Transcripts For MSNBC News Nation 20130221

Stations. Today, it was with africanamerican radio stations including joe madison, Yolanda Adams and al sharpton. Their basic view is that nothing is important enough to raise taxes on wealthy individuals or corporations. And they would prefer to see these kinds of cuts that could slow down our recovery over closing tax loopholes. Republicans, however, maintained that the sequester goes through, the blame they say lies with the president. We in the house have passed on two occasions legislation to replace the across the board cuts in sequestration to, thankly, reasonable, better thought out cuts. The president and the democrats in the senate refused to do that. And throw this in to the pot. New poll numbers today, usa today Pew Research Poll says 31 pstz would blame president obama and 49 would blame Congressional Republicans and the Approval Rating at 51 . Bloomberg poll puts the ratding at a threeyear high, 55 . Joining me now live nbcs luke russert, live on capitol hill. Whens the latest on this new development of perhaps outreach here . Theres outreach, tamron. The president contacted House Speaker john boehner and Senate Majority leader mitch mcconnell. No details on the wall but eight days away. It would take a real miracle for congress as of right now, it is acting like not a care in the world to move on something as enormous as the sequester, replacing it in eight days and looking like will happen and House Republicans are fine with this so far, is that the sequester goes in to effect and that the new baseline for a new budget the rest of this year will be a more favorable number to house conservatives and thats very wonky and they see Going Forward with sequester, they want the cuts they want and the lower number. Might not get everything specifically related to defense but going to negotiate this future government shut down slated for march 27th, they have a stronger negotiating potential with the new number of the sequester for the rest of the fiscal year and wonky insider d. C. Stuff but thats where we stand. Thank you. Lets bring in the political panel. Nbc news political analyst and former democratic governor ed rendell. Political analyst jonathan alter. And shira topitz. Republicans find themselves they say in a weak position politically because they have yet to propose a compromise to recognize they dont control the white house or the u. S. Senate. By contrast, obamas offered up entitlement cuts and a willingness for additional cuts to medicare. Isnt that the heart of what is compromise . You must offer up something. Well, they dont think so. Theres no election. Almost two years before the next election so the fact theyre half as popular as president obama, they dont give a rats patootey. What do you base that on . Everything. The inaction . Everything they say and not doing. Theyre not prepared to negotiate. They want to lock in the sequester cuts and then as luke indicated, negotiate from that lower funding level and then they can say, well, we need more funding for defense. Try to hold the line on those cuts in march but they want to go over this particular cliff and i dont see anything that will stop them from that. Do you agree that the republicans appear not to care. 45 say theres a better approach dealing with this, president obama. 38 Congressional Republicans. You also saw the numbers of folks say at least in this poll they would blame going over in to another crisis here. Is this not resonating with republicans . Are they not getting calls from constituents worried about what will happen here . Probably not. What republicans have done here really backed themselves in to a corner saying we wont consider any revenue generators in a deal to push the sequester off to delay it or get rid of it. And at this case, they arent in a good position to negotiate and i doubt the members that represent much more redder districts, much more republican districts, than some of the democrats represent little more competitive districts just by the nature of the way the house districts drawn, probably not getting phone calls about it. Why do you have karl rove, for example, an oped in the wall street journal a better strategy implying that the one they currently offering up is not the best. He says my own recommendation is that the House Republicans should pass a continuing resolution next week to fund the government for the balance of the fiscal year and language granting the flexibility to move funds from less vital activities and what luke was saying and may use it to cut spending that republicans favor. Still the gop acting responsibly and perhaps put the president and the democrats on the defensive. This long, drawnout little excerpt that i gave you bottom line is he doesnt believe that the strategy at least were seeing or lack thereof is one thats effective. Yeah. Absolutely. Its not proven effective just by the polling you showed earlier in the program showing the sequester goes through, half the American Public is going to blame congress and namely republicans on this. But whats interesting, especially about the sequester cuts, seems like according to polls again, kicking the