and we'll hear from dennis van roekel, president of the largest teacher's union. plus, education nation with michael bennet, the former superintendent of schools in denver, colorado. good day. i'm andrea mitchell, live in washington. we begin in the tiny gulf kingdom of bahrain. a brutal crackdown there on anti-government protesters has left several people dead and led the army to block down the capital. it is a small island nation off the coast of saudi arabia about the size of dallas. protests there have been led by shiites who make up 70% of the population and have long resented their sunni rulers. no longer an oil producer, bahrain is an oil refiner and a center for commerce. a key u.s. ally, bahrain has long been home to the navy's fifth fleet. "the new york times'" nicholas kristof now joins us by phone from the capital of bahrain. you've been there for a couple of days. tell us what you're seeing out on the streets today. >> reporter: right now i am at the main hospital and there are -- there were at least 600 people who were brought here, injured, a variety of injuries. actually, right now, outside the -- i have a doctor who was treating the injured at the hospital and was quite brutally beaten. he's still in no shape to be interviewed. and then he -- his clothing was pulled off and he was threatened with rape. and you know, that is a doctor who was there trying to treat the wounded. it's a pretty grim scene in bahrain today. >> nick, we're talking about a u.s. ally, an ally where the fifth fleet has been located. hillary clinton called the prime minister earlier. this is a government with which we have very, very close ties. how can this kind of government response take place in this kind of place? >> reporter: well, i mean, it's an astonishing thing. bahrain is -- you kind of expect this might happen in a remote, impoverished country. but bahrain is a modern banking center, it's a country known for its moderation. and then to have it, and especially considering it is a critical u.s. ally, then of its king turns guns on the people is just astonishing and heartbreaking. >> what restrictions have been placed on you as a journalist? >> reporter: well, journalists are not now being allowed in the country. i got in before that happened. i've been here for several days. and i actually -- somebody in the ruling family accused me of providing weapons to outlaws, which is a reflection of the -- just degree of delusion and propaganda coming from the government. i'm -- but i -- you know, at the moment, i'm moving around and i'm just fine. >> nick, it's a 70% shiite country, the sunni rulers have permitted some reforms, we are told. how does that match up to the reality that you're seeing there in terms of the level of reform, the level of access that shia members have had in parliament? >> reporter: well, i mean, partly because bahrain is so educated and so cosmopolitan and so exposed to international norms, it has, in some rights, moved earlier than other countries in the region toward giving women real powers, a real role toward creating a parliament in which opposition members play some role. but the basic problem is that you can't really bring in a real democracy here when you have a largely shiite population and a sunni royal family. that royal family simply will not survive. and so i think that that -- that the king decided when push comes to shove, he's not going to go down the democratic route and that's when he called in the troops. >> reporter: and he's backed by saudi arabia. is there any evidence, or is it difficult to tell, of what the saudis are doing? because they have been the real support for bahrain these years. >> yes. and saudi arabia has its own difficulties with a repressed shia population. and everybody assumes that the saudis are telling the bahrainis to crack down. there's been a lot of report of she saudi presence in the crackdowns. i have not seen that and i don't know for sure -- driver told me that he had a gun held to his head and somebody with a clear saudi accent, a military officer, told him to leave or he would be killed. but, again, it's very hard to be sure in this kind of situation. there are always rumors. it's very hard to pick apart what exactly is going on. >> nick, hillary clinton gist spoke on capitol hill after a classified briefing for the house and senate. she and general cartwright, the vice chair of the joint chiefs. this is what she had to say about what's going on over there. >> we call on restraint from the government to keep its commitment to hold accountable those who have utilized comprehensive force against peaceful demonstrators and we urge a return to a process that will result in real, meaningful changes for the people there. >> does that have any real meaning to the leaders in bahrain? they've been called now, secretary gates also called his counterparts in bahrain. are they listening? >> i don't think that they are. and the point is that if you are the king here, then he has, at this point, so outraged the population by using force against unarmed protesters that, frankly, if he does not use lethal force, then his regime may well be toppled. so i've watched in the last few days as the demands of the demonstrators have escalated from releasing political prisoners, from fairly modest steps towards more accountability to the ouster of the prime minister. and today, after what happened last night, after this brutality, growing demand for the king himself to be ousted. so at this point, i think it's hard to come up with a compelling reason to advise the king not to continue to kill people if he thinks that's the way he's going to stay in power. >> nicholas kristof, at a hospital in bahrain, thanks so much, nick. please be careful. we know you are, but this is completely unexpected experience. no one had any anticipation that this would reach actual