circumstance. the gop are similarly out of touch on the military budget cuts. in a hearing today, the republican members of the house armed services committee criticized defense secretary gates proposed budget cuts. but a majority of americans say that they would cut military spending over social security or medicare. even 42% of republicans prefer military cuts. with all this pandering to the extremists, at some point, the gop is going to destroy itself. they re rapidly losing touch with real mainstream america. now let s talk a lit bit more about that with nbc political analyst, former governor of pennsylvania, ed rendell. great pleasure to have you here. of i m former governor by seven days. that s exactly right. you don t know this, but i actually got your autograph back when i was going at school. you were at a penn basketball game. and it said good luck cenk,