thicke leaves behind a wife and three children, one of them, of course, singer robin thicke. in an instagram his father was the best man and the best friend he ever had. alan thicke reportedly died of a heart attack. he was just 69 years old. so young. so young. so young, handsome. that show was funny. it was clever and quick. he had great comedic timing. one of the few people in that business where people unanimously say he was a decent person on top of his accolades as an actual performer. it is an end of an era on capitol hill. the longest serving female senator barbara mccull russki will step down. what were her highs and her lows? she ll tell us next on new day.
that the cold war ended more than two decades ago. wolf blitzer is off today. i m gloria borger and you re in the situation room. captions by vitac www.vitac.com the average price for a gallon of regular gas today is about $4. make that $3.92. our new poll shows nearly half of americans expect that price to hit $5. that s $5 this year and most blame the oil companies. president obama tried to hitch a ride on those sentiments today. chief white house correspondent jessica yellin is here. jessica, is the president going after big oil? again. believe it or not, it really felt like today was let s play politics with gas prices day in washington. the president played his part from the rose garden. think about that. it s like hitting the american people twice. he called on the senate to pass a bill that would have eliminated billions in tax breaks for oil companies. american oil is booming. the oil industry is doing just fine, with record profits and rising prod
excuse me, hopefully, at that point, nominee for president. the policies and positions are the same. reporter: the romney campaign is starting to drop some big hints that maybe it s time for rick santorum and newt gingrich to drop out of the race. with jeb bush s endorsement yesterday, the calls are likely to increase in the republican party that they should do just that. rob and paula, back to you. we ve seen this before. we had the $10,000 bet. we had the i like to fire people. i think a lot of it is a little unfair. i think the etch a sketch was more of a metaphor, for how after the primary, we get to the general election. that s just a different season. everyone resets and it s mano-e-mano. it s just an easy political you know, jab. it s almost laughable. i feel like we re grasping at straws. it gets desperate as we get toward the end here. make it end, please. counting on it. it was a rare day of bipartisan agreement on capitol hill, believe it or not. democrats an
enough job at understanding the great recession because washington and new york didn t get hit as hard. and mitt romney s here right now as we speak raising money in new york city. it was interesting to hear him say yesterday an interview with fox news when he was asked about all these perceived gaffes he s made talking about the owners of nascar and the nfl. and he looked at megan kel and said, look, i ve made a lot of money in my life, i m a rich guy, there s nothing i can do about this. hang around, i want to talk about romney a little bit more, especially on the health care stuff. after the break, trivia time. we ask senator barbara mikulski is about to become the longest serving female member of all time in the u.s. congress. who has held that title before her? the answer edith norris rogers as a republican from massachusetts, rogers served for 35 years, the longest congressional tenure of any woman to date. mikulski will surpass rogers on saturday with 12,858 days of service.
hutchinson and olympia snowe. so there s a real need to have that perspective. it s not differebetter, it s di. somehow the united states senate is out of whack as far as population is concerned. good to talk to you. thanks very much. thanks, chuck. market rundown is next, plus, final frenzy. former illinois governor rod blagojevich is on his way to prison this morning and we ll share with you his defiant parting words. but first today s trivia question. barbara mikulski is about to become the longest serving female member in all of congress both house and senate. who currently holds that title? who is she about to surpass? the first correct answer will get a follow thursday. [ shapiro ] at legalzoom, you can take care of virtually