Transcripts For MSNBC Morning Meeting 20100106

all right. hey, welcome back to "morning joe." time to talk about what we learned today. willie geist, i fear asking you, what did we learn today on animal planet. >> i'll start with something nice. tonight at 7:00, at the barnes & noble, union square, mika's book, "all things at once." she'll be signing books. joe's going to be there. i might check in at the bar next door. >> you've got the kissing booth. >> i do. >> and i don't have to pay. >> no, yours is free tonight and tonight only. but the real story we want to bring you here, what we learned today, koala love. it happened when andy roddick was being interviewed in australia. you had a couple of koalas at the press conference, just in the background, an expression of their feelings for one another. there's andy roddick, totally oblivious as to what's happening behind him. >> very charismatic and serious. >> plenty of charisma in that picture to go around. >> i can't believe you pushed to put that on again. >> i thought it was funny. >> joe, i learned that you had some good sources in the cia and very impressed by your reporting. it's not a happy story, but that really illuminated what happened there. appreciate it. >> it does. >> anne, talking about the 18,000 cracks in the glass ceiling, huh? >> yeah, and that 2010 will be potentially a big year for women. but i think the real question is, is the koala video better than the sarah palin turkey murder video from last year? >> koala, hands down. turkeys, hunting, if you hunt -- >> and tonight, last night in madison, rj julia, huge, sold out twice in a day. tonight, we're at union square, mika brzezinski, "all things at once," and no, i won't be wearing the texas sweater. willie, if it's way too early, what time is it? >> it's "morning joe." and right now we turn it over to the great chris jansing. chris? two big-named democrats heading for the exit. what it all means for the future of the party and its stronghold on the hill. and what it may do to president obama's agenda. a deep failure, a screwup, a preventable attack. the president lashes out at the agencies that failed to connect the dots on the christmas day terror plot, but does tough talk equal action? deep freeze. much of the country in the grips of record-low temperatures. the longer this continues, the more it could cost you. plus, dropping pounds in the new decade. how your cell phone can help. good morning. i'm chris jansing in new york. it's 9:00 a.m. here on the east coast, 6:00 out west. and we begin with a developing news story. slovak officials call it an unprofessional and silly mistake, a better description might be an absolutely stunning and dangerous lack of common sense. slovak authorities planted plastic explosives in a passenger's bag without his knowledge, all as part of an airport security test. nbc's tom costello is live for us in washington. and in light of what's been happening since christmas day, this is all the more unbelievable. what can you tell us, tom? >> this is concerning. what happened is, the slovak authorities in central slovakia wanted to test their own security, so what they did was they put plastic explosives, nine separate pieces of it, into passengers' bags. the passengers didn't know it. their dogs picked up eight of those packages. however, one package of plastic explosives, about three ounces worth, traveled all the way to dublin. and then this man, by the way, who never was told that they were putting plastic explosives in his luggage, he picked up the luggage and took it home. it wasn't until three days later that the slovaks notified the irish about this. the irish didn't immediately know that the man had been unsuspecting and had literally just picked this up. they sent the equivalent of a s.w.a.t. team to that location you saw on television there, an apartment building, they kcord n cordoned off the whole area, they went in, arrested him. and it wasn't until a couple of hours later that they actually learned from the slovaks, it was the slovak security forces who screwed up here, putting this plastic explosive into this man's carry-on without him ever knowing and now the slovaks have formally apologized to the irish and the slovaks have some questions to answer themselves. how was it that their dogs failed to pick up the plastic explosives that they themselves planted. >> and another reason that the united states really has its hands full, when it's looking at planes that are coming in from other countries. thanks so much. we appreciate it, tom. >> okay. now, after bearing the brunt of the president's anger after the christmas day terror plot, security chiefs say they got the message. fix the way information is shared before it's too late. meeting with top 20 officials, president obama reportedly cut to the chase, telling them the missed warning signs amounted to a potentially disastrous screwup. the president refused to accept the excuse that the intelligence didn't add up. >> now, i will accept that intelligence by its nature is imperfect. but it is increasingly clear that intelligence was not fully analyzed or fully leveraged. that's not acceptable and i will not tolerate it. >> nbc's savannah guthrie is live at the white house for us. now, agencies have been dealing with this problem of intelligence sharing since 9/11. how does the white house plan to force the necessary changes now if it hasn't happened yet, billions of dollars and eight years later. >> reporter: yeah, no question about it. and i think the real issue now is are there real legislative changes, real reforms that need to be made to the system? or do to people who are in charge of working in that system need to just do better? i mean, this was, as the president said, a function of a little bit of both. there were some human error, but also some systemic failures. they've already made some reforms. one of the most glaring reforms that was needed and is already being made is when the state department would issue information, reports, cables about possible terror suspects, they didn't include, as a party of course, current visa information. that seemed to be an oversight, something that could be changed very quickly and it already has been changed. the president gave a stern rebuke to agency heads, said he wouldn't tolerate finger-pointing. and i think as we see from the brennan report, which is expected as early as tomorrow, there is plenty of blame to go around. >> all right, savannah, thank you. as if the christmas day plot wasn't warning enough, new and disturbing information about the incident that shut down newark international for six hours on sunday. the port authority surveillance camera that should have captured images of a man bypassing security wasn't recording. in fact, the tsa said it had no idea how long it's been since the camera was working. the tsa had to look at tapes from one of the surveillance cameras run by continental airlines and the terminal wasn't shut down for almost two hours. and by the way, that man still hasn't been located or identified. and now to that bombshell announcement from the democratic party. two senators calling it quits. connecticut's chris todd and north dakota's byron dorgan. dodd, a five-term senator and chairman of the powerful banking committee will announce his retirement as a noon news conference. word of his retirement came just hours after dorgan announced he would not seek a fourth term. "morning joe" host joe scarborough and mika brzezinski join us live. so great of you guys to stay around after your long morning. what does that mean, joe, these two democrats? >> it's very interesting, you would think when democrats retire, senior democrats, that's great news for republicans, bad news for democrats. here it's split. byron dorgan quitting, very good news for the republican party. that's probably going to be a pickup for the gop. but chris dodd, well, he's beloved by the democratic base and the democratic establishment in washington, d.c., that's actually good news for washington democrats, because the guy that's stepping in, somebody that mika's known now for, my gosh, since 1990, or so, he's a winner up there. >> and he's a real answer to the problems that plague chris dodd right now. attorney general richard blumenthal has served an unprecedented five terms since 1990. very popular. he's fought for all sorts of reform, marketing, deceptive marketing practices towards children. he was on the front lines of the fight against big tobacco. and he has pushed for millions of dollars in returned funds investigating health insurance company abuses. so in the insurance capital, he has taken on the big industry. >> and chuck todd said this morning, chris, that this takes the seat in connecticut from a toss-up to a lean democrat. >> i guess one of the questions is, is this sort of a hashinger of things to come, given where we are with the economy, given the problems that the white house is facing with these security issues, could this just be the start of something, that democrats may find themselves in tough races say, you know what, maybe it's time to move on? >> i think it is. you're seeing it now in some big races, in house races with the democrats who have been safe for years are saying, enough's enough. in 1994, a lot of senior democrats saw that the tide was turning in such a direction, that they couldn't even overcome it. but when you have washington giants like chris dodd and byron dorgan announcing, in the same day -- >> dorgan particularly, a big surprise. >> that is a stunner. and that shows again, here's a democrat from a red state that has been able to win, was able to survive the bush era, was able to survive even the reagan era. he can't survive this. that tells you that something bad's happening out there in middle america for democrats. >> and i think the climate shows frustration with both parties and with washington. and that really opens the door for some potential new political dynamics to come into play. >> it's going to be a fascinating year. lots for you guys to talk about early in the morning when i'm on the treadmill. congratulations for your book, by the