0 demanding his withdrawal. it's -- without the broad base of bipartisan support and confidence needed to serve effectively. but it's significant that cornen only got 14 other senators to signen and that that's where they were going, begging the president to withdraw hagel. then hoke inhofe said, make no mistake, a vote for cloture and a vote to confirm hagel as secretary of state. translation, don't have the votes anymore to stop this vote from going on. the white house was already just one vote away from breaking the filibuster. licensed graham and john mccain have said they will likely vote -- also yesterday, hagel also picked up another republican for confirmation from alabama's richard shelby. here's what shelby told his hometown paper, that though he has concerns about hagel's nomination, he plans to vote for him and expects hagel to win senate confirmation. quote, he's probably as good as we're going to get, he told the paper. it's clear hagel's opponents know their firewall is cracking. the white house is continuing to vent their frustration about how long it's taking. it was this was press secretary jay carney yesterday. >> just to be clear, he won't be withdrawn? >> absolutely not. any suggestion to the otherwise might have been found in the minutes of the friends of hamas. >> friends of ha muss is supposedly that group that gave money to hagel but never existed. treasury nominee jack lew. he has been asked and he's answered more questions for the record than every nominee for the department since 1995 combined. white house circulated this chart which shows lew has answered 444 questions ford, 395 of them from republicans, and if you go back to willy benson, you see those numbers are really small. it is amazing. and of course treasury nominees have to go through that ridiculous senate finance committee vetting process, which is an absurd level all on its own. the governors are coming to town. the nation's governors have arrived in town. the president and vice president meet with democratic governors. some republican governors have complained about the impact defense and domestic cuts are going to have in their home states. for instance, virginia's bob o'donnell wrote a letter to the president this week sounding the alarm about the potential devastation that looming cuts to defense due to sequestration will have to national security and on the economic well-being of the sits of the commonwealth. bad enough to apply political pressure to republicans ot home. next week, they're going after the defense cuts that are coming in republican districts. on monday, the president heads to virginia to visit newport news ship building, open to members of congress like republican scott richard. this is not a theoretical problem like up in washington. this is reality. >> reporter: and the reality is the president diagnosed the other party's problems in an interview with al sharpton. >> their basic view is that nothing is important enough to raise taxes on wealthy individuals or corporations. and they would prefer to see these kinds of cuts that could slow down our recovery over closing tax loopholes. and that's the thing that binds their party together at this point. >> and in another interview with radio host joe madison, the president acknowledged that he expects the cuts will likely go into effect. >> in terms of what your listenership can do, obviously just insisting to their members of congress, especially if they live in a republican district, that this is a really bad idea. but i'll be honest with you right now, it's not clear to me that the republicans are going to agree to turn the sequester off despite the fact that 75% of the american people agree with me in terms of the approach. >> meanwhile the white house tipped its hand on the coming negotiations on the white house blog. they argued, quote, the president has already reduced the deficit and he's laid out a specific plan to do more. and they posted the president's last offer to boehner. significantly, by the way, they're putting the offer of the so-called chain cpi, that measure of inflation, in writing. that's something that hasn't been very popular among democrats, and they did put it in writing, and while they don't say the word social security anywhere, that is essentially the white house coming out and putting in writing that they will agree to some cuts in future benefits, at least chain cpi. finally it's friday, we've decided it's time for your 2016 roun-ups. ted kennedy has raised in the domestic speaking circuit, quietly arguing that he is eligible to run for higher office someday. and arguing in a three-pronged assessment of his party's 2010 failures that republicans need to position themselves better with minority voters. so as cruz takes a national tour, florida's marco rubio wrapped up a trip to israel, jordan, telling an audience at a jerusalem press conference. bobby jindal and o'donnell will be in washington this weekend. maryland governor martin o'malley gets a little -- calibrate how he pushes. up next, we're going to spend time with north carolina governor. how his state is dealing with the looming sequester, the healthcare law and the economy, and plus whether the republican party needs to change its tune. and a democratic governor is getting a big hand. bill clinton lends his star power to the virginia race that we won't be able to stop talking about all year. but first, take a look at today's politics planner. the new prime minister of japan comes to the white house today. this is the fifth japanese prime minister since president obama was sworn in for his first term. but this is the first rerun for prime minister abe. my insurance rates are probably gonna double. but, dad, you've got... 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