bill: so what are you looking at here? a scuffle between paul supporters and conway supporters and the woman on the ground in the red sweatshirt is said to be a member of move on.org, she said she was trying to give a phony award to paul and his supporters apparently wrestled her to the ground, rip off a blond wig and stomp on her shoulder. hello everybody! martha: we'd better get this election underway, this is craziness! bill: seven days to go. i'm bill hemmer. how you doing martha? >> bill: bill doing well, how yu doing, bill? >> doing well. martha: good morning, everybody, i'm martha maccallum. it's a good thing, forget we have just seven days to go before this big decision comes about, an ugly sane sign as you saw there of what happens when tempers boil over out there. bill: as nasty as that looks, that videotape, that protester appears to be okay. here's how she saw it. >> these supporters were not very nice to me, and my message, which is the same as everyone else that wanted to get out here with a sign, but i got my head stepped on. bill: mike tobin was live at the debate in lexington. what happened outside first, mike? >> reporter: well, actually, there were two scuffle, the second one broke out when a jack conway supporters stepped on the foot of a rand paul supporter. no charges in the scuffle but police aren't letting it go, detectives are reviewing the videotape and deciding if they are going to file charges. the rand paul campaign did respond, saying that violence has no place in the civil discourse and urged their supporters to be civil toward each other, despite all the passion in the runup to the election, jack conway campaign is aware of both incidents, thus far, they've not responded with a statement bill: let's go inside now and talk about what ultimately kentucky voters are going to vote on a week from now. there was plenty of friction between paul and conway. how was it scored last night, mike? >> reporter: well, it's pretty clear that paul and conway don't like each other, and that dislike is enhanced by all the attack ads that have gottentous this point, the latest attack coming from conway saying that rand paul wants to increase sales tax to 23 percent. >> you have a simplistic world view, you oversimilarlify things, you do. the thing is you don't really want to present the whole facts. you say we're going to heap on some new sales tax, a preferred sales tax, you forget to mention we're talking about eliminating the income tax, okay, you leave that out of all of your -- >> 70 percent will have taxes go up. >> that's incorrect, because what it has, an exemption for the first $50,000 worth of sales. >> did you come up to 23 percent? >> see, you don't listen, you oversimplify in sound bites because all you care about is winning. >> reporter: given the bad blood that led town this debate, in fact, almost prevented it from happening, people who tuned in looking for a slugfest were probably disappointed, the candidates were civil to each other, stuck it the issues, wrapped it up and stuck to the issues. bill: thanks for that, mike tobin, reporting live from lexington this morning. martha: we have brand new poll numbers released just moments ago, we're getting the latest look at where everything stands out there. kentucky, let's take a look at that race, rand paul is leading conway by a pretty solid margin there, 50 percent to 43 percent. this poll was done before last night's debate, before the back and forth that you saw and before the scuffle that we showed you out in the streets. seven days to go, anything can happen, including speaking to rand paul. bill: rand paul is our guest, next hour, at the top of the hour, he'll reflect back on last night and see also the polls numbers that you mentioned. stay tuned for that, 55 minutes from now. martha: there are polls released in several other key battle ground states. let's break those down, molly henneberg joins us live from washington with the details. let's start with the blue state of california, highly contested senate race there. how is that looking? >> the republican candidates, still keeping it close, the democratic incumbent is in the lead but hasn't really been able to pull away in california, as you were saying t. does tend to be very blue in senate and presidential races. you have democratic senator barbara boxer, the incumbent, 48 percent, same as last week, and her republican challenger, carly fiorina, 44 percent, same as last week, fiorina, former head of hewlett-packard, just added $1 million from her personal coffers to her campaign and part of the reason this race is so close may than 58 percent of californians say they want to repeal entirely or repeal parts of president obama's health care legislation. martha: wow, that's a big number. speaking of president obama, let's take a look at illinois, where there is a contentious battle on for his old seat. how is that going? >> reporter: neck and neck with the republican candidate holding on to a two-point lead he had last week but both candidates ticked up a point. alexi giannoulias, 41 percent, kirk, 43 percent and look at the green sroert, lee allen jones, getting 7 percent in this race for the senate seat once held by now president obama. the green party candidate there may be making a difference in this race if he's getting votes that may have gone to the democrats. voters in illinois, martha, appear to be concerned about president obama's economic polices, 43 percent say they have hurt the state, 31 percent say they have helped the state, which also may be helping the republican, kirk, in this race. martha: that's very interesting, because we've seen a lot of underlying talk about health care, weighing on the way people are crafting their early votes in these polls that we're doing, and talk about the race. it was really once thought to be a given for democrats, west virginia has gotten very interesting, molly. >> reporter: yes, democratic governor joe manchin is closing the gap with john raese, manchin ticking up to 46 percent, but that's two points rasea and he's a popular governor with a 69 percent approval rating. they like him as governor but they're when in washington, he would vote with the the. 54 percent of voteners west virginia say manchin agrees with the president too often and this is a state that's been opposed to the president's environmental polices, especially as they affect the coal industry, and coal is king for many in the mountaineer state. and voters are ready to make their wishes known next week. 58 percent, big number, 58 percent, of west virginians say their vote in this senate race will, quote, express opposition to the president's polices, only 18 percent say their vote will express support. martha: interesting stuff, molly, thank you very much, molly henneberg in d.c. the current party breakdown in the senate, democrats have the majority, of course, with 57 seats, republicans have 41, independents have two seats in the united states senate. so that means the gop would need a win of ten solid seats in order to take control of the senate. bill: one of the biggest issues that voters will assign all across the country is government spending and when nancy pelosi first stepped into her role as speaker of the house in 2007 she promised no new decifit spending, pelosi said the government would stick to a pay as you go system, cut now four years later, the national debt is up $5 trillion in that time, the largest increase under any speaker. stuart varney from the fox business network, good morning to you. how much of the blame belongs to speaker p/e pell or not? >> some of it but not all. you have to say in her defense that we had this great recession over the past couple of years and that clearlyhe decifit, but you must also say, bill, that spending in america begins with the house of representatives, and that massive stimulus and the huge budget spending, that clearly added to the decifit and to this $5 trillion extra debt that we've acquired during speaker pelosi's watch. there's an element of sadness here, bill, because if you go back to january of 2007, when speaker pelosi first wield dollars the gavel, her opening speech said the future generations would not be weighed down with a mountain of debt. fast forward to now, $5 trillion worth of extra debt on the books, and her latest statement said that food stamps and unemployment benefits got the best bang for the buck in an ailing economy. i think that's probably why, along with that $5 trillion extra debt, i think ms. pelosi has become something of an issue in some of the races to be decided next week. bill: you wonder if congress ever got that pay as you go system. everybody talks about it, never happens, stuart. >> no. there was always the emergency situation. that negated pay as you go. if it was an emergency, well, you could spend extra money without having to take extra money in some form of taxation. bill: the old shell game. i put it over here and you guess where it is. 9:20, stuart varney, see you then. martha: speaker pelosi now complain thank democrats are not getting the credit that they deserve for all of their accomplishments. former howard dean campaign manager joe trippe is going to join us with what voters may think about that. bill: also a campaign shocker, a top aide to harry reid, accused of lying to the feds about a sham marriage. a marriage to a guy. later the subject of a terror investigation. serious crime or dirty politics? the judge, napolitano, weighs in on that. martha. martha: president obama taking a shot from his own party. let's take a look at president obama now. >> president obama's endorsement, he can take his endorsement and shove it, as far as i'm concerned. martha: