movie. >> steve: the brad pitt of reporters, geraldo rivera, is going to be joining us tomorrow, along with nick lechay. we'll see you back here tomorrow. bill: all right. here we go. there are breaking developments on the future of your health care. they're calling bipartisan option to save medicare. republican paul ryan, democrat ron wyden, unveiling this plan only moments ago. there is the hug that went alongwith it. is entitlement roo for -- reform back on the table? good morning, i'm bill hemmer. how are you doing? martha: here we go again. we've been talking about entitlement reform and whether anybody would actually get together to try to do something and now there is an indication they will. they say this will secure medicare for millions of americans. bill: the question is how will it work. stuart varney fox business

network on how will it work. how will it work, stuart? >> seniors will get a fixed dollar amount they can spend on any private insurance plan they chose including medicare. in other words medicare would remain intact as is right now but will be one of a series of competing private health insurance plans. if you want better than that, seniors would have to pay a little more. this is a way of getting competition into the system to try to control costs which are currently out of control. bill: it also seems to be a way to get away from a government option? and it also seems for a way for republicans to put an option on the table that could compete with obamacare. now any reform plan though creates serious opposition, does it not? >> oh, yes. this thing will be demagogued if not demagogued to death. remember the first ryan plan to deal with medicare. i wonder if you can run the commercial aired by activists right after the first ryan plan came out.

you're going to see literally a man who resembles paul ryan throwing granny off a cliff. that, they said, would be the result of the first ryan plan, literally granny off a cliff. that is demagoguery. you can expect exactly the same thing to happen again because anytime you touch any entitlement program there is enormous and emotional opposition to it. bill: despite that music as the under bed there. paul ryan really went out on a limb with his position. is he changing his position somewhat now? >> the first ryan plan was out and out privatization. this new plan is a softening of that to some degree in that medicare remains intact. it remains an option. just one of several other options and must now compete with, would compete with private health care insurance. remember, anybody 55 and over would not be affect at

all by this plan. bill: that is one thing he tried to hammer home since the very beginning. thank you, stuart varney. see you at nine 20 on fox business. martha: this is a big news. this is a very interesting development at all this. look closer at the medicare program, shall we. in 201047 1/2 million people were covered by medicare. medicare cost 15% of the federal budget. doctors were facing a 27% cut in fees for treating medicare patients if the congress doesn't act by january 1st. that is the doc fix. bill: just now into "america's newsroom", there are stunning new poll numbers from scott rasmussen on the republican race specifically in iowa. looks like yet again this could be a game changer. anything you have been told or thought up to this point think again. scott's here to tell us who is leading the republican pack.

only about 19 days away from the iowa caucus and a few hours away from that debate. martha: because they are very surprising is all i can tell you right now. ahead of tonight's debate in iowa, several of the republic can presidential hopefuls took part in a pro-life forum hosted by our own mike huckabee. look at a little bit what happened last night. watch. >> under my administration, planned parenthood will be 100% fully defunded. $300 million gone. [applause] >> one of the very first executive orders will reinstate ronald reagan's mexico city policy of no u.s. money going to pay for abortion anywhere in the world. [applause] >> every life is precious. every life is a precious gift from god. >> we can not be a strong country economically or anything else, we can not have limited government,

unless we have moral and decent people living out moral and decent lives, respecting life, and embracing and supporting the american family. martha: let me tell you something. based on the poll numbers we're seeing, tonight's debate is must-see television, folks. go to the fox news channel tonight. the gop debate in sioux city, iowa. it starts at 9:00 eastern. i will have my popcorn ready for this one. i have absolutely cleared the schedule to watch this from fox news election headquarters. foxnews.com/debate also get in on the action. bill: brand new job numbers. the labor department reporting 40 minutes ago, the unemployment benefits claims fell to 366,000. economists had expected the number to go higher. jobless claims need to be below 375,000, which it is at this moment on a steady basis week after week, month

after month for the economy to be considered healthy but that appears to be a pretty good number so far. martha: that is indeed a good number today. while all of this is going on there is a little issue of funding the government which ones again we're up against. if congress does not reach an agreement by midnight tomorrow we'll face a partial government shutdown. do you feel like this is like that movie, groundhog day? john boehner says it is up to the senate democratic majority leader to get a deal done on this. here is what he said. watch. >> we intend to act to make sure we don't allow there to be a shutdown of government. harry reid hasn't done anything. the onus is on him. we ought to wok together to bring this thing to a proper conclusion. martha: that is what eric cantor had to say about this. peter doocy joins is from washington. peter, when will they start debating this bill? >> reporter: not until tomorrow, martha, friday the same day the government runs

out of money at midnight. the republican controlled house is waiting tomorrow to force the democratic controlled senate to pass their version of the bills to fund the government by end of the september giving them very little time to do anything else. speaker boehner says democrats and republicans in the house and senate have agreed to a bipartisan bill and now the ball is in senate majority leader harry reid's court. >> i'm tired of hearing what the senate can't do. i think it is time for us to wait and see what the senate can do. so i'm hopeful that the president and the senator reid will allow the appropriators to sign the conference report and allow that bill to come to a vote. >> reporter: as of right now there is no temporary bill. there is no continuing resolution, martha. this is it. martha: so the onus is on the democrats in the senate according to john boehner. are they okay with that as it stands? >> reporter: not really. they want more time to hash out the extensions of the payroll tax holiday and unemployment insurance

benefits. the white house actually had their communications director dan pfeiffer come out late last night and say, quote, congress should pass a short-term continuing resolution as it has seven times already so all parties have appropriate time to consider and complete all the budget and economic issues necessary to finish our responsibilities for the year. democrats are done pushing for the controversial surtax on millionaires. boehner's brinkmanship will keep their backs against the wall. less than 40 hours until the government could shut down. martha: that incredible statement of itself. seven crs as we try to move towards some kind of budget out of congress which is their number one task when sent there to prepare a budget. peter, you will be busy watching all of that. bill: we wonder what it will take to get the deal done to avoid the possible government shut down. john cornyn will wonder whether or not the democrats are giving on the

millionaire's tax and keystone pipeline. martha: so there is new reaction as the united states formally ends the war in iraq. defense secretary leon panetta in baghdad telling soldiers that the war was worth the american sacrifice. >> you did not know whether you would return to your loved ones. you will leave with great pride, lasting pride, secure in knowinging that your sacrifice has helped the iraqi people begin a new chapter in history. free from tyranny and full of hope for prosperity and peace. martha: controversy over this exit and the way that it was handled. i'm going to be joined in a little while by arizona senator john mccain who is blasting president obama over his iraq war policy and what the president he claims did not do to make sure that

those sacrifices were not in vain. he was a strong supporter of the 2007 troop surge. he said that led to any successes we had in iraq which he says the military certainly has but he is concerned about what the future may hold for that country. he will join us in a few minutes to talk about that. bill: just on hold of nine years of sacrifice to the small percentage of the u.s. population connected to that part of the u.s. military thank you, thank you for what you have done. our fighting force is better than anything this planet has ever seen. martha: no matter what the outcome for iraq in the end everybody is thankful these soldiers and marines are coming home to their families this christmas but what needs to be discussed future of iraq and whale we'll talk about that with senator mccain in few minutes. >>. there are brand new polling numbers specific to iowa. scott rasmussen has that information. this could be a game changer yet again. stay tuned for that. he is on set today. martha: mitt romney is on

the attack. his shift in strategy to deal with the gingrich surge. we saw a little bit of that yesterday with mitt romney. bill: can you say saney? this spectacular crash calling a new calls for a ban on any mobile use while you're driving. is this about safety or another intrusion by the nanny state? terrific panel on this. we'll debate it and you decide. >> every year they come out with new devices that can do more for you but all of those distractions don't have a place when you're behind the wheel. ♪ feel the power my young friend. mmm! [ male announcer ] for unsurpassed fru and veggie nutrition... v8 v-fusion. could've had a v8.

