crafted in washington. i think there s two parts to what we may see. part of which is going on in washington. another part of it is what s happening on the ground. i think the ames the iowa straw poll and what we re seeing in the presidential that s where we may see that resurgence of the tea party activism. obviously, you have republican politicians who feel like they might need to really consider the tea party when they re making strategy decisions. michele bachmann s already running on her no vote. she said all along i m not going to vote to raise the debt ceiling. you have mitt romney saying he cannot support a deal. tim pawlenty against the deal. ron paul voted against it. only jon huntsman supported this agreement. j.p., how likely is it that the tea party is what drives strategy as the re-s are duking it out ahead of the primary? absolutely. in fact, that s why we see them twisting the wind so much trying to pretend that they don t do
enormously fat. there are something like 25,000 work in the pentagon every day. if there s anything that ought to be cut it s the bureaucracy. let me tell you, they re not going to do that. they re going to cut the small force that s defending us now. they re going to make out smaller. if you think that makes us safer, you ve got another thing coming. good to see you. there s no denying the impact the tea part had on the debt debate in washington. the real question is can they keep the party going. karen fin yi is ab msnbc analyst. and j.p. frer is a republican strategist. good to see you both. hey, contessa. how much benefit from the tea party get from its role in the debt debate? it s going to benefit it a great deal. just last year people were talking about how the tea party was a one trick pony and that it couldn t possibly keep it up. made it will you the 2010 elections and had a huge impact on the policy debate that just happened in congress. it really forced the senate
degree to get through the primaries and to do well enough in the primaries. pawlenty is hoping that tea party support will give him the bump that he needs in the early in the primary process to keep himself going. but then they all are concerned and have to be thinking about when you get to the general election. if you get to the general election how do you make that pivot? karen, i don t know about you, i just love j.p. s reference to nincompoops. i think it s a word that should be used more often. i have to agree and it applies to a lot of people in that building behind me. thank you both. the pictures coming out of africa are astonishing. you ve got a disaster in kenya growing by the day. somalia even worse. we ll have a live report coming up. plus why the parents of a marine are being sued over a sign supporting their son?
which is humanitarian objectives anno to gidnt th. i wl leave at nvsation there, j.p., nerra, thanks for participating. workers reconnected power lines to all six reactors at japan s krip crippled nuclear plant temperature. they say there is still a lot of work to be done before electricity can be turned on. emergency crews dumped 18 tons of seawater into a nearly boiling pool holding spent nuclear fuel. japan s nikkei market closed with more than a 4% gain today thanks to the good news at the power plant. the index is still 7% lower than its close the day the earthquake and tsunami hit. crews recovered the body of taylor anderson, an american teaching english in miyagi, japan, believed to be the first american victim, the first known
that s been opened. the president will be judged on how successfully this gets resolved. of course, you have the president and the pentagon repeatedly committing to enforcing the no-fly zone and protecting the civilians. that was the u.n. mandate. should it go farther? should the allied forces do something to get rid of gadhafi the way that john mccain wants. my big question, should allied forces actively help the rebels fight gadhafi? share your thoughts with me on facebook. my e-mail is contessa@msnbc.com. let me ask that to the chief operating officer at the center for american progress and j.p.frer, a republican strategist. good of you both to join me. mira, let me begin with you. we have these people who are stepping around the fact that really everybody wants gadhafi gone but nobody wants to say that s the ultimate goal of the mission. should coalition forces make it an objective to at least help