can down the road is fairly pala palatable opposed to the alternative. Maybe the political fortunes will be different, closer to a reelection race, more pressure and maybe more willing to come to the table. Governor rendell, i want to follow up on the notion perhaps republicans immune to constituents calling and being upset. You have a writer york quoted by the First Read Team talking about Speaker Boehner describing the looming cuts as a threat to our national security, thousands of jobs can be lost if they appear to be indifferent to those consequences. Whether their phone ringing today or sometime after march 1st, when you have that story line not just from the president but the House Republicans saying this is dire and do not come up with a compromise, how can they believe it wont stick on them . They cant, tamron. And remember, this is all being played out in the context of other things that this Republican Congress has obstructed or said no to, including filibustering the first cabinet nominee in the history of the country. People are beginning to believe that this is a totally obstructionist Republican Caucus and theyre running a tremendous risk because why are they holding this up . They dont want the buffett rule and 90 of americans believe people who make over 1 million should pay a tax rate consistent with what ordinary americans pay. Theyre on the wrong side of that argument and holding up the government and what happens this year if the sequestration goes in to effect as more and more delays happen, airports, on getting permits, on people being laid off, tens of thousands of workers laid off, not only in government offices contractors, people will get angry and blame the people that said no. The president as you said had a reasonable proposal on the table. More spending cuts than revenue increases and the revenue increases dont affect any american who doesnt make a million dollars. So whats wrong with that . Apparently something because jonathan is shaking his head no. I just think that the problem for the democrats is that the sequester doesnt all hit home on march 1st. Right. It is not as if you turn on the light and doesnt come on that day. Right. There is a slow motion refrenchment. Right. Suddenly moves back in the paper. You know . In the newspaper. Right. You have a little cut here. A bigger cut there. A little cut here. A mediumsized cut there and its kind of death of a thousand cuts. But it doesnt create a political firestorm. Right. That would necessarily help the democrats. I think they want to do what they can as the president indicated today to get talks going again. Even potentially on a grand bargain which they almost got in the summer of 2011. They almost got in december of last year. Right. Get that conversation going again because this slow motion process over the course of this year would not be healthy for anybody. Perhaps a detriment to the democrats. Shira, add to what jonathan said on a new poll most americans arent paying attention. A lot of people were engaged in the fiscal cliff and we think of a jury with the sequester. Very few people said they have paid a lot of attention to whats going on here. How does that play at least in negotiations if at all . Well, i think theres less of a kind of a crisis mentality. If anything, voters have crisis fatigue at this point. Debt ceiling versus fiscal cliff and now the sequester and as jonathan pointed out, the sequester cuts kind of a rolling cut. They dont really get this. Ill say the white house is probably in a better position messagingwise because what they can do right now and what they are doing right now is pointing to the individual cuts and that resonates with voters and people who are monitoring the news, being able to say, oh, meatpackers cant inspect meat or longer lines at the airport. The resonates with people and effective messaging on their part and republicans dont have that same luxury right now. Does it resonate only with the people that agree with the president . You talk about, for example, not likely that the republicans in the reddest part of the country receiving calls of constituents. Is this again another situation where it resonates . If thats what you believe and going back to the core of this, this huge gap in this country and in people elected to represent us on what should be done particularly when it comes to tax revenue, shira . Well, i think the people who agree with the president will probably back up his message on this but lets remember the president s approval raitding i believe you said was 51 . 