After a hardwon reelection fight, its been a highstakes return to the business of governing for the president of the United States. Today he hosted congressional leaders at the white house to begin working on what he called the urgent business of reaching an agreement on taxes and spending cuts by the end of next month. This afternoon the president greeted a diverse range of Civic Leaders at the white house and, of course, hes preparing for his impending tour of Southeast Asia which begins at the week end. So thats whats been going on at the white house. Or is it . The president of the United States did not tell the American People the truth about the attacks that took four brave americans lives. The president himself has intentionally misinformed, read that lied, to the American People in the aftermath of this tragedy. This is not simply a coverup of a third rate burglary. We have four of our diplomatic personnel dead. This widespread coverup in fact continues today. What altered their talking spounts. General petraeus testimony today has really put this dead cat right on the white houses doorstep. Turns out general petraeus has left a dead feline at the doorstep of the white house. Investigation pending into what exactly his relationship was to said cat, its possible there were some polaroid photos involved, but dead cats notwithstanding, suppose there was fluid information coming out after a tumultuous attack in libya. That would be expected, wouldnt it . Or could it be that the president s opponent and their media wing are trying to cook up a controversy where there isnt one . That its just politically very inconvenient less than two months away from an election to have a terrorist attack that will he can pose the errors and fallacies of the obama administrations policies. Okay. So this is part of the Twilight Zone narrative in which Superstorm Sandy or socalled president ial gifts to minorities in this case a benghazi coverup conspiracy is to blame for republicans losing the election. Now, this is not to say that there cant be questions about what happened in benghazi. Four americans died, and we must prevent such a tragedy ever happening again. But to suggest the phrasing of the perpetrators as al qaeda or extremist elements amounts to a vast conspiracy is, frankly, ridiculous. Just for recollections sake, lets remember the very real consequences of the bush administrations actions on faulty intelligence regarding iraq and a guy called saddam hussein. We were told by no less a person by your own secretary of state that he had an active and Ongoing Program for acquiring and developing weapons of mass destruction. And i fully believe that all of the evidence on that is not yet in. Yes, apparently ambassador bolton believes in intelligence can be quite fluid in some circumstances, up to four years later. Lets get right to our panel now. Richard wolffe is Vice President and executive editor of msnbc. Com and msnbc political analyst karen finney, both are with us here in new york. So, karen, the latest twilight movie breaking down has just been released. It stars kristin stewart, mitt romney, and members of fox news. Just to be clear, the president won reelection because, and tell us which, a goody bag of gifts, altered talking points, or hurricane sandy. Which was it . Actually it was the bureau of labor stats messing around with the data. Thats what it was. You forgot that one. Im glad you answered that. Thats the sole reason he won. It has nothing to do with the fact that even as the president pointed out this week, more people than who voted with him agree with him. La, la, la, talking points, benghazi, latinos, minorities, gifts, presents, presents, presents. Forget about that. Richard. Contraception. The world appears to have moved on. The president as we know is attempting to address the issue of the financial fiscal cliff. Hes traveling overseas, but how long will it be that his opponents will hang onto this benghazi controversy . Give us an assessment of how long you think that will be . I think there are some different voices in the Republican Party emerging. Listen to what the republican governors are saying. People who have to actually get elected, number one, unlike some people in the conservative echo chamber, people who have to get elected statewide as opposed to just the gerrymandered house district. They understand theres a Reasonable Center and do you actually need to get a majority of those people as well as your base to show up to get elected. Those governors are saying, hey, lets not do this. We have to get back into the real world and maybe there are policy changes, heaven forbid, we need to talk about. If fox news wants to lead the Republican Party down a path where theyre not in the real world, theyre not even talking about the economy anymore, theyre not talking about anything that speaks to what voters cared about in this election, okay, if they want to relitigate the nixon era, its cheaper than other forms of selfmedication but its totally delusional. The president