boy, remember that from yesterday? ouch! what this controversy, that is caprio, says about democrats, a week to election day. a fair and balanced debate, straight ahead, folks. lots coming up on "america's newsroom". we'll be right back. martha: high tech mystery in boston as federal investigators seized boxes from the home of a missile systems expert. listen to this. the feds are refusing to answer any questions about why they went into this house this, is richard lloyd's house, he is an ex-engineer with raytheon corporation which handles many u.s. missile defense programs. a spokesperson says that there's no immediate threat to the public, so that's reassuring, i guess, according to report, lloyd has extensive experience, though, with interceptor missiles and missiles designed to destroy land mines. bill: now to a story we first talked about on "america's newsroom" yesterday, the rhode island democrat that says president obama can take his endorsement and shove it, and standing by his comments today. frank caprio in the radio after the president decided not to endorse anyone in the governor's race in that state. did you hear this? >> i never asked for president obama's endorsement, you know, he can take his endorsement and really shove it, as far as i'm concerned. bill: in case there's any doubt, after the radio interview, caprio reiterated his point with cameras in front of him. >> what i said to the president is that this process about endorsements isn't something that i'm concerned about right now. and he can take the endorsement and shove it. bill: caprio is running against republican turned independent candidate lynn common chaffe who backed obama in 2008. the latest polling has caprio with a slight lead. it's a good race. director of renewing american leadership and spokesperson for former house speaker newt gingrich, good morning to you down there in washington. >> good morning. >> and maria cardona is former adviser to hillary clinton and communications director for the democratic national committee. good morning to you, how you doing? >> doing well, thank you. bill: at least frank ca -- caprio didn't back down. there was no policy, maria. >> that's exactly right, but i think it is unfortunate, because here we are in day two of this story and it has clearly knocked caprio off of his message, a week out of the election. i don't think it's a very smart strategy, frankly, especially in a hugely democratic state, where the democratic president is still immensely popular. i think he should have focused on not caring about the endorsement but not making this comment, because it's taking him off message. bill: do you think any president would decline to endorse in a race that's as tight as this? >> it's not unprecedented and my understanding is he didn't endorse anybody, he didn't want to weigh in because of his friendship with lincoln chafe. but it's not unprecedented and not as if the dny is not giving caprio and the democratic ticket a ton of support, organizationally, as well as financially and frankly caprio could point to that as being tantamount to support of the white house. bill: would he dare not endorse if he thought it would help him? >> you'd have to ask bill clinton that. you never know what somebody is going to do or not do. but i take the president at his word. he's got a relationship with chaffee, it doesn't mean he wasn't down campaigning for the democratic ticket, which is exactly what he was doing, and capirio could have pointed -- >> bill: maria, maria, maria! rick tyler, respond to this, do you buy that? >> i believe everything maria says! look, when rhode island becomes a fire wall for the democratic party i think that's indicative of what's going to happen on tuesday, and look, doing dumb political things is certainly not unprecedented but what barack obama did was told the base that i'm not with this guy, i'm with lincoln chaffee and that's where the base is going to go. bill: about the file, there was no policy -- apology, the guy came out and you know, he said it twice. sometimes on radio if you mess up, maybe you make up for it later but he didn't take that chance to do it. >> i think caprio, even though he shouldn't have said it publicly, said what almost every democrat had on their tongue. this democrat has gone from hope and change, high and mighty, down to they're already conceding and making excuses for the election. bill: this is -- >> clearly i don't agree with that! bill: this is within a few hours of each other yesterday, gene taylor is a democrat out of mississippi, the incumbent is running for reelection on the house side, he says, quote, i did not quote for -- vote for obama in '08, i voted for senator mccain, better the devil you know. me kwrarbgs that's o for two in one afternoon! >> look, we're clearly a week out from the election, emotions are running very high, but in terms of gene taylor's comment, that doesn't surprise me at all, and this white house will be the first one to say, these democratic candidates have got to do whatever they need to do in order to win. and a lot of the conservative districts where democrats are running, where they won in 2006 and where they yuan in 2008, is they need to run away from the president and this white house, they're doing it with a blessing of the president. so that's nothing new. bill: rick, i hear you in the background there. i can almost read your mind. >> she's doing a great skwraurbgs i agree with almost everything she's saying. bill: two four-month spwos a new presidency, you're running away from the guy at the head of your party. maria, thank you, rick, thank you, down there in washington, d.c., okay? all right, 19 minutes past. martha! >> martha: well, everybody is also watching the nevada senate race, and you know what, the early votes are pouring in there, and it is changing the game of it in an election where turnout is key. are more dems or gopers turning out in nevada right now in we're going to tell you, you may be surprised, folks. plus this: >> we're in a tornado. you're in the tornado! we are in the tornado! >> bill: this is remarkable videotape, a terrifying experience, caught on tape. we'll meet the person behind that camera, into the violent tornado in minutes. bill: another fox news alert to you a. weather alert in the city of chicago, a tornado watch has now been issued. look at the size of this system blowing through there. you have already predictions for gusts of winds from 40-60 miles an hour, rolling through america's second largest city right now, no flights allowed to leave o'hare airport, one of the busiest in the country, right behind atlanta, the warning does not expire until around 1:00 this afternoon local time so you're in it, what, 4-5 hours from now. also western kentucky be on the lookout, moving into indiana, later michigan, ohio, all those areas, facing the threat of severe weather, all day today. but a watch has now been issued for the windy city. martha: it's been 70 years since they've seen anything like this through chicago. we'll be watching that. how about this, incredible video captured by a texas man as he literally went head to head with a violent tornado. he was sitting in his car, a safe distance away, although it didn't look safe when you check this out, he was an emergency worker, he says the twister made a sharp turn and headed straight at him. listen to this: >> we're in the tornado! we're in the tornado! we're in the tornado! >> when it made the right turn, i couldn't turn earnings i couldn't go through the ditch, so my best option was to hunker down. >> this went right over us. >> all of the noise, along with the tornado, it was just unbelievable sound and experience. >> all of the sudden, we start seeing, like wizard of oz, stuff just started coming around and my brother-in-law and my wife ran in the house. >> the 18 wheeler that was overturned in front of me, the vehicles that were thrown in front of me, it was absolutely amazing, absolutely the most powerful thing i've ever seen in my life and i never want to see it again. martha: wow, he is lucky. the national weather service says two tornadoes actually touched down in eastern texas, dozens of homes were destroyed, and four people were reportedly hurt in all of this. unbelievable scene. bill: he's an emergency workerrer, right? that guy has seen his fair share of bad stuff and for him to say i never want to be there again. scare the daylights out of you. on politics, it's slaughterhouse five, five districts, five different states and if republicans succeed, it could mean power in congress. we're live in one of those key battle ground states in a moment. also, there's this: >> we don't mind the republicans joining us. they can come for the ride but they got to sit in back. martha: got a big response, the latest jab from president obama out on the campaign trail, coming as new reports say democrats have already got a reason, just in case they lose big on election night. so what is their reason? we're going to tell you when we come back. stick around. martha: let's look at some of the top stories this hour, 23 people are dead and more than 160 are missing after a powerful earthquake triggers a tsunami off of western indonesia and now the aftershock causing a volcano there to begin erupting. we'll keep an eye on that story for you. then there's this, saddam hussein's foreign minister sentenced to death by hanging in baghdad, tareq aziz. >> and the u.s. is launching an investigation into the tragic death of an open water swimmer at a world cup event, 26 fran crippin died saturday during a 10k marathon. bill: okay, we are seven days out and there's a profile today that features five critical races and the balance for