people support this and we can t let them off the hook here. we need to demand a simple up or down vote after it passes the senate. stewart, i want to get your reaction to a tweet that harry reid sent out today. it takes no survey to reprove repression. absolutely. and i was very proud that leader reed quoted my uncle. the court issue that he worked on 35 years ago, it will be 35 year yea years the court issue was non-discrimination and housing. i really do think that it takes no courage to come out and celebrate diversity, celebrate diversity in your family, in your community, in your workplace. and number two it s important that we allow the american
faces an uncertain future and divided congress. president obama may hit a serious opposition from members of his own party. the will to change gun laws in the aftermath of the sandy hook massacre is beginning to meet political realities. paul vowed to nullify the 23 executive actions signed last week. diane fine stein plans to introduce a new assault weapon and extended magazine ban. leader reed says he intends to make guns one of the earliest things we consider on the floor. chairman lay sehey talked about having hearings right away. i think you will see action quickly. there are 20 democratic senate seats up for grabs in 2014 including in the gun friendly states of arkansas, alaska, louisiana, ohio, new hampshire and south dakota. after the assault weapons ban passed in 94 democrats lost control of the house all of
everybody, both conservatives but also progressives where they can go back to the constituency specifically the house and say i voted for this and here is why. there is farm stuff in there, really some good stuff folks can give them comfort and say this is a good thing for our constituency. and, you know, we ve heard a lot of people this morning refer to vice president biden as the closer. he certainly comes out looking very good in this. assuming that this does pass, robert, does anyone other than the vice president come out looking like a winner? conversely, who ends up losing? a lot of people are worried about how john boehner is faring. when you take a look at this and peel the onion back and look at the different layers mitch mcconnell and joe biden clearly have a friendship. they have a relationship there. joe biden served in the senate with mitch mcconnell for almost 20 plus years. this is really how deals get done, in a truly bipartisan fashion. quite frankly, a true deal i
what are you hearing? are you hopeful that there is a deal today? i am probably the last optimist in washington. all the parties that can make a deal are in town. that is a step in the right direction. there is very serious negotiations going on now between senator mcconnell and leader reed. they have found common ground. i wouldn t be surprised that there are bumps along the way but the senate will get something done and it moves to the house. and what senate would be extraordinary important. until now it appeared negotiations centered around a small deal that would likely extend bush tax cuts for all but high earners and extend unemployment benefits for people set to lose them on january 2 and prevent the alternative minimum tax.
it was very hard because speaker boehner keeps moving the hard right guys. my recollection is that the cooperation between leader reed and the president was quite strong. well, there seems to be a moment that s getting a lot of attention where david krone almost lectures the president saying you were stuck in the position you were stuck with, having to do a two-step process to raise the debt ceiling because the white house didn t have a plan b. is that your recollection? not well. my recollection is the white house won. boehner wanted the debt ceiling to expire before the election. the white house said, no way, and eventually boehner caved. do you think the white house took any lessons away from that near deal on the grand bargain but what ended up happening and what lessons are those? yeah. i think the lesson pretty much is that you can t just have an