i wish newt gingrich the best, he'll run his campaign, i'll run mine and may the best person win. martha: newt gingrich has been surging in the polls. we'll show you some of the latest numbers. juan williams is with us fox news police cal analyst. as tell as steven hayes of the weekly standard, he is a fox news contributor. good morning. >> good morning, martha. martha: your reaction to mitt romney's reaction to the whole gingrich issue. >> i think it wasn't a smart thing for newt gingrich to say. what is interesting to me mitt romney has generally been run a general election campaign for months now. there was an air about the likelihood that he would be the nominee. he flipped the switch, you're not inevitable, we will have a campaign about it. martha: there is a scrappiness to mitt romney. he seems knocked a little bit off balance, perhaps, of the ones who come up against him, newt gingrich might be the most formidable. >> it's interesting if you're thinking about it from mitt romney's perspective, he thought rick perry was the guy who was going to challenge him, especially among strong tea party hard line conservatives. all of a sudden if you look at the numbers, martha it indicates that gingrich has gained strongly with that strong, conservative krourbgsd despite the fact and i'm sure mitt romney will be pointing this out, it was newt gingrich who challenged, for example, the whole notion of the republican economic plan as right wing social engineering. he's got the problem in terms of his family background. and of course there was the elect built question. all of a sudden i think romney's forces are going to have to device strategies to go after newt gingrich. martha: there is no doubt in my mind that that is exactly what they are going to do right now. there is word that we will see a lot more of the romney family out there. let's go to these numbers, then we'll go to steve hayes. these are bigger numbers than we saw from herman cain or rick perry. 38-17 among likely gop voters. take a look at this. this is newt gingrich's moves through all of this. today he is at 38%, back in october he was at 10%, look at romney who has been amirer image of that. romney has gone from 29% in october down to 23 in november and now he's at 17% among likely gop voters. steven hayes is that more significant than the turns we've seen in the past from mitt romney? is he sliding in a significant way? >> yes, i think that is exactly right, martha. if i'm working for mitt romney right now the numbers i'm concerned about are the back slide. the fact that despite all of the comings and goings of the other challenging to mitt romney he has not been able to increase his support, the way he hoped he could. that i think is the main concern for mitt romney. if he's back sliding and if poll after poll starts to show that he's back sliding, he's not maintaining. then i think they have to be very concerned. i think it's one of the reasons that explains, what you pointed out earlier, it's one of the reasons we are seeing mitt romney far more engaged, willing to have this debate and willing to challenge newt gingrich right away. martha: when you look at new hampshire a lot of folks keep looking at jon huntsman. coming from red state from eric erickson this morning as he summed up how everyone is doing. he says jon huntsman is come back in new hampshire. he believes jon huntsman is more conservative than mitt romney and newt gingrich combined. what do you bu hear about that one. >> i'm kind of shocked. that's not what i hear on the trails. republican voters don't understand why hunts man is in the race. they question his conservative credentials. i'm for the moment surprised aert i can son's statement. what i'm looking at is only about 35% of republican voters have said they made up their minds. why we see the numbers go up and down the one thing that stays is that romney seems to be sinking out of the way and it's just look for somebody else. it's the somebody else that is consistent. martha: is it still open? real quick, steve, what do you think about that? >> we 0 would have said newt gingrich was done. some of us said newt gingrich was done last summer an wasn't. if rick santorum over performs in ey iowa that's possible. in jon huntsman performs in new hampshire, it's way too early to say it's over. martha: thank you. bill: she ran away with her eight-year-old son claiming he was being abused 4 her mother's custody. by her mother. what the judge is saying now. congressman michael grim undercover to see what it looks like when you go 9 to 5, let's say. ♪ no one owns a piece of my time. ♪ ♪ martha: welcome back, everybody, it's 22 minutes past the hour. let's get a quick look at some of the headlines right now. iranian dip plea matter given until 2pm to get out of the u.k. the british expelling the iranian officials after protestors ransacked the british embassy in tehran. human rights activists reporting dozens of people wound ned new heavy fighting in western syria. they say syria is in a state of civil war with more than 4,000 people killed on the streets of syria since march. the u.k. spy agency is looking for the next generation james bond. who is it? it is behind a social media campaign to recruit cyber specialists bill. bill: flying to track dow trying to track down all the guys who are hacking their computers. you may have heard undercover boss. what about undercover congressman. michael grim is a republican out of new york. he's with me now. good morning to you. why did you play that role? >> you know, there is no better way to meet