power in the house side. i just want to show you now what we're looking at, especially on the house side. you need 218 votes to get a majority. here's the majority, 218, currently dems are at 252, republicans are at 182. they need about 39 seats to get a clear imagine orbgts seven days from now. so back to these key battle ground areas, and the races that could tilt the balance of power in the house at least toward the republican side. what we have done here is we've put all the key race toss watch, down here, all in gold. there's a lot of them, a lot to keep track of, frankly, too, with 435 members here. so here is the area that we're focused on, okay? a lot of races in the state of new york, a number of races in pennsylvania, several in the state of ohio, a few down here in florida, then a couple critical races out here in arizona. if they go the way of the republican vote, then you're looking at a clear majority come seven days from now. but as we also watch the races to watch in the state of pennsylvania, there is one district that tells a very interesting story about how these two men are running against each other. this is the 12th district here, you've got the democrat democrat mark kurt -- critz against republican tim burns and carl says we got to go there now! carl is in central p.a. good morning. >> reporter: hi bill. this is a fascinating race a. rematch of a recent democratic victory. this is the seat that jack murtha, the very well known veteran of the u.s. house held for 36 years before he passed away last year, and in may, there was a special election, and at that time his long-time staffer mark critz, a democrat, won the seat and has occupied it since then. this general election is a rematch of that battle, going up against republican tim burns, and because he was elected just a short time ago as the democrat holdings the seat, this is an opportunity for republicans still to flex their muscle and pull a reversal and a big republican pickup but the indications are this is a very, very tight race, and democrat democrats around the country are sort of pumping up their chest and saying look, we're not done yet, there are a few republican that is we may beat, and if you look across the state of pennsylvania over to suburban philadelphia, over in allentown, that is an example of a place where republicans are in big trouble, there, charlie dent, incumbent republican, is actually in a dead heat and even perhaps even losing in the poll the -- polls against his democrat challenger, callahan, and there are a lot of races to look at around the country, but if the magic number for republicans is 39, we can't overlook the fact that there may be one or two republicans around the country, including that seat in allentown, where there are difficulties for republican, too. bill: i tell you, carl, we don't hear a lot about them, frankly. how many vulnerable republicans are there on the map? >> reporter: well, probably not enough to change the overall trajectory. i mean, every analyst virtually says republicans are likely to get their 39 but take a look at the national map in a different way you showed it on the big board there, bill, we're going to isolate the 100 most competitive races across the country. now, see how they're sprinkled around there? those blue dots, those are the democratic incumbents who are at risk or in tossup competitive races. there's 91 of them. when you put it up against the republicans of equivalent risk, there's only nine. but of those nine, there are about five that democrats could pick up, so when we talk about the 39 magic number for republicans, if they lose four or five seats, what they really are going to need is a gross gain of 44 in order to control the majority. but when you see all those 100 blue dots, it's an awful lot of territory for them to look to win. and that vividly explains the disadvantage that democrats face in the truly competitive races, nine out of ten are democrats. bill: thank you for that carl, south central p.a. catch you later south of pennsylvania. here's martha. >> martha: with lots of speculation that republicans may tip the balance of power weeks from now, reports that democrats may have found a rallying cry to get around, using claims of, quote, secret money that is going to the gop as a possible excuse for defeat, if that's what happens. look at president obama in philadelphia: >> they're being helped along this year by special interest groups that are spending unlimited amounts of money on attack ads, attacking folks like patrick murphy, like joe sestak, just attacking people, without ever disclosing who's behind all these attack ads. martha: brit hume joins me, fox news senior analyst. good morning, welcome. >> thanks martha. martha: you can feel, it's a coordinated effort, you heard joe biden saying how amazed he is, he has never seen anything like this secret money coming in, i heard nancy pelosi on a competitor the other night, in hurbd tones, talking about secret money that's coming in, you know. i mean, clearly, this is a coordinated effort. >> no doubt about it, martha. but it's really silly, democrats are not being outspent in this campaign, and the largest single contributor outside special interest money turns out to be a labor union, that's the government employees union, asme, so i guess the problem supposedly is that we don't know the identities of all the people who contributed to the groups that are supporting republican candidates and attacking democrats. i frankly don't think most americans care very much about that. this can only be explained or described as an effort to energyize democrats to come and vote because democrats are animated by things like secret corporate money. martha: she whispered when she said it, she really did. let's play a dnc ad that substantiates this discussion. let's play that for you. >> karl rove, ed gillespie, they're bush cronies, the u.s. chamber of commerce, they're shield phos big business, and they're stealing our democracy, spending millions from secret donors to elect republicans to do their biding in congress. martha: karl rove has denied that that's ed gillespie stealing that woman's purse! you raise an interesting point, it's something you wonder if it makes some democrats in the inner circle good about the way things are going but is it something they need to do to reach out to people and stick up for the job they've been doing? >> look, i'm not a political consultant, and i don't know how to advise either party about what to do. what i will say is this. the democrats should be able, if they were in a better position, to go out and say vote for us, because look at what all we've done for you, vote for us because we did this, that and the other thing, but they're not able to do that this year because the results on the economy have not been nearly as good as they promised and the other major initiatives that the president dealt with and spent most of his time on for 15 months, health care reform, is unpopular. so these are difficult times in america, the democrats are in a position where they really can't run on their record very effectively, so they're running on something else and they don't have much to run on so they're trying this attack about attacking the hidden corporate interests that are supporting republicans. and that may excite some democrats. i don't think it's going to do a thing to energize independents toward the democrats. i just think it's sort of a tactic that you choose when you have nothing else. martha: let's talk a little about this recent statement that was made by president obama, and i want to get your thoughts on this, because there's been some suggestion that after november 3rd, the administration is going to have to attack a little bit, that they're going to have to reach across the aisle and they may negotiate things, even along the lines of health care reform, in some small ways. let's listen to this from president obama on the campaign trail and get your thoughts on it brit. >> we got to have middle class families up and front. we can't -- we don't mind the republicans joining us, they can come for the ride but they got to sit in back. martha: i don't know where that leaves you if you're middle class and republican, i'm not sure where you're supposed to sit! >> he said things like this before. you know, you don't want to turn the keys over to -- to the car over to people who drove us into the hitch, republicans have not been helpful and we've been trying to do the country's business and they've been nothing but naysayer, so it's not unusual in the heat of the campaign, in this closing hour, he would be critical, dumping on the republicans. that's standard fare. it is the most interesting question, though, martha, what he will do in the new atmosphere that we all expect after this election. it's going to be even if the republicans get control of neither house, it is still going to be an expanded republican minority in both houses by every estimate and it's going to be a much more difficult governing atmosphere for the president, and the question is will he do what bill clinton did or as someone wrote the other day, will he try to do what harry truman d. which is to attack the other party and not try to shift in this direction at all. i don't think we know the answer to it. we have seen no signs, however, in the changes that he's made so far, you know, new chief of staff, new national security adviser, and in the things he's saying on the campaign trail, that he plans to do what bill clinton did, which was to move to the center and some ways to the right. there's been no sign of that. i'm not saying it won't happen, but no sign of it yet. martha: as you rightly point