55 in one. Exactly. Its high. Most of the country is still agreeing with him along those lines. The problem is the way a lot of house districts are drawn, republicans hold the House Majority and not necessarily representative of the American Public as a whole. Whats the end game here . First of all, when people start getting laid off and happening sooner than later, neighbors and everyone involved is pretty pissed off about this. Not as rolling effect as jonathan says, number one. Number two, look, the end game is we ought to be doing the grand bargain. We are kicking the can down the road. And we keep kicking the can down the road and the debt mounts at 3 billion a day. We need to get serious, sometime whether its with the continuing resolution, whether the next debt ceiling, we have to take care of debt in the ten years and after that and after that. We have to get debt under 70 of our gdp or else were going to be facing a real economic crisis and time to get serious. Maybe kick the can down the road one more time. After that, we better be serious. Wow. Well, i totally agree with ed on that and with you on the way for the democrats to convince the American Public of the seriousness of this is to go to the specifics. When the layoffs start taking place. Especially in red or swing congressional districts. So i assume that the white house is planning. Theyre not just going to big cities when these cuts start hitting. Theyll go right in to John Boehners district. Virginia. Places where the cuts are hitting to light a fire under the republican members of congress. Thank you. Great pleasure having you on. Major shakeup in the murder case of Oscar Pistorius. The lead detective is off the case after details emerge today that he himself is charged with seven counts of attempted murder. How did this happen . Well get the latest from south africa. Plus so i bet youre wondering, where have i seen that handsome bald guy before, right . Well, it was here. When i was a leading critic of the obama health plan. So that was rick scott running for governor of florida. Fast forward to now. The republican governor is now supporting the Medicaid Expansion. Under the president S Health Care law. And the governors just one of the latest republicans to reverse course. Well take a look at it. Join our conversation on twitter. You can find us. [ male announcer ] what . investors could lose tens of thousands of dollars in hidden fees on their 401 k s . go to etrade and roll over your old 401 k s to a new etrade retirement account. None of them charge annual fees and all of them offer low cost investments. Etrade. Less for us. More for you. Shocking turn in the Oscar Pistorius murder case. The man leading the investigation has been taken off the case amid revelations hes facing attempted murder charges. South African Police made the announcement today. The bail hearing heading in to the fourth day and the judge ordered the packed room cleared citing an unspecified threat to the building. He awaits a murder trial. Michelle kaczynski is following the case for us. I cant imagine when the information came out. Its incredible. Reporter every day its something that makes you say, what . Are you serious about this . Its a battle between two very good attorneys. First, the defense hammering the prosecutions case which is riddled with mistakes. Criticize the way police handled evidence, statements made not right. And then this chief police investigator, facing attempted murder charges from a work involved shooting. He is now as you said off the case. But then it was the prosecutions turn. They punched holes in pistori pistoriuss account of what happened that morning saying if you believe this account, its still a preplanned murder of a burglar. Pistorius said he dropped the gun after the shooting but prosecutors said it was in a somewhat different lace on a carpet outside of the shower right next to the cell phones of both pistorius and steencamp. And prosecutors said how did they get in the space together . They called that totally inconsistent and said that pistorius cannot explain. Also, pistorius said he awoke in darkness. He thought he heard a burglar and thought she was right next to him. Grabbed the gun, screamed, started shooting. Prosecutors said, wait a minute. If you think thought there was a burglar, wouldnt you make sure your partner was there and okay . Maybe try to wake her up . At least look at her. They called the account totally improbable. Went a step further, called him person prone to violence and said that he is bound to be convicted. The defense say that is there is no evidence that this is a murder at all. Tamron . Michelle, thank you. Joining me now, retired professor of criminal lawali ate university of south africa. Thank you for joining us. Very welcome. Thank you. Absolutely. You were quoted in a usa today article saying there will be no circus, referring to how strict the trial judges in south africa. You said the circus will take place outside on the sidewalk but not in the courtroom. With what we have seen today, with the revelation that this detective has been charged with seven counts of attempted murder, would you change that to the circus is certainly inside there . No. Not in the sense of the public running wild with opinions and allegations and so forth. That is still taking place on the social networks and the newspapers, of course. But its not happening inside the courtroom. Now, the detective story is really not relevant at all because he may have died of a heart attack. It happens all the time that investigating investigators get replaced by someone else for whatever reason. Health reasons. Death. In this case, because hes himself an accused person. Doesnt affect the outcome of the trial at all. He was taken off the case and facing attempted murder