trying to control all of these things? they're either in bed or trying to take government control and don't worry. "new york times", don't worry about that, man. these guys are only trying to do good. and good night, mrs. dunn, wherever you are! [captioning made possible by fox news channel] captioned by the national captioning institute ---www.ncicap.org--- bots bret: we look at transparency or the lack of it at the detainee prison, and afghanistan's president agrees to a runoff while the american president's chief of staff and his defense secretary appear to disagree on more troops for the war, and lawmakers trying to fix healthcare may try to fix a sticky problem about paying doctors. first the white house went after fox news. now it's going after the u.s. chamber of commerce. we'll tell you why. all that, plus bit hume's analysis and the fox all-stars "special report" startsite now. welcome to washington. i'm bret baier. this is a fox news alert. congress has given president obama a small victory in his effort to close the detainee prison at guantanomo bay. senators have approved this afternoon a plan to permit suspects to be shipped to u.s. soil to face criminal trial. the move comes on the same day the supreme court agreed to decide whether a group of detainees can be released into the u.s.. in that case, you may remember involved chinese muslims who were brought to the guantanomo bay prison shortly after the 9/11 attacks. catherine herridge is live from the naval base in cuba. good evening, catherine. >> bret, this decision by congress takes the president one step closer to the stated goal of closing guantanomo bay by january of next year with his signature. some detainees including the 9/11 conspirators can be bout to the u.s. to be brought to trial if that is what the administration decides. this comes on the same day the supreme court has agreed to take a controversial guantanomo case. given the scores of uighurs, chinese muslims now live in bermuda where they were transferred by president obama earlier this year. now the president will consider the case of the remaining 13. the question before the high courts is whether a central judge has the right to release former detainees into the u.s. when there is no other option. in this case, the uighurs claim they would be killed or tortured by the chinese. a special appeals court ruled it was only the executive branch which has the authority to admit foreign nationals to the country r this will be the first guantanomo case argued by the obama administration before the court. a lawyer for the uighurs said in a statement "we hope this will result in a ruling that confirms that the writ of habeas corpus guarantees to the innocent not just a judge's learned essay, but something meaningful, his release." the obama position is that the federal court has no business directing the president to bring these individuals into the united states and release them. >> it is worth noting that in an incident with the uighurs this year, according to multiple sources, highly embarrassing for the white house and defense department, the detainees held up signs which compared the u.s. to hitler and attacked the president. >> since then, the media access to the camp has been reined in. no longer company the reporters cover the prisons on the same trip. >> nothing is transparent. >> after fox's reporter, a republican on the senior armed services committee questions whether there is a change in policy that limits the media as they must plan, schedule and fund separate trips to cover the military commissions or the detention facility, directly affecting worldwide press access to gitmo." >> the president has an obsession to close it and bring the terrorists somewhere in the united states. i don't think they want people to know how well that place is managed. awhile candidate obama promised transparency nine months into his term, his supporters on the left seem deflated. in a recent interview, the aclu said efforts to limit media coverage goes against the administration's own pledge. >> they have to show whether conditions of confinement are lieu main, asking questions, seeing it with their own eyes, taking the government word for it is not sufficient. >> at a defense department briefing, a spokesman was combative. >> i'm not sure the policy has changed f fox is having a particular issue getting an opportunity to go down there and and see the facilities for the 150th time, i would be happy to try to work with you to figure out an opportunity to do so, ok? >> and late today, a pentagon spokesman, colonel david la pent told fox sometimes it is the logistics of it and the number of people it takes to give a state mission. there was in fact a press trip for the detention camp for a greek television station and a london newspaper. bret. bret: catherine, thank you. a scientist helping to discover evidence of water on the moon and worked on the reagan administration's star wars defense plan was in federal court today on an espionage charge. stuart david nos-e. it is accused of attempting to give classified information to you undercover f.b.i. informants. he is being held without bond. >> there appears to be a crack in in the at least publicly unified front of the obama administration over what to do about afghanistan t happened on a day when the white house chalked up a victory in the tenuous afghan political situation. white house correspondent mike emanuel explains. >> president obama says he called afghan president karzai to praise him for agreeing to a runoff in the disputed president shall election now slated to take place november 7. >> president karzai, as