people about what was it like when you spent christmas eve at the bachmans. you went to michele bachmanns and she and her husband cooked a dinner and you were talking about it at the commercial break. what did you have? you are making this up. they went to michele bachmanns for christmas. talk about reaching across the aisle. what kind of conversation is that. we are going down to new orleans where they do things right. i love new orleans. you love nola. do you know the name of the team? the new orleans saints. basketball? you can t yell at me. you signed the contract. the hornets. i will take you down. what s a new orleans basketball team? the pelicans. the pelicans? there is no arguing. it s the time you lot of jeopardy to cheech mare in. i love new orleans and ti loe
groups calling for the end of the shutdown. here s what they say. in a letter to congress, the president of the national retail federation said, quote, we strongly support passage of both a continuing resolution to provide for funding of the federal government into the next fiscal year and a measure to raise the nation s debt ceiling. now these are people that are customarily supportive of conservative or right-wing causes. why would threy write that. unfortunately, the extremist community isn t moved at all by the pressure you could flormly count on to put this to the side. the problem right now is less the ted cruises and bachmans. it s the moderates who should know better but refuse to eschew
forces in libya are free tonight. late word of a new kidnapping and last ditch battles that may be linked to moammar gadhafi s escape plan. and cnn goes inside the virginia nuclear power plant near the epicenter of that historic quake. we have a lot of questions about nuclear safety and whether the east coast is prepared if another big one hits. wolf blitzer s off today. i m joe johns. you re in the situation room. hurricane irene is bearing town on the bahamas with winds of up to 120 miles an hour right now, and the national weather service warns this category 3 monster could be upgraded, upgraded to a category 4 tomorrow. that means irene could be capable of catastrophic damage when it slams the east coast in the days ahead. the storm has been pounding the turks and caicos and other islands and gaining strength along the way. there are reports of damage but so far no serious injuries. we do have a view from space that gives you an idea of just how big the storm is. it
more disclosures. david for you, there have been a lot of people even within the gop field who say they don t think we have the strongest candidates out there yet for our party moving forward. do you agree with them or think there is somebody there that could be a serious challenge for the president? i don t. in fact, i think many republicans believe there is a weak field. you got to look at romney and you got to look at huckabee who are running now for possibly their second time and if you look over the last several decades most of the republican nominees if not presidents had run twice. i think you have to give the advantage to the likes of a romney. but nonetheless, representing the establishment and having the organization is delegate to be challenged by possibly the bachmans or the trumps that are possibly lining up for the race as well. it is an enormous undertaking to run for president. youster to run for president in all 50 states. have to have organization everywhere.