through in the next years. >> there is always going to the potential for an individual or a small group of indivials, if they are willing to die, to kill other people.s nine years after 9/11, the threat has changed, but it remains. today, an anxious anniversary with homeland security secretary janet nanapolitano, former homeland security secretary michael chertoff, and former white house counterterrorism adviser, fran townsend. then 51 days out from the midterm elections. politics with house democratic leader steny hoyer. and the battle for the soul of the gop with former house republican leader dick army and form former senate leader trent lott. i'm candy crowley and this is "state of the union." this 9/11 was remarkable for its divisiveness. protests over a planned islamic cultural center blocks from ground zero. protests from a pastor i florida. protests in afghistan and pakistan. >> we are seeing today riots in kabul, riots in afghanistan that threaten our young men and women in uniform. and although this may be one individual in florida, part of my concern is to make sure that we don't start having a whole bunch of folks all across the country think this is the way to get attention. >> joining me now heren washington, homeland security secretary janet napolitano, former homeland security secretary michael chertoffnd former assistant for homeland security and current cnn national security contributor, fran townsend. mouthful, all. let's talk about this preacher hi florida, because i think what amazes me is we all sit back and go this is like one guy sitting in the middle of florida and the next thing we know, there are protests and approaching riots in paktan and in afghanistan, a bit in indonesia. i don't get that. >> well, i think what we have to understand is that we all recognize that this minister is a small little church. in part it's a creation of the media. but it goes across the internet and across the globe as an accelerant and thedon't appreciate that we're a country with freedom of speech, freedom of expression, freedom of religion. this is just one small minister who we all disagree with on a , values basis, t it, boy, gets interpreted abroad very differently. >> but then wouldn't the president and the secretary of defense and the secretary state and former secretary of state colin powell have been better off to try to context ulize this for people? >> i think it's difficult because part of the problem is the media jumps on top of oee story. it does get on the internet and of course that is very hard to calibrate the context onin the internet. i think the political leaders have to make a judgment about whether they can continue to ignore it in the hopes it goes away or whether they have to address it. fg >> candy, i was in afghanistan when this story began to break. i was in kabul with general petraeus. and the supreme allied commander of nato. i will tell you they don't understand. the way the story is reported that this is just representative of 50 people in gainesville, florida. i mean, general petraeus and i lived through abu ghraib, right. it's a criminal act, an isolated criminal act, horrific. but the pictur went around the internet and inspired protests. not only are o soldiers in danger when that happens but also our diplomats. so you understand our leaders feel an obligation to try and do whatevvier they can to protect r people who are serving this nation overseas. >> so what is the answer? because there is freedom of speech running up against what the administration felt was making a very realhreat, not just to u.s. serce people, which is bad enough, but to americans in general. because, i mean, there are countrieat curb freedomf speech? >> i don't think we can do that. i don't think we can do that. i think what you have to do is you have to fight bad speech with good speech and that means people who have contrary points of view and more tolerant points of view have to get out there and talk about it. part of the responsibility of the media is to cover that, again, in context and not to give a disproportionate amount of time to people who say who say more balanced things. reextreme things and ignore peoe can you give us more sense, madam secretary, of the activity? i don't even know r the real wo for it. did you see an uptick in worrisome incomingntelligence as a rult of this single person in florida and the media coverage of it?ys >> look, we are always dealing with ever evolving types of threats.onal some of them are international in derivation, some of them result from u.s. persons. it is a very dynamic threat environment. one of the things we've been focused on is reallyetting preparation for and the ability to respond to threats of any kind outside of whington, d.c., spre across the homeland into state and local hands, empowering them. more information sharing, more resources to them. because we're never going to be totally immune from threats. as the president indicated on the clip that you just showed, look, at some point somebody may get through even all of the protective layers that we've created. >> let me move to sort of a more general look at national security at this point and meland security in particular. we had a new cnn opinion research corporation poll asng people, are we sar from terrorism now than w w/11? interesting to me that about 36% said, okay, we're safer. about 37%, we'reab about as saf. and 27%, less safe. so pretty even, less safe, more safe. is this a sign of the times really? is this just accepting what you all se as reality? that there's a danger there, period, and we need to live with it? >> look, there are threats now. as i said before, we live in a global, ever-changing threat environment. the key thinis to do everything we