way. >> thank you so much. >> thank you both. >> thanks, chris. senator dodd is expected, as we said, to make that announcement at a noontime press conference and we will have that for you live. next hour, we'll talk with republican challenger in this race, former congressman, rob simmons. we have breaking news this morning from the pakistan border, where 13 people have been killed by u.s. missiles. local officials say the first struck a house, the second struck the same site as locals were retrieving bodies from the rubble. according to nbc, a third missile has also been fired in the area, but there's no word on the target or any casualties. now, a number of developing stories we're following this hour. first, in yemen, where three suspected al qaeda members have been arrested. they were captured last week in the arman province just north of capital. the president meets with congressional democrats today. his latest attempt to get health care passed quickly. he has an agreement with the leaders to bypass the usual negotiations between the house and senate. the the house has agreed to work off the senate version of the bill, then send it back for final passage. critics on both sides of the aisle, though, accuse the president of not living up to his promise of a transparent process. a massive manhunt in salt lake city this morning for a suspected cop killer. roberto roman is accused of shooting a utah sheriff's deputy during a traffic stop. police had thought they had tracked roman down to a specific neighborhood, but he disappeared before they could make the arrest. oh, what a dangerous arctic blast that's gripping most of the country. two-thirds of the nation has bone-chilling cold. in the south, a deep freeze has farmers scrambling to save millions of dollars worth of crops. in the midwest, it's literally an icebox. nbc's janet shamlian join us live from kansas city, missouri. nbc meteorologist bill karins is here with the forecast. janet, let's start with you. how cold is it? >> reporter: you know, chris, i stopped checking about an hour ago, because i just don't want to know. it's in the teens and it's not going to get above freezing here until early next week. we're on the plaza in kansas city, even the fountains, as you can see behind me, are frozen. this part of that wide swath of arctic air you were talking about that is pushing south and east and breaking records just about everywhere. and here's the difference, as bill karins will probably tell us in a minute, we're not going to see any relief from this soon. it's not a two-day, not a three-day cold snap. it's going to continue into next week. and that's the problem. the cdc, in fact, issuing warnings about frostbite and hypothermia. here in the kansas city area, they've had four storms since early december. they're expecting 3 to 5 inches of snow later today, possible blizzard conditions. not what they want right now. let's go back to you, chris. >> thanks so much, janet. for standing out in the cold for us. let's go to nbc meteorologist bill karins for the weather channel forecast. bill, how long is this going to go on? >> chris, just to show you how serious this is, one of the most-searched terms on the internet yesterday was the term "frostbite," because so many people are worried about this. let's talk about arctic blast number two. that's going to follow our little mini snowstorm over the next few days. this cold will flow down from canada. it's minus 22 in yellow knife, minus 15 in edmonton. look at the forecast lows tomorrow, minus 20s up in the dakotas and montana. minus tens and teens and zeros plunging friday morning down towards kansas city. these windchills are going to be in the minus 30 to minus 40 range. finally it moderates by sunday into monday. chris, we're talking about what's going to end up being about a ten-day cold snap. and i think the windchills tomorrow are going to be worse than what we saw with the first one. very dangerous indeed. >> brutal. thanks so much, bill. we'll check back in with you throughout the day. check out this mcdonald's customer, not loving her order. surveillance video shows the woman throwing a mop bucket at a cash register because she wasn't happy about the way her sandwich was made. managers estimate the damage will cost about $3,000. now, as for that angry customer, she took off. police are still trying to find her. much more ahead on msnbc this hour. president obama's tough talk on terror. but can a tongue lashing alone fix a broken system? we'll ask a member of the house intelligence committee. a dangerous collision caught on camera. this morning, the effort to save a ship sinking in frigid waters. plus, coach, put me in. how a team assistant turned into a high school basketball hero. we'll show you how this one ends, next on msnbc. you might be missing something. with prego, it's all about the sauce. in a blind taste test, more people preferred prego over bertolli. the sweet and savory taste of prego. it's in there. it's my dry skin, and it's deep down uncomfortable. 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"endeavour's" liftoff scheduled for one month from tomorrow. and google is officially in the smartphone game. the internet giant trying its hand in the wireless market with the nexus one. it's as slim has a pencil, weighs as much as a great lighter, and has a surface area similar to a deck of cards. two days from now, the christmas day bomber, umar farouk abdulmutallab, will make his first appearance in court. and a few days from now, they'll begin looking into what the president called potentially disastrous screwups. mike rogers is on the intelligence committee and he is a former special agent with the fbi. congressman, thanks very much for joining us. >> chris, thanks for having me. >> i want to know what you felt about what the president had to say yesterday, because frankly we have been hearing it since 9/11. the intelligence didn't connect the dots. we have to do better. >> well, a couple things the president did do right on this. i he stopped the prisoners from gitmo from going to yemen. good idea. expansion of the no-watch, or, excuse me, the watch list, good idea. including more scrutiny to those, from those coming from about 16 different countries that we have great concerns over. but here's my biggest concern about where the president was at yesterday, chris. one of the things that they did from a policy perspective is change from an intelligence -- a pro-active intelligence approach, where we treat them like enemy combatants, to treating them like criminals from a federal law enforcement approach. and that has an impact on the way information is shared, on the speed that information is shared, and that was never mentioned yesterday, and it has to be a part of the review. the information that they had was waiting for another piece of information before it was disseminated. in an intelligence world, that would have just gone out and we would have followed up with the second piece of information. in a law enforcement structure, you have to wait until 100% of it is done, and we will make a serious mistake if we don't change that attitude that this is a law enforcement centered approach to the fight on terror. >> so who do you want to talk to most, and what questions do you want to ask? >> well, i want to talk to the cia, i want to talk to the analysts, and i want to also talk with the department of defense. this is part of a case that actually started before the shootings down at ft. hood. and it's all, unfortunately, connected, including the gentleman in yemen, awlaki, who was a u.s. citizen, holds dual passport in yemen, tied to all of these people. and we can try to blame it on an individual or just the system, but the policy change for all of those organizations is having a consequence. and some americans might think, no, it's still the right thing to do, even though we might have more of these type of incidents. or, i think, people would say, you know what, we need to treat them like enemy combatants. the first thing they did when this guy got off the plane in detroit, you have the right to remain silent and if you can't afford a lawyer, the people of the united states will pay for one for you. so that slows down the information to stop the next go-round of somebody else trying to get on a plane. we need to understand that. >> and the argument has been made that it should never get to the point that there should have to be security at the airport. if we do the intelligence right, then there's less chance that something is going to happen like happened on christmas day. but just we learn today, congressman, that the newark surveillance cameras weren't recording. we also learned just within the last hour that slovakian authorities actually put plastic explosives on a plane to test their own security and they made it all the way to dublin. how concerned are you, at this point, about airport security? >> well, i mean, listen, the bad guys -- and this is why this is so important. you know, guards, gates, and guns are not the only answer to security. they're always going to try to find a way around it. if you recall, chris, there was a pretty horrible breach of security when some of the procedures got leaked on the internet. and i'll guarantee you, bad guys got ahold of that. so we're always going to be trying to change the way we conduct security, improve technology at airports to keep up with the bad guys. that's why the component of being aggressive overseas, you don't want to catch this guy in amsterdam getting on a plane. you want to get him in yemen when he's at a training camp. and if we focus solely trying to get him in amsterdam getting on an airplane, we are missing the main part of what our problem is, and that is the training centers, the finance centers, and the intelligence side and the proactive intelligence side of how we approach security. we've got to have a good defense, where they live, breathe, and train as well as at the airport. so the airport training, yes, we're going to do some improvements. we're constantly going to be in the catch-up mode to what the bad guys are planning, but we avoid a lot of that by being more proactive in trying to find these guys, where they train. >> congressman rogers, thanks so much. we do appreciate your talking to us today. >> thanks, chris, i appreciate it. and straight ahead, new details about the death of a billionaire heiress. was she living a life of squalor before she died. and then iran's nuclear maze. the underground system that could make it nearly impossible for the rest of the world to know what's really going on. this is msnbc wednesday. 