out, that's going to be the story we're going to be talking and watch -- talking about and watching. thank you, brit. bell bill i want to get back to this breaking news in the city of -- city of chicago, a town that knows bad weather but tornadoes can be quite rare even for folks in chicago. that's a view, screen left from on top of the sears tower and screen right is the massive weather system moving across the upper midwest now. there's a tornado watch in effect for the city of chicago, right now, no flights allowed to leave o'hare airport, it's one of the busiest in the country, handling 900,000 flights every year, midway apparently is still open and the national weather service, calling this storm possibly one of the strongest we have seen in decades. one prediction said 40-60-mile an hour winds, whipping through illinois, indiana, and michigan. it's going to affect a lot of people before this storm is over. so we're back live in our extreme weather center. martha: south of that area, they don't usually make it up to the windy city. we're going to watch that. in the meantime, scandal surfacing from inside senate majority leader harry reid, a top aide to harry reid reportedly lied to the feds about a fake marriage, but that's not where the story ends. the question is why this person would do that. judge napolitano is going to weigh in on that bill: and plenty of sarcasm when these two men in the kentucky senate debate and a few shots, too. >> in kentucky, the kentuckians know you don't attack a man's dog and you don't attack a man's horse. >> the question is -- my question -- >> bill: it went from there, the man on the right, republican rand paul,sy live in "america's newsroom", reacting to last night's debate and the fox news polling numbers, just out in kentucky. martha: white house support may be paying off some for harry reid, senate majority leader in nevada, when it comes to which voters are turning out for the early voting that's going on there, democrats outnumber others by 3000 votes so far. both president obama and vice president biden made recent campaign appearances on reid's behalf. the newest polling average those angle ahead of reid by a fraction of a point. this is the realtor politics average for how things are going out there. by bill tight, isn't it, martha? now to a story that broke out yesterday, former aide to senator harry reid now accused of marrying an lebanese man to gain citizenship, the woman at the controversy, this is evolveing from an fbi terror probe. judge andrew napolitano, good morning. let's sort through this thing now. what is she accused of doing? >> she is accused of engageing in a sham marriage, she's accused of having someone, we don't know who, we don't know why, pay her to go through the formalities of a marriage with a foreign national, a person with whom she never lived and a person with whom she never consummated the marriage, and then she's accused of lie pw-g whether or not it was a real marriage repeatedly and filing false documents with the immigration and naturalization service over this same issue. and equally as curious is the fact that when senator reid fired her the justice department agreed not to prosecute her. she could be charged with felonies, which if you add them all up could land her in jail for 25 years. instead, the federal government with no explanation is not charging her with any crime. by bill let me stop you right there. he's accused of having terror tie? >> yes. >> to who and where? >> well, he wasn't prosecuted for the terror ties so we don't know to whom and where. we do know that an antiterror task force in illinois arrested him and interrogated him and incarcerated him but he was never charged. he's still in jail because he participated in the fraudulent marriage as well, and he probably will be deported. if you are married to an american citizen, as you know, bill, you get a leg up on your own path to citizenship and get permanent residency. bill: that's right. it may happen in many cases all across the country. >> correct. but really, the employer is not responsible for what the employee does. but when you are a senator, when you're the majority leader in the senate, and when your employee is being interrogated by the fbi over a course of seven years, shouldn't you know that she's lying to new bill: and there's an election in seven days, too. now, she no longer works for him. >> correct. bill: but it was a few months back that she was representing the spokesman for spanish media. this is what harry reid's spokesman jim manley has said, he has said that our office was not previously aware of these allegations, and following an internal investigation the staffer at issue is no longer with our office, the conduct alleged took place several years before the staffer worked for senator reid, was clearly wrong. how about nine, ten years ago, i believe. but the bottom line remains that this story was a desperation measure by partisan republicans who have stooped to shrinking mud about junior staffers to score points in the waning days of her campaign. do we know what her incentive was to marry this man? >> in one of her truthful moments with the fbi, she apparently told them that she was paid to marry him. but because she's not going to be prosecuted, we will never know who paid her, and why. why would an aide to senator harry reid be paid to marry someone who ends up on a terror watch list? bill: and the marriage, by the way, is over. >> is no good. bill: divorced. thank you, judge, for coming on today. check him out on the weekends on fbn on "freedom watch" and judge has all the updates all the time, log on to foxnews.com for complete coverage, and thanks to the people at fox for breaking that story. martha: let's get you an update on this weather in the chicago area, severe weather warnings. they have now kept -- they have canceled 125 flights at o'hare airport. that's got to be a nightmare. this is one of the two busiest airports in the country. we're trking this in the weather center. coming up we'll give you the very latest on this. eleven states are under weather warnings now. bill: a massive system. also one thing a lot of you will not miss once this election is over, robo calls, this one, serving people in their sleep. martha: what? >> if you have the audacity to believe i can see new two weeks is quite frankly weak -- >> join -- bill: fox news alert now, we want to show you chicago now, a tornado watch in effect for that city as this giant system affecting at least 11 different states throughout the day, into the evening hours, and that's screen left at the sears tower in chicago. now let's move further to milwaukee, in wisconsin, north of chicago, that's what they're feeling now, gusts could be up to 60 miles an hour, so the watches are out there, we want to warn you, folks, it's coming your way. but if you're watching this and you live there, you probably already know that. so take it easy. martha: stay home. it is a classic story of government, spend a lot more than you make, and kind of worry about it later right? what if the feds had to keep their books the way a big company does, what would happen then? fox news bit network, rich, could the decifit be worse than what the government is reporting in this case? >> it very well could be, especially on the outlook side. this past year the government ran up a $1.3 trillion tab, official statistics show the national debt will be about 70 percent of the size of our economy by 2020. other government reports show the debt will be larger than the size of our economy by then. and one report shows if the federal government had to keep its books like a private business, a group called shadow government statistics says u.s. debt would already be about five times the size of the economy, martha. martha: why the difference? >> it's all in accounting. when the federal government releases its annual budget tally, it includes money in minus money it pays out, so if the feds use the same accounting as business they would have to include liabilities like trillions of dollars in obligations for social security and medicare. social security is in better shape than medicare but the government owes trillions of dollars over time. shadow government statistics says this accounting means the government ran up more than $5 trillion in debt in 2008, more than $2 trillion in 2009. martha, there are dozens of budget analyses out there and to get it right you have to predict what congress is going to do and good luck with that. martha: it's unpredictable, isn't it? thank you very much, rick. bill: a lot of that going around these days, a lot of good luck with that. good luck with that! martha: see how that works out for you. bill: good luck with that, america. unhappy choice, those are the words one candidate is using to describe the new ad. we're going to show you the ad out of california and you will decide whether or not the candidate is right. martha: we're going to have more on this disturbing scuffle outside a senate debate in kentucky and what happened inside with the candidates, where we will talk about the issues that they were discussing in there. candidate rand paul joins us live straight ahead with his reaction to the debate last night. this is the aarp... medicare supplement insurance plan card. wherever you go, nationwide, your coverage travels with you. and that's just one of the many reasons... you need a card like this. 