can to minimize those threats, to be able to e anticipate and intervene early. but also to empower communities and individuals on how to respond if sething were to happen. >> candy, i think part of the problem is the threat is changing. the enemy adapts as we adapt, and that's an ever, ongoing process. so what people are seeing now i it's no longer just south asia where we were focused on over t yemen, it's somalia, it's now north africa, and that's alarming to people because what they see is it's becoming more diffuse. that's, i think, an issue we're going to have to deal wh over the next few years. >> candy, i thl dasome of what you see in the poll data is while i inthink there's no question over the last nine years the american government has made the american people safer, and we haven't been attacked, the answer is they have also seen in the last year the christmas day attempt, the times square attempt, zazi jaj beulah in neyork on the subways. have a think pepl sense this may actually happen despite all the efforts and all the money we've spent. this is a very determined enemy. and i think that's part of what's reflected in the poll. >> exactly. isn't it just that? we are talking about homegrown so i think there was this sense, at least before the attacks in britain from british nationals, that, well, we're the land of the free, people love being here, our citizens wouldn't turn on us. guess what? some of the scariest attempts have been the enemy within. >> we have to put it in perspective, though. although there has been an uptick in the number of what we would call homegwn cases, as an absolute percentage of the population here and even of the muslim population, it's very, very small. but we are a large country and even a very small number of people, small percentage can be a significant number of people. so some of the sense had, hat this was a european problem, home grown terrorism, i think we're now realizing we've got to deal with that issue in our own communities. >> that's right. the united states is not immune. we do see u.s. persons for whatever reason have been radicalized to the point of violence. maybe violence in the name of islam. you know, they travel to the fatah, they trai they learn e trade craftth come back. and that is something that is relatively new in the kind of the no threat strain that we've been dealing with, but it's not unique. nor was it unanticipated really that that could occur. >> and i think we ought to, again, putting this in context, let me claim some success for the secretary and the former secretary. the answer is if we've reduced al qaeda from a 9/11-type massive spectacular attack to the idiot with the bomb in his underwear or the guy who screws up the bomb in times square, you've been pretty successful over the course of your administrations at reducing their operational capability. >> we're going to take a quick break but we will be right backi a little bit on the search for bin laden. stick with us. 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>> well, it means that, first of all, it's more dispersed. secondly, a big conspiracy, you have opportunities to intercept, to hear about, to learn about d ahead of time. when you have individuals or small groups, that's much more difficult. and thirdly, our ability to collect intelligence is much more limited when u.s. persons are involved than, say, internationally. so there are all kinds of different things that go io play. and i think what michael said is right. we're not talking about huge numbers all across the country, but what we are talking about is an ever-evolving threat that has not kept the united states immune. there are u.s. persons now involved. that means the dephoarent of meland security itself has had to evolve. >> let me ask you, because there's been this talk. we heard the president asked about osama bin laden anof course he would still like to find. but when you look at this new homegrown threat and you look at someone like anwr al awlaki, who's more dangerous? who do we actually need to go and find? is it al awlaki who has ties to the ft. od shooter, who at least was inspiring to the christmas day bomber -- sorry, to the times square bomber and had also had ties with the christmas day plane hijacker? >> well, there's no doubt about the fact that symbolically bin laden is still in a class by himself. but i do think you make an important point. over the years we have eliminated or incapacitated the operational leaders, and now, of course, we see replacement leaders coming up. taking out that level of leadership is a critical part of the strategy because they are the most experienced planners, they are the people who have schemes and train and launch the atcks.ke so while we'd all like to get bin laden, the fact is getting these operational leaders is a critical part of success. >> and al awlaki is on the internet. i mean, he's e-mailing people back and forth. why is this so difficult? he's on a list, apparently, that we want to go get him and yet he's kind of, it seems to me, hiding in plain sight in some 'sys. >> that's right. and that's been true for years. al awlaki has been a target of the u.s. government over t last nine years, but he's smart. remember, when we take effective operational action, most of those people were in unsettled gheas. when you say hiding in plain sight in the middle of a city makes it much more operationally difficult. when you talk about bin laden, i'd only add it's more than symbolic to me. he's used for recruitment, training, fund-raising and quite frankly the american people have a right to retribution. let's remember there were 3,000 americans killed, and there is really important sort of moral calculus here. i think both will remain at the