wells the other candidates, i think, have shown that they have the interests of the afghan people at heart, that this is a reflection of a commitment to rule of law, and an insistence that the afghan people's will should be done, and so i expressed the american people's appreciation for this step. >> karzai was under tremendous international pressure to agree to the runoff after a u.n. commission threw out nearly 1/3 of the votes cast for him. he announced his decision this morning. >> i call upon our nation to change this to an opportunity to strengthen our resolve and determination to move this country forward and participate in the new round of elections. >> in kabul, the american pat on the back for the afghan leader was delivered in person by senator john kerry, chairman of the senate foreign relations committee. >> today he showed statesmanship by deciding to move forward, and to strengthen the country by embracing the constitution and the rule of law. >> the welcome move toward a legitimate election process comes as the security situation in afghanistan remains a major challenge with a taliban continuing to carry out attacks, and white house officials have suggested in recent days president obama's decision on troop levels for the war in afghanistan would depend on having a strong, credible partner leading the afghan government, but on a trip to japan, defense secretary robert gates suggested that president obama cannot afford to wait for the elections to play out in afghanistan before making a decision about whrn to whether or not to send more troops. gates said, quote "we're not just going to sit on our hands waiting for the outcome of this election and for the emergence of a government in kabul." the white house is downplaying difference tbeens secretary gates and senior officials here but gates seemed to have turned up the heat for a troop decision by noting that after the afghan election is resolved, the political situation there is going to be complicated. bret: president obama says he still plans to have all combat troops out of iraq by next august. the president met with iraqi prime minister maliki today and also said he is watching for the iraqi parliament to pass an election law that would set out the legal structure for a critical nationwide vote in van wary. negotiations are continuing on healthcare reform and one particular problem we told but last week t has to do with an accounting trick on paying doctors' fees. jim angle reports. >> senate majority leader harry reid said today democrats are making headway in the effort to hammer out a single healthcare bill, but didn't say how. >> we will continue to make pog on merging the two bills. we have had a number of meetings. >> we're going to get healthcare reform passed this year, meaningful healthcare reform passed this year. >> and on one of the most divisive issues, government-run healthcare, what is known as the public option, reid was asked which way they're leaning. >> we're leaning toward talking about a public option. no decision has been made. >> but on a decision that has been made, democratic leaders have already run into trouble, an effort to roll back scheduled reductions in fees for doctors who treat seniors. the so-called "doctor fix" costed $250 billion over ten years and the democratic leadership decided not to pay for it, to just borrow the money and add it to the deficit, which was ridiculed by republicans. >> i thought this whole healthcare debate was about getting costs down, and yet the majority wants to begin with a bill that would add $300 billion to the deficit. >> the original senate finance bill had dealt with the doctor fix but only counted the cost of fixing it for one year instead of ten, which gets kept the bill from adding to the deficit but democrats wanted to fix it for ten years so senator debbie stabenow proposed a separate bill which is now in jeopardy. >> this is a cynical ploy, a gimmick, if you will, that allows them to separate out dealing with the physician reimbursement issue so that they can claim that somehow their healthcare reform bill is balanced. >> it hit a snag because some democrats, notably kent conrad along with others made clear that they flatly refused to support anything that adds to the deficit, which means it could not pass, so, senator reid is scrambling to figure out something, and implied he would search for something that does not involve more red ink. >> we're going to take care of the senior citizens and the doctors. as i've indicated, it could be a one-year fix t could be a ten-year fix, but we're going to take care of them. >> and now senator conrad and senator charles grassley, a republican, are gring to introduce their own doctor fix, saying it will cost about $25 billion, cover two years, and will be paid for so it won't add to the deficit. bret. bret: we'll see, jim. thanks. the white house gets some pushback to its offensive against fox news and we're not alone. we'll tell you about another target of the administration's wrath. pothole:h no...your tire's all flat and junk. oh, did i do that? here, let me get my cellular out - call ya a wrecker. ...oh shoot...i got no phone ...cuz i'm a pothole...so....k, bye! anncr: accidents are bad. anncr: but geico's good. with emergency road service. ding! >> the obama administration is challenging the organization that has traditionally represented big business in this country, in much the same way it is taking on a major news organization, through a strategy that could be termed divide and conquer. james rosen reports on the white house versus the u.s. chamber of commerce. >> inflated taxes, swelling