0 donkey! >> no. i thought it was you. sorry. what is in my hair? >> is it on my face? >> on your chin. >> a little bit of a mess. oh, god! okay. >> so let's do the news. >> it's going to be fine. >> come home with glitter? >> come on kids. >> do you feel like you're completely out of it? >> more like limelight in 1999 to tell you the truth. >> are we ready? >> yeah. >> has the show started? >> do we need glow sticks for this, pacifiers? >> can you all take me seriously. >> go ahead. let's do the news with the glitter in our hair. new jersey governor chris christie is state to deliver his state of the state's speech today wow as two legislative panels will investigate the september lane closures on the george washington bridge with subpoenas expected this week for christie's top advisers. and, now, federal auditors are looking into the way his front-runner and who gets key supporters and donors is where this matters. i think the questions now coming down on him, whether it's this investigation in a federal level of the allocation of money from the sandy relief from the ads or the additional information that came out yesterday about how he seems to have punished the mayor of jersey city for not endorsing him not in a similar way but in a way also quite evident from some of the e-mails and text traffic that came out yesterday, i think there is in the water now and he will have a hard next few months. i'll be interested to see what the polling says when we get out the other side of this six months from now. >> i'll just say democrats need to be careful, just like the republicans need to be careful, not to overreach. >> yep. >> the guy ran ads and you've got a democratic congressman talking about a bid that went 2 million over. americans look at that and say, okay, obamacare, that bid went a hundred million. i don't know the exact number. but a bid 2 million over is not going to freak people out. democrats need to be careful about staying focused on what is the important -- >> i think republicans need to be careful not to make ridiculous parallels too. >> like what? >> look. this is a story within itself that has little -- they are screaming things like benghazi and irs and this and that and comparing. this is new jersey. i said this yesterday. this is governor chris christie and this is fascinating and it has its own dimension. you really don't need to bring anything else into it and paralleling looks like you're flailing, looks like grabbing for anything. >> not grabbing or flailing. but democrats who are shocked, shocked, shocked, and stunned at what happened here and we're obviously very disturbed about it as well. and we're apologizing for the president after benghazi, after the irs scandal, after the tapping of the phones or the a.p. reporters, after what they did with james rosen at fox news. the very same people that went on their blogs and said nothing to see here, move along, move along. lois lerner is allowed -- i mean, if some of these democrats are screaming that this is the worst thing ever -- you see your twitter feed. >> yes. >> you've asked tough questions about the governor. you've still been absolutely crucified from the far left. >> yes. >> those people are jokes when they turn a blind eye to everything that is happening in washington, d.c. over the past year. and act as if, you know, somehow this is worse than all of that combined. i do think you bring it up just to show that there are important questions to be answered but some of the people that are hyperventilating are jokes because they sure as hel didn't ask any tough questions about benghazi or the irs or the a.p. or the nsa or scandals that are so much more important. >> this is what i'm talking about. this is a distraction. >> no, it's not a distraction. >> you spent two minutes naming all sorts of scandals or pseudoscandals that happened within the obama administration in the past two years. >> right. >> we are talking about abuse of power potentially. >> right. >> for a man who could be the presidential contender for 2016 in the republican party and to have people like rudy giuliani stepping out there and flailing widely about benghazi and saying that the gwb scandal was just a prank, get over it? it's not helpful. >> right. but i would say that the irs scandal was a full-blown scandal. >> what is the point? >> i think that is every bit as important where you actually have an administration that has actually narrowly focused on -- >> why are you talking about it right now? why are you talking about -- we are talking about chris christie! >> do you want to know why i'm talking about that? >> yes! >> because you brought it up. >> no. i said stop bringing it up. >> i didn't bring this up. you started it. and i'm explaining to you why there are some of us that think some of these people on the far left that are crucifying. >> frothing at the mouth. >> frothing at the mouth are raging relationship krits. that's all i'm saying other than why we all just get along and why did you bring a donkey and el paca? mike barnicle, doesn't seem to be damage with chris christie. >> there has been some damage, but i'm with john on this. call me six months from now. i don't think the damage is lasting and i think if you do go to places like manchester, and if you sit down and try to link benghazi with the george washington bridge, people would look at you and say, what are you talking about? it's not on people's screens right now. i do agree with you that the democrats could, in the end, proper him up in new jersey. you know? >> by overreaching? >> yes. >> the thing that could change is what john talked about yesterday and two days ago, we saw out of hoboken you have mayors looking retroactively wondering, wait a minute, i had a face-to-face with chris christie and did not give him my endorsement and i don't have all of the details on jersey city. >> i can do it. >> like the mayor of jersey city had a war -- an iraq war veteran and former goldman sachs bank and came a mayor in in a local city in new jersey and who received a warm embrace from the christie administration on immediately being re-elected and told him he would have tons of meetings with the state officials and people closest to christie. the paper trail suggested the moment he announced he would not endorse christie in his gubernatorial appearance, all of the meetings that had been scheduled cancelled within ho s hours. i think in the next six months, the state legislature is now going to renew subpoena power and they are going to subpoena all of the documents about this bridge thing. we still don't have a final answer on that. there are significant questions about that. democrats might overreach but right now, they are doing what is a proper investigation. we are going to see where that leads but in addition to that, there is now, as i say, chum in the water for the president, for democrats, for christie's foes within the parties and everybody is looking for other stores that echo the bridge story and you could see over the course of the next six to nine months story after story like this if this is the culture within the governor's office you could see a flood of stories like the ones we saw yesterday that go on the next six to nine months easily. he is the republican front-runner. >> are you shocked by the fact that a governor would put his arm around somebody and say i'm going to help you out and then when they find out they are not going to endorse him, the meetings are cancelled? is