charges for allegedly firing on a mini bus full of passengers. That may not, of course, affect the event that is played out at the home of Oscar Pistorius. However, they determined significant enough for the detective to be taken off the case. Sure. He will be preoccupied by that, not able to do the job properly. We assign another one to the case. Lets talk about this hearing here. We have heard a back and forth and a swirl of allegations. But the prosecution says that even if this was a burglar inside the bathroom, that it was still premeditated murder of the burglar. Obviously, our attention is focused on it, maybe a case of horrible Domestic Violence and whether it was her or a burglar, this was premeditated here. You know, thats just an argument and its really irrelevant at this stage. The only thing that is are relevant at the bail hearing is whether theres a danger that the defendant will flee and evade justice. Or whether theres a danger that he would tamper with evidence or with witnesses. And on that turns the question as to whether he should be granted bail or not. Bail can also be subject to certain conditions like handing in the passport, being restricted to a certain district and reporting to the police daily. So the prosecution is showing its hand quite unnecessarily and giving away all its shots. What is the motivation, then . If its unnecessarily its unnecessary to reveal some of the details down to a mockup of the apartment and great detail of what they believe happened that night, why do you believe thats the strategy right now . I dont know. It just seems to be pretty unhandy. Theyre giving their arguments on a silver platter to the defense which can now take their time to prepare for the trial on the merits because the merits of the case are relatively unimportant right now. Its a bail hearing. Not whether hes found guilty or not but whether hell stand trial and whether its necessary to keep him in confinement prior to the trial or whether it is so impossible for him to escape that he can be let out on on bail. Well, professor, we appreciate you joining us and this is a bail hearing and learned an incredible amount of information from the prosecution preparing the case and move forward. Thank you for your time. Youre welcome. Absolutely. Internal emails of walmart show executives are panicking about the retailers worst sales start in seven years and now the Washington Post is asking if walmart is freaking out about the economy should the rest of us . Well pose that question to cnbcs tyler mathson. Plus couples are xhited, they ought to have the same sort of rights that everyone has. Former First Lady Laura Bush promoting Marriage Equality and says she wants to be taken off that ad. Its one of the things we thought you should know. Joann and christie created cute, homemade decorations for their Daughters School lockers. When other kids said they wanted them, too, they created locker looks. I wouldnt change anything about the last 10 years except what its done to my hair, so im doing something new. New age defy from pantene. Its a system with provitamins and caffeine. 7 signs of aging hair, like dryness and damage, virtually disappear to make hair act up to 10 years younger. New age defy, including advanced thickening. 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Our First Read Team points out cpac gone from an antiestablishment gathering to an unofficial gop convention. Joining me now, nbc news political manager. Lets talk about whos not on the list first. Chris christie. I think first of all probably attribute that line to chuck todd or maybe mark murray. Okay. Thats good. Yeah. Chris christie not invited, in fact. Hes a 75 Approval Rating, right . In his state, thats true. Christie, one of the groups or one of the folks not invited. Talked to someone from go proud which also is not invited. Yeah. In fact, their spokesman told me somethings changed unless somethings changed and havent heard back from acu since they were kicked out last year and those looking to expand the tent of the party they wont be happy with that. Its another one of these like cattle calls for 2016 a. Lot of folks there, marco rubio, of course, mitt romney will be back. People like paul ryan and a lot of others so were going to be watching for that. The straw poll every year people want to know where do they rank with conservatives . Sure. And who do they exactly want for 2016 . A couple of people to pull out quickly here. Mitt romney, what will his role be . Looking forward from the straw poll, hes not a part of the future leadership, is he . At least not the reaction that his party had after he lost. Right. I mean, theres people who are a little confused why hes going but remember this was a place where four years ago he dropped out of the president ial race at cpac so he feels like the activists at cpac are friendly audience. Of course, he called himself a severely conservative governor at last years cpac and see what his new place in the spotlight will be with this speech. Real quick, sarah palin. Again, someone, a blast from the past some would say but maybe again a part of the future. There are a lot of act vitsi at this