>> you know what i contribute? i contribute some insight into the growing ego mania that is young willie geist. >> yes! >> the 37-year-old sexiest man on earth? >> what? >> oh, wow, we're doing this 40 seconds in, huh? >> "people" magazine. >> getting it out of the way. there he is. willie geist listed as the sexiest 37-year-old man in america. >> i'm titillated. >> it's not just me saying it anymore, it's documented. >> where am i? am i on the right show? >> later today -- >> this is why i got up early? >> later this morning, we are going to have the new editor of "people" magazine here, helen keller. >> oh! >> that's cruel. >> ba dumb bum. >> long setup. way to go. donny's on there, too. >> donny's on the list, too. >> what was it, "50 shades of grey." >> i was in the decaying category. sexy and decaying. sexy men with gray hair. >> it was like the silver foxes. >> what's interesting -- >> and joe in there, too, in your category. >> send kitchen appliances. microwave ovens. >> there is a little quid pro quo. >> they have a supplement of the 90-year-olds. >> were you on that? >> i'm on that list. >> that's just in the regional papers, though, up in the boston edition. >> let me ask you a question. i felt a little objectified personally. >> yeah. >> kind of like a piece of meat, flesh. >> right. >> arm candy stuff. >> why is it always about the looks? >> especially being part of this literate algonquin-type show. >> boo hoo. >> a little levity before we get to some really tough stuff. >> yeah, we've got serious business. there's much more on the general petraeus situation, but we've got breaking news this morning. it's changing by the minute out of israel. this morning israeli tv reporting three israelis were killed in rocket strikes in the southern part of the country. this comes as the israeli military has launched an aggressive new campaign to cripple hamas after repeated rocket attacks. as many as 750 this year, they say, launched from gaza into southern israel. last night president obama spoke on the phone with prime minister benjamin netanyahu acknowledging israel's right to defend itself but also urging him to not have civilian casualties. this youtube video showing an air strike yesterday killing the top military commander of hamas. it was part of a widespread campaign against targets that the israeli military says it will broaden in the coming days. this morning defense forces dropped leaflets over gaza warning residents to stay away from hamas operatives. on twitter, a clear message from israeli defense forces. quote, we recommend that no hamas operatives, whether low level or senior leaders, show their faces above ground in the days ahead. president obama also spoke last night with egypt president mohamed morsi about working together to preserve peace and security in the region. tension between israel and egypt's new islamist government has increased since the attacks with egypt recalling its ambassador to israel in protest. richard haass, also an emergency meeting of the u.n. security council last night. sift through this for us. how big is this? how significant is this in the middle east right now? >> well, it's big for lots of reasons, because it's not happening in isolation. one is you have the largest military clashes between israel and hamas in, what, four year now, and it's not going to stop. at times it doesn't matter in the middle east exactly why things begin. over the last few months there have been hundreds of rocket attacks, now this, then retaliation. it just happens. second of all, it's happening in the absence of anything political. there's no dialogue going on whatsoever between israelis and palestinians. this can't substitute for this. thirdly, egyptians withdrew their ambassador. since 1967 and really since not long after that when sadat, the relationship has been peaceful. it's been codified by treaty. it is the basis of peace in the middle east to the extent it exists at all. what this shows is we can no longer take that for granted. now that you've had the political change in egypt, you can't insulate these things. they're all connected. also, what might be the most significant thing in the middle east this week is what's happening in jordan, the other country in the middle east that has a signed peace treaty with israel. there you see riots against the king which suggest it's not inconceivable that the monarchies, these upheavals would now be spreading to places like jordan. so israel now faces a crisis with the palestinians, tremendous uncertainty with egypt, uncertainty on its border with jordan, civil war in syria, probl problems with hezbollah and lebanon. not to mention iran. there's no port in the storm. this is now the new middle east. >> and richard, doesn't that make syria all the more important, you know, golan heights took mortar fire from syria, israel really doesn't want to get involved. you know, spread itself thin in syria, and i think that's why international action on syria is so important right now. >> it's one of the fault lines in the middle east. i think if you're an israeli, it's not the one at the moment that keeps you up at night the most. >> right. >> i still think the palestinian is the closest. then you've got egypt which is the anchor of israel's security. and i think actually the israelis are most worried about jordan. the israelis are not central to the dynamic in syria. syria which began as a civil war and spread into the proxy has the potential to become a regional war. just when the thought the middle east can get worse, it can. >> what's your assessment of pretty much the fact that a good portion of the top level of the united states diplomatic/intelligence apparatus, general petraeus, secretary clinton, perhaps, leaving, where does that leave us in terms of, you know, the overlap in the middle east? >> underneath them, you've got thousands of people who are following the intel, and you've got ambassadors in the embassies and all that. you are going to have something of a transition, but i actually think, mike, this goes way beyond who's secretary of state and secretary of defense. i actually think we're up against large historical forces in the middle east. and i don't mean this as a criticism or disrespect of hillary clinton or leon panetta or even barack obama. these are tectonic plates that are moving in the middle east. and the idea that who the president decides to appoint as secretary of state is going to make a material difference in these things, no. >> does anyone have, do you think, does anyone have any real sense of where egypt might go in all of this? >> i think egypt, look, it's quarter to a third of the arab world. cairo is one of the historical centers of the arab world. we don't have a good reading on where these guys are going, the muslim brotherhood. i'm not sure they necessarily do. we don't know how much to take literally what they say and write. they've got their internal politics, the party, the government. there's issues between them and other forces in egypt. they came into government fairly narrowly. but they're clearly trying to deepen their base. so everyone's watching really closely what they're doing with the rewriting of egypt's constitution, how these people want to consolidate power. what they say in the middle east, it's one thing to win an election. that's the easy part. are they willing to lose an election, to set up a political dynamic where there's a level playing field? i don't think we know the answer. >> whenever we're talking israel and hamas, you have to think about iran and its role. some of the long-range missile sites they bombed yesterday in those 50 strikes had bombs supplied by iran. how do they figure into this whole picture? >> they were historically, iran and syria, were the principal supporters of hamas. actually in recent weeks, you've seen a slight weaken of that bunt, qatar has moved in to some extent in part because hamas is somewhat alienated from iran and syria, given their problems over there, the syrian civil war. but again, what it shows is that you can't look at any of these things in total isolation. all these fault lines -- again, use the fault line analogy. when things vibrate along one, almost geologically they then tend to vibrate along others. and the scary thing about the middle east, there's a lot going on, and there's very few diplomatic circuits to begin with. the concern has got to be that all of these things start affecting one another. and it's unlikely to have a happy ending. >> a lot of talk about strained relationship between netanyahu and obama, kind of forced lovers at this point to a new degree as it kind of tightens around israel? >> look, it doesn't help. this is a strained relationship, bibi netanyahu was criticized for tilting towards romney. thor what's odd, the day-to-day military intelligence relationship between the united states and israel has arguably never been closer and more intimate. it really is tight. so the kinds of issues we've had in the last 24 hours, which is quite traditional, my hunch is that's okay in that scenario where the united states and israel can coordinate. what's also going to happen is this is now going to spread to the u.n., not just this emergency meeting of the security council, but the other palestinians in the west bank, the quote, unquote, more moderate palestinians. they want to increase their political status, move to something like statehood. and real question then is how does the united states and israel manage this. and it will make it much harder against this backdrop because again, there's a diplomatic vacuum. and people are going to look for ways to try to fill the vacuum in ways that israel and the united states don't want. and what the administration is hoping is it doesn't force us into the position where we have to isolate ourselves and veto something simply to make sure that israel isn't isolated. again, this is going to be tough to manage. >> israel said itself yesterday this is an ongoing campaign. certainly much more on this throughout the morning. meanwhile, today congress will hold its first formal inquiry on the deadly raid on the u.s. consulate in benghazi that left four americans dead including ambassador chris stevens. general david petraeus who was scheduled to testify today before he resigned now will testify tomorrow. what he learned from his own independent investigation into the benghazi attack. meanwhile, republican senators from the armed services committee including john mccain and lindsey graham are now calling for a, quote, watergate-style investigation into the libya raid and the obama administration's response to it. they also said they would try to block any attempt to nominate susan rice as the next secretary of state, describing her as unqualified for the job after she originally characterized the terror attack as a protest gone wrong. she went on the sunday shows including "meet the press" a couple days after the attack and said that. president obama in his news conference yesterday fired back at senators mccain and graham. >> let me say specifically about susan rice, she has done exemplary work. she has represented the united states and our interests in the united nations with skill and professionalism and toughness and grace. if senator mccain and senator graham and others want to go after somebody, they should go after me. and i'm happy to have that discussion with them. but for them to go after the u.n. ambassador who had nothing to do with benghazi and was simply making a presentation based on intelligence that she had received and to besmirch her reputation is outrageous. >> those republican senators were quick to respond to the president. lindsey graham took to twitter writing, "mr. president, don't think for one minute i don't hold you ultimately responsible for benghazi." and senator mccain took his rebuttal to the floor of the senate. >> we believe whoever it is must be held responsible, i say to the president of the united states, most importantly, the president of the united states who is commander in chief. who so far, in my view, has not exercised those responsibilities and also not informed the american people of the facts. >> s.e., senator mccain went on to say yesterday there was either gross incompetence here or, in fact, a white house cover-up. >> yeah. >> what do you think -- and we've asked senator mccain this directly -- what do you think he and others suspect in the matter? >> well, a couple things. i think it's a little bizarre. the indignation over questioning susan rice is a little bizarre given that she was made by the president's own admission the spokesperson on that day for what happened in benghazi. she was sent out to the sunday shows, five of them, five days after benghazi, and five days after we already had some pretty good intelligence about what happened in benghazi. and either made completely false statements or misled the public. so when the public held that spokesperson responsible for the things that she said, the indignation that came back was a little misplaced, i think. the other thing i would say is there's been a lot of reading into that moment at the press conference and whether that means obama is going to be appointing susan rice now or not. and i think -- i would actually read into that that he probably isn't. i think that that defense was so full-throated because he does not plan to appoint her and doesn't want to be accused of sort of caving to republican pressure. so i think he came out so strongly so that when he doesn't appoint her and goes with someone like john kerry or even tom donelan, his defense is already on record. and he doesn't have to relitigate that again in the press. >> i'll tell you what i saw yesterday, issue aside, i saw a president with a heightened level of testosterone, gravitas, and maybe a precursor of what he's going to look like the next four years. i saw a definite different kick to his step. obviously, he's been going toe to toe, but there was an authority, there was a -- i'm going to keep using the word "testosterone." a lot of that was missing in the first term, and i found that very interesting, his first kind of public volley eight days later as a harbinger of things to come. >> he spoke quickly in that press conference. did you notice? it was the fastest i've ever heard him speak. you know, we got accustomed over the past four years to a very slow, methodic kind of elongated speech pattern. and he came out, he was rapid, he was quick. >> you got a problem? come to me. i found that very interesting. >> richard, what are you hearing as the most connected in the intelligence community at this table, certainly, about an outcome here with this benghazi investigation? where is this heading right now? how concerned is the white house? >> well, the defense of susan rice is going to be not that she was freelancing, not that she was misleading, that she was representing the intelligence talking points that were given to her at the time. so to me, the biggest questions are two, which is why was the initial decisions made to have all of this presence in benghazi with so little security? that's an interesting question. and then the issue is why was the intelligence community so late to the party? why was the intelligence community several days, almost a week into this still supplying policymakers and public spokesmen for the administration with the story that this was somehow related to a video rather than clearly to people who were armed and terrorists? somehow the u.s. government, to say the least, was not all on the same page. why was that? i see less quite honestly as a quote, unquote cover-up, a watergate-type thing is the wrong analogy. it's incompetence and integration between the intelligence community, the diplomats, that side of the administration and the white house, why was it so