top of the target list. >> al awelaki, would you concede, is more dangerous at this point if you take awy the syolism, seemsore dangerous, a more immediate threat than bin laden seems to be? >> well, he's certainly an active recruiter and particularly his use of the internet, his use of language, his ability to reach out to westerners, including americans and attract them into the ye movement. yes, he's very dangerous. >> let me in our closing moments i want to talk about my favorite discussion we had once and that's about this advisory system and the os e levels and the yellow levels which as far as i can tell have remained the sa for years. have they not lost their effectiveness? you called for a study to look into this. you've had that study. is anything going to change? >> wl, it might in the sense that -- and fran was actually on the study committee, so thank you r that, fran, because whatea we realize is that the colors themselves weren't exchanging or giving people information. as i said earlier, one of our chief goals is to make sure that the citizenry of the united stateskn and communities know what's going on and know what to do if something were to change. >> to me it's kind of like a sign that says flood area because it's just there all the time. >> well, don't drivehrough that. that the point. so, yes, we have forwarded some recommendations based on what th subcommittee came to us for into what's called the in tteragency process. michael knows what that means. >> it takes a long time. >> it means it's being considered because it's important and it's going to affect a lot of different things. >> so you can see it changing? >> perhaps. >> candy, to your point, you walk through the airport. we've been at orange. this has been as michael will remember a pet peeve omine. you shouldn't put the system up a level to something like orange if you're not prepared to say what it's going to take to bring it back down, because to your point, candy, the system then loses credibility. that was why i was glad to help co-chair that study. >> what do you think? has the system as it's now set up lost its usefulness? >> let me go back to how it got started. the genesis of this system was operationally, sometimes you need to do different things depending on the threat ylevel. for example, when you go to orange at the airport you do different things at the back eart of the airport. it's important t o preserve that because that has a real operational impact. then, of course,n when it was first efficieinitiated it wasn' public. someone ran out and immediately complained the government was keeping it secret. in the interest of transparency it became public. the question now is whether we want to calibrate so we don't have quite so many levels. one of the things i think both secretary napolitano has done and i did was we tried to explain when we did make a move, here's why we've m ade it rather than just move it up or down without, you know, very opaque asset of explanations. >> because now it pretty much just sits there. hasn't it been orange for years? >> let's recognize, and as michael said, look, at airports it means something very different than, say, at shopping malls or in homes. and so there are different levels in a way or different things that are happening based on the actual threat. and so it is complicated. but the basicot is to get information to people so that it's operational so they know what to do. and whether it's colors, whether associated with other things, whether you tweak the system or totally amend the system, that is all -- that is what is under considerationab. >> i literally have about 30 secondleft with you all, so i just want a quick answero what i think everybody asks on 9/11. are we safer? and do you expect that a t some point we're going to get unlucky? >> i believe we are safer. i believe, however, that there is no 100% guarantee. >> we have reduced the risk. we have not eliminated the risk. >> safer, but i think in all likelihood we will get attacked. despite best efforts, they're determined tget through. >> fran townsend, michael chertoff, janet napolitano, thank you all so much for joining us. up next, we'll turn to politics. have the democrats done enough to maintain control of the congress? 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[ pujols ] wheaties fuel, my joints ache so bad, i wake up in pain every day. i want to know why.ir i want to know why my hair is falling out. how did this happen? how did this happen? a little pain in my knee. that's how it started. that's how it started, this rash on my face. now it's like my body is attacking me. wers. i want ans t announcer: when you don't have the right answers, it may be time to ask your doctor the right question. could i have lupus? the economy is struggling, many voters are skeptical of health care reform and worried about federal spending. it's a recipe for democratic disaster in the midterms. what's a president to do? >> between now and november what i'm going to remind the american people of is that the policies that we have put in place have moved us in the right direction. and the policies that the republicans are offering right now are the exact policies that got us into this mess. >> but a new quinnipiac poll finds 60% of registered voters disapprove of the way congressional democrats are handling their jobs. still house majority leader steny hoyer has his game face on. our candidates are energized and not hanging their tails between their legs. they are confident. perhaps in some part because the same polling shows 59% of americans also disapprove of the way congressional republicans are doing their jobs. a conversation with congressman hoyer when we come back. joining me now is the democratic