violence in a small kingdom -- >> reporter: it is heartbreaking to watch. it is just heartbreaking to watch this in a country that i thought i knew and discovered i didn't. >> nicholas kristof, thanks again. and in egypt, newly empowered military leaders are struggling to address the demands of striking workers and anti-government protesters showing that the situation there is for a from stable. nbc's ron allen live in cairo. ron, among the things that clinton said when she came out is that they are going to reprogram, that means basically transfer, $150 million in emergency aid to the transitional government, presumably to the military, to help them in this transition create some sort of democratic process. that said, and they're sending state department and military officials from washington to cairo next week, what signs do you have that the military leaders are preparing a transition that will be credible to the protest leaders? >> well, they've been doing what they can very quickly. there have been meetings, for example, of the committee that's been pulled together to try to rewrite, aspects and articles of the constitution, amendments to a new constitution. they've been meeting for the past couple of days and they're trying to produce a new document in the next two weeks or so. and there's been talk of a referendum in the next two months, which would be very, very quick. there have also been a number of statements that the military has made to the public on television, urging people to go back to work. and there seems to be some evidence that that advice is being followed. there were strikes across the country today, but they were smaller than in the previous days. and not really visible in the capital as much as they were. so perhaps to some extent, people are heeding that call, although it's perhaps the reality of being out of work now for several weeks, it is also hitting people. they want to go back and start earning money, because the protests here lasted so long and kept the country so idle that people are desperate to go back to start earning wages. so the government, the new government, the military is trying to do those things to get things back to "normal." but on the other hand, there was also an announcement that schools are not going to open for another week. banks are not going to open for another week. that's been delayed. and the stock market has also had a delayed opening, now sometime next week, not this week. so things are still somewhat unstable. the other thing that's happening here is that tomorrow, friday, is a day of protest again. the protesters are calling for a million people to go back to tahrir square, to keep pressure on the military leaders here. we'll see how many people they can turn out. this is the first time since the fall of the regime that there's been an attempt to put so many people back in the square. andrea? >> and i should point out that hillary clinton in her briefing to reporters just now after her briefing to congress said that she in her conversations with the prime minister of bahrain today called for restraint, especially tomorrow, where protests there are also scheduled. and also called for them to take action against those who committed the violence today. but, see, that seems completely counterintuitive. because the people committing the violence in bahrain were people from the government. so the u.s.' influence now in all these countries seems to be minimal. >> reporter: right. the united states has a very tricky role to play in all these situations. i don't want to lump them too much, but the bottom line is that for so long the united states has supported these governments in bahrain, in egypt, and elsewhere in this part of the world for whatever reason. and in yemen, for example, they are hoping that the government can remain in power there. there were some protests there today, clashes between pro and anti-government forests, some level of violence. and i should also say it's very hard to know what's really going on in many of these places because it's difficult to report and see what's really happening. so many of these governments have clamped down on journalists, clamped down on access to the country, clamped down on broadcasting images or report office these countries. so we're getting a very muddled picture, and sometimes in the case of bahrain, things happen suddenly, almost overnight. and part of that is because suddenly there's a light shining on a place where there wasn't one. so very difficult to know exactly what's happening, but tricky, tricky diplomatic situations for the united states. >> and another -- of course, in libya, in tripoli, where we've seen a lot of violence today, also unexpected. tell us what you know about libya before i let you go, ron. >> well, again, a very muddled picture. there are reports that the capital of tripoli are fairly quiet, but there are protests in other parts of the country. some of them are pro-qadhafi supporters that are out there. but there also have been a number of reports of people who have been injured in clashes, in smaller cities outside of the capital. the bottom line is that it's been two months since that young man in tripoli -- i'm sorry, young man in tunisia set himself alight and started these protests that rippled through tunisia and egypt, two months. and now we're seeing very, very different outcomes in different parts of the world and the pattern seems to be, clearly, that most countries like in bahrain and like in libya are cracking down and not letting this get out of hand too soon. andrea? >> ron allen in cairo, thank you very much. and coming up next, the new cop on the beat goes after sweetheart loans. plus, wisconsin has labor pains. details with the president of the nation's largest teachers union. this is "andrea mitchell reports" only on msnbc. i'm katie and this is george. i'm allergic to cats. 