they re looking for there are also signs that part of strategy is to run against what they paint as a republican do-nothing congress. and by the way, after a long break, congress is back to work today. nbc news capitol hill correspondent kelly o donnell joins me now. what of that agenda is likely to make it through? reporter: well, chris, sort of back to work. the senate doesn t come back until next week. there are many senators who are on overseas trip as an example, visiting afghanistan is one particular location. when they do come back and starting to gear up here, there are a lot of things that are partially unfinished business from last year that need to be dealt with, and they will be reminders of some of the most difficult times we have seen on capitol hill. of course, you remember the payroll tax extension. that was only a 60-day fix, so they need to take a look at that. also included in that, what to do about long-term unemployment benefits. there are differences about how
members when he supported a law that effectively ended collective bargaining rights for union workers. and the president is taking a play from his acceptance speech. the convention committee announced that the president will give his big speech at bank of america stadium in charlotte, north carolina, the dnc is shortening the convention by one day to allow a day of family oriented events. and after a month of vacation, congress is back at work and they will say they were on recess. they have a lot to get done this session, after last month s political disaster over the payroll tax extension, how are they going to accomplish everything on their to do list. kelly, first to you, the new
tonight, our super pacs super shady. the presidential candidates seem to think so. the people of south carolina need to know the truth and when they know the truth, i think they ll find it s not surprising that governor romney is not as conservative as his pac and his campaign has said that he is. so, super pacs were born out of the controversial supreme court case citizens united in 2010. the the ruling allowed so-called super pacs to raise and spend unlimited amount of money on campaigns, but they re not allowed to take direction from the candidate. they have to be independent. but are they? what we found is that the ties do seem pretty close. for example, the pro mitt romney super pac s treasurers spees was romney s general counsel in 2008. the pro gingrich super pac founded by rick tyler. gingrich s former press secretary and bill burton, the president s former deputy press secretary. these super pacs do seem to be run by some of the candidate s super close friends. i
super romney s general counsel igingc secretary and bill former depute if you listen to the you d think they want campaign finance law has ons of americans are rid of voices shouldn t be drownedu in e super pacs, candidates would be in contl dr better system an more honorabl burton, who runsu.s.a. and charlie major pry okay, question sure. friends with think he s doing a eam personal for so, when regular supposed to behow do you answer the of personally and professionally, that there s as support e this race and that we know them from before. but toaigns in this country, tt do you have figure out what they want or what? absolutely not. it would be sort of strange if the people running pacs with respect strong supporters, so there s nothing strange about that, but there are clear legal rules about what we can and can t do in terms of coordinating on message, timing and communication and we fully abide by those rules. you guys got to admit from the regular person s
comes to making the recess appointments and the president got this right. if they are doing real business, that means there is not a recess. what is difference is they are not doing business. someone is showing up for 30 seconds they hit the gavel twice and they are gone. that is not a real senate session. reporter: republican senators say the democrats have used the same tactic and disagree. shepard: what is the bottom line on the legal challenges? guest: critics say the president is stretching the powers of the executive branch beyond the constitutional limit. here is the president of one of the groups now waging the legal fight, the national right-to-work foundation. guest: he says because they were doing things that were important, although they passed a payroll tax extension, he does not figure that is important, he decides whether what the senate is doing is worthy of being in session. reporter: harry reid came up