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gingrich who spent his life in washington i spent my life helping create jobs. >> are we going to hear more of that later tonight? christopher hahn, former aide to senator charles schumer. fox news contributor. how are you doing. >> i'm doing well? bill:. angela mcglowan good morning. we had to put you on separate cameras to be sure you stay away from each other. angela, what is romney's strategy? does he go have gingrich tonight or does he lay back a bit. what would you do. >> if i were in his shoes i would latest ad with newt gingrich tying him with nancy pelosi. with friends like newt who do we need on the left? the bottom line is this, bill, what he needs to do is talk about the issues, talk about solutions. talk about the fact that he lives in capitalism. he is former entrepreneur. that he helped create jobs. that is what the american people. bill: you're saying don't make it personal. talk about your policies? >> exactly. bill: chris, what do you think about that? is that a saney idea or is

that okay? >> i think that would be good except for the one factor that the anchors who will be hosting this debate are going to ask him about the recent attacks and he can't back down from them period. i think has been a problem for other candidates. we saw it take people out when they backed down from attacks. he has been very strong the last couple of days against newt. i think he needs to keep it up tonight. now he can't be mean about it but he has to be tough about it. this is all about newt lately and newt mitt has to make it about newt in a negative way. >> as a strategist, anybody can ask any type of question but how you answer that question. >> that's right. >> we can talk about the attack but he should put more emphasis on solutions, results and policy. >> i think it always comes back to that. but i think that, you know, we're in a very critical juncture in iowa. he can stop newt here if he's strong against him. maybe not win iowa but he could definitely stop this surge newt has been having.

bill: on that point, wait 30 minutes forras muse send to come on and wait until you see what he has to share with us. chris, you make an interesting point about going after gingrich but doing it in the romney way. romney seems to attack with a smile on his face. >> yeah. bill: you notice that? >> i do. i think one of the things i like about him. listen, i have said all along there are really only two people on the stage who could challenge the president next year, romney and huntsman. i don't think huntsman is on the stage tonight. those two people will appeal across the partisan divide and attract independents especially with romney they can assign anything he want to he takes both sides of every issue. >> is this the debate against president teleprompter and newt gingrich, newt gingrich would win every time. obama needs the teleprompter. newt gingrich is brill amount man, if i were you democrats i would --. bill: how good is your prompter. >> let me refute my good friend angela on one point. newt goes into debate with obama with extremely high expectations. we know what happens when

you have high expectations just ask rick perry. you make one flub and you're done. newt gingrich will make those flubs. he has a history making the flubs. >> he has a history creating policy that created a better america. what does obama have? that's what the american people are after. >> right. >> newt gingrich has a track record, part not so great but when you talk about the contract with america and president clinton that was some of our most prosperous times. that's what i would stick with. bill: three quick points. gingrich has refrained or restrained himself for the most part, not entirely going after romney or anybody else. hunt man will be on the stage tonight. what romney's team tell you they gamed out this system all the way to california on june 5th and that's the lesson they learned from 08 between obama and hillary clinton. angela, thank you. chris, thank you. i know where you guys will be tonight. >> thanks for having us. bill: see you real soon. okay, martha. martha: after nearly nine years, the iraq war is over and everybody is coming

home. but senator john mccain says president obama dropped the ball in the end and he will explain that. having run against president obama back in '08 who does he think can beat the president now? bill: looking forward to that. also a standoff on the hill over a payroll tax cut deal that could affect every american. will it pass? are we looking at another government shut down? what does that mean for you? >> our proposal, a surtax on the wealthiest americans, not on the first million dollars in income each year but on their second million dollars in income. a surtax.

bill: got some breaking news on the economy just crossing right now. u.s. factory output declines for the first time in seven months. they blame it on auto

production. also hearing word of electronic production for your home devices, business equipment and apparel also falling. first time in seven months, an indication that the global economy might be hitting another rough patch especially after you watch what is going on in europe. just crossing right now. 22 minutes after the hour. martha: there is new reaction as the stars and stripes are lowered over the american military headquarters in baghdad. this ceremony formally ending the war in iraq. now some in washington are pointing out that president obama tried to block the strategy, widely credited with bringing about today's conclusion and we want to talk about where we go from here in iraq. here is arizona republican senator john mccain, ranking member on the armed services committee. senator mccain, good morning. good to see you as always. >> good morning, martha. martha: the president said yesterday at fort bragg he believed all of the soldiers and marines who fought in iraq and coming home can leave with their heads held

high. the question is, as all of this plays out, can the administration hold their heads high in terms of our relationship with iraq? >> well, i don't think so. i think several things. i think it is well to point out that the president has never acknowledged that the surge succeeded. he opposed it. he said it would fail even when it was succeeding. he made a campaign promise in 2008 and perhaps one of the reasons why he won the nomination was a pledge to remove all troops from iraq. and that political goal has been achieved. unfortunately in the words of general keane, one of the architects of the surge, he said we won the war and now we are risking losing the peace because we always felt we need ad residual force to leave behind. as condoleezza rice has stated that we always envisioned that. despite what the administration's spin is that the bush administration made an agreement to get all troops out. we always envisioned leaving

a residual force. there are big problems in iraq. we haven't goat time to go through all of them. a residual force of 20,000 would have ensured we continued the progress that needs to be made. and finally we're proud of the young men and women who have served but now we're putting at risk all of that loss of blood and treasure because i believe for political reasons. martha: jennifer driven fin was on the -- griffin was on the ground this morning and she was very surprised there were only a handful of iraqis at the ceremony. alluding to the fact that the relationship was really not nurtured between our administration and the iraqi administration and that would be the key to make sure that iraq felt stable and secure going forward and they weren't vulnerable to encroachment by iran, right? >> you're exactly right. there is already increasing influence of the iranians.

there are tensions between the kurdish area and the other parts of iraq. they have no air control, control of their airspace. they need the technical, technological skills that we could have provided for counterinsurgency. and of course there maliki has been less than inclusive in his government and has taken some steps that are very disturbing as far as the sunnies are concerned. so our forces remaining there could have done a lot of things and a lot of things right. and unfortunately we are now, as i said, placing all of this at risk and i would remind you that senator, i mean then senator, now vice president biden wanted to break up the country into three different countrys. martha: that's right. >> unfortunately he may see that aspiration realized. >> that is exactly true. two very quick things if i could. >> sure. martha: vladmir putin and you have a tweet relationship going on apparently. let's put up what he said, what you said rather.

the arab spring is coming to a neighborhood near you tweeted to vladmir putin. he didn't like that too much. he sent back this message to you. he has the blood of peaceful civilians on his hand and he can't live without the kind of disgusting repulsive scenes like killing of qaddafi. what is your response to that, senator? >> i think obviously mr. putin, vlad, as i love to call him is a little bit stung. seriously it is very clear that these uprisings and demonstrations in russia have really unsettled him and the oligarchy that controls russia. cases like khodorkovsky, this is the what is running russia. that is clear why he reacted in such a strange and vociferious fashion. martha: who would imagine we could have these discussions via tweet with vladmir putin but boy, you definitely hit a sensitive spot, there is

no doubt about that. one last question for you, big debate. fox news debate in iowa tonight. these polls are shifting by the second. we're about to show people some pretty new interesting numbers in a moment here. you ran against president obama last time around. who do you think can beat him this time? >> i think any one of them can but i also want to say, martha, in all due respect to fox, enough with debates. they have deteriorated who will make a mistake. there is lot more to campaigning than just debates. you have to do town hall meetings. you have to be on the ground. you have to make speeches. you have to do a lot of things. a debate takes three days of a candidates time. the day before, the day of, and day after. in my view enough debates. martha: you're not picking a winner at this point sounds like? >> no. martha: we'll try you next time. senator mccain, always good to talk to you, sir. thank you so much. we'll see you soon. >> thank you. bill: you tried. martha: i tried. bill: good effort. martha: elannounce eventually, right. bill: yes he will.