rough in pulling together what turned out to be a consistent and accurate story? >> you just hit on the exact questions that i think people in washington are asking, and that's what you find out when you speak to people who are specifically involved in the intelligence community. they have a safe house in bengha benghazi, cia safe house, that apparently the location of it and the fact that it is there is unknown to large elements of the existing diplomatic community in libya at the time, unknown, or it's known to very few people. and it's quite well removed from the consulate. so that's one thing. the other thing that you hear from people in washington is -- and this has nothing to do with susan rice's credentials or the attack on her by senators graham and mccain -- why was she put out there on these sunday shows? why was it susan race, the united nations ambassador, who had very little to do with the event itself other than reading the paper or reading diplomatic reports about it, why was she the one that was put out there? >> for that exact reason. >> it was during -- it was during the course of a presidential campaign. so put the u.n. ambassador out there because, you know -- >> yeah. >> -- you know, she will not get caught up in the campaign. they won't go after her in the course of the campaign. >> and what we saw, based on yesterday's press conference, is that if the president were to go ahead and nominate susan rice -- >> and he is going to nominate her. >> i don't think so. >> i don't think so. >> he's absolutely going to nominate her. >> i don't think so. >> i don't know, but we'll find out soon enough. it's clear it's not going to be a quick, easy conversation. this is going to be a serious nomination hearing, if it is to go forward. it's possible it could be anybody. as you know, with -- not everything in washington is personal. people can use nomination hearings. if senator mccain or graham or any of them want to use the nomination as a way to get to the bottom of benghazi, they can and they will, and there's nothing that stops them from doing it. it's quite possible hillary clinton could be secretary of state for a while as we go through a transition period. >> the senate hearings tomorrow are closed. what kind of info can we expect to get out of them? what will we know afterwards? >> that has less to do with what is said than what is leaked. >> one of the things -- >> i guess we just cross our fingers? >> no, one of the things they will leak is the united states senate, including senators graham and senator mccain, had the exact same intelligence information that susan rice had and that susan rice spoke to in those appearances. >> we already know that. we're hoping to get new information out of the hearings tomorrow. there's still unanswered questions. >> and we'll get our first look at david petraeus since all this exploded less than a week ago. coming up next, mitt romney reflected on why he lost the analysis and his analysis anger some in his own party. what he said next in the "politico playbook." also, we'd talk to senator-elect angus king who announced yesterday he will caucus with the democrats. nbc news political director, chuck todd, will be with us along with nbc chief foreign affairs correspondent, andrea mitchell and later, "american idol" judge randy jackson. how's that for a lineup? first, bill karins with a check on the forecast. >> don't even fit after randy. not even close. and the sexiest guy alive. rough competition this morning. good morning, everyone. here's what we're dealing with out there. we're a week away from thanksgiving. we don't need any travel headaches as we get towards the busy season. doesn't look like we'll see any. nice and quiet weather conditions. temperatures in the 20s and 30s. just like yesterday. it will be a cold morning and then decent afternoon. a little below average. we'll take it. no rain, no snow throughout any of the northeast and the big airports. we do have some rain this morning if you're driving outside the queen city, charlotte, north carolina, down to columbia and all through the lower portions of charleston, myrtle beach and wilmington. any coastal areas, you're going to be on and off rain. that's really one of the only wet spots we have in the entire country this morning. it's a very quiet day in the midwest. nice weather in texas after a chilly start. a great afternoon. no problems in the northern plains. anyone traveling to the west coast, you look good also. i was talking the last couple days about that next potential coastal storm. we've had a good trend. a further offshore trend. and it does look like that storm's going to have very little impact on everyone trying to clean up from that nor'easter, the devastation from hurricane sandy in the northeast. taking a look from our helicopter, a beautiful look of the sunrise over new york city. the president will be in staten island viewing some of the damage. we'll have those pictures for you. you're watching "morning joe" brewed by starbucks. ♪ [ male announcer ] from our nation's networks... ♪ ...to our city streets... ♪ ...to skies around the world... ♪ ...northrop grumman's security solutions are invisibly at work, protecting people's lives... 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"the new york times," the fbi agent who initiated the investigation that led to the discovery of cia director david petraeus's affair has been identified as frederick humphries. humphries began the investigation after jill kelley complained of harassing e-mails which later turned out to be paula broadwell, the biographer. humphries is a veteran agent who has helped investigate high-profile terror suspects like the so-called millennium bomber. "washington post," nearly 50 million people in the united states are in poverty. up from last year, according to the census. a new formula shows more people relying on safety nets as higher costs of living and medical expenses sent poverty members upward. california, the district of columbia, arizona, florida and georgia top the list of places with the highest levels of poverty. >> from our parade of papers, "the cedar rapids gazette," fema may need to request a congressional bailout as flood claims from sandy quadruple capacity. it's a fema subsidiary and claims from sandy could top $12 billion. the program's essentially the country's only residential flood insurer. joining the conversation now, former treasury official and "morning joe" economic analyst, steve rattner, good morning. >> good morning. >> we'll get to your charts. also mike allen from the "politico" newsroom, the chief white house correspondent there. good morning. >> i hate being objectified like you guys. >> see, you're in the deutsche camp. let's talk about what mitt romney said in that conference call this week. he was talking to his biggest donors, defending his campaign by saying president obama won because he focused on giving, quote, gifts to latinos, african-americans and younger voters. >> what the president -- president's campaign did was focus on certain members of his base coalition, give them extraordinary financial gifts from the government and then work very aggressively to turn them out to vote. >> mr. romney went on to say the president wooed hispanic voters with free health care and, quote, amnesty for children of illegal immigrants. as for voters in htheir 20s, romney said, quote, with regards to the young people, for instance, a forgiveness of college loan interest was a big gift. free extra septemberives were very big with young college-aged women. and then finally obamacare also made a difference for them because as you know, anybody 26 years of age and younger was now going to be part of their parents' plan, and that was a big gift to young people. all right, mike. a lot of republicans -- i'm thinking of governor bobby jindal among many others have come out and whiplashed against these comments and saying it's ridiculous and not the reason governor romney lost. what's the reaction been like in washington? >> republicans are very disappointed by this, and there are three big reasons. first of all, this is sour grapes, like this certainly isn't gracious. second, it's just not accurate. there were many, many other factors that were involved, gifts to minorities were not the reason that president obama won the white state of new hampshire, the largely white state of iowa. it's not why he won the hometown of paul ryan, janesville, wisconsin. so there's just a factual issue. but third and biggest, and this is where you heard the louisiana governor, bobby jindal, installed yesterday as the chairman of the republican governors association. this is where you heard him coming in, that republicans say this is a just-doesn't-get-it moment for romney. it makes republicans think that the 47% comment was no slip of the tongue. at his press conference in las vegas yesterday, governor jindal, our reporter, says became visibly agitated about this and said these comments were absolutely wrong. and they come at a time when almost every other leading republican figure is saying the party really needs to look inside itself and change karl rove. in "the wall street journal" today, it's saying the republican party needs to reverse engineer what the obama campaign did in its turnout efforts. senator john cornyn of texas, the head of the senate republicans, as of yesterday, the number two senate republican under mitch mcconnell, saying the republican party has a brand problem and a tactical problem. and the republican national chairman, reince priebus, saying in a presentation to senate republicans yesterday that the republican party needs to do a deep dive on what did wrong. they need to look at more of a 50-state strategy like democrats had. they are going to do focus groups on the republican message. and they're going to talk to state chairmen, donors, outside groups to figure out how they can make their message more rez nant and their machine more effective. >> as mike is explaining here, the reaction to what romney said is almost more interesting than what he said. bobby jindal went on to say two points. one, we have to stop dividing the voters. we need to go after 100% of the voters and show how our policies help every voter to achieve the american dream, not just a part of the country. is this a strategic moment for the republican party, turning away from the romney years and looking ahead to '16 and understanding the reason they lost last tuesday? >> well, yeah. i mean, mike's right, it does sound like sour grapes, which is not a good color on anyone including mitt romney, and blaming the voters which is essentially what he's doing, indicting the voters. that's not a good idea. we can't, as republicans and conservatives, say you didn't vote for us, and it's your fault. no, we didn't make the case. we didn't adequately make our case. and we tried in the last six months of the campaign, and we should have been trying for four years. and i wrote about this yesterday in "the daily news." conservatives don't need to rebrand. they don't need to -- >> yes, they do. >> -- they don't need to soul search. conservatives need to spend more time talking about why their policies work for everyone. >> they do need to rebrand. >> you can't keep indicting the electorate and blaming obama and blaming defense on the things obama has done. >> how can you say they don't need to rebrand? you couldn't be more brand. brands have attributes. what they stand for. demographic fait accompli, they completely need to rebrand themselves. stop exit polling. >> exit polling shows people want less government, not more government. they don't need to let go of their values. >> you saw the values -- you saw mitt romney's, another articulation of 40%, us and them. >> that's not a value, that's a message. the message is wrong. >> that's a values system. >> it's not and it's not a conservative message. >> it's out of date, it's irrelevant. the brand is not in touch with where the world is going. so for you to say they don't have to reinvent that brand is absurd, frankly. >> there are certain conservatives who are out of touch, but the message and the values of conservatism are alive and well and will survive this election and others. >> it's more than just the brand. it's also the policies. i'd like to see the republicans explain how their policies or at least mitt romney's policies on immigration are good for latinos. i'd like to see them explain how their policies -- >> so would i. >> -- on medicare and medicaid are good for the poor. i'd like to see them explain a lot of their policies, not just their brand. i'll see that -- >> policies would be the articulation of the brand. >> that's what they didn't do well. >> i'll see the expertise on brand to donny. on policies, it's not a question of explaining their policies, it's the fact that their policies are not good for -- >> no, they didn't adequately make the case that expanding welfare, for example, increases poverty, as it has over the past four years, and increases income inequality. we haven't explained how that works. >> yeah, but i would love to see them try to convince all those people who got kicked off welfare in the last 12 years because we changed the program, why that was good for them. >> i would just like to see both paul ryan and mitt romney each answer the question individually how is it that both of you lost your hometowns? mitt romney lost his hometown, belmont, massachusetts. paul ryan lost his, janesville, wisconsin. how does that happen? you've got to be saying something wrong. >> mitt romney lost all of his hometowns. and there are many. there are many of them. mike allen, great to talk to you. thanks so much. >> see you soon. >> we'll see you. "new york times" magazine mark leibovich and peter alexander join us next. more "morning joe" in a moment. anncr: some politicians seem to think medicare and... social security are just numbers in a budget. well, we worked hard for those benefits. we earned them. and if washington tries to cram decisions about the future... of these programs into a last minute budget deal... we'll all pay the price. aarp is fighting to protect seniors with responsible... solutions that strengthen medicare and... social security for generations to come. we can do better than a last minute deal... that would hurt all of us. sven gets great rewards for his small business! how does this thing work? oh, i like it! [ garth ] sven's small business earns 2% cash back on every purchase, every day! woo-hoo!!! so that's ten security gators, right? put them on my spark card! why settle for less? testing hot tar... great businesses deserve great rewards! 