what they did announce is they will be investigating and they expect to do interviews with both him and her over the next several days, and will come to some kind of determination to whether or not charges will be filed against big ben. we'll be all over this story. thanks so much for being with us. this is "rick's list." now "the situation room" with wolf blitzer. rick, thanks very much. president obama injects anger into his final push for health care reform. and whether this new strategy is likely to get him across the finish line. a democrat congressman is resigning, and not going -- house leaders wants to get rid of him. and she was pulled from the rubble of the hatee earthquake just 2 months old. now she's been thrown into an international custody battle. we'll follow up on the story of a rescued orphan who may not be an orphan after all. i'm wolf blitzer. you're in "the situation room." it's hard to tell which he dislikes more. they were both prime targets of his remarks, part of his final push for health care reform. listen to his opening shot. >> when you're in washington, folks respond to every issue, every decision, every debate, with the same question. what does this mean for the next election? what does it mean for your poll numbers? is this good for the democrats or the republicans? who won the news cycle? that's how washington is. they can't help it. >> the president went on to slam private health insurance. he recounseleded. >> this broker said that insurance companies know they will lose customers if they keep on raising premiums, but because there's so much competition in the insurance industry, they're okay with people being priced out of the insurance market, because, first of all, a lot of folks will be stuck. even if some people drop out, they'll still make more money by raising premiums on customers they keep. si mean, it's no secret, they're telling their people there. >> they tried to get voters as fired up about passing health care reform as he is. >> i'll be honest with you. i don't know how passing health care will be politically, but i know it's the right thing to do. it's right for our families. it's right for our businesses. it's right for the united states of america, and if you share that belief, i want you to stand with me and fight with me, and i ask you to help us get us over the finish line the next two weeks. >> ed henry is watching all of this. is this a new tone on the part of the president? >> no doubt about it. when you talk to some of the president's top aides what they say are two big things. number one, he's trying to reframe this debate. there's so many nervous democrats thinking health care is a loser for them, trying to say, looks, regardless of what you -- this is the right thing to do. it will help you. secondly, i just talked to a white house aide who was saying, basically they feel, you mentioned goldman sachs investor call, where there was an analyst basically saying even if they lose people and more people lose coverage, they'll make up the money with the insurance premium hikes. this white house aide was saying the insurance companies are handing us a gift, one story after another about insurance premium hikes. they are saying this would be a major part of what they're calling the closing argument in this debate. what i found most interesting is after this big rally, where the president no doubt was fired up, arlen specter, a republican now a democrat, running a tough race in pennsylvania said he thought the president was very strong today, but he wishes he had been more fiery, say at the state of the union a couple months ago. that makes you wonder, is this too little too late, wolf? >> there have been a whole series of deadlines that have come and go. they missed quite a few. early august last year, labor day came and went, halloween, thanksgiving, christmas, new year's still no final health care bill. this year the goal was to get it passed by the state of the union address. that didn't happen. recently the white house has been pushing for a bill by citi patrick's day before the president leaves for asia. democrats hope this is all said and done before easter. here's the question. will it be? >> good question. yesterday when kathleen sebelius was on nbc, she was dancing around whether there really still was a deadline of march 18th, as robert gibbs said yesterday. today i noticed the president did not mention any sort of deadline at this big rally. i pressed a wois aide if the deadline was still alive, and they said absolutely. but will they? they're not sure yet. >> in that speech the other day, he said the next few weeks. let me move on to another issue. there's an intriguing development that happened at the white house today. lindsey graham, a republican from south carolina, all of a sudden shows up with chuck schumer to meet with the president to discussing immigration reform? >> absolutely. solven an unexpected, but what's interesting, we joust got a development. it turns out the meeting did not go forward. it turns out there was a flight delay for lindsey graham, so he ended up not making this meeting, but the story behind it is that chuck schumer and lindsey graham have a bipartisan immigration reform bill. the president had vowed he would try to tackle this issue during his first year in office. he didn't get to do that. but there's a big rally planned a couple weeks from immigration reform advocates saying the president hasn't done enough. the back story is the white house was putting this meeting together to try to get some momentum. white house aide just told me they're going to have a meeting with some of these rally folks who are upset about the president's efforts so far this thursday with without staff and trying to reschedule this meeting with senator schumer and graham as well. big development. they're trying to get the ball moving, while trying for do a whole lot else. >> and that's a pretty sensitive issue. ed, stand by. as of right now, eric massa of new york is a former congressman. his recent ig nation went into effect in just a few moments ago, but the controversy may just be beginning. he's disputing an allegation that he sexually harassed a male staffer. brianna keilar is following the story up on capitol hill. brianna, what's going on? >> reporter: wolf, on local radio over the weekend, he took aim at steny hoyer, saying he intentionally drew attention to his woes. massa says the democratic leaders want him out of congress. health care vote is expected to be close and he was planning on breaking with leaders. >> i was set