Or can not empty your bladder, you should not take toviaz. Get emergency medical help right away if your face, lips, throat or tongue swells. Toviaz can cause blurred vision, dizziness, drowsiness and decreased sweating. Do not drive, operate machinery or do unsafe tasks until you know how toviaz affects you. The most common side effects are dry mouth and constipation. Talk to your doctor about toviaz. Good morning, everybody. Sequester scare or dare. With the big budget hammer poised to fall this friday the white houses latest strategy hammer home the collateral damage. The reallife cost of those cuts. Right now the first lady, Michelle Obama is addressing governors at the white house. Later this hour, the president and Vice President will take their turn addressing that crowd. The president expected to talk mainly about the sequester and the white house and congress have until the end of the week to stop the 85 billion in cuts that will take folk friday, march 1. The administration amping up the pressure by releasing state by state details what those cuts would mean. In virginia, loss of 146 million in army based operational funding. In california, an 87. 6 million cutting in primary and secondary schools. Texas, 2. 2 million less in assistance for the unemployed. Biggest concern for many governors is the effect on the economy. You know, lot of us feel as though the economy is starting to come back and right at the time where we would like to see it accelerate, this could really put a lamb on the brakes. Very fact that we have a sequester represents some kind of major failure in governance. Also today, members of the president s cabinet are firing back against criticism from republicans. The white house is using scare tactics and overhyping the impact of the sequester. What do you make of secretary lahood, a republican blaming republicans for this . Shame on ray lahood. What we are doing is sending up warning flares to people that these cuts have consequences. Heres what the consequences are. Joining me now is Oklahoma Republican congressman tom cole. It is good to have you with me now. Lets talk about this because it as weigh know, all politics is local. As we look at the state of oklahoma, lets show everybody what the sequester impact would mean. 1490 fewer children receiving vaccines. 300 Domestic Violence victims served. As we look at the impact in other states, california, over 15,000 kids not getting vaccines. Florida, over 6,000 losing College Financial aid. New york, 42 million cut from education. Et cetera, et cetera. This goes on around the country. Earlier this month you said that the sequester was inevitable. Now as we are in the sequester week itself do you feel the same way . I do. I think that it virtually possible to redistribute the cuts. Republicans did that twice last year. Certainly willing to sit down with the president and renegotiate. 85 billion out of the 3. 5 trillion budget. We certainly can minimize any discomfort if the president is willing to do that. Cuts themselves are going to occur. They are written into the law like the tax increase in january and fiscal cliff was written into law. We worked with the president and redistributed those taxes. We should work here and redistribute the cuts. If the president will do that he will find a willing negotiating partner. Is there any room for receive knew . No. Will is not. The president got revenue, six weeks ago with no spending cuts whatsoever. This time spending cuts with no revenue. Down the road we will have another negotiation over the budget and continuing resolution, eventually the debt ceiling again. In this case, i dont think there is any room for revenue at all. Certainly the administration and the president continue to push their campaign to bring this to the people. Our first read puts out today that while both the president , while both the Obama White House and Congressional Republicans warned about the dangers associated with the cuts, creation, this weekend saw no new plans of compromise, no new meetings and no real work as congress stayed on its recess. Then we have congressman Chris Van Holland talking to chris jansing. As long as the Tea Party Caucus in the house remains has the upper hand and are cheering on the idea of these acrosstheboard cuts shall even though they will be very disruptive and hurt jobs in the economy, as long as they hold tight then it is impossible to move forward. Do you agree with congressman van holland . I too willing to hold on to an ideology of rabid base . Well, i worked across the aisle. I work with the president and chris on the fiscal cliff. I worked on Hurricane Sandy relief. Working with him now on violence against women. This case, these cuts are inlaw. They are going to happen. The president needs to accept that and work with republicans to redistribute them. Thats an easy thing to do. Less than 2. 5 of the entire federal budget. 85 million and 3. 