running for reelection in this cycle 2010. now six of them are in competitive riss. only one patrick leahy running for reelection in vermont would be in that category but not running in a tough race. of the six of those who were asking questions who were running for reelection there were a lot of local issues in their questions. it was a bit of a moment for those senate democrats in danger in home states to play for the home folks a bit. the president took their questions in turn. it wasn t b a particularly combat atmosphere but allowed the senate democrats if not challenge the president directly at least raise issues they re hearing back home never a bad idea when you re up for reelection. jane: one last question major, the president also challenged republicans but sounds like he s trying to reach out to them also. reporter: not so much in this forum. there are other steps the white house is taking to reach out to senate republicans i ll get to in a second but during his opening rem
republicans would say abhutly absolutely mr. president and we re close to winning that fight with you over that huge issue and the republicans believe they gained politically from those obstructionist tactics. how is the president reaching out? next week at the white house on tuesday the president will host bipartisan meeting with the republican leadership and house as well. sunday, it s super bowl sunday republicans will be invited over here for a super bowl party. lots of pictures, lots of enjoy m and maybe a little bit of bipartisan activity but maybe just a lot more football. we ll see. jane: major garrett at the white house for us. thanks major. if if you ve been following politics you may know senate majority leader harry reid is facing a tough reelection battle in his home state of nevada. president obama may not be helping his cause with some negative comments he made again about the city of los angeles. the president now twice has singled out las vegas the
vote. turnout low 20s normally in illinois primary 30-50%. also true this is the earliest primary illinois voters have ever faced before and perhaps some of them just thought it was a little too soon for them to get reengaged but this is president obama s u.s. senate seat or used to be. and as a congress qns the one that consequence the one he occupied being up for grabs should have brought at least some of the members of obama mania out to the polls yesterday and yet it was very, very low. republicans and democrats alike acknowledge there is a big, big factor of scandal fatigue here in illinois and it s cutting against democrats for now. jon: what about the tea party movement, did that have a role here? well, it did but it was sort of in its beginning stages. there have been some very large tea party rallies in illinois. one particularly in quincy a few months ago. they did get involved and they got involved on behalf of some of the down ticket republican candidates and did back a
illustrated that washington simply doesn t work anymore. the president said that the debate actually improved the health care bill, but he blames republicans for the failure, if you will. here s a bit of what he had to say. in order republicans sthai they can insure every american for free, what is which is what was claimed the other day, at no cost, i want to know, because i told them, i said why would i want to get a bunch of lumps on my head doing the hard thing if you ve got the easy thing? but you ve got to show me, you ve got to prove to me that it actually works. reporter: lance lynn blanche lincoln of arkansas asked the president if the folks in his administration actually know what it means to have to get up and know to work to work or worse, not have a job, she said the congress and the administration have broken the back of the recession but can t go back to the policies that led to it. jane? jane: wendell goler, we ll let you know if anything
made contact with. so it does appear that the alleged christmas day bomber continues to provide information, and this had one of the central criticisms of republicans in the handling of this affair, that the intelligence had been cut off. jon: there is new criticism of the handling of the case, right? reporter: well, there is. about half an hour ago, the ranking republican on the house intelligence committee, pete hoxstar, said to director blair why is it this administration is able to brief at short notice, with senior officials to update them but the status of the abdulmutallab interrogation, when you can t seem the time to brief this committee and congressman hokstra asked specifically what is the administration s policy for targeting americans overseas, and this is a story which has really which is really the leading edge, i believe, in it right now, how is the u.s. government going to deal with radical clerics like anwar al-awlaki, based in yemen, who is with this group that c