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[ male announcer ] we bet you'll love zyrtec®, too -- or it's free. he really has a very special relationship with his cat. he really has but you can still refinance to a fixed rate as low as 4.5% at lendingtree.com, where customers save an average of $293 a month. call lendingtree today. but finding healthy food that tastes good is torturous. your father is suffering. ♪ [ male announcer ] honey nut cheerios cereal tastes great and can help lower cholesterol. bee happy. bee healthy. i'm in pain... as i look through this budget proposal, i'm left wondering if there wasn't a printing error, because it looks almost identical to last year's budget. >> that was house ways and means chairman dave camp, having a flashback, perhaps, over the president's budget. savannah guthrie joins us from the white house. hey, savannah. well, the president is calling this a down payment on america's future, but what the congress is saying that there's not much of a down payment. >> reporter: yeah, not the quite a few down payment they're looking to see. there's kind of this budget brinksmanship going on right now. where you had a lot of the republicans panning the president's budget for failing to take on the big issues of entitle spending, social security, which those are the majority of the federal budget. and now republicans are claiming that when they introduce their budget in april, they will take on those issues. so for right now, they're having a heyday criticizing president obama. i mean, the way they feel at the white house is, they don't think it actually would be conducive to a solution to have him come out with a plan that everybody would then just take shots at. that is their strategic decision. they think that's going to be the best way to accomplish what they want to accomplish, which is, as the president put it, an adult conversation about entitlements in this country. >> of course, he didn't rule out getting into that conversation. he was very clear, i thought, about -- clear about being ambiguous, i should say, at his press conference. leaving everything sort of open and we know that there are senators, from both parties, who are meeting, that's the colonel of a group that could come together eventually and create a larger conversation about a grand bargain. but on the house side, you've got a divided republican party and democrats in a completely different place. >> absolutely. and i mean, there's so much going on right now because the hill, the republicans are looking to cut $60 billion from this year's budget. and of course, what we've been talking about is the president's budget for next year. and as you said, there is this gang -- they say, don't call us a gang -- a group of senators who are meeting behind closed doors and trying to hammer out the framework of some kind of deal on these big issues, tax reform, how to reform medicare, medicaid, social security, not so clear if they'll want to take that on. so what they're working from, by the way, is this deficit commission that the president formed. and ultimately, so far, hasn't really weighed in specifically about whether he agrees with what that deficit commission came up with. he's said, rather vaguely, that he thinks some of the ideas are good, but other things he's not so excited about. in particular, it's recommendations on social security. but there does seem to be genuine movement on the hill. this group of bipartisan senators trying to come up with some way to go forward. a conversation starter, perhaps. >> and san francisco. the president's heading west. he's going to be meeting with silicon valley leader, mark zuckerberg, steve jobs, eric schmidt. he's going to be joined by a lot of people who are probably more supportive of the president as they talk about technology and the future. >> reporter: that's right. it's a kind of who's who of silicon valley the president will be meeting with. there's no coverage of this meeting. it's behind closed doors tonight in san francisco. we're told no politics. it's not a fund-raiser, according to the new press secretary, jay carney, who was asked about this by chuck todd yesterday. but they're supposed to talk about the president's plans for innovation, some of the investments, also known as spending in some of these areas like education, infrastructure, that kind of thing. as you know, one of the initiatives the president has been talking a lot about is expanding wireless access to 98% of americans. so i imagine all those kinds of topics will come up. >> savannah guthrie, guess what, spring is breaking out there on the lawn. >> reporter: i know, i know. it feels great. got to mind, don't mind sitting here waiting to come on. i got a tan while i was waiting. >> our long national nightmare might be over. >> reporter: i wish. >> they're talking about snow next week. thanks. join savannah and chuck every weekday morning 9:00 eastern for "the daily rundown." and up next, the new sheriff on capitol hill taking his first shot. and speaking of shots, republican senator lamar alexander took a few. and for the first time in 98 years, the off the record session was caught on tape. ♪ 6'2", blood is blue, says five things on each issue ♪ ♪ does anybody know where mitt stands? ♪ then there's a man many think is the favorite, mike huckabee. ♪ call him evangelical, call him unelectable ♪ ♪ like me, he lost new hampshire too ♪ [ male announcer ] 95% of all americans aren't getting enough whole grain. but actually, it's never been easier to get the whole grain you want from your favorite big g cereals. from cheerios to lucky charms, there's whole grain in every box. make sure to look for the white check. you struggle to control your blood sugar. you exercise and eat right, but your blood sugar may still be high, and you need extra