5 trillion total budget. We can certain dloy a better job of where the cuts come. We can make them much, much less painful. But they do need to occur. Running trillion dollar deficits and need to get the fiscal house in order. When you talk about getting fiscal house in order, one thing the message has been a little muddled from the right. Thats what the press coverage would demonstrate. If we look at what politico put out in reference to the republican message, they say the message on sequester couldnt be clearer. Republicans dont have a unified one. Then roll call. Does banever the votes . Asking would the speaker have the collective body that he needs . Sir, whats your take on this . Is the republican message a little too mud writed now . No, i dont think so. We the federal government is too big and spends too much. I think most americans share that point of view. As for the votes, the speaker demonstrated twice last year, once in may and again as recently as december, he had the votes to deal with sequester. Now we immediate a Democratic Senate and democratic president to be willing to accept the cuts are inevitable. We are happy to negotiate with them and tried to do that. Senate has not, you know, passed any legislation. Frankly, the president hasnt presented a plan less than a week out there is no president ial plan on the table as to what he would suggest. We have known this has been coming for 18 months. We tried to deal with it. The president and democrats have not. We are here largely because they wouldnt work with us and we are still willing to work with them. A lot of this standing just to ploy while a lot of lastminute back room deals are getting done . No. I dont think this theres my back room deal going on. Month new revenues are coming in. Theres an opportunity the president six weeks ago got hundreds of billions of dollars of revenue. Right now it is time to, you know, get some prudent cuts in government. These are not prudent cuts. But we can get there if they will sit down and negotiate. If not they are going to occur as scheduled. The president advocated for sequester. This is what he signed into law. We are willing to work with him to change that. But, again, we are not willing to put revenue on the table in this case. Cuts are going to occur. Congressman tom cole of oklahoma. Thank you for making time for me this morning. I appreciate it. Thank you. I just want to pass along, we wait on the president s remarks at the National Governors association expected to begin any minimum now from the white house, crowd there applauding as first lady wrapped up her remarks. Want to say good morning to our monday morning political power panel. Bruce marcus for the Washington Post. James peterson and professor. And chip saltzman. If we get the president coming up i will cut way so we can go to those remarks. Forgive me if i become abrupt. No problem. In any fashion. Ruth, lets start with you. The Washington Post headline is out saying the governors expressed frustration with washington gridlock over the sequestration. Obviously right now we all know what this means to the state level as i just went over that with congressman cole. Do you think they are going to be able to impart properly the frustration, especially given they have a little more liberal power in how that money will be allocated . I think i dont really i wish i could say yes to your question. But i think that lawmakers already know the politics of this andcle brighted the politics of this for their individual states and individual districts. The governors will weigh in and put more pressure on them. Realistically nobody is going to change their position at least until they start to get pressure from their own constituents to change positions that they have now concluded are on both sides on the political minutes want to show everybody this new ad thats out speaking specifically about eric cantor. Take a look. Line by line, page by page, hundred millions here, even in war wash it adds up to real money. That was from eric cantor saying we should go line by line about this. The president , as we hear from the congressman there, earlier, tom cole, saying he hasnt come up with a plan. James, whats your take on where the president is in this standoff right now . Is the onus basically on congress to come up with something . Is something that could include revenues to latch on to where the president and the left wants to be . Obviously we in terms of the comprehensive longterm solutions to these challenges, there has to be some kind of balanced approach between cuts and between revenue. I think the president has made the message clear that sequencetration was not his idea out of thin air. Sequestration comes from the broken sort of nature of our government. So now that it is becoming a reality, we are still faced with the same deal which is our government is broken because all the people who will feel pain from sequestration dont have the right kind of representation amongst law makers to make the change that we need to see happen. Hopefully what will happen is it will come into place march 1 and we will be able to come back to the table after people are feeling some of the pain from some of the cuts and to come up with the longterm solutions. There will have to be additional revenue if we want to be serious about tackling the deficit and the kind of cuts we make have to be much more strategic. These cuts dont make that much sense. They produce pain where we dont need pain in the economy. They will slow the economy in ways we dont need to slow down and dont address the real big things which are, number one, addressing medicare directly. Also the military cuts that are in place in terms of sequestration are off base as well. We need cuts less than civilian workers and more in defense contracts. Hopefully we can be more strategic and smart about it after we go through the histrionics of another clip deal or coming right to the type of kind of deal in american government. Revenue from the right doesnt seem to be a part of the equation to move this conversation forward. Bobby jindal was on meet the press this weekend being asked about his president ial aspirations and also about the modern day debate regarding the Republican Party. Take a look. Nobody in the Republican Party should be thinking about running for president. We have to win the debate before we can win elections. Chip, what do you think