majority leader in the house of representatives, steny hoyer. congressman, thadynks so much f being here. >> candy, always good to be with you. thank you. >> i want to start out with what i think is going to occupy your fall and that is these bush tax cuts which are set to expire in january. the democratic position, the administration's position has been we want to keep them for the middle class and any ng to repeal ing $250,000 or them. so what you have here now is the argument, no, bad time, there's t there, you n't create jobs by essentially raising taxes, even if you want to call these rich people. i waet to introduce into this argument something that peter orszag wrote. now he, of course, is the foofrm director of the office of manament and budget for the president. he's talking about t idea of this huge deficit versus the huge jobs deficit. in the face of the dueling deficits, the best approach is a compromise. extend the tax cuts for two years and then end them altogether. fand by extenng the trmax cs, he means for the rich. permanent ones for the middle class. how about that? >> well, candy, first of all, we need to reale what is going to happen was put in place by the republicans '01 and '03. to meet their budget numbers they had these taxes go up for all americans. the president has said, we have sa, we absolutely in this troubled economic time are not going to allow families to have a tax increase, period. families, as you say, we refer to as the $250,000 as under people, which is 98% of america. and wer don't believe their tas ought to go up. >> what about a compromise here? >> well, compromise has been very tough to utget, as you kno candy. >> but are you open to it? >> sure, we'llalk about compromise, but we don't believe, i don't agree with mr. orszag or others who believe that a tax cut on the richest americans are going to have any effect on the economy. >> okay, then what -- >> in fact, weave 98% of america as you know tax cuts in the recovery act. >> stho a lot of people make th argument, look, this isn't going to create jobs if we f allow the tax cuts to expire for the rich. then why not get behind a payroll holiy? >> well, of course, we did on the fica tax as you know pass legislation that's invelllace tt gave small buness es, if they hire people who are unemployed, a tax holiday, as you point out. not only did we give that, but we gave a $1,000 bonus if those people are on the payroll a year from now. so we have done things of that nature. we've done a number of things in the house of representatives to spur job creation, job growth. unfortunately, we've hadroublegh getting them through the senate. one of the bills that we absolutelyant to get done this coming four weeks is to provide for dollars for small business to get loans to expand their businesses. >> to ease the credit. >> and we passed that itwice a it's still sitting in the senate. we hope that they'll pass it. >> when it comes to this, these tax cuts for the wealthy, you're a smart guy. it seems to me one of two things is going to happen here. either you take this off the table, bec se your own democrats are out there going, oh, no, i don't wa to do ts. you've got more than a handful of democrats in the house saying this is not a good idea. so you either need to take it off the table and deal with it after the election or come to a compromise. what's going to happen? >> candy, what's going to happen is, a, we're going to see what the senate can do. as you know, the house is -- we've got over 400 bills pending in the senate that have pass. 70% of them with 50 republicans. so non-controversial. they're just sitting in the senate. so one of the things we're going to do and i've talked to senator reid about this, we're going to see what the senate is going to do. then the house will make its determination. >> it's the art of the doable d you might go along. >> su re. >> you know the senate is going to come up with a compromise if that's the only way they can get anything done. >> our policy is we are not going to allow the republican policy of increasing taxes by having these taxes expire, which was republican policy, we're not going tollow that to happen for the middle income americans, working americans. >> you have spent your break in 11 states, 20 candidates. we're now looking at some fairly well respected political pundits saying democrats might lose as many as 60 seats. what's the problem out there? >> well, i think those pundits are wrong,umber one. we're going to hold the house. we're going to win -- >> but you're going to lose seats. >> we're going to lose seats probably. i think that's undoubtedly -- >> 24? 34? >> i'm not going to speculate on a number, candy, but we're going to hold the house. as you said, i've been 20 candidates, 11 states over the last 2 1/2 weeks. our candidates are feeling good. what's going to happen is people are going to compare not the natives. but the alt as joe biden likes to say, they're not going compare us with the almighty, they're going to compare us with the ternative. an alternative that wants to go back to the exact same bush policies, according to sessions, their campaign chairman, which led to high deficits, the worst job performance of any adnistration since herbertov hoover actnd extraordinary reduction in the wealthy of ou country and the stock market tanked. >> but can you stave off disaster for democrats -- >> absolutely. >> -- en you have democrats who don't particularly want to talk about health care reform and those who voted against it actually have ads out there for it who don't much want to talk about e stimulus program and mouch much it cost? is it enough to say, yeah, but the republicans got us into this mess. that's not much of a bumper