conference and i think what we can call her. Brief and honest. Thank you. Sure. Floridas republican Governor Scott reverses course and will accept the Medicaid Expansion under president obamaS Health Care law. Despite the state spending millions to fight it. Are we seeing a pattern running for reelection in blue and purple states . But tlifirst, heres things thought you should know. Former first lady bush asking a Marriage Equality group to remove a clip of her from a National Tv Ad launching this week. Heres part of that ad. Thats why growing majority of americans believe its time to allow marriage for gay and lesbian couples. When couples are committed, they ought to have the same rights everyone has. Mrs. Bush said she did not approve of her inclusion in the ad. And during his trip to israel, senator rubio made light of his thirst moment in the response to the state of the union. He and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu toasted with a click of a plastic water bottle. Bad luck to toast with water. Michelle obamas lets move initiative secelebrating a thir year anniversary. Hi, were here in the white house kitchen looking for a Healthy Snack to eat. Hey, i bet you can get anything you want in this kitchen. About health care. I tuned it all out. With unitedhealthcare, i get information that matters. My individual health profile. Not random statistics. They even reward me for addressing my health risks. So im doing fine. But shes still going to give me a heart attack. Were more than 78,000 people looking out for more than 70 million americans. Thats health in numbers. Unitedhealthcare. I took something for my sinuses, but i still have this cough. [ male announcer ] a lot of sinus products dont treat cough. They dont . [ male announcer ] nope, but alka seltzer plus severe sinus does it treats your worst sinus symptoms, plus that annoying cough. [ breathes deeply ] oh, what a relief it is [ angry gibberish ] today, the worlds biggest retailer walmart reported a nearly 9 jump in profit last quarter but the Company Warning economic challenges like payroll tax increases are already squeezing the tight budgets of shoppers. Bloomberg news recently published internal emails from walmart executives who are panicking about the worst sales start in seven years. An executive wrote, quote, in case you havent seen a sales report these days, february month to date sales are a total disaster. Another one said we had a week here. Where are all the customers and wheres their money . Cnbcs Tyler Matheson joins me now. The Washington Post with the headline, if walmart is worried should the rest of us be worried . Well, in fact, i think the rest of us should be worried because walmart is tremendous economic bellwether. Walmart systems, the ability to track whos in the stores, how many people, what theyre buying, how much theyre spending per ticket is probably the best in the world. They really know whats going on. And they are really a proxy for the american consumer. If walmart cant do well in retailing then an awful lot of other stores, whether its target or dollar general, whether its family dollar, they, too, are likely to have trouble and as you pointed out, two things. It is the payroll tax hike that kicked in on january 1 and it is also rising gasoline prices that are up 30 , 35 in the last month. Now, you have some who are wondering if this has anything to do with labor issues and public problems that walmart has had. Any indication thats part of this . I think only at the margins but i dont think theres anything in any of the stuff we have been seeing or the sources we have talked to. We had on a woman earlier today, tamron, a socalled secret shopper. She goes in to walmart, among other stores and reports back to big institutional investors. And what she said she found on ten recent trips to walmarts, mostly in the northeast, was that individuals were saying, they are watching their pennies much more closely because their paychecks are smaller. As a result of that payroll tax hike that raised by 2 Percentage Points and really a 50 , went from 4 , 4. 2 to 6. 2 in withholding on the paycheck, thats a significant decline and people are really watching their dollars closely. Indeed. Thank you so much. Greatly appreciate your joining us on this one. You bet. Floridas governor did a dramatic turnabout. Rick scott now says hell expand medicaid to nearly a million floridians. A move politico says makes scott, quote, the biggest symbol of grudging republican acceptance that obamacare is the law of the land. Scotts opposition to obama care was the centerpiece of his 2010 campaign and spent millions of dollars, in fact, to fight the law. So i bet youre wondering, where have i seen that handsome bald guy before. Right . It was here. When i was a leading critic of the obama health plan. Im tough on the president but he asked for it. He thinks more government is always the answer. Scott is now the seventh republican governor to make this kind of turn around and the fifth who just happens to be up for reelection next year. Martin katie is politicos deputy managing editor. Thank you for joining us. Thank you. Some of the governors on the list, jan