about that . Hes putting his aspirations and anybody else within the Republican Party on the back burner while the debates that are at the forefront issues like the sequester, gun control, for that matter are the hot topics now. I think Governor Jindal is smart. I always said good policy usually makes good politics. Right now the policy is muddled and therefore the politics is muddled. I think what would be smart for the republicans is have good policy to actually fix the problems and right now we have both sides of the president on one side and republicans on the other side that rather fight over tissue rather than fight on solution. I think that will be the real challenge moving forward for both sides. As we look for the solution here, cole and others feel this will be inevitable, we talk about the meat cleaver. We run out of money by 2007. We have wiggle room for debate to figure things out. There is some wiggle room for debate to figure things out. I would say that the fundamental problem isnt that the Republican Party has a muddled message or the president hasnt put poured plan. I think both sides plans are clear. They are diametrically opposed. Im glad you are laughing. The president and the democrats want to deal with the sequester by replacing it with a balanced approach, blends taxes and new receive new and spending cuts. And the republicans say we gave at the bank, the fiscal cliff, thats all, that discussion over. Until that fundmental divide is bridged it is hard to see a solution. Either at the sequester point next week or at the cr point march 27 when the government runs out of money. It is such a power play. It makes you wonder who has the shortterm vision and who has the far sight to figure this one out. Power panel for today. Thanks to you. Ruth marcus, james peterson, chip saltzman. Appreciate it. Coming up, another bombshell in the blade runner murder case. Oscar pistorius brother facing charges for the death after woman five years ago. The other oscar everybody talking about today. Big night at the academy awards. Especially for political movies. Our big question today count down sequester. What are you most concerned about if those budget cuts take effect . Chances are, youre not made of money, so dont overpay for motorcycle insurance. Geico, see how much you could save. New drum a surrounding oscar pistorius. Accused of killing his girlfriend. He is not the only member of his family facing charges. His brother, carl, is accused of the death of a woman in 2008. Michelle kosinski has those new revelations. Reporter for three days, his release on bail, the stuff of global headlines. Oscar pistorius has not set foot outside of his uncles house. Waiting army of photographers month doubt a detractor. His older brother, carl, also faces questions of his own out here. Staying silent, charged himself in a separate case, with culpable homicide. It stems from a car accident six years ago in which a woman on a motorcycle died. He was accused of driving recklessly and charged originally withdrawn by prosecutors and later reinstated. While in court for his brother each day last week, standing by his side, at times comforting him. His own trial was to start that thursday. It was postponed to next month so he could support oscar. In a statement his attorney said there is no doubt that carl is innocent. He deeply regrets the accident. Blood tests conducted by the police at the time proves he was no under the influence of alcohol. The decease collided with carls car. Attention on oscars case has not let up for for a moment. Personally i think dee dee serves to stay in jail. Reporter pistorius is free to live his life. His coach talked about starting training again as soon as today. But hes chosen to stay well out of the spotlight for now. For the first time in many years. Michelle kosinski reporting from south africa. Just ahead, britains top cardinal resigning. Accused of inappropriate behavior with other priests. All this happening as vatican preps to find a successor to pope benedict. Plus, president ial pressure. The white house urging the Supreme Court to get rid of the defense of marriage act. Will that have an impact on the nations top court . Everyones retirement dream is different; how we get there is not. Were americans. We work. We plan. Ameriprise advisors can help you like theyve helped millions of others. To help you retire your way, with confidence. Thats what Ameriprise Financial does. Thats what they can do with you. Lets get to work. Ameriprise financial. More within reach. By the armful . By the barrelful . The carful . How about. By the bowlful . Campbells soups give you nutrition, energy, and can help you keep a healthy weight. Campbells. Its amazing what soup can do. Zero dark thirty snubbed at the oscars. That movie about the hunt for Osama Bin Laden was expected to win honors for best actor. Torture scenes amerged. A big night for two other political films. We will bring you the details ahead. Major new developments and a new scandal weeks away from the start of the conclave to name a new pope. Cardinal keith obrien, highest ranking cardinal, announcing this morning the pope has accepted his resignation. That he will not participate in the upcoming conclave. It comes two days after allegations of inappropriate behavior surfaced about obrien about other priests in the 1980s. It comes as benedict xvi gives cardinals permission to move up the start date of the conclave that will elect his successor. Joining me now is elizabeth lev, writer of art history at the rome campus. It is great to have you here, elizabeth. The observer reporting saturday the Cardinal Obrien made you wanted sexual advances