i m joined from washington but deputy political director paul steinhauser. paul, thanks for coming in sunday night. let s look ahead to the new year and the new congress in a moment, but first this lame duck congress where nothing was going to happen. well, we had a flurry of votes there, and at the end who is getting credit for what was accomplished. i know we have new poll numbers. what do they reveal? well, a lot of political pundits saying it was a december to remember for president obama and why? because so many things were passed through that lame duck congress from the repeal of the don t ask, don t tell policy which prevented gays and lesbians from serving openly in the military to the ratification of the approval of a major nuclear weapons treaty with russia, to that tax cut compromise, and our polls indicate americans feel the same way, that it was the president who real was the winner. take a look at this. you mentioned our national survey and this is from cnn opinion rese
i m joined from washington by our deputy political director paul steinhauser. paul, thanks for coming in sunday night. let s look ahead to the new year and the new congress in a moment, but first this lame duck congress where nothing was going to happen. well, we had a flurry of votes there, and at the end who is getting credit for what was accomplished? i know we have new poll numbers. what do they reveal? well, a lot of political pundits saying it was a december to remember for president obama and why? because so many things were passed through that lame duck congress from the repeal of the don t ask, don t tell policy which prevented gays and lesbians from serving openly in the military to the ratification of the approval of a major nuclear weapons treaty with russia, to that tax cut compromise, and our polls indicate americans feel the same way, that it was the president who really was the winner. take a look at this. you mentioned our national survey and this is from cnn opinion
we will give you the latest on that coming up. back over to t.j. with more. appreciate you, thanks so much. turn now to our cnn congressional correspondent, dane bash. she is here for our political update and always the popular thing, it seems. somebody wants to be a maverick. it is. there s a new one in town. a lot of fascinating political story lines in this political year. lisa murkowski lost her primary bid to joe miller. she launched a write-in campaign. and it is first time anyone has done that. she is still a republican but is becoming the maverick of her party. since she hack back, she voted with democrats for the don t ask, don t tell repeal for the s.t.a.r.t. treaty and the dream act. now, murkowski s interview with john king last night, you can find at cnn.com/ticker, she talked about her independent streak and said look, i feel like i have a very strong message in her word from the
spend and invest money, and the president s arguing you re going to need some stimulus money yet again, and that s going to come in the form of added money going to things like creating jobs and even green jobs, innovation/economy type programs that are based on new reg. gregg: on the other side of the aisle, i want to be fair about this, you know, mitch mcconnell, he was against i mean, adamantly against the don t ask, don t tell and the s.t.a.r.t. treaty, both of which passed. and when he came out last sunday against the s.t.a.r.t. treaty, i think he figured that was going to be the end of it and, guess what? his colleagues on the republican side all kind of yawned which prompted lindsey graham to say harry reid ate our lunch. did mitch mcconnell lose some of his mojo? what i m hearing from republicans on the hill is mitch
$814 billion economic stimulus. a massive health care overhaul. new regulations on wall street trading. and consumer credit cards. then in this month s lame duck session alone, an extension of the bush tax cuts. a nuclear arms treaty. and a repeal of the don t ask, don t tell policy on gays in the military. if there s any lesson to draw from these past few weeks it s that we are not doomed to endless gridlock. reporter: there was also plenty of controversy. the filibuster threats, chaotic town hall meetings, the emergence of the tea party. and many who will take office in january campaigned on the promise they would try and repeal some of the laws passed during this historic session. still, the president is enjoying a big bump. according to a new cnn poll, 56% of americans approve of the way the president handled the issues that congress considered during its lame duck session. mike and vinita? thank you, t.j. prices at the pump may be going through the roof but some drivers in