deficits, and expanded government control over your health. tell congress let's slow down and reform healthcare the right way. >> this ad, part of a multi-million dollar campaign by the u.s. chamber of commerce also burst what had been an uneasy truce between the chamber and the obama white house. the pro business lobby spent heavily on g.o.p. candidates last year but during the transition and winter months they met frequently with obama aides and supporting the administration on the bank bailouts, the stimulus package and high-level nominees. then came the healthcare debate in which the chamber actively opposed democratic reform plans after also rallying opposition to the white house's efforts on climate change and regulatory reform. by early october, the gloves were off. >> they're very good at this, because that's how business has been done in washington for a very long time. in fact, over the last ten years, the chamber alone spent nearly half a billion dollars on lobbying. half a billion dollars. >> to neutralize the chamber, president obama and advisor valerie jarrett had lunch and met privately with scores of c.e.o.'s since june including executives from pepsico, walmart and kodak, to ask for their support but not to encourage defections from the chamber, the white house insists. >> traditionally the chamber had a special place in washington. it was viewed as so powerful and so mainstream that you took it on at your risk. i think, though, that this white house has brought the chamber down to the level of another trade group, and if they become another trade group, it's much easier to cross them. >> some large companies like apple, inc., maker of the i-pod and apple computers have severed ties with the chamber over disagreements on how to tackle climate change, but membership has spiked since the white house grew more combative in tone and they warned white house chief of staff rahm emanuel not to imagine that the chamber will retreat from spending heavily in the midterm cycle. >> those who did not agree to the side presented from the white house seem to be the recipients of vilification and invectsives of of the white houe attacking them. we will be heavily engaged in the 2010 elections. rahm, i'm sure, well appreciates that. >> a white house spokesman told fox news today "the obama administration met with the chamber of commerce last week and continues to have an open door" but she said the chamber's lobbying effort, quote, "does give us pause." james rosen, fox news. bret: the president may have brought to washington political lessons learned in his adopted hometown of chicago. brit hume has some thoughts on that. good evening, brit. >> hi, bret. the white house's cam bane to blunt the u.s. chamber of commerce's opposition to healthcare reform by persuading some members to break with the organization is hardball politics, but is that all there is to it? remember what happened when humana, the health insurance company warned policyholders that healthcare reform could threaten their coverage under the medicare advantage program? in fact, under the senate program it could. the administration ordered the company to stop sending such messages, and since the order has been lift. ed. then came the study that the senate committee bill could lead to much higher premiums. the committee weakened the requirement that everyone had health insurance and that left open the likelihood that many people would buy it and pay a modest fine and knowing if they got sick they could buy it later and it could not be refused under the new bill. the president made the same point but denounced the industry for doing what he called a hatchet job and has been attacking the industry ever since, and then the current white house war on fox news, the kind of anti-media campaign not seen since the days of richard nixon. anybody see a pattern here? bret. bret: where do you see this headed? >> well, it seems to me, bret, that they might get some short-term effect out of this. some people may be intimidated. some people may back off. some people may be won over to their side, but after a while, these kinds of tactics, it seems to me, are going to make people wonder where the serene and mag magnanimous men they elected are promising to end the old divisive politics is gone. where is that guy, anyway? bret: brit, as always, thank you. you can tell us why you think the white house is attacking fox news by going to fox news.com and clicking on the "you decide" icon. 2,000 people have voted and 53% have said the white house wants to shoot the messenger. there is a lot of other answers there. you can leave a comment on there, and there are tens of thousands of them listed there. well, democrats are bringing out the big guns and a couple of key governor's races and brutal violence in somolia is fueling fears of a humanitarian crisis in northern kenya. bret: checking news around the world, two suicide bombers attack islamic union cert in pakistan. the blast killed four people and wounded 18. the attack comes as an army offensive continues against insurgents in 7 southern counties. and iran's nuclear program hit a snag. negotiators are opposed to participation by sphrans. they are upset with french president nicolaus sarcozy over his refusal to share enriched are uranium from a shared reactor partially owned by the iranians. in tehran, funeral members were held from the members of the iranian guard who were bombed last sunday. iran is now blaming israel in addition to the u.s., britain and pakistan. and in somolia, continued chaos has forced a a mass exodus and sparked fears of a humanitarian crisis in northern kenya. emma