towards tree priests and a former priest. Demanding obriens resignation. Obrien issued statement this morning saying that the resignation was already in the works. I just want to put this out there. Approaching the age of 75 and at times indifferent health i tendered my resignation shmonths ago. Elizabeth, is the scandal really forcing obriens resignation now because of what seemed to the casual observer that this doesnt pass the smell test . I think that the problem here is that we are dealing with a very, very new situation. The this idea of a pope who is remember signing has thrown the church into something of Uncharted Waters and as people date for the conclave extends, think of it as a faithful in the group of people and those of us trying to report on it were swimming around in waters trying to grab on to a piece of driftwood. Often the driftwood, no a solid base to understand whats happening here, are scandals and stories that keep coming out. The problem with the stories the one that all of a sudden one day Cardinal Obrien is making statements which are very inappropriate going into the conclave, about how priests should marry and we have these allegations that are coming out, all of these lose the focus of what is really happening here on a single person. One of the things that the cardinals need to understand as a body is that it is not about you. And so the great lesson here is that the these im going to tell my resignation would be earlier or later is secondary to the fact something very ream and very for is happening here for 1. 4 billion catholics. The innuendos are driftwood that leave people further astray. According to the observer, dwts priests submitted their claims about obrien the week before the pope announced h ed advocation. They said, quote, it tends to cover up and protect the system at all costs and the church is beautiful but has a dark side. And that has to do with the accountability. If the system is to be i am proved maybe the it needs to be dismantled a bit. As we talk in light of the years of the sexual abuse coverups that took place within the church, is there still a fear that the church wont properly investigate when grievances are brought forward . When people have concerns like the priest that brought up obriens improper behavior. I think what we see happening ever since the sort of krcritic point of 2001 and at the investigations that began in 1980. We have seen a tremendous turnaround in the catholic church, diminish prosecuting what we are about 50 case as year, 07s and 80s what have been seven cases in 2010. So we have already seen the church turn around a situation. What we are looking forward in the conclave we are looking for to someone that can maintain vigilance, maintain whats already a positive direction. Already the sign people are getting involved people are trying to remove the problematic characters as a sign of the church is getting ready deal with a new face. Im sorry. I need on interrupt you. We have to go to the president who is addressing the conference of governor prosecutors the white house. Everything from our immigration system attorney general indication system, as joe talked about, our goal is to make sure that we can be an effective partner with you. I want to thank the members of may cabinet who are here. And members of the administration. I want to change jack and mary for their leadership, nga. And everybody else i just wouldnt say thanks to you for being on your best behavior last night. Im told nothing was broken. No silverware is missing. I didnt get any calls from the neighbors about the noise. Although i cant speak for joes after party at the observatory. I heard that was wild. Now i always enjoy this weekend. When i have a chance to see the governors. As leaders we share responsibilities, do whatever we can, to help grow our economy. And create good middle class jobs. And open up new doors of opportunity for all of our people. Thats our true north. Our highest priority. It will guide every decision we make at every level. As i have said we should be aibl asking ourselves three questions every single day. How do we make america a magnet for good jobs . How do we equip our people with the skills and training to get those jobs . And how do we make sure if they get those jobs, their hard work actually pays off. As governors, you are the ones who are on the ground. Seeing firsthand every single day what works, what doesnt work. And thats what makes you so indispensable. Whatever your party, you ran for office to do everything that you could to make our folks lives better. One thing i know unites all of us and all of you. Democrats and republicans. And that is the last thing you want to see is washington get in the way of progress. Unfortunately, in just four days, congress is poised to allow a series of arbitrary budget cuts to kick in, eliminate good jobs, leave folks that are already thinly stretched scrambling to figure out what to do. This morning, you received a report outlining exactly how the cuts will harm middle class families in your states. Thousands of teachers and educators will be off. Tens of thousands parents will have to deal with finding child care for their children. Hundreds of thousands of americans will lose access to primary care and Preventative Care like flu vaccinations and cancer screenings. Tomorrow, for example, i will be in the tidewater region of virginia where workers will sit idle when they should be repairing ships and carrier sits idle when it should be deploying to the persian gulf. These impacts will not all be felt on day one. But rest assured the uncertainty is already having an effect. Companies are preparing