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about, right now, the battle another senate seat in kentucky, and it is white-hot, after a debate that is making headlines coast-to-coast, tonight, rand paul the republican as you can see in the most recent numbers, we got in this morning, leading jack conway by 7 points, right now and that is the brand new fox news poll and we have lots of numbers to look at, this morning in a brand new hour of "america's newsroom," i'm martha maccallum. bill: i'm bill hemmer, 7 days and counting and we get a snapshot, what is happening in the political races, political banter inside and a brawl outside, as the female protestor, getting roughed up during demonstrations, in the parking lot while rand paul and jack conway debated on the inside, her shoulder stepped on after being heckled by two men there. martha: what a mess, things were more civil, during the discussion, inside, rand paul is a republican senate candidate, from kentucky, and good have you here, sir, welcome. >> good to be with you, martha. martha: let's discuss the scuffle. what was your reaction, folks wearing rand paul t-shirts and hats treated the woman this way. >> we want everybody to be civil and want the issue, the campaign to be about issues. when we arrived there was enormous passion on both sides and it was something where you walked into a daze of lights flashing, and people yelling and screaming, and bumping up and there was a bit of a crowd control problem and i don't want anybody, though to be involved in things that are not civil and i think it should always be about the issues, and, is an unusual situation, to have so many people, so passionate on both sides, jockeying back and forth and it wasn't something i liked or anybody liked about that situation. so i hope in the future it will be better. martha: hopefully, everybody out there will listen to that and as you rightly point out, there has been a lot of tensions and a lot of excitement and a lot of passion and sometimes leading to things we wish were not happening out there. but, let's do as you suggested and let's talk about the issues, and i want to start by playing a piece from last night's debate and gets your response to it. let's play it for the folks at home. >> you have a simplistic world view and oversimplify things and you do -- >> i mean, the thing is you don't want to present the whole facts, you say we'll heap on a new sales tax, and, you forget to mention we're talking about eliminating the income tax. okay? you leave that out of all of your -- >> 90% of the people have taxes go up and the seniors i talk to cannot afford night that is incorrect, what happens is there's an exemption of the first $50,000 of sales. >> did you vote for the national sales tax. >> you don't listen and oversimply things in sound bites, you really don't -- >> get a little personal last night, mr. paul. >> we need longer discussions, of issues, and i think last night we did have a little more of that discussion. the problem with our campaigns in america is they are driven by 30 second sound bites on both sides, and everybody is guilty of that. but what we need is a better discussion of, we have real problems, i mean, we have a $2 trillion debt in our country, and -- in one year, $13 trillion debt, and, if you count all the entitlement, $60 trillion worth of obligations. real problems that i think should have a serious discussion, and not this sound bite kind of thing. martha: i anticipate after the election we'll hear a lot about cutting programs in washington, you have spoken out about the department of education, saying you think that that may be something we need to cut. would you vote to cut the department of education and why do you think no child left behind has been a mistake? >> well, ronald reagan ran a campaign in 1980, really, against -- for eliminating the department of education, because we as republicans believed in more local control of schools, no child left behind, if you talk to parents, teachers, everyone, is more federal control, more federal mandates, it doubled the size of the expensive, and nobody likes it. it adds layers of tests, that the schools are already doing and i grew up in an era with no department of education and we all took the california achievement test or a national test and compared our local school with schools in other states. i'm all for comparison to see how we are doing and making things more associated with merit but let's do it locally and let the school superintendents get involved to make decision, eastern kentucky is different than northern kentucky. and is much different than new york city, let's have more local control. martha: i want to get to one more issue, and that is afghanistan. you said that you believe the united states should only enter war reluctant and, that you have to ask ourselves, ten years later, why we are there. would you vote to continue funding our troops in afghanistan, if you were in the u.s. senate? >> i think that we need to have a gadebate about it and i'm reluctant to say i wouldn't keep funding troops, because obviously we have troops in the field and i think supporting our troops is the primary function of the national government. but i think we do have to have a discussion about, will we be there 100 years, a thousand years, can we create nations? should we be nation-building? or should we be fighting terrorism? i think sometimes that al qaeda is a very mobile enemy, and there are many people who have written about how we need to have special forces, that will go to various parts of the world in a split-second and stop terrorism and, big, large, ground forces in areas fighting conventional war, may not be the best way to fight terrorism and let's have the debate. i'm not sure i have all this answers, at this point. but i need to learn more about it and i want to be part of focussing the debate, how long we stay. martha: dr. paul i want to look at a recent poll that came out this morning from fox news opinion dynamics and it has to do with how important the obama administration is. this people's votes. in the kentucky senate race. and, it says, 56% of voters, in this poll, say they will be expressing opposition to the obama administration in the vote, if that is the case, with the folks who turn out, that would be good news for you, i suppose. >> absolutely, and we have been talking about the president's agenda and we think that is fair game. the president's also for cap-and-trade which is a national energy tax, which would devastate kentucky jobs, people from kentucky want someone who will stand up to the president and say, you don't understand kentucky. and we don't want your cap-and-trade tax, down here, because, it would put 100,000 people out of work and we already have 10% unemployment, and maybe a little higher, depending how you count it in some counties. martha: good to hear your thoughts and, the race has been about everything from the aqua buddha to the recent scuffle, and, we wanted to know what you plan on doing, if you do make to it washington, thank you. >> thank you, martha. martha: we talked with democrat jack conway's campaign to invite him on the show and hope to get him over the course of the next six days before the race gets under way and folks head to the polls in earnest, jack conway, welcome any time. bill: no more beratno more deba in kentucky, a tornado watch is issued for several states including the area of illinois that contains the city of chicago, a huge area of the country affected. several states affected by the massive storm moving through, the view, screen left from the tower formerly known as the sears tower and now the willis tower and live to the weather center and maria is standing by live, good morning, maria. >> good morning, you are right, we are tracking the storm system, powerful and we are seeing it as one of the most powerful storms, basically since -- the past couple of decades and we're continuing to track the line of storms and the squall line is extending across several states, pushing into indiana and several tornado warnings in affect and, three watches and the one including chicago has been pushed a little further east and that is in effect until 11:00 a.m., central time and we have another one, further south, towards the tail end of the front, that is also right around memphis, and that was in effect until 12:00 p.m., central time and the other one extending into ohio, until 4:00 p.m., and it will be and good morning event and you can see the line of basically tornado warnings which are the ones in red and yellow are severe thunderstorm warnings and this is just a very serious situation. taking a closer look you can see the cities around t area, louisville, coming up, and continues to push eastward and a tornado close by, a tornado warning, issued, and if one is issued for your county, seek shelter, not time to head outdoors and put the plants inside, go to the basement or innermost room of your house, preferably without windows, and, doppler radar is moving northeast at about 55 miles per hour, so, a pretty quick-moving storm, actually 50 or 60 miles south of indianapolis, close by. and the severe weather threat throughout the day today, large sized hail, strong winds and isolated tornadoes are concerned and the main concern is basically the damaging winds that will continue to push eastward, behind it, the threat to see the strong winds, between 55 and 60 miles per hour, bill. bill: so many folks affected. we'll watch it throughout the day, don't go far. maria, thanks in our weather center. martha: hold on to your hat in chicago. a new poll in a crucial senate battle that is showing little change and we'll tell you why that is a significant development in this race. bill: also, democrats are not getting credit for all of the good they've done, the latest from house speaker nancy pelosi. and guess whose fault that is? martha: and it has been eber knucknumberin -- a baste numbering eber-knuckle