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>> reporter: well, it's got to be a matter of concern, chris. anytime you get members of congress coming back from a long break, spending time with their constituents, perhaps doing a little soul searching and then deciding, i am not going to run again. sure, everybody wants to spend time with their families, sure, these folks have been here for quite a long period of time, but there was no indication, earlier, that byron dorgan was not going to stand from re-election. he was from a red state of north dakota. it is represented by two democrats, including one democrat in the house of representatives. that would make three on capitol hill. and in connecticut, chris dodd was, you know, he's a very powerful member of congress. he's worked very hard to get where he is. chairman of several very important committees. he's calling it quits in the face of very bad polling numbers there. in addition, more bad news in colorado, where the democratic governor, bill ritter, is expected to announce that he will not run for re-election. the question on everybody's mind here in washington today, inside the beltway, is this another 1994, chris? two years after bill clinton, a democrat, was elected to the white house, democrats saw their majorities, their long-standing majority in the house of representatives, it went back to the 1950s, vanish in one election and significant losses in the senate as well, where republicans took over both houses of congress. the good news, as far as democrats can see, and yes, there is some concern, but they point out the fact there are actually more republican retirements right now in congress. and if anybody's poll numbers are lower than democrats right now, it's republicans and republicans have some internal problems of their own. >> six retirements? >> reporter: that's right. so there are some concern on the part of democrats, but they don't feel like the wheels are quite coming off the wagon yet. there is another ten months before the november midterm elections. >> we know how much can change in that time. thank you, mike. there's also word this morning that former tennessee congressman harold ford jr. may challenge kristen gillibrand in a democratic primary. ford, now an msnbc political analyst, would not confirm to "the new york times" report, but he did tell msnbc's "morning joe" he is being encouraged to run. >> there are some concerns about the current senator. no disrespect to the current senator. she's a friend. i'm actually a donor to her. but there are some across the city and the state that are concerned that her leadership is not as strong, is not as independent as it should be. >> now, if ford does get back into the game, he may have an uphill battle. one recent poll shows senator gillibrand holds a 25-point lead over him in a four-way democratic showdown. the u.s. is plotting its next move after iran ignored president obama's year-end deadline to suspend its nuclear program and restart diplomatic talks. while a military strike is clearly a last resort, new information indicates it might not even work. experts tell "the new york times" tehran is hiding more and more of its nuclear program in a vast network of underground tunnels across the country. nbc's jim miklaszewski is live at the pentagon for us. what do we know, mick? >> reporter: u.s. military and u.s. intelligence agencies have known for some time that the iranians have been concealing and deep-burying much of their nuclear program to try to shield it from any kind of military strikes, either by the u.s. or israel. the big question is, what is the u.s. or israel going to do about it in the short-term? of course, the obama administration is pushing the u.n. to enact even stiffer sanctions against iran to try to get them to abandon their nuclear weapons program. but even secretary of state hillary clinton said attempts by the obama administration to reach out and open dialogue with iran has been a dismal failure. so there aren't any great expectations, actually, for any stiffer sanctions that would actually force iran to turn around its efforts in building a nuclear weapon. so then the question is, what would the u.s. do about it? as you said, a military strike would be the last resort. israel may be prone to do that. the problem there is, according to u.s. officials, is that any strikes against iran would throw that region into political military chaos, but more importantly, economic chaos worldwide, because oil prices would be expected to go through the roof, chris? >> and mick, the pentagon has been developing this tunnel-busting bomb, but do we know where that program stands? >> well, you know, it's a 30,000-pound bunker-buster bomb that has ten times the explosive power of the bunker-buster that they have now, which penetrates deep into the earth, and then explodes well below the earth's surface to get at those deeply hidden facilities in places like both iran and north korea. that bomb probably won't be available until about december of 2010. and even then, it's unlikely, as we had discussed earlier, that the u.s. would be the first to launch any air strikes against iran. it would most likely be israel. and it depends on how far along iran is in its nuclear weapons program as to whether israel will actually take that step. >> understood. thanks so much, jim. >> okay, chris. tehran is accusing some 60 organizations of being behind demonstrations aimed at undermining the iranian government. among them, they say, yale university. because of the decision, iranians are barred from taking money from the university or signing contracts from it. the rest of the list includes several d.c. think tanks and media organizations like the persian wing of the bbc and voice of america. now, back to that deep freeze gripping much of the nation. for the south, forecasters say snow, ice, and near-zero temperatures are possible all week from south carolina to louisiana. in georgia, fields are frozen and it's in the teens today with no end in sight, a possible second cold front is on the way. the weather channel's mike seidel joins us now live from atlanta. what can you tell us about what looks like a frigid forecast? >> reporter: that's right, chris. don't you wish you were back in sunny southern california? yeah, here in atlanta today, our high temperature's in the mid-30s. that's about 20 degrees below average. and although we're not setting records, it's the extent of the cold, how long it's lasted. this is five days in a row in the 30s. and we'll stretch that out more than likely into the first of the week. we have another reinforcing shot of cold air coming in. take a look at the forecast lows for tomorrow morning. and that doesn't even give you the windchill. kansas city, des moines, those areas out in the plains will have windchills tomorrow 20 to 30 below zero in the morning. will have snowfall coming in with the arctic front, 6 to 10 inches around milwaukee and chicago, another storm there. then that front will blow on through the south. an inch or two of snow, memphis to nashville. a little bit of snow here in atlanta. and chris, once again, this air mass will penetrate through the florida keys, getting have been colder the weekend mornings for those crops down in florida. we had a record low this morning around miami, near 40 degrees. that's cold for those folks. >> yeah, no kidding. >> back to you in new york. >> thanks so much, mike. >> yes. it is a busy wednesday here on msnbc. coming up next hour, 2010 in 3-d, from your tv to the big screen, we're going inside the entertainment of the future. then at 2:00 p.m. eastern, watch what you say. should it be a crime to insult your partner? we'll have that debate. and straight ahead, michael steele under fire, this time from his own party. the rnc chair defends his claim that 2010 might not be the year for republicans. this is msnbc. see. they remove 2 times more dirt and make-up than basic cleansing. for a deep clean feeling, deep cleansers from olay. rheumatoid arthritis going? they're discovering the first self-injectable ra medicine it's simponi,™ and taken with methotrexate, and swelling of ra with one dose a month. visit 4simponi.com to see if you qualify for a full year of cost support. simponi™ can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. serious and sometimes fatal events can occur, such as infections, cancer in children and adults, heart failure, nervous system disorders, liver or blood problems, and allergic reactions. before starting simponi,™ your doctor should test you for tb and assess your risk of infections, including fungal infections and hepatitis b. ask your doctor if you've been to a region where certain fungal infections are common. tell your doctor if you're prone to infections, or develop symptoms such as fever, fatigue, cough, or sores. you should not start simponi™ if you have an infection. 