we have he have are ven more months to get him back on. martha: exactly. bill: a new push to ban your cell phone device while you drive in a hope to avoid crashes like this. but is the government going too far? a fair and balanced debate coming up. martha: a showdown on the hill on a bill that could shut the government down before christmas. >> are we filing a bill tonight, mr. speaker? >> nice to see you all. >> what about a bill, mr. speaker, are we going to file a bill tonight. >> it is cold outside. >> what is the state of play? what's next? >> nice to see you too. >> nice to see you too. merry christmas. >> are we going to get home for christmas? >> i am. ore, more... ♪ get more with honey bunches of oats 4 nutritious grains come together for more taste, more healthy satisfaction.

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bill: all right. welcome back, at 9:33 here in new york. watching washington. the clock is ticking down at the hill to a possible government shutdown. there are big issues in this bill and senator john cornyn a republican on the senate budget committee. back with me today on "america's newsroom." how are you doing, senator? good morning to you. >> i'm doing well, bill. bill: i don't see a government shutdown happening. i could be entirely wrong about that. it is the third time this year that threat has been out there. are democrats conceding on two critical issues already, the millionaires tax and the keystone pipeline 12. >> well i think on the

so-called millionaire's tax they finally woke up to the reality on a bipartisan basis people were concerned about raising taxes during this fragile economic recovery and what it would mean on the creation of jobs. on the keystone pipeline, as you know this issue sort of divides the president's base. organizes labor recognizes that 20,000 jobs could be created by this pipeline. it would make us less dependent on the middle east and just makes a lot of sense. so this will all get done here in the next few days about a lot of drama. bill: reading from "the l.a. times." a signal the administration may be loosening its position relative to the keystone pipeline? is that true or do you have knowledge of that? >> i have no knowledge of it specifically but i hope that's right. and i hope common sense would prevail here. this is something that is important for our ability to provide low-cost energy to our businesses and families. this is also important in

terms of jobs here in america. this pipeline, which starts in canada, ends up in port arthur, texas, in houston where it is made into gasoline, jet fuel and the like. so this is important. it creates a lot of jobs. all along the way. this is a shovel-ready job, shovel-ready project that should be approved forthwith. bill: what do you see as the endgame, senator. you have a deadline of friday afternoon or friday evening. are you going to go past that? >> i don't think so. i think what happens is the continuing resolution expires, you're right on friday which means we have to pass an appropriation bill, omnibus appropriation bill which has bipartisan support. i saw congressman moran over in the house from virginia saying, you know, we have republicans and democrats agreeing to this bill but now we're being told by harry reid and the president don't cooperate with republicans to get it done but i think after a little bit of drama this thing will

break through here and hopefully we'll find a way out. bill: everybody can go home and we've gotten used to the drama and we heard speaker boehner say a moment ago he plans on being home for christmas. >> well good. bill: thank you for your time, senator. >> okay, bill. martha: he wants to go home for christmas too. bill: i can't blame him. martha: this is becoming a really hot topic right now. there is new fallout from the feds recommending that all states ban the use of mobile devices completely behind, see that? a lot of people doing that. critics say the national transportation safety board is going too far and infringing on driver rights. here is what the ntsb chair told bill yesterday. >> looking down to type a text or dial a phone number, you may be looking down for five seconds or the length of a football field. so you're really traveling blind. it is also having those conversations and that cognitive distraction where your brain is not engaged. martha: true.

arthur aidala a former prosecutor. that is true as well. joey jackson a criminal defense attorney. good to have you here. >> good morning, martha. martha: you know what? this is a very hot topic we have become so dependent. i have been guilty of this. i have gotten a couple tickets driving with my cell phone honestly. i get it. i feel we all need to do it. but is it a good idea to make it a lot tougher for us, arthur? >> i regret fully say it is. i get a lot of work done in the car sitting in traffic. martha: me too. >> martha, i do not text and drive. i realize how bad that is. but even the dialing of the numbers, number one is a very heavy distraction. and number two what the guest from yesterday said, when you're involved in a heavy conversation, if i'm talking to a prosecutor or a client and i'm arguing about something, there is no doubt about it that my mind is not as focused as it should be on driving, and your crack

staff this morning when they called about this topic, told me about it. i opened "the new york times", the cover of "the new york times" today, martha, the cover, as doctors use more devices potential for distraction grows. they're saying how doctors in hospitals are texting in the middle of operations. martha: thank you for teasing our story coming up next hour, arthur. we're actually doing that story coming up. i would maintain, joey, this has changed our whole lives. people are distracted all across america. sometimes when i'm walking down the street in new york i look how many people are on a device as they're walking. >> pretty scary. martha: about six out of 10. it is unbelievable and it is dangerous. thousands of people are losing their lives on the road. >> it is true. let's be clear. you're always focus and you're always engaged. here's the point. certain things need to be eliminated. texting i understand. however you're talking about a complete wholesale ban of a phone from a car? our mind is always in cognitive thought, as we listen to the radio traveling we're thinking. if we're talking to a

passenger, martha, we're thinking. our minds are always engaged if the argument is we'll be distract cognitively, are you kidding me? that is persistent distraction. i want government to leave me alone. when will they accept the fact people exercise personal responsibility? martha: some police, members. state troopers recently told me this is bigger problem than drunk driving. should you have a right to go out and have a few drinks and drive, joey. >> that is different. martha: why is it different? >> what they're saying if you're talking about texing that is true. we have technology, bluetooth technology where i totally see the road. drive safely and securely, at the same time i can carry on a conversation. there is nothing at all wrong with that. i think most of us, martha, arthur, we want to stay alive. we respect the fact we have family, the children, they want to see us. we'll exercise that responsibility to drive safely. when is --. martha: texting and pulling out after parking lot and slams into you and your family when you're not

texting. >> it is not the texting. i agree with. you're telling me take out all bluetooth and all phone and everything. that is nonsense. martha: really quick, art sure. >> you're talk arguing about personal responsibility. holds true wearing your seatbelt. never hurt someone wearing a seatbelt but motorcycle riders not wearing a helmet they never hurt anyone but if you're distracted. >> ban radios in cars. martha: as bad as drunk driving. people are swerving down the road now. not because they're drinking but because they're on their phone. i got to go. joey, arthur, love you. see you next time. bill: you don't do it anymore. martha: no, i don't. bill: here is where the issue is today. this map will show you where the bans are in place. most states have some form of a texting ban but own a few ban all forms of handheld use. those states primarily along the west coast. martha: text something much worse than talking on the phone. i know that's true but i don't know how you draw the line if you try to enforce this rule.

bill: there will be more and more devices are that voice activated. martha: you told me i can watch tv in my car. bill: you can in if the sit in the back seat. martha: i don't want to. more on that later. we're talking about this and i am not kidding. these are stunning poll numbers we're about to show that you scott rasmussen just came out this morning on the republican race. up next he is exclusive with his look at iowa. it is not what you think, folks. that's coming up. bill: changing again, isn't it? martha: yeah. bill: new developments involving the alleged hazing death of this florida coed. could the incident have been prevented and how? martha: a conservative re-publication agrees with these protesters saying newt gingrich getting the nomination would be a bad thing. top republican consultant ed rollins talks about this. [shouting] are you receiving a payout from a legal settlement

