Erin burnetts outfront starts now. 28 days away, what does it take for a deal . And the use of chemical weapons will bring an Immediate Reaction from the community. Our panel, well ask them if the United States will go to war. And a new movie about Osama Bin Laden sparks oscar buzz and outrate. Lets go outfront. Good evening, everyone, im erin burnett. Outfront tonight, let there be light. Finally, some bulbs turned on in washington this evening. Well, on the congressional christmas tree, that is. Pretty beautiful. Lights, love, camaraderie, song. But while our lawmakers took some time to celebrate together, they still werent showing any spark when it came to negotiating a deal to avoid the fiscal cliff, which is the Christmas Present the country needs. Today we heard president obamas response to the proposal that House Speaker john boehner put on the table yesterday. The speakers proposal right now is still out of balance. Of out of balance. Kind of similar to what republicans said last week when the president sent over his terms. So now what . Will they sit down and talk it through . Well, not according to at least one senior republican aide who told cnn today, no conversations today, no emails, tweets, carrier pigeons. As for boehner and obama, they actually did see each other in person at the White House Holiday Party last night in black tie. While other lawmakers waited in line to get the photo with the president , multiple sources from both sides of the aisle tell cnn that boehner wasnt among them. So much for holiday cheer. We have this picture. Were waiting for the day theres a fiscal cliff. There wasnt total silence in washington today. Senate majority leader harry reid spoke up. But in his case, in the form of a swipe. I sympathize with john boehner. The key party has a firm grip on the Republican Party, and thats obvious, whats happened this morning here in washington. Reporter that disconnect in the gop was in the spotlight today. Jim demint spoke out against boehners proposal to the president. Republicans should not be conceding that the federal government needs more money, negotiating with ourselves, and treating the president s proposal like its serious. Very critical of john boehner. And demints press release aimed squarely at john boehner. This was a real punch in the face. 800 billion tax hike will destroy jobs, allow washington to spend more. As you all know, john boehner put an 800 billion tax hike as a center of his proposal. So john boehner got rejected from the white house, which wants another 800 billion on top of that in tax hikes and then rejected by the right wing of his own party which wants absolutely no tax hikes at all. So unlike harry reid, i actually feel genuine sympathy for john boehner. So kudos, speaker, for showing deserters or dissenters who is boss. Boehner stripped house members who opposed Key Committee assignments today. And earlier i spoke with one republican leader in the house who himself has been out of step with boehner in recent days. Deputy whip congressman tom cole of oklahoma. He said the gop should agree to obamas proposal to extend bush tax rates for households that make less than 250,000. And they should do that deal right now, deal with the rest later. Boehner said no way. And then tom cole said boehner should not offer a counterproposal to the fiscal cliff deal the president presented. Boehner offered a proposal yesterday. I asked cole if hes frustrated with john boehner. No, not in the least. Look, i support the speaker. And were actually not very far apart on anything. And, you know, at the end of the day, hes going to negotiate a deal. It will probably be a challenging vote for a lot of people. I always support him. I would expect i will again and try and persuade others. Just to be clear, im not for raising taxes on anybody. I think its a mistake. I think all republicans believe that. However, you have to recognize the reality that at the end of the month, tax rates for every american that pays income tax are going to go up. So there is an area that we do agree with the president on. That is 98 of the American People, getting about 80 of this tax cut shouldnt have their taxes raised. So my suggestion it was delivered, by the way, in private and leaked and put in public. But thats fine. I mean, its certainly what i said. My suggestion was lets take the one area that we agree and take it off the table. And but just to be clear, though, you actually think because this is when i saw your comment what i was so curious about, just from a negotiating standpoint. We had the Super Committee that failed, now we have the fiscal cliff, right . And if those sorts of deadlines arent enough to get a deal, if you actually were were going to break with your own party or say go ahead, well extend them for the middle class, do you actually think that you would be able to negotiate a deal where they didnt go up on the top 2 at the beginning of the year . You might be able to negotiate that deal. Again, i think a lot of people misunderstand, you know, whats happening with the 98 . Number one, i dont think you ever ought to use the American People as, quote, leverage in a debate. Thats a mistake. You dont treat people that way. Second, much more importantly, its not our leverage. Its the democrats leverage. Theyre the ones going around, hollering, oh my goodness, taxes are going to go up on everybody unless we do something. Lets just take that leverage away from them. Our real leverage are the spending cuts which democrats dont want to