anybody in manchester going to be shocked that politicians behave that way? >> no. >> are they going to be shocked that the guy who plays hardball? >> no. >> these mayors that come out and complain all they want and it's terrible it happened to them, but voters know that's how it's done. when you do something that ties up the george washington bridge and endanger people's lives, that is quite enough. >> the mayor of jersey city, a little different twist on that story. >> because there was a scandal -- go ahead. >> the mayor of jersey city, newly elected, young 36-year-old iraqi war veteran and guy of great potentially of the democratic party, told the governor's staff the reason why he couldn't endorse him. he may have been inclined to endorse him but said he couldn't endorse him because a lot of gays and lesbians in his city who he has shown support for in terms of marriage, equity, things like that, and christie was against marriage equity in new jersey and he told him why. that's why i can't endorse you. and within 24 hours, sorry, all those meetings have been cancelled and you're getting nothing. >> there were like 12 meetings set up. could they have kept a few? they just yanked them all. >> it is the second biggest city in the state. >> mayor of jersey city, they really needed help in jersey city and it was a shame. >> find somebody on the city council that is going to support you and help through them. i'm saying it's politics at work. i would never do such a thing but i've heard it happens. i would guarantee you go to all 50 states, 45 of the 50 governors operate this way. they help people who help them and they don't help people who help the republicans. >> it's not a question of any individual thing. it's a question of does this become part of a pattern that people seize on and this becomes part of, for most people in the country, many people in new jersey, they have a perception of chris christie as a guy whose narrative has been i work with democrats to get things done for the people of new jersey. that is what he has been selling, in addition to his toughness and so if there a series of stories of which this is just one. i'm not saying any one story. >> it under mines the -- >> if this is happens the next six months as reporters focus on the way they haven't focused on it before, it could be significantly damaging to that brand which is appealing to so many people and why he is a leading republican candidate for the nomination. >> general election, not so appealing in the primary election. willie, i think for me the biggest problem for chris christie out of this entire story after the bridge situation has to do with the fact that so few republicans came to his defense. you talk about an acid test on how somebody is going to be doing in a primary, he just doesn't -- he has got no natural constituency out there. >> was a lot of glee as he was going through this, a lot of people celebrating privately. >> is that rand paul celebrating publicly? >> he was celebrating publicly. aides will either be forced to plead the fifth or provide e-mails and testify. perhaps we have no evidence to this. that chris christie in some way knew about this. that is where the real trouble comes and if that happened and he gave this defiant press conference and said under no uncertain terms he knew nothing about it and he has nowhere to go if some e-mail comes out that connects him with it. >> before we go, people in their basement on the far left wolfing down cheetos this morning as their fat lops over their underwear and their mother is upstairs getting the other kids who are still going to school, getting them ready for school. do you think the mainstream media handled benghazi and irs and these other issues and asked the tough questions the same way they are about chris christie? >> i know we did. i think we did. >> just asking in general. >> it was on the front page of the paper every day. >> benghazi was? >> i think the president was asked time and time again. he put himself out there and was asked about it. on benghazi -- >> and he blamed other people. >> i think -- >> didn't president obama blame himself the way chris christie blame himself? >> yes. >> did you ever hear him say thg my administration and i am responsible for what happened. >> on the obamacare on the website, that is exactly what he did. i'm sorry. that is exactly what he did. >> what about the irs, the nsa, the a.p.? >> i think the irs was a slower roll because they had to figure out what was going on and what ultimately was going on wasn't as egregious or motivated by hatred and coming from above as some would contend. >> well, listen we don't need to go on. i think we have given fodder enough. >> you keep bringing them up. >> i think we have done our duty. you guys have something to write about this morning. now, please, put a t-shirt on at least. your younger brothers and sisters are upstairs and your mom wants you to know that you're 26 now and obamacare didn't keep you on our health care insurance any more. you have to go and get a real job. what coming up next? >> senator joe manchin joins us. a big story out of west virginia. also former governor jon huntsman will be on the show and jane pauley we will talk to her about her new book and she is amazing. and mark mckinnon is on the set. >> a hippie. >> most amazing man in the world and he's in colorado. do you think he's smoked a few? >> no comment. up next, the top stories in the politico playbook. first, bill karins with a check on the forecast. didn't i just see you in the hall? >> no. which one would i be? the donkey or the el paca? don't answer that. good morning, everyone. let's talk about this forecast out on there. the rain is moving up the eastern seaboard. like we have been in march the last four or five days. remember all of the snow we had about the country? a quarter of that is gone and melted. we have rain this morning. the green on the map is light rain all the way to northern new england. we have rain around washington, d.c. and baltimore. it's a light rain at that. but it will be with you for much of the morning commute and into the afternoon. it should taper off by the time you drive home. as far as the snow goes, we do have that back in the central plains from minneapolis to green bay, la crosse and maum today a milwaukee today and maybe a snow day for the kids in wisconsin as much as 3 to 6 inches from green bay to milwaukee. look at that 82 in l.a. today. really not a lot of cold air on this weather map. just a little bit of snow there in the northern plains. you're watching "morning joe." we will be right back. ♪ love love is strange ♪ in the nation, what's precious to you is precious to us. so when coverage really counts, count on nationwide insurance. we put members first. join the nation. ♪ nationwide is on your side ♪ ♪ when our only job was having fun. well, it's feeling pretty simple again thanks to weight watchers new simple start. i started losing weight right away. and i'm having a lot of fun. new simple start. a 2-week jump-start to a whole new beginning. get motivation at meetings, like i did, or do it entirely online. join for free. weight watchers. your new beginning starts here. if you have a business idea, we have a personalized legal solution that's right for you. with easy step-by-step guidance, we're here to help you turn your dream into a reality. start your business today with legalzoom. 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