this week on the journal, editorial report, outrage over the bergdahl swap grows as the foreign policy celebration quickly becomes the obama administration's latest political fiasco. plus, the epa's new climate rule puts many in jeopardy. and republican nominees get set for a contender in iowa but set off a runoff elsewhere. we'll look at the race for november. we had a prisoner of war whose health had deteriorated.

and we were deeply concerned about it and saw an opportunity and we seized it. and i make no apologies for that. >> welcome to "the journal ed i'm paul gigot. that was president obama defending the swap for bowe bergdahl for five guantanamo detain niece. it started as a celebration last week in the rose garden and quickly turned into the latest political fiasco with lawmakers from both sides criticizing the decision and the white house insisting on damage control once again. joining the panel, the potomac columnist kim straszle, james freeman, and america's columnist, mary annesthesia. it is pretty obvious that the president miscalculated this at the very least, why do you think they did that? >> it's remarkable. i think they thought they were

going to sweep the administration health official scandal from the front page and dlam foreign victory. so even though senior officials had to know about sergeant bergdahl's past, they sent susan rice out to talk about him serving with honor and distinction up and as soon as the story came out about his past, they were in trouble. >> it seems like the backlash is about the idea of promoting this, celebrating this, this was a tremendous victory for saying, for example, susan rice served with honor and distinction. the issue here seems to be may miscalculated the political oversell. >> right. you could absolutely make the case, and there's a case that

you need to know this was a hard choice to make. having to hand over the five guys, they could have put out a press release. it was the celebratory nature that came back to bite them. >> i disagree with kim that they sought -- they thought the united states would celebrate with this. we want to get rid of the prisoners in guantanamo and the war on terror and continue this american retreat, which has been part of the president's agenda since he took office. >> so do you think they figured this may actually been on paper but we are going to move it was that those at the white house

had no idea he deserted. i don't believe thought you could make a case for trading over a deserter in the taliban. >> how is this different than what the president did than what often does happen? for example, they traded 1,000 palestinians for one israel he soldier. how is this will? >> well, i think the big difference is that the u.s. still has a lot of civil liberties than you have in israel or when you are boarding an airplane and certain parts in their society are much more stricter. >> free the terrorists, is that what you're seeing? >> they have other ways to fight the war on terror. we don't have those waves. nobody wants to fight the war.

it is really easily done as we pool our resources. >> another big difference, the israeli cased a you mentioned, it was an israeli soldier doing his case that was basically snatched while on duty. the question is, i understand no man left behind, but this is a two-way commitment. i'm not sure this commitment holds once someone abandons their post. at that point, if it is not a commit why are we not trading these guys for the prisoners in africa or the people being mistreated by the taliban? i think there are a lot of reasons, but the call cpolitica

backlash, how hong is this going to be? or just ones of the democrats are saying this is the tempe tempest -- >> there are a lot of democrats out there criticizing this administration. you can't just say this is republican criticism. >> no, no, no. the more serious democrats, people like dianne feinstein has been critical about the notification ad. it will talk the sight of oversight. a lot of people view president obama has a big shot across their bow saying i can transfer

more prisoners. >> thank you, kim. amid the bergdahl outrage, a new epa climate rule gets lost in the news, but it could mean big trou trouble for democrats heading into the midterms. with a higher risk of stroke due to afib, a type of irregular heartbeat not caused by a heart valve problem. i was taking warfarin but wondered, could i focus on something better? my doctor told me about eliquis for three important reasons. one, in a clinical trial eliquis was proven to reduce the risk of stroke better than warfarin. two, eliquis had less major bleeding than warfarin. and three, unlike warfarin there's no routine blood testing. [ male announcer ] don't stop taking eliquis