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[ male announcer ] now all you need is a magic carriage. citi price rewind. buy now. save later. time now for a little sports. joining the table with us once again, our good friend peter alexander. we brought you in for a specialized topic this morning. we're going to tell you about that with the chief national correspondent for "the new york times," mark leibovich. he's contributed to "jewish jocks an unorthodox hall of fame." >> and the book is not a joke. >> no, this is real. this is real. mark leibovich, good morning. >> hey, guys. >> there is that famous scene in "airplane" where the stewardess comes over and says, doesn't want a magazine or a book, how about something lighter reading? she has a pamphlet of great jewish sports legends. we've got a full book of them. tell us what you contributed. who are you writing about? >> well, actually, i wrote about theo epstein, longtime general manager of the red sox who ended the world series drought when he put together the team that won the world series in 2004, they won again in 2007. what's interesting about this book is first of all, there are three things people say immediately when you mention you've written a book called "jewish jocks." you've just said two of them, it's not a joke, two, they mention the "airplane" scene and third and this is what theo said to me, oh, you're just updating the pamphlet or something? in fact, since we're talking about gifts today, not in the romney context, but yeah, it's right here. it's a whole book. i've never actually held up a book on tv before. >> you just did that. >> it's 50 great essays. david remnick wrote about howard cosell, art chamski of the mets. there's some really great writers who have written some really great essays. they're a few pages long. they're not a heavy lift. and it really just puts together an anthology of characters who have really contributed to the sports world who happen to be jewish. >> it's a wonderful hanukkah gift. >> bobby fischer's in there, mark spitz, there are a lot more than you'd think. >> we talk about jewish athletes, and it's not a joke. growing up as a young jew in oakland, california. they had the games. we bring them around, they call them the games when you go to israel, but they brought us in from around the planet. and we play. >> when did you do that? >> it was a disaster. i played in maryland, baltimore county, tennis and basketball. we got crushed by some long island jews. >> they're tough. >> pretty tough. >> there was a really hairy guy underneath. it was a disaster. >> there's always a hairy guy underneath. >> when we get pissed in a fight, we knock each other's yarmulkes off. >> we grew up with stories of sandy koufax and stuff like that. jewish sports tradition, it goes way back. >> red auerbach. you know a lot about theo epstein, mr. boston. >> yes, i do. >> why was he so significant to that run of a couple titles? >> as mark can attest, talk about who theo is in terms of his background. it's not just baseball, his family background, his cultural/social political background is enormously interesting. >> no, it's fascinating. first of all, he grew up in brookline, right next to boston, i grew up in that area, as mike did. and so he was familiar to me. and his dad is head of creative writing at b.u. he wrote some great novels including one called "king of the jews" which i think is probably his best-known book. he also -- theo's grandfather wrote the "cause blasablanca" screenplay. theo's twin brother, he's a great sort of do-gooder, social worker who's done a great deal for charity in the boston area. his sister has done a lot. has written for "homicide" and a lot of great tv shows. this is a family that's accomplished a great deal. what's interesting about theo is he has a lot of angst about his life choices. here's someone who has lived his childhood dream, made tons of money, delivered a world series championship to the new england area for the first time in 86 years. and yet still feels that he hasn't really contributed much to society because his success has come in the toy department, so to speak. he was actually thinking after his red sox contract ended last year of step ago way from baseball and actually doing something in a more socially responsible realm. then the cubs came along and offered him a lot of money, and that was that. >> it's donny deutsch. question, if you're a 5'10" jew from queens and get about a quarter inch off the ground playing basketball, can you still officially call yourself a jewish jock? >> yeah. >> who's 5'10"? >> talking about one of your buddies? >> it's actually -- no, it's actually 5'9" and change. in the interest of expediency. for all those single women out there, i just kind of slide that in. >> not here. >> i don't know of any teams looking for someone in that profile right now. i think -- i mean, look, on the back cover, it says "jewish jocks is not a joke." i mean, this is not -- i mean, it's the first thing you say. and in fact, a lot of people in this book are not people who are classic athletes. i mean, howard cosell is not a classic athlete, bud selig is not a classic athlete. and these are not people who are necessarily heroes. a lot of these people have mixed reputations. al davis is in here. so a lot of these people are not known for their physical exploits. i mean, some are. but it's a real mix of contributions, and some contributed from, you know, off the field. yeah, i think there's hope for you, donny. >> it's a very cool collection. a lot of great writers. kerri strug, 1996, corey pavin. >> golf. >> who knew? that's the thing. we went to philly a couple nights ago to do this thing at the philadelphia free library. and it's amazing the niche of people who, like, talk and think about this stuff. we had probably 60 or 70, i'm guessing mostly jewish, everyone over 50, it seemed, who said why didn't you write more about sandy koufax? why isn't there a national day for sandy koufax? so people can really get going about this. i mean, i've never been in front of a crowd that was more animated or more engaged except, you know, when i come on this show. >> "jewish jocks: an unorthodox hall of fame." thanks so much. cool book. >> thanks. >> one piece of sports business, a couple of gentiles won the cy young awards yesterday. they were announced yesterday. r.a. dickey of the new york mets. the knuckleballer getting it done. and the rays' david price of the vanderbilt university came away with hardware for the national league. mike, any surprise here? i was surprised a lot of people said verlander should have won. price edged him out in the end by a couple votes. >> verlander, the last two games he pitched in the regular season, kind of a rocky start, especially his last start. verlander won it last year. >> it's great that dickey won. >> 38 years old, became the oldest first-time winner in the history of the award. up next, steve rattner's got the charts, the telestrator ready to go. we'll see them when "morning joe" comes back. lists all done. raise the roof! no one says that anymore, mom. 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[ male announcer ] ...forbusiness.com. ♪ ha ha! ♪ [ male announcer ] this is karen and jeremiah. they don't know it yet, but they're gonna fall in love, get married, have a couple of kids, [ children laughing ] move to the country, and live a long, happy life together where they almost never fight about money. [ dog barks ] because right after they get married, they'll find some retirement people who are paid on salary, not commission. they'll get straightforward guidance and be able to focus on other things, like each other, which isn't rocket science. it's just common sense. from td ameritrade. if there was one thing that everybody understood was a big difference between myself and mr. romney, it was when it comes to how we reduce our deficit, i argued for a balanced responsible approach, and part of that included making sure that the wealthiest americans pay a little bit more. i think every voter out there understood that that was an important debate, and the majority of voters agreed with me. by the way, more voters agreed with me on this issue than voted for me. so we've got a clear majority of the american people who recognize if we're going to be serious about deficit reduction, we've got to do it in a balanced way. >> the president speaking yesterday at the white house. welcome back to "morning joe." 6:48 in the morning as the sun comes up there in washington. steve is back with us now with his charts to explain that fiscal cliff and what might happen if we actually do end up going off it. a combination of tax increases and deep spending cuts. why don't you walk us through it. >> it's a little bit of the perfect storm, as you said. a bunch of stuff happens at the end of the year, and it's one of these unusual situations that if congress doesn't do something, this happens, as opposed to if they do do something, something happens. impacts on both sides of the ledger. first on the tax side, you've got the bush tax cuts expiring. $195 billion. these are figures for the government's fiscal year, which is nine more months to go. now, of that $195 billion, $150 billion comes from the middle class. $45 billion comes from those folks in the top 2% who obama wants to raise their taxes anyway. the next item, as you may remember, is a 2% payroll tax credit that people got as part of an anti-recession measure a couple years ago. that also expires, $116 billion coming out of consumers' pockets. you have the alternative minimum tax which is this complex tax calculation that is hitting more and more of the middle class and each couple years congress has to do a patch to make it work. and then finally, you have this little catch-all of tax extenders, includes special tax breaks for nascar, track builders and all kinds of stuff. the point is that you have an enormous amount of tax revenue kicking in that affects consumers in a negative way. now, the spending side also happens because you remember that we had the sequestration debate. and so unless, again, congress does something, you've got a mix of defense cuts, $35 billion, and nondefense cuts including a bunch of medicare stuff also kicking in at the end of the year, cutting spending dramatically. you've got the extended unemployment insurance where people that have been out of work longer than 99 weeks kicking in. and then a doc fix which is an obscure part of medicare where every year they pretend they're going to cut payments and then they don't. you've got a big drag from spending. now, the combined impact on the deficit is actually pretty dramatic if it actually goes into effect. you can see here that the deficit has actually been going down slightly already simply by tax revenues going up and by the agreement that obama and the republicans got last year to hold down spending. but the cliff would send it in a dramatically downward direction. and of course, we all want to cut the deficit. but a reduction of this much this fast would have a pretty negative effect on the economy. >> and that's what we've heard from wall street, even during the campaign. they'd say, we cannot afford to have this fiscal cliff. we can't afford to go off. and i think most people agree, even if it's a short-term fix, we won't get to that point. >> we hopefully won't get to that point. if we get to that point, though, this is what people are worried about, which is the idea that we would actually go back in recession. so the congressional budget office essentially is saying the economy would be negative for the first half of next year if we actually go over this cliff and stay over the cliff. let me just say one last thing. nobody expects us to go over the cliff and stay over the cliff and actually have this recession happen. but the fact of going over the cliff and even approaching the cliff is going to send the stock market into turmoil. >> it already is. >> it's already heading straight down since the election was over and people started saying "fiscal cliff." you get into the end of the year, and nobody knows what congress is going to do, you're going to see enormous volatility in the markets. >> give us a time line. does it happen in a single day? does it play out over the period of five, six months over the year? what happens in terms of a time line? >> in terms of it taking effect? >> yeah. >> it starts january 1. to your point, the actual economic impact is very gradual because this is spread out over nine months, all these numbers i showed you. we're not going to just plunge into a recession. but the market may plunge into its own kind of recession for fear out of what this all means. >> the timing is, it's already started. so let me ask you, you are the grand pooh-bah of all things fair. you put your charts up. what's your recommendation, sir? >> look, you need a balanced approach of both revenues and spending. >> specifically, what would you do? >> i would do something like -- the president's proposed $1.6 trillion of new revenue. boehner had agreed to $800 billion. it's not hard to find $1.2 trillion as a kind of middle ground to that. then you want to have $4 trillion of total deficit reduction, so that leaves $2.8 trillion of spending reductions that have to happen. here's what people miss. we can avoid going over the cliff with the stroke of a pen. they can just extend all this stuff and kick the can down the road. the real question is are we going to have a big deal? are we going to agree on the major spending restraints that we need as well as the tax stuff in order to actually get the deficit under control? and i think the betting on that is less than 50%. i think we have a great shot at it. but it's going to be really, really hard. >> is that the view from wall street, too? they're not totally confident that this is going to happen? >> what you see in the stock market at the moment is that wall street is not totally confident. that's for sure. >> all right. steve, thanks so much. >> pleasure. coming up, independent senator-elect of maine, angus king joins the conversation. he's announced he will caucus with the democrats. we'll ask him about it when we come back. hi, i just switched jobs, and i want to roll over my old 401(k) into a fidelity ira. man: okay, no problem. it's easy to get started; i can help you with the paperwork. um...this green line just appeared on my floor. yeah, that's fidelity helping you reach your financial goals. could you hold on a second? 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[ male announcer ] it's our biggest toy rollback of the year. find hundreds of rollbacks on the season's hottest toys in stores now, from america's gift headquarters, walmart. oh, look at that. the big tree outside 30 rock, new york city. they're getting ready to decorate it today. >> the circus begins. >> brian sullivan is here. he's going to put the star on top of the tree. thank you for doing that, brian. welcome back to "morning joe." i'm mike barnicle in for joe and mika. peter alexander is here, donny deutsch, s.e. cupp is on her way and the aforementioned brian sullivan from cnbc, you're here from d.c. >> i was in d.c. yesterday. i was at the white house. i was rappelling down the fiscal cliff, and i'm here to maybe help provide some answers. and i bring pins, the "rise above" movement at cnbc. barnicle, this is for you. >> thank you very much. >> happy holidays. >> thank you. appreciate it. >> that's all you're getting from me. >> do you want to quickly explain the rise above concept? >> i would love to as we welcome in s.e. cupp. >> we need you. the smell of axe body spray is permeating. there's so much manliness here. >> i'm wearing high karate, by the way. >> of course you are. so the rise above thing is very cool. the election's over, right? we're in this now. so we need to basically rise above the partisan bickering. both sides come together. i think that was the goal of the ceo meeting at the white house yesterday. 