brewer, rick snyder, and john kasich, gop governors, what do we make of this . Is it all about reelection . Its also about the power of free federal money as rick scott said, he decided not to turn down 100 coverage from the federal government for florida in medicaid coverage. Hell be able to add a million underinsured and uninsured people to the health caroe roll without spending state money. He did a flip flop here but its not really a great financial cost to the state of florida or to any of the other states. Might come at a political cost, another discussion. You mentioned some of these republican governors. Theyre from not you know, blue states, states that arent as conservative as these other states. Sure. If we look elsewhere like louisiana, south carolina, mississippi, they dont want any part of this because they dont want association with obama care sigh there no threat of the tea party coming after the governors who they believe were the face of this battle that, i mean, you might recall john boehner said the law after the supreme courts decision, he came back and shuffled around the words because theres a great number of more conservative republicans that want to fight that battle. Some of them could certainly face a primary threat from the right, from the Tea Party Folks and playing the odds. They realize that they have to look at their own states, especially in florida which is one of the Largest Health care markets in the country. If they figured theyre better off getting a million more People Health insurance in their state with no cost to the state, compared to angering a few folks on the right in their political base, i think what scott did is a political odds and this Medicaid Expansion goes through after hes done being governor. Sure. But the political odds, millions of dollars spent in florida alone to try and stop socalled obama care so political calculation but a lot of money at a time when that state like the others needs that cash. Right. And remember, hes refusing to do the exchanges which is the other leg of obama care so hes taken the free medicaid money and not setting up the exchanges to carry out the rest of the uninsured and hedging the bests and governors like kasich and martinez they decided a good bet to take on the medicaid money at least temporarily to get more people some form of health insurance. Very interesting development. Thank you for your time. Good to see you. Right now, live pictures of kansas city, missouri. Under the state of emergency. Look at that. As massive winter storm moves across the heartland. Fors say it spans 20 states and will affect some 60 million people. Well have an update for you. [ jackie ] its just so frustrating. The middle of this special moment and i need to run off to the bathroom. Im fed up with always having to put my bladders needs ahead of my daughter. So today, im finally talking to my doctor about Overactive Bladder symptoms. 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Buk, buk, bukka [ male announcer ] get the spark Business Card from capital one and earn unlimited rewards. Choose 2 cash back or double miles on every purchase every day. Told you id get half. Whats in your wallet . Developing now in kansas and missouri, a huge winter storm hammering a swath of the country with dangerous mix of snow, ice and even heavy rain. The system will impact more than 30 million americans, 20 states hit by it. Nbcs jay gray live in kansas city, missouri, where the snow is falling, two inches per hour in the height of that storm and we see what its left behind, jay. Good to see you. Reporter hey, there, tamron. Always good to talk to you. Youre absolutely right. The wind gusting at 30 miles per hour, at times. Two inches an hour. Well getting a lull if you believe this is a lull. Going to pick up again in the evening hours. But take a look right now. It is a tough go for anybody thats brave enough to get out on the roadways. Manpower often taking the place of horsepower. People having to push the vehicles to get them to the side of the road. Some stalled as you can see there and businesses and schools are shut down here in kansas city. As this snow just continues to fall as you talked about. Theres a state of emergency right now. Travel is tough. The plows keep coming through. They just cant keep pace with this storm. It is just snowing too fast for them to get things cleaned up. The airports, across the region, closing down. Hundreds of flights have been canceled, tamron. This is something thats going to last well in to the evening and some areas it will go in to Early Morning and when its said and done, here we expect well over a good and some places more than two feet of snow. So, this is something thats around for a while. The major of kansas city telling residents here, dont bother trying to get out. Were not going to have a decent conditions until sometime late tomorrow. Thats the latest here in kansas city. Tamron, back the you in what im sure is a warm and cozy studio. It is not. You make me laugh. But the reality is, these warnings, we see the video behind you there, of course, folks creeping along. You have to get in the car and do what you can there. What about the temperatures . Usually follows arctic blasts behind these kinds of storms. Reporter yeah. Its been very cold and the wind, again, not helping that. Because the gusts are so strong. Its been in the 20s. The low 20s throughout the day. But with the windchill, its been single digits. 