has serious challenges challenges, the country does, whether its taxes jobs, and there are a few things going on in the rest of the world which we should be talking about. Benghazi is complicated, as you point out quite rightly. John mccain wanted to arm gadhafi, then he wanted to arm the rebels, and now hes complaining that there are some jihadists out there who have the weapons to take on minimal security protecting american diplomats. Get real. They should know what the real world is like. And this is the politics of the false equivalency. Theyre consistently trying to say that this is a watergate, iran contra. Weve had several instances where theyve tried to compare it to things that happened during the bush years which actually lying about weapons of mass destruction which it took them a year to figure that out and were talking about five days that it took our intelligence guys to get a clearer picture of what was going on. No withstanding the fact that 120,000 iraqis lost their lives. I want to quote to you the great televangelist franklin graham, he thinks we may have to hit economic armageddon before were saved from this president im quoting. Maybe god will have to bring our nation down to our knees to where you have a complete economic collapse and maybe at that point, maybe people will again begin to call upon the name of almighty god. Now, once again i put it to you, is he reading the mayan apocalypse literature. Its nothing i have read about in the bible talking about caring for the poor and the needy. You know, my read of this at this point is this is the conservative movement literally coming unglued. They just every week we have a new rationale for why this, why that. Instead of saying this is the country as it is. This is america as it is. Part of the problem i think the republicans will have and part of the reason its a longterm problem, its not just him saying it, right . It is the gop chairman in the state of maine, you know, complaining that a horde of black people came in and voted. Its congressman ryan saying, urban turnout surprised them. This politics of division, it feels like now that the president has been reelected, they dont care. Its no holds barred. Lets just keep going and as you said, john mccain knows better. So theres no other reason for this kind of attack. Are they getting some relief by ventilating all of their bile immediately after this election . Look, losing is hard. There were plenty of democrats it is hard to lose, but dont you shake the hand of your opponent and say wellplayed, you beat me . Not in this case. When the soviet union collapsed there were plenty of people who said it was only because communism wasnt pure enough. Fair enough. You can be in the state of denial for a very long time, and it may be comforting to be in that position but at some point rational minds say were never going to wine like this. I think those rational voices are out there and thats why the pushback against mitt romneys comments from governors christie and jindal and, you know, martinez. Theyre the National Figure that is this party has to deal with much more than maybe someone running a prime time hour on another channel. Problem i have with this having been at the Democratic Party in 2005 when we were licking our wounds from 2004 and trying to understand what happened and what changes we needed to make, you didnt see this kind of vial talk. Instead, we said what can we do differently. It was the 350stiate strategy d the idea that you have to ask them for their vote, not insult half the country over and over and over again. Karen, richard, thank you so much. More on the president s attempt at reconciliation. He even bought the birthday boy a bottle of wine. We wont embarrass him with a cake because we didnt know how many candles were needed. Yeah, right. But we do want to wish him a happy birthday. Thank you, thank you. [ female announcer ] today, jason is here to volunteer to help those in need. When a twinge of back pain surprises him. Morning starts in high spirits, but theres a growing pain in his lower back. As lines grow longer, his pain continues to linger. But after a long day of helping others, he gets some helpful advice. Just two aleve have the strength to keep back pain away all day. Today, jason chose aleve. Just two pills for all day pain relief. Try aleve d for strong, all day long sinus and headache relief. A new way to save on your prescriptions. Its the aarp medicarerx saver plus plan from unitedhealthcare. With this plan, you can get copays as low as a dollar through a preferred Network Pharmacy like walgreens where youll find 8,000 convenient locations. Best of all, this plan has the lowest part d premium in the United States only 15 a month. Open enrollment ends december 7th. So call today or visit your local walgreens. David petraeus made the most unshocking statement of this whole scandal thursday when he told a reporter hed resigned because of an affair. Thats not exactly breaking news. So why would he feel the need to state the obvious . Because some on the right apparently have trouble believing the obvious. The idea that a man would resign a position after not meeting his own standard of honor is apparently so foreign to them that they prefer to engage in spurious and lurid speculation. The regime is holding the scandal over petraeus head for favorable benghazi testimony. Was he influenced by the fact that he knew his fate was held by people in the administration at that time . Joining us now from washington is dana milbank, a Political Columnist for the Washington Post, and Julian Epstein, a democratic strategist. Welcome to you both. If i might start with you, dana, i did think that benghazi was about four dead americans, but now im being told that its about hi jinx in the Officers Mess and adultery. Its all of the above. Its mushroomed into quite a thing here and it continues to occur after the election. I have a high respect for my Washington Post colleague charles krauthammer, somewhat else respect for limbaugh, but the whole thing would have seemed to be disproven today when petraeus goes to capitol hill, shows up and says exactly what everybody else in the administration has been saying now. If it was some sort of an effort to blackmail, hes now been outed, the whole thing happened, and hes, you know, he hasnt basically changed his tune. Im not clear how that all works out. Right. Okay. Julian, Geraldo Rivera is playing the role of truth teller on this particular story on fox. Take a listen to this. And it really is a disgrace to a man who has served us honorable and a man who has lets not argue. Its a question. He saved our ass in iraq. Blaming a video and then going why lets not argue about David Petraeus intreg rit. You have just what has to happen i asked a question that a lot of other people are asking. Julian, i hope you were able to understand that. I was not. Mr. Petraeus says he ill explain it. Mr. Petraeus says he resigned because he had not met his own high standards for decency and honor. Why is this such a foreign concept to some on that couch . Well, this is the inspector clue sow wing of the conservative movement with a long and not too proud lineage. Same group of people who you remember dan burton after vin vince committed sue said shot a mellon. This is the same people that pushed the fast and furious controversy. In addition to everything dana just said, which shows quite plainly that the theory is false, this is just wrong for a number of reasons. One is this whole blackmail idea, one, theres no evidence on it. Two is anybody thats ever had any exposure whatsoever to an fbi investigation knows its virtually impossible to carry Something Like that off. Third is its entirely illogi l illogical. The issue going on in enghazi we have learned is a was a cia operation at an outpost, and the criticism that the republicans seem to be making is that the reason that the attacks were successful was because someone had failed to provide enough security personnel. Given that its a cia operation, it seems to me that if there is going to be criticism about the lack of security personnel, the criticism would fall on the cia, not the white house. So the idea that the white house would be blackmailing petraeus to shield them from criticism is absurd given the fact if there will be any criticism at the end of the day, the criticism is likely to be on the cia. So this is just so fanciful and so ridiculous and idiotic on so many Different Levels its hard to know where to start. Right. Fair enough. Dana, i want to play for you two pieces of sound, both from republican congressmen peter king. The first is from last night before todays hearing where mr. King sounded ready to sac the whole white house. Take a listen. So when the president says that susan rice was giving out talking about the most updated and fully documented intelligence that the Intelligence Community had, thats not true. Last night the message was that susan rice was disseminating incorrect intelligence and the president is wrong for defending her. Now here is mr. King today after an intelligence briefing. Did he seem concerned that things had been changed . Was that surprising to you . He seemed to say at the time they didnt realize the full significance of that and that or an unclassified statement it was acceptable. Again, its still very vague. Petraeus told king today that, quote, for an unclassified statement this was acceptable. Again, its still very vague. Dana, to paraphrase the president , republicans got out in front of their own skis on this one, didnt they . Yes. Well, in congress they have a tradition of revising and extending their remarks and i think peter king what peter king just said was never mind. What he said earlier, what do we do with that . He was operating on incomplete information. The story evolved. Like susan rice was earlier. Theres an important lesson here, martin, which is if you take your political cues from don trumps twitter feed, you will end up sticking your tail between your legs. Thank you very much, Julian