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>> david, david. we now know the identity of that third person he was talking about who crashed the white house dinner last month. his name was carlos allen, a local event planner who slipped in with members of the indian delegation. his lawyer says he has met several times with the secret service to talk about that breach of security. michael steele has had a change of heart when it comes to his party's elections in the midterm elections. here's what he said on monday. >> do you think you can take over the house? >> not this year. sean, i'll say honestly -- >> you don't think so? >> i don't know. i don't know who all the candidates -- we still have some vacancies that need to get filled. but the question we need to ask ourselves, if we do that, are we ready? >> then in a statement, the gop tried to distance itself from steele's prediction and he backtracked when "hardball's" chris matthews asked about the republicans' chances. >> i feel very good about next fall and i'm excited and ready to rock 'n' roll. >> let me restate the question that sean put to you. can you -- it isn't will you, he said, can you win the house this year? can you, mr. chairman, win the house? >> yes, we can. >> okay, so you have a different answer. >> the politico's andy bard joins us now. democrats like to think this means there's a lot of gop infighting going on. is that the case? >> there certainly was some infighting yesterday after steele says they can't win. that was a pretty quick change of heart by him, though. i mean, the national committee in charge of congressional campaigns put out a statement, you know, saying, essentially, we play to win the game, regardless of what the chairman says, we're out there trying to win the majority. and i think any good coach or anything else would say, you put your best foot forward, say that you're going to win, and there's no such thing of like setting expectations this early in the game. so i think a lot of republicans stunned yesterday when he said that he didn't think that they could win the majority. >> and he also ruffled some republican feathers when he was asked whether the republicans were ready to lead if they did regain control of the house. >> yeah. and he said he didn't know. i mean, that's not a very confident answer from the leader of the party. you know, the guy who likes to call himself the leader of the party, not just the chairman. so i think a lot of people are taking a step back. michael steele has said a lot of strange things and somehow manages to survive and the republicans have had a lot of victories and of late, i mean, last night they had some good news, so that overshadows some of this stuff. >> another interesting report you had, he's courting some of these tea party groups? >> that's right. he's reached out to a lot of these guys, working with dick armey, head of freedomworks, they did a conference call together last month, and he said if he wasn't chairman of the party, he would be at the rallies, organizing the groups. it's one thing to say you want them in the party, another to say that, i am one of you. >> andy, thanks for coming on. now to other stories we're keeping on our radar this morning. in just a few minutes, house democratic leaders will get together for a huddle on health care. then they'll head to the white house this afternoon to talk to the president about getting a bill passed by his state of the union address. at noon eastern, conservative commentator rush limbaugh will be back on the air. he returns to his radio show after being in the hospital. and at 1:00 p.m. eastern time, governor arnold schwarzenegger will lay out the dire financial situation in california. his annual state of the state address comes while he grapples with a $21 billion budget gap, unemployment topping 12%. fat fighters are enlisting new technology to help with the battle of the bulge. to get an inside look at your eating and exercise habits, scientists are actually developing wearable wireless sensors that would monitor the daily activity of overweight people. the devices are designed to keep track of how many minutes you work out, how much food you consume, even where you're getting your food from. nbc news chief medical editor, dr. nancy snyderman joins me in the studio. how high-tech are we getting here? >> it's cool stuff. i've seen this stuff firsthand and in fact tried something that phillips was showing. and it was really a movement sensor. you wear it around your neck and it can tell, but how you're walking or moving how much -- how many calories you're spending. and it sort of translates into everything that you do through the day. you plug it into your computer and you sync yourself, so you can see your metabolic rate, what you're burning, what you're eating, and it's way beyond just sort of calories in, calories out. the technology is going to keep moving forward. the question will be, can we solve obesity through technology? i think it's really, at least, an innovative attempt. >> one of the things, at least, that it does. even those of us who think that we really watch very carefully and follow what we're eating, how much we're exercising. when new york city decided they were going to post calorie counts and fat grams, i was shocked at, honestly, how misinformed i was -- >> the stuff that's in there. >> absolutely. the things you think are healthy -- and when people figure out what they ate today, day do it in the evening. i have an app on my iphone, i can plug in everything i eat as i eat, and i have a bar, in the green zone, or in the red zone. i like that. because it's easier for me than putting something on a piece of paper. but that's sort of rudimentary technology now. you can check your heart rate, your respiratory rate, your basal metabolic rate, figure out what kind of calories you're burning. it can even keep tabs on you when you're ordering food. it can tell where you're ordering, if it's right for you. it's almost like a big brother sensor in some ways. and that is going to be the interesting technology. can parents start to monitor their teenage kids? we're used to go it in cars. we know there are gadgets you can put that will send back to parents' computers, your kids went over the 55-mile-an-hour speed limit today. your kid, we can tell there was an alcohol odor in the car. we have ways of monitoring other behavior. now, watch for calories and fat. >> where was it when i was eating that cheeseburger and fries, as if i needed it to tell me that was bad. >> exactly. >> thank you, dr. nancy. >> you bet. much more to come this hour. shopping to save the economy. we'll see if a recovery is coming. plus, tennis star andy rodick makes it into our hot shots this morning. wait until you find out why. well, there you can see a little bit of it. it can go from a scratchy throat in the morning. to a cough. to a full body ache... at night. new tylenol cold rapid release gels day and night work fast too. they release medicine fast to relieve painful coughs, congestion and sore throats. so you can rest, day and night. feel better, tylenol cold. accidents can happen, but with liberty mutual's new car replacement, if your new car is totaled within the first year, we'll give you the money to buy a brand-new car. and with our accident forgiveness, an accident won't cause your price to go up when you renew. if you qualify, you could save an average of $345. these are just two of our valuable features available to all qualifying drivers. plus, those who switch to liberty mutual save an average of 20.6% over their prior policy. because doing the right thing isn't just for responsible drivers. it's for responsible car insurers, too. that's our policy. find out how much you could save. call us directly at... new numbers out today show it was a happier holiday season for retailers in 2009. there's a new report from mastercard. sales climbed 3.6% compared to 2008. consumer spending makes up about two-thirds of the economy so very important. and payroll giant adp reports 84,000 private sector jobs last month but that's actually the lowest job loss since march of 2008. the main unemployment number comes out friday. cnbc's personal finance expert joins us now. good to see you. >> hello, chris. >> i want to look at exactly what this means because sales were up. we have to look it at the fact that it's compared to what was a dismal year the year before. >> it was horrible. december 2008 was the worst holiday sales in decades and that 3.6% number, if you throw in the one extra shopping day between thanksgiving and christmas, up only 1%. >> oh, that's not good. >> it's a lot better than losing, so we have had a little bit of gains especially in electronics, online sales up, footwear. we buy shoes in recession. that's up 6.5%. but a lot of the retailers, women's clothing sales, way down this year. >> let's look at the unemployment rate, again, it's not great news if you just look at it by itself but it is moving in the right direction. >> that's the thing, unemployment and consumer spending really go hand-in-hand especially in this recession. we're seeing consumeers this time are really continuing to be very, very distinct about where they spend money because they're concerned about unemployment. until the job numbers start coming back, which we need to see at least a quarter of a million jobs added before the american public decides, okay, now we can spend a little more, we feel more comfortable, we can get a job. >> always good to see you, carmen. now today's "hotshots." the videos that caught our eye. first some acrobatic firefighters in japan. when they're not on the front lines, they're hundreds of feet in the air performing high-flying stunts. we love these stories. a high school basketball team assistant hits the court and then, look at the three-pointer. david stillman is a special education student who tried out for the team his freshman year, didn't make the cut. the coach said he wanted to give david one shot on the hardwood before he graduated. boy, did he make the most of it. and this is arguably the strangest. tennis star andy roddick, nice guy being interviewed in australia but look at what's happening behind him. those are two koalas saying, well, getting a little personal. roddick appears oblivious to the sideshow that's happening behind him, clearly he's oblivious. and that's going to do it for me this hour. i'm chris jansing in new york. the alex witt will be sitting here to continue our coverage next hour. wwe executive susan mcmahon will join us. she was planning to go up against senator chris dodd for his senate seat. what will she do now? and will ed schulz run for retiring senator byron dorgan's seat? he'll join us with news on that front. alex will also have more on the story we just broke at the top of the hour, unbelievable, slovak officials calling it an unprofessional mistake. they planted hidden explosives in the bag of an unsuspecting flyer. what were they thinking and how did the passenger make it all the way to dublin? bring it. 