7, 8, 9 degrees. Not good. And right now, without the snow thats coming later today, we have seven to eight inches so its just going to continue to pile up. Oh boy. All right. Thank you very much. Greatly appreciate it. Talk to you soon. Talking to a writer of the National Journal which lawmakers topped the annual survey of the most liberal and conservative in congress. Who would you pick . Well reveal the answers after the break. Plus, our news nation gut check. Whos to blame. Like the news nation on facebook. Facebook. Com newsnation. Like us and we might like you back. [ giada ] why did i switch to Natural Instincts . Its healthier, ammoniafree. And with aloe, vitamin e, and coconut oil, my hair looks healthier than before i colored. I switched. You should too, to Natural Instincts. Woman what do you mean, Homeowners Insurance doesnt cover floods . [ heart rate increases ] man a few inches of water caused all this . [ heart rate increases ] woman 2 but i dont even live near the water. What you dont know about Flood Insurance may shock you including the fact that a preferred risk policy starts as low as 129 a year. For an agent, call the number that appears on your screen. What do we do when something really wants to be painted . We break out new behr ultra with stainblocker from the home depot. The best selling paint and primer in one that now eliminates stains. 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First of all, i love the fact that the headline gives hope that something can eventually come out of this but the list is incredible. Let me get to the beginning of it. The most conservative senators, cornyn, demint, toomey, johnson. No big surprise there, do you think . John cornyn was the head of the Senate Campaign committee and criticized and he got a lot of criticism from Tea Party Types for not being conservative enough. So tamron, looking how far to the right the tea party moved, you see one of the most conservative senators under fire. So interesting. Most liberal senators, blumenthal and udall, franken, murray. Again, any big revelation there . Well, i like al franken number three on the list because hes up for reelection in 2014. Remember, that campaign six years ago was one of the most interesting, fascinating political elections of that cycle. And franken doesnt have a republican challenger yet but if he gets a good kand datcandidats a race to watch. Tied with dick durbin there . Yeah. Franken doesnt do much press or National Media attention but he still votes pretty along the liberal line. Most conservative house members, todd akin, scott, blackburn, jeffrey landry. Look at those states. Missouri, georgia, tennessee, louisiana. Very republican states. Very conservative districts. Hows someone from texas not on this list . Yeah. Theres some texas folks at the top but todd akin, seemed to make sense after the Senate Campaign he was the number one conservative lawmaker in the house. His comments certainly ratified that and certainly the vote ratings showed that, as well. Most liberal house members, a 14way tie, so many we couldnt fit all of the 14 on the screen so heres a partial list, conyers, sanchez, lewis, rush, but again, as i mentioned, 14way tie there . Yeah. Democrats have been moving to the left, as well, last several years and the most fascinating name on the list, bobby rush, only congressman to defeat president obama. I was living in illinois at that time. You are right. Quickly, the moderates. Key in a lot of things happening, particularly immigration reform. Joe manchin, ben nelson, charlie dent, michael grimm, chris smith there. Important folks looking at as you pointed out how polarized people are. Charlie dent, one of the big power players on gun control and manchin is one of the key allies that president obamas going to have on that legislation. Interesting list, josh. Thanks so much for joining us. You pronounced my name beautifully. Thank you. And time now for the gut check. A new usa today pew poll shows republicans get most of the blame for the sequest tradition and 49 for Congressional Republicans. 11 see it as equal. What did your gut tell you . If the sequester deal isnt reached, a lot of you slighted because you werent included in the poll and were calling out to you. Go to facebook. Com newsnation to cast that vote. Thank you for hanging with us. 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Pnc works with you to understand yours and help plan for your retirement. Visit a branch or call now for your personal retirement review. Right now. Eight days to armageddon. I i im krystal ball. Im steve kornacki. Who will be the biggest loser . Not me. Surprising details out of south africa about the Oscar Pistorius murder case. Is this really their o. J. Strtr . Im s. E. Cupp. The film critic dropping true bombs. Talk about a truth bomb, ill lay out my case for why we need the gop. Double boom. Oh