Epstein and dana milbank. Stay with us. Much more ahead. Between your legs. At his press conference earlier this week the president said that the people of america wanted action to address the fiscal challenges that are fast approaching in january. And as he welcomed congressional leaders from both parties to the white house today, he sounded an optimistic note about the way forward, as did Speaker Boehner after the meeting. My hope is that this is going to be the beginning of a fruitful process where were able to come to an agreement that will reduce our deficit in a balanced way. To show our seriousness, we have put revenue on the table as long as its accompanied by significant spending cuts. Nbcs Mike Viqueira joins us live from the white house. Mike, are there any signs, i have to put this to you, that the president may be able to persuade republicans at least to maintain the bush tax cuts on those making less than 250,000 a year . Is there any sign that hes going to be able to persuade them on that . Reporter well, i think that he would be able to persuade them to extend those tax cuts, but he may not be able to persuade them to decouple them from those making more than 250,000 a year, martin. I dont mean to be flip, but that does remain at the end of the day here after the big root velt room photoop the main sticking point. Its clear democrats feel they have the upper hand as do democrats here in the person of the white house staff and the president after the election, after the polls showed that voters for the most part, a majority, are behind the president in his effort to do that. This is something democrats both nationwide and on capitol hill will insist he sticks to his guns on. The democrats i talked to today want more concrete commitments now about whats going to be happening with tax reform, whats going to be happening with entitlement reform. Republicans for the most part are talking about a much longer horizon. Perhaps when things calm down and democrats no longer have that political upper hand, six months, even a year the speaker has talked about. Okay. Now, the president also made mention of Speaker Boehners birthday tomorrow and gave him a very fine bottle of italian vintage, but what the president can do Mike Viqueira does, too, and i understand that you have actually visited that very vineyard with your dear mom, is that rit right . It is and so kind of you to mention. It is in italy. He did give it to the speaker for his 63rd birthday a bottle of wine that retails for about 125 at local liquor stores. So certainly a nice glass of wine. I have had it. Its very smooth. Youre a good man and a good son. Nbcs Mike Viqueira. Thank you, mike. Thank you. Stay with us. The weeks top lines are coming up. Oh, let me guess ou see this . More washington gridlock. No, its worse look, our taxes are about to go up. Not the taxes on our dividends though, right . Thats a big part of our retirement. Oh, no, its dividends, too. The rate on our dividends would more than double. But we depend on our dividends to help pay our bills. We worked hard to save. Well, the president and congress have got to Work Together to stop this dividend tax hike. Before its too late. Something this delicious could only come from nature. Now from the maker of splenda sweeteners, discover nectresse. The only 100 natural, nocalorie sweetener made from the goodness of fruit. The rich, sweet taste of sugar. Nothing artificial. Its all that sweet ever needs to be. New nectresse. Sweetness naturally. From a very insulting romney return to a most uncomfortable probe for the gop. Here are todays top lines. Sabotage. I still love you, america. Romney was a poopy head. You dont want to talk about Immigration Reform . A hispanic gay woman is born every eight seconds. Its one thing to shoot yourself in in the foot, just dont reload the gun. Your uterus is safe for another four years. I love you women. I was wrong last night. I am the main reason the Republican Party will keep losing. When we saw the turnout in urban areas. Ward, june, wally, and the beav. Out of here. You have nothing to complain about. Want to smoke drugs . Fine. It was a wellrun campaign. Thats one of the dumbest questions i have ever heard. Sometimes you have to confront reality. This David Petraeus scandal. A good looking lady throwing herself at him. Hes a man. Justin bieber in there. One of the two people may be a loon. What does this woman smell like . Watching cnn with a virginia slim in one hand and a box of after 8s in the other. I have a mandate. Its a joke. Tomorrow is Speaker Boehners birthday. This is your birthday song i totally forgot what i was going to say. The giving away free stuff is a hard thing to compete with. Bag of weed, contraception variety back. Pinata filled with green cards. This is completely unhelpful. We have to give our Political Organization a proctology exam. They should go aefer me. Were not picking on anybody. Happy days. Suck up friends in the mainstream media. Wow, did that change his testimony. That speculation is