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what does it mean to the state of the democratic party? >> he's been a great democrat, a great servant of the people of connecticut. the polls are going to be tough to overcome. it would take a great deal of energy for him to come back and win again. i think he's being a realist. he can come back knowing he has served this kcountry well, has done a lot for the people of connecticut. he's had issues with the country wide thing which of course the ethics committee exonerated him from any wrongdoing, sometimes things like that hang for you. it's been a tough year for chris dodd. he lost a family member member. he lost his best friend, ted kennedy. when you're down in the polls by double digits, by a couple of different candidates, it takes a lot of energy to rebound from that and to get the victory so maybe this is a bless iing in disguise because the longtime attorney general in connecticut very popular, very aggressive, has been on the side of the people when it comes to the banking issue and going after the credit card abuse that's taken place. so he is going to be a real tough democrat to beat. >> given chris dodd's senior position, though, in terms of the economy, the banking committee of this country, how does this affect the economic recovery? does it change it in any way? >> well, the democrats in 2010 are going to get a lot of pressure to put pressure on wall street, pressure from their base to show they want to change and they want to hold people accountable so this is going to be a heavy lift and this is where chris dodd would be certainly needed in 2010 and in future years because he is for reform and he is trying to make things right for consumers and so i really think that in a sense this is a loss with his experience being gone but when you look in the totality of it and the realism of holding that seat, this is probably a blessing in disguise. the man has had a great career and he has a lot of great things ahead of him if he chooses to continue in public service. >> okay. we're going to get to lyinda mcmahon shortly and ask her thoughts considering she has made the gop run in connecticut. can we get your thoughts on the most interesting phone call you had regarding the retirement of senator byron dorgan of north dakota? >> he has been a four-year public servant, a man i have admiration, a real influence on my career and i love the guy. i mean, he is a fighter for the middle class. he's a union supporter. he's been on the forefront of indian issues in this country. he's done a lot for the working folk of america. he has spoke truth to power throughout his entire career, been a fighter for the middle class. this man is going to be a tremendous loss. there is no baggage there. he's as clean as they come. he's as reputable as they come. he's as honest as they come. he's been a real populist and a fighter for the people. this is -- i know chris dodd is an east coast senator from connecticut, but byron dorgan's leaving the senate is a huge loss for the democrats. and he was head of the democratic policy committee. he's been a strong voice. it's emotional. this is a tough call. i spoke to byron last night. and it's a tough call for him. he's 67 years old. he knows he can win again in north dakota despite what the polls are showing right now against the sitting governor and three-time winner of that seat. but he says, ed, if i do this, it's seven more years. >> right. >> and i want to do other things in my life after 40 years of public service. and i also think that he's not done. i mean, i think byron dorgan would be a great cabinet member for barack obama. in a sense this really strengthens the bench of the obama administration, number one, for an independent voice on what to do. i know earlier this year byron dorgan went in and told president obama it's not health care right now. it's jobs. and they had a pleasant disagreement. and byron dorgan voted against glass steagall, against the bailout on wall street. he's been right on a lot of stuff. >> hang on to this topic. i'm going to ask you about the call you made. you skirted that one. speaking of calls, we have linda mcmahon right now who is joining us on the phone. good morning to you, ma'am. can you hear me? >> yes, i can. >> all right. so christopher dodd bowing out. what does this mean for you and your candidacy? >> it absolutely doesn't change my candidacy at all. i think the election had started to center around senator dodd. cle clearly i'm running as an outsider and not as a career politician for this race. i think washington needs new faces and new blood. people with real-life experience because we've got to get our economy back on track and create jobs. and that's the strength that i bring to the table and i think that attorney general blumenthal has provided good service for our state, but i think he's also a career politician and washington needs a change. >> and he is the man whom you may be opposing because according to "roll call" word has come out he is going to be running for that seat as the democrat. how does that affect your campaign plan, not going against the incumbent chris dodd and up against potentially the attorney general of the state? >> it doesn't change my campaign plan or my strategy at all because as i said, clearly i'm running against the status quo and business as usual in washington. and i think what i've heard as i've traveled the state of connecticut is that our citizens really want a change, and they want people who are not career politicians to be in that job. so that's my goal. i'm going to continue to travel around the state of connecticut, let people shake my hand, look me in the eye, ask me questions and determine for themselves if i'm the candidate that they want to be their voice in the senate. >> linda mcmahon, we thank you for your time on msnbc as always. good luck. we'll speak with you again certainly. >> thank you. >> we're going back to ed right now because you got a pretty important phone call and what did they ask of you? >> last night when senator dorgan was talking to me, he asked me how old i was. and i went, uh-oh. >> this is not for a birthday card. >> i did get a phone call this morning from the house democratic leader, merrill boucher, and he asked me to consider a run for the senate seat in the state of north dakota. i asked him very point blank is this an official ask. he said, yes, it is. i'm flattered. i'm honored. i can't say that i'm even considering it right now. i've worked awful hard in my career to get to where i am right now. i've invested a lot of years to get the microphone, to have an opportunity to advocate for the middle class in this country. i'm in a different place right now. so we're a long way from any consideration. we're a long way from any kind of decision. i'm definitely flattered and honored by the phone call to be considered by someone of his stature. there are some great democrats in this state. the polls right now are showing john hogan to be strong as a three-time elected governor. i must say i personally think he's vulnerable in a lot of areas. i think he would be easily challenged in a lot of areas. it's going to be very intriguing but at this point i'm not even at the point of consideration. we're a long way from that. >> i'm sure you'll be doing a little bit that have consideration at 7:00 when your show is off the air. i think it will take a bit of time. >> i do have a lot of friends in the senate and i have a lot of friends around the country and i've bull pen an advocate for a long time. >> this makes your energy this evening even more interesting as you will have on your show tonight. you'll be interviewing democratic senator byron dorgan about his announcement and we'll see what comes up with that. we'll be tuning in at 6:00. thank you so much. all of you make sure to tune into ed's show at 6:00. we'll see you then. another democrat is calling it quits. bill ritter is expected to announce he will not run for re-election this fall. ritter says his job was taking a toll on his family and so he could not be successful as father and husband while running for governor. ritter was elected in a landslide in 2006. we are now following a story coming out of slovakia that would be tough to understand at any time but particularly stunning in the wake of the christmas terror plot. slovak authorities planted real explosives in nine passengers' bags without telling them across the board, just random bags. let's get to tom costello from washington, d.c. tom, some of these things got caught. one did not? >> reporter: one went through all the way to dublin. an unsuspecting passenger had plastic explosives in his bag, three ounces of it. he went all the way to dublin onboard this plane which just started service from slovakia to dublin, picked up his bag and went to apparently an apartment in dublin. again, unsuspecting, unwitting, he wasn't a terrorist. and they waited three days before they notified the dublin authorities this had happened. irish police immediately went to this apartment block, locked it all down. they brought in the irish army to have a bomb disposal unit on the scene and they finally grabbed this plastic explosive which we are told was not dangerous. there was no detonator. now the slovaks have apologized to the irish. they have apologized to this man who they put this plastique in his bag without telling him and they have some explaining to do. what they were trying to do was test their own system back in slovakia. their dogs got eight of nine pieces of the plastic explosive. one got through all the way to dublin and now everybody has a lot of explaining to do. it should have never made its way on to dublin. you would think somebody would have picked up a phone and called dublin and said, hey, by the way, we screwed up. you have plastic explosives. they didn't do that. >> yeah, you would think. didn't happen. someone's head is going to roll there. that's for sure. tom costello, thank you. happening