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brand new "rasmussen poll"ing numbers. take a look at this will you. this is specifically to eye because now -- iowa now. mitt romney leading the field among likely caucus-goers. followed by newt gingrich and ron paul. 23, 20, and 18. scott rasmussen is president of rasmussen reports. good morning to you. what is going on in this changing field? >> this is amazing. this is our fifth monthly poll in iowa and the fifth frontrunner. we had michele bachmann, rick perry, herman cain and newt gingrich and mitt romney. amidst all the volatility there are signs of continuity. mitt romney in every single poll has been between 17 and 23%. he is clearly a significant player. ron paul doing a bit better now but he has been in double digits every time. the third player at the top has been changing. right now we see newt gingrich is following the path of earlier

front-runners. had his time at the top. bill: why is that scott? because your poll and so many others had him, he was firing off like a rocket over the past three weeks? >> he was. by the way, rick perry came in as the frontrunner. so did herman cain. i think in newt gingrich's case he was the top because like the others he was not mitt romney but then there has been a pretty blistering campaign against him. some ads by ron all. paul. challenges by people who worked with him in the house. a reminder of gingrich's past they don't like. caused people to pause and rethink this. bill: another poll you did. you asked, republicans, right of likely caucus-goers in iowa, phone survey is that what it is? >> yes. bill: you asked this question. who would be strongest against president obama. you find romney at 30% and gingrich behind him at 29 and ron paul in third. what does this tell you? >> well this is pretty significant because a week

or so ago we polled nationally among republican primary voters and overwhelmingly they said newt gingrich was the strongest. 49% said gingrich. only 24% said romney. you would have expected similar results in iowa but right now it is a toss-up even with a conservative electorate. this gets to the core reason again why people are rethinking newt gingrich. republicans are looking for someone first who can beat barack obama. second, bring about the kind of change they want after that person. bill: we have a team on the ground in iowa. a big debate later tonight and what they keep telling us iowans say they can change their minds. this is what you found. you asked that question also. are you certain you would vote for that candidate? 40% say yes. 52% say they might change their minds with list than three weeks to go for the caucus. >> and look, you talk about that and you talk about this debate coming up. 25% of caucus-goers tell us that the debates are very

important in determining how they will vote. another 57% say they're somewhat important. so this debate tonight, the last one before the iowa caucuses will give iowa caucus-goers time to talk it over with their friends and family while they're enjoying the holidays. then all of this volatility will come to an end on january 3rd. bill: karl rove has an excellent piece out today in the "wall street journal.". and what he talks about is how this election cycle is unlike anything he has ever seen. it sound a whole lot like 2008 when everybody said repeatedly, we've never seen anything like this. we have yet to see anything like this before. the last line in his piece goes like this, for good or ill, this year's record breaking massive debates has made the contest the most unpredictable, rapidly shifting and down right inexplicable primary race i ever witnessed and voting hasn't even begun. that goes to your point. tonight's debate is critical

for people in iowa? >> it sure is and the debates throughout shaped this much more than the retail politicking we've seen in earlier elections. bill: scott, thank you. >> thank you. bill: scott rasmussen, shaking up the world again. we'll see whether or not you're right on first week of january. make sure you tune in later tonight, fox news channel, the only place you can see this. sioux city, iowa, 9:00 eastern, 6:00 on the west coast. while you're on tv watching us, later tonight you can be online watching foxnews.com/debate and have interactive session with all our analysts, et cetera. we have a countdown clock. martha: it is 11 hours and 10 minutes and 32 seconds away, folks. get christmas shopping done in the meantime and settle down for the big debate tonight. that's what i'm going to do. how about this question? we talked a lot about this week, what if the drone iran has is a fake?

could it be? we'll talk to a former cia officer on that. bill: a confounding story. authorities looking into the death of a florida a&m drum major opening a new investigation now. why would that be? >> when you're doing an investigation they don't know how it is going to end. certain things will come up. when other things come up we will look into them it's good. honey, i love you... oh my gosh, oh my gosh.. look at these big pieces of potato. ♪ what's that? big piece of potato. [ male announcer ] progresso. you gotta taste this soup. and i swear by it. [ male announcer ] osteo bi-flex with 5-loxin advanced™. shows improvement in joint comfort within 7 days. osteo bi-flex. the #1 doctor and pharmacist recommended brand.

bill: here we go. you heard senator john cornyn about 20 minutes ago here in "america's newsroom" that he believes they will get a deal between senate leaders and house leaders and apparently that is underway. trish turner our fox pricer reporting leaders in the senate, both mitch mcconnell for republicans, harry reid for democrats expressing optimism this deal will get done. it is not clear according to trish turner that the keystone pipeline will be

included in the end. remember, republicans especially on the house side, they demanded this. we'll see whether or not that plays out. but expect a deal if not today, by tomorrow, the imposed deadline. martha: well there's some new allegations of possible fraud in the investigation of the death of a florida a&m university band member. the band's leader was killed during an alleged hazing ritual last month. this was an awful, tragic story. now the florida law enforcement says that they have found evidence of school misconduct in this case. so what is that all about? steve harrigan is live on the story in miami for us. how far-reach something the fallout from all of this, steve? >> reporter: martha, this story just continues to get bigger. the latest fallout at least 21 high schools in georgia in dekalb county, at least for now suspended their marching band. because two of the victims of hazing at florida a&m were from dekalb county high schools. officials there want to make sure there is no

inappropriate physical activity going on. >> we've all seen the reports of what's happened in band at the college level. and that, and that's troubling to us. we want, it is all alleged. we don't know what's happened there. we don't know if anything inappropriate has happened here but we need to insure that our students are safe and that band is a safe and productive environment. >> reporter: at florida a&m there have already been three arrests made in one hazing incident. both of the two victim families already filed lawsuits against the university, martha. martha: what do we know what went on to cause these injuries? >> reporter: some really graphic details from bria hunter who was a freshman clarinet player in that famous marching bands. she says she was lined up with dozen other pledges beaten and punched by men in upper thigh area and beaten a metal ruler. she couldn't walk across campus. was taken to the hospital in an ambulance. they found a cracked femur.

her thighbone was broken and blood clots. even worse for robert champion. he was killed, found dead on the bus after a game, martha. martha: unbelievable what is going on. like the worst what you heard in fraternity stories in the past. steve, thank you very much. steve harrigan with the latest on that. really disturbing story. how sad for these kids to be in that situation. bill: hope we get a solution to this. $1.2 billion missing from a big investment firm and no one seems to know how. what a new hearing on the hill could tell us today. stay tuned on that. martha: big news. it has been one year since border patrol agent brian terry was killed on duty. now the head of the fbi, robert mueller denies his agency was involved in any cover-up of this. >> i adamantly rejecting the suggestion that the fbi would in any way cover up the, what happened in a tragic killing of brian terry. martha: we're going to have

more on that. new calls for attorney general eric holder in all of this to step down. we'll be right back. bill and i with more america as you newsroom coming back in a second. >> announcer: if you think identity theft is scary, just wait till you try to fix it. >> 58 different individuals are