constituents and to have a relaxed setting where they can be open and honest and not feel they have to watch their words than going out and working with them. that's exactly i did. it was fantastic. bill: what have you learned through this experience in we have some pictures in a minute we'll share them with our audience. >> one thing i already knew, is how hard the people in staten island are working. across the board people are worried, some people are scared. its not so much for themselves. they are worried about their children, they are worried about the long lag in unemployment. they are worried about the debt this country is over. and they are worried that the congress is not working together, and what does that mean for the future of this country? so, it was really unfortunately i was hearing a lot of concern and some doubt about the future of america, and that's why i was glad i was there, i was able to tell them, as bad as things are and as challenging as things may be america is still the greatest nation in the world. we are going to rise to the occasion. we have to stick witness, keep the fate and a lot of our best days are ahead of us. bill: a lot of people don't believe in congress any more. what would you tell your colleagues about this? >> it's what i'm telling them now. we have to find a way to cross the aisle and work together. i'm a republican, i'm a true fiscal conservative, but i think this nation expects. state even island and brooklyn citizens expect for us to sit down at the table and get a solution. the rhetoric has to stop and the ranker has to die down and we have to put all the problems on the table for the purpose of finding solutions. that's what it's about, there is no question we are going to do that. bill: do you get a sense that the people you work with, your own colleagues, democrat, republican, are willing to do that? >> some of them are. and i think more and more are becoming. i'm very proud to say i'm part of this coalition or this bi-partisan effort and by calm ral effort, because it's senate and house to go big, to really put a plan on the table, whether it's 4 trillion, 6 trillion, there is not a specific number, but it's a real tangible plan that is going to be viable to deal with our debt crisis problem and to put system i can reforms in place so we don't have this problem again. real security for future generations, that is the goal. i'm leading the charge on that. bill: you served in iraq, right, pershing gulf war one. >> i was in kuwait with the first gulf war in the marine corps. bill: you also worked as an f.b.i. agent? you have a law degree, you have an accounting degree, now you're a driver for ups. >> i didn't get to dry. i delivered packages but i didn't get to drive. bill: maybe we'll get you on board the firetruck next time. michael grim, thank you for your time today, thank you for sharing your story. 26 past the hour. martha: the white house and a powerful tkepl krart at odds over the issue of iran, one senator questioning the administration's commitment to stop -p tehran from building a nuclear weapon. >> the clock is ticking. the published reports say we have about a year. when are we going to start our sanctions regime proceed bus lee. martha: former senator and member of the arms services committee evan baye weighs in on that next. bill: an extreme form of catch, one that you have never seen. do not try this at home. let me tell you about a very important phone call i made. when i got my medicare card, i realized i needed an aarp... medicare supplement insurance card, too. medicare is one of the great things about turning 65, but it doesn't cover everything. in fact, it only pays up to 80% of your part b expenses. if you're already on or eligible for medicare, call now to find out how an aarp... medicare supplement insurance plan, insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company, helps cover some of the medical expenses... not paid by medicare part b. that can save you from paying up to thousands of dollars... out of your own pocket. these are the only medicare supplement insurance plans... exclusively endorsed by aarp. when you call now, you'll get this free information kit... with all you need to enroll. put their trust in aarp medicare supplement insurance. plus you'll get this free guide to understanding medicare. the prices are competitive. i can keep my own doctor. and i don't need a referral to see a specialist. call now to get a free information kit. plus you'll get this free guide to understanding medicare. and the advantages don't end there. choose from a range of medicare supplement plans... martha: here is the latest alert on this situation. she says her son is not missing, but she is not bringing him back home to grandma's. country singer mindy mccready seven months pregnant with twins she says, now could face criminal charges. her son had been living with the grandmother since the troubled star lost custody of the boy back in 2007. she says the boy was being abused in the grandmother's custody. she says she took him, which violated a court order. now she is risking arrest. bill keating is live in miami. her pregnancy didn't seem to keep her from going there to get him. it doesn't add up. >> reporter: the father of the twins apparently lives in the nashville area which is where everybody believes mindy mcc ready is. there is no amber alert here because everyone knows where the child is, five-year-old zander. she took him while visiting florida earlier this week. because pwa of her seven mosque pregnant she says she is unable to go back