12 ceos spiki speaking with the president, hearing each other out. it was a closed meeting. we got a chance to speak with a couple of them afterwards. basically get over the bickering. we're in it together, like it or not. >> we are going to get to that. ordinarily fiscal cliff would be the big story of the day. unfortunately in terms of international stuff, it's not. >> breaking news from israel we want to update you with at the top of the hour. this morning israeli tv is reporting that three israelis were killed in a series of rocket strikes in the southern region of that country. this, of course, comes as the israeli military has launched an aggressive new campaign to cripple hamas after repeated rocket attacks. as many as 850 this year. launched from gaza into southern israel. last night president obama spoke on the phone with israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu. he acknowledged israel's right to defend itself following, but he also urged netanyahu to try to avoid civilian casualties there. hours earlier, the israeli government -- and look at this video, it's remarkable -- posted this video on youtube. it shows an air strike yesterday in gaza that killed ahmed al jabari, the top military commander of hamas. that strike was part of a widespread campaign against hamas targets that the israeli military says it will broaden in the coming days. this morning israeli defense forces dropped leaflets over gaza warning residents there to stay away from hamas operatives. and then listen to this. on twitter, a clear message from israeli defense forces. the idf writing, quote, we recommend that no hamas operatives, whether low level or senior leaders, show their faces above ground in the days ahead. we said the tensions were rising there. president obama last night also spoke with egypt's president, mohamed morsi, about working together to try to preserve peace and security in that region. tensions between israel and egypt has increased since the attacks with egypt recalling its ambassador in protest. we want to go to nbc's martin fletcher in tel aviv with the latest. marten? >> reporter: israel and palestinians are on the edge of a war, a war that neither side wants but looks increasingly possible. israeli warplanes are continuing their attacks inside gaza against militant leaders of hamas. they've been targeting just as significantly the weapons stockpiles, the rocket stockpiles that hamas has in gaza, in particular the long-range rockets that threaten israeli cities as far north as tel aviv. the israelis say they've managed to eliminate that threat, but there was a report earlier that hamas had, in fact, fired a rocket against tel aviv. the one rocket did get through. it hit the southern israeli town. three israelis were killed. about 150 rockets have been fired from gaza today alone. israeli's homemade antirocket defense system managed to knock out about 50 of those. as i say, one got through, killing three israelis. now, the israelis say they will continue their attacks in gaza as long as it takes. and the defense minister said israel will do anything -- and he repeated -- will do anything at all, he said. he was careful to repeat that, whatever it takes to stop the continued palestinian rocket threat against israel's southern cities. and also the commander of israel's army in the south said earlier this morning that the assassination yesterday of the hamas militant leader that started all this, ahmed jabari who had been on israel's hit list for a decade, the israeli commander said, that's just the beginning. so there's every sign that this is an operation that could last a new days. it could get out of control. neither side wants that ground invasion, but israel is massing the army on the edge of gaza, poised to strike. they've been drafting reserves, elite forces, medical troops and in particular, they say troops who have experience of the invasion of gaza the last time in 2006. israel would like to end this just by attacks from the air and from the sea, but there's every sign that if palestinians continue to rocket israeli cities, a ground invasion could become more and more real. >> martin fletcher, we appreciate it. we'll check in with you later and let you finish up some of your reporting. mike. >> you know what's amazing, at least to me, within a minute of that drone strike, the israeli government put it up on youtube and tweeted, used youtube and twitter, to announce, again, another step in an increasingly violent -- >> great observation. >> -- and disturbing situation. >> they're so hyper aware of the prop gan za against israel that when they do something they believe is precise in a situation like this. you remember the ships where the israeli raids took place on those ships and then the story was told to be quite different than the final story, israel recognizes those images are significant. and in a situation like this where they kill a hamas leader, it's important to them, and they demonstrate that as opposed to the civilian casualties that are often accused of being responsible for it. >> it's interesting, we always attack social media to the people, to the uprising, it's in their hands and now governments are understanding -- >> china announced their new leadership via twitter overnight. china. right? a country where you really can't liberally use twitter. and by the way, on that story, watch iran here as well. the iranian economy is in complete shambles. the currency is absolutely collapsed. there are reports that they're hoarding gold and bringing it to tehran from turkey in some cases via horseback because they can't buy it on the open market. iran, in this situation, with israel and everything that's going on, watch out. >> i think, peter, you also raised an interesting point that part of the point of putting that video out there is to show the lack of civilian casualties. and i think it's really interesting, and i wonder if this issue will be raised that when our government goes to netanyahu to say, please avoid civilian casualties, i wonder if that's going to raise any sort of eyebrows about our own drone program and our own lack of accountability on what we do with our drone strikes. i hope that issue comes up a little bit more. >> well, i mean, when they say there are no civilian casualties, i mean, that's just not true. look at the shot there, the drone shot, okay? it's in a congested urban area. >> there's a car right next to it, yeah. >> there's a car right next to it. if you're standing within a quarter of a mile of that drone shot, you're concussed. >> sure. >> mike, it's the marketing of war. >> yes, that's the point. >> it's really, really fascinating. >> absent civilian casualties, gaza having traveled to that area is devastated every time these strikes take place. >> speak to the geography of it, party. >> having spent probably been to that region six or seven times over the course of the last six or seven years, and it's just the proximity of things. you recognize from the mediterranean to the west bank is a matter of -- its closest point in the north is just eight miles, you can see at the top of that screen. gaza, there's a small wall that separates you from kiryat malachi you see in the suburban k kibbu kibbutzes. they could do the same thing with mortars, and it's just clearly such a volatile area. and despite the iron dome that was able to protect so many of the rockets coming over, it just takes one to kill the three israelis on this day. >> you were talking before you came on that rattner was here and what's driving the market down is not the fiscal cliff, it's this. >> i think in the short term it's going to be this. you look at the market yesterday around 10:00 in the morning, we started to get these images out, and stocks sold off. i mean, the fiscal cliff is huge. it is huge. but in the near term, i think this conflict and this growing conflict and tension with this and as i mentioned, iran, that's what the traders i'm talking about -- talking to are talking about right now. >> and the fiscal cliff. >> let's talk about the fiscal cliff. tomorrow president obama will sit down with congressional leaders, as we've been talking about, to kick off negotiations on how to try to avoid the so-called fiscal cliff. yesterday's news conference set the tone for these meetings. the president, as we witnessed, was confident. he was reminding house republicans that he earned political capital on election day to push his plan for tax hikes on the wealthy. take a listen. >> if there's one thing that everybody understood was a big difference between myself and mr. romney, it was when it comes to how we reduce our deficit, i argued for a balanced, responsible approach, and part of that included making sure that the wealthiest americans pay a little bit more. i think every voter out there understood that that was an important debate. and the majority of voters agreed with me. by the way, more voters agreed with me on this issue than voted for me. so we've got a clear majority of the american people who recognize if we're going to be serious about deficit reduction, we've got to do it in a balanced way. i've got one mandate. i've got a mandate to help middle-class families and families that are working hard to try to get into the middle class. that's my mandate. that's what the american people said. they said, work really hard to help us. don't worry about the politics of it. don't worry about the party interests, don't worry about the special interests. just work really hard to see if you can help us get ahead. >> you know, you wonder, watching the president in that clip and watching the press conference yesterday, at least i wonder about the political/psychological impact of being re-elected. he's a free man, in a sense. he is not going to have to put his name on the ballot and run for re-election again. and he seemed so much more confident yesterday in that press conference in the way he addressed especially the fiscal cliff situation and certainly susan rice's situation, that it was somewhat striking. >> yeah. we talked about this in the earlier hour. i've never seen -- i keep using the word "testosterone," gravitas, in charge. and i think to me, one of the reasons i'm happy obama won beyond my politics is if romney had won, we would be seeing the guy assert -- you know, that kind of almost insecurity that comes with the new guy in there and having to prove. and to me there's a seasoning that happens. and from day one or day eight here, an in-charge attitude that to me i want from my president. >> what strikes me, as we witness what's happening in the world right now, is that having covered the romney campaign for the course of the last year, every time there was a concern or there were problems, they went right back to the economy. they thought that is ultimately what would dictate this election, and in such a way that was so myopic that it ignored other things around the world. in the course of eight days, you've got two generals in scandal, a sex scandal, imagine mitt romney in that situation as he walks in the door. you've got attacks now in southern israel as well, frankly, in the golan heights. being president, there is a lot on this president's plate in just eight days as he returns to the office. >> it would be interesting to watch a tape of 3 1/2 years ago, anything randomly, and just tonewise, body languagewise compared. >> listen, i'm just the business guy, right? so i focus on the fiscal cliff and from an economics perspective, that's the big deal. but i was in the white house yesterday. you know -- >> as you often are. >> first time. they never let me in before. >> i was in the white house yesterday. >> well, no, i was down there yesterday covering this. and i'll tell you what. the first question in the press conference was not about the fiscal cliff or the upcoming ceo. it was about petraeus. now you've got the palestinian situation. we've got 45 or 46 days left till the end of the year and only about 12 or 13 working days of congress. that's it. with breaks, et cetera. to get this fiscal cliff. now you've got petraeus, now you've got the increased tensions in the middle east. will that detract the president, distract congress from 100% attention on this issue? >> we're going to find out because we've got, thankly, chuck todd with us, chief white house correspondent, political director, host of "the daily rundown." it's been a busy 24 hours at the white house with the press conference and then the youtube shot that we have been showing over and over again, which starts a whole new round of conflict in the middle east. the mood in the white house, what is it today given the fact that, you know, petraeus is gone, they've got to deal with that, they've got to deal with the fiscal cliff, and now a whole new ball game in the middle east. >> reporter: what's interesting, you go and, you know, we talk about what is the press focused on? what are others focused on? internally, fiscal cliff is actually taking up, i would say, 80% of their bandwidth. the petraeus situation is an interesting difference between how the white house is being covered and the array of questions yesterday versus what they're focused on. they know that they've got all these deadlines. they also know politically they have the most leverage they're ever going to have in these negotiations in this six-week period. most of their bandwidth behind the scenes is focused on the fiscal cliff. >> chuck, it's donny. i'm happy to hear that. let me give you a hypothesis/wishful thinking. i'm going to go back to the christie moment reaching across the aisle that i felt was a seminal moment and a road map for what a lot of ambitious republicans should be behaving. am i wishing, you know, hopel s hopelessly that during this negotiation that i'm going to see a lot more republicans than maybe we expect reaching across the aisle than we would have a year ago, two years, three years ago for their own personal benefit that will then translate to a greater good for all of us? >> reporter: on the senate side, yes. the big question mark's on the house side. it's a pure political issue. what do house republicans have to fear? a general election or a primary? and in the house side, most of these guys are more worried about a primary. you're seeing plenty of the rhetoric, donny, that you're looking for among senate republicans. i would say more than half of the senate republicans -- you know, i know the ones i've talked to whether it's on immigration, whether it is on fiscal cliff, all of them are saying, you know, let's make this work. but that's not new with senate republicans. they were ready. they played party politics, but a lot of them were uncomfortable playing the party politics that they played over the last two years. most of these senate republicans are what i call legislating conservatives. they want to be at the table. they want to be involved in solutions. the house republicans, it's a different story. and the fact of the matter is, if it was up to leadership to cut a deal, i think this keel would be done. they're not afar apart. i mean, they're really not that far apart. both sides don't want to go over the cliff. they're very close. you can see how this deal gets put together except you've got to find me 30 to 40 house republicans that will vote for even a temporary increase in taxes on the wealthy for now, which is what the president wants, which is some senate republicans are willing to let that happen. they have to raise the rates. and that could be a primary suicide mission for 30 to 40 republicans. and that's boehner's problem right now. he's got to find those guys, or the white house has got to help him with a way out. >> chuck, it's s.e. you heard obama, president obama, yesterday at his press conference talk about the mandate to raise taxes. he basically said that this is what people voted for, and more pem wa people wanted this than voted for me. do you expect that to be the new party mantra, this sort of you asked for it, as opposed to, we're doing this because we think it's good economic policy? because honestly, i've got to say, you asked for it, well, the people also want a balanced budget. they want tax reform. they want a lot of things that aren't probably going to happen any time soon. >> reporter: right. i think he thinks on this specific topic, it was something that was in the exit polls, so it's something tangible that he can latch on to. and the fact is, on the tax issue, raising taxes on those that make over $250,000 has had a majority support for a couple of years. >> yeah. >> reporter: ever since this conversation has started. i think it's really on the specific topic. you know, s.e., if you really wanted to get in that exit poll, it also had more people say they'd like to see changes. i think you're going to see some picking and choosing when the president cites where the national electorate was, because it was stunning, right? you had on one hand a 60% saying they'd like to see taxes go up on at least some or all folks making $250,000 or more. but at the same time, you only had 44% who said hey, keep that health care law in place or expand it. you had 49% saying how about repealing it or making some major changes. >> let's be clear, only 13% of people voted or came out in exit polls and said they wanted tax hikes for everybody. >> reporter: that's right. >> not tax hikes for the other guy. >> reporter: you only had 35% taking the traditional more conservative line on taxes which said don't raise taxes anybody. >> chuck, besides jeff loria, the owner of the marlins, who do you have on "the daily rundown"? >> reporter: i think it's going to be hanging him in effigy over and over again. actually, no, i'll have the ceo of aetna. i've got roy blunt. we'll be going through a little bit more of the exit polls. you know, it's just busy. a lot busier than it should be. i want a vacation. >> hey, chuck, it's donny. i've got nothing to do between 9:30 and 10:00. i'm just going to swing by. >> reporter: come on over. there you go. >> chuck todd, thanks very much. coming up, senator-elect angus king who won olympia snowe's vacated seat in maine. we'll talk to the independent senator next. also, nbc news chief foreign affairs correspondent, andrea mitchell, on the developing situation in israel and also developments in the general petraeus scandal. she's here. you're watching "morning joe" brewed by starbucks. music is a universal language. but when i was in an accident... i was worried the health care system spoke a language all its own with unitedhealthcare, i got help that fit my life. information on my phone. connection to doctors who get where i'm from. and tools to estimate what my care may cost. so i never missed a beat. we're more than 78,000 people looking out for more than 70 million americans. that's health in numbers. unitedhealthcare. gives you a low national plan premium... so you can focus on what really matters. call humana at 1-800-808-4003. that makes tv even better. if your tv were a prom queen, zeebox would be a stretch limo. with this enchanting union, comes a sunroof she can scream from... i'm goin' to prom! 