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martha: we are just getting warmed up, folks, preparing for tonight's battle of wits in what could be the most crucial debate of the election season. it is looking like a two or three or maybe four-person horse race right now. it's getting very interesting in the fight for the gop presidential nomination. mitt romney, newt gingrich, they're going to be squaring off in iowa, one of the final contests before the all-important iowa caucuses. brand new hour of "america's newsroom," i am martha maccallum. thank you for being with us, today, and you, mr. bill hemmer. bill: good morning, everybody. scott rasmussen just broke the news to us, he sees a lead change yet again in iowa, so hold on.

right now newt gingrich leading the pack by a healthy margin according to this poll. now, mitt romney and ron paul nearly tied for second, that's the latest when you average all the polling together at real clear politics. we'll see whether or not the average is right or whether rasmussen is right in the end. martha: we just showed you rasmussen now has romney ahead in iowa which is fascinating. steve brown joins me now from sioux city, iowa. newt gingrich says he's committed that his campaign is not going to go negative, steve. a lot of negativity has come his way, though, in the last few days, so what do we expect tonight? >> reporter: well, we expect the candidates to be, perhaps, even more aggressive than they were on saturday. you mentioned this is the last opportunity before the straw poll or, excuse me, before the caucuses begin. so if you're going to get your jabs in, tonight would seemingly be the night. gingrich out with a new ad today really enforcing that he's going to go positive with a positive television ad airing here in iowa starting today.

but it look like the slings and arrows are still heading his way. rick santorum last night at an event in des moines seemingly took aim -- not by name -- but seemingly took aim at gingrich when he recently wrote he believes life begins at conception. have a listen. >> this is one of the reasons i have some problems with some of the folks, you know, running for office these days when they say i believe life begins at consumption. it's -- conception. it's like i say i believe the sunrises. [laughter] why would you say you believe something that's a fact? [laughter] [applause] [cheers and applause] >> reporter: and you see the response that santorum got there, and that was a pro-life audience. with that kind of response, you've got to believe he's encouraged to try and double up on that attack tonight at the debate. martha: yeah. well, if we are going to see a lot of aggressive tactics tonight which may be the case, steve, it raises the question, can the candidates go too far

with that? will people sort of recoil if they see too much of it? >> reporter: this is iowa, and negative campaigning doesn't generally go over well. and we talked tuesday night with a panel of undecided voters, five of them here from the sioux city area, and they say candidates can go too far, and they specifically cited then-candidate tim pawlenty's performance at the pre-straw poll debate and his attack on michele bachmann. have a listen. >> early on i thought the way michele bachmann -- the way tim pawlenty went after michele bachmann right out of the chute, i thought that was horrible. right off the get. it turned me off. couldn't even think about supporting him. >> reporter: so it's a delicate dance for the candidates tonight. they may want to be aggressive, but too adepress i have might actually hurt them -- aggressive might actually hurt them. martha: watch that fine line tonight. steve brown in sioux city. bill: you know, iowa's become, for argument's sake, a swing state, believe it or not.

on the touch screen behind us, the hawkeye state, this is part of the reason why it's become so critical. not just the first to vote in the caucus in 19 days, but also historically if you go back to 2004 and the race between president bush and john kerry, on the map red is republican, blue is democrat. in iowa that year this was neck and neck. john kerry and george bush, 10,000 votes separated the two. it was 50% for bush and 49 for kerry. then if you go four years later in 2008, we change the map, show you the way the electorate changed in 2008. iowa went blue. it went democratic. and that year barack obama had very little trouble with john mccain, beating him by nine points at 54% to 45. there are a number of models right now going out publicly that talk about how you get to the white house and how you get to 270 electoral votes to win the white house. and many of the scenarios run

right through amining that if you do not -- iowa meaning if you do not pick up those key electoral votes, you may not win in 2012. keep an eye on that. martha: we're going to be watching, bill. all right, coming up former new york mayor rudy giuliani has a little bit of advice for mitt romney. did you see him this morning? interesting stuff. he said stop with the negativity, he told the folks on the curvy couch that romney doesn't seem to understand what it is voters want in terms of what they want to see in the country right now. he says they want ideas, not attacks. watch this. >> i was really offended by his comment that newt gingrich is zany. i mean, that isn't, that isn't the kind of language that should be coming from a candidate. and it reminds me of what mitt did in '08 where he attacked me, he attacked mccain, he attacked huckabee. whoever was out front mitt would attack, sometimes personal attacks.

sometimes these ads about family and all this other stuff. so i think this could be hurting him. i mean, this is, after all, a republican primary. they don't want to see a republican savaging another republican which is what he's -- and it's not just mitt. mitt's got governor sununu out there, this one and that one basically saying that newt just doesn't have the right ideas, but somehow newt is trying to create the impression that he's crazy, you know, zany, crazy. martha: boy, interesting stuff. very candid with rudy giuliani this morning. so despite his high praise for gingrich, giuliani said he is not officially endorsing anybody, he's still looking at all of them, but he did not have too many kind words for mr. romney. fox news hosts the debate tonight, did we mention this, in iowa? was that little clock any clue for you? a big battle, tune in at 9:00 eastern time. you can stay with us all day, in fact, as we get ready. bret baier, chris wallace, megyn

kelly all moderating tonight's contest 9 p.m. eastern right here on fox, and neil cavuto as well. bill: when you think about rasmussen, what he says, 52% of the people in iowa still say they can change their mind between now and -- martha: and you know what? for many of them i think they're just tuning in as many people do. three weeks to go, now thai going to really -- they're going to really start to pay attention, they haven't been out there that much. so they haven't had a chance to think about it yet. so a lot can move. bill: that phase of the campaign certainly has changed this year. all right, one year ago today border patrol officer brian terry was shot and killed. two guns, part of the government's fast and furious gun-running sting, found at the scene of his murder n. a congressional hearing, the head of the fbi, robert mueller, testifying for the first time on this denied his agency was involved in any sort of cover-up to protect any part of the u.s. government. >> let me start with adamantly

rejecting the suggestion that the fbi would in any way cover up the, what happened in the tragic killing of brian terry. to the contrary. every available, necessary resource has been put on that and similar investigations where we lose one of our own. bill: william la jeunesse following up now. he's been reporting on this from the very start. william, good morning. >> reporter: the nagging question about fast and furious has been why. officials claimed at the outset they would follow the guns, climb the ladder and o topple the cartel. new documents suggest some officials saw fast and furious as an opportunity to support gun control. >> when you screw up, you ought to say you screw up. the people involved ought to say they screwed up and then don't law you secure-up for being the basis for trying to extend your legislative a-- agenda.

>> the justice department came up with a flawed program in order to justify a regulation. >> reporter: that's what gun owners fear, that fast and tour use use used to justify a new year to require anyone buying multiple guns over a one week period. in the march 2010 holder's chief of staff wrote long rifle, multiple sale and need regulation after attending a fast and furious briefing. later that year mark chate writes: can you see if these guns were all purchased from the same gun dealer and at one time. we are looking at anecdotal cases to support a demand letter on long gun sales. officials again raised the issue at a news conference. chate replies: >> in other words, they were trying to use this tragedy to build a case for these demand

letters. >> reporter: the attorney general disagrees. >> clearly, an attempt to use fast and furious as a way to bolster the requests for that long gun regulation would have been foolhardy. >> reporter: bill n april the justice department went forward with that regulation anyway. back to you. bill: william, thank you. we're going to talk to joe walsh, member of congress, coming up about this in 20 minutes. martha: a little bit more background, more than 1400 guns were sold to smugglers as part of this program enroute to mexico, and only 370 weapons of those were ever retrieved, okay? so that left a lot of them out there, and many of them were then linked to violet crimes -- violent crimes including at least three on american soil. now, the program led to the ouster of ken nelson, the former director of atf after he called that program, quote, a disasterment later as bill just said we're going to talk to joe walsh, congressman from the

homeland security committee, about those latest allegations. bill: all right. in the meantime, how would mitt romney do against barack obama in a head-to-head matchup? in the general election, romney says he feels pretty good about his chances there. >> the fact that i'm doing relatively well versus the president is an encouraging sign. look, he's failed the american people. they recognize that. they want a leader who can replace him and get the country on the right track again. bill: so is he the best ops for republicans? ed rollins on deck on that. wait for it. martha: ed is great on this stuff, so he's right here. and how about this? more than a billion dollars vanished into the air while he was at the helm. jon corzine insists he has no idea where that money went, but today that answer may not fly in this third, now, and there's more information coming out on what he may have known and where. bill: apparently, distracted doctors could put your life in far more danger? martha: that's encouraging. cra! ♪