to florida. she is adamant it is not a child napping. it is her child, the child is safe. everyone involved, celebrity child or not, that has no relevance to law enforcement. >> we treat every level of case or family with the same intensity. if we don't know where a child is, that is determined to be needed to be out of their home and in need of services obviously it's just as vital no matter who the parents name is. >> reporter: mccready made a statement to the ap, here is what it is quote. i'm a mom first, no matter what happens i'm going to protect my kid. if i have to go to jail so be it. right now she is definitely risking that. her top hit in the 90s, guys do it all the time. she's had a lot of top hits. martha: now the f.b.i. is involved in all of this. bill. does she face criminal charges in this situation? >> reporter: everybody is in agreement the more she resists returning and violating this judge's court order in cape coral, florida the more likely she will be facing some sort of criminal charges here. she has crossed state lines. the f.b.i. in tampa is monitoring this. the city of cape coral also involved here. but so far nobody has actually tried to raid the home where she's believed to be hiding. whether anyone knows exactly where she is right now that remains unclear in nashville. however, there is a be on the look out, a bolo issued by law enforcement, so anybody who sees little five-year-old zander and mccready, if they are law enforcement they have the authority as of now to go ahead and take that child and get it down to its father down in cape coral, florida. martha: sounds like a situation that people need to come forward in and try to get it resolved on all sides in the best way possible. thank you, phil so much. bill: they are raising the stakes a powerful democratic senator slamming the white house over its policy in iran. senator robert menendez saying they are not stopping iran's suspected nuclear weapons program. >> the clocks are ticking. published reports say we have a year. when are we going to start our sanctions program robust lee. bill: we have senator evan baye. a fox news contributor who is with me this morning. what is the administration doing to try to head off what some consider a mariach a march toward war. >> we have to stop iran from going nuclear, the consequences of that would be very, very bad. we have to make sure we don't shoot ourselves in the foot economically over otherwise. what is going on here is the administration made a decision to ratchet up the sanctions but stopped short of cutting off their central banks. the europeans were actually being more aggressive than we were. they were willing to cut off the central bank. what the administration is concerned about is if you do that you may ratchet up the price of oil, hurt the global economy, especially the u.s. economy at a time when it may hurt us. bill: i do agree with that, senator? >> i think we should put all the pressure on iran to maximize the cost to them for continuing to pursue their nuclear program. the consequences of that, threats to israel, western europe, threats to us are greater than a temporary spike in the price of oil. bill: you would disagree with this administration's position or at least their strategy. >> i would come down on the side of being more aggressive, go ahead and sanction the central bank, rupbgt risk of the price of oil consequence. i think the consequence of going nuclear or us having to go to war with iran to keep them from going nuclear, i think those consess are even worse. there are risks either way. i would run the risk of being more aggressive with regard to iran right now. bill: you would take action against the central bank and you would take action against anyone who does business activity with that bank. >> correct, and it's actually ratcheting up the pressure internally in iran. their economy is not good, there is a lot of dissatisfaction in the country directed at the government because of that. this would add additional pressure domestically in iran to change. bill: in your view how real is the possibility of war between israel and iran? >> i don't think -- i think that is more of a threat right now than a reality, and the reason for that, bill, is israel could launch a single attack against the iranian nuclear facilities, assuming we know where they all are. we know where most of them are, there may be somewhere we don't. it would really take several weeks of constant military action to make sure we had really degraded their program. israel doesn't have that kind of capability. only the united staeufts ameri states of america. the iranians would never believe the israelis did it on their own, even if it were true. they may go after our embassies, unleash hezbollah in some cases. it could be a slippery slope toward war. bill: it was a heated hearing yesterday. we'll see whether or not the administration gets the message or holds firm now. senator evan bayh, thank you for your time today. a time for martha's return on bill o'reilly's culture quiz. the following question follows a recent christmas controversy, a move by atheists in washington state to horn the winter stole advertise in the state capitol and a christmas tree. here is mr. o'reilly on that. >> what agent monument is believed to have been built to be perfectly aligned with the sunset with the winter stole cyst which one is aligned with the solist. that is correct stone hedge in england. you guys been there. >> yes. >> very interesting you get these big rocks, no one whose how they got there. >> i think