reckless. I didnt say it was my personal belief. This is as bad as watergate but nobody died in watergate. Half the country never heard of watergate. Unlike watergate, this scandal lost lives. Are you sure on this story . Absolutely. Break in at the watergate hotel. Youre right. Im not a crook. I want to go right to the reverend al sharpton, host of politics nations here on msnbc who was at the white house for a meeting the president held with Civic Leaders from around the nation. The reverend sharpton was there in his capacity as leader of the National Action network, the Civil Rights Group he founded in 1991. Good afternoon, sir. Were delighted to have you with us. Glad to be with you, martin. How would you characterize the president s mood . Obviously many of us have not had the opportunity to see him since the election itself. How is he . How is he reacting . He seemed very energized. He seemed very focused. He met this morning with congressional leaders. He met with 12 of us that lead various organizations in the africanamerican latino students, and it was a very open and candid meeting about the fiscal cliff. Hes committed as he said publicly. He said to us privately that hes not going to back up in terms of protecting the middle class tax cut that is scheduled to expire at the end of the month. And we all, despite whatever other views we have, are committed to standing with him on that. Now, you referred and referenced a number of the groups that you yourself represent one, latino groups, students, a number of these people were described, as you know, by mitt romney, as seeking free stuff. These are the people who the president apparently duped into voting for him. Did that issue come up at all today . No. I mean, first of all, you had women groups there. You had the Sister Simone from the nuns on the bus. What free stuff . Are we saying middle class americans when we say that they should not have to pay or extend the tax cut, that thats free stuff for middle class americans whether its in north dakota or north brooklyn, but when we give loopholes to big corporations or tax cuts to the wealthy, thats not a gift . I mean, i think its absurd. Its insulting, and its offensive. I think americans voted. They made it clear where they wanted to go. And i think that rather than mr. Romney trying some late minute class warfare or racebaiting, he needs to get in step with where the American People are. Well, you are a ordained minister, and speaking of strange statements we heard today from franklin graham, son of billy graham. Mr. Graham tells a right wing website that the president s reelection puts the nation on, and im quoting him, a path of destruction and suggested that only, quote, complete economic collapse can put the nation back on the path to godliness. I thought, sir, that godliness was about taking care of the poor and the marginalized. Mr. Graham seems to be suggesting that the president s concern for these individuals, those individuals represented by people like yourself, that this is a path to destruction. Well, i think that what mr. Grahams message is certainly something that we could say that we were on the way to economic collapse, and this president brought us back. So not only is he theologically unsound, hes historically inaccurate. The fact of the matter is if he was paying attention, we almost went to our knees, and now were working our way back 32 months of job creation. Were seeing the whole economy starting a recovery, so i think mr. Graham is off base both historically, he is theologically way off base because the whole concept is that jesus came for the downtrodden, the left out, and the lost. He did not come to protect those that were at the top of the economic ladder, and i think that rather than try to use the bible to justify the rich, they ought to read the bible where jesus challenged the rich and their relationship as to how they dell with the poor. Reverend al sharpton, sir, straight out of a meeting with the president. Thank you, sir, so much for joining us. Thank you, martin. You can hear more from the reverend on his white house visit tonight at 6 00 p. M. Eastern right here on politics nati nation on msnbc. Lets turn to our panel. I have toure, my colleague, with me, and also msnbc contributor Jonathan Capehart of the Washington Post. Toure, we were talking earlier about the conspiracy theories that are flying, the socalled benghazi coverup that senators mccain and graham are upset about. They say its bigger than watergate. Whoa, thats huge. Oh, my goodness. Well, there must be some evidence to suggest that, right . There must be. Oh, wait, theres none so the right begins with this thesis that this is a scandal of Epic Proportions and their evidence is we have questions, and those questions are not being answered, and as john than knna, questions are not evidence. I dont understand how they make that leap. This is a complex cia operation that was interrupted by a terrorist attack. The cia is never going to tell you everything that they are doing or did