heard has the story which contains images which you may find disturbing. >> imagine the hell inside somalia if people are fleeing to live like this. crowded into the northern kenyan desert, where mile after mile of shackss are home to 300,000 refugees. still, they're lining up to get in here, whole communities, with stories of the horrors they have left behind. the fighters are chopping off people's hands and feets in the street. the al shabab were all around our home. we had to get out. 6,000 people every month are pouring into the camps, all of them exhausted and hungry, and some just barely alive. this boy is ten but he is being carried are over the border by his mother. he is suffering not only from severe malnutrition but cystic fibrosis that has been untreated since birth. there was nothing in somolia, she told me. my son was going to die. there is at least some medical help here, but food and water are limited, and the refugees are trapped in a know man's land, effectively imprisoned in what is now the biggest refugee camp on earth. >> conditions here are bad enough in the heat of the dry season, but soon the rains will start. torrential downpours that will bring flooding and outbreaks of malaria, cholera and diarrhea, threatening the lives of thousands of here, but it's still better here than in somolia, where after two decades, the fighting and killing goes on. nemo mohammed lost her father and two brothers in a bombing in mogadishu. she showed me what the attack did to her. she's 14 years old, and will be in pain and scarred for the rest of her life. >> i still have nightmares about watching my family die, she said. i hurt so much that i don't feel alive. >> without peace in somolia, the camp will keep on growing. 18 years after the first rev gees arrived, scores of families are still being registered every day, and a whole new generation is being born here, the latest victims of a war without end. emma heard, sky news on the kenya-somolia border. bret: a member of the mainstream media sticks up for fox news at the white house, and we'll tell you why a republican congressional candidate called the cops on a reporter. ♪ who knew the store would go and check my credit score ♪ ♪ now all they let me have is this dinosaur ♪ ♪ hello hello hello can anybody hear me? ♪ ♪ i know i know i know i shoulda gone to ♪ ♪ free credit report dot com! ♪ that's where i shoulda gone! coulda got my knowledge on! ♪ ♪ vo: free credit score and report with enrollment in triple advantage. having to go in the middle of traffic and just starting and stopping. having to go in the middle of a ballgame and then not being able to go once i got there. and going at night. i thought i had a going problem. my doctor said i had a growing problem. it wasn't my bladder. my prostate was growing. i had an enlarging prostate that was causing my urinary symptoms. my doctor prescribed avodart. (announcer) over time, avodart actually shrinks the prostate and improves urinary symptoms. so i can go more easily when i need to go and go less often. (announcer) avodart is for men only. women should not take or handle avodart due to risk of a specific birth defect. do not donate blood until 6 months after stopping avodart. tell your doctor if you have liver disease. rarely sexual side effects, swelling or tenderness of the breasts can occur. only your health care provider can tell if symptoms are from an enlarged prostate and not a more serious condition like prostate cancer. so have regular exams. call your doctor today. avodart. help take care of your growing problem bret: and now some fish pickings from the political grapevine. reporter jane mccormick from "the weekly standard" attended a a forum where dede scozzafava spoke and mccormick asked about card check and healthcare reform. the questions continued as mccormick walked with scozzafava to her car. scozzafava got startled, that's all. it's not like you're in any trouble. mccormick concludes that it is scozzafava's candidacy might be in trouble if she has someone with her campaign call the cops when she's questioned by a reporter who is, if i may say so, polite, if a bit persistent. scoaz scozzafava is losing support, turning the lead into a 4-point deficit in just weeks and third party conservative candidate, david hoffman has gained 7 points, trailing scozzafava by just 6. another close race in nevada where harry reid trails sue lowden by almost 7 points. reid is down 5 1/2 to danny tartakanian. politico reports that a reid advisor is coming out swinging saying i expect reed to vaporize whoever is the opponent. >> and finally, during this morning's off-camera white house briefing with reporters, abc's jake tapper asked press secretary robert gibbs about the ongoing white house attacks on fox news channel. after being ask the about -- asked about the charge that fox isn't a real news organization, gibbs answered, quote "we render opinion on their coverage and the fairness of that coverage." tapper "that's a sweeping declaration that they're not a news organization. how are they different from say, abc, msnbc, univision? gibbs, you and i should watch around 9:00 tonight or 5:00 this afternoon. tapper, i'm not talking about the opinion programs or issues you have with certain reports. i'm talking about saying that thousand of individuals who work for a media organization do not work for a news organization. why is that appropriate for the white house to say? gibbs, that is our opinion." well, the white house's strong opinions about our opinion shows, glenn beck runs at 5:00 p.m. and sean hannity at 9:00 p.m. apparently do not extend to similar shows on other