brawl. >> i'll do something missing from california politics far too long, i'll treat you like grown-ups, and, tem it to you straight, and, offer a practical plan forward. martha: but what if therwere a different sry? of one financial company that grew stronger through the crisis. when me lost their way, this company led the way. by protecting clies and turning uncertainty into confidence. what if that story were true? it is. ♪ it is. funny how nature just knows how to make things that are good for you. new v8 v-fusion + tea. one combined serving of vegetables and fruit with the goodness of green tea and powerful antioxidants. refreshingly good. bill: breaking business news, brand new housing numbers, home prices dropping across the country, shocker, i know. down .2% in august from july, 15 of the 20 cities, that are in the survey showing monthly price declines and in areas that had shown strength earlier this year, the biggest points drop, phoenix, prices falling 1.3%, you had detroit, chicago, washington, new york, and las vegas, main cities to show increases in the survey. martha: it is tuesday and we'll get new poll numbers to look at and they fill in some of what is going on out there and we have these in our newsroom this morning. out of one of the tightest senate races, look at these. west virginia senate seat has been in democratic hands, for more than 30 years. but, now, republican john raese is inching ahead of the democrat, who is a popular governor, governor joe manchin and two fighting for late senator robert byrd's seat and that is where we start with nina easton, of course the washington columnist at "fortune" magazine and a fox news contributor. nina, great to see you. welcome. >> great to see you, martha. martha: it has been interesting, the west virginia race and senator byrd's seat, as we said. how is it looking to you. >> and the senator's seat would be a big blow if the democrats lost it, what is interesting about west virginia is it is a bit of a schizophrenic state politically, because, typically, voters in west virginia will send democrats as senators, as members of congress and their own state legislature and governors. however, the state typically goes republican in presidential races. in fact, even in 2008 with john mccain, it went towards republicans, so, you know, it is interesting, we are seeing the schizophrenia play out in the tight race and joe manchin as you know is not only popular, he's a conservative democrat, with the backing of the national rifle association and so on. so it is definitely a race to watch. martha: we have seen, yes, firing the gun, in commercials and caught himself -- called himself, as many democrats are, a different kind of democrat and we hear that in the kentucky race as well and it is interesting, we haven't seen the numbers move much in west virginia since the last polling and yet we hear there are a good number of undecided voters out there. we'll have perhaps surprises on election night? >> i think we'll have surprises everywhere on election night. because it's hard, with the intensity, kind of flowing out there, it is hard to gauge exactly where things are going to go, it could be a big wave election where the intensity is so far on the republican's favor that, you know, it is like a sea wave. but, we also have at the end here, we, keep in mind, a lot of union money is pouring in. $200 million nationwide, and, democrats are just pouring money into ads in races across the nation, so you are seeing a lot of races tighten up. martha: interesting point, we have -- brit and i talked about the secret money that is pouring in and looking at the money, equal across the board with democrats and republicans in terms of money spent which is an important point and look at ohio. which is the next chart we -- next poll number we want to pull up. the governor's race, strickland is a democrat and john kasich is the republican, in this race and he has holding on to a bit of a lead here. what are your thoughts. >> kasich has been comfortably ahead and those numbers are not good for strickland, who is a -- the incumbent governor. you don't want to be at 43%, going into this race. that is not good, and this is one of those races where, again, kasich, unlike a lot of the other races that are tighter he has been comfortably ahead, as comfortably as you can say and it is a really key swing state, bellwether state, you know, president obama's policies are just not popular there. so, it is suffering from high unemployment and this is a real state to watch, too. martha: sure is, and let's look at illinois, speaking of the president. this is his senate seat up for grabs and you have mark kirk against giannoulias and it is very tight. >> what is interesting about this one, this is barack obama's seat, as you know, so, it is again, a -- if the democrats lose it is a big blow and the democrats should have it and interestingly, mark kirk should have been comfortably ahead and came into the race a popular figure and made the gaffe about his -- more than a gaffe, stretched the truth on his military career and that has really hurt him and he's having trouble overcoming that and the race is a lot tighter than we would have expected five or six months ago. martha: interesting, it seems to have hurt him and didn't hurt blumehthal, same situation, different results. >> different results, yes, but, i guess, blumehthal is running against -- again it depends on, you know, choice, basically. martha: good job. unfortunately or fortunately, thank you very much, always good to talk to you, nina easton, out of washington, we'll see you soon. all of the results from the our battleground state polls are on the web site at foxnews.com and you can pore over those and see what you think and you'll find the complete poll results and analysis there as well. a lot of folks spending a lot of time at foxnews.com because they want to see the polls. bill: an interesting story. as you talked, martha, breaking news out of california, the historic california, south of -- in california, a stand off, a man was shooting a should the gun in his backyard, 3:00 a.m., 7:00 a.m. local -- check that, 6:00 east coast time and four hours ongoing now, police still on the scene. no contact with the gunman, no injuries. and they are waiting for the s.w.a.t. team to show up and the s.w.a.t. team may be onscene but based on the picture in torrance, california, we have not seen that. a man firing a shotgun the middle of the night, 3:00 local time, police have responded now, and some police officers, with helmets an semi-automatic rifles surrounding the home. there is the news video cameraman at the scene, reported, too, and he has been giving information, too, from the scene there. the neighbor reported the shotgun blast and the man's father died recently. and there may be alcohol involved here, too, may have been drinking earlier in the day and apparently he has numerous guns in his home. and we're watching that for you and, hopefully that will find its way to a good and peaceful conclusion. martha: let's hope. bill: torrance california, south of l.a. it is a long election cycle and democrats and republicans have at least one thing in common and neither party is happy about it. we'll explain. martha: getting this one, folks: 50,000 people got an early "wake-up call" this morning, a very early "wake-up call" they did not ask for, listen to this: ♪ ♪ call me ♪ call me any, any time ♪ call me... martha: snow martha: democrats and republicans have a common enemy, vandals, at the state democratic headquarters in denver, grafitti is sprayed on the sidewalks and the walls, look at some of this. just a few blocks away, someone put holes in the walls and ripped down signs at the republican office. listen to this: >> i don't know if it is vandals or if it is politically motivated. regardless, however i would hope that in denver we would find folks that are more respectful. martha: police have been notified but at this point don't know who is responsible for all of this and, a mess in denver. bill: big time on the line now, upping the ante in the nuclear stand off in iran, tehran fueling up the core reactoreacty kellogg is live in london with details now, what is the significance of the step, amy. >> reporter: bill, interestingly enough i spoke to a major proliferation expert in london and he said it's not and acts of die defiance, it is the next step and busheir is not a proliferation risk, but what concerns proliferation experts is when busheir goes on-line next year it will be the first of irans's neighbors to have a nuclear energy program and that sparks concerns of some sort of nuclear race inasmuch as others may wants to follow suit and do what iran is doing. bill: what about negotiations? are they happening? at a stand still? is anybody talking at all? >> reporter: the cat and mouse game continues and the iranians said they wanted to return to the negotiating table after ramadan in august and there was talk about october and now, mahmoud ahmadinejad is indicating that this may happen sometimes after the u.s. midterm elections and here's what an expert had to say about mahmoud ahmadinejad and the timing here. >> he's trying to, in his own way, make a signal to president obama that we are not holding these negotiations prior to the u.s. elections. because were they to be held prior to the u.s. elections, and were they to come out with the resulted that everybody expects, that is, no progress, that that would adversely affect the chances of the democrats and obama supporters, in the forthcoming election. >> reporter: and, bill the expert says that mahmoud ahmadinejad is expecting something in return, for putting off the negotiation until after the u.s. midterm elections. but, again, no one expects iran to talk about stopping enrichment and that is what the u.n. security council and much of the international community is demanding they do. bill: just about every issue, the prism of politics, too, amy kellogg, live in london on that story. martha. martha: all right, you may have lost a little bit of sleep over the political midterm elections thing and now, they may be regioning out and actually messing with your sleep. -- reaching out and actually messing with your sleep and it is doing that for voters in one state. >> i would be frightened something is wrong with my children and i don't think they should do it. >> i hang up and i don't know anybody listens to them. we don't care what they say on the phone. martha: robo calls in the middle of the night, phones ringing off the hook, can you imagine! hi, bill hemmer... hello, bill, vote for so-and-so. bill: see you in a couple of hours, martha. go back to sleep now. meg whitman hayes message for california voters. is it the right message? fair and balanced debate, an unusual choice, we are told. 