as they should not. But that allows a lot of innuendo room for the right to say, see, were not getting answers, not getting transparency. You cant because its an Intelligence Community. They cant tell you everything. Stop making it a scandal when you begin with the idea its a scandal and then were going to fill in backwards the details. The crime of watergate was much bigger than a mere burglary as you know. It was about Richard Nixons attempt to rig an election and subvert the democratic process itself. Are these guys such fanatics that theyve forgotten the basic facts of their own countrys history . Yes. Thank you. To put it shortly, yes, they have. Martin, i assume you do and toure, i live in the realitybased community. Amen. And i really wish that senators graham and mccain and others would immigrate over here to our side because susan rice this whole focus is on u. N. Ambassador susan rice and what she said on the sunday shows saying that this the demonstrations that happened that led to the ultimate attack on the consulate in benghazi was a spontaneous demonstration from people upset about that video. Now, what we know and have known for at least a couple weeks now, she was rice was speaking off the talking points provided to her and the House Intelligence Committee from the Intelligence Community, from the cia. And let me just read this one thing. The currently available information suggests that the demonstrations in benghazi were spontaneously inspired by the protests at the u. S. Embassy in cairo and evolved into a direct assault against the u. S. Post in benghazi and subsequently its annex. The last thing is the investigation is ongoing and the u. S. Government is working with the libyan authorities to bring to justice those responsible for the deaths of u. S. Citizens. Thats reality. Conspiracy, conspiracy, conspiracy. The president s most passionate moment of the week is his moment when he was defending susan rice in the press conference. He seemed like im standing up to a bully. He stepped out of that professorial aloof poos tour we sometimes think hes in. He seemed very animated. He was exactly the same in that president ial debate when he is accused of not labeling this a terrorist attack and he was fuming again in front of mitt romney. You want a problem come to me because im the problem, not the u. N. Ambassador. But by the way, john mccain who wants to challenge susan rices probity in these sort of things, where was he when they did the classified hearing about benghazi yesterday . He couldnt make it because he had a previously scheduled engagement to give a press conference to dis the president. Does he really care about the facts or does he want to say in the alternate reality. Jonathan, youre probably like me, were not giving them a green card to immigrate to the reality away from the alternate reality. Is mr. Mccain operating in reality . No. Youre not operating in reality if youre reading the information we already have thats already available and youre still whipping up conspiracy theories and weaving tall tales out of nothing. As toure pointed out, senator mccain, how about you actually be in the hearings to hear whats been going on and happening instead of standing in front of the cameras and beating poor susan rice to death. It makes no sense and its irresponsible. Its clear that john mccain is all about sour grapes right now as we often say on our show the cycle which airs at 23 oclock on msnbc. Youre not come on here again for doing that. Toure, and john thnathan capeha thank you. Stay with us. He never gave a reason why to vote for mitt romney. Barack obama gave at least a reason why to vote for him to his supporters, albeit wrong. Governor romney no, the reason wasnt wrong though. Mr. Obama said quite clearly, if you vote for me im going to give you money. Am i wrong, miss schaefer, am i wrong about this . 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[ male announcer ] tempurpedic owners are more satisfied than owners of any traditional mattress brand. For 6 days only, get 0 apr financing with up to five years to pay. To learn more, visit tempurpedic. Com. Dont wait. Fiveyear special financing ends november 20th. Tempurpedic. The most highly recommended bed in america. We here want to wish a very happy birthday from all of us to speaker john boehner, 63 years young tomorrow. We also hope it isnt too late for the speaker to turn over a new leaf in his leadership of the house of representatives. For two years now you have run the Lower Chamber as if obstructing the president was more important than allowing the country to make progress. There was an emphatic election victory which only shows the peoples desire for compromise. John larson from connecticut is joining us. Good afternoon. The president s first term, as you know, was marked by unprecedented levels of obstruction, the debt ceiling do backcle led to the downgrading of the u. S. We know the stock market is already showing signs of anxiety, and the president has just won an overwhelming