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[ male announcer ] ...just 'cause. download zeebox free, and have the night of your life with your tv. that was, like, two alpha males roaring. coming through the jungle. >> and by roaring, you mean holding each other's hands. >> yes. >> to point out the obvious. >> hey, you know what? that's a bromance and i'm proud of it and we hug and we cry. >> no matter how hard i try, you have the ability to take this program and drive it right into a bridge abutment. >> i call it more acumen than ability. it's an expertise. >> thankfully, nbc chief foreign affairs correspondent and host of "the andrea mitchell report," andrea mitchell is with us on an extremely busy day. >> to bring down the level. >> not at all. let's start with the overnights, the youtube shot in israel. what's going on today? >> nothing good. and as richard haass was saying earlier, there is sort of no political engagement and hasn't been for years. so there's no political track to revert back to. you can't go to the u.n. or pick up the phone, and you can have the president calling morsi in egypt and netanyahu as he did yesterday. but there's no understanding or framework for any connection between the israelis and the palestinians. this thing is escalating, escalating at a time when the palestinians are again demanding some form of rights and recognition at the united nations, symbolic, but not going to help anyone. and you had egypt recalling its ambassador and israel taking its ambassador out. and this has been the foundation of middle east peace since the camp david accords. >> given your extensive contacts and sources in the intelligence diplomatic community, the egypt point of view, the pivot point, egypt, what happens there now? do we know where egypt is going to go? >> we don't know -- i mean, there have been some promising signs. there's a lot of concern about the islamist fundamentalists there. morsi has to take care of that part of his constituencies. a group, interestingly, that right before the september 11th cairo protests which were the first sign of real trouble, real trouble occurring in egypt in at least recent weeks and months, there was a delegation of 100 ceos. that would interest you who speak to the wall street component. morsi is desperate for outside investment. and so you had the head of general motors and people from ge and these ceos going over with the deputy secretary of state, tom nides, on a mission. people said if you would have closed your eyes, you would have thought you were listening to a western leader. and then two days later everything blows up over that video, so it is that volatile. >> joining us, independent senator-elect from maine, angus king, the newly elected senator-elect king. senator, you chose, i think, yesterday, you announced that you're going to caucus with the democrats. if so, why? >> well, i basically, throughout the campaign, said i had two criteria for coming down and making that decision, if i had to make the decision at all. the first thing i thought about which chris matthews suggested on "hardball" last summer was don't caucus with anybody, just stay totally independent, put your chair in the middle of the aisle, don't take a committee assignment. and the problem with that is, i'd be ineffective as a senator. that wouldn't really be fair to maine. and i thought about that option, but it just didn't make sense as we looked into the senate rules, particularly in connection with committee assignments. so then my criteria was, number one, how can i maintain the maximum area of independents, and yet at the same time be an effective senator? and i had a series of conversations starting with joe lieberman and bernie sanders, asking them how they were treated as independents in the democratic caucus. they confirmed that they were essentially left alone, allowed to make their own decisions, not pressured to go the party line. then i had a lengthy conversation on monday with harry reid, talked over the weekend to my old friend george mitchell from maine who had been majority leader. when i asked george mitchell about, you know, am i going to have to vote with the party every time? he laughed out loud and said i think i only had to do that once or twice in my whole career. anyway, i was assured that i was going to be an independent, wasn't going to be forced in any way to vote the party line. and so i ended up -- and reassurance about a good committee assignment. to me that made a lot of sense. the final piece, of course, the democrats are in the majority. they have more committee slots, more control over the schedule. it just made sense. but i made clear in my statement, because i'm aligning myself with the democrats, it doesn't mean i'm aligning myself against the republicans because, as you guys have been talking about this morning, none of this is going to get solved unless people start talking to each other. >> senator, andrea mitchell here. and congratulations on your election. you've been a governor. you've been a chief executive. how do you feel about john mccain and lindsey graham challenging out front any intention that the president might have to nominate susan rice from the u.n. to become secretary of state, saying that they will oppose it just on this one issue, which is her response after she took a briefing from the cia on benghazi? do you think that that is the right way to approach the separation of powers? >> well, i watched that -- some of those comments yesterday, and i don't really like starting out my senate career, i'm not even sworn in yet, getting crosswise with some of the leaders of the other party. but i thought it was a bit premature. there was a statement that she was up to her eyeballs or something in the policy. and i think there need to be a little more factual basis for that. if all she did was provide that briefing based upon the intelligence she was given, then it strikes me that taking a hard-line position against a pretty distinguished diplomat w was a bit premature. i'll leave it that. >> senator-elect, it's s.e. cupp. i'm wondering if you can talk about the way you view your upcoming role in the senate. do you think that mainerds elected you to represent a new kind of compromise and coming together? what's your sense of what your job is in d.c. now? >> there's no question that it was the latter. as i campaigned throughout the state over eight months, the number one issue that i encountered that people wanted to talk about was the broken congress. why can't they talk to each other? why can't they compromise? why can't they get anything done? and i'm pretty convinced that's not unique to maine. so clearly, i think -- and if you do -- you know, if you look, we've got a republican house, a democratic senate, but the republicans have substantial power because of the rules of the senate. the democratic president. as bill clinton would say, it's arithmetic. nothing is going to get done unless we find a way to work together. and i'll tell you, the public has just had it. well, you know, the approval rating of congress is in single digits. it's pretty awful. and it's all about, in my view, the inability to simply sit down and solve some of these problems. >> senator, quick question, brian sullivan from cnbc here. would you support a fiscal cliff resolution on taxes that did not involve an elevation of the top-end rate? in other words, 35 to 39.6, would you support a tax increase but only as boehner would like to do through the reductions or deductions, or are you fixed to that rate? >> well, i think we're fixed too much on this issue because it's only a small piece. even if you do the increase on the people above $250,000, it's a long way from solving the full problem. i'm a simpson-bowles guy myself in the sense that i think there's got to be an across-the-board settlement. so i think what you're really talking about is a temporary solution to get us through, you know, into january. but the real test -- i think we need a more comprehensive look at tax reform as part of the resolution of the budget problem. >> senator-elect angus king, thank you very much. senator-elect king, obviously former governor, knows what it's like to run something day to day. >> it's refreshing, isn't it? >> thank goodness for angus king, it's about 4% of federal spending, the tax hike on the wealthy, it's the first elected official in power i've heard really say that and acknowledge that it's tiny. >> all right. andrea, please stay with us, if you can put up with us. can you? >> i think i can manage. coming up, "time's" take on the petraeus affair. rick stengel joins us with an exclusive first look at the new issue of "time." we'll be right back. bob, these projections... they're... optimistic. productivity up, costs down, time to market reduced... those are good things. upstairs, they will see fantasy. not fantasy... logistics. ups came in, analyzed our supply chain, inventory systems... ups? 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"time's" managing editor with the new cover of "time" magazine. and i wish we could cover the conversations we have during the commercial break about the cover. so get going on the cover and continue this discussion. >> you're outing us. >> there's no privacy here. i'm aware of that. and unfortunately, the cia director was not aware of that. but the cover is "the petraeus affair." and it's more than just the sort of tawdry "real housewives of tampa and north carolina" story. it's really about how the context of a new administration, a second term with the secretary of state leaving with now the cia director leaving, with all of the whole national security apparatus leaving, this scandal comes at a really terrible time for the obama administration and has all kinds of international security implications, apart from the, as i say, the more tawdry qualities. >> that's your word, "tawdry." i would use "compelling." >> yes. >> it's such a compelling human drama. >> yes. >> and it's one of these human dramas in terms of what we do for a living, write about the everything and everything like that, if seems each hour of each day, there's another nugget that becomes uncovered and part of the tale itself. >> so in the break, we were talking about the nugget that opens the story which is by bart gelman how the aspen security forum last summer where paul wipaula broadwell was speaking. she left to go take a secret run with lance armstrong where she -- her main goal was to persuade lance armstrong as a 60th birthday gift for her friend, david petraeus, to do a workout with him in washington. now, lance armstrong said yes. she actually feeted about this run with armstrong. but of course his birthday came right at the time he was submitting his resignation to the president. so no bike ride. >> andrea, one of the elements of the story that is kind of disturbing i think to a lot of people is, you know, separate ourselves from the scandal and the sex involved and everything like that. there is a war continuing each and every day with young americans fighting that war in afghanistan. and it seems a story like this only adds to the separation between an officer corps when you get way up top hike petraeus that is increasingly distant in the minds of many of the young men and women whose boots are on the ground. >> in fact, secretary panetta, in asia this morning, commented on that. he was asked again about this whole situation. and he said he wants americans to realize that we have 1,000 general officers in the u.s. military and that the vast majority of them, in secretary panetta's words, live akoshding according to the highest standards of integrity. you saw the push/pull, the sort of ambivalence in the president's posture at the news conference yesterday where he praised the extraordinary service of david petraeus, and that is certainly the feeling. but there was tension within the administration toward petraeus because there was blame for the briefing that susan rice got, that it came from the cia. there was also blame from his nominal boss, james clapper, the general who's the head of the director of national, that clapper really did not like and others in the administration did not like the cia's pushback. petraeus wanting to defend the agency against what they felt he felt was unfair criticism over benghazi. so interestingly, benghazi is sort of the center of the tension among that national security foreign policy team in the days leading up to the revelation unwelcome and surprising and shocking to the president two days after he was re-elected because it happened. >> all of this tension, too, within the administration now between the justice department, between the fbi -- >> absolutely. >> -- and the cia. this question of whether to tell the president, when to tell the president -- >> whether to tell anyone. >> along those lines -- >> they made a decision which i think will come in ultimately for a fair amount of criticism which is the decision not to tell the president about it. >> i want to ask andrea a question, not a glib question but a serious question because you have covered powerful men for the last chunk of years, of all walks of life. i want to redirect to what's important. is it fair to say we should not in any way be surprised when men of power, conquers, village leaders are also womanizers, that one could argue that goes with the profile, and can we stop going -- when it happens? >> frankly, you know, that's what foreign diplomats have been saying in the last days, you know, what is