right now on capitol hill, house leaders are holding a meeting on health care legislation. president obama is urging congress to get him a final bill as soon as possible and he's even urging the two chambers to bypass the usual negotiations in order to get things moving along. house and senate democrats will be heading to the white house this afternoon around 2:00 p.m. for more health care talks. so how low can it go? temperatures are so cold in parts of our country that normally don't freeze. we're going to be feeling it in our wallets at the check-out line at the grocery store. a community outside of tampa is known for its annual strawberry festival. i hope you like them cold. the weather channel's julie martin is live in plant city, a very good morning to you. is that frost on those plants? >> reporter: alex, it's not so much the strawberries, the mature fruit they're worried about, it's the blossoms that are frozen and they're frozen on purpose. the farmers have been putting water on them. it helps keep the heat trapped inside when it does get below freezing. it's a tactic they use every year to prevent against devastation. they say this one is a little bit different. this freeze is lasting not just a couple of days. it's lasting five, six days so they are very worried here. there's about $400,000 of crops at stake here in plant city and strawberries alone not to mention the florida citrus crop which is going through the same problem. oranges, grape fruits, tangerines, about a $9 billion industry this is about midway through harvest season as well. so as you can imagine a lot of very nervous farmers. temperatures are cold today. they will be below freezing tomorrow night into tomorrow morning and then friday we'll warm up just a bit before the next big arctic blast comes in and then it will get even colder here, alex. the farmers say they battle this every year but never to this extent so it's a wait and see, unfortunately. it's a wait and see at the grocery store as well. alex? >> going to be a pricey price for strawberries. julie martin, thank you very much. coming up, president obama criticizes the intelligence community for not preventing what he called a screwup that could have been disastrous. but will the tongue lashing have any impact? we're going to ask a former cia agent about that. plus, pope benedict holds mass at st. peter's basilica today. there was something different about today's mass. also, this lady not so happy with her happy meal. we're going to tell what you she did about it next. really great flavor. i love the taste. hmmm. hmmm. smooth. rich. fabulous. is it "hmmm?" hmmm. (announcer) taste why maxwell house is good to the last drop. transform drinks you want, into cold medicine you need. introducing fast crystal packs. a new way from alka-seltzer plus to... get cold and flu relief in a taste-free, fizz-free powder. alka-seltzer plus. it appears someone was not so happy with their happy meal, so take a look at this surveillance video. it shows a woman throwing a bucket of mop water at the restaurant's employees and then also at the cash register. she was reportedly upset about the way her sandwich was made. no employees or customers were hurt. police are trying to locate the woman. president obama is putting the blame squarely on u.s. intelligence for failing to put together key pieces of information he says should have led them to would-be bomber abdulmutallab. >> it turns out our intelligence community knew of other red flags, that al qaeda in the arabian peninsula sought to strike not only american targets in yemen but the united states itself. and we had information that this group was working with an individual who was known -- who we now know was, in fact, the individual involved in the christmas attack. >> jack rice is former cia special agent. jack joins me now. good morning, jack. >> great to be with you. >> so it's not so much a problem of gathering the intelligence if it's disseminating it, sharing it, is that the problem? >> i totally agree. the president was absolutely right. we can go back to 9/11 and we had the same problem. we spent a trillion dollars and we still have the same problem. the president is right to be outraged. >> okay, seriously we have the same problem after 9/11? what can we do to fix this? >> well, that's really the issue. we're talking about spending more money, yes, but the problem is still this sort of approach which is -- it's my stuff and it can't be my stuff. it's not just about acquiring information anymore. it has to be pushing it out. >> i thought that was eradicated. i thought the obvious nature of 9/11 was that there were not enough sharing of information and that was gone away. who is persisting in this mentality? >> well, it cuts a couple of ways. it's going to be the cia on one sense. nsa and fbi has had problems, too. they were supposed to take all of this stuff and put it together but, you know what, if people don't provide it to them, then, you know what, that is the failure. that's why it was human and systemic as well. >> jack, is there any concern that it's also people get the information -- they look at it, they don't attack it the way they should, they put it off to the side. >> yes. i mean, that's part of the human problem here, alex. what happens is sometimes it's about it's my stuff -- i'll hold on until i figure out what's going on so i can get the credit. i think that's a piece of this. it's also about looking at this and saying if i don't under it, here is what i'm going to do. i'm going to push it to the rest of the community because there are others who may. you may lose credit for that. so what. in the end it's not about you gaining or not gaining credit. it's about the entire country being safer so, you're right, the president's right. >> can i ask you real quick about what you think about the slovakian authorities planting those devices in the bags, one of them getting on to dublin? >> all i know is i don't want to be the guy with c-4 in my bag. >> right. >> i'm amazed that slovakia would actually do this. the irish should be outraged by this. frankly, this is one of the problems even the americans have. how do you reach out worldwide and convince the nigerians, those in a.msterdam, those in slovakia, those in ireland to all play by the same rules. this is one of the struggles that the americans have on a worldwide basis to have sort of consistent rulings on how we do the things that we do and if you're rolling c-4 into somebody's bag, trust me, i'm sure i'm not doing that from cleveland to hoboken. >> jack rice, good to see you. >> thank you. take care. coming up, why the white house is upset over a picture of first lady michelle obama. ♪ walgreens invites you to stay well this new year. ♪ with the centers for disease control and prevention saying... that vaccination is still your best protection, walgreens and take care clinics... now offer h1n1 flu vaccinations... every day at our more than 7000 locations nationwide... for just $18.00. so stop in today. walgreens. there's a way to stay well. eel fraud or identity theft only happens to other people, then don't bother watching this commercial. i've taken precautions all my life to protect my identity. i've been in law enforcement all my life... and my identity was stolen. did you know that identity theft has topped... the federal trade commission's list of consumer complaints... for the last eight years? 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uh, the cold war ended. [ man ] pluto's no longer a planet. culture club broke up. the berlin wall came down. wait. the club broke up? i never saw them live. that was too soon. what have i done? [ male announcer ] we understand. you need it there fast. fedex ground. developing now, we're expecting to hear from connecticut senator chryistophe dodd about 90 minutes from now on his plan not to seek a sixth term in office. joining us from hartford a republican congressman rob simmons. he is seeking the gop nomination in the connecticut senate race and a good morning to you. >> good morning and happy new year to your watchers. >> i appreciate that. i'm sure the watchers do, too. let's get right to this new news and how it affects your campaign. the does it? >> well, first and foremost i think it's important to thank senator dodd and his family for their service to the state and to the country. he's been in the senate for almost 30 years and the house of representatives for another six. and i think it's important that we give appreciation to that fact. that being said, the rumors about him not running and retiring have been around for a while, and so we have -- we have planned for that and i think that just because you change the face, you don't change the race. it's really the issues that have people upset here in connecticut and elsewhere. deficits, high spending, weakness on national security. these are the issues that i've been running on for the past year and will continue to run on. >> and those issues you're going to have to put front and center against linda mcmahon with whom we spoke it at the top of this hour. she's already spending millions of her money. is that going to be a factor in this campaign? >> well, i've always tried to seek my party nomination and tried to seek the support of the electorate by presenting myself, my position on the issues, my background and experience and not simply trying to buy support. and that's what i will continue to do. i look forward to working hard to seek my party's nomination. we will have the convention in may, and at this point we're well positioned to win the convention. >> okay. if you are the gop senate n nominee there from connecticut, you may be facing the current attorney general bloomen that will who has announced he will be running for the seat from the democratic perspective. what's going to be your biggest challenge if you face him? what are going to be the big campaign talking points? >> well, i think the biggest challenge is actually going to be to the attorney general. he has had a relatively comfortable run as attorney general here in the state of connecticut. he has not been in a tough