networks. a white house official confirms to us that the audience for monday's "off the record briefing" with president obama included msnbc personalities keith olbermann and rachel maddow. now to america's election headquarters. two weeks from today, voters in new jersey and virginia will cast ballots for governor. the races in two states carried by president obama are seen by some analysts as a referendum on his first few months in off. carl cameron reports that means the heavy artillery is coming in. >> it's alley time as democrats are vending reinforcements to new jersey and virginia where their gubernatorial candidates are in trouble. >> there's no question that creigh deeds has the best jobs plan, the best energy plan, has the best education plan. >> former president bill clinton tried to energize virginia's liberal democratic base for state senator creigh deeds, a rural moderate who democrats fear is in danger of losing a state where voters have chosen democratic governors in the last two elections. >> what this election comes down to is whether we consider the pragmatic problem-solving focus, reach across the aisle, get things done to approach a government that mark warner and tim kaine have followed or whether we move back! >> but g.o.p. frontrunner bob mcdonnell who beat deeds for attorney general four years ago has maintained a comfortable lead for months despite a withering attack for a master thesis he wrote decades ago arguing that working women were detrimental to the family and that the government smud not favor homosexual and other fornicators. mcdonnell has repudiated those views and has a new attack for the final two-week sprint. from virginia, clinton headed to new jersey to stump for governor jon corzine who, is in a nasty neck and neck battle for re-election against chris christie. the garden state polls have shown a virtual tie for two weeks. corzine has closed the gap but remains at risk. >> true champion of all the people, vice president joe biden >> vice president joe biden campaigned for corzine last night and president obama visits new jersey on wednesday. and the president will campaign for creigh deeds here in va is va here a week from tonight. the white house and democrats across the country are pulling out all the stops for both new jersey and virginia. they are the first two statewide races of the owe biewm r. bouma era and the president knows the democratic candidates are in jeopardy of losing both. >> fantastic sunset in mclean. carl, thanks. >> isn't it gorgeous? bret: applications for building permits fell by the largest amount in five months, which is not. wholesale prices fell 6/10's of a percentage point last month thanks to a drop in energy costs. stocks with down today. the dow fell 50 3/4, and the s&p lost almost 7 and the nasdaq dropped around 13. the white house and the pentagon seem to be pulling in different directions on the issue of afghanistan. we will talk about that when we come back. (announcer) we understand. you need to save money. 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. if you're using other moisturizing body washes, you might as well be. you see, their moisturizer sits on top of skin, almost as if you're wearing it. only new dove deep moisture has nutriummoisture, a breakthrough formula with natural moisturizers... that can nourish deep down. it's the most effective natural nourishment ever. new dove deep moisture with nutriummoisture. superior natural nourishment for your skin. >> i call upon our nation to change this to an opportunity to strengthen our resolve and determination to move this country forward and participate in the new round of elections. >> president karzai, as well as the other candidates, i think, have shown that they have the interests of the afghan people at heart. >> well, president obama called afghan president karzai to praise him to agreeing to a runoff in the disputed presidential election. it comes as there appears to be disputes inside this administration. robert gates is speaking out on the road saying we're not just going to sit on our hands waiting for the outcome of this election and for the emergence of a government in kabul before coming up with a troop strategy. this comes after the white house chief of staff rahm emanuel said exactly the opposite on the sunday talk shows. what about all of this? let's bring in our panel. bill kristol, editor of the weekly standard, and mort kondracke and syndicated columnist charles krauthammer. bill, you first alerted to us to this fracture between the pentagon and white house as to whether there would be troop levels determined before the afghan government is stabilized. it appears that the defense secretary wasn't too happy about those comments. >> yeah, i don't think the defense secretary or general petraeus or general mcchrystal or admiral mullen, the joint chiefs of staff participating in this agency review to help priz obama make his decision and suddenly the white house chief of staff and david axelrod go out and say hey, we can't do anything until we have a stable afghan partner, and suddenly robert gibbs and the white house is saying the same thing. the white house staff tried to hijack this decision, in my view, maybe with the president's blessing, maybe not. they do not want president obama to commit fully to the war in afghanistan. it is clear. rahm emanuel has been talking about vietnam, handing out books about the vietnam process. this is the last big reforming democratic presidency was killed in vietnam. they don't want to make the commitment that president obama basically said he would make a couple of months ago. there is a rift