layoff notices. Families are preparing to cut back on expenses. The longer the cuts are in place, the bigger the impact will become. So while you are in town, i hope that you will speak with your congressional delegation and remind them in no Uncertain Terms exactly whats at stake and exact wloy is at risk. Because here is the thing. The cuts do not have to happen. Congress can turn them off any time with just a little bit of compromise. To do so, democrats like me, need to acknowledge we are bogey to have to make modest reforms in medicare if we want the program there for future generations and if we hope to maintain our ability to invest in critical things like education, research and infrastructure. I have made that commitment. It is reflected in proposals i made last year and the year before that. And will be reflected in my budget and i stand by those commitments to make the reforms for smart spending cuts. We also need republicans to adopt the same approach to tax reform that Speaker Boehner championed just two months ago. Under our concept of tax reform, mobs rates would go up. But we would be able to reduce the deficit by make something tough, smart spending cuts and getting rid of wasteful tax loopholes that benefit the welloff and wellconnected. I know sometimes folks in congress think that compromise is aed about word. They if i they will pay a higher price at the polls for working with the other side than they will for standing pat or engaging in obstructionism. As governors, some of with legislature controlled by the other party, you know compromise is essential to getting things done. So is prioritizing. Making smart choices. Thats how governor omalley in maryland put his state on track to all but eliminate his deficit while keeping tuition down and making marylands Public Schools among the best in america five years running. Thats how governor haslett balanced his budget last year. Like the rest of us, they know we cant just cut our way to prosperity. Cutting alone is not an economic policy. You have to make the tough smart choices to cut what we dont need so we can invest in the things that we do need. Let me highlight two examples of what we do need. The first is infrastructure. Didnt used to be partisan issue. I dont know when that happened. It should be a nobrainer. Businesses are not going to set up shop in places where roads and bridges and ports and schools are falling apart. They are going to open their doors wherever they connect the best transportation and Communications Networks to their businesses and to their customers. Thats why i proposed what we are calling fix it first. I talked about this in may state of the Union Address to put people to work right now on urgent repairs like the nearly 70,000 structurally deficient bridges across the country. To make sure taxpayers do not shoulder entire burden, i also proposed a partnership to rebuild america that attracts private capital to upgrade what our businesses need most. Modern ports to move our goods. Modern pipelines to withstand a storm and modern schools that are worthy of our children. I know that some people in congress were effectively opposed any idea that i put forward, even if it is an idea they once supported but rebuilding infrastructure is not my idea. It is everybodys idea. It is what built this country. The oregons governor made clean energy a top priority. Governor brownback of kansas, a republican, has been fighting to upgrade Water Infrastructure there. And folks who think spending really is our biggest problem should be more concerned than anybody about improving our infrastructure now. We are talking about deferred maintenance here. We know we are going to have to spend the monday grip the longer we wait the more it will cost. Thats a fact. I think matt mead put it pretty well. Wyoming state of the state address. He said failing to maintain our roads is not a plan for being fiscally conservative. Whats true in wyoming is true across the United States. We could be putting folks back to work right now. We know contractors are pbeggin for work. We could make a whole lot of progress right now on things we know we are going to have to do at some point. Fixing the roof, replacing a boiler thats broken. Lit save us money in the long term. I know that one of the biggest hurdles you face when it comes to fixing infrastructure is red tape. Oftentimes that comes out of washington with regulations. And in may first term, we started to take steps to address that. We have shaved months, some cases years, off the timeline of Infrastructure Project ace cross america. So today i am accelerating that effort. We are setting up marine natural teams that will focus on some of the unique needs each of you have in various parts of the country. P we are going to help the Pacific Northwest move faster on Renewable Energy projects. We are bogey to help the northeast corridor move faster on highspeed rail service. We are going to help the midwest, other states, like colorado, move faster on projects that help farmers deal with worsening drought. We are going to help states like north dakota and south dakota, montana, and move faster on oil and gas production. All of these projects will get more americans back to work faster and we can do even more if we can get congress to act. The second priority that i want to talk about is education. And in particular, education that starts at the earliest age. I want to partner with each of you to make hey quality preschool available to every child in america. This is an area where we have already seen great bipartisan work at the state level. I was just in governor diehls state to highlight this issue because