sticker. >> well, it's not -- the american public is smart, and they pursued a vote in 1992 that ected a president. he put in place a program and they were somewhat skeptical, as you recall. but they became very enthusiastic when they saw how werkll that economic program worked oppose by every republican. then they in 2000, a new administration came in, said their policies were going to work. in fact, they failed and gave us the worst economy in 75 years. so people are going to cpare the failed bush policies, which the republicans say they want to return to. that's a quote, not a supposition. >> would you ree it's a bit -- right now you can say we're on a path, we're moving forward, it's going to get better, but it's kind of a weak hand to go into november with? >> well, i think the fact things have gotten better. we've had four quarters of economic growth. the stock market, dow, s&p, nasdaq, up over 60%. things are getting better. two, three, four milli jthobs have been created under the recovery act. so, yes, we are not where we want to be. we want to get those 8 million jobs back that were lost under the bush administration so we can get people back to work. and we're going to continue to focus on policies, which is what the president said in cleveland when he gave his speech about investing in infrastructure and creating jobs. the other thing, candy, i want to mention is we have an agenda, not just for the balance of this year, but an agenda for e coming years, and that's the make it in america agenda. people are concerned and fearful they're not going to be able to make it america.he one of the things they believe is we need to make things in america. we need to manufacture this in america so people have the availability of good paying jobs with good o benefits. sour make of it iamerica agenda is going to be one of the hallmarks as we move forward. and frankly, when you look at the clinton administration's creation of 21 million new jobs in the private sector as opposed to george bush's 1 million, you see that there's a real contrast. >> and just quickly on a matter of strategy, we know that there has been much made over the fact that eventually your money does run out and you've got to save who you can and to sssome others overboard. when are you going to begin to toss some of your weaker democratic candidates overboard in trms of money? >> we don't think we have weak democratic candidates right now. >> okay. >> you didn't expect an answer to that. clearly, we will look at and if there are candidates that are very substantially behind and they can't make it, clearly we'll have to make some tough judgments. but with all due respect to my good friend carl holtz, who i ink is a terrific reporter, ad that decision has not been me as chris van holland made it very clear. in fact, betsy m ssy marquis wh one of tho mentioned in carl's article, are absolutely top priorities for me and for our party. betty markey is tied in e polls. frank granville is slightly ahead. so these candites are in very good shape and they're going to win. >> thank you so much. democrat leader steny hoyer, we appreciate your time. >> appreciate it. next, can the tea party and republicans make for a winning team this november? ring ring. progresso. upwhy does it say box tops for education on your soup? oh, it's a program that raises money for schools. that's great, but this is a can. yes it is. you can't have a box top on a can. yes we can. but a can isn't a box. we know. i don't think you do. 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[ woman announcing ] beneful incredibites. another healthful, flavorful beneful. the 9/12 taxpayer march is taking place in washington today protesting what demonstrators see as a government that overregulates, overspends and overtaxes. the event is spearheaded by freedomworks, an organization founded ov 25 years ago to promote conservative causes. it has most recently provided organization and structure to the tea party movement. freedom works chairman is former house republican leader dick armey, once the voice of the establisent and now a voice from the outside. >> when we help you win back that majority that you love so mu, we will be aware of your penchant for drinking backslider's wine. >> some of the biggest republican newcomers in the upcoming elections are t runnin with the tea party's blessing. rand paul in kentucky, sharron angle in nevada, joe miller in alaska and florida's marco rubio. not every republican is wholeheartedly enthused with the rise or the rhetoric of the tea party. former senate majority leader trent lott doesn't expect the predicted tea party sweep into congress, but for those who do make it into power, lott advises his former colleagues, as soon as they get here, we need to co-op them. we'll talk to ck armey and trent lott next. joining me now here in washington, former republican congressional leaderntdick armey and trent lott. gentlemen, tha you both. looking hale and hearty as fo formers, i must say. thank you for being here. i want to get into the co-oped line simply because you have backed and continued to back a number of tea party candidates who have upsicet what we call establishment republican candidates, which generally is the people we expect are going to win and then they get tossed out. and you talked about, fine, if they come to the senate we, meaning the republicans, need to co-op em. e for me?efine your t >> when they get here,hey want to do something about bad legislation, more regulation, tomuch spending, too much taxation. they want to get something done. the leaders need to be able to work with the people that come into the house and the senate. it's not a matter of trying to get them to change their positions. they're going to bring