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♪ ♪ well, he vowed last year not to wait for congress to enact his climate agenda. and this week, president obama this week president obama made good on his promise with the epa designing a rule to cut carbon emissions in the united states by as much as 30% by 2030. a goal that could spell big trouble for the u.s. energy and maybe a larger economy, not to mention vulnerable democrats this november. we are back with kim strassel, james freeman, and joe reggo is

joining us. this is not a rule to affect power plants or business, but it will also affect every american as it takes effect. >> right. what they are doing, in the past epa has always regulated power plants, heavy industry. they are going outside the fence line, which is a technical term, but it means these apply to the entire state. it applies to consumers, small businesses, basically everybody. so they say, not only cut back on cold firepower and natural gas, but also have all kinds of efficiency and conservation programs. more renewables, so it is really affecting the entire economy of the state and not just the power sector. >> so it is targeted, the first goal is to get rid of coal. is it fair to say that the administration's political goal here, the economic goal, is to eliminate coal power from the u.s. economy? >> absolutely. coal accounted for about 50% of

the american power supply. recently since 2007 but now it is down to 37% and still trending down. i think coal is really on the way out, except in a very few small areas. >> what about natural gas, because some people say natural gas is more efficient, it's cheaper, it doesn't have as many carbon emissions, so that's a good swap, but it's also a fossil fuel and carbon emitting, so is that the next target? >> i think so. the environmentalists have said beyond coal, now it is moving beyond natural gas, now the literature refers to natural gas as a transitional fuel, something out of the mix right around 2030. so this is really the goal to push that out as well. >> and james, this is not going to have an impact the same across the whole economy. this is going to affect certain states much more than it is the east and west coasts? >> the places that produce a lot of energy, use a lot to energy,

often places that make things. washington, d.c., not a lot of carbon there because they don't create anything there, but states in the west, in the south, using a lot of energy are hit hard. and you get into the political impact, but i want to emphasize, this is going to hit everybody. because if race is the cost of all the products we buy, the epa says $9 billion a year is the cost because of these energy efficiency measures, they are predicting a decline in u.s. energy consumption. >> and you're saying that's up likely if you want a growing economy. so you're predicting the reductions in energy and saying that may be rooted in a very poor economic forecast. >> it is a very bleak forecast. look at the crummy job report. another mediocre report we got on friday. the economy bumping along. this is not a job creator. they have to find ways to limit energy use. >> off lot of democrats from

energy-producing states, some up for re-election this year. and i'm fascinated by the president's decision to risk this politically this year when the senate control could be in jeopardy. why is the president and the national democratic party willing to take this risk right n now? they could have waited until next year. >> there are two things, the president wants to start putting into place right now whatever will be his legacy for the final -- for the end of his term. and it takes a long time to put it in and take credit for it now. two, green activists in his party, tom steyer, he wants them to help him in this coming midterm. when we come back, an update on the gop's fight to take back the senate.

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a clearer picture emerging a clearer picture emerging now for the battle for control of the united states senate. the republican voters in iowa tuesday giving the gop a real shot at whipping seats long held by retiring democrat tom harkin, nominating state senator and iraq veteran joni ernst. but in mississippi the outcome wasn't such a landslide.

we're back with kim strassel and joe rago, alicia finley also join us. kim, we'll talk quickly about iowa. joni ernst put the state in play, is that a toss-up for november? >> this is suddenly a good prospect for republicans. this woman won decisively. this is what happens when you have pretty much everyon chamber of commerce, a lot of the tea party groups, everyone from sarah palin to marco rub beau and mitt romney supporting this woman. she got a lot of recognition out of it. her name went up in the states and now she's a real contender to the democrat bruce brayley. >> we have 14 senate seats in play, which really does make this the possibility of retaking the senate very real.