race for many years. i've been in a whole bunch of tough races. i am up on the issues. i think i'm right on the issues. i'm a fiscal conservative. i think we're spending toochl in washington. i think that we're weak on national defense, and it seems to me that attorney general blo bloomenthal is going to continue. >> all right. former connecticut republican congressman rob simmons who is announcing he will be running for the connecticut senate race. thank you very much. best of luck. we look forward to speaking with you. >> thank you. and of course msnbc will carry senator dodd's announcement live happening at noon eastern time right here on msnbc, the place for politics. we'll break this down with strategists in just a moment. right now we have developing news from the pakistan border where 13 people have bull peen d by u.s. missiles. the first struck a house and the second struck a same site as locals were retrieving bodies from the rubble. accord i according to nbc a third missile had also hit that strike and we'll get more about that coming up shortly. let's get some new information coming out about the can you believe double agent who attacked the base in afghanistan killing seven officers. "morning joe's" joe scarborough got information from his own source moments after the bomber arrived at camp chapman. >> the minute he got on the base and got out of the car, they knew something was wrong. he had his hand in his pocket, three security guards started approaching him and saying, get your hand out of your pocket, take it out of your pocket. >> and you can see this on the tape. >> and here's some breaking news. i haven't seen this report anywhere else. a tape exists of this explosion. >> wow. >> it is a gruesome scene. you can see the three agents going after him, he detonates it. there's an explosion. there were actually some people behind the car that were shielded from the blast, who is your vifd. one of those people, the number two cia official in afghanistan. >> the female commander of that cia base who had been tracking osama bin laden for well over a decade was one of those killed in the blast. all right. we're going back to politics in terms of connecticut state. the decision by senators dodd and dorgan to retire has put the 60-seat majority in jeopardy. i'm joined now by those strategists, democratic strategist republican strategist david winston. gentlemen, good morning. >> good morning. >> happy new year. >> glad to hear that from both of you. is it going to be a happy new year for the democrats? are they worried about the announcements? >> it's tough for incumbents, republican or democrat, in 2010 because the economy hasn't recovered. unemployment is still hovering around 10%. the democrats have two retired seats now with dorgan and dodd. republicans have six. so from that standpoint there are more open seats the republicans have to defend but it's going to be -- as i said, i think it's a tough season to run as an incumbent with the economy still not fully recovered. >> okay. well, david, does this make it -- there are no republican incumbents, this is a prime opportunity to make gains with either linda mcmahon or rob simmons? >> if i may, i think because of the economy and given how this has turned into barack obama's economy, this is going to be more problems for democratic incumbents. but i think in the connecticut race, bizarrely enough, dodd's retirement probably improves democratic chances in terms of that state. if dodd had been the candidate, i think there was a very good chance we would easily win that seat with either simmons or mcmahon. now with the new democratic candidate this may go from a one republican, say, to a tossup situation. the dorgan dynamic was just a gift for republicans. that's a seat that we're likely to win. we have a great candidate and governor there, so that was, to me, the surprise yesterday and that's a real game changer. >> peter, do you agree about north dakota? do you think that's going to be the republican seat to pick up? you heard that msnbc's ed schultz was called just as an fyi to run, to consider it. >> that's interesting. yeah, north dakota will be tough. i agree with david but i also don't agree about connecticut. i think connecticut now is a cinch for the democrats. democrats should hold the seat. there are other seats and, you know, there's no such thing as predicting this 11 months out. i think it's going to be an interesting political season. democrats, the incumbent party as david says, does historically suffer defeats in a midterm election but we'll see. >> i want to ask both of you about colorado governor bill ritter. this is a guy elected overwhelmingly in a landslide in 2006. my, how things have changed in colorado. what happened there, peter? >> i don't know much about ritter personally. i'm a little surprised that he didn't stay in and run for re-election. i don't know what the unemployment numbers are in colorado, what the economy looks like. but, again, i do believe there is an impatience in the country for change and i think they look at anybody who is in office and say they can't measure any results in their first terrell. a guy like ritter probably thought he was vulnerable. >> david, what do you think about that? is this the kind of sentiment in the state of colorado that may be extrapolated out beyond colorado, the different states? will we see changes at the head of state as well? >> i'm not sure in terms of whether we're going to see other democratic governors decide not to run. what this does reflect and peter is somewhat nervous about this in the democratic party are democrats sitting in republican seats or sitting in competitive situations going to start retiring as opposed to trying to hold the seats? and we see with both dorgan and ritter yesterday, i mean, that seems to send a signal that may, in fact, occur. and as peter would agree, the worst thing you want to have when you're an incumbent party is to have a whole bunch of seats in difficult races and that's the dynamic that p potentially they may be facing and was yesterday just beginning this watershed moment. we'll see. >> okay. david winston, peter, thanks for weighing in. appreciate that. yemeni forces have surrounded the home of an al qaeda leader and picked up several militants they say were linked to a plot against the u.s. embassy. those are the latest developments in a major offensive designed to crack down on al qaeda there. richard engel is live from the capital city of sanaa inside of yemen. richard, good morning to you. what's the latest on this offensive and what's the rule of the u.s. in all of it? >> reporter: the u.s. is providing some support. the u.s. role is one that's seen as very sensitive here. in fact, the foreign minister of yemen says today that he does not want to see any american troops on the ground. no direct or intervention. they do want to, however, see more counterterrorism support, more equipment, more helicopters, more intelligence and today yemen said it is continuing its offensive and announced the arrest of three more relatively junior al qaeda members that it says were involved in a plot over the weekend to try and attack u.s. and other western embassies here in sanaa. that plot disrupted, which allowed the u.s. embassy to reopen. other embassies are starting to partially reopen their doors, resume services on a limited basis. >> and, richard, yemen has dispatched, what, 10,000 security forces. is it just in these particular provinces or is it countrywide? >> it is in three provinces right now and i've been told the number is closer to 11,000, and they are in three of the most difficult provinces in the country where the government has had very little control. i was just shown a map earlier today showing areas of yemen where al qaeda does have a presence. they were -- it was quite a large swath of territory, particularly in the east. a lot of the border land with saudi arabia. so it is a large part of this country that the government is now trying to retake and where it needs to regain control. >> nbc's chief foreign correspondent richard engel. richard, thank you. well, england is seeing its two princes in a twhoel new way today in this double portrait. it shows princes william and harry wearing their dress uniform for the queen's birthday parade in 2008. people are lining up to see the display at the national portrait gallery in london. the artist says it is a great ho honor to be asked to paint the princes. still ahead, asap, president obama wants the final health care bill on his desk as soon as possible. what democrats are planning to do to make that happen. plus, you've seen 3d movies and some commercials on tv. could freaky become the norm? 