now between the white house staff and the defense department top to bottom, civilian and military rand most of the foreign policy professionals who don't think we can afford to make a half baked commitment to afghanistan or pull out. i think president obama will overrule his staff and go with defense secretary gates. bret: so you think defense secretary gates stands with general mcchrystal? >> definitely. there is no split in the military on this one. the military is offended. mcchrystal was sent over there by gates. the president made a commitment. they did a five-week review with a lot of civilian advisors. they gave the president their best judgment, saying this is the troops we need to fight this war and the way that you have asked us to fight it and suddenly political guys in the white house are saying, oh, the polls are a little shaky, let's send half the number of troops. the military thinks this is not the way to make policy. >> this looks like an attempt to satisfy the international community and not solve the problem of afghanistan. i mean, the election was fraudulent, ok, so we're going to have a runoff, one, the runoff will be november 7 when a lot of the polling places will be -- won't be open, for one thing t will take a lot of u.s. troop strength in order to protect the election, a lot of people are going to get killed by the taliban the day afterwards. ok, suppose karzai wins. is he any more legitimate then after an election in the eyes of the international community? his brother, a.w. karzai is still down there in southeast afghanistan selling drugs, the big drug lord of the country, and, you know, and the governance is no better. obama has got to make this decision, and he's got to make it on the basis of are we going to go for a victory in afghanistan, or are we going to do something less than that? and it smiewnts depend on the outcome gates is absolutely right and the military is absolutely right. bret: charles, there have been numerous stories in papers and i'm hearing privately from political terry commanders that there is real concern about this decision process and even in the sense of what it looks like. >> well, it's not just the process of white house appearing to pre-empt or overule the military and the white house is not exactly having the background and expertise that the military does, it's also the substance and the logic of it. what gates was saying is this is preposterous that you have to wait until after the election to decide on the troop level. after all, look, there are three things that we can say with the confidence about what the government of afghanistan will look like after this election. it's going to be weak. it is going to be pro-american and it's going to be corrupt. that's how it was yesterday. that's how it will be tomorrow. more or less corrupt and more or less weak, but that's how it will be and that's how it was a year ago, so it's not going to depend on the outcome of the election. that's the card that we're dealt in afghanistan. now, the best outcome would be, if you had a coalition so you wouldn't have to have a runoff on all of the complications of war that are talked about, but we know that today, so why would you hold off and delay a critical decision on the strength of our troops because you don't know the exact composition of the cabinet? it's nonsense, and i think gates shot it down pretty strongly today. >> yeah, you know, one half suspects that this is all domestic politics, that the white house knows that it's going to have to give up the public option on healthcare sometime in november, and make the left furious at that, and then it's going to have to make a decision on troop withdrawl -- or more troops in afghanistan. that is going to make the left angry, and they want to push it off as far as they can until toward thanksgiving. bret: fox news is not the only organization that the white house has targeted. we will talk about what it is doing to the u.s. chamber of commerce, after we do a little commerce of our own. %%%%%% >> ? the in the last ten year, the chamber spent half a billion on lobbyists. >> the groups haven't been invited in. those that have cut a deal are ok. those that did not agree to the deal as presented from the side of the table of the white house seem to be the recipients of vilification and invectives quickly from the white house attacking them. bret: this is from white house senior advisor valerie jarrett to the politico in an article called "white house plan, neuter the chamber. we prefer the approach where the people on the front lines running businesses trying to create jobs advice us on policy. we are seeing prominent members resigning from the chamber. our question is does it then still represent the communities' interests are?" we are back with the panel about the white house's interest were the u.s. chamber of commerce. charles. >> it is one thing for the government, the administration to attack opponents, institutions, media. it is another to go out and delegitimize them and destroy them. i thought it was sort of repulsive audacity on the part of the administration to go out and to declare fox is not a real news organization, particularly when there might be big companies out there who might think twice about having an ad on fox, or other news media who might think twice about following a fox story, because it might incur the displeasure of the administration. similarly, to go after the chamber of commerce, you can argue against it, defend urg self on the arguments but to try to induce deflections as a way to destroy it is a new level. it's chicago-level politics. look, there is nothing