help. ask your doctor about onglyza, a once daily medicine used with diet and exercise to control high blood sugar in adults with type 2 diabetes. adding onglyza to 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[ male announcer ] ask your doctor about adding onglyza. extra help. extra control. you may be eligible to pay $10 a month with the onglyza value card program. republican watchdog darrell issa is the only member of congress who can literally issue a subpoena, and he has, his first. the wide-ranging probe targets countrywide financial's vip loan program, seeking to out lawmakers who got sweetheart deals on home loans. politico's editor in chief, john harris, joins us. john, what's the backstory here? tell me -- something tells me that they're only going to come up with democrats on this list. >> well, we don't know. i mean, it is interesting that we've all been in washington waiting on who's going to be the first target of the new chairman. a lot of people thought he would really turn his sights on the administration. that turned out not to be the case. he turned his sights on his own institution, looking at lawmakers who were the beneficiary of this. i do have a hunch that they feel that if not exclusively democrats, then the preponderance of the people who will be seen as taking advantage of these special deals will, in fact, be democrat. >> and does countrywide and all the exposure in the past of angela missoulmissoula, does th so yesterday, or is this something you think has political legs? >> that's one reason why this committee is so important. it's got the ability, almost at will, to put news in the -- to put a target of investigation in the news, by using subpoena power, by using the power of hearings, by selecti iive leaki of information to news organizations, they can create a big news story almost at will. >> he's also, we understand, looking at employees of fannie and freddie. and that is a very popular topic, a very current one indeed. >> no question about it, and one that a lot of members of congress, in particular, this new republican congress, are very eager to take on. there's a number of republicans, we think, that these two agencies should simply be abolished. not reformed, but just get rid of them. >> in fact. that's part of the proposal that came from tim geithner lewis week. >> right. >> thank you so much, john harris from politico. up next, did the president punt on entitlements as republicans claim? plus, wisconsin boiling over today. and send me your thoughts. you can find me on twitter @mitchellreports. this is "andrea mitchell reports" only on msnbc. [ female announcer ] experience dual-action power, with listerine® whitening plus restoring rinse. it's the only listerine® that gets teeth two shades whiter and makes tooth enamel two times stronger. get dual-action listerine® whitening rinse. building whiter, stronger teeth. topping the headlines right now on "andrea mitchell reports," at least three people have now been killed. and more than 200 wounded in bahrain during a brutal crackdown by police on anti-government protesters. bahrain's military has deployed armored vehicles in the streets of the capital, where thousands of shiite protest reverse demer demanding more say in the sunni-led government. secretary of state hillary clinton urged restraint today on capitol hill. >> i called my counterpart in bahrain this morning and directly conveyed our deep concerns about the actions of the security forces. and i emphasized how important it was that given that there will be both funerals and prayers tomorrow, that that not be marred by violence. >> the fbi is sending a team to investigate the shooting of an immigration and customs enforcement officer in mexico. the department of homeland security and the department of justice have announced a joint task force to investigate the killing. funeral arrangements for 32-year-old special agent hami zapata are still spending. and jobless numbers rose last week. initial claims for employment benefits increased 25,000 to 410,000, and that partially reverses last week's decline. the budget battle is only the first campaign in a long-term war. it is the cover story of the "national journal" that comes out tomorrow. we are unveiling it exclusively for the first time today. ron fournier is the editor in chief. ron, the cover says that the battle over the government's role is about to boil over. what do these competing budget plans tell us about the priorities of each party? >> well, it tells us that the republican party is all about cutting and growing and the democratic party wants to freeze and invest. and right now, the two sides could not be further apart. and it's very possible we could be heading towards another budget shutdown, like we did in the mid1990s. >> do you really think that's possible? didn't both sides learn -- i guess, the democrats learn that it could play to their strength, as it did for bill clinton, but don't you think the republicans learned to try to avoid the pitfalls of what happened under newt gingrich? >> yeah, they certainly did learn. and it's something they want to avoid. they want to avoid the political fallout that affected the party in the 1990s. but that doesn't ease the ideological divisions that are really, really huge in this case and the piece by tim really exposes the fact that these two sides are really for a apart and chances are that nothing's going to happen this year. even if we avoid a budget shutdown, the chances of really getting at the underlying problems that really jeopardize the future of this country, the chances of that are very slim. we're more or less punting this down until after the presidential election. >> ron, do you think that there will be at least another continuing resolution, march 4th is the deadline, to extend the current budget crisis so there isn't an immediate