powerful cleric moqtada al-sadr is backing al h maliki. there is human rights abuses following the june 2009 presidential election. meanwhile, presidents obama met at the white house with sarah shourd and the mother of the other two american hikers still held by the iranians. life in equador has basically returned to normal tonight following a dramatic rescue of the president after he was attacked by angry police. correspondent steve harrigan picks up the story. reporter: it began as mano y mano standoff between ecuadorian president rafael correa and the police over cuts. correa dared them to kill him if they had the courage. tear gas explodes near the
deficit. asked if they would raise taxes or cut programs, most voters told us they d do both. in los angeles, william la jeunesse, fox news. jim: of course, we haven t totally abandoned listening to politicians. join chris wallace this weekend on fox news sunday. he will be live from louisville, kentucky, with a debate between senate candidate rand paul and jack conway. check local listings for the times. more politics later, including a look at rahm emanuel s chances of being chicago mayor. and up next, being president of equador can be extremely hazardous to your health. f@@
president s head. he is shoved and escapes the mob and holes up inside a hospital. after 12-hour siege, 500 soldiers come to his rescue. under cover of darkness they form a human shield, as gunfire erupt, killing one and wounding dozens of others, including a presidential bodyguard. correa back in the presidential palace says there will be no more giving or forgetting. this is a failed attempt at a coup but they only made us stronger. reporter: the u.s. expressed support for correa. we believe this is the kind of action that is necessary to resolve this, you know, with an affirmation aof democratic values and that is what we hope for equador. reporter: by morning, the streets are calm and airports back open, but there may be more trouble ahead. equador government is in the red and defaulted on the foreign debt.
to believe the polls, the margins of democrats come down. there will be more republicans therefore the work gets harder. one of the things that s interesting, senator daschle, i believe said that pete rouse puts out fires. he is able to bring everybody together in a room to talk. that s going to be a skill you re really going to need if indeed more republicans end up in the senate and house. just one little anecdote, and that is that pete rouse was able to convince those members who were left from the grateful dead to come together. if he can bring the grateful dead together. certainly he can work this on the senate. so we ll see. all right. we appreciate you as always. i ll see you sunday for our thing. okay? it s a deal. okay. talk to you soon. we ll turn to equador now. this, after a police officer roughed up and tear gassed, the
rick rick he s officially hanging on to power. what are people saying, how long is that going to last? the army is in charge right now. there s a state of emergency for the next wupbd and the president says he s not going to back down. this is a country, $400 billion in debt, it s already tkpwault dollars defaulted on its loan and you have a president who says he s going to push through with cutting the budget so this violence we ve seen over the past 24 hours could be the start of more troubles ahead in equador. jenna: fox news is your front row seat for politics, in massachusetts, voters say good riddens to a sales tax on alcohol but not everyone is favoring the tax levy s last call. douglas kennedy has more. reporter: liquor stores want to get rid of it but treatment centers want it to stay. it s a debate that s driving