except there may be a problem with mississippi. and talk to us a little bit about why republican primary voters didn't want, didn't seem to want to renominate fred cochran who has been there for 40 years or so. >> this reminds me of the luke gregor race that took place a while back in louisiana. mr. cochran is a big spender and that doesn't fit well in this new more modern conservative party. so it was inevitable that he was going to be a target at some point. he might have retired and opened the way for republicans to did the recruiting, but instead he wanted to stay. and now the primary has really split mississippi voters down the middle. >> so usually when you have a runoff like this, the challenger tends to win because the incumbent, you figure he gets

all the votes that he's going to get. yet there's a pair paradox, the democrats really want him to win. why? >> the former radio talk show host, he's kind of got a history of questionable comments, calling his panic women mamacitas and so forth. the real danger is he becomes a todd aiken or sharon angle. and democrats use their media megaphone to turn him into mr. republican and tarnish candidates in races nationwide. >> but they also have a real shot, alicia, at this particular election, they think, if mcdaniel is nominated on the republican side. they've got a candidate in travis childers, a former

congssman with a good shot. >> a former congressman who is more conservative. >> that's a conservative democrat. >> that's right. and mississippi is not as perhaps as conservative or as republican as many believe. in fact, mitt romney won the state by 12 points compared to over 20 points in west virginia which has a democratic senator in joe manchin. >> the african-american vote is/. >> 30% of the voter registration is black. >> if the turnout is big, it goes for childers. >> no doubt the turn-up will go up from his comments. >> so what is the republican establishment, the party such as it is, come, but it doesn't as much as people think. how are the republicans going to handle this one? >> well, they are going to go out, they have been backing

cochran strongly. they will redouble their efforts. they have three weeks and will put money into it. they have to make the argument to voters and the argument will be we have a really important moment here where we can recapture the senate. cochran has a far better chance of being elected over mcdaniel. if you want to take the seat and the senate, this is their goal. that's their argument, we'll see if it works. we'll change to california with interesting results this week out there. a very democratic state now. soup marry j souper supermajority in congress now. what happened? >> the republican of former treasury official won the republican/tea party dinner. >> so how he runs against jerry

brown. >> that's right. that's not the main point. he's basically rebranding the republican party as a party of economing opportunity, which it desperately needs. >> which will help down tickets? >> of course. you are already seeing -- the democrats are really worried they will take those. when we come back, hits and misses of the week. replace your laptop? start with the best writing experience. make it incredibly thin. add an adjustable kickstand, a keyboard, a usb port, and the freedom of touch. and, of course, make it run microsoft office, with the power and speed to do real work. introducing surface pro 3. the tablet that can replace your laptop.

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time now for hits and misses of the week. mary, start us time now for hits and misses of the week. mary, start us off. >> paul, you know the new york rangers are in the stanley cup finals against some team in los angeles. and this week i want to give a miss to governor andrew cuomo who bet the governor of california, governor jerry brown, on the finals, on who would win the trophy. and if new york loses, he will send to california new york apples, wine, seafood, maple syrup, italian sausage. and if new york wins, jerry brown will send to new york brown rice cakes lightly salted. so makes me wonder who governor cuomo is actually rooting for. >> ayelesia.

>> this week the california games commission gave gray wolves the endangered species protech. they do not exist in california and have not for 90 years. there is one wolf that occasionally migrates back and forth between there and oregon and just had pups, so they are hoping to repopulate california with his puppies. >> and we have a big fat surprise. finally someone pushing back against the government campaign against fatty foods. so the good news is that meat, butter, cheese, all the things we love to eat are now back in a healthy diet for people who study science. >> are you planning to celebrate that fact this weekend? >> i really never stopped celebrating this news. now everyone else can enjoy the fatty meat and cheese, which is a staple of my diet. >> and mine, too. remember, if you have your own

hit or miss, send it to us. be sure to follow us on twitter at jer@foxnews.com. i'm paul gigot. hope to see you here next week. new claims of torture at the hands of the taliban by former prisoner of war bowe bergdahl. hello, everyone. welcome to america's news head quarters. i'm arthel neville. officials have no way of verifying bowe's story as he was part of the swap for five commanders from guantanamo bay. meanwhile, secretary john kerry has words of warning for the inmates. our national correspondent is live in