shutdown in march? >> well, i had to be the one to try to predict what's going to happen here, especially when you have two very polarized party who looking at this issue in two completely different ways. they have different political motivations, different ideological motivations, it's really hard to see what's going to happen, except that it's going to be quite a next couple of weeks. >> ron fournier with the new issue of the "national journal," which comes out tomorrow, thank you very much. "tea for two." through you see it. david walker served as america's controller general and now heads a balanced budget advocacy group. he joins us now. first of all, welcome. good to see you again, david. >> same here, andrea. what do you think that the president should have done? did he punt on the budget as he's accused of by the republicans, or is it at least a first draft? >> he punted on the structural deficit challenges. you know, he had a commission, the national fiscal responsibility and reform commission. they really tried to deal with the tough issues of the structural deficit. and frankly, their recommendations didn't seem to get much consideration by the administration and its budget. you know, the president is the chief executive officer of the united states government. the entity that he leads has a deteriorating financial condition and it could have its own debt crisis within three to five years if it doesn't change course. he needs to lead. >> what about the argument that if he puts something out there, savannah guthrie was on the program earlier, and he said that their strategy is to play his cards close to the vest, my words, not theirs, and wait to see what the other side proposes, see if there's anything that come toufs senate negotiation, bipartisan negotiation, and then come in, rather than having everyone taking pot shots at what he puts out there. >> the chief executive officer has a responsibility to lead, no matter what type of enterprise it is. now, we'll see what the republicans come up with. they've now said recently that they might come up with some specific proposals as part of the house budget. we'll see whether that's the case. realistically, we need to do the following. there needs to be an agreement between the president and congress on short-term spending as part of the cr. they're arguing over the bar tab on a ship that's headed towards an iceberg that could sink it. so they need to get perspective. secondly, they need to end up focusing on the debt ceiling limit. we need to bring back tough budget controls with automatic enforcement mechanisms starting in 2013. we also need to engage the american people with the facts of truth and the tough choices in 2011 and 2012, so they can actually make tough choices no later than 2013 without losing their jobs. >> you know, there are some people, including fiscal hawks like my colleague, lawrence o'donnell, who's been making the case that you're making. but he says we have to be very careful about not cutting too much during this weak economic period. that we can agree to cuts. i think my sense is that many people believe you should agree to something now that triggers in later. would that do the trick? >> we clearly need to recognize the difference between the short-term and the structural. look, the real threat is not today's deficits and debt. we can have more tolerance for spending and targeted investments in the short-term if we have a plan to deal with the real threat. what's going on right now is a moral tragedy. we're mortgaging the future of our kids and grandkids at record rates. but how we solve the problem involves moral issues as well. >> well, david walker, you're going to keep advocating for reinstituting those controls. i guess it's pay-go or what used to be pay-go, and you don't spend it if you don't have a place in the budget. >> it's more than that. it's pay-gos without trillions of dollars of loopholes, it's debt with automatic spending cuts and tax surcharges if they are not hit. there has to be a consequence for doing nothing. >> david, let's continue talking. >> i look forward to it. >> thank you very much. and up next, massive protests on budget issues. wisconsin, public workers, marching on the capital. you're watching "andrea mitchell reports," only on msnbc. 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well, v8 v-fusion juice gives you a full serving of vegetables, plus a full serving of fruit. but it just tastes like fruit. v8. what's your number? cones can dry out quickly. that's why there's the febreze set & refresh. 100% scented oils eliminates odors for 30 days. for freshness from start to finish. the small space odor solution that's a breath of fresh air. the febreze set & refresh. angry l union workers are filling the halls of the wisconsin state capital in madison as the state senate prepares to vote on an aggressive anti-union bill. if it had passed, all collective bargaining rights would be stripped from government workers, incoming the powerful teachers unions, but apparently democrats refused to show up, so they were not able to pass that, at least in the first round. 