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bill: check out this hot police chase. north of sydney, australia. a man and woman reportedly car have been jacked that vehicle and took off, left the city, went out to the countryside. police put down road spikes as the driver tried to swerve around them, he was hit from the side, and that ends it. both suspects taken into custody. don't know if they were texting at the time though. martha: probably, right? bill: not quite sure. martha: well, here's the big question: is mitt romney the best republican candidate in this field when it comes to going up against the president? take a look at the brand new numbers that show romney would be the strongest candidate against president obama next november? we asked him about these numbers yesterday, he said he felt fairly good about them. obviously, he'd like to be beating the president in these polls. ed rollins joins me now, political campaign manager, also fox news contributor. ed, we love having you here, so welcome back. what do you think? is romney in the best position to beat obama in a general?

>> well, you don't know that because you've got a long ways to go. he can draw independents which, obviously, is the key to winning, but he doesn't have the lo and affection of the conservatives which is 70% of the republican party. if he ends up being the nominee, we'll all be behind him, and we'll make it happen. martha: he does not have the love and affection of sort of the, you know, traditional core of the conservative party as evidenced by, you know, he did have the love and affection of the national review online yesterday who said they think gingrich has got to go, so he's got that in his favor. "the wall street journal" is still urging people to take another look at huntsman, santorum. i mean, it seems that they're quite divided. >> well, they are, but the bottom line here is in these early states, iowa and new hampshire, people make up their own mind. they don't make it up until late. still half the people haven't decided, and 40% of the voters didn't decide until the last ten days four years ago in iowa and half the same time in new hampshire.

they want to talk to these people, they want to touch them, have them meet their kids. it's not just about television. you've got to be out there with them. gingrich is trying to do it without doing that, and i think part of his erosion is because he's running around washington, not iowa. martha: we have seen some erosion, and i think that is what kind of makes tonight so interesting to watch because you're going to see everybody up on that debate stage this evening, and every time we've seen somebody rise and fall as some people think gingrich might be doing now, those votes, obviously, have gravitated to somebody else and never to mitt romney. so can he get if newt starts to dissolve a little bit, can mitt romney get those votes -- >> i don't think he gets the votes in iowa. i think what happens is they do start going to other people. but he can win if they all, basically, go to mrs. bachmann, mr. santorum and others. perry's coming on stronger, obviously, paul is very well positioned to be second, maybe even first. at the end of the day you have

to remember, romney had 30,000 votes last time, huckabee had 40,000, 35,000 probably wins it this time. martha: you said you know what? i think ron paul could pull out a win in iowa, and there are a couple of molls, rasmussen and also the ppp poll the other day, that showed all three of them pretty much neck and can neck. >> they're neck and neck, and at the end of the day it's about organization. january 3rd, cold night, how do you get people out? 784 precincts, and you have to have people show up, and that's the key to all of this. martha: everybody's talking about whether or not some of these second-tier players can make a comeback, and we've seen it happen before. maybe not to the extent of some of the numbers that these folks are on right now. who would you put your money on, santorum, huntsman, perry who you say is showing signs of life. >> first of all, huntsman basically is not in iowa. mrs. bachmann is moving up, perry is starting to move up and

santorum has really done a very effective job of communicating, he's getting big endorsements and even though he doesn't have money and resources although he is on tv for the first time today, i think he may surprise some people. i think, obviously, the top three are pretty much settled, but who gets fourth, who gets fifth and equally important, none of them have to quit, they can all go on to south carolina and new hampshire. martha: we will see. he's been in the trenches on this kind of situation, so we love getting your insight. great to see you, as always. bill: new details regarding the top secret drone lost in iran. is that drone a fake or the real thing? and the head of the fbi denies there's a government cover-up on fast and furious. a member of the homeland security committee is here to answer just that.

martha: all right, let's get a look at some of the stories developing right now here in "america's newsroom." a 10-mile stretch of busy california freeway closed indefinitely after a tanker truck explosion. hundreds of thousands of drivers headed to l.a. forced to take a detour. and a french court convicting the former president chirac of stealing public money to fund his political party. the former president not sentenced to spend any time in prison for that. and new reports that an agency is pitching an interview with casey anthony. she was acquitted of murdering her 2-year-old daughter this past summer. reportedly, the company behind the interview wants $750,000 for the first interview with casey anthony. you know, i hate to say it, bill, but i would have thought

more. bill: 750,000? martha: yeah. bill: that's three-quarters of a million dollars. martha: i know. bill: money if you can get it. martha: money talks, right? bill: the state's anti-terrorism bill declares kentucky citizens need protection from a terror attack. douglas kennedy has more from our newsroom. some atheist groups are not happy. what's this about, douglas? >> reporter: many americans depend on god to keep us safe, and so the question is, can that reliance be required by law? the department of homeland security relies on vigilance and fancy new airport screeners to keep americans safe. ♪ >> reporter: but in the state of kentucky that's not good enough. kentucky law now requires that citizens here know it's god that keeps them safe. >> it requires much more than that. >> reporter: in fact, state law commands the department of homeland security to prominently

display this proclamation which says the safety and security of the commonwealth cannot be achieved apart from reliance upon almighty god. edwin kagan is a kentucky atheist and objects to the sentiment. >> a law such as this is a step toward establishing a theocracy in our state. >> reporter: kagan is suing kentucky claiming it's forcing religion on its citizens, he says in violation of the constitutional separation between church and state. >> the safety and security of the state cannot be achieved apart from cognizing our dependence upon god. >> reporter: tom reiner is a democratic state rep and also an ordained baptist minister. he says there can be no real protection from evil or our enemies without reliance on god. >> that has been a part of the american creed. that's why our national motto is in god we trust.

because, ultimately, he is our source of trust. >> reporter: representative reiner says trusting god is our national motto, it's our national creed. he says why not simply put it in law? >> the motto is not a law. >> reporter: reiner says reliance on god is also our national heritage, and he says kentucky will not surrender that heritage. that's it from here, bill, back to you. bill: all right, douglas, welcome back from the bluegrass state. >> reporter: thank you very much. bill: martha? martha: here's a question, what happened to more than a billion dollars that vanished from an investment firm? the former governor of new jersey ran that company, and he's told congress that he doesn't know what happened to it. he's back on the hill today to answer questions about what somebody else in the company says he did know. bill: also these two guys most likely standing side by side later tonight in prime time, gingrich and romney, but is there someone else that america should be watching in that debate? bret baier will moderate, but first he joins us live in

minutes. >> we're absolutely confident that as people have a very good chance to look at all the candidates, they'll continue to belief that i'm the right person to lead the country. and by the way, numbers look good in polls, but you know what? they come and go. i'm looking for the votes. s fav potoes. everyone knows idaho potatoes taste great. but did you know they'reood for you too? they're high in vitamins and potassium. and idaho potatoes are now certified to carry the heart checkmark from the american heart assoction for foods low in saturated fat and cholesterol. so they're good for my family, and for yours. heart smart idaho potatoes. always look for the grown in idaho seal.