up from there from the very, very beginning. if you think somehow they didn't come after me to get rid of me because my vote is a deciding vote, then ladies and gentlemen you live in a world so innocent not to understand what's going on in washington, d.c. >> reporter: a spokesman for hoyer's office se there's -- he's facing allegations that -- massa has acknowledged -- my own language failed to meet the standards that i set for those around me and myself. but on a local radio station in his district, said the incident took place at the wedding of one of his staffers, painting a picture of lewd, locker room banter. >> maybe that i should be chasing at the bridesmaid, and his words were far more colorful than that. i grabbed the staff member sitting next to me and said, well, what i ought to be doing is -- and towsled the guy's hair, because i knew the party was getting to a point where it wasn't right for me to be there. was it inappropriate? absolutely. am i guilty? yes. >> hoyer's office denies that his acknowledgement of these ethics issue has anything to do with health care. his office says he was trying to do the right thing, that if leadership knows about a concern, it's incumbent upon them to make sure the committee knows about it. >> is he right, he was the deciding vote? >> reporter: it's too soon to have an accurate vote count, but what you can say, is that with having one less "no" vote, wolf, that's certainly a good thing for democratic leaders, that means they don't have to match it with a "yes" vote, but it's just too soon to tell. >> eric massa will be a guest of larry king tomorrow night. thanks very much, brianna. in iraq, officials are preparing to announce initial results from the parliamentary elections. the top u.s. military commander in iraq says he's ready to declare the weekend vote a success. general raymond odierno tells me he's pleased with the turnout and says violence was kept relatively low. i asked him how that might affect the timetable for withdrawal. does that mean the military forces you command will be able to withdraw on schedule? just to remind our viewers, by the end of this august, 50,000 combat troops are supposed to be out. by the end of next year, 2011, the remaining 50,000 are supposed to be out. is all of that on schedule? >> i feel confident that it is. this is an evolutionary process, and we've been slowly turning over more and more responsibility to the iraqi security forces. i believe today that, by august, we'll be able to be down by 50,000 people. i believe by the end of 2011, we will leave iraq. >> the interview with general odierno airs in the next hour here in "the situation room," the full interview. stand by for that. president obama seems to be getting flak from all sides these days. the drama inside pennsylvania avenue, why some may liken it to an episode of "lost." i want to fix up old houses. ♪ [ woman ] when i grow up, i want to take him on his first flight. i want to run a marathon. i'm going to work with kids. i'm going to own my own restaurant. when i grow up, i'm going to start a band. 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[ female announcer ] together we can discover the best of what's next at aarp.org. let's wind 'em with precision. open our throttle to even more selection. and turn that savings swagger up full tilt. ♪ so when the time comes to bust open a can of doing... we've got all the tools for all the things we need to make 'em happen. more saving. more doing. that's the power of the home depot. right now, get scotts nature scapes mulch for the new lower price of just $3.88. president obama now has a nominee for a job that's critical to the safety of millions of american travelers. the homeland security secretary janet napolitano made the announcement after many months of criticism. let's go to our homeland security correspondent jeanne meserve. she has details. >> wolf, there has been a gap. the trps security administration has not had a leader since the bush administration. now a new name has been put forward. roger harding has 33 years of army service, much of it in top military intelligence jobs. >> if there were ever a nominee who warranted expedited and detailed consideration in the senate, this is it. >> errol southers, the previous nominee, never did get a full vote. he withdrew his name. but senator jim demint put a hold over unionizing tsa officers. demint says that would slow the agency's responsiveness, but yust unions involved said it shouldn't be an issue. >> those wo say they're going to hold this up and then in the same breath say they're worried about national security, they ought to look look at what they're saying. >> reporter: it is unclear whether demint will hold up the harding nomination, saying i'm interested in hearing house his military experience would inform his leadership of our nation's transportation security. nothing in harding's recent mags indicates a background in aviation or transportation, but experts we spoke to today felt his intelligence background is a big plus. wolf? >> in other areas in his background lickly to get scrutiny? >> i would think so, wolf. after he left the military, he started up a consulting firm. it's likely those contracts may get some scrutiny. we tried to ask questions about those things today, but the homeland security secretary wasn't taking any questions on this intent to nominate this candidate. wolf? >> i'm sure we'll cover the confirmation hearings up on the hill thoroughly. je jeanne, thank you. sort of like the popular and influential tea party movement, but with a twist. our lisa sylvester is looking into it. what is brewing? >> pull up to the table, wohl. there's a new political drink. it's not about tea, but the coffee party movement. coffee with a side of politics. the coffee party is branding itself as the alternative to the tea party movement. sunday, a small group gathered at the one world cafe for the first meeting of the baltimore chapter. among them jerlen -- >> i don't think think the more reasonable people, whether they agree or disagree, are being heard. >> reporter: members lean to the left and share common goals -- stop the shouting and get things done in washington. >> we want to operate using civility rather than hateful rhetoric. >> hopefully this would be an independent political movement, independent of the two parties, and really develop pressure to push the democrats as well as the republicans in the right direction. >> reporter: the national group has taken off, weekly meetings around the country, from st. louis to d.c., to