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[ male announcer ] with xerox, you're ready for real business. things developing, right now, saddam hussein's foreign minister sentenced to die for persecuting shiite political parties, tariq aziz has 30 days to appeal the sentence. and, former presidential candidate john mccain weighing in now on the next presidential election. calling his former running mate, sarah palin, an outstanding candidate for 2012. but, saying it is too early to endorse her. and a federal panel trying to determine if regional airlines are being held to the same safety standards as major airlines and follows last year's crash that killed 50 people in western new york. back over to bill. bill: 10:31 in new york and house speaker nancy pelosi saying the democrats have not really gotten the credit for what they have done. arguing millions in -- millions of dollars in election spending against them hurt efforts to get message out. she said, quote, now, but you are right, we haven't really gotten the credit for what we have done but we will take it to the voters and have a democratic majority, to follow through on it. is that really the case? joe trippi, fox news contributor and former howard dean campaign manager, how are you doing, joe and good morning to you. >> good morning to you, bill. bill: is she onto something or is this the kind of credit that voters don't want to give you credit for any way? >> look, you know, throughout recent political history you pay the price in the short-term and the best example of this was bill clinton and the democrats in 1993, when they passed the budget act, and it cost 52 seats in the house but we had surpluses, millions of jobs created, i mean, a lot of the bad stuff that voters thought was going to happen didn't happen, but, i think he got the same thing here and it will take people years to see... bill: but it doesn't -- >> what the democrats accomplish. bill: it doesn't seem like the democrats running for re-election want the credit. they are not running on stimulus or cap-and-trade and health care. >> yeah, they didn't run on the clinton budget robbing sillation, either -- reconciliation, either in 1994 and clinton thought that was a mistake later on and, look, people aren't going to realize that they didn't lose their insurance, because of a preexisting condition for a few years, and things like a lot of the things that got accomplished in a lot of the bills, people are only hearing the bad stuff and haven't gotten the good stuff yet and it may take them years to recognize that. bill: it is intriguing to see how the story unfolds, as you know, john, businessesdribblingy will or will not protect their employees and is scaring people, frankly and president obama, thursday of last week, on -- i'll play this and it goes along with speaker pelosi and i'm ask you about it. >> okay. >> president barack obama: one of the challenges we had two years ago, was we had to move so fast, we were in such east emergency mode that it was difficult for us to spend a lot of time doing victory laps and advertising exactly what we were doing because we had to move on to the next thing. bill: we had to move so fast and we were in such emergency mode. isn't that part of the problem? that convincing people that the policies pursued in the past are good for -- pursued and passed are good for america. >> absolutely. that is clearly the problem here. i don't think democrats did a good job and the administration did a good job of explaining a lot of this to the american people. and, again, people hear the negatives and react to it, sooner, and it takes years for things like social security, medicare, the health care reform, i mean, these things all take years for americans to either decide are good for bad for the country. bill: i'm suggesting a different point, and if i wasn't clear i will be this time, i think what you hear from voters during the -- a lot of the -- the last few years is show dolow down, washi we aren't sure what you are doing with the 2 percent page bill. >> it is definitely the case and it moved so fast, the american people with so much spending the american people are -- you now, are -- changing gears. they are not spending and don't want the government to spend, either. the government, i think, the administration was in a situation, where, people aren't spending, the government has to step in to try and stimulate the economy, and, the jury is out on whether that worked or not, and, i think that is why a lot of democrats are having problems in the november elections. bill: you have a really good handle, joe, on what is happening across the country. so many states and so many districts. we're a week away, right now. if you were to lay your best wager, what happens in the house, first of all? >> what happens? bill: first, the house. >> personally i don't see how we hold the house unless there is a really spontaneous combustion among democratic voters that get them even more energized than they are, but now i think that is very very, tough and i don't see it happening. holding the house, i mean, and the senate side, i think those races have closed, and i wouldn't be surprised if we hold off -- democrats hold off the republicans and only pick up 7 or 8 seats. bill: i didn't hear a number on the house side. you wanted to go that far now. >> from the low 40s, to as high as the high 50s. bill: 39 is what you need, right now. joe trippi, thank you, looking forward to talking to you the next week and beyond. thanks, out of d.c. today, shoot me an e-mail, follow me on twitter, @billhemmer. file your question now. martha: i am filing my question, because i asked. martha from new jersey. bill: we'll change that, to bma, because martha asked! martha: rise and shine at 1:00 a.m., i kid you not for thousands of nevada voters, a computerized robo call mistakenly called 50,000 homes in the middle of the night asking people to help change the state law regarding judge selection, that is what you think about, the middle of the night, right. >> the last thing they want to worry about is whether the judge is more accountable to a campaign contributor, or to a special interest group, than to the law. >> a "yes" vote on question one will stop cash from pouring into the courts and ensure we have qualified judges. martha: well, as you can imagine the group behind this one thinks it may not go their way. they say they have no excuse for what happened. and the campaign is so very sorry for the late night interruptions, and, furthermore the robo call contractor is terminated. out of a job, neil who arranthe arranged the robo call and it was supposed to happen at 1:00 p.m., and, i think, if it said vote for proposition 1, i might say no, if i got a call in the middle of the night. bill: what are the chances of the person winning now, it went to 50-50, regardless of the polling. martha: oopsy. bill: they are probably hanging up on the 1:00 p.m. anyway. so much for the two party system, independents holding a serious lead in the key race that could change the face of the republican party. who is that. martha: an interesting one and jerry brown has been attacking meg whitman since day one in the battle for california governor and now meg whitman is attacking herself? a new interesting twist. >>... unhappy choice, between a long time politician with no plans for the future, and a billionaire with no government experience. martha: like the way she's getting at that. we'll talk with our panel, coming up. r at berkeley asked me if i wanted to change the world. i said "sure." 