georgia made it a priority to educate our youngest kids. And in the School District where i visited in decatur, georgia, you are seeing a closer in the achievement gaps. Kids that are poor are leveling up. And everybody is seeing real improvement because it is high quality Early Childhood education. Study after study those that the sooner the children begin to learn in these highquality settings, the better he or she does down the road. We all end up saving money. Unfortunately today fewer than 3 in 104yearolds are enrolled in a highquality preschool program. Most middle class parents cant afford a few hundred bucks a week, in additional forecast, for these kind of preschool programs, and poor kids who need it most lack access. And that lack of access can shadow them the rest of their lives. We all pay a price for that. Every dollar we invest in Early Childhood education can save more than 7 later on. Boosting graduation rates, reducing teen pregnancy, even reducing incidents of violent crime. Again, im not the first person to focus on this. Governor bentley has made this a priority in alabama. Governor snider is making it a priority in michigan. Governor tomlin made this a priority in west virginia. Even in a time of tight budgets republicans and democrats are focused on highquality Early Childhood education. We want to make sure we can be an effective partner in that process. We should be able to do that for every child, everywhere. Democrat, republican, blue state, red state, it shouldnt matter. All of us want our kids to grow up more likely to read and write and do math at grade level, graduate high school, hold a job, and form more stable families of their own. That will be better for every state. That will be better for this country. Thats what highquality Early Childhood education can deliver. I hope that you are one want to partner with us to make that happen. Let me just close with this. There are always going to be areas where we some genuine disagreements. Here in washington, in your respective states, but there are more areas where we do a lot more cooperating than i think we have seen over the last several years. To do that, though, this town has to get past its obsession with focusing on the next election inste election. We are interested in politics in our own parties as well as the other parties. But at some point we have to do some governoring. And certainly what we can cant do is keep car evening from manufactured prices to manufactured crisis. As i said in the state of the union the American People worked hard and long to dig themselves out of one crisis. They dont need us creating another one. Unfortunately thats what we have been seeing too much out there. The American People are out there every single day meeting their responsibilities. Giving it their all to provide for their families and their communities. A lot of are you doing the same things in your respective states. We need that same kind of attitude here in washington. At the very least the American People have a right to expect that from the representatives. So i look forward to working with all of you. Not just to strengthen our economy for the short term but also to reignite what has always been the central premise of americas economic engine. That is that we build a strong, growing, thriving middle class. If you work in this country, no matter who you are, what you look like, you can make it. You can succeed. Thats our goal and i know thats the goal of all of you as well. I look forward to our partnering. With that, what i want to do is clear out the press so we can take some questions. The president s remarks at the white house. Association of the governors. National Governors Association meeting taking place this morning. We heard from the first lady and then the Vice President. And there we have the shot going black. They want us out of there. They will talk turkey now. We will have a conversation with Peter Alexander standing by outside the white house. When struck me is the fact the president was able to bring up two big points to the governors about what he wants to do. Other than closing tax loopholes where he feels he can raise revenue. Wants to talk about infrastructure and education. He feels that should not be bipartisan issues. I think thats exactly right. The white house is convinced that there is a better way to go about doing this. They believe that a lot of things changed since 2011 when the crisis was put into place. Sequester was first formed p for one, they say the president won. They say the American Public opinion is on their side. They believe that their way to go forward is with some tax reforms as well as spending cuts together. What i think is what the backdrop for this now, tom, the fact that across this country, even in advance of this sequester taking place, recognizing there is bipartisan agreement on one thing, this will very likely happen but get thing friday begin thing friday, ordinary average americans are already feeling the impacts of the simple anxiety anticipating the sequester when you go offsite at military sites around the country, quantity company is not far from where we are here in northern virginia, and there we speak to the people who service civilian military workers, those people have already said they are seeing people spending less and so impact is already happening even if the furloughs and layoffs and others of that sort wont take it for a full month until they go into effect after march 1. Peter alexander at the white house. The president will be traveling tomorrow to hampton roads, newport news, talking about the crisis. It is a lot of anxiety for people around the country. Coming