the big problem here? i was seeing some ambassadors in washington the other day. the problem, arguably, the critics would say, is that this is national security. this is intelligence. and that there is a higher standard demanded of the head of the cia. that's what those who argue that the fbi handled it correctly. >> you can't have the director -- i take your point, and if this were the secretary of agriculture, i think you'd say it's private business and not the cover of "time" magazine material. but the whole point in the cia is that their agents cannot be susceptible to blackmail, they cannot be susceptible to any of that stuff, and therefore the director can't be because by example. and then of course for allen on the military side who's not been accused of anything wrong yet, there's an absolute military code, law. >> i'm not saying in this incident, i'm just saying overall as we cover it and will be the next story, let's not be surprised. >> everyone says that there was nothing untoward going on with allen, that it's just that they needed to investigate it because his nomination was up for nato. >> and part of the other thing is, donny, you're a moral leader when you're the head of an organization like that. >> i got it. >> you're being asked to make enormous sacrifices. >> i got it. i'm just saying overall, we just have to stop acting surprised. >> do known i, you basically think every man out there is doing this? >> no, psychologically the profile of leaders, it almost makes sense that they end up feeling entitled and that women are drawn to them. >> is that wishful thinking? >> i harken back to personal experience. >> i just speak the truth. >> the new cover of "time" is "the petraeus affair." rick stengel, thanks very much for joining us. andrea mitchell, thanks very much. >> no, don't let her go. the whole thing got elevated when she showed up. >> who's on at 1:00? >> kelly ayotte, the israeli ambassador with everything that's happening, kent conrad on the budget, a powerful show. >> and donny deutsch. >> and donny deutsch to talk about sex, lies and videotape. when we come back, one man's effort to photograph the photographic, james bale next on "morning joe." anncr: some politicians seem to think medicare and... social security are just numbers in a budget. well, we worked hard for those benefits. we earned them. and if washington tries to cram decisions about the future... of these programs into a last minute budget deal... we'll all pay the price. aarp is fighting to protect seniors with responsible... solutions that strengthen medicare and... social security for generations to come. we can do better than a last minute deal... that would hurt all of us. no one says that anymore, mom. 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we hear this in terms of hyperbole, but in real terms how dramatic is the shift takes place there? >> in real terms, we're in the midst of monumental change in the northern latitudes. the arctic sea ice is retreating ever close to disappearing by the end of the summer. and we have tremendous inflation of the mountain glaciers, as well as this big ice happening right now. >> we saw the cameras five years ago, kind of having a guess as to what would happen. but the amount of change on the glaciers has been remarkable. >> how many cameras, how many were you filming, the degree of difficulty? >> yeah. we started in 2007, right now, 34 time-mark cameras, greenland, alaska, glacier national park. they've maintained a five-year long record. there's a photograph taking every half hour of daylight right now, collecting all this evidence. >> how did they survive the weather that long? >> that's one of the tough parts. we're dealing with temperatures, minus 30, minus 40, for months at a time. really high winds. often, these cameras are getting pounded by 100-mile-an-hour plus winds. it was a project to try to engineer this stuff to keep it to work. i think of it as my r2d2s out there working. >> he to build the custom supply and cameras. because nothing existed. >> so if some moron comes up like me and asks you, why? what's the answer? why are you doing this? >> why are we doing this? everybody keeps asking us why does it matter if the ice is melting, the glacier's melting. we saw that, because of the climate range, because of glaciers melt, because of rising sea levels, we're going to see more events like sandy. we're trying to show individuals this isn't a far away concept. it's hard to imagine change. it's literally how carbon dsrbo dioxide is changing in the area, we're trying to see that. >> james, you mentioned when you came in, speak to that again, the size, the scale of the ice. it's just enormous. >> yeah, it's mind-boggling, really, when you hang around those landscapes. you feel this tremendous are weights of these moving land masses. it's not like anything else we know down in this part of the world. the closest thing to that feeling is probably when you're by a huge river like the mississippi or the colorado, and you feel all that water moving along. this is orders of magnitude more substantial than those big rivers feel. and you know, to be clear, some of these glaciers are retreating in part because of local glacier dynamics, like the columbia glacier shot we started with. >> yeah. >> but also they're retreating because of climate change. >> the documentary "chasing ice" playing now in select cities. james, jeff, thanks very much. >> thank you. >> it's at lincoln center this weekend. it's a beautiful theater. >> lincoln center, get there. looking ahead to tomorrow, the senate intelligence committee, senator saxby chambliss is going to be here. and the documentary the dust bowl" which is another a amazing thing. who have used androgel 1%, there's big news. presenting androgel 1.62%. both are used to treat men with low testosterone. androgel 1.62% is from the makers of the number one prescribed testosterone replacement therapy. it raises your testosterone levels, and... is concentrated, so you could use less gel. and with androgel 1.62%, you can save on your monthly prescription. 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this is big news. ♪ good morning, it's 8:00 a.m. here on the east coast. 5:00 a.m. as you wake up out west. a live look at new york city back of the sunset. mike barnicle. richard haass and donny deutsch. israeli tv reporting that three israelis were killed in rocket strike it's in southern part of the country. this comes as the israelis have launched an aggressive campaign. as many as 50 they say, launched from gaza into southern israel. last night, president obama spoke on the phone by prime minister benjamin netanyahu urging netanyahu to anoid casualties. they posted this video to youtube showing the killing of ahmed al jabari. the israeli military says it will broaden in the coming day. this morning, the israeli defense forces dropped leaflets over gaza, warning residents to tsai away from hamas operatives. on twitter, quote, we recommend that no hamas operatives whether low level or senior leaders show their faces aboveground in the days ahead." president obama spokes with egypt's president mohamed morsi to work together with the region. tensions has increased since the attacks with egypt recalling its ambassador to israel in protests. richard haass also in an emergency meeting of the u.n. security council last night. sift through this for us, how big is this in the middle east right now? >> well, it's big for lots of reasons. one is you have the largest military slash between the military and hamas in four years. it's not going to stop. it doesn't matter in the middle east exactly why things begin over the last few months. there's been rocket are attacks, now retaliation, it just happens. second of all, it's not happening in the absence of anything political. there's no dialogue whatsoever going on between israelis and palestinians. and ultimately, this can't substitute for that. thirdly, you saw the egyptians withdrew their ambassador. since 1967, not long after that, when anwar sadat went to jerusalem, the israeli relationship has been good. what this shows we can no longer take that for granted. now you have the political change in egypt, you can't insulate these things. they're all connected. that might be the most significant thing in the middle east this week, what's happening in jordan. the the other country in the middle east that has a signed peace treaty with israel. these are riots that suggest with the monarchies so far untouched by the upheavals in the arab world, the so-called arab springs, the upheavals could be spreading to places like jordan. israel faces the palestinians, tremendous up certainty with egypt. civil war in syria, problems with hezbollah and lebanon, not to mention iran. there's no port in the storm. there's now the new middle east. >> well, emerchtent, doesn't that make syria all more important, golan heights took fire from syria. israel doesn't want to get involved and spread itself thin in syria. i think that's why international reaction on syria is so important right now. >> it's one of the fault lines in the middle east. i think if you're in israel, it's not the one at the moment that keeps you up the most. the palestinian one is the most, then you've got egypt the anchor. i think israelis are most worried about jordan. the israelis are not central with the dynamic in syria. syria, though, that begin as a civil war then spread into a proxy war has the potential, you're right, to become somewhat of a regional war. just when you thought the middle east can't get worse, it can. >> what's your assessment of pretty much the fact a good portion of the top level of the united states diplomatic/intelligence apparatus, general petraeus, secretary clinton perhaps leaving. where does that leave us, in terms of, you know, the overlap in the least? >> underneath you got thousands of people following intel. and the ambassadors and embassies and all of that. you are going to have somewhat of a transition. but i actually think, mike, this goes way beyond who's secretary of state, who's secretary of defense. i actually think we're up against large forces in the middle east. i don't mean this as disrespect to hillary clinton or leon panetta or even barack obama. these are tectonic plates in the middle east. the idea it's going to make a material difference in these things, no. >> does anyone have a real sense of where egypt might go in all of this? >> i think egypt's a quarter to a third of the arab world. cairo is one of the historical centers of the arab world. we don't have an idea. the muslim brothers. i'm not sure they do. we don't know how much to take literally, what they say, what they write. they got the parties, the governments, the forces against them. they came into government fairly narrowly. but they're clearly trying to deepen their base. so everyone's watching really closing what they're doing with the rewriting of the constitution. how these people want to consolidate power. what they say in the middle east, it's one thing to win an election. that's the easy part. are they willing to lose an election. are they ready to set up a political dynamic? >> remember we have to talk about hamas and we have to think about iran. some of the missile sites they bombed yesterday in the 50 are strikes had bombed supplied by iran. how do they figure into this whole picture? >> well, they were historically iran and syria. actually, in the recent weeks, you have keen a slight weakening, qatar, hamas is somewhat alienated. again what it shows you can't look at any of these things in total isolation. again, use the fault line analogy. when things vibrate along one, almost geologically they don't to vibrate along the others. and the scary thing about the middle east, there's a lot going on. and there's very few diplomatic circles to begin with so the concern has got to be all of these things start affecting one another. it's likely to have an unhappy ending. >> you know with obama kind of forced lovers to a new degree to avoid contact in israel? >> it doesn't help. netanyahu was widely criticized in israel for tilting, to say the least, in favor of governor romney. the biggest issue is what to do about iran. on the other hand, the united states has a long history of support here. actually, what's odd about it, the day-to-day intelligence relationship between the united states and israel has arguably never been closer and more intimate. it really is tight. the kind of issues we've had in the last 24 hours which is quite traditional, my hunch is that's ogg. the united states and israel can coordinate. what's also going to happen, this is now going to spread to the u.n., not just the security council. but the other palestinians. the palestinians in the west bank. the quote/unquote, more moderate palestinians. they want to increase their status and move to something like statehood there. and the real question is how do the united states and israel manage this which will make it much harder against this backdrop. it's an economic backdrop. what the administration is hoping it doesn't force us into the position where we have to isolate ourselves and simply to make sure that israel isn't isolateagain, this is going to be tough to manage. >> israel said is this an ongoing campaign. certainly, we'll have much more on this throughout the morning. meanwhile, congress will hold its first hearing son the benghazi attack. general petraeus who was going to testify today before he resigned as cia director will now testify tomorrow to what he learned in the attack. john mccain and lynndie graham are now calling for a, quote, watergate style investigation into the libya raid and the response to it. and they said they would now try to block susan rice, describing her unqualified as the job as they criticized the attack as a protest gone wrong. they went on a show, including "meet the press" a couple days and said that. president obama fired back at senators mccain and graham. >> let me say specifically about susan rice. she has done exemplary work. she has represented the united states and our interests in the united nations with skill professionalism and toughness and grace. if senator mccain and senator graham and others want to go after somebody, they should go after me. and i'm happy to have that discussion with them. but for them to go after the u.n. ambassador who had nothing to do with benghazi, and was simply making a presentation based on intelligence that she had received, and to besmirch her reputation, is outrageous. >> those republican senators were quick to respond to the president. lindsey graham took to twitter writing, mr. president, don't think for one minute i don't hold you ultimately responsible for benghazi. and senator mccain took his rebuttal to the floor of the senate. >> we believe whoever it is must be held responsible i say to the president of the united states, most importantly, the president of the united states who is commander in chief who so far, in my view, has not exercised those responsibilities. and also not informed the american people of the facts. >> senator mccain went on to say there was either gross imcompetence here or in fact a white house cover-up. >> yeah. >> what do you think, and we've asked senator mccain directly, what do you think he and the others suspect in the matter? >> well, a couple things. i think it's a little bizarre. the indesignation over questioning susan rice is a little bizarre given that she was made by the president's own admission the spokesperson on that day for what happened in benghazi. she was sent out to the sunday shows, five of them, five days after benghazi, and five days after we heard had some pretty good intelligence about what happened in benghazi. and either made completely false statements or misled the public. so, when the public