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meantime, back to bill and martha. martha: thank you very much, we'll join them at the top of the hour and we haven't bringing you this morning our brand new fox news poll numbers, came out an hour ago. here's the numbers from california, where veteran democrat jerry brown is leading now by 9% in that heated race, for governor and republican meg whitman has been at the center of controversy during the race, after her former housekeeper went public with claims of being fired because of her illegal immigrant status. and, now, meg whitman is trying to sort of put in this last effort here, in the final days, she's tackling her unpopularity with the voters with this: >> i know many of you see this election as an unhappy choice, between a long time politician with no plans for the future, and a billionaire with no government experience. martha: all right, she goes on after that to talk about her experience, and, as a californian and a mom and raising her family and starting her business in california. and ebay, of course, ron bodine is the former communications director to dennis hastert and former senior advisor to trent lott and then we have dick harpootlian, as the chairman of the democratic party of south carolina and i have a little bit of a delay with dick's sound and what you may be hearing if there is a delay in the conversation, but, let me start with you, ron, what do you think? is this a good ad? >> well, this is a closing argument for meg whitman the last week of the campaign and she has been in a tough situation over the housekeeper illegal immigrant incidents and is trying to throw somewhat of a hail mary pass, between the choices you are unhappy about, i'm the better choice and i crated jobs and that is the real problem in california is the economy, job creation and she's trying to get back on track an it is tough being down and real clear politic has her 6 points down and he's not out of the running yet but it is close. martha: and what do you think, dick, you have been in politics a long time, is it a downer or a good one for her? >> i think it is a downer and i think it is more than a hail mary pass and when you say, that you are one of the two in an unhappy choice, the evil of two lessers, if you will, i don't think that is the pitch you want to make going into the election day, and, i think it is -- demonstrates a broader problem with the sort of republican insurgent message this year, boxer is way up on her opponent in california. jerry brown is up on meg whitman and we are seeing this all over the country, here in south carolina, nikki haley is going down, the tea party candidate. she has gotten caught in several lies, not paying income taxes -- >> last numbers i saw for her, she was in the lead, the last real clear politics numbers i looked at, she had a good lead. >> you know, this is -- >> the polls we see locally show she is going down. martha: go ahead. >> i would say california is an anomaly across the country, republicans are gaining, we're in the lead and going to take the house of representatives. martha: you know, ron -- i think that is the issue. why would california be an anomaly, it is in a heap of trouble economically and you have two women who came out with a ton of business experience, carly fiorina and meg whitman and poured millions and millions and millions of their own money into these races, and, who knows, the election is not over, and we have seen a lot happen the past 60 days and we'll see what happens and they are struggling a bit, ron, can you address that. >> it turned into a character election and controversy, instead of talking about the issues we talked about somebody's immigrant -- house kierp who is -- housekeeper who is an illegal immigrant and we need hear about jobs, energy and how to get out of the fiscal mess and for the last few weeks that is all they've heard about and meg whitman is trying to change the conversation and i agree, saying the word "unhappy" is not the best way to show enthusiasm. at the same time, she's trying to switch it out and i can see what she is doing. martha: dick, why do you -- you are obviously a democrat and want the democrats to win in california, i understand that but when you look at the economy and look at the experience these women have, of creating jobs in two of the biggest companies in america, real technology generating, cutting-edge comes, ebay and hewlett-packard over the last 20 years, why is that not resignation with folks with huge unemployment numbers in california and almost impossible deficit to overcome in terms of the pensions and benefits, they'll have to deal with? is jerry brown going to be able to do that? >> well, the problem is, sometimes this year especially the messenger matters more than the message and i talked to jim clyburn, the majority whip who is our representative here and he has been all over the country and is seeing every one of these house races turn on the issue where there is a character issue or messenger issue, if you will and is beginning to turn around and the same old rhetoric doesn't work and the republicans have not proposed solution and it is oh, we're in trouble, vote for us and with whitman, they see a woman who spent a lot of money and who had a character problem, when she talks and says one thing, like nikki haley, and talks about one thing and -- >> i know you are from south carolina and, we are talking about somewhere else. >> that is where i'm from, in the beginning of the ad and maybe we can watch a little when we talk about it. in the beginning she talks about being a billionaire and is that hurting her with folks in california, sort of turning people off? >> what she's trying to do is appeal to independents and female voters to say, look, i created job, i am a successful business woman. and, you know, not necessarily, you know, just wealthy. i would say, let's take a look at jerry brown for instance and that is where i think the conversation needs to go, it is too much about her and her issues, and if they elect jerry brown he's a big spending liberal and has a big track record of that and i don't think they will get out of their fiscal mess any time soon and i hope voters think twice before going to the elections. really think of who created jobs and, get them out of the mess. martha: we'll see when everyone heads to the polls, dick harpootlian, thanks and ron bonjean, thanks for joining us, too. bill: severe weather, a tor made watch has been issued for the city of chicago, massive storm now moving through areas of illinois and indiana, and eventually ohio and warnings are shooting up throughout indiana, the hoosier state, the western part of ohio and the storm will affect millions throughout the day. if you are in that area, a warning is issued, make sure and get to your radio and tv and make sure you check out ways going on around your area. because the storm is a doozy, a lot of despites on the ground there at o'hare and -- flights on the ground, at o'hare and... martha: 11 states affected. bill: they saw it coming, 30 to 60 mile-an-hour gusts of wind. you have been warned if you are in that area. in the meantime, a fiery debate getting hotter during a break in the action, how a text message turned that discussion into an... martha: this is very interesting. stick around for that, folks. bill: here's what we're looking at, the midwestern storms, a massive monster moving across the area of chicago, where it came down, when we first came on the air, two hours ago, a tornado watch issued for the windy city. we have an -- wflb reporter filing that report, along the beach, at lake michigan and -- in chicago and call it the windy city for good reason today. listen here. >> reporter: the wind is picking up as well, it is circulating, every now and then you get a gust that knocks you back a little bit and as i referenced here to the southwest, over the city, you see the dark, fast-moving clouds, makes for a pretty picture but an ominous one, at that. bill: hopefully they get out of harm's way, and hopefully the harm doesn't come their way and, indiana, michigan, ohio, numerous warnings, into kentucky, even, millions affected by this storm, and more in touch with our folks in the weather center to be sure you have the information you need, and if you are in one of the red watch boxes, screen right, kentucky, indiana, ohio, heed the warnings. because, this storm is... martha: look at those clouds, whew! all right, a very interesting story for you, this is a race that could change the face of the republican party. in colorado. three candidates, vying for governor there. third-party candidate tom tancredo blowing the republican, out of the water in the poll numbers. look at the latest real clear average polls for colorado governor, tancredo of the american constitution party, the name, he was a republican and decided to run on the acp party and is now, just 6 points behind john hickenlooper, and, republican dan a mchmaes is lac far behind and some have called for him to get out of the race and he is so far, sticking with it, and tom tancredo was a republican and now is with the new party, and it looks like the republican base may be going with him, how did it happen. >> the republican nominee has the worst poll numbers of any republicans candidate in any race in the country and tancredo entered the race late and came with name recognition in an all ready well established g.o.p. relationship and said he didn't have a switch in philosophy, it isn't why he switched parties but he was upset by dan maes and, figured, he was the only shot at defeating the denver mayor, and his challenge now is to convince republicans it is okay to vote for him and the message seems to be sinking in, as far as dan maes goes, he had problems, campaign finance violations and, failure to talk about a bankruptcy, and officials are concerned he'll hurt tancredo's chances and has become the candidate that will not go away, pretty much and there are those in his party who are publicly saying because he will not leave he's now clearing the way for the democrat, john hickenlooper because he's going to split the vote. martha. martha: very interesting, thank you so much, alicia acuna, reporting from quite a rains colorado. bill: it is tight. and now we have evidence on videotape, folks took it to a new level, an ugly scene and an investigation will tell us, possibly more about what happened, here. there goes the blond wig. credit card rewards are always good in theory. sometimes i would get rewards, sometimes i wouldn't. this one card i had -- there were all these rules. rules and restrictions. oh, and limits. 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