Washington, its friday, february 1st, 2013. Lets get to the first read of the morning. Ill get to the jobs report in a minute, but i want to get to hagel. I want to start there. No doubt chuck hagel had a rough outing before the Armed Services committee, the question is whether hostility to hagels nomination breaks down so completely along partisan lines. That hes still able to survive. Theres clearly a lot of Republican Opposition to hagel, some of it may be personal. The white house for now is chalking up the eight painful hours to political theatrics and believe these republican senators were simply tougher on hagel than they were on john kerry or on john brennan because they view hagel as a turncoat, but, wow, did hagel just sit there and allow himself to get flogged. I have already stated that i regret the terminology. Ive already noted that i that i should have used another term. The bigger point is what i was saying, i think what i meant to say, should have said, its recognizabl
some journalist is going to figure out what is going on. you hate to say that there are stereotypes, but new jersey has a stiereotype in this type f thing. the accusation is pretty damning. but we ve not come close to confirming it. that s right. the one issue where it could take a really bad turn for this, there have been rumors for many years about many different things ethically with bob menendez. the whole soup. dig and dig and then it just becomes an endless waterfall. pl let s go to chuck hagel. you have a lot of u.s. senators who are clients. do you think any of your clients got cold feet watching chuck hagel yesterday? i think a lot of the democrats are going to want to support the president. even senator blunt. i thought the filibuster comment was pretty important. and that s sort of where this is why hagel s going to get confirmed. that is right. and that s where this is headed, isn t it? it is. he won t get filibustered and
zesty rotel tomatoes and green chilies, you get a bowl of queso that makes even this get-together better. on our radar this morning a deadly attack outside the u.s. embassy in turkey. new developments in the controversy surrounding bob menendez, and hiraldo says he may take his act to capitol hill. and former new york city mayor ed koch died early this morning from heart failure. he was a larger-than-life mayor and he served three terms from the late 70s throughout most of the 80s, helped bring the city back from the brink of financial ruin in the process. beloved by his supporters and known for his flashing his trademarks thumbs-up. koch was also known for his combative style. he once wrote, i don t give ulcers, i give them. after leaving office in 1989, he stayed in the public eyes, a pundit and a food critic and even a judge on the people s
anonymous allegations. we ll see. while menendez is staying tight-lipped, his fellow democratic senator frank lautenberg is not. instead of rejecting the accusations out of hand, lautenberg seemed to entertain the pebt that they are true, saying this, quote, if there are infractions as they are reported, it s too bad. i think bob will survive this with his good work. this is a terrible tragedy. lautenberg meanwhile has his own political intrigue to deal with. on thursday veteran journalist hiraldo rivera said he s seriously considering a run for his seat. he told radio listeners he s been in contact with state republican party to discuss his options. rivera said today that he ll ride his harley to every town in new jersey if he decides to run. cory booker, hiraldo rivera. the fight for john kerry s seat. our gaggle of jobs friday will be here as well. [ woman ] if you have the audacity to believe
you isle ask the former pakistani president musharraf in he knew osama bin laden was hiding in his homeland and if he knows terrorists may be holed up in pakistan right now. i m wolf blitzer, you re in the situation room. first, a powerful reminder today, if they don t reach an agreement in the next 11 days, all hell could brea look. standard & poor s is warning the nation could be shoved back into recession very soon after the august 2i deadline passes with the clock ticking and stakes rising, our own jessica yellin learned that leaders plan to meet this hour at the white house. we re learning a good deal more about where the talks stand. kate bolduan has the latest. what do you know? both sides, all sides are cautioning and stressing that there is no deal. we are learning that president obama and house speaker john boehner are making a fresh drive to strive for one maybe last effort on this some of the ideas could include $3 trillion in debt reduction. that could includ