held that spokesperson responsible for the things that she said, the indignation that came back was a little misplaced, i think. the other thing i would say there's been a lot of reading into that moment at the press conference, and whether that means obama is going to be appointing susan rice now or not. and i think i would actually read into that that he probably isn't. i think that that defense was so full-throated, because he does not plan to appoint her. and doesn't want to be accused of sort of caving to republican pressure. so i think he came out so strongly, so when he doesn't appoint her and goes with someone like john kerry or tom donilon, his defense is already on record. and he didn't have to relitigate that in the press. >> i'll tell you what i saw yesterday, issue aside, i saw a president with a heightened level of testosterone gravitas, and maybe a precursor of what he's going to look like for the next four years. obviously, he's been going toe to toe. but there was an authority. i'm going to keep using the world testosterone, i thought a lot of that was missing in the first term. i saw that in a public volley eight days later. >> he spoke quickly in that press conference. did you notice? it's the fastest i've ever heard him speak, we got accustomed to a very slow methodic, kind of elongated speech pattern. handy came out, he was rapid, he was quick. >> he said, you got a problem, come to me. >> i found that very interesting. >> richard, what are you hearing, as the most connected in the intelligence community, at this table, certainly, about an outcome with his benghazi investigation? where this heading right now? how concerned is the white house? >> well, the defense of susan rice is going to be not that she was freelancing, not that she was misleading but she was representing talking points gimp to her at the time. to me, the biggest questions which is two, why was the decision made to have all this presence in benghazi with so long security, that's an interesting question. and then the issue is why was the intelligence community so late to the party? why was the intelligence community several days into this still supplying the public with a story how this related to a video, rather than clearly people who were armed and terrorists? are somehow the u.s. government, to say the least, was not on the same page. why was that? i see that quite honestly as a quote/unquote watergate cover-up thing. it's really incompetence between the intelligence community. the diplomats. that side of the administration in the white house. why was it so rough in pulling together what turned out to be a consistent and accurate story? >> well, you just hit on of the exact questions that i think people in washington are asking. and that's what you find out when you speak to people who are specifically involved in the intelligence community. they have a safe house in benghazi. cia safe house, but apparently the location of it and the fact that is there is unknown to large elements of the existing diplomatics community in libya at the time. unknown. it's known to very few people. and it's quite removed from the consulate. so that's one thing. the other thing that you hear from people in washington, and this has nothing to do with susan rice's credentials or the attack on her by senators graham and mccain, why was she put out there on these sunday shows? why was it susan rice, the united nations ambassador who had very little to do eye were the event herself, other than reading the reports about it, why was she there? >> for that exact reason. >> it was during the course of a presidential campaign. so put the u.n. ambassador out there because, you know -- >> yeah. >> -- you know, she will not get caught up in the campaign. they won't go after her in the campaign. >> and we also based on the press conference yesterday, if the president were going to go ahead and nominate susan rice -- >> and he is going to nominate her. >> i don't think so. >> i don't know, we'll find out soon enough. it's not going to be a quick easy conversation. this is going to be a serious nomination hearing if it is to grow forward. indeed, it could possibly be everybody. as you know with the polls not everything in washington is personal. people can use nomination rights. if senators mccain or graham want to use a nomination as a way to get to the bottom of benghazi, they can and they will. there's nothing that stops them from doing it. it's quite possible hillary clinton could be secretary of state for a while as we go through our transition. >> the senate hearings tomorrow are closed. what kind of info can we expect to get out of them? what will we know afterwards? >> that has less to do with what is said than what is leaked. >> one of the things -- >> do were just cross our fingers? >> no. one of the things they will leak, the united states senate including senators mccain and graham had the exact same intelligence information that susan rice had and susan rice spoke to in those appearances. >> well, we already know that. we're hoping to get new information how of the hearings tomorrow. there's still unanswered questions. coming up next, much has been said and written about detroit's decline. what happens next? the next guest, a an author who grew up in the motor city. and coming up, randy jackson right here on the set. but first, bill karins. >> good morning. i want to share a great image for you. 24 how, the northern portion of the country experienced a wonderful light show, the aurora borealis. from mt. washington. 6,000 feet. in new hampshire. they have these amazing lights there. you can see the green hue there on the horizon. the people did see that if you're out and about in the middle of the evening. as far as today, the trouble spot continues to be south carolina. we're clearing it out. heading to the coast. not a nice day for golfing around myrtle beach. wilmington at least the noon hour. after that, should clear out later today. it's a little chilly around the country. we're in a very quiet tranquil pattern. no big problems approaching. temperatures are going to be below average. even friday, we warm up in the middle of the country and even on the east coast but very typical november weather. we do have a little bit of a rainstorm around san francisco and north california but that's beneficial rain pip it is your rainy season. the last couple of days i mentioned the possibility of a coastal storm in those areas hit by sandy, i'm very happy to say that storm is going to stay offshore. and wednesday and thursday will be clear throughout the travel days for much of the country. speaking of the holidays coming up, the tree is now up, they're going to do the trimmings and decorate. it is the season. only a week away from thanksgiving day. you're watching "morning joe." [ male announcer ] humana and walmart have teamed up to bring you a low-priced medicare prescription drug plan. ♪ with a low national plan premium... ♪ ...and copays as low as one dollar... ♪ ...saving on your medicare prescriptions is easy. ♪ so you're free to focus on the things that really matter. call humana at 1-800-808-4003. or go to walmart.com for details. call humana at 1-800-808-4003. some people put everything intotheir name on the door, and their heart into their community. small business saturday is a day to show our support. a day to shop at stores owned by our friends and neighbors. and do our part for the businesses that do so much for us. on november 24th, let's get out and shop small. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 after that, it's on to germany. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 then tonight, i'm trading 9500 miles away in japan. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 with the new global account from schwab, tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 i hunt down opportunities around the world tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 as if i'm right there. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 and i'm in total control because i can trade tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 directly online in 12 markets in their local currencies. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 i use their global research to get an edge. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 their equity ratings show me how schwab tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 rates specific foreign stocks tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 based on things like fundamentals, momentum and risk. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 and i also have access to independent tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 firms like ned davis research tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 and economist intelligence unit. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 plus, i can talk to their global specialists 24/7. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 and trade in my global account commission-free tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 through march 2013. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 best part... no jet lag. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 call 1-866-294-5409 tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 and a global specialist tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 will help you get started today. joining us now contributor editor at "rolling stone" and "mens's journal" mark brunelli, his new book. brian sullivan is with us. steve is back and s.e. cupp, all right here at the table. mark, let me ask you something, people's perceptions of detroit. at least my perceptions of detroit. haven't been there for a while. you think of eminem. you think of the automobile industry. the defining motel in my mind, about detroit, the 1967 riots and what has happened to detroit since then. so take it away. >> well, a lot of people do look at the riots at the point when things changed to the point, actually the seeds of today were happening, you know, probably ten years before that with sort of disinvestment and conversations moving out. lots of residents who could move out were moving out with suburban sprawl. so that was happening. certainly, detroit sort of became america's epic failure. the big city. >> mark, i was living outside of detroit when the latest renaissance happened, when trump came in. and the renaissance towers went up. >> yeah. >> did that just not work? or what happened there? >> well, a lot of that stuff tends to happen in the downtown, midtown core. in the green, the tiny section, the majority of the city is still real under serviced. and people talk about the fiscal cliff. detroit is, you know, the bottom of the fiscal cliff. >> it went over it a long time. maybe they should call it the jack white revival, right? i love what you're saying, you look at cork town, slow's barbecue, astro coffee. it's small. real estate has gotten so expensive. do you believe, though, that seed will sprout? >> not unless more investment is made in the rest of the city. i don't think you can have just this tiny little bubble growing in the rest of the city if 40% of the streetlives don't work. if half of the schools have closed since 2007. if, you know, the valid crime rate is five times the national average, and they're cutting police officers, cutting pay. so, the rest of the city is sort of in a failed state. >> the problem they have is, the city has shrunk so much that essentially you don't have an economic base to support the services. what the city really needs to do is basically downsize. but the problem with that, you have a block and you have mostly burned out houses or vacant lots. you have three families living there and they don't want to move. what do you do about that? you're trying to provide services to a city that is very large geographically? >> yes. >> and yet the numbers don't work. so you've got to have some fundamental change. i was struck when i went back to detroit in mank 2009. i was working on cars. in early 2009, do you know what the average sell price of a house in detroit was? >> 73,000. >> $5,000, that was the average sale price of a house in detroit. >> what does that say about this country? >> it says a lot about is the trade. >> moving into downtown, right? >> it says a lot about detroit for sure. but when you talk about the fracturing of a once american city. a truly great american city, what does it say about this country if we allow this to happen to detroit? >> it was stunning. >> in the midwest, harrison, the architecture spectacular, now unfortunately, it's urban archaeology. >> now, allowing it to happen, almost -- you can't overestimate how much race played into that. detroit was one of the most segregated metropolitan areas in the u.s. and i don't think a city like detroit with detroit's history would have been completely discarded if it had been 90% white and not 90% black. beyond that, i think it's just, you know, the new talk of the shifting of the debate from cuts, cuts, cuts, to more revenue. and that sort of thing, i think is an important shift for a place like detroit because, you know, it's showing the kind of limits of austerity. >> a friend that works for an i.t. company, they're moving jobs in downtown detroit, because he said, all in, real estate, labor, it's cheaper than mumbai. >> what about if they're moving a high-tech plant in detroit, what are they going to get the workers? >> they're going to have to lure them in with inexpensive real estate. >> so what does that do about the natives of detroit who are still there? what does that do about the fracturing of families in detroit? what does it do about the hundreds, perhaps thousands of teenage mothers who walk the streets in detroit with a double death sentence. theirs at 16 years of age and having a child at 16 or 15 years of age. >> it's true. the city of detroit did a survey, asking the thoughts on the city. something like 40% of the people they polled said they would want to leave detroit in the next four years if they can. >> but you can't say you're home. >> there's a job in chattanooga at the new vw plant that he can't move or sell his home or walk out on his credits. these people are stuck, you're right, mike, in nearly impossible situations. how do we fix it? to your point, you can't tear down blocks because one or two families won't move? do you use eminent domain? these are very good questions. >> michigan doesn't really have eminent domain. that's really not an option. you're right, if there's one person on that block 40 years maintaining her house, she's not necessarily going to move. to get her to move costs her a lot of money which detroit doesn't have. >> let's read a paragraph pour two from "the new york times" entitled "how detroit became the capital of starring at abandoned buildings." you wrote, detroit's brand has become authenticity. a key component of which has to do with the way the city looks. does fixing the real problems faced by detroiters i began to wonder, mean inevitably that, and when your city has 70,000 abandoned building that will not be gentrified anytime soon. rather, it's one of esthetics and in detroit are, you can't talk esthetics without talking ruin porn. a term that is in the city. detroiters can get touchy about the way descriptions and photographs of ruined buildings have become the favorite midwestern souvenirs of visiting reporters. still for all of the local complaints, outsiders are not alone in their fascination. the stats are so staggering when you read them, when you see them up on the screen on tv, you just wonder to your point, steve, downsizing a whole city, you know, what do we do here? >> exactly my question for mark. so what do we do, we all understand the problem. it's right there in front of us, but what do we