1,000 teachers called out of work today so that they could also attend the demonstrations, forcing some schools in the state to close for a second day. dennis van roekel is president of the national association. it's great to see you. thank you so much. let's talk about the situation in wisconsin. because it encapsulates the tensions we're seeing in states around the country. i don't think anything is quite as serious as what's happened in wisconsin with this proposal, which would strip collective bargaining rights from all public workers. >> absolutely. i'm so proud to be here with our 100,000 colleagues in the national education association, and also to be with all of our public employee unions and their workers. make no mistake, andrea, this is not about fixing the budget or about money. it is plainly a political attack on workers to silence their voices. and we need to be here to stand together to raise our issues and have them hear our concerns, because it's time for the workers to stand together and to speak out. >> well, isn't it fundamentally, though, a budget issue? because they're talking about rolling back budget, you know, benefits, rather, to public employees. that's an economic issue. >> the unions here have talked about making concessions. they're more than willing to sit down at the table and talk about how best to do that in the best interests of both the taxpayers as well as the workers and their families. this is not about that. because if we were serious about making that happen, we would sit down at the table and find a solution. this is politically motivated, it's to attack workers, and it's to silence their voices. after 50 years in wisconsin, of having a method are both sides have their voice heard to solve difficult problems, today, in one week, they want to wipe away 50 years of positive experience for the sake of expediency and political power. >> now, i want to ask you about chris christie, who made quite a splash in washington with a speech yesterday, including addressing the issue of his constant conflict with the teachers unions in new jersey. let's watch. >> they think i'm attacking them. i'm attacking the leadership of the union, because they're greedy and they're selfish and self-interested. what i'm doing is to save your pension, to save your health care for the rest of your life. >> and as you know, part of his education plan is to end the last-in, first-out. so this would mean that teachers with tenure would have to be tested and if they are not accountable, they could be fired without making the junior teachers, many of whom are much more credible as far as their advocates are concerned. so where do you stand with chris christie? >> andrea, i've been a member of this organization for a long time. for 23 years, i was one of those high school math teachers he was talking about, and now i happen to sit in the position of president of the national education association. i can tell you, as a leader of this great union, i know what it's like to be in the classroom. i know the tough problems that districts are facing. i understand the incredible economic challenges that our states are facing and what i also know is that the voice of having all of the people there will solve those tough problems. it's ironic that i just left denver, where 150 teams from districts all across this country, superintendents, board members, employees and their union sat together to say how do we collaborate better to improve what's happening to kids? how do we ensure student success in these tough economic times and beyond? so he's on the wrong page. what he ought to be doing is bringing those members together and their leaders to say, let's sit down at a table. students' interests ought to be first. and we ought to find a way together, as all of the adults in this system, to make it work for the students we serve. >> but, dennis, with all due respect, you can say, we should work together, we've just come from this conference. but if you're going to oppose last--in, first-out, you're taking a big option off the table? >> one of the most difficult decisions any school district has to face is laying off individuals. because we would -- with a good evaluation system and a good hiring and professional development system, all of those people are good employees. each day they come and they give their best to the students they serve. from pre-k to graduate. so it's a difficult decision. no district, no district in the country goes strictly by seniority. they use multiple factors. he is making a political argument out of something that doesn't exist in reality. the truth is, by sitting down, employeein in employees, management, and the school board, we can find the best way of face the difficult task of laying off people and still serve the best interests of students. >> thank you very much, dennis van roekel in wisconsin, good to see you. and democratic senator michael bennett is the former superintendent of schools in denver and joins me now. let's talk about education. let's talk about this issue and what you're seeing in wisconsin. how do you pick this apart? where do you come down? >> well, here's where i come down on education. there are a lot of people that want to fight political wars around how we're delivering education and you're seeing some of that go on in wisconsin and other places. the reality that we face is really stark. only 9%, 9 out of 100 children living in poverty in this country can reasonably expect to graduation from a four-year college. think about that. that means if you're born into poverty, 91 out of 100 kids are not going to have the benefit of a four-year college degree. and we as a democracy and an economy are not going to have the full benefit of their full potential. the flip side is that we're losing 50% of the teachers from the profession in the first five years. and i think that has something to do with the fact that the way we hire and fire and retain and inspire teachers belongs to a labor market that discriminated against women and said, you have two professional choices. one is being a teacher and one's being a nurse. the days, thank goodness, of relying on that discrimination to get people into our teaching ranks are now over, but we have to figure out what we're going to do to attract people in the 21st century to the hardest job anybody can do. >> well, what about what chris christie was charging, that the teachers union is essentially greedy? >> i don't know, because when i see results like that 9 out of 100, my focus is on those outcomes rather than figuring out who it