lincoln chafee put them there. >> how about when the griswolds went there and knocked them over. bill: who won? martha: i did. we were calling him lincoln chafee last night. you're always now. martha: for our purposes here and now, sure i win. i say i have a news program in the morning from 9 to 11 every day as well. oh, really? it's fun as always. we have a good time. all right, so more serious stories coming up here folks. we talked about it this morning in "america's newsroom" and in the past. there are nine members of a football people who have been accused ever assault in their town foray tacking two students in their school. they are in the state championships this weekend. should those nine players be allowed to play in the game? >> the children did something wrong, and they should be punished for it, and playing sports i think is a privilege, and i think they've lost that privilege. martha: we are waiting a very big decision on that, we expect to get it shortly. bill: it could be the greatest f risbee toss ever. look at this one. everyone in the nicu, all the nurses wanted to watch him when he was there 118 days. everything that you thought was important to you changes in light of having a child that needs you every moment. i wouldn't trade him for the world. who matters most to you says the most about you. massmutual is owned by our policyholders so they matter most to us. if you're caring for a child with special needs, our innovative special care program offers strategies that can help. bill: kheubgt out, an adrenaline junky named brody smith tosses that frisbee, it looks like 300 yards off that bridge connect w-gt receiver on the boat, watch it, bam, that was quite a competition with a trick shot basketball crew. that is the catch from the boat's perspective from the water down under in aussie land. nicely done. martha: a follow-up on story we've done a couple of times. we are waiting a decision out of new jersey on whether nine football players will be allowed to play in the state championship game. this team has won it seven times before. this time it has divided the town because there is a huge story going on in the town. the players, nine of them were charged with aggravated assaults before beating two of the kids from the rival school. two of them were found unconscious in the street. the attorneys for the players claim that they have been punished arbitrarily. the legal battle raises big questions why in some cases sports seem to take precedence especially when there is a championship on the line over ie people who are the victims in this case. arthur ey aidala joins me now, george abdy is and attorney representing one of the players. he's here today. the big issue is what happened and whether or not the players will be able to play. one of the questions that has been raised, and i've looked at other cases with other schools, where there is a violation, or there are assault charges in this case, most of these schools that i looked at say of course not, these students will not be on the field, because playing sports is a privilege. and until these charges are rectified one way or the other they are going to be left out of extracurricular activities. why is this not the way to go here, george. >> even though it's an extracurricular activity aouf you're entitled to due process. you need to be afforded the opportunity to address what the charges are. these students were never afforded the opportunity to address what the charges were. the board of education flip-flopped their decision making. this is not about football, it's about a simple party where people were there from both schools, an incident happened, it had nothing to do with football or rivalry, and they are making a focus out of this based on an outcry from anonymous public opinion. martha: it's an ethical issue. there are aggravated assault charges as i said. the judges who have looked at the evidence in this case keep moving it to another court. then they said they upheld the decision that the kids should not play in this game and it will be decided in the future. >> that is not true. martha: why should they be able to play in this game? >> no judge looked at evidence, that is the point. nobody reviewed any evidence, no reports have been released. >> some of these young men are very talented. this is the last game, and scouts from different colleges were supposed to come look at them and decide whether they will accept them into the university or not accept them into the university. that specifically is why they want to be in the game. the other -- it goes both ways, look, schools have a tremendous amount of authority. martha: right. >> that is precedent throughout the nation. martha: it should be decided at the school level, as you and i agree. this used to be decided at the school level. this is the state that has the toughest bullying laws in the nation. if you call someone a nasty name in new jersey you could be kicked out of school for weeks. the reason this is different is because the kids are headed to this championship game. you say your client is innocent, and obviously all lawyers will say that their clients are innocent. why don't the kids who did this. who pummeled these two kids and left them in the road, why don't they come forward and let the other kids play. >> that's a have good. i've been saying that all along. let the courts handle it. there is always another option or alternative to handle them. there could be in school suspension, out of school suspension. martha: but let them play the game no matter what? i understand, believe