up, two big cases before the Supreme Court. This week the Voting Rights act. Looking ahead to next month. White house urging the Supreme Court to kill doma, defense of marriage act. The boys used double miles from their capital one venture card to fly home for the big family reunion. You must be garths father . Hello. Mother. Mother traveling is easy with the venture card because you can fly any airline anytime. Two words. Double miles this guy can act. Wanna play dodge rock . Oh, you guys and with double miles you can actually use, you never miss the fun. Beard growing contest and go i win whats in your wallet . Accomplishing even Little Things can become major victories. Im phil mickelson, pro golfer. When i was diagnosed with psoriatic arthritis, my rheumatologist prescribed enbrel for my pain and stiffness, and to help stop joint damage. [ male announcer ] enbrel may lower your ability to fight infections. Serious, sometimes fatal events including infections, tuberculosis, lymphoma, other cancers, nervous system and blood disorders, and allergic reactions have occurred. Before starting enbrel, your doctor should test you for tuberculosis and discuss whether youve been to a region where certain fungal infections are common. You should not start enbrel if you have an infection like the flu. Tell your doctor if youre prone to infections, have cuts or sores, have had hepatitis b, have been treated for heart failure, or if you have symptoms such as persistent fever, bruising, bleeding, or paleness. Since enbrel helped relieve my joint pain, its the Little Things that mean the most. Ask your rheumatologist if enbrel is right for you. [ doctor ] enbrel, the number one biologic medicine prescribed by rheumatologists. [ doctor ] enbrel, the number one biologic medicine do we hano. A mower . A trimmer . No. We got nothing. We just bought our first house, were on a budget. Were not ready for spring. Well lets get you ready. Very nice. You see these various colors. We got workshops every saturday. Yes, maybe a little bit over here. This spring, take on more lawn for less. Not bad for our first spring. More saving. More doing. Thats the power of the home depot. Get ready for spring with this ryobi 18volt trimmer, just ninety nine bucks. Handcuff lightning, throw thunder in jail. Floats like a butterfly, stings like a bee. Who are we talking about . Muhammad ali. We honor the greatest by remembering that. On this date back in 1964 ali beat sunny liston for the world heavyweight championship. It is hailed as the fourth greatest sports moment of the 20th century. Well back now to just where we are in todays reality. With 48 hours to go the Supreme Court is going to hear arguments in a case that examines the constitutionality of a law considered the most effective civil rights statute in american history. The law is the Voting Rights act signed by Lyndon Johnson in 1965. Whats under scrutiny, section 5 of the act. Requires states in areas with a history of Racial Discrimination to get federal approval before changing their voting laws and nine poll states and parts of seven others are subject to it. The significance of that is not lost on civil rights activists. Many are ramping up their messaging ahead of wednesdays case. Pete Williams Joins me now with more on this. Pete, what fueled the case thats under debate here . Lets talk specifically about how it is raised to the level it is now. It is an appeal from Shelby County, alabama, one of the areas covered. Basically that this law has time passed us by. When congress renewed it in 2006, renewed four times, they didnt marshal enough evidence to show that it is still constitutional because it turns everything upside down. Anything the states do to change their election rules is presumed to be improper until they get federal permission and say that violates state sovereignty. The question is the Voting Rights act still current enough to pass the constitutional test. What many of the states say, including Shelby County is, there are parts of the south where a blacks register, rote and elect people in greater numbers than in many parts of the mortds that are not cover bid the Voting Rights act and say it is unfair. Thomas, four years ago the Supreme Court came close to striking it down and said congress should change the formula. Formula has not changed. Thats why there is a lot of concern that this law might be struck down. I want to get you on the record about the reporting you have today from the Supreme Court. The justices are having a strong response to some race related remarks that are tied to a recent case. What happened there . This was a drug case out of texas. A man who was charged with conspiracy. The question is was he along for the ride or did he know people he was with were engaging in sales of illegal drugs. He says that he went away from them when he walk mood the hotel room with a bag of money. Here is the question. The prosecutor asked him, you have africanamericans, you have hispanics and you have a bag full of money. Doesnt that tell you a light bulb doesnt go in your head and say this is a drug deal . He tried to get the conviction overturned and said it was an appeal to racial prejudice. The Supreme Court declined to take the case because they said the lawyers did not properly raise the question below. Justice sotomayor joined by Justice Brian gave a tongue lasher to the prosecutor. They said, quote, it is deeply disturbing to see a representative of the u. S. Resort to this base tactic more than a decade into the 21st century. Justice correspondent pete williams. Thanks so much. Two other big civil rights cases looming before the high court involving marriage