do? >> it's tough, i didn't write a policy book. but a lot of people like to talk about something like leadership. they point to detroit's leadership. and they seem to feel if you could appoint some superaccountant he could fix the city. >> fortunately, that have a good mayor. >> hard working. >> he's hard working, he's really trying to do the right are thing, but he's a prisoner of the system. >> exactly. >> he's got the state. he's got all the restrictions on him in terms of what he could do? >> you could appoint mike bloomberg the mayor of detroit, but once he started writing personal checks, there's the problem. it's basically coming down to money. >> the sad american story. the book is "detroit city is the place to be." mark binelli, thank you so much. >> thank you so much. i got something else to tell you when we come back, joe, mika and willie's conversation with grammy-winning producer randy jackson. keep it here with "morning joe." ♪ [ female announcer ] want to spend less and retire with more? at e-trade, our free online tools and retirement specialists can help you build a personalized plan and execute it with a wide range of low cost investments. get a great plan and low cost investments at e-trade. ♪ ♪ i want candy ♪ ♪ i want candy ♪ >> announcer: "american idol's" randy jackson he will be joined by mariah carey, nicki minaj. you can see all four tv are appearances of all judges with just a few clicks. welcome back to "morning joe." >> that's class. >> what's that? >> i know. i know. >> this morning, i decided to go a little conservative. >> i told you to. >> there was another outfit i was thinking of wearing today. if i would worn it today, it's kind of like women wearing the same dress to the cocktail party. >> oh, faux pas. >> there is anything more wrong. no. what if i had worn that outfit. i was that close. i said, wait a second, i've got to do it. >> joining us now is "american idol's" randy jackson who is leading the taking diabetes across the country for type two diabete diabetes. >> this is "morning joe." you guys are all here. >> yes. >> you also represent something near and dear to my heart which is why we wanted to have you on. my son has type one diabetes. but type two diabetes such a grave risk not only to the health of americans but also to the bottom line. >> yeah. >> our vegetarian bottom line. tell us what you're doing? >> i came into this heart campaign which basically like you said a great outreach campaign. there are a lot of facts about it that people don't know. i was walking around and i had it. >> you got it '03. >> i got cold and flu, i was tight all the time. i finally ended up in the emergency room and found out i had type two diabetes. >> how long did it take you? >> it took me a couple weeks before i went and called the doctor and wound up in the emergency room. >> that much. >> this is critical. you urinate all the time. you're thirsty. i've got a relative that waited a couple months. he started to lose his eyesight. it caused considerable damage. he had a heart attack. it attacks all your organs, if you have these conditions. these stiymptoms you've got to t yourself to an emergency room. >> people type two diabetes or three to four times higher risk of developing heart attack or stroke. you can manage it, lo and behold, there's no cure. >> right. >> there's no cure. >> so how do you manage it? >> well, i got together with my doctor. i came up with a treatment plan -- you know, most guys. guys are worse. >> terrible. >> they don't want to go to the doctor ever. >> that's why you wind up in the e.r. you don't want to go to the e.r., joe. >> you got to become good friends with that doctor a couple times a year. >> that's right. >> we call it the abcs. your blood sugar levels and your cholesterol. for me, i'm paying it forward people think that type two diabetes or any other diseases happen to other people, they don't happen to celebrity or stars or whatever. it can happen to anyone. i came up with a plan. i lost a ton of weight. i changed my eating habits because as we talk about you the south, i grew up in the most lovable south. >> oh, my gosh, yeah. >> i love it, but food down there is king and queen. >> no doubt. >> it needs to taste good. bar none, if there's a pound of butter and a whole cup of sugar, pour it in. >> with diabetes, when you have sweet tea, up in georgia, if you had a sip, you'd pass out on the floor. fried chicken. you're exactly right. this is a real problem, especially in the deep south, where i'm from as well, just because you fry that food up, and have a lot of sweets. and it's tough. >> let me ask you, going to put you on the spot, what's your a1c? >> it was actually really good. i'm good now because i've lost so much weight. >> yeah. >> you know, the weight, the diet and the exercise are really huge because what people don't realize, when you exercise, it helps to bring those blood sugar levels down. >> how much weight did you lose? >> i lost 110 pounds. >> holy -- >> gosh. that's incredible. >> yeah. >> the first year i took my son -- >> you were big? >> i was the biggest i had been. 350 pounds. i had that sedentary lifestyle. didn't work out. eating everything in sight. that's the way i grew up. >> a lot of this is intuitive, too. my son, i took him to the washington national convention on diabetes. i took him the first year. cab driver asked me why we were there. i explained it to him. he said, i'm 68. the guy looked great. he said i had diabetes for 30 years. he said, i do two things, i walk, run, every day for three or four miles. and he had a bottle of water that he held up. he said, i drink this all day. and there are some basic things you can do to keep your blood sugar down. >> there's a great website, takeondiabetes.com. reports about diabetes, recipes, even questions i didn't know. questions you ask your doctors. you think there's a lot of information readily available, but there really isn't as much as you think when you have the problem, you don't know what to do, when should i do that? when should i do this? i encourage people to move. just walking. even if you don't have money to join a gym, just walk. >> thank you for what you're doing for diabetes. >> got to pay it forward. >> we'll be back with much more "morning joe." >> announcer: in addition to his grammy winning career, randy jackson has lent his voice to narrating "soul man." if you had tv that could access the web simultaneously, you could see that. put that to your are fingertips. brought to you by tivo. 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>> we got the cnbc rise above the initiative, about everybody coming together. put on a pin and get with the program. so, you put this on. >> thank you very much. >> -- i'll be nice. and it will go well. jobless claims, 439,000 last week. that's high. disregard most of the data last week. for the next few week, the storm clearly going to disrupt all kinds of data regionally in the new york area. 439. a couple of quick comments i've got about it, nobody has put a lot of faith in that. the storm has disrupted so much. we've got bp reporting they will pay billions, we don't know exactly how much to settle the gulf oil spills. and two bp employees may be facing man slaurgts charges of part of that deal. we talked to everybody about the fiscal cliff. i know, steven, you guys have been all over it. the short term may be dominated more by what happens in israel than it does for -- fiscal cliff is the bigger story for the rest of the year. for the next couple of days, anyway, the middle east tensions, that amazing video where they took out the hamas leader, that could impact the markets on a short-term basis. >> although, the market looked like it was going to open up a little bit today. >> the future's up a tad, but we lost, what, 1,000 points in two weeks? >> we lost those, thanks to fiscal cliff. >> that and a lot of concern -- listen i was down in washington yesterday. i wasn't in the ceo meeting, i was in the white house -- i tried to get in -- my nbc credentials -- >> you look reich a ceo. you rise above. >> bull, you're much better than barnacle is. i tried to get in, didn't work out. we did speak with the ceos, what we heard from the president and ceos, even heard from from boehner, optimism. i'm optimistic, i'm confident. we're still hearing those words. >> are you optimistic? >> i'm optimistic we're going to avoid the fiscal cliff. >> why? >> i'm not optimistic we're going to get the rise-above, the really big deal we need to put the country back on track. they're so far apart. right now, all we're talking about is taxes. we haven't gotten to spending yet. >> bingo. >> there's two parts to the fiscal cliff tore, right? you've got the revenue side which the president wants to resolve first. then you've got the spending cuts side. here's what makes me nervous. i'm optimistics, but i'm a little nervous for this. the president is fix and that rates are, from 39.6%. speaker boehner said we would like to get the money through back end method which is is harder to sell politically. >> the president left himself a little bit of wiggle room yesterday. he said both things at the same time, but i think he's left himself a little wiggle room. >> and schumer said that, i think, last week, that they might be flexible on that part of. >> you make me nervous? >> where's that pin, man? >> i've got it right here. brian sullivan, thanks very much. up next, if things weren't bad enough for jets on the field, now players are sniping to the field for the quarterback, tebow, we'll explain all of that coming up. now from the maker of splenda sweeteners, discover nectresse. the only 100% natural, no-calorie sweetener made from the goodness of fruit. the rich, sweet taste of sugar. nothing artificial. ♪ it's all that sweet ever needs to be. new nectresse. sweetness naturally. a new way to save on your prescriptions. it's the aarp medicarerx saver plus plan from unitedhealthcare. with this plan, you can get copays as low as a dollar through a prefnetwor pharmacy like walgreens -- where you'll find 8,000 convenient locations. best of all, this plan has the lowest part d premium in the united states -- only $15 a month. open enrollment ends december 7th. so call today or visit your local walgreens. lookin' good, flo! feelin' good! feelin' real good! [ engine revs ] boat protection people love. now, that's progressive. call or click today. ♪ this guy, just when you thought the jets couldn't get any more sensational, not to worry. players are now venting to the media over the qb situation. we were talking about this earlier. the latest distraction for your 3-6 jets started yesterday when "the daily news" published an article with quotes from a series of unnamed jets players supporting the struggling starter mark sanchez, criticizing his back uptim tebow. one defensive starter went so more as to call tebow, quote, he's terrible. >> he's terrible. >> was the head line that prompted tebow to say he felt frustration and sadness about the report. we need an intervention on this team. the espn report, coach rex ryan was furious about his team's behavior. calling the team into a team meeting yesterday, afterwards, he said it was cowardly to anonymously bash tebow in the press. and ryan addressed tebow and the situation, here he is. >> we never brought him in here to be the starting quarterback. we already had a starting quarterback in mark sanchez. i thought i was clear on that from the day we brought tim in here. but what we also were clear on, he's a football player and we are going to use him in different roles. >> well, that should make things a whole lot better. they think there needs to be a switch at qb, shonn greene said, something's got to change. you feel bad for mark, but at the same time, you want to win games. we're not here to protect people's feelings. >> they are awful. rex didn't want tebow here. it's a disruption of the team in the locker room, they're air terrible team. >> how about mcelroy. alabama guy, very, very intelligent guy. give him a shot. >> in all of this, tebow, ever the classy guy says, i try to be the best teammate i can and work as hard as i can to get better every single day. honestly, i feel like i have a great relationship with all these guys in the locker room. wawa -- >> he's got the tebow poster right there. >> you know it. >> the shirtless one or the regular one? >> all right. all right. calm down. >> we'll let's brian keep the shirtless one. speaking of shirtless people, tomorrow senator saxby chambliss -- bradley cooper tomorrow. ken burns tomorrow. with his new documentary "the dust bowl" which is incredible. absolutely incredible. they'll be here, but not the same segment. up next, you were waiting for this eagerly, what if anything, are you wearing today? anncr: some politicians seem to think medicare and... social security are just numbers in a budget. well, we worked hard for those benefits. we earned them. and if washington tries to cram decisions about the future... of these programs into a last minute budget deal... we'll all pay the price. aarp is fighting to protect seniors with responsible... solutions that strengthen medicare and... social security for generations to come. we can do better than a last minute deal... that would hurt all of us. to bring you a low-priced medicare prescription drug plan. ♪ with a low national plan premium... ♪ ...and copays as low as one dollar... ♪ ...saving on your medicare prescriptions is easy. ♪ so you're free to focus on the things that really matter. call humana at 1-800-808-4003. or go to walmart.com for details. call humana at 1-800-808-4003. you a "stag provisions"rule" on edown every block, or a "hugh and crye" in every town. these are the small businesses of america, and all across the nation they're getting ready for their day. hundreds of thousands of small businesses are preparing for november 24, a day to open doors, and welcome the millions of customers who will turn out to shop small. small business saturday. visit shopsmall.com and get ready. because your day is coming. we create easy to use, powerful trading tools for all. look at these streaming charts! they're totally customizable and they let you visualize what might happen next. that's genius! strategies, chains, positions. we put 'em all on one screen! could we make placing a trade any easier? mmmm...could we? open an account today and get a free 13-month e ibd™ subscription when you call 1-888-280-0157 now. optionsxpress by charles schwab. military families face, we understand. at usaa, we know military life is different. we've been there. that's why every bit of financial advice we offer is geared specifically to current and former military members and their families. [ laughs ] dad! dad! [ applause ] ♪ [ male announcer ] life brings obstacles. usaa brings advice. call or visit us online. we're ready to help. ♪ ♪ well it's all right today, mitt romney drew a picture of the house of representatives chamber and gave a state of the union address in front of it. >> and the fourth new entitlement, obama care, repeal that one and finally get a balance sheet right. [ applause ] >> a message from pretend president romney. >> pretend president romney, ladies and gentlemen! all right, we're not going to pretend about this. what have we learned today? peter, what have you learned? >> jewish jocks, 250 pages, it's not a pamphlet anymore. read all of it. brian, what have you learned? >> about to go to war with "the new york times." most read story, the most brutal restaurant review i've ever, ever read. >> and one of the funniest. >> eviscerated. >> i've learned so much trivia, i can't wait to get back to the office and share it with my colleagues. i learned "people" magazine sexiest man alive, huge oversight here. what about willie and joe and not barnicle? >> i admit it. i learned