this was not john boehner tripping and falling. this looks like john boehner was pushed. who let john boehner took this stand on the payroll tax? john boehner took this defiant out on a limb stand with absolutely nobody in his own party backing him up. john boehner came out this weekend with this bold plan to defy the thing the senate had already approved including a huge majority of people in his own party. he came out with this plan to defy a deal his own party had worked out, to defy a deal he himself had support aid few days earlier, to defy a deal there was overwhelming puck suppo ini for, john boehner came out this past weekend and boldly declared that house republicans were standing against, against this payroll tax cut extension, and we are not doing it. i realize i said i was for it before and i realize it just got 89 votes in the senate and that senate republicans have signed on to it and that we want to be seen as the tax cut party and that even though we were sort of against this before we'd like to be for it now and tit's kind ofa mess, but no, john boehner s

this was not john boehner tripping and falling. this looks like john boehner was pushed. who let john boehner took this stand on the payroll tax? john boehner took this defiant out on a limb stand with absolutely nobody in his own party backing him up. john boehner came out this weekend with this bold plan to defy the thing the senate had already approved including a huge majority of people in his own party. he came out with this plan to defy a deal his own party had worked out, to defy a deal he himself had support aid few days earlier, to defy a deal there was overwhelming public support for, john boehner came out this past weekend and boldly declared that house republicans were standing against, against this payroll tax cut extension, and we are not doing it. i realize i said i was for it before and i realize it just got 89 votes in the senate and that senate republicans have signed on to it and that we want to be seen as the tax cut party and that even though we were sort of against this before we'd like to be for it now and it's kind of a mess, but no, john boehner s

house speaker john boehner. "roll call" newspaper reporting the payroll tax cut fiasco, "has raised significant questions about john boehner's ability to lead his conference for the long term." listen to this. "the number one question that will be debated over the eggnog at hill centric holiday parties is whether john boehner will be able to continue -- excuse me, will be able to save his speakership for more than a few more months in light of his horrible miscalculation on the payroll tax bill and then his desperate flip-flop to get in front of the troops that were marching in opposite direction from where he said they needed to go." wow. bob corker of tennessee is turning out to be the personification of the republican party's political and policy incoherence on this. here's senator corker on cnbc this morning calling on house republicans to just pass the darn payroll tax cut bill. and remember, bob corker is also a republican. >> are republicans getting killed right now in public opinion? there is no question

i think john boehner's record explains what's going on with john boehner. on day one, the first day republicans were in charge of the house, they flailed their way through a reading of the constitution, skipping some sections by accident, because the pages got stuck together in the three-ring binder they were reading from. leaving out some sections on purpose because they just didn't want to read them. also day one, two republicans who managed to miss the swearing in ceremony on the house floor tried instead to take their oath from a television that was broadcasting the ceremony. and then they tried to start voting on stuff as if they had actually been sworn in by the television. that had to be undone. the brand new republican majority also passed a bunch of new rules about transparency and accountability and citing the constitutional authority for every single bill they introduced and almost immediately they started violating those new rules. their own rules. the john boehner-led house republicans also promised to cut spending for every bill that adds to t

i think john boehner's record explains what's going on with john boehner. on day one, the first day republicans were in charge of the house, they flailed their way through a reading of the constitution, skipping some sections by accident, because the pages got stuck together in the three-ring binder they were reading from. leaving out some sections on purpose because they just didn't want to read them. also day one, two republicans who managed to miss the swearing in ceremony on the house floor tried instead to take their oath from a television that was broadcasting the ceremony. and then they tried to start voting on stuff as if they had actually been sworn in by the television. that had to be undone. the brand new republican majority also passed a bunch of new rules about transparency and accountability and citing the constitutional authority for every single bill they introduced and almost immediately they started violating those new rules. their own rules. the john boehner-led house republicans also promised to cut spending for every bill that adds to d

john boehner caves and accepts the senate's payroll tax cut extension. it's a win for the democrats and a win for 160 million americans. this is "the ed show." let's get to work. >> if you can get this fixed, why not? why not dot the right thing for the american people? even though it's not exactly what we want. >> republicans have caved, and middle-class americans get the victory. tonight, chuck schumer of new york on john boehner's failed strategy. representatives garamendi and ellison on what's next for the democrats. and e.j. dionne of the "washington post" on the lasting damage this cave causes for republicans. >> i don't think it's unusual. i do think prior presidents would have done the same thing. >> mitt romney gets busted taking another new position regarding the president's decision to kill osama bin laden. democratic strategist bob shrum is here with the latest. >> i think that the president should play much more of a lead role rather than going shopping for his dog. >> john mccain, eric cantor, sarah palin, and fox news are howling about oba