equality. Specifically the defense of marriage act and californias proposition 8. As the justices get set to hear those cases in march, the president took steps to some activist space is a sign that he is getting ready to fully embrace a federal constitutional right for marriage equality. Joining me now to talk about that is immigration attorney and lgbt rights activist, founder of the doma project. It is great to have you here. This was big news on friday with the late filing of this brief. The Justice Department to get brief to the Supreme Court on friday about doma. Here is what it says. Law denies to tens of thousands of samesex couples legally married under state law and for practical benefits available to legally married opposite sex couples because the discrimination cannot be justified as substantially furthering any for governmental section 3 is unconstitutional. What kind of message does this send to the court from the white house specifically. This is the first time that the president of the United States had an opportunity to put forward to the Supreme Court that no in no case can discrimination of marriage pass constitutional muster. And specifically, the white houses arguing that a heightened level of scrutiny should be applied to discrimination against gay and lesbian people in marriage. One thing we have seen certainly through the inaugural, certainly through the president s state of the Union Address is the fact he has been sending a very crisp and clear message to the justices. Who also watched the news and follow public opinion. How do you think that this is going to impact the legal considerations that are going to take place next month . Again, reminding everybody we are talking about doma which is federal and prop 8 which deals with california. California. The president is right now speaking about a federal statute, and as you noted in the inaugural address, he was standing just a few fee weight from the nine members of the Supreme Court when he said essentially no law that descriminates against day gay and lesbian approximate people in marriage can pass constitutional must are. This is the president of the United States. Its the department of justice. This is a persuasive on the members of the court, and i think ultimately the Obama Administration will prevail in court on the defense of marriage act. Now, this is going to be a big one to watch coming up in march. We need to kwet you back on so we can talk about couples and what that means to the immigration debate. Lgbt rights and attorney cofounder of the doma project. Well be back with our producers pick today. [ male announcer ] this is kevin. To prove to you that aleve is the better choice for him, hes agreed to give it up. Thats today . [ male announcer ] well be with him all day as he goes back to taking tylenol. I was okay, but after lunch my knee started to hurt again. And now ive got to take more pills. Yup. Another pill stop. Can i get my aleve back yet . For my pain, i want my aleve. [ male announcer ] look for the easyopen red arthritis cap. Tens of thousands of dollars in hidden fees on their 401 k s . go to etrade and roll over your old 401 k s to a new etrade retirement account. None of them charge annual fees and all of them offer low cost investments. Etrade. Less for us. More for you. And all of them offer low cost investments. Exciting and would always come max and pto my rescue. Bookstore but as time passed, i started to notice max just wasnt himself. And i knew hed feel better if he lost a little weight. So i switched to purina cat chow healthy weight formula. I just fed the recommended amount. And they both loved the taste. After a few months maxs special powers returned. And i got my hero back. Purina cat chow healthy weight. Ones core goes to president abraham lincoln. Its time for the side bar. Daniel day lewis winning for his portrayal of the president of the United States. He is the first actor to win three lead oscars. Now, the biggest upset of the night argo ben afflecks political drama. It took best ones cores for the best movie lincoln. The Biggest Surprise goes to Michelle Obama who announced argos big win from the white house. I am so honored to help introduce this years nominees for best picture and to help celebrate the movie that is lift our spirits, broaden our minds, and transport us to places we have never imaged. This has been an exciting year for movies. You know, by the way, she was wearing one of her favorite designers. Zurchlgts all right. We move on to todays producers pick brought to us by associate producer todd, the harlem shake is catching on in egypt, and shaking things up. Egyptians have started posting videos on youtube, like this one, but not all officials are amused about it. In fact, four pharmaceutical students were arrested for their version of the viral video. You can check out that story on my facebook page. Again, todd finding that one. Thank you, todd. Thats going to wrap things up for me today. See you back here tomorrow at 11 00 a. M. Eastern time. Now with alex wagner is coming up in the next hour. Hey, thomas. Were going to be talking about the sequester. Dooms day or mwah . Mwah. Mwah . He is on record saying mwah, america. We will discuss the multitude of viewpoints regarding fridays deadline. And repeal obama care or not . Are conservatives giving up the fight against the Affordable Care act . Plus, can two texas twins help turn texas blue . Jacob weissburg will be here to discuss superstars castro. Its waynes world, and it is not excellent. What wane lapierre said this time. All that that when now starts in a mere 180 seconds. 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