enthusiasm and new ideas and pressures in washington and i think th's good. but i do think the leadership has got to learn very quickly to work with them and to turn it into positive energy. and i beeve they will. i think that john boehner, as the next speaker, will do that and i think mitch mcconnell and jon kyl will do it in the senate. >> congressman, when you hear the word we need to co-op them when they come in, what does that say to you and what do you see the role of these so-called tea party candidattyes inside t republican party, assuming they're going to caucus with republicans? >> my own view is that was a bad choice of words because you were talking about a group of people whose necks stiffen imdiately upon hearing that word. they are independent-minded people who really have no particular appreciation for the performance of either party in the paste several years. they want to run for office in order to change that. for the most part they have understood that our path to a position in washington is through the republican party, given our small government values, but we're here to rerm and store that party to dedicated service to that proposition. i think that this class is going to be quite silar to the class of 1992. and the class of 1992, the republican congressional class of 1992, was the cultural changing class that resulted in the majority of '94. they're just going to happen to come and get their majority at the same time they change the culture. >> so the question is, who changes who, right? you're g st of saying, look, they come in, you've got to deal with the structure the way it is. the senateorks the way the senate works. the hoe works the way the house works. >> well, i don't accept that. >> all right. i don't think you have to w ac is. the culture is a problem in the house and the senate. >> but it is the way it is. >> here, i think you get caught up in personalities when really what you're talking about is issues and poli. when dick armey and i were the majority leaders in the house and the senate respectively in the late '90s, we had a democrat president, president clinton. yet during that time, he takes credit for a lot of it, but during that time we cut spending. we controlled spending and then we cut it. we cut taxes, we had balanced budgets, we had welfare reform. we passed things like safe drinking water and portability of insurance. we got a lot of things done. we didn't always do it by doing it the way it was always done. broke the mold in several ways. they led the way in the house, quite frankly. >> but you know ouhow the senat works and you know how the house works. and in the end, do you think it's possible, i was trying to game out the possibilities here. do you think it's possible that tea party candidates or a party blessed candidates who come into the republican caucus can move the caucus more toward the middle, because they're going to have to reach out to democrats to get something done? so in other words you've got the more conservative tea party candidatesthe more liberal democratic candidates. isn't this possibly going to build up the mdle? >> well, in fact, these cands.idatesre the middle of american politics. you took your own poll, earlier revealed the american people are th and large disearnchaed with th political parties. they want fiscal responsibility. they want fiscal restrtsaint. they want good governments and creative new ideas. this is a group of young members of congress from both sides of the aisle -- i'm sorry, primarily from the republican side of the aisle, that are going to provide that change. but i must say, trent, you recall iur own personal experience the establishment was so lackadaisical and so unwilling to move forward and be creative, that you left the house for the senate and it changed with that class of '92 that came in following you because they got together before they ever got to washingn and had a consolidation of who are we and what are our purposes and how are we going to stick together in order to make this establishment once again be disciplined, and indeed disciplined in following the procedures, parliamentary procedures, of their own body. one of the most heartbreaking things about congress as we know it today is it's wholly undisciplined in its own processes by which you could makeood legislation. >> let me -- i want to move you on to just another subject, because before you all count your cckens before they're hatched, i want to take a look at a couple of races and ask you the overall question, has the tea party activism helped hurt the gop? up s leme just show you a quick where the tea party candidate overtook the establishment candidate to win the primary. the polls now show ling that hay reid, who once looked very vulnerable, is now in a dead heat with sharron angle, theea party candidate. look at colorado, where we see michael bennet who looked quite vulnerable, democrat. he's now leading ken buck, a to party candidate who threw out an established republican by three points, the democrat is up. and in kentucky, very republican land, as both of you know, rand paul, a tea party blessed candidate, is now in a dead heat with jack conway. a republican losing kentucky would be interesting. have the tea party candidates these states more vulnerable than a more established candidate might have? >> i want to comment on a good example of the kind of people i think we will have coming into the senate. marco rubio inlorida, i was impressed with him from the beginning and was supportive of his candidacy. this was a guy that was speakera of the florida state house. he is going to come in and be a factor on the issues, but he also knows how to get things done. that critical. in those races you're talking about, i'm