john boehner caves and accepts the senate's payroll tax cut extension. it's a win for the democrats and a win for 160 million americans. this is "the ed show." let's get to work. >> if you can get this fixed, why not? why not dot the right thing for the american people? even though it's not exactly what we want. >> republicans have caved, and middle-class americans get the victory. tonight, chuck schumer of new york on john boehner's failed strategy. representatives garamendi and ellison on what's next for the democrats. and e.j. dion of the "washington post" on the lasting damage this cave causes for republicans. >> i don't think it's unusual. i do think prior presidents would have done the same thing. >> mitt romney gets busted taking another new position regarding the president's decision to kill osama bin laden. democratic strategist bob schrum is here with the latest. >> i think that the president should play much more of a lead role rather than going shopping for his dog. >> john mccain, eric cantor, sarah palin, and fox news are howling about obam

john boehner and i agree on everything. but we're seeing fissures. >> i'm having a little trouble with audio. let's see if we can get that fixed in just a moment. >> john, the question i was asking is, do we know, is there, the reporting by politico, is there any evidence that we do see a split, whether it's between john boehner and eric cantor or whether it's between john boehner and eric cantor and the rest of the republican conference? sure looks like that from the outside? >> chris, your audio is just coming back to me, i have the gist although i did not hear every word. as john allen and kim wrote this morning, john boehner has had a very, very difficult time under the best of circumstances. his job is hurting. there's clearly disarray among republicans over how to handle the confrontation with president obama over the payroll tax and that disarray difference between republicans in the senate or republicans in the house and clearly differences of strategy within the house has really put them in a compromise position wh

the honorable john boehner. >> let me say thank you. i'm going to thank all of my colleagues and all of the year who have come out here on this evening to help celebrate the lighting of the christmas tree. it makes a worthy addition to this tradition of hours. the christmas tree forces as a symbol of everlasting life. that life is christ. whose birth promises joy and salvation. the angels broke the silence by singing glory to god in the highest and peace, goodwill toward men. we have -- we serve this story by serving one another. it is better to give than receive when so many of our fellow citizens are without jobs and are in need. christmas is not a distant historical event. it is a spirit that brings us closer to each other and closer to the peace of which the angels saying. on behalf of our family, i want to wish all of you a merry christmas. >> now we're going to do what we came here to do, light the tree. to help in the honors this is a 7-year-old from california. he is a cub scout. if something goes wrong, he will figure this out.

john boehner is not just at war with his own caucus in the house. but there's a power dynamic between the senate is gone. they passed their bill and you know, it's left to the house to swallow it, effectively. >> can we go back for one second to what mr. speaker boehner's staff said. they're legislating responsibly. this is a house of representatives that passed seven continuing resolutions this year. then they passed their own funding bill and they can't pass a middle class tax cut for two months? that's pathetic. so don't feel my leg and tell me it's raining outside. that's not legislative responsibility. >> he may have been born at night, but not last night. >> nobody wants to talk about the dynamics of the house and senate? >> i worked in the senate for seven years, we always disdained and looked at the house of lots of people in the house, running around like ants and look at us in the senate, we were arrogant jerks and most of us were. at the end of the day it was simple. i spent more of my time in the senate sitting on the aisle in the back b

the traditional style of house leadership is different under john boehner. in part by his own design. >> the question of whether he is going to be able to get them to follow him into the next debate is one that i am not sure we know the answer to yet. >> one of the lessons that john boehner might have learned, and i say this tongue-in-cheek, is to have a conference call where only he can speak. that is what he did on thursday. when he let everyone else speak, things got out of control. i think that is part of this dynamic. >> what about his speakership? is it in jeopardy? >> not in any real sense. there is no one who is rallying or plotting against him. john boehner has a very respectful, institutional relationship against harry reid. what good could come from any republican swapping out the speaker in the teeth of an election year when things in the economy are so unstable and the question of leadership and management in washington -- it does not reign supreme, but it is not insignificant. republicans need to work on their internal ability to work with them

the one way out of this right now is to for john boehner to take up the senate bill. it will solve the problem. it will bring everybody back to the table when they come back after christmas and insure that we can pass a year-long extension. but in the short-term, why can't they take this action to insure that middle class americans can go into the holidays, knowing that their taxes are not going to go up? >> stephanie cutter, deputy campaign manager for the obama re-election campaign, thanks for joining us. >> thank you. >>> eight u.s. soldiers have been charged in connection to the shooting death of a fellow soldier, army private danny chen. a spokesperson for chen's parents reacted on their behalf this morning. >> we are cautiously optimistic about today's news. the people responsible for his death must not only be charged, but they must be found guilty. of killing him. >> jim miklaszewski is nbc's chief pentagon correspondent. mik, chen died in early october. what's happened since then? >> the army launched an intensive investigation. and this really is a tragedy o