make, and ultimately further on down the debt ceiling. So let me ask you though, today nancy pelosi filed a petition to try to force a house vote later this month on extending the bush tax cuts for families that make under 250,000 a year. As you just said, you stand by your support of that position. But youve said you wouldnt support the petition by nancy pelosi. Well, id like to ask leader pelosi how many discharged petitions she supported when she was speaker. I mean, the reality thats a little game. Its not going to be helpful. Its not going to get anything done. And no, i would never sign a discharge petition against my own speaker or my own conference. The way you do things is to negotiate. And frankly, the negotiation is going to largely involve the president of the United States and the speaker of the house of representatives. With all due respect to the other players, theyre honestly less central to this. And if they can come to a deal, then i think we can avoid the fiscal cliff. And do you think that somebody put this idea out here. And this idea is really vile. Ill use the right word. I think youll agree. Heres the idea. Lets go off the cliff, just for purely political reasons, nothing happens immediately, and then, you know, you all come back in session in early january, and you give the middle class a tax cut, and you give the wealthy a tax cut, theyll pay more than theyre paying now but less than 39. 6. is that possibly what both sides are angling to . You use the word vile and ill echo that word. I think going over the cliff is a disaster. I think responsible leaders negotiate the best deal they possibly can. And lets try and get this done. I would not be for playing a game of chicken, if you will, or trying to fool the American People who are pretty dadgum smart when it comes to these sorts of things. Do you fear the right wing of your own party, a wing that says any revenue, as you heard jim demint say, no revenue, not part of the deal. Do you think thats going to be what hurts your party and makes you all fail on this . These are my friends and i agree with on the issues. But look, rates are going up if we dont act. Some people act as if we can just hold tight and nothing will happen. The opposite is true. We have to act to prevent a massive tax hike. But with all due respect to those people that say were putting revenue on the table, the American People did that when they elected, you know, the president and a Democratic Senate again. Again, they have to agree to a deal or tax rates on everybody go up. I think we should do everything we can to avoid that for as many people as we possibly can. So far, four house gop members, as we said, john boehner has booted them from Key Committees for going against leadership. Youre obviously the deputy whip. You are part of leadership. You have challenged john boehner. I mean, what you put out there, it may sound may sound very normal and calm and compromisefilled to many. But perhaps to him, its a little bit of a slap in the face. Have you talked to him about it directly . Yeah, of course. I mean, look, i deal with the speaker on a regular basis. And he knows, look, im never going to undercut him and he knows when the tough votes come, and theyre going to come, that ill be there to try and support him and help him. So hes not going to scold me because i offered in private, you know, my advice that was solicited and then when it was leaked actually defended in public. I dont think he would expect me to do anything else. Well, its good. Its good you stand by what you said. And i know we have to applaud when anyone chooses to do that in washington, sir. Thank you so much. Appreciate your time, congressman cole. Thank you, erin. A man who stood by what he said, even though it flew in the face of what others like Grover Norquist are most afraid. Grover norquist, a lot of influence on tom cole, the man behind the anti tax pledge, outfront. And nato warns syria any use of chemical weapons will Bring International response. What does that mean . That means the United States. What will the president decide to do. And the president heading into his second term plans to shake up diplomatic ranks. One report says he has his sights set on vogue editor anna wintour. Or that printing in color had to cost a fortune. Nobody said an allinone had to be bulky. Or that you had to print from your desk. At least, nobody said it to us. Introducing the business smart inkjet allinone series from brother. Easy to use. Its the ultimate combination of speed, small size, and lowcost printing. Of washington about the future of medicare and Social Security. Anncr but you deserve Straight Talk about the options on the. Table and what they mean for you and your family. Ancr aarp is cutting through all the political spin. Because for our 37 million members, only one word counts. Get the facts at earnedasay. Org. Lets keep medicare. 