martha: this is a story that's heating up, folks, the former governor of new jersey and head of investment firm mf global and goldman sachs before that is going to be on the stand once again. he insists he does not know what

happened to more than a billion dollars of clients' money that is now gone, apparently. they haven't been able to get their hands on much of it. but some of his colleagues are saying that he did know that that money was being comingled. here is what the former new jersey governor and u.s. senator said in the previous testimony. here's this. >> i never directed anyone at mf global to misuse customer funds. i never intended to, and as far as i'm concerned i never gave instructions that anybody could misconstrue. martha: hmm. that's interesting wording on that. chief washington correspondent james rosen joins me now. james, this is a developing story at this hour. is there, is the a breakthrough to report in the what we're going to hear today? >> reporter: well, martha, as we await the start of today's hearing by the house financial services subcommittee, there are reports of a major breakthrough in one of the seven federal investigations currently probing the chaotic final days of mf

global. jill summers, a commissioner on the commodity futures trading commission or cftc which had partial oversight on mf global, has, like jon corzine, testified twice in the past week. for much of that time she has patiently explained and reexplained such basic facts as mf global's division into a local dealer arm and a merchant arm. last night, however, she reportedly told reuters her agency's auditors have figured out what happened to the $1.2 billion in missing funds. quote, we are far enough along the trail to know where the money went, reuters quotes summers as saying. now it's just finding out which ones of those transactions are legitimate and which ones are illegitimate. summers will not be testifying today, but other regulators will be including the general counsel of the cftc, martha. martha: yeah. and there's also been reports that someone along the line said they were told corzine definitely knew those customer funds were being used.

it's interesting he uses the phrasing i never directed anyone to misuse customer funds. we're going to hear more about that. are they going to be tough on him today, james? >> reporter: well, it stands to get tougher for him if only because members of the committee should, in theory, be vrt versed in these issues than members of the house and senate agriculture committees. accordingly, lawmakers today will press jon corzine on three major points. first, what did happen to the 1.2 billion, second, whether corzine misled regulators with an optimistic statement he released about the company less than a week before filing for bankruptcy, and third, about a $175 million loan that was made to an mf global affiliate with those customer funds about which corzine has been alleged to have had some knowledge. martha: james, thank you so much. we'll be watching. >> reporter: thank you. bill: it was one year ago today when border agent brian terry was shot and killed. his death has led to an exhaustive investigation known as fast and furious.

and for the first time, the head of the fbi testified, robert mueller, saying that the government is not covering up a thing. listen. >> there is, there's been one arrest, there's an ongoing investigation. there are documents that have been filed that are under seal, and it is an ongoing, ongoing, strong investigation. and we will bring to justice those persons who are in any way involved in the killing of officer brian terry. bill: illinois congressman joe walsh, sir, good good morning to you. >> good to be with you, bill. bill: what do you think of his testimony? do you believe him? >> you know, i don't know. clearly, we stand a year now removed from brian terry's death, and i think the lesson we have got right now is there needs to be a ramped-up, independent investigation. i'm not pointing at fbi director mueller, but when it comes to eric holder and justice and atf, there are just too many unanswered questions, and there

just appears to be such a lack of cooperation that i think we're very quickly getting to the point where there does need to be an independent investigation. brian terry deserves those answers, and his family does as well. bill: alberto gonzalez is a former attorney general. he spoke with megyn kelly the past week. and what he talked about is that how many things come across your desk that you, frankly, do not see or your staff needs to vet the material before it gets to you. that's what holder said when he described in his own testimony too. listen to gonzalez, and i'll ask you about it. >> there are multiple issues, multiple memos flowing up to the office of the attorney general every day. sometimes you actually don't get to see them, and the fact that a memo is addressed to the attorney general doesn't mean that he actually saw it. bill: says it's not because you're out to lunch, there's so many competing interests. is that a fair explanation?

>> no. i mean, i understand to a degree. look, it's a busy office. we're all busy up here. but fully as early as a month after brian terry was killed, eric holder's office began to get a memo, began to receive questions asking about what happened. it's incumbent upon his office to make sure that he sees that stuff. and even, bill, since he's learned of it -- and there are conflicting reports as to when eric holder knew of this operation. that alone needs to be investigated. but clearly, since he's even admitted when he learned of it, his responses have not at all been adequate. bill: so you're still questioning holder and not so much robert mueller on this. and you have signed a no confidence resolution along with 73 other members of congress? what does that resolution state about holder? >> it, basically, states that he's at the point right now, bill, where congress has no

confidence in his ability to do his job, and certainly, in his ability to independently look into what went wrong with fast and furious, to really dig down and get the ans to this which -- the answers to this which the american people deserve. bill: we will see what happens with this in the new year, because it is certain to be with us then. joe walsh, thank you for your time today. >> thanks, bill. martha: well, we've got some brand new, really interesting kind of game-changing numbers in this republican race in iowa. take a look at this. what a difference a day can make, right? mitt romney is in first place now in iowa, 23% according to rasmussen. newt gingrich losing ground, he's down at 20%, and ron paul has been hanging in there with a very strong third place in this, but these are all what could be considered pretty much nec and neck in iowa, so, boy, does this make tonight interesting. bret baier joins me from sioux

city where he will be moderating the evening's debate. this is going to be a fascinating night. what a dynamic, to look at those numbers going into this debate. >> reporter: i tell you what, martha, if scott rasmussen is right and those numbers hold and they're accurate, that is a game changer because the conventional wisdom on the ground has been that mitt romney was not in a position to possibly win iowa, at least what you, when you looked at the recent polls that he was in second or third even, and some of the polls had him down pretty far and saw congressman paul really surging. newt gingrich has taken a hit in the recent polls heading into tonight. but you're right, tonight is a big, big night. the last time all these candidates will be on the same stage before the first voting here in iowa. and i'll tell you, it is really cold out here today -- [laughter] something tells me it'll be heated in the -- martha: you need to borrow that big fur-collared coat from chris wallace. he's got a really big coat if

you can get your hands on it. >> i know. i told him this is not fargo. bill: you're not far from it. [laughter] martha: what fascinates me is every time we've seen this rise and fall of, you know, cain and perry and the rest, all of those votes have gone to sort of the next person. but that line has kind of run out, so if i'm jon huntsman or rick santorum or michele bachmann, i'm thinking there are some votes up for grabs out there, and i'm going to try to grab 'em tonight. >> yeah. i do think this there is a realy for those second-tier candidates. they've been that in the polls, and a lot of people here think that there is the possibility that somebody in the second tier or back of the pack could surprise not only tonight at the debate, but at the iowa caucuses. as you know, it's a lot about retail politicking here in iowa, and you have governor perry who started a bus tour, michele bachmann is going to 99 counties in ten days and, of course,

senator santorum has been to more people's living rooms than any other candidate here, he's been really working the state. martha: there's rick again at the back door. come on in, rick. [laughter] thank you, bret. you've got a lot to do. >> you know it's important when we have a clock. martha: you know it's important. and we can't wait to watch all of you out there tonight. thanks so much. bill: santorum's now a roommate. martha: exactly. bill: we are the only place where you can see this debate, 9:00 eastern time only here on the fox news channel, make sure to check it out. so much has been made of the u.s. drone now in iranian hands. one source is now saying sayinge whole thing is a fake. look closely, is he right? martha: and a bear in the basement, bill. bill: oh, no! martha: not how you really want to start your day, right? oh! >> i didn't know he was even there. i haven't been down in the cellar lately, and now i'm glad

i wasn't down there. the 500-pound black bear doesn't sound like anything i want to bump into. [laughter] too often.