victory. What more does Speaker Boehner require to reach an agreement with the president . Well, i think Speaker Boehner has struck the right tone. Clearly both from election the day after the election and including today we had the opportunity to meet with leader pelosi afterwards who was very encouraging about the meeting that took place in the white house, and i think boehner has always been, who is an institutionalist, has always cared deeply about this and would have struck the right deal. Its always been that element within the republican conference that has kept him from getting there, but i see a different kind of resolve and obviously, martin, for the interests of the country we hope that they dont lead us off this cliff that, as you point out, is artificially created by them, and so theres i think theres great hope that we can get this accomplished and set up the framework for the next session. Okay. Well, i want to play something for you of that encapsulates the outlook of some republicans. Listen to this. I mean, its a proven political strategy, which is give a bunch of money from the government to a group and, guess what, theyll vote for you. Let me tell you what i would do if i was a democrat running four years from now . Id say you know what, dental care ought to be included in obama care. Now, first of all, the Affordable Care act does actually provide dental care for children, but how can you find agreement with people who dont just reject any form of government support, they actually believe that providing assistance to those in need is actually flat out wrong . And i dont think they completely understand both how offensive and insulting their remarks come to the hardworking people all across this country. I would only add that its part of why we had so many record gains in the house of representatives and why we added to our margins in the senate and why president obama is president. I think smart republicans get this, and they understand what they have to do. And more importantly, their effort, you know, where they would have rather seen obama fail than the nation succeed, well, thats over. Its time to turn the page. Its time to Work Together. Martin, as you have said on this program many times, the great strength of this nation is both our rugged individualism and individuality and how we need to pull together as a community. This is one of those times, and as we approach our Great Holiday of thanksgiving, shouldnt we be focused on those americans out of work, put them back to work, we can do that. In the time period that we have. We can deal with the tax issue in a way that impacts the middle class, but everybody so that were sending clear messages and then deal long term with the issues of bending the costs of health care in general at 17 of our Gross Domestic Product and lowering that so were not impacting the benefits that we provide beneficiaries. Theres great room here and a great opportunity. Well see if our colleagues on the other side have the will to cooperate and make this happen and put the interests of america first. Congressman john larson, a wonderfully optimistic and positive view. Thank you, sir. Thank you, martin. Much more ahead, but first, fox and friends on how the fair and balanced folks hire their hosts. You and all the women of fox, i dont know who was the scout that got you guys, but they rock. It was brian. But thank you very much. Thats very sweet. It was, it was actually we went into the victorias secret catalog and we said can any of these people talk . And they all could and they all went to college. Youre so crazy. Ah. Fire bad just have to fire roast these tomatoes. Do you churn your own butter too . What . This is going to give you a head start on your dinner. That seems easier sure does who are you . [ female announcer ] new progresso recipe starters. Five delicious cooking sauces you combine with fresh ingredients to make amazing homecooked meals. Ambiance [ female announcer ] new progresso recipe starters. Your headstart to home cooked. Ive got a nice long life ahead. Big plans. So when i found out medicare doesnt pay all my medical expenses, i got a Medicare Supplement insurance plan. [ male announcer ] if youre eligible for medicare, you may know it only covers about 80 of your part b medical expenses. The rest is up to you. Call and find out about an aarp Medicare Supplement insurance plan, insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company. Like all standardized Medicare Supplement plans, it could save you thousands in outofpocket costs. Call now to request your free decision guide. Ive been with my doctor for 12 years. Now i know ill be able to stick with him. Youll be able to visit any doctor or hospital that accepts medicare patients. Plus, there are no networks, and you never need a referral. See why millions of people have already enrolled in the only Medicare Supplement insurance plans endorsed by aarp. Dont wait. Call now. Air sirens were heard throughout jerusalem today after hamas militants launched rocket