me. have you to look at it from your child, if my son was one of these boys i would say look, you need to fess up, go to the police, tell them what you did or did not do. talk to them. if you're innocent, fine, if you're guilty you need to go up there so your friends can get out on that field and play and tell them what you did. if my child was the victim i'd say what kind of town do i live in where it's more important for these boys to play in their game. >> it's my senior year. i'm sitting in the front row of the school wide chapel. my buddy behind them took two particular bombs and broke them. all of a sudden a little girl in front tphaoef had an asthma attack, it was a school wide thing. we knew who did it, we know who didn't do it. 18-year-old boys at that time. we decided all of us would go down for it one of our buddies was a jerk who did this. but we all went down for it. the right thing to do would be for that person who did it to stand up and did it. three of these nine young men here are alleging they weren't even here. those kids really should be exonerated, which is what you're saying. martha: is there any hope for that, that the families are encouraging those boys to come forward. >> there is a polygraph that was taken of one information, and he was not part of any altercation. nobody wants to address that. this is not an anti-bullying, this is not a bullying case. martha: there are coaches, there are people across the country who are saying we need to live in a world where we understand that the football game is less important than the human beings who got pummeled and left in the road. they seem to have been lost in the whole story. >> no one got pummeled. martha: that's not what i hear from the other side. >> the victim blogged it all over on facebook. >> my understanding is they were treated and released that night. i don't know how badly they were beaten up in the street. you're correct the people should take precedence over a football game. martha: that is the larger issue we are addressing here. we will see what happens. gentlemen, thank you very much. we are living in a world where we need to have priorities kept in check and the story needs to be told fully. thank you. bill: what you working on jenna? jenna: carl and chris are going to join us. carl cameron and chris stirewalt are here to talk about the surging newt gingrich in the polls, plus the president is also going to be talking about new job numbers that we just got out today. we'll carry those comments for us life. we have senators joe kirk and joe mansion telling us why they went rogue and voted against extending the tax cuts this time around. mike huckabee is here previewing his presidential forum this weekend. i'm going to ask him about this whole process of mirror, mirror on the wall who is the most conservative of them all. that will be an interesting thing. bill: sure is. we'll see you in a few minutes. fox news alert. we are waiting for the first reaction from president obama about november's job numbers. what is the state of america's economy today? we will take you there live to the white house when that gets underway about 15, 20 minutes from now. or annuity over 10 or even 20 years? call imperial structured settlements. the experts at imperial can convert your long-term payout into a lump sum of cash today. johnson cook is inexperienced. lauren green has been looking into this to find out what she could find out. >> reporter: despite what critics are saying the white house is putting its faith into this new diplomate saying she is the right fit for the job. as the arab spring tumbles into chaos religious persecution rises and the white house is looking to a new diplomat to help. >> my job will never be objects leave. >> reporter: appointed two and a half years into the obama presidency, susan johnson kaorbgs ambassador at large for religious freedom responds to critics who say she is not qualified to take on religious persecution erupting on foreign soil. >> when i travel interest nationally i have colleagues around the world who are embracing of me in this role. >> reporter: a pastor with new york roots, cook was the first chap eleven the new york police department serving at 9/11. before that she served in the clinton white house. president obama appointed her to the current post but the first confirmation rejected her. last may with a new congress her appointment was approved. >> what does the president want to implement? >> all ambassadors come throughout state department. i also report to secretary hillary clinton. both of them want to promote, particularly a concern about religious minorities all over the world. >> reporter: in egypt some coptic christian churches vandalized since the arab spring. persecution growing in pakistan, saudi arabia and afghanistan. her job is to temper diplomacy to mirror. >> the first test of her skills comes in less than two weeks when she hosts a meeting with representatives of the organization of islamic conference, a block of 56 countries promoting muslim solidarity. bill: i'm sure you will watch that. lauren green, good to see you here in new york. martha: presidential candidate newt gingrich has been surging in the polls. we've been talking about this morning. he's predicting, very boldly, he says i will be the party's nominee and take on president obama. is he right? so who ordered the cereal that can help lower olesterol and who orderedthe yum? yummy. [ woman ] lower cholesterol. [ man 2 ] yummy. i got that wrong didn't i? 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