is to blame. i think public education is the most important public good that we can deliver to children in this country and i think it's incumbent on everybody, whether it's labor, our teachers, governors like chris christie and others to cut superintendents like i used to do, to come together and figure out how we're going to make things work. look, we change the way we pay our teachers in denver, for example, and it was opposed for a long time by a lot of people. but in the end, 80% of our teachers supported the changes we made. and i think that we need to do more of that and not less. >> thank you so much, michael bennet. and a sad moment for many of us at nbc news. a pioneer of journalism passed away today. >> now, back to "meet the press," an unrehearsed press conference. here's our moderator, bill monroe. >> we're ready now to resume our interview on "meet the press." our guest is governor george wallace. >> veteran newsman, bill monroe, longtime host of "meet the press," a former nbc news washington bureau chief, died peacefully this morning surrounded by his four daughters. as the news director of the nbc station in new orleans, wdsu during the civil rights struggles, bill made history with his courageous challenge to racial segregation and bigotry, leading eventually to passage of civil rights laws. in 1978, bill welcomed a young correspondent to "meet the press," to the panel for the first time. he was a mentor, he was a friend, he was a role model for generations of those of us who followed and he is memorialized also today by steve cappas, the president of the nbc news. bill monroe was 90. 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[ male announcer ] we bet you'll love zyrtec®, too -- or it's free. he really has a very special relationship with his cat. which political story will make headlines in the next 24 hours? msnbc contributor and managing editor of postpolitics.com, chris cillizza joining us now. hi, chris. >> high andrea. how are you? >> i'm okay. what are you looking at? >> well, big, big interesting developments. we're all looking at virginia, my adopted moment state. tim kaine, democratic national committee chairman, former governor of virginia, has been spending about the last week being courted to run for the senate. this is a seat that's open. jim webb decided to retire. kaine, clearly the best candidate. we know barack obama, a.k. president of the united states, and tim kaine spoke yesterday about the race. kaine is coming under a lot of pressure here, andrea. the question is, does he want to do it? all of the reporting that i have suggests the answer to that question is, no. but the president can be very per swasive, as we know. the question is, can he persuade kaine into a race that would be a democratic recruiting success early on in the cycle. >> our affiliate asked the president about this thing yesterday. this is what the president had to say. >> i want to hear what he wants to do and where he thinks he can best serve. i think he'd be a great senator from virginia, if he chose to do that. if he wants to stay as chairman of the national democratic committee, he's going to do a great job there. either way i can tell you that he's as good of a friend as he is a mind. he's less concerned about serving me. he's more concerned about serving the american people and the people of virginia. >> you have to believe the president is concerned about holding tonight that seat. a lot of reporting on this. tom, the freshman congressman who stood up and walked the walk and then paid the penalty for it with his vote for health care, he is having, if kaine doesn't run? >> this is -- >> perriello represented the republican-leaning district. held it for a term, lost it, to your point, voted for the health care, all of the president's agenda items. the president came into the district at last minute in the 2010 campaign but he still lost. he told a colleague of mine yesterday that he would indeed consider running if kaine gets out. my guess is he's probably in the race if kaine. tim kaine, popular former governor. tom perriello one term politician. he's not a former statewide elected official in the state. i think there would be a drop-off if they don't get kaine the original alan, already in the race, another former governor. tom perrillo. thank you i have much. see you tomorrow, chris. that does it for us for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." and remember to follow the show online at -- on twitter at mitchell reports. my colleague tamron hall has a look at what's next on "news nation." hi, tamron. >> hi, andrea. a live report from bahrain where riot police killed four protesters and injured hundreds more. plus, dozens are missing. what does it mean for the u.s. smartphones are putting safety of our troops overseas at risk. but soldiers say they just want to stay in contact with their families. it is today's "news nation" gut check. a ground breaking book and miniseries. 30 years laterer roots ebook, featuring photos, videos and commentary and never before seen interviews makes its debut. developing news out of wisconsin. we'll bring you details. 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[ male announcer ] ask your doctor about adding onglyza. extra help. extra control. you may be eligible to pay $10 a month with the onglyza value card program. right now on "news natio nation" -- a wave of revolution spreads an effort to beat back protestors intensifies. crackdowns in bahrain, libbia, yemen, and authorities clubbing protestors in an attempt to regain control. again, journalists are being targeted. >> no, no, no! journalist, journalist! journalist! easy. >> plus, scott brown's shocking secret. the first-term senator reveals he was sexually abused as a boy. who he says was responsible, why he never told his mother, why he is sharing this story now.