surprised at that poll you just mentioned in kentucky, because the numbers i've been seeing are very much in favor of rand paul. he -- you know, he came in there, he ran a good campaign. he beat the -- >> this is an s early september poll showing him tied. >> he beat the, i guess, theti anointed one. and he's still running a very strong campaign. i think he will win. >> but, you know, and he may win, i'm not saying he won't. o i'm just saying that all of these states look -- certainly nevada looked like reid was topable. certainly kentucky you would expect would definitely go, you would expect the polls to be great big. yet you've put people in here or people have been nominated in the primary process who look like they've made these seats doable for democrats. reid has spent a ton of money and we knew he'd do that. i suspect that's true of the democrats in the other two en races as well. when it comes down to election ground and who's moving people. ndday, it's energy and feet on e right now the democrat party, rank and file across the country is confused and demoralized. the great source of energy right now on the field of politics is the grassroots activists for small government.g to they're going to turn out to vote for the small government conservative. and i believe that i can say that in the final analysis as we saw in new jersey where our current governor was not, in fact, ever aheadn the polls, on election day when it comes down to who really gets the vote to the polls, theiv sll government conservatives are going to win that contest. >> and i do think a story that needs to be emphasized, too, states like wisconsin, washington, california, that people thought, oh, well, the republicans won't have a chance there, our candidates a nre running neck and neck in all three races. >> real quick, yes or no answer to you all. can the marriage of estaishment republicans and tea party insurgents survive? >> yes, it can. look what we did in '92, '93, '94, '95. it can survive and this time it will survive with a duration that we did not have before. >> actually it can ande know because that's really where we came from. when i was elected in '72 as a republican from mississippi, that was unheard of. i was sort of a revowhtionary. same with dick armey, en he came to the house in texas. nobody thought he would have a to win. he won and became majority leader. it will work. >> you all say revolution redux. >> absolutely. i was majority leader and never establishment. >> thank you very much. former congressman dick armey, former senator trent lott. thank you so much for being here. up next, a check of the top stories. and then president obama's new point man on the economy shares his funny side. when you approach things om a different perspective, you don't end up with just another car. you end up with the all-new saab 9-5 luxury ort sedan. when you buy the hot new samsung fascinate with its super amoled screen. get a free samsung intensity, a free blackberry ld or any other phone in our lineup. don't miss out. offer ends soon. buy a samsung fascinate and any other phone is free. words alone aren't enough. our job is to listen and find ways to help workers who lost their jobs to the spill. i'm iris cross. we'll keep restoring the jobs, tourist beaches, ac and businesses impacted by the spill. we've paid over400 million in claims and set up a $20 billion independently-run claims fund. i was born in new orleans. my family still lives here. i'm gonna be here until we make this right. d we order panda blossom, shoul panda moon... how about chinese at home with wanchai ferry? 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[ male announcer ] wanchai ferry. restauranquality chinese in your grocer's freezer. i'm don lemon live at the cnn world headquarters in atlanta. ime for a look at your head lien. they're so energized and they're still on the move. tea party activistsather at the u.s. c apitol building today for a second straight september 12th march on washington. thr bottom line? the deral government is too big and it spends too much. today's theme was remember in november. a reference the upcoming midterm elections. they vow to defeat lawmakers who dig noer their message. a mandatory evacuation has been ordered for loveland, colorado, to escape a wildfire that has burned more than 600 acre. our affiliate kmgh reports it has destroyed a home and several other structure. there has been no containment of the fire. loveland is about 30 miles outside of boulder. fire officials don't know ho w many homes are threatened, but they say there are at least 100 in the area. homeland security secretary janet napolitano says the united states will never be completely immune to terror threats. nine years after 9/11 napolitano tells cnn the u.s. is safer now than it was then. but, she says, there's no 100% guarantee the country will not be attacked again. a massive man hunt is under way near the u.s./mexico border. 85 inmates scaled the wall of a prison in reynosa mexico on friday. many of the escapees are believed to be drug cartel members or hit men. two guards are also missing. dozens o other guards are being questioned in the latest prison break -- in the largest prison break in mexico's > the fourth e season has now reached category 4 stat us. igor is in the atlantic and warm waters and ideal wind conditions have helped it grow stronger. igor has maximum sustained winds of 140 miles per hur. but poses no immediate threat to land, a>>teast right now. make sure you watch us at 10:00 p.m. eastern here on cnn. we're going to show you how to find where the pipelines are in nnur very neighborhood. i'm don lemon at the cnn world headquarters in atlanta. 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