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"s" stands for straightforward. as in up-front, honest... total transparency. straightforward is the way td ameritrade does business. simple, fair pricing. no hidden account fees. no shenanigans. just good value. real help. smart people who are easy to work with. that's what td ameritrade stands for. what does your investment firm stand for? it's time for fresh thinking. it's time for td ameritrade. house democrats are meeting as we speak preparing for an afternoon sitdown with the president around 2:00 p.m. he'll be joined by members of the house and senate where he will urmg urge them to finish the bill asap even if it means bypassing typical negotiations. it appears the house will work off the senate's version as opposed to hashing out differences in committee. that's a process the white house hopes can can be done in weeks instead of months. it also means big issues like the public option will likely die behind closed doors. ceci connolly for "the washington post," good morning. >> alex, good morning. >> so nancy pelosi, how upset is she about the kind of thing the public option likely disappearing, something upon which she said we will have a public option? >> well, house speaker nancy pelosi is nothing if not a realist and a very pragmatic politician. that's how she got to where she is today. and, alex, we've been following this saga of the public option for many, many months now. and certainly the indications for quite some time have been that there weren't the votes for it in the senate. we saw speaker pelosi in order to get the bill through the house in november already start to make some compromises on the public option. we hear her now saying things about there may be other ways to keep the pressure on the insurance industry. so you can see that she is positioning to accept more of a compromise. the challenge for her is going to be selling it to some of those real true believer liberals in her caucus because she needs them for the 218 votes. >> you know, ceci, among the things the speaker is saying, it appears speaker pelosi took a shot at the president when asked about the transparency issue on tuesday. let's take a listen here. >> wrote a letter to mr. lam, you could have this process be transparent. >> really? there are a number of things. there has never been a more open process for any legislation in anyone here's experience. >> do you read anything there, ceci, as to the nature of relations between the house speaker and the president right now? >> my guess, alex, is that overall they're just fine but that the speaker is reflecting some of the real frustration in that house caucus. i can tell you that many house democrats feel as if they're just sort of taken for granted because, as we know, speaker pelosi has more of a cushion. she has more of a margin when it comes to passing this bill through her body than harry reed does over in the senate where he literally only has the 58 democrats and the two independents to get him to 60. so there's a little bit of that frustration. you know, it was kind of a quip. i don't take it as serious rift by any means but certainly a little bit of a reminder to the white house of don't just take us for granted. >> you know, ceci, given the enormity of what we're dealing with with health care and the fact the president is asking this to be rushed along theoretically so something is on his desk prior to the state of the union address in early february or so, is that wise? i mean, long term, considering all this wouldn't even get going until 2014, really the benefits of this health plan overall, might it not be wise to let this thing go through the transparency, get this done that way so that in hindsight there won't be a lot of people pointing fingers? >> i think that the white house has known all along and the reason we've heard this sense of urgency from the white house from the very beginning is that they understand the way that washington works. they understand that there are so many other issues out there. we've seen the president's political popularity and his polling numbers decline so that he has less political capital to ex penpend on this health care e now and he has so many other big problems that he's confronting. we're now into that 2010 midterm election season. as ufd been discussing this morning, a number of democrats now are retiring, so there are so many other things to juggle. they realize that the reality of washington is if they don't finish it up quickly, it may not get done. >> ceci connolly with "the washington post," always good to talk with you. >> thank you. >> a look at other stories making headlines right now. no government officials are expected to lose their jobs over the botched bomb plot on christmas day, but president obama did say the performance of the intelligence community is not acceptable and will not be tolerated. space shuttle "endeavour" is on the launch pad at kennedy space center right now preparing for its launch to the international space station. the crew is expected toe arrive late they are month for training. the shuttle is scheduled to lift off february 7th. radio talk show host rush limbaugh will be back to work today. he was taken to a hospital in hawaii last week complaining of chest pains. limbaugh was released friday because doctors did not find anything wrong with him. is 2010 the year that television finally opens a window into the elusive third dimension? the overwhelming success of "avatar," the latest box office juggernaut, has showcased the full potential of 3d when mixed with the proper blend of technology and vision. now a full fledged 3d television turf war is brewing as several manufacturers prepare to unveil 3d tvs and other products at the consumer electronics show. several networks are rushing to create new 3d channels. john abel joins me here in the studio. wow. this is a big deal. something special, you get the glasses, it's a special occasion. when do you think people considered this as being a nor everyday norm? >> well, there are some serious companies that think this is a viable business plan and they think -- they think that they are now where hdtv was six years ago. the difference is six years ago the government mandate that had in six years we would have to have hdtv, so this is more of a risky venture. where it might work, though, obviously sporting events, it might not work in the home initially because the techie is so expensive right now. imagine sports bars having monster equipment. madison square garden getting a big, big setup for close circuit big sporting events like world cup and things like that. that could be a way to sort of enable the penetration into the homes at some point down the road. >> you mentioned sports. espn is the network planning to launch a whole new 3d challenge. >> it's in june. >> that's pretty quick. who do you see falling in line after espn does it? >> disney and imax and sony are putting together an equal partnership to come up with programming and a company to do this. now imax is a significant point. imax movies are great, great for certain kinds of movies, but you need special equipment to take it, special equipment to see it. so that restricts the kinds of things that you can do and the kinds of places that you can show it. i'd be shocked if in six years we had the kind of penetration in 3d tv we have in hd right now. >> so you don't anticipate anytime soon 3d becoming the norm? >> the norm, no. it will never be the norm. it is something good for certain things like incredible movies, incredible sporting events. the idea of actually being on the field in a way that they have cameras strung over and seeing things rushing past you and behind you. that is goal. it's hard to know what is worth going to the expense of creating just for this niche. >> okay. good to see you. thanks so much. >> my pleasure. it's today's "hotshots." the high flying acrobatics. take a look at this man on the high ladder. he is not a professional. in fact, he's just a firefighter. hundreds of firefighters gathered in tokyo for an annual demonstration. the firefighters conducted regular drills like rescuing people from under rubble and pulling tidal wave victims from the sea. things got hog wild on a highway in taiwan yesterday. five policemen had to stop traffic in order to chase a pig. they trapped the miniature hog with a net, but it ran away. police eventually caught the hog. and take a look at this interview with tennis star andy roddick at a koala sanctuary. got distracted there because, look what's happening behind him. two koalas getting cozy, acting more like rabbits. and the focus goes right there. the popular baby names for 2009, based on submissions from babycenter.com. rounding out the top five for the girls are sophia, emma, olivia and ava. for the boys aiden followed by ethan, jackson, jay deny and jacob. ♪ walgreens invites you to stay well this new year. ♪ with the centers for disease control and prevention saying... that vaccination is still your best protection, walgreens and take care clinics... now offer h1n1 flu vaccinations... every day at our more than 7000 locations nationwide... for just $18.00. so stop in today. walgreens. there's a way to stay well. we give you peace of mind. i have diabetes like a lot of us here, so we understand. compassion. patience. you'll find it anytime you call. our customers say we're number one. plus, they're grateful we're located in the us, where we also manufacture... the accu-chek aviva meters and test strips. americans caring for americans. that makes us proud. accu-chek customer care born in the usa. of course who could forget the huge fuss at newark liberty airport on sunday night when a screener allowed someone to pass through a secure area and it backed up traffic there for hours? well, this breaking news, we're being told that the security agent is now facing some legal consequences coming to us. we're being told from a source a police officer from his agency wrote the tsa officer a ticket for what was termed a breach of rules. the tsa is yet to identify that agent but says he has been already transferred to a different duty. it is not clear yet if the ticket carries a fine or a more serious policy. as the u.s. tries to draw a round back to nuclear talks, tehran may be using the time to hide more and more of its nuclear activities in a series of vast underground tunnels. nbc's jim miklaszewski is live at the pentagon. what can you tell us about the tunnels and how effective they are? >> reporter: u.s. intelligence has known for some time iran has been trying to conceal their nuclear weapons program well beneath the earth's surface in a series of tunnel that is presumably would put it out of harm's way against any possible air strike by the u.s. or most likely israel. now the u.s. has developed a bunker buster bomb that they should have online in about 2010 which is ten times more the explosive power of the previous bomb but any -- any kind of air strike by either the u.s. or israel is not likely anytime soon. >> and real quick, the incident really got this up and running to look at the series of underground tunnels? >> reporter: that's right. >> jim miklaszewski, thank you very much from washington. and that does it for me. tamron hall picks up at the top of the hour. just about an hour or so from now democratic senator chris dodd is expected to announce that he will not run for re-election in november. we're going to talk about the implications for the democratic party overall. 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