attacks. Israels army radio says missiles landed just outside jerusalem and there are no reported casualties. But it marks a worrying escalation following an israeli air strike on wednesday that killed hamas military leader. Since then an Israeli MilitarySpokesman Says more than 500 missiles have been fired from gaza into israel. Joining us now is michael ohanlon, who is director of research and a senior Foreign Policy fellow at the Brookings Institution and with us here in new york, former u. S. Ambassador Mark Ginsberg, who is also a former white house adviser on the middle east. Ambassador ginsberg, given the fact that these missile attacks occur almost on a routine basis across that border, why have things escalated this week . It is a question that no one really has a good answer to other than the attack on hamas military leader. The fact of the matter is this escalation has resulted in a crossborder war that almost is beginning to resemble a 2008 war. Why . Perhaps hamas has decided on instig gation from iran that it basically needs to provoke the Muslim Brotherhood in egypt to be more supportive of it. Perhaps its iran wanting to deflect attention from syria. Perhaps its an effort by hamas to in effect bridle its credentials to prove to the palestinians on the west bank that its route is the best way to deal with israel. While britain and germany have both said hamas bears the brunt of the blame, Mohamed Morsi appears to lay some blame on the israelis. Is he torn with his fellow islamists and the need to maintain the treaty obligations with israel . Martin, if he isnt yet, he could be soon, and thats, of course, the real danger here. If this thing goes on just for a short time, then maybe we wind up okay. But if it goes on for days or weeks, like the 20082009 war that ambassador ginsberg referred to, then i think all bets are off as to just how long the egyptian regime can really sustain this stance of sort of being between the two. You know, in a broader sense, of course, the ceasefire that hamas had respected for a number of years never reflected a fundamental strategic change by hamas. It was more a temporary recognition that fighting the what i they had been before wasnt doing them any good. On the other hand in their own eyes, the ceasefire isnt doing them any good either. And so i think theyre willing to maybe, as Mark Ginsberg said, maybe, you know, roll the dice a little, hope with the morsi government in place, maybe things can be different and maybe egypt has to take a different stand than in the past. Theyre gambling because they dont really like the status quo anyway. Ambassador ginsberg, isnt the barely concealed hand here iran . The iranians supply the weaponry, hamas fires them across the border. Theres no doubt that whats happened and its symptomatic of what the danger is for israel around the borders, whether its hezbollah where theres 60,000 similar missiles directed at israel, or hamas extended imperialistically and converting it into a failed state and use it as a funnel for Iranian Missile boats to basically unload supplies and tunnel them under into the sinai into gaza. Thats the real danger here. Theres almost a repeat of what essentially occurred before. Indiscriminate weapons funneling into the sinai by iran. Very quickly, mike, do you agree . Yeah. I think so. I think and the dilemma, its very hard to stop rockets from being moved around. So the old days there was an unnatural ability to put really almost a very tight perimeter around this strip, but with egypts stance shifting and the basic geography of the situation, its going to be hard to do that. So unfortunately, we could see this sort of skirmish or worse every so often in the future. How long does this go on for . Its going to go on until theres a ceasefire on the part of hamas to stop firing mifessis into israel and then israel will stand down. Under the current situation, martin, with the Prime Minister israeli Prime Minister facing elections in january, he has to basically satisfy an unremitting requirement on the part of the israeli population to finally deal hamas a real immortal blow. Thank you, gentlemen, both. And their heart into their community. Small business saturday is a day to show our support. A day to shop at stores owned by our friends and neighbors. And do our part for the businesses that do so much for us. On november 24th, lets get out and shop small. [ male announcer ] its that time of year again. Medicare open enrollment. Time to compare plans and costs. You dont have to make changes. But it never hurts to see if you can find better coverage, save money, or both. And check out the preventive benefits you get after the health care law. Open enrollment ends december 7th. So nows the time. Visit medicare. Gov or call 1800medicare. But im still stubbed up. [ male announcer ] truth is, nyquil doesnt unstuff your nose. What . [ male announcer ] alkaseltzer plus liquid gels speeds relief to your worst cold symptoms plus has a decongestant for your stuffy nose. Thanks. Thats the cold truth th