positions. that s not true. they will continue to say it. it s fundamentally false. you ll say it. i have just accepted that. when the interview went on this course and i was thinking as i write in my story today at politics daily. i backed off when he wrote the position on the bush tax cuts and last month about seven issues the republicans said they were against them. i wasn t quite sure on how to respond. he has an image of himself and he s sticking to it. it s funny about this issue of john mccain, everybody is trying to dissect john mccain. was his orig nalopposition early on, did the bush administration bitterness over losing to bush and some people saying now his opposition to obama bitterness. is that the consistent theme
to fix what the treasury secretary calls the most complicated problems. what to do about fannie mae and freddie mac. john harwood is cnbc s chief washington correspondent. so john, this is a huge issue, particularly a lot of republicans bring it up all the time. they re upset it wasn t part of the financial reform and now tim geithner s saying they re going to try to take it on. they ll take it on but slowly, chuck. you know, you and savannah talking about running the clock out on the mosque controversy. in the economic realm, they want to run clock on fannie and freddie and the reason is they re involved in 95% or more of all the mortgages in the country today. the eventual solution as seen by both parties likely to be a privatization of these huge companies. the problem is there s no private company that wants to step in right now so if you actually tried to move forward on that plan, you d have very difficult time for the mortgage
nbc s john yang is in chicago. john, i m sure you re reading the tea leaves there with the fellow reporters. what do you make of this request? reporter: well, it s interesting, savannah. the testimony has nothing to do with the wire fraud charges that the jury said they had not yet voted on. it has to do with an apparent attempt to shake down rahm emanuel for a fund-raiser by his hollywood agent brother ari for $2 million for a school in rahm s district. now, of course, the money released without the fund-raiser and cuts a little both ways. but we also learned this morning that the blagojeviches may soon be asking the court for public money to pay for their defense team. they had been using campaign funds but we re now told this morning that cupboard is bare. $2 million exhausted and spent on their lawyers. from the campaign fund.
financing market and therefore for the housing market and the last thing a weak economy needs is more trouble in the housing market. john harwood, thank you for that report. we ll be watching that today. to the gulf now where a new report today estimates that more than 75% of the oil that spilled is still there. in the meantime, the obama administration is tightening up the rules on deepwater drilling. let s turn to correspondent on duty again in venice, louisiana, anne thompson. good morning. let s start with the report that the oil is, in fact, still there. we all remember the story a couple of weeks ago that said about three quarters of it was i don t know. what gives? reporter: savannah, report from the university of georgia and from a team of scientists who have really led the way in talking about those underwater plumes of oil. and basically, what they say is there s no way that the majority of the oil that spilled into the gulf could simply disappear. and if you look at th
directly. right. i want to move to an interview with john mccain, switch gears a little higher. you pressed him on this issue of the idea that john mccain is running as a different john mccain now. as he s running for reelection in arizona and he pushed back hard. tell us about it. i would object to me pressing him. we talked about immigration but he was you know, i hand by him a lindsey graham. he is a good friend in the senate saying that john, you know, has to he is in a tough primary and has to win the election and instead of, you know, talking about reasons for why he s changed on the positions and he does have reasons that he gives, he said he hadn t changed any of his positions. read the quote actually. he said, quote, i have not changed in my positions. i know how popular changed for prest press to have me changing