particular issue? well, first of all, it s a little premature to even raise the issue. the damage is horrific. but you have to remember, this is a disaster site about 17 miles long, a mile and a third wide. that s $2 billion worth of damage. but it s not covering multistates. there may well be enough money already appropriated for disaster relief to take care of all of our needs here without additional funds that, again, haven t been expended or haven t already been dedicated to this purpose. having said that, i voted for hurricane sandy relief, was proud to do so. i think, you know, now and then extraordinary disasters like sandy or katrina or the oklahoma city bmi inbombing happen. the most important thing is to get help immediately to the people affected. that s what we do as americans. so, you know, that s the way i approach it. but in this case i think probably we have a lot of people arguing prematurely over something an issue we may not have to deal with. but the end of the
democratic congress that passed the health care bill that did dodd/frank and did the stimulus. sure. i don t think you would say that was do-nothing. we might disagree whether they were good idea, but they did a lot. if you look at the last few months in this congress, the fiscal cliff deal, solved, hurricane sandy relief, done. violence against women act passed. those were all things i voted for and worked across the aisle on. so, again, this idea of congress never does anything, actually it does white a bit. but i think this rises to a very serious level. not just because of the deaths. look, this happened on 9/11. we should have anticipated there were going to be difficulties. we clearly didn t we have a lot of military assets across the mediterranean and we couldn t get any of them in position to do anything over many, many hours. that suggests to me we weren t appropriately prepared for something that we knew, particularly given the region s, you know, being as inflamed as i
and to sign it into law. as we ve seen in the past with the fiscal cliff deal, hurricane sandy relief, house speaker boehner has only been willing to bring legislation that is only supported by the majority of the majority. right now manchin-toomey is nowhere close to that number. if the bill dies in the house, gun control advocates will have to figure out how to turn the gun issue, which historically has been the achilles heel for democrats, into a 2014 advantage. with that in mind, keep an eye on a couple of states, particularly here s washington state. a gun control advocacy group is preparing to announce a 2014 ballot initiative campaign centered on expanded background checks. it would be washington state s first gun-related measure since a high profile failure 15 years ago. you can see where this is going. you can see that is a new path. if washington doesn t go, that states that allow referendums to do this and it will be where the
reporter: here in the gentily neighborhood of new orleans, terry torres believes some neighbors took the money and ran. drives me crazy. reporter: watch dogs fear this fraud could happen over again with $51 billion heading to victims of hurricane sandy. he is demanding the obama administration impose stricter guidelines. hud secretary sean donovan declined to speak with abc news, but an aide pledges that tighter controls will be placed on spending for hurricane sandy relief, while making sure people who really need the money get it. jeff zeleny, abc news, washington. all right. the lu lu lemon executive responsible for those revealing workout pants is now out of a job. the extremely sheer yoga pants were taken off the market. the chief product officer will leave her job at lululemon as a result. pulling the pants could cost the retailer $40 million. two cousins who have the same birthday almost to the minute thanks to a very unusual brotherly bond. they became fathers the v
and anyone else who wants to run for president perhaps in 2016 would love to have an approval rating of 74%. and i wrote today that i think the reason why chris christie has this sky-high approval rating, he is a red governor in a blue state. and you can t be a successful republican governor in a democratic state if you re a hard-core ideologue. the former mayor of new york once said there s no democratic or republican way to pick up garbage. and chris christie shows by embracing the president when he needed the president s help after hurricane katrina i m sorry, hurricane sandy and then really just reading the riot act to speaker boehner and congressional republicans for not moving fast enough on hurricane sandy relief, he is showing an independence there that the people of his state really, really love. and of course politics are involved here because at 74% for a guy who s up for re-election in november is wonderful.