the honorable john boehner. [applause] >> let me say thank you. i'm going to thank all of my colleagues and all of the year who have come out here on this evening to help celebrate the lighting of the christmas tree. it makes a worthy addition to this tradition of hours. the christmas tree forces as a symbol of everlasting life. that life is christ. whose birth promises joy and salvation. the angels broke the silence by singing glory to god in the highest and peace, goodwill toward men. we have -- we serve this story by serving one another. it is better to give than receive when so many of our fellow citizens are without jobs and are in need. christmas is not a distant historical event. it is a spirit that brings us closer to each other and closer to the peace of which the angels saying. on behalf of our family, i want to wish all of you a merry christmas. [applause] >> now we're going to do what we came here to do, light the tree. to help in the honors this is a 7-year-old from california. he is a cub scout. if something goes wrong, he will figur

will john boehner ever have the guts to stand up to the tea party? text "a" for yes, text "b" for no to 622639. you can always go to our blog at ed.msnbc.com. results coming up later in the program. joining me now, r.t. rye balk, mayor of minneapolis, minnesota, and vice chair of the democratic national committee. r.t., good to have you with us tonight. >> good to be here. >> you bet. i find it interesting the tea party can't come up with a credible candidate but can raise mell on the house and stop everything. where does this all end in your opinion? >> they sent poor boehner out to dress this thing up. he talks about kicking the can down the road. the can that's getting kicked belongs to the american middle class. the can that should get kicked this november belongs to the pea party republicans who hold the entire country hostage. they have had months, months, to be able to demonstrate to america they actually do stand up for tax cuts for the middle class and have done everything humanly possible to find any way to stand in the way of a tax cut for

boehner wanted this thing to happen and he and john boehner i mean there's the two senior republicans yes they got to be talking to each other so boehner had to have said to mcconnell sure go ahead and do it wolf you know we'll be able to pass it which means that when it finally got passed and it was dropped in boners lap my guess is eric cantor he turned around he says what's that poking me in the back and turned around and it was eric cantor with the shift you know well you know look i mean i've long said you know john boehner has become kind of like the speaker in name only eric cantor really runs the house of representatives on these any real question about that we this is the first time that bayer has been has been pulled back on his leash you know by by mr cantor and we know from what senator schumer said on saturday that they did have a deal that better you know came to the table the mcconnell had requested kind of a pre-built conference with the house and senate republican leadership they had an agreement so the house because it really yes he's either he's lying and anybody do

house speaker john boehner ends days of gridlock over the payroll tax cut. >>> traffic cameras capture a horrific motorcycle collision in china. >>> and, what a view. a nasa orbiter delivers stunning new images. good morning, i'm lynn berry. those stories and more are straight ahead. this is "first look" on msnbc. we begin this morning with the house folds after days of refusing to back down, house speaker, john boehner gave in to demands from the white house and his party to approve a two-month extension of expiring tax cuts. lawmakers can go home for the year, if all goes as planned. brian mooar joins us from washington with details. good morning. >> reporter: well, lynn, there's one last bit of drama and guess work. if even one lawmaker objects, the vote is pushed into next week. house republicans surrenders in the fight against the payroll tax cut. >> we were here fighting for the right things. may not have been politically the smartest thing in the world. i tell you what, i think our members waged a good fight. >> reporter: facing pressure from 160 million americans who faced a ja

will john boehner ever have the guts to stand up to the tea party? text "a" for yes, text "b" for no to 622639. you can always go to our blog at ed.msnbc.com. results coming up later in the program. joining me now, r.t. rybak, mayor of minneapolis, minnesota, and vice chair of the democratic national committee. r.t., good to have you with us tonight. >> good to be here. >> you bet. i find it interesting the tea party can't come up with a credible candidate but can raise hell on the house and stop everything. where does this all end in your opinion? >> they sent poor boehner out to dress this thing up. he talks about kicking the can down the road. the can that's getting kicked belongs to the american middle class. the can that should get kicked this november belongs to the tea party republicans who hold the entire country hostage. they have had months, months, to be able to demonstrate to america they actually do stand up for tax cuts for the middle class and have done everything humanly possible to find any way to stand in the way of a tax cut for th