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to louisiana... florida... alabama... mississippi. we can't wait to see you. brought to you by bp and all of us who call the gulf home. >> there is no vibration, hardly any sound. a new concept in air transportation. the travail has been taken out of travel. bill: until you hit the turbulence. martha: love that video. bill: the airline is no more, but tv fans started a petition to try and save the show "pan am if the that depicts the romantic lives of four flight attendants. the ratings are low, though, and a diehard fan started the petition saying the show is entertain. no comment from abc. i think i'll live without it. martha: i haven't seen it, but i've heard it's really good.

bill: they do pan am now, the next year it'll be eastern airlines. martha: remember that? bill: i sure do. [laughter] martha: here we go, folks. coming up right now, could the stealth spy zone that iran is holding, how about this question, be a fake? reports from a former pentagon official claims it's the wrong color and the wrong design for an american rq-170 sentinel. iran says they captured the sophisticated aircraft. washington says that it malfunctioned, and it landed. but if it's fake, why would president obama say this to the world? watch this. >> as has already been indicated, we have asked for it back. we'll see how the iranians respond. martha: well, that statement met much criticism as we have talked about. joined by chad sweet, former cia agent and co-founder of the chertoff group. chad, welcome, good to see you.

>> thank you. martha: what do you make of this former pentagon official who thinks that there's a possibility that the drone might be a fake? >> i think his assessment, at least we at the chertoff group, think it's wrong, and here's why. first of all, the color argument doesn't hold water. these planes have multiple colors. as you can imagine, they operate in different environments, and we try to match the color to the environment. so there's not one color. two, the landing argument doesn't hold water either. it's entirely possible the gear was damaged upon -- martha: let me just stop you because we're showing a picture right now. so the landing gear -- now our lower third is covering it, but if we can take the full shot, the argument is the landing gear -- in a second you'll see it -- was covered in this shot. the person at the pentagon said it was covered because it wasn't there, and it's fake, and it's nonexistent. what do you think? >> i don't buy the argument, and here's why. i mean, it's entirely possible the u.s. has acknowledged it malfunctioned, the landing gear may never have deployed in the

first place, and they may not be able to get it out, and the second is it was damaged as it made an emergency landing. and, third, the argument made around the design, frankly, the arguments about the welding and these types of stealth aircraft have microwelding. it's extremely technical, and you're not going to be able to really glean that from this low quality video footage. so at the end of the day, though, the point you made, martha is the right one which is we have a sitting president and the secretary of defense of the united states that have basically acknowledged it's the plane, and they're asking for it back. so this is case closed, it's authentic. martha: i might mention, also, you see the flags there, they look sort of like american flags and across them it says we will trample america underfoot, and the u.s. cannot do a damn thing. that's what the iranians wrote on those flags that surround what is believed to be our drone. what about the issue of whether or not it should have been blown up once it was discovered, that it got down there and we don't really know how quite yet? >>

>> that'll be a matter of investigation. some of these are equipped with self-destruction protocols. it's possible that they lost contact and didn't want to blow up a $40 million plus piece of equipment without knowing what was going on. but that will have to be looked into. i do think, though, to try to go in and do a unilateral strike it would have been great to deny them the ability to try to reverse engineer our technology. however, you need to know the location of it in order to do that, and we've just seen with the iranian assassination plot on u.s. soil to kill the saudi ambassador that the iranian revolutionary guard might take actions against us in our own soil, so we'd have to be prepared for repercussions. martha: chad, it is a sticky, awful situation really that we're dealing with. thanks so much for weighing in on it, we appreciate your expertise. >> thank you. bill: coming up in a few minutes, jenna lee standing by for "happening now," what's cooking, jenna? jenna: we're going to pick up off the conversation you were just having about iran. joining uses today, ambassador

dennis ross on what has been described as this growing threat from iran. it's his first tv interview since he left his job in the obama white house. he's worked as an adviser for presidents -- five prime ministers, senator lieberman is also going to weigh in on the iran issue as well. and a new threat potentially coming by way of mexico, a very interesting story just breaking this week. we're also looking ahead to tonight's last debate before the republican caucuses over in iowa. we've got chris wallace, larry sabato and steven hayes, and finally, senator kent conrad on whether or not the government stays open for business. we can't forget that issue. bill: see you in a couple minutes. breaking news, an italian court just releasing a report on why it cleared american college student amanda knox, the reason is coming up next. and you've got your smartphone, your blackberry, your ipad, your iphone, we're all plugged in, but should your doctor be when he is seeing you?

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martha: all right, we've got some breaking news that explains some things for us. the italian court just reloosed a report on -- released a report on why they cleared amanda knox of murder charges. the report states the evidence used to build that case was faulty. knox was convicted of killing her 21-year-old roommate, she spent four years in jail, and now they're saying the evidence that convicted her in the first place was faulty. bill: seven minutes now before the hour. how about a distracted doctor? reports say it's a phenomenon sweeping hospitals across the country. doctors and nurses flewed to their smartphones and their ipads, sometimes checking patient medical records, other

times checking e-mail, the facebook, surfing the web or tweeting. dr. marc siegel's professor of medicine at nyu and a member of our fox news medical a-team. good morning to you. you see patients every day. were you awar of this? have absolutely. i've been talking for a long time about how the art of medicine is giving way to something that's too technological, physicians are not spending enough face time with their patients. granted, the technology's a great thing to have, bill, but if we get distracted by the technology, if i'm off doing something else and i'm supposed to be concentrating on my patient, it may help explain why we have 25-100,000 unnecessary deaths in hospitals every year. bill: but are any of those deaths tied to innocent doctors or nurses -- negligent doctors or nurses who are distracted by a technical device? >> i believe, yes. that study has not been done yet, but i believe, yes. a study that has been done is they looked at profusion experts

during cardiac bypass surgery, and 50% of them reported in the survey that they were texting or on the phone talking to their girlfriends -- bill: really? that's remarkable. >> and 40% of them said, you know what? we think this is bad for the health of the patient. can you imagine that while the bypass machine is on, you're on the phone with your girlfriend? no way, no way. bill: you make a couple great points. doctors, you say, have always been interrupted by a beeper, the beepers they wear on their belt or waist, but now they feel compelled to respond immediately to an e-mail or text message. >> the beeper was just a warning sign. you knew right away if you had time to get back, but now, you know, we get drawn into facebook, we get drawn into our ipad, we're online, people are busy surfing the web when they're supposed to be operating on patients. this is becoming more and more of a problem. it's okay to have music in the operating room -- bill: i tell you what i think is terrific, though, when a doctor is seeing me and he or she has a

tablet in their hands, and at the end of our appointment they say you can pick you have your prescription at the front desk because he's sending an instant message from that tablet right to his office attendant that goes right to the pharmacist. outstanding when you use technology in the right way. >> agree with you completely. electronic medical records can help us that till sate health care. i can be sitting there talking to you at the same time putting in a prescription, checking blood results, seeing what was gone at another hospital. but we don't need the ipad and -- texting -- bill: i gotcha. i hear your point. >> there's way too many cell phones used now, period, and as martha's debate before showed, it's a problem with driving, it's a terrible problem in the operating room. >> good to see you, bill. bill: all right, you too.elpi we'll be right back. time, hassle, and the big one -- money. hundreds, in fact, if you're a progressive customer, like me.

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martha: they call it the nectar of the gods, who better to get his own beer than tim tebow. why didn't i think of that.