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If there was any sense at all that assad was going to use chemical weapons or did use chemical weapons against his people, i would expect a tough response that would be military. The question tonight is what role will the United States play in such a quote, unquote, military response . Outfront tonight, peter brooks, former Deputy Assistant secretary of defense under the bush administration, and colonel cedrick leighton, former member of the joint staff. Good to see both of you. Colonel leighton, let me start with you. If the United States were to get involved at this point, what would a serious u. S. Military intervention in syria look like . It would probably, erin, start out with a no fly zone type operation, similar to what we had during operation southern watch, which and northern watch, which basically governed the skies over those parts of iraq after the first gulf war. That would be the first step. However, in order to secure things like chemical weapons, you would definitely have to look at using Ground Troops. It may not be u. S. Ground troops, but the possibilities certainly exist that they might be used. Of Ground Troops which i think is the key words for all viewers out there. Ground troops is a very different sort of concept than what many people thought about what would happen in syria. And peter, i guess it comes down to this, about whether Bashar Al Assad would use chemical weapons. The rebels seem to be gaining ground. The chemical weapons are horrific. Would Bashar Al Assad use them . Its an important question. Im wondering, erin, whether this was a regime decision. You know, this activity surrounding chemical weapons, or they saw a local commander, perhaps, doing some things. And the International Community wanted to send a message to everybody, including the assad regime, saying that one of your local commanders may be getting out of line here and may use these weapons. You better crack down on it. So its not quite clear. The government knows more than we do but outside, its not quite clear exactly what they were trying to get at here. Obviously, stop the use of chemical weapons, but who was going to use them . What their intent was, we still dont know that outside. Right. And certainly i would imagine how secure they are considering that rebels have links to al qaeda or extremist groups. Theres lots of risks. And sources are saying that his mood may be at this point, look, im going to end up being killed anyway. If i try to leave, im going to be killed by my own people and they sort of paint the picture of a very desperate man with nothing to lose. Does that scare you when you start to think about chemical weapons . Absolutely. Chemical weapons are the worst kind of weapons. You look at lethality rates of almost 100 with the nerve agents like sarin and vx, which are the type of nerve agents that the syrians actually have. And when you look at somebody who is cornered, theyre going to act just like a rat would act, and they would go after the people that are attacking them. And they will do whatever they can to either take many people with them or lash out at the forces that they perceive to be occupying their country. So its a very dangerous situation, erin. Peter, im curious, when you talk about the depth of syrias chemical weapons program, they do have some of the most advanced Chemical Warfare capabilities. Mustard gas, sarin, possibly the vx nerve agent. Im curious as to how confident we are in what they have. I mean, a lot of people may think about this and harken back to iraq and weapons of mass destruction. Do we really know what syria has . Well, if you look at syria, most people consider it to be a chemical weapon super power. It has the largest chemical weapons arsenal in the middle east, maybe in the world. I think the level of certainty is pretty high regarding this. This and i think theres obviously the signals that are coming out, the Intelligence Community must feel they really do have them. Now, once again, erin, you know, intelligence you know, were not omniscient. We work in an imperfect world, we work with imperfect knowledge, but i think the level of certainty is high. And if theyre used, youre certainly going to know. Colonel leighton, the civil war has gone on for 21 months, 40,000 people estimated to be killed. Tony blair used that number today. The United States, it appeared, it learned a lesson from iraq, afghanistan and libya saying were going to sit this one out. Its another countrys civil war. Were going to sit it out. Do you think intervention would have saved tens of thousands of lives or not . I believe it would have, erin. And intervention is always a very tough call to make in these situations and syria is an ethnographic and demographic situation is a very, very complex one. So we would have gotten into a very difficult situation. But a type of intervention using perhaps local troops from the region might have been something that could have worked early on. But 40,000 people is 40,000 people too many. And that is a real, real problem, not only for the people that are affected directly by it, but also for the entire middle east. Peter, final question to you. Do you think Bashar Al Assad will live through this . Thats interesting. If you look at Saddam Hussein or moammar gadhafi, i think he can get out of the country. I think what they really need to worry about is romania at the end of the cold war, going before the International Criminal court, being like the fellows from former yugoslavia. I think thats what really worries them. But i think he definitely can get out of the country, even if he used chemical questions. Its really an open question. Im not sure hes going to stay to the bitter end. Well see, of course, whether the criminal court is in his future or what might happen to him. Our third story outfront, the baby craze. I appreciate you taking the time. Explain this to me, if you would. What is this law change . Essentially all it means is that it no longer makes a difference if youre a male or a female and youre in the line of succession to the thrown. Both male and female will be treated