things, it s a way of sort of keeping yourself relevant. you talked about newt gingrich, who hasn t been in power in a very long time. you talk about governor sununu and this is maybe the way they try to keep there s a lot of tv space to fill. i don t like to get people off that lightly. just because the opportunity is there, they still have a responsibility to, as kiki says talk factually and talk in a way that is inclusive of all people. tony and kiki, great conversation. thanks to both of you. thanks. we want to confirm here now conservative south carolina senator jim demint is leaving the senate in january. if he does step down, governor nikki haley would be able to appoint a temporary replacement. are you surprised by that at all, tony? i am. it s the first i ve heard of this. nikki haley would have an opportunity to name a replacement. you d also have to consider nikki haley a strong candidate to run for that position.
so definitely something a lot of people would want to look for. what do you make of this, kiki? well, look, i think that the conservatives in the republican party are probably looking for leadership. demint has been that consistently conservative person but i think we ve got to hear from him why he s making that choice to leave the senate and do that. all right. thank you again both. i also want to say that i was also just handed this, that new jersey s governor chris christie just entered the white house through the west executive entrance but he apparently is there to talk about sandy aid. also making news, a massive recovery effort in the philippines after a cat traffic typhoon. at least 350 are diead, 400 mor missing. the u.s. department of state has sent its condolences. back at home, unemployment applications are way down.
twitter is going crazy over the resignation of congressman demint. republican congresswoman diane black will join me. president obama s approval rating jumps to any highs, his best in three years. where does congress rank? you might not be surprised on that one. and forbes unveils its most powerful list. who comes out on top. and that much freshness is gonna take some getting used to. [ sniffing ] yep. it s amazing what a single scoop of gain freshness can do.
about $400 billion in specific cuts. neither one of these initiatives is likely to go anywhere, but they are making specific cuts which they have been under pressure to put forward, and they are doing that right now. paul ryan who gave the official republican response, the republican congressman from wisconsin. less specific in his proposed cuts. we re going to be speaking about all of this and a lot more. rand paul, the new senator from kentucky, is going to be joining us in the situation room. we ll get a very, very different perspective from the liberal senator bernie sanders of vermont. he s got some other ideas. we want to make sure we ve got that perspective and jim demint is putting forward new legislation in the senate to follow the house of representatives lead and repeal the obama health care plan, the new law, so lots going on. we ll have a lot of details coming up at 5:00 in an hour in the situation room. well, we will see you before then. we ll check in and see what
function follows form. if you structure yourself in an institution and organization often then you work together in that same way. that was the importance of last night. also last night, though, and a lot of people got a bit of a laugh, if i may, i heard our senior congressional correspondent talking about kootys from one of the senators. this turned into a date night, they were talking prom king and queen. senator, did you even think it would go that direction? i didn t, but the point, tooshgs too is we had some fun and put lightness in an important and serious night. i sat with congressman demint, we are far apart politically. we learned about families. he wanted to sit by me because he likes coors beer. very important stuff. very important. do you think this is a question on a lot of people s minds i think this was a one-time thing or might congress look into sitting together in state of the unions to come? i think in state of the unions to come this will be a