illegal about t it is not unconstitutional, but it is outside the democratic norms of our society. our idea is that you have as a way to protect against tyranny in government is to have the growth, the interaction and the clash of what madison called factions and what we call interests, special and otherwise, and you argue interact and you clash but you don't undermine, delegitimize and destroy. we are getting, instead, the chicago way. >> obama came to office saying he would unify the country. first it was the insurance companies and then fox news and then the chamber of commerce. they are indulging in demonization. it is a complete violation of what he said he was going to do it's stupid. what you do in washington is if you have a foe today, he may are your ally tomorrow. indeed, the chamber of commerce helped the chamber of commerce get the stimulus bill passed. now it is against the public option in healthcare. it is against the waxman-markey bill on climate change but it is not against climate change across the board. this administration is making enemies when it ought to figure out how to coopt people. >> there is a book called "the thump it" which describes democrats taking over congress and quotes rahm emanuel, when he was head of the democratic campaign committee, he said "the thing that scares the [bleep] out of me is the u.s. chamber of commerce. i can beat the nrcc, and our individual candidates can be beat their individual candidates, but what the chamber is trying to do is what i'm trying to do, take combative races and alter them." here is a quick graphic n2008, the chamber spent roughly $35 million on campaign spending. there are people inside the chamber saying they could spend anywhere from $70 million to $100 million on the 2010 race. could this just be about taking down the chamber a notch before the 2010 race? >> what happened in 2006? the chamber spent a ton of money. the democrats won congress. what happened in 2008, did the democrats overtend themselves? what they are doing is inappropriate. the chamber represents big business. they will sell out at the drop of a hat. they were for the stimulus, lots of money for big businesses. they were for bailouts. i don't see them complaining when big business benefits from big government programs. look, having said, that i'm glad the chamber is fighting on healthcare. i'm glad they got the right position, sort of, partly on cap and trade and they don't deserve to be demonized. people can join them if they wish. it is crazy if the obama administration and rahm thinks the chamber is their problem. the problem is the american public. the chamber didn't convince the public that the healthcare plan is a bad idea. the public rose up against it the more they learned about it. let them fight the big business groups and let the small citizenry fight the obama administration. bret: from a political tactic and strategy, is this the right one for this white house to be taken? >> it is short-term gain but long-term loss, because when you have a style of politics which is search and destroy, you might win a victory here and there, but when the president says there are no red states or blue states and he would be a transcender and he would unite and have a style that brings america today and indulges in gutter politics from chicago, search and destroy, it undoes the image and the positive element of the obama presidency, and i think in the long term it brings him down a notch. i don't see how it helps him, and it's emanuel-type politics. you might win today, but it will cost you tomorrow. bret: mort. >> i completely agree with that. there is that complete difference between the politics as rahm emanuel practiced it back when he was in congress -- that is to destroy the enemy and what obama said he was going to do, try to unify the country. now, they're attacking what they think are, you know, demons, the insurance companies are unpopular, fox news is right wing, allegedly, and now the chamber of commerce is a big bad bis ny lobby, but who is -- big bad business lobby, but who is next? they look for any enemy anywhere. bret: any comment on the fox news battle? >> i do on that. the chamber has a ton of money. i don't think we should cry for them. i don't think republicans should complain, oh, they're attacking the chamber of commerce or insurance companies. republicans should let the small businesses speak and let the big businesses that have cut a million deals with the obama administration speak for themselves. >> defending the chamber, it is a question of being offended by a certain style of politics. that's weigh think is the problem here. bret: that's it for the panel here. stay tuned for the story of being tongue tied. . . boss: so word's gettin' out that geico can help people save in even more ways - on motorcycle insurance, rv, camper, boat insurance. nice work, everyone. exec: well, it's easy for him. he's a cute little lizard. gecko: ah, gecko, actually - exec: with all due respect, if i was tiny and green and had a british accent i'd have more folks paying attention to me too... i mean - (faux english accent) "save money! pip pip cheerio!" exec 2: british? i thought you were australian. gecko: well, it's funny you should ask. 'cause actually, i'm from - anncr: geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. bret: finally tonight, some nights are better than others as a television anchor, and in the past, we have run bloopers' here on "special report." some are better than others. >> he is an expert on food borne illness litigation. he has been litigating since feet jack in the box -- the e cola -- the e coli outbook