knoxville, tennessee. annabelle park is the partner. >> we are trying to change our political culture. we're not trying to start a third party. we have to approach the entire process with the understanding that we already are a community. we have shared goals and values. and that we can't get divided and separated over our differences, right? no more grandstanding, you know? that should not be rewarded. >> reporter: but conservative bloggers see the coffee group as a watered-down version of the tea party movement. they say park is a political operative who has worked as a convenient tore for the obama campaign action and before that for james webb's campaigns, and dismissed the party party as political froth. >> it's driven from the top down. it's not a grass-roots movement coming from the bottom up. >> reporter: but the coffee movement has more than 60 groups nationwide. on facebook, the number of fans has grown from 9,000 members to more than 90,000 in the last three weeks. >> annabelle park's response about being involved in the obama campaign, she doesn't see a problem with it. she says there are many people with many different political backgrounds and ultimately it's a group about engaged citizens. march 13th they're planning a national coffee party today. this summer they're planning on having a convention. >> tea party, coffee party, we'll watch them all. thanks, lisa, for that. if that cheap internet airfare sounds too good to go true, guess what? it just might be, lisa, what else is going on? >> us airways has been fined. the airline's website advertised a price for one-way fares without showing the taxes and fees that could be tacked on. the transportation department says that's against the rules. legal documents show the airline blames the violation on an inadvertent programming error. and a kansas city church that loudly protests soldiers' funerals will have its free speech case heard by the u.s. supreme court. they carry signs with messages such as thank god for dead soldiers, saying god is using troop deaths as punishment for homosexuality. the west borrow baptist church was successfully sued by the father of a fallen soldier in maryland, but that ruling was overturned, and the justices decided today they will hear the father's appeal during the high court's fall term. part of a mountainside came tumbling down in colorado, punches being holes into a stretch of interstate about 120 miles from denver. now parts of i-70 near glenwood springs are closed, and construction crews certainly have their work cut out for them. transportation officials say about 20 boulders smashed into the roadway, and at least one of the holes is large enough to swallow an suv. a balloon-powered banner landed three greenpeace activists in trouble with the law. they were arrested for releasing the protest sign inside the senate hart office building. it criticized lisa mur cows kiss for her ties to exxon, achieve ron and southern company. . wolf? >> thanks a lot, lisa. we'll get back to you as well. the political life the health care reform, what's going on, and what's the role being played by the white house chief of staff? we'll talk about rahm emanuel and why he's fighting a army of critics. that's in our "strategy session." ten years after john mccain says he was a victim of a smear campaign, karl rove reveals what he knows and doesn't know about it. to our viewers, you're in "the situation room." happening now, the dubai murder mystery grows as interpol widens its search for another 16 suspects possibly linked to the slaying, but our investigators are they any closer to catching an assassin? growing backlash, why some on the right say she's wrong about the justice department. and a baby heroically pulled from the rubble in haiti, but now complicated questions about whether she's an orphan after all. i'm wolf blitzer, you're in "the situation room." >> he reportly urged staffers not to get distracted by any disputes or drama inside the white house. let me read in a new article of "the new yorker." george parker say this, to be an effective communicator, a president needs a strong world view, a fundamental vision of why things are the way they are and how they ought to be, which can be simplified into a few key ideas and imjs and short idea allege. for obama and his advisers, there is no worse pejorative. pretty strong words. >> yes, it is. this is a group of people that don't like the typecasting of washington. you always hear the president talking about the cable chatter, right and left, and they wanted to break through that and find a center. ironically, by not being able to secure that center, what they have done is made this town much more idea logically ridge i had. it's exactly the opposite, wolf, of what they intended to do when they came into office. >> that was entitled "obama's lost year, the president's failure to connect with ordinary americans." has he failed to connect? >> when you talk to people in washington, they say yes, that's it. some blame the crowded agenda and say he should have focused on jobs from day one, but first of all, the economic recovery act, they feel this presidents really hasn't explained it well enough to people. it's hard to say, look, i saved a lot of jobs. there are folks in congress, particularly democrats who say, he should have been talking a lot more about that. then he got off on health care reform, and had a mixed message on that, wolf, started talking about it as a way to reduce the deficit, then talked about it as health insurance reform. he doesn't communicate with the american people about how this bill was going to make their insurance better. in fact, he didn't communicate an awful lot about how it was going to insure another 30 million more people. so, again, the great communicator, who did so well during the campaign, somehow lost his voice in all of this, and that's what people are scratching their heads about. >> he's not only being hit from the right, but being hit from the left as well, this ad that sees barack obama morphing into george w. bush because of his changing policies at guantanamo bay and where to try khalid shaikh mohammed and other terror detainees. it's a serious potential problem. >> it ises, and a lot of his left base doesn't like the health care reform bill, because it doesn't contain the public option, which is something they wanted. it's very clear they understood that at a certain point they would have po part ways, but what folks are worried about, wolf, is heading into this midterm election, you have a lot of democrats whose seats are on