boehner because eric cap thor is busy driving the knife into john boehner's back. eric captor has sort of taken himself to be the representative of the rowdy tea party caucus and the thorn in bainers a side every time he has a grand bar gape. your point about gingrich v romney, we talked about this on the show, this is part of the larger cleave in the republican party, a group of very archconservative, deficit above all else, incredibly right-wing republicans against the establishment and that's exactly what you see in the capped dash so i was newt gingrich and mitt romney and the split in their supporters. now, richard, if we were to ask boehner and someone did whether or not he caved, here's what he said. >> sometimes it's politically difficult do the right thing. may not have about politically the smartest thing in the world but i'm going to tell you what, i think our members waged through a good fight, we were able to come to an agreement, able to fix what -- what came out of the senate. >> am i -- am i crazy or is this position i tried do the best i could but

what is john boehner doing? well, he's treating this like a damn game. >> our members do not want to just punt and do a two-month short-term fix where we have to come back and do this again. >> did he say punt? okay. let's play football, speaker boehner. what the hell? 89. that's the key number. this is how many senators have voted for the two-month extension. all democrats. 50. i guess you could say 39 turncoats. decided to go with that socialist communist marcus pinkco in the white house and say, let's go another two months. 39 republicans. they want you to punt. that's what you want you to do, mr. boehner. they want you to punt. when you punt in football, you get the ball back. you're going to have your chance, mr. boehner, after the new year in the next 60 days to make your case to the american people that these 39 people are wrong on your side. and you've got a better plan. but instead, you are stuck in this tea party philosophy. they've got you in the huddle in this game. if you want to play a game. and th

boehner had he not got some assurance from john boehner that he would have been okay on this. and all the reports from the conference call that occurred last week, when john boehner brought this plan to the house republican conference and said, look, we got the keystone pipeline, this is a good deal for us, and there is insurrection against him, i don't think john boehner really blames mitch mcconnell for everything. they have been unified all year. they've had a very strong sort of way of negotiating. i mean, john boehner himself said we got 90% of what we wanted in debt limit negotiations. but mitch mcconnell got that vote, he got that vote through in a bipartisan way, and essentially he is not -- he's hung boehner out to dry in the sense that he's not been on tv, he's not been up there saying, look, the house gop -- >> to answer my question whether mcconnell feels burned by boehner as a result of all of this. >> reporter: i think to some degree. the senate gop is in a very precarious situation here. because they are now on the record as having supported something that the h

>> well, the pressure really appears to be on speaker john boehner. jeff, it's pressure frankly that we've seen before. a lot of us on capitol hill and a lot of viewers have seen different versions of this movie before. think back to the debt limit. think to the threat of a government shutdown in march. when john boehner, the speaker, was either close to a deal with democrats or appeared to have one and then only had ex-streak difficulty selling to conservatives, in some cases tea party members but not in all cases. that is largely what's gone on here. this time the volume is higher, the anger is higher and people are dug in much deeper. the senate and republican leader mitch mcconnell cut a deal with harry reid last week. it was on that two-month extension that you described. they got an overwhelming bipartisan vote. 89 votes. it wasn't just senator mcconnell who voted for it. marco rubio from florida voted for it as well. it was when john boehner the speaker took it back to house republicans to present them with the deal according to some report to

boehner wanted this thing to happen and he and john boehner i mean they're the two senior republicans yes they got to be talking to each other so boehner had to have said to mcconnell sure go ahead and do it will you know we'll be able to pass it which means that when it finally got passed and it was dropped and boners lap my guess is eric cantor he turned around he says what's that poking me in the back and turned around and it was eric cantor with the shift you know well you know look i mean i've long said you know john boehner has become kind of like the speaker in name only eric cantor really runs the house of representatives on these any real question about that we this is the first time that bayer has been has been pulled back on his leash you know by by mr cantor and we know from what senator schumer said on saturday that they did have a deal that better you know came to the table the mcconnell had requested kind of a pre-built conference with the house and senate republican leadership they had an agreement so the house because it really yes he's either he's lying and anybody d

house republicans or maybe just john boehner taking a big hit? >> well, the big hit for john boehner, because he's the leader of the house republicans and he himself acknowledges this was not their finest political hour. big winner of course is the 160 million americans who are going to at least for the next two months and presumably for the rest of next year, are going to continue to have this payroll tax cut in effect. it is going to save the average family at least $1,000 for the year, maybe $1,500 a year if they make $75,000 a year. the other big winners are all of those unemployed individuals who will continue to get their benefit from nearly 3 million people, continue to get their benefits as of january 1st. a lot of decisions, doctors out there who help medicare patients, they were going to have to